Case watched as Princess Tinga exited the village bakery, holding a small boy by the hand and glaring at a few coins in her hand.
"Look at this! Another pay cut! How do they expect our family to live on this?"
"Are we gonna go hungry again, Mommy?" asked the little boy, looking up at her with big dark eyes.
Tinga seemed to melt at the child's weary, unhappy tone. "Like hell. Come on, baby."
She grabbed a metal bucket by the door and overturned it, standing the boy behind it. "Can you get everyone's attention for me? We're going to make our money the easy way."
"Yes, Mommy."
"Good boy. Pray, give me your cap."
The child handed Princess Tinga his cap.
"Start, please."
The little child began to pound his fists on the upturned bucket, loudly enough for people to stop and listen. As soon as she had their attention, Tinga began to sing.
People began to stop. Granted, she wasn't the stereotypical sultry songstress of cartoons. But she wasn't a half-bad singer.
Tinga was no ordinary princess.
"I can't believe this was love at first sight `cause it feels like it's over- or maybe it's me...? Something you said or you did or you wanted. Money can't buy and it just isn't free."
Tinga kept singing for a few more minutes while her little boy tentatively kept beat. As she ended the song, the crowd whooped and threw money into the boy's cap.
"Thank you, good neighbours! You honour us!" called Princess Tinga, catching coins.
"Is that money for dinner, Mommy?" asked her boy stoically.
"Of course it is, child. I'll never let you go hungry. Come on, let's go and salvage something at the vegetable stall-" Suddenly, Tinga spotted Case. "By the Blue Faerie," she whispered. "Zachary! Over here, Zachary!"
"Tinga, milady," said Case. "How are you?"
"I haven't seen you in almost six years. Let me get a look at you." She frowned. "They're not feeding you very well, are they? You've hardly grown."
"Who's this?" Case asked the princess.
"This is my baby," said Princess Tinga proudly, picking up the little boy. "Case Michael Smith, the smartest little boy in all of Portlandshire."
"I'm not a BABY any more, Mommy," protested the child. "The church even pays for me to go to school."
"Of course you're not," said his mother soothingly. "Hark, Casey. Why don't you go and pick what we eat for dinner tonight?"
"'K, Mommy," replied Little Case, taking the coins they had got moments earlier and running off.
Case stared in shock after the boy. That kid- excepting the clothes and medieval haircut- looked an AWFUL lot...
Like him at the same age. In fact, he looked exactly like him at the same age. They even had identical names. There was Case Michael Smith, born in Portland to Penny and Charlie Smith...
And a Case Michael Smith born in Portlandshire to 'Penelope' and Charles Smith.
What was going on here?
Case wanted to scream this at Princess Tinga, who was gazing after her son with a mixture of loving pride and apprehension. All Case could manage to say was, "You're going to let your five-year-old do the shopping for you?"
"Why not?" asked Tinga quietly. "He's a smart lad. Actually, his brains are not exactly a coincidence."
"Princess?" asked Case.
She looked shrewdly at Case. "My family are not actually my family- at least, my brothers and sisters from the Manticore Castle. In the days before we were born, Wyominia was ruled peacefully by many kings and queens who resided in the Manticore Castle. Their infant children were to be brought up as brothers and sisters as they themselves had been. But they were executed and we were left to fend for ourselves. I was the oldest girl, so I played the role of mother."
"I gathered that when I saw the obvious differences between you and your siblings."
"Yes," said Princess Tinga. "The princes Zack and Zane and the princess Syl are actual siblings, as are Krit and Max, and the princesses Brin and Iria. Brin and Iria are actually unidentical twins, although they were not particularly close."
Her voice quietened as she said this. "You miss Princess Brin, don't you?" asked Case.
"Yea," she said. "It is not that mundane, Zachary. I miss her most of all. I miss her so much grown men in distant lands would weep if they felt what I am feeling for only a moment. I worry after her every single day. I was her mother, her sister, her best friend."
"But what about your little Case's intelligence?" asked he.
"My parents were of an incredible stock. All of our parents were. They were most fine athletes, so strong and quick and intelligent they could have won a war all by themselves. I inherited their gifts firsthand. I fear my baby Case also has some of their blood. It is not as noticeable in him. He is just an exceptionally bright child."
She smiled wistfully. "Do you know that he attends school with boys twice his age? He's going to go into a trade, his teachers say, and become rich. They dote on him."
All this was beginning to sound oddly familiar to Case...
Suddenly, Tinga took him by the hand and pulled him over to the vegetable stall, where Little Case held up a string bag.
"Look, Mommy!"
"Very nice. Have you got enough for four, Case?"
"For four? Me plus you plus Dad. That makes three, Mommy. You added wrong."
"No, I didn't. Cousin Zachary is coming for dinner," said Princess Tinga, gesturing to Case.
"Oh."
Case suddenly found himself sitting at a rough wooden table in a tiny house, eating soup out of a bowl. Princess Tinga sat there, with Little Case on her lap, talking to... Charlie.
And suddenly Case realised that Charles was the man who had nearly broken it off with Tinga when she had told him about her past. They were married now? They had a son?
"More soup, Zachary?" asked Princess Tinga amiably.
"Pray, this feels like my fourth bowl."
"Fifth," said Little Case, toying with his spoon.
"Case; eat your food properly," said Charlie.
"I'm full."
Tinga suddenly tensed. "Charles, I just remembered I left something outside. Zachary, would you be so kind as to come and help me?"
"I'll come, Mommy," said Little Case.
"No, you and your father are eating. Sit, sit. We'll just be a moment."
Charles shrugged and went back to talking with his son. As Case stood up, he couldn't help but notice that Tinga surreptitiously snatched a scarf from a hook by the doorway as she left.
"What troubles you, princess?" asked Case, but Princess Tinga put a finger to her lips.
"Shhh, dear boy. It's probably nothing. I-"
Suddenly, there was a commotion. Princess Tinga gasped and retreated into the shadows. Case peered around a corner.
The house where the little family lived was in a small neighbourhood choked with other, identical houses. A young woman with a burning torch stood in the middle of a small square, calling to people who were exiting their homes.
"... I want all the women of this village to come out here and line up with their backs to us and their hair swept neatly out of the way. There is most likely nothing to concern yourselves with."
"What do you mean by women?" called a buck-toothed girl trailing a small sister.
She smiled grimly. "All the women over the age of twenty. More specifically, we are looking for women around the age of twenty-one, although the one we are looking for may have disguised her age."
Young women began coming from their homes. Some had already retired to bed by this time and exited rubbing at their eyes and groaning. A couple came with small children on their hips or cooking pots dangling from their hands.
Case turned to Tinga. Suddenly, all this seemed very familiar. "They're searching for ye, milady."
"Yes," said Tinga. She ducked down and pulled a sword from a hidden place under the house. They watched the proceedings in scared silence.
"No. No, no, you can go, you can go also- there HAS to be more women!" hissed the woman, flanked by many other soldiers. The woman was dressed in various pieces of armour over a dress. She was walking along checking the back of each woman's neck and then sending her back to her homes. "Check the houses over there! Maybe she sleeps."
Tinga gave a frightened yelp and Case suddenly saw the child in her. She bolted, sword in hand.
Case resisted the urge to call to her and ran to the woman leading the other soldiers. "You say, good people, you search for a young woman with something on the back of her neck? Pray, what exactly?"
At a nod of confirmation from her superior, the female soldier spoke to Case. "'Tis a brand, boy. Specifically the number six hundred and fifty-six. Have you seen her? She be'th a criminal, wanted for murder and fraud. The good King Lydecker of Wyominia wishes to bring her to justice."
She was dark too, and wore a coat of arms with a manticore on it. In fact, she looked an awful lot like...
Dear God, thought Case. It's Princess Jace! She must be twenty or something. Has she been at the Manticore Castle all this time?
"Really?" said Case, faking interest. "There be'th a woman... blonde, blue-eyed. She never shows any part of her neck. She does live over there." He pointed vaguely to a place far from Tinga's home with her son and husband.
"Ah, no," said Jace. "The woman we search for is dark-haired and dark-skinned."
Damn. She couldn't be tricked.
"Well, I also saw a woman-"
"We've got a lead!" yelled an armed soldier on horseback, galloping past. "West, nearby the well!"
DAMN.
Case ran as fast as he could to catch up. The man halted his steed nearby a cart, covered with a cloth. A crowd of soldiers and neighbours stood around, waiting anxiously for this criminal to be apprehended.
Case skidded to an abrupt stop, and bit hard on his lip as the soldier inched toward the cart.
He whipped off the cloth. Tinga, a yell of rage and pent-up energy escaping her, jumped up. To the gasps of the crowd, she ran him through with her sword and jumped down, sprinting away into the darkness of the surrounding streets.
It was a few minutes before Case could find the princess again. She stood alone, her back to a building, surrounded by a thin semicircle of armed soldiers. The fear showed in her eyes but she steeled herself and held up her fists like a boxer.
They were surely going to kill her. For Case had no doubt these soldiers were from King Lydecker.
He closed his eyes, trying to block out what surely would be her dying screams.
Then, there were yells of surprise.
Two people broke the circle by galloping onto the scene on the back of a horse. One jumped off, holding the reins of the horse to calm it while the other jumped down as well.
The one holding the horse still was a tall man- about six foot tall- with blonde hair. He had a sword. He nodded at Princess Tinga and tossed her a crossbow, which she caught easily.
The other person was a younger woman. Her hair was shoulder-length and curly, different shades of brown and red however it caught the light. She wore a chain mail vest over her dress and held a mace in her hand.
Princess Tinga looked at them in astonishment before giving them both a wonderful smile. Then her battle face took her features once more, and she was back in the game.
It was incredible. In less than a few minutes, Tinga and her allies managed to knock out or kill every single soldier. None rode the horse, but it cantered after them as they left.
Case followed silently.
He found them by the edge of the village. With them stood another man.
"Where did you get the horse?" asked Tinga, patting it.
"Stole it," said the blonde man shortly.
The other man gave them a rueful look. "Is everybody in your family a thief?" he said to the second woman.
She looked very familiar to Case. Those eyes... that face...
And the man. He seemed protective, warlike-
Case froze. Prince Zack and Princess Max?
"Has the horse been rested?" asked Princess Max.
"It has."
"Should get us to the Canadinian border. We can sell it there," observed Tinga, walking around the steed. She prepared to climb on. Then she seemed to remember Max. "What about you?"
"She's going back to Seattleton," said Zack, taking the reins to lead the horse.
Princess Tinga seemed surprised. "You're not coming with us?"
"Don't bother," snapped Prince Zack.
"Lydecker's-" began Tinga.
Zack interrupted her. "I SAID don't bother."
Tinga sighed as if weary of his ridiculousness and hugged Max tightly, as if trying to imprint everything about her into her memory with one embrace. "You take care of yourself, baby sister."
"You, too," said Max.
Princess Tinga climbed onto the horse and began to trot away, Zack walking alongside.
Case wanted to run after her and beg her not to leave. This felt so familiar...
"Case, wake up!"
"No," muttered Case. "No, Tinga..."
"Trust you to fall asleep before a school dance," said someone dryly. Case opened his eyes. He was slumped on his couch at home. His dad and Tamia stood over him.
That was right. The dance. Charlie's car was in the shop, so Tamia's dad had offered to drive.
"Wow," he said. "You're dressed like... like..."
"A girl?" offered Tamia, and laughed. "Yeah, I know. Hey, check this out!" She held up a small fake nose stud. "I'm gonna put it in when there aren't any teachers around. Cool, huh?"
Case felt oddly separated from the conversation, even as he volunteered answers. He thought about Princess Tinga as he climbed into Tamia's dad's car.
She seemed ever more like his long-dead mother. Same name, same husband, even same kid. She even lived in a place called Portlandshire, for God's sakes.
Perhaps that was why it felt like he was losing her again as he had watched her ride away.
* * *
DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to Fox and James Cameron. Not me. So don't sue.
NOTE: The song that Tinga sings- at least the lyrics- are 'Cinderella' by Shakaya. Think of it as some kind of folk ballad with the same lyrics. I just heard the song and thought of this fic. 'Cause I made Tinga and the other X5 sisters into princesses, but I like to think that they're kick-ass princesses.
The end is nigh! This MAY WELL BE the second-last chapter.
"Look at this! Another pay cut! How do they expect our family to live on this?"
"Are we gonna go hungry again, Mommy?" asked the little boy, looking up at her with big dark eyes.
Tinga seemed to melt at the child's weary, unhappy tone. "Like hell. Come on, baby."
She grabbed a metal bucket by the door and overturned it, standing the boy behind it. "Can you get everyone's attention for me? We're going to make our money the easy way."
"Yes, Mommy."
"Good boy. Pray, give me your cap."
The child handed Princess Tinga his cap.
"Start, please."
The little child began to pound his fists on the upturned bucket, loudly enough for people to stop and listen. As soon as she had their attention, Tinga began to sing.
People began to stop. Granted, she wasn't the stereotypical sultry songstress of cartoons. But she wasn't a half-bad singer.
Tinga was no ordinary princess.
"I can't believe this was love at first sight `cause it feels like it's over- or maybe it's me...? Something you said or you did or you wanted. Money can't buy and it just isn't free."
Tinga kept singing for a few more minutes while her little boy tentatively kept beat. As she ended the song, the crowd whooped and threw money into the boy's cap.
"Thank you, good neighbours! You honour us!" called Princess Tinga, catching coins.
"Is that money for dinner, Mommy?" asked her boy stoically.
"Of course it is, child. I'll never let you go hungry. Come on, let's go and salvage something at the vegetable stall-" Suddenly, Tinga spotted Case. "By the Blue Faerie," she whispered. "Zachary! Over here, Zachary!"
"Tinga, milady," said Case. "How are you?"
"I haven't seen you in almost six years. Let me get a look at you." She frowned. "They're not feeding you very well, are they? You've hardly grown."
"Who's this?" Case asked the princess.
"This is my baby," said Princess Tinga proudly, picking up the little boy. "Case Michael Smith, the smartest little boy in all of Portlandshire."
"I'm not a BABY any more, Mommy," protested the child. "The church even pays for me to go to school."
"Of course you're not," said his mother soothingly. "Hark, Casey. Why don't you go and pick what we eat for dinner tonight?"
"'K, Mommy," replied Little Case, taking the coins they had got moments earlier and running off.
Case stared in shock after the boy. That kid- excepting the clothes and medieval haircut- looked an AWFUL lot...
Like him at the same age. In fact, he looked exactly like him at the same age. They even had identical names. There was Case Michael Smith, born in Portland to Penny and Charlie Smith...
And a Case Michael Smith born in Portlandshire to 'Penelope' and Charles Smith.
What was going on here?
Case wanted to scream this at Princess Tinga, who was gazing after her son with a mixture of loving pride and apprehension. All Case could manage to say was, "You're going to let your five-year-old do the shopping for you?"
"Why not?" asked Tinga quietly. "He's a smart lad. Actually, his brains are not exactly a coincidence."
"Princess?" asked Case.
She looked shrewdly at Case. "My family are not actually my family- at least, my brothers and sisters from the Manticore Castle. In the days before we were born, Wyominia was ruled peacefully by many kings and queens who resided in the Manticore Castle. Their infant children were to be brought up as brothers and sisters as they themselves had been. But they were executed and we were left to fend for ourselves. I was the oldest girl, so I played the role of mother."
"I gathered that when I saw the obvious differences between you and your siblings."
"Yes," said Princess Tinga. "The princes Zack and Zane and the princess Syl are actual siblings, as are Krit and Max, and the princesses Brin and Iria. Brin and Iria are actually unidentical twins, although they were not particularly close."
Her voice quietened as she said this. "You miss Princess Brin, don't you?" asked Case.
"Yea," she said. "It is not that mundane, Zachary. I miss her most of all. I miss her so much grown men in distant lands would weep if they felt what I am feeling for only a moment. I worry after her every single day. I was her mother, her sister, her best friend."
"But what about your little Case's intelligence?" asked he.
"My parents were of an incredible stock. All of our parents were. They were most fine athletes, so strong and quick and intelligent they could have won a war all by themselves. I inherited their gifts firsthand. I fear my baby Case also has some of their blood. It is not as noticeable in him. He is just an exceptionally bright child."
She smiled wistfully. "Do you know that he attends school with boys twice his age? He's going to go into a trade, his teachers say, and become rich. They dote on him."
All this was beginning to sound oddly familiar to Case...
Suddenly, Tinga took him by the hand and pulled him over to the vegetable stall, where Little Case held up a string bag.
"Look, Mommy!"
"Very nice. Have you got enough for four, Case?"
"For four? Me plus you plus Dad. That makes three, Mommy. You added wrong."
"No, I didn't. Cousin Zachary is coming for dinner," said Princess Tinga, gesturing to Case.
"Oh."
Case suddenly found himself sitting at a rough wooden table in a tiny house, eating soup out of a bowl. Princess Tinga sat there, with Little Case on her lap, talking to... Charlie.
And suddenly Case realised that Charles was the man who had nearly broken it off with Tinga when she had told him about her past. They were married now? They had a son?
"More soup, Zachary?" asked Princess Tinga amiably.
"Pray, this feels like my fourth bowl."
"Fifth," said Little Case, toying with his spoon.
"Case; eat your food properly," said Charlie.
"I'm full."
Tinga suddenly tensed. "Charles, I just remembered I left something outside. Zachary, would you be so kind as to come and help me?"
"I'll come, Mommy," said Little Case.
"No, you and your father are eating. Sit, sit. We'll just be a moment."
Charles shrugged and went back to talking with his son. As Case stood up, he couldn't help but notice that Tinga surreptitiously snatched a scarf from a hook by the doorway as she left.
"What troubles you, princess?" asked Case, but Princess Tinga put a finger to her lips.
"Shhh, dear boy. It's probably nothing. I-"
Suddenly, there was a commotion. Princess Tinga gasped and retreated into the shadows. Case peered around a corner.
The house where the little family lived was in a small neighbourhood choked with other, identical houses. A young woman with a burning torch stood in the middle of a small square, calling to people who were exiting their homes.
"... I want all the women of this village to come out here and line up with their backs to us and their hair swept neatly out of the way. There is most likely nothing to concern yourselves with."
"What do you mean by women?" called a buck-toothed girl trailing a small sister.
She smiled grimly. "All the women over the age of twenty. More specifically, we are looking for women around the age of twenty-one, although the one we are looking for may have disguised her age."
Young women began coming from their homes. Some had already retired to bed by this time and exited rubbing at their eyes and groaning. A couple came with small children on their hips or cooking pots dangling from their hands.
Case turned to Tinga. Suddenly, all this seemed very familiar. "They're searching for ye, milady."
"Yes," said Tinga. She ducked down and pulled a sword from a hidden place under the house. They watched the proceedings in scared silence.
"No. No, no, you can go, you can go also- there HAS to be more women!" hissed the woman, flanked by many other soldiers. The woman was dressed in various pieces of armour over a dress. She was walking along checking the back of each woman's neck and then sending her back to her homes. "Check the houses over there! Maybe she sleeps."
Tinga gave a frightened yelp and Case suddenly saw the child in her. She bolted, sword in hand.
Case resisted the urge to call to her and ran to the woman leading the other soldiers. "You say, good people, you search for a young woman with something on the back of her neck? Pray, what exactly?"
At a nod of confirmation from her superior, the female soldier spoke to Case. "'Tis a brand, boy. Specifically the number six hundred and fifty-six. Have you seen her? She be'th a criminal, wanted for murder and fraud. The good King Lydecker of Wyominia wishes to bring her to justice."
She was dark too, and wore a coat of arms with a manticore on it. In fact, she looked an awful lot like...
Dear God, thought Case. It's Princess Jace! She must be twenty or something. Has she been at the Manticore Castle all this time?
"Really?" said Case, faking interest. "There be'th a woman... blonde, blue-eyed. She never shows any part of her neck. She does live over there." He pointed vaguely to a place far from Tinga's home with her son and husband.
"Ah, no," said Jace. "The woman we search for is dark-haired and dark-skinned."
Damn. She couldn't be tricked.
"Well, I also saw a woman-"
"We've got a lead!" yelled an armed soldier on horseback, galloping past. "West, nearby the well!"
DAMN.
Case ran as fast as he could to catch up. The man halted his steed nearby a cart, covered with a cloth. A crowd of soldiers and neighbours stood around, waiting anxiously for this criminal to be apprehended.
Case skidded to an abrupt stop, and bit hard on his lip as the soldier inched toward the cart.
He whipped off the cloth. Tinga, a yell of rage and pent-up energy escaping her, jumped up. To the gasps of the crowd, she ran him through with her sword and jumped down, sprinting away into the darkness of the surrounding streets.
It was a few minutes before Case could find the princess again. She stood alone, her back to a building, surrounded by a thin semicircle of armed soldiers. The fear showed in her eyes but she steeled herself and held up her fists like a boxer.
They were surely going to kill her. For Case had no doubt these soldiers were from King Lydecker.
He closed his eyes, trying to block out what surely would be her dying screams.
Then, there were yells of surprise.
Two people broke the circle by galloping onto the scene on the back of a horse. One jumped off, holding the reins of the horse to calm it while the other jumped down as well.
The one holding the horse still was a tall man- about six foot tall- with blonde hair. He had a sword. He nodded at Princess Tinga and tossed her a crossbow, which she caught easily.
The other person was a younger woman. Her hair was shoulder-length and curly, different shades of brown and red however it caught the light. She wore a chain mail vest over her dress and held a mace in her hand.
Princess Tinga looked at them in astonishment before giving them both a wonderful smile. Then her battle face took her features once more, and she was back in the game.
It was incredible. In less than a few minutes, Tinga and her allies managed to knock out or kill every single soldier. None rode the horse, but it cantered after them as they left.
Case followed silently.
He found them by the edge of the village. With them stood another man.
"Where did you get the horse?" asked Tinga, patting it.
"Stole it," said the blonde man shortly.
The other man gave them a rueful look. "Is everybody in your family a thief?" he said to the second woman.
She looked very familiar to Case. Those eyes... that face...
And the man. He seemed protective, warlike-
Case froze. Prince Zack and Princess Max?
"Has the horse been rested?" asked Princess Max.
"It has."
"Should get us to the Canadinian border. We can sell it there," observed Tinga, walking around the steed. She prepared to climb on. Then she seemed to remember Max. "What about you?"
"She's going back to Seattleton," said Zack, taking the reins to lead the horse.
Princess Tinga seemed surprised. "You're not coming with us?"
"Don't bother," snapped Prince Zack.
"Lydecker's-" began Tinga.
Zack interrupted her. "I SAID don't bother."
Tinga sighed as if weary of his ridiculousness and hugged Max tightly, as if trying to imprint everything about her into her memory with one embrace. "You take care of yourself, baby sister."
"You, too," said Max.
Princess Tinga climbed onto the horse and began to trot away, Zack walking alongside.
Case wanted to run after her and beg her not to leave. This felt so familiar...
"Case, wake up!"
"No," muttered Case. "No, Tinga..."
"Trust you to fall asleep before a school dance," said someone dryly. Case opened his eyes. He was slumped on his couch at home. His dad and Tamia stood over him.
That was right. The dance. Charlie's car was in the shop, so Tamia's dad had offered to drive.
"Wow," he said. "You're dressed like... like..."
"A girl?" offered Tamia, and laughed. "Yeah, I know. Hey, check this out!" She held up a small fake nose stud. "I'm gonna put it in when there aren't any teachers around. Cool, huh?"
Case felt oddly separated from the conversation, even as he volunteered answers. He thought about Princess Tinga as he climbed into Tamia's dad's car.
She seemed ever more like his long-dead mother. Same name, same husband, even same kid. She even lived in a place called Portlandshire, for God's sakes.
Perhaps that was why it felt like he was losing her again as he had watched her ride away.
* * *
DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to Fox and James Cameron. Not me. So don't sue.
NOTE: The song that Tinga sings- at least the lyrics- are 'Cinderella' by Shakaya. Think of it as some kind of folk ballad with the same lyrics. I just heard the song and thought of this fic. 'Cause I made Tinga and the other X5 sisters into princesses, but I like to think that they're kick-ass princesses.
The end is nigh! This MAY WELL BE the second-last chapter.