20. MY KING

The new year had gone by. Now it was January of 1970. Magnus' birthday also came on January 15. So, for him, it was fun back to back. First Christmas, then new year and then his birthday.

Chad the black fat cat had joined the family very smoothly, mainly because he was most of the time too lazy to move. But Chad was still dotted by Magnus and Grace, though they were trying to give him a proper diet to make him healthier.

"HAAA... HAAAA..." Magnus practised with his wooden sword in the backyard.

*Clap* *Clap*

It was Sunday and both his parents were at home. However, Grace still had to go to the hospital on some Sundays due to emergencies. They were watching him moving fabulously while waving his sword.

"Maybe our son will someday become an Olympic fencer," Grace commented.

"Eh, what a sissy sport. I'd rather see him as a boxer. Look at his body, he already has muscles in the right places." Adam argued.

"HOW DARE YOU CALL SWORDSMANSHIP SISSY..." Arthur raged but nobody except Magnus could hear him.

"Come, Magnus, I will teach you boxing." Adam came forward.

"Magnus, beat him," Grace said from behind with a chilling smile.

Magnus put his sword down and looked at his dad, "Are you sure?"

Adam chuckled, "It's okay, son. Don't worry, I will go easy on you."

Magnus shrugged and got ready. He took a sloppy fighting stance. His height was much shorter than his dad and the best he could punch at was the nuts.

"Let's do it, Mag. Punch my palm." Adam tried to train him.

Magnus made a good waist movement and jabbed at the palm. *BAM*

It was a loud sound. Adam and Grace's eyes shot open as soon as they heard it.

"Ah... that was a strong punch, Mag. My palm feels numb." Adam exclaimed.

"I am not weak, dad. I am very strong." Magnus proudly puffed his chest out.

"MEOW..." Chad also spoke something in cat tongue.

"See, even Chad agrees that I am strong." Magnus shrugged and went to play with the cat that was lying on the floor as if a potato.

"Sweetie, your birthday is coming up in 2 days. What do you want as a present?" Grace asked.

Magnus thought for a second. "Umm... I don't know. I have everything I want. I also received £1000 for this year for the yearly George Cross grant. I don't think I need anything, all I want is to have fun with you all."

"Awww... come here. You are growing so fast, give mummy some time to spoil you." Grace hugged him tightly and rubbed her cheek on his.

Magnus embarrassingly chuckled, "Hehe, mummy, you've been spoiling me since I was born. Here, you've got Chad to spoil now."

He put the cat forward and Grace hugged him next. Chad was the official cushion of the house right now.

"Dad, do you remember the promise for today? Are you going to drop me and Bobby at the zoo?" Magnus asked.

"Of course, let's go." Adam was still rubbing his palm.

...

Magnus had a reason for going to the Zoo. It was advised by Arthur, although he didn't tell him any concrete reason, he just said that he should go there and try to talk to animals. Magnus knew he was going to look stupid doing it but he agreed because magic was involved.

Soon, they were dropped off at the Zoo by Adam while he went to the market to buy groceries for Magnus' birthday feast.

"Mag, which animal are you going to talk to?" Bobby asked.

"I don't know. He didn't tell me which animal to find." Magnus shrugged. Unknown to him that the reason Arthur didn't tell about the animal was that it was extremely hard to be found.

"Let's try with that, it's an Elephant." Bobby pointed and headed in a direction. To him, this was a nice simple excursion so he was going to enjoy it.

Magnus also followed. In front of them was a happy elephant named Jumbo. he was eating bananas happily while the people looked at him.

"Talk to him, Mag," Bobby nudged him.

Magnus had no idea how to do that. "Should I talk like a human or make elephant noises?"

"Can you make elephant noises?" Bobby inquired.

"Nope, I guess it is a human language then," Magnus muttered. Then, with shameless behaviour, Magnus started shouting. Other people around just thought they were excited kids.

"JUMBO... HOW ARE YOU?" He shouted.

*BAM*

Jumbo threw a banana at Magnus' face. He had very fast instincts so he caught it in time.

"I have no idea if he is angry at me or understood me and wants to share his banana." Magnus confusedly said.

"I don't think he can understand me, Bobby. Let's look at the enclosed animals." He decided.

Soon, they entered the area where snakes, lizards, spiders and various small and dangerous animals were kept.

There, they tried to speak to many animals. There was a Boa snake in a glass cage. It was sleeping soundly.

"Mate, imagine living a life like them? Inside the enclosed place, not being free." Bobby muttered.

"I know, we all talk about freedom and then go on to enslave animals. I instead like national parks, at least they can live in their natural habitats." Magnus commented.

They checked each animal one by one. But then suddenly, Magnus heard some voices.

"Look at this kid, so ugly."

Magnus looked around to see where the sound was coming from. Soon, he found the origin. It was a cage of komodo dragons. There was a fat kid looking at them with excitement.

Magnus went there and looked at the lizards. Their eyes met and silence ensued for a few seconds.

To everyone's shock, soon all the komodo dragons flocked in Magnus' direction.

"Can you understand me?" Magnus inquired.

They nodded all together. Then suddenly one made a loud noise and soon all others followed.

"MY KING..."

"MY KING..."

"MY KING..."

Magnus scratched his head in frustration. "Stop, stop, don't make a scene. How can you understand me?"

"We don't know." One of them replied.

"We feel close to you, ancestor." Another one added.

Magnus nodded, "Okay, I will come again later. It may take me some time but I will get you all out of here, I promise."

"YESSSS... KING... OUR KING..." they chanted even when Magnus had left them.

Bobby just stood behind him with his mouth wide open. "Mag, did you just?"

"Yes, and they consider me their king for some reason." Magnus tiredly replied.

"THAT'S SO COOL..." Bobby exclaimed loudly. Magnus had to quickly put his hand on his mouth.

"Shhh... anyway, let's go back now. We will ask Arthur some questions. Now, what do you want to eat? My treat." Magnus put his hand on Bobby's shoulder and walked to the cafeteria.

On their way, they passed by a Gorilla enclosure, seeing a big gorilla just sitting calmly, Magnus threw the banana he had received from Jumbo the elephant to it.

The gorilla masterly caught it and then showed a victory sign to Magnus.

"Haha, that was a cool gorilla." Bobby chuckled.

"All gorillas are cool, my friend."

...

Magnus didn't know but a debate was going on inside the Zoo. After Magnus had left, a boa in another glass cage across the hall asked the Komodo Dragons a question.

"Who was he?" the snake asked.

"THAT WAS OUR KING..." a Komodo replied.

"Huh, no, he was my king. I could hear him too. He also felt so familiar... like family." The boa snake said.

"Really? What a mystery." The komodo replied. All of them were confused by the human. But, their brains didn't give them enough mental functionality to focus on the same topic for too long so they quickly forgot about Magnus.

...

As expected, Arthur didn't tell Magnus much about why he could do this. So, Magnus shrugged and focused on his studies. At the moment, he was studying the 2nd year Hogwarts books. He couldn't perform any magic, all he could do was memorise everything. He was so fascinated by all this and that was why he never got bored. All he wanted now was to someday be able to cast these charms and see what they do.

Arthur, meanwhile, just looked at Magnus evolving so fast. He was silently contemplating about Magnus and in the end, he could only make one evaluation.

~He's a monster in everything. I'm running out of sword techniques already. I hope he won't throw me away after using me... ah wait, that didn't sound proper...~

...

Magnus was living a very happy life. But his existence was a constant pain in the head for another person, the Queen. She had been going crazy due to the threat to her whole bloodline.

She saw the stone tablet as the source of the trouble so she even called the military to dispose of it. It was blown by a bomb, thrown into the sea, burned to ashes.

But every time, it would magically reappear on her throne, as if laughing at her that sooner than later, she's gonna have to give the seat up to the rightful heir.

All this constant tension was turning her hair whiter faster. She sat in her office with her head in her hands, annoyed by the headache.

She looked down at the newspaper on the table.

"George Cross recipient, super genius, going to skip 6th and 7th grade? *Sigh* Some people are just born better than the rest." She muttered to herself and threw it in the dustbin.

"Why can't our family have a super-intelligent genius? All I got were dumb pampered arrogant sons and a daughter who don't contribute to anything." She cursed her own family.

[A/N: Honestly, I am enjoying writing this fic. Maybe it's because it's new. I am finding it easier to write chapters for this than Grandpa Universe. But good thing, that fic is nearly over.

Also, the MY KING scene was inspired by Uganda Knucles' MY QUEEN.]

[You can see Chad, Komodo and the snake on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

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Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely*

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