8: The Ruins of Archon

The journey to the castle was a long, slow, and tedious. Most of the way was up hill and the path was rocky. The mid morning sun shown brightly as cottony white clouds floating bye on a sea of rich blue sky. The trees started to show tinges of yellow, orange, and red. The early signs of autumn were approaching. The air had a warm feel but a crisp smell. Cassia stepped on a rock and stumbled. She lightly tweaked her ankle which earned an “Ouch!” With a hiss of pain. Her companions paused to check on her. The large black horse nudged her with his mussel. “I’m alright….. you know we need to give you a name. Something other than horse.” Cassia looked at the great beast. “What is your name?” She sat and looked at him thoughtfully. Her question was more rhetorical than literal. But the horse started to dance from side to side like he was trying to say something. “Do you have a name?” Cassia asked with surprise. The horse vigorously nodded his head. “Well you can’t exactly say it so I guess it’s a guessing game.” The horse nodded again. “When we found him he had the letter T on his chest plate.” BoldR commented. The horse shook his head no. “Well let’s start with letter sounds. “

Cassia started with the A sound. The horse shook his head no. She then made the B sound. The pawed the ground and nodded its head. He then walked over to a tall tree that had a vine growing on it. He pulled the vine like he did at the bell tower. “ Ba ,Ba , Bell?” Cassia asked. “ your name is Bell?”

The horse shook his head no. He stood quiet for moment. He walked over to BoldR and tugged on his belt. “Belt?” Cassia asked again. The horse pawed the ground and snorted at the ground. Cassia looked where he pawed. The shape he pawed looked like the letter A. “Belt A?” Cassia pieced the words slowly together. The horse stood quietly again as if to think. He began to look around for bit. He then walked over to the vine hanging from the tree. He nibbled a piece off and it fell to the ground. He picked it up in his mouth and brought it over to the road. He dropped the vine to the ground and began moving it around with his mussel. He picked up his head and stared for a moment . He pawed the ground for Cassia to look. The vine clearly was shaped into the letter Z. “Beltaz?” Cassia looked up at the horse. The horse began to move the vine around again with his mussel. When the horse felt it looked close enough to what he wanted, he picked up his head and stomped his hoof. Cassia looked again just as bewildered as before. “Belt A Z R, Belt AZR, BeltAZR?” Then it clicked in her head. “Belthazar! Your name is Belthazar!” Cassia exclaimed with excitement. The horse took a deep bow to her as if to introduce himself. “ Well it’s a pleasure to meet you good sir.” Cassia replied while doing a polite courtesy. Belthazar walked over to her and nudged her. “What?” She asked cocking her head to the side. Belthazar leaned his head and nuzzled her ankle. “Yes it hurts a bit but I’m fine to walk.” Cassia replied to the animal. He then knelt down and nickered at her while turning his head to his side. Cassia hobbled over to take a look at what he pointed to, when he tried to lift her onto his back with his head. She squealed from the action, because she almost flipped over his back to the ground on the other side. BoldR watched absolutely mind blown at what he just saw, it took him a moment to catch onto what Belthazar was offering.

“Hold on Cassia he is offering you a ride.” BoldR commented.

“What? I’ve never rode a horse before especially not one as big as you “ she scratched his forehead. BoldR walked over. “ Let me give you your first lesson.” He lifted Cassia onto the horse’s back with her legs hanging on either side. “ Now hold right here, and hang on for dear life.”

No sooner did she wrap her hands in his wither hair, Belthazar carefully stood up trying not to loose her. She held on tightly as the horse carefully walked onwards.

The rest of the journey was much quicker now that Belthazar and BoldR could walk full stride. They could see what was left of the castle in the distance. They could see the chard crumbling walls. They could hear ravens raspy calls reverberating off of the stone walls. The whole scene looked foreboding. As they drew closer they could see more of the rotting corpses. The ravens were pecking at the flesh. Quite a few of the corpses had their eyes already plucked out from the birds. When they reached the gate they saw the charred remains of a man. The bits of remaining armor looked like it was the king’s armor. Cassia had memories of the armor when she was younger. “That’s the king” Cassia gasped with her eyes welling up with tears. BoldR walked up and cut him down. His chard body shattered into pieces as it hit the ground. The only thing left was pieces of the chard armor. The wind lifted the ashes and carried them away. Soon they heard a scratchy but familiar voice. “That wasn’t the king, but your tears are not wasted for he was your uncle my dear girl.”

“Uncle?! Wait, what?!” Cassia exclaimed dumbfounded. “Who is saying I’m related to the King?!” Cassia turned to see Ogra with a dirty cloth covering her eyes and her clothes torn, ragged, and dirty. “Ogra what happened to you?!” Cassia exclaimed.

“They burnt the insolence from my eyes.” Ogra replied in a mocking tone.

“They what?!” Cassia was horrified by their actions.

“You heard me, no need for me to chew my cabbage twice girl.”

“They burned your eyes? Why would someone do that?” Cassia said with a tone of disbelief.

“Not just someone, she’s be a thorn in my side for years. Her name is Magda and her cunt of a daughter Melba. They practice illegal magic. Mostly the dark arts and as you can see a coup.” Ogra stated matter of factly.

“Is there anything that I can do to help you?” Cassia asked.

“The only thing I can think of is tears from a dragon, and good luck finding some of those.” Ogra chuckled.

“Is it just you here at the castle?” BoldR asked.

“No. Actually there are quite a few survivors locked up in the dungeon. They are loyalists to the king and Luna.” Ogra replied.

“Well the castle has fallen what is left to fight for?” Cassia asked.

Ogra looked at her with a solemn expression” My dear child what made Archon great was not its castle, but an idea. The bream of having a free territory that was open to everyone no matter what race or species you are. Do you remember when I told the story of the Dragon King?”

“The one where the king rode a great dragon only to find out that the Dragon was not just his mount but also his mate? “Cassia replied.

“Yes my dear child, that is the foundation of what Archon is. You can’t extinguish the fire of an idea when so many share the same dream.” Ogra smiled.

“Ok, now what about this me being related to the king stuff.” Cassia insisted determined to know the truth. Ogra chuckled at her precociousness.

“Well my dear child, or should I say your Highness “ and she gave a meaningful little bow.

“WHAT?!” Cassia exclaimed in shock. BoldR began to chuckle as well. “ You were in on this as well?!” She retorted.

BoldR grinned at her.”Who do think helped make the his all happen?”

“You are joking with me right this is one big hoax.”Just stared at them hoping it wasn’t true. BoldR shook his head no. Cassia knees buckled under him causing her to collapse on her buttocks. She sat for a moment and began to mutter as she processed everything. “Ogra how many siblings did my father have?” She asked with tears welling up in her eyes.

“One. Your Uncle Antony.” Ogra’s expression growing graver with each passing second. “What are you say child?” Ogra insisted.

“We found my parents dead back at the village. They were found by the bell tower holding each other. “ Cassia could no longer hide the tears. They spilled down her face like tiny rivers. “And if that was my Uncle at the gate that meant that the man holding my mother was my real father. And I had no clue how long he had been with us. How long did I call my own father Da?” She choked out the last few words. She was consumed with regret and grief. She began to weep even harder. Ogra waddled over towards her and put her arms around her. Cassia leaned into the old woman’s embrace and allowed her to cradle her for comfort. “I don’t have much but here take this to dry your eyes.” Ogra handed the eye cover to dry her eyes. Cassia took it quietly and continued to sob until she was unable to shed any more tears. The old rag that she held was soaked from all of her tears. When Cassia looked at Ogra to had back her cloth she saw that the old woman had been crying too though there was extensive damage done to the eyes. Cassia reached out and wiped Ogra’s eyes with the same cloth. Ogra felt the moist cloth on her face touching her eyes. “Dear child what are you doing?”

“Drying your eyes, but since you have so few I thought I would share some of mine.” Cassia replied with half hearted humor.

“Thank you for your kindness.” Ogra patted Cassia on her back. “Are you ready?

“Ready for what?” Cassia looked up with a clueless expression.

“To rebuild.” An air of determination was heard in Ogra’s voice.

“I’m not sure where to begin or what to do.” Fear and nervousness filled her every fiber.

“Well chid gather your wits about you, we have a lot of people to free and a kingdom to rebuild. You need to be ready for the challenges ahead of you.”

“You won’t be alone, we will be by your side helping you along the way.” BoldR beamed with confidence and Belthazar paw the ground vigorously nodding his head. Cassia took in a long deep breath to help steady her shaky nerves.

“Okay let’s do this “ she stood up from the step that she was sitting on and began to ascend the staircase.