13 The Black Wolves!!

Black! That single word was what best described the outfit that had been left for him on one of the shelves. The cotton pants, the t-shirt, the hoodie, the shoes, the socks and even the boxers were black. Though it went well with his Yin Yang necklace (something he never took off), it still bothered him how black everything was.

Shrugging it off, he put them on anyways as he didn't really mind. In the long run they were just clothes and he had to admit that they were still better then the clothes he had worn previously. As a future king, Jonx realized that he had to be more careful with how others saw him as he didn't want to embarass the current king and queen. Though he had no intention of sitting in a castle and giving orders, he still had to play some sort of part as a king-to-be.

After putting the clothes on, he checked himself out in the full length mirror that was mounted onto the wall next to one of the shelves. After making sure everything was okay he nodded slightly in satisfaction before walking out the door and into the hallway. The moment he opened the door and stepped out, he ran into a person and, for the briefest moment, came into contact with the lips.

Though the moment was brief, he could feel how soft the body was and could smell a sort of strawberry fragrance travelling up his nose. The feeling of softness combined with the smell made his mind go slightly numb, but as his willpower was strong, he took a step back and verbally apologized. He had accidentally bumped into the queen and even touched lips with her. Though he didn't feel any regret, he was still sorry for bumping into her.

The queen heard the apology but she didn't seem to be to upset about it. In fact it looked as if she were blushing slightly, but it might've been Jinxs eyes playing tricks on him. "Please, call me Elizabeth....or you can call me Liz for short. Whichever makes you happier."

Jonx was slightly confused for a second as he was getting used to calling her 'Miss' but he just decided to roll with it. "If thats what you want...Liz, then I'll be more than happy to oblige." He took a step back to allow her to pass. "I'm sorry for barring your path."

Elizabeth shook her head, a smile on her face. "Actually, I came here to see if things were going according to my husbands plan. Jonathan believes that though you seem to be a nice guy, you would ravage our daughters the moment you saw them naked."

Jinx was now more confused then ever as he had previously thought that the king was a genius. "If he believed that then why send me here to begin with?" He shook his head a little. "Wouldn't I have been a danger?"

"Well we wanted to test your self control," Liz said as she brushed past him, entering the changing room. "Its not really wrong to have sex with people your going to end up marrying. That and women are generally used for far worse things then that such as marrying them off for alliances, sold to other nations to clear debts. Women are basically treated as objects no matter what era it is."

Jinx wasn't entirely surprised to hear that as that was generally the case in how things went in stories, movies, and anime regarding royalty. "What about you Liz? Is that how your treated?" He didn't want to think of Jonathan as a particularly bad guy but he also really wanted to know.

"He treats me fine, but I'm a special case as I'm someone whose was actually handed the better half of the stick." She sat down onto one of the benches in the changing room. "My daughters have also been pretty safe from the fate of being married off. Mostly because of the existence of the Black Wolf. Due to its existence, no one has been willing to marry out daughters as they don't want bad luck to befall them. Its both a blessing and a curse."

Jinx, who had begun to relax after hearing that the sisters were safe, gave her his full attention after hearing the key words 'Bad luck' and 'Black Wolf'. His curiosity had been peeked and though he was still a bit upset about the whole 'women were obejcts' thing he wanted to know more about this Black Wolf she had spoken of.

"The Black Wolf? Whats that? Some kind of animal?" Jinx took a seat next to her as he asked. "Whats an animal have to do with bad luck?"

Elizabeth smiled and turned to look at him, her bluish eyes tinged with a hint of purple. "Its actually a bit of a long story. Hope you can sit through it all." After she noticed Jinx staring at her expectantly, she blushed a bit and began weaving him a tale of the species known as the Black Wolves.

Long ago there existed a race of wolves that prefered solitude and lived far away from other races, ignoring humans and demi-humans alike. They were intelligent creatures, able to use a bit of magic and hunted in packs. A single one of them could easily decimate a few dozen highly trained knights but since they lived in seclusion, no one really cared. At least until a certain idiot king decided to try and destroy their home and build a castle over it.

The wolves, enraged by the destruction of their homes, retaliated by rampaging through a neighboring kingdom. There were only few dozen of the Black Wolves but it took them only a single night to wipe out a few hundred thousand citizens, causing blood to be spilled.

Not wanting to merely accept this outrage, the reigning king at the time asked for assistance from neighboring kingdoms to deal with these Black Wolves. With the help of nearly a thousand trained knights, the kingdoms engaged in war with the Wolves woth both sides sustaining heavy losses.

In the end, the knights, having lost more than half their forces, were successful as the Black Wolves were forced to flee. They ended up running hundreds of miles away from the kingdom and into the Eastern Forest of Protera Kingdom. It was there that they stayed for nearly a 3 full decades.

Over time the species of Black Wolves became associated with bad luck. In the end it became akin to suicide to enter the Eastern Forest and almost everyone stayed away. Tnose few who dared to enter were never heard from again.

"Thats basically the shortened version of the story, its actually much longer," Elizabeth said as she wrapped up her story. "However, do to the legend of the Black Wolf, our Kingdom has shown economic decline over the years. It's basically a shell of its former glory and, though I don't believe in things such as luck, I'm beginning to believe that Black Wolves actually bring bad luck and calamity wherever they go."

Jinx thought over the story. In his own opinion, the Black Wolves had been the ones who were wronged. If Jinx had had his own home destroyed by invaders, he probably would've been out for blood as well. The person at fault was the idiot who had tried to build a damn castle witjout checking to see what lived there. One should always be careful or everything and make sure to take precautions as many things could go wrong. This applied not only to some thongs but to life on general.

Black Wolves, a race of wolves that possessed intelligence and a grudge against other races. The species was so strong that just a few dozen could wipe out hundreds of thousands of people and due to this the race was known as bad luck incarnate. The more Jinx thought about it, the more he wanted to meet the species known as The Black Wolves.

Jinx was interrupted by a knock on the door. He blinked and looked towards the entrance to the changing room. It most likely wasnt the king or the maids as they most likely would've just walked in. After careful consideration, Jinx rose up from his seat beside Elizabeth and opened the door.

As he suspected, standing in front of the door clutching various objects were his brothers. They all had excited looks on their faces and were holding numerous candles, a stick of chalk, a rather large book, and a weird looking stick.

"Hey guys," Jinx said with a small smile. "What are you guys doing here? I thought you were taking a bath." He attention was focused mainly on the objects in their hands but he didn't question them about it just yet.

Josh, the one holding the book, excitedly leaned forward and whispered something. "What if we told you that we can get you to learn a rare type of magic in a single night?"