You may notice that the dream Ryu had in chapter 15 actually comes into play here.
Paths of the Heart, Chapter XIX:
Indecipherable Words
Ryu span round, and around, and around like he was being sucked down a kitchen drain. He timidly opened one eye, then the other. He immediately shut them, he now understood why they were told to keep their eyes closed- ripples of millions of colors had flashed before him, it was very pretty. Yet extremely dizzying, Ryu felt sick.
And it seemed as soon as it had begun, it stopped.
Ryu and the others crashed down onto a hard stone floor; it was lucky they landed on something soft.
"Hey!" The 'soft thing' shouted.
"Uh… Whoops, sorry…" Nina said climbing off what now appeared to be a rather chunky Wyndian guard. They had landed in one of the secret basements in Wyndia castle.
"You little brats! What do you think you're do-" The guard stopped in mid sentence, "Princess Nina!" She shouted in realization, "I'm so sorry, I did not recognize you my highness, I must tell the king of your triumphant return!" And he hurried off, obviously embarrassed at shouting at the heir to the throne.
"Oh, yeah," Nina remembered, putting a finger on her chin, "I must tell father that I'm back."
Cray pulled himself off the floor, as he did so he noticed Deis. A huge dorky smile worked its way up Cray's face, but it disappeared just as fast as a look of shock and horror replaced it. For in front of him was the most vile and horrid scene he could have imagined: Fou-Lu was sitting in Deis's lap. Not only that, but Fou-Lu was covered in Lipstick kisses, his hair seemed rather messed up too.
'Well,' Ryu thought with a raised eyebrow, 'they look like they've had some fun."
Cray's eyes almost popped out as his heart shattered in 4 different fancy color coded pieces. Everyone was too lazy to pick them up for him. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" He screamed in agony, eye lids twitching as he rushed up to Deis and teared Fou-Lu off her lap.
"How could you betray our love!" He shouted as he began weakly hitting Deis. (Though meaning no harm.)
"Wait one darn second…" Deis said trying to understand what the heck Cray was on about, "You think I and Him," She pointed to Fou-Lu, "did that? How dare you!" Deis shouted in fury, slapping Cray with so much power that it left a hand mark that would probably be there for the rest of his life.
Cray fell to the floor sobbing, "B-b-b-but… You said… earlier, that… h-he looked… sexy" He stuttered in a Scais worthy way.
"Honestly… You humans…" Deis said exasperatingly. "He is like SO... 3 minutes ago." She said waving an elegant hand.
"B… B… But… You're…"
"What I do pussy cat, is my business. If I want to comfort Fou-Lu after his brutally attacked by rabid fangirls, then that is what I do." She said sternly.
Cray's mouth curved into a sigh of relief. But it wasn't over yet.
"Anyway…" Deis began, "What do you mean, 'betray our love…?'" Cray gulped.
X
"Father!" Nina cried in joy running up to embrace him.
"My daughter…" The king said in relief, "How glad I am to see you safe and sound again." He said hugging Nina.
"I missed you too father." Nina smiled the rest of the group behind her, including A rather sulky red-cheeked Cray.
"To celebrate the joyous occasion of you're return daughter, we shall have a feast, I believe your friends would like some time to relax too, yes?" The king said happily.
The rest of the group nodded, liking of the idea. "That's a wonderful idea Father! But… I wish to do something first…"
"Very well, Nina, the feast shall we held tonight, just be back before then." The king said curiously.
"Don't worry, I won't be long." Nina said walking out the door. Ryu decided to follow her, he caught her arm.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"To thank Pung Ryong." She said mysteriously, unlatching her arm from his and walking away, leaving Ryu to revel in his confusion.
She climbed to the top of Wyndia castle, where she sat, gazing at the sky. "Now… Where are you…?" She muttered to herself squinting at the sun. But she had seen what she had been looking for, "Thanks, Pung Ryong." She said grinning like a Cheshire cat. And, although she was not sure if it was for real or not, she heard a whisper of reply come back.
No problem.
Later that day…
Ryu stood in front of the rather large mirror in the guestroom that had been given, scrutinizing himself. He was dressed in what could only be described as one thing- a suit. And boy was it uncomfortable, however he had been told to wear it. Ryu always did as he was told. 'Who am I kidding.' Ryu said throwing it off and rummaging around in the cupboard for something better.
"Aha!" He cried pulling out some plain black trousers, a blue shirt and a rather fancy elegant red cape.
He quickly put them on, ignoring the drooling fangirls outside the window that had jumped on Fou-Lu earlier that day.
Ryu looked in the mirror again while combing his hair. It took half an hour of struggling, but at last he had finally got it straight, He thought he looked rather handsome.
KnockKnock
"Come in." Ryu said straightening his cape out.
It was a Wyndian guard, "Sir, the party's starting, please follow me to the great hall, it you're ready that is."
Ryu nodded, "let's go." The guard led him down to a room that Ryu had never seen before, and he immediately gasped.
The room was beautiful, painting of cherubs on the roof and floor, gold pillars, but most stunning of all was the rows and rows of food, every sort you could imagine.
"Where's Nina?" Ryu thought, except he said it out loud.
"The princess is over there sir." The guard said pointing to the corner of the room, where Nina sat wearing a fur coat, shivering. Ryu had to admit, it was pretty cold.
"Thanks…" Ryu muttered walking carefully round the dancing floor, and taking a seat, after grabbing a chicken leg that is. That food was just too tempting.
While munching the chicken leg he could not avert his eyes from Nina, he wished he could dance which her, 'But why would she want to dance with me?' He asked himself blushing.
Just at that moment Ursula strolled into the room wearing an elegant red dress and sat down with Ryu.
"Why aren't you with Nina?" She asked bluntly.
Ryu just mumbled in reply.
"Oh come on Ryu, you know she likes you." Ursula smiled, "And I know you like her." Ryu's face went red, "C'mon, why don't you ask her to dance?"
"She doesn't want to dance with me… I can tell… Look how cold she is." Ryu replied.
Ursula laughed, "Then… Why don't you get close and warm her up." And with that Ursula pushed Ryu forward across the dance floor and right into Nina- Who screamed and spilt her Punch all over her coat.
"Uh…" Ryu said nervously, "Ursula did it." He added.
Nina just looked at Ryu dubiously.
"Uh… Sorry about that Nina…" Ryu muttered.
"Don't worry about it…" Nina said, "I wasn't going to drink that anyway, I think Scais spiked it."
"Why would Scais spike the punch?" Ryu asked curiously.
"Well… Who knows how his mind works… I think that he's quiet all the time because… He's plotting…" Nina said laughing.
"Plotting what?"
"To spike the punch of course."
They all broke out laughing at the joke, knowing that Scais would never really spike the punch.
They never knew how wrong they were…
"God, my coat's soaking…" Nina muttered.
"Sorry…" Ryu said quietly.
"Don't worry," Nina said, "I'll take it off anyway, I'm feeling a bit warmer now." She said removing it.
Ryu gasped. Underneath Nina was wearing the most beautiful item of clothing Ryu had ever seen. It was long, gold and had had real roses stitched into it. (Though they had the thorns removed) And with her large wings protruding from the back, she looked like a real angel.
'No,' Ryu thought, 'She is an angel.'
Nina caught him staring and blushed, "Do you like it?"
"Yeah… It's amazing… You must have to change the roses a lot in that."
Nina shook her head, "They're blessed roses, they never wilt. This dress was… My mother's it's passed down though the women's side of the family. You see the brown stain?" She pointed to a small brown stain at the hem of the dress; "My great-great-grandmother spilt coffee there."
"Uh… Nina…?" Ryu asked.
"Yes?" Nina asked questioningly.
"Um…" Ryu gathered up his courage, but somehow looking at Nina, he had enough for 88.9 life times.
"Nina… May I have the honor of this dance?"
"And then, can you believe, she said 'I don't date animals, humans and especially not Pussy Cats.' and then, she slapped me AGAIN!" Cray wined, Ershin beeped in reply, wearing a tuxedo.
"Then she said 'I'll date YOU when pigs fly.' And I said ' So that's a pretty good chance then.' And do you know what she did then? She slapped me AGAIN!" Ershin beeped and ran off.
"The NERVE! I just told him how Deis slapped me 55 times, I hadn't even said the last 45." Cray said sulking.
Deis sighed sitting down next to Cray, "Cray… I've been listening to you and…"
"You here to slap me again?" Cray said grumpily.
"No, but if you don't hold you're tongue, I will. Now… I've been listening to you, and… If it means so much to you… I'll go out with you.
"…" Cray replied.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Yes." Nina accepted as she gave Ryu her hand and he lifted her to her feet.
Ryu lead Nina to the dance floor, putting one hand round hers and the other round her waist as the music began to play.
If words could say my feelings,
My words would be Indecipherable,
They began to dance, as Ryu span her round the floor her golden dress just skimming the floor as they went. Ryu could never think of a happier time in his life, time seemed to have stopped for them. Others gasping in amazement as a blue-haired man danced with the heir to the throne. Every word of passion-A song of love.
Nina began to hum along with the tune, her mind blank and calm. She didn't really enjoy dancing, but when she was with Ryu, she enjoyed everything.
I could fly up to the moonGlide over sparking sand,
Ryu sighed holding her closer, her breath smelled of roses, while he was sure his smelled of chicken. But it didn't matter, as long as she stayed with him.
Hold you in the darkness,
Never let go of your hand.
'Don't let this end, it don't want it to end.' Nina thought desperately as they twirled round and round, Nina closed her eyes and sighed, the sigh of love.
Even it my words weren't tangible
You would still know what I mean,
They passed by Ursula, she grinned at Ryu, seeing Nina resting her chin on Ryu's shoulder as they danced and gave him the thumbs up. Ryu smiled back.
Singing loud and clear
A mirror of emotions – You'd know what to hear.
"Ah!" Nina let a soft scream as she nearly tripped over Ryu's leg; 'sorry' she mouthed, Ryu just smiled pulling Nina to him again.
I could fly up to the moon
Glide over sparkling sand,
Ryu felt like he was gliding, and it felt great.
Hold you in the darkness
Don't let go of my hand.
If Ryu wanted holding, Nina vowed she would do it.
If words fibbed my emotions
Would you stand by me?
'Of course I would.' Ryu thought, 'I will always stand by you, Nina'
Just a reflection,
But what would you see?
They were completely ignorant of the staring, half the hall was looking at them. They were in a world of their own, and they weren't going to come out of it any time soon.
I could fly up to the moon
Glide of sparkling sand,
They were so close now, Nina could smell the chicken, and their noses were almost touching.
Hold you in the darkness,
Embrace you in the light.
The king watched the couple dance happily, 'looks like we may have found our new prince…' He thought.
If my heart could speak,
What would they say to you?
Believe me it would say…
Together they whispered the last words of the song.
"I love you."
They leaned forward as Ryu's sweet lips claimed Nina's in their firstbut certainly not last kiss.
The End
But remember… There is an epilogue… Now review… You know you want to…