Pokota's Plight

Chapter Twenty-nine, Precious Time

By Relm

The next morning was a bright and sunny one. It was the kind of morning that should have made a person wake up with a smile. Not the case for the traveling trio. Given that Kopo was the only one that got proper sleep Amelia, Pokota and Sylphiel were tired and less than thrilled about the morning.

"It's too bright..." Pokota whined while squinting. "It's hurting my eyes."

"Is that the only thing that's hurting?" Amelia wondered while she helped Sylphiel with breakfast.

"My head hurts too." Pokota grumbled while rubbing his temples.

"That could be because of your eyes being sensitive to the light." Sylphiel rationalized. "Have you drank any of the water yet?"

"Just a small sip. I don't want to drink too much of it unless I absolutely have to."

"Okay well breakfast is ready. As soon as we're finished we should get going." Sylphiel advised.

"Miss Sylphiel what is Krimson like?"

Sylphiel shrugged as she dished out the breakfast. "I can't really remember too well. I was just a little girl the last time I was there. All I can remember is that they had a really pretty marble statue of a goddess in the middle of the town. It was statue's face and body were white marble but her hair and robes were a deep red marble. And I think her eyes were jade..."

"That does sound beautiful." Amelia sighed. "They must have some real artistic people there."

"Probably though I think the statue might have been older than the town..." Sylphiel mumbled as she recalled the image of the statue in her head.

"How so?"

"Well I think if I'm remembering correctly... the marble statue had pointed ears..."

"The goddess was an elf?" Pokota prompted her.

Sylphiel nodded. "Possibly. But I can't be sure as it was a very long time ago."

"Still that is a good sign that Krimson is the town we're looking for."

"Alright then we should get quickly and get a move on."

With that little piece of information and the good food they had to eat the moods of Sylphiel, Pokota and Amelia were brightened somewhat. Despite this they all had things on their mind as they ate.

Sylphiel was still thinking about Gourry and where things stood with him. Could she ever be something more than just a friend or would she be forever eclipsed by Lina?

Amelia was thinking about Pokota and the fact that the Tarforashian prince had been dreaming about her. For hours during her watch her mind had been in a tailspin of rogue thoughts. Each time a potentially romantic thought about her and Pokota entered her head she tried to quash it with logic. She had no way of knowing that Pokota was dreaming about her in a more than friends' manner. But at the same time she had no way of knowing that he wasn't. It got Amelia thinking about what it would be like to date a guy like Pokota.

Pokota was a nice guy who had a similar upbringing to her. Both of them came from royal families and both of them grew up without a mother. Pokota had a strong sense of justice just like her (well not quite but who could trump Amelia in that department?) and they both very dedicated to their people.

There were other things to consider too. Pokota was a prince, she was a princess. It was generally expected that as a princess Amelia would end up marrying a prince. Though this was the social convention Prince Philonel wasn't about to force this upon his daughter. He himself hadn't married a princess so why should he expect his daughters to marry princes? Marrying a prince however would make Amelia a queen. And with Pokota being a prince this worked quite well.

Of course this was completely ignoring one important thing. Amelia was supposed to be in love with Zelgadis. How could she be entertaining thoughts about a future with Pokota when she was supposed to be in love with another man? But then again Zelgadis wasn't a prince...

These sorts of rogue thoughts were still flying around Amelia's head while she ate even though she was trying to push them out. She really needed to talk to someone about this. Amelia made a vow, the first chance she could get she was going to have a little chat with Sylphiel.

While Pokota ate he thought about the dream he had the previous night. Originally when he started talking about his growing feelings for Amelia with Sylphiel he hadn't thought it was a good idea. He was already having trouble sleeping and he felt talking about her would just make things worse. As it turned out Sylphiel had been right; talking had actually helped him. It did have a downside and that would be the dream.

Pokota hadn't been having a nightmare, it was a very nice pleasant dream about Amelia and him married and ruling as King and Queen over the combined kingdoms of Sailune and Tarforashia. And in this dream the pair was blessed with several beautiful children. It had been such a nice dream that it was so terrible when he finally woke.

Yes it was a nice lovely sunny day that was lost on the three humans eating breakfast. But at least Kopo was happy.

...

In another area of the forest not too far away four bandits were plotting revenge.

"Those damned kids!" Gantz growled. "We're going to make them pay."

"Aren't they teenagers? That wouldn't make them kids." Yanic piped up.

"And that lady that's with them is definitely not a kid either." Duin agreed with Yanic.

"Oh shut up!" Gantz growled. "I don't care they are still going to pay!"

"But that pretty raven haired lady didn't do anything to us. Do we have to make her pay too?" Hale wondered.

"She's helping those brats so yes!" Grantz near screamed at his subordinates. "Because of them we got blasted into the sky! I had to use three fly cards in order for us to catch up to them! We're going to beat them up, tie them up and use them for ransom!"

"But then we'll have to drag them all the back to Sailune! And it's so far from here." Duin whined.

"And what are we going to do about the pretty raven haired girl? And the guy? Also the doll?" Hale piped up.

"Who cares about the girl?!" Gantz growled. "We only need the bratty Sailune princess and the Tarforashian prince."

"But which one is the prince? The guy or the doll?"

"It doesn't matter we'll get both of them. One of them is bound to be the prince." Gantz declared.

"I wonder why they came out this far..." Yanic mumbled. "New Siaraag aside there ain't much around these parts."

"Who cares?! We're going to get them no matter what so what does it matter where they are heading towards? They aren't going to make it there."

"Yanic has a point." Hale interjected. "What if the brats are heading to some remote place because they know of some ancient secret treasure nearby?"

"Hmmmm..." Gantz tapped his chin while thinking over what Hale suggested. "Perhaps it would good to observe them for a little while just see what they are up to. If they are going after some ancient treasure we can attack them before they get it."

"But Boss how are we going to attack them?" Duin wondered. "Didn't we use up the last few silence cards the last time we fought them?"

"I still have more magic cards up my sleeves!" Gantz fished around his pockets and pulled out more of his onetime use magic cards. "These ones reflect magic back on the user. If one of those brats tries to use magic on us it will just be reflect back at them." He declared in a haughty voice. Clearly Gantz was very proud of himself.

"Cool! How many spells does each card reflect?"

Gantz frowned in irritation. "...one..." He grumbled. "I have more than one so shut up! Quit talking and keep an eye on the brats."

...

Once breakfast was done the trio and stuffed animal continued on with their journey towards Krimson. Sylphiel kept her eyes open looking around at her surroundings hoping to recognize something from her last trip to the red named town but nothing was jumping out at her.

The path they took was over grown with weeds, bushes and tree roots. It was hard to really call it a path as it just looked like dense forest all around them. If they were really on a path it wasn't one that had been used in a while.

Sylphiel had in her hand a compass and the map of the area. She was supposed to be leading though Kopo was marching ahead as though he was the leader. It was comical as there shouldn't be any way Kopo would know the right direction but somehow he seemed to be managing just that. To anyone watching the four travellers it would look like the three humans were being led by a skipping stuffed animal.

"Miss Sylphiel are you sure we're going the right way?" Amelia asked as she picked out another branch from her hair. There were far too many low hanging branches to contend with.

"Not really. But according to the map and the compass we're going to the right way." Sylphiel explained.

"Does anything look familiar to you?"

Sylphiel shook her head. "No. I wish I could say that at least one thing looks familiar but I can't."

"That's okay as long as we have the map and compass to go by I'm sure we'll find our way." Amelia declared in her typical positive good always triumphing over evil attitude.

Though Amelia was confident Sylphiel was so much herself. They still weren't 100 percent sure that Krimson was IrC'nn. It didn't seem likely that it was anything else but still Sylphiel couldn't help but have doubts. With Pokota's health in jeopardy every moment they had was precious and couldn't be squandered. Were they actually going to a place that would have the answers and solutions they sought for Pokota's condition or were they just wasting what little time Pokota had left? It was a lot of pressure being put on Sylphiel's shoulders. The thought of failing Pokota left a very horrible feeling in Sylphiel's stomach.

'I see why Amelia's been so troubled with this situation.' Sylphiel thought to herself. 'It's hard enough to watch a friend go through something like this that it's worse when there's little you can do to help.'

Sylphiel turned around and spied a quick look at Amelia and Pokota. Both seemed to be in good spirits despite the situation. They at least seemed confident that they were heading towards a solution. Sylphiel returned her attention ahead. Her stomach was still unsettled and there was another problem added to it. She had the strangest feeling that she was being watched. A quick scan of the area proved that wasn't the case but Sylphiel just couldn't shake the feeling. 'Calm down Sylphiel you're just nervous. No one is following us as no one would have any reason to. And we're going to find IrC'nn because it is Krimson and we'll find Pokota's cure. Everything is going to be okay.'