Dark Friend: Part Five

     "Maybe, but we'll fight you, anyway!" Aillira replied.

     "You DO realize that you cannot beat me, do you not?" Yollinda said smugly.

     "Perhaps," Cindon answered.

     Yollinda closed her eyes, and began to chuckle. "Well, then... I do hope that you enjoy pain!" Yollinda thrust her arm toward Aillira and a purple blast of energy shot at the Faerie.

     Aillira blocked the attack with her sword, then gave Yollinda an unimpressed look. "You'll have to do much better than that," Aillira sighed.

     "Alright, if you insist..." Yollinda started emanating a purple light and floated slowly into the air. She brought her hands to her front and a deep purple orb formed in-between them. It came to be almost as wide as the hallway and as tall as it was wide.

     Yollinda opened her eyes, which seemed to flash briefly to a deep purple color, then back to sunny yellow. She released the orb and it flew at the wide-eyed group in front of her.

     "Whoa!" Aillira yelped. She tried her best to block or dodge the attack, but her effort was useless. Her, Cindon and Kiro were stunned and shot backwards to the floor by the huge orb.

     Yollinda chuckled. "Did you truly believe that you could defeat me? Unfortunately for you, I think not..."

     Kiro struggled to move; the orb had rendered him nearly to paralysis. "Yollinda... what is... up with you?"

     "Foolish Mynci... do you not realize? The Yollinda you knew is gone. Gone, never to return," Yollinda explained. "Now... you three shall come with me."

     Yollinda lifted up Aillira, Cindon and Kiro as if with telepathy and flung them over her head. Then with a smug smile, she dragged them helplessly up the stairs and down the hall...

     * * * * *

     "Did you hear that?" Dina yelped. "Sounds like Aillira, Cindon and Kiro are in trouble!"

     "Dina, we can't go back!" Wanda exclaimed. "You saw how weird Yollinda was acting. She could do terrible things to you!"

     "But what if--"

     "They'll be fine! Come on! We gotta run!" Wanda yelped.

     Dina looked behind her with a worried look an her face, but continued running after Wanda. "I hope you're right..."

     Wanda opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't come up with anything to say. There was a moment of silence between Dina and Wanda as they continued running.

     Suddenly, Dina said something. "I hope that mama's okay..."

     "Oh, Laura!" Wanda's eyes widened. "I haven't seen her for a while... I hope she's okay, too..."

     Dina sighed, and looked behind herself. She saw nothing, and just slowly turned her head back around and continued running.

     * * * * *

     "Oof!" muttered Aillira, as she, Cindon and Kiro were thrown to the ground.

     "These three were trying to interfere..." Yollinda said.

     "It's a good thing you brought them here," said a voice, when Kiro looked up he found out it was the Princess'. "No one can interfere."

     Aillira glared at Rose. "So... you're Princess Rose, huh?"

     Princess Rose nodded. "That's right."

     "Already, I detest you," Cindon commented.

     The Princess chuckled, and then turned to Yollinda. "You... go find the Indera. She is who we want."

     Yollinda nodded. "Yes, dear Princess." and then she left the room.

     Kiro watched with his jaw dropped. "H-how do you get Yollinda to do what you want?"

     Rose paused. "Well, they say that Aishas are talented with magic..." she said in a strange tone.

     There was a moment of awkward silence. Then Cindon asked, "What do you intend to do with us?"

     * * * * *

     Yollinda ran into the Royal Library and began to look around. She smiled and went to one of the walls. She moved her paw gently across the wall, and then suddenly pushed one of the bricks harshly. The room began to shake, and a door opened nearby.

     With a smile, Yollinda went to the door. She walked through it and she was taken to a dark tunnel. She continued walking straight, until two nearby torches lit up. Then two more, farther in the distance. Then two more, even farther in the distance. Then, finally, two that were placed on either side of a pedestal lit up.

     In between the torches on the pedestal, there was another pedestal, which had a finely decorated dagger on the top. Yollinda approached the dagger with a smug smile on her face. When she was standing right in front of the dagger's pedestal, she reached out her paw slowly toward the dagger. Then she suddenly clasped her fingers around the hilt tightly, as if she was to never let go.

     A grin appeared on the Kougra's face. "This is going to be marvelous..."

     * * * * *

     "This way!" Wanda called to Dina. Dina followed Wanda around a corner and down a hall.

     "Why are we even still running?" Dina wondered. "Yollinda's not chasing us, and I haven't seen her since we were with Kiro, Aillira and Cindon."

     Wanda slowed down, then came to a stop. "You know... you're right."

     Dina sighed, and came up next to Wanda. They sat down on the floor and caught their breath.

     "This is not how I wanted to spend my day..." Wanda commented. She looked around, taking in her surroundings. The castle walls were ornamented with all kinds of paintings and tapestries; it was really an amazing place. But knowing about Princess Rose and the Royal Dagger and everything, Wanda was not amazed or excited about being there.

     "I wonder where everyone else is...?" Dina thought aloud.

     "Yeah, me too..." Wanda nodded.

     Then Dina and Wanda suddenly jumped when they heard someone approaching. Their hearts started pounding and their minds started racing, just as the person turned the corner...

     "Bi-nuh! Wah-nuh! I'b been looking all o-buh foh you!" the person turned out to be Laura, still in Dina's body.

     "Laura!" Wanda sighed with relief. "We were just wondering where you were!"

     "Weh, I wuh guh-- uh-- beh!" Laura groaned. "Bi-nuh, you really need do ged some moh deef!"

     Dina raised an eyebrow and said, "I'll work on it..." she then bent down and picked up Laura. She then put her finger on Laura's forehead, and they both closed their eyes. When they opened them again, Dina was back to being a baby Xweetok and Laura was back to being a striped Xweetok.

     Laura smiled a huge smile, "Ah! That is SO much better!"

     "What, don't you like being a baby Xweetok?" Wanda asked.

     "Oh, it's... just so awkward, that's all," Laura replied.

     "But it makes you YOUNG again!" Wanda giggled.

     Laura sighed, and shook her head. "Whatever. So whatever happened to Kiro, Cindon and that Faerie... Lira?"

     "Her name's Aillira," Wanda corrected Laura, "and I don't know where they went... last we saw them, they--"

     Wanda was interrupted by an explosion. Laura, Wanda and Dina turned their heads to see Yollinda. Their eyes widened remarkably when they realized that Yollinda had the Royal Dagger in her hand.

     Yollinda smirked. "It looks like once again the Songdream is trying to keep me from the Indera, but this time I will not fail. Hand her over, or feel my wrath!"

     * * * * *

     "Is this really necessary?" Kiro asked, as the Princess tied him to a chair.

     "We don't want you escaping now, do we?" Rose replied with a smirk.

     "You certifiable barbarian!" Cindon flailed around, also bound to a chair by ropes. "Untether us posthaste! You cannot detain us here in perpetuity!"

     "Shut up, you," Rose glared at Cindon. "I'm not going to keep you here forever, just until the Indera is disposed of."

     "What?!" Aillira yelped. "How can you even say that so carelessly?!"

     "Do you even fully understand who the Indera is?" Rose asked. "She was born to overthrow us Daggerking descendants... if she does that, Vladimyr Village will no longer have a leader and will fall into complete chaos. No one will know what to do or how to act... we don't want that happening, do we?"

     Kiro shook his head. "Fall into chaos? Don't be crazy... in fact, if the Daggerkings left, there'd probably be a big cele--"

     Princess Rose slapped Kiro. "Be quiet, you!"

     "You... you are so cruel!" Aillira yelped.

     Rose smirked. "I'll do whatever I have to... until the Indera is destroyed."

     Cindon, Aillira and Kiro glared spitefully at Rose as they sat helplessly bound to chairs. In their minds, they hoped that, at least, Dina would be okay.

     * * * * *

     "Okay... NOW we have Yollinda chasing us, so NOW is a very good time to run!!" Wanda exclaimed, as her and Laura ran quickly down the castle halls. Dina tightly held on to Laura's arm as Yollinda was close behind them.

     "It is useless to flee!" Yollinda shouted, as she shot a purple energy blast at Dina, Laura and Wanda.

     "Ack!" Laura dragged Wanda and Dina hastily around a corner as the purple blast hit the back wall.

     "I don't like this one bit!!" Wanda yelped.

     "None of us do!!" Laura replied. "Who would?"

     The Songdream family kept running through halls and turning corners with Yollinda hot on their tails. Eventually, they found themselves dashing into a room and attempting to hide from Yollinda.

     "We... should be... safe in here... for a while," Wanda panted heavily.

     Laura looked up, and then realized which room they were in. "Wow... is this the Royal Treasury?"

     Wanda looked around, there were mountains of Neopoints all over the room, and hardly any place to walk. "Wow... there's enough Neopoints in here to buy at least a square mile of wallpaper."

     "We're not getting new wallpaper," Laura rolled her eyes, "but you're right. Seeing this makes me hate the inspections even more..."

     "You can run, Indera, but you cannot hide!" Yollinda could be heard through the door, stomping through the halls just outside.

     "We can't let her find us!" Wanda whispered.

     "Hide, quick!" Laura whispered back, and she started burying herself and Dina in Neopoints.

     Wanda nodded, and hid herself behind a Neopoint pile. She dug into the Neopoints a bit, and buried herself in them. It was just then that the door flung open, Yollinda on the other side.

     "Wherever you are, I will find you, and it will be the end of the Indera for certain!" Yollinda exclaimed.

     Laura bit her lip, Wanda shut her eyes. Neither wanted to be spotted, and both knew the consequences. They just hid themselves as much as possible and hoped that, perhaps, Yollinda wouldn't be able to find them.

To be continued...