Standard disclaimer: Me no ownies.
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AN: Whee! Another chapter!!! I got two reviews this time around, too! This calls for the ceremonial happy dance! jumps around like an idiot
Anyway, the reviews! These are from Nina Windia and a new reader, Anime Monkey ()! huggles Nina Windia You're still here! I haven't scared you away! Yay!!! heart
Hee, Nina Windia, you might be on the right track with Demus. Or maybe not. Only time will tell Heh, I see you got the little joke in regards to the blond-spiky haired guy with the cape :) Hm, Nina? maybe, maybe not. It shall all be explained in this chapter! Oh, am I introducing too many characters at once? I seemed to have had that problem with my other fic, Dragon Legend.
Anyway guys, thanks a bunchies for reviewing! It makes me want to write faster to get the next chapter up. So, here it is! Sorry if it's not as good as the other chapters… I wrote this all in one night and it's like midnight now… so… yeah. I hope you enjoy anyway.
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Fates Intertwined
The throne room was large in design. Red and blue banners with a bird's crest adorned the walls. The bright rays of the afternoon sun shown through the stain-glass windows. Electric lights in the shape of torches aligned the walls along side of the windows. Several guards in the military uniforms that the Wyndian Imperial Guard was so famous for were stationed all around the room. The traditional red carpet with gold embroidery stitched into led up to a set of three thrones. The thrones themselves were a gold color with a red lining in the seating.
"So, as you can see, your majesty, we have managed to apprehend the criminals that are on the run from His Royal Highness, Prince Demus Laurante's Dragoon unit," A Highlander said. He was knelt down on one knee, looking up at the middle of the three thrones.
"So, this is the criminal that Prince Demus has warned us about?" the occupant of the throne asked. He was a middle-aged man with dark brown hair and a beard. He was dressed in royal garments and had a gold crown on his head.
The king gestured to the two other men that were standing behind the Highlander, holding two unconscious preteens in their arms; the children were tied up so they wouldn't escape.
"We have reason to believe so," the Highlander said.
"I was only informed about a blue-haired boy. Who is the girl?"
"His accomplice," he responded.
"I see," the king said.
A blond-haired woman, who was sitting right beside the king, cleared her throat. Her blond hair was pulled back into a bun and she wore a circlet on her head. She was dressed in a multi-layer navy blue and purple dress.
"If they are as dangerous as Prince Demus said, they should be put in the dungeon until we can alert Dragnier to inform them that we have the criminal they are looking for," the queen said.
"It shall be done. Guards!" the king said. Several guards circled around the three bandits. Two of the guards took the two children from the arms of the two men and walked off towards the oft-talked about dungeon. The king turned to the three. "Thank you for your assistance. You are dismissed."
The Highlander jumped up and growled slightly. Several guards took a step forward. "Wait! What about our award?"
"I will not award mere bandits. Be glad that I let you leave this place without throwing you in the dungeon, too!" the king said. "Guards, please escort these three men out of here."
The guards began to push at the men. They started to walk out. The Highlander turned and looked at the king. "You have not seen the last of us…" he said as he walked out.
The king sighed and turned towards a shadow in one of the archways. The figure stepped forward to reveal a young man with spiky blond hair, dressed in black and a red cape.
"You called, your majesty?" the man said as he leaned up against the archway, arms crossed.
"Keep an eye on those three," the king said. "They might try something."
"As you wish," the man said as he sunk back into the shadows.
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A young girl slowly paced back and forth across the balcony that was right outside of her bedroom. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the wind was a gentle breeze. The humming of the city was barely heard from the distance.
The girl herself looked no more than eleven. Her blond hair fell to about her shoulders and was pulled back into a half ponytail. She was dressed in a white, sleeveless dress that fell to her knees with a light green jumper with slits at the bottom over the dress. She had on brown slip on shoes. She, unlike the king and queen, had a pair of small, white wings protruding from her shoulder blades.
She by all rights should be happy. She felt it was her right to be free, not locked up in this over glorified prison her parents called a castle. She knew that most people would give an arm and a leg to be in her position. But she couldn't care one way or another.
She wanted to be free. She had run away, of course. Like always. And like always, her ever faithful bodyguard had found her. How Strife had found her was beyond her. She had made it to the Royal Bridge that connected the Wyndian Region to the Rhalpha Region before that familiar figure of black and red had appeared before her.
The only reason he hadn't taken her back to the castle then and there was because he had business in Cedar Village. She had never expected for Strife to take her along. He merely told her as a future ruler, she should be exposed to the outside world. She was excited until they came upon the burning cabin.
The man that they had helped, Bunyan? Yes, Bunyan, had not known who attacked him, but he explained that they had kidnapped his son. Strife had asked if he had seen anyone named Salla. She had no idea who that woman was, or what she had to do with the man's son. When she asked Strife about it later, he had no comments on the subject.
So, they came back to Wyndia, and her mother punished her once again. She wasn't allowed to leave the castle, let alone her own room. She had overheard some maids earlier talking about some people coming to the castle with the criminal that Prince Demus was looking for.
She had not been allowed to see the people that came to see the king, nor had she been allowed to see the prisoner(s). Apparently, the maids were also gossiping that these hardened criminals were no more than twelve.
This she had to see!
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The great nation of Wyndia was founded sometime before the Great War. The Kingdom of Wyndia, or back in those days, Winlan, has always been a great city known for its wealth of wisdom in ancient magicks, as well as the generous hospitality of its inhabitants.
The citizens of the capital of Wyndia once adorned giant wings of white on their backs. They also had a special ability to change into the form of a Great Bird and soar amongst the skies. Due to intermarriage with other clans, however, the once proud wings of Wyndia soon diminished to nothing more than tiny wings that barely covered their backs.
Some say this was a punishment brought upon them by the Goddess Myria, who is said to once be the mother of the Angels. Others say that it is because of Winlan's princess Nina, who married a man from another clan that started the trend to marry outside the clan, which at that time a forbidden taboo and against the law. No one is really sure anymore.
Wyndia, as it stands now, it a great nation that has allied itself with the Laurante Region, which is where Dragnier is located. The alliance between the Wing clan and the Brood was said to have started during the Dragon Wars, when their princess fought along side of a dragon warrior.
Large mountain ranges surround the kingdom, making it nearly impossible to carry out any major attacks from neighboring countries. Wyndia is also one of the only countries to use airplanes as travel.
Wyndia Castle also houses one of the largest libraries in the world; the library has books ranging from books on history, literature, ancient magic, as well as a variety of other things. Massive windmills that use the local lakes and rivers around the region to power them power the city itself. Not only does this make Wyndia one of the cleanest cities in the world, it is also cost effective and environmentally friendly.
No one ever told him, however, that for a country that's suppose to be every modern and advanced, they would still use an ancient dungeon to house inmates. Dark, damp stone walls, a small window that let in little light, a wooden bench in the corner, and iron bars completed the look for the medieval dungeon.
The occupant on the floor groaned and attempted to lift his head up from the hard, stone floor. He moaned as he tried to figure out if he suffered from some sort of concussion or if this was some kind of messed up dream.
Ryu tried to focus his vision, which seemed to what to do nothing more than swim around. He looked over at the far wall, and noticed a white light. A young red-haired girl was staring back at him. He blinked several times, but the girl was gone.
"FUCK! What the hell do they think they are doing?!" a loud shrill from one of the other cells quickly helped him rule out that this was a dream. "What?! They even took our weapons?! Well, I guess they would, seeing that we could slash them up with them! I am going to get them for child abuse for this!!!!"
"Yu, keep it down…" Ryu muttered weakly as he assumed a sitting position. His wrists were aching, almost as if something had been tied tightly around them.
"Oh, you're awake!" Yuki laughed. "Good!"
"Ung…" Ryu said. "The dungeon? What happened?"
"They knocked us out, I guess..." Yuki muttered darkly. I really don't know what happened after that… look. Um, about earlier…"
"I don't blame you for getting mad. I kinda understand, actually…"
"I didn't mean to yell at you… or blame you…"
Ryu sighed and a flash caught his eye. He looked down at his dragon tear necklace and noticed the stone change from yellow to a greenish yellow. Ryu grinned slightly.
"It's just that… Jin… he…."
"He's your brother," Ryu said. "You care about what happens to him. You think that Father and Jin are alright?"
"I… Jin's a good fighter. I think he'll be okay. You dad was awesome!"
"Heh, I know!"
"So…" Yuki sighed. "How do we get out of here?"
"Um… maybe I can help?" a new voice asked. The voice was soft and sweet. Ryu's tear started to flash rainbow colors. Ryu's eyes widened when the voice came into view. A young girl with blond hair and wings was standing in front of the bars, with a set of keys in her hands.
"Who are you?" Ryu asked.
"You don't look like a hardened criminal," the girl mused.
"I'm NOT!" Ryu said as he jumped to his feet. The girl giggled slightly. Ryu blushed slightly and looked at his feet. "Um…"
"I don't think its fair that they locked you down here," the girl said. "Not at least without a trial first. All because Prince Demus said you were dangerous…"
At the mention of Demus' name, Ryu growled. The girl took a step back, startled. Even Yuki seemed confused.
"Yo, Ryu?" Yuki asked.
"Nothing," Ryu sighed.
The girl smiled and made a move towards the door to unlock it, but stopped when she noticed someone behind her. For a few moments, she thought a guard had caught her, or worse, Strife, but it turned out to be a Highlander and two other scruffy looking men.
Ryu's eyes widened in anger as he saw one of the men advance on the girl.
"We came down here to get back our little trump cards, but what do we find but the princess of Wyndia herself?" the man laughed.
"Princess?"
Yuki growled. "YOU! What the hell did you do to my brother?!"
The Highlander growled slightly. "That bastard did something that… he wasn't even human, I swear… able to disarm me and one of my guys… able to teleport… what the fuck?!"
Yuki smirked. "Good. No doubt he is looking for us right now."
"We will be long gone before then," the Highlander smirked. "With the princess!" the man made a grab for the young girl. She tried to dodge, but was hit in the head by the cloaked bandit.
"You two, however, are just a huge inconvenience!" and with that, he threw a bolt of lightning and hit Yuki and Ryu square in the chest. Ryu coughed and collapsed to the floor. He barely heard Yuki moan in pain.
He excepted Yuki to have passed out from the bolt, or worse, suffer from cardiac arrest, seeing that she was merely a human. What he didn't except was the loud battle cry and the flash of light. White lighting came surging from the cell next to his and right for the bandit that threw the bolt. The other two bandits decided to run like hell.
The bandit screamed in rage as the lightning lifted him off of the ground. "LET US GO. NOW!!!" Yuki screamed.
The bandit quickly opened Yuki's cell and let her out. She stepped out and gestured for the man to enter the cell. The man growled, but did as he was instructed to do. He heard the telltale signs of the lock shutting. A second later, Yuki stepped into view, an evil grin plastered all over her face.
She opened the lock and Ryu stepped out. "The bastard should have taken the keys," Yuki giggled as she twirled the ring of keys around her pointer finger.
"What the heck…?" Ryu asked. He had thought Yuki was a HUMAN! What the heck did she just do?
"We have a princess to go save!" Yuki grinned as she walked over towards what she hoped was the way out.
"What… did you do?" Ryu asked. Then he remembered that they didn't have any weapons. "Um… we don't have our weapons… or stuff for that matter…"
Yuki smiled once again. "Right…" she held out her hands. "KODACHI!" she yelled. A white light appeared in either hand and formed into her kodachi. She sheathed the weapons and ignoring Ryu's confused stares called not only for his short sword, but for their packs too.
After readjusting their stuff, they headed out the door, and up the stairs to find one of the bandits holding the girl from behind while the other was talking about ransoming off the princess or something like that.
Ryu coughed and the two bandits looked up. "What the hell?"
Yuki smiled and held out both arms. "PRINCESS NINA!" the girl flashed white and vanished, only to appear a second later in a flash, right behind Yuki and Ryu. The girl looked confused and blinked a few times.
"I'll explain later!" Yuki said as the two bandits rushed at the three children.
Yuki sighed and held her hand out. "ARMOR OF LIGHT! HOLD PHYSICAL MIGHT!" a light shield appeared around the three kids, causing the two bandits to bounce off the shield.
Ryu look a hint and bum rushed the two bandits. Yuki withdrew her kodachi and ran to help Ryu, leaving Princess Nina in the protective shield. Ryu and Yuki dodged blow after blow from the two bandits. It was like some sort of demented dance of death.
Nina shook her head and smiled slightly. She rushed forward and jumped into the air. She pounced the more looking human of the duo and made a striking sign with her hand. The man fell to the ground, unconscious as the Highlander growled and made a move for Nina. Yuki and Ryu took this as an opportunity to rush the Highlander and sword and kodachi blocked the man's halberd from hitting the princess.
Nina jerked around and kicked the Highlander in the head. He fell to the ground, unconscious. Nina looked up and noticed that Ryu and Yuki were looking at her all confused. The princess merely shrugged.
"What, did you think that I was just some damsel in distress or something?" Nina giggled.
"Sure…" Yuki sighed. She then looked over at the two bandits. "We better get out of here…"
The other two nodded and quickly slipped out of the room. Nina led them around the dungeon and quickly explained several hidden passages that she found once while exploring. Apparently she had nothing else better to do other than sneak around.
They finally emerged into the sunlight, right behind the castle walls. Nina giggled and turned to her "saviors."
"So, just who are you two, and why does Demus want you two so bad?"
"Um, I'm Ryu Bateson," Ryu said.
"Miyuki Uzuki. But you can call me Yuki," Yuki grinned.
Nina smiled. "Uh, I guess you already know who I am."
"Princess Nina de Wyndia," Ryu said. "That was a really big risk you took by helping us."
"I know," Nina said, looking down at her shoes. "But, I just don't trust Demus. He's up to something, I can feel it." Nina looked up and over at Ryu. "So, why is he after you two?"
"I dunno," Yuki sighed. "He's really after Ryu, but I guess I got caught up in the mess, too."
"I don't know why he's after me…" Ryu muttered. "I just know that he wants me dead."
"Um, what are you two going to do now?" Nina asked. "Those bandits won't say asleep for long and Demus must already have you on every wanted poster in ever Region that's allied with Dragnier."
"I guess… I can't really return home right now…" Ryu sighed. "Um… the Urkan Region is not allied with Dragnier. I think I'll go to Angel Tower and ask for sanctuary until I am able to figure out what's going on. Hopefully, I will be able to find Father along the way…" He looked over at Yuki.
"What about you, Yuki? Are you going to go back to Crete?"
Yuki shook her head. "No, I'm staying with you! I have to find Jin."
Ryu shook his head. "But…"
"Jin is bound to be with Bunyan, right?" Yuki reasoned. "Besides, you will need my help, if you actually want to make it to Angel Tower without getting shot for high treason."
Ryu nodded. "Okay," he turned to Nina. "Princess, thanks for helping us. You better get back to the castle before…"
"Oh, no!" Nina shook her head as she held her arms out, palms facing Ryu and Yuki. "Those bandits are still in there. They might try to kidnap me again. Besides, I want to help you, too!"
"Um…" Ryu scratched the nape of his neck. "How can I put this? Princess…"
"Just Nina!"
"Um, okay… Nina… um…"
"I don't think she'll be in the way," Yuki smiled. "Besides, she saved us just as much as we saved her."
"Uh… but… wouldn't we be branded as kidnappers or something if the PRINCESS left with us?"
Yuki and Nina both grinned. "Not if we leave without anyone seeing us!" Nina said. "Mother and Father would just think that it was the bandits or something!"
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Yuki giggled.
Ryu sighed and rolled his eyes. "So, I guess that settles it, then. Onwards to the Urkan Region and onto Angel Tower!" Ryu said as he boldly took a step forward, only to get tripped up by a rock. He yelled as he fell face first on the ground. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his red nose. "Ouch…"
Nina and Yuki giggled as they helped Ryu up. "This is going to be some adventure, huh?" Nina asked.
Yuki sighed. "You have no idea…"
To be continued…
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