LEO & LYRA – Part 2

But, far off in her palace of darkness; Scorpio, a scorpion tailed wicked space witch was watching Lyra through her magic telescope and, when she saw the glittering crystal crown upon Lyra’s head she was very jealous.

“What a darling crown”, she said, “How it sparkles and glimmers. It should be mine, all mine and it will be once I’ve stolen it off of that awful, little brat Lyra”.

And so, Scorpio wrote out a fake message and gave it to one of her pet meteors who she told to deliver it to Leo and the meteor immediately shot off across the sky to Leo’s sparkling star palace with the fake message in its mouth and, when Leo read the message, he said to Lyra, “Oh dear!
I am sorry Lyra but my cousins Jim and Jem, the Gemini twins are in terrible trouble and I must go and help them”.

Lyra was sad to see her friend, the star lion go off so suddenly but he told her that she would be safe and well in his palace.

“Whatever you wish for, the palace will provide. If you are hungry, just wish for food, anything you desire, and the palace will bring it to you on a crystal plate and if you are thirsty, just wish for something to drink, anything you desire, and the palace will bring it to you in a crystal goblet”,
he said before leaping upwards into the sky and flying off in the direction of Gemini.

And then, Lyra went into her crystal bedroom and sat upon her golden bed and, because she was hungry and thirsty, she wished for a plate of fairy cakes and a glass of lemonade and they appeared, just like that, in front of her.

“Hmm?”, thought Lyra, smiling “Perhaps this might be a fun place to live”.

But, far off in her palace of darkness, Scorpio was still watching through her magic telescope and, as soon as she saw Leo leave the palace to go and help the twins, she got into her miniature flying saucer, put on her pointy helmet and flew directly to Leo’s star palace.

“What are you doing wearing that crown?”, asked Scorpio angrily, storming into Leo’s palace and Lyra’s bedroom, “That crown belongs to me!”.

Lyra was very shocked, surprised and confused when she heard this, “I’m sorry”, she said to the old witch, “I don’t know who you are but you must be mistaken because Leo the lion gave me this crown. It was a present from him”.

“Hmmph! Well, I can see that you’re new around here”, said the space witch, “Otherwise you’d know that I am Scorpio, the space witch and you’d also know that I lent that pretty, sparkling crown to Leo to keep safe for me and he had no business giving it as a present to anyone, so hand it over right now!”.

And Scorpio held out her hand to take the crown and Lyra, who was a good and honest girl, was about to hand over the crown to Scorpio when the crown itself lit up with a bright, white light and started to speak:

“Don’t believe her, Lyra”, said the crown, “She’s a no good liar and a thief and I never ever have belonged to her. Leo made me out of starlight just for you and you alone”.

And so, listening to her talking crown, Lyra refused to hand it over to the Space witch.

But this made Scorpio very angry, “Well then”, she said, “I had hoped to do this the easy way, through use of my immeasurable cleverness and cunning, but I see that I shall have to take that pretty crown by force”.

And then Scorpio raised up her scorpion tail and Lyra saw that, at the end of it, was a black magic wand with a dark crystal star upon it and, immediately a flash of black lightning shot out of the end of it with a loud zapping sound and the next moment Lyra discovered that she was no longer in Leo’s glittering star palace but in Scorpio’s black crystal dungeon and that her magic star crystal crown was gone.

To be Continued….