Tales From Crashdown: Beowulf

Chapter 8: Every Woman Is A Queen

     The group journeyed out of the castle and left for the shore of the land, to Beo's boat.
     Proudly, Beo commanded, “Behold! The Red King!” Beo gestured to a large long boat with a ridged, scaly design and weirdly shaped reptile head at the front of it, a mostly yellow colour scheme with blue-green highlights.
     Fteydís asked, “Why is it called ‘RED King’ if it's not red? Wouldn't something like ‘Sky King’ or-”
     Joe interrupted, “Please, don't get her started.”
     “Here's your cut from what Romero paid us.” Said Riley, giving a case of money to Beo.
     Beo gladly opened the case and started sorting through it.
     Joe asked, “Did we ever figure out WHY he was sending Frey after the Doom clan?”
     Beo closed the case, “Yea, he screamed about it while under the water. I guess he was pissed because the clan had been beating him in that game they played.”
     Freydis shook her head, “He was always competitive, but I never thought he'd be so petty.”
     Riley laughed, “Yea, ‘petty’ is the understatement of the century.”
     Beo leaped up to the front of her ship, “If you guys don't mind, I'd like to head home now!”
     Riley and Joe started walking away, and Riley yelled back, “Yea, yea! Just get out of here already! We'll see you for the next job!”
     Freydís looked around, realizing she was alone. For the first time in her life, she was alone and was aware of it. The world around her began to grow silent, and soon she was alone.
     Then, she heard the voice echo throughout her head, “Hey! You coming?” It was Beowulf.
     Freydís looked up at Beo, “Pardon?”
     Beo asked again, “I said, are you coming? You got nowhere else to go, so come with me back home!” Then, she lowered an elevator from the side of the ship.
     Without hesitation, Freydís stepped into the wooden box and was pulled up to the top. When she stepped onto the ship, she asked, “Now will you put some clothes on please?”
     Beo waved her hand, “Yea, yea, later.”
     Freydís smiled and rolled her eyes, “Is there something so important that you can't waste any time?”
     Beo suddenly grew a giant smile, and ran down to the hull. It wasn't a moment later that she ran back up carrying some boxes.
     Freydís watched in confusion as Beo started to put together some sort of machine, and poured something similar to seeds into it.
     Then, as the machine started to make popping noises, Beo began setting up a massive television and surround sound set.
     Soon, Freydís found herself sitting in a chair, on a longboat, beside a naked barbarian, eating popcorn, and watching some old television show on a VHS called Ultraman with words on the screen. Luckily, the television was large enough that her eye issues didn't matter that much.
     They sailed for 4 days, traveling west along the shore until they made it into the Southern Stretch, a waterway that divides northern america through the middle of the OUS (Old United States). From there, they went east, eventually landing on the shore of Didana, a country standing where Italy once was.
     They were met with a welcoming party of dozens, as the people could hear the sound of the films hours ahead of time.
     Freydís heard the people cheering and asked, “What is happening? Why are people calling your name?”
     Beo responded as she looked over the side, “When a bunch of people call my name, it usually means they're welcoming me back, I'm about to be arrested, or the ladies are fighting to get to me next.”
     The ship was docked and Beo was let down via the elevator being operated by Frey, and she was greeted by the king and queen of the land.
     The King hugged Beo and proclaimed, “Welcome back! You've been gone for nearly 3 weeks, what took so long?”
     Beo shrugged, “I would have been back a couple days ago, but I had a surprise job while there.”
     The queen asked, “I assume you were paid well?”
     Beo held up the case and motioned to the new Brothers Of Metal shirt she was wearing.
     “You were lowered by your elevator. Does that mean you finally have a second member of the crew?” Asked the king.
     Beo jumped upward to the top of the ship, picking up Frey over her head before going back down.
     The King was shocked and told his people, “Get back! Get away from it!”
     Swiftly, a dozen armed guards with Hellbirds, large, flaming, two handed swords, cornered Beo and Frey at the end of the dock.
     The king ordered, “Come here, Beo, and let the knights kill this mutated monstrosity!”
     Beo looked around, assuming a sea beast had popped up. When she found no such creature, she looked up at Freydís, who had hidden behind Beo.
     Putting the wires together, Beo asked, “Wait, do you mean her?”
     The king dropped his jaw, “That things a woman‽”
     Beo rolled her eyes, “And I was in such a good mood today.” She clapped, and the wind blew out the swords. In the confusion of the knights, she charged forward and took each of them down with a single light strike.
     The queen shuttered, “What are you doing‽”
     Beo crossed her arms, “Defending someone that you're trying to harm.”
     The king shouted, “Don't act like that thing is a person!”
     Beo lunged forward and picked up both the king and queen by their tops.
     The king cried, “What do you want‽”
     Beo took them and held them up to Freydís, “Firstly, you're gonna apologize.”
     It took them a second but then both of the royals yelled, “I'm sorry!”
     Beo smiled, “Good. Next, you're gonna give me half the land and half the treasury.”
     The queen immediately refused, “Absolutely not!”
     Beo turned to the king, “7 years ago I did you a favor. I vanquished the hoard of boar-musk that tried to trample your country. I, alone, defeated 5000 of their folk with only a couple mere Surtr Strikedown. I did that for fun. What type of destruction do you think I could accomplish when I'm rightfully pissed?”
     The king and queen locked eyes, and they both turned back to Beo.
     The King nodded, “Fine, you'll get everything west of Mr. Caravan.”
     Beo dropped both royals and they ran away, along with their guards.
     Freydís couldn't quite understand what was going on, so she asked Beo, “What exactly just happened?”
     Beo reached into the water, pulled out a fish and started to eat it, “I just got half a country to rule as a queen.”
     Freydís took a moment to process this, “Wait so, you're royalty now?”
     Beo corrected, “WE are royal actually.”
     Freydís asked “What- what do you mean?”
     Beo tossed the fish bones into the water, “Well, you lost a lot of your life, and during the time where you were being controlled, we have no idea how much you made people suffer, how much pain you were made to cause. With what time you have left, you deserve to enjoy it and be seen as something more than a troll. You were treated as a slave, but I want you to be a queen, like every woman should be.”
     Freydís smuggly responded, “Didn't you just threaten a queen?”
     Beo crossed her arms, “You wanna argue, or do you wanna go pick out a castle for us to live in?”
     Freydis laughed, “I think we should be worried more about getting a larger and strong enough bed.”
     Beo asked, “So you can actually fit in it instead of halfway dangling over the end like on the boat?”
     Freydís responded, “That, and to make sure it withstands our wedding night~.”
     Beo smiled, “I love you already.”
     Freydís quipped, “After watching 250 episodes of Ultraman with me, you better.”