Seeking You
Chapter 10
Servants were bustling about preparing for the trip. In all of an hour, the Princess and her sailor scouts were moving out, and quickly boarding a long-tail boat at the royal port. Only a few trusted servants, captain, and crew were also allowed on board. Two hours later, the boat had docked. The island was not the typical tropical escape one would have expected. Serenity noted, there was nothing at all. There were no palm trees, and barely any sand. Were they just going to be stranded here to die?
"I noticed, that you noticed, where we are," commented Endymion to Serenity.
"Ya. I did, and it looks like we are on that Earth show where people start eating each other. Is this really the solution to that monster chasing after us?" asked Serenity.
"Come on you two. Stop wasting time." Kunzite was getting sick of those two fighting. On the boat ride he and the Princess, Mina, were talking about how ridiculous the two sounded bantering at each other like that. They both agreed that their protectors were acting out of the norm, and to just ignore the fact that they were both impersonation adolescents.
"This way," Zoisite said to the others.
A gust of air blew Serenity's hair into her face. She could barely see a thing. She swore she hadn't seen a single cloud in the sky, nor any wind before they got off the boat. The current steadily grew stronger. Great, now we are in a storm. There was a loud noise, like a thousands of birds were coming at them. Trying her best to move the hair from her face, Serenity looked up to see a huge flying contraption. It was the source of the wind and the noise. Zoisite was rushing them towards it. Out popped a small man, and in vanished Kunzite. Zoisite stayed at the opening to help the girls get in, and to put earmuffs on them.
"Welcome to our helicopter ladies. From here, we will be going up – to our island." Zoisite announced.
The helicopter slowly lifted off the ground, and continued to fly higher and higher up into the sky. The ascent ended them up in the next atmosphere zone, and looking out – one could see the curvature of the earth. It seemed that it had become night, even though it still only 12 in the afternoon.
"While we are getting to our destination. I'd just like to reassure everyone that we are perfectly safe, and to just enjoy the ride," said Zoisite.
"I don't know about that," Kunzite said with a straight face. "Mina's hair might start attacking somebody with the way it looks over there," a smirk spread over his face. He couldn't help himself from teasing her, especially since she opened the can of worms at breakfast.
Serenity jaw dropped. Putting her hands to her hair, she felt that it had been turned into a birds nest from the helicopter. She sat in silence, it was better to just not say anything back at all. She was a grown woman after all.
Eventually, the helicopter started its decent. They didn't go all way back to the ocean though. It seemed that they were flying into a mass of clouds.
Mina was staring at the godly clouds. She had a small desire to jump into them. She always thought it would feel like falling into a over-sized cushion; though she remembered the time she shared this fantasy with Ami as a child. Ami just told her she was insane, and asked, "Why would it be fun to fall into a mass of liquid droplets and frozen water crystals?" She shook her head at the memory. Then she saw a rock peeking out, which slowly turned out to be a much larger rock. A land formation?
"How are we looking a the bottom of a piece of land when we are in the air?" asked Mina.
"You see Princess, it's literally a piece of 'land in the air'." Nephrite responded with a grin of satisfaction.
Endymion also gave a small chuckle. Looks like they were still able to impress these ladies who seemed like they knew everything there was to know.
"I've read about these! These land forms started rising up after the Gods war! There is some force here that causes gravity to act in strange ways. Scientists have been trying to solve it for years. For a while, people came up with outlandish urban legends for why boats started disappearing. Eventually they were able to search the bottom of the ocean floor, but found absolutely nothing. They never thought to look up towards the sky!" Ami exclaimed.
The helicopter rose up into a hole near the island's base. They were instructed to take off their ear protection, and to exit the craft.
"Welcome, to heaven! Or, by another name, Island Nephos." Zoisite continued to lead the group to what looked like a moving sidewalk. The only difference, to Serenity's fear, was that the walkway was completely made out of glass so one could look downward into the empty space below them.
The walkway didn't just move straight, it began to curve up. Out they came to what looked like a grand ballroom. The floor was made of white marble, and the room had similar furnishings as the capital palace. Rushing to the windows, the girls saw they were in the middle of a forested area. The woods were not like ones they had ever seen before. The tree trunks were over 12 meters in diameter, and clear water pooled out of stumps to other nearby trees. Rays of light came through the mists, creating a mystical effect on the place. They could smell the fresh scent of, not pine, but sandalwood.
"That would be a class five water system," exclaimed Zoisite. "The trees collect the water from the clouds, purify it, and spit it out again into the soil. From there we collect it, and is sent to regions of the world where they don't have such easy access to healthy water."
"The Prince is the one who actually came up with the system to safely and conveniently share it with the world," said Jadeite. "I'd say it was one of his greater feats as a young adult."
Mina had elbowed Serenity's side. Maybe Mina was telling the truth about the Prince and his good deeds, Serenity thought. Looked like it was 0-1, and Serenity was loosing. She had to find an imperfection about him before she left to go back to the Moon, read evidence.
"The plan is to double check security protocol, and then to continue our research in the library. We will reconvene in an hour to let everyone freshen up" Jadeite announced.
This library was even bigger then the one on land. Unlike the library at the capital, there were no spiral staircases, just one single walkway into the middle of a ginormous globe. At the epicenter, there was a sitting area for the scouts and generals, and on the surface of the globe were books, billions and billions of books.
"We store all the originals of every book, research document, map, and anything that needed to be archived here," said Nephrite while he started poking into the air. Only from a particular angle could you see he was typing on a holographic keyboard. The sounds of whizzing filled the air, not loud enough to be annoying, but noticeable if you were listening for it. Flying bots started moving about. Up close they looked like mechanically engineered dragonflies. They flew up all around the globe, and started to fetch the desired documents Nephrite requested. Another hologram blew up in the center of the table. Once again it was the lizard creature.
"So far, what I have found other then the fact that the creature doesn't like light, is that like a lizard. It blends into it's surroundings, in other words it can morph," explained Nephrite. The lizard hologram started to transform into a man. "This is the other form it takes, and he was sighted last night by the cleaning crew, the ones that survived. Turns out he was indeed the one who stole the Sun globe. Fortunately, we have another weapon to use against the foul creature. Problem, we don't know what it exactly looks like, or what it does. Good news, its classification is Dauthus Lacerta, Lizard of Death."
"That is great and all, but how is that information suppose to help us?" asked Rei. She tried not to sound to demeaning, she knew that Makoto was into Nephrite, but this wasn't getting them anywhere.
"It is here actually. Here, as in on Nephros. We have the coordinates, but that is it. We're going to have to trek out there, into the forest."
"Peachy. So what? We go hunt, grab the thing, bring it back, and go kill us a bad guy!" said Makoto, pumping a fist into the air.
"Not quite, but that's the gist," replied Nephrite.
"I think it sounds like a plan," agreed Mina.
"At least we aren't just sitting here," said Endymion.
"Agreed," said Serenity.
"Since everyone is on the same page, why don't we head out in the half hour. I know we have only settled in, but let's make haste," Kunzite tried to sound like he was still the leader of the situation. Was he acting too princely?
Backpacks were filled with water, flashlights, sleeping gear, food, and medical kits. They were prepared for anything. As the group stepped out into the forest, a wall of humidity hit them. Nephrite had given everyone a map to where they needed to go. Rei and Jadeite carried compasses to lead them in the right directions. Ami and Zoisite shared a GPS system, they couldn't go one hour without their technology. Makoto and Nephrite stayed in the back, while Serenity and Endymion along with Mina and Kunzite stayed in the center of the group.
Trekking through rivers, rocks, and avoiding cliffs they made it to their destination, a grandparent tree. The other trees were big, but this one was the big mamma. The group couldn't even see around the trunk it was so large, it had to be at least a half mile in circumference. The leaves were a sage green, with yellow tips. One could easily cover the roof of a medium sized car. Ami looked closer, she could see something traveling through the veins. Investigating, she cut a vein open, went through the lists of elements in her head, it was Au - Gold.
The only way they were going to start their search for their weapon was if they split up. They went into one group of four, and the other group of six. Endymion, Serenity, Makoto, and Nephrite headed clockwise around the tree, while the others went counter-clockwise. They planned to meet on the other side.
Walking through some brush, Serenity noticed that parts of the roots grew out of the ground. These roots were over a 3 meters thick, and they had to climb over them. Endymion went first, and then tried to help Serenity over. She jumped up too quickly, and it made them both stumble backwards.
"Ow!" Her ankle had not fallen in the right place. She had landed right on top of Endymion. He looked at her accusingly. She put her hands down on the ground around his face to help herself get up, but this only caused her chest to hover right over him. She was turning red, again. Rolling over to her side, she heard a crack. The ground beneath them started shifting. Rocks and dirt started breaking apart creating an incline towards the tree trunk.
"Hey, guys, are you okay?" Makoto called out to them from the other side of the root.
"Ya, we're fine! I think I sprained my ankle. We're just going to have to sit here for a while, but I think we found the entrance everyone is looking for," Serenity called back.
"Okay! We'll go find the others, and come back here. Sit tight, be back in a jiffy," Nephrite called back.
Back at the Earth capital, in a tavern located in the third ring, a man wearing a dark maroon cloak sat in a booth by himself. Looking down into his jug of amber brew, he was about to take a swig when a face swirled into his glass. Looking around to see if anyone noticed the oddity, he turned his back to the barkeep and barmaids.
The face began talking, "Where are they? I can't believe you lost her? The master is going to throw a fit. No, he's going to throw something much worse. You! - Down to hell. What are you waiting around for?"
"Calm your old yapping face down," the man responded. He probably looked like a drunkard talking to himself, lost in his woes. "I've got things under control. She'll be back, and she will be back with something the master has had his eyes set on for quite sometime."
The face in his cup made a smug grin. "We're counting on you. You owe me, and you owe yourself. You are nothing without us, without me. Keep that in mind, Taki."
Takeshi rolled his eyes, and brought the jug to his lips gulping the rest down. He was sick of being bossed around.
End of Chapter 10. Thought I'd bring some new places, and add a dash of spice to the mix. Thanks for reading! You all keep me going.