Backstories: Cloud the Zealot

Story by Albus Kane on SoFurry

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#4 of Backstories

Just another story I felt the need to write


Back in the final days of the Crusades, there was a knight, a grey Fox with abnormally long hair and fur, by the name of Cloud the Zealot. Every battle that he fought in, he would slay up to thousands of his foes in, and his side would win. He was known for wielding dual longswords into battle, being abnormally tall and muscular for the time, standing at almost eight feet tall. At first, he thought that he was exclusively heterosexual, of course, because this is the Middle Ages we're talking about. However, that changed when one of his fellow Crusaders, Viento Lombardi, a blue Falcon, propositioned him for sex shortly after a battle. Out of curiosity, he accepted. They were still just friends after several of these encounters, and Cloud still very much loved his wife at home, Anya, a red Fennec Fox, but they were sexual encounters nonetheless. Inevitably, though, his comrades found out, and he was brought before a court of law on sodomy charges.

Throughout the kingdom of Scotland, where he lived, he quickly became known as "Cloud the Sodomite". The trial was presided over by none other than Viento's father, Guillermo Lombardi, who refused to bring his own son before the court. As a result of the testimonies of his fellow soldiers, many of whose lives he had saved, he was convicted of sodomy charges and sentenced to death. Out of curiosity, Guillermo asked Cloud if he still loved his wife, and Cloud said he still did, at which point his wife stood up and yelled "I care not what he did in those tents, and I NEVER SHALL!". Then Guillermo asked about his relationship with Viento, who then stood up and shouted "A GOOD FRIEND THAT WILL NOT LET SOMETHING SO BENIGN BE THE DEATH OF HIS BEST FRIEND WITHOUT BRINGING HELL DOWN UPON THEE!" Then, Guillermo told them to sit down, before sentencing Cloud to burn at the stake. His wife did not know she was pregnant with his child at the time, the child conceived the day he returned home.

Then, they got to the stake. He requested to die wearing the armor he wore into battle, and the request was granted. He was asked if he had any last words, and he did. "Lord, please forgive me for something so utterly harmless as to be undeserving of such intrusion. ALSO, please forgive King Leonidas, watching me now, for CHEATING ON HIS OWN WIFE WITH A COMMON BEGGAR-WHORE!" All of his claims were true, of course, which only made the crowd shudder more when he made them. King Leonidas ordered the executioner to light the fire, which he did. As it burned, Cloud continued. "And forgive him for disregarding another command of yours which he claims to hold so dearly in his heart, and STRIKING HIS OWN FATHER THRICE UPON THE FACE, as well as his wife for marrying her OWN BROTHER and conceiving their first child out of wedlock! Forgive the townsfolk, who claim to be protecting your law while willfully violating the sixth commandment! And may you forgive Leonidas, once again, for coveting and hoarding all that he can, the greedy wretch." The crowd applauded, and then turned against the king as soon as Cloud died. He was rushed to the safety of his castle, only to be assassinated three days later.

The night before the execution, Viento smothered his own father to death in his sleep, leaving the murder-suicide note of "As a friend dies for mere sodomy, my father dies for nepotism and Draconianism, and I die for fear of a life alone, with no wife, and no friend." He was found dead that morning, having drunken a vial of poison. Their bloodlines both continued, Viento having had sex with the same prostitute as Leonidas, as a strange coincidence. From the name Cloud came MacCloud, which became McCloud, the surname of a notable descendant of his, Fox McCloud. Fox's friend Falco was a direct descendant of Viento, and this coincidence they only knew of just before the battle of Corneria. Leonidas's bloodline lived on to Aslan Lionheart, and his sons Aslan Jr. and Leodore.