Clotho walked down the hallways, examining the walls.
Each portrait of her and her parents was replaced with pictures of Hubris in various poses.
Clotho gagged at some as she continued to walk.
"Just as I thought..." Clotho sighed out. "He has completely took over the palace."
Clotho walked by Cerberus' cage to see Cerberus resting his heads sadly.
"Hey boy..." Clotho greets as Cerberus lets out a confused whine while lifting his heads up.
Cerberus sniffed Clotho's face through the bars, making Clotho giggle.
"Yeah, I know...the palace sucks ass way more than before." Clotho jokes.
"No it doesn't, I just made a few improving adjustments." Clotho hears Hubris say.
She rolled her eyes as she turned to see Hubris, dressed like an actual king with her father's crown and dark cape.
"Why do you have on my dad's shit?" Clotho asks. "Nobody is allowed to wear it." She points out.
Hubris lets out an arrogant chuckle.
"Last time I checked, whoever is king of this place gets to wear this." Hubris states. "And who's king of the Underworld huh? Oh, that's right...moi."
Clotho grumbles.
"Whatever." Clotho sighs out as she begins to walk off, but Hubris stepped in front of her.
"And just where do you think you're going, my queen?" Hubris asks.
"Out." Clotho deadpans.
Hubris lifts her chin up with his index finger, to which Clotho moves her head away.
"Don't think just because your parents are dead...doesn't mean you're going to avoid birthing an heir." Hubris chuckles out.
"I don't owe you nor my parents a fucking thing and don't think just because I'm queen and you're king you get to do whatever you can to the Underworld." Clotho states. "I was born into royalty while you was married into it, two different things."
Hubris grabbed Clotho's arm.
"Says who hmm?" Hubris asks. "There's no one here to stop me so I would advise you right now to watch who you're talking to." He ordered in a stern voice.
All Clotho could think of was,
"Holy shit...this dude is actually terrifying in that voice."
Hubris then shoved Clotho to the ground.
"Now go prepare yourself for tonight because I want my son." Hubris orders as he walks off.
Clotho gets up and sighs.
"Should've known that I'm still trapped in this life." She thought as she looked out the window to see that it's sunset.
Clotho smiles as she runs out the palace to her true love.
"Lida! Lida where you at hon?" Clotho calls out in the woods.
Nighttime has officially fallen as Clotho continued to search for Lida.
All of a sudden, she heard a twig snap behind her along with a low growl. Mistaking it for Lida, Clotho turned around with a big smile on her face only for it to quickly fade away once she was face to face with a large male wolf.
Clotho took out her scythe as she got into her fighting position.
The large male wolf was about to lung at her when a smaller female wolf cuts in front of Clotho.
Clotho immediately knew who it was.
"Lida..." Clotho begins.
The large male wolf snarls at Lida, who begins to draw in the dirt with her paw.
Father...meet Clotho
The large male wolf, who's Lida's father, reads the message then begins to sniff at Clotho. The father wolf lets out a grunt as he bows down to Clotho.
Lida writes,
He says, "Nice to meet you your highness. My daughter has told me about you."
"Eh, you don't need to do the bow thing to me...I'm not a stuck up asshole, unlike the new king." Clotho states, referring to Hubris. "Anyway, I was looking to see if you wanna hang out but I guess you're busy with family."
Lida writes in the dirt,
Father can she join us? She likes werewolves.
The father wolf nods as Lida crouches down for Clotho to climb on.
Clotho felt the adrenaline coursing through her veins as Lida and her father raced each other through the depths of the woods.
Clotho could feel it all;
The wind blowing through her hair...
The sounds of paws trotting through the dirt...
And the feeling of Lida's soft grey fur...
To Clotho this feels like...freedom.
Clotho looks up to see a pack of wolves ahead as Lida stops.
Once Clotho steps off Lida, the pack of wolves began to growl to which the father wolf barked in order for them to silence. The father wolf raises his head up then points at Clotho, as if he was telling them something...then the wolves bowed down to Clotho, which made Clotho chuckle.
"I told you, you don't have to do that curtsy thing." Clotho assures.
Lida writes,
He wants to make sure you have all of our upmost respect.
"It's cool, so this is where you guys go every night?" Clotho asks.
Lida writes,
Whenever there's a full moon...we howl for the ones we've lost over the decades to pay our tributes to them. Recently, I've lost my mother to a hunter imp, so today's the day I pay my respects to her.
"So this is kind of like a funeral thing?" Clotho asks.
Lida nods as she steps up to the cliff and gazed at the moon.
The father wolf nudges Clotho to join them, to which Clotho complied with no hesitation.
Clotho then took a deep breath as she let out a loud howl along with the other werewolves.
"This feels so fucking awesome...man I was born in the wrong life!" Clotho thought as she continued to howl.
After the howling tribute, Clotho continued to walk with Lida.
"You seem to have a lot more freedom here, I honestly wish that I was living this life." Clotho states.
Lida stops to write something,
That maybe the case...but to me, more freedom means less of us wolves. There aren't many of us left since we're always out here getting killed for just even being out here.
Clotho couldn't help but feel pity on Lida.
"That must sound rough." Clotho comments.
Lida continues to write,
It is. To be honest it feels like I'm living in a genocidal world where werewolves should be the bane of everyone's existence.
"Well, you don't have to worry about that when it comes to me." Clotho assures Lida. "Remember when I suggested that you and your pack could come live with me and the palace?" She asked.
We could but I have a feeling that Hubris will try to damn us all.
Clotho chuckles as a smirk appeared on her face.
"Don't worry...remember what I said; Leave this to me."
July 18th, 2023
YOU ARE READING
Lady Grim: A Fantasy Short Story
FanficThe name's Clotho, princess of the Underworld. My parents are the rulers of the Underworld, which makes me heir to the throne. Do I want to rule the Underworld? Hell yes! Do I wanna get married to someone who gave me hell? Hell no! Well, my father d...
