Raulin's Oath

Lucius and Hestia saw the great city of Belamoris in the distance. Lucius soared towards a small uninhabited island off the Eastern coast of the main island. Hestia followed. “My Lord, we’re not to raze the city and set it ablaze?”

“You will remain here while I infiltrate the city. I need to prepare an army that can hold Belamoris once it has been conquered. There is plenty of wildlife here for you to rest and keep your strength. When the sun sets for the seventh time, you will come to me. The city will be destroyed and rebuilt for our use.” Lucius transformed and waited until nightfall. He would swim to the island city tonight and begin the preparations. He found a quiet place to rest through the day, as he would not rest again until the next sunrise.

Lucius awoke as the last rays of sunlight glimmered off the waves. He silently slipped into the water and began the hour-long swim to the coast of Belamoris. His heart beat heavily, a drum of war in his core. He would don a cloak to blend in, hiding the scales that glimmered in the sunlight, though he wouldn’t be out much in the daytime. This work needed to be concealed by the cover of night.

The inn’s bell rang, alerting the shop owner of the new customer’s entry. Lucius pulled up the hood of his cloak and wrapped its fleece-lined body tighter around him.

“Hello, good sir, is this your first visit to Belmoris?” The man behind the desk said these lines tiredly, as though he’d delivered them a million times before and knew he would say them a million times more.

“Your finest room. I want everything you can offer me,” Lucius demanded, and the man felt uneasy at that tone, at the thunder in his voice. Not realizing the consequences, he showed the hidden king to his finest room.

Once there, Lucius inspected a delicately pointed claw, then in a swift motion slashed out, slitting the man’s throat. Blood sprayed Lucius’s fair skin, and his tongue emerged between his rogue lips, tasting the essence. The man’s eyes went wide with surprise and pain, and he wrapped both hands around his throat. He made a pathetic gurgling noise, his breathing wet and difficult. His gaze never left the emerald eyes of Lucius, and when he dropped to his knees, Lucius gripped his shoulders.

Lucius ran his fingers through the man’s hair, the blood on Lucius’s fingers making the hair a sticky red, and the king made a soft shushing sound. “Now, now, it’ll be alright. Let go, it’ll make things faster.” The man closed his eyes at these words. “That’s it.” The man’s heart slowed, and Lucius heard when it stopped completely. While holding the man upright, Lucius slit his wrist and held it to the keep’s mouth. As the warm liquid slid easily down his throat, his eyes fluttered. They flashed open, and emerald green shone out in a burst. The gaping throat wound sealed shut, and the luster in his eyes seemed to return, but no longer did his heart beat, and no longer did he need to trouble with breathing. He scanned Lucius’, taking him in.

Lucius extended a hand to him, helping him back on his feet. “I have given you the gift of eternal life. I am your master now.”

“Who are you? What are your intentions?” His voice was gravelly, yet his eyes held steady to the king’s.

“My name is King Lucius. I have a very important mission for you.” For those he summoned from the grave, there was a deep inner compulsion to do his bidding, and this was no different for the keep.

“Yes?” he asked, and the thing couldn’t help but feel a pure joy out of having a purpose in the king’s eyes.

“You have a very important task. We will descend upon Belamoris like a plague. You will help me to build an army that will take this city.” The keep nodded his head eagerly. “You simply need to share my blood to resurrect the slain. You must hurry, as you will need to take shelter when the sun rises. Now go and build my army!” The man who rose from the dead bit and clawed his way through the peaceful town; he tore through marketplaces and through the plaza. He was one with the night, a whirling nightmare. By the time the sun rose out of the eastern sea, the two had turned fifty able-bodied men, women and children to the cause.

The next time the sun set, the ghoul invaded a familiar house. It was his home, where his family slept. Had his eyes not been blinded by the strong coveting mask Lucius had thrown over him, he would’ve stayed as far away from this place as possible. He crept into his youngest daughter’s room, standing by her side. She stirred at the sound of him, sleepy eyes peeling open.

“Daddy?” Her eyes squinted, and her little fists rubbed at her face. She knew something was wrong, and she cowered, scooting away from him. “Daddy? Are you okay?” His hands were around her throat, the vice-like strength unknown until that gloomy night. She let out a choked cry, and tears streamed from her forest green eyes, and she watched him as he stole her life. Her face turned an ugly blue, and finally, when she breathed no more, he forced his wrist to her plump lips. The toddler swallowed the black blood, and then he left her to turn the rest of the house.

Her mother screamed when the little gremlin-like girl climbed from the bottom of the bed, tiny baby teeth ripping through her throat. The child relished the taste of fresh blood, and offered her own in exchange for it. The cycle of death and blood continued as Lucius slept peacefully through the daylight hours and wreaked havoc after sunset each evening.

***

Arietta loved her new boots, as they were shiny and incredibly comfortable. She had forgotten how wonderful a bed felt under her compared to the back of a horse or the ground, and while the room was cramped, since she shared it with her grandfather and Jerry, the bed was all her own. It was warm, cozy, and in her mind, there was no place closer to heaven than between those ratty sheets.

“Ari?” Jerry whispered into the velvet dark. He heard a stirring in the bed to his right and knew he had her attention. “Where do you think we go after we reach Belamoris?” His voice was soft, as to not wake Gustoff, who was snoring loudly.

“We go home. While this place is full of wonder, it’s just not the same as being home,” she declared. Jerry’s face dropped, but his movement was obscured in the pitch black of the room. He released a pent-up breath and turned on his side. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to go home?”

“‍No, everything back home was hard. Life was painful, and I was always exhausted. This place is beautiful. I can walk here, I can even run. Earth took that away from me,” he confessed, and she thought upon that for a few seconds.

“Won’t you miss it, though? Your mom, your friends… school?” A silence filled the room, and Jerry drew in a shaky breath.

“That was taken from me when I got cancer. My friends stopped visiting me, I couldn’t keep up with my assignments when I missed all the lessons… My mom became a ghost. I miss the past, but I can’t win that back.” He was just a shell, that hollowness he felt on earth traveling to Palidonaya. Arietta wasn’t sure what to say to this or how to help, so she remained quiet. “It was so lonely, you know. The only anchor I had was my mom, but even she changed. I don’t blame her; it’s hard seeing someone you love suffer.”

At this, Arietta sighed. “Look, Jerry, I know you are angry. This place is no different than home. Everyone dies, and people get sick; the place you go doesn’t matter. You can’t blame it on the stars, not on the planet… that’s just life. It’s just stuff we need to deal with.” She tried to be reasonable, but what he was saying was beyond reason. She knew he was angry, but she needed to guide him towards the truth. He was dying, but he knew it was just life, so why couldn’t she understand?

“Maybe you’re right, but it doesn’t change what will happen to me once I go back. It doesn’t change the pain I will have to suffer through.” This place was everything, and even in its scariest moments, it was far better than the alternative. He could be who he wanted to be, do what he wanted to do. There were no rules, and certainly no limits to his indulgence.

“I know.”

They slept through the night, and when they awoke, sunbeams danced through the room. Arietta laughed when faced with Jerry, whose bedhead was untamable. He tried running his fingers through his hair to smooth it out, yet somehow seemed to make it worse.

“Try to use your magic,” she suggested through her laughter. Grandpa Gus laughed as well, but unlike the young man before him with the messy hair, he had been up for several hours and had already tamed his white mane.

Jerry’s face screwed up, and he cast a glamour over his hair. To Arietta’s surprise, it took one try for him to master his intention, and she couldn’t help but smile at his success. The kids scrambled downstairs to the inn’s living hall, where breakfast was set up. Grandpa Gus trailed behind to fill himself another cup of coffee while the kids gorged themselves on delicious rolls and foreign purple fruit.

When Arietta filled her plate for a second time, she asked another guest what the wonderful fruit was called. The lady paused in the line, turning to the little girl with wide eyes. “You’ve never had an Uganlan fruit?!” she asked wildly, but not unkindly.

“No, we aren’t from this area. It’s very good though!” Jerry chirped, mouth stained purple.

“Well, like I said, it’s an Uganlan fruit. They grow off of an Uganlan tree, which is native to Lenovia. I grew up working on a tree farm there,” the tall woman said gleefully.

When the pair were out of the woman’s earshot, Jerry wisely said, “I didn’t realize we asked her for her life story.” At this, he received a sharp pinch from Ari.

“Be nice! She was being helpful.” He held up his hands, one gripping yet another Uganlan fruit. “How many of those have you had?”

“Arietta, I hadn’t eaten anything but rations for the last month! I deserve to eat as many of these tasty little things as I want,” he harrumphed, and Arietta laughed.

“A whole month in the woods? We met up with you after a week’s worth of hiking,” she said.

“Yeah... I got lost and had to figure out how to survive. I, well, let’s just say that I would just as soon forget the first few weeks of my stay. I am stronger now than I have ever been, and I plan on staying here.”

Gustoff finished off his hot cup of coffee and nodded to the children. “Arietta, Jerry, are you ready to head out? We are only a few miles outside of Waterhaven, and if we make good time, then we can arrange for passage tomorrow.” With that, the group left the inn and headed out.

The herd moved at a quick pace, as they could sense the end of their long quest. Dimitri was weary from a restless night. It was now his job to lead, and the weight of the herd was upon his broad shoulders. He didn’t feel as though he was ready. He didn’t think he could fill his father’s immense shoes.

The sky was clear and the trail was smooth. Arietta hummed as she walked, feeling both full and safe for the first time since she had arrived. She was really enjoying the day as they made great time on the first road paved with stone that she had seen in Palidonaya. She worried about the herd. How would they stay safe, and where would they live? There were some plains on this side of the Silent Forest, but Equus was their home. Surely Raulin would be able to meet with the Council and they would agree to help the Zeus herd. She would have to worry about that later as she breathed in the fresh air and increased her pace to catch up with Dimitri.

***

Raulin continued north, heading towards the distant peaks of Swords Edge. This was the highest pass in the known world. This pass led to the capital city of Aridol. There in the northwest tower was the meeting place of the Council. The Council had disbanded after the last dragon wars, with its members scattered across Palidonaya. Only the King and his court remained in Dragon’s Bane, the castle that lay just beyond Swords Edge, the highest point in the mountains of Lenovia. It has been said that one could see the entire continent from the Northwest Tower. Once called, the representatives from each of the seven lands that made up Palidonaya would gather at Dragon’s Bane. The council would offer the Zeus herd protection.

He had been traveling for the better part of three days and was just now entering the foothills of the Iron Mountains. Raulin knew that another day of hard travel would see him beginning the long climb to the Sword’s Edge, where he could cross the mountain pass that led to Aridol. He slowly made his way to their last, best hope.

The temperature continued to fall as he approached the pass. The wind was steady and extremely cold, slowing the travel. His hooves were sore and his mane was tangled, but it would be worth it. It would be a harrowing journey, but Raulin, like any other great leader, was willing to do anything for his people.