Chapter 26: A Crash Course
WARNING: There is a mating scene and strong violence and gore (at the end) in this chapter. So, if you are a tad turned off by blood, turn your head as it is descriptive. Also, you probably won't like what Metalbeak and Allomere say about both Ezylryb and Autumn within the first scene of this chapter…
"That sprinking wench!" Allomere roars in anger
Upon hearing that Merissa is Ambala's new monarch, he was outraged as he knew the senate would have followed traditional law and would have gave it to the next in kin to Aaron, which is his sister, Autumn, but they didn't. Being Married to Autumn, he would obviously claim the throne from her hereditary right, even if it might, or might not, be allowed. Irregardless of all of that, the plot to take Ambala was underway and because of his damn priorities to the United Kingdoms of Owl and also the Owl World Elite Resistance has made him unable to challenge for the Ambala throne against Merissa, as she had no right, only being mother of Aaron's daughter.
If anything, if Allomere took Ambala throne off Merissa, being 'married' to the next in kin, he would only be able to rule until Sabyna, Aaron's daughter come of age. However, being within The Pure Ones, one of the members in their inner circle, he would obviously have their battalions called up to a bloody fight…
Before returning to Ga'Hoole, Allomere has information for the Inner Circle, but also, he would also want to speak with Metalbeak about their deal. Of course, he isn't backing out of it, but some things will be negotiated over, especially when it comes ton of complications that have come up since the coronation of Merissa Kin as Queen Dowager.
"Lord Metalbeak, Queen Nyra, Allomere is here." A guard at the door announces
Allomere enters the room, wearing his UKO sash with the badge of the UKO, which has the gemstones of the six kingdoms in the middle of a badge with a white crystal in the centre. He has forgotten to take it off since leaving their main assembly.
"Are you ruling that Glaux-forsaken place yet?" Metalbeak impatiently asks
"Worse… They handed it to the widow wife." Allomere replies as he takes off his sash and Metalbeak growls in disapproval and agitation "Sprinking UKO kept me in Kuneer for several nights when I could have been fighting the wench in Ambala."
"You are not keeping your end of our bargain and are trying my patience." Metalbeak scowls
Allomere sighs, "You trying being married to a she-wolf."
"Oh please, Autumn is no better than Nyra." Metalbeak rolls his eyes "Sprink, I control Nyra practically and as I am concerned, you barely have control that or worse, you haven't even mated with the little woman that you call a wife."
"Hey!" Nyra snaps offended "I am nothing like that bloody lower species owl and I only abide by your rues as long as I get a sprinking manicure or something once in a while."
"Sorry, love." Metalbeak says to his angered wife, before turning his head back to Allomere
"Oh please, Lord and Lady, I assure you Autumn isn't worth anything. Aaron said it himself before what we did to him. Besides, she's got a bid beak for a little bitch." Allomere says with a slight chuckle, "Besides, she may be lying when it comes to her so called 'virginity' when she has been with that sprink-tard Ezylryb. Glaux help the girl if she is doing the immoral and ends up with a bastard."
Metalbeak darkly chuckles "Hagsmire, that poor pathetic cry for help chose that sad owl. I would rather leave her with a fatherless bastard child if that happened. Besides, it's a shame that she had to defy, besides, if anything we could moonblink her."
"Indeed so, Lord Metalbeak." Allomere agrees "Besides, neither of them deserve to live if she conceives a bastard and also, if she remains disloyal."
Metalbeak then returns to seriousness as he threatens "Listen here, Allomere Seward, I have only one thing to say and that is that you are going to keep your end of our bargain."
"That is why I will be attacking on the eve of the meeting between Merissa Kin and the Great Tree's monarch, Boron. Of course, I will need soldiers to attack the senate as I know for a fact that Merissa will be holding senate this daybreak before 10am." Allomere instantly justifies "Besides, I plan scaring her into handing it over to me… an owl who is married to the next in kin the woman who is too small for her ego."
"Nyra, supervise and lead this attack." Metalbeak orders, before turning to face Allomere once again as Nyra takes off "If you don't get this throne soon, you're dead and I guess we have someone else to infiltrate the Ga'Hoole tree, the UKO and the OWER."
"Oh, by the time the sun rises, their senate and anyone else how get in my way will be destroyed and if their monarch can get the message, she will soon know that there is only one true ruler to Ambala." Allomere assures with a dark tone
Pure One Battalions leave the ragged canyon lands on pursuit of an attack. To attack a kingdom, which by all means will be the easiest to conquer, using the arranged marriage with a bloodline Kin Royal, named Autumn Rose, to the advantage. Heeding the words of the Pure One King, this is maybe the last chance he will have to claim the throne of Ambala, to conquer it for both himself and the Pure Ones. unfortunately, the only one not excited by this mission so far is Nyra.
Meanwhile in Ga'Hoole, since the panic last night, Autumn was given a day or too off to get her head together. Ezylryb told Boron that she had fainted and that her memories of the past where brought up by her unconscious mind. Right now, she just wants a bit of time to think. She then receives a letter and starts reading while Ezylryb comes into her room. She has a smile on her face and Ezylryb comes by her side and reads over her shoulder.
"It's good to see you smiling again." Ezylryb says as he kisses her cheek
"Boron agreed to meet with Merissa in a night's time. She just wrote back to me. The annulment is soon and I know that they'll work out a new treaty, unlike this agreement. The Ambala senate will have no say, which means Merissa is finally doing something that most rulers should do, take things into their own hands." Autumn smiles
The small spotted owl then leans her head on his shoulder. Words cannot express any of their thoughts. Autumn is happy… Her smile doesn't look like it will fade. Her annulment will come upon the night that both kingdoms agree on a treaty. She knows that Merissa, unlike her brother, is easy to get along with and she is a kind woman who knows her way around the law. She is better with the law than the senate gives her credit for.
"Remember three years ago? Not the fight, but… Before that…" He asks as he wraps his wing around her
"The question you wanted to ask me?" She then asks "The one I said I might say yes or no to?"
"The very same." He replies
"Are you going to ask me the question?" She sweetly and curiously asks
"Well… I don't know how to ask you this one question. As it is probably the most important question that you will ever be asked." He then says
"Just say what is in your heart." She sweetly smiles
Ezylryb takes her wings as he sits in front of her on the windowsill.
"Autumn, you are the most perfect girl I have met. Strong, brave, beautiful, smart… You are truly the Pride of Ambala. I promised when you have your freedom, I would ask you a question…" Ezylryb says before the nerves catch up
"Go on." Autumn encourages with a smile
"You almost have your freedom and I can't imagine a more perfect way to ask you this one question. You are smart, brilliant, perfect and I couldn't imagine anyone else who loves you like I do." He continues
Autumn's cheeks turn a light shade of red from all the flattery words.
"Autumn Rose Kin, Princess of Ambala, I want you to be my mate. I would want to give you the life you deserve. I would want to give you everything in this world to make a smile come you your face. I have waited for this night, waited these seven years we have been together just to say that you are my love and the flames of desire burn in my heart… And sprink, I sounds like an idiot. So… Will you say yes?" He passionately asks
Autumn is speechless before tears start welling in her eyes as she hugs him "Yes… Oh Ezylryb, yes I will…"
As she lets go, while being held in his wings, the sunlight seeps into Autumn's room, a light glow comes to her feathers. Her beautiful brown eyes staring into his. Why is it that they have unholy desires that just come to mind in moments like this? What they would both give to become mates, now they are betrothed, but there is something else, especially on Autumn's mind.
Everything has changed from since she first came here. Autumn found courage and inner strength. She found confidence when she has spent her life cowering in fear. She has found hope where it is hopeless. Most of all, Autumn has found someone who loves her. Her mother had said to her before her death when she was young in the coup that her prince shall come. Though the only noble blood he has is from an aristocracy full of rivalry and wrongdoing based in the tundra of the North, however, he is her prince and is as gracious as a king.
"You look ever so beautiful in the dawn's light. You glow like the sun which lights up the day." He says flattering her as her cheeks turn light red
A kiss ensues from their tender embrace as the heat of a forbidden romance is ever so fiery. They say that desire is like a flame, something sparks this flame, but sometimes you can be burnt from flames of desire. If it is like urgency because of unintentional heartache and a princess' celibacy, a make out starts as the petite spotted owl and the screech owl fall onto her bed, making Autumn slightly red cheeked of awkwardness.
"Good Glaux…" Autumn utters "…She was right… She was right all along about love."
"What?" Ezylryb asks with utter confusion and a look to match "Who?"
"My mother…" Autumn clarifies "She said to me when I was two and a half that someday a handsome prince would come and take me as his mate."
"So… Um…" Ezylryb utters, lost for words "Am I your prince then?"
"Remember how i told you of how we say 'I love you' in the Ambalan Aristocracy?" Autumn asks with a slightly seductive look as she kisses his cheek "I say I love you in words… But now, I think I might allow for the other way we express our passion."
Ezylryb realises what she means and has a blank expression, as she is celibate "Are you absolutely sure? Autumn, you're celibate as…"
Autumn rolls her eyes as she takes off her cape "I know we shouldn't but… We take risks in life and… I am 26 for sprink sake. I have spent 10 years trapped and now… Call it my crash course. And… Call it anything, but… I love you enough to be letting this happen and you are my betrothed…"
"Yes, and if this was the aristocracy…" Ezylryb says before a slight realisation. He left the Northern Aristocracy with his dignity intact, and she is somewhat exiled from Ambala by her deceased brother. If anything, they are ex-aristo outcasts "You know what, sprink the aristocracy. They can go and get sprinked for all I care. Hagsmire, their corruption, betrayal and lies can go elsewhere. Have no regrets…"
"And you are still suspended over me like chandelier in the Ambalan Palace Ballroom." She replies with a heart-warming giggle
Their beaks meet in a long and passionate kiss, lasting for moments in time. Autumn's hazel brown eyes closed to savour the kiss as tongues are entangled. Kissing her neck, as if he was a vampire drinking her blood (Don't ask why I put that in) as she lies on her back feeling like this is all right, even if not annulled from the marriage. The passion and heated romance between them is on a completely different level now, far different from that one kiss which started this all seven years ago.
Their breathing like what happens when you are outrunning an enemy and loving moans as this desire continues. For Autumn, she is a virgin and all of this is all of but her first time if anything. Her small wings embracing him as now… she isn't a virgin anymore as the souls of these two have combined. Her loving moans exacting how she has longed for to be deflowered by the owl she chooses.
For this owl she chose… he gave her her first kiss, he protected her and was willing to die for her, for nursing her from when she was ill, for always being there when she needed someone to soothe her, to wipe away her millions of tears… This owl has promised to we wed with her when all of this drama ends. Glaux, If this means anything to her, this might be the only moment in her life that someone loves her enough to make promises and for her to allow herself to… well… give up her virginity.
However, this is not in vain, nor obsession or desire, this is true love to last… like another couple we know. This game of love within the nobility, some know it as that this isn't just a petty game which often aristocrats dare not play for they would lay their honour on the line. If Ezylryb and Autumn remained in the Northern and Ambalan aristocracies they both hail from, Ezylryb being North and Autumn being Ambala… prepare for shame and shunning…
If you are walking by her bedchamber now… Aristocrats would find that they have shamed the Kin Royal Family of Ambala and the Cress Family, making the sign of shame… the insults start…
"I love you…" Autumn breathes within the ecstasy of the moment
As this aristocratic immorality, and to be blunt, the Princess and her War Hero with each other, is going on, Merissa enters the senate ahead of the meeting that Boron has arranged with her to discuss matters about their two kingdoms. Ideally, Autumn's annulment from being married to Lord Allomere. It is about almost dawn, unlike in Ga'Hoole where the sun has risen. She sits at the head of council and the 100 or more senators all had bowed to their queen, before sitting. This is their first senate since Merissa was made Queen Dowager, otherwise, their monarch.
"Fair senators and aristocrats of the Royal Senate of Ambala, I address a matter which is personal to the remaining members of the Kin Royal Family. The annulment of my sister in law and sister of Aaron and youngest child of Samuel III, Autumn Rose Kin, Crowned Princess of Ambala." Merissa announces as she begins the meeting
"Majesty." One senator speaks up "The agreement to peace was signed and created to ensure the peace between our fair kingdom and the Great Tree of Ga'Hoole on the Isle of Hoole."
"Wouldn't this mean that you would be breaking a contract?" Another senator asks
"I have a speech…" Merissa says, bringing a hush to the room as she clears her throat "Senators, aristocrats of the Ambala Inner Circle, brothers and sisters, we are as disgraced as our Northern Counterparts, within the underground. We have allowed for our own royal family, my family, to have brought shame upon us for what my late husband did. We married off a sixteen-year-old girl, a girl who was beaten all of her life, a girl who suffers from the drastic aftermath, a girl who is fighting for her freedom amongst chauvinism. A girl who is of blood to me and my family, though I am a Ryes Aristocrat."
Discussions from the crowd are discussed, words against their former king said as Merissa then continues.
"My late husband has brought shame upon us, though he blames the owl who he had beaten and maimed, as she has found an owl who loves her, unlike the owl she was married off to. She was exiled from this kingdom by Aaron, my late husband. He has brought shame upon us, shame upon my family. This agreement has been an embarrassment to us. That is why I am taking charge for until a new treaty is signed between the kingdoms, no involvement from you senators." Merissa continues
The senators gasp, as the last time anyone has called for supremacy over the senate was Aaron, and that was when he ended up doing the immoral marriage of his sister 10 years ago. Uproar of outraged expressions comes from the room.
"I will be resolving this myself, which means that until I denounce supremacy, you all will have no say, and there will be no ifs and buts about it." Merissa explains
Just as the senate is about to protest Merissa's announcement of Monarch Supremacy, over the horizon, the creatures that plague the shadows of the night finally arrive on their mission. Nyra tells her crew to take out the guard while she and also her unfortunate follower, Allomere begin their attack on the senate. Merissa is about to scream at the senators to bear witness her authority, when the doors to the large senate room burst open and Pure One Soldiers emerge. Merissa's personal guard and the queen herself start running away as all hagsmire breaks loose.
Merissa runs back to the living area for the royal family and grabs her eight-year-old daughter, Sabyna. They start running as bloodcurdling screams, swords clashing, war cries, squeals and shrieks are heard and owls are trying to escape at every turn. Merissa and Sabyna are frightened as they run down the great halls of the Ambala palace. The Pure One Soldiers then come from behind and start chasing the owls. Merissa and Sabyna run as fast as they can. One of the guards stays behind and as they watch while running away, a horror comes before the Queen Dowager's eyes as she sees them decapitate the head of her soldier.
She then gets to the courtyard and then into a secret hiding area at the base of the tree. Merissa holds her daughter close as she starts crying and hyperventilating because she is scared of if the Pure Ones will kill her. Merissa is as scared as her daughter, trying to find the mettle to soothe her daughter. The one remaining royal guard remains poised to strike whoever would want to harm his queen and princess. Sabyna cries tears into her mother as the fear remains in her mind.
"Sabyna, it's ok…" Merissa soothes with some dread and panic in her voice and tears forming in her own eyes "It will be alright… Oh Good Glaux… It's alright…"
By the time that the sun has risen, the royal guard checks the area carefully. Merissa has a katana that she has hidden in the bunker underneath the palace on her while Sabyna has a dagger. They cautiously walk around the palace, while seeing sights of unspeakable horror… on the eve of her meeting with Boron.
Blood is all over the floors of the palace within the great hallways. Bodies with severed heads and large chunks of flesh and feathers removed, bleeding out blood, covering the floor of the hallway like it is flooding. Senators, servants, maids… Wings and other body parts removed. Merissa is speechless and the death and decay is making her feel sick… her daughter too looking like she will faint as she has gone white with fear. They hear a loud noise, which makes the three owls jump in fight, as the only other thing you can hear is Princess Sabyna's hyperventilation.
"Oh my sprinking Glaux…" Merissa speechlessly exclaims while still looking at the horrors surrounding her, her daughter and the royal guard
As they walk towards the senate… more and more horror and atrocity comes to life. Some of the hallway has been charred by knocked over candles and there are now extinguished hot coals lying around, but all of the blood must have stopped the flames from doing worse to the palace. As they find the doors to the senate slightly destroyed, one of them falling off almost, a horror is found…
"Oh Glaux… Oh Glaux…" Sabyna exclaims before she faints, as she has seen a sight that no eight year old should ever see…
Bodies of senators are lying around, the whole room destroyed… Merissa is about to give way, as this sight has made herself to turn white with fear. Blood drenching the senate room… bodies guttered, slashed, bifurcated… Oh lord have mercy! It is the most disturbing sight to the eyes…
"Oh my lord…" Merissa barely makes out "Oh Glaux… The Senate… Oh no… no, no, no…"
The guard is fanning Sabyna as she is still unconscious from fainting. She then orders for him to take her to her bedchamber to rest. She then is left alone to observe the damage. The Governor General's body has been torn apart… Some of the senior senators have their necks wringed, or deep lashes to their bodies… Merissa remains horrified before dropping to the floor to her knees as she finds a slightly destroyed portrait, which hung on the hall… at the head of the room… The last ever known official portrait of King Samuel III, his wife, Queen Celeste, son, Prince Aaron and baby daughter, Princess Autumn Rose… the last ever hung picture before the coup… the only other picture that remains are the ones that Autumn Rose has in her possession.
"Oh My Glaux…" Merissa breathes before she drops to the ground to be lying on her back
The Prime Minister enters to see the horror before his eyes. He starts vomiting to be honest upon seeing all of this. After a few moments, he notices the Queen lying on the floor and he checks up on her, he holds her in his wings as he shakes her slightly. He notices how pale she is as she shares the same amount of horror.
"Your majesty!" The Prime Minister yells "Are you alright?!"
"I am fine." Merissa replies blankly "Sabyna and I are fine…"
Within the hours, the army is taking control as they are cleaning up the crime scene. Families of the senators, servants, royal guards and maids are informed and they are traumatised and broken beyond compare. Within the day, Merissa has trouble sleeping, so does her daughter. The images haunt her and her daughter lies awake with her, sharing the same bed and they are huddled together in a hug to try and comfort each other. They find it hard to sleep… especially knowing of all the families affected…
However… the show has to go on…