The Blood King's Bride

The kingdom of Neba.

The King's Palace...

Elena stood at the castle entrance, waving at the king and Svetlana with Wazir next to

her. It had taken a lot of promises for the king to let her out of his sight. He wanted her to stay in the castle, but after having lived in one for most of her life, even though it was not enjoyable, she was beginning to enjoy the life of an ordinary citizen. She promised her grandfather that she would be coming over to the castle every day to visit him and her grandmother. After being coerced, the king finally agreed to her demands but promised to storm her restaurant if she never carried out her part of the deal. She promised him that she would.

Finally done with the end greeting, she turned away with Wazir and started the long walk

back to their restaurant. Wazir had been strangely quiet since their departure, and so to liven the atmosphere, Elena asked him a question.

"Why is the King's castle not in the capital city?"

"Hmm?" Wazir said, having not paid attention to what she had said.

"Why isn't the King's castle in the capital city?"

"Oh, it's was our great-grandfather's reason, you could say."

"Why is that?"

"Well, to understand, I would have to tell you the story from the beginning. Back at the

start of time, there had been many tribes filled with different kinds of people. Then, magic prevailed and all was going well. I really can't remember the story all that well, all I know is that someone brought up the idea of a centralized government and suddenly everyone wanted to be king. And so a war broke out until there were just sixteen main tribes left."

"Wow, so it was mass genocide then?"

"What? No! Nothing like that. Any tribe that was conquered automatically fell under the reign of the one who conquered it. That was how it was till there were sixteen tribes left." "So why are there four kingdoms now?" Elena asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, according to the stories I was told by my tutor, there was actual peace for a couple of years amongst the sixteen tribes. But suddenly, the Blood Kingdom, which was called the land of ice then, suddenly amassed a great bundle of power. We do not know how, and why it works for them, but it made them overly powerful. So, their past kings took it upon themselves to start a new war. The war took years, and a lot of blood was shed in their land and the area surrounding it. That is how they gained the name The Blood Kingdom. The outer part of it became the Wastelands because as a result of the never-ending war, nothing grew there again. It has become the place for the most dangerous criminals in the whole four kingdoms. The other kingdoms; Neba, Pres and Tush were built by the strongest warriors after the Blood Kingdom's warrior. They were the only ones who were able to survive the raging war, and so were deemed fit to become kings. They gathered the remaining tribes into what it is today, and they rule it according to how they wish."

"Wow," Elena said, enlightened. Even though she wasn't properly groomed in her

kingdom, she knew that this story wasn't taught there. She wondered why, as it was an essential part of history.

"You know what was strange though?" Wazir suddenly said. Elena looked up at him. "What was strange?"

"The Blood Kingdom started the war, and caused the most destruction yet, they never took over any tribe. They just destroyed over and over again and all of a sudden, they just stopped. They were not seen on the battlefield again."

"That is strange," Elena said, humming to herself.

"Hmm," Wazir said, nodding. "What's stranger is that after a week of abruptly stopping the war, they sent their messenger to pass across a peace treaty. The warrior kings then didn't know if the kingdom was deceiving them. Still, they were unwilling to put their lives or their newly founded kingdoms at stake, especially after seeing the might of the Blood Kingdom, they immediately signed the treaty. This all happened about fifty years ago."

"Fifty years?" Elena exclaimed, her eyes widening. "It's not that long. Probably during

the time of... Grandfather," she said, coming to a realization. Wazir smiled at her, silently praising her wit.

"Yes. Your grandfather partook in the war, but he wasn't the leader then. His father was.

His father had moved the capital to the city closest to the gate, believing that it would be easier and faster for them to know when an attack was coming. Rather than just stay in the middle of the city and wait till all their citizens are destroyed before they can fight off any attack, the former was a much better option."

"But that also makes them more vulnerable. What if they are not able to fend off the attack? The whole kingdom would be gone in a blink!"

Wazir faced her, a mysterious smile on his face.

"The kingdom of Neba is not that weak..."

*****

The Kingdom of Neba.

Back at the King's Palace...

Svetlana stood in the king's study with Daruki standing proudly behind her. The silence was drowning as the king just sat on his desk, staring at them and not uttering a word. She understood that her revelation might have shocked the king, but she respected the king and didn't want him to suspect her of hiding anything, so she told him the truth even though he might not like it.

"So, he is the one who kidnapped my granddaughter?" The king said, still giving them a blank look.

"Yes, my Lord."

"And he is also your father, the person you have been looking for, for years?" "Yes my Lord."

"To be honest Svetlana, I do not know how to take this news. I understand where he is coming from though, but I do not think I can get past the fact that he kidnapped my granddaughter."

"I understand, my Lord," Svetlana said, expecting the worst. The truth was, if the king

sent her out of the kingdom, she would be sad, but not for long as she finally had her father with

her after so many years. Instead, she would choose to roam around with him than stay in a good place without him.

"But, I am not a petty person. I would forgive you and your father." The king declared suddenly.

Svetlana looked up at him, shock evident in her expression. She wasn't expecting his reply.

"Thank you, my Lord!"

"But I have a condition for you."

"What is it, my Lord?"

"I would tell you when the time comes." The king said evasively. Tapping his fingers

rhythmically on his desk, he continued. "I am curious though, where is this guy, what's his name -Joüstin?"

"Do you want us to find him for you, my Lord?"

"Yes, and put him out of business for me would you?"

"Yes my Lord." She said, giving a bow.

"Before you leave," the king called out and looked pointedly at Daruki.

"You have solved your situation with the king of Pres haven't you?"

Understanding what he meant, Daruki came forward and placed his right arm across his

chest while giving a slight head bow, his sign of reverence towards the king.

"I would get to it immediately my Lord. I and my daughter had already made our plan on

how we would go about it, and we wanted to get it done as soon as she was done reporting to you." "Hmmm," the king said, closely scrutinizing the strange man across his room.

"Well, get to it then. Wouldn't want to give the King of Pres a heart shock." Daruki and Svetlana bowed again and finally left the study, silently closing the door behind them. When the king was finally alone, he opened the drawer by his desk and took out a note, closing the drawer back as he spread the message out for him to read. On it was written,

'Prepare yourself, for your city is about to be attacked.'

The Kingdom of Neba.

The Red Queen's restaurant...

Wazir and Elena finally made it back to the restaurant. It was late evening, and the sun

was setting. The winds blew softly, foretelling a cloudy night, as the birds chirped noisily, preparing for their rest. Elena and Wazir were greeted at the restaurant's door by Mac and Forest.

It seemed like they had been waiting for them since their departure. Urging them both inside the

restaurant, Mac quickly closed the door, telling Forest to serve his prepared meal. "We were about to send a message to you about her return, but it seems like you have already seen each other. How did you find her?" Mac asked, genuinely curious.

"On the way back here actually," Wazir replied. "I was coming back to tell you guys of where I had searched, and that I might be going farther to look for her when I saw her down the

road to the restaurant."

"Hmm, how wonderful. It was good that you found her as you did then." Wazir looked up

at him, an odd look in his eyes.

"How did you guys find her?"

"Oh, we didn't," Forest answered. "A lady appeared and told me that she was going to help me find Elena. I asked her why she was helping and she said because Elena is the king's granddaughter." He faced Elena as he said the word 'granddaughter' accusingly. Elena blushed and lowered her head.

"Anyway, shockingly she managed to find Elena that same night. Something we hadn't been able to do for days. We even had to go to the capital to report the kidnap to the kingdom's official security."

"According to the lady, they may not be as helpful as we had hoped," Mac added.

"She came back with Elena and a scary-looking guy," Forest continued. "One could

imagine the intense amount of feeling we felt at once; shock, surprise and relief. We were so glad she was alright."

"That's good then. Do you know who the scary looking guy is?" Wazir asked them.

"You should ask Elena," Forest replied. "She did return with them after all." They all

faced her, silently urging her to answer their unasked question, their curiosity burning brightly in their gaze.

"I heard the lady call him Father. He had helped her to find me." Elena answered, strangely covert. They all knew she wasn't telling them something, but they didn't push her for answers, not wanting to relieve her bad moments in captivity.

"Oh that Joustin, that stupid leasing monger. I swear if I ever see him again-" Mac said, suddenly spewing insults an average person would die hearing. They all looked at him, surprise evident in their faces. Mac was the calm one out of them all, so it was shocking how intense his vocabulary was.

"Mac, it's okay," Elena said, smiling comfortingly as she placed her hands atop his, lying on the desk.

"No, it's not," Mac said, exasperated. "All these happened because of me. And somehow you got involved when you shouldn't have been in the first place."

"It's okay," Elena said again. "The king is going to find him and put him to justice. You don't have to worry about that again."

Mac took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, internally reminding himself that Elena was right. Everything was alright."

"Okay, so what are we preparing for tomorrow's menu?" Elena suddenly said. They all looked at her oddly.

"You want to start working immediately? After we just found you?" Forest exclaimed, incredulous.

"What? That was like the only thing I had been thinking of since I was kidnapped to get

my mind off my situation. Thanks to it, I was able to come up with different kinds of recipes. I

can't wait to try them out!" Elena answered, excited.

"Wow, Elena," Wazir exclaimed. "You are a strange one.