A fun, pun time will be had by all! Not really!

There once existed a sleepy kingdom without a name, inhabited by few. The kingdom had to enemies to fear, but no allies to count on. They lived life undisturbed, never improving, but never regressing—a kingdom truly lost in time.

None ruled the kingdom, for its residents lived independently of each other. The kingdom boasted only eight inhabitants—Rage, Hollow, Evanz, Fluke, Tyde, Gubiak, Peace (I know he's not in the drawing but I need an odd number so shush just go with it), and the wise old prophet. The seven others had recalled the prophet being in the kingdom as long as their memories stretched, as the prophet was the central figure that somehow kept the kingdom in harmony.

One autumn evening, the seven were beckoned to the prophet's house. He seemed frail and sickly, and everyone realized a cliché moment was about to occur.

"Listen closely," the prophet rasped, "for though the fate of the nation has been determined, the means have not yet been."

The kingdom's future ruler shall be

Not the one who claims victory

But the one who stands through battles still

Passing tests of endurance and will

And with that, the prophet crumbled into dust, bringing the remaining seven much confusion. The small room was soon full of chaos from this recent announcement.

Rage stood, more confused than any other, for he had barely passed his English class and could not understand a word the prophet had uttered.

Hollow, too, did not understand, but he feared there would be a battle, and he wished to be the first one prepared. He prepared the girders.

Evanz immediately pointed out plot holes and tried to run a google search of the prophecy.

Fluke looked for people to ally with.

Tyde realized he couldn't use ranged weapons in the room effectively and was disappointed.

Gubiak simply exclaimed "I do not understand!" with much passion.

Peace started planning ahead and had already became the ruler in his plans.

In the beginning stages, it was every man for himself. While some threw explosive materials around without a worry, others played the defensive side and hid in reinforced caves. But soon, allies came into play. And with allies came spies, and with spies, the battle became more complicated than expected.

The known allies were Rage and Evanz and Hollow and Fluke. The other three were still considering what to do, and they realized how easy it would be to Severus Snape it up and become professional two-timers. Peace soon decided otherwise, since Snape had died, but Gubiak and Tyde were rather giddy with their plans.

But as previously stated, with spies came complications. After a few days and much back-and-forth espionage, there were new groups into play. The alliances that one stood were no longer. There stood only two groups—the traitors and the non-traitors. It turned out Rage was an impatient prick, so he turned against Evanz. However, it was too late when he realized that instead of a sword, he was wielding a broom, allowing Evanz to flee. Gubiak, while gathering intelligence from Hollow and Fluke (which really amounted to nothing, for not much was going on) with Tyde, decided to try and unleash his inner power by shouting magical phrases he had once read in a book while waving around a stick. He soon realized he was not a wizard and held no inner power, so he fled. The last traitor was Hollow. Hollow was concerned someone would turn on him, so he got scared and ran away with some supplies.

That is how the groups split. The traitors Rage, Gubiak, and Hollow, were slightly outnumbered by the others Fluke, Tyde, Evanz, and Peace. Day after day they planned an attack, but all their plans relied on just one more person joining the traitor clan.

The non-traitors, while holding the advantage in numbers, had fewer supplies, and were afraid that one of them would join the traitors. Peace admitted he would have likely joined them, but he disapproved of the "defensive" methods they used. Evanz and Tyde had both been betrayed, and Fluke seemed too scared to leave. The battle was uneventful, for nobody fought, and nobody wanted to think about the fact that only one would remain.

Three weeks after the prophecy, a discovery was made. When foraging in the forests, Fluke found a mystical scroll that he brought back to show Evanz, Tyde, and Peace. It told of a tale of their current battle, but the traitors had four people and the non-traitors three. Only the traitor himself knew who the traitor was, so the rest remained worried.

One more week passed, and the non-traitors realized that their weapons supply was slowly depleting. They had no leads on who was stealing, but did not wish for another Hollow incident. There was nothing to do but wait it out.

Three more days passed with only a transfer of weapons occurring (we must not forget these completely fictional characters are all cowards). On the fourth day, though, weapons were not the only things missing from the non-traitor clan. For on that day, they no longer outnumbered the traitors. The remaining three of the non-traitors gathered to look at the only remain of their friend turned enemy—a scrap of paper.

And on that scrap of paper were written the words that all seven of the kingdom's residents were thinking:

It looks like the Tyde has turned.

Tyde, Tide.. get it? The tide has turned? Because...

I'm sorry. I'll leave.