War Has Come and Night Hath Fallen Over our Faire Kingdom

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Chapter 19: Falling Leaves of Summer Red - Round

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So, vague title will be explained. Listening to Assassin's Creed Valhalla soundtrack and it goes! Onward!

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Summer then autumn, the chill in his heart stayed settled. Rosalie did not venture closer than at the table for their meals. Richard was told to keep his stomach from meeting the fate of others the king had castrated, that his child was all of his world. That Richard had best keep to their contract and not try to fall out of line as his many other dead concubines.

Richard believed this all done in rough tongued humor since the king had no such passions in the stories he wove. The boy believed that he settled for life, not for lust. When ever that was so, it instead became the opposite as if the king knew to combat his bride's resentment by having her at the other bed. He brought in a second, one for the king and a single bed mate on cold nights.

Every night as the boy stayed in his bed, the king had lain with women so tender, sometimes men as the prince tried to sleep. Tried not to dream of moaning faces and splashes of slick decorating the room's walls. He could smell it mildly as he woke, and by the next night there was none. The king would skip sometimes and do it again. The ages varied, the gender undefined and sometimes, sometimes, the boy would hold his stomach and hiss as the man even dared to use his name. His pet name – all in an effort to have the boy break and bend to his whims.

Nights, and sleep left the boy with none of his rest he'd had as a son of the king. He was gaining bags, aging to look his age out of dim light, and the king remained the incubus to make it so. That Richard's mental state would collapse before the child was given a title.

The next night, however, the last as the king too sagged, seeing over his shoulder the boy in his separate cot, the king threw a glance as Selene came forth in her dresses worn, her dark locks set free. "How welcoming you are, my king. I have just the game for us tonight…"

She didn't notice that Richard was by her eye. She only morphed as the voice to come from him was the prince's.

/

It started with a soft peck to the mouth, then a hungry growl and a squeal as the boy covered his ears.

"S…mmumm! We….shouldn't –

"You'll continue to keep me at bay, pet. You tend to regress as you do; my mind is set, and you must see why the life I give is no curse unto thee."

"Sire…. touch me….my child, it needs to know you are his…"

The witch with Rihcard's face moaned out as those hands dipped to the boy's new vagina. Fingering his toy deeply, Richard, the real prince, bit into the cloth of his bedding and groaned softly. A hand felt for the bulge as his hand dove lower than the mound he'd be birthing.

"How big you've gotten, my bride…. What a lovely response. You know what you are here for." He purred in the double's ear. "Take all of me inside you tonight, and maybe it will induce the birth. My seed in you will make the blood bare well; you'll not suffer. I only want to have you here."

"As you wish, sire…" The double bared its neck as the fake was lifted to the sheets. "As you wish, my king. As your breeding bed, your favorite…."

He punched in without want, without need and only to conquer as the fake cried out. The split hole was given a twitching moment to adjust and lighten as the king moved. "In me, you will always be at my cock….in my bed, to my children…always."

"Sire! Sire! Have me!! I want your cock inside me! Gods, please! Bring my child! Bare it! Bare it! OHH!"

The king let his seed fill the womb of the false prince. The other, having already come all over his rounded, trembling stomach. "I see you are denying that want, my pet." The boy jumped, the king holding his neck down as another set of hands did so to the prince's legs.

"Should we continue, then?"

/

Richard awoke to an arm slung round him. The warm breath and the stickiness of his thighs keeping him here. He'd given in, wanted. It wasn't so –

The king batted an eye with a lazy smile to his bride, tugging it closer. "You made me the happiest king, last night. We'll have more fun later, if you desire it."

"Why…" Richard croaked. "Why did you do that at all? I was –

"Reluctant, boy. You are a concubine still if you cannot accept what life you've been offered." The king sat up a bit, the boy now falling into his lap. "I do not want an ungrateful whore; I want a family. If you will receive it, that child shall consummate the union we both deserve."

"You are surely. Selene was a fool! Why?" Richard pounded the king's chest in tears of rage. "Why, and with my body? Why this trial! There will BE no us! Father will rescue me; I shall not stay and…and ever dare to look upon your greedy face!"

/

The cell smelled of must and feces. The king had it cleared thrice, and the odor still stunk. The boy was dragged by two burly guards to stay in his rock wall and wait for the leaves to turn red. The king said if the boy could not behave during his pregnancy, then he would be chained up, strung across the wall and the babe would simply drop out.

"Then what? Will you breed me again, and again until I find you handsome??"

"As long as it takes. My last bride held a similar fate as you. She was taken from her village during a raid in the fall. She escaped and froze to death. There is no way to leave this cell. Where would you go?" He scoffed. "You are with child, losing a fight that need not be won by your kin. They sold you, boy! Your brother will not recall that promise and if any should be so daring – you will die before a rescue occurs. The curse is very real. I made sure to close the gates. The only way you can find freedom, is to submit."

"Never." Sneered the boy in his dirtied cell rags.

The king looked to his guards and bobbed his head, the boy's eyes grew as the king's next order left him even more desperate than the first.

"Strip him, no cloth to carry. He'll be fed in the next hour. Nothing but gruel."

"No! Slade! You…. you filth ! I won't be –

The guards came in and Richard crawled back on his buttocks. He screamed obscenities he'd heard from Jason. He tried to beg, to hit them. His muscles were sore from the king's night before. His energy was pathetic, and his stomach was left untouched as his breaches were shoved off and torn, like his tunic. "Sire! Stop them, please!"

"They are not going to harm you, my pet. This will teach you to open that mouth to your king." He motioned again, "No penetration, as you were."

"The knights pulled down their armored thighs and let their engorged, sweaty cocks hang out. Richard's face was gripped as another took his arms and made sure to lock his wrists from flailing out. " Here's the discipline he's been askin' for, my lord."

The two men took turns making the poor naked prince swallow all of their god – awful cum. He coughed and begged until the men painted the teenager with their seed. The boy's tears dripping down to mask the mess as he rolled back onto one side. The door to his cell stayed shut, until a noise protruded and an hour no later, it opened once more. "Head up, mum. You can't be rollin' around in a filthy place if you're up to it. Let me clean you and the wee one down."

Margie was, not from Defencia, but a place known as Wilaforte in the country closest to this one. She said she came on a caravan and was stranded by her own people. It wasn't until the people here gave her a way to live and to just take care of others in the king's castle walls. "He means what he does, and decisive leaders know all. You on the other hand, will end up stuck to a boulder in the waters wide if you cannot decide to be as bride and bare the brunt. Your father is a king, and you are a prince."

"He's not an animal, that man is a monster –

"Hush up. He'll just do it again. You're all better, see?" She held up a small hand mirror as the tub he'd been washed with had his skin no longer red and puffy from a losing battle. "I…I can't be here. I need to return to my king."

"He's here for you, this one is. That one…he is mad, if you didn't know it yet."

"What?" Richard looked her in the eye. "That's not so, my King Wayne is –

"He's on his way to becoming a damned thing that no one wants. His eldest now, not you be' plenty on taking the throne and locking up that mad - man. You never left him this way. Nay. He was always a bit unstable as it –

"He mourns me! That's why! That is why I have to tell him…please…" Richard sobbed into her robes. "The king will never allow it, but maybe I might be the one to convince my father to let me go. Please, I want to write him…one last goodbye…please…"

/

The rans fell heavy over the path leading to the walled city of the bat. The guards at watch including Wallace looked over to see the few coming between them. Crowded and those entering now had to be doubly checked since the king's policies had changed drastically. The new prince's bride was wary of intruders as well, and thus would bring up debates to the war - council room.

Wallace sighed as he saw a mauve colored cloak and a young woman leaving on her legs from the gates by horseback. The Oracle had told her to be patient, while Royland had found of a person coming by his network to the city from Defencia to pass notice of the prince's wellbeing. She immediately set out to pursue the messenger. On foot, they were over a hilltop and coming close. The paper in their hands was noticed by her as Stefania dashed on her steed to bring herself before the messenger in pause to halt him.

"Halt, in the name of the royal line – I command ye. What are you for, who do you seek?"

"From the kingdom of my mountain home, I search in hopes to bring news – the prince. Please, the boy's father. Bring this to him." The messenger's shaking hands, and rough working-class features had Stefania wonder if Richard was being kept together. The man bowed his head, and she gladly took the parchment. "To this, I must ask; What is the state you yourself know of the prince?" Stefania asked as the rain falling felt her face.

"None, much of it. The king refuses to give much reason to parade the figure he's sought. The one we imagine is to give birth by a curse. That is all I've heard about the castle. The prince though…" He whispered, "Still refuses the king. He was tossed about, and the king won't have any of that. There will be reason once the king is done to make the prince bow, however, we are uncertain. It is, awfully concerning. None question the rulers. Their power is too great to challenge. Lest they be dead by sunrise."

/

Richard's wounds would heal externally, yet his pride had been mashed as the ground meal in a plate, a bit of jerky and a small plum. He had never tried one. Maybe as a child in his home on the caravan trail. He wondered what Defencia did for trade if it did not sacrifice to plunder or…. for productive means, the women here. He realized the only rights lost were those of a status against the king. Surely by corrupt means did he keep them bound to his rule.

Yet did Rosalie look past this? Why was no one assuming the king less of a hero and more of a tyrannical ruler? Bruce was no such, and Richard could prove it. He looked up and saw a torch lower, steps coming as he sat up. His stomach rested as the only clothing he had now earned was a loin piece that the ancient city dwellers used to bathe.

It itched of sheep's skin and the contact felt likely to infect him, yet it was common for prisoners also to wear absolutely nothing. The one to visit him at this hour on the second day of his dismal punishment, was the king.

"How was your meal, my bride."

"It, was."

The boy stayed and left the bowl as he took the jerky under himself and didn't show the man. He was best eating to live, not as cattle.

"Not the little one? I see you've eaten the fruit. It was fresh picked. Especially to satiate our child's thoughts. They will think of us as strange, yet I assure you of this – there will be no reaction. I will not endanger them in any way. You will be given time, rest. I will not harm you, if you are mine."

"If father comes to slay ye, goblin, I will not have to chose whom to lay with."

"You'd lie before the king?"

"I would! I would take his law and decide to keep it, I will not be your thing to bare any such life forever."

"Is that right. Then, why the fruit, what of the meal."

"It was sloppy, as your people. As this entire world –

"I asked not. Of that." The king cut off the boy. "Was it not a bitter aftertaste for you? The flesh. The meat you refused back in your land of the glorious bat – king."

The boy looked at his king and growled aloud. "The flesh of your kin won't touch us! I am to be free, and you…. you deserve to become the flesh you consume. Dragon food. Bastard!"

The king turned to go, then he did not. He drifted over and, in his hand, he held a small root from a plant that Timothy had identified as truly toxic. "Nerve damage, a mind no longer as it was, death." The king smirked as he laid the root by the front of the bars to the prince's cell. "If you decide to take it, the contract will not be interrupted. That poison is a false- a farce created by Paam in this order. You take that, I die, and you live. However, the babe will not be. I will be gone, and so will the king's folly of a rage. It is up to you if he goes to you and says that the child you swore to hang tight to, will not be broken and burned to ash."

'Father would –

"Did you not hear his proclamation? He intends to fulfill it to have you back, by erasing every last trace of us. Of what this control I keep has made you. He will never do, it. Not until that child lays dead beside his father-

"I will not die to appease them, you are wrong…if I live, the child must too. It will show that whatever you had made of those two. Your sons and your daughter who very much alive as she is confused by her own father…I will not be as you. I will raise that babe to see that there is more than the blood you swore to me to steal away. I won't be swayed by death to keep that promise. Lock me away, keep my arms and wrists bound. I will not bow to you in such a manner, my king of wasted knowledge."

The king in his wild wit, threw back his neck and laughed, he did not end it until the man was sure the boy was to the gates to see him. Hands at the bars, his cock hanging past the lion cloth and seeking respite. "So, to sleep in my bed is such a crime to save a life? What a martyr you are, child. I adore you even more for defying me!"

/

The fourth day, the boy had cramps. Selene was to the side of Paam, who did her best to find why this was. She stormed to the king's chambers as he sat before his scrolls and had her eyes of green ivy laced here before the tempted, damnable sloth.

"You would hath broken the subject!" She accused. Selene stood in the doorway watching, her eyes batting back to seek out a few subjects of her own for a time. The Princess had to be near, was she? Off the cat in face flew, while the king took to appeasing his needed scientific minded ally. "Lady Paam; you come here of no proof –

"You abuse the rites of my…. creation!" Paam shouted. "IF you want this city to stand tomorrow, you shall not TEMPT that boy to bleed, you shall not see him nor have your lowly mutts trample down those halls. Do you hear me, sire? That amount of stress is plenty. Do away with this rule. It is not going to break the boy. The child, may suffer the more, and you both!" She growled. "Get him out of those chains and into a warm bath, before I have your clowns castrated for touching my prized experiment."

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Richard glanced up as he slept, the rattle in the walls joined by the clicking of a latch. The same guards who had spit upon him with their cum – lives had decided to…'

"How is this so, you ask?" The king came before them and offered the boy a hand in peace. Richard simply rose, his hands clean and his belly still dusted with the remnants of those who had suffered a far greater defeat. As the king took to shutting the door away, his lips found the boy's one ear.

"You may have a guardian from afar having me to change our rules, yet I may still couple without penetration, isn't that nice of them?"

/

The bath was for two, he and the king. Richard did need aid as he lifted himself into the large open pool. The king kept the steam moving as he began to dip in his toe. They were both nearly unclad as Richard fell into the water carelessly. His body was too heavy, he couldn't drown!

"Careful, dear pet." Slade's arm found him as the boy was hoisted back to the surface. "You shook seek out your betrothed if you desire a dip that far in. the water is far warmer on this side of the pool."

"I… cough...never asked for you…"

"You didn't have to." The king answered dryly. "I come at your haste, anyway. Paam made certain that the supposed last of the Romani – ya not be found floating belly – up."

"Ass!" The boy wrenched free and tried to wade, finding the water far too unstable here. "I…I can swim, fine –

"Why not wade, child?" The king teased, kicking out a bare leg playfully as Richard got some distance between them.

"Right then, would you be so kind as to carry your bride to the other side of that wading pool, majesty?" The boy batted his eyes in a petulant way, expecting a response from the man to be less than amusing in his supercilious blue eyes. The king did not mind and found it relieving to know, even as a mockery to his name- out his arms swept as he took his bride for a dip. She could not thrash on her back, so he did this, floating the same, as the boy's lips dragged out curses before the king had his hands to the child's stomach and to that insistent little mouth. "Hush, be calm in these waters beside me, you'll live if you don't try to drown like a rock as you are."

" Mmrmmm!" The boy shook his head until they were finally to the other side of the pool. The king held him, the boy soon making his fingers and knuckle wet with something tepid.

Tears.

The king frowned and sat back with a look of concern, yet it wasn't all that he had to bring. No, the child was just afraid to commit and lose a part of the past Wayne had crafted. He let go as the boy didn't. He clung and cried into that massive arm until the pool truly might have tested as the ocean.

Of one's added salt to the mixture.

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This chapter was showing that Dick is starting to lose his place to think of an escape while he's so far along. He could always try after the kid is born but he'd be left pretty weak. He has no desire to be a mother. But, he does not want the child to be unwanted as he was almost. Find out!