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Tittle: Arabian Knight
Chapter: 1
Rating: PG : one cuss word
Author: Lady Hiko
Email:  [email protected]


	Our story begins long ago, during a time of ancient kings and thieves.
The time is unknown, but the setting is in an ancient Arabic nation.  There
lived a great sultan in this kingdom whose wife was expecting.  He loved her
very much even though their marriage was arranged.  As the months went by, the
sultana's stomach grew bigger and bigger.  Soon she was confined to the palace
due to her advanced condition.

	One day, while moping around, feeling like a cow, she began to ponder about her
soon to be born child.  She thought it was a boy, but there were no eligible
princesses around, and no neighboring kingdoms had pregnant queens.  What was
she to do with him once the sultan died?  Who would rule by his side?  As she
pondered this, the sultan silently slipped into the room.  She looked
distraught, he observed.  This wasn't suiting to his sultana.  He silently
walked across the room.  Slipping his arms around her large form, he asked,
"What is wrong my queen?"

	Not daring to look into his deep blue eyes, she lied, "Nothing my king."  He
knew that was wrong so he pressured on, "You're lying..."and delicately lifted
her chin up so their eyes would meet.  She got lost in his deep blue eyes, as he
lost himself in her amber ones.  She couldn't lye; "I worry about our son..."

	"How do you know it is a boy," he questioned, showing his quirky smirk.  "It is
just a feeling I have, call it woman's intuition."  He stifled a smirk and bent
down and gave her a little kiss.  "Don't worry, if we have a son, I will search,
even if it is till the edge of Asia, to find him a suitable wife.  Everything
will be fine." He gave her one another small kiss again before leaving.

	Later that evening, while preparing for her bath, she suddenly felt a sharp
pain on her abdomen, and water on the floor.  <Shit!  My water broke! >  In
desperation she called out to her young servant, "Cheryl!  Come quick!"  A young
woman of about twenty, with long red hair, came running into the room and gasped
at the sight.  There laid the sultana, on the floor, in labor.  "Quick!  Get the
midwife!" she called out to the other servants.
	Several hours later...
	Screaming could be heard from the sultana's chambers.  Slowly it died down out
of exhaustion until a baby's cry was heard.  It bellowed throughout the palace. 
The sultan was waiting outside the door, he never could handle matters like
this, stomach was too queasy or something.  The young midwife walked out, wiping
sweat from her brow before telling the king he may go in.

	Hidden in the seclusion of her draped canopy bed laid his sultana, his
Alexandria.  She lain there with her long auburn hair strewn all about her,
amber eyes closed, clutching her new son to her now frail form.  The boy had
short black hair, like his mother, and deep cobalt eyes like his father.  He was
so small and pink, as do all newborns look.  He yawned and sighed in his tired
mother's arms.  Only one word came to mind.
	Endymion.

	The next full moon...
	The sultan left his palace in the dead of night, leaving his wife and newborn
son in charge.
	" Please do not leave me," the sultana cried.
	" Don't worry, I shall return.  I won't take long."
	And with one last kiss, he was gone.

	For nights the sultana cried, clutching Endymion to herself, rocking,
whispering, "He will return, he will return, he will return, he will return..."
but in her head one thought always remained <But when? >

	The years went on, and she learned to toughen up.  Many of her servants
believed that the sultan would not return, but in her heart, she still believed. 
She raised her son to be as kind and gentle as the sultan, but he was always
distant.  Still she waited.

@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$@$

	Four years had past, and he had not found a suitable bride for his son.  Sure,
he was still only a tot, but he would find one none the less.  He had looked at
every toddler princess from Europe to the edge of Asia, and still no girl.  He
had about given up, until an old fisherman told him a tale of a hidden island
kingdom.  One untouched from current civilization for thousands of years, feudal
Japan.
	Hope rose in the sultan; he had one last chance to fulfill his promise.  So he
paid the fisherman handsomely and set sail to Japan with the fisherman at hand.
	The sea was stormy, and rolled the tiny vessel about, but they made it.  Now
there was one thing you had to know about feudal Japan, with enough money, you
could buy anything, even a princess's hand off the emperor.  So with that, the
sultan bought his way into the palace.

	He looked from daughter to daughter, all looking the same to him.  Sure, they
were beautiful in their own ways, but they all had the same dull brown eyes, the
same dull black hair.  None really stuck out to him.  He was in the last room
when he heard the pained cry of a mother in labor.  The empress was having
another child.

	The screaming lasted on for hours, until the pained cries were cut off by a new
sound, the sound of new life.  The sultan asked to be let in to see the new
child, and for an extra fee, the emperor obliged.

	Inside the empress laid, with a small bundle in hands.  The emperor peered in
the bundle and drew back mad.
	"Another DAUGHTER!!" He cried out.  " I don't NEED another daughter!  I need a
son!  I need an heir!  What am I supposed to do with another daughter?!"
	While the emperor kept rambling on, the sultan peered in the bundle and saw a
vision.  Amongst the black haired brown-eyed princesses of the palace was this
angel.  Abnormally long silken tendrils of gold flowed from the child's head,
caressing her currently pink head.  Slowly she opened her tiny eyes, revealing
their endless blues.  She just stared at him, peering only at him and not her
parents as if to say, "What took you so long?"

	And it was then arranged that he would take her with him after one year, and
would be accompanied by her nanny, Luna. The emperor did not care about this new
child, so he decided that the naming should be left to the sultan who had bought
her.  Peering into the deep blue orbs secluded by the abnormally long silken
strands of gold, only one word came to mind.  Serenity.

 There were no tearful good-byes as she left.  Serenity and her parents never
really bonded, so it was an easy goodbye.

	Now that the sultan had a suitable bride for his worthy son that he had barely
even known.  They traveled for three years through roughed mountains and endless
steppes, all the while, the little Japanese princess was growing up.  Even at a
young age, Luna was teaching her martial arts, and educating the girl the best
the servant could.  Sure, about half of this passed over Serenity's head, but
the stuff that stuck was valuable, and she was becoming less clumsy every day. 
Her exceedingly lengthy hair was now kept up in twin buns, odangos, on top of
her head.  She seemed to become more beautiful every day, while the sultan's
health conditions worsened upon the fortnight.

	The sultana, in need of air, stepped out on her balcony, taking in the warmth
of the sun.  It was a glorious day, even if He wasn't there.  Alexandria
intended on enjoying it.  The wind whipped about her face, cooling and soothing
her all at once.  And that is when she spotted it, the royal caravan, marked
with a symbol she had not seen in years, a slightly raised circle of gold.  Her
breath caught in her throat, her beloved was home.  She rushed down the halls,
barely missing bewildered servants as she zipped on by.

	Reaching the base of the palace, she threw open the doors, rushing to the
caravan before it even stopped.  She pried open the entryway to the compartment
that she knew was her husband's.  There he lay,  moaning of pain.