The group of three hit the trail the next morning, headed back in the
direction of Wyndia. Nina sighed, she would be in so much trouble when she
got back home, her father would probably ground her into the next
millennium. As they walked, Nina couldn't help but watch Ryu. He had
calmed down during the night, and finally realized he couldn't do anything
about the past, yet Nina couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She
realized what pain and loss he had had once Kray had told her their story.
The crater had been their hometown, but Imperials acting on orders had
burned it down. As she had listened to Kray's story, Nina grew to
understand the Imperials a bit more. They were even cruder and crueler
than that small band of soldiers had been to her, and she shivered at the
thought of her time spent in their captivity. Still, everything had turned
out all right and she had made some new friends, both whom were much more
polite than the Imperials had been.
Giggling to herself she wondered, "Perhaps daddy will let me keep them! I mean they did save my life and everything...Hehe this is interesting to say the least!"
Suddenly she heard Ryu snap behind her, "What's so funny?"
Nina stopped for a second; realizing she had started to giggle out loud and both Kray and Ryu had both stopped to ponder between themselves what she found amusing.
Nina flushed, a bit embarrassed that she had almost started talking to herself out loud, and replied to the two young men who had stopped to listen, "Err…um...nothing? Nothing at all, my mistake!"
She then put on the sweetest smile she could muster and giggled another girlish giggle.
Ryu sighed, thinking to himself as Nina smiled the sweetest smile she could muster, "What a DITZ! I wonder how the hell she even managed to survive capture by those Imperials…and now we're stuck with her until we can get her back where she belongs."
Grumbling a bit Ryu turned, only to see that Kray was actually smiling at Nina.
Ryu grimaced saying to Kray, "What's so amusing?"
Kray chuckled, replying, "She's cute and I think she likes you Ryu."
Sighing Ryu shook his head, replying, "My heart died the day Kira did...those damn Imperial assholes are going to pay for what they did, I swear it!"
Kray frowned a bit; Ryu had changed, he wasn't the smiling sixteen year old he remembered from so long ago, but then again, having your home destroyed and the love of your life possibly killed or worse can do that to a man. Kray couldn't help but feel sorry for his friend, but then that creeping sensation of his own guilt about not being able to save Faren came back. He remembered it very vividly as if it had only happened a day or so ago…
**Flames shot through the village; the heat was so intense, choking him, his heightened Woren sense of smell making it even harder to get a gasp of clean air. Suddenly he had heard a voice. It was Faren.
"Kray where are you? Come on answer me!"
Kray had responded through coughing fits, "I'm over here! In the corner of the kitchen!"
Faren had made it through the fires over to where his friend was huddled, coughing and wheezing from smoke inhalation.
"Here, rest on my shoulder I'm getting you out of here…" he had said.
Kray had nodded, and leaned on his friend for support as they fought their way out of the burning mass that had been their house. They had made it as far as the southern gate when it happened. With a roar a nearby building collapsed, its foundation destroyed by the fire. Faren had noticed it was coming down almost right on top of them and had pushed Kray away. Kray watched as the burning rubble crashed down on Faren, and he still remembered the scream that had escaped his own lips.
"FAREN! NOOOOOO!!!!"
Getting up he had desperately started to claw at the rubble trying to free his friend, when suddenly he heard him…he had heard Faren.
"Run Kray…don't look back," he had said.
Kray had protested but the voice almost screamed in his ears, "NOW! Live to avenge me!"
Kray, choking back tears, complied and had stumbled out of the gate, passing out from exhaustion and pain from the small singes and burns on his coat. However, before he had slipped into darkness, he saw one thing that had terrified him even more than the fire. He had heard the roar and then the massive flames of...a Dragon…then blackness enveloped him. **
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kray snapped out of his trance almost immediately as the memories plunged into the darkness of his mind. Shaking his head, he felt the guilt of being unable to save his friends and his family...how everything he had known and loved was gone again. It had always been like that, ever since his parents had died and Faren's mother had adopted him. Now, he was alone again, sure he had found Ryu, but that was small solace for the countless lives that had been lost that night. Just like Ryu, he to thirsted for revenge, but his revenge was not like Ryu's, his revenge was more a blood lust. He felt like he had to spill every Imperials blood, make them pay the ultimate price, even if he damned himself for doing so. Grimacing, he fought back the darkness that enveloped his soul as he thought about the joys he had felt as he had mercilessly slaughtered those Imperials who had attacked Nina. "True," he thought, he needed more blood, but now wasn't the time or the place to get all moody, especially with Ryu the way he was. Last thing he wanted was Nina thinking he too was nuts. The three companions walked along quietly for a while, each enveloped in their own thoughts.
The one who thoughts were most jumbled was Ryu's and as he walked he wondered to himself, "What am I...where do I come from?"
Sighing he looked up, quite unnerved by the silence of his two other companions. Nodding to himself he decided to at least start a conversation with one of them, even if it was with that ditz Nina. Sighing he walked up alongside Nina who had been seemed to be...skipping.
Ryu chuckled a small bit, and said to her, "At least one of us seems to be in a good mood."
Nina seemed to jump a bit, seemingly startled by his sudden talkativeness.
She shrugged, and looked over at Ryu saying, "Yeah well, its not everyday I meet a couple of people like you two…just excited that's all."
Ryu sighed, "yeah sure…but you shouldn't get involved with us…me and my friend are not exactly out here on a mission of good will…"
Nina sighed a bit, then nodded saying, "Yeah I noticed that by how your friend mercilessly took out those Imperials, but I've never been big on them as well. Too greedy and ambitious, even their ambassadors seem…evil."
Ryu raised an eyebrow in sudden surprise.
"Did you just say…ambassadors?" he asked.
Nina flushed, knowing she had slipped out something damning to whom she really was as only people of royalty associated with ambassadors.
"Er, no…um perhaps…" she replied, but as she met Ryu's piercing gaze, she sighed and nodded saying, "Yes, I said ambassadors…"
Ryu grimaced, replying, "You're Princess Nina of Wyndia aren't you?"
Nina nodded sullenly.
Ryu sighed, murmuring; "Shit…we're in deep trouble now…"
Kray who had heard Ryu mutter that walked up to his friend and said, "What's the matter?"
Ryu nodded to Nina who was now looking down, drawing circles in the sand with her foot bashfully.
Kray chuckled and turning back to his friend said, "You didn't say something embarrassing to her did you?"
Ryu rolled his eyes, replying, "Far from it, in fact it's worse than that, we're carrying royalty here, she's Princess of Wyndia."
Kray's jaw dropped and he pointed at her, "S…s she's PRINCESS Nina???"
Nina grinned a bit, nervous, embarrassed and utterly at loss for words. Kray stood there quietly rubbing his chin.
"Hmm…" he pondered out loud, "How WILL we have to explain this…"
Ryu shrugged a bit, rather at a loss as well saying, "I don't know, I mean, I've never been in this situation before…"
Kray nodded knowingly, and then sighed heavily, "well she is safer with us, if we let her go, she might be captured by the Imperials again, you never know how useful a magic user might be to those scum…"
Before Ryu could reply Nina jumped up cheerfully.
"Fine then it's settled I go with you guys back to Wyndia!"
Ryu stammered a bit, "B…But…I'm not sure…" Nina grinned and winked at him.
"What's wrong Dragon boy?" she asked, "not used to having a cute, intelligent, beautiful, not to mention sexy bird following you around for a day or so?"
Ryu balked a bit at what she said, it had sounded almost exactly like how Kira had teased him back then.
Wincing uncomfortably, Ryu relented, "alright, we take her back home…I mean what could go wrong?"
He had no clue how wrong things were about to get.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The journey back to Wyndia took only a day or so from their position from where they had stopped to camp. As they entered the main gates of the city, Ryu gaped. In five years the city had become a lot busier and bigger, to him it was absolutely amazing!
As they walked through the streets toward the palace Nina leaned on his shoulder, smiled and said, "looks like you like it…"
Ryu nodded a bit dumbly ignoring where she was, "yeah well, I only came here once in awhile when I was little…my grandma brought me here…"
Nina nodded a bit, "we had to expand a bit, many other Wyndian colonies were getting raided by the Empire during the five years you were asleep as a Dragon…" she said quietly.
"My dad has only tolerated such behavior because he knows we are no match for the Empire's superior militaristic advantage…"
Ryu shook his head quietly, the Empire was starting to make everyone's life miserable, and everything seemed glum. It was so emotionally draining on him to realize the Empire was more than just a big bully; it was a huge power front, seemingly bent on world destruction!
Growling through his teeth he replied, "We have to put an end to this! The Empire's gone too far…they all deserve to die!"
Nina and Kray just stood their looking at Ryu, as he had just shouted his words out loud. Not only that, but passerby's were all staring, gawking and whispering at the boy who had just openly challenged the Empire. Ryu realized what was going on and shrank back into his shirt muttering a soft; "sorry…"
Nina coughed and cleared her throat as everyone went to going back to their work around them, "Yes…well, unfortunately the Empire is ALL military, doing anything like that would be very unacceptable as it would provoke more and more attacks on outlying colonies than we have ever seen before. My father would be in a lot of hot water if that happened…that's why our arms are tied."
Ryu sighed- it just didn't seem fair. The odds were so stacked up against them that it looked very impossible that he would ever get the revenge he so yearned for. He wanted to make the Imperials pay with as much blood as was necessary to avenge himself and his town! Soon Kray, Nina and Ryu were in front of the gates to the Wyndian Royal Palace and Ryu forgot all current concerns about the Empire, in fact he was more concerned about the Kings reaction to their presence. Nervously Nina opened the door and walked in, the other two trotting in behind her. As Nina walked in the King immediately looked up, his face evidently showing surprise and happiness mixed together.
"Um…hi dad, I'm home…" Nina said quietly.
King Wyndia immediately ran from his throne and embraced her, letting out a small choke saying, "Oh Nina…when I got the notice you'd been kidnapped I grew so worried…"
"It's O.K. dad," said Nina, "I was in good hands…"
And with that Ryu and Kray stepped forward. Immediately King Wyndia looked up, seeing Ryu and Kray.
Looking them over his gaze became dark and dangerous, then with a terrific holler he yelled, "GUARDS! Seize them!"
On cue the guards came rushing forward, quickly surrounding and restraining Ryu and Kray.
Nina was horrified and yelled, "Father! What are you doing!?"
King Wyndia didn't reply, instead he thundered to five more guards, "take Princess Nina to her chambers, NOW!"
Struggling against the guards grip as she was led upstairs Nina cried out, "Ryu!!!"
Ryu hearing her plea tugged, pulled and twisted, but was unable to break free from the guard's iron hold on himself and Kray. Suddenly something heavy hit Ryu and Kray in the back of their heads. Everything went black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later Ryu woke up with a terrific headache. Groggily he looked around. What he saw brought him to consciousness very quickly. He and Kray were confined in a small cell, with a window that let in a very small amount of light. The bars on the cell were thick enough to withstand any amount of brute force and were obviously magical, as Ryu could see them pulse with magical energy. Ryu groaned and leaned against the wall, not only to nurse his headache, but also to ponder what their next move was. Looking over at Kray he noticed his friend was still out.
"They must have hit him harder…" he muttered.
He knew it took a lot of force to take out an almost fully matured Woren, and whatever they had been hit with was definitely not light. Ryu made a mental note to repay the favor to the guard once he got out. Taking the time, since he at the moment had nothing better to do, he quietly listened to the sound of water drip from the ceiling. Suddenly he heard a groan from behind him and realized Kray was coming to.
Ryu hurried over to his friend and said, "here lean on me, you've taken a VERY nasty knock to the head…"
Kray muttered something inaudible as he leaned against Ryu and Ryu nodded a bit, "don't worry buddy we'll get out of here…"
Examining the bars again, Ryu sighed. Spells would be useless, not to mention they probably had an anti-magic barrier around their cell.
"Mages aren't exactly the dumbest people around," he muttered, "but then, sometimes I wish they were…"
Sighing, he said to Kray, who was finally more aware of their surroundings and predicament, "any ideas?"
Kray sighed, got up from Ryu and rubbed the back of his neck which, like his pride was very sore right now, saying, "not a damn clue…looks we won't get out of this one very easily old buddy…"
Ryu swore. More time passed, and as the light started to fade from the window, Ryu's heart began to sink. It seemed they would be here for a very long time. Suddenly they heard commotion coming from the entrance to the dungeon. Yells and shouts of "Stop her! She's getting away!" reached their ears. Ryu's head immediately jerked up and as it did, the heavy iron door that stood between the dungeon and the castle was blasted of its hinges. It landed with a resounding thud a few feet away, and as it did a familiar face poked out around the corner. Ryu's face lit up, it was Nina!
Nina ran in quickly, smiled at Ryu and winked saying, "hi there yourself cutie!"
Ryu gawked. Had he heard her say that?! Nina giggled before turning to see Wyndian guards sprinting towards her, sighing she snapped her fingers, simply saying "Stop!" and immediately the guards froze.
Nina turned and grinned again at Ryu, "Persistent yes, I have to admit…took me forever to finally get away from them, magical wards all over this palace…"
Ryu nodded a bit, "Then how'd you"
Nina cut in saying, "Simple, breached the anti-magic field once I got the door down…" She smiled continuing, "anyways, looks like I'm doing the rescuing now…"
With that she pointed to the loc and muttered, "Open." With a click and a rusty squeak the lock obeyed opening the cell door and granting Ryu and Kray their freedom.
Brushing himself off Ryu looked at the guards, "How long will they stay frozen for?" he asked.
Nina giggled again, "probably for a couple of hours, not bad for an amateur hunh?"
Kray smiled, "Very impressive, now I suggest we get our weapons and get the hell out of here, no offense Nina, but your dad has lousy guest rooms and I'd rather not be invited to stay again!"
Nina smiled a bit and nodded pointing down the hall she had come from.
"This way to your weapons!"
Running down the hall they met with very little resistance, the guards knocked unconscious by a very angry Kray and Ryu's fists. Soon they came to the storage room. Breaking in they quickly retrieved Kray's knives and Ryu's katana that he had picked up earlier.
Quickly sheathing the katana behind his back Ryu said, "Right let's get going before anyone else comes to claim us…"
Nina and Kray nodded back and they quickly sprinted into the main chamber. As they mad a beeline for the main door a voice boomed,
"HALT!"
The group turned to see who it was. Standing there was King Wyndia!
Growling he spoke, "Just where do you three think you're going young lady!"
His voice shook with rage, but Nina firmly stepped forward her face equally distorted by livid rage, "How dare you speak to me like that! I am your only daughter, you should love me, let me make my own choices! Or have your duties made you forget anything about family!"
Quickly she turned on her heel, waved her hand and busted down the main door snapping, "Kray, Ryu, we're leaving! After the 'hospitality' my father has shown you, there's no further need to stay!"
Suddenly King Wyndian was before them again in a flash of light, his face still enraged, "I will not allow you! You cannot leave!"
Snapping his fingers scores upon scores of guards appeared. Ryu and Kray immediately drew their weapons as the guards advanced.
Nina looked her father squarely in the eye and said, "Goodbye father…" as she did so, she immediately pulled out a winged object and muttered, "Teleport…"
Suddenly the item disappeared and with a bright white flash Ryu, Nina and Kray were gone…
Giggling to herself she wondered, "Perhaps daddy will let me keep them! I mean they did save my life and everything...Hehe this is interesting to say the least!"
Suddenly she heard Ryu snap behind her, "What's so funny?"
Nina stopped for a second; realizing she had started to giggle out loud and both Kray and Ryu had both stopped to ponder between themselves what she found amusing.
Nina flushed, a bit embarrassed that she had almost started talking to herself out loud, and replied to the two young men who had stopped to listen, "Err…um...nothing? Nothing at all, my mistake!"
She then put on the sweetest smile she could muster and giggled another girlish giggle.
Ryu sighed, thinking to himself as Nina smiled the sweetest smile she could muster, "What a DITZ! I wonder how the hell she even managed to survive capture by those Imperials…and now we're stuck with her until we can get her back where she belongs."
Grumbling a bit Ryu turned, only to see that Kray was actually smiling at Nina.
Ryu grimaced saying to Kray, "What's so amusing?"
Kray chuckled, replying, "She's cute and I think she likes you Ryu."
Sighing Ryu shook his head, replying, "My heart died the day Kira did...those damn Imperial assholes are going to pay for what they did, I swear it!"
Kray frowned a bit; Ryu had changed, he wasn't the smiling sixteen year old he remembered from so long ago, but then again, having your home destroyed and the love of your life possibly killed or worse can do that to a man. Kray couldn't help but feel sorry for his friend, but then that creeping sensation of his own guilt about not being able to save Faren came back. He remembered it very vividly as if it had only happened a day or so ago…
**Flames shot through the village; the heat was so intense, choking him, his heightened Woren sense of smell making it even harder to get a gasp of clean air. Suddenly he had heard a voice. It was Faren.
"Kray where are you? Come on answer me!"
Kray had responded through coughing fits, "I'm over here! In the corner of the kitchen!"
Faren had made it through the fires over to where his friend was huddled, coughing and wheezing from smoke inhalation.
"Here, rest on my shoulder I'm getting you out of here…" he had said.
Kray had nodded, and leaned on his friend for support as they fought their way out of the burning mass that had been their house. They had made it as far as the southern gate when it happened. With a roar a nearby building collapsed, its foundation destroyed by the fire. Faren had noticed it was coming down almost right on top of them and had pushed Kray away. Kray watched as the burning rubble crashed down on Faren, and he still remembered the scream that had escaped his own lips.
"FAREN! NOOOOOO!!!!"
Getting up he had desperately started to claw at the rubble trying to free his friend, when suddenly he heard him…he had heard Faren.
"Run Kray…don't look back," he had said.
Kray had protested but the voice almost screamed in his ears, "NOW! Live to avenge me!"
Kray, choking back tears, complied and had stumbled out of the gate, passing out from exhaustion and pain from the small singes and burns on his coat. However, before he had slipped into darkness, he saw one thing that had terrified him even more than the fire. He had heard the roar and then the massive flames of...a Dragon…then blackness enveloped him. **
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kray snapped out of his trance almost immediately as the memories plunged into the darkness of his mind. Shaking his head, he felt the guilt of being unable to save his friends and his family...how everything he had known and loved was gone again. It had always been like that, ever since his parents had died and Faren's mother had adopted him. Now, he was alone again, sure he had found Ryu, but that was small solace for the countless lives that had been lost that night. Just like Ryu, he to thirsted for revenge, but his revenge was not like Ryu's, his revenge was more a blood lust. He felt like he had to spill every Imperials blood, make them pay the ultimate price, even if he damned himself for doing so. Grimacing, he fought back the darkness that enveloped his soul as he thought about the joys he had felt as he had mercilessly slaughtered those Imperials who had attacked Nina. "True," he thought, he needed more blood, but now wasn't the time or the place to get all moody, especially with Ryu the way he was. Last thing he wanted was Nina thinking he too was nuts. The three companions walked along quietly for a while, each enveloped in their own thoughts.
The one who thoughts were most jumbled was Ryu's and as he walked he wondered to himself, "What am I...where do I come from?"
Sighing he looked up, quite unnerved by the silence of his two other companions. Nodding to himself he decided to at least start a conversation with one of them, even if it was with that ditz Nina. Sighing he walked up alongside Nina who had been seemed to be...skipping.
Ryu chuckled a small bit, and said to her, "At least one of us seems to be in a good mood."
Nina seemed to jump a bit, seemingly startled by his sudden talkativeness.
She shrugged, and looked over at Ryu saying, "Yeah well, its not everyday I meet a couple of people like you two…just excited that's all."
Ryu sighed, "yeah sure…but you shouldn't get involved with us…me and my friend are not exactly out here on a mission of good will…"
Nina sighed a bit, then nodded saying, "Yeah I noticed that by how your friend mercilessly took out those Imperials, but I've never been big on them as well. Too greedy and ambitious, even their ambassadors seem…evil."
Ryu raised an eyebrow in sudden surprise.
"Did you just say…ambassadors?" he asked.
Nina flushed, knowing she had slipped out something damning to whom she really was as only people of royalty associated with ambassadors.
"Er, no…um perhaps…" she replied, but as she met Ryu's piercing gaze, she sighed and nodded saying, "Yes, I said ambassadors…"
Ryu grimaced, replying, "You're Princess Nina of Wyndia aren't you?"
Nina nodded sullenly.
Ryu sighed, murmuring; "Shit…we're in deep trouble now…"
Kray who had heard Ryu mutter that walked up to his friend and said, "What's the matter?"
Ryu nodded to Nina who was now looking down, drawing circles in the sand with her foot bashfully.
Kray chuckled and turning back to his friend said, "You didn't say something embarrassing to her did you?"
Ryu rolled his eyes, replying, "Far from it, in fact it's worse than that, we're carrying royalty here, she's Princess of Wyndia."
Kray's jaw dropped and he pointed at her, "S…s she's PRINCESS Nina???"
Nina grinned a bit, nervous, embarrassed and utterly at loss for words. Kray stood there quietly rubbing his chin.
"Hmm…" he pondered out loud, "How WILL we have to explain this…"
Ryu shrugged a bit, rather at a loss as well saying, "I don't know, I mean, I've never been in this situation before…"
Kray nodded knowingly, and then sighed heavily, "well she is safer with us, if we let her go, she might be captured by the Imperials again, you never know how useful a magic user might be to those scum…"
Before Ryu could reply Nina jumped up cheerfully.
"Fine then it's settled I go with you guys back to Wyndia!"
Ryu stammered a bit, "B…But…I'm not sure…" Nina grinned and winked at him.
"What's wrong Dragon boy?" she asked, "not used to having a cute, intelligent, beautiful, not to mention sexy bird following you around for a day or so?"
Ryu balked a bit at what she said, it had sounded almost exactly like how Kira had teased him back then.
Wincing uncomfortably, Ryu relented, "alright, we take her back home…I mean what could go wrong?"
He had no clue how wrong things were about to get.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The journey back to Wyndia took only a day or so from their position from where they had stopped to camp. As they entered the main gates of the city, Ryu gaped. In five years the city had become a lot busier and bigger, to him it was absolutely amazing!
As they walked through the streets toward the palace Nina leaned on his shoulder, smiled and said, "looks like you like it…"
Ryu nodded a bit dumbly ignoring where she was, "yeah well, I only came here once in awhile when I was little…my grandma brought me here…"
Nina nodded a bit, "we had to expand a bit, many other Wyndian colonies were getting raided by the Empire during the five years you were asleep as a Dragon…" she said quietly.
"My dad has only tolerated such behavior because he knows we are no match for the Empire's superior militaristic advantage…"
Ryu shook his head quietly, the Empire was starting to make everyone's life miserable, and everything seemed glum. It was so emotionally draining on him to realize the Empire was more than just a big bully; it was a huge power front, seemingly bent on world destruction!
Growling through his teeth he replied, "We have to put an end to this! The Empire's gone too far…they all deserve to die!"
Nina and Kray just stood their looking at Ryu, as he had just shouted his words out loud. Not only that, but passerby's were all staring, gawking and whispering at the boy who had just openly challenged the Empire. Ryu realized what was going on and shrank back into his shirt muttering a soft; "sorry…"
Nina coughed and cleared her throat as everyone went to going back to their work around them, "Yes…well, unfortunately the Empire is ALL military, doing anything like that would be very unacceptable as it would provoke more and more attacks on outlying colonies than we have ever seen before. My father would be in a lot of hot water if that happened…that's why our arms are tied."
Ryu sighed- it just didn't seem fair. The odds were so stacked up against them that it looked very impossible that he would ever get the revenge he so yearned for. He wanted to make the Imperials pay with as much blood as was necessary to avenge himself and his town! Soon Kray, Nina and Ryu were in front of the gates to the Wyndian Royal Palace and Ryu forgot all current concerns about the Empire, in fact he was more concerned about the Kings reaction to their presence. Nervously Nina opened the door and walked in, the other two trotting in behind her. As Nina walked in the King immediately looked up, his face evidently showing surprise and happiness mixed together.
"Um…hi dad, I'm home…" Nina said quietly.
King Wyndia immediately ran from his throne and embraced her, letting out a small choke saying, "Oh Nina…when I got the notice you'd been kidnapped I grew so worried…"
"It's O.K. dad," said Nina, "I was in good hands…"
And with that Ryu and Kray stepped forward. Immediately King Wyndia looked up, seeing Ryu and Kray.
Looking them over his gaze became dark and dangerous, then with a terrific holler he yelled, "GUARDS! Seize them!"
On cue the guards came rushing forward, quickly surrounding and restraining Ryu and Kray.
Nina was horrified and yelled, "Father! What are you doing!?"
King Wyndia didn't reply, instead he thundered to five more guards, "take Princess Nina to her chambers, NOW!"
Struggling against the guards grip as she was led upstairs Nina cried out, "Ryu!!!"
Ryu hearing her plea tugged, pulled and twisted, but was unable to break free from the guard's iron hold on himself and Kray. Suddenly something heavy hit Ryu and Kray in the back of their heads. Everything went black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later Ryu woke up with a terrific headache. Groggily he looked around. What he saw brought him to consciousness very quickly. He and Kray were confined in a small cell, with a window that let in a very small amount of light. The bars on the cell were thick enough to withstand any amount of brute force and were obviously magical, as Ryu could see them pulse with magical energy. Ryu groaned and leaned against the wall, not only to nurse his headache, but also to ponder what their next move was. Looking over at Kray he noticed his friend was still out.
"They must have hit him harder…" he muttered.
He knew it took a lot of force to take out an almost fully matured Woren, and whatever they had been hit with was definitely not light. Ryu made a mental note to repay the favor to the guard once he got out. Taking the time, since he at the moment had nothing better to do, he quietly listened to the sound of water drip from the ceiling. Suddenly he heard a groan from behind him and realized Kray was coming to.
Ryu hurried over to his friend and said, "here lean on me, you've taken a VERY nasty knock to the head…"
Kray muttered something inaudible as he leaned against Ryu and Ryu nodded a bit, "don't worry buddy we'll get out of here…"
Examining the bars again, Ryu sighed. Spells would be useless, not to mention they probably had an anti-magic barrier around their cell.
"Mages aren't exactly the dumbest people around," he muttered, "but then, sometimes I wish they were…"
Sighing, he said to Kray, who was finally more aware of their surroundings and predicament, "any ideas?"
Kray sighed, got up from Ryu and rubbed the back of his neck which, like his pride was very sore right now, saying, "not a damn clue…looks we won't get out of this one very easily old buddy…"
Ryu swore. More time passed, and as the light started to fade from the window, Ryu's heart began to sink. It seemed they would be here for a very long time. Suddenly they heard commotion coming from the entrance to the dungeon. Yells and shouts of "Stop her! She's getting away!" reached their ears. Ryu's head immediately jerked up and as it did, the heavy iron door that stood between the dungeon and the castle was blasted of its hinges. It landed with a resounding thud a few feet away, and as it did a familiar face poked out around the corner. Ryu's face lit up, it was Nina!
Nina ran in quickly, smiled at Ryu and winked saying, "hi there yourself cutie!"
Ryu gawked. Had he heard her say that?! Nina giggled before turning to see Wyndian guards sprinting towards her, sighing she snapped her fingers, simply saying "Stop!" and immediately the guards froze.
Nina turned and grinned again at Ryu, "Persistent yes, I have to admit…took me forever to finally get away from them, magical wards all over this palace…"
Ryu nodded a bit, "Then how'd you"
Nina cut in saying, "Simple, breached the anti-magic field once I got the door down…" She smiled continuing, "anyways, looks like I'm doing the rescuing now…"
With that she pointed to the loc and muttered, "Open." With a click and a rusty squeak the lock obeyed opening the cell door and granting Ryu and Kray their freedom.
Brushing himself off Ryu looked at the guards, "How long will they stay frozen for?" he asked.
Nina giggled again, "probably for a couple of hours, not bad for an amateur hunh?"
Kray smiled, "Very impressive, now I suggest we get our weapons and get the hell out of here, no offense Nina, but your dad has lousy guest rooms and I'd rather not be invited to stay again!"
Nina smiled a bit and nodded pointing down the hall she had come from.
"This way to your weapons!"
Running down the hall they met with very little resistance, the guards knocked unconscious by a very angry Kray and Ryu's fists. Soon they came to the storage room. Breaking in they quickly retrieved Kray's knives and Ryu's katana that he had picked up earlier.
Quickly sheathing the katana behind his back Ryu said, "Right let's get going before anyone else comes to claim us…"
Nina and Kray nodded back and they quickly sprinted into the main chamber. As they mad a beeline for the main door a voice boomed,
"HALT!"
The group turned to see who it was. Standing there was King Wyndia!
Growling he spoke, "Just where do you three think you're going young lady!"
His voice shook with rage, but Nina firmly stepped forward her face equally distorted by livid rage, "How dare you speak to me like that! I am your only daughter, you should love me, let me make my own choices! Or have your duties made you forget anything about family!"
Quickly she turned on her heel, waved her hand and busted down the main door snapping, "Kray, Ryu, we're leaving! After the 'hospitality' my father has shown you, there's no further need to stay!"
Suddenly King Wyndian was before them again in a flash of light, his face still enraged, "I will not allow you! You cannot leave!"
Snapping his fingers scores upon scores of guards appeared. Ryu and Kray immediately drew their weapons as the guards advanced.
Nina looked her father squarely in the eye and said, "Goodbye father…" as she did so, she immediately pulled out a winged object and muttered, "Teleport…"
Suddenly the item disappeared and with a bright white flash Ryu, Nina and Kray were gone…