Once upon a time a boy with messy black hair and emerald green eyes named Nathan Oliver or, as he preferred to be addressed, Nate, saw the knights stumble into the kingdom haven't just lost another battle with the neighboring kingdom to the south.  “Boos” could be heard echoing through the streets of the city. Not many citizens were happy with the knights recent losing streak, but Nate still admired the brave souls who were so willing to protect the kingdom. “I’ll be one of them some day”,  Nate whispers to himself.  You see in this kingdom people are blessed with powers and the knights are the people who show they are stronger than the rest but, due to the weakening squads in the knights, people aren't as impressed with them anymore. Because of this less and less people sign up to join them, so they practically accept anyone aged 15 and up with powers. That's where the problem lies… Nate doesn't have any powers. 

Yes, it is fairly common for people to have magic but, not that uncommon for people to be born without. To Nate though that just meant he was going to have to try harder than anyone else to be strong enough to join the knights ranks. Nate is just 12 so he will have to wait to enroll into the knights. Ever since he was 4, he wanted to be part of the knights. He wanted to protect his city and country no matter what anybody said.                       “Come inside,now!”  Nate recognised the voice,it belonged to his mother.

She did not like the knights as much as he did, or at all. His mom did not want him to become a knight because it was “dangerous”.  Nate knew she cared about his safety and that's why she was so against it  but, that still was not going to stop him from becoming a knight. 

                                                        3 years later

“Finally” Nate thought as he walked toward the casels gates. He stopped short of the entrance thinking of what his mom had said before he left the house that morning to enroll in the knights,”I will not come to the enrollment test,I will not watch as you make the biggest and most dangerous  mistake of your life.” , Nate shuttered at the thought of his mother's disapproving voice but, powered onwards, through the gates. 

He saw other young men and women there with their extraordinary powers. He felt jealousy welling up inside but, quickly ignores it and continues walking. He goes to the registration desk and the woman at the desk asks for his name, “Nathan Oliver'', he said in a less than confident tone.  “Okay and your power” she said obviously bored from doing this all day. “I don’t have a power” Nate said barely above a whisper. Her deadpan expression turned to confusion as she realized what he just said. “ soooo… an N/A for power then.” she asked it as more of a question than a statement. Nate just nodded his head in agreement. In just an hour an a half the exam will begin. “I will show I have what it takes to be a knight.” Nate told himself. He wandered around inside the castle walls watching sideshow attractions and eating food he had never seen before. Eventually the exam horns went off , “5 minute warning”, Nate thought as he pondered the idea of whether he should even still try out for the knights but, his feet moved as if on their own towards the exam hall. 

Nate was shocked with how little people were in the room but, had remembered the decreasing popularity that the knights had and were trying to save what little was left. The way the room was set up was that the ceilings stood tall and there were seats all around the top floor room, so that spectators and people’s family could watch the exam take place. There were about 70 people in the room total 40 of which sat in their seats to watch the “show”. The other 30 or so were the other applicants or in this case rivals. The knights only take the top 20% of the people who sign up. Nate scanned the room but could not see his mother, for some reason he was sad to see that she really hadn’t come to see him.

All of a sudden the lights cut out causing Nate to freeze in place then, a beam of light flashed in the middle of the room. A man dressed quite formally stood where the light shined. Abruptly the man spoke after a brief moment of silence from which he first appeared, “Hello, my name is William and I will be conducting this little brawl of ours.” , he said loudly. Confused murmurs erupted through the sea of people both in the seats of the top floor and on the ground. “ What does he mean by brawl?”, “Who is this guy?”, and “Is he really the exam conductor or just some fancy coocoo from way up north of the kingdom.”  were whispered about the room. “You see”, he said,”This is the arena you guys will fight until only five of you are left standing, of which will become official knights.” . “I’m not saying kill each other”, he assured “just.... Be one of the last 5 standing'' ,and with that the beam of light disappeared leaving Nate and the others in complete darkness again for a moment then the room lit up as it was before the mystery man named William was here. 

With what little instruction that was given everybody on the ground including Nate spread out away from each other. For what felt like 5 minutes everybody just stood still from their position staring at each other. A voice echoed from all over the room “You all will fail if you don’t fight”, then it cut off, Nate could tell it was William. Ten seconds passed with no one moving a muscle. Then a girl who was trying out for the knights was shot up 10 feet  in the air by what seemed like wind. After that in a matter of seconds there were participants in the exam already using their power to attack and defend. 2 people were knocked unconscious,then  5, then 9, then… Nate felt a blunt pain in the back of his head and fell forwards into the ground. 

Nate woke up in a hospital bed with a nurse beside him. “How long was I asleep ” Nate questened, “ Only an hour and 45 minutes” she responded unimpressed “You can go check yourself out at the reception desk ” she continued. Nate then walked to the room's door to leave and left the room wandering the spirling halls of the hospital until a doctor asked him what was he doing. Nate told her he was lost, so she guided him to the reception desk where he promptly checked himself out.

The walk of shame home was terrible especially because he did not know where he was and had to ask strangers for directions. He stepped on the house mat wondering whether or not he should even go in. He decided to walk in, his mom was there reading a book on a chair. 

She looked up at him “Are you okay?” she questioned roughly. Nate did not respond; he just walked to his mom and sat on the floor resting his head against her lap and started crying. His mother's face softened just a little “So what happened?” she inquired. Nate explained in a sobbing mess that he didn’t even do anything before he was knocked out and that he should have known a powerless person could not be part of the knights. When Nate was done his mother said very sternly “What are you going to do about it? You always said that you were going to work harder than anyone else, so work harder.”.  Nate lifted his head off his mom's lap and looked at her bewildered. “I don’t want you to be a knight but, I don’t want you to give up on your dream so quickly because things didn't go your way.” she responded haden saw the look her son gave her.

 That did make Nate feel a lot better now and, she was right, he was going to have to work harder than anyone else to get what he wanted so, he will work harder. Nate worked endlessly on practising how to block and attack  by having his friends throw rocks and sticks at him. “This is stupid” one of them sighed after launching his golfball size rock at Nates abdomen. “Powerless nobodys like us don’t become knights.”, the other kids grunted in agreement. Nate didn’t respond, just waited for them to keep throwing things at him.  He didn’t care he was still going to try, even though part of him thought... no…,knew that they were right. He pressed onwards through the negative comments until one day one of his friends suggested something.

“If you want to become a knight don’t you have to be brave? So I dare you to spend the night in ‘The Dark Forest’.” one of his not so nice friends suggested. 

“No way i’m doing that! ARE YOU INSANE!!!” Nate yelled. 

“You're the one who wants to become a knight so badly so prove that you are brave enough to.” his friend retorted back.

Nate was not one to give into peer pressure that easily so, what he said next was a shock to both him and his friends. 

“I will then! Just shut up about it!” Nate responded red faced almost crying.

“Okay” his friend simply said.

Nate was then morally bound and obligated to his word to do as he promised but, to him his friend had been right because knights were supposed to be brave. They had agreed to all meet up later that night at the foot of the forest. Nate swallowed his spit thinking of the horrors that lived in the woods from the stories he had heard from people in his town. Like the one where two kids were once playing in the woods and, a monster that stood 8 feet tall with jagged teeth and antlers dragged one of the kids deeper and deeper into the woods never to be seen again. Nate was worried as he snuck out of his room that he would meet the same fate as the kid in the story did but, Nate needed to get to the woods to prove he was brave enough to be a knight. Nate knew had he told his mom where he was going she would have forbade him from leaving so, that's why he left at night.

As he got closer to the woods, his friends came into sight. Now Nate could not turn back as he got closer and closer before like in the castle gates he started to move without thinking straight into the woods. Without acknowledging his friends as he walked deep into the woods. 

At that point Nate could not see anything but trees behind him, so he left a line of string so he could find his way out. He looked through the woods suspiciously as if he was searching for something. He was terrified but still he made himself calm down and, sat down laying his back against a tree. 

That did not last long because when Nate was slowly nodding off he heard a branch snap and, he shot up like a bullet. He slowly backed up in the direction of the string. He then heard footsteps and he darted following the string. While he was running he tripped over an exposed tree root and sprained his ankle, but still he sprinted following the thin purple string he laid on the ground. In Nate's mind he knew it was probably a deer  walking around the woods  but, in his fear stricken state he ran away out of the woods where his friends had already left.  

Nate sprinted home and burst into the front door as soon as he got home loud enough to have his mom run out of her room to see what happened. They both stood still looking at the other until Nate’s mom said “ What happened to your ankle?”.

At that Nate started crying, he did not know why he was crying from the question he just felt all his emotions overflow and spill out of him. “ I...I’m sor...sorry I went into ‘The Dark Woods’ and g-got scared and...and hurt myself running out of the woods.”

 “Why would you do something like that!?!” his mom said rushing over to console her sobbing son.

 “I wanted to sh-show I was brave enough to be a knight” he said wiping the last of his tears.

“But I shouldn't even bother!!! Powerless little twerps like me don’t get to be knights!” Nate exclaimed loudly.

 “And why's that?” Nate’s mom quietly asked

Nate was silent he could not think of an answer so he just decided to lay against the door. “You can,” his mom continued, “but you need to work harder to get what you want because it’s not as easy for you as others,” Nate’s mom concluded. 

She sighed defeated “If you promise me that you will keep working to take the next knight exam I will show up to give you support”. 

Nate laughed at this because he could tell by the reluctance in her voice that she really didn’t want to. “You promise.”. Nate said lifting his head up with a smile

“Yes” she replied, “but 1st go to sleep and rest”.

At this point a year had passed since the last knight exam and the new one was to start in three hours. Nate was ready to enroll as he left the house to go to the casel his mom had said that she needs to finish things around the house but, will be there to watch the exam. He walked to the castle with his heart beating with excitement. That was until he saw the  registration desk. His head raced with fears and anxiety of what would happen if he failed again. He started to walk back to go home relizing how stupid this idae was. Then he heard a little boy yell “Papa! I want to be a knight when i’m older”

“Okay” , the kid’s dad answered ,“you can do it if you put your mind to it”. 

   The words the father had said rang in Nate’s mind as if they were meant for him. Nate took a step forward then another and another all the way to the registration desk. “My name is Nathan Oliver and I don’t have any powers.” Nate said confidently.

The guy at the desk said a simpel “Okay” as if this was the tenth time he heard those exact words today.

Nate marched into the exam room and for the next three hours as the participants and spectators trickled in. He went to one of the sides in the room and waited intently for his mother to show up. The lights then went out but, this time it did not startle him. A man who named himself John told them almost exactly what William did last year. Nate didn't really pay any attention though because he was waiting for his mother who appeared to not have shown up yet. As Nate was thinking that his mom might not show up after all he hears a familiar woman's voice shout from the seats “ You got this Nathan”. 

With that Nate was ready. Whether he got in the knights or not he knew that after everything he went through to get here.  The journey was what mattered, not the destination.