Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Why Johnny Can't Read - Now available on VHS and multimedia CD-ROM!

Author's Note: This story isn't new. I had it, until an hour ago, up on my old pen name Garnet Sky. I just finished editing the last chapter and hope you enjoy it and the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I've started the sequel "Time's Reflection." I will only be uploading a few chapters a day, so I don't overload everyone's mailbox.

The Legend's Boy

The baby's cries pierced the still silence. No one living heard.

The little blue man peered over the edge of the dumpster. How could someone just throw away life? Good thing he liked boxes.

Jorge sighed. "Guess I'd better bring the little tike to the King," he said wrapping the near frozen infant in his stocking cap.

Thus began the strange life our favorite ghost boy.

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth," a child's voice trilled from behind the closed doors. "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Tra la la la!"

The guard plugged up his ears and screwed up his face in disgust. Princess Ember could not sing; he wasn't going to be the one to tell her. No siree. He'd probably get sent to Walker's prison again. He'd rather face the Time Master than her father any day.

Jorge sighed and shifted the baby from one arm to the other. How long would this go on?

The doors opened and a girl with blue flames for hair skipped out happily. "Whatcha got?" she asked, peering at the object in the little blue man's arms.

"It's a baby I found abandoned in the human world," he explained gently to the little girl. Princess Ember couldn't sing, but her music packed a punch. The fact that the baby hadn't woken up and bawled along with Ember's howling was a miracle.

"What's abad, abed...that word you used?" she asked.

"Abandoned. It means nobody wanted him and threw him away," Jorge explained.

"How come? That's awful! Can I see him?" Ember asked, climbing up on his lap.

"Let me unwrap him a little," Jorge said, carefully pulling back the blanket so as not to wake the baby. He'd borrowed this from a package heading to Catsby, Florida containing baby items.

Ember oohed over the infant. He had soft, downy hair-black as a raven's wing. She knew something was odd about him.

"He's human!" she exclaimed, causing the baby to stir. He opened his eyes-crystal blue as the day sky. He began to cry.

King Pariah was taking the cotton balls out of his ears and muttered something about sending Ember to get proper singing lessons when the sound reached his ears. A sound he had not heard in many a year.

"He's come. Clockwork was right after all," he murmured.

"Box Ghost! Get your butt in here!" he bellowed on seeing the little blue man sitting on the petitioner's bench, his daughter on his lap peering at the baby the little blue man was holding.