Oh Dear Florence

The Marian Family was in the Castle of Baron Fall with King William escorting them round the place with five guards by his side. "I want to throw a banquet, a feast to be precised, and you are all invited" William said with a very cheerful voice. "A banquet for what exactly?" Richard asked, this question made William to stop walking and as he stopped, so did the guards too. William turned to face Richard and his family with a somewhat irritated face and as he did that the children's dean wolves, except from Edith own Flame, started growling as the lower their heads and positioned their bodies in a form that dean wolves usually do when they want to attack. William's guards noticed this and they held onto their swords. The children started stroking their wolves to calm them. "Men stand down" William said as he came closer to Richard changing his irritated face to a grinning one. "Right from when I was born and at that time it was my Grandfather that was king, I have never and I mean never had visitor come from another kingdom to make an alliance with us or just even had visit us from anyone at all, the people of Baron Fall are usually the ones to leave here and now, for the first time in history, the King of Iron, the only place in the whole world has come to make an alliance with us, I mean should is not be celebrated, should we not celebrate" William said and at the exact same moment four women wearing long gray gowns. "These are some of the royal maids and they will take your wife and children to their room and as for you Richard, follow to the throne room so where we can discuss this alliance and as for those wolf like creatures, you may carry them with you to your rooms so I fear we may not have a kennel suitable for them" William said. Richard looked at his family and tilted his head as a way of telling them to follow the maids and immediately they did.

Luther, Thomas and Oliver and their dean wolves were being escorted to their rooms by the royal maids, they passed through a hallway where some of maids were cleaning and all of them were wearing the same gray gown as the ones escorting them. After a while they came to a stop in front of a wooden door. One of the maids twisted the round gold handle and opened the door and the brothers entered the room. It was a big luxurious room that had three Queen sized beds. The ceiling, the wall and the floor of the room were decorated with mostly white tiles and a few gold tiles. There was a small table with a bottle of wine and five glass cups. The maids bowed their heads and closed the door behind them. "Well I'm not surprised by the gold or anything but I have to say, this is quite impressive" Thomas said. "Wow, this room is amazing, it's better than my room back home, and to think that this is just the guest room, imagine how the king's room is like" Oliver said as he went to the table where the wine was, he was very amazed by the ambiance of the room. "Did you guys notice that all the servants were wearing gray" Luther said looking out window, "Well some people have their own colors during their period of mourning the dead" Thomas said while taking a sit on the bed and rummaging his bag. "Mourning, I thought people usually wear black" Oliver said as he opened the wine bottle and started sniffing it. "Gray is a sad color, it can be worn to mourn someone, and Oliver drops that bottle" Thomas said and Oliver quickly covered the bottle and left that table. "The only question now is who are they mourning? The two of you come, look down this window, tell me if you spot anyone wearing gray" Luther said beckoning his brothers to come to the window. Thomas brought a book out of his bag and came to the window along with Oliver. Outside the window of Luther, Thomas and Oliver's room was a rowdy market place, the people in the market place were dressed badly, almost like they were wearing rags but no one was wearing the color gray or black, the items fruits and vegetables that people were selling in their market stalls were very small and looked quite rotten. Beggars were on all sides of the streets and by the corners were women who were wearing revealing clothing talking to men. "Oh my, maybe this is just the bad part of the city of Baron Fall" Thomas said writing as he wrote down in his note book. "You know now that I think off it I haven't seen the queen, she wasn't with the king when he was welcoming us" Oliver said "Wonderful observation Oliver, I'm going to take a walk" Luther said and he opened his bag and brought out a brown cloak, Luther dean wolf, Thunder, who was lying on the floor saw as he was going towards the door and immediately got up to follow him. "Sorry girl, but this isn't Iron Ground, if I bring you outside and people see you, they're going to start running for their lives" Luther said squatting down while stroking Thunder. "I also wish to go out, want to see how the library in this place." Thomas said. "Oliver, are you okay on your own?" Luther said and Oliver nodded his head in responds. Luther and Thomas left the room shutting the door behind them.

Florence, Matilda, Eleanor and Edith were in a room, same design as the one their brothers were in but theirs had four beds. Eleanor was looking at the door anxiously as if she was waiting for something. Edith noticed this and asked her "Are you waiting for father?" Eleanor stood up from her bed, opened her bag and brought out a lovely sliver colored silk gown. "That is a beautiful dress" Matilda said looking completely astonished. "Thank you dear, Florence made it and no Edith I am not waiting for your father, I was waiting for the queen. This is the first time Baron Fall has ever received a visit from a royal family so I was expecting her to welcome us along with the king and unfortunately she wasn't there so i was expecting her to send for us at least, you know, so the two of us can talk and she can meet Florence and Florence will give her this dress she made as a gift, but it seems we have to go to her. Florence, Edith, get up, you are coming with me to see the queen and Matilda, would you like to join us?" Eleanor said. "No, maybe some other time, I actually want to explore the city of Baron Fall" Matilda said. "Please can I go with Matilda?" Edith asked, "No dear, you come with me" Eleanor said. Luther is in the rowdy market place with is cloak, he was around the whole place, on both sides of the road he was beggars, some were sitting o mats, some were standing, and some were with children by their sides. A came across a stall that was selling apples and the seemed to be nice and fresh compared to the others fruits in the market. "How much for one" Luther said, "Six coins" the man selling the apples said, he was an old man with gray scanty hair and brown eyes. "Give me six" Luther said and handed his a handful of coins. "Excuse me but I think you have over paid me" The old man said while counting the coins. "I didn't over pay sir, I'm giving you that amount of money so you can do these people a favor and reduce the price of your apples, from the looks of it, seems like you haven't had a customer all day" Luther said putting the apples he bought in a bag, the old man let out a loud laugh after hearing that, " Reduce the prince of my apples, I'm actually doing these people a favor by showing here, I don't usually sell my apples out here in the open, I usually sell to the king and I sell them for twelve coins" the old man said still laughing. "So what brings you out here in the first place?" Luther said. "Well haven't you heard, the king of the North is coming here, and rumors have it that he is coming to make an alliance and if he does make the alliance, he and his children are going to kill all the monsters in the South-east and we can be as free as those Northerners, too bad the queen is dead, the king would have thrown a feast celebrate" the old man said smiling profoundly. "Wait the queen is dead?" Luther said in a shocked tone. "Yes, she died like three or four days ago, haven't you noticed that the royal maid are wearing gray, in Baron Fall gray is used to mourn the death of someone of the royal family" the old man said. Luther stood there for some time; he was completely confused and lost in thought until a faded voice of someone screaming, he looked around the place until he eyes came across a group of four men dragging and pushing a girl into a corner in the streets. He rushed over to the scene and shoved all the men aside and stood in front of a girl. "Now that is no way to treat a lady, now you boys better step back if you still want to have your bones intact" Luther said. "The girl behind you is not a lady, she is a thief. She carries herself around, posing like a whore, feeds you some kind of poison and then steals all your money" One of the men said, "We are only hear to get our money's worth" another man said. Luther reached into his pocket and brought out some gold coins, the girl behind him saw this and started shaking her as, she was telling him not to give them the money, Luther ignored her and handed the men a hand full of coins each, "This should do it. Now leave" Luther said, the men looked at each other and walked away. "Those men harassed in the pub I work in last night, if I had not put something in their drink, they could have forced themselves on me. You didn't need to give them that money" the girl said. "Well they will be back for you so here" Luther said handing her a dagger. Just as he was about to leave the girl grab him by his arm, "I'm Amelia, and you are?" the girl said, "I'm Luther" Luther said smiling and then he ran off.

Thomas was standing in front of a door and then he opened it, behind the door was a room filled with books on shelves. This was Baron Fall castle library. "Here we go" Thomas said as he walked round around the library until he came across a leather book on a table with a small ruby on the top and bottom corners of the book and a big ruby in the middle, Thomas sat down on the table and opened the book. On the right page of the book was hollowed and it was in the shape of a dagger, and on the left side the book was a writing, Thomas read the writing out loud saying "Immerse the dagger in blood that came from the heart of the one who carries my kind of power and after the dagger is soaked, it will be able to cut through the wall that I am trapped in. Then will I kill all the monsters in this world and make this kingdom the most powerful kingdom in the whole world" Thomas looked up for a while, his head was filled with many thoughts, "Oh no" Thomas said as the carried the book and dashed run off.

Matilda was taking a stroll in what seemed to be the castle's garden. She was admiring the flowers and the trees until she heard someone crying. She followed the sound until she came across a boy who was wearing gray clothing, crying in front of a head stone and a man who was wearing amour standing next to him, the head stone had a few words written on, the words were "OUR BELOVED QUEEN MARGRET THYROID, 123 AC*- 158 AC* (AC in this story's timeline stands for after curse), this was the queen of Baron Fall grave. Matilda stood behind a tree and watched them closely. "My lord I am very sorry for your loss, but, Damian all I can tell you is that she died for a good cause" the man wearing amour said and immediately the boy screamed, "What good cause, her death was in vain, it didn't even work. Imagine having your mother killed for something that didn't even work" the boy said angrily with his eyes red because of all the crying. The boy had had brown short hair and brown eyes, the same as King William while the man in amour whose name was Daemon had black hair and moustache. "We need to leave now, The Marians have been here for quite some time so we should go meet them" Daemon said and after that Damian picked a small red bag that was beside him and stood up and both of them walked away from the grave. Matilda saw all of that and it left her very confused, "Damian?" she said to herself and then ran off

Eleanor, Florence and Edith were walking in the castle halls and then, all of a sudden Eleanor stopped walking, "Edith could you give me and Florence a minute, we need to talk" Eleanor said. Edith nodded her head and stood very far from them. "What is it mother" Florence said as she came closer to Eleanor. "I know you are not too comfortable with this arranged marriage and all, so can you tell me what exactly is making you to do this" Eleanor said. Eleanor and Florence looked at each other for a while until Florence spoke. "My older siblings are out their killing monster and my younger siblings are going to join them soon, I am the only one who lacks the courage to do so. You remember the first time they took me outside of the castle to train because father felt I had finally come of age to kill my first monster and I was fourteen then, the same age the triplets were when they killed their first. I don't really remember much from that day, not even the monster I was supposed to kill. All I know is that I saw it jump out from the snow and was as scared as anything I mean it felt like I was going to die. Mother you should remember that day, I heard from some of the castle maids that father and Sir Eric came rushing into the castle with my lifeless looking body and you also came out from you chamber crying profusely, you thought I was dead but finally I woke up. Turns out the monster didn't hurt me physically but is did scare me to death and just like that training sessions and classes on monsters stop. Then Oliver was born and after a year father brought in Edith and the three of them will spend hours talking different kind of monsters and whenever I join in the conversation they always change the topic, you know, so they won't scare me. Look, all I want is to impress father or maybe even just help him a little bit, so please no more questions mother" Florence said and both of them walked further to meet up with Edith. As the three of them continued walking they came across Damian whose eyes were still red but had changed into different clothing, Daemon and a few other guards. "Well good day, you must be the Marian family, I'm Prince Damian" Damian said. "I'm Queen Eleanor, this is my daughter Florence and our youngest Edith" Eleanor said. "Well nice meeting you all" Damian said stretching out his hand toward Florence. Florence held Damian's hand and Damian gave it a kiss and this made Florence to blush a little, made Eleanor to awe and it made Edith squint her eyes in disgust. As that was going on Richard, Eric and William came across Eleanor and the rest. "Yes Richard, you must meet my son Damian" William said. "Good your highness" Damian said taking a bow in front of Richard, "Why don't you show our guess here the throne room, it is a wonderful site you all must see" William said and when he said that, Damian held on tighter to the red bag he had with him when he was at his mother's grave. William came closer to Richard and whispered to him saying "Why don't we let Damian take Florence to the throne room to meet the queen, she is there and would really like it if she could speak to Future queen of Baron Fall", "Okay" Richard said. "Damian, take the young princess to the throne room to see the queen, let the guards follow you" William said and Damian nodded his head in responds and he escorted Florence to the throne with guards following them. "Well I on my way then to arrange a meeting with my court, Richard I will send for you later on so stay close" William said as he walked away. "The queen is around? I want to see the queen also. We had this dress made for her" Eleanor said and at that moment the triplet came running in from different to where Eleanor and Richard were. Luther had brought all the children's dean wolf and their bags with the triplets weapons and he also brought alone Oliver while Thomas brought the book he found in the library. "Father King William has not been telling us the truth" Luther said. "I agree father, the queen is dead. I saw Prince Damian crying at her grave" Matilda said. "No wonder his eyes were red" Edith said. "Wait you saw Damian" Matilda said. "Yes, he was taking Florence to the throne room to see the queen who you are now telling me is dead" Eleanor. "Mother she is dead, that is why all the royal maids are wearing gray" Luther said. "Was she sick or something" Richard asked. "No she was murdered" Matilda said and this put the whole family in shock, they all gasped "Murdered?"

"What do you mean by murdered" Thomas asked. "I don't really know but I heard a guard that was with Damian that the queen died for a good cause and Damian said that it wasn't, that her death was in vain, that what they killed her for didn't even work" Matilda said. Thomas' eyes grew wide open after hearing what his sister had said. "Matilda was Damian by any chance holding a dagger in his hand" Thomas asked. "He was holding this red bag that seemed to have something like that" Matilda said. After hearing that Thomas opened the book from the library in front of everyone. "Sir Eric, what does one who carries my kind of power mean" Thomas said pointing to the book. Eric leaned closer to the book and then he raised his head quickly. "Go, all of you go, Florence is about to be used as the sacrifice to set Alaric free" Eric said and immediately the whole family with the dean wolves run as fast as they could in the same Florence and Damian went.

Damian and Florence came in front of a door and the guards opened it for them. Inside of the room were many guards by the walls of the room and at the end of the room was a human sized ball of black stone. "What is that" Florence said. "Go closer and you will find out" Damian said. "But I thought we were going to the throne room to see your mother" Florence said. "I don't have a mother anymore" Damian said with a lot of fury on his face. Florence saw this and ran for the door but the guards stopped her and not long after that, footsteps were being heard. The guards pushed Florence away from the door and stood in front of the door with their swords out. Damian brought out a dagger from the red bad. The dagger seemed to be made from the same black stone as the human sized ball was made off and it had the same shape as the hallowed page in the book Thomas found at the library. The first person to show up at the door was Richard who pushed the five guards who were In front of the door down. This made more guards to leave their position and they came running toward was Richard but before they could come close to him, Luther swung one of his sword and that created a whirlpool that struck all the guards blowing them away. Then finally all the guards brought out their swords and came toward the door where the whole family was standing. "Luther, Thomas, Matilda, you fight with me, try and reduce you power so you won't hurt Florence, Eleanor try and get close to Florence" Richard shouted and immediately he drew out a sword and started striking blows on the guards. Eric was by the side of the door with Oliver and Edith. "We have to help them" Edith said. "Edith my dear I've only taught you how to fight monsters, you don't know too much about physical combat" Eric said. In the room Florence picked up a sword from the floor and stared fighting off some of the guards that were blocking her. Eleanor on the other hand was getting quite close to Florence until Daemon and some other guards came in front of her and blocked her. This made Eleanor to also pick a sword from the ground but before she swing it, Joan, Florence's dean wolf jumped and fell three guards to the ground. Joan wasn't the only dean wolf fighting, all the dean wolves were attacking the guards, clawing and biting into their amour. While the whole fight was going on, Damian was monitoring Florence with the dagger in his hand and was moving closer to her and Eleanor was getting closer to her too. During the fight Matilda notice the Daemon was behind Eleanor and was raising his sword to strike a blow on her head and at that same moment, Damian was getting really close to Florence who was still fight of some guards. Matilda threw her spear at Daemon and it struck by going through his head. Eleanor fell the splattering of blood on her neck turned quickly to see what happened and turned back immediately to face Florence, but by the time she did, Damian quickly stabbed Florence at her back and the tip of the dagger came out her chest, where her heart was, and pulled out the dagger. "FLORENCE" Eleanor screamed as Florence's body dropped to the floor, Matilda saw this and raised her hand and in a twinkle of an eye the spear flew back into her hand and she started swinging profusely on the guards with tears in her eyes so she could get closer to her mother and sister. "GUARDS" Damian shouted as he ran towards the black stone ball and immediately a few guards left where they were and followed Damian. Eleanor rushed over to Florence and raised her head, "Florence please you, you have to stay with me" Eleanor said crying and rocking her and Florence back and forth. Matilda and Richard managed to break free from guards and they were running after Damian but the guards who were with Damian blocked them. Damian was in front of the black stone black, and with the dagger that was covered in blood, he stabbed the stone ball. At first the nothing happened, then after a short while, the stone began to crack