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"The King of Light and the King of Darkness"
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Artist: ChibiDragonEmail: acates@unitedwestern.net Website: --
Character's Story: Chapter one: A Troubled Heart I woke in the middle of the night, a question burning in my mind. The same question had been haunting me for years, invading upon my thoughts, reaching out to grasp my attention at every opportunity. This night was different, however, for I finally knew where to find my answer. My heart raced at the thought: Tomorrow everything would be revealed. The tent that I was sleeping in seemed daunting now that everything was engulfed in darkness. I concentrated intensely on my right hand, willing my power of light to flow into it. It only took a moment before the entire tent was showered in luminosity. This little bit of magic took very little effort -- next to none, in fact. "But," I thought with a twinge of contempt, "When I come face to face with her, I will need everything in me, and beyond." Ah, yes, so we've come to it. Her. My beloved sister. Queen of the Western Lands, Empress of the Darkness. In her small life span of ten years she has managed to gather quite a plethora of titles. But none of it matters to her -- she only has one thing on her mind -- that one thing being my destruction. In her defense she really has no choice in the matter. It was foretold long ago by Eiga, the greatest seer to ever walk the land, that one day two children would be born: the first child would be able to harness light and the second child manipulate darkness. One would have the power to rule over all of Bruneth, and the other would die by this one's hand. You may have guessed by now that the first child was me -- Toshiro. I've never actually met my sister, but I have heard many things about her. They say that she has long, flowing midnight black hair and skin as white as snow. Her eyes, so I'm told, are violet, like mine. She has a symbol on the left side of her face from which she gets her power. Mine, located on the right side, glows with radiant white light when I'm experiencing a strong emotion. I would assume hers does the same, only with lack of light emanating from it. I know nothing of her personality, except that she is extremely intelligent and insightful. That brings us back to my question: can I win, or will she kill me? She definitely has enough power to take out any non-magical person (which would be everyone besides the two of us). She demonstrated that when she conquered the Western Lands with only a small army of a few hundred. Apparently the army was there only to watch her back while she slept and gather food and water to nourish her. The Eastern Lands were given to me as a birthright, so I did not have to prove my worth the way that she did. I have trained diligently in the use of my power, but I have never killed another being. Even if I do have the power to kill her, will I be able to do it? Can I bring myself to slaughter my own sister? I don't know. I won't know until I face her at the break of dawn. Calling back the light into myself, I pulled the silver and violet blankets back over me. My chances of winning are slim to none as it is, so why bother to lessen them by staying up all night worrying? I closed my eyes and drifted off into a light slumber. Chapter Two: The Darkness vs. The Light I woke three more times in the night, sinister dreams pulling me out of sleep. When the sun finally rose over the horizon, I felt less ready for the upcoming match than I thought I would. Her camp was nearby, only about two miles to the west of mine. There I knew she would be waiting, for we agreed that this would be the day. One of us would not live to see tomorrow. That last thought sent a chill running down my spine. Images from my nightmares raced through my head: here, one of me lying on the ground with the vacant eyes of one who has passed on; there, one of my sister standing over me laughing at my demise in drawn out, shrill tones. They were neverending- each scene was played out so that in the end I was murdered. As I looked around I was suddenly aware of every shadow before me- each seemed ready to strike at any given moment. I didn't want to step outside and leave the safety of my tent, but I knew that the sun's rays would protect me, so I tentatively arose from the bed and pulled my robes over my head. As they fell about my body they absorbed some of my fear. I infused them with magic long ago so that I could have at least one layer of protection between myself and anyone who would attack me. I turned to face the door. Sun was starting to stream in through the opening at the bottom of the fabric. Meanwhile, approximately 2 miles to the west.. I twisted a long strand of my midnight black hair around my fingers, lost in thought. Does he know? Is he intelligent enough to realize? I doubt it, but it is not wise to leave it up to fate..I shall have to guard my symbol....yes, that will do quite nicely....that way if he touches it before I can touch his, he will be cursed.... Finally, the day I have been waiting for! My brother shall breathe his last and I shall be queen of all Bruneth! My plan has been years in the making, and finally it will blossom! Yes, the plan...Ha! Pure genius! To suck the power of light from my brother by touching his symbol was a stroke of brilliance! That way the forces of light and darkness shall still be in balance when he is dead, and I shall be all powerful! In just a few minutes I shall meet him, and then a few minutes later I shall kill him. He won't walk away from me.... Approximately 1 mile to the east.... I ate very little at breakfast, mainly because my stomach was severely out of whack due to nervousness. I told my men to stay behind. The conditions for the deathmatch dictated that I come alone, and that she come alone as well. As I walked to the halfway point all of my fear and uncertainty came flooding back into my mind. Now was my chance...I could just run away and go into hiding, no one would ever know. No, I knew it was my duty as a king, but more importantly as a man, to face her. There had to be a way to win, if only I could find it...some kind of weak spot...some kind of.aha! Why hadn't I ever considered it before? If I take out the source of her power, she'll be defenseless! That's it, If I can aim one blow to her symbol I can win! With this in mind my pace quickened. I never actually saw myself winning, but now the image burned clearly in my mind: her dead, not me. Just then I started to feel her aura of darkness drifting to me...it was as if I had suddenly been hit from the front by a giant sheet of ice. Such power I had never before experienced. My confidence started to wane again, but I kept repeating the plan over and over and that drove me onward. Just as I reached the crest of the hill I saw her. HER! There she was, just standing there, surrounded by an aura of darkness, looking at me. Her eyes carried in them hatred beyond measure, and I realized that I would be able to bring myself to kill her after all. "Ah, brother, so you've come at last. I wonder what took you so long to get here? Could it be that you were afraid of little me? But no, that can't possibly be it can it. Hmmmm, now that I've seen you I'm duely unimpressed. You are much scrawnier that I had imagined, though you manage to hide your lack of muscle well by wearing those robes." "How dare you mock me! You shall die here today sister, mark my words!" "How confident you are, dear brother. But we both know you don't have what it takes to back up your widdle threat!" With that she charged at me, holding both hands in front of her, as if preparing to grope at something. But what could it....my symbol! I thrust both of my arms forward as well. My arms were longer, I should be able to reach her's first. She saw me do this, but didn't seem to notice in time to stop her charge at me. Several things happened just then in rapid succession-as I touched her cheek there was a loud noise and I was thrown backwards. Then there was a loud shriek as my sister gaped at me in horror. "How could this happen?! This is not the curse I intended! You! You gaurded yourself didn't you?" I was utterly confused. "My robes..," I replied, but stopped abruptly. My voice had become much lighter and smoother. I reached up to feel my face, and as I did so noticed that my arms were much weaker than I remembered. I looked down at them with horror-I had taken on my sister's body! "What did you do to me?!" I demanded. " I guarded my symbol with a curse barrier so that If your hand came near me you would be cursed. But this is not the curse I intended! You've ruined everything! I'll kill you!" With this she charged at me again, but this time with a long black sword in her hands. I threw up my arms as a shield, and as I did so was surrounded in darkness. I guessed that my taking my sister's shape I also gained her power. But wait-I also sensed my own power coursing through my veins-could it be that I now possesed both of our magics? Yes! Now I could win! I decided that fireing an arrow composed of both light and darkness would be the surest way to go. I called forth all of the power in me into an orb in front of me. My sister stopped running and started falling away from me, blown back by the intense waves of energy emanating from my orb. A look of utter horror spread across her face. As I willed the orb to turn into an arrow she started to run. But she didn't have the chance to run very far for a few seconds later my arrow was flying at her. Then, just like that, my sister was dead. "Yes! Yes! Yes!," I screamed. I jumped up and down yelling with unrestrained glee. I won! I killed her! I did it! I would be the one to walk away, not her! I ran back toward camp, but stopped midway, my excitement suddenly gone. I still looked like her. I'd almost completely forgotten. How could I return to camp? My men would never believe the story. They'd think she killed me and then returned to kill all of them as well. Filled with grief, I sank to the forest floor, where I started to cry. The tears came flowing out of me until I could sob no more. Why did I have to look like her of all people? I could never return to my kingdom now. If I did, my closest friends would turn against me, thinking I was my dead sister. As the sky started to grow dark above me, a marvelous thing happened. My body started to morph back into it's original self!!! I stared down at my hands in disbelief! All of my joy returned one-hundred fold. "I'm me again," I breathed. I flopped onto the forest floor, taking it all in. It wasn't until later that I realized the full effect of my sister's curse. Whenever I used my power, I turned in to the first thing that I thought of, and only turned back into myself when the sun sank below the horizon. I had to live with this curse for the rest of my life, but it was a small price to pay for actually getting to experience the rest of my life. I lived for almost a century and died a happy man. Comments: Please forgive all spelling and grammatical errors! My spell check isn't working right now. L Sorry about the crappy ending. I was in a rush to finish it, so it didn't turn out very well. The story itself is really basic good vs. evil. Not a lot of character development, but other than that It was o.k. I did the picture of the brother on paper and colored it with markers. The sister is all mousework. The background I did in photoshop. |
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