Clash of Kings

Chapter 1: The Story Begins

(I was listening to the soundtrack from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, so that is why the beginning of this chapter seems a little more atmospheric than usual.)

Three centuries ago ...

It was a cool spring morning in the continent of Europe, the flowers were blooming, the birds were chirping, and the sun was raining its warm glowing rays down upon the landscape of towering mountains and deep valleys.  Nestled within one of these large valleys was the kingdom of Mandoria, a modest-sized kingdom compared to its empire neighbors, but it was still home to a great many people, and those people were ruled by a most unusual king.

The king was just starting to wake up from his slumber, his crystal blue eyes blinking open as the sunlight poured in through his window, he groaned and tiredly rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he sat up.  This king was no ordinary ruler, his skin was the color of a vibrant red rose, his face held the image of a sun and crescent moon centered within a shield, and attached to his back were two gigantic eagle-like wings that draped to the ground like a feathered cape.  This king was the very personification of the kingdom of Mandoria, King Mandoria himself.

As Mandoria stood up from his bed, he heard the faintest giggle coming from his wardrobe.  Raising a brow to the out-of-place noise, he walked over to the wardrobe and opened it to investigate, and was immediately tackled by two small figures.  The winged kingdom stumbled back from the force of the surprise attack but begun to laugh as his sons tried to wrestle their father to the ground.

"Oh dear, I have been attacked, this is treason, treason I say!" Mandoria dramatically exclaimed as his two assailants attempted to subdue him.  He backed up to the bed and fell onto it, and the kids took the opportunity to start tickling him into submission.

"Natin(no)!" the king exclaimed in Mandorian, "Natin stop - ahh - I can't take it, they know my weakness!  Ahaha, ok ok I surrender, I surrender!"

The brothers stopped the tickle attack and high-fived each other, "Huzzah!!" the eldest exclaimed, "We have defeated the king, now the kingdom belongs to The Feathered Assassins."

"Hazzah!" the youngest joined in, flapping his wings in excitement, while the brothers were busy basking in their victory, Mandoria continued to chuckle.

"Alright you two troublemakers, let me up," the king finally said as he tried to sit up, the brothers complied and slid off their father's chest.  "How did you get in here anyway?"

"Through the window, Father," the youngest explained innocently, then pointed to his brother as he continued, "Derogan had to carry me up here."

Derogan glared at his sibling, "how dare you tell on me Mandara, this was your idea, not mine."

"But you agreed big brother, you could have said no."

"I did say no, but you threatened to pluck me if I didn't come."

Mandoria chuckled at his sons' banter, they always had to find something to fight about.  The king was then broken out of his thoughts when he heard shouting coming from the hallway.

"Sire!  Sire the princes have disappeared from their beds again!" A maid exclaimed as she opened the bedroom door, only to be greeted by the princes with their father.

"Fear not ma'am, for we have found the princes in mine wardrobe," Mandoria told her, switching to his royal voice, "though we would like to inquire as to how thouest managed to let them run amuck again, we thought thou hast secured their window shut?"

"Oh dear, I am terribly sorry sire, we have tried our very best to keep them from opening it, one of them must have gotten ahold of the key, your Majesty."  the maid suggested.

Mandoria turned to the brothers for confirmation, but they both pointed to one another, trying to stick the blame on their sibling.  With an amused chuckle, Mandoria turned back to the maid, "we suppose that shall be a worry for another time, for now, will thou please take mine sons to their room and prepare them for the day, we have promised them some flight lessons and we wish to start after breakfast."

The brothers beamed at their father's words and got off the bed and rushed for their room, the maid running after them.  Mandoria smiled when they left, then proceeded to get ready for the day as well.

About three hours later, King Mandoria was able to sneak away from his royal duties for a short while to give his sons some flight lessons.  The three were in the large field behind the castle that Mandoria's knights used for training, but today the training was very different.  When it came to the brothers, Derogan had no trouble flying, it was Mandara that was still struggling and at eight years old, he should have learned by now.

"Father, I can't do it!!!"  Mandara whined, he was sitting on the ground from another failed attempt at flight.  Mandoria sighed, he too was beginning to think that his youngest son may never learn,  perhaps he was just never meant to fly.  Derogan sensed his father's doubt and decided to see if he could help.  He walked over to his little brother and sat down next to him, Mandoria looked on in curiosity, wondering what Derogan was doing.

"Don't give up now Mandara, you were so close, you just needed to angle your wings differently," Derogan said, wrapping a wing around his brother.

"Easy for you to say Derogan," Mandara cried, wiping tears from his eyes, "Father said you learned when you were four, I can't do it when I'm eight, I'll never fly!"

"That's not true Mandara, I know that you will fly, but you can't if you don't believe you can, you have to believe in yourself and only then can you start flying."

Mandara blinked at his sibling, "y-you really think I can?

Derogan nodded, "I have never been so sure of something before."

Mandara smiled and hugged Derogan, thanking him for believing.  Derogan hugged back then stood up, helped his brother up, and the two rejoined their father, who was looking very proud that Derogan had taken the lead and built up Mandara's confidence, two very important things that a future king should have.

Derogan's pep talk seemed to have done the trick because Mandara was making some good progress, he was able to stay in the air for increasingly longer periods of time and was getting better at landing without crashing.

For this last try, he wanted to try to take off on his own, since Mandoria had been throwing him into the air or flying underneath him.  The king was nervous, perhaps Derogan gave his brother too much confidence, nonetheless, he stepped back a bit and let Mandara have the floor.  The young country took in a few deep breaths to prepare himself then he jumped as high as he could and flapped as hard as possible to stay airborne, and airborne he stayed.

Both father and brother cheered for Mandara's achievement and resolved to give him a celebratory family hug when he came down.  Unfortunately, that celebration didn't last long as the three heard someone clapping slowly behind them, they turned to the sound and all three's eyes widened in horror, because standing mere feet from them was what only could be described as death himself.

"Guten tag, King Mandoria."

(I just realized that I don't have a fucking clue how to write royal but I hope it was ok)