The Unicorn Queen galloped down the skies and re-entered the furnace called a treasury. There, the Komodor slept in his pile of boiling gold. Although this didn’t burn her golden mane, it did annoy her. Especially the radiant orange light, this light filled with impurities couldn’t produce a rainbow and traversed her diamond horn without effect. However, she did notice that as this light filtered through her horn she could identify its origin, temperature, and danger.
“You’re back,” said the unnamed lizard. “Well, I don’t blame you, this place is much toastier than up there. I can feel the breeze waft down. It’s quite annoying.” He threw his hands up, scalding hot liquid gold splattered in the room and on the Queen, who promptly shook it off.
“It isn’t my type of home. I’ve already found somewhere to live.” She trotted over to her silver torch, clasped her teeth around the shaft, and tore it out of the ground.
Komodor’s eyes shot open. “Wow, careful, I just want to say, I played with mine a bit before sticking it back in the soil and now it won’t budge, so think carefully before setting it down again.”
The unicorn nodded but then opened her mouth to speak, “And here I thought you wanted me to stay.” Her torch floated in the air.
“Well, you are my sister but having you fly in and out would bring in too much air, still, feel free to visit whenever.” His long arms managed to reach over to the unicorn, and he patted her back. “Oh! And since you’re my sister and all, could you help plug up the hole as you leave? It’s getting a bit chilly down here.”
The unicorn shook off his hand. “And how am I supposed to do that? Does it look like I can build a floor to you? I’m one who lives in the clouds, how could you think I know anything of rocks.” She kicked off the ground, however, before she could fly off the Komodor asked her, “What’s your name?”
The unicorn stumbled back down and stared at the orange lizard, eyes wide open. “I don’t know?”
“Then should I name you?”
“Whom do you take yourself for? No, my name will be Kumara,” she proclaimed. “And what is yours?”
“Just Komodor works fine, after all I’m the leader of all Komodors so isn’t it fitting that it be my name.” He said with outstretched arms; his body still partially submerged in boiling gold.
Kumara rolled her eyes. “Of course, because there are so many of you? You drown in their love and adoration.”
Stricken by this truth, the lizard’s eyes became hazy, and his arms slumped down. “I am all alone in a pile of cooling gold.” Komodor sat up, turned his head and let out a small fire breath. The gold now boiled with greater intensity, and he lay back down in its embrace. “I’m all alone, in a pool of cold gold without even a helper to keep it warm. Now even my sister wishes to leave me.”
“Yes, and you’ll have to learn to live with yourself until one of your offspring is born.”
“And when will that be?” Komodor cried.
“Who knows; now, I’ll get going, I can’t stand this light.” Kumara jumped up once again and just as she left the hole, she spoke a few last words. “I’m sure someone will come and keep you company soon enough, and if not, then just wait for me to visit.” She ran back to her heavenly kingdom where her eternal flame would burn.
Komodor wailed ceaselessly and let himself be submerged into the pool of gold.
#
Gustave’s POV
There, in the sky flew a horse with a golden mane and a diamond horn. Her fur was white and pure. She headed for what looked like a crystal palace in the clouds. The soldiers were no longer worried about the incident but were only excited to see and hear what had happened. Perhaps treasures had even descended from the skies.
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Twenty minutes later when we reached the gates and peered inside, we were greeted by hundreds of men, women, and children sleeping on the ground. The soldiers rustled about, unsure what to do. As such, the commander crossed the bridge, bent down next to one of the guards and shouted, “Dead.”
The words spread like wildfire and soon the whole army debated whether or not to stay or leave.
“This is God’s punishment to the citizens of Constantinople; we have been spared, as such, we should leave this accursed land.”
Somehow a priest had snuck into the army.
Another punched the air and yelled, “The land is now ours,” half-jokingly. However, no one laughed, or spoke after that. They remembered that their families, wives, children, and pets were in that city. A flip had been switched and everyone, regardless of ranks ran into the city without regard for themselves. Some were trampled or pushed into the fortification’s water feature. On the other hand, my men and I stepped aside and let the wave filter in. We could decide what to do after doing a little bit of sightseeing.
Surprisingly, after the initial rush of men passed, a few Greek soldiers remained. Notably the commander. He had glued himself to the wall to escape the stampede. When he spotted us, he headed in our direction.
This wasn’t good. After all, what would he think of us while we pillaged his city’s treasury? Well, we could kill him. No more than fifty of his men stayed behind. Still, that was a lot, and they were better armed than us.
I looked into the city. The men were still running around inside and looked healthy, well healthy enough. Their screams filled the sky, and some had collapsed to tears. I turned to my men. “We’re going inside, we’re taking as much gold as possible and sailing out of this place.” My men smiled, they all understood our options and we all found the same answer.
Off we ran. As we passed the gates I looked back, thankfully they didn’t give chase.
Corpses littered the streets, and although it had been a while since the blast which had most likely killed them. Their skin was still pink. One couldn’t distinguish the sleeping and these bodies if one ignored the lack of a rising chest. We continued down the main road and soon arrived at the gates of the castle. Thankfully, the gates were burnt down so we entered without issue. However, the castle’s rocks which were set ablaze an hour ago still radiated heat and made us sweat more water than a bucket could hold. We couldn’t stay here. “Let’s go loot mansions instead. It’s hotter than a blacksmith’s furnace here.”
But, when we turned around, unimaginable heat emanated from the castle. We started to run, unwilling to be cooked alive. However, with each step, the heat took two. I looked back and saw the stones above the castle gates melt into the earth. And from where rocks melted something appeared. Yet so hot was the air it made whatever appeared distort into an orange blur. We continued to run and when I looked back once more, I saw a giant bipedal orange lizard. His face looked like that of a frog covered in orange scales, his body had the general shape of a human. However his arms went down to his knees and his waistline was larger than his shoulder width. We kept on running, yet the paved earth in front of us started to glow bright orange. We turned to face the monster that had appeared. The world had gone to shit. Why were mythical beasts appearing right and left? Just in a year we saw a boy who drank the blood of men. A flying horse with a diamond horn, and now a human lizard who could melt earth and rock.
The lizard’s mouth moved, “You things, do you understand me?”
No one spoke. Our arms were now trained on the creature. Perhaps it could only melt rocks. A blow to the head might still kill it.
“Attack!” I threw my small axe, and everyone followed suit. Our iron hit his head, torso, tail, and legs; however, they simply bounced off his scales.
“Look, look,” he said, hands in the air. “I don’t smell mana in your breath. Just work for me and I won’t melt you. I’m not a bad employer, I promise.”
That’s when an idiot spoke up, “then what do you want us to do?” It was Erik. Although his loud yap somewhat annoyed me, he knew how to fight. Now, he bowed in front of the monster which wiped out the largest city in the world expecting to be spared. I didn’t know who bashed him in the head. But I would kill them both.
“Yes, look,” the lizard monster opened his hand and showed a blob of gold. “You see, I need more of this. However, I don’t know where to find more, nor make it. I was in despair, crying into my pile of gold.” He wiped his tears. “Thankfully, you guys showed up. I can smell iron, coal, and gold stuck in your pores. As such, I’ll ask you to help me make more.”
“Yes, we’ll do it,” I answered before Erik did. If we were forced to do something, I might as well lead it. In no way would I entrust my life or follow Erik’s words. Anyhow, we could just row our way out of here once the lizard went back down below ground.
The lizard nodded with closed eyes. “That’s good.” He then looked over to the side and yelled. “Hear that you guys over there! Now listen to this man, he smells the most like iron and gold.” He pointed to me. I turned around unsure to whom he spoke, and there I saw a horde of soldiers running towards us. I reached out for my spear, however, as the men passed gardens blocked off by wooden fences, these erupted into flames.
When they all reached this point, the lizard spoke up once again while pointing towards a man. “Oh, and you too, your smell of gold is rather strong.” The man he pointed towards was the Greek commander. “OK, now that that’s settled get to work.” The lizard shooed us off and walked back down into the melted castle.