by shike77
Chapter VII
" 'Two more' the anthem for the know-it-all
You won't be standing up for long
You better learn how to crawl"
- 'Flat on the Floor', by Nickelback
^_^;; Well, I want to apologize for the lack of updates to everyone… *coughs* and… eh… well, let's explain this quickly:
1. Writer's block is the bane of my existence.
2. My friends have decided that I need a social life. @_@;; THAT and I got Sparkey hooked on KOTOR, which she does not have.
3. I started up Fencing in January. Two nights a week is kinda harsh…
4. Musical Theatre takes up three hours+ of my Saturdays. The rest is likely to be spent on KOTOR. (BTW – wish me luck with my… long-ass solo song (Memory), solo singing of the verse of a song (first one of Thank You for the Music), and accompaniment for another song (Close Every Door). At least I'm not alone on that one. Ah, right, then I get to play Pyramus. -_-;;)
5. Did I mention KOTOR? ^_^;; Yesh, my brother has that game, now.
6. Ah, right, Midterms fried my brain again. We've been down THAT road before, ne?
Well… what happens during this chapter? To make up for the lack of updates, I tried to stick it full of humour, some of which might seem like inside jokes. They're not, I swear. *shifty eyes* You just kinda… need to understand them.
^_^ I think I got the cat part down right. Anyone who has a cat will understand the heavy use of cat-POV. You'll understand what I mean when you read it.
Note about the Monkey Island Series reference: ^_^ That joke will never, ever die.
… Is short okay? @_@;; *faceplants* I no want shortyness… but it's the best I could do. -_-;;
The door was open.
Just a crack, but it was there, regardless. Green eyes narrowed, pupils slitted, the lithe animal crept forwards, muscles rippling under midnight fur. Padding gently, the dark creature kept her sights on he prey, watching the little grey mouse inspect a crumb lying on the floor. The cat's tail twitched, and, although she had to resist the urge to hit it against the ground with glee, she gathered her wits and pounced.
It was entirely intentional that she over-shoot her goal and plow headfirst into the wall. She wanted to send the mouse screaming, she thought with a dainty sniff and a swish of her tail. She wasn't hungry anyway.
There was a slight laughter—two-legger laughter—and the kitten froze. Turning to face the sound, she found a small two-legger watching her, curled up into a ball on that big… cumfy-looking thing that she suddenly wanted to scratch to death.
Green flickered indecisively before the animal padded over to the two-legger, although her decision was not at all influenced by the piece of meat the two-legger was holding out. Not at all. In fact, the only reason she even ate the offered morsel was because it was offered, and she didn't want to be rude.
Now, she decided that, although she absolutely hated two-legger-food, she didn't want to be disrespectful and promptly climbed onto the two-legger's lap to see if he had more. When the creature—grateful for her show of interest—offered her more, she was obliged to take it.
Disgusting, she thought as she licked her paws and rubbed her ears after the plate of food was gone, that two-legger food. Stupid creatures, they go and add all that useless flavour into the meat.
Of course, she thought wisely, it had to be better than that skinny little rat she was chasing around earlier.
Then she looked up to this two-legger, examining it closely. It was so hard to tell the age of these two-leggers, what with looking the same thing for so long in their lives. For conversation's sake, she decided to call it a him, although she really didn't know at all. He smelt like… other four-leggers? Big ones? The running ones, maybe?
"Here," he mumbled, picking her up—because she was so full she couldn't claw him to death—"I think you'll like the stables. There's fat mice there."
Of course, she had little idea what a stable or a mouse was in two-legger terms, due to the fact that she couldn't quite understand what he was saying. The main message, however, was that he was taking her somewhere. And, judging by his tone, he was not allowed to go there at the moment, and he also seemed to enjoy it, so he thought she would. Alright, she might as well take up this offer as well, although he was very good at scratching her behind the ears. Besides, the view was good from here.
***
Now, when Dart was staring rather dumbly at his daughter, Albert sighed and took a step towards the girl cowering under the Divine Dragoon's massive feet.
"Step back, please," he asked the man in massive armour, and Dart complied, stiffly and still staring at the blazing stone in the girl's fist.
Albert looked down at the scraggly kid, brow furrowed, and asked, "What are you doing here?"
She would have scrambled to her feet at that point, but there was a very big spear-tip at her throat, and she valued her life.
So, she chose to crack a ridiculous grin and gesture to the over-sized outfit she was wearing.
"I'm selling these fine leather jackets…"
Please take into consideration that the only leather items on her person were her boots and her belt.
The blonde girl in the corner's face twisted into a combination of a smirk and a frown. "I thought you were on a mission to save people from something about Torment and stuff."
The look on the grey-clothed brunette's face was priceless—enough to make Albert chuckle, in spite of the situation. Dart's fierce eyes softened a little, then narrowed again.
"Where did you get that?" he asked his daughter, who immediately cringed.
"Um… she dropped it," she pointed to the girl—fourteen, perhaps?—sprawled on the floor. "Then she said something really, really fast that involved running and… a jade?"
Albert and Dart looked at each other, and the King's free hand moved, unconsciously, to the green stone about his neck. They both looked back to the girl—whose eyes, Albert noticed, were the same colour as her goal—who promptly grinned sheepishly.
"Eheh…" she paused, then, glancing around the room nervously. I'm in shit…
… Or not.
Her arm swinging dramatically out to the side, index finger thrown out in a pointing gesture, she shouted, "Look, a distraction!"
The only one who actually looked was the kid. Bummer.
If she had actually counted on them looking, she wouldn't have had a back-up plan in mind.
Albert and Dart blinked at her as she rather blankly blinked right back up at them.
… Wait. She had counted on them looking, hadn't she?
Well—time to improvise.
The spear moved, seemingly of its own free will, away from her neck, spinning a full circle as Enigma backflipped off the floor, directly to her feet. Grabbing the end of the spear that had previously threatened to take her life, she yanked it out of Albert's hands and swung it so that the point was facing his neck.
Only his neck was protected by a piece of armour that was not there before.
With a small 'meep,' she ducked to avoid the swing of his fist, only to be promptly plucked off the ground by a man at least three times her height.
Spinning on the back of her shirt—currently serving as a pivot, thanks to buddy-boy—she made a full circle, swinging her fists madly and attempting to catch something…
… But the very big thing that looked a lot like the cannon on a ship was pointed in her face, and she decided that, perhaps, five-hundred and ninety-seven was quite young to be saving people from… something about Torment and… stuff. In fact, she decided that continuing to spin on the back of her shirt and glare at her captors was a better idea. The faces she was making at them did not amuse them, nor did they make her feel any better. So, while she came up with every foul or otherwise unprintable word to call them in the back of her head, she had no choice to sit—er, spin—there uselessly as the blonde guy in green examined her thoroughly.
"Well, you've found your Jade," Dart glared fiercely at her, looking like he wanted to gut her alive. "So you're going to answer a few questions."
Enigma rolled her eyes. "Aiight, I know what you're askin'—what is the single most dangerous assassin on Endiness doin' cooperatin' with a kid? And the answer to that-"
She blinked, uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her hips—regardless of the fact that her legs were dangling in mid-air—and stuck her nose in the air indignantly. Or so she tried, anyway.
"-is classified information. You should be 'shamed of yerselves for even askin'! Why, when I was yer age, I knew where to stick my nose and where notta! Hell, if…"
Neither Albert nor Dart knew if they could take this kid seriously. Albert's face twisted into an odd expression just to keep from laughing as Dart stared at the slowly spinning girl he was holding up.
After a few moments of her pointless ranting about how they should 'respect their elders' and other such ridiculous comments, Albert interrupted bluntly, "So you don't know why you're here, afterall."
This prompted a few moments of silent spinning, and when the girl was facing Albert he noticed that she had screwed up every inch of her face into the single most impossible glare a person could imagine. A single brow raised at this, Albert looked over to an almost-snickering Dart.
"I think I won that round," the King of Serdio mused pleasantly, a satisfactory smirk on his face.
***
He wasn't really allowed in the stables—especially not when his parents were expecting company, and, at least from what he understood, important company at that. He'd even expected someone to come in and argue with him about dressing up again, but it seemed otherwise.
So, he was sitting there in a pair of breeches and a shirt, waiting for something to happen. His brother was quite intrigued to go spy on the guests using his new 'spyglass' that he was so proud of, but the younger twin wanted little to do with them. He knew Mr. Dart well enough; he was a nice man, and there was little a person could say against him, but he knew little of his family. All he knew was that Mr. Dart had a daughter—and most of the girls he knew wanted nothing other than a mirror and someone quiet as a wall to talk to.
Smiling at the black kitten, who was giving the mice a run for their gold, he turned the page in the book he was reading, only finding another word he didn't understand scrawled on the pages. Frowning, he looked up again at the large runner he was sitting beside, watching as the animal blinked down at him. It was tired—needed a better brushing than what the novices had given it.
After dragging a stool over, he clambered to the top of the thing and started to curry the animal's fur, moving the brush in slow circles and wrinkling his nose at the dust that came off. The poor thing hadn't even been brushed, yet! Maybe it even had a stone in its foot…
Halfway through, there was a crash and clamor of falling items in the tack room that sent the runners rearing in sudden surprise—except the one he was brushing. The animal looked at the others like they were crazy or something.
He figured it must have been deaf.
"Okay, now what, genius?"
He blinked. A girl? What was a girl running around in the stables for? There were mice in stables, and… didn't girls hate mice?
Curious, he hopped off the stool and picked up the cat, then began to walk towards the room that a large cloud of dust was coming out of. Peeking in, he saw a girl sitting on the floor, scowling at the glowing stone in her hand.
"… Uh, hello."
Her gaze darted up and she jumped to her feet immediately, dimming the red glow with her hand.
"Who the hell are you?"
He raised an eyebrow at that. If anyone caught him using that kind of language, he'd be skinned alive—even if he wasn't quite sure what that meant. Still… she might not talk to him if she knew he was a prince… a lot of people were uneasy about that. Even he didn't really feel like one… or know exactly what he was supposed to do.
He hesitated a moment, casting his glance to a weapon leaning against the door, then answered, "Lance. I'm a stable-hand."
Well, he was covered in horsehair, so it wasn't hard to believe.
She blinked at him, as if knowing he wasn't telling the truth. "Shani," she answered, and he immediately knew that she was lying, too. She wasn't very good at it.
Then again, neither was he.
Scratching his head, he shrugged. "So… how did you-?"
Then he noticed that the shelf had moved, and a passageway lay hidden within. Eyes wide, he walked over to look at it. "Now that's cool. How long were you in there?"
She blinked at him. "Uh… not long. There was something kinda going on with lots of yelling and fighting, and…" she shrugged, "I was gunna get a headache from the lights if I stuck around. So I was…" she stopped, then started again, "I noticed a door behind one of the shelves."
He wasn't listening—he'd already clambered into the hole, and was gazing into the gloom within. "Where does it lead?"
She shrugged, scampering over to where he was standing. "I dunno. Places, I guess. Just took the first left and got here."
He looked over at her and grinned. "Wanna check it out?"
She blinked, suddenly, as if a little surprised, then grinned back and nodded. "Yup!"
'Lance' let the black kitten drop to the ground, who promptly mewled at him and scampered off into the darkness. Grinning, both children followed.
A white-eyed rat watched them for a moment, wiggled his whiskers, then scampered after them.
… -_-;; Pheer me. I suck.
ANYHOO. @_@;; Must apologize for shortyness, and total sucking of the last bit. .- BUT IT'S NECESSARY. Not the sucking, but meh. Sue me later. ^_^
And there is A CLIFFHANGER. Sorta. And FORESHADOWING GALORE. Tiny things. -_-;; BUT THEY EXIST. In my mind, anyway.
… I don't exactly know what goes on next chapter. @_@;; Not at all.
REVIEWS~!
Shade - ^_^;; *starts poking it, too* … *giggles insanely and continues on* … Oh, right, reviews. @_@;;
Fifi - … Well, it depends on what KIND of ass. ^_^;;
DemonGod – *is being chased around by the box labeled 'talent' that has squirrel feet sticking out of the bottom of it* Overloading with damned RODENTS, maybe! *gets kicked* AI! Okay, HAVE the fucking PEANUTS!
Ye Say Ye Fool - *waves* Hi~! ^_^ Glad you like it!