AN. A few things I need to say. I dont own Castle in the sky. Second many thanks to OtaNess on Deviantart for all your help with this fan fic. And third, this is my first fan fic yay! And that's all for now, so enjoy! :D
Sheeta looked at the golden sunset from the glider and watched the small dot that was the Dola gang disappear. They had parted ways with them when they reached the coast near Pazu's home. They had then left for their "hideaway" to build a new air ship. They were now approaching the shore and she could see the breakers far below them.
She looked up and saw that the air pirates were out of sight. She felt a pang of loneliness when she realized that they were gone. "I knew I was going to miss them, but not this much."
Pazu heard her sigh, worried he turned his head to face her. "Are you alright?"
She almost said yes but decided to be more honest about her feelings.
"It's just that I miss them a lot already."
"You mean Dola and the boys?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
Not knowing how to continue or if it was even such a good idea he chose to watch the last of the sunset.
The last rays of sunlight disappeared, and the air quickly became icy. Even though he couldn't see her he could tell that she was shivering. "Here take this," He said handing back his vest. Sheeta took it and put it on gratefully.
Feeling a little bit warmer she looked down at the passing farms wishing that she knew where they were. And how much longer it would be before they landed.
"How much longer till we reach you valley?" She asked.
Pazu surveyed the terrain below them trying to pick out a familiar landmark. He spotted a large farm house he remembered passing on his way back from the fortress, and off in the distance he could see the hills that came before his valley. "Not much longer, maybe ten minutes."
"Okay."
After a few minutes they had crossed the hills and were above the valley. He began to circle the valley below them as they were still too high up to land.
"So, tell me about your friends In Gondor," He said trying to start a conversation to pass the time while they waited to get closer to the ground. Sheeta sighed sadly and began to speak. "I didn't really have any close friends there." He remembered that she had mentioned that after her parents died she was all alone. He was now whishing he had picked a different topic.
"I was always picked on by the other children in the valley. So between you, Dola and the boys this is the most friends I ever had."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"It's okay, I'm glad that I've made so many good friends in the past few days. You should be glad too." He smiled at her, grateful that she was happy.
A few minutes later they began to approach the small mining town. As he turned the glider towards his home she watched the houses in the town go by. As they approached she could see his house coming closer. She was glad that their journey was almost over. Pazu however was beginning to worry about their landing.
It was dark by then and he had never landed the glider before. But at least there was plenty of space near his house to land, and he had the light of the moon. Anyways it was too late to try and find a different place to land. "Well it's now or never," he thought to himself.
"Sheeta?"
"Yes?"
"We are about to land, and it may get a little rough. So are you ready?"
"How much is a little?"
She nodded her head in reply. He began to make a decent towards the field near the house. The glider swooped down closing in on the field. When they got close to the ground he tilted the nose up to land. The small craft hit the ground hard. The impact jolted Sheeta into Pazu, while the glider slid several feet before stopping.
She let out a big breath of air. "Are you all right?" "Yes," She said smiling weakly. "Well that was a pretty good first landing don't you think?" Sheeta shrugged her shoulders and smiled. They then crawled out of the glider and began to walk towards his house.
Once inside they looked around and surveyed the damage. The house still looked like a tornado had touched down inside, although it did look like someone had cleaned it up a bit. "What happened?" she asked.
He realized that he had not told her about the mess dola and her son's had made. He explained his surprise meeting with the Dola gang in more detail to her while they began to tidy up the house.
Once the house was in a more acceptable state Pazu spoke "All right, now that that's cleaned up we can think about dinner," and looked towards the stove.
"Before that we need to clean that gun wound of yours," she was looking at the cut on his cheek and thinking about the possibility of an infection.
"It's not that bad!"
"It could get infected."
"All right, if it will make you feel better."
He begrudgingly set down while she wet a cloth and began to clean the cut. She could tell that it hurt him, he was trying to not let it show, but he couldn't help wincing every now and then.
After thoroughly cleaning the wound and the surrounding skin she moved to the other cheek. "Hey! It's on the other side!"
"Yes but the rest needs to be cleaned too."
"But…"
"Now hold still, I am almost done."
"This is making me feel uncomfortable, why can't she see that?" By the time Sheeta finished a noticeable crimson ting had invaded his face.
By then he was more than ready to begin cooking . After an awkward silence they began to talk. The conversation eventually turned to Gondor. "You know I was thinking we could finish building my airplane and use that to fly to Gondor. What do you think?"
Sheeta paused a moment before answering: "I think it's a good idea. Since till now I've never been far from the valley, so I don't know how to find my way back. And you know that you don't have to."
"It's not like I have anything else to do with it now that we found Laputa," he replied. "Anyways, I promised that I would take you back to Gondor."
She woke up to the sun in her eyes, it was all most nine. She looked at Pazu and smiled, he was still fast asleep. "He looks so sweet when he's asleep," she thought. She looked down at her clothes and sighed. They were soiled from their adventure in Laputa, she would need to take a bath too. But to wash her clothes she would need to barrow some of his clothes, she only had the clothes she wore now, and she hadn't seen her blue dress anywhere when they tidied the house.
After taking some of his clothing she went down stairs to look for a wash tub to bathe in. the tub was in the corner of the basement, when she saw what was inside she smiled. It was her blue dress. It would need to be washed, but that made two sets of clothes that she had.
After she bathed, and washed her clothes she went up the ladder again. Pazu was still asleep when she came back up. She smiled at him sleeping on the floor, and then went to make breakfast.
"How can he survive on this?" she thought as she surveyed his food supply.
It mostly consisted of bread and eggs. He also had a small amount of cheese and bacon. The few vegetables that he had were starting to wilt.
"I hope he's not eating like this all the time. But at least he has plenty of apples though."
She decided on making eggs and toast, "just like he did that first morning."
She broke an egg in to the pan "I just hope that we get to eat it in peace this time."
The smell of eggs cooking drifted around the room and soon woke Pazu. He yawned, stretched, and then looked towards the sounds of cooking. "Time for breakfast sleepy head," said Sheeta with a smile.
He set up and looked at Sheet. "Why is she wearing my clothes?" he briefly wondered.
She saw him looking at her and said "I washed my clothes so I'm borrowing yours in case you were wondering, it's okay right?"
"It's okay." He got up from the blanket he was sleeping on and waked over to the table and set down.
"You need to wash yours too."
"And take a bath he said remembering last night's ordeal."
"I was about to say that!" She said with a giggle.
"Thanks for cooking breakfast."
"Your welcome and here's yours." She set down as they both began to eat their food.
They were interrupted by loud knock on the door. They looked at each other nervously. He indicated for her to wait at the table while he went to answer the door. He carefully opened the door, when he saw who had knocked he broke into a smile.
"Pazu!"
"Hello Mrs. Duffi."
He opened the door more and Sheeta was able to see that the person was the wife of His boss.
"I was worried sick about you when you disappeared like that, and …." Mrs. Duffi stopped mid-sentence noticing Sheeta for the first time.
"Oh good! Your friend's alright," she exclaimed sounding relieved.
"When you came back looking like you did I thought that something must have happened to her." Pazu and Sheeta exchanged looks.
"So what did happen?" She said this while looking at Sheeta's shortened hair with a worried expression on her face.
Not knowing how much she wanted to tell he simply said "It's a long story."
"Well in that case I will have to hear about it later, I came up here when I saw the glider up here and came to see what was going on. Because when I came up here the night you disappeared and it was an absolute mess. I did clean it up a little bit," she admitted.
"Thank you Mrs. Duffi," He said with a warm smile.
"Your welcome, but I need to go check on Maggie now. My husband will be glad to know your back."
"Oh! Let him know that I will be there at one for the evening shift."
"Okay I will let him know. Oh! I don't believe I caught your name," Mrs. Duffi said to her.
"My name is Sheeta," she answered.
"You're welcome to come to my house if you ever want to Sheeta," she offered.
"Well good bye for now."
He closed the door sat back down to eat. "So what should I tell people when they ask about what happened?"
"Why don't you just tell them the truth?"
"First off what are we going to tell them about Goliath? That we didn't have anything to do with it, and that Muska destroyed it?"
"Do you think the government will keep coming after us?" she said sounding worried.
Pazu shrugged, "Maybe."
"Second," he continued "How much do you want to tell?"
They both set in glum silence for a moment, and then Sheeta spoke. "What if we just told them about my crystal and not Laputa? I think the train driver must have seen us float down in to that mine, so we can't hide that."
"It isn't that I don't trust them, most people here you can trust. There are a few shady characters but you can trust my friends. But if the army does come back it will be better for them and us if they know less."
He paused to eat some food before continuing.
"So I think we should play it by ear and see what they know already, I can talk to the boss about it tonight."
"Do you think the will come after us?"
"I don't know. I really don't know."
When Pazu finish his food, he grabbed a par of clothes, and began to take his plate to the sink down stairs. "I am going to take a bath, so don't pop in on me!"
After bathing and washing his clothing he climbed up the ladder, wondering why she had asked if he had a pair of scissors. Sheeta was waiting at the ladder when he came up.
"Here's the scissors you wanted," he said handing them to her
"Thank you. And do you think you could trim my hair for me?"
The fact of the matter was that the bullets had not made a clean cut through her braids, and had left them very ragged looking. When he finished she looked at her hair in the small mirror that he had salvaged from one of the abandon houses in the town.
"Thank you, it looked awful like it was."
"You're welcome. You look good."
"Why did I just say that out loud?"
"Thank you."
Pazu went back down to his workshop a tad embarrassed, and he used the time left before work to make a mental assessment of the airplanes progress. The plane was designed to fly at high altitudes and for extended lengths of time in search of Laputa. That meant it was near ideal for a trip to Gondor, he just needed to add a second seat for Sheeta. The frame work was done except for where he would have to modify it to add the seat. The majority of the engines parts where there, and then all he have would to do would be cover the framework with canvas or thin sheet metal.
His thoughts were broken by Sheeta when she called to him "Time for lunch!"
He climbed up the ladder and smiled at her. "I made you a sandwich for you to eat before you go to work."
"Thanks!"
He waked over to the table where she had set their lunch and set down. Before he began to eat he looked at his sandwich. She had used cheese, bacon, and some vegetables that he vaguely remembered Mrs. Duffi Insisting he take home.
He began to eat his food with relish, but stopped when she spoke. "Pazu?"
"Mm?"
"Well, I want to plant a garden; I just don't know if there was anywhere you didn't want…"
"No no it's fine."
"Thanks, I didn't want to be sitting around here doing nothing."
"By the way what are you going to grow?" Pazu asked curiously.
"Depends on I can find seeds for."
"Well nobody that I know of sells seeds here," he said sounding a bit disappointed.
"Don't worry I grew up on a farm, we can get seeds from the vegetables we eat, you need to eat more anyways." He gave her a sheepish smile, but it disappeared when he saw the time.
"I need to go, now!" He said this and grabbed his jacket. He ran for the door, opened it, and paused just long enough to say good bye to her. She sighed, and was starting to feel lonely without him. She got up and began to wash the dishes, wishing that he was there.
Arnold looked at the man sitting in front of him. He was wearing dark glasses and a suite. He was one of the government agents that had worked with Muska, before he disappeared. He didn't trust him, but he was supposed to collaborate with this man on the resolution of the "situation."
Arnold cleared his throat before speaking." As you know we are here to discuss the disappearance of air destroyer Goliath, and I think we should start by reviewing what we know," The other man nodded his head in agreement.
"First it left this fortress and headed duw east in search of Laputa."
"One hour before dawn they reported sighting the Tiger Moth 30 miles north of Widow's Isle, but then lost it in the cloud cover."
"After that we have received no further transmissions from Goliath."
"No wreckage has washed up from the Tiger Moth or Goliath in this time."
"The Dola gang has not been heard of sense, so they may have met the same fate as Goliath."
" Anything else?"
"You're forgetting that before Goliath left the Dola gang came and made off with the girl."
"I don't see how that has any bearing on this situation," Secretly Arnold was hoping to leave the girl out of this mess if he could. He found the idea of kidnaping an orphaned girl despicable.
"You know what I mean," the man said staring at Arnold from behind his tinted glasses.
He hated it, but the agent had a point, the girl could have impotent information if she had been with Dola.
"Anyways, there are three scenarios that I can think of."
"Goliath could have had sudden trouble with its engines or the like. It isn't very likely, but still possible all the same."
"The Tiger Moth could have come back and got lucky, but we should have heard something from them if that was the case."
"Or Laputa's self-defense systems could have destroyed Goliath. We know the power of their robots," Arnold said looking at the demolished proportion of the fortress.
"Anything else to add?"
"You're forgetting the girl again."
"I don't see …"
"Sheeta was captured by the Dola gang, and then the Tiger Moth was on the same heading as Goliath!"
Arnold could already see where he was going. "She is the only person who could give Dola the direction of Laputa, the direction Dola was going."
"What we need to determine is whether or not she is still alive."
"If she was with Dola then…"
"If she was with Dola, whether or not she was with them makes a big difference."
"Your list of scenarios is not complete without exploring whether or not she is still alive."
Arnold sighed, it was looking like he was going to have to go after the girl whether or not he liked it.