THE KING AND THE BEAST

In the middle of a valley stands a large kingdom, tall and proud, with walls stretching all around to protect its inhabitants from invaders. The king’s best builders expertly constructed the castle at the center, and the kingdom itself, with all its inhabitants, while far from perfect, functioned well enough. There was just one problem: the king didn’t feel he was being taken seriously enough compared to the kings of other kingdoms. There, they were treated as gods, and everybody bowed to the command of their every word. Here, though, he had none of it. He ruled fairly and in an honest effort to aid his people, but his rule lacked the feeling of authority. He wanted to change that, and so he sent his best men to journey through the world to bring back a ferocious beast for him to train and use as he wished.

Days later, his men had returned with the beast and presumably tamed it to be obedient to his master’s, the king’s, every command. The animal was a large, brawny four-legged figure, with scaled hide like plates of armor and teeth the shape of sharpened daggers. It was everything that he had hoped for, and surely, with an animal like this, everybody would have to fearfully respect him. His first order was to make an announcement and present his pet to all the kingdom’s people, showing them that he was no longer some figure to take lightly. No, now he was a proper ruler– an emperor, even!

As he went on about his duties, he created new rules and policies meant to increase productivity, and therefore, benefit the kingdom overall. All his plans, however, seemed rather unrealistic for most to follow, and so they protested in front of his castle.

“How unruly,” he thought. “Do they not know who their king is? I must punish them and show how serious I am!”

At his command, the beast rushed out. With its claws, it batted away at all the protestors, lightly injuring some while others were more gravely damaged, and for a moment, as the king watched on, he felt guilty. It wasn’t his intention to maim his people. All he wanted was to get them to follow orders. He hesitated for a moment, thinking to call the beast back, but a small voice in the back of his mind convinced him otherwise, and that it was only just. He rubbed his stiff neck, feeling an unfamiliar, rugged texture that he just shrugged off as an illusion stemming from his internal tensions.

In the following days, he then established more restrictive rules, such as curfews, longer work hours, and no protests, which only spurred more outrage. This time, the people began to throw their possessions at the castle’s walls and smash its windows until the king heard their demands. They gathered their pitchforks and butcher’s knives and whatever else dangerous they owned and readied themselves to combat the beast again. It wasn't until it stepped out that they all realized there was no hope in even harming it. Its towering height from before seemed nearly doubled, its fangs became spearheads, its scales multiples of their original density, and in its sight was nobody spared.

Quickly, the townspeople began to flee in different directions. The ones who were paralyzed with fear were the first to be mauled, then the ones who fled north, then south, and in every other direction. Those who hadn’t participated had to watch on from the hiding spaces of their home, shaking with fear and spite as they watched their relatives and friends be reduced to splatters of blood and gnawed meat. If they could still bear to witness and hadn’t yet turned their gaze, they could see the beast then dine on these remains, and take on a larger, even more monstrous form from it.

Where was the king in all this bloodshed? That was the question of one of his men, a knight whose disgust with all the horror had turned him into an assassin. As silently as he could, he trekked along the castle’s various rooms, hiding in the shadows until he finally spotted the king in a corridor with his back turned. Quieting his breath, he slowly inched closer and drew his sword to plunge it into the king’s back. Just before he could thrust it forward, however, a deep and bellowing growl sounded right behind him. With dread now settling into his chest and quickening his breath, he turned over to see none other than the beast itself. But how? How did it manage to find him?

Then the king turned around. His eyes were colored an unsettling reddish pink, his skin freckled all over with splotches in a similar color to the monster’s scales, and his forehead was downright repulsive with all its new, unnatural lumps and veins. Then the king’s mouth opened, though it sounded in a voice that wasn’t his own.

“You should know better than to attempt an assassination against me. No matter, I’ll deal with you accordingly.”

In the matter of an instant, before the knight could regain his senses from the terror that overcame his body, the beast opened its massive maw and chomped his upper half clean off. There was nobody in the kingdom left to oppose the king with his beast.

Yaniel Quintana was born and raised in central Florida. He enjoys playing games and hanging out with friends in his free time.