Garden Knight

Part 3

In those difficult times, he was the king we needed, down to earth and real. He showed us what he'd learned in life - the value of nature and the simple things. He drank water, tea, normal things. He loved gardening, growing vegetables with his grandchildren and being in the company of animals. He was humble about his mistakes, obviously scared, but so bold in his will to love deeply. That's the example that helped our nation on the road to a kind of healing, seeing that we too could make amends by living well, respecting both nature and one another.

The knight stood walking through the snail garden, seeing the mantis knight leap from flower to flower, two dragons flying after him as he dropped bags of power on the ground, the mantis turned and leaped on top of the windowsill firing two bottle rockets towards the dragons. The snails, small people with shells seeming taped on his back. Being led by a tall, wide-eyed, short hair, knight with a button on his left arm and a small sword. He walked holding the snails close as he looked at the smaller knight, looking for something to use, his old sword sting was broken inside the executioner.

He turned to the other and gave a small smile. "Are you new here?" He asked before hearing the pops and seeing the snails run from where the fighting is taking place. "Is he with you?" The knight asked as Caro shook his head. "Same kingdom?" Caro shrugged. "Well, I hope you have some way of defeating him?" He asked as Caro stood and shook his head only raising his shield.

Black dragon with jet plumage and beak of polished amber, hopping through longer shaggy grass of spring, tugging at worms, as a small explosion bounced off him and landed on the ground, the dragon hit the ground dragging against the floor as he walked over him and towards the two. "What is that?"

"Dragon," Caro said walking to see the two bee knights and their dragons, their swords were small wooden with two points, both knights looked at Caro who picked up both their swords and turned to the two. "Go to the kingdom," He whispered and stood walking past the dragons, the mantis, wearing an autumn leaf, brown and yellow over his face as he jumped up and landed on the porch to a house. He pointed to Caro. Caro just stared sighing, "Sent from Agnus." He stared.

"Agnus wants me dead!" He giggled. "That's what we have in common!"

Royalty? He's speaking, bugs don't speak, not unless they were royalty. Rainbow grasshoppers, while beautiful they are, are not royalty. Caro gripped his swords tight before staring at him. "Labeled you and I the murderer," He stood. "I am not gonna take that from him," He raised his hand. "I gotta blame someone, otherwise it's my fault and I can't handle that," He said.

"What's he talking about?" Willy said. Caro didn't respond. There was silence between the three, the mantis staring at the two knights before leaping up.

"Don't bother trying to understand me!" He threw a small red cylinder to the ground before it exploded sending the two back. "Me and my bombs will show this kingdom absolute destruction then up to my kingdom." He jumped up to the roof of the house. The snails were running away as the bombs were lobbed from the roof.

Willy looked to Caro before pointing up. "You can take him right?" Caro nodded and turned giving a thumbs up. Willy nodded, "Well you need to get up there!" He threw the tiny knight up there landing in front of the explosive knight.

Caro and the knight stood staring at each other as Willy evacuated the snails. He gripped both his blades as Explosive took the sword out, red-tipped wooden, he struck it against the ground and pointed it at the other. "I am no longer Salem, I am the Doom Knight and this is my blade The Oculus." He aimed the flaming sword at him.

Caro said nothing only gripping his blade and charging towards the other, he swung the sword only for Salem to duck and dodge, both knights swung and missed until a Caro hit something. He pulled the blade out to see a firecracker spilling with gunpowder. He looked at the other as they both jumped back and stared at the two. The firecracker was dropped, as one the blunted sword as he gripped the other. The flaming sword burned bright as the two charged, only the noises of their blade bouncing and dinking off one another was heard. Not a dragon was seen, nor a bug, nor giant, as these two battled, Caro slashed only to cut some of the mask off, now getting a look at the face of the other. Burned, scarred, a wild look in those yellow eyes as he let out a growl and slashed towards him, in turn burning the Garden knights horn. He winced and quickly stabbed pushing his own wooden sword straight through the other's stomach. The doom knight kneels as he felt Caro break the wooden sword in two, he pushed the other half into his chest.

"Still, it drips silently.
Fast, it runs in streams.
Wet, it can soak things.
Dry, it can stain things.
With it, comes life.
Without it, comes death." Doom looked up to the other. "Respect is more than passing pleasantries, more than nice words. It takes an effort to look at the other and take in who they are and show them you regard their point of view with compassion and seriousness. This probably means nothing to you but, if you respect me, I wish to go out on my own terms," He looked down. "Will you?" Caro said nothing but didn't move. "Thank you, Caro. See my blade?" Caro raised it. "Light the longest fuse," He said as Caro did so. "When you meet the prince again tell him what you did.....then kill him." He looked up to the sky only to take off from it and dive back down, headbutting the garden knight off the roof and onto the flowerbed below, the bottle rocket as giants called them exploded, sending bug around the snail garden, every snail, caretaker, bee, and dragon saw from where they stood. Willy picked up the unconscious bug and took him to a small beat-up shack.