Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen Prayer ❯ Happily Ever After? ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Don't own LOD.

Chapter One- - Happily Ever After?

Dart held the nails between his lips as he hammered the wood to the top of the roof. Swinging his arm down repeatedly, he made the judgment of whether or not the work was completed. Shana would kill him if the roof leaked during one of the many rainfalls that would be approaching during the season. And that season was summer.

'At least it's not winter,' Dart grinned to himself as he deposited the nails that had been stuck in his teeth into the jar next to him and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He glanced up at the lingering sun. "Lunch time," He muttered. And boy, did he need it.

He slid over to the ladder and grabbed it with both hands as he turned and began to climb down to where Shana was waiting for him.

"You could smell the food, right?" She asked.

"I wasn't sure which house it was from," Dart responded as he jumped down the rest of the way and landed diligently on the ground. "I said to myself, 'that can't be Shana's cooking I'm getting a whiff of. Shana can't cook.'" Dart took the blow to the stomach like a man…sort of. If doubling-over was a man-like action anyway.

"Well I'm CERTAINLY glad that I didn't make the food for YOU then." Shana shot Dart a deadly look as he crumpled to the ground, gagging and sputtering. Shana stomped back into the house, slamming the door behind her.

"I…was just…kidding…" Dart gasped as he lay still on the ground, gathering his bearings.

"Why don't you just garner back my affection, Dart!?" Dart heard Shana yell from inside. "You were always a master at that!" Sarcasm. Just what he needed.

"I might as well have just fallen off the roof," Dart muttered as he slid one leg underneath him, preparing himself to push his body on all fours. "Then she REALLY wouldn't have punched me."

So here we have the happy couple drowning in their splendor. This was how they had planned to spend the rest of their lives, dwelling in the era of the aftermath of Melbu Frahma and bathing in the glory of the Moon Child. You may now kiss the bride.

"HA!" Dart laughed as he leaned against the wall of the newly built house for support as he moved into a standing position.

Seles was slowly filling with life again as people bustled in the streets, making their own efforts to get the village back on its feet. Dart was pleased with the progress they were making in the short time after the end of the war. Sometimes he liked to believe that it had never occurred and that way he wouldn't have to think back to so many deaths.

But he would hate to think that the holocaust he and his friends had to endure was all in vain if everyone forgot the past and retrogressed back to making the same mistakes as before. The world was not infallible and it was not indomitable either. He never knew when the time would call for the usage of Dragoons again. But when it did, would the world be ready? Would there be some chivalrous young man like himself out there who would be willing to embark on yet another truculent journey to suppress the turbulence and abolish the somber colors that would present itself upon the world? Or would it be at an inopportune moment while the world was still recuperating? Dart prayed that that time would never come.

He sighed, waiting for his body to strengthen. Shana's blows could be devastating at times. Dart turned his head slowly, observing a family plodding across the road to their own newly built domicile.

He felt the door open behind him. Shana poked her head out, holding a plate with (hopefully) something edible on it.

"I felt sorry for you," She snapped as she pushed the plate towards him. He took it gingerly. "Sorry it's not something exquisite." Shana quickly shut the door in his face and Dart stood there, unmoving.

"Oh come on!" He sighed. "I was just kidding with you. Why is it that you can always tease me, but if I try, I get punched in the stomach and then locked outside my house?"

The door opened again, but Dart was unprepared for the potted plant that had been flung in his direction. The porcelain broke against his face as the plant suffocated him and the food on the plate toppled to the ground. Dart was flung backwards and was again happily greeted by the ground.

"Oh, hello again," Dart welcomed the dirt underneath him as he brushed the soil from his face, spitting up most of it. He glanced at the plant and then sulked. "That was my favorite plant, Shana!" He whined and gathered the broken plant in his arms. "Little baby sissy girl…" Dart muttered incoherently.

But in all truth, Dart was glad to have Shana back. Dart was glad that everything was over and done with. But he couldn't deny the fact that he indeed missed his friends and everything they had shared together.

"I should go by Lavitz's grave," Dart mumbled as he reached down to pick up the rest of the pottery. "Maybe later on this afternoon."

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Bale was quiet…too quiet.

King Albert perched his arm on the marble stone of one of the many balconies of Indels Castle and leaned forward, resting his chin upon his fingers.

"I'm sure everyone feels just like me…miserable." Albert caught sight of a flock of birds take off towards the horizon and he suddenly fell into a state of nostalgia. "Yes, it is a plausible thought."

"What is, Darling?" Emille stepped up behind her husband, wrapping her arms around his mid-section. She buried her head in his crushed velvet emerald cloak and then turned to gaze at what had captured his focus for the moment.

"Just recollecting memories," Albert told her as he held one of her small, gentle hands.

"Miss them already?" She smiled.

"It's a lot more than just having known a knight for a mere three minutes and then seeing him off to what you know will be his death." Albert said sadly as the thought of the Serdian War came to his mind. "I spent so much time with them. They became like a family to me."

Emille said nothing. She just kept her eyes on the sky.

"I wonder if the world is really safe?" Albert mused. "Is the Age of the Dragoons finally at an end?"

"Do you want it to be?" Emille asked softly.

Albert paused momentarily and then turned to look at his wife. "Yes." He glanced down. "If it means the security of this world, then yes. But I yearn for what we had before. All the good times and bad times alike. For once I wasn't just a king. I was one of them."

Emille understood and to him, that was enough.

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A Foresight Into Episode Two:

"I'll be fine, father. But it is a mystery you say? In the tower?"

Dille nodded regretfully. Had he known that this youth had still planned to adventure there, he would have kept his words to himself. "Son, please, be reasonable. Is the Azurakey really worth THAT much? It isn't much use if you are dead."

"How can you be so sure that it is a beast that lies there, if no one ever comes back?" Nicholai turned his back on the gaping Bishop. "You have my gratitude, father." Dille sighed as he watched the figure in black walk back towards the town entrance.

"Dear Soa, may you guide him."

But the words of God would never reach Nicholai.

…For he had shut Soa out long ago…

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Well, officially, here's the first chapter. Hope it was okay. Let me know what you think.

Kat