But Children can Dream

From TFC Galactopedia

Aris looked to where the cry was coming from, "What the hell?"

Her younger sister Lais looked, too, and wrinkled her nose, "What happened? Hmm?"

Aris pushed her hyperactive sibling out of the way, "I can't see if you don't move..."

A young echidna girl had tripped and scraped her leg, "Ehh.. she's fine..whatta crybaby..."

Lais snatched the ball away from Aris, "Well, she's still sitting there... Maybe we should check on her."

Aris snatched it back, then looked at the sniffling little girl sitting on the marbled courtyard of the Temple. Aris and her sister were on Daktia to rendevue with the young Duchess, the girl they'd no doubt be guarding for most of their lives when she came of age. They were waiting for their mother, one of the present Honor Guard, to finish her meeting and had run off to play near one of the temples. The Temple, being Amazonian and a symbol of the Amazonian presence there was beautiful, and one of the few uncrowded places near Sovereign Kain's Palace. A perfect place for visiting Amazon children to play.

"'Ey you." Aris glared out from under her fringe of red, unevenly cropped hair.

The purple furred girl looked up, still sniffling, "Hai?"

"Uhm..." Aris wasn't good at talking to people she'd just met, she'd rather just kick and shove until she got her way.

Lais was the more social of the two, "Are you okay? Hey, stop cryin. Lemme see your leg. This one, hai you skinned it bad, didn'tcha?"

The girl just blinked at her with large violet eyes.

"I'm Lais. This is Aris, my sister."

The girl just kept blinking.

"You havva name, ne?" Aris squinted at her.

A nod.

"Well what issit?!" Aris almost yelled exasperately.

"Sumire."

"Violet, huh? Thas fittin'."

Lais looked around, "We should get it cleaned or it'll get.. in..in...infemected."

Aris nodded at the temple, "Tis water in there." She noticed a feline watering the plants hung in the temple walls, "Hey!"

The girl came over, she was dressed in the outfit of a preistess, "Hmm?" She yawned.

"You have some water and an adhesive strip?"

She nodded sleepily, "Mmhmm.. wait here."

The preistess was named Fatima, she was an orphan and was under apprenticeship at the temple. After delivering what they requested she went to sleep in the shade. The sun had become hot and they soon joined her under the tree.

After a moment the Empress looked over at the Palace and pointed at a window, "Who's that?"

Aris looked over. A small husky girl was looking at them intently. She started waving at them.

"Aa, that's Charis. Her momma's on the Honor Guard, too. Why's she waving at us? She's really smart and I hear she's stuck up."

"You don't hear anything, you just make it up," Lais said evenly, "And you're stuck up, too."

"Am not."

"Are ta."

"Am not."

"Are ta."

"People are tryin ta' sleep over here," mumbled Fatima lazily.

Soon, members of the Honor Guard: Victoria of Pygromache, Vesta of Aquamache, Cleo of Aria, and The Empress Mother, and Sovereign Kain exited the Palace. Vesta was accompanied by a small, blonde version of herself, Charis. She once again began trying to wave Aris and Lais over discreetly but Aris didn't pay attention.

Shockingly enough, Kain and the Empress came right up to them, along with their mother, Victoria. Aris, Lais and Fatima (who had managed to wake herself up long enough for coherence) all bowed but Violet ran right up to the Empress and latched onto her leg. Aris almost fell over from shock, no matter WHO you are, you do not TOUCH the Empress Mother!

The Empress didn't seem to mind, she only looked over at Kain, "My daughter."

Charis glared at Aris from behind Vesta's leg, "I tried to tell you."

The Empress Mother sighed upsetly, "Well, I just don't like the idea of leaving her in the Palace by herself. And I can't take her with me... not in the middle of the night...Why did they have to call a senate meeting now?!"

"I kin watch myself, momma-na." The Duchess chased a golden hovering ball around, climbing over furniture, much less subdued then she was around the other little girls.

Daphne sighed and snatched up her daughter, "Maybe if you hadn't frightened away all the nurses..."

“They were mean.”

“Yes, I know.”

“I can watch her, Daphne.”

Violet snuggled deeper into her mother’s arms and squinted at Kain. She didn’t know him very well. 

Daphne’s eyes shimmered and she clasped her hands, a gesture that would be trademark to her daughter when she was gone, “Oh, Kain, you darling, would you? You know I don’t trust anyone with her...”

He nodded, “Daktia welcomes you and your family as long as there is still breath in mine.”

Violet didn’t want to cause trouble for her mother, so she decided to just deal with her situation. She was put into Kain’s arms and she watched as her mother pulled on her cloak and left, escorted by the Honor Guard.

Kain felt the little girl in his arms sigh sadly, “You really love your mother.”

She looked up at him, “Yes.”

“Your Daktian is very good.”

“Thank you.”

“Perhaps you should go to bed.” Kain had to admit that he didn’t know very much about children.

“Kin you tell any stories?”

“Um... yes. I believe so.” He made his way down the hall to the child’s room.

“Okay.”

Kain found a purple ball of warmth curled against his neck when he awoke. Not accustomed to purple balls under his neck, he poked it. It responded with a squeak but didn't move. Kain sat up and the ball migrated to the top of his head. Kain started the long task of trying to gently pull the Duchess from his hair.

"Sovereign Kain, if you'd review this fi-..." The assitant's voice trailed off, "Sovereign?"

"Yes?"

"Ah... you have ah.. something in your hair."

"Yes, I know." Kain handed back the file with his signature, "Is that all?"

"Ah...yes. Thank you."

It was midday in the garden when Violet finally awakened. By this time most of the palace staff was sure that Sovereign Kain had an odd new hat or had contracted some kind of awful Amazon disease.

"Did you sleep well?" Kain looked upwards.

"Hai."

"I didn't know children slept so much."

"Night on Kawaii tis longer. Longer rotation."

"I see. Is there a reason you chose to sleep on my head?"

She batted at one of his feathers, "Hai. You're nice."

"Thank you." Kain lifted her off his head and set her on the grass, his staff snapped to his hand. He practiced a series of movements with his staff. Better not to use the lightsaber around her.

"Kain-sama?" The Duchess spoke after a moment.

"Yes?"

"Will you marry me when I grow up?"

"Aren't I bit a old for you?"

"No."

"I'm sure there's a much more... fitting person for you, Little One," he brushed his hair back, "Someone within your lifetime..." He said under his breath.

She wrinkled her nose, "Na. Aris says all boys jes wanna marry girls ta' drive em crazy."

The Daktian coughed. "I'm a boy."

"Na, you're a warrior," she nodded decidedly, "An' momma-na likes you already so it's okay."

"Well, what if I don't want to get married?" He swept her up with his tail and caught her in mid air gently.

Violet folded her arms and put her small nose in the air, "Then 'twould tie you up an' take you home an' make you!"

"Oh really?" He smiled bemusedly.

"Hai." She frowned at him a little, she didn't see what was so funny.

He put her on his shoulder and retrieved his staff, "Oh, but what if you found a better warrior than me? Would you leave me for him?"

She thought a bit, "No, that would... deviate you."

"Devestate?"

"That too."

Kain coughed again, but now she was fairly sure he was laughing at her.