The Shungite Pyramid and the Houndgeist's

Whispers echoed throughout the Kingdom’s Garden as three large soldiers marched their way in anticipation. With the smell of evil within the air, they headed for the Throne Chamber where Queen Citrine was to be found. The Queen’s most trusted escort, Esgeif, led the soldiers to the Kingdoms heavy doors with nothing but determination within his bronze face. Hard, deep brown etes fuxated on the task at habd and nothing more. Gossip had already played a part, encouraging a war on the brink of release throughout Crescent Wan. The townspeople knew best than to ever once believe the day wouldn’t come. For it had.

The Kingdom’s iron doors splashed with burgundy paint swung open, the three soldiers marching through. Their large black boots smacked against the rose colored marble floor. Within twenty spare seconds, they reached the throne room. There stood a high-ranking guard, keeping watch for intruders into the throneroom. He dipped his head and opened the door. Without hesitation, Esgeif and his two men walked in, standing near the doorway before the Queen.

The three built soldiers stood with their hands in front them, all wearing the same attire. Their shoulders’ covered in iron pads, rusty brown leather material that slid down their arms to meet black leather gloves ending at their fingertips. Accordingly, their muscular legs seen through tight burgundy leather pants. Esgeif, the buffest of all three, wore thick chains which glistened like diamonds as they drooped from his hips. The only modernness about him.

“Your heighness,” Esgeif breathed respectfully. The Queen of Crescent Wan stood back faced to Esgeif. She suckled her bottom lip, hiding worry behind a look of determination. Long red curls dripped from her head and aligning her oval scalp with tiny babyhairs and her crown was set on the desk to her left. Esgeif observed the gemstones carved into the gold crown which aura’s glittered like pixie dust in neon colors. Dressed in her formal wear, Queen Citrine rattled iron bullets in hand which had been boiled in belladonna juice spelled for death. Popping on by one inside her rifle, Citrine spun around. Now, she had to face it all over again with a thought on mind to end it once and for all. To destroy them all.

The Queen was dressed in uncomfortably tight black leather leggings with a dagger attached to her hip, the gold hilt engraved with runic symbols, and a brown thin long sleeve shirt fastened under a metal corset. She looked quite dashingly ready for war. Citrine gazed upon one bullet as if to observe its essence.

“Then time,” she said somberly before jamming the last bullet inside her pistol, engraved with the very same runic symbols representing the end of age. “It shall be.”

Esgeif and Queen Citrine were the first to march off to the new war that had breached throughout the Kingdom. They knew this day was coming. The Queen suffered as an orphan from the beasts who stole both her parents from her through death. Citrine had prepared for it for the day of vengeance for centuries. Queen Citrine shifted on the black leather cushion and pulled out a black shungite crystal pyramid. Every time she did so, she remembered that dreadful day. The day that destroyed her home. Her family. She recreated the shungite pyramid as a way of destruction; to return the same dread that had been inflicted upon her. Long days mourning her mother and father, the king and queen before her. The long restless nights that carried on insomnia for years. The overwhelming responsibilities of the Kingdom handed onto the sixteen-thousand-year-old Princess. She was the only child with so much weight on her shoulders all too young. However, that was no longer a curse to Citrine’s eyes.

It was war. She would fight back for what she once lost, in the name of the great King and Queen of Crescent Wan. She would surely win…or join her family in Summerland whilst trying.

“Esgeif?” Citrine pulled her trusted escort from his thoughts which were drenched in the sound of havoc to come. He could almost taste the deathly creatures’ blood on his tongue as he slaughtered them one by one, defending his Kingdoms home. It tasted like victory.

Esgeif dipped his head, acknowledging his Queen, the one he cared for since the age of Wan Destruction. The trusted escort furrowed his brow as he followed Citrine’s trance-like gaze over the pyramid.

“Do you know what this is?”

“No, your highness.” Esgeif's voiced was deep and thickened, of that of a grumbling boar from the north. The Queen sighed and tossed the crystal dismissively to Esgeif who nearly missed the catch with his large thumbs. The pyramid was the size of the average palm; Esgeif’s thumbs were twice the size of the pyramid.

“It’s a deadly weapon.” Queen Citrine’s southern accent went crisp against her teeth as she shifted her gaze to the window, watching the pine trees glisten under the snow as they rushed past.

“Your highness?” Queen Citrine snapped her focus back to Esgeif and followed his concerned gaze to the pyramid appearing like a coin inside his hand. Citrine raised a brow and lifted a shoulder. She wasn’t too keen on the idea, but it was owed to her family.

“It was my father’s idea. That if I just handed the Shungite to the beasts’, they would die. Or ‘part their way from our world’ as King Quartz would claim.” Citrine rolled her eyes. “The crystal was planned to be empowered by the King and Queen on the day of the massacre,” Esgeif observed Citrine’s face. She didn’t wince or shiver from talking about her parents’ deaths. Perhaps she was too determined to face the Houndgeist’s one last time. Or perhaps the years of responsibility finally began to harden the heart that once melted to love stories of the Gilded Doe. Esgeif hid a curled lip as he remembered vividly the child, he escorted for thirty years. He is a baby compared to Citrine’s lifespan of an immortal royal, yet she was like a child to Esgeif. The two were impeccable with each other; best of friends and best on each other’s side for war. Citrine liked to challenge Esgeif even now, as ancient as she was, with tell-tales of those who lost their limbs by even second-guessing her smarts. That she was, intelligent.

“How could this-”

“Kill a thousand Houndgeist's?” Queen Citrine cut off the raspy escort’s click of his tongue who appeared very much concerned. The queen lifted a shoulder and sighed as if she dreaded to tell the tale of long before.

“Thousands of centuries ago, there was a shungite crystal pyramid the same as the one you hold in your overlarge hand.” Esgeif exchanged a smirk. “It was empowered to send the Houndgeist’s off from our planet during the massacre. When my mother died, the King was furious. So much so he went mad. This was right before you came to work for us.” Esgeif dipped his head in empathy. Citrine dismissed it with a long sigh, annoyed from the sound of it.

“In the midst of his madness, my father took it upon himself to propose a deal with the Houndgeist's. Unfortunately, he failed. The Houndgeist's killed my father as well, leaving behind the crystal. Somehow their rocker vanished along with the lot of them. None of them returning since.” Citrine held out her dainty palm covered in a black glove. Esgeif rolled the pyramid like a die into the Queen’s hand. She fell back into a trance-like gaze, holding up the crystal as if it were the rarest gem in the world.

“Now, the time has come where the evil beasts returned. And this, shall be the end of it. Afterall, I am immortal.”

The carriage arrived to Crescent Wan’s city center where chaos had already been inflicted. Thirteen foot tall, black Houndgeist's were murdering townspeople with their long brawny skeleton arms and using razor sharp claws to slice open their victims. Blood had been shed and fury rose in both Esgeif and Citrine. They were their people. The ones who adored the Kingdom for protecting always, justice needing to be served.

The carriage came to a screeching halt and Esgeif and Citrine hurried out, cocking back their pistols and ready to kill some Houndgeist's.

A few feet ahead, there was broken earth; dirt and gravel and in the center of the cause was a gigantic rocker half the size of Queen Citrine’s castle. Citrine tucked her pistol in the back of her leather pants. She and Esgeif exchanged a knowing look. A knowing that this could either end very badly…or just bad. Either way, there will be a ten thousand century due bloodshed spread across their town.

Houndgiest’s stopped to stare as the Kingdoms army of soldiers and gunmen followed the Queen and her escort towards the giant rocker. While walking past, Citrine held her shungite pyramid in the air for all to see. Her pink frosted lips curled, her head tilted high, and thoughts of pride strode across her face. Intrigued, the Houndgeist’s slowly followed grumbling and mildly hissing through snake-like fangs. Some even licked their lips with their long, pink tongues that could spit venom at their victims, leaving them to melt. Or so the legend said.

The Queen and her army stopped. Citrine scowled as she peered around the area. Limbs of innocent people – her people, the people she grew up feeding and made clothes for – were scattered in piles of thick red blood beginning to freeze from the winter’s day.

“Where is your master?!” The Queen shouted, her crisp accent echoed aloud throughout the howling wind. Citrine glanced around at the monstrous beasts. The Queen and Esgeif were the only two out of the three=hundred soldiers and gunmen that were not shaking in terror by the sight of the beasts. They’d been through much worse though. Esgeif had slayed dragons and deathly parasites in his early lifespan and Citrine had prepared for this day for centuries. It would take far more than a simple houndgeist to make them tremble. “Where is your master?” Citrine said slower with less anger within her words. The Houndgeist’s breathed heavily and simply stared at the army then the crystal. Soon, it appeared they fell in a trance as they gazed upon the shungite. Moments of silence swept through the streets.

“Your highness, I don’t think they can understand you-”

The rocker’s door swung open horizontally, cutting Esgeif off from his concern. The houngeist’s hissed aloud, almost sounding like cheers for whoever – or whatever – was coming out of the rocker. Gunmen and shoulders stood guard, clutching their weapons and waiting for the right moment to fire, just as they were trained to. Large rusty boots clanked against the rocker’s staircase. A long black cloak was drenched over a pale, wrinkly body. Queen Citrine gasped in shock. She couldn’t believe who she was looking at. The Queen shot a glance to Esgeif. Esgeif furrowed a brow and and shared Citrine’s gaze.

“Daddy,” Citrine managed to mutter. King Quartz smiled with a pale lips, his brown eyes the same gloss as his daughter remembered. The only thing different was his age. His immortality must have been stripped. That had to be the only reason for the immortal King to appear…ancient.

“Hello daughter.” The King croaked, his crackling voice piercing the erdrums of every soldier on standby. Whispers of the King returning had already spread throughout the streets of Crescent Wan. “After centuries of fighting these creatures, I am now home.” The King nodded to the shungite crystal Citrine held tightly in her hand. Citrine dropped her gaze to the crystal then back to her father who she had believed to be dead all this time. So many questions and confusion was scripted on Citrine’s pink face. Was she dreaming? Was this an illusion caused from some sort of ptsd from the last time the Houndgeist’s invaded their Kingdom? The Queen pinched herself to be sure and winced. Definietly not a dream, she thought to herself.

“It is time.” Citrine knew exactly what he had meant. Slowly, with mustered courage, Citrine pushed aside her confusion and shift of reality and walked up to her father who now stood at the last step of the rocker’s staircase. “All will be revealed in time, my daughter. But now, you need to inside, and place this on the floor. The Hounds want it.” Without further hesitation, Citrine obeyed her fathers request and climbed up the rocker’s staircase, with wary eyes.

The Houndgeist’s sniffed the air and bent backward to howl. Their howls screeched throughout the Kingdom and made all, save for Esgeif and King Quartz cover their ears in pain. Citrine came back empty-handed and joined her father’s side at the end of the staircase. King Quartz leaned over and whispered in his daughter’s ear, “Slowly, walk back to your escort. The Hounds will leave peacefully.”

Citrine sighed in more confusion but joined Esgeif anyways. King Quartz was right. One by one, the fifteen-foot-tall Houndgeists got inside their rocker and just before closing the door, Quartz climbed up the steps as well. Citrine went forward but Esgeif gabbed her arm. Quartz smiled.

“In time, my dear. In time!” He shouted at the rocker’s door shut closed. The rocker rumbled and within moments, it took off into the air. And from that moment, the Kingdom knew there would surely be another Houndgeist attack in another few centuries. Citrine spun around and glanced over her faithful army.

“Well then,” she gulped down her confusion. “Let’s get to work.”