Did I make myself clear that you say "Day-nee"?

Chapter 4

Lady Daine quickly ran a pale pink-colored comb through her hair and sat it down. I must be hasty! This is the first dinner in the castle I will eat! She thought as she slipped on one of her most formal, regal dresses.

She rushed to grab her gloves and put them both on her hands. She fumbled out the door. Lady Daine gripped onto the staircase railing and walked as fast as she could down the stairs.

In the grand room, which in other homes was referred to as a "den", there was a delightful aroma that

ran through the air. Lady Daine inhaled it and thought, gooseberry pie, chocolate butter cream

truffles, peach crumble, tomato and mussel soup, radish salad with French bread croutons, Brussels sprouts and swan with couscous! She fought back the urge to lick her lips for it was not castle manners.

As Lady Daine walked into the dining room slowly, she felt as high in position as a Queen. She could almost see everyone bowing to her and curtsying.

Everyone except Milady LaVain. It was hard to picture her doing that sort of thing.

Sir McCloud did the honors of pulling her chair out for her as she daintily sat in one of the walnut colored chairs.

To her surprise, the table was as full of lively chatter as her own house. Everyone passed around dishes and laughed. They all remembered their table manners, however.

Then, silence immediately filled the dim, golden-colored dining room. A loud trumpet blasting cut the room's chatter to a halt. Lady Daine put her spoon down next to her bowl of tomato and mussel soup and listened.

"To all of our people, in the castle and all of Mushroom Kingdom, please welcome, Prince Marth!!"

Lady Daine was very, very close to fainting when she thought of actually meeting the Prince.

Nobody said a word when two guards escorted the Prince, who was exceedingly pale and weak looking, into the dining room.

His head held high, Prince Marth sat in the largest chair at the table, which was garnished with a red cushion.

Welcome to ze table, Prince Marth. I understand you have done lots—no, plenty, for our kingdom.

Milady LaVain recited what she would say to Prince Marth as she ate. Then she looked down at her necklace and chuckled softly.

Duchess Grenades took a second helping of swan stuffed with couscous and gently cut a piece with her fork and knife, for if she hadn't been in a castle, she'd have eaten it with her hands.

When she swallowed, she leaned over to Lady Daine. "What's wrong with him?" She asked. "Who? Lady Daine asked. "Prince Marth!" Duchess Grenades replied, more loudly. "I've noticed that," Lady Daine said slowly. "And he looks. . .sick." She continued.

"That is because I am," Prince Marth said with a heavy sigh. Duchess Grenades blushed. "It was not meant to be heard," She said meekly.

"Well, do not apologize." He paused for a moment, and the rest of the castle did, too. "I am ill forever."

He said quietly.

The friendliness from the air drained and everyone ate in complete and utter silence.

Until. . .

"HELP! HELP!" Duke Yoshi ran in the dining room, his chubby feet scrambling. Then he skidded to a stop. "The Royal Hairdresser has been knocked unconscious!"

"Come look!" He shouted, forgetting his castle manners. Lady Daine immediately set her silverware down and ran to catch up with the speeding green dinosaur.

Down the halls the entire castle's residents, including Prince Marth, went. They stopped when they saw the purple and white creature limply lying in the middle of the floor.

Sir Ganondorf picked up the Royal Hairdresser and examined the burn marks in his blue coat. "Directly at his chest." He said as he ran his large green fingers over the black, crumbling pieces of cloth which had a hole burned right in the middle.

At this point, Lady Daine felt as if a knife had sliced her heart in two. Two. Wasn't that part of his name? Lady Daine couldn't think about it anymore. As she stared at the creature that lay in Sir Ganondorf's arms, she suddenly thought about how she cared for him. And from these thoughts, she ran away. . .

Heartbroken and sobbing.

For the rest of the night, Lady Daine acted strangely. She locked herself in her room and refused food, company, and sleep. She stayed in her room, and the only thing she could or wanted to do was repeated patterns of thinking, and brewing up more tears and crying.

Then, a small purple tornado swirled at the foot of Lady Daine's bed. A tall young woman with maroon colored lips, green eyes, and brownish-black hair loomed over Lady Daine as she looked up. She hadn't seen the tornado.

The woman was the sly Milady LaVain.

"Go away! I refuse to see anybody, nonetheless you, you bitter, heartless scoundrel!" Lady Daine yelled, and threw a pillow covered in tears at Milady LaVain's face as she dipped her head in the mass of blankets and pillows again. Milady LaVain swatted it off.

"What is wrong with you, sweetheart?" She asked tantalizingly.

"How did you get in here, you fiend?! Because as I recall, that door was locked!" Lady Daine shouted.

"I have hairpins, sweetheart. . ." Milady LaVain said, and she dangled one in the air.

Lady Daine couldn't say any more. She looked down with a tearful but solemn face.

"I have come for a very important reason. You see, darling. . ." Her eyes flashed deviously and she said slyly, "You need to tell me what you learned about zis castle's secrets." Milady LaVain set her eyes on Lady Daine and smirked.

"Well?" She asked after Lady Daine would not speak. "I. . .can't betray the Royal Hairdresser. . .I promised him I would not reveal any of those secrets." She looked into Milady LaVain's eyes and locked them. "And I intend to keep that promise." She said in hushed tones.

Milady LaVain turned away with an only slightly audible "ugh!" she shook her head and stormed out the door. When she got to the hall, she threw open her door and slammed it as hard as she could shut. "Zat is IT!! Zat is ze FINAL straw!!! I will now cause her to get in trouble before ze dance ever happens!!!" She threw a chair so it went sailing across the room.

Lady Daine felt quite content over what she had just done. Restricting Milady LaVain from one of her secrets felt. . .pure. Heroic. Lady Daine didn't know why, but she had a bad sense about that young woman.

○◘○

Where am I? The Royal Hairdresser wondered for about the third time in his life. He was asleep, wherever he was. He tried to consider some possibilities. Maybe he had died and was waiting to go to Heaven. Maybe he was just asleep. Or. . .

Maybe he was in a hospital of some sort. Those weren't the only possibilities, at least for him. Maybe he was knocked unconscious. Or maybe a scientific experiment was being performed on him.

But wherever he was, no matter what was happening around his closed and fluttering eyes, Lady Daine and his last glimpses of her remained in his head. He couldn't find the right word to describe how he felt for Lady Daine. Was the word. . .love?

Then, as if he had been asleep naturally, his eyes opened slowly, and he began to take in the world around him.

○◘○

In the meeting room, Sir Ganondorf and Duke Yoshi were trying to figure out how this had happened. A crime. Committed in the castle.

Duke Yoshi squirmed nervously in his chair, wondering what he would be asked next. Sir Ganondorf

was interviewing him and asking exactly what he saw on the night of the crime.

"Well, it wasn't really-- I-- Okay, it started like this. I was walking down the halls to my room, then—then something just. . .I don't know, made me jerk backward, and at that moment all I saw was white, nothing else. Then, I found my room, and that's when I saw the Royal Hairdresser on the ground!"

Lady Aran spoke up. "Well, could it be something the Royal Hairdresser inflicted on himself?" She asked slowly.

Duke Yoshi shook his head. "No, I know someone did that to him!" He insisted in whining tones.

"Now!" The pendant on Milady LaVain's necklace shouted, and a puff of pink smoke filled the room. The spell convinced them all that Lady Daine was the one that injured the Royal Hairdresser.

"I know who did it," Milady LaVain walked into the room slowly. "Lady Daine."

Well, that's it for now!