The Child of Kalderie Wood: A Fairy Tale

***Author's Note***
This is the rough introduction to the dark children's story I have always wanted to write, and I need feedback from as many people as possible. Please read, rate and review. Constructive criticism is good for the soul.

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Dalsam, there lived and old King named Resnid, called Resnid the Good. He was a quiet man, often marked as shy, but known throughout the kingdom for his bravery, kindness, and mercy. He was called Good because his was a rule of prosperity and peace throughout the kingdom for many years, though the people of Dalsam lived in fear of his heirs, the Princess Felot, who was a woman of both great beauty and great cruelty, and the Prince Cabil, who was weak of mind and body. The people knew that, should Resnid pass (long live the King!), Prince Cabil would claim the throne but Princess Felot would claim the kingdom. But still, there was peace in Dalsam, for Resnid had lived many years, and would live many more.

But turmoil grew in Dalsam, as it does in every kingdom, between the Graskin Barony to the East, and the Enchanted Forest of Kalderie to the West. Graskin was led by a tall, loud and amiable man by the name of Evrane, who watched over the people of Graskin and reported often as a subject to Resnid upon the wealth of his lands. But Evrane had a dark and terrible secret, and this secret would soon come to light, crawling forth from the edge of Kalderie Wood.

Where Graskin was a place of hard work, diligence and loyalty to hearth, home and one another, Kalderie was another world altogether. In Kalderie, there was wonder- even the trees bore the enchantments of the magic inherent there. Great and marvelous creatures roved the wood there, and while humans were welcome and even dwelt in Kalderie, the forest still followed the laws of magic. It was these laws that were broken by Evrane only five years before our story begins, and these laws that would shake the kingdom of Dalsam to its very core.

The castle lay in the middle of these two worlds, and the castle bore the hearts of both Graskin and Kalderie. Dukes and servants, dragons and centaurs alike took joy from the good sprung by King Resnid, and he was loved by his subjects. All things were connected by this great stone edifice, and the kindly old man who lived there. Both Evrane and the dwellers of Kalderie knew that no matter what happened, still would Dalsam stand with the castle and Resnid there in the center of all. True. of course, there were precarious times, like when the distant armies of Ascreit marched on the Dalsam border. But the castle remained, and Dalsam flourished because of it. So it had been, and so all thought it would continue to be, until the orphan child Asanya crawled, bleeding, from the edge of the enchanted forest, and dying on the castle steps, whispered her last request to the old king.