Chapter 5: Wandering and Wondering
Umi journeyed deeper into the forest. She knew where she was going, but to get there she would have to rely on her instincts. The country had changed a lot since she had been their before, but she was confident that at least one thing would be the same. One thing would still be there, waiting. Perhaps waiting for her. She didn't know why she felt the need to go there, but she did. It seemed to her that many people had been having feelings that they didn't understand lately. Umi had questions that she needed to get answered before she could face anyone else she had known before. She especially wanted to know what had happened after Hikaru got rid of the pillar system. She had decreed that the country would be governed by the people's hearts. What had they done? How were things changed?
For the first time Umi started to register what had just happened between her and Hikaru and Hikaru and Fuu. She realized that they had just have a falling out, and it broke her heart. She felt as if something dark was reaching up trying to grab onto her heart. She thought back to just a few months before when she would have died to protect the other Magic Knights, but now she felt like things could never be the same.
"No," Umi said in defiance. "If Cephiro truly is the land where a person's will rules all then we will be friends again. Best friends. I swear it."
It brought a tear to her eye to think about what would happen if she couldn't. She tried to push that thought out of her head.
Umi suddenly looked up and realized where she was. It was the place where the black orb had been creating monsters and canceling all magic. This was the Forest of Silence.
"Good," she thought. "I'm not far away then." One thing in particular was bothering Umi. She had lost something and she very much wanted it back. The first place to look would be…
"The Spring of Eterna," Umi yelled in triumph as she entered the glade where the blue surface stood unaffected by the drastic changes in Cephiro. This is where it had all begun for her missing sword and this is where it would all begin again. She was confident of that.