HAYES'
ARABIAN KNIGHTZ
Chapter 2
Now this it the part of the story where I come in. I, dear reader, am one of
the three main attendants to Princess Aisha. Not a particularly glamorous job.
Dressing, undressing, feeding the dragon...
I am Kasumijin, an for those of you who MUST know, I am a eunuch. Fine,
yuck it up now and get it over with. All the other servants are eunuchs as well.
The other two main attendants to the Princess are Shonen and Kamishiro, but I'll
get around to those lunkheads later. They are actually the newest servants, my
last two were an emaciated pair and extremely crude. I cannot quite remember,
but I think there names were "Buffcoat" and "Beaver". Anyway, they were
beheaded for incompetence. Nobody was sorry to see them go.
As stated before, I am the main attendant and a eunuch. To add to this I am
the most highly educated servant. Because there are certain (*ahem*) activities
that I simply do not partake in, I have come to use my free time to record these
amazing events on paper for future generations. Granted paper is expensive, but,
as stated before, the rich are very rich and are frivolous with there paper, the
backs of all there memos are sufficient, even for a story of this magnitude.
Many of these events were related to me later, through investigation or
interview and this story is now as complete as it will get.
It was just after Prince Velvita left in a huff, when the Princess called for
Shonen. Shonen was not the brightest of servants, and he was rough around the
edges, but he had a good heart deep down.
"Shonen!", she cried. I think this is significant because Princess Aisha was
the only royal member who addressed us by names instead of "servant". The
three of us had to fight for the lofty positions of being her private servants.
"Shonen! Come here!", she yelled. Shonen stormed through the palace and
pushed open the mighty doors to Princess' chamber with his mighty arms, he
stumbled into the room, shut the door behind him and turned to the Princess,
bowing subserviently.
"Yes, your majesty", Shonen huffed.
"I want your clothes!"
Shonen was naturally puzzled.
A pause took place.
Eventually, Shonen began to undress. Upon this, the Princess quickly threw a
bauble at his head.
"Baka! I mean a SPARE pair of your clothes! And some bandages!"
Now Shonen got the idea, or at least more of it. He quickly replaced the
clothes he removed and ran to his quarters. He brought back some bandages,
and his "street clothes"; his only other set. Besides the normal white garbs, each
servant keeps some ordinary clothes in case they need to venture into town for a
task.
Per the Princess' precise command, Shonen undressed and redressed her, in
his garb. He tied her bosom back with the bandages, and covered her almost
completely.
By the time they were finished, The Princess looked like a common man, and
it was night. Most people set to bed at sundown, but not the rich, who could
afford lamp oil. A LOT of lamp oil.
She then ordered him to bring her a rope, which he did. The Princess tied
the rope to the banister and climbed down. She waved goodbye and disappeared
into the night.
Shonen waved back dumbly for a few seconds. You realize by now that
Shonen was not the brightest of servants.
Suddenly, he realized what he had done. The Princess HE was responsible
for was gone. He was in deep sheep dip.
It was at that precise moment when I had the misfortune of entering the
room.
"Princess? Princess? Shonen, where's the Princess?"
Shonen gulped. "Um, she left."
"WHAT!?"
Elsewhere, around the second wall, Number 13 was patrolling when he saw
a figure scaling the second wall. He saw a figure scaling the wall and immediately
went to rectify the situation.
Number 13 was shaped the same as the first two golems; large chest and
forearms and shins, and having glowing white eyes. The main difference was; he was
constructed of thousands of tiny black porcelain tile, each with an area of three
centimeters and all held together by some unknown magic force. A twelve foot
tall walking mosaic of an armadillo he was.
Now you might ask how a professional sentinel might mistake a figure
climbing down a castle wall for a figure climbing up a castle wall. Needless to
say, at number "13", he was no genius. Also the Princess was, at that time of
being spotted, dangling and struggling with the rope; not moving up or down.
The Princess kept herself in excellent physical condition, but wall scaling was new
to her, especially while dressed in un-drag; or whatever name you would give it
when a girl dresses as a man.
Needless to say she was caught, and necessary was to say that she was
thrown over the last wall to land in a pile of rather soft garbage. Number 13
plodded off to report the incident like clockwork.
Diamonds are a search party's best friend.
The Sultan paced back and forth. Forth and back. The balcony of his
study was nearly worn through. His wives tried to comfort him, but to no end.
Atarashi, Neo, and Nuova sat in the study with their own sets of servants. The
room had many couches, chairs, pillows, books, lamps and everything else a
Sultan could want in his private place.
The three of us, Shonen, Kamishiro and myself, stood cowering in the
corner.
"How could you let her go?!", whispered a worried Kamishiro. He was an
emaciated young fellow with plain hair that partially covered his face.
"She just left! I never saw it coming.", repled Shonen.
"You'd be having a more bright than usual day if you could see an
elephant coming that was charging at you!"
"Hey!"
"Whoa!", I interrupted, "let's not get hostile! We're in the same boat here.
Let's just hope the golems find her!"
At that point Number 13 entered to report. He related the information to
the Sultan and walked out.
"What did it say?!", Atarashi pleaded.
The Sultan turned and walked into the room. "Number 13 saw a man in
brown robes scaling the second wall, then booted him to kingdom come."
"Did he see any sign of Aisha?", asked Neo, desperately.
"No", replied the Sultan, "none of the golems have seen anything."
In the corner:
"Well, that's just wonderful!", whispered Kamishiro.
"Um. Guys? I just remembered something...", said Shonen.
"What is it?", I asked.
"Ur. Before the Princess left, she had me dress her as a man in my brown
robes.", replied Shonen.
"You idiot! You didn't think we'd need to know that!?", said Kamishiro.
"Hey! It was an honest mistake! It could have happened to anyone!
Right, Kasumijin?"
"Um. No. You acted like a complete idiot.", I had to reply.
"Hey, all's not lost! How far is 'kingdom come'?", asked Shonen.
"We're all gonna die...", said Kamishiro.
At that point, a dark figure entered the room. The dark figure. The one
in the desert. Yokobue stood in the doorway with the out of place parrot placed
on his shoulder. His green skin over black robes seemed to drag darkness into
the room with him.
"My liege! I have come up with a solution to your problem.", said
Yokobue, bowing respectfully.
"Ah! Yokobue, my most trusted advisor! Please tell me where she is!", said the
Sultan, as a ray of hope came to his face.
" I am afraid, I cannot, sir. My failing health limits my original strength greatly.
And there is always the fact I was never omniscient. However, your mystic, mind jewel,
combined with the talents of my associate, Doctor Deadston could come together to
create a "Tracker golem" to aid us."
The Sultan hesitated. He covered his ring nervously. Despite all his wealth, that
ring was the only jewelry he wore. It was a pure sky blue shaped opal, maybe two
centimeters one was and one centimeter the other. Yokobue had tried to persuade the
Sultan into giving it to him on several occasions, with no luck.
"My Family Ring? But It's been passed down for generations throughout my
dynasty...", the Sultan pleaded.
"Oh, just give him the bloody thing! If we don't get Aisha back, there won't be
much of a dynasty left!", screamed Neo.
The Sultan couldn't argue with that. He slid his ring off and handed it to Yokobue.
Chance Meeting
Aisha walked down the crowded streets of Abadan. She would have taken
a deep breath as soon as she realized she wasn't injured, the said "Ah, freedom",
in a cliche kind of way if it were not for the that the city had a very nasty odor.
Aisha was used to the Palace, where everything was constantly sanitized. Outside,
however, the entire city had that every so familiar smell of fresh camel dung.
Common folk were used to it, but alas, Aisha was not.
She plodded along the streets with a grumble and a huff. She was walking
down main street, the same one that prince after prince had traveled on. She
walked due west, away from the Palace, and never looked back.
She relaxed a bit as she entered the marketplace. She felt a sense of
security as she walked through the crowd undetected.
Now, Abadan was a major trade center. Many trade routes from all over
the world ran through our city. The city had a wealth of food and other items
from all over the world. Mostly food, though. The Sultan allowed no tariffs of
foreign food to promote culinary diversity. This made the quality of living very
high for lower classes, as they had a wide variety of food. Apples, rice, chicken
terriaki, hamburgers, French fries, melons, oranges, kiwis, nappa, cabbage and
others were within the confines of a few feet of the market place.
It was here when the Princess found her first pleasant smells since leaving
the Palace. Because of this, she relaxed and absorbed the odor, and let her guard
down. Letting you guard down was never a good idea in Abadan.
It was at this point when Aisha saw something. This kind of thing usually
goes unnoticed, but because the Princess was pure of heart, she noticed it.
A young child was reaching for a peach on a table that was just a few
decimeters too high for him to reach. Aisha walked over and handed down a
peach to him. The child quickly took it and ran. He never looked back, but it
still warmed Aisha's heart.
Aisha was about to walk away herself, but she was stopped. A large man
had grabbed Aisha's hand. A very large man. He must have only been about
five feet tall, but he also must have been six feet wide. He was bald and white
and wore white robes. He was obviously the proprietor of the fruit stand. It had many
small table of fruit and an awning to shade his large self from the sun.
"You had better be able to pay for that.", stated the large man coldly.
"P-pay?...", said Aisha. Put that at the top of the list of top ten wrong
answers. In her rush to leave the Palace, Aisha had forgotten to take some money.
"Nobody steals from Fisk!", bellowed the man," Guards! Guards!".
"You rang?", said Number 25 from a distance.
"Could you kindly come over here and take care of this thief?"
"I'd be glad to...", said Number 25 sadistically as he approached the stand.
"Ah! No! Eek!", screamed Aisha.
"You scream like a girl!", stated Number 25 as he reached out for Aisha's
hand.
Then there was a knocking. A knocking on Number 25's head.
They looked up. On top of the awning lay Atila. Next to him was his
monkey, Kiki-chan.
"YOU!!!", screamed Number 25, completely forgetting Aisha.
"Isn't it great to be remembered, Kiki-chan?", mused Atila.
"Kiki!", replied Kiki-chan.
"You're dead meat!!"
"You don't look happy to see me, Rocky."
"Don't call me 'Rocky'!"
Number 25 was thoroughly flustered. He jumped at Atila. Atila and Kiki-
chan jumped out of the way with ease; Number 25 landed on the awning an
completely crushed the stand.
The results of this were as follows: Number 25 fell on the fruit stand and
crushed it; Atila and Kiki-chan leapt dexterously, landing next to the brown robed
figure; Fisk beat the living daylights out of Number 25 for the twice stated
atrocity.
Naturally, the three fled.
They rounded a few corners and ran down a few streets until they could
safely assume they were safe. They stopped to catch their breath. Kiki-chan was wise
enough to hitch a ride on Atila's back. The figure in the brown robes was obviously in
worse conditioning that Atila, but despite the wheezing, thanked the boy.
"Thank you *huff* for *huff* stopping that man *huff*"
"No problem *huff*"
"What's *huff* your *huff* name? *huff*"
"Atila. How about you?"
"*huff* Ai ... uh... ah... Ken."
"Ken, huh? Cool. This is Kiki-chan."
"Kiki!"
" Pleased to meet you, Kiki-chan."
There conversation didn't go on much longer.
"Aha!"
Slam.
That was the sound of Atila getting hit from above. Hard. Number 25 had jumped
upon him from above and knife-fasted him on the back. He then jumped back, and
faced Atila, taking a fighting stance.
"You thought you could escape so easily!?"
"Sure, Rocky.", said Atila defiantly. He got up and took his own fighting stance.
The street was wide and empty. It was time for the final battle.
Atila VS Number 25
Atila made the first move, lunging forward.
Number 25 dodged it.
Then Number 25 made a move and Atila dodged it. This went on for a while.
Occasionally, one would land a hit, but never anything of import,
At that time, "Ken" was standing by, helpless and Kiki-chan had hidden in an urn.
Eventually, they broke their close contact fighting. Atila and Number 25 jumped
back at the exact same time.
They seemed to be at a draw.
Then, without saying a word, Number 25 took his left hand and plunged it into his
stomach. He ripped out two of the many spheres that compiled his chest and spun them
around in his palm like Chinese meditation balls.
Then, he threw them at Atila. Very fast and Very hard. They impacted his
stomach; there was nothing he could do to block.
The impact was bad, but what was worse was the fact that the balls did not fall to
the ground afterward. They levitated in mid air.
As soon as Atila realized the sphere's hovering, they started to attack. They
bounced of Atila and buzzed around him. They were too fast and too strong for him to
stop. They battered his back. They pummeled his pelvis. They buffeted his butt.
All this time, Number 25 just stood motionless, but he did speak. "Ha! You're done
for! When I focus all my power on a few points, I increase my strength twenty fold!"
Aisha was becoming concerned. She cried out: "Atilaaaaa....."
At that moment, Atila reached out his arms. Each one caught a ball. His arms
were each outstretched to the side of him at perpendicular angles. His torso was in a
"T" formation. His legs were in a wide stance. He had a sphere between each thumb
and index finger. He was straining. If he lifted his legs, he probably would have
floated.
Everyone was amazed.
"Nice. But what do you intend to do now?", said Number 25, still not moving.
At that moment, there was a crack. Two cracks, actually.
The two spheres of stone had cracked in half. They fell lifelessly to the ground, each
in several pieces.
Number 25 moved again. He stumbled back in shock.
Atila saw his chance. He darted forward at full speed. He connected with a flying
punch right into his chest. Correction: Right THROUGH Number 25's chest!
It was very impressive, but soon Atila realized he couldn't get his arm back out.
"HAHAHA! Fool!". Number 25 was thrilled. He had his opponent right where he
wanted him. He took a superman stance with his hands on his hips.
Atila tried pushing him over, but it didn't work. He tried punching, but it had not
affect.
Number 25 began to tighten the whole in his chest. Atila screamed in pain. His arm
was still straight and sticking out from the back of Number 25 back, for he dared not
relax the muscles in his arm.
Atila began to knuckle under. "AAAARRGHH!", I believe was the word he used.
Number 25 was overjoyed. He through his head back in evil laughter:
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
CRACK!
Another crack. This one much bigger. "Ken" had picked up a large boulder and
smashed it into Number 25's head stone. Number 25's head stone cracked down the
center. His left eye shut off immediately, but his right eye flickered its white light for a
moment before going out. The stones fell to the ground. Atila was free.
"Are you OK?", Aisha asked eventually.
"Yeah, thanks to you, Ken."
" You're not angry about me interrupting your fight?"
"Nah! I'm not some macho jerk. Out here on the streets us against them. I get by
with a little help from my friends." Atila turned to Kiki-chan, now unhid. "Although
some friends are more helpful than others!"
Kiki-chan just turned down an eyelid at Atila.
Meet RED SASH
This night's meeting of Red Sash was just like any other: A huge
argument.
The council of Red Sash all wore black robes with cravats, and
surprisingly, no red sashes. They had a large complex built into the back right
corner of the second rectangular wall which surrounded the Palace. The board
room was plain with a meeting table much to long for the four members to ever
need. As usual, they all sat at one end, Doctor Deadston and Mr. Blue on the
right side, and Mr. White and Mr. Green on the left.
"I tell you we need to balance the budget! Raising taxes is necessary!",
shouted Mr. Blue. Mr. Blue was a short man, quite old in his years at forty.
Still, he had a lot of life left in him. His hair was dwindling and white, and his
ears were rather big.
"Read my lips! No new taxes!", Mr. Green shouted back. At thirty-eight,
he was a bit younger, and much better for wear.
At this point, Mr. White made a relaxed fist with his left hand. He placed
his thumb on top of the curled fingers and waved his hand around as he spoke, as
he often did to seem more matter-o-factly. He was the youngest of the group at
thirty-five.
"Now hold on a minute, my lovely wives Hilary and Jennifer came up with
a nice idea last night to balance the budget and not raise taxes."
Now at this, Doctor Deadston finally raised his head. Up to that point, he
had been doodling on his notepad, sketching new golems. He was often content
just to let the other argue.
"Now wait a minute! Don't tell me you're listening to your wives again!"
"Hey! They've got some good ideas!"
"Bah! Women are ornaments and nothing more!", and with that, he went
back to his doodles.
Mr. White would have protested further, but Yokobue stormed in.
"Doctor!", he said, " I have it!"
...
Yokobue and Doctor Deadston traveled down to the lab. His lab was...
interesting to say the least. Most of it was a large, open area with several stations
where he carved statues. The stairs were up against the southern wall and lead
down it three stories to an open floor ten meters by twenty meters. Several tables
in several places had chisels and stones of every shape and color. Not to mention
a blacksmith shop built in. In one corner was "the machine". That is the
incomprehensible device which brings the different golems to life. I have never
gotten a good look at it myself, and it is very complex looking.
It had three chambers. Golems were animated three at a time, for reasons
unknown to me. The Doctor entered the third for a few minutes. Then he exited
and ran to his little control panel like a boy running down to the Christmas tree
on Christmas morning.
Switches were switched. Levers were pulled. Lights flashed. Soon roars of
electricity were heard and smoke emitted from the chambers.
"It's alive! Alive! HAHAHA!", screamed Doctor Deadston.
"Shut up! Shut up! You say that EVERY time we do this! Of coarse
they're alive!", bellowed Nageku.
Before another word could be said, the doors opened. Out stepped the three golems
simultaneously.
The first thing anybody noticed was that these golems were more... female than
usual.
The first was about 5'8" with long hair. How Doctor Deadston grew hair on rock
I'll never know. The hair was long and black. Simple. She had bangs covering her
forehead. Her face was carved onto the stone which was her head. her eyes glowed
white. Her basic construction was, well, have you ever seen that female type robot on
the
cover of "Black Magic", by Masemuni Shirow? It looked like that. Sorry, there is no
better way to describe it. The golem however, was made of stones magically welded
together and not metal. She wore a black cape and nothing more.
The second was tall, about 6 feet tall. She wore a gray cloak with sharp, jutting
shoulder pads. Her hair was exactly like Number 28's.
The third was shorter, at about 5'7". She was like the others except that she wore a
white cloak that partially wrapped around her more rounded shoulder pads. It almost
completely covered her. Only a foot wide space was open to view.
They were the color of blood red. They were made of some kind of slate or shale;
beats me, I'm a Palace serving eunuch, not a geologist.
"Girls. How droll.", Yokobue said.
"Hmph. Hentai.", grumbled Nageku under his breath.
"Number 28! Number 29! Number 30! You have your mission! Go find the
Princess! HAHA!"
"Ahem.", said Yokobue, flatly.
" Oh, yeah. And while you're at it, find the one person who can enter the Cavern of
Wonders!"
With that, the three flew off, making there own doorway through the lab's wall.
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To be continued...