The Rustiest of Royals
The battlefield was running red.
A Million bodies were lying dead.
Every carapace out there was dying.
Dersian, Prospitan, Condesce abiding.
Every leader now was kneeling.
And in my heart there rose a feeling.
Not black, not pale, nor even ashen.
But to burn her skull and watch it blacken.
Watch that trident slowly glisten.
And then your heart will be culled to listen.
Because she's the condescension.
A highblood – lowblood battle now!
A rust blood will kill me? No way, how?
In my mind, I know it's coming.
Championed by her alto singing.
I cannot, will not, let this happen.
Watch the battle field a'damppen.
Every troll will stop to think.
As I bleed my imperious pink.
I do not fear her.
As she comes nearer.
She's just the Maid of Time.
It's my time now.
My time to go.
Off to slay a terrible menace.
To pay every lowbloods birthright penance.
Of course only I could kill her, I'm the lowest of them all.
But after she is dead and gone it is ME who will stand bravely tall.
The sufferer had started this war all.
But in the end SHE will fall.
Watch her pathetic pink blood run.
As she looks up my barreled gun.
And as she dies,
The tyrant lies:
"You will not rule over me."
Her rightful heir now comes close.
She is the one, of course to be angered most.
The spilt hue at her feet matched the one in her veins!
Her descendent watched the Condesce spill a million years of pain.
And then of all that happened next
The new ruler drops to one knee and now-
She bows.
The Battle Field lay broken and shattered beneath Aradia's feet. The chessboard pattern of the ground was cracked and crumbling. In some places, craters had formed and entire sections had been blown away. She held her whip in her dominant hand tightly. Feeling the familiar leather handle against her rough calloused hands was comforting for her, even if it only offered a small thought of solace.
Black and white carapaces littered the ground around the female troll, and she could not help but feel agonized as she heard the rhythmic dripping of their draining blood. They were warriors who had given their lives to a strife that when far beyond their own selves. It was if the eternal stalemate of battle had finally been broken, but Aradia knew this not to be true at all. The king may have been slain, but truly the most powerful chess piece was the queen. She lifted her free hand to shield her eyes as she observed the sky above her. The canvas that was the sky was a light blue above that of the hemospectrum and fluffy white clouds lay painted across it like a field of bleat-beasts. Aradia supposed it was great to have a sky to look up at after hiding in the dark of the Alternian nights for so long. Even still, her eyes misted for a moment in response to the alien light. The inherent warmth of its large green mass felt excellent over her maroon wings; she flittered them appreciatively to spread the warmth around her shapely figure.
Her red eyes lifted up and she again viewed her opponent. The adult troll before her easily stood two feet above her head, not including her royal horns. Her horns themselves extended neatly from the roof of her skull, nearly as tall as the woman herself. Her long black hair blew in the wind behind her like the jolly roger on a gamblignant ship, the thick locks restrained only by the single gold band that was her royal crown. The sunlight glittered fearfully on her grey toned skin.
"This is the Maid of Time I've been told to fear?" the Imperious Condescension hissed, her trident gleaming against the bright rays of the sun. "You ain't nothin'. You ain't nothin' a' nothin'." She stepped forward toward Aradia and glowered down at her. Aradia struck out with her whip, but the Condesce batted it away with the points of her trident. She jabbed at Aradia, missing her only by a narrow space. Aradia took to the air, kicking the Condesce in rapid succession before she slammed down to knock the Condesce's knees out from beneath her. Her muscles tensed with genuine effort for the first time in a while and she began to sweat. The troll queen saw this coming, and she planted her trident to spear the young rust blood as she approached and Aradia was scarcely able to pull back in time. The Condesce grabbed Aradia by her hair and shook her. She looked up at the Maid of Time with the glare of a victor.
"y'know," she growled, shaking Aradia harder as she spoke and pulling her chin up to look her in the eye. "You almost easier to kill than yo' ancestor was." She dropped Aradia to the ground, and pushed the tip of the middle prong of her trident against the hollow of her throat in preparation of the killing move. "That bitch wanted to die, didn't stand a chance. She spend way more than her fair share of time glubbin' about death. It shore was fun getting her to clam up." Aradia's hands gripped the handle of the trident in an effort to pull it away from herself and her heart began to beat with an intensity she hadn't felt since she first returned to life.
"No, I'm not." She howled, teleporting several seconds away from the Condesce, and ripping her trident from her hands with her telekinetic ability. "I'm alive, and I'm happy I'm alive, and I very much intend to stay that way." She flung the trident into the chest of the Condesce, and jabbed it into the chess square behind her. As the head of the Condesce hung limply, Aradia gripped her horns and twisted hard, cracking her neck. She grabbed the loose neck of the former queen, and tore it open, separating the body of the sea troll from her head. She dropped the lifeless head of the fuchsia ruler to the ground and sank down next to it, breathing heavily. Her eyes fell closed, and she may as well have fallen asleep before she sensed movement directly in front of her. Jumping up, her eyes fell on the new troll queen.
"Feferi? You made it back?" Aradia grasped vainly. She knew this was false. The bleached eyes of her dead friend couldn't lie.
"I wanted to see you," Feferi whispered, her eyes sweeping over the carnage before her. Though she was dead, she looked just as beautiful as she had in life. Her wound had disappeared, and her posture was perfect, befitting the future ruler of Alternia perfectly.
Aradia gulped harshly, dragging her eyes away from the high blood before her. "I'm so sorry." The two fell silent. After the silence had passed uncomfortably long, she turned back to face her dear friend only to find her kneeling on the ground.
"Your birthright was different from mine, but it is still your birthright." Feferi stood and removed the tiara from the severed head of her dead ancestor, wiping away the pink blood on it. She placed it onto Aradia's head. Aradia felt herself flush, and dropped her eyes again. Feferi gently lifted Aradia's chin until they again met eye to eye. She smiled, happy for her, and happy that the horrible classist society she had come from was not too far gone from saving; even though she would not be the one to rule it. "Let's go home, Aradia." Despite her reluctance, Aradia took the hand her friend offered her, and the two proceeded home to their broken world they would fix together.