Chapter 9

It had finally gotten dark. We were only about halfway through the Garden Tower, but it was time to stop and rest. After all, the Prince may be a kick-ass warrior with a shiny sword, but he was still human and still needed rest, no matter how accustomed he was to staying awake for days on end. I was no different, either. Even as an Angel, I didn't have the Prince's stamina for staying awake and by now, I was ready to drop.

Before we fell asleep, the two of us, having made up after our little spat earlier, lay on the soft grass and stared up at the sky. If there was one thing I absolutely LOVED about the ground world, it was the night sky. The Heavens were nice and all… but there were no stars… no moon… nothing at night.

Thinking about the night sky made me remember back to our first adventure when I'd seen that figure on the observatory roof. I'd studied constellations at the Academy and I could easily pick them out now. Only thing was… the one I remembered we'd never covered. I'd asked my professor about it once, but apparently he had no idea what I was talking about. I don't know about that, though. I got the impression that he was hiding something. But why would he hide something like that?

"Nay Nay," the Prince said. He'd started using that nickname again, if only sparingly.

"Yes, Princy?" I replied, bestowing a nickname of my own onto him.

"Do you remember back in Azad, when you asked me about that observatory figure?" he asked. Speak of the Devil.

"Yes," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, when I returned to Babylon afterward, I asked one of my father's astronomers about it."

"Oh yeah? And what did he say?" The Prince let out a short chuckle.

"He thought I was crazy." I had to laugh at that. I could just imagine some old guy telling the Prince off for a hyperactive imagination or something. It didn't surprise me, though. After all, if the professors at the Academy don't know about it (coughcough) then why in the world would astronomers down here know about it? But to my surprise, the Prince continued, "So about a month later, I asked the Old Man if he knew."

"Wow, you went through all kinds of trouble to find out for me, didn't you?" I teased, poking him in the side. "That's sweet."

"Well, the Old Man told me that the constellation was symbolic of an old prophecy, or something like that."

"A prophecy? What prophecy?"

"I questioned him further, but he would give no more answers. I even looked in a good number of books in my father's library, but I couldn't find anything."

"Wow… a prophecy…" I repeated, my eyes tracing the stars forming the shape, my imagination already at work. I remembered studying prophecies. According to my book, only the stars, (or fates, whatever you want to call them. They're still little spots in the sky to me) can instigate a prophecy and they do this by forming a constellation. And if what my professor said is true, then you can distinguish a fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecy by the way the stars are twinkling.

Looking at this one, it hadn't been fulfilled yet. I wonder whom it's meant for… Well, hopefully not me ;).

"Well… that's something at least," I offered and rolled over onto my side. "I'm tired. And I think both of us would do well with at least a few hours of sleep. Good night, Prince." He rolled onto his other side.

"You're right. Good night, Naomi."


Kiri: (sigh...) Sorry for the ridiculously short chapter, guys. I had to go in for surgery today on my foot. And right now it hurts like all hell, I'm exhausted, and a bit grumpy. But the good news is that with the weekend coming up and the doc's orders to stay off of my foot, I'll have plenty of downtime for a new chapter. Don't worry, the next one I write will have much more going on and will be more interesting that all this crap, though it was important to the plot. I'll just do a short quicky FAQ today and then I have to figure out how the hell I'm going to get around school tomorrow with my foot like this...

Q: This chapter sucked!

A: That's not a question. And I already told you, my foot is out of commission, it hurts and I can't think straight at all, especially with an 800 mg horse tablet painkiller in my system. So just deal with it and hopefully next chapter will be better.

Q: Ok, fine. So, the Prince has gone back to callig her Nay Nay?

A: Yeah, sort of. after they made up for their little fight, they grew a little fonder of each other and the Prince resurrected the name he bestowed on her in the first story. Sure, it's stupid, but you have to admit, the whole concept it adorable.

Q: What's this prophecy business all about?

A: Maybe you should wait until next chapter and find out for yourself.

Q: ok... why didn't the Old man tell the Prince more about it?

A: Because.

Q: Because why?

A: Because because.

Q: grrr... Well, is the Dark Prince comming soon?!?!

A: Didn't I already answer this? First of all, I shouldn't have to answer weather or not he'll be in it at all. Second, HOLD YOUR BLOODY HORSES. Keep in mind that Darkly didn't appear at all until game three, so what makes anyone think that I'm going to bring his in this early? BE PATIENT!

Q: FINE! why was the Prince being an ass last chapter? How could he be so mean to Naomi like that!

A: Well, when you're in serious pain and as angry as he was that his arm had been snapped in two, you'd be yelling and screaming too. He didn't mean most of what he said, he was just seeing red and momentarily forgot that it had been an accident. Seeing Naomi tear up like she did brought him back to his senses somewhat and while she was gone, he had time to calm down and think rationally about it. Until Dahaka appeared, that is.

Kiri: Alright, I think that's enough... for now, I'm off to bed to rest my foot. Stay tuned for the next chapter. Hopefully then I won't be so grouchy.