It was raining fire and death upon First Warren.
Garten Longtreader, Ambassador to King Jupiter, barely glanced at the fleeing crowds as he threaded his way through the houses, trying to find his family. He wasn't too late–the army had just breached the outer wall, so his family would be alive…right? Garten hadn't seen Wilfred since that moment, since that horrible awful moment that kept replaying in his mind on loop. The way there had been a sickening snap–
No. He wouldn't think about that.
Garten pushed his way through a huddled group of rabbits, all talking and shouting at once.
"Ambassador Longtreader!" one shouted, recognizing him. Garten whirled around to face him. "The king. Is it true?"
Garten swallowed. "Yes," he said finally. "King Jupiter has fallen. He was murdered."
Someone in the crowd screamed.
"How?" a rabbit grabbed his arms, shaking him slightly.
Garten jerked away from the suddenly painful grasp. "Just get your family out of here. Prince Bleston has returned."
"WHAT?" the rabbit said, wildly glancing around.
"Prince Bleston has returned, and his Waywards are now an army," Garten said through gritted teeth. "He's the reason why Jupiter is dead. Get out of here, now!"
The crowd scattered into a thousand different directions at once, all of them frantically trying to find their family so they could flee. Garten scanned the crowds, searching for a familiar face among the fleeing rabbits.
"Garten!"
Sween's voice broke through the shouting, breaking him out of his reverie. He frantically glanced around, trying to find her. His eyes landed upon her–she was standing next to Whittle, a baby bundled in her arms. Garten noticed with concern that her arm was bandaged. Whittle was bearing a sword, blood obviously running down his face.
"Are you alright?" Sween said worriedly when he arrived next to them. "Wilfred wasn't helpful—he just ran off to the palace after–"
"Jupiter's dead," Garten cut off flatly. "I'm sorry, Sween, but you need to go."
"What?" Whittle's voice was soft.
"Jupiter's dead, he was murdered," Garten's voice cracked. "You need to leave. Now. I can't guarantee your safety here."
"Come with us," Sween said, almost pleadingly.
Garten was tempted to accept. He could run, but Wilfred was still out there. Jupiter's children were in the palace, vulnerable to Bleston's horrible plan of vengeance. He could run, and he could live somewhere peacefully for the rest of his days.
"No," Garten said, rubbing his face. "I can't. I made a promise to Jupiter to protect his children."
Sween smiled, tears already spilling down her cheeks. "I'll see you later, I guess."
"Yeah," Garten said, avoiding eye contact with her. He couldn't look at her, not now. "Whittle, keep her safe."
"I will," Whittle said. "We'll see you again."
"If I ever come back," Garten said under his breath, dashing off into the madness on the streets.
The wolves seemed to be focusing on the palace, slaughtering the soldiers who came and tried to regroup at the tall structure. Blood ran through the streets, chunks of rock that had fallen when dead raptors crashed into the buildings surrounded Garten. He hadn't been seen yet, the raptors and wolves focusing on getting in the palace–which meant Jupiter's children were in danger, trapped in the palace, surrounded by all sides.
As he prepared to run towards the palace, ready to die in a mad charge, he sees Bleston.
A smug smile on the former prince's face, dressed in a black and silver armor, with the attitude of someone who knows he just won, Bleston immediately makes Garten want to punch him.
But instead, Garten ducks behind some rubble to avoid being seen. He peeked around the corner, eyes locked on Bleston and his retinue of guards. He noticed that Bleston's sword was stained red, and Garten felt suddenly sick. He knew exactly whose blood that was.
There was a child's scream, and Garten tensed.
"Ah, my nieces and nephews," Bleston said, his voice sickly sweet.
No, no, no, NO!
The Jovesons–small and frightened, Winslow barely a teen, were facing Bleston in a tight huddle. Winslow was at the head, fists clenched and glaring at his uncle.
Garten leaned back on the rock, breath quickening as he tried to figure out a plan. He was only one person, and Bleston had at least fifteen guards following him. It would never work unless someone appeared to help him–he doubted Lord Rake and his legions would arrive within the next five minutes, as far away as they were. Unless Helmer and Wilfred magically appeared, he was on his own.
"Why are you here?" Winslow demanded. "Why'd you kill our father?"
"Well, he stole something of mine," Bleston said, acting like it was just a normal walk in the park.
"He didn't steal the throne!" one of the Joveson daughters retorted. "Grandfather gave it to him, because you wouldn't be a good king!"
Bleston's jaw twitched as he stared at his niece. The girl glared right back.
"Well then," Bleston finally said, regaining his sickly tone. "Take them away–"
He was cut off when there was a shout and Helmer and Wilfred appeared, vengeance and bloodlust in their eyes. They both looked worse for the wear–clothes and armor torn, grime covering their faces.
Garten prepared to attack himself, wincing as he felt the stinging of one of his wounds. "Alright," he said to himself, swinging his sword.
He dove right into the fray, Wilfred sparing a small, grateful glance at him. Bleston's guards were highly trained, but Garten had been fighting for much longer than them, judging by their young faces and more than clunky movements. Garten almost felt sorry for them.
In minutes, the guards had been cut down. Garten spat out some blood, glaring at Bleston.
"Ah, Garten Longtreader," Bleston said, ignoring Helmer and Wilfred. Wilfred was guarding the Jovesons, beginning to lead them away. "How interesting it is to meet you."
"Yeah," Garten spat out some blood. "I thought you fled. Like the coward you are. Going after children-how low can you sink?."
"All's fair in war," Bleston said, almost condescendingly. "Are you really going to kill me?"
"No," Helmer gritted out to Garten. "I want to, and you want to, but Jupiter would want us to fall back."
The Lord Captain stared at Bleston with bloodlust and vengeance in his eyes. The three of them could take him. They could-they could cut him down now and win some small triumph, until the next wave of raptors came in and destroyed them all.
There was no hope in winning now.
"You have three hours!" Bleston called out in an amused voice as the group moved away. "After that, there will be no mercy."
Garten threw one last glance at the smug prince, silently swearing vengeance against the twisted fanatic.
Garten regretted a lot of things.
He regretted losing track of Princes Whit and Winslow in the heat of a sudden, quick skirmish. He couldn't even locate the bodies, which had only made him and the remaining Jovesons more determined to find them.
He regretted not being able to save Jupiter, a sentiment shared by nearly everyone who had been close to the dead and gone king.
He also regretted going into the common for a walk. Because chaos was ruling.
There was a large crowd gathered around Helmer's tree, the death trap pumpkin birds swinging wildly around, and attacking the black buck in the middle of the fray. Garten had to say, he was fairly impressed about the maneuverability of the birds, despite them being tied to a tree branch. But now was not the time for such thoughts, seeing as Helmer barely dodged a swinging bird and missed death by a hair.
He ran up to the crowd as they all gasped in unison, when three familiar bucks joined the fray. Wilfred, Smalls, and Rake dashed into the chaos, determined to end the panic then and there. Garten briefly considered joining in as well, but he didn't, seeing as he had (idiotically) left his sword in his dorm.
A pumpkin bird swooped in just as Smalls collapsed because of a wound on his foot, clawed feet gleamed and heading straight towards Wilfred's protegee. Garten jerked forward, just as Wilfred hurled his sword to cut down the raptor.
The crowd sighed with relief in unison, while Garten forced his way to the front of the crowd. Doctor Zeiger was already attending to Smalls, followed by his young apprentice.
"Garten? When did you get back?"
Garten blinked at his brother's questions. "Uh, I've been back for days. When did you get back?"
"A day ago."
"I thought you were visiting Nick Hollow," Garten said, glancing confusedly at his brother. "What changed?"
Wilfred's eyes darkened. "Many things."
"Are they ok?" Garten said quietly, mind jumping to the worst conclusions. How did Morbin find his family? No one would ever suspect Nick Hollow.
Wilfred was silent, watching Doctor Zeiger wrap Smalls' foot.
"Are they okay, Wilfred?!" Garten shook his brother slightly.
"I'm not sure," Wilfred said softly. "But," he said, pointing into the crowd. "I did find Heather and Picket, their children."
Garten followed the direction Wilfred's hand was pointing in. His eyes landed on two children-one doe, one buck. The doe was nervously watching Rake scold Helmer, while the grey-golden buck was watching with an almost curious expression. He looked painfully like Whittle.
"I get the feeling that Picket just made up his mind about something," Garten muttered to himself.
Helmer was making his way over to them, a surly look on his face. Wilfred's face darkened when he noticed the black buck coming over to them. Garten's younger brother moved in front of Smalls.
"Stay away from him," Wilfred said fiercely.
Garten's eyes darted from Wilfred to Helmer. A fight could break out. Wilfred was notoriously protective of the young prince, but luckily not to the point of paranoia. It was probably stemmed from the fact that Wilfred blamed himself for the death of his wife and daughter.
"No," Smalls said, raising his eyes to meet Helmer's dark ones. He placed a fist onto his heart. "My place beside you, my blood for yours, til the Green Ember rises, or the end of the world."
Garten clenched his jaw. He never liked it when he heard the oath, reminding him of the bittersweet childhood days where he and his brothers joked about it with Jupiter.
Wilfred glared at Helmer. Helmer sighed, turned around, and walked away from the deeply invested crowd.
"I'll talk to you later," Wilfred said, throwing a glance at Garten. "Maybe talk to Heather and Picket, hm?"
"I'm not good around kids-" began Garten, but Wilfred and Smalls had already vanished.
Garten sighed, watching the crowd disperse. He approached Heather and Picket carefully, not wanting to anger Picket more.
"Hi," he said, in what he hoped was a cheery tone. Probably not, to be honest.
"Hm?" Heather said, a little surprised that someone approached her. "Oh, hi!"
Picket frowned and looked away.
"I'm Garten," Garten said, smiling at his niece.
"Garten Longtreader?" Picket said, suddenly brightening up. "The Ambassador?"
"Uh...yeah?" Garten said, a little put off. He rarely referred to himself as an ambassador anymore. It was just another painful reminder of his past. "That would be me."
"That's amazing!" Heather said, her eyes widening. "Father started to tell us stories about you and King Jupiter."
Garten narrowed his eyes. Clearly, Whittle hadn't gotten to the whole "By the way, Garten Longtreader's my brother" part of the story.
"Is it true that you helped maintain the peace in the Great Wood?" Picket said, eyes shining. "I've never seen a real-life legend before."
Heather smiled at her brother, obviously happy he was getting out his brooding shell.
"Um, yes," Garten said, cocking his head. "I did. For a little. Lots of travelling involved. Nearly died a few times."
Picket looked a little disappointed that Garten didn't elaborate more on the stories of his past adventures, but he didn't say anything else.
Doctor Zeiger's apprentice, Emma, approached them, along with the eccentric doctor, to check Picket's foot. Garten had barely noticed that Picket was balanced on crutches. He wondered how his nephew sprained his ankle in the first place.
"Lieutenant," Emma said, nodding to him, hiding a smile. Garten scowled-he still didn't understand why nearly everyone he knew insisted on calling him Lieutenant, a call back to years ago when Garten panicked and said his name was Lieutenant when someone tried to interrogate him. It had been one time, and Garten had memorized a bunch of cover names to make sure it never happened again. He wasn't even sure how Emma knew about the story. Rake had probably told it to her.
"I prescribe much Maggie, but hold the Helmer," Doctor Zeiger said in his strange dialect, shaking Garten out his thoughts.
Heather glanced at Emma for a little clarification, but Emma just shook her head mysteriously and smiled. The two of them and Picket walked away, Picket throwing a backwards glance at Garten, almost desperately.
"Great,' Garten said to himself. "Next conversation is going to be awkward. Maybe Wilfred will help me explain this whole thing."
AU time! ehehehehehe
So if you guys have any questions about this AU, feel free to PM me or ask in the comment section, and I'll try to keep everything spoiler-free.
I'm also on Tumblr under the same name (allie-rambles) so you can check me out there (I have written and posted the entire fic storyline there so be warned about spoilers)
