The Christian Journey Contains Sin, Punishment, Repentance, Forgiveness, and Restoration.

In the kingdom of Angoria, far away there lived a young prince named Horace that always got himself into trouble. No matter how hard the king and queen tried they could not get him to behave properly. As the years went by he grew more and more rebellious until one day, the night before his sixteenth birthday, he did something unbelievably ridiculous. Horace, full of himself and his abilities, decided to play a prank on the guards and steel the heavily guarded crown jewels. During his studies in stealth and weaponry Horace had learned to move quietly and fight in close combat. On the night of the event there was heavy cloud cover and a blowing wind that would keep him hidden and prevent the guards from hearing the smallest of movements. The crown jewels were kept guarded in a tower in the middle of Castle Angoria. "This will be the grandest thing I've ever done, no one can top this prank," Horace whispered as he moved slowly towards the tower. There were two guards posted on opposite sides at the bottom of the tower and Horace noted that they stopped for fifteen seconds and then walked for thirty and repeated the cycle again. While waiting in the shadows Horace became accustomed to their movements and picked a spot on the tower that would be the easiest to access, he was going to climb up the outside of the tower and into the window at the top. As the guards' movement commenced he quickly moved towards the tower and began his ascent. He had gone about five meters when his foot slipped on the stone. "Agh!," Horace grunted, his heart began to pound as he noticed the guard right below him pause for a little. The guard looked out into the black darkness and then continued his round. Horace breathed a sigh of relief and continued climbing up the tower. When he reached the window ledge he slowly pulled himself in and opened the windows. There the beautiful crown jewels sparkled against the moonlight. Horace was ecstatic and practically giddy with himself that he had pulled it off. He had snuck past the castle guards, "no one is a match for me," Horace thought. The jewels were glittering at his eyes, almost calling to him to take them. Horace reached for them and then a hand shot out from nowhere and grabbed his wrist with the strongest grip he had ever felt. "Ahh!" screamed Horace, "Who are you?!" he asked the person still shrouded in darkness. As the man removed his cloak Horace's heart fell. It was his stealth and weaponry master, Darius, and he looked particularly angry. Darius brought Horace's face right up to his and said in an angry whisper, "What the blithering blazes do you think you're doing in here!" Horace had no answer, he realized that to sneak into the tower was a grave mistake, and now he had to deal with the full impact of his consequences. Without waiting for an answer Darius grabbed Horace by his shirt collar and dragged him full force across the room to the door and down the tower stairs. "We're going straight to the kind and queen and don't you dare think I'm going to let up on you because you're my student," Darius said. Horace was almost near tears at this point, this was the worst thing he had done yet and it was an act against the kingdom to enter the tower without royal permission from the king and queen. As they entered his parents' apartment they stood up with a look of shock on their face, which then quickly turned to anger as Darius recounted the events of that night. "This is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous!" yelled his father, "Do you EVEN KNOW how much trouble you are in right now Horace Gavin Richardson!" "I can't even believe this," cried his mother, "What are we supposed to do with you!" Horace was at a loss for words, never had he seen his parents so angry with him. He was sent straight to his room without having a chance to defend himself as his parents and Darius talked about a punishment. Horace was too scared to leave his room and no one came to get him until lunch time the next day. It was his mother and she simply said, "Pack your things." "But mom!" Horace said, "What's going on? I'm so sorry, that was-" She cut him off and said, "I don't want to hear it Horace." said his mom,  "You're going to be spending some time with Darius while we figure out what to do with you." Horace was mortified, Darius lived outside of the castle in a small cottage a little ways into the forest. He was not a funny man and Horace hardly ever saw him smile. Horace packed his things quickly to avoid getting yelled at again and made his way to the horse stables. His horse, Ryder, was saddled and ready to go. His mother and father were there, they simply told him that he would be living with Darius until they could think of what to do with him since his presence at the castle was more destructive than it was helpless. With a heavy heart Horace climbed up on Ryder and began his way to Darius' house. When he finally reached the cottage it was supper time and Horace could smell a delicious beef stew boiling over the fire. Quite famished from having not eaten all day long, Horace quickly tied his horse in the stable, grabbed his things, and knocked on the door. He heard footsteps coming as Darius approached. The door opened and Darius simply nodded acknowledgment at Horace for him to come in. As Horace stepped into the house he noticed that inside there were two rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen/dining room combined. Darius was pouring the stew out into two bowls placed on the table. He motioned for Horace to join him. As they were eating dinner Darius told Horace about the full force of the punishment he was about to undertake. King Charles and Queen Elisabeth had revoked all of Horace's royal privileges and commissioned him to take the position of apprentice under Darius until they decided to reinstate Horace. This was crushing news for Horace, all his life he had grown up around servants of the castle who would do anything for him and now he had to live with Darius and do things on his own. After supper Darius showed Horace his room. It was quaint in size with one bed, a drawer, wash basin, and a window. Darius told Horace to wash up and go to sleep as they would be up early the next morning. With a heavy sigh Horace got himself to bed. It seemed like only five minutes had past when he heard Darius' booming voice above him, "Hello!! Wakey-wakey! This isn't the castle boy, we've got food to make and things to prepare." Horace slowly rose out of bed until he felt Darius yank him up to his feet. "Come now Princess Horace, go fill the water bucket right outside the door from the well." Horace groggily came to and stumbled outside to fill the water bucket. He noticed it was surprisingly heavy as he trudged back to the house. The first morning of his stay with Darius was the most tiring one he had ever had in his life. After breakfast the morning consisted of beating the rugs in the house, brushing down the horses, and washing the dishes. When lunch passed Darius told Horace that they would still be continuing his training, just for longer and harder periods of time. By the time dinner rolled around Horace was exhausted from weapons training. He had been excited to do weapons and stealth training but this was more than he had ever done before. Horace had also come to the full realization that if he complained he would get a sock to the ear and a sarcastic comment from Darius, so Horace learned quickly not to make trouble. The next couple weeks passed in the same fashion. After a couple months Horace had stopped wondering when his parents would come and get him and he had become accustomed to life with Darius. One night Darius sent Horace to retrieve a couple weapons from the castle. They were going to be working with them the next day so it would be good to have them ready in the morning. It was a quiet night with a slight cloud cover and a chilly breeze every now and then. "I'll be glad to be back in the cabin soon," thought Horace as he made his way past the castle guards and toward the weapons room. All of a sudden something moved into his peripheral vision. "What was that?" Horace thought as he paused, looking out into the darkness for the source of the disturbance. Five, ten, fifteen seconds passed when Horace saw it again. His eyes widened and his heart began to pound, someone was climbing the castle tower that held the crown jewels. Instinctively Horace made his way quickly to the tower. As he rounded the tower he found both guards knocked out at the bottom, and the thief was already three-fourths of the way up the tower. Something had to be done, and quickly. Horace began the assent on the tower, trusting his arms and legs to carry him up quickly as they had gotten stronger since his time with Darius. The perpetrator had just made his way over the window ledge and into the tower when Horace reached the halfway mark. He continued climbing up the tower, quickly but still carefully. It would not do for someone to see him and think he was playing another trick again before he could catch the thief. As Horace approached the window ledge he reached into his scabbard and took out his knife. He got right next to the window ledge and listened for the thief's movements. There was some shuffling at the back of the room, and Horace could hear the thief placing objects into a bag of some sort. Horace slowly peaked into the room, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness for a moment. The thief was broad in stature, a little taller than Horace himself, and had a knife in a scabbard attached to his belt. With the man's back turned on him, Horace slowly lifted himself onto the ledge and into the room. He moved with caution against the walls and was quickly able to blend in with the background. "What in the world am I going to do now?" Horace thought. He had ran up the castle wall and followed the thief on natural instinct. He had no plan of how he was even going to stop this thief. Then Horace remembered something Darius had told him, "attack first and trust your training." They had been training together every day for the past couple months and Horace's skill had definitely improved. In fact, Horace was one his way to becoming one of the kingdom's greatest sword masters. With Darius' words in mind Horace slowly came upon the thief and with one fluid movement whipped his sword back around and with a resounding smack hit the man on the head with the blade's flat side. Instantly the thief's body crumpled and fell to the side. By the time Horace had tied the man up and replaced the crown jewels there was a commotion at the bottom of the tower. The guards' bodies had been discovered and now reinforcements were being sent up to the tower. "Everything is okay up here!" Horace said, "I'll explain everything when I get down." Horace's father was down at the bottom and he ran up to the tower furious in misunderstanding as he thought this was another one of Horace's pranks. As he burst open through the door he saw the body on the floor and instantly realized what had happened. "Horace, thank God you're safe, how did you..?" Horace quickly explained what happened and as he finished his father moved toward him and brought him into a hug. "Son," he said, "I want to let you know that you have changed for the better. Your mother and I would love to have you back home again." Horace was shocked at these words, he had never heard his father so proud in his life. It was a good feeling. One week later Horace was back at the castle. It turns out that the thief in the tower was number one on the kingdom's most wanted list and Horace had caught him. This was certainly an accomplishment to be proud of but after a few months living with Darius, Horace didn't allow it to get to his head. Life back at the castle took some getting used to again but Horace didn't give in to all the privileges he had before. After learning how to care for himself Horace hardly needed the help of the castle staff for those simple things. He had grown up and learned to do things on his own rather than waiting for someone to serve him. However, Horace still missed Darius and his cabin and would often go visit for weeks at a time and learn new weaponry and stealth tactics. One day during these week-long visits, Darius and Horace were sitting on the front porch listening to the evening sounds of the woods and sipping a pot of hot black coffee. "Thank you," said Horace suddenly. "For what?" Darius asked in return. "For teaching me the most important lessons in my life, for being hard on me, and for taking me in when I was rebellious and needed help." There was a short pause as Darius took in those words, "You're welcome," he said, "I would do it all over again." "You're going to be a great warrior and king one day." And with that they continued to enjoy the evening in silence.

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