Oracle Chronicles
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles or anything related to it. But I do own my original characters.
A/N: Another try at revising this story! Not too many things will change, though. I just need to clean it up and think of a better ending for this story! So, anyway, enjoy!
ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩΪΫ
Chapter 1
The young lilty let out a war cry as she brought her spear down on the goblin's head furiously. The monster stepped back and shook its head dizzily, dazed by the impact. The female lilty didn't wait for the goblin to recover and whacked it over and over again with her spear, refusing to pause even once. The goblin was weakening tremendously, but the lilty showed no signs of getting ready to deliver the final blow.
"Okay, Laura, that's enough," a rough, male voice said. The speaker, a male lilty who was a few years older than the female, walked to his partner and ordered, "Finish it off already."
Laura, the female lilty, whirled around and glared at the male who dared to intrude on her fight. "Do not tell me what to do, Kelith! I can handle this!"
Kelith, the male lilty, growled lowly, but the growl quickly turned into a gasp. "Look behind you!"
Not entirely sure on whether to believe him or not, Laura was hesitant to do so. But she was broken out of her thoughts when she heard a scream of agony, which was obviously made by the goblin. She turned to see the monster fall backwards, limp and unmoving. A spear was sticking out of the goblin's stomach. The owner of the spear, another male lilty, walked to the goblin and took back his spear.
"Well … That's what you get for not believing me," Kelith pointed out, amused.
"Yeah, Laura, what ever happened to trust?" the other lilty asked, laughs escaping from his mouth.
"Oh, shut up, Gale! Both of you!" Laura exploded angrily. She turned to Kelith and fumed, "This is all your fault, Kelith! If you hadn't distracted me and let me continue … Just because you and Gale used to be soldiers for Alfitaria doesn't make you any better than me!"
"Are you sure about that?" Kelith asked, crossing his arms.
"If you're so good, then why weren't you ever a soldier?" Gale continued.
"Because we moved before I was old enough, idiots!" Laura raged.
"I don't think you would've made it anyway," Kelith told his sister, smirking. "You're too weak."
"I am not!"
"Come on you two, that's enough for one night!" Gale interrupted. "If we stall any longer, than we won't be able to reach Oracle until morning. Then everyone will know that we had gone out again."
"They won't be so forgiving either," Kelith added. "Oracle's caravan sets out tonight."
"I wonder when they're going to choose new caravanners," Gale thought out loud.
"Who knows?" Kelith shrugged. "And as a side note, Laura, don't get too excited. You don't have a chance."
"Shut up, Kelith," Laura muttered.
Kelith and Gale laughed at their little sister, then the three lilties trudged back to the tiny town of Oracle, which they called home. They hoped that no one had noticed the chalice's disappearance, but they weren't so lucky … Someone had noticed the chalice's disappearance.
Even more unfortunate for the three lilties, the two worst possible people to realize the disappearance, had indeed done so.
∞∞∞
"The chalice is missing! The chalice is missing!" The young clavat ran throughout the town, panicked. He ran into his house and screamed, "Grandfather! Grandmother! It's gone!"
"What's all the ruckus?" an old, graying man with a long, white beard demanded of his grandson. "Why, Joseph, whatever is the matter?"
"Grandfather, the chalice is not where it's supposed to be!" Joseph, the clavat who had been panicking, responded. "Rayon and I've checked everywhere! We can't find it! Someone must have taken it!"
"Yeah! I bet that it was those two selkies again!" Rayon, a male lilty who wore a steel visor over his face, agreed angrily as he stepped to Joseph's side. "Who else could it have been? No one else is as bad as they are!"
"Now, now, Rayon, it's not right to assume that they are the ones to blame," Joseph's grandfather said disapprovingly. "Surely, they would not do that."
"B-but … Grandfather … What about last year?" Joseph protested.
"Yeah, elder! They've done it before!" Rayon agreed.
"I do not think that even they would make the same mistake twice," Joseph's grandmother answered as she made her way to her grandson, her grandson's friend, and her husband. "But perhaps we should ask them anyway?"
"It shouldn't do any harm," the elder answered after a long pause. "But, Joseph, you and Rayon should eat breakfast first. You both have a long day ahead of you."
Joseph and Rayon groaned, but listened to the elder's instructions and ate a small breakfast of fish, striped apples, gourd potatoes, and bannock bread. As soon as they were finished, they quickly dashed out of Joseph's house and made their way to the merchant's house.
The town's merchants were the only selkies in town. Oracle hadn't ever been the same since the recent addition of the selkie family. The merchant and his wife had five children, all of whom were in their teen years. It was reasonable to assume that older selkies wouldn't be as much of a problem as younger ones, but that was only half true, as the two biggest troublemakers in the family were the oldest child and the youngest child.
Rayon groaned loudly as his memory flashed to who he thought were the two most annoying selkies to ever have lived. He was remembering last year, when the two annoying selkies had stolen the crystal chalice and hidden it the day the caravan was to leave.
∞∞∞
The two most annoying selkies to ever have lived were not always bothering the people of Oracle. In fact, they were being rather peaceful at the moment.
The young selkie yawned and stretched while adjusting his bandanna. To him, Oracle was so boring! And he felt as if the townspeople were annoying too. They always seemed to be in such a good mood. But more than that, the young selkie hated the glares that the townspeople always gave him and his family. That was something he wouldn't tolerate. His oldest brother felt the exact same way as he did. So, to make things more "interesting," the two selkies often caused problems around Oracle, trying to provoke an angry reaction from the villagers. And it worked too! Unfortunately, the villagers were too dense to see that it were only two selkies who were the troublemakers and disliked the whole family.
But that's what they get when they mess with us, the young selkie thought, closing his eyes and trying to fall asleep.
"Okay, where is it?"
The selkie opened his eyes and saw his two of his three least favorite people in Oracle: Joseph, the elder's son, and Rayon, Joseph's best friend. The selkie closed his eyes again and said, "Where's what? Why are you asking me?"
"Don't play dumb, Kiyhua," Rayon snapped. "Remember what you and Yiehua did last year? You really think that we'd trust anything that you guys say after that?"
"Hey, who's talking about me?" Yiehua asked, stumbling out of his house. Yiehua was an older selkie with short light blue hair held in a purple bandanna. He was met with Joseph's scowl and Rayon's glare. Yiehua sighed. "Now what did I do?"
"They're talking about last year," Kiyhua, the younger selkie, answered.
"Hey, I remember that!" Yiehua said, his eyes lighting up. "But why bring that up?"
"They think we did it again," Kiyhua responded.
Yiehua rolled his eyes. "Well, it wasn't us this time."
"Oh, it wasn't?" Joseph scowled again. "This isn't funny! The caravan leaves tonight! It was a little funny last year, but it's not funny twice!"
"I didn't take it, I swear!" Kiyhua retorted defensively. "How could I have? I was hacking the farmer family's fields!"
"And I was sleeping," Yiehua added.
"You low-life pieces of—"
"Joseph? Rayon? What's the problem here?" a female lilty wearing a white hat and a white dress asked, walking to Joseph and Rayon. She turned her head and saw Kiyhua and Yiehua. She sighed. "What did those two do this time?"
"Nothing!" Yiehua spat.
"Oh … Laura!" Rayon cried, sounding distracted and nervous. "Err … Well … These two idiots pulled a fast one on us and stole the chalice again!"
"Really?" Laura blinked a few times before adding, "Sorry, but my brothers and I were fighting goblins again. And we hoped that we would be able to avoid any problems."
"O-oh! T-that was you three?" Rayon stammered for a few seconds before he was able to get a coherent response out. "Oh, o-okay. You-you and your brothers wouldn't do anything bad, uh, heh, heh?"
"Hey lover's boy!" Kiyhua's annoyed yell snapped the nervous lilty out of his dreamy thoughts. "Don't you owe us an apology?"
"What apology?" Rayon spat.
"Well, isn't it normal for people to apologize when they've accused someone of doing something that they didn't do?" Yiehua retorted.
Joseph sighed and answered, "Well …"
"Don't!" Rayon grabbed Joseph's arm. "We don't need to apologize to the likes of them! Not one bit!"
"Ooh, I'm hurt," Kiyhua said sarcastically. "Right here." He put a hand over his heart.
"You don't have one," Rayon insulted.
Laura gave Kiyhua a disgusted glare and added, "Besides, those two will probably do something the minute we leave."
Joseph glared at Laura, exasperated. "Now, Laura, you say you're the one who took the chalice …?"
The three unwelcome visitors, who were also, coincidentally, Kiyhua's three least favorite people in the world, left the selkies alone as they argued amongst themselves, Yiehua asked Kiyhua, "Hey, you feel like going through the alchemist's potion supply?"
"Don't want to," Kiyhua said in a low, pained voice, one that no one had ever heard him use before. His eyes were clouded over with pain.
Yiehua saw that Kiyhua was hurt by Rayon's comment, and decided not to press his suggestion. "Neither do I. I'm going to take a nap."
∞∞∞
While Kiyhua sulked and Yiehua slept, the family of clavat farmers, whose fields had been torn up by Kiyhua a few hours earlier, had just discovered the aftermath of the selkie's prank.
"All that hard work for nothing," a male clavat complained, kicking the dirt lightly. He brushed his bangs behind his headband and continued, "Man! Not again!"
"I agree with you," a clavat girl agreed, brushing dirt off her brown dress. "It was bad enough last time!"
"Kiyhua and Yiehua strike again," another female clavat, an older one, growled. "If I ever get my hands on those two, I'll …"
"You'll do what, Alyssa?" a little clavat girl inquired innocently, tilting her head to one side.
Alyssa, the oldest of the four clavats, shook her head and said, "Oh, forget about it. We better clean up our yard. Mother and Father are going to be upset enough, hearing that our fields are ruined. We don't want them to see this mess."
Her three siblings agreed with her and they worked vigorously to clean their field. About an hour had passed before Alyssa approved of the cleaned field.
"You're hard to please, Alyssa," the male clavat remarked.
Alyssa glared at him. "No comment from you, Cody! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the merchant's house. Let's see if I can catch those boys at home …"
When Alyssa was disappeared from sight, Cody whispered, "Bianca, I think that she's going to strange them," to the clavat wearing the brown dress.
"I agree, but don't let Lissa hear what you said!" Bianca warned, glaring wearily at her little sister.
"Cody, Bianca, what are you two talking about?" Lissa, the youngest of the four, questioned curiously.
"Um … Nothing! Nothing!" Bianca said quickly. "Um … Why don't you play with the moogles?"
"Oh, I want to play with the moogles!" Lissa said, jumping excitedly and clapping. "Can I? Can I?"
"Well, the moogles are in the mood for some company," a deep, slightly echoing female voice said. "Now would be a good time to play with them."
"Oh! Naruti! Hi!" Cody said, his voice a bit shaky. He tried to brush some dirt off his clothes in vain as he added, "How are you doing?"
Naruti, a female yuke who was wearing a pink dress and a helm with a heart on it, stared at Lissa as the clavat bounded off to the moogle's nest before answering, "Well, I've just made a miraculous breakthrough on healing potions! I wanted to tell you first."
"Wow! How great!" Cody said, jumping a bit in admiration. "You have to tell me everything about it!"
"Well, I was able to …"
Bianca just shook her head and groaned slightly, knowing that she was forgotten by her brother and her brother's crush. She meandered away, lost in her thoughts. Cody, for some odd reason, was entranced with magic, which was quite rare for any race other than the yukes. Once Naruti started talking about her magic, there was no way to get her to stop. Bianca never understood magic and always preferred to sit out of those conversations.
∞∞∞
While Cody and Naruti chattered away about magic, Alyssa had stomped to the merchant's house, ready to give someone a piece of her mind. She had almost reached the selkies' house when a voice called out to her, "Alyssa! What are you doing here?"
Alyssa turned to the speaker and saw a female selkie around her age standing a few paces away from her. The selkie had light blue hair that was pinned up with a huge clip. She had a friendly smile on her face, but there was a troubled look in her eyes, almost as if she knew that Alyssa was here to complain.
"Oh, Leahua, just the person I wanted to see," Alyssa said with fake sincerity and glided towards the selkie. "I just wanted to tell you something. Something important." Alyssa's face suddenly twisted into a frown and she screamed, "Your stupid brothers wrecked our yard for the fifth time!"
"They did what?" Leahua, the selkie, gawked at the angry clavat standing in front of her and responded, "Jeez, I'm sorry, really I am, Alyssa! I'd stop them if I could, but they won't listen to me, I'll tell you that much!"
"Well, there has to be something that you can do!" Alyssa responded irritably. "Can't you just knock some sense into them, literally? Or get Zenhua to do it? Do something, Leahua!"
"Whoa, never heard a clavat suggesting violence before!" Leahua said defensively.
"Well, just tell your brothers that they got lucky this time!" Alyssa snapped. "I swear, if I had seen either one of them here, then I would've strangled them!"
Leahua glanced over Alyssa's head to see a sulking Kiyhua walking towards them, and knew that she had to get Alyssa to leave, fast. Leahua thought quickly, then blurted out, "Well, I'll be sure to tell them how lucky they are. Uh … I have to do something. Can we talk about this later?"
Alyssa didn't notice Leahua's panicked tone and simply answered, "Sure, sure."
"Come on, girl! Get!" Leahua said in a hurried and nervous voice. She hoped that Alyssa didn't notice. "I'll come over to your house in a bit, okay? Wait for me, don't come here."
"You're really weird, Leahua," Alyssa said, sighing. "Are all selkies like you and your family?"
The selkie girl decided to ignore that question and told Alyssa to get to her own house. When Alyssa was out of sight, Leahua growled and waited for Kiyhua to approach her. When he was standing next to her, Leahua said, "Guess who that was."
"Alyssa," Kiyhua said monotonously.
"You bet it was," Leahua said angrily. "And you're lucky I got her away in time! But next time, I'll just let her strangle you!"
"There won't be a next time," Kiyhua answered.
Leahua was shocked. She looked down at Kiyhua's face, and was even more shocked to see the disappointed look on his face.
"Hey, hey, hey! Hey! What is it with you two today? No arguing?" a male selkie who seemed to be about Leahua's age asked as he walked towards his siblings. He had light blue hair that came down to his shoulders. His purple bandanna, which usually kept his hair in place, was now wrapped around his neck. "What's up?"
"I'd like to know that, too," Leahua said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at Kiyhua.
Kiyhua looked hesitant at first, but then he muttered out, "Rayon says I don't have a heart."
Leahua and Kiyhua's brother looked shocked. But Kiyhua's brother burst out laughing just then.
"Stop laughing, Xiuhua! It's not funny for Kiyhua!" Leahua snarled, smacking Xiuhua over the head.
"Ha, ha, ha … Ow," Xiuhua said, rubbing his throbbing head. He glared at Leahua and said, "Leave me alone!" Then, he turned to Kiyhua and said, "That's it? That's it? Rayon says that to me all the time! As does everyone else in Oracle, and do I look like I care?"
"Kiyhua's not like you, Xiuhua," another male selkie answered, striding towards his three younger siblings. "And for some of us, it hurts."
"Yeah, Zenhua, you're a big softie." Xiuhua stuck his tongue out at Zenhua.
Zenhua groaned and shook his head. "Look, Kiyhua, Rayon's just a jerk. We all know that. And lilties can't tolerate selkies. Who cares what he says? He doesn't even know you."
Kiyhua finally managed a smile. "Yeah … You're right."
Leahua nodded happily, glad to see that everything was back to normal. She heard footsteps in the distance just then and turned around to see who it was. "Oh, no, it's Alyssa. I told her to wait for me."
"Alyssa? Oh, no. I got to hide." Zenhua quickly ran in the opposite direction that Alyssa was coming from.
"He's scared of Alyssa?" Kiyhua asked, puzzled.
"Yes, he is." Xiuhua grinned cheerfully. "She mistook him for Yiehua and tried to throw him out in the miasma!"
"And how do you know this?" Leahua asked, giving Xiuhua an incredulous look.
"He told me."
Kiyhua and Leahua just gave their older brother a strange look.
"Wh-what?"
∞∞∞
Later that night, the whole village was gathered at the town's crystal to celebrate the departure of their caravan. Ironically, this hectic day was also the first day of the year, which meant it was time for the caravan to set out again. The three caravanners, Yuri, a female lilty with pure red hair and a white dress with pink spots, Ishaow, a male clavat wearing loose, black clothing and spiked bracelets and belts, and Yadin, a male lilty with more blond hair than red, who was wearing the traditional lilty armor, sat beside the elder as he told the story of their caravan's first departure.
Oracle didn't have a big population, as did many other towns and cities, did, so all the villagers were able to in the town square at the same time. Cody's parents and sisters were sitting on the steps of the town crystal. Joseph, his parents, and his two sisters were standing behind the elder. Joseph's father, the elder's son, stood next to the elder's wife, who was his mother. Ishaow's parents and three younger sisters were standing next to Ishaow. Ishaow's father was standing next to Joseph's mother, who was his sister. Two other clavat families were standing in the crowd, listening intently to the elder. Both families had a daughter, who were best friends. Tatiana, who had long, brown hair, and Ami, a clavat who always wore white robes, had their eyes open wide, listening with interest.
Laura was standing away from her parents and her brothers. She had pushed her way to the front of the crowd to have a better look at the caravanners. Rayon had also walked away from his father and his pregnant mother, but his glance was on Laura. Yuri's parents and sister and Yadin's parents were standing behind their caravanner. The three other lilties in Oracle—Jason, Miri, and Ken—were standing next to Tatiana's family, whispering amongst themselves. Jason's parents were aggravated at the fact that Jason was not interested in the story of the caravan. Miri's parents were wondering if their son, Miri's older brother, would be able to come to the festival. Ken's parents were bored, pretending to listen to the elder. Jason, a male lilty who proudly showed off his red, blond, and green hair, whispered to Miri, who never wore anything on her head. Ken, who wore a bucket over his head, ignored his two friends.
Naruti's parents were standing in the middle of the crowd. Naruti wasn't with them, though. In fact, Cody wasn't with his family, either. Rather, Naruti and Cody were standing away from the crowd, whispering about magic. Kiyhua's family was standing as far away from the crowd as possible.
"Now," the elder said, concluding the story of Yuri's caravan, "as reliable as Yuri, Ishaow, and Yadin may be, they will not be with the caravan forever. We do not know when they will quit for certain. But it is time that we start choosing new caravanners to prepare ourselves for that day."
The crowd cheered loudly at this announcement. Laura was cheering the loudest out of everyone. She had always wanted to go on the caravan. The elder just had to see her training! He had to! She couldn't think of anyone more fit for the job that she was!
The elder accepted the list that his wife handed to him. He looked down at it and said, "I have chosen the possible candidates for our caravan. All of you know very well that the minimum number of caravanners is two and the maximum number is eight. I have been keeping an eye on the young fighters of this village. I just hope that I won't cause too much disappointment." He chuckled gently as he added, "Of course, my grandson, Joseph, is a likely choice for this job, but not only him. I've seen his friend, Rayon, show some promise."
Rayon gasped loudly and everyone who was close enough to hear him laughed. Joseph motioned for Rayon to come up to the town's crystal, and he did so, embarrassed. The elder named all of his choices for future caravanners. Joseph, Rayon, Laura, Cody, Naruti, Jason, Miri, Ken, Tatiana, and Ami stood in front of the crowd. Joseph, Jason, and Ken waved to the villagers. Cody and Naruti called out to their families. Rayon was glancing uncomfortably at Laura, who was busy looking proud of the moment and giving her brothers a smug smirk. Miri was looking at the other finalists nervously.
"And we have one more caravanner than I've had my eye on," the elder said after the crowd and calmed down. This surprised everyone. Most new caravanners were between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Who else in town was between those ages? "I know that many of you may not have faith in him, but he is a promising fighter," the elder said. "My final choice for the new caravan will be Kiyhua."
The crowd gasped and turned to each other in a noisy babble. The other finalists shifted their glances towards each other nervously as they waited for the arrogant, bandanna-clad selkie to walk up to the podium. A few seconds passed. Nothing.
"Where is Kiyhua!" Rayon shouted angrily, breaking the silence.
A few more seconds passed before Daen Lei, Kiyhua's father, finally said, "Well … He's not here. I guess."
Tatiana's eyes widened to the size of eggs. She had never met Kiyhua in person, but she had heard of his wrongdoings plenty of times. Ami, Miri, Cody, Naruti, and Jason had never met him either, but Ken, Rayon, Joseph, and Laura knitted their brows in exasperation and worry.
"He's not the only one absent," Noo Mee, Kiyhua's mother, added. "Yiehua's not here either!"
This meant very bad news for everyone. Just Kiyhua or Yiehua by himself was enough of a problem. Just thinking about what they would do when they were alone together was too terrifying to think about.
∞∞∞
Kiyhua and Yiehua had, true to everyone's expectations, gotten into trouble. But this time, they were in trouble, not causing trouble.
"Oh, man, this really sucks," Yiehua complained, grabbing his racket as hard as he could and look around uncomfortably.
"Well, we definitely didn't see this coming," Kiyhua agreed, hiding behind Yiehua and holding his own racket.
The two selkies hadn't expected to see a goblin walking into town, completely unaware of the danger it was getting itself into. They had disposed of it easily, but hadn't expected to be confronted by a horde of goblins.
"What now?" Kiyhua whined.
"We fight, duh," Yiehua answered, giving his brother an exasperated glare.
With that statement, Yiehua abruptly lunged at the goblins, his racket raised. Drawing it back, Yiehua let it strike a random goblin, knocking the monster into another goblin, then another one, then another one, until a section of the ring had broken. The two selkies ran out of the barricade and faced the tiny but aggressive monsters. Kiyhua waited until the goblins charged at him, then he smacked a goblin on the head as hard as he could, destroying it. Yiehua used his focus attacks to take out goblins from a safe distance. Kiyhua, seeing that Yiehua's technique was more effective than his own, copied his brother. The selkies swiftly eliminated the monsters with their technique.
"What? Can't come up with something on your own?" Yiehua teased.
Kiyhua felt his cheeks turning red. "Oh, shut up!"
Yiehua laughed. "I win. Now let's get these guys!"
The two separated and charged at the goblins, using their melee attacks to deal with the ten remaining goblins. Kiyhua had taken down three easily, but then he heard his brother yell out. One of the goblins had stabbed Yiehua in the back with its cutlass. Kiyhua quickly pushed two goblins out of the way and whacked them to their demise, then gave the goblin that had attacked his brother a swift clock to the head, causing it to fall. Suddenly, he felt something cold pierce him in the back. He had forgotten about the last goblin.
"Why can't you just die!" Kiyhua shot a focus attack at it, causing it to shriek and fall to its death. That focus attack had used up whatever bit of energy he had left and he let himself fall unconscious.
∞∞∞
The first thing that Kiyhua saw when he regained consciousness was Xiuhua and his father hovering over him. The bright torchlight pierced his vision and he had to close his eyes again.
"Kiyhua's awake, at least, what a relief," Kiyhua heard his father say.
When Kiyhua opened his eyes again, letting them adjust to the fiery light, he noticed that he was covered by a thick, wool blanket. He glanced around the crowd to see the elder and almost all of the other parents talking nervously. Yuri, Ishaow, and Yadin were standing away from the crowd, although in sight, at different places in the village. No doubt that they were guarding the village from any more sieges.
"I … I can't believe this happened," Joseph said, his voice shaking. "How could those goblins have gotten in here?"
"Hey, at least we're safe," Rayon assured him. "Only damage that's been done is to those selkies, but they'll be up and causing havoc by tomorrow."
"Yeah," Joseph agreed.
"Rayon! That's not nice!" Tatiana cried.
"What? Those two are too stubborn to be kept down for long!" But deep inside, Rayon was worried for the two selkies, although he refused to admit that he did so.
Jason, Ken, Cody, and Naruti had been whispering amongst themselves, but they dispersed quickly, wandering back to their families. Laura kicked one of the goblins' dead bodies and muttered angrily to herself, "I missed all the action. I wish I had been there. Those selkies aren't fit to be on the caravan."
Kiyhua tried to tune out the loud talking around him. It was giving him a headache. He tried to sit up, but Xiuhua pushed him back down with one hand easily. "Stay put, because if you don't, then I'll be in trouble!"
"Hah! Whatever," Kiyhua muttered, pulling the blanket up to his chin. "I don't feel like going anywhere anyway. Hey, Xiuhua, where's Yiehua?"
Xiuhua stood up abruptly just then. "I'm leaving. Don't go anywhere."
"Hey! You didn't answer my question!" Kiyhua shouted at his brother.
"He's not dead," was Xiuhua's terse reply as he quickly walked away from his brother.
Kiyhua was confused and worried, and he struggled to sit up so he could question Xiuhua further. That was when his mother decided to check on Kiyhua. He didn't see her coming.
"Kiyhua …" she said warningly when she saw her youngest child struggling to stand up.
Kiyhua sulked back down. After a long, uncomfortable pause, he said, "Mom … Where is Yiehua?"
Noo Mee seemed hesitant to answer, but her reply was dodgy, as Xiuhua's had been. She said, "I … have to see how he's doing now."
Noo Mee walked away from Kiyhua, but he barely noticed. Although he was not as smart as Naruti, he knew when to take a hint. And the message was clear: Yiehua was not dead … yet. He must have been attacked badly, and he must be close to death now. Kiyhua wanted to see him, but he could barely move. He sulked for a while, then he made his decision. He would not change his mind.
"I am going out with that caravan tomorrow," he told himself. "And I will annihilate every single goblin there is out there. Mark my words!"
As he drifted off to sleep, Laura glared at him, her arms crossed. She had heard him and she knew. "Cody … Naruti … I need to speak with you two for a moment …"
ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΦΧΨΩΪΫ
A/N: See? Not much change. It's longer, though. So, is it good? Or does it still suck?