Okay! Woohoo! The next chapter of this story is posted! Finally!
I do want to apologize for not posting chapters more often. Computers hate me, I swear. I want to thank darkravine for her fabulous review...Thank you thank you!
Even though I have not been posting, I have been writing, so please keep reading. I will try my hardest to post more regularly. ^_^
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Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. Never ever did. Never ever will.
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In the last chapter, the Moon was attacked. Serenity was able to deflect the first attack, with the assistance of a certain hunky prince on the Earth. Endymion encountered some baddies in the woods, though, and was knocked out.
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Light of Love Chapter 9: Darkness and Light
Endymion groaned. The back of his head throbbed.
He felt as though he had been severely beaten. His mouth was dry. He shivered.
As conciousness took hold of his senses, Endymion's eyes snapped open. His midnight gaze widened with disbelief as he surveyed his surroundings. He rubbed the haziness from his twilight eyes.
He was laying on the ground on a carpet of bear fur in a dark stone tunnel. The rug did little to soften the jagged floor of the cavern beneath him. A small torch on the opposite wall washed the area in obscure, dancing firelight.
Endymion blinked. Sitting up, the prince wearily took in more of his surroundings. He quickly concluded that the tunnel was a small section of the a much larger cavern. The uneven rock walls gave way to a low stone ceiling.
A vein of water snaked down the wall to Endymion's right. With a resounding "drip," the mineral-rich liquid fell into a naturally formed basin. The drips echoed against the jagged walls of the hollow stone room. The puddle spilled out of the basin and trailed away from Endymion, down the slightly sloping floor until it faded into the darkness.
The prince quickly scanned the rest of the room with weary, confused eyes. His gaze fell to the portion of the stone corridoor to his left. Next to him was a wide, warped wooden slat propped on top of a medium-sized boulder. A tarnished, dented brass bowl rested on top of this crude table.
Endymion shook his head. Each end of the tunnel disappeared into pitch darkness. The frozen air was musty and damp. The stench of decay, mingled with the wet animal scent of his uncomfortable cot, caused the Terran prince to gag.
The prince squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to recollect how he came to be in this cave. He remembered the light of day piercing the night, the trembling ground, and the Solarian soldiers he had killed. With another groan, Endymion remembered being struck on the back of the head.
The prince shivered. The animal hide covering his body had fallen to his waist. The prince glanced to his lap and, with horror, realized that all of his clothes had been removed. The stale, cold cavern air stung against his bare skin. The hairs on his arms bristled from the chill. Endymion pulled the fur blanket up to his chin and scanned the tunnel for his tunic and trousers. Dread and panic rushed over him as he realized that his sword and the Golden Crystal were also missing.
Distant, echoing footsteps at one end of the cavern interrupted the prince's thoughts. A flicker of firelight was visible at the left end of the stone tunnel.
Someone was coming.
Endymion's eyes widened. The cold, yellow stares of the Solarian soldiers flashed in the prince's mind. Frantic, his hands blindly fumbled over the ground. His left hand found a jagged, fist-sized stone. The prince cradled the rock in his right hand and collapsed against the bed. Concealing his weapon within the folds of the fur and blankets, Endymion closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.
The footsteps became louder; the prince surmised that only one person was approaching. Endymion sucked the air into his lungs and held his breath. The owner of the footsteps was now in the room with him. Crackled rasps of displaced dirt from each of the stranger's steps scratched at Endymion's ears. The feet paused beside him. The stranger towered above the prince and shifted from side to side. The fire from the person's torch glowed through the prince's closed eyelids.
Endymion curled his fingers around the fist-sized rock as he slowly exhaled. Just as he prepared to attack his opponent, the prince heard the voice of Kunzite in his head. Countless times in training, just as Endymion was readying himself to strike, Kunzite had told him to wait for a better opportunity.
"Patience, your highness," the watchful soldier cautioned.
"But I could strike now!" Endymion always growled as he swung his sword toward Kunzite. No matter how quickly Endymion lunged forward, the silver- haired soldier was always able to counter the prince's attacks. Normally, Kunzite blocked Endymion's sword and forced the prince to the ground. Endymion would find himself laying flat on his back, blinking dazedly at the sky above him.
"I told you to be patient," Kunzite chastized. "In training, this is just a game where I knock you on your ass. In battle, you will not have such a forgiving opponent."
The prince always rolled his eyes at Kunzite's moralizing training sessions. Presently, Endymion clung to the man's words for survival. Kunzite was correct. Endymion would have more of a chance to escape if he did not panic or behave thoughtlessly. The closer the enemy was, the better Endymion's chance was of striking a fatal blow. The prince remained calm and waited for the best time to strike his opponent with the rock.
A small sigh escaped from the stranger, who pivoted away from the prince. The person hung the torch on the wall to Endymion's left, and then sat down beside the prince. Endymion felt the weight of the stranger press against the blanket that covered his naked body. The prince did not flinch. He must be patient.
The prince did not have to wait long. The figure beside him leaned forward. Endymion could feel the enemy's warm breath against his left cheek. The Terran prince cringed. Rage flooded all of his senses. His right hand tightened around the jagged stone; the sharp edges of the rock poked into the soft skin of his palm.
The prince's blue eyes snapped open. In the poorly lit cavern, all he could see was the outline of a person's head. The prince could not even see his opponent's face. Again, Endymion recalled the previous night and remembered the haunting eyes of the Solarian soldiers. He shuddered.
Without hesitation, Endymion sat up. His left hand grasped the person by the back of the head. The prince gripped the hair of his opponent and yanked down. A primal growl escaped his lips as he raised his right hand over his head. Endymion swung his arm. One quick blow, the prince told himself, and this nightmare would soon end.
A feminine yelp interrupted the prince's thoughts. He paused. His right hand was inches from his opponent's face. A ripple of panic passed through the prince's body. He tightened his grip on the hair at the base of the person's neck and forcefully shifted the stranger's head toward the light of the torch. The prince expected to see the wicked yellow or orange eyes of a hostile, blood-thirsty Solarian soldier. Instead, Endymion found himself staring into the widened, moss-green eyes of a red-headed Terran. A girl.
"A girl?" he uttered incredulously, slackening his grip on the stone.
The girl in question, having recovered from her shock of nearly being bludgeoned, grunted and struck Endymion across the face with the damp washcloth in her right hand. Surprised, the prince blinked several times. His left hand slackened. The girl siezed the opportunity to escape Endymion's rough hold; she pushed her hands against his chest. Her fingernails dug into the prince's bare skin. Endymion yelped in surprise. He let go of her neck and shoved her several feet away from him. The prince wanted to be as far from this wildcat as possible. The girl scooted back on her hands and feet. Her right hand hit the make-shift table, which knocked the brass bowl to the ground; its contents drenched one side of her skirt.
Endymion glanced at the white scratches on his chest. He shook his head. He peered at the girl through narrowed eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, which complimented the red shade of her hair. Her emerald eyes stared back at the prince; even in the faint light, they were bright and vibrant. The prince guessed that she was a couple of years older than himself.
"I am not a girl!" she fumed.
Endymion dumbly glanced down to her crumpled, seated form. The cloak she wore hid a great deal of her body, but from the way the front of the garment gapped, the prince could see a great deal of her hourglass figure. No, she certainly was not a girl, he silently concluded.
A throbbing pain gripped the back of Endymion's head. The young man flinched and leaned forward. With clenched teeth, Endymion gingerly touched the tender spot at the base of his skull. His fingers sunk into the warm, sticky blood of a wound. Panic came over him as he pressed his hands across the injury. Why hadn't he noticed the pain before?
"You idiot!" the red-head declared. She scrambled to her knees and inched herself forward.
Endymion cast his eyes in her direction. His left arm swung out. He waggled a blood-stained finger at the girl and shook his head.
"Stay there!" he ordered.
The girl complied. With an aubible "humph," she crossed her arms over her buxom chest and settled herself on the ground. In her struggle with Endymion, her hair had fallen out of its neatly formed bun and was now a tangle of massive, messy auburn curls. Endymion glanced at her as he fumbled thoughlessly at the wound on his head. The smoldering rage in her eyes was almost intoxicating. She was very attractive. Endymion nearly forgot that his head throbbed. The woman had a most bewitching face.
Through clenched teeth, the red-head muttered, "I came here to clean your injury." She motioned to the empty wash basin and shook her head. The woman leaned forward. Again, Endymion straightened his figure and held the girl at arm's length with his bloody left hand. Grasping the washcloth from the ground, the woman quickly edged back.
"You are an idiot," she muttered again, more to herself than to the prince.
"You keep saying that," the prince dryly responded. Glancing around, he pondered, "If you came here to take care of this bump, then why didn't you bring any bandages?"
"I was improvising," replied the woman, throwing the washcloth at Endymion. The soggy towel smacked the prince in the chest and fell into his lap.
Flinching, Endymion snapped, "Nice bedside manner! I would hate to see how you treat men who are healthy."
"Who said anything about you being a man?" the woman pondered.
Endymion paused. He lowered his hands and turned to stare at the woman. Rage smoldered in her gaze, but it was laced with something else. Furrowing his eyebrows, the prince flashed a crooked smile. The woman relaxed. She smiled slightly. Flirtatous amusement sparkled in her emerald eyes.
"Was that so hard?" questioned the prince.
"Was what so hard?"
"Smiling," Endymion answered.
The woman's grin dissolved. Setting her jaw, she again crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"I came here to tend to your wound," she repeated.
The prince's gaze wandered to the pitch black of the tunnel behind the girl. She had emerged from the darkness, and when finished attending to his injury, she would most likely retreat into the shadows. Endymion thought of the night before. The events of the evening had fractured in his memory and were now pieces of a puzzle swimming in his injured head. He could easily recall the night turning to day and the soldiers. He also remembered that he had been struck on the back of the head.
His eyes again focused on the red-head. Her beauty distracted him. His hormones urged him to continue flirting with her; instinct told him not to trust her.
"Where am I?" he finally demanded.
"In a cave," was her simple answer.
"I know that!" growled the young prince. "How did I get here?" Endymion sat straight up. He shivered. "And what did you do with my clothes?"
The woman shrugged. Her eyelids drooped lazily as she stared with indifference at the Terran prince. After sharing several uncomfortable moments of silence with Endymion, the woman smiled inquisitively and uttered, "You really don't remember how you got here, do you?"
The prince glared at her. She was mocking him.
"I remember the night turning to day," he defensively replied. "I remember the Solarians I killed with my blade."
The woman laughed. "You are not only an idiot, but you are insane."
"What are you talking about?"
"Perhaps I should ask you the same question," answered the red-head. "I found you, face down, in the snow. You had apparently slipped and fallen back and struck your head on a rock. Your clothes were soaked and you had a slight fever, so I stripped you down once we got here."
"We?" echoed Endymion. Of course, she must have an accomplice!
"Yes, we!" snapped the woman. "I couldn't exactly carry you all by myself, could I? I was able to awaken you, and you used me as a support so you could walk."
Endymion slumped. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remember. A dark gap lingered in his memory. He remembered something about the moon. Endymion twisted his head to stare at the woman. She did look familiar to him. He had encountered her before, but it had not been during the cloak of night. His brief memory of her was washed in bright daylight.
A silence lingered in the cavern as Endymion absorbed the meaning of her words.
"What about the soldiers?" he questioned.
"There were no soldiers," the woman stated.
"Yes, there were!"defensively cried the prince. "I killed them."
The woman rose to her feet. She towered above Endymion's still sitting form. Placing her hands on her hips, she stepped forward. As she grasped the torch on the wall, she declared, "I am not going to argue with you anymore!"
She turned around and walked down the tunnel. Endymion watched as the light of her torch faded. He could still hear the echo of her fading footsteps.
The prince shook his head in disbelief. The movement caused the base of his skull to tingle and sting. Endymion flinched and placed his right hand against the wound. He rubbed his fingertips delicately over the injury. The blood was still sticky, but the swelling had decreased. As he tenatively touched the wound, Endymion frowned. He could no longer feel the place where the skin had ripped open. Just minutes before, the fleshy ridge had been apparent to his touch. Now, he could barely find it.
Releasing a sigh of frustration, Endymion dropped his right hand into his lap. He could no longer hear the woman's footsteps. The absence of her torch left the cavern dark and dreary. The prince leveled his site to stare at the remaining torch. The faint flicker of light was nearly extinguished.
"Great!" muttered Endymion out loud. His voice echoed. He laughed. What else could he do? He was injured and naked. He was not even sure of how much time had passed or where he was. Soon, after the fire of the torch burned out completely, he would also be in the dark. "With the bats!" Endymion exclaimed. Snickering, the prince soberly uttered, "And I didn't even ask her name."
Endymion noticed that the sounds of the woman's footsteps were again audible; they were becoming louder. The prince raised his eyes toward the tunnel. A light was visible. The fire danced against the walls of the tunnel as the woman approached. Endymion shielded his eyes with his left arm. He squinted to look up at the red-head. She held a bundle in her arms. Anger streaked her face.
After again hanging her torch on the wall, the woman tossed the bundle into the prince's lap. His fingers fumbled with the familiar brown wool. Hidden within the folds of wool were a green tunic and a pair of trousers. Endymion's eyes widened with relief and surprise.
"My clothes!" the prince whispered.
The woman tossed his boots carelessly at the foot of the prince's bed. A flicker of a metal reflection in the firelight caused the prince to redirect his gaze. The young woman held a sword; Endymion instantly recognized it. The red-head removed the blade from its sheath. The metal seemed to glow in the poorly-lit cave.
"I see that you found my sword," Endymion quietly observed. His mouth had suddenly become dry.
The woman held the weapon high in the air and nodded. After she admired the ancient lettering on the blade, the woman glanced down at the prince. She flashed a wide smile as she rested the blade carefully over her left palm. Kneeling down, the woman held the flat side of the sword out for Endymion to see. The Terran prince raised his eyebrow at the woman.
"Look!" she urged. She raised the blade up slightly to catch Endymion's attention. The prince flinched. Having the edge of his own sword held mere inches from his neck made the prince uneasy. Nervously, he complied and eyed the ancient blade.
"See?" the woman pointedly said. Endymion shifted his twilight gaze to stare at her. His expression was twisted with confusion. The woman exhaled and set her jaw. "No blood. Therefore, you killed no one."
The prince shook his head at her logic. "That proves nothing."
"Yes it does!"
"No, it doesn't," Endymion persisted. "You could have very easily cleaned off the blade."
An irritated growl escaped from the woman's lips. She hurled the sword across the tunnel. The metal clattered against the opposite stone wall.
Endymion clenched his fists in his lap as he eyed the pristine blade settle against the uneven rock floor. Frowning, the prince muttered, "I really wish you hadn't done that."
"What do I care about your stupid sword?" demanded the woman. She crossed her arms over her chest and stepped back.
Endymion wanted to bound across the tunnel and retrieve the discarded blade. He looked down at his still naked body and thought better of it. Calmly, the prince said, "It's a very special sword."
"Trust me, I know how much you value that weapon," the woman heckled. She uncrossed her arms and placed a hand on each of her hips. "I have seen your sword in action. It's something I am not likely to forget any time soon, your highness."
The prince's eyes widened. His mouth dropped open. Prior to this moment, the woman had not acknowledged him as royalty. Endymion had assumed that she simply didn't know.
"You know who I am?" he asked.
"Oh yes," responded the young woman. She sat down on the hard stone floor in front of him. This time, she maintained a further distance from the prince. Her back faced the tunnel. Endymion glanced over the woman's shoulder. He guessed that the exit to the cavern must be behind her.
Again focusing his attention to the young woman sitting before him, the prince licked his lips and said, "Who are you?"
The woman smirked. "I am surprised you don't remember me," she quipped. Casually, she tossed her fallen red hair over her shoulders. Her green eyes rested on Endymion's confused face. The prince peered suspicously at her and shook his head. His inability to recognize her seemed to annoy the young woman. She growled and snapped, "I suppose I should have expected less from the Prince of the Earth! Too busy being pampered to show any respect to common people!"
Endymion finally realized who she was. His midnight eyes widened. He snapped his fingers and shouted, "You're the girl I nearly trampled when I arrived at Jade Castle!"
He smiled. Jedite was infatuated with his red-headed devil. The guardian had spoken of little else since he, Endymion, and Zoicite had arrived at Duke Bartleby's castle. Raking his eyes over her figure again, Endymion could easily understand why Jedite was taken with her. She was all breasts and hips. The blonde guardian would have his hands full handling the woman's temper, though.
The prince shifted his thoughts away from Jedite and back to the matter at hand. The woman still seemed annoyed by her first run-in with Endymion.
"Um, I was going to aplogize for, uh, almost killing you," the prince muttered. "Normally, I don't behave that way. I just wasn't myself."
Setting her lips into a tight, bemused smile, the woman sarcastically responded, "Obviously. But you do seem to have some strange fascination with killing Solarian soldiers."
Endymion cast his eyes to the floor. Shrugging, he rasied his head to gaze back at the woman. His twilight eyes locked with her sparkling emerald orbs. The young woman studied him with such intensity that it made the prince's insides quake. Endymion cleared his throat. With every ounce of sincerity he coud muster, the prince apologized.
"I am sorry--"
He paused. He was about to say her name, but he did not know what it was.
The woman's face softened. She licked her full, ruby lips and smiled tenderly. Endymion found himself biting his own lip.
"My name is Beryl," she told the prince.
"Are you one of my uncle's servants?
"Beryl nodded. "I have lived at Jade Castle since I was born. My father is a blacksmith. My mother was a castle servant before she died."
"So you have now taken her place?" the prince guessed.
Beryl nodded and shrugged. "I suppose you could say that. When you are born to a servant, you become a servant. That's the way of life, but I didn't choose it."
Her words echoed what Endymion had often said about his own position in life. How easily he recognzed her tone of resentment. He had not chosen to shoulder the duties and obligations expected of a prince. This girl seemed ambitious and intelligent, but, due to her unfortunate birth, Beryl would most likely spend her entire life scrupping the floors and walls of Jade Castle. As for Endymion, he had a brighter future: locked in a grand palace, strapped to a chair that commanded respect from others, and yoked to the earth by a jeweled crown. He knew he should be grateful; he could be living in the countryside, employed as a common tradesman. He could be one of the poor and starving.
"I help around the castle," Beryl was saying. Her eyes brightened as she added, "Algernon has allowed me to attend to the stables, though."
Endymion's smile fell at the mention of his cousin's name. Something in the way Beryl said Algernon made the prince uneasy.
"How close are you to my cousin?" inquired Endymion cautiously. He tried to just sound inquisitive. In truth, his stomach felt as though worms writhed within it.
"He and I were playmates when we were children," Beryl confessed.
"I see."
Beryl's eyes slanted. "Look, it's not what you think. Algernon is fond of me, but it's never been like that. He has far too much respect for me."
Endymon snorted. Sarcastically, he muttered, "I am sure he does."
A hint of rage twinkled in Beryl's green eyes. Her cheeks flushed. She reached for a small stone on the ground and hurled it at the prince. The rock soared past Endymion's head and landed somewhere behind him. Her own poor aim infuriated Beryl. She rose to her feet and approached the torch on the wall. She turned to face Endymion after she took the torch in her hand.
"You know, Algernon warned me about you," she fumed through her clenched teeth. "He told me not to trust you."
The prince laughed. "I could say the same thing about him, the fat little scab."
Beryl spun on her heel and approached the end of the tunnel. Over her shoulder she cried, "You can just freeze to death down here, Endymion. I don't care!"
Endymion was just as happy to watch Beryl disappear. Now that he had his clothes and his sword, the prince had little need for the hot-tempered red- head. Still, something nagged at him. He was forgetting something.
"Wait, Beryl, please!" he shouted, remembering what he had almost missed.
Beryl paused in the mouth of the tunnel. Endymion could hear her sigh. She turned again and returned to the foot of his bed.
"What do you want?"
"When you found me out there," the prince began. "Was I holding an odd- shaped rock in my hands?"
Beryl's face contorted. Her lips twisted and her her forehead creased as she muttered, "What are you talking about?"
"A stone," persisted the prince. He cupped his right hand and motioned to his empty palm with his left index finger. "It's blackish in color."
Beryl shook her head. "You called me back here just to ask about a rock?"
"Well," Endymion said, shrugging, "It's more of a crystal."
"You called me back to ask about a crystal?" Beryl amended.
"It's very important to me," the prince attempted to explain.
"Goodbye, Endymion!" shouted Beryl. Again, she turned and faded, along with the torchlight and the sound of her footsteps, down the tunnel.
Endymion stared at the black hole for several moments. Recalling his converstion with Beryl, the prince silently concluded that she shouldn't be trusted. Her story of discovering the prince in the snow did correlate with what Endymion remembered; however, she insisted that there were no soldiers. Perhaps the Solarians had taken their dead with them as they retreated? Endymion shook his head. He wanted to believe Beryl, but he couldn't.
Her relationship with Algernon was enough of a reason for Endymion to doubt her sincerity. If Beryl regarded Algernon fondly, or worse, if Algernon was affectionate toward Beryl, then the young woman was a threat to any man, especially the Terran Prince. And why, pondered Endymion, would Beryl have brought him to this musty cave? Surely, he had not wandered so far from Jade Castle that Beryl could not have gone back to get help.
Endymion slowly reached for the clothes in his lap. Quietly, he dressed himself. He laced up his boots. With a hesitant hand, the prince reached his hand to feel the bump at the bottom of his head. Only a faint bulge remained. Under normal circumstances, Endymion might have been more concerned over how quickly his injury had healed. The prince had always recovered easily from scrapes and bruises, but the gaping wound had been quite severe. If Endymion was not pressed to make a quick escape from this dank cavern, he might have taken more time to consider how his injury had transformed from a bloody gash into a small bump over the course of only one-half hour. Instead, Endymion was relieved that the injury had healed an would not slow him down.
The prince reached for the hilt of his sword. After placing the blade in it sheath and affixing the weapon to his waist, Endymion tossed the brown cloak over his shoulders. He grasped the nearly-extinguished torch from the wall and turned to face the tunnel. He paused and twisted his head to look one last time at the strange bed. With any luck, he wold never see this place again.
As he took his first footseps into the unfamiliar part of the tunnel, the prince's thoughts focused on the Golden Crystal. Before he returned to Jade Castle, he would have to retrieve the mythical stone.
"Otherwise," he thought miserably to himself, "Helios will kill me."
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End of Chapter 8
Did you like it? Hate it? Thanks for reading. Please review!
Hollie ^_^
I do want to apologize for not posting chapters more often. Computers hate me, I swear. I want to thank darkravine for her fabulous review...Thank you thank you!
Even though I have not been posting, I have been writing, so please keep reading. I will try my hardest to post more regularly. ^_^
---------------------
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. Never ever did. Never ever will.
---------------------
In the last chapter, the Moon was attacked. Serenity was able to deflect the first attack, with the assistance of a certain hunky prince on the Earth. Endymion encountered some baddies in the woods, though, and was knocked out.
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Light of Love Chapter 9: Darkness and Light
Endymion groaned. The back of his head throbbed.
He felt as though he had been severely beaten. His mouth was dry. He shivered.
As conciousness took hold of his senses, Endymion's eyes snapped open. His midnight gaze widened with disbelief as he surveyed his surroundings. He rubbed the haziness from his twilight eyes.
He was laying on the ground on a carpet of bear fur in a dark stone tunnel. The rug did little to soften the jagged floor of the cavern beneath him. A small torch on the opposite wall washed the area in obscure, dancing firelight.
Endymion blinked. Sitting up, the prince wearily took in more of his surroundings. He quickly concluded that the tunnel was a small section of the a much larger cavern. The uneven rock walls gave way to a low stone ceiling.
A vein of water snaked down the wall to Endymion's right. With a resounding "drip," the mineral-rich liquid fell into a naturally formed basin. The drips echoed against the jagged walls of the hollow stone room. The puddle spilled out of the basin and trailed away from Endymion, down the slightly sloping floor until it faded into the darkness.
The prince quickly scanned the rest of the room with weary, confused eyes. His gaze fell to the portion of the stone corridoor to his left. Next to him was a wide, warped wooden slat propped on top of a medium-sized boulder. A tarnished, dented brass bowl rested on top of this crude table.
Endymion shook his head. Each end of the tunnel disappeared into pitch darkness. The frozen air was musty and damp. The stench of decay, mingled with the wet animal scent of his uncomfortable cot, caused the Terran prince to gag.
The prince squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to recollect how he came to be in this cave. He remembered the light of day piercing the night, the trembling ground, and the Solarian soldiers he had killed. With another groan, Endymion remembered being struck on the back of the head.
The prince shivered. The animal hide covering his body had fallen to his waist. The prince glanced to his lap and, with horror, realized that all of his clothes had been removed. The stale, cold cavern air stung against his bare skin. The hairs on his arms bristled from the chill. Endymion pulled the fur blanket up to his chin and scanned the tunnel for his tunic and trousers. Dread and panic rushed over him as he realized that his sword and the Golden Crystal were also missing.
Distant, echoing footsteps at one end of the cavern interrupted the prince's thoughts. A flicker of firelight was visible at the left end of the stone tunnel.
Someone was coming.
Endymion's eyes widened. The cold, yellow stares of the Solarian soldiers flashed in the prince's mind. Frantic, his hands blindly fumbled over the ground. His left hand found a jagged, fist-sized stone. The prince cradled the rock in his right hand and collapsed against the bed. Concealing his weapon within the folds of the fur and blankets, Endymion closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.
The footsteps became louder; the prince surmised that only one person was approaching. Endymion sucked the air into his lungs and held his breath. The owner of the footsteps was now in the room with him. Crackled rasps of displaced dirt from each of the stranger's steps scratched at Endymion's ears. The feet paused beside him. The stranger towered above the prince and shifted from side to side. The fire from the person's torch glowed through the prince's closed eyelids.
Endymion curled his fingers around the fist-sized rock as he slowly exhaled. Just as he prepared to attack his opponent, the prince heard the voice of Kunzite in his head. Countless times in training, just as Endymion was readying himself to strike, Kunzite had told him to wait for a better opportunity.
"Patience, your highness," the watchful soldier cautioned.
"But I could strike now!" Endymion always growled as he swung his sword toward Kunzite. No matter how quickly Endymion lunged forward, the silver- haired soldier was always able to counter the prince's attacks. Normally, Kunzite blocked Endymion's sword and forced the prince to the ground. Endymion would find himself laying flat on his back, blinking dazedly at the sky above him.
"I told you to be patient," Kunzite chastized. "In training, this is just a game where I knock you on your ass. In battle, you will not have such a forgiving opponent."
The prince always rolled his eyes at Kunzite's moralizing training sessions. Presently, Endymion clung to the man's words for survival. Kunzite was correct. Endymion would have more of a chance to escape if he did not panic or behave thoughtlessly. The closer the enemy was, the better Endymion's chance was of striking a fatal blow. The prince remained calm and waited for the best time to strike his opponent with the rock.
A small sigh escaped from the stranger, who pivoted away from the prince. The person hung the torch on the wall to Endymion's left, and then sat down beside the prince. Endymion felt the weight of the stranger press against the blanket that covered his naked body. The prince did not flinch. He must be patient.
The prince did not have to wait long. The figure beside him leaned forward. Endymion could feel the enemy's warm breath against his left cheek. The Terran prince cringed. Rage flooded all of his senses. His right hand tightened around the jagged stone; the sharp edges of the rock poked into the soft skin of his palm.
The prince's blue eyes snapped open. In the poorly lit cavern, all he could see was the outline of a person's head. The prince could not even see his opponent's face. Again, Endymion recalled the previous night and remembered the haunting eyes of the Solarian soldiers. He shuddered.
Without hesitation, Endymion sat up. His left hand grasped the person by the back of the head. The prince gripped the hair of his opponent and yanked down. A primal growl escaped his lips as he raised his right hand over his head. Endymion swung his arm. One quick blow, the prince told himself, and this nightmare would soon end.
A feminine yelp interrupted the prince's thoughts. He paused. His right hand was inches from his opponent's face. A ripple of panic passed through the prince's body. He tightened his grip on the hair at the base of the person's neck and forcefully shifted the stranger's head toward the light of the torch. The prince expected to see the wicked yellow or orange eyes of a hostile, blood-thirsty Solarian soldier. Instead, Endymion found himself staring into the widened, moss-green eyes of a red-headed Terran. A girl.
"A girl?" he uttered incredulously, slackening his grip on the stone.
The girl in question, having recovered from her shock of nearly being bludgeoned, grunted and struck Endymion across the face with the damp washcloth in her right hand. Surprised, the prince blinked several times. His left hand slackened. The girl siezed the opportunity to escape Endymion's rough hold; she pushed her hands against his chest. Her fingernails dug into the prince's bare skin. Endymion yelped in surprise. He let go of her neck and shoved her several feet away from him. The prince wanted to be as far from this wildcat as possible. The girl scooted back on her hands and feet. Her right hand hit the make-shift table, which knocked the brass bowl to the ground; its contents drenched one side of her skirt.
Endymion glanced at the white scratches on his chest. He shook his head. He peered at the girl through narrowed eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, which complimented the red shade of her hair. Her emerald eyes stared back at the prince; even in the faint light, they were bright and vibrant. The prince guessed that she was a couple of years older than himself.
"I am not a girl!" she fumed.
Endymion dumbly glanced down to her crumpled, seated form. The cloak she wore hid a great deal of her body, but from the way the front of the garment gapped, the prince could see a great deal of her hourglass figure. No, she certainly was not a girl, he silently concluded.
A throbbing pain gripped the back of Endymion's head. The young man flinched and leaned forward. With clenched teeth, Endymion gingerly touched the tender spot at the base of his skull. His fingers sunk into the warm, sticky blood of a wound. Panic came over him as he pressed his hands across the injury. Why hadn't he noticed the pain before?
"You idiot!" the red-head declared. She scrambled to her knees and inched herself forward.
Endymion cast his eyes in her direction. His left arm swung out. He waggled a blood-stained finger at the girl and shook his head.
"Stay there!" he ordered.
The girl complied. With an aubible "humph," she crossed her arms over her buxom chest and settled herself on the ground. In her struggle with Endymion, her hair had fallen out of its neatly formed bun and was now a tangle of massive, messy auburn curls. Endymion glanced at her as he fumbled thoughlessly at the wound on his head. The smoldering rage in her eyes was almost intoxicating. She was very attractive. Endymion nearly forgot that his head throbbed. The woman had a most bewitching face.
Through clenched teeth, the red-head muttered, "I came here to clean your injury." She motioned to the empty wash basin and shook her head. The woman leaned forward. Again, Endymion straightened his figure and held the girl at arm's length with his bloody left hand. Grasping the washcloth from the ground, the woman quickly edged back.
"You are an idiot," she muttered again, more to herself than to the prince.
"You keep saying that," the prince dryly responded. Glancing around, he pondered, "If you came here to take care of this bump, then why didn't you bring any bandages?"
"I was improvising," replied the woman, throwing the washcloth at Endymion. The soggy towel smacked the prince in the chest and fell into his lap.
Flinching, Endymion snapped, "Nice bedside manner! I would hate to see how you treat men who are healthy."
"Who said anything about you being a man?" the woman pondered.
Endymion paused. He lowered his hands and turned to stare at the woman. Rage smoldered in her gaze, but it was laced with something else. Furrowing his eyebrows, the prince flashed a crooked smile. The woman relaxed. She smiled slightly. Flirtatous amusement sparkled in her emerald eyes.
"Was that so hard?" questioned the prince.
"Was what so hard?"
"Smiling," Endymion answered.
The woman's grin dissolved. Setting her jaw, she again crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"I came here to tend to your wound," she repeated.
The prince's gaze wandered to the pitch black of the tunnel behind the girl. She had emerged from the darkness, and when finished attending to his injury, she would most likely retreat into the shadows. Endymion thought of the night before. The events of the evening had fractured in his memory and were now pieces of a puzzle swimming in his injured head. He could easily recall the night turning to day and the soldiers. He also remembered that he had been struck on the back of the head.
His eyes again focused on the red-head. Her beauty distracted him. His hormones urged him to continue flirting with her; instinct told him not to trust her.
"Where am I?" he finally demanded.
"In a cave," was her simple answer.
"I know that!" growled the young prince. "How did I get here?" Endymion sat straight up. He shivered. "And what did you do with my clothes?"
The woman shrugged. Her eyelids drooped lazily as she stared with indifference at the Terran prince. After sharing several uncomfortable moments of silence with Endymion, the woman smiled inquisitively and uttered, "You really don't remember how you got here, do you?"
The prince glared at her. She was mocking him.
"I remember the night turning to day," he defensively replied. "I remember the Solarians I killed with my blade."
The woman laughed. "You are not only an idiot, but you are insane."
"What are you talking about?"
"Perhaps I should ask you the same question," answered the red-head. "I found you, face down, in the snow. You had apparently slipped and fallen back and struck your head on a rock. Your clothes were soaked and you had a slight fever, so I stripped you down once we got here."
"We?" echoed Endymion. Of course, she must have an accomplice!
"Yes, we!" snapped the woman. "I couldn't exactly carry you all by myself, could I? I was able to awaken you, and you used me as a support so you could walk."
Endymion slumped. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remember. A dark gap lingered in his memory. He remembered something about the moon. Endymion twisted his head to stare at the woman. She did look familiar to him. He had encountered her before, but it had not been during the cloak of night. His brief memory of her was washed in bright daylight.
A silence lingered in the cavern as Endymion absorbed the meaning of her words.
"What about the soldiers?" he questioned.
"There were no soldiers," the woman stated.
"Yes, there were!"defensively cried the prince. "I killed them."
The woman rose to her feet. She towered above Endymion's still sitting form. Placing her hands on her hips, she stepped forward. As she grasped the torch on the wall, she declared, "I am not going to argue with you anymore!"
She turned around and walked down the tunnel. Endymion watched as the light of her torch faded. He could still hear the echo of her fading footsteps.
The prince shook his head in disbelief. The movement caused the base of his skull to tingle and sting. Endymion flinched and placed his right hand against the wound. He rubbed his fingertips delicately over the injury. The blood was still sticky, but the swelling had decreased. As he tenatively touched the wound, Endymion frowned. He could no longer feel the place where the skin had ripped open. Just minutes before, the fleshy ridge had been apparent to his touch. Now, he could barely find it.
Releasing a sigh of frustration, Endymion dropped his right hand into his lap. He could no longer hear the woman's footsteps. The absence of her torch left the cavern dark and dreary. The prince leveled his site to stare at the remaining torch. The faint flicker of light was nearly extinguished.
"Great!" muttered Endymion out loud. His voice echoed. He laughed. What else could he do? He was injured and naked. He was not even sure of how much time had passed or where he was. Soon, after the fire of the torch burned out completely, he would also be in the dark. "With the bats!" Endymion exclaimed. Snickering, the prince soberly uttered, "And I didn't even ask her name."
Endymion noticed that the sounds of the woman's footsteps were again audible; they were becoming louder. The prince raised his eyes toward the tunnel. A light was visible. The fire danced against the walls of the tunnel as the woman approached. Endymion shielded his eyes with his left arm. He squinted to look up at the red-head. She held a bundle in her arms. Anger streaked her face.
After again hanging her torch on the wall, the woman tossed the bundle into the prince's lap. His fingers fumbled with the familiar brown wool. Hidden within the folds of wool were a green tunic and a pair of trousers. Endymion's eyes widened with relief and surprise.
"My clothes!" the prince whispered.
The woman tossed his boots carelessly at the foot of the prince's bed. A flicker of a metal reflection in the firelight caused the prince to redirect his gaze. The young woman held a sword; Endymion instantly recognized it. The red-head removed the blade from its sheath. The metal seemed to glow in the poorly-lit cave.
"I see that you found my sword," Endymion quietly observed. His mouth had suddenly become dry.
The woman held the weapon high in the air and nodded. After she admired the ancient lettering on the blade, the woman glanced down at the prince. She flashed a wide smile as she rested the blade carefully over her left palm. Kneeling down, the woman held the flat side of the sword out for Endymion to see. The Terran prince raised his eyebrow at the woman.
"Look!" she urged. She raised the blade up slightly to catch Endymion's attention. The prince flinched. Having the edge of his own sword held mere inches from his neck made the prince uneasy. Nervously, he complied and eyed the ancient blade.
"See?" the woman pointedly said. Endymion shifted his twilight gaze to stare at her. His expression was twisted with confusion. The woman exhaled and set her jaw. "No blood. Therefore, you killed no one."
The prince shook his head at her logic. "That proves nothing."
"Yes it does!"
"No, it doesn't," Endymion persisted. "You could have very easily cleaned off the blade."
An irritated growl escaped from the woman's lips. She hurled the sword across the tunnel. The metal clattered against the opposite stone wall.
Endymion clenched his fists in his lap as he eyed the pristine blade settle against the uneven rock floor. Frowning, the prince muttered, "I really wish you hadn't done that."
"What do I care about your stupid sword?" demanded the woman. She crossed her arms over her chest and stepped back.
Endymion wanted to bound across the tunnel and retrieve the discarded blade. He looked down at his still naked body and thought better of it. Calmly, the prince said, "It's a very special sword."
"Trust me, I know how much you value that weapon," the woman heckled. She uncrossed her arms and placed a hand on each of her hips. "I have seen your sword in action. It's something I am not likely to forget any time soon, your highness."
The prince's eyes widened. His mouth dropped open. Prior to this moment, the woman had not acknowledged him as royalty. Endymion had assumed that she simply didn't know.
"You know who I am?" he asked.
"Oh yes," responded the young woman. She sat down on the hard stone floor in front of him. This time, she maintained a further distance from the prince. Her back faced the tunnel. Endymion glanced over the woman's shoulder. He guessed that the exit to the cavern must be behind her.
Again focusing his attention to the young woman sitting before him, the prince licked his lips and said, "Who are you?"
The woman smirked. "I am surprised you don't remember me," she quipped. Casually, she tossed her fallen red hair over her shoulders. Her green eyes rested on Endymion's confused face. The prince peered suspicously at her and shook his head. His inability to recognize her seemed to annoy the young woman. She growled and snapped, "I suppose I should have expected less from the Prince of the Earth! Too busy being pampered to show any respect to common people!"
Endymion finally realized who she was. His midnight eyes widened. He snapped his fingers and shouted, "You're the girl I nearly trampled when I arrived at Jade Castle!"
He smiled. Jedite was infatuated with his red-headed devil. The guardian had spoken of little else since he, Endymion, and Zoicite had arrived at Duke Bartleby's castle. Raking his eyes over her figure again, Endymion could easily understand why Jedite was taken with her. She was all breasts and hips. The blonde guardian would have his hands full handling the woman's temper, though.
The prince shifted his thoughts away from Jedite and back to the matter at hand. The woman still seemed annoyed by her first run-in with Endymion.
"Um, I was going to aplogize for, uh, almost killing you," the prince muttered. "Normally, I don't behave that way. I just wasn't myself."
Setting her lips into a tight, bemused smile, the woman sarcastically responded, "Obviously. But you do seem to have some strange fascination with killing Solarian soldiers."
Endymion cast his eyes to the floor. Shrugging, he rasied his head to gaze back at the woman. His twilight eyes locked with her sparkling emerald orbs. The young woman studied him with such intensity that it made the prince's insides quake. Endymion cleared his throat. With every ounce of sincerity he coud muster, the prince apologized.
"I am sorry--"
He paused. He was about to say her name, but he did not know what it was.
The woman's face softened. She licked her full, ruby lips and smiled tenderly. Endymion found himself biting his own lip.
"My name is Beryl," she told the prince.
"Are you one of my uncle's servants?
"Beryl nodded. "I have lived at Jade Castle since I was born. My father is a blacksmith. My mother was a castle servant before she died."
"So you have now taken her place?" the prince guessed.
Beryl nodded and shrugged. "I suppose you could say that. When you are born to a servant, you become a servant. That's the way of life, but I didn't choose it."
Her words echoed what Endymion had often said about his own position in life. How easily he recognzed her tone of resentment. He had not chosen to shoulder the duties and obligations expected of a prince. This girl seemed ambitious and intelligent, but, due to her unfortunate birth, Beryl would most likely spend her entire life scrupping the floors and walls of Jade Castle. As for Endymion, he had a brighter future: locked in a grand palace, strapped to a chair that commanded respect from others, and yoked to the earth by a jeweled crown. He knew he should be grateful; he could be living in the countryside, employed as a common tradesman. He could be one of the poor and starving.
"I help around the castle," Beryl was saying. Her eyes brightened as she added, "Algernon has allowed me to attend to the stables, though."
Endymion's smile fell at the mention of his cousin's name. Something in the way Beryl said Algernon made the prince uneasy.
"How close are you to my cousin?" inquired Endymion cautiously. He tried to just sound inquisitive. In truth, his stomach felt as though worms writhed within it.
"He and I were playmates when we were children," Beryl confessed.
"I see."
Beryl's eyes slanted. "Look, it's not what you think. Algernon is fond of me, but it's never been like that. He has far too much respect for me."
Endymon snorted. Sarcastically, he muttered, "I am sure he does."
A hint of rage twinkled in Beryl's green eyes. Her cheeks flushed. She reached for a small stone on the ground and hurled it at the prince. The rock soared past Endymion's head and landed somewhere behind him. Her own poor aim infuriated Beryl. She rose to her feet and approached the torch on the wall. She turned to face Endymion after she took the torch in her hand.
"You know, Algernon warned me about you," she fumed through her clenched teeth. "He told me not to trust you."
The prince laughed. "I could say the same thing about him, the fat little scab."
Beryl spun on her heel and approached the end of the tunnel. Over her shoulder she cried, "You can just freeze to death down here, Endymion. I don't care!"
Endymion was just as happy to watch Beryl disappear. Now that he had his clothes and his sword, the prince had little need for the hot-tempered red- head. Still, something nagged at him. He was forgetting something.
"Wait, Beryl, please!" he shouted, remembering what he had almost missed.
Beryl paused in the mouth of the tunnel. Endymion could hear her sigh. She turned again and returned to the foot of his bed.
"What do you want?"
"When you found me out there," the prince began. "Was I holding an odd- shaped rock in my hands?"
Beryl's face contorted. Her lips twisted and her her forehead creased as she muttered, "What are you talking about?"
"A stone," persisted the prince. He cupped his right hand and motioned to his empty palm with his left index finger. "It's blackish in color."
Beryl shook her head. "You called me back here just to ask about a rock?"
"Well," Endymion said, shrugging, "It's more of a crystal."
"You called me back to ask about a crystal?" Beryl amended.
"It's very important to me," the prince attempted to explain.
"Goodbye, Endymion!" shouted Beryl. Again, she turned and faded, along with the torchlight and the sound of her footsteps, down the tunnel.
Endymion stared at the black hole for several moments. Recalling his converstion with Beryl, the prince silently concluded that she shouldn't be trusted. Her story of discovering the prince in the snow did correlate with what Endymion remembered; however, she insisted that there were no soldiers. Perhaps the Solarians had taken their dead with them as they retreated? Endymion shook his head. He wanted to believe Beryl, but he couldn't.
Her relationship with Algernon was enough of a reason for Endymion to doubt her sincerity. If Beryl regarded Algernon fondly, or worse, if Algernon was affectionate toward Beryl, then the young woman was a threat to any man, especially the Terran Prince. And why, pondered Endymion, would Beryl have brought him to this musty cave? Surely, he had not wandered so far from Jade Castle that Beryl could not have gone back to get help.
Endymion slowly reached for the clothes in his lap. Quietly, he dressed himself. He laced up his boots. With a hesitant hand, the prince reached his hand to feel the bump at the bottom of his head. Only a faint bulge remained. Under normal circumstances, Endymion might have been more concerned over how quickly his injury had healed. The prince had always recovered easily from scrapes and bruises, but the gaping wound had been quite severe. If Endymion was not pressed to make a quick escape from this dank cavern, he might have taken more time to consider how his injury had transformed from a bloody gash into a small bump over the course of only one-half hour. Instead, Endymion was relieved that the injury had healed an would not slow him down.
The prince reached for the hilt of his sword. After placing the blade in it sheath and affixing the weapon to his waist, Endymion tossed the brown cloak over his shoulders. He grasped the nearly-extinguished torch from the wall and turned to face the tunnel. He paused and twisted his head to look one last time at the strange bed. With any luck, he wold never see this place again.
As he took his first footseps into the unfamiliar part of the tunnel, the prince's thoughts focused on the Golden Crystal. Before he returned to Jade Castle, he would have to retrieve the mythical stone.
"Otherwise," he thought miserably to himself, "Helios will kill me."
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End of Chapter 8
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Hollie ^_^