Wakfu
Worthy of the Crown
Chapter Two
Reunion
"Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry."
― Terry Pratchett,
"What do you mean they're not here?"
"I mean they're not here," Amalia said flippantly. I'm here, she thought with irritation. Isn't that good enough?
Yugo looked down. "I just figured that I'd find them here."
"Well, they left. They have their own lives, you know."
"Huh," Yugo said, sitting down. They were still in the official boardroom, not where Amalia would have preferred their reunion, and her dad had left. "Did they say where they went?"
"Ruel left when we wouldn't let him dig for treasure," she said. "He yelled something about ingratitude and how he was going to look for gold elsewhere. Eva and Pinpin went off on their own, and I haven't heard from them."
Yugo looked up with concern. "Isn't she your bodyguard?"
"And has been for the past eight years," she said with a nod. "She's earned some time off. A sabbatical or something. I'm kind of worried about why she hasn't written me yet. I mean, it's been two months already." She sighed. "I guess wherever they are, they're really busy. Anyway, how've you been?"
"Great! Papa Alibert is still taking care of Chibi, and Phaeris moved into a nearby cave in the mountains to look after Grougal. People have started calling my home 'The Dragon Inn,' and they're coming from all over the world to try to talk to him."
"Poor guy," Adamai muttered.
"And here's the good part," Yugo continued. "You know how the Zaap portals were made by the Eliatropes?"
"Yeah." She remembered Qilby mentioning it. Not that that made it true, but it did make sense.
"Well, now I can too," he said, grinning with pride.
Amalia blinked. "You did? Really? How'd you learn that?" The Zaap portals, permanent immovable, and as old as the world itself, were one of the few evidences that the Eliatropes ever existed. Even as limited as they were, often existing in obscure swamps or wastes, they made travel practical. Without them, Amalia wasn't sure if she ever would have left home, and she wouldn't even have heard of half the world beyond her kingdom's borders.
"I thought it would be really hard, but it's not," he said. "Actually I was planning on building one here."
Amalia considered the possibilities. New sets of Zaaps could change the routes of wandering heroes, trading caravans, everything. "Now this I have to see."
WWW
A large group of Sadidas gathered around one of the other Zaap portals within the borders of the Sadida Kingdom to watch. Adamai handed out orders constructing the basic arch of the portal.
"It has to be this tall and a perfect circle," the dragon said. "You'll want to make it out of wood, right?"
"Of course," Armand said. "Though, doesn't it seem a tad short?"
Adamai looked at him. "I think I know what I'm doing. The more complicated designs offer more flexibility, but for now, this is how we do it."
"Well, yes, of course, no one is questioning that, but this design is rather small compared to the others."
Adamai looked at the original Zaap, and the one he was making. His Zaap was at least a foot shorter than the other. "Huh. Well, it's too late now."
"Can't you just redesign it?"
Adamai shook his head. "It has to match its partner Zaap. If this one's bigger than its partner, then in the best case scenario it won't work at all."
"And in the worst?"
"You'll end up permanently shorter," Adamai said. "And dead."
"Ah," Armand said. "Carry on then."
"You already built this Zaap's partner?" Amalia asked. "Where?"
"Emelka," Yugo said. "We made the first one in my backyard before we came. I promised Papa Alibert this morning that I'd be home for dinner."
"Wait, you made it from Emelka to Sadida in a day?" Amalia asked, impressed. "When I made the trip with Eva, it took nearly a week."
Yugo grinned. "And it will never take me that long again!"
"Alright, that's good," Adamai said after the arch was finished. "Hey, bro, you want to do the next part?"
Yugo stretched. "Yeah, I got this." He pulled a blue feather out of his pocket. He closed his eyes and the feather began to glow. Yugo scrawled draconic runes into the wooden arch with an ill practiced hand. A few minutes later, he finished. "Hey, Adamai? Do you want to check this for me?"
"Sooahh Z'apap ime oot tsken Ahklemeh neh tfel eeah tathz paz erthuh uhthz oot eem kate," Adamai read. He looked at Yugo. "That's not how you spell uhthz. Who taught you to write?"
"You did," Yugo said.
"I did?" Adamai frowned. "Well, I did a pretty darn good job. Let me just fix this part...and this part right here, and I should probably rewrite this whole thing here, and...we're good to go."
"Now for the fun part?" Yugo asked hopefully.
"Now for the fun part," Adamai answered grinning.
"Alright, everyone back up," Yugo commanded. "If this works out, I'm told there will be a big flash of light and a small hole in the universe."
"If this works out?" Amalia repeated. "I thought you did this before. And told by whom?"
"Each Zaap comes in pairs," Yugo explained. "I haven't completed the first one until I"ve finished this one."
"And if it doesn't work out?" Amalia demanded.
"Then there may be a lot of dust," he said, and added under his breath, "And some of it will be us."
"What?"
"Ready?"
"What? No, no, call it off!"
"Ready!" Adamai answered.
The brothers stood on opposite sides of the Zaap, their palms out, nearly touching the invisible wall that they would soon form. Yugo's hands glowed blue, Adamai's a deep violet. Electricity sparked between them and reached out to the edges of the arch like a arachne's web. And then...
"Yugo!"
White light burned out of the portal as the fabric of space and time bent to the will of the draconic people. And then...nothing. Yugo found himself on his back twenty feet from where he started. He sat up, dazed. "You alive, bro?"
"I hope so," Adamai groaned. "Because if this is the afterlife I got gypped."
"What were you thinking?" Amalia demanded. "It's bad enough that you try to get yourself killed playing hero all the time trying to save the world, but to nearly die doing something so...so Iopish..."
"Iopish?" Adamai repeated. "What kind of Iops have you been hanging out with?"
"Is it working?" Yugo asked. A translucent curtain filled the Zaap, as reflective as a pool of water.
"I think so," Adamai said. "This is what was supposed to happen, right?"
"A pulse of energy, a flash of light, the runes have faded, but..." Yugo's eyes flashed blue as he switched to Wakfu vision. The draconic runes reappeared. "It checks out." He reached out to touch the portal with his finger, but King Oakheart stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Another thing a king must understand," he said, "Is when to delegate." He picked up his own veggie doll and tossed it through. He closed his eyes and stood silently for a moment. "Yes. I have not been to Emelka in some time and I do not recognize any landmarks, but it seems safe enough. Congratulations, you two."
Amalia stepped up to her father. "Dad, do you think I could spend the night at Alibert's inn?" she asked sweetly. "There are a few things that I wanted to ask…Phaeris about." The king studied her suspiciously. "I was planning on waiting until Eva came back, but if it's just a step away, you know, it's not like I really need a body guard, right?"
King Oakheart sighed. "Very well then."
"Great! Thanks! I'll go get my things." Amalia ran off, and most of the on looking Sadidas began going their separate ways.
"She's not planning on coming back tomorrow, is she, Yugo?" the king asked calmly.
Yugo hesitated. "No," he said. "I'm sorry, but..."
"There's no need to apologize. She has changed after she began travelling, and not at all for the worst. My only concern is that she is short a body guard." He met Yugo's eyes with a piercing stare. "Until Evangelyne returns, I am giving you that responsibility. Do you accept?"
Yugo nodded solemnly. "I won't let anything happen to her."
The king closed his eyes and smiled wryly. "That would not be feasible nor wise. All I ask is that you bring her back alive."
"I promise." He looked up a moment later as a thought occurred to him. "Hey, does this make me a knight?"
Amalia arrived touting her luggage. "Does what make you a knight?" She had changed out of her princess regalia into something more practical.
"Nothing," the king said. "And no, it doesn't. Be careful." He walked away, and Adamai, Amalia, and Yugo stepped through the portal and into another continent.
A short distance away stood Alibert's inn, the home that Yugo knew so well. "Cool! We're home!"
Adamai sniffed the air. "Not only that, we're in time for supper!"
Yugo and Adamai charged into their home, a large house with a few extra rooms that could be rented to travelers. It wouldn't be the nicest place the princess had ever stayed in, but she had stayed in much, much worse places during her travels, and it had a welcoming atmosphere that she couldn't quite place. Amalia took a backwards glance at the Zaap portal. The translucent sheen that filled it faded, and she was no longer a step away from home. She could toss in a Wakfu crystal to reactivate it, though, and that was all it would take.
"Hey, Amalia," Yugo called. "Are you coming?"
"Coming!" she said quickly.
The sun had long since set, and most of the guests had already gone to bed. The only ones left were a small group of Osamodas who bowed to Adamai respectfully before retiring. Alibert stood at the entrance to the kitchen, and his face lit up as soon as he saw them.
"Papa Alibert!" Yugo called, jumping into his father's arms.
"Yugo, my boy!" the broad-shouldered innkeeper replied, catching him and tossing him up into the air. "I didn't know you'd be back so soon!"
"After we connected the Zaaps, it was just a step away!" In a nearby cradle, the infant Chibi reached out his arms. Yugo picked him up and tossed him into the air and caught him like Alibert had just done to him. "What about you, Chibi? Did you miss me too?"
The baby made a gurgling noise that sounded like, "Gugubam!"
"Nope," Yugo said sadly, setting him back in his cradle. "You only missed Grougal." He turned to Alibert. "If his first word turns out to be Grougaloragran, he deserves a medal."
The broad shouldered innkeeper smiled and turned to Amalia. "And Princess Amalia! Forgive me if I am unaccustomed to entertaining royalty. I bet you're hungry. Let me make you some supper."
"I'll help too," Yugo offered. The two of them went into the kitchen.
Adamai sat down at one of the empty tables. "Aren't you going to help him?" Amalia asked.
Adamai snorted indignantly. "I'm a dragon. Cooking is beneath me."
"Yeah?" Yugo called back. "Well, eating your cooking is beneath me too."
Adamai rolled his eyes and threw a nearby eating knife at him. Yugo caught it in a portal and shot it back at him. Adamai caught it expertly by the handle and they both laughed.
"I swear," Amalia said. "If you two survive each other, it will be a miracle." The two brothers laughed again, and Amalia shook her head. "So what's this quest that we're going on? You two were kind of skimpy on the details."
"Well, do you remember the Council of Twelve that gathered to figure out what to do with the, uh, issue of the Eliatrope nation?" He spoke the last part bitterly.
Amalia nodded. She wasn't present at the meeting; she was helping Yugo find Shinonome's Dofus, but she heard about it.
"It was disappointing," Adamai said. "Half the council thought that we were a mass of starving refugees, coming to beg on their streets and eat all their food, and the other half thought that we were coming to take over the world."
"My dad wasn't like that," Amalia protested.
Adamai shook his head. "No, the Sadida people have been supportive, and the Osamodas always treat me with this weird reverence that I don't get."
"You figure into their religion," Amalia explained. "They believe that all life was created by the three dragons of Osamoda, and all dragons are sacred by extension." She couldn't remember how much time her tutors drilled her with useless facts about other cultures.
"Huh," Adamai said. "I wonder who they were. If it was before Orgonax...Balthazar? That seems like something he would do. And maybe Grougal?"
Yugo stepped out of the kitchen holding a plate in each hand and balancing a third one on his head. "Supper's ready!" Without warning, he threw all three plates at them and they landed neatly on the table. "Alright! Three for three!"
Amalia jumped back in shock and nearly fell out of her chair. "What was that about? You nearly spilled it all over me! If you're going to keep on throwing things all night, I can eat somewhere else."
Yugo jumped through a portal and feel into a chair next to her. "I'll be good," he promised. He looked at both of them. "So, what are we talking about?"
Amalia studied her plate. It was a thick, meaty stew that smelled inviting. "Your quest. Adamai was telling me where we were going."
"Right," Adamai continued. "Anyway, a lot of the leaders of the World of Twelve don't want the Eliatropes to return, and many of them are afraid of us. If the Eliatropes come back and they're surrounded by people who want to kill them, well..."
"It won't come to that," Yugo interrupted. "That's why we're going to go all over the world and convince the people in charge that they don't need to be afraid of us." He held out a spoonful of stew for Az to peck at.
"So, it's diplomacy, right?" Amalia said. She had met most of the rulers that they'd probably end up talking to.
"The first part," Yugo agreed. "We'll have to pick up Ruel, Tristepin, and Evangelyne too if we run into them."
Amalia wasn't sure how she felt about that. Ruel was too cheap for new clothes, decent hygiene, or anything that would make him come close to presentable, and Pinpin wouldn't be able to resist meeting the most powerful people in the world without getting into an Iop-brained brawl. "Is there a third part?"
Yugo nodded. "There are six dofus in the world. A dofus needs the wakfu of both the Eliatrope and the dragon to hatch, and of the six, five are at least partially hatched. There's mine and Adamai's, Grougal and Chibi's, Phaeris's, Balthazar's, and Shinonome's. That leaves Nora's and Efrim's Dofus. I don't know where their Dofus is, but, well, they've been gathered before."
"Yeah, by the Ogrest," Amalia said. "What, are you planning on climbing up Mount Zinit and asking him where he'd last seen it?"
"Of course not! Bit if it's been done before, it can be done again." Yugo took a bite of his stew. "Besides, I'm sure the Ogrest isn't as bad as everyone says."
Amalia winced. "All the same, that's something we should save for last." She finished off her stew. It was pretty good. "Do you really think it will work?"
"I hope so. We'll have to bargain with some of them, but just with Zaaps alone, we could make it so you could walk from Bonta to Brakmar in a few minutes! Once people realize how much we can help, of course they'll accept us."
Amalia shook her head. "I know enough about the major leaders to know that they won't appreciate you bringing them closer together. What can shorten the distance for merchants and travelers can spread epidemics, invading armies, spies..."
"Tall fences make good neighbors?" Adamai suggested.
"Right."
Yugo's face fell, but only for a moment. "Then we'll just have to save the world a few more times. We don't need every major group to support us. As long as there aren't enough people opposing us to cause problems, then we'll be fine."
Amalia stood up. "I suppose if we knew how it would turn out, it wouldn't be an adventure, would it? I take it we leave in the morning?"
"Yep."
"Great. Well, good night."
"Good night."
WWW
After they had cleaned up their mess and washed their dishes, Yugo and Adamai went to bed too. "So, are you planning on telling anyone?"
There was only one thing he could be talking about. Yugo shook his head. "It's not really something anyone needs to know."
Adamai closed his eyes and relaxed into his bed. It was more nest shaped than the sort of things humans slept in. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, you know. Being a king."
Yugo winced. Adamai had a way of asking the questions Yugo would rather have avoided. "I know," he said. "It's just that..." Ten thousand pairs of eyes looking to their savior, ten thousand furious angels flying to avenge their fathers and their mothers, an ancient people waiting to be freed."I'm not really a king. Not yet anyway."
"So you're going to wait until you have a kingdom?" Adamai surmised. "Alright, but remember, a king is not just a ruler. He's a symbol. Until you step forward, the world will still think that Qilby is our king."
"Yeah," Yugo said before falling asleep. "I know."
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a/n So that's that. I'm not really sure how Zaaps work in the show as compared to the game, but I'm following the idea that they are built in pairs like normal portals. I figure that if any Zaap could take you to any other Zaap like in the game, they'd spend a lot less of the show traveling. Also there's the Sadlygrove/Tristepin conflict, and I'm going with Tristepin because Sadlygrove shortens to Grovey, which sounds too much like groovy, which would bother me indefinitely. You can translate the draconic language if you want to. I heard that they just had someone talk normally, then played it backwards, so I did that in English, so it's backwards phonetically, but not by spelling. If you say "I" slowly enough it comes out something like ah-eh-ee, so backwards it would be approximately eeah. I'm sure you can work out the rest from that.
