So, this is my first ever fanfic and I wanted to do it on Epic because it was basically my first major animated movie obsession. Now some of the characters may seem a little OOC but believe me when I tell you I have my reasons. Reviews are appreciated, no flames please!
Disclaimer: I do not own Epic OR its characters, Blue Sky Studios, Chris Wedge, William Joyce do. I got the idea for this story after reading Intertwined by teecee and wondered what it would be like if M.K had been on the bad side. BlackLemonJuice on Devianart did some art for the story as did Karrashi, so thanks a lot guys!
This fanfic is dedicated to teecee, BlackLemonJuice, and Karrashi!
(Note: Whoa, when I was editing my chapters...and replaced them with the original copies, they had this - "hr style="margin: 5px 0px; border: 0px; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff));" noshade="noshade" size="1" /" - stuff in front of it and inside of it. Just so you know, if this happens, I AM FIXING IT.)
( Mandrake's POV )
I was taking my usual midnight stroll by the edge of our borders, admiring our rot yet wishing that it could spread beyond the limits the Leafmen and their Queen put. Wrathwood hadn't been an empire since my ancestor, Mandragora ruled over our decayed kingdom. However the empire had crumbled when the first Queen of Moonhaven had been chosen thus restoring life to the forest and erasing all of Mandragora's hard work.
Shaking these thoughts from my head, I had always promised my father that I would be leading the generation that brought back this mighty empire to make him proud. I gave a small smile at the memory of my father but quickly shook it off when I remembered what the Leafmen had done to him. Jumping from rotten branch to rotten branch, I made my way around the perimeter of our borders and looked upon the disgusting growth coming from the other side.
The small island of rot we called home was feeling smaller and smaller every day, it seemed. All in the name of balance, but I was getting sick of balance and wanted more of the forest to be covered in our decay. The current Queen had tried to convince me that the growth was better for the forest and she almost ended up with one of my arrows in her back. It was getting late anyhow and I was already starting to concern myself with problems for tomorrow.
I began to turn away to head back to the home tree, (more of a stump really...) but stopped when I heard a cry from afar. Setting a poison arrow in my bow, I cautiously jumped over the border and made my way towards the source of the sound. Moving aside a hideous green leaf I saw a small child, a little girl a few years younger than my own son Dagda. Lowering my bow, I was about to approach her until I suddenly noticed that she looked a lot like a jinn child.
Upon further inspection however you could see the clothes she wore were not green and earthy smelling, but strange and foreign. A blue nightdress with a crown on it along with the word "Princess" and I couldn't help but think this might be a Leafman trick of some sort. Then I heard voices, slow and mumbled but voices nonetheless arguing with each other.
Stompers had always talked so that you had to slow down your hearing to understand them. It was hard to distinguish much of what they were saying and all I could make out was...
"Mary Katherine..."
I looked back at the child and recoiled in terror when I realized that she could possibly be a Stomper. Her strange clothes, her unnatural smell, and Stompers wandering around in the middle of the night, it had to be true. The real question was, why was she the size of a jinn? Who had shrunk her? However when she laughed and giggled at a small beetle crawling on the dirt ground I knew that she wasn't a real threat, at least not yet anyhow.
Approaching her and kneeling so that I was at her level, I grabbed a nearby leaf off of the ground and then grabbed a greying leaf that had somehow gotten onto my bat cloak that I hadn't noticed earlier. I gave them both to her to see her reaction to the two leaves and smiled in delight when she used her small hands to rip apart the green leaf and look curiously at the grey one. For some reason this little experiment made me think, then make a choice that would permanently affect my life.
I gingerly picked her up from the ground and smiled when she started flapping the rotten leaf around like a little flag, not at all reluctant to me carrying her. Swiftly making my way back over the border and to the safety of Wrathwood, I entered the home tree and made my way to the throne room. On my way, Boggans saluted me and bowed respectfully although most hesitated when they saw the jinn-looking child in my arms.
When I finally arrived, I went through a door at the back of the throne room and entered the large complex that I had lived in ever since I was a little Boggan. An anxious cheery voice greeted me the moment I walked in.
"Hey daddy! Where have you been all night? Were you out fighting more Leafmen? Or were you taming some bats? Maybe you were training the new recruits-?"
His chattering came to a complete and utter stop when he noticed the little Stomper in my arms. I put the girl down and she crawled over to Dagda to play with the edge of his mole cloak.
"Who's that daddy? Is it a jinn? Where'd she come from?"
Over the years Dagda's curiousity had grown to the point where I sent boggans to steal bits and pieces from the Rings of Knowledge so he could read about the forest's history. Still his questions were endless and he kept looking for better ways to improve life for the Boggans. Well, for once I'd be able to answer his questions this time as well as the question of my own on how I would raise the child.
"This is a Stomper child named Mary Katherine, I think. I don't know why, but she was apparently shrunk by some kind of magic. I found her in the woods a few steps over the border. I'm thinking we should take care of her, for now..."
Realizing how gentle and caring I sounded towards a Stomper, I quickly added-
"She may be of use to us someday in taking down the Leafmen."
Dagda looked at me as though I had ants crawling out of my ears and for a moment I held my breath waiting for his reaction. Surprisingly enough, he simply jumped up and down waving his hands around and eventually grabbing Mary Katherine's small hands in his own and spinning her around the room in glee. Laughing all the while.
"You know what this means Mary Katherine? We're going to be siblings! I've always wanted a little sister!"
I quietly let out a sigh of relief, pleased that he wasn't against Mary Katherine or my idea of taking her in. Dagda stopped spinning and jumping and placed Mary Katherine on a grey wooden chair.
"You know what Mary Katherine? You need a nickname! I'll call you..."
He sat down himself and scrunched up his eyebrows, with his hand scratching his head stuck in thought. I rolled my eyes a little at his silly concentrated expression but quickly went back to neutral and serious when he turned to Mary Katherine and snapped his fingers.
"M.K! I'll call you M.K and you can call me Dag. Alright?"
Mary Kat-I mean, M.K gurgled in agreement and started making incoherent noises and sounds to express her happiness. Dagda continued to run around the room celebrating his new companion until he yawned tiredly, so I led him to his room and tucked him into bed with his small moss-stuffed crow toy. I then in turn picked up M.K and took her to my room where Dagda's old cradle still sat untouched from only a few years ago.
Setting her down in it and checking to make sure the blankets were soft enough and the moss pillows weren't hard, I then crept away to my own bed. After laying down on the crow feather-filled matress I drifted off to sleep, a scheme to finally avenge my father bubbling in my brain. Gears were turning and I was certain M.K would be able to put my plan into motion with her innocent jinn-like appearance.
Waking up in the morning, I gathered my Boggan soldiers in the training room for my announcement. I told them of M.K, my plot to destroy the Leafmen, and I even quoted Mandragora from the famous speech given long ago...
"We can bring down our enemy, from the inside. All we need is someone on the inside."
The Boggans supported my choice to raise M.K and they agreed to do as much as they could to make sure she never went past the borders or was seen by Leafmen. No one else in the Boggan community was aware of her status as a Stomper except for Dagda and myself.
While she was growing up, I ensured that she learned everything there was to know about the Boggan history and the Leafmen that attacked us. Dagda taught her how to ride a crow and later, a bat whilst I trained her in swordsmanship and archery. I created a Boggan-like mask for her to wear if she ever went outside, for I didn't want her to be spotted by Leafmen scum and taken to their kingdom of Moonhaven.
Soon after, she became a real part of our family and we all had shared interests in battle strategies and weaponry as well as our hatred of Leafmen, growth, and the Queen of Moonhaven. Over time, I myself grew bitter and cynical due to our battle against the Leafmen remaining in a neutral position. However I would never let this constant battle get me down.
M.K and Dagda were my children, but they were also my generals as well as best friends themselves. Growing up, I didn't dare tell M.K who she truly was and kept it a secret but I did know that someday it would all come spilling out like water breaking free from a dam. Until then however, I was determined to keep M.K away and hidden from the rest of the forest which would prove to be a difficult feat as she grew older and more adventurous.
Okay, so I know you think Mandrake is pretty OCC right now. What with being nice and caring about others. Well in the movie, you could see that he had a good healthy relationship with his son and genuinely cared about him and was proud that he shared the same interest in destroying the forest with him (as evil as that may sound..). They had what you may say was the only strong "parent-child" relationship in the movie. So Mandrake seems different now because he hasn't yet gone through 16 years of trying and failing to destroy the forest WHILE battling Leafmen. So when present time comes, he'll be more "in character" but you'll see he acts softer towards Dagda M.K. Mandragora is Mandrake's ancestor, gender is not specified and you can decide if you think the ruler of the Rotten Empire was a male or female, doesn't matter to me.
§~Amethyst~§
