Forum Thread

{WIP}
Ah, I really don't know what to put here, but the stories following might give me some context. I'm planning on making a timeline and placing where the stories are at, so you won't have to try and keep tabs on the time.

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Quote from The Sheehan’s Guide to the Magick

If nothing is free, what is the cost of protection?

As the scent of freshly fallen rain crept through the air, Freyr Sheehan stepped onto the damp ground. He inhaled and held his breath for a moment. The forest was so still, as if in a slumber. The few bird calls he heard around him were unrequited and met with silence. He slowly crept towards the Magick Pine. When he stepped into the circle of redwoods that bent and contorted towards the Pine, Freyr shivered. The tree was breathing, he could see the magic it sent out, and the soul energy it took in. His gloved hand brushed against the trunk, his sleepy mint eyes closed for a second, the images of the night before writhing its way into his head. His eyes snapped open. A snapping twig had flung him out of the trance. The sensation of claws digging into his shoulders. His heart almost stopped when he spotted the black fur with golden highlights. An irlore. A series of attacks on the kingdom by these very same creatures had been traumatizing families and sending many into hiding. The gala the night before was to try and gain the people’s trust in the Royal Guard’s services. Freyr was pleading to the Pine out loud. “Please,” he whispered, “Please don’t let me die.” The shocking pain of the bites and scrapes was catching up to him. Was he just a sacrifice to the Pine? It’s greatest supporter was being murdered at it’s roots and it was just sitting there? Freyr’s breath caught. No. The tree was controlling the irlore. He was meant to be sacrificed. He would be the last one. The Pine would protect his kingdom, but he had to die. He tried running out of the circle of contorted redwoods, but vines covered in thorns and sickly sweet flowers wrapped around his legs. The snarling irlore leapt in front of him. Freyr stared into the creature’s manipulated eyes and the last thing the First Prince of Sheehan saw before dying was the mad purple eyes of a creature that had to kill to protect.

This was a short story I wrote at eleven pm, so I couldn’t really put much detail into it. I plan on making this part of a whole story about the Sheehan Kingdom and the lands around it.

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Guide to reading:
----- = perspective change
Character Count: 5
TW: Extremely Mild Violence
Note: Don’t get too attached to any of the characters
Word Count: 1815

Chapter One
As the rose-gold rays of dawn peeked through the Abure Mountains, the Kingdom of Sheehan slept. The clear sound of rocks clattering down a hill cut through the morning stillness. A young boy with golden hair swept to the side unconsciously tossed pebbles to the empty silent market below. Horses underneath a cover for one of the stalls startled and brayed, making the boy start. Under his gaze, cloaked figures with rolled up parchment in their hands soothed the escaped horses. Gradually, the cries of the steeds died down and the cloaked figures moved to the communal bulletin board. As the boy watched them hammer pegs into the soft bark of the board, the grass behind him rustled. A small cat-like creature crept up behind the boy and promptly yowled at the top of its small lungs. The disturbed figures glanced at the boy's way and he quickly attempted to cover up his face.
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Rygglos Panapolise glanced at the boy sitting upon the highest hill in Sheehan. The small feline besides him was gleaming in the soft lighting. Rygglos had always wanted kragaun. It’s thick, wooly fur was rubbing up against the boy, and… shoot, Rigg needed to stop daydreaming about domestic animals, kragauns were too expensive anyway.
“May I remind you that we’ve got a job to do? C’mon Rigg, we’re already very behind on it without you fawning over every animal we see.” Rigg had to admit that he was kind of an animal maniac. But, that couldn’t let Arioch make fun of him. Everyone had their faults.
“Shut up Ari. If your horse wasn’t dehydrated, we would’ve had four more days to do this.” Arioch shook his head.
“Well if the High King hadn’t suddenly decided to host this event, it wouldn’t be such a headache.” Rygglos nodded, “I still can’t believe he only got six people to do it.”
“Stop grumbling and get to work idiot,” Arioch said. They worked steadily, securing the flimsy paper onto the board, occasionally switching hammers. They finished off their job by smoothing down the paper and securing the pegs.
The pair found their horses again and began to ride off again before the townspeople woke up and saw them delivering the news. The key was to do it before anyone saw. The boy up on the hill though…
A thunderclap shook the town. That was odd, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The smell of burning wood filled the air. Arioch quickly changed course and headed towards the scent.
“Ari! Wait!” Arioch turned abruptly with a savage look on his face.
“What part of this do you think is at all safe? There could be people dying out there and you’re asking me to wait?” Before Rygglos could reply, Arioch went full speed towards what seemed to be a large tree set ablaze. He sped off after his work partner.
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“You ought to eat more meat. You’re as thin as twigs! I’d hate for the future king to be blown away by the wind!”
“ ‘d be better than the First,” the boy picked at his berry salad, “anyways, it’s not like I’ll be doing anything terribly dangerous. I’m just going to be in the garden today.”
The Queen looked upon her son with disgust. “The garden? Boy look at me,” she faced him, “foraging for food is for the servants. Go do some archery with your brothers! You couldn’t possibly get weaker. My, it’s hard to believe you and Rian are of the same blood. He’s off killing irlores and you’re sitting here hanging around that filthy kragaun!”
The prince stared up at his mother, “Silvester isn’t dirty, and Rian is a freak.” His mother sighed, “Honestly, I don’t know what to do with you.”
Suddenly a booming, crackling noise filled their ears. The boy shrank back from the noise.
An armored hand clamped on the boy’s shoulder.
“Freyr, c’mon. We need to go back to the residential area, it’s safer there.” Speak of the devil, his big shot brother was dragging him along the carpeted halls bringing him to their shared room. It was big, but it was still shared.
“Is Alih here?” Rian shook his head, “Off fighting crime in other Kingdoms. It’s a shame. The games are being hosted here.”
All at once, Freyr wanted to ask many questions at once. What are the games? Since when was Alih allowed to other kingdoms? But the biggest one of all, what was that noise. Freyr finally got to see Rian for the first time since Rian had grabbed him. His perfectly chiseled jaw was tight, showing that he, too, was concerned. They sat awkwardly in their room, Rian standing by the window, often checking to see if he could view the damage, and Freyr sitting upon his bed, Silvester curled up on his pillow.
Finally, Rian cracked. He tossed Freyr a dagger and began to put his armor on again.
“Ah. What’s this for?” Freyr waved the dagger in the air, in the light, he could see purple runes engraved on the golden surface.
Rian glared at him as if he had just asked what his own name was, “It’s a dagger idiot. You use it for defense. We’re going over to the Magick Pine, I think the chaos is coming from there.”
Freyr was taken aback, “But Mother-” Rian shook his head, “Mother wants you to get exercise, so I’m taking you to go get it.” He couldn’t argue with that.

Rygglos slowed his steed as he entered a clearing. A pine tree white and red was ablaze at the center of the circle. Arioch was pulling small creatures and critters away from the fire. When townspeople came over, he formed a blockade with roots he had manipulated. Rygglos steered his ride backwards and took a running head start, as he hurtled over the wall of roots, Arioch looked up and with a flick of his wrist, sent roots up to enclose Rigg and his horse in a small circular cage.
“Ari, what are you doing?” The sound of clanging metal resounded through the clearing as two people entered the area. A young man clad in armor and his seeming younger brother shyly clutching a golden dagger walked into the area. Upon seeing the pine on fire, the young man ran on a full sprint towards the tree. From the expressions and desperation of the young man and townspeople, the tree was probably terribly important to them. The man in armor wouldn’t listen to him, so Rigg shifted his attention to the younger brother.
“Hey!” The young boy startled. As Rigg looked closer, he recognized the face and hair. Oh. He was the boy on the hill. Rigg gestured to the young boy come over. He hesitantly complied and when the boy had stopped a short distance away, he sighed.
“Could you somehow get me down? I can’t really move. Maybe use your knife or something?” The boy shrugged and tossed the knife up weakly. It landed helplessly on the ground. Rigg shook his head. Nevermind.
Rigg concentrated his energy and blasted the knife up towards him. The gust of wind he had conjured blew his messy amber hair into his eyes. As he fumbled around for the knife, he could hear the young man in armor and Arioch speaking with each other.
“Who are you to come into our kingdom and act like a hero?”
“Who are you to be able to question me like that?”
Rygglos could hear the young man scoff defiantly, “Only the eldest prince of this kingdom.”
“Fine pretty boy, I don’t mind you getting burnt up to a crisp.”
“Why-” Rigg didn’t hear anything after that, since he had freed himself from his prison and tumbled to the ground. The young boy, apparently a prince as well, cautiously stepped over the wreckage and approached Rigg.
The messenger grinned and handed the prince his dagger. Then, he realized he could get answers for everything he wanted to ask.
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As far as Freyr knew, after getting your knife taken by someone hanging by a vine, and then having it returned after them crashing down on the ground, all while a sacred tree was burning in the background, being berated with questions was not normal. Not like anything in this situation was normal. He tried his best to answer and somehow told the man, who was maybe a year younger than Rian, that this tree was sacred, and no, he wasn’t allowed out here, and yes, he did see the man that very morning.
As they watched Rian and the messenger’s friend bicker and argue, the messenger turned to Freyr.
“Say… do you happen to be a water mage?” Freyr shook his head. “Bummer. I’m Rygglos by the way, psycho over there is Arioch. I know you’re either Alih or Freyr.”
“Freyr, Alih’s out of town.” Rygglos nodded. Another crack of noise, and the ground shook, a mana from the tree flung curious investigators back into the town. Arioch and Rian stood their ground, and Rygglos stumbled a bit, but Freyr was knocked to the ground. Rygglos grabbed his arm and pulled him back up.
“Dang, if that’s what caused the noise, what caused the fire?” Rygglos talked a lot. Freyr now knew that.
A tendril of fire reached out like an arm towards Rian and Arioch. It stopped halfway there and waved between the two, as if choosing. The arm considered a while, then wrapped around Arioch.
“Ari? Ari, can’t you fight it?” Rygglos was sprinting towards his companion. Arioch was pulled into the tree. Another loud crack, but with no outburst. The fire dissolved and What was left was a blue flower, the color of the man’s eyes, sitting at the base of the tree. As Freyr recounted what his mother had told him about the first Freyr, how he was killed at the base of the tree, his face drained, realizing the tree had made a mistake, and didn’t kill the first prince. He had almost lost his brother. Rygglos was in a frenzy, banging on the tree trunk.
The sky darkened and clouds began to gather. Rain fell and Rygglos was still clawing at the tree desperately. Rian put his armored hand on Rygglos’s shoulder.
“Comrade, come with me. You can stay at the castle. You need rest, and clearly you also need understanding. You’re in shock, so we need to get you to a comfortable place before the realization sets in.”
Rian and Rygglos walked off, more of Rian pulling Rygglos to the castle. Freyr was the only one left in the clearing. He picked a small blue flower, the one with the brightest color, and noticed a red and golden mushroom. He picked that as well, for himself. He would give the flower to Rygglos later. When he felt better…

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