Vignette 15 - (What a) Way to Ruin the Moment...
The place: Múspell, the Kingdom of Flames, in stark contrast to its neighbor Nifl, the Kingdom of Ice. The time: some months following the fall of its king, the tyrannical and ruthless Surtr, thanks to the efforts of the Askran Order of Heroes and their allies in Nifl's royal family. Surtr's fall was also enabled, unexpectedly, by his own daughters, the princesses Laegjarn and Laevatein. In the days since then, the siblings have worked to better relations between Múspell and the neighboring lands, to make up for the terror and destruction Surtr unleashed in his drive for conquest.
Right now, though, the two have taken a respite from their duties to enjoy some time along the coast at one of Múspell's few beaches. The blue sky alone was already a pleasant change of pace.
"Gods, I needed this!" Laevatein said as she laid a blanket down under the large umbrella Laegjarn had set up.
"You said it,", Laegjarn concurred before taking a sip from her tropical drink. As queen of Múspell, a lot came under her purview, but it had taken some convincing from her sister to finally take some time off for herself, leaving the day-to-day tasks of governance to her most trusted advisors. (Said advisors having been carefully vetted, of course.) "Bright, warm sun, a pleasant ocean breeze...and the freshest fish ever caught. It's just about perfect." She took a moment to pet her wyvern, who was resting beside the two, before feeding her an example of such fresh fish.
"At the risk of jinxing things, I daresay that nothing could possibly ruin this," Laevatein stated as she looked out on the water.
As soon as the words left her lips, the two noticed a glint in the sky out of the corner of their eyes...which soon turned out to be a large couple of objects hurtling down at an angle towards another part of the shoreline; even stranger, there appeared to be human screaming emanating from the larger of the two. The stunned princesses followed the trajectory of the objects, until they finally saw them crash about a mile and a half away from their location, which briefly shook the ground in their wake.
"What in the world-?!" Laegjarn uttered before she and Laevatein went for their weapons and got on the back of the former's wyvern. They soon flew towards the site of the crash, descending a good distance away just to be on the safe side. What they saw before them left the princesses utterly astonished:
One of the objects looked to be a large hand, holding part of a handle that had broken off, from the looks of it. The other object was a giant head, with feminine features and a headpiece that brought a certain occupation to mind. Both objects appeared to have come from, in the princess's view, an enormous statue; unlike the statues they'd seen at one point or another, however...these were made of metal.
"Is-is that supposed to be a...a chambermaid?" the befuddled Laevatein wondered.
"I'm...not entirely sure," her older sister replied, before something happening with one of the objects got her attention. "Hand me the spyglass," she said as she motioned for same.
"What is it?" Laevatein asked as she handed the object in question to Laegjarn.
"I thought I saw something come out of the 'nose'," Laegjarn answered as she extended the spyglass. Through the lens, she saw that a hastily-made 'rope ladder' had been lowered through the left nostril of the nose, and soon saw three men climb down out of it. The one on the bottom wore a stark gray military uniform of some kind, one unlike any she had seen before; the one in the middle of the trio was short and wore an all-black outfit with a cape and a comically-large helmet; and the one at the top wore a somewhat-dapper-looking suit, and gave off the demeanor of some sleazy politician.
("Hey, hey, watch my helmet!" the short man said as the suited man almost stepped on said helmet.)
A shocked and dumbfounded look appeared on Laegjarn's face, and she handed the spyglass to Laevatein, nonverbally telling her to look. The younger princess did so, and soon mirrored her older sister's expression on seeing the trio. Their oracles had warned them of something like this happening, but the odds were almost hilariously low enough that they paid them no heed. Now they were starting wish they'd done so.
"Spaceballs?!" Laevatein uttered.
"Oh, $#!+-there goes the kingdom..." Laegjarn said with a facepalm and a shake of her head.
**Author's Note(s)**
Not to worry-this will be followed up on later on...