THE NAGA

King Jerald stood in his garden, a garden that was once filled with roses and Lilies centuries ago was now home to Tombstones of all his dead sons. The Tombstones stretched miles away and engraved on each of them were the names of all their sons.

At first he was memorizing his son's names but as years went on he began forgetting until they finally decided to use the same names. The first born was always to be called; Nephius, the second Marcus, the third Daniel, fourth Lotus, the fifth Miguel and sixth Barrick, so as not to forget their names.

Rachel always kept to her room, she had tried every means to kill herself but to no avail. Sometimes she could go an entire year without eating but somehow she could feel full. She had even tried to do the most despicable thing of suffocating the babies, drowning or throwing them down the castle but on each occasion the babies came back to life.

The curse had taken a toll on her and she was always crying. They had tried going into the forest to ask Clarris to end their misery but Clarris never showed herself to them.The last time any one of them saw her, was when she took their first son, Mark.

Stories of her curse had spread to all the lands. She was the most powerful and feared creature that lived. Even though the night crawler and the thirsty demons still lived in Deadman's forest, they knew better than to get on Clariss's radar. People travelled journeys from far lands in a quest to see the cursed burning army and the king and queen. No one ever saw Clarris, if they were lucky they would see Darrell. More centuries passed and tales about Egard spread to more lands. Crystal castle looked like a haunted house now. There were no dark Knights, servants or sorcerers. Even though they had gold to pay for such, they eventually lived alone. They couldn't stomach seeing people age in front of their eyes. So they stopped accepting workers.

Most of Ergad was now a Forest, Many families moved into Arthora which had prospered under the rule of king Seth's descendants. Like promised Clarris never interfered with the empire. The other six kingdoms were United to form one empire and ruled under one rule.

On the last two sets of their children, Clariss gave the couple fake hope that tore through their hearts. She allowed the sons to live beyond twenty years, then came and took them all on the same day. Initially they had thought she had released them from their curse but that was not what she had in mind. They had rushed into Deadman's forest for answers but neither Clarris nor Darrell ever showed up.

Again their current set of six passed their eighteenth birthdays though the youngest was exactly eighteen. And for the first time they sat their sons down and told them about the curse. Rachel felt it was not fair that they had been lying all these centuries. During dinner, King Jerald finally told them everything. There was silence on the table and it was Lotus the big mouth among the brothers that spoke up first, “Does she sexually abuse us then sack the life out of us?” he asked.

The other five brothers looked at him in shock, “come on guys! You were all thinking it.”

“You are so stupid, is that all you would think of?” Nephius the eldest yelled.

“So all those tombs outside are our brothers?” Marcus the second, asked.

“What is buried in the tombs?” Miguel the Fifth asked.

“You are all asking the wrong questions, how old are you two?” Daniel, the third born asked King Jerald.

“We've lost count, we are a lot of centuries old, we have no idea what she does to the sons she takes.The Tombs contain toys,” Rachel replied.

“These white patches of hair you are seeing are dyed. I'm an old man in a twenty-five year old body and your mother is in a Twenty-three year old body. We dyed our hair so as not to confuse you all.” king Jerald added.

The brothers could not believe what they were hearing. Most of them were angry and furious. It was only Lotus who was trying hard to find everything funny.

Before anyone could stop him, Lotus got hold of a table knife and cut Nephius's throat.

“Are you stupid!” Miguel cried out. The other brothers rushed to Nephiu's side who was now gasping for air. “Father! Mother! Do something?” King Jerald and Rachel just stared. After he had stopped gasping the blood began reversing back, the cut sealed and he began breathing again. The other brothers scampered in fear.

“You fool, you would have killed me,” Nephius launched at Lotus.

“Stop it!” King Jerald yelled out, separating the two boys.

“I was only counter checking if the curse was real,” Lotus said in a faint voice.

“The curse is real, and this is not a joke! She might come and get you in a minute, in an hour, in a day. We have no idea,” Rachel yelled.

“We will beat the shit out of her, why did the other lotuses watch her take them just like that,” lotus replied.

“It's a curse Meathead, you have no will when you are under a curse,” Nephius replied.

“Yes just like your brother has stated, you have no will to refuse, she takes without force,” King Jerald added.

There was silence on the table.

“Why didn't she just curse the two of you, why involve us in the stupid curse?” Barrick, the youngest, finally spoke up, got up and left the room.

“Barick! Barick! Barick! Come back here. You are not allowed to leave the castle! ” king Jerald called out but Barrick ignored him and got on his horse and left.

“Let him be, he is confused, we now know about the curse. No need to lock us, I always thought you locked us because you two were mental cases” Lotus said out in a serious voice.

Everyone on the table looked at him with their mouths open but he ignored them.

“So we can't commit sucide? We can't run? We are completely doomed. Hope she makes us her lovers then kills us in our dreams,” Lotus added. To which everyone stared at him in shock.

“What? Let me dream, according to father she is beautiful,”

“She has killed generations of your brothers and cursed your parents for eternity and all you are dreaming about is sleeping with a century old angry witch,” a very pissed off Nephius reminded him.

“There is nothing we can do about it brother at least she better grant me a happy death,” Lotus stated.

Among their current sons, Lotus was a bit different, he was the happy one and always tried to cheer everyone. The others took the curse with a blow and locked themselves in their rooms while he spent his days cheering his mother up and telling her about all the demands he was going to make to Clarris once she came for him……….