"I want to rule Stetriol," Irwyn said to his brother Gar one day.
Gar paused his play, with several toy soldiers in his hands, when his older brother said it. It mildly surprised him. King Irwyn? But the older boy had admitted it with so much certainty that he knew there was no changing his mind.
"I'll be just like Father," Irwyn added. "Maybe i'll get a powerful spirit animal like him. What spirit animal do you want, brother?" he blinked at Gar.
Gar looked up like he was thinking. "What about a... crocodile!" he exclaimed. "If I had a crocodile, I could take over the world."
"In your dreams," Irwyn grinned. "I'll take over the world before you,"
"Oh yeah? How are you going to do that without an army?" Gar put his fist to his chest and raised his head high. "I'll be leading your army if I can't be king!"
"General Gar! To the ships, tonight we conquer!" Irwyn brung his voice low, put on a serious face and pointed at him, mimicking a king. "And don't forget to bring our most delicious oatmeal cookies,"
"Your wish is my command," Gar bowed with the most sincerity.
King Irwyn was coughing horribly. It was like he emptying himself through his throat. Every night in the castle, the horrible sound rang in General Gar's ears.
It made him nervous.
That night, Gar went to visit with his brother in his own room. He knocked loudly on the wood door, and when he heard no voice respond to his knock, he opened the door by himself. And instantly regretted it.
King Irwyn was standing in the candlelight, his back turned to his brother and most trusted general.
And his spirit animal...
It was lying at his feet, on its side. With the King's stillness and the animal's limp position, there was no mistaking it: his spirit animal was dead.
Then the King turned, and Gar saw the glint of glass under his cloak. The glass had a black substance in it- unmistakably a poison. The horror of it made Gar swallow hard. King Irwyn had the bonding sickness, just like thousands of Stetriolans before him... and he'd attempted to cure himself by killing his own spirit animal.
"A useless spirit animal won't help me rule Stetriol," Irwyn growled, then began to hack and cough again.
"The King... some sort of dog... throat ripped out..." A Stetriolan commoner woman was practically in hysterics when General Gar demanded her to tell him what happened to King Irwyn the night before.
Gar rushed to his brother's room at the top of the castle. Trailing from the door was a smear of red. Blood. King Irwyn's blood, he knew.
"He was already dead, General Gar." A voice said from behind him.
Gar whipped around to find the tanned, smirking face of Zerif, the man who got arrested for cutting down a tree just days earlier. His black tunic was parted slightly at the top, barely revealing an animal tattoo. An animal that looked doglike.
"You did this," Gar snarled. "You killed Stetriol's king."
"It isn't much of a loss," Zerif said, uninterested. "It's time for a new era, a new king. A king who is bonded to a... saltwater crocodile," He reached back into his cloak and pulled out a vial of yellow liquid. "With this, Stetriol will not suffer any more. The new era starts with your nephew, Shane," he smirked. "The Devourer."