Trial Two~Bonds
Ea and Tah Min followed Ri-is to the geyser plains. They walked to the water's edge and were greeted by a few mermaids. The women bobbed excitedly in the waters.
"Oh! It's the other two princes!" One chimed.
"The second Prince is much more handsome than I imagined!"
Her sister floated excitedly, trying to reach out to Ea.
"The third is so adorable! I could just eat him up!"
Her gaze was carnal and went unnoticed by the two boys, but didn't slip past Tah Min, who eyed them carefully.
"Wait...they wouldn't harm them, these mermaids are followers of the mermaid deity that entrusted her throne here to the Queen. They wouldn't betray that trust...still...they don't seem to be opposed to violent pranks..." She let her self get swept away in thought. She didn't know where she got that idea from, she just knew that with each word that drifted from the mermaid's lips, an underlying, sinister motive was present. Whether they would act upon it or not was something Tah Min hoped they chose not to.
"We need your help," Ea announced.
The girls swam cheerfully. "Of course! Ask us anything, but it won't come for free!"
Ea raised an eyebrow. "Fair enough. What is it you want?"
The girls giggled playfully. "We're always graced by Prince Zur-Sin's presence, but we want to play with the others too! If we help you, you have to promise to come back and keep us company! We promise to keep you entertained!"
Ea, ever the naive one when it came to women, shrugged and nodded. "Alright. Sounds simple enough."
Tah Min made a face but no one payed enough attention to notice. The mermaids sang with joy.
"Alright!! We'll help you! What do you need?"
Ri-is pointed to the portal beneath the water. "We need to use your portal to travel to Craobh Fuaran. Our friend has been kidnapped."
The mermaids nodded, their plotful gaze turning into one of concern.
"That's awful! Come. We'll take you to it."
Each mermaid grabbed one of them by the hand and began to pull them into the water. For the most part, they were able to safely walk down the path until their heads were the only thing above the water. The mermaid guiding Ea stopped pulling and cupped his face in her hands. With a sweet giggle and no warning what so ever, she planted her lips on his. His eyes widened and his face flushed a bright shade of red. Tah Min gasped, a pang of jealousy pierced her heart like a bullet. The mermaid slowly pulled away from Ea with a satisfied smile.
"There. I've placed an enchantment on you. Now you can breathe underwater." With that, she pulled him under the water. He submerged without a problem. Ri-is received his kiss without so much as batting an eyelash. It perplexed Tah Min as she expected him to be just as innocent as Ea, if not more given his childish demeanour. However, that seemed to be far from the case, in fact, his eyes looked utterly dead as the beautiful mermaid closed the distance between them. The emptiness in his features came as a surprise to her, so much so that she wasn't even aware of when she received her own kiss and was pulled underwater as she was so deep in thought.
When they reached the portal, the mermaid guiding Ea let go of him and swam to the front of the portal. She placed her hand on it and a wave of magical energy rippled through the portal. She whispered a chant, calling the water sprites of Craobh Fuaran. When she did, the clear waters of Craobh Fuaran was reflected on the other side of the portal. The mermaid turned around.
"Alright! Go on through! The portals have been connected!"
Ea and the others complied and swam through the portal. They were greeted by the warm glistening underwater scenery. They swam to the surface and Ea used his powers to extract the water from their clothing and dry them off.
"What is this place?" asked Tah Min.
Water sprites fluttered down from the trees to welcome them. "Good afternoon honoured guests! Welcome to the forest ruins of Craobh Fuaran! It was one home too many elves and fairies but now only covers the shadows of the past in what it once was." She explained kindly.
"We've been told of your arrival and purpose for coming. If you follow the stone path in the direction of that canopy, you will find the sacred tree, the source of this lands magical power. Just across the lake from the tree is the village of Baile. Hopefully, you will be able to find some information about your friend there. Do be careful though wee been experiencing some issues with bandits in the area."
"That's what we're counting on." murmured Ri-is. The fairies then fluttered back up into the trees, leaving the group to their own devices. Once they did, a group of cloaked individuals emerged from the surrounding fauna in a streak of coincidental fate.
"So you're the ones who came looking for her huh?" A low, guttural voice echoed in the silence of the forest.
"Seems so. We were going to come back for the other brat but it looks like you saved us the trouble and came straight to us!" His partner chimed in.
The trio looked at each other and back at the bandits.
"Alright. We have like ten people trying to kill us. What do we do?" Ri-is said, loud enough for the bandits to hear.
"Seventeen. It's actually seventeen people." Corrected Ea.
Ri-is deadpanned and stared at Ea. "Oh. Sorry I wasn't specific enough!"
Another croaky voice made an appearance with a haughty laugh. "You guys got a sense of humour on ya. Too bad ya won't be laughing after this!"
A gunshot blazed through the air and startled them. One of the bandits had fired at Ri-is who dove out of the way, Ea and Tah Min did the same, taking cover behind the surrounding trees. As soon as the bandits managed to separate Ri-is from the others, one of the men swung down on a vine and grabbed Ri-is. Ri-is struggled and flailed around but his antics were promptly shut down by another man who shot him with a tranquilizer dart.
Ri-is fell limp and they were able to run off him. Ten of the men left with him, leaving seven to deal with Ea and Tah Min. As soon as the ten men were out of sight, Ea decided to get serious and summoned a stream of water from the lake beside them. The water swirled the remaining men and trapped them in a bubble. Tah Min then walked over and took all of their weapons away while they struggled to get out. She burnt their wooden bows and spears to a crisp before Ea froze them in the bubble, leaving them unable to move. 320Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWjaD5lZyz
Tah Min let a small flame burn several small holes at the top of the bubble. "There. You should be able to breathe now. You'll be here until this ice melts so I suggest you get comfortable," she said triumphantly.
"Come on. Let's get going."
Ea and Tah Min followed after the men who took Ri-is.
•~•~•~•~•~•~•
The Men arrived at their base camp and dumped Ri-is in a tent.
"I'll go tell the boss that we got the other kid," said the man as he left the tent. Before he did though, he turned to Yukimi who was huddled in a corner with a restrictive brace around her neck that repressed her magical energy and prevented her from escaping. "Don't even think about trying to escape. We were told not to kill you, but the boss said nothing about roughing you up a bit," the man scoffed.
With the man gone, Yukimi quickly rushed to Ri-is' side. She grabbed his shoulder and rolled him over. "Ri-is are you okay? Oh my gosh! What'd they do to you!"
Ri-is opened his eyes and sat up normally like nothing ever happened. He pulled the dart from his neck. "Don't worry. It was just a tranquilizer dart. One measly dart isn't strong enough to take down a dragon."
"If you knew they were trying to kidnap you then why didn't you fight back!" She whispered.
"This is all a part of the plan to get you out of here. Ea and Tah Min should have followed us to this location. They're bringing reinforcements. We're going to get out safely. "
A breath of relief heaved from Yukimi's chest. "At least you're okay...thank you...for coming for me that is."
"Well I mean it is my job to keep you safe. I'm sure your mother wouldn't be too happy if you went missing and never came back. We have a while before anyone gets here so get comfortable."
There was a long silence that gnawed at them. Yukimi decided to break the silence by trying to start a conversation about anything really, just to make things less awkward. "Ri-is? Um...I'm sorry...it was me who sort of forced you to take me back to Solaria. We wouldn't be in this mess if I had just stayed put..."
Ri-is sighed and scratched his cheek. "Don't be sorry. I could have still chosen not to take you back with me. That glimmer in your eyes when you spoke of your dreams is what made me want to take a chance on you. It reminded me of back when I was a teenager."
Her eyes lit up. "Really, how so?"
He laughed. "Well ever since I was a kid I was enamoured by magic. So much so that my mom started teaching me sorcery when I was only five. Being the son of a goddess, I picked up on it fairly quickly. She would often tell us stories of the people she met in her adventures through time travel, one of them being Merlin and other great magical figures of history. That just served to excite me even more. I wanted to be a great magician. One who could help people and encourage people to fight for their dreams. I wanted to be like people like mom and Merlin, people who could inspire others with just a smile. It made me happy...but then I had to be taken out of school..."
Yukimi frowned. "Why did you have to be taken—"320Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI7fwBc8KX5
Her quite barrage of whispery curiosity was cut short when Ri-is turned around to face her, whilst crossing his legs and getting comfortable and she spotted the long scar of Ri-is' right eye. She silently pointed to her eye. He went pale and reached up to touch his own eye. That's when he realized that his eye patch had been cut off in the skirmish in the forest.
"S-Sorry...it's disgusting I'll just uh...look the other way..."
Before he could turn around completely Yukimi reach out and gently cupped his face in her hands, turning him towards her.
"...how did...that happen?"
She didn't know why but his blank stare drew her in. Like it was trying to pull her into the abyss of nothingness. The look he was giving her was uncharacteristically dark as if to warn her that she shouldn't press the matter if she was expecting a story with a happy ending. Still, as she looked back into his eyes, her heart ached as the pain and sorrow in his gaze threatened to consume them both. He watched her flustered form at a loss for words and contemplating whether or not asking that question was the right decision. They had time before reinforcements showed up and he really had nothing to lose by telling her. His chain of desolate thoughts lead him to his decision. So with a long sigh, he opened his mouth to speak.
"This scar...is one of the reasons I was home schooled...and a great source of pain for my family..."320Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ39INDOAEV6
