DreamStoryVerse Story Arc Book 2

Final Scene

Meanwhile--back in the Meringue Clouds--nightfall was eternal. The dark sky remained constant ever since the night that Kooky had come to power. Farmers and others who relied on the sun's rays were becoming restless and demanding answers from the head of government. The guards were doing a good job of letting no one in.

Within the walls of the palace, Lodewijk waited anxiously for Kooky's return. Most of the time, when Kooky was there, he didn't want him around. He thought he was bossy, and that the system would be better without him. But now that he was gone….he felt constantly on edge. Can't live with him, can't live without him, I guess. Even though Kooky was a power-hungry, hypocritical, bossy, flighty, eccentric, violent control freak, he was confident and always knew what to do and even when he didn't, he was good at pointing (more like forcing) them all in the right direction. 

Lodewijk's stomach whined and groaned. Kooky was also the best cook in the system. And the best hunter. Fritz tried, but his culinary expertise was pretty much limited to setting a plate of bread rolls and a jar of jam on the table. He tried, but a bread roll couldn't beat a juicy Hamburg steak. Before he left, Kooky had instructed how to hunt in this unfamiliar place: Choose a juicy priestess, summon her to your room, subdue her, and deliver the fatal bite. 

Sigh. Killing. Lodewijk never really liked that part. He didn't like watching Kooky do it and he was sure he could never come to actually do it himself. He'd never killed anyone. Except for Pfarrer Wilhelm, but that was different. He deserved to die. Kooky said he didn't want to kill because Lodewijk didn't want to get his prissy little hands dirty. No, Lodewijk would say, my moral compass just hasn't gone completely out of whack….Yet. But he could hardly blame Kooky, he couldn't break something he never had. Then Kooky would say with that attitude he'd starve to death. But...he didn't have to be a killer...not yet anyway. He'd just wait till Kooky came back, he could hold out till then. 

While Kooky was away, he was in charge. Even though he was sure Kooky wanted Fritz to be in charge, Lodewijk was growing up, he couldn't stay a helpless teen forever. Fritzchen was naive, he didn't know about suffering and the horrors of the world, and as the protector of the system, Lodewijk intended to keep it that way. Perhaps if he did a good job of keeping Fritz safe...he could maybe, someday, begin to see Lodewijk as a suitable provider...perhaps someone he could see himself spending the rest of his life with. The butterflies in his tummy began to flutter excitedly again; he needed to calm down.

He shut his eyes to calm himself once more. He fingered the silver crucifix on the blue beaded rosary around his neck, an old gift from Pfarrer Wilhelm.  He usually kept it hidden away in his pockets, but this new, odd Meringue Clouds garb didn't come with pockets. He felt like he couldn't physically go anywhere without it. It followed him everywhere and he couldn't let go of the stupid thing for some reason. He put the rosary back under his garment, the time for sitting around was over. He had made two objectives for himself: 

               1. Protect Fritzchen 

               2. ….Do whatever Kooky had told them to do. Watch the priestesses? Something like that.

It didn't matter what it was, for Fritzchen would always come first. He was over by the balcony, curiously peering down at the priestesses below. He was on his hands and knees, a particularly alluring position…..To protect Fritz in this new foreign world he'd have to get him somewhere safe--a nice, quiet contained space.

"Come on Fritz, we're going." 

"Going? Where?" 

"Somewhere that's not here. Somewhere safe." He said, gently taking Fritz's arm to pull him away from the balcony's edge.