Pink Poogle Toy Forum

(Tis fine, Lillie. )

Rachelle mounted the red brown palamino and grabbed onto its coarse, black mane, then concentrated very hard on riding and trying to refrain from shouting as many angry and insulting expressions as she could think of at Cid. Fine, so he had a point. But that didn't give him an excuse to insult the Healer, however basic her lessons may have been, and call her a "mere girl." She fumed.

Okay, so it wasn't the best way to start off their journey, but it wasn't Rachelle's fault, was it? Of course not. After all, if Cid hadn't been so stupid and ridiculous from the beginning, she wouldn't have been forced to yell at him. She pouted a little at nothing in particular and dug her heel harder into the horse's side to make it speed up.

Ridiculous git, he didn't have it that hard. If he'd had it that hard, he wouldn't be here right now. He'd probably still be living that way. She tried to convince herself. Just trying to make the rest of us feel bad for him, that's all... Shouldn't have gotten all up tight and everything... She said, in an even worse mood now.

Cid said nothing for a while, still angry and tense. Finally, he sighed and relaxed a little.

"I don't know if I know the right words to do the explaining," he said, glancing at Lukas and then back towards the palace gates. He sucked in his cheeks thoughtfully. "Guess I was a little hard on the healer, huh?"

Isabella's previous look of disapproval had been disregarded by the boy. He was quite used to these looks and didn't care for them in the least. He did care that he might have been unfair, because one thing he hated in people was unfairness. He sighed. He knew what he had to do, but it wasn't going to be pretty ... so he'd do it later, of course.

"I don't want to be a Guardian," he muttered to Lukas. He kept his voice low so only the other boy could hear. "Don't think any of us do. But this is a charade, don't you think? Four students pretending to be heroes out to save the world, with great and wonderful guides for protection, when it's all a sham. We're useless little runts and our superb teacher is apparently a girl who looks your age, Lukas, and who doesn't know what real thieving is. She looks too weak to be able to teach much about fighting either."

He cut short the rest of his speech though, for they had arrived at the palace gates.

"Halt! Who goes there?" A soldier lifted his spear in warning.

There was a short silence before Alzi spoke gruffly. "This party consists of the Four Guardians and their Guides. We're here to see His Royal Majesty, the King, on orders of the Headmaster of the School."

The gates swung open for the party to go through.

They were led over a long, well-worn road up to the main door of the palace, where they were told to dismount. Before them towered a large, white building constructed out of marble. It seemed to radiate glamour and wealth, and certainly refinement.

A few soldiers stood by the now-opening oak doors to accompany the party as guards, whether for protection against enemies of the Guardians or to protect the palace itself, Cid did not know. He wasn't sure if he did have enemies, either, but he realised (for the first time) that if he was a Guardian out to restore the Light, whoever or whatever it was that had taken away the Light would not like it. A shiver went down his spine.

"Follow me," the captain of the guard ordered.

Phalan decended and landed down the road behind them, the wind from his wings kicked up swirls of dust. He walked up the road behind him while folding his wings neatly across his back. He looked at the kids and sighed in resignation.

Elily rode on until the group reached the palace. After the gates swung open, allowing access, she followed the group in, and got off the horse when everyone did. She made haste to follow the guard. There really was nothing else she could do.

[Writer's Block. Sorry. >_< ]

Lukas opened his mouth to answer, but they had arrived at the gates of the palace. The palace of the king.

He had never thought he would actually walk in there. The dark orb felt heavy in his robes.

Why did I put this in my robes?

His thoughts dwindled of to his empty home.

His mother had not been there. Where was she?

Probably he was being troubled for nothing.

But still.

Isabella followed the students in through the gates of the palace. She absentmindedly patted her horse's neck, and looked around at the sights. The palace really was quite as elegant up close as it was in pictures.

[Sorry I haven't been posting.]

The guards led the group towards the throne room where the king was. It was fortunate the doors and ceilings of the palace were so high that even Phalan could enter, if he stooped a little.

Cleaning must be one heck of a job, thought Cid.

Great golden doors stood before them. It could only be assumed that this was the throne room. They began to open very slowly. Were they real gold or just painted gold? It was hard to tell. Real gold surely should have been heavier.

A herald announced the arrival of the "Guardians of the Light!" A fanfare of bugles struck up whilst the party moved down the great red carpet to the end.

"Remember to bow and curtsy," Alzi hissed between clenched teeth to the children.

At the end of the great red carpet sat the King and Queen of Ashling and all the area around it.

Cid found himself bowing like the rest of his companions. What would a dragon do to greet royalty? he wondered. The King broke into his thoughts.

"Greetings, Guardians of the Light. Upon you rests all hope of the World and I wish you luck in your quest for the Light. All people - those who wish to live to see their children grow - will be willing to aid you in any way. For this reason, I will grant you free passage to all lands of the World. People of all races will know of your journey."

He regally waved a hand to a page, who brought forth seven bronze medallions. On it was carved a sun, a dove and a cloud. The little page gave one to each person, and, rather in awe of the dragon, placed the last one at Phalan's feet before scuttling away.

"The sun is to represent the Light and the dove for peace," the King explained. "The cloud is symbolic of Ashling, City of Dreams. It was once said that all dreams and fantasies, no matter how wild, could come true in Ashling. There was a great deal of magic back then, far more than now. "Ashling" itself also means "dream" in Olde Tongue. It was built to fulfil the dreams of many people wishing for a safe haven and a place to protect the Orbs, and it has come true until now. We hope that you will carry our last dream and have it fulfilled: to restore the Light."

"Please," the Queen broke in suddenly. Her face had been very white and drawn throughout the King's speeches. She looked close to tears, as she was. "You must help us. My daughter, the Princess Ceana, is missing. She went missing with a trusted guard of ours, Varden. Please, you must help us find her!"

At soon as they reached the throne room, and was brought before the King, Elily curtsied, along with all her other companions. The King began to brief them on their journey, and when the medallions were brought out, she accepted hers politely, and studied it, her fingers gently tracing the carved symbols. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the Queen interrupted the King, begging the Guardians to find her daughter who had gone missing. She sounded frantic, almost desperate.

But then, it wasn't the Guardians' jobs to find any missing people. They were supposed to restore the Light, weren't they? Elily opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it back hastily. It was best to listen first, and only speak when she was asked to.

Lukas frowned, got up straight and hesitated for a few moments.

"Your Higness.. do you think the disappearance of your daughter has anything to do with that of the orbs' light? I mean, would the same person have done this?"

He looked up at Phalan, uncertain, all the sudden. But his eyes soon went back to the royal pair.

Isabella curtsied to the King and Queen, along with the Guardians and other guides. She listened to the King's brief speech, and watched as the page brought up the medallions.

"Thank you", Isabella said as she was handed her own. She looked down at it. It was quite beautiful. Just as Isabella's mind began to allow her thoughts to drift away, the Queen broke in with an urgent message- Princess Ceana was missing. Her first instinct was that the guard had kidnapped the Princess, but the Queen had said he was very trustable.

Lucas's voice caused her to look up quickly, her train of thought broken. She had many replies to that in her head, but she decided to keep quiet.

Alzi wasn't sure wich made her want to sneeze more,the stupidity of the King and Queen, or the heady sent that wafted between the tall marble pilars.
I could have sworn the last time I was here, Ceana was mising, and the same goes for the king and queen's taste in perfume(and why the hell in the halls!?)

"Your Royal Highness" Alzi said in her most formal voice (wich was formal enough for a Headmaster, but most certainlty not a queen)
"We will do our best to find Princess Ceana, but we can not afford to go out of our way any for your daughter, But should we find any word of her along they way, we will do our best.
I'm also afraid you Highness, that we must bid our goodbyes and be on our way."

Metal Note: Alzi thought to herself Tell Lukas to keep his trap shut!

"Yes, yes, we understand that," the King said in an absent-minded tone. He glanced at his bestricken wife. Hadn't he told her not to mention Ceana? "The safety of the World goes beyond all other, for without that, we have nothing," he said aloud, half to the Guardians, half as a reminder to the Queen. "Good luck to you all."

And it seemed that with that, it was all.

The group was escorted back to the palace gates where they remounted their horses and set off down the main road to the city gates. By now it was of a time that people had awoken and were peering round their door corners to have a curious look at the strange party. Few ventured further, as there was a dragon, after all. Nobody knew who these people were and there was very little farewell given to them.

Upon reaching the gates, the small party headed northwest for a while until Ashling was out of sight. It was then that Cid drew his mount up to one side of the road and let out a deep, shuddering sigh.

"We've really left Ashling," he whispered. "And now where are we going?"

That was a good question.

"Hey! Where are we going?" All he could remember being up north were forests haunted by beasts and the Dark One's worshippers ...

Lukas growled (or so Cid thought). He stared at the other boy in surprise. "Why are you growl-"

A wolf leapt out of the hedges lining the dirt road and made for the horse's neck. Cid's horse reared in fear, as more wolves appeared.

[They're not normal wolves. Fiend wolves, so to speak.]

At the sudden assault of wolves, Elily forced back a scream, as her horse went out of control. She was thrown off her horse, and slammed onto the ground, the impact causing her to be in a daze for a little while. Elily climbed back up onto her feet, dodging an attack from a wolf who lunged at her. The wolf flew and landed some distance behind her. Elily quickly grabbed her staff, and looked around, ready to defend herself.

Isabella's horse had been following the steeds of the others when it suddenly began rearing. Isabella, who had been lost in her own worries, lifted her head just in time to see the wolves. She had never been in an actual wolf attack, but she was advised about animal attacks in her own schooling.

"Everyone stick together!" she cried out, "They could kill you if you fight alone."

Alzi's own palamino was showing white all the around it's eyes, but it did no more than winney nervously when it saw the wolves.
"Back your horses in a circle!" Snapped Alzi as the students responed to the wolves in there own chaos-contributing way.

These students know nothing! The wolves will tear them to pieces if we were not here!
Light help us all!

A wolf made a lunge for the Palamino's throat, saliva flying from it's gapping maw.

Said wolf found itself on it's side a good twelve feet away
"Back you dammed hell-spawn" Snarled Alzi, reasuming her stance on the horse. There was a slisght change this go-round though. Insted of the butt end of the halberd being to used to fip wolves like pancakes, it was the pointed end.

Sharpened and ready for shish-ke-babs.
Light help us..when did fiend wolves come this close to the palace!?

Alzi's horse had succesfuly found found the rump of a another allie(Alzi's only indication of this was that her horses did not buck when it's rump bumped something solid.)

hopefuly it isn't a tree...


((I think a Palamino is a horse ...and if it isn't...then it is one now!...
and it's spotted all preety-like!
((a small amount of god-modding. Explantion: Alzi asumes that even if your fighting the wovles like you know how, it's just beginer's luck.
((apologies for poor writting, it's late, and I wanted to post afor' the weekdays. stupid Francis missed us so we don't have a day off tuesday....))