Okay, this was supposed to come out like, a lot sooner, but then real life happened. Tests and papers and being unconscious for most of the previous week can delay stories like you won't believe. That, and this was a longish chapter to write. But it was worth it! I think the story's better for not being released right away! I hope y'all think so too! As always, props to harvestfactory15 and Bree-Bee233, as well as my newest reader, Emiri-Chu. I do this for y'all!
"Nickey! Hey, Niiiiickey!"
I woke up this morning to the sound of frantic knocking and a shrill voice calling my name. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I'm not a morning person. And given the events of the past few days, the rude awakening had one name immediately attached to it: Kip.
Not caring that I was only in a pair of panties and a camisole, I stormed to the door, opening it with my left hand and raising my right while curling it into a fist.
"Now you listen to me, you little pipsqueak, if you wanna survive this month with all your teeth, you will—" I dropped my fist upon seeing that it wasn't Kip who had woken me and without missing a beat continued with "Oh hey, Mickey."
She rolled her eyes. "Good morning to you too."
"Sorry, I thought you were Kip," I said. "So why did you wake me? You above all others should know that I hate mornings."
"Well, yeah, that, but don't you remember? The traveling market's here today!" Mickey said.
"Yeah, but like...what's the point? You know there won't be any video games or anime or comic books for us to buy there."
"Hello? People-watching? That's the main reason to go to the mall back home!" Mickey placed her hands on her hips.
"What about junk food?" I asked.
"Okay, fine, second main reason."
"Or the arcade?"
"Third...main reason?"
"Or that hot guy that works at 3D Games?"
"Okay! Fine! It is still a reason we go to the mall! Now get dressed and stop being pedantic!"
"Right," I said before closing my door.
Not wanting to wear the outfit I came in once again (doing so would be tacky), I inspected Bizarro-Nickey's closet for the first time since arriving.
I was surprised at what I found. Though in retrospect I shouldn't have been. The princess did have a number of dresses that didn't require a magical girl transformation, but they were a bit less...vintage than I had imagined. Oh, sure, they looked sort of period-appropriate, but in a sort of Ren-Faire chic kind of way.
I chose a low-cut pink dress with lacy trim on the sleeves and hem, slipped it on, and tied the sash. As I found a cute pair of red slip-on shoes, I was noticing that the ensemble I had put together was rather comfy. It wasn't itchy or coarse, and it breathed amazingly. But like I said, I shouldn't have been surprised. In the few days I've been here, it's been hard to not notice that the technological advancement of th world was just enough to keep the charm of a fantasy world. Sure, most technology was replaced with magic, and there were no cars or TV or phones. Those would break the illusion. On the other hand, they had apparently gotten the hang of indoor plumbing and comfortable clothes, which I was completely cool with.
Now decent, I stepped out of my room and was met with Mickey, wearing a similar Ren-Faire chic style dress, though hers was green with blue trim and a yellow sash, and the pattern was a bit more simple.
"So what about Kip? I mean, we haven't been bothered by him all morning. How is that?" I asked.
"I set up some...distractions for him," Mickey said with a wink. "Now let's go before he finds us."
Of course, we realized as soon as we set out that we were kind of lost outside the palace grounds. Hell, we were lost on the palace grounds. But with the help of some of the denizens of the castle, we were able to track down Samba Square, where the traveling market had set up. Of course, it helped that it was just a short walk west of the castle.
"So I've been meaning to ask," Mickey began, pointing to my dress as we made our way through the square, "what's up with you and wearing pink nowadays?"
"You know very well why I've started wearing pink," I said. "I'm in mourning for the original pink Power Ranger."
Mickey rolled her eyes. "Not that Agony in Pink thing again. It was posted thirteen years before you even found it!"
"And yet, it still haunts my nightmares," I said.
Mickey nodded. "I guess it'd do that, from what you described. But hey, you said the creeper who wrote it's behind bars now, right?"
"No, that's the creeper who wrote that Girls Aloud fanfiction," I said. "The creeper who wrote the Power Rangers story just caused an international incident. Though I do hold out hope that he was put in jail and I just don't know about it."
"Ooooh! Look over here, Nickey!" Mickey cried. She had rushed over to a candy stand.
"Oh hell yes!" I cried, running to join her. But of course, right in the middle of our candy-buying frenzy, someone grabbed us by the backs of our dress collars.
"No no no! We have important things to buy first!"
Okay. I knew that voice. One hundred percent sure this time.
"I thought you got rid of him," I hissed to Mickey.
"So did I," Mickey said.
"I'm not stupid," Kip snapped as he dragged us into a shop across the street. "I knew that summons wasn't really from the king!"
"Oh really? Fooled you for long enough to let us sneak out of the castle," she smirked.
Kip growled, released us just inside the door to the shop, and began screaming, flailing his arms around. "I told the princess this was a bad idea! But would she listen? Nooooo! Well I hope she's happy, because now I'm stuck here with two smart-assed little punks that don't even care what's at stake here! I hope she's just—"
"Umm..." Kip was cut off by the bewildered-looking clerk manning the counter. "May I...help you...?"
There was a beat of awkward silence before Kip was once again all smiles. "Hi~! Umm...Disregard anything you just heard! Princess Crown and her cousin, the young Duchess Anklet, wish to buy some of your fine wares!"
"We do?" I asked Kip.
"Yes, you do," he hissed back.
"Oh, my ladies, you've come just in time!" the saleswoman said, her face brightening. "You'll be some of the first to sample some of the exotic accessories brought in by the traveling market!" She dipped below the counter and brought out two necklaces and a set of ribbons. "These are our finest merchandise, brought from the farthest regions of the globe. For you, Highnesses."
"Oh my God!" Mickey grabbed the ribbons, placing them on the sides of her head. "I've always wanted hair ribbons like this! Nickey, whaddaya think?"
"I think maybe you should put your hair in 'em first," I said, "but they're totally beautiful, Mickey. They look so good with your complexion!"
"Okay! I'm gettin' 'em!" Mickey beamed.
Those were kind of my favorites too, but my hair's too short for pretty Chinese-style ribbons. So I examined the two necklaces. Picking up one with a silver ornament made to look like a seashell on the front, I stared at it and gave off a ponderous "Hmm..."
"Ooooh! It's so pretty, get it, get it, get it!" Mickey exclaimed.
"Yeah, I was kind of thinking about it, but do you think the seashell is a bit...much?"
"Oh, you're always concerned about 'much,'" Mickey said, waving me off. "You'll look great in it, trust me!"
"Okay. I trust you, best friend opinion wins out." I turned to the clerk. "Put me down for this one."
At that moment, the bell above the door rang with a loud, stocatto clang, signalling a customer entering rather forcefully.
"Hey, I was gonna buy that!" The girl that entered, a pink-pigtailed girl that couldn't have been a day over thirteen, was pointing at the necklace I had just decided on. "You think that you can just take whatever you want just 'cause you're the princess! Your daddy gets you whatever you want, but I've been saving up for three whole months! I bet you knew! I bet you just wanted to spite me, you spoiled brat!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, chill out, young pink-haired one!" I held up my hands, then held them out, with the necklace resting on my palms, towards her. "If you want it so bad, I'll be happy to let you have it."
The girl humphed, folding her arms. "Don't patronize me! I am Isabel Zirconium, and I still have my pride!"
"...Zirconium?" I repeated.
"That's right," she said with a haughty smirk. "I'm a noble too, you know. My father, Lord Kubik, has raised me to not accept handouts from anyone. I'm simply too good for that sort of thing." And with that, she left.
The clerk shook her head. "Oh, that girl...Must she always harass the customers?"
"Jeez," I said, looking down at the necklace. "I sure didn't mean to cause any trouble. Poor kid. She couldn't've been older than my sister back home..."
"Oh don't worry about her," Kip said, waving his hand dismissively. "Isabel's always causing trouble. She probably didn't care a thing about that necklace before she saw someone else buying it. She probably has more than enough money for it on one week's allowance, too. Fishing is quite an industry here in the Flower Kingdom, and the Zirconiums tax quite a bit from the fishermen in Rhumba."
"Right. So now that that little bit of drama's over, let's go!" Mickey said.
We left, and I called over my shoulder to the clerk, "Thanks!"
"Well that turned out to be worth our time after all!" Mickey said, admiring her new hair ornaments.
"For real," I said. "I usually hate being told how to shop, but thanks, Kip, that was a really good idea!"
"Of course it was," Kip said with a smug little grin.
"So what do we do next?" I asked
"How 'bout we get some of that candy we were gunning for earlier?" Mickey said. She darted across the street. "Race ya!"
"Hey, no fair, head start!" I called, giggling as I followed.
After we had nearly bought out the candy vendor, the two of us were walking along the street, taking in the sights and looking quite pleased with ourselves, while Kip followed behind grumbling to himself.
"Heeeeey!" We turned to see Vince running to us. "Princess Nickey! Duchess Mickey! Long time no see!"
"Ohhhh, joy..." Mickey grumbled.
"Hey, he's not the prince we wanted to see, but I'm not complaining. The only sane person we've interacted with in the past few days is Tony. I'd take Vince over Cesar or Kip any day," I said.
"Hey~! What's that supposed to mean?" Kip demanded.
"You know exactly what it means, you shrill little furball!" I shouted.
"Shrill? SHRILL?" Kip squeaked.
"So what'cha doin'?" Vince asked, getting back our attention.
"Just wanderin' around," Mickey said.
"Goin' nowhere specific," I added.
"Sounds way fun! I think I'll join ya!" Vince grinned, and without a word of confirmation from us, he joined our adventuring party.
As we were walking along the southwestern part of the market, Vince stretched his arms out. "Ah! I can feel the ocean from here!"
He was right. There was a nice breeze blowing in that felt distinctly ocean-ish. It was sort of calming, however brief.
I closed my eyes and breathed it in. "Ah, memories of my youth..."
"Like the scent of fresh lemon?" Mickey piped up.
I half-opened my eyes, looked at her, and after a beat, said "Shaddup, you."
"Makes me wanna eat some nice fresh tuna!" Vince said. He looked up at us. "What kind of fish do you two like?"
"Umm...Sticks?" Mickey shrugged. I gave her a look, to which she responded with "Well you're the one that eats sushi and all that crap. It never appealed to me."
I put my hands behind my head. "I'd say it's a tie between eel and crawdads. Or like, actual fish-fish, ahi tuna is really good. Especially in seaweed salad."
"Of course it is! Tuna's the best!" Vince said cheerily. He looked down at his stomach as it growled, and said "I'm gonna go fish some up right now!" And he darted off toward the beach.
"That boy has a short-ass attention span," I said.
"That or he's gay," Mickey said.
"What is up with you and thinking everyone's gay?" I asked.
"Just saying, he ditched spending time with two beautiful older girls..." Mickey shrugged. "So you wanna go check out that book shop we passed a few streets back?"
"You say books, I'm there!" I said.
But no sooner had we set off than we were confronted with Cesar. Well, I say 'confronted,' but he didn't see us. He was too busy with a bunch of other girls.
"Ack!" Mickey stiffened.
"Just don't make eye contact," I whispered.
We tried to sneak past, but Kip shouted in a falsetto voice, "Oh prince Ceeee-sar~!"
Cesar shoved aside the girl he was currently all up on when he saw who he thought was calling to him. "Ah! The ladies Nicolea and Mishella!"
"God dammit, Kip!" Mickey hissed.
Kip responded only by cackling and rubbing his hands together.
Cesar approached us, pushing aside a lock of purple hair. "My ladies, this must be fate! Meeting here in this crowded market..." He held out arms. "I say we honor this with a tender embrace!"
"Or we could not," I said, backing away.
Mickey grabbed me. "What my dearest cousin means is that she'd be honored!"
"What?" I hissed, turning back to face her.
"Payback time, sister," she hissed before shoving me right into Cesar's arms.
And now I know what she meant when she said she knew he was straight! That pervert totally groped me!
Now I've gone through this scenario in my head before, and I always told myself that I'd smack the bastard that tried. But now that it was happening, all I could do was freeze in shock. In fact, I was still in the same awkward air-hug position I had taken on when he released me.
"Well, how was that?" he smirked.
"Y...You...You..." I stuttered.
"Speechless, I see," he said. "I have that effect on women."
"I think I'll take Princess Nickey somewhere to come down off her high," Mickey grinned before picking me up like a prop and carrying me off.
Once we were out of Cesar's general vicinity, I regained mobility, and jumped out of her arms. "What the HELL, Mickey?"
She shrugged. "What can I say? Payback's a bitch."
"That douchebag was grabbing my ass!" I screeched.
"Join the club," she said. "Now you know how I felt during yesterday's dance lesson."
"You bitch!" I shrieked, lunging at her and initiating a full-on catfight. No one seemed to notice or care, except Kip. And he was laughing. That's what got us to stop.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" I said, my voice distorted through Mickey's hands closed around my throat. "I think we're getting sidetracked here, ol' pal of mine."
"You're right," she said, words barely distinguishable due to my stretching her mouth. "The real enemy here is..." We released each other, and glared at Kip.
He stopped laughing. "Uh-oh..."
"YOU!" we both shouted, charging at him.
"Aiyeeeeee~!" he cried, flying off.
And we did chase him for a while, but we kinda got distracted once we actually found the book shop we had been looking for in the first place. And shopping for books always cheers us up, so after buying some interesting-looking books, and stopping for a cold drink, we went back to the palace in good spirits.
We were winding down in my room. I was reading and eating some of the chocolates we had bought, and Mickey was doing her hair in my mirror.
"So how's the book?" she asked, finishing her second braid and beginning to twist them up into buns on either side of her head and pinning them in place.
"Pretty good," I shrugged. "Almost like some of the shoujo manga back home. You know, the kind we read but don't tell anyone about."
"Sweet," she said.
"So how's the hair?" I asked.
She finished bun-ing her braids with one final pin. "You tell me."
"I say go ahead and try on the ribbons," I said.
"Okay..." She held them up as if they were a sacred treasure, before placing them over her braids. "Oh. My. God! I look so...So cute! I can't believe it, they're perfect, I—Huh?" She began floating up a few inches above the ground, spun around, and in a bright flash of light, was suddenly in a pretty Chinese-style dress.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Kip said, entering the room. "Your accessories are magical. Like your tiaras. You will need a dress for the ball, after all."
"You could knock," I said.
"You could close the door," he said right back.
I ignored this return-quip, and pulled out my seashell necklace. "I wonder what this does...?" I put it on, and with the same slight dizzy feeling and bright flash I felt when using the tiara, I was in a rather short, sleeveless blue dress with a stylishly-uneven hem. On my head was a cute little seashell-shaped barette, my shoes were now strappy blue wedge sandals, and on my neck, of course, was the necklace.
"You look so beautiful, Nickey!" Mickey cried.
I looked over my dress. "You really think so?" I asked, truning around to try and get a look at my back.
"I think it suits you," she said. "But you have to promise to let me use it sometimes!"
I smiled. "Only if you let me use your ribbons! That dress looks super-cool!"
Mickey giggled, and pulled out her tiara. "I'm glad we each have one of our own tiaras! No need to borrow these!"
"Mhm!" I nodded. I would've pulled mine out to emphasize at that point, but I didn't see it around my room. "Oh!" Yeah, it was in my bag. I don't know why I had carried it with me to the market. Go figure. But when I searched there, all I could find was suff I had bought earlier. No tiara. "Umm...On second thought, Mick..."
"Don't tell me you lost the tiara!" Kip cried.
"I never said that, Kip," I said in a growl. Looking down, I said more calmly, "but yes I did."
"You can't transform into the princess's dress without it~!" Kip cried.
"Whaddays mean? She has plenty of dresses that don't require transforming," I said.
"You can't wear those to balls or banquets!" Kip cried. "That would just be tacky!"
"They're better-looking than most of the stuff I have back home," I said.
"No, really? And you struck me as such a classy, well-dressed girl," Kip said with a roll of his eyes.
"Is that sarcasm I detect?" I growled, balling my right hand into a fist.
"Worry about your style-blindness later, you need to find that tiara~!" Kip exclaimed, pushing me out the door.
As I was running, Mickey caught up. "So how is it running in heels?"
"Would these count as heels?" I asked.
"I count wedges as heels," Mickey said. "So how is it?"
"Easier than I thought, really," I said. "People are always complaining about how hard it is..."
"Maybe it's the magic?" she offered.
"Could be," I said.
"So where we lookin' first?" she asked.
"Probably the market. That's the only feasible place I can think of having lost it," I said.
We reached the market fairly quickly, and all three of us split up. As I was on my hands and knees, searching the ground and crawling between two older women fighting over a mink stole, I heard Mickey call out "Niiiickey!"
I shot up, ending up with the stole the women were fighting over on my shoulders. "'Dyou find it?" I called. I turned to the ladies. "Excuse me." I threw aside the stole and rushed to where Mickey's voice was coming from, followed shortly by Kip, who had also heard her. "Hey! Did ya find it?"
"I found something better!" She said, clinging to Kiefer's arm.
"Hello," he said in deadpan, looking unamused as usual. "What's got you two in such a fuss?"
"Well, um...I kinda lost my tiara..." I said shyly. "You seen it, right? Gold, got a bunch of jewels on it..."
"Looks like this one," Mickey said, pulling out her own tiara.
"Oh!" Kiefer's face brightened. "Why...Yes! A boorish young noble girl with pink pigtails was carrying that very same tiara! You mean it was yours?"
"Very likely it was," I said.
"Isabel!" Kip exclaimed.
"Oh yeah! The young, foul-tempered Zirconium girl," I said.
"Won't you help us look, Kiefer?" Mickey pleaded.
He looked shocked for a few seconds, before responding, "I'm sorry. I have something that needs tending to right away." And he removed her from his arm, though this time he did so gently rather than yanking himself free of her. "I did see the girl over by Jive Park. I hope that helps," he said before taking off.
"Hmm..." I muttered.
"What?" Mickey asked.
"Nothin'," I said. "Kiefer just seems...nicer than he did the last time we met up with him." And before she could argue that he was always nice, I said "To Jive Park! Wherever that is!"
Kip zipped past us. "Follow me!"
When we got to Jive Park, we split up again. Fortunaely, there were less people around than in the square. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, none were Isabel.
"Damn, damn, damn," I muttered, sitting on the edge of the fountain. "If I don't find that tiara, I'll never hear the end of it from Kip..." I groaned. "I can just hear it now. 'Well a fine princess you turned out to be. You lost the Royal Tiara. Now everyone'll know you're a fake for sure!'"
"Hey! You're Princess Nicolea, right?"
I looked up to see the chick magnet from the banquet looking down at me.
"Oh! Yeah, Princess Nicolea, that's totally me!" I nodded. "And my tutor told me your name. Umm...uh, it's Lucas Stoppard, right?"
He laughed. "Close. I'm Klaus Rosencrans."
"Nice to meet you. Well, nice to be formally introduced," I said, sticking out my hand for him to shake. When all he did was look at it quizzically, I nervously withdrew it and dipped into a curtsy.
"And you as well," he said with a bow. "Now, something seems to be troubling you."
"Oh that," I said. "Are you familiar with Isabel Zirconium?"
"Passingly, yes," Klaus said.
"I have reason to believe she stole something of mine," I said. "So Kip and Mickey and I are looking for her."
"Oh my, that's terrible!" Klaus said. "I should help too!"
"Um, you don't have to..." I said.
"No, nonsense! It's the least I can do in return for you rescuing me the other night!" he insisted.
"Well I mean, I wouldn't wanna put you out..."
"Of course you wouldn't. And I know this kingdom quite well, so you wouldn't have to lead me around," he assured me.
"You really don't need to—" Wait, did he say he knew the kingdom? That might be useful. "...I mean, welcome to the team, Flint."
"Klaus, actually."
"Klaus, right."
At that point, Mickey and Kip approached us.
"No luck," Mickey said. "What about with you?"
"Well, we didn't find Isabel, but I found us a new search buddy!" I said.
"Prince Klaus. It's a pleasure," he said with a bow.
"...You too," Mickey said before pulling me aside. "Conference!"
"What gives?" I whispered.
"You aren't into this guy, are you?" she asked back in a whisper.
"So what if I am?"
"He's so...so..."
"Okay, so he does seem kinda so-so, but hey, we just met him. First impressions aren't everything. Besides, he says he knows the Flower Kingdom fairly well."
"You sure that won't lead him to figure out that we're just BS'ing this whole royalty thing?"
"We haven't run into many problems with people catching on yet. We keep running into naive people's the thing."
"Or people who don't know Bizarro-Us very well."
"That's true. Oh, and just for the record, I'm all about Liam, so don't worry about this guy."
"Hey!" Kip popped up between us, whispering like he had been part of the conversation the whole time. "Are we gonna look or what?"
"Stay out of this, Kip!" we shouted at the same time.
"So are we ready to start looking?" Klaus asked.
"Oh! Yeah, totally!" I said.
"All right. Let's start back at Samba Square," Klaus said.
"But we already looked there," Mickey said.
"The criminal always returns to the scene of the crime," Klaus reasoned.
We stared at him before Mickey said "I knew he was bland. His dialogue is clichés."
I shrugged. "It's our best lead at the moment."
So back to Samba Square we went. We didn't have time to split up before we ran across another familiar face. And knowing my luck, said familiar face happened to be Liam, carrying grocery bags.
Oh! Nickey! Lady Mishella!" he exclaimed, approaching us. "Oh! And Prince Klaus as well!"
"Hello, Liam," Klaus nodded.
"Um...Hey, Liam..." I said.
"Nickey, is that a new dress you have on?" he asked. "It looks lovely on you!"
I blushed. "You think so?" I twirled a bit for him. "I mean, I wasn't sure about it at first, but..."
"Ahem!" Kip said.
"Oh yeah," I said. I took a breath to begin telling the story, before thinking this course of action over, and instead flinging myself at Liam, holding to the lapels of his jacket and faking tears. "Oh Liam, it was horrible! This awful girl with hideously-gaudy pink hair stole my beloved tiara! I just don't know what I'll do if I don't get it back!"
"Oh, poor thing..." Liam said, patting me on the back. "Who was this girl?"
I sniffed. "Isabel Zirconium. Oh, won't you help me find that wretched girl, Liam?"
"I would," he said, "but I have to get these groceries home."
I pulled away from him, and looked down to see that a few grocery bags laid beside his feet, where he had dropped them when I grabed hold of him. "Oh, you were shopping!" I picked up the bags, sheepishly holding them out to him.
He nodded. "I was just buying some vegetables. Onions, potatoes, and...Huh?" He searched through the bag. "What happened to my carrots?"
"It seems everything's going missing today," Klaus observed.
"I don't think this is much of a mystery," Mickey said, pointing to where Kip was happily munching on a carrot.
I walked over to him, and smacked him on the head, causing him to drop the last small piece of carrot he had left.
"Ow! What was that...Oh..." He looked up to see me glaring at him.
"Those are Liam's carrots!" I shouted.
"Were Liam's carrots," Kip said. "I, uh...kinda already went through them..."
I grabbed him. "Now listen here, you vile, voracious little vermin, you can insult me, you can humiliate me, you can wake me up at ungodly hours, but you will NOT mess with my love interest! Now you—"
"Nickey, really, it's okay," Liam said. "At least he enjoyed them."
"You sure, Liam?" I asked.
"Oh of course, it's no trouble," he said with a sweet, warm smile.
I released Kip. "Liam, you're just too sweet, you know that?"
"Princess, don't we need to find your tiara?" Klaus asked.
I turned back to him. "...My what?"
"Your tiara. The one you lost?" Klaus asked.
"Oh! Tiara! Yeah, we can do that," I said.
"Good luck," Liam said.
"Bye, Liam!" I said, slowest of all our adventuring party to leave him behind.
Once we were away from him, Mickey spoke up. "Wasn't your behavior a little contradictory back there?"
"I fail to find a basis for your argument," I said.
"Well, you were all upset at Cesar earlier today, and just a few minutes ago, you were all grabbing on Liam."
"I did not grope Liam," I responded. "Besides, you're one to talk. You're like a goddamn magnet in the presence of Kiefer."
"Touché," Mickey said.
"What are you two talking about?" Klaus asked.
"Nothing, nothing!" I waved my hands to illustrate this point. "So any more ideas on where to look?"
"Well, the Zirconiums live on Rhumba Beach, right? Why not check there?"
The first thing we saw upon arrival at the beach was Vince, fishing pole in hand, walking in our direction and whistling. When he noticed us, his face brightened, and he waved.
"Hey, guys! What'cha up to?"
"Nickey got her tiara stolen by some kid named Isabel," Mickey explained.
"Really? Like, right off your head?" Vince asked.
"No, apparently she snatched it from my bag," I said.
"Really?" Vince said. "Totally cool! I'll bet she like, buried it somewhere or covered it with worms or—" He stopped when he noticed the four of us glaring at him. "...I mean that's horrible."
"Do you know anything, Vince?" Klaus asked.
Vince held his hand to his chin in thought. "...Well, is Isabel that really loud, pinky girl?"
"Yeah, you saw her?" Mickey asked.
"Yeah. She said something about hating having to go to dance practice or something," Vince shrugged.
I hugged him. "Thanks, little guy!" I said, and took off back towards the palace.
"Have fun playing detective!" he called after us.
Fortunately for us, the dance hall wasn't very spacious, so we wouldn't have to look around much. When we arrived, a cursory glance told us that Isabel wasn't there.
"Hello, girls," Tony said, hopping up to us in bunny form. "Oh, and Prince Klaus. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the dance hall is closing up for today."
"Oh, we were just here looking for Isabel. She kinda took something of mine," I explained.
"Oh no, that's terrible!" Tony exclaimed. "Well I'm afraid ou arrived just a bit too late, but I can tell you where to find her. She always goes to Vienesse Waltz Lake after her lessons."
"And off we go again..." Mickey sighed.
"Thanks, Tony, seeya tomorrow!" I called, rushing out of the dance hall.
I purposely fell back a little to let Klaus take the lead again, since I had no idea where the hell Vienesse Waltz Lake was. Klaus, true to his word, did, and we ended up at a beautiful little lake east of the castle. The only one there, however, was the jerky prince in black.
"Hey, it's Prince Luciano!" Klaus said. "Maybe he can help us!"
He didn't seem to notice us approaching. Which was natural, I guess. He had his back to us and, upon closer inspection, had his eyes closed. He sighed, and said "The ocean sure is relaxing..."
"...He does realize we're at the lake, right?" I asked.
"Prince Luciano is kind of notorious for his poor sense of direction," Klaus said.
Mickey sat down beside him. "The ocean IS relaxing, Luciano."
I bent down to her level. "YOU realize we're at the lake, right?"
"Of course I do, but I'm not about to piss him off and make him not wanna help us," she responded.
Luciano finally snapped out of his trance. "Huh? Who are you?"
"Me?" she said. "I'm Lady Mishella, cousin of the princess."
"Hi!" I waved.
"Oh. You," he said with an expression I couldn't really read too well.
"Listen, did you see a girl with pink pigtails? 'Cause she kinda stole something from my cousin," Mickey said.
"Yeah, I saw someone like that. She left a couple minutes ago, said something about forgetting something at the practice hall." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Good thing, too. She was really annoying."
"Dammit, how did we miss her?" I hissed.
"Backtracking! The best part of any game!" Mickey sighed exasperatedly, standing up.
We retraced our steps back to the dance hall, and finally, finally found Isabel inside.
"Hey! There it is! Right in her hand!" I exclaimed, catching sight of my tiara.
"Oh, you want this back?" she smirked before throwing it to the ground. "Fine, take it! Like I'd want your gaudy jewelry anyway!"
"What a rude little girl," I muttered, picking up the tiara as Isabel left.
"Well at least you got it back," Klaus said.
"Yeah. Thanks for all your help. Really, you did more than you know," I said.
"No problem," Klaus said. "By the way, what's so important about that tiara?"
I sighed, rolling my eyes. "It lets me fly, Klaus."
"Huh? Oh!" He laughed. "You're such a kidder, Princess!"
"I get that a lot," I said. "Well thanks again for all your help, but I'm kinda tired. I think my cousin and I are about ready to retire for the evening."
"All right, see you later, then!" Klaus said.
As we exited the practice hall, we saw that Isabel hadn't left the grounds yet, and had apparently encountered Vince.
"Hey, you're Isabel Zirconium, right?" he asked.
"So what if I am?" she responded. She gasped, leaning back a little when Vince leaned in mere centimeters from her face. He circled her once, studying her. "What do you think you're doing, you weird little kid?"
"Oh, nothin'," Vince said. "This is just the first time I've seen you up close. And there's a question I can't get out of my mind."
"Yeeees?" Isabel asked, smiling and fluffing one of her pigtails.
"Why'd they let such an ugly girl be a noble?"
"WHAT?" Isabel shrieked.
"Ha ha!" Vince jeered, running off.
Isabel gave chase. "Get back here, you little shrimp! No one calls Isabel Zirconium ugly and lives!"
"Catch me if you caaaan!" Vince sang over his shoulder.
I yawned and walked off towards my room.
"No witty comment?" Mickey asked, following me.
"Too tired. Ask me in the morning," I responded.
And with a day like that, can you blame me? I'm almost looking forward to dance practice tomorrow! That at least won't be as taxing!
And that's it for the most eventful chapter yet! Questions? Comments? Love? Hate? I love ti all! Stay tuned for the next chapter hopefully in a faster update!