The King's Remorse

The Siren's Song

I tilt my head to the left to get a better view. As I do so, I see Ky's reaction. He's stiffened but is trying to seem unaffected by the creature's presence.

"The Blood Demon," I murmur. The Demon's body drips with red.

"Yeah," Ky replies, just as softly. Melancholy swims in his brown eyes, though I cannot figure out why.

"The Blood Demon seems smaller than it was before. Is it just me?" Dove frowns, shielding his eyes from the sun with his free hand.

"It's not. It's smaller," Phoenix says before ripping a large chunk of meat off from the animal he and Ky had been eating and almost swallowing it whole.

The Blood Demon doesn't seem to notice us, or any of the other people milling about around the Earth Tree, as it flies across the sky. It really does look smaller... I don't waste energy trying to figure out why; I'll need all the energy I can get to heal as much as possible before going after King Garonda XIV and taking him down.

"Guys!" Someone shouts. "We can see My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV in person! He's near the Singing Marshes!" Their eyes glow with awe. People immediately begin clamoring and sprinting toward the Marshes.

Phoenix's nose wrinkles as a corner of his mouth curls into a sick grin. Fire begins to glow in his eyes, but not with awe. His eyes burn with murderous rage.

"Here I come, KG14. The harbinger of your death has arrived. Ready or not, here I come." Phoenix rises to his paws, licking blood from his muzzle before stalking toward the Singing Marshes. He's in no hurry, instead seeming to bask in the glee of knowing his revenge is just around the corner.

"Coming, Dove?" I look over my right shoulder.

"Absolutely. Hopefully I'll see Wolf there." His eyes fall to the ground as his shoulders slump.

"So you have no idea where she is," I ask as we trail behind Ky and Phoenix. Clap's by my left shoulder, though she doesn't say anything.

"Yeah, no clue. It's not like her. Wolf and I were basically always with each other. Maybe it's a Midnight Wolf thing? Like they can't seek out people? I don't know. But The King's Remorse prophecy says Wolf and I will kill King Garonda XIV, so don't you think she'd show up again? And we're siblings; we were hardly ever apart. This is the longest time by far we haven't been together."

"She'll show up, Dove. Wolf will show up sooner or later."

Dove smiles weakly.

"Let's hope it's sooner. It's been so long. I want to give her a hug and be able to just go about our normal routine. But I guess normal kinda went out the window when she went to the Earth Tree and survived becoming, like, the Wolf, the one in the prophecy."

"Why did she only survive this time?"

"I don't know. I could never figure it out. I'd guess it's something to do with our powers, but I don't know what it would be."

"You survived, right?"

"Yeah. But Wolf has always been far more powerful than I have ever been. Perhaps it was the extra power, the power difference between us, that was why I didn't have to keep being reborn? I'm not sure, but either way, something was different this time and here we are. Wolf's missing, is the new Midnight Wolf, and we've got our chance to end it all. Let's hope she's here."

"I hope she is too."

xxxx

Something's not right.