A deafeningly loud roar of soldiers and warriors echoed across the white landscape as the two armies marched towards each other. Coming from the north was an army clad in red armor and armed with swords, spears, firearms, and all manner of war machines and vehicles. Coming from the south was a similarly equipped army, but clad in blue armor. As the two vast armies approached one another, loud whistles and orders were barked to halt the soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers faced each other, human, alien, and fantastical species staring down their enemies across the marble white plains.
Just then, emerging from the front lines of the blue army, came a creature with green skin, pointy ears, slitted red eyes, and sharp claws. A series of chants and cheers revealed that this was the head general of the entire army, as the soldiers showered her with honor and adoration. She was adorned in an intimidating suit of armor that fit its large, tall body tightly and on its back, it wielded a large scythe-like weapon, with several chambers surrounding the body. Its armor was similar to medieval plate armor but it moved fluidly with the being’s movement. Around their neck, several necklaces of gold, silver, and gems shone brilliantly.
Across the battlefield, loud stomps, slams, and chants signaled the arrival of the opposing general, who stepped out of the lines mounted on a large orange and yellow, three-headed lion-like creature. The beast snarled as its heavy paws slammed into the ground, the only thing holding it back was the leader holding it back by its reins. The general mounted upon the beast was a humanoid creature with a face covered in fur and features similar to that of the creature he was mounted upon. He was adorned with similar armor as his adversary, but he was equipped with much larger and bulkier armor, so much so that this head looked tiny in comparison to the rest of his armor. He also wielded a large sword that was slung on his waist.
The two enemies strode towards each other before they came to a stop about 50 meters away from each other. The red general’s beast barking and growling viciously at the sight of its enemy.
“So you decided to show your face, Barbadoros!” The blue general called out, her voice ringing as clear as crystal, but strong like a thunder storm.
“When battle calls me, I will answer, Slivaera!” Barbadoros roared, his voice deep and gravelly, but strong, fitting for a beast as large as him. “And when my lands are threatened by such villainy like you and your supporters, I will be the first to make sure to crush you!”
Slivaera laughed, a claw covering her mouth, sharp, white teeth gleaming bright,“You and your pitiful army stand no chance against me. The power of our technology and magic will be far more than you barbarians can handle.” She shifted her stance, taking a more aggressive stance and pointing a claw at him, “And when I am done with you, you sniveling beast, I will reclaim what you unjustly stole from me”
Now it was Barbadoros’ turn to laugh, a hearty guffawing that rattled his heavy armor, “I took what I deserved, you slimey fool. You relinquished your rights to it the moment you turned your back on me.” The furry beast shifted his mount and pointed a large finger back towards his opponent, “Once I’m done with you, I will make sure to take back what YOU stole from me. Perhaps in exchange for you head!”
The two armies erupted into rapturous roars at their generals exchanging threats. The two generals turned away and returned to their armies.
Slivaera’s armor shifting and turning, almost as though it was alive. Suddenly, two large white, clear moth wings sprouted from her back, flapping powerfully and lifting her into the air. Several scales began crawling from her back until they covered her head like a helmet. She grabbed her weapon and with a swift extension of her arm, it unfolded into a large scythe, the gun chambers detaching from the body and hovering around her.
Barbadoros’ beast rumbled back before skidding to a halt and unleashing a hellish roar from its heads. He then reached down and pulled his sword from its sheath, revealing a large great sword. It was dark red and orange, similar to lava freshly poured from a volcano and emanated a heat similar to the infernal fluid. With a loud roar of his own, his sword erupted into flames, shooting sparks and fire everywhere.
“WARRIORS OF THE BLUE MOONS!!” Slivaera yelled to her troops.
“SOLDIERS OF THE MOLTEN SUNS!!” Barbadoros bellowed to his army.
Chants, stomps, and cries for battle echoed across the white battlefield again.
“THIS IS THE DAY THAT WE VANQUISH OUR ENEMIES...”
“...WHEN THEY DISCOVER WHO WE TRULY ARE AND HOW POWERLESS THEY ARE TO US!”
More chants and cheers.
“TOGETHER, WE WILL FIGHT FOR RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE! TO…”
“...RECLAIM WHAT OUR FOES STOLE FROM US. TO EXACT OUR FURY UPON THEM!”
The battle cries grew even louder.
“NOW STAND WITH ME IN BATTLE AND SEND THOSE WEAK FOOLS…
“...BACK TO THE DEPTHS BELOW WHERE THEY BELONG!!!”
The armies cheered in ecstasy for their generals.
The two enemies turned back to each other and raised their weapons before pointing them towards their rivals.
“ATTAAAAACK!!!!!”
“CHAAAAAARGE!!!”
The armies bolted immediately towards each other, bloodlust and over-pouring emotions driving them forward into a battle that few would likely to survive. Artillery fired and supporting fire covered the sky as they launched towards their targets, exploding in large burst of fire and striking the ground with deadly force, but the armies charged, amazingly avoiding all the death from above.
Suddenly, a violent quake shook the whole battlefield, knocking vast numbers of soldiers over in confusion. The armies slowed their assault and looked around before another equally earthshaking quake rumbled. More and more quakes, each more powerful than the next, shook the world and threatened to seemingly tear it apart. Then off in the distance, a shadow began to cover the land, a wall of darkness as far as the eye could see sweeping across the land until it enveloped the two armies. The shadows grew darker and darker as more quakes sent the soldiers to the ground. Just as soon as the quakes arrived, they stopped, but the darkness only grew darker.
“LOOK! UP IN THE SKY!!” a Blue Moon soldier cried.
All sight gazed upwards and collectively felt a fear well up in their souls.
It was a hand. Only a part of a finger was even visible to the soldiers below as it seemed to come closer and closer, covering the battlefield in pure darkness.
“Now that’s quite enough of that” a woman’s voice rumbled above. It was soft and serene, but its tone sounded annoyed and disappointed.
Before any of the soldiers could react, they felt their bodies start to lift off the ground and ascend towards the titanic hand. Thousands of bodies began flying upwards rapidly. Slivaera and Barbadoros were left alone on the ground and left in awe as they watched their amassed forces vanish into the sky above. After a few moments, the hand began to turn over.
“Playing ‘war’ again, are we?” the voice said. “As impressive and amazing as it might be to show off your military and fighting prowesses, you will not be doing that while I’m around, understood?”
“Yes ma’am” a few soldiers muttered in the vast crowd, others simply looking down and kicking the soft ground.
“Good, glad to hear that” the voice boomed. “As for you two, how many times are you two going to do this. This is, what, the tenth time this month I’ve caught you fighting? What did you two do now?”
Slivaera and Barbadoros crossed their arms and looked away from each other with a huff.
“Sliv, Barda, how long are you two going to keep this up? At this rate, you’re going to involve the whole family in this little feud of yours. Now tell me, what did you two do?” the voice said.
“He stole my cookies and ate them when I wasn’t looking, mom!” Slivaera suddenly whined, pointing her scythe at Barbadoros and looking to the sky.
“I did not!” he snapped, pointing his sword at her and also looking to the sky “But since she thought I did, she stole something, uh, personal of mine!”
“Well if you hadn’t been such an asshole, I wouldn’t have had to steal your little teddy bear!” she hissed at him
“He is NOT a teddy bear,” he growled at her, “He is Borkta Ghestro! The hero of the Flurians and the one who managed to liberate my people from our dark past and lead us to establishing our species! Besides, your cookies taste like shit, anyway. What do you make them with, dirt and slime?”
“I will have you know, you fluffy fuck…”
“Kids…”
“...that those are the highest quality ingredients on my planet. Etyru Essence and Gloos Slime are of the highest importance when making my cookies! And you know damn well that it’s important for me to have them around this time of year!”
“Well, maybe if you weren’t so stingy with letting others try them, I wouldn’t have to steal them.”
“YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE STOLEN THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!”
“KIDS…”
“YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE LEFT THEM OUT ON THE COUNTER THEN!”
“HOW IS THAT EVEN AN ARGUMENT? YOU DON’T EVEN LIVE IN THE SAME PART OF THE HOUSE AS ME, WHY WERE YOU EVEN THERE?”
“BECAUSE I NEED TO MOVE AROUND! FLURIANS NEED TO MOVE OR ELSE WE GET THAT ILLNESS!”
The two literally butted heads as they continued to yell and argue. After a couple seconds of growling and hissing, Slivaera smiled and pulled away, floating above Barbadoros.
“A likely excuse” Slivaera pulled away, smirking widely “I bet you were trying to hook up with that Ootha girl, Jyft, again. How many times has she shot you down now? 15?”
Barbadoros growled as his face turned as red as his sword, which began to steam violently.
“Were you just looking to be made fool of again? I could help you by just showing everyone in your home zone your teddy bear. That would make it much easier” she laughed.
“THAT’S IT!” he exploded and leaped at the laughing Slivaera.
“YOU’RE RIGHT, THAT IS IT!” an angry voice from above yelled.
Suddenly, Barbadoros and Slivaera were enveloped in a blue-green bubble, both frozen in place. The bubble suddenly vanished before the two were suddenly falling. They fell for a while before smacking into the ground below them, a soft, almost fuzzy surface. It was dark and warm and the ground seemed to have been pressed down with a lot of pressure. There was a large entrance in the distance that let in enough light for them to see. It was still dark and rather warm, enough of a change from their previous environment to make the two feel a little dizzy.
“I’ve kept you two apart before to try and sort this out, but that didn’t work. So now we’ll try keeping you two together and see if that works” Claudia’s voice echoed inside their heads. “This won’t hurt, my lovely, dense children, but I’m getting a little tired of your nonsense.”
Suddenly, the two felt another quaking shake and looked in time to see the entrance dim. It became much darker as the light was covered up by some massive peachy-colored wall. Suddenly, they realized where they were and tried to get away from the encroaching wall, yelling out apologies, only to be overtaken and slowly knocked over and dragged along with the wall.
“Maybe having you two work together would be a better solution,” Claudia stated, wiggling her foot in her slipper. “I made you large enough so that this won’t take you forever. If I don’t feel you two working together to relieve some of my soreness, then you’ll remain there until you do.”
She looked down at the small specks of military amassed in her palm.
“As for the rest of you, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Taking up arms against your own brothers and sisters like that? You all might not be related in any way, but you are all my children and family, and I’ll be dead before any of you try that.” Claudia scolded. “Perhaps something to eat and drink might make you change your minds on fighting, how’s that?”
A loud chorus of cheers and whistles signaled her tiny children’s approval of her idea. She smiled at how adorable the thousands of species of creatures were excited at the idea of food and drink. She had made sure to help them in their times of need when she first met all of them and she had no plans of that only being a one time thing. They were her family and she would ensure their well-being and safety. She turned away from the countertop in her kitchen and took a step towards the pantry. On her second step, she could feel the squirms and squishiness of her two troublemakers in her slipper. Sliv was cool and felt like slime while Barda was warm and fluffy. Claudia couldn’t help but giggle at how nice it felt.
It wasn’t her usual form of punishment, but she had started to run low on patience with those two. She would never bring harm to any of her children, Human, Flurian, Reptia, Ootha, or any other of the thousands of species she had adopted. She took another step and felt the same weird, but tingly feeling again, the slightest of flushes on her cheeks.
But, maybe with the right precautions, she could get a little creative with how to deal with her little troublemakers. After all, it was her duty as their mother to teach them consequences, right? Who said she couldn’t benefit a little from it as well.