Midnight Dream

GAH! I know, I know, it's been over another month since i last updated...sorry. ^_^' but thank you, truly, to the people who actually took the time to review...it's what keeps me going on this. Anyway i'm putting aside my mafia/crime novel for now and will work solely on this, so expect to see many updates in days to come. Thank yas!!


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"KNIGHTS OF PLUTO.....ASSEMBLE!!!!"


Captain Aldebert Steiner stood on the balcony overlooking the hallway leading to the Knights of Pluto barracks. There was no response to his call for attention by any of his knights. One of the female Alexandrian guards snickered quietly.

"damn it...what are those slackers doing now? I must debrief them on their missions for the day!!"

Steiner was not a very bright man. How he rose to the top of the Knights of Pluto was essentialy a mystery to everyone, both inside the castle and out. He was shallow-minded, thick skulled, and stubborn. And those were on good days. He was also chubby and none too appealing to the ladies.

Getting fed up with his waiting, Steiner hopped up and down furiously and ran-or rather, waddled- down the circular staircase, his armor clanking noisily with every step he took.
He stuck his head inside the wooden door of the barracks and shouted "GET YOUR LAZY DUFFS OUT OF THE SACK!", hoping to send the late sleepers scurrying around their room in a panic once they realized what time it was.

Instead, the only thing he got was silence. All there was in the room was a lone moogle, who looked over at him curiously, his red bon bon waving in the air as it muttered "K-kupo?"
"NRAHHH!!! where ARE they?" Steiner was already red faced from his lack of temper control and as he raced out of the barracks and into the main entrance area of the castle, he was huffing and puffing from the exertion of doing anything at all with that ammount of armor weighing him down.

As he neared the stairs leading down to the first floor, he caught a glimpse of a gray helmet peek out from the kitcen and then dissapear when the person wearing it realized he had been noticed.
"Aha!" Steiner thought and turned towards the kitchen to apprehend the AWOL soldier.
But just as he neared the doors, the knight he had seen came barreling out of the kitchen with a muffin grasped firmly in each hand, running for dear life as the ChefMiester chased after him, throwing pots and pans and yelling at the knight in his high pitched, screeching voice.

Steiner was knocked backwards and felt his back hit the railing.

"Phew...that was close. I almost fell!"

However, no sooner had the words came into his mind than the rest of the Meisters employed by the castle, the Ovenmeister, the Dishmeister, and three others, rolled briskly out the door and bumped into Steiner, sending him over the railing and down ten feet to the hard marble floor beneath. Above him, the Meisters giggled and hurried off.

As Steiner lay there moaning and rubbing his collarbone, the knight he had seen before came calmly down the stairs, munching on one of the muffins he had stolen.

"Oh, hey Captain," he called out when he recognized the shiny lump sprawled out across the floor, "want a muffin?" he offered the mound of bread and blueberry.

Steiner forgot how much his entire body was crying in pain, and knocked the blueberry muffin from the guard's hand, sending it flying into the library.

"Hey!! what was that for? that was a good muffin, Captain..."

"NO, NO NO!!!!! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR A MUFFIN!!! NOW WHERE ARE THE REST OF YOUR GOOD FOR NOTHING COHORTS, DOJEBON?!"

Dojebon the knight shrugged nonchalantly and swallowed his last bite of muffin. "It's Sunday. our day off. Remember? Now, can i go please? i have a dot date with Jenny, that guard over there by the tower!"

Steiner was flabbergasted. "Oh..aaahh..yes, go ahead, i suppose i can permit you to leave, then. Er..it was mearly a test..just a test!"

"whatever, Captain. Have a nice day."

Once Dojebon was out of sight, Steiner slouched over, thourougly embarressed.
Someone behind him clapped loudly and chuckled. Steiner knew immediately who it was. "Come to laugh at me again, Beatrix?" He turned around and came face to the face with the second most beautiful woman in Alexandria-(First was Princess Garnet)-General Beatrix.
Beatrix had lost her eye in a battle long long ago, fought against a group of thieves who had ransacked all of the kingdom and burned every village that they pillaged. Despite her hindered eyesight, her beauty was still undeniable. Her hair was a dark auburn, a few shades lighter than Princess Garnet's, and it fell in gorgeous, curly reams around her perfectly shaped cheeks and jawbone. Her eyes were beautiful, dark almond.
Her chest was the biggest part of her small frame. Her breasts were a little too big for the cape and jumpsuit she always wore. As a result, she had an insane ammount of cleavage and her boobs sometimes popped out of her shirt. Down by her thigh hung the world's most finely crafted sword-the "Save the Queen", custom made for Beatrix. It was ledgendary for always being the one weapon Beatrix carried into battle, and it was said that she had once slain one hundred men with it in a single blow. Steiner would never admit it, but deep down he admired Beatrix and her skills.

"Steiner. Steiner? STEINER! Are you listening to me?!"

"Wha--? Oh! Yes, i apologize, what were you saying?"

Beatrix folded her arms and growled at him. "as i was SAYING...the Queen wants to see you and I in her quarters later and introduce us to a guest that will be staying with us in the castle for awhile. Think you can handle that without any fuck-ups, or is that too much to hope for?"

Steiner ignord the insult and prodded "A guest?"

"Yes, a guest. He's a strange looking man, though. He looks extremely old...dressed all in black, and a strange red glow encompasses his chest. I don't trust him, but the Queen says he his very important, so don't do anything to offend him."

Without another word, Beatrix walked off, out through the main gates and into the courtyard. She waited paitently until a boat came and carried her across the river to the city.

Steiner thought he saw her look back at him breifly from the boat, but he decided that he must have just been seeing things. He hurried back upstairs to his quarters.


A moment later, one of the scholars who holed themselves up in the library came upon the muffin in the main lobby.

"Ooo, blueberry!" he shouted, his stomach rumbling from hunger.

Just as he bent to pick it up, a black booted foot came crashing down, smooshing the muffin into a mess of squashed bread. The scholar looked up and came face to face with an ancient looking man who had a feral and malicious glint in his cold, dark black eyes. With a whip of his ankle-length black cape, the man snorted and walked briskly into the library. The scholar shrugged and stood up, noticing Princes Garnet standing on the railing overlooking the floor. He didn't know, but she had witnessed the scene between him and the old man in black. And something about that man had chilled her heart to the very core.

ANOTHER CHAPTER TOMORROW...REVIEW, or i'll stop writing!!