Breathing Fire

Chapter 2 Cretto

                                                        Cretto                                                                                                           

As the young price sat on his throne at the right-hand side of the King, the Lord of Fire and Smoke, the king that ruled with fear and death. In many ways Cretto wanted to be all what his dad has become, and to hold the kingdom and that power that his dad has managed to gain in his hands. His dad was evil and Cretto learned as a boy to fear his dad and to know just because they have the same blood running in their veins that didn't give him an out from the cruelness of what the king is and what the king has become.

Cretto's own mother died at the hand of his father, for not wanting to help her king spread the hate and gain the power that the king wanted. He gave her a choice to help him and be loyal or to die as an enemy of his throne and his power. She chose peace and she chose love. Cretto watched as his mom told the king the father of her child, that she will never be a pawn in his game for destroying what's left of free magic, and she would not allow him to bring Cretto up with hate. She yelled at the king that there is magic he will never gain or see but in her last breath she gave Cretto that magic, that was more than power. She showed him the love of a mother for her child, and in the moment that she vowed to give her son the magic of love and hope. At the same moment her husband the father of her child before he struck her down for the disobedience she showed.

Cretto looked at his mother and thought how brave she was and how much he loved her, and he started to walk towards her and her to him. In that moment she froze under the king's power, and being taken by surprise, she could not hope to save herself or her son's future. In that moment it was as if the whole world froze and in the moment all he knew in his life all that he loved, would now never be the same.

Cretto remembers seeing his mom open her mouth as the smoke came out and she was coughing and choking as she fell to the ground. Cretto rushed over to save his mother, and by time he reached her and was able to hold her head in his tiny hands, and in less than seconds she was already gone and the life and love that he saw in her eyes was gone but not forgotten. For in that moment she did show her son that above all, and above everything love is a magic that no one can take from him.

Cretto being all the ten-year-old kid he was in that very moment stood up to the King, his farther, and using the same fire that just stole his mother from him. It was the first time he created a fireball and he released it with all the anger and sadness in him and directed the hit right to the king. There was a murmur through the people for no one dared to go against the king, and all feared for the little boy who didn't know any better.

The king never assumed no one would have the nerve to strike at him especially it being his only son. The fireball took him by surprise and hit him hard in the side and he fumbled and stood looking at his son. His disappointment and anger flashed across his face, and he raised his hand to the sky and like a bolt of lightning a fire strike hit Cretto knocking him down to the ground with the body of his mother. He could feel the searing pain and the blood dripping from his face. Right before he felt nothing and saw nothing but blackness.

When he awoke, he had a cut going from the middle of his forehead and crossing down into and passed his eyebrow. Where now ten years later, he bore a scar from that day. The scar on his face was nothing compared to the scar that laid deep in his heart. He wanted to make his dad proud but at the same time he hated his dad and everything he has ever stood for. He remembers the lesson silently that his mother gave him, and one he will remember for his entire life. His dad can beat and punish all he wants but in Cretto's heart like his mother's he felt love. He felt that the world and magic didn't need to be ruled but cherished, that the fear his dad rules with will be his undoing, and secretly he was hoping for that.

Cretto looked at the warriors in front of him, all the power this kingdom holds, and he knows that on this night, these warriors were going to give out death and destruction on orders of a mad king that's greed is consuming anything that was human in him and leaving nothing but the greed and anger in his place. He was not a man anymore but a rush of greed and power that will drive him mad and allow him to steal what was not given to him. When you steal magic that is not yours there's a price you have to pay and Cretto knew his dad was paying by losing his soul and his heart, if he truly ever had one.

The king stands proud and huge and at the same moment these warriors kneeled to give the king the respect he thought he deserved. Cretto knew the moment has finally came that the king's mad plan to conquer this world, steal as much power as he could. Cretto was learning slowly how the king was able to steal some of the power after his people kill in his name, but he has yet to figure out how it all completely worked. Cretto knew the magic was not made to do things like this, but then again maybe because no one else thought about using magic in this way, because all that believe deeply in the old ways of the goddess than this is a sin against everything that they are or ever was.

"This is not a speech to tell you to do this for me, this is to make sure each and every one of you warriors know to do this because it's the right thing to do. It is time to find those who fled and think they can run, but we as a kingdom of the Fury, as the most powerful kingdom will show that they don't deserve life unless it is vowed to me as their king. I want you to take my kingdom and expand it and with that expand my power and let all know that I will be more than a king of my people, but a god to all elementals. I want you to take and kill everyone who tries to fight against us. By night fall my warriors, you will hit the village and you will take no mercy. If they fight than they will die!!! You have your orders and I am sending Prince Cretto to ask in my stead and guide you as I would into making destiny come true." The king stated and sat down to look upon his warriors of death.

Cretto stood and smiled looking at the warriors, and silently thinking of how many things that is said and is about to be done will change the course of this world. Even though Cretto had a plan sometimes when the world changes there is no way to undue it and allow the world to stand as it once was. Tonight, the Karr will change, but it will not change the way anyone was hoping or like walking into the future that little moments change the world and the people who live within it.

Cretto stands before the warriors and walks pass row after row of strong powerful warriors to start his journey to crystal village. He is sent with the orders to destroy all that stands in his way. He marches with the rest of the warriors towards the village and in his heart, he knew what he is sent to do is wrong against the very nature of who and what he believed in. He had his orders, but he also still had the faint hope that he would not have to kill anyone. He was hoping like the ten-year-old boy running to his dying mother that by time he got there he could save her. As he is hoping that by the time, he got too the village he could save them. That this time his dad would not destroy what is left of good in this world.

He marched with his people with a purpose that none of them ever knew. He did not march with them in the hopes of killing and claiming more land. He marched in hopes to set a course of the future that hold the values of life before the abandoning. It was a ten-year-old boys dream, but he was a twenty-year-old man who was sent not to give dreams but to show the water village a nightmare they never asked for and one that they truly did not deserved.

Cretto stood in the clearing before the forest that led right into the crystal village you could not see the houses, but you could see the smoke from their dinner fading into the night sky. He stood there wishing he could give the order to go back to their kingdom, but he knew even if he the prince issued that order it didn't matter. These were his dad's warriors and they had their orders. To them there was no right or wrong in it because they did as they were told.

When the night completely sets in, he knew it was time to go and send out these warriors, to offer no mercy no forgiveness just hopefully a quick and painless death. Devine walks up to Cretto and says the same thing that Cretto was thinking, that he hopes this is quick. It was time and the warriors stood in their lines and they all started descending through the woods toward the village that rested in the quiet of the night.