Matt woke up from sleep. He felt that his legs and arms were aching as if someone had put shackles on them for a long time. Eight days had passed since the Great War between the elves and trolls. He saw the maid coming in and he changed quickly. The maid told him that he was summoned to King Valdor’s court. Matt cleaned the dirty, scratched Elven Armory and put the pieces on. He had a little breakfast of berries and milk and he set off for the castle.

The castle was miles away from Matt’s house but it did not take long to reach there on Meteor’s back. Meteor was the fastest war-horse in whole Kiltaro, the elven kingdom. It was given to Matt by the great King Valdor himself. Matt dismounted Meteor and entered the castle. The guards greeted him with respect. King Valdor was smoking a peace-pipe droopily and did not notice that the velvet covering of the cushion had caught on fire. Only if Matt hadn’t seen the fire and put it off, the whole kingdom would have crumbled to ashes.

The king was very proud of Matt. He said “Matt, you have saved me again! What may I grant you?” Matt replied “Your Majesty, what would have been there to claim if all was lost?” The king was very happy and ordered his servant to bring the best wine for them.

After finishing his drink, King Valdor came to the main point. “Now Matt, I have a quest for you. A quest nobody except you can complete.” Matt asked the king “And what might that be, Your Majesty?” The king sighed “Do you know anything about Magic?” “I have. The little knowledge I have gathered from you, Your Majesty!”, replied Matt. “I see, but do you want to learn about magic?”, the king asked Matt.

“I do, Sire! I really do.”, Matt replied hurriedly. The king told him “I see! But can you travel to Karla and deliver a book to my friend, Wizard Cuzco?” Matt had heard about Wizard Cuzco. He was a great wizard and Matt wanted to be trained by him. And he was longing for some adventure, so his wish was granted. The king said that he would give him all the necessary infantry and chariots. But Matt said “Sire, I want to go by myself.”

The king was astonished. “But Matt, how can you cross King Zalkemir’s kingdom without fighting him?” “My dependence is upon my luck, Your Majesty.”, replied Matt calmly. “Do as you wish, Matt. But if you fail the task, you will be beheaded. You are taking you own risk and calling your own death if you fail. I am not going to be responsible for your execution”, said King Valdor trying to test him. Matt took the book from King Valdor and said “I love challenges, Your Majesty!”.

The king understood that matt had passed the test, so he sent him away. After reaching his house, Matt gave Meteor some water to drink and started searching his bookshelves. From the shelves, he took a map of Warrona, the elven country. He pointed out Karla on the map and checked the distance. It was 560 miles away from Kiltaro. Just then, the maid, Mina, called for dinner. The two had dinner and then Matt began to pack things up into Meteor’s saddlebags. He then crept into bed thinking of the great adventures he would have.

The next morning, it was the big day. After having breakfast, Matt set off with Meteor for the castle, to bid King Valdor goodbye. When he was going out of the castle, he crossed paths with Ludwig, the son of King Valdor. Ludwig had eavesdropped when King Valdor had given orders to Matt. Ludwig was always jealous of Matt, because he was always in lower position than Matt.

Moreover, the king had trust in Matt but not in him. Matt told Ludwig where he was going and Ludwig pretended to be very happy. But inside, he was burning with jealousy. He wanted to punish the whole kingdom for the King’s decision. He went to Silver Inn after Matt rode away and found the right person to do his job. It was Ikazor, a short, stout dwarf. Ikazor was a lowlife whose theft had been caught by Matt. The two men began to plan on ending Matt’s life.

It was midday and Matt had reached the forest by then. He tied Meteor’s reins to a tree trunk and set down to rest. After both of them had their fill of food, they set off again. When they were in the middle of the forest, Matt heard footsteps. Just then, a strong arm punched him from the back and he fell unconscious. When he woke up he felt that his saddlebags were empty. He was tied with a rope. He felt a knife at his hand and picked it up. He struggled to cut the rope and did it.

Just then, a man entered through a door at one corner of the cold, damp, room. Matt decided to remain silent. This man was wearing black chain mail and when he turned around; Matt remembered something from the long scar on the man’s face. It was Zalkemir himself. “Well well well! What do we have here? A chum of a Bitch king!”, shouted Zalkemir. Matt protested bravely “I don’t want to hear a single thing about King Valdor from your mouth, Devil!” “Shut up, mutt. There’s no use shouting because your life’s going to end now”, growled Zalkemir as he took out a shiny sword from its scabbard and held it at the tip of Matt’s neck.

The cold, steel blade of the sword awakened the anguish inside Matt’s heart. It reminded him how his father was mercilessly slaughtered by Zalkemir. He was reminded of the revenge he needed to take. Every drop of blood falling from his neck reminded him about the numerous deaths caused by an insect of the Hell, Zalkemir. He felt a new strength inside him. He decided to end Zalkemir’s precious life. He jumped up and drew his sword surprising Zalkemir. But he furiously attacked Matt, but he parried the blow. Then Matt slashed with all his might. He put every bit of strength in this slash. The blade broke through Zalkemir’s helmet and cut off evil Zalkemir’s head.

Matt saw that the black soul of the evil king escaped through the window. He retrieved the objects and the spell book from the safe and escaped during the night. It took him no longer than two days to reach Mage tower. He visited wizard Cuzco. He took the book and healed Matt. Matt was astonished to see all his gashes and cuts gone. Then he decided that he would stay and train with Wizard Cuzco. He said “I cannot keep you forever, but you can stay with me for three months and learn the basics of Magic.” So began Matt’s training. He had taken all of Cuzco’s knowledge in just three months. He was able to teleport, vanish things in thin air and most important of all, he could attack using magical energies.

Just the day he was about to leave, a visitor came to Mage Tower. He said “King Valdor has sent me to receive you, Matt.” The voice seemed suspiciously known to Matt, but he did not question. He waved goodbye to Wizard Cuzco and left with Meteor and the stranger. On the way he asked the man what his name was and he answered “My name is Hewie, but you can call me Hew.” When Matt and Hew were deep in the forest, they sat down to rest. Then Hew gave Matt a piece of pie which he had made. Matt used magic to see if eating the pie would be all right. And his suspicion was correct. It was dosed with poison. He understood that it had to be Ludwig’s dirty work. He also understood that Hew was none other than Ludwig himself.

When Ludwig understood that Matt had found out the secret, his life was about to end. Matt drew his sword which was gifted to him by Kuzco and attacked Ludwig. Ludwig also attacked Matt trying his best to defend himself. But because Matt was tired, Ludwig gained the hull of the fight. He was just about to lose the battle when his inner power was awakened from its deep slumber. A glowing aura surrounded his body which frightened Ludwig very much. Matt raised his palm and a stream of blue energy came out of it.

The energy began to form an orb. Matt shouted “Ludwig, you have made a conspiracy against an Elven Paladin! I command this light of Heavens to destroy you if you are guilty and spare you if you are innocent.” The orb shot into Ludwig’s body and pierced him into shreds. Matt returned to the kingdom and everyone rejoiced. King Valdor was very happy with Matt and awarded him half of the kingdom. He was also happy as Ludwig, whom he was ashamed to call his own son had died in the hands of Matt.

King Valdor shouted “Matt! You are my true son. I will never forget you. You have never ever failed me or the race of Elves” Matt embraced King Valdor and said in tears “I can also depend on you, Father!”

After a month, Math decided to leave Warrona as there was a huge bounty on him for killing Prince Ludwig. The king was heartbroken to hear this and so was the whole kingdom. Before Matt left he looked at his elven plate mail for the last time. King Valdor said “You will always be remembered as the hero of the elves in our heart.” Matt said nothing but “Thank you, Father!” And from that day and so on, Mathew Hamokroves was remembered as “The Elf with a Heart of Gold”.