Varing Royalty

"This isn't what I had in mind," I say, my voice laced with fear as we stand in the dungeons that look as if they've been drowned in a sea of blood.

"Welcome to the life of royalty, your highness." The lady next to me says. She bows with a twisted smile on her face, 'she enjoys watching them suffer even if she knows that this could very well be her fate'.

"I don't belong here." I say my mind racing, ears throbbing from the screams below that only lasted an instant but refuse to leave my mind, my heart pounds in my chest, 'why must we kill to prove power?' I ask myself.

"Then you shouldn't have taken the crown." She barks, her face morphing into a scowl, "you chose this life and will carry on this tradition before the kingdom falls to ruin at the claws of this beast." She gestures towards the pit. "Only the true queen can command it, so prove yourself, kill me." I step back in shock, 'they've been brainwashed by this legend that was created to appease their so-called gods.'

"I will do no such thing!" I exclaim trying to keep myself calm. She steps forth dropping the lantern, it falls to the ground with a 'crash', the beast looks up at us with an angered expression as if the woman grabbing me was a threat to my life and it's only role in this world was to be my protector.

"You must! Or you will be an outcast once more, back to that pit you called home, back to those woodland scum you called friends!" I feel anger flood my mind as she laughs maniacally, the lantern seemed to have caught her coat on fire unbeknownst to anyone until it reached her skin and she lets out a scream of anguish. I step away as her grip loosens and the flames envelop her licking at her skin. 'She will either die slowly by the fire or quickly by the beast.' A voice speaks to me in my mind.

"Varing, kill her at once!" I demand, my voice quavering with uncertain horror. The beast leaps up from the dungeons to where we are and breaks her in half with a single bite. Blood splatters me as the image is burned into my mind for as long as I shall live.

The beast finished devouring the woman and turned to me sitting at my feet like a trained dog, with the beast at my side I ascend the stairs and stand before the kingdom. Blood stains my clothes and face, the crowd is silent for a moment then they all cheer, someone comes up behind me and drapes a cape over my shoulders and a crown on my head. This is what fate has chosen for me, I cannot change that now.