Work Text:
Slow footsteps sounded on the stone path leading to the Fortress of Kings, the sound of boots resounding in the silence. Almost nothing surrounded this area.
A figure briefly raised his head to look at the empty castle up ahead, dead eyes. Then he looked back down again, and continued his journey without a word.
He walked on the drawbridge leading up to the castle, then heard an audible weird shrieking sound from the moat below him. He stopped, and turned to look down over the railing of the bridge.
Below him, the head of a giant, monstrous creature popped up, opening its mouth and shrieking at him, but being too far away to reach him. Thousandtooth. One of the results of the tyrant’s vile experiments. A product of the old times that still remained, still guarding that same moat when no one was here anymore.
William knew the story behind this beast. Once, it had been nothing more than a normal centipede, living in the layers of the earth with its family. Then the tyrant came along, seeking a test subject to test the power of a new forbidden spell. He used it on Thousandtooth, and it grew into a giant, aggressive monster of a centipede.
William’s troops had encountered it when laying siege on this very castle, the creature guarding the tyrant’s castle moat. Luckily, none of his brothers in arms had fallen to this monster.
Now the castle was broken, and deserted. The wind howled into the split in the firmament where a part had broken off. Thousandtooth would slowly starve to death without anyone tending to it anymore.
William felt something tug at his heartstrings. He felt bad for the creature. All alone, left behind by a cruel master who never cared whether it would live or die. Pages upon pages of terrible things had been written about it, but the creature didn’t ask to be this way. Thousandtooth was just a result of one of the tyrant’s cruel games. A life, inherently meaningful. A part of the realm’s nature, like any other animal.
He walked back, walking off the bridge to carefully approach the edge of the moat, kneeling down to appear smaller, weapon sheathed.
‘Hey…’, he started carefully, his tone patient.
The creature shrieked in response, but with slightly less aggression than before.
‘You were left behind, weren’t you?’
A snarl.
‘Here.’ He rummaged through his shoulder bag. ‘You can have some of my rations.’ He extended his hand towards above the moat. ‘There you go, boy,’ he said carefully, expectant.
Thousandtooth sniffed at it. A louder snarl.
He pulled his hand back towards himself.
‘Not a fan,’ he sighed, thinking. The creature wouldn’t eat what he had offered it. But he couldn’t just let the creature starve, could he? He would feel bad if he did, he knew.
Guilt weighed heavy on his heart. The things he was leaving behind, the people he couldn’t save. Sometimes the feeling was like a wave, about to swallow him whole.
…
He had originally been there on a solo mission to check on the Fortress of Kings, scouting it for any dangerous magical objects or any traces of dangerous power that remained.
Now he was in the underground part of the kingdom, gathering info for his catalogues of emergency solutions and secrets of the Great Realm. He needed something to guard the Fatal Fire. Its power was boundless, and sacred.
He was currently flipping through a book on creatures native to the underground parts. He had a vague idea. There might yet be a way to save that creature…
If he would somehow achieve his objective, then perhaps his quest to find a guard for the Fatal Fire would end too.
There had to be something that creature liked…
He stood before a mountain of hardened salt. Deep inside it grew a rare turnip, which could be one of the things Thousandtooth could eat. If he was right. Thousandtooth was no average centipede. He couldn’t be sure what the thing actually ate. Well, besides… human flesh…
He closed his eyes, sending his thoughts to other matters, avoiding the other looming shadows at the back of his mind that he constantly had to turn his thoughts away from too.
On most days he was just numb.
…
Once more, he stood before that empty, hollow castle. Back to visit Thousandtooth. He was wearing gloves, as not to damage the outer layer of the turnip. He slowly walked towards the moat, arms extended, holding the turnip towards Thousandtooth. Thousandtooth came scarily close. It sniffed his hands. William waited, ready for anything.
Not much of a reaction…? There was no snarling this time. The beast seemed almost… calm.
William slowly lowered his hands, careful, and he let the turnip roll into the moat towards it. Thousandtooth curled its body toward it, and slowly started nibbling on it. He couldn’t believe it. His guess had been right.
Thousandtooth was happily eating away, making little satisfied noises. William breathed out with surprise. Like this, the humongous beast seemed almost… cute. A partial smile appeared on his tired face.
Thousandtooth was completely calm, and content. It finished the last of the turnip, then looked at William with expectant black eyes.
William waited for what it would do. But it just stared at him, then slowly, with calm movements tried to crawl up the moat wall, before sliding back. It made a noise that seemed to convey sadness. William’s eyes shone. Oh poor thing..
What he was about to do, was a very risky gamble to make. But he sensed that the beast was genuinely calm now, it really seemed tame now. And for better or for worse, he could not help but care.
He would find out soon.
William cut the rope holding up an integral part of the bridge, and the bridge end pointing towards the castle fell into the moat, giving Thousandtooth a path to climb out of it.
If this would go sour, he would just have to hope to outrun the thing.
Thousandtooth approached him. It was colossal. Sweat beaded William’s brow. But Thousandtooth just stopped before him, making a noise.
William took a few steps forward, looking over his shoulder all the while. Thousandtooth followed, then stopped before him, waiting. William breathed out with awe. It was following him. Like a baby duck. He had tamed it.
William led the giant beast with him, towards its new life.
‘You know… you’re actually kind of endearing, did you know that?’
Thousandtooth made a noise in return.