One dark rainy night, there was a grand kingdom that was called Engothica. It was in this kingdom that the start of an extraordinary story occurred. King Gillead and Queen Phetaline Rudguordia were the rulers of Engothica, and they had been for the past 10 years. They loved each other very much, but they were both slightly hesitant when it came to the aspect of having children. As years went by, however, they were both getting older and knew that they would eventually need an heir to the throne. So, on the 5th of September, year 1236, Queen Phetoline gave birth. But there was a problem. She had given birth to not one, but two children. Twin boys. You may be wondering why this is such a problem. Well, for any other rulers, this most likely would not have mattered. For the Rudguordia's however, this was a different story.
You see, for many generations before King Gilead, there had only been one heir to the throne. For the past 100 years, no ruler had born more than one child. This was very fortunate for the kingdom of Engothica. Why, do you ask? Well, legend tells that 100 years ago, a witch, of sorts, had been caught in an attempt to poison the king. She willingly admitted to treason, and it was announced that she would be hanged the next morning. As the witch was taken out to the gallows, she supposedly put a curse on the kingdom and its people saying, "The next generation to bear more than one heir to the throne will now be Engothica's eternal downfall!" So, ever since that day, each king and queen of Engothica has dreaded the thought of having more than one child. Luckily, no ruler has had more than one since then? Until now! Now can you see the problem?
When the king found out that his wife had twins, he started to panic. He had no idea what to do. After talking it over with the queen, who, of course, was extremely insistent on keeping both children, he decided to wait and see what would happen. Nevertheless, the idea of what might happen if he let both children live haunted him. After many sleepless nights, the king finally decided to do the unspeakable. He would have to kill one of the babies. The question was how?
Late that night, the king started forming a plan. He would call upon Seamore Rumplshnoot. You see, Seamore was a man the king had called multiple times to do his dirty work. As Seamore rode to the castle on his horse, he sang a merry tune and thought, I wonder what the king will make me do this time. When he got to the castle, the king was waiting outside with the child he had picked to kill. Since King and Queen Rudguordia did not plan on having twins, they only had two names picked out (one boy's name and one girl's name). So, he picked out the boy they had yet to name. He was the smaller of the two, and had a very strange birthmark on his back that looked something like a broken crown. Vermillion, the baby the king had chosen to keep, was larger and better looking than his twin and was already starting to sit up on his own. This is why they decided to name him rather than his brother.
"So what do you want me to do?" Asked Seamore when he saw that the king was holding a baby.
"I want you to kill him." The king answered.
"What?! I can't do that? I know I've done some pretty hard things for you in the past but?"
"Silence!" The king cut him off, "I'll walk you through the plan. I'm counting on you to execute it." A long silence followed before Seamore responded,
"Alright. Let's hear this grand plan of yours."
"I knew I could count on you, Seamore." The king answered with a solemn look. "See this baby? You would do well remembering what it looks like because you need to kill him, not Vermillion." Seamore studied him for a while, then nodded. "Good." the king said, "Now, I want you to sneak into my chambers tonight. I will leave the door unlocked. Then, find this baby and smother him with a pillow. It will look like an accident that way. If you can't tell the one from the other, feel for the one with the ribbon tied around the ankle." Although the king probably could have done all this himself, the truth was, he would never be able to forgive himself if he did.
Thus, that night, Seamore Rumplshnoot was about to attempt the craziest and darkest feat of his life. Once in the king's chambers, he forced himself to breathe calmly and found the babies sleeping in a crib set apart from the king and queen's bed. He found the one with the ribbon tied around its ankle and readied the pillow the king had placed in front of the crib.
Just as he was about to smother the child, suddenly, it awakened. To Seamore's surprise, however, the child did not cry, but only looked up at him and smiled! Seamore was already on edge and starting to question himself on whether or not he wanted to carry this through in the first place, but this...that innocent smile. This he could not handle. He could not possibly find the heart to kill this child. He had to act fast. He had no idea what to do...except? No, 'That would never work.' He thought to himself. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had no other choice. He would have to take the child and raise him as his own.
______________20 Years Later_______________
Much has happened in the past twenty years. Right now, you are probably wondering how Seamore Rumplshnoot was able to explain the disappearance of the child that he was supposed to kill. It was quite easy for Seamore. He simply told the king that the child was making too much noise and that he had no choice but to throw him out the window, and into the fountain in the courtyard below.
Surprisingly, the king was not upset with Seamore's actions. He was instead, almost pleased with the result of his child being thrown out the window into the fountain.
"It would have been better if you had been able to smother him," said the king, "but I suppose we could perhaps tell everyone that the child fell during his bath, and when we weren't looking, drowned." Seamore doubted anyone would fully believe this explanation, but as gullible as the people were, they somehow did.
Now, the child that was supposedly dead is still alive and well, twenty years later. He even has a name, Gaff Rumpleshnoot. This name was perfect for him because it sounded anything but royal. Of course, Gaff had no idea that he was a prince, so "Gaff" and "Rumpleshnoot" were the only names he'd ever known. Unfortunately, it was not just his name that would fool people into thinking that he was not royalty. Like his adopted father, he had adopted somewhat of a criminal lifestyle. Another question you might have is how Seamore explained to everyone how he came across this mysterious child in the first place. This was also not a very hard task for Seamore, who had, by now, gotten pretty good at lying.
"Well, he showed up at my doorstep one night in a basket of reeds, with a small letter tied around his ankle. The letter read that the boy was a distant relative of mine and that his parents were no longer adequate to care for him." That's what he told the king when he saw Gaff for the first time. Seamore had told everyone else this same explanation when Gaff was still just a baby, so by now, nearly everyone had just accepted it. Everyone, that is, except for one.
Gaff had always had questions about his coming into the care of Seamore. For one, he couldn't believe that he was actually related to Seamore, as he looked nothing like him whatsoever. He also didn't understand why his parents would be "inadequate" to raise him themselves. There were plenty of peasant families in this kingdom who had almost no money and still found a way to provide for their children. Having more children in a life of poverty was many times an advantage for families. The only thing Gaff could think of was that his parents had died. If this was the case, then who would have brought him to Seamore's door and written the letter tied around his ankle? Another family member? If so, where were they now? No matter how hard Gaff thought about the subject, it just didn't quite add up.
These were the very thoughts that were running through his head one evening as he was on his daily stroll and suddenly bumped into someone. By instinct, Gaff's hands immediately went to the pockets of the man he had collided with. To his delight, his fingers brushed over something cold and hard. Gaff could already tell by the way his fingernails slightly sunk into the medal that it was gold. He quickly took a few coins and slipped them into his own pocket. All this he did in less than a second. I've really gotten way too good at this. Gaff thought with a smile. His smile disappeared, however, when he saw who it was that he had bumped into.
It was none other than the prince himself! In his confusion and surprise, he somehow dropped one of the coins. Prince Vermillion looked down at the coin, then back up at Gaff.
"Where did you get that?" He asked in a suspicious tone.
"I? don't know. On the ground, I guess," stammered Gaff.
"You guess?"
"Well? yeah."
"You stole it, didn't you?"
"What?!" Gaff exclaimed, surprised, "Why? why would you think that?"
"You're not the first pick-pocket I've run into around here." The Prince chuckled. "I'll tell you what. I've been looking for someone like you." Prince Vermillion looked Gaff up and down, "Yes, yes. You would be perfect for the job."
"What job?" Asked Gaff, finding all this incredibly difficult to believe, judging that he had just stolen half of the Prince's gold from his pockets.
"How would you like to be my personal bodyguard?" Gaff was dumbfounded at this, but it actually made sense that the Prince would pick someone like him for such a job as this. His enormous features were unlike any other man you have ever seen. He stood at a height of 7 feet 11 inches, with a weight of just over 500 pounds, and was anything but fat. All that weight was pure height and muscle. Looking at him as a baby, no one would have guessed that he would grow up to be so large. Looking at him now, you would never expect him to be an expert pick-pocket.
"Come," said the Prince, "Let me show you to our training area." Little did Gaff or Vermillion know that this was the start of an unlikely friendship.
Ten years went by, and Prince Vermillion and Gaff, now known as Sir Gaff, had only grown closer and closer. They were indeed fast friends by now. They might have even considered each other to be best friends. But as you probably know, the hunger for power can destroy almost any relationship, no matter how great.
It was late on the night of Vermillion and Gaff's 31st birthday when Vermillion fell gravely ill. It was the tradition in the Kingdom of Engothica for the prince to be crowned king after the age of thirty, so this was devastating for the King and Queen and their people.
With the prince's life hanging in the balance, Seamore felt compelled to tell the King about Gaff. The King could not believe it until his wife asked Gaff to lift up his shirt. When he did, she went around to his back, and sure enough, there was the same broken-crown birthmark from when he was a baby. So, in their desperation, they crowned him King.
To everyone's surprise, Prince Vermillion did not end up dying and was enraged when he heard about Gaff being crowned king instead of him. He was so upset in fact, that when he recovered enough, he set out to kill his former bodyguard and best friend. He snuck into Gaff's chambers that night and attempted to stab him. But Gaff, being a well-trained, high-alert bodyguard, saw it coming. He rolled out of the way just in time and struck Vermillion across the face. Gaff's giant fist hit him with such force that he sailed through the air, hitting the wall behind him. The knife he was holding clattered to the floor, and Vermillion was taken into prison.
Instead of having Vermillion executed, as most kings would, Gaff had mercy on his brother by only banning him from stepping foot into the kingdom of Engothica ever again. Unfortunately, Vermillion did not have the same compassion for Gaff.
Many years passed, and Vermillion had mustered up an army of followers, many of whom were sorcerers. He had declared war on Engothica, and now, Vermillion was winning. It was during the final days of Engothica when King Gaff remembered the curse that Seamore Rumpleshnoot had told him about all those years ago. "The next generation to bear more than one heir to the throne will now be Engothica's eternal downfall!" It seemed that fateful day had finally come.
