Once Upon a Time…. by theFrey (Sections 3-4)

[SadGeezer]

quote[quote]**** SECTION 3 ****[/quote]

Kai had only walked for a minute when he stopped in his tracks. Had he not told Stan that he would not help them anymore until they learned to fix his hair? If he went to their aid, would that not be breaking his word? Kai did not break his word. But he knew they were in trouble. What should he do?

He sat down on the mossy ground and puzzled the situation. Suddenly an idea occurred to him. He knew how he could help them without breaking his word. He rose and resumed walking.

The Dark Glen was, indeed, dark. Hardly any light made it through the thick expanse of ancient trees. Kai walked quickly, constantly looking and listening, his brace ready to fire if need be. He heard many exotic sounds he had never heard before. Low snarls and forlorn cries echoed with every step he took. He had walked for perhaps five minutes when he heard a voice.

“Where are you going, young one?” It asked.

Kai paused. “I am not young. And I am going to Prince’s castle.”

“Oh, but you ARE young. Compared to me, anyway. And the castle is far. It will take you a while to get there on foot.”

“Nevertheless, that is where I am going.” He glanced around him. He could not see who was talking to him. The voice was female, soft, almost a whisper. “Where are you?” He asked.

“Right here. Above you.”

Kai squinted upward, but could only see long green leaves and thick branches. “I do not see you.”

“Trust me. I’m here.” A gentle laughter floated down over him.

“I do not have time to converse. I must go to the castle.”

“No, you must not.”

“Why?” He asked. “Because I need you here. To feed my children!!”

Kai did not even have time to raise his arm before his body was wrapped in a mass of thick scaly purple coils. He tried to break his arm loose, but they were both pinned to his sides. He glanced down his torso. He was wrapped from shoulders to just above the knee. Escape at this moment would be impossible. Kai calmly looked upward as his captor descended from the tree.

The creature was easily ten feet tall, with probably 30 feet of tail. Silver and purple scales decorated it. It had a body like an owl, a tail like a snake, and a head like a wolf. Its’ large silver eyes peered into his, and it smiled, displaying rows of tiny sharp teeth. A long red tongue came out and swiped his face. “You have an interesting taste,” the creature said.

“I am dead,” he replied.

“Not yet. But soon you will be!” With a chuckle it unfurled giant wings and began soaring upward, Kai still firmly held in its tail.

As the creature rose higher, Kai could see
the Glen receding below him. On the other side of the glen on the top of a small rise, Kai could see a several fortified manor houses, one of which was supposedly Prince’s.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Xev turned wide eyes towards Stan. “Do you think he could be right?” She asked in an uncertain voice.

“Don’t be ridiculous Xev, Stan assured her in a confident tone. “Prince is just crazy, Kai would never abandon us. Especially not over something as silly as learning how to fix hair.”

Xev looked at Stan. She couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t look as confident as he had sounded. She exchanged glances with 790 and then they both shifted their attention back to Stan. A long painful silence ensured.

“Sooooo… “ Stan paused and grimaced, “Ummm, any ideas on how we can learn to do the hair thing with no supplies?”

Xev turned the chair that Prince had been setting in around to face the table and dropped down on it with a sigh. She leaned her elbows on the on the table and buried her head in her hands, shaking it slightly from side to side. “Oh Stan,” she said in a tired voice, “I don’t see how we can, we don’t even have a comb.”

“And even if we did, you obviously have no clue how to use one.” 790 sniped at her.

“Oh come on 790, leave her alone, we need to think, what could we use for a comb?”

Stan got up and started pacing around the room, not that there was much here that he hadn’t seen previously. But maybe, he thought, he had overlooked something. Two small, but comfortable looking beds were placed up against the creamy plaster walls on either side of the room. The only color in the room came from the ample pillows and comforters upon the beds, which had an aged cream background and a rich deep holly and berry pattern upon them. In the middle of the room the wooden table with it’s two chairs sat upon a small oval rug woven of some dark beige material. The small casement window centered between the beds was sunk into the thick walls and had thin wooden blinds that echoed the pale wood of the floor. The blinds were currently raised affording Stanley a fine view thru the bars of a fairly large garden bordered by woods; unfortunately, he was not really in the mood to admire it.

Although sighing inwardly, Stan had to admit, that Kai could not find fault with Prince over the quality and comfort of their accommodations. Exasperated, Stan crossed the room towards the Xev’s side of the room. Ignoring 790’s staring eyes, he ducked into the small bathroom. The room was bare except for basic sanitary facilities and supplies. The only other things in the room where a wall mirror and a few towels draped over the edge of the small tub. Even the mirror he found was no help, as it seemed to be fastened to the wall with some type of adhesive. Defeated Stan slouched back into the main room.

“Well you putrid pimple on the face of humanity, you didn’t find anything did you? Although you wouldn’t have even if it was sitting right in front of you.”

“Oh shut up 790.” Xev told the errant robot head tiredly. “No one wants to fight with you right now.”

“Well Xev, the only thing I can think of is you are going to have to get sweet talk your comb and some stuff out of Prince.”

Xev looked at Stanley in exasperation. “Oh sure Stan, and just when do you expect me to have an opportunity to do that?”

“How do I know Xev! Gosh I wish Kai was here, even if he wasn’t helping us, I’d feel a lot better having him around to keep Prince in check.”

quote[quote]**** SECTION 4 ****[/quote]

Kai watched as the creature brought him into a large nest woven from twigs and bones. Three babies chirped excitedly to see their mother returning with food. Kai was set down near them. He waited for his escape opening.

“Supper time!” The mother began unwinding her tail from Kai.

As soon as she had freed him, Kai fired his brace into a distant tree, grasping a sturdy branch. “I cannot be your dinner,” he called over his shoulder as he swung away. “I must go to the castle.”

The creature gave a shriek.

He heard her wings unfurl, but by then he had already caught another branch and was ahead of her. He moved rapidly, swinging from tree to tree, until he had made his way out of the forest.

He landed gracefully on the path again. He saw his pursuer abruptly halt at the edge of the woods. With an angry hiss, she went back into the trees. Apparently she was afraid to pursue him in the open. He resumed walking.

He had not gone far before he saw two wooden signs with two arrows. He paused to read them.

<-- This Way to the Perilous Marsh --> This Way to Prince’s Castle

Kai pondered. It wasn’t above Prince to have arranged for the direction of the arrows to be changed, so that he would be heading into more trouble. Unfortunately he had no way of knowing. What to do…

Kai narrowed his eyes. There was a faint smudge on one of the signs. A fingerprint. On an arrow. Now he knew which way to go.

Brace primed, eyes and ears alert, he strode down his chosen path.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Xev was roused from a fitful sleep by a brief pounding on the door. She sat up and looked around, momentarily confused that she was not on the Lexx. Then she remembered that she was stranded on his little wooded planet while Lexx went off and did Lexx things. She sat on the edge of the bed, still confused because this wasn’t even her room on the wooded planet. She heard the lock in the door rattle. As it clicked so did the memory of the pervious day. “Stan!” she hissed, as she stumbled across the room to shake him awake.

“Wha… What. Okay, okay, I’m up, I’m up.” Stan mumbled sleepily, trying to make bleary eyes focus on his tormenter. “Oh Geeze Xev, what…” he started to say, before the sound of the door opening caused them both to focus on it.

The door swung open and two armed guards entered, moving to stand on either side of the door. In their wake came three servants, the first carried a tray of food, which she sat on the side of the table. The other two servants were burdened with cleaning implements, towels and such. They flanked out, the man setting down the broom and mop by the guards and then moving towards the window with a small bottle and a cleaning cloth, while his female companion took the bucket, some bottles and the towels and dove into the bathroom and immediately started running water.

No one spoke as the tall woman who had carried the food set down spoons, napkins, cups and covered plates in front of both chairs. She left the two small jugs in the center of the tray and then took the covers off of both plates and motioned them to the table.

“Ummm Hi,” said Stan uncertainly. “I’m Stan and this is Xev. And you would be?” he queried with what he hoped was a friendly lilt.

The tall woman merely looked that them and again silently motioned towards the table with a wave of her hand. As Xev and Stan sat down at the table she placed the plate covers on the serving tray beside the jugs and moved towards the beds. Xev looked at her plate and then looked at serving woman, but the smell of the food won her undecided attention, after all, she hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday early morning.

Stan however continued to watch the woman. He was making particular note of her hair done in a severe braided upsweep. Stan was willing to bet that she would have made short work of doing Kai’s hair. As he was puzzling out how her hair was fixed, and calculating the amount of hairpins he could see, he noticed that she had started to make the beds. “Whoa, wait a minute,” he called to her jumping up and hurrying over to his bed. “You don’t have to do that, Xev and I will take care of the beds. Really….” He trailed off, as she just looked at him and returned to fluffing the pillows, and straightening the bedclothes.
“So, um what did you say you name was again?”

“Please sir, you food is getting cold.” The woman said as she motioned him back towards the table. This earned her a quick glance from the man at the window and a admonitory cough from one of the guards at the door. She glanced at the guard and then again motioned Stanley back to the table, before turning to finish making his bed.
The cleaning went swiftly while Stan and Xev watched, beds were made, surfaces were dusted, floors were swept and mopped. The only pause in this whirlwind of cleaning came when 790 took exception to being moved from his perch on the windowsill, so that the window could be cleaned.

“Listen you walking excuse for a pustule, put me back right now! I must keep a look out for my sweet dead meat. I won’t be moved do you hear me, put me back!”

Stan jumped up again and took the robot head from the startled servant, “Um, 790, our friends are cleaning, and we don’t want to get in their way now do we? Kai wouldn’t like us to upset them for no reason now would he?” Stan’s light breezy voice did not match the meaningful look he gave to the robot head as he wedged him into a small space on the table.

790 grumbled in a low voice, but reframed from verbally attacking the cleaning crew as they finished their duties and Stan and Xev finished the ample, but rather bland food on their plates. Stan jerked his head meaningfully at Xev as he called out thanks to the crew as they collected up their supplies and the tray.

“Yes thank you for everything,” Xev cooed at the flustered servant who glanced at her as he stumbled out the door.

“And exactly why are we trying to kiss up to peasants?” sneered 790.

“Oh shut up you stupid robot head. Did you see that woman’s hair? Did you see how many hairfastners she had in it? Heck Xev, I bet she would know how to do Kai’s hair.

“They’re gone now you boil on the buttocks of humanity,” 790 groused, ignoring Stan’s observations. “Can I go back to my vigil now?”

“Why sure, 790,” Xev told him as she propped him back on the windowsill and looked out over the gardens. “Okay Stan, now what happens?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kai had realized that the smudge on the arrow was not an attempt to trick him; rather, it was an attempt to make him wonder if he had been tricked. Prince loved to play games, and if Kai had gone the wrong way Prince was smart enough to know that Kai could get himself out of almost any situation. So there would have been no purpose in sending him the wrong way, except to detain him. Kai did not think Prince wanted him to be detained. Prince hated to wait, even though he was very good at it.

It did not take long for Kai to see that his choice had been correct. The castle loomed ahead of him. Kai studied the design. He had two options: to lift himself to a window and begin hunting for them, or to announce his presence to Prince and tell Prince to take him to Xev and Stan.

He had decided by the time he reached the castle.

Kai strode right up to the front doors and thumped the large brass doorknocker.

A moment later a man came to the door. From the way he was dressed, Kai deduced that he was one of Prince’s servants.

“May I help you?” The man asked.

“I am Kai, last of the Brunnen-G. I am here to see Prince.”

The man nodded. “Yes, Sir. We’ve been expecting you. This way, please.”

Kai followed the man down the main hall and into a parlor. Prince was sitting in a plush purple chair near a small wooden table, drinking from a crystal goblet. He smiled when Kai entered the room.

“Kai. What a delightful surprise.”

Kai frowned. “You do not look surprised. And you have been expecting me.”

“True. But it sounded so good, didn’t it.” He waved a hand towards a bottle. “Would you like some wine?”

“I do not drink. I have no stomach.”

“Pity.” Prince took another sip.

“You will take me to Stan and Xev now,” Kai said flatly.

“Yes… provided you sit and talk with me first.”

“About what?”

“Five minutes, Kai. Sit down with me for five minutes. Then I will take you to them.”
Kai studied Prince. “Is this one of your deals?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Then since you always stick to your deals, I will sit and talk with you. For five minutes.” Kai took the chair on the other side of the table.

“Wonderful,” Prince smiled.

Kai crossed his legs, then looked into Prince’s eyes. “What do you wish to talk about?”

[Anonymous]

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