Of Knights and Dragons
D. Gregory/K. Brinkman

Disclaimer: Malachite, Zoicite, and Jedite are the property of Naoko Takaeuchi-sama and the licensees of Sailor Moon. We're not out to infringe on anything, make money from this, or take credit for the source characters. This work, and others like it, are simply expressions of fannish adoration of a wonderful series.

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The bazaar was heady with the sounds and scents of a dozen cultures. The aroma of man and beast mingled with the tantilizing whiff of spicy foods and exotic perfumes. In the midst of this, Lady Azurite was haggling with a vendor over a length of heavy cloth, enough to make a child's coat. She was taller than so many of the others here, her golden tan skin showing richly against the silver gown she wore. Upon closer inspection, the gown was not new, but careful hands kept it in good repair.

At her side was a boy, his messy hair a match for his mother's long pearly tresses. He wasn't more than 6 or 7, his dark blue tunic far too big for him and carefully patched several times over. He peered around his mother's silver skirts at the crowd, carrying a stick in his belt like a sword. As her negotiations began to bore him, the little silver-haired boy watched a lizard dart past, and in his mind's eye, it became a fire-breathing dragon. So, for the good of the city, he set off in hot pursuit.

Lady Azurite looked around, suddenly realizing the boy was gone. The white owl feathers and silver bells braided into her pearlescent hair swinging as she turned her head. "Malachite? Oh.. Gaea." she put her hands on her hips with a frown "....That boy."

In his pursuit of the fierce beast, Malachite suddenly found himself lost. The lizard, without a second thought, dove into a crack in a wall, leaving the boy alone. (I'm not alone) he thought suddenly to himself; wide, tilted platinum eyes darting around nervously. (There's hundreds of gazillions of people in the square. One of them'll know where Mother is)

He peered around another corner of the bazaar, holding onto his stick protectively. There, he startled a fishwife, who shrieked something about the pixies coming for her kippers. Malachite looked around, suddenly frightened that the pixies were after more than just that old woman's kippers, but he didn't see any, and assumed they'd gone somewhere else with a half-disappointed shrug. Wandering through the huge crowd he kicked at a rock. Everyone was so big and he was so little.. how was he supposed to find ANYTHING?

It seemed an eternity until he sat at the edge of an alcove near a sausage seller. The smell of cooking food made him aware of a rumble in his stomach and he hugged his knees miserably. Every time he saw a flash of white or silver, he'd followed, calling to it, only to find it was something else. He wanted to cry. Knights don't cry. Father doesn't cry. (of course these days, all father did was lie there and stare at the ceiling and drool, but Mal couldn't remember him any other way)

A child's crying startled him and he turned around, wiping his nose on his sleeve exactly how his mother had scolded him about a hundred times before, and clutched his stick, looking up at an old woman with frightened grey eyes. Maybe she was a Witch.. or something. Although the two babies with her seemed pretty normal "Sorry.."he muttered apologetically as a pretty blonde boy, not more than a toddler and dressed in rich red velvet pulled at the skirts of the nursemaid. The maid was old, and tired and sitting down on a bench, trying to explain to the whining child that she'd move as soon as she caught her breath. The boy wasn't so convinced. Almost unnoticed, sitting on the ground, playing with shiny stones, was another boy---even smaller. He was wearing an oversized green tunic, no where near as elaborate as the other's. The woman looked up, her wrinkled face startled. "Oh! Child.. you scared me out of a year's growth..."

Malachite felt very bad about this. He didn't think the lady looked like she could afford being scared out of too many years. "I'm sorry.." His stomach made a peculiar gurgling sound. "I..I'm just waiting for my mama."He put his best serious-face on.

The child in red "fwupmped" down on the ground, sulking. The other one looked up, smiling a little, as the nurse, *used* to the young, smiled. "Oh, let me see. Did your mama get lost in the crowd, then?" Malachite looked around nervously, holding the stick. "uhm. yes? There's too many peoples here.." He started to sniffle again..setting his lower lip firm against it.

Then nurse smiled crookedly. "Why don't you come and watch my two charges, there's a brave young man. I'll see if I can find us a sausage while we wait for your Mama?" She looked over the two tiny boys. " Master Jedite? You want a sausage? The boy sulked, but nodded. "Zoicite? I guess it's useless to ask you, hn?" The littlest boy looked up with a grin and offered her a stone. "No.. no thankyou... you keep it." She stood with a protestation of ancient joints and smiled warmly at the lost boy.

Malachite climbed on the bench, his feet dangling over the edge. "Are these your babies?" he asked with the seriousness of the very young. "Oh, goodness no," She repressed a further smile "They're the sons of the His Grace, ArchDuke Endymion. I just watch them." She turnined to the pouter. "Master Jedite, you *be* good!" Then she walked up to the stand, ordering sausages, and whispering something to the keeper's older daughter, who nodded and went off in search of a lady missing her child. The girl ran through the crowd, looking for a good spot "Oi! Lost boy at the saugsage sellers... pretty thing, white hair... !"

Malachite, for his part, wasn't entirely sure who ArchDuke Ennydemon was, but the little boys certainly didn't look like demons. Well, maybe the one in red who looked like he was going to cry at any moment. He poked sullenly at the ground with his beloved stick. There was slight tug at his tunic from the other side. The smaller boy carefully offered him a rock.

Malachite looked down at the runty little boy with the stone. "no thank you. I don't need a rock right now." The stone glinted dully in the sunlight, light washing across its smooth green-striped surface. "Unless it's a magic rock? You think it'll help me find my mama?" He poked at the ground again, shooing the little boy in red off his stick.

The little one made a squeaky noise and tried to reach to put it into his hand. Malachite narrowed his eyes at the little boy in green. "Are *you* a pixie?" The tiny child looked up at him a serious expression on his gaunt face as Malchite took the green stone cautiously. "You're skinny" he pronounced as the boy made a short sound something like a laugh, and oddly enough, nodded. He then reached over and poked his healthier brother in the tummy, giggling.

Malachite betteted himself that the little guy in green was a changeling. He wasn't entirely sure of what that was either, but he'd heard the word a whole bunch of times in his short life.

Ponderously, the nurse walked back up to them, offering the little boy in red and Malachite

a sausage and a piece of bread, while across the market, Azurite was attempting to explain to a guardsman what her missing boy looked like. She wasn't particularly *worried*. Things happened for a reason.. but she'd've hated to lose her boy. He was all she really had at the moment.

A girl's loud voice caught Azurite's ear and she rolled her eyes. Of course he'd ended up near food. She thanked the guardsman politely for his utter lack of help and made her way to the young woman smeared in sausage grease, hollering for all she was worth. It was a usual thing for children to be lost, the merchants found that helping out ended up as good for business.

Azurite peered up at the shouting girl. "Excuse me." her voice was cool and soft. "He wouldn't happen to be about so big.. hair like mine?"

Malachite took the sausage and bread from the nurse with an awkward bow. "Thank you ma'am. Howcome he don't get any?" he pointed at Zoicite, having hidden away his magic rock. The nurse shook her head sadly. "It'll just make him sick... Zoicite doesn't eat much." She produced an apple from her apron like a magician. " I'm going to try to see if he'll eat this, instead." She pulled a small knife and carved a piece of the fruit, holding it out to the little one while the chubbier of the two was happily stuffing the food into his mouth.

Malachite didn't particularly understand, and offered half of his sausage to the tiny boy. "He's skinny." The nurse patted the boy on the head. "He can't eat it, little warrior. But thankyou all the same. His tummy will get mad and send it back up." Malachite looked confused and carefully wrapped the other part of the sausage up in his tunic to save for later. "Is he a changeling?" He nibbled on the sausage, making it last.

Across the bazaar, the girl looked down, almost gasped, then jumped off the box. "Yesm'm...

Lady, that it.. that's him... he's over t' the sausage sellers.. w' the Duke's nursemaid, lady.. 'e's just fine"

"Thank you." Azurite sighed. They had only enough money to buy a few basic necessities whilst they were here... she didn't need to try and pay for sausages too. She felt a little guilty. Things were difficult for them.. and it certainly wasnt HIS fault. Azurite could see the sausage stall from her vantage point, tall as she was, it wasn't too hard.

Malachite watched as the little boy took the apple slice, took a bite, choked a little, but managed to swallow--then politely handed the slice back to the nurse, who glanced started at Malachite. "Changeling?.. why would you think that?"

Malachite finished the half sausage delicately, wiping his fingers on the bread before nibbling that. "I dunno. Cuz.. he's all skinny and green and stuff?" He most assuredly didn't want to tell the old woman about his magic rock:

The old nursemaid laughed. "Well, I *guess* you could think of him that way... he's just sort of sickly... but he's very smart." She didn't want to mention, *better behaved* than his somewhat spoiled twin as Jedite finished his food with a loud belch.

(They don't look much like twins) Mal thought seriously, when he heard the tinkle of silver bells and jumped up, platium eyes wide with hope and delight "Mama!!" The nurse stood up again, straightening her apron with a wrinkled smile "Is she found now, then?"

The woman in the silver gown stood at the enterance to the alcove, a mixture of annoyance and relief washing over her delicate features "Malachite, I have been looking everywhere for you!" The small parcel in her hands shook as she floated more than walked to the nurse. "I'm so sorry.. has he been any trouble?" The nurse's smile relived her "He's a fine gentleman, ma'am. Right as rain he is." The woman shook her head, belatedly offering a bobbed curtsy, on stiff legs. " He's a perfect angel" She glanced down at the still pouting Jed, meaningfully.

The silver-haired boy buried himself in his mother's flowing skirts before looking up at the nurse, suddenly shy. "Thank you ma'am." Azurite sniffed suddenly. "You had sausages, didn't you. Did you steal them?"

The nurse bobbed her head at Malachite "You're welcome, young sir." then paused "Oh, no..goodness. I had to feed Master Jedite, so it was not a hardship to buy another." The littlest boy was leaning forward, trying to look at the shiny lady in the silver dress.

Malachite shook his head fiercely. "I chaseded a dragon and I got all losted and she's the nurse of the Ennydemons and she bought me a sausage!" The nurse covered the smile on her lips with a hand. " ...close enough.."

Azurite curtseyed to the nurse. "My thanks. I wish I could repay you." She carefully picked up the tiny boy in green "And you must be a handful!" The nurse's eyes clouded with unshed tears. "Och, aye he is.." Her tone sounding like she meant it not at all. Grinning, the little boy held out his tiny hand to Azurite and there was a white stone in it. "You keep that, little one. You keep that." Azurite closed her eyes, pressing a light kiss against the boy's cheek before setting him down again. She gently patted the boy in red's hair with a smile. "Thank you again. And you, Sir Knight. Can I trust you to stay at my side?" She watched the little silver head bob up and down. "Good."

The nurse beamed and scooped up Zoicite, who waved, a little scrinchy baby's wave, at the lady and silver-haired boy. Jedite actually smiled and tried to bow.. almost tumbling over on his nose, but he wasn't a *bad* child. Malachite waved his stick in salute to them as his mother dragged him off. His voice trailed out of the alcove like a truant child. "Mama.. what's an ennydemon? what's a changeling? I saved you some sausage.."