Forged From Stardust

The Choosing of the Guard

A Blissey managed to stop themselves from falling as two young Ralts went flying down the hallway, goading one another to race. The poor Pokémon adjusted the pile of linen in their arms and chuckled. The Prince and Princess were lively and full of character and personality, even if they did possess the energy of little electric types.

"Ha! See? I win!" crowed Princess Era, patting her hand against the far wall.

Her brother, Prince Ero, was a second behind her. 

"You got a head's start. It was unfair. You cheated!" He stuck out his tongue at her and grinned. "Besides, the REAL winner is whoever can get back to Eru first!"

He spun in mid-air and went flying back from where they'd come, giggling wildly as his sister flew after him

The Blissey looked along the hallway and felt their heart melting as they caught sight of the tiny Prince Eru, not floating, but toddling along as fast as his baggy Ralts feet could carry him. He tried picking up speed and found himself tumbling forward and landing on his face with a squeak that sounded like a toy. 

"Uh-oh!" Prince Ero could be heard saying as he flew on by.

"Oh no!" Princess Era added, the pair of them eventually reaching their brother on the floor. "What happened? Did you try running again?"

"Up, up," sang Ero, bending down and carefully taking one of Eru's hands. "You wanna go find Mama or Papa?"

"No..." mumbled a pouty faced Eru who was gently guided to his cumbersome feet by his siblings. 

Era and Ero, much like everyone else, tended to treat Eru as though he were made of glass and liable to shatter at any given amount of stress or pressure. He was unsteady with his psychic powers, he couldn't play like his brother and sister could, he bruised easily... Poor Prince Eru was fed up. Worse still, even though they all hatched the same day, there were times that he was accidentally seen as the younger sibling, the baby of the family. This was likely because he had hatched last and was still a noticeable full head shorter that his siblings.

Once he was upright again, he rubbed his horns and dusted himself down.

"And I won," Ero giggled, flashing a mischievous smile at Era who repeated her brother's earlier gesture by sticking her tongue out at him. 

"Children?" suddenly came their mother's voice, echoing pleasantly in their heads through the power of telepathy. "Come to the Training Yard, please. It is important. Remember to hold hands tightly when you come downstairs."

Eru pouted again. That was another way of saying: 'Make sure Eru isn't by himself and don't let him fall.' While Era and Ero had learnt how to harness their psychic power to the point where they could float and teleport, Eru seemed to be struggling and couldn't seem to maintain it long nor could he seem to teleport further than a meter away. His mother suspected the reason why but, for the moment, it annoyed Eru. 

His annoyance grew when he felt Era and Ero take him by his tiny hands again.

They teleported to the staircase and floated down, carrying their brother between them until they reached the bottom.

Guards and Castle Staff stood aside and bowed their heads to the trio of tiny tots and they waved merrily back. Along they went until they reached the Barracks and the Training Yard where the Guards and Knights and Soldiers trained. 

From the sounds of constant carpeted footfall and muffled noises of doors opening and shutting, the Barracks and Training Yard offered a whole new orchestra of noise. Distant booms of moves being practiced presented the audio backdrop for the harmony of swords and shields clashing and arrows thudding into targets. Some soldiers were even practising their hand to hand and threw each other through the air with yells and shouts and an occasional bout of laughter.