Ashes of Revenge

Raven moved a small player up one space on her board game. The crudely cut wooden circle had two sides – one black and the other being a light brown. The players scattered around it were of various shapes; the weakest player being a half-dome shape, and the most potent player a tall tower. The smaller the player, the weaker it was – only being able to move one space in any direction while the biggest could move four. Certain parts of the circle were scratched out while others were left natural, resembling spaces.

Looking away from the game – Zahler – she stared out the dirty, barred window, watching as the sun began to rise across the town. Only a few more minutes and the dangerous Monstros would return to their hiding places. Daylight was the only safe time in this wretched Kingdom. The Monstro Kingdom.

She hated this place.

Something overhead caught her eye, it’s black body a little more than a silhouette against the graphite sky. But, she knew what bird it was by pure instinct alone: a Monstro raven.

Raven stood and moved a player of the opposing side, effectively killing the biggest piece. She swept the set up into one of her bags and pulled her dark brown leather gloves on, concealing her rings beneath it.

A boy sitting on a small, stiff bed looked at her; his features barely visible without the glow of candlelight, his sun-kissed hair shifting with the movement.

The two faintly smiled at one another, still trying to wake themselves up. They never got a full night’s sleep.

Slowly, he stood and began to pack his things.

The movements awoke another figure lying on the ground. The man groaned and his wings slid off him. His tiredness only lasted a second before his black wings lifted him onto his feet with one flap. With his wings and onyx hair, he blended into the room.

The boy – Colt – shoved recently sharpened arrows into his bag, swung it over his shoulder, and walked out the room with Raven behind him. Both knew the man needed to finish packing and check the room to make sure they hadn’t left anything despite everyone only bringing in one pouch worth of possessions.

Raven and Colt walked out of the dingy, rundown Tavern, and to their horses which were tied next to the side of the building. Instead of crisp, clean air like they had wished for every day for the past month or so, it remained dense and rotten.

She was more than relieved that the Monstros had spared her horse, Herbert, once again, despite having a reputation for killing any species, even their own. She began to tie her bag onto his saddle.

The horse next to Herbert huffed and backed up a foot, shaking its head side to side. Colt grumbled and used the reigns to pull it closer to him, attaching his bag to the saddle - his shin-length black cloak faintly swaying with his movements. “I hate yeh too,” he said to the animal, his voice scratchier than normal.

Once done, he turned and leaned against his horse, allowing some of his dirty blond loose curls to fall against his forehead. Even with his slanted posture, his tall, lean frame towered over Raven’s short slender one by about a foot. The warm color of his skin and hair made the dark circles under his eyes sink deeper.

Colt strapped a miniature crossbow to his left wrist. As he did so, the dim sunlight struck the silver line on the top of his hands. The second the weapon was secure, he covered the lines with his black leather overshirt, hiding what he was.

Raven connected the silver latch to her black cloak into place, allowing it to naturally fall crookedly around her until it reached her knees. They looked at the door and waited.

After a few seconds, their wishes came true when the man walked out of the Tavern with his bag over his shoulder. His pale skin seemed to glow in contrast to his graphite eyes.

“Did we leave anythin’ up there, Richard?” Raven sarcastically asked, her voice even.

“Nope, but tempt me enough an’ I’ll leave yeh,” Richard’s rough voice grumbled.

“That’s just rude,” Colt said with a smile, finally waking up more.

“Agreed, I’m just . . .” Raven trailed off as her hand rose to her chest, “hurt.”

Richard sighed as loudly as he could. It’s too early for this, he thought; the day hadn’t even started, and he was almost at his breaking point.

Colt and Raven internally smiled. In little to no time, they had reached their daily goal of visibly annoying him.

“Tha Messenger should be arrivin’ sometime today,” he murmured, running his hand over his face. “So do whatever yeh want until then. Don’t be stupid. Don’t get caught. Don’t start any fights. Don’t get drunk.”

The two confusingly looked at one another, their eyebrows furrowing. “Then what are we supposed to do?” Colt drawled out. Raven raised her eyebrow, actually curious about the answer.

“Get money or scout out tha town again. I’m gonna talk to tha men.” Richard began to walk away.

Both Colt and Raven saluted Richard and within the next second, threw obscene gestures to him. Once the pair had run out of movements, they saluted each other and went their separate ways.

The sun rose higher, only a few rays managing to come through the clouds. Though the two grew increasingly further apart, Raven managed to watch the light turn Colt’s skin into a soft light glowing olive, even his hair becoming lighter. His right dark brown opal eye turned into a soft topaz while the left blue one reminded Raven of sapphire. Somehow the light turned his cheekbones and jaw into sharp, concise lines. She found herself liking the warm colors and wishing they were in a Kingdom with more sunlight. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, a building cut off her view, plunging her into the awakening village.

Naturally, the weight of her sword against her left hip made itself known. Her finger began to poke and feel the formations and grooves of every knife under her clothes on her forearms. She pulled her gloves tighter and fixed her hood once more, only allowing a few strands of brown hair to show themselves - descending a few inches past her shoulders.

Raven purposefully kicked a few blood spots with her unshined, scuffed black leather boots. A possible target for getting more money turned a corner, they weren’t anything special, at most ten coins. She matched her pace to the ladies and waited till they were close enough. At the last second, she moved to bump into the woman.

The two collided and Raven immediately blended into the crowd once more. There were so many people in the thin walkways that bumping and touching were simply part of the pattern.

She walked by a worn grey wood post with various papers hung from it. It was there to inform the people of their Kingdom as well as apprise the Monstros about the other four species. She had checked this board every day since coming to the town but nothing was new. The Monstro King and Kingdom remained to be as ominous to its subjects as it was to the rest of Corrail.

Corrail held five species who had nothing but hate and contempt for one another: Teliks, Shifters, Mundus’, Monstros, and Farians. And while they all tried to present themselves as better than the others, it was evident once in the Kingdom that nothing could be further from the truth, and Raven was perfectly fine with that. Under the money and bright colors and mirages were suffering and blood and death. At least the Monstro Kingdom didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t.

Because of that, Raven had remained an unknown Mundus; Richard an unknown Farian; and Colt an unknown Shifter. Three feuding species had found themselves paired and working together to bring down the Monstro Kingdom.

She made it to the base of a bell tower a few meters from the pole. The structure leaned faintly to one side, creaking with every passing wind. A brass bell dangled from the top, looking as if it would snap the beam it was attached to any second.

Raven climbed the wood with ease - after doing this almost every day, she had memorized each foothold, dent, and any other structural imbalances that assisted her.

She carefully sat down on a ledge and leaned her back against a beam. She reached into her cloak pocket and pulled out the new coins she had stolen: three. With a sigh, the minuscule amount was placed into the main pocket as she dangled one leg over the edge, watching the Monstros.

Out of the five species, Monstros were the only ones who varied and differed from one to the other. It was a strange mix of creatures, especially the ones that came out at night. Those attacked any and everything. Even so, this village didn’t have an abundance of dangerous Monstros because it was a farm village and on the Kingdom’s outskirts.

It was as if a knife had sliced through the Kingdom, and from that wound, all the life and color had been drained from it, leaving behind a decaying carcass.

Raven stared at the Market, amusingly trying to spot Richard or Colt.

***

Colt walked through the thick crowd. He was in the small Market area; each shop looked as if it would topple over at any second.

There were so many people.

The group rarely broke up but he hated it every time they did. The crowd was almost suffocating for him and he could feel his chest and throat tightening. Tunnel vision surrounded him.

This hadn’t happened in so long and his brain was so scrambled he didn’t understand why it was happening now.

He swallowed and tried to focus on any other minute detail to distract him.

Everything snapped into focus when he saw a weapons vendor. Colt pulled his cloak closer to him and walked to the man. The seller had a mix of dark honey yellow and violet eyes against tan skin.

“Can I have three arrows for this?” He shook his wrist with the crossbow attached to it.

The man observed the weapon for a few seconds and turned around to grab the necessary arrows. Colt reached across the counter and grabbed a few livre from the man’s money pouch. He returned to normalcy as the man turned back to him.

Colt took the arrows and observed them for a few seconds, comparing them to the weapon. They would fit but needed to be sharpened, which wasn’t a problem.

“How much?” he asked.

“Three livre.”

He pulled out the necessary amount of money, it all being the man’s, and paid him, having only two coins left. Tucking the arrows away, he exited the market and went to the bell tower where Raven most likely was - he just needed to be with someone. He saw her shadow and took that as his proof. In a few seconds, he was squatting on the same beam she was sitting on.

Raven flipped one of her throwing daggers again, rotating from blade to handle. “How much did yeh get?”

“Only two.” He rolled the coin from his pointer finger to his pinky and back again.

“That’s actually pathetic.”

“How much did yeh get?”

“Three.”

“That’s barely better than two!”

“But it’s still better!”

He grumbled a curse under his breath. “I’ll beat yeh next time.”

“Challenge accepted.”

She flipped the knife again and Colt caught the handle in mid-air. Within the next movement, he threw the blade into the beam above them. Raven stared at it for a few seconds and when she looked back at Colt her face was stone set.

“Yer gettin’ that blade back.”

“Of course.” Colt half bowed sloppily. She smirked and rolled her eyes, leaning against the wall and looking out into the town again.

Colt leaned back and looked to Raven. A shadow cascaded itself around the right side of her face due to the hood. But he still immediately found her dark brown walnut eyes. The angles in her face seemed to sharpen, making the dark circles stand out and her cheeks sink in.

She brushed her finger against the bottom of her nose twice. For some odd reason, that motion made him look out and stare at a random tree.

All that was left to do was wait for the Messenger to find them.

***

Richard shoved past the bustling crowd, only stopping for half a second as to not allow his toes to be crushed by a passing supply wagon. The Messenger had found him and he suspected he had alerted the other two of his arrival.

“Knights are here,” Colt said beside him, appearing out of nowhere, despite being taller than the mass majority. Richard was a couple of inches over six feet, barely taller than the boy.

From their perch, Raven and Colt had seen new Knights ride in.

“I know. Where’s Raven?”

“Here,” she said, weaving around another person with flawless footwork. Every few seconds she would disappear behind someone; sometimes her heigh was a blessing, other times, like this one, it was an annoying curse.

Colt stepped over a rotten piece of food. He looked around the crowd, trying to spot the Knights, needing to know where they were. But, he couldn’t find them.

“I saw their uniforms. They’re from tha Castle on official business.” She had glanced the Monstro pendant on the leader’s armor - a downward-facing dagger with black thorns encircling it. All Knights had the symbol, but there were small changes to mark where they were from, so tiny that one had to know they were there to spot them. A thorn directly in the center of the dagger had told her what she needed to know.

“It most likely has something to do with King Onyx’s ultimatum,” Richard said.

They shut their mouths, deciding not to risk anyone overhearing their conversation. Instead, they moved through the dark, poor, bloodstained town unnoticed. That’s how it had been for years. In that respect, they were like vultures - patient and silent until it was time to strike.

Once they were safe enough outside the town, they stopped by a black and grey tree on top of a hill, its dead-looking branches curled and stretched like fingers as if it were trying to grasp onto any fragments of life.

Richard and Colt pushed back their hood. Colt allowed his hair to remain messy whereas Richard smoothed back his hair to perfection.

Shining silver strands ran through Richard’s obsidian, slicked-back hair. His five o’clock shadow – under his high cheekbones – somehow managed to pull in his features and make him look to be in a consistent state of seriousness, which he always was. Raven assumed him to be in his thirties, but she would never ask. Just like she would never figure out exactly how old Colt was. She knew she was still a teenager, but she never said or thought about her age, finding it easier to accept the things she had done.

As the group waited, Raven and Richard naturally placed their hands on the hilts of their swords.

“Do we think tha Monstro King has relented?” asked Colt as a knife extended from the straight silver line in the middle of the top of his hand. He began to scratch the blade into the tree.

“Tough to say,” Richard said. “Tha Farian Kingdom has gotten stronger, but so far he hasn’t shown any signs of withdrawing.” He straightened out the collar on top of his dark grey over-shirt, making sure his clothes were clean and precise against his muscular body. His hands fell to the small of his back, and he stood stock-still, only allowing his strong jaw to twitch.

Raven began to pace. “I really hate this place.”

“We’ll be leavin’ it soon,” Richard reassured.

Colt hummed in agreement as he leaned against the vandalized tree.

They all froze when the black dirt in an area swirled and shifted. Suddenly, a man appeared: the Messenger. His white hair was tied back to keep everything together while he flew. His transparent white wings had black swirling lines outlining and running throughout them. Another set of limp transparent wings swayed in the wind. His wings disappeared, and the dark grey intricate markings on his hands and arms turned black, resembling Richard’s markings on hands and arms. It formed a sharp point just before it reached their middle fingers.

“What’s tha verdict?” Raven asked in an anxious and yet stern manner.

The Messenger shook his head. “King Onyx’s ultimatum still stands. He said he needs answers within the month.” The Messenger’s accent was a proper Britannico one, whereas Raven, Richard, and Colt all had a thick improper one.

Raven hissed out a curse. The Monstro King was making the Kingdoms choose alliances, divide themselves into two sides before an inevitable all our war broke out. No one had made alliances yet, but the group had a decent idea about who would.

“I can guarantee tha Shifter King will side with Onyx,” Colt said as he pushed himself off the tree, knowing what his King would choose.

“Same for tha Mundus’,” Raven spat out, knowing where her species stood.

“But tha Farians will side against him,” Richard said. The Messenger faintly nodded. “An’ tha Telik Kingdom will side with whoever has tha strongest trade an’ villages.”

“Right now, that’s the Farian Kingdom, but there are three Kingdoms between the two.”

“So, tha best bet is to stick with our original plan?” Raven asked. For that very reason, they were in this terrible Kingdom - to destroy each village’s source of profit before inevitably killing the Monstro King and taking over.

“I would say so,” Richard said. “Let’s start within tha hour. Yeh,” - he directed his attention to the Messenger - “stay in tha village until we’re ready to move to tha next one or we give yeh further instructions.”

The Messenger nodded, and with a blink of an eye, his wings appeared, and the markings became a faded grey. The limp wings wrapped around him, and he disappeared.

Alone once more, the three looked at each other. A light twinkled in all their eyes.

It was time to prepare. Raven’s long-awaited plan was about to come alive.

So, Raven thought, breathing in the foul air, it’s war.

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