Princess Mind-Reader: Part Six

      Victoria smiled. “Yes, we are!”

      Hungrily Deliluk climbed up the hill, and they saw the kingdom of Brightvale loom in front of them. Both of them seemed to burst with newfound energy, and they ran toward the gates. As they ran, Victoria pumped her wings to help pushing air to go faster. As the two climbed up into the castle, Victoria looked around what she had called three years ago home.

      The mud-caked dress was flying out behind Victoria. She recognized statues and paintings on the walls. Some stuff had been added, but she smiled. She twirled and continued running. Victoria recognized rooms and closets and armories and armor propped up.

      At last she arrived at the throne room. King Hagan seemed gloomy. Nobody was there except for him. Hagan was staring at a painting of Victoria, which had been painted three years ago.

      As Victoria’s paws thudded against the marble, followed by Deliluk’s, she cried out, “Father!”

      King Hagan jerked his head. “ ‘Father’?” he asked, completely confused. “I don’t know you; my daughter was a blue... Wocky.”

      Victoria smiled. “I was painted Faerie for my safety, Father.” She turned to Deliluk. “This is my friend, Deliluk. He helped me get here. I missed you. I’ve been with Kauvara for a long time.” Victoria’s smile didn’t fade. Her eyes twinkled.

      The King sighed. “I remember when you were transformed into a blue Wocky. You were so excited, I thought your eyeballs were going to pop out.”

      Laughing, she remembered the thought. Victoria had loved being a blue Wocky way better than a Skeith, like her father. She had changed.

      Hagan questioned Victoria, “And... this... Deliluk is your friend? You know about... who the assassin was. Is he the assassin?”

      Deliluk grimaced, and before Victoria could answer, he answered himself, “No, my brother is the assassin. He nearly got us both killed. We need to speak with you... alone, so there’s no distractions. There’s a reason my brother came after us.”

      King Hagan held his glare at Deliluk for a moment. “Are you sure we can trust him?”

      “With my life!” Victoria was wildly surprised at King Hagan’s tone. “He was with us a long time, trust me. Now, whether we” – She cut off as Deliluk widened his eyes.

      “They’re close,” Deliluk said and continued just as King Hagan asked, “Who?” Deliluk said, “Vira and them. Savuk is with them.” The floor underneath the three rumbled. The door started rattling hard. Deliluk shouted, “Run!”

      They all dived from where they were standing. The floor completely caved in, and the big doors of the throne room creaked as they swung open. From the hole and the doorway sprang waves of armored neopets. Victoria knew they couldn’t fight them.

      Swinging along, they managed to go for an emergency exit and nearly killed themselves running into a pillar. A lump of a bruise was rising on Deliluk’s forehead; but they didn’t bother to stop. Victoria stubbed one of her scarred paws on a chink in the floor, and she limped a couple times before running fully again.

      Yells of pursuit crashed behind them. Suits of armor fell to the floor. Victoria pushed open a door and recognized the balcony where she had been crowned Princess so many years before. She leaped off the balcony without thinking and imagined a nice, big, fluffy pillow that would soften her landing. A pillow appeared out of thin air and was resting on the ground by the time she crashed on it. It was so big, King Hagan and Deliluk fell on it as well without getting hurt.

      Easily Victoria made it disappear, so when the army jumped off and saw them running, they let out yelps as they crashed to the floor below. Brightvalians seemed to know their King was in trouble, so they gathered weapons and stood as an obstacle for the army.

      Victoria breathed, “We can’t let those neopets get hurt. Stop!!”

      The two froze, and Victoria had already stopped. She told her father, “Stay here. You don’t have the same magical powers as we do.” As Hagan began to ask what she was talking about, Victoria had already scrambled off to battle.

      She imagined a fiery, hot ball of flame and it appeared in her hand. Victoria smiled at Deliluk. “What can you do?” she asked as she threw the flame at the balcony and it exploded. Victoria allowed the chunks of rock fall only on the mind-reader army, and some of the bad army that had began to climb on the balcony crashed on the floor below.

      Deliluk expertly twisted himself as he jumped in the air and he pounded his fist on the ground. The ground shook beneath the mind-reader army and they fell in a crag. Victoria found herself competing.

      Electricity crackled as it flowed through her arm and hands. Bolts of electricity fired toward the mind-reader army, ultimately making them retreat. Victoria looked at the Shadow Usul’s eyes, which were challenging and flaring.

      Brightvalians whooped as they discovered victory. Victoria and Deliluk were sweating completely. She shook herself, and the sharp electricity disappeared. She told Deliluk, “You’re going to need to fix up the crack in the streets, you know.”

      The Shadow Usul rolled his eyes and walked to clean up the mess. King Hagan was beside Victoria, all of a sudden. She jumped.

      “So, now can you tell me what’s going on?” Hagan asked.

      Sighing, Victoria replied, “Well, Deliluk and I are technically the most powerful beings on earth, and those neopets really want to kill us ‘cause we’re powerful. The reason is, they’re like Mind-Reader Extermination Team or something, and before you ask what mind-readers are” – Victoria rolled her eyes as Hagan opened his mouth –“they are really powerful and have a connection to another mind-reader, so they read each other’s mind, technically.”

      I got the crack fixed up, Deliluk said as he burst in Victoria’s mind.

      Shut up, I’m talking, Victoria growled.

      King Hagan noticed the break. “Go on.”

      “Sorry, Deliluk was talking in my mind,” Victoria said as Deliluk hissed, Well, sorry! “Okay, anyway, I think it’s pretty much we imagine something, like if I imagine a clay pot, it’ll appear. That’s how the giant pillow, the fire ball, the electricity and the crack got wherever, whenever.”

      Are you telling your dad about –

      Victoria really, really wanted to punch Deliluk in the face. Shut up!

      Hey, don’t try to punch me –

      Completely shutting out Deliluk out of her mind, Victoria said, “So... the end, technically.” She sighed and stared off to the sky, which was turning scarlet from the setting sun. She sighed.

      “I missed the battle?!?”

      Smiling, Victoria recognized the voice. “Kauvara!” She whipped around and saw the Starry Kau standing there, her magic hat flapping in the wind. She ran up and hugged her. “I can’t believe you’re here! Yeah, you missed the battle. Some mind-reader extermination team trying to kill me. The usual.”

      “The usual,” Kauvara said, laughing. Then her expression turned serious. “You leave, I go to order more potions for destruction – the Magic Shop’s destroyed; some strange Darigan Eyrie questioning me for where you’ve gone... do you know who this guy is?”

      “I do.” Deliluk stepped up beside Victoria. “His name is Draig. He’s the leader of the Mind Ninja Organization, the organization designed to defeat mind-readers and use their powers for evil, not good. Victoria and I are the strongest mind-readers in Neopia. That’s why he’s so hungry for us. He hardly reveals himself. Now he knows he’s in big trouble, because I left the MNO–”

      Kauvara interrupted. “What’s the MNO?”

      Victoria nudged her. “Mind Ninja Organization, think, Kauv!”

      “Oh.” Kauvara ducked her head. “Sorry.”

      Deliluk sighed and rolled his eyes. “It’s okay. Now he knows he’s in big trouble, because I left the MNO and I know a lot of stuff, and I might share their biggest secret: that Draig even exists, and he’s a Master of the Mind Ninjas. Very powerful.”

      Silence answered Deliluk. Then he said, “Er – I’ll go check on the Brightvalians, make sure they’re okay.”

      As he scrambled away, Kauvara just stared. Victoria left Kauvara and went to see if the crack had been completely healed. She ran over to below the balcony, or where the balcony had been anyway. Concentrating and imagining the pieces of rock flying to their original place, it seemed as if it had never been destroyed. Only cracks dotted the surface.

      She looked toward the sky, toward the east. It looked like a storm was coming, and that would be bad. If only she could make storms leave... Victoria sighed, and sweat trickled down her face. She decided not to. Victoria was already so tired, she couldn’t probably lift even dust.

      A chunk of a building rested a few feet away from Victoria. She walked over to it and sat there. Before she knew it, she was curled up on the rock, asleep.

     ***

      “Morning, sleepyhead.”

      Drowsily Victoria opened her eyes. She was in a dimly light room. She sat straight up and hit her head on the ceiling. “Ow.” She rubbed the bruise gently. She was on a bunk bed! Victoria looked and scanned the room, and immediately recognized her old room. Stretching, she saw Deliluk sitting down on the floor.

      “Is everything good?” Victoria asked.

      Deliluk nodded. “The MNO won’t be attacking for a while.”

      Victoria sighed. All was well. They had a while to wait before they had to sweat using their powers to defeat the MNO again.

The End