The Reign of the Red King

Part I, Chapter I

Eros, The Capital of Damanic

Year 308

---

The Kingdom of Damanic never had peaceful streets since its founding. Nor would they have peaceful streets tonight.

In the snow-covered streets, boots of men and women holding torches marched their way from their homes to the castle's draw bridge. Children wadded up snowballs filled with rocks and broken glass and threw them at the solider who stood watch over the drawbridge. Never had so many protesting people filled the streets of the Damanic capital before. They pounded on the castle's exterior door and shot flaming arrows at the wooden castle windows. Among the crowd of village people stood nobles, soldiers, and castle staff who had joined the protesters. There was singing, yells, and sobs from the crowd all saying the same phrase over and over again.

"Kill the King...!"

"Kill the King!"

"Kill the fucking King!"

At the top gate of the castle, two soldiers engaged in combat with one another, throwing punches and kicks attempting to throw their opponent into the chasm below the castle.

"Fredrick, don't make me do this!" A soldier yelled to his best friend who stood in front of the lever that would open the exterior castle door and lowered the draw bridge.

"You wouldn't have the guts, Ryder!" Fredrick yelled thrusting out his sword, nearly stabbing Ryder's torso with it. "You would be killing all of us! Do you think that would rest once the bastard is dead? They will punish us for his crimes!"

"He sent our men to be slaughtered! His orders killed thousands of troops- including your brother! He fucked all of us over - we are only pawns in his games. I am doing this for all of us." Ryder lunged at Fredrick knocking him to the hard stone ground of the watch tower. They rolled around Fredrick thumbing for a means of escape and Ryder for the lever to open the castle to the protesters below.

Fredrick kicked and cursed out as Ryder was unable to find the sword he had dropped. Ryder swung a punch at him, stood up, and ran full force to the lever. It took all of his strength to force the device's mechanism down. Before Ryder could look down to see the opening of the doors and dropping off the bridge, a hot jolt of pain went through him. Ryder gasped, his hands finding a sword's blade implanted through his abdomen with Fredrick standing over his shoulder.

The royal guard turned to look at his friend in the face with watery eyes that burned from the cold wind. Fredrick had grabbed onto Ryder with an embrace as a cry escaped his throat. "Rye, please, please- I'm sorry- help me lift the lever- I don't want to get either of us killed- please- I cannot do it without you-"

Ryder's head was pounded, every nerve ending felt as if it was on fire, and his vision was blurry. His steps were slow but he knew what he had to do... he prayed that the Ancestors would forgive him...

Holding onto Fredrick with all of the strength he had left, Ryder purposely fell backward off of the watch tower with his best friend in his arms. The young man knew that he couldn't allow there to be a chance that Fredrick could manage to pull up the lever himself. Ryder had made a promise that he would ensure the rightful death of the mass murderer King who had ruled their kingdom with an iron fist for the past twenty years.

As the pair of men fell through the air into the chasm below, Ryder saw the rushed movement of people entering the castle with their torches held high and weapons aimed at the soldiers who showed them any resistance. He heard the screams of dying soldiers and civilizations fill the air around him. Ryder's vision was fading fast and he struggled to keep his eyes open. Fredrick met his eyes and Ryder got to see his best friend's face for the last time before the world went dark.