Chapter 1

King Vincent attends a meeting to reflect on the status of his kingdom, after returning from war.

King Vincent Canterbury walked through the grand entrance that led to the conference chamber in his castle. The two Guards standing outside the room closed the door behind him. The room was fairly large with a great wooden table in the middle and five chairs surrounding it. One of the chairs was far more luxurious than the other four, as it was the King’s seat. Lanterns on the wall kept the room alight while flowers and paintings gave it a touch of class. The King’s three Ministers were already there waiting for him " Angus Thirlow, Gabriel Enzo and Bernard Lockley. The other seat was usually occupied by Norman Zander, the King’s adviser and greatest friend. However he was away on an errand for the King in The North Kingdom.

The King took his seat opposite to the Ministers and spoke. “What information do you have for me today gentlemen?”

The first Minister to speak was Angus Thirlow, a man in his 60’s, and someone who perhaps enjoyed too much time in the local w***e house. He was quite tubby and he had a scruffy grey beard. “Well, there is some good news and some bad news your Majesty; shall we start off with the good?”

“Very well,” the King replied in good spirits.

“Well you’ll be pleased to hear, word has come through from Norman Zander that the debt with the Dreygon’s of the North have officially been wiped out. They have no more quarrels with us. He should be back here in 2 months.”

The King looked relieved, “Excellent, finally we have got those inbred degenerates off of our backs, the b******s breed faster than cockroaches. How they have an army of 100,000 men is beyond me. They must f**k any creature that walks. ” He took a swig of wine from a goblet left on the table, where there was also a jar and three other goblets for the Ministers.

Minister Angus continued, “It seems from a financial point of view, we have never been so high and mighty, no debts and plenty to spare.”

The King smiled, “Good start,” he took another sip of wine and added, “Next point!”

The second Minister was Bernard Lockley, another elderly gentleman but in his 70’s and perhaps the most moral and considerate of the three. He began to give his report. “A bit of bad news sire, the women and little girls who went missing on their way back home to River-Ridge after the ceremony have not been found; they have now been missing for a week. And this is not an isolated incident; apparently this happens a few times a year.”

The King looked genuinely sad. “It’s a terrible thing. God knows what those traitorous crooks are doing to them. Raping and beating them, grooming them for a lifetime of obscenities. My heart goes out to them, but the forests are too large, we’ll never be able to find them, not unless we send every man in the Kingdom to go and search for them. That will take far too much time and effort. Just send their families a letter of condolence from me, with a few pieces of copper to ease their pain.”

Bernard looked unsatisfied with the solution. “Sire, perhaps you might reconsider, shouldn’t something be done to help find them? Perhaps only 10 men could go looking for them? Just to let the people know that you tried, that you made an effort and that you care.”

The King looked at Bernard slightly irritated and snapped, “It’s a waste of time, the forest is too vast. I will not send my men out there where they might even be put in danger themselves. I have spoken.” Minister Bernard looked disappointed but it seemed the King wasn’t going to change his opinion. “Very well,” he conceded and there was nothing more he could do.

The King took another sip of wine and blurted, “Next!”

Gabriel Enzo was the final Minister to speak and he was the youngest of the three Ministers, a man in his 40’s who was highly invested in the gladiator business.  “This is something that may worry you your Majesty, but I’m sure it’s not as bad as it sounds…” the King sat up attentively. “King Bastien’s body was not recovered from the war. He could not be found amongst the remains.”

King Vincent looked very anxious. “What! What do you mean he wasn’t recovered? Did we not just defeat him? Did his body magically just get up and float away? Where is it?” Minister Gabriel tried to set the Kings mind at ease, “It could be that he may have been killed by fire. A lot of the casualties in the war were by being burned to death, so his body would be unrecognisable. The report says that there was no way for Bastien to escape, except through the front gates of his castle… and we had thousands of men blocking his path.” The King did seem to calm down, “Even if he is alive, he has no army… but he is almost definitely dead.”

The King sat back a little more relaxed and blurted dismissively, “Next!”

Minister Gabriel brought up the next topic, “This issue is a curious one… there have been sightings of the natives close to the border of Southfalls. People have seen them coming out of The Wild Forest and very close to our lands.”

The King had an unfazed look, “And…”

Minister Gabriel elaborated, “Well sire, usually they stay deep in the forest. Usually they never venture far from their home, let alone close to our borders. It’s very unusual behaviour… so should this be addressed or investigated?”

The King enquired calmly, “Have they actually set foot on our lands?”

Gabriel shook his head, “No.”

The King confirmed, “Well then, it’s nothing. No need for us to concern ourselves over a few natives wanting to take a stroll. Next!”

Minister Gabriel delivered the final message. “Finally sire, we have a request from the Gladiators committee to begin thinking about opening business, I still have two highly skilled gladiators, and since the war has ended there are around 20 gladiators in total still alive. I was thinking we could make a winter special of it.”

The King thumped the table and roared, “Brilliant idea, just the thing to welcome us all back home; a great event to take our minds off of all the recent stresses. Get it done!” Gabriel smirked and jotted down some notes on a roll of parchment.

The King got out of his chair now ready to depart but realised he had something he wanted to arrange himself, “Oh yes,” he exclaimed and then sat down again. “Bernard, I would like you to send an announcement down to the villages, informing them that the Prince and Princess will be making a royal visit. It’s about time they got to meet their people. I need an armed Guard of 20 men to accompany us, just in case things go sour down there.”

Minister Bernard replied astutely, “I will work on that right away sire. But, have you told the young Prince and Princess. I have a feeling that the Princess won’t be too eager to make the visit and perhaps someone may need to watch over the young Prince, his temper could leave the villagers open to abuse.”

The King sighed, “I know, I will talk to Bertram about that " make sure he is in line… and as for Scarlett, it is her royal duty, so she will just have to make do.”

Minister Bernard enquired, “Will it be all towns of the Kingdom or just Oakhill sire.”

The King thought for a moment before replying, “For now, just Oakhill. We’ll make other arrangements once this one is out of the way.”

Minister Bernard scribbled some notes down too and confirmed, “It shall be done.”

The King concluded, “Well if there isn’t anything else…” the Ministers looked at each other to see if there was anything else that needed discussing, but they remained silent. The King announced, “Meeting adjourned!” and left the elegant conference chamber to tend to his many other matters.

Author's Note

All comments are welcome.

Reviews

[Jyoti_Ablaze]

By the end of this chapter, I was curious to know about what is going to happen.
So yes well done.
Interesting write.
Waiting to see whats coming.

[Willard Wells]

Character study started and plot still thin as to the direction of the story, but I am still interested.

[Bear]

I acknowledge that I have read this chapter and reserve the right to hold comment till the story is more developed. I really hate to read just the first chapters then review a story, it normally takes 3 or 4 chapters before you can honestly judge it. Think about the books you have read, you might like what you read in the first chapter but end up not liking the book. I would rather wait and give you an informed review and not misleading chapter by chapter reviews, so keep me informed please.

[Hakim]

understood. very true, thanks for the feedback.

[Barbara Tennyson]

You can copy paste indented first line of paragraph text. In the absence of indents, consider double spacing between paragraphs. It's a great help to the reader.

[Hakim]

Thanks for the pointer.