How The Drenched Came To Be: Part Six

      “Hi… who are you? Apparently you already know me.”

      “Why, my name is Fortune, and Dread and Luck are my sisters.”

      “Well, I don’t know if I’ll stay, but I’m here to try out this kind of lifestyle.”

      “You should stay. There’s nothing left for you in Maraqua. King Kelpbeard will never allow you back now that you’ve talked to us, but we live a nice life. We may be secluded, but we get such joy out of helping others being prepared for disaster. It may not seem kind, but wouldn’t you want to know ahead of time if your home was going to be destroyed? Then you could prepare and remove anything important. We may seem mean, but we’re really kind.”

     ---

      The King woke up with a start. Something didn’t seem right. He looked out his window and saw that it was sunrise. He hurried to the home of Caylis and Isca, and he could see through the window that they were both there. He had a feeling the Drenched were involved in some way, so he then hurried to the home of Fate and Struggle. There, he looked in a window to see two beds empty, and he knew that Fate and Struggle had been called. He could never allow them to return if they had been associating with any member of the Drenched. He didn’t want to do that to any of his subjects, but the Drenched left him no choice. They were obviously trying to make him seem evil, though he really wasn’t. He truly only wanted what was best for Maraqua, but the Drenched made his job as King so difficult.

     ---

      “Struggle? Where are you? Struggle?” asked Fate in the darkness, then she saw Dread approach her and she was very afraid. She started shaking and stuttering, “D-d-do y-you know w-where m-my sister is?”

      “Why, Fate, we’ve been waiting for you. Struggle is here with us, and being well taken care of. We’ve been waiting for you to join us.”

      Fate was still stuttering, “H-How did you know I w-was coming?”

      Dread laughed lightly, “Why, Fate, you’re bound to me. I know what you’re doing most of the time.”

      “So you DID bind us to you!” yelled Fate, no longer stuttering due to her immense anger at being used, and as if that wasn’t enough, being used by the most evil beings known to the other Maraquans.

      Dread seemed to reply to her thoughts, as Luck had done to her so long ago, “I never used you. I blessed you and gave both you and Maraqua a second chance. Maraqua still betrayed you and you have another chance to live. In fact, I gave you one chance when I blessed you and even now I’m giving you another chance to live and enjoy life. Neither my sisters nor I will fail you like Maraqua did.”

      “Maraqua never failed us.”

      “Oh, Maraqua never failed you? Apparently leaving you to possibly die in a city that they knew would fall isn’t failing you. King Kelpbeard knows that there’s a possibility that half of the city or more may die defending it, and for all he knows you’ll be some of those people just because I blessed you. Face it, Fate, Maraqua has failed you and your King has failed you. Only my sisters and I haven’t failed you. Everybody else backed down and let you fall or fail just because you were special. Whether you like it or not, you’ve been failed.”

      Fate sniffed, because she knew it was true, “Perhaps they did fail me, but it’s your fault.”

      Dread shrugged, “Look at it as you wish. There’s no returning now.”

     ---

      “People of the great kingdom of Maraqua, Fate and Struggle have been taken in by Dread and her sisters. I say this with a heavy heart, but I can no longer allow them to enter Maraqua for fear that Dread has influenced them heavily and is having them do anything for her. It is a grave loss for us, but we must take it and prepare for a new Maraqua.”

     ---

      Dread led Fate to her lair where Struggle was waiting with her sisters. “In fact, the King just told the people that they may not associate with you or allow you into Maraqua because we’ve taken you in when they wouldn’t.”

      Some time passed and the Drenched taught Struggle and Fate how to be just like them, then as the time approached that Maraqua would be attacked, the Drenched didn’t tell the girls. Instead of telling the girls, they sent them out to other wandering Maraquans that didn’t live in the realm around the castle so that they could foretell to the others what they saw. The Drenched did this so that neither Fate nor Struggle would think of returning any time soon.

      When it was very near the time when the girls thought that Maraqua would be attacked, they went to the edges of Maraqua and yelled their tales of Doom amongst the people, weaving a web of sorrow, pain, and fear in the process. Every Maraquan within hearing range was drawn to the web and trapped on it and they all fell under the spell of Luck as she wove tales of pain among the people who were trapped on her web. Dread and Fortune helped her, but Luck was the best at foretelling due to her ability to do so.

     ---

      King Kelpbeard looked ready to pull out his hair and scream, “I’ve had it with Dread and her sisters. I want them gone, and I want them to stop scaring my subjects. They already know that we will fail, the Drenched just make everything worse!” King Kelpbeard was screaming even louder and he wished that he could just get rid of the Drenched once and for all, though he knew that trying to do so would do more harm than good. Therefore, he left them be, unless they started to scare his poor subjects.

      However, when his guards went to herd away the Drenched, they were gone. But it was too late for the people. Their eyes had glazed over and they were stuck in Luck’s web. A minute after King Kelpbeard arrived, the people seemed to return to reality and they started rushing around in fear trying to save themselves and their loved ones.

      King Kelpbeard muttered to himself, “I cannot even let them to the city limits. I must find their lair and destroy it so that they must find one further away. I cannot allow them to keep doing this to my people.”

      In the morning, the King awoke to the sound of ships above him. The surface dwellers had arrived to destroy his city.

      The King woke the people and ordered them to hurry and leave their homes, “The time has come. I’ve done some thinking and I want everybody except for my guards to flee. Do not go to the future site of a rebuild Maraqua, we don’t want the land creatures to know where it is should they return. You must flee in the opposite direction, but be sure to take any supplies with you that you will need.”

      A few hours passed and all of his subjects had been rushed out of Maraqua, and the King spoke to the leader of the surface creatures, though he knew that the leader would never hear him, “You can destroy the city, but you cannot destroy the spirit of my people, or my spirit.”

      As the surface dwellers attacked, they were surprised to see little resistance. They raided the homes but there was nothing there. Satisfied that they had done as much damage as possible, the leader, a pirate by the name of Captain Scarblade, ordered his crew to destroy what was left of Maraqua and to make the King watch it all.

      Dread saw King Kelpbeard go after his people once the surface dwellers had left and she laughed at him, “You may continue being King, but we shall continue foretelling our doom. You will be attacked again King Kelpbeard. Mark my words, you will be attacked again.”

     ---

      “My people, the land creatures have left and we may being rebuilding the city. Please, come. Let us rebuild and live again.”

      The city was indeed rebuilt and again attacked by Captain Scarblade, but this time Maraqua won, no thanks to the Drenched. Goregas continued to be a faithful servant to Isca as she grew. He loved the attention, though Isca would never know that it was Fortune’s pet. Nobody ever told Isca or Caylis that it was the Drenched who blessed them, but all ended as it should. Isca and Caylis, with the help of some new surface dwellers, helped Maraqua defeat the Captain. King Kelpbeard was always wary of the Drenched, but since they left him alone, he chose to leave them alone.

      The Drenched never forgot what he had done to them, and they always tried to get back at him in any way possible, big or small. Many nights Dread stayed awake and started out to her destroyed life and cried the same tears of pain and torture that haunted her daily.

The End

Author's Note: Hey, I hope you all enjoyed my series!!!