Chapter Two
Krotan took a deep breath. He was glad to be freed from the Forest of Frozen Spines in which his father had previously banished him to. Of course, he had his sister Castra to thank. Still, he had yet to thank his sister for freeing him from that exile. He thought he was going to spend a long time in that dreadful forest. However, he didn't have to spend too long there as Castra along with a group of rebels had bailed him out of that dreadful place.
The summit that had been going on had bored Krotan and it irritated him because Christmas was being mentioned through out the meeting. Finally, he had enough and decided to take a stroll inside the castle of Mongo.
By mistake, Krotan had the front door of the castle opened when he leaned towards the interior of the door. He was startled by hard, cold hit on the face, "Hey! What the?!"
He glanced in anger to see two boys near the castle as one of the boys tried to make a run for it.
"Guard!" Krotan shouted.
A mere second later, one of the guards arrived on the scene as it noticed that the prince was clearly angry.
"After that brat!" Krotan shouted pointing past the kid who was holding the snowball. "He assaulted me with a snowball!"
"Yes, excellency." the guard answered.
Krotan watched as the guard rushed the child who tried to make a run for it as the other kid managed to flee the scene.
"Here he is." the guard brought in the young boy who appeared to be terrified but that was irrelevant to Krotan.
"Well, you have some explaining to do." Krotan sneered at the child.
"But Prince Krotan," the boy pleaded, "it was just an accident. Please. I didn't mean to."
"What do you wish to do with him?" the guard asked. "Lock him in the dungeon for assault of a royal?"
"No." Krotan answered. "I have a better idea."
He looked down at the young boy, "The perfect punishment to fit the crime. Bring a shovel. This little brat is going to shovel the entire pathway to this castle."
"As you command."
The guard left the area for a moment before returning with a shovel. Krotan took the shovel from the guard and handed it to the boy.
"Now get busy!" Krotan barked at the child, "unless you prefer the dungeon."
The little boy paused a moment before beginning to shovel the pathway to the castle, "Ugh! This is worst than the dungeon! We were only playing in the snow!"
-Defenders-Christmas-Carol-
"This is unbelievable!"
Castra turned around to see Aura storming in a fury.
"Aura," she proceeded to ask, "what's the matter?"
"What do you think is the matter? Your brother Krotan was being a jerk!"
"What did he do now?" Sheila asked as she approached her two sisters.
"I just saw him force a young boy shovel the pathway leading to the castle," Aura answered, "and it was all because he was hit with a snowball."
"Oh jeez." Sheila muttered.
"Castra, what the hell were you even thinking in bailing your brother out of that forest?" Aura glanced at her half sister.
"He's your brother too you know."
"Answer the question."
"I felt that it was a harsh punishment that Father gave him." Castra answered as she didn't bother looking at her half sister.
"Give me a break." Aura retorted. "He didn't even join your rebellion group."
"That's because he said that he needs to give the rebel group a reason to welcome him." Castra faced her sister. "He even said it himself."
"You know he's not going to change." Aura scoffed.
"You haven't known him like I do." Castra replied before facing her other half sister. "Neither do you, Sheila. So don't even think about butting in."
"I wasn't." Sheila rolled her eyes.
"You know as well as we do that people on Mongo are seeking the age of justice." Aura stressed. "If Krotan continues to act the way that he does, then the rebel groups will attack and he will meet his demise, brother or not."
Castra sighed as she looked down. Did she make a mistake bailing Krotan out of his icy prison? She had hoped that wasn't the case.
"What do you girls think of our new allies: the Sailor Guardians?" Sheila asked, clearly intending to change the topic.
"Those girls seem to be interesting." Aura answered, "They originate from the Moon Kingdom from long ago. Yes, us on Mongo know about the legend too."
Flash walked towards where the sisters where standing and stood next to Sheila, "Is everything okay?"
"Yes, it is." Sheila answered. "We just had a little heated discussion but it's been simmered down."
"Well, that's good." Flash replied.
"How are you enjoying the post Summit party?" Aura asked.
"I'm enjoying it quite fine." Flash answered. "It appears as if Krotan wasn't interested in this summit as he walked out of the meeting early when we were talking about Christmas."
"That's Krotan for you." Sheila rolled her eyes. "Not interested in the holiday spirit."
"Krotan acts like such a skin flint." Aura added in annoyance.
"Yeah. Your brother is such a Scrooge." Flash added. "I wish some Christmas spirits would come and visit him tonight."
"That would be interesting to see." Sheila replied. "However, Krotan would probably scare them off."
Aura and Castra shared a laugh in response and even Flash gave a smirk in response.
-Defenders-Christmas-Carol-
Krotan had been watching the boy shovel snow off the pathway to the castle for half an hour before he finally finished.
"It took you long enough." Krotan retorted as the boy returned with the shovel in his hand.
"Christmas time is supposed to be fun!" the boy shouted as he returned the shovel to the prince, who then handed it to the guard as the child left the area.
"Fun." Krotan replied in annoyance, "Bah humbug."
He turned around and prepared to make his way to his quarters, "I am heading to bed. I don't want to hear anymore of Christmas. Bah humbug."
Author's Note: Well, the concept of Krotan being freed from his exile by Castra after the end of Volume Two was a bit inspired by James5 in his DOE Retold episode "The Prince Dethroned" except I only did a recap of what could happen in that scene.
