The Kingdom of Cards

Chapter 1

    Alfred sat on the end of the bed, Arthur sound asleep beside him. He looked down at his feet, the meeting didn't get him and the other countries closer to peace at all. He felt a lone tear fall. He was the most powerful king, with the largest and strongest land and yet, he could do nothing. He felt powerless for the first time. A soft hand caressed his shoulder, and he leaned back, allowing Arthur to hold him for a second.

    After a while, Arthur spoke, "Alfred, you've been acting strange ever since you came out of that meeting."

    Alfred stood, and walked toward the window, looking out into the starry night sky. He sighed deeply, but he didnt utter a word. Arthur sat on the bed a few more minutes, accepting the silence. He didn't want to pressure Alfred, but he was worried about him.

    Suddenly, Yao rushed in. "King Alfred!" he said, panting, "I don't mean.. disturb you... but the... the lower green village... agon."

Alfred and Arthur stared at him confused.
"Take a moment and try again." Arthur said encouragingly.
Yao took a deep breath then spit it all out at once.

"A dragon is attacking the lower green village."

    Alfred looked at him, and gave Yao a curt nod, expressing that he would be coming. Alfred ran over to his large weapons and armor closet and donned his armor and black cloak. He stood at the castle gates, waiting until a servant brought his horse, a great black Friesian, and Arthur came riding up on a pure white Andalusian. Alfred shook his head, "Oh, no... You're staying here." he said, gripping the horse by the reigns. Arthur held the horse steady, sitting regal in the saddle. He had perfect riding posture, and was wearing dark armor and a smile that said, 'try and stop me.'

    Yao, sat on his dark bay horse holding the horse back.  "What if-"

Alfred cut him off, "Out of the question." he said curtly, and Yao looked hurt.

"Alfred, stop being immature and bickering with your husband and get on the horse. You can't stop him," Yao said, kicking his Balikun into a lope, Alfred's best knights, Mathias, Kyle and Im Yong Soo following close behind, Arthur smirked and followed. Alfred jump a strid his horse and quickly caught up.

*Time Skip*

The dragon stood on its hind legs and let out a low roar, stretching out over the fields. It's wings flapped, creating wind that nearly unsaddled Im Yong Soo. Fire blew and ate up the countryside. Hundreds of knights shot volleys of arrows, which bounced off like toothpicks.

Alfred nodded impressed, "So, Yao, what's the plan???"
Yao looked at the dragon, "Well..."

Alfred shook his head, "You interrupt us in the middle of the night, and you don't have a plan?"

Yao looked at him, "YOU'RE THE KING!" he pointed to the dragon, "You figure something out."

"Okay, okay you guys! Stop fighting each other and start fighting that thing." Arthur brought his horse to stand between Alfred and Yao and turned towards the knights.
"AIM FOR ITS EYES!" He yelled.

The dragon was moving to much, they had no chance of hitting it in such a small area and the fires were slowly starting to consuming the village.

Alfred, turned to Yao, "tell General Berwald to send some of the troops to put out that fire." he rode off.

Arthur look at Alfred, he touched his tense shoulder and allowed some of his serenity to flow out of him and into his husband, which relaxed him some, but his teeth were still firm upon his bottom lip. "There's a lot of damage, the fires are out of control..." he said in a monotone voice, his eyes fixed upon the dragon. It almost seemed to stare back for a moment, pausing it's motion. Then, as if it broke out of the trance, he slammed a foot down into the middle of the advancing army. Alfred let out a long sigh. "I need to get closer." he clicked his tongue and the horse slowly trotted down the hillside. Arthur followed. Alfred stopped, "No, you stay here." Arthur followed a while longer, then finally stopped, as Alfred's horse pushed on in a gallop toward the beast, the other three knights following close behind.

Berwald spotted Alfred riding hard down the hillside, and quickly stopped him, riding his dark grey Swedish Warmblood infront of Alfred's black horse with reared in response, but Berwald cut off any further advances.

He looked at Alfred though his glasses with piercing precision. His was grim face and his eyes were cold.

"I can't sit idle while villages are destroyed and my army is slaughtered." Alfred said, his voice rising in despair. He made a move to move his horse forward.

"And what would be left of a kingdom without a king?" Berwald asked in a deep voice, staring Alfred down. Alfred walked his horse forward, and Berwald stood stock still, too still to be natural. His scowl deepened.

Alfred shuttered. Berwald has just said more words that he had ever spoken before and if looks could kill, Alfred would be dead 4 times over.

"If you help me, it won't happen. A king is only as good as his kingdom, and at this rate, I will be the king of nothing but ash." his voice was a deep shout over the intensifying battle ahead.

Alfred rode off, Berwald quickly following, pulling up aside Alfred as fire poured down from above. Men fell from the bloody jaws like crushed tin cans. A mere toy for the beast. Berwald periodically would pause and shout a quick order here and there, short one word phrases, but the soldiers were used to the generals lack of words.

Alfred pulled his horse up as a torment of fire raised up suddenly before him. He shielded his eyes with his arm as his horse reared, their screams only adding to the dragon's roaring, and the moans and cries of soldiers living, dead and dying. Alfred parted the flames for a few second for them to rush though, but the horses bolted in such a panic that they were almost uncontrollable. Finally, they were able to steady their horses.

"Berwald," Alfred yelled over the torrent of noise, "Stay here, I'll hold him, so you can get a shot." The king took off as Berwald readied his crossbow.

*elsewhere*

    Yao rode up to Arthur, who was sitting alone.

"Where's the king?" Arthur didn't speak, but Yao eventually followed his gaze to beast. Below it's stomping feet, and he saw a man trying to steady his horse, donned in black...

"Alfred!" he yelled, as if his voice would carry. Oddly enough, the king look at him just as the beast stomped again, blocking him from view. Yao threw his horse into a gallop. Arthur sat in silence for a while longer and watched.

    His eyes transfixed on the dragon, his horse trusting his guidance, tripped over a fallen tree, letting out a pained scream, it fell and Yao was thrown across the grass.

He lay there for a bit, then slowly rose, the battle field around him bleary and his ears ringing. He finally stood, dizzy, almost collapsing again, stumbling. He tried to get to his horse, but it had ran off. Fire blazed around him, and he tried to cover his eyes. One thought blazed through his mind. He need to find the king.

Suddenly, the heat and light seemed to consume the area around him, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that the forest was on fire, but the blood dripping down from his head kept him from realizing that, or from healing himself.

An arm grabbed him and pulled astride a dark brown Russian Trotter. He suddenly found himself seated behind the King of Clubs. Yao gripped his shirt and wrapped his arms around his waist, not noticing the blush that creeped onto the king's face as he urged the horse on.
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Hi! So normally before I start a book, I'll do an intro explaining and talking a little bit about my inspiration for it and maybe some back story behind the characters, but I decided not to this time because I didn't think I really had enough to write, but I DID want to add this in. I own nothing in this book except the actual story, not even the pictures. :)

Names you need to know:
Gilbert- Prussia
Peter- Sealand
King Ludwig- Germany
Queen Kiku- Japan
Feliciano- Italy
King Francis- France
Queen Lili- Lichtenstein
King Ivan- Russia
Queen Elizabeta- Hungary
King Alfred- America
Queen Arthur- England
Yao- China
Mathias- Denmark
Berwald- Sweden
Kyle- Australia
Im Yong Soo- South Korea

I'll see y'all  later 👋🏼