Jesús: "Hey everyone. Sorry for the long wait, I swear work just takes too much time off my days, but I gotta suck it up if I wanna get money to get stuff...Anyway, Back with another chapter so lets get to it..." [Disclaimer] "...I don't own the RF series nor any of the Anime/Manga/Videogames referenced in this story. all credit for them goes to their respective owners."
Ch. 37
Raguna POV
Is been a few days already since the "Tira Incident" in school. The other two girls, Ellie and Chie, are now in really good terms with Cinnamon and now even Support our relationship. Tira has also stopped her attacks on Cinnamon so I guess everything already had a turn for the best...Hopefully it stays this way.
"So son, how did the "Hidden Camera" plan go?" dad asked
"Absolute Success. the bullies stopped altogether and now Cinnamon and I can calm down." I replied
"That's good. well then, I'm about to go to work. you want a ride to school?" Dad asked
"Nah, I'll be good." I replied 'To be totally honest I have this feeling I should go walking.'"Alright then. Take care on your way." Dad said
"Yeah, I'm leaving too Mom." I said and walked out the door.
I kept walking the usual path to school and suddenly decided to take a detour since I had a little more than half an hour to kill. I found an old, unpaved path and started walking through it. nearing the end of the path I found an Old Clock tower.
"Wow..." I said and walked to the door of the tower.
"It looks like this place has been here for a good couple hundred years...even more..." I said and then I noticed a small sprout a few feet from the front entrance.
"Hmm? I wonder what the deal with this little one is..." I said "Maybe I should give it some water. Not many people seem to come by here so it probably need to be watered."
I started looking around the whole place in hopes to find a source of water and when I did I scooped some and sprinkled it on the small sprout.
"What the-" I said as I felt a small rumbling and then the small sprout turned into a Gigantic Beanstalk that seemed to reach up to the heavens.
"Wow...I haven't seen or heard of something like this since "Jack in the Beanstalk"...I wonder what's up there?" I said to myself and then I wave a quick glance to my phone to check the time.
"Crap! Ten minutes till the bell. I'll check this out after school." I said and bolted to the school grounds.
School passed rather quickly and soon enough I was walking out the school grounds.
"Hey Raguna, Wanna hang after school? I heard they got some new games down at the arcade." Erik called as I was walking to the shoe locker.
"No, I got something to do today." I said and left the school and towards the clock tower.
"Hey Raguna. Mind if we walk together?" Cinnamon asked me catching up to me.
"Not at all. I'm walking a little in the direction of your place." I said
The two of us talked for a little bit and then the question came.
"So why are you walking in this direction?" Cinnamon asked
"I found something interesting. I wanted to check it out and make sure it was safe before inviting any of you." I said
"Really? that reminds me, I heard that my great-great grandmother used to live in a clock tower near this area. in fact I see it from time to time when looking out my room's window." Cinnamon explained.
"Really? Hey, when you get home, would you text me to let me know if that beanstalk is in the same place at the clock tower?" I said pointing at the gigantic beanstalk that became easy to spot.
"W-where did that come from?" Cinnamon asked
"Well I found a path that lead to an abandoned clock tower and there was a small beansprout in front of it. when I watered it it turned that big." I explained
"Wow, You're going to climb it right?" Cinnamon asked and I couldn't help but laugh. "Please be careful."
"I'll do my best." I said and we went our different ways.
there were some people looking at the beanstalk but not getting close at all. I passed everyone and made it to the end of the path to the clock tower. I started climbing the beanstalk and after a few long minutes I finally reached somewhere.
"What is this?" I said and stood in some sort of flying island...
"Can you hear me?" I heard coming from all around me.
"Who's there?" I asked looking around.
"Calm yourself. I am the Island on which you stand." the voice said "Wait a second...It is you."
"I'm sorry but mind repeating what you said?" I asked
"You have returned Raguna. How many years has it been?" the Island said
"What do you mean, this is my first time here...Oh my god, I think I'm loosing it, I'm talking to an Island." I said to myself
"Wait...you are right, you are not the same person, but a similar aura emanates from you as it did from him. Young one, what is you name?" the Island said
"I'm Raguna Strife. You might have been talking about my great-great grandpa. His name was Raguna too and I heard he went on many adventures." I said
"I see, you are his descendant...It is nice to meet you. You can call me Whale island." the Island said
"Whale island?" I repeated the name sounding familiar.
"Yes, you may be wondering how I stay afloat on the skies. there is a Magic Rune that keeps me up here as well as allows me to have a conscience." the Island said
"What if the rune's power was to die down or disappear?" I asked
"I would most likely crash down on the land bellow." the Island replied
"Woah." I said
"There is a favor I must ask of you. an evil power once defeated seems to have risen again. if this power is to succeed in its goals then I would loose the rune's power and crash down. Please stop this power. Be warned this power has caused for monsters to start appearing within me." the Island said
"I'll try my best." I said
"Thank you." the Island said.
I looked around for a little and found some sort of stone monument.
"This looks like the structure in downtown..." I said and got close to it. "Woah!"
Twelve orbs of light came out of the stone and started spinning, once they stopped they took off in different directions.
"What was that about?" I asked myself and then looked at the monument again.
"The melody of trust grows within 12 Maidens." I read from the monument. "what's that supposed to mean?"
I decided to leave the Island since I didn't have my sword and didn't want to fight the monsters barehanded with just magic. upon touching back down on land my phone started vibrating.
"A text? Must be Cinnamon." I said and pulled my phone out from my pocket.
[Raguna, the Beanstalk is in fact right next to the place great-great grandmother used to live.] I read from Cinnamon's text.
"So this is where the last "Cinnamon" lived huh? I wonder what kind of place it is..." I said and walked to the front door of the Clock tower.
I lightly pushed on the door to see if it would open but it didn't budge. I pushed a little harder and it started opening.
"Please excuse the intrusion." I said and walked right in.
The whole place looked completely different from the outside. the outside was old and ragged, the inside was clean and it even had few plants that were in perfect condition.
'Could someone be here right now?' I said to myself
"Hello!?" I called deeper into the building.
I slowly walked up the stairs in case it was a monster and not a person that was in this place. after a few minutes of inspecting the place I came to the conclusion that there was nobody in the whole clock tower. I looked all over the place and found a few books, some old cooking utensils and also some fishing rods in one of the rooms.
"I wonder if there really is nobody here?" I said
"No, this place has been uninhabited for about 200 years now." I heard a voice I was familiar with.
"Mr. Kain?" I asked
"Hey there Raguna. I see you found the path to the Clock tower." he said
"Y-yeah...So wait, was it you who's been looking after this plants and cleaned this place?" I asked
"Yeah. Cari and I come here every other week and maintain the place, though the outside is a whole other deal." Mr. Kain said
"So I'm guessing this is like a "Family Heirloom" kind of place." I said
"You got it. My great grandmother used to live here along with great-great grandpa Kanno and Great Grand-aunt Candy." Mr. Kain said.
"I got a question. I would like for you to answer this as a person and not a Scientist. Do you think Cinnamon and Maybe even Candy are reincarnations of...them?" I asked
"You know...Even if I wanted to answer this scientifically I can't find the logic. I actually do believe it. Raguna, do you know why you are named the way you are?" he asked
"I was told I had an amazing resemblance to Great-great grandpa Raguna." I answered.
"That is true." he said
"How would you know such a thing?" I asked
"Come with me." he said and lead me to one of the rooms on the second floor, the middle room with the Fishing rods.
Mr. Kain moved the closet and then pulled something from a small hole on the wall behind it.
"Take a look at this." he said and handed me a rolled up piece of laminated paper.
The paper was in fact a picture.
"Is that me...? no wait..." I said and paid close attention to the details of the picture.
"That picture belonged to Great grandma Cinnamon. it was taken after you great-great grandparents got married, in fact I believe that was taken in front of what is currently your house." Mr. Kain said
"Wow...I really do look like Gramps...and here is Grandma Mist...so this was Cinnamon? they really do look alike..." I said and handed the picture back to Mr. Kain.
Mr. Kain grabbed the picture and put it back where it was.
"Raguna, I'd like for you to keep this places' location a secret as well as you never come back here and climb the Beanstalk again." Mr Kain said
"Why is that? and how did you know I climbed the beanstalk?" I asked
"For one, I believe that coming here might create some sort of chaos. I noticed the beanstalk suddenly rise this morning and felt this chill down my spine like a warning. Also I saw you climb up the Beanstalk earlier." he said
"Mr. Kain, I got a question. Would you believe me if I said there is something on top of the beanstalk?" I said
"I do believe you. Whale Island. The beanstalk was supposed to connect it to the land." Mr. Kain said
"Then you must also know it has a consciousness. it asked me for help, and I promised I would help at the best of my abilities." I replied
the two of us stayed silent for a while, but then Mr. Kain cleared his throat.
"Alright then, You are allowed to do as you see fit. Just please be careful. Also, no matter what happens keep Cinnamon safe alright? I just have this feeling that something is going to happen to you and her." Mr. Kain said
"I promise you her safety even if it cost my own." I said
Jesús: "Alright, that's it for this chapter. a little too serious for my liking but I wanted to actually push some of the plot into action. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it and come back next time for another update. See Ya!"