The Chronicles of Ursa

Part 1 Chapter 1

The kings of Ursa were not kind men.

It had taken centuries for someone to realize that the transformation changed a part of the soul just as sure as it changed the body: the power took something from them in exchange and, once given, it could never be returned. Though this ruthlessness won Ursa battle after battle, expanding the kingdom's realm farther and wider than anyone could have imagined, its kings lived short, brutal lives ruled by violence and bathed in blood.

King Reginald Karnoff the Castle-Killer transformed in his sleep, and his bear-self killed almost everyone in his household. He only stopped when he came across his young daughter, out of bed and clutching her blanket, slowly wading through the bodies in the great hall. It is said that her bloody footprints can still be seen in the castle, called Daughter's Deference ever since and crumbling in ruin.

King Quinan Zulbrann, the Warrior King, expanded the kingdom more rapidly than anyone had before and anyone since, but he transformed too many times too quickly and was trapped in his bear forever. Legend holds that he still roams the forests of Ursa, a great red-gold bear, the shadow of what was once a king.

Once the kings of Ursa realized their greatest gift could also destroy them, they learned caution. They took on the bear only in times of greatest need, even eliminating the ceremonial change during each coronation.

By the time King Tollwothe Eiredd Raevelle Reddvayne was passing the crown to his son, no one had transformed in three hundred years, and no one living truly believed in the old stories. The Reddvayne line flourished during his reign, the fourth in a line of long-lived, rawboned monarchs. The Reddvaynes had gotten their chance when Wothe's great-great-grandfather, King Porteth Saullyn Tristan, had fathered a prolific crop of female children, but no male heir, so he wed his eldest daughter to an eldest son of the Reddvaynes.

The Reddvaynes were a very old family – in fact, they featured heavily in the old legends and folklore – but the day Edwyn Reddenton Reddvayne wed Saulla Tristan, they finally grasped what their ancestors had never been able to achieve: a crown. For almost two hundred years the Tristans had reigned, which included many a royal wedding, but the day Edwyn wed Saulla the whole kingdom descended upon the castle. It was widely agreed upon the two made a glorious pair: Edwyn was dashing, tall, long-limbed and well-muscled, with an unruly thatch of dark red hair that curled hopelessly in every direction. For his wedding he was clean-shaven, though later he would grow the long red beard that would feature in almost every song and tapestry from his reign. Saulla was famously sharp, with a head for figures and a bent toward cutting to the point. Everyone called her the quiet king – while Edwyn dreamed up plans for Ursa and entertained dignitaries into the wee hours of the morning, Saulla pored over the castle's accounts and correspondences, ice-blonde hair braided simply down her back. If Edwyn could dream it, Saulla could do it, they used to say.

The latest monarch in the line of Reddvaynes was King Tollwothe, who was facing the last days of his reign with a bittersweet pragmatism. The tradition in Ursa must be upheld; the old king and the new king would rule together for three years before the new king fully took the crown. He'd reached his sixty-first year and his council had been clamoring at him to give over for the last five or six. He'd held onto the crown much longer than traditionally accepted – trouble to the East, rumblings in the South, and an all-out war with the Soliset region to the West meant that, for the past ten years, he'd been mostly away at war.

The Unrue Rebellion, as it had come to be known, had stolen much of his reign. The rocky terrain and uneven ground made for difficult fighting, not to mention the punishing sun and lack of abundant water. The Unrue family was almost as old as the Reddvaynes, and had pressed a distant claim to the Ursa throne through Jeriah Unrue's eldest daughter, Jarrayn. In truth, Wothe felt sorry for the girl, who had no real interest in claiming the throne. She was Jeriah's puppet queen, serving her father's ambition at her own peril.