Hey guys! Guess what... I'm baaack! I totally love the way this one begins. This one starts in January of 1928, just a little over a month from where TTATFC (Tintin and the Family Crest, pardon my writer's shorthand) left off. Feel free to re-read if you're totally stumped on what's happening. It's perfectly normal, and nobody's going to judge you. Review, my friends! Loves, DisneyPrincess55

One

Just A Normal Day

I had been in love with my best friend, Nollie, since I was seventeen years old. That I knew. What I didn't understand was why she loved me back. There's only so much money an adventure-loving journalist can make, and it's hardly enough to support a family—even if he makes the headlines once in a while.

But while I was unsure of how Nollie could possibly love me, I was completely sure of my love for her. I love her more than anything—more than life itself, even.

"And the Locket of Kadolt will heal anything it comes in contact with—whether it be a broken heart or a broken bone," I read aloud to her one afternoon. She looked at me blankly. She was like that—her thirst for adventure wasn't as strong as mine.

"So that's it?" She asked, "That's what you want to go find?" Nollie didn't really care for finding long-lost artifacts, she actually really hated it. Like the time we went to find her family crest, and she barely escaped the clutches of the evil David Vircley alive.

"Well, yeah, I mean, it's a lost artifact, the clues are rather vague. But, it is worth some money." She didn't say anything, just stared out the window. Her blue eyes were tired. "Would you go with me, if I went?" She looked at me and nodded gently.

"Of course."

"I thought you'd say that. So I got you this, since it's January and it gets cold—" I pulled a clothing box from behind my back and gave it to her. She smiled and opened it and her eyes lit up in surprise.

"A—trench coat?" She said, a glimmer in her voice as she pulled the coat from its box and examined it. She struggled to tug it on and I helped her. "Oh, it must've cost a fortune," she murmured, twirling around in it. "How could you—"

"Expenses don't matter when it comes to you," I grinned. She blushed.

I was upstairs in my office, looking through books about the Locket of Kadolt, trying to get an accurate sighting of the artifact so I could plot the course when the door opened.

"So how soon are we leaving?" Nollie asked. Her brown hair was pulled back into a single braid—the way it always was when she had been reading, probably adventuring with Sherlock Holmes again. She didn't know how beautiful she looked—how beautiful she was, with her gentle, careful demeanor. "Tintin?" Her quiet, elegant voice cut through my thoughts, "How soon are we leaving?"

"I—I don't know," I murmured, back in reality now. "I'm still plotting the course, trying to find where the locket is." She nodded and was gone, back to her books.

The Locket of Kadolt is located in Amaliada,

Amaliada where? The country where the town was located was missing from the page. I flipped through the book slowly, trying to find any other hint as to what country Amaliada was located in.

And then a tiny piece of paper fell out of the book and onto my lap.

So you want to find the Locket, eh? It read, But the country's been scratched off of the page. Well, decode this and you'll find what you're looking for. Codes were easy for me, and this one was particularly simple. The word was written backwards and used the letter preceding the correct letter, so it was Dbddqf—Greece. The Locket is in Greece! I took out a pencil and drew a line from Canterbury to Greece, and found the small town of Amaliada on the coast. We would need to take a plane—it'd be faster that way. I put the paper that had lead me to Greece on my desk and was about to stand when I noticed there was more writing on the back of the page. I flipped the paper over and there was, in fact, more writing—the same person's. One more thing—when you get to Amaliada, there's a library. That library contains the next clue in the hunt to find the Locket of Kadolt. Good luck, and happy travels! -H

H. Who was H? That didn't matter. I had to tell Nollie. I walked downstairs, Snowy at my heels, and she looked up from her book.

"I found our destination," I announced, and she closed her book gently.

"Where are we off to?"

"Greece."

"Greece! Oh, how fascinating! Where in Greece—Athens, or Sparta, or—" I loved it when she got excited over things like this.

"Amaliada."

"Amaliada? I've never heard of it."

"It's a coastal city."

"When are we going?"

"As soon as we can. I doubt there's a train that'll take us right there, but it's worth a shot to find one. We may have to take a plane."

"A plane? Really? I've never flown before. What's it like?"

"Well, you're flying—I suppose it just feels like an adventure in the sky." She considered this for a moment before speaking.

"It sounds fantastic."

"It is."

Back in my office, I pondered on the trip and Nollie. Even though she looked excited, I knew she would probably be petrified if we actually were on a plane. Perhaps a train would be best… It could be done. It'd take much longer—perhaps three days or more, but Nollie would be happier. And airplanes still weren't the safest way of travel. I'd rather have Nollie happy and safe in a train than vulnerable and scared. There was nothing I hated more than seeing her frightened, like she so often was when her mind was wracked with a nightmare at night.

I leaned back in my chair and looked at the newspapers lining the walls. TINTIN DISCOVERS METEOR, TINTIN SOLVES CASE… there were so many adventures I had been on. Just a week ago, I had been considering giving up the adventures for Nollie, to keep her safe, but here I was again, setting off on another adventure, with my best friend at my side. I would keep her safe this time, I wouldn't let anything happen to her.

That evening, Nollie and Emilie were setting up for dinner when I came in. Nollie looked up at me and smiled, her perfect teeth shone in the late afternoon sunlight as she laid out the silverware perfectly. Her aunt's maid, Andrea, had taught her all about etiquette, and those lessons were going to stay with her for life, I could just tell.

"Have you planned out when we're leaving yet?"

"Actually, no, not quite yet, my dear."

"Where are you off to now?" Emilie asked, not surprised.

"Greece," I said tightly. I didn't want Emilie knowing where we were going. She was too nosy for own good, and I feared she was telling someone about our plans. I couldn't risk her knowing too much about us and putting Nollie in danger. If Nollie didn't favor her so much, I'd fire her. She worried me.

"Like Athens?"

"Well, actually, Amaliada," Nollie added. "Amaliada Greece. It's a coastal city." I gritted my teeth. She was giving away our location!

"Amaliada," Emilie said thoughtfully, "How interesting. I've actually never heard of it." That was a good thing, I suppose. Maybe if she didn't know where the city was, she couldn't find us.

After dinner, Nollie came up to my office and sat down on my desk, on top of my stack of papers. I looked at her, and she was smiling widely. "Darling, you're sitting on my things," I tried not to smile.

"And I won't get down until you tell me when we're leaving so I can pack my things," she said sassily. Snowy wagged his tail at her-he was very fond of her.

"You needn't pack anything, sweetheart. We're not to be gone for very long, and there won't be space for a bag on a plane."

"About the plane…" She said quietly, "I went to the library today, while you were at work, and I did a little research on planes, and now I'm not too sure I want to be flying over the clouds anytime soon." She knew this was a risky thing to say, after all, she was with me, she'd have to go in a plane at some point in her life.

"Well," I murmured, "I suppose we can just take the train. It's much safer, and I wouldn't want you to be frightened." To hell if it took longer. As long as Nollie felt comfortable. I would go to the end of the Earth to make sure she was safe, always. It didn't matter if I had to boil in a pool of lava or get shot twenty times, as long as she was okay. "Anyway, we're leaving tomorrow, hopefully. Now will you get down?"

"Not until you kiss me," she smiled.

"Now you're just being silly," I rolled my eyes playfully.

"I'm not getting down," she sang. I laughed and got up to kiss her. She smiled and kissed me back. When we broke, she hopped down and kissed me again before walking out of the room and closing the door.

The next morning, we buttoned our coats and headed to the train station. Ever since our first adventure together, when we had nearly been killed while we hung around in a boxcar, we had been buying our tickets to get on the train, instead of hiding. It was safer that way, and Nollie enjoyed it. She was safe. On the train, Nollie leaned her head against my shoulder and we watched the world go by as the train chugged down the tracks. When we got into France, everything was dusted in snow, and I heard Nollie gasp and sit up, gazing out the window, fingers pressed against the glass. She had a love for snow—it was just another one of her traits that made her so amazing. There were French children playing outside, in a park across the street from the train tracks, and she waved. The children just watched, little minds pondering where our destination may be, what adventures were in store for the passengers on this train. What sort of adventures were in for Nollie and I.