The day began somewhat bright -- much brighter than it has been for a very, very long time. It's been six years since that incident - the one that took the kingdom by it's legs, and shook it silly.
There was a saying that Sully use to tell his children. It went a little something like, "The energy you put out, good or bad, enters the atmosphere, and everyone will feel it". Well, everyone could feel it. Everyone could feel the energy that emitted from Allan as he went about the kingdom causing his daily mischief. It wasn't in his nature to mess with the villagers, but the guards were a completely different story.
Every other week the king had no choice but to replace Allan's royal guards because they would run to him complaining things like, "He's possessed by a demon", or, "It's like a fly stuck in my ear", and even, "If I stay there another day i'll slit my own throat".
These guys were mostly older men that were never really talented in anything. They lived their youth drinking, and doing god knows what before suddenly realizing that their life is going by fast, and they needed a stable job. That's where becoming a guard comes in. It's amongst the easiest jobs to land, but of course, like any job, these miserable men had to go through training first. After that, they would finally be put to work. At least that's what people call it. The kingdom is usually so peaceful that they just stand there all day looking tough.
And after such a long hard day of looking tough, these men needed a place to relieve their stress, and everyone in town knows there is no better place to relieve stress - than Burkooda's Tavern.
It was awfully early for anyone to be drinking, but these men cared not. Especially for the old guy standing naked on the table with all but a plate covering his crustacean. "If anyone of you lot can stay that spoiled brats watcher for longer than two weeks, i'll pull out my last gold tooth and give it to ya." He said while glaring at everyone below.
All the guards hated that old fool, always making promises he couldn't keep, but they hated being Allan's play toys even more. Except for two guards who had just graduated from trainee camp. They had no idea what they were about to get themselves into.
"I'll take ye up on that offer." Yelled out one of the two.
"Count me in too." Said the other.
At the same exact time, they jerked there heads back to look at one another, one of them flinging the sweat off his greasy blonde hair into someone's mead. They were excited to see who the other idiot was.
"Derk?" Said the blonde, lazy eyed one.
The other one, the one missing teeth squinted his eyes as if he couldn't see properly. "Tark?"
They stared at each other for awhile. Both looking as if their brains couldn't process the image they were seeing fast enough. Every second that passed forced more sweat onto their forheads.
"Oh no, not these retards." Said some guy in the back before putting his head down, and covering his face.
"Derk!" Tark yelled in joy.
"Terk!" Derk yelled happily.
Their bodies collided as they jumped into each others arms, sending their weight to the floor. As fast as they fell, they hopped back up with their arms around their shoulders. "We'll take you up on that bet together!" They shouted as they started to put one foot In front of the other, and back again.
The man that had his head down glared over his arm. "What in the world kind of dance is that..?" He asked himself in disbelief.
"A one, and two, and a one, and a two." One after the other, they put one foot in front of the other, creating some sort of dance. The strange interlocked jist took them to the top of a round table. Their minds weren't fully there. Anyone could tell by the way they ignored the people screaming at them to get down.
"Ayee, why don't you get off the table before you kick me drink o-over." Said the skinny guy below them, right before they accidentally kicked his drink all over him. "Aightt, that's it i've had enough of yall's foolishness!" He then went onto get out of his chair and pick it up.
By his puckering face expression, Terk and derk could tell he was mad. They just didn't know why - so they kept on dancing. From the back of tavern people started to cheer. Then seconds later everyone was urging the man with the chair to slam it against their heads, and that's exactly what he planned to do.
"Maybe this will knock some sense in yalls." The bony man said as he threw the chair at Derk.
"Oh no Derk, watch out." Terk yelled as he tackled derk to the ground, avoiding the thrown chair.
With the chair's missed target, it flew further than meant to. The old guy looked like he died a little when it broke against the back of the last guy anyone would ever want to talk to. The kinda guy that just sits there with his back towards everyone, hiding behind a hooded cloak. These were usually the kind of guys that sent people like - Mr chairthrower home, with a broken arm or two for just looking at them funny.
The old guy gave his friends that look - the one that says "I'm done for, but i'm gonna act tough anyways", kind of look, before taking the walk of shame to the physically harassed man. Through out the entire process he was just waiting for the guy to turn around, and give him the death stare.
"Uh look, that wasn't meant for you buddy." He said upon sitting his hand on the guys shoulder.
"A bold statement, and yet, it still hit me." Said the hooded man without looking up.
The old man sucked his teeth. "Just shake it off yea?"
"Now now, that's no way to apologize." The enigmatic man said as he turned to him. "Now, how about you shake this off."
The old man slowly looked down as he started to feel a sudden warmth on his belly. He must have missed it when the mysterious man took his hand from the counter and placed it on his stomach, or he was just really fast. A small orange glow emerged from the guys hand, and shone right through old man's body. It was like putting a flashlight directly onto your finger in a dark room. "What're you..."
"Better find water fast." Said the cloaked man.
Out from behind the old guys shirt, a fire came to life. An orange flame bursted up, covering his entire back and sending him screaming through the tavern. He wasn't actually feeling any pain, but his instincts told him he was.
"Water, water!" The man screamed as he pushed people out the way on his way to the exit.
Tark frantically searched around the bar for some water before his eyes fatefully met with the cup of beer on the table. Another guy stared at Tark as if he couldn't believe what he was about to do.
"Don't you dare..." The guy said.
For a moment Tark looked at him confusely. Then he started to remember the time his uncle blew beer into a fire pit. The fire caught ahold, and went straight into his mouth. The thought of that made Tark laugh sarcastically.
"Move out the way." Screamed the man on fire as he ran outside.
Luckily for him there was a water fountain right outside the tavern. It was in the center of the town, and now a relief for the panicking guy. He quickly jumped inside without a care for the peace of the glowing fish swimming within. The fire went out, and so did the fish. They jumped out the water and swam threw the air, and then back into the water on the other side of the fountain.
"My god, what happened to you? Why were you on fire?" Asked a nearby man.
The guy that was once on fire patted his body down thoroughly, without one care for his foolish appearance. Soaking wet, with a lily pad on his head, and yet -- no burn marks to speak of. "It's a miracle..." He mumbled.
His friends came yelling out the tavern. "Qadro, qadro are you ok?"
Qadro slowly stood up and walked out the fountain. "I'm more than ok... look at me." He said holding out his hands. "I'm invincible!" He screamed at the sky.
He slowly stopped yelling, and stared at the taverns door. "Let's go teach that bastard a lesson."
His friends cheered him on as he walked from the fountain to the tavern, dripping water the entire way. With his new found powers of "invincibility", he was ready to give that fire guy a piece of his mind, but to their disappointment -- he was knowhere to be found.
Skipping thirty minutes ahead -- Tark and his best friend derk, were full of empty confidence as they stood guard outside Allan's bedroom door. People chuckled while walking past them. Anyone would if they saw how funny they looked holding their spears upside down with faces full of sureness.
From behind Allan's bedroom door, came a loud thump, catching Derk's attention. "Oy tark, you hear that?" He asked looking back at the door.
"What do you hear?" Asked Tark.
Slowly they put their ears to the door, and stared at each other for a few seconds. Then the thump banged louder, right against the door, sending a shock right down their ears. They both jumped, and then started fighting over the doornob to rush inside.
The first one that opened the door got a shoe thrown across his face. Then when lazy eyed Tark went to have a look into the room, another shoe came flying out. Luckily he was able to fling his body to the side of the wall, dodging what his buddy on the ground could not. "Hey whats going on?" Asked Derk as he got up with a shoe print on his face.
"Flying shoes!" Yelled Tark.
"Oh no, not flying shoes!" Yelled Derk before scrambling to the side of the wall with Tark.
"Wait where's the prince?" Tark said as he peeked into the room.
Derk's eyes bulged out as he peeked from below Tark. "Look there." He yelled as he spotted curly black hair poking out from underneath the beds blankets.
They both looked at each other with faces full of determination. They had to protect the prince even with all the randomly flying shoes going around the room. Not because of their jobs as his guards, but because of the bet.
"We has to save him!" They said while nodding at each other.
"Ok on the count of dree throw this shoe in there as hard as you can to distract the other shoes." Said Derk as he gave Tark one of the shoes that flew out.
"Got it!" Said Tark.
"One -- twew ------ dree." Derk yelled.
Tark quickly bolted in front of the door, and cocked his arm back all the way to the floor. Derks mouth dropped in surprise. He had no idea Tarks square like body was so flexible.
"No more flying shoes." Tark yelled as he catapulted the shoe into the room.
Looking through the stained glass window from outside, Allan and Nikolai had no idea what Tark was aiming for. The shoe went straight into the fake body Allan made of himself, hitting it directly on the head.
"What if that was really me..." Allan mumbled.
"The potion should wear off in..... now." Nikolai said before all the flying shoes stopped in their places and dropped to the floor.
Derk and Tark quickly ran to the exploded head of the Allan-like doll, and started to cry.
"Why...". Tark screamed as he held the imitation hair in his hands. "Why!"
"How did they become guards?" Nikolai asked as he watched them from the window. "They are even bigger idiots than the last guys."
Allan jumped down from the window ledge that was holding them up. "Come on, lets go before they realize it's just a fake." He said.
"Right behind ya." Nikolai said before he jumped down.
And that was the start of their morning. First -- pranking the guards, and second -- sneaking out the kingdom. Small things like this, that had the guards crying, and the knights searching, and the villagers laughing as they watched, made the kingdom more lively. "Don't get in any trouble now." Said the small old lady that Allan and Nikolai would sneak past everyday.
"Surely." Said Nikolai.
Allan was a bit confused. "How does she see us every time..." he asked.
As soon as they got past her house, which was the last house on the way out the village, and snuck past every grumbling guard -- they sprinted past the green field of grass and into the dense forest trees. They didn't have to speak any words to know they were competing with each other the entire way. Jumping over fallen trees, and trying to keep their balance as they ran across them.
"Can you keep up?" Nikolai valiantly said as he ran ahead of Allan.
Allan rolled his eyes as he accepted his position as the inferior little brother, and stayed behind Nikolai. The wind blew softly against their faces, leaving their wavy hair to dance with it. Watching Nikolai's blackened brown hair move like a flame started to give him déjà vu. The cold wind blowing across their faces, the nostalgic forest atmosphere, and then the light that shined from above.
The light that when hitting at just the right angle seemed to make time slow down. In fact it did slow down -- for Allan. All these different things helped to put him in some sort of trance, and in this trance he could see someone else, but only for a moment. Reddish black wavy hair, and those marbeling green eyes. This person was no one other than Fable. A much older version, but it was Fable. Running along side him as he did when they were younger. "Fable..." Allan said wistfully.
Fable slowly smiled, and his face glowed like the brightest sun. He then ran in front of Allan, and gestured him to follow. "Are you ready?" He said softly.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Allan mumbled.
Suddenly, Fable disappeared into the bursting light ahead, and Allan's déjà vu ended. In the back of his head he could hear someone yelling.
"Are you ready?" Nikolai yelled from ahead.
"Huh?" Allan said confusedly.
"Come on, we're gonna jump!" Nikolai yelled as he pulled Allan with him.
The trees started to thin out, and the forest bed quickly became stone. "Wait wait wait!" Allan yelled as he tried to stop Nikolai.
But Nikolai didn't let go, and instead pulled harder. Before he knew it, there was only a couple meters left of land ahead of him, and then nothingness. "Jump!" Nikolai yelled.
In that small moment everything happened so fast. Allan's body instinctively jumped right along side his brother's. Maybe it moved on it's own because of it's trust for Nikolai, or maybe because it didn't want Nikolai to be alone, but it jumped, and one thing was clear. They were both a hundred feet in the air -- flying for just a moment, before falling down to a crystal clear lake.
They both yelled at the top of their lungs, each a different kind of yell. Nikolai's was more of a zealous shout of victory, and Allan's on the other hand was a definite. "What the hec-"
That second in the air looked like it would have lasted awhile, but it ended sooner than Allan could get his words out. Him and Nikolai plunged into the lake, torpedoing a couple meters down. When they both came to a stop, Nikolai instantly bursted out in laughter and was forced to go back to the surface. The angry expression on Allan's face was too much for him to handle.
Allan went up right after him, wearing the same facial expression as he had in the water.
"That face, haha, it's priceless!" Nikolai laughed.
Like a tantruming child, Allan started to wildly splash water at Nikolai before winding his fist back for the ultimate splash. "Woah woah w-wait!" Nikolai said before taking a deep breath and going back underneath.
Of course, Allan followed him. He went below, and when the air bubbles left his view, he was left with the open waters, and thousands of other things. Well not things -- fish. Hundreds of different colored fish of all different sizes swam about, chasing one another, and minding their own business. The only thing Allan did not see was Nikolai.
A bunch of bubbles, and a little impact of water coaxed Allan to turn around. To no shock, it was Nikolai, blowing bubbles into his closed palms, and shooting it like a water blast at him.
Allan huffed, and aggressively shoo'd the bubbles away. He was done with it all -- always being antagonized, and coming up short for the punch. It was time for payback. He was going to put Nikolai in his place once in for all, with the biggest, most intense, bubble blast ever created.In one puff he had pushed most of his breath into his potruding cheeks. Then he quickly blew it into his palms, leaving Nikolai to simply watch in awe. Or so Allan thought.
"Look at his face, he's definitely getting scared because he's about to lose to me once and for all." He thought as he kept eye contact with Nikolai.
The awe'd expression on Nikolai's face was actually the face of someone who was very concerned. It was easy for Allan to get it mixed up with all that hair floating around their faces, but in actuality Nikolai was thinking this. "He's probably going to try way to hard and drown. Then i'll have to swim with that fool to the shore. That's way to annoying..."
Nikolai went to reach for Allan, he was about to make him stop, but then something did that for him. In a instant, Allan was startled, and halted his attack due to the darting fish swimming past them. Normally you'd think fish swim horizontilally in any given body of water, but these fish were different. They acted as normal fish until for some reason they decided to jump out the water, and head for the clouds.
That's exactly what they were doing right now, bolting out the water, right past the boys, and into the sky. At first Nikolai chuckled upon seeing Allan's annoyed faced, but then the fish got more dense, and he couldn't see him at all. That's when he started to panick.
He was being blocked by the hundreds of fish that came out of nowhere. With nothing to see, they could only feel the slight impact of dozens of fish hitting against their bodies. Luckily they were not dumb, at least that's what Nikolai had hoped. It was obvious that the best thing to do while being submerged in a school of flying fish was to get to the surface. They had no other choice, or else they would have been trapped. Not to mention they had already used up most of their breath while playing around.
"This is crazy, why are there so many cloudfish!?" Allan yelled as soon as he reached the top.
"Their heading for the sky, stay above the water, they'll be gone soon!" Nikolai yelled over the over powering sound of splashing.
In a couple of seconds the fish began to thin out, and just like he said, they were gone.
"I've never seen so many!" Allan yelled as he looked to the sky.
"Yeah... me neither," Nikolai said before looking into the water. "Maybe they were running from something..."
"Hey, fish don't run, they swim... or in this case, fly..." Allan said.
Nikolai glanced at Allan. "Yeah ok." He said before going back underneath the water. Maybe it was a genetically passes down gift, but he could always see quite well. Whenever their father would hide small bags of candy around the castle he would always turn out with the most found. The water was the same, as in he could see quite well in it.
As he looked into the deep hazy depth of the lake, he started to question himself. He started to ask himself why it is he is looking down there. Then the answer came, a small shadow began to emerge. It quickly became larger, and larger until Nikolai could no longer bear the terrifying anxiousness. Countless butterflies flew through out not only his stomach, but his entire body before he rushed to the surface.
"Swim away!" He yelled.
Allan always had a small fear of deep waters. That's why he was so mad when Nikolai tricked him into jumping into the lake. So when Nikolai's facial expression screamed louder than his own voice, he didn't hesitate to get moving. If this was some kind of fairy tail, the boys would have ran across the lake. Instead, they swam extremely slow. Actually, they barely swam at all before the water around them began to rise.
"What's going on?!" Allan yelled.
"There's something huge underneath us!"
That was the last thing Allan needed to hear. There was only one moment between the time they talked, and after -- when the creature below them busted out the water. It's massive size pushed the water to the side, and the boys with it. For a couple seconds they could only see the blackness of the fish's scales. It was like a train moving past, quick, but long enough for them to see before it left.
Allan didn't wait to observe it though. The fish being as big as it was only added to the fact that he was getting out the water as soon as possible. On the other hand, Nikolai waited a little bit. Then he noticed that Allan was almost at the shore, and it was probably time he was too. So he followed.
"Oh my god," Allan said as he got out the water. "What was that thing!?"
"It was kinda weird looking huh?" Nikolai said nonchalantly.
Allan ran towards the trees where the fish had flown over. "Look, it has glowing lights on it!" He said eagerly.
Nikolai stuck out his mouth in disgust as he ran with him. "But it's such a ugly grey."
"Yeah, and I can't even see it's eyes." Allan said.
"And there was a man on the back of its fin." Nikolai said pointing to his back.
Allan stopped, and looked at Nikolai funny. "Ok, now you're over exaggerating."
"Whatever you say," Nikolai said as he turned to the trees. "I know what I saw."
Allan quickly changed the topic. "Oh no..."
"What?" Nikolai asked.
"Father is going to be so mad.." Allan explained.
"Why because we snuck out?"
"Yea.." Allan answered.
"Not if he doesn't know, all we gotta do is sneak back in." Nikolai said.
"I mean..., I guess." Allan mumbled.
"If worst comes to worst, i'll take the blame, how about that?" Nikolai said.
He wasn't really concerned about their father being angry with them. He never was, and Nikolai knew that, but for some reason he always fell for the same trick.
"Gotcha," Allan yelled before sprinting ahead. "Last one home is a rotten egg!"
Nikolai started to chase him. "You little-"
Even though Allan was ahead after pulling that slick move, he started to feel fatigued. His usual endless tank of stamina was running low, and there was only one reason for that. Swimming.
"Who knew swimming could make ones self so tired." He thought as he started to walk.
Nikolai walked too, behind Allan, as to make it seem like he was just letting him have his way for once, but in reality he was even more tired than his little brother.
"Nikolai." Allan called tiredly.
"Yeah?" He replied.
Allan looked to him. "You're fourteen right?" He asked.
Nikolai relaxed his face, and looked at him like he was dumb. "Yea, one year older than you, you dont know you're own brother's birthday by now?"
Allan laughed. "Uh, I was just asking."
"How's that even funny?" Nikolai asked.
Allan put his hands behind his head, and wrapped his fingers together. "I don't know, I'm just really excited for the tournament." He said.
Nikolai was silent for a couple seconds.
"What?" Allan asked.
"The tournament," Nikolai yelled. "We're gonna be late to register!"
"What? How much time is left to register?"
"Not alot, c'mon we have to hurry if we want to participate this year." He told Allan before they started to run.
They ran all the while being tired, and although it was still early in the day, the sky started to become dark, and the air thick of water. "Lets hurry before it rains." Nikolai said.
Allan touched his cloth. "It doesn't matter, we're already wet." He said before a loud shock shook the ground. It was the after effects of a lightning bolt that had struck ahead, and the thunder came soon after. Trees are always known as huge wise beings of the world, but even they shook in humility at the whips of lightning. The further they got, the more obscure looking trees they began to see. Some were bare, and others had black tips, other were cracked in half. Lightning struck again, and before the thunder could shake the ground -- a loud growl shook their hearts.
"You heard that right?" Allan whispered.
"Just keep moving, ignore it." Nikolai said without even looking over to where the growl came from.
Allan did decided to ignore it, but then the sound ran threw his ears again. He could tell it was a moan of distress, and that was something he couldn't just ignore. "I'm going." He said as he ran to the side, where the burnt trees were more apparent.
"No wait...Idiot." Nikolai said as stopped -- he then started to follow far behind. "This right here is why we're gonna die young!"
The scene that he arrived at was a clear opening within the forest, except for one tree. One of the largest trees they had seen so far on their journey. Wrapped around it's core was a thick metal chain, and at the end of the chain was a beast.
"Allan you idiot lets go." Nikolai hissed, after he arrived.
Allan hurried to cover Nikolai's mouth. "Shh, stop talking...."
Nikolai instantly pushed his hand away. "That was so disgusting, dont ever put your hand on my mouth aga----" His rant stopped abruptly after setting his eyes on the creature before them.
A creature that greatly resembled a black jaguar stood as high as a horse. It was a long and skinny like a cheetah, with scales of a dragon. Every so often it's eyes would spark like a dust of lightning.
"See I told you." Allan said as he started to sneak towards it.
"Wait stop," Nikolai said softly. "That's not something you can just walk up to."
"Why not? It's trapped.. we have to save it." Allan said.
"Because that's an.. a Astrapigata..."
"A astrapiwhat?" Allan asked.
"Astrapigata... they're a very dangerous creature." Nikolai explained. "I only ever read about them, but it matches all the details from the books...Thick black scales, and electrifying blue eyes, there's no way this is here."
"It's just a big cat no matter how you look at it, i'm gonna let it loose." Allan said as he continued to approach.
"Wait stop, you're gonna get yourself killed." Nikolai whispered loudly.
Allan spoke softly as he moved closer. "It won't attack." With every step closer, Allan's confidence in those words grew. The growls and roars, they were simply the only way it knew how to say "help", and Allan knew that.
The air was still, and so was the rhythm of his heartbeat. With every passing second, he became more anxious to remove the collar. "You won't attack me." Allan said longingly, and reached for his neck. "Those enticing blue eyes... are kind."
"Allan be careful!" Nikolai yelled, running from the trees.
The astrapigata was startled by Nikolai's sudden appearance, and loud voice. It roared at him, sending the birds in the trees to fly away.
"Get back!" Allan shouted before turning to the astrapigata. "He can feel your uneasiness..."
"What? How do you even know that?" Nikolai asked.
Allan didn't reply, and even though he felt it wouldn't attack, his heart was still pounding. "You're gonna be free.." he said as he slid his fingers threw the fur on its neck, and under the collar.
The collar was the type that needed no key -- just human interaction. Allan simply unlocked the advanced collar, and left it to fall to the ground, but before it could hit the ground, a lightning bolt struck. It hit directly above the astrapigata, leaving a haze a sparkling dust, and instant glow. When that instant was over, there was nothing there.
"Are you okay?!" Nikolai yelled as he rushed over to Allan.
"Yea, i'm fine," Allan said as he opened his eyes. "but where did it go?"
"I don't know, but that was really dumb," Nikolai ranted. "Do you even have a consciousness?"
"Blah blah, whatever, dont we have a tournament to register for?" Allan said.
"Yea you're right, but if you keep doing stupid stuff like that, the tournament wouldn't even matter." Nikolai said as he pushed Allan ahead of him. "C'mon lets hurry."
As they rushed back home, Allan eyes yearned for the clouds. In a split second, a lightning bolt ran threw the them and clapped threw the air. It swiftly went out of sight, and so did the storm.