Prolouge
Characters (Slight spoilers if you check this out first! Be warned!)
"Hurry up!" Aridelle giggled, leaping through the castle gardens.
"WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Arisonal yelped, trying to catch up to his energetic sister. He panted, standing between beds of peonies and roses. "Why... huff Did... huff You... huff Want... huff Me... huff Out... huff Here?"
"Becaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuussssssse... I found a way to sneak out!" Aridelle whispered excitedly, a mischievous sparkle in her eye.
"Huh? For real?"
"Yep!"
"Wow! Where is it this time? ... And are you sure we won't get caught?"
"Positive! And because you have such a loud mouth we'll have to go to the edge of the garden before I tell you."
"Oh no..."
"Stop being a baby! We've been cooped up here our entire lives, why can't you just accept some fun for once?"
Arisonal looked back at the oh-so-familiar castle walls. His sister was right. Their parents had been overbearing and overprotective of the two since they were egglings. Although their older brother was heir to the throne, because Aridelle and was the only daughter not to fall to some sickness, they never let the twins outside of castle grounds. Arisonal was also what he would describe as a 'backup heir', as their brother had chosen to train to become a war general. Tensions between the Evergreen Kingdom and the Frostline Domain were high, and any one thing would be the straw that broke the camel's back.
"A-alright," Arisonal whispered.
The two padded slowly deeper into the lush garden, the sun ready to set. Eventually, Aridelle lead her brother to their own private place, one that the gardeners had given up on and one that the twins knew they couldn't be found if they wanted to be free of their troubles for the day. Arisonal squeezed his way through the roses and thorns until he stumbled into the clearing next to his sister.
"We're going into the forest."
"WHAT?!?!?!?"
"Sh! Shshsshshshshssh!"
"You mean the forest?" Arisonal whispered.
"Yes I mean the forest. Do you see any others around here?:"
"But people die when they go into that forest, Aridelle! We'll die!"
"Arisonal. Arisonalarisonalarisonal. I've thought about this for a long time, alright? The curse is just a hoax. If there was some sort of evil force, wouldn't it have come out by now? The legends have been around for thousands of years. And even if some, wouldn't anyone at least see whoever or whatever was keeping it in?"
"I... I guess."
"And even if so, we won't go too far. We'll hide so they can't see us from the tree lines, mess around in the open and have the most eventful night ever, come back here, and hide like we slept in the garden the entire time. We've slept here before, right?"
"R-right! So we'll be fine?"
"Yeah! And we can do it as often as we want! There's nothing out there, those are all just folk tales and such."
"Right!"
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"Arisonal! Arisonal wake up!" A voice whispered.
"Wha- what?"
"Come on! Wake up! It's time to go!"
"Says who?" The ferrikki mumbled groggily.
"Says me, now get UP!" With the final word, Aridelle pushed her brother onto his back.
"GAH!"
"Quiet!" Aridelle snapped.
"Alright, alright, I'm quiet," Arisonal mumbled. "What time is it?"
"Hmmm, I would say arnight*."
"Arnight? Are you crazy?"
"Maybe, but arnight is the perfect time! Everyone's just gone to sleep, and the guards are about to change shift. All we have to do is sneak out, and we get to have the most amount of time possible away from the castle."
"Huh... I guess you're right..."
"I always am when it comes to this stuff! Now come on, we need to time this perfectly. The garden guards are pretty slow anyway."
Arisonal nodded, then followed close behind his sister. The two quietly padded down the castle steps, and as sneakily as possible made their way into the garden.
"Alright. When I run, you run with me, got it?" Aridelle whispered.
"Got it."
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
Aridelle bolted out of the garden and towards the edge of the trees, Arisonal barely being able to keep up. After about two minutes straight of running, the twins stopped.
"They shouldn't see us over the grass, right?"
"Exactly. We can rest for a minute then slowly make our way to the trees."
"Alright."
The twins lay down for a couple of minutes, before Aridelle announced they should continue. They crept their way across the field until they finally met the tree line.
"A-are you sure about this."
"For the last time, yes. And of all times don't back out on me now!"
"I know, I know. I just. Have a weird feeling about this place."
"Groooooaaaannnn! Let's just go!" Aridelle began to push her brother into the forest until he complied, still whining.
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Arisonal woke up, after having the best night possible. He and Aridelle felt free for the first time in their lives last night. However, when he woke up, he started to panic. They both had made sure that they could see the treeline from where they fell asleep, but it was nowhere in sight. His sister was still next to him so they couldn't have sleepwalked, their fur was untouched, even rid of the sticks and leaves that had become entangled. He looked up and saw that somehow, the moon was barely near the peak of the sky.
Suddenly he heard the snap of a twig and his head whipped around, only to be met by a pair of intimidating eyes. Slowly they went higher and higher, until they stopped at about eight ferrikki tall.
"A-Arid-delle... wa-ake up-p-please..." Shakily, he nudged his sister awake, to which she responded:
"Yeah, yeah I'm u-" Aridelle stared in fear as the figure came closer, revealing a hungry mouth with sharp teeth, a muscular body, strong limbs, and menacing claws. Leather wings protruded from the arms, making it unmistakably a Ny'vene. It growled a bloodcurdling growl, animalistic, unlike ones Ny'venes bared for centuries. From what could assume to be charred skulls floated around, snapping at the twins all the while ghostly flames followed them, all the while retreating back to the tall female.
"Wha-what do you want!" Aridelle said, her voice wavering at the end.
A raspy response followed.
"Eeeeeeeat. Eeeat new prreyy..." The Ny'vene's eyes were unnatural, glowing in only the way Ryori's do. Scales seemed to glow in the same manner, is if they were wounds of a divine being, letting the unfathomable form of a deity seep out from the fake mortal shell.
"Yo-you shouldn't do that! We-we're the p-prince and prin-incess of th-thethe Everg-green Kingd-dom yo-you know!" Aridelle, although the braver of the two twins, was scared out of her wits. How else do you expect someone to act when faced with the jaws of death?
Instead of scoffing or backing off, the words seemed to be foreign to the Ny'vene, drool rolling down the dark scales of its face.
"Eeeeat... eeeeat..." It kept reapeating the word, taking steps towards them. It's breath smelled like rotting corpses as it slowly became more and more violent, its words becoming faster and faster. Soon, it burst into a run, snapping at the twins who did their best to stay together and keep their tails on their body.
"EATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODPREYPREYPREYPREYPREYPREYPREYPREY!!"
A joyous undertone could be picked up as the twins ran for their lives, the Ny'vene tearing up undergrowth, and once even toppling a dead tree in its path of destruction. Arisonal and Aridelle continued to run, tears forming in both of their eyes.
I'm going to die, aren't I? I'm going to die and Aridelle's going to have to watch or I have to watch her die first. I don't want to die! I'm scared!
.
The crashing came to a stop, and eventually so did the twins.
After a few minutes of silence and quiet sobbing from the both of them, Aridelle spoke. "C-come on, Ar-Aris-Arisonal. We n-need t-to fig-figure out wh-why she stopped, sh-she c-clearly didn't l-lose tra-track of us..."
Arisonal quietly nodded and got up onto his feet, shaking. The twins leaned on each other for support, both alert and on edge.
"Alright... Now to figure out what she was after."
Aridelle froze at the sound of the voice, and Arisonal kept next to her. A blue-eyed Vulnyx pushed her way through the undergrowth, and immediately caught sight of them.
"Oh! Dearest me, you poor things! You probably came through the transport forest! Come, quickly now, I'll explain everything."
"C-can we trust you?" Arisonal managed to whisper.
"Of course. I make sure to distance myself from those..." She paused, thinking of the right word.
Why does she need to stop? They're just animalistic!
The Vulnyx smiled at him warmly, causing Arisonal to stumble back a bit. "less advanced." She finished. "I have a nice house that you and your acquaintance can rest in, and I've made sure that she cannot get close."
"She's my sister. And fine. We'll come."
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*Arnight - Around 6-8pm, inbetween sunset and mignight. Term is generally used throughout all kingdoms. |
