I hope you guys enjoy my story. I'm sorry for the super long delay in chapters. I've read and reread the reviews over and over and I can tell how much you loyal readers enjoy my work and it makes me SO happy! Let me know how I did with this chapter as well. I love hearing you guys!
~Later that evening at the Elven kingdom~
Jono laid motionless but then her sense of danger started to kick in. 'I feel something... I don't know what it is, but it feels... like an ocean of poison is surrounding me...' Jono's subconscious screams for her to wake up. Jono's body then lurched upwards waking up the previously sleeping prince as her hand pressed firmly on his chest.
"Ack! What the hell?" He stares at the terrified expression plastered on Jono's face and starts to worry himself. "Ny-Jono what's wrong?"
Unfortunately Jono isn't actually aware of where she is and who is with her at the moment. She's busy concentrating on the horrible feeling that seems to keep getting worse by the second. And then it hit her... she looks directly at Seto and notices it. The ground is slowly seeping a poison and it was going to infect the prince! Placing her other hand on his chest she whispers in a hopefully persuasive voice, needing more than ever for the prince to not move. "Please hold still your highness, I'll explain after, but I NEED to do this!"
He blinks but then nods. 'If it wasn't important, she wouldn't be frantic right now. I'm sure she won't cause me any harm.' He suddenly feels the warmth enter and surround his body. It was so quick, one second it was there and all of a sudden it was gone like a flash of light. He sees her hands being removed, shaking like a leaf. "What's going on?"
She just stares for a second, breathing a bit heavy from her fright. "I have to find the others!" She jumps off the bed and runs out of the room frantically searching for the King, Queen, and Mokuba. Seto following behind barely keeping up with her. 'You'd think she was running for her life.' He sees her bust Mokuba's door open, breaking the door from it's titanium hinges. "Hold it right there! What are doing?!" he screams. Just because he's figured out he likes Jono to some degree doesn't mean she can just break things as she pleases. (not fully grasping that this is an emergency... typical) They see Mokuba sitting with his head laying on his desk. Looking like he fell asleep while doing his homework.
Jono scrambles to Mokuba, completely ignoring Seto, which he didn't appreciate because dammit he was the FUCKING prince and she HAD to answer him like everyone else below his status. (cocky prick... -_-) She grabs him and holds him in a tight embrace. Fearing the worst, tears began gahering in her eyes, she knelt on the light gray carpet embracing him tightly, clutching his head to her chest. She then starts to glow and the light flows over Mokuba as well. Just as quickly as it came, it was gone, just like before with Seto earlier. Within seconds Mokuba woke up. "Wha...Jono? You're awake! Howarefeeling? IwasSOworried! Ithoughtyoudiedanditwassohorribleespeciallysinceafterallyoudidwithhealingmyfather! ABIGthankyouforthatand..." ( his fast talking translation "...How are feeling? I was SO worried! I thought you died and it was so horrible especially since after all you did with healing my father! A BIG thank you for that and...") He hugged her with full force talking a mile a minute.
"Mokuba!" She hugged back; her tears falling steadily. "I need to find your parents. Now. Do you have any idea where they might be?"
Seeing the tears and hearing the panic and worry laced into her voice, he stopped mid sentence and answered, "Yeah, they're usually in the study by this time. I'll take you there, but you have to promise me to tell me what's going on."
"No matter what, I'm going to have to." She stands up quickly and turns toward Seto. "And you're not going to like what I have to say. Let's find your parents." He nods and they all head down a few halls and walked through the dark oak, double doors of the study. Sure enough the King and Queen are both just sitting, reading, and drinking tea as if today was a normal day. "Oh no. It's what I've feared." she whispered.
At that they look up, seeing the petrified expression on Jono's face Lycus speaks up. "Miss Jono what's the matter? You look like you've been told the worst news. Your face is pale like a ghost."
"Tell us what's happened." Mikuro turns sharply at Seto. "My son didn't do anything to you, has he?"
Shock pierces through his blue eyes. "What?! I would never...! Why do you automatically blame me?! SHE'S the one who jumped me, and poured her magic in me for no real reason." He points at Jono and then moves his hand to Mokuba. "Not to mention she did the same thing to Mokuba before coming here to find you guys." He pauses for a second and then turns slowly back to the young woman. "Wait, aren't you going to do the same thing to my parents? Isn't that why we rushed to find them?"
Jono raises her gaze from the floor to meet the prince's confused stare. "They don't need it. This poison won't affect them. Which makes it the worst."
Lycus turns quickly to his wife and then back to Jono. "What poison? Explain." Trying to not raise panic to his voice.
"Your Majesty, there's a poison seeping from the land. I'm aware none of you can sense it. And that all stems from the fact that your magic isn't derived from nature like mine. But it's not a normal poison, it's like a child who is picky about what they eat. The poison only kills the young and healthy, usually children and young adults. The sickly and elders aren't affected in anyway. It's a silent killer, making the victims fall asleep until they die from malnourishment or dehydration, which ever comes first. It's the worst kind of plague, parents watching their own children die." She's crying so hard at this point it was a little hard to understand the last part, but everyone understood the grimness of the situation at hand.
"Is there anyway to stop it? I mean you put your magic in both me and my brother..." Mokuba asked in a hopeful voice. Truly wishing for a way to make it go away.
"I'll have to contact my friend Yami, he's an expert mage, and he might be able to help." Jono desperately pleading to every deity that ever existed that he CAN help.
King Lycus nods his head. "Alright, I'll send him a message directly and arrange a carriage for him to ride to come here as quickly as possible. You'll have to let me know where he lives."
Jono pleads softly, "If possible, could it be made possible to send a two person carriage? His wife, Yugi, will want to come as well. She's a fairy, so we might need her magic as well."
Lycus smiles despite the situation. "Most certainly. I never liked leaving my wife alone. I wouldn't expect him to leave his love behind."
"Will my sons be okay now? Should we worry about them?" Mikuro presses, terrified of the thought alone. As any mother would.
Jono shakes her head. "No, so long as I'm alive, they'll be fine." Still thinking on how to stop the poison, she forgets to fully explain. Not quite understanding that most elves don't know the concept of nature magic users like nymphs and fairies.
She was pacing back and forth before Seto lightly grabbed her shoulder bringing her attention away from her thoughts. As she looked up, he spoke carefully, "What do you mean by that? You're going to have to explain a bit more for us to understand."
She blinked and then spoke quickly. "I infused my magic in the both of you. My magic will protect you from the poison. The only downside is the magic in connected to my life itself, so if I died, the magic would disappear altogether."
"Oh, so I guess that's why you can't do it by yourself huh?" Mokuba thought out loud. Everyone else didn't understand, and so he explained a bit further into his assumption. "When she used her magic to protect us," He gestured to himself and Seto. "it's like she's stretching her own life force, if she would stretch it too far, it could collapse and then she would die. So she can't do it with every young adult and child in the entire kingdom. Am I right Jono?"
She smiles genuinely at the young boy. "Yes. Well done in that explanation. Do we all understand now?" She looks toward Seto and then to the king and queen. Who all nod in confirmation.
Seto looks lost in thought. 'She has essentially given me a piece of her life. I feel weird but extremely happy about it.' He turns to look at Jono once again before declaring, "We should start the arrangements immediately for your friend to come here. We shall of course, prepare a room as he will be a welcomed guest. You should probably tell my father about the whereabouts of this mage." He turns toward his parents. "I'll take Mokuba back to his room to complete his work while you discuss the details." He shuffles out with Mokuba in tow, and lightly closes the doors with a soft click.
After a long while of explaining as to where Yami's house resides. Jono finally gets to leave the room and begins to slowly walk along the long arched hallway. Her face downcast-ed, her eyes expressing only the sadness that she knows is about to befall this kingdom. "The children... children who DESERVE to live, to explore the world, they won't get that. No parent should ever have to watch their own child die. It's one of the cruelest punishments." She whispered solemnly. She stopped walking and brought her hands to her face. "Who could have planted such a horrendous poison?"
Seto swiftly guides his feet across the glossy clean floor; his figure standing proud despite the difficult situation. He makes a quick left turn down a long corridor, pictures of the past kings and queens displayed on both sides of the extended hallway. His eyes lit up as he sees Jono standing with her hands to her face. Pretty obvious to anyone she was either crying or about to cry. It stirred him up in a strange way. He walked right up to her and grabs both of her wrists gently and softly pulls them away to see her face. Her fallen, solemn expression said it all. "We will persevere. We WILL get through this. Maybe not unscathed, but we will survive." he stated confidently.
Jono finally looks up at him. "How can you say that with such certainty?" Needless to say, his words struck a cord within her. His confidence was astounding.
He just smiles softly as he stared into her deep honey chocolate pools. "I said a similar thing to my mother about Mokuba. And guess what? I was right." His smile enhancing all of his handsome features.
A small smile graces her lips as she sighs. "He had me to protect him." Her previous sadden expression came back. "I can't do this by myself. I could even give my life and it wouldn't be enough to completely wave off this curse. Honestly, we could sacrifice you, Mokuba, the king and queen's lives along with mine and it wouldn't be able to dissipate it."
He pulls her into an embracing hug. "Don't think that way. We won't be sacrificing anyone. There has to be another way." He hugs her tightly. 'I won't lose my family. Nor will I lose you, Jono. Whether I want to completely admit this out loud is irrelevant, she has become a part of my family. In so little time, which has me completely befuddled.'
She hesitatingly hugs him back, crying into his shoulder. "I do hope you're right." Her desperation evident in her shaky voice. A small part of her wonders a bit on how he's actually being nice to her for once. But another more prevalent part is happy he's not being mean and just accepts it. 'Better to not cause an argument, I don't think I could handle it right now.' She moves away slowly. "I feel better, thank you, your highness." She wipes her tears on her forearm. "I need to speak to your father about Yami and his whereabouts."
He nods reassuringly. "Of course." Clearing his throat to thwart the awkward atmosphere around them, he steps aside to let her move past him.
She takes a small respective bow and walks steadily, but quickly. Not fully understanding what just happened but thinking it more important to focus on the major between two situations. She walks to end of the hall where she meets the king himself waiting for her in his library.
"Miss Jono, are we feeling alright my dear?" Lycus asks noticing the her puffy red eyes.
She nods sharply. "I feel better than before but I wouldn't say I'm alright giving the circumstances."
He gives her a warm smile. "I don't think anyone would be, my dear. Shall we?" he moves and opens the big onyx doors to reveal the thousands upon thousands of books residing in his library.
She takes a big deep breath. "The faster we get this letter done, the faster he'll get here and hopefully be able to help." She then proceeds inside and finds the first map she saw. "How lucky am I? I can even make a route for you with this map. It'll take you straight to his house." She then begins to draw out the paths of the map onto another paper giving explicit instructions to Yami and Yugi's humble home. As she is doing this King Lycus writes feverishly, inscribing every detail to perfection. After completing the instructions for the courier, he then proceeds to compose the imperative message. In the middle of his writing Jono promptly stated "Oh, yes, tell Yami to go to my house and take all my medicines, herbs, vials, and potions that he can fit in the carriage." Without skipping a beat he added it swiftly, he made a mental note to use a much bigger carriage, Maker knows how much of the stuff this young nymph actually has.
The queen bursts through the door, "It's already happening." Dread plastered on her delicate features. "It's already taken over 10 children so far. I've been trying to keep it together, but I can't anymore. I want to tell our people the truth, but I don't want to cause a panic."
Lycus turns his head to his love solemnly. "We're don't to have a choice. We have an outstanding obligation as the protectors and justice rulers of our people. They have to know."
OMG Finally finished this chapter. I'm going to be really honest guys, I had the hardest time trying to figure out how to end this chapter. My girlfriend kept telling me to just end it in a cliff-hanger because I'm the author and I have the right to do that. Lol. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I shall be working the next chapter really soon, so hopefully you guys won't have to wait that long.
