Tales From the Cave-Wally and the Magic Lamp

Opportunity of a Lifetime

"Her Imperial Highness, Royal Princess Artemis!"  Vertigo placed his papers down and heaved a heavy sigh as the sound of firm, angry footsteps sounded towards him.  He reluctantly turned around and bowed low at the waist.  "You wished to see me, Your Highness?"

Artemis stood firm before him, the expression on her face clearly not a happy one.  "The guards took a group of innocent people under arrest!", she said in a firm, clear voice.  "They said they were following YOUR orders!  As the Royal Princess, I demand that you release them at once!"  Vertigo shook his head.  "With all due respect, my lady, those people were not innocent.  They were wanted criminals."  Artemis furrowed her brow further.  "If you know who they were, you'd know they're anything but criminals!"

"But they were!", Vertigo explained to her.  "They committed a serious crime against the crown of Timoria!"  "What crime?!  Whatever it was, they were framed, I know it!"  Vertigo blinked twice.  "Well, kidnapping the princess, of course!"  Artemis took a step back.  "Kidnapping?"

He cleared his throat.  "I have a very reliable source that saw you in the grasp of those savage foreigners.  So I sent our best guards to rescue you from them."  "But they didn't kidnap me!", she cried.  "Nobody kidnapped me!  I ran away!  I was sick of having everything done for me, so I–"  She was interrupted by the horrified look on Vertigo's face.

"Oh, dear...I didn't know.", he said, shaking his head.  "If only I had known...before..."  "Before what?"  Vertigo looked her dead in the eye.  "I'm afraid that the penalty has already been...carried out."  Ignoring the pit forming in her stomach, Artemis looked at him with a raised eyebrow.  "What penalty?"  Vertigo leaned in towards her.  "Death."

Artemis gasped loudly, her hand flying to her mouth.  Moving it to press over her heart, her breathing became heavy as she turned her back to Vertigo, the full force of his words slowly sinking in.  Grinning wickedly, he placed his bony fingers over both her shoulders.  "There, there, now.  T'were only a bunch of street rats."  She whipped her head around to look at him with tears in her eyes.  "How could you?"

Covering her face with her hands, she ran out of the room sobbing, her heart broken into little pieces.  The moment she was out of sight, Vertigo got a call on his holo-watch, hidden under the long sleeves of his robes.  The bulky, scarred face of Vandal Savage appeared on the tiny screen.  "Well?  How did it go?"  Vertigo smiled like a cat that had eaten a canary.  "Oh, I think she took it...rather well."
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The royal gardens was the place in the whole palace that Artemis loved the most. She enjoyed being surrounded by the bright colors and wonderful scents of all the rare and exotic plants and flowers that only grew there. Some of them only bloomed one day a year! And since she didn't have any true human friends at the palace, she made friends with the animals, who all had a home in the gardens. The only animal who didn't live there was Sultan, who followed Artemis everywhere and even slept with her in her room.

When she wasn't busy with royal lessons, important functions, or visiting suitors, Artemis would spend all of her free time in the royal gardens, reading books, doing archery, playing with Sultan and the animals, or even just admiring the view. The royal gardens was the place where Artemis always felt the happiest. But right now, as she lay there, she felt sadder than she had ever been.

Her form lay over the edge of the fountain, in the exact same spot where she sat everyday. Her face was buried in her folded arms, her shoulders heaving up and down with each sob. Sultan slowly walked towards his princess, nudging her in her elbow. She looked up at him, salty water leaking from her grayish eyes and spilling all over her face. "Oh, Sultan...its all my fault." She wiped her reddened eyes. "I've lost him for good this time."