Her Spirit's Eyes: Part Two

      "Be quiet, little... huh??" Laura noticed that Dina's eyes had changed colors, again. This time from yellow-green to brown.

      "Wheh my?" the baby wondered. "Wha habeh do Wah-nuh?"

      "This is getting stranger and stranger..." Laura sighed.

      Then Laura noticed the blue Bori, again. Running from the orphanage, again. She suddenly came to a screeching halt when she noticed Laura.

      "Dina!" Laura shouted to the Bori. "Is that you??"

      "Huh? Dina?" The Bori was confused. "Laura, I'm not your baby, if that's what you're wondering."

      "Then who's this?" Laura pointed to the baby Xweetok in the stroller.

      "Beh woo ah, Wah-nuh!" it called. "Wha go non?!"

      "Wha...?" The Bori was confused. "She doesn't usually talk like that, does she?"

      "That's my point." Laura sighed. "Weird things have been going on with Dina lately, and it seems you're behind it somehow!"

      "What?? No!!" she called. "I didn't do anything! I was just standing there, talking to you, and then suddenly..." the Bori paused, "...wait! Come with me, I think I might know where she is!"

     * * * * *

      The orphans crowded around the green Elephante, who looked around as if he was totally clueless of what was going on.

      "Are you okay?" a green Kacheek wondered.

      "What's going on?" a red Shoyru asked. "And why are your eyes suddenly blue??"

      "Um..." the Elephante looked around at the orphans. "...I go get blue Bori!"

      "Wait! Where are you going?" a Red Wocky exclaimed as the green Elephante ran out the orphanage door.

      The green Elephante ignored the Wocky and ran away from the orphanage as Laura, the Bori, and the Dina-lookalike ran towards it. Eventually they came almost crashing into each other, and they all came to a screeching halt.

      "Wha???" The baby Xweetok's eyes widened at the sight of the Elephante.

      "There you are!" the Bori exclaimed to the Elephante. "You're Dina, aren't you?"

      "What??" Laura yelped. "Look, if there's one thing I do know, it's that there is NO way that that Elephante is my--"

      "Um..." the Elephante sighed, "yeah."

      "Wha... geh me baah do noh-moh!!" the baby Xweetok shouted at the Elephante.

      The Elephante sighed, and touched the baby Xweetok on the forehead. They closed their eyes. And when they re-opened them, the Elephante's eyes were back to brown and Dina's eyes were once again indigo.

      The Elephante grinned. "That's MUCH better," he said. "Now, Wanda, tell us what's going on!"

      "Wanda?" Laura asked the Bori. "Is that your name?"

      "Yeah, that's my name." She sighed and rolled her eyes. "...and I can't tell you what's going on because I'm not completely sure."

      "Well, tell us what you ARE sure about, then!" the Elephante shouted.

      "Ardon..." Wanda said to the Elephante. Then she sighed. "I remember Laura calling to me and she was talking. Then I remember Dina touching me, and then there was this strange feeling, and I suddenly was a baby Xweetok sitting in Dina's stroller."

      "What??" Laura and Ardon - the Elephante - said in unison.

      "Well, then we were heading to the orphanage, and then, poof!" Wanda explained. "I was suddenly back in the orphanage, as a blue Bori, standing in front of Ardon, and I ran away. Then I met up with Laura again and she started going on about weird things happening, and then I brought up going back to the orphanage and then you know the rest."

      "I remember seeing Dina's eyes change colors twice..." Laura added.

      "Hey, now that we're all telling our stories," Ardon said, "I remember just minding my own business, when I heard a crash! So then I went to the next room and saw a lamp crashed on the floor! Then I was told that Wanda broke the lamp, and I saw that Wanda was all mad and that she had a bag, and then she yelled some stuff and ran out the door. So then I went and followed her.

      "When I finally found where she went, she was acting all weird, and then I brought her back to the orphanage. I was talking to her and then the next thing I remember is her touching me and I was suddenly that baby Xweetok sitting in the stroller."

      "Weird," Wanda said. "It's kinda like my story..."

      Ardon scowled. "Hey, I'm not done yet!" Ardon cleared his throat and continued, "...then I remember being pushed in the stroller for a while, and then I saw Wanda running towards us. I remember us stopping and talking for a while, then heading to the orphanage. Then I saw myself, with blue eyes by the way, and then I touched me and then things were normal, again." He took a deep breath. "And for the rest of the story, you were there, so you don't really need to hear it."

      "Yeah," Laura chuckled briefly, "but what I want to know is; what's with all this becoming the baby in the stroller, thing?? I'm so confused..."

      "Well, this may sound insane," Wanda said, "but I think Dina might have been doing it."

      "What, you mean that little Xweetok baby?" Ardon wondered.

      "Yeah!" Wanda replied. "Just before I turned into a baby Xweetok, Dina touched me. Remember?"

      "Oh, yeah!" Ardon answered. "And each time it happened again, someone touched someone else."

      Laura looked at Dina, her eyes were indigo, just like they should have been. "I wonder..." she started, "...if the changing of eye color has anything to do with anything?"

      "Yeah, now that you mention it..." Ardon thought aloud, "I remember that Wanda's eyes were all blue when she was acting all dumb."

      Wanda shot Ardon a brief, annoyed glance, then sighed and said, "Yeah, your eyes were also indigo for a while, Ardon..."

      Laura looked down at Dina with a strange look on her face. "You know, I think we've been on our walk long enough."

      Ardon and Wanda looked at Laura with confusion as she turned around and slowly pushed the blue stroller back to her little home.

     * * * * *

      The sparkly, jeweled, Uni-drawn carriage had just parked in front of the town's castle. Princess Rose stepped out of the wagon and she walked up to the drawbridge. She gave a nod to the two Shoyru guards by the door, and they nodded back. They then stepped aside and the door opened for Princess Rose to go through. She went through the door, and the Shoyru guards closed the door behind her. Then a male Royal Lupe, the King of Vladimyr village, King Kantun, came towards her, his orange eyes had a concerned look in them.

      "Rose," he started, "you're back awfully early; what happened to the inspections?"

      "Oh! Gee..." Rose replied, feeling slightly embarrassed, "I must have been in such deep thought that I completely forgot."

      "Well, I guess it's not that great a deal." said the King with a nod. "You'll just have to do them again, tomorrow."

      Rose nodded. "Yes, I will do that." She took a deep breath. "If you need me, I am going to be in my room."

      The Princess marched up the long, red-carpeted stairs and went down a long hallway to her huge, purple room. She had a huge canopy bed and a very large dresser, next to an even larger walk-in closet. She also had a finely decorated desk, and even her own bathroom.

      She threw herself backwards onto her bed, her head landing on one of her three finely decorated and extremely expensive pillows. All she could think about on that warm, spring afternoon was the little baby Xweetok that she had encountered and her glittering indigo eyes.

      "Why can't I get my mind of that baby Xweetok?!" she moaned. "I am being driven insane!!"

      She sat up and saw a book sitting on her desk. It was just one of those normal story books, but it gave her an idea. She got back off of her bed, went out of her room and walked down the long, carpeted halls to the Royal Library. She looked at the tall, wide shelves that were stuffed full of books, and went to one of them, grabbing a copy of an old, dusty book, with the title, "The Prophecy of the Indera." She opened it up, flipping randomly through the pages.

      "There has got to be at least one thing worth reading in this book..." Rose said to herself. "Now, let's see..."

      Rose's fingers flipped madly through the old, slightly torn pages of the thick book, but stopped dead at one page. The Princess saw three words that caught her eye: "Defeat the Indera." She grinned, and read the whole paragraph, pacing back and forth across the room with slight anticipation.

      "Although it may seem impossible, there is a way to defeat the Indera. There is but one weapon that can truly cease its spirit's existence. It is a powerful, mystical weapon that has been kept safe in the Royal Castle for several generations, saved for the coming of the Indera. It has been called the Royal Dagger, and it hides in the castle, where it rests until the time of the Indera shall come..."

      Rose smirked thoughtfully. "All these years and I didn't even know there was such a thing as the Royal Dagger. Much less that it was hidden in the castle!" she said. "But in this huge castle, it's almost impossible to find anything, even when it's not hidden! How would I even have the slightest idea where to start? I'd never find it, no matter how hard I try!"

      She leaned onto the wall with slight disappointment, and felt one of the bricks shift. Then she heard the sound of bricks scraping against other bricks, as if they were moving. She turned her head, and saw that there was a door opening nearby, it appeared to lead into some kind of secret passageway. The door moved in a slow, rumbly fashion that made the bookshelves wobble madly, some books even fell off of the shelves.

      Rose just stared at the door with wide eyes, as if she wasn't completely sure what was going on. After a while, the rumbling had finally stopped and there was a long, dark tunnel in the wall. The Princess carefully set the book down on a desk and walked absent-mindedly into the tunnel.

      It was really hard to see in the tunnel, so Princess Rose had to stay close to the walls, touching them as she went down her path. She was caught by surprise when the wall suddenly came to a sharp corner that turned away from her. She stumbled away from the wall, worried that she would get completely lost.

      But her worries didn't last very long, as two torches that were aligned evenly, yet spread somewhat far apart suddenly turned on, illuminating some of the room. Then two more turned on; the torches were aligned in a perfect square. Then she saw two more turn on, still aligned nicely with the other two, but each time two more torches lit up, they were farther into the darkness of the tunnel, as if they were lighting a path. Finally, two torches that were placed on a pedestal, on opposite sides, lit up. Princess Rose was awe-struck, as she saw that in-between the two torches on the pedestal was a dagger, the tip of the blade resting in a pedestal that was on the other pedestal. It seemed to be jeweled with fine, ancient rubies. It had a certain glow to it, that made it feel magical. She smiled, realizing that it must be the Royal Dagger that was mentioned in the book.

      "Wow," she said with a smirk, "that was easier than I imagined."

To be continued...