Author´s note: FINALLY! Second chapter! Hope you enjoy!
CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME! Except for the dragoyles.
"It´s a peaceful day isn´t it?" Queen Lillian said gazing upon the balcony of her room as the sun was rising far over the horizon, shining over the kingdom of Far far away while the villagers were doing their daily labors.
"Sure it is your highness." Said one of the servants fixing the pillows on the bed.
"What do we have planned for today?"
"Nothing special."
"How about we go to the town and have a walk?" Arthur said entering to Lillian´s room. "Come on aunt, we´ve been working so hard the last three weeks. we should have a little break."
Queen Lillian smiled as she looked back at Arthur. Closing the balcony doors, she let out a sigh. "Fine, let´s go then."
When walking through the hallways, just before they could reach the main entrance, a group of villagers entered right into the castle full of fear. Their knees were shaking as they tried to bow upon the Queen. "Y-your majesty! Something terrible is happening in the town..." One of them said almost wheezing while talking.
"What is it?"
"Some strange creatures started to attack the town. They are big and have wings and claws and they breathe fire!"
Arthur scratched his head. "Are you talking about dragons?"
"No!" Another villager shouted. "We are not sure what they are! The look like people but still with strange monster-like features! They are all coming with witches too!"
"Witches?" Queen Lillian said. "Oh no..."
Meanwhile in the town, Rumpel´s carriage was moving through the streets with a bunch of dragoyles surrounding it while the witches were gliding over the streets on their flying brooms. The dragoyles were hissing and growling angrily to the villagers as they ran to their homes and buildings. They were breaking and burning everything that was on the carriage´s way. The witches were throwing exploding pumpkins to anyone who tried to walk near the carriage. Everyone was screaming, everyone was scared and full of panic. Some naughty dragoyles were stealing food, jewelry, anything they found useful for them, others were climbing on the buildings roaring and laughing at the people behind the windows. Rumpel´s carriage was escorted by Taru and Sarkanand while the big dragoyle was pulling the carriage without problem. Rumpelstiltskin was inside, jumping and laughing hysterically as he enjoyed the sound of his sweet revenge.
Lots of guards started to run outside the castle, pointing their spades and spears to the dragoyles, ready to attack. The carriage stopped and so did the dragoyles and witches. Confused, Rumpel opened the front door and took a peek. Not a big surprise for him. He snapped his fingers and closed the door immediately. A line of aggressive dragoyles landed right in front of the guards with a menacing posture. Smoke started to come out of their mouths as they growled. The guards gave a step backwards, their armors clicked as the guards trembled in fear just before they ran away. The dragoyles and witches stared at each other and started to laugh as they continued their way inside.
The carriage and Rumpel´s army finally made it into the main hall, where Queen Lillian and King Arthur were waiting for them.
"Well, well. It´s an honor to see you again, Miss Highness." Rumpel said walking out of the carriage.
"Who are you and what do you want!" Arthur yelled pointing at Rumpel.
Rumpel stared at Arthur for a moment with a frown on his face. "And who are you supposed to be?"
"He´s the new King of Far far away." Lillian said.
"He? That shrimp! HAHA!" Rumpel cackled.
"Oh yeah! Look who´s talking, midget!" Arthur said in a mocking tone.
Upon hearing this, Taru and Sarkanand growled with anger at Arthur and the Queen. "Relax you two." Rumpel said. "So, your highness, how is your... lovely daughter?"
"What do you want? Why are you here?" Lillian said.
"Oh excuse me your majesty! So you wanna go directly to the point isn´t it? Gosh, just when I thought I could be polite at least for once!" He and his army laughed. "Well, miss Queennie, probably we started with the left foot since the day I offered the little contract to free your daughter from that curse. I see you preferred to let your daughter stay like a hideous ogre... ew."
"How dare you!" Lillian yelled.
"Oh yes, to the point. Perhaps we couldn´t have a decent introduction or a nice conversation by now, I´d like you to give me another chance."
"For what?"
"To get your kingdom of course. How about we make a deal?"
"And you dare to ask for it just like that? Pathetic!" Lillian huffed. "Not even your tricky deals will work."
"Oh are you sure? Well, I was just asking, just in case you wanted to save your kingdom." The dragoyles suddenly started to climb the walls and move closer to Lillian and Arthur, growling and showing their teeth menacingly. "Perhaps you´d like to change your mind... Unless you want to see your kingdom falling apart."
The witches started to laugh from behind as the dragoyles moved slowly, hissing and waving their tails. "GET THEM DRAGOYLES!"
"Run, Arthur." Lillian whispered. "RUN!"
Arthur stood in shock for a moment staring firmly at Rumpel and without thinking twice, he fled, running directly to the library. Among all the crazed dragoyles, Rumpel noticed the young King escaping without problem. "THE BOY IS ESCAPING! GET HIM! GET HIM WITCHES!"
One by one, the witches jumped on their flying brooms. They flew rapidly, pursuing the young man through the corridors of the castle, throwing exploding pumpkins right in front of him. Arthur managed to get himself inside the library and closed the door with a slam. Some of the witches ran into the door, crashing their brooms and falling while the others cackled, making fun of them. Meanwhile, Arthur started to block the door with all the things he could find until he managed to make a large pile of furniture. Looking everywhere, he remembered the one of the secret passages his aunt Lillian had behind one wall and opened it as fast as he could. The witches were throwing pumpkins again against the door trying to make it fall.
Arthur made it into the passage just in time. The witches managed to break the doors but it was too late; Arthur had escaped. The witches stared at each other, confused and worried.
"What do we do now?" One witch said.
"I don´t know, maybe we can tell Rumpel that we accidentally turned the kid into a rat…" Another witch shrugged.
"Yeah right… and what if he wants evidence?" Griselda said. "He's hard to fool, remember?"
The rest of the witches nodded with shame.
"We must tell him." Baba said.
"Tell me WHAT exactly?" Rumpel said walking into the room.
The witches gasped, they stood straight with their faces full of shock. Griselda sighed moving forward where Rumpel was. "The boy escaped, Mister."
"WHAT! Rumpel screamed. "YOU LET HIM GO! JUST LIKE THAT!" He yelled angrily at the witches, hitting the floor with his feet and pulling his hair desperately. "Everything was just perfect and you failed! YOU-ACK-GAAAAH!"
"We´re sorry." The witches said with a whiny voice.
"Ok, so...relax Rumpel, relax…" Rumpel took a deep breath. "That is not a problem. Nope. The Queen is more important now."
"What about that kid?" Baba said.
"Let him go for now. In fact, I think I know where he may be going." Rumpel let out a small giggle which became a loud cackle, making a great echo inside the castle.
"Artie! Are you alright?" Snow White ran into Arthur who was running around the trashed streets. "What's happening? What were those things?"
"They... Someone... a guy, Rumpelstiltskin wants to take our kingdom." He said gasping for air. "Those creatures, they were too many!"
"Rumpelstiltskin?" Everyone gasped.
"Than dirty man!" Pinocchio growled.
"Where´s the Queen?" Doris said walking through the crowd of scared people who were right behind Snow White.
"She got captured." Arthur sighed. Everyone gazed to the castle where winged beasts and witches were flying around it, guarding the whole place.
"What are we going to do? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO!" Gingy screamed covering his eyes in fear.
Arthur went deep in thought; if he tried to run away, the dragoyles and witches might capture him. He started to remember, Shrek could help him. But his swamp was too far away from the kingdom. He might not get there on time. "Wait..." He exclaimed. "Where is Dragon?"
"You mean Donkey´s wife?" Wolfie said.
"Yeah."
Everyone looked up as a big shadow covered the ground. Dragon growled as she landed in front of everyone with a grin.
"Dragon! I´m happy to see you!" Arthur cheered. "You appeared just in time!" Dragon waved her wings and moaned worried. "Yeah, I know this is terrible. I need you to take me to Shrek as fast as you can." Dragon nodded and crouched letting Arthur climb onto her back holding the chains that were around Dragon´s neck. Everyone just stared with worried faces, no one cheered. They all were speechless about the surprising attack.
Arthur looked back at the kingdom as they flew away. He sighed and grabbed his crown looking at his reflection. "I can save them… I will…" He thought.
"Ah, you see Griselda, everything went perfect, just as planned." Rumpel said walking through the halls while the dragoyles were analyzing everything in the castle. Griselda and other witches were walking beside Rumpel.
"Well yeah. But that kid ran away." Griselda said with a cocky tone.
"Oh that kid is nothing. We have the Queen imprisoned with four dragoyles guarding, nothing bad will happen." He laughed. "As I said before, I know where that kid is going, he will help me get to Shrek with ease."
"And how do you plan that?"
"I´ll send two dragoyles to track him of course."
Griselda rolled her eyes. "He´s getting obsessed with those things..." She whispered to another witch. "I don't think I like this."
"Don´t be negative Gris." The witch said. "As far as we´re rich and powerful, everything will be nice."
"So what do we do now?" Another witch said.
"Reunite every single villager to the main hall!" Rumpel exclaimed raising his hands. "And make sure they are all here, no one must be missing!"
"Yes Mr. Stiltskin!" The witches exclaimed taking their brooms and gliding out the castle.
From the town, everyone was cleaning and fixing what was destroyed by Rumpel´s army. Burned trees, broken glasses, food and trash everywhere. It was midday and the sky had a light grey color, the clouds where all spread around with black, white and gray tones. The wind was blowing with a sinister whistling sound. Some villagers looked up by the sound of the witches' brooms flying around and surrounding every single street. They started capturing all the citizens they could and they were all dragged into the castle. Witches were guarding the entrance of the castle and escorted the captives taking them to the main hall where Rumpel was.
"Welcome citizens!" Rumpel exclaimed standing on the shoulders of a tall dragoyle.
Everyone started muttering, no one was really paying attention to him. Rumple raised his hands, sign for the witches to surround the crowd and for the dragoyles to block the doors.
"QUIET EVERYONE!" The dragoyle below Rumple yelled making the villagers stay in silence immediately.
"Thank you." Rumpel whispered and cleared his throat. "Villagers! Citizens of Far far away! I´m glad to announce you that I, Rumpelstiltskin, will be your new king!"
The villagers looked at each other and started screaming and waving their fists angrily."You are not our king! Bring us back our real king and queen!"
"I AM YOUR REAL KING NOW!" He yelled. "Whether you like it or not!"
"And what if we refuse?" The villagers started pushing themselves to Rumpel. They were uncontrollable. "Stop bothering already! We want our king and queen back! Down with Rumpelstiltskin!"
Rumpel stared angrily at the growing wave of crazed people and his army who were trying to control them, of course, without his signal, his army was useless against them. "Well…" He said. "Then you WILL pay the consequences. WITCHES, DRAGOYLES! STOP THIS MADNESS!" He clapped his hands and gazed upon the crowd being taken away one by one, some were being imprisoned and the others just fled in fear. A big grin grew on Rumpel's face. "And this is just the beginning…" He laughed. "Oh Sarkanand, Taru! My two favorite dragoyles! I have a special task for you."
"What is it, your majesty?" Sarkanand said.
"Oh, majesty! I love how it sounds!" Rumpel giggled. "Anyway, I want you to go and seek Arthur."
"I suggest you to pick someone else to go with Sarkanand, your highness." Taru said bowing slightly at Rumpel.
"Huh? And why is that?" Rumple raised an eyebrow.
"As leader of my tribe, I must stay with my people and with your majesty. That´s my duty."
"Oh, ok. Good!" Rumpel said. "Well let's see…"
"I suggest you to pick Soek, he´s a good seeker." Sarkanand said pointing at a window. "He´s the young dragoyle over there."
"Hm, fine. You two will hunt Arthur, but don't bring him here until you find Shrek first."
"How does he look like?"
"Oh just follow the boy and you will find him. Remember he´s an ogre."
"Got it!" Sarkanand flew to Soek and both flew away from the castle.
The castle was a mess after the revolt in the main hall where the villagers were taken. Dragoyles and witches were cleaning the place and redecorating it with things Rumpel asked them to place in the castle. A different kingdom was about to grow and the villagers were defenseless unless a miracle could happen.
END CHAPTER 2 To be continued...