Legend of the Seven Lights

14. Master and Servant

Sorry I took so long with this, but I developed an unhealthy interest in horror RPGs. It's not that they're scary, they're just... tear-jerking. Anyway.

Chapter 14: Master and Servant

Sand Kingdom

Things were quiet in the castle of sand. At this time of night, one would expect every living soul to be asleep. ...Well, not quite.

King Sandy quietly creaked open the door to his daughter's room. "Sheeeellyyyy." The princess seemed bundled up comfily under her blanket. "Shelly?" Sandy crept a bit closer. "I need to borrow Gonshiri for a bit, so if it would please you..." He noticed the part-open drawer and gently pulled it all the way.

A swarm of tiny, frantic Pikmin hopped out and began scampering all around the floor by his feet. With a gasp, Sandy threw open his daughter's covers. All there was of her was a snoozing sand sculpture. "SHELLY!!"

The beach princess was high-tailing down the halls as alarms blared. Several Round Towel Knights appeared to block Shelly's way, "Princess, what is-" but she stomped the ground and sunk them in sinkholes before escaping. When knights were charging at her from both directions, Shelly dove out a window and thrusted her arms forward to make part of the sand wall stick out and catch her, then carefully lowered herself down. Knights on the outer wall fired beachball bombs from catapults, which Shelly dropped down and dodged, landed on the wall and hopped off, then faced the castle as she stomped the ground with all her force, sending a quake through the wall.

"UUWAAAAAAHHH!" A chunk of the castle came falling down as Sandy plummeted with it. In the confusion, Shelly spun a hole open in the ground and hopped in.

Five minutes passed before Sandy finally helped himself out of the rubble. But while trying to fix his crown on, he jumped when seven dark figures appeared behind him. "Had a little accident, did we?" asked the slim, middle man in a dark voice.

"Heheh... no accounting for sand-tidal waves."

"Where is the princess?"

"Ummmm... funny story, she was with my daughter a few hours ago, and then um, well they, sort of, elop-" In a blink, the hooded man zipped up and took him by the shirt.

"We were told the Minish would be in YOUR possession when we arrived... were we misled?"

"It-...It was just a small-HPP!" The man thrusted two fingers into Sandy's waist, piercing perfectly.

"You used up your last request." He removed his fingers and threw Sandy to the ground. "We wasted our time here. But since we're close to Azultown anyway, there's one more meat we can find." And so they vanished in a blink.

The seven figures were flying through the night sky, the shortest one spotting a cloud of dust progressing across the surface. "Hold your stars 'n' garters! Somethin's moving down there."

"It's probably just a sandworm. There're thousands of them here. CP10... let's move out!" One at a time, the assassins vanished.

That trail of smoke eventually came to a stop, 'til Shelly popped out of the ground, knocking sand from her ears. She then pulled her nose up, and let Gonshiri drop to her finger from her right nostril. "Uck! I pray for ANY sentient being my size to borrow your living quarters."

"Hey it was the best place I could think of without swinging you out, at least we're AWAY from them."

"I don't understand... why do YOU wanna protect me? Whaddyou have to..."