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The following is a story of Voltron I made up based on the T.V. cartoon Voltron by World Events Productions. I did not have World Events Productions' permission to do the story and therefore it does not have World Events Productions' endorsement.

After the announcement of the princess’s plans to marry Keith, a wedding date was soon set. Then news of it was sent across the kingdoms of Arus. But there was still the problem of choosing rings for each other. Both Keith and Allura were very concerned over finding the other the perfect ring. Keith was also concerned over how he could pay for any ring once he found one, but was more concerned about finding the right ring in the first place.

Late that same night of the day of the wedding announcement, lightning struck the black lion. But what was unusual was that afterward the black lion sat up into a ready position by itself. The lion’s eyes glowed and a misty spirit-like white lion began to appear and envelop the black lion. Bright white diamond crystals formed over the black lion's own glowing eyes. Then the misty spirit-like white lion flashed forward and the diamond crystal eyes covering the black lion’s own glowing eyes disappeared into the flash. The flash went from the lion’s head to striking the ground like a fast ball of lightning that dissipated and revealed in its place a strange old white-haired man with lion-like features in his face. The diamond crystals that were over the black lion’s eyes, covered the lion-like man’s eyes. The man removed the crystals from his eyes, one in each hand, revealing the man’s own black and mysterious cat-like eyes. Suddenly, a large misty image of an angel-like creature appeared in the air near the man. (See Omega Comet story synopsis.) It was the same creature the Voltron force met when they came back to life after being dead.

The man looked up at the creature and said, “The time of the awakening of the white lion is at hand. It will come during the rule of the new King and Queen of Planet Arus.”

“Wherever you go, Voltron, I am there with you, “ said the angel-like creature and then it faded away.

“Under the new rulers of Planet Arus, the memory of the white lion becomes real with these gifts of pieces of me as reminders.”

Then the lion-like man rubbed the diamond crystals together in his hands. When he opened his hands again, there were two rings. The queen’s ring had a large solitaire cut so that it was in the shape of a seven-point star in the middle with raised ridges starting in the center of the ring that radiated out to the tip of each one of the seven points. Between each set of two points the diamond was cut in the shape of a heart with a raised ridge on each side of the heart. The solitaire was set in a bright silver colored circle-shaped backing. The band was a magnificently shiny gold color. The king’s ring had seven diamonds in the shape of seven-point stars that could all be seen on the front of the ring and were cut the same way as the center of the queen’s ring’s solitaire. The seven diamonds were set in a band of bright silver with two bands of gold above and below it. The gold band above was slightly wider than the gold band below, and the gold colors did not touch the star diamonds of the ring.

Then the man closed his hands back over the rings each held and walked away until he disappeared from the moonlight into a nearby woods.

When morning came, Keith was up with the rising sun and left the castle to go to a nearby village to see a jewelry merchant to begin his search for the ring for the woman of his heart. He still didn’t know how he’d pay for it, but felt he had to do something to begin the search.

Before Keith had arrived at the village, the lion-like man was already there and looked as though a beggar would standing at a street corner. The man was friendly with people and showed them the treasure he held in his right hand, which was the queen’s ring.

Keith arrived at the village and noticed several people were stopping to see a beggar-like man on a street corner. But Keith took little notice and focused on his mission of finding Princess Allura the perfect ring. Then he walked into a jewelry store. The merchant of coarse recognized him and was eager to offer assistance for whatever Keith wanted. But when Keith told the merchant that he was looking for a wedding ring for the princess, the merchant said in a disappointed tone, “Only the most beautiful ring of Arus is worthy of our princess, and sadly I don’t have it. The man in the street has the most beautiful diamond ring beyond what I would have imagined could exist. That’s the ring that should belong to our princess.”

“The man just outside on the street corner?” asked Keith sounding surprised.

“Why, yes. That’s where he was when I saw him,” answered the merchant.

“Thank you,” said Keith just before he turned away and hastily exited the store.

The beggar-like man who was on a street corner was gone! Keith ran across the street to the corner and looked around, but didn’t see the man anywhere. He politely stopped a woman walking by and asked if she had seen where the man had went. She pointed in a direction and said that he had gone past some buildings and probably into the woods not far behind them. She also added that the man said he lives in the caves and that no one she knew had ever seen him before. Keith thanked her and ran off in the direction she had pointed. Behind the buildings, he was outside the village again. Just 70 yards or so ahead of him was the old man, just 10 feet short of entering the woods.

“Wait!” yelled Keith desperately as he ran at his top speed toward the man. Before Keith could reach him though, the man had walked into the woods. Seconds after the man was out of sight, Keith was also in the woods, but the old man was nowhere to be seen.

Keith turned, looking in every direction before him in the woods and then yelled as loud as he could “Stop! Where are you?” but no one answered. “Where could he have gone?” question Keith aloud, perplexed.

He remembered the woman had said that the old man lived in the caves. His immediate response after the thought was to begin making his way through the woods toward the caves. Suddenly, Keith stopped, drew his laser gun, and thought. The recent happenings he had just experienced were all so strange and not realistic at all. It was likely the doings of Witch Hagar. Or was he just overreacting? Perhaps the old man was just hard of hearing and he couldn’t see the old man once he reached the woods. Keith looked about him turning stealthily, laser gun still drawn. He saw nothing indicating danger, but still strongly suspected a trap by Witch Hagar. He paged Lance directly back at the castle using a communication device on a wristband. He told Lance all of what had happened.

“It sounds far fetched for Hagar,” said Lance. “She would have had to have known you were going to go to that village and why you were going. You hadn’t told anyone you were going and she’s not a mind reader. Still, who knows? I’ll make sure we’re ready here at the castle in case there’s any trouble. And of coarse you’ll be careful.”

“Of coarse. If she is here, at least it won’t be a surprise anymore. Keith out.”

Keith continued on briskly but cautiously through the woods toward where the caves were. Finally he was out of the woods and had reached the caves, usually only used for an emergency escape by the people from enemy attack. There were many, many cave entrances. Keith paused and glanced over all of them. Then without thought of puzzling over it, Keith entered the mouth of the nearest cave. He was still being cautious about Hagar being behind it all and was ready to face her with his gun drawn.

“Are you looking for someone?”

Keith swiftly turned in the direction he of the voice , ready to fire his gun. “It’s you,” Keith simply stated as he watched the old lion-like man step out of the shadows of the cave and into the sunlight that was coming in.

“Your majesty, you don’t need a gun on me,” said the man.

Keith felt strangely calm. He lowered his gun and put it away.

“I’m not royalty,” said Keith.

“That’s only a matter of time, and time doesn’t matter. What are you looking for?”

“A ring for Princess Allura.”

“Ahhh, now that’s a matter of timing and sometimes timing is everything.”

“I was told you had the most beautiful diamond ring in all of Arus.”

“It is for the queen.” The man took Keith’s right hand with his left and covered Keith’s hand with his right hand, placing the queen’s diamond ring into Keith’s hand. Then the old man took his hands away and Keith was amazed by the appearance of the ring he then held in his hand.

“What do I owe you for such a ring?” asked Keith.

“It is a gift, your majesty. You owe me nothing of your service. My services are what I owe to you as my obligation.”

Keith looked deep into the ring, stunned by its beauty and the generosity of the old man.

“Who are you?” asked Keith still staring at the ring. “I can’t accept this from you for free.”

Then Keith glanced up from the ring to look at the old man, but he was gone!

On Keith’s way back to the castle, he got a call from Lance on his wristband. Lance was as mad as he dared to be with his captain. Keith had totally forgot about letting Lance know that everything was OK and that Witch Hagar wasn’t around. Keith simply apologized without a hint of embarrassment (although he was feeling a little disconcerted that he forgot) and then added that the man he was following had given him the perfect ring for Princess Allura. When Keith was back at the castle, he showed Lance and Hunk and Pidge the ring. Lance was so stunned by the ring’s beauty that he was no longer perplexed by how Keith could forget to inform him that everything was OK.

On the day Keith had gone to find a ring, Allura hadn’t begun a search for finding him a ring yet. Nanny had insisted on beginning other wedding plans. However, other castle servants knew that Keith had left the castle for a good portion of the day, and rumor had it that he was searching for a wedding ring for the princess. Soon the princess also heard word of the rumor, and she became more anxious than ever to begin looking for the perfect ring for Keith. But she wouldn’t have a chance to begin looking until the next day.

The next morning the princess was up before daylight, and she sneaked out of the castle just as the sun was beginning to show. She headed to begin her search in the village with the most popular jewelry merchant on Arus. It was the same store Keith had first stopped at. The man was known for his fine jewelry and for his knowledge of what merchandise all the other jewelers of Arus had to offer. He honestly shared the information with his customers to help them find exactly what they wanted. Most often, what they wanted was in his store. As a precaution for her own safety and in case she was direly needed for something, Allura had informed Lance the day before that she would be gone, but no one else knew. Nanny, of coarse, would have a fit when she found out the princess was gone because there was so much planning she wanted to get to right away that the princess didn’t consider as important as finding Keith’s ring. Allura trusted that Lance wouldn’t let on that he knew where she was unless it was an emergency.

Once she arrived at the village, the princess went straight to the jewelry store and entered it. She was wearing her long royal dress since she was visiting her people. The merchant was shocked to see the princess.

“Princess!” exclaimed the merchant feeling humble. “What brings you here, your highness?”

“I’m looking for the most magnificent ring for a king,” replied Allura.

“Your highness, I’m afraid I don’t have what you want.”

Princess Allura was surprised that he was suggesting that another jeweler would have something better. “If you don’t have it, who would?”

“I don’t know if he’ll have it or not,” said the merchant being careful not to give away where Keith may have gotten his ring for the princess. And he didn’t know whether that man who had the most dazzling ring beyond what the jeweler would have imagined, also had any other noteworthy jewelry or not. He wasn’t even sure if Keith had been able to get the ring for the princess from the man or not. “I know of a man who has been known to have jewelry who may have what you’re looking for.”

“Where is he located?” inquired the princess.

“Rumor has it that he stays in the caves,” replied the merchant, not suspecting that the princess would actually go there on her own.

“Thank you,” said Allura, and she put some gold coins on the man’s counter.

“Your highness, I can’t accept this. You haven’t bought anything.”

“It’s a gift.”

“Then please also accept a gift from me to you.” The merchant took down a long blue velvet covered box from behind him and opened it in front of the princess on the counter. Inside was a beautiful necklace with a huge teardrop shaped white diamond as a center stone surrounded by small blue diamonds with two small white diamonds on either side of it and two large blue diamonds on either side of those that were surrounded by small white diamonds and two more small white diamonds on either side of those. It was attached to silver and gold colored chains twisted together with a tiny white diamond set in each spot where there was a twist.

(Picture by Sheila Bliss)

“It’s so beautiful!” exclaimed the princess. “It would be a perfect wedding necklace!”

“That’s what it was made for,” said the man. “It’s yours.”

“Thank you. It’s perfect. You’re so generous.”

“My pleasure, your highness.”

Allura closed the box and put it in a very deep pocket of her dress, the same pocket where she was keeping a small bag of gold coins. Then she bid the merchant goodbye, left the store, and was on her way to the caves. She first started walking through the same forest Keith had been in. She didn’t expect that Lance would ever suspect that she would be in the caves so she made a call to him over the wristband she wore. She explained to him where she was going and why.

“Not you, too,” mumbled Lance.

“What was that, Lance?” asked the princess.

“Ahh, nothing,” said Lance not wanting to give away where Keith had gotten the princess’s ring, and then he quickly added, “Princess, everyone was frantic over you being gone. I told them you went out to make personal visits to your people.”

“Why’d you tell them where I went?”

“If I hadn’t, they were ready to declare a kingdom emergency. Nanny and Coran of coarse are fuming because I didn’t say something sooner and stop you. They’d really have my hide if they knew I knew you were going off to the caves.”

“I just wanted to let you know where I was in case an emergency came up.”

“Or if something happened to you, and you better be careful that nothing does happen to you, or like I said, Nanny and Coran will have my hide if they knew where you were at.”

“Oh, Lance, everything will be fine as long as there aren’t any emergencies back there at the castle.”

“Just get back here safe and sound and soon. Lance out.”

Allura walked on and eventually was through the woods and was standing before the caves. She looked both ways at the many caves.

“Hello!” she yelled. “Is anybody out there?”

She thought she heard something move in the cave just in front of her so she walked on inside of it. She went as far as she could before it was too dark to see.

“Hello!” she called into the darkness. “Is anybody here?”

Then she saw the glow of a torch light farther on in the cave, and she walked on into the darkness to see what or who it was. It got to the point that she turned a couple of gradual corners in the cave and behind her the entrance to the cave could no longer be seen. Then the glow of the torch fire disappeared. Allura wasn’t carrying any sort of flashlight on her and it was pitch black in the cave. She started to feel a little panicked, but she stayed calm and tried to think of what to do.

“Your highness?” questioned a strange voice from behind her.

Allura made a startled gasp and quickly turned around. There before her, holding a torch was the old lion-like man. Her mouth was open in shock for a moment before she closed it and swallowed.

“Are you the man who lives in these caves?” the princess almost stammered.

“I am here. What do you want of me, your highness?”

“I am looking for the most magnificent ring for a king. I was told I may find it with you.”

“And so you have,” said the man raising his right hand where he was holding the ring for Keith vertically between his thumb and forefinger with all seven white diamonds showing. The man took Allura’s right hand with his other hand and placed the ring in her palm. “For the king.”

“It’s perfect!” exclaimed Allura and she smiled at the man in gratitude. Not taking her eyes off him, she placed the ring in her left hand, and then reached into her pocket and took out a bag full of what was left of the gold coins she had brought. The man held out his left hand as if to accept the princess’s payment. But as Allura poured the gold coins out into the man’s hand, she stared in astonishment at the coins falling straight through the man’s hand as if nothing was ever there at all. Then the hand became transparent and faded away all together. The princess looked up from her gaze, but the man was nowhere to be seen. The torch he had carried was all that was left to be seen of him, and it was secure in a holder in the wall.

“Father?” ventured Allura aloud. “No, it couldn’t have been him.”

Then she began to wonder if any of it had been real at all. She looked at her left hand where her pinkie and ring finger were pressing down hard. She opened her fingers and saw the dazzling ring. Then she knew all she had just experienced had to have been real, and closed her fingers tightly to hold the ring.

“Thank you!” she called out into the darkness beyond the torch.

Allura reached into her right pocket and took out the necklace case and carefully opened it. Then she placed the ring inside, closed the case, and put it back in her pocket. After she put the gold coins on the ground back into the bag and into her pocket with the necklace case, she took the torch down from the holder on the cave wall. For a moment she was fascinated by the flame and then glanced back at the wall. Strangely, the holder was no longer there! Using the torch, she found her way back to daylight. When daylight was strong enough to show her way, the torch suddenly went out. Allura dropped it on the cave floor. She didn’t notice, but after she dropped the torch, it also disappeared. She walked on until she was out of the cave. Then she called Lance to let him know she was on her way back.

When Allura was back, she was startled when she came across Keith just inside the castle entrance. “Keith!” she gasped a little when she saw him.

“Allura,” said Keith calmly, a smile on his face. “You know they’re worried sick about you.”

“And you weren’t?”

“Oh, I was, but I knew Lance knew where you were, and then I trusted that you’d be OK.”

“How’d you know Lance knew?”

“The stress of trying to keep it a secret was written all over him. I could tell. And I know what you were really doing.”

“And what’s that?”

“The same thing as what I did yesterday.”

Allura giggled a little. “Yes, that’s right, but I’ll bet I didn’t go to the same place you did!” she said recounting in her mind the mysterious experience she had just had finding Keith’s ring.

“No, I’ll bet you didn’t,” agreed Keith confident that she would have never come across the strange old man he did.

Coran and Nanny were quite upset with the princess. After they both ranted a while at her about her irresponsibility with her own safety, she took out the necklace case and showed them the diamond necklace and ring. They were so stunned by the beauty of the jewelry that they immediately calmed down and practically forgot about their anger. Nanny even commented, “I’m happy that part of the wedding planning is taken care of.” Both Coran and Nanny commented on how they were impressed by the jewelry.

The princess thanked them and closed the box again and put it back in her pocket. She told Nanny that she looked forward to continuing on more wedding plans tomorrow and then graciously excused herself from their presence.

Next she tracked down Lance who was trying to avoid talking with anyone until he knew the princess was back. He was very interested in seeing what she had found (especially since has had already seen what Keith had found and he knew that the princess must have gotten the ring for Keith from the same person). Both the ring and the necklace impressed Lance. Then the princess finally found Hunk and Pidge and she showed them the jewelry. They were also impressed.

Commentary: I don't know what sort of monetary system Planet Arus would have. I don't remember seeing an exchange of money on Arus in any of the episodes. I suppose they could be a cashless society. But I decided that perhaps there was some sort of monetary system, and therefore I have Allura carrying money. I don’t remember an animated episode showing her with any pockets in her dress, but I decided to add that. At least there weren’t any episodes saying she didn’t have pockets. In the animated episodes, it seemed to me as though Lance had a “feel“ for when Witch Hagar was around. So I use that in my fiction. In the animated series I’ve seen the characters use a communications device from off their belts, but it seems that I’ve also seen them use a wristband communications system. The jewelry merchant is someone I made up and not a character from the animated series. I debated on not writing this story about the rings at all. For me it bordered on being just too fanciful, especially in Wedding Magic, where they are a big part of the plot. But, I wanted to keep all the drama of Wedding Terror, and the story of Keith and Allura’s wedding rings kept popping up in my imagination, so I decided to go with it. I also made and addition of the rings to The White Lion, because I had posted that story first, and at the time I had decided to leave the rings out.

[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]

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