Swan Song

My Post from ByChance Blog:

This is my swan song. The story starts like this....

In a kingdom in a far off land a prince ruled. His was not the largest of kingdoms nor was he the most powerful ruler. But he ruled over his people in a just manner and was loved by his subjects. But like most stories that have a happy beginning, the storm started to gather on our prince’s kingdom too. His kingdom was attacked by an evil warlord!! The war that ensued lasted many a years. The kingdom was ravaged, but our prince fought on. And so the skies cleared and victory was achieved by the prince.

Happy days were back again. But the king heard that some of his neighbors were being attacked by other rough warlords. And so with his small battalion, the prince went to war again and helped many of his neighboring kingdoms He thought of his neighbors as his friends and allies. So a prosperous period followed where people from all the kingdoms flourished.

But just as the people of our prince’s kingdom started enjoying the good life, they were attacked again by the same dark warlord. This time around he attacked with a large army. The prince’s army crumbled in front of the enemy. The prince was forced to retreat to his fort, the only remaining stronghold. The dark warlord surrounded the fort from all sides and thus the long siege began. For many months the fort was attacked. The sound of cannons echoed through the countryside. Part of the fort caught fire and the flames leapt high in the sky. Our prince sent pleas of help to his neighbors but no one came to his rescue.

Finally the night arrived when the final assault was mounted by the dark war lord. In his agony of seeing his empire crumble the prince screamed out loud. So loud were his screeches that they reached the neighboring king. This was the very king the prince had rushed to help. But the king did not think of riding his horse to the princes’ help. All he thought was that the prince had disturbed him.” Oh damn the prince!” ,he said,” It was not enough that the sounds of cannons should pound my ears and the flames of his castle falling down sear my eyes. Now he has to scream and prick my ears too.” And he issued a command for his guards to kill the prince.

The prince was watching his last guard fall down when he noticed the neighbors guard riding towards him. He was overjoyed. At last there is someone to fight on my side. But his joy was short lived when he saw these very guards fighting against him. The final gate came crashing down and the enemy streamed into the fort. The prince looked down at his hands. They were red. His heart had been pierced. He sat down at his table and started writing.

“This is my swan song. The story starts like this…..