Φ “Look Atalanta, isn’t this smile worth it.”
“Not at all, get this gross lady off of me right now.”
Dush getting away from us says, “Where did you find this?”
“Oh well, these two cute little munchkins stole it, so we had them give it back.”
Shaking Mime in my hands, I tell her and Anto, “Now what do we say to people we wronged.”
In unison, they both say, “Sorry for stealing your stuff.”
“See how cute these two are, so how about you forgive them, Dush?”
Picking both the kids up she says, “Well they are cute so let me mull this over.”
Walking both the kids over to the street curb, she makes them bite it and say, “Die you brats.”
Oh no, she is about to kick their heads in. Running over at full speed, I scream, “STOP!”
-Break-
Φ “Daddy isn’t my art so pretty.”
“Peppa it truly is, you have the hands of an angel.”
“Really!!” Peppa says ecstatically.
Barring into the room with an Alarmed expression, Kate says, “Darling a lot of people are outside our house.”
“Why?”
“They are saying we caught Percy.”
“But we haven’t done any such thing.”
“I don’t know who is spreading those lies, but we should still come outside.”
“Peppa, stay here mommy and daddy will be back.”
“Ok! When mommy comes back let’s show her my art as well.”
“Yes, we will.”
Following Kate, I rush outside to see a ridiculously large amount of people, the majority of the citizens in Skydust must be here right now.
“Jeter, we heard you caught Percy.”
“Darling did you bring it.”
“I never leave without it,” Kate says as she hands me a shatter shell; it expands the sound of my voice a hundred-fold.
Standing up in front of them all, I say into the shatter shell, “We have not caught Percy, I have no idea why you were all called here.”
“What do you mean, Suzuka and Cyrus were running everywhere announcing it to everyone.”
What, why would they do that? “Sorry I have no idea why they did such a thing, but it isn’t true, we have no idea where Percy could be. So, it would be best if you all decided to scatter.”
Suddenly a thundering voice rings throughout the area; “WAIT A MINUTE!!” The sheer sound and volume causes me to stop in my tracks unable to move, the voice was even louder than mine in the shatter shell.
Looking down into the crowd, I see it part in the middle, and then down that rift I see Suzuka, and Cyrus walks down. But it seems Cyrus is holding something in his arms.
When she gets close enough, Suzuka grabs the man from Cyrus’s arms and throws him towards me, then she screams, “We didn’t lie to you since that man there is Percy, we found him.”
Then the crowd of people around us suddenly explode with noise. Feeling the anxiety in the air I say, “EVERYONE CALM DOWN.”
After I say this, I get off the platform in front of my house and walk over to Percy. I have so many questions to ask you, what did you do? How many people have you killed? Why couldn’t you listen to me? How was your last birthday? Have you been taking care of yourself? Have you grown up? Did you lose weight? Have you been taking care of yourself? Do you still love your family? Did you miss us? Do you even understand the gravity of what you have done?
To be honest, when you left I had never expected to ever see you again, now you're right in front of me and your life now has the fate of all of Skydust.
Placing my hand on his hood I prepare to pull it off, but I stop to think; I am scared, I don’t want to be looked at with those same irrational eyes of hatred you looked at me with before you disappeared, but as the king, this is simply something I have to take responsibility for.
Pulling the hood off the man’s head, I see it is Percy, but his face is so malnourished that he barely looks the same. My son had a strong and mighty body honed for craft, but the boy in front of me has twig-like arms that could barely hold anything.
His skin was just one level up from pushing against his bones, numerous scars have overtaken his body, and worst of all his face was completely despondent as if he had given up on life. The powerful eyes my son had are gone, the beast that was there had been domesticated.
The very sight of my boy looking like this breaks my heart into pieces, but with all the willpower I can muster I hold back the tears and say, “Percy do you know what you have done?”
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When Percy sees my face, it looks like the remaining life drained from his face and he bows his head saying, “Father I am sorry, I am so sorry. I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought I could just give weapons to people, and we could just fight against them but that isn’t how it went.
For every 1 they lost we lost 10, for every victory destruction followed soon after, bodies piled up higher than our tallest buildings. I saw so many good people lose their minds and go insane, or they turned into beasts that had to be put down.
And I dragged my friends into this, Thomas, Charles, Wendy, Amy, they all died. But not only them; Ellie, Sam, Bill, Liam, Abigail, Zoey, Cian, Darcy, Katie, Ciara, Callum, Louise, Max, Jenny, Lucy, Mattew, Brandon, Dillion, Hilda, Kelly, Sasha, Holly, and so many other whose name I didn’t even get to know, they all died horrendous deaths because of me, they are being tortured while I get to live, while I bow my head in front of you.
I am so sorry dad; I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t know who I was hurting I am so sorry dad.”
Looking at my son's face I know in my heart what I should do. “Percy due to your actions, Gevurah is knocking on our front door and is threatening war.”
With a shocked expression, he looks up at me and says, “What?”
“Now the only way to avoid such a thing would be to hand over the man who caused chaos in their war. Right now, your life is what is threatening the existence of Skydust.”
His face goes even more hollow, and then he says, “I didn’t know my actions had brought such a thing to you all, I promise I won’t let them do anything to Skydust.”
As Percy starts to stand up, I grab his shoulder and hold him in place, then I say, “This issue concerns Skydust so it will be handled by the people of Skydust. DID YOU HEAR ME, EVERYONE, WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT TO DO WITH PERCY?”
“Isn’t it obvious our king, I refuse to hand over even one of our own to another country?”
“ALL THOSE WHO AGREE RAISE YOUR VOICES!”
Noise erupts yet again from around the area. “It seems you aren’t going anywhere, my son.”
Φ Looking at my dad in front of me, I say, “Dad this is a bad idea, do you even know what you're doing? If we oppose them, they will wipe us all out without discrimination. Skydust will fall!”
Suddenly I am tackled from the side, and then I see Rebecca, “I heard you actually gave Gevurah a run for their money.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
To my left, I see Amioss, “Do you still pee your pants brat?”
“Do women still avoid you?”
“Say that again you bastard,” he says grabbing my collar.
Mecca walking towards me says, “Hey Percy look what Robert got me for my birthday, I thought he was cheating this entire time.”
“You know having a little more trust in your husband will make life go easier.”
“EXACTLY,” Robert says.
Radum appearing out of nowhere says, “Woah your all skin and bones now and you used to be so strong, I could probably take Percy in a fight now.”
“Says the boy who got bullied by a five-year-old since he was ten.”
“Hey, little girls can be terrifying.”
“Whatever you say.”
Out of nowhere, I feel something forced into my mouth, looking at who did it, I see my mother with Peppa in her arms. “That was some of my birthday cake Percy, I saved it for when you came back.”
“Peppa, you’re a lot bigger now.”
“I know, I am a grown lady now.”
Patting her head, I say, “You really are.”
“You see this Percy; everyone wants you back and is ready to fight for that.”
“But if we do it won’t go well, we will fail.”
Giving me a hug, my dad says, “I know how you feel, but you should also understand how we feel about this. There is no way we are losing one of our own.”
Hearing my father's words I fall to the ground with tears in my eyes and just say, “Thank you,” over and over again.
Φ “I-I-I-I-It seems a-a-a-all went well, Su-u-u-uzuka.”
“What the hell is this.”
Turning my head towards her, I say, “What do you mean Suzu-u-u-u-ka,” but she has already started to run far away.
“Suzuka w-w-w-where are you go-o-o-o-oing,” I say following her at full speed.
After running, for a while, we eventually stop in an alley where I say, “What is wr-r-r-rong.”
“It-it- it just isn’t fair, that man put all of their lives in danger and his selfishness has killed so many people, so why he has been allowed to come back here?”
“Bu-u-u-ut they forgave him.”
Turning around to face me, Suzuka says, “Then why couldn’t the same happen to me? All I ever wanted was to be accepted by them and to be friends with them, and they all even my grandma rejected me, just because of a curse I couldn’t control, they all wanted me dead and even killed my parents for it.
But that man didn’t give a shit about anyone here and selfishly did actions that could have put them all in danger, and now they are all about to go to war for him. It just isn’t fair why did I have to be put through all of this.”
As she talked strength left her legs until she was on the floor. “I know this is such a selfish thing to say even after all the good fortune I have received, but I just can’t stop feeling like this.”
Picking Suzuka up I say, “I would definitely go to war for you!”
“Huh.”
“So will Orb, and Atalanta, and I am such even Iancu would. F-F-F-F-From this point on, I know you’re going to meet a bunch of people who will go to war for yo-u-u-u-u. So don’t be sad.”
Letting out a little laugh she says, “Thank you for that Cyrus, you can actually be a grown-up at times.”
“Really!” I say with happiness following through my veins.
“Yes, now lets us go back.”
“Suzuka, Cyrus.”
Hearing someone call our names from behind me, I turn around and when I do I see Jeter.
“Sorry for the method we used,” Suzuka says.
“No, don’t apologize for that, it is only thanks to you that we were able to find him, but thanking you is not why I am here.” Getting on his hand and knees Jeter says, “I need your help, I beg you.”
Name: Jeter Mercury
Age: 30
Birthday: Scorpio 20th
Hair: Grey, with red strands
Eyes: Yellow
Height: 180cm
Description: The king of Skydust. He is a kind and humble kind who uses his power to better the lives of his citizens. His personal Craft Candle making, he choose this due to the smell of his parent's candles when he was younger, candles hold great meaning to him.
Name: Kate Mercury
Age: 30
Birthday: Sagittarius 10th
Hair: Cream, with red strands.
Eyes: White
Height: 161 cm
Description: The energetic queen of Skydust. Her personal craft is interior design, and all things that go towards it. Due to her craft needing her to use the Sky forge repeatedly, she constantly loses weight which she needs to overeat to get back, this whole condition has led her to develop sky sickness.
Name: Percy Mercury
Age: 15
Birthday: Leo 27th
Hair: Cream, with red strands.
Eyes: Yellow
Height: 189 cm
Description: The first Prince of Skydust. He is an over-aggressive passionate young man who hates to see those that are oppressed. He went to assist Varage in its war against Gevurah but due to the chaotic results, he returned home a changed boy. His personal craft is decorative weapons, which may not always be decorative.
Name: Peppa Mercury
Age: 5th
Birthday: Scorpio 23rd
Hair: Grey, with red strands
Eyes: White
Height: 40 cm
Description: The first Princess of Skydust. She is a fun-loving little girl, who is still discovering her personal craft.
Sky sickness: An particular illness the body develops due to constant weight loss and weight gain from the Sky forge.