Chapter 4: The letter

It took them quite some time, until they arrived in Old Corona. Through woods, over sticks and stones and passing other challenges, Cedric had never imagined to find on anybodie's way back home. After some time, the sorcerer got quite skeptic if they were even on the right way, anymore. When he finally had told Varian to stop, they had already been walking for hours and faced dangers, normal people probably wouldn't even survive. But, when he had asked the alchemist, if it was possible that they had lost their path, Varian just shrugged his shoulders.

"Not as far as I know", he said and pulled out the Traveling Helper to take a look on the small machine.

"Nope", he confirmed his assumption,"We are exactly where we should be at this time. At least as far as I can remember. But, I have to admit, that, after all this time traveling this route, I don't pay attention to the way in general. I just walk my path, you know..."

Varian smiled embarrassed, what made Cedric rub his temples to calm down. How chaotic! How was this boy even able to live?

"Okay, okay", the sorcerer sighed to make Varian stop explaining, "I assume that you are very well connected with your habitat, aren't you?"

Varian nodded, a little confused because of the strange question. "Of course, I am. It's my place of-"

"Fine."

Cedric interrupted him again, before Varian could even finish his sentence. Then, without any further explanations, the sorcerer put his hand on Varian's head and told the alchemist to focus his thoughts on the place where he lived. Afterwards, he murmured something, the young man next to him wasn't even able to identify as proper words – And only a few seconds later, they stood right in the middle of a room that looked exactly like Varian's study!

"Man! That was awesome!" The young alchemist started to bustle , as soon as Cedric had lifted his palm from his head. "Have we really been traveling over miles within just a few seconds, now?" He touched some of the objects that lay around them. He simply had to make sure that this wasn't just some sort of illusion, or something...

"Wow... That's just amazing...", he whispered an put the small box he had in hand back onto the shelf where he got it from, "How exactly did you do that, Cedric?"

"It's called teleportation", Cedric explained while searching for somewhere to sit upon. Something wasn't right here. It had been all of a sudden, that his vision had blurred and he had started to feel weak like never before. But only for a moment, then everything returned back to normal. Sure, he felt exhausted, but that was normal after traveling night and day without proper sleep, or rest, or food. Yes, stupid. But, in all his hurry, Cedric had forgotten to take enough food with him. This wouldn't have been that worse, if there had been some more villages or towns on his journey from Enchantia to Corona...

Nevertheless, things soon felt better, after he had found a place to sit down. Just for a moment, then he would have to continue his journey, anyway. He could not waste any time at all. Why? He did not know. But some uneasy feeling forced him to hurry up. On his way to Old Corona, he had tried to reach princess Sofia, several times. But, every time he had tried, he had not received any answer at all. That wasn't a good sign. Not at all. Plus, it had somehow been pretty exhausting, what was very unusual. Normally, he could use his magic as often as he wanted and stay up three days in a row while doing so without any problems.

Cedric bit his lips. Merlin's mushrooms... What was wrong with him?

"Cedric?" The sorrowful gaze of bright blue eyes was resting on him, when Cedric finally found back to reality. "Are you okay?", the young man in front of him asked.

"What? Yes. I'm fine.", Cedric replied. Lie. He felt like hell, but that should not bother anyone else. Especially not some stranger, he had just met somewhere outside in the woods, a few hours ago. Although, Varian was really a pretty nice boy, as he had to admit. At least so far...

"I'm fine", he insisted, when Varian looked at him skeptically and asked him, if he was sure about being okay.

"I mean: It sure is none of my business. But, you look a little... well... fatigue?"

Cedric shook his head. "No, I'm alright", he said, "It has just been a long day and a lot of stuff has happened, recently. So, I might have to sit down for a few minutes, if you don't mind..."

"Sure." Varian nodded and put away some more books and some parchment to give Cedric some more space to sit. He had realized that something wasn't right with his new friend as soon as the sorcerer had lifted his hand from his head. So, using magic was quite a cool thing, but obviously not as safe as it looked...

"Take some rest", he said and smiled friendly, "Guess, we'll first have to recharge a little, before we continue our searching. I'll go get us some food and water. See you later!"

"But, we do not have... the time for... that..." Cedric tried to protest against the alchemist's suggestions, but Varian was already out the door and so, nobody would listen to the sorcerer's complaints anymore. Yes, of course. As if anybody would ever listen to him, anyway...

Apart from that: Didn't the boy just want to look, if there was any message from his princess here for him?
Furrowing his brows, Cedric leaned backwards until his back met the cold stonewall behind the chest he was sitting on. Okay, maybe, it wasn't the worst idea to take a short rest... But he couldn't stay for too long. Time was not working in their favor, that was something, he could feel...

When he leaned back, his arm nudged against some more paper and books. Chaotic. This boy was just chaotic. Evene his own chamber was neat and clean compared to this study...

Nevertheless, under all the chaos there mustalso be a lot of knowledge. At least, according to the books he saw. Cedric himself had always had his problems in understanding alchemy properly. Even when he had still been at school. For him, alchemy had always been so complicated and, although the most logical thing, so painfully illogical. Overwhelmed by his curiosity, Cedric took one of the papers around him and gave it a closer look. It showed a drawing of some strange looking machine, the sorcerer had never seen before in his whole life. The few writings on the drawing, which were obviously meant to describe specific parts of the machine, were hard to identify as such. The letters had been written very quick and sloppy. That truly matched Varian's way of being, as the sorcerer had whitnessed it so far. Smiling, yet still without any clue what he had just seen, Cedric finally put the paper back where he got it from and decided to leave those futuristic science-things to the people who actually wanted to deal with them...

Meanwhile, Varian rummaged his kitchen cupboards for some food - and was pretty disappointed, when he realized that there wasn't too much stuff left. Some bread, some cheese, some dried mushrooms and other small portions of several things. Some of them, they could use as provisions for their journey. The rest would be today's dinner, as it was already evening. Sighing, and reminding himself to look better after his stock, he put the food he had found in a bowl and left the kitchen.

Finally, he had already made it half the way back to his study, when Varian suddenly heard a terrifying scream. In a hurry, he ran back to the study, where he had left Cedric some minutes earlier. And, when he arrived, he saw something, that made him – although still a little worried – smile all over his face:

Cedric the sorcerer was now sitting on the floor, hiding behind the large desk, which was the heart of the study. Holding a small wooden stick in his hand, he was pointing at something that was straight vis-à-vis of him. Voice trembling nervous, he asked the alchemist, what 'this thing there' was, and when Varian took a closer look at the other side of the room, the young man almost burst out into laughter.

"Don't worry, Cedric", he giggled and put the bowl with the food on the shelf next to him. "He won't do you any harm, I can promise you that. He's just a chameleon and a pretty good friend of mine. His name is Pascal.", he explained and waited until Pascal had hopped onto his outstretched hand. Then, the small reptile climbed up Varian's arm an onto his shoulder. There he continued hissing and squeaking in the direction of the sorcerer who still hid behind the desk.

"It's okay, my friend", Varian said and patted the chameleon's small head, "His name is Cedric. He's not an intruder, he's our friend. And he needs our suppo- Ouch!"

Quickly, Varian took away his fingers from his head, when Pascal bit him in the thumb.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it, I get it..." Varian furrowed his brows, when Pascal stared at him dispraisingly. Then, he smiled and said: "I'm sorry, my friend. Obviously, it still takes me some more time to get over it..."

He smirked, while Pascal jumped off his shoulder, not letting any of the two men out of sight. The, the small animal squeaked once again, but this time understanding.

"So, why are you here, my friend?", Varian asked after the chameleon had calmed down a little, "Did Rapunzel send you here?"

Pascal squeaked and nodded. Then, he jumped of the table and ran towards another corner of the room where he disappeared between some more books, tools and paper. Just to return a few seconds later with another, smaller paper in his mouth. When Varian took the paper, it turned out to be a small letter, written by princess Rapunzel.

"So, she actually send me something..." Varian stared at the paper in his hand.
Meanwhile, Cedric had put away his wand and crawled out of his covering.

"What does it read?", he asked, while approaching Varian and Pascal, without letting the latter out of sight.

"It says, that princess Rapunzel is sorry for missing our meeting. But, there is more. She again writes something about the dreams she had the last few nights..."

Varian furrowed his brows, while Cedric was carefully approaching him.

"The letter says, that we have to be careful on our journey, for no one knows, what will await us there. But one thing seems to be for sure: Whatever it is, it won't be too friendly..."
Cedric stayed silent. This hadn't only been just a dream. This princess must be born with a great magic potential. Otherwise, she wouldn't know that the both of them were about to go on this journey. Or did she just mean the lizard, which was still lurking on Varian's side, observing every move they made? Whatever it was, there must be some connection between the princess' vision and what he had seen in his own, when he had contacted princess Sofia.

"Did you two ever talk properly about those 'dreams', as you call it?", Cedric finally asked. Varian nodded.
"But only by writing about it in our letters", he explained, "I guess, I can show them to you, if you want."

Cedric hesitated. If those letters contained further information about the whereabouts of the princesses, it would help a lot. But, on the other hand, they sure were very private. Stuff, he probably didn't need to read about...

Who cared. He simply needed those information, no matter how hard he interfered into somebody else's privacy whit it. Fortunately, Varian seemed to think the same way, as he told the sorcerer, that he would be okay with him, reading the letters. Or better said: This one letter, which seemed to contain the most information about their topic.

"There you go", Varian said, when handing him a neat and nice smelling piece of paper. Wondering for a moment, how they had managed to keep the paper smelling that good, even after quite some time, Cedric took the letter and started reading.

In the beginning, it read a lot of nice and friendly things, especially about someone they called 'Rüdiger', who didn't seem to be whit them anymore. This was indeed pretty sad, but Cedric decided, not to ask Varian about it, right now. He told himself to forget about what he read, until he had reached the part of the letter, he had been searching for. The part, in which princess Rapunzel started writing about her vision.

She wrote about a dark and barren place, where she had been kept in some strange house, or cave, or something. There had been a few unfamiliar voices surrounding her, but she had not been able to see anyone. She also couldn't follow the voices into any specific direction or understand what they were saying. She also wrote, that she had been running away from something, she wasn't able to see, but to feel it's presence. She had been running, until she had reached a door or some sort of front gate. But as soon, as she had been trying to touch it, two giant, red eyes had appeared above her. Staring down at her, they had made her feel guilty but also threatened in a way which made her back up instantly and flee. Then, all of a sudden, she had found herself outside the cave in the middle of a not less cold and barren field. Everything there had been withered and dead, and she soon got the feeling of being lost, alone and abandoned.

Then, again, she had changed places and found herself in a forest, this time. Also as cold and unfriendly as the rest of the places she had already been. She had felt observed. But before she had been able to figure out, who had been watching her, she woke up and the vision was gone.

Cedric slowly folded back the paper. Wow. That was a lot...

But, instead of giving the letter back to Varian, the sorcerer kept the well tended paper in his hands and closed his eyes. The information he got had not been very detailed. Nor even too helpful. But, as the princess was capable of using magic, he soon got another idea...

Eyes still closed, he tried to concentrate on the light amount of magic that lingered through the handwriting on the parchment. If he could manage to catch it and focus on it, he would probably be able to find the princess. And with her also Princess Sofia, whose magic had meanwhile gotten so weak that he wasn't able to reach her anymore, no matter how hard he tried. It even seemed, as if something wanted to block him...
Finally, Cedric had managed to focus on princess Rapunzel's magic. And as soon, as he did, it started leading him.

Across the fields around Old Corona, eastwards, and further east, across more fields. Through a dark and unfriendly forest and past some sort of labyrinth, which hadn't been mentioned in the letter at all. There were mountains to cross and another dark and barren field to pass by. And then, over there, finally! Dark and cold, emerging from the field like a gloomy monument, there was a cave. A cave with a wooden front gate like the one, princess Rapunzel had described in her letter.
And, the nearer he got to the cave, the more he could hear voices from the inside. Amongst them, there was also princess Sofia's voice. And she was definitely calling his name!
Yes! He made it! He had finally found them! He just had to leave behind the last small distance between him and the cave, and the princesses would be all safe. Two times of teleportation then, and everything would be over... But, as life isn't quite as easy as it seems, it was not.

The strike hit him so unexpected and hard that Cedric would not have been able to do anything against it. Even, if he had seen everything coming right his way.

All of a sudden, there was pain inside his head. Then, he saw a pair of devilish, red eyes staring down at him, before he was literally punched backwards.

After he had hit the floor of the study, Varian was right at his side, as quick as possible, to see, if he was still okay.

"I'm alright", the older one answered, when Varian had asked him, if he got hurt somehow.

"Are you sure?" Varian examined his counterpart carefully.

"Yes, I'm fine." Cedric smiled crookedly, although he still felt a little numb. Whatever had hit him, had caught him pretty hard, this he had to admit. He was sure to never have felt such a thing before in his entire life...

Nevertheless: He had found the princesses!

"I've found them", he explained, causing Varian to give him a questioning look.
"The princesses", he said, feeling some new energy rising within himself. It would all be over soon. Everything would be alright.

"I know, where they are. Just two more times teleport, and everything will be alright again, soon..."

This fact made Cedric feel almost as happy, as he felt tired, at the moment. But, happiness faded soon, when he saw Varian's worried face right in front of him.

"I truly doubt that, Cedric. You'd better take some rest, first...", the alchemist said.

Cedric furrowed his brows and wanted to protest against the words. But, he didn't. Instead, he silenced almost immediately, when he saw the blood on Varian's fingers, after having pushed away the alchemist's hand from underneath his nose.

...

Hey, there.^^

I'm so sorry for making you guys wait for so long, once again. Work and private life are still a little exhausting at the moment, as there have been so many new things happening during the past few months. But, things are getting better by now. So, I'm hoping to be able to bring you the next chapter (at leat a little) earlier. ^^~

Until then, I hope you enjoy reading the actual one. :)

Thank you all for visiting, reading, faving and following the story so far. :D

See you next time! Love, Eeva ^^