BagsNPockets

[joegoda]

"Citizens of Tears. You have been gathered here today to witness a coronation." The great Hall was filled with merchants, farmers, worKing folk. They sat, stood, slouched and wondered why they had been called to the Keep.

The Great Hall of the Keep was a large rectangle, some fifty foot or more on the long side, a little under twenty-five feet on the short side. The walls were decorated with red and gold tapestries depicting various scenes of the history of Tears. There were tapestries that even had images going back to when the desert was a forest.

The center of the Hall was a table, rectangular as well, covered in white linen and running almost thirty feet long. There was enough room for twenty chairs on each side, with one on each end. It used to be used for visiting dignitaries from neighboring Kingdoms back when there were neighboring Kingdoms.

Most of the chairs were filled with towns folks, but there were some empty spaces. The general attitude of the Hall was one of irritation, from having been pulled from their place of business to a place where very little was done.

At the far end of the Great Hall was the throne, large and wooden, magnificent in mass, and ornately carved. The seat and was red velvet. Upon the seat sat the Chancellor, well appointed in his velvet gowns, and wearing a peaked black cap on his head. He raised his hand for silence, and gradually the grumbles in the Hall died down.

"Now, I know many of you are not happy about being pulled here from your money maKing establishments. I, myself, was not entirely pleased about today's event. I have many things that are needed to be attended to."

There were a few comments about taxing and buggering, and a few chuckles rose from that.

The Chancellor rose, waited for the din to die down, stepped forward one step and continued. "We all know the King has not appointed an heir to the throne, so this was a complete surprise to me as well. The King has ordered a coronation for today. The event was to have occurred several hours ago, at noon. It is well past three o'clock, and most of the day has been wasted." He scanned the audience to see what sort of reaction was there. What he saw was complete boredom combined with a number of nodding heads and a few shouts of agreement.

"The King has not come out of his mansion, and, to all appearances will not. I sent a messenger there an hour ago. The messenger returned and told me the King will not answer the door, nor will his son, Harv."

He took a dramatic pace to the left, reached up, stroked his chin in thought, turned to the audience and went on. "My good people of Tears! I believe that your King is no longer capable of running your Kingdom! It is with a heavy heart that I feel I must perform the duty set before me. I feel, in all fairness to you, that I, your Chancellor, must assume the throne and rule in his place!" Dead silence reached him.

"What say you?" He asked. "You know that for many years, the Kingdom has been near bankruptcy. You, as the financial leaders of our Kingdom have had to suffer the burden of paying for the many, many areas of upkeep and repair, the burden of paying for protection from outside forces that would see us overrun and destroyed. You have watched as the education levels of your children have dropped and seen areas of the Kingdom fall to ruin and waste, only to be taken over by the very dregs of society that you pay to be protected from!"

There were quite a few nods of agreement at that. There were a very few voices raised in protest, saying that the same payments for protection were what created the Kingdom's wastelands, but the Chancellor chose to ignore those.

"What I offer you is this: With me as your new ruler, I will beat back the tide of poverty that has ruined this Kingdom. I will rid our town of the scum that inhabit the wastelands, I will fill our coffers once again, establish new routes of trade with neighboring Kingdoms, maKing us the prosperous place we were many, many years ago!"

He watched as there were pockets of debate. He could feel there were large groups against him, but he was safe in the knowledge that his Boys would quell any type of rebellion. A word here, a little light violence there, and all would be as it should be. Him as ruler.

He did have the Kingdom's best interests in mind. He truly did want it to be prosperous and grow. He wanted to be remembered as the King that saved Tears from destruction. He just wanted it to be done his way, with blind, unquestioning obedience to the King. Which meant him.

"This is not something for debate. I have been your Chancellor for many years, and the running of the Kingdom is something I am well familiar with. It will be my honor, it will be my duty, it will be my sworn oath to you that I..."

"Blah, blah, blah. It will be your sworn oath to them that you'll beat them into submission if they don't follow you." A voice rose from behind the throne and grew in volume. "Do these people know how much you've stolen from them?" Bags stepped into view. "Do these people know that your 'Boys' are nothing more than thugs used as a weapon against them?"

The Chancellor crossed over to Bags and said "I have never...!"

Bags replied, "Yeah? Perhaps that's your problem. Maybe you should." He placed his hand against the flat of the Chancellor's chest and shoved him, pushing him back into the throne. "Now pipe down, bub, or you're gonna be in a world of hurt."

He stood and looked out over the throng of people. "Are you folks nothing more than cattle to be milked, butchered and used as fodder for this man? Gods and Goddesses, folks. I've smelled better stink downwind of a sheep shearing." He stepped down from the throne's pedestal and sat, feet flat on the floor, with one arm on his knee.

"Now look. This guy, this Beegle, has been in control of you since he took over. His Boys were his trained army, and if any of you got out of line, missed a tax payment or whatever, he sent them to have a little chat with you." He scanned the crowd. "Well? Am I right?"

There were some grumbles of agreement and more than a few nods of the head. "I know I'm right. I've seen his petty type of ruler before. Take from the people just a bit. Then talk about security and how the bad and evil invaders are just outside the gates. How many of you have been outside the gates?"

Nobody moved. "Oh, come on now! Nobody? Anybody?" Again, not a single person said or did anything.

"What a buncha .... Well, I've been outside the gates. In fact, I'm one of the evil invaders you were warned about." He turned and pointed to the Chancellor.

"This man sent his 'Boys' to kill my best friend. He sent his 'Boys' to kill the King." There were quite a number of gasps at that. "He intends to steal the Kingdom and rule it with his 'Boys', and you will be his faithful milKing cows, for him to milk till you have nothing left to give. Is that what you want? Is that the life you want to lead? For you? For your children?"

The Chancellor rose and said "What a pack of lies! What proof do you have that any of this is true?"

Bags turned to stare the Chancellor down. Their eyes locked in a brief battle. Slowly the Chancellor gave ground and resumed sitting. Bags crossed over to him and said "I told you to pipe down." He reached up, grabbed the Chancellors nose and gave it quite a tweak. Tears immediately sprung from the Chancellor's eyes, and a squeal of pain erupted from his lips.

Bags turned back to the crowd, who had no idea what to make of what was going on, but it was a far better show then they had hoped for. Every seat at the table was now full, and the place was silent, waiting for the second act.

"Now, I know you think your King has forgotten you. He hasn't. I'll agree that he has been holed up in that mansion of his for far too long. I'll agree that he may have appeared to not care, and be pretty much concerned with raising vegetables..."

"I believe I can take it from here, Bags." Jorge, King of Tears, stepped forward. Another gasp rose from the audience.

Here was not the King they had expected, shabby and old and worn. This was a King, dressed in his finery, wearing the crown of office. Jorge stood tall, walked tall and determined. He stood before the people of Tears, and examined them. Each and ever person in that Hall later described their feeling as they told about how the King, King Jorge, looked at them, in their own eyes with his eyes, and smiled. They all agreed it was a marvelous thing, it was a sense of pride, a sense of dignity. As he looked at them, each and every person sat a bit straighter, a bit taller.

Jorge spread his hands. "My people. I have, I fear, failed you in the worst way. Many years ago, I was a good King. Perhaps not a great King, but a good King. We traded with the towns and villages outside our Kingdom and had many friends we could depend upon. The market was always abuzz with peoples that were a bit strange, agreed, but friendly, and bringing their own money to spend on our goods, in the hopes that we would visit their own towns, villages and Kingdoms, and spend our own money with them."

"And not just money! We spent time, we laughed, we danced, we sat with them at our tables and traded tales of ways of life!" He paused and let his mind fade back, briefly. A tear came to his eye.

"That all changed when my wife left me. I let my misery take control of my life. I did to you the one thing that a King, a father, a husband, should never do to his subjects, his children... his wife." He wiped the tear away, but continued on, still smiling, but a bit sadly. "I went away from you and locked myself in my mansion. I left you in the hands of strangers to raise you up as they saw fit. I was selfish, and for that, I'm truly, truly sorry. I cannot repair the damage I have done by myself. No one man can."

Not a sound was made in the Hall. Not a whisper, not a scrape of a chair. This was far too good a show to interrupt. All eyes were on the King.

Jorge continued, "I was wrong. My wife did not leave me. She was murdered, and she was murdered by this man, this... Beegle." He turned and pointed at the Chancellor, who was red faced and straining to figure someway out. The knuckles on his hands were white with the tension.

The sound in the Hall was furious. Everyone had heard the tale of how the King's wife had left him. There were even bets that she did not leave alone, and even more bets as to who she left with. The noise of a hundred voices was deafening, and it all stopped when the King raised his right hand for silence.

"I turn to you, my people of Tears. I have failed you in a horrible and unjust way. Today, though, I start anew. I step down as your King. It is time for a change, you see. You have need of strong leadership. I no longer have that. You have need of someone with far sight and a sense of adventure. I agree with the Chancellor. We need to re-establish trade again. We need to open our doors and tear down our walls." He stopped to listen to the sounds of agreement, then raised his hand again.

"Only I'm not the man to do it. I have picked my successor. I have selected this man, Timothy Bags, to be your King!" He turned and pointed to Bags, whose jaw dropped with such speed that his jaw popped.

The King winked at Bags, and turned to the Chancellor. "You, sir. You, Beegle, are Chancellor no more."

He crossed to the throne, pulled back his right hand and laid a backhanded slap against the Chancellor that rung through the Hall. The force was enough that it knocked the Chancellor.. the ex-Chancellor out of the throne. "Get out of my Kingdom. I considered having you placed on the wall, but I do not want your stink around. Get out, and do not ever come back."

Beegle crab walked towards the back of the throne, but was stopped by a strong hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw the face of Bruce, who just shook his head and said "Not this way, laddie. Out the front, like the rest of us commoners." Bruce helped Beegle to his feet, and then helped him on the way with a well placed boot on the seat of Beegle's trousers. Bruce then dusted his hands together, turned to Suzy and said "I ain't never dethroned anyone before." He smiled. "Kinda fun, y'know?"

The crowd in the Hall was riotous, applauding and whistling, stomping and laughing. It was, after all, the best entertainment they had ever seen. Truth be told, not a single one of them really cared who was King. Down to ever person, they truly believed that it just didn't matter, as long as business was business, their own personal life was left to them, and they could get up in the morning and have their scrambles and sausage in peace. Well, that, and that Beegle was gone. He gave them the creeps, anyway.

It should be said that Beegle, for as much as he was hated, was helped generously out of the Hall that day. Everyone wanted to say goodbye in their own special way. When he finally went through the Gate, he was fairly naked, very bruised, and suffered pain in areas not spoken about in public.

Bags approached the King, placed his mouth close to Jorge's ear and whispered "You can't be serious. You gotta be kidding? Me? King?"

Jorge, not whispering at all replied, "I am very serious. These past three days... Good lord! It's only been three days! Incredible! Anyway, these past three days have shown me that you are exactly the sort of King these people need." Bags looked dubious. "They've grown lazy, even in their fear. You are the sort to bring excitement back, to attract new blood, to find the lost neighbors. I truly believe that, Bags. You may not have been born to rule, but you were raised to rule."

Bags looked the King straight in the eyes. "And what if I refuse?" he asked.

The King sat back, crossed his legs, brushed away an invisible dust mote, and said "Then I imagine I'd have to appoint Pockets. I imagine he'd jump at the chance to play with his own little Kingdom."

A brief image of what Pockets would be like, of what he would do, flashed through Bag's mind. "Oh, hell no." he said softly. Defeated he nodded to the King and replied "Okay, you bastard. You win. I'll be your lousy King."

Jorge stood, removed the crown from his head and placed it on Bags'. "No Bags. You won't be a lousy King. You'll be a great King." Jorge then turned to the Hall and announced, "My people, I present to you your King." He stepped down from the pedestal, and Bags, reluctantly and most uncomfortably took the throne.

Jorge took a knee, still facing the populace, and said "I present King Timothy, the First."

A cheer that shook the Hall, rattled the tapestries and caused dust to sift down into the drains went up. King Timothy just shook his head. "Bugger me." was all he said. Well, that and "Pockets, sometimes you just piss me off."

Down in the drains, the roar of the crowd in the Hall was enough to rouse Pockets. He opened his eyes, saw Griz, Harv and Carlie. "Hi." he said.

Griz went over to him, brushed a stray hair from his forehead and said "Hi, yourself. How do you feel?"

"Like I stood to close to the event horizon, and some of me isn't quite here anymore." Seeing Griz's puzzled expression, he added. "Beat up really bad, but other than that, okay."

"Good. Well.. better. At least you're still with us." Griz said.

"Aw Griz! You know I'd never leave you and Bags. You're my very bestest friends in the whole world. I love you guys." He paused and ran a tongue over dry lips. "Umm. I guess we won?"

Griz smiled at Pockets, a bit of tear in her eye. "Yes, honey, I guess we did."

Pockets smiled, closed his eyes and murmured "I knew you guys would. I knew Bags would do it." Soft snores followed.