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Purity of the Feline part 4: Epiphanies

From the perspective of Banquo

The ride was long, but it was worth it, as what lay behind us was a chaotic lump of shit compared to what lay ahead. We had made good time, and had arrived far before anyone had expected. Laststand was much of a sight. The walls stood so tall, that no man could ever climb them, with small gates scattered around. Just over the gates were even bigger towers, and behind it all was a grand temple to The Crowned One. On the side of each wall were the newly decided flag of Royalist forces. It was the traditional flag of Marcewes, of the sun shining on a hill, and that flag is being held up by two representations of Phillipus the First, founder of House Phillipus. Underneath him were words in Ancient Tongue, they were the few words of Ancient that I knew. They read "My Power, My Children", an ancient calling believed to have originated from words said by Phillipus himself.

Most houses take pride in a mythological hero believed to have founded there house. House Philipus was founded by Philipus the First, a man born in to the Great States, he went to see a High Priestess and he was told by her "Go and seek the land to The West, where the jungle meets the plains. From that land, monsters have the throne. Take the land, and the throne is yours." On that day Phillipus went over to the land, and fought the nearby monsters, seizing the throne for himself.

I jumped off my feral dire wolf, and my brothers followed. I grabbed it by the reins, and moved forwards, the gates opened for us. From that moment forth I knew I had made the right choice in sides, even if every troop in this city died, there is no way the city could fall. The way I saw it was, unless the new king was completely incompetent, the war would be won for sure, and peace would return to the realm. From out of the city gates, came a black furred rabbit with bright blue eyes, almost as tall as me, his teeth were all wonky and off, and scars were all over his face. His robes would suggest him to be a commoner, were they not dyed purple.

He looked around and laughed, before speaking in a rough accent "I'm Guessing since you have enough armoured men to raid the city, either your invaders, or you're the Royalist Associates."

"I am Commander Banquo, leader of the true branch of associates; I am here on your invitation."

"And I'm Mont, mayor of Laststand. My title is less impressive I admit." He grinned "And you say invitation as if it were free. Are you forgetting the arrangement we made?"

"I was expecting you to have some faith in the crown." We began walking in to the city

"Does anyone?" He responded. I remained silent, "Exactly. Tell me Banquo, if you have no faith, why are you here?"

"I believe that despite its flaws, the crown is the best thing for Marcewes at the moment."

"Why is that? Surely if you have no faith, the more powerful side is the one to choose."

I sighed "Land taken by conquest, is held by conquest, land taken by right, is held by right."

He laughed "Enjoy your stay here commander, and if you ever break the arrangement, be sure to sleep lightly."

From the perspective of Alexander Phillipus

The two bears drew battle-axes, and at this moment it wasn't a pleasant scene, a grizzly and a cave bear both charging towards us with battle-axes. I realised I didn't stand a chance and ran, Thessa came to. I couldn't see anywhere to run to where the bears couldn't reach us, until we began running towards the waterfall. I nudged Thessa as we ran, and pointed to a cave entrance.

I stood in front of the bears, and drew my blade while Thessa ran towards the entrance. My hand trembled with fear as I stood there.

"Stand back foul creatures, I'm warning you!"

The bears stopped, and the Grizzly laughed, the Cave bear moved over, grabbed my sword by the blade, and threw it in to the waterfall. I started running as well, and jumped in to the lake, swimming as quickly as I could, the bears weren't far behind, and I swore for a second they would catch up. I swam through the waterfall, grabbed my blade and tried to jump in to the cave. I couldn't quite fit, the passage was too thin, and the bears were just within axe distance. The cave bear drew his axe, but before he had a chance to strike, Thessa grabbed me by the hand and pulled me in.

I knew from that point on, that if I could barely get in to the cave, there is no way the bears could. The cave bear looked in anger, and began punching the cave entrance, until it collapsed, leaving us sealed in.

"Hey Thessa?" I asked

She turned to me "Yeah?"

"Thanks for saving my life back there."

"Same to you." She smiled.

I had never before realised how beautiful Thessa was. I looked at her, and sexual thoughts came in to my head, I stopped, and tried to get some perspective. She was my sister; nothing could ever happen between us. I thought for a second maybe it was just dehydration, I got out my waterskin and took a sip, I still felt the same. I took another sip, before getting out a torch.

"Ok, I don't think we have anything to light this one, but if we can find something, I think we can find a way out of here.

Thessa looked at the torch, "There's bound to be something in this cave that can light the torch." She said, before looking around. At that moment, the torch just spontaneously lit up "Ok, how did you do that?" She asked

"To be honest, I have no idea."

"Well, might as well start exploring." She responded

I shined the torch, and it revealed various thin tunnels that we could just about crawl through.

Thessa turned to me "Alex, you're quite skilled with that sword."

"Thanks."

"Can you teach me some time?"

"Sure, I promise as soon as we both get out of here, I'll teach you to swordfight." I smiled; suddenly it came back to me. I had just about got out of my mind how much I desired my sister, I hoped to the gods she couldn't tell.

We began crawling through the tunnels, it felt awful to crawl through such a thin space, and for each tunnel I prayed that we reach a clearing soon.

From the perspective of Baimet Cwupo

I was at yet another military meeting. My generals had called in a lot more meetings since the war started, as you would expect.

"As you can see, forces are gathering around here, in a city that you were once the liege of. Laststand is now almost a capital for traitorous activity." Pointed out the general, he was, like most people in Crystalport, a Dolphin.

"Almost a capital?" I responded

He pointed to Roarshire, home of House Sine. "House sine is the only full-out lord's house that has joined the Royalist forces, and being one of the wealthiest and military power, they prove to be quite an opposition force."

"Here's the plan, we begin conscription, and split all troops directly halved in to two armies. One of which will be trained to defend and stand their ground, one of which will be trained to slowly pick off enemy forces. We will create patrols all around my land, if any Royalist forces attempt to leave, hunt them down. We wait for the Royalist troops to attack, and create a powerful defensive position against them. If they lose, they will be weakened, and we will have an advantageous position. We then march the troops forward on horses, and drag as many troops away from the general army as possible. By doing so, we can kill the troops in smaller numbers."

"An excellent plan m'lord, I will rally the troops immediately."

I couldn't stop looking over to House Sine. A plan had occurred to me; I could take Roarshire, and bring our two lands together, and make more pace in the realm than there ever has been. "Tell me; to what faction does House Ary of Goldton swear its allegiance to?"

"They are disallowing either side to cross through their lands, saying they don't want to take sides prematurely."

"Write a letter to Lord Wodon Ary, tell him I wish to drop by for a visit."

"Yes m'lord."

As I walked outside the General's office, Hapadel ran up to me, "Baimet!, I bring newsssss!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"I laid an egg today; the doctorsssss claim it to be fertilissssed and will hatch within a week."

"Does this mean?" I said with excitement

"We're having a child!"

From the perspective of Sandria Craysa

I swung my sword at the training dummy, continually hitting in all the most vulnerable areas. I didn't miss a single strike. My father watched from the background, sitting from a chair just outside the castle walls, watching over my progress. He flapped his wings and flew over. "You're attacking it too slowly!"

"It's just a training dummy!"

"You are a Craysa, what is the calling of House Craysa!"

"Neither commoner nor lord may defeat a Craysa."

"Exactly, and I want to keep that up."

I kept swinging the sword at the idol. He got out two wooden swords from a crate behind me, and threw me one. "You are going to learn to swordfight the easy way, or the hard way."

"Most ladies aren't trained to swordfight."

"Most ladies aren't Craysas. Need I remind you of our past?"

"No, not again!"

"We are the honourable House Craysa, descendents of the great eagle Craysa. He was a knight in service of the crown, holding a shield with the symbol of two knives in a parchment. He was an undefeated swordsman, who was able to defeat even a giant with his sword alone. We are his descendants, and must live up to his name."

He slapped me round the face, "Now live up to his name and learn to fight you worthless bitch!" He growled "The gods could have given me an obedient son, but they gave me you instead. Now I have to sell The Citadel Peak to some random lord to further diplomacy, while you get fucked senseless by that very lord. At least learn to swordfight as mild compensation for that."

He flew back to his chair near the castle wall. As he returned, I muttered to myself "Don't feel anything, it will make it go quicker." Over and over again.

From the perspective of Thessalonike Phillipus

I was walking through the forest once more. It seemed so familiar, yet I couldn't quite figure out where I was. There from within the forest, were hundreds of trees, each of which with a unique face. A murder of crows flew over the top. As I looked to the sky to see the crows fly past, something was coming closer and closer. A large rock was falling; one which I guessed was what the stars were made of. I quickly ran away from it, but as it landed, the trees shattered and burnt. I breathed heavily, and got up from where I was lay, noticing everything had gone dark.

"Thessa! You ok?" Asked Alex. I suddenly got some perspective on where I was.

"Yeah, just a dream."

"What happened in the dream?"

"A star fell from the sky, nearly killed me."

"Ah. Feels awfully windy down here."

"Yeah, oddly so." To be honest, I did feel the winds blowing against me.

He suddenly had a realisation. "Winds don't normally blow in caves!, the exit, its nearby!"

We crawled through one last tunnel. As we reached the outside world, we found ourselves in a large, seemingly endless swamp. The croak of frogs could be heard endlessly, and small rivers ran in between trees.