(Don't have title) JustAnAmazingMedievalStory

A kingdom with fantasy-like creatures. A farm girl, Luella Ulric. A war snake. What are those? Why does the castle take her and the snake? What war and why is it dangerous?

Chapter 1

   In a peaceful but bustling kingdom, in a stone built castle, there was an uproar. It was gone. What they brought to the castle was missing. Who knows how things will turn out? Footsteps running in the castle halls could be heard and the fear could be seen in the runners eyes. A trainer of the war snakes rushed to the King’s room and was given permission from the guards to enter.

            “What is it?” The king asked, sensing something was wrong. He was sitting upon his throne, fidgeting with the collar of his cape. Next to him, his wife’s throne was empty for she enjoys her peaceful time away from political issues. Sometimes the king regrets marrying a village woman.

            “One of the war snakes…is missing...your majesty” the trainer said between breaths.

            “How so?” The kings eyes narrowed. The trainer gulped and took a deep breath before speaking.

            “It seems that it escaped while we were resting on our way to the castle. The travel was long and so we took a short break for the night.” The trainer explained. “When we returned and put the snakes in their place we realized one was missing.”

            “How many do we have right now?” The king sighed. “From before and the new ones.”

            “We have twenty four war snakes all together your majesty. We had to bring seven but we only have six.”

            “Look for it.” The king said. “I would say to leave it since we have enough, but who knows the wreckage it could cause. I don’t want to waste my wealth on this small piece of land and on these scummy people.”

            “Yes, your majesty.” 

 

            The Ulrics, a small but beautiful family of four, live in a rural area in a large kingdom named after its king, Caine. They’re all pretty normal, taking care of a farm along with horses and cows and all those other animals which belong in farms, and wealthy enough thanks to the people visiting to buy their freshly grown food. They even have an adorable looking garden store which passerby’s stop by at. But this story isn’t about all four of the Ulrics, it’s about the youngest and the daughter of the house, Luella.

            Luella’s story starts out with her strolling on the farm’s large plain of fresh green grass while her father and brother work in the barn. If only she knew that she would encounter such a fright, she would have never walked off alone. As she was walking along, she realized some of the grass rustling near her and saw that just a couple of feet away, something very long was slithering towards her. It was green, with scales and a long hissing tongue. It’s head rose high above her and that’s when her frightened scream was heard all over the farm. The poor girl had never seen this creature before so of course she didn’t know that the creature was harmless. Her gray eyes filled with tears and her knees began to wobble. The creature looked at her curiously as she wailed and it came closer. Luella, tired of screaming with all her might could only close her eyes and look away. Then she realized it wasn’t doing anything. She sniffled and cried a little more, unable to move. She heard her father calling her name and he rushed to her when he spotted the creature. Her mother and brother rushed right after him. They all stared up at the creature- except Luella who had her face buried in her father’s neck.

            “Dad…” Luella’s brother, Alistair, who was only five years older than her, broke the silence. “That’s a war snake, dad.”

            “What is it doing here?” The father, Baird, asked amazed. “It’s not supposed to be in this area of the kingdom.”

Alistair shrugged and walked towards it. The snake lowered its head a little as the boy approached it. Alistair touched the tip of its head making his mother call out to him in fear.

            “Alistair!”

            “It’s okay Nerida, it doesn’t harm humans.” Baird told his wife, watching his son.

            “What do you mean it doesn’t harm humans? Alistair, get back here! It’s a war snake.” Nerida, the mother of the family called desperately.

            “Yes, but it hasn’t reached its full form yet. It’s still a baby.” Baird said. He passed Luella to his wife and him and his son tried taking the snake to their old run down barn house.

            “A baby? A baby, Baird?! It’s almost ten feet tall!” Nerida said, hoisting Luella onto her shoulders and following them.

            “More than that, probably.” Baird said closing it into the barn.        

            “What are you doing?” Nerida asked him as he tried to drive the snake into the barn.

            “What? I’m going to keep it in here for now. If we let it roam around he’ll destroy our crops and eat the animals or something. Maybe we could sell it at a high price after raising it to be bigger.” Baird explained, closing the gates of the barn after making sure that the war snake was comfortable in the hay.

 

That night, Luella slept in her parent’s room too afraid to leave their side. Her brother explained to her what a war snake was. According to him, as it grows, it gains special abilities and changes colors. The one they caught was green, the first color, which meant that it can dive into the ground. As it grows it will change to yellow, then blue then red. That means it will gain abilities such as flying, swimming, and breathing fire. The only reason she believed her brother was because her father said he was right. Why couldn’t it be something else? Why did it have to be so huge? Why was it here?

            The next day, Luella watched her father bring the snake out of the barn. She didn’t know why they were keeping it. She wasn’t very fond of creatures who weren’t small or fluffy. She would’ve been fine with a small rabbit or a butterfly, but not a snake. Definitely not the snake.

            “Lu, want to come pet the snake?” Alistair asked. She didn’t know what to say. She was curious but very afraid. She nodded her head slightly so Alistair picked Luella up and brought her toward the snake. The snake noticed their presence and turned towards them. Luella’s eyes widened in fear but she held her breath. Alistair petted the snake first and then told Luella to do the same. Her hand slowly reached out for the snake and touched the tip of its head. She was surprised by the feeling of the scales on its body. Alistair slowly put her down so she can get comfortable.

            “Don’t leave.” She said quickly turning to him. Alistair nodded, smiling in reassurance. Alistair watched as Luella went on petting the snake to climbing its back and laughing. The snake didn’t seem to mind it. It seemed to be playing with her too. It nudged her with its head and lifted her up with its body, but only a little so she wouldn’t fall. It seemed to understand that Luella was just a delicate child.  

           

            As the years went on, Luella played with the snake every single day and as she grew the snake grew. She even decided to name the snake. She called it Cassius and decided herself that it was a male. When she turned ten, Cassius began to fly so at first it was difficult to train him because he kept flying around. One time Luella almost fell off of him. His color changed from green to yellow and he grew about thirteen more feet. Luella learned that war snakes were brought to the castle to be trained. She figured it escaped or was forgotten on the way there.

            Luella hummed to herself as she cleaned Cassius’s body. The snake laid its head on the ground in relaxation. Luella knew he liked it when she cleaned its body. She had fixed timings with the snake. She would do her morning chores in the house, then spend her little break with Cassius until it was time to work in the barn and then she would clean and train him. Luella put the sponge in the water bucket.

            “Okay Cassius, now it’s time for your training.” Luella said staring at him. Cassius closed its eyes in laziness. Luella used to spend an hour explaining to Cassius why she had to train him. He was a war snake so the bigger he grew and the more abilities it gained, the more dangerous he would become to keep. She had to train him so he only listened to her and didn’t use its abilities carelessly and destroy the farm. But how would a giant reptile understand that? Her brother used to tease her about it but she did so anyways. Luella always trained from the ground running in different directions making Cassius go wherever she went, but this time she won’t. This time she decided to ride him. Her father had a big saddle-like seat made for Luella so she wouldn’t fall off when she rode him but now she was going to be in the air. She wondered if it would be safe enough. Luella tied her bleach blonde hair into a braid and made sure to change into a shorter dress. She was thirteen now and so her mother wanted her to start wearing more appropriate clothes. She couldn’t worry about that on this important day.

            Luella tiptoed out of the house so her mother wouldn’t see her. She may not look it but she was very afraid her mother would be against her riding the snake so she didn’t mention it. Her brother wasn’t home and her father was working at their garden store so it was less risky than it would have been if they were here. She pulled the loose reigns on Cassius and took him to the back of the barn.

            “Okay Cassius, this is it.” Luella whispered to him. “We’re going to fly together this time.” Even though she felt her knees weaken in fear, she climbed onto the saddle. She closed her eyes tightly and took deep breaths. Before she could think of doing this another time, she pulled the reigns all the way back letting Cassius know that he had to fly. She knew that a snake didn’t have wings so it couldn’t just fly off- it would be much harder than that. She would be shocked every time she saw Cassius reach the sky. Thinking about that now would be bad so she didn’t think of anything.  She felt Cassius move forward and felt him go faster slowly. She held her breath. It was too late to go back now. Cassius took a very forceful jump in the air pushing himself higher with the help of its tail. Luella screamed but quickly stopped because she didn’t want her mother to hear or make Cassius scared. She then felt themselves soaring in the air. She opened her eyes and lifted her head a little. The wind seemed to be rushing past her tickling her cheek as if forcing her to smile. Cassius’s body would wiggle sometimes but the rest of the ride turned out very smoothly.

            “…ella!..LUELLA!” Nerida was heard calling from the ground. Luella gasped and quickly looked down which was a bad idea because she just found out she was afraid of heights. She covered her mouth so she wouldn’t puke. She was in trouble and now she had to go down and worry about the landing trip. She had totally forgotten about that. Luella nervously pulled the reigns toward the ground and Cassius turned around taking its time as it was also nervous about Luella’s mother. Luella couldn’t close her eyes tightly this time because she was more afraid of her mother right now than the landing. Cassius lowered its head to the ground making the rest of its body follow. Thankfully the landing seemed more like sliding down a slippery cave than a crashing war plane. She hopped off Cassius as her mother marched towards her angrily.

            “Luella Ulric! How long have you been riding in the air?!” Her mother screamed.

            “About five minutes?” Luella questioned unsure of her answer.

            “Five minutes?! Five minutes Luella?! I’ve been searching all over the farm for more than fifteen minutes!” Nerida yelled. “What do you think you were doing?! Riding a war snake in the air?! Have you lost it completely?!” She grabbed Luella by the hair and started to pull her into the house but she suddenly stopped after hearing a hiss. They turned around to find Cassius with his head raised and his tongue slipping back into his mouth as if it was glaring.

            “My, my, hissing at me once again. When will that snake learn that there are some things you’re not allowed to do?” Nerida asked Luella. She let go of her hair and told her to get into the house while she calls Baird, who came into the living room minutes later.

            “Do you know what she did?! Did you see her Baird?! She tried to ride that snake of hers!” Nerida explained shouting.

“You should’ve at least told us you were going, Luella,” Her father said sternly, “What if you fell and broke your leg or something? No one would’ve known.”

Luella looked at the ground and said nothing. She hated arguing with her parents, even if she might not have done anything wrong.

            “What happened?” Alistair came into the room after taking off his muddy boots, “Did Lu do something again?”

            “She tried to fly on that snake!” Nerida snapped at him, immediately trying to get Alistair to side with her. Alistair whistled and stared at Luella.

“How was it?” Alistair asked grinning from ear to ear. Luella would have smiled back but she didn’t like getting yelled at.

“Maybe it’s about time we sold it.” Baird said. Luella’s head shot up to look up at her father. She hoped he wasn’t being serious but his expression didn’t show any hint of doubt.

“Please no, dad!” Luella almost cried. “Please, please let me keep him. Please!”

“What if you get hurt?” Baird asked bending down in front of her.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve told you I wanted to test out riding him.” Luella felt her tears fall onto her cheek.

“Okay, okay, Luella, I understand.” Baird said soothingly. He patted her head and pulled her into his arms in comfort.

            “Speaking of Cassius, we need to buy more food for him.” Alistair said going to the sink to get a drink of water. “I’ll take Luella with me later, is that okay?”

            “Yeah, that’s fine.” Baird said. “But make sure you don’t tell anyone about the snake, I don’t want bothersome customers coming in just to see the snake..”

            “Sure.” Alistair said. He then grabbed Luella by the wrist and pulled her towards the barn where Cassius was.

            “So, tell me how it went.” Alistair said walking into the barn. Luella turned on the barn lights and slightly closed the door watching Alistair sit next to Cassius.

            “It was scary until you get into the air.” Luella said walking over to him. “Well, I was fine until I looked down.”

            “Lucky, at least you didn’t get hurt.” Alistair said. “I want to try riding him, but then they’d definitely sell him off.” Cassius laid his head by their feet and nudged them asking for something to eat. 

            “Do you think he’d let me ride him? It’s funny how he only allows you.” Alistair said in slight jealousy.         

            “I wonder why too. Is it because he saw me first? Will he let you ride if we do it together?” Luella asked, feeling bad that Cassius would only allow her to ride.

            “Who knows?” Alistair sighed. “Nevermind, this conversation is making me upset. Let’s go buy his food. It’ll take time to reach the markets.” He got up and patted the dust off his pants. Luella frowned. She didn’t like it when her brother felt upset.

            “Hey, maybe we’ll come across another war snake sometime later in the future.” Luella attempted to comfort him but only received a laugh.

            “Yea, that will totally please mother.” Alistair said jokingly. They closed the barn leaving a lantern on for Cassius and walked towards their other barn. They had to fix up the old barn for him so he wouldn’t eat up the animals in the new one. Alistair walked up to his white stallion and let it out of its stable attaching the horse wagon to it. They climbed in and headed toward the village. On the way there, Luella saw merchant wagons passing by announcing the names of the goods they’re selling. She saw castle troops riding their black stallions smoke blowing out of their noses as they walked. Luella’s family and other famers kept horses which were used for farming and traveling but castle horses were different. The castle horses had spikes which would jut out their forehead, sometimes down their mane and behind their hooves. Their eyes were always narrow as if they were glaring and sometimes you could catch a red glow in them. They were fast runners, almost as fast as a riding horse and had a large stamina.  Riding horses would have a cone like horn jutting out of its forehead which differentiated it from farm horses. They were a bit smaller in size but they were the fastest. Luella shivered as they passed by the castle troops and leaned back in her wagon seat.

            “I think they’re the scariest out of all the creatures in the kingdom.” She said as Alistair drove them into the village. She saw people hustling and bustling speaking about the latest news.

            “What? The castle horses? War snakes not so scary anymore?” Alistair asked grinning.

            “Not really. What creature are you afraid of?” Luella asked her brother. Alistair thought.

            “The shadow dogs, I think.” Alistair said after a moment of silence. “There was a time I thought I finally found a luck cat, and when I went to it, it turned right back into an ugly barking shadow dog. Gosh, I hate how they can change shape.” People usually kept shadow dogs to guard their goods from thieves, but shadow dogs are not so loyal. If they get upset even once, they’ll leave you. Luck cats were the opposite. Everyone liked luck cats except it was very rare to find one. They were of normal color but their paws would be pink and green. If you saw one then it means something good will happen to you. Alistair stopped in front of a beast food stand. He hopped down the wagon and asked the seller for five large bags of giant brown mice.

            “Giant brown mice, eh? And you say you need five large bags of ‘em, eh?” The seller asked suspiciously. He started to pack the bags for them but took his time. “What for?”

            “Just because.” Alistair said casually digging out coins from his pocket. He was smart. He knew he didn’t need to tell a seller why he needed the goods. The seller put the bags in front of Alistair and he loaded them into the wagon.

            “Thank you sir, see you.” Alistair said saluting him and hopping back onto the wagon. Luella looked away from the man frowning.

            “He suspects us.” Luella said to her brother.

            “Don’t mind him.” Alistair told her. “Want to visit the library?” Luella nodded. She had told him that she wanted a book on war snakes. It would help her train Cassius and help her learn more about him. The library wasn’t huge and it wasn’t the kind where the golden sunlight shines upon the book making everything look magical like in stories. It was old, shabby and dark. The books were mostly torn and there was dust everywhere. The windows were covered with broken wood planks and the floor creaked loudly. Despite its looks, Luella found this library very nice and enjoys coming here often. She trailed her finger on the spine of the books a she walked through the aisles. She saw a book on war snakes the last time she came but didn’t have the time to ask the librarian if she could borrow it so she knew exactly what she was looking for. Her eyes quickly skimmed the rows until they fell on a long and hard dark green cover. She rushed to it and gently pulled it out of the shelf not wanting to ruin the already torn books. She walked to the library desk not wanting to make Alistair wait too long. He was outside of the library making sure no one stole their wagon.            

            “A book on war snakes today, madam?” The librarian asked her with an eyebrow raised as she recorded the books name in her notebook. She was a very polite women, tall, sharp looking shoulders and glasses that made her look a bit scary to others. But Luella finds her very pleasant.

            “Yes, I was curious about them.” She said careful about not giving away too much information. The librarian smiled and handed the book back to her.

            “Due August eleventh, dear.” The librarian said and waved as Luella walked out. Luella climbed into their wagon clutching the book to her chest.

            “Just one?” Alistair asked as he picked up the reigns turning them around on the pathway home. Luella nodded and leaned back in her seat shutting her eyes. She was feeling very tired today because of the chores and the training and then a visit to the village markets. She was glad they were on their way home. 

Author's Note

This is just chapter one. Please feel free with your words and correct my story if I made a mistake.