This is a side story of the Chronicles of Doom that begins just after Lance's hasty and angry departure from the Castle of Lions in Book Three: The Dark Kingdom.

The Second Son

It was funny how flying Red Lion seemed to calm him and the quiet void of space seemed to lull him. His arguement with Keith now seemed foolish and Lance regreted his hot temper.
Sometimes he wondered just where he got that from. Both his parents had never displayed his kind of hotheadedness.

Lance didn't know how he had arrived there - it had been so long. Three years to be exact. His mother's funeral had been held there and Lance had attended. It had been sad but it had also been the end of his mother's prolonged illness. She had suffered in the end and Lance had remembered her looking at him sadly as if she wanted to tell him something but could not bring herself to.
Ah, the colony of Alanis Six..his once upon a time home..
It had been and still was the source of his nightmares for years. Zarkon's troops invading and attacking at will. He had been a young boy then, in and out of the hospital quite a bit, but he remembered even after all this time. Every time he saw Zarkon, he wanted to throttle him and snap his neck in his hands.This thought was almost - tangible - at times and sometimes Lance couldn't believe that he was capable of such bloodlust.

"Well, Kittykat, as long as I'm here I guess I could check on the old homestead.."

Lance gained clearance easily and landed the lion in a private bay. Soon he was headed for his mother's home on the outskirts of the colony. When he arrived, he was amazed at how small the house seemed. He guessed it was just his adult eyes looking upon what once seemed to be huge.

A huge man lifted him up by his arm and Lance dangled from his grip, kicking and screaming in rage. The alien man that held him grinned wickedly his fanged teeth showing, and his yellow cat's eyes glinting with some sort of knowledge. The hideous man looked him over and stared into Lance's eyes and smirked.

"Well now, aren't you a surprise - a little bastard slave.."

Lance shook it off. That voice had been in his dreams since that raid, and although it had been thwarted by Galaxy Garrison and the invading forces routed, it had still left his mark upon him and his mother.

He walked into the house after using his card key. It was quiet exept for the hum of the air purifiers. The house was sealed against any contaminants and everything in the house was as it had been before his mother died. Lance knew that he had to at least try to empty it out, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
He walked through the house refecting on his arguement with Keith and just reflecting upon - well, just everything.
He sighed as he went upstairs. He needed to get back to the Castle. It was rude of him to just take off and leave and Allura would be concerned and upset that he and Keith were arguing.It just seemed that as of late, that Keith irritated the hell out of him. Lance wanted to fly and he wanted to do new things, not the things that were always done. It just seemed that every time Lance had an idea Keith would shoot it down and it made Lance resentful.
He sighed again as he went into his mother's bedroom. Maybe that was the reason that Keith was the leader and he his second in command..
Lance ran his hand across the oak armoir that his mother had bought some years before her death. It was considered an antique but his mother had not bought it for the value but because she liked it. His mother was that way about things. She never had been one for money or the value of things. It was a beautiful scarred up monstrousity and Lance, when he had been younger, used to try to hide from his parents in it when he was in trouble.
He ran his fingers against one of the grooves of the door and to his surprise, a small hidden drawer popped open on the side of the armoire. Lance had always heard these old things had secret drawers, places where one could hide jewelry or what not but he never thought that this particular piece had that sort of thing.
He looked in and saw a small book - no it looked like one of those 'blank books' one could still buy in the stores. Despite the 'paperless society' that had been touted for centuries, paper still had it's uses.
Picking it up, Lance looked at it. It didn't look very old, evidently it wasn't as old as the armoire itself. He turned it over and then he opened it..

It began..

"I named my baby 'Lancelot' like the knight of old who had defended King Arthur's kingdom.."

Lance, fascinated, sat down to read the rest..

Chapter 2 coming soon!

Back To Chronicles Menu
Back To The Throne Room