Kyngdom Survival Guide
*TALE: TWO KYNGDOMS
Chatterbox: KYNGDOM™ Power of Hoof
*TALE: TWO KYNGDOMS
*TALE: TWO KYNGDOMS
A Tale of Two Kyngdoms, Part One
By Zephyra
It was the worst of times. That much was obvious. Chaos everywhere. Claaws was dead. Jaaws roamed our land, jaws dripping with Brazen Goo. Catastrophe was always lurking, ready to fight anyone at the slightest provocation. I heard whispers of a “Mutant Army.” And B.I.G. crept ever closer to finding and activating all four of the Powers, which would lead to--what? Utter global destruction? To be honest, I was finding it harder and harder to go to sleep. Dark thoughts swirled through my brain at all hours of the night.
On one particularly hopeless mornings, as I was drooping over a mug of oak root coffee at the Bog & Burrow, I received word from my faithful network of spies that Dr. Cornelia Hornshaw was heading north, toward the Decoy Forest. My go-to tech wiz, Techibeetle, quickly tapped her phone and, after listening to a very disgruntled conversation she was having with one of her chief scientists, we learned that she believed the fourth Power--the Power of Hoof--was located there. In the forest.
Now, this was a little too close for comfort for me, my fellow spies, and the other Guardians. Because we knew that while the fourth Power wasn’t actually in the forest, it was nearby--very nearby, on the hoof of Regina the Silver Reindeer herself. I sent a message to Regina begging her to retreat to her mansion, and then I began planning my trip to the north.
(Another complication: I was supposed to be planning my nephew Little Crow’s Naming Ceremony. It was time. He was of age. But the party would just have to wait--and I felt terrible about it.)
After another mug of oak root coffee, I hit upon a plan that was simple, but so daring that it made me nauseous. I was going to do the unthinkable. I would try to intercept Cornelia before she went into the Decoy Forest, and I would…talk with her.
Yes, talk. A dialogue. I figured that I could use B.I.G.’s technology to make Cornelia understand what I was saying, and then I could explain how dangerous her behavior was. How it would put us all at risk--animals and humans. Naïve? Maybe. But sometimes the best route is the most direct, no? There’s a reason for the phrase “as the crow flies.”
Of course it was a terrible shock when, while flying over the Labyrinth, I heard something rustling about in the suitcase that was strapped to my back--and out popped Little Crow, squawking that he couldn’t let me go alone and he was practically an adult and why did I get to do all the fun stuff? I was furious that he’d snuck along, but it was too late to turn back. Cornelia’s train was literally zooming below us as we flew. Besides, I’ll admit it: sometimes it’s nice to have a sidekick.
When we arrived at Jökull, the mansion of the Silver Reindeer, Regina greeted us joyfully and gave us each a huge, steaming mug of Black Winter Cherry cider. Little Crow was shivering. I was exhausted.
“She’s coming,” said Regina, giving me a meaningful look.
“I loathe Cornelia Hornshaw,” spat Little Crow.
“Little! She’s done some terrible things, but she is a very lost, very confused woman,” I said.
“She thinks we’re stupid. She doesn’t respect the world we’ve built. Why do I have to like her?” said Little Crow.
I was flustered, jet-lagged, but Regina jumped in with grace. “You don’t have to like her, Little Crow,” she said, her mother-of-pearl horseshoes twinkling. “But what Cornelia Hornshaw lacks is empathy. She can’t put herself in our horseshoes, so to speak. So she’ll never truly understand us--or anything about the world, really. Zephyra is saying that if you try to empathize a little with her, no matter how much it angers you, then you will have already won part of the battle.
“And for the other parts--if empathy and reason fail, at least you have an entire network of spies and warriors on your side,” I added.
Little Crow’s eyes were drooping.
“Let’s go to bed,” I said. “Cornelia is probably staying at that human eyesore, the Wayward Villa, tonight, and won’t be striking off toward the Decoy Forest until morning.”
After Little Crow went to sleep, I turned to Regina.
“I’m worried,” I said. “The Decoy Forest never shows travelers the truth. But who knows what she’ll see there? Sometimes half-truths and white lies can lead to the real thing.”
Regina looked down at her fourth horseshoe--the one that was old, rusty, nondescript.
“I am prepared to fight,” she said, simply.
submitted by Zephyra, Decoy Forest
(January 4, 2017 - 1:39 pm)
(January 4, 2017 - 1:39 pm)
@Raven I don't know if you read, my post, but Tsuki isn't at the lab anymore. I took her to go to Ashzan. I thought that thet conversation was done. :| Could we work something out?
(March 12, 2019 - 12:01 am)
I imagine that the thing with Ashzan simply happened after her conversation with Saoirse.
Tsuki~~
I don't know quite how I made the light bolts. Maybe....no. It's unlikely, but perhaps being around Saoirse's mind warping stuff affected me? Probably not...
Either way, Ashzan and I now face each other.
"Ashzan... I want to repair our friendship. And I want to tell you everything...But I also don't want to die. But I think we can still be friends."
" Why would you die if you told me everything? " Ashzan asks.
I sigh. "It's not you that I don't trust. I trust you Ashzan, and I want to tell you, I really do. But I see how you act around General Caligo. Caligo is the one that will kill me."
" No! Caligo --he wouldn't hurt you. You're an Elite! You're part of Catastrophe's Army, just like him! " Ashzan exclaims.
"And that's why.. Ashzan... Alright. Okay. I'll tell you. I'm not going to get into details, but... Ashzan. I hate Catastrophe."
" Is that...it? " Ashzan gives me a quizzical look.
"No. Ashzan, I hate him so much it hurts. Do you realize how many innocent lives he's taken? How many good people he's tortured?" I shake my head. " I'm going to.... I'm going to fight back, Ashzan. "
~~~
(March 12, 2019 - 2:43 pm)
Um... so I don't actually know anything about the qualities of the Power of Hoof (the real one) or what she's going to notice about this one...
Yeah, so can someone explain what a Power does because I'm kind of confused after skimming a couple pages of writing and trying to find the answer? Thank you!!
(March 13, 2019 - 10:49 pm)
The Powers are six god-like beings that formed Kyngdom. There's Ecio, the clawed serpent and Power of Claw, Caelani, a gryphon and Power of Wing, Ayearth, a sea serpent and Power of Fin, Sylvia, a unicorn and the Power of Hoof, Lunee, an angel wolf and Power of Howl/Light, and finally Claaws, a huge dragon and Power of Fang/Darkness. The Powers can only be harmed by one thing, Brazen Goo. When a Power 'dies', they turn into an instrument. Ecio is a stone xylophone(I think, I might be wrong with his) Caelaeni is a stone flute, Ayearth is a glass armonica, Sylvia is a drum, Lunee is a horn(Actually, I looked it up, and the exact name of a horn being used as an instrument is a shofar.) And Claaws is a black trumpet. When a Power makes a mistake, it creates a Sideaffected Power, which are basically evil Powers who want to kill their counterparts. The only Power without a Sideaffacted Power (or SAP) is Lunee. Hazel C. made a full summary of Kyngdom under the Power of Claw tab on the Story so far? thread that describes a bit more about how the Powers were created and stuff.
(March 28, 2019 - 4:56 pm)
Thank you! I actually learned quite a bit of this from the summary thread Hazel (something) made on the Inkwell, but I still haven't gotten around to actually, you know, writing anything. I guess I'm not alone in that, though.
(March 31, 2019 - 11:06 pm)
Davina~~
I stood in the far corners of my cell, watching the guards. They were playing cards, but I didn't try to escape. There was a loaded gun propped against the wall next to them, and they had happily demonstrated its strength on a cougar who tried to escape.
The door suddenly slammed open, and Deeja stepped in. Grimm was right behind her. The guards quickly concealed their cards so the General wouldn't punish them.
"Guards. Get out the three prisoners who were found with the Power. We're relocating them to the tower prison," Grimm snarled.
The guards quickly grabbed Kimi, the thief and me. Our hands were tied behind our backs with some rope . Deeja escorted me down the hallway. She leaned over and whispered into my ear, "We'll get you out of here soon, granted Saoirse can get her weapon ready in time. Tsuki says she thinks she can handle a distraction. Saoirse and her weapon of whatever can help." Deeja quickly drew back when Grimm looked at us.
"Is there a problem, Sagestone?" He growled.
" No, sir. I was just reminding the prisoner that I am armed, in case she got any ideas. " Deeja was an excellent liar. Grimm was easily convinced everything was fine.
We reached the cells in the tower. There were three, just enough. These cells were cleaner. The floors were still marble and painted. Chairs were in each of the cells. The windows had bars, but there was stained glass behind the bars.
We were put in the cells. Deeja stayed behind.
"Thank me for this. It took a lot of work," She told us. Then she quickly followed Grimm down the hallway.
~ ~~
(April 8, 2019 - 3:21 pm)
~Skylar
We are relocated and it's just the three of us in here. The guards are outside the only I can see Davina and Kimi from an angle. I sigh.
"This is it for me," I say under my breath.
"What?" Davina says walking over to where she can see me.
"No one will come for me again.,ght they were the right way to go. I'm sorry for this." I walk to look out the window.
"Don't worry!" Kimi says coming over "We'll get out of here!"
"Like you have a plan." I scoff and turn around to face them.
Davina seems to tense up slightly. Kimi does too but hers is more noticeable.
"Never mind..." I mutter and turn to the window again. We seem to be super high up and on the South side of the mansion. The sun is setting and it slowly hides behind the trees.
(April 18, 2019 - 8:08 pm)
Ashzan~
I begin to nod when everything goes white. I hear Tsuki's shout and I feel my body hit the hard ground. This has only happened once before.
Tsuki, Deeja, the prisoners, Saoirse. Trees all around, it's night. I can't see myself with them. Something moves behind them, six gunshots, suddenly all of them are bleeding fatally. The scene begins to lighten, but I can still discern what's going on. Tsuki's glowing, the bullet wounds on the others disappear, reappearing on Tsuki's chest. She coughs blood and falls to the ground, dead. Five more gunshots, everyone still alive isn't anymore. I can see nothing. Everything is white again.
I gasp. Tsuki's crying over me, and she hugs me when she sees that I'm alive.
"Oh, Ashzan! Don't do that again!" I grip her arms and tear her from me.
"Tsuki, you can't go through with this! I just had a premonition, you'll get everybody killed if you do this!" Her eyes widen.
"But - I can heal them!"
"Only once! You'll die and they'll shoot the others again! First you, then Deeja, Saoirse, the racoon, the tall girl, last the thief. You can't go through with this! I won't let you!" Tsuki's spaced out.
"The mission... It'll fail... I have to call it off! They'll die! Everyone-" She gets up, panicked, and runs off. I sit on the ground, breathing heavily. Suddenly, everything goes white again.
Tsuki, Deeja, the prisoners, Saoirse. Trees all around, it's night. I can't see myself with them. Something moves behind them, six gunshots, suddenly all of them are bleeding fatally. The scene begins to lighten, but I can still discern what's going on. Tsuki's glowing, the bullet wounds on the others disappear, reappearing on Tsuki's chest. She coughs blood and falls to the ground, dead. Five more gunshots, everyone still alive isn't anymore. I can see nothing. Everything is white again.
No... No no no no NO NO! I stand and run after Tsuki. Something's not right. What's going on?
(April 8, 2019 - 7:30 pm)
Tsuki~~
I race back towards the mansion, I have to get to the labs and tell Saoirse--
I suddenly fall over with this horrible sick feeling. Ashzan runs up to me. "Tsuki! Tsuki--Claaws! Are you okay?"
The world gets fuzzy and specks of dark appear in my vision. I get this horrible feeling in my stomach, the same sort of feeling you get when you have the stomach bug but so much worse. I shake my head and suddenly the world tilts sideways. I can feel the marble hallway floor on the side of my face and I assume I've fallen.
"I've never seen anything like this! Tsuki, hang on, I'm going to get help!" Ashzan darts off, running far faster than she normally does.
I hear footsteps. I attempt to roll over, and see Grimm standing over me. His expression seems to say that he's just proven something correct, a look of I-know-something-you-don't. Ashzan returns with a healer from the infimary.
~~~
A few moments later, I am in a bed in the infirmary, with Grimm, Caligo, Ashzan, a medic, and Deeja standing above me.
The medic seems worried. "I don't know what happened. Tsuki, you say you feel all fine now?"
I nod.
Grimm waves a hand dismissively. "Everything is fine. I believe I know what's happened."
"What did happen, then?" Caligo asks.
"I was in the lab. The scientists were working with the Power, and so I wanted to be there. They had decided to release concentrated dark magic onto the Power to see if there would be a reaction. There wasn't, although it seems it reacted with Tsuki's light magic and caused her to become ill. This was probably because it was so powerful, and so heavily concentrated. Hopefully, when Tsuki learns to control her abilities better, this unfortunate side affect will go away."
" So, I basically have allergic reactions to dark magic? " I ask.
"So it seems," Grimm replies. "You can have the day off, Tsuki, but tomorrow I expect you to be at training. Ashzan, you'll have the day off as well, but only because I want you to keep track of Tsuki. Try to avoid going in the lab, because the dark magic hasn't been removed yet."
~~~~
(April 10, 2019 - 2:43 pm)
Ashzan~
I stand at attention.
"Thank you, General, sir!" I reply. I'm glad to have the day off, especially spending it with Tsuki. I have to tell her what happened. Maybe we could find out why I ha the same vision... A deep dread coils around my heart, I can't admit I don't feel sick. At a moment like this, a training session with Caligo would make me feel so much better. Already I feel more at ease thinking of him - wait, no, I men the training sessions. What is this??
~
@Hazel C. when do you want Caligo to start noticing Ashzan?
(April 11, 2019 - 12:40 am)
Ohhh and the plot thickens!
Saoirse--
The pulse of dark magic we had relased didn't seem to do anything to the power, but I did hear that it did something to Tsuki. Grimm said he would take her up to the medical ward, so I'm currently propped up on a chair tinkering with a... pet project. It's something I've been working on since I developed the prototype Purifier. I need to test it on something, but I do have to come to terms that it will require a tiny sacrifice in the name of science. Just as I reach for vial of of crimson powder, I hear a shriek. I whip my head around at the scientists that were gathered around the power. On has ducked their head and a few others are waving around the pads of papers they were taking notes on. Above them swooped, a sparrow? It had the body shape of one, but it trailed a line of black gooey-smoke from it's feathers. I pushed my chair backwards too quickly and accidentially fell over Granite. He snorted. "Sorry!" I directed to him before scrambling to the scientists. "What is that??" I ask one.
"We think it's a bird of some kind, it must have gotten into the blast radius of the dark magic we used. It just started to attack us! It's dangerous! It's--"
"Fascinating," I finish.
"That's not what I was going to say."
My mind whirls. The opportunity was shining in all of its black smokey light for me. I pull out my now finished pistol and a small glass bead filled with a blue dust and crack open the gun to put it in. I raised the pistol and took aim. The glass shattered on impact, and the dust almost immediately dispersed into the air. I pulled a breathing mask out of a pouch and quickly put it over my head as the dust began to settle. The bird dropped to the the stones, having taken in the most of the sleeping dust, and the other scientists began to yawn. "I think," one starts, "I'm gonna take a nap," before resting their head against the table where the Power lay and dropping off into sleep.
I walk towards where the bird lay and picked it up. Who says I have to kill anything for science?
--
I'll leave what happens next up to a bit of interpretation. As testing season approaches, I have even less time then what I had before, but here are my plans for Saoirse, Raven, and Granite.
Raven uses her smithing skils to help Saoirse make a lightweight metal body for the corrupted sparrow, and Saoirse runs a successful test with the prototype Purifier. The purified soul of the sparrow is kept in a small tube that connects to the rest of the metal body and BAM! Cuckoo is born! Cuckoo serves as Saoirse's spy, eaves dropping on others with a recorder that is built in, and Granite is trying to help Saoirse teach Cuckoo how to communicate, so Cuckoo speaks in morse code. The generals arn't aware of the Cuckoo experiment, since they also don't know about the Purifier. Saoirse will spend a several more days concealing the Purifier into Cuckoo's body and modifying the body so that Cuckoo can extract and store the purified soul until it is removed and put somewhere else.
I'll try to be back as soon as testing is over. Can't wait to see what happens!
(April 11, 2019 - 7:09 pm)
So the sparrow is Cuckoo eventually?
X-Sreel say kyto. *Sigh* I regret to say Kyoto left a long time ago, X.
(April 12, 2019 - 12:39 pm)
Yup! The purified soul will go on to power the metal Cuckoo bird. I was doodling the other day in class and drew a mechanical steampunk-ish tiny bird and though "Heyyy that's a cool idea!" so here we are!
(April 12, 2019 - 11:19 pm)
-- Amaya --
I slowly open my eyes, yawning. Glancing around, I see that the other scientists are also just waking up and the dark-inhabited sparrow is gone. So is Saoirse. Confused, I look at the clock to see that it's three o'clock. And I never take naps. Something is wrong here...
"Hey, what's going on?" asks another scientist groggily. I open my mouth to respond, then snap it shut suddenly upon realizing that it might not be a good idea to share my suspicion that Saoirse knocked us all out with sleeping powder and disappeared with the bird.
"Um, probably just a remnant of the dark power from before," I suggest. They seem to buy this explanation and climb to their feet, all huddling around the Power again. But I separate myself from the group, heading off to find Saoirse. She's got some explaining to do...
--
Sorry I disappeared for a while! I... kind of forgot about Kyngdom. :)
(April 13, 2019 - 3:02 pm)
Tsuki~~
The others leave, except for Ashzan.
"Soo.... We should probably go somewhere a little more...private to talk about um... the....everyone getting shot and dying thing," I said.
Ashzan nods. "Yeah. Um...we should go to the Elite bunker. Nobody really goes there except for me, you, and Deeja, right?"
----
A few moments later, Ashzan and I are in our room.
"Tsuki, I guess that it was really more of a bad premonition. I....had a vision of it, actually," Ashzan explained. "And it actually happened... twice."
"Wait...ah...okay. So, when it happened again, was it after I started running towards the mansion?" I asked, thinking.
Ashzan nods. "Yeah."
"Aha! So maybe, maybe maybe maybe, you got the visions because I was going to cancel it?" I suggested.
---
(April 14, 2019 - 10:59 am)