Beneath the Starry Sky
Sinister laughter broke the night air, buildings collapsing under the deadly smoke and people screaming in the dark. She saw a dark army rising from the shadows and a blinding light coming from the sky…
"Serena" called a whisper…
Rei opened her eyes "It's starting" she stood and ran down the corridor she spotted her friend through the small window standing under a large oak tree, Rei called out to her "Lita!" Rei's voice broke Lita out of her reverie "Rei, what is it? What's wrong?" asked Lita "Gather the rest of the guardians in the high temple! It's starting"
With that Lita ran through the castle hall dodging servants and found one of the soldiers Lea, telling him to have the other guardians meet in the high temple and then ran down to the town market to find the general.
Town market…
Serena walked the cobbled street of Solaris in amazement, the sounds, the smell, the people and the dizzying colors, all new to her and she enjoyed every minute of it. She walked pass a bakery window she watched as the children stood by the window admiring the confectionary the baker put on display, their smiles warmed Serena's heart. This was nothing like Lunaris, not to say that Lunaris didn't enjoy warmth and children smiling but this, this was different. She watched the street vendors selling their trinkets, when suddenly she heard them, she turned and saw two men and young girl, just a few years younger than Serena down the alley, the men have something in their hands something that the girl was desperate to get back.
"Give it back to me" she shouted, but the men just laughed at the girl's vain attempt to catch her necklace back.
"Who's going to make me little girl" one of the men said not doubt the leader of the band, Serena just smiled a devious smile and walked down the alley to the girl,
"Give it back" she simply said as she moved to stand in front of the girl. The men laughed at her, she glared at them, a glare that made the leader of the band of men burn with intense fury, he smiled back.
"Why don't you run back into the square and mind your own business" he said to her.
"How about you give that back to her" she said in a low menacing tone.
The leader of the band just glared at her, "what could she possibly be thinking" he thought and before he could speak again it happened; she took a swing at him knocking him backwards to the floor. The other men just stared at their fallen leader, took him a minute to register what was happening, he saw the two girls running down the alley back to the square and the necklace he had taken was gone
"After them!" he shouted, off they went after the two girls.
Serena took the other girl by the hand leading her through the crowded streets dodging people in an effort to escape the three men chasing them. "Keep running" she told the girl, she took her to small store front "hide in here, don't come out until I come get you, okay?" the girl just shook her head in affirmation and Serena handed her the necklace back and took off. She ran through the crowd once again making sure that the men saw her, she found herself in the middle of the square looking up at a statue of Calisto first queen of Solaris
How appropriate she thought, but then she knew, they had her boxed in smart she thought they were coming closer now on all sides, one man tried to grab her from behind, she backhanded him away while the others charged at her, and a fight ensued everyone gathered in the square watching as the thugs and the unknown girl fought, she managed to catch the eye of a young handsome man on a white stallion staring from the distance.
Darien stared at the girl as she dodged one attack after the another impressive he thought he'd never seen a girl fight with such skill, one of the men managed to knocked her down to the floor he was about to strike when palace guard interfered and broke up the fight.
"Get them out of here men" one of the guards shouted, two of the three the men made a run for it while the other was hoisted to his feet, Serena looked on as the guards gave chase when suddenly, she heard someone clear their throat from behind her.
"Are you alright?" she heard the man ask, she turned her head to see a tall thin man with fair skin and golden eyes and head full of dark brown luscious hair he was a sight unlike anything Serena had ever seen, she was used to the pale appearance of the Lunarian nobility but this, he was fair yes but nowhere near the haunting paleness of court and his eyes seemed to burn like fire, she shook her head of such thoughts and she simply looked away into the crowd as the young man knelt beside her with his hand extended to her.
Lunarian High Temple…
"Where are they?" called Rei.
"Lita are you sure they received your message?" Lita looked on as Rei paced the length of the room.
"Look I told Lea to retrieved the other guardians, they should have been here by now just relax and give it time" Lita reassured her friend.
"Time is precisely what we may not have" called Mina from he door. "Exactly" responded Rei,
"Where are the others? I thought they might be here by now" asked Mina.
"Apparently there was some commotion from the town market" responded a voice from the corridor.
"Something about a horse running wild and rampant through the streets" It was Ami, not the strongest of the guardians in battle, but a master strategist and the smartest of them all. "Uranus will be here soon, Hotaru is with the Queen and Trista is already here" she gestures behind her to a tall woman walking down the hall the clink of her staff on the marble floor the only sound audible.
"What about Michelle?" asked Trista. "She's in Solaris with the Queen" responded Ami.
Back at the Town Market…
"You Alright?" asked the prince once again offering Serena a hand, "I'm fine, thank you" she took his hand and stood, he offered a name, not his real name but a name,
"I'm Darren" he lied he knew that telling her his real name would only cause problems for surely she was not from the capitol city or else she would recognize him immediately and without fail, but where had she come from? The prince wondered who was she? she stared at his golden eyes and said nothing.
"Do you have a name or should I make one up for you?" he quipped
"I have a name" she retorted "care to share?" he continued asking, but she continued to stare at the prince not knowing whether to walk away.
She kept staring for what seemed like forever finally breaking free when she heard children screaming as they chased each other down the stone walkway, "well thank you for your help Darren" she said as she turned and headed further down the market street, confusion rose in the prince's mind as he stared after her, questions racing through his head, questions that needed answers, he broke free of his reverie and ran after her, through the crowds until finally he caught her arm, to his surprise she turned and broke free pushing him away in one quick movement impressive, she is stronger than she looks he thought to himself "hey" she yelled, "sorry my lady I didn't mean to startle you"
"It's fine, what do you want?" she asked.
"A lot of trouble you went trough for such a small trinket" the prince managed to get out, still in awe for fair eyed maiden.
"Yeah well he shouldn't have done what he did, he was rude and…" she cut herself off and continued to walk away again how did he know about the girl and the necklace had he been watching her? She wondered
"Why should you care anyway" she retorted the amount of sass evident in her tone.
"Why shouldn't I care?" asked the prince, she turned to look at him
"So it has a heart" said the princess. The prince can only laugh at her statement
"A girl with a sense of humor, I like that" he smiled at her, she stared at him
"Why are you smiling at me like that?" she asked, "no reason" he said and she smiled back at him
"can I buy the lady a drink?" he asked
"lead the way" she said, he offered her his arm and she took it as he led her to small tavern at the end road.
Back at the Temple…
The Doors opened as Uranus and walked into the circular room "We have a serious problem!" said Uranus. "What is it?" asked Rei.
"The horse that ran amuck in the town square was Eros, and we just checked in on the princess and she is not in her chambers and no one has seen her since the queen left for Solaris" said Uranus. "Damn it, she's gone AWOL" yelled Mina
"Search the palace and the town market find her" called Amara "Take a small contingency" she called as the guardians spread out in all directions.
"Clever princess" Ami told herself,
"are you jealous" asked Mina "She outsmarted us, hell she outsmarted you"
"Not at all, I'm more impressed by the fact that she was able to get away with this right under our noses" responded Ami.
"Yeah well with this looming threat Rei keeps going on about I guess we have let a few things slip through the cracks" said Mina.
"Yes, but maybe that is the problem we've been so focused on Rei's warning and how to stop it that we're losing focus on our duties" said Ami.
In the Tavern…
"So are you ever going to tell me your name?" asked the prince as he sat across the table from her, she considered her options not wanting to compromise her identity but not wanting to lie either she gave him her childhood nickname
"Rini, my name is Rini" she told him.
"Well Rini it is a pleasure to meet a lady as lovely as you" she could hardly contain the smile forming at the corners of her lips, "the pleasure is all mine" she said the waitress arrived with their drink order she looked over at the prince and her eyes widened in recognition, the prince simply shook his head at the girl and instructed her to walk away, she did, Serena looked at the prince with a questioning look.
"What was all that about?" she asked. "it was nothing" he dismissed the question "okay here is another question for you, how did you know about the necklace?" she leaned forward while asking the question.
Mmm lets see, a good fighter, funny, and perceptive. This girl keeps getting more and more intriguing by the minute he thought. "How long have you been watching me?" she asked again.
"I saw you running with the girl in tow, I saw you hide her in the store front and I saw the necklace in your hand I can only assume it was hers and those thugs were stealing it from her" he told her.
"Oh so you're a stalker" she responded rather sarcastically
"Hardly" he said
"Oh gods the girl!" Serena said as she stood to leave
"Relax the girl is fine I saw her leave the store with some women as the guards were chasing those bastards, she's fine" he said.
"If you don't mind I'd rather find out for myself" she said,
"You don't trust me?" he asked with mocked hurtfulness
"I don't know you" she responded. He smiled but she simply fished downing her drink and walked straight for the door. Why does she keep doing that he wondered, he ran after her… she disappeared into the crowd of people he scanned for her face it took him some time but he finally found her standing on a crate next to a dress shop.
"Found you" he said from behind her, she turned startled "how did you find me?" she asked truly dumbfounded.
"I looked… you are quite amazing" he smiled at her and she smiled back, he looked out into the crowd and pointed.
"You see I told you that she was alright" she followed his hand to where he was pointing and she saw the young girl and two other women, older her mother most likely or her sister she didn't know but she looked fine she was smiling and laughing for a moment she looked Serena's way and smiled at her showing her the necklace around her neck before walking away with the two women.
"Now how about we go finish that drink?" Darien said to her snapping her out of her reverie, she looked down at him.
"Fine" she said stepping down from the crate, he moved back to get a better look at her, gray eyes seemed to dance in the street lights dark and light at the same time.
"This way" he said as he moved down the street back to the tavern.
Back in Lunaris…
"Anything?" asked Amara
"No sign of her on the palace grounds, we still have soldiers searching the market place and they haven't turned up anything yet" said Mina.
"So what now?" asked Lita
"I'll send Trista to Solaris to warn the queen, keep looking, leave no stone unturned" the guardians turned back to their search only the realization dawning on Ami as she put the pieces together
"Damn it! Wait!" she shouted after the other guardians, they all turned to look at her "it's futile she is not here"
"What do you mean?" asked Amara.
"I mean we're truly dumb to look for her here, she is not in Lunaris" said Ami, realization finally dawned on the others
"You don't think" questioned Mina "Yes I do" answered Ami "Amara…" she started but before she could finish Amara was already on to her suggestion "Rei, Lita go to Solaris and bring her home, Trista go and tell the queen, hurry"
The Solarian Palace...
In the Solarian castle, the ball went on without a hitch and no one seemed to notice the prince was gone, except for the King…
"Where is Darien?" The Kings voiced echoed from behind the other soldiers, Nephrite turned to the king and politely smiled as he told him the prince had gone out for a breath of fresh air and would be back soon just as the King was about to order his men to retrieve him a voice boomed back down from the staircase
"My Lords and Ladies may present her Majesty Queen Serenity of Lunaris", everyone in the great hall turned to look up at the fair-haired woman standing at the base of the stairs her guard not far behind her.
Queen Serenity descended the stairs into the grand ballroom King Hyperion made his way to the Queen and extended his hand, she let him walk her to the center of the ballroom
"May I have this dance my lady" he asked the Queen, she gave him a short bow, he placed a hand on the small of her back and swept her across the floor. Saturn kept a close eye on the crowd, she noticed a tall frame standing in the shadows of the balcony, a familiar shadow she knew. She made her way across to the balcony staring into Pluto's dark eyes "what are you doing here?" she asked her friend "We have a problem" she simply told her.
The music was done Queen Serenity and King Hyperion ceased to the sound of the applauding audience as it erupted from all corners of the room. The Queen looked around and saw Saturn standing by the doorway of the balcony along with Pluto the smiled crept away from her face, she excused herself from the dance floor and made her way to her guardians finally reaching them after countless partygoers stopped to greet her. She stood in front of Saturn "something is wrong? What is it?"
Saturn and Pluto just looked at each other, the Queen looked them both in the eyes "What?" she demanded.