(I said I'd do it again! >:)c I love writing) GROWTH. "Somehow, maybe now, I'll find the words to say || Never thought I'd see the day" Nobody in the kingdom could deny it- young Prince Sol got everything he wanted. He was- though people would not dare say it aloud- spoiled as the food he left in the streets. And as the king's only son, many were frightened that he would not learn enough about dignity before his parents' deaths. Petitions and polls circled around, proposing the king pass the crown to his daughter instead, despite her younger age, if only to allow his son time to learn what a good king must know. But one day, Sol was strutting through the forest, flaunting his power to those who were not there, when a spark in the corner of his vision caught his eye. Fire, this close to the square...? He perked up his ears, alert. What most of the people of his kingdom did not know was that he only acted so spoiled so that he would get attention. His father was always busy, his mother always off on diplomacy missions, his sister doing shady dealings in the middle of the night. The people he ruled were the only ones who had the time to notice him, but he did not know how to get the right kind of presence. So he acted like the prince they expected him to be. But if the kingdom was catching fire? Warning others of danger was a surefire way to get them to appreciate him for who he was- someone who truly cared. But as he approached, he realized he wasn't looking at fire- he was looking at one of the denizens of the Pyrolabyrinths, faced with none other than... Faun. His sister. She screamed something at him- Sol could only make out the words "help" and "stupid"- and suddenly thousands of vines grabbed the red, brightly glowing figure. His light slowly dissipated as the vines turned a sick shade of gray and grew thorns that stabbed into his skin... "Stop!" Sol jumped forward as a thorn jabbed into the young kit's eye, but stumbled back into Faun as the fur around it turned gray and corrupted, and the small form drooped. Faun lowered it to the ground, walking forward and violently shoving past Sol to stare down at it. A grim smile crossed her face. "You found me. Congratulations." But her tone was far from guilty or even angry. Emotionless. When she lifted her eyes to Sol's, they were cold and lifeless, and the color seemed to drain from them as he looked at her. "Do you even know what I did?" Sol shook his head once. "He's not dead," she said as an answer. She placed a paw on his twitching legs, stilling them. He whipped the thorns out of his tail-leaves out of instinct, but she just chuckled softly. "He thought I was helping him. And for a while, I was. But when schedule conflicts, you have to make some... sacrifices." She raised her gaze to Sol's, fire seeming to flicker behind those dead eyes. "Run back home. Tell them nothing. If you let them know what I've done-" like he knew anyway- "then you're next." She turned tail and ran, leaving Sol with this half-dead kit who he soon realized he could not touch. But he stayed there until his body simply flickered out of existence, then trotted home on trembling legs. The prince that returned was not the same one the townsfolk remembered. BETRAYAL. "You were standing right in front of me || When the walls came crashing in" The Pyrolabyrinths are dangerous places to be for those who don't have a family. So the lava-spawned kits that roam the tunnels of the main chamber must learn to be vicious, aggressive. Heartless and violent, they know nothing but how to take what they want and never get caught. They learn who to trust and who to hurt, forming bands of the forgotten. But those who find this lifestyle too difficult, too lonely, may seek solace in the ambassadors from foreign kingdoms. If they can get their attention, maybe, just maybe, they can reach the surface. Live among those who have always been free. But the small, winged runts are so often stepped on by the other lava-spawn that they believe they will never appeal to these rulers, and those who wish to leave will turn to desperate means. Like Leo, who one day finds the princess of the Mossgarden stalking through his own secret tunnel. Confused at her appearance but desperate for escape, they work out a deal- he gives her enough gold to bribe her greedy, spoiled brother into not mentioning her trips there, and she gives him a passage to the surface. He pays her, she gives her the passage, and... she glares at him. "Now you're supposed to trail me for a while, no?" Leo nods. That was in the deal. She shakes her head. "Change of plans. Conflicting schedule." Her voice steadily grows louder as she shouts, "You thought I'd help YOU? A nobody from the kingdom I'm trying to attack?" A laugh. "You're much more stupid than I'd thought! Maybe you'd like to see another one?" Gray vines grow around him as a green figure jumps out from the bushes and shouts something- but he blacks out in the clutches of the vines.
Songs used are See The Day by Brian David Gilbert (I decided to use the simpler old version) and Embers by Dex Arson & Stacey Hunt
