Dude gets Isekai'd into the body of The Storm King before he began his conquest.
It's simple really.
I get Isekai'd into the body of magical Genghis Khan moments before he begins his conquest for world domination.
Universe, Say hello to the new and improved STORM KING!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough cough* ow... my throat...
Warning: This story contains anthropomorphic animal people, an evil king building an evil empire, the power of friendship, not so evil plans for world domination, boring magic rainbow sunshine world politics, and a protagonist who really doesn't want to die.
Enjoy ;)
PS- This story is being cross-posted over from my Wattpad to here, so the editing might be crappy :/
The Storm King isn't a King who rules a Storm. The Storm King is a king who is a Storm.
He is a living, breathing, natural disaster.
He commands a fleet of ships that will terrorize the entire world until all is beneath his boot!
Or at least that is what was suppose to happen.
As it turns out, I, a nameless person from real life planet earth am currently inhabiting the body of The Storm King before he starts his campaign.
That's a big problem, Not only does that mean that I will never see my family and friends ever again, It also mean that I am currently a megalomaniac tyrant who is going become magic Genghis Khan.
an even bigger problem than that is that by looking through his memories I can immediately see that this world runs on cartoon logic, where every week an episode comes out, teaching children about friendship and responsibility and life lessons like that.
Being a bad guy can never work! The Care bears or whatever will use the power of love or someshit to destroy me!
This is absolutely terrible!
Even worse is that in five minutes I need to give a speech to my army about why we are going to war in the first place!
I can't just tell these people that we are going to go to war so I can rule the world! That's insane! nobody would take me seriously!
"Hello, I am The Storm King and I am your ruler," The crowd in front of me cheers, this is already going terrible, "I am here to give you a speech about why we are going to war," looking down at the papers I prepared for my speech that simply read 'Improvise', I look back up the crowd, And without looking, shred the papers into bits.
Why is the crown cheering even louder!? You're not supposed to cheer for this! I haven't even given you a reason to cheer!
"We are going to war," Dramatic silence, that's good, "Because I want to." WHY IS EVERYBODY CHEERING!?! STOP SUPPORTING ME!!!
"We are going to war, Because we can!" I think I understand why they're cheering, they just like me because I am the leader. No wonder The original Storm King called everyone his minion, they wont question a word he says.
"WE ARE GOING TO WAR, BECAUSE WE FEEL LIKE IT!" I roared out to the crowd!
The crowed roared in excitement.
"WE ARE GOING TO WAR BECAUSE WE HAVE A FLEET AND WE NEED A REASON TO USE THEM!"
The crown roared even louder.
"WE ARE GOING TO WAR BECAUSE WE ARE A STORM!" Is this what an Adrenaline junky feels when he does stunts? This is amazing! If i ever get back, I should go into politics, simply so people will cheer for me.
"AND A STORM DOESN'T SIT STILL! OUR NEIGHBORS WILL HATE US! OUR ENEMIES WILL HATE US! EVERYONE WILL HATE US! SIMPLY BECAUSE WE WON AGAINST THEM!"
Cheers, Cheers, Woohoo and such.
"SO COME WITH ME! FIRST STOP-" As the cheering grew louder I look back at the original storm kings plan of world domination- "THE CAT KINGDOM OF ABYSSINIA!"
as the cheering grew louder, I thought to myself, "Wow, Being a king is easy"
I need to feed my citizens, keep them alive, and also protect myself from assassins and hit-men.
Luckily for me, The Original storm king knew how to fight.
So in the hours after my slightly manic speech, If you can even call it a speech, I tried getting more comfortable in my new body.
Being a weird Goat/Baboon/Satyr creature makes it really hard to walk, I mean, Have you seen my knees?
Anyway, while I was kicking my legs, trying to mimic a Kung-Fu kick, I was interrupted by what can only be described as a sentient cloud.
"Your Majesty, Wonderful job on the speech you gave to the soldiers today. It really Motivated their decision to join you. Truly, There is no king you couldn't defeat with just your tongue." The cloud said as he entered the room backstage, Looking back to the storm king memories to find his identity.
Strife, The kings right hand man/creature/cloud/thing.
The cloud who has watched the King use all of the gold in the royal treasury to build an army, a fleet of airships, built with anti-magic-metal hulls, and anti-magic-metal shields and chest-plates for all the soldiers.
Basically there is no Storm Kingdom anymore, because this cloud didn't do his job and stop the king from wasting all the money.
World domination was the original plan, but now without any money in the treasury, I don't have any other choice.
I need money and the original Storm king spent it all.
I can at-least try and act like a villain character, Hopefully I will be good enough for the universe to not see me as a one-off bad guy who'll get kicked out of the show after one arc. I need to be a recurring character in this pastel rainbow world of friendship.
I really don't want to die.
I'm going to have to be a Robotnik instead of a Mephiles.
"So your Majesty, what is your plan to take over Abyssinia?" Strife asked me as we walked down a hallway in the Storm Castle, or whats left of it after "I" sold everything.
Looking at the size of the castle can really tell you how it looked like back in its prime.
"I plan to take it slow, There are several small tribes and communities between us and the cats. I'm looking forward to see their worth." I tell strife, Trying to act like how a villain would.
Those Drama classes back in highschool are really kicking in right now.
"Their worth? Please explain my king, I do not think I understand" Wow he sound like a bad guy, It's like Count Dooku turned into a talking cloud.
"I wish to see if I should assimilate them into my new Empire, or destroy them. Who knows," A fanged smile spreads on my face "They might be useful." And cut! that was a perfect act if I do say so myself, really brought out the Conquering tyrant feel.
"You wish to have them join you?" Strife asked me.
"Why of course, I might have an army, but I can't feed them all by myself. We don't have any farmers, they probably do. All we need to do is show them why joining the Storm Empire will be beneficial to them."
"So you want the agriculture they can give us?"
"Precisely."
"And If they refuse to join you?" Strife stops and looks at me.
Stopping in front of a giant set of doors, leading into the throne room, I turn back to strife "I already told you, They either join us, or they'll get destroyed. I have an army strife, I'm at least going to use it before we reach the cats."
Ignoring his response I enter the mostly empty throne room, and walk towards the Storm Throne, My throne.
"I want this on my flagship, Make sure it's on my flagship before we depart." I tell strife and exit the room.
Leaving Strife with the job of getting someone to carry my throne to my ship.
With everything ready for the departure of the Storm Fleet trademark pending, I spend some of the time remaining searching the royal library for information about this new world that the Storm King didn't care to remember.
The kingdom of Abyssinia is ruled by bipedal cat people, The Largest and strongest nation is Equestria, ruled by Ponies. Unicorns and Pegasi with short statures. Ruled by the princess of Day, Recently joined and Co-Ruled by the princess of night.
Both rulers are what's called an Alicorn, a "pony" with a Unicorn horn, Pegasus wings and the strength of an "earth pony" which is just a regular pony.
Unicorn are some of the few Species in this world which can use magic. Other common magical races being Dragons and Deer.
Luckily, the Cats in Abyssinia and the most of species living in the tribes on the way there don't have magic powers.
Magical artifacts on the other hand...
Almost Every creature can use artifacts.
And I will get an Artifact before I reach Abyssinia.
At least so my soldiers will know an extent of my "Ambition".
Need to keep the Charade up somehow.
"Sire, are you ready to depart?" Strife asks me as I stand on the deck of the largest airship in the fleet. The coloring really painting the picture of an evil conqueror with all the dark blues and grays.
"In just a moment Strife, I would like to send a message to the other ships first." Strife nods his head, if you can call lifting your head up and down as nodding, and follows me to a communications hub in the airship.
The walls decorated with screens of Crystal, connected by magic engineering to other screens of its kind, like a computer screen for Skype calls.
Sitting down in a chair in the middle of the screen filled room, I pick up a Microphone.
"Test test, Hello is this thing working? Yes? Good. People of the Storm Kingdom this is your King speaking," As I speak into the Microphone, all around the fleet, in ships of all shapes and sizes, Storm Creatures look to the radio speakers.
"In ten minutes we will be departing towards the Cat kingdom of Abyssinia, we will be making several stops along the way. If any of you have changed their mind on joining me, you may leave the airship and go home, Nobody will blame you." waiting a few seconds I continue, "However, those of you who stayed will see glory, you will see sights of wonder and sights of carnage, You will Commit acts that will make you a hero and acts that will make you a villain. People will love you and people will hate you, They will look up to you and they will fear you."
As some soldiers along the fleet start murmuring I continue, "But! Do you care what others will think about you?! NO! For we are The Storm, the living Natural Disaster! We will destroy, pillage and conquer until everything is ours!-
-Do we really need those who deny us our ambition?! No! We will trample them under the collective might of our Army! If they join us, Then all good, We will welcome all creatures into the Storm. But should they deny us, We will show them why a natural disaster can't be stopped!-
-We will thrive! We will survive this endeavor and most importantly! WE WILL WIN!"
Turning off the radio broadcast I tell the crew operating my ship to get ready.
"Wow, making speeches is tiring, Did that sound alright? Was that evil enough? Do I need to tone it down a bit or add more evil to it? I really don't know. Who knew being a cartoon villain can be so hard?"
Practicing Evil monologues halfway across the ocean
In the hull of an airship, surrounded by screens of crystal, The Storm King is pacing around.
There is nothing much to do except train in secret to get into fighting shape and practice his acting skills.
You need to sound evil to sell the idea that you are evil.
And with nothing but Ocean around him, with the closest piece of land being the Storm Island hours away.
"Behold, I, The Storm King, am your new king, no, your Emperor... No no no, That sounds way too pretentious. Maybe, It should be more casual? Hello, People of Abyssinia, I am The Storm King and as of the moment I entered your borders, I am your new king... Yeah, Casual is better, It's as if I don't care about their suffering while still seeming relatable to the younger demographic, Making a revolt less likely."
Yes.
A Casual evil monologue.
"I am The Storm King, A king who is a storm, And I am now your king. Everything under the clouds is mine, Everything above the clouds is mine. Everything touching the ground is mine. Everything under water is mine. The world is mine!" That wasn't very casual, But I really liked that. The Tyrant that rules over both heaven and earth!
Yes, The world is going to be mine, In accordance with the OSK (Original Storm King) Plan of world domination.
The OSK's plan is also very basic. Build an army, Attack a kingdom, Steal all the treasure, Move on the next kingdom until all kingdoms in the world are his, While his officers run the governments of the kingdoms he took over, creating a steady income of supplies and resources to continue his conquest around the world.
With the only real weapon to deal with magical opponents on hand being a machine he dug up ruins he found in the outskirts of the Storm Island.
The Magical Machine creates magic grenades that transforms objects and creatures in it's vicinity into crystal statues.
It's basically a crystallization grenade.
I do a spinning wheel kick.
"Sire, We are reaching land in a days time, we shall arrive by the morning after the next" Strife informs me as I am having dinner.
Say what you want about Airship food, Being a king has its perks. This Steak is delicious.
"Strife, Tell inform the other ships that once we land, I want a detailed list of all the resources on the ships, From what they had at the starts of the flight, to what they hold now." I tell the cloud, Trying my best to sound powerful and intelligent.
Being a king, no matter how privileged it may seem to an outsider perspective, will not be an easy job for me.
I need to lead the remnants of a nation with declining birth rates, subpar education and no neighboring countries to make deals with.
The Only way off of Storm Island is through a several day flight over the stormy ocean, A distance that by earth standards, is equivalent to flying from Australia to New Zealand. It's not a particularly long flight by modern standards, only a few hours.
But with the technology of this world, it is closer to sailing on a sixteenth century flagship.
Sure it can fly and thus saves the troubles of fighting the ocean currents, But it's not as fast as a plane.
And With the meager food supplies that my army holds, We will need to, Excuse my language for a bit here, Liberate a town for the purpose of producing rations.
The world I find myself in confusing in it's build. The richest and arguably most powerful nation Is closed off from the outside world, The Only news coming in and out is from the few groups brave enough to go there.
Not because the conditions are terrible, no no no. It's because Ponies, Are inherently close minded individuals. After years of being coddled by an almost immortal princess, learning about the monster in the forest that eats children, Or the big bad Dog person that stalks the streets at night.
They might not say it, They might even disagree with it.
But they are a nation of children and snowflakes.
When you can change the weather on a whim, you don't need to learn to survive a drought or a storm. When something breaks or you get inured, You can get a Unicorn to magic away the injury. When your people are starving, you can just magic up a tree that grows all kinds of fruit to feed them.
They are a terrifyingly powerful species with incredible magical talent.
They are also a species of close minded cowards who still think that a creature walking on the ground or holding stuff with hands or paws or claws is below them.
Why walk on the ground when you can fly through the air? Why climb a ladder to get to the top shelf if you can levitate the shelf to you? Why even try and improve anything when your life is as good as it can possibly be?
What is the purpose of Ambition?
And that mindset, combined with their magical power, is why they are undoubtedly both the strongest and weakest nation in the world.
And when the time comes for me to conquer Equestria, It might prove to be both my hardest and easiest battle.
A Villain without an ambition is nothing but a criminal.
Sauron's ambition pushed him into forging the one ring and wage war on middle earth.
Palpatine's ambitions had him slowly but surely take control over all the planets in the galaxy over the course of several decades until he ruled them all as emperor.
The Jokers ambition was to break something that seemed unbreakable, show that all it takes to ruin somebody is one bad day.
Madara's ambition and search for peace brought him to enslaving all living things under the eternal Tsukuyomi.
Light Yagami's ambition was similar to Madara. Achieve justice by killing criminals, which in itself slowly corrupted him from Justice, to Godhood.
Large Ambitions are powerful.
Grand Ambitions are villainous.
Grand Ambitions are something that I need in order to leave a mark on the history of this world, to be remembered for millennia to come.
Julius Caesar is remembered for being a military genius and turning the Roman Republic into and Empire.
Alexander the great is remembered for his military campaign taking him and his army where no army has ever reached in his time.
Genghis Khan controlled most of the continent of Asia, Turning Mongolia from a simple country of shepherds and farmers into a powerful empire whose reach can still be felt in the modern day.
All of these people, all of them are ancient human conquerors that are remembered and revered by historians thousands of years into the future.
The Ambition of The Storm King was grand but also simple.
Take over the world by use of overwhelming military might.
And my fleet is already beginning to act on those ambitions, But those aren't my ambitions.
The OSK was a fool, He didn't know how to be a king, He wanted money and power and fame and he didn't care how many creatures died for him to get that.
That will make him plenty of enemies.
I Have a plan to make less enemies.
I will make the other kingdoms willingly submit.
You join the new Storm Empire peacefully or you join it by force.
In an hours time my fleet will be landing on the continent of Afcari, On it there are three kingdoms that I will conquer and hundreds of independent villages.
The three kingdoms of this magical African continent are in three separate regions.
Abyssinia of the cats in the desert.
Farasi of the Zebras in the Savannah.
And Hippogrifia of the Hippogriffs on mount Arise, an Island off the coast of the continent.
Those are the three main objectives that we have in this continent.
After we take these three, We shall move on to the next.
But Before we begin, we will need the support of the independent villages, The different creatures that live here could support the OSK research into magic and artifacts.
There are Hippos, Elephants and even a fairly notable community of Okapi, who can use certain types of magic.
When we land, The nearest Village that I can see from my airship seems to be of Hedgehogs.
They will join my ranks, If they like it or not...
...
...Did that sound menacing enough?
I really hope it did.
An Ambition to take over the world might be fairly easy in a cartoonishly simple world as this, But I'm no military genius, No matter how much I can try and imitate and act like one.
I never even read the art of war.
I only held a gun once in my life, When my grandfather took me to shoot at tin cans with a Remington sport rifle.
All my personal knowledge on how to fight is from a few lessons of Krav-Maga and practicing OSK's techniques in secret when I'm alone in the communication room of the ship.
All those screen on the wall remind me of earth, and it's also quit and nice.
And I'm telling you, Making sure that thousands of soldiers over hundreds of ships are all accounted for after four days over the ocean is a stressful task.
Luckily everything is still here and nobody is missing.
After I made sure of that, I had everybody split into groups.
One Large group made of my army, active soldiers and combatants. The main Army itself.
One smaller group made of officers from before the OSK started the war effort and Storm Creatures that can read and write. My future government agents.
One group was comprised of scholars and researchers, Those who have a higher education than most and are curious to the mysteries and knowledge this world can provide. My Future Teachers and Scientists.
And a final group for cooks, builders and medics. Those that make sure that everyone and everything else can stay alive and well. Be it a Soldier or an Airship. The Backbone of the Army.
After Giving each group a set of jobs to do until we next lift off, such as start making food and setting up a Small base of operations.
The Plan here is to leave a Ship with a few members of every group at several bases we will be building, Those bases will be in charge of the villages in the Area which will be recruited into the Storm Kingdom, and will report any progress to me.
These groups will make sure the influence of the Storm Kingdom is felt around the continent.
Right Now, While the first Base of Operations, For now named Kings Landing, Is being built. Strife and I have taken a small squad comprised of members fromeach group to the nearest Village.
As we walk in the direction of the village, I start small talk with my people.
"You, Researcher, What is your name?" I ask a meek looking Storm Creature, He carries with him a cloth bag with a Pen, Ink and paper.
"Oh, M-m-my name is Gary your highnes-" I quickly cut him off, "Your Majesty."
"Oh, e-excuse me your Majesty, I didn't mean to o-o-offend you in any w-way, I I I promise!" Gary cries out and bows his head quickly, pulling the attention of the rest of the group to him.
I Bend my back so that my height is only slightly above Gary, "Gary, I know you didn't mean to offend me," I place a calming hand on his shoulder, He looks up at me, his eyes glimmering with admiration.
I squeeze my hand on his shoulder and as I see Gary squirming uncomfortably under my hand, I continue with a calm tone of voice, "It's just that, Your Highness is addressed to Princes and Princesses. And I am not a prince, am I?" I squeeze slightly harder.
"O-Of course not Your Majesty, Y-your are not a prince at a-all, You are a KING!" He yelled out that last part as He felt my fingernails dig into his shoulder.
I let go of him. The Message has been sent. I might be approachable and nice to my subjects, But I am still a king.
And I shall be addressed as such.
Now what just happened is called a character moment, What I just did was seem nice to the small group that I brought with me. I might be a conqueror king to them, But I am just as approachable as any Tom, Dick or Harry. And while Gary felt the approachable aspect of the character, As I started Small talk under the guise of being curious as to what my subjects are doing, I also reminded him that I am a king.
I might be nice, I might be friendly, You might feel like you can have a drink with me, But I am still your king.
I am not a Highness I am a Majesty.
And they better remember that.
Word of this will spread as rumors to the others back at camp, Likely by the guards I brought with me talking about this with their friends, about how the king was kind enough to remember a lowly subjects name, Or other such tripe.
The Rest of the walk happened in silence.
As we walk into the village, I see that All the people living here are hiding, If the white and brown quills peeking behind doors and windows is anything to go by.
Everybody is hiding, Everybody but one Hedgehog in the middle of the road, Directly in front of me.
"I see the Hyena sent another collector, Well guess what! We have nothing left to give you, Leave us alone! Haven't you taken enough from us?" The Hedgehog is brown with dark Garnet quills on her back. Her eyes a deep Emerald green. She seems to stand on two stubby back legs, pointing to the hedgehogs being a Bipedal species.
She wears what seems to be a belt around her waist, Likely to distinguish herself from the other Hedgehogs in town.
"I Think we have a misunderstanding here-" I start as I approach the Hedgehog. "We are not with this 'Hyena' Person you speak of. May you please introduce yourself to me?" I stop three meters in front of her. If this Village was built in the desert and if it was the middle of the day, I'm sure a tumbleweed would pass through the town before we both pulled out a sixshooter and dueled.
"And why the hell should I introduce myself to you huh? And how do I know you really aren't with Hyena?!" She points at me and crouches into a position ready to fight. I bring my hand toward a nearby Storm Creature carrying a bag and they pass me a small parchment.
I really need a better name to call them than just Storm Creature, Anyway.
"I am not with Hyena for the simple reason of that I do not know who they are. And the reason you should introduce yourself is because I am a King" I pull my hand back and throw the piece of Parchment into the air.
Thankfully, Following the rules of cartoon logic, The Rule of Cool kicks in, and as the Parchment is slowly floating down, a small gust of wind comes in and pushes it towards the Hedgehog.
She grabs the parchment and reads whats on it.
"The Storm King wants YOU to join the Empire! By Joining the empire you shall be granted protection and citizenship. You will be able to have many jobs and opportunities for your future. Join The Empire Today! Head to your nearest Storm Base for more information" Is what was written.
Exactly! This is a recruitment ad for The Empire™, By Passing these Parchment around, We will have people willingly join my growing Empire.
We will send these to all the villages we come across.
"You, You're an actual King?" The now flabbergasted Hedgehog looks at me with wide eyes.
Before I can answer, She bows her body and begs, "Please! Please Save us from The Hyena, We will join your empire! We will do anything! But please, Please Help us!" She starts crying.
And as she cries I hear Murmurs coming from the buildings around me.
"Is he really a king" "Are we safe now?" "Is something good finally happening?" "Will Mommy be coming back?" "An actual King..." And so much more.
I look back at Strife and he looks back at me with his eyes darting around at all the hedgehogs exiting their homes.
It seems we have found ourselves in a very interesting situation...
The Hedgehog that confronted me at the village is a woman named Cheryl.
According to Cheryl several Hedgehogs have been taken by a bandit leader nicknamed The Hyena who has been terrorizing the nearby villages for several months now.
By Kidnapping people from the nearby town, The Hyena can use them as hostages to demand money and food from the villages in exchange for not hurting their loved ones.
"So can you really get rid of The Hyena?" Cheryl asks, "As the chief in command of this village, I swear that the village will join your Empire if you save our people."
According to Cheryl, The Hyena sends goons to collect "Taxes" Once a week. The goons should arrive on schedule two days from now.
The current plan is to place a group of Storm Guards in this village, While the goons come to collect payment from the villagers, The guards in wait will capture them for interrogation.
We should be fine to wait for a few more days, You can't just build a Storm Base in a day.
While waiting for the days to pass, I had the Soldiers train in their combat formations. Just because your not fighting now, doesn't mean your allowed to be rusty.
While waiting, I also sent more groups to other nearby villages. One village of hedgehogs has swore themselves immediately when they learned that I plan to liberate them from The Hyena. While a village of Bipedal Turtles decided to join for the job benefits.
Currently a Turtle named Hank is working on a research on the affects of Magic plants on the soil they grow in.
After a nice discussion with the middle aged turtle, I learned that the Turtle species is long lived and has minor, soil related, magical abilities.
Hank is forty years old, which according to him is considered young in Turtle Society. The Human equivalent to a college student, or early twenties. The Magical Abilities of turtles also allow them to soften and enrich the ground, even changing the mineral composition in the soil in some cases.
Once that Village joined, I immediately had all unemployed citizens above the age of 19 make farms for crops. I paid them obviously, And they gladly started. Some for the money, while others were sent by the older members of the village so they could start actually doing something.
The Unemployment rate in turtle society is fairly high apparently.
While having a conversation with Strife about how the construction of the Storm Base of Kings Landing is going, I got a messenger from the group of Guards I deployed at the Hedgehog village.
Two people, A Dog and a Hyena entered the village and were apprehended by the new guards in place after being recognized as the goons sent by The Hyena in order to collect "Taxes"
After Taking a smaller airship towards the village in order to quicken the journey, I landed and met up with the group stationed there.
"Your Majesty, We have Apprehended the criminals sent by The Hyena, What should we do with them?" The Guard I placed in charge of the small group reported when I approached.
Looking around the village before answering, I see the children talking with some of the researchers that joined the group here, I recognize Gary as one of them. While the other Hedgehogs seem to be looking in wonder at the ship I came in on.
It's a smaller ship, Designed for faster, short distance travel. I had ships like these stashed in the hulls of the larger Cargo ships in the fleet.
Now that we are on land, We can actually work on building an Airship Carrier to carry these smaller ships.
I should also work on a redesign for my outfit. It doesn't really scream King. I was thinking of White with Blue. It should go well with my fur and eyes. I'm still going to Keep the flag the same, The Blue Storm Horns on the Black Background have been a flag of the Storm Kingdom since its founding, Can't really do much about it.
Looking back at the guard, I reply "Where are the prisoners, Captain?" I ask and he takes me to a building that seems to have once been a communal Bank before it was emptied by The Hyena, that has been refurnished and Turned into an office building for the Empire.
I already see a number of Storm Creatures working on Documents to make the villages joining of the Empire official. Cheryl will sign those once the deal is complete.
Walking around the desks and office space, I enter a room in the back, Where the Vault used to be. The two guards stationed outside of it salute me and open the door to the vault.
The Vault as it turned out, has become a makeshift prison cell for the two bandits.
The shorter of the two resembles an anthropomorphic French Bulldog, He has a collar around his neck with a name tag saying Scott, While the taller is an Anthropomorphic striped Hyena wearing a yellow button up shirt.
The first one to notice is the bulldog, that immediately tries to break out of the cuffs he's placed in.
"Ah ah ah," I wiggle my finger at him as I take a few steps closer, playing this character of The New Storm King is already becoming second nature at this point. "You aren't getting out of those chains so easily. Now, I have some questions and you have some answers. If your polite I might have your imprisonment duration reduce."
The Bulldog stops struggling and looks over to his Hyena friend, The Hyena looks at the chains around his wrists and nods.
"What you want from us?" The Bulldog asks.
"Straight to the point, I like that. You see, You work for a bandit called The Hyena, correct?" I say more than I ask, But the Bulldog answers anyway.
"Yeah, We work for the boss, She the smartest lady in the area, she makes much money" The Bulldog answers, Revealing the gender of The Hyena in the process.
Now It's not surprising that The Hyena was a woman. In nature, Female Hyena's are larger than their male counterpart.
"Good, Now, Do you mind telling me where your boss is?" I ask the Bulldog and he immediately furrows his eyebrows.
"Now listen here Sir, I might not know how thing are where ye' came from, But 'round these parts. Snitches get thrown in ditches for a night. And I don' wanna' sleep in a hole. I ain't telling you nothing!" The Bulldog closes his eyes and huffs, turning his head away from me as he does so.
"She's at the abandoned quarry in the valley" The Hyena looks at me and answers.
"What?! Why did you tell 'im?" The Bulldog asks surprised, looking at his partner in crime.
"Look at us Scott, Were stuck in a cage, and this guy is obviously someone important. The Guards that captured us were trained professionals, Not simple Militia like we're used to. The gig is up, We're done. Might as well hope for a reduced sentence." The Hyena explained to Scott.
Scott looks at him in astonishment before sighing and nodding his head, "I guess 'yer right. Might as well hope for a lighter punishment."
As promised, The two received a lighter punishment. Two Years of Working in the fields beats rotting in a cell for five years.
And now with the Location of The Hyena known, It is time to send a group to deal with a little pest problem.
A Quarry is an Open-pit mine utilized for the mining and excavation of Stone, Gravel, Sand and other similar building materials.
The Quarries back in the human world have transitions from a large hole dug into the ground into the process of digging out the side of a cliff.
And looking at the Quarry where The Hyena has supposedly made into her base of operations, I can see why.
You see, the Quarry in the valley outside of the southwestern looking forest where the Hedgehog and Turtle villages reside, has been abandoned for a very particular reason.
Granite, as it turns out, doesn't absorb water as well as sand and soil. So when it rains, The large circular pit dug into the valley gets filled with water that will take years to dry out or be fully absorbed into the granite.
And since it's really hard to dig Granite up when the quarry you were digging in is now submerged in rain water, It's easier to abandon it and build a new quarry into the side a cliff, hopefully not shaped like a giant bathtub.
Looking at the giant swimming pool taking up a large portion of the valley, I can see why it was abandoned.
"The Hyena and her Henchmen should be in a cave dug into one of the walls in the quarry. It has a red flag hanging off a pole next to it." The dejected hyena prisoner tells the soldiers that I'm sending to capture the bandits.
What, You thought I'd go fight The Hyena myself? No Way. All my fighting knowledge is from the OSK memories, I ain't testing myself in live combat just less than two weeks after I found myself in this world.
"And where do you fools keep the hostages huh? If your lying I'll spit in your eye!" Cheryl is also here, When she was told that the prisoners are going through questioning she insisted to join.
"Same cave, further back. Please don't spit in my eye." The prisoner explained.
"The Plan is simple, We wait till night, And when the bandits are sleeping we sneak in, free the hostages and when we are sure they are rescued, we detain every bandit in that hideout. Any questions?" A Storm Creature, I think I will start calling them Storm-born from now on to keep things simple, asked the soldiers with him as they wait behind a rock overlooking the quarry.
They can spot the Hideout from where they are, if the red cloth hanging by the pole is anything to go by.
"Yeah, I have a question. Who put you in charge?" Another Storm-born asks the first.
"Who put me in charge? Lord Strife did, He knows I'm the one who can come up with a plan, so he put me in charge of this operation." The first soldier explained.
"Since when does Lord Strife have the authority to put you in charge?" A third soldier asked. The other soldiers in the squad nodding in agreement to the question.
"Since when? Since he became the right hand man to the Storm, Only the king himself has a higher authority in the kingdom, And you don't want to make the king angry." Soldier 1 explained.
"I mean I guess, Lord Strife is basically the one in charge of Micro-managing whats going on in the kingdom, so I guess it makes sense for him to put one of us in charge. So, how are we going to sneak around the bandits?" Soldier 2 asked.
"Did you not listen? We wait for them to fall asleep and then we-" "No, no I got that part, I mean, We aren't very sneaky are we? Won't we just wake up every bandit in the hideout?" Soldier 2 explained as he interrupted soldier 1.
"I mean, I-um, I didn't really think that far." Soldier 1 sheepishly answered.
"You stupid- Hey, where are you guys going?" Soldier 2 sees The rest of the soldiers are taking their spears and heading towards the hideout.
"The coast is clear, let's not dilly-dally." Soldier 3 answers as he and the seven other soldiers head out, leaving soldier 1 and 2 behind.
Looking at each other before picking up their own spears and joining the group, Soldier 2 mumbles "So much for your great plan"
"Shut up you." Soldier 1 grumbles back.
Getting inside the Hideout was fairly easy, The guards weren't even paying attention to the entrance. Knocking them out and tying them up was a simple matter. Heading further in to the cave, the path splits into two.
"We need to split up here. Four of us go left and four of us go right while the other two stay behind to keep watch or run in as backup if anything goes wrong." Soldier 3 instructs before choosing three other soldiers and heads to the left path of the cave.
As four other soldiers take the right path, Soldier 1 and 2 stay behind.
"Is this how this was supposed to go?" Asks soldier 1, "I thought these guys terrorizing the villages in the region was going to make them tough and hard to beat, but it seems easy- are you even listening?" He notices that soldier 2 isn't looking at him but rather at all the mining and excavation equipment that's been left behind.
"Look, these explosives date back decades. You think they still work?" He points towards a crate of sticks of dynamite. Likely used by the miners to break apart rocks that blocked the way.
"How should I know if they work or not? I studied gemstones in school before I joined the army. Not explosives." Soldier 1 answered.
"You went to school?!" Soldier 2 asked in surprise.
"Of course I did, I was going to open a jewelry shop before this campaign started. And well, you know, I don't have enough money to open a shop, or get gems, or well, do anything really." Soldier 1 explained.
"I guess, This whole conquest thing is pretty much to deal with our poverty isn't it?"
"I think it's a bit for the economy, bit for the food in it, and a bit because Storm Island kind of sucked and the King wants someplace better to move the kingdom to. Getting recruits from here is part of it."
"I guess, The turtles are doing great work on the agriculture situation. Any idea how their magic works?"
"It makes the ground soft or something, I'm not a wizard."
As Soldier 1 and 2 keep talking about mundane stuff, The group that went right came back, A small line of hedgehogs and surprisingly enough an Okapi follow them.
As they leave the cave, They get one of the soldiers to stay outside with the now rescued hostages before the other three return and go down the left path to join up with soldier 3 and his group.
"That was easy" Soldier 1 says out loud as he sees the hostages be rescued so quickly, "I thought they would have at least some resistance. What are you doing?" Soldier 1 sees Soldier 2 write something on the wall with a piece of charcoal.
"Oh Nothing, Just, You know, Writing." Soldier 2 giggled to himself as he continued writing.
A few minutes pass before the first group comes back, on each of their back they carry a bandit or two. Except for one of them who is carrying everybody else's spears.
"I guess we did it"
"Thank you so so much for saving everybody! Now, as promised, We are officially joining your Empire." Cheryl says as she signs her name on several pieces of paper in the Storm Base.
"Of course. I might seem cruel or scary, but the safety and protection of my subjects comes before anything else." I tell her as one of the Storm-born in the base picks up the papers and places them in a folder.
"Oh and by the way, Can I speak to The Hyena, I want to give her a piece of my mind!" Cheryl asks as I walk her out of the base.
I look towards the Soldier that Strife put in charge of the mission.
"Um, You see your Majesty, This is kind of funny but, um, Thehyenawasntthere!" He quickly bows his head.
"You spoke a bit too fast there soldier, can you repeat that slower please." I kindly ask of him.
He gulps before looking at a soldier next to him. Seeing that the second soldier is avoiding eye contact he turns back to me, "The Hyena wasn't at the hideout, sir."
"..."
"...So your not mad?"
"..."
"...I'll take my leave now..." And as he turn around, I quickly place a hand on his shoulder.
He freezes in place. The room goes quite, everybody is tense right now.
"Where is The Hyena?" I ask the soldier again.
"I-I-I Don't know, your highness." Wrong answer, I squeeze his shoulder uncomfortably hard.
"It's your Majesty and I will ask you one more time, Where is The Hyena?" I look down at his beady eyes hidden beneath the mask that I had all the soldiers wear to keep their faces safe. As long as they are in the army, they will wear that mask.
"I don't know," Squeeze tighter.
"Then go and find her..." I whisper as I look down at him, I can't have the leader of the bandit group out there.
"Y-yes your majesty" The soldier answers weakly.
I smile down at him. And proceed to throw him out of the door with one hand. This body is incredibly strong after all, Strong enough to throw a fully grown Storm-born as if he weighs nothing.
I look towards the other nine soldiers that are gaping at my act of strength.
"Are you waiting for an invitation?" I ask them, And they quickly grab their equipment and run outside in the direction of the quarry.
As I leave the Storm Base and head towards the bedroom on my royal Airship, I sadly miss the expression of sheer astonishment plastered on to Cheryl's face as she watches me take my leave.
Back in the Bandit Hideout, An Aardwolf woman is looking around for clues as to what happened to her base. When she notices a writing on the wall.
After kicking the soldiers that were sent to the quarry into hurrying the search for The Hyena, I thought about what was needed next.
I got the local villages to pledge their allegiance to me.
I got the food problem mostly sorted out thanks to the turtles unique magic.
I got the captured bandits into the new quarry to mine for rocks and minerals. We can't really put them in a prison cell when we don't have a prison, sadly.
The Hostages from The Hyena's bandit hideout have been sent home. Most of them at least. One of the hedgehogs doesn't remember where he lived and The Okapi doesn't live in the Area.
Strife is currently striking a deal with them. They will join my empire and take board on my fleet, and if we ever pass near their village, They'll be allowed to go home.
In a few days the fleet will continue north, towards the desert. We will make another stop before reaching the Scorching Sands of Abyssinia, but we do need to continue the conquest.
We'll be leaving a few ships here at Kings Landing and also build another Base at the Desert Border, Where the grass turns into sand. Desert Border will also probably be the name of that Storm Base.
I believe I will stay here for another week before setting off.
At the top of a cliff facing one of the Hedgehog villages, If you listen closely you could hear the sounds of a woman grunting in effort.
If you dare look down the cliff, You will also see that below you is an Aardwolf, A hyena looking creature of small stature, known to eat insects instead of larger animal carcasses, climbing up the side of the cliff.
A red mask is covering here eyes, and above it a black bandana is pushing her hair down, leaving her ears, mouth and snout exposed.
In her hands are two large fishhook shaped tools, each connected to a rope that is tied around her wrist.
The only other pieces of equipment on her body are a dark grey tube top around her chest and black trousers.
Oh yes, She is also carrying a bag full of dynamite on her back.
Wonder what she needs that for.
As The Hyena reaches the top of the cliff, She looks over it to see her target.
"So that is the storm that took away all my money and men, When I get my chance it shall be burned to the ground. I need to teach them this lesson somehow. You don't mess with The Hyena"
And then she stalks towards a small forest at the top of the cliff.
While reading a document sent by one of the researchers who decided to specialize in Ancient History, I get a knock on the door.
"Come in." I call out. If they had to go all the way to my new, temporary office, in the communications room on the ship. Then it must be important.
The door open slightly and I turn to see who it is.
At the door is a young turtle man with small glasses on his head, he is holding in open to what seems to be the oldest turtle in the village, If how slow she is walking and how big her shell is are anything to go by.
"Hubert, Is this the Storm King?" The turtle asks the younger turtle next to her. She is looking at the ceiling.
"Yes, Granny Kasa. We are currently standing in front of the Storm King." The turtle named Hubert tells the old Granny Kasa.
"Okay then, Hello there." Granny Kasa yells into the room.
"Hello to you too, Was there something you needed? I'm sure I can find someone to help you if you have any problems." I tell the old turtle.
"Oh no, I'm as fine as I was fifty years ago, don't mind me. I have a few questions though." She says as she walks into the room, Hubert walking in front of her holding her hand so she won't bump into anything with her bad eyesight.
"Ask away then, I'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge." I put down the document and turn my chair around to face my two visitors.
"Okay then, First Question. What is your favorite color?" She sits down on a chair in front of me. Hubert stands behind her.
Personally, my favorite color is Orange or Green, However as the Storm King I need to give the OSK's response.
"My favorite color is the white color of a lightning bolt."
"Hmm, Second Question. How old are you?" She know asks about my age. Before I found myself here, I was only eighteen, going near nineteen. However, The OSK was 30 years old.
"I am thirty years of age." I give her my answer.
"Kind of young to be ruling by yourself, But I won't pry into what happened to the previous king." She says before continuing.
"Third and final Question." A smile spreads on her old, wrinkled face. The slits of her eyes opening slightly bigger to reveal gleaming orbs of gold.
"How do you plan on taking over Abyssinia?" I freeze.
How could she know that I was going to take over Abyssinia? The people here should see me as a kind if strange king from across the ocean. Even Hubert, who seemed calm and collected waiting for this old Granny Kasa looks surprised by the question.
"You seem surprised. Of course you are planning to take over Abyssinia." Her smile spreads wider on her face, "I know it because I tried to take over it as well," She leans back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her.
Six Hundred years Ago
"I used to be a soldier for the Giraffe King Twiga. On his expedition to unite the continent under one ruler."
A younger Kasa is seen standing in line with other species and races, all wearing the same Helmet on their heads.
In front of them, A Giraffe wearing a crown of gold and rubies is giving a speech to the soldiers in front of him.
"He had great ambitions. With the whole of the continent under his rule, He will be the most powerful person on this planet. Not even Princess Celestia could challenge him"
Now inside of a large tent, The younger Kasa is seen standing with other important figures. If the now black and gold badge on her shoulder is anything to go by, she has climbed the ranks.
"And he nearly succeeded. only one kingdom remained to stand in his way."
Now outside a large wall made of sandstone, The Army is holding siege to the city beyond it.
"With his Orisa Eye, He could control the sands like a painter with a brush. A flick with his hoof and entire platoons were buried under the weight of the desert."
The Giraffe, Now with an eye shaped Amulet with an Orange gemstone in it's middle around his neck.
The small Horns on the head of King Twiga glow with a ruby red light and the Amulet around his neck starts to levitate.
He pushes forward a hoof and a tidal wave of sand smashes into the wall of the city, cracking it and making a ramp of sand for his army to run up.
"But even he fell to the Abyssinian cowards..."
The image moves to a silhouette of King Twiga behind a tent, drinking from a chalice before he starts coughing loudly.
He hunches over with a hoof on his chest as his cough continue.
As he coughs, he falls to the floor and stops.
"Nobody knew how they managed to poison his wine, but after his death the morale of the army plummeted."
The Army retreats from the city walls as cats, panthers and even lions run into the army encampment with swords and torches.
The entire camp was burning.
"It was decided between his most trusted advisors, to split up his three great artifacts and put them in three different shrines."
The Amber Amulet, The Golden Ruby Crown and a sword made of a solid blue crystal.
The younger Kasa picks up the Amulet, While a small, butterfly like creature, a Breezie, picks up the crown, The Sword was taken by what seemed to be an antelope with horns on his nose and forehead instead of their natural location, an Abada.
"You might be able to take Abyssinia on with your flying boats and such, But just doing so will never bring you the same respect and admiration as King Twiga had."
Back at the Present
I breath heavily as all those images and memories enter and flash through my mind.
"What do you want?" I ask the old turtle, No, The centuries old General in front of me.
I look back at her and see that her eyes are once again shut.
"I want to see Abyssinia fall." She says, "Peace has made those cats soft, And if I could I would run to your storm base and sign up every well bodied turtle I could, But I can't do that to my children with a good conscious." She states.
"What I want is for you to gather King Twiga's three great artifacts before you wrap your hands around the neck of the Abyssinian royaltyand strangle them to death. I want to watch the life leave the dynasty's eyes as the hundreds of years of humiliation that I've endured are returned to them.
The Strongest Kingdom in the whole continent of Afcari falling to a nobody, some king from nowhere of no renown, that Storm King, That, Is the greatest Humiliation those damn cats can get." She stands up and starts walking slowly towards the door out.
Hubert and I stare at her dumbfounded for a few seconds before he starts walking after her.
As she reaches the door she stops, and takes out an old scroll of paper. She throws it back and I catch it in my hand.
"What is this?" I ask her.
"Open it and find out" She says.
I unroll the scroll and on it is a map of the continent with three locations marked.
"Is this?" "Yes, Those are the locations of King Twiga's three great artifacts. You might have to do a little digging to get to them, But they're there, I know they are."
She just gave me the map for the location of Three magical artifacts used by an ancient Afcarian king.
"You are wrong about something you said there" I say before Kasa manages leaves the room.
"Oh? And what would that be?" She asks as she tilts her head over her shoulder and around her shell to look back at me.
"I'm not a nobody, I'm not some king from nowhere of no renown." I stand up and cross my hands behind my back as I use my now superior height to tower over the old turtle.
Three Magical objects owned and used by the ancient King Twiga.
Three Artifacts that almost conquered the entirety of the Afcari continent, only beaten by a cup of poison, killing King Twiga before his conquest was finished.
Those three artifacts. The Orisa Eye, an Amulet that allows it's wearer to control the sands. A Gold, Ruby encrusted crown, Which has a currently unknown power and name. Same goes for a Sword of Blue Crystal, We don't know what they do, we don't know their name.
But we do have their location.
The closest one, The Crown is located in a cave beneath a swamp. Surrounded by pools of quicksand and poisonous mud.
The Storm Fleet will be leaving the Hedgehog and Turtle Villages in a few hours in order to continue our conquest.
While The Majority of the fleet will continue north towards areas owned by the kingdom of Abyssinia, A group of ten smaller ships will travel west towards the large swamp The Crown is located at, three of those ships will be directly involved in locating and bringing back the crown, the other seven will be making stops at villages and towns on the way in order to bring them into my Empire.
The three ships that acquire the crown will later rejoin with the main fleet at our next stop, The Great Nilus River.
Being the natural border between Abyssinia and the wild territories outside of it, It is where the Storm Fleet will be building its second Storm Base and resupplying itself.
Truly, My genius planning knows no competition.
"There he is" A masked Aardwolf said as she looked over a cliff at the fleet of hundreds of airships below her, in between the ships she could spot the target of her ire, The Storm King.
His army took out her gang and ruined her base, and now he has the gall to simply leave?
The Hyena will not allow that.
As she watched the soldiers run around their ships, preparing to continue their conquest, she prepared herself for what might just be the most challenging trial of her life.
She grabbed a bag of dynamite before she jumped off the cliff, throwing one of her fish-hooks at the cliff to hook into a rocky outcropping, swinging her sideways as she swiftly swung down towards the villages below like a trained acrobat.
Her trial?
To kill The Storm King.
"Strife, How goes the preparations to depart?" I ask my right hand man/cloud creature.
"Splendidly sir, With two ships of guards and officers staying here to manage the construction of the Storm Base and the communication with the villages, we should be able to depart in three hours, perhaps less if we're lucky, your Majesty" Strife replied, reading from a document I had him make detailing all the ships and manpower we had in the beginning of this conquest.
"That's good, send recruiters to the villages, we need to train people for an officer position, we can't keep leaving our Storm Officers at every Storm Base we build, find someone to train them for the job. Before we depart, please" I order him, not looking at him as I do so, watching over my army of airships and soldiers, Storm-born and hedgehogs, turtles, and a single Okapi.
Yes, looking down dramatically at your ever growing army from a high vantage point is something all good villains must do.
I think I'm getting the hang of this whole bad guy thing.
Although, luckily, I didn't really need to do anything that some would consider evil.
Unless if you count throwing one of my subordinates like a rubber ball, and maybe subtly threatening that one researcher, Gary, about the difference between Your Highness and Your Majesty.
But I don't count them because nobody was actually hurt.
I think?
Anyway, Once we're ready to depart, it will be another three days of flying before we reach the Nilus river, and build the Desert Border Storm Base.
There, we will be waiting for the group sent on the mission to collect Twiga's Crown to return with the artifact.
"Excuse me"
Hmm? Is somebody speaking to me while I'm planning my evil world domination plans in my head?
"Yes?" I reply as I turn to look who called for me.
Seeing as nobody is at eye level, I look down and spot a small woman.
I know she's a short and thin woman and not a child because no child would have proportions like hers.
She looks like a Grey Striped Hyena, different from the brown striped hyena who's currently working his prison sentence away in the quarry, she's also just as tall as my hips.
She's shorter than the Hyena Prisoner, but still taller than the hedgehogs.
Her striped black, grey and brown hair is held behind a black bandana.
Around her neck is a thin red cloth that is too thin to be a scarf and is more similar to a ripped shirt.
One her back is a large brown bag, tied at the top with a thick rope that seems to end inside the bag. Her chest is covered with a dark grey Tube top to protect her modesty and her legs are covered by a pair of black leather pants.
"I'm sorry to spring up on you like this, but you wouldn't happen to be the owner of all these airships, would you?" She asked as she leaned a bit closer to me.
"Why yes, I am, may I ask who I'm speaking with." I didn't say that as a question.
I have no idea who she is, and I have no idea how no-one spotted her getting so close to me.
"Oh!" She perked up, her triangular ears popping from under her Bandana, "My name is Lulu! Lulu the Aardwolf!"
So she's an Aardwolf, that's a relief, for a moment I thought she could be the Hyena.
The Bandit I mean, not the creature.
She matches all of the that descriptors we have of her.
Hyena, Female...
That's it really.
"Lulu the Aardowlf, may I ask if you need anything?"
She nodded before cupping her cheek with her paw, "Yes, you see, I always wanted to leave the Savannah, and seeing all these big strongairships piloted by all of your big strongmen, I knew I found a way to make my dream come true" She said as she moved her paw from her cheek to her hair, flicking it behind her as she batted her eyelashes at me.
Thinking over what she said for a moment, I nod before replying.
"So, would you like to join my fleet?" I ask.
"Oh, I would love to, more than almost anything in the entire world right now"
The only thing I would love more is to gut you like a fish!
"Splendid!" I say with a clap of my hand. "Strife, did you hear that?" I turn to my cloud assistant, "The people are already coming to us for employment! Soon we won't even need to visit their villages." I say with a smile on my face, thinking about how great The Storm Empire would become once I officially become an Emperor.
It's still just a Storm Kingdom, sadly.
"Yes my liege, your greatness knows no end, I'm surprised it took the populace till now to come to you" what a Kiss-ass, you're lucky you at least get good results at the management side of things.
"Of course, Strife. Now, get miss Lulu here ready for her new job, she'll be working on the crown-ship. find someone to give her a tour, she'll be starting off just like all the other recruits."
"Very well, Your Majesty"
Yes... My army is growing... MuahahahaHAHAHAHA!!!
Wow, doing an evil laugh in your head is a lot less embarrassing then doing one in real life.
I think... I don't think I did an evil laugh yet.
It was a few hours later, The airships already started flying, when Lulu stopped working.
She's been mopping the floors of the lead airship for almost an hour now.
The salary she should be getting was good, and her new bunk-mates aren't disgusting slobs like the her old gang.
Sure, she's a deckhand right now, but she might get promoted to maid! that's a huge boost to her salary.
...
...
Lulu looked at the mop she was holding.
"Wait a minute..." She whispered to herself as she looked at the grey and blue Storm Army uniform she was wearing.
And then at the clean, wet floor behind her.
And at the distinct lack of a dead Storm King.
"...Dammit..." She whispered to herself before she picked up her mop and continued to clean the deck of the ship.
She'll get her chance at him soon, surely being on the same airship as him would make her job of killing him much easier.
I don't know when things became as bad as they were.
Maybe it was when Dad fell sick and left the job of Chief to me.
Or maybe it was when The Hyena started sending her "Tax Collectors"
Maybe it was when our food supplies ran low and the few coins our small village had remaining were taken by that Bandit.
I really don't know when things really got bad.
But I do know when they turned for the better.
It was when He arrived.
The Storm King.
I can't believe I thought he was one of The Hyena's goons when we first met.
And less than a week later after he arrived and our village became a happier and livelier place than it was in months, perhaps even years.
The Hyena was gone, her goons arrested and set to work in the Quarry as their sentence.
Our Trade routes opened up once again without the fear of highwaymen robbing us on the roads.
Our community wasn't big, It was only four hedgehog villages built near the forested and mountainous area of the Savannah, With a few villages of Turtles further away closer to the dryer parts of the region.
And the Storm King managed to connect all of us.
He gave us jobs, protection, opportunity.
Even now, almost a week after he left to continue his campaign, I can still see children running around with small wooden masks and sticks, playing pretend as the Storm Kings army.
"Wahh! You won't defeat us evil Hyena!" A young hedgehog yelled in a deep voice as he swung a stick around at another hedgehog with a cloth mask over his eyes.
"Oh no! The Storm King has come to stop my evil!" The second child yelled dramatically, "But you won't attack! I have a hostage!"
The child playing as The Storm King chuckled to himself before saying "You fool! While we were fighting, I sent my soldiers to free the hostages while you weren't looking! I win!"
The second child acts as if injured before falling to the floor "Curse you Storm king!" He yelled.
"No! Curse you, Hyena!" And with another yell he threw the stick aside and jumped on top of the Hyena, rolling on the ground and laughing.
Hah, to be young.
The two children soon turned to look at me.
"Oh, Good Morning miss Cheryl" They both said.
"Good morning to you too kids"
You know, I think I'll miss having the Storm King around these parts.
At least If I ever feel like getting another audience with him, I can just visit the Storm Base here.
It's a perk of being The Chief in charge of the biggest Hedgehog Village in the region.
Dear Diary, I have decided to write my thoughts and experiences under The Storm King in order to one day publish my words as a memoir, teaching others a first-hand look at what serving in The Storm King's army was like.
My Name is Jason and I have been chosen by the Storm King himself to lead a small group of ships on a most important mission.
When news first arrived to me of my appointment to the role of captain, I was astounded and joyful both at once.
It seems the king has taken notice of my efforts to lead during the partially successful mission of clearing The Hyena's bandit camp.
It was during that mission that I stepped forward and took charge when the commander appointed by Lord Strife sat behind with nary a plan to proceed other than wait for nightfall and attack then.
Does he not know that a king of The Storm King's caliber should not be made to wait?
Nevertheless, I was ecstatic when His Majesty appointed me as the captain of the mission. One that required that the three ships under my command be taken to a large and dangerous swamp to find and acquire a magical artifact that was once used by an Afcari Warrior King.
His Majesty even gave the company under me a unique and exotic code name.
The Argonauts.
When I asked what the name meant he simply smiled and crinkled his brow as if lost in fond memories.
Truly, His Thunderous Majesty is the wisest of all Kings, He must expect me to arrive at the conclusion of what the meaning of the name is by myself. So high is the expectation of His Majesty that his people will learn for themselves rather than scrap for crumbs of wisdom from him.
Like a father taking care of his Children.
Truly, No Ruler would ever match the Majesty, Kindness, and Wisdom of The Storm King.
The Army is setting sail once more tomorrow at noon, The Argonauts under my command will split from the main body of the fleet together with seven other ships, whose goals are to include independent tribes into The Storm Kingdom, growing His Majesty's sphere of influence upon the people of the continent of Afcari.
I will write another page once we will leave the town of hedgehogs we are situated in as of the moment.
The perfect opportunity to kill the Storm King was placed in front of her.
Lulu knew that no better time to get her revenge would arrive.
All she had to do was enter the communication hub of the ship, the one place where the Storm King spends most of his time.
"Lulu, we're having a trivia party in the lounge in fifteen minutes, wanna join?" An unmasked Storm-born asked her as she passed by, Lulu recognized her as one of the maids that showed her around during her first day on the ship.
Not like it happened long ago, she's only been on board for a week.
According to Lord Strife, The fleet is taking a safer yet slower route to the Great Nilus River border. They should arrive in another two weeks' time.
But it matters not to Lulu how long the flight takes or how many trivia nights she will need to participate in! She has only one goal in mind.
Getting revenge on the Storm King for what he did to her gang, and she will get her revenge.
Even if she has to learn a lot more about the fertility rates of fish in Kirin territories than she feels comfortable with.
Some of those trivia nights get weird.
"What do we know about magic?" I asked myself as I sat cross-legged on the cool metal floor of the comm room, the only sound other than my own being the quiet hums emanating from the magical crystal screens.
"We know that only a small number of species can actively use magic," I Continued speaking quietly, slowly tapping my fingers on a knee.
"For some reason, all the races that can actively use magic have extra organs to make it work," I continue recalling the knowledge the OSK gathered in his years of research and planning, "Be it Unicorns with their horns, Turtles with their shells, Dragons with their internal flame-sacks, or even the plume feathers of royal Hippogriff," While any of those examples are capable of using magic in some form and to some extent, be it the arcane mastery of Unicorns, the geological tempering of Turtles, a Dragon's wide variety of breath related spells, or even just the Royal Hippogriff's imaginary constructs.
No magical species has the exact same magic as another.
Which begs another question, "What of species who have additional body parts yet lack magic?"
Some that come to mind are Minotaurs and Yaks, unless of course the extreme feats of physical strength the species are famed for count as a passive form of magic. Or is the strength purely natural and is simply magnified to fit the cartoon nature of this world?
And what about my people? The Storm-Born? "I have horns, My Strength doesn't seem magical in nature," While I am physically stronger than a normal human, so is a gorilla, or a bull, or even a wild boar.
However I also never tested the limits of how strong this body is, and the OSK never bothered to do so either.
Why lift a finger to fight if your soldiers could do it for you?
I know that the Storm-Born and even myself have a sort of shock resistance, yet that is proven by the archives of the Storm Castle Library to be a symptom of living on Storm Island for generations over many centuries.
In order to increase the species' survival rate, the hair on our bodies grew thick and hard, losing its color in the process, to defend us from the lightning from the sky and the tall cliffs around us.
Or in other words, People kept falling off cliffs and getting struck by lightning they evolved to survive that.
But that is still natural evolution...
Why do we not have magic?
But also if we do, How can I use it?
This was it, Just beyond this door, The Storm sits defenseless.
All the guards left to give him his privacy, the King feeling safe enough inside his own ship to let the guards off early to join trivia night.
Felix apparently knows a lot about Griffonian Mushrooms, this evening's trivia subject.
How lucky for her...
I should shelf this subject of magic for another time, I still need to work on my character.
Kind King, loved by his people, hated by his enemies. I already have that character down, it's almost second nature at this point.
Menacing ruler, his foes tremble at the mere mention of his name. Let's get started on that today.
Yes...
Silently opening the door to the comm room, Lulu entered quietly, stepping on the pads of her feet to minimize the sound.
"I know what you're trying to do," She stops, the intruding voice echoing around the room, its origin coming from the seated form of the king, his back turned towards her as he stares ahead, not even deigning to give her an audience.
Lulu didn't notice it yet but at that moment, inside the comm room where the temperature is at a cool 18 degrees Celsius, she started to sweat. Something that is only possible in a cartoon world such as this where the laws of reality and physics can be broken for as asinine a reason as to make an Aardwolf sweat.
"You are here to try your luck at taking my life," The Storm King continued, not deigning her even the honor of being looked down upon. So insignificant is she, that even an attempt at his life is beneath him.
So much so that he needs not to even look at her.
'H-how powerful is he?' Lulu's mind screamed, her blood turning cold in terror, 'I-I need to get out of here, he still hasn't seen my face, he still hasn't seen my-' but her thought process was cut short when The Storm King said his next line.
"I welcome you to do so," The words leaving his mouth clashing with the body language he exudes, "Just know," Lulu could hear her heart beating in her chest, her blood rushing through her body at speeds she didn't know biologically possible for her species, such was the terror that the simple atmosphere the king exuded left on her.
"That you are not the first to try and take my life," A Pause followed, and the king stopped talking. Lulu instinctively knew that if she moved even a muscle at that moment, she would surely die on the spot.
And something that would forever scar Lulu happened a moment later.
The Storm King stood up.
His body, previously hunched over on the cold floor of the communications room, now slowly lifting itself to stand at a terrifying two meters of height. His arms were corded with muscles bulging under the white coat of his species. His nails, both on his feet and hands, shining a reflection from the subtle blue glow of the crystal screens, sharpened to a point.
"And you certainly won't be the last."
Lulu was already out the door before the words ended.
Later that night.
In one of the female servant bunk rooms, where the cleaners and deckhands sleep until they become Maids, one Hedgehog that recently joined the Storm Armada found an Aardwolf Deckhand quivering under a heavy blanket.
"Do you want to talk about it?" The Hedgehog asked Lulu, who was only able to be recognized thanks to the puffy grey tail sticking out of the blanket.
The shaking stopped before a small grey snout wormed its way from under the blanket, the rest of her face still hidden beneath the soft barricade before it turned towards the hedgehogs' rough direction and responded.
"Not now Roberta." And Lulu once more tucked her body under the blanket that is of a way higher quality than expected for a starting position job, only her small grey hyena tail sticking out from the blanket left to recognize her.
The Storm King had many titles even before he decided to conquer the world, and now that I am in his body, even more titles will be made.
The Storm King, the title, not the person, is a title that is given to the current king of the storm kingdom.
The Storm King is the ruler, The Storm Prince is the next in line, and The Storm Father is the previous Storm King.
I do have a real name, one that only Strife and I know. It is tradition for only the father and the individual to know the TRUE NAME of the individual. The OSKs father, the previous king, disappeared when the OSK was young, leaving The OSK to rule the kingdom as a child.
Strife, was the father's right-hand man and advisor, according to himself. The Original Storm King didn't really care to remember the names or faces of those working for him until he was already 20.
So the current Storm Family tree is Me, The Human soul piloting the body of the OSK. My Mother, who remained on Storm Island with the women and children who haven't joined the fleet, and Strife as an honorary family member for how long he's been around.
Long enough to know some things about my race that the OSK doesn't.
"Strife," I call to my right-hand cloud, interrupting him reading a report from the Storms Landing Storm Base.
The First batches of magically-accelerated-growth crops are ready, as it would seem.
"Yes, my liege?" Strife puts down the report on his desk and turns to me.
"I have some questions that have been bothering me recently, I would like you to answer them," I tell the sentient cloud creature as I take a chair from the corner and sit in front of him, Crossing my legs and laying my hands on my knees.
"I will answer to the best of my ability, your Majesty," Strife says as I get ready to ask my first question.
The question that is unquestionably the most important.
"What happened to my father?"
The cloud takes a moment to ponder the ask, before looking at me and answering "He died fighting your grandfather," That's worrying to hear.
I know the previous storm king was missing, but dead? And fighting his own father, no less?
There is a story there.
"I see..." I murmur to myself, trying to keep a disinterested act, even though I am more interested than I was when I entered. I can ask questions about my race later, a story about why my father died is the important part.
I mean, He's the OSKs father, not mine. I'm a human!
Need to get my act together it seems.
"Why... Why did he fight my Grandfather?" I ask, hoping for Strife to start telling a story of intrigue and betrayal, George R R Martin will be jealous of.
Strife looks me long in the eyes before averting his gaze to the door of his room, An office space with a cot for him to sleep on. No windows, only one door.
He floats away towards the door of the room before closing it, locking it behind him, before floating back to his chair and sitting down. He wipes a cloud hand across his face and lets out a tired sigh.
"You're father," He began, "He wasn't a good ruler." And that is something that actually shocks me, According to what the OSK knows, His Father leads the Kingdom through a prosperous time, following after his father.
"He was soft," Strife continues, "Very soft," The glowing holes that make up his eyes seem to glint in melancholy remembrance, "The people liked him for his personality, the kindest king our land had since his great-grandfather. But that kindness of his was also his weakness.-"
Flashback scene!
We see a tall Storm-creature, the same race as my grandest self, walking through a corridor in a castle made of black stones. Outside the castle there is a heavy rainstorm, flooding the hard land and ruining the cities.
"Every time a calamity happened, He would open up the treasury to fix it, no questions asked," Strife explains as the other storm-creature, My father, Is seen addressing a hall filled with tired and messy Storm-creatures, of the short and stout variety, the peasants. Not to be confused with the tall and powerful variety, the royalty, like myself.
"The people loved him for it," The crowd cheers as my father showered them with food and blankets, "But the resources weren't endless," Strife continued to explain as the treasury can be seen slowly being drained of gold coins.
What was once a Scrooge McDuck vault is slowly growing colder and emptier.
"His father didn't approve of his spendings," An older Storm-creature, one more muscular and regal than the Storm King in the flashback is seen watching my father from a balcony.
"And after years of growing farther away, every argument and disagreement fueling a grudge that slowly grew in your father." The previous Storm King is seen walking down the corridors, the straight back and bright smile from his earlier showing is gone. Replaced by a grim frown and a hunched posture.
"And it all came to an end," Strife continued, "When you were born,"
A Baby storm-creature is seen sleeping soundly, wrapped in a blanket, being cradled in the arms of a regular female Storm-creature, my mother, as King and Grandfather both watch from outside the door of the small infirmary where the birthing took place.
Flashback End!
I once more find myself on the airship, sitting in front of Strife. The Images that flashed through my mind as he spoke reminding me of Kasa's words on King Twiga the Giraffe.
A Flashback, an honest to television Flashback!
But as the excitement of seeing a real flashback roars its head, I smother it till it dims as I look back at Strife. Sobbing quietly, tears of glowing white liquid filled with sparks of electricity flowed from his eyes in small droplets, filling the room with the smell of ozone.
"I apologize, My Liege, Could we please postpone this talk until-" I interrupt him.
"Very well, We shall continue this story some other time," I say as I stretch my arms, Strife looking at me in shock. Likely expecting me to force him to recollect the story even through his clear unwillingness.
"On another note," I continue as I get comfortable in the small chair in front of the talking cloud.
"Would you mind telling me another story of my father?"
Strife slowly wipes away the electric tears from his face before his eyes spread as if he's smiling.
"It would be my pleasure, Your Majesty,"
"And one more thing before we begin, Strife. When It's just us two alone, in a casual setting like this. I allow you to use my real name."
Strife blinks before wiping a leftover tear from his face.
"Of course, I could, Prince-" And that's all you get to see!
You think I would reveal my name all willy-nilly like this?!
In a small unnamed village by the great Nilus river, a young hippopotamus was poking the desert sand with a stick, drawing pictures on the ground.
"When will something interesting happen?" He asked himself, as he dropped the stick and lay down on the soft desert sand.
The sun was shining bright, the fishermen were busy in the river, sugarcane season was getting closer, and a giant fleet of black airships was approaching fast.
Overall, it was a perfectly normal, boring, regula- A GIANT FLEET OF AIRSHIPS APPROACHING FAST?!!!
Quickly standing up on his log-like legs, his pink hide stretching as he ran towards the village.
Finally.
Something interesting was happening.
"How goes the search for Twiga's crown?" I ask the crystal screen in the communication room, on another airship in front of a different screen, Jason, the man I placed in charge of hunting down the treasures, answered.
"The search has been going well, your Majesty, We managed to recruit the help of some local Crocodiles to find the location of the shrine holding the crown faster, we already narrowed down the location of the shrine, what's left is confirmation, and then retrieval." He told me, his back rigid as he saluted me through the screen.
"Ho? And what about the crocodiles? Will they be a problem?" He hired local help, outside thinking and good leadership is why I appointed this guy as captain of the Argonauts, but you should always know who you're working with.
There's a reason I don't hire Mercenaries to fight for my army, and my lack of funds isn't it.
"Not at all, sir. The Okapi we saved from the Hyena, Miss Pasim, has been a wonderful help to us all. She earned the Crocs' undying loyalty by mixing a medicine from the local herbs to treat the child of a chieftain, and with them loyal to her, and she loyal to you, there shouldn't be a problem." I don't correct him that the Okapi we saved isn't loyal to me, she's only on the fleet to get to her home quicker.
She'll only be loyal if she either manages to convince her village to join the empire, or leaves the village to join the empire.
"Your Majesty, we will be landing in an estimated 15 minutes," One of the soldiers that actually works in the comm room asks me "Shall we send the message to the rest of the fleet?"
"Send it, make sure that the captains have a list of the supplies they used ready when we land," I order him before turning back to Jason "Make sure the Crown gets here before Abyssinia notices we're at their borders, I'm giving you a month to get back here with the crown, is that understood?" I tell Jason.
"We'll be back before the Cats even notice you're there, your greatness!" He salutes one more, hitting his mask with the back of his hand in the process.
"Very well, Dismissed," The screen shuts off, returning to its reflective blue crystal.
I sit on a chair in the middle of the comm room, simply staring at the crystal screen for ten minutes, before I stand up, give another order to the workers in the communications room, and take my exit.
Down in the Hippo village, the town was gathering around the central plaza, waiting for the chieftain to tell them what to do.
Never has an entire fleet of airships come towards the village as it has at this very moment.
Do they alert the Abyssinians? Do they run away? Do they do something else? They do not know.
And as a purple hippo wearing an expensive coat with a small crown on her head walked onto the stage at the center of town, the hippos went silent.
Their chieftain and self-proclaimed "Princess" Was about to speak.
"People of my fair principality," She started, knowing full well she doesn't have a principality, "We are gathered here on this monumental and historical day," She continued, knowing that a fleet of this size arriving in her village is a historical moment, "To discuss the course of action that we as a community shall take in the effort of dealing with the situation that we have presented with at this moment in time," And finishes her opening with what might be the most neutral wording to the situation she thought she could.
Princess Lavander isn't a princess, but she really wants to be, and there are two ways a common hippo like her could become the most extravagant of royalty.
Make her own principality, or marry a prince.
A Prince would never want to marry a hippo, let alone go to the far reaches of the Great Nilus River to do so, so building a Principality was what she had to do.
And in a matter of sort, she succeeded, turning her small fishing village on the far outskirts of the rich trade kingdom of Abyssinia from a no-name collection of huts near the border to the largest population center of hippos in the south half of the Afcari continent, perhaps even the entire continent, or even the world!
"I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter before coming to a choice, what do you all think should-" And before Lavender could finish the rest of her speech, a small airship, the size of an ocean fishing vessel, landed in front of the crowd of hippos, just behind the stage she stood on.
The Side of the airship opened up, extending a metal walkway from the inside of the ship to the outside, landing on the stage.
Soon, three creatures exited the airship, two large gorilla-like bipeds covered in white fur and an armored face mask, and a smaller creature walking on two short stubby legs, its back covered in brown quills, and a small badge on its chest.
The two larger creatures were carrying a metallic box in their hands, lowering it gently to the floor of the stage in front of the shorter creature.
From the box, a speaker extended out, and a small microphone was picked in the brown hedgehog's paws.
"Hear ye Hear ye! You have been graced with the presence of the supreme emperor of skies and lightning! The heavenly ruler from the land beyond the waves! The one who shall grasp the world in his undying embrace! People of this fair village!" The hedgehog called out as he yelled into the microphone, his voice expanding all across the village, reaching the ears of every hippo.
"You are to make room for your new emperor!" The hippos started murmuring among themselves as the hedgehog's voice raised in intensity, a toothy smile stretched on his face as he sang praises for the unknown emperor in charge of the fleet as more and more airships started landing in the empty desert outside of the village.
"For you have been graced by his Majesty! The Storm King!" The hedgehogs squealed in what many of the hippos could only guess is what some of the younger generations call a fangasm, as the largest ship in the fleet landed right at the entrance of the village.
The Airship was twice as large as the next biggest airship in the fleet, with enough room on it to fit all the inhabitants of the village several times over. It's a marvel of engineering how an airship that large could even get off the ground, let alone float for as long as it must have.
The fuel source must be miraculous.
And as the nose of the airship pointed at the crowd, a hatch opened underneath it, a metal walkway covered by an expensive red carpet lowered from the front of the gigantic airship, and two lines of soldiers marched out, careful so that none of them touch the red carpet separating the two columns.
As the soldiers reached the bottom of the walkway, they stopped and turned sideways, each soldier looking straight at the soldier from the column in front of him, before they slammed their spears on the ground and saluted.
And as the two rows stood there motionless, not letting go of their salute, A small creature that looks like a cloud exited the ship and quickly made its way to the bottom of the walkway, where the carpet ended, before it too stopped and looked back at the airship, waiting for one more person to make his appearance.
Tap Tap
The sound of footsteps echoed through the airship as the creature the hedgehog called The Storm King made its way towards the walkway.
Tap Tap
What kind of creature is it, that it could gather such a large military power without alerting any other nation?
Tap Tap
What kind of creature could claim to be a supreme emperor of the skies? What kind of creature could be given a title such as a heavenly ruler?
Tap Tap
What kind of creature would shout to the world its goal of grasping the entire world in his embrace?
Tap Tap
And a tall figure covered in white and black walked out of the airship, his two-toed feet taking measured steps as he walked down the red carpet laid down in front of him, on his head between his two large horns, sat a small crown, almost comedic in how tiny it was in comparison to the rest of him.
And soon the creature reached the bottom of the walkway and the end of the carpet, and he took his final step off the airship.
And so the creature, The Storm King, made his first appearance on Abyssinian soil.
And the future history of the world was irreversibly changed as a result.
The Argonauts, a squad of three ships made out of a mixture of all the races in the Storm Kings Army, have had a singular objective since their founding nearly a month prior.
The Location and Extraction of Magical Artifacts, or LEMA if you wish to shorten it.
And their first LEMA was nearly concluded.
After weeks of searching the swamps of the jungle, they have finally located one of the three shrines holding King Twiga's ancient artifacts.
With the help of the local Crocodile population, a job that would have taken months was shortened to just close to three weeks.
They have already sent a small team of two hedgehogs, two storm creatures, a turtle, and a croc into the shrine, and are awaiting their return.
"So, Your royal majesty, what will we do in the meantime?" A Storm-creature asked The Storm King, waiting for his orders now that the Hippo village was under their control.
"Now? Now I want you to get the captains of any squadrons of soldiers onto a conference call in one hour's time. If I enter the communications hub and even a single one of them is late you can tell them that a replacement will soon be found. I want my soldiers on time." He told him, his eyes staring northeast, in the direction of the capital of Abyssinia, and the servant ran to pass the order around.
The Storm King changed his clothing once he fully integrated the hippo town into the Storm Empire™.
Replacing his dark cuirass and pauldrons with an elegant silk robe woven by the hippos as a gift to their new leader, Around his neck he wore a necklace of seashells that was gifted to him by some children who were enamored by his airships, on his wrists he wore bracelets of ivory and gold, while he still kept his small crown on his head.
For all intents and purposes, The King looked ridiculous. The elegance of the finely woven robe was hidden with the amateur craftsmanship of the childish necklace, the bracelets were barely noticeable on his white fur, only when they moved and shined the sunlight reflected in them or slid against his dark grey skin, did any notice go to the bracelets. And the Storm Kingdom Crown was still too small, some people thought it was another set of horns on his head, for how small and unnoticeable the crown was.
But it looked like the King didn't care, He was gifted with these clothes and so he would show the proper respect and wear them.
Even if some may think him a fool.
Yet the Storm King would not care, For he is not just a King who rules a Storm.
He is a King who IS a Storm.
"Does that sound poetic enough? It doesn't, does it? Oh, I knew I should have taken more Improv classes." The King thought to himself, a small frown appearing on his chiseled face.
"How stupid," He muttered under his breath, if he was talking of his lack of foresight in regards to improving his acting capabilities, or at the stupidity of those around him for not realizing he was simply an actor in the skin of a King, even he was unsure.
But what he was sure of, is that taking over Abyssinia will be one of the hardest tasks for him since he snatched the crown, the kingdom, and the body that wore the crown.
Ever since he became The Storm King, that is.
"Sir, the package is secured, get the airships ready, and let us get out of this swamp." a smirking turtle told a Storm-creature, Jason nodded his head and started ordering the three LEMA ships of The Argonauts.
"Get the ships ready, The package has been secured, I repeat, The package has been secured," He yelled, and movement started all across the ships docked near the unnamed crocodile village.
"You have done well, Jason, as expected of you." The Storm King sat on his modified throne, the one he took from his castle and on to his flagship in the second chapter, and looked at the lead members of The Argonauts, and a few crocodiles who joined them.
"The Crown of King Twiga has been acquired, and his collection of treasures will soon follow. You may take the rest of the week off, Your next mission will be sent at the start of next week." He said as he took the Gold and Ruby crown off the case it was placed in for safekeeping.
"Thank you for your generosity, Your Imperial Greatness," Jason said as he deepened his bow, followed closely by the rest of the Argonauts.
"Of course, good workers get good payment, do not let it be said that I am an ungrateful King. Your group went above and beyond in your mission," The Storm King told him, "Not only did you acquire the crown with minimal to no issues, you even managed to recruit the crocodiles to our cause, and for that you have my sincerest thanks," He smiled, Jason couldn't believe that he, some no-name soldier managed o not only get this lucrative of a position in the fleet, but also made THE STORM KING SMILE!!!
He could die happy now, but he can't.
There is more work to be done.
Everything for The Storm King.
The Storm King was walking in circles in his room aboard the Royal Flagship.
He can't delay it any longer.
Abyssinia could notice what's going on at any point now and send an army to stop him.
He must start his invasion in earnest.
The Argonauts have been sent on their second mission, to retrieve the Orisa Eye, and will rejoin the fleet when they're able.
A battle plan was thought of and the orders were sent to the captains of his army.
The first shipment of food from the Turtle and Hedgehog villages is already on its way and will feed the people stationed in our newly built Storm Base outside of the Hippo village.
All the cards were stacked in his favor lately, he had no setbacks.
Something awful will definitely happen when he fully starts the attack.
"I need to start taking Abyssinia now," He whispered to himself resolutely.
And doing so will be the hardest part of his role as The Storm King so far.
"We Surrender, You can have Abyssinia! We are yours to command!" King Meowmere cried as he bowed on the floor of the palace, his wife Queen Mittens looked in shock as the Menace that was the creature who invaded their land slowly picked up the crown her coward of a husband threw at his feet.
The White-haired Monster took a long look at the crown and at the scene around him, his eyes wide in disbelief, likely not believing that the King of the richest kingdom in The Afcari continent was such a crybaby coward.
If only she could read the thoughts of such a vile invader.
If only she knew the horrors he was planning on subjecting her people to.
"How did I get here? Was this a comedic cutaway? How did the- oh Flashback time." The Storm King thought to himself and slowly relaxed when the flashback that will show him what happened during the time between when he seemingly blinked, and successfully took over what was going to be his biggest obstacle in the continent, started playing in front of him.
...
Are you expecting something special to happen now?
Don't you realize that the flashback is in the next chapter obviously?
"I mean, I'm the main character of this story and even I don't know what happened yet. I mean, How did I get here?" *laugh track ensues*
A cutaway joke, a scene change, a comedic time skip.
Call it whatever you wish, the fact of the matter is that I told myself that taking over Abyssinia would be hard, a blink later and Abyssinia was mine.
Something happened between those two points in time, and this flashback should help me understand.
Nine Days Prior
"The Crown is mine," The Storm King cackled evilly as he held the crown of the long-dead Giraffe king, "One of the three great treasures of King Twiga is in my grasp!" He cheered, holding the crown above him so the rays of the setting sun would shine off its reflective surface.
The Crown resembled that of a medieval European ruler, the gold skeleton of the crown was covered with small diamonds, and in its middle, above where the eyes of those wearing it, were three large rubies.
"And Now," The Storm King slowly took off his own crown with one hand, and placed the crown of Twiga on his scalp, "To See what magic this crown has."
And as soon as the crown was set on his head, The Storm King understood why it was considered one of the Three Great Treasures of the Giraffe King.
"I can see all of it," He whispered to himself, as his vision reached and bent, allowing him to see all the corners of not only The Hippo Village but also the desert beyond it.
For The Giraffe King's crown gave the one wearing it a form of Clairvoyance, allowing them to see distant locations and hidden objects.
"Let us try something, Show me the first Storm base I built," The King said, and his vision once again changed. No longer did he have a view of the areas surrounding his person, now he saw was looking at the stone and wood structure his army built near the hedgehog and turtle villages at the edge of the continent. He saw his workers and officers moving about the building, he saw the nearby villages bustling with movement as new streets and buildings were being built.
"So it doesn't show me what I remember, it shows me how it is in the current time. Let us try this then, Show me the army of King Twiga." And his view once again changed.
Gone was the Storm Base and the villages, instead he watched as an old and wrinkled turtle moved her walking stick, walking slowly down the street before pausing and turning her head to face directly at where the point of view the crown was showing him, her eyes still shut.
"Oh? You found the crown did you?" Granny Kasa asked slowly, not waiting for an answer. "Don't worry about the Amulet, I'll bring it to you personally, you just worry about the sword. I'll see you soon," The Turtle said and a shiver passed through The Storm King's spine.
"I'm sure you have more important things to worry about, child. Be off now," The old turtle opened her eyes, revealing the shining gold orbs inside, and The Storm King was once again on his ship.
He took off the crown and gave it a long look before a sharp smile spread on his face.
Five days before the present
An Aardwolf was marching in the direction of one of the Argonaut ships, her heavy steps and angry expression making it so that none will stand in her way, an important letter to deliver was in her hand.
"Start a gang they said," Lulu, the Aardwolf who was secretly the great bandit leader 'The Hyena' muttered to herself as she marched in the direction of where Ms. Pasim was staying, "It's a lucrative business they said, Just take a few hostages for ransom they said, what's the worst that can happen they said. Look at me!" She grumbled angrily, thinking back on her days as one of the most feared people in south Afcari.
"I'm just some maid on the ship of a tyrant," She whispered as she climbed onto the ship where the only Okapi in the Storm King's fleet was staying, Who would have thought that the bandit will one day have to work side-by-side with one of her hostages.
Oh, how the turn tables.
"Halt! State your business," A short fat creature, covered in green scales and wearing a necklace made of fish bones around his neck shouted once Lulu entered the inside of the ship.
"I'm here to deliver a letter to 'Asclepius' Her eyes only." She said, and the crocodile allowed her to pass.
It wasn't hard to find the Medic, Seeing as she was the only vegetarian on the ship it was easy to find her eating her vegetarian salad- Yuck!
"A good Ribeye beats some lousy salad any day," Lulu kept her thoughts to herself.
Lulu approached the Okapi and passed along the letter, no words were exchanged on account of one of them being mute and the other unwilling to talk with them.
"I could be swimming in gold right now if I didn't join him," She grumbled to herself as she made her way back to the Royal Flagship, intending on going to sleep early.
"Actually," A voice cut into her line of thought, one of the two voices on the fleet that would terrify a person, and it wasn't The Storm King's
"If you did not join His Majesty, you would be with your pals in prison, mining in that quarry for stones to build more houses." The voice said before showing himself as he floated up to The Hyena.
"Come walk with me," Strife, the second in command, said before he floated away, not waiting for a response from the scared bandit.
The two walked in silence, the only sound coming from the steps the Aardwolf took on the carpeted floor of the expensive ship.
"So, how long did you-" Lulu decided to break the silence but was immediately cut off by the cloud creature.
"Do not take the king or me for fools. We knew from the moment you approached us." He said and turned a corner, forcing the woman to follow after him.
"Did you think we wouldn't understand what you were planning?" He asked, before continuing to speak, not waiting for her response, "A bandit hideout being wiped off the map, all of its members accounted for except for its leader." Lulu was scared.
"And what do we find not even a week later, coming to us all by herself, an Aardwolf with no background, no history, and-" Strife stopped in front of a door and opened it, revealing a sack of old mining equipment filled with Dynamite and a pair of large Fish-hooks tied to ropes around it.
"You fou-" "We found out your identity easily, yes." Strife closed the door, once more hiding the instruments that less than a month prior would have been used in an attempted assassination.
"Now I would like to reiterate some words that you probably haven't heard yet." Strife turned to look straight at the short woman, "If you ever think about trying another attempt on his majesty's life, you could consider your own forfeit. Should you try and abandon the Storm fleet and run away now that you know that your past is known to us, you could consider your life forfeit."
Lulu was shaking, she didn't know what to do, she could try and knock him out now and try and escape, but will she even be able to hit a cloud?
"If the king orders you to do something, you do it with minimal questions asked, if he tells you to jump you ask how high, if he tells you to run you ask how far, if he tells you to grab the pair of hooks behind this door and open your own stomach like a fish, you pray that your blood doesn't dirty the carpet. Do you understand where I'm getting at?" Strife leaned forward, looking the bandit in the eye.
"The moment you decided to commit a crime as horrible as an attempted regicide in our empire, your life was forfeit. The only reason you still breathe is because of The King's unmatched generosity and compassion." He leaned even closer, the smell of ozone invading the nostrils of the ex-bandit as small sparks of lightning danced behind his cloud eyes.
"Do not make him regret his decision," And with that, The right-hand man of The Storm King turned and left, his back exposed and unguarded, a perfect opportunity to strike.
And yet, the Bandit couldn't even think of attempting to try and strike at him, so frozen in fear she was, the smell of ozone and charged electrons still fresh in her mind.
And when the cloud turned the corner and went out of her sight, the Aardwolf collapsed on the floor.
Tears silently flowing down her eyes all the while.
During the invasion, One hour before the present.
King Meowmere was sitting on his throne, waiting for the good news to reach his ears.
To hear that the barbarians that entered his land were repelled and that peace has once more returned to his glorious nation.
"Your Majesty, Surely you must reconsider, The Invaders have flying boats, none of our defenses can reach them," Minister Softpaws, one of his advisors, told him his advice.
"There is no need, These barbarians would need to land in order to take anything of ours, that will be when we strike them," The King of cats said as he reclined in his chair, "Our great city of Panthera has stood tall for a thousand years, and it will stand undefeated for a thousand more, There is no way for these Flying Sailors to win, Out nation has always been fated to win."
Uneasy whispering followed the proclamation of the king, as outside of the castle windows, the sky was covered by a sea of black clouds, hiding the uncountable number of ships flying over their nation. All across Abyssinia panic was rising as the ships simply flew over the towns or stopped above strategic military positions, yet no creature exited the ships.
"Your Majesty, A Message has arrived!" A Cat wearing a metal breastplate yelled as he ran into the room holding a bottle in his hand.
"Oh? Read to me what it says," The king ordered and leaned forward on his throne to listen to the message.
Opening the bottle, intending to pick out the paper rolled into it, the crowd was horrified to find that instead of a paper note, a cloud of black and blue emerged, slowly coalescing into the shape of a face.
"Greetings, King Meowmere of Abyssinia, I am Strife, the right hand to The Storm King, and I have been tasked with receiving your surrender."
While that was happening, high above the castle of Panthera City, the Storm King, and the real Strife, sat in the makeshift throne room of the Royal Flagship. King Twiga's crown on the King's head, showing him the discussion happening hundreds of meters below him.
"Surrender? You must be joking," Meowmere laughed, his soft black fur glistening in the light of the hall, his own crown nearly falling off his head in the process.
"We will never surrender to you," He shouted and pointed a finger at the magical cloud in a bottle, "Guards, apprehend this fool!" In response, Strife merely sighed in disappointment and his image from the bottle dissipated into a shapeless cloud, floating out of the palace and towards the sky.
"This a terrible plan dear, please tell me you have a way out of this mess," Queen Mittens asked her husband, who simply waved her question off.
"Plan? I don't need a plan, they're all the way up in the sky, like cowards, What's the worst they could do?" And as those words left Meowmere's mouth, The Strom King took off Twiga's crown and smiled.
"It's go time,"
What followed would forever be considered the most humiliating military loss a nation as powerful as Abyssinia has had in recorded history.
As all the ships stationed above their respective targets opened their doors mid-air, and like paratroopers, The Storm-creatures jump out and started their tasks.
They didn't need a parachute for their natural biology will allow them to fall uninjured from those great heights.
And as all across Abyssinia, creatures entered encampments and captured the leaders and soldiers, not a single soul was lost.
And when The Storm King himself decided to join the fight, the battle was officially deemed over.
With a bident in one hand, his armored cuirass covering his body, The Storm King jumped off the Royal Flagship and landed on the plaza outside the palace of Panthera.
The soldiers on the ground have already been defeated, The Cat Lords didn't stand a chance against the sudden and quick assault of The Storm King's army.
And with a single powerful kick to the door of the palace, It was over.
"We Surrender, You can have Abyssinia! We are yours to command!" King Meowmere cried as the crown of the king of Abyssinia, the nation of the Cat Lords, Landed near The Storm King's feet.
Flashback End
"That was it?" The Storm King thought to himself, feeling annoyance at the turn of things. "Why did it have to be told through a Flashback? I know I'm supposed to be the villain of the story, but If me not being evil enough was the reason then I'm sure I could find a solution."
The Storm King waited for the universe to send him a message that it heard him.
"Oh Storm King, Please don't kill my beautiful Wife!" King Meowmere cried pathetically on the floor in front of him, "Take me instead!" Snot was pouring from the black cat's nose, his wife shook her head in disappointment at the state of her husband, one of the cats near the back frowned and quickly left the room, and more Storm-soldiers entered the palace.
What he thought would be the hardest challenge for his conquest of the continent ended in an hour.
The Storm King has taken over Abyssinia.
One nation down, two more to go.
The Zebra nation of the Savannah, Zebrica.
And the Hippogriff island nation of the tropical coast, Hippogriffia.
And with one of the Giraffe King's three legendary artifacts already under his control and another on the way, things seem to be going well for our conqueror king.
So well in fact, that when something troublesome finally happened, he was relieved he no longer needed to expect it.
It was during the after-battle feast, organized by the best chefs of the newly official Storm Empire, and the best chefs from the castle of Panthera.
The feast hosted the leaders of the empire, Including but not limited to, King Meowmere, Queen Mittens, Minister Softpaws, Princess Lavender the Hippo, The leaders of The Argonauts, Several of the Storm King's military captains, Lord Strife, and finally The Storm King himself.
After eating the delicious and most-likely expensive food from the table, the Storm King stood up and tapped his glass to catch everybody's attention.
He sat at the head of the table, on the opposite head sat King Meowmere, trying his hardest to make himself look smaller.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to make a toast," The King began once all the eyes of the feast were on him, everybody chose to remain silent as to the fact that his wine-glass was filled with water instead of the alcoholic beverage it was named after.
"Today, just an hour earlier, our two nations have joined and became one," He said, and the Storm Army side of the table clapped politely to his words, only King Meowmere clapped from the Abyssinian side of the table, ignoring the looks of disappointment from his wife and advisors.
"Play along," Meowmere wanted to tell them, "He won't kill us if we do what he asks, we might even keep our nation," But he knew that he couldn't tell them that at this time, too afraid of interrupting The Storm King.
"And it is thanks to the wonderful work of every single person at this table that such a day could end without bloodshed," The Storm King smiled, and Meowmere forced himself to smile with him, the looks from his advisors and wife searing into him with their unbearable disappointment.
How Pitiful King Meowmere must have looked to the untrained eye, but Both Kings at the table knew that King Meowmere playing along with The Storm King's demands were the only thing allowing him to keep the golden headpiece that laid atop his head.
"And for such wonderful planning, and the genius to tactically surrender without endangering his people, I would like to reward my new friend Meowmere," The Storm King said, and all the eyes at the table moved to the Cat King.
"I will allow you to continue ruling your nation, You may keep the crown on your head," The Storm King told him, and Meowmere gulped the saliva that built up in his mouth, leaving it as dry as a desert. He knew what he was hearing was too good to be true, and he waited for the catch.
"You may keep the nation, but you must dismantle the army, you will listen to every word I say and you will follow it to the letter, any new law you wish to implement will go through me, any change of budget you wish to make will go through me first," He told him, and King Meowmere nodded his head quickly.
"Everything in your nation is mine, from the money to the food, to even the land and the people living upon it," He said, "Make no mistakes King Meowmere, The only reason I am not putting one of my officers in charge of this nation is because it would be too expensive for me to take care of. That does not mean I allow you to do whatever you wish, You are king in name only, do you understand me?"
King Meowmere looked at the eye of the Storm King, all the humor and friendliness form the beginning of his speech were gone, replaced with the cold and hard eyes of a monster, a predator toying with his prey simply to exert his power.
There was no humor, The Storm King didn't find what he was doing to be fun.
He was doing it because he had to, and because of that, King Meowmere nodded his head in understanding and accepted his burden.
Any other tyrant would make fun of him, they would laugh and jeer as his land was taken from him. But not The Storm King, as Meowmere looked into his eyes, he understood that he found a good leader.
Such a paradoxical existence, a conquering tyrannical emperor who was also a good leader, how humorous.
It was nearing the end of the feast, when Minister Softpaws stood up and grabbed an untouched glass of wine he kept near his plate, and made his way around the table and towards The Storm King.
The King paused the chat he was having with Princess Lavender to look at what was happening.
"Your Majesty, I would like to give you this drink of our finest wine," He told him, holding the wine class from the bottom, balancing it on his paws.
The King grabbed the glass and moved it closer to his face, Minister Softpaws started to sweat as the glass inched closer.
Before it stopped as the king took a sniff of the wine.
"A peculiar smell, it doesn't seem like grape, what kind of wine is this?"
The Minister's heart almost stopped, the table was silenced as every person turned to look at what was going on, at the edges of the dining hall, the guards stationed near the walls trembled in fear as The Storm King's voice echoed around the hall.
"It- It is Pomegranate wine, your Majesty," The minister answered and his swear started to roll down his face.
"Pomegranate you say? Interesting... And what of this nutty smell? Is it pecan perhaps?" The minster wiped his swear before answering quietly.
"No, It- It is a wine of Pomegranate and almonds," And across the table, King Meowmere almost had a heart attack as he heard what was said.
"Pomegranate and Almonds? A very interesting choice, I'll look forward to drinking this, but, Minister," The Storm King turned to Softpaws and Softpaws couldn't stop the waves of seat rolling down his body.
"You look thirsty," The Storm King smiled as he looked at the Cat Minister's sweaty body and dried throat, "You must be parched after such a stressful day," And The Storm King's next words told him that his plan was doomed to fail.
"Would you like to drink this wine?"
The silence that followed that question was interrupted by a raspy chuckle from the doors to the entrance of the dining hall. Every person in the room turned their head to look at the new arrival, everybody other than The Storm King, King Meowmere, Strife, and minister Softpaws, that is.
"I'm sure this wine will do you good," The laughter grew in its intensity as the new arrival slowly made her way to one of the empty seats at the table, saved specifically for her.
It was like she was watching the best sitcom of her life.
"Your Majesty, I couldn't dare think of drinking this wine," Softpaws tried to turn down the king.
"Please," The Storm King smiled gently and moved the glass of wine closer to him, "I insist,"
"No, As I've said before, this wine is-" He was interrupted by The Storm King.
"Drink it,"
All emotion that was recently in his voice was gone, the gentle smile was replaced with a flat frown, and even the laughter of the new arrival quieted down.
"B-But I-" The Storm King once again interrupted the Minister, "I am no longer asking,"
"Drink The wine," His eyes bored into the minister who tried his hardest not to look at the emperor that sat in front of him.
"I-I mean-" "I am telling you, Minister Softpaws," The Storm king grabbed the ministers shoulder and pulled him closer to where he was sitting.
"Drink the poison,"
And with all the eyes on him, Softpaws moved his trembling hands towards the wine glass, and with a shaky hold, he drank it all.
Not a drop was spilled.
And the shaking of his body grew stronger.
The Laughter of the new arrival returned, louder than ever before.
The glass slipped from the Cat's paws as he fell to the floor, the glass shattering next to him.
And The Storm King turned to look at the King of Cats at the other side of the table, a small smile gracing his lips.
And King Meowmere gulped in terror as he spotted the small, barely noticeable spark of amusement in The Storm King's eyes.
"As I said before, No Bloodshed," He told him before turning his head to look at the laughing arrival, her usually closed eyes open to the world, showcasing the glowing golden orbs that replaced her eyes, her large and heavy shell was decorated with chains and trinkets of gold and silver.
But most importantly, around her neck sat the Orisa Eye, one of the legendary artifacts of King Twiga.
"It is good to see you in good health, Kasa," The King told her.
And the centuries-old turtle couldn't stop laughing.
At the edge of the desert surrounding half of the nation of Abyssinia, a hooded pony left a town of steam and gears, intent to continue her search of finding a way to fix her horn.
On that Fateful day, when King Meowmere appeared before his people and delivered the speech that would be recorded in the annals of history.
Abyssinia Trembled.
On that fateful day, when the Decrepit last soldier of a long forgotten king stepped inside the castle of Panthera for the first time.
Abyssinia Trembled.
When the flying ships and their sailors of Storm and Steel fell upon the land and took it from the paws of its rightful rulers.
Abyssinia Trembled.
But when The Storm King, the creature behind the armies that plagued the skies, the soldiers who roamed the streets, and the death of Minister Softpaws.
When that creature walked towards the podium, overlooking the entirety of Abyssinia's capital city of Panthera, and delivered the words that would haunt the Cats of the land for years to come.
"I am your new Emperor,"
Abyssinia stilled.
Five words, five simple words were all he said before he turned his back on the silenced crowd and took his leave, five words that would mark in the annals of history.
The Beginning of the Storm.
"Oi Captain!" A green feathered parrot shouted over the deck of the small airship his crew-mates managed to steal.
They found this airship when they spotted it stopping to refuel at some no-name village, delivering pamphlets for promotion of some show or something.
"What is it, Boyle?" A light gray feathered Parrot calls back to the parrot who yelled for her, Her large golden earring dangling off her head feathers as she turned her head, her voice barely heard over the strong winds that seemed to follow them for the past few weeks.
"We're running out of clean water!" Boyle yelled at his captain, his Prosthetic hook latching onto one of the railings of the stolen vessel to keep his feet on the floor.
Captain Celaeno clicked her tongue in annoyance before loudly shouting over the heavy winds.
"Men! Get ready to land! We push through this storm cloud and make our way to resupply!" The sounds of her crew moving about sounded around the deck as they each carried their new equipment below deck before tying ropes around their feathered limbs to keep hold of the ship.
The wind grew stronger as the ship slowly started to sink through the black sea of clouds, Captain Calaeno could almost swear she saw something move in the clouds but ignored it as she had more important things to take care of.
After nearly an hour of turbulent winds and a shaking prosthetic leg, the ship of Captain Calaeno and her crew made a landing in the middle of a large river surrounded by desert sand as far as the eyes could see.
"Is everyone okay?!" She yelled as she readjusted her crystal leg, receiving sounds of confirmation from her crew in response.
And just as she was about to release a sigh of relief, she heard it.
"To the person who has appropriated this vessel," A static voice sounded out from above her, as she looked up at the storm cloud she just flew through, she felt her blood turn cold.
Two ships, twice the size of the one she was handling, were full of white creatures with dark gray masks, masks she recognized from the people she originally stole the vessel from.
"You are handling stolen Storm property," The voice continued, the static sound in the background as it spoke cluing her into it being said from a speaker.
"Surrender now or have your lives forfeit, for the crimes of piracy and the act of stealing Storm Empire property, we are putting you under arrest," Calaeno looked at her crew, her mind buzzing in a panic as she thought of ways to escape, but she gave up.
She saw the haggard and tired forms of her crew, out of clean water, almost out of food, and who just flew through a turbulent storm.
They couldn't escape.
As her crew was placed in chains and cuffs and dragged onto one of the larger ships, she spotted one of the creatures pointing at her and speaking with one of the creatures that seemed to be in charge.
"That's her Greg, That's the bitch that stole our ship!" She froze as she heard that, only moving once one of the guards pushed her to keep going.
"Is she?" The other soldier asked aloud, "The Storm King will be very glad to meet her in that case,"
At that moment, with no plan to escape and a crew who couldn't fight back, Captain Calaeno resigned her fate to her captors.
Wishing above all else that they would spare their lives.
Not many creatures still lived on Storm Island, with most of its adult inhabitants joining The Storm King and his fleet, and the younger citizens leaving the island to reach the continent of Afcari, where The Storm King built his first Storm Base and new living places for his people.
Only the important governors of the Kingdom, now Empire, still lived on Storm Island.
And by the end of the day, even they would be no more.
As the last crate was loaded onto the large airship, filled to the brim with books and documents, containing the entire library and archive of the Storm Island Castle.
A hunched-over old Storm Creature walked up the ramp leading to the airship, he hands holding on to a cane, her back held by a following of younger creatures as they helped the elderly board the airship.
Once everyone was on board, the doors closed, and the ship set skyward.
Leaving Storm Island alone, empty, and abandoned, as the lightning from the sky struck down the island with a fervor never seen before.
And as the crew and passengers of the last ship leaving the island looked back at their old home, they could see lightning and rain coalescing above the castle of the island, striking it down like a vengeful god would a heretic cult.
A single tear rolled down the Elderly woman's eyes as she saw the land she lived in her entire life crumble under the indomitable wrath of nature.
"Your Majesty, Is everything alright?" One of her followers asked her, holding onto several bags filled to the brim with photo albums and diaries.
The woman took a deep breath before turning her back to her land.
"Everything will be fine," She said, "My Son promised me so,"
The Storm Mother, the Storm-born creature who married the previous Storm King and birthed the current one, made her way deeper into the ship.
In the Frozen mountains to the far north sat a cave.
The Hero of our story, after traversing the freezing mountains on his quest to prove himself as the rightful ruler of the entire world, has entered the cave to speak with the old hag inside.
Inside the cave sat a shop stand, the stand was made of wood and was only barely visible from the meagere sunlight entering the icy cavern and a single lamp.
Our Hero and his trusted companion have entered the cave to buy supplies for their legendary journey.
The Hero was covered almost head to toe in white fur, his tail swishing behind him gently in the chill winds of the high mountains, his companion, a talking cloud wearing a suit, followed close behind him.
"Well met, Shopkeep," The Storm King said casually as he looked at the shopkeeper of the icy cavern.
An Old Tortoise woman, her green scales already dulled and greying from age, something rare to see in the long-living species.
"Yes, That's right, I'm just a simple Shopkeep, No funny business here, just a standard old hag," She said in her raspy old-hag voice, her eyes orbs of shining gold, her shell covered in a large black cloak.
"Standard?" The Storm King asked, "Bog Standard," The Shopkeep answered.
"Well, that aligns with the vibe I was getting," The Storm King said, most likely not thinking about how suspicious a shop in a dark and cold cave is, especially when none of the wares were visible on the stand, "Which was like, Normal Kinda' vibes,"
"I'm Glad you picked up on that," Shopkeeper Kasa said, her smile barely visible under the dark cloak covering most of her face, save for the glow of her golden orbs.
"Sir, Something seems off about this old hag," The Storm King's trusted companion and right-hand man, Strife the whatever-he-was said as he held his chin in thought and looked at the ancient Tortoise.
"What do you mean?" The Storm King asked him to elaborate.
"Yes... Why do you say such things? I'm run of the mill..." Kasa also asked, shrugging with her shoulders under the cloak.
"Listen to this," The Storm King told him with a smile on his face.
"I'm definitely not a Demon or a Ghost in a clever disguise," The Tortoise hag told them.
"Why would she clarify that?" Strife asked out loud, "Isn't that strange?"
"Are you still off in your fantasy world?" The Storm King was starting to lose his patience with how his companion was acting, "No Listen-" Strife tried to explain only for The Storm King to butt in.
"She's Normal, Dude, Open close," He pointed at Kasa."Cookie Cutter old hag, Selling Wares, In a Cavern,"
Kasa once more returned to the conversation, "Speaking of wares, traveler, Might I interest you in an apple?" She held out a single red apple in both her clammy hands, a purple skull-shaped stain covering the apple as if someone poured grape-juice all over it.
"Woah!" The Storm King exclaimed in amazement, "Is that a skull on it?"
Kasa paused at The Storm King's words, "Uh..."
"No, Listen," The Storm King explained, "I'm into it," He pointed at the Skull Apple with his long furry hand, "That's cool as hell."
"No Red flag there, sire?" Strife asked as he looked at The Storm King in astonishment.
"Strife, I swear, If you don't let this go you can wait outside the cavern,"
"But-" Strife tried to Defend himself, only to get cut off by the old hag, "Yes... Dismiss the cloud, your one lifeline..."
"A-Are you hearing this Sire?" Strife asked.
"What, The Lifeline thing?"
"Yes!"
"Dude, My Grandma said that," The Storm King explained calmly, not bothered by what was being said by the old hag in the cavern.
"w-what?" Strife asked quietly, not believing what his King was saying.
"Every Grandma's said that, It's right out of the... The Grandma book,"
Kasa smiled as she heard The Storm King arguing with Strife, "Here Traveler, Take the Apple, as a gift from me!" She said, her raspy voice stretching as the words left her lips.
"See, now we're cooking," The Storm King smiled as he readjusted the gold and ruby crown on his head, "Free apple, haunted cavern, absolutely bog standard old hag,"
The Storm King touched the apple with the skull on its surface and immediately exploded into a black cloud of smoke in the shape of a skull.
Dead.
Strife looked at the pile of clothes laying where The Storm King previously stood, before opening his mouth, "So I was correct-" "YOU WERE CORRECT!" Kasa yelled at him, her Golden orbs now flaming as if they turned into portals to the depths of hell itself.
The Storm King then proceeded to walk back into the cavern as if nothing happened to him, quietly pick up his clothes from the frozen floor, wipe off the dust that used to be his own body, put them back on, and turned to look at Kasa.
"Hey... So... I'm back, Take 2, Rolling again." He said as the two other people in the cavern looked at him in astonishment.
"Good to see you," Kasa exclaimed with a smile, her flaming eyes now back as simple Golden orbs.
"Hey, so I just want to clarify the whole Standard Old Hag... Thing. That was an act?" The Storm King asked the Tortoise.
"It's pretty good, right?" Kasa said as she smiled at him.
"It's so convincing," The Storm King smiled as he said, ignoring the look of astonishment on Strife's face, "You look..." He paused to look at the Hag, at her long dark cloak and her eerie smile, her hunched posture and eye of full Gold, "Totally normal."
"I get that a lot," Kasa smiled hearing the compliment from the Young King, Young in comparison to her, at least. Thirty years old is a baby in comparison to her own age.
"So you're probably gonna' try and offer me the apple again," The King said.
"Maybe!" Kasa responded, shrugging with her shoulders and holding her hands up as if to say "What can you do?"
"But see, I'm wise to your tricks, so I'm simply not gonna' take it," The Storm King said, awkwardly looking away from her.
He actually did think the apple looked cool and is bummed out that he can't take it with him on his journey.
Kasa smiled as she leaned forward on her desk, "But what if I offer you... This Banana!" She once again took out a fruit with a purple skull stained on its surface.
"Wohohoho, Wait, now hold on!" The Storm King laughed as he saw the fruit, with its cool purple skull and DEFINITELY NO POISON!
"Sire! You can't fall for this again!" Strife exclaimed as he watched his King consider the option before him.
"A Banana's a whole different story," He smiled as he leaned to get a closer look at the purple skull on the banana, clearly more visible on the yellow of the banana than on the red skin of the apple.
"It still has a skull on it!" Strife said, pointing at the offending fruit.
"Hey, man," The Storm King lifted his hand up to stop Strife from talking, "Skulls are a natural part of the human body," He explained, confusing both Strife and Kasa as to what a Human is, "It just lets you know how natural, and organic, the Banana is."
"And not a drop of poison in it!" Kasa added with a smile.
"No poison? This is fantastic news," The King cheered, Strife tiredly responded with "Sire, Please..."
"How much are you asking for the Banana?" The Storm King asked the Hag, ignoring his right-hand man.
"What if I told you..." Kasa began, "Also free."
"Boy!" The Storm King cheered, "This is a great day! First the free Apple, then the free Banana, It's all uphill from here!" He touched the Banana.
And just like with the Apple, The Storm King exploded into a skull-shaped cloud of smoke and died.
Only for The Storm King to once more walk into the cave as if nothing happened and pick up his discarded clothes from the floor.
"Boy, do I feel like I have egg on my face," He said quietly as he sighed with disappointment at once more falling for the skull-covered fruit.
"I haven't even done the egg yet!" Kasa smiled.
"See, That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about, You're going to try and sell me an egg, with a skull on it." He said, looking straight at the old hag's golden orbs.
"That's a weird thing to assume," She said, quietly hiding a white egg covered with another purple skull behind her back.
Suddenly, The King got an Idea.
"What if I were to trade YOU something?" He asked.
"A Barter, hmm...? I do love to barter..." Kasa whispered in thought.
"I've got a ton of crap in my pockets, let me just..." The Storm King took off his heavy snow coat and started searching through its pockets.
"Some planks... A little bit of sand... Rubber chicken... Chess set... Slingshot made of candy... A bologna, sorry, Half a bologna sandwich... An old TV guide... Green Bell Pepper, no that's worth nothing... Jewels!" He exclaimed when he finally found something to trade, taking out a small pile of gemstones and jewels from one of his many pockets.
"What's your take on jewels?" He asked as he showed the old turtle a handful of shining gems.
"You'd think I'd be into them as a Shopkeep," Kasa began, "But I'm not a big Jewel gal,"
The Storm king nodded in understanding, "You know, that's fair, they're kind of overly... shiny."
"Shiny and heavy!" Kasa complained, stretching her back with a loud groan indicative of her ancient age.
"Well... I do have this jar of honey, What can I get for this?" The King asked as he took out a glass jar filled with rich golden honey.
"Honey, you say?" Kasa asked as she grabbed the jar to take a closer look.
Only for a buzzing sound to come out from a dark corner of the cave, growing louder by the second.
"Oh no! My pet bees!" She yelled in terror as a swarm of finger-sized bees flew at her and stung her all over her body, Lifting the honey from her hands as she fell to the floor, and flew away.
As the body of the Old Hag hit the floor, a sound echoed from behind her stall as a magical door that was hidden under an illusion suddenly appeared.
"Sire, you did it!" Strife cheered as the next step of his king's journey opened up before him.
"I killed an old woman!" The Storm King ignored what his companion said and looked in shock at the body of the centuries-old tortoise on the floor in front of him,
"Yes Yes, but you still solved her puzzle, Sire," Strife tried to explain, only for The Storm King to start crying.
"I killed an old woman with bees!" He cried as tears rolled down his cheek.
"She was a Demon," Strife told him, "It's fine."
The Storm King sniffed as he looked down at the body of the old hag.
It has been three months since I took over the Kingdom of Abyssinia.
Three Months since I became an Emperor.
Three Months since I acquired the second Artifact of King Twiga the Giraffe.
Three months since King Meowmere of Abyssinia swore his loyalty to me.
Three months since I completed part one of my masterful plan to become a villain who won't get vaporized by the power of friendship.
Oh yes, It's all coming together.
There are still a few stops before I can finally consider myself the undisputed King of all things, but we'll get there eventually.
For all intents and purposes, everything was going well.
So by the rule of cartoon storytelling, that meant things were going to be bad soon.
And I was ready.
"Sire! The Argonauts have arrived at the location of the final Artifact, but they're requesting assistance," The Floating Cloud creature told me as he read the report of my magic artifact collectors.
I smiled as I listened to his report, only to pause as he said something that caught my attention.
"Could you repeat that?" I asked of my right-hand man, and he reread what he said.
I listened to it intently this time, making sure I got everything he said.
"...Shit," I whispered before I started shouting orders at anybody who could hear them, moved myself to a smaller and quicker ship, and started flying in the direction of my artifact collectors.
Making sure that the ruby crown was secured to a holster on my hip like a lamp, and that the amber medallion that was the "Orisa Eye," Was on my neck.
"Your Majesty, we will be leaving swiftly in fifteen minutes, as per your orders," The pilot of the smaller ship told me as I boarded.
I nodded to him as I repeated in my head what Strife just told me.
"King Twiga's final treasure is also being hunted by a pony," I can't let them get it before me.
If Equestria learns of my existence before I'm ready, then I can throw almost the entire plan out of the window.
I'll be fucked!
The Argonauts, The Storm King's elite squad, were made and designed specifically to have members of different species with different professions, for the simple purpose of finding and acquiring magical artifacts.
By any means necessary.
Those same Argonauts, made up of the Elite of the Storm King's army, were currently standing outside of a large stone temple, covered in moss and vines from centuries of neglect.
"The Storm King is on his way, He'll be here in an hour, all we have to do is make sure that pony does not step foot inside this Temple," Jason, The Leader of the Argonauts said as he walked down the walkway to one of the three ships that the Argonauts used.
Rejoining his squad, the members of the Argonauts who had special code names picked specifically by his magnificent royal majesty the Storm King himself, Jason sat down and crossed his arms, trying to concentrate on listening for any rustling grass or leaves in the thick jungle around the temple, searching for the Pony who might ruin the entire operation.
"Hey Castor," a New member of the Argonauts asked her brother as she laid over him, using his body as a mattress.
"What is it Pollux?" Her brother, a Somali Cat from one of the smaller towns in Abyssinia replied as he cleaned his ear with a claw, ignoring the Sphynx Cat that rested on top of him.
"What's the Storm King like?" Pollux asked, her furless skin catching the few rays of light from between the canopy of trees as she attempted to keep her tan.
"I do not know Pollux," Castor replied simply, closing his eyes and attempting to catch some rest before his new Emperor arrives.
"Then what good are you for?" Pollux asked as she kicked her furry brother, receiving a dull "Ow," From him before she turned her head to another member of the Argo.
"What about you Caenis? You served in his ship for a time, yeah?" She asked as he looked at another new member who joined the Argonauts around the same time as her, "I would ask Asclepius, because 'Girl Power' and all that, but she doesn't really speak,"
Caenis, more commonly known around the ship as Lulu the Aardwolf, shivered in thought as her mind wandered to her King and, hopefully not, Future Executioner.
"The Storm King?" Lulu repeated before giving her answer.
"He's Scary," She told the younger cat simply, her eyes drifting to a pair of large fish hooks she kept as weapons.
"You don't want to make him angry," She said quietly, receiving a blank look from the bald Cat.
"Oh, he's scary all right!" An old Crocodile laughed out loud as he crawled his way to be closer to the conversation, his greying scales covered in scars and chips, his wide smile showing a number of missing teeth, still in the process of regrowing.
"And why is that Nestor?" Pollux asked the old Croc, her interest piqued by having the oldest member of the Argo join the talk.
"Heh, You should have seen it." Nestor smiled as he remembered his first time meeting the Storm King.
"It was After Asclepius healed my Niece, and my tribe vowed to join the Storm King as repayment," He said as he made himself comfortable on the soft ground of the jungle.
"It was at the Storm Base near Hippo-town, Every leader of the new tribes bowed to him as we pledged our allegiance to the boy," He said, ignoring the twitching brow on Jason as he called his King a 'boy'
"And he just sat there," Nestor recounted, "Looking at us dispassionately, some of us were scared he saw us unfitting and would decide to end us himself," Nestor frowned as that memory resurfaced in his mind.
Jason quietly scoffed and ignored the rest of the old crocodile's story, resuming his listening to the forest.
"But then he smiled at us," Nestor shivered as if a cold wind brushed against him, "And it was terrifying," He looked at the Cat sibling, "And if someone can scare you with a Smile and still keep you fed and employed?" He laughed.
"Then that's a King worth following!"
Pollux clapped her hands excitedly, joined by the slow and tired applause of her red-furred brother.
"Silence!" Only for everybody to immediately stop making sounds as their leader, Jason the Storm Creature, looked towards the sky.
And at the small airship that floated above them.
"Make yourselves presentable," He told the Argonauts as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his fur.
"Your Majesty!" Jason yelled as he saluted me after I jumped off the airship that flew me here, followed closely by the rest of the Argonauts.
I see that most of the "foot-soldiers" in the Argonauts are keeping a perimeter around the temple.
Although, It looks less like a temple and more like a large Cave dug into the side of a cliff, covered in mossy statues of the Giraffe King.
"Captain Jason," I nodded to the guy I placed in charge of running the Argonauts, "You said that a Pony was seen trying to get this treasure as well. Where are they?"
"Sir! Once we learned of the Pony searching for the Artifact, we made sure to secure the temple and the surrounding jungle!" He said loudly, not letting go of his salute.
"I see, You know that Equestria must not learn of what we are doing here in Afcari, should that Pony deliver news to that Princess Celestia of hers, our whole livelihoods could be put at stake," I told him in a loud whisper, making sure only he could hear what was said.
He nodded his head, "Yes your Majesty, If the ponies learn of your plan for World Domination, they will stop at nothing in order to stop you," He whispered back at me.
"I Know," I continued, before speaking louder in order for the rest of the Argonauts to hear me, "Which is why that pony must be captured, we cannot let them sneak around like a rat. Jason! I want you to come with me, we will be entering the temple and collecting the artifact now. The rest of you are to wait here," I told the Argonauts, before turning my head at some of the newer recruits from Abyssinia.
"Dioscuri, you two will be tasked with hunting down the pony that has been searching here," I told the Cat sibling.
"Did you hear that Castor? The Storm King is giving us a mission!" The Sphynx whispered excitedly to the red-furred sibling of hers.
The other cat merely hummed in acknowledgment.
"Bring her to me," I told the cats, "Alive."
And so I turned away from them and marched in the direction of the temple, quickly followed by Jason and a small squad of regular soldiers.
The Crystal Sword of King Twiga is the final artifact of his that Isn't already in my grasp.
His Ruby Crown allows me to see anything that is known by a living creature.
His Orisa Eye, an Amber pendant allows me control over sand, a powerful artifact that I have spent the last three months training to control relentlessly, overseen by its previous guardian, Kasa the Turtle.
Each one of his three Artifacts was given to a general of his after his death.
The Pendant given to the Turtle General.
The Crown given to the Breezie General.
And the Sword given to the Abada General.
I do not know what the sword does, but whatever it may be, it required the construction of a temple for its protection.
So it must be powerful.
Sneaking through the brush of the jungle, The pony crept ever closer to the entrance of the temple.
The only thing standing in her way was an empty clearing, where she will be exposed as soon as she runs through.
She needs to create a distraction, make the guards look away from the temple.
She powered up her horn, ignored the painful itch it caused her, and shot a bolt of lightning at a faraway tree, causing a loud explosion to sound out, and give her an ample opportunity to dash into the temple.
"There she is!" Only that one person saw her dash, and so she had to roll to the side to avoid the crossbow bolt headed in her direction.
The Unicorn quickly scowled and turned to look at whoever fired the bolt at her, seeing the large Arbelast mounted onto a complicated mechanical contraption on the back of an old Crocodile.
There was still a few meters she had to run in order to reach the temple, and the Crocodile wouldn't be able to catch up to her once she's in, but she can't simply run towards it without risking a bolt to the head, and she can't wait all day or the guards will realize that the explosion was a distraction.
And so, seeing the Crocodile twist a lever in his front legs, the Crossbow on his back loading another bolt as the switches and levers keep getting pressed, she readied herself.
All she had to do was dodge one bolt, and use the time it would take him to reload in order to run.
Just one bolt...
And as the Crocodile loaded his second bolt onto the mechanical crossbow and aimed it at her, she prepared to dodge his bolt.
A bolt that never came, as the Croc simply stood there, aiming at her.
"Shit... He knows what I'm planning," The Unicorn thought to himself.
Her entire plan relied on him firing his bolt.
If he doesn't fire, Reinforcement will arrive and she'll surely be captured.
Thinking fast, The Unicorn decided to risk it.
She ran towards the Temple.
And the Crocodile fired.
"There it is," I said as the underground tunnel of the temple opened up onto a balcony overlooking a large room filled almost entirely by treasure.
From gold coins to priceless gems, the room held what must have been the entirety of King Twiga's treasury, from his campaign across the entire Afcari Continent.
And in the middle of the treasury, Stabbed into a large green rock, was his crystal sword.
"Secure the room," I told the guards, "Locate any traps, I want this room mapped out from end to end before even a single fur from your bodies touches that gold, Am I clear?!"
"Sir Yes Sir!" They saluted and ran back up the tunnel, intent on getting the equipment ready.
And as I stood on the balcony, looking down at the treasure of the Giraffe King, I knew that something bad will happen soon.
It was simple Cartoon logic, The Villain gets an almost perfect victory, only for something ruinous to happen to it, resulting in his victory being lessened.
I know, deep down, by the nature of this world, that I will not be leaving with all of that treasure.
It is simply too good to be true.
The Question now is, What is going to be the cause?
"Hmmm.... How Vexing..." I said as I stared at the piles of jewels and gold.
"Did you say something, your Majesty?" Jason asked, And I remembered that he's here with me.
Coughing into my fist, I nod my head and say "It is nothing to concern yourself, Jason, I am merely thinking out loud."
Jason looked at me a moment longer before bowing to me, "As you will, Your Majesty," before he returned to searching the room for any signs of traps.
Only for the two of us to quickly look back at the tunnel we came from as the sound of hooves hitting the carved stone floor echoed out.
And once the source of the sound became visible, I quickly embraced my body for impact as a purple Unicorn with dark red hair slammed into me, the friction of her hooves causing her sudden stop to turn into an accidental tackle.
"Your Majesty!" Jason yelled after me as The Unicorn and I fell off the balcony, and into the pile of treasure.
A pile of treasure that started to rumble the moment we touched it.
I quickly looked at the Crystal Sword in the middle of the room, or more specifically, at the dark green rock it was stabbed into, or even more specifically, at the two green eyes on the rock.
What I'm saying is that it's not a rock.
And with a powerful shake, the green monster that the sword was stabbed into emerged from the pile of gold, lifted up by two large and muscular clawed arms, its long snake-like body stretching on and on as it climbed out of the pile of treasure, and I looked at it's head.
I was greeted by the head of an enormous Elephant, its eyes green and reptilian, and its body covered in dark green, almost moss-colored scales.
Its two large clawed arms grabbed onto the pillars that dotted the room as with a final pull, the beast pulled itself from the pile of treasure, The Crystal sword still embedded into its forehead, now glowing with a blue light.
And as the beast towered over me and the Unicorn, I understood what I was worried about earlier.
And so I stood tall, as a King should, and got ready to showcase to the world that The Storm King is more than just a ruler who sits in his airship all day.
He is a Conqueror.
And Conquerors need to showcase their strength.
I looked at the sword on the beast's head and smiled.
"Come at me," As those words exited my mouth, I hoped from the bottom of my heart that my next few actions would be deemed by the cartoon logic running this universe to be Cool enough to get me through this.
The Beast roared at me, Its muscular clawed arms holding on to two pillars near the center of the room, like a gymnast pulling themselves up, and with a swipe of its green-scaled head, the large Elephant trunk moved in my direction.
"Shit!" I ignored the purple Unicorn behind me and let my body and mind carry me through.
I am The Storm King, A King who is a Storm.
Those words repeated in my head like a mantra as I deftly ducked below the giant trunk and kicked off the ground, sending me forward and spraying golden coins behind me as I ran over the pile of treasure.
Every step I took got me closer and closer to the pillar that the monster was holding with its left claw.
A sputtering bolt of blue electricity passed by my head, striking the Beast and singing some of its scales.
ROAR!!!!!!!!
"Stop hitting it!" I yelled behind me, hoping the Unicorn could hear me as I ran closer to the beast.
Fizzlepop Berrytwist couldn't prepare for how wrong things have gotten.
From the location of the Artifact she was searching for already being hunted by an armed force of trained soldiers, to her almost getting killed by that Crocodile with the Arbalest on his back,
However, none of those compared to what she was dealing with now.
A Jungle Grootslang, in an enclosed space no less, and with no staircase in site to lead her out.
If this was a Desert Grootslang she might have had a chance, but against a Jungle Grootslang?
Fizzlepop didn't want to die...
She glared at the beast, her horn shaking with effort as sweat pulled at her brow, and with a yell of effort she fired.
A weak, sputtering, harmless bolt of electricity.
ROAR!!!!!!!!
"Stop hitting it!" The creature that fell down into the room with her yelled at her as he ran closer to the Grootlsang, and Fizzlepop decided to listen to him.
Not because he told her to, but because she doesn't want to get eaten by the giant Snake-Elephant.
"MOVE ASIDE!" Jason didn't have the time to wait for his soldiers to listen to him as he barreled through the stone tunnel, making his way to the camp outside.
His king needed him.
"Jason! The Unicorn managed to slip by," Nestor, the Old Crocodile started talking as soon as he spotted the captain of the Argonauts.
"I KNOW!" Jason yelled as he ran by the aging Lizard and grabbed the first spear he could see. "THE KING IS IN TROUBLE! GET AS MANY SOLDIERS AS YOU CAN AND GET READY!" His voice boomed across the clearing the three Argo ships stayed at, causing the meandering soldiers to start moving in a buzz as they got ready.
But he didn't wait for them, Jason ran back into the Temple, down the stone corridor, his spear in hand and his mask on his face.
And as soon as he reached the treasure room, he threw the spear.
And with eyes wide in shock, Jason watched as the spear sailed through the air, only to get caught in the hands of his King.
"Good job Jason!" The Storm King yelled as he grabbed the spear from midair, his steps sending gold flying behind him as he deftly jumped and ducked around the Giant Beast.
With one claw holding onto the Pillars, the Beast swiped at The Storm King, and using his newfound Spear like a pole, he vaulted over the muscular-clawed arm, landing on top of the limb, and continued running up the body of the monster.
"Amazing..." Jason whispered as he looked upon his King, his Emperor, His magnificent and wise ruler.
Running up scales? not as easy as it sounds I can tell you that.
But it didn't matter, I am The Storm King, A King who is a Storm.
And I am the villain of the story.
The Villain will not be defeated before the introduction of the heroes!
With a yell of Effort, I threw the spear at the Beast, Piercing its bicep as I ran up its arm before jumping into the air and landing on the spear, using it as a jumping platform to reach even higher and grab onto one of its tusks, swinging around the tusk like some sort of Donkey Kong character before letting go of it and letting the built-up momentum swing me even higher, landing on top of the beast, right in front of the Crystal Sword that pierced its forehead.
And as my hand grabbed onto the sword, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge, and I knew, This Artifact is Powerful.
And with a squelching noise, I pulled the blade out of the beast, and with a roar of agony it fell to the ground.
And as the beast landed on the pile of treasure, I took a few steps and a small hop as I too landed on my feet, leisurely making my way to the balcony where I came from, already seeing the Unicorn climbing up to the balcony, where Jason is waiting for me.
GRRRrrrrrrr...!
I stopped my walk and turned to look at the body of the beast.
The clearly still living body of the beast...
"...Fuck."
RRROOOAAARRRR!!!!!!!!!
The beast roared in rage, its saliva spraying out of its mouth as its trunk lifted up, sounding off like a trumpet.
I started walking faster.
The beast moved its clawed hands to grab hold of the pillars once again as it slowly pulled itself up.
I ran faster, "Jason! Get out of here!" I yelled at my favorite Minion.
"Your Majesty! I can't leave you like-!" I interrupted his yell as I told him I'll be fine, and with a look of reluctance, he turned his back on me and ran, followed closely by the Unicorn who managed to climb out.
With the Crystal Sword in one hand, I used my other hand to grab hold of the Amulet around my neck, The Second Artifact of King Twiga's Treasures.
The Orisa Eye.
And with a red glow to the amber in the center, The ground shook as stairs of Sand burst through the wall, allowing me to run up- The Ground Shook.
I turned quickly to look behind me, only to see the Beast pulling at the pillars in the center of the room with all its might, shaking the entire temple as it roared in rage.
I ran up the makeshift staircase, hoping that I'd make it before the entire mountain collapsed on top of me.
But it was too late.
And with a final roar of defiance and anger, the Beast toppled the pillars at the center of the treasure room.
And the entire temple collapsed.
"Jason! Where is His Majesty?!" Nestor called out as he saw the Storm Creature run out of the underground temple, followed by the Dark Orchid Unicorn.
"Quiet!" Jason yelled, "Get everybody gathered! We must get His Majesty out of-" Jason couldn't finish his sentence, as a loud crash sounded behind him.
And as all the people in the clearing turned to look at the entrance to the temple, they were shook.
Not only was the entrance gone, but the entire cliff above it shook and quaked. And collapsed.
"No..." Silence rang out in the camp as all stood in shock as the temple collapsed, burying The Storm King below the ground.
bzzt-FWOOM!!!
Only for a large beam of blue light to shoot out into the sky, followed by loud laughter as a familiar voice echoed around.
"I AM THE STORM KING!" It yelled out, and smiles spread around the camp, "A KING WHO IS A STORM!"
"EVEN A MOUNTAIN COLLAPSING ON MY BODY IS NOT ENOUGH TO HOLD ME DOWN!!!"
And on top of the crumbled cliff he stood, A Crystal Blue Sword held high above his head, an amulet of Amber on his neck, and a crown of Rubies and Gold tied to his waist.
"Your boy managed to get the last artifact," Strife paused his work as he turned to look at the old turtle who walked into his office and sat in front of him, her head pointing at the wall and her eyes closed from the world around her.
"So he has..." Strife said to himself as he set his pen down on the table.
After news reached him that Storm Island finally collapsed and that all the citizens had been safely evacuated to the now quickly growing Hedgehog region of Kings Landing, Strife held himself back from taking a week off to go and check on everything, something that he, fortunately, didn't need to do.
As soon as the news reached The Storm King, he contacted the Storm Base of the region and passed along a set of orders, that have seemingly managed to secure the people.
But that is unimportant right now, What is, is that Strife still needs to tell The Storm King the truth behind his family, his father and grandfather, the source of the Storm Magic that crumbled the Island into the sea, and so much more.
"You will have to tell him eventually, Saturn," The Turtle smirked at the cloud's reaction.
"He is not yet ready," Strife told the turtle as lightning crackled beneath his eyes as he glared at the ancient General.
"As far as I see, he is more than ready to learn about your Magic," Kasa said as she slowly turned to look in Strife's direction.
"As long as I live, I will not bring upon him such a fate-" Strife started speaking, only for the turtle to interrupt him.
"You will tell him after Farasi is his, or I will tell him myself." Kasa gave him an ultimatum.
Strife seethed as streaks of burning white lightning flowed through his arms before he exhaled deeply and let go of his rage.
"Curse you and your Eyes," He said, watching on as Kasa left his office, her walking stick creaking under the weight she put on it, "And do not call me Saturn," Kasa paused at the heat he spoke with.
"That name died long ago,"
Kasa snorted, her eyelids opening a crack to reveal the golden orbs in their place as she looked down at the Cloud.
"He doesn't look dead to me," And with those words, she tapped her walking stick on the floor, and a small storm of sand enveloped her, blocking anythings view of the elderly Turtle.
And after ten seconds of sand, she was gone, leaving but a pile of sand inside the office of the Storm Cloud.
"Your Majesty! We're so sorry for letting the Unicorn get past us! Come on Castor! Kneel!" Fizzlepop Berrytwist scowled at the loud cries of the bald cat begging on her knees to that strange creature.
"We're sorry," The furred cat said in a tired tone, a large bladed wheel on his back, shaped like a sort of Chakram.
"Do not apologize for failing at your job," The Creature said as it looked at the two cats beneath it, "Merely do better next time," A small smile spread on his face as he stared at them, "This means a Month of Cleaning Duty to the both of you, and increased Training, Jason, jot this all down," Those words caused a hopeful smile on the bald cat to shatter, leaving tears flowing down her face as she slammed her paws onto the floor.
"Of Course Your Majesty!" The White creature saluted before rushing to grab the tools to note everything down.
Fizzlepop scowled as the Taller creature, this Storm King, stopped in front of her, looking down at her from his spot above her.
Looking at her horn.
"And what do we have here? A Unicorn..." The Storm King asked as he squatted in front of her, out of reach of her legs but still close enough for his long arms to grab a hold of her if need be.
"If you're going to kill me just get it over with," Fizzlepop spat at him, causing him to take a half step back and place a hand over his chest, acting offended.
"Kill you? Why would I kill you?" He asked her, "Is it because you injured my soldiers? Or maybe Is it because you tried to steal my treasure? Or perhaps it is because you tackled me into a Grootslang pit?"
Fizzlepop glared at him from her spot, tied to a wooden post on the ground.
"I don't want to kill you, no no no." He shook his head, "You managed to avoid my Argonauts, You managed to barge into my camp mostly unharmed, You managed to climb out of the Pit on your own," He once again squatted in front of her.
"I don't want to kill you," The Storm King told her, A wide smile on his face, "I want you to join me," He offered her a hand.
"What do you say?" He gave the hand a little shake, prompting Fizzlepop to look at it.
She scowled at the hand, "I'll join you," She bit out, "If you promise to find a way to fix my horn," She glared up at him, making sure her broken horn was front and center in his view.
"Fix your horn?" The Storm King asked out loud, silence following the question for a few seconds as the entire camp turned to look at him before...
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's all?!" He laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You could have asked for riches! A High position in the military! Your own mansion! AND YOU ASK FOR A PROSTHETIC?! HAHAHAHA!!!"
Fizzlepop looked at The Storm King in shock as he laughed at her request, taking her life's work and summing it down as if it was nothing important.
And perhaps he was right, A Unicorn asking a King for a Horn is almost as comical as it sounds.
"FINE! HAHA!" The Storm King smiled widely and grabbed her hoof, shaking it up and down before grabbing the crystal sword on his back and unsheathing it, slicing off the ropes and tying her down with a flash of blue light before sheathing the sword back on his back.
"Welcome to The Storm Empire, Medea, I'm expecting great things from you," He said with a thin smile as he stood up from his squat, his body blocking the sun and casting a shadow over Fizzlepop.
Making it seem as if she struck a deal with The Devil Himself.
"In order to prove your loyalty, I'll be giving you a very important first job," He told her, and Fizzlepop slowly stood up.
"Anything," She told him, "If I'll be getting my Horn, I'll do anything," Perhaps those words were an incorrect choice, seeing as how The Storm King's smile spread so wide it almost split his face.
"Very good," He whispered as he looked down at her, the atmosphere his body portrayed switching in an instant, from a Nice and Funny King for the Cats to the Devilish Businessman when he promised her a horn, To what he is now.
"But first, What do you know about the Pearl of Transformation?"
Cold and Dark, Less like a person and more like a Blizzard of living snow.
A Snowstorm?
A Storm King? Yes, that name seemed fitting now that she saw it.
"For the crimes of Piracy, theft, attempted murder, and illegal aviation in Storm Airspace, You and your crew are sentenced to forty years in Prison!"
Those words she heard three months ago were the nail in the coffin that was her Fate.
"Captain Celaeno, How nice of you to join us," A hyena with a missing ear smiled hungrily at her as she entered the mess hall of her Prison.
To call it a prison would be an overstatement, What she was in was a labor camp.
When she asked a guard why the prison was like this, she frowned at the answer she got.
"Jailhouses are expensive to build, And this city is still new, So until a proper prison can be built, your prison will be the quarry,"
The Quarry, What was once the hideout of a local bandit group was slowly transformed into an open-air prison, Fences surrounded the entire area.
Nobody but the prisoners and guards come in.
And only the guards walk out.
Digging into the mountain, Carrying heavy rocks, turning those same rocks into bricks to send outside the prison.
Each day, over and over, the prisoners will work until their arms shake and their knees buckle. Only to end the day eating tasteless slop, sleeping on hard mattresses, and covering themselves with the thinnest of blankets.
Celaeno scowled at the Hyena with the missing ear, "Zubafu the Earless, How horrid of you to invade my eyesight,"
"Ha! Only the worst for the dumbest bitch in the prison!" Zubafu yelled with a smile, his greasy face scarred from years of banditry.
"He might be a horrible piece of shit," Celaeno thought to herself, "But he's not as stupid as he seems," She glared at the inmate.
It was during her stay at Storm Quarry Prison Camp that Zubafu the Earless took over his old gang as the new leader after their previous boss ran away.
"She's not coming to get us!" He yelled months ago, the bruised body of a fellow inmate dangling in his arms, "She's a coward, always been one always will be!"
"I'm the new boss! Me!" Celaeno had to give him credit, he kept his idiots in line.
"Psst, captain!" Celaeno paused eating her slop when one of her own crew-mates tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.
And as she listened to him whisper in her ear, her beak turned upwards in a smile.
"Get the gang ready," Celaeno whispered to him, "We're leaving tomorrow,"
The Storm Quarry Prison Camp had as tight of security as it could, Each transport was double and then triple-checked before it could be allowed anywhere near the Quarry.
Guards patrolled the fences, watchtowers saw everything that happened inside and out.
And most importantly, every small change had to go through Him.
The Warden.
A White-Quilled Hedgehog held The Quarry in an iron grip.
"The Warden is leaving the prison for a meeting with officials in Kings Landing today, this is our chance to get out of here," Celaeno whispered to her fellow Parrots.
"But how will we get out?" One of them asked, his eyes surveying the fences high above the quarry, Turtles and Hedgehogs walking around as guards.
"It's simple," Celaeno smiled as she pointed a talon at an airship, "Food is being supplied today, with the Warden gone the security will be lower than usual, we'll take that chance to sneak onboard, and while the ship is in the air, we'll take over and fly away," Her crewmates clapped and nodded at her brilliant plan.
And Just like that, They escaped.
"Sir! Sir!" A Storm Creature called out to a short white hedgehog as he ran down the brick corridors of the Storm Base.
"What is it?" The white Hedgehog, The Warden, asked as he sneered at the Creature wasting his time. Does he not know he has important matters to attend to?
"Captain Celaeno and her crew escaped," The Storm Creature breathed out.
"EXCUSE ME?!" The Warden screamed at the Storm Creature, "HOW?!"
"I- I don't know! I'm just the messenger," The Storm Creature answered quickly, his Ape-like face covered in sweat as he stammered at the Warden.
"Well tell the guards to CATCH THEM!" The Warden screamed at the messenger who nodded his head meekly to the smaller creature before turning tail and running back to the Prison.
"Grrrr You!" The Warden yelled at a nearby guard, their face covered by a standard Storm Army Mask, "Take me to the communications room! I need to contact His Majesty!"
The Storm Guard saluted the Hedgehog and picked him up in his arms, running over to the communications room.
"I give you permission to shoot down the airship," The Face on the crystal screen spoke, and The Warden saluted to it and nodded his tiny head.
"Thank you, Your Majesty! I'll make sure that nothing like this ever happens again to our Great Empire!" The Warden said with conviction, his arm over his heart as he swore to The Storm King.
"Good," The Storm King nodded on the screen, "I'll be looking forward to your update once you're done. Dismissed." And with those words, the glowing screen of magic crystal turned off, and The Warden stared at his reflection on the empty screen.
"Take me to the Acting Commander," The Warden told the guard who saluted at him before he carried the Hedgehog off.
The Warden had some pirates to shoot down.
"That crazy Bitch actually did it," Zubafu the Earless laughed loudly as he watched the Storm Guards being pushed off the airship by the crew of green Parrots.
"Should we follow after them?" A Bulldog asked him and Zubafu answered by kicking at him, punting him like a soccer ball.
"And get killed by the Storm King? Hell No!" The New Hyena yelled, "We're going to work our sentence off, and then we're out of here!" His gang cheered at his conviction.
"Boss! I made pretzels!" A Dog yelled as he ran over, a platter of salty pretzels in his paws.
"Yoink!" Zubafu sounded as he grabbed the platter of Pretzels from the Dog's hands, "Hey Everyone! I made Pretzels!" Zubafu yelled, earning cheers for his totally not stolen pretzels.
The sound of clashing metal rang out in the training yard of the Abyssinian castle, A small crowd stood aside and watched the spectacle of a match.
A Bident slammed onto the ground, a cloud of dust blowing away from the force of the two-headed spear's impact.
Jason quickly pulled the Bident back, raising a shield to protect himself from a powerful kick.
Pollux laughed excitedly as she used Jason's shield as a launching pad to jump higher into the air, a wire shooting out from a device on her wrist wrapping around a pillar behind Jason.
The Captain of the Argonauts didn't have time to retaliate as he moved his shield to the side and swung his Bident horizontally, deflecting a thrown Chakram back to Castor as he caught the bladed disk.
"They're Skilled," An Ancient Turtle said as she stood near the front of the crowd of onlookers, "You've done well training them,"
The person the old turtle spoke to merely responded with a nod, his eyes still glued to the match between the three Argonauts.
Pollux smiled from ear to ear as the wire around her wrist started pulling itself in, launching the bald cat in the direction of the Pillar behind the Storm Captain.
Castor ducked low to the ground as the large bladed wheel on his back came loose, grabbing it with his tail as he jumped into the air, spinning around with the large wheel before he threw it at Jason.
Jason grit his teeth as he threw his shield into the air, slamming into Pollux's still-swinging body at high speed, before he rolls to the left, avoiding the large saw-blade rolling in his direction.
Rolling back onto his feet, Jason threw his Bident with a yell of effort, displacing dust and sand just by the wind pressure of the throw alone, as he sent his weapon flying towards Castor.
Pollux tumbled onto the ground, Jason's shield hitting her in the face before she slammed into the pillar she pulled herself towards.
Castor narrowly dodged the Bident, his eyes wide as felt some fur on the side of his arm fall off just by the two-headed spear passing by it. He quickly raised his arms in surrender.
Seeing that the twins were taken out, Jason turned to the crowd and bowed to his king.
"CAPTAIN! WE CAN'T THROW THEM OFF!"
Rain pelted the deck of Captain Celaeno's newly stolen airship.
After her dashing and daring prison escape, Four Storm Empire Airships followed chase in hot pursuit.
Lighting crackled in the sky as Celaeno and her crew flew through another Storm, hoping the pursuers wouldn't be able to follow them.
Who knew Storm Empire Airships were highly resilient to stormy weather?
"VERY WELL!" Celaeno shouted over the harsh winds, her claws holding on to the wheel of her ship as hard as she could, If only she had a more modern model she could have stole.
"WE'RE DOING THE ZEBRICAN SLOW DANCER!" Her crew's eyes widened at her order.
"BUT CAPTAIN!" A Fat Pink parrot shouted at her captain, "WE WON'T BE ABLE TO ESCAPE AFTER!"
"WE WILL!!!" Celaeno held on tightly to the wheel as a flash of thunder illuminated the ship, "TRUST ME!"
Nodding their heads with full confidence in their captain, the crew started performing one of the most dangerous airship escape maneuvers they knew.
"NOW HOLD ON EVERYONE!" Celaeno yelled at the top of her lungs as she pulled a large lever beside her, "WE'RE GOING DOWN!"
As the lever was pulled, a grate on the balloon opened up and started rapidly expelling air, causing the airship to quickly start losing altitude.
"Duck!" One of her crew members yelled as one of the Storm Empire's ships opened fire, a Large Harpoon shooting from the side of the ship, narrowly missing Celaeno and her crew as her own ship fell below it.
"IT'S COMING BACK!" The Crewmate yelled, the harpoon that fell on the other side of the ship rapidly returned in their direction, the heavy rope holding it being pulled back into the ship, causing the side of the Harpoon to hit the ship on its way back, knocking it into an uncontrollable spinning descent.
"AHHHH!!!" The parrots yelled, Holding on for their lives as the ship rapidly approached the ground below them, sharp red stones piercing upward like teeth as the crew fell into a Red Desert Canyon.
Before the ship hit the ground, Celaeno pulled the lever she held and closed the grate on the balloon, crouching down into a ball, and held herself tightly, bracing for the inevitable impact.
Watching from the skies above the Red Canyon, The Major in charge of the four ships giving chase to the escaped fugitive called for them to stop, Looking on below him as he watched the Airship crash into the Canyon, Wood exploding and metal bending as the ship crashed.
His eyes kept on watching as the wavy rapids of the River at the bottom swiftly picked up the Airship and dragged it away, pulling the broken pieces of the ship away.
"Lieutenant Roughhouse," The Major said calmly as he kept looking at the canyon below him.
"Yes, Major Deggan!" A Green Hippo saluted, a tiny Storm Empire officer hat resting on his bald head and a Dark Grey coat with the Empires Insignia wrapped around his torso.
Major Deggan kept watching the rapids below, "Mark the fugitives as Escaped, Send a message to King's Landing, I want this entire region searched from top to bottom in order to find these Scum," He said coldly, his tone calm and collected as he brought his hand into a pocket on his armor, pulling out a small grey marble with a single blue dot, almost looking like an artificial eye.
Holding the small marble over the edge of his ship, he dropped the marble down into the canyon below, watching as it fell into the rapids to be swept away.
On the other side of this Ship, A Hedgehog looking over a Crystal Monitor gave the Major a thumbs up as a ping appeared on the map he was looking at, moving down the canyon.
The Tracker was in place.
"Keep an eye on where the tracker stops," Deggan said calmly, his Cold voice and Storm Creature Mask leaving no indication of what he must be feeling.
As he stepped back into his Ship, followed by his Lieutenant, Major Deggan walked into the communications room on his ship, connecting a call to the other three ships in his platoon.
And as the faces of his captains appeared on the blue crystal screens, he spoke in his cold and calm voice.
With his back straight, arms behind his back, and mask staring straight at the camera in front of him, He told them what was going to happen.
"We have a few Foxes to Hunt," He said.
"Make sure the hounds are Hungry," His voice did not rise or lower, but the intensity behind it was palpable.
"Long Live The Storm King..."
And as his captain saluted to him, relaying orders to their own crews and sending messages back to the Storm Base, Major Deggan stepped out of the communications room, allowing the Hedgehogs and Storm Creatures in it to return to their job.
"What now?" Lieutenant Roughhouse asked, his naturally large body towering over Major Deggan.
"Now?" Deggan asked, his voice as calm as ever as he turned his head to look up at his Lieutenant, "Now we wait for the rain to stop,"
Even though Lieutenant Roughhouse was nearly twice his height, He still felt small in comparison to the Major.
On the edges of Abyssinia, acting as a natural barrier between the Cat Kingdom and the Unclaimed Wilderness, sat Crimson Cat Canyon, or Red Canyon for short.
A Long and winding gorge in the sands, 300 Kilometers in length, made of red Stones and sand.
Down the center of the Canyon, a winding River flowed rapidly, breaking against the solid rocks of the canyon and cutting into the cliffs at its side.
"Hah!" It was in the midst of the rapidly flowing river that a certain Bird popped her head out of the water as she gasped for air, struggling against the current, trying her best not to get pulled under the rapids and drown.
"Captain! Over Here!" Captain Celaeno turned her head to see her crew hanging on to a steady-looking rock, trying to reach for her.
Celaeno fought against the rapids, gritting her teeth as her beak shivered in the cold water, the bruises and aches on her body only hurting so much more, but she made it. With an outstretched hand, her crew caught her and pulled her up to safety.
She was alive.
She escaped The Storm King.
"We need to hurry," One of her crewmates said, she couldn't recognize which over the pounding in her head, "We follow downstream, and we should reach the Abyssinian badlands, From there we should be able to get to Klugetown and take a ship back to Ornithia,"
"We'll be out of The Storm King's Territory, Once we're there we should be safe," Another member of her crew added, followed by agreements and nods from all around.
"So It's settled, once this rain is over, we make our way to Klugetown, as fast as we can," Celaeno felt a smirk coming over her face.
They had a plan, and like any good Pirate Crew, they'll make it work.
Because she can't imagine what she'll do if she fails.
"My Liege, The preparations are in place,"
I took a deep breath as I sat in a lotus position in a dark and empty room, The only source of light being the magical artifacts I kept on my body.
I could no longer use the communications hub of the castle as my peaceful sanctuary, seeing as how it is now actively passing along my orders all across my Empire.
And isn't that a weird thing to say, My Empire. The Storm King's empire. I'm in too deep to change course now, I can't risk the chance of breaking character.
If I fail, Everything is lost...
"Strife," I speak, the cloud levitating at the doorframe behind me, "Tell the armies to keep hidden, not to engage unless given explicit permission, and not to show themselves. If the Zebra understand what my Plan is, we'll have no choice but to attack directly."
"...And what is the plan?" Strife asked after a few seconds of silence.
I answered by chuckling menacingly.
"Oh, You'll see..." I whispered, "Nobody will miss it... Heheheh... Hehahahaha... HahahaHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Is that menacing enough? I hope it is... This fits my Dark Lord who rules from the shadows only to step in at the last moment vibes, right?
I hope I'm not overacting... Oh, screw it!
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!"
"Major Sir! The Rain stopped!"
High above the Red Canyon, Three airships circled the location the trackers stopped moving. Looking down, The crashed remains of a stolen airship could be seen stuck on the rocks, blocking much of the river down below.
Stepping to the edge of the largest ship of the three, A Silent Storm-Creature stared cooly at the remains of the ship below.
"Tell our Hounds to start the search." Major Deggan told the large green Hippo to relay his message, "I want their footprints, their claw marks, their feathers, and even their spit. We will find these Pirate scum, and they will pay for their transgressions."
"Sir Major Sir!" Lt. Roughhouse saluted his shorter superior before running into the ship, his heavy stomps echoing across the deck.
Soon, several trained trackers jumped into the Canyon, long ropes following after them in order to pull them back up.
Under his mask, Major Deggan's glare intensified.
There was no more Escape, The Hunt had begun.
The Moment the rain stopped, Celaeno and her crew wasted no time as they grabbed onto the rock cliffs at the side of the river and started their climb.
They had no time to wait, they could plan as they went, but more important than anything.
Was getting away from the Storm King's Army.
At the edge of the Zebra nation of Farasi, just beyond the border, a small airship that waved no flags landed in the midst of a village.
The village's few residents all left what they were doing and stood in awe as they watched the front of the ship open like the maw of an animal, a walkway landing on the dry grass of the village.
Whispers echoed around the village as the residents looked on, some in fear and others in wonder, before several footsteps sounded as they made their way off the ship.
"Hey, Asclepius, you didn't tell me your village was so cute!" The first to walk off the ship was a Sphinx Cat, Her body was covered in belts instead of clothing, making the cat lady look more like a bandit from the desert than a soldier, and her left hand was covered in a leather glove with sharpened metal fingernails.
The second person to walk off the ship was another cat, this one covered in fluffy brown and orange fur, a pair of belts were wrapped around his torso like a harness, holding a giant chakram onto his back and four more of the bladed wheels were hanging around his wrists like bracelets.
After the two cats crawled an old Crocodile, a bizarre device hanging onto his back, resembling a crossbow of some kind.
Behind him came a short Hyena, no, it was an Aardwolf, her eyes looking all around her in a panic, as if something was on her mind. A Pair of roped fish hooks hung from her hips, and A red bandana covered her hair.
Following her, walked out a muscular creature none of the townspeople could recognize, his body covered in white fur, black armor wrapped around his torso, his thick arms held onto a Bident as a triangular shield rested on his back. His face was covered by a mask, and on his shoulders and belt was an unrecognizable symbol resembling two blue horns.
As the unidentified creature reached the dry earth of the border town, he turned his head back to the ship as he waited for the last member of his elite group to join him.
Taking a deep breath to compose herself, the last member made herself known.
Gasps sounded from the village as an Okapi walked down, a green cloth hanging on her back with an illustration of a yellow serpent wrapped around the edges.
As the Okapi reached the bottom of the walkway, she tapped her hooves on the dirt a few times, dragging them in particular patterns, before whipping her tail to symbolize she was done, a small smile on her face.
"The Chieftess is home!" Someone in the crowd of onlookers cheered, soon followed by the rest of the village.
Asclepius of the Argonauts, otherwise known as the young chieftess of the Okapi village, has returned home.
