****
Later that day, the brothers once again found themselves ensconced in the regal confines of their father’s grand throne room; this time standing alone as they stared into the sparkling panes of a mystical crystalline orb.
Known as the Soothsayer, this inanimate object was, in reality, anything but; this owing to the currents of whirring emerald energy that radiated free and strong from its surface.
Situated as it was on a bejeweled golden stand, the luminous orb inspired awe and admiration in all that beheld its dazzling majesty.
Or, more accurately, most that beheld its dazzling majesty.
“I simply cannot believe this,” Lachan sniffed, shaking his head from side to side. “Our father insists that we employ the Soothsayer to find our destined queens; ladies that, or so said Soothsayer has told him already, just happen to reside on the Planet Earth. Yet in lieu of actually sending us to Earth, a place that we always have yearned to visit and explore and he well knows it, our father insists that we identify these women with the use of this blasted orb.” The prince paused here, adding in a confidential mumble, “Cheapskate.”
“I well heard that!” announced a regal—and, for that matter, royally ticked—voice that resounded mightily from an adjoining room.
Gabriel grinned.
“In all actuality, Lachan, I can well understand as to why our father has directed us to seek the aid of the Soothsayer in finding our mates,” he reasoned. “If we were to travel the universe in search of our intended wives, then we would find ourselves gone too long from the duties and responsibilities that bind us to this kingdom.”
Lachan shrugged.
“I suppose you’re right. And, for my part, I am most eager to see my future bride and queen,” he admitted, adding as he waved a sturdy hand in the direction of the orb, “Soothsayer, work your magic. Show us the location of our full and destined queen.”
Immediately the orb before them came alive with a certain energy, suddenly luminous with a lovely kaleidoscope of brilliant rainbow-patterned light.
Emerging from this beautiful spectrum was a sharp, defined three-dimensional image that portrayed the vision of a castle, an impressive three-tiered structure whose towers and turrets shone a surreal shade of lavender gold.
“Ah! So, our princesses hail from a mystical kingdom?” Gabriel asked, tone impressed. “Somewhere in the universe?”
Lachan shook his head.
“Wait a moment,” he bid his brother, squinting confused as he strained to read the sign posted just outside the castle’s arched entrance. “This sign reads, ‘The Coffee Castle.’ And look—there seems to be a whole line of people gathering around the front entrance, entering the castle at will with no intervention from guard nor hound.”
The brothers watched in wonder as the image before them dissolved gradually from their vision, soon replaced with an aerial view of what seemed for all intents and purposes to be a grand royal dining room.
Emblazoned along its stone walls with vividly illustrated pennants that depicted steaming cups of coffee, of all things, along with more mysterious potions called cappuccinos.
Standing at the center of this clean-tiled eating space was a short, curvaceous woman who still somehow managed to stand tall behind a shiny railed bar, tossing her disheveled mane of curly brown hair free from her round, fair-skinned face.
“Okay, who here ordered the Royal Roast black coffee?” she bellowed out in a near shriek, adding with a snide smirk, “The very same beverage that I’ve apparently consumed just a bit too much of this morning?”
The brothers laughed, both falling abruptly silent as they froze in their places, their eyes flying wide as they focused on the face and figure of the woman before them.
Although not a slender wraith or any sort of conventional beauty, the woman emitted a current of energy that seemed to catch them both by surprise; a warm wave of magnetic feeling that seemed reinforced by her keen sense of humor and boundless energy.
Her energy reached forth, in fact, to grab them by the heart, flowing free through their beings as their eyes narrowed and their pulses pounded in a single accord.
“My queen.”
These words proclaimed themselves on the wings of a dulcet echo, one that arose from the brothers’ throats in the form of a simultaneous declaration.
A deathly silence fell upon the chamber as Gabriel and Lachan stared at one another, shaking their heads from side to side as both seemed struck by an uncomfortable truth.
“I am sorry, brother, but this woman is the one for me,” Lachan clarified, pinning his brother with a sideways glance. “For when I beheld her, Gabriel, the pounding of my heart and the racing of my pulse told me in full the truth of the tale.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“I felt the same thing, and at exactly the same moment,” he claimed, continuing in a low hushed tone, “Could it be, dear brother, that we will be forced to compete for the hand of our one intended queen?”
Lachan sighed.
“Nay, I know not,” he demurred with a shrug. “The Soothsayer has shown us both this image, and we each near exploded the moment we saw her face.” He paused here, adding as he fixed his brother with a grim, near apologetic look, “So it appears, dear brother, that we may just have to compete for the lady’s favor.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Well, unfortunately, this may be true,” he admitted, adding as he made a broad gesture between them, “Yet how are we to curry her favor at all, when we are thousands of light years away from Earth?”
Lachan smiled, a slow, downright devilish smile that his brother knew meant trouble.
“Brother,” he admonished Gabriel in a slow languid tone. “You well know the answer to that question. I mean really, who better than a mystical dragon prince to woo a fair lady?”