The Abandoned Lycan King

He sits in his castle atop the mountain side. The path is dangerous, with jagged rocks lining it and a drop-off to hell on one side. Nobody goes up there, for fear of death on this path, so he has no worries about intruders. He was once a beloved king who was adored by his subjects and their families alike. Standing at around 6 feet tall, he had long dark hair, tattoos that covered his sleeves and part of his neck, and a personality that was a little dark and dirty but loving and compassionate as well. He was known as a noble king, not mean but fair and just, always helpful to the town's people. Showing compassion where needed and not letting any soul out in the cold to suffer. He reigned like this for years until he met his queen. A beautiful but devilish of a woman. Though her beauty intrigued everyone, her attitude made her ugly in the eyes of most. Everything changed once she came into the picture, and it did not change for the better. The land and the people suffered in the worst of ways; hunger, sickness of the ground and people and so much more. When he met her, he was instantly mesmerized by her beauty and that was the first mistake he made. Instead of using his logical brain and thinking things through, he was using his other head, and he married her right away. He shouldn't have done that. When her decisions for the towns' people and what was to happen to them started coming into effect, that was the second mistake. She was not here to rule alongside him, she was here to feast and to have a king to kill with her. She was a queen beast, and she came to claim her king. Allowing her to infect him was his third and final mistake. Once that happened, everyone was in danger of being slaughtered and becoming a next meal. I was only a child when he met her. Carefree and loving the life I was given to live. Things in our village were amazing and life was good. We had plenty of food and wild animals on the land that everyone was fed all the time and none went hungry. Everyone had furs and thick clothing to stay warm through the winter months. My father worked for the king and we had a good life. We had little nicer things and had a house closer to the castle, but our home was a cozy and happy place. Loving hard-working parents and a place to call home for as long as I could remember. Tulips and daisies grew all around the cottage home we had and vines grew all along the walls of our cottage as well as up the walls of the castle. The ground cover and vines with the flowers made such a beautiful sight and the river running along the northern border completed the beauty of it. When she arrived, though, it started off badly. First, the animals refused to eat, they would eat a little and then get sick. They were still drinking water for a while, but after being sick for so long and not getting the nutrients they needed, they started dying off and leaving an awful stench in the village of rotten infected meat and our meat supply started dying off. Then all the crops withered and refused to grow, we couldn't get to the crops to even try and work on them or change anything without being attacked by rodents and pests. Biting at our legs and climbing up our clothes, going after any exposed part of our body, they can get some food themselves. Even the pests were starving because everything was poisoned, and they couldn't eat the scraps without getting sick themselves. After that, everyone started having issues eating and having enough food for each family to sustain themselves. People's throats swelled from infections, water became toxic and started making people's stomachs turn on them. Vomiting and Diarrhea were a persistent problem and then, after all of that, the ones who weren't so sick started to disappear. Those that worked in the kingdom weren't as bad right off, we still had food and necessities due to working directly for the king. There were a few families that worked for him, so we still had a decent population too. When she started firing people though and had the king convinced he needed nobody but her, that is when our family started to really suffer. Not just ours either, the more people that got fired the more they disappeared or were found ripped open with their hearts missing and their guts everywhere. She was literally helping him to kill and eat his entire kingdom. The king was easily swayed by her beauty and her power, that is until the night he allowed her to change him. The towns' people, already suffering from the changes and the land being pretty barren, were now about to suffer a fate worse than starvation or death. This woman was a werewolf, and she had every intention of turning into our king. The night she chose to do it was a full moon and a celebration of life for our people. As she turned to the king in their private chambers, you could hear his screams throughout the kingdom and surrounding lands. It echoes and started like a man screaming in pain and turning into a beast howling. The more the beast howled, the more it sounded like an animal being murdered. All at once, the noise stopped and the land felt darker than usual. That night is when the real horror began though. The king was not well the whole day after that horrible noise was heard. But then weird growling noises could be heard throughout the village. At first, we thought that there was a wolf outside or a pack of wolves even, but it was something much worse. Our king had turned into a horrible beast, a werewolf, and he was hunting with his new bride. They were scouring the village to look for the perfect meal. We were lucky that night and were spared. My neighbors were not though and the images of them found the next morning will never be out of my head. The adults were all but gone and the children were slayed like they were monsters themselves. There was blood everywhere in the little cabin and what was once a loving and caring family was now a pile of death. Our king had so much remorse. He was angry with his queen. Never did he think that allowing her to leave her mark would result in this. Knowing what it meant now, he wanted no part of it, but you can not kill the one who made you. Instead, he hid away in his castle while she continued to murder the town's people. She had no care for children or adults, she just murdered everyone. One night, a man showed up that we had never seen before. At that point, there were only a few of us left. She had all but decimated the entire village and those who could get away during daylight hours and told others not to go anywhere near the kingdom because it was plagued by a beast. We eventually had no new people and barely any natives on our land left. This drifter and man we had never seen before wanted to help us for no apparent reason. We knew nothing of him other than he had skills none of us had ever seen. The night he arrived, the king actually left the castle for the first time in months, as he was leaving with his queen, though this drifter advised him to stay indoors that night and let his queen hunt alone. By this point, we all knew of the beast and what had become of our ruler, so we agreed to listen to this man and the king stayed indoors, only feeding off the deer my father had brought him. As we were settling into our home with only the food we could gather for ourselves and a few blankets for warmth, we heard a horrifying howl of something dying and then another stronger howl from the castle. I had a feeling that the Queen had just been slaughtered, and the king felt her leave his presence. As the drifter came back into town he was covered in blood and carrying what we can only assume was the queen's head in his satchel. From that point on, we didn't see the king anymore. People didn't come to visit and nobody came out of the castle to go anywhere. We were given enough to have our own food and make our own clothes and items for life in general, but nothing extra and all trading with the outside world stopped. Our king was broken. It has now been over 10 years since we have seen him, and I am now 20. I was 10 when everything changed and in all this time it has not got better for the kingdom. Today, I take over as maid in the castle as my mother has gotten older and works in the kitchen more now. I will be tending to the king's room, bathroom, living room and garden area on his side of the castle. It is not a lot of work, it is just that the king is not very nice to people, especially when it starts to get dark. So my shift starts at 5am, so I am mostly done by the time the sun goes down. It is not a good idea to be in the castle when he is changed and wanting to feed, he can be kind of out of control and I would hate for him to consider me a meal. I start with his room since he is not in it and I make sure to clean it well. Things are shredded everywhere, and I am guessing that is because of his change and being angry because of it. I finish his bedroom and move to the bathroom on his floor, it looks as though it is never used and only barely needs a dusting to be completely clean. The living room seems to be where he is the most, and it takes the longest to straighten up and clean. By the time I am done, it is dark, and I hear a growl behind me. It doesn't sound like an angry growl though, it sounds more like a warning. I slowly turned around to see a Lycan. He is three times larger than the king and has pure black fur, his eyes glow a vibrant red and his teeth could shred me. I am not scared though. I want to get close to him and pet him. I know he may not be okay with it, but I slowly move forward and reach my hand out. If he bites me, then I guess I am dinner, instead though I feel a wet snout in my hand and when i open my eyes I realize that he is sniffing my hand. This was not what I was expecting on my first day moving into the castle job. I also wasn't expecting to meet the king or have him turn and not eat me. I have to say that even with everything that has happened in the past ten years, this is definitely one of the weirdest I have seen. As I run my hand through his fur, he lets out a light whimper and backs away. I have a feeling he is hungry and, for some reason, he doesn't see me as food.