BROKEN DIVISION || a broppy story

11

Branch runs. He runs and he runs until he passes the castle doors, and the village, and he reached the border of the kingdom. He heaves, catching his breath, before he looks. Southern soldiers, covered with plated armor and swords are lined up across the gates.

The prince looks out into the distance, and sees horses, all white, prancing nearer and nearer. He realizes as they come closer; northern soldiers.. Coming for the entrance to his kingdom.

He clutches the hilt of his sword, unsheathing it from his armor. If he had to fight, he would. As more soldiers come into view, branch realizes something; not many northern knights are here to fight at all... This large legion of south soldiers can surely take down these northerners..

A small touch on his ankle. Branch holds up his sword defensively, snapping his gaze downwards. There's a soldier, lying on the ground, weakly crawling nearer to him, grabbing the prince. "My- my lord.." he mutters, injured and weary. The soldier is covering in blood. "I've found it."

"What.?" Branch looks down at the injured knight, taking in the state of his soldier. His breath hitches, "what have you found?"

"The plans," the soldier coughs; a string of blood sputters from his mouth, "the invasion plans of the north."

Prince branch takes the paper from the soldier, before placing his sword atop the dying knights shoulder.

"A knight served for a great cost; poor flandered soldier; once a boy, always a man."

The knight jolts, before he dies on the ground.

Now he looks at the crumpled, bloody paper in his hand. Tiny dots, marked lines, it's a layout of the kingdom. All drawn on this sheet of paper. Branch lets out a gasp from his throat, before he realizes. The knights are planned to come in the kingdom; from the back gate.

The prince stumbled back. A distraction, this attack is a distraction.

"SOLDIERS!! SOLDIERS MOVE REAR NOW! NOW!" The sound of his hoarse yelling escapes his throat, as his guards listen to his commands and steer their horses to run to the back end of the castle. He find his own horse, before heading off to battle.

ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ-

The southern legion of troops lined the back wall of the kingdom. Branch approached on his horse, seeing his four brothers standing in front of their kingdom. The queen was in between her grandsons. She looked down and brushed off her dress, nervously gazing ahead at what was to come.

From above appeared a flash of smoke. The prince held his breath, seeing king Peppy and princess Viva, with their dragon was flapping its wings in the sky. Their gazes looked down, upon their subjects and their enemies. Viva teleported down, arriving to the ground with a wisp.

"This is your final chance, south kingdom, to return what is ours. If not, there is a promise of bloodshed and heartache. The offer remains now, but will be broken in a heartbeat."

Branch stepped forward in the silence, "the princess of the south is not your property, she is not your slave, and every southerner is willing to protect what's ours!"

What's ours.

The boldest statement that branch could ever make. he had claimed the princess to the south.

The older princess' face drops as she begins to breathe heavily, her chest heaving in anger at branches statement. The enraged princess yells into the cold air, and her soldiers commence forwards. Branch follows, yelling his war cry into the sky and sending his soldiers free. The war commences.