The Four Kings

“So then after I brought her the crown of flowers, Laurielle gave me this awesome necklace made of seashells and pearls she found on the ocean floor. It was so pretty. I was surprised that she would offer something so valuable for something as meager as a ring of flowers. But, low and behold, here it is!” The teenaged girl with tresses as golden as the sun lifted the necklace she spoke of from a carefully crafted wooden box. The shells were smooth and polished, the pearls caught the sunlight and gleamed beautifully.

At the other end of the room, her dark haired friend sat and played video games. He paid little attention to what she said – or so it seemed to her. The teen selected commands to his parties and watched as their battles unfolded. The shouts and battle cries launched themselves from the television speakers, disrupting the quiet of the room.

“Oi!” The bed squeaked as the blonde jumped off it’s surface, landing softly on the plush carpet of her bedroom. “Are you even listening to me? Seriously?” she prodded, digging the tip of her finger into the side of his cheek, pushing him with the poke until he swatted her hand away.

“I’m listening, I’m listening, now will you shut up for a moment, you made David die!” the other retorted, irritation dripping from his words.

The blonder gasped, “No! Not pretty David! Damn myself to hell for eternity for causing the beautiful video game character die like he always does.”

Her dark haired friend only continued to play the game, leaving a small pause of silence as he sent another group to go revive the fallen men. “You know you love him.”

The other sighed and rocked off her heels and onto her butt, “Yeah, yeah. But you know, I’d at least like a reply when I tell you a story. I mean, you always begged me to tell you one when we were younger…asshole.”

“That’s right: When we were younger.”

“You still haven’t given me any response.”

With the battle on the screen won, the other set down the controller and scooted himself over to face her. “You got that necklace from a mermaid, in some kingdom—“

“It’s a temple, you idiot.”

“—right, right, temple – whatever – some temple where you go to in your dreams, and you actually brought the thing back because you fell asleep with it on like an idiot,” again he paused, his emerald eyes boring into her with his bore-yet-intense stare, “That’s totally believable.”

“Exactly. It is believable, you want to know why? Because I told you it was, and I’m always right—“

“Only when I’m wrong,” the other retorted, a smug smile coming to his lips.

“Travis!” Sarah shouted as she launched herself at her friend.

* * *

The sun felt great against her bare arms. Back home, it had been raining for days, forcing her to stay locked up inside. – the sun was a nice change. Siearra couldn’t help but lounge around in her favored field of flowers, letting the sun’s warmth dance across her skin. The white, short-sleeved dress she wore splayed out around her, her golden locks pulled back into a lose braid. She could hear the sound of animals nearby, scurrying to their destinations, searching for food. Above her she could see the clouds over head, slowly drifting by.

She tensed suddenly as footsteps sounded nearby. They did not come from the temple as they normally did, they were coming from elsewhere, in the direction of the closest town miles away. She closed her eyes, letting her concentration fall on the sound of the foreign footfalls. A pause. They had stopped walking, there were several from what she could tell. Siearra didn’t dare move for fear of them being foe she hadn’t a weapon to defend herself with – the temple hands were against such things in a place of peace.

A single pair of footsteps then started again, this time moving in her direction, rather than continue its way towards the church. Siearra slowed her breathing, taking long, soft breaths and letting them out silently as possibly. Closer and closer they came, making her heart pound. Finally they stopped at her side.

“Whoa, man Xibril, you were right when you said that the temple hands were bound to be beautiful,” the one at her side whistled.

A second later, she felt the brush of fingertips against the flesh of her cheek. That was her chance. She jerked up, ducking away from his hand and kicked her leg out, swinging it at his legs. She felt the impact of his ankles against her calf just as he gave way and toppled over with a yelp. He hit the ground hard and she swung her leg around, bringing her foot down on his neck, pinning him there.

“Who are you?” she growled, her amber eyes narrowing to a glare.

The one she had pinned looked no older than she – a boy – a regular teenage boy by appearance. However, she could sense something odd about him, something that made him different from the Sisters and the Father back at the temple. He stared up at her with wide, startled emerald eyes. His dirt brown locks fell around his face in bunches of soft curls. The boy was speechless, gaping at the girl who – once supposedly sleeping in the lush field of flowers – now had him pinned with a foot on this throat.

“Easy now, we’re not bad people, girly,” one of the others replied.

Siearra’s gaze lifted immediately, falling on the figure of the one who had spoken.

His hair bunched out around him in a cluster of red spikes. A smile curled upward on his tan face, and reflected in his auburn eyes. He stepped forward, right up to his friend, and nudged the other’s head with the toe of his boot. “What did I tell you, Lithos? ‘Don’t sneak up on them.’ Now do you see why?” The redhead chortled, enjoying the sight of his friend having been beaten by a girl – even if she had taken him by surprise. “Sorry about this one, he’s always been a little stupid.”

“A little stupid, try a complete airhead,” another of the boys inputted.

The brunet at Siearra’s feet squirmed, “Hey! I’m not an airhead!”

“Like you’re one to talk, Aerrow,” the one apparently titled Xibril commented.

The one they called Aerrow turned his attention to the one still on the path with him. His blonde locks were messy, disrupting the suspicious look gleaming in his bright blue eyes, “What was that Xibril?”

‘Xibril’, with his dark locks, and cerulean eyes turned his focus to the blonde beside him, a look of complete innocence on his face. “Come again?” he questioned, as if he had said nothing in the first place.

“Er…noting, nothing…” the blonde replied, turning away from the dark-haired one.

Again, the redhead laughed, the sound of his mirth ending with a sigh, “Ah, you can just go to hell Xibril.”

Siearra stared at the tan one with spiked hair oddly. Did he just say that with a smile on his face? Who were these people? They acted friendly while insulting one another for no reason at all. Strange characters indeed. The blonde woman lifted her bare foot from the brunet’s neck, letting him free as she took a step back. As he stood – not bothering to brush the dirt from his clothing – she eyed each of them carefully.

“I’ll ask again,” she began, catching their attention with the harsh tone of her voice, “Who are you?”

A smile lit the brunet’s face once again. “Oh, that’s easy! I’m Lithos,” he pointed an index finger to the redhead next to him, “This is Tyrano,” the finger moved to indicate he was addressing the dark-haired one, “That’s Xibril,” lastly his finger pointed to the blonde, who now seemed to be spacing out, “and that’s Aerrow.” He turned back to face her, the one who had asked the question, and returned the query back to her, “Who are you?”

“Don’t have to tell you,” she replied, her lips curling up in a smug grin.

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Lithos complained.

“Get over it,” Siearra retorted.

“Aw, calm down, Lithos,” Tyrano replied. He patted the brunet on the head, messing his brown curls even more so. “We’ll find out in due time.” He turned his attention to the blonde with no name then, a smile still plastered on his lips, “In the meantime, could you lead us to the temple? We’re not to sure if we’re going the right way or not.”

A pause soon followed his request, and an awkward silence soon greeted them. The only smile that remained in the group was on the face of the one called Tyrano. It almost seemed natural that his lips be curled up at the corners like that – as if he didn’t know what it was to frown. He waited patiently, confident that she would cave in and lead them to the temple.

It wasn’t that she would cave in; it was the fact that she had no choice. It was the rules of the temple – so long as you lived there; one had to do good deeds when asked for assistance. After all, none of the Sisters – nor her – wanted to face the wrath of the head mistress. She was a cruel mistress when it came to those who refused to open their hearts and help others. Siearra thought the head mistress was contradicting herself, but she would never say it aloud for the sake of her own skin. She shivered as her mind painted a painful picture of what would happen if they were to get to the church and tell that woman what Siearra had done.

“Fine, but if you’re asked…you caught me picking flowers, not kicking your friend’s ass. Got it?”

The redheaded one only laughed.

The temple was always the same to her, no matter how big she grew. The pillars supporting the front were always tall and white as bone, reaching for the sky in delicate twists and shapes. Along the far left pillar, a cluster of vines had clung to the marble, spiraling up and stretching out, as if reaching for the Sun Goddess to grace it with her presence. Her bare feet left the soft grass that lined the path the others walked on as they had followed her, and met the cold marble of the temple floor.

Like the pillars, the floor was white as bone, but here and there, small designs of light grey and gold would catch the eye. It stretched far and wide into the large space inside the temple. When she was little, she used to think that if she went inside, the holy place would swallow her up, and she would never be able to go play in the flowers again. However, that never happened. Instead, she grew confident and strong, so that if the temple ever did swallow her up, she would be able to free herself and stay in the warm light of the sun.

“Father!” she called, her voice echoing off the walls within the holy place, “I’ve brought some visitors.”

The flutter of material sounded his arrival, and soon the Father of the temple stepped into the room, revealing himself to the group. His smile was still soft as the loving look in his eyes, and his hair was silver as it had always been. It was pulled back in a braid, as he did every year as spring came. He had lived for hundreds of years, and still held the appearance of a young man in his mid-twenties. Many times Siearra had asked him of his appearance, or how the Sisters said he never aged, and each time he laughed and told her the same thing. ‘I am a guardian to the sacred temple, so long as this place thrives, I will live long and continue to help those who seek my aid, little one. It is my duty to the Sun Goddess.’

“So you have,” he replied as he strolled gracefully across the space of marble floor between them. “Welcome, young Kings of Elysion.” He gave a short sweeping bow, one of which they returned out of respect, “What brings you from your castle?”

Eh?

Siearra looked back at the boys she had just escorted to the place she had come to call her home. What had Father just said? ‘Young Kings of Elysion?’ Did that mean that these guys – the weak brunet, the lazy ‘air’head, the snippy sarcastic jerk, and the smiling stranger were… “Kings?”

The boys all looked at her with wide eyed curiosity, as if it was a wonder to find someone in the land of Elysion who didn’t know them.

Laughter reached Siearra’s ears and wrapped around her like a gentle breeze as Father’s hand placed itself gently on her shoulder. “Yes, Siearra, kings. These four boys are the young kings of Elysion. I take it none of the sisters informed you when you returned after your long year of unrest. It happened about a month before you returned to us.”

“I see,” she murmured, that would explain why it was all so confusing to her. “Then why don’t you inform me a little now so I don’t happen to make myself look like an idiot again?”

The smiling redhead was the first to take a step forward and introduce himself with a bow, “I am Tyrano, ruler of fire.”

The dirt covered brunet was the next to step forward and take a bow, “I am Lithos of earth.”

The dark haired one was the next to go. His step forward and his bow were both graceful and fluid, “I am Xibril, commander of water.”

There was a pause of silence, and all eyes turned to the blonde airhead. Again he was staring off into space, letting his mind travel miles away as his body stayed there. For a moment, Siearra was going to just tell them to pass on his introduction, but her thought came a second too late.

Xibril’s hand met with the back of the blonde’s head, slamming the airhead’s brain back in place. “It’s your turn, idiot,” he remarked.

“Huh?” the last one blinked his blue eyes before looking around the room. Seeing as all eyes were on him, it was easy to conclude that he was missing something. “What are we doing?”

“We’re introducing ourselves, it’s your turn,” Lithos pointed out.

“So hurry up before you space out again.”

The blonde turned to the dark-haired one again, “What did you say?”

The dark haired one feigned a scoff, “What are you talking about. I didn’t say anything. Hurry up and introduce yourself.”

“Hm…” the blonde turned back to the Father and the girl that had led them to the temple. “I’m Aerrow, crafter of the wind.”

A hand met the back of his head then. It was not a blow to his cranium, more like a grabbing of his skull. “And now you bow,” Tyrano said slowly, dragging out the last word as he gently pushed the blonde’s head down into a pathetic excuse for a bow. When the King of Air raised his head again, Tyrano pretended to applaud him, “Good, now say ‘Nice to meet you.’”

“No thanks, I’m good,” the other replied, brushing the King of Fire’s hand off the back of his head.

“Did you all really have to introduce yourselves using different lines?” Siearra questioned. Of course, she was impressed by the fact that they acted so casual for four kings. If it weren’t for the Father pointing it out to her, she would have never known.

“What do you expect? If we were to use the same line to tell what we control, it’d be too repetitious. We have an image to uphold, you know,” Tyrano replied, his grin brightening by a few watts.

“Young Kings,” the Father called tentatively, obtaining their attention once again, “You still have yet to tell me why it is you four have come here.”

“It’s simple, really,” Xibril replied as he took a step forward. “We have come looking for the Sun Goddess Incarnate.”

Author's Note: Whoo! So here's chapter one! Sorry for the wait! I hope this turns out to be popular, or at least for you readers to like it. I'm feeling like crap right now, so dont mind me. I dont know if I got off topic in this chapter, I feel like I did. Ah well.

To those of you wanting to know what happened to my story 'The Living Void' ah...well... I'm sorta putting that on hold...I guess...I havent really been inspired to write more for it yet. I might later. Just give me some time. I'm really sorry. But you see, once I get to one point in this story's beginning, I have everything already planned out. I didnt really do that for LV.... hahaha...

I'M SORRY! PLEASE DON'T BE ANGRY!!!

I truly love all my readers. Thanks for your time!

Mekena VerSluis