Petal was looking out to the ocean, looking out to whatever ships or boats that were out there in the distance. She wasn't going to shout for their attention, knowing that all of the other elves would think she's crazy doing that. She couldn't do anything else but stand there, wondering where Leaf was even at. All she hopes was that Leaf was somewhere that was safe.
There wasn't much more that Petal could do at the moment but wonder where in this world Leaf was even at. She was hoping to build herself a boat so that she can go and find Leaf in hopes of getting him to return to the Forest of the Elves. Petal started to head towards the castle so that she can tell the king that she needs to find Leaf. Despite he doesn't really think that Leaf is the most mature elf of the entire group, he would rely on Petal to do this for him.
During her walk towards the castle, Petal stumbles upon Pine-Cone who was just talking to a couple other female elves next to the village's market. He takes notice of Petal as she was trying to make her way to the castle. Pine-Cone walked over to the elf girl, wanting to talk to her about something before she went further.
"Hey, Petal! Wait!" Pine-Cone shouts, running up to the girl. Petal stops herself, looking over to the elf that was coming over to her. He stops in his tracks, ready to finally talk to her. "I heard from the rest of the elves that you are going to be the defender of the entire forest, our new leader, once the king is dead. Is this true?"
"It is." Petal said, pulling the gem out of her bag, showing it to Pine-Cone. "As I am his granddaughter, he places all of his trusts in me to have this gem to myself. He is...sadly going to be gone soon, and..." Petal shook her head, holding up both of her hands. "No, I'm sorry Pine-Cone, but I am trying to tell my grandfather that something has happened. I really need to go, now." Pine-Cone raises an eyebrow at Petal, before getting in front of her again.
"Hold on, Petal. You're getting a little aggravated. If something is as serious as you're making it out to be, I believe that I should help you, one way or the other."
"That..." Petal sighed, before looking around the village, holding out her arms. "None of the other elves are aware of me being the granddaughter of the king just yet, and an emergency has occurred that I really need to fix, right here, right now." The elf closes her eyes, before finally speaking about what it is. "It involves Leaf..."
"Leaf? What did that buffoon do this time? Did he scare off the island's unicorns again with whatever that thing he calls the Rolling Stones or something?"
"First of all, in front of me, NEVER INSULT LEAF LIKE THAT AGAIN! Second, he...he's missing...and...I'm sorry that I am furious with you after...I'm sorry, I've just been all over the place after he was missing from the island..." Petal was starting to tear up, worried for Leaf. "...I need to go out there and find him, before he ends up killed?"
"...And why are you going to do that? The whole village hates that guy!"
"IT'S BECAUSE I LOVE HIM, THAT'S WHY!"
The other villagers stopped, hearing Petal snap like that. The female elf looks around for a couple seconds, before she decided that she and Pine-Cone were better off walking to the castle instead of standing around. Petal looks back at the other villagers, holding up both of her hands.
"I'm sorry about me yelling there, everyone!" Petal says aloud to the group. "An emergency has occurred, and it's urgent that I go see the king about it. I rather not be in an argument!"
"But we never..." Pine-Cone started off saying, before Petal started to walk away with him by her side.
"...Just pretend we were, alright?" As the two continued to walk, they quietly talked to themselves as they were walking towards the castle now. "The last thing I need is for this whole village to go into a mass panic, knowing one of the elves has disappeared from the island. Everyone might hate Leaf because of his differences, but it's ridiculous to even think that one of the elves can even make it five feet off of the island." The two approached the castle's gates, stopping in front of them. "We'll talk about what our plan is after I talk to the king about what happened to Leaf, alright?" Pine-Cone was dumbfounded by what she just said.
"Wait, you're getting me involved in this? Why?!"
"Because you're the one who started that argument at the fruit tree field with Leaf, did you?"
"Yes, why?"
"If you help me, you'll be forgiven. If not, you'll be busy with fruit, vegetables, and helping the bugs for the rest of the year." Pine-Cone frowned hearing that kind of punishment for him.
"I-I hate bugs. Alright...I'll help..."
"Thank you." Petal opens the gate, before looking at Pine-Cone once again. "We're here now. As the new defender of nature, I will be the one who talks to my grandfather. If anyone who he should talk to, it should be me."
"Alright."
Back at the warehouse...
"...Are you okay?" James asked, helping the girl onto her feet.
After James and Jenny helped the robot girl onto her feet, the girl tried to regain her balance, as she was trying to stand up. Leaf helped out too. Just as the girl was able to be balanced, she smiled, then turns her head to face James and Jenny in front of her. She steps forward, looking at the couple.
"It has been awhile since I have been able to be awake again." The girl said. "W-Where are my manners, actually? My name is Makoto, I am a...I mean, I am a human, just like you, your girlfriend, and your..." Makoto looks down and up at Leaf.
"...Friend. My name is Leaf, dude." Leaf said to her.
"Your name is...Leaf...dude?"
Makoto walks over to the elf. Red lights came out of her eyes, as she was going down and up at him. Leaf raises an eyebrow, feeling rather confused by all of this, until she the lights went away. She then stood there for a couple moments, before shaking her head.
"No, you are not a leaf." Makoto said, shaking her head. "...But...you are an elf." She then smiled at that fact. "Oh...Dr. F and Alexa will be most pleased hearing that there is such a person like you in our town. They must be..." Makoto then frowns, looking around the warehouse. She then looks over to Jenny. "W-Where's Dr. F and Alexa? I thought that they would be able to find me..." Jenny cringed, before speaking.
"Listen...me and James have found you first, but..." Jenny said, before rubbing the back of her head. "...I can only assume that you had your battery taken from you when you were somewhere around here, or...who even knows where you were before today when we just got you revived." Jenny then steps forward towards the robot. "What is the last thing you remember before Esma has gotten you out here?"
"Esma?"
"Yes. The girl that, most likely, brought you here. Along with Preston, but I don't know if that asshole has any involvement with you being here or just that MorcuCorp girl took you all the way over here. But just to say, I'm Jenny. That boy is James, and the other one...it's obvious, Leaf." Jenny then looks over to the door that is locked. "Listen, I don't know how much to an extent that you know about what has happened to you, but we're trying to get ourselves out of here. Esma and Preston are trying to...from what I can only imagine, is creating another Nightmare Crown. Can you try to help us get out of here?" Makoto nods her head.
"Of course I can get us out of here."
Makoto runs over to the only door out of this basement. James, Jenny, and Leaf soon follow behind, as Makoto was trying to look around the door for something. She looks up above the door, seeing a vent that was above this door.
Makoto pulls up a box from nearby, and hops onto it, pushing the vent door out of the hatch that it was in, then crawled through it. Makoto hops inside the stairwell room that was on the other side, and unlocks the door from there. Once she opens the door, she began talking.
"I don't see an air duct on that second door up there." Makoto says, looking up at the stairs.
"Let me take care of that." Leaf said, before snapping my his fingers, causing himself to disappear.
The sound of the secondary door unlocking was heard upstairs. Jenny, James, and Makoto walked up the stairs, noticing Leaf was the one who ended up unlocking the door for them. Leaf opens the door, smiling at the three of them, then waved.
"Easy enough." Leaf said. "Now lets go guys, we got to find Esma and Preston right now."
"But how do we know where those two are?" Makoto asked, walking through the second door out. "They could be anywhere in this town." Jenny walked over to two of the workers, before grabbing one of them.
"Hey! I'm trying to find where Preston and Esma went off to! I'm a member of the SPA Agency, now tell me, where are those two in this town?" Jenny asked them, glaring at the worker she was standing in front of.
"But you two are suppose to be trapped in the base..." The worker said, before Jenny grabbed the worker onto the collar, pulling him closer to him, as she was glaring into his eyes.
"TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!" Jenny yells at him.
"Okay, okay! They are at the caves nearby! Just don't tell them I told you!"
"Thank you!" Jenny then looks over to her friends. "Come on, I believe I know where that cave is. Agent Walker told me how the Nightmare Crown was made, and there should be a cave with the metal that is needed for the crown near this town." James nods his head.
"Alright! My car should be nearby, last time I remember!" James said, pulling his car-keys out of his pocket. "Come on guys, lets get to the car and head to the cave Jenny's talking about!" James, Leaf, Jenny, and Makoto all ran out of the warehouse, heading over to the car that James owned.
Back with Petal...
The female elf finally got into the castle. They were told by the guards that the king was laying down in his bed upstairs. So the two went up the stairs, heading to the corridor that was above the throne room.
Petal made it to the door that leads into the kings bedroom. Her grandfather sat there on the side of his bed, looking down to the floor. Petal walks into the room, causing the king to look up at her as she walked into his view.
"Grandfather, you are not in the throne room as I was hoping you'd be." Petal said. "Is something the matter?" The king nods.
"Yes, Petal." The king said. "Remember a couple years ago, we experienced the feeling of some sort of...darkness that has opened somewhere?" Petal blinks a couple times, before nodding her head. "I believe that I felt that feeling again..."
"But...none of us felt it this time..."
"It seems I must be the only one, now that the gem is nowhere in my reach." Petal looks down at the gem she was given days ago. "Petal, my dear...I don't think I have much time left. This time, the feeling of this evil has affected me so hard this time, and given my age, it was hazardous to my health." Petals eyes began to water.
"G-Grandfather...y-you can't die now...I need you more than ever..."
"There there, sweetie." Petals grandfather said to her, patting her shoulder. "I will always be with you, even after I die."
"I-I know...but..." Petal wipes her eye. "I fear that I won't be able to be with you when...it is because of...Leaf..." Petal wipes tears from her eyes, trying to keep control of herself as she talked. "...He's missing from the island, and...I don't know if he is either dead, or...he is missing around the ocean." The king looked at Petal with a shocked look in his eyes.
"My word..."
"I don't know how Leaf got off of an island like this without getting caught. But he somehow found a way to do just that, according to Petal." Pine-Cone said, crossing his arms.
"He must've found the book..."
"What book?"
"The one that had the only way to get off of the island." The king shook his head as he picks up his cane, standing up from the bed. "Leaf must've found it around the book store, when the store owner was meant to return it to the castle."
"Guess he got lazy, huh?"
"Pine-Cone, this is serious..." The king attempted to stand himself up, before falling back down onto the bed. "Leaf doesn't know what kind of danger is out there in that world for him to be out there." Petal stood up from the bed, looking at the king.
"Well, grandfather, if you're sick, I don't think you should be going over there. Especially with this evil feeling that you felt by whatever it is that caused that feeling years ago." Petal said to him. "If anything, I should be going over there. I...caused him to go over there in the first place, and as the new protector of Nature, I should be the one to go over there to try to get Leaf back here." Pine-Cone looks at Petal, raising an eyebrow.
"Petal, you can't just go out there alone. I need to come with you." Pine-Cone said.
"Thank you." Petal looks over to the king, before holding onto his hand. "I'll be back here before you go grandfather. I promise." The king smiled at his granddaughter, before nodding his head.
"Keep the gem I've given you close to yourself, and remember...I've always believed in you." The king said.
Petal nods her head, as another tear rolled down her eye. She slowly lets go of the kings hand, before she and Pine-Cone headed out the door to head out back to the village to try to get that book from the book store that Leaf used to make his portal before. It's the only way that Petal and Pine-Cone can even get to where Leaf is.
