Diamond Hearts: A Diamond Castle Fanfiction

4 Two Scoundrels Arrive

After a long flight, Slyder returned to Lydia's cave. "I found her, mistress," he said with a bow.

"Where is she?" Lydia scoffed. "I'm in no mood for games."

Slyder fumbled for the mirror he had collected. "Here, here. She's hiding in the mirror. I saw her singing."

"Oh, really?" She took the mirror and put on a nice facade. "Melody... Auntie Lydia would like to have a word with you. Melody?" All she saw was her increasingly agitated face staring back at her. She turned to Slyder and yelled "Where did you find this?"

"She was singing with two other girls near a cottage," Slyder whimpered. "One with light hair and one with dark hair."

"Take me to them."

.  .  .

Before us stretched a field of flowers, which was ten times bigger than our former garden, and framed with mountains. I inhaled the scent of wildflowers and sighed. "It's beyond
beautiful." The intoxicating flowers reminded me of how tired I was. Hopefully we would run into a town soon.

I pulled out Melody to check how much farther we had to walk. "We made it," she said happily. "The Valley of Flowers! There should also be a village just beyond those hills."

We definitely wouldn't get there until sundown at least. Better keep moving. Just as I started walking again, Alexa grabbed my arm and pointed at a rustling bush. I hid Melody in my
basket.

"Snake!"

I doubted there were snakes way out here. Then again, I didn't exactly know where "here" was. Could it be dangerous?

A Cocker Spaniel puppy anticlimactically fell out of the bush.

"Cutest snake I've ever seen," I laughed, bending down to pick up the puppy.

"Okay, okay, I was only trying to protect you," Alexa grumbled. Her face lit up as she lifted a second dog from the ground, this time a white Terrier. "Aw, look at you? Aren't you the cutest thing?"

Admittedly, it was strange to find two random dogs in the middle of nowhere, but I had a talking mirror in my basket so I was ready to accept anything.

"Where'd they come from?" I asked Alexa. "There's nobody around for miles."

"They must be lost." She shrugged. "Look, they're friends!"

The two dogs had wiggled out of our arms and were now playing.

"We can't leave them here. They'll starve." I bit my lip. Saving the puppies would mean two more mouths to feed.

"Hey, that tickles!" Melody laughed.

The Cocker Spaniel dragged her out of the basket and licked her.

I scooped up the dog and held Melody in my free hand. "What do you think, Melody? She's a keeper, right?"

Melody gave a goofy grin. "Aw, look at her sparkly little eyes. You have to keep her."

"Sparkles, I like that. I hereby name you Sparkles." The Cocker Spaniel looked at me, perking up at her new name.

I glanced over at Alexa, who was letting her new dog lick every inch of her face. "And what should we call this little one?" she put on a baby voice. "Your name is Lily, like the
beautiful flower, yes it is!"

"Can we please keep them?" pleaded Melody.

"I think we have room for two more," I said. No point saying no now that they had names. "Oh, I bet you little guys are hungry though, aren't you?"