Name: Four Kingdoms.
Summary: Thierry, Rashel, Ash and Hunter all run their own kingdoms of Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs. In a world of affairs, wars and romance, nothing is certain and every decision could mean the end.
Rating: T
Pairings: Thierry/Hannah, Rashel/Quinn, one-sided Rashel/Timmy, Hunter/Maeve, Delos/Maggie, Ash/Mary-Lynette, Platonic Ash/Poppy, Mary-Lynette/Jeremy.
The soft rustling of the trees, the light sound of her feet pressing into the mossy forest floor and the quiet panting of her companion were the only noises. Hannah of Spades carefully made her way along the barely visible path that led to the centre of Clockwork Forest, her dog trailing at her heels. She often did this, sneaked out into the depths of the forest unguarded so that she could have time to herself.
Her dog yelped and ran ahead of her, knocking her off her feet as he pushed past.
"Bloody- dog!"
The dog was simply called Dog, she had named him when she was only a little girl, and learned to regret the simple and silly name choice since she was ten and the other girls at school had dogs with cool names like Pegasus and Pan.
"Where are you going?" Hannah exclaimed, struggling to stand and hissing at the mud coating her riding clothes. Then, without anymore delay, she ran after him.
He ducked and threaded his way through the tightly knit trees, barking loudly as he went. She was afraid he'd wake the locals of the forest – few and far between people but still not the kind you would not like to upset – but no amount of hissing and throwing branches at him as he ran would make him be quiet. She tripped over trunks and leapt over small streams, eventually falling over the monster of a dog when he abruptly came to a standstill.
"What did you do that for?" she asked him, almost expecting an answer, but he just smiled at her, his tongue lolling out, "I swear, I'm getting a cat!"
It was after this that she actually bothered to look around to see where she was. She appeared to be in a very small clearing lined completely by trees on three sides and a river on the other. She knew where the river branched off to and immediately began to panic. That one river was the dividing line in between Spades and Cloves land, and Cloves was a place she never wanted to be.
Hannah was hastily making her way in the opposite direction when she hurt a loud shuffling and footfalls. She spun around, hand immediately going to her sheaved knife, and saw that the clearing was completely empty.
Just as she was about to turn and leave, Hannah saw the shadows at the edge of the trees begin to ripple and writhe. "Who's there?" She called out in her most authorative voice – as a Queen she possessed an incredibly good one – stepping further into the clearing with her hand never leaving the handle of her knife.
"Relax," a voice came from the shadows, "I am a friend."
Then the shadow stepped out from the trees, and Hannah gasped.
The heels of his shoes tapped against the marble floors as he walked. Thierry of Spades had a strong lilt to his stride, something that portrayed him as a Pirate Gentleman of sorts, which is exactly what he was. A retired Pirate turn King of Spades, Thierry ruled fairly and strongly, holding power over the most powerful kingdom in all the Noctemund, he was an incredibly good king.
An incredibly angry king.
"Miss Lupe, have you heard from Hannah?"
"I'm afraid not, My Lord," Lupe Acevedo, his right hand woman, looked solemnly into his eyes, as few others dared to do when he was in one of his moods, "I'm sure she is perfectly okay."
"I know, but I worry." He carried on walking, with her falling into comfortable step slightly behind him, "She's been missing for hours."
"She most likely went to the market, My Lord."
"The market? Queens of mine don't go out into the Capital to buy avocados." He turned a corner, barely avoiding brushing into a maid carrying a rather large patterned vase, "What would she want with avocadoes anyway?"
"I said nothing about avocados, My Lord, maybe the forests?"
"Hannah's not as stupid as to go into the forests unattended, anything could happen."
"She can look after herself, My Lord."
He abruptly stopped, and Lupe slammed into him, immediately apologizing, "You're right." He said, ignoring her apology – apparently, he hadn't even noticed her slam into him. "Prepare a team, Lupe, we're going out to look for her."
"You have matters to attend to-"
"Cancel them. My wife is missing, I think it's more important than drinking tea with that ponse from the Diamonds."
"That 'ponse,'" is ponce even a word? She wondered, "as you put it sir, is the king of Diamonds, and I doubt he'll appreciate you blowing him off."
"He'll get over it." Thierry then strode off, leaving Lupe stood in the middle of the large, light hall adorned with blue themed wallpapering. She looked dazed and frustrated, but unfroze and went in the opposite direction immediately.
Thierry had a bad feeling about this.
And Lupe wasn't looking forward to explaining to Ash of Diamonds why he had just travelled 600 miles for no reason.
Fun fact! Clockwork forest is called Clockwork forest because the man that was responsible for the end of the 100 year long Glass Wars, Arnold Clockston, was born and raised in one of the small villages within it.
That's the Preface! Drop a review, please! I wanna know your opinions. :3 And do tell your friends, that'd be awesome, thank you. (: The way this will work is it'll be a chapter told from the POV of each kingdom, and then it'll start again. So basically it'll go Spades (Hannah and Thierry's POV) Hearts (Rashel's POV.) Diamonds (Ash's POV) and Clubs (Delos POV).
Characters.
Spades – Thierry and Hannah, Mary-Lynette.
Hearts – Rashel and Quinn, Timmy.
Diamonds – Poppy and Ash, Phil.
Clubs – Hunter and Maeve, Delos.
Jokers – Morgead and Jez.
Colour Schemes.
Spades – Light blue with navy.
Hearts – Red, of course. Of all shades.
Diamonds – Light yellow, orange.
Clubs – Light purple, dark purple.
