Kyngdom Survival Guide

Chatterbox: KYNGDOM™ RP Board

It’s cold here. 

 

The dead don’t have to worry about heat. They can’t feel it. And yet, I can. It’s odd, when you think about it. Technically, I’m dead as well. Maybe it’s Death’s punishment for me. Endless darkness, endless cold. This is what happens to those who escape Death’s grasp the first time. She still doesn’t allow me to visit Alexandria. Nor Lily pur Lamour, nor anyone else. She doesn’t even allow me books in this endless black. To read books, I must send a part of myself into the world of the living, and have my ghost-like figure hover over someone as they turn the pages. As you may have guessed, this freaks most folks out. I only do this when the people who’re reading are least likely to notice me. When they’ve fallen asleep reading, or when they’re really, really sucked into whatever novel they have open. Though even this has it’s problems, because when the former happens I find myself rereading the same page over and over and over again, and that becomes rather boring. Jabberwock poetry is fun the first time, but after reading about slithy toves a hundred times over, I begin to fall asleep myself.

 

It’s dark here, too. 

 

My eyes, despite being nearly 20/20 vision, cannot easily see in the darkness. I can only truly see here when Death brings her lantern over, or when a new soul arrives to be escorted away to the afterlife by one of the two of us. I always wish to go back. Always. Death doesn’t let me see my sister. She doesn’t let me see my friends. She just puts me to work. I wish I could die, every day, but the problem is, I’m already dead. So instead I wish for life, the one thing I know she won’t let me have.

 

Suddenly, she appears. I know she likes to do this. To speak with me. It seems like her favorite pastime. Sometimes I wonder if she keeps me around just to speak with me, because she is as bored as I. 

 

“Hello Death.” My words echo strongly through the darkness. I realize I haven’t heard my own voice in ages. My mouth feels odd, strangely dry, and every syllable is forced. Like I’ve forgotten how to speak. 

 

“Hello Maria. Nice to see you.”

 

“You know I don’t feel the same. You also never seem to be able to remember that it’s shadow. shadow of everywhere.” Despite my cold tone, Death smiles. Her lantern glow is ever so menacing. I wonder how I ever felt it to be warm. 

 

“A silly name you created when you were eight,” she says with a wave of her hand. “Anyways, the real point of our meeting. The mortals are readying themselves for war. The Final Battle, they call it. It is coming. And you want me to let you go fight in it.” Her hand plays with the sword strapped to her thigh. She still looks like Mina. She has always looked like Mina to me. Death looks from the sword she’s fiddling with back to me. “This is the part where you attempt to bargain for your life back.”

 

I take a step forward, but then realize it’s useless. Even after living here for who knows how long, I’ve only ever been able to move when Death allows me. At the moment, my legs and wings are frozen in time and space. I can only move specific parts of my upper body. 

 

“Death, please let me go,” I say. I know this is exactly what she wants. Her pretty little servant, once a powerful general, to beg for a second- er, third- chance at living. “I know we’ve discussed this before, but it’s different this time. I have a better bargaining chip.” 

 

“And that is?” 

 

“Well, I’ve thought about it. When I leave to the Mortal Realm, I can give you my wings. That way, you know I’ll be coming back. And I don’t even need to go for a long time. Just until the war is done.” I twist a lock of my dark hair with my finger. “That’s all I ask.”

 

“Wars have stretched the length of years. Why, there was even one that was so devastating it lasted fifteen. Tell me, why should I let you leave if you could be gone for fifteen years?”

 

“You could go that long without me. Fifteen years in the life of an immortal like you is equal to a fraction of a fraction of a heartbeat.”

 

She smiles.

 

“Fair enough. I suppose I will let you go after all.”

 

I can’t believe my ears. This is amazing. Even a few years out of this hole is worth everything I have. I want to dance around the room and sing hallelujah. I want to laugh and cry and smile, all at the same time. But this is Death. There must be a catch of some sort. 

 

But there doesn’t seem to be. She takes the sword holstered at her thigh from its sheath. She walks around me, her- no, Mina’s- tail swishes back and forth as she passes. I feel her paw as it touches the down feathers of my wings, but her blade catches me off guard. It strikes me quickly, chopping off both of my wings in an instant. I hear myself scream. The sound is terrifying and ugly. My hand immediately goes for the place where the stubs of my wings should be, but there aren’t any. They seem to have disappeared. Death holds each of my wings by the tips, smiling. I can tell she’s used her magic to make me appear human. No, I’m not a mutant anymore. I’m a human. How odd it is. 

 

“shadow of everywhere, my former Angel of Death. Are you ready to return to the Mortal Realm?”

 

I barely have time to respond before I feel myself begin to… fade. Lapse, in and out of this reality into another. It’s an odd sensation, but I’ve felt it before. Only twice in my life. 

 

I feel it every time I die. 

 

I’m nearly back in the Mortal Realm when I hear Death say something more. 

 

“One last thing. You’ve been trapped in the place between my realm and yours for a very long time. And if this time is counted, you’ve escaped me twice, living three lives. That’s two more than any mortal is ever allowed. That’s why I’ve kept you where you are. However, if you took five lives in place of your own, then you’d be allowed to travel to my realm. Be with your family again.”

 

“That seems too easy.” I say. My voice is hard to hear. It’s lapsing with my body.

 

“You didn’t let me finish. I want five very specific lives, Maria.”

 

“Whose?”

 

“One, the life of the first true friend you ever made. Two, the life of the first boy you ever loved. Three, the life of your most faithful servant. Four, the life of the reluctant wolf, and five, the life of a dark angel’s child.”

 

The darkness is fading now. I’m beginning to see the other world, the Mortal Realm. I’m barely registering what Death is saying. Yet it’s there, toying with my mind and my memory. Another riddle she’s going to make me decipher. I’m so close to the Mortal Realm that her final words are no more than a whisper.

 

“Get their lives for me, little shadow, and when you return to me, you finally go to the afterlife. But fail to kill even one of them, and, well, you will be stuck in the infinite black forever.”

 

And then I feel my feet touch solid ground. I can’t shake off the fact of what Death has just told me, but I take a deep breath and immerse myself in the present. I’m surrounded by trees, the dirt warm beneath my feet, the sky a pale blue above me. A temperate forest. I can see the tip of bleak peak in the distance, and I think I can hear voices and music on the breeze. 

 

I am back in Kyngdom.

 

I wonder if the price will be worth it.

submitted by shadow of everywhere, age 13? 14? , A Place In-Between Death
(September 4, 2017 - 9:40 am)

SHADOW?!?!?! SHADOW!!!!!!!!!! YOU'RE BACK!!! PLEASE COME TO THE CURRENT BATTLE!!! MEET ME THERE!!!!

Okay, I'm sorry, I just got so excited! My best friend is back! Marie (er, Alexandria) faked her death. She's alive too! But she looks different now, and she goes by Marie, because people are still looking for her. 

Also I think I know what that message is saying. And I'm not liking it too much. 

But I'm so glad you're back, and with or without wings, you're still beautiful and still Shadow to me <3 

submitted by Mina
(September 4, 2017 - 8:37 pm)

And aren't you probably 14 now? 

Baguette says "dork." What's wrong with being a dork?  

submitted by Top!!!!, Mina
(September 4, 2017 - 8:38 pm)

*Completely, totally out of charrie*

Top top top! SHADOW'S ALIVE?!!!!!!!! Even if only temporarily, this is great! Welcome back!  *hyperventilates* *doesn't fall asleep until 11 pm because she and another Kyngdomer are celebrating through text message*
submitted by Author of Microchip
(September 5, 2017 - 5:41 am)

shadow! You're back, you're back you're back you're back! *jumps around excitedly* This calls for a festival! A flood of drawings of flowers and banners and confetti, and an author party on the art thread. We can dance and sing Hamilton and play games and eat all the candy and cake we want! Who's with me?

The contract should be easy enough. I would explain the best way to go about it, but then everyone will probably ignore or even sabotage it in favor of squeezing every last drop of drama and conflict out of the situation. So I won't. That way there's a better chance of it happening.

submitted by Viola?, age Secret, Secret
(September 5, 2017 - 10:15 am)

wow, be online for a month, nothing happens

be ofline for a few hours, You miss a ton of twists and the good stuff 

submitted by Alex R., age 14
(September 5, 2017 - 1:44 pm)

#relatable 

submitted by Mina@Alex R.
(September 5, 2017 - 4:46 pm)

Thanks for the warm welcome-backs! I missed you guys. *hugs*. Okay. I have to get into character now. Here goes nothing.

---

I look down at myself. I see that I’m wearing the same clothes I was when I left: Jeans and a t-shirt. This one’s purple, with a little cartoon kitten on it. I smile, wondering what Mina would think. No. Will think. Because I will see her soon. I don’t have much time. Who knows when this war will be over. Suddenly, I remember what happened just before I left the place in-between the world of the living and the world of the dead. I reach behind me to touch my back but-

 

Nothing. Just my back. 

 

My wings are gone. Death has really stole my wings. Why did I ever agree to this? I kick the ground and curse in at least ten different languages- the only ten I was able to retain after giving all of my powers to that girl. What was her name? I can barely remember anymore. I fell as though I should know, but the darkness has taken so much from me. I wonder what else I’ll be unable to remember. My boyfriend- what in Kyngdom was his name? And the blonde, my sister. Was she Alexandria or Alexandia, or something else my mind cannot wrap itself around? 

 

At least I know Mina. Mina, and Icy, and Diana. I do hope they are all still alive. 

 

I walk and walk for miles. I’ve forgotten how hard it is. I’m used to being able to fly, to spread my wings and take off into the grand blue above, to feel the wind around me as I soar. That sensation was my favorite in the whole world, right beside eating cannoli and chilling with Mina and Icicle, and whoever that blond girl was. After a while, I happen upon a pond, whose water is clear enough I can just barely see my reflection. I am maybe an inch taller, but I’ve aged at least a year. A year has passed. It doesn’t feel like that long. Then again, everything is distorted in death. My hair has also begun to grow back from the choppy pixie cute I had when I tried to save my sister. It goes just a little ways past my shoulders. But perhaps the most stunning thing is the absence of my wings. My beautiful, beautiful wings, the one thing I felt truly defined me. I am no longer a Homo Avian. I am a human, more than ever. No Angel of Death inside me. No general badge on the outside. No wings or mutant blood. I am just shadow. Shadow of everywhere. The liar, the thief, the rogue, the scum of all scum. 

 

How could I have let Death do this to me?

 

And on top of it all, I have to take five lives. 

 

I ponder over the riddle. Unlike tons of other things, I can remember it clear as day. I do wonder what exactly it is that Death has done to me, making some memories fuzzier or sharper than others. The first line- the friend. I wonder who that is. Of course, the first thing that hits me is Mina. But no, that can’t be. I must have made a ‘true friend’ before then. First grade, my human settlement on Meek Peak. There must have been someone. But no one comes to mind. So I think of the next part. The boy. It could theoretically be my brother or my father, but they are already dead. I know, almost for a fact, that Death would never make it that simple. She must be talking about the redhead who escaped B.I.G.’s cage of a school. I can’t remember his name either, but I blush just thinking of him, and my heart skips a beat. It has to be him. But it can’t be him. I won’t kill him. Then memories of the endless black come back. I wince just thinking of it. I decide to move on. The faithful servant. That’s the troubling one, because I’ve never had a servant. Not that I can remember. Because of my brother, my parents never even hired baby sitters in my early years. I wonder if Death is concealing a memory from me again, just as she’s making memories come easier or harder to her liking. I think about the reluctant wolf as well. What the heck is that? And the ‘dark angel’s child’? I wonder if Death finally lost it. She’s always seemed on the edge of insanity. All those years in the underworld mess with you- no day spas, no books, and absolutely no cannolis. 

 

Huh. I still know what a day spa is. I guess that’s something.

 

I turn a bend, and I can see where the music and voices from before were coming from. 

 

In front of me stands the Taft Tavern.

 

I go in. 

submitted by shadow, age 14, The woods somewhere
(September 5, 2017 - 5:46 pm)

I see a muddy flag with blood stains covering it. The screams and battle cries of those around me are overwhelming. One by one, soldiers drop at my feet. I keep slashing my sword, and death is drawn out by my hands. Suddenly I stop. 

I look down at my hands, my sword dropping as my knees follow. Death. I finally learn what death really means. 

Death means taking the life- no, stealing, ripping- the life from someone else. It means thinking that life is expendable. That life could have helped other lives, could have been the root of other lives, and within a flash of a missing heartbeat, it's gone. With the flash of a shiny but blood matted sword, it's gone.  

I can't count the countless lives I've taken. No. Stolen. All out of hate, never out of anything else. Anyone can polish war or death to be something that it's not. At the end, any candy coated, glossy thing is traced back to the ugly truth and the true root of hate. But I feel like hate and no emotion can be the same. At one point, no emotion is controlled by the burning hate for emotion. All my life, I was taught to kill without emotion. It was out of fear for feelings, and fear ultimately traces back to hate.

Without realising it, hot tears trace down my cheeks. I wipe them away. Crying is a weakness. Crying is an emotion. But are emotions okay? They have to be, right? 

But for the first time, I feel a real emotion.

Loneliness.

Loneliness. The word stings in my head. I'm alone and have nowhere to run, no one to turn to. I left everything behind and started a new life. My only family that I ever had, Shadow, is gone. And now my fellow Resistance members can't remember me. The feeling of loneliness is so strong that is causes the tears to fall faster. I realise why I feel loneliness so much. I've never been happy.

Purging emotion may be good for tough decisions such as killing, but it also purges any happiness, joy, warm memories. I need to have emotion again. 

To feel again.

And not just sadness or anger. I need happiness, I need to allow myself to be complex in emotion like everyone else is. But I still feel so lonely. I can't even hear the battle around me. Everything seems to be moving slower, and I continue to stare at the tussled brown earth that has ripped fabric and the ashes left from explosions mixed in with it. I need to leave this place, before I drive something else besides an enemy to kill me. 

I slowly stand up, every muscle in my body shaking. I drag my sword, heavier than before, along the dirt as I take lingering steps forward. The chilly wind blows the hair out of my face, once again reminding me that I'm not the same person I once was.

I see a horse, a horse that has a dark brown coat that has obviously experienced battle, standing next to a small, blown apart tent. All seems to have forgotten about this war horse. He stands there, looking around, confusion clouding his dark and stormy eyes. I walk up to him and lay my hands on his muzzle, letting him sniff my hand before stroking his mane. 

"You and me both..." I look at his tag on his engraved horse chest plate. "Stormpal."

I gently put my sword in the sheath strapped to his flank, and leap onto him. I grab a fistful of his reigns and kick at his sides, making sure that he takes off. And he does. He has a lot of fire left in him. I wonder what happened to his original rider. 

I head off out of the trees and into the clearing. Ahead of me are trees, but not as thick. The trees are skinnier and it makes it easier to see everything around me. I don't know where to go. I don't have a home. The Bog and Burrow Inn is destroyed. I can't go anywhere I've been before, because I'll see WANTED posters everywhere. 

Then I remember Mina and Shadow. How, when we had free time, we would sit around the fire at he base and talk often. Well, they did most of the talking. I liked listening to them. They were so close. They liked the story of how they first met at the Taft Tavern, and oh how they would laugh about it, their laughter ringing in the otherwise serious air. 

The Taft Tavern. The only memory, the only place I have left, to possibly start over. I head north, knowing it's snowing around that area right now, and let Stormpal take me where I need to go. After more thoughts and hours of riding, I finally drift off.

~~~~

When I awaken, it's snowing. But it's snowing lightly, and I see sparkling village lights in the distance, giving off a twinkle to let travelers know they have a place to rest.

I let Stormpal canter and then eventually trot then walk the rest of the way there, as his breathing starts to slow and his energy starts to gain. I squint my eyes. The snow isn't that bad, but I still need to be able to see where everything is. It's already dark, and only the lights are my guide.

I feel and hear cobblestone under Stormpal's feet and realise that we've entered the village. There are scarcely any people out, so there will be no questions towards us. But upon walking a few minutes through the village, I hear the sound of faint music and hearty laughter. I stop Stormpal and jump off of him, walking to the front and leading him with the reigns. The noises become louder and soon seem to be flowing from one source. It's the size of a larger house, but not by much. And beside it is a faded but legible sign reading,

The Taft Tavern

Vacancy! 

I put Stormpal in the stables nearby and pay the attendant a coin I found in Stormpal's pouch before heading back to the entrance of the Tavern. I take a deep breath and push the wooden door open, and it creaks in response.

As soon as I enter, warmth madly seeps into my skin, as if I've never felt it before. All is silent for a moment before the brawling, chatting, music, and shouting stirrs up again. I go up to the front counter and look at the man.

"One table please, preferably by the fire?"

First objective. Food.

"One coin."

I take one out of the pouch that I took off Stormpal and hand it to him. He takes it with a gruff hand, and points his finger at the closest table to the fireplace.

I nod in a half thank you and walk to the table, slumping down in the chair.

"Hello dearie, can I take your order?" a waitress asks as she walks up to me, a kind expression on her face.

Before I can open my mouth, I notice the front door to the Tavern swings open again.

And in steps Shadow.

For a moment, I can't breathe. I thought I had lost everything, including her. Tears well up in my eyes, tears of happiness. Pure happiness.

I slowly get up while the waitress looks at me confused and calls for me again as I start heading over to Shadow.

She nods at the man at the counter as he points in my direction. She smiles and looks that way, only then catching my eye.

Our eyes meet, and there is a flicker of recognition. Her same warm brown eyes are there. That's Shadow.

I run up to her, ignoring all my muscles and wounds screaming in pain. My heart is screaming in joy, drowning out anything else.

I leap into her arms, and for a moment she's confused. But slowly and steadily, she starts to realise who I am. She strokes my head, and embraces me back. She knows me.

But that doesn't matter. She's back.

And that's enough.  

submitted by Marie (Alexandria)
(September 5, 2017 - 9:58 pm)

This girl seems familiar. I wonder how she knows me. Then I remember. The memories, they come back all at once, flooding my mind ith warm images- well, mostly warm. I see images of the two of us by the campfire, images of us riding into battle together, and then, I feel a different memory come to me. A memory of my sister, dead in my arms. But I push that thought aside and fall into the embrace with her.

"Wow," I mutter happily, "It seems your name really is Alexandria."

She steps out of the hug and gives me a slightly puzzled look.

"Nevermind," I say, smiling. "It's the most amazing thing, to see you again!"

"I know how you feel." She grins. "But maybe we should go somewhere with less... Eyes and ears."

I nod, and we manage to find a table further away from the rest of the folks. Then we speak only in hushed tones.

"Alexandria. I thought you were dead. Not that it isn't good to see you again, but it came as a surprise."

"Likewise. What's this, the fifteenth time you were killed?"

I blush. "Only the third."

A waitress approaches, asking us for our orders. I ask if they have cannolis. The answer's no. Alexandria ends up ordering pancakes and I get some warm soup. They don't specify what's in it, and I try not to think about it. 

"Anyways," Alexandria continues once the waitress is out of earshot, "I'm not Alexandria anymore. It's Marie now."

"How did that happen?" I ask. "And how in Claaws' name are you not dead?" 

submitted by shadow, age 14, The Taft Tavern
(September 6, 2017 - 5:40 am)

"Well, it's the name Marie because of your first name Maria. And I had to change everything. I may not look the same to you with my somewhat wavy brown hair and more hazel eyes. That's because I got my hair changed (dyed and cut, it's not a wig) and I got my contact lenses. I'm wanted all over Kyngdom because I escaped Rigga's death. That girl that was killed was a girl named Petra, my doppelgänger. She volunteered for my position, and so we changed into each other's clothes before she went out to battle Rigga. If I was down in that arena, Rigga would have been dead long ago."

She nods thoughtfully and looks out the window. She turns back. "How old are you now?"

"Twelve," I reply.

"Wow," she says back. "You seemed to have grown up a bit, meaning you look older."

"War gets to the best of us," I reply quietly. We both acknowledge that statement. I look back up at her. "You must be fourteen."

"That's right," she responds, remembering. "It's been almost a year. Being in that...darkness," she says with a shudder. She smiles. "But I'm glad I'm back. For now."

"What happened to your wings?" I ask.

"Long story. Death made a bargain, that if I gave her my wings, I could go back. But I have to take five lives too."

"What if you got death back, like when you were the Angel of Death?" I ask. 

"If I got that power back, then it might change things and help me with all of this," she responds.

I let out a breath. I take the necklace that I had when I was kidnapped (which I stole from the database in the Academy that had all of or possessions when we were first found), and hand it to Shadow. 

"What's this?" she asks.

"Remember Brynn? Well, she died."

"Brynn...oh. The second Angel of Death."

"Yes," I reply. "She died because that was way too much power for her. Everyone left her, but while I was imprisoned at the Resistance base, she was there. She was next to my cell, watching me. Then she collapsed. Out of no where, she collapsed. And that same golden light from before, from when you told me about it, flooded through the room, as if searching. Searching for the next person to have the power. Then it found me. Now, I'm no Homo Avian, or anything else significant, and I didn't want that power within me. I took this locket, and opened it, thinking that it might spread inside. Now, at that time, that was my last resort, and the only thing that came to my head. I thought it wouldn't work. I thought I would have that power until it killed me like it killed Brynn. But then it did, somehow, absorb in this locket. And now I've carried around that weird golden pixie dust ever since."

I slide the locket in front of her. "I think it's time that you had this back. It suits you better than it did Brynn. Poor Brynn."

Her hand wavers above it before she slowly picks it up and fastens it around her neck. 

"Thank you," she whispers.  

"Yep," I say, letting go a breath I didn't know I was holding. It feels good to have that pressure off. 

submitted by Marie
(September 6, 2017 - 12:19 pm)

wait wait wait

A WHOLE YEAR HAS PASSED IN THIS?

that means...

I CAN POST AS 15!

FINNALY! 

submitted by Alex R., age 14(or 15?)
(September 6, 2017 - 1:29 pm)

Actually, it's only been a few weeks since shadow died, but it's been several months since the story began. I'm not sure how many. It's been three months in-character since I started to really post a lot, but over a year in real life.

submitted by Viola?, age Secret, Secret
(September 8, 2017 - 3:26 pm)

SHADOW! You're back! I'm so happy! I read this yesterday, but didn't get to comment on it! We missed you! I agree with Viola--this calls for a festival! Let the flood of art and banners and confetti begin!

submitted by Anwen
(September 6, 2017 - 9:55 am)

Confetti angel time!

IMG_1128.JPG
submitted by Viola?, age Secret, Secret
(September 6, 2017 - 2:17 pm)

Yay! Shadow's back!

❄Icy has been struck in the face with confetti. Again.

;~; Why is it always meee?!

❄In the background, Marie casually mentions that Brynn died. And everyone conveniently doesn't notice. 

submitted by Icy, age 13..., The Forest
(September 7, 2017 - 12:00 pm)