A Palace of Disaster

Chibi Tsuki

A/N: Sorry about the late update I was busy going through the other chapter 2s for other stories… Please forgive me… And a big thanks to all my reviewers! Ayanami Chan, leea_silver, Lil Noin, Lady Sapphire, smokeymisty, reboo, winnie, Tsurai, Ryan, Angel of Ice, Kat, Illpalazo, Kero (ß hehe :p), Ice B. Discordia and Lady Dante. Thanks heaps people, I really do enjoy reading your reviews. There’s another riding scene because I couldn’t think of what to write. (Big writer’s block) So I just typed whatever came to my mind in case another writer’s block happened to fall on me again.

Chapter 3

Hints and Habits

The older princess whistled a light, bright melody as the little bird stayed perched on her index finger, its claws clung on firmly. “Hello?” Smiling, the girl gave the bird one last scratch on its neck before letting it fly off. “Hey there.” Lucretzia turned around and looked at the one who had called her. Suddenly, a clump of something landed square in her face. The once placid smile from her face vanished instantly as she brought a clean hand and wiped against the muck, to discover the filth as mud. Upon hearing an evil cackle, she growled and lifted her eyes up to see the guilty person was. Standing several metres away from her was a man dressed in a fairly fancy set of clothes he was wearing a suspicious mask. His hair was long, a soothing platinum blonde colour.

“Who…” she stopped herself from continuing and looked at him several times to reassure herself. “Hey, you’re that guy who danced in the spotlight last night. Why’d you throw that at me!” She demanded, continuing to wipe off the thick layer of ooze still layered on her skin.

Milliardo beamed subtly at the mention of the moment but quickly returned his thoughts back against the girl, a smirk on his face. “I guess my disguise doesn’t work. And that, my dear Page, was a treat for you.” He sniggered and gradually, he broke into another cackle.

Lucretzia just remembered that she was wearing boys’ garments, instead of her elegant dresses and skirts. But that did not change her now formidable expression. Milliardo’s eyes were off her at the present moment and so she used to time and scooped up a handful of mud with her left hand and muttered the boy’s name. “Milliardo, look at this!” He turned and she threw. The mud had landed directly on his attire, dirtying his recently cleaned jacket. His face scrunched up with anger before exploding into a cheeky but menacing laugh. Already in his hand was another scoopful of filth fresh from the ground. He chucked it towards her as fast as he could. It landed straight on her arm as she tried to dodge the mud assault. She repaid his generosity swiftly as another patch landed on his neck.

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By the time Milliardo had had enough of mucking around, his dirtied features and clothing was greatly disliked by his father who immediately scolded him before sending him up for a bath to rid him of the stench. There was to be another lecture by his father right after his bath and that wasn’t going to be good. It was that Page’s fault to have ridiculed him in the first place but truthfully, it was his own fault too, for being childish and employing revenge. The battle was fun while it lasted, he tried to remember the last time he had so much fun in years. He flicked his hair so that it hung over the tub’s edge as he slipped deeper under the water’s surface. Suddenly, a something smelt… bad… “Ahh!” He yelled, looking at the water’s surface to notice a thick layer of mud that had peeled off his skin and started sinking into the water. “Yuck!” His voice echoed through the guest corridor inside the palace.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Lu, hurry up!” Hilde whined as her older sister continued to shower in the bathroom. The young girl sat impatiently on her sister’s bed, her legs dangling over the edge. She was dressed in cowboy style garments and leathery strips hung on her shirt like the old western style.

“Two minutes,” the girl in the bathroom replied, still wringing the water out of her long shimmering hair. Quickly drying her hair of its wet status with a blow drier, she brushed through her thick mane continuously until she had ridded her hair of the knots. Stepping out into her room, she was fully dressed and changed, except for the shoes.

Hilde brightened up and rushed over to her sibling, “Can you braid my hair for me?” Lucretzia nodded and started the task of a French braid. “Andre’s coming with us today,” she stated while trying to keep her head as straight as possible.

“Ok. Nearly finished.” Lucretzia picked up the elastic band from her sister’s hand and tied it around Hilde’s hair before adding the ribbon to it. “Done. We can go now.” She stood up and headed to her wardrobe. Collecting her boots, she put them on swiftly and trudged out of the room behind Hilde just in time to meet Andre ready and set to go.

They headed out of the palace towards the stables and that was when Lucretzia noticed Hilde wearing an identical shirt to her except for the colour differences, with hers being a darkish yellow. If Hilde looked older, they would’ve most likely been mistaken for twins. “Are we going for a trail Lu?” Andre asked, excitement filling his mind. “Or jumping?”

“I’m thinking about both,” the older girl replied, urging her nine year old brother to continue moving. Hilde smiled and skipped into the stables while Andre followed quickly behind.

“Mind if we come along?” a voice muttered behind her.

Lucretzia groaned silently to herself before turning around to meet the duke and prince, followed by a girl of her age. She nodded and said, “Sure, why not? The more the merrier.” Looking at the girl again she smiled, recognising her face. “My warmest greetings, Lady Po. It’s nice to see you again.”

Letting out a soft chuckle, the girl stepped forward up to the raven-haired girl and hugged her. “It’s great to see you too Noin.” She was slightly startled to hear her last name but quickly the tense feeling eased away. They were close friends from their childhood, if not perhaps best friends and they shared many adventures together. Secretly together, they called themselves by their last name and pretended to be army captains, storming out into the riding arena on their big but well trained Maremmana* horses, wearing uniforms the maids had sewn for them, with small paper-cut swords as their weapons in war. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. What, nine months?”

“Nine months exactly.” Instantly forgotten, the two gentlemen behind stood silently behind, staring blankly at the two girls. “Let us go gather the horses, perhaps we could picnic out for lunch instead.”

Sally walked up to the red-bay stallion and petted him on the forehead, following the little swirl on its head. “It’s great to see you again Twister. I hope Noin has treated you well.” The horse snorted softly for her to continue petting just as she was beginning to stop. “I’m going to get Cherry, if it’s alright with you Noin.”

“Go ahead.” Saddling, her horse, Lucretzia noticed the confused look on the prince’s face from the corner of his eye. “Please, pick a horse Signore Peacecraft.” And this time, hopefully you won’t make a fool out of yourself again. She grinned at the thought as she continued to bridle her horse. Hilde and Andre already had their horses ready and were waiting outside for her. “Hilde, can you go get the saddle bags? Just get Andre to hold Callaba for you.”

The younger replica of herself rushed off with a nod and returned soon after when everyone was ready to leave. Treize had chosen a palomino and Milliardo, the grey mare. Once they had fixed the saddle bags onto the saddles, everyone mounted their horses and left, following a worn trail on the ground, which lead into the woods. Busily up the front, were the two best friends, chatting continuously to one another, laughter and giggles sounded through the woods. “Let’s go for some speed,” Lucretzia suggested without wasting a second. She squeezed her horse gently on the belly, urging it to quicken its pace while the others followed suit. Changing her position, she gave a quick glance behind and smiled. Hilde and Andre weren’t far behind and Sally had managed to sneak up beside her on the red-brown mare. As for the other two, they were somewhere nearby. The horses galloped swiftly on the trails, their thundering hooves landed against the hard floor.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

By the time it was midday, they had already finished their lunch and were just about to head off again. Lucretzia let out a sharp piercing whistle, calling back the horses that had drifted off to the meadows for a bite of grass. They cantered back, the stallion in lead, followed by the others. “Lu… can we not go yet? I need to go,” Andre whispered into his sister’s ear, embarrassed by the need to relieve.

“Sure, we’ll ride around in the meadow for a while,” she replied, with a sisterly understanding. Mounting back onto her stallion, she let him canter in a slow pace around the meadow, using the oval shape as an arena. The others watched as she handled the stallion with such gentleness as is she was letting it ride leisurely but that wasn’t the case. Hilde soon followed behind her and ordered her gelding for a race against the slightly larger horse. It gained speed quickly in its gallop, exceeding the stallion’s speed. While the stallion was still cantering, the smaller horse was already galloping at high speed and quickly took the job of being in the lead.

“I’m ready!” Andre yelled running back to the group. Abruptly, he tripped over a log and landed on the ground ungracefully, groaning slightly in pain. He lifted himself up and dusted himself of the dirt and checked his knees for any grazes. His tame horse had walked towards him until he was only half a metre away and obediently waited for its master to mount back on. Andre smiled and jumped back onto the animal’s back. His way of communication with the animals had somehow tamed their wild spirits into listening to him. Milliardo smiled, Andre reminded him of the boy who he had spent time with as a kid. They were a trio, him, Trowa and Heero. No there was one more in addition to their group, Treize who visited often. Glancing up at the princess he noticed something familiar about her. The way she rode, her piercing whistle, her cheeky grins that were subtly visible. They all reminded him of the young Page. Perhaps they rode together, considering that they were of the same age group.

“Signore Milliardo, we’ll be leaving without you soon,” Hilde informed. She turned away just in time to hide the cheeky smiled that had forced its way onto her face although she had tried fairly hard to stop it from happening. The blonde shook his head and nodded, lifting himself into the saddle.

You remind me of someone… Princess… Milliardo looked up at the girl again, trying to familiarise that exquisite face that he had seen not only two nights ago at the ball or the day when she saved her little brother.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sitting on the hillside, Lucretzia and Sally engrossed themselves in a lengthy conversation once again. They were chatting continuously, not once showing any signs of ceasing their talk. “When can I see your little falcon again?” Sally questioned, looking at Lucretzia hopefully.

The girl beside her curved her mouth ever so slightly, forming a tiny smile. “You still remember him? I’m surprised,” she confessed.

“You talking about Bailey?” Hilde asked as she crawled to join the pair to form a triangle.

Lucretzia looked at her younger sister in annoyance. “For the fifth time Hilde, he’s called Razer.”

“Ok, ok. Duo calls him the Shinigami’s sidekick, Shinigami no. 2.”

Sally giggled at the name. “And who’s the ‘Shinigami’?”  

“Himself of course. Typical.” Hilde sighed at the mention of her childhood playmate’s self-given title.

Andre wriggled himself into the group and grinned, “But Duo’s cool. He lets me ride Deathscythe.” He looked up at Sally, noticing her clueless face, he added in a few extra words to clarify the name. “Deathscythe’s his horse.”

Meanwhile, the other two were sitting several metres away from the conversing group, carrying on a conversation between themselves. Milliardo glanced towards their direction and suddenly heard a whistle. He could hear the beating of wings when briskly, a figure zoomed past him, only inches from his face. It glided towards the group and landed on the older raven-haired girl’s arm. The bird was a small falcon with a brilliant and even mixture of brown, cream, black and grey feathers. Its beady eyes of a bright yellow colour. Lucretzia was scratching it on the throat, where any bird could not scratch the spot themselves. The prince gave the girl an unnoticed glare in agitation. So it was her. She was the one dressing up as a page and humiliating him in front of his best friend. The humiliation would be repaid. Frankly, she’s not that bad and sure she’s got the perfect body, looks and everything. I’ll show her that I’m not fun to tease!

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A/N: Sorry, another short chapter but I really wanted to put something up because I’ve also got the other stories to update and so enjoy! And of course, our Milliardo isn’t all that lost and in fact, we get to find the cheeky side of him soon.

*Brings out tennis ball machine thingie (dunno what it’s called but it just shoots tennis balls for people to hit, yeah that thingie) and turns it towards the lawyers and suers who dare approach* You better run! Coz I don’t think you can handle 50 tennis balls at once! Get my point? Good.

Important: I desperately need ideas/pranks/suggestions/inspirations if you want the next chapter up soon. Please contribute everyone. If everyone gives out one opinion then I’ll have a few (not many) but a few ideas that’ll help me with the next chapter. Thanks!

Mata ne!