Chapter 3: Knock Knock ... Damsel at the Door
"What was that?" Sapphire said hearing the thump of something outside their door.
"Haven't the faintest clue." Diamond said tilting his head, staring hard at it.
"Should we get a mistress?"
"You afraid of a noise brother?" Diamond's mouth curved into a challenging smile.
"No." Sapphire glared back. "Here." He opened the door to the right as they saw a spill of black hair on the floor. He opened the other to see a girl, about 15 or 16 on the ground, either fainted or...
"Who is she?" Sapphire asked almost rhetorically.
Diamond looked down at her. She did have a type of dangerous beauty he'd rarely seen before in one so young. Being about 3 or 4 years older then the assumed 16 year old he'd set her to be was quite a stunner. All the same the black moon mark sat on her forehead.
"She's no spy. She's got a black moon symbol."
"Then who and what the hell happened?" Sapphire looked down confused.
"She's wearing a tiara." Diamond said matter of factly as he bent down to see the dark purple crystal tiara in her hair. He had also seen that hair style before; odangos. Trade mark of the moon kingdom.
"I think she might be the dark moon princess...you think?" Sapphire said.
"True, I don't imagine theres a reason she should be passed out on the floor." Diamond said looking at the girl. She was laying on her dark black cloak.
"I think I do." Sapphire spotted the thing crawling away from the girl. He used the dark energy he had mustered to stop it and raise it off the ground.
"Some kind of half dark magic and mechanical spider..."
"Deadly?"
"I don't think so." He attacked it with a spark of dark energy and it turned to a crumpled heap of dust. "Either way, she should not be passed out on the floor."
"You're right." Diamond then suddenly took her in his arms and turned to the bedroom.
"You're just going to pick her up and put her in your bed?" Sapphire was stunned by his brothers reckless behavior. "We should get someone to retrieve her."
"If someone knew she was here, she wouldn't be on the floor...something tells me she was..."
"Escaping? Your kidding me."
"I didn't say that." He put her on the bed. It wasn't his bed anyway. He looked at her. Her long ebony locks sat like silk on the bed. Her lips red with color and her cheeks pale and as white as her skin. She was stunning...he assumed it had come with that goddess like appeal that most people with lineage from the moon do. But it was a darker beauty.
"You've already got eyes for her don't you." Sapphire said, teasingly with a hint of disapproval.
"Just because I get all of the beautiful women..." Diamond retorted.
"Not all..." Sapphire ventured. Diamond caught his eye with a small glare.
"Ugh..."
They looked over to see her stir.
Melaena started to feel herself come back to her surroundings. She felt her head throb, and she suspected her ankle wasn't perfectly fine, but it was hard to tell with the strong pain of the likely bruise under her hair. She looked up and noticed this ceiling was not hers. It did not have the light purple sheer curtains that hung from her bed either. She felt herself wonder if one of the mistresses had found her and were going to lecture her when she heard a less then womanly voice.
"Well is she alive?"
She sat up to see the voice came from a blue haired man, with his back faced away from her. She felt a small prick of surprise and a larger feeling of unintentional success. I guess...if this was the way of doing things, playing damsel in distress was a definite option.
"I am." She said firmly. She sensed sarcasm in his tone, and she could already tell she definitely preferred Diamond.
"What is a princess doing in a hall way on the floor might I ask?" Diamond asked delicately.
"Escaping the confines of a rather boring room. Can you blame a girl for wanting more excitement in her life?"
"If by excitement you mean a mechanical spider then why not..." Sapphire added.
"Well, I can see why my mother didn't choose you to be Prince of the Black Moon Clan."
Diamond smiled at her wit. Sapphire was surprised she ventured as far.
"You were escaping confines?" Diamond asked.
"My mother and guardian prefer i stay safe and separated so I do not interfere or become at risk for danger."
"But you are a princess? Shouldn't you do what you like?" Diamond asked.
"I'd like to think so." She said now taking the cloak off of her shoulders and revealing her shoulders.
Diamond and Sapphire in response took in the Princess' apparel. Her dress was a lilac purple that started at the shoulders and draped down gathering between the bottoms of her breasts. The middle of her dress (covering her breasts) was a black bra that had silver circles familiar to the gold circles on princess Serenity's dress. Underneath the bust line were silver pearls. The purple material draped from the middle of the silver pearls on both sides revealing her stomach and gathered together again on her waistline, continuing down as the skirt of the dress with a long slit up the left side, revealing long lean legs. Silver pearls ordained her waist loosely like a belt with a black rose in the middle. Underneath the dress of the skirt the inside was an extra layer of black material that faded down as the dress went. There was a black translucent bow on the back of the dress. The skirt finished in folds again familiar to Princess Serenity's dress.
Diamond felt as if he had seen the dark version of a moon princess... the devilish opposite to Princess Serenity. He couldn't help but admire her.
Sapphire did admit, she had a quality of goddess like attributes but still, she deviated from what they had seen on the Moon. He recognized her sly reveal more than Diamond did as a ruse.
"Excuse us for denying you a formal introduction. I am Diamond, Amethysts eldest son, and he is Sapphire my younger brother." He took her hand and placed a kiss on it.
"You are a prince now, call yourself such, you shouldn't hope for others to diminish your stature because you failed to mention so." She smiled at him, closed mouth, flirting and smirking at him.
"I am not truly a Prince to the likes of you being a Princess." He answered back. "You're name Princess..."
"Melaena." She answered. "All the same, call yourself a prince to me, and I'd easily place you to be as equal to my own."
Sapphire rolled his eyes. "Do you need to be getting back somewhere Princess Melaena?"
"I do. But all the same, I agree I should live on my own accord, as Princess, if not taken from the words of wisdom you gave Prince Diamond." She looked to him. His handsomeness came from his confidence, which he'd only dialed down to flatter her, but she'd seen it.
He saw her lilac eyes and her red lips as she placed a smile, devilishly upon them. "I do stand by my words, however you did have quite a fall?"
She liked the way his words stood monotone peaking notes in places that identified things that he liked or showed interest in.
"Just a minor bump on the head I believe." She played it off, she wanted to come off strong, so she started to place her feet to the floor off the bed when she stood, only to almost come crashing down again.
Diamond watched the Princess delicately ascend from the bed, only to crumble to her feet, as he took it upon himself, since Sapphire was as helpful to aid their ruler and princess as a rock, to catch her. She sat lightly in his arms as her hands gripped his arms instinctively for support.
"I'd say that monstrous spider did a number to twisting your ankle." Sapphire noted.
"All the same, I'd say that my Mistress Arachnina will prove to have quite an effective power when she tames her skill." She returned, as she was suddenly hit with the fact she was still using Diamond as a support.
"Excuse me..." She said primly and sat back down on the bed.
Diamond noticed the way she sat the slit in her dress crawled up her leg as she propped her foot higher off the ground. She was a danger. He knew the Moon Princess held part of his heart, but the Dark Princess Melaena...well she had done a number on him already.
"Do you know how to teleport yet?" Diamond asked.
"Forbidden until they think I should be taught it. They think I will try to escape my room." She added the last part with an ironic tinge and shrugged.
"The most powerful Dark Princess and she can't even..."
"I'd watch yourself if I were you. I'd be likely to tell Eclipta that it was you that caused my fall and have you exiled from what is it? Two moons now?" She couldn't help but not suppress her tongue anymore.
Sapphire stood in awe.
"I like the way you get things done." Diamond gave a small chuckle and raised his eyebrow to his brother. "All the same I think you really should get help for that ankle...why don't we bring you back to your room."
"Why thank you but my Mistresses will be appalled I left in the first place, if they see me in the halls. Rebellion...well hypocrites to think we are the rebellious dark moon and yet they won't even let their prize Princess take a bit of rebellious action." She said the second as if it was to herself.
"They won't see us." Diamond said, taking her by surprise, before lifting her off the bed in his arms and suddenly disappearing from the room.
Sapphire just watched as his brother leave. He was already playing dangerous games with the Dark Moon Princess. Maybe he was a bit of a bitter younger brother, but it was for Diamond's best interest. He had a knack for fore telling things that lead to some kind of trouble...especially with Diamond.