Still in her nightgown, she got up, and padded out in front of the stairs. She peeked into the dining room to see everyone enjoying breakfast, all save her husband and Albert.
She turned and snuck up the stairs.
She heard faint voices coming from the King's study. She inched over to the door, and found it slightly ajar.
She immediately recognized both voices that emanated from within. Dart and Albert.
"Your dream changed too?" Albert asked.
"Yeah, it said that this 'Specter of the Past' that she brought back to life would be coming soon," Dart replied.
"Same here. But, this thing going on with the Divine Children has me stumped," Albert said.
"How?" Dart asked.
"Something inside me tells me to search for them," Albert answered. "It's a feeling I get in the pit of my stomach that tells me to find them or something ominous will happen."
"But, the way the Divine Daughter has appeared in our dreams, does that mean we'll meet her first?" Dart asked.
"Maybe, I don't know," Albert repsonded. "But, I have decided it is necessary to search for them."
"I don't think that's right..." Albert said.
"Why?" Dart asked.
"There's no telling how long that will take. You know you have an obligation as a husband and as a soon-to-be-father to be by Shana's side when she has the baby," Albert said.
"I know, that's a promise I intend to keep," Dart said.
"A promise?" Albert asked. "You promised? Have you told her?"
"No. It's a promise to myself. But, maybe I should tell her to make it a promise to her, also." Dart said.
"A wise decision," Albert knocked on the oak table with his hand. "In the meantime, let's find out where to look for these Divine Children. Then, after Shana has the baby, we'll go."
"Sounds good," Dart said, rising to his feet. "But, right now, I'm gonna go check on Shana. She was sleepin' like a hibernation bear when I got up earlier. Just between you and me, I kinda hope she's still asleep. She'll let me have it for not waking me up earlier."
"Why is that?" Albert asked.
"She hates waking up by herself. It makes her feel lonely," Dart replied.
Shana heard footsteps nearing the door. She backed up.
Dart opened the door and saw her. "Hey, Hon, good morning."
"I was looking for you," Shana said.
"You were? How long have you been up?" Dart asked.
"Not long," Shana said. "Why didn't you wake me when you got up? You know I hate waking up by myself."
Dart scratched the back of his head. "Sorry."
Shana crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't you have something to say to me?"
Dart looked confused.
"I heard the conversation between you and Albert," Shana said. Dart looked shocked. "Don't you have something to say to me that just involves you, me, and our unborn baby?"
"Um..." Dart trailed off. He obviously didn't know how to word what he was going to say.
Shana smiled. "It's okay. I know you promise things to yourself everyday and don't keep them. But, I know from what kind of person you are, you are a very dedicated man in what you do, so I know any promise dealing with your family you'll keep."
Dart smiled. "I know...I try so hard to be the perfect husband, but..."
"No! I don't want you to try to be the perfect husband! No one's perfect, Dart. No one has or ever will be. So, I don't want you to try to be something you're not. Just be...you. I'm content with that." Shana said.
"Okay..." Dart said.
"Aww...it's a Kodak Moment."
Shana smiled. "Good morning, Albert."
"Are you going to stay in your nightgown all day?" Dart asked.
"If we're not going anywhere, yes," Shana answered, playing with her flannel nightgown.
Dart made a face.
"Oh, come on! I haven't ran around in my nightgown since I was little," Shana said. "Don't you remember coming over to my house in the middle of the day and I'd still be in my nightgown?"
"Yeah, I remember that," Dart said. "Me coming over and you being so embarrassed about it, you'd runinto your bedroom and change."
Shana blushed. "Well, that was when I was little."
"Exactly!" Dart said. "You're not little anymore. Please, go and change."
Shana pouted. "It's uncomfortable trying to change."
Dart folded his arms across his chest. "I've been in very uncomfortable situations before, Shana."
She glared at him. "You haven't been uncomfortable until you're nearly nine months pregnant!"
"Oooo," Albert said. "I'd like to see you beat that one, Dart."
Dart looked over at the King. "Albert..."
"Dart, I'm gonna have a baby in the not-to-distant future, so let me be a little carefree before I take on the responsibility of an adult mother," Shana said.
Dart sighed. "All right."
"You know, DArt, she shouldn't have to ask permission," Albert chided.
"I know," Dart said. "Then why do you raise Cain when I don't ask?" Shana asked.
Dart bit his lip. "I don't know..."
It was around noon. Shana had changed into a loose-fitting, blue-checkered maternity dress. Dart snuck up behind her and slipped his arms around her, to rest on her stomach. This action startled her, and at first, she didn't know who it was."
"I'm gonna be a daddy," Dart said in a singsong voice. Shana smiled.
"And I'm gonna be a mommy," she turned her head so she looked at him. "Can you just imagine a little two year old running down the hall at our house calling, 'Mommy! Daddy!'?"
"Almost," Dart smiled. Suddenly, the ground began to shake. It happen in spurts, like something was dropping bombs on the city. "What the-?" He ran up the stairs into the Throne Room. "Albert!!"
He reached the top of the stairs and found Albert, Emille, and Claira on the balcony adjacent to the Throne Room. "What's goin' on?"
Albert turned to Dart. "It appears we're under attack, but by what?"
Emille pointed. "Look! It's a Wingly!"
Albert whirled around. "There are more of them! We're under attack by Winglies?"
"No! I know Winglies! They're not like this!" Claira said, thinking of Guaraha.
Meru suddenly appeared; she flew right up to the balcony. "Wait! Those aren't the same Winglies from my village. Look at their clothing. And besides, I know everyone in my village. I don't recognize any of those Winglies."
Erisi ran up to join them. "What's going on? Are we under attack?"
"Yes, Erisi!" Albert said, drawing his spear. "I want you to stay here and guard my family and Shana. Will you do that?"
Erisi nodded. "Yes...you will fight the Winglies?"
Dart nodded. "Of course. The Humans need the Dragoons now."
The Dragoons, and Claira departed for battle. With Emille and Shana inside the castle, Erisi remained momentarily on the balcony. She laid her hands on the stone railing. "Perfect..." she whispered, closing her eyes, "the specter is about to arrive."
Dart ran out along with Albert, Haschel, Kongol, Meru,and Claira. Claira had tagged along disregarding anything anyone else had to say. She claimed herself to be a master of the Martial Arts. Haschel had his doubts.
"So she says she's a master of the Martial Arts, huh! I doubt it seriously," Haschel said to himself. Phoenix landed on Haschel's shoulder.
"That's what I say, old man. I call her a 'Self-proclaimed master of the Martial Arts by her own definition'." Phoenix said.
Haschel just looked at the strange winged creature.
"Haschel! C'mon!" Dart called.
The group advanced out to where the Winglies were most congregated.
Dart unsheathed his sword. About a dozen Winglies landed onto the ground in front of them.
The leader sneered. "Humans. What a bunch of wingless, magic less, no-good trash."
Dart narrowed his eyes. He ignored the comment.
The leader called to a Wingly behind him. "Klarn!"
A shorter Wingly stepped forward. "Yes sir?"
"You are my strongest magical soldier below myself. If and when you find the King of Serdio, kill him!" The leader commanded.
Dart slid unnoticed in front of Albert. "If you honestly think you're going to pull some sort of coup de'tat on our Kingdom of Serdio, you have another thing coming!"
"You have your orders!" The leader snapped.
"Yes, General Repard!" Klarn said.
Haschel leaned over to Albert and whispered, "What made the Winglies so aggressive all of a sudden? Why have they attacked us Humans out of the clear blue like this?"
Albert shrugged. "I don't know."
Dart was unyielding to the Winglies. "Leave our country, Winglies!"
General Repard ignored the command.
One of the soldiers in the back piped up. "What makes the Humans think they're so bold?"
Another Wingly whirled around and reprimanded the lower-ranking Wingly. "Shut your trap, Private! General Repard didn't give you permission to talk!"
"Yes sir! I beg your pardon, Captain," the Private said.
"At ease, Blian, my second-in-command," Repard said.
Dart was losing his patience with the Winglies. "Why are you here?"
Repard returned Dart's glare. "This is my command, my Winglies! On my mark, you are to attack and destroy every Human in this city. The King is bound to be here, taking that Princess Lisa's Coming of Age happened enough time in the past for him to return to Indels castle. All of you may destroy any Human, but save the King for the magical assassin, Klarn, and save the one in red armor for myself."
Repard just stared at Dart. He raised his hand. "On my mark, get set, and..."
"WAIT!"
Repard froze. "Huh?"
Claira ran up. "Why are you doing this? The Winglies I know wouldn't have even thought of doing such a thing!"
Blian glared at Claira. "Huh! What would you know, Human? A creature like yourself would never be able to get along with Winglies!"
"You lie!" Claira exclaimed.
"Explain yourself, trash," Blian said.
"I spent five years of my life in a Wingly Forest! In those five years I Never aged and I also became best friends with two Winglies!" Claira said.
"It's only two!" Blian spat. "Two worthless Winglies who will eventually be turned around to see our point of view or be terminated."
"NO!" Claira exclaimed.
"They will be terminated, like you are to be now," Blian pointed a hand at her.
"You will do no such thing!" Meru flew in.
Blian took a step back. "A Wingly girl? Coexisting with Humans?"
"That's right!" Meru said. "You will not hurt my friend!" She stood in front of Claira.
"Then you shall die as well!" Blian fired strong magic power at Meru. Before it hit her, Meru's Dragoon Spirit reacted to the impending danger and resonated, sending out waves of protective magic to counterattack the Wingly's magic.
"Wha-what is that?" Blian asked.
"My Blue Sea Dragon Dragoon Spirit," Meru replied. "As you see, I am one of the legendary Dragoons."
"A Dragoon?!" Repard exclaimed. "The Dragoons were the ones who defeated Melbu Frahma twice!"
"Got that right bud," Meru said. The resonating stopped.
Repard's hand shot back up. "On my mark..." He dropped his hand. "Attack!"
The Winglies flew in, like a midsummer's breeze. General Repard attacked with a broad sword, similar to Dart's.
Albert faced one, Haschel faced one, and Kongol took on two, while Claira and Meru shard one.
"Kongol has hard time with people that fly," Kongol said, missing another swipe with his axe.
Albert knocked his opponent to the ground. "Take a gander over at Dart. He's got it worse."
"Um...I was just thinking Albert," Haschel knocked his opponent near senseless with a punch to the head. "That young 'un, Klarn, or whatever, the assassin. If he's supposed to kill the King, where do you think he'll look first?"
Albert's faced became alarmed. "No! the castle!"
"Little late to go back now," Haschel said. "Maybe we could send Meru, or somethin'."
"I'll take care of it," Albert said. His Dragoon Spirit started to resonate.
"I don't think so!" The Wingly had pulled himself up off the ground and ripped the Dragoon Spirit from Albert. Albert gasped. The Wingly grinned wickedly. "So, you're the King of Serdio...oh well. Since that dolt Klarn ain't here, I guess I'll finish the job for him."
Haschel's fight carried him away from Albert's conflict.
Dart shoved Repard to the ground.
Albert's opponent tripped Albert with a swift move. Albert hit the ground hard, riveted to the spot by a sword point to his throat.
Dart looked over at the pair. "Albert!!" Before he could do anything, Repard jumped onto Dart from behind, throwing his arms around Dart's neck, choking him. Dart flipped him over. Repard hit his head hard on a rock, which stunned him for a while. Dart whirled around to help Albert, but it was too late.
"Die!!" The Wingly brought his sword up, rearing back to bring it back down to swiftly end the life of Albert, King of Serdio.
Suddenly, the Wingly froze, his eyes staring off into space over Albert's head. Letting his eyes shift downward, Albert noticed that the Wingly had been impaled by...a spear. Albert gasped.
Dart whirled around to face the savior of Albert. A look of shock drew itself onto his features. "My god...it can't be..."
Albert pushed the body of the dead Wingly off of him. He looked up. And he saw a blonde haired young man. "That can't be... No, that's impossible!"
The young man relaxed, and looked from Albert to Dart several times. Dart saw past the van dyke the young man had grown on his face and saw whom it really was.
"Lavitz?" Dart asked. "Lavitz Slambert?"
The young man grinned a cocky grin that was so familiar to the name. "Yes. I am surprised you actually remembered my last name, Dart."
Dart smiled. Lavitz walked over and helped Albert up. Before anything else could occur, Lavitz saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he called, "Dart! Behind you!"
Dart whirled around to see Repard, holding his sword up, ready to strike.
"Die, Human!" Repard yelled.
As he struck down, a young woman with platinum blonde hair like Erisi's tackled Dart. The woman rolled off him when they hit the ground. Repard's sword hit the ground and it's point buried itself into the ground between Dart's legs.
Dart looked down. "Whoa! That's hitting a little below the belt!" He shifted and rolled out of the way.
Infuriated beyond words, Repard pulled his sword out of the ground, and prepared to slash down on the defenseless young woman. Before he could do such a thing, however, Lavitz was on him in a flash. Lavitz, with his hand around Repard's neck, raised him above his head.
"Don't you ever even have a whim to do that again!" Lavitz was obviously madder than Repard was previously. He threw the General to the ground.
The General jumped up. "Retreat!!"
He flew up into the air, followed by six other Winglies. Four Wingly soldier had fallen. One was kiled by Kongol, one by Haschel, one by Meru and Claira, and of course, the one by Lavitz.
"What? You're running away like a coward?" Lavitz taunted.
Repard glared at him. "A man who fights and runs away lives to fight another day." And with that, he and his six remaining followers left.
Lavitz looked to Dart and then to Albert. "I guess all's well now."
"Yeah," Dart said.
Lavitz walked over and kneeled in front of Albert.
Albert looked down at Lavitz and held a fake annoyance in his voice. "Oh, get up."
Lavitz complied. Albert threw his arms around Lavitz's shoulders and hugged him.
"I missed you, my First Knight," Albert said.
Lavitz smiled and hugged Dart as well.
"You know I missed you," Dart said. "I was about to tear Lloyd apart with my bear hands when he killed you."
"I realize that," Lavitz said. He looked around. "Where's Shana?"
Albert's face went ashen. "Oh god...the castle! That assassin was meant to assassinate me! He thinks I'm in my castle!"
"Their orders were to kill everyone in the city..." Meru said.
"Shana!" Dart took off towards the castle in a dead run. Albert and Lavitz had no trouble keeping up.
Dart burst into the castle. He heard screams come from the Throne Room. Hurrying up the stairs, followed closely by Lavitz and Albert, they piled into the Throne Room. Klarn had Queen Emille, her son, and Shana corner in a far corner of the room. Erisi stood in front of the others, protecting them. Klarn stood in front of them, wielding an iron spike. Even in front of danger, Erisi showed no signs of fear.
He pulled the spike back to strike, but Phoenix flew up and buried his small, but incredibly sharp fangs into the hand of Klarn. He dropped the spike and it hit the floor with a resounding clank. He threw Phoenix off, and Meru came up from behind him, tugging on him to get closer to the balcony adjacent to the Throne Room. He threw her off, but bumped into a large being. Whirling around, he came face-to-face with the biggest creature he had ever seen. Kongol. Angrily, Kongol picked him up by the head with one hand and effortlessly tossed him off the balcony. Not being on to react quickly, Klarn didn't use his wings and he hit the ground below with an almost sickening crunch.
Claira and Meru chanced a glance over the balcony edge.
"Oh, gross..." Claira had a sick look upon her face.
Meru shared the look. "I know...but, that just goes to show you don't mess with Kongol."
Dart was holding Shana in his arms. "Are you all right?"
"I was scared, Dart," Shana said.
"It's okay, I'm here now," he said, softly stroking the back of Shana's head.
"How have you been, Shana?" Lavitz asked.
Shana peeked over Dart's shoulder. "Who's that?"
"What? You don't recognized him?" Dart asked.
Shana shook her head.
"Oh, I'm hurt," Lavitz said sarcastically.
"That's the person who the Divine Daughter revived," Albert said. "It's Lavitz."
Shana looked shocked. "Lavitz?"
He got a good look at Shana. "Wow. Dart, when were you gonna tell me you were expecting?"
Dart made a face. "I'm not the one expecting anything. She is." He pointed to his wife.
Shana covered her mouth with a hand to stifle her giggles.
Lavitz rubbed his forehead with a hand. "Well, you know what I mean!"
Emille was busy trying to get her son to stop crying. Albert walked over to her and took him from her.
"Come on, Lav. Come to daddy," Albert said.
"'Come to daddy'?" Lavitz asked. "When did you have a baby? What's more, when did you get married?"
"I got married to this fine lady two years back. Lavitz here is nine months old."
"'Lavitz'?" Lavitz asked, smiling. "I'm flattered."
Prince Lavitz had stopped crying and was now playing with Albert's cape.
"I thought you might like that," Albert said.
Soft footsteps came up the stairs that led into the Throne Room. THe young blonde woman who saved Dart earlier peeked into the room. She slid in, keeping her hands behind her back. She stood there, unnoticed, until she spoke.
"You left me behind, Lavitz."
Lavitz turned around. "Deirdre." He walked over and put his arms around her. "I'm sorry."
"It's all right, but you know I couldn't just run after you," Deirdre said. "You know how physically weak I am."
"Is that your girlfriend, Lavitz?" Shana asked.
Lavitz turned back around. "You could say that. Everyone, this is Deirdre."
Deirdre waved shyly, and slid her arms around Lavitz's arm.
"Congrads, Lavitz, you got a girlfriend," Dart said. "That'll make your mom happy."
Lavitz smiled and blushed at the same time.