act two: protecting a kingdom
"ONWARD, MEN! FOR GLORY! FOR THE OUTER LANDS! FOR THE CONTINENT, I BESEECH THEE ALL, ONWARD MARCH!"
All the roaring lion that he was hailed as being, the former King Carmine stood proudly beside an old friend and before a loyal military, every man in every rank ready to die for the glory of their once proud king. The fiery eyes of the former King Carmine were set upon the lands he'd once hailed as his own... but, more primarily, upon the shadow cast by the new king of those lands, as he stared out at them from atop his castle's walls.
Smirking, Carmine lifted his hand to the air at his side, clenching it into a fist and shaking it forward.
"SHARPSHOOTERS!" he roared, lifting his head proudly, "OUR ENEMY IS IN RANGE! FIRE AT WILL!"
The arrows of a hundred well-trained, long-range archers took to the skies like the very rolling clouds themselves, the blood-red sun of old watching on in dismay at the unfolding chaos within such a beatufiul planet as Earth. Mankind... always prone to bouts of madness, fits of violence directed at one another... the cycle had been such since the dawn of man, and the sun feared it would forever see such wars 'til man did draw his final breath.
The great King Dominic stood proudly atop his castle walls, watching the oncoming shadow of arrows with mild indignation. An assasination attempt from a distance? Poor form from the young roaring lion... the elder King drew forth his sword and stared down the coming shadow with the same bravery spoken of in legend, in passing memories of the king's younger years... the same undying bravery that had resided in him all along.
The shadow soon came upon the king, Carmine giving a joyful howl of success as the arrows closed the distance. Soon, however, the howl turned to a snarl of frustration, a flash of light piercing the blood-red sky as the sword of the king glinted in the sunlight, cutting a path through the shadow and leaving he and his prince entirely unscathed, ever-staring at the advancing army.
An army now weary from the display of power by the man they were to try and bring down... a man ready to protect his kingdom, if need be, by himself against the world.
"FEAR NOT!" came the shouts of the roaring lion, his attention turned back towards his men, "HE CANNOT WIN THIS DAY! WE ARE OF GREATER NUMBER, OF GREATER STRENGTH! HE WILL BE BUT A CRUSHED, WITHERED FLOWER BENEATH OUR FEET!"
The good king turned to his prince, the sounds of the roaring lion carrying across the lands and, despite the altitude, even faintly reaching their ears. Though the words could not be registered, nor was their meaning important to king nor prince, they were nevertheless amusing in the distance that they did travel.
"The roaring lion holds true to his name... the song of his frustration has carried loud and obnoxiously across our lands, has it not, my prince?"
The prince laughed heartily, nodding as he listened to the muffled shouts of the former King Carmine, who once again urged his men forward from their stunned place upon the distant fields. Another volley of arrows would be coming soon, another desperate attempt to weaken the king and his forces... another attempt to be brought down by the he the king, and he alone.
King Dominic watched on in silence at their approach, the gears of his mind ever-turning in-time with the sounds of the marching soldiers in the distance. He had made a huge gambit in his decision, placing the entirety of his military forces on the eastern walls of the kingdom, readying themselves for the coming battle with the far eastern invaders... leaving only he and his prince to face a coming army on the other side.
To the great King Dominic, the fight hardly seemed fair for his opposition. Indeed, he had clashed sword with the roaring lion in times past, and every time had bested the once young king in combat, hoping the defeats would better teach him the ways of the sword. Yet the lion's bravado was greater than his ability to learn from his defeat, and so with every new encounter... the lion came with greater animosity, greater aspiration, and a greater underestimation of his opponent.
Likewise, the great King Dominic had clashed swords with the soldiers of the roaring lion, and had deemed them all headstrong boys just the same as their leader. Militarily, they were superbly commanded by the former King Carmine... but their skill was yet to truly be discovered, and their abilities never tested upon the battlefield. Indeed, with easy triumphs on the way to the throne, the roaring lion and his soldiers had never learned the hardships of ruling over the lands along the way.
They did not share the experience that the elder King Dominic had endured during his own earlier years as a king, the experience of clawing and scraping ones way to the top over the span of a lifetime, taking years to reach the mountaintop one seeks in their struggles. No, instead, the roaring lion had came upon the lands in a disarray... and in a misguided desire to protect those same lands he believed he could call his own, he laid claim to a throne he was unready for.
Sighing, the great King Dominic shook his head as he stared down from his castle upon the young roaring lion. Despite his bravado, despite his overzealousness... King Dominic believed in his predecessor. He saw potential there for greatness, potential for a warrior to be born of the young lion's immaturity, for a true king to grow out from the sham of a king the roaring lion once had been. King Dominic did not desire to snuff out the life of the roaring lion, though those feelings were not returned upon him...
... he desired to further it, and to help Carmine grow into the man King Dominic envisioned he would one day become. A man worthy to rule the continent, a man ready to protect it and its people... the same man the former King Carmine envisioned himself to already be was the man Dominic knew he could be over time, should he abandone his childish things and take hold of his future with his hands, rather than ignoring it in the misguided belief that he was already there.
Yet in order to teach the once young king, the roaring lion leading his soldiers into battle... the elder King Dominic would have to make an example of him, to him. He would have to do something unheard of for his time, something that would require every ounce of effort left in the elder king's body.
In the end, King Dominic would have to do something that in all truth had came naturally to him throughout the entirety of his life up to that point, and he was more than willing to do it. If he were to truly silence the roaring lion, and show unto him the things he would one day need to learn...
... he would have to take on the trials facing his kingdom alone, as the sole representative he, as king, knew he should be.