Chapter Text
War Has Come While Night Hath Fallen Over Our Faire Kingdom-
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Chapter 23: The House of the Great Nyggt Hauk, Rises
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Ending time!! Wrapping it up with a long one. Get ready for the gasps of surprise!
Finding out…now!
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Jason was held steady by a hand from none other than Stefania. Tears littered his cheek as Tim rode them by caravan. A classic move provided by the acting ruler of Defencia. Their own brother, Richard.
King Slade had gotten better to a degree, but in private they imagined as the shorelines of this great land at its lowest, came close. It was time to leave, for Jason had failed to bring his family back. To cure his father. He’d live in exile with Kor'anna, for she had even spoken to him should he lose their duel. She did not truly care for the role as she’d wanted, abd he too realized that the great bat had its fangs too deep. It was a curse, never a gift if used incorrectly.
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Greatly wounded by the noise upon the docks as the kingblooked on from his window, risen from the poison. The bat, not satisfied that he should perish before his children, the king waited in his chsmbers for the hall to open. For his son to put no blame on his own faults. He failure to return the future son to his rightful seat in one piece. Richard was gone, he told himself. The bat said it and so, as Jason was leaning to the side to be kept until the gates would open for his party, Bruce allowed nothing else but a question.
“Did you kill the warlord.”
At the heart of the chambers, long and winding, Jason held his head down and to one knee, he answered his king. “Nay, he was too far gone for that. He took to the role of queen upon his…mate's –
“Say no more. I have word from within the next city and they say, he is wounded by a blade. For that I have feared to tell you anything at all. I fear I must to set myself fre of those claws round my throat.” The king gripped his jaw and grumbled of a time he’d rather forget. “It was the time upon my return with Richard from the last camp of the murdered last lineage of Romni- ya. On his back, he was washed and fornthis I was told of etchings that would soon vanish. Just a warning, of night and birds of prey. He had a message, not by birth but of a society that would take him from us and have the lineage borne again through sacrifice.”
“That mark only wore itself welcome as a silly fairy tale, father.” Jason remarked, his hair hiding a portion if his red shot eyes. “My brother cannot be some devious imp in disguise. What is this ye speak to me? It is not the bat’s curse -
“Nay, my son.” Bruce shook his beard as it had grown wild in his slumber for many days. “The bat protects those that gain too closely to his real enemy. The Striyx. The great owl of legend that has always watched over the land beside the Romani – ya. Through the sacrifice of one child every moon's high in the dead of night, it let’s them be. It cannot come close yet that was not as I saw. But a prophecy of one meant to abolish such a law. Such a cause. The Nyggt Hauk.”
Jason shook his head, unapologetic in his actions that cade soon after. “My brother is no hero of legend, he was weak and…”
The king eyed his son as the boy lifted his knee and pointed. “You…you stole him to prevent this prophecy from ever coming?? But, why?”
“To protect the child, and at the time it was all of good intent. I spoke to the High Priestess and she spoke of a curse that would steal his power to gain foresight into the future. The curse was the change of the sexes.” Bruce told the prince. “I believe the only curse that could do such things might be reason as to why – and how Selene is not as she appeared in broad day hour's light. She is a witch, yet a collector who goes between the void of the waking realms to seek her true masters. To plan for them to return and face their threat.”
“The Nyggt Hauk –
“NAY.” Bruce stood up. “The Great Bat and defender against the night Striyx and its evil ways. Then, Slade himself did not know of this. Only his want to have what I stole from him. His beloved, the mother of his children.”
“She…what are you saying, father??” Jason gaped at the man. “His beloved once was family to the Duke of Kane. My cousins, though distant were give reason to marry into the Wayne line, yet we knew it was for naught. I believe on a trip to her next council, her father was killed in the same mountains as a certain warlord. They fell in love, and he swore to never allow her harm as I had done by my blood.”
“Your family, that is why he hates you? The mistreatment of one of his wives??”
“YEA, up until (not historically accurate!) I called for the woman to be sent away. That she encouraged trouble within our house. That, was what prompted the war, I believe.”
“My king…the fact that my brother…” Jason screwed his eyes shut and rose. “You…that fact alone is WHY our house nearly had fallen! Why the bat reared its head and took your life…when it very well couldn’t. I’m not going to remain a son to…to the man who killed his own –
“Say nothing more!” Boomed the king with his foot planted, his eyes as green envy fir the lost prophecy he’d tried desperately to banish from the sight if his adopted kin. “I saved you from a life lived in squalor. I had your mother taken to be cared for. And you DARE repay my kindness with doubt?? Over a man whose lies spread ill to everything it touches?? She was swayed by a monster and none cod find where they had gone. He is not human, Jason, my child! None of them, Paam, Selene or even Wirlon!! They all conspired against me!”
“You are delirious my king, and to that you should be. You sold off your son, the one you cared for more than Prince Damian. You cared, and yet you beat my ego. You ruin me?? I went to the king and ducked for HIS life! I was the hero, not you!”
“Stop!” Tim flew to his brother’s side as Cass went to try and find her father’s kindness. “I hereby banish myself from the house of Wayne and all of its fallacies.” Jason sneered at his mad king. “May Kor'anna and I be wedded away from your mad blood wars in secret. Well, not so secret now, is that fact, my king???”
The king sputtered red as his wings might have unfurled. Yet, he sat, a hand to his face as he ran his sigh along the walls to be heard by all. Tim looked on and then to Todd, his feet already moving to the exit.
“May the gods protect you.” Was all the king heard, as his son forfeited the crown. The king coughing into his hand right after Jason had departed with a slam of those iron doors.
Tim and Cass ran to the man’s throne as blood spilled to his lips. He was still quite ill, ill from what at the time was an ulcerative tear that the surgeons if their day might only fix in time. “Father…” Cass hugged him tightly as the man was taken away. The doctors all with their heads lowered while Tim looked at the empty throne room. Soon. Far too soon, there would be need for someone else to become the bat’s next victim. Tim left the room, wanting to see if it was too late as he caught up to Stefania. The two went to the lowest level of the castle and through a set of tunnels to the one person that could answer their prayers.
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The catacombs was not their answer as Timothy and Stefania both agreed that their father was hiding more about his illness. That if their brother was not to be saved, then what of the throne? Who should stand and act in charge of order within the kingdom while not one, but two kings had laid down their heads to find shelter in other places?
Stefania did not wish to be married off, Timothy had told her that he’d have her taken from the castle to go live across those shores with Royland and his band of merry mates. They were if not now, a reputable source of information on the goings in the kingdom and outside her borders. Royland also had much of a fancy to call out to Stefania and had insisted upon her joining when she was assured of no other hand to have her. She had worries and butterflies around in her stomach as Tim pulled her along the path into the sweat and stink, past squalor and destitute men and women with babies suckling on for dear life.
“Here, down that corridor.” Tim ushered his sibling with a glance. She had no choice. Besides having mud in her boots and her hair smelling of putrid things not fit for a princess, she vowed to stay. Stay, and fix what her father could never carry out on his own. Down the dark, water dripped from unclean pools. Yet as the two entered the world of a child touched by the moon, those waters began to ripple as the tides and glow. Above was an opening into the world that saw a place where the moon was full, but not of their world. The vortex shut as the hooded will of a lady in light cloth and with a long face, pale to grey yet equally as beautiful, looked to the sky and shut the hole in time’s plan.
She turned swiftly to the intruders and floated by magic over to one glowing pool as the rest started to settle. ~ Children of the lord to this land. ~ The seer spoke by a way that sounded unsettling to a mere mortal. ~ You come out of crisis. I allow it, your father was the man to save me. My salvation here will not last. Yea may spake your cause. ~ She raised her hand as Tim sputtered words that just came to him. “Our home is dying. Father is very sick, and I know it is his grief and…and there is no longer an heir to take the throne.” Swallowed the prince. “I wish to know.... what we can do to save this country from itself?”
The woman with raven violent eyes and hair raised a frown, her face not really guessing a change. ~ Your father was never willing to do as he hath done. The will of the curse is strong and he knows. He sold himself to this curse, just as his fathers and their fathers and mothers before he. You too; any that take to that seat will know it. The bat totem is strong, vile yet strict and demands one endure. The eldest prince's betrayal is cruel and thusly, the king as you say hath never recovered. Had your second eldest son, won the fight against King Wirlon, he might have recovered …yet…that is not all he fears, my dear son. ~ The seer looked to the children’s eyes as if to apologize. ~ The truth about your eldest brother, is his prophecy and a curse he too bares. Locked away. This was the true reason for the king’s long war with himself and with another enemy. ~
Stefania frowned. “Another, enemy? Why is he not speaking to us? Why hide this threat from the council? Or, do they also know??” She gasped. “Who was hurting our father before Wirlon? Seer?”
~ The ruling culture of the great Strike and the realm of the night birds of prey. I shall tell you a story. Long ago, from the dark cane a single screech that awoke the world. Inside this creator's realm were eyes. Then cane legs that grew talons. After this, was the whitest feathers of a small bird, yet one that was born had the colors of black and earth and cobalt blue. The bird showing this plumage was forced to stay in the dark as the white feathered creatures explored their new world. They held him there, made him express nothing. Knowing nothing of the world beyond their void. One day, a rip in their time opened and the birds flew, yes, flesh to this source of light pouring. Half stayed, and the rest never returned. The night bird of blacks and blue opened its sapphire eyes and looked unto the world and it saw not a light but a goddess. She spoke to ut, and said it must also go into the new world and find the one to save its name. The bird did not want to. It was not allowed, it was not beautiful as the birds with big eyes and great foresight, it told the goddess.
She smiled to the bird and with a touch yo each wing she gave it the span of many widths. She said “you shall not fly low to the ground for food to survive. I grant you the wings of the birds of gods, that always fly towards the moon and sun. You shall only hunt in the day, yet your band will encapsulate your pain. My Nyggt Hauk, go into the world with a strong beak and be willing to distress the captors of your pain. Be willing to undo their sacrifice with your own and one day, I shall return to undo their curse unto your body and heart.”
The goddess left and as she had promised, the binds and the dark swayed to allow the nyggt hauk exit and into this new world, this world known as earth, it lived and ruled the skies for many eons. It was many days after and the white feathered birds grew tense. Some gathered and found that their imperfect brother had broken his promises and those who knew of this in total, vowed to see him back in chains. To the soil, the birds hunted at night while he stayed to the day where the sun guided the nyggt hauk's way. The birds divided to find the bird and take him from the aor, some stayed up and did not rest. Others, tried to stay asleep at night and certainly did not like that. The ones to finally overcome their gifts of the night – wake, were able to come talon to talon with their enemy; the nyggt hauk flew to the mountains and finally crashed into a caravan where a young mother was giving birth to her first child. The person did not have feathers and no fathers were found as the bird curled up beside the mother. She petted its head and took pity on the creature. Fir many days she was in labor and no one was there to care for her condition. The bird called out to the goddess as she arrived only for he. “This woman is in great pain as I am. I wish to save her, for my life will not be so well.if the creatures woth night sight find us. Please, spare her and allow me to help her breathe life as it must be. Dear goddess of the great mystery.”
The goddess smiled and set a finger upon the babe inside the mother’s womb, and to the nyggt hauk as he was given the form of a young man. A face with a sharp wit but a great kindness, as well as sapphire blue eyes. When the man was aware that he existed, the blue eyed adult helped to deliver the women’s child and they stayed like this for many years. The child grew strong and promised his new family that nothing would hurt them in their tiny traveling caravan. The goddess one day returned and the man was grateful. He then told her after the many years as a human, he wished to know why she had never turned him back.
~ As the cirrents drift, you cannot be tethered off to chains and binds towards the ground. You may travel.and you may live on their that baby’s eyes. That, is the greatest sacrifice to any good goddess.” She told him, and he seeped at her feet.
He ’lived long, and watched the child grow taller. Stronger, as he became a willful hunter and a sharp wit. He called the boy “Romi – ya.” And his mother cared very deeply for the man who had saved her family. There however, was never to be peace as the descendants of the white feathered hunters found out about the boy and the family one night as a campfire burned down below a swollen tree branch. With great interest, the bird worried too close off from its mothers and met its end to the arrow of a human.
Words spiraled and the lord if owls as they were called in this strange world, mourned its child. They vowed to hurt the man as he had harmed one of their own, until words turned to rumor. That the boy was the child, born to their enemy, the nyggt hauk in human form and the child who was being trained to hurt their kind. These angry owls always today have eyes that are wide and bright and yet always covey anger if you see them closely. The owls went to the caravan and in a flurry, the deed they intended was not to harm the nyggt hauk,ywt to steal the tether to his world. The man returned from collecting water by the streams to a bloody fate….~
Stefania understood that there was bad blood between two class as she listened and shivered. Tim tried to understand the symbolism as well, the seer pausing before speaking again.
~ The nyggt hauk was devastated to see the mother, lying dead in the earth with a single white feathered upon her corpse. The boy had been far away with him and shouted and wept as any child could. The nyggt hauk packed up their things and left the valley, going far with Romi – ya wishing to know after they had buried the woman what was to become if the two. “I will find you a new home, one that will not allow you to stay in one place.” The man said. “Your mother wanted you to grow wise and strong, and I shall keep her promise. As will you.” So, the two spanned paths and ditches to find a new home away from the leaning eyes of the cult if owls. They came upon a field of huts. The huts were inhabited and cows roamed the lot of the fat of land. The two introduced themselves and spoke if a home they wished to find. The elder of the tribe spoke and told the two that they were not to remain here, and the child was overjoyed. He told them that he traveled. He never settled and their caravan’s wears were offered in good faith as the clan of “Iy- a" welcomed Romi – ya and the Nyggt Hauk, who had given himself a new name as “Llewellyn.”
“Richard’s…his child!” Tim gasped. “There is a reason he chose such a name??”
~ The clan welcomed them and helped the boy train with his father to defend their family. Their new tribe joined later wkth a second and was recalled as “Ro – nya.~
“Romani…. ya…” Tim said in a whisper. “This is not a creation myth, but a founding…. please, go on.” His sat on the cold floor as Stefania did the same and did not protest how cold or slick the rock below was.
~ The owls one day scouted a family of the tribe as the swooped down to investigate and saw a man with a different appeal. He dressed in a later of cloth not as the others and he was not small or weak despite the heavy cloak he carried upon his back. The fight began as the Nyggt Hauk fought by way on land and in the air with the old goddess’s blessing. People cheered him on down below and the owls screeched in pain at the noise. The Nyggt hauk struck through the owl’s flank at it fell to the ground, yet in its final breath, it spoke as it bit into the throat of the nyggt hauk, changing it back into a mortal – both to the ground as the wounded and dying owl laughed and hovered over its prize. “We can return his true life to him. He has escaped our world in chains and must come home. Romi – ya howled out that they could not, yet the nyggt hauk allowed it as they stole him from the human world to heal. The great bird speaking a prophecy that the owls would fall to the one thing they hated most of all in time…
Romi – ya married unto the tribe abd became its chief soon after. He recalled this tribe, the Romani – ya and had only one son, every other time he was willing to bare his grudges. His children went across the great plains and planted their seeds, the strongest seed of all list everything. For today, he was the very last of the nyggt hauk's legacy. ~
“Richard…is the great descent of a creature known to the gods??” Tim gaped aloud. “We cannot allow this to happen! Father knows, right?? Why is Wirlon so dense to reason?? If he knew, he might do –
“Wirlon, may perish. Not by the hand of any enemy, but by love.” The witch finally spoke in her true voice before returning her hood to her face. ~If you wish to free yourselves, do so. Find a new ruler and break ties when you are strong with the covenant of the great bat. ~
“But…if we do that, the house…our family and kingdom –
~ Vars feed and leave marks that cannot be seen, but felt. Why would anyone wish this upon their people? ~
Tim straightened and rose to look down the cool path behind them. “These humans, our subjects say thyme have suffered even before the Wayne line. Why is this?” He asked the seer cautiously.
~ This is the reason as you may know. Bats too, come from the same realm of darkness and beginning as the owls and the nyggt hauk, who some say still sleeps in his pain within chains inaudible the dark world that the owls lead. ~
“We can safe him, then? Save our home? Our brother and…” Stegmfania shook her head. “Wirlon wasn’t aware, he was used..but how? How can this all be meant for us to know?”
~ The king lives under the law of the dark, thus, he cannot walk into the path of the light I speak of to you. There will be a time of blood and forgiveness. This is my prediction. This all is meant to pass. The new Nyggt hauk is of your world and it will happen again. And again, Romi – ya will fight to free it.~
She never told them of the messengers of that dark cult. That they had taken a bite of the life that had been borne by madness and grieving upon that mountain passage.
Whatever cane, may the gods go, she wondered as the child were told to go. To be quick and to speak to their last brother who could see to the king’s break in contract with a corrupted God of the night.
Before it was too late.
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Richard bound herbs a different magic to his king as the man looked terribly haggard. He just bound more and more and prayed ax the people here did to their false gods. Richard then returned to find Selene and her two sisters. They looked well, revitalized by something that truly bothered the wary mother figure. “You’ve stolen his life, as you wished it to regain yours.” Explained the young man with a woman’s heart.”
“He was hushed, as was I. My freedom never mattered to you.”
“The war is past, your father is not long for death, my child. It is as prophesied upon your skin since birth. Wirlon does not know?”
“He dies not, nor do our children. Why are you gathering like this at his deathbed? Do you wish to kill off my king as your poison already hath done??”
“With the material of your child, we were able to crack the immortal shield and break him, but you and Llewellyn, we wish to save from the fate you are not meant for, our king.” She fell to one knee as the other wotches did the same. “The birds if prey we are, we serve the king of the Nyggt hauk, ruler of the Cult of the Owl Watchers.”
“Y…” Richard celt his tongue go dry in his mouth. “That is an old tale, it only tells of the founding of –
“You a re the last of his bloodline. Come home, and in time when Llewellyn is of age, he shall join -
“Vonn is my child! Not your puppet!” He shouted at the witches. “You killed my king, he cannot leave now, there is not a way out. You did this!!? You made us so weak??”
“We honor it, the ability of your parts to be replaced by what you lost. If you return, you will no longer be a slave to the curse if a false mistress.” Selene told Richard, who…who wondered to himself. “Even as I am, I am still who I was in spirit. I will go, only to speak to your kjng and to tell them myself why none can rule in that world from a great mystery.”
Wirlon grew sickly and the kingdom mourned the day he, and the woman known as his queen had been proposed dead. The only crown could go to for a time, Rosalie, as she learned how to rule with wit, honor and prestige without always bloodshed to her shield. It was at a time where Wintergrhen did not leave and lived to support the two, the son Llewellyn looking desperately for a way to where his mother was until…
“I must tell you what your sister and father might have never.” Winterghren told Vonn if the abducted prince, the warlord and his vengeance and the curse upon the house if ever someone should fall and be lost to the fate of the goddess of War.
“Mother…was never a woman?? Father made a dark decree?? This cannot be him, Winterghren…tell me, you knew –
The elder shook his head. “Your father was of the giants that were banished and he drank a potion to never be fully human. This strength was kept, and the gift of life only made him mortal when he finally found true peace. Your mother be it she wasn’t or was, was truly hos peace of mind. I am sorry, Prince Vonn. Your father never knew of any dark enemies, besides his own demons. You can leave or stay you’ll come of age quite soon, and Rosalie –
“I wish to find him. My mother, where are they??”
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At of age, after his ceremony, Vonn left to find just one. One soul that would know of the whereabouts of his lost parent. He left the veil of protecting to the kingdom’s greatest ruler, and she even did her best to become stronger than her father ever had been. Vonn did not return. He old swore to do so if he discovered the truth. To the caves of yore and yonder, he traveled. Following a tale told to him by his mother of fields so dry and crackling by the moon’s bow that he would lose his way. To a stream where buckets of pristine lakes clearly had existed before humans had shown it no mercy.
The way was paved with doubt, and he grew tired, hunted and traded and spoke in many tongues until he cane to a valley that looked to deserted for the very first time. A storm was brewing up in the clouds as Vonn looked up and for one day in that hour, he saw a hole on the sky.
The pitch black was not of th European time as he followed it. A tumble deeper and deeper into the storm’s eye until he came to what looked as stony gates. Gates and only stone as he coughed in the soot and heard a mellow “hoot” above him. On a gnarled branch, a bird he’d identified in scrolls from the castle and from the forests if snow, this owl was not as he remembered. It was not snow white, yet horns to its sides and of course those big eyes beckoned him to follow it through the stony gates. Which he did.
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The torches were strange lights inside of glass capsules that he had not seen before. The way was paved in remaining white feathers of flecked brown, just as the creatures scattered over this world. Vonn looked to glass mosaics of kings and queens not all in human form. This place…was it another under realm? A God’s realm, he wondered?
He was given access to a path that came before a white throne of birch and hawthorn. The person seated there wore the mask of a white owl, like in the lands of Vonn's childhood.
“I have come from above to seek a person dear to me who was stolen away.” Vonn told the strange masked ruler as they listened to his request abd did not speak. Another, a bird headed adult in similar robes whispered to the one seated at the white throne.
“ You coming seeking them. Yet they were never real. How human you be certain we should understand your plight, above worlder-
“I SEE.” Vonn gasped out a sob. “Why?” The boy wept. “Why didn’t you tell me? Mother, father….you told me the story I needed to know to be by your side. To truly decide who I wanted to serve for an eternity of my lifetime.” The boy fell to one knee. He was growing, slower by the curse now waking so he could enjoy life in his prime. “I wish to stay here; to serve by you as I know I should have, always. I have not trusted what I can become…you never told me –
“This was never your future, my son.” The masked creatures pulled off his false face and the first time they’d met was today. A man, not as before. But a true face that was not…
But, feminine. “I chose to never change it, for it mattered not. I chose only to change that children I could bare would not be by a man’s wiles or a body that betrayed its only heart. I was always your mother, and shall continue to know that this works is dark, cold and not for you. The Nyggt hauk's blood was only in your veins for a short time. It can never be. You must return. Make a choice.”
“My sister usa better queen than any other, you taught her to believe that she could. That she was –
“Nay. Not I. Your father always believed in us. Even if I was just…to fill the void of his empty world.” Reflected the blues eyed of the new ruler of this world. “Llewellyn, become a knight to someone and protect them always. Do not travel without strong purpose. You may remain grounded, yet the gift of our ancestors will not allow that for very much time that we have. I cannot perish here; I am alive and will always be. You must go back to your world, for this one is only where I may resurface. Where you and your siblings may never again travel beside your queen…~
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The door shut and autumn's breeze hounded on. Pounding the ground and his temper as sadness over took the warrior. He left the valley and found a town and sat in silence. Of age, he took on too great a temptation. A great one, as Vonn did not speak without payment of his services. He traveled and fashioned his own furs and weapons as he had been taught. He walked as if there was no difference between city and village high up in the alpine forests.
It was a time that he learned to live and forget his shame, walking to a tavern and drinking away his cares in agony while killing to survive the coldest of moons to come wash over him. Each time he saw it, a vision of what he had get to accomplish.
His mother was so sad. She never wanted this, and so with a blade made of iron as tough as any beast of legend, he returned to the world of the owls and made haste to collect what he had lost.
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“AH! My sweet one, do not run so far!!”
A small dragon swisher after a red headed beam of light as the orb flew and landed in the shallow end of a nearby stream. Kor'anna called out as the chirping, bubbly child was scooped up and their breadwinner had returned from a long day in the fields. “My darling is back. Oh, little Anna, you are so silly my child.” She had butterfly kisses to give as a hard and strong armed Jason came to grant all of his dear family a hug and a few coin to have a great meal tonight of fowl and greens he had dug. “The grain yeolf is good, and your water ate the talk of the people. The sick are healed and the children cru out in joy. You’ve been selected.” He held out a note to her. “To supply for the kingdom of Del's citizens. A program proposed to being awareness to the disease they are suffering from.
“Mama?” Little Ann tugged her mother’s chest a bit. “What is dis- es?”
The woman put a hand to her lips at the sound of that word. “Oh, it simply means that medicine is needed to cure the sick, my love. You had little bumps on yourself when you were first born and mommy cured it with her special potions.”
“They call you a miracle healer. If this is the same for everyone else in town to be cured, then for sure. You can open a shop, hold classes and…” Anna hugged her daddy as his scratchy beard made her giggle. “I would love to see her happy, you as well always, my beloved. The work I do is so hard nut still, it rewards us and the earth has given a bounty none could ever ask more for, my dear.”
“I know this, forever I do. That we ate no longer bound to our obligations and may live as we have for a time. I am very happy you and I could stay this way…”
They went along with the plan to make as many medicines for the people and to have cures of magic out to the public as well. “Mama and papa are heroes, just like in my story books!” Squeaked the adorable child between the two loving parents. “Ahh, but you must never fly into danger like that, my child.” Tutted stern mother. “You would have made your father cross, like some angry giant.”
“Fee, fi!” The girl giggled as her parent teased and she couldn’t stop laughing for joy that they were together after a long week of waiting for her papa to come home.
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That night as the family of three gave thanks to their good grace and fortune, a knock sounded in the cold wind outside. Jason was first to rise, while the rambunctious Anna rushed after. Before her mother or father could stop the child from.going to greet a stranger, the first look was their honest answer. “Daddy, look!” Anna gleeful pointed and waved at the stranger. Gruffy, a blonde and brown beard, his cloak in tatters. He was, also quite tall and fit as Jason lifted his little tyke from the wooden floors.
“Lookie, a giant! A giant wants to eat with us!”
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They could not be cruel, as none here were so uncaring to a stranger. Anna was told to go to her room in the loft as Kor'anna set out a pot of two cups. One for ridding the thief if he were one, from their home. The other, to sooth the soul of a post one on a journey of peace.
The latter turned out to put their heels to rest.
“I gathered the heart and kindness of my own parent, yet they didn’t wish for my return so again. I was banished. I have nowhere to go, no purpose. No children, and…”
“What is your name, sad sir?” Kor’anna gave the healing cup to the male as he thanked her and took in in good health. “I was called, Vonn. Yet my true name was forgotten. I never wish to remember. It was so long ago…”
“You traveled, but through time it seems.” Jason noticed. “Where was your first home? Your family-
“They…would not wish to speak to a coward.” The man gell into a deep sorrow as his head fell to the table. “All I want is my purpose. One, only –
“Papa?”
A cool of a dove had the boy look up. Eyes if a bright emerald gazed over. Two sets as he recalled a story of a dragon princess. A children’s story by…family.
“Who is this young lass?” Swallowed the man as he looked to Jason. “Is this your family?”
“It is our family.” Kor'anna expressed with a hand to her beloved’s shoulder. “Now, you must locate yours fir a fear you cannot truly be happy and find your goal if you cannot speak with them.”
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The villagers saw the man before. He was shaven by the time he ever came to his wits and was guided to earn a decent wage doing something more than fighting, killing and eating wild boar. “Mama says to take her list to her in her shop. Can you do that, Uncle Vonn?”
The stretch in time made him well, better. Yet his blood soon ached to travel again as before a fortnight ended, Jason sat the other off to the side and spoke what he knew. “The caverns of the dream weaver are here.” He handed an acquired scroll and map to the no longer a stranger. “This will have you to the places you want to go. But before you do, I want to tell you who we really are. Because, I know you somehow. Your humility has touched all of us, in a way only one other could.”
The shaven adult stood and nodded. “As do I. I am formerly exiled Prince Llewellyn Vonn Wirlon son to Richard Wayne if the house of Wayne and son of my deceased father, the lost king Slade Wirlon. You. Are the the brother that fought my father, he died from a fatal poisoning by his enemies inside the castle. Mother told me to stay, but I cannot. Your child us good, curious and kind. Your treasure she us, I wish you both the better of days when I am far off sling my quest.”
“Your quest.” Jason thought aloud. “You wish to free my brother, from his curse. The owls did something to him. I know it, father as well.” Jason said. “The bat is a brother, not an enemy to the owls, as is the tale gather told on his deathbed. Timothy took to my place; he rules beside Alf as his consul.”
“I see, then Rosalie, my sister is queen if our kingdom whereas I could never turn away her ideals. She is strong and from what I hear, wishes and alliance against their enemies within the country of the great bat.”
“Is that true??” Jason rose up and was invested entirely now. “You travel, you hear rumors and untruths. Tell me, what of the rebels? What of wars meant to come?”
“There are none, not for a time. This is why I must see my mother and set them free.”
“Them?” Jason didn’t understand so Vonn told him as his expression deepened into concern. “He chose, that life. Not by a curse, never my brother.”
“His body does not make up a heart. He loved, and I could not see it.” Vonn looked to the cup in his hands and the map by his side. “Richard, is just a word but a world yo me. He was to you someone greater and I want to be the one crush the veil between their lives. I want to tell them, I cannot move on unless their curse is truly real and can be broken.”
“The nyggt hauk in the prophecy.” Jason muttered. “Timothy told me about it. That Richard is a last descent of a king that took control of the owl’s court and became its guide. I don’t think he can leave, Llewellyn.”
The male looked up from his cup at his uncle. “Why not? He’s not an object if desire any longer to my father! He’s not a seed barer of kings or a sacrifice. It…why? Why am I so alone…he was there, then left me to starve…”
“You have family that could heal those wounds. We have, tried our best but I think . With the skills you now know, the faces you gave in your heart. Would you want to upset the balance? Richard has made it so the owls cannot harm this world, just as the Nyggt Hauk. In a way, the Bat is just a knight that protected the house under its creation. They worked together but were torn, and yet…. Timothy said you would be the one to stop the cycle. Someday. Unless this is false."
Then one last time, they will not stop me.” Vonn proclaimed. “I will take the path of mortal pains and find them. Find the caverns and gain back my purpose in this lifetime.”
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Did he ever do so? Was this story written long before, or has it always been so convincing as the author foretold. Of the fate of a prince returning to save his parents down in the underworld. Or the fields of gold and the smiles of s love that was far too great, once war happened upon their peace.
Perhaps of a wise king who ruled as fair and just as prophesied. To your imagination, I ask…will Vonn escape this path and be welcomed anew…. or will he remain the wanderer that lost his kingdom, his chooses and his own name. As, hope.
THAT IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU….
FIN…. ~
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SO, IT FELL UNDER A CLIFF HANGER AND A MAYBE PART TWO Unless I HAVE some shaking heads. Slade died because his own actual epiphany making him weak. That he may have even cared for his captured bride. And Vonn thought he had his family but was torn between letting Slade’s delusion die and freeing himself by his mother taking charge after the fight. But…they won and yet Slade didn’t stay. He was poisoned which weakened his already weakened ability to recover. The God of War saw too much peace and he was cut off from her gift, yet did the same become of Vonn? No, he now carries hope and war in his bloodline and has become a wanderer in hopes of finding out why he cannot move forward. He thinks he has to save his mother, but maybe it is actually to recover something else…. find out next time in a possible part two - Vonn's Quest; the Source of True Happiness, Revealed.
And Richard is in another realm like being spirited away!! Not dead to clarify!! He will be back in part two!! Read the note in last epilogue for more.
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