To write this Tris and I came to .. an agreement - she and I will combine
in one our different stories and make it one version, instead of the
different points of views. Easier. I write it out and she goes over it
helping me 'tweek it' in the end to make it right. So here's the next
installment.
"Follow me," he says. He doesn't even stop to wait or look back once to make sure we are following. Arrogant little monk. (And I mean little, he only goes up to my shoulder. Course people considered me tall. Is 5'9" tall? I mean Tristin is taller than I am, geez.) But, seriously, what does he think that he can just give us a tease like "you are now home after 18 years" and walk off expecting that we'll just tag along; I think not!
I look over at Tris to see what she is thinking. She is looking after the monk off in her own little world. Wonder what her take on everything is? Coming back to earth she looks over at me and asks:
"We're supposed to follow him in there? Isn't that a church? I'm not going in no church unless I have a damn good reason! And that little freak didn't give a good enough reason. Hmpf. A church." she crosses her arms, shakes her head and glares stubbornly at his retreating back.
"I agree. At least the part about the good enough reason." I look over at her and smirk amused. I love her. Then, I look up to see the monk still walking toward the building obviously clueless to the fact that we're still un-moving. "Hey! Buddy! Hold up a minute!"
The monk stops and turns quickly to look back at us questioningly.
"Yeah, you. Come back here!"
He gives us an annoyed look but obligingly returns to where the two of us are planted.
"What is it, my honored ladies? We, really, must go. They are awaiting you inside. We must not keep their holiness' waiting! Time is of the essence."
"Well, if 'time is of the essence' I suggest you shut up a minute and answers some of our questions then, ok?" Smirk. You tell him Tris.
"My ladies, we really don't have the time for this...." he motions back over his shoulder as if to say "move it."
"Ah, ah!" She leans down to his level and shakes her finger in his face. "What did I tell you?" Man, Tristin sure gets that patronizing voice down. Heehee.
"Fine. I'll answer what I can but don't be surprised if that's not much. But, we really must do this quickly." And, score one of the team! Yet, I get the feeling that he is almost ... scared?... of delaying too long. What waits up in the place?
"Okay, I'll do the easy one first then - What the hell happened to us? Why the hell can't we remember anything before we woke up except our names. And, WHERE THE HELL ARE WE???"
Easy? You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd almost say that Tristin sounds slightly miffed. I guess that means she's confused and worried. At least, I'm not the only one but apparently I can control it a little more... diplomatically or at least hide it better? Maybe I should step in here, hmmm... I lean over to whisper to Tristin.
"Hey girl, calm down, ok. Don't let him get to you. Get control of yourself. You freaking out is not going to help us any. We'll figure out what's going on and freak out afterward when no one is watching us like we're science experiments, ok. Let me try here."
She looks over at me. I can visibly see a change come over her as she gets her emotions in check and then cooly, and yet overly-dramatically-so, gestures a 'go ahead' sign. I gracefully acknowledge her go ahead with a nod of my own, then we both turn to look at the monk.
"Ok, monk, you are a monk right?" He nods slightly - I guess that's a yes. "Where are we? Exactly?"
"You are in the gardens of the palace of the Almighty Merciful Goddess, who resides in the heavens of Shangralai."
Tristin and my mouth had dropped by the word 'palace' and even moreso at the word 'goddess'. This is unbelievable!
"Um, what?! Repeat that, I didn't hear right. Goddess? Heavens?! Are we dead?" That last was what I'd been secretly fearing since waking. That like a bomb had hit and the two of us died or something. Would explain the flash and sound but I didn't know heaven was a Japanese garden.
"No! You have nothing to fear there. You are quite alive, I assure you. And yes, you did indeed hear me correctly. This is the home of the Merciful Goddess. In fact, she is inside waiting for you two along with her Lord Husband as we speak so we really should move along."
What ever. I'll soak that in and figure it out later. Next question:
"Ok. If you say so. Why do you keep calling us ladies?"
"Yeah. Because you must be delusional because I ain't a lady, dude." Tristin say this as she lights up a cigarette (GOOD idea I could use one about now. "Hey give me one Tris") What makes the statement hit home even more is the lighter she uses to light it with: a silver pewter penis-shaped lighter! It's great. I forget where we got it but, damn, she's got great timing.
The poor monk. I can't help but smirk at his look. He just stands there in shock, stuttering for a minute. Then he looks down at his feet, I think he's blushing, and shakes himself out of his moment of shock. Guess he remembered that we 'short of time'. He mutters something to himself that sounds suspiciously like "half-demon heretics"? Tristin and I look at each other and shrug.
The monk straightens up and looks as if he is about to answers our questions when suddenly to our left and ahead (behind for the monk) at the 'palace' there's a loud slam. It sounded as if a door was flung open in a hurry. The three of us immediately look up to see what the disturbance is? Monk-boy looks stiff. Tristin and I are simply wondering what's next in this looney-bin. We hear running foot-steps then we see a man emerge from the shadows of the columned halls.
The man is dressed in a uniform that had to a bodyguard or royal guard for a Japanese emperor of the old Samurai days. The armor is all blue and the under clothing is white. His hat, err helmet, is blue also and definitely of Samurai design. When he reaches our group he is out of breath and gives monk-boy a disapproving glare. Monk-boy shrivels under it. Then the guard/soldier speaks in a demanding, army approved voice.
"What is going on here? Ichachow, (is that the monk's name??) you were supposed to have brought in the princesses to the audience chamber twenty minutes ago! (Um, WHAT?? Did he say princess??) The Merciful Goddess has been waiting and, trust me when I say, that she does not like to be kept waiting! Even his holiness the Lord God is here awaiting them! The Merciful Goddess sent me out here to retrieve you. Come along now! she is getting bitchy"
Woah! I look back towards Tristin when he finally finishes his speal and raise my eyebrows, smirk and jerk my head toward the soldier. She returns the smirk and nods. This was silent 'convo' for 'he's cool!' Tristin mouths to me: 'Ichachow'?? And smirks again. Yep, his name definitely needs improvement. Gawd. But back to more important things.
"Hey, um, officer? Who are you calling princesses? Who's this Merciful Goddess and Lord God? And (Tristin looks over at the monk) you're name is Ichachow?"
It sounds like she's about to laugh and I can't blame her. I'm holding it in myself. The monk looks like he would like to crawl into the ground after being thoroughly lectured. But he regains his composure quickly to answer. The soldier looks over at the two of us while this is all happening and I feel like he's sizing us up or something.
"I cannot answer any more of your questions to your satisfaction (did he answer ONE to our satisfaction?). I would just confuse you more. (Like he hasn't already) If you really want your answers you MUST follow us into the audience chamber; the Merciful Goddess is the only one to answers your questions."
At this I throw up my hands in defeat. "NOW, he tells us."
"Yes, now, please ladies, come along!"
Hmpf, he sounds slightly desperate. I look over at soldier-boy (why can't this stupid people simply introduce themselves? Is that to hard or something?) He acknowledges with a nod my silent question of whether we really should listen to 'Ichy' over here and go inside. I give in and look over a Tris. She still looks stubborn.
"Come on, lets just get this over with, ok. I think we really should go in. In the least, maybe someone will finally tell us what is going on. Maybe Ichy's right and this Mercy Goddess (Ichy sputters in annoyance at this little nickname. Serves him right. Nosy little bastard) will be able to answer our questions. If we don't like what we hear, we can always pack up and split. Figure things out on our own. We're good at that.(I think, hmm) Ok?"
My pleading face and diplomatic words work. Yes. The mountain has moved.
"Fine. But we don't split up. Ok. We stick together. If I got to go through this you're gonna be there with me." she pointedly looks at me. A silent understanding goes through us. Kinda creepy. Psychic. But, we both know that no matter what we're there for each other. We look over at the men waiting and look at each other again. Deep breath.
Suddenly Tristin, again rather dramatically, gestures to them and starts walking sturdily, stubbornly, and purposefully towards the palace; dragging me along by my arm I might add. Least she could've done was give me a signal but, no, Tristin does things her own way. Then, ubrubtly, she stops (I regain my footing), turns to look at the men standing back in the exact same place looking rather lost at us, and says:
"Well, you coming or not? I don't know where I'm going remember? Lead!!"
After this statement they snap out of la-la land and hurry along up to us. Tristin has a self-satisfied smirk. Things just gotta be her way. She's gotta be in charge. Control issues? Or was it just the shock factor? She's like that too.
We're led down a couple halls that are columnaded on both sides rising at least two stories. It is almost Ancient Grecian with a touch of Japanese Feng shui. The colors are all soothing and warm yellows, tans, and greens. More of the garden is on our left with the building's outer wall to the right. Finally we reach a pair of doors. They are huge. Beautiful golden brown oaken doors with elegantly engraved matching designs on each. We all stop and look at it apprehensively; albeit for different reasons.
Supposedly, on the other side of these doors are the answers to all our questions. The big questions is: Do we want those answers? I feel a tap on my shoulder and look over to see Tris giving me a thumbs up. I needed that. Then she throws down her cigarette (after receiving a pointed glare from soldier-boy) and throws back her shoulders. I follow her example. "We ready?" I mouth to her. She nods. We're ready. Uh-huh sure. Ready.
Ichy knocks on the doors three times in a signal. Someone must have been on the other side waiting for it because they open immediately. We finally get a glimpse of this 'audience chamber' and all I can say is "Wow."
The doors revealed a large, spacious, elegant room. We walk into the threshold. As the two of us girls freeze and look around soldier-boy walks quickly down an aisle like walk-way up to a dias where there looked like a throne or something and a couple shapes that look like people. I guess he's announcing us to the "goddess" chick. Eh, at least it gives us a couple minutes to look around and check out this room.
It wasn't so much as large as elongated. It was just designed in a way as to make it seem so much more otherworldly. I guess when you're in the 'heavens' you need that otherworldly touch huh. It was done in cool tones. The ground was tiled in a mosaic patchwork of silver, bronze, and pewter tones; except in the walk-way area. That had larger square tiles in gold heading to a point at the edge of the dias. The outer wall had huge windows reaching from, oh, about a foot from the floor to a foot from the ceiling. Despite being long the windows were normal looking and were only about a foot and a half wide, but there were many of them from the doors up to the back wall on both sides of the room. They revealed the outside. On the left we had part of the gardens that we 'arrived' in earlier and on the right it showed a large pool or pond with water-lilies floating on it. In between each window was a silver and gold pillar. Standing in front of each pillar was a guard dressed similarly to the soldier-boy but not as official looking. Everyday bodyguards, I guess.
"Damn! Not bad!"
"Needs some red and black and it'll do." This was Tristin's way of agreeing. What can I say, she's ever the goth.
She looks over at me with a very mischeivious expression. "Wonder what the uniforms will do," she nods in the direction of the guards along the wall. "if I lit up in here? You want one?"
I nod and chuckle slightly. After all, we didn't get to finish our last ones. But, just as she's pulling two cigs from the pack and her delightful lighter out, a major-domo-type dude walks up to us and talks quickly and silently to Ichy, who had been listening to our conversation very exasperated. He then stands up straight and turns to address us:
"My most holy ladies if you would be so kind as to follow Ichachow and myself. Do not say anything until spoken to. Understand?"
We look at him with total innocent expressions and nod. He then turns and starts walking. Tristin and I look at each other and shrug then look at Ichy with our eyebrows raised. He nods and walks ahead of us.
As we traipsed up to the dias we noticed the shapes on the dias getting clearer. There were three people up there and it looked like one was sitting on some sort of chair.
Soldier-boy was standing on the left side in attention stance mode. Straight up and down. Very military.
About a foot to his right was a gorgeous yet slightly gaudy throne. It was completely golden and seemed to be lit up from behind someway. It was way to rich looking for my liking. Sitting on the throne was a beautiful woman.
She seemed haughty though, almost arrogant yet ...vapid? She had long black hair done up in some fancy ass hair-do that probably took hours. Her outfit was this pure white Egyptian style dress with gold arm bands that matched the gold bands in her hair. She had a shawl of some sort of violet silk. She was sitting with her head in her hand and her arm leaning on the throne's arm. All in all very bored looking, but her eyes had lit up slightly as she looked me then, she looked over at Tris. Her expression was still affectionate but slightly different as she looked my friend over. I recognized her vaguely as if from a dream.
On her right was another man. He was standing right next to the throne, was actually standing with his arm thrown onto the top of the back of her throne. His other arm was on his side. He had a very regal and self assured look. Also, arrogant but came off differently. He screamed authority and respect. He was dressed in white loose but fitting pants with sandals. His top was of a Chinese cut with the slits in the side for easier walking, long loose sleeves but tight at the wrist, and high collar. The edges were all trimmed with gold brocade and the main back ground color was a royal blue. He had beautiful eyes that looked right at you, they held an amused and loving expression as he looked at the two of us. His face was lean and arrogant, kingly. His hair was shoulder length and was a blue-black color with some strings of gray and silver throughout that just added to the whole image. I felt an immediate connection to this man, as if I knew him from somewhere, almost fatherly affection and a vague memory of him picking me up and putting me on his shoulders? What was going on here?
When Tristin and I finally made it to the dias to stand before them we noticed that upon immediate arrival Ichy had thrown himself to his knees and bowed his head to the ground. Tris' must have noticed it to because you could hear her muttering to herself.
"I hope they don't expect me to do that. Ugh, no. I ain't kissing the ground no matter how shiny it is. Or how 'holy' these people are supposed to be." Tristin looked up stubbornly at the dias after this statement.
I looked down at the ground shaking my head. She could be so stupid sometimes. "God, a little tact here would be nice, Tris. We are out of our league and at these people's mercy for answers and help until we can figure things out." I hissed at her. I heard her mutter something about 'good thing she's a 'merciful' goddess then, huh, Kim' I sighed. She turned to look at me with that expression that meant we were about to go into another of our 'arguments' which were really sarcastic matches, but now was not the time. "Don't start."
Immediately after that lovely moment we both heard this low, deep, rumbling chuckle. We looked up to see the Regal Man laughing at us. Man, I know him from some where and by Tristin's expression I think she does too.
"Do I know you?" Blunt, to the point. Guess that confirmed my earlier suspicions.
As if Tris' question was a cue to break the silence Ichy spoke up. "Actually, yes the two of you do. My ladies may I present you to their most holy highness': The Merciful Goddess and her King of the Heavens, Lord God of Heaven."
"Oh....kay. Um, Hi." I waved weakly. But Ichy wasn't done with the introductions.
"My most honorable and majestic Lord God and Lady Goddess I present to you, your daughters - their most holy princess' Kimber and Tristin."
I don't think I've ever seen Tristin speech-less before, I mean her mouth had hit the floor, course I wasn't that far away. I was the first to regain my composure and voice.
"Um, eh...excuse me?" I was looking at everyone for answers but Tristin couldn't take her eyes off of the man.
"What? Don't you remember your father, my little Spitfire? I mean, its only been 500 years; well, 18 for you. Not that long surely."
It was unbelievable but he had said this with such an ironic, sarcastic tone while looking at Tristin that I knew it had to be true. Come to think of it he did sound like Tristin when he said that. Maybe it was the sarcasm. He was chuckling again. He then looked at me and his eyes held an unmistakable affection for just me.
"And you, my stubborn little diplomat, have you figured out every thing yet? Or is your memory not yet returned either."
How is it possible to sound so sweet but, teasing and a jerk at the same time.
Then came an extremely bored sounding feminine voice:
"If you're done teasing the girls, my lord, we have a lot to talk about with them and I would like to have some time with my daughter while you 'chat up' with your 'little spitfire'.
Huh. Man, this is getting weirder and weirder.
"Follow me," he says. He doesn't even stop to wait or look back once to make sure we are following. Arrogant little monk. (And I mean little, he only goes up to my shoulder. Course people considered me tall. Is 5'9" tall? I mean Tristin is taller than I am, geez.) But, seriously, what does he think that he can just give us a tease like "you are now home after 18 years" and walk off expecting that we'll just tag along; I think not!
I look over at Tris to see what she is thinking. She is looking after the monk off in her own little world. Wonder what her take on everything is? Coming back to earth she looks over at me and asks:
"We're supposed to follow him in there? Isn't that a church? I'm not going in no church unless I have a damn good reason! And that little freak didn't give a good enough reason. Hmpf. A church." she crosses her arms, shakes her head and glares stubbornly at his retreating back.
"I agree. At least the part about the good enough reason." I look over at her and smirk amused. I love her. Then, I look up to see the monk still walking toward the building obviously clueless to the fact that we're still un-moving. "Hey! Buddy! Hold up a minute!"
The monk stops and turns quickly to look back at us questioningly.
"Yeah, you. Come back here!"
He gives us an annoyed look but obligingly returns to where the two of us are planted.
"What is it, my honored ladies? We, really, must go. They are awaiting you inside. We must not keep their holiness' waiting! Time is of the essence."
"Well, if 'time is of the essence' I suggest you shut up a minute and answers some of our questions then, ok?" Smirk. You tell him Tris.
"My ladies, we really don't have the time for this...." he motions back over his shoulder as if to say "move it."
"Ah, ah!" She leans down to his level and shakes her finger in his face. "What did I tell you?" Man, Tristin sure gets that patronizing voice down. Heehee.
"Fine. I'll answer what I can but don't be surprised if that's not much. But, we really must do this quickly." And, score one of the team! Yet, I get the feeling that he is almost ... scared?... of delaying too long. What waits up in the place?
"Okay, I'll do the easy one first then - What the hell happened to us? Why the hell can't we remember anything before we woke up except our names. And, WHERE THE HELL ARE WE???"
Easy? You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd almost say that Tristin sounds slightly miffed. I guess that means she's confused and worried. At least, I'm not the only one but apparently I can control it a little more... diplomatically or at least hide it better? Maybe I should step in here, hmmm... I lean over to whisper to Tristin.
"Hey girl, calm down, ok. Don't let him get to you. Get control of yourself. You freaking out is not going to help us any. We'll figure out what's going on and freak out afterward when no one is watching us like we're science experiments, ok. Let me try here."
She looks over at me. I can visibly see a change come over her as she gets her emotions in check and then cooly, and yet overly-dramatically-so, gestures a 'go ahead' sign. I gracefully acknowledge her go ahead with a nod of my own, then we both turn to look at the monk.
"Ok, monk, you are a monk right?" He nods slightly - I guess that's a yes. "Where are we? Exactly?"
"You are in the gardens of the palace of the Almighty Merciful Goddess, who resides in the heavens of Shangralai."
Tristin and my mouth had dropped by the word 'palace' and even moreso at the word 'goddess'. This is unbelievable!
"Um, what?! Repeat that, I didn't hear right. Goddess? Heavens?! Are we dead?" That last was what I'd been secretly fearing since waking. That like a bomb had hit and the two of us died or something. Would explain the flash and sound but I didn't know heaven was a Japanese garden.
"No! You have nothing to fear there. You are quite alive, I assure you. And yes, you did indeed hear me correctly. This is the home of the Merciful Goddess. In fact, she is inside waiting for you two along with her Lord Husband as we speak so we really should move along."
What ever. I'll soak that in and figure it out later. Next question:
"Ok. If you say so. Why do you keep calling us ladies?"
"Yeah. Because you must be delusional because I ain't a lady, dude." Tristin say this as she lights up a cigarette (GOOD idea I could use one about now. "Hey give me one Tris") What makes the statement hit home even more is the lighter she uses to light it with: a silver pewter penis-shaped lighter! It's great. I forget where we got it but, damn, she's got great timing.
The poor monk. I can't help but smirk at his look. He just stands there in shock, stuttering for a minute. Then he looks down at his feet, I think he's blushing, and shakes himself out of his moment of shock. Guess he remembered that we 'short of time'. He mutters something to himself that sounds suspiciously like "half-demon heretics"? Tristin and I look at each other and shrug.
The monk straightens up and looks as if he is about to answers our questions when suddenly to our left and ahead (behind for the monk) at the 'palace' there's a loud slam. It sounded as if a door was flung open in a hurry. The three of us immediately look up to see what the disturbance is? Monk-boy looks stiff. Tristin and I are simply wondering what's next in this looney-bin. We hear running foot-steps then we see a man emerge from the shadows of the columned halls.
The man is dressed in a uniform that had to a bodyguard or royal guard for a Japanese emperor of the old Samurai days. The armor is all blue and the under clothing is white. His hat, err helmet, is blue also and definitely of Samurai design. When he reaches our group he is out of breath and gives monk-boy a disapproving glare. Monk-boy shrivels under it. Then the guard/soldier speaks in a demanding, army approved voice.
"What is going on here? Ichachow, (is that the monk's name??) you were supposed to have brought in the princesses to the audience chamber twenty minutes ago! (Um, WHAT?? Did he say princess??) The Merciful Goddess has been waiting and, trust me when I say, that she does not like to be kept waiting! Even his holiness the Lord God is here awaiting them! The Merciful Goddess sent me out here to retrieve you. Come along now! she is getting bitchy"
Woah! I look back towards Tristin when he finally finishes his speal and raise my eyebrows, smirk and jerk my head toward the soldier. She returns the smirk and nods. This was silent 'convo' for 'he's cool!' Tristin mouths to me: 'Ichachow'?? And smirks again. Yep, his name definitely needs improvement. Gawd. But back to more important things.
"Hey, um, officer? Who are you calling princesses? Who's this Merciful Goddess and Lord God? And (Tristin looks over at the monk) you're name is Ichachow?"
It sounds like she's about to laugh and I can't blame her. I'm holding it in myself. The monk looks like he would like to crawl into the ground after being thoroughly lectured. But he regains his composure quickly to answer. The soldier looks over at the two of us while this is all happening and I feel like he's sizing us up or something.
"I cannot answer any more of your questions to your satisfaction (did he answer ONE to our satisfaction?). I would just confuse you more. (Like he hasn't already) If you really want your answers you MUST follow us into the audience chamber; the Merciful Goddess is the only one to answers your questions."
At this I throw up my hands in defeat. "NOW, he tells us."
"Yes, now, please ladies, come along!"
Hmpf, he sounds slightly desperate. I look over at soldier-boy (why can't this stupid people simply introduce themselves? Is that to hard or something?) He acknowledges with a nod my silent question of whether we really should listen to 'Ichy' over here and go inside. I give in and look over a Tris. She still looks stubborn.
"Come on, lets just get this over with, ok. I think we really should go in. In the least, maybe someone will finally tell us what is going on. Maybe Ichy's right and this Mercy Goddess (Ichy sputters in annoyance at this little nickname. Serves him right. Nosy little bastard) will be able to answer our questions. If we don't like what we hear, we can always pack up and split. Figure things out on our own. We're good at that.(I think, hmm) Ok?"
My pleading face and diplomatic words work. Yes. The mountain has moved.
"Fine. But we don't split up. Ok. We stick together. If I got to go through this you're gonna be there with me." she pointedly looks at me. A silent understanding goes through us. Kinda creepy. Psychic. But, we both know that no matter what we're there for each other. We look over at the men waiting and look at each other again. Deep breath.
Suddenly Tristin, again rather dramatically, gestures to them and starts walking sturdily, stubbornly, and purposefully towards the palace; dragging me along by my arm I might add. Least she could've done was give me a signal but, no, Tristin does things her own way. Then, ubrubtly, she stops (I regain my footing), turns to look at the men standing back in the exact same place looking rather lost at us, and says:
"Well, you coming or not? I don't know where I'm going remember? Lead!!"
After this statement they snap out of la-la land and hurry along up to us. Tristin has a self-satisfied smirk. Things just gotta be her way. She's gotta be in charge. Control issues? Or was it just the shock factor? She's like that too.
We're led down a couple halls that are columnaded on both sides rising at least two stories. It is almost Ancient Grecian with a touch of Japanese Feng shui. The colors are all soothing and warm yellows, tans, and greens. More of the garden is on our left with the building's outer wall to the right. Finally we reach a pair of doors. They are huge. Beautiful golden brown oaken doors with elegantly engraved matching designs on each. We all stop and look at it apprehensively; albeit for different reasons.
Supposedly, on the other side of these doors are the answers to all our questions. The big questions is: Do we want those answers? I feel a tap on my shoulder and look over to see Tris giving me a thumbs up. I needed that. Then she throws down her cigarette (after receiving a pointed glare from soldier-boy) and throws back her shoulders. I follow her example. "We ready?" I mouth to her. She nods. We're ready. Uh-huh sure. Ready.
Ichy knocks on the doors three times in a signal. Someone must have been on the other side waiting for it because they open immediately. We finally get a glimpse of this 'audience chamber' and all I can say is "Wow."
The doors revealed a large, spacious, elegant room. We walk into the threshold. As the two of us girls freeze and look around soldier-boy walks quickly down an aisle like walk-way up to a dias where there looked like a throne or something and a couple shapes that look like people. I guess he's announcing us to the "goddess" chick. Eh, at least it gives us a couple minutes to look around and check out this room.
It wasn't so much as large as elongated. It was just designed in a way as to make it seem so much more otherworldly. I guess when you're in the 'heavens' you need that otherworldly touch huh. It was done in cool tones. The ground was tiled in a mosaic patchwork of silver, bronze, and pewter tones; except in the walk-way area. That had larger square tiles in gold heading to a point at the edge of the dias. The outer wall had huge windows reaching from, oh, about a foot from the floor to a foot from the ceiling. Despite being long the windows were normal looking and were only about a foot and a half wide, but there were many of them from the doors up to the back wall on both sides of the room. They revealed the outside. On the left we had part of the gardens that we 'arrived' in earlier and on the right it showed a large pool or pond with water-lilies floating on it. In between each window was a silver and gold pillar. Standing in front of each pillar was a guard dressed similarly to the soldier-boy but not as official looking. Everyday bodyguards, I guess.
"Damn! Not bad!"
"Needs some red and black and it'll do." This was Tristin's way of agreeing. What can I say, she's ever the goth.
She looks over at me with a very mischeivious expression. "Wonder what the uniforms will do," she nods in the direction of the guards along the wall. "if I lit up in here? You want one?"
I nod and chuckle slightly. After all, we didn't get to finish our last ones. But, just as she's pulling two cigs from the pack and her delightful lighter out, a major-domo-type dude walks up to us and talks quickly and silently to Ichy, who had been listening to our conversation very exasperated. He then stands up straight and turns to address us:
"My most holy ladies if you would be so kind as to follow Ichachow and myself. Do not say anything until spoken to. Understand?"
We look at him with total innocent expressions and nod. He then turns and starts walking. Tristin and I look at each other and shrug then look at Ichy with our eyebrows raised. He nods and walks ahead of us.
As we traipsed up to the dias we noticed the shapes on the dias getting clearer. There were three people up there and it looked like one was sitting on some sort of chair.
Soldier-boy was standing on the left side in attention stance mode. Straight up and down. Very military.
About a foot to his right was a gorgeous yet slightly gaudy throne. It was completely golden and seemed to be lit up from behind someway. It was way to rich looking for my liking. Sitting on the throne was a beautiful woman.
She seemed haughty though, almost arrogant yet ...vapid? She had long black hair done up in some fancy ass hair-do that probably took hours. Her outfit was this pure white Egyptian style dress with gold arm bands that matched the gold bands in her hair. She had a shawl of some sort of violet silk. She was sitting with her head in her hand and her arm leaning on the throne's arm. All in all very bored looking, but her eyes had lit up slightly as she looked me then, she looked over at Tris. Her expression was still affectionate but slightly different as she looked my friend over. I recognized her vaguely as if from a dream.
On her right was another man. He was standing right next to the throne, was actually standing with his arm thrown onto the top of the back of her throne. His other arm was on his side. He had a very regal and self assured look. Also, arrogant but came off differently. He screamed authority and respect. He was dressed in white loose but fitting pants with sandals. His top was of a Chinese cut with the slits in the side for easier walking, long loose sleeves but tight at the wrist, and high collar. The edges were all trimmed with gold brocade and the main back ground color was a royal blue. He had beautiful eyes that looked right at you, they held an amused and loving expression as he looked at the two of us. His face was lean and arrogant, kingly. His hair was shoulder length and was a blue-black color with some strings of gray and silver throughout that just added to the whole image. I felt an immediate connection to this man, as if I knew him from somewhere, almost fatherly affection and a vague memory of him picking me up and putting me on his shoulders? What was going on here?
When Tristin and I finally made it to the dias to stand before them we noticed that upon immediate arrival Ichy had thrown himself to his knees and bowed his head to the ground. Tris' must have noticed it to because you could hear her muttering to herself.
"I hope they don't expect me to do that. Ugh, no. I ain't kissing the ground no matter how shiny it is. Or how 'holy' these people are supposed to be." Tristin looked up stubbornly at the dias after this statement.
I looked down at the ground shaking my head. She could be so stupid sometimes. "God, a little tact here would be nice, Tris. We are out of our league and at these people's mercy for answers and help until we can figure things out." I hissed at her. I heard her mutter something about 'good thing she's a 'merciful' goddess then, huh, Kim' I sighed. She turned to look at me with that expression that meant we were about to go into another of our 'arguments' which were really sarcastic matches, but now was not the time. "Don't start."
Immediately after that lovely moment we both heard this low, deep, rumbling chuckle. We looked up to see the Regal Man laughing at us. Man, I know him from some where and by Tristin's expression I think she does too.
"Do I know you?" Blunt, to the point. Guess that confirmed my earlier suspicions.
As if Tris' question was a cue to break the silence Ichy spoke up. "Actually, yes the two of you do. My ladies may I present you to their most holy highness': The Merciful Goddess and her King of the Heavens, Lord God of Heaven."
"Oh....kay. Um, Hi." I waved weakly. But Ichy wasn't done with the introductions.
"My most honorable and majestic Lord God and Lady Goddess I present to you, your daughters - their most holy princess' Kimber and Tristin."
I don't think I've ever seen Tristin speech-less before, I mean her mouth had hit the floor, course I wasn't that far away. I was the first to regain my composure and voice.
"Um, eh...excuse me?" I was looking at everyone for answers but Tristin couldn't take her eyes off of the man.
"What? Don't you remember your father, my little Spitfire? I mean, its only been 500 years; well, 18 for you. Not that long surely."
It was unbelievable but he had said this with such an ironic, sarcastic tone while looking at Tristin that I knew it had to be true. Come to think of it he did sound like Tristin when he said that. Maybe it was the sarcasm. He was chuckling again. He then looked at me and his eyes held an unmistakable affection for just me.
"And you, my stubborn little diplomat, have you figured out every thing yet? Or is your memory not yet returned either."
How is it possible to sound so sweet but, teasing and a jerk at the same time.
Then came an extremely bored sounding feminine voice:
"If you're done teasing the girls, my lord, we have a lot to talk about with them and I would like to have some time with my daughter while you 'chat up' with your 'little spitfire'.
Huh. Man, this is getting weirder and weirder.