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chaotic-orphan · 2 months

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Could you write a story where a king who outlawed magical beings (like fae, elves, sorcerers, etc Bc they’ve tried to kill him multiple times ) has a trial for a young magical creature found in his lands, but the creature isn’t evil, didn’t even KNOW they were trespassing, and is terrified they’re gonna be executed or tortured or something. But the king doesn’t hurt it, since the magical being didn’t mean any harm? Could turn into found family or he just lets it go or something

Love ur writing!!

A Benignant Mischief

@annablogsposts THIS ASK HAS CONSUMED MY EVERY WAKING THOUGHT SINCE I GOT IT! IN THE MIDST OF FEBUWHUMP NO DOUBT! THE GALL, THE NERVE!!!! I must say, this idea has taken hold of a good chunk of my brain and I have just been obsessed with Cosimo and Henrik (who will be introduced in part two), I hope you love them as much as I do. There is far more than this part written, but I had to divide it up to get some of it published so you didn't think it was just collecting dust in my inbox.

Thank you so much for this ask, it has rekindled an obsession with writing plot that isn't exclusively whump?! If that makes sense. I hope you enjoy it!

*~*~*~*~*

Cosimo ran through the forest with a sharp urgency, an unconscious boy cradled close to his chest as he went. The rain pattered down on his head as he ran, bare feet clawing at the ground to keep his grip. To an onlooker he could have been running on plain terrain instead over the wiry and rough forest, leaves slick with water; as if he were one with the Earth; knew every root, every nettle and broken tree bows that he hopped over with graceful ease.

His sharp eyes searched the forest frantically, pleading for a shelter to open up to them. Ahead was a wooden fence, tree branches crisscrossing before him like a blockade. Cosimo bowed his head and turned to the side, curling his upper body around the smaller one in his arms. Branches snapped and scratched at him as he pushed his way through with a determined resolve.

When he finally emerged from the branches, he found what he knew would be waiting for him. A small burrow made in a circle of trees, an opening in the trunk of a thick elfbow tree, the size of three fully grown oaks. A shelter mercifully presenting itself. Cosimo let out a soft sigh and whispered a soft thank you to the forest for providing.

His limbs grew heavier and heavier the closer he got to rest, but he walked on, slower now but just as strong as he was when he set out from court. He lay the boy in his arms down on a bed of leaves for the moment under the shelter of the elfbow. Cosimo touched the trunk as he entered, his heart feeling full as he did.

“Thank you protecting us,” he whispered, pressing his forehead to the entrance. Then he pressed his knuckles against the unconscious boy’s forehead, letting out a soft sigh. He was okay. Not as hot as he was before. Cosimo would gather food and herbs tomorrow to help the fever, but at least he was stable for now.

Cosimo took off his pack that he had hastily gathered from home. Two blankets, two pillows, a canteen of water, a hunting knife — just the essentials.

“The very bare necessities, Cosimo,” Cosimo chastised himself with a sigh, running a hand through his soaked hair flicking the rain from it. Cosimo put a pillow under the boy’s head and wrapped him in a blanket to keep him warm. Cosimo sat with back against the trunk of the tree, arms wrapped around his knees that he hugged to his chest and just watched the rain patted down on leaves outside the elfbow. The gloomy grey of the evening bled into a darker, broodier grey but the rain let up before night fell with its coat of deep purples and midnight blues.

Cosimo didn’t know at what point he fell asleep, but he woke to footsteps cracking the leaves beneath its feet and he was immediately alert. His hand shot and grabbed the hunting knife, unsheathing it and lunging forward teeth bared.

He came face to snout with a fox that was frozen in place, brown eyes meeting Cosimo’s with a slightly dazed and stunned glimmer to them. Cosimo let out a breath that reflected on the air with a rolling wave of smoke, before settling back into the nook-like shelter of the elfbow. The fox didn’t retreat, instead he sniffed the air and timidly took a step towards Cosimo and the unconscious boy beside him.

Cosimo inclined his head slightly and the fox entered the elfbow with all the inquisitiveness of a cat trying to sniff out the source of fish. The fox turned his head to the boy, and glancing back at Cosimo quickly for permission he curled up on the unconscious boy’s chest. Curling into a little ball on top of him, deep brown eyes meeting Cosimo’s again before closing half-lidded.

Emotion clogged Cosimo’s throat as he reached out to pet the fox, allowing the animal to sniff his hand before allowing the affection.

“See?” Cosimo whispered to the air. “You’re not nobody. You’re like me.”

Cosimo didn’t sleep exactly, but he at least got some semblance of rest before Dawn broke and he woke with it. He looked down at the sleeping boy, who was still asleep, the fox now curled up to the boy’s side. Cosimo reached his hand out and brushed the boy’s hair back from his forehead to feel it.

He was warm, not too hot. Maybe the fever had passed with the rain? Cosimo didn’t know enough about it, but he knew the rejuvenation powers of rain that came with him so he suspected maybe it could be the saviour of the boy too.

Cosimo drank some water from the canteen before grabbing the empty rucksack he took with him and slinging it over his shoulder across his body. He took the water and the hunting knife and set off about the day. When he exited the elfbow the sun was only starting to rise, birds heralding the morning.

Cosimo looked back to the sleeping boy and the fox. He pressed his hand to the tree and leaned his forehead into the back of his palm.

Protect them, please. I’ll return with food.

Cosimo felt the rush of feeling that flooded him when he felt around nature. Then he turned and walked out of the small clearing and into the embrace of the forest again. He remembered hearing running water when he was running with the boy, the sound distinct from the patter of the rain.

The dense woods were not nearly as imposing as they were the night before, when Cosimo’s thoughts were on finding shelter and nothing else. There should be some mushrooms nearby he could roast, maybe some berry bushes if he was lucky and water. Not enough to feed them properly, but to sustain them? It would be enough.

Cosimo found the stream under a thicket of leaves. It was slightly lower than the ground that Cosimo was on, so he simply extended a leg and slid down the bank to the stream, opening his canteen as he went. His feet settled into the damp earth, and he crouched down to refill the canteen. Not before drinking the last of the remaining water.

He heard a huff from his left so Cosimo glanced towards the sound and saw a horse lapping up water from the stream. Cosimo froze like the fox had the night before, before kicking himself into action. He sprung up, canteen forgotten in the stream and bolted back up the bank, his fingers clawing into the clay.

He scrambled to the top and was met with a pair of legs. There was a flash and a pressure on his chest and Cosimo was airborne, gravity grabbing at him and bringing him down hard into the outer bank of the stream. Cosimo let out a gasp of air on impact but quickly sprung to his feet and turned to hop the stream to the other side.

A hand grabbed him by the strap of his rucksack, and he was yanked backwards. “Hey! Wait!” Cosimo cried, bringing an elbow back sharply and his head back too. He slipped under the strap of his bag and grabbed the hunting knife and hopped the stream with ease. He didn’t look back.

Humans were bad. They killed people like him, there shouldn’t even be any for miles around!

Cosimo climbed up the opposite bank of earth with deft speed and hoisted himself to the other side, knife ready in one hand, the sheath in his other with one thought and one thought only — to go back to the boy in the elfbow.

He didn’t account for more soldiers to be on the other side of the stream. Cosimo froze again when he was first recognised by another man. They were all fully grown humans. Cosimo had yet to pass his fifteenth year, at least he had a slight boost in height, but he was too skinny to fight.

There wasn’t time to think before a hand was bunched in his shirt again. Cosimo whirled on his heel, slashing out blindly with the knife. The blade cut into the soldier’s cheek Cosimo realised with wide eyes, and the Soldier let him go. Cosimo fell to the side at the sudden lack of force holding him, but quickly got his bearings again and ran to the right of the soldier’s camp.

An arrow whizzed by his ear, startling him and Cosimo lunged to the left only to be caught with a kick to his leg. Cosimo stumbled but remained standing, turning to his new attacker baring his teeth only to get a punch to the face. Cosimo’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell, stiff as an oak onto the forest floor.

A boot stomped down onto Cosimo’s wrist wielding the knife and Cosimo cried out, reaching over with his free hand to paw at the boot but it wouldn’t budge. A knee to the chest followed and Cosimo cried out, trying to wiggle himself free but the human was too heavy. Whether his weight was from his diet or the weight of the uniform of metal that the man wore Cosimo didn’t know.

“Well, well, well,” the human man remarked. Cosimo swallowed the lump in his throat, struggling to free himself from the man’s pin. “You’re only a baby, aren’t you?”

Cosimo bared his teeth in response. They were so close to where Cosimo had left the boy and the fox, and he prayed that the elfbow would protect them from the soldiers.

“Let go of me,” Cosimo demanded, eyes blazing up at the man. The man smiled, something wicked twinkling in his eyes.

“Have you run away from home? You do know what we do to your people in these parts, don’t you?”

Cosimo let out a cry of frustration at trying and failing pathetically to free himself from the man’s grip.

“Please,” Cosimo said. “I don’t mean you any harm. I was just coming for water.”

“Won’t do harm my arse,” the soldier that Cosimo cut ground out, fury winding his features tight. Cosimo didn’t see him lift his leg, but his head whipped to the side with the impact. Cosimo righted his head too early as the man he injured stomped a foot down on Cosimo’s face.

Cosimo heard the bones in his nose crack inside his head while he screamed out loud, a quiet whimper following after his scream died in his throat.

“Hey!” The soldier pinning Cosimo growled. “You can’t kill it. They must be brought to court before their execution.”

Execution?

Cosimo’s struggles to break free renewed at the thoughts of the soldiers taking him away from the boy. “No! No, you can’t! I can’t leave the forest, please!”

The man above him tilted his lips down into a frown. “Sorry kid. Orders are orders, we have to bring ya in.”

“Don’t talk to it like it’s a child,” the angry soldier scolded. The man on top of him reached over and plucked the knife from Cosimo’s grip. Cosimo let out a soft whine at the object of his defence leaving his grasp.

“Just get the irons and let me deal with h—” the man above him said, then corrected himself, glancing down at Cosimo with a frown. “It.”

The angry man stormed off out of sight. Cosimo just stared above at the man still pining him to the forest floor.

“Please…” Cosimo tried. “Please don’t kill me.”

“Like I said kid,” said the man. “There has to be a trial in front of the king.”

Cosimo’s eyes widened significantly. There wasn’t a king for miles around court… how far had Cosimo travelled, and in what direction? The question lingered on his tongue, and he wanted to voice it, but thought better of asking the enemy… or even worse, letting them know just how clueless Cosimo really was.

The man stared down at Cosimo with a stern glance. “I’m going to get you to sit up, if you try to escape, we will catch you, and the other soldiers will hurt you again. Do you understand?”

Cosimo nodded. He hated himself for it, but he had to listen to this man. He seemed to be the only one who didn’t want him dead at that moment. The angry soldier returned with two bands of metal attached together with a thick link of metal between them.

“What— what are they?” Cosimo asked, his voice cracking with fear. The soldier helped Cosimo to sit up which caused a wicked amount of pain in his nose to flare up and Cosimo grunted with the effort.

The man took the metal from the angry soldier and dismissed him with a wave. The other soldier didn’t want to listen but obeyed the man when he told him to go verbally.

The man opened the metal loop and showed it to Cosimo, saying with a reassuring smile: “They open like this, see?”

Cosimo leaned in closer to inspect the metal. “What do they do?” He asked, a little less scared at seeing them up close. The man lifted his hand and put the metal over his own wrist.

“They tighten over your wrist like this, see? They lock— well, they essentially keep your hands tied behind your back so you can’t hurt someone again.”

Not have use of his hands. Cosimo shook his head vehemently. “No. No. I won’t hurt anyone else; I promise. Don’t put them on me.”

The man’s smile faded back into a frown. “I’m sorry, but I have to. Please don’t fight me. I don’t want you getting hurt again.”

Cosimo was trembling in the man’s hands, but he nodded his consent for the man to grab Cosimo’s wrist. Cosimo screamed when the metal touched his wrist and bolted back away from the man.

“Wait! Please! Please! Wait! Ow, please! I won’t hurt anyone!” The man caught Cosimo’s ankle before he could get further away from him and dragged him back. “Please don’t. Please! I’ll be good.”

A shadow crossed the man’s face as he grabbed Cosimo’s arm and pulled it behind Cosimo’s back before locking the second cuff around Cosimo’s wrist.

Cosimo let out a hiss as the metal burned a circle around his wrists, tears coming to his eyes. “Please, I’m sorry. Take them off. I’m sorry. What— agh! What is it?!”

The man grabbed Cosimo’s arms to stop him struggling more and hurting himself. “Iron. It’s a metal that is poisonous to your kind.”

“Please,” Cosimo whispered, the plea coming out soft and childish, fat tears trailing down his cheeks. “Please take them off.”

“I can’t,” said the man. “I’m sorry,” and it sounded like he meant it. The man then got to his feet and waited patiently for Cosimo to do the same. Cosimo pushed himself up, his balance going off and he hissed as he moved his hands to catch himself. All they touched was iron and it burned. The man put a hand under Cosimo’s armpits once he saw the boy struggling and helped him into a standing position.

“Thank you,” Cosimo said, the words like ash on his tongue. Thanking humans now? What would court think of him? His mind trailed back to the boy in the elfbow and guilt flood his body as he was pushed forward gently by the man.

“Change of plan, boys. We are bringing this one back to the King.”

One of the other men stood up, his face the shape of a weasels; small wisps of hair clung to his upper lip and chin in what Cosimo could only assume was supposed to be a beard and a moustache. The soldier lifted his nose high in the air when he looked up at Cosimo, grinning up at him and revealing yellowing teeth.

“It’s not even fully grown,” said the soldier with a high-pitched voice. The nice man holding Cosimo scoffed and pushed Cosimo forward again.

“Either are you, McClagen.”

“Does it know that we kill things like that?” McClagen sneered. The man didn’t reply, but Cosimo’s fate weighed heavy on him, heavier than a cloak made of stone. He frowned as the nice man led him passed the other Soldiers readying to take off again.

—

Continued here

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chaotic-orphan · 2 months

Text

A Benignant Mischief (2)

Read part one here

*~*~*~*~*

The nice soldier brought Cosimo to a stop beside a black horse, with a silky black mane and strong taut muscles wrapped in a shining black coat. The horse let out a huff of hello to the pair.

Cosimo smiled and said: “hello.”

The horse huffed again and turned his head away. Cosimo felt eyes on him and turned his head to the man beside him, who looked down on him with an expression Cosimo couldn’t quite decipher.

“What is your name?” The man asked softly.

Cosimo bristled at the question. “Does it matter if I am to die anyway?”

The man’s eyes turned sad again. “My name is Henrik,” said the kind man with a smile.

“Henrik,” Cosimo repeated, taking in the man’s appearance for the first time. He looked like a Henrik. He had sandy coloured hair trimmed neatly, shaved at the sides leaving a two-tiered effect to it. He was tan with kind blue eyes and rough stubble along his strong jaw.

Cosimo didn’t know why he said, “my name is Cosimo,” maybe just so someone would remember his name before he was executed.

Henrik slapped a hand onto Cosimo’s shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. “Nice to meet you, Cosimo. I’m sorry I can’t shake your hand. I’m afraid we don’t have steps so is it okay if I lift you onto Ebony here?”

Cosimo nodded. Henrik stepped behind Cosimo and placed two hands on Cosimo’s waist, hoisting him up as if he weighed nothing. Cosimo helped as much as he could with his arms trapped behind his back and it only took one try for him to swing a leg over the black horse’s wide back.

Cosimo bristled when the horse whinnied, falling back onto his hands, hissing at the iron biting into his skin, his chest rising and falling faster than autumn leaves in a strong gust of wind. Henrik laughed from below. Cosimo’s wide eyes went to Henrik’s blue ones.

Henrik had a hand on the horse’s thick neck, stroking it gently. “I think that means he likes you,” said Henrik kindly. Cosimo glanced back at the horse while Henrik climbed up. He put his hands around Cosimo’s waist and Cosimo flinched.

“Hey what’re—”

“Is this your first time on a horse?” Henrik asked from behind. Even without seeing his face Cosimo could hear the smile in his voice. Cosimo glanced down at Henrik’s hands to see them holding a piece of leather in a strong grip.

“No,” Cosimo said too quickly.

“Ah,” said Henrik, not at all believing the boy. “Well then you know that you have to squeeze your thighs to stay upright, don’t you? And don’t worry about falling because my arms are holding you in on the sides.”

Cosimo swallowed. “Yes, I know that. Thank you, Henrik.”

“No problem, Cosimo,” said Henrik and then clicked his tongue against his teeth. The beast started moving under him and Cosimo squeezed his thighs to the horse’s back in a panic. He leaned his weight forward slightly to properly balance, keeping his hands on the leather that acted as a seat for Cosimo and Henrik.

It took a while for them to get out of the forest. Every turn and step away from the boy Cosimo had harboured in the elfbow twisted another knot into his stomach and he worried he wouldn’t be able to find his way back if he escaped.

When…

When he escaped.

By the time they broke through the tree line the sun was almost at its highest point in the sky. The sky was stark in its difference to how it was yesterday when Cosimo was racing through the forest. It was a blanket of bright blue that had fluffy clouds sewn into the silk of the expanse.

“How far are we away from your kingdom?” Cosimo asked a little while after they had emerged from the forest.

“Technically, we are in the Kingdom now. That forest is a part of it.”

“Oh,” Cosimo hummed, chest deflating.

They lapsed into another silence, the only sound was the other soldiers chatting behind and in front of them, the muted sound of the horses on grass and the birds that could be heard in the breeze of the beautiful morning.

“I can give you a brief history of the place if you’d like,” Henrik said. The lie died on Cosimo’s tongue before he could voice it. It would be better if he knew what he was getting into before arriving at the palace with no idea of how anything is done.

Cosimo gave a sharp nod and Henrik began. “The kingdom is Oskana. One of the oldest kingdoms of men to date.”

Cosimo heard of Oskana before in court. He heard the elders talk of it with passionate hatred and low voices.

“It has a tumultuous past with your people,” Henrik said conversationally. Cosimo looked over his shoulder at Henrik, his eyes meeting blue ones.

“How do you know my people? How do you know what I am?”

Henrik didn’t answer. Instead, he flicked the tip of Cosimo’s ear. “Hey!” Cosimo yelped, but Henrik was laughing at his reaction, his eyes crinkled into half arches with mirth. Cosimo felt a blush climb his cheeks at the sound. Henrik’s laughter was hearty and rich, and it was a pleasant sound. Comforting.

When Henrik’s laughter died down, he turned his head and pointed at his own ear. It was rounded at the top, while Cosimo’s extended into a point. “Oh,” Cosimo said softly. He didn’t know that there was a difference in his ears to humans.

“You mustn’t have ever seen a human before,” said Henrik softly. A shadow crossed his face, curving the corner of his lips down as his eyes became a little glazed. “I’m sorry this is your first impression of us.”

Cosimo didn’t say anything in reply. He just turned back to face ahead again and said, “you were telling me the history.”

“Yes,” Henrik said. “I was. The noble family that is head of state are the Doukas. A very kind family, I grew up with the King.”

“You did?” Cosimo asked, his voice rising in pitch. He cleared his throat when Henrik chuckled. Honestly Cosimo was just surprised that Henrik could grow up with someone in royalty, if he grew up with the King then that must mean that the king would be in similar age to Henrik, somewhere in his late twenties.

“Yes, I did.”

“What is he like?”

“Magnificent,” said Henrik in earnest. “His name is Nikolas, the oldest of four. Though you’d swear he was born in the slums of the lower city with how he acts.”

Cosimo was kind of horrified at that. “He behaves like commoners?”

“Yes.”

“But he is the King?”

“Yes. It’s hard to explain, perhaps it’s different where you’re from. In Oskana, it is a breath of fresh air to not have a king with a poker up his ar—” Henrik cut himself off and said, “uh, well. Ahem. Rear end.”

Cosimo’s face morphed into one of horror, turning abruptly in his seat to face Henrik with wide eyes. “You impale your Royalty?!” He heard that humans were vicious, but to do that to their own kind. Never mind their royal families.

Henrik, to Cosimo’s terror, let out a hearty bellow of a laugh at Cosimo’s horror. “No. No, dear boy. It’s an expression.”

“Expression?” Cosimo repeated.

“Yes. An expression, like a figure of speech. Trying to paint a picture with words so you understand the essence of what I am trying to explain.”

“So, you don’t impale your royalty through their rear ends?”

“No,” Henrik laughed. “But can you imagine how uncomfortable that would be?”

Cosimo nodded, turning to face ahead again: he could certainly picture the pain and general discomfort that would cause. “Yes. It sounds horrible.”

“Right. So many kings and queens of other nations and kingdoms in the human world are horrible and have a metaphorical poker up their… rear end.”

“You humans speak strangely.”

“I suppose we do,” Henrik hummed. “Now where were we?”

“You were describing the king.”

“Right, yes. Niko.” Cosimo scrunched his nose at the informal way Henrik spoke of his King, it wasn’t normal. He should at least use a title or his full name. The way Henrik spoke of him made him sound like he was a brother more than a King, the general of his army. The strength behind Oskana’s supposed greatness that Henrik spoke of.

“He is strong,” said Henrik, pulling Cosimo from his thoughts. “Not just physically strong, but dependable strong. Very level-headed and wise. He treats people well and under his rule Oskana has never been more prosperous.”

The fondness flowing from Henrik’s description warmed something in Cosimo’s chest that was instantly crushed with guilt.

He had no right to bask in the bond of brothers when he had left his all alone with a fox no less! The elfbow would protect them, but the elfbow can’t calm a fever or calm the boy down if he were to wake frantic, searching for Cosimo who wouldn’t come.

Cosimo in his brash foolishness had doomed them both.

“Ah,” said Henrik. “Look there now, just ahead and to the left, we’re coming up to my favourite view of the city.”

Cosimo obeyed mutely, trepidation weighing heavy on his chest. He half expected to see dead people like him with pointed ears lining the road to the city. Silently worried that Henrik maybe wasn’t the man he sounded like, and he was just pacifying Cosimo the entire way to his blood-soaked death to make sure he wasn’t difficult the journey there.

Cosimo swallowed when they passed emerged from a small line of trees over a hill and Henrik pulled the reins to stop Ebony in his tracks.

Cosimo couldn’t stifle the gasp when he saw the city. It was busy, people bustling through the streets that spread out in a peculiar shape that reminded Cosimo more of a tree root than a city he was used to. Natural, winding and knotted in parts, but that wasn’t what caught his awe. It was the giant palace at the end of the streets that glistened in the sunlight like crystallised bone.

“Yeah,” said Henrik with a small sigh. “I get that feeling every-time I see it too.”

There were no dead people with pointed ears either, which was a good thing for Cosimo. All the same Henrik draped a hood over Cosimo’s head. Cosimo went to turn but the action caught his wrists and instead he hissed at the burning of the metal on his flesh. Cosimo swallowed a cry, darting his gaze to the sky to stop a tear from escaping his eye.

Henrik steadied him, shushing him gently and said: “it’s just to hide your ears. People here don’t take too kindly to elves like you, Cosimo.”

“Why?” Cosimo asked through gritted teeth, the pain slowly diminishing as Henrik clicked his teeth with his tongue and Ebony took off again down to the city.

Henrik hummed in reply. “I was giving you a history of Oskana,” he began, words measured. “I need to tell you about why we greet your people with iron chains when we meet you.”

Cosimo swallowed a lump in his throat but didn’t speak as Henrik continued his tale.

“The people with a poker up their rear ends, the horrible people — well, Niko’s father was one of them. He was rude, mean, nasty to his people. He treated them like cannon fodder more than subjects.”

Cosimo didn’t really know what cannon fodder meant but he didn’t question it.

“Difficult man to get on with, to be honest. Hateful and paranoid. He saw enemies everywhere, even where there weren’t any. The woods we found you in — did you notice the traces of Elven society there?”

Cosimo said “yes.”

“Hmm. Well, there used to be a court of elves there. A very peaceful people, they never bothered anyone, but Niko’s father… he thought they were bad people. Plotting to overthrow him on his throne. He sent his men to slaughter them while they slept.”

Cosimo stiffened. The king’s men… he sent his men… like— like Henrik—

“Niko and I were only ten at the time, and when Niko heard of what his father did… it changed him. He vowed that day to be different from him, welcome everyone with open arms.”

“These infernal chains feel quite welcoming,” said Cosimo darkly.

“Of course, it didn’t go as smoothly as that. The elves retaliated in anger and grief. However, they didn’t attack anyone in the city. The nearest court banished all humans from its court.”

“As they should have,” Cosimo said with righteous conviction.

“And when the humans were setting up camp in the forest, the elves hunted them through the trees for sport.”

Cosimo’s chest deflated. “How… how do you know they did that?”

“Because they left one person alive, a child. The elves forced the girl to watch as her parents were murdered in front of her eyes and told her to relay a message to the King.”

Cosimo suddenly felt very cold at the story. Elves wouldn’t do that, they… they don’t kill people in their court. It is the greatest sin to upset a guest, let alone banish them from a court and hunt them.

Although, a quiet voice in the back of Cosimo’s mind spoke up, if they were expelled from the court’s jurisdiction then all rules were upheld if they were slaughtered away from court.

“What message?” Cosimo asked in a quiet voice.

“That if the humans wanted a war with the elves, they would have far more orphaned children than a single child. To stop the bloodshed, that the elves simply repaid blood for blood,” there was something sad in Henrik’s voice as he spoke. Something Cosimo couldn’t quite place. “Of course, the king didn’t accept it and an all-out war ensued.”

“Must have been a short war,” said Cosimo, more to himself than Henrik. Henrik let out a breath of air, one he held in his chest for a beat that Cosimo recognised contained far more pain than he could imagine.

“Yes,” Henrik replied, “but it felt like a lifetime.”

Cosimo didn’t want to ask how it ended, but he had to. He had to know why he was being taken away from the forest against his will, why he was being given a history lesson on horseback as they rode through the capital of a country that hated elves. Hated him.

“How did it end?”

Henrik hesitated. Cosimo heard the hitch in his voice, the pause spoke more than words he could speak. Cosimo regretted asking. He was being insensitive. Henrik was nothing but kind to him, and Cosimo was asking difficult questions like an insolent child.

“The war got bloody, and far too personal… far too quickly,” Henrik said, his voice taking on a more sombre note. “Niko’s father, the King, he found out that the pers— the elf who ordered the humans to be banished and hunted was the King of the Elven court. He knew that the King had a son, and so he sent an assassin into the court to murder the boy in his sleep.”

Cosimo frowned, there was something so familiar about the story, something on the tip of his tongue that he couldn’t quite articulate yet.

“When the Elven King found out he was furious. Rage overtook his grief, and he declared war on the Kingdom of Oskana. Niko’s father closed the gates to the capital, essentially cutting off trade and making his own siege… it was fine for a while, then people started starving, and hungry people get desperate…”

“A mother who couldn’t bear to watch her children starve anymore snuck out of the city and met with the Elven King in secret. She asked him what would make him cease this war he had declared. The Elf told the woman that once Niko’s father had felt the same grief that he did, then the elf would call off their people and leave their court. Disappear from Oskana altogether.”

“You mean… the elf asked the woman to kill the King’s son…”

“Not just his son, his eldest, the heir.”

Cosimo swallowed. “King Nikolas?”

“Yes,” said Henrik, his voice grave. “When the woman heard the price, she snuck back into the capital and cradled her children close and wept.”

“Because she had to murder someone?” Cosimo asked sadly.

“No,” said Henrik. “It was because she couldn’t murder Prince Niko, and she hugged her children because she understood the weight of her decision. That it may cause their deaths.”

Cosimo looked over his shoulder at Henrik. “Why?”

“Throughout his father’s tyranny he had been the one thing that kept the Kingdom together. He gave food to the hungry, medicine to the sick, he opened the palace doors to the homeless and cold and warmed them by a warm fire. The woman was determined to end the siege, and so, instead of killing Niko, she killed his father.”

“The king?” Cosimo asked, voice high in surprise.

“Yes,” said Henrik sadly.

They passed through the gates to the city of Oskana without any trouble and Cosimo got a look at the people and the city up close. People milled about their everyday routines, coming in and out of shops, some carrying baskets, children chasing cats and each other. Shortly after the gate to the city they came upon a market plaza, a fountain was the centrepiece in the middle made of beautiful sleek grey stone, the bottom of the pools was tiled with the same symbol that Cosimo noticed on the flag of Oskana.

“Niko and I were there.”

“You saw?” Cosimo asked. He heard Henrik swallow behind him.

“Yes. I saw. Niko’s father insisted that he attend court matters, and as his personal guard in training I was to attend as well. They were mostly boring, Niko took great interest in them, in the farmers blights and merchants fights. Then one day a woman came and said her children were dying and asked the king to end the war.”

“Niko’s father refused. The woman nodded. Then she said she would end it herself. That was the last thing she said before she ran at the king. Two arrows lodged into her arm and back before she reached the King, but she kept moving. I was right there… I could have… but before any of us could stop her she had planted an Elven knife deep into the King’s chest.”

“Another arrow hit the woman and Niko caught her before she fell, tears in his eyes, asking her why she did that. The woman said her name and the names of her children, where they lived and then she died in his arms.”

The pair of them let the weight of the words cover them in a blanket of silence. The city still bustling around them, Ebony’s hooves clipping off stone. They were getting into the upper residences of the city now. Less markets and live farm animals baying, more refined shops and elegantly dressed citizens.

“Did it end the war?” Cosimo asked.

“No. It didn’t. Word spread to the elves that the king was dead, and Niko was now the king. The Elven king was outraged, he wanted Niko’s father to feel his pain and now he was dead he wanted blood.”

“The elf didn’t stop?”

“No,” Henrik said through gritted teeth. “I guess foolishness is something both our species share.”

Cosimo’s lips turned down into a frown. “They kept trying to kill Niko?”

“Assassin after assassin. Niko wanted to speak with the elf, but his courtiers wouldn’t allow him, they said he would kill him.”

“But Niko is king, he should be allowed do what he wants.”

“He was young,” said Henrik by way of explanation. “The courtiers effectively still had to educate him in his duties as King, which included not walking into enemy lines.”

“So, the war?”

“Niko still faces threats to this day. We don’t know who could be an assassin in disguise. So, it’s safer to assume everyone is a threat.”

“Even me,” said Cosimo glumly.

“Yes,” Henrik replied evenly. “Even you.”

They rode in silence up to the giant palace gates where Henrik chatted idly with the guards standing there. Cosimo remained silent, his thoughts racing. He rubbed sweaty palms down on the leg of his trousers trying to distract himself from the fear that gripped him at seeing just how big the castle was. How far they had travelled on horseback away from where Cosimo left the boy and the fox.

He swallowed as the Henrik’s initial words came into his mind.

You can’t kill it. They must be brought to court before their execution.

His head was tilted the full way back as he stared at the tall palace gates, taller than some trees Cosimo had seen on the way here. This is the court that he would be tried in, and then… maybe his execution. Nobody would find the boy and the fox without him. The thoughts weighed heavy on him when Henrik clicked his tongue and Ebony began clopping his way into the palace grounds.

*~*~*~*~*

Continued here

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