Unlucky0013
Lord Zee
DracoLunaris
Frettzo
Vec
Eviledd1984
Kalmar
POOPHEAD189The Princes of Fragrance
Chapter 1: A Series of Unfortunate Events
Collab with @AdorableSaucer
“C’mon, Turmy, it’ll be great!”
“Cinna, wai--... Wait up!”
Deep in the canyons behind the town of Fragrance, gateway to the Land of Great Shade, a pair of night elven boys were hiking up the cliffside, one giddily defiant of their parents’ warnings not to fare these grounds, and the other in evermore evident disapproval of his brothers choice of daily adventure. He had arrived in his chambres in the morning, going on and on about this abandoned shadowtiger den the shroomer’s daughter told him about. He had then proposed the outrageous idea of scouting out the den, with great promises of riches in the form of ancient bones, broken fangs and bundles of old tiger hair.
“Are you crazy? Dad’ll have us watch Cayen’s goats in daytime if he catches us!” he had pleaded; prince Cinna, however, had just scoffed at his concerns.
“-If- he catches us, Turmerick. C’mon, it’s waaay far away from town; nobody’s patrolling there; and--”
“And that’s exactly the problem, Cinna - what if the den isn’t abandoned after all?”
“Well, then we better be quick, don’t we?” the older prince had replied and swung a small pouch over his shoulder as he moved towards the doorway of the room. He had stopped to turn and nod Turmerick along with his head before he had turned the corner. Turmerick had waited only a minute longer before eventually caving to peer pressure and running on after.
Now they were here - it was early evening, perhaps a little too early - the sun was still out and even squinting stinged harshly like citrus in the eyes. The cliffside they were scaling was rich in thick-trunked trees rooted firmly in the stone, growing tall as to drink up as much of the sun’s light as possible. Along the bark grew large, flat, juicy fungi known as tree ears - no wonder the shroomer’s daughter knew about this place. Some nesting birds frowned in bafflement at the two boys defying gravity’s pull as they climbed higher and higher, resting occasionally on one of the more horizontally growing wall trees. Once they had almost reached the top, they made themselves comfortable atop a tree trunk growing just underneath the clifftop itself - that way, they could wait until sunset before braving the scorching wastelands beyond the cliff edge.
Turmerick peered down and gulped. He then felt a gentle push and gasped, gripping onto the trunk with all his strength. Next to him, a loud, yet hushed cackle rang out. “Do you know how high up we are?!” Turmerick scolded. Cinna shook his head.
“What’re you, some wimp? Just try’na see if you’re cool club material.” He rested his back against the strong roots twisting into the mountain and unfurled the thread around the mouth of his sack. From inside, he extracted two leaf-wrapped packs and threw one to Turmerick. The younger brother caught it barely, nearly butter-fingering it as he brought it to his chest. He eyed his brother unpacking it to reveal a duxelle pastry. Turmerick unpacked his own to find the same. He blinked and then sighed at his brother.
“Cinna, where’d you get these?” The elder brother responded with a ‘hm?’ mid-bite before swallowing and scratching his chin.
“If I recall, they were cooling off outside of Panko’s bakery,” replied the elder brother with a skyward glance. Turmerick nearly dropped his pastry.
“You stole from baker Panko?! Again?!”
“What’s the big deal? He’s already got so many,” replied Cinna as he stuffed the last bit of pastry into his mouth.
“The ‘big deal’, Cinna, is that thieves break the Great Peace - and you’ve been caught several times before! Don’t think dad’ll cover for you think time! You’re on your last chance, and if you get caught red-handed again--”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah - I don’t need you to lecture me, too. Dad’s already being a pain in the ass about it. ‘Woo, princes of Fragrance don’t act like fools, wu-wu.’” He eyed Turmerick’s scowl with a smirk. “What, you gonna go tell dad that I’m being disobedient again? Oooh, I’m so scared.”
Turmerick bit sourly into his pastry and muttered. “Why did I even come along with you? You’re being so mean today…”
“Because you’re curious - like me! Can’t look a treasure like shadowtiger teeth in the eyes without at least getting interested.”
From the side of the tree came a tiny, yet serious voice in reply, “Stand and deliver!”
Turmerick nearly jumped off the tree while Cinna raised a curious eyebrow.
Turning around, they saw absolutely nothing, not until their eyes slowly drifted down. Standing on a gnarled root was a small figure no bigger than a rather large man’s thumb. She had tiny fierce eyes that seemed to narrow on the weapon she was pointing at the pair: a long and thin shard of metal. Her stance was well practiced and the fancy-plumed hat she wore alongside battle-scuffed yet decorative clothes only whispered that she had been successful in this many times over.
“N’aaw, look, Turmey - it’s a thumbling! Those are pretty rare around here.” Turmerick, meanwhile, was clambering to the trunk as though he was about to fall off, all while dragging himself closer to the wall-side of the trunk. Cinna snickered and gave the thumbling a wave. “Hi there, Thumby - out stealing gold dust and mushroom bits?”
“Playing wise, huh?” The Thumbling didn’t sound amused. Giving her sword a few swipes in the air, the Thumbling pointed it again at the two, “I’ll give you two a second chance, considering your nativity and ignorance. You see, I am Golden Gale of the Fennel Glen, no doubt you have heard of me.” She made motion at the bright yellow feather in her hat, a creamy color that seemed to match her long wavy locks. “Now put down the baked goods and take a few steps down this cliffside.”
Cinna and Turmerick switched places so that the younger was huddled up against the cliffside wall and Cinna was sitting firmly before the thumbling on the horizontal tree trunk, a smirk plastered across his face. “You know I could just swat you off this trunk and you’d fall, oh, I don’t know…” He peeked over the side to prove his point. “... I’d say about fifteen feet all in all. Must be tough on such a small body.”
“You better be accurate with your maths, son,” Gale took a step forward, “Because you might wanna figure how many of those feet your bones can take when you get flung off.” She dropped the point of her sword to the ground, “But I’m sporting, as much as a lady such as myself can be, I’ll give you the first shot.”
“Pfft, alright - someone’s got a death wish.” With that, Cinna extended his right arm outwards and brought it down to swat Gale off the trunk and into the abyss below. With feather feet, the thumbling juked out of the way, a flash of metal obscuring her face as she took a slice at the hand. The cut drew blood, leaving a small rift in Cinna’s palm. He retracted it with an ‘argh!’ and glared down at the thumbling, all remains of the smugness drowned in a lava of rage. “Oh, you’ve done it now.” He sent both hands down on her in a pincer attack, palms presented to clap her like some mosquito.
As if expecting the motion -- one a thumbing typically runs into -- Gale hopped forward, landing on Cinna’s left forearm. Then with careful yet quick agility, the little bandit ran up his arm and with a leap, planted a boot off the tip of his nose before clinging to his ear. Cinna waved his arms wildly around his head, and he would have fallen off the trunk had Turmerick not been there to stabilise him from behind. Cinna tried to bring his palm down to slap Gale off of his ear, but only ended up slapping his own cheek.
Gale let out a patronizing chortle and tapped Cinna’s defeated face with the flat of her blade, “Give up, hero?”
“You kidding me? You’re just a,” he slapped at her again, hitting his temple this time, “a tiny-- fly! -- with no right to strike a,” another failed slap, “a prince!”
“Cinna, maybe this time--”
“Shut up, Turmey!”
“Buzz bu-- wait a prince!?” A sudden seriousness came over Gale and her sword point hovered directly over Cinna’s pupil threateningly, “Don’t move, if you favor your vision. You never told me you were a prince.”
“By Tekret, I am!” confirmed the boy as though it was a truth of the universe. “Prince Cinna, son of King Safron! And will immediately stop your incessant nagging and cutting!” Behind him, Turmerick was drowning his face in his palm.
“Change of plans, Princy-poo. This robbery just turned into a kidnapping,” Gale ordered, “Don’t suppose you’d tie yourself up, eh?”
“What? Why, I will never… No! Turmey, help me out here!” Turmerick sighed, turned around and climbed over the ledge to arise to the top of the cliff. Cinna turned his head to the degree Gale allowed him to. “Turmerick?” Then, after a minute or so, he came back with a long bone, with which he tried to poke Gale off of Cinna’s head, hitting Cinna nine times out of ten. “H-hey! Turme-- ow! What in the gods’ names are you doing?!”
“Trying to get her off you, dumb-dumb!”
“Boys, boys!” Gale appeared on top of Cinna’s head, “Don’t you think this is getting a little ridiculous? Don’t let your pride be your better -- you’ve been bested. But fret not, you are but one of many to fall under my whims.” She pointed her blade downward, “Now Turmey you seem like the helpful type, yeah?”
“I like to think I am,” Turmerick responded and stopped wagging the bone as wildly.
“Don’t listen to her words, brother - be strong, be smart!” barked Cinna back, though he still couldn’t turn around properly out of fear of Gale dropping down to poke one of his eyes out.
“And strong and smart Turmey is for taking the advice of good old Golden Gale, yeah?” Gale gave what she thought was a pleasant smile -- but came across as more the gnash of a lioness that crinkled her eyes into that of a snakes’. “Now I want this entire scenario over and done with, don’t you? It’s bothersome and tiring and we only have so much time before it’s just plain dragged out, so I propose a sort of truce. Would you like to hear my truce, Turmey?”
After consulting the incessant yapping of his elder brother, Turmerick disregarded it all and nodded for the thumbling to continue.
“Right, this is rather easy and harmless, so this is really your best option.” Gale pointed her sword up at the cliffedge, “Now over this little lip is an old den, you’re going to march your older brother into the den and once you get there -- just wait a little! That’s it, a little walk, a little wait -- I’ll take care of the rest.” Swinging low, Gale pointed her blade back at Cinna’s eye, “Now whatcha think of that, Turmey? You two can leave right after, even.”
“Don’t listen to her, Turmerick! This-... This is a hostage situation! We are being--!”
“Cinna, shut up for just one second!” Turmerick whispered so loudly it was almost said, and he looked at Gale with a stern frown. “Alright, Gale… If you let my brother go, we’ll do as you say.”
“You coward! You absolute, maggot-like puss--!”
"Of course, once you two hop on over to that den," Gale nodded, "Until then..." Her grip tightened around her sword, "Let's get a move on, yeah?"
The three of them ascended onto the cliff ledge, Cinna scornfully accepting Turmerick’s help to get to the top before pushing him aside and thundering in the direction of the den. Turmerick followed after - it was moonrise by now, and twilight flared powerfully in the west as the sun set on another day. The darkness overtook the desert wastelands that made up the cliffs and wastes above the canyons, and the hot sand was quick to lose its heat. Thankfully, the abandoned den was up ahead - a black tunnel underneath a heap of stable stone plates. Cinna and Turmerick entered with the thumbling at their backs.
“Okay… So what now, then, ‘captor’” Cinna asked mockingly. His mocking words were met with a swift boot to the cheekbone.
"Now you press your noses against the stone wall over there," Gale nodded in the direction of the far side of the den. . The boys did as they were told, Cinna muttering furiously all the way.
“Now what?” asked Turmerick carefully.
Gale hopped off Cinna's head with a 'hup.' Her boots landed softly on the stone floor. "Put your hands behin- oh... What is..!? Uh oh."
“What now?” Cinna croaked angrily before Turmerick slapped his palm over his mouth. There had been a growl, and it hadn’t been Cinna. Their eyes saw nothing, but their ears clearly picked up approaching clicks as hard claws contacted stony ground. Before long, a pair of pearl-white, glowing eyes fixed on the three of them, complemented by a jawful of fangs and teeth that shone in the dim moonlight pouring into the cave mouth. There was no mistake. The tiger’s den wasn’t abandoned.
“Cinna, you said there was nothing here,” whispered Turmerick as he tried to make as few moves as possible. The shadowtiger’s enormous paws broke the moonlight - it was less than ten metres away from them.
“Well, I was going off of what the shroomer’s--”
“Duly noted! Gale, do we run?!”
Gale pointed her sword up at the tiger, "Go slowly... Go slowly.. Back away... Behind me..." With each command she slowly put herself between the two parties, her own footsteps backing up very carefully, "Don't run unless she pounces..." The boys followed suit, and the tiger played along, stalking on after as if it thought they hadn’t seen it. However, as they exited the cave, Turmerick tripped over a small ledge and fell backwards. The tiger pounced and the boy screamed. However, just before the tiger made contact, Turmerick was pulled out of the way by his brother, who sprinted around the corner of the cave, down towards the trees by the cliff edge. The shadowtiger’s momentum caused it to veer off course slightly, buying them some time.
Gale hopped onto Cinna's pant leg, gripping it tightly, "RUN! RUN! RUN!" The three of them quickly began climbing down the cliffside, ignoring the need for safety as the shadowtiger jumped down after them. As it almost bit into Turmerick’s neck, the boy lost his grip, falling all of two and a half metres onto the hard soil below with a resounding crack, followed by a howl.
“My leg!” he screamed as Cinna came to collect him. The shadowtiger grew careful on the lower tree trunks on account of their lacking girth, which luckily bought them some time to carry the wounded Turmerick towards the town. They were so close, but they knew it was far from over - the squealing had attracted the attention of the guards, who were approaching as a pair.
“Prince Cinna, prince Turmerick?! What are you doing out this early?!” asked one of them sternly.
“Tiger!” was all the response they received as the trio were followed by tiger, which proceeded to pounce over the children and onto one of the guards, biting his head asunder in a single bite. The other guard was so frightened that he tripped on his late colleague’s limp arm and slammed into the ground with a loud ‘oof!’ The tiger saw this and pinned him to the ground with a heavy paw. Cinna ran on with his arm under Turmericks, who was close to passing out from the pain. The two guards were left behind, the living one screaming and hollering for help so the whole town heard it and came.
"You should have grabbed the spear, you coward!" Gale chastised from her grip on Cinna. She was about to say more but a small leap in Cinna's sprint caused her to hit her belly against his hip with a poof of air. As the trio broke through the small backdoor the so generously named the ‘Back Gate’, they were surrounded by their kinsmen, all in various stages of fright and disbelief and what was going on outside the gates. Whispers zoomed between faces like bees between blooms - the majority of them were questioning the state of the princes and why they had come from the direction they had.
It didn’t take long for the crowd to split up upon the arrival of the king, a tall, powerful male the boys both knew as King Safron, their father. Behind him followed more hunters who all exited the gate to slay the tiger, as well as the town druid, Laurel. Turmerick was immediately brought over to the druid, who proceeded to examine the broken leg, while the crowd formed an impenetrable wall around Cinna, King Safron and, unbeknownst to the majority of them, Gale. The king scowled at the gates, from which the dying growl of the tiger could be heard, but only as a supplement to numerous other agonising cries.
“This is the last straw, Cinna…”
Cinna looked down, trying not to meet anyone’s eyes. In an attempt at defiance, he turned his head upwards to glare at his father, but found his scowl impossible to match. He placed himself instead as defensively as he could and spoke, “We thought it was abandoned… Look, Flower said--”
“I care not for what has been said,” snarled King Safron back, “only what has been done.” The gate creaked open again and the hunters, of which there had been seven, returned as six, two of them wounded and one of them, joining the two guards’ corpses. “... And I cannot believe that which I am seeing. The actions… Of my own son…”
“Wait!” shouted Cinna suddenly, causing many to cover their ears. King Safron glared down and raised a hand to discipline the boy for another transgression, but Cinna held up Gale by the neck of her shirt, saying, “It was all her! This thumbling tricked me and my brother into following her to the cave!” The crowd exchanged glances.
"OH I SEE," Gale's voice was spiked with hurt, "Blame it all on the small creature of the wood." She plucked her hat from her head and held it close to her chest as she dangled, "I am but a Thumbling." Her eyes rounded at the king, and the king scowled back.
“A thumbling… You were tricked to walk into a shadowtiger’s lair… By a thumbling?” Cinna shrunk together and the king rolled his eyes.
"Worse yet," Gale croaked, her voice suddenly taken by a strange illness, "These lads found me in the forest, starved. Upon remembering the hospitality and care the Elves of the caves are known for handing out in respects to nature -- I approached for food, only to end up’n here. Starved, scared, and chased by a tiger." She patted her stomach, "Still empty, my king. By Saint Adrian, still empty."
The king snarled and turned his back to Cinna. “I have heard enough.”
“D-dad, she’s lying!” Cinna defended, but was silenced by the ever-judging glares of the king and crowd.
“Laurel, what is the punishment for manslaughter by the laws of the town of Fragrance?”
The druid, having taken care of Turmerick, approached through the crowd again, her white linen cloak shining in the early moonlight. With a regretful sigh, she tapped her twig staff, plucked from the Omnibloom’s tree, to the stone floor. “Prince Cinna may have been tricked by a thumbling - who speaks the truth may never be known except by the Gods; however, it is no denying that lives have been lost, and as we all know, the young prince is far from a sinless child.”
“Y-you can’t do this! Dad!” But the king ignored Cinna’s plea, and the boy looked back to the druid’s moonshadowed face.
“Three lives was the cost of your games, prince Cinna, and the Great Peace was broken for tenfolds more as a result of your actions. The combined punishment for these transgressions per the rules of Fragrance is… Lifelong exile.”
Cinna collapsed to his knees. With tearful eyes, he looked up at King Safron and pleaded, “Dad! Dad, please, don’t let them do this to me!”
The king shot him a sideways scowl. “You have no right to call me ‘dad’ anymore, for I have no son named Cinna.” With that, the king walked away, the druid and the crowd following him. Desperately, Cinna dangled Gale in the air before him.
“But, but what about the thumbling?! She tricked me!”
“I care not whether you lie or she does - if you are so desperate for a companion as you face the Sun Wastes, take her with you. Consider that my final mercy as your father, -Cinna-.” The night elves all returned to their duties further into town. Prince Turmerick was carried off by the druid’s apprentices back to the king’s hut. Cinna and Gale were left alone. The boy glared down at the thumbling in his hands.
“You…”
"...should have given me that baked good, now shouldn't have you?" Gale plopped her hat back in her head and crossed her arms, "Can't blame me for this one. Three people are dead." She drummed her fingers against her arms. "And now look... Neither of us have anything."hing.”
“... This… This is -all- your fault! If you hadn’t shown up, and, and, and thrown us off focus - captured us, even!-, then the tiger wouldn’t have been alerted!” He brought his other hand closer, ready with a claw-like grip. “I could crush your skull like I squash a grape - right now.”
"Then you'd be alone," Gale suggested, "And you really would be a murderer then."
“No one would give a damn if I snapped a thumbling’s little neck… I don’t need you - or anyone! They obviously don’t need me, after all.”
"Hey, thanks for reminding me." Gale wiggled out of his grasp and ontop of his hand, "So long, then?"
“H-hey! No, you’re not walking away from -me-!” Cinna snarled and tried to grab her again.
Gale slipped up his arm, "Well you seemed so eager to be rid of lil’ ol’ me just a second ago!"
“Yes, -I- get last say,” the former prince exclaimed, but a grumpy expression coated his face. “... Do you… Do you know what mushrooms are edible?”
"Sure do, but I also know a spoiled brat when I see one," Gale paced on his shoulders, gnawing on her knuckle in thought.
“Choose your words carefully, speckling! You are speaking to a prince!”
"Not anymore I don't," Gale replied and flicked his neck, "I speak to the lowest of the low. Say you know what? I'm feeling a little charitable." She snapped her fingers, "How would you like a job?"
“Lowest of the--... A peasant offers me a job? What kind?” The pair had now long since been escorted out of town by a new set of guards. Cinna had been almost dreadfully still in his resistance.
"Does it matter?" Gale offered, "You'll be hungry in a few hours and this job comes with a meal."
Cinna considered this for a moment. Finally, he spat his response: “What must I do?”
"You'll see." Gale sat on his shoulder, "Go back to where we first met.. I'll lead you from there."
