Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 34

This week's photo is from Parrish Relics, which sells handcrafted Amulate jewellery. I can't find any crowns on her site but the owner of Parrish Relics, Jen Parrish-Hill put this picture up on her Pinboard. I think this might have been a custom piece.

It was easy to come up with this tale and hear these characters but it was a struggle to find any kind of twist, so it is just a piece of what could be a larger work. 

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How to create a clickable link in Blogger comments can be found on lasts week's post here.

Game of Crowns

Kalic didn’t know where Karnie had hidden it but he knew that once the papers were produced Karnie would have no choice but to concede. Just one more day and it would need to be back in the throne room ready for the coronation.

But who would be crowned?

It was the question on all their minds. Twins born just minutes apart, but which one came first?

Their mother had died years ago and everyone assumed their father knew, but the onset of dementia meant he was no longer present to declare it.

Kalic clearly remember his mother telling him was first: her blue-eyed raven arrived first, she’d always said. He was the one with thick black hair, whereas Karnie’s was blond. But as his brother towered over him, people assumed it was the other way round. He was always referred to as ‘the little brother’.

It meant the papers had to be found, showing the exact time of birth, and stupidly they were kept at Great Bander, the strong hold in the North.

Kalic didn’t trust it. They could be interfered with at any stage of the journey, so he had gone personally. He had not viewed them, simply collected them. They would be looked at upon his return with his brother present.

He stormed into the East Wing of Castle Rossinda, Karnie’s side of the home they shared.

“Where is he? I want to see him now!” he yelled at the servants.

They scuttled before him, as he strode further into his brother’s domicile. Then a voice reached him: “I’m here brother, what are you so blustered about?”

Kalic pushed open the doors to the south entrance of the lounge and stomped in, the sight of Karnie lazing on the sofa with a book enraging him further.

“Where is it? There’ll be no pronouncement until you produce it!” he bellowed.

Karnie’s puzzled eyes met his. “What, Kalic? Produce what?”

“The crown you fool!”

“The crown? Why would I have that?”

“To stall the process and stop me from my rightful place on the throne.”

“Since when have I ever opposed your claim to the throne?”

Kalic halted. “Always!”

Karnie sat up. “What lies! I don’t want the job!”

“You always argued with father about everything, thinking you could do better, and threatened to do so.”

Karnie laughed. “He’s an old fool stuck in his ways. He has no idea how to rule a progressive state, whereas I have every confidence in you.”

Kalic slumped down into an armchair opposite his brother.

“Oh. So where’s the crown?”

“No idea.”

“But the coronation can’t happen without it.”

“Where did you see it last?”

“I presumed it was in the antiquities room, but it’s not.”

“The room next to father’s?”

“Yes.”

“He’s probably taken it then.”

“Why would he do that?”

“In his foggy state he gets quite riled up worried his throne will be taken from him.”

“What, still?”

“Yes.”

“Come on. Let’s go and get it.”

“What, me too?”

“Oh yes, I’ll need you.”

“Eh?”

They made their way to their father’s chambers in the back of the castle. It smelled of musty old belongings, which, Kalic supposed, their father was too now. They found him dancing round his rooms, naked but for a robe, the crown firmly planted on his head.

“Father, we’ve come for the crown,” Kalic said.

He stopped and put his hand on his head, grasping the crown. “I’ll never give it up!”

“Not even to your sons?” Kalic asked.

Their father paused, stepping up to them, inspecting their faces. Kalic could smell illness and decay on his breath.

“My sons, are you sure?”

“We’re sure,” said Karnie.

He continued to inspect them, then suddenly grabbed Karnie’s shirt and ripped it off. The strength he possessed was no surprise to them; their father had been a great warrior in his day.

Karnie’s chest exposed a childhood scar. Their father nodded. “ ‘Tis you, there is no doubt.”

And with that he swept the crown off his head and plonked it on Kalic’s.

Karnie looked surprised. “How did you know he would do that?”

“Because we are his sons, brother, the only people he still knows and trusts.”

This touched Karnie who stayed to settle their father and help dress him. They escorted him to the great hall for a banquet dinner, knowing it’d be his last as king. Despite his broken state they wanted to celebrate his reign while he was still with them.