Prompt: Explanation of why Garten betrayed Jupiter (can be sympathetic or not.)


The Great Wood was supposed to be beautiful. Everyone seemed to think they were living in the perfect age under King Jupiter Goodson. But this was deluded, and Garten knew it, even as he walked sulkily under the trees.

He had bought into the lie at first. He was the chief of the Council of the Seven Ambassadors. He had helped expand King Jupiter's realm farther than he had even imagined. And what did he have to show for it? A brother married to the doe he loved, and all chances of his own happiness dashed upon a stone.

Now envy gripped Garten and held him down to drown in dark and dangerous waters. A small part of him- very small- told him to let go. To find happiness elsewhere. But it was so easy to stew in his misery. To contemplate what could have been his. What should have been his.

Sween. She was so beautiful. She had charmed his heart with the spells of song. Her laugh itself was music. That doe was always singing. But she was also so thoughtful. He had never loved anyone as much as he had loved her. But she had chosen Whittle. Whittle. That scholarly fool with his head full of books and history. It was almost a joke.

"They always talk of the ties that bind…" he muttered to himself. "No one ever speaks of the ties that break." It sounded almost like poetry. He smiled cynically and kept walking, kicking at the happy flowers that reflected the perfect opposite of his mood.

His mind wandered down its dark paths, as it had been wont to do for these past few months. He knew that if he went to the right people, and gave them the right information, he could destroy the happiness that his brother now enjoyed. The happiness that had been stolen from him- the happiness that should have been his. He had the power to break the illusion of the Golden Age and show the Thirty Warrens that life wasn't a bouquet of flowers.

He could set himself up in a position of power. Sween would come round. She would see that she had chosen the wrong Longtreader. See that she could have been happy by his side. She would be completely at his mercy- beg with tears in her eyes for her life to be spared. Garten smiled at the thought.

Sure, he knew this plan wouldn't be easy. Getting around Wilfred would most likely be the biggest problem, if he was going to overthrow the King. But all he knew was this: if he couldn't be happy, no one would.