Family Short Story – The Old Family Feud
© Anand Vishnu Prakash, YourStoryClub.com
Once and a great time ago a king ruled the land of old England. This king’s name was King Herald II. He was six/five with a rugged and buff body. He was a generous king. His loyal subjects loved him because of the cheap prices and low taxes he made them pay. Even his old enemies liked him because he gave them generous peace offerings. He hadn’t had issues with anyone in years.
One day a great army formed out of the oblivion at the end of the village; two hundred yards away from the castle gates. There were tens of hundreds of soldiers, all in rows of twenty. They were wearing gold armor from head to toe with diamond swords and silver shields. Half of the great army stayed in the village while the other half marched to the castle gates. They gathered in front of the castle gates. The one leading the army was eight feet tall and had a spear twice his height! The king quickly summoned his army and went to meet this mysterious leader.
“Who are you? Why have you come looking for war here?” asked the king, with a grim look on his face. “We are peaceful people.”
“My name is Grandé and we are from the French lands.”
Herald mumbled,”The French lands.” It sounded familiar. Herald realized who Grandé was and why he was there. “Brother, Grandé is not your name; it is William and what happened was a long time ago.”
“Silence,” William yelled, ”I have come for revenge and if you don’t fight me one on one, I will unleash my army on all of your people.”
Herald thought for a moment then said, “all right if you can’t get over it then until death do us part.“
They both unleashed their swords and a great duel ensued. They were striking and clashing each other with their swords; it sounded as if it was lightning and thunder. Herald has always been the best swordsman out of the whole family. Herald and William used to sword fight all the time until they were both the age of eleven, which is when Herald got angry at his parents about who was ruling England. The family broke apart after the incident, each going to different lands and ruling. Herald was close to winning, but William, who is better now, kept pushing him very hard. William side steps and perrys. Herald made the mistake of coming in close and William knocked the sword out of Herald’s hands. William pushed him to the ground. Herald was on the ground with his brother’s sword against his chest. William began to open his mouth to talk. “This is for mother,” and lightning struck.
——————–
Herald had a flashback; back to when he was fighting with his parents.
“No, you will not rule England!” Egna yelled. “Your father is the king and William is his heir, because he’s the oldest.”
“Why does it matter? You get the French lands and they have the richest minerals.” His father declared.
“He is a day older than me and that’s because I was harder to give birth to,” Herald started raising his voice.
“Thats enough!” His father yelled. “You will not raise your voice at your mother or me. You are lucky enough that you get the French lands. Your maturity level tells me your three year old sister would be a better ruler than you.”
“I curse both of you then!” Herald wailed and stomped out of the room.
“William, William come down here!“ Egna shouted up the stairs of their estate.
“Yes, mother, what do you need,”William said as he climb to down the stairs.
“You and your father are going hunting for his tenth anniversary as king. You will be claimed as the prince and soon to be king,”Egna said it proudly, “tonight will be spectacular.”
——————
As Herald came out of the flashback, he gazed into his brothers eyes and said, “Wait, I didn’t kill her. Dad did.”
William stopped right before the sword tip hit Herald’s chest and said with a little bit of anger in his voice, “ Prove it.”
William pointed the tip of the sword away from Herald as Herald got up he said, “remember the day I got into that fight with mom and dad.”
“Of course I do that when our Mom died”
——————
William went into a flashback before he found his Mother dead. He was right outside his parents room listening about the argument they just had with Herald.
“You should just let him rule England, his brother already stated out loud that he likes the French lands anyway,” Egna said to his Father.
“ No, I will not have this, I am the king I get to decide. You are just are Woman married into royalty.”
“Excuse me,” his Mother said obviously offended by what his Father said
“I think it’s time for you to take a nap,” his Father said and there was a moment of silence. He heard his Father come toward the door so William quickly backed away and made it look like he was going to use the restroom. The door opened and his Father had his Mother’s handkerchief in his hands and was cleaning them. William thought that was weird because he never heard of his Dad drinking red wine in his room, or spilling his drink on his hands. What was weirder was his dad locked the door and kept it opened while saying, “Herald come here,” he sounded a little angry saying it.
“Yes, Father,” Herald said curiously.
“Stay in here with your Mother and in a half hour wake her up”. His Father said and pointing to the room. Herald went into the room and his Dad quickly shut the door. Before he went down the hall he stopped right in front of William and said “check on him in fifteen minutes I don’t trust that idiot enough.” His Father said with no sense of humor in his voice. They used to talk about how much Herald was stupid for doing things like falling down a well or the time he had to run across the village naked because he joined the wrong type of group. William acted as if he didn’t notice it though and agreed.
Fifteen minutes past and William went to go check on Herald but when he unlocked it and opened the door there was blood everywhere and his Mother’s head was chopped off and on the wall. Herald was nowhere to be seen. William quickly screamed,”Dad” but there was no answer.
——————-
William came out of the flashback and asked, “where did you go?”
In reply Herald said, “when I went in I noticed the blood, I turned around to yell but the door closed and you know how hard it is to yell and be heard with all the installation. I went out the window and when I tried to open the door, the guards told me a message and gave me a paper.”
“You mean the deed to England, Dad said you stole it from the bank, he had everyone looking for you to get it back. He stopped the search after a day because he figured you were long gone though.” William said astonishingly and curious about why his Dad stopped the search so early.
“The message told me to stay away and never come back or else he would convict me for murder and have me beheaded. I bet he had you stay in the house for a few days because I waited for you in the village for three days and you never ca-.” Herald said interrupted by the sound of trumpets. “ What was that,” Herald said.
“I sent a message to Dad that I was going to end your life,” William said a little embarrassed.
“Do you believe me brother,” Herald said
“All these years I’ve been ruling the French lands waiting for my army to build up so I could revenge my Mother. For a long time I blamed you for everything but the facts point to Dad, yes I believe you.” William said with a sad smile on his face
“What should we do about him coming here,” Herald said.
“I have a plan worked out,” William said growing a mad,vengeful smile on his face and began telling Herald his plan. Their Father’s chariot began to approach the village and Herald ran away to the highest tower in his kingdom. William told all of Herald’s men to act like they surrendered and them listening to the story listened to him. William’s Father finally got to the castle and stepped out to go hug William. William dodged the hug because he was obviously furious with his father but acted like everything was in order now. “Come his body is up in the tower,” William said and pointing to the tower Herald was in.
“William I am proud of you, you restored order in our family,” The king said smiling like all his worries were gone.
“Come and see my triumph,” William said as he was walking toward the tower with his Father following. They walked for thirty minutes until they got to the tallest tower. William opened the door and started walking up the stairs for another thirty minutes. They got to the next door, William opened it. The room was huge but had dust and webs all over it. All it had in it was a ladder, three chairs and an opened window so big you could shove a man though it. In the middle of the ground was a big shape that looked like a man and happened to be Herald. When his Dad went into the room William went in and quickly shut and locked the door from the outside. “Herald you can get up now,” William said with victory and revenge in his voice and started to say “Dad why don’t you sit down and we can have a family reunion, and we can figure out this old family feud thats been going on all this time.”
“Job well done brother. Hey Dad, hows Mom, oh wait you killed her and blamed it on me,” Herald said as he got up and into a chair.
“This is outrageous ” The king said “I did nothing”
“Don’t talk, you don’t have the right to, you lied to me,” William said raising his voice.
“I do have the right, I am the King.” The King said and ran for the door but found out it was locked. William and Herald grabbed him and shoved half his body out the window.
“Say it, tell me you killed her or forever be damned,” William said as a single tear was coming out his eye from remembering his Mother.
“You wouldn’t kill your own Dad would you,” the king said worried.
“ Are you kidding, you killed our Mom, you lied to him and blamed it on me,” Herald said and they put him more out the window.
“All right I did it but she got me angry that day and besides I’m the king I can do all what I want,” the King said quickly.
“You know what, when you said I was restoring order to this family, you are right I am,” William said they both pushed the king out the window and a couple years later the two brothers joined forces and ruled most of the world to be what’s known as Rome.
__END__
