Bowsette

by M H Ryan

  The old finger could pull that trigger, but those old eyes must have been nearly blind or he was the worst shot around. She slowed down and stood over the old man. He gazed at her with his wrinkly face, and squinting eyes.

  “Give me that,” Bowsette said and yanked the gun from the old man’s

  hands. “You’re going to kill someone out here with that.”

  “Hey, I need that,” he said, reaching for his gun.

  “No,” she held it over her head, and far out of reach from the man.

  Then he kicked her on her shins.

  “Oh, that’s it,” she said, pointing the gun at him.

  A whistle blew from down the street and sound of many boots pounding on pavers echoed around the buildings.

  “Hey, old man. Did they release the Volgards for the party?”

  “Takes days to get them going. Aren’t no Volgards. Disgusting things just like you.”

  She threw the gun on the ground and stepped on the cone-shaped end, folding it in. Hey, it almost felt like she did something right. She didn’t know who gave that old guy his license to carry that gun, but it should most definitely be revoked.

  “You can’t do that,” he said as she ran away from him.

  She passed another street that was much busier and spotted all the stores lining each side. Vendor Street. Good, she was close to the warp gate but getting through this street for the rich would be a challenge in and of itself. She ran across the street, ignoring the few screams she got and slowed to admire the shops. So much wealth in such a small area. Even under her uncle’s rule, the grand kingdom had been wealthy but, under Cupcake, they all were dressed as if they were at the Fall Ball. Money seemed to pour out from them all so much that this street was notorious for high prices and the never-ending goal to satisfy the rich with unique, one of a kind items they could show off to their friends.

  “Is that real?” a man asked, pointing at Barkly’s limp body in her arms.

  “He’s a recreation,” she said, breathing hard. “Pretty good, huh?”

  “How much?” he asked.

  “He’s not for sale,” she said as she jogged by him.

  At the end of the street, she spotted the massive arched opening of the warp gate.

  “One thousand coins!” he yelled at her back.

  She stopped and glanced back. The man still had his hand up, as if he was at an auction. Wow, a thousand coins would set the Trench Kingdom coffers up nicely. How freaking much money did these people have?

  She took a deep breath and then kept running toward the gate. In time, Barkly would be worth his weight in coins. A few more shoppers yelled at her, asking her about her dress. One even wanted the horns off her head.

  “Hey,” Bowsette yelled to the ever-growing crowd running with her. “There are fake Royal Guards coming up. They will sell you their shirts off their backs for the right price,” Bowsette yelled and the crowd actually gasped. “Today only!”

  Getting out of the shopping district, she turned the last corner with a big sign displaying Warp Gate This Way, accompanied with an arrow of flashing orbs pointing that direction. The sign felt condescending and right when she was about to flame it, she spotted the guards at the bottom of the warp gate steps.

  Shit, they set a trap for her. She glanced back down the street and saw the Royal Guards were getting mobbed by the crowd throwing coins at them. Well, guess there was only one way and that was through the warp gate guards.

  She hefted Barkly onto her shoulder and walked toward the gate. At least there were only nine of them.

  Chapter Five

  “Stop by order of the Royal Guard,” a young guard yelled to her.

  Even a couple hundred feet away, she could see the gun shaking in his hand. She stopped walking and studied each of the soldiers. Some were holding their guns rock steady and with a narrow gaze on her. Just great, this was going to take longer than she thought.

  She raised her free hand and walked toward them, making sure she had a nice bounce to her step and a big smile. Eat it up, boys, because this is not going to go as you planned.

  “Hand over the Warrior of the Grand Kingdom,” the man said, still pointing his gun at her.

  She cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “Say what now?”

  “Barkly, give us Barkly,” he said.

  “Oh, him,” she said, looking at her limp friend on her shoulder. “Sure thing.”

  She stepped toward them, and they tensed up, fingers on triggers.

  “That’s close enough.”

  She nodded and glanced back. The mob still had the main force occupied, but it wouldn’t be long until they starting shooting into the crowd to disperse it. Or at least she thought they would.

  “Stop!” the guard said when she took another step forward.

  “Okay, wow, do I really look dangerous here, guys?” Bowsette asked.

  “We have orders to stop you. Now give us the Warrior and then get on your knees with your hands on your head.”

  “Okay, sure,” Bowsette said. “I think he’s hurt though so don’t drop him.”

  She grabbed Barkly and threw him in the air toward the five Royal guards clustered together. They gasped and put their arms up to catch him. At the same moment, Bowsette heard three shots fired. Two from the right side and one from the left. The bullets screamed as they raced toward her. She ducked down, avoided two of the large bullets while the third bounced on the ground near her, tumbling just over her head.

  She sprinted toward the two guards as they shot again and then jumped to the brick building on her right side. Landing just above the window, she bounced back off the building and did a half spin as she fell toward them.

  With her shell down, she hit the two guards with her hard back, smashing them against the pavement with a crunch. She rolled right onto her feet and in one motion, breathed out a lasting fire breath on the five guards discarding Barkly behind them. They didn’t even have a chance to get their guns pointed at her before the wave of flames hit them, melting their weapons and turning them into ash.

  She coughed and fell to one knee. It had been two lasting breaths too close together and now she fought to stay conscious. A white flask hit the ground next to her and a coldness hit her, shocking her back into alertness. The blue liquid spread over the pavement under her feet. She pulled at her legs, but her feet were stuck to the ground.

  A freaking freeze flask? Really?

  She took in a breath and tried to find the fire in her gut, but as she breathed out, only hot air blew against the ice. Slowing its progression up her body momentarily.

  Two guards were left and one fired, the screaming bullet flew by her head. She ducked, dodging it. She reached deep inside herself, finding anger for the people trying to stop her. Anger for what had happened to her kingdom and most of the anger she had was for herself and how she would fail everyone if she ended up stuck to the ground. She felt the fire sliding into her gut. The hate wouldn’t give her a lot of fire breath, but it should give her enough to break the ice.

  She bent over, dodging another bullet and breathed fire on her legs and feet as she held up her dress. Good thing she was pretty much fireproof, but her shoes were heating up and soon, they ignited on fire. Damn, those were her best shoes too.

  Finally, she pulled a foot free and then the other as the two guards appeared to be arguing. She stepped over the puddle of water, kicking off her black, burnt shoes and the walked barefoot over the ashes of the guards toward the last two. There were arguing and when they noticed she was free, the young man with shaky hands, dropped his gun, screamed and ran toward the market. The last one seemed frozen, holding his rifle at his side, and just staring at her.

  Barkly lay near the stairs leading up to the warp gate. He seemed unharmed from her flame attack and now the only thing between her and the gate was this statue of a guard.

  “Do you want to die?” she asked as she got closer. She knew she had enough fire left in her to fry this guy.

>   “I never fired once… You…” he said. “You’re amazing.”

  He fell to his knees and dropped his gun at her feet.

  She glanced up the street to see the Royal guards in mass, turning the corner. How in the hell did this army defeat her uncle? But she knew the powerful things under Cupcake’s command weren’t yet awake. If they were, she knew things would be much different. Sort of the reason to expedite the process.

  “Just get out of here,” she said, pointing toward the stores.

  “Take me with you. I will do your bidding. I will lick your,” he took a deep breath, “boots clean. I will worship you. Just command me, please,” he said, holding his hands together.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Candrid.”

  “I can’t take you, but you can help me right now get out of here and keep them from following me.”

  “Anything. I will do anything.”

  “Good, you can start by closing the gate right behind us, okay?”

  “Of course. Will that be enough to get you to take me?”

  “No,” she said. “But do this for me and I will remember your name. Stay with the guard and become a strong enough warrior that when the day comes, you will have the ability to help me.”

  He nodded and crunched his face together in determination. “I will and thank you.”

  A whistle blew from down the street and probably a hundred royal guards were running straight for her.

  “Bowsette, get out of here,” Candrid said.

  “Thanks, Candrid. Don’t forget, close the gate behind me.”

  “As you command.”

  She shook her head, turning his back to him and bent over to pick up Barkly. She glanced back to see Candrid near the portal keypad.

  “I hit your number in already,” he said. “Go!”

  The sound of gunfire blasted from the guards running toward her. She jogged up the stairs, skipping two steps at a time, as the massive portal shimmered, vibrated and then made a pop sound, becoming as black as the moonless, night sky. She didn’t slow down, and jumped into the black warp gate and back home.

  Chapter Six

  On the other side, she skidded to a stop on the brown, dirt covered pavers. She was in the Trench Kingdom. She looked back at the warp gate and the blackness. If Candrid was a man of his word, the gate would fall and it would be probably hours before it had enough power to open again.

  “Come on,” she said, tapping her bare foot against the stone. “Close it.”

  Then, in a blink, the black gate dropped, leaving the massive arched structure bare. Behind it now stood the brown, stone cliff running up a couple hundred feet above her. The towering feature flanked both sides and created the Trench. Her home.

  She took a deep breath, smelling the dirt and stale air mixed with that burning metal smell that permeated from the lava rivers, and the last two smelters still working. The sun only reached the bottom of the trench for an hour or two a day, but that moment had long passed and it took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the trench.

  The pavers were worn down and she rubbed her feet along their familiar, softened edges. Further down the trench were the few houses that still held her people. She wanted to share this moment with Barkly, but the man still hadn’t moved. She looked down at him and sighed. It would be easy to hate him but that would be like being angry at the bullet and not the person behind the trigger.

  Carrying Barkly, she walked down the steps past the Warp Gate. A few engravings in the stone walls bore the images of her family and some of the history of the Trench. This was the past. This was a legacy of greatness engraved in stone. She walked by it, sliding her fingers over the engravings as she had a thousand times before.

  Before, it would have been a welcoming image for new arrivals coming from the gate. As a child, the gate was the hub of activity as the tax and tribute collectors moved around the Kingdoms collecting what was due to them. The trade’s people would always be coming in going with wares. Everything in the world seemed to make sense then. People seemed happy and the world was being protected by them. Now, a smile among her people was as rare as a rainy day.

  Barkly groaned and moved for a second before falling back unconscious. She wasn’t sure of the extent of his injuries but she needed to get him back to her castle and healed. Thankfully, she had acquired one near the warp gate and she headed that way.

  Footprints marked most of the surface on the dirt road as it rarely rained in the Trench and without proper street maintenance, the winds had blown in sand and dirt. It seemed to cover everything now with a light dusting. If you like shades of brown, there were few places in all the kingdoms with more of a supply. Only a few spots of patchy grass disrupted the hue. Probably grass seeds carried over from the neighboring Grass Kingdom.

  After a few minutes, she reached the first houses carved into the walls of the cliffs. The windows were broken and the insides had dust and grass creeping in. It’d been a while since the end of the Grand Kingdoms aggression on them and she knew if she didn’t do something extreme for her people, they were going to fade off the plane of existence much like the Screecher Bird. Cupcake would probably expunge them from all records and after a few generations, they would be nothing more than a myth or a horror story to scare children into eating their greens and to stop picking on their brother.

  She combed back Barkly’s curly brown hair from his eyes.

  An old trench woman, Fremma, stood near her front door, sweeping out some of the dust from her house as Bowsette passed by. She leaned on her broom, glaring at Barkly. Would she recognize him in this form, in this setting?

  “About time someone did something,” Fremma said. “Lava is going to flow hot tonight.”

  “He’s not an offering. He’s with us now,” Bowsette said.

  “Hmm, is that right?”

  Bowsette nodded to the woman and she went back to sweeping, shaking her head in disapproval. It could also be that Bowsette hadn’t been a popular ruler since her family fell and they all wanted revenge. She arose by blood and wished she could tell her kind that she had a plan that had been spinning since the second she put on the crown. Soon, they would all learn of it though. So let them put their anger on her, she could hold them all.

  A child ran by, kicking a black ball along the dirt. He smiled and waved as he sped by.

  “Hey, Princess,” he said.

  “Hello, Perry,” she said.

  She picked up her speed as they came to a fork in the road. She spotted the glow of the lava river down one path. That way led to her uncle’s massive castle, or what was left of it. Princess Banana made sure of that with the use of her bomb wand.

  As she neared her more modest castle, a few more people were walking around and even one old man was carrying a bag of what looked like groceries with Cupcake’s C crest on it. The generous people of the Grand Kingdom had allotted them a food outreach program. Something that wasn’t needed when they could openly trade with the neighboring kingdoms for food but there was restrictions now on what they could make and how much. She hated taking any charity from them. It was like a punch in the tit with one hand while they handed you an ice pack with the other. All the while, expecting a thank you for the ice. It felt soft and weak to accept things from the Grand Kingdom and foreign from everything she knew of her people. If Bowsette had worked hard, she might have gotten a trade deal with the Grass Kingdom, but it would have ended quickly with Cupcake’s interference. Everything was designed to keep them small and in their place. Well, screw that. She was about to flip their world on their heads.

  Finally, she reached the entrance to her castle. It wasn’t a castle in traditional Trench terms and actually it belonged to an arms merchant long dead, but it was her slice of privacy and her den of planning for a better day. The thought of her plan gave her chills and she held the most important piece right in her arms. She hefted him over to her other arm and walked to the front door. A massive wood, double
door with her family crest on it. The face of her great, great grandfather. A growling face with two large horns coming out of the side of his head. He was the first to discover the gift of fire breath, now Bowsette was the last of her kind to possess such a power.

  She turned the handle and opened the door only to be greeted by an old man she knew well.

  “Pop Master, have you been waiting there the whole time?” Bowsette asked.

  The old man adjusted his glasses and said, “No, at my age, I’m never more than thirty minutes away from using the bathroom.”

  “Gross,” she said.

  Pop Master was the only member of her old families’ help. She had known him her entire life and while she had asked what Pop Master meant, just an old title was as much as he’d say. So, she just kept calling him that. His hair had turned white over the years and since the grand aggression and the falling of her uncle, Pop’s health had deteriorated to the point where he struggled to walk fast, was hard of hearing, and his already less than pleasant demeanor had salted further.

  She had tried to get him to retire, but he took such offense at the idea, then he’d be shitty for days after each time she mentioned it. He’d go on about how the position was for life and then he’d apologize for not dying quick enough for her.

  His gaze narrowed as he leaned forward, studying the thing in her arms.

  “Are we back into the family business of kidnapping, Princess?”

  “No, I didn’t kidnap him… I don’t think.”

  “Good, would you like me to dispose of the body? The lava is running high right now and an offering of this size I bet would be most welcome.”

  “No, Pop, he is here as a visitor and you will treat him as my royal guest, okay?”

  “As you wish, Princess,” Pop Master said with a struggled bow. “Is the boy okay?”

  “I’m not sure, but we’re going to have to use some red on him.”

  “Such things are in short supply, Princess. Are you sure?”

  “He’s worth it,” she said. “Can you make us some tea and bring it to my room?”