By: Laney Cahill
Dragon Keeper
"Cool, didn't know I could do that."
Chapter One:
A Kings Death!
"THERE HE IS GET HIM BEFORE HE REACHES THE CASTLE!" yelled one of the guards on a brown and black horse as, what seemed like, millions of guards, charged toward the young man, carrying a sack in his arms as he headed toward the castle down the muddy path as he heard the thunder over head rolling.
He ran and ran even faster at the sound of the horses gaining ground behind him. He hugged the sack tighter and tighter as he finally reached the drawbridge and as it went to rise he ran even fast and jumped, praying he would make it and not land in the moat below. He grab a hold of the wood and pulled himself up and slide down the wooden drawbridge that was closing.
"PLOP!" he landed right in a dark, now rainy village, deserted by the looks of it. Victor glanced around in search of a person or a guard. No one was in sight, as he continued through the silent village.
The sack in his arms started to struggle and whimper. Victor looked around and jumped into the nearest store, which was a barber shop, and looked around to see if it was safe before opening the sack.
"You need to be quiet Austin, or neither of us will see another sunrise ever again. You finally get to see your mother and brother once you're inside. Now be quiet please?" he asked as the baby girl looked up and did a sort of grin and silenced as she looked over at saw a bottle of shampoo and starred at it as Victor looked around and decided to try to get into the castle while its quiet.
He slide out of the shop and made his way to the castle and slide in, no problem, but he heard someone coming down the corridor, he looked right, then left and stepped back into tiny window bay and waited.
"You need to be quiet and go to sleep Kenny, before you step father goes crazy again." he heard a female voice coming from the carrier of another sack.
"Victoria!" he whispered, looking at his former wife, holding his other child while he held the other, unforgettably she heard and spun around but thankfully Victor was skinny enough she didn't see him.
She shrugged and continued with the, now laughing, baby boy.
"That was your mother and brother Austin, hopefully we can get to the baby room unnoticed." he whispered even more quietly as he stepped back out of the shadows and into the corridor.
He walked quietly through the corridor and saw that Victoria had exited the baby room and took the other way around back to her bedroom.
Victor walked in and saw that Kenny was asleep and glanced around and saw another crib and it was set up as if a girl was expected.
He sighed looked lovingly at the little Austin, who was starring at him, as if she knew what was going on.
"I'll miss you dearly Austin, hope you grow up well here, with your brother and mother. Good luck, my little Princess." he said lying her in the crib and she looked up at him as he covered her with a green and white blanket. "I'll be watching you." he whispered as he kissed her on the fore head and then turned to Kenny, his other child.
He looked from his daughter to his son and turned toward the door as he heard voices out the window, raced to it and saw that the guards had reached the castle and were searching for him.
"Better do it quick." he muttered as he blew a kiss to Austin and Kenny and ran, quietly, to the king and queens bedroom. He slide in as he pulled out his knife and walked quietly to the bed and starred at his former wife, whom he was so dearly in love with, still after all these months and she was wrapped in another man's arms.
He quickly shook his head as he heard footsteps out in the corridor and lifted his knife and quickly slit the kings throat and there was no sound, just a gasp and that was it, Victor saw Victoria glance up at him quickly as she looked from him to the king and back to him, but when she did he was gone he had jumped out the window and was sliding down the roof.
He made it out of the castle but was shot with an arrow and he blacked out.
"OH MY GOSH! ALIEN ALIEN, GUARDS GUARDS GET IN HER NOW!" she shouted as four guards walked in.
"What is it madam, we have the killer, he is dead." he said smiling but it vanished as Victoria stood up and walked over to him and slapped him across the face and yelled, "SO IS THE KING!" they all gasped.
Victoria thought that this was a very bad thing to happen and that she should check on her son.
She made her way out of the room and into the corridor thinking about everything that had just happened.
"Could it have been him? I don't know, he doesn't seem like…wait, yeah he dose." she muttered as she entered the room and walked over to Kenny and heard a whimper over her should and spun around to the other crib.
"Could it be?" she asked walking over and uncovering the blanket and there lying in the crib was Austin.
"Austin?" she asked picking her up and hugging her. "It was him." she muttered kissing her on the forehead as Austin giggled and that woke up Kenny but when Victoria went over him and he saw Austin he smiled up at her, she returned one.
"It was him." she muttered putting Austin back to bed and Kenny back to sleep the two of them fell asleep instantly.
"Goodnight my children." she said as she shut the door and walked back to the bedroom to check on her dead husband and everything.
Months went by and the funeral was over and everyone in the kingdom had attended. Victoria ended up being pregnant so she is now about eight months pregnant and taking care of two babies at that, she had to call her sister Jessica to help her.
Soon the new baby was born, a baby boy, she named him Aaron. So now she had Kenny, the oldest, Austin, the middle child, and Vance, the youngest. The weird thing was that Kenney was only a few minutes older then Austin, but she took that in and ignored it mostly, when they got old enough at least.
Kenny and Austin were about seven years old and Vance was six and that's when weird things started to happen with Kenny and Austin but Vance was so jealous of the strangeness of the two that he started teasing the both of them. Soon, they both got tired of it and just started hanging out with each other, they had no friends at school and their own little brother was so annoying they hide in the forest behind the castle for the longest time.
But now, they're both thirteen and Vance is twelve and things are getting even more strange then before. They're growing up and starting to mature and its time for their destiny to take hand.
Chapter Two:
Father?
"AUSTIN, KENNY, VANCE, TIME FOR DINNER!" called Queen Victoria out the overgrown door as Kenny and Vance spun around and started toward the door, however Austin stayed and aimed her arrow.
"AUSTIN, what are you doing?" asked Kenny, as Vance slide through the door as Victoria looked up at her other two children.
"I'm going to beat Vance's record!" she called back as Kenny grinned and watched her little sister.
Austin aimed and had a sharp eye on her target and let go and the arrow flew through the bushes and hit the bulls eye.
"YES!" she screamed that Victoria clapped and beckoned the two of them in.
Austin and Kenny hit a high five as they entered the dinner room.
"Nice aim by the way sis." said Kenny plopping down in a chair as Austin sat down beside him.
"Thanks, yours too." she said starting to eat.
Vance rolled his eyes as their mother started to eat.
"I have something to discuss with you three." she said starting to eat.
The three of them looked up in a surprised and worried look. "Later." she finished as they all nodded.
The whole dinner was silent as desert came in.
They ate desert in silence. Austin went to get up when Victoria motioned for her to sit back down, "I think I should tell it now, so you three can sleep on it tonight." she said as Austin looked at Kenny, who shrugged and she sat back down.
"Okay you three know the deal, your father died when you two were a baby and when Vance was still in me." she said, as Austin and Kenny held back a laugh at the way she said it.
"Well, its been about thirteen years since then, and I think its time for a king around here. What do you think?" she asked, smiling at each of them.
Vance nodded and said, "Yeah, I think it's a great idea mom, how are we going to do it?"
"We're having a ball tomorrow night, I know doesn't give you guys time to think but…what do you think?" she asked.
"Well, mom there will be a lot of kings there, I mean everyone wants to role this kingdom and there will be a lot of people here, do you think we can go through…." he looked at Austin, "another event."
"What? It was once and the boy pushed me, I didn't jump." she said crossing her arms. Kenny shrugged as Vance grinned and the two of them looked at him as it disappeared.
"Anyway, but there will be a lot of people here, including teenagers, and younger people, so please you three be on your best behavior, we need a mans touch around here anyway." she said taking a drink as the three of them nodded and went to their rooms.
"Hey, Austin." she heard at her door, after about two hours tossing and turning in her bed, still not asleep, she looked at the door, slide out of her bed and whispered, "Who is it?"
"Kenny, who else?" he asked as she opened the door and he slide into the room and Austin shut the door.
"What do you want?" she asked lighting a few candles so they could see around the room.
He sighed and plopped down in a seat. "What is it Ken?" she asked sitting on her bed.
"Its our father." he breathed.
"What? Did you go into the village outside the castle…again?" she asked, standing up and throwing on some jeans she had made herself.
"Don't look." she ordered as her brother rolled his eyes and turned away as he still explained. Austin was putting on a shirt and then when she was done they looked at each other for a moment.
"So what's wrong?" she asked, looking at Kenny's face, which was downcast.
"We need to go to the village now. Our," he sighed, "Our father is waiting."
"What?" asked Austin as she starred at him like he was crazy. Then she started to giggle. "Sure he is." she shrugged.
"Seriously Austin, come on I'll show you." he said as he grabbed her by the arm and pointed out the window. Austin, shrugged and muttered, "Not getting to sleep soon anyway." as she climbed out of the window and down the roof.
Kenny followed.
"You have to be quiet though." he muttered as Austin nodded and shook her head at the same time.
The two of them made their way through the castle village and signaled their guard to open the drawbridge.
It opened and there was the village outside the castle.
"You have no idea how much trouble you're in." said a voice behind them, they both spun around and saw Vance standing there with an evil grin.
"What are you doing up so late Vance?" asked Kenny as Vance looked at him and said, "What are you guys doing outside at this time of night?"
"Well you need to get into the bed before I-" Kenny was cut off by Austin as Vance went to protest.
"Shut it, if you guys get us caught I will never let you use my knife again." she said patting her pocket, she always kept her knife on her.
The two boys silenced as Austin continued. "Now, we won't tell if you won't Vance, plus you get to see the outside village." she said as Vance did a tiny nod but eyed the two of them suspiciously as he walked on with them.
Kenny lead the way through the village as he finally came to a halt at a tiny house and inside Austin heard a voice say, "Come in my son."
Vance and Austin looked at each other and shrugged as they entered behind Kenny.
"Hello father, this is Austin, you remember, you sent me for her." he said as Austin stepped in and saw a old hansom man with open arms coming toward Austin. She hugged him back as she felt him tighten his grip.
"Kenny, what's going on?" she asked as Vance looked around.
"Austin, don't your recognize me?" he asked, "Oh no you wouldn't you were only a child when I…" he cleared his throat gazing at Austin, "Who is this?"
"This is Vance, our little brother." said Austin sort of glancing at Vance.
"Oh your mother and the old kings?" he asked Kenny, who nodded, but looked like he wasn't shore he was right or not.
"Austin turns out we have to leave." said Kenny as Vance looked at the two of them and started to laugh.
"What is so funny?" asked Austin, ignoring Kenny's statement.
"I think its funny that I'm from a real king and a queen and you guys are from a peasant and a queen, you're not pureblood!" he shouted as Austin shrugged and noticed that the man had motioned for something and soon, there were two men carrying Vance away.
"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO HIM?" she yelled.
"He's okay…he's going back to the castle." he explained.
"Okay Mr. Who are you and what have you been telling my brother?" asked Austin as the man plopped down and Kenny and Austin sat down on the ground as he started the story.
"My name is Victor Corable, your mother and I were deeply in love when I found out that she was a Princess and she was to be married to King Alien, and we had already found out that she was pregnant with twins and was looking at little house in the village, this house…" he sighed looking down, then continued.
"Well, we found out that she was to be married and she had no choice for this, but the day before she left she had you two, and we decided to keep one here and the other with her." he explained as Austin looked down and sighed. "Well, Kenny here went with your mother and Austin you stayed here with me."
Austin got up with her arms crossed and asked, "Then how did I get in the castle?" she asked then she froze, and turned to Victor.
"Well, I finally got tired of being alone here, so I wrapped you in a sack and took you to the castle myself. Why you ask? Because I couldn't take care of you here and I…" his voice dropped to a whisper, "I killed your step father."
"WHAT?" yelled Kenny and Austin in unison.
"Look, now I see that it was a mistake and I regret it." he said standing up as the Kenny stood as well.
"Why didn't you die though? Mother said that the killer was dead?" asked Austin as Kenny nodded, and looked like he regretted bring Austin here.
"Well, it did hit me, and it did hit my heart, that's why I've been careful and I acted dead so they wouldn't kill me." he explained.
Austin glared at her father and Kenny as well.
She slung the carpet that was, suppose to be the door, and started back to the castle.
"AUSTIN!" called Kenny as she stopped and spun around.
"I don't know Kenny, what do you think? I'm angry at him, but I don't know why?" she said as Kenny pulled her into a hug and she hugged him back.
"I know, but I have plan." he said as Austin looked up at him then grinned.
"What? Get him to go to the ball and then get our parents together?" asked Austin.
"Actually no, I was thinking living here but yeah that would work too." said Kenny as they went back into the house and their father agreed and as Kenny and Austin left Austin was stopped by her father.
"I see you have a knife." he said pointing to her waist. "where did you find it?" he asked.
"Found it outside near the drawbridge. Never let it out of my sight, unless one of my brothers use it." she explained. "Why? Is this yours?"
Victor nodded and noticed she went to give it to him but he shook his head and said, "You keep it, it will come in handy once you and your brother started the journey." he said kissing her on the forehead as Austin, a little confused, headed back to the castle with Kenny.
Chapter Three:
The Ball!
The next morning was the morning that Austin was ready for, that night was the ball.
Her and Kenny were ready to get their parents back together, but now with Vance on their tales about them not being "pureblood" as he says, this would be harder then they thought it would.
"Austin, wake up, we got to go shopping for you dress." called Victoria through her door.
"But mom…" she muttered slamming her pillow on her head as her mother opened the door.
"Come on, you're my only daughter and I want to go shopping with her, come on,