War Has Come While Night Have Fallen Over Our Faire Kingdom –

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Chapter 4: Hunters of the Water, Wind and Wood; Meeting and Leaving You Senseless

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~ WARNING FOR NATURAL SELECTION, MENTION OF GENOCIDE, TORTURE AND EUGENICS AS WELL AS RELIGIOUS DISGUST. AH, AND OF COURSE SEXUAL ASSAULT. And drugging. DARK STORY, BUT I WARNED YOU…. ~

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Jason's run was to deposit Barbenthel when he'd stolen her for any reason other than treason, to he, it was time to flee now that she was safe.

While he, was being chased by wolves in the high hills down to the moor of his hate – stricken nation.

Richard had to be if not by the rumors in the galley, as wet as a babe from the womb as one male soldier had distinctly let that stick to Jason's subconscious mind's eye. He'd believe it when the king currently was dead, when his real father was found and had purged the marauders from the castle lands. Getting atop a stolen horse the boy recognized in his youth, the steed went on through the night and could not be seen in the coat it carried upon its shadowy back of a raven stallion. Jason stayed low without saddle, bridle or crop. He had to hold on as the ancients of this land had done. The ones before he and King Bruce…

The chase was on as he heard dogs barking, the tempers flaring of snorting horses and whips cracking in only his imagination. Come for him, to flail to their drum beat of a dusty victory along the steepest path through the mountains. If he made it down flow, down river to the widest shoreline, he could swim across. He could!

The wind was cold in mid – winter as the boy puffed with cheeks-tinged peach. The horse didn't care; bred to ride, and to win as it took off to lose the hunters in hot pursuit. Jason had been the best when Bruce and the boy's instructors had placed him atop his first pony. She had just gone wild for his keen insight and how that reflected on the sport, on how he could not be outran by any such –

Arrows fired from behind as a shorter rider was gaining in fast. Coming along strong with his arms as steady as a dancer's balanced footwork. "Nay! I won't desist! Turn back!" Jason suddenly shouted, the arrows teasing instead, the firing bow in fact a way to keep him off the right path as he came to a dead end. A cliff awaited him as the steed lost its footing and they tumbled forth into dark waters from far overhead.

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Jason recalled an encounter he'd long forgotten. When his family had been taken ransom by pirates and sleepless nights it was, not until they were found and Jason had tormented the last of the crew into those cold waves.

Now, he knew it was fated never to be…how could it not?

He waited on the cold presence of death's hand to take him away, the horse's sounds….sounding…alive?

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To her fear of all things a dragon tamer did, even in training, young Kor'anna was in fact of age long enough to stay from danger.

Or, to embrace it. Her dragon summoned was of wind as it scooped up both horse and boy. (IN THIS, THERE IS A POSS LOVE TRIANGLE. NOTED!) Her eyes were lit under the winter's moon. Her shawl and hair of fire, her skin of a tropical place. Fire…

"You made it to the shore." She said almost dismissively. "That pack of wolves shall not touch you or your tame beast." She had a dragon familiar of the color of the sun, yet it did not burn. It flitted about on bird wings and the horse whinnied to be left to its defeat. "Your horse should not have fallen." She walked along and brought out a hand to materialize a magical item, an apple juicy and red for Jason's steed. "Here. And you, you do not look to be running away for pure sport. What is your story, horse – rider?"

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Timothy heard in the dead of night a steady foot step or ten, of soldiers as he leapt to the others in the room. "Cassandra! Dear siblings, will you not listen??"

He roused them with a wisper, a rough hand to their sides as the girls rose and rubbed their tired eyes. "Timothy….why must you wake us so late?"

"There is a difficulty with the guard. We might have a chance." He moved, the door needed work as he went to dig for his many hidden tools that none could locate without a skeleton key. Only Tim had the master copy. "Tim! We cannot leave until the coast –

His blonde sibling gawked as the door pulled back with a soft creak. "Are we not without our own tools?" He spoke. "For, that perhaps we might be forced to find shelter before the worst is to befall us all. I want you and our sister Cassandra to go. Quickly."

Tim, was not going to stay? Was he?? Both children looked ready to panic.

"Tim, you cannot stay and face these crooked people." The second his age, Stefania tried to ask.

"They are dangerous and will do terrible things to you if..." Cass tried to say the words, yet she was younger than her two siblings. "Find the city, in there then should be allies to help us." Tim went to his safe compartment with the key and dragged out a bronze pendent. "Inside of this is a map enchanted to take you anywhere." He told the girls as they gasped.

Stefania was not through fretting completely. "What of Sir Duke, and of Lady Katherine and –

"They will find you; they may have been able to go with Pennywurt." Tim told the two. "Go, I will make sure none should follow."

"How?" The blonde of them begged to know as Cassandra dragged the elder's nightgown sleeve before going to hug Tim goodbye. "Stay alive and watch out for soldiers…. help our brother Richard." She muttered as he put a hand to her head gingerly. "I shall. It is our duty to save the kingdom as one family. Now, go quickly. The map will work if you tell it where you wish to go by thinking about the place you wish to travel to."

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Dick was kept docile by sleep and his nightmares. His body ached and bled nothing but pain. Of the life forced to grow inside of him. He finally woke to find a genuinely convenient pail to vomit into. There by the door, was not Slade. "Hello." The hooded folk was wearing the attire of an archer, a hunter. "You must be father's newest brood mare."

Richard paled under the critic's eyes. Blue, and so cold as the warlord's own one. "How did you get into the king's chambers so easily?" Was all that the prince of the former nation had to ask. The snort this visitor gave was cut short. "I am here to get to know my father's bitch, and it looks to me that he had you christen the sheets. It certainly stinks enough." He spat, disdainful in tone as he looked at the bulge beneath the former royal's clothing. "He used a curse to keep you bound to this place…how quaint." The boy did not leave his hood down as this hunter had no interest in prying further for the moment. "Father will have you tonight, and you shall meet the rest of us. My proper, kingdom." The smirking soldier had Richard sit up with a wince. "Careful." The arrow wielder put up a palm. "I'm not here to sit you, quite the opposite. Be good, little bitch." He smiled. "I might have you entertain me next…"

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Richard was left be for a few hours until a doctor he did not recognise next came to the door with the king himself. Richard instantly rebelled, his body moving again as he ignored the markings and black magic that had held him in place for hours since the ritual began. "Stay still! You must –

"Paam." Slade pulled the boy's wrists to seat himself over the son of Wayne. "You'll just have to make do with this." Red faced and snarling, the future concubine yowled out as he was pricked of his blood with instruments of alchemy. "He'll need to rest a spell longer."

"I know this full well." Slade nodded to the woman in his rooms. "Is there any way to reduce the pressure."

"It is his organic, internal structure. My lord, he must adjust to it."

"He isn't a god." Shot the king. "Will it harm him in the process? I Must be sure it cannot!"

"It won't." Paam moved to work with the bit of blood she had collected, a touch of tissue to finalize her project. "The prince has no need to fret. He will live through this. Bed rest, fluids and less…fighting, will help him to acquire –

"I was made to fornicate with a demon!!" The teenager howled. "I cannot rest! He must be –

Paam moved in to wrench the boy to look at her, surprising her king. Red hair as long as vines, her green clad coat of alchemic symbols. He saw god in her, and did not like it one bit.

"My king is in control of your life." She hissed. "The sample you gave is vital for my research and I have decided to pursue what your useless father never dreamed. Did you know that the Romani – ya people that your clan was descended from had something of super – human agility and strength?" (This is totally wrong but it shows why Paam is helping the new king.) "That research would have the working world busy and wealthier by their exploitation. I'd keep my mouth shut if you'd rather I find a poison to kill the children of the Demi – God of the Nyhgt – Hauk." (Hawk.)

"That…. that story is a fairy – tale." Dick couldn't find the strength as the babe inside him made his insides grow twisted in knots again. She had such power, well no…now and forever. He could tell her.

"The Romani – ya are, all dead. Gone, for I am the perhaps last…" Panted the prince. The king above him only chuckled. "Which is why you'll carry my child." The dark lord told the teenager. "You. A picture of perfection without even guessing why."

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The stories of those who had gone after, hunted and harmed his people. Richard's eyes ran as his mouth went dry with disturbing memories of both. Past and the future…of what was going to destroy all that he had left to his culture. Of course, he'd been found in a few countries away, once upon a time when he was only eight and in such a scare to lose his parents to a terrible storm. The water did not keep him from them, but he saw the village he had lived in all his young years…burned to the ground by a slaughterer from afar. Zuchrotti Tonus. From a place further to the south. He had come to trade, to take gold and anything he could but…. he turned to stealing once the snows had left his men without food. The Romani – ya had been kind to the travelers. They gave up their food and shelter but not to know…for they wore gold in their collars and thread of fine fabrics that enticed the hungry traders. They didn't just claim everything, the tainted and burned what was left until…. until Wayne found Richard in the chicken coop with egg in his hair and tears in his eyes. For the blood of his mother and her corpse had kept him safe until the fighting was over. His mother, grandparents and friends were all massacred when he had emerged to see Bruce looking over the dead. He'd traveled to seek the council of Gorde. Lord, and the father of Barbenthal at the time. She was a year older, and still…. still, he didn't dare leave the Romani – ya boy to his fate in the snow.

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The fight in his final words was lain out, useless as the boy was left to be checked over before the royal was told to 'rest.' Selene was quite crafty for a shape shifting sorceress of a coven underlooked by the Waynes for decades. She had found her way into his bed, only to be denied a place for her sisters. Like Paam, Richard's father had amassed both a hoard of allies and of enemies, the kind like Copplepour, or Kom' andr. They were now guests, and guests in these times never knew when to keep their teeth from rattling off.

Kom' andr was a princess of a place not well known to the king. A star – region that tamed animals of lore. So the story went, the princess was of a warrior race and quite skilled with her combat training as her country's newest cheiftess. She was there the night the curse had been placed. As was the other third, a man with the brand of Savage in his crest. How indeed would the council even decide to go to a warring state? They'd had such peace…why?

Power was truly blind and corrupt as Richard saw daylight and rose with the ache now healing nicely. He lifted his tunic and saw the etchings in his blood all caked an the thought required another bucket.

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As he was left to wait for his lord to arrive, the one to come to his king's door was in fact the sorceress with claws for fingertips. She waved sweetly and sauntered on in with her hat off and cloak hung up until her next coven's meet- up. "You have no sweat upon your brow." She rubbed her chin and watched as the prince tried to avoid her gaze. "The king wishes for you to meet him in the throne room."

He was summoned beside two others and the boy from the other night, he was there and looking very cross. "Dear concubine of mine, how did you slumber?"

"I, was well." Richard truly fibbed as the snort from the hooded lad had the prince staring. "We shall begin introductions, anyway. These, are my three children." The king went on. "Rosalie. Grandl. Juel." He studied them and spoke. "All three of my heirs shall soon meet their newest addition to my continuing reign."

"As long as there is no threat to your sovereignty." Richard muttered. Selene moved away to not be a part of what would come next. For surely, cheeks would be hit and children might protest.

"I've met the glorified whore." Grandl, the eldest snipped at the other seventeen-year-old prince. At eighteen, he should have led his own army by now. Not run into a predicament enough to have him pity anyone. Rosalie turned her nose up to the gossip and Juel looked quite confused as he turned to his father for support. "The youngest; he cannot speak." Slade told the other prince. "You're to recognize his needs, regardless."

Richard grumbled his reply, the king not taken by it but not trying to fuss while Juel was still so meek to the ways of their conflicts. "My two youngest are not as their brother. I'd have him train you guard even. Ah, tell my prince who you came across in the dead of a winter storm."

Richard's hairs stood at end. "Ah, of course…." Grandel smiled wittily and tried to clear his throat. Seeing the state the news had left the former royal in. he rather liked to tease his new fuck toy. Well, she'd get to be in his bed once their father tired of this one. He held the role of having many wives in Defencia and it was fine there. Though, here was so…plain. No spark.

"The ones running after a boy in a red cowl. He was on a dark horse and toppled from a cliff…right into the waters on such a winter's eve. We could find nothing of the bodies." The brat smirked. "He was, not someone you knew…was he?"

Richard held his skull and to his knees, a part of his soul flew to the abyss. Jason. Jason's red hood was a testament. "He could –

"He'd be drowned in the cold, little bitch." Grandel sniffed at the concubine. Yet his father only glared. "We'll speak of this again, son." He said to the brunette arrow – hider. Grandel gripped his sides and tried not to throw an outburst as to what his father was…protecting. Rosalie instead grew curious. As the second eldest, she knew far as much as her brother. But not everything came as easily since her role was as a strategist and not a hunter. "Father, you must know if there were any other orders against King Bruce's legacy." She wondered. "He was hated by our brothers of the north and south, yet the east and western parties adored him." She stuck out her tongue. "I heard that he burned children alive to feed his wounded soldiers."

"That's a lie!" Richard snapped at the young princess. "MY father was not a con man, nor was he a king of demons and draugs."

"Our father is a warrior! Your petty maiden loving bastard was nothing – he was handed his title. Just. Like. You." She glared at the seventeen-year-old with two icy pupils scaring Richard in an instant.

"No." Slade put his palm up to halt her. "Refrain from using your powers, my child. You might harm your new sibling –

"I don't want a brood mare as a mother!" She wailed. Richard tried to back up, but his legs would not budge. "You are without reason; all of you, to your quarters and stay silent."

"But, father!"

"NOW." The king stood and the children all scattered to stand and bow before taking their leave. Richard was left, having suffered too much to have the power to run. Not with a curse holding his stomach hostage. "Why did you not go after?" The king leaned into his throne and then to his fist he tilted his gaze at the meek representation of royalty. He wasn't speaking to Richard, but Juel who had been left behind. "Take him with you." Richard was told. His eyes gazed at the curly haired angelic thirteen-year-old. "He, cannot go with them?"

"He does far better to listen than my two eldest." Slade spoke. "Juel? Would you let Richard know if you are hungry or require anything at all?" The blonde blinked and rapidly and waltzed over before cautiously wondering where he should take the other's hand into his own. he instead started using strange signals with his own small fingers whereas Richard had never seen such witchcraft.

"He speaks to you with 'signs." The king explained, rather fascinated every time a person learned of this technique for the very first time. "This is how he speaks and as I said, you shall learn how to interoperate every sign as if it is your own language in Ladinia."

"Whatever caused this, loss?" Richard frowned and turned his head as an owl to picture just why the boy was born without a voice, not while he was a child of Baldirin (Baldur) and Thurg from old custom in even Defencia's legends. "Could the gods be to blame -

"Nay, he was damaged well after in a battle with a fierce opponent from the Red Sands." The king told the former noble. "HE is sensitive about his pain and so you must leave it there. Speak naught of it to your newest, governed."

Richard's mouth fell opened a bit as Juel also grinned back, his teeth smaller than boys his same age. If he was not part angelic, demon or fae, then in that moment those hands grasped his own and Richard was tugged to fly out the throne room doors. The king smiling with a hand to his own cheek as he watched. A new playmate for his brood, as soon to belong to Richard in some way if the true king was never found. Never recognized in time. If this king did die, so too would his children, even the ones good and faire. Richard felt his stomach bubble as Juel moved his hand to motion to the concubine's tummy. Richard panicked and pulled away, the boy looking ever confused and hurt. "I…. I'm sen... –

Richard stopped, he put his own hand there and put up a finger, then shook his head. When would be the right time to see that he'd have books on this strange language that he knew nothing of? Juel seemed to understand and bobbed his head quickly, gripping Richard by the stray hand again and pulling him along to find food. Boys like him living in the mountain wastes could eat boar and too much, so Richard had an idea. They were supposed to watch him? The two other children to his sheer joy, were enjoying bread and the remaining find cheeses from the other night. He smiled to them and the eldest did not comply, yet the two younger children…

"Allow me to show my deepest apologies and whip up a snack." He announced to his children. His, as the thought of their demise later made his stomach lurch once more. "Do you fancy fruits? Rusks, have you had those?" In the cabinet, Bruce had Pennywurt hide a small parcel of sleeping potion in case of the boys misbehaving. Or, if he had to lace it to halt an enemy from taking the lives of those dear to him. Richard stood to grip the things he would need to prepare a quick enough dish and to lose the faces of his captors for a while. He was not there to watch THEM. Correction, they were there to keep him from trying something pointless. He made a small hot drink that smelled of sugar and something any child would not refuse. So, they all drank and in moments….

He slipped away, unseen.

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