Rosette and Chrono's boat arrived in Africa almost a month later. It was now early December, and twenty four days until Christmas.
Looks like we won't be home in time for Christmas... Chrono thought sadly.
"Ahh! Sweet land!" Rosette said, leaping off the boat and onto the dock.
It was much warmer here, and the first thing Chrono and Rosette did was take off all the extra layer of clothes they were wearing and find a hotel.
Then Rosette decided she needed food.
When they were seated and Rosette had ordered, they began deciding what to do.
"So we should probably ask around, see if anyone has seen Onorhc." Rosette said through a mouthful of pasta.
"Yeah." Chrono agreed. "I can ask the other people in this restaurant while you eat." he offered.
Rosette nodded and he pushed his chair back from the table.
Looking around, Chrono decided to first ask the people across the room near the oposite window.
"Hello." Chrono greeted. The people looked up and said something in a language Chrono didn't understand.
"Do you speak English?" Chrono asked. The people shook their heads and gestured to a waitress to come over.
They said something to the waitress and she nodded. Then the waitress turned and said to Chrono;
"They ask what you want." she translated.
"Have they seen anything big and with wings, something that looks like a demon?" Chrono figured people had their own images of demons, so something big and scary would probably fit in that category.
The waitress relayed the message to the couple at the table, and they replied.
"They say a friend of their saw something big and black that could fly." the waitress said.
"Can I meet your friend?" Chrono asked.
"Sure." the waitress responded after a second. "Come with us after we eat." Chrono nodded and thanked them through the waitress, and returned to Rosette, who was just finishing.
Half an hour, the couple, who's names were Lilly and Michael, led Chrono and Rosette out of the restaurant, and onto a but, which would take them to their destination.
During the trip their new guides told Chrono and Rosette about what they had heard. A "big black thing flying through the night at incredible speed." was how they described it, through a English speaking passenger, of course. Which seemed pretty accurate to Chrono.
Lilly led the way off the bus and up a small curving walkway that led up to a simple, white house.
Their knock was answered almost immediately by a hassled looking old lady.
"Ag, dankie tog! Ek het gedink jy was meer polisie!" the lady cried, hugging Lilly tightly. Lilly patted her shoulder and smiled, replying in the same language.
"I see. So you are here to learn about the demon?" asked the Lady in perfect English.
"You speak English?" Rosette asked. The lady nodded.
"Yes, my name is Aurora, it is nice to meet you. You are from the church to find out about the demon?" Rosette nodded confirmation.
"Come inside, I will tell you." Aurora led the way inside and seated them on one of her couches.
"I will make tea." she left and Chrono and Rosette sat, feeling kind of awkward with Lilly and Michael.
Not long after Aurora returned with five cups of tea, setting them down carefully in front of each of her guests, then sitting down herself.
"I saw it three nights ago, it was black and as large as a house." Aurora began. It took Rosette a moment to realize what she was talking about.
"It was flying with big bat like wings, really low over the houses. At first I thought it was a plane, but it made no noise, and so I called the police. They do not know what it is either. They think it is a new weapon of some kind, maybe from Japan. But I think it was this demon you want to find. It was headed to Japan I think. That is the only place someone would send a weapon, and there are many people there, if a demon wanted to kill people that is where they would go, yes?" Chrono and Rosette were stunned. This old lady had it all figured out, and she was just an old lady. And they thought they were professionals.
"Yeah... That sounds about right." agreed Rosette. Then, tuning to Chrono, "So now we go to Japan asap?" Chrono thought about it carefully, doing his best to consider every possibility.
Eventually he nodded.
"If you need a place to stay, you can sleep here." offered Aurora. Rosette excepted and enthusiastically thanked her.
Lilly and Michael left, and Chrono helped Aurora prepare dinner, getting as much information about the demon, Japan, and anything else that might be useful as he could. The old woman was full of knowledge.
While Chrono was doing this Rosette took advantage of the books and news papers strewn around the house to find out more about Japan.
One news paper in particular caught her attention. A famous circus was going to perform in Japan in a week, millions of people would be there to watch.
Didn't that sound like the perfect place to attack?
Millions, if not billions of people would die if Onorhc decided to attack. He had had plenty of time to heal and regroup, and he could fly much faster than they could sail. This time they could get there in about a day, since they had planes that could fly that far.
Rosette picked up the newspaper and hurried to the dining room where Chrono was setting the table.
"Look at this." she said, shoving the newspaper in front of his face. "A carnival will be performing in Japan in a week." Chrono read the article.
"Oh my gosh..." Chrono frowned, running plans and calculations through his head as fast as he could.
"If we leave tomorrow we will get there two days before it starts." he said.
"No, we would have six days." Rosette corrected. Chrono shook his head and pointed to the date.
"Oh." Rosette said.
"That leaves two days to find Onorhc and stop him before he commits the biggest massacre to date."
"We can do it." Rosette said, determination practically written across her face.
Not like we have a choice. If we fail we die. And it would take less than half an hour.
"Well let's try not to scare anyone, okay?" Rosette was still smiling. Chrono agreed and they finished setting the table in companionable silence.
-0-0-0-
Morning came too fast for Rosette's taste.
"Rosette... Rosette? Rosette! Get up now!" Chrono yelled in her ear. To Aurora's surprise she didn't wake up, deciding instead to whack him over the head with her pillow.
"We're late!" Chrono snapped at her. She was awake enough to hear him, he knew, but that didn't mean she would listen.
Frowning, Chrono took the blankets off the bead and dumped a cup of cold water on her face.
Rosette sat up sputtering and yelling at Chrono at the same time. Her eyes roamed to the clock on the bed stand.
"We're late!" Rosette yelled, leaping out of bead. Chrono resisted the urge to say "No, really?" and instead left the room and waited outside by Aurora's car.
Half an hour later they were ready to leave.
"Good bye! Thanks for everything!" Rosette called, waving back to Aurora before jumping onto the bus that would take them to the person who would fly them to Japan.
-0-0-0-
"I wish we had time to go sightseeing." Rosette sighed as she settled into her seat, watching the colorful stalls going by, their vendors yelling about their merchandise.
Crowded streets slowly changed to farms, then to open empty plains.
Eventually they arrived at a small building, a strip of pavement ran from it alongside the road. It must be the church's airport. It was much smaller than the one at home, but it would serve it's purpose.
Chrono and Rosette told the driver to stop, and with a frown, he did. She paid him then jumped off the bus, eager to get to the next place. Africa was nice, but Japan was the center of the technological world.
Rosette couldn't wait to get there.
-0-0-0-
A/N Bad ending, I know. But I hope the rest of it was okay. I know it wasn't a very eventful chapter, but the next one hopefully will be.
I am sorry for the long wait and hope you weren't too disappointed. Please tell me if there are mistakes or anything doesn't connect.
Also thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed, and read.
Thank you all so much!