There's Crows In The Garden | 3rd Life AU

.: The Dawn Of A Red Winter :.

TWs: mention of arson, mentions of war, mentions of a stabbing, mentions of betrayal, death, murder, blood

Yeahhhhhhhhh. Have fun reading :D (it's really not as bad as it looks)

***

In early October, the skirmishes started.

They were small at first: a couple of bandits from Crastile stole from a store in a village near the border; someone, probably from Monopoly Mountain, set a barn on fire; a trader from Flower Vale spied on Skizzle Point for a few days before getting caught. These things were destructive, yes, but in the scope of war, they were very, very small problems.

And so, a few soldiers were sent to the larger villages and those near the border to intercept anyone who may have nefarious plans, and that was it . . . until Skizz sent a letter, that is.

Ren sent a guard out to find me that day, which was how I knew something serious had occurred. I rushed to his office and opened the door without even knocking. Ren looked up at me, and he was panicking.

"Someone attempted to kill Skizzle," he said right away, before I could ask what was wrong. "He was stabbed in his sleep."

I took a seat, suddenly feeling a little weak in the knees. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yes." Ren nodded. "The person who tried to kill him was stopped by guards before the dagger got in far enough to cause a lot of damage."

"Oh, good," I said, relieved. 

"That's not the biggest problem here, though," Ren continued. "You see, the person has revealed himself to be Baron Joel's personal butcher."

I frowned. "Does Joel know about this?"

Ren locked eyes with me, expression serious. When he spoke, his voice was low and tinged with anger.

"Joel was the one who set the whole plan into motion."

"What?" I asked after taking a few seconds to let everything sink in. It didn't make any more sense to me than it had before. "He's an ally!"

Ren shrugged. "It seems to me like he's decided to switch sides."

"Huh," I said. "That's . . . really not that awful for us, if I'm being honest."

Ren spoke slowly, considering what I'd said. "That's true . . . Joel doesn't have much of an army. It's just him and his dogs, mostly. I guess this isn't as big a deal as I thought it was! Sweet!" He pumped an arm in the air, and I laughed.

I stayed in Ren's office for a while after that, just chit-chatting with him as he read and answered some letters from concerned Dogwarts citizens. It was nice to be able to spend some extra time with My King. Normally, I only saw him in the early morning and at night.

When I was about to leave so Ren could do his work in peace and quiet, a servant came rushing into the room. "Urgent message for the King from Prince BigB," she said, all but shoving the letter into Ren's hands. She was gone as quickly as she'd arrived.

Ren and I exchanged a look, and then he ripped open the letter and scanned over it. I watched worriedly as his facial expression shifted into something I couldn't quite read.

"So?" I asked as soon as he looked up from the parchment.

"Monopoly Mountain is gathering their forces at Cookie's border with them," Ren told me. "BigB thinks they're close to invading, and wants me to bring together the alliance to meet their army before Cookie gets taken over."