The Prince and The Pauper

Chapter 3

~.Royal POV.~

Godith looked up at the cloud, which had its grasp on his sons, the only remainder of the family he once had. He summoned his sword, but he knew it would be useless since the cloud was a, well, cloud. There was no way he could fight that!

It had all happened so fast...

~.Flashback.~

Godith watched Black Mist go with Astral. He knew he had shaken his son, but how else was he going to teach him a lesson. What he really wanted to do was teach him how to control that darkness, but no one nor himself knew how. It had never happened in his family.

He walked over to a giant, glass window and looked down at the humans going about their day nervously. They were shooting glances and glares whenever they thought the royal guards weren't looking, but oh, they were! If they could, they would have killed every human that ever looked at them, but the king ordered them to ignore it.

Suddenly, dark clouds surrounded the palace. King Godith and the servants looked up at the glass roof to see those clouds accumulating on the glass. They realized with horror that it was trying to break in.

"Call the guards!" he ordered one servant. "Get them and tell them to gather at the castle!!"

Scared of what the king would do if he didn't, the servant nodded, bowed, and quickly went to get the guards.

The knights in the castle as well as the guards outside all gathered in the throne room. One seemed breathless, as if he saw something horrifying.

"Th...the princes..." he gasped. It took him a while to get his message through clearly.

"Speak!" Godith roared.

"The princes...they're gone!"

~.End of Flashback.~

"What do we do, your majesty?" one gaurd asked. "How do we fight it?"

King Godith frowned. "We cannot."

~.Human POV.~

Cathy made a nervous sound that resembled a cat's when she saw the huge cloud. "Nyah, what is it?" she asked nervously.

Yuma looked up at it, too. He wondered why the two stuck in there weren't moving at all. Didn't they want to fight back?

Kotori looked closer at the two, then she gasped. "They're unconscoius!"

"What? How?" Tetsuo frowned. "Now ain't a good time to be taking naps."

"They're not taking a nap!" Flip yelled at Tetsuo. "Are you blind or something!"

Then, Yuma saw something weird. It looked like the black one was being sucked in to the center. The others saw this, too. They mumbled among themselves, then they ran outside.

~Royal POV.~

Astral woke up in mid air. At first, he was confused until he remembered. Memories rushed in like a ton of bricks.

~.Flashback.~

Astral and Black Mist were looking over the city while enjoying their tea and pastry, which was cake and some other sweet breads. With the breeze washing over them, they forgot about the whole traumatizing thing and just talked about when they were little.

"Remember when we used to pull random pranks?" laughed Black Mist. "You would always go along since I was the younger one and I would whine if you didn't."

Astral chuckled and nodded. "Yes, I remember. Father would get angry if we did something too rough."

The twins laughed at the memory of them as children. How reckless they were!

Something strange caught Astral's eye. He saw some kind of dark cloud. At first, he didn't pay any mind to it since it was probably a storm cloud. Black Mist noticed it, too.

"Brother, do you think there may be another storm?" he asked, looking up at the sky.

"I do not know. Maybe."

Suddenly, dark wisps trailed off of the cloud. They circled around the two and stayed there. It was as if it was sensing them.

Then, with a yelp, Black Mist was suddenly being pulled toward the sky. His black hands grasped wildly for something, anything, he could hold on to. Astral grabbed his arms and pulled him away from the wind. They had no idea what was happening, but it wasn't good.

"This is not a storm!" Astral yelled over the whipping winds.

Black Mist squeezed his eyes shut and held on tightly. Neither of them wanted to be separated from the other. To be separated was like losing a part of themselves; they weren't going to have that!

"Don't let go of me!" Black Mist pleaded.

"Never!"

And they didn't. Instead, the wind picked them both up and into the core of the cloud.

~.End of Flashback.~

Astral gasped and realized that his brother wasn't with him. He scanned the area he could in search of him, but he couldn't move a muscle to turn around and see. Panic overwhelmed him. He strained against the tendrils until he came free.

"Black Mist!" he called.

No response. This made Astral worry.

Flying on his own energy, he whipped his head around and scanned in a 360 until he found him. There, being pulled into the center, Black Mist's limp body was spotted.

He flew after him and grabbed his arm. The cloud's tendrils grew stronger to get the prince to its way.

"Let go!" Astral grunted. "Let go of him!"

Still, the cloud didn't let go. It had no intention of giving him back.

"Does it have a mind of its own?" Astral thought aloud. "That would be strange..."

The cloud made some kind of solid hand and slapped him away. Astral yelped in pain and surprise, stars dancing in his vision as he hit the ground.

~.Human POV.~

The friends stopped abruptly when they saw a cloud of dust. They covered their mouths and noses, shut their eyes, and fanned their hands in front of them to keep the debris away.

When it all settled, they saw a form get up and draw a sword. It was the same ghost guy who was looking for his brother. He had a determined look on his face, as if something was taken from him, and he intended on getting it back.

The sword he drew was very peculiar. It had a rubber handle with what would have been a normal blade if not for the electricity hissing all around it.

The being's eyes settled on the humans. It seemed to scan them, decide whether thry were friend or foe, and then flew up.

"Who is that?" Takashi mumbled. "This is the second time we saw him."

"Nyah, I don't know," said Cathy. "Is he trying to fight off the cloud?"

"Dunno." Yuma looked up at the ghost. "I don't think you can fight a cloud."