Ashen had finished her story, and bowed out for a quick break. Stretching, she decided a quick walk would refresh her.

She came across a small group eating chocolate cake. She was about to pass them by, thinking she might head to the kitchen and steal a bite, when she heard them comment on the lack of dancing. She paused. Well, it wouldn't harm anything to tell them.

Stepping closer to the group, she said "Pardon the interruption, but I heard you asking about the dancing?" She leaned forward and lowered her voice, "Have you noticed? The Queen isn't here, and they can't officially start the ball without her. She's quite late now... maybe something has happened."

((aww, I hate this. So late!))

Shadowshed was stand still unmoved, as she froze within time, not even hearing anything from outside. Until the atmosphere changed because everyone had left that gang, she awaken by her pain stomach. "Wait, will you? I understand that you are tired, but you know, it's really nothing to eat!" shadowshed yelled at, but something suddenly snapped into her mind.
"I heard that you're going after a ball, perhaps?" shadowshed asked as she turned around and found noone. She froze for a little bit until she decided to visit the castle herself. Man, they're fast! she thought to herself.
At The Castle
*munch munch*
Ah, I never thought that there was bunch of foods!

"Oh my goodness! The queen!" Indra exclaimed. "Oh my, I didn't mean to forget . . . oh, dear! She began to get frantic, being the forgetful person she was.

She took a few deep breathes and calmed down. The queen was just late. Just late. No big deal. No . . . big . . . deal.

Indra grabbed another cake and started to eat it slowly, her appetite suddenly gone. How could they have a party without the queen?

A few minutes past, but they felt like hours. Ashen suddenly pointing out the queen sort of made the party . . . dull. Though Indra had been around for a fair amount of time, she had never seen the queen. And she wanted to.

But . . . how to pass the time . . . Indra tried to think hard. But her thoughts soon wandered and she started to think of Ashen's music . . .

"Music!" Indra thought out loud and pulled her ocarina from out of her pocket. "Ashen, wanna play a song together? I'm bored."

---

For people who don't know what an ocarina looks like, here (scroll down a bit).


It's sort of like a flute.

Ashen didn't realize the girl's voice would be so loud. "Shh!" She hissed, with a quick glance around to see if anyone had heard Indra's exclamation. It didn't look like anyone had. "Not so loud, we don't want people to notice and start panicking. I'm sure everything is going to be fine."

It was quiet for a few moments, and Ashen looked around the room. Besides for the queen being missing for the moment, everything seemed normal. No one seemed to suspect anything was amiss.

"Ashen, wanna play a song together? I'm bored."

When Indra pulled out her ocarina, Ashen grinned. "What fun!" She didn't want to run back to get her lute, and instead pulled out her panpipes. "But can you keep up with me?" She put the pipes to her lips and started a tune.

:.:.:
((OOC: Pan Pipes ))

Yuffie thought about the queen for a moment and wondered where she could be. She quickly ate the cake, and she pulled out her flute. It wasn't as much fun as jumping around, but she wanted to play a song to.

"Of course I can keep up with you!" Indra exclaimed in joy. She didn't know the song Ashen was playing, but she soon caught on to the tune and started playing along.

She noticed Yuffie pull out her flute.

Awesome! Indra thought. This was going to be pure awesome.

Indra closed her eyes and let the music fill her head. It was wonderful. A mini-orcestra of wind instruments. Perfect.

Indra only opened her eyes as they ended this song and started on the next. She had noticed that a small crowd was gathering to listen.

Now this was why she came to the party. This was the life.

Diamondmist stood in stunned silence, letting the melody take over her senses. It was beautiful. For a moment, she almost wished she had taken lessons in music, but then again, she wouldn't have time to train otherwise. Music was a magic different from others.

Quite a crowd was starting to form now. She was lost in the mass of colors.

"Amazing, isn't it?" someone whispered close to her, and she nodded, smiling.

Munching her free foods down into her throat, shadowshed heard some flute's tunes came from a certain spot. It was beautiful, indeed. Playing for the queen? shadowshed wondered to herself. Interested by the melody that give her a bit sleepy face, she stood and walked over to see whoever the player. She had a theory that he/she is definitely a talented and she noticed that they had made the crowd around. Shadowshed was jumping a little to peek to the player. Ah, Yuffie? That's great! I didn't know if she can play that much, though. shadowshed telling herself by.

Yuffie had been so focused on the tune that she didn't even realize the crowd gathering around them. She finnished the song and laughed a little, at seeing the surprised faces of the Amaranthians that surrounded the group. She saw how surprised shadow looked, and she said, "I can't play all the notes... this is fun though!" Yuffie started to play another song and began swaying in time to the music.

Shadowshed stopped to jump as Yuffie moved to another melody. Going to feel it instead, Shade closed her eyes and focused at the sound sound that got in her ears. She smiled at how well it played. But as soon as sleepiness attacked her, she heard of some high pitched strings with from far away. What was that? Gah, ruins everything already? Shadowshed complained again, not even thinking whatever the piercing sound came from.

Indra had heard the noise, too, but she merely shuddered inside and kept on playing to the growing crowd. Some had their eyes closed, some were bouncing, others were trying to push their way to the front.

As this song ended, she slipped her ocarina back into her pocket. Some people looked at her, dissapointed that she had put the ocarina away. But as Ashen and Yuffie started playing again, Indra started to sing.

Indra had no idea why she had started to sing, but she had. She started quietly and meakly, but soon got louder and more confident. She didn't sound as bad as she thought she would.

At the end of the song she noticed that some people were staring at her, showing no emotion at all. Others were staring at the people who were staring at Indra.

Oh great, Indra thought, I've hypnotized them. Why did I start singing? Well, shows what power the voice has, that's for sure.

"Umm . . ." she said to everyone and blushed. "Sorry . . . I . . . I, uh, didn't mean to, er, hypnotize them. Er, all you people that are under my power, you are, uh, released." The people that were staring woke up immediately.

Indra sighed and took out her ocarina again. No more singing. That was for sure.

Oh, great, I've just met a hypnotist. Ashen thought with a slight grimace. She didn't like anything or anyone messing with her mind. She made a note to try and keep on this girl's better side.

In the slight silence that followed, Ashen heard the sound clearly for the first time. "My lute!" she cried.

She gathered up her skirts and pushed through the crowd at a run.

Suddenly Indra heard Ashen exclaim, "My lute!" and then ran off.

This party wasn't going as Indra thought it would. Not at all.

Indra sighed. It all had sounded to good to be true. As the crowd slowly drifted away, Indra thought back to before, in the streets of Amaranthia, with Adept, and shade, and iPink, and . . .

Ryo!

Indra hadn't seen ryp for quite a bit. She wondered where he could be. Maybe he got a concusion and . . . now that was just silly. She had seen him get up.

Indra walked away to go look for ryo.

Yuffie finished the song she had been playing and thought about how very strange this party was. Since when do the musicians run of looking for instruments and hypnotize the crowd? She shook her head and walked away. She put the flute back in its bag and put it by the cinnamon buns. Some of the onlookers looked disappointed, while others just looked confused.
Yuffie decided that it was time to go outside for a breath of air. She liked the atmosphere, but all the people in here made her feel kind of claustrophobic. She stepped out into the brisk evening air.
She stared at the stars and wondered where she could be and what kind of artifact she could be looking at. She took a deep breath and decided to go check on Ryo again. He should have been up by now.

Indra just couldn't find hi.

"Dang!" Indra said out loud. "How does he manage to not be found?!" She stormed out of the castle and sat down on the steps.

She had accidentally hypnotized a crowd of people, lost ryo, the queen wasn't there, and she had lost the rest of the chocolate cakes during her search.

This was just a bad day. Horrible.

Her first party at Amaranthia and it was not as fun as she thought it would be. Not at all.

Diamondmist didn't like this party, so to speak. Sure, it was nice, but no Queen. No fun. No people to blow up.

Indra had already exited, God bless her soul. She was smart.

But so was Diamondmist.

She weaved through the crowd, and tried to locate Indra. Red dress, blue dress, green dress - Indra's dress!

Diamondmist took off in a run, just a Indra stormed out of the castle in a huff. Perhaps she was looking for someone? Probably Ryo. What happened the guy, anyway? Had he drifted to sleep? Had his brain malfunctioned? Had he been hospitalized?

No, all those are ridiculous, Dia thought smilingly, and slowly opened the castle door. She noticed Indra grumpily muttering on the steps, something about today being a bad day. Sigh.

"Looking for Ryo-kun?" Dia sat down beside her,
trying to make conversation.

Indra turned to diamondmist. "Yeah, I am, but it's such a . . . boring party. I mean, with the queen gone, ryo missing . . . and you saw me hypnotize those people, right?"

Indra stomped her foot in frustration and scanned the streets for ryo. She couldn't see him either because he was laying on the ground out of sight or he had entered the castle unoticed.

"Hey, diamond, did you happen to see ryo enter the castle?"

"No, no I didn't."

Diamond confidently nodded, and examined the scenery. "Your hypnotic powers are pretty cool, though."

Dia snapped her fingers and tapped her lip. "Maybe he forgot about it. You know, he's kinda childish. Enough to be distracted by ice-cream."

Indra managed to crack a weak smile and laugh a little bit.

"I know. He is. He's probably laying asleep somewhere dreaming about kittens and the ice cream he never got."

There was a moment of silence before Indra thought of an idea.

"How about we go and do something else to take our minds off of the party. I bet there's at least one shop or restaurand or something like that open today."

"Yeah, okay, I don't mind."

Dia shrugged, and stood. Brushing dust and a bit of lint off her dress, she sat down again. "I hate heels," she grumbled, taking them off and staring at them.
Suddenly, an idea occurred to her.

She calmly broke off the heel with a hand. "Might as well. I have few others, after all. Where should we go?"