Chapter 2: The search

The once golden sky had become dull in comparison, almost as if to match with the quickly changed atmosphere of the town. Night time began to take it's place, and etched itself over the day light. Normally on a day like this, everyone would be home enjoying a warm meal. Instead, everyone was outside enjoying the view of a cold, twisted corpse.

"Take this body away..." Sully Said before he stood up, and looked to his children.

Two chills went down his spine almost simultaneously as he laid eyes upon his kids. The first chill came from seeing his children curled up in a ball, weeping together. He instantly felt a strong circulation of grief from which they themselves emitted, sitting there, hiding behind a cart of hay with a stone wall at their back. It was clear that they were trying to put the cart between them and whatever had scared them. Sulaiman could tell something was strangely off.

The second chill came from the realization of two missing people. Solaris, queen of Arosa, and Fable, the youngest prince. Behind him, above him, near houses, it didn't matter, they were no where to be found no matter where king Sulaiman looked. Everything happened too suddenly for him to completely comprehend what was happening, but one thing was for sure. With these two missing persons, the family of six, was now four.

"Nikolai, Asiya, Allan!" Sulaiman yelled as he rushed over to them and knelt down. "Are any of you hurt?!"

"Pa..pa..." Asiya cried as she looked up at him from beneath the protection of her arm.

After hearing the distressed tone of Asiya's crying voice, sully began to breath abnormally. His mind went here and there, trying to come up with so many different scenarios as to why this was happening right now, what caused this. There was no clear answer, but only an infinite amount of questions, and he soon asked the biggest one. "Where is...your mother and...Fable?"

Allan tried to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth more tears began to flow, and his breathing became jitterish. Sully needed the answer, he had to have them. Without realizing he had grabbed Allan's shoulder, and quickly asked again. "Where are they?!" He yelled.

"Th..ey're... they're.." Nikolai forced his words out after seeing the fright in Allan's eyes due to the shouting of their father. "They're gone...she took him..." He mustered out.

After saying that, all the kids began to cry even harder, but that did not effect Sully. If anything it only enraged him. His wife and youngest son was suddenly missing and all these kids could do is whimper and cry, was probably what he was thinking.

He stood up rhythmically, and begun to glare down at them with his piercing, dark olive eyes. One deep breath was all he took before asking Nikolai. "What do you mean, they're gone..?" He asked sternly.

"My lord, the carriage has arrived!" Shouted a guard out of no where. This must've been a blessing in disguise for the children. The random calling of the guard had taken the king's anxious rage elsewhere.

But regardless of anything, it was true. The carriage the king called for earlier had just arrived, and on perfect time too. It must've been from all the commotion, but surprisingly Sulaiman didn't notice until the guard interrupted him.

"You there, guard." Sulaiman called. "Have you seen the queen?" He asked calmly.

The guard was caught off guard by the question. It was strange for the king to ask where the queen was because they're known to always be together. He looked around just how Sully had done earlier before replying. "No sire, she doesn't seem to be nearby...I don't think..." he answered.

Sulaiman instantly walked passed him, and asked the other guard near him. "What about you?"

"No sire..." He answered quickly. He then went on to ask the other two guards that were nearby, and they all gave the same answer. "No sire."

They could tell something was off about him, that he wasn't himself. One of them somehow got the courage to reach out to him, and ask what was wrong. "My king, you seem to be stressing over something. Is everything alr-" but that was a foolish question, and he was quickly cut off by the sudden shout of the king.

"Do any of you know where your queen is!?" He yelled loud enough for everyone in the area to hear.

Glaring at everyone, he could see that they were all frightened, and unwilling to give any kind of reply. He then caught a glimpse of his scared children, but this time it was different. They weren't scared of whatever happened earlier, they were scared of him. Seeing that, Sulaiman's eyes loosened, and his face relaxed considerably.

"Are you guys scared of me?" He asked rhetorically before gesturing them to come closer. "Come, no harm will come to you children." He said as he signaled the guards to him.

"Sire." The guards responded.

The king began to reply. "I apologize for-" but the guards cut him off.

"Please do not apologize to us! We're only lowly guards." They said with a very loyal and passionate tone.

Sully groaned a bit. Despite his earlier display of anger, he was actually quite an understanding and reliable king, and he didn't believe that they were simply, lowly guards. "Search this area thoroughly," He said. "and send word to me at the castle right away if you find the queen and my son."

"Yes sire!" The guards shouted before scattering about.

Sully took one more deep breath, and glanced at the kids. One glance is all it took to make the terrible assumption that they were all crying for the same reason. If he would have looked deeper, he would've seen the way Allan cried was due to a traumatizing fear, and the other two were crying only because they could feel that fear emitting off of him. He was the only one that seen it that day, a blood curdling stare of the eyes of the wicked, the true face of their so called mother.

The image played back in forth within his mind the entire way back to the castle. No matter how secure his fathers arms were, they couldn't reach the nightmare in his head.

And so the day that became night went on in a similar fashion. When the king and his children arrived back at the castle, the small hope they had that the queen would be there was sorrily diminished. They soon realized that they were dreaming, and this was reality.

Clattering boots, and stomping hooves, knights searched everything that ever moved. The king had ordered for marshal law, for earlier this day, his wife and child was the last he saw. Men of essence, and men of power, by the kings order climbed every tower. Hours have passed, and soon did the night, by the time the sun rose they were in for a fright. The queen was still missing, and so was the child, hope was lost for it has been a while. Royal children were crying, and the king was in pain, after a whole week, he had slowly gone insane

That's how the story went, and would've continued, but a young man named Allan Rose, did what no one else in his family would. He took matters into his own hands, and decided to leave the kingdom in search of his lost family members.

"Allan come back!" Nikolai shouted. "You imbecile, where do you think you're going?!"

Allan closed his eyes and sniffed in the crisp fresh air of the space around him. He reopened them to see the sight of their sloppy tree house leaning against the side of the old maple tree. "Not sure." He said as he stepped forward, crunching the frail leaves under his feet.

"Wh...what?" Nikolai stuttered before beginning to stomp across the field. "What the heck do you mean "not sure" huh?!" He asked as he grabbed Allan's shoulder, pulling him back a little.

A quick shrug removed Nikolai's grasp, and Allan began to move forward again. "I'm not sure where I'm going, but I'm going." He said. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to find mom... to find Fable."

"Oh really now...is that it? You're going to do everything the knights couldn't, what dad couldn't?" Nikolai asked sarcastically. His eyes began to shine and well up with tears. "Do you think you're some kind of powerful wanderer that can just go off and save the day, some kind of hero?!"

"Yes Nikolai, that's exactly what I think. My names Allan, and I think I'm a hero from one of moms stories." He replied with more sarcasm.

"You're naive Allan!" Nikolai screamed, which was the breaking point for his emotions. Uncontrollable tears rushed down his face, and he fell to his hands and knees. "Do you want to go missing too? Come back...please... just face it already, they're gone!"

Allan didn't have to turn around to know exactly what Nikolai looked like at the moment. Every choke, every cough, the crying, it all painted an imagine in his head that he didn't want to see, but that image hit a soft spot within his heart, and he too began to tear up and cry.

Hearing Allan cry brought a little relief to Nikolai. He thought that perhaps he came to his senses, and was now ready to come back, but then he heard the crackling of leaves to which he then realized, Allan was moving forward. Which made him cry even harder. "Allan I love you...and I can't lose you too!" He yelled.

"Then come with me..." Allan said as he stopped and turned around. "Nikolai I'm sorry, but i'm going to find fable no matter what... he's my little brother..."

That last thing Allan said must've lit a flame in Nikolai. "Little brother..." he mumbled under his breath.

"You should understand that..." Allan said as he started to help Nikolai to his feet.

"You...you will go no matter what?" Nikolai asked as he sniffed up his tears.

"I haven't got much of a choice, Fables out there somewhere." Allan said.

Now feeling a little awkward and shy, knowing he had no place to act brave or mighty, Nikolai talked with little confidence. "Th...then i'm coming too... well because...you're both my little brothers...."