“The King lays dead for real this time, read all about it,” yelled the child running down the street with a bundle of freshly printed press in his arms.
At the same time the Queen cried tears in her eyes increasing in ferocity. She shut the door to her inconspicuous house purchased in the noble neighborhood. Her army of private mercenary bodyguards waiting idly outside. Some she had worked on straining the pool while others walked her dogs. They were paid handsomely in crystal, and stood guard in the same hardened materials.
The blinds stayed permanently shut while she locked herself in the walk in freezer with a large storage of provisions of mostly ice cream. She seemed to be mourning the death of the husband she had always resented for real this time. She was aware of all the contradictions going on in this situation. A deep rage was burning up in her chest that had once held a secret love for her. She vowed to snuff out this toxic child of hers before he could further ruin her kingdom.
Her first order of taking over as main ruler she would have to mother. No more playing the part of the nice and air headed accessory for her husband, and weak enabler for her children. Edward would be exiled or better slaughtered for the better of everyone. She would rule with a crystal fist with no more enabling, instead eradicating the ailments of society. The population elevated to new social order under the spirit of the crystals.
If the royal scientists were to be believed when one traveled to the center of the core of the planet frequently, they got more powerful. So one could rule over Tenare forever with a greatly expanded or even infinite lifespan. It was all about getting as close to the core, bathing in it for as long as possible to increase one's core essence and become infused with the power needed to rule over the kingdom. Soon she would be infused with greatly expanded brain function as well. All to be the best leader ever.
She shuddered, throwing a log in the fireplace, before throwing over a thick fur coat. It was nearing the final days of the season, before the year would change over and the cold, and snow would arrive. The Queen entered the steps to her basement. The two leprechauns there were finishing the installation of a teleportation device in her home.
"Take me to the core for my daily meditation there at once, you creatures," she commanded them.
The Queen stepped onto the teleportation pad made of crystal hooked by thick cables connected to where the leprechaun operators-controlled switches.
"Turn me on, and send me in," she said.
A leprechaun nodded and began to turn a dial, cranking open a portal slowly forming under the queen's feet. The room began to shake, coming alive as energy was channeled out of the crystal.
In the core of Tenare the mass of human troops spread throughout the frozen woods. There ancient timbers fell ten at a time with so many dedicated to working large saws on both ends. More soldiers dragged brush to fires that had burned forever in the constant moonlight. The elite guards watched over their ruler doing a lotus pose in the snow.
"Wow she really does have ice in her veins," said a soldier, pointing to her figure tanning away.
"Shut up, I'm not getting put in the cooler again," said another, readying an explosive charge to use further into the mountain pass on a rock blocking the path.
The Queen was basking near a boombox, a portable bar manned by freezing slaves wearing a forced outfit of short shorts, straw hat and a floral printed short sleeve. A lounge chair plopped beside her rested a snowman placeholder for her next man.
She stayed half naked as she watched her soldiers clear cut a path to where the mountain of crystal had been discovered at the planet's core. Snaggy stood far to the side shivering in his furs. The royal reptiles and bootlickers refused to come to this place. Snaggy was the Queen's only counsel where she spent increasingly large portions of her days. It was the only place she seemed to find safe, and would even sometimes sleep out here in the woods with the wolves howling.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
"Shrieeeeeeek!" cried a small animal dying nearby.
Snaggy shuddered. He needed a break from all this action to get back to his safe space crunching numbers while doing the royal accounting. The kingdom was in dire straits with its finances and debt to the elves. Plus his bones and muscles were beginning to tire out from so much coldness. The Queen didn't see him as a man to love, but a fool to humiliate and accessory to murder.
Meanwhile Prince Edward had locked himself up alone in his tower. The wedding was still set for tonight, and in only six hours. He paced back and forth without his usual enthusiasm for the trappings of marriage. Unfortunately he had no other options at the moment because his favorite ex had cut off his hand, and fled for good.
“Oh well you fool it is time to unwind in celebration, not to mope like a brat,” he said to himself, pouring out a tall pale of schlock to slurp.
“Gulp, gulp, gulp ah that's good for quenching the thirst of inner turmoil,” he said.
Edward's mind had inherited the gift of always being focused on plotting. To clear out his mind he dumped the remainder of the schlock down his throat. He would need to feast again soon, as he was growing weak from lack of human consumption. The wedding expenses he now found himself footing would be worth it to feast on her feet during the honeymoon.
He paced back and forth for several minutes before he found himself at his safe. Because he was paranoid he had mastered the art of unlocking the safe dial in record time. Inside was the scheme awaiting Nancy when his little birds located her. The old witch had prepared him a love bomb full of wires, a keypad, and an irresistible payload. All he had to do was find the perfect place to plant it after he speed ran the current marriage filling his 12th and last legal harem spot, then eating her for sport. He had used the old faithful love gun for her and now there was no escaping.
"Knock, knock,KNOCK!"
"What do you want?" yelled Edward, heading to open it.
“Bang!"
The door blew open pulling the nails, and snapping it from the hinges. Another Prince entered, catching our hooked specimen with his pants around his ankles. Dick greeted the fallen one in surprise with an outstretched glove.
“You absolute buffoon you're lucky I didn't slit your throat with this” said Edward, crawling away to the furniture. He hooked cutting an anchor right into castle stone and pulled himself up.
“Check out my newest murdering machine hahah," he laughed like a maniac, whilst flaying the couch into chunks.
“I see. Extremely cool and impressive boss, Now I'm here to help you out with anything evil as long as you give me lots of power, crystals, and lands in exchange” said Dick Richard, a man of more fighting than words who bowed before holding a righteous red salute.
"I need you to find me teleportation crystals first, A colossal quantity of them for my experimentation, and I don't care how awful your methods for obtaining them are.. I will pay you handsomely in ultra rare cracked rocks taken from the Dwarf mines that collapsed after an unfortunate smelting accident," said Edward.
"I see, My Knights are above the law, and ready when you need them for dirty work," said Dick Richard.
"Get out your dagger unless you want me to do it," said Edward, pricking the top of his good hand with the sharp hook.
Dick Richard removed his glove and dagger and repeated the exercise of bloodletting before shaking hands with his brother, forming a pact to secure power together.
"We come, and we go from this planet, but our actions forever remain inscribed in the stones below, no blood deal can ever be broken without triggering a curse extending forever to one and his ancestry until the blood burns out from torment," they chanted together a pledge of allegiance.
Nancy ran into the forest not far from the tower. She walked with a sack of essential items strapped to her back along the railroad track. Her mission had failed; she would have to flee to the jungle for a while. To go in again in a few years when things had died down for another shot at ending the tyranny and stopping the crown. Her whole life had been spent as an undercover rebel, and things were personal.
The plan to destroy the kingdom from within had started after they had burned her village. She had hidden under hay whilst her family was taken away to what she thought was working backbreaking labor. That was until the elves had found a better way of mining and cultivating by cannibalism became a dirty royal secret.
She later found out from tracking down some survivors that she was orphaned. By age sixteen she had too many crystal scales forming from doing so much witchcraft. The experiments with crystal meant she never had anything else to lose because it could just be resurrected. Her powers grew so large she was able to get into royal high school through an evil inclusion program. That's where she met Edward and bonded over death.
