Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own it! If I did I wouldn't be here, now would I?
Wow! It's finally time to get to the double digits. Chapter 10 is finally here! Just because it's chapter 10, I'll make this chapter EXTRA long. For everyone's satisfaction, so here you go! XD An EXTRA very long chapter! Enjoy! XD
Chapter 10
"Ahhh! Finally we're back!" Liddell cried as she stepped out of the portal, Loue right behind her, "Man, my head's killing me."
"That's your own fault Liddell." Loue pointed out once again.
"You don't have to remind me." Liddell grumbled to herself, looking around the gate room. She saw that another door was open, "Guess that's where we're going next."
"Al'Sahra, the desert kingdom."
"Desert, huh? Sounds hot." Liddell commented.
"What?" Liddell asked when she noticed the strange look that Loue was giving her, "What is something on my face?"
"No, it's just that-" Loue sighed, disappointment evident, "I thought that you would have remembered by now..."
"Remembered what?"
Shaking his head in response, Loue turned his back to Liddell and walked over to the bat monument that led to Shadow Town.
"Hey, what were going to say?" Liddell called as she followed Loue into Shadow Town. It was the same as Liddell remembered it. A dark little eerie town, with a mountain of pumpkins in a fountain as a center piece, identical shadow people walked the town not speaking to one another, just hanging around like ghosts. Liddell ignored them as she chased after Loue who was heading towards the castle, "Wait up!"
Loue momentarily stopped, letting Liddell catch up to him. He resumed his even pace matching Liddell's shorter ones, so as to not get ahead of her, "Come on! Answer the question. What did you mean by what you said?"
"There's no point in telling you right now," Loue stated glancing down at the girl beside him, "It would hurt you to make you remember. Just like last time..."
"Last time?" Liddell pondered for a minute, until her mouth formed an "o" in understanding, "You mean the time when I fainted?"
"Yes." Loue replied, and Liddell noticed that his lips were in a thin line, as if he were holding something back, "It scared me when you fainted like that. I am not letting that happen again."
"Loue, lighten up. I doubt that's going to happen every single time I remember something." Liddell said reassuringly, a huge grin on her face.
"You're probably right."
"Of course I'm right!" Liddell pumped her fist in the air, in determination, "Watch out Al'Sahra! Here I come!" Liddell winced in pain as her head throbbed from the hangover and she added to her statement, more weakly, "After I get some sleep, that is."
"Like I said-" Loue laughed, barely escaping a fist to his head. He continued laughing as he dodged the next few fists on the way to the castle.
"Hold still so I can hit you!" Liddell growled angrily, swiping at Loue's laughing face.
"No thank you. I don't really enjoy being hit on the head." Loue replied stepping into the castle quickly as Liddell made another swipe for his face.
"Arggh!" Liddell yelled as Loue kept on retreating backward, just out of her reach, "Stand still!"
"You won't hit me that way, but you can try." Loue teased, dodging another punch. He was amused to see Liddell riled up, just like when she was younger.
"Hold-" Liddell suddenly stopped her rant when she abruptly clutched her head in pain.
"Liddell!" Loue jogged over to the girl in worry, his crimson eyes full of concern, "Are you ok? Liddell?"
Smack!
"Ow!" Loue cried in pain as Liddell's fist made contact with his head.
"That's what you get for making fun of me!" Liddell smirked triumphantly as she relentlessly hit Loue on the head.
"Excuse me?"
Liddell and Loue froze at the new voice. They both turned to the source and Liddell could only gape at who was standing there. In the big hallway not too far from them was Kitty. Liddell was shocked to see her roommate in the castle, "Kitty? How...?"
"Am I interrupting something?" she asked her head tilted in curiosity.
"No," Liddell replied quickly, reassuring her friend, "Why and how did you get here, though?"
"I got worried when you didn't show up at school for the last couple of days." Kitty explained walking over to her friend, "I asked Babayaga where you might be and she said you would be at this castle. She transported me here so I could bring you some things."
"Things?" Liddell questioned.
"Yeah. I brought you some clothes and some of your books to study, while you're doing... What is it you are doing?" Kitty asked as she handed Liddell a knapsack.
"Oh, you know the usual. Saving kingdoms from evil witches that's all." Liddell said calmly while searching through the bag.
"Kingdoms? Evil Withes?"
"Liddell, I think it would be better if you explained thoroughly to your friend what is going on." Loue suggested noticing the confused look on Kitty's face.
"You're that man from before!" Kitty pointed, seeming to finally notice Loue's presence.
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Kitty. Let me introduce myself, my name is Loue." Loue said with a small smile.
"It's nice to see you again too." Kitty bowed nervously in response.
"Aha!" Liddell suddenly cried.
Loue and Kitty stared at Liddell curiously as she stuck her hand down into the sack she had been looking through. Loue's face blanched at what the blond produced from the bag. There in Liddell's hand was her trusted pumpkin umbrella. Liddell smirked at Loue's expression and an evil glint twinkled in her eyes. She turned her gaze to Kitty and smiled happily, "I can't believe you remembered to bring me this. You're the best Kitty!"
"You're welcome." Kitty smiled back, unaware of the sudden evil lurking in the air, "I know how much you love that umbrella, so I packed it away just for you... Is something wrong, Loue? You look like you've just seen a ghost." Kitty commented noticing Loue's paler complexion.
"Don't mind him Kitty. He's just really happy to see you? Right, Loue?" Liddell smiled innocently at the vampire, hiding her evil smirk from Kitty.
"R-Right..."
"Now, let's go talk someplace more comfortable, 'kay?" Liddell suggested as she led Kitty down the hall, a gloomy Loue following behind them.
"... And that's how we got here." Liddell explained. She just finished filling Kitty in on the details of their plans and was comfortably relaxing in the armchair she had taken as her own. When Loue had first shown the library that was in the castle she could only stare wonderingly at the rows and rows of books that occupied the room. This library was definitely bigger than the one they had at the academy, and it probably had 1000 years worth of history in the volumes it contained. Surprisingly it felt pretty homey and the chairs that Loue had were really comfortable.
He must come here a lot, Liddell gazed up at Loue through her downcast eyelashes. He had decided to remain standing as Liddell told her tale to Kitty; leaning slightly on the side of Liddell's chair.
"So... you're telling me that you have to save the kingdoms from the Eld Witch and her daughters?" Liddell turned her attention back to the cat girl, nodding her head in response, "... Count me in!"
"What?" Liddell and Loue asked in unison, shocked by Kitty's declaration.
"I want to help. Can I please?" she begged, her eyes radiating cuteness.
"... Fine." Liddell sighed, giving up to Kitty's cute stare.
"Yay!" Kitty yelled, leaping delightedly from her chair, and hugging Liddell in a bear hug.
"Liddell..." Loue began a warning in his tone.
"It'll be okay. Kitty's a witch too, she'll be fine." Liddell reassured the vampire, as she pried herself from Kitty and stood stretching; a yawn escaping her mouth, "I think it's time that we all go to sleep."
Loue simply nodded and gestured the two girls to follow him out of the library, heading down the hall to the rooms they would be occupying while they stayed.
"Hello? Anyone home? Loue, wake up!"
Loue's eyes fluttered opened at the loud voice calling from close to him. Seeing Liddell's face looking down at him, Loue snapped straight up (almost bumping heads with Liddell) as he looked at her surprised, "Liddell? What is it? Did something happen?"
"Something happened all right!" Liddell exclaimed with a huff, her hands on her hips, "You wouldn't wake up. That's what happened!"
"Huh?"
"You heard me!" Liddell indignantly fumed, crossing her arms over her chest, "I've been trying to wake you up for the last 15 minutes. You sleep like a log!"
"Sorry. I like to sleep a lot. I can't help it. I'm a vampire after all." Loue pointed out getting out of his coffin and stretching, "I presume we are leaving now then?"
"Yep." Liddell jogged down the steps leading through the gate, Loue following after her, as she continued, "Kitty is already waiting for us at the Gate Room."
"Liddell, do you really think it's a smart idea?"
"What is?" Liddell questioned, turning to look at the vampire.
"Having Kitty come with us to the kingdoms. I know you said it would be all right, but..."
"Aw, come on, Loue! Kitty knows how to protect herself. Besides..." Liddell paused as they left the castle behind and entered Shadow Town, "I'll be there to kick any witch butt if they dare mess with Kitty. You can count on that!"
Loue smiled at Liddell's enthusiasm and they continued from Shadow Town to the Gate Room. It looked the same as they had left it, all the gates shut but for Florin and Al'Sahra's. In front of the latter gate was Kitty who was staring at the portal in wonder. Her ears twitched at the others approaching footsteps and she smiled at them as they stood beside her, "Isn't this exciting? I can't wait to see what Al'Sahra looks like!"
"It's probably all sand." Liddell said a memory of lots of sand flashing in her mind, "Lots and lots of sand..."
"Liddell?"
"What?"
"...Nothing" Kitty said as she stared at Liddell a little worried. It seemed that Liddell had been in a trance when she had talked about Al'Sahra, like she was remembering something.
"Let's get going!" Liddell cheered, snapping completely out of whatever trance she had been in, "Onwards, to Al'Sahra."
Kitty and Loue followed as Liddell stepped through the gate. After all the light died down after passing through, they were greeted with Liddell's description of the kingdom. Al'Sahra was indeed covered in sand; lots of it. They could barely see the outline of rocks and trees in the distance from where they were because of all the sand flying in the air.
"Man it's hot!" Liddell complained fanning herself. Turning to Loue she asked, "So where's the castle?"
"It's that way." Loue pointed towards the rocky outcrop against the blue sky, "We just have to head that way to get there and now if you'll excuse me." And with a sudden puff of smoke Loue turned into his small bat form and perched onto Liddell's shoulder, "This heat is a killer for vampires..." he commented before tiredly resting his small body under Liddell's hair, getting as much shade as possible.
"Poor Loue, I guess his body can't take the heat." Kitty commented as they trekked along the many sand dunes.
"Yeah..." Liddell whispered distractedly, her eyes focused on their destination. The faster we get there, the faster Loue can get into the shade and off my shoulder.
Time seemed to slow as they walked and walked for what seemed like days, they were relieved when they finally came upon the rocks and trees that they had seen earlier. Walking around the large rocks they came to a part that had some trees leading to what had to be a castle.
There was a large brick wall surrounding the interior buildings which were tall buildings with round bulging parts on the top that pointed into slits at the very top. The castle shined an illuminating blue, showing off the many intricate patterns covering the buildings.
"Isn't it supposed to be underground?" Liddell murmured having a strange feeling that the castle usually was not found there.
"What do you mean?" Kitty asked, looking over at Liddell as they entered the gate.
"Hmmm..." Liddell thought for a minute before shaking her head in dismissal, "Never mind. I don't know why I would think that. I just have this feeling..."
"Huh? We're here?" Loue unexpectedly voiced, from Liddell's shoulder, "I must have fallen asleep."
"Yeah, you did." Liddell grumbled, "Now that we're here, you can stop hitching a free ride." Liddell flicked Loue off her shoulder, and he flapped his wings quickly before transforming back into his human form, "Let's hurry up we have to warn Princess Lyra of what's coming."
"Princess Lyra?"
Liddell froze. The name just slipped off her tongue, like it was natural for her to know it. A face went with the name, a violet haired beauty. Liddell remembered her wearing a blue tank top gold trim along the outside, blue puffy pants to match. Over the pants was a tinier cloth that hung loosely and was a darker blue, trimmed and decorated with gold material and red droplets patterned along the inside. It had matched the necklace/cape that she was also wearing. A light veil covered her hair, and gold droplets hung from the front and lay against her forehead. Large earrings, hung from her ears, matching with the golden bracelets that lay on her arms. And her shoes were not really shoes but slippers that were a dark violet, matching the woman's hair.
A tiny smile lit up her face at the thought of this woman. Out of all the princess's her favourite, and most respected, was Lyra. She was the mature one of the group, and Liddell liked that. She was like the big sister Liddell never had.
"Liddell?"
Liddell snapped from her reminiscing and was surprised to see two identical faces of worry on Kitty and Loue as they stared at her in concern, "Yeah?"
"You were spacing out." Kitty pointed out, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm remembering something, that's all." Liddell blushed, not wanting all the attention on her; she turned away from them and continued walking farther into the castle.
Kitty and Loue looked at each other in confusion and they both shrugged their shoulders before following after Liddell. It didn't take them long to get where they wanted to be and they were standing in front of the throne room in no time.
"Lyra! Are you there?" Liddell called opening the door into the room.
At the other end of the room sat Lyra, Princess of Al'Sahra. She looked no different from the last time Liddell had seen her, just a little more mature in age and looks. The Princess looked surprised from the sudden interruption. It seemed that she had been in a heated discussion with her guardian, the genie of the lamp, the Fire Lord.
"We will discuss more about this later, you are dismissed." Lyra commanded, before turning her attention to them.
"Yes, Princess." The Fire Lord bowed before disappearing into his golden lamp.
"Liddell, Loue, welcome back." The Princess stood to greet her visitors. Her eyes traveled over the small group resting on Kitty, who hid shyly behind Liddell, "And who might this be?"
"This is Kitty, a friend of mine." Liddell stated stepping away from Kitty and pushing her towards where the Princess stood.
"I-It's nice to meet you." Kitty bowed shyly.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Kitty. I am Princess Lyra. I welcome all of you to Al'Sahra, the desert oasis." Lyra greeted. Her smile turned to Liddell who smiled back, "It has been a while Liddell, it is nice to see you again."
"You too Lyra." Liddell replied, happily.
"And Loue..." Lyra began her purple eyes landing on Loue, "...How have you been?"
"Fine, Princess."
"That's good." Lyra said half-distracted, "Am I to believe that there is a purpose to your visit?"
"How did you know?" Liddell gaped, amazed by the woman's intuition.
"Strange things have been occurring all over Al'Sahra. I thought I might be correct to think that you would come to rectify those problems." Lyra explained sitting down on her throne.
"What sort of strange things?"
"Things have been disappearing all around Al'Sahra. Places, people, and objects; one by one, all disappearing without a trace."
"Disappearing? How?"
"That's just it. We cannot comprehend how all of this is happening." Lyra sighed, before continuing on, "First, it started with that earthquake. We thought nothing of it, until the first thing disappeared."
"An earthquake?"
"Yes, a small one." Lyra looked at the look that was on Liddell's face, showing that she knew more about the problem, "What is it? Do you know something?"
"Well..." Liddell explained to Lyra what had happened in Florin, and that the daughter of the Eld Witch, Tsuru, had escaped at the same time as the earthquake over there.
"You're telling me that you think that the daughter of the Eld Witch sealed here has broken free?" Lyra questioned breathlessly, not believing what she was hearing.
"I'm afraid so." Loue answered, gloomily.
"Um... If I may interrupt," Kitty suddenly spoke up, the first time since Lyra's greeting, "What was the first thing that disappeared in Al'Sahra?"
"Why would you need this knowledge?" Lyra questioned.
"Well, I was thinking that maybe it's because of the Eld Witch's daughter that things started to disappear. So maybe... the first thing that disappeared is probably connected to the seal, and-"
"And that the seal must be where the first thing disappeared!" Liddell cut Kitty off, finishing her thought, "That's brilliant! Good job, Kitty!"
"Hehe..." Kitty scratched the back of her head giggling shyly.
"If you are right then the seal would have to be under the monument..." Lyra murmured before picking up her guardian's lamp and calling forth the Fire Lord. Once he was out she commanded, "Take us to the Oasis Monument."
"Yes, Princess." He curtly bowed before a smoke surrounded them all and the world seemed to go purple for a second. When the smoke cleared they were not in the throne room anymore, but in a small cave.
A small pond rested at the far side of the cave surrounding a small outcrop of land. Small trees grew around the cave; clinging to the walls of the cavern.
"Follow me." Lyra said walking to the outcrop of land. They all followed and when she stopped they stopped, all looking curiously at what was behind her.
"A hole?" Liddell said looking down at the large hole that was oddly in a rectangle shape. There was something odd about it, the hole. It was too dark to be a shallow hole, and it shouldn't be that deep because then water from the pond would seep into it. So then why was it so dark?
"It looks deep..." Kitty voiced, as if reading Liddell's thoughts.
"How is that possible?" Loue enquired, curiously looking at the hole in front of them.
"That's the same thing that has been on my mind since things started to disappear." Lyra said her eyes glued onto the hole, "The grave of the first princess was here and now..."
"It's just a hole." Kitty filled in the rest of Lyra's thoughts.
"Yes."
"So, this was the first thing that disappeared?"
"Yes, it was."
"Hmm..." Loue paused in thought, "Liddell what do you think?" He questioned the blond who staring intently at the hole.
"..."
"Liddell?"
Liddell did not hear Loue call her. Her mind wandered elsewhere, her vision filled with the hole. For some odd reason she felt entranced by it, and she couldn't take her eyes off it. Without thinking, Liddell started moving closer to where the hole was; not hearing her name being called. She didn't even feel the hand wrapped around her arm trying to tug her back, as her feet kept dragging her forward.
"Liddell!"
Liddell's head snapped up at her name being yelled, her trance finally broken. But it was too late. Liddell's feet met no ground as she plummeted downward into the darkness.
"How delightfully humorous!"
Liddell turned around. There behind her was the Cheshire Cat. The purple feline had its usual creepy grin, its tail swishing lazily back and forth.
"Ah! Whaddya mean?"
The cat's grin seemed to spread wider as it lazily replied, "The princess and residents are all celebrating. The hero has come! But do they know the hero is a villain?"
"Are you talking about me?"
"Who, me?" The Cheshire Cat questioned, a paw pointed at himself.
"Yeah, yeah. It's all my fault. I know! That's why I'm doing this! I'm going to go and fix it! You just watch!" Liddell hotly said, pointing a finger at the cat in declaration.
"Mehehe..." and with that the Cheshire Cat disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Liddell turned angrily and marched from the cave, whispering to herself, "Just don't say anything cat. I know already."
"Ow...My aching head." Liddell groaned, placing a hand on top of her head. Opening her eyes Liddell was met with the top of a cave. Rising slowly up she was surprised to see that she wasn't in the same cave from before but a different one. Lush greenery spread all across the walls while, what she thought was the little pond was actually a large lake.
"Liddell?"
Looking around Liddell, spotted a person at the entrance of the cave, and was glad to recognize Kitty as she came closer to Liddell, "Kitty?"
"Liddell!" Kitty cried before hurtfully crushing Liddell in a hug, "I was so worried!"
"Okay, okay. I'm okay Kitty." Liddell reassured the girl, patting her on the head, "Now, could you let go? You're kind of crushing me."
"Sorry!" Kitty squeaked as she let go of Liddell, "How are you feeling?"
"Fine. But what happened? How did we get here?"
"I'm not too sure." Kitty replied, thinking back, "You were in a trance of some sort and it was like you couldn't hear us. I tried stopping you, but you ended dragging me down that hole instead. What exactly happened to you Liddell?"
"I'm not sure..."Liddell answered unclear of why that had happened, "We'll have to think about that later right know we need to figure out where we are-"
"I already know where we are." Kitty interrupted Liddell, in a matter-of-tone.
"You do?"
"Yes."
"So where are we?"
"Al'Sahra."
"What? But that's-"
"Impossible?" Liddell nodded her head in response. Kitty got up, and walked towards the cave entrance, "Just look for yourself."
Liddell slowly stood up carefully, being carefully not to injure herself. Walking to where Kitty was Liddell gaped at the scenery before her. Just outside the cave was lush green trees and desert mixed into one. It looked like the cave was on a higher plateau because below them was a market full of people; talking and trading. It was Al'Sahra all right, a lush green Al'Sahra, but Al'Sahra all the same. The identical castle, that was not far away, could not be called a coincidence.
"How?" Liddell breathed, barely able to comprehend what she was seeing.
"I'm not too sure how, but it seems that we've been transported to a different Al'Sahra." Kitty commented lost in thought.
A different Al'Sahra? Where have I heard something similar...?
"This place is rockin'! You call this a curse?"
They had entered the Al'Sahra castle expecting to find a trapped princess and her guardian, only they didn`t find that. Instead they found a group of people celebrating.
"You don't understand." Loue said a hint of sadness in his eyes as he gazed at the celebration before them, "This is Al'Sahra from 1,000 years ago."
"C'mon, don't jerk me around. We're time-travelers now?" Liddell laughed, jokingly, getting into the spirit of the celebrations.
"It's true. We should look around some more." Loue announced heading into the crowd, a disbelieving Liddell following after.
"The past..."
"What?" Kitty asked snapping out of her own thoughts, "What did you say?"
"The past... We're in the past Al'Sahra."
Haine-of-Winter: And that is where I will be leaving you. I know it's been a while since I last updated and everything. I'm sorry, it's just I got so caught with school, and we all know what school's like... Anyway, I'm happy that I finally got chapter 10 out there. I meant to do it earlier, but like I already said...
Well I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It's long overdue but it's out there. That's all that counts! Xp Please review or comment. Thank you! XD