Chapter Thirty Five - Nathaniel’s Plan

In the Castle of Flowers, the townspeople were busy moving houses. Some families had nowhere to stay, so they were brought in by relatives. Some houses had begun to be rebuilt, The king had taken residence in a grand manor in the rich suburbs. The castle had begun refurbishment. Large tents had been constructed over the broken roof, and wooden scaffolding was built around the crumbled walls. It was currently closed to the public, only the workers allowed inside, and guards.

Nathaniel was sitting in the town square one morning. The sun was rising, but people were already in the streets. A guard approached Nathaniel and spoke.

“The King has requested you.” He said gruffly.

“Well okay then.” Nathaniel said. He got up from the bench and started walking with the guard to the Manor. Two guards stood outside the door, but about ten guards patrolled the entire street right outside keeping vigilant watch.

The pair entered and Nathaniel saw a few more guards sitting around a table covered in books and maps. Small figurines made of tin, knights and bandits, stood atop some of the maps.

The guard went up a set of ornate stairs with the guard and arrived at the king’s new office.

There were hundreds of books in messy stacks inside the room. The king was halfway through a book about dragons.

He wasn’t reading everything, just scanning through, finding pages that specifically mentioned dragons being slain.

He had ripped several pages from a few different editions and nailed them to the wall.

It looked like a detective’s office, with notes, drawings and book pages cluttering the wall. The paintings were simply leaning against the wall, on the floor. Beautiful maidens in a flower garden, ships on the high seas. The king did not seem to focus at all on the valuable paintings with the gold-painted frames.

The king had dark circles under his eyes.

“Nathaniel.” The king asked.

“Yes, king.” Nathaniel responded. “You know my name?”

“I had some guards ask about you at the tavern. Your idea. Ice Wizards. Please, tell me more.” The king spoke, and then sipped from a cup of water. It seemed like he’d been dying of thirst the way he drank the entire glass down.

Nathaniel remembered back to a few nights earlier, when he’d said the phrase out loud.

“All I said was to get some ice wizards. The spell Gelida Glacios can turn a human into an ice sculpture. The spell literally turns flesh, bone, hair and skin into water. Imagine one sorcerer and one man. Now we just scale it up, get fifty of them. That should do it, but I’m just some kid.” Nathaniel said.

The king looked at his wall of notes, then wrote down fifty ice wizards and nailed the new paper to the wall.

“Thank you Nathaniel. That will be all, will you be coming to the meeting tomorrow night?” The king asked. “I would love for you to be there.”

“Uh, maybe.” Nathaniel said. He'd been planning to hammer some beers at the tavern.

The Guard and Nathaniel left the king to his plotting and went back outside. The guard waved goodbye and went to the table with the other guards.

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Nathaniel started walking down the street. He wandered into the pub. He saw the mood was quite low.

Nathaniel decided to leave. He wandered out of the city to the flower patch. There were bodies laying in neat rows on top of the flowers. Guards had built a temporary fence to keep out animals, and they also kept watch from inside a tent. They shooed vultures, and wild dogs. The bodies smelled. They were slowly being buried in individual graves by a few priests.

Nathaniel walked through the rows, the guards did not stop anybody from visiting the dead.

He arrived at the dead body of a particularly loud bar patron and he woke him up.

“Your body is cold, your spirit is free

Return to your bones, rise and serve me.”

Your soul is returning, to bring you new breath.

I command you Skeleton, stand up from this rest.”

The bar patron shot up.

“Dragon! Run!” He looked around. “What the fuck, where did it go? Oh man. Nathaniel?”

The man looked at his body and realised he’d lost a leg. It was bandaged, So was the man’s head. He’d died after the initial attack from his injuries.

“Hi Greg. Look mate, it’s a weird night and I know we’ve never really gotten along.” Nathaniel said frankly.

“Right.”

“I was wondering if you would have a beer with me, mate.”

“Mate, look, I’m a bit sick right now. But…” Greg realised, he didn’t feel sick at all. In fact, he felt no pain. Suddenly the look on Nathaniel’s face explained everything.

“Oh, fuck me.” Greg said. “I died.” Greg started to cry for a few seconds, then laughed. He sobbed a little harder and put his face in his hands. “Nathaniel, mate, what have you done to me, how long is this gonna last.”

“Well, Greg, your body is dead, but your skeleton is bound by magic, so your flesh will rot, but you could, theoretically, live forever as a skeleton if you wanted to.”

“Am I your servant, what is this about? Am I some type of minion bound to do your evil bidding? Do you want me to go and steal Dime from some old ladies?”

“No, mate, not like that at all. You’re simply you. Just reanimated.” Nathaniel said. “Everybody misses you. Me too. I just think, if you walk into the pub right now it would make everybody feel really better, because we need a bit of happiness Greg and I’m not that type of person. Nothing I say will make a different mate, but they love you.”

Greg thought about it.

“Sure mate, let’s have a beer. Just one beer. Then maybe I can kiss my wife and say goodbye, and tell my friends that I love them. For real this time. Then you can release me and I can be dead, like normal.” Greg said, the reality of his death slowly setting in.

“Sure, Greg.” and with that, Nathaniel helped Greg up and then Nathaniel held Greg as they walked back into town, the guards were confused as the pair walked past, but didn’t ask questions.

Nathaniel and Greg walked into the street and saw the pub, someone standing by the door opened it for them and they walked inside. The room fell silent for a few seconds, and then erupted in cheers.

“You fuckers are no good, Nathaniel here helped me walk all the way over here. I’m feeling better boys, bring us some glasses, maybe a chair for the injured war hero!” Greg shouted, which garnered a massive laugh from everyone in the tavern.

Nathaniel smiled. Greg winked at Nathaniel. He and Greg walked over to the table, and someone grabbed two chairs from a nearby table. Nathaniel sat down and a beer arrived from the bar for Greg and Nate. They clinked cups. Greg stared at Nathaniel's eyes and nodded, thanking him.

Nathaniel understood, and laughed alongside everyone else as they made a joke each about Greg’s bad luck.

“The dragon had one bite of you and said, this bastard’s gone off.” Nathaniel said to Greg. Everyone laughed at his joke and Greg’s eyes twinkled and then he burst out laughing.

“Someone go get my wife, I got a bum leg.” Greg asked the men at the table. Someone left the tavern in a run.

Greg looked around at his best friends and sipped from his cup.

“Did I ever tell you guys how much I love you?” Greg said, which brought a big group hug from the boys all around him.