Seven Kingdoms: The Brother's Grim
Brotherhood is tested...
In the ruins of the Valley of Succoth sits sulking on a stone slab is Z, the ugly and terrible furious beast-man.
The dusty day blows sand all around the broken buildings, the shattered windows, and the decaying landscape. It makes for a perfect hideout. Some say it is haunted, some say it was cursed by a witch long ago, but for Z it is a place of solitude, a place to refresh himself, and a place to think about his next plans.
But he has no ambition, he has no grand plan, and he ever only wanted to kill his brother, Abe. He wanted to show him affection but the only way he knew how was to fight him, to defy himself, to kill him because that was all he knew living on the streets his whole life in Vale.
Jackal ears stand up and his wolf body with a bear’s snout sniffs endlessly in the gray air. He stands thinking about his fight with his brother and how it was a stalemate.
Anger rises as he sits and looks out to the foggy day thinking of how he could have killed him if only he bit him or clawed at him more ferociously. He could’ve been quicker and deadlier. Abe was stronger, but he was more agile.
Then after a time, in the distance, he sees a riding fleet of armored soldiers hurtling towards him fast.
He steps forward and sees the dark army ascending. Then as the dust clouds settle and the army approaches seeing the terrible man-beast, they draw their swords. The archers aim their arrows at his black furry dog head and circle him.
“Stand down, oh great monster! We mean you no harm!” The Captain of the black armored guards waves his broad sword as he steps down and bows grandly.
“For we truly fear you, man-beast. One of the Three Omens from the prophecy, we have come to show obeisance and honor for the signs do not lie and the seers have spoken rightly.” The army of fifty men dismount and prostrate before the hideous creature.
Z’s serpentine eyes widen and his nose sniffs feeling the darkness that radiates off of the wicked men from Charul. He is flabbergasted and he waves his arm over the army in a gesture of power and control. They all rise one by one like a wave in the ocean and rise out of the ashes like a phoenix.
“Yes,” Z guffaws defiantly. “An army from Charul?”
“Aye, O Third Omen,” the Dark Captain says, bowing low.
“Third Omen? Who’s the other two? You?”
“Oh, no, beast of burden. My master and lord, Prince Gnaw of Charul.”
“A Prince?” he howls wickedly. “My, my, we’ve soared to greater heights.” The whole riding fleet joins in his despairing laughter, chilling anyone who hears the horrible shrieks.
“And what about the other,” Z asks.
“We were journeying far to find her. Searching for her, we have found you instead,” the Black Captain smirks cruelly. “Our seer said we would find her, here, in the ruins of Succoth. She looked at the stars’ alignment. Look!”
Three stars shine brightly and align as Z stares up into the evening sky.
Suddenly, behind Z, a screeching howling groan shoots out across the foggy ruins of Succoth, out of the ruined castle.
“What is that?” Z says whipping out his protruding talons and turning horrified.
The leader’s contorted grin gleams, “It is she. The Ice Queen. The Snow Witch.”
The giant abandoned misty temple slumbers but then the black halls roar wretchedly.
Then a bellowing serpentine dragon flies out of the mist with blue icy scales flailing its majestic bat wings. Raging groans pierce Z’s jackal ears as he staggers back terrified.
The Ice Queen growls viciously. “Do you like her? She is the finest Ice dragon the world has ever seen! She is called Lystra, the Snow Catcher!” She wields her white birch tree staff. And then ceases the giant blue snake’s body as it calms down. Lystra glares menacingly at Z as its furious python eyes lock into his. They are the same.
The Witch is silent letting her pet make a new friend. It sniffs Z and he sniffs back. It is familiar, it is family. Nothing quite like he ever experienced before.
“She likes you, beast.” The Snow Witch smiles, chortling.
Lystra whimpers with glee and Z is satisfied as his claws cease and lets out his hand to touch her large scaly snout. He touches it gently, rubs her snout, and then slowly pets her. Then after a moment hushes her as he embraces her giant, serpent-blue head.
“You will be bonded for a lifetime,” the Queen says quietly, smiling. “She can be yours one day if you wish.”
“I wouldn’t dream of taking such a fine creature from you, Queen.”
“Respect has never been a quality of my followers, man-beast.”
“Beast,” Z assures her.
“I’m sorry?”
“Just beast. No man in the title. I am a monster and I want to keep it that way.”
The Queen guffaws maniacally satisfied. “You know what you are. Will you join us then, beast?”
“What will we do?”
“Drown the world in misery, my dear monster. Come, be my hideous one beside me surrounded in darkness as we hide from the Light.”
Z looks back at the army in full loyalty to him, to lead him to a Kingdom that will protect him, where he will find friendship and comrades that he never tasted before. And so, deep down, he wants to join evil as it compels him in this dreadful moment, to get back at the filth of the world, to drown the world in sorrow just as he had experienced in his life, devoid of love and joy. So he rejects anything good and accepts her invitation of malice and strife.
“Yes, I accept. Bring me swiftly to Charul, to the Prince Gnaw.”
“Whatdya say, boys,” the Queen laughs. “You were looking for me?”
“Aye, O Great Witch. We have sought you night and day… and here you are.”
“Take us to him,” Z breathes bloody violence. “Take us to your Omen in the Land. And we shall surely follow.”
In Charul, the black Casper Castle stands erect and lay depressive among the saddened and ill-treated folk.
Z and his army ride behind leering and snarling at the peasants. Their vicious horses with wolf heads bite and growl at them scaring the innocent town folk and their children. Their darkness spreads like black ink infecting and staining the land. Crops, trees, and flowers are painted with decay.
Lystra, roars in the night sky as they travel to the black stone Castle in the cover of night knocking on the huge wooden doors.
Opening with a mighty creak, the black armored guards nod and let the beast with his guards come in out of expectation. They wait for them with eagerness and bated breath.
“Prince Gnaw has been waiting for you,” a deformed green goblin named Hermes, a servant who growls in gray tattered rags comes out of the shadows. “He is eating and requests you to join him.”
“We shall,” Z smiles delightfully. Then the Wicked Queen swoops down and plants her dragon down in the tight spot.
“Uh… Queen if you please be so kind as to remove your… uh pet, then we-”
But the Ice Queen darts a look of snares at Hermes cautioning him to dare utter another word.
“Uh… but we do make exceptions for royalty,” Hermes beams as Lystra flails monstrously. He eats a guard chomping on him as the others stand straight on guard.
“She requires only one snack,” the Witch’s ugly visage forms into an old shriveled gremlin as she laughs amused. The Two Omens follow Hermes and ascend the stone staircase up to the Prince’s chambers.
They travel far and long into the dull gray stone walls, the chilly silence streaks the stale air. Walking for a while in the cold isolated palace, they come across the Prince’s dining chamber. Creaking open the door, he sits eating sloppily. Savagely, he eats and licks and slops his food demolishing a chicken breast.
The ghoul servant presents them, “The Ice Queen from the Outer Realm and the Third Omen Z, the beast from Vale City!”
Gnaw, in mid-chew, drops his giant chicken leg as he smiles delightedly with a sinister presence. “Oh, this is great news! Come, come, sit down, my friends.”
He approaches the Ice Queen and kisses her frosted hands, “My Queen, my true Queen,” he smiles lustfully as she blushes.
“Oh, if you want some fun, prince, there will be plenty of time for that. May I present to you, the beast, Z.”
“Z? A mysterious name, my wicked beast, you are even more impressive than the tales say.”
His hairy chest puffs out menacingly and his breath is hot as hell, “Pleasure, Prince. I’ve never heard the stories of you. What do they say of you?”
“There are no stories or songs or riddles of me, but there will be. Oh, there will be after I’m done with the lands. After we’re done, we shall surely make a name for ourselves, our names in stone plastering the filthy streets! They will herald our terrible deeds! They will be crying, and scurrying away from our presence! Together the Three Omens shall rule the Seven Kingdoms and nothing shall stand in our way!”
Z’s heart fills with a vengeful hate for all of them especially for his brother Abe as he senses he will see him soon. As he roots a deep bitterness for him in the darkest parts of his soul he drinks generously down to the dregs.
“But there are rumors of allies forming in Galafan the Emperor’s Domain,” the Snow Witch says. “And the wicked children, the young girl Yala I desire for my new host. My body is old and decrepit. Magic is the only thing holding it together. We must find them. I looked in my crystal and saw them in the desert land Hath with that annoying Princess Tabitha.”
“Aye, they are but I have men moving all over the land. Spies infiltrating them as we speak. But yes, Tabitha is a nasty one. She killed all the men I sent.”
“I saw it to be another beast-man,” the Ice Queen says. “I think, Z, it was your brother who defied Charul’s men.”
Z becomes livid. “Then I shall find him and stop him.”
“Kill him,” Gnaw says sternly. “That is what we need to do. The only reasonable thing to do is crush the resistance, only then we’ll have true control over the land. There are those that oppose us, but if we don’t stop them then I fear they shall prevail. But it is enough!”
Quickly, he pours their goblets with ale and raises his, proclaiming, “Drink with me, let us enjoy our doom while we can!” They all laugh wickedly sharing in their wretchedness together, enjoying the evil that they will soon commit.
They drink, sit, and eat as they stuff their faces with food and enamor their senses. Prince Charul’s court and everyone in it files into a room of decadency. Gluttonous eating and drinking are the aromas of the place as the night rages away in hideous hedonistic pleasure. They numb themselves so they will forget their evil deeds done in darkness and forget about the Allies of Light planning to stop them.