The King of the Avians, Dilbert Dresden, was a tall gaunt red haired man of indeterminate age. He would have been considered rather good-looking if it wasn't for his permanent petulant furrowed brows and the constant frown on his dour face.
He had those tell-tale reddish-brown eyes and prominent hook nose, along with the thin almost lipless mouth that most purebred Avians had.
King Dilbert had awoken this morning to some very bad news.
Word had arrived that the Sixth Prince of Erenveil, the Prime Warrior Slate, had just arrived with an armada of several hundred warships.
He had immediately dispatched the twenty or so warships that were patrolling the nearby area to protect the Coraline Moons.
They were no match for the Prime Warrior's armada, of course, but at least they could find out exactly what he wanted.
For the umpteenth time, he mentally kicked himself for having dispatched all his warships to far-flung areas of the galaxy to deal with the bugs that were starting to crowd into their very living space.
There had been peace for so long between the birds and the mammalian bats that he never needed to keep much in the way of warships hanging about his deep space regions.
Emperor Rex was a pacifist who did not like to start wars and always tried to keep a peaceful front. This had allowed King Dilbert to keep pushing the envelope on the things he wanted to do, knowing there would be only token pushbacks from the Emperor.
The Prime Warrior's arrival most likely had to do with the Avgo Event's kidnapping, which King Dilbert could handle quite easily. He had a few tricks up his sleeve, and there was no way that the youngest son of the Emperor could do anything to him.
After breakfast, which consisted of seed cakes and jam, he had retired to his viewing tower high above the palace to keep a watch on the city below. The fireplace had been lit by his servants and it was crackling merrily to combat the chill of the winter storm that had just hit.
He had just about worn a groove on the rug in front of the fire when a chime sounded, alerting him of an incoming visual call.
"King Dilbert." A curt hard voice cut in through his reveries. "Call all your warships back or they will be destroyed."
King Dilbert turned to look at the steely face of Prince Slate. His razor sharp blue eyes and comely face stared out at him from the virtual monitor.
This boy was quite handsome! Perhaps Prince Slate would take a second look at his daughter, Bethany Dresden. She had healed up quite nicely and was now almost back to her normal beautiful self again.
Even if Slate was not and never could be a Crown Prince, one more bird embedded within the royal monarchy was one more strong tie to the Emperor.
"Are you hearing me, King Dilbert?"
"Yes, yes. Why don't you come down to the palace and have some tea with me, and let's talk about this."
"I don't have time to talk. Pull your people off Nymphalidae or I will claim all four avian worlds surrounding the butterfly world for myself."
"You don't dare!"
"Don't tell me what I dare and don't dare. Those four worlds were once butterfly worlds which you had sacked and taken over. They should rightfully be reinstated to their former people."
And this was the reason why Nymphalidae was constantly threatened. They were the last of the butterfly worlds—the only one the King had not been able to touch because of the Empress Anastasia.
"Slate. Let's be reasonable about this." King Dilbert was saying when Slate raised a hand and gave a command.
Instantly an alert sounded as another virtual window popped open.
"Your Majesty! Falcon 7 has been hit! I repeat. Falcon 7 has been hit. It is gone!"
King Dilbert raised uncomprehending eyes at the Sixth Prince of Erenveil.
"You must be joking with me, son."
"I am not your son. Pull your people from Nymphalidae. NOW!!!"
"Hold on just a moment! Let's talk this through. I'm sure we could come to some gentlemen's agreement."
Slate narrowed his eyes as he gave another signal.
"Wait!" King Dilbert called out.
Another alert sounded as a second virtual window popped open.
"Your Majesty! Falcon 46 has fallen. I repeat. Falcon 46 has been destroyed!"
"Okay okay. Hold your horses! I will call for the forces to be removed from Nymphalidae."
"Do it now."
King Dilbert nodded. This boy was no joke.
He waved a hand and a virtual window popped open.
"Stanley. Start procedures for evacuating Nymphalidae. Pull the troops back."
"Your Majesty??? Aren't we supposed to—"
"Do it!!!" King Dilbert shouted.
Slate threw his head back and stared at the king with a haughty expression.
"You have 24 hours to remove yourselves from Nymphalidae. Any bird caught within butterfly territory or space will be apprehended and deported back to the nearest bird territory."
"Twenty-four hours??? That's impossible!"
Slate gave another signal.
A third alarm popped a window.
"Your Majesty! Falcon 58 has been hit! Falcon 58 is destroyed."
The king was sweating bullets by now. Three of his huge warships had just been summarily blown into smithereens by this young Prince who barely looked to be of legal age.
He was a fierce one, that Slate. King Dilbert could not help but be impressed with the Sixth Prince's war prowess.
"I will send the word for my people to evacuate immediately. Stop destroying my warships!"
Prince Slate narrowed his gaze as he watched the King issue various commands to his people to begin evacuation processes.
There were thousands and thousands of avians who had been sent to Nymphalidae to begin the process of turning them into a vassal world of the birds.
King Dilbert knew it would take far longer than 24 hours to get everyone off, but at this moment, accepting that hard deadline was better than having another warship filled with his troops become another target practice for Slate's weapons.
"I've done as you asked." King Dilbert said through gritted teeth. "But understand that what you did today constitutes a declaration of war between your people and mine."
"Oh?" Slate raised an eyebrow. "So blowing up three of your warships is considered declaring war, but your violent act of kidnapping five Erenveilian Princes is not?"
King Dilbert paled.
The kidnapping of the Princes was something that he had agreed to do in the heat of a passionate moment with the Grand Duchess of Emporia. How could Prince Slate know about something like that???
Slate held up two fingers and gave another gesture.
Almost immediately, two screens popped up on King Dilbert's side, alerting him that two more warships had suffered the same fiery fate as the others.
His face crumpled. For the first time since he had taken on the crown, he realized just how powerful the bats were.
They had merely tolerated his small forays into the insect world because they wanted to maintain a benevolent look and feel to the velvet-gloved iron hand they used to wield power.
But the Prime Warrior had proven to him in no uncertain terms just how powerful Erenveil forces were.
"One last thing, Uncle." Another face popped up onscreen.
"Byron!" King Dilbert gasped. This one was supposed to have returned to the palace to begin his training. Why was he not on this side of the birds, fighting for bird domination?
Byron would make the perfect peace ambassador, to keep things happy between the Avian empire and Erenveil.
"You know that five billion jemals that you paid for Emporia?"
King Dilbert's face blanched. No one was supposed to have known about that.
"We're going to take that as reparations for damages."
The King sputtered with rage. "What damages!!!"
"You drugged and jailed five Princes of Erenveil. That's actually enough to get your head handed back to you on a silver platter. However, five billion jemals seem adequate recompense…for now."
Slate narrowed his eyes. "There is still the matter of the multiple attempts to take the Prime Avgo Female's life."
Byron nodded. "For the crime of attacking our wife and scaring her near to death, we're going to take one of your moons as payment."
"WHAT???" The King roared.
"Hmmmm. Let's see, which one do you think, Slate?" Byron tapped a finger to his nose.
"I like Peoria myself." Slate grinned. "Peoria has a gorgeous atmosphere and lots of gems and metal riches within its crust."
"Peoria it is." Byron gave a nod to one of his people.
"No! Wait! There are avians living on Peoria!" The King waved his hand in protest.
"No worries. We will give them the option of remaining on Peoria and be our subjects, or we can deport them back to you." Slate grinned.
"As for the visuals of you and the Grand Duchess, humping like wild animals, I think it would make a great new porn video, don't you, Byron?" He laughed.
Byron nodded. "Indeed."