Chapter Two
The Next morning, Kira had found herself under a tree, with Robin and Mailee wrapped around her and Kiki in Kira's arms asleep. She found herself hurting on her leg. She tried to see why she was in pain, but the embrace of Robin and Mailee kept her in place. She let out a sigh and looked up at the sky to see one of the three suns begin to rise. It was too early to wake them up, so she leaned her head back and fell back asleep.
A short while later she heard mumbling, it seemed to be all around her. She then felt Mailee and Robin move from there embrace around her. Then she felt Kiki being moved from her arms. Kira's eyes shot open to see the three being tied up, they were looking at her and there eyes told her to run away while she could. Kira sighed and shook her heavy head.
"My children I can not run, I have injured my leg and I am unable to walk."she said aloud. The people tying the Gelfling up turned and faced Kira, who let out a yawn. When she saw there masked faces she smirked and the began to laugh. "Hello, outcasts." and the three Gelflings eyes popped. The looked at the masked faces of there captors and saw they had the same ears and eyes as a Gelfling would. Then a male outcast, came and picked up Kira and flinging her over his left shoulder. The they proceeded to there hideout.
Kira and the three Gelfling children were then blindfolded, after five minutes of walking and being carried. The next thing Kira knew, she was placed in a seat, and the blindfold was removed from her eyes. The place was a lit by torches the hung on the walls. Sitting on a wooden seat at the edge of the room sat a man sitting the the shadows, unable to see his face clearly. Kira remembered his face, but at the moment she couldn't place a name. He looked upon the four Gelflings that sat before him, and he smiled.
"Hello Queen Kira, and her beautiful family." said the man stepped out of the shadows.
Kira gasped, and then darken the warm look she had always carried on her face. "Hello Stone." she finally said with a slight tone of anger in her voice.
Stone was the leader of a group of Gelfling outcast. He was once a second in command at the castle, but for reason unknown to Kira, he was banished. Stone looked at the group of four, and he was puzzled. "Where is King Jen? Isn't he with you?"
Kira looked down at the floor, then began. "A group of creatures attacked the castle and stole the shard of the crystal, and Kiki saved Jen's life but teleported him somewhere that we don't know of." and a single tear, one of many to come, rolled down Kira's cheek. The expression on Stone's face turned from hate and anger of Jen to sorrow and pity for Kira. He looked at the guards and shouted what Kira guessed was 'release them' in a language unknown to Kira. The Guards then began to untie the ropes that bound Kira, Mailee, Robin and Kiki.
Stone saw that Kira couldn't get up from the floor, the leaped from where he stood to the floor and sat next to Kira on the cold floor. He moved so fast that Kiki, the one of them with the fastest eyes, couldn't keep up with him. He placed his hand on her leg, and applied a small amount of pressure, but it cause pain that made Kira jolt her head back.
"It's broken..." he said at last. He looked at the children with a expectant look on his face.
"She tripped when she tried to save Jen from falling to fire." Kiki said, holding her head low.
Stone sighed in disappointment, "You Need to get the shard back..." and as he said that two male Gelflings walked into the chamber. "David and Herot, you shall assist the three Gelflings to find the U Mun kingdom, and retreive the shard.
"... and you only have 5 days to do this." Kira added, Stone looked at her and then nodded his head in agreement. David and Herot sighed in frustration.
"Why should we help them? They NEVER help us..." they started.
Stone stood up and gave them a angry glare. He shouted something in the unknown language that made the two Gelflings have fear suddenly appear on there face. He must have ether sweared at them or said something that was a threat to their physical well-being. They looked at Kiki, Robin and Mailee, and nodded. They were going to help.
"While you are out looking for the shard, Queen Kira will stay here." The three were stunned, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to her, and while she is here, we will work on her leg." Kiki had a feeling that he wouldn't do anything to Kira, so she nodded and the five of them proceeded out of the hide out to find the shard, before the sun shine as one.
They knew there first goal before they could go find the U Mun kingdom, they needed more information on them, so they first set out to find Augra. They walked until they found a cave, the cave led to a remains of a home that had been burned, some old mechanics, and some burned papers with unknowned languages. There sitting in the middle of the floor was Augra, and she was messing with some old stones.
"This use to be my home..." she mumbled sadly "... and the Garthim destroyed it many years ago, when I first met your father." She looked like she was about to cry. She slowly lifted her head and looked at the Gelfling group near the entrance of the door. "You need to get the shard back." And as she said that a single tear rolled down her wrinkly face.
"But Augra..." Kiki started, "... we need a little more information about the U Muns. If we are ever going to get the shard back." Augra then let out a sigh and began to tell the story of the U Mun.
"A very long time ago, almost two thousand years ago, the U Muns were once close cousin to the Gelfling race. They had the similar appearance to a Gelfling as in the ears, nose and eyes. So the Garthim not only killed the Gelflings they got confused and started to kill the U Muns too. That is the main reason they live underground. The remaining U Muns went into hiding, when they found the underground sun and made there kingdom."
Augra let out a sigh and continued. "Its just recently that their sun began to die out. It is running out of energy for reasons we do not know of. If they use the shard, who knows what may happen." She said in a tone as if she was complaining, and shook her head. "They couldn't just shut there mouths and die out in peace." She said bitterly. Her temper was beginning to show, she was mad at the U Muns and the fact that she lost her home again.
Kiki and Mailee sighed in frustration and pity for Augra, they didn't like thinking about the fact that along with her, they had lost the only home they ever knew. Mailee glanced over at Robin who was fighting back tears. She smirked a small smirk on her face, but then looked at Augra again.
"Augra, where is the Kingdom of the U Muns?" Kiki finally asked. Augra slowly looked up at the youngest Gelfling of the group, and a bit her bottom lip.
"I don't know exactly where it is. But if you follow the smallest sun for a day from here, you will come close to the entrance of a cave that will lead to the kingdom." and she looked back down and fiddled with the stones on the floor. She went back to mumbling something in some strange language, and when any of the Gelflings in the group tried to ask her something, she ignored them. She had nothing more to say, and with that they left Augra's remains of her old home and started to follow the smallest sun.
When nightfall came, they counted how many hours they walked only six, so they agreed that the next morning they would walk for six more hours, making twelve, a day in the suns golden light. They had made a camp, the two female Gelflings went to get fire wood and get some fresh water from a nearby stream.
Then, Kiki's ears perked up, she heard something coming from somewhere close in the forest. She dropped the container of water onto the soft soil, with the water pouring out of the opening. She followed the sound, which turned into sobs of what sound like a small child. She walked until she found sitting under a tree, a young girl about Kiki's age. She had reddish blond hair and she was thin.
Kiki slowly walked towards the figure, feeling her bare feet squish into the damp soil. She tried to not make any sound, for she didn't know what this girl was capable of or what she might do. She made it half way between the tree where she was and the young girl, when 'snap' went a branch under her feet. The girls head jolted up from crying into her lap, which her legs were pulled up into her chest and she turned to see Kiki standing behind her. Kiki was surprised, the young girl had a deep purple shade of eyes, with black pupil in the center of each eye.
"Hello" said Kiki trying to fight he instint to hide her face. The girl, with tears still streaming down her face just sat there. "My name is Kiki, what is your?" She knew that this girl was like her and somewhat shy when it came to meeting knew people.
The girl finally spoke, trying to stop herself from crying any more that she already had. "My name is Thurma." She said wiping away tears from her water soaked eyes and her dampened cheeks.
"Thurma, why are you crying? And why are you alone?" Kiki tried to ask, but not trying to sound to nosy.
"I ran away from home. I am crying because I am ashamed of..." She then began to cry, for some reason that Kiki didn't know she couldn't finish that sentence. Kiki then grabbed one of Thurma's hands and smiled at the young girl.
"Why don't you come with me?" She thought that maybe Thurma could travel with them, and maybe when this was all over, she could live with the outcast. But she didn't want to tell anyone this plan yet. The girl the tried to smile, stood up next to Kiki, they were close to the same height, and they began to walk back to camp, hand in hand.
When Kiki and Thurma walked into the camp, everyone there gave a angry glance at Thurma, but Kiki didn't seem to notice. She was smiling for she was happy that she made a new friend.
"Everyone, this is Thurma." Kiki said and Thurma gave a small wave with a nervous smile, trying hard not to turn tail and run away then hide. She then thought that they wouldn't want her if she was scared of everything. So with that thought running thru her head, she stood tall and acted brave. She saw the two boys that looked more like fighters, nod at the sight of her. They saw thru her charade and started to snicker.
Mailee heard this and turned around to look at them. She gave them a angry glare, trying to mimic the same look that Stone gave them. She must have came very close because they couldn't look her in the eye, and the stopped snickering. Kiki looked around at the group and had gleam of hope shining in her eyes. Thurma thought for a minute that she would go insane at the silence that the group was giving her.
Finally Robin came forward and spoke to Thurma. "What is your story?" and he tried to smile, but failed at the attempt.
"I really don't want to talk about it, right now." Thurma said with a frown, fighting back heavy flowing teardrops from flooding out of her violet eyes.
Robin shrugged and walked over to her, and hugged her tightly. "If Kiki see's something in you, then I do too." and he smiled at her when he released his grip, but still had his hands on his shoulders. A few tears of joy instead of sorrow fell from Thruma's eyes. She looked at the other three Gelflings in the group and they nodded in agreement with what Robin said, and all of them were smiling.
That night, Herot and David kept watch in shifts, as the four friends went to sleep.
