The villain in a fantasy world has spent his whole life trying to take over the world. Now he's finally done it, he finds he's constantly bored and yearns for his old enemies to return.
Part 2 of 3
King Udragarth walked into the forest just beyond the walls of the castle. A number of fruit trees were outside, filling the air with a pleasant fragrance that reminded him of the platters his servants would bring him. He wondered how many Nathaniel had brought him in his time under his rule. He looked at a guard at the gate and summoned him with a wave of his hand.
"Your Kingship?" the guard asked.
"Did you see Nathaniel, a young boy, flee from this gate within the hour?" the king asked.
"I did see two young men fleeing from here just twenty or so minutes ago, running to the south. They kept their necks turned as if watching to see if they were being chased down," the knight answered dutifully.
"Fascinating," the king said. He patted the guard on the helmet and continued his stride away from the castle.
"Alone sir? Are you not traveling with your vanguard?" the guard asked.
King Udragarth turned toward the guard with a menacing gaze. Then he stomped within inches of his face. The knight's lower lip trembled.
"I-I was only asking for your safety," the knight stammered.
Udragarth drew his sword and placed the tip pointing into the knight's neck. A drop of blood appeared.
"Question your king again, and you will lose the ability to," Udragarth whispered.
The knight said nothing, his lower lip increasing its speed of tremble in response to the threat.
"Let the guards know that I will be alone in direction of the south of the village. I suspect I will be able to catch up to my prey by sundown today," Udragarth said.
"Your pre--" the knight stopped himself from asking another question. He nodded dutifully.
Udragarth smiled. He pulled his blade away and strode off, toward the path that would take him closer to Nathaniel. He watched the path carefully. There were two sets of footprints, neither wearing any shoes. Udragarth felt bad about not giving his servants footwear now, as he felt it would have given them a better fighting chance to escape. Abruptly, the tracks stopped on the path, as if they disappeared.
Udragarth nodded, impressed. The boy was smart enough to cover his tracks. Udragarth looked over his shoulder to see whether anyone had come to follow him yet. They would come eventually. He would be ready when they came. Looking back at the path before him, he saw that there was a spot of red on a bush to the right of the well-traveled path. One of them cut their feet. Again, Udragarth lamented not having given them shoes. It would have at least been a challenge if he had.
He followed the red dots along with leaves and bushes that were parallel to the road. It seemed they didn't want to travel far from the road to the next city. It may have been that they ran without food and were planning ahead. He was hoping the two servants would put up more of a challenge than that. At this rate, he would catch up without trying.
But just as Udragarth had these thoughts, he saw the dots veering off to one side. They must have thought to escape after all. He picked up his pace, jogging along the path as the red spots became more and more obvious. The wound must have been opening up since it looked as if it was being smeared hastily as the running became more intense.
Udragarth glanced over his shoulder again and saw that there was a group on the horizon coming toward him. The followers had arrived. He would only have minutes before he was no longer alone.
Running at full speed, he finally came to the end of the trail of red.
"Clever boy," Udragarth said, astounded.
On the floor was a pile of discarded raspberries, their juices having been used to imitate blood and pull him off the trail. He had no idea where they had gone now.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" a scream startled him from behind. Before he could turn around, Udragarth was poked with a large, pointy stick.
"Ouch," Udragarth grunted, swinging around and kicking away the attacker. He was surprised to feel the weight of a small boy fling away from him and crash into a bush. The boy's hands were stained red.
"A friend of Nathaniel's?" Udragarth asked, taking a step toward him.
"You'll never find him now! He ran a completely opposite direction to me while I distracted you with the berries!" the boy yelled defiantly.
"So he went in the opposite direction of you?" Udragarth asked.
"I... Uh... No?" the boy said, wide-eyed.
"Very well," Udragarth said, walking past the boy into the direction he came from.
"You're not going to kill me?" the boy said hopefully.
"I am not. I have no intention of harming either you or Nathaniel," Udragarth said, taking a fighting stance.
"You... you don't? Then why all the talk of killing him?" the boy asked, scratching the back of his head.
"I was bored and thought of a game I could play. I wanted to bring out all the treasonous people of my land. What better way than to go out into the woods and declare to the kingdom that I was both alone and trying to hunt down an innocent, unarmed servant?" Udragarth asked.
"I suppose there wouldn't be a better way," the boy admitted. Udragarth nodded as the followers arrived on the path.
"King Udragarth!" a woman screamed from the edge of the path, drawing her bow. She was surrounded by a dozen archers, swordsman, and spearmen. "I have come to kill you for your crimes against the people of this land. We have you surrounded. Surrender and we will make your death swift!"
"I would sooner die than surrender to you!" King Udragarth yelled in return. He felt good yelling to defiantly. It had been such a long time since there was someone really out to get him like this.
"Then prepare for a long and agonizing death!" she swore.
"Excellent," the king whispered to himself giddily.
Is the king having a mid life crisis 😅