Sora slowly opened her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar room. The walls were a dull gray and the small room itself was in need of a good cleaning since it was very easy to spot dust or cobwebs anywhere. The room was gloomy since the rays of the sun could barely entered through the single small-bared window. The young girl found herself to be lying on a single bed, which contained nothing but a tiny throw pillow to rest her head on. It was really uncomfortable compared to the beds she was use to sleeping on.
"W…where am I?" Sora asked herself as she sat up. Suddenly, a huge rush of pain hit her head as she released a groan, placing a hand on her forehead.
When the pain had seemed to disappear, the young princess took a scan around the room, trying to remember how she got here. It was not until long until of what had happened to her and her siblings flashed in front of her eyes. Her eyes grew wide as her face turned as pale as a ghost. Her entire body started to shake.
"Sustain…Melandra…Tasia…Burlan…No, it could not be," she whispered as tears started to form in her eyes. "It had to be a dream. Yes, a nightmare. They could not have really…" she trailed off in fright. The water works started now, as she bawled into her hands. "It can't be true!" she yelled.
It was then that the large iron door of the room was opened, and a scary heavy man with a long beard entered. The sound caused Sora to jump, taking her face always from her moist palms.
"So, you finally awake," the man spoke in a deep old tone after he had scanned the princess. "I will tell Lord Jaswen." And with that, he exited the way he came.
"Wait! No, don't go!" Sora exclaimed as she quickly got out of the bed and raced to the door. But she was too late. She started to pound against the hard door with her hands as she started to cry once more. "Please, don't leave me alone!" she whined as she grew tired and fell on her knees.
She remained there, crying in fright until moments later, the sound of the door opening once more caught her attention. Sora quickly rose to her feet and stood back as the same man from before opened it. He held the door open as a dark tall sinister man entered.
"It's good to see that you are finally awake, Princess," he spoke, staring at the girl with mad eyes. "I trust you slept well."
Sora gasped in fright as she immediately recognized from before. "Y…y…you…" she stuttered.
"Let me introduce myself," he said, giving a slight bow. "I am Prince Jaswen Fourk of Isia."
"Of Isia?" Sora repeated, immediately recognizing the country at war with her father. Jaswen nodded at the princess. Sora's eyes soon grew angry as she narrow them.
"Why!" she demanded, staring straight at the prince.
"For revenge," Jaswen said rather casually, with no emotions. "You see, your father, King Takenouchi took away our father, someone we cared for very much. So we decided it would be appropriate to take something he cares for…his children."
"My father did not kill your father! It's just a misunderstanding! There was no need to…" Sora started to explain until the other interrupted her.
"It is you who is misunderstood, princess! I refuse to believe that lie!" he shouted in anger.
"And why didn't you kill me as well? If it was your revenge to kill the Takenouchi children, then why am I still living? I am a Takenouchi too…" Jaswen grinned as he stepped forward towards the girl, causing Sora to instinct step back.
"Because it would be ashamed to destroy such beauty," he said softly, stroking Sora's cheek with the back of his hand. "Ever since I saw you at the Grand Ball, I fell in love with your beautiful face." Sora was able finally to recognize him as one of the men that were harassing her at the ball. They were the ones that Taichi rescued her from.
"Don't touch me!" she said, angrily, slapping the hand away. "You're a monster! You took away my sisters and brother!" Jaswen shut his eyes as he shook his head slightly.
"A monster? Well, sweet princess, you would come to find that the only way of surviving is to be with this monster. I'll let you think about what you want to do." And with that he turned to exit, waving his hand to the other man. "Enjoy your stay," he grinned before finally exit, the door exiting behind him.
Sora, wrapping her arms around herself, started crying once more. What was she to do? She was all alone, in a gloomy cold room with her siblings' death fresh in her mind. Then, something shiny had caught the corner of her eye. Looking down at her hand, she caught sight of the ring on her finger.
"Taichi…" she whispered between tears.
It had been days since the death of the Takenouchi children and the sorrow still struck the royal parents as well as many others. The Takenouchi's had returned back home to bury the corpses of their children. They even had a gravestone made for their missing child, Sora.
Taichi was still determined as ever to find Princess Sora, believing that she was still alive. While his parents thought he was just in denial and protested against the chance of Sora being alive, Taichi did not listen. Each day at the break of dawn, he would ride off on his house to continue the search, following any clues the few clues he had. He would return at daybreak, at the order of his mother, with nothing to show for his searches. But he refused to give up. Something in his heart told him his love was alive, somewhere out there.
He would have trouble sleeping at night. All he could think of was her. He felt no need to eat meals, but his mother worried over this and forced him to. His parents soon got extremely worried over their son's behavior, afraid that he would get ill. So, his father gave him an ultimatum. If Sora was not found by the end of the second week, his son would quit his futile search and start aiding in helping the road. It was something Taichi did not consent to but had to obey.
Trying harder and harder on his searches, they were all found to be in vain. 'I need to find her,' Taichi coached himself as he rode his horse throughout the lush forests, looking for any sign of the girl. He thought that Sora had somehow ran away from the assassins and was lost somewhere in this forest, alone and confused on how to get out. But the two weeks were coming to a close, a fact that grew heavy on the young prince's heart. As the sun set on the final day, Taichi eyes filled with tears, watching it.
"I'm sorry, Sora. I was not strong enough," he whispered into nothingness.
King and Queen Takenouchi had already returned back to the castle. It was time once again for the kings to come up with battle strategies for the war. King Takenouchi, however, felt there was no more reason to fight the war. He was felt he had lost everything with the death of his children.
King Kamiya hated to see his friend so dishearten and thought participating in a war would make it worse. He tried to come up with a peaceful solution that would end this war. It was a while until he finally found something that would work. He had ordered his son to go talk to the King of Isia's brother to try to see if he could talk some sense into him. If they could get the brother to believe then he could maybe convince his brother. And he knew someone closer his age would be better at convincing then some old men. So, he sent Taichi off, with some of the royal guards, just in case.
Sora was thrown on the floor of her room prison that was located in one of the castle tower, her eyes shut. She had refused to eat or drink anything that she was offered, afraid what they had put in it. And she grew to become quiet ill from the poor conditions of the room. She was now very weak and was having much trouble staying standing. Sora had given up all hope as well of being rescued. And a part of her did not want to be. For she had blamed herself for the death of her siblings and believed her parents would be furious at her for it if she saw them again. All she was doing now was wait around until the angel of death came to take her.
Her eyes slowly opened as she heard something from the outside. It was a fanfare. But it was just not any fanfare; it was the Fanfare of the Kamiya's. It could not be. Sora struggled and finally sat herself up. She had to be hallucinating. But it did not end. She then tried her best to crawl to the window. Curiosity had gotten the best of her as well as her hopes that she just had to see. With the wall to help support her, she forced herself to stand up. Her strength in her legs was about to give out. But thankfully she was close enough to the window that she was able to grab onto the bars to keep herself up. The window was so small, not even Sora's head would get through it and the bars were so close together that it would be impossible for her to stick her hand through without getting it stuck.
She was finally able to see out the window and saw many horsemen in front of the castle entrance. And it did not take long for the princess to recognize the young brown-headed man in the front. Taichi! Her eyes widen. It just could not be true. She opened her mouth to call out his name but found that she had lost her voice due to the illness. Oh, no!
Prince Taichi had been given permission to enter the castle of Jaswen Fourk. With the wave of his hand, Taichi motioned his men to enter the castle's gates. They were moving. Sora had to get Taichi's attention somehow before it was too late. But how? She was thinking of throwing her shoe to do it, but it would not fit through the window's bars. And anything small enough to fit would be too small to be noticed by anyone. She had to try though. Sora took a moment to look for a stone that was near her to throw, but all the decent side ones where too far away. With her weakness slowing her down, by the time she retrieved the stone Taichi would have gone by. Now what?
'Oh Taichi,' she thought in her head as she looked over to the ring on her finger. That's it. She tried as quickly as she could to take it off. Time was cutting short. After it was finally off, Sora repositioned herself as she started to aim where Taichi would be. She started praying for a miracle to happen and that the ring would hit him. She only had one shot. After flinging it out the window, Sora was watching the piece of jewelry carefully as it flew in the air as she pleaded in her mind
Suddenly there was a call from one of Taichi's guards from behind. It caused the prince to stop his horse and to look back at were the call had come from. It was at that moment the ring had fell inches in front of his horse. No! Sora's last hopes were suddenly crashing as she watched the scene. Why would she believe that would work? After all, fate had not been kind to her lately.
'Oh, Taichi…' she thought. And with her last ounce of strength, she watched with tears trailing down her cheek as Taichi and the others disappear closer to the castle. She let out a gasp as she suddenly lost all her energy, causing her to collapse to the ground with the tears still flowing from her shuteyes.
OMG! OO! I don't believe it! I actually made an update! It has been over two years! Actually, I was planning to stop writing since there had been so many things that had prevented me from doing so sigh --'! But my aunt convinced me to start writing again since I finally have the time now, since I'm graduated and all 0! w00t! I'm going to try to keep up with my writing but I'm not going to make any promises since I haven't been able to keep them that well . ! And gosh, what a depressing chapter I came back with! Heh, well I hope you enjoyed anyways! As always, review please! - TTFN!