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SPOILERS (of course!)

-Frost

Epilogue

Here it is, the end of the story! Enjoy!

Epilogue

            Rose laid back, watching her cubs play with a ball of moss. There were three, two female and one male. The male was the middle cub and was dark red and looked just like his father, the oldest looked like Rose’s mother, and the youngest was black and white with purple eyes.

            Rose got up and shuffled the cubs away. She led them to the edge of a deep, rushing gorge. Each day she had been waiting to do this, but couldn’t bring herself to. But now as she stood at the edge of the cliff, thinking about her life back home and everyone she needed, she convinced herself this was the only way. Besides, she felt no love for these cubs.

            She picked up the oldest cub by her scruff and threw her violently into the gorge, then the one that looked like Thorn, then the youngest, then she immediately turned around and ran as fast as she could, since one of her cubs had stolen it.

            Just a few minutes after she had begun her journey, she felt the cold, sharp claws of a dragon wrap around her body and lift her up. She screamed and struggled, but could not get out.

            Perhaps it was for the best that she couldn’t escape the grasp of the dragon, for if she had made it home, all she would have found was a charred wasteland of ashes and bones.  

            Except for one lone creature, one lone survivor, his yellow pelt dashing through the debris.

End of Epilogue

End of “A Darker Story” 

-Frost

Chapter XI

 Sorry that it has to be so fast-paced. It's just that I'm writing another story right now that is the prequel to a long series, so that is my top priority and I'm not going to just abandon a story. Don't worry, the story will still go as I planned it originally.

Chapter XI

            Thorn struggled up through the crowd and into the sky, granting himself temporary wings. The frustrated leopards tried to follow him but couldn’t. There’s only one place I can go, Thorn told himself. He turned away from the kingdom and flew to the Everdark Forest.

            Rose sat on the ground, watching him, wishing he didn’t have to go. Her father nudged her. “Don’t worry, he’ll never show his sorry face around her again!” He led her to the castle for the wedding with his tail.

****

            Tiger looked at Rose. They had been married for over two year now and she had been recently acting very strange. He prodded her with his paw and swallowed. “Rose, I have to go on a quest…” Rose nodded, staring off into space. “Uh-huh, be careful…”

            He snorted, put on his armor, grabbed his sack, and walked out the door, nearly running into Lee, a yellow snow leopard Rose had found outside the kingdom and brought in. Lee was still young, but growing very fast. “Bye, Lee,” Tiger pushed past him, anxious to get away from this crazy kingdom.

            Lee turned to narrow his eyes at Rose. Tiger hadn’t been the only one noticing Rose’s strange behavior, so tonight… he would follow her.

****

            Lee growled in frustration. He had been following Rose when she suddenly disappeared. He shook his head to clear it and rose his nose to the wind. Luckily he had a very good sense of smell, and he could smell magic. Huh… there was nowhere far enough worth going to use magic… except for… Lee gasped. The Everdark Forest! Luckily he knew a shortcut that could get him there in a few hours.

            When Lee got there, Rose was just leaving, but he saw enough to know what was going on. Rose and Thorn stood at the front of the forest, Thorn nuzzling Rose and wishing her goodbye.

            Rose stood, watching Thorn disappear into the forest, before trotting forward and running straight into Lee. “L-l-lee! H-h-how long have you been here?” Lee narrowed his eyes and ran off, screaming over his shoulder: “Long enough!”

            “Lee! No…” Rose raced after Lee. Lee turned to face her, growling. Lee clawed her amulet off and disappeared. Rose screamed her sorrow to the sky.

****

            Everyone was there: The guards, the king, Lee, and even Tiger, who had been stopped by Lee. They all trudged into the forest, catching Thorn. Tiger held a struggling Thorn down, ready to deliver the fatal blow, when Rose ran over. “No! Don’t!” Tiger gave Rose a vicious glare before slicing his claws through Thorn’s throat, enjoying the feel of the blood seeping into his claws. Rose howled in despair, turned around, and ran as far as she could while the group headed home.

****

            Rose sat in her room sobbing. She knew her father was standing outside, also sobbing. But she didn’t care. She didn’t love Tiger, she loved Thorn, but now he was gone. The night came and the castle was quiet. Rose slipped out and transported using the amulet she had stolen back to the edge of the kingdom. She silently slipped into a cave and rested. There she would stay, until she could go back. 

End Chapter XI

-Frost 

Chapter X

Chapter X

            The princes struggled out of their final challenge. Tiger had encouraged the team in the maze, stayed behind to fight the monster cave while the rest went ahead, helped them come up with a plan to put out the raging fire in the forest, and refused to abandon his group when he was tempted, but Talon had always taken the credit for Tiger’s victories, hoping to claim Rose as his own.

            The moment of truth was drawing nearer. The crowds drew closer and held their breath as King Malicis walked regally towards the bedraggled group.

            “I have been watching you using this orb generously provided by Thorn. I have watched each of you and carefully made my decision.” He dipped his head to Thorn before continuing. “My original plan was a deadly tournament, but the addition of Thorn has made me change my mind. One of you, through these challenges, have shown me that you are fit to marry my dear daughter, Rose.”

            Malicis rested his gaze on Tiger before going on. “Tiger. You have shown that you are smart, brave, strong, willing to make sacrifices, strategic, and loyal. These are qualities that I want my daughter’s husband to have.”

            Tiger looked shocked, and proceeded to numbly trot up to the king, who replaced his red crown with a black one. “The winner of the competition, Prince Tiger of the Golden Spruce Kingdom!” Those of the said kingdom went wild. Rose ran up to meet her future husband, eyes shining but doubt lodged deep in her heart.

****

            Thorn made his was through the crowd of kingdoms preparing to leave, searching for Tiger. He was a lucky prince, marrying such an amazing princess. He was glad he was a castle guard.

            Thorn looked up and gasped. Tiger was giving his speech to his subjects on the top of the tallest tree, but that wasn’t the cause of Thorn’s shock. Behind the prince, a light brown pelt covered by leaves was extending a paw, giving a rough shove, and sending Tiger shooting down. Thorn looked around frantically, but everyone seemed to be frozen to the ground. Thinking fast, Thorn took a leap into the air and flew towards Tiger. He grabbed him, but the prince was too heavy.

            Panicking, Thorn quickly created a force field around Tiger. He landed and the glowing ball of green around him faded. Thorn floated down next to Tiger, looking around at the shocked faces of the crowd.

            “A warlock! A warlock!”

            “What’s he doing here?!”

            “Evil has penetrated our kingdoms!”

            “Burn him!”

End Chapter X 

-Gylfie101

Chapter IX

Chapter IX

            Rose’s eyes shone as greeted the citizens of the other kingdoms. They seemed so kind to her, but then again she was the princess. And the higher royalty! She thought. Once the winner of the competition was determined, she wouldn’t have to worry about leaving. Since the Cold Heart Kingdom was more powerful, her future husband would be the new prince of the Cold Heart Kingdom. Someone nudged her harshly, and she turned around sharply, about to snap at whoever could be so rude-but then she saw who it was, and her gaze softened.

            “Thorn. Are you okay?” He looked bedraggled and nervous. Thorn shook his head. “Are you as nervous as I am?”

            “No way! I’m excited!” She paused to look at him. “Why are you nervous for my wedding?”

            Thorn shook his head again. “I don’t know. I’m probably fine, just tired.” He smiled at her. “Your wedding will be great. I promise.”

            But Rose didn’t seem so sure. Thorn’s nervousness had made her realize that if she looked deep inside her heart, she was reluctant to get married to any of these princes. And something else… regret. Regret that she couldn’t have someone else…

End Chapter IX

Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

            Tiger snapped at Harold as he let out an ear-shattering scream. “You’re so loud, I bet they could hear you in the Lighter Kingdoms!”

            Harold sniffed as he tried to step out of the thick, goopy, slimy brown mud. Tiger looked around, trying to find a way out of what could potentially be the death of all of them.

            “Look! Why do we follow Tiger? He leads us all into mud!” Tiger didn’t have to turn around to know that the rude comment came from Talon. Tiger thought fast. “Okay,” he nodded. “I know what we have to do here. We can’t use our strength, so we have to use our brains.”

            Talon rolled his eyes and groaned. The rest of the princes had uncertainty in their eyes as they slowly agreed.

            “Okay, almighty Tiger, what do you suggest?” Talon sneered. Tiger looked around and immediately perked up as he saw the small Silver struggling in the mud. “Silver!” He barked. “Stop moving.”

            Silver’s eyes widened and he shook his head violently. Tiger looked him straight in the eyes. “Trust me. I won’t let any of you get hurt.”

            Silver took a deep breath and relaxed. To everyone’s surprise, he floated to the top! Tiger smiled as he gave instruction to Silver. “Okay. Grab that stick and climb onto that rock over there, closest to us. Right, okay, everyone’s going to wade over there. You pull us out, okay?”

            Soon everyone was out, and Yellow managed to sniff out a clear path.

            Before they knew it, they found themselves at the end of the passage. Yellow trotted up to the two goblets on the wooden table and inspected them. “There a-seems to be a-something a-written on some a-papers over a-here!” He shouted, them opened his mouth to read them. Talon shoved Yellow aside, wanting to be the important one here.

            “All of you must drink out of one goblet. One contains a powerful poison that will kill you all slowly, and the other contains the small key out of here. Choose wisely.”

            Talon reached to pick one up hesitantly, then handed it to Tiger. “All of you can drink it,” he laughed, “so that if it’s the poison, I’ll win.”

            Tiger growled and snatched the paper off the table and looked over it, then turned to the goblets. He looked inside each and began to laugh. “They’re both the same!”

            “No,” Harold yelped. “This one’s liquid is blue. The other is green!”

            “So?” Tiger shrugged. “A key dipped in poison placed in water will poison it, no matter what. And the colors are from the goblets, not the poison.”

            Tiger grabbed both goblets and dumped the poison out. A small key fell out of both. Tiger picked one up and felt around for a door. The unlocking of it brought a welcome burst of warm, blinding sunlight as the princes burst out of the chamber. The king ran over to welcome them, immediately recognizing Tiger as the winner of this round. “Smart fellow!” Malicis commented, and then nodded to a few guards, who took the key from Tiger and nudged the princes into another dark room.

            But this time, it didn’t stay dark. Torches mysteriously lit themselves, and the princes were greeted with their next challenge: a giant maze.

Chapter VIII

-Gylfie101

           

Chapter VII

Chapter VII

            Tiger held up his paw and swallowed, not sure where to go, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He could hear the other princes panicking. Talon groaned that the darkness would ruin his fabulous coat, Harold yelped that he was afraid of the dark, Yellow was running into walls, and Silver was unsuccessfully trying to calm them down.

            “ENOUGH!” Tiger silenced the group with a roar. His eyes fully adjusted, he searched the group. “We’ll never get anywhere if you do this! We need to work together as a team.”

            Talon snorted. “Never! We’re enemies, remember?” The rest of the princes nodded their heads and murmured agreement.

            Tiger stalked towards the princes and hissed viciously. “Would you rather die?”

            The princes were silenced immediately, except for Talon, who snorted and walked up to the red snow leopard. “Okay, leader, what’s the plan?”

            Tiger detected the sneer in Talon’s voice and realized he was set on winning. Tiger took a deep breath and pointed his tail forward. “We have to walk that way. Don’t depend so heavily on your sight; use your other senses more.”

            The group proceeded forward, with Tiger in the front and a clearly upset Talon dropping to the back.

***

            The mumbling of the crowd as they walked off to the festivities the villagers had prepared drowned out Thorn’s voice as he tried to speak to Rose. He frowned as the fifth attempt to communicate was once again, unheard. He waited for the majority of the animals to leave and gestured for Rose to follow him. Once they were out of the view of the others, Thorn reached into his satchel and pulled out a small dark blue amulet on a silver chain and handed it to Rose.

            “What is it?” She breathed as she accepted it.

            Thorn smiled. “It’s a magic amulet. It takes you where you really, in your deepest depths, want to go.” Thorn turned his head away. “It’s a gift. For your wedding, you know.”

            Rose smiled and hugged Thorn. “Oh Thorn, you’re so sweet!” Rose dropped the amulet in her dress pocket and leaped up. “Want to go look at the festivities? The villagers are proud of their creation!”

            Thorn got up to follow Rose. “Sounds great!”

            As they were walking, Thorn jumped suddenly. Rose turned her head to look at him questioningly. “You alright?”

           

            Thorn swallowed. “I thought I heard a scream…”

            Rose laughed. “Silly guard! You’re so jumpy!”

Thorn nodded uncertainly and asked cautiously, “How do you think the princes are doing?”

Rose shrugged. “I have no idea. I just hope they don’t die.”

End Chapter VII

-Gylfie101