Thorns by liahime
Disclaimer: busy liahime doesn't own Digimon, thank you very much!
Eight Rose Night:
A crescent moon hung from the dark night, cold and pointed. No stars were out tonight. Tiny specks of lights flowed through the grounds, searching. The princess was missing. Palace guards fanned out through gardens and towers, calling.
There was a knock at the office door. A white haired man slammed it open and growled. "What do you want? I'm busy. The princess is missing, and we're looking for her. I'm not training stupid young fools today-"
He looked down at the young woman in his visitor's arms, and his jaw dropped open. "I think you better come inside."
-
Saruwatari, the training master, pulled out a chair. "Sit. I can take her for a while."
Ryo shook his head stubbornly. "I'm fine."
"I'm not old, boy. I can hold her as well as you can."
Still, Ryo refused. "It's nothing." He stood, holding a sleeping Rika in his arms, not willing to let her down. Saruwatari shrugged and poured two cups of tea, setting them down on the rough wood table. Steam coiled from the clay cups and floated to the ceiling like restless dragons before disappearing into air.
The training master looked closely at him. "Where did you find her?"
Ryo stared back. "In the woods..."
"And the bandage around her leg just magically appeared, did it?" Saruwatari's dark eyes were sharp, searching over his star student for any injury.
"She was bleeding."
"Right." A dagger pinned the cloth of Ryo's shirt to the wall and leaned over his throat. "So you're saying she ran off, just miraculously started bleeding, got gunpowder in her hair, and came back wet. And then you, the boy on the assassin list for his Royal Majesty, ended up finding her. Explain yourself."
With the sharp edge of the dagger millimeters away from him, he could hardly refuse. He conveniently forgot thatthe mysterious person was in fact, his brother, but the tale spilled out. Jumping into the river to swim away, carrying her back, and finally- trivial as he thought it was, he described Rika and the thorn.
"She pricked her finger- it was a tiny cut- and something happened to her..." He looked at Rika's teacher defiantly. "That's all. You can stick me in the dungeon now."
He waited for the incredulous look.
Instead, Saruwatari nodded and pulled the dagger from Ryo's throat. "I believe you."
"You do!"
"It makes sense. It's reasonable. And knowing my student, she could end up in that. You're not the assassin- you would have killed her otherwise, and not come back... But..." he paused, and his eyes looked over Rika's bandaged finger, worried. "What did she prick her finger on?"
"A small thorn. It probably doesn't have anything to do with-"
"What plant did she prick herself on?" The old man glared at him, cold and hard as ice- a glare worthy of Rika. But underneath it, there was something, hiding like the rushing current flowing in deep water. It was worry, anxiousness- and a hint of fear?
Ryo gulped. "Rose."
He cursed. "I knew this would happen someday. I was a fool not to have..." He let the dagger fall. It rattled on the unswept floor. "Kami, now we are doomed. With that stupid fool on the throne..."
Saruwatari glanced at a confused Ryo. "Long ago, when Rika was born, a fairy put a curse on her. The curse was lifted a little, but it was basically this- if she pricks her finger, she falls into an enchanted sleep until someone can wake her. This could be years. Someone has to replace her on the throne until then." He groaned.
"And do you even know who is next in line for the throne here, boy?"
The dagger trembled on the ground. Behind the door, something rumbled like distant thunder, marching forward, towards them. The door slammed open.
"Make way for the princess! Make way! Make way, you stupid old fool!" A pair of huge guards with pinpoint heads balanced on thick, beefy necks roughly brushed the old man aside. "Make way!" They ignored the pointed glare that was shot at them and knocked furniture and cups aside, letting tea splash to the floor.
Ryo set Rika down gently on a chair, unnoticed by the guards as they held open the door and lavishly bowed to the approaching figure in the dark. A small flurry of ladies-in-waiting adjusted an umbrella, fixed a skirt, twittering about the small person gliding in.
She had the beauty love-smitten bards break their harp strings on. Golden wheat-in-the-summer-sun hair. Eyes that sparkled delicately, ice blue as the tip of an iceberg. Curling eyelashes. Skin that looked like summer peaches, primroses and cream. She opened her mouth and spoke.
"Enough, you stupid fools," she hit the bodyguards with her umbrella. "Just find the stupid suspect person and chop his head off. I have an appointment in three minutes. He's probably not in here anyways. Don't waste my time."
"Yes, princess Priscilla." They nodded and backed away.
"And get me a coffee, four sugars." She snapped a jewel encrusted finger at one of the ladies near by. "Make it fast."
Ryo stood, silently watching Rika sleep, breathing slower and slower, mentally killing himself over and over again. Priscilla turned and snapped at him. "And you. This is private business-"
Ryo, hair falling into his ocean blue eyes, frowned at her. "You don't need to be that rude. A simple 'please' works just fine." He turned back to the sleeping Rika.
Her heart skipped a beat
Priscilla's mouth wasn't working, for once. She felt herself blushing, and couldn't stop. "I.. I... I'm sorry. Forgive me."
She had apologized. The guards exchanged surprised looks. Had she ever apologized before? They couldn't remember. What was this person doing to her, to make her act this way?
"I'm Priscilla, princess of the West kingdom." She smiled coyly at him, eyelashes fluttering, blue eyes staring at him. "And you are?"
The guards were even more amazed. Their princess normally wouldn't look at anyone without a pedigree and jewels.
There's something about that guy, thought one of the guards. I know him from somewhere. He has the same hair color and eyes... OH! His eyes widened in surprise. The guard nudged his partner.
"Hey, hey, Komiya! Doesn't that guy look just like the person on the outlaw list?"
Komiya frowned. "OH! It must be his twin brother or something, Shino, because they look just alike."
"No." Shino, the other guard, punched him in the arm. "That is the guy on the list, stupid!"
"So what, onion-breath? It could be his cousin or brother or something!"
"So we arrest him, dung-brained fool! Chop his head off like the princess said!"
Komiya brightened quickly after the words 'chop his head'. He pulled his sword out of it's sheath and grinned. "Then let's chop it off!" He lifted his arm to swing.
"STOP!" The screech froze everyone in the room. "I believe that this fine young man," Priscilla smiled, eyelashes fluttering in double speed, "should get a choice."
The guards gaped. "But we thought you wanted his head chopped off-"
Priscilla's long eyelashes were rushing up and down. "Komiya, Shino, do not start thinking. You will hurt your head." She turned to Ryo and smiled sweetly. "So what do you say?"
"Is something wrong with your eyes?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did dust get in or are they infected?"
"It was so sweet of you to care!" She blushed further. "I knew we'd get along beautifully." She fluttered closer. He took a step back.
"Eh..."
"So, he can pick, you brutes." She turned back to the guards. "Hands off him. His choices are that nasty, smelly, horrid dungeon, or he can replace you two as my personal bodyguard. Pick one!" Her eyes smiled at Ryo again, sure of his choice. After all- it was either a dungeon with rats, mold, spiders and what else, or a well paying job next to the most beautiful person in the world- herself, she thought.
Without a moment of hesitation, Ryo, the prince of Priscilla's dreams, answered quickly.
"I'd prefer the dungeon."
-
Ryo, however warned and threatened by the blonde princess to reconsider, had been escorted to the dungeon. Priscilla, in a dangerously bad mood, cancelled every appointment she had left, and retired to her chambers.
She had insisted- firmly, accented with a tantrum- on picking the colors of the guest chamber herself. The walls were hung with pink silk, and every cushion and piece of furniture was drowned in bows and lace. And there, in the middle of the pink room, like a piece of the carpet come alive, was Priscilla.
An expensive vase flew across the room, followed by a string of un-princess like curses. Her current ladies-in-waiting rushed to catch it.
"Prefer the dungeon! Prefer the dungeon over this?" She waved her hand at the huge guest chambers of the palace. "He is a fool!"
She paused in her vase throwing in thought. "But perhaps...he is pulling the hard-to-get ploy on me. He would. Or he could be a rebel..." She giggled. "A rebellious prince, in love with me! How sweet! What do you think, Dulcibella?"
Dulcibella, the unfortunate lady assigned to vase catching, nodded eagerly. "I'm sure he is, your highness!"
"Why, he'd be a fool not to be in love with me... He must be trying to hide it. Men. So scared of true love."
In the eye of the storm, Dulcibella set the vase, just out of reach, down with a sigh. She rested her feet in the pinched shoes.The job paid well, but some days...
"Why are you sighing?" Priscilla snapped. "You must be getting fat. No breakfast tomorrow."
"Yes, your highness." She nodded meekly. The princess was more volatile than normal, going from a happy, little girl state to a snapping shrew in seconds.
"Fetch me a white cake." Priscilla flopped back on her canopied bed. "Don't dawdle, or you will skip lunch too."
"But princess, your physician forbade-" Her dentist had forbidden sweets after the third cavity. Politely, as he had still been close enough to get hit by a vase.
"He's a fool. Get the cake."
Sitting on her pink bed, eating white cake with strawberries, Priscilla schemed. There must be some way, she told herself, to get her beloved Ryo out of jail. She could just imagine it now-
- the brave heroine princess, Priscilla, slowly turned the key in the lock, releasing the handsome prisoner of her dreams.
"Oh darling!" They fell into each others arms. "Of course I'll be your bodyguard! I will live to serve you and adore you, beautiful princess! What can I do to serve you?"-
Yes, that was how it would be, she told herself. After she let him out, he would be even more in love with her than before, and they would live happily ever after. Priscilla swallowed her cake, content with her plan. After all, it couldn't be that he wasn't in love with her- after all, she wanted him. And what Priscilla wants, Priscilla got.
When a person lives in their own world, they are always happy.
reviews are done very quickly today! Please forgive short answers...
DD6- thank you very much...
Rachel- hm... if the evil ones are the older ones (itachi, for example.. from naruto) then I am the EVIL ONE! Haha... I have two younger sisters..
Sparkling-Ruby Gem- thank you! Glad you thought it was exciting..
Dolce Saito- I'm really glad you like this chapter- your review made my day when I got it. Hope you have a better time at school...
DigiChick- Very glad you liked this Rhys? Hm... Rhys and Ryo. That is a good idea... The brother's name is starting with R.
Lisha- of course you can put a link on your site.. (ok, it was sorta stupid not to know.. But still..)
mango-is-good- Raiju? thank you very much for helping!
kunoichixxkanna- Renshishiou .. .. Eh.. Too long for me to type every time. Maybe though... I am guessing you are... 15-ish? (no idea..)
neko-lia- yes! Ryo's brother reminds me of itachi too... yes I hate the reformat thing too it is annoying...
lady-snow- glad you like the quote... thank you!
My Dream's Shadow- thank you!
Strawberry'd- hm.. Good idea. Thank you very much!
Lil' Lilo- Haru? Maybe... AISH IT'S HARD TO PICK NAMES
thank you everyone! (looks at clock) Oh dear.. I really have to go now...
authoress notes again:
VERY busy now.. School's starting soon.. TT waah.. Sorry for the short (and probably bad) chapter, folks.
Still... the age guessing thing, you were...close. The age guessing was from 14- 17 years old of age... but... (sweatdrop) I'm not any of those... I feel very young right now... but.. I'm 13. (I know! I'm still an immature little kid!) So... yeah. I started Glass Slipper when I was about 12 or 11... (that's why the beginning is so bad..)
yep.. Now I feel very young...
SORRY FOR THE WAIT EVERYONE! I will try to work more... and to decide the evil brother's name by tomorrow!
-liahime