Chapter 23
Koto

Koto was a elegant and beautiful place.
A lot of blue colors were incorporated in the buildings, clothes and flowers.
It kind of reminded Cassandra of her Lady-in-Waiting dress, blue.
While Varian...was just cold.

"Wow! You weren't kidding when you said that the kingdoms had different weather!" Varian shivered. "I told you. Com'on, let's go find a place to stay, we're probably going to be here for a while, okay?" Cassandra beckoned him to follow her.

Varian followed while he dug around in his bag for the scarf that Cassandra had gave him, then once he found it; he put it on. Ruddiger was snuggled up into the backpack, so he didn't need a scarf, because Varian's backpack was warm and had blankets inside.

"I've never been outside of the Kingdom of Corona before, by the way. Koto is beautiful, I've never seen anything like it." Varian said... Except for maybe Cassandra, but she didn't have to know that.

"Same here. I've been around in the woods around Corona and that's about it. I'm actually enjoying this trip a lot more than I was originally thinking I was." Cassandra looked around.

Some people had lovely blue dresses, and some people had dashing blue tuxedos, some people had blue tunics and shawls, and some people even had matching hats to go with their outfit.

The color scheme appeared to consist of mostly various different colors of blue, unlike the Kingdom of Corona, that consisted of purple, yellow, gold and white. This made both of them wonder what the other kingdom's were like with their color schemes.

Cassandra glanced at her bag, opening the flap of it and she felt the fabric of her blue dress back from when she was a Lady-in-Waiting, it would be nice to wear it again, especially since she was in Koto; no, no, no, now wasn't the time to think about fashion statements.

She had to find a place to stay.
Right.

Rapunzel stepped up to the throne her father was sitting in and stopped right in front of him with an angry look on her face. "Ah, Rapunzel... My lovely daughter, what is it?" Frederic asked her.

"Dad. I want to know why you haven't done anything. Surely Nigel has told you about my request to create a rehabilitation center for these thieves with no choice but to steal?" Rapunzel glared.

"I've...been postponing it, as concerns of spending money comes to mind, and making contracts to get the buildings built and I've also been waiting for your mother to recover." Frederic explained to her, "But we can't keep postponing it! I understand, decisions are hard..." Rapunzel frowned; "If you can postpone this, you can postpone these executions you've been setting into place for these thieves and criminals." Rapunzel added, angrily.

"Rapunzel, I..." Frederic pouted and went to speak, but realized there was nothing else he could say, so he closed his mouth and stayed quiet for the longest time. "Someday I'm going to become Queen, and Eugene will become King if I choose to marry him... And if you don't change the royal rules now, they'll just be changed when I inherit the place, and the buildings will be built too. Either way, it will happen, dad; I want you to know that." She said, bitterly-voiced. Frederic was surprised at Rapunzel for sticking up for her kingdom.

"I will think over this... Please, leave me be for the time being." Frederic shooed her away gently.

Rapunzel squinted her eyes and wasn't sure if she quite believed it, but she turned around and walked out without saying a word to her, not even a goodbye, a good day... Nothing.

Varian sat on the bed and then fell over to his back to look at the ceiling, the bed here was even softer and more comfortable than the one at the Snuggly Duckling. Cassandra sat on the other bed, digging through her bag, getting everything out of it to rearrange it.

She first pulled out a dagger, it was a dagger that she carried around when she was younger, putting it in her boot in-case there was someone or something trying to threaten her.

She then pulled out a bundle of ribbons and hairpins in a small velvet bag, she had been gifted it by Rapunzel. She liked to wear the hairpins the most, to keep her hair out of her face when she was sword training, the ribbons, ehhhh, not so much...

She pulled out more, various different daggers and knifes, one being the kitchen knife she cut the bread and ham for her and Varian's ham sandwiches. One of them had a diamond encrusted into it, it was a gift from Xaiver for being such a frequent customer.

Another one was a wilted rose, she had forgotten all about it. It had came from an annoying, Saporian man named Andrew, who had tried to take a special book involving the Day of Hearts from the castle, but of course, Cassandra stopped him, but she kept the rose, because being the daughter of the Captain of the Royal Guards, she tended to collect... stuff.

Then she pulled out the Cassandrium, she couldn't fight back the smile that spread across her face. Varian had gave this to her, as a thank you for taking him to the bakery that one time. Looking back, Cassandra realized how much that meant to Varian that day.

She rubbed her thumb over the Cassandrium gently, it was smooth to touch and she loved that feeling, she decided to put it around her neck and continue digging through her bag...

"Hey Cassie, you still have that?" Varian sat up because he had saw a glimpse of the purple color. Cassandra rolled her eyes playfully, "Of course I do. You gave it to me. Plus, I'm a bit of a collector of... stuff..." Cassandra laughed softly, putting the items back in her bag neatly.

"I'm glad you still like it." Varian's face tinted red as he looked away.
Varian then plopped back down on the bed and looked at the ceiling.

Cassandra smiled and put her bag off to the side.

"Just so you know, Varian..."
She put her hands in her lap softly,

"This trip is a lot better with you with me."