I'm back with more ballet and now I will explain something. For those of you who are unfamiliar with ballet but have been to a theater, Part 1 is the first part of the play, then there will be an intermission and then Part 2 which will be the finale.
That is how the chapters are set up. A few chapters will be Part 1, one chapter will be for the intermission, and Part 2 will consist of the countdown to finale.
And now without further ado, enjoy! I own nothing.
Chapter 3: Part 1
Sena carefully opened the servant's door and peeked around the corner. The coast was clear; no one in sight. Sena walked in and carefully closed the door behind him. "Where have you been?!"
Sena felt his heart leap out of his chest. He quickly turned around to see his pink haired, blue eyed cousin, Princess Madoka, standing in the courtyard, looking very tired and very angry. She was up early, which wasn't a surprise to Sena in the least bit; but seeing her in front of him with a sour look on her face was not how Sena wanted to start his day, or rather, start sleeping.
Sena noticed today she was wearing one of her favorite dresses. It was a simple blue dress with a white undershirt. Small gold buttons decorated front of it and her white undershirt had blue cuffs on them with small gold buttons holding them in place. She had a big blue bow on her left side with white frills. One side of the skirt was made of blue pleated fabric, while the other was made of small blue frills.
"I was at the library," Sena lied, hoping that his cousin would buy it. "Oh, please," Madoka said. "I went to the library to see if you were there after I checked the palace's library, and guess what? You weren't there. Now tell me, where were you?" she asked as they headed towards the front doors of the palace.
Sena sighed. "You wouldn't understand. Besides, you got to help Grandma out for once right? I can't always be there to help her." "I know that," Madoka huffed. "But it's so boring! How do you do it?" "Simple. I have patience," Sena retorted. "Which you could learn to have if you learned not to interrupt people all the time and had a sense of patience as well."
Madoka's mouth fell open. "I do too have a sense of patience and I don't interrupt people. Now tell me where you were. As the future Queen I command you." Sena chuckled. "You really expect me to keep playing along with that? We're nearly adults, Madoka. You should stop acting like a child and more like a Queen if you want people to take you seriously."
Madoka was about to call Sena out on his habit of hiding from Sergeant Pepper when they heard people talking in Queen Asuka's private office. "Are you sure about what happened to Princess Ichigo is true?" Sena and Madoka crept closer to the door that was slightly ajar and listened.
"Yes, Queen Asuka. Princess Ichigo was taking a walk in the castle gardens at night when her younger brother, Prince Raichi, claimed that he saw her transform into a swan and fly away." Sena recognized that voice! It belonged to Johnny Bepp, a knight and messenger from Starlight Kingdom, ruled by Queen Orihime.
Sena couldn't believe it! It was a same name that Maya had mentioned. Princess Akari was related to the royal family of the Starlight Kingdom!
"That makes seventh Princesses this year." Queen Asuka sighed. "I wish that none of this had happened. I can only pray that Madoka doesn't become that wicked Wizard's next victim."
Madoka gave a small gasp. "I was wondering why Father and Mother wanted me to stay in the palace at all times, or to always be with a guard," Madoka whispered to Sena. "Now I know. They just wanted to protect me from an evil Wizard. But what does he want with all those Princesses? Does he want to be a King or something?"
"I don't think he wants to be a King, Madoka," Sena said. "What do you mean, Sena?" Madoka asked. "Come on," Sena pulled Madoka in the direction of the palace's library. "I'll tell you in the library."
Once Sena had closed the heavy oak doors behind them, Sena told Madoka everything. About the lake, the castle, Princess Akari, Sumire, Hina, Maya, Yurika, all that he had heard, and even about talking to the three girls about the curse.
"Apparently Queen Orihime owns the Wizard some kind of debt, and she hasn't paid it back yet. Whatever it is. That's why he's been turning all those Princesses into swans," Sena told Madoka, concluding his story.
Madoka stayed silent for the longest time. It was the first time ever Sena had never heard Madoka ever say anything. "... I don't believe this," Madoka finally said. "I just don't…" "You don't have to believe anything, Madoka," Sena said reassuringly. "If only there was a way to break the curse," said Madoka. "Then the Princesses could be free and go back home."
The cousins sighed as they looked down at the floor of the library. If only there was a way to help them. Sena had only promised to give the three girls information about the outside world. Sena looked up and around them. In such a huge library, there were hundreds of books that cataloged the funding of Angely Kingdom, the wars that had gone down in history, the history of Kings and Queens, even the history of Wizards, Witches, and their spells.
'Spells…' thought Madoka. 'Spells?' "Spells!" Madoka suddenly jumped up, scaring Sena, who almost fell out of the padded seat he had been seating in after they had finished talking. "Huh?" Sena looked at his cousin as if she was crazy.
"Don't you see, Sena?" Madoka exclaimed. "Look where we are! We are surrounded by the history of the continent! Not only is the history of our ancestors here but the history of the Wizard's spells! If we look long enough, we may be able to find a spell to break the curse!"
Madoka gasped for air as Sena looked once more at huge room that surrounded them. Hundreds upon thousands of books were stacked on the shelves for the enjoyment of the royal family to engage in, but they were also there for learning. "I get what you're saying Madoka," Sena said. "But you're forgetting something, we don't know magic. Our parents forbid us from learning about it."
"But what about Hina-chan, that girl who you said was a witch apprentice?" Madoka said eagerly. "She could be the one to read the spell out loud and break the curse."
Sena thought about this for a second. Madoka had a point. If Hina could read the spell, then Princess Akari and the others would be set free. 'If we could find the right spell first that is,' Sena thought. The library was enormous. It would take forever.
Sena sighed. "Okay," he said, rolling up his sleeves. "Let's get to work." Madoka nodded as they started pulling books off the shelves one by one, placing them on the central table, and started to read.
A few hours later…
After dinner, the cousins went back to the library with the excuse that they were studying. After looking through about a hundred book, the cousins still found nothing. Senaa sighed as he rubbed his fingers against his temples, while Madoka had passed out from all the books she had read.
It had grown late and Sena knew he had to leave in about an hour to go and meet up with the three girls. "Madoka," he said, reaching across the table and gently shaking her shoulder. "Mmm…" Madoka hummed, unable to look up from the book her was currently face planted in.
"I'm going to go back to the lake, okay?" Sena looked at his cousin with concern. "I'll tell them that you are trying help them." "Mmm…" Madoka answered. Sena gave a small smile and left the library. He walked down the hall and out of the castle into the courtyard.
He got the saddle on his horse and took off towards the lake. Hopefully Maya and Yurika wouldn't be there and Hina had made it to the lake in time.
Sena made it to the lake just in time. He saw a black bat leading a black bird away from the lake. No doubt Maya had teleported himself to whatever party that they were going to that night.
When Sena arrived at the lake, the three girls were crowded under one of the willow trees near the castle. Akari was the first to notice the prince. "Sena, over here!" She called him over quietly.
Sena gave a small smile and walked over. When he arrived under the willow, he told the girls about the plan he and his cousin had come up with. The three girls looked at him with hopeful eyes, and said that they also wished that the plan would work.
"I don't know if I can do that," Hina said. "I'm still learning to control my magic, so casting a spell big enough to break a curse on eight Princesses." She looked very worried. "My magic probably wouldn't be enough. Maybe if I asked my teacher maybe we could…"
"I don't know, Hina-chan," Sumire said. "We want to keep this as quiet as possible, and we don't want to involve KANOKO." "Sumire has a point there," Akari said. Sena also agreed. Dragging in other people would be dangerous.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Akari said. "I want to dance. Sumire, Hina." "Sure," Hina agreed. "It would be a good distraction for now," Sumire added. Sena watched as they stepped gracefully onto the lake.
As the three took their positions, Akari in the middle, with Sumire on her left and Hina on her right, an invisible curtain seemed to rise over the lake. Sena watched in awe as they seemed to move to invisible music. They jumped, they leaped, they glided, they moved in a circle, sometimes with Akari in the middle, and others times all three moved in a perfect circle over the water's surface.
Soon, Sumire and Akari stepped back and let Hina dance on her own. Hina's dance was full of energy and seemed to energize Sena himself. Sena grew happy and watched as Hina made high jumps and quick turns that even Madoka would have trouble with.
After Hina was done, Sumire took the stage. Her dance was filled with graceful, joyful movement that also seemed to be filled with sorrow. Sena felt like he was being transported to a dream. Sumire's moves seemed to be out of this world, with the graceful waves she made on lake's surface.
Akari was next. When she stepped up, the entire lake fell under a silent blanket. Then she started. Her movements weren't as graceful as Sumire's or as energetic as Hina's, but they were beautiful all the same. Sena felt captivated by her movements.
When she was done, Sena suddenly felt compelled to step forward, and he did. He held out his hand, and looked Akari in the eye. Akari, Sumire, and Hina looked at him, surprised by his sudden action. Akari then smiled, and gladly took his hand.
He smiled and they began dancing. He spun her around in slow circles, held her hands when she pirouetted, and held her torso when she lept in the air. Sumire and Hina watched from the sidelines and smiled.
However, none of them noticed the small black bird that was watching from overhead on a branch just out of sight. 'Oh-ho,' thought Yurika. 'This will be interesting to tell Maya-sama.' Yurika turned back to her human form in a puff of smoke. 'That our little Swan Princess Akari from Starlight Kingdom is dancing with the young Prince Sena from Angely Kingdom.'
Yurika smirked, pleased with her find, watched them dance as she formulated a plan in her head in order to teach them a lesson about defining Maya Yumekoji, the great Wizard of darkness and his favorite doll Yurika Toudou.
To be continued…
And there we go, some ballet action! I have been dying to get to this part in the story and finally write some ballet scenes. I actually used to ballet when I was younger, and no, I never made it to toe point.
And now, characters:
Siegfried's cousin (even though the ballet makes no mention of one): Madoka Amahane
Queen of Angely Kingdom: Asuka Amahane
Knight and messenger for Starlight Kingdom: Johnny Bepp
Queen of Starlight Kingdom: Orihime Mitsuishi
Princess of Starlight Kingdom: Ichigo Hoshimiya
For the relations between Akari, Orihime, and Ichigo, it's not very complicated. Orihime, Ringo Hoshimiya, and Akari's mother are all sisters, born in that order. Ringo married Taichi, a duke, and Akari's mom married Akari's dad (sorry their names escape me), an earl, and Orihime did not marry.
So essentially, Ichigo, Raichi (Ichigo's younger brother), and Akari are cousins, making Akari about fifth in line for the throne for Starlight Kingdom. Also, Sena is about third in line for the throne for Angely Kingdom.
Well, that's all you need to know! Until next time!
