"It would be best if you'd advised us where you're heading for, Majesty," Pleaded Millard. The King filled his lungs with air, and exhaled through his nose.

"Not far, Millard. Now will you open the Gates?"

"But Sir, a four day's journey can merely be called a short distance!"

"Reel Reena in." The King ignored him, as he motioned the guards forward. They hauled the sleek toad. Her slimy back reflected the moons shine. Her eyes were wide, but they held no message in them.

The King slicked his damp hair back and licked the water off his now plumped lips. He hadn't bothered to wash after diving into the lake. He wondered if it was the gelid water acting up on him, making him take sudden actions. Something told him he needed to get out of here. It was like an ich. The lake had whispered it to him.

He never believed it, that mermaids danced and swam at the bottom of the lake. They'd told him stories, yes, but he was never one to believe bollocks so easily. Until he heard them sing. Or, he thought he heard them sing, because he couldn't remember them doing it, or seeing them. It was quiet, noiseless, at the bottom of the black water. But yet, the almost faint and receding memory of music, of words being sung, hung onto his memory by a hair. Only just clinging, and still slipping from his hands and hard to grasp that he had to shut his eyes and black everything out...

"Your Majesty...Sir! The beginnings of a fine rain are sure to arrive shorty, and the parade is ongoing. How will the people thank you for your benevolence in the morning, if you are missing? Would it not be best if you stood by until dusk? I advocate you reconsider your priorities..." Millard rattled, but lowered his voice when the King pressed his index finger and thumb to the space between his brows and bared his teeth.

"Millard," The King pronounced dourly, and took hold of Millard's chin loosely, almost as if affectionate, but it wasn't. The servant strained under the tips of the King's skin on his. "Open the Gates."

Millard made a noise between a wheeze and a croak, and then cocked his head. A quivering smile seeped into his face. "As you wish," He mouthed, because any trail of sound was lost in his throat.

The King let go, and gripped the rope attached to Reena's saddle. He hoisted himself up and placed a hand on the smooth skin of the amphibious creature. She was his fastest and smallest frog and her skin was pure coal black.

Millard stepped back; the King felt the first icy droplets of rainfall on his brow. The guards groaned as they pulled the Gates apart, just enough for the King to fit through. The King pulled his hood over his head as his cloak billowed behind him and the sharp stinging blows of the wind dried his lips. With a slight pull of the rope, Reena leaped into the air, and out of the palace.

∞

Dried trees snapped with the force of Reena's hind legs. She was like a beast in the gooey forest. The soggy ground was made out of muck and mud and dead leaves. She was going at full speed when her webbed foot slipped and they went tumbling like cannonballs. Dizzy, the King stood up and brushed the soil off his trousers, and searched for Reena. He could hear her croaking and fortunately she did not sound hurt. When he found her, he soothed her skin to calm her down.

There was a crackling sound, like a tree about to fall. The King perked his ears and turned his head around. Just in time, he saw the tree behind him disintegrate. One moment it was there, and then the next there was only dust at the feet of where the tree was before. The King furrowed his brows. The sand had blown away into the darkness of the forest when another tree ahead crackled and dropped.

"What is..." He breathed as he placed gently his palm on a thin raisin tree, and it crumbled in his hands. A handful of sand slipped from in between his fingers, "...Happening?" He told himself, but stared right at Reena, who stared right back.

Let's go back. He said in his head, but Reena seemed to understand. They would get back after the sun peeked through the horizon. The wind broke apart for them, and to their sides, the world collapsed into an ocean of sand.

They were reaching the town as the sun warmed the day, but nothing seemed to be different, except that the sun was there. It was the fiery ball of fire big as ever beaming in the sky. The King peered his eyes. He had never seen that sphere of light in his life, not in Prashc. Only in ancient history and science books. He had never seen what they called the Sun, only heard. And the last time someone mentioned the sun above Prashc had been the day he was born, or so the geezers said. And the day he was born was not a day to celebrate. In fact, it had been the day Prashc almost fell apart.

Shivers shot up his arms and his head buzzed. The breeze brushed white locks of hair from his forehead. He could sense Reena knew something was wrong, too. She was panting, so the King slid off from her back and urged her to move forward.

The city was silent. Too silent. There were no children playing with balls, nor women hanging colourful clothes. No daffodils nor tickseeds on the porches. The doors were open, and so were the windows. The names of the younger ones scrawled on the stone with chalk were almost effaced.

Before they reached the heart of the city, Reena began to make a series of coughing noises, and the King held her in his hands as she shrunk into a human form. She hugged her body and her bare legs trembled. Dark locks of hair fell over her eyes, they were big and alarmed. His cloak went over her thin shoulders and her arm around his neck for support, and the King carried her until they reached the palace. He supposed he would have to accept that at some point, his toads wouldn't remain toads forever.

Something caught his attention, a flower. The stem was tied to a bar of a low window, and its petals were dying. The King grabbed the bar to untie the flower, when he felt it shake and soften. Suddenly, the whole building shook and dropped into a bomb of sand and dust. The cloud of sand hung in the air until it settled. Reena coughed.

The King's jaw clenched and unclenched. His nails dug into his palms and his left eye twitched for a second. And then, the King cracked.

"WHAT, IN THE NAME OF MERLIN'S PANTS IN GOING ON HERE!" He roared, though there was only Reena to hear him, and she was not one who could bestow him with an answer.

Then a faint muffled voice cried, but it was too far away. The King ran toward it, and the voice grew louder and louder until he rounded a corner, and saw a guard.

"OIIII!" The King called out cupping his mouth with his hands.

The guard, spotting him, looked a little shocked, and then his face morphed into anger. He lifted his sword in front of him and barked at the King, "DEMON, LET THE KIND LADY GO."

It was as if someone had smacked his face with a fan. The King took a step forward, and tried to hide his smug face when his guard coward back. "WHO THE DEVIL ARE YOU CALLING DEMON, YOU DIPNUT!" When the guard said nothing in return, the King grabbed a stone and smashed it against the sand with an unsatisfactory thud that leveled up the King's irritation. "I'LL FEED YOU TO MY TOADS FOR SPEAKING LIKE YOU'RE ALL MIGHTY!"

Immediately, the guard froze and loosened his grip on his weapon. It clattered to the floor as his face grew scarlet. "My Lord..." He echoed, but the air was so silent the King could hear him effortlessly. Then the guard dropped to his knees, the sharp remaining stones dug into the skin where his hosens were ripped.

"Forgive me, my King, I have confused you with someone else."

"Confused me? That is unheard of. Who could anyone confuse me with?"

The guard thought for a moment, he opened with mouth, but before anything could come out, he was smashed to the ground by a body. The guard yelped, but the person on top did not seem to mind using a human as a rug. "Did anyone call for me?" He person on top grinned, his lips curled eerily. White hair flopped over his forehead as he smashed the guard's head against the floor, as if he were cleaning his boots on a floor mat.

With a single look at the guy, the King recoiled and his brows drooped down. Gruffly, he answered the lad's question, "I don't recall, no."

He didn't seem to hear. The King placed a hand on his hip and was about to say something else when the guy cut him short; "Fancy seeing you here by the way, King. I thought you'd take a little longer on your trip."

No one had ever called him King like the random guy had. It was as if he had been spit on the face. He had the urge to wipe the invisible saliva off. The King squinted his eyes, "Just who are you?"

And that's when Reena spoke. Her dark hair swept over her face, covering one of her eyes. She shrugged under her coat. "Can't you see? He's you."

The King stared, he stared at Reena, and then fixed his eyes at Himself. Himself leered at him.

The King clenched his jaw.

The guard under Himself groaned.

The King gulped.

Undeniably, his first thought was dang. He was fetching. He had spent his whole life imagining how he would look and it had not disappointed him. There was only one thing off about him, and it made chills crawl into his socks. He couldn't quite place it, but it told him that that person in front of him was not entirely him.

"Like what you see?" Himself said, his eyes were drooped, but his smile was gone. The guard seemed to have fainted under him, his chest no longer puffed.

Am I this arrogant? The King asked himself. He thought, yes, but at least he kept it to himself. There was also something else odd about Himself. Very dark veins branched out all over his skin like snakes. They reached his fingertips and eyes. They were black, as if it were not blood running through his veins, but ink.

"I could not possibly be you." The King spat, and he could see Himself crack a little. Himself lifted his chin and stepped off the guard. The floor crunched with the weight of him.

"How could you not? I am your very reflection." And then, it was as if he were not looking at other person, but at a mirror. He saw his eyes, they were the colour of vermillion, but the pupils filled out so much space that they almost looked black. His skin was so pale he could have been a ghost. They had always told him he was different. Albino, they said. But he had never met someone else like him to compare.

And his face was thin, and so was his nose and brows. His lips were pressed in an attenuated line, and they too, lacked pigment. His body was simply narrow with long limbs. The only colour on him was his black coat, and he realized, he was wearing the same thing.

"If you want me to explain I will," Himself shrugged.

Himself breathed at the same time he did, and blinked at the same time as well. The King waited patiently, or not so much, for him to begin. And he did, "Did anyone tell you about the day you were born?"

The King stood by. He remembered asking many times, but whenever he did, they pretended not to hear. The most he had gotten out of someone was that the sky had beamed at them all, and then fooled them. Himself proceeded, "It had been the first day the sun had shone, and also the day I was born. The earth cracked and out came you and I. The people thought you were a demon, but it really was just me, by then I was only darkness." Himself stopped to shrug. "They threw you in the lake along with me. Back then, it was not yet black. If I recall, it was the mermaids who saved you. They drove me away, and then I heard them sing. It was stupid. They sang for hours at the shore, until somebody found you..." Himself rested his hand on his chin as if he was trying to remember. "Oh...yes... but I was not yet done. It's not like a few humans with fish for feet could stop me. I spread, until I found you. Call me needy, but I needed you to survive. We were made, but I had a purpose. You were just a host.

"I would've chosen anyone else, but they were just too weak. And to be honest, I wear you better. Then you tricked me with a mirror and I got absorbed into your reflection... I mean if you look at me I look fine, but really I was fooled again. I am dying, and I need you. So thank you for coming back, you made the job so much easier." His smile crooked, and the more it stretched across his face, the King's heart seemed to pull, like it wanted to escape his ribcage.

"I flattered you still need me, but I don't. Go live wherever you lived before, and leave this place alone." The King said, but the pull at his heart kept getting harder. It thumped against his ribs. An imaginary hand had grabbed the King's heart and was trying to steal it.

"I don't think you mean that." Himself bared his teeth. "I am you, remember? I know what you want and what you don't, and what you want right now is to be with me. Let's be one again, you're a vessel, and I'm what fills it. You're just a shell, you're hollow."

The tugging increased. It was holding on by what felt like roots, and they were weak. The roots ran all the way to his toes. If he moved, he would lose balance. Beads of sweat trickled down his neck. His clothes were sticking to his skin. He was not used to the heat.

And then he saw it, how hard Himself was pulling to reel him in. It didn't seem possible, but his veins got darker. His were eyes unfocused, until he gasped, and the pull from his heart loosened. Before the King could take a breath, Himself closed his eyes and disappeared into the ground, like being drained.

"I don't think he's gone." Said Reena. The King had forgotten she was there. The guard at their feet coughed. The King helped him to his feet.

"Of course he's not." He said, and began to walk. He needed to reach his castle.