Other than all the overgrown maple trees, the pile of stones known as a kingdom was not much different than any other. Friendships were constantly being brewed into rivalries due to the high demand for skilled warriors. Children were growing up to be nobodies, and most of the adults were bickering on about who's possessions were nicer.
A common occurrence in any part of the world, but of course this normal kingdom had its fair share of secrets. Which other wise would make this place exactly what it looks like, normal.
"Fable you are the youngest." Said a little girl with short black hair after aggressively pushing him back.
The little boy, just a teeny bit shorter than the girl, rubbed his reddening eyes before speaking. "W-what does that even matter?"
The girl sucked her teeth. "It matters, I'm only six and I know that. You go in last." She said as she blocked the door to the carriage. "Nikolai goes in first, then Allan, and then me. How many times do I have to tell you before it goes through your head?"
Fable didn't give a reaction. For all the thoughts running through his head, he couldn't come up with an answer as to why anything she did made sense. He looked to his eldest brother for assistance, but he just looked at him pitifully and stepped into the carriage. Saddened by this, he looked down and waited for the second eldest brother to make his way inside.
A couple moments passed with his head held down. Enough time for him to wonder when it was his turn, so he looked up. There he saw his other brother, Allan, standing at his side.
"Asiya... get out of the way." Allan said as he glared at her. Fable's chubby face lightened, and he quickly rubbed his building tears away.
"What do y-you mean? Go inside already..." Asiya said as she stepped back hesitantly, but he didn't flinch. Instead he continued to glare at her, which must have made a wire in her head short circuit. "Hurry go inside, go go go go. Why do you keep looking at me like that?! Go inside hurry!"
"Shut up!" Allan scorned, making her jump and tremble backwards. He then took Fables hand, and pulled him into the carriage alongside him. "Retarded girl..." He mumbled.
A pale woman with flowing red hair stuck her head out the carriage right after, and started to look around. She then caught eye of Asiya sitting on the ground. "Uh darling?"
"Yes mommy?"
"What are you doing way down there on the ground?" She asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "Come on hurry, the carriage is about to leave."
And so they left in the carriage, correct order or not, and made their way into the fairly normal kingdom's outskirts. For the kids, looking outside the windows was nothing exciting or new to see. Not the old man selling baby horse dragons, they've already seen that a bunch of times. Or the various species of people ranging from all different shapes and sizes. They definitely didn't think the knights flying around on their griffins was anything exciting either, definitely not them.
"Maybe one of them should fall..." The eldest child, Nikolai mumbled.
"What's that son?" A large figure sitting in front of him asked.
"Oh nothing!" He said as he sat up straight.
"Listen, you children make sure to be on your best behavior. In a moment we'll be in the face of the south district." The large man said. "These walks we take are fun indeed, but they also serve as a moral support for the people. They need to know who their rulers are, and be happy about it."
"Yes father..." All four of the children said at once. The carriage then came to a halt.
"Thank you for the ride Rovlun, as smooth as ever." The father said as he stood up with his wife, and placed a bag of coins through the steerers partition window.
"Certainly my lord." Said Rovlun.
All that was left in the carriage was the four children who sat there impatiently waiting for their parents to have completely left. During this time Allan mischievously smirked, and glanced over at Fable and Nikolai. Fable tried not to smile, but couldn't resist quite well as he knew what was coming next.
Nikolai spurted. "Allan did you not just hear da-."
"Last one to the field is an onion nose!" Allan shouted as he jumped up and bolted out the door.
"You always do this!" Nikolai yelled as he chased after him.
"Those little..." Their father said under his breath as he watched them run past him.
"It's fine Sully, let them be." The mom laughed. "They're just boys."
"Well whatever, if the people didn't know we were here yet, they know now." Sully said as he moved his wavy black hair out of his face, and fixed his crown.
And just like he said, the citizens knew they were there. A young boy with a voice like a crow screamed. "The royals are here!"
A moment later people came rushing outside their homes with bundles of roses, and baskets of pedals. Cheering for their long awaited rulers.
"May god bless you all!"
"King Sulaiman the great!"
"The land of the red!"
They cheered and they cheered, while showering the royalty with rose pedals as they walked by. "They love you, don't they?" The mother said.
"'No they love us, and why is that Solaris?" Sulaiman asked her.
A single ray of light pierced through the ceiling of tree branches and shot Solaris in her icy blue eyes. "Because you shine brighter... than anyone else?" She said.
Sulaiman chuckled. "Your praises are quite a bit too much, no it's because I rule them kindly, and just. When things are fair, everyone's happy."
"Is that right?" Solaris said as she took Fable's hand and pulled him along. "So is it fair that some people are born peasants and others royalty?"
"Well-"
"Daddy daddy, pick me up, pick me up!" Asiya whined as she jumped up and down.
"S-sure darling, here, up you g-go." Sulaiman said as he put Asiya onto his shoulders.
"Mommy I want to go up to..." Fable said as he watch Asiya stick her tongue out at him.
"Why don't you go run towards your brothers and play?" Solaris said.
"Really, it's really okay if I go by myself?" Fable asked.
"It really is, now go on, scootaloo."
Asiya watched the entire time in disbelief. "Daddy let me down, let me down already!" She screamed and struggled. Sulaiman looked at Solaris with eyes of distress, and placed her down.
"Don't look at me, it's your children." Solaris chuckled.
"What do you mean, 'it's your children', it's your children too." Sulaiman said. "A-Asiya watch your step..."
"Anyways... you never answered me." She continued.
"Answered you? Ah yes, well as I was saying. I do think it's fair to be quite honest with myself." He replied as he removed some hair from his face.
Solaris's gaze become distilled, and her sight focused on her thoughts. "I think it's fair too. People born in power were chosen because they are simply better, peasants shouldn't envy that, and simply accept their positions."
"I disagree." Sulaiman Said as he shook the hand of a random man, and continued to walk. "Do you know of my heritage?"
"Of course my love," She chuckled. "Everyone does... You're descendants were no more than wanderers that decided it was time to settle. A few people that wanted their protection set up nearby, and this continued until Arosa became a kingdom. What, some dozen centuries ago?"
"You're basically right, and now according to your logic...I should be a peasant no?"
Their conversation became silent and filled with the cheering of the crowd. The children that were playing in the leaves came running to them one by one. "Dad look what I found!" Nikolai said zealously as he held up a perfectly shaped maple leaf to his face.
"Mines are better daddy look, look at this one." Asiya shouted as he tried to raise her leaf above Nikolai's.
Allan also had a big leaf, bigger than any of theirs, and healthy too. It seemed to have just fallen off from the tip top of one of those prehistoric trees, but he noticed Fable was silent.
Holding his head down, and kicking his feet as he held his small broken leaf behind his back. He glanced at Asiya and Nikolai's, and then decided his was no match, and let it drop in the dessert of other leaves to get lost forever.
"Fable did you find any beautiful leafs today too?" Solaris asked.
A moment passed before he began to give her the sad answer. "N-"
"Fable be more careful idiot, you just dropped this." Allan said as he handed him his leaf. "I don't know what it is mom, but Fable's always good at attracting all sorts of valuable things."
"Woah Fable you found that?" Nikolai said, as he took a closer look. "I'm actually impressed."
"Good job Fable, that's my boy." Sulaiman said before picking him up and carrying him on his shoulders. "You'll make a fine prince one day, one of the best."
"What about mine..." Asiya mumbled just barely loud enough for anyone to hear.
"Shall we get ready for supper?" Sully asked Fable.
"Yeah yeah yeah, lets go!" Allan shouted as he ran, and tumbled up the steps.
They all followed after him, making their way back through the village, and the people still celebrated. On most occasions, the birds would too.They sang so often that when they stopped, something felt out of place. One of the villagers looked to the roofs, but saw no sight of them. They were all but gone, except for one, a crow.
The crow blankly stared at him with it's beady black eyes, and he stared back with his normal human eyes. His stare became sharper as a certain feeling of uneasiness gathered within him. It suddenly cawed so loud it caused him to lose his balance.
"Hey what are you in the dirt for?" A randomlady asked. "Look, get up, it's king sulaiman and his family!" She said as she helped him up. "We gotta put on a good face so we can pay less taxes this year."
She pulled his arm, and brought him to the front of the crowd which continued to grow. Everyone was holding baskets of flowers, foods, and other miscellaneous gifts.
"Thank you, thank you so much." Solaris said, and took no gifts at all.
From somewhere within the crowd, the crow cawed again. The caw was of such a peculiar off sound, that if I were to described it as strange, that'd be unjust. A few people looked to the roofs, but mostly everyone was infatuated by the royals. No one looked very close, and that was their mistake, because if they had, they would've seen Solaris's plain freckled face spike.
She looked to the crowd, left and right, front and back. She seemed to be looking for something, someone. Then her eyes distinctively met with a villager. The same villager that had fallen down earlier on. She couldn't stop staring into his black pearly eyes. The eyes that belonged not to a human but to a crow.
They stared at each other for what seemed to be in slow motion as everyone else went about. Solaris's expression slowly became grim, as her eyes filled with dew. No...not now...please not now, she thought with no veil.
The crow eyed man's expressionless face managed to muster his lips together, and what came out was a command.
"The sacrifice..." His scratchy voice whispered a sentence so low that even the people bumping shoulders with him couldn't hear, but somehow, Solaris heard exactly what he was saying. "The promised sacrifice..."
A ice cold shiver went down Solaris's body, and a tear rolled from her eyes. The man whispered again, and this time the words pierced through her entire being. "O-wi-ya... you must kill...the boy." The face of the man began to twist inward, and then the time that seemed to stop returned to normal. He then collapsed face flat onto the pavement.
"Hey what's wrong with you, why do you like the floor so much?" The lady from earlier said as she kneeled down next to him, oblivious to the fact that he was dead. "Hey come on, get up." She said as she turned his body over.
The scream that came from her body must have been the loudest scream anyone of these people have ever heard. They all jumped, and put as much distance between themself and the howler as allowed. A scream filled with complete and utter terror.
"What's wrong with his face?!" Someone yelled at the top of their lungs.
"Get away, move it!" The nearby guards yelled as they rushed to the scene.
"Stay here." Sully said as he pushed his family back and ran to the body.
"Sire..." The guards said upon his arrival.
"What's the meaning of this, what's happened here?" Sulaiman shouted as he kneeled down near the corpse.
"We arrived just seconds before you, my lord." One of the guards said. "When we arrived his face was already like this, twisted..."
Sully began to pat the body until his hand reached the corpse's neck. His breathing became flustered and slow. slowly he looked up at the guards as if he realized something.
They all watched cluelessly as sully pulled out his pearlstone sword, and began to slice an inch deep into the corpse's neck. From within the wound a feathered blackness appeared somewhere around the size of a grape. It then grew larger and feathers began to bulge outwards.
Sully's eyes widened, and he began to jump away. "Get back!" He yelled.
The guards awed in fear and took a few steps back, and then the moment after, the man's neck bursted open and a crow flew out. It cawed endlessly as it made it's way far out.
"In the name of god..." one of the guards mummbled.
A bead of sweat dropped from sully's nose and his breathing stopped for just a moment before he spoke. "Black magic..." he said lowly.
The guard's became startled as they stepped back further in surprise.
"Bl-bl-black magic..?" The villager woman overheard. All of the nearby citizens awed in disbelief upon hearing, and the ones that did not hear were told by a nearby gossiper.
"Silence you fools." Yelled one of the guards.
"Mommy, everything's ok...isnt it?" Fable asked as he tugged on his mom's garment. Solaris's facial expression still had not changed from the time before. Not until she looked at her terrified child. "Mommy?" Fable mummbled.
Fable's attempt to gain comfort was in vain as his mother simply stared at him with a blank face. She had only one thought on her mind, and that was of the whispers of the possessed man. They echoed within her on constant repeat, kill the boy...kill the boy...kill the boy!