"I. Am. Peter!"
The massive bare chested man boomed for what must have been the fortieth time since Royston and his friends had arrived in the colossal hall, awaiting their audience with the King himself.
"Really?" Jay winced, wiggling one finger inside the ear closest to the massive barbarian.
"I-"
"Am Peter." The magi snapped, cutting the huge warrior off, who frowned at him in annoyance.
"Little man." The stranger boomed, striding toward Jay with his chest puffed out like an angry pigeon. "Pride."
"What?" Jay shot back, confusion creasing his brow.
"Pride, little man. Take pride in who you are." He dropped to one knee, bringing himself level with the mage's eyeline as he placed one hand gently on his shoulder. "You may be little." He paused. "Childlike in your features, weak like women after childbirth." He sighed deeply, shaking his head with an empathetic smile. "But you are you." He grinned, slapping the other man on the back, in what Roy assumed to be a friendly manner, though one that nearly sent Jay flying. Promptly, the man rose, nodding to the others as he returned to his previous position.
"Weak, like a woman after childbirth." A female voice called from the side, an alcove enveloped in shadow aside from two glowing yellow eyes. Two eyes, that happened to in fact not belong to the speaker. A blonde haired woman emerged from the gloom, short, athletic, with an expression that made her appear on the edge of mischievous laughter. She wore hunting leathers dyed a deep midnight black, a colour that matched her companion, the owner of the glowing yellow eyes, perfectly. "I don't know whether to be annoyed or amused."
The wolf growled low and menacingly as it padded forward silently, despite its tremendous size. The beast's thick coat, so black that it appeared to absorb the light, pearl-white fangs glistening under the layer of saliva that coated them.
"Hank, enough." Instantly, the beast obeyed, lowering itself onto its haunches obediently in an almost puppy like manner, despite the fact the burning yellow eyes never so much as shifted from their solid glare.
"And who the fuck are you?" The Keegan grunted apishly.
"The names Sazabella." Royston blinked in surprise at the woman's response.
"Saz...abella." He repeated dumbly. "As in, Lady Dawson?" The woman smiled sweetly.
"None other." Her response eliciting a shudder that ran from the tip of Roy's spine all the way to his toes.
"Who?" Jay muttered, clearly annoyed that he wasn't in the know.
"That's Silence." Roy's words caused all colour to drain from the Bone Baker's face, turning him a white that matched his namesake.
"As in..."
"As in the bitch they tell stories about around the fucking fire to scare, not children, but fully grown men."
"And women, you sexist pig." Saz tsked playfully, twisting up one hand to inspect her white-painted nails. "Probably children too, I wouldn't say there's a specific rule that makes them exempt."
"Wait, if that's-" The Keegan turned his stare over to the giant barbarian with a look of sudden awe. "Is that, The Butcher?"
"Peter, ugly man." The barbarian grumbled, shooting him a dark look. The Butcher was huge, larger than even The Keegan himself, which was something Roy had thought impossible. The man was ripped, a mass of bulging muscle that was covered in seemingly random tattoos that stretched across his entire body, even his face was not safe from the twisting lines of the black ink. He wore his brown hair long, cascading down over both shoulders to hang glossily against his muscular back.
"He will see you all now." Lord Brown called as he reappeared from behind the giant oak doors. "Come, quickly."
"What the fuck have we got ourselves into?" Royston whispered uneasily as he watched the deadly duo make their way forward in front of them, silently as they slipped through into the King's Reception.
"You. Roy." Jay snapped back, "You got us into this."
The King's reception room was, in Roy's opinion, like something straight out of a fairytale. Massive stained-glass windows that lined each of the huge walls, refracting the light that shone down from the heavens, into beautiful shards of rainbow-coloured light, each filled with the drifting beauty of a million dust motes as they tumbled lazily back down to the marble floors. Sconces burned brightly at all four corners, despite the brightness of the room, and a warm scent of cinnamon hung heavy in the air.
"Welcome." King Lorian boomed from across the massive room, rising from his throne with outstretched arms. Strange. Lorian smiled as he approached, his thick purple fur lined cloak trailing behind him as he walked along the red velvet runway. "Welcome!" he repeated once more, grasping first The Butcher's forearm, then Sazabelle's, Jay's, deliberately avoiding The Keegan's hopefully outstretched hand, before coming to a rest with Royston's fleshy grasp enveloped in the King's own.
"My King." Roy half nodded, half bowed, awkwardly, fully aware that the King had yet to release him from his grasp, which made the move all the more difficult.
"None of that!" Lorian exclaimed, finally releasing Roy's hand as he stepped back towards his throne. "Danda." he shouted over his shoulder.
"What?" Roy blinked, releasing how he had addressed his monarch, "Your, uh-Majesty?"
"Well, it is my name?" The King chuckled warmly. "Danda Lorian the Third, named after my Father, and my Father's father." The group remained silent, unsure of how to respond, and completely uncomfortable with using the King's first name, as if they had grown up together as chums.
"Why does little King summon Peter, and killer-kitty?" Apparently not all of the assembled were restrained by the uncomfortability of the situation, the Barbarian's words eliciting a sharp hiss from the blonde assassin.
"Hank is a fucking WOLF, you moron, how many times!"
"Kitty has four legs, a boop snoot, and sharpy teeth. Does this Hank?"
"He does!" The King exclaimed gleefully, finding great amusement in the situation.
"Is Kitty." The barbarian shrugged. Danda's howl of laughter was contagious, so much so that Roy found himself folding over at the waist as he struggled to contain his own humour.
"Now." King Lorian cut his humour off so suddenly that it almost appeared as if it had never been. "You may be wondering why you have been summoned?" The assembled nodded. "I need you to find my daughter."
"Your daughter, sire?" Jay pressed, his mannerisms clearly the most suited to being in the presence of royalty. The King nodded.
"Last night, a member of the guild of Nighthawks broke into the palace." Saz's expression darkened the moment the name of the elite assassin's guild was mentioned. "One of their elite, by the name of Joshua."
"The Peeler." Saz spat at the floor, then grimaced, realising quickly that not only had she spat in front of the King, but she had spat on his clean marble floor.
"Indeed." King Lorian frowned, glancing at the glistening green glob. "Of course, as a Nighthawk, the agent is exempt from repercussion, as is law. The Nighthawk contract-"
"Binds all acts committed by the agent, to the contract owner." Saz growled, shaking her head angrily. "He who holds the contract."
"But who would hire a Nighthawk to-"
"The Poison Queen." As one, the group began to curse. The shock at the reveal overriding the awkwardness of their audience with the King. "Kathryn's actions are an act of war, but only if they become common knowledge. We cannot afford to take on the serpent people. We will not win. Their numbers are superior, their technology more advanced." He shrugged self-deafeatedly. "why she has not announced her act, I do not know, though perhaps she will, and the need for secrecy will end. But until then." He shrugged again. "Discretion." He fixed each of them with his intense stare. "Is of the utmost importance.".
"Fucking Slugs." The Keegan spat, using the derogatory name for those of the Serpent race.
"What's the plan?" Saz picked at her teeth as she spoke, her other hand idly stroking her great black beast, sat silently beside her.
"I want the five of you to work as a team. The Peel was last spotted arriving in Whatt'anot, from there he will likely take the Fantasy Road down through the Squadlands, and into the Serpent Jungle."
"Whatt'anot?" Royston spoke incredulously. "That's two weeks at sea, how can he have possibly got that far in just twenty-four-"
"He has ways of transport unavailable to the common man." King Lorian paused, his eyes twinkling mysteriously. "As do we. Come."
The group followed their King up to the Dias that held his throne, then strangely towards a beautiful tapestry that hung from ceiling to floor, which the King lifted unceremoniously and disappeared behind.
"The fuck?" Royston muttered, lifting the limp flap to find a covered doorway behind. "This is fucking ridiculous." he grumbled, following on through to a long winding staircase. Eventually the group emerged into a circular room with two doorways, one ending in what appeared to be a swirling portal, and the other, a pier-like structure that jutted out into the sky beyond.
"Now, firstly I am aware that due to your immediate departure from wherever it was that our good friend Lord Brown found you-" The head of the TROLE appearing from the chamber doorway as if summoned, "who I might add will be joining you all on your travels." Roy suppressed a groan, despite Kieran's brilliant smile. "That many of you may be woefully unarmed." he gestured towards a table lined with six weapons. A longsword, an axe, a short sword, a crossbow, a book of spells, and a banana. "Therefore, I give you two choices." He turned towards the two pathways. "Firstly, one of these paths leads to the shadowrealm, an inbetween-place that both exists, and does not exist."
"That makes literally no sen-"
"It is a place between space and time-" King Lorian cut Jay off with a sharp look. "That folds reality in a way that makes travel between great distances accomplishable in mere hours." Well. Thought Roy. That sounds fucking awful. "And secondly, the Skydock."
"Skydock?" Royston asked eagerly, hoping for a chance to finally hitch a ride on one of those insane new inventions... Airships or something, he couldn't quite remember what they were called.
"Skydock." The King nodded. "So pick your weapon, then pick your path. Quickly now!"
Head over to the Fantasy Road discord server to select our heroes weapon, and their method of transport! Each will have major consequences on the storyline!
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