Sweet Sad Music

Chapter 1: Royal Pain In The Ass

Standard disclaimers apply.

-X-

Hidden deep in the thorn forest was a large and ancient fortress with peeling grayish tiles. The large gardens behind the manor was dead and decayed, frayed leaves and fallen branches littered everywhere with a coating of dust and spider webs. But inside the manor, everything was clean and furnished with sophisticatedly carved furniture and priceless antiquities. Mostly everything was of white marble, gleaming underneath the sunlight streaming through the large, ornate windows with the silk draperies pushed to their sides. Everything inside was a shocking contrast to the outer façade, giving an ominous non-welcome to any wandering strangers.

But though Mimi has been held captive in this castle/prison for most of her life – twelve years to be in fact – she nevertheless loved it. She adored the many mysterious rooms unused for so long, finding hidden treasures and passageways that could be used as hideaways or her personal, secret room when she wanted to be left alone. Adored the gigantic kitchen where she can cook and cook and cook to her hearts content, trying every recipe in the hundreds of cookbooks. Adored the massive library with its wall-to-wall bookshelves decked out in every book printed, handwritten and magically produced otherwise. But most of all, Mimi loved the indoor garden with every kind of flora imaginable with a wonderful and beautiful fountain spewing sparks of color rather than water into the air.

Her prisoner/friend had given her this garden to love and nourish because Mimi was forbidden to go outside the manor's doors, even with all those thorny vines around the fortress. Giles had even pushed it to the limits by putting a spell on the young girl that prevented her from going outside unless external forces saved her.

Of course, there were many young men and arrogant knights who tried to rescue the damsel in distress but none had even gotten past the Thorn Maze, as everyone dubs it now. Also, there were pretty many enchantments and spells placed by Giles before the Thorn Maze to further thwart anyone from entering.

And everyone wondered what was so special about this particular young girl that the most feared sorcerer had abducted her. Speculations ranged from her unbelievable beauty to her royalty then to absurd gossips that are unmentionable.

Even the Royal Family of the Ishida Kingdom didn't know the real motives and Mimi came from their territory. But they knew they had to rescue her. After twelve years, they were finally ready to send in their trump card, and certain of their impending victory that only their trump card can accomplish.

-X-

Something erupted in the kitchen, followed by a barrage of thick, dark smoke curling out of the open, large double doors.

"Giles! Giles!"

Mimi frantically swatted smoke away from her face uselessly, lowering her head and squinting through the thick fog that had quickly smothered the kitchen. God, she was suffocating.

This is it, Mimi thought dramatically, leaning further into the wall. This is how I'm going to die. Trapped in a burning kitchen because I didn't correctly measure the ratio of salt for my pie. What an awful way to kick the bucket.

Of course, it didn't occur to the melodramatic young girl to just run outside the kitchen through the open doors and fetch a hose or whatever.

"Mimi! For Christ's sake, what have you done now you foolish girl!" an irritated voice spoke from the doorway, slightly muffled by the lickings of the fire against the wooden table. Mimi narrowed her stinging and watery eyes and saw a shadowy figure step inside. "Giles, is that you?" Mimi asked.

"Of course it's me!"

There was a muttered curse, Mimi winced, and suddenly the smoke and the fire and hole on the table vanished immediately, like magic.

It is magic, the girl thought wryly, pushing herself up and letting loose a series of coughs as she did so. The kitchen was spotlessly neat as if it hadn't been at the brink of destruction but Mimi didn't fare that good. Her dress was tattered and dirty, her face and hair covered in soot and ashes. She looked like a ragged, dirty waif in some slum!

She shook her head, hoping the soot would just come off and raked her hands through her hair, finding many frustrating knots in the mass. Mimi sighed and dusted her hopeless dress, scowling at the burned patch on the skirt. But she wasn't physically hurt, neither burns nor scratches marred her flawless skin, though she could use a bath and good scrubbing.

"Ahem," came a fake, annoyed cough from in front of her and Mimi looked up.

Giles was glaring down at her mockingly, arms crossed over his chest and head cocked to one side with one brow infuriatingly arched. "Care to explain your latest mishap, my dear?"

"Wasn't my fault," Mimi muttered under her breath, brushing a sooty strand of hair away from her face.

Giles arched brow rose higher. "Oh? And whose fault was it? Akira's?"

Akira was the only other living thing inside the mansion with Mimi and Giles. He was a sleek and vibrant tiger, overly protective and startlingly affectionate to Mimi that went past a hunter's love for his prey. Much like a sibling like love, only between a human girl and her pet.

"Well, no. He's outside playing with the birds. More like terrorizing, actually. Anyway, it was an accident Giles and I didn't mean to burn this house down," Mimi explained impatiently, itching for a bath. She knew Giles was her captor and she should do everything he said and blah, blah, blah but Giles wasn't most like captors since he gave her much freedom – except for total freedom like going out the front door – and he was really kind and sweet, genuinely caring for her. So obviously, Mimi wasn't your usually prisoner, so to speak, more like a guest who wasn't allowed to leave. But they had a real, sincere and caring friendship, like Giles was the big brother she didn't have. What Mimi couldn't understand is that why Giles took her in the first place when she was still so young and why he seemed to know so much about her, things she doesn't even know about herself. And she keeps on wondering if what he keeps on saying is true.

Besides, Giles didn't even look his reputation. Sorcerers were supposed to be old, cranky and well, ancient. But Giles weren't any of those things, uh, so he's cranky but he wasn't ancient. In fact, Giles looked probably twenty-something when in truth he was already thirty above. And he wasn't ugly. Lord no. To Mimi, her captor/big brother/friend was the handsomest guy she'd ever seen, which is perfectly biased because he's the only guy she'd ever seen in an age that looks started to matter to a girl.

But when Mimi strained her memory very hard, forcing herself, she could bring up a hazy face into her eye's mind. But she couldn't see the features, just the over-all physique of a little boy. He must have been her friend before she got taken and Mimi knew he had blonde hair, whoever he is. Sadly, Mimi couldn't recall the little blonde boy's name.

"Mimi! Are you listening to me?" Giles asked wearily, raking a hand through his dark, wavy hair. Mimi straightened and got a good look at him and suddenly grew worried. Giles had dark bags under his eyes and his hands were slightly shaking with fatigue, most likely. He looked so tired and troubled that Mimi immediately regretted the accident, knowing that it had added some strain to his nerves. But whatever could be bothering him so?

"You look positively exhausted Giles, what's wrong? Did Akira-kun try to bite off your leg again?" Mimi asked earnestly, looking down to see if he was missing a leg or something else. "Well? Are you just going to keep on scowling into space or tell me what's bothering you? You can't keep a lady waiting forever!"

Giles uttered a sigh, something he keeps on doing everytime Mimi does something not particularly good. Hey, she might be a klutz and sort of accident-prone, but she still had her dignity and she could very well make little stitches when she sows.

"It's not time to talk about it, my dear, not time at all," Giles cryptically replied, turning around and walking out.

Mimi stared at his retreating back in utter shock. He wasn't even going to punish her. Giles would often punish Mimi for her clumsy accidents with little things, like doing the dishes and cleaning the house instead of his magic doing it, but now, Giles didn't even issue his usual empty threat of: "If you do that one more time you're cleaning the toilets for a week. Manually!"

Mimi sighed and looked over her shoulder and saw the stove spotlessly clean, her disaster pie having vanished into god knows where. Giles couldn't actually just make things disappear but was just able to transfer them to someplace else. Mimi was often a wonderful cook but sometimes, she did have her bad moments. With a shrug, she decided to take a long bath and watch all this dust and grimes from her self and walked out of the kitchen, closing the doors behind her.

She'd always wondered where all those things Giles vanished went. And now, she couldn't help but think what happened to her poor, combusted supposedly apple pie and hoped it landed someplace empty.

-X-

God, Yamato couldn't believe his parents. He was furious with them, no, not just furious but positively livid with rage! They had no right to do this to him, no right at all.

"Actually, Matt, they do have the right," his chocolate-haired friend interrupted his raging, tranquilly leading his horse alongside Matt's. "After all, they are your parents so they can engage you off whenever and whoever they want to."

Matt scowled, shooting Taichi a nasty look. "Don't read my mind when I'm angry. Better yet, don't read my mind period."

Taichi smiled slightly, face every peaceful as was his trademark look. "But what is the use of being a powerful mage if you cannot read your friend's minds and not cause mischief?"

Yamato glared at him but didn't comment on his words. Instead, he ranted on about his bad fate. "Besides, I still think it's an injury to my rights betrothed without my permission. And to a girl I haven't met and have to rescue from some demented old bastard." The prince sighed, unconsciously tightening his grip on the reigns and making his majestic horse neigh a little at the change of pressure. "My life sucks."

On his other side, wearing a feather light armor was Sora and riding a white and majestic mare with her red hair gleaming under the patches of light filtering through the trees. "Well, the King and Queen said you two were childhood best friends before the Lady Mimi was abducted. So you technically know her."

Yamato stared at his two closest friends, one of them – the female one – he was secretly in love with, weirdly. They were a strange duo, that's for sure. Taichi, instead of being the warrior since he was a guy was instead the mild-mannered, often mischievous – the tranquility was just a façade – mage, wearing his swirling robes and pointy hat on a jaunty angle on his wild head. Then there was Sora, beautiful, brave Sora who was the warrior instead of being some simpering debutante at her ball.

And he, he was Yamato, Crowned Prince of the Ishida Kingdom and engaged to a wench he barely even knows, never mind does not remember, and currently on a quest to save said damsel from some evil, old sorcerer who kidnapped her when she was still five.

God, his life was messed up.

"Think of it this way, Matt, at least you're betrothed won't be too predictable, dull and ugly," Taichi good-naturedly told him, leaning sideways and patting Matt's shoulders comfortingly.

Matt glowered at him. "How would you know that? Did your mind-reading powers tell you? Or did God send angels in holy light to announce to the whole world that my fiancé," he bit the word out scornfully, "is some exquisite, exciting and exotic woman. I'm betting she's been half-starved, if not fully, by the sorcerer. And she's lost her spirit because of all the torture she's received."

He muttered something nasty underneath his breath, which unfortunately for him, Sora heard.

Her eyebrows leaped to the sky even as her eyes narrowed. "I can't believe you think she deserves the torture she's obviously been subjected to just because your parents engaged her to you!" Her voice was incredulous and femininely enraged. "That's so…male! She didn't even do anything wrong and you're already judging her. She's innocent and I shudder what the poor girl's state is now."

Yamato sighed. "Sorry." There was no conviction behind his apology.

Then suddenly, by magic, a slop of apple pie, horribly blackened and smelling of burnt smoke appeared above Matt and plopped on his golden, spiked head, spilling the destroyed pie down his forehead and cheeks and chin and splattering on his handsome and finely-tailored clothes.

Taichi and Sora caught each other's eyes and tried, really, really tried not to hurt their friend's feelings. But they just couldn't. Matt looked soooooo funny with scalded pie all over him and they didn't wonder at all where that rotten food came from.

They burst out laughing, pointing at him and shaking uncontrollably from their guffaws as it echoed all over the serene forest.

Matt groaned and he looked up helplessly to the heavens.

"Oh God, why do you hate me so?"

-X-

A/N: Watcha all think? Still continue or dump it all down in he hopeless bin? All depends on your reviews! So make 'em quick and long and wonderful.