Avai and Sarinya broke down crying. I felt my eyes growing moist myself, and tried to think, “everything will be all right! Stay strong!” It was difficult, though. We had been relying on Tarson’s Noble Troops and Hussars to keep us safe from the Tolsiki. If the latter were parading around Anselheim, our capital, that meant a great failure of the war effort must have occurred. The Tarsonian troops were our pride and joy! What could have happened?
We saw on television that the troops marched onto Ansel Square, at the heart of town, by the royal palace. We saw them storm the palace, guns and dragons blazing, explosions sounding. We saw the King and Queen being led out in chains, and we all had a great cry. Right on live camera, we saw the princesses being pushed out, stark naked and shivering in the cool air. Each was flanked by a Tolsiki guard, fondling her breasts and attempting to kiss her in her mouth. At a toot from one of the flutes, all of the princesses were thrown to the ground, the guards hiked their kilts and knelt, and promptly began thrusting into the princesses right in front of the royal couple. All were screaming and tussling, their hair bedraggled, blowing in the wind. Troops were forcing the King and Queen to watch. Nothing was censored or blurred. Liquid was coming out of the princesses’ twats. I hugged Avai tight and Mara hugged Sarinya. All of us had worry and grief upon our brows. Troops took out scissors and cut off the King and Queen’s eartips while they were being forced to look. This made the Royal Couple resemble humans, although with bloody tops of ears. We loved the fact that we had pointy ears; it distinguished us as elves, and losing those eartips was often something that brought great shame.
Somehow, somewhere, the old Pompard joke about elves having pointy clits came to mind. I irrationally giggled. We don’t really have pointy clits, but at one time Pompards rumored that our clitori must be pointed because our ears were. How silly is that?
We watched as the troops jabbed spiked knuckles up the princesses’ chests so that blood came out of both their chests and mouths, we watched them cough and struggle to breathe, twisting and curving on the ground, one of them even sitting up before collapsing. Two died with their mouths foaming. The third, who had sat up, collapsed on her side and convulsed before expiring, face down. When the last princess died, the king and queen were decapitated by a sword, to a massive drumroll. Their heads were stuck on long spikes, which were then jammed into the ground in front of the royal palace.
In swooped a dragon with a man on board, wearing a cape. The dragon perched on the ground and the man alighted. He was none other than Jokim Tolshik, and he picked up the royal crown, which was now on a table next to him. He made an announcement. First, he said, he was now the Tarson king by right of assassination. This was an old right, not used in over three hundred years. The second thing he said: Tarson was now dissolved and annexed into the Tolshiki Empire. We now had to accept Tolshiki governors and Tolshiki rule.
The orders followed swiftly at this point. The university was shut down. The theaters and stores, shut down. The restaurants, closed. Transit, much of the service was suddenly gone. The port was blockaded. Food rationing was promptly instituted. All Tarson elves were henceforth fired from their jobs and businesses closed. Everyone had to give up their TVs and radios and weapons. A lot of us refused to follow those decrees, and practically every house soon had a secret chamber or cubbyhole with contraband hidden somewhere.