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On bad days I like to stand in the sky. Preferably somewhere in the Central Square in front of the Castle. When I am up there, I observe the momentous monument with tired eyes.
Approximately two floors above me is a balcony. Through the glass patio doors of the balcony I spy a man dressed in velvet. The contour of the man hovers around the window nervously, fingering his sceptre. This man is the King. He lives in the Castle.
Back when the Castle in the Clouds was first erected, the King used to be all powerful. Like many kings before him, the King had been crowned when he was still fresh, youthful and believed that his reign would be a good one. His coronation had drawn in a crowd from far and wide. Every soul had arrived bearing gifts, ready to enjoy the steady flow of food and wine that is customary during such celebrations. Festivities for the new King had lasted for many, many sun-rotations and had taken many, many more to clean up.
It did not take more than a few moons for the popularity of the young King to wane. I would like to tell you more about it, but the way in which the King lost his power is really of little interest. The real truth of the matter is that people lose power by the same means by which they acquire it; quickly and most often without rhyme or reason.
To this day, the King imposes laws. Nobody listens to these laws. The King takes new wives. His people refuse to accept the women he takes as queens.
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In the Kingdom of the Castle in the Clouds two children were born. One was a girl and one was a boy. They were named Aurinko and Kuu respectively. Aurinko was a blonde with cascading locks that were soft and otherwise pleasing to the touch. Kuu had dark hair and dark eyes, but these were by no means in any way remarkable.
Aurinko and Kuu had had the same father but different mothers. The children had both been separately told that their father had fled the city due to some outrageous offence many years ago. Therefore, Aurinko and Kuu each lived only with their mothers, who were strong as well as single and who made certain to raise both children to a high standard.
When they were little, Aurinko and Kuu had no idea that they were in fact half siblings. However, Aurinko and Kuu were good friends by virtue of having been born on opposite sides of the same street in the Eight Nebula, which was the name of the neighbourhood in which they lived. In the Eight Nebula, the clouds lining the streets are famously fat and fluffy. The children there often leave their homes to skip rope, or to dive into the ball-pits of soft slivers of clouds that are created by the remains of fog that the Work Men have not managed to smooth out onto the rest of the surface of the cloud.
The first time that Aurinko and Kuu had suspected themselves to be in any way special was when the King had sent for them to come to meet him in the Castle. On that day their mothers had come barging into their rooms at about the same time. Aurinko and Kuu had been soon to find that the commotion was caused by an official piece of parchment brought to their respective mothers by the Mail Man. As previously mentioned, Aurinko and Kuu were close friends. Therefore, the primary people they wanted to alert of this new development was one another. After they barged out onto the street from the depths of they their respective houses, they were soon realise that they had both received the same message. So without further ado, Aurinko and Kuu linked arms and headed to the Castle.
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It did not take long for Aurinko and Kuu to arrive in front of the Castle. As they stood in the exact spot in which I had stood at the start of this story, they were afraid of what was to come.
I forgot to mention earlier, but on both sides in front of the Castle stand two sphinxes. These sphinxes were built during a period when the King’s grasp on his kingdom had begun to slip. The process of making his Castle increasingly decorate had been the King’s way of compensating for the loss and sadness that came with losing his power.
As the sphinxes gazed down at Aurinko and Kuu, the shrivelled King began to emerge from his Castle. His shape crawled closer and closer to the edge of the steps, supported only by his scepter. Suddenly, with a slight and unexpected backwards nod of his head, the King had beckoned the children to approach him. Aurinko ascended the steps first. Kuu followed closely.
At the top of the steps in front of the Castle, Aurinko and Kuu were faced with the sad eyes of the King. It was in that moment that they knew that whatever they were set to deal with would be bad. An anxious anticipation began to mount simultaneously within the chests of the young future heros.
Once the children reached the King, it was time for them to receive an explanation. The King greeted them as energetically as he could. His happy vigour did not appear very convincing either to Aurinko, Kuu or even to the King himself.
There was an awkward silence, and all three in this uncomfortable triad gazed simultaneously down at their feet. The King broke the silence:
“My dear children, I am in somewhat of a pickle. I have recruited you to come help at the Castle. The reason I have called you here to help me is because there is a Jester who has broken in and now refuses to leave my humble abode. I believe you can help. Are you willing to come to my aid if I provide a small commission in return for the favour?” he pleaded.
At this point, Aurinko and Kuu were confused. Only one glance was enough to confirm that the other was on the same page.
“Your Highness, we would very much like to comply with your request. However, we are not quite sure why you believe that we would have the capacity to help?” inquired Aurinko. As always, she had managed to succinctly voice the concerns of the two.
“My darling, there are of course things I have been keeping from you, things you will figure out in due time if you decide to undertake this task,” answered the King, “Just trust me and follow,” he uttered and waved at Aurinko and Kuu to indicate to them that it was his wish for them to follow him through the grand doors of the Castle.
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The waiting room of the Castle was as grand as could be. Aurinko and Kuu had soon realised that they were not to stay here long. As all waiting rooms should be, this waiting room was only a pitstop on their journey deeper into the Castle. There was a particular hole-like doorway on the right-hand side of the stone wall of the space that the King seemed to be inching towards. Just one look into that chamber gave Aurinko and Kuu the heeby-jeebies, but they had no choice but to follow the King as they had already agreed to undertake whatever was to come.
The Jester in question had arrived approximately three days previously. Upon his arrival at the gates of the Castle, the Jester had informed the security guards that he was to be playing a show for the King. For some reason, the guards had unquestioningly believed him. Those same security guards had reported him to be dressed head to toe in a stripy jesters suit and to be holding juggling balls and several other pieces that he had alleged were to be used for his performance. So it was apparently the case that the Jester had just been let in.
Then it was believed that the Jester had snuck further in to the Castle through the same irksome hallways which Aurinko, Kuu and the King were currently walking along.
The King had told the story of the Jester up to this point willingly, but it was clear that he was not yet keen to reveal the rest.
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By now, the King and the children were approximately halfway into the winding chamber. As a side note, the trajectory of the chamber seemed to Kuu to resemble a strangely shaped root of a wisdom tooth. It was damp and cold in there, and if one really paid attention, one could make out the outlines of little mice scurrying ahead upon in the tiny sewers created by cracks in the rock adjacent to the wall.
In the distance they saw a light.
It was the throne room.
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When they became upon it, Aurinko decided immediately that the throne room was the most beautiful room in the entire Castle (and I agree with this opinion). The flooring and walls had initially been constructed from a beige yellow rock. This had occurred way back when the very first of the long line of kings had been crowned. As if by magic, the plasticky beige colour had currently developed into a dull orange.
In the middle of the throne room there was of course the throne. This was actually surprisingly barren, and consisted of no more than a tall chair upon which a royal could be seated. The floors were equally as minimalistic.
When Aurinko and Kuu entered, they spotted the Jester immediately.
He was sat in the center of the room crosslegged, with nothing to separate his bottom from stone cold floor of the Castle. In the moment in which Aurinko and Kuu spotted him, the Jester was a toddler who had been seated by his mother in a designated play space and made to entertain himself when she was not home. There was that same hint of youth and joy in his eyes that was by all means incredibly disturbing because he was a grown man.
As always, Aurinko was the braver of the two and walked on ahead. Kuu stalked behind her, secretly taking into account every step he took in case he would have to make a speedy escape. Being much braver, no ideas of such cowardice appeared to Aurinko.
As Aurinko and Kuu walked towards the Jester, he eyed them suspiciously. The closer Aurinko and Kuu got to the man, the closer they were to seeing his specific attributes. For instance, they could now spot that the man had in his lap a black bag that was filled with creepy crawly critters. It was especially active around the opening.
There were spiders in the bag. These were still within the confines of the fabric of the container, but it was clear that they were just on the cusp of crawling out.
Kuu was especially afraid of arachnids and recoiled in disgust.
The Jester responded to Kuu’s reaction by spitting in the general direction of the children.
The splat of spit landed square on the orangey flooring just in front of Aurinko. Both children ground to a halt.
“Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all,” whispered Kuu from behind Aurinko.
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WAST WRTNG 