COTN House of Karen Part 8

8.  More Secret's

It was the age of the Serpent even before the age of Man. There was a King then who was the last King of the Serpent was looking at his kingdom from his castle wall. He limped to his Queen side, who was lying on the bed. She is dying from the disease that is eating into her body and soul. He knell by her side and laid his head on her bed. He is crying at her fate and wondered how he would like to be in her than next to her.

"Gwen, you are my love and mother to many of my children. If not for our son to be betray even his love for the mother of his own, you would not be lying here." King Camren looked at his wife feet. "How could he do this to you?"

Queen Gwen is without her feet; they were removed by her son in his fit of rage. His name is Set. He was to be the first of the descendants of Set.

"Camren.... He is our son." The Queen coughed out blood from her mouth but its not dark read like that of Man or Elves, but bluish in shade. "Spare him his life and restart a new one for our people. Do the later when you have defeated his people. Only you can defeat them. As my daughters would one day battle his kingdom although they would be also his lovers. That may be the way to fight him from within his ranks when the children of mine would battle for their mother."

The Queen breath her last before her eyes closed far the final time on her husband.

"Such a pity that Mother is still vindicative towards me, Father. You heard her. Spare me." Their son whose name is now Set is held in chains and he mocks at his own mother's death. He was captured in the last battle when his mount suffered a lame but his army escaped to await nearby for a counter attack.

"Set, if you were once not my son, I would had you flogged alive. Take him away." The King ordered the guards to take away the prisoner while he can mourn the loss of his mate. 

Set sat in the dungeon cell on the filth that caked on the cold flooring. He reflected on the last battle before he was captured. It was supposed to be an ambush on the supply wagons. Set was there with his assembled warriors of fifty riders.

There was only ten wagons and twenty foot guards.

They charged the wagons and the fight was brief. Some of the riders were on the supply wagon when the trap was sprung by the King. He came not alone but twice the the numbers riders of Set' army. There are also the archers which stood on the treeline to bring down Set' army. The first volley killed ten of his riders.

"Retreat! Its a trap." Set gave the command to his army to retreat. He rode to join his army but the mount suffered a lame. "Damned! My luck turns on me."

Soon Set find himself surrounded by the King' men.

"My Lord Set, I bring your food, and also the key to our freedom." The warden was not to know that the man he was to rescue knows not much of compassion. Set managed to escape as he has many friends in the castle. He however left a note to the King.

A week, later the battle was to take place on the low hills area with a wide valley to stage the battle. The King' Army lined on the north side of the valley on the low hill with a strength of two thousand riders; the riders are wearing light leather armor on their chest and arms, with lance at ready on their saddles. There is also the one thousand archers with their weapons to offer the distance support and while the two thousand pikeman lined up in front of the archers holding their long handle weapons that are twice their height. The Army are all dressed in brown fatigues with the emblem of the King'; the blazing dragon in flight. .

The King also employed two thousand mercenaries armed with various weapons. This column of warriors are made of various armies remnants with their preferred weapons.

Set' Army is about the half the size in numbers dressed in dark shades, but he has another ally; large dark scorpions that came crawling out of the hills. There are a few hundred of them and they are larger than a normal mount.

Set rode up to his father and they met mid point in the valley.

"I see you brought your pets along. How long have you been feeding them? Your mother protested when I told her that you are going to study magic. I should had listened to her." The King spat at the ground on seeing his son and those ugly monstrous creatures.

"Dear Father, you are always a pathetic figure. I did not learn magic to do that; they taught me the magic. They and also the Serpents taught me well. It was the stone idol you gave me for my tenth birthday that allowed me to talk to them, and they taught me many things." Set smiled at his father. "To be more precise, the idol taught me to how be a King. You, my Father is a failure in the role."

Set rode back to his own army, leaving the King holding onto the reins in anger. He stopped before his army and his General rode up to the usurper of the throne.

"Are the traps set?" Set asked of his General when he himself know its already there as he can sensed their arrival. The General did not reply to him, but rode back to his men.

The King' men moved forth in formation with the pikemen in the front, the riders next and then the archers. They moved slow and in closed formation. The riders slowly split into two columns and they took to both far end of the pikemen. Its a pincer movement but Set' Army is still not moving.

The King' army stopped in its movement by the call of the horn. Its the King' call to halt and holding their position.

The attack came and not as expected.

The ground quaked on the emergence of the large serpents from the ground below the King's army. Hundreds of serpents came from the underneath ground.and struck at the Army. The King' Army retreated in chaos and many who stood to fight died in pain. The pikemen cut with their long handle weapons while the archers resort to the dagger and arrows. The riders with their sturdy mounts rode off but by then Set' archers took their volleys against the departing riders.

The King' and his of six staff find themselves surrounded by the army of Set including the dark scorpions.

"My loyal followers. Its time we show them the Dragon Realm is not without their heroes." The seven of them evolved before the ones who surrounded them. They became red bodied seven dragons; a mythical creature of fire breathing abilities and of flight. They flew up with their wings spread and then they swooped down with their flaming fires from their jaws like the Gryphon.

The seven dragons flew towards the Army of Set and sent them to retreat with their rounds of flames on the Army. They even scorched the dark scorpions that are now burrowing into the ground. 

"Stop! I shall challenge you." Set shout at the seven dragons. He chant a spell and caused his body to wreck in pain. His body raked in the pain to push his limits. The frame of Set now slowly into a dark green version of a large serpent but this retile has spread out wings and above all, it has seven heads on the serpent.

It does not spat out flames from the seven jaws but it did hissed out dark venoms which burned at the flying dragons. The skies became a blur of flying reptiles which engaged each other into fights. The dragons attacked in coordinated movements but the seven heads of the snakelike body also work with their own mind.

The first casualties were the dragons as two of them went down injured by the other reptile. The venom hit their wings and burned a mark on it that caused them great pain. In return the dragons have burned the right wing of the reptile causing it to fall off the sky.

The five dragon on seeing the other reptile being injured, they land next to the two injured ones. The five dragons looked at the injured reptile and then on some understanding, they carried the two injured ones to safety. They were never seen since then, and the other reptile reverted back to its previous image of Set. Set staggered in his feet and then collapsed on the ground.

On that day, the young Prince took over from his father to rule but it was only a short reign. It was unknown to many but the seven dragons also revert to their previous forms, and they took shelter on a mountain. It took them sometime to regain their strength back, and the King decided that he would raise a new nation but not one by its own.

The King would seek the other Four Kings or Nation Leader to rejoin his original people and reestablished a new House along with theirs.

He would named the new House; Karen after his daughter murdered by the betraying brother, Set. 

The House of Karen would be defended by a new magic that he had mastered; the power of the Water; the same water he found that cure his fellow dragon of their wounds.

It was there they moved the mountain to create a crater to hold the water. The seven dragons assisted in building the towers; all seven of them. They then build the last one in the center.

The dragons protected the new nation for sometime before they soon perish due to natural death. Each of the dragons are buried in the individual towers and the King was buried there too but it was never revealed which one is buried at where.

"We are the first people of Karen, who followed the seven dragons here." The Guardians of the Water told her. "We are also here to help you fight the new Set but you must seek out the King' Dragon to be the the new Head Council. Find the old King' bracelet of power in his grave. Wear it and we would be your servants."