Author's notes: Okay, I'm ticked. This is the third time I've tried to write this chapter. The first two times, I saved it on a disk and when I went to re-open them, the damn computer told me the it had run into an "unexpected error while reading this file". So now I'm saving it directly onto my C-drive. If you're actually there, reading this, then it worked and I finally managed to save chapter four. Good for me!
The ARROW, the STAFF &the SHIELD
Part 4
By Android Eleven
"His royal Highness, Crown Prince Taichi of the kingdom of Kamiya, cordially invites his majesty, King Yamato of the kingdom of Ishida and his brother, Prince Takeru, to the celebration of his coronation in the kingdom of Kamiya in 24 days time. His majesty, King Yamato may bring however many guards and guests from his own country as he pleases. His highness, Prince Taichi, requests that you send his royal messenger back to Kamiya with a response as soon as possible so that preparations can be made," the messenger finished reading his scroll and rolled it up.
He bowed once to Yamato and once to Takeru before stepping back. The King looked at him for a moment, stroking his chin, thinking. Then he turned to his brother. "What do you think?"
Takeru shrugged. "It would explain why they've withdrawn their forces from the eastern front. And if he'd had intentions of killing us he wouldn't let us bring more than a certain number of our own guests. It seems like he wants a truce, at least temporarily."
"So it would seem. He's probably inviting us so that he can get to know us before deciding whether or not to focus his reign into making peace with us or not," Yamato chuckled to himself. "Perhaps this Prince Taichi is the person foolish enough to finally end this horrible war."
"'Foolish', Yamato? Interesting choice of words," commented Takeru. If this Taichi really had what it took to finally end this war then perhaps he could become an ally. But, if it were to be so, then the last thing they'd need would be for this messenger to return to Kamiya reporting that Ishida's King had called their Prince a fool.
"Fools and children are two of the world's best judges of character," Yamato replied easily, "I did not mean it as an insult.
"I'm sure that it was difficult simply deciding whether to invite us or not. I didn't invite the royals from the other kingdoms to my coronation and look what it got us." he sighed. "Four more years of war. Tell me," he said, turning towards the messenger of Kamiya's, "did this Crown Prince of yours invite the royals from Tachikawa also?"
The messenger stood straight, tall and proud under the King's gaze, unlike many of his own subjects. "Yes he did, your highness."
"Hmm." Yamato rubbed his chin again. "Okay. When you return to Kamiya you may tell Prince Taichi that Prince Takeru and I accept his invitation and that we will be bringing no more than seven guests. But for now... Mallorca?"
A young handmaiden stepped out of line. "Yes, sire?"
"Could you please ensure that our guest is fed and watered before his departure." Mallorca hurried over to the man to take his bag. "I imagine that it has been a difficult journey," Yamato added, smiling.
The messenger smiled back. "Thank you, sire. I will be sure to tell my Prince of your hospitality." He bowed again and left the Hall.
Takeru whirled around to face his brother. "Yamato, how could you tell him that we would only be bringing seven guards with us?!? You realize that Kamiya is a country whose entire population would like to see us hanged?!?"
Yamato turned, unfazed by Takeru's reaction. "When did I say we would be taking seven guards? We are taking only five. I assumed that you might like to bring along Count Iori and Baron Daisuke. Was I wrong?"
Takeru paused, dumbstruck. After a moment he answered quietly. "No. I'm sure they'd love to come."
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Princess Mimi of Tachikawa was sitting in front of her dressing room mirror, brushing her hair. She was pretty and she knew it, but the Princess, like anyone else, liked for other people to notice too. 'Especially that handsome Sir Jyuu of the House of Kido,' she thought to herself, 'He's such a gentleman!'
Then she sighed to herself. It was too bad she was a princess, because Mimi was pretty sure she had feelings for Jyuu but, if her parents had their way, she was probably going to be forced into an arranged marriage pretty soon. But she promised herself that she'd do her darndest to keep that from happening. Mimi wanted to live her own life and there was nothing her parents could do about it.
She set her brush down and looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a light pink tulle dress that went magnificently with her complexion. 'Oh, I do hope that Sir Jyuu notices!' she thought to herself. The official royal color of the kingdom of Tachikawa was actually purple, but, as pink was the Princess's favorite color, she didn't wear purple unless she had to, at royal gatherings and such, and even then, she wore very light shades.
Just then Mimi's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her dressing room door. Her mother, the Queen's, voice floated through the oak door. "Mimi, darling? Are you in there?"
"Yes, Mother."
"Oh, good. I've been looking everywhere for you," replied the Queen, entering the room. "I should have known to look here first!"
The Princess smiled faintly at her. "It's good to see you, Mother. I suppose you've been very busy these past few days?"
The Queen's smile became forced for a moment. "Yes, your father and I both. There seem to have been some changes in the Kamiya kingdom's attack technique that are greatly puzzling him and all of his little military friends." The Queen turned back to her daughter. "But that is nothing you should concern yourself with, darling! Let your father deal with it. You have more important things to worry about!"
Mimi gave her mother a questioning glance. "I do?"
"What do you mean by, 'I do'? Of course you do, sweetheart! Why, you have the-" she halted, suddenly realizing something. "Oh, no. Don't tell me that your father never..." she trailed off for a moment before giving an angry sigh that sounded very much like, "Men!"
"Mother, please, tell me what you are talking about!" the Princess cried angrily.
The Queen looked at her daughter a moment, took her hands in her own and led her to sit down on a loveseat. "Honey, you may not like what I'm about to say, but I beg of you to please allow me to finish. Okay?" Mimi nodded. The Queen cleared her throat, trying to buy herself some time, hoping against hope that her husband would magically appear so that he could tell Mimi himself. "Mimi, you're 18 years old now and your father and I have decided that it is high time you-"
Someone knocking on the dressing room door suddenly interrupted the Queen. A voice came drifting through the door. "Your Majesty? Are you in there?"
The Queen answered as politely as she could manage after being interrupted. "Yes. Come in, please." A young and unnerved looking page slipped into the room.
"My Queen, the King has requested your presence in his study immediately. Yours and the Princess's."
Mimi broke in. "Whatever does he want us for?"
The page fidgeted nervously, fiddling with his thumbs. "I believe you should save your questions for the King. I am unaware of all the details."
The Queen stood. "Then I shall go and ask him. Thank you, young sir. You are dismissed," the page bowed quickly and left. "And you, Daughter, should find some shoes before coming down, hmm? We'll continue this little chat another time." With that, the Queen left the dressing room, heading downstairs.
The Princess sighed in relief. "That was close," she murmured to herself.
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"And one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. Come along, children, this is not a barn dance, it is a waltz. Pick up your feet. Stop, stop, stop, STOP!" the teacher clapped her hands a number of times, in impatience. Her glare rested upon Crown Prince Taichi and Princess Hikari. Taichi had once again stepped on Lady Sora's foot and Hikari had stepped the wrong way and would have fallen, had her cousin, Grand Duke Koushiro d'Izumi, not been paying attention to the lesson and caught her.
The young nobles were taking a dancing lesson from the wife of an earl friend of the late King. But, as Taichi barely had any coordination to begin with and Hikari was apparently not as graceful on the dance floor as she was everywhere else, the lesson was not going well.
After a brief lecture, a sigh of frustration after seeing no improvement and another painful stomp on Lady Sora's foot on Taichi's part, the earl's wife ended the lesson. As the group left the room, Prince Taichi, Grand Duke Koushiro and Lady Sora started to go down the corridor to Taichi's study. When he noticed Princess Hikari heading off in the other direction, Taichi yelled after her, "Hikari, won't you join us for a drink or a game of cards?"
Though touched by the gesture, Hikari shook her head. "No thank you, Taichi. I think I'll head for the library to catch up on my reading." She then continued down the corridor. Taichi shrugged and went back to his friends.
Though she was indeed going to the library, the Princess had no intentions of reading. She wanted to practice her dancing. What was the point of being a princess if you couldn't even be graceful? And so, when she arrived in the library, full of several levels of 15 foot high, mahogany bookcases and ladders, for one of the first times in her life, Hikari was glad to be alone.
Another half hour brought little progress to the girl's dancing abilities. She realized she'd been taking three steps where only two were required, but that was all. After bumping into the bookcase behind her for the umpteenth time that day, Hikari let out a yell of frustration and banged her fist on it with all her might.
To her pain and surprise, she realized that she had hit the shelf, not the books and that a square shaped carving in the place where she had hit the shelf had pushed itself forward. She pulled at it a bit before realizing that it was a long, rectangular shaped, wooden box that had been pushed into a perfectly cut hole in the shelf. The shelves on all the bookcases were carved with different shapes, so it was no wonder that Hikari had never noticed it before. In fact, if the condition of the box was any clue, she would have bet that no one had noticed it ever since these bookcases were put up, generations upon generations ago.
Once Hikari had finally pulled it all the way out, she blew the dust off it, idly wondering how the dust had gotten to it through the tight fit of the carved hole. Then she opened it. The box was lined with velvet and it contained a gleaming golden arrow with a head made of diamond.
She picked it up, out of its box and pressed her finger to the tip. A moment passed and a drop of blood fell from her finger. She looked at it for a moment, and then went back to the bookcase, hoping to find a shelf thick enough to have hidden a bow. But none of them were, as all the shelves were the same thickness. So there was no bow.
Hikari picked up the arrow again, wondering why someone would have hidden such a beautiful object. She decided to bring it with her, even though she had never once tried archery in her life. 'I can learn,' she thought happily, as she ripped a piece of the lining from the arrow's box. She wound the velvet around the head of the arrow and placed it carefully into her pocket. Then she replaced the box into its hole in the shelf. And then Hikari left the library, thinking over in her head all the nobles she could ask to give her archery lessons.
'Maybe,' she thought hopefully, 'if I start taking archery lessons, I can stop taking dance classes!'
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It had been five days before that Prince Taichi had sent two of his best messengers to the kingdoms of Ishida and Tachikawa. It was about a three days walk on foot to each of the other kingdoms. Therefore, assuming that neither of the messengers had been injured or executed, they should have been returning at any time the next day. And though they were praying with all their hearts for positive answers, Taichi, Sora and Koushiro were also sick with worry over the prospect of having the outlanding royals in the Kamiya kingdom.
The three were sitting in Prince Taichi's study that day, where they usually went for relaxation, a game of cards or a drink of brandy. Though Lady Sora usually refused the latter, today was a different story. She sat in a cushioned chair, turning her brandy glass slowly around in her hands, taking an occasional sip and grimacing in disgust. After a while, Sora couldn't stand the silence anymore and she put her glass down on Taichi's desk.
"Have you told Princess Hikari yet that you've invited the other royals to your coronation?" she asked after a moment's hesitation. Taichi shook his head.
"I don't want to worry her."
Koushiro and Sora exchanged glances. It was Koushiro who replied, "You should tell her."
Taichi slammed his glass down on his desk. "You think I don't know that?!?" he thundered. He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry, guys," he said quietly. "I'm just... really stressed out today. Here," he suddenly bent down, digging through his desk drawers, "play me at least one game of 'Beggar My Neighbor' and, I promise, I'll tell her tonight."
Sora and Koushiro consented to play and the three moved to a table across the room. Soon they were all absorbed into the card game, the bottle and glasses of brandy sitting, forgotten on the desk.
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Author's notes: Okay. I've finally finished Part IV. It sure took long enough. Anyways. So now two of the three kingdoms' weapons have been found and I finally wrote a section about Mimi. Yeah for me! Keep reading, Part V will be out soon!
