Her Spirit's Eyes: Part Four

      "Let's see... what else does it say about defeating the Indera?" she thought aloud. "Hmm, blah blah blah... Royal Dagger through heart... on the Royal Dagger's pedestal?? That means I'd have to drag that little pipsqueak over here to the castle somehow..."

      *Knock knock* "Princess Rose?"

      Rose jumped at the sound of her maid knocking at the door. She quickly folded the blankets over the dagger and book, hopped off the bed and called, "It's open!"

      A pink Bruce walked into Rose's room, azure eyes meeting the Princess' gaze. The Bruce wore a lacy white apron with a big bow in the back. She also had a little lacy hat on her head; she was Princess Rose's maid servant.

      "Your father told me to tell you that you should be getting to bed about now," she explained. "Are you?"

      "Yeah, Monina," the Princess replied. "I was just about to get ready for bed."

      "Good for you." Monina the Pink Bruce nodded. "I guess you've got a big day tomorrow, doing all those inspections..." Monina said, walking closer to Rose's bed. "Anyway, I'll help you with those blankets..."

      "NO!" Princess Rose jumped in front of Monina. "I mean... heh heh... I think I'll make my own bed, tonight, okay? Heh heh, you just go along with your maidy little business, now. I can handle this!" Rose pushed the confused Monina out of her room and slammed the door, locking it.

      With a sigh, Rose walked back to her bed and folded back the covers. There was the Royal Dagger, still sitting there with a faint indigo glow. She sat back on the bed and plopped "The Prophecy of the Indera" on her lap.

      "So... where was I..." Rose thought aloud, "oh, yes. How would I get that Baby Xweetok here to the castle?..."

      The Princess sat on her bed for a few seconds, then finally thought of something. So she moved the book to one of her pillows and went to her desk. Then she pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of a drawer, and she started writing something...

     * * * * *

      "There!" shouted Wanda. "I finally finished dusting. Now I can finally get some rest!"

      "Hold on, Wanda!" said the red Wocky, with a pile of dust in his hands. "You missed a spot!"

      He dropped the pile of dust onto a desk. The desk was covered with dust again. Wanda groaned.

      "HEY!! That's cheating! I'll tell on you!!" She pointed to the Wocky in anger.

      "You can't tell on us ALL!" said the green Kacheek, also dropping a pile of dust onto a desk.

      A lot of the other pets dropped piles of dust onto desks, so that all of the desks in the room were covered with dust again. Wanda scowled intensely at the other orphans; they were always trying to get her in trouble.

      "ARRDOOON!!!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. The green Elephante came running into the room. Wanda then pointed to the other orphans accusingly. "They're dropping dust on the desks so I have to dust all over again!"

      "No we're not!" said the red Shoyru. "She never dusted them, she's just trying to make an excuse NOT to dust them!"

      "Don't believe him!" Wanda protested. "He's lying!"

      "No, SHE's lying!"

      "He's the liar!"

      "No, SHE is!"

      "Wanda!" Ardon folded his arms and scowled at Wanda. "Don't think you can fool me! Now go dust those desks!"

      "But--"

      "NO BUTS!!"

      Wanda had an angry look on her face, yet her eyes were watery. "You'll pay for this."

      She angrily dusted the desks that she felt the other orphans should have been dusting. When Ardon left the room, the other orphans laughed at her. She tried to ignore them, but felt a tear drip down her cheek. She knew that was enough. She wanted revenge. She scooped some of the dust in her hands, and walked over to the red Wocky, who was roaring in laughter.

      "You think it's so funny, huh?" she said, trying to sound mean, but she was slightly choked up. "Well, then, how about an encore?"

      Wanda threw the dust in the Wocky's face. He winced, shouting, "Hey!" but Wanda just smiled, and whispered, "You deserved that."

      The Wocky looked at Wanda with a scowl, but in a guilty corner of his heart felt sorry for her. Wanda just smiled, walked away and continued to dust, feeling slightly more victorious than she had just a few seconds ago.

     * * * * *

      Laura was walking home from the Shop Wizard's house, in deep thought.

      "So there are only five copies of that book?" she wondered aloud. "No wonder it's so rare..." She looked at Dina, who was starting to fall asleep. "I really wish I could have read that book. I'd really like to know what 'the Indera' is..."

      Laura looked up at the sky; the sun was starting to set, and some of the stars were visible higher up in the sky. She felt a little strange. Just yesterday she was just an average Xweetok mother living in a little house with a single child; now all of the sudden her life seemed so much more important... as if she had some kind of burdensome fate... or, rather, Dina did. But she still felt important, being the mother of someone who might be some prophesied, magical being that had some kind of burdensome fate...

      With tears welling up in her eyes, she tried to stop thinking about this and continued on her way home.

     * * * * *

      Early the next morning, Wanda woke up. She was having some trouble sleeping, thinking about the other orphans teasing her and Ardon yelling at her... but also, she couldn't stop thinking about Dina. That baby Xweetok she had stumbled across yesterday, and that book that just so happened to be in the library. She decided to get up, although the sun had not yet come up and it was really cold outside the blankets. She felt a slight chill course down her spine, and decided to head to the library.

      She walked down the halls past Ardon's room, inwardly surprised that he was still asleep. She surmised that she was the only one up, but still continued down the halls.

      She turned a corner into the library. Looking around, she felt mildly glad that there was no dust. Then she turned to the bookshelf that had "The Prophecy of the Indera" on it. She had this huge urge to go and flip through the pages, maybe read the whole book. It was strange, as if something was calling to her... whispering in her ear... she had to read this book. With a nod, she pulled the book off the shelf, went and carefully set it on a table, sat in a chair and flipped the big book open. She started at page one, and began to read it, page by page, word by word, all the way through.

     * * * * *

      About two hours later, Ardon's alarm clock went off. He sat up with a stretch, and looked out the window. The sun had barely come up past the horizon; it was exactly seven o' clock NST. He climbed out from under the sheets, and slipped on his slippers. He stumbled towards the kitchen, but paused, when he heard a voice coming from the library. Confused, he waddled into it, and saw a drowsy Wanda at the desk, a book plopped open in front of her. She was reading the book quietly aloud to herself, nodding off as she did so.

      "'...dethrone the Crown the Indera shall, and..." she said with a yawn, "'...free the people from...' ...from..." Wanda's head fell into the opened book in front of her, and she began to snore. Ardon walked over to her with confusion, wondering what she was doing in the library.

      "Wanda...?" Ardon nudged the tired Bori's shoulder, causing her to suddenly jerk awake.

      "Huh?? Wha?? Oh, hi, Ardon," Wanda exclaimed, her heavy eyelids barely able to stay up.

      "What are you doing up so early?" Ardon asked.

      "Oh, I..." Wanda looked down at 'The Prophecy of the Indera.' "...couldn't sleep."

      "But why did you come here, to the library, of all places?" Ardon decided to take the seat next to Wanda, his still tired legs having trouble supporting his weight.

      "I decided that since I couldn't sleep, I'd at least spend the time reading a good book," she said, making a slight gesture towards the book on the table. "I've been reading it since about five."

      Ardon's eyes widened; even though Wanda had been reading the book for two hours, she wasn't even an eighth of the way through it. "Kind of a big book to plow through, isn't it?"

      "Yeah," Wanda admitted, covering her mouth as she yawned, "I keep telling myself to stop and take a break, but it's just so interesting, I..."

      The green Elephante put his hand on Wanda's shoulder. "Look, why don't you just find a bookmark or something, and read it some time when you're not going to fall asleep on it."

      "I guess you're right..." Wanda lazily pulled herself off of the chair, and went to get a bookmark from the desk at the front of the room. Ardon just shook his head with slight confusion.

      "Girls..." he muttered to himself, "...they're so weird."

      Wanda returned with a yellow bookmark that looked like a ruler; it also had bright blue words written on it, saying, "Reading Rules!" She put the bookmark carefully in-between the opened pages of the book and closed the book. She then picked up the book, struggling because of her groggy condition and the book's heavy weight, and took it back to the shelf she found it on. She carefully pushed the book between two other books, back where it was when she took it off the shelf.

      She sighed and yawned at the same time, and then exclaimed drowsily, "I guess I'll at least go sit on my bed..."

      Ardon watched the sleepy Blue Bori shamble out of the library with a strange mix of feelings, which Wanda seemed to be good at making one feel. After Wanda was gone, Ardon sat there for a few silent, thoughtful seconds, and then he finally stood up with a sigh and drowsily ambled off to the kitchen.

To be continued...