The Broken Kingdom

Chapter 21

Connor's eye lids felt heavy as he struggled to sit up, his head pounded like never before. He looked around the small room in the inn they had, Lark was sprawled across the floor with a hand mark stained in his face from a slap. Chance was curled into a neat ball on the bed, and Alex and Goat were sharing a bed, though both were as far apart as the bed would let them go. Connor rubbed his eyes, they almost felt puffy, like he'd been crying, Connor got up careful not to disturb his sleeping friends, and walked to the inn bathroom. He looked like a drunk mess, hair splattered in all different directions, and he had a small pile of drool dripping down his face. Connor sighed and rubbed his fave with a damp cloth. He ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to make it neater. Connor heard shuffling from across the bar, Lark joined him in the bathroom. It appeared as if he also had a hangover, wither treatment messy hair, even messier than Connor's rat's nest. He had a face as if he hadn't found sleep in years, and had huge bags forming under his brown eyes.

"Hey Connie, I see you've had quite the night as well," Lark laughed as he ran his fingers through his grubby hair.

"Connie?" Connor couldn't help but smile, "anyways yeah, I wouldn't have expected you to have gotten drunk, thought you spent all night in the room."

"Oh the contrary, I didn't take you to be a partier Connor, anyways Chance and I found a stash of booze," Lark said, trying to wash his hair in a bucket of water he'd gotten.

Connor left the bathroom, as he figured he'd looked as good as he ever would with such a large hangover. He walked into the room, all the rest of his friends were still fast asleep. Connor started collecting his things from around the various parts of the room. Once he had assembled all his items and packed them up he woke each of his sleeping friends up. After around 30 minutes they were all ready to go, where to? No one knew.

After a long discussion and a heated argument they had decided, they'd visit the king's castle and find what he knew of the new roaming beasts. The king's castle wasn't far away, but the maze of a city made it seem miles away. Connor must've asked thousands of people the way that day. He was told so many times, and yet it was so hard to find. By the time they had found it (which was discovered by an accident not by Connors lead) it was already to late to go inside, the guards made that very clear as they shooed the wandering Heroes away.

Connor sighed and laid down on defeat, he had finally gotten to the king's throne, a dream he'd had since he was a small child still playing with Wooden swords killing imaginary monsters and such, and he had screwed it up and came too late.

"Alright, we'll come back tomorrow," Connor mumbled as he spun around and marched back to his friends with his shoulders dropped.

They left to a very close inn (this time being extra careful no to stumble into a strip club), and fell asleep with relative ease. The king's castle was only open till around 6:00, than if you were on his property you'd be executed on the spot, no matter if you were an innocent child facing a dare, or a mistaken traveler. It opened at 8:00, but you'd usually only get it at around 9:00 due to the chores of the king and what he had to do in the mornings.

Connor made sure he was the first in line for the king's throne, he had little patience left for waiting and he knew the meeting with the kings would take a fair amount of time. As the sun started to come up Connor saw lights in the castle flicker on, he smiled as this was a clear indication his long wait in the line of angry folks would be over soon. Some 10 minutes later one of the guards at the front door waved a signal to open and allow the first person in. Connor smiled as he was greeted and taken to the king's throne.

The king of Damian was not at all what Connor had expected, he was a extremely tall, skinny odd shaped man with a fat lump of hazel hair sitting on the direct top of his head. He was bald across all the rest except the little fluff on his head, and even than it was mostly covered by his gold crown. The king took a glance at Connor and his friends, Connor smiled, they must've looked like a ragtag bunch of kids who wanted to waste the time of the most important man around.

"Well?" The king asked, "Out with it, what do you need?"

"My good sir, we've traveled far and wide to find you," Connor began, "We have made a gruesome discovery, Breadin and werewolves have tag teamed to take down a village. They are not just dumb beasts, they're strategizing and planning the best ways to take down villages, and I've concern if they have a large enough group they could plant an attack on the castle. We, my friends and I, would like to form a guild of sorts to try and distinguish the population of these beasts, if it's okay we'd like to borrow soldiers, or spare guards."

"I know," The king said plainly, "You know, being king I hear of a lot of things. Thing is, I don't care, fuck it if my whole castle gets burnt to a crisp, I don't give two fucks about Damian. I just want money, so yea go ahead and form your play party in a weak attempt to kill a superior race, but no you may not have my men, have fun dying a brutal death while trying to save a country that's too far gone to be saved."

Connor's jaw dropped, that was not the reaction he'd been expecting, "W-wha?"

"Out, I've got more than enough angry farmers to tell off s move along," The king yawned, "Have fun with your killing Committee."

Connor felt numb as he stumbled out of the castle, a king that has no care for his country, who ever heard of it! Connor understood why he was still king, no one gave a second hand fuck for royalty anymore, all they wanted was to fall asleep at night with no worries of being eaten alive during the night. He sat down in a field, facing his equally as shocked friends.

"Well," Goat mumbled, "looks like we're going to have to do this on our own."