Action... :-)
116- Flight
He really looked sweet. Like marshmallow dipped in honey. Nikolaï's shoulder length hair was a spectacular pale blond; he had sensuous lips, a perfect face and an elegant demeanor. His eyes were like two emeralds. His costumes were always in white and gold, somewhat military in cut, and fit his slim body to perfection. You could readily imagine him on a white horse, ceremonial sword in hand. You could almost see the little cherubs flying around holding ribbons and throwing petals on his path.
Rose didn't like him at all. First, he never got her name right. And second, and most important, he sucked up to her father, the Count. Anyone who sucked up to nobles and ignored others was a loser in her book. "If he keeps this up, the carpet will be all wet with drool..." she thought, scowling at him. "We'll walk and it'll make a disgusting swish sound."
Rose was bored out of her wits. Because she was the Count's daughter, she had to appear at the dinner table with all the Barons, Princesses and stuffed up gentry. She was seated right next to her dad, who was beyond flattered by all this attention, and of course took it as his due. She had to wear this silly frilly pink dress that made her look like a cake. But there was one good thing: it also transformed her into an eight-year-old kid. She noticed that in those soirées the men were always getting lewd after they'd had enough to drink, and thought the women were too naive to catch their barely concealed allusions. It disgusted Coran, who always had something rather pressing to attend to, and Allura as well; she would always get a note and excuse herself on urgent matters.
But poor Rose had no such stratagems. "Wait, she asked herself suddenly, why not? What could I invent to be excused early?" There wasn't much in the arsenal of a girl in front of a table filled with food, except the classic solution. She proceeded to stuff herself with greasy thingies, they always made her turn quite green.
It worked a little too well. She didn't even have to say she felt sick. The Baroness seated on her left was a huge lady, very nice and all; she was one of the few Rose actually liked. The Lady in question looked at her, became all alarmed and took her rapidly to the bathroom. She tactfully waited for her outside. When Rose emerged, she was as white as a sheet and begged the Baroness to tell the Count she had gone to bed. The nice Lady said 'Of course, my poor sweetie', and that was that. Rose could have jumped up and down in joy if those fried cheese sticks hadn't almost killed her.
"I'm free," she said gleefully. "I'm free!"
And she ran out of the castle. The night air felt so cool and nice! It made her feel much better. She went in pursuit of the Wolf, a game she liked to try every now and then. She would try to sneak on him. The Stray Wolf was Lance, of course. He wasn't always out at night, but when both were in the forest, he was the one who caught her first.
When the Wolf was out in the silvery forest, he was always in a very silent, brooding mood. She respected that. They would just walk together. But no matter how melancholic he was, he would certainly laugh his head off to see her in that stupid dress.
Oh well. Maybe he wasn't even in the forest. She heard nothing out of the ordinary. She crossed Marble's path and signed hi. Pattern four. His hands shot out of his cloak as he signed alarmingly back, code red, hide! Darn, he has seen her; she had to be careful! Stupid pink dress! Still Marble was very sharp, unlike his namesake. She had nicknamed him Marble for the same reason big people were nicknamed Slim. Code red. That meant something threatening was in the woods. She immediately hid in a rather big hydrangea. Its pale flowers would make her pink dress part of the scenery.
Then she spotted what had prompted this code. There was someone crouching in a bush. She realized she was vulnerable in her pale dress and quite fortunate he hadn't seen her. Now the game was getting a little too interesting! It couldn't be Snow, because she was one of the 7 persons on the planet that knew Snow was accompanied constantly now, and that he sniffed or sneezed every minute or so.
Besides this one wasn't wearing a spy cloak but a dark commando outfit. He had pale hands and short nails : human. Marble took out his weapon. She saw the commando react at this movement, he saw him! He drew his own weapon: a drule laser gun. And Marble couldn't know from his position! Then it clicked in a neat puzzle in Rose's brain and she took in some air to warn Marble, but a shot covered her little beginning of a scream.
She saw Marble topple to the ground and forced herself to stay silent by clamping both her hands on her mouth.
Suddenly she heard shouts in the night air. She recognized Fidget and pink Mammoth. Shots followed. It made her crouch down instantly, but it was a little farther away. She desperately hoped Marble wasn't dead. Her heart was beating so fast; she had to find someone to report this to!
She didn't want to go in the same direction the commando was now running in. She had her theory, so she went out of the paths, toward master Kovak's village. She had to warn him.
She did so with all the stealth she was capable of. She smeared her dress with mud so it wouldn't shine in the moonlight and sped through her beloved forest in utter silence. She had practiced this for so many years, and now it turned deadly serious. She thanked the good Spirits that she'd gone undercover as she saw the forest was filled with those men dressed in dark commando clothes.
She reached the fence surrounding the drule village and escalated it. She went straight to Kovak's unit. He opened his door, rather surprised to find a dirty little mud cake on his doormat. But the master wasn't one to gape for long. He ushered her in and gave her water.
"Something terrible is happening," she gasped.
She recounted briefly what she had seen.
"I think they are coming here! I think they are some gang wanting to elevate themselves by making you into villains and they as heroes. You're being framed! We have to warn someone! They shot Marble!"
"I'm sorry, master Rose, but the communication system went down half an hour ago."
"S***! That was certainly on purpose! I have to run to the castle and tell Keith or Lance!"
Just then they could hear people screaming loudly for them drules to stay in their barracks or they'd be shot on sight. There was a lot of agitation as the drules unfortunate enough to have been out were forced into the buildings. The men bristled with weapons and wore the same commando outfit Rose had seen. She trembled in fright. It looked as if they'd been invaded. Kovak was listening intently, and Rose let him, knowing that his drule ears would catch their every word, even though the door was closed.
"They seem to think some drules attacked one of the castle spies."
"It's certainly a frame, Sensei! The first one of them I saw is the one who shot Marble!"
"Well, we drules are very easy to frame. Everyone always puts all crimes on our backs..."
"Keith would believe me I'm sure of it! I'm human, if I sneak out..."
"And do you think you can casually walk all the way to the castle in a mud-smeared dress?"
"S***!"
"Such language. Here, use a Khiara outfit. At least it's black and dry."
He rummaged through his collection and found one that wasn't too big. Meanwhile Rose proceeded to make herself presentable. During all this time the sounds unnerved her, there was a lot of banging on the doors and people being questioned loudly.
Kovak showed her a tiny dog door in the back of his unit. She barely fit through and told herself if her hips had been a millimeter wider she'd have stayed stuck. It was very dark. She felt something wet on her face and started a little, but from sounds she knew she was in the middle of a pack of dogs. Two or three licked her face. Some were barking furiously at a commando standing at the corner of the barrack. Others wagged their tails, good-naturedly thinking this was all a new game.
She decided to use the dogs as a cover to reach the fence. She found a rock, whispered catch in drule, and threw it. Six or seven responded and pursued the rock, and she went with them, staying low. When the commando turned to "shut those mutts off", he vaguely saw a little pack of them running off in the dark, but the most part were staring straight at him, barking furiously.
"Silence!" the man shouted, and he killed a few.
"There," he then said, "that shut them up!"
Rose was now on the other side of the fence. She was shocked at how this man carelessly terminated wonderful beings, but also grateful that this idiot provided a diversion. She hoped the other dogs wouldn't get killed and silently sent a prayer for them.
She ran again, reaching a safe distance in the city. A Khiara outfit was better then a mud streaked dress, and she could now just calmly walk toward the castle. No one questioned the charming little flower, for Rose was renowned to wander everywhere and at odd hours. All the village had often seen her in a khiara outfit.
She met running commandos and asked naively what was happening. She wasn't overly surprised to find out they belonged to Nikolaï, and that they had discovered a plot of the drules to put Lotor in charge. They had wounded a spy, he said, but they were caught before they could do any real harm. Rose wondered what they'd call real harm and was afraid for Marble but relieved he was alive. The commandos then said they had arrested the ex-prince and that the area was secure. Rose smiled sweetly.
"Congratulations!" She said innocently.
"Just doing our job, miss."
Rose could have screamed, but waved bye and went on her way. As soon as she was out of their sight she ran.
As for Kovak, he wasn't born yesterday, so he smeared his boots with the mud from the dress, stuffed it and the towels she had used in his stove, and stepped on all the tracks Rose had made, making it an unreadable mess. Humans readily believed drules had dirty habits. He could only hope they were clumsy enough to step themselves on the tracks she had made outside, and it was probable, since there was a lot of them crawling all over the place.
Some of them bust in and asked loudly if he was Kovak. He said he was and almost smiled when they barked at him he was suspected of plotting against the crown. He didn't resist, for he knew these men were deceivers. He told himself that the safest place for him now was probably the prison.