Fantasia
Arc2: The Quest
Chapter5: The vengeful
Tsukiname, the heavily wounded shadow imp, who was helped by Juan and his new friends, found herself in a clinic with the orange head watching over her.
But their peaceful conversation ended with the woman raging upon hearing the name "Zoldeo", breaking out of the window and disappearing in the shadow veils of the night.
Juan's feet moved on their own, he was hasty to notice that the strings of the straw hat he bought for her is stuck on the back side of his belt, ignoring the doctor's questions, he rammed the door with his body to get out.
His mind started kneading theories about the wounded midget; Tsukiname, the way she extended her arm was similar to what Juan did once or twice before, could it be? What's he thinking anyway?!…the more important is that a shadow imp of an unknown village, a village no one knows where, is suddenly in a town of mankind, her injuries, her lost eye, and her rage over hearing "Zoldeo", the king of the biggest colonizing village in the continent, this only can mean one thing…Tsukiname is an AVENGER!
He headed toward the royal palace, it was an easy thing for him, for it's the tallest glowing tower there's, he ran like crazy with pictures of a massacre made by Tsukiname in his wild imagination, and the most of his fear was around "Cecilia"!
Minutes or so and the orange head found himself at the entrance of the royal palace; a tall castle with five long standing prismatic towers, one in the middle and the other four surrounding it, connected with each other with a triple array of bridges; a top, a middle, and a lower level, at night the walls glow with shimmering lights provoked by special spiral crystalline structures that ornaments the angles of the towers, all this behind high standing fences of solidly carved stones.
But this wasn't important for Juan at this moment, he tried to convince the guard that the royal guests are in danger, but what's the use? he's just a punk from the streets, a guard won't believe such a story, he apologized to him and headed back, is Juan giving up?...despite this what usually a cowardly man like him would do, but he swore on himself never to think like a cowards again, yes he's simply breaking in the palace, what rests is how?
Wait! Something flashed in his head! The guards are here and not inside, which means that Tsukiname isn't here yet! Was he wrong? Wasn't she seeking revenge? What's going on here? All these were thoughts that distracted him from thinking vividly on how to break in the castle and warn them from the threatening danger.
Meanwhile, the imp was standing on a faraway high temple pillar top, not like she used to be, but more like a four legged animal, truly she looked more like a mindless beast than any being with the lowest consciousness.
Her long white locks stood up like an angered cat, her sclera sunk in dark blood red color that one cannot tell where her iris was, her pointy short dark horns got bent a little toward each other, her nails turned into vein filled claws, her mouth drooled blobs of disgusting saliva dripping from her canine-like teeth, making her resemble to a mad dog.
She leaned her head until her chin touched the cold surface of the pillar, and her thighs contracted violently resembling two barrels, before she pushed her small body like a canon ball right toward the palace…
In that very moment, the shepherd noticed a white flash passing in the dark starry sky, is it a shooting star? No! It headed toward the palace! She's Tsukiname starting her assault! And with a strange hand clap from her hands, she disappeared the moment she came in contact with the walls in a dark shadowy blot.
Before all this, and inside the peaceful royal palace of Clavia, Marceline was helping the princess -Who reverted her hair back to its sandy color- wearing her elegant pearly white puffy dress, and while Marceline was tying the straps of the dress' back, Cecilia noted something:
"I wonder what Juan is doing now? I hope the little guy's okay, I offered him to come with us but he decided to stay with Tsukiname."
"He'll be fine your majesty, his body sure is weak but his heart and mind can help more" the maid added.
"Yeah, it's a shame I lied to him and used your name…"
"No your majesty you didn't lie, you truly was trying to help his highness, but running away from meeting your fiancée isn't a behavior" Marceline explained while finishing tying the dress.
"I really wanted to help my father before this marriage, I mean in a month or two I'll be Miss Cecilia Artemiciano, and I wanted to heal my father as soon as possible."
"Do I understand that you don't like Prince Zoldeo?" the blonde asked.
"What? Of course not, I and Artemiciano are close lovers, and I don't care if people considered this marriage political, because I still love him!" Cecilia answered with a blush.
"I can tell, the jester always complains on how you made him draw the prince every time he pays in a visit" The maid noted slyly.
"Hey! That's a secret!" the princess yelled, but she soon laughed and hugged her maid saying that she's more like a sister to her.
In response to that, even for a person who's not used to show emotions, she smiled lightly and closed her eyes to prevent tears from breaking out, and headed to a drawer nearby, to pull a golden necklace with a blue gem, and made the princess wear it, Cecilia couldn't wait and jumped toward the mirror to see the jewelry:
"Ah, it's so beautiful!" Cecilia expressed her opinion.
"It's a piece entrusted to me by her majesty; Cassandra, she asked me to give it to you, when your marriage date gets closer, and I think it's time." The maid said before she opened the door to leave.
"Where are you going? Aren't you coming with me?"
"No, I have things to do your majesty, my apologizes" the maid answered.
Shortly after that Cecilia headed to the balcony, where a figure was standing there, that was sure Zoldeo Artemiciano, a twenty five years old man, with clear skin, and dark charming eyes noted by a small mole under the left one, describing his handsome face, his blonde fair hair reached his shoulders, his tall slender body was perfected by a sky blue garment, composed of a puffy shirt with golden buttons, the sleeves had black stitches weaved to match growing vines in appearance, to go down with a simple pair of pants, of course of the same color as his shirt, and his shoes were of black polished leather, when Cecilia saw her future husband she couldn't say if the suit that made him handsome or it was the other way around.
"Ah! The rose of my flower garden, come let me taste the bloom of yours" the prince noted poetically.
"As always, you always impresses me with your poems!" the Princess responded by bowing in respect.
"My pearl! No need for formalities, love is no truce between two towns…"
"But it's a truce between two hearts, don't you think? My star" Cecilia added.
"How crafty, you've honed your tongue even more this time" the prince commented, while holding his fiancée's hand and walked with her across the hall.
However Dean was with Marceline in some sort of an office, where the maid was counting labels to pay him for helping her finding the runaway princess:
"There you go, two thousands Muns, I think this is fine with you?" the maid said while giving the money bag to the knight.
"Hehehe! lucky me! You think I should split with Juan?" he asked.
"Trust me, this would be the last of my concerns, I'm thankful for your help, both of you, and by the sunrise I don't believe we'll meet again, so if you wouldn't mind do me a last favor and…"
"Take you on a date?!" Dean interrupted her shaking his brows with a silly expression.
"Very cute, but no! the princess liked you to be a guest tonight along with her fiancée and some other high ranked aristocrats." The blonde added coldly.
"N' my favor is to be that guest! Right?!"
"No, I ask you to wear this suit instead of that armor of yours, you are the last thing I want the princess to be embarrassed of." The maid ordered the knight coldly while holding a black suit.
And so when the moon centered the starry sky, the princess with her fiancée and many other important wealthy characters were in the great guest room of the royal palace; a vast room that can be sized by four or five houses, the ceiling, the floor, and the walls of pearly marble, golden illuminating chandeliers, large tables every here and there, offering feasts that a normal person might not even see or hear about.
Dean can be seen boasting while chatting with the daughters of the rich in his fancy suit, when the princess noticed him, she waved at him calling his name, he pointed at her with a glass of dark wine he carried yet he didn't sip -fearing to embarrass himself knowing how a heavy drunkard he's-, the girls grew more interested in him, thinking that he's some sort of a duke or a relative to the Heinz family.
The princess approached him and introduced her fiancée to her friend:
"Dean, I'd like you to meet Artemiciano, my fiancée"
"Glad to meet'ya your highness!" the knight welcomed the prince offering his hand to shake it.
"Hmm…a young age, a rural accent, hands as rough as what hard labor might make, a self-made man then? Dean if I recall? You are an Espadaian if my mind didn't fail me?" Artemiciano noted.
"Whoa! You knew it! How?" the knight asked in confusion.
"Trust me young one, when you are my age you'll be like…no who knows? you might have more of what I've got, don'cha think?" the prince finished his words miming the other man's accent.
"Hehehe, nice one!" Dean commented then: "So how's the prince-ship?" he added trying to make an inside joke.
"I must say, it's quite charming to know that hard life doesn't kill the sense of humor, well you see parents are often the clear shroud that prevents my fireflies to reach the light they pleadingly seek."
"Huh?" was the knight's response for he didn't get the metaphor.
"It's a figurative phrase; Artemiciano means that his father is preventing him from sharing the kingship, but again he thinks that it's the best for him not to interfere because he might not be experienced enough." The princess explained.
"Oh so that's it! Sorry you see I'm kinda lousy at literature." Dean apologized.
"Oh one needs no ears to grasp this." The prince commented.
Dean got the joke seconds later, and laughed complimenting the prince, but like mostly everyone his fake clenched teeth can be translated as: "What a jerk!"
However within this luxurious atmosphere, almost no one could've feel that a predator is watching the hall with -literally- an eye of rage, and beyond everyone's awareness, a small circle of shadow formed itself on the ceiling and with a flicker, the vengeful beast landed heavily on a table crushing it.
Tsukiname stood with her right side facing Artemiciano, her eye moved slowly until it got pinned on her prey, in that moment all she could see is red, her blood was boiling, that even the warm room seemed cold for her, making her breathes filled with steaming vapor.
Her claws twitched as her body grew older and taller, a third arm broke through the silky fabric of her kimono from the navel's side, drawing blood from her unhealed wound, the imp turned toward her target not caring about the glass shards in her feet, she released a sharp growl breaking all the glasses in the room driving the guards attention.
The targeted prince gasped, and walked slowly few steps in front of his soon-to-be wife and smirked asking: "I thought you all died?!" with full self-confidence.
And the raged beast responded by jumping blindly toward her prey.
To be continued