||Orphans||

[Cynder]

They came at twilight, as the sun sank below the Carpathian Mountains. One after another, hordes of Ottoman soldiers poured into the castle in an unexpected surprise attack. The guards had not anticipated this, which was why they were now dead. Their main goal: infiltrate and kill everyone on sight. The people dwelling within this castle were the rebels known as the Order of the Dragon. Wallachia belonged to the Ottomans, and Mircea Dracul's open defiance would be tolerated no longer by the sultan.

His family would pay, with their deaths. One of the generals, a Bey, as they were called, summoned a nearby soldier. "Where are they!?" he shouted in Turkish. "I do not know, Sir. We are looking." The Bey's brow furrowed. "Well look more! They could be anywhere!" With that, they continued their fervent search, wasting no time killing any servants who got in the way. In the throne room, the king stood in front of the two chairs, while his wife and children hid behind. They'd heard a commotion and found several dead bodies on the way to this room, and figured out what was going on from there.

Mircea the First drew his sword as the door was busted down, and they were discovered. The room was quickly filled with Ottomans, leaving the leading members of the Order of the Dragon hopelessly outnumbered. The king never had a chance, as the Bey and others charged forward and pierced him at all sides with their swords, and decapitating him. From behind the chairs, they dragged the queen and four children forward, also beheading her and the two eldest sons. The other two were younger, one with black hair and the other with dark brown. The sultan had mentioned he wanted any of Mircea's children to be his prisoners.

The one with black hair was weeping profusely. He was old enough to realize what was happening, that his parents had been slaughtered before his very eyes. The youngest one cried, not because he understood the situation, but because he had sensed his brother's distress and was frightened by all the noise. The soldiers roughly picked them up, handing them to the Bey. The mission: accomplished.