Two Stories

Two People. Two Heroes. Two Villains. One sequence of events.
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Every single story that has ever been told has held two basic components. Every single story, without fail, always has a protagonist and an antagonist. There is our righteous hero, the one for whom the story was made. The one whom the world revolves around, or the one who revolves the world to his liking. The one who is right, or has the less distasteful option. Then there is our villain. The one working against our light on the hill. They may have a good motivation, and there is always the possibility they make a convincing argument. The best villains in stories are the ones we can understand, but we rarely waver from our faith in the hero of the story. They face adversity, they are confronted by doubt, they feel the cold jaws of uncertainty closing around them but they always escape. They are, after all, the hero.
However, in life it is not so clear cut. We are all the protagonists of our own stories and whoever stands in the way of our dreams and ideals, regardless of what they are, are the antagonists. Our stories encompass our minds and thoughts, leaving no space for the story of someone else. But other stories exist. Other stories that are just as important to the people living through them as our stories are to us.
Aldred and Galen are two opposing forces, each the hero in his own story and the villain in the others. When the old king of the kingdom of Venturia tragically passes away, the new king doesn't want their hatred in his kingdom and is forced to ask each one for their story in an attempt to decide which should be dismissed from his lofty post.