Warship Model
Paramekia was known as the kingdom of a thousand mountains. Sarah's mother said that was an exaggeration, but when she looked out the windows, she could see many many mountains in all directions. To the west, there was a stretch of desert far below; that was only visible on clear days. The capitol itself was spread out over a dozen mountaintops, that was a certain fact. There were great big bridges that spanned the different mountains. When the Emperor called for parades, the soldiers and floats would make magnificent sights over those bridges. Sarah especially loved the floats.
But lately, it had been all soldiers and trained monsters in parades. She didn't like those parades because the monsters meant that kids had to stay inside. It wasn't just the parades that brought out monsters, though. Every day, the monsters were patrolling around the bridges and main streets. Sarah had looked out the window while eating her breakfast oatmeal and seen an ugly behemoth lounging in the front yard. Would it break their wall down and eat them? Sarah decided to play in another room so it wouldn't.
The big radio in the living room was playing an old speech from the Emperor. "The petty squabbles of the myriad nations of the world have led to unending violence, wars that led to more wars. The only solution to this nonsensical cycle is to unite the whole world under one nation. To this end, we will set out to become that ruling nation. This will require all of our intelligence, all of our strength, in order to lead the world to a state of stability, prosperity, and peace. But I am certain that we will emerge victorious!"
"Right, we're gonna make the biggest war ever," Sarah said, picking up one of her favorite toys. It was a model of the great Warship, with working propellers and windows for the cannons. Swooping it over the toy soldiers and dolls, she added, "But you're making the wrong war; you ought to fight off all the monsters."
"If you are worried about losing our people in a quest of conquest, don't be," the Emperor said on the radio. "We will be taking good care of our people so that as many people as possible can enjoy the united world we are building. Instead, we will be summoning the monsters of Pandemonium to fight for us. Great care will be taken to make sure that the monsters will not get out of our control. With their assistance, the rest of the world will have to swallow their pride and submit to our perfect vision."
"But you don't control monsters, unless you're a hero," Sarah said, picking up a doll that had green hair and a toy sword in her hand; her name was Mia. There was a spot on the Warship that Mia could sit on; the toy soldiers could stand there. "Warship belongs to us now! We're gonna shot down all the monsters and mean soldiers, boom!"
The model Warship had cannons that didn't do anything, so she swooped the Warship down to knock over a battalion of toy soldiers. But now that her hero had control of the Warship, that wasn't enough. Sarah got to her feet to zoom the Warship around the world, or at least around her house. Mia had to eliminate all the monsters around with her Warship. Boom! There went the laundry basket full of dirty clothes; the many holes made it look like those slimy thousand-eye monsters. Boom! There went her mother's bed, with an old headboard that was sort of like the behemoth lounging outside.
Out in the hall again, Sarah paused in front of a portrait of the Emperor. Everybody had to have one of these in their home, with a black frame that was as grim and ugly as the man himself. But you couldn't call the Emperor ugly; the soldiers got terribly offended at it. They'd only yelled at her the one time she tried, but they said that if she wasn't a little girl, they would've beaten her up and thrown her in jail. The soldiers thought the Emperor was the greatest man alive.
"Boom," Sarah said quietly, shooting up the Emperor's portrait with the great Whirlwind Cannon to blow him clear out of this world. Then she ran back to the living room so that she and Mia didn't get caught. That was a good adventure for them.
The radio had switched off the Emperor's old speech. "We have a new and extremely important announcement from our great and immortal Emperor. If you have family members in the other room, please call them to listen in."
"Mom!" Sarah called. "There's an important announcement on the radio!"
"What is it this time?" she asked, coming in from the kitchen.
"Dunno," she said.
When the Emperor started talking, his voice sounded rougher than in the old recording. "We have been given the alarming news that the rebels still fighting us are seeking to unseal the ancient destructive magic of Ultima with the intent of invading our capitol and annihilating us all. While it is a difficult task that they may fail at, we will not take the risk. Instead, we have adjusted our great triumph in the Whirlwind magic technology to build an impenetrable mobile fortress within a hurricane in order to demolish the remaining rebel nations. This superlative force will destroy the source of this ongoing war and confirm our victory in uniting the world.
"While the rebel nations will cease to exist, we will not count individual troublemakers out of the picture. As such, the castle and surrounding capitol will be placed in the highest level of defensive measures immediately. Citizens are not to leave their homes or workplaces without an escort of the city guards. If you can stay at a workplace and continue your job, that would be preferable. Shop deliveries will now be mandatory instead of recommended for everyone's safety. Also, all children will be expected to report in to the military academy; past exemptions will not be counted. A special patrol will go around collecting students this week, so prepare your children promptly."
"Oh no…" her mother said, putting her hand to her head.
"I don't want to go to the military academy," Sarah said, frowning at the idea. "I want to go to a school to learn about airships."
"Maybe they'll teach you that," she said, although it didn't sound like she believed it. Then she sat on the floor and hugged her. "I wish they wouldn't take you from me. We only have each other now."
"I wish the ultimate magic would bring back people who are gone," she said. "Like Daddy or Sis. That would be a lot better than ultimate destruction magic."
"Yes, that would be wonderful." She sighed, hugging her tighter. "Maybe I can ask for a job at the academy. Then we can stay together."
Since the academy was taking in a lot of kids, they agreed to hire Sarah's mother to help care for everyone. It was a tough school, with strict teachers and a long daily gym session. However, they did let her take the Warship model with her. They didn't want her to take Mia for some reason, but Sarah tucked the doll in with her clothes so they didn't see her. She didn't mind leaving her other toys behind, but Warship was a gift from her father and Mia was a gift from Sis. With those memories, she didn't want to give those two up.
That next month was a strange time. There was a confusing week when people said that the Emperor was dead, that he wasn't, that the Dark Knight had taken over, or that the Emperor had come back to life. What was clear was that the castle had changed. It stood on the tallest peak in the capitol city, towering over everything else being all stark and imposing. Now strange colored lights could be seen from the windows and a giant demon statue could be seen from the neighboring mountaintops. People whispered that it was called Pandemonium and that demons were now stalking the streets.
Then the castle collapsed one day, causing tremors all along the mountain range. But there were still monsters and demons in the streets; it seemed as though they were ruling Paramekia now. While Sarah plotted with Mia to go clear the streets, the academy teachers didn't let them. They weren't letting any child under ten near the doors out. The older students who were actual recruits to the military were allowed out, to help the soldiers gain control of the city. Oddly, the adults thought the most important thing was figuring out who was in charge of the city. Sarah thought it was more important to get rid of the monsters and demons so life could get back to normal.
Once the streets were safe, another parade happened. It was exciting for Sarah since there were more floats than solider battalions. They even had propeller driven floats built by airship engineers, showing that Paramekia still had some pride in its technology. More importantly, she could go back home, back to her actual school. Life wasn't the same, but at least she had her mother with her.
One evening, the big radio played a speech from the new leader of Paramekia. "We have lost sight of compassion and justice, as well respect for our fellow man. In our last emperor's reign, much of the world was decimated out of his madness. We have a responsibility to right the wrongs that were done, to make a truly peaceful and stable world. To this end, we will be working with the other remaining kingdom, that of Phin, in order to truly benefit all."
"I hope they mean it this time instead of simply saying it to pacify the public," her mother said.
"Did people believe the old Emperor when he started?" Sarah asked. She wasn't sure about believing these new leaders because the old one lied a lot.
"Yes, people were enthusiastic to have him take over," she said. "We were in a bad position at the time, having been taken over by other nations for our mines. Even when we had independence, food prices were high and it was tough to make a living. The old Emperor dramatically lowered food prices on the day he took over, giving us hope that he would make things better. But then he was out to destroy all nations, even our own it felt like. We're here because I haven't lived anywhere else, although the future of that is uncertain."
"Well a new leader's got to be better cause nobody could be worse than the last one," Sarah said. "But the future will be better. I'll become an airship pilot so that I can take you anywhere in the world."
Her mother finally smiled a little at that. "Would you?"
Sarah nodded. "Yes, that's what me and Sis wanted to do, so I've got to do it for her, and you."
"That would be wonderful," she said, patting Sarah's shoulder. "But right now, I'm most grateful that we're still together. We're lucky for that."
Slowly but surely, life for everyone got better as she grew up. By the time she could fulfill her promise to her mother, they got to take a world tour of towns that had been rebuilt from ruins. There was always some pain and sadness, though, thinking over the people who could not fly on an airship with them. Why had all this tragedy happened?
More importantly, how did they make sure it never happened again?
These were questions that no one seemed able to answer.