The king and his men pt 1

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The king and his men,
stole the queen from her bed,
And bound her in her bones.

I was onlt 6 years old back then.

Loud booming roused me from my deep dreamless slumber. I had herd that sound only once before on the day that my father had left. I knew that sound. Cannon fire.

I jumped put of my bed, ran to the window and drew the curtains. There was an out-of-place ship in the bay, the main sail had a blue phoenix depicted upon its surface. "pirates." I whispered.

I herd rushing footsteps in the hallway as a stray cannonball ripped through the house next door. That's when I started to get scared. The door swung open and my mother ran in, she was still in her nightgown as I was. She ran up to me and held me close,

"Thank goodness you are not hurt."

"Mummy there are pirates!" I said in a scared voice. She looked over my head and out the window, her eyes narrowed when she spotted the ship.

She had a fire in her eyes that I had never seen before, it scared me.

I looked out the window and saw the pirates swarm into the small town. There were only about 20 or so but to the small scared girl I was then, it seemed like atleast 3 timet that amount.

"Mummy, I'm scared!" I whispered and hid my face in her shoulder. She hugged me tighter.

"It will be ok, do you think you could do something for me?" I looked up at her with tears welling up in my eyes.

"I need you to run as fast as you can to Grandpa Cyril, he will look after you, but you mustn't let any one see you."

"But mummy I -"

"Dammit girl!" She yelled, the tears started pouring from my eyes, my mother never yelled. I knew something was seriously wrong.

"Please?" I looked up into my mother's face. A hot tear fell onto my forehead, she was crying. I sniffed as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"I'll try." I said in a small voice.

She lifted me up and ran into the storage room, a large room on the second floor full of unused items. I had spent a lot of my childhood in that room, it was my special place, the place I went to be alone or didn't want to be found.

My mother put me down and opened a large chest. the few items that where chest was all that we had left of my father.

She shuffled the items around for a moment before withdrawing a red bead necklace with a blue bird feather hanging from it. She slid the necklace over me head and whispered; "it will keep you safe."

A loud crashing sound came from down stares. She grabbed another item from the chest before picking me up and running into the next room.

As she opened the window I caught a glimpse of the item the she had taken from the chest; it was my father's knife.

She lifted me out of the window and lowered me as far as she could before dropping me. I landed lightly on top of one of the many bushes that grew next to our house. I heard yelling coming from inside the house as I struggled to climb out of the bush.

I looked up at the window, I could only see shadows.

There was more yelling and one of the men's voices was cut short as blood sprayed onto the glass surface of the window. My mother was yelling again then the sound of a gunshot echoed from the room. I heard the dull thud of a body landing on wooden floorboards followed by silence.

I stood there for a moment with tears streaming down my face. I shut my eyes tightly, hopping that it would all just go away. I opened them again, it hadn't. I wiped the tears from my eyes and ran into the street.

I kept to the shadows as I made my way to the black smiths, the home of the old badger Cyril. He had once been a great warrior, many years ago who had long since retired to live the quiet life of a smith.

Yes my mother was right, he could protect me.

I turned the corner and got a view of a battle field massacre. Bodies of pirates littered the ground and in the middle of it was Cyril in an epic battle with the largest otter I had ever seen.

Cyril used a huge great axe where as his opponent was wielding only a rapier in his right hand and a clawed gauntlet on the left.

'There is no way that pirate can win against Grandpa Cyril.' I thought as I watched the fight.

How wrong I was.

Cyril was old and the otter pirate was amazingly fast. I soon realised that the otter was only toying with him.

Cyril looked once again like the fierce warrior he once was. He had 2 large gashes down the right side of his face from the pirate's gauntlet along with countless other cuts and gashes all over his body.

The otter was yet to suffer even a scratch, he wore a manic grin on his face. This was all just a big game to him.

The old badger's silver coat was dyed crimson with blood but he still fought on, he would not just give in and die.

"You scum!" Cyril growled through clenched teeth. "You don't deserve the name otter!" he snarled.

The pirate merely smiled.

"And you don't deserve thee title Badgerlord, you're pitiful" his voice was so smooth that I found it hard to believe that it came from the same beast that was battling before me.

He let out a great sigh as Cyril fell to one knee.

"I'm getting bord with this game." the otter shrugged before lazily placing the tip of his rapier on Cyril's throat.

"Any last words?" the otter mocked. The former Badgerlord spat in the pirate's face and held his head high. The pirate's face twisted into a sneer before he plunged the rapier into Cyril's neck and down into his chest.

He was dead in seconds.

A scream escaped me before I could stop it. I clasped my hands over my mouth as he looked up at me.

His eyes terrified me.

They were cold as ice.

Rain started to fall as I stared deeply into his eyes, they wouldn't let me go. He broke eye contact as he cleaned the blood off of his blade and sheathed it.

I ran.

I had no idea where I was going I just knew that I had to away. It took him only a few seconds to catch me. He grabbed me arm and lifted me off the ground.

He smiled. He half led half dragged me to a small storage shed nearby. He threw me in and locked the door.

The last thing I saw of him before he shut the door was his pale purple eyes laughing at me.

"I'll let you out in the morning." He said through the locked door before I heard his retreating footsteps.

I starting shivering uncontrollably from cold and fear. I couldn't take it anymore. I fell to the cold stone floor and just cried. I soon exhausted myself and fell into a nightmare filled sleep.