The Goat King's Wives Online Read online

  The Goat King’s Wives Online

  By

  A. J. Chaudhury

  Copyright © 2018 Akhoy Jyoti Chaudhury

  All rights reserved

  SPECIAL THANKS

  To Executive Producer: Annie Wang;

  To Jake, Tom and David for help with the editing;

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to real people or events is entirely coincidental.

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  Before you read…

  The Goat King’s Wives Online takes place in the same world as my other book Catmaster Online. While the books are related they can also be read as standalones. Catmaster Online deals with the adventures of Kitty, who happens to be the father of the protagonist of The Goat King’s Wives Online. Kitty had entered the game world of Arun and eventually decided to remain in it for the rest of his life.

  If you read both the books you will observe that some spells that are mentioned frequently in one book are almost entirely missing from the other, this is because the game world of Arun is constantly changing and different spells are awarded at different periods of time.

  Chapter 1

  I gulped. I could feel the disappointed eyes of everyone even before the fight began.

  I was Timmy, the second son of the great King Kitty, and yet I failed to hold a sword properly.

  I had never won a fight in my entire life and I was sure I would not win this one either.

  I was called to the fighting area, where my opponent stood. He was a cat of my own size, not like the muscled giant whom my brother Nitty would fight next. Both of us had cast the spell “Human Hands” so that we could hold our swords. I had never really liked the spell. I preferred my paws and my nails. Without them I felt vulnerable for some reason. But it was only the second spell I knew, the first being the ‘air arrow’ spell. Most other cats my age knew way more spells than me. Despite being a prince, I sucked at everything.

  The master clapped his paws and the fight began. My opponent and I circled each other. My father sat outside the fighting area, watching me with steely eyes. I wished if he was not here. Maybe I would have had a better chance then?

  Suddenly, my opponent leapt towards me.

  My reflexes took over and I raised my wooden sword, closing my eyes. The sound of wood hitting wood reached my ears and I opened my eyes, having successfully blocked the attack. My opponent pushed against me and I pushed back.

  Having a similar built, both of us struggled for a while as we seemed to have the same amount of strength.

  The two of us stared into each other’s eyes. I could see there was considerable fire in my opponent’s eyes. He knew that if he defeated me then he could boast to his friends that he had defeated one of the princes.

  Suddenly, my opponent backed away. I was pushing against his sword with so much strength that I fell forwards onto the ground. Gritting my teeth, I was getting up when my opponent hit me on the back with his sword.

  You have been hit!

  You lose 20 health!

  Okay, that hurt.

  I sprang to my feet and lashed out at him, swinging my sword madly. I almost wanted to cry even as he easily evaded my attacks. Why was I so bad at sword fighting?

  Suddenly, a bell was rung, signalling the end of the first round. I had lost the round, but there was another one left.

  Feeling dejected, I shook hands with my opponent and went out of the ring. One of the servants brought me some water. I resisted drinking too much of it as I didn’t want to fight the next two rounds with a water-filled stomach.

  It was my brother’s chance to fight. The round began.

  I could see that there was visible fear in the opponent of my brother, even though the opponent had a better built than my brother. My brother launched attack after attack on his opponent. In less than a minute, my brother had hit the opponent twice, scoring two points. By the end of the round my brother had hit the opponent a total of five times, while the opponent had succeeded in hitting him only once.

  It was my turn again. The second and final round. I turned my head and my eyes met with my father’s. I immediately looked away feeling a sense of guilt inside of me. I stepped into the fighting area.

  My opponent observed me with cold eyes. He really wanted to defeat me, didn’t he?

  A bell was rung and the fight began.

  My opponent didn’t wait a second. He came at me with frightening speed, swinging his sword very craftily. He hit me a total of five times in less then thirty seconds, while I managed to block only three of his attacks. Somehow, I was able to scramble away, putting distance between the two of us so that he couldn’t hit me more.

  Time was slipping by fast. I could have accepted defeat, but six to zero would bring greater embarrassment to my father than it would to me. No, I had to do something.

  I approached my opponent. My body ached from all the hits that I had received. My opponent stared determinedly at me.

  It was at that moment when something happened to my opponent.

  The fire in his eyes entirely died and a look of pain overcame his face, which was strange since I had hit him not even once. His eyelids began to drop and he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

  Was he doing this to confuse me? Likely.

  But I reckoned getting hit say ten times would not be any different from getting hit six times. If I could hit my opponent a couple of times, then my father would think that I at least tried.

  I threw myself at my opponent. He tried to block my attacks, but very weakly. I was able to land a total of eight hits on him to my surprise by the time the bell rang, signalling the end of the round and of the fight.

  I couldn’t believe it! I had actually won. The people clapped and I raised my arms to the air, savouring the moment. It was the first win of my life!

  Suddenly there was sound behind me. The clapping stopped. I turned. It was my opponent. He had dropped to the ground and there was blood oozing from his mouth. He had gone unconscious.

  What the hell?

  I had definitely not beaten him up so bad.

  The physicians rushed to the ring and after a few tense moments the opponent cat was taken away on a stretcher. The physicians sprinkled water on the cat’s face and after a while he regained consciousness. The cat said that he had been sick for a few weeks but he had come to fight because he needed the prize money for his family. The physicians gave him medications and admonished him saying he shouldn’t have risked his life.

  And so that was how I lost my first ever win. Winning against someone who hadn’t been in a capable condition to fight was worse than losing against a capable opponent.

  My brother won his fight, and my father patted him and congratulated him. My father didn’t say anything to me about my performance in the fight. From the look on his face though it was clear that he didn’t have much hope for my future.

  General Information

  Name: Timmy

  Level: 3

  Sex: Male

  Race: Cat

  Health: 201

  Mana: 69

  Strength: 23

  Stamina: 25

  Luck: 20

  Chapter 2

  I returned to my chamber and dozed off for a while. When I woke up, I didn’t have much to do. So, I just picked up a tome from my bookshelf and began reading. It was my favourite past time. Reading made me forget my miserable life and took me to adventurous places I had long given up hope of physica
lly going.

  The first tale in the tome was that of the goat king, a half goat, half human being that had many wives. It was one of my favourite stories. While the tale didn’t make it clear whether the goat king had really lived, it said that he had five wives whom he loved dearly, but one day he sent all his wives away and went to sleep. It was said that the goat king had the greatest treasure in the entire world of Arun in his castle, but after the goat king went to sleep the location of the castle and of the treasure was lost to time.

  As a kid I had always fantasised myself of embarking on a quest to discover the lost treasure of the goat king. Too bad I didn’t have the actual guts to go seeking a mythical treasure. I imagined the look on father’s face if I ever told him I was going on such a quest. He would probably laugh at my face.

  I closed the tome. I had read the tale a hundred times already in the past. I picked up another book. It was the autobiography of an adventurer who had journeyed to the Land of the Four Tortoises in the distant south and witnessed the four tortoises writing the reality of the world of Arun on a giant pillar of stone. It was not clear how true the accounts of the adventurer were as it was still highly debated if the Land of the Four Tortoises really existed. I flipped through the pages of the autobiography and then closed it. The other books in my bookcase had also been already read by me. The books that I kept in my chamber were my favourites, but you can only reread favourite books so many times. I decided it was time to visit the library of the castle.

  Just then there was a knock on the door.

  “Are you in there, Timmy?” Mother’s voice asked.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  The moment she entered her eyes fell on the tome in my bed.

  “Reading the goat king story again?” she asked with a smile.

  I quickly grabbed the book and put it on a shelve.

  “Uh, no, I was just putting the books in order,” I replied.

  My mother just watched me for a few moments. It felt awkward.

  “It’s okay to like stories,” my mother said, “but it’s even more important to be in the story.”

  I frowned at her.

  “What do you mean?” I asked clumsily.

  “Your father told me about what happened today,” my mother said to me. “He said that you won, but that it didn’t matter because your opponent wasn’t in a capable condition to fight.”

  I nodded.

  “My opponent was sick apparently,” I said. I recalled the rush of excitement when I had defeated him and also the rush of disappointment that had followed.

  “Your father said he would have asked you to fight another opponent, but he saw that you were tired—”

  “And there weren’t any other opponents of my size,” I said looking away.

  My mother came over and sat on the bed and put an arm on my shoulder. She kissed my head.

  “Do not be too dejected, Timmy. Things like this happen. It’s only once you start to overcome them that you discover your true self,” she said, “I have seen how hard it was for your father to reclaim his kingdom, but he never gave up. Life in Arun has not been easy for him, but he persevered.”

  “But father persevered because he was fighting for something that he really wanted,” I replied back. Normally, I would keep my mouth shut whenever anybody tried to console me after something bad happened to me, but today I could not stop my tongue. “I have no interest in fights. What do they ever bring? Nothing. Nitty is a great fighter. What good has come to him? Nothing.”

  My mother suddenly stood up. I was about to say more but I bit back my tongue. I reckoned I had spoken too much already. Of my four family members, I was closest to my mother. She was the only one with whom I shared my thoughts.

  “A time will come when your father and I will forever be gone from Arun,” my mother said and there was restrained anger and sorrow in her tone, “Nitty is preparing for that time. Your father and I would love it if Nitty and you rule the kingdom together after we are gone.”

  My mother marched out of the room. I grimaced, more at myself than at mother. Nitty despite being my brother wasn’t particularly close to me. But he did work hard, way harder than me for sure. He would wake up early in the morning and practise all the combat moves and he was also active in all other areas where princes were supposed to be active in. I on the other hand would usually be in my chamber or in the library cuddled up with a book, wishing for adventure, wishing to be free of all the responsibilities that my family expected me to take, wishing to live a life where I decided what I wanted to do.

  I went over to my window and looked out of it. Drastak, the capital of Abhaya, was spread before me. It was a beautiful city. Despite hiccups every now and then peace mostly prevailed. Cats and dogmen now lived happily as neighbours with no trace of any enmity. Drastak was an achievement of my parents. An achievement of my father who had just refused to bow down and of my mother without whom my father would be quite lost and rendered incapable of taking some of his toughest decisions.

  I felt like I did not belong here. This was not a city for losers like me. In the horizon there were hills where few lived. I wished I had been born there to a poor family instead, without having to be the son of the king of the land. The sun in the distance was setting, casting a glow on the hills that made me want even more to be there.

  There was not much for me to do and I left for the library wing of the castle. It was evening and the library was mostly empty at this time of the day. I could browse all the books that I wanted to without being seen by the advisors and councillors of my father who were usually at the library at other times, soaking in knowledge.

  I liked to be around books and the only place I truly felt at home in the castle was in the library. I was browsing a shelf filled with books regarding the history of the dogmen, when suddenly, I heard a voice.

  “Shhh! Why have you come here, Zunzu?” It was the librarian, Minnata. His old voice couldn’t be confused for anybody else’s. He was on the other side of the bookcase that I was browsing. I parted a couple of books and I could see him clearly on the other side, his shapeless staff in his hand. He was looking down.

  But who was he talking too?

  I followed Minnata’s gaze down. There was something on the floor… somebody.

  It was a small human male, extremely round in shape and no bigger than the size of someone’s head. But it wasn’t a human, for he had wings.

  My mouth fell open, never having seen any creature of the kind.

  “Map,” Zunzu the small man said, and he held up a small piece of paper.

  “Map?” Minnata said confusedly and took the piece of paper. He gazed at it and his eyes widened.

  “I do not have a good feeling about this,” Minnata said. “Who gave you this, Zunzu? And what is this map supposed to lead to?”

  “Your brother,” Zunzu said, “leads to treasure… of goat king.”

  My ears stood up at the words.

  The treasure of the goat king? My heart began to beat at a wild pace.

  Just then a shout came from another section of the library calling Minnata. It was probably some advisor needing Minnata’s help in searching a specific book.

  “Coming!” Minnata replied loudly, then he dropped his voice as he spoke to the little man. “Take this map and go to my house. I’ll meet you there.”

  Zunzu didn’t seem to want to go. “Map, urgent,” he squeaked. But Minnata shook him off.

  “Go!” Minnata said severely and the little man reluctantly began to beat his wings and took flight and made out through one of the windows of the library. Then Minnata hurried away to the advisor who had called him.

  I meanwhile remained standing. I felt a kind of excitement that I had never experienced earlier. What if that map was real? What if it led to the great treasure I had been dreaming about since I was a child? A shiver took over me. I felt like I was at an important point in my life. A point where I had to decide the kind of life that I wanted to live
. I could be a disgrace as I already was in the name of a prince, or I could become the greatest adventurer Arun had seen and get the treasure of the goat king. Who said you can only serve a kingdom by ruling it? By becoming an adventurer and an explorer, I could amass knowledge about the world of Arun that could come to great use for the people of Abhaya!

  Then and there I made the decision. Tonight I would follow Minnata to his home. I would wait outside and listen to whatever Zunzu and the librarian talk about and then I would enter Minnata’s home directly and ask him everything about the map and its association with the mythical treasure of the goat king.

  Chapter 3

  I did not go back to my room. Instead, I loitered near the corridors of the library, waiting for Minnata to be done with all his chores and to head back to his home so that I could follow him.

  After a good wait Minnata’s daily hours were over. The old cat bowed and smiled at me as he passed me. I didn’t immediately follow him, but waited and put some distance between me and him as I didn’t want anybody to know of my true motives.

  The moment I saw Minnata leaving the premises of the palace that I dashed downstairs from the library. At the gate the guards cordially asked me where I was leaving as it was the duty of the guards to ask where everybody was coming from and going to regardless of whether one was a prince or a servant.

  “I am going under my father’s bidding,” I said to them. The excitement in me for the goat king’s treasure was so great at the moment, that I stared the guards with a serious look dead in the eyes as I spoke even though I was lying. “Where to, I am not allowed to say.” I didn’t care at all as to what consequences might come if father got to know of this later on. A lecture perhaps? It couldn’t be more than that, could it? Besides, most of the guards only talked to father when he asked them something. My father was more or less a kind king, but he was the highest authority in the land and people thought a hundred times before speaking to him.