The people of the city were celebrating. The queen had just given birth to twins, a boy and a girl. King Leif and Queen Jasmine had named the boy Endon and the girl Kayla. Their six year old daughter, Anna, was staying at the palace for the night so she would be able to sleep.
How wrong that assumption was.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++. "Good night, my love" murmured Leif as he got into bed.
"Good night" Jasmine whispered. They had just gotten the twins asleep and she wasn't about to wake them up again. She was exhausted, as she should be, but she couldn't get to sleep. She felt as if something was horribly wrong. She lay there for what felt like hours, trying to get to sleep. She felt jumpy, almost afraid. She shuddered as if she were cold and accidentally woke Lief.
"Huh?" he jumped, still on call for if Jasmine was having the baby. He sighed as he remembered that the twins had already been born. "What is it, dear heart?"
"Something just feels off" Jasmine complained.
"Honey, it's the first night in nine months that you do not have two little people living inside of you. It's probably just-"
Leif was cut off by a loud crash followed by the twins screaming and loud footsteps.
He and Jasmine flew out of bed and into the twins' bedroom as fast as they could. Leif entered the room first and was struck with a blow to the head from a man who looked like he could swallow Lief whole. He fell to the ground unconscious. The man then grabbed Jasmine and held her against the wall while his friend, a scrawny little man, grabbed her little girl and jumped back out the window.
The man took out a knife and motioned that jasmine stay still until he was gone. She screamed so loud that the men guarding the palace that night heard them and alerted the people at the palace and then came running.
They were to late. After Jasmine had screamed the man had thrown her across the room and jumped out the window.
Jasmine crawled to Endon and picked him up, making an attempt to calm him. Leif stirred and Jasmine moved to his side, Endon in her arms.
"Jasmine" Leif murmured. A bruise was forming on his temple.
"Leif" Jasmine cried, "Leif they took Kayla." Just then the men from the palace entered the forge.
"Your Majesties!" they all cried. Leif had slipped back into unconsciousness. They bent over and checked his pulse.
"Queen Jasmine, what happened?" one man exclaimed.
"T-t-two men came in through the window and took Kayla." Jasmine felt the tears running down her face. "One of them hit Leif over the head and kncked him out and then grabbed me and held me against the wall while the other took Kayla and jumped out the window" Jasmine couldn't speak anymore so she just held on to Endon as tight as she could and cried. She felt arms wrap around her and hold her tight. She turned her head to see who it was and saw her father, Doom, looking worried. "A-a-anna" she stammered.
"She is fine" he murmured "Sharn is with her."
"Oh." was all she could manage to say. She realized Endon was crying and made to calm him but her father took him from her and held him and quieted him down.
"Let's get you two to the palace" he whispered.
"What about Leif?" she cried harder.
"He can come to, it looks like he's waking up" Doom hastened to make her stop crying- it made him uncomfortable.
"Oh."
"Jasmine" Leif groaned. His head hurt like hell.
"Leif!" Jasmine cried and threw her arms around him.
"Let's get to the palace" Doom said uncomfortably as he took hold of Leif's arm and helped him up. They began to walk to the palace, Doom holding Endon and Leif leaning on Jasmine's arm.
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* Disclaimer: No, I don't own the DQ series and never will.
