Chapter Eight

Gold Fly Pudding

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. . ." Sten murmured loudly around the hand cuffed over his nose and mouth. The group was now in the septic cavern. Katt was trying not to gag. Nina was pale, and sitting by the edge of the stairwell, refusing to go any further. And Ryu was thanking the gods that he had a mouth to breathe through, so he wouldn't have to use his nose.

"Kuh-'bon, lez fide dat ring and ged the hell oudda hewe. . ." He told them, not using his nose to breathe or aid in speech.

Those who would search gingerly stepped around puddles of stagnant liquid, and piles of. . . unmentionable things. . . No one was making any movement to sift through the piles for the ring. Ryu hoped beyond hope it wasn't buried under a pile of . . . ugh. . .

"Hey! I think I found it!" Sten shouted, standing near a filth-encrusted spigot. He was pointing into a thick, viscous, dark, dank, evil-smelling stream. Everyone was there in short order, looking at where he was pointing. Sure enough, just under the waterline, sitting about a foot or so off shore, was the ring.

The Royal Ring was an interesting work of art. Three times larger than a human ring, it was specifically made for Simafort people. It had two stones, side by side, set at a bit of an angle to the band of the ring itself, for style, and the stones themselves were a strange, black material, clear, with white flecks suspended in them like tiny stars in the night sky. Staring too long at them, one tended to believe they were actually seeing the night sky, captured into the two stones, and put in the ring.

"How're we gonna reach it?" Katt asked. "None of us have anything that can reach it."

Ryu knelt near the edge of the brackish water. "Hmm. .. Hey Sten, could you reach it if we gave you something to reach with?"

The old monkey judged the distance, and nodded. "But I'd need something at least a foot long, to cover the depth of the water. Do we have anything like that?"

Katt looked around and then gave a little shout of discovery. She reached into an nearby pile of kitchen refuse, and pulled out a slightly old, rotting carrot. "Will this do?"

Sten took the carrot, and then, leaning out as far as he could (with the others holding one of his arms to keep him him from falling in) he carefully began to try and hook the ring's band on the tip of the carrot. After many long moments, he managed to rasp out "I think. .. I . .. Have it. . ."

He began to raise the carrot, with a sigh of relief so everyone could see the twin, sparkling black stones set at an angle on the head of the ring. Everyone was about to pull him back when . . .it happened.

The tip of the carrot, the tip of the vegetable, had held its rotted form long enough to serve the group's purpose, but when the weight of the ring was added. . . it gave out. Everyone watched in horror as an entire half of the sloughed off and away, and the ring fell into the mucky water. With the carrot like a buoy, the ring floated downstream, while everyone could just stare in amazed horror.

"Quick! After it!" Ryu shouted, and let go of Sten, sprinting off after the swiftly fleeing ring. Unsupported, Sten windmilled his arms, desperately trying not to fall in, before falling back on his rear on the bank.

"Hey! I nearly fell in!" He whined, watching everyone run after the ring. Seeing no one was even attentive to his near dunking, he got up and trudged after the others. "No one cares about me. . ."

***

"Split up!" Ryu ordered Katt and Sten. "It's gotta drift by down this stream at some point. One of us needs to intercept it."

The two nodded, and then ran off, to different points in the twisting, turning river of sludge.

Ryu himself ran between piles of refuse and garbage, and planted himself a little further down stream. A few minutes passed, and then in the murky water he saw a glimmer. "I see it! It's here!. .. But I can't get to it. Too far! Who's the next one down stream?"

Ryu watched the glimmer move, and fade, as it moved out of his line of sight. "Well?!"

"I am!" Sten yelled.

Sten watched as the Ring bobbed to the surface, still locked around that mushy carrot bit. It must have hung up on something beneath the water's surface, because it stopped moving, in the rather swift stream. "I'm going for it. . ."

This time, Sten was a bit better prepared. He laid down on the slightly damaged wooden platter he'd found, so that he wouldn't have to lay in slime. From there, he stretched his long, Highlander arm, and reached imploring with his fingers. Couldn't reach. Time was running out. The Ring might begin to shift, and move again. ..

Sten frantically wracked his mind, and then it hit him. .. With his extended hand, he flipped out his Zip-Dagger, and that added at least a good seven inches to his reach. Almost enough.

"C'mon you stupid, goddamn. ... CRAP!!" Sten swore, as his attempt to flip the Ring onto the edge of his dagger failed, and the Ring fell off, and back into the stream, floating quickly out of reach. Getting up on his elbows on the wooden platter, he shouted. "Lost it! Katt! It's headed your way!!"

Another twenty feet down the stream, Katt stood there, eyes alert as she waited for the Ring to drift by. She had a headache from the booze, but she could fight it. It wasn't that hard. She was lucky, too, in her position in the stream; From where she stood, she could see that it grew shallow, and shrank to a mere foot and a half. The Ring would have to be moving very fast for it to escape her. Ah.. . there it is. .. That stupid piece of jewelery. .. She grumbled in her mind, as she saw the double-hemisphered, large, ornate Ring drifting towards her. It slowed in its drifting as it passed in front of her, and then stopped, a few inches from where she stood. Katt stared at it, as it glittered in front of her, and then swore loudly. ". .. . Just had to stop there didn't you. .. Not even gonna put up a fight. . . "

She sighed, and knelt down, scooping the ring up, and shouted. "Got it!!"

Looking at the double-hemisphere, the two black stones, shot through with specks of white, like two universes enclosed in each stone, and muttered. "Got it. ."

***

Nimufu was waiting for them outside. She had recovered from her crying and nausea, but there were still tear tracks down her youthful face. She was staring at them oddly, as they climbed one by one out of the recessed hatch, and into the kitchen.

"Did you find it?" She asked, finally.

Ryu nodded, and turned to Katt, who raised her open hand, in which sat the large ring. It was no wonder that it had slipped off Nimufu's finger; it was a ring molded for the fat, large finger of a SimaFortean, not a smaller human's hand. "Yeah. We got it."

"I'm. . ..Happy." Nimufu said, relieved. Then her expression changed, to one of concerned puzzlement. "Why?. .. Why do you do this?"

"What do you mean?" Nina asked.

"I mean. . .Why do you do this?" Nimufu asked again, searching for the words. "Why do you help people? You get nothing out of it."

Ryu clued in that she wasn't talking about the ring. She meant the offers Ryu had made for a room in the Ruined Town. In reply, he answered rather ambiguously. "Because helping people, you get more than a reward. You earn friends."

That seemed to satisfy the witch. Her expression lost the puzzled look, and took on a more introspective one. "Friends. . . Could I be one of those friends?. . ."

"Yes." Ryu said firmly. He turned to the others. "Would any of you reject her as a friend?"

He knew that Sten wouldn't care either way. His question was more directed at Katt and Nina, and their evident dislike of the witch. In fact, he fixed his stare on them in particular. Moments passed, before they answered.

". .. No. .. I wouldn't reject her." Nina admitted. "Not seeing how sad she was. I wouldn't wish anyone to be lonely."

Katt frowned, and looked away a bit, crossing her arms, but said with a resigned tone. "No. .. I wouldn't reject her. She's not my friend right now. But. . maybe after some time. . ."

Ryu smiled, and turned back to Nimufu. "There. You have a place with us now."

Nimufu smiled. "So I take it I can go to that town of yours?"

"Yeah. You want directions?"

She shook her head. "I won't need them. I just need to do one thing. . ."

Stepping up to Ryu, she unknowingly repeated the same procedure Ray had done with Nina a few days ago in Capitan, in the exchange of a spell. Only this time, it was the exchange of information, and didn't take that long. Still, when Nimufu released his head, Ryu was blinking and dizzy.

"Whoa. .." He mumbled, stumbling back, and sitting down. "Weird. .. I can see these weird color things floating in and out of my vision. .. it's like they are there, and. . aren't."

Nimufu had the tips of her thumb and index finger pressed against her eyes, as if to rub them. “Ugh… Yes… I forgot about that… sensory overload. It should pass in a minute…”

After a few minutes of silence, from everyone, and a few shakes of the head to get rid of the cobwebs, Ryu and Nimufu were finally back to normal.

“So what was that you did?” Katt asked.

“I just ‘copied’ the location of that Ruined town of yours into my mind, so I can just teleport my way there.” Nimufu answered. “It’s not as severe as a spell-transfer or anything, but it is quite taxing, and debilitating, as it messes up the individual’s thought patterns, and such, for a short time.”

“Oh…” The Woren girl replied, in a way that said I have no idea what you are talking about.

***

As they all walked out of the restaurant, Ryu asked “So… we’ll see you back in the Ruined town, right?”

Nimufu smiled, and then, with a flourish, spun around, spilling a star-dust like powder from her hand. When she was done, she immediately began to fade away, and said, as she faded out of sight. “You can count on it….”

When she had totally vanished, Ryu blinked, and began to say “Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.”

But everyone beat him to it, and a chorus of “THAT was interesting….” came from his friends, making him wince.

“Aw… come on…” He frowned for show, but was smiling a bit because it showed that his friends really did notice things about him. “I don’t say it THAT much…”

An hour later, they were passing through a small forested area, near the river, when suddenly, Sten stopped walking. He paused for a moment, looking confused, and then began to sniff, as if he found a unique odour.

“Yeah… do you guys smell that?” He asked cautiously, sniffing a bit more. By reflex, his Zip-daggers snapped out. “That sweet, flowery, powdery smell?….”

“Hey… yeah… I smell it.” Katt stopped. “I know that smell…”

“Me too.” Sten grunted, and began to back his way to Katt. Both of them had their weapons at the ready. “Hey Ryu. Better get that sword out. We’re gonna have a pretty bad fight. . .”

“What do you mean?” Ryu asked, unsheathing his katana, and backing up against them. Nina backed up as well, with Sesso behind her. With Sesso as the pin, they formed a defensive wheel, turning slowly as one, everyone watching the surrounding forest.

It was a sparse forest. Barely a few trees near the river’s edge. From where they were standing, the ground curved down, and into the water, less than thirty feet away. The only sound was the wind whispering through the trees, and the water burbling.

“That smell…” Sten explained in a whisper, eyes combing the undergrowth. “Is ‘Sweet Breath’. It’s a chemical used by certain monsters, naturally produced, that if inhaled in large amounts, can knock you out cold.”

“And the only monsters around here that are Sweet Breath monsters…” Katt began.

At that moment, Nina realized she’d just stepped on something soft and fuzzy. She stepped back, and saw a weird, fuzzy, white growth on the ground. What’s this? It shouldn’t be here She thought. No one realized what she was doing (they were watching for a monster attack), when she brushed her hand through it.

The fuzz was actually long, fine hairs, almost feathery. Beneath the fuzz, on the ground itself, there was this little green, knobby growth, that the fuzz was sticking out of. Nina was reminded of some plants, and how they send out spores or seeds by attaching them to fuzz, and wondered what kind of plant it was.

She was going to touch the green, potato-like part of the plant, when suddenly, two of the knobs snapped open, revealing blood-red eyes struck through with jagged yellow pupils. A slit that hadn’t been there before suddenly appeared, and drew itself into an evil sneer.

Everyone heard Nina cry out, and then the monster hiss/squeal, and spun to face the menace.

“… The Pollen!” Sten finished Katt’s earlier thought.

Pollen were called Pollen because they resembled the seminal material from certain plants. Only they were about nine-hundred times larger. And sentient. And monsters. The one Nina had found leapt up of the ground, somehow keeping itself aloft, even though it had no arms, legs, or wings. It body-checked her with its small, but immensely dense mass, and sent her reeling.

“I got this one…” Katt growled, and smacked it like she was in a baseball game, her staff the bat. A solid connection. Just like the game’s horse-hide ball, the Pollen went flying, rebounding off trees, and vanished into the bushes, keening the entire way.

Sten frowned, and snapped his daggers back in. “You know… I hope that actually was the only one. Alone, they are easy to beat. But in a group…”

“Over there! The River!” Ryu shouted, pointing with his sword blade. There seemed to be a commotion in the water, just off the banks of the river.

From the seething waters, a flat, almost smiling head appeared, stretched over a bulbous, translucent sphere. Below that, on the scrawny, whip-like body, there were grotesque, malformed nodules either erupting from the creature’s skin, or clinging to it like parasites.

With a sound beyond definition, the creature swayed, and staggered its way to shore, carrying with it those ugly nodules.

“It’s a Stamen!” Nina said, already charging a magical spell in her hand. “But… that one looks wrong somehow…”

As the Stamen stopped at the edge of the river, and began to spread its leaf-like, thorny arms, Sten grunted. “That’s because it’s carrying…”

Those monstrous, ugly nodules suddenly snapped open in a dozen places, revealing the ugly little eyes of Pollens. Before Sten could finish his thought, the Stamen suddenly lashed foreward, opening the slit of its mouth, and releasing a thick cloud of pinkish gas.

No one had a chance to move. The cloud hit all of them before they could get out of its way, and with each person it hit, they dropped. Nina swooned, Sten staggered, and thenm face-planted, Katt fought as hard as she could against the effects of the Sweet Breath, but inevitably gave in, and passed out. Ryu couldn’t fight it any better, and neither could Sesso. As Ryu passed out of consciousness, a single memory came to mind.

A memory of pretty flowers, in a long ago field…..

Poke…

Poke…

Bite….

“OW!” Nina cried out, and kicked, sending a Pollen squealing. She shook her head, and tried to reach for it, to shake the cobwebs out, but realized her left arm wouldn’t move. Neither would her legs. Only her right arm was free.

As her vision and mind cleared, she looked around, and felt her heart drop into her boots, as well as her stomach; She was almost cocooned to the tall, flexible form of the Stamen, just below the Pollen cluster. A quick glance left and right told her that the others were there too, unconscious and bound like she was, and in the case of Ryu and Sesso… totally covered. She couldn’t even see them; only the colour of their hair showed through the cocoons.

Why are they wrapping us to the Stamen? Nina wondered, still a little groggy. She tried to recall her lessons in monster biology, and then remembered.

Certain monsters do not eat the way we would think they would…A school teacher had told her, one day. Some breeds wrap their prey up in threads or silk, after subduing them, to either eat at their leisure like a spider or predatory insect, while others create abattoirs, where they hang the dead, or the dying, and simply feed on the rotting carcasses, or absorb them. The breeds of monsters called the Stamen, of the Western continent perform a similar function. They carry the prey with them, letting them rot, and be absorbed into the stalk itself. If a Stamen is carrying Pollen spores…

“… the Pollen feed on the dead creatures, through the stalk of the Stamen….” She mumbled dully. “Oh god…”

“So you’re awake…” She heard a whisper from beside her. She glanced over, and saw Sten, his head hanging limply. She thought he was unconscious, or worse. He looked so dead… but it was an act? “I was wondering who would wake up first.”

“Wh-what’s happening?” She asked. But she already knew the answer.

“Easy.” Sten said casually, letting his head loll a bit in her direction. His closed, ‘unconscious’ eyes snapped open, revealing something she’d never seen in them before. Cold. Calculation. Analysis. “They intend to kill us, and then absorb the nutrients that leak from our rotting carcasses.”

“But.. why don’t they just kill us?” The Stamen, with its Pollen cluster, was moving through the forest. It was a thicker forest. They were somewhere else now. That scared Nina. If they lost the trail…

Sten shrugged, the silk bunching up a bit at his shoulders. “They’re plants. They don’t know how dangerous we really can be. They think of us the way we might think of a plate of food; simply there to eat.” “We have to wake the others up…”

“No can do. I think they took a full breath of the Sweet Breath. They’ll be out for a while longer…”

“We have to do something!”Nina protested. She raised one of her hands, and showed it to him. “I have one arm free. I can try and take out the Stamen with a Thunder spell.”

Sten shook his head. “Unless you aimed it just right, you’d fry all of use along with it. Next idea?”

“Well…” Nina thought. “How about I just free you? We can figure out how to deal with this after that.”

“How about we figure it all out before we do anything?” Sten countered politely. “Plants are weak to Fire. Both you and I know how to use fire spells. If we managed to free ourselves, and got the others out of the way….”

“And kept the Pollen Cluster from awaking, and swarming us…”

“We can torch the beasts as one. Sound good?”

Nina nodded, and pointing a finger, ‘ignited’ a thin sliver of solid flame. She reached over, and carefully slit Sten’s prison, while he slid aside, so she wouldn’t nick him. Once the cut was long enough to admit him out, but not enough to destabilize the structural integrity, and simply drop him to the ground unceremoniously, she slit her own ‘pocket’.

“One…”

“Two…”

“Now!”

They both pushed off, and dropped to the ground, rolling. Almost immediately, the Stamen stopped its root-shambling strides, and swung to find them. In the Cluster below its head, the Pollens awoke, and immediately dropped into the air , floating up in that unnatural way.

“Sten! Problem!” Nina shouted, firing off a lightning blast that took out three of the Pollens. “They’re swarming!”

“Plan B!” Sten shouted back, Zip-daggers dancing and shimmering, as one after another Pollen met its end. He didn’t wait for them to come to him. He raced through their ranks, severing the stem between ‘fuzzy white thing’ and the ugly face of the Pollen. “Take out the Pollen first, and then deal with the Stamen!”

“Gotcha!” Nina charged up another round of Thunder, and let go in all directions, like she did twice before. The first time, by the magic school, was to get rid of thugs. The second time was the focused lightning orb she shoved down Joker’s rather ample throat. Now, when she used it, the lightning erupted from her form more fiercely, covering her entire body, instead of just her hands. And the bolts were much larger, wiping out quite a large number of Pollen.

Only the stink of their charred chlorophyll-stained ‘bodies’ remained in the air. But there were still others. Nina dodged body-blocks, and tackles, still sore from the first one, and not envious of being visited again. While sending a Pollen flying aside with a defensive mid air kick, she caught a flash of blue, and saw Sten close on the Stamen.

In an instant, he had circled it, moving faster than it could, blades flashing and glinting. Then, leaping away, he turned back to view his handy-work, just as the last Pollen fell. With a sudden ripping, the silken strands that bound the others to the Stamen tore open, cut by Sten’s Zip-Daggers, dropping them to the ground. In fury, the Stamen squealed, and writhed where it stood; it wanted to kill them, but lacked any particular natural weaponry. So it did all that it could; it threw itself at Sten, hoping to crush him under its body.

Quick as a ninja, Sten was already moving, a Tarzan leap that brought him down next to Nina, while the Stamen smashed the tree he had been into splinters. It stopped moving, and turned to face them, swinging up to its full, thirty-foot height, and then with another scream, lashed forward with its soft-looking, but surprisingly resilient translucent ‘head’ globe. The winged mage and the monkey leapt in opposite directions, leaving the massive plant to carve a furrow in the forest floor with its own body. Some of the charred Pollen bodies were ground into mulch in the process.

“Sten! Remember how I was teaching you that Flame-Sword spell?” Nina shouted across the writhing plant.

“Yeah, I remember it!” Sten shouted back. He let one Zip-dagger retract, and then summoned the blade of flame. “… Got it right here!”

“Good!” Nina shouted, stepping past a lashing leaf/tentacle that flailed out, both for purchase, and to ensnare her. “Because we’re going to pull off a complicated move, so I hope you’re ready!”

For good measure, she fired a fireball into the side of the beast, to keep it from getting up. In short order, she explained what she wanted them to do, and a few moments after that, they were both ready.

“Ready?” Nina yelled, aimed one direction, towards the end of the plant.

“Ready!” Sten returned, facing the opposite way, on the other side, towards the head.

“GO!” and both of them sprinted in their respective directions, blades of flame leaving a burning line behind them where they dragged it.

Nina made it all the way to the roots before making a sharp left, headed around them. Sten didn’t though; instead, he leapt over the Stamen, right behind the head, his flame-blade carving a burning line right across the beast, which howled in fury. In a few seconds, both of them were where the other had been, finishing the line connection, and heading to one of the ‘points’ of the large square they had just made.

Now both standing on the same side, but facing inward into the square, they both leapt across, passing by each other with sheets of flame, forming a pair of curved, intercrossing arches, and connecting them to the opposite corners. It was Nina’s show now.

She spun upon landing, and taking an instant to make sure Sten was out of the way, summoned and fired off a large orb of flaming energy, directly into where the curved arches met at the apex of this flaming structure. The result was instantaneous. Within the borders of the flaming lines, the air was filled with boiling, rippling flames, which seared the ground black, and made the Stamen writhe that much harder, blackening it, and after a few moments, vaporizing it. When the flaming pyramid subsided, and faded away, only the areas of the Stamen outside it were intact. Nothing within the flames had survived, and there was a blackened square where the pyramid had stood.

Nina let her breath out in a rush, and her knees buckled, suddenly very weak. “….. Let’s never do that again…”

Sten had fallen on his ass after he had landed, and decided to stay there, staring up at the sky. “Do what? That spell, or fight the Stamen and Pollens alone?”

Nina laughed, and looked over to where Sesso, Ryu, and Katt were still snoozing. “Both. I think I’ll join them, over there, for a nap. That battle, and the spell… took quite a bit out of me…”

But that comment fell on deaf ears, as the sounds of Sten snoring floated over to her. She chuckled, and then crawled over to where Ryu was. He looked so peaceful, sleeping there; the way the silk had fallen on him, it looked like a blanket. He looked like such a little boy…

On an impulse, she looked around, making sure everyone was unconscious, reached out, and brushed her fingers gently across Ryu’s cheek, moving aside an azure lock of hair. A small smile crossed her face, and she laid down nearby, within reaching distance, and just lay there, watching him sleep.

After a bit, she could hear some sort of whispering coming from him. Curious, she shifted forward a bit, and turned an ear to hear.

“The flowers….” Ryu was whispered, smiling in his dreams. “They smell so nice… So bright and colourful…. By the big Dragon….”

He sighed happily, and shifted to bring his arm up under his head, and fell into a deeper, speechless slumber. Nina thought about what he said, and then smiled softly, touching his face again.

“Perhaps one day, we’ll see those flowers together…” She whispered both to him, and herself, before lying down and falling asleep.

“Ah… My ring!” Jean exclaimed, hands outstretched to the object that lay in Ryu’s hand, but not touching it. Everyone was back in the cell with Jean, after having made it back to Simafort without any further interruption. “You got it back from Nimufu!… Oh… I am both happy and sad…”

“ ‘And sad’?” Petape was confused. She looked her brother in the eye, and gave him an odd look. “Why sad?”

“Because she has refused my affections. Mon petite chere has rejected me… and the token of my love.” Jean’s ever-present smile had vanished, and seeing the way his large, happy mouth was turned down into a crest-fallen one was enough to make anyone feel a little sad. But it only lasted for a few moments, for he smiled again. “Oh well. There are so many beautiful women in the world! She was but one!”

Sten snickered darkly. “Jean, you are an inspiration to all guys. You have undoubtly the easiest ego to heal after something like that.”

That made Jean grin a bit broader. “Why should I not be confident? After all, I am one handsome man, am I not?”

A collective “Er….” Passed through everyone before finally there were some sheepish shrugs. “I guess…”

“Anyway…” Petape got the ball rolling again. “Now we can prove that Jean is the Prince we know he is!”

She held up Jean’s hand, on which the oversize ring fit his finger perfectly, and said triumphantly. “Let’s go to the throne room, and see my father! The King!”

The throne room of the Sima Fortress’s castle was quite… unusual, by any standards. Everyone but Jean and Petape were staring in awe and wonder, from the moment Petape waved them through security, through the castle proper, into the throne room.

Inside the castle itself was a sort of patchwork courtyard; where normally there would be grass, there were random pools of water. On a whim, Sten picked up a white rock, and dropped it in, and found.. it was quite deep. These pools spread over the entire courtyard, and were only broken up by slim strips of marshy grassland. From a military standpoint, it was a sound one; irregular paths made for easy targeting of invading troops by the castle’s archers. The pools of water could also be traps… hidden troops in them, below the surface, or perhaps by forcing armour-laiden soldiers to swim across, drown them by having them dragged down by their own weaponry.

I can see why our forces never…. Sten quickly tossed the thought aside. It had been a long time since he’d thought back to those days. But not so long since he’d had the nightmares….

He snapped out his gloomy thoughts, realizing that everyone had continued on, towards the king’s chamber, and rushed to catch up. While running, he could hear the Song of St. Eva, hymn of the St. Eva church, getting louder, from the faint whisper it had been. It seems it was coming from the king’s chamber.

… Our voices break through the Darkness

And give strength, to our God….

The music was beautiful, and the voices clear and peaceful, and the combination of the two had a soothing effect. It was like a cool summer breeze, to chill stressed minds and worried hearts… But for some reason, it unnerved Sten. Why was it making him uncomfortable? He’d gone to church before, in his travels, seeking guidance from the priests… It had never bothered him before. In fact, he had even considered joining the choirs, after he had heard that one Songstress singing in Tunlan…

He chuckled inwardly at that thought, as he climbed the final set of steps that lead to the King’s Throne room, letting the memories cheer him a bit.

.

Ryu was confused now, more than ever. Looking at the king, he could see why there was such a confusion as to who the true Prince was; The chubby, short, almost Buddha-like frog that was sitting in the throne looked surprisingly like both Jeans. Where he had Prince Jean’s colouration and spots, he also had Jean’s natural cherubic look, and bovine eyes. And both him and Jean were the same relative shape; rotund.

“Jeez… How are we gonna tell who’s the real Jean??” He asked himself quietly, while Petape approached the throne.

“Alright, ma petite soeur…” Prince Jean said tiredly, leaning against the side of the throne’s back. He made a very dramatic and bored yawn, and said. “You have gained an audience with our father, for this imposter.”

“You’re the impostor!” Petape accused him, pointing one gloved finger at him. “MY brother is right here, with Ryu and his friends! Isn’t that right, Ryu?”

“Uh…” Ryu blinked. He hadn’t expected her to ask him anything. Far as he was concerned, he and the others were just observers.

“See? There you go!” Petape continued, not even waiting for an answer. “You might as well leave, you imposter Jean. Why, my brother will tear you limb from limb! Ryu! Better hold Jean back!”

Both Ryu and Jean looked at one another, confused. Ryu shrugged, and Jean suddenly said. “Petape! Do not use such words! Violence is never the way.”

She spun and gave them a withering glare so strong everyone who saw it flinched. Prince Jean raised an eyebrow, and then straightened off the throne. “So?… Do you have any proof that this so-called ‘Prince’ is really me?”

“Yes! I do!” She exclaimed, and then practically yanked Jean off his feet when she lifted his arm into the air. “The Royal Ring!”

All eyes (even those of the seemingly catatonic King) turned to gaze upon the ring, whose twin dark stones, flecked with white spots gleamed in the sunlight. Seemingly by chance, the sunlight shifted slightly in the windows, and a large pillar of it shone down on Jean’s extended arm, pointing it out to all.

There was a moment of silence, before Prince Jean sighed sadly, and with so much sorrow it seemed forced, and so patronizingly said. “Oh, Petape….”

He stepped forward, and held his own right hand up, back out, for everyone to see. He even panned it back and forth so everyone got a good view of the twin-dark-stoned ring on his finger. “I cannot believe you were taken in by such…” He sighed again. “I have the Royal Ring. I always have.”

His eyes flashed darkly, as they narrowed at Jean and Ryu. “I didn’t have to send these vagabonds to get a cheaply made forgery of the Royal Ring.”

The moment Prince Jean said ‘vagabonds’, Ryu’s tentative opinion of him dropped drastically. As did everyone in earshot, except for the King. Apparently, the words of praise and diplomacy he’d used at the gate had been false; what Ryu had seen in Prince Jean’s hard gaze was true. He really didn’t like outsiders.

“How…. DARE YOU!!” Petape was livid. She spun on her father. “FATHER! How can you let him talk about your son like this?!”

The King gave a start in his throne, and blinked at Petape, confused and a little frightened. “Oh! Petape… So much like your mother you are… frightening.”

Ryu coughed awkwardly, thinking Yeah, I’d have to agree with him THERE… Why doesn’t any princess I meet behave like one?….

“Enough!” Prince Jean boomed in his most authoritarian voice. “You have wasted not only my time, but the time of the King. For that alone, I should have incarcerated along with that winged thief you so wish to obtain.”

He turned away, and snapped his fingers. Immediately, from the pools of water on either side of the walkway from the stairs to the throne, filled with soldiers, and all were pointing weapons at Ryu and his party. “… Instead, I’ll just have you executed as a warning to future ‘impostors’.”

Ryu smirked darkly, and crossed his arms, not even reaching for his sword. “Gee, where did that mon-ami stuff go? All those fancy, friendly words that you told me at the gates to your city? About ‘keeping relations’ and such?…”

Prince Jean gave him the most bored look he’d ever seen, and blithely waved it aside, not even turning around. “I asked you politely to leave. I even gave you a substantial amount for bringing the false Prince to my attention. But you insisted on staying. On interfering. On siding with the fake. So now… You are accomplices to an attempted coup d’etat. Do you understand that?”

Sten swore softly. “… Damnit…. He’s right too… It could be looked at that way…”

Prince Jean turned, and smiled. “I’m glad you understand. I bear you no ill will.” To his soldiers: “Seize them.”

“Wait!” Petape shouted. She took a breath, and then said in a calm, collected voice to her father. “Father?…. Are you going to let him execute your son, Ryu, and the rest of his group?…”

Her father looked at her blearily. Then at Prince Jean. Then Jean. Then Ryu and his group. And finally back to Petape, and said …..

“…. I could go for some of that fly pudding….”

The disappointment was so heavy, that practically everyone’s shoulders slumped. All except for Prince Jean, of course. He just stared at his ‘father’ in amazement. But then, just as she felt her hope fading, Petape suddenly thought of something. “Ah-HA!”

“What is it NOW?….” Prince Jean, sighed, fingertips touching his face in exasperation. “Haven’t you embarrassed these poor, condemned folks enough, little sister?”

“I just thought of a way to truly prove who the real prince is! My brother Jean’s cooking is beyond compare!” She puffed up proudly, hands on hips. “There’s no way you could possibly match him.”

Prince Jean smiled. “I’m glad you think so highly of my cooking skills, Petape…. A cooking contest sounds.. diverting. I should enjoy showing you that I am who I say I am.”

His expression darkened. “But know that should this Jean here, lose… not only will he and the others be imprisoned, but they will be executed in the town square.”

Petape’s face hardened. She turned to Ryu with a pained expression. “Ryu… I’m sorry. But you must agree with me…”

“It’s alright.” Nina answered, stepping foreward. “We understand. We will help in any way we can to make sure the rightful prince is in power.”

“Thank you…”

Prince Jean gestured to the doors behind them. “Shall we be off to the kitchens then?…”

As they were leaving under armed guard, Sten whispered to Nina. “This week just keeps getting better… First a sewer, and now the kitchens of Simafort… What else could go wrong?” .

“What do you mean, you need us to get ingredients for you?!” Ryu fumed. “You mean you don’t have all the stuff you need, even in a castle like this?!”

They were standing in front of one of Simafort’s many kitchen stoves, where all the castle’s meals were prepared. This one was set apart from the other six, so it was coincidentally well placed for a cooking contest. Perhaps it was the stove for trainee cooks? Ryu had no idea.

The prince had left them there, telling them they couldn’t leave the city, but could go anywhere in it. Try to escape, and anyone caught would be executed. He would return, after taking care of some business, to cook his three meals.

The contest itself was a three-course one; an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert. But Jean was insisting he needed gourmet ingredients to make his meals.

“These ingredients are quite rare, mon ami.” Jean was trying to placate him. “I need a Red cockroach; the bigger the better. A piece of worm meat of decent size, perhaps…. Oh, say the size of your arm….And the Gold Fly…”

Petape’s eyes widened. “Jean… the Gold Fly?… You mean you really need it?…”

Jean nodded, for once serious. “Indeed I do, my sister. The Gold Fly has just the flavour I need for my Gold Fly pudding. It would be my greatest achievement in the field of meal-preparation.”

“… A Gold Fly!” Came a very familiar, mocking voice from the kitchen entrance. All eyes turned to find Prince Jean leaning against the doorway, a broad smile across his blue-ish face. “How very intriguing… a Gold Fly would make the perfect ingredient in my dessert…”

He stood up straight, and snapped his fingers. Instead of summoning guards though, the snap of his fingers called forth a host of gourmet Sima cooks; the best in the city. It was rather lobsided; while Jean was on his own, and subject to any number of mistakes a single cook can make, Prince Jean didn’t have to even do anything… his cooks would do it for him. Not a very fair cooking contest, in Ryu’s opinion.

Ryu frowned. He’d made up his mind. There was NO way he was gonna let Jean lose. He turned to Jean, and asked “…. Where can we find those things you wanted?”

Jean simply shook his head and shrugged. “I do not know. We are not permitted to use that man’s ingredients, so we must find them ourselves. We cannot go to the galley, because that is where he keeps his ingredients.”

Sten had been thinking all through this discussion, rubbing his chin in thought. “Well… perhaps we could go into town, and take a look around? Who knows? Maybe we can pick up what we need there.”

Petape nodded. “It is within the boundries of the contest. But… the Gold Fly…” she grew quiet.

“What?” Nina asked. “What about the Gold Fly?”

The Princess seemed reluctant to say, for once, but she eventually spit it out. “The Gold Fly is very rare. We used to have but one. A Gold Fly is a one-in-one hundred fly. For every one hundred blue-bottle flies hatched, only one will be a Gold Fly…Though… in recent years the Gold Fly has been appearing even less…”

“So there is only one left?”

“Yes… but it escaped from confinement in the galley.” Petape said sadly. “Do you remember the cages near where we keep that thief you were looking for?”

“Patty.” Ryu nodded. “Yeah, I remember seeing them.”

“That’s where we kept the flies. But the Gold Fly forced its way out through the bars a few years ago, and got away into the Castle’s Deep Aqueducts.”

Katt’s eyebrows went up. “What?…. A fly forced its way between iron bars….” She gave Jean an odd look. “… exactly what kinda fly is this anyway?… Freakin’ monster fly if you ask me…”

Everyone but the Simas chuckled. Then Ryu continued. “Okay, so it escaped into the Deep Aqueducts…. How do we get there….”

Jean considered for a moment. “Hmm… it is said there are three ways in. One is through a secret switch that is hidden somewhere in the Castle…. Another way is the rooftop, the wind-mill… And the third…”

Petape seemed shocked. “No! Jean, we can’t tell them that one… it’s too dangerous! What if they get caught?!”

“I’m afraid we must take that chance…” Jean patted the hand she placed on his arm. To Ryu; “It is the quickest way to the windmill, but also the one with the most risk involved.”

Sten grinned darkly in anticipation. “That sounds like it’ll be fun….”

“In my chambers, in the Castle, there is a large painting of me.” Jean began, whispering so that Prince Jean and his other cooks wouldn’t hear. “It is on the farthest wall. Just behind the lower left edge, behind the frame, is a pull-turn switch. That will open a way to the roof that’s faster than any other route.”

Ryu’s eyebrows went up. “Wow. That really IS more dangerous. The Prince’s room!”

“But won’t he have a guard or something there?” Nina thought to ask. Standard procedure for royalty dictated that a member of the royal family was to have at least one bodyguard at all times. It could even be assumed that one or more of Prince Jean’s cooks were bodyguards.

Petape shook her head. “Bodyguards stay with the body they are charged with. When the Prince leaves his room, his guard follows. Though…” She added with some reluctance. “There ARE standard soldier patrols… To keep trespassers, assassins, and other undesirables out.”

“I see…”

There was a long moment of silence, before Ryu realized everyone was waiting for him. “Oh… Well, let’s go then. We’ll find a way into the Deep Aqueducts.”

***

“Okay, first of all…” Ryu began, as the group wandered through the castle courtyard. “How the hell are we gonna get up and into the Prince’s room?”

A quick journey around in the town’s moats, on the walkways below the surface had provided no access to the internal aqueducts of the castle. At the most, they had managed to find a large, heavily-meshed grate on the northern side, and there was no way they would be able to break through it short of using some major explosives. Which they didn’t have.

No one had an answer to Ryu’s question; they all stood there, brooding and plotting and planning how to get into the Aquaducts, except for Nina. She too had been thinking about how to get in, but her attention had been diverted by the sight of someone painting on the shores of one of the larger ‘ponds’. While the others discussed a way to get in, she approached the painter, and asked about the painting.

“I’m painting the most beautiful woman in Simafort!” The painter enthused. As almost an afterthought, he added. “Well, the most beautiful woman next to the Princess, of course….”

Nina looked at the painting again. “She looks so sad.”

The painter nodded. “I don’t know why, but lately she’s been very distracted and upset. I hadn’t painted her in yet, but her expression of worry was so perfect…. Her ennui so strong… I just had to have it in my painting….”

“Hmm… Well, you’ve done quite a good job…” She replied softly, and walked over to where the woman was still standing, looking out over the water. The Sima woman truly did look sad, and her gaze drifted far beyond the edge of the pool of water, past the far wall, to some distant horizon that no one could see.

Before Nina could ask her anything, the woman suddenly turned, and asked “Have you seen a soldier named Tata?…”

Taken back a step, Nina shook her head. “No… I’m afraid I don’t know any Tata….I’m sorry. Why do you ask?”

The desperation in the woman’s voice and expression faded into sadness, and she sighed heavily. “I was supposed to meet with him today… He’s my boyfriend. No one’s seen him for hours….”

Nina laid a hand on the woman’s shoulder, out of compassion. “I’m sorry… if I hear anything about a soldier named Tata… I’ll be sure to find a way to let you know… Alright?”

The woman smiled a strained smile. “Thank you… For a stranger, you are very kind. And my name is Fiolina….”

Nina smiled, repeating the name so she’d remember it, and then turned away when she heard Ryu call her name. Returning to the group, she discovered that they were on the verge of a plan.

“… so do you think you can dredge up a couple of those outfits, Katt?…” Ryu was saying. Katt made a face, and nodded.

“Yeah, I could. I’ll need Nina’s help in carrying them though.”

“That’s alright; She’s gonna be wearing one too.” Ryu smirked.

Nina looked from one person to another. “What’s… going on?”

Sten sighed. “They came up with a plan.” Under his breath he muttered. “I never should have mentioned disguises…”

Still confused, Nina looked to Katt’s slightly exasperated face, and Ryu’s darkly smirking one, and felt a sudden chill of foreboding. “What… disguises.”

Katt shook her head, face in her hand, and sighed. “We’re going to be a distraction. So the boys can take out the guards around the Prince’s room…”

“’Distraction’?…” That chill suddenly got bigger. “Why do I have a feeling that I’m going to be required to wear something uncomfortable….”

Ryu smiled as kindly as he could. “Oh, don’t worry… You can change back right quick, as soon as we take the guards out.”

“Katt?”

“… They won’t be really uncomfortable…. Just…. Revealing.”

Nina’s face flushed. “Oh my….”

***

“I still can’t believe we spent all our money on these…” Nina hissed, tugging at the hem of her short skirt. She didn’t feel right, wearing this outfit. Most certainly, it was more an outfit that Sanamo, or maybe Nimufu might wear. Not Nina.

“Hush up!” Ryu hissed back, from behind her. He was totally encapsulated in Simafortean soldier armour; not even his eyes could be seen. Sten was rigged up much the same. Perfect disguise for infiltrating a castle.

They were in the hall just outside Prince Jean’s bedroom, preparing for their deception. The one thing Nina was glad for was that it would all be over soon; Her normal clothing and armour, as well as Katt’s, were in satchels that both Sten and Ryu carried under the oversized shoulder-guards of their Sima armour. As soon as they got into the Prince’s bedroom, she was going to snatch the satchel that contained her gear, and bee-line it straight for the local closet.

It didn’t help that the men were standing just behind her; she could almost feel their eyes on her. Not pleasant to her; not at all.

Katt seemed more at home in the slinky outfit she’d bought. According to her (and strangely enough, Ryu’s) opinion, it was very close to one of her exotic dance outfits. And since she normally wore nearly nothing, it didn’t bother the little Woren any to be wearing barely a bikini’s worth of material. Nina swore that the price tag was bigger than the outfit itself.

“Someone mind explaining to me why I’m dressed as a…. what did you call it?” Nina asked harshly.

“A ‘school girl’.” Ryu replied casually. “Because, it’s well known that guys can’t resist a girl in a school-girl outfit. Be proud of those long legs, Nina. They work well in that skirt.”

Nina blushed, and was about to say something, when Katt whispered “Okay! Now!”

With that, she was pushed out into the hall with Katt, and did her best to appear cute and flirtatious. She hoped that her acting skills were up to par….

***

Tolude yawned, slouching a bit at his post. Guarding the Royal bedrooms was supposed to be an honour; only the best of the best could be chosen to be the bodyguards of the Prince and his family. But when the family wasn’t around… when it was just the room they were guarding…. It was SO boring….

He and Vinel had given up talking hours ago. They’d run out of things to say. Tomorrow, after they had gone home, gotten some rest, and actually did something worthwhile, they would have something worth talking about when they were next on shift. But now….

Tolude closed his eyes and sighed, and started to slouch, letting his back rest against the stone pillar he was standing by, when suddenly Vinel whispered a “Hey! Check this out….”

He opened his eyes, and to his amazement, saw two beautiful mirages. Reaching under his mask’s beaver, he rubbed his sore eyes, and looked again. Sure enough, there they were; two girls, dressed some rather appealing outfits.

The shorter one was a Woren girl, in a sort of Gypsy/harem outfit that left little to the imagination, while the taller one was a very nervous looking blonde Windian girl in a short-skirt that made her long legs seem that much longer.

Tolude and Vinel passed glances between them, and then smiled broadly beneath their beavers. This certainly killed the boredom …

Vinel was the first to speak. He cleared his throat meaningfully, and then in his most authoritarian voice asked. “Can we help you, young ladies?”

The little Woren looked at them with a sort of nervous surprise, while the other one paled. After a moment, she replied in a shy way “Um…. I think we’re lost… We were taking a tour of the castle, but got separated from the group when we stopped to ….” She gave a secretive glance to the Windian girl. “….to… uh, use the bathroom.”

The Windian girl’s head snapped to her companion, catching the expression there, glared at her for a moment, before turning red and looking away in a huff.

Again, Vinel and Tolude exchanged knowing glances. Sure they had just ‘lost’ the tour group. Tour groups did pass through the castle during the day, for the benefit of visitors, and there was one wandering around right now…. But from the tone the little Woren had used, and the way her friend reacted, both guards knew that there was something else going on beneath the surface. Some very dark and teasing thoughts were popping up in both frogs’ brains…

“Well…” Tolude said, slyly. “We can help you find the tour group. It’s our job to protect fair damsels, you know…”

It was at that time two other guardsmen came around the corner to the group’s left, apparently doing their rounds. Vinel called them over. “We’re going to escort these ladies back to the lobby. Will you guard the room for us while we do that? You’ll only have to cover for us for a few minutes…”

One of the guards nodded, and then went to take up positions on either side of the door.

“Should you really be abandoning your post?” The Windian questioned meekly. “Isn’t it important to guard the Prince?”

“It is…” Tolude was saying as they all walked away, leaving the two guards to hold the room. His metal-gauntletted hand hovered just off the Woren’s backside. “… but not when the Prince isn’t there.”

“That’s a shame…” She said, as a pair of shadows fell upon them from behind. With a twin CLANG of metal on metal, both Tolude and Vinel were sent into unconciousness by the war-clubs of the two guards they had asked to replace them.

“It’s about time!” Nina growled angrily, tugging the hem of her skirt down again. “What took you?!”

“Sorry.” Ryu muttered from beneath his beaver guard; they were the guards who had ‘relieved’ the two that were now unconscious and sprawled on the stone floor. “But they needed to be far enough away that they didn’t see us coming….. Now help us hide them somewhere.”

Together, the four of them hauled the two dead-to-the-world guards inside the Prince’s room. While Sten secured the deadbolt, Ryu and Katt shoved the guards into the Prince’s walk-in closet, and improved a lock by sliding one of the warclubs through the handles of the doors.

“There… That should keep them in there for a while, even after they wake up…” Ryu said, brushing his palms together.

“Good, good, that’s all good.” Nina said impatiently, still tugging at the skirt. “Now can I please have my clothes?!”

Ryu considered her (a little too thoughtfully, at least to Nina), and then reached up under the shoulder flange of his right arm, and pulled a wrapped satchel from the cavity therein. Tossing it to her, he said. “Here ya go. I suppose you can use that curtain-thing over there.”

He was referring to an accordian-style vertical-folding blind on the far wall. At his mere mention of it, Nina was gone in a flash of leg and black feathers, disappeared behind it. Katt was busy trying to get Sten to hand over her clothing.

“Fork it over, Sten…” Katt grumbled menacingly, jumping a bit to try and grab it from his upraised hand; Sten might normally have been short, but standing up, with his arms totally extended, he could reach pretty high. This was evident when Katt missed because he yanked it out of her reach. Laughing he taunted her a little.

“Whatsamatter…” Sten grinned, talking in a patronizing way. “Can’t reach your precious clothing?… Aw… poor little kitty-Katt…”

He never saw the light change in Katt’s eyes, or the scowl that was there for an instant, but he did feel it when she roundhoused him right out of his armour; Her kick squarely nailed the panel concealing the release locks, and the back of the armour snapped open. The force of the kick blew him clear out of the armour, and against the door. At the same time, she followed through, and raising a hand without looking, caught the satchel as it dropped from the empty armoured glove of the Sima gear. The armour itself stood for a moment, before falling into separate components on the floor.

Ryu laughed, as he too, released the locks on his armour; the central panel flipped open, and turning a mechanical switch the size of his thumb, specially designed locks and links disengaged, and the armour came apart in six pieces around him. Earlier, he’d been surprised at the intricacy of the armour; it was unlike anything he had ever seen. A quick chat with Sten on a strangely militaristic topic offered him the answer to how such a lax, easy-going people had access to devices such as this. The answer was; they got it from someone else.

Most likely, it had been imported from Guntz, the legendary Metal Smith Clan’s town. It had their feel to it. Masters of metal, those bovine-like people were artisans of weapons and armour. Just thinking about what advances in swords they were making made him smile a bit.

Eventually, Katt joined Nina behind the accordian-wall, and the ‘costumes’ were tossed up onto the upper edge of it. By the time they had changed, Ryu had finally woken Sten up, from where he lay stunned on the floor.

“Alright, monkey-breath….” Ryu snickered, as he helped him to his feet. “Time to wake up…”

“Oohh…. Yes, mommy…. I’d like to watch that fireworks….” Sten blearily rambled, eyes rolling about his head. He tiredly pointed at no specific point that only he could see. “…. That was a pretty one…”

“Hey Katt.” Ryu hollered over to the accordian wall. “Didja have to hit him so hard? I think you busted his brain!”

“Aw, shaddup…” Katt grumbled, coming out from around the corner of the folding blind. She was adjusting the last ring on the collar of her tunic, attaching it to the ‘bra-strap’ of the tunic. She made her way over to the semi-conscious Sten, and, not using her hands (which were occupied with the ring), but her tail, she smacked him hard across the face. “WAKE UP, Meathead!”

That slap knocked the last of the cobwebs from Sten’s scrambled brain, and brought him back to reality. “Ow…. Damnit… Don’t get so mad at me… Sheesh…” He rubbed his sore cheek, and his even worse chest.

“You brought it on yourself…” Katt snarled, turning away and walking back to check on Nina, leaving Ryu chuckling, and Sten frowning.

Once Nina was done getting dressed, they set about searching the room for the switch that Jean had mentioned. Ryu was checking underneath a small picture, and the girls were investigating the dresser for hidden hinges, when Sten groaned aloud, having lifted the corner of the massive picture at the back of the room up.

The picture itself was obviously made to make the prince look better than he was. The artist had taken Jean’s natural… pudge…. And reshaped it, giving him a more pleasant build, as well as adding a gleam of intelligence to his otherwise normally empty eyes. It was a masterpiece, to be sure, but far from the truth about the Prince.

Sten was pointing to the nearly foot-across pull-turn switch that, instead of hiding in the bottom corner, nearly covered the entire bottom, underneath the picture. “You’re kidding me… How did that keep secret?!”

Everyone came over, and just stared at the switch. It was large enough that it even pushed the picture out a bit, and the lower edge of it, even when horizontal. When turned vertical, at least six inches of the long white bar protruded from beneath the picture. And if that wasn’t obvious enough, there was a large, embossed, white arrow, almost as big as the switch, right above it, pointing to it.

“Unbelieveable…” Ryu muttered incredulously, reaching out and pulling the bar out, and turning it vertical. “This can’t be the switch Jean meant… It’s so obvious…”

But much to everyone’s surprise, as well as disappointment, a low rumble filled the air, and a section of wall behind the picture slid away, revealing an opening large enough for someone to pass through. Most certainly, it was the switch, and the secret passage Jean had let them in on.

Quickly and quietly, they entered the secret passage, and shut it behind them, depositing their disguises behind the closed door, and abandoning them there. A series of dark, barely lit passages and spiral stairwells led them up, up…. Up, further into Sima Fortress’s castle. It seemed almost endless, but just as Katt and Sten started complaining, and asking for a rest stop, they reached a final, stone wall, supposedly leading to the rooftop.

“Well… here goes…” Ryu pressed on a discoloured stone, and the wall split in half, swinging open like saloon doors, letting bright sunlight spill onto the entire group.

“Wow… it’s so… bright…” Katt breathed, shading her eyes. “It’s hot up here too… not like down below…”

Sten would have mentioned that the huge city walls blocked out the sun’s heat, providing the shade and cool air that the Simans loved so much, but his train of thought was derailed when he spied something more suited to a dungeon torture room, than to a sunny rooftop.

A large, wooden plank, fitted with manacles, and aimed up towards the still rising sun. It looked like the Rack.

“Ooh….” A groan came from the sun-lit side of the Rack. A sickly, broken moan of pain and discomfort.

“There’s someone there!” Nina gasped, horrified, running to the Rack. “We must help him!”

Ryu concurred, rushing to the side of the seemingly ill-placed pain device. It was very disconcerting to learn that the Siman idea of torture took place in so peaceful a locale; on another day, he might have liked to have gotten a tan up on a roof like this. Up close, he could see the Rack wasn’t meant to physically break the victim; it was rigged only to hold them. And judging by the dry, painful looking, cracking skin on the poor frog on the board, the sun itself did the work.

“Simans are amphibious people; their skin needs to be moist!” Nina was saying, as she started undoing the latches. “He’ll die if he dries out!”

In short order, all four latches were undone, and the sun-weakened soldier, still dressed in his now very-hot uniform, slide off the rack and slumped to the stone rooftop, moaning pathetically.

“Quick, help me get him into the shade.” Ryu grunted, hefting the man by his arms. They pulled him around the back of the rack, into the darkness that it provided on the other side.

“Sir… are you alright?…” Ryu asked, a little concerned. The man’s eyes were foggy, and were rolling about in his head, as he swayed left and right, slowly.

“Fiolina…. Oh… my Fiolina…” The imprisoned soldier moaned, deep in the depths of a dehydrated delerium. “So thirsty… Water… Fiolina…”

Nina gasped, and all eyes went to her, save for the semi-delerious man’s fogged orbs. “I… I met that Fiolina woman! She was the model for the artist in the courtyard!’

“Well, we need water, and FAST.” Sten muttered, pressing two fingers to the side of the frog’s chubby neck, and feeling is pulse. “This guy won’t last longer than an hour. He’s been up here all day, drying out.”

“Nina, can you get that woman?” Ryu asked quickly. Nina nodded. Then Ryu turned to Katt. “I want Nina to fly down outside the castle, to the courtyard. Katt, can you keep up with her, and meet her in the yard?”

Katt shrugged. “I suppose so, if I decided not to skulk around like a rat, and ran top speed down through the castle… Shouldn’t be too hard though; the guards around here seem to be mostly marshmallows. No spine, no fight.” She cocked an ear to the side, and made a face. “But why do you want me down there?”

“Because, I want you, Nina, and that Fiolina woman to come back with as much water as you can. Besides, if there WAS a fight in the castle, on the way up, I’d want you to be there, with Nina. Her magic can suppliment your natural skills. Perfect combination.”

“Oh. I never thought of that…” She replied, considering the fact. “Alright. I’ll do it.”

“Good… Now, GO!” Ryu ordered them. Both girls leapt to their feet; Nina ran for the brink of the castle wall, and leaped off in a full swan dive, and Katt ran back for the stairs, moving so fast her stripes blurred in the air, and she almost seemed to leave a tiger-striped streak in the air.

Only time would tell if the girls would be in time to save the dying guard.

***

The guard on duty in one of the main halls yawned inside, and let his battle-staff sag a bit. He really wished he’d brought that CD player he’d bought from a salvage merchant the other day; it would have really helped lighten the mood, and let him do something.

Suddenly, there was a flash of tan, red, and silver in front of him, and by the time he’d turned his head to follow it, all he caught was the sight of a striped tail lash around a corner and vanish.

He blinked twice, rubbed his eyes, and shook his head, helmet grinding against the armour with each shake, muttering “…. Gonna lay off the Rum-Belly Ants… I’ve had hallucinations before, but… I don’t even know what that was….”

***

Fiolina shifted slightly, uncomfortable in her pose by the pond. Behind her, the artist moaned his discontent at her small change in posture, threatening to put a dagger through the painting, as it was very close to becoming an abomination, instead of an art-piece.

Typical moody artist…. Fiolina thought tiredly. She turned her gaze back across the pond, tuning out the high-pitched whining of the artist, and resumed her gloomy wonderings and thoughts. That’s when she noticed a windian girl floating down from the rooftops, bouncing lightly with each roof she landed on, apparently heading towards her.

A moment later, she recognized the girl as the one who had talked to her less than an hour or so ago. “Hello there! How are you!”

Nina finished floating down, coming to rest beside Fiolina just as Katt came charging through the nearest doors, huffing and puffing with exertion; she’d run the entire way down. “Fiolina… what was the name of your boyfriend? It was Tata, wasn’t it?”

“Yes… it was…” Fiolina replied, cautiously. Something in the tense way Nina had said the name had her worried. “What’s happened?! Where’s Tata?!”

“He’s…” Nina began, but trailed off.

Katt took it up, finishing for Nina with her regained breath. “He’s on the roof… drying out… we need to get him water, and we need you to help get him the water. He wants to see you.”

“WHAT?! Well what are we waiting for?!” Fiolina shrugged out of her heavy, ungainly gown, revealing she was wearing just a tube top and normal pants underneath. Before anyone could question her, she grabbed the artist’s mug of turpentine, dumped the fluid out on the ground, as well as the brushes that were soaking in it. Then she turned, and dove into the pond with it, surfacing a few moments later on the other side, mug in hand, and filled with water. “Hang on, Tata baby… I’m comin’!!”

With that, she charged into one of the service accessways in the castle, and was gone.

Both girls stood there, with the artist, a bit bewildered, before Katt suddenly remembered, and shouted “Hey!! I’ll show you the way!” before rushing to catch up, leaping the pond in a single bound. Everyone in earshot could hear her mutter loudly “Stupid Friggin Frog….” Before entering the castle at full tilt.

Nina didn’t move for a bit. Instead of rushing to try to catch up to the other two, which she knew she couldn’t do, even on a good day, she let her gaze travel back up to the top of the castle.

“So high….” She mumbled, rubbing her shoulder absently. Smirking in self-derision, she mocked herself “ ‘Oh, go ahead… I’ll meet you on top…. I’ll just fly up there….”

Sighing, she began to flap her already tired wings, and slowly rose towards the apex.

By the time Katt got to the roof, Fiolina was already there, pouring the water down Tata’s throat, and massaging it into his exposed skin, as well as pouring it into his armour. Ryu and Sten were standing off to the side, simply watching; they had done the best they could do. All they could do was hope that Fiolina could revive poor Tata.

Ryu looked over. “So… have any trouble going downstairs?”

The woren girl was leaning on her knees, catching her breath. “You kiddin’ me?…I was right. Those guys didn’t even care when I went by. Not that they could catch me of course.” She stood up straighter, her second wind now having been caught. “Come to think of it… I wonder if half of them even knew that I had gone by? I was going pretty fast…”

She looked around. “Where’s Nina?”

Ryu shook his head. “I don’t know. Didn’t she follow you?”

“I doubt it. From what I could tell from Nina… she can’t run that fast.”

“That’s because… (huff)… I’m so used…. (puff)… to flying!….(gasp)” Came a response from the battlements. There, Nina sat, legs out in a very uncomfortable, obviously exhausted way. She promptly took a deep breath, and passed out, falling onto the stone floor of the roof.

***

“How’s he holding up?” Ryu asked Fiolina quietly, where she was stroking Tata’s face with a wet cloth. She looked up at him, and her expression said enough. “Let me know when he’s conscious… We can’t find the way through the door to the windmill….”

“I’ll do everything I can.” She replied. “You saved his life…I owe you more than I can ever repay.”

Ryu smiled, and then stood up, walking over to where Nina was rubbing her sore shoulders. “How are you holding up?…”

She gave him a pained smile, and rubbed her shoulder a bit more. “Nngh…. I’ll be alright.. I’ll just walk a bit more than before…”

Ryu mulled that over for a moment, and then slid closer. “Here. Come on. Turn a bit. I’ll rub those for ya.”

Nina looked at him, and then nodded. “Okay.”

Ryu cracked his knuckles, and then went about gently massaging the knotted muscles in her shoulders, above her wings, rubbing them slowly and firmly. Nearby, Katt’s eyes narrowed, as she took a swig of the bottle from her boot.

“Something wrong Katt?” Sten asked, noticing her glare.

“No… Nothing’s wrong….” She finished the bottle and tossed it over the edge of the battlement behind her. “Nothing another bottle of whiskey won’t solve…” She gave him a false, crocodile smile. “Be a dear and get me one?… Please?”

Sten blinked, not realizing he would be asked for anything, frowned, and trudged downstairs, grumbling.

He didn’t get far when Fiolina cried out in joy. “He’s coming to!”

The soldier was definitely a more healthy, smooth shade of green, compared to the slightly wrinkled sick-colour he had been before. When he blinked his eyes open, he rasped a bit, and looked around groggily, but his eyes became clearer by the moment. “Uhh… who… are you all?…. Fiolina!”

“Right here, babe…” Fiolina smiled lovingly down at him, cradling his head. “These people helped find you…”

Tata sat up a bit, groaning, and nodded to Ryu. “Thank you…. You saved my life. I don’t know how I can ever repay you…”

Ryu waved it away. “Just recover and take care of your girl. That’ll be good enough. But….”

“Yeah?”

“Who did this to you?”

Tata grimaced, frowning. “I went to take some food to the prisoner that looks like Prince Jean… or rather, the REAL Jean…”

Farther back, Katt whispered to Nina. “That must be one of the soldiers that was talking, when we got pushed into the lake…”

Nina nodded quickly, and then went back to listening to Tata telling his tale. The Sima Soldier was back on his feet, though supported by his girlfriend. He told how when he had approached the cell with Jean in it, the Captain of the Sima Forces appeared, and blocked him. And he was brought before Prince Jean, who quickly sentenced him to the most painful form of torture in all the Sima kingdom, and the death penalty. All because he brought some food to a prisoner, out of mercy.

Frowning darkly, Tata muttered. “I’m gonna leave this town… I can’t stand it here anymore…” He looked into Fiolina’s eyes, and smiled. “I’d like you to come with me, Fio… I can’t picture my life without you…”

“Oh Tata….” She smiled, eyes brimming with large, froggy tears. “Of course I’ll go with you. I’ll follow you anywhere…”

In the back of his mind, Ryu groaned, and metaphorically slapped his forehead in exasperation. For criminy’s sake…. Talk about nauseatingly romantic…

Tata’s face fell a moment later though. “But… where will we go?…I don’t think we’d make it in a big city like Windia… or in Coursair… where would we go?”

“Well, head to the town in the Rhalpa region!” Katt enthused. “Head to the Ranger Guild, and tell them Ryu sent ya! If you ask them where the Ruined Town is, they’ll tell ya how to get there.”

“Yeah, we have some friends that are rebuilding there, and we could use some help, as well as… well… citizens, I suppose.” Ryu shrugged. “Don’t worry about paying for a place. Just pick one, and take it.”

“Seriously?” Tata blinked in surprise. “Just… pick a place?”

“Yep.”

“Sir, you are kind beyond words….” He reached into his tunic, and pulled out a chain with a key on it. “Here… This key can get you anywhere in the castle. I made it specially myself…. Er…”

Ryu gave him an odd look, taking it and handing it to Katt, who put it on. Tata shrugged sheepishly. “Okay, okay… I made a skeleton key so I could sneak into the kitchen when I was hungry, and into the royal vault when I needed a few zenny… but only a few! I never took much. Only what I needed.”

Fiolina gave him a light slap on the arm. “You! I knew there was a reason you had that key…”

“Heh… Yeah…” He grinned, almost boyishly. “Anyway, keep the key. If you go down that way…” He pointed to a small stairwell booth at the other end of the roof. “… and find the red brick in the wall…. You’ll find a little treasury I built myself…”

“Do you happen to know how to get to the Deep Aquaducts?” Nina ventured.

“No problem!” Tata pointed to the windmill building, to his right. “Just go in there, and hop on the buckets. They’ll take you to the maintenance level. From there , just follow the pipes, and you’re there.”

The group thanked Tata for his help, and received thanks for theirs, and then headed into the Windmill building using the skeleton key. Inside, they were amazed at the sheer scope of the size of the windmill components, and the buckets that rose and fell on either side. Sunlight spilled in from the open-air roof, far above, and the entire place smelled of water, mildew, and fresh, cool air.

“I wonder how far this will take us down….” Ryu thought aloud, kneeling by the void where the buckets rose from, and descended into. His voice echoed down into the darkness below.

 

 

New Chapter Coming Soon