Goldest and the Kingdom of Thorns

by Joanne Durda

  Savagio spurred his horse and rode away from the Monks, hoping they would leave him be for a while. One or more always seemed to accompany him, and he had taken notice how they were always hiding in the shadows, keeping a watchful eye on him.

  “What are we to do with him after he has taught our thorns the use of wielding their thorn bodies, twigs and branches in battle?” Pentangle asked Octagon.

  “Nothing! He will go back from whence he came,” the sagacious Octagon replied with harshness.

  Onion raised an eyebrow at Octagon’s stern reply. “Do you think that would be wise to let him go after he has trained our army?”

  “Savagio is an honorable warrior. I respect him,” Octagon said wisely.

  “M-m-me t-t-too!” Imbecile stuttered.

  “Shut up, Imbecile!” Xnug exclaimed coldly.

  “I would say that Savagio’s constant mockery of our thorns was not appreciated – nor was it honorable,” Pentangle reminded them.

  “Being a warrior, he was only amused because of their strangeness,” Octagon said wisely, again.

  “I-I-I w-w-was amused t-t-too!” Imbecile stuttered.

  Xnug gave Imbecile a deep, dark look as he said to him, “I said shut up, Imbecile! No one here needs to listen to your stuttering remarks.” Xnug then said colder still, “We do not care what you say or think. You have only half a brain.”

  Imbecile put his head down in shame. Onion moved his mount closer to Imbecile’s mount and put his hand on the fool’s shoulder to reassure him that there were those who did care. Octagon was pleased at Onion’s gesture towards Imbecile, and turned his horse away from Xnug. He did not care to quarrel with the Monk, knowing that his character had taken on a vexatious cast since the Thorn Army had been in training.

  Octagon and Onion knew to ignore any detestable remarks or ill treatment of Imbecile because it would only cause further trouble with some of the others to continue to provoke and antagonize the stuttering Imbecile. Neither of them liked the hostile treatment of this lesser Monk, but they both also knew that there was nothing they could do. Theo ruled over them, and everyone knew he loathed Imbecile and had very little tolerance towards him. Being a lesser Monk, Imbecile was fair game for other Monks to ridicule him. As in any kingdom, there was the benevolence and the enmity, along with the beautiful and the ugly. One’s being was formed by one’s own heart and not one’s own mind.

  “I still believe something ill will befall us if we let him go,” Pentangle remarked, as a discomforting feeling overcame him.

  Octagon turned his mount to ride back. “Your mind produces too many thoughts, Pentangle. Let Theo be the intellect.”

  Onion shouted to Octagon as he spurred his horse onwards, “Remember, Brother, we are all in this together!”

  “I don’t need you to remind me, Brother, my nightmares already have!” Octagon shouted back.

  Imbecile turned his horse and followed Octagon. He did not care to be in the company of his other Brothers anymore.

  “I shall have to burn my stones of amethyst tonight to increase my psychic abilities, and I shall lay in a bed of hematite crystals for spiritual grounding,” Pentangle stated to Onion. “By morning I will know what fate shall lie in wait for our Savagio.”

  “You are courting trouble if you continue on this subject of Savagio. Leave it be, and let his own fate take its course. Burn your crystals of lapis and meditate the essence of your soul to be more purer than your thoughts,” Onion warned him.

  “I do not like what comes from your tongue!” Pentangle exclaimed to Onion.

  “Stop using your powers to imagine!” Onion shouted to him as he spurred his horse back to the Thorn Castle.

  Xnug was glad that Onion had left them; he felt uncomfortable with Onion’s tongue.

  A wretched, perspicacious Moon rose over the night. It was troubled by what laid beneath it in the Kingdom of Thorns. The Domain is restless again, the Moon thought to itself.

  My moonbeams shine on nothing but brewing trouble. I will shed tears of moondust upon the Kingdom of Thorns tonight, hoping it will sooth the unrest and filtering trouble that is to come. Nothing good becomes of a quest that requires an army of frightening stature, the saddened Moon thought to itself.

  An even unhappier Sun rose over the Kingdom of Thorns early the next morning. Its rays were not as colorful, but more of a brazen pewter. Unwholesome rays over a restless kingdom is what I shine now, the Sun thought to itself. I do not care to warm trouble. Trouble comes in many different shades; but nevertheless, it is cold and unfeeling, no matter what. And I see this trouble growing colder every day. The Sun shivered as it rose higher into the grayish sky.

  The next day saw rows of the Thorn Army standing one behind the other. Savagio, Pentangle and Xnug stood in front of these rows. At some distance were some of the other watchful eyes of the Monks – Theo, Meek, Octagon, Onion, Alme, Emm, Imbecile, Ebrix, Sooth, Asp, Sectangle, Uhl, Oxon, Radish and Decadence. Some of the lesser Monks sat on the hills above them all and watched as they munched on their herbal spinach bread and drank hot herbal brew. The air was much cooler today than normal. They were somewhat chilled and were wondering why the sun was no longer as bright as it had always been in the past.

  It was time for Savagio to give a speech to the thorns. “You have acquired strength and endurance. Now the real challenge – to train you to use your protruding thorns to defend yourselves and your kingdom in battle against any enemy.” He paused, then went on. “You have grown sharp thorns like scales up and down your twiglike bodies – legs, arms, hands, heads. You must learn to thrust your twigs and slice the air, pointing your thorns in the direction that you are to make contact with human flesh or any enemy in battle.”

  Pentangle stepped forward to add to Savagio’s speech. “You must strike sharply with a cutting effect, to rip, bleed, and destroy any flesh that you come into contact with. Make us, your leaders, all proud of you!”

  The excitement also made Xnug bold, for he stepped forward and added, “You must all fight brutally, aggressively – without any justice or comprehension about what you are doing, or what might become of it!”

  “You must be the first to strike – not wait for the enemy to strike first, unless told to do so – faultless aggression is the word here,” Pentangle added to his message to the thorns.

  An irritated Savagio gave Pentangle and Xnug strange, deplorable looks. He did not like their manner of speech. An uneasiness crept up his spine, into his soul. His skin took on a bluish tinge, as he grew cold. Savagio looked up at the sun and noticed how dull and grayish it had been the past few days, being stingy with its rays. Savagio, with controlled calmness, asked Pentangle and Xnug, “What did you raise here, and for what reason? And what am I training here?”

  “Thorn Warriors! Or have you forgotten already?” Pentangle replied with a smartness that displeased Savagio even more.

  Savagio looked with disdain at Pentangle, never really liking him anyway. I will question Octagon later – and to hell with Theo, Savagio thought to himself. He then turned his attention back to the thorns, knowing whatever he might say to Pentangle, would do no good. “Thorns, I will demonstrate on what you are to do. Watch!”

  The thorns appeared to have stretched their necks towards Savagio with deep interest. Savagio had to hold his laughter in silence. “Too bad they are without tongue and cannot speak for themselves, only listen and obey. It would be interesting to hear what they had to say,” he said to himself.

  Savagio threw himself on one bended knee and thrust out his arms and sliced the air, turning and twisting himself He then threw forward each knee up into the air. “What I have just demonstrated to you is the use of your sharp thorns for penetrating or slicing the enemy, and how to strike out with your knees or legs into your opponent.”

  Pentangle stepped forward. “With your protruding sharp thorns you must gash, pierce, incise, slash, slit, sever, cleave, dissever, sunder and dissect your opponent’s flesh!”

>   “Rip them apart!” Xnug exclaimed.

  “I think Pentangle covered it all, Xnug,” Savagio shouted to Xnug in a tasteless insult.

  The curious thorns watched, fascinated at what they could do with themselves. Ideas of their own were taking shape within their sharp minds to match their sharp thorns.

  Again, Savagio looked strangely at Pentangle with distaste. He was unnerving him, and was about to throw him off the field. He didn’t care if he was a hooded robed Monk of ancient ancestry. “His person certainly has taken on a posture of enmity,” Savagio told himself. Pentangle’s personal animus against warriors was causing his antagonism of Savagio to grow.

  “Now, let’s start lunging forward, pointing our thorns, thrusting ourselves into the air, making quick, sharp moves like I have just done – pretend that we are cutting into an enemy,” Savagio continued on with his lecture to the thorns.

  Pentangle screamed out, “Plunge your thorns into that enemy and rip them apart!”

  Ignoring Pentangle, Savagio slowly stated, “Let’s get started.”

  The thorns lunged and bent their twig legs as they were thrusting their thorns, as well as plunging them into an imaginary opponent.

  The other Monks conferred quietly amongst themselves. Octagon and Onion did not agree with the harsh words used by Pentangle and Xnug. Alme, with a few of the other Monks, was aghast at Pentangle, also. They too saw the hostility building up in Pentangle, with Xnug following along.

  “I see Savagio is not as brutal as I thought he might be,” Theo remarked with contempt, as he noticed his anger towards Pentangle simmering.

  “Excuse me, Theo, but Savagio is first a warrior with honor before he is a heartless fighter,” Octagon reminded him.

  “Maybe we chose wrongly,” Meek remarked.

  “No, we did not. Did he not know how to build our Thorn Army stronger? Now he will train them in battle, to fight with dignity,” Octagon told them.

  “I-I-I agree w-w-with Octagon. S-S-Savagio is a p-p-proud w-w-warrior who w-w-will train our t-t-thorns to f-f-fight with d-d-dignity,” Imbecile stuttered.

  “Dignity – bah! Virtue will not win a battle or gain us any other kingdom! But blood will!” Ebrix stated.

  Imbecile flinched while Theo chuckled.

  “Such unseemly words spoken for an ancient Monk,” Theo quietly said to Ebrix. “Pentangle is also showing indecorous behavior.”

  The Monks chuckled amongst themselves, except for Octagon and Imbecile.

  “It seems to be that since the Thorn Army has been refined and are no longer seedlings, there are a great many Monks amongst us here who have taken on unbecoming behavior and language that does not suit our character and status as Monks. Indelicacy has taken root in our Kingdom of Thorns,” Octagon stated, not caring if the Monks verbally attacked the statement he made to them.

  The Monks were startled and speechless at Octagon’s words, not realizing the loathsome change that had overcome them. They had displayed antipathy with their changing character, which was taking on a colorless tone of simmering evil.

  “I shall have to keep a closer watch on Octagon to see what disturbs him so,” Theo whispered to Meek and Alme, who were next to him.

  “You need to remedy the situation and not punish,” Meek responded.

  Alme did not respond, knowing that Octagon’s words held truth in them. Octagon stood fearlessly aside, while Imbecile gulped.

  Some of the Monks left the group with their heads down low and fled back to the castle to continue with their daily chores. Their excitement at the Thorn Army had diminished with the onslaught of Octagon’s astute remarks.

  The Ladybug Castle

  Months had passed, and the Ladybug Castle was still bustling with activity – cleaning and decorating the main table in the great main dining hall of the castle. The carpet in the main hall was rolled down and the tapestries were hung on the walls. In the castle’s rooms burned incense cones or candles of strawberry for love and friendship, tangerine to attract prosperity and love, blueberry to keep the unwanted and evil away from the castle, cherry for attracting and holding love, honeysuckle for good luck and protection against evil, jasmine for luck and love; and last but not least, the Queen had vanilla burning in the castle’s main dining room to stimulate appetites. The servants and maids found pleasure in cleaning the castle rooms and doing their daily chores just to linger and drift in the many different aromas which gave a lift to their spirits and made them more physically and emotionally charged. All the castle rooms had been dressed with furniture, linens, woven rugs, mirrors, candles and other artifacts. The castle was turning back time and was, once again, its beautiful self. The artifacts placed throughout the castle rooms and halls enhanced the look of the place and made you feel that you dwelled where the artists actually lived and worked on their art.

  The Queen of the Willows had taken notice at what a splendid job her and Augean had done with the Ladybug Castle. “Why, you walk on more carpets here than in any other castle,” she told herself time and time again. And the Queen also admired all the numerous tapestries hanging proudly on the castle walls, which were more explicit in their depiction of lovers than in any other castle.

  “This castle holds numerous talents,” Augean had told her grandmother one day as she admired the numerous tapestries. “So full of artistry, with the main theme of interwoven love.”

  It became known to everyone involved inside the castle that the wealth of the castle was the artwork and craftsmanship that graced it.

  Shadow rested at the main entrance, watching the activity and keeping his usual watchful eyes on the little Princess Augean. She radiated with smiles these days, loving what she was doing and happy that it was for Goldest. She bathed herself in the luxury of the artwork and took the time to admire it every day.

  “This castle has such a clean smell to it now. Why, I feel like moving in permanently!” the Queen joked with Augean, who giggled in response.

  “The King would never permit it, Grandmother. Besides, he would miss you.”

  “Our work is done here within the castle. Let us stay but a few more months and enjoy our work and the fresh, new smell. The King would never know we are finished here!” the Queen told Augean without any guilt.

  Augean smiled fondly at her grandmother. “As you wish, dear Grandmother. You will find me not complaining.”

  A sinister hooded shadow, hiding darkly behind in the shadows of tall potted trees set in the main dining hall as decorations, bent downwards and took its leave after listening to the conversation between the Queen and Augean. With everyone as busy as bees, no one seemed to take notice of this cloaked figure, thinking it was just one of the villagers helping with the outside lands or settling in on his own homestead.

  Outside, the land had been painstakingly cleared and replanted with flora, gardens, orchards, trees, bushes and shrubs. There was always bustling activity around the castle grounds as warriors and the villagers and townspeople tended to gardens of various flora, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Other folk herded the flocks of sheep, goats, cows, chickens, roosters and turkeys out into the fields, behind the castle. The villagers and townspeople also worked the fields of oats, corn, barley, wheat, red and golden potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams, beans and beets.

  The Willow Warriors had helped to build the cottages and homesteads around the land. They also took diligent care and effort in planting numerous white and yellow daffodils, pink and white amaryllis, which also included purple freesia all around the castle and its walkways. Numerous white phalaenopsis graced the front of the castle itself.

  The maids and servants of the castle had a tedious task of forever conjuring up and cooking hearty meals of beef, chicken and different variations of potatoes for the Willow Warriors to aid in their hard labor and arduous tasks of clearing, planting and rebuilding.

  When the Queen of the Willows noticed all the Willow Warriors planting flowers, she laughed lightly at them, telling them all that they
would all turn soft. The Queen did not realize that all this hard labor had built up the Willow Warriors’ strength, determination, physical and mental well-being. They had all become even better equipped for an engagement in battle, both mentally and physically. They would just smile at the Queen of the Willows when she came out to see how soft the Willow Warriors were becoming every time they planted the luxuriant flowers.

  The kingdom seemed to take on an air of relaxed contentment. No one appeared to be unhappy or disillusioned about making this kingdom their new home. Great satisfaction appeared to be prevalent.

  Ushi rode Niciu around the grounds, nodding his head in approval at the magnificent spectacle of regrowth and peace among the people, who had followed them from the Kingdom of the Willows. From time to time, he would stop and chat and hear what they had to say about the regrowth or rebirth of the kingdom. The Willow Warriors that he had taken with him, had been a big help in organizing the planting of the trees, bushes, gardens, flowers and other various exotic shrubs. They also worked with the townspeople in tending to the large flocks of animals, which were multiplying. Sometimes Ushi would dismount and help the Willow Warriors in the building of the cottages and homesteads. Never once did he ever hear any complaints from the men. Ushi was also overwhelmed at their eagerness to do any maintenance in and around the castle itself. The Willow Warriors did everything they could to strive for perfection in the rebirth for this kingdom. He knew that he would have to reward the Willow Warriors in some way. He had thought about asking the Tooth Fairy Princess in acquiring some of the magnificent steeds she had access to, so that he could give them to his men in gratitude for their utmost help in his endeavor to help Goldest restore her castle. He had overheard his men talking one night around their dinner table next to the stables in their own private lodgings about how they would all love to own a stallion like Niciu. Ushi did not know how to approach the Tooth Fairy Princess on the subject, but he would find a way at the right time. Will I ever see her again? Ushi thought to himself, feeling a tinge of melancholy. He brushed the memory of the princess out of his thoughts and turned to Goldest. Goldest was his biggest concern at the present moment.