A monkey jumps around and tugs on a colorful skirt filled with design and embroidery. It was a beautiful morning in Regalo, the birds singing and the laughter of the children could be heard on the streets as they chased each other in the crowds. It truly was a lovely day to go out and have fun. But apparently not everyone was.
The monkey tugged on the skirt again. He usually dances to the music of whichever instruments his master plays. May it be a lute, bagpipe, violin, or flute, whichever. But today his master didn't seem to be in the mood to play music outside her tent and wait for bystanders to toss coins to a pouch or hat that his master had laid on the street. This might be a day that she would attract customers into her tent which to him boring since he won't be doing anything but watch.
"Not now, Shandor," says his master as he continues to tug on the skirt. The monkey looks up at his owner with pitiful eyes. He was bored and wanted to entertain himself. He looks up at his owner again. She was a beautiful gypsy, busy with making herself a new bandanna which has an even more complex design. She seemed discouraged that she hasn't had plenty of customers lately.
The monkey whimpers, "I'm sorry. Perhaps I'll have time later." she says with a reassuring smile. He climbs on the chair and unto her shoulder and watched her fingers move in rhythm. He jumps on the table to grab a banana, "Shandor, please behave yourself." He looks at her emerald eyes which seemed to glitter, "If you want to be of some help to me please behave." He jumps off the table at this. Wanting to have some fun he crawls out of the tent and out into the street. This isn't his first time though. Then he recalls robbing people who had glittering necklaces with huge bright stones and enjoys seeing their owners run after him to get them back. So, he climbs on the stalls and looks out for people with shiny objects.
It wasn't long antil he sees a hooded figure taking out a pouch filled with precious stones. He immediately climbs and runs to the figure. Pickpocketing is a piece of cake, he puffs up his chest in pride and grabbed it successfully. The figure who turned out to be a man shouts tries to grab it back. He taunts him as he moves away from the man and waves the pouch around. He cries in frustration which eventually caught the attention of his companions who tries to help him out. But in vain.
The monkey laughs and starts heading back to the tent. And of course the man and his companions runs after him. He successfully returns to the tent with the men close by.
"Shandor! Where did you go?" shouts the gypsy with her hands in her hips. He trembles at the glare on her face, "Where did you get?!" she says seeing a pouch in his hands, "You better return that or you won't be having any dinner tonight." At the same time the hooded man bursts into the tent surprising the gypsy.
The man's eyes wandered around the room. It was filled it interesting objects which he was sure he never saw before. As his eyes looked ahead of him, and there before him was a dark skinned woman with emerald eyes and a beauty mark near her right eye. She also long flowing black hair, her messy bangs nearly covering her right eye. She was wearing a white shirt that revealed her stomach, the sleeves that were somewhat loose that flies as she walked towards him. Her red skirt swerving in her movement. She was also wearing a headband. And he noticed that she was wearing plenty of accessories, several bangles on either wrist, a golden web necklace and earrings. But what dazzled him most were her eyes which glittered and shined like stars with a beauty mark near her left eye. And he noted her cute apologetic smile. He stares at her curvaceous figure until he sees the monkey in her arms. And a pouch in his hands.
The gypsy immediately figured that the man might be the owner of the purse, "Are you the owner of this purse?" He only nods. Stunned by her beauty. As she walked to him he notices that she moves in grace, "Shandor, return the pouch." she commands the monkey who obediently obliges. The man watches in wonder as the monkey holds out the pouch to his face, "I apologize for his behavior." she continues with an apologetic face.
"Oh, not at all. I feel grateful to him for leading me to such a lovely woman." he says and kisses the back of her hand. She flashes a radiant smile which seemed to blow his soul away.
"To make it up to you for the trouble he caused," she says a moment later, "I would tell you your fortune for free."
"Ah--I'm not really into those things." he replies.
"Now, now. There's always a first time." she says letting her monkey climb unto her shoulder. She leads him to a table covered with a fine-looking, scarlet table cloth and on it was a crystal ball. He sees a stand and on it was a sleeping falcon. The gypsy notices this and says, "Ah, that's Ada. I found her with a broken wing and took care of her until she was in good health. She never left me since then."
"Ah, so you like animals?" He asks flirtatiously. She only nods with a dazzling smile on her face.
The gypsy gestures him to a chair, "Please take a seat." she says and he quickly obeys. After taking his seat, she walks to the other side of the table and took her seat there.
His eyes watches her hand reach under the table and revealed cards. The gypsy's hand gently took the crystal ball and put it under the table. After she did that, her hands swiftly placed the cards in a smooth curved line with the cards just within her reach, "So, what do you want to know?. Will you find a girl? Will you be rich?" she says showing cards with pictures and continues, "A bright future?"
"I want to know if my purpose of being here will succeed." He curtly replies. She just smiles, mouthing "Ah." The man watched her hands shuffle the cards as swiftly as before and again laid them before him, but this time in a straight line.
The gypsy smiled sweetly, "Pick a card, stranger." The man's hand hovers over a card and finally stopped and picked one.
"Okay. Before you show me the card. . . could you please tell me what your purpose of being here in this wonderful island of Regalo is?" The gypsy asks holding her hands together, then laying her chin on them.
The man smiles and replies in a sly tone, "You see. . . I was sent here by my master in search of a s--girl. . . a runaway. . ." The gypsy's smile disappeared and her expression became serious. The man continues, "My master misses her very much and would want her back. . ." He glances at her curious eyes as he continues, " And I guess that you are right about you showing me wonders that I've never seen before," she raises her right eyebrow at this, "Well, you see. . . I, too, can actually read these--" he gives her the card as he looks down, "cards," he glances back at her. Her eyes showed great horror and her hands were trembling, she stares at him when he continued, "And my card says. . . I will." The man advances at her, but she quickly overturns the table in his way and runs out. The monkey screams waking the falcon who flies out off the tent.
"Get her!" The gypsy turns her head and sees the man jump on a wagon along with a few other men. She quickened her pace and went through alleyways trying to shake them off. Her feet ran as fast as they could, avoiding cats, garbage and such along the way. She pants as she reaches the other side. She looks around and realizes that she has reached the marketplace. Seeing none of the men she sighs in relief. Turning her way she suddenly hears screams and shouts. And the beeping of a wagon. As the wagon emerges, she recognizes the hooded man.
She draws a pistol from under her garments and starts shooting at the wagon
As wagon headed her way, her eyes catches sight of a little boy, no more than a four-year old. And it was in the wagon's way. She felt her legs run towards him and her arms quickly scoops him out of the way in just in the nick of time. Sure of being out of harm's way, she felt her blood boil in rage as the man jumps of the wagon. A woman suddenly runs towards the boy and hastily gives her her thanks and runs away at the moment of seeing the man and the gypsy have a face-off. The gypsy watches the man signal other men as they emerged from the crowd. Her hand quickly pulls off her skirt without hesitation, revealing a pair of pants in its place. Her hand grabs a whip that as wrapped around her stomach and started demonstrating her skill for a bit, hoping that it would discourage them. But they went after her anyway.
As they came after her, she started advancing on them knocking them down, outbalancing them and striking them with her whip. Each fell one by one until it was only the hooded man left standing.
"I see that you are more skilled than I expected," the man smirked, "I underestimated you. . . I should have faced you myself and have this done and over with." She stiffened at this and came at him. He only blocked her kicks and punches until he gave her one which pushed her back, but she quickly regained her posture. She sees a spoon and uses her whip to grab it and tries hitting him with it. The man only avoids it until finally his hand grabs it and pulls it. Angelica felt herself get pulled of the ground and felt a strong punch, sending her flying into a stall. Quickly coming back to her senses she gets up at lunges at him.
**************
Nova and some of the patrol were just walking towards the market that fine morning. It was actually just 8 o'clock and twenty-two minutes in the the town clock. He and the patrol soon hear screaming and saw people hurriedly run away from the market.
"To the market!" he barks as he ran alongside his fellow patrolmen. Once they arrived there he sees a hooded figure and a girl, apparently a gypsy, fighting each other fiercely. Neither of them seem to want to back down. He signals the others as they came upon them. The hooded figure turned out to be a man who notices Nova start attacking him with a katana. Seeing her chance, the gypsy attempts to attack the man only to be restrained by a tall man wearing glasses.
She struggles to get free when he whispers in her ear, "Now, now. Why don't we just let them fight their battle and we watch, okay?"
"This doesn't concern you!"
"It does when it gets more people hurt then needed." he says with a smile.
She smiles, "I never thought I'd get restrained by the an Arcana member." she slyly says.
"Hehe, there's a first time for everything." he says, chuckling. The gypsy stops struggling, realizing her defeat. She lifts her head to watch the battle.
The hooded man blocks Nova's blows as they spar, "Why are you disturbing the peace in Regalo?" Nova barks as the two backed away. He continues, "And that girl. . . she is a friendly and harmless fortu--"
"I only came here to pick up something," he interrupt, smirking while pointing at the girl Pace was restraining, "she ran away from home and I'm just doing my job by bringing her back. Apparently, I'll have to use force to do so!"
"I'll borrow this!" shouts the gypsy as she grabs a sword from one of the Acrana member's halter. She attacks the hooded figure as he lunges at Nova. The other members stood like statues, surprised that she successfully worms herself out of Pace's grasp.
"Persistent I see." says the man.
"Who are you??" demands the gypsy as she sparred with the man, "Who are you to claim that you know me??" He only laughs.
"What?" he says in a taunting manner, "Have you already forgotten me, Angelica?" She backs off at the sound of her name. The members muttered in surprise to themselves wondering why she backed of at the name Angelica. The people in Regalo know her as Nadya. Why is she stunned at his remark?
The man lunges at her again and she moves aout in the nick of time. But he somehow manages to swipe at her necklace, cutting it off. In a blink of an eye, the gypsy changed her looks. Her skin became fair and her eyes turned into a beautiful shade of violet.The men stare in utter shock, full of wonder at what they had just seen.
"There that's better," says the hooded man, "You look much lovelier that way." The gypsy glares and tries to attack him again but only to be blocked by Nova.
"That's enough. We'll handle this man," he says to the gypsy. Then he turns to Pace who in turn restrains her once again, "Don't let her escape." Nova lunges at the man as the others try to assist him. But the man seemed to be anticipating this and attacks them. Then he attacks Nova who only steps out of the way.
The man tries to attack Nova again but quickly stops when he saw several other men gather behind him. He frowns in frustration and says, "I guess I won't be able to do so now. . . maybe next time." He throws purple dust unto the ground and smoke quickly engulfed him. A loud bang follows. Then when the smoke dispersed, Nova and the others frown and wonder what he was talking about or at least what did he want with the girl.
"Who was that man?" Liberta asks Nova who seemed to be in deep thought.
"I do not know," he replies. He turns to the direction of the girl from before, "Are you--" He was interrupted by the sight of her clutching her side as blood flowed, her eyes wide filled with pain. Pace looked at Nova and followed his eyes to the girl. He gasps at the sight of her realizing that he let her get hurt. She raises her hand and stared at her blood before she faints. The others noticed this as well and quickly rushed to her aid.
"Boys!" shouts a feminine voice. The patrol recognizes it as Felicita's and slowly turned to her direction. Before them was an angry Felicita followed by Luca and Dante, "How could you possibly forget about the girl through out the whole scene??" She rushes towards them, she just sighs instead of hurting them for their failure. She jumps back with her eyes wide once she sees the gypsy's face.
Liberta notices this and asks, "Are you all right, Felicita? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Her eyes trembled as the men wrap the girl's wound with gauge, "She's the fortune teller near Federica's. What happened? She looks. . . different." She watches Dante carry her in his arms.
"I'll explain later." says Nova.
The men turned to her and asked, "What will we do with her?"
"Let's bring her to the mansion," she says, "And I want some of you to gather her belongings. We wouldn't want anyone taking her stuff."
"Yes, ma'am!" replies some men and walked off.
"Why are we taking her to the mansion?" asks Nova who didn't seem to like the idea at all, "There's a hospital we could bring her to."
"Who cares?!" exclaims Debito placing his arm around Nova's shoulders, "Look at that pretty face of hers. . . that bel fiore--angelo. She looks lovelier than from before." Nova shakes his head and turns to Felicita.
"She is a very kind lady," says Felicita, "she may be a gypsy, but she gives food to the needy. And she's also very nice--and charming. So, I'd like to return the favor. . ." she pauses and suddenly exclaims, "Quickly! She might die of blood loss!!" She urges the others to move quickly and they did.