King Egus and the Fireblade

The King was dead.

All that remained of his entourage were the two loyal guardsmen who helped him to his final rest. They stood solemnly over their fallen master, their faces buried in their hands. One of them was sobbing into his gauntlets. Both were quite young, having been given the honour of protecting the King when he passed through their village all those years ago. They had been given more responsibility than they could handle, and now they were responsible for disposing of their fallen monarch’s corpse.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. King Egus had set off on a great quest; to find the legendary Fireblade, buried somewhere deep within the forest of Niblonwyss, in order to save his kingdom from the clutches of a terrible evil that had befallen it so many years ago. He had set off all jolly and cheery – as kings often did – but that was before realising just how perilous his journey would be. It hadn’t even been ten months since he left home. Ten months without food or water. Ten months enduring rain and snow and endless sun and heat. Ten months lost in the Neverwoods, where no one who entered ever returned.

King Egus was found by two children playing in the woods not far from where Demir and Egus had camped for the night. The children had noticed something strange – a lump looking like it might have once been a man was lying face-down in a puddle of mud next to an old tree stump, surrounded by broken branches as if someone had kicked apart a pile of kindling. The children approached cautiously, scared that they might have stumbled upon some sort of monster or bogeyman hiding amidst the trees, waiting to jump out at them when they least expected it.

They saw that it was indeed a man lying there, but he didn’t move at all. He seemed dead, though it was hard to tell because he was covered in mud from head to toe and looked as if he hadn’t seen sunlight for months (which he hadn’t). One of the children reached out tentatively and poked him in the back with her finger. Nothing happened. She poked him harder this time, drawing back her hand quickly when she realised what she’d just done – surely this poor man must be dead! But then – miraculously - something very surprising happened indeed: The muddy body stirred slightly, shaking itself free in the process like a wet dog after taking a swim in a river during summertime, splashing mud everywhere around it; then it rolled onto its side and sat up straight with its back against a nearby tree trunk, blinking rapidly as if trying to rid itself of sleepiness; finally its eyes opened fully and stared ahead intently at nothing in particular while its lips moved soundlessly as if muttering something – anything – to itself; until finally it jumped down from its perch on top of the stump and gazed about wildly at its surroundings with an expression on its face that suggested surprise mixed with happiness tinged with sadness layered over pure confusion: It recognised nothing around it yet everything felt familiar somehow; it couldn’t remember who he was or where he came from yet somehow felt as if he belonged here; it knew nothing about himself except that he existed somewhere out there in this world but couldn’t remember what his name was or why he should care about anything at all...

The children waited patiently for this strange man to regain his composure and recollect himself; meanwhile they allowed themselves to observe him up close so that they could speak later about how odd his clothes looked (they certainly weren’t made out of any material they recognised) or how unusual his long hair seemed (it wasn't black or red or brown or blonde like theirs); they studied him carefully too so that they could describe his skin colour later (not white like theirs nor brown like many of their parents' friends') along with his facial features (they couldn't make sense of those either). When Egus had finally regained some control over himself after seeing absolutely nothing around him that looked familiar other than being able to recognise shadows and shapes which reminded him very much of things he'd seen before elsewhere (but where? when?) - after noticing also how weak and hungry he suddenly felt despite having no recollection whatsoever about ever having experienced such feelings before - he turned slowly towards these curious onlookers who'd been watching him intently without uttering a word throughout this whole ordeal (how long had passed now? five minutes? ten minutes? twenty minutes perhaps?) then asked them: "What's your name?" And when one of them answered "Demir" (not exactly sure why she did so), Egus nodded slowly as if agreeing with himself about something important before asking her: "And yours?" When another child replied "Alfin", Egus smiled broadly while nodding enthusiastically again while saying: "Fantastic! How marvellous!" Then he glanced downwards at himself, at his muddied clothes and filthy hands covered with cuts crusted over with dried blood (just look at these filthy clothes!) before saying: "And I'm... er... um..." He paused thoughtfully for several seconds while tapping his index finger against his chin while staring into space somewhere above Demir's head as if trying hard to remember something important before exclaiming: "...Egus!" While doing so he stretched out both arms wide open and gestured grandly towards Demir and Alfin as if introducing himself formally at court instead of standing alone in the middle of nowhere amongst muddy puddles more than half-way between life and death...