"So Eclipse was really good at telling stories?" V smiled as Iri finished his retelling of Starlight and the Kidnapper with elaborate and childish hand gestures, nearly hitting his sisters several times.
"Great!"
"Better than you." Aini grumbled, crossing her arms. V smiled, ruffling her hair. Though she had a slight attitude, Aini did care. She called her crying one night, and wasn't satisfied until she told them exactly what day, what time, and confirmed that she herself was picking them up.
"So it seems the next story has to outdo Eclipse's story, huh, Aini?" V smiled, flicking through the storybook. "How about Rapunzel? Featuring Soul and Silver?"
"Uncle Silvy?!" Iri exclaimed excitedly. "Yes!" he latched onto her arm, shaking it back and forth. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"
Celina smiled brightly as V turned the pages.
"Now lets see... This," she declared in a dramatic voice. "Is how the great thief Silver, died."
She paused as Celina gasped. She laughed, nudging her with her elbow.
"But don't worry, it's actually a really happy story, and it Uncle Silvy isn't even the main character!" she paused. "This is a story about a girl named Soul, and it starts... with the sun."
o.0.o.0.o
A Lock of Trouble, Part One
Once Upon a Pokéball, there was a kind king and a... less than kind queen. The couple, in fact, was forced into marriage by their parents. While the king, always the optimist, tried to make it work.
But Queen Mckenzie was a bitter woman. Nothing was ever good enough for her. One day, the king found out that she was cheating on him with a neighboring duke. While enraged, he did not sentence the queen to any harm. He simply decided it best to strip her of her title. So the Queen moved on to live with her duke and they grew old together.
Around that time, a single drop of sunlight fell from the sky. Now most people would argue that sunlight falls to the earth in rays, not drops, but 'a drop of sunlight' sounds prettier and is more romantic than 'a ray of sunlight', so we're rolling with it.
From, this small drop of sun grew a magic, golden flower. It had the ability to heal the sick and injured, make the old young again. It was a truly miraculous flower.
Mckenzie one day found the flower. She was now an old woman with gray hair, wrinkles, and hunched over. All her former beauty was lost. The duke had died, her money had dried up, and she was, all and all, without nothing.
When she found the flower, she was entranced by it's golden glow, even in the darkness of night. She recalled once, back when she was the queen, the king having told legend of the mystical sundrop flower, how it's golden glow never left, how it could heal the sick and injured.
She glanced at her wrinkled hands. If only she was young again...
"Flower, gleam and glow," she sang, voice old and raspy, recalling the moronic song that the king would sing to their daughter. She hated the child, anyways.
"Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse
Bring back what once was mine
"Heal what has been hurt
Change the fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine…
"What once was mine..."
Suddenly, a golden pollen came from the flower. WIthout realizing it, she inhaled it. In awe, she watched as her skin became smooth and beautiful again. Her posture suddenly straightened, and she felt energy she hasn't felt in decades. The energy of being young again.
"So that idiot could do one thing right." she murmured, pleased to realize she was young again, perhaps in her mid-twenties.
Quickly, Mckenzie constructed a basket to cover the flower, afraid to pick it for it may loose its power. If she ever became old again, she'd come back and use the flower.
She'd remain twenty-four forever.
o.0.o.0.o
Many centuries past, and just a little bit away, the kingdom that Mckenzie once ruled became a prosperous little place. It was ruled by the kings decedent, King Xavier and his beautiful wife, Heart. Xavier and Heart ruled by a kind hand, and believed in sharing their celebrations with everyone.
And what was more celebration-worthy than the soon to be birth of a prince or princess?
Well, Queen Heart got very sick while with the child. It got so bad that everyone was fearing the death of both the queen and the unborn child. At certain points, it gets past praying for her to get well. She was loosing time, and quickly, the subjects began hoping for a miracle.
Or in this case, a magic golden flower, told only in legends, passed down from family to family, taught in schools, told to always share it's power, as everyone could benefit from it's power.
Commoner and noble alike began to search far and wide for the magical flower. Even little schoolchildren gathered their weekly allowances with small hopes of funding the great campaign.
Now, while every good person would have given up the suns gift with hopes of saving the loving queen, Mckenzie hoarded it's power away. She hated the royal family, as she felt she was wrongly banished and abandoned. She wanted to see them suffer, and she loved watching the queen die while she remained young.
She was visiting the flower again. Glancing around cautiously, she pulled off the leafy cover for her secret treasure. Gently cradling the flower under her now wrinkled fingers, she began to sing.
"Flower, gleam and glow
Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse
Bring back what once was mine
"Heal what has been hurt
Change the fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine…
"What once was mine..."
By the end of the song, her voice sounded younger. She smiled at feeling young again, studying her beautiful treasure for a little while longer.
But then she heard frantic voices in the distance. Startled, she pulled up her hood, covered the flower, and darted into the shadows.
It was only until she turned back that she realized that she had knocked the cover back. She whipped around. Maybe she had enough time to cover it again...!
"We found it!" someone exclaimed.
"No!" she hissed under her breath, not wanting to be discovered by the guards, but also not wanting to loose her gift. If she doesn't use the spell daily, then she'll revert back to an old woman...!
Unsure of what to do, she simply watched in the darkness as the soldiers uprooted the flower, placed in a pot, and stole her treasure, her youth away from her.
o.0.o.0.o
Later that evening, with the help of a sage, they managed to take the flower and turn it into a magical potion. King Xavier helped his Queen drink the potion, and in a matter of days, she was cured of her sickness.
A few days later, on May thirtieth, they were granted a baby girl, with a full head of light brown hair. They named the little girl Soul.
In honor of her birth, the king and queen lit up a lantern with a lily on it, the symbol of the kingdom, and let it float into the air while the crowd below them cheered for their new princess.
And for that once moment, everything was utterly perfect.
But then that moment was ruined.
Slowly, the door to the balcony creaked open, and an old woman snuck through creeping towards the infant child.
"Flower, gleam and glow," Mckenzie began. Already she was beginning to revert back to her true age.
"Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse
Bring back what once was mine,"
She watched in satisfaction as the princesses hair began to glow from the roots, the same golden color as the flower.
"Heal what has been hurt
Change the fates' design,"
Slowly, she reached towards the girls hair, picking up a single, long strand. How the child had hair that fell past her little shoulders in a matter of days, she didn't know, but she wasn't going to question it. She felt that familiar magic wash over her, healing her old age. She smiled. All she needed was a single magical strand...
"Save what has been lost," bringing up a pair of scissors, she clipped the strand off.
Only to abruptly cut off the song with her own gasp as the hair lost it's wonderful glow, becoming dull and normal again. She glanced at the baby, and saw the hair connected to the stand she cut had also lost it's glow.
She glanced at her own hands, panting heavily as they regained their wrinkles.
The hair lost it's power... when cut?
She narrowed her eyes.
There was only one way...
She scooped up the child, unintentionally causing the child to wail in surprise from being moved so abruptly.
As she was perched on the balcony, the door behind her slammed open, she glanced over her shoulder, King Xavier and Queen Heart catching sight of her holding their little baby girl.
Then, with a swish of her cloak, she jumped from the balcony and escaped into the night.
The mother wailed the name of her lost daughter, the king demanding guards in an outrage. But Mckenzie knew that no one would ever find her or Princess Soul.
After all, she had the tower built over centuries ago. Anyone who knew about it was dead, and if anyone remembered it, no one would ever find it.
o.0.o.0.o
And while the kingdom searched and mourned for their lost princess, Mckenzie kept the child locked away in the tower, raising Soul as her own. She taught Soul the sacred song that activated the powers, and every few days, she would sit down and brush the girls long hair, and have her sing the song.
"...Heal what has been hurt," a little girls voice echoed throughout the living room of the tower. A fire crackled next to them, the girl sitting on a stool while Mckenzie sat in a larger, plush chair, brushing the long, light brown hair as it glowed, reversing her age.
"Change the fates' design
Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine…
"What once was mine..."
And like that, Mckenzie found her magic flower again. Although this time, she was determined to keep it hidden.
"Mama," Soul said, twisting around to look at her, brown eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Why can't I go outside?"
Mckenzie plastered a big, gentle-fake smile on her face.
"Because the outside world is a dangerous place, Soul." she said wisely. "Full of selfish and horrible people. You must stay here, where it's safe. Do you understand, my flower?"
Soul smiled at her, wrapping her arms around her legs.
"Yes, Mama."
But that hidden tower couldn't hide everything.
Every year, on the princess's birthday, the King and Queen would release hundreds of lanterns on her birthday, one fore each day she was missing. And every year, little Soul would sneak out of her bed, past her Mamas sleeping form, and open the window to look at the mysterious lanterns.
But being a small child, she never knew they were lanterns.
So every year, when the glowing lights appeared in the sky, she would ask her mother about it. She said they were stars.
She always wondered why those particular stars always appeared on her birthday.
o.0.o.0.o
A mareep hid behind a flower pot on the balcony, hoping to escape her fate.
A moment of silence.
"A-ha!" a voice exclaimed, slamming open the doors. An eighteen-year-old woman with long, light brown hair pooling around her on the floor, wearing a darkish pink dress with an blue apron that looked, oddly enough, like overalls. She was barefoot. Her brown eyes glanced around the balcony, smiling in search of her friend. Not spotting her, Soul sighed. "Oh, well," she crossed her arms behind her back, sauntering away. "I guess Mara isn't out here."
Mara the Mareep let out a sigh of relief, only to be snatched up by a strand of hair by the her tail.
"I win!" Soul cheered, holding Mara up. Letting her pokémon go, Soul smiled. "So that's twenty-two for me..." she trailed off, happily petting her pokémon's head. "How about twenty-three out of forty-five?"
Mara widened her eyes, then shook her head. Soul blinked.
"Okay, then." She propped herself up on her elbows. "What do you wanna do?"
Mara seemed to perk up at that. She turned, pointing to outside.
Soul blinked, glancing up at the forest surrounding them.
"I like it in here, though." she stated simply. "Don't you, Mara?"
Mara gave her a blank look. Soul simply smiled, lifting the pokémon under her stubby arms.
"You like it, you liar." she smiled. The small clock on her wall chimed eight'o'clock, cutting off her fun and games with Mara. She beamed at the Mareep. "Chore time!" she exclaimed similarly to how a child would exclaim 'Christmas'.
Ducking back into the tower, with her seventy feet of hair trailing behind her, she set to doing the chores, as her Mama liked a clean house when she returned home, and even though Soul had no idea what day she was coming, she always did the chores in the morning to impress her.
Hanging the last bit dress from the laundry on the line, she wondered what to do next. It was eight thirty now, and everything was spick and span.
"I'll make Mama lunch!" Soul decided. Despite Mareep's protests, she bolted to the tiny kitchen and, working with the ingredients at hand, began an attempt at making something edible. When Mareep turned green upon the very scent, Soul gave up and tossed her attempt in the trash.
She could never make much outside of salads.
She turned from cleaning up her mess, eyes taking in the paintings on her wall. Her Mama never liked the paintings, as she would always wash them away mere moments after Soul put them up on the wall. Ever since she was a child, Soul always put up marvelous pieces of art, and despite her Mamas disdain for the paintings, Soul loved them very much. It made the bland walls so much prettier!
Her gaze moved to a single blank spot on the wall. Mareep glanced at it, deciding that it was much to obvious, and shook her head.
"Oh, this is easy." Soul rolled her eyes, pointing to the many dark red curtains, her Mama's favorite color, that covered her paintings most of the time. Opening her small paint box, she clambered onto the mantle, pulling aside the curtains, and began to paint the entire wall navy blue with long, sweeping strokes of her arm.
Soon, the wall was navy with a small forest at the bottom. Above it, in the dark sky, was odd, floating stars that appeared like a stream, almost.
"Do you think," Soul said offhandedly as she began a small depiction of herself at the bottom, sitting atop a tree. "Mama will let me see the floating stars, now that I'm eighteen?"
Mara shrugged. She knew what Mckenzie would say, but didn't want to crush Soul's hopes so soon.
Soul suddenly hopped down from the mantle, having finished the final strokes of her long hair, trailing to the bottom of the tree. With a grin, she swiped the back of her hand across her forehead, unwittingly streaking pain across her face.
"Perfect!"
o.0.o.0.o
Somewhere far away from the tower, there was a thief.
Well, more like a trio of thieves. Carl was the oldest and most experienced. One could say he was the leader of the group, though he always was willing to put his partners before him should either of them be threatened to get caught. With him was his two younger, adopted siblings, Will, who was more whimsical and served mostly as a distraction, and Silver, by far the most talented thief of the three. All of them had a pokémon partner, Carl with a Houndoom, Will with a Xatu, and Silver with a Sneasel.
Currently, they were scaling the castle roofs with hopes of plundering the most precious, most valuable item.
The lost princess's tiara.
While the lost princess was a legend, the tiara was a myth, said to be made of pure gold, embedded with only the best and most precious gemstones. Melted down and gems taken, the thing was worth millions.
And Silver couldn't wait to get his hands on it.
As he was lowered towards the mystical thing, he couldn't help but smirk at his partners stupidity. He was going to pull exactly what Blue did. Plunder royalty, take the profits for himself, then run off and start a family.
As far as he knew, Blue had escaped Mask clutches a few years ago. Every once in a while, he'd get a sign she was okay. She escaped about three years ago, eloping with some researchers kid, and from what he knew, she already had a baby girl.
Now it was his turn.
Though he didn't have a girlfriend or anything to run off with, he did have wit and street smarts. He could take the crown, sell it piece by piece, be set for life, then reunite with Blue and finally be free from Mask.
Just as his fingertips brushed the crown, the doors opened, and guards walked in. Were they breaking in on a shift change? Really?
"Hey!" one of them shouted in realization. Silver snatched the crown up and stuffed it in a satchel while Carl and Will yanked him up through the opening.
"Teleport!" Will order Xatu. And in mere moments they were outside the city, running through the forest while guards charged through the town after them.
Silver smirked. He robbed a castle, guaranteed his freedom, and managed to escape capture. All of this before eleven 'o clock!
This, he decided, was a very big day.
o.0.o.0.o
"Today," Soul said to Mara, packing away her paints. "Is a very big day, Mara!" she shut the box, latching it shut. "I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna ask Mama to see the floating lights!"
All of her paintings once again hidden, she stood.
"Soul~!" someone sang out. Soul gasped happily. "Let down your hair!"
"It's time...!" she whispered excitedly. Mara grinned, nuzzling her cheek into her owners. "Okay, okay, you hide! Don't let her see you!" she hid Mara behind the curtain of the portrait she had just finished, then jogged over to the window.
"Soul!" her Mama called again. "I'm not getting any younger down here!"
"Coming Mama!" Soul exclaimed, gathering up her hair, hooking it onto a hook outside the window, then throwing it over the edge. Once she felt her Mama's weight on the other end, she began pulling the older woman up. Once she was on the ledge, she happily greeted her mother. "Welcome home!"
"Oh, Soul!" her mother said, smiling. "I have no idea how you manage to do that every other day. It looks absolutely exhausting, darling."
"It's nothing." Soul said, brushing it off.
"If so, I son't know why it takes so long!"
Soul felt her face drop.
"Oh, I'm teasing darling." she said, sauntering away and tossing her cloak aside, studying her appearance in a mirror. Soul blinked, following after her mother.
"Anyways, Mama, I-"
"Come here, Soul," her mother said, pulling her next to her so she could see both their reflections in the mirror. "You want to know what I see?"
Soul glanced at her, then back at their reflection.
"I see a strong, confident, beautiful young lady." Soul beamed at the amount of compliments she was receiving from her mother. "Oh, and you're there too." Again, her face dropped. Her mother laughed. "Oh, I'm just teasing darling, stop taking everything so seriously!" She leaned down, studying her reflection in the mirror.
"Anyways, Mama, tomorrows a very big day-"
"Soul." her mother stood up, cutting her off once again. "I'm tired from the journey. Sing for me, dear, then we'll talk."
Soul blinked.
"Okay!"
Then she rushed around in a frenzy, getting her mama's favorite chair and her little wooden stool. Then she dragged her mother to the chair, sat her down, gave her the hairbrush, and plopped herself on her little stool. Before Mckenzie even had a chance to pick up a strand of hair, Soul began singing the song at a rapid rate, almost as if each line was a single word rather than a series of words.
"Flowergleamandglow
Letyourpowershine
Maketheclockreverse
Bringbackwhatoncewasmine"
"Wha-" Mckenzie exclaimed. "Soul, wait! Wait!"
"Healwhathasbeenhurt
Changethefates'design"
Unsure what to do, she began frantically brushing the hair.
"Savewhathasbeenlost
Bringbackwhatoncewasmine…"
"Whatoncewasmine..."
A wave and a pop later, Mckenzie was young again. She glared a little at her daughter.
"Soul!" she said scoldingly, though Soul hardly seemed bothered.
"Mama!" Soul exclaimed, grabbing onto her arm. "So as I was saying, tomorrow is a very big day, but you didn't really respond, so I'm just gonna tell you that tomorrow is my birthday!"
How the girl managed to get that all out in one breath, Mckenzie would never know.
"No, no, no," she said, gently shoving the girl off her. "I distinctly remember. Your birthday was last year."
"Well, that's the great thing about birthdays!" Soul exclaimed enthusiastically, standing up and throwing her arms in the air. "They come around every year!"
Mckenzie was less than enthused by her enthusiasm.
"And what I really, really want this year for my birthday is to go see the floating lights!" she exclaimed.
Mckenzie gave her a blank look.
"I'm not crazy, Mama!" she jumped up on a chair and yanked back the curtain, revealing her latest masterpiece. "I was hoping you'd take me to see the floating lights!"
"Were you painting on the walls again, Soul?" Mckenzie said blandly. "Arceus, I thought you grew out of that."
"Mama, the floating lights!" Soul reminded.
"You mean the stars." Mckenzie said, going back to picking through the fruit basket.
"That's the thing!" Soul exclaimed. "Remember that astrology book I asked you for a few years back? I studied through and through, and there's nothing mentioning these specific stars or any phenomena that even relates to these appearing on the same date, every single year!"
Even though Soul barely understood that half the things that the book said, she understood the pictures and none of the pictures resembled the paintintg she had made on the wall.
"Astrology? Phenomena?" her mother crossed the room, placing a hand against her forehead. "Those are some big words for you, dear. Are you sure you're well?"
"I'm fine, Mama, I promise!" she jerked her head back, looking up at the painting. "I just feel as if, these lights that appear every year on my birthday... They're meant for me, you know? I need to see, Mama. And... and not just from my window." she turned back to her mother, only to see she had sauntered over to the window. "I need to see them in person. I have to know what they are."
"You want to go outside?" her mother responded flippantly. "Oh, why Soul," she slammed the windows shut. "Look at you, as fragile as a flower." she grabbed her hands, spinning her around. "Still a little sapling, just a sprout."
"But I'm-"
"You know why we stay up in this tower," she cut her off sternly. "To keep you safe and sound." she sighed dramatically. "I suppose I always knew this day was coming. Knew that soon you'd want to leave the nest."
"Mama, it's not-"
"You want to know what my mother always told me, Soul?" she held up her pointer finger. "Mother knows best." she whirled around. "Imagine if you didn't listen! If you left the tower! Do you know what's out in that world? I can name off at least ten things off the top of my head!" as if to prove her point, she began rambling off random things that Soul only heard of in her nightmares. "Ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand, cannibals and snakes, the plague. There's also large bugs, men with pointy teeth and-"
"Mama, that's only nine!" Soul exclaimed, holding up nine fingers to prove her point. Mckenzie didn't listen.
"Stop, no more, you'll just upset me!" she exclaimed, throwing an arm dramatically over her face. "But you know what, Soul? Mother's right here, and I will protect you. Darling, here's what I suggest. Skip the drama, stay with mama." she pulled Soul into a hug. "Mother knows best."
"But Mama, this is really important to me." Soul said after she finished. Mckenzie let out a frustrated sigh, then pushed Soul away from her. Instead of trying a scare tactic, she figured she'd guilt Soul into staying.
"Fine, then." she said disdainfully. "Go ahead, get trampled by a pokémon. Get mugged and left for dead. Me, I'm just your mother, so what do I know? I only bathed and changed and nursed you and cared for you." she sat down dramatically in her chair. "Go ahead and leave me, I deserve it. Let me die alone here, be my guest. When you finally come back and I'm an old, decrepit woman, dying and alone, what would you care? You abandoned me."
"But we'll be going together so we'll come back together!" Soul grinned. Mckenzie sighed. So if scare tactic won't work and guilt tactic won't work, time for the belittlement.
"Soul, take it from me, on your own, you won't last a day." she began counting off all of her flaws. "Sloppy, under-dressed, immature, clumsy. Please, they'll eat you up alive. You're gullible, naive, positively grubby, ditzy and a bit, well, hmm, vague." she came forward, pinching her stomach. Soul yelped stumbling back. "Plus, I believe, you're gettin' kinda chubby, but I'm just saying 'cause I love you."
"Mama..." Soul whined. She hated it when her mother got into one of her insulting moods.
"Luckily for you, I understand. I'm here to help you. All I have is one request."
"Yes?" Soul asked, suddenly feeling quite defeated. She knew exactly what her mother was going to say.
"Don't ever ask to leave this tower again." she said sternly. Soul looked down dejectedly.
"Yes, mother."
"Oh, I love you very much, dear." Mckenzie said, hugging her.
"I love you more." Soul responded, per tradition. Mckenzie smiled, happy that she managed to get those whimsical ideas out of Soul's head.
"I love you most."
o.0.o.0.o
"Tata, my dear!" Soul heard her mother yell up as she lowered her to the ground. "I'll be back soon!"
Soul smiled.
"Bye-bye, Mama!" she said, waving. Her voice lost it's happy tone for a brief moment as she unhooked her hair, pulling it back into the tower. "I'll be here..."
o.0.o.0.o
"Wouldn't it have made more sense for this story to be about Red and Yellow, since Yellow's got freaky healing powers?" Aini asked.
"No." V said. "This story is perfect for Silver and Soul."
"I still don't think so." Aini grumbled.
"I liked it!" Celina smiled.
"Of course you liked it!" Iri stated. "You always love the stupid princess stories!"
"But there's a thief this time around!" Celina defended.
V snapped the book closed standing up and deciding it was time to get them to bed before they began arguing for half the night.
o.0.o.0.o
So, yeah. I know near the ending I totally ripped off 'Mother Knows Best' from the movie, but I love that song. And yes, while writing these stories, I listen to disney villain songs. I love them, oddly enough. Mother Knows Best is one of my top ten, including Poor Unfortunate Souls and Hellfire from The Little Mermaid and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, respectfully.
But that name though! A Lock of Trouble. Lock, like lock of hair. Soul has long hair. Or lock, like lock and key. Silver's a thief.
I know, praise my geniusness.
Soooo yeah.
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^