Jesters and Kings

 

 

                                The snow was pristine under the night sky, clouds rolling away in some places to reveal sparkling stars. The wind was just barely blowing, a light breeze that stirred the snow but didn’t upset it. The moon poked out behind smoke clouds, a silver orb that spread star spun beams across the frosted earth. A waft of perfume swept past the snow laden ground, brushing against frozen leaves and silver icicles. A thump resounded through the silent park as a tree freed itself from it burden, and a twang as the branch snapped back into place. A heavy shuffling reverberated through the ice still park, and snow steamed as crimson liquid splashed. A labored breathing joined the shuffling as a figure stumbled into view. Liquid gold eyes, half lidded in pain, surveyed the park with the dispassionate gaze of one who knew they were about to die. Pointed ears twitched and shivered as the wind blew past them, brushing against the sensitive appendages. Silver hair that shone a light purple in Selena’s gaze blew behind the imposing figure. He, for the figure was obviously male, stumbled again, knocking into a nearby tree. The tree deposited its snow several inches from the shivering male. The steady drip of blood and the hissing of snow joined the labored breathing.

                                The man’s (was he even human?) ears twitched as a nearby twig broke, and his head shot up as a startled gasp followed the crack. Eyes that could have come from Helios himself jerked up to meet a pair of piercing viridian jewels, and glazed over the fire that was the boy’s hair. Hands, long fingered, were held over the child’s mouth. The male with eyes like captured sunlight continued his inspection of the emerald eyed human. He noted that the child’s body was riddled with scars, a testimony to the will of survival. The small boy reached hands wrought with scars to touch the being’s flawless face.  A gasp of surprise flitted from the man’s open lips as he saw the image behind the child. Golden light spilled from behind the angelic child, framing the newly found wings with halos of light. The man became away of a feather light touch on his face, the fingers pinpricks of warmth battling against the ever nearing coldness of death.

                                “There is nothing we can do to heal the wounds, Demon-King, you are too far gone.” The voice was beautiful, soft, and angelic, passing through the demons ears like silk. It was several seconds later that he noticed the way the boy’s voice was filled with dread and sorrow. The Demon-King was filled with honor that such a perfect being would be willing to feel such sorrow for a beast like himself.

                                “I am not your responsibility, angel.” His voice was rough, for his lips were cracked and his throat raw. Specks of blood danced along his lips and the copper tang of the crimson liquid filled his mouth. The man coughed for several seconds, before the boy put his hand on the demon’s chest. Warmth flowed through the golden eyed demon, fighting off even the cold of Thanatos’ touch. The boy smiled, a sad affair, though breathe taking, and leaned down to whisper in the pointed ear of the Demon-King.

                                “Do not give up yet, oh king, for your time has not come yet. If you were ready to die and by received by the earth, we would hear the whispers.” The angels whispering was soft, and filled the king with something he wasn’t sure of, was it hope, or anxiousness? A thought interrupted his analysis, what whispers? The boy angel chuckled, and the forest seemed to move around them with glee. “The whispers, dear heart, of the wind and the waves, of the trees and of the soul of the earth. Lady Gaia calls to us.”

                                The man was stunned. This little boy, though powerful and angelic he was, had contact with the great spirit of the earth herself, the mother of the universe? He winced in pain as his wounds came back to remind him of his fate. The boy bent low again, and seemed to be whispering to the earth as much as the king.

                                “We shall make you a deal, sweet king. If you vow to protect us then we will open up our body, mind, and soul to you. So that we may merge together and become one.”  The possibility both excited and horrified the demon. To become one with this perfect being was amazing but what if he tainted the essence of this boy’s soul? The angel learned forward for the last time and listened to the last breath and words of the Demon-King.

                                “I choose to live…”

                                Viridian eyes slowly opened, awareness behind the lids coming to the front. Sunlight streamed through the open curtains. A hand, long fingered and pale, stretched towards the silent alarm clock. As the alabaster hand was about half a foot away, the alarm clock began to ring. The hand paused for a moment before pressing down on the off switch. The ringing stopped, and a head of crimson red and yellow hair popped up from beneath the bright green covers. Sleep glazed viridian eyes surveyed the surrounding room, taking in the bright blue and green walls covered in outrageous posters.

                                I could never understand you obsession with those bright colors. The voice resonated through the red heads mind, laughter coating it to take the sting away from the sarcastic comment. The voice was that of the Demon-King, the same as the one who had nearly died ten years before.

                                “And we can never understand how you can like those crappy soap operas.” The teenager grumbled. The fire haired teen was currently sixteen years old, just old enough to be living on his own, and away from the numerous foster homes he had grown up with.

                                Hey, I’ll have you know that Charmed is not a crappy soap opera, Kano. King’s voice was filled with indigence that Kano would even say such a thing. The attention of both King and Kano was taken away from the argument as a foreign body of energy started to gather. Mist began to swirl in the small bedroom of the apartment Kano rented with his friend. An object began to form in the eddies of the fog, making the teen shift in unease at the intrusion. He relaxed, however, when the obstruction cleared to show Marci, a demon warrior under the command of the Northern Clans, one of the many under King’s domain.

                                “My Lords, news from Aaron has arrived at the capital.” The demon was tall, intimidating, and, oddly, purple. She had a long tail that swished behind her, tipped with poison barbs, and long ears, pierced along the entire length. Her clothes were almost nonexistent, with barely a bikini’s worth of fabric covering her considerable assets. Her eyes glowed a dull white in the suns glare and her gaze was pointed towards the floor to go along with her kneeling position. Marci’s hair was long and bone white, a testimony to her power and political standing in the clans, were social standing was visible to all as every one had a chance to speak. The Demon Empire was ruled over very differently than the Vampire or Lycan Empires. Everyone, no matter how low their political standing, had the right to speak their opinion in front of the emperor, in this case King. The system worked much more efficiently than anything humans, vampires, or lycans have discovered.

                                “Kano what the hell was that energy-” The voice was cut off as the figure realized what was happening. Jester, the one that was rooming with Kano at the moment, stopped and stared at the twilight zone worthy scene before him. Marci, one of the most feared demon warriors, was apparently bowing down to a “human”, something simply not done in any creature culture. Jester, being a fae, was well notified about the way different creatures interacted with each other and humans. From what he had seen though, the only major creature race that treated the other races and humans with respect were demons. Vampires saw the other creatures as inferior to vampiric magyks and strength, and saw humans as a waste of space. Lycans, one the other hand, couldn’t care less about other creatures, and just saw them as obstacles in the race to be top predator. They saw humans as dishonorable pieces of flesh that needed to be despised of like yester weeks rotting garbage.

                                Fae were one of the minor races on the physical plain, preferring to spend most of their time on the ethereal plains and beyond. Jester was tall and lanky, not a bulky fighter, but instead one who relied on speed instead of strength. Invisible to the non adept human eye were a pair of iridescent wings, the signature of all fae. His brown hair was wild, flying all over his head and resisting any and all attempts to be tamed. Purple eyes glittered mischievously in a way that made Kano want to go running to the hills. The last time Jester grinned like that all of the demon clan heads had pink hair for several months. Before Jester could even think of a prank Marci pinned him with her ethereal gaze, stopping him in his tracks with promises of pain if he even thought of doing something to her.

                                “Well, Ah, I’ll just be going then, yeah?” Jester’s eyes darted around nervously as he slowly backed towards the door. Marci smirked; sending shivers up Jester’s spine as he finally turned around and dashed out of the room at full sprint. Kano was left staring at the door trying to figure out his friend’s insanity as King laughed hysterically and Marci grinned, showing off numerous gleaming fangs. Kano eventually just sighed, deciding that it just wasn’t worth the head ache he would no doubt get sooner or later.

                                “What was it you came here to tell us?” Kano turned back the Marci, wondering now what was so urgent that she didn’t even wait for her twin, Darci. Marci’s eyes grew serious, the grin leaving her face as if it had never existed in the first place.

                                “Aaron has brought back news from the place were the Rogue was being held.” The demon’s voice was heavy, regretful at having to burden her lords with this particular piece of information.

                                “And what did he have to say?” Kano’s voice betrayed none of the apprehension that was running through his system. If Aaron had returned than something bad must have happened. The problem would have to be severe enough that the Vampire Empire would withdraw the spy that Aaron had been set to watch.

                                Marci hesitated for a moment before continuing on her report. “The Rogue has escaped. The last he was seen was heading south and west, towards one of the great human cities. The vampire spy has contacted his empire and let them know that the rogue has escaped. The vampire in charge has recalled all of the spies and messengers that their empire has in the world of humans. They apparently fear what the Rogue can do.” Marci’s voice was rough, but then the tongue she was speaking, the language of demons, wasn’t exactly known for its poetic value.

                                “And what of the lycans? Do they know anything about this?” Kano’s voice was thoughtful, showing that already he was planning ahead, anticipating the next move.

                                “From what Elliot has gathered at the Vatican, no. The lycans know nothing of the Rogues escape yet, though I doubt that it will remain that way for much longer.”  Marci seemed pleased that they at least had sometime before the other major empire knew what was going on. Kano was relieved that they had enough time to pull themselves together before the Rogue struck.

                                “Keep tabs on the Rogue, we don’t want him sneaking up on us. Tell Elliot to stay at the Vatican for now, but if the lycans show any inclination to the fact that he has connections to the demon clans, tell him to run.” Marci bowed her head and murmured her assent before disappearing in the wind.

                                Well we can’t complain things are boring anymore. Kings voice was playful, though with a serious undertone.

                                “No, we can’t…” Kano’s voice trailed off as he looked at the rising sun, wondering what the rest of the day would bring.

Reviews

[Maxwell]

I LOVE the description here. Did you plan on using sibilance in the first paragraph? Whatever the case, it works really well and flows nicely.

Metaphors are GREAT.

One thing I would like to see in this would be for you to clean up grammatically. For the most part, it's much better than most of what I've read here, but I'll go through and add a few things to Notes.

All in all, good job, quite well-written.

[Isidora]

Demn! This is the level of descriptive writing I want to someday achieve. >.< You've painted a wonderful picture of everything, I can see it all in my mind clearly. Awesome job...more chapters soon?

[Jester]

thanks for the review.

[Elemiah]

Ah, I remember reading this...I always thought it was really good. :) I also liked your description of Marci...xD

I really can't wait until you write some more of this.