"Damnit" Lindor thought "This room is too cramped for me to use my wolf form."
Jumping onto the roof, Lindor put distance between Silvio and himself
"Wolfgang!" He yelled, once again turning into his werewolf form.
"The first painting! St. Anthony's torment!" Silvio yelled. As he twirled his blade a dozen demons poured out of its teeth circling Lindor.
Lindor swiped and slashed at the goblins but they refused to fade.
"Hmph! So normal attacks won't work? I can easily dispel them with an attack arte! Howling wolf!"
AWWOOOOOOOOOO
Lindor's howl drifted through the air causing ripples. His shriek decimated the goblins on impact.
"The second painting! Creation of Adam!" Silvio screamed.
Appearing in the air, the images of God and Adam depicted by Michelangelo drifted slowly in the sky. The two paintings reached out to each other, slowly attempting to join their hands.
Lindor not pausing for a second, came at Silvio biting and clawing his way at him.
"My word your breath is horribly foul!" Silvio said blocking. "It smells like cock!" Just what kind of whores have you been fucking! He said laughing
"You bastard!" Lindor said biting down on Silvio's sword. Using all of his strength he pinned Silvio against the side of the castle.
"Your mine!" Lindor yelled "Wolf Fang -"
"UGHHHF!" Lindor said grabbing his side. An arrow pierced his right shoulder, forcing him back.
"Alicia!" Silvio yelled gleefully.
"Prince forgot the crossbow," She said grinning "Luckily I didn't forget how to use it"
"Screw you!" Lindor said lunging towards Alicia
All of a sudden, a blinding light burned into his eyes, it was so bright, so brilliant, it was like the light of god descending on him.
"What… what is this!"
"Once the hands of God and Adam meet," Silvio said smiling "Heavens light is once again created on earth"
"I I can't look away!" Lindor yelled
"SEVERING STRIKE!" Silvio yelled, slicing across Lindor's body. His blade dug deep into Lindor's armpit digging into his flesh.
"AAHHHHHHHHHH!" Lindor yelled
"My, your flesh is quite thick!" Silvio said as his blade stopped penetrating. "Alley oop!" He said grabbing his blade with both hands. "I don't have a name for this one, I'm kind of making it as I go along… Uhhh" He said shaking his head.
"Why? Why can't I look away?" Lindor said
"Once you have been captivated by the beauty of my art, even for a second, you become stunned with its brilliance." He answered
"Only a severe amount of pain can free you from this stasis, allow me" He said
"Hell raiser!" He yelled slicing into the remains of Lindor's arm. He sliced it clean off sending it flying across the castle.
"Hey did you guys hear something up there?" The guards below grumbled "Yeh It sounded like a wolf!"
"Damnit!" Silvio said falling back.
Lindor limped away, desperately trying to reach the edge of the castle's roof.
\
"Tsk! I will let you off this time you dastardly, decrepit, disgusting, dog!" Silvio yelled "Begone!"
"This isn't over" Lindor said backing away. "Silvio, I'll remember that name don't bother hiding! My wolves will sniff you out!" He said walking away
"Hide? Me? The most handsome man in France?" Silvio laughed "Never! I Silvio, the 3rd Prince of Spain, and newly appointed Duke of Burgundy, will never run from a fight! If our blades ever clash again it will be you who is the one hiding!"
"Silvio!" Alicia said running to him extending her arms. "Thank you so much! You're the best!" She said hugging him.
"Yes yes… I'm actually the best in bed as well!" He said grinning "Now how about it? It's the least you owe me for saving your life?" He said raising his eyebrows.
"No" Alicia said firmly "I will only do that for Prince!"
"What! He will never know! C'mon lets have some fun like we used to!" Silvio begged.
"I would rather die!" Alicia said.
"Does this man mean that much to you? Can he give you a Kingdom like I can? Can he protect you like I can? Where is he now? This supposed Prince of yours!"
"My Prince is on a journey, a journey that will lead back to me where we will be together forever!" Alicia said "What can he give me? I do not care! It's about what I can give him! And that is all of my love! I will not share a fraction of it on someone else! This love belongs to him!" She said firmly.
"I can't believe this…" Silvio thought. "One of the finest women in France wants a man who is not even here, who is not even royalty… What is this? Is Prince really that amazing of a man?"
"Alicia…" Silvio said "What is it that you like so much about Prince?" He asked "What does he have that I do not?"
"Determination" Alicia said "He has eyes that are so fierce, it's like the entire world is just plaything in his palm! When he looks at me with those eyes… it's a feeling… a feeling I just can't describe."
"Well this is your new home!" Sir Ivan said leading Prince into a shack.
Lighting a candle he slowly creaked open the door.
"Prince saw two bunkbeds side by side. Three beds were taken leaving the bunk at the top left for him.
"The African with the wild hair is Jimi, he's a slave, he doesn't talk much but he's a hard worker!" Lindor remarked
"The bunk to the left has Adam, and Marlin in it. They are two workers I hired to help. Tomorrow you will be out in the fields plowing and planting with the rest of them. Its hard work but I provide quarters and food for my workers. This place isn't much but it's the best I can do, if it is too much for you, you are free to leave at any-
"No" Prince said. A fierce fire of ambition burned in his eyes. It was almost as if Sir Ivan had given him a key. A key that could unlock his wildest of dreams here in this humble abode.
"This is more than enough" He said jumping onto the top bunk. "A bed is much more comfortable than the streets.
"Very well" Sir Ivan said taking his leave. "May the good grace of god watch over you in these trying times? I look forward to our future together!"
Prince laid in his bed looking up at the ceiling.
"Usually I'd say a prayer for you mother, or maybe I would write a page in my journal… But right now I am so tired I can barely think, these last 72 hours have been like a page from my favorite story." Prince said closing his eyes
"But one thing is for sure, everything that has happened has brought me here, and I won't let it all go to waste. In one month I'll become a knight!" Prince said extending his fist into the air.
"Mother…" Prince said sighing "I'm unsure"
"After I've done everything I've said, will you be proud of me? Or disappointed? Will you admire how far I have come? Or be disappointed by what I did to get there?"
"Heh Faker" Prince heard from inside the cabin.
Jumping out of his bed he looked around the room. Everyone was asleep, not one person showing the slightest signs of movement.
"Great" Prince growled "5 minutes in and I already have enemies" He said. "Well, it's nothing we can't handle isn't that right Pedro?"
Prince's eyes flashed red one last time before he went to sleep.
The cowards who betrayed me in my childhood days are too easy to spot out. But who is the hero of this story? And who is the villain? I am certainly the hero of my story, but in my uncle Burgess's story I was most certainly quite the opposite. In my world, Lindor is a conniving bastard that refuses to disappear, and In Lindor's story I'm the thorn in his leg that won't come out. To me Silvio is a side character who has little relevance, but in his story, I am the main hurdle between him and his dream.
We are all heroes or villains depending on who tells the story. And the one who tells the story is often a victim or a benefactor. Is there any relevance to my previous thoughts? Is there really no difference between the two other than perception?
That night I slept in that shack contemplating the idea. I had a fresh start, a whole new life. I thought about of what kind of man I wanted to be. A hero in my eyes, and a villain in the worlds? In the end I realized I did not care which one I was, only that my ambition was realized. Whether that ambition did well for the world or not I did not care! My only wish is that it came to be.
I remembered laughing myself to sleep that night. I realized that above revenge, justice, truth and love, there was something more important to me about living my life, something more prevalent than the daily fight to prove the worth of my existence. And that, was that I would never go back to who I was before. I laughed because through all the suffering I had endeavored, it was worth it because I did not die as the naïve Prince of the past. I would much rather die an agonizing death of a hero or a villain, then to be remembered for eternity as poor whimpering coward who killed himself over his ex-girlfriend. Looking back on it now, it seems funny doesn't.
The death of a coward is never noble, and no matter how great or small the coward is, it is always forgotten. The death of a man of ambition is always admirable. No matter how evil or how good that man is, history will remember that man forever.
-The Dark Prince