Chapter 16 Of THE KINGDOM
Sunday, September 15th, 2013 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nannyn posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
mindcrackloveI am SO. SORRY. That this is so late. I just-
A week without the story. For that I apologize.
Well, with that said, Here's the normal: I can't link pretty, read previous chapters, comment below for motivation, blah blah blah.
Story time!
Chapter 16
-Beef-
He heard the explosion.
Kurt grasped the table, his eyes wide. “What—”
A shout was heard from the back of the shop. The door slammed open, revealing Paul standing there with his blacksmith’s apron and mask on. Pushing it up so he could see, he asked, “What the Notch was that?”
The frame of the house shaking above him, Beef ran to the door of the shop and slammed it open, immediately getting soaked on the front by the downpour. He went outside, looking around and spinning in a circle. He saw that other people on the Center Ring were coming out of their houses too, also scared.
“I can’t see anything!” He yelled back.
Paul soon came outside to check for himself. Kurt was inside, looking out through the open door. “What’s happening, father?” He asked, the fear apparent in his voice.
Paul ushered Beef back inside and slammed the door closed behind them. “We need to get to the castle, in case it’s a raid.” He said seriously.
Kurt inhaled sharply, making Beef wince. He hated when Kurt was scared.
“I’m on it.” Kurt said, determined, and started to throw food into sacks.
Beef followed suit, but started to pull the weapons off the walls.
“Leave them!” Paul barked, already halfway into the smithy. “We don’t need them.”
“But, father!” Kurt protested. “Your weapons!”
Beef paused and let the swords drop onto the bench.
That was when he knew that the situation was dire, when Paul said to leave his life’s work behind.
Kurt and Beef stopped and looked at each other, when they suddenly heard movement upstairs. A hand on his sword, Beef moved closer to the stairs.
He stopped, though, when he recognized the man coming down the stairs at full speed.
“I grabbed clothes for everyone, and all other important things. And all of your things for Wolfie, Kurt.” The man said, swinging one of the bags over his shoulder, holding the others in his hands.
“Thank you, MC.” Kurt said gratefully, quickly finishing filling up yet another sack of food and tying it tight expertly. “This is all that I could find.”
“That is good enough for now. Hopefully this will cool over soon.” Paul said, emerging from the smithy with a large sack across his back and some in his arms. “We need to move. Now.”
He quickly moved to the door. Opening it, he went outside and held it open against the strong wind so everyone could get out of the house.
Beef, when running outside, was almost blown over by the sheer force of the wind. He had to catch Kurt, as he was lighter than him and was pushed onto him by the torrent. He grabbed Kurt’s hands and held on tight.
“Oh my gods!” MC yelled, making all of them turn. When he saw, Beef’s insides shot into his throat.
The smoke. It rose into the air in a big, black plume, completely blocking out the almost black clouds in the sky behind it. Red and orange tongues of flame flicked into the smoke.
The roar from the fire was the loudest and most terrifying thing that Beef had ever heard.
“We have to move now!” Paul yelled, grabbing Kurt and MC, who were closest to him, and pushing them forward. “Get to the castle! Go!”
They stumbled forward, MC holding onto Kurt to make sure he wouldn’t blow away. Kurt leaned into MC, keeping him upright. They sprinted to the bridge to the castle as fast as they could.
Beef turned to Paul, leaning into the wind. “What is going to happen?” He yelled to be heard over the howl of the wind and the roar of the fire.
Paul looked at him solemnly, the orange of the fire reflected in his eyes. “We will rebuild, if we must.” He yelled back. He then leaned forward and shoved Beef towards the castle, making him stumble. Paul then pushed off the wall and grabbed onto Beef, dragging him towards the castle.
-Etho-
His hand pressed to his mask. Drawing in ragged breaths and fighting the blackness at the corners of his vision back, he trudged on.
The people that he was passing now were definitely alive, at least for now. They were screaming, sobbing, moaning. There were many nurses and servants flitting around them, bandaging wounds and amputating where needed. They were doing a surprisingly good job, quieting people into deep sleep that only comes with anesthetic.
As he walked, the nurses were moving around him, not even noticing him as he forced himself not to faint. They continued to work tirelessly, tending to people at an inhuman speed.
Etho stopped walking as a scribe with a makeshift apron tied around his waist bustled past him with arms full of needles.
When he looked back up, regaining his balance, he was face-to-face with Doc.
“Etho.” Doc said. “Why are you here?”
Etho swallowed, taking a deep breath. “Guude wanted you to get to the meeting room as soon as possible.”
Doc looked at Etho with expressionless eyes. “I will never leave the ones who need me.” He said sternly.
Etho nodded, but instantly regretted it as his vision started to grow fuzzy. He moaned a response to Doc, then felt his knees give out as he let the darkness envelop him.
-Vechs-
He was greeting yet another family, when there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned, and found himself face-to-face with Shree.
“Oh! Hey, Shree.” He said, leaning back a bit to look at Shree from a greater distance, since they both couldn’t move back because of the limited space they were in.
Shree did the same, saying “My father is making rations for the people in the castle. You haven’t had much to eat today, either, so here, do me a favor and give some of these to the families around here. Take one back to the meeting, okay?”
He held up a bag between them, and Vechs took it.
“Thanks, Shree. You’re a big help around here.” He said, smiling.
Shree snorted. “Without me, you people wouldn’t get anything done around here.” He then fought his way through the crowd. Vechs watched him go, grinning.
Shree was soon lost in the crowd, and so Vechs turned to the families and began handing out the rations.
-GenerikB-
He sat at the fireside, staring into the flames and trying to memorize their dances. He was failing, but nevertheless, it gave him something to do.
Suddenly, he was brought out of his revere as there was a noise outside, like something exploding from a distance away. He looked upward, only to shield his eyes as dirt and dust rained down from the ceiling as a shockwave of some sort passed through the hill.
“What the—” He said, getting up from his sitting position and going over to the door. He poked his head out, looking around.
Nothing was out of the ordinary. The only thing that had changed was a steady drizzle falling from the cloudy sky. Curious, he stepped out of the lodge and made his way carefully and expertly up the hill.
Grabbing hold of a tree, he pulled himself up to the rise of the hill, up to flat land. He looked up from where he was placing his feet as he stopped, and turned slowly in a circle, looking to the sky for danger. Then he saw it.
The trees were blocking most of the lower part of the sky, and he had a good few miles in between them, but GenerikB could still see the black plume of smoke slowly rising from the direction of the city. Directly above the city was an enormous cumulonimbus cloud, miles tall and almost as black as the smoke. It had bright flashes erupting in it frequently, making Generik think that what started the fire was the lightning from the storm. The cloud spread out from the city, cloaking the land and even going past where Generik was at the moment. He held up his hands, watching the raindrops fall and collect into little puddles in his palms.
He looked up at the smoke cloud again, which had grown and was higher in the sky, travelling up into the clouds now. He wanted badly to go to the city, to help as much as he could, but he knew he couldn’t.
If he did, he would be killed.
Sighing, he knew that all he could do was to wait until BDoubleO woke up from his makeshift anesthetic. And so he took one last lingering look at the horror slowly staining the sky with its death, and went back to the lodge to wait.
-Beef-
Beef was so close now, that he could see Kurt and MC, standing in the shelter of an alcove outside the doors of the castle, closely watching Beef and Paul slowly make their way across the bridge.
“Why are they not inside yet?” Beef shouted to Paul.
“I don’t know! Whatever they’re doing, it is extremely dangerous!” Paul shouted back, sounding furious. “I have no idea what they’re trying to prove, but we all need to get inside!”
Paul had his left arm around Beef’s shoulders, while Beef was holding it in place with his left and had his right firmly clamped onto Paul’s shoulder. They were both leaning into the wind, which was whipping them around and making traveling in a straight line impossible. Paul had his right hand on the bridge railing, and in that fashion, they were slowly moving forward to the castle.
They were almost there; more than three-fourths. Beef could see MC’s urgent look, only half-covered by an encouraging smile. Kurt hadn’t even bothered to look upbeat, and was watching the two cross the bridge with his hands interlocked in front of his mouth.
Beef felt the wind let up a bit, and he steeled himself for it to come back stronger than ever. It did, and it knocked him over as easily as if he was made of parchment.
Paul let out a shout, being pulled down with Beef. They lay there for a bit, soaked and breathing hard. The wind was traveling over the railing, which made an unintended wall that protected them from the wind.
“Just crawl!” Beef yelled at Paul, seeing him nod as he figured it out for himself. They both picked themselves up into an all-fours position, then began to crawl towards the castle.
If the walking was considered slow, then the crawling would be similar to being at a standstill. It took them around five minutes to cover tens of feet. To Beef, it was hours long. Judging from Kurt’s expression, it was eons.
But, all bad things must end, just the same as the good. Beef and Paul eventually made it to the other side of the bridge, where they stood up and fought their way to the castle doors, closing the last bit of distance, which was only around fifty feet.
They slammed into the side of the alcove, breathing hard and dripping wet. They all were, and Kurt was shivering.
“Why are you two still out here?” Paul demanded, angrier than Beef had ever seen him. He was obviously angry because he was terrified that something was going to happen to them, and Beef understood. It was nerve-wracking to see Kurt standing there, watching him slowly make his way across the bridge.
Kurt opened his mouth, but his teeth were chattering. He clamped his jaw closed tightly, rubbing his arms quickly in a vain attempt to try and warm up. MC had his arms crossed, his visible skin flushed from the cold. “Father, the door won’t open!” He said, panic in the undercurrent of his tone.
Paul’s eyes widened. “Did you try to open it?”
MC clenched his jaw. “Yes, father, we did. It did not open.”
Paul looked worried. “How are we going to get inside, then?” He asked aloud. Turning to Beef, he asked, “Is there any other way that we can get in?”
Beef wracked his mind for the answer. “Ah…”
Paul looked at him seriously. “Son, you have to think. I know there is a lot going on right now, but you have to think.”
Beef put his hands to his temples, thinking as hard as he could. His mind felt as frozen as his body did. It had to be no higher than ten degrees outside, probably less. He was surprised that the rain wasn’t ice.
He thought about the structure of the castle. It was old, and there were many secret passageways that the servants liked to walk along. That was the reason that it was always to empty-feeling in the castle. There were many servants, just like any castle. They just liked to do their work behind the scenes, where they were out of sight, and for some, out of mind.
There were many secret doorways that led outside, also. Beef knew this fully. But he was trying to think of the doors closest to them. The one that he remembered that was the closest to the main doors was at least an eighth of the way around the castle, which was almost four hundred feet.
Beef looked up. “Okay. The nearest door is a long ways away, but we can make it if we hang on to each other.”
The siblings nodded and Paul asked, “Which way?”
Beef thought about it for a second, then pointed right.
Paul nodded, then grabbed MC and Kurt’s arms. “Come on, we have to move!”
He led them to the opening of the alcove. They were about to go out, when Kurt held out his shaking hand to Beef.
“Come on, Beef!” He shouted, his voice muffled by the wind. Beef lunged forward, grabbing it.
They went out into the storm once again.
-TheJims-
Up in the guardtower, he had a very good view of the fire. It seemed like it was being contained by the torrential rain around the center square, but that didn’t answer the question of where the copious amounts of smoke was coming from. And, even though the storm had been raging for at least an hour now, the fire had only subsided a small amount.
He was so preoccupied that he almost didn’t see the ant-like figures at the base of the castle. He peered down with his sharp eyes that could rival ones of a hawk. But, even though they were good, he still couldn’t make out who the figures were outside the castle. The rain certainly wasn’t helping.
He wondered what they were doing outside. He was safe in his small room at the top of the watchtower, which had thick glass panes that swung open to allow for far-distance sniping. He was safe from the rain and the wind in that manner, for sure. But the people that were slowly making their way around the castle were not.
It hit him then, at that moment. He had remembered the long, slurred line of words that tumbled out of a servant’s mouth when he was ordered to climb up and tell TheJims what was going on. TheJims hadn’t listened to the jumble of sounds as much as he should have, because he knew that there was nothing he could do but to wait and watch.
But now, as he was remembering it, he realized that in the middle of it all, the servant had said something about “The main doors will be closed in case it is a raid of some sort—”
He leaned over and stared intently at the people on the outside of the castle. They were looking for another door to get into, since the main one must be closed. He guessed that one of the people must have been a servant, since it looked like the one leading was traveling towards the secret door behind the first lion statue.
But as he watched, the people passed the statue and continued on. Realizing they would die if they were outside for much longer, he quickly reached behind him and pulled out an arrow. Nocking it in his bow, he kicked the window open, leaned outside and pointed the bow straight down at the ground. Using all of his sniping skills he had ever learned, he adjusted his aim and fired.
-Beef-
Was it the first lion, or second?
That is what he was asking himself as he trudged around the castle, dragging the three behind him. The first statue was right beside them, and so Beef slowed down.
“Are we here?” Paul shouted. “Is this it?”
Beef thought hard for a few seconds, before shaking his head no. “No, I forgot. It’s the second lion statue.” He shouted back. “Come on, it’s only around the bend!”
MC groaned, but started to move again. Kurt didn’t make a sound. His lips were blue and his hand was like ice in Beef’s grip.
They had to move quickly, before they all died.
He began to move also, pulling Kurt along, but stopped immediately.
An arrow had shot down, piercing the grass in front of his feet. MC ran into Kurt, causing both to stumble. Kurt slumped against Beef, and Beef had to shift his weight to accommodate the new added weight.
“Why did we stop?” Paul shouted.
“There’s an—” Beef started, but stopped. “Wait, the entrance is this lion! My memory was wrong, it’s this one!”
Paul didn’t say anything, but began to travel up to the lion anyway. MC hung on tightly, and the two fought their way up the slope to the statue.
Beef repositioned Kurt’s almost lifeless body and dragged the both of them up to the statue. Kurt barely helped; his legs dragging behind him.
“Come on Kurt, stay awake.” He said. “Come on, Kurt, come on. Stay awake.”
They made it to the base of the statue, where Paul was leaning against the lion and MC was looking for a door.
Paul’s eyes widened as he saw Kurt. “What happened?!” He shouted.
“He’s cold as ice!” Beef shouted back. “Here, take him! I need to open the door!”
Paul immediately was holding his hands out and Beef was shrugging Kurt off his shoulder and into his arms.
It all happened so fast. Too quickly.
There was a large gust of wind, larger than the rest.
Kurt was ripped from Beef’s arms.
He smacked into the wall with a sickening crack. Beef heard it clearly, even over the wind.
Kurt fell, leaving an angry streak of red against a back world.
He hit the ground.
Lifeless.
Who? You know what I'm asking. WHO?
Prompt: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2611
Chapter 1: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2634
Chapter 2: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2653
Chapter 3: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2688
Chapter 4: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2698
Chapter 5: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2729
Chapter 6: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2755
Chapter 7: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2781
Chapter 8: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2802
Chapter 9: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2807
Chapter 10: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2851
Chapter 11: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2885
Chapter 12: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/2911
Chapter 13:
Chapter 14:
Chapter 15: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/300332.html#cutid1
