Prologue: The First Card
A lone figure stood by the window. A pale hand grasping the dark maroon drapery. Blue eyes shimmered beneath the black cowl and cloak. The sky was ablaze and it was simply amazing...
Bulma watched as tiny meteorties plummeted to the earth, burning up in the stratosphere. Thousands trailed in the sky, creating fiery paths swirling in the clouds. There were like angels, descending from heaven to kiss the earth. Bulma sucked in her breath.
The sky spectacle had begun only half an hour ago, catching everyone by surprise. She ran her tongue over her lips; they were dry. The falling stars were simply breathtaking. Bulma raised her hand to rest against the glass of the window. Carefully with a fingertip she traced the path of a fiery, glowing orb as it descended. She cocked her head as she heard the telltale sound of rushed marching.
A small infantry rounded the corner, coming to a stop right before the young woman, nearly running her over. Bulma blinked, her large eyes questioning. One of the soldiers stepped forward. Bulma gave a wan smile.
"Rulio," she murmured. "What brings you here?" The guard's face was stiff and severe, hardly the palette of kindness that Bulma had come to associate with him. Lines of worry creased her forehead. Rulio cleared his throat, adjusting the large energy blaster slung over his shoulder.
"We've come to escort you, Your Highness, to the safeholding at RhineGuard." Bulma pulled her velvet cloak closer around her form. From the corner of her eye, she could still the fiery spectacle performing in the sunset sky.
"Whatever for?" Bulma asked, her voice a whisper. 'Please just let this be a joke...'
"The astronomers have been studying the rare phenomenon that has been occurring in space. They have... concluded that those are no ordinary meteorites." Rulio halted, his voice catching in his throat. The woman, his Princess, the one he had sworn to protect, was the picture of fraility. Her hand clutched the sill of the window, the silken drapes curling around her feet in the heavy breeze. Her eyes were small and sad; the beauty of the end of the day shattered by some horrible reality. "It's an invasion."
She ran as fast her legs could carry her. The dark tunnel carved deep in the earth reeked of mildew and old soil. The scent assailed her nose but she paid to no mind, pushing the nausea back. Bulma stumbled to a stop, resting against the steel girder that held the packed earth from tumbling down on her. She could hear echoed shouts traveling from back the way she had come. Bulma bent over, gasping for air, holding her aching sides.
They had come down in the hundreds, landing intermittently, creating large impact craters that marred the once perfect Earth. RhineGuard, the safehold of the kings for centuries had been seen as the perfect place for the Princess to be protected. But within hours, the standing army had been left decimated, not one was left alive. Bulma had watched in horror as her guards had yelled to each other over the buzzing and blaring of the radio intercoms stationed in the bunker. The death tolls just kept pouring in. Bulma knew nothing of military speak or code, but she knew numbers. And they just kept growing higher.
Then the attack had begun on RhineGuard itself. The earth shuddered and quaked. Bulma was thrown to the floor, her guard, Rulio covered her with his own body as a shield. Stalactites shattered and fell from above puncturing the ground with their jagged knife-like points. Bulma squinted, tilting her head up as the dust swirled around the company. A guard stumbled through the rising cloud of debris, a large pointed javalin of rock, piercing his back and jutting from his stomach. He coughed, his voice garbled, blood seeping from the corners of his mouth. Bulma held back a cry in her throat and buried her face in the dirt.
A steady pounding of feet was coming towards her down the tunnel. Bulma flattened herself against the wall as much as she could. She squeezed her eyes shut, tiny tears leaking from the edges. 'Please... let this all be dream...'
"Mi'lady?" a voice called, shouting above the roar of the disembowelment of the holding. Bulma's eyes flew open. 'Rulio...' She flung herself away from the wall.
"Rulio!" she cried.
Rulio spun around, holding a torch above his head. The underground lighting had given out long ago, plunging the tunnel into near darkness, save the infrequent torchlight. The light spitting forth from the angry flames landed on a ghastly face; smeared with dirt and streaked with tears. Her magnificent gown was torn in multiple places, the cloak barely covering her form.
Bulma rushed forward in Rulio's arms. She broke down, clinging to front of his armour, allowing the overwhelming sadness take her over.
"Oh God, Rulio. What are we going to do?" He wrapped his free arm around her trembling body.
"We will do what we must. I sent a contingent of soldiers ahead to prepare an escape craft. They will be waiting for us."
"How far?" Bulma asked as she pulled away, hastily wiping her tears away with the edge of her tattered cloak.
"At the lake's edge. There's a small passage that will lead us there." Quickly, Rulio slipped his hand into hers, tightening with encouragement. "We will make it out of here alive." Bulma drew a thin-lipped smile and looked up at her guard. He was just a silhouette of the boy he had been, now a man in his own right. Bulma looked down. The front of her gown was stained with crimson blood, gently sticking to her skin.
"Oh God..." she whispered. Rulio shook her shoulders gently.
"I'm fine," he said quickly to dissuade her fears. She turned her head away.
"Even if it not your blood... it has been shed nonetheless. All is lost..."
"Not as long as you are alive."
"And my people, what of them?" she cried, her eyes wide in anger.
"There is an adage that the man who flees today lives to fight another day." Bulma nodded sadly. "Our people need you to stay alive, Princess. And I promise, I will not anything befall you," he said with sad eyes.
"You have sworn a promise, Rulio, a promise of a warrior and of a warrior's heart. I do not doubt your word," she murmured, leaning forward slightly. Rulio's breath caught in his throat. The destruction seemed to melt around him. The deafening cacophany of sounds, the earth shattering above seemed to echo to nothingness. The most astounding pair of bright blue eyes bored into his own. His eyes drifted lower to the quivering pale pink lips reaching for his.
Rulio captured her lips with his, pulling her body forward.
Bulma felt her sadness melt away, replaced with a burning desire. The pain did not seem so real, so close and the moment froze on this one feeling. Was it-- was it--? Rulio slowly pulled away, gasping for breath, his lips moving over hers as he spoke.
"Mi'lady... we must-- we must-- we should have been at the ship long ago." Hastily, he gripped her hand and began to turn. "We should go--" A deep resounding chuckle broke their escape.
"I don't think you're going anywhere."