The Tale of a Mad King

Chapter 10

For a while, everything seemed to be going well. Alexander was spending more time with his children while slowly getting used to being king again. Aiden was happy to see his brother healing. It had taken a long time but watching his brother start to flourish again, Aiden himself had slowly started to heal. They took family trips often, something they never did before. The children were ecstatic to see everything that lies beyond the snowy plains of Halella. It was perfect. They were finally starting to feel like a family again. That was until the townspeople started going missing.

It had only started as a couple of cows disappearing, then it was a few horses. Suddenly, an entire field of cattle disappeared overnight. Alexander was completely baffled by this. Cattle doesn't just disappear. Someone had to have stolen them but one person can't steal an entire herd. Alexander sends out guards to observe the fields and question the townspeople. The only thing the guards could get out of them was that they saw several men in strange orange clothing walking away from the field. It seemed odd that these men would go out of their way to steal a whole herd of cattle but not try to blend in with the darkness. Wearing such a bright color like orange, it was like they wanted to be caught. If these strange men had been the culprits what had been their motive? Why would they wear such bright clothing to what's supposed to be a stealth mission? Were they trying to get noticed? Alexander was determined to get answers.

One day as Alexander was at the orphanage playing with the children a guardsman comes rushing in on his horse. "Your majesty, the marketplace was just attacked. Five people have been taken."  Alexander walks over to the man as he gets off his horse. "Attacked! What do you mean attacked? By whom?" "We could not see their faces but they were wearing large armor with strange orange markings." Alexander's eyes widen, "Orange markings? Could it be the same men that have been stealing our cattle?" The guard nods then looks down in shame "we think it is. We tried to fight them off but they..... They were too strong for us. We barely even dented their armor." Alexander sighs and pats the young guard's shoulder. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy, the sad look in his eye reminded him of his son. "It's ok, I'm sure you all tried your best. Now that we have seen them close up we have a better chance of finding out where they come from. Now tell me about those markings." 

Alexander quickly went to work in sending his men out to search for the missing people and their captors. Aiden was leading the search, he believed the men came from the west where the kingdoms of autumn resided. Since orange was mostly associated with the autumn kingdoms Aiden decided to ride over himself to search on the borders of their lands. It seemed that with the color they were wearing and the way they attacked the village in broad daylight that they wanted to be noticed. Alexander suspected that they wouldn't go far from the chaos they created. They seemed to like the attention too much. Alexander of course sent guards to search the borders of spring and summer as well, no rock went unturned. As Alexander was mapping out new places for the guards to search Cole came up and tapped him on the shoulder. "Ahh, Cole my boy, what is it you need?" Alexander asks throwing his arm around his son. "Well you see father, it's about those markings. You know the ones on the men that attacked the village." 

Cole was looking down and messing with his fingers nervously. Alexander raised his brows at this but stayed silent urging Cole to continue. "Well you see, those markings are the same markings I saw on those men the day mother was taken." Alexander lets out an audible gasp at Cole's statement. "Why didn't you tell me before? This is important information, Cole." Alexander exclaims trying not to raise his voice too much. He's yelled at his son enough to last him a lifetime. Cole looked up at his father and shook his head, "I didn't really remember it until now and besides the markings back then weren't orange, they were black." Alexander took a deep breath running his hand through his hair. "So, you think that the men kidnapping people now are the same me that took your mother." He says making Cole nodded his head vigorously "yes!!! They have to be, and maybe if we find them we could find mother as well." Cole grabbed his father's arms and lightly shook him. Alexander couldn't believe what he was hearing. Smiling brightly both men quickly went to work on widening the search area. Aiden wasn't exactly happy when he heard of his brother and nephew's idea.