Carmen: What did you two do?
King:
Char:
Carmen: You're not in trouble, I just need to know if I have to lie to the police again or not.

4356 words

-

Carmen ran through the boiling rain, Ollie in hand, into a strange building she found. They inspected their cloak, which now had several holes in it.

They walked through the sort of lobby area, where there were several of these little rock buildings, all looking identical. She heard something run past.

"Who's there?" She held Ollie defensively. "Reveal yourself!" She turned around and gasped. 

-

Char was currently failing to come up with glyph combos. "Lottie!" King jumped over to her. "I need your help! I think Francois is trying to start a rebellion." He gestured to his staffed rabbit, who had a fucking knife.

"In a minute, King. I'm getting so close to figuring out this glyph combo."

"It's always glyphs and portals with you these days. What about King?" King requires attention or else he shall go feral. "Why don't you ask Sasha for help? She was in the Emperor's Coven." Char suggested. "She has more experience with unruly mobs than anyone."

Happy Sashy laughter. "Watching the ink dry is the best part." Hooty came over, setting down a cup of tea. "A fresh cup of tea for my favorite cup of tea! That's you, Sass." Sasha smiled and smoothed her hair. "Hootsifer, you truly are a gem. How do you always know what to do?" Hooty headpats.

"What's going on? Do you think Hooty's blackmailing her or something?" King whispered. "Oh, I think they're actually friends. Isn't that nice?" Char smiled before standing up. "Okay, this will work for sure. Now you see me-" They pressed the glyph to their chest and vanished. King did a gasp and he and Sasha just kinda stared at each other for second.

"Now you don't!" Void reappeared. "Oh. I guess it only lasts a long as I hold my breath. Still pretty cool, huh?"

"Don't ever do that again!" King cried, grabbed onto her ankle.

"Do that again!" Sasha stood up. "However did you accomplish it?"

"Well, since you guys discovered that we can make new spells by combining glyphs, I've been experimenting. I got the invisibility idea from your history books, Sasha."

"Fascinating! As the lead historical scholar in the Emperor's Coven, my aid could be very helpful in-" She tripped over King's mountain of plushies. 

"An ambush! Men, defend your ruler!" King tossed a green elephant at Sasha, but, alas, Hooty took the hit for his dear friend. "I'm done for, Sass."

"Hootsifer, this is make believe."

"Ah, to die in your arms. Avenge me." Hooty then perished. Fs in the chat. Anyway, King threw another plushie at Sasha. "The King of Demons yields to no one!" He proclaimed. Sasha's bouta hit this child with some knowledge. "Historically, demons have never been united under a single rule till Belos. There is no such thing as a King of Demons."

King threw another plushie because violence is a question and the answer is yes. "Blasphemy!" He yelled. "Clearly, you know nothing of my reign of terror! Allow me to tell you; I was once the mighty King of demons. I was beloved almost as much as I was feared. But one dark day, an evil spell was cast, transforming me into this!" King fell to his knees, utterly devastated.

"Oh, what happened to your crown of power?" Hooty asked.

"A trifle! That was just a test to trust Carmen and Char's dedication to me. They passed." Only test Char has ever passed, I'll tell you fucking what. "My real crown is still out there. But when I shrank my memories got, uh, fuzzy." Char bent down to place a hand on his shoulder.

"How convenient. A hole in your memory for each hole in your story."

"Nice one, Sass! Up top!"

Sasha smacked Hooty in the face.

"Hey, I remember plenty!" King stated. "I remember armies bowing before me, being served the greatest of feasts, and falling from a massive height as that evil hex shrank me. One day, I'll return to my rightful place AND ALL SHALL FEAR ME!"

"Aw, you're gonna be such a good tyrant!" Char cooed, snatching her little brother up and giving him tummy scritches. "Who's the scariest demon king? Who is it?"

"Me! It's me!"

"Your dedication to this farce would be charming if it weren't so sad." Sasha said, an almost creepily calm attitude. "Don't blame me for your ignorance! I'm not a liar and I can prove it!" He then stomped off.

Sasha gasped. "He called me ignorant! Me!"

"Stop it, you guys! Void said as she walked over and began picking up King's toys. "This story is really important to him, so the least we can do is play along."

"You mean indulge his silly fantasy?" Sasha, this is an eight year old, calm your tiddies.

"Yeah, I'm a house of principles! You're asking me to lie? Hootrageous!" 

"Would you please just go with it? For his sake?" She asked, softly. The three then looked over as they heard the wood clattering and saw King struggling to get Hugo and Ollie through the doorway, but not to worry. He managed. Pointing at Sasha and Hooty, he said "Alright, you two shall regret ever doubting me! We're going to my castle."

"Uuuuuuuhhhhhhh-"

"What's wrong, Charlie? I thought you said we should go-"

"Go with him! I said we should go with him, right? How could I forget what I just said?" They walked over and grabbed Ollie, ready to start flying.

Sasha walked over and grabbed Hugo, proclaiming "My historical expertise is being questioned and I will not allow it." She turned her attention to Hooty. "Hooty, would you like to accompany us?"

Hooty gasp. "I'll get ready!" And after something very scarring and traumatizing to our trio he was now in a portable sort of back-pack thing. "Porta-Hooty reporting for Hooty!"

Sasha is traumatized, King is practically crying and Char's about to vomit.

So silly, so fun.

Anyway, Char threw on her cape and the four of them took off.

Meanwhile, Mama Carmen was getting out of the shower. "Hmm? Where'd everyone go?" They thought aloud as they walked into the living room. "Man, they made a mess in here. Oh, well. It's been a while since I had room to put my feet up." She literally tossed her feet up. They put their head back and noticed a note.

off to my real castle! don't wait up!

- ❤️
your favorite demon overlord 👑

"Oh, no, not again!" She threw herself off the couch and then flew off in a fucking bathtub. I aspire to be like this demiwoman.

-

"Are we still flying? It's been hours?" Hooty whined. "Should we call it a day? Or perhaps, a night?" Sasha laughed to herself. "Hooty, your sense of humor is infectious."

"There it is!" King pointed and as they all flew forward, an island sort of appeared out the mist. "This island shouldn't be here! It isn't on any of the maps." Sasha said.

"It's always been there when I look for it." King looked back at Sasha, as the group landed on the island's beach. "After I shrunk, I woke up here in Carmen's arms and she carried me away, like a wittle baby."

"Aw!" Upon seeing that Sasha wasn't awing, Char gestured.

"Ugh. Fine. Aw."

"Look!" Hooty called as some sort of circular tower looking thing came through the mist. Both Char and Sasha's mouths were agape.

"Ah, home sweet home." And so they took off towards it.

"That tower is certainly intriguing, but-" Sasha tripped but Hooty caught her fall. "Thank you, Hootsifer."

"My pleasure."

"But couldn't we have landed a little closer?"

King pointed up to the trees. "The treetops are so thick, this is the only way in. Plus, now I can dramatically do this!" He dramatically moved some leaves out of the way, revealing the tower's entrance. The doorway was shaped like a key and had various rocks blocking it.

"Oooh. A door fit for a tyrant!"

"That's me!"

The four of them walked up the steps and King climbed onto the rocks. "I'll find you guys another way in." He wriggled on into the tower. "Huh, what a strange material. And this symbol." Sasha ran her hand over a golden part of the tower, which had an unfamiliar circular symbol carved into it. "I've never seen anything quite like this."

"Ha! I've seen better graffiti! I've got better graffiti on me!" Hooty displayed his graffiti. There was Char's name and multiple stussy S's.

"Char, look! This predates any language I know. King's story may be a fake, but these ruins are a history mystery!" Sasha giggled in history nerd.

The rocks fuckin exploded and King poked his head out.

"Eh? What's a mystery?"

Nervous Charlie laughter. "The only mystery is how Sasha can be so smart and so wrong at the same time. Academics, am I right?"

"You so are! Come on in."

Sasha stared down the child for a minute before they all went inside. Using light glyphs, both Char and Sasha illuminated the darkened space. The room was intricately decorated and had various weird, tiny rock sculptures scattered across the floor.

"Ah, the chamber where I would devour the hearts of my foes." King reminisced. "The taste was cold and bitter. But I bet yours would be sweet, Char."

"With all the sugar I eat, it better be."

The group walked further into the chamber, Char illuminating void's and King's path with her light glyph when she saw something go past it. She gasped and turned around. Nothing.

"Can't believe your eyes, huh?" King climbed up onto their shoulders. "My castle does have that effect." He scampered back onto the ground. "Yeah." Char chuckled nervously. "So much wonder."

Hooty gasped. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" He asked, directing Sasha over to a mural on the wall. "These carvings, they're ancient." Sasha illuminated the painting. It resembled King, just bigger, more muscular and clad in armor. 

"What does that mean?"

"Well, if I've never heard about this ruin, let alone this entire island, who knows what other parts of history we scholars have missed?"

"Are you saying..."

"That he might actually have been..."

"The King of Demons?!" Dramatic music goes here. Any- ah, thank you, Gary. Guys, look! He's playing the right music at the right time! Everybody give him a round of applause.

King stood atop some rocks. "Ah, my kingdom. I, uh, got some bone dust in my eye." King wiped away a wistful tear. "What was up there?" The blonde asked, looking up at a circular entryway that was covered with rocks. 

"I can't quite recall. I just remember a muffled roar. Probably some minion praising my name." He waved his hand dismissively. "Well, uh, wanna head back?" Char asked. "This is all so cool, but Carmen's probably on her third cup of apple blood right now, and last time it was real hard getting her off the roof-"

"YOUR MAJESTY!" Hooty rammed in Charlatte, knocking her to the ground. "It's me, faithful ol' Hooty! You know I was just messing around with you the whole time, right?"

"You're majesty?" Char stood up and was once again pushed to the ground by Sasha. "It's clear these ruins are of immense historical value! Perhaps you could tell me more about them."

King laughed. "I suppose I could regale you with some more tales. Am I using that word right? Regale?"

Meanwhile, Char stood up, none to happy about being shoved to the ground twice in a row. She heard some footsteps behind her and, like the dumb white bitch void is, went towards it. They stopped before walking into a hall. "Uh, guys, are you hearing this?" She asked and looked behind her to see that, no, they weren't.

"I'll show you where my throne used to be! It was made from the teeth of my enemies and boy, was it awkward to sit in."

So, alone she went down the hall, seeing multiple strange things, somewhat resembling those tiny sculptures it had seen in the lobby. "What are these things?" They thought aloud, as they continued down the hall. She saw one holding its hand up, like a high five, and walked past it, shuddering, before doubling back. "Eh, just kidding, I'd never leave someone hanging! Up-top buddy!" High-fives are a love language.

Anyway, the weird statue/golem thing crumbled and knocked Char over for a third fucking time. As she looked up, they saw several more of the weird golem creatures and as she illuminated the rest of the area, she saw one was missing. One was fucking missing. They looked behind them to see a golem moving across the floor and quickly ran to get the others.

Over to Sasha, King and Hooty.

"And that's how I would annihilate my enemies! Who needs due process, am I right?"

"And what does this image represent, my lord?" Sasha asked, illuminating an mural of what appeared to be King slaying some other King-like creature.

"Uh, it's hard to remember. But that handsome devil looks familiar."

"Tours over, we gotta go! Now!" Char shouted, running over to the group. "But there's so much to learn!" Sasha said.

"This environment is not conducive to learning, it's conducive to death!"

"Ah!" King jumped down from Sasha's shoulders. "You saw the horrifying monstrosity room! Don't worry, the can't hurt you." He waved his hand dismissively. Sasha lifted a light glyph, and there a vv big creepy crawly on the fucking ceiling. 

"That one can! Let's go!" Char quickly scooped up King and the group began running for the exit before Jean-Luc, as we're just gonna start referring to him as, jumped down from the ceiling and jumped in front of Char, continuously swiping at her, before Sasha tossed some ice glyphs are it.

"Dang, girl, you've been practicing!"

"You may admire my progress when we get out of here alive!"

Anyway, Jean-Luc pulled a General Yunnan and climbed on the goddamn ceiling, before jumping back down in front of the Mendozas + Char. He turned his hand into an ax before something exploded at the side of his head.

Carmen slid in the lobby, wearing her premium potions belt. "Get out of here! I'll hold it back and meet you outside." They said. "Carmen, we can fight it together!" Void said.

"You can't beat this thing. Go!"

So, they went.

Anyway, stand off. "It's been awhile. Miss me?" After that sick one-liner, Jean-Luc jumped for Carmen.

The group ran outside, stopping right as they got to the bottom of the steps.

"More running! Less stopping!"

"Carmen said to wait here!"

"We can't let her fight it alone, we have to go back." Char said. Soon enough, after some explody noises, Carmen came out, an injured arm.

"Carmen!" Sasha shouted, running over to her sister. "You're hurt. What of that horrible creature?" Basically, he can't leave this tower or his entire body does not work. So fun! 

"It can't get past the entrance. We're safe now."

"That thing must be guarding this place against intruders." Char thought aloud as King jumped down from her shoulders. "But it's my castle. How can we be intruders?" He wondered. 

Nervous Charlie. "Uh- um-" Very nervous sounds, 10/10.

"You don't believe this is my castle."

Char looked away.

"Char, you think I would lie to you?"

"King, I-"

"You aren't lying." Carmen said as Sasha bandaged up her arm. "You just don't know the truth. It's time for me to tell you how we really met."

Backstory time, everyone!

Carmen flew threw the misty boiling ran, landing on a beach.

"Eight years ago, I was looking for a place to hide from the Emperor's Coven. I never knew this place existed, it just sorta appeared out of the mist. So, I landed. Now, I was one hot tamale, but the boiling rains were even hotter. I needed shelter."

Carmen ran through the boiling rain, Ollie in hand, into a strange building she found. They inspected their cloak, which now had several holes in it.

"But when I found it, I wasn't alone."

They walked through the sort of lobby area, where there were several of these little rock buildings, all looking identical. She heard something run past. "Who's there?" She held Ollie defensively. "Reveal yourself!" She turned around and gasped. Out jumped out a tiny, little dog looking thing, with horns and brown fur. His eye whites were instead yellow and his irises were pink.
He quickly walked over, picking up some rocks and making another tiny little sculpture.
"Did you make all these? What are you?" Carmen knelt down, scratching this itty bitty thing on the head.

"I assumed you were just some stray dog."

Jean-Luc showed up, turning his hand into an ax, swiping at Carmen, before she got out of there.

"But then that thing was gonna kill us both, so I picked you up and bounced."

She lifted up the dog looking thing and flew as fast as she could. Jean-Luc shot an arrow at the two of them and it hit King's horn, breaking it.

"Against my better judgement, I took you home with me. I had gotten you the collar because, well, that's what you do when you get a new pet. But then..."

Dog looking thing wandered around the living room, building tiny sculptures out of everything he could get his hands on. Books, trash, you name it.
Carmen leaned against the doorway, a smile splayed across her face. "Oh, look at you. A King amongst his subjects.
"King. King!" He exclaimed excitedly before falling upon his ass. "It spoke." Carmen said to herself before approaching him and getting on the floor in front of him. "Yeah, that's right, a King! You know what else Kings do?" She gave him a lil' boop. "They command armies and eat delicious feasts!" Happy King noises.

"And that's how you got the idea that you were some despotic overlord." Back to current Carmen. "Oh, but you were finally happy, so I kept playing along with it."

I'm sorry- fucking w h a t? "Y-you're lying."

"I'm not." Carmen reached into her hair and pulled out the broken part of the horn, handing it to King. "Weh?" He took it and soon everything came crashing down. "My army," Those tiny little sculptures "My feasts," a random ass fly. "My life." He flung the horn. "Ah, no! Keep that thing away from me, it's messing with my head!"

"King, it's gonna be okay." Char said softly, hand slightly outstretched.

"You're all just making fun of me like usual, right? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! No!" He then ran off through the jungle.

"King!" Char stepped into the woods, continuing to call his name. "King! King! Please com back!" They shouted. "I can't fly. The tree cover is too dense." Sasha said, Hugo in her hand. "I regret ever playing a part in this."

"Is this what regret feels like? I hate it!" Hooty then proceeded to sob onto his bestie's shoulder.

"I lied to him, even though I knew he trusted me." Void sat on a rather large tree root. "Now he's all alone."

"For now, let's split up." Carmen suggested. "The island is small and he's even smaller. He can't have gone far." Before walking off, they placed a hand on Char's shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll find him."

Char wiped at her eyes and then ran off to go find King. "King! King!" She shouted. They walked onto the beach, where they saw King sitting on a tree log. A sympathetic look on its face, void walked over and sat next to him.

"Carmen was right, wasn't she? I was never King of anything. I'm nobody."

"You are somebody and I love that somebody very much. I'm sorry I lied about what I believed." 

"Everyone lied! And I was too caught up in the fantasy to realize it." Some tears pricked his eyes and a sob caught in his throat. "I don't know what to do, Char. I can't tell what's real and what's fake." A few tears went down his cheeks and Char looked behind the two of them at the tower.

"Somethings not adding up. One of your memories is falling, right?"

"Probably another stupid thing I made up."

"No, what if that's a real memory?"

"Why does it matter?"

"You said you remember a roar from up in that shaft. Maybe that's where you fell from." Char said. "Carmen found you in those ruins, there's gotta be a clue in there about where you came from."

"I don't know, Char. What if the story gets worse?" King looked away and Char walked over and knelt down next to him. "You might have been alone before, but you have us now. Whatever we find up there won't change that." Void assured him. "So, what do you say?" 

She held her hand out and he placed his hand in her's.

"Okay."

Holding hands, the two walked back over to Carmen, Sasha and Hooty.

"King! You're alright!" Carmen rushed over, smiling, but slowed when she saw him in his angy pose. "You're mad at me. I get it. I would be too." They knelt down in front of him. "I'm so sorry, King."

"Boop." King poked her on the cheek. "No more secrets, okay? You have to promise me."

"Only truths. I promise."

Yay, reconciliation!

"Great. Now, before we leave, we have one more thing to check out." Char pointed towards the tower.

Jean-Luc arranged the lil' statues before a potion was thrown at his face and Sasha and Hooty flew by.

"Special delivery: P A I N!" Hooty the vomited up a potion on Jean-Luc.

"You sure they'll be alright?" Carmen asked as they flew in.

"Hooty knows what to do." Char ran off to somewhere with King. I don't know, I am tired.

Hooty continued vomiting up potions.

"You sure they'll be alright?"

Anyway, Carmen placed a potion in that rock-filled hole and went back down to her kids. "Ready?" She asked as Char pulled out her fire glyph. "I've always wanted to do something like this!" Friendly reminder kids; Prometheus does not get his liver eaten everyday for you to ignore the allure of arson.

"There in place!" Hooty yelled.

"Hold your breath!" Sasha shouted before doing so and using the invisibility glyph to beat the shit out of Jean-Luc, who managed to grab her. Char got her glyph in place and quickly flicked it up into the hole, where it fucking exploded.

As quickly as they could, the Mendozas + Char flew up into the shaft, Jean-Luc chasing after them. 

"There's..."

"There's..."

"Nothing here!" Carmen said, into a very empty room.

"It's coming!" King shouted, as Jean-Luc climbed into the room with them. They backed up against a door, which soon opened, presumably thanks to King. "Well, I think we're safe, for now." Carmen said. "But how did we get the door open?"

King looked down at his hands.

"This room is old. Very old." Sasha thought aloud as she continued into the space. There were various paintings of those horrifying monstrosities along the wall, various flower bushes and in the center, was a small pedestal with broken egg pieces. King solemnly approached it.

"I knew there was something up here!" Char shouted. "I'm like the mystery whisperer!" This is false, writer Char can never guess who did it when she reads murder mysteries. "The butler did it, magnifying glass, secret door!"

"It looks like that creature was made to guard whatever was in here." Sasha said, running her hand over the wall paintings.

"King, does any of this feel familiar to you?"

"I'm not sure, but I think I know how to jog my memory." He stepped onto the pedestal and held out his hand. "Carmen, I'm ready."

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

So, Carmen handed him the horn and he placed it on his broken one. He gasped.

Itty Bitty King looked around his egg when there was a roar and then a crashing sound. He then went back to sleep.

"I remember a deep roar. And then something happened, but I was too small to do anything, so I went back to sleep. And the next time I woke up..."

The egg hatched open and King crawled out. Or, fell out, more accurately. After inspecting the room he was in a little bit, he crawled over to the door and placed his paw on it, opening it. There stood Jean-Luc, who then jumped down through the shaft.

King removed the horn.

"King."

"That roar. It meant son. I don't know how I know that, but I do." He turned towards Char. "Someone called me their son. Char, I think it was my dad."

"Maybe that was him in all those wall carvings!"

The door busted open and Jean-Luc turned his hand into an ax before King jumped out in front of Char and said "Stop!"

Jean-Luc knelt before him.

"That thing was defending King from us this whole time? Huh, alright."

Camera shutter and now we're all staring at Sasha.

"Oh, sorry, were we discussing important revelations? I'll- I'll just do this later." Hooty then ate the camera like a true bestie would.

Anyway, back to King.

Char smiled at him. "Maybe you weren't exactly the King of Demons, but-"

"I was important to someone. If he's out there, I want to find him. I'm not that old, it could be possible!" King sniffed. "Would you help me?"

"I'd do anything for you, buddy."

"Then-" He pointed at Jean-Luc. "Can we keep him?"

"No."

"Yes!" Hooty vote trumps all.

-

"Watcha doing there, King?" Char asked as she glued King's horn back on. What he was doing was carving that mysterious symbol onto his collar. "This symbol was all over that tower. What if it's my name?" Char wiped away to gluey residue. "Eh- gooey. It's too bad Jean-Luc stopped moving outside the ruins. I liked having a big, scary minion." King was all cozied up in Charlatte's sleeping bag.

"Yeah, too bad." Char does not think it's too bad.

"Lottie, is it okay to still call me King?" He asked. "It feels kinda weird when I'm not the King of anything."

"Well, you'll always be King of my heart. That's goo enough, right?"

After a few seconds of consideration, King said "Yeah. Goodnight, Lottie."

Char gave King a head kiss.

"And Francois."

Char gave Francois a head kiss.

"Now Jean-Luc!"

"Bummer, looks like I'm all out of kisses, maybe next time, goodnight!" And Char left the room and went down into the living room.

"I've never seen markings like this." Carmen said, looking through the pictures Sasha had taken. "Oooh, is it some kind of ancient language?" 

Char took a seat at the table.

"And those old carvings; who were they depicting?" Sasha wondered.

"Any ideas, mystery whisperer?"

"I don't know." Char admitted, picking up a picture of some horned being in armor. "But, whatever we discover, we'll be there for King. No matter what."