The Downfall of the Kingdom

Chapter 5

A cold wind entered the dark confines of the cave and ruffled the dark and dirty hair of Drea Archiamedia. Dark rings surrounded her eyes giving her a ghost like appearance. She felt weakened and she felt afraid... No, "afraid" was not the right word to describe how she had felt. No words could describe the feelings that fought wars amongst themselves within her. She was a destroyed woman and this was all because of what she had done one dark year ago...

Ever since the birth of her younger sister, Drea's life had simply ended right there. Before the birth of Anne, Drea had glowed with confidence at the prospect of being the new queen but she, along with many others, had dwelled with the dark ages where the creature of darkness roamed freely amongst them all and terrorised the people. Many were turned to evil. But her sister had been born the same night as that of the victory of the dark creature. Her father was overwhelmed with joy and immediately declared that even though Drea was the elder daughter, Anne would be queen one day whilst she... She would simply be reduced to a woman who had royalty in her blood but would walk amongst the peasants as an equal. She could not understand her father's decision. Eventually, it was realised that her father's choice was due to him believing that she could have been influenced negatively by the evil around her which would lead to her becoming a ruthless dictator whilst her sister would only be influenced by love, a word she now loathed. She had lost all of her reasoning and soon the only thoughts occupying her mind were those of hurting her family. So she thought that she would begin her onslaught by attacking her mother whom she had never completely loved even before hatred had entered her life. Drea had always been skilled at creating lethal potions and so she had made one which with one drop could instantly kill the one it touched... But only in a painfully slow way. The potion was a pure black and staring into it would be like gazing into a dark abyss. Drea had entered her mother's room that night and placed the drop of the potion upon her mother who was known as Mary. Mary could not scream or make any sound as the potion slowly tormented her within and killed her so very slowly. Just before she died what could be considered as one of the most painful deaths, she looked into the eyes of Drea and a tear rolled slowly down her face, shining in the night before she finally died. Drea had no regret for what she had done for she hoped that it would destroy Veldon. Drea, seven years older than Anne, decided that she would run away and never be seen at the castle again. No one suspected that it was her who murdered her own mother, except for Veldon, who knew this to be true deep down, but he never revealed it for he always tried to stay strong for Anne.

She had ever since been plotting on how to kill her father and sister and regain possession of her throne. That is why this once majestic woman was now sitting down upon the cold and hard stone of the dark cave.

The cave was situated outside the castle boundaries and deep inside the forest meaning that the creature of darkness or, known only to some as Domitates, could enter. Drea knew that in order for him to be free, he needed only a drop of blood from the family that imprisoned him which he would gain tonight and then of course, she thought with a cold shudder, her finger once all were dead. Suddenly a voice boomed out of nowhere. "Well, well... Drea Archiamedia, I'm happy to see you are here. It seems as though I can certainly rely on your loyalty. That is good," he concluded with a smile.

"If I am to speak with you and share my blood with you, I must know the name by which you are called."

The creature gave a shrill laugh and said, "I have lived ever since the first humans began to feel anger, sadness, and hatred. I have been called a thousand different names... you my dear woman will call me Lord Domitates!"

"I understand," Drea painfully answered.

"Now tell me what it is you intend to do?" he asked.

Drea gave a wicked smile and simply said," I want you to kill King Veldon by whatever means you see fit and personally kill Princess Anne."

"That I can do. Already an attack had been launched on the princess by the Water Clan. This was not by my bidding and they have been severely punished. No one but me shall lay a hand on the princess. You can be assured of this fact. Now that this wonderful agreement has been reached, my heart hungers for your blood. Now, tell me this... Why should I listen to a mere human and take orders when I can simply gain your blood right here, right now!"

With that, Domitates lunged at Drea, revealing his gruesome appearance to a human for the first time in eighteen years. He pinned her against the cave wall, long, yellow fangs reaching for her bare throat. Blood red eyes stared into the petrified blue eyes of the woman.

Domitates was completely black in colour and he gave the appearance of a human whilst standing bent over on two legs. His arms had claws on them which shone in the dark and he could easily bend over on all fours and run with the speed of an animal hunting down its prey. The nose was long and pointed and sensitive to the slightest smell whilst no ears were visible.

Drea screamed out," You know that if you steal my blood from me, you will not be free!" emphasising that last word.

Domitates nodded slowly and moved away like a creature fearing the sunlight and crawled back into the darkness leaving only his eyes visible. Drea heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"Give me your blood then, now!" he hissed.

"If I do, you may just kill me on the spot so how can I be assured?"

"You insult me!" Domitates roared," An oath sworn by me shall always be kept and I do swear upon all the darkness in the world that I shall not harm you at all. If I do, I will perish"

This was true as a promise by darkness was powerful. Drea thought this meant that he would not be able to claim her finger at the end of this whole thing but then he added cunningly, as if he could read her thoughts, "That is to say, excluding the harm that shall be done when I require my reward.

Drea nodded and took out a silver blade from beneath her blue and white cloak, the colours of Veldon's kingdom. She pricked her hand and gave a slight grimace of pain. She then held out her hand and allowed the drop to fall onto the dark creature. So many things in the world happened while that drop of blood slowly fell towards the creature...

Upon impact, Domitates roared and this could be heard from the land of ice to the kingdom and beyond. Salvatora saw this in her dream; Stefan heard it while he lay awake pondering over his real mother; Anne and Veldon felt the ground tremble with the roar as they talked about their mother and Drea was practically thrown across the room by the roar. The black form of Domitates grew to an immense size and all across the forest, the wolves and witch clans made their way towards the cave, towards their master.

The dark creature made his way towards the forest and before leaving told Drea to consider the death of her family already done.

Drea now made her way to another cave just outside the castle her thoughts racing. She hoped that she had done the right thing. The creature was now loose and she suspected that many more people would die along with her father and sister. The downfall of the kingdom was coming closer and closer by the second.

"It is time!" Domitates bellowed to the millions of dark creatures around him: wolves of all types- the ones that simply hunted as packs, those who were invulnerable to magic and death and those that could transform into humans who were fierce warriors; witches- the followers as well as the leaders of the fire, air and water clans. All of these surrounded the huge figure of the creature of darkness as he continued," For eighteen years now I have stood here, powerless thanks to Veldon. But no more! Now all of my magic and powers have returned. We will attack the kingdom and leave all the people dead. I care not about that worthless traitor, Drea. Leave the kingdom to her once we are done. But none of you may touch the princess for she is mine. Tonight, we kill!"

Cheers arose from the crowd but the leader of the Fire Clan approached cautiously and slowly said," My lord, another witch and her extraordinarily powerful pupil approach the kingdom as we speak. They could pose a threat. The pupil has great power. Maybe we should try and convince him to join us?"

"Very interesting... I think that that will be a wise move. My fellow creatures, we might as well wait. Veldon will not be able to raise an army that will stand against us. For now I want the most dangerous shape-shifting wolf, Zenodius, to try and intercept the witch and student and... persuade them to join us. If not then kill them immediately. We will not risk anything. We shall be victorious!"