Summery: Majella was just another girl off the street. She dressed like a street person, she acted like a proper (somewhat). It's hard to believe her parents are rich, though the money really isn't hers. After losing her memory, everything was new to her. A boy with red eyes. He took interest in her special ability. He took her back to the castle and introduced her to Hakuryuu and Kougyoku Ren. What will happen in her life? How will they change it? Will she meet Alibaba and his gang?

Chapter 5: Sitri

The last couple of days passed in a flash and left Majella feeling rather exhausted. Perfecting sword play was hard work but it was very important that she didn't give up. She needed to train hard and learn the necessary skills in order to be ready in time. She didn't want to die, especially not in a dungeon.

All of it was mentally straining. When she didn't get things right, she became stressed out, making her feel as if she had just gone through Chinese water torture.

But she was glad it was all over… for now. Her training had concluded and time was up. Next, she would need to tackle a real dungeon which would put to test all she had learned in the past few days. Majella wondered what kind of dungeon she would be facing. Would it be water, fire, life, or some other type?

She felt sore all over. Every muscle ached in her being. Majella flopped down on her bed. Her own room had finally been prepared for her and now she slept in it every night. The room was perfect: the walls, the bed, everything. But what would make it even more perfect was if she could go see Aya, her stepmother. Aya was still living in the slums and Majella longed to see and talk with her again. But she knew Judal would never allow her to leave.

Majella sat up from her bed and stretched her tired arms out. She knew that the princess would be coming by soon to pay her a visit and Majella didn't want to smell bad in front of her so she decided to take a hot bath.

Filling the tub with steaming water, Majella climbed in and sighed contentedly. She let the hot water soak her skin and then she proceeded to scrub herself clean from head to toe. The water was nice and soothing, better than before. She could relax and take her time before Princess Kougyoku arrived.

Afterwards, she climbed out and towelled herself dry. Majella chose to dress in her usual outfit that she had come to love so much. Her clothes were black and white with a little dash of red and they fit her well. Majella was just tightening the strap around her waist when the princess entered her room.

Kougyoku smiled pleasantly and greeted her. "Hello Majella~" But the princess wasn't alone today. Behind her, there was another woman who followed her into the room. She had a thin scar on her left cheek that was probably from a recent battle.

The stranger smiled friendly and introduced herself as Hakuei Ren, the First Imperial Princess. "I wanted to meet the girl who's recently been taking up so much of my little brother's time," Hakuei explained with a cheerful chuckle. Her eyes danced with good humor and she held out her hand, offering it to Majella. "It's nice to meet you."

Majella shook Hakuei's hand, laughing nervously. "I-It's nice to meet you as well."

"Koubun~" Kougyoku yelled for her assistant who was waiting right outside the room to come in. Hearing his name, Koubun entered. He was holding something in his hands. Kougyoku smiled, holding up her sleeve and saying, "Hakuei, Hakuryuu and I got you something."

Majella blinked in confusion. "But I thought you already gave me something. I couldn't possibly take anything else."

Kougyoku waved away Majella's concerns as she took the object out of her assistant's hands and began to unwrap it gently. "That was just a training weapon but this…" She revealed her gift. "This is your real weapon." In her hand was a beautifully crafted scimitars sword.

Hakuei smiled. "Judal will be taking you to the dungeon soon. I hope you're prepared."

Before Majella could answer, another voice joined in. "I'll be taking her now." Judal strolled confidently into the room wearing an irritated expression on his handsome face.

Majella gulped, feeling nervousness overwhelm her. She felt butterflies in her stomach and a small hint of uncertainty. No matter how much she had prepared and trained, she still wasn't quite sure of her ability.

Hakuei turned towards the dark magi and asked, "Are you making her go alone?"

Judal laughed. "Of course."

Kougyoku frowned. "If she goes in alone she might not make it back out."

Judal shrugged as if he couldn't care less. He walked up to Majella and grabbed her hair, tugging her out of the room with him. Majella stumbled after him, saying, "That hurts! Can you let go? I can walk by myself." Hakuei's amused giggle followed them out of the room.

Judal led Majella down a series of long corridors and into an open courtyard. Once again, he forced her onto his flying carpet, but this time Majella didn't try to leap off. Instead, she sat back and enjoyed the thrill of soaring through the air, high above the ground, and the feeling of the wind blowing through her long black hair.

As they traveled, Majella turned to Judal and asked, "What dungeon did you choose?" A lock of her hair was wound around her finger as she twirled it unconsciously.

"Sitri," the dark magi replied, keeping his eyes straight ahead. "It's the dungeon in the middle of the desert. It appeared six years ago." Then, as if impatient to reach their destination, Judal increased the speed of the carpet, urging it to travel faster and faster.

Majella spent the time asking him questions which he answered, telling her as much as he knew about the dungeon.

Soon they came upon a very large, tall structured building lying in the middle of the desert. From miles all around, there was nothing but sun and sand. The air shimmered with dry heat and almost unbearable hotness. The structure seemed to gleam like a jewel on the sand, reflecting off the unrelenting rays of sunshine.

"Is that Sitri the 13th Dungeon?" Majella asked, wanting to make sure that they had arrived.

"No, it's just a random building in the middle of the desert," Judal answered in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "Of course it's the dungeon-"

As he said the last word, a sudden burst of energy grabbed hold of their carpet with such strength that it threatened to throw both of them off. With a twist of the wind, both of them were sucked into the entrance of the dungeon without warning.

Majella squeezed her eyes closed, afraid to know what sort of dangers the dungeon had in stall for her. Even with her eyes closed, she noticed the sudden drop in temperature. It had been blistering, sweltering hot in the desert but suddenly it was freezing! Majella felt cold air brush up against her skin, sending shivers down her back.

"Stupid girl, open your eyes."

She heard Judal's voice but… wait…? Why was he here with her? Didn't he say she would be going in alone?

Majella opened her eyes and glanced at the black haired magi. "Wait… I thought I was going to be here alone?"

Judal refused to answer her question. He sneezed instead. "Achoo! Damn it! It's ******** cold in here!" He knew full well what kind of dungeon it was though.

Deciding to ignore him, Majella turned her head and tried to take in her new surroundings. The entire place was bright and shiny with ice spears and cubes. Huge columns of ice reached high up into the icy caverns, disappearing from view. Everything was made of ice! Even the ground they were standing on was constructed completely out of frozen slabs of ice!

Majella tried to take a step forward, unaware of how slippery the floor really was, and fell on her butt. Judal took one look at her and laughed out loud. Majella puffed up her cheeks, annoyed at him, but then she caught sight of something amazing. Her breath was turning into fog and mist right before her eyes! She gazed at it, astonished, and then giggled.

"This is an ice dungeon," Judal explained as if Majella hadn't figured that part out for herself. He turned to the wall and trailed a finger slowly across the rough icy wall. It felt strange… different compared to his own ice magic. This one was colder but less of a threat compared to his.

Then he turned back and stared at Majella for a few minutes. She didn't notice as she was too busy looking with wonder all about her. Everything glittered and reflected light in a multi-array of beautiful, dazzling rainbow colors.

Judal let his eyes concentrate on the rukh surrounding Majella. It was weird the way her rukh came and touched his own.

Majella's ruhk did the same thing around Hakuryuu; they surrounded the prince's own rukh in a peculiar way as well. Why? Why were all their rukhs behaving differently when they were around Majella?

Judal didn't understand it and he wanted answers.

Before he could figure it out, a loud crack sounded from high above. Judal snapped out a warning as dangerous sharp ice shards tumbled down from the topless dungeon, landing with a terrifying crash on the ground before them. Both Majella and Judal dodged quickly.

"Well, that was unexpected," Majella said rubbing at her back. She had landed on her back for the last time.

Judal frowned. "Damn! Just when I was thinking!"

At this point, Majella was pretty much just ignoring anything the dark magi said. She was too focused on exploring her new surroundings. Although the dungeon was scary and full of danger, she was still fascinated and intrigued. She was curious about the ice and its ability to morph itself to resemble anything.

In order to satisfy her own curiosity, Majella was eager to see more. She knew very well that at any moment she could be crushed by a gigantic ice cube, swallowed up by a random hole in the ground, or even attacked by a gruesome dungeon creature, but she didn't care. At that moment, she was too mesmerized by the wonders in front of her so she could care less what Judal was going on about.

Majella took off towards a set of staircase made out of nothing but ice. She heard Judal call out to her but she didn't stop. She was smart enough to analyze everything and she was a quick learner so that now she could traverse the slippery, icy floor without falling. She slid gracefully across the ice, moving about freely.

"Am I too fast for you, Judal?" Majella laughed, tossing back her long black hair. She glanced back at the dark magi with a playful smile on her lips. "If you don't move fast enough you'll get left behind!"

She snickered and climbed up the stairs, daringly taking two at a time. Move fast or you'll get left behind… It was what she had been taught back in the slums; if you're not fast enough you get left behind. So she had learned quickly that she needed to use any means to survive. She wouldn't let her guard down around the dark magi or in this dungeon. She knew very well that anything could happen at any time. That was why she kept an eye out for everything and surveyed her surroundings constantly.

Judal became increasingly annoyed as Majella chose to ignore everything he was saying. She darted about with unbridled energy, busy exploring and having an adventure. He could tell she was much more interested in the dungeon than what he had to say.

Her carefree smile pissed off the dark magi. "If you move too fast you're going to end up dead!" he warned. Then realizing that he was starting to sound concerned, he quickly added, "Not like I care…" He heard Majella snicker as she climbed up the stairs.

Judal followed her up the stairs slowly. He could see that she had her guard up at all times despite her excitement. He wondered why she seemed to have her guard up against him as well. He wasn't planning on trying anything. He was just curious why Majella was so happy in a place where she could lose her life.

Majella made her way towards the top and found nothing but snow and ice. Like an excited child, she saw a fresh made snowman looming in the distance. It was huge but somewhat cute.

Immediately, she went to investigate. Majella had never seen anything like it before! It was probably because she had never lived anywhere with snow or ice so this was her very first time seeing something like this.

The snowman was very big, made up of three large snowballs topped one on top of another. It had two menacing arms and a stern, unchanging face. Majella walked a small circle around the snowman, looking at it from all angles.

But something was off about the snowman… Did it just move? Majella blinked rapidly as she leaned in for a closer look. Maybe it had just been her imagination?

Judal took his sweet time climbing the staircase, finally strolling to the top. He noticed Majella standing by the snowman and then he saw it move slightly. Wondering why Majella didn't move out of the way, he yelled out just as the snowman's large hand hovered over the girl, ready to crush her.

Majella looked up in surprise. With quick reflexes, she leapt to the side and dodged the hand just as the mighty fist slammed down into the very spot she had been standing in seconds ago. "What… the…?"

"You're an idiot if you're going to keep standing there!" Judal yelled as he turned to point his wand at the snowman. Quickly, he created a small tornado to attack the living dungeon creature. The violent whirlwind spun into the snowman, whipping it backwards until it had splattered into an unrecognizable mess against an ice wall.

Even though the snowman's shape had utterly been destroyed by Judal's tornado, it still hadn't been defeated. Slowly, the pieces of snow were rolling back together, steadily reconstructing itself back into its original form.

Majella made her way back to Judal. "I don't understand how a simple sword would have defeated that thing…" she murmured.

The dark magi frowned. "It wouldn't have. You would have only been wasting your time."

Majella turned and glanced back at the snowman. "Maybe we should leave before that thing puts itself back together and comes after us again."

Judal shrugged. "Whatever."

They started walking down a long hallway. At the very end of the ice corridor were large doors made entirely out of ice as well. As they approached the door, a flash of light went on and shined on the two. The air started to warm up and the ice on the door started to melt rapidly.

Judal glanced at Majella as they waited for the last pieces of the hard ice to fall off. For the first time he noticed that her hair wasn't really pure black. It was actually a heavy dark blue. It had only been the lighting that had made Majella's hair seem black. Judal didn't say anything about it; she probably knew about it already.

As the last of the ice on the door slid away and melted into nothing more than a puddle of water, Majella reached out and opened the door. As she pushed the large door open, a burst of extremely cold air blew out and assaulted their senses.

Everything about the dungeon was fascinating. Even the creatures in there were interesting. Most of them didn't bother the two but some tried to attack them with vicious claws and bared teeth, though that didn't work out very well for the creatures in the end.

Majella raised her sword and used it to defend herself while Judal summoned a borg to block all the creatures for him. As the borg did all the work, Judal simply stood back and relaxed.

But Majella refused to take the easy way. She believed that some things shouldn't just be handed to her that easily. She wanted to achieve things with hard work, just like the saying 'Hard work pays off'.

After disposing and taking care of the attacking creatures, Majella and Judal moved on to another set of doors. Majella opened these and they entered a large cavern with what looked to be a beautiful ice palace inside. The ever-changing, shifting colors were nothing but magnificent.

Majella and Judal walked forwards and they were about halfway to the middle of the cavern when a volley of ice shards flew through the air, aimed straight at them. Both of them dodged and the shards embedded uselessly onto the ground, missing their targets.

"Why have you come to my dungeon…?" a male's voice echoed around the room. His voice bounced off the ice walls and floated around in the air giving the impression that he was everywhere at once.

Majella looked around but saw nobody. Judal looked straight ahead as he already knew where the voice was coming from. Majella noticed his unwavering gaze so she looked straight ahead as well.

Then she saw the ice near the middle was starting to melt as a sea of white mist danced around it.

"Looks like the djinn is finally making its appearance," Judal said.

Then from the ice emerged a beautiful male djinn. He stepped out of the cold mist elegantly and looked at them.

"Greetings Magi," the djinn bowed his head towards Judal.

"Yeah, yeah," Judal muttered in irritation. "Let's skip the formality."

"My name is Sitri. I am the ice and water wielding djinn of this dungeon, created from clarity and calamity. I, hereby, acknowledge that you have cleared this dungeon."

"Wait! Water?" Majella asked bewildered.

The djinn smiled at her. "Ice is just frozen water."

"Let's get this over with. Now that you've stated that we've cleared this dungeon, we'll leave." It was clear that Judal was impatient with all the talk.

The djinn ignored the rude magi and said to Majella, "I never expected a girl to clear this but congratulations." Then his form started to lose its solidness and Sitri went inside Majella's scimitars, becoming her djinn.

I might have made a few mistakes in this chapter such as: "scimitars" that sword might be called "dual scimitars". I'm not 100% sure, sorry. And when her dungeon appeared, i estimate around 5-7 years.

Sorry, that Majella didn't get training done with Judal. I tried writing it but for some reason I wasn't satisfied with it so moved on. Hope you like it.~

Reviews

Hades' Neko - Thats what I was going for. Love triangle. Though its up to the readers who they want Majella to be with since I cant choose ^-^

Jemstone6259 - Swords are very dangerous.

ShinigamiKin - Your right, Hakuryuu is just too cute and kind (: