Voltoire flew to Marco fast as he could. It was not far, so, within half an hour, he saw the Sea Eagle Castle. The eagle air space guards informed the king immediately." King Marco, Voltoire the vulture is coming back alone."
Marco stood up abruptly and flew towards Voltoire. He stopped him in the air."Where is the queen?" Asked Marco, "Where is Sienna?" he felt fear in his heart suddenly.
"The queen got captured by Mermaid King while visiting her friend Nefari, the singing mermaid." Voltoire kept talking as they descended to the closest mountain peak." He wants to sacrifice her to Kraken instead of Nefari. Here is her letter, she offered the king the help to kill the Kraken."Voltoire said with a tragic voice, he was so desperate to help Sienna out.
Marco's cold face burned in fire suddenly."What is the queen's message?"
"The queen has a plan to attack the Kraken with poisonous spikes and begs you to go to king Sarcos, "Voltoire replied quickly.
Marco nodded, "Come, Voltoire!" He signalled the air space guards he is leaving and flew by the speed like never before to Sarcos.
Sarcos was in his laboratory when he heard a commotion outside. He went out to check on it when he saw a few of his guards to flew a wall. "What is going on?" he furrowed his brows. Suddenly Voltoire with Marco appeared in the dark corridor."You are right on time!" Sarcos looked at Marco curiously. The eagle looked too cold to him. Sarcos smelled Sienna's scent on both of them and cringed his nose as they approached.
"I'm new Sea Eagle King. I took Sienna as my queen."Marco touched his heart politely.
Sarcos looked at him."I know Marco. Thank you for saving her. Why do you think you are still alive?"
Marcos smiled coldly. "Then you know why I'm here," Marco said sternly.
Sarcos nodded."I have it ready for you."He led them to the storage place full of barrels with poison. Sarcos opened one and looked into the dark purple liquid. "Extra strong for the Kraken."He smiled a bit viciously."But we can't let his body fall into the water, it will poison the sea. "You will need to pick him up and finish him off on the rocks and volcano," said Sarcos.
Marco looked at him and nodded."This Scorpion King is really good.No wonder Sienna like him." he thought.
"Shall we call on Snake and Tiger King as well?" asked Voltoire.
"No time." said Sarcos, "With my poison and Marco's warriors we will be done in an hour or so," he said confidently. "Mermen are so weak..." he laughed with slight disdain..."I hope they will let my warriors mate with their females or they pay dearly."
Marcos nodded, he also wanted some females for his men.
"So Marco, do you trust in my poisons?" Sarcos teased him.
"Sienna needs a new necklace."Said Marcus coldly. The Scorpion King laughed viciously. "I know. I will send it to her shortly. I will meet you at the seafront. Have the spikes ready, I will bring barrels with poison." Sarcos said darkly.
Marco nodded and changed to an eagle."Give me one feather."Sarcos stretched his hand.
Marco picked one feather with his beak. Sarcos took it." I will send it to Sienna with the necklace." he said."I want her to know we are coming for her." he said almost longingly.
Marco nodded and flew back to his mountains. He was wondering how could Sarcos know everything upfront."He must have the fastest spies everywhere."Marco shook his head. He knew Sarcos will be there on the time. He thought of Sienna." We will save her and kill the Kraken fast and the Mermaid King slowly." He thought.
Sarcos packed the black crystal necklace into a neat soft packet and add a feather there as well. He gave it to his fastest falcon and sent him to Sienna." Just drop it to her, don't get killed," he said to the clever raptor.
Then he went to his garden. Two big wild snakes were resting on the tree." Your news proved to be true," Sarcos came to them and gave them each a bowl of raw pheasant eggs. " the snakes nodded. King Sharchan ordered the wild snakes to follow Nefari and they spread the news around to other wild snakes. The sea snakes were the first ones to reply as they knew all about the sacrifice of Nefari to Kraken already. They just spread the news in their hiss. But because the Sand City was closer, the snakes went first to king Sarcos. The sneaky Scorpion King convinced most wild animal tribes to work for him. And because he was known as rewarding generously, he got news from animals from all over the world." You might send the news to King Sharchan and tell him, not to worry." Sarcos nodded."I got it covered." he said darkly.
Sarcos summoned 150 of his best warriors. Ok, he did not need, that many men, but he wanted it to look like a proper operation. It was good for hardening his men and for showing off to other kings. He did not want to make killing Kraken look too easy. The soldiers stood in neat lines and listen eagerly to their king. They felt it is going to be something big and were getting excited.
Sarcos lifted his right hand. "My brave men, the legendary fight is upon us. We are going to kill the Kraken with Sea Eagle soldiers."Sarcos told them," To save our queen."
It looks like Sienna gave him always some reasons to fight for her. Well, the sport of queen taking was steady far and wide and she was the most admired trophy, so it was kind of expected. Soldiers cheered. They loved their king and had trust in him. If Sarcos will order them to go and flatten the earth, they will obey without a word. 50 Sarcos's soldiers changed into huge scorpions and each of them carried a huge barrel of poison. They set on the journey through the desert and mountains the same night. It was better for them to travel at night when it was freezing cold in the desert, if they will hurry up the day they will spend in the jungle and travel over the mountains at dawn again. It will take a day and a half to go to the sea on foot and Sarcos wanted to make sure everything is ready. The life of his queen depended on it.
The new morning came fast as on the winged horse. Sienna and Nefari were sitting in her cave. They just woke up and got ready for the day. Sienna looked out and saw, they were still guarded by mermen heavily." What now? " Nefari asked.
"We wait for my mates to arrive," Sienna whispered.
Nefari felt stressed."It was not my intention to drag you into this," she sobbed.
"You did not, I did."Sienna touched her shoulder."And I'm glad we can go thru it together. My mates will save us and you can live! You can sing and dance and do whatever you want."Sienna smiled and pet her blue hair.
Sienna and Nefari had breakfast, then they asked the guard to go out for some fresh air. The captain agreed reluctantly. He put a string around Sienna's waist and Nefari's one too. He held it in his hand and followed them at 2 meters distance. Sienna chuckled."I don't know what he is scared of, he is not a pretty mermaid anyway."
Nefari was serious." The king can be really cruel sometimes, all our people are scared."
Sienna nodded." Every weak king is cruel." she whispered.
The captain pull the string gently, Sienna looked at him and he shook his head." The queen is too freely spoken." he thought. Sienna nodded her head, she understood."So captain, what is your name, if you will be babysitting me, I should surely know it."Sienna asked nonchalantly.
The captain looked at Nefari a bit hopelessly with his dark purple eyes. " He does not have a name. The king doesn't count his soldiers, they are all at his disposal, so they are nameless."Nefari tried to explain.
" Not even a number?"Sienna opened her mouth in shock.
The captain shook his head.
"Their numbers don't matter," said Nefari.
Sienna shook her head." Worser than slaves." she said upset. Then the cheeky smile graced her lips." I will name you then, captain. Your name will be Glebius because you are to become a great man."She smiled."Your name means you are reliable, determined and will be able to decide with your heart." she nodded.
Nefari was shocked. "Only royal males and females got names around here. Can you, can you do that?"
"I just did." Sienna looked at her pretending to talk seriously."And whoever names the man, owns him. Did you know that?"Sienna chuckled.
The captain looked at Sienna with big eyes." Glebius," he repeated like in a trance."She named me, so does that mean I belong to her now? It looks like so." He thought."She is royalty for sure as a queen of four kings, she is more royal than the merking." he bit his lips.
"So, what are your orders my queen?" he asked a bit shocked.
"Take these strings off us and assemble your men. I will name them too. Then you just keep guarding us and calm down, we are not running away. My mates will come and fight the Kraken. Now, go gather your men." Sienna ordered him with sincere familiarity. She felt warm in her heart toward Glebius. She named him!
Captain Glebius assembled his men, who were guarding the little rocky island.
"My name is Glebius," said the captain to his men, their pale faces were in shock." It was granted to me by the Scorpion, Snake, Tiger and Eagle Queen. I'm in her service now. She offered to grant you names too. If you want to get a name step forward." he addressed his men.
All the soldiers stepped forward. It was the biggest honour to get a name, they turned their pale faces to the beautiful queen excitedly.
Sienna walked slowly to the gathered man. It was around 20 mermen staring at her with big purple eyes. She straightened up a bit and walked like a gracious queen. Her long golden hair and blue velvet dress flew behind her in the soft wind. She looked so regal, the men stood motionless almost holding their breaths. She looked into each of the mermen's eyes and put her hand on his head. Then she said a name."Aurelius." She named the first one. The man repeated. "My name is Aurelius."Sienna nodded with a sweet smile. Then she named others repeating the notion."Polonius, Maximilian, Augustus, Antonio, Julius, Ptolemei, Phoebus, Leonardo, Octavius, Romulus, Ricardo, Calentus, Valentino, Perseus, Odyssey, Tiberius, Heracles, Samson, Patrokles."Sienna tried to use manly names from legends and stories she read before, so the females would like it.
Nefari stared, "How could you come up so fast with so many wonderful names?" she asked in awe.
"I'm royalty, no?" Sienna chuckled gently.
The soldiers were overjoyed and they tried to learn each other names.
Then few of them came to Sienna and bowed lightly, "Our gracious queen, we have friends who will surely like names too, but they are not able to come now."
Sienna smiled. "The names I gave you are magic. If you split them in two, you can each name two friends in my name."She said seriously."If you need more names, then you come back to me or send me your friends. But they had to say the names of the men who sent them, "she smiled.
The soldiers nodded excitedly and told others. Half of them just did not want to wait and went to find their friends." Let them go," said Sienna to Glebius, "It is enough soldiers here."Glebius nodded. He was still in a daze from his new name and his heart beat strongly.
Sienna with Nefari sat on the rock edge, lowering their feet into the water and Nefari sang. Sienna watched in awe as Nefari's legs changed into a tail, as she lowered them into the water." Wow," she touched the shimmery Nefari's scales. Nefari smiled and kept singing.
Sienna looked at the sky and thought of her mates. Her hair flew in the gentle warm wind and Sienna splashed her feet in the water. "If there is no bloody monster business, it will be a great holiday," Sienna thought.
The wild falcon screeched suddenly high in the sky. It dived in fast speed, dropped a soft packet on Sienna's lap and left. If Sienna did not hold the packet in her hands, she will think it was just her imagination. It just happened too fast.
The mermen who guard them did not even have a chance to notice the bird of prey. They looked around in a daze."Calm down, everyone!" Sienna shook her head."It is a packet for me. We are not running anywhere. I told you we have a mission to do." she noted. The merman calmed down and chuckled. Their new queen was unpredictable. It looks like they will be not bored anymore.
Sienna opened the packet and a black crystal necklace with one long eagle feather appeared.
Sienna held it tight at her heart. Nefari looked curiously. "It is from Sarcos and Marco, they are on their way!"Sienna gleamed happily. She put the necklace around her neck and hid it under her dress. Then she used the soft fabric the packet came in as a scarf to conceal it perfectly. She relished the feeling of something from Sarcos on her and smiled. Her heart beat with happiness."They love me so much, they will fight Kraken for me!"