The King's Hannibal

I made my way back through the gates of the castle, leaving the screams of the wounded and dying behind. I let my feet carry me slowly but surely towards the bathing chambers, ready to cleanse the blood off myself. None of it belonged to me, and the smell was overloading my nostrils. I could feel it dripping off my hair, my arms, and my legs. My whole body was soaked in the disgusting red liquid.

I wasn’t like the other Lycan warriors, I was never proud of the blood I spilled or the victories I won. I couldn’t take the credit for any of it, all the victories I had on my record belonged to my Lycan, not to me. I didn’t know her name, and I couldn’t talk to her like everyone else. We didn’t share an internal monologue with each other and we certainly weren’t friends.

The other soldiers cleared a path for me, most choosing to avert their eyes as I passed. The ones who didn’t looked at me with varying emotion in their eyes. Some of the more seasoned warriors nodded in my direction respectfully, but the younger ones looked down in fear. I didn’t take it personally, I knew they weren’t afraid of me. They were afraid of what I was. Every Lycan, from the young warriors to the King, fear a Hannibal.

I made it to the gates leading to the portion of the castle reserved for royalty, and saw two familiar faces guarding the doors. Lysander and Eric, two blonde haired brother’s of the royal guard. They wore their black and red armor, adorned with the faces of two golden wolves howling at the center of the breast plate. Their armor was perfectly clean, free of dents and blood. I knew that meant they had been stuck on guard duty all night, and I’m sure they were thrilled about it.

“Not so fast, Miss Bellona.” A long, tan, muscular arm reached out in front of me to block my path through the doors. I let out a small growl and a large roll of my eyes, staring at Eric’s arm.

“Come on Venus, give us some details. We’ve been stuck here all night, we’ve missed all the action. Is King Titus alive? Did he surrender? Is he missing his head?” Lysander poked my bicep with an obnoxiously strong finger, waiting for me to give him any form of information regarding the battle outside the castle.

The two brother’s were the only two inside the castle who would dare to block my path, and that’s only because they were also the only two in the world who dared to be my friends. No one else would ever even come close to putting a hand on a Hannibal, or a finger. There was nothing special about Lysander or Eric, but for some strange reason my Lycan half fostered some form of affection towards them. Otherwise, she would have killed them both years ago.

Even though I couldn’t communicate with her, there were signs throughout the decades that she liked the brothers. She never surfaced when they talked to me or touched me, and there were numerous instances on the battlefield where she went out of her way to save them.

Everyone knew about her affection for them after one particular battle we had around 40 years ago. King Cyrus, Titus’s brother, had been sending warriors to fight against us in small little skirmishes for months. When he had the audacity to send all of his troops in a direct attack at the castle, I was sent out to put an end to him. I had just hit my hundredth year of life, and had seen twice that amount of battles.

Lysander and Eric were around my age, and had been sent out onto the field hours before me when the battle first began. When my Lycan arrived, Eric was bleeding freely on the ground, injured so severely his Lycan had faded out and his human body was exposed to all the claws and teeth around him. Lysander’s Lycan, Leo, was crouched over Eric’s body doing everything he could to protect his brother. Covering Eric with his own body, Leo was taking hits in all directions. As always, our army was outnumbered.

My memory of the event was hazy at best, one of the many downfalls of living as a Hannibal. I had no control over my Lycan, and when she took over I could only see bits and pieces through her eyes. A glimpse I did get through her eyes that night was the claw that ripped through the fur on Leo’s face, from his eyebrow to his chin. That was the last thing I saw before everything turned black.

I heard the rest of what happened through the rumors that spread quickly throughout the castle. Leo went down, shifting back to leave Lysander in his human form next to Eric on the ground. My Lycan tore through the battlefield, as she always does, ripping heads and limbs from bodies as she went. She wasn’t aimless like usual though, she headed directly to Lysander and Eric. When she got to them, she took Leo’s place hovering above the two.

The enemy’s attention turned to the three of them, and King Cyrus sent his royal guard at them in full force, charging with them straight at her Lycan. She tore them all to pieces one by one, and then ripped every limb from the King’s body. King Cyrus’ warriors surrendered shortly after, and as the battle ended and the wounded were tended to the medics found her Lycan curled up around Lysander and Eric. Her Lycan wouldn’t allow anyone to touch them, and they had to wait until she went to sleep and I regained my body to get Eric and Lysander to medical.

That was the first time a Hannibal had ever been seen protecting another Lycan on a battlefield, and word spread quickly. Nowadays, it was common knowledge that the two brothers were under my Lycan’s protection, and no one dared to touch them.

I looked up at Lysander’s face, running my eyes down the scar he still bore from that battle. “King Titus retreated, he’s called for a truce. He’s been invited to discuss peace over dinner with the King tomorrow night.” Without waiting for a response, I pushed his arm out of my way and headed into the castle. I didn’t wish to be rude to either of the brothers, but the blood covering my body was beginning to dry and I felt disgusting.

I stumbled straight into the bathing chambers, feeling more fatigued by the minute. I knew there was a limited amount of time until I’d pass out and be useless to the world for at least 12 hours. This was always the case after my Lycan ran free. I swear, she had no concern for my well being or the amount of energy she used.

The bathing chambers in the royal wing of the castle were among my favorite places to be. The royal wing consisted of a long hallway, with a door to the private royal kitchen on the left and the bathing chambers on the right. At the end of the hallway, there are stairs on the left and the right. The stairs on the right led to another long hallway, filled with a handful of rooms belonging to the extended royal family and highly respected visitors. The stairs on the left led to another, shorter hallway that only contained three different rooms. The King’s chambers were at the far end of the hall, behind a massive oak door. The other two rooms were on either side of the King’s chambers, one belonging to myself and the other to the Prince.

Seeing as the Prince has been gone for almost a century doing who knows what, the hallway belongs to just the King and I. The King moved me into the royal chambers decades ago, which caused upset among the lords and ladies at court. The ladies were full of jealousy, gossiping that the King was trying to replace his late wife with a filthy Hannibal. The lords cautioned the King against it, thinking my Lycan would eat him or something in the middle of the night. She’s very unpredictable, so I can’t blame the lords for worrying about the King.

In recent years, however, most of the lords and ladies have come to realize my loyalty to the King. My Lycan and I would never harm him. She doesn’t seem to hold the same affection towards the King that she holds for Lysander and Eric, but she’s loyal to the man. I think it’s because he see’s her for what she is, a weapon that can destroy all his enemies. She enjoys slaughtering, and he loves her for it, so the two seem to have some form of understanding.