Once Upon a Time
Alright time to make due on my promise and put a story out there. This one was interesting and really fun to come up with and hopefully I fix ever spelling/grammar in it (probably not) but that is besides the point. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the story. Have a nice day ;)
Once upon a time there lived a King. The King lived in a grand castle on top of a mountain. He had land, money, power, and all the people to adore him. The sun always shined in the castle, the birds singing can be heard through out the halls, and the flowers from the garden filled the castle with wondrous scents from their many lands. For many years the King lived a peaceful life.
Then one day a rat from the village below came to see the King. This is rare thought the King for no one came unless he invited them first. The idea intrigued him and with nothing else to do, he allowed the rat an audience. When the rat from the village below came into the thrown room, the King was appalled by what he saw. This rat was covered head to toe with dirt, holes in his rag of cloths, and a smell that made excrement smell like roses. The King knew this rat was of no importance just by his looks and wouldn't listen to him. He threw him out of the castle before he could even say a word.
The next day the King was told that the rat from the village below came again. The King was shocked; maybe he misjudged what he saw. His father did tell him how he shouldn't judge a book by its cover and he did react out of instinct. This must be important if he came a second time. So the King let him in, but this time he would listen. "Your Majesty," said the rat, "I ask you to please help us?"
The King still couldn't stand to sight of him, but tolerated it. "Why should I help you?" asked the King looking down at him from his throne.
"We are you faithful servants. We supported you since you were a prince and helped make the kingdom what it is. All we ask is a small favor," replied the rat.
A small favor, the King has heard this kind of talk before when his father would listen to the people. Rich, poor, neighbors, and foreign leaders he listened to it all and they always asked for small favors. They would be anything, but small and now this peasant wants one too. The King stood up from his throne, "Get out," he said. "Get out now. You are not worth my time."
The rat was shocked, "But we supported you..." pleaded the rat moving closer to the King.
"I know who supported me and it wasn't filth like you," yelled the King covering his nose from the God-awful smell. "Get out before I have you killed on sight!" cried the King. The rat first looked at the King with a broken heart and slowly left, dragging his tail between his legs.
The next day the rat from the village below came again. Not even letting him in the castle, the king went to the common grounds to see the rat and end this once and for all. With his royal guards for protection. "What did I tell you?" said the King. "Please sir just one favor," pleaded the rat kneeling on the ground.
How pitiful the King though just like all peasant, "I shall not warrant you any favors. You are but one peasant and I don't care for peasants."
"You don't understand!" yelled the rat as he moved closer to the King.
The King knew this rat has gone insane. "Guards take this peasant to the dungeons." The rat said nothing and did nothing as he looked at the King with a whitewashed stare. He was taken to his new home and was quickly forgotten.
The following day the King walked around his wondrous castle. The sun was still bright, the birds were still singing, and the smells of the flowers were as sweet as ever. Without the rat to bother him he can get on with more important work. Then one of the King's guards came up to him and told him terrible news. There were several people outside protesting the King. "Why?"
"They are asking you to free the rat you put into the dungeon." Why must everything come back to that damn rat? Do these people not know I face bigger priorities? Wishing for this to end here and now he look at his guard. "There is no reason to release him. Tell them to leave and if they don't kill them." They did not leave and the guards always follow orders.
The next day the King was told even more people came. Why? What do they want? The king pondered, but came to a realization that these people must be peasants. Then his father's words from long ago came to him, 'The only good peasant is a dead peasant.' And he did like what his father would do. "Kill them, Kill them all. Make examples of them. I don't care how just do it."
As the days past more and more peasants came and more and more died. The King never felt so much pressure in his life. These peasants are like ants, no matter how many you killed they just keep coming. For days the castle rang with the sounds of guards and peasants yelling, screaming, dying. Turning each day into a living hell and each night a vivid nightmare. Until one night everything was silent. No more people came, which meant they didn't make noise, and no noise means no death. The King was pleased. He can finally get much a quiet sleep and tomorrow focus on his work.
The next day, the King walked around his mighty castle. As he looked around he notice the sun wasn't shinning anymore, Must be a cloudy day though the King. Then he realized the birds stopped singing. Must of left during the battle. They'll come back thought the King. The only thing he couldn't figure out was an awful smell filling the castle halls. It smelled like the day the rat from the village below came. The King ignored it and walked more around his castle. As he continued walking he notice he hasn't seen a single person in the castle. The King called out there names yet no one answered. The King got scared. What happened to them? He look all over the castle calling his court, captains, guards, and servants yet no one came.
Then he saw someone in the distance looking at him. The King called out to him but it didn't answer. As the King came closer the figure moved further away. The King broke into a run and chased this mysterious figure all over the castle knowing this thing can give him answers. He called out for it to stop in the name of the King, but it never slowed down. The King wasn't sure how long he has been chasing the thing until he saw it entering the throne room. The King walked in and saw the figure standing far off looking at an old tapestry of him as a cub with his father and mother. As the king walked closer he finally saw whom he was chasing from the dirt body to the torn cloths to the smell, the rat from the village below.
The King stared in shock. "What are you doing here? I put you in the dungeon!" screamed the King.
"One of your guards gave me the key before he left. I've been out for over a week now," said the rat from the village below in a dry voice.
"What do you mean a guard left?" asked the King; why would a guard do that and how has he not seen the rat in all that time?
"Haven't you noticed that the castle is a little empty? They all left. Because you wouldn't listen to me." Said the rat, he turned around looking at him with malice.
"Enough I don't have to listen to you..."
"Because I'm a peasant. I know." Interrupted the rat.
"That's right you're a peasant. A lowlife. SCUM!" The rat looked at him as he took a seat on his throne. The king exploded, "GET OFF OF THAT! OR I'LL..."
"Or you'll what?" the rat replied in a clam voice. The King stopped to think what he could do, but had no one to do it. The rat continued, "You should of listen to me. This could of all been avoided. You call yourself a King. HA! If you had a right mind you'd have listened."
The King stood silent thinking of the events that lead him here and how it all started with the damn rat. Finally he asks the rat why he came here. "You said you wanted a small favor. What was the favor?"
The rat looked down at the King. "We wanted you to lower the taxes on the village below." The king looked up in disbelief.
"What that's it. That's all." So simply of all things sure he loved getting everything he wanted, but he knew the people from the village were the reason he was able to. He could spare without some items, "Fine I can lower it five, no six percent. That should help your people right?" The rat still looked at him.
"It wouldn't matter now."
"Why?"
The Rat chuckled, "I though you were the smart one. Do you know why the peasants stopped coming to the castle? Why the sun won't shine? The bird's song? The smell of the flowers?" The Rat looked over to an open window, "Take a look out there and see what your reign has become." The king hesitantly walked towards the window. With each step he took the smell got worst making his eyes tear up. He couldn't go any further. "Keep going if you want the answer." The Rat knew something the king didn't. How could anyone know anything that the king didn't?
When he got to the window his stomach turn, his vision blurred, and his legs weaken. From the castle grounds laid the slain bodies of hundred no thousands of village and castle folk alike. The bodies of men, women, and children of foxes, otters, deer, weasels, rats, and several others lay as a giant mass with crows and maggots eating away at their flesh. Blood covered the ground as swarms of flies, beetles, and mosquitoes feasted on bounty before them. Then there was the fire. Several fires unattended as they devoured everything it could reach leaving behind a trail of burnt bodies. The wolf looked over to the Rat.
"We believed you would be better then your father. When word got out that he pasted away we cheered to the welcome of a new age. Cause we have seen you with our kids as your father took you around town. You played with them and even talked to them. We though you would love us more then he. But like they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I couldn't believe it myself till you called me a peasant and even then I lied to myself. Hoping that you were different. Needless to say by the time I was in the dungeon I knew the truth"
The wolf fell to his knees. His teachings of his father were wrong. He remembered those days. They were his mother's idea and his father allowed it cause he loved her. He remembered playing with kids his own age. Not servants or royal families. It was fun. Then she past away, the father stopped the visits and sat him down for the many lessons about being a king. The days of play were filled with talks about how a king should act, do, present, and rule and he believed him. "But that was what a king should do." He answered.
The Rat got up from the thrown and came towards the wolf. "A king is to lead and rule, but he must also listen to his subjects. You didn't and now you've fallen. May whatever Gods have mercy on your soul." The Rat from the village below turned around to the exit. "My family is probably dead. I should kill you where you are, but you'll suffer more alive. Enjoy your tomb." Then the Rat from the village below was gone leaving the wolf alone to rule the land.
Once upon a time there was a King who lived in a wondrous castle in the mountains, but his greed and ignorance left many people unhappy. They wanted change, but the king wouldn't grant their wish. When word that the King threw one of their own in the dungeons the villagers had enough. They appeared before the great castle wanting to be heard. But the king never appeared. Instead the castle guards began to kill them. Several died on the first day. More on the second. With each day more and more bodies began to pile and the morality of the people came into question. Then everyone knew there would be no winner from this. They dropped everything villager and castle guard alike and left the castle for a better land.
Now the King lives alone. With the bodies decaying and less food each passing day the King went insane. No one dared to approach the castle and its barren land. For the few who dare enter the castle be warn. The grounds are covered with the skeletons of the dead and the King. Well no one is sure if he is still alive or dead. There is only so much food the castle holds and when your hungry, rotten meat looks very tasty. All I can tell you is that those who entered never returned and for those whom did are a shell. Describing a hideous sight of a beast on the throne, covered in dirt, with ratty cloths, and the smell of the dead asking them with a bloody grin to stay for the feast.