Awakening - Part Two

     "Um, King Skarl, sir, I really can't-" but Skarl was already booming out.

     "Take the girl to the royal chambers and have her cleaned off! Then give her some new clothes! After that, prepare the forty course dinner!" The servants scrambled to attention and ran out of the room, pulling the reluctant Hiterkuna behind.

     "But you don't understand!" she shouted to no avail, "I already have a home! I'm perfectly protected!" Kayla ran up to her side. "Why doesn't he listen?!" she demanded.

     Kayla shrugged and said, "You're not exactly ugly, if you catch my drift." Hiterkuna, being only six, didn't really understand that.

     ~*~

     A long, slow moan woke me from my sleep. I was lying on a hard, cold stone floor, and Mesbeto was a cell away from me. I pushed myself to a sitting position and moaned, clutching my head. What happened? Then I remembered the sneaking into the castle, trying to escape, and now we were here.

     I pulled at the iron shackles and cursed under my breath; there was no breaking them. I stood up and slammed into the wall, hoping to wake my brother up.

     "Mesbeto!" I shouted through the walls. I was met with another groan and Mesbeto was heard through the walls.

     "Dude, what happened..." he muttered to himself.

     "We're in the dungeons, Mesbeto," I called back to him. Mesbeto cursed in his surfer-slang and said, "How do they expect us to get outta this popsicle stand?" I rolled my eyes and retorted, "They don't."

     Right now, I wished that I had the ability of fire. I yanked at the shackles but they showed not sign of weakening. If Mesbeto was doing the same on the other side of the wall, I couldn't hear it. I couldn't hear anything coming from my brother's cell, except the slow breathing coming from his thinking.

     I felt a strange power seize me. Whatever it was, it was desperately trying to get hold of me and was succeeding. I heard a strange, powerful but gentle voice in my head.

     I am MirrorEyes...the power had completely seized me, and I felt helpless to do anything about it. The unexpected power caught hold of me and shot power through my arms. I broke the shackles with ease. I looked at my paws and gaped.

     A strange power had been inside my paws...whatever power it was, it was gone now. It was scary, but I had more important matters to think of. I felt the power seize me once again, and I fought to harness it. Something inside me was trying to escape, and I wasn't going to let it.

     I concentrated all my energy and ran toward the door. Instead of blowing through the other side, like I had intended, I melted through it like a ghost. This time I wasn't the only one gaping at myself. Mesbeto, who had been trying to cut his chains on the bars, stared up at me like I was some sort of god.

     "Dude...THAT WAS AWESOME! You are totally going to have the chicks chasing you after I-" before he could babble more, I covered his mouth.

     "First," I whispered, "You won't tell anyone. I had no idea how to do that. Second, stop shouting. We don't want the whole castle after us. Come on, we need to find Hiterkuna." Mesbeto nodded and I released him. I melted through the door and undid the lock, letting him out. We silently walked up the stairs. Mesbeto whispered after me, "It's not fair! You get totally kookis-maxis stuff and I don't!"

     I didn't answer. Whatever power growing inside me was getting scary, and I didn't want to deal with it right now. I heard the voice in my head again...

     You've done well so far...

     ~*~

     Hiterkuna paced around in her new bed chambers. Things were getting extremely complicated for her. She was now a princess in the most famous medieval palace of all, and her family was searching for her. If she told the king this, he would be severely disappointed.

     But more things than that were bothering her. First of all, there was Victoria. Lady Victoria was a young teen princess Zafara, and Hiterkuna had thought at first that Victoria disliked her. But she was wrong. The royal Zafara loathed Hiterkuna with a passion beyond comparison. Hiterkuna had been walking through the halls, and Victoria had approached.

     "Hello...Princess Hiterkuna. I'm Victoria."

     Hiterkuna smiled in welcome and said, "Hi."

     "My father is Lord Tathern, from the Royal Court," Victoria bragged on. Hiterkuna fidgeted; she wasn't very comfortable with the boasting.

     "I hear you're from," Victoria sniffed, "the outside. You had a nice, common family, did you not?"

     The Christmas Zafara was officially annoyed by now. Her family wasn't exactly common. Yubioke had a chainsaw for a petpet and attacked Boris. Mesbeto was a complete surfer-dude. And Kyradose...sometimes he was just strange. Hiterkuna didn't mean to be rude, but her brother did have a tendency to act somewhat strange. Every once in a while he would completely abandon his real attitude and start acting all serious. He never had been able to explain the incident when she had been trapped under a tree, and he had simply picked the massive oak up.

     "Look, kid," Victoria snapped, all the sweet had been drained from her voice. "Don't try and take my power. I'm extremely close to what I want, and you're not taking it from me." Hiterkuna was confused; politics had never been her suit.

     "What is it you want?" she asked. Victoria didn't answer for a while, but when she did, her upper lip curled into a sneer.

     "The crown, girl," she said simply, "I was the one lined up for that crown, and you've gone and taken it. Once my father hears about it..."

     Hiterkuna had never really taken this conversation seriously. She had just suspected common jealousy, but she was wrong. Victoria was far more than jealous. She was filled with complete hate for the young Zafara, and she was about to make that hate known. The next day, Hiterkuna met the old nanny, Gizial.

     At seeing Gizial on first sight, Hiterkuna adored the old Usul. Gizial would tell her stories for hours on end without stopping and she would patiently answer any questions Hiterkuna asked. One of these questions had to do with Victoria.

     "Why is she so sour?" Hiterkuna asked. Gizial knew who she was talking about and answered, "Victoria is troubled."

     "But why does she want the crown?" Hiterkuna persisted. "It's just a piece of metal, nothing more." Gizial chuckled.

     "I wish we were all like you, Hiterkuna," she said, "None of us would care about some silly crown. No, the crown means the ultimate ruler of Meridell. If any pet were to steal that crown, King Skarl would be in a pickle."

     "How could he fit inside a pickle?" she asked. "He's far too chubby for that." Gizial laughed loudly, something she hadn't done in a long time. Her face hardened and she said,

     "Hiterkuna, I don't want you to trust Victoria and her father. If they disappear, than you must too, understand?" Hiterkuna nodded obediently. Gizial nodded and slumped back into her chair, sighing.

     "Would you like me to sing you a song my nanny sang me?" she asked. Hiterkuna nodded again, eyes wide. Gizial chuckled and began her song.

     "First, a crown meant nothing to us,

     Just to grace a royal's head,

     A simple sign of ownership was it,

     But others misused the idea.

     They took the crown, saying it was theirs,

     And placed it on their head,

     Arose from the blackness a mighty snake,

     Filled with lies and despair.

     The serpent killed and destroyed,

     Until the mighty MirrorEyes destroyed it."

     Gizial paused in her song and wheezed heavily. "The serpent was real, Hiterkuna," she said, "And it did kill. The great MirrorEyes, a warrior beyond comparison, fought and killed it. Later after, he was killed by his best friend, Tyne of Bloody Eyes." Hiterkuna gasped and buried her face into Gizial's robe.

     "Fret not, child," she said, her voice growing wheezier, "it's all part of life. MirrorEyes was a great hero, but all heroes die." Hiterkuna looked up at her, tears in her eyes.

     "No, Gizial," she whispered, thinking the old Usul couldn't hear, "heroes never die."

     "What was that, my pet?" Gizial asked, scratching her ear.

     "Nothing," she replied quietly and walked up to her room. The old Usul rocked in her chair for a moment and thought to herself.

     "Poor child," she said quietly. "Doesn't understand the danger of life, and the truth of it all. All heroes die, it just happens."

     Hiterkuna draped herself under the covers and cried silently to herself. If all heroes died, what was the point of life for Kyradose? For Mesbeto and Yubioke? They were all heroes in Hiterkuna's mind.

     "Come and get me soon," she whispered to the darkness, snuggling deep into the mattress, "Come fast, or I might forget. I might forget you all and live in here, trapped like a bug in a jar. Kyradose, Mesbeto, Yubioke, please come get me." With that, she fell asleep.

     ~*~

     Yubioke glanced out the window again, but found nothing. The stars blinked above Meridell like tiny fires in the sky, but they revealed nothing. Yubioke, for once in her life, was worried. All of her siblings were gone, and she had only her chainsaw to comfort her. She finally gave in to temptation and slithered out the door with her chainsaw to protect her.

     Yubioke crept silently along the road until she reached a traveling caravan. She stopped at it and asked the keeper of the caravan, "Do you have any clue whether the new pets inside the palace are safe?" She had heard about assassins lately, and talking to these pets was her mistake. The Kougra leapt upon her and slashed the chainsaw out of her grasp.

     "Mordred!" she screamed, but her chainsaw was just lying in the grass. The Kougra had her pinned down, and with one quick sweep of his paw, he had the Aisha slumped out. The black Kougra handed the unconscious Aisha to a pirate Krawk, who took out a bag. Stuffing her in, he whispered to his companion, "We can't 'ave any disturbances. Lock 'er up and make sure she don't get out. This one's young and spry, not fit for killing. We'll keep 'er and train 'er, and she'll kill MirrorEyes herself." He looked up to the full moon and heard a Werelupe cry out.

     "There'll be no disturbances," he whispered to himself, "when the royal family's blood is spilt."

To be continued...