Six Twenty [Optional Length after First Linebreak]

$620.  That’s the quote I got from UHaul.com.  That’s for a trip from here to Los Angeles (basically from one side of the country to the other), in a 14′ truck with a car hauler thingy on the back for Isabella to ride on.  The question that remains is…am I woman enough to make the drive?  You bet your sweet gas tank I am.  I’ll be darned if I don’t get myself out there next summer.

Okay..onto more noble efforts at an entry.

Tonight I was taking my usual weekly bath (no…not like that.  I shower all the time, I just take an actual bath once a week) and shaving my legs when my darling friend, Matty, got online and said hello.  I told him I had about ten minutes before I’d be out of the bath, so could he tell me a story.  The following is what came out of his overactive imaginative brain…all at the time he was telling it:

Once upon a time, there was a maiden who lived in a castle.  She was the only heir to a vast kingdom that had been ruled for generations by benevolent kings and queens.  Everyone expected  no less from her and the man that she would wed…the only problem was, she had yet to find a suitor, for she was a b*tch…and turned down every guy that came her way.

One day, her father, the king, decided that it was time she get out of the house and meet a nice young man to marry.  He wasn’t going to be around forever after all and he wanted some grand-babies, darn it!  So he made her take a trip to the neighboring kingdom of Albion to spend a few weeks with her cousins…who were actually no good and were planning on conquering their relatives to the north; our friendly king and his kingdom!

The twin cousins, Rita and Randal, saw this as their golden opportunity to seize control of the throne…if the princess suffered an "accident" while she was away, then there would be no one to take the king’s place when he had an "accident" of his own…and they could take over the kingdom without a hitch.
So they arranged for a group of bandits, headed by a rascal named Desmond Armada to kidnap the princess while she was en route to see them…the bandits could do whatever they wanted with her, so long as they made sure she was never seen in the 9 kingdoms again.

So while Princess Peach was on her way to see Rita and Randal, her caravan was ambushed by bandits, the body guards were overcome and the princess was kidnapped and taken back to Desmond’s secret hideout in the remote Fang Mountains.

When the king heard of this, he was deeply grieved, but took action immediately.  He posted a high bounty on the bandits who had kidnapped his daughter and, thinking her dead, placed an especially high price on their leader, Desmond Armada.  In no time, the region was swarming with bounty hunters and other questionable characters…the perfect cover for the twins to hire their own group of rogues to take care of the king.

Meanwhile, at the hidden bandits lair, the princess was brought into the prisons where Desmond first laid eyes on her and was stunned by her great beauty.  She, on the other hand, was put off by his arrogance, bad smell, and the fact that he had kidnapped her.

Desmond confessed to Princess Peach that it wasn’t his idea to have her kidnapped…but he hadn’t a clue who it could have been; he had recieved the orders from someone else.

She asked to be freed…and while he considered it, he decided to keep her in custody.  She was, after all, wanted dead, kidnapped, or otherwise out of the way.  So releasing her would only put her in danger and with the possibility of being killed (or worse) by someone else without the scruples he and his band of ruffians had.

He had his most trusted men guard her in the Fang mountains…while he left himself to find out who wanted to have her killed…and to stop the threat to her life.  He left to the place he had recieved the orders; Jet City in the kingdom of Albion.

Rita and Randal managed to hire the most rutheless, blood thirsty assassin in all the 9 Kingdoms…a man called Monev, the Gale.  This giant, hulking man was undefeated in combat and said to possess strange powers over death…he was as greatly feared as he was admired by those in dark circles. 
Monev set out to the task of murdering the benevolent king and his queen…he planned to kill him on the Kindom’s annual celebration of their independence, during the great parade.  As a master marksman, this would be a simple task to say the least.

A few days later, Desmond arrived in Jet City and set about the task of gathering information.  Thanks to his connections at the local thieves guild he was able to divine that the orders to kidnap princess Peach came from the royal offices…from Rita and Randal themselves!  In addition to this, he found that they had placed a serious bounty on his head and that Monev the Gale had been hired to murder the King.

But back to the bounty…being in Jet City turned out to be a very bad thing for Desmond as he had his first run in with a gang of vicious bounty hunters.  He fought as best as he could, but barely managed to escape the melee with some very serious wounds.  He limped out of Jet City and back onto the road to Fang Mountains….but collapsed in exhaustion due to blood loss on the way.

A band of traveling gypsies happened to pass that way…and saw Desmond lying on the road.  While they originally planned to strip him of his valuables (which turned out to be very few) and leave him for dead, their leader, a strong female warrior named Callista, had other plans.  She had his injuries treated, but kept him under constant watch as her prisoner.

Meanwhile, a vanguard of bounty hunters managed to ascertain the location of the Bandits secret hideout in the Fang Mountains…and in the middle of the night, launched an assault.  The slaughtered all of the bandits and captured Peach, not knowing she was really the princess.  Their leader was a battle hardened veteran who had served his country for years and years, only to have been tossed out on his ear when he showed signs of madness…his name was Klaude, and he held a deep resentment of royalty.

When the men brought a bruised and battered Peach to him, he smiled as his good fortune and ordered her to be bound and gagged as they made their way back to the kingdom to claim their reward…and make their ransom.

The day of the annual parade was quickly coming and the city was all a-buzz with the preparations.  While the seedy element brought by the bounty hunters still remained, the city was generally cheerful and excited about the upcoming festivities.  Nonetheless, security was tightened in the streets to keep any unwanted occurances from breaking out.  And as the city prepared to celebrate it’s king and his line, Monev the Gale made his own preparations to do exactly the opposite…

Callista turned out to not be so bad…and as she and Desmond travelled together, she began to develop feelings for the cunning rogue and allowed him more and more liberties in the camp.  But Desmond’s heart was turned ever towards Peach and her plight…and when the night came that Callista was ready to confess her love for him, he escaped into the wilderness…much to her anger and dismay.

So Desmond now has on his butt both bounty hunters and a very heartsick, pissed off gypsy queen…but unshaken by this calamitous turn of events, Desmond made his way as quickly as he could to his hideout in the Fang Mountains, only to discover the horror that was waiting for him there…

The site of his men murdered and Peach taken sent him into a rage…and he vowed to destroy the man responsible for this.  Just as he was swearing this dark oath, a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once said, "Look no further than your own reflection, Desmond Armada….for the bounty hunters that were hired because of your actions brought about this madness!"

And then, from the darkest shadow of the cave stepped a monstrous entity, at least 8 feet in height, completely dark save for two glowing red eyes and a mouth with rows upon rows of sharp, glistening, white teeth.

"Wh…what are you?"  Desmond asked in dismay as he felt all courage leave him.  The air grew cold and he began to shake in sudden terror as this horrible presence marched closer and closer to him.  "I am the demon, known only as ‘The Hidden One’…and I have watched you for some time…ever since you and your men made your homes in my mountain."

"What do you want from me?"  Desmond asked with false defiance in his voice.  The demon smiled a toothy smile and said with his deep, billowing voice, "I want to help you……"

"I can join with you, Desmond….we can become as one.  I will lend you my power to settle the score you have with these bounty hunters and those who would harm your beloved Peach…in exchange for a favor to be named later on down the road…."

Desmond thought about the offer for a moment….what was he to say?  Was he going to deny the power he needed for the moment and run the risk of this demon tearing him to pieces?  This was exactly what he needed…so with a sudden surge of courage, he looked the demon in it’s two red eyes and said, "I accept your offer, Hidden One.  Do what you will."

The Hidden One cackled deeply…so much that the cave began to shake.  "Very well then!" it said in it’s booming voice and took a running charge at Desmond…just when it seemed that the demon would plow into him, crushing every bone in his small (in comparison) body, the dark being became as liquid and smoke, flowing into Desmond’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose until it was no more than a memory…and a voice inside.

Desmond fell to his knees gasping for breath, wondering if the whole thing had been real…when he felt the demon’s breathing on the back of his mind, he knew that the ordeal had been very real.  It now felt as though a pair of malicious eyes were constantly watching, waiting…like a lion, or a pack of wolves just waiting for the right moment to devour their unsuspecting prey.

But now…now there was power.  In his arms, legs, and entire body, he felt a strength never had felt before.  It was as though he had the strength of a hundred men.  He stood slowly and reached over to a random stone, crushing it into dust with little more than a slight grip.  He smiled evily to himself.  Now it was time to make those bounty hunters pay…

Desmond took off running faster than he had ever run before.  It felt as though the ground was flying beneath his feet and the world was a blur as on the wind, he caught the scent of…Peach!

Klaude had just finished making camp.  They were about a half day’s journey away from the Kingdom of Hawthorne, where King Leon would soon be celebrating with a great parade.  What a downer it would be to find the ransom note after the bounty had been claimed on the kidnappers…but ah!  Such is the life when you’re the idle rich, willing to throw away an entire life of servitude on a whim and some small charges of insanity…karma, baby.  Karma.

He glanced over at the blindfolded, gagged, and bound Peach and thought he heard her softly crying.  He smiled a cruel smile and walked over to her.  He roughly tore her blindfold off and pulled the gag out of her mouth.  She starred back at him with defiant blue eyes as tears poured down her dirty cheeks.  "Listen, Princess…" Klaude began, "Do you recognize me?"

She knew who he was…she had heard her father and his generals talking back when she was a little girl about the wars with the 4th Kingdom…about how a general called Klaude, the Butcher had slain legions of the enemy’s soldiers as well as his own men with his brutal, and inhuman tactics…she knew very well who he was and exactly how dangerous the man kneeling before her was.

"I take your silence as a yes," he said, standing and turning his back to her.  Just as she thought of taking her eyes off him to survey her surroundings, he spun around and slapped her hard across the face.  She spun to the ground as pain filled mind…yet she made no sound.  He was on top of her in a second.  "YOU RUINED ME!!!   YOU AND YOUR FATHER RUINED MY LIFE AND NOW YOU’RE GOING TO PAY, PIECE BY PIECE!!!"  he drew out his long army knife as he screamed at her.

She lay helpless on the ground as he dug his knee into her back.  The men began to gather around, chuckling at the cruel sight before them….Klaude grabbed hold of one of her bound hands and pulled the ring finger of her left hand out…"You won’t be needing these….I’ll just be taking them as a souvenir!!"

She felt the cool metallic sting for an instant and then a wet, hot, slimy sensation covering her entire hand.  A moment later, searing pain filled her and she screamed out in panic, pain, and terror for the first time since her kidnapping.  That bastard…he had just cut off one of her fingers!!

Klaude laughed maniacally and licked the blood from his blade then held the severed finger in front of her face.  "See this?!  I’ve lost much more than a simple finger, little girl!!  And now you’re going to lose just as much, right her in front of me, the men…and the devil…" he turned her over and, against the light of the fire and the night sky, the horrible, insane man towering above her looked, by all appearances, just as the devil himself…he looked over her young body and began to run his knife up her thigh slowly…

There was a flash of light.  Nothing more.  One who blinked might have missed it.  But it hung in the air for a few seconds afterwards…the unmistakable sound of metal ringing.  Some of the men looked around…others looked surprised and the shocked look on the suddenly silent Klaude’s face…he looked as though he had been struck by something.  His mouth hung agape as though to say something…but no words came out.

Then his right arm, the one that held the knife to Peach’s thigh, fell to the ground with a sickening thud….and hot blood spurted from the stump that hung from his shoulder.  Klaude stood and unleached a blood curdling scream, grabbing his right shoulder and screaming into the dark night.

There…just at the edge of the firelight stood the offender…a small man with dark hair and even darker eyes….Desmond looked out at the gang of brutes with a hot blaze burning in his eyes.  In his hand, he held a sword, unstained by the blood of it’s previous blow…he stood there, frozen…as his enemy summoned all his willpower to swallow the pain and turn to face his assailant.

"Y..YOU!!!  Who do you think you are!?!"  bellowed the now armless Klaude who drew his sword with his left hand and stumbled slowly towards Desmond in a daze.

Desmond did not answer as Klaude advanced.  He stood still for a moment, then took a breath and a step back as he brought his sword across his shoulder and down, slashing into the empty space.

From 12 feet away, Klaude fell in two.  The more perceptive among the bounty hunters (had they lived to tell the tale) would say that they saw a ripple in the air for a brief instant before Klaude was struck, but they couldn’t be certain.  In any case, Klaude fell into two very bloody pieces…and his men scattered.

Peach closed her eyes as she heard their screams fill the night air…and then there was silence…and a gentle, familiar voice saying, "Peach…are you alright?  It’s time to go…" she opened her eyes and had never been so glad to see the once hated face of her former kidnapper, Desmond…his eyes had lost that hatred she had seen just before he struck Klaude and his men down.  He now seemed different…like the Desmond she once knew.

As soon as he cut her free, she wrapped her arms around him, crying into his shoulder and sobbing incomprehensible words of gratitude.  He simply smile and picked her up off the ground in both arms.  And began carrying her off down the road.

The parade was well underway when a cry when up from the audience.
Panic soon spread and the guards rushed to the scene…but both they and the healers were too late…both King Leon and Queen Leene lay dead in their coach…struck by some invisible force.  It was as though their necks had been pierced by the same arrow…an arrow that didn’t really exist.  But the mess made one wonder just what had happened here.

Nonetheless…the parade and celebration were cut violently short as the lives of Hawthorne’s two most beloved rulers was ended at the height of the day’s celebrations.

And now, with Princess Peach missing….who would rule the kingdom?  The line of ascendency fell directly to twin neice and nephew, Rita and Randal, rulers of the 6th Kingdom.

It was on the day of the king and queen’s burial and Rita and Randal’s following coronation that Desmond, the wanted man, and Peach, the kidnapped princess returned to Hawthorne….and Monev was hired for one final job; kill both Peach and Desmond Armada.

Desmond and Peach entered the city amid much commotion to storm the coronation wall…but on the steps of the church, a giant of a man, armed with weapons enough to equip a small army, stepped from the cheering crowd and into their path.

The guards rushed forward to sieze him, but Desmond called to them, "No!  You must protect Peach!  This is an enemy beyond any of you….I will face him alone."

At this Monev began to laugh.  "You?  And what makes you think that a petty highwayman like yourself can match blades with me?"

Desmond grew silent as a strange power began to radiate from him…his eyes grew dark and fiery like they had on that night he killed Klaude…and he drew the sword that drank blood.  

"Very well…" said the giant as he drew two swords, curved like snakes that both seemed to hiss as they were drawn.  "We shall battle…and when I’ve finished skinning you, I’ll begin gutting your pretty little friend."

"Don’t you touch her!"  Desmond yelled as he charged forward.  Monev, having received the reaction he wanted, became a blur as he instantly moved from Desmond’s front to his back and struck with full force, creating two deep gashes in the demon-possessed bandit’s back.

An instant after the cut was made, smoke rose from the wounds and whitehot pain seared Desmond’s body.  He had been poisoned…he felt it coursing through his vains and knew he didn’t have long until he would be forced to succomb to it…he needed to finish this fast, he thought, as his vision began to blur.

"I see even a demon-possessed man is still a man…and any mortal that comes into contact with my viper blades dies within seconds of contact…I’m surprised you’re still able to breathe at all."

Monev sneared as he said this and strolled arrogantly towards his prone enemy.  He grabbed Desmond by the head with one hand and lifted him up.  "Then again…maybe I overestimated y…"  his sentence was cut short as a wild look filled Desmond’s face and his mouth opened wide, spewing forth a geyser of flame, engulfing Monev’s entire body.

Monev dropped Desmond and his swords as he stumbled back, caught on fire.  The giant man grunted in slight pain as he began weaving a spell to douse the flame.  Desmond knew he had to act fast…this was his last chance…and yet he could barely move at all.  He looked over at Peach, who was being restrained by the guards from running towards him…and saw those eyes that he had fallen in love with what seemed like ages ago….

Eyes that had made him embark on his mission…eyes that had haunted his sleepless nights…eyes that had ultimately proved to be his undoing…and finding that last reserve of strength in his love for her, he grasped the curved sword of Monev, the Gale and charged forward in one last suicidal attack.

Monev, taken completely off-guard by the fact that Desmond had not only stood up, but grabbed a Viper Blade and charged, was unable to defend himself.  Desmond plunged the cruel blade deep into Monev’s body, piercing him through to the other side.  Monev cried out in pain and grabbed Desmond by the neck, choking him as the felt the poison course through his veins.

Monev said nothing as his strength left him…and he fell to his knees relinquishing his hold on Desmond’s windpipe.  Both Desmond and Monev fell to the ground, utterly spent.  And as Monev, the Gale was gripped by the devils of the underworld and taken down into the depths of darkness, so too was Desmond…The Hidden One left him in that moment…at least on the mortal plane of existence.  For now the two were one…in the world of mortals and in the world of the dead….

Peach broke away from the guards and ran to Desmond’s lifeless body, grabbing it up in her arms and weeping bitter tears as the only man she had ever loved grew cold and limp, never to come back again.

She was crowned that day…queen of the 3rd Kingdom.  Rita and Randal went into hiding and the 6th Kingdom entered into a slow economic decline, making it a haven of crime and villainy in the years to come.  And as the years went on, Queen Peach grew into her role as a distant and mysterious figure on the throne….

She married again – a loveless marriage arranged by a council of elders – and produced children.  But on some nights, she would look out upon the stars and think back on that day…and upon the man she once knew who stole her away from a life of ordinary royalty…and into his world.  And as he left that world, he took with it her heart…now and forevermore.

The end.

Yeah.  I know.  Cut short there at the end.  He had spent about an hour and half telling me the story, so I’m sure he was just tired.  I told him, "I asked you for ten minutes and you gave me a lifetime."  Much more of a story than I anticipated!  For those of you who trudged through it (I know it was long!)  Kudos to you!  Perhaps you’ll see a book written by him on the shelves one day…or something.