Her Spirit's Eyes: Part One

      The striped Xweetok's name was Laura. She was the mother of the baby she had in her arms, Dina. Laura loved Dina very much, and Dina loved her back.

      Laura gave Dina a gentle squeeze. "You are a very special baby. You are MY baby. I will love you forever, for always..."

      Dina looked Laura straight in the eyes. Dina's eyes were indigo, with a hint of violet. They shimmered in the sunlight, and sparkled under moonlight. It was kind of strange, really. Laura had no idea why they did that.

      Dina smiled a one-toothed smile at her mom. "Ma-ma!"

      Laura smiled back. "That's right, I'm your mama!"

      Then there was a knock at the door that made Laura jump out of her skin. She carefully set Dina back onto the ground and walked over to the door to answer it. To her surprise, a tall, female, Royal Aisha was at her door.

      "P-Princess Rose!" Laura jumped. "I'm so honored to have you here! I--"

      "Cut the chit-chat," the Princess scoffed. "I'm just here for the semiannual inspection."

      In Vladimyr village, a little town near Neopia Central that Laura lived in, it was a tradition for the town's Princess, currently Princess Rose Daggerking, to inspect each house every six months. She would check to see if there was anything sharp, dangerous, or just plain distasteful in the house and would charge them a small fee for each thing she found. Laura found it quite infringing, but she knew that there was nothing she could do about it.

      "Now let me see," Princess Rose pondered. "Is there anything here that I should... huh?" The Princess looked down and noticed little Dina tugging at her dress.

      "Pweh-eh Reh?"

      "Well, I'll be!" the Princess said, bending down and picking up little Dina. "I don't believe I've ever seen this little one here, before."

      "Th-that's my daughter, Dina," Laura said, timidly.

      "Well, is she not just a doll..." Rose looked at Dina, admiring her cute, babyish appearance.

      Rose contemplated the confused child, staring right into Dina's coruscating indigo eyes. The Princess gasped, and narrowed her eyes.

      "She's..." she muttered, "the Indera..."

      "Wh-what?" Laura wondered.

      Princess Rose snapped out of her solemn, thoughtful state. "Nothing! I..." She handed Dina to Laura. "I must leave now. Ta-ta!"

      "B-but what about the inspection?" Laura asked. But Princess Rose obviously wasn't listening, as she ran out the door.

      Laura stared at the door for several seconds of awkward silence when Dina finally broke in with a curious, "Eh?"

      "That was... strange," Laura admitted. "Hah! But at least now we don't have to go through the inspection!" Laura whirled Dina in the air, laughing.

     * * * * *

      Princess Rose was riding home in her extremely beautiful, jeweled, Uni-drawn carriage. She had a very perturbed look on her face, grumbling and muttering to herself.

      "I just cannot believe it!" she exclaimed. "How could that worthless little child be the Indera?" She turned her head. "The one that is destined to overthrow the Crown? It's completely impossible!"

      Rose looked out onto the town. There were many pets, all minding their own businesses, and some of the pets had owners, who were there, too. She was Princess over them all, but this Indera creature could change that forever.

      "The Indera is said to have shimmering eyes, the shade of a deep indigo with just a hint of violet," she said to herself. "The Indera is also said to be able to use magical abilities... oh, just listen to me now! I sound like I'm demented, or something! Bah, this Indera business! There is no such thing as the Indera!!"

      No matter how hard the Princess tried to convince herself that this mystical character was nothing more than a myth, the idea just didn't seem to ring true. After a while, she just groaned and rolled her eyes.

      "...Well, then, even if this child IS the Indera," she sighed, "...it surely would be a very long time before she will even THINK of such occultism!"

      Rose seemed pleased with this thought, and stopped contemplating on the subject. She rode the rest of the way home with a sastisfied smile on her face, completely unaware about what was about to happen with whom she called the Indera...

     * * * * *

      "Wow, would you just look outside? It's such a nice day," Laura said. "I think we should go for a walk!"

      "Gagoo!" Dina cheered agreeably.

      Laura chuckled, then went and got Dina's stroller out of the coat closet, opened the front door and pushed the stroller down the stairs while carrying Dina in one arm. When she got the stroller down to the bottom of the stairs, she buckled young Dina into the stroller, and began to push the blue stroller down the sidewalk. As Laura walked, she saw several pets and people that she recognized as old friends and neighbors. And some that had apparently been visiting, or just moving in.

      Then she noticed a blue Bori running out of the town's orphanage and into the streets. Her eyes were a nice shade of yellow-green. She looked back to the orphanage occasionally, and she carried a stick, which had a little red bag tied to one end, in one paw.

      "I'm never going back..." she muttered to herself, looking away.

      "Excuse me," Laura called to the Bori, "where are you going? And what's going on?"

      "I'm running away!" the Bori exclaimed in a disgruntled tone. "Those people treat me like Dung back there, and now they're mad at me for--"

      The Bori suddenly winced, Dina had reached out to the Bori and touched her side with a single finger. Both Dina and the Bori's eyes were closed.

      "Are... are you okay?" Laura asked, somewhat worried.

      The Bori opened her eyes, and they suddenly appeared to be a deep indigo, the same color as Dina's were. "Uh, I... I... I'm... fine."

      "Oh, thank goodness." Laura sighed. "My name is Laura and this is my daughter, Dina. It's nice to meet you." Laura pointed to Dina, who was now looking around wide-eyed, with unusual cluelessness.

      "Hi, Laura," said the Bori. "Hi... Dina." She said, "Um, I... go now."

      The Bori ran away from Laura and Dina, and Dina started muttering some things, then gasped. Laura just ignored Dina, and her focus remained on the Bori.

      "Wait!! You never told us your name!" Laura called out to the Bori.

      Either the Bori couldn't hear Laura, or she wasn't paying attention, or she just plain didn't care. Whichever, she ran from Laura and Dina almost as fast as she possibly could.

      "Okay, that was... strange," Laura said, watching the Bori run off.

      Dina looked at her hands with curiosity, then her eyes began to water, and then she suddenly burst out with a really loud, "WAAA!!"

      "Oh! What's the matter, Dina?" Laura jumped when she heard Dina's outburst, and she knelt down in front of the upset baby Xweetok. "What's the matt-- huh?"

      Laura looked into Dina's... yellow-green eyes. They were filled with tears, but Laura could tell that their color had changed. Dina had indigo eyes, not yellow-green! This was very strange.

      "WHAT IS IT ABOUT TODAY??" Laura yelped. "It's just been so weird, I don't know what to do!" Laura laid her head in her arms in frustration. After a couple of seconds, she looked back up at the baby Xweetok. Then she shouted, "This baby couldn't POSSIBLY be Dina! But I know for a FACT that it was Dina that I put in this stroller!!" Laura threw her head back in exasperation. Then with a deep sigh, she looked back up, wondering, "...but if this isn't Dina, then where...?"

     * * * * *

      The blue Bori walked down the streets. She appeared to have a slight limp, but her legs weren't injured or disabled in any way. She looked around curiously at the buildings and pets, almost as if she had never seen them before.

      "Wanda!!" A cry from behind the blue Bori caused her to jump, then she turned around to see a green Elephante, hands on his hips and an angry scowl on his face. He was wearing an apron that had "Ardon's orphanage" written on it.

      "There you are!" he exclaimed, pointing at the Bori accusingly. "You are in such trouble, young lady!!"

      "H-huh?" the Bori wondered.

      "Oh, don't you play dumb with ME, missy!" the Elephante yelled. "You are in SO much trouble!! You're coming with me, you reckless troublemaker!!"

      The Elephante grabbed the confused Bori by the arm, and dragged her back to the town's orphanage.

     * * * * *

      "Dina!! Where are you??" Laura called out to her daughter. Some of the other pets looked at her strangely, but at the time she didn't care. She was too busy trying to figure out what happened to her daughter.

      "Boh-wee!" the baby Xweetok suddenly shouted from the stroller.

      "What?" Laura turned around to face the baby.

      "Bwoo Boh-wee!" the Dina-look-alike baby shouted once more. "Duh Bwoo Boh-wee!!"

      "The... blue Bori?" Laura thought aloud, "Yes, yes, that's it! I need to go find that blue Bori!!"

      Laura grabbed the stroller by the handlebar, and ran off in search for the blue Bori that she had encountered earlier.

     * * * * *

      The Elephante and the Bori had went inside the town orphanage. The Elephante looked at the Bori with an angry scowl on his face, as some of the orphans stood around them, giggling blithely.

      "I just cannot believe you!!" the green Elephante shouted at the top of his lungs. "First you go and break a perfectly good lamp, and then you pack your things and run away!!"

      "I... not know..." the Bori stuttered, "what you... talk about!"

      "Oh, you can't lie to me!" the Elephante screamed. "I KNOW you know what I'm talking about! You're just afraid! You just don't wanna--"

      The blue Bori touched the green Elephante on the shoulder. The Elephante jumped, closing his eyes. The Bori slowly closed her eyes. After a few seconds, they opened them, again, and the Elephante's brown eyes had turned deep indigo. The Bori's eyes were back to yellow-green.

      "Wha... huh?" the Bori suddenly jumped and looked around strangely, "Wait, how'd I get back... gaa!! Gotta go, bye!"

      The Bori jumped at the sight of the Elephante. Then she tightened her grip on the stick that her little red bag was tied to, and ran as fast as she could out the door.

To be continued...