Her Spirit's Eyes: Part Six

      A thought suddenly struck Wanda's mind to look at "The Prophecy of the Indera." She slowly glanced at the words written plainly on the page in front of her:

      "...There is only 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...."

      Wanda's eyes widened, the worst thought came to her mind. If Rose had this dagger, then... uh oh.

      "Oh my gosh..." Wanda looked back up and saw Laura retreating back to her house. Laura had to know the bad news, "...wait! Laura! Hey!"

      Laura turned to face the bushes as the ever-familiar blue Bori hopped out of them. "What? Oh, it's you..." Laura sighed. "What was your name? Wendy?"

      "Wanda," Wanda replied. "And I've got something to tell you... um, you see..."

      "Look, I don't really have time..." Laura interrupted, "and shouldn't you be at the orphanage?"

      "No, no..." Wanda started.

      "You're not supposed to be at the orphanage?" Laura raised an eyebrow.

      "No... I mean... YES!" Wanda groaned. "I should be at the orphanage, but..."

      "Then why aren't you at the orphanage?"

      "I've REALLY gotta tell you something that's REALLY important!" Wanda panted in exasperation. "'Kay, I was reading this book, see, 'The Prophecy of the Indera'..." Wanda made a gesture to the book in her arms.

      "You have 'The Prophecy of the Indera'?!" Laura beamed.

      "Well, it's not really mine, see, it belongs to the orphanage..." Wanda sighed.

      "Do you know how rare that book's supposed to be?!" Laura had a huge smile on her face.

      "The book's not what's important!" Wanda groaned. "You see, I heard hooves clopping, and I looked up and saw Rose's carriage, see, so I followed her knowing something was up, and I followed her here to your house, and..." Wanda paused to take a breath, "I heard what she said about inviting you to the castle on Saturday..."

      "Oh, I get it." Laura nodded. "You want to come to the castle with me, don't you?"

      Wanda's eyes grew wide. She'd lived as an orphan for as far back as she could remember, and she knew that the castle was far better class than the cheap orphanage. She'd longed to see the castle, and now she had a chance to see it! But that wasn't what she wanted to tell Laura. She had little to no idea what to say.

      "Well..." she scratched the back of her head, "it would be nice..."

      "Okay, then. Rose DID say I could bring a friend or two, and I'm sure if it's alright with the orphanage, you could come with me." Laura said with a nod and a smile.

      "...really?" Wanda's eyes widened.

      "Sure!" Laura winked. "Now why don't you just run back to the orphanage now, and ask permission from Adam, that Elephante."

      "Um, his name's Ardon..." Wanda corrected Laura.

      "Well, whatever," Laura said. "You'd probably better hurry before they start wondering where you are."

      Laura had made a very good point. If she didn't get back to the orphanage, soon, Ardon and the other orphans would start looking for her. She ran back to the orphanage carrying "The Prophecy of the Indera," but her stomach hurt, because she hadn't told Laura the bad news about the Princess' evil intentions.

     * * * * *

      When Wanda finally got back from the orphanage, she had a smile on her face. She knocked on Laura's door, and Laura opened the door, with Dina under her left arm.

      "He said I could go!" Wanda said with a smile.

      "That's great!" Laura smiled. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to get back to house work. Little Dina here can sometimes be such a handful..." She made a gesture to the baby under her arm.

      Wanda looked at Dina's pretty, shiny indigo eyes. Her smile began to fade. If her assumption about Dina being the "Indera" character mentioned throughout the book she was reading was true, then Dina was in DEEP TROUBLE. Wanda remembered that she was going to tell Laura about this...

      "Um... Laura?" she started, just as Laura was about to close the door.

      "Yeah?" Laura asked, with a smile on her face.

      "Well... uh..." Wanda looked at the ignorant yet calm look on Laura's face. She didn't know how to break such terrible news to her, "...h-have a nice day!"

      "Heh heh, okay." Laura smiled sweetly. "Bye!"

      And the door slammed shut. Wanda bit her lower lip, once again feeling a pain in her stomach for still not telling Laura the bad news.

     * * * * *

      Time seemed to move very slowly for Princess Rose that week. She was in her room, having trouble thinking about anything but the dinner with Laura that Saturday.

      "The only thing that slows down time..." Rose sighed as she plopped onto her bed, "...anticipation."

      She opened her top drawer, dug through some clothes and pulled the Royal Dagger out from under them. She stroked its blade gently with a maleficent grin on her face.

      "This Saturday, the Indera is going to taste the steel wrath of Princess Rose Daggerking." Rose smiled smugly. "Heh heh heh... ha! ha! ha! BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA!--"

      "Princess Rose?"

      The Princess jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice of Monina, who was just outside the door.

      "What's so funny...?" Monina wondered.

      "Um, I'm... reading a book!" Rose lied, and she was glad the door was locked. "There's no need to worry about anything!"

      "O... kay. If you say so..." Rose, with her four Aisha ears, heard Monina's footsteps fade into the distance.

      "Heh heh heh..." Princess Rose was sure to keep her voice quiet this time, as she looked at her reflection in the Royal Dagger's finely polished blade.

     * * * * *

      "Oooh, Wanda's a spoiled bratty-brat!" Rorri said in a sing-song voice.

      "Yeah! You're so spoiled, you get to eat dinner with the Princess!" Harry added.

      "Oh, shut up," Wanda said, reading more of 'The Prophecy of the Indera'. "You're just jealous."

      "We're not jealous! That castle, formal, manners stuff is too bleh," Tom said.

      "Oh, yeah, like I believe you," Wanda teased.

      "Now you're bragging!" Harry said.

      "It's not my fault that Ardon let me go to the castle, but not you." Wanda continued reading.

      "Sure it is!" Rorri protested.

      "Why do you say that?" Wanda rolled her eyes.

      "'Cause you love Mr. Ardon."

      Wanda jumped out of her chair. "WHAT?!"

      "Oh, come on, it's so obvious!" Harry teased. "You're the only one in the whole orphanage that doesn't call him 'Mister'."

      "What does that have to do with anything?!" Wanda shouted. "This is baloney..." Wanda groaned as she sat back down. "Look, I am NOT in love with Ardon!"

      "There you go again!" Rorri teased.

      Harry batted his eyelashes, pretending to be Wanda. "Oh, Ardon... you're so handsome, and you have the sweetest voice..."

      "That's not true!" Wanda shouted.

      Harry ignored Wanda and continued, "...is it okay if I go to the castle? I promise I'll come back for you, sweetie-pie..."

      Tom giggled, and then made an imitation of Ardon. "Yes, of course." Tom tried just a little too hard to imitate Ardon's voice. "With eyes like yours, I'd love you to go to the castle!"

      "What?!" Wanda yelped. "That doesn't even make sense!!"

      Rorri was rolling on her back, sides hurting from laughter. But even through all her laughter, she managed to exclaim, "Ah, you love each other SO much, admit it! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

      Wanda rolled her eyes as the other orphans burst out in loud laughter. "How many rumors about me do you insane people have?"

      "Let's see..." Harry thought aloud, "there's the one about you coming from another bizarre world, the one where your dad was a mad scientist, the one about..."

      "Okay, okay!" Wanda interrupted. "I understand that you think I'm some bizarre wacko. But for crying out loud, I'm not!!"

      "Whatever you say..." Harry said, giggling.

      Tom, Rorri and Harry giggled madly, as Wanda just groaned and stormed off to another table, where she was able to continue reading.

     * * * * *

      "She invited you to the CASTLE??" asked a purple Acara, who was sitting on Laura's couch.

      "Yes, Zora," Laura answered. "It was really weird, but I think it will be nice to actually get to see the inside of the castle."

      "Man, you are so LUCKY, girl!" exclaimed Zora, the Acara.

      "What are you talking about?" Laura chuckled. "YOU got the jackpot at the Wheel of Excitement."

      "Yeah, but I don't get a free trip to the castle!" Zora replied.

      Zora was an old friend of Laura's, she always wore lots of jewelry and makeup, and she always had to wear only what was most fashionable. That was how she was, and how she always had been.

      Laura chuckled, as she picked Dina up off the floor. "Well, she said I could bring a couple of friends if I wanted to."

      Zora's eyes widened. "You're kidding!"

      "No, I'm not!" Laura said with a smile. "I'm sure it wouldn't be much of a bother if you decided to come."

      "I'd love to!!" Zora exclaimed.

      "I knew you'd say that," Laura said with a slight giggle. "She said it was at six P.M., NST. But she didn't actually say anything about transportation..."

      "Ooh!" Zora's purple eyes lit up. "Maybe she'll come pick us up in that big fancy carriage of hers! Wouldn't that be cool?!"

      "Heh, maybe." Laura nodded.

      "Ay-bee!" Dina cheered, clapping her small paws together.

      Laura and Zora laughed, as Saturday was slowly but surely getting sooner with every passing second.

     * * * * *

      "This Saturday, is it?" King Kantun asked Rose.

      "Yeah," Rose replied, "I thought it would be... nice... because she had a baby recently."

      Rose felt a little awkward, she was standing in the kitchen discussing the dinner she had planned with the King and Monina. Rose had so many ideas going through her head when she planned the dinner that she almost completely forgot to tell her father about it.

      "So it's basically a late baby shower?" Monina asked as she scrubbed a plate.

      "Not very many people have been invited to the castle for... a baby shower..." King Kantun scratched his chin. "It certainly would be... different."

      "Well... I'm okay with different," Rose said sort of succinctly.

      "Yeah," Monina added, "there hasn't been much 'different' around here, lately, and it would be a change to make dinner for a few more people." She set the plate carefully on the counter and grabbed another one from the sink. "It might be kind of, well, fun."

      Kantun was slightly puzzled at Monina's use of the word 'fun', but sighed and said, "Well, I guess we really DO need some 'different' around here..."

      The Princess smiled. "Yes... good, that's good. Well, we should be making preparations. Saturday is merely two days away!" Princess Rose turned around and started heading upstairs to her room, grumbling quietly to herself, "Two painstakingly long days away..."

      The King and Monina looked at each other. Kantun had one eyebrow raised, Monina shrugged. And Rose walked into her room, sat on her bed and flipped open "The Prophecy of the Indera" with a smug smile on her face.

To be continued...