"Mommy loves Touko very much," the regal woman turned her chin up towards the sky with her nose pointed away from me. Despite her fair porcelain skin, from the view I saw from my eyes, she radiated an aura that hissed from her very existence like a thick smog of darkness. "but mommy is very busy right now. Go on and play with Bianca."
With that, the woman tore away from me hastily, yanking her violet cage dress from my grabby palms. I stumbled slightly forward with a broken shake in my eyes; my dark bun shook out a few curls. I watched my mother adjust a crown atop of her head before striding away with an elegant swish. The echoing sound of heels clattering against the creamy marble floors distanced itself from were I stood helplessly. The regal woman's aura dissipated in her silence, and the guards quickly straightened their posture as she passed by.
A hand the same size as mine slipped around my fingers hesitantly, and my royal playmate threw her head over my shoulder with blonde cropped locks that were immediately shoved into my face. "Come on, Toukie." I angled my head slightly to focus on the girl's glinting emerald eyes with a hint of fear reflected in my own. "We can go to the courtyard, if you want."
I sucked in a breath sharply, "I would rather go to the playroom."
My playmate shrunk away from me with a smile, "Alright. Now, let's go!" The blonde was already skipping ahead of me down the vast corridor. The child's torn peasant dress flicked behind her, and my mind quickly noted to ask father to give her nicer clothes next time.
Slowly, I followed behind her, crinkling my fingers in my extravagantly ruffled, baby pink dress. I peered around at my surroundings, taking notice of the golden tapestries tumbling from the high ceiling between the spindling columns. The knights and their Pokemon who were posted every ten steps nodded to me in acknowledgement. It was their focused stares that made the feeling of my silver tiara sink further into my scalp while I gnawed at my lip anxiously. I picked up my pace and hurried my way to the playroom, not wanting to remain here for much longer.
The entrance was guarded by a single knight clad in flashy silver armor, and his breast plate bore the royal crest. It was very simple really: a fancy "S" entangled by rose thorns that formed a circle around it, and at the top where the vines met was a king's crown. To the man's right was a similarly armored Escavalier who saluted one of its Christmas cane jousting spears to me. I granted it a subtle nod before bustling into the room.
It was quite a large room with a crystal chandelure illuminating the existing luminous space. The carpeting swirled with every color of the rainbow and was sprinkled with hundreds of toys. A train that still emitted smoke tipped from its set forth tracks, endlessly running its wheels to move unsuccessfully. A skateboarding ramp I would never use took up a large portion of the room, and letter blocks were thrown around it. At the very end of the room was a towering window of rose-tinted glass that curved outwards to the courtyard. Restlessly sitting on the window's ledge, I met the gaze of my playmate with her head slumped in the palm of her puny hands.
Pacing over to her, I followed the blonde's gaze to where two eight-year-old boys played. Both were dressed in commoners garb, but one with chocolate hair held a wooden sword firmly within his fingers. He thrusted forth at the skinnier one playfully, poking the wooden tip into the other boy's leather book bag being used as something to cower behind. The hiding one had midnight-blue locks and a pair of crooked wire glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. His silver eyes hurriedly flew about before landing on my playmate standing beside me and smiled slightly to her.
"...did he smile at me?" Bianca squeaked beside me with both excitement and fear. "Or you?" Her face visibly fell as that thought merely danced across her mind.
"At you, Bianca." I answered simply, a grin pulling at the corners of my mouth in amusement.
Bianca's mother was a maid in the vast castle we resided in. Bianca was the only child my age in the castle who is also female, so she was assigned to act as my playmate since we were both infants. But...she never had nice clothes, and her choppy bob was always a curly mess around her cherubic face.
Her cheeks flushed slightly before ducking below the window sill in embarrassment. I giggled slightly at her before looking over towards the boys my age.
The one who smiled to Bianca was named Cheren: the son of my father's most trusted advisor. And in a few years or so, Cheren was to be my advisor. He was currently in his "training" stage... Whatever that means.
The other boy who's muddy hair flickered in the wind of motion as he wielded a fake weapon was named Touya. My cheek fell comfortably into my hand as I watched him joshingly attack Cheren. He was the son of the Royal Guard's Commander. He is always training to be a soldier, and I never found it tiring to watch him. Cheren's lips moved to form words to Touya whose eyes suddenly averted towards where I observed. His hair raised slightly with a pink tickling at his creamy cheeks, but his startled expression soon turned into a full-blown grin towards me. His smile took up his whole face, causing his eyes to shut in delight. I smiled back slightly, feeling the heat trickle up my neck, and my hand gave him the fairest wave.
That was when Bianca tugged at my dress skirt, motioning with her head for us to play on the floor. So, I went with her, falling to my knees gracefully as my dress flooded around my lower half and draped around the floor. My fingers found a small, white-furred Audino plush close beside me. Bianca found her way to a Musharna stuffy, and the two of us danced our toys around in silence.
After a little bit of time had passed, I glanced up at her to see she was staring up at me with unease. Quickly she dropped her gaze when she saw I had noticed and played with her pink creature quicker.
"Are you...afraid of me?" I asked her quietly with a hint of hesitance flickering in my low voice.
Her heart looked as if it lurched into her throat, "No!" she shouted loudly, a dark aura drooling out from around her just as it did for my mother. "I'm not scared of you!" Both of her hands flung around the psychic doll before tucking it into her lap.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you scared of me?" I buzzed innocently with my head bowing slightly to lure out an answer.
Her head shook from side to side, and blonde locks dusted at her eyes as a smile shakily stretched across her lips. The black aura still clung around her as she exhaled, "Like I said, I'm not! I'm just a bit jumpy today!" her voice pressed loudly.
"You are most certainly a terrible liar..." I wanted to voice my thoughts aloud, but before I could, a woman with golden locks fluttering around her delicate face quickly flew into the room. Her shapeless dress draped around her as she held her arms out, "BiBi!" She sung melodiously as a Minccino crawled over the woman's shoulder.
Bianca's dark glow vanished as she looked to the woman with bright eyes. She practically leapt into the air to charge into the woman, "Mama!" she giggled, wrapping her arms around the maid's waist. The grey-pelted Pokemon brushed its head against Bianca's affectionately as they all hugged. Looking back up, my royal playmate asked, "Time to go home, mama?"
"Yes! Oh, mama missed you so much while she was working!" Bianca's mother said lovingly to her daughter.
"I love you, mama!" Bianca cried as if reassuring herself or needing to hear four words for reassurance.
The woman ruffled Bianca's knots, "I love you, too." Only truth slipped from her pink lips. The woman glanced at me with a gentle smile stretched across her face, "Good evening, Miss. It is time for me to take Bianca back; I hope you won't be too heartbroken..." The woman smiled beautifully.
I returned the gesture and spoke quietly, "I will be fine. Do take care."
"And you." She nodded her head with an eerie blackness hinting around her presence as she left, carrying the elated Bianca in her arms.
So, I now sat alone in the room, left to my own endeavors. That is how it usually was... And then, I would be called to dinner. Father would coo over me while mother would agree to whatever he said with that normal, every-day cloud of darkness shrouding her. A mist no one else could see other than me. And then... I was off to bed.
But that night was different than the rest.
I am not quite sure just how late it was, but I can still recall the clamoring of armor and shields and Pokemon cries. I jolted up from my bed, eyes scanning through the curtains that draped over my bed frame. Shadows passed under my door crack one after another. I should have ignored it; I should have crawled back under my sheets and waited it out. I should have waited.
But I did not, in fact, wait, just as my gut had told me to do so. My feet slipped over my oversized bed and tripped over to my door. My silk nightgown trailed behind me softly as I cracked open the large wooden obstacle. The knights stormed down the hall towards the entrance of the castle, and the Commander motioned them down the halls with his booming voice. His Samurott called out to the soldier's Pokemon.
Slithering out, I plodded over to where the Commander stood firmly. "What is going on?" I yawned, clinging with one hand to my night gown.
He looked down at me quickly, his caramel eyes glinting with panic through the crack in the front of his helmet. An eerie blackness dripped from him as he told me with full confidence in his voice, "Nothing. We are going through a routinely drill tonight." His panicked eyes grew stone cold, "Return to your chambers, Miss."
"Sir! They broke through the gate!" a voice called out from farther down the corridor. The candles posted on the walls threw an orange glow over the commander's armor as he cursed.
"Who are they?" I inquired suspiciously, maybe a little afraid if I recall, as my heart thumped in my chest painfully.
The darkness consumed his entire being as he failed to even flinch at my innocent question, "No one."
But as if to spite his words, a sudden explosion sent fire flying through the air just down the hall, flinging many of the men back along with their Pokemon. I heard their heads crackle against the walls and slump over. I was forced to stumble back from the aftershock, and terror suddenly washed over my entire being. A few knights struggled to regain their footing while others lie motionless on the cold, hard flooring. The candles where put out by a harsh whisper in the wind, but the residual fire from the blast that was climbing up the once-golden tapestries was enough to eerily illuminate the corridor.
I watched helplessly as people I had never seen before poured in with Pokemon I could not recognize, or even process how fast they moved. They swarmed around anything that even twitched, immediately beating them to death. I let out a horrified squeak, shrinking back into the dark shadows of the hallway. No one seemed to notice me, the small little girl lying in the hall. All but one.
A long-bodied cat angled its purple head to me, and its glinting-jade eyes reflected nothing but bloodlust. Without a single command of an owner, the creature crawled closer to me, moving across the floor like the dancing shadows around. It bore its string of honed ivory fangs to me as the cream-specked spots of fur on the feline's back prickled up. When close enough, it lunged at me with the longest claws I had ever seen angled right for my throat.
Before it could strike though, a sword-like horn flew into the attacking Pokemon's stomach fur with an skin-rippling push. A Samurott cast its shadow over me as it curled its head around to toss the demon-cat into the fray. The blue-skinned water-type threw around its head and exasperatedly shouted to me angrily in its Pokemon language, "Samur! Mmur!"
Before I could even come close to understanding the Pokemon, something snatched me up by my shoulder. I screamed and started to thrash about in fear as the person heaved me away, "Samurott, help!" I cried to the creature who was too occupied in fending off the invading Pokemon to hear me.
"Come on, we have to go! Stop fighting!" a high male voice cried out as I felt the grip on me tighten.
Spinning my head to face the person pulling me, I saw Touya's soot-covered face staring down at me with determination, and the faintest hint of fear. His typical, beautifully-askew hair was now flickering through the air in tangles.
"Touya..." I sniffled. In his open hand, he gripped his wooden sword so hard his knuckled turned ghostly-white and I could take notice some of his bone concealed by his fair skin.
"Yeah, now let's go!"
We ran.
And ran.
And ran.
Turning farther into the maze-like castle, our feet were just echoes lost in the raging sounds that tore at both of our hearts. My sweaty hand snugged itself tighter around Touya's. We shrunk down concrete steps to a place I had never seen; metal bars formed boxes every few steps. Old torches burned, illuminating handcuffs that hung from the ceiling by rusted chains.
My heart was threatening to burst as I whispered, "where are we?"
Touya saw a partially opened door constructed of metal and nodded, "Castle Dungeons." He answered breathlessly, pushing me into a solitary room of silver. He grabbed a torch from the wall and thrust it into my trembling fingers. His black shirt I could now see was torn around the collar and his face was grim. More grim than any eight-year-old's face should ever be.
"Who are they?"
"Who?"
"Them."
A shadow enveloped the commander's son from my eyes, "No one."
I shook my head but silently carried though further into the dungeons, our feet smacking against the stones beneath us as the ceiling above us shook out plumes of dirt from the ruckus above.
"We'll be safe here." A dark aura once again leaked from the boy as involuntary tears started to pour over my eyes.
I hiccupped out my words carefully, "No we will not..." My hands pulled at my dress and balled up clumps as the seams started to snap within my firm, shaky grasp.
Finally, his shadow aura slipped away as he grabbed the door's handle, "Don't worry."
"Why?"
"Because I'll protect you, Princess Sharondale."
And with those words, he pulled the door shut, leaving me in a dark cell of solitary confinement that was only illuminated by a single flickering torch. My eyes poured lava-like streams of water down my face as I sobbed silently.
Touko Albion Sharondale. That's my full name. From the Sharondale family, who have been ruling over the Unova region for centuries, I am the only child of King Elliot and Queen Candace; therefore, I am the single heir to the throne.
And ever since I can remember, I have the ability to see when people lie. Only from my vision, I am able to see a cloud of blackness encase them if they utter a single lie, no matter how innocent and harmless it may be. I cannot stand liars and those who lie to me.
They make me feel as if I have been born into a cage of lies that I simply cannot escape, no matter what I do.
