Dragons Prophecy

The next morning after breakfast, Eshrenn looked out the window and saw a whole platoon of men marching towards the house.
"Mom, you should see this." He said. His mom walked to the window and let out a gasp. "Take your brother and sister outside, but don't let them know what's going on." She said, gathering herself up.
"What about you?"
"Don't worry about me, just do what I said. Now go!" She said, pushing him towards his siblings.
"Hey Enishi, grab your sword so we can spar outside." Eshrenn said, picking up his own. "You can come and watch us Chaisa." As he walked outside, his brother and sister followed him to the sparing ring. "When I say run, run to the river shack and don't answer to anyone. If it's me, I'll have a key. Enishi, if anything happens, take care of Chaisa."
"What about mom?" Chaisa asked.
"Don't worry, I'll get her." Eshrenn said. "Now let's pretend like we're sparing." He added, drawing his sword. Compared to Enishi' father's sword, Eshrenn's sword was bland. Enishi' sword was a royal Phoenix Guard sword, so it was decorated lavishly. Eshrenn's sword was a plain katana that was so far unbreakable, which told him that it had some magical properties. As they started to spar, Eshrenn caught a glimpse of some guards standing by their back door. He saw that the guards were laughing at their halfwit attempts at sparring, not realizing that they weren't making any effort, just lightly warming up. When he saw more guards come out of the doorway and start marching down the hill, weapons drawn, Eshrenn yelled, "Now!" And jumped away from Enishi as his brother ran towards their sister and picked her up, running towards the woods.
Turning around, Eshrenn saw the guards running towards him, eager to draw the first blood on the willing target that gave itself to them. Raising his sword, Eshrenn prepared himself mentally for what was about to come. Giving himself a quick shake to get loose, he saw the guards slow down slightly and smiled. Taking advantage of their slight hesitation, Eshrenn charged, dropping his sword to his side, the cutting edge facing behind him. As he drew near, he adjusted the sword so that the cutting edge was facing the guards and gripped it with both hands. To soon for the guards to react, he was upon them. He brought his sword around and hit the first guard just above the waist. Feeling the blood splash on him, Eshrenn had to fight the bile that started to rise in his throat. He got control of his senses just in time because a guard had come up behind him and was swinging his ax for a killing blow. Quickly dodging to the side, Eshrenn knew that he had to keep a tight reign on himself until the end of the battle at least, or he was going to get himself killed. The guard brought his ax around in a swing that would have removed Eshrenn's head had he not dropped to one knee. When he was on his knee, Eshrenn swung his body around in an arc until he felt his sword hit something. Opening his eyes, he saw that the guard was missing a leg. His triumph was short lived though, because with a scream of pain that guard started falling over. Eshrenn jumped out of the way just in time to not be flattened. Standing up, he saw two guards running at him with their swords drawn. Jumping up, Eshrenn landed on the shoulders of the first one and brought his sword down like he was choping wood. With a sickening noise, his sword went through the man's skull like butter. From the shoulders of the dying guard, Eshrenn jumped over the other guard and landed next to him, driving his sword into the man's side. With a gurgling noise, the man fell over.
Looking towards the house, Eshrenn saw that the two guards who were watching him and Enishi spar were gone. Thinking that they had all left, Eshrenn started to walk towards the house when he saw a very large wolf stick its head out of the door frame. The wolves' muzzle was covered in blood, and Eshrenn felt his blood run cold. Who's blood was that? Was it his mother's, or was it some unfortunate guard's. The thoughts were quickly driven out of his mind when the wolf caught his scent and gave a howl of triumph, thinking that it had found easy prey. As it loped down the hill, Eshrenn realized that this beast was going to be harder to kill than the guards were and got himself ready for an especially hard battle. Th e beast charged straight for him and just as it reached him, Eshrenn jumped up one more time and drove his sword to the hilt into its skull. The wolf pitched forward, dead before it hit the ground and Eshrenn flew forward a couple feet, rolled onto his feet and prepared himself for another attack. When it didn't come, he straightened up, walked forward and yanked his sword out of the wolves' skull. Cleaning it off on the shaggy fur, Eshrenn looked up at the house wondering what was going on.
When he walked through the back door, he saw that the house was destroyed. Running to the living room, he looked around for his mom. When he saw her, he was happy to see that she was still shaking. When he got to her, he asked, "Mom, what happened?"
"It was horrible." She sobbed. "They started asking me questions and when I wouldn't answer them, they brought that huge wolf in and then it went berserk and killed them all. I was lucky to get away." Then she looked at Eshrenn as if for the first time and asked, "Where are your brother and sister?"
"It's ok mom. I sent them to the river shack to hide. Now come on, we have to get out of here before anyone else shows up." Picking his mom to her feet, Eshrenn led her to the back door and then down the hill. When they reached the bottom of the hill, Kyre saw the bodies of the men and the wolf and let out a moan. "Why did it have to came to this? Is our family not cursed enough that my children have to become killers?" Wanting to ask his mom what she was talking about, Eshrenn held his tounge and led her the rest of the way to the little shack. When they got there, Eshrenn pulled the key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Stepping inside, he saw Enishi emerge from the back room with his sword drawn. He let the sword drop a little when he saw that it was Eshrenn and his mom. From Behind him, Chaisa came and flung herself into her waiting mother's arms.
That night after Chaisa and Kyre went to bed, Eshrenn and Enishi sat up talking about what had happened at the house. Eshrenn told his brother everything that he had done, and even showed him a few of the wolves' teeth that he had grabbed before leaving. It wasn't until Enishi asked where they were going that the severity of what happened sunk in.
"Well, I guess that we're going to the royal castle." Eshrenn said.
"Isn't that where my dad died?" Enishi asked, going white.
"Yes, but that's also where Sakuya and Oreata are." Eshrenn said.
"By the way, what is going on between you and Sakuya?" Enishi asked, miscief in his eyes again.
"Go to sleep Enishi. I'll wake you when it's your turn to stand guard." Eshrenn said with a smile as Enishi lay down to go to sleep.
The next morning Eshrenn was up and ready before dawn. When Enishi woke up, he was mad because Eshrenn hadn't woke him up.
"Why didn't you wake me up like you said you were going to?" He all but yelled.
"Because your going to need the energy for today. I only found two hoses, so that means that you and I are going walk." Eshrenn said not wanting to deal with his brother.
"We're going to walk to the castle?" Enishi asked, his anger forgotten.
"Yep, and if I'm right, we should be there by nightfall. At least with the pace I'm going to be setting."
"I'm up to it if you are." Enishi said, streching.
By noon, they were making good time. They were at least half way there. By nighfall, the turrets of the royal castle loomed like mountains in front of them as they approched the front gates. Above them, the guards were yelling something, and then the gates swung open. As they walked through the courtyard, they saw vines crawling up the proud towers. The gardens that had once been so carefully kept had gone wild, creating an uncultered beauty that most thought could only be found in the deepest woods, and people whispering to eachother and pointing to Enishi. When they reached the main stairs, they saw Oreata standing at the top. This Oreata was a different man than the one who had showed up to their house only a month ago. Where that man was homely and down to earth, this one was regal and distant. "Why do you come to my courts?" He demanded in a booming voice that caused all the people in the courtyard to bow. "Do you not bow to your rightful king?" He demanded.
"No, I don't bow to the humble man who showed up to our house a month ago." Eshrenn said, standing tall. "And as to the the purpose of us coming here like this. The day after you fled, we were attacked, and I believe that you know who it was that ordered the attack." Before Oreata could recover from the indignation of bieng told that he had fled, Sakuya came running from behind him and raced down the stairs.
"Stop her!" Oraeta boomed. And just and Sakuya jumped into Eshrenn's arms, the royal guard came marching down the stairs. With a wave of his hand, Eshrenn froze them where they stood. "How dare you challenge my authority!" Oreata boomed. "I'm the king of this country and I could have you beheaded for treason!"
"Some king you are!" Eshrenn said stepping forward. "A king shouldn't need to remind his subjects of his authority, only the ones who cross it should have to witness it. And to be king of our country is what some would consider a curse, not an honor!" Even with the yells of outrage that surrounded him, Eshrenn continued on. "Our country doesn't need a king that wanders around like a vagabond, fleeing whenever someone tests his authority, or makes his sister even the slightest bit happy! If you haven't noticed, our country needs a king that will stand up to the Sorceress and right the indignatians that are bieng forced upon your subjects daily! People are bieng executed for simply standing outside in the wrong spot for to long by guards that laugh while they do it. And those same guards use their authority to their advantage! They rape women who end up dead because they said they were raped! Corruption is all over the place! From the largest cities down to the smallest village! Anybody will do anything just an extra coin! And you proudly declare yourself king of a country like that? Where is your true Okoku pride? The pride that got our country out of so many hard times before. We let ourselves become weak, to be ruled by some other country just because they have a sorceress as a queen. I'm almost ashamed to consider myself a citizen of a country like that." And with those words, Eshrenn expected the whole crowed to start booing him and to turn and look at Sakuya while she had a look of disgust in her eyes. He was surprised that the night air was filled with cheers and people sobbing. Turning around, he saw Sakuya had tears welling up in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" He asked her, putting his thumb in the path of a tear that had started running down her cheek. She put her hand on his and said, "Nothings wrong, in fact, that's exactly what my brother needed, look." She added pointing to the stairs.
Eshrenn looked at the stairs and saw Oreata slumped down on one of the stairs halfway down, the crown in his hands. Walking up to him, Eshrenn put his hand on his shoulder. "Your fitted to be king better than I am. You become king and bring our country back to it's former glory." Oreata said, handing the crown up to Eshrenn.
"No.'' Eshrenn said, pushing the crown away. ''You bring our country back to its former glory, and beyond. Just remember that bieng king isn't just about living lavishly, though that's one of the perks." He added, causing Oreata to smirk. ''It's about taking care of your subjects. The difference between a good king like what you could be and a tyrant that the Sorceress is, is how they take care of their people. A tyrant knows that among the people they oppress is someone that will oppose them, and that all their subjucts will rally around that person, eventually destroying the tyrant. A good king doesn't have to worry about that. He'll have the people's devotion. Sure, there'll be some people that don't like you, but the rest off your people will take care of them for you.''
''But how do I change the person I've been for so long?" Oreata asked, looking up at Eshrenn.
"A good place to start is with Sakuya. Let her be happy for once. Let her have something of the life of a young adult. She doesn't wish to rule a country, she just wants to be happy. But she is happy for you."
"She is? Why?"
"Because you found something that you love to do. Now think on all of what I've said and make your decision." Eshrenn said, walking away.
"Wait. Are you leaving?" Oreata asked.
"No, I'll be right here ready to kick you in the head if you make any big mistakes." Eshrenn said with a smile.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, Sakuya immediatly asked him what he'd said to her brother. "You'll see." Was all he told her as he sliped his arm around her shoulders. "But it is good to see you again." He said looking down at her.
"You have no idea." Sakuya said looking up at him. "The minute that I got here, my brother already had suitors waiting for me."
"Oh?" Eshrenn asked.
"Yeah, some of them were pretty handsome, to." She said, looking up at him with a michievious smile.
"Really?" Eshrenn asked, with a hint of jealousy in his voice.
"Yeah, but they weren't as handsome as you are, though." She said, wrapping her arm around his waist.
"Well at least I know the compitition here doesn't stand a chance." He said bending down and kissing her. From behind them someone whistled loudly, and Eshrenn had a faint idea who it was. Breaking away from her, Eshrenn said, "When we're done here, we should find Enishi someone to trip over, ok?"
"Sounds like fun." Sakuya said, her blue eyes dancing with mischief again.
"May I have your attention please?" Oreata said from the stairs. When the crowd got quiet he continued. "Thank you all. In light of recent events, I have decided to make a few alterations to how I will go about my kingship
"First off, anyone who has a problem should come to see me about them. To get an appointment, I have decided that once a week, there will be an open forum for all that wish to be heard. If you have a problem and I for some reason can't see you, that day will always be open, the whole day too, not just a couple hours. Also, I wish to rid Okoku of the Sorceress' presence, so anybody wishing to help should come to see me and I will get you in touch with someone who will be sure of how your skills will be best used." He paused as the crowd let out a cheer. "Finally, anyone who wishes to try to make my sister happy, has my blessing, although it seems that she is already happy enough." And with cheers from his subjects Oreata walked back into the castle to prepare for the repurcusions of what he just did to come back at him.