A/N: This is the first tenth kingdom fic I've written and the first time I've used this site. Please review.
Disclaimer: I do not own the 10th Kingdom (ha I wish). The characters and main storyline all belong to their respective owners. I only own my imagination.
"First thing we'll do is cook the dog," Burly grinned.
"You mean the prince." Bluebell gave his brother a perplexed look.
"The prince is the dog, you nitwit."
Blabberwort watched excitedly as her younger brother conked her older brother over the head with his mace. The blow was hard enough to give Burly a gruesome bruise, without actually killing him. He screamed out in response and lunged at his little brother, before Bluebell had a chance to swing again.
This amused Blabberwort immensely and she began to snort uncontrollably at the sight of the two. She wondered who would win, certain that she was stronger than both. It had been a long day what with capturing and then losing the witch from the Tenth Kingdom. Their father had given them each a hard thump on the skull for that mess and she could feel the bruise forming.
Now, the three were on their way to find the witch and the dog - her father had stressed the importance of the dog- and they had stopped as per usual, mid-assignment. They were less than a mile away from their castle when a bolt of lightning swept the sky above them.
The two fighting trolls stopped scuffling to watch the sky. It crackled with violet and gold, the clouds darkening more and more by the second. They all knew what it meant when the sky looked like that. The Beanstalk Forest lay to the North of their Castle, in a state of constant storm and despair. Their land was never rained on though and it had been over a century since anything other than dirt rose from the ground. Seeing the sky ablaze with the coming tempest could only mean one thing. Magic. Dark Magic from the look of things. Very powerful and very deadly. Only an evil witch would dare to perform such an affront on them.
The lightning was vicious as it crashed to the ground nearby settling on a troll in soldier's garb. The troll screamed uselessly and fell to the ground, a heap of charred bones and metal.
Burly and Bluebell were up off the ground in a second, ready to run. They just didn't know where to go. Their father had given them strict orders to go after the dog and every second they wasted, the witch would get farther away. But the site of the dead troll made them want to retreat back to the safety of their castle walls.
Hesitating on the brink of retreating, the trolls stood motionless as another wave of lightning took out a cart in front of the castle.
"Suck an Elf!" Their father's voice echoed from the castle's door.
Bluebell snickered in fear. Blabberwort and Burly shot each other exhausted looks. They wanted to make a run for the forest now, before their father got to them. It was bad enough that they hadn't captured the dog, but now someone was deliberately attacking their land and they were doing nothing to stop it.
Lightning crashed once more above their heads this time and the three took off running in different directions. Burly went toward the castle, while Blabberwort opted for the Forest, and Bluebell decided on somewhere in the middle. They didn't get very far, before their father's voice reached them again.
"Burly! Bluebell! Blabberwort! Get back here right now!" His voice was commanding and sent nightmarish shivers up his children's spines.
"Coming dad!" they all yelled at once, before heading, somewhat begrudgingly, in that direction.
When they reached the Castle doors they found their father with twenty or so of his best troll soldiers and their search dogs. The Troll King was glaring at the door, when his children entered. Relish had dried blood under his nose and upper lip. A broken shard of mirror lay on the floor in front of him. His children saw the half-humiliated, but mostly livid expression consuming his face. Bluebell opened his mouth to comment on the broken mirror, but was cutoff by an elbow to his gut. Burly didn't say anything to his brother, but the action was enough to shut him up.
"That Queen wants us looking for the dog now. It has become obvious to me, that the three of you idiots are incapable of finding him alone. Especially in this mess. There's only one way that witch of yours could have headed."
Relish turned to address his soldiers. "We will scour the Beanstalk Forest until we find them. No one rests, eats, or sleeps until they are captured. Anyone discovered of breaking these rules will loose their heads. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." The soldiers were unanimous.
"Err- Dad?" Blabberwort started. Burly was about to elbow her when their fathered turned to face them.
"What?!"
"Well...its just. I don't see why they would have gone through the Forest. There's another path leading to the Fourth Kingdom, that's much safer."
"You said yourselves that the witch is crafty. You don't think that a few giants would stop her from taking a more dangerous route. After all, she got past the three of you, didn't she?"
"Well, yes."
He glowered at her for a moment, before waving an arm at his men. "It's getting dark out. We leave now."
The King left his castle, soldiers and search dogs following suit.
The three siblings stood dumbstruck for a minute after their father left.