The Forbidden Mist

"Do I have to go? I don't want to be away from you two. Please don't send me away."

A delicate voice of a boy was heard from one of the rooms of a palace of mist. It was midnight. Two men in black robes were waiting outside the palace door for the palace proprietors to show up. The boy came out of the palace with his parents holding back a tiny puddle of tears in his eyes.

King Cyan initiates his first step toward those men in black robes. "Take him, take him, and take good care of him." He appealed as he drop those heavy assertions from his mouth.

"Don't you love me anymore, Father? Don't you want me to be with you? Please don't abandon me." He wanted to voice these sentences out loud but wasn't able to utter a single phrase. Those queries just kept on ringing inside his temple searching for an opening to rush out.

Instead of those queries, the tears he was holding back rolled down his cheeks like a first drop of winter's morning dew; pure and beautiful yet sad and lonely. Those warm tears felt like cold flakes of snow sending chills down his guts.

He forced his fragile heart to lock his gaze with his mother whose eyes were already red as blood. She was shivering a bit but halted in an instant after meeting her son's eyes. Upon meeting the gaze of those innocent eyes of a child with a cascade of tears, a mother couldn't hold her tears either.

She grabbed her son's arm, pulled him close, and hugged him tight. The little prince was just feeling her mother's warmth when suddenly she withdrew herself from him and pushed him away.

The little prince fell with a thud unable to process what just happened. On the other side, the queen was coughing heavily. She was holding her abdominal with both of her hands.

A scarlet river of blood was gushing through her fingertips as she was struggling with the pain.

Cynthia!!!

The king rushed towards her holding her in his arms. Suddenly a loud crack was heard. The king asked those men to grab his son and leave the palace immediately.

The little prince was stubborn and cried begging his father not to abandon him. The mother couldn't restrain herself from keeping her touch away from the prince. She collected her scattered emotions and stood up.

As the saying goes by, there's nothing stronger than a mother's heart. She sidelined her pain, wiped her tears, and wiped the little prince's tears.

With a faint voice, she whispered," I know it's hard to let you go but it's more hard to keep you here with us where we can't even protect you. It's not easy for us to bid you farewell but we got no choice. I wish I could watch you grow up on my protection but here's nothing left except the cold of this mist mixed with blood. If nothing at least allow us this moment to engrave your heart with warmth on this cold windy night where we part our ways with a smile and not with tears, one last time."

Her voice was more faint and frantic with each passing second. She pulled him close once more and kissed his forehead one last time before finally withdrawing her hands from the prince's cheeks.

Knowing that it is the last moment he will ever witness his mother's smile and her warm hands, along with her withdrawn hands, he felt the warmth disappearing from his life. Only the embrace of frigid mist was left in his heart.

Without a word, he then backed off, bow his head to pay a final gratitude to his parents, and left with those men in black robes.

Before leaving one of the men in a black robe broke the illusion and left.

The illusion that was working as a protection spell was already weak due to a crack from outside which made it look like a scattered piece of glass when it was broken.

With each shard falling from the broken illusion the breath of the queen too was decreasing. Outside the illusion, the entire kingdom was a mess. A beautiful kingdom of the mist was burning in a fire from all sides. Commoners were all burned alive in front of the king and he was helpless.

On his one hand his beloved wife was on the brim of death while on the other hand, his people were dying miserably. A few families were slaughtered mercilessly along with the children. Few were hanged at the entrance door, the cascade of blood was dripping down the hanged bodies, and below them were the detached body parts of the children. Those who were still alive were begging for water in the very kingdom that was known as the "Land of Endless Reservoir".

The king wasn't able to watch this painful holocaust any longer. He compiled his stability and cast a spell around the boundaries of the mist domain. He did manage to slash some of the attackers that were still rambling around the encircle but it wasn't enough to tighten the security, the reason, for him being in a deadly fight with the armies led by the world's most feared assassins of shadow valley before he managed to create the illusion with the help of one of those men in black robes.

He wasn't stabbed directly like a queen with poison but he did inhale some which made him weaker. Moreover, he was fighting with more than half of the army with a weak poisoned body which affect his stability.

The queen who knew she was dying soon gave a sad smile to her loving husband.

She reached her warm hands and touch his husband's cold cheek," You trying to end your life when there's still hope for you."

"I've taken vows of living and dying together with you. How can I back off of my own words? You are hoping to go on a long voyage. How can I let you wander solitary on such an unnerving trail? You've looked after me in this cruel world. You've been the reason for my delight in the world where all there is left is gloominess. Now let me accompany you on this journey of the afterlife. After all, we are lifelong companions, aren't we?" The king replied with a smile.

The queen slowly closed her eyes in satisfaction as the sweetness of her husband's words lingered around her heart numbing her pain. As soon as she closed her eyes she turned into a drizzle of water and merged with her husband. He too turned into a floating wave of water, encircling the heaven of mist kingdom extinguishing all the fires.

"Forgiveness has indeed been another name for freedom. But from today there will be blood for blood and flesh for flesh in this very land which has always been the foundation for forgiveness. No partiality shall be bestowed upon those who commits sin as we the one who has always forgiven everyone and everything no longer exist."

The voice from the sky cried and slowly fade away. Along with the faded voice, the drizzle of mist became heavier and heavier. The entire kingdom turned into frost. The cold wind became unbearable with each passing second.

Within a blink of an eye, one of the most beautiful and sacred kingdoms was lost among those mist hidden by the heavy fog outside its domain.

The palace that once flourished with happiness and glory was cursed and invisible to any eyes. The kingdom that was considered the wonder of nature got lost as no one was ever allowed on its premise. A flourished kingdom decorated with nature's love vanished without a trace.

Once a formidable kingdom of abundance and prosperity turned into a forest with frost and is known widely as the lost kingdom of the forbidden mist.