A/N: I know I said I probably wouldn't have a new chapter this weekend, and well, I'm don't. It's not the weekend yet! Anyway, I finished one of my exams early and I had time to kill, so I started writing. Then, of course, I kept writing until I had finally churned out a whole chapter. So here I am, uploading to satisfy everyone's curiosity. But I swear, there will be no more chapters after this… until at least a week and half from now. I'm going to move into my school library from Thursday to Monday so that I can finish off all my research for my various papers. There isn't much security and I have seven floors in which to hide, so they'll never find me in time to kick me out!
Thank you Little Miss Dove for that wonderfully long and detailed review. And guess what? You just made this my most reviewed story! ::Gets up and does a little happy jig::
As for cliffhangers… actually, I've been pretty conservative so far. Usually I love to end at a point that makes everyone yell at me, threaten me, throw things at me, etc. I've only done it a couple of times with this story. Wait until the action really starts going… you'll hate me then.
Chapter 18
Intersections: "A little burst of magic"
Valor stomped along the cobbled path, in his frustration muttering obscenities under his breath. How long had he been out here? Fifteen, twenty minutes, maybe even half an hour? And no sign of Vivienne in all that time.
Well, partially, he supposed, it was his own fault. When Lillith told him her sister was "in the garden," he should have asked for specifics. The garden was huge. He even managed to get lost on a couple of occasions before he wandered back to the safe path, which, if he followed it, guaranteed to lead him to an exit eventually.
Perhaps it was strange that he could have lived here his whole life and not had a better concept of the garden's intricate design… but he was a prince, for god's sake! Was he supposed to spend his time sniffing flowers and writing poetry beneath the shade of some weeping willow? He could think of better things to do with his time than that. Better things to do with his time than one spoiled princess. Even if he was starting to see things from her point of view.
He sighed and turned a sharp left as he approached a fork in the path.
Maybe this was just a setup. A little conspiracy between the two sisters, to make him waste the rest of his night out here, looking like a fool. They were probably in the ballroom, at this very instant laughing at his stupidity.
Okay, now he was being paranoid. Besides, even if he didn't think it beyond Vivienne, he doubted Lillith would go along with such a plan. You know, if Vivienne were more like her sister, then maybe things wouldn't have gone so badly between them at the beginning. Of course, if she were like her sister, he would probably also been bored out of his mind. She was a nice kid, really, but not the type of person he thought he could spend the rest of his life with, even if that were the only way secure his place as heir to the throne.
As he approached a little pond, he noticed an empty bench and left the path, making his way toward it. He plopped onto the wooden surface with a hefty sigh, burrowing a little deeper into his coat as the cool night air was finally felt.
He had agreed to speak to Vivienne, but if she was nowhere to be found, what could he do? When he saw Lillith, he would explain it to her and she would understand. She could hardly blame him for her sister's elusiveness.
Valor stretched out his legs before him and paused as his foot scuffed against something more than just grass. Curious, he leaned forward, running his fingers along the ground until they enclosed around something… metal.
Lifting it easily, he brought it up into the open, where there was enough moonlight for a closer inspection. It was a bracelet, a gold bracelet. Lovely too, with an intricate design and tiny golden leaves hanging at intervals. He frowned. Well, someone had to have been out here just before him. If it had been left before dark, certainly one of the servants would have found it.
He pulled it up closer, and the light caught one of the leaves, revealing what looked like a 'V.'
A 'V'?
With a certain amount of insight, he moved to the next leaf, examining it in detail. An 'I.'
Then the next and the next, until he had examined all of the remaining eight leaves: V-I-E-N-N-E.
Vivienne.
Valor groaned and rolled his eyes up to the dark sky. "Oh really, Vivienne, your mother will be so disappointed," he called out loudly, sarcasm dripping off his words. "It's supposed to be a glass slipper, not a bracelet."
There was no reply, but he hadn't expected one. What was she trying to pull anyway? With a sigh he lifted himself from the bench and looked at the bracelet again. He really wasn't in the mood for this.
He twirled the bracelet in his hand, wondering what to do. Suddenly, he stopped, noticing a slight stain of red across his palm. Funny, he didn't remember cutting himself, nor was there any sharp, stinging sensation to indicate an injury. He rubbed away the blood and saw only smooth skin beneath. That could only mean one thing: it wasn't his blood.
Drawing up the piece of jewelry once more, he noticed dark marks along the edges of some of the leaves, marks he had previously mistook for dirt. He wiped a thumb along one of them, and came away with a smudge of red.
No big deal. She could have just cut herself before she dropped it. There was hardly much blood at all. No need to jump to conclusions. Right?
"Vivienne?"
The castle perimeters were well guarded, and it wasn't as if his family had any enemies.
But what if this wasn't about his family?
"Vivienne!"
And the guards would have been a little more relaxed than usual from the ball. They'd probably had a few drinks each by now, as they were inclined to do during any of these events. Guards that never actually see any action tend to let themselves go over the years.
"Vivienne!"
Oh, this was not good.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Some time earlier…Vivienne shivered as she stared into the placid little pond. Despite the extravagance of her dress, and the many folds that had been added at her mother's insistence, it wasn't very accommodating to the cool night air. Maybe it was time to go back inside.
She took a deep breath and was just about to turn around when she felt a gust of air at her back, followed by a slight thump. Hesitantly, she completed the movement, her eyes widening as she took in the sight before her.
A dragon. A big, scaly, red dragon. She was too amazed to be afraid. She'd never seen a dragon before, even though she knew they existed, as they tended to be reclusive, solitary creatures.
It wasn't as big as she'd been led to believe dragons were. Oh, no doubt about it, it was bigger than any other creature she'd seen before, but it wasn't the massive, towering hulk that was usually depicted in all those tapestries and paintings that adorned the walls of most castles.
It watched he through large, half-hooded eyes that gleamed like emeralds, a startling contrast from the surrounding sea of red.
"Well, let's go," it said after a moment, its voice an exquisite low rumble, each breath sending off tendrils of smoke from its nostrils.
Vivienne gaped. "Excuse me?"
"Oh right, right," the dragon replied with a roll of its eyes. "You probably want to make a scene, do some screaming, draw the guards' attention." It shifted its weight from the front legs to the back, wings folding down to the sides of its body.
"What?" she asked incredulously. She hadn't expected it to be friendly, but the dragon's opinion of her coping abilities was downright insulting.
"Look, I don't have all day. Make some noise and let's get going. I want to be far enough away when the archers arrive that I won't have to worry about picking arrows out of my rear while I'm trying to fly."
"Woah," Vivienne said, holding up a hand and shaking her coppery head. "I don't know what this is all about, but I am not going anywhere with you."
"Finally," it replied, gathering itself up into a ready position. "The drama begins." It beckoned her over with a slight incline of its head. "Come along now." When she refused to budge, it let out a little sigh that sent an extra amount of gray smoke into the air. "Fine, have it your way."
Its easy solution, since she would not go to it, was for it to come to her. Vivienne drew a sharp breath as the creature plodded a few steps closer, but there was nowhere for her to go. At her back was the pond, and if she moved either left or right, it would easily catch her.
"Now, this tends to be a bit harsh on the stomach the first few times, so I thought I'd use a little sleeping spell. Just so I won't have to watch out for your lunch, which might decide to make a reappearance during our little trip."
Oh great. She was being kidnapped. A short distance beyond them was a ballroom full of royalty and nobility and dignitaries… but it had to be her who was being kidnapped. And by a giant, delusional—and not to mention disturbingly considerate—dragon.
It looked at her. "Really, if you let out a scream or two, it would be most effective."
"I am not going to scream," she shot back, refusing to admit that she had been considering doing just that. "If I'm going to be kidnapped, I might as well maintain some dignity."
The dragon let out a little snort, sending two little gray rings up into the night air. "Right, I can see why you would so insist on holding onto your dignity at this point." Vivienne's brow wrinkled in confusion, but before she could speak, it continued. "Well, if you're not going to scream, then let me just get the spell over with. I'll make sure to swoop around the grounds a few times, create enough commotion to get the right amount of attention."
It reached toward her with one large scaly limb that appeared a cross between a paw and a hand. But before it could reach her, Vivienne jumped to the side, tucking her legs as the momentum allowed her roll along. Then, quick as she could move, she leapt up, raising her hands, and muttered a few words. A beam of purple ran from her fingertips straight for the dragon's backside.
"Yow!" the beast yelped as it made a somewhat comical show of grabbing the injured area. "What was that for? I thought you said you weren't going to put up a fight."
Vivienne frowned at the comment. "No, I said I was going to do this in a dignified manner. I would say putting up a good fight is pretty dignified."
"Hmm, you know that actually wasn't bad… I didn't know you could do magic."
"Yeah, well, I can do a lot more than some simple heat ray spell," she boldly bluffed, deciding that perhaps she could threaten her way out of this little situation.
The dragon looked amused, almost smiling, as if such a thing were possible in the absence of lips. "Oh, I doubt that. Much more than that would require some level of schooling, and I know you haven't had any of that."
Her eyes narrowed as she took in the remark. This was really pushing it now. She was already sensitive enough about the issue without being mocked by some overgrown lizard. "Oh, you are so going to get it now," she replied, raising her hands ominously.
"That's enough," the dragon rumbled, suddenly serious once again. "I am not getting paid for all this extra stuff. Let's just get this over with."
And before Vivienne could figure out what it meant to do, a pale yellow cloud blew over her body, emanating from one of the beast's hands. Its calming presence had an immediate effect as, bonelessly, the princess crumpled to the ground, the impact of her body on the dirt only prevented by the red paw that came out to catch her.
But the resistance was not yet entirely gone from her, as Vivienne raised one increasingly numbing arm, and the bracelet on her right wrist caught on of its large claws. She fell back again then, and the weight of her dropping body was enough to rip the small piece of jewelry right off her arm. This was the slight, distant sensation of pain as the metal cut into her, and then it tumbled, unnoticed by her captor, to the ground.
Her eyes drooped closed as she was raised up into the air, but just before she slipped completely into unconscious, she caught a glimpse of gold lying against the dark grass.
Aw, and that was her favorite bracelet.
TBCMwahhahhaha!!! See you all in a week and half.