Thanks to those who reviewed, special thanks to Torii as my first
reviewer. I hope the fic continues to meet your expectations.
*~* Chapter One Dropped Illusions *~*
"Hey Mom!" Hope shouted towards an aggravated looking Shana Field. "Mom where are you going?"
Hearing her daughter's voice Shana snapped out of the trance like state she always went into while worrying and snapped back into reality. She spun on her heel until she was facing Dart and Hope. "Do you know how worried I've been?" She demanded. "The two of you have been gone for hours!" She said scolding.
"I'm sorry Mom!" Hope said earnestly, hoping that her mother would forgive her. "Dad and I were just out in Mrs. Slambert's field! We started talking, I wish I got to meet Meru. I'd give her a big hug and say thank you." Hope said frowning, as the phrase didn't have the desired affect on her mother.
Shana looked half-terrified and turned to face Dart. "Meru leaving was my fault." She said admitting it for the first time. "I told her she was always in the way, I told her to leave me alone and never come back. I told her that on our wedding day . . . that's why, I'm why she wasn't there." Shana stated sadly. Dart felt the anger flare up inside of him, and it was just as quickly replaced with pity.
The anger: it was Shana's fault, she told Meru to leave, and it was her fault that they had been too late to save Meru along with the rest of the winglies.
The pity: Shana knew this. Most likely had known it for years, and she had been the one to live with it. She had to live with the feeling of that guilt, with that heavy burden on her shoulders for years by now.
"Let's put that behind us." Dart said quietly. "We can always go to her shrine." The shrine was built in honour of all the winglies who had suddenly passed from the earth. The creation of it was a joint attempt by the three nations of Endiness, all though it was a shrine to all winglies, it had been dubbed, "Meru's Shrine." Also known as "The gateway to freedom," throughout the common lands, though none truly knew why.
"Mom, please don't cry!" Hope said sliding off of her father's shoulders and running the short distance to Shana embraced her mother lovingly.
"Let's get off for dinner then." Shana said wiping the tears from her eyes. "Emille has had to wait for the guest of honour long enough!"
"Who's the guest of honour?" Hope said taking a hand of each of her parents' and swinging her arms back and forth.
"You are Kido" Dart said smiling down at her. "We're having your party here today, so that we can head home tomorrow for you to be with your friends." He stopped to glance at Shana. "You'll be staying up all night, so I'm expecting for you to sleep on the road tomorrow." Hope beamed up at him as he thought: 'Oh Soa, please don't let me regret this!'
"Oh but you shall." The words were barely audible, and to Dart, it seemed like he was the only one to hear them. Perhaps he was only imagining it. Yes that was it! A fancy of the mind created in his worry. Shana was smirking at him, her eyes lit with glee. 'So it was Shana, some joke! She had me worried there.'
"So here's our birthday girl!" Albert said lifting Hope into the air while Jay stood behind him looking fairly jealous.
"Daddy!" Jay said running up to him and throwing her arms around his waist. Her ash blonde hair was cut at her chin and her sapphire blue eyes glared at Hope as she stuck her tongue out at the girl. Hope and Jay usually got along fine, Jay however was five, still a child. More so than Hope was at least.
"Let's get dinner started." Emille said sweetly. "Dear me, where has Haschal gotten to?"
"I saw him sleeping in the wine cellar." Miranda said walking past them and down the stairs, Miranda's shouts were heard a moment later. "WAKE UP YOU LAZY ASS!!" There was a pause in which either Miranda had to catch her breath, which was unlikely, or she was listening to Haschal, which was almost as unlikely. "YOU'RE DRUNK! IT'S YOUR GRANDAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY AND YOU'RE FUCKING DRUNK!!!" Her voice echoed throughout the palace corridors.
Emille placed her hands over Jay's ears when Miranda began her rampage. "Perhaps we should seat ourselves?" Shana asked trying to direct Hope's attention away from the swearing. The moment after everyone was seated about the table, Kongol taking up two spots; Miranda came up the stairs, half dragging Haschal behind her.
It took a few minutes, but eventually everybody was sitting in a chair tucking into the excellently prepared meal. The cook was leaning on the doorframe with a look of satisfaction on his face that everybody was content. A few servants whisked about refilling wine and juice glasses. Everyone seemed to be happy. Even Jay who seemed to have forgotten that she was mad at Hope and was blabbering on about her favourite toy this week.
"When are we going home?" Hope asked looking at Dart who had to swallow down a mouthful of potatoes to be able to answer her.
"Albert's had arrangements made, we'll travel to Seles by coach." He said smartly. "I mean carriage!" He corrected himself as he met Shana's glare.
"Wow!" Hope exclaimed. "That's gonna be so cool!" Hope said getting up from her chair she ran to the head of the table and hugged Albert as tightly as she could. Upon that Jay remembered their not so long dead quarrel and decided she was still mad.
"Is everybody finished?" Emille asked rising from her seat. In turn everyone nodded and she gave and hand signal to the servants who came to clear the table.
"There's presents for you in the foyer." Haschal said following a series of hiccups.
"Really?" Hope asked not wanting to get there and find that he was teasing her.
"Presents big, I seen them." Kongol said speaking up for the first time since dinner started.
"If Kongol says they're big, then they must be huge." Miranda said winking at Jay, who burst into a series of giggles. Shana frowned at the blonde's remark, as did Albert, and Kongol . . . well Kongol didn't seem to understand.
"You sounded like Meru there." Albert whispered to her as they made their way to the foyer, the two of them had managed to fall behind in order to talk.
"She was always better with kids than the rest of us." Miranda replied with a soft sigh. "I think we've all been thinking about her a lot lately."
"Shana seems upset by it all." Albert said voicing his thought on the matter.
"Well let's leave it at that and not ruin the kid's birthday." Miranda said quickening her pace. Everyone was soon cramped into the foyer, which wasn't that small, but everyone was trying to cramp as closely as they could towards Hope and her tower of presents.
The next two hours were spent laughing as Hope and Jay began to play with a set of dolls that Emille had given to Hope. "Hope, come one, you've got one left." Dart said calling her over to him. Shana glanced up at the clock, not long until midnight now, she'd have to get Hope into bed soon, and she was sure Emille was thinking the same about Jay.
A cold wind blew through the room as Hope took the package from Dart's fingertips. The room's temperature seemed to drop by several degrees, and things happened more slowly. Another gust of wind blew through the wind, and words came with it: 'Find the seven, or the world well suffer a most terrible death.' It was quickly apparent that only the current dragoons had heard the voice on the wind, and there wasn't room for doubt on whose voice it had been. They all recognized it instantly as Rose's.
Hope slowly slipped a single finger under the tape and began to peel it off. Like everyone else in the room, she too knew there was something different about this gift. Carefully removing the paper revealed a light gray silk pouch, as soon as their eyes had been laid on it, the dragoons all knew what it was, and so did Emille.
Dart didn't know why, but for some reason he wanted to snatch the pouch from her hands and throw it as far away as he could, but he found he couldn't move. His muscles though they never had before, were failing him now. And time seemed to stop for him. He didn't move, didn't blink, didn't breath. The only thing that happened was that Hope opened the pouch and let the smooth black stone roll out, onto her hand.
Many things happened in a very short period of time. First the clock struck midnight, and at the sound of it, or so it seemed, the dragoon spirits started to resognate. At first they all let out a bright glow of their respective colours. That only lasted a moment however, as the darkness overtook the rest. Everything went black, and when the light re- entered their vision they noticed a change in Hope. Her brown eyes now were outlined with red.
"A body of my own." Hope said flexing her hand. She stared at it as if the simple movement puzzled her. "I knew when the moon child failed me . . ." She shot a glance at Shana. "That I would have to risk, everything that I am, to do it myself."
"Dear Soa . . ." Haschal said starring wide-eyed at the body that only a moment ago had belonged to his granddaughter.
"Foolish mortal, you don't even know how true your words are!" She snapped at him. "It won't be long now before I'm through with this measly planet! Not long before I can make my own!"
"Get out of my daughter Soa!" Dart said as he drew out his sword.
"Not now!" She said happily. "Not now that I've completely ridden the world of the wingly scum, the only ones strong enough to oppose me. Your world is mine!" She started to radiate of a deadly black glow. The floor around her buckled outward, preventing Dart or anyone else from stopping her.
It was quite apparent to everyone in the room that they were all about to die and all that all they cold do was pray for a miracle. What they didn't know, was that their prayer would be answered. A bright green glow ignited from within them, challenging the black glow, but not overcoming it. There was a blinding flash of light and Dart shut his eyes tightly in pain. When he and the others looked about them, they were no longer in Bale.
"That was wingly magic." Emille said quietly.
"I'd like to be able to believe so, but you heard her." Miranda said glancing over at Shana. "The bitch already whipped out the winglies."
"Yes, that she did." For the first time they noticed a girl who stood in front of them. She had crimson red eyes; her silver hair was pinned up in a bun with a few strands in her face.
"You're a wingly?" Albert asked sounding amazed.
"No, I'm not a wingly." She replied, she then answered his next question before he asked it. "You don't need to be a wingly to look like one, you don't need to be a wingly to use wingly magic." She stopped smirking at the look of amazement on his face. "And for your next question, my name, it's Kirai." She said turning away from them and starting to walk away.
"Bale, gone?" Kongol asked grasping an idea the others were afraid to.
"Yes, Bale is gone." Kirai said and as if she had remembered something she reached into her pocket and pulled out the red eye dragoon spirit. "Jay I want you to have this, it won't accept you yet, it'll take a while to get over me." She said with a laugh, but then changed very serious. "Don't let anyone take it away from you, not your parents, not anyone. You understand?"
Jay nodded her head and pocketed the stone. "How do you know my name?"
"That's to long of a story for tonight." Kirai said changing the subject.
*~*
There's chapter two for you! Hope that you enjoy it. Please give me any suggestions you have for this fic, and please don't get mad at me if I don't use your suggestion, I promise I will have considered it.
*~* Chapter One Dropped Illusions *~*
"Hey Mom!" Hope shouted towards an aggravated looking Shana Field. "Mom where are you going?"
Hearing her daughter's voice Shana snapped out of the trance like state she always went into while worrying and snapped back into reality. She spun on her heel until she was facing Dart and Hope. "Do you know how worried I've been?" She demanded. "The two of you have been gone for hours!" She said scolding.
"I'm sorry Mom!" Hope said earnestly, hoping that her mother would forgive her. "Dad and I were just out in Mrs. Slambert's field! We started talking, I wish I got to meet Meru. I'd give her a big hug and say thank you." Hope said frowning, as the phrase didn't have the desired affect on her mother.
Shana looked half-terrified and turned to face Dart. "Meru leaving was my fault." She said admitting it for the first time. "I told her she was always in the way, I told her to leave me alone and never come back. I told her that on our wedding day . . . that's why, I'm why she wasn't there." Shana stated sadly. Dart felt the anger flare up inside of him, and it was just as quickly replaced with pity.
The anger: it was Shana's fault, she told Meru to leave, and it was her fault that they had been too late to save Meru along with the rest of the winglies.
The pity: Shana knew this. Most likely had known it for years, and she had been the one to live with it. She had to live with the feeling of that guilt, with that heavy burden on her shoulders for years by now.
"Let's put that behind us." Dart said quietly. "We can always go to her shrine." The shrine was built in honour of all the winglies who had suddenly passed from the earth. The creation of it was a joint attempt by the three nations of Endiness, all though it was a shrine to all winglies, it had been dubbed, "Meru's Shrine." Also known as "The gateway to freedom," throughout the common lands, though none truly knew why.
"Mom, please don't cry!" Hope said sliding off of her father's shoulders and running the short distance to Shana embraced her mother lovingly.
"Let's get off for dinner then." Shana said wiping the tears from her eyes. "Emille has had to wait for the guest of honour long enough!"
"Who's the guest of honour?" Hope said taking a hand of each of her parents' and swinging her arms back and forth.
"You are Kido" Dart said smiling down at her. "We're having your party here today, so that we can head home tomorrow for you to be with your friends." He stopped to glance at Shana. "You'll be staying up all night, so I'm expecting for you to sleep on the road tomorrow." Hope beamed up at him as he thought: 'Oh Soa, please don't let me regret this!'
"Oh but you shall." The words were barely audible, and to Dart, it seemed like he was the only one to hear them. Perhaps he was only imagining it. Yes that was it! A fancy of the mind created in his worry. Shana was smirking at him, her eyes lit with glee. 'So it was Shana, some joke! She had me worried there.'
"So here's our birthday girl!" Albert said lifting Hope into the air while Jay stood behind him looking fairly jealous.
"Daddy!" Jay said running up to him and throwing her arms around his waist. Her ash blonde hair was cut at her chin and her sapphire blue eyes glared at Hope as she stuck her tongue out at the girl. Hope and Jay usually got along fine, Jay however was five, still a child. More so than Hope was at least.
"Let's get dinner started." Emille said sweetly. "Dear me, where has Haschal gotten to?"
"I saw him sleeping in the wine cellar." Miranda said walking past them and down the stairs, Miranda's shouts were heard a moment later. "WAKE UP YOU LAZY ASS!!" There was a pause in which either Miranda had to catch her breath, which was unlikely, or she was listening to Haschal, which was almost as unlikely. "YOU'RE DRUNK! IT'S YOUR GRANDAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY AND YOU'RE FUCKING DRUNK!!!" Her voice echoed throughout the palace corridors.
Emille placed her hands over Jay's ears when Miranda began her rampage. "Perhaps we should seat ourselves?" Shana asked trying to direct Hope's attention away from the swearing. The moment after everyone was seated about the table, Kongol taking up two spots; Miranda came up the stairs, half dragging Haschal behind her.
It took a few minutes, but eventually everybody was sitting in a chair tucking into the excellently prepared meal. The cook was leaning on the doorframe with a look of satisfaction on his face that everybody was content. A few servants whisked about refilling wine and juice glasses. Everyone seemed to be happy. Even Jay who seemed to have forgotten that she was mad at Hope and was blabbering on about her favourite toy this week.
"When are we going home?" Hope asked looking at Dart who had to swallow down a mouthful of potatoes to be able to answer her.
"Albert's had arrangements made, we'll travel to Seles by coach." He said smartly. "I mean carriage!" He corrected himself as he met Shana's glare.
"Wow!" Hope exclaimed. "That's gonna be so cool!" Hope said getting up from her chair she ran to the head of the table and hugged Albert as tightly as she could. Upon that Jay remembered their not so long dead quarrel and decided she was still mad.
"Is everybody finished?" Emille asked rising from her seat. In turn everyone nodded and she gave and hand signal to the servants who came to clear the table.
"There's presents for you in the foyer." Haschal said following a series of hiccups.
"Really?" Hope asked not wanting to get there and find that he was teasing her.
"Presents big, I seen them." Kongol said speaking up for the first time since dinner started.
"If Kongol says they're big, then they must be huge." Miranda said winking at Jay, who burst into a series of giggles. Shana frowned at the blonde's remark, as did Albert, and Kongol . . . well Kongol didn't seem to understand.
"You sounded like Meru there." Albert whispered to her as they made their way to the foyer, the two of them had managed to fall behind in order to talk.
"She was always better with kids than the rest of us." Miranda replied with a soft sigh. "I think we've all been thinking about her a lot lately."
"Shana seems upset by it all." Albert said voicing his thought on the matter.
"Well let's leave it at that and not ruin the kid's birthday." Miranda said quickening her pace. Everyone was soon cramped into the foyer, which wasn't that small, but everyone was trying to cramp as closely as they could towards Hope and her tower of presents.
The next two hours were spent laughing as Hope and Jay began to play with a set of dolls that Emille had given to Hope. "Hope, come one, you've got one left." Dart said calling her over to him. Shana glanced up at the clock, not long until midnight now, she'd have to get Hope into bed soon, and she was sure Emille was thinking the same about Jay.
A cold wind blew through the room as Hope took the package from Dart's fingertips. The room's temperature seemed to drop by several degrees, and things happened more slowly. Another gust of wind blew through the wind, and words came with it: 'Find the seven, or the world well suffer a most terrible death.' It was quickly apparent that only the current dragoons had heard the voice on the wind, and there wasn't room for doubt on whose voice it had been. They all recognized it instantly as Rose's.
Hope slowly slipped a single finger under the tape and began to peel it off. Like everyone else in the room, she too knew there was something different about this gift. Carefully removing the paper revealed a light gray silk pouch, as soon as their eyes had been laid on it, the dragoons all knew what it was, and so did Emille.
Dart didn't know why, but for some reason he wanted to snatch the pouch from her hands and throw it as far away as he could, but he found he couldn't move. His muscles though they never had before, were failing him now. And time seemed to stop for him. He didn't move, didn't blink, didn't breath. The only thing that happened was that Hope opened the pouch and let the smooth black stone roll out, onto her hand.
Many things happened in a very short period of time. First the clock struck midnight, and at the sound of it, or so it seemed, the dragoon spirits started to resognate. At first they all let out a bright glow of their respective colours. That only lasted a moment however, as the darkness overtook the rest. Everything went black, and when the light re- entered their vision they noticed a change in Hope. Her brown eyes now were outlined with red.
"A body of my own." Hope said flexing her hand. She stared at it as if the simple movement puzzled her. "I knew when the moon child failed me . . ." She shot a glance at Shana. "That I would have to risk, everything that I am, to do it myself."
"Dear Soa . . ." Haschal said starring wide-eyed at the body that only a moment ago had belonged to his granddaughter.
"Foolish mortal, you don't even know how true your words are!" She snapped at him. "It won't be long now before I'm through with this measly planet! Not long before I can make my own!"
"Get out of my daughter Soa!" Dart said as he drew out his sword.
"Not now!" She said happily. "Not now that I've completely ridden the world of the wingly scum, the only ones strong enough to oppose me. Your world is mine!" She started to radiate of a deadly black glow. The floor around her buckled outward, preventing Dart or anyone else from stopping her.
It was quite apparent to everyone in the room that they were all about to die and all that all they cold do was pray for a miracle. What they didn't know, was that their prayer would be answered. A bright green glow ignited from within them, challenging the black glow, but not overcoming it. There was a blinding flash of light and Dart shut his eyes tightly in pain. When he and the others looked about them, they were no longer in Bale.
"That was wingly magic." Emille said quietly.
"I'd like to be able to believe so, but you heard her." Miranda said glancing over at Shana. "The bitch already whipped out the winglies."
"Yes, that she did." For the first time they noticed a girl who stood in front of them. She had crimson red eyes; her silver hair was pinned up in a bun with a few strands in her face.
"You're a wingly?" Albert asked sounding amazed.
"No, I'm not a wingly." She replied, she then answered his next question before he asked it. "You don't need to be a wingly to look like one, you don't need to be a wingly to use wingly magic." She stopped smirking at the look of amazement on his face. "And for your next question, my name, it's Kirai." She said turning away from them and starting to walk away.
"Bale, gone?" Kongol asked grasping an idea the others were afraid to.
"Yes, Bale is gone." Kirai said and as if she had remembered something she reached into her pocket and pulled out the red eye dragoon spirit. "Jay I want you to have this, it won't accept you yet, it'll take a while to get over me." She said with a laugh, but then changed very serious. "Don't let anyone take it away from you, not your parents, not anyone. You understand?"
Jay nodded her head and pocketed the stone. "How do you know my name?"
"That's to long of a story for tonight." Kirai said changing the subject.
*~*
There's chapter two for you! Hope that you enjoy it. Please give me any suggestions you have for this fic, and please don't get mad at me if I don't use your suggestion, I promise I will have considered it.