LEO & LYRA - Part 4

Scorpio was admiring herself in her mirror and how pretty she thought she looked in the crystal crown which she had stolen when she heard a loud cracking sound and saw a hole suddenly appear in the floor and Lyra and Libra rise up out of it.

“Hmmph!”, she said, angrily, “I don’t know how you and that scatterbrained clod Libra managed to escape from my dungeon but I’ll soon put a stop to the pair of you!”.

And Scorpio raised up her tail and pointed the wicked magic wand which it held at Lyra and Libra.

“Erm? What do I do now?”, said Libra, “There are a whole plethora of potential possibilities; so many things I could do. If only I could make up my mind which was best”.

“Use the coin to decide”, said Lyra, hiding behind her magical friend.

“Oh yes, ofcourse, the coin”, said Libra, smiling and looking round about him for the old penny that Lyra had given him.

But, unfortunately, Libra had dropped the coin when they had soared up out of Scorpio’s dungeon,
“I don’t have it!”, he said, panicking, “And I don’t know how I’ll ever make up my mind without it”.

Suddenly, however, Lyra, Libra and the old scorpion tailed space witch heard a booming voice calling from outside Scorpio’s palace.

“Magic crown, magic crown, tell me where you are!”, said the voice.

It was the voice of Leo and he was searching for Lyra and the magic crystal crown and, the moment that the magic crown heard Leo’s voice, it lit up with a bright, white light and called out in answer to him, “I am here Leo, in Scorpio’s dark crystal palace and Lyra and Libra are here with me”.

“Rhinestone tattle-tale!”, said Scorpio, angrily, taking off the magic crown and hurling it to the floor before summoning and climbing into her miniature flying saucer, “I’m not staying here to get my tail bitten off by that mangy lion”.

And then, the next thing that Lyra and Libra heard was a mighty, thunderous roar as Leo bounded into Scorpio’s palace.

“Oh, Leo! I’m so glad to see you”, said Lyra, running up to her lion friend and cuddling him round the neck.

“When I reached Gemini, the twins Jim and
Jem told me that they hadn’t sent a message at
all and so I realized that someone had tricked
me into leaving the palace and I rushed back
home as fast as I could and then, when I found you and the crown missing, I immediately went
out searching for you. Space is a very big haystack however and you, Lyra, such a small needle. Thankfully the magic crown told me
where to find you”, said Leo.

“Well it’s a good thing that you arrived when you did cousin Leo”, said Libra, “But, unfortunately that old cosmic hag, Scorpio has gotten away in her flying saucer”.

“Not so, Libra”, said Jim and Jem, the
Gemini twins simultaneously, entering
Scorpio’s throne room carrying a net covered
and bundled up Scorpio in their arms, “When
Leo returned to his palace, we came along with him and were waiting outside to catch Scorpio when the sting-tailed villainess tried to make her escape”.

Now it was Scorpio’s turn to spend time in Leo’s dungeons and Lyra returned to Leo’s palace where
he arranged a spectacular display of synchronized shooting stars in her honour and they had an enormous banquet of the most delicious foods that Lyra had ever tasted and, afterwards, all the stars of the Zodiac, apart from Scorpio that is, took part in a beautiful Zodiac waltz to the music of the spheres.

But, after all the partying and celebrations were over, Lyra started to feel a little homesick and she wished up a magic telescope with which to see her homeworld, town and little grey house and, when she saw her mother and father, a tear rolled from her right eye and, falling across the universe, landed upon a rose in the garden of her house.

“Even though they may not miss me, I do miss my home and parents so much”, she said to Libra, the scales, “But I also like it here with Leo, so I can’t decide if I should stay or go home”.

“That is a dilemma”, replied Libra, weighing up her options, “On one hand, since you helped me to escape from Scorpio’s dungeon, wisdom has started returning to your world and so you may find your home a much nicer and happier place than when you left but, on the other hand, Leo and all
of us stars like you very much and would really love you to stay”.

But then they heard a hearty laugh behind them and, turning, Lyra saw Leo, “There’s no need to look so glum, little Lyra. The crown which I gave you will allow you to travel back and forth between the stars and earth whenever you please. All you have to do is make a wish”.

And so Lyra closed her eyes tightly and dreamed of home, speaking these words,

“Where my heart most longs to be,
crystal crown, please carry me”.

And, when Lyra opened her eyes once more, she discovered that she was no longer in the palace of Leo but in the house of her mother and father.

However, they were not the mean mother and father that Lyra remembered. They were warm, friendly, loving, happy parents who hugged her as soon as they saw her and even her mean little town had transformed too. The sky above was blue and bright and children were laughing and playing nice, friendly games together. It was what she had always dreamed of it being.

“Oh thank you, Leo, thank you”, she said, looking up at the sky.

Then, suddenly, she saw a lion in the sky high above and heard Leo's voice saying, “It was you, Lyra. You did it all”.