Chapter 4
AN: Here I go with another author's note again. I want to thank Alatáriël (the real one) for the awesome little party game that I could never have come up with on my own, and I want to thank everyone else who reads this thing, even if you don't review. Though it would be nice if you did! :-) I hope you enjoy the fourth installment in this odd story!
Morning came, and the sun crept through the tent. Inwe awoke, and she was about to get out of her four-poster bed in her chambers, when she realized that she was on the floor of a tent that was set up in the middle of the Plains of Rohan. She looked over to her sister, who was curled up in a blanket beside her, still asleep. She sighed heavily, and rolled the blanket around her, wishing the sun would go back down for a couple more hours. However, her wish was impossible, due to the fact that Sora and Cellen were both wide awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Both were rolling up their blankets and packing Cellen's bags, getting ready to break camp.
"I know you're awake, Inwe," Sora said, a mischievous gleam in his eye. "And if you don't get up, we will be forced to make you get up."
"Do your worst," She mumbled groggily, though immediately regretted it. Both of them pounced on top of her, pulling of her blanket and tickling her until she was laughing insanely. "All right! I'm up!" She sat up and pulled her blanket back on top of her, trying to keep the frigid morning air from seeping through her nightclothes. "Wake up Alatariel."
While the two guys were busy rousing her sister, Inwe made her escape outside the tent. Goofy and Donald were both already around the fire making breakfast. She could smell the meat roasting, and it made her long for the warm food that she hadn't eaten since she left Mirkwood. Donald looked up, offering her a piece.
"Thank you," She said, taking the meat and ripping off a piece. It tasted as good as she had thought it would. "Now what are we going to do?" She dreaded the answer, but she had to know. Alatariel, Sora, and Cellen all came out of the tent. Alatariel was still in pajamas.
"We have no idea how, and if, we can seal the keyholes in the Novelistic Continuum." Donald started, and Inwe knew that she wasn't going to like the answer. "Therefore, Goofy and I decided last night that we would seek the king of this continuum."
"We have a king?" Alatariel asked dubiously, "Until yesterday I didn't even know we had a continu-thingy."
"Continuum." Donald corrected. "And there is a king of this continuum. We drew up some maps last night based on information we found in the gummi ship's database. The planet should be about a day's drive from here at top speed. And that means that we have to get started right away."
"Hold on," Alatariel said, "We are going on * the bird? * I don't think so. Besides, Inwe and I have to save our forest. If we leave, there is no hope for Mirkwood."
"If you don't come, we will never find the keyhole. We need someone from this continuum with us; otherwise we have no hope of speaking with the king. We could also use a few weapons, and hands to use them. And besides, this is the happiest Sora has been since we left." The elves could hear him mutter "Don't bring me into this." but Donald didn't seem to hear. "You have to come with us, otherwise your world will be destroyed."
"Group meeting." Inwe called, and the three elves walked away. They stood in a circle to decide what to do. Sora, Goofy, and Donald strained to hear, but the only words they could make out were "Father", "Key", and "Bird". After a heated discussion, the three came back over to the fire. "We're in." Inwe said, "But only if you promise to save Middle-Earth."
"I promise." Sora said.
"Then it's settled!" Donald said happily, rubbing his wings together. "We leave now." Inwe nodded and went into the tent to change, and Alatariel followed, looking pale.
"Stupid bird. . ." She said, crawling in and closing the flap. The sisters got changed and packed their stuff, and then the four of them rolled the tent up. Cellen and Sora carried it up the ramp, and Inwe followed with hers and Cellen's bags. Alatariel stood at the bottom of the ramp, all color drained from her face and her eyes as big as dinner plates. Inwe turned around and came back down to her sister.
"Come on, we have to reach the king's planet by tonight." She said, grabbing her sister's hand and dragging her partway up the ramp. Alatariel took her hand back, crossing her arms and looking up at the ship.
"It's just that I've never flown before." She said, taking in the enormity of the ship.
"Neither have I, seleramin. It will be a new experience for both of us." She answered, smiling and holding out her hand for her sister. Alatariel grinned back, handed Inwe her luggage and walked up the ramp, laughing. "I'm not a maid!" Inwe called out after her sister, now completely bogged down with luggage. Somehow she managed to make it up the ramp, and the sight completely amazed her. She dropped all of the bags down with a loud thump, and gazed around at the ship's interior.
The floor was covered with a soft carpet, and the walls were a warm gray, covered in dazzling lights. On the ceiling were white, glowing holes that shed light, and everywhere things were blinking and beeping. "Inwe, come in here!" Sora called, and she followed his voice, looking at the sights and hearing the sounds of the ship with childish amazement. She entered a room with five large beds. "This is the barracks of the ship." Sora said. "Obviously, it's meant for part of an army to use or something, but I use it as my bedroom. But it's better this way, at least we all get our own bed and light. Donald and Goofy sleep somewhere else." He flopped down on one of the stacked beds and flipped a switch, turning a light above his bed on.
"Lights?" Alatariel questioned.
He hid his surprise well. I have to remember that they don't have this technology, he thought to himself. "These are electric lamps." He pointed up at the glowing holes in the ceiling.
"I guess we better get used to surprises." Cellen muttered, gazing at the room. Suddenly, a crackling sound was heard throughout the room, and they could hear Donald's voice echoing through the ship.
"Get seated for takeoff." He said in his squawking voice.
"That's Donald on the intercom. We have to go to the front of the ship to sit down for takeoff." Sora explained, heading out of the room. The elves followed him through the hallways, and they ended up in a room full of chairs that had straps on them.
"Use the seatbelts to buckle yourself in. Put the one metal thing in the other metal thing." Sora showed them how to do it by buckling his own. Inwe copied him and buckled herself. She then buckled in Alatariel, who then buckled in Cellen.
"We're ready, Donald!" Sora yelled. The ship came to life. They could hear the great rumbling of the engines, and the ship lurched forward. Alatariel gripped her armrests so hard that her knuckles turned bone white, and she squinted her eyes together so she couldn't see them taking off. (At the last second she opened her eyes to see them taking off.)
The ship launched into the air, and Middle-Earth shrunk away from them rapidly, until Inwe could see the whole planet through her window. "Wow," She said in awe, "Who would have thought that Middle-Earth looked like that?" After they were in space, Donald came over the intercom again.
"You can resume your activities again." He quacked. Sora unbuckled himself and stood up. He then looked over at the three elves, and seeing them wrestling with their belts, undid them. They all got up and Sora led them back to the barracks.
"It's not so bad now." Alatariel said, sitting down on a bed. "I could get used to flying."
~ * ~
After flying all morning, they were all ravenous with hunger. For the past few hours, they had been wandering between the barracks and the seating room with windows at the front of the ship. None of them had eaten anything since the morning. They were all laying on their bunk beds when Sora's stomach protested loudly.
"I agree with your stomach, Sora," Alatariel stated, putting her hand on her own belly. Sora laughed. "Let me show you the kitchen." He said, and he led them through another hallway and into a small room with cabinets and a table. Around the table were multiple stools made out of steel with padded seats. He opened one of the cabinets, taking out long sticks of brown bread and bowls sauce to dip them in. He handed the food out, and they all sat down to lunch. The foursome ate in silence for a couple long minutes before Inwe spoke up. "Is there anything to do around here?" She asked between bites. The elves were beginning to feel cut-off from their world without the trees, grass, and life of their planet. On top of this withdrawal, they had nothing to do all day except sit and think about trees, grass, and life, which only made it much worse. "Did you like the game last night?" Sora responded, not answering her. The question caught everyone off-guard, no one had talked about the game all day. Sora had directed it at Inwe, and she felt as though she were being asked a trick question. She wasn't going to say yes, but she couldn't say no. And in reality, she didn't really know the answer. Her distress must have been apparent to her sister, because she jumped in and saved her. "Why, because you have another crazy game for us to play today?" She wasn't sure she wanted Sora to answer. "If you liked the other one, than yes, I do have a game to play." He thought for a moment. "And if you didn't I still have another one to play." He received an exasperated sigh from the elves, and he just smiled innocently, pretending not to hear. "Well, is there any way that we can get out of this?" Cellen asked in an almost desperate voice. "Not that I can see, no," answered Sora, a sparkle in his eyes that made everyone else at the table a bit uneasy. "Well, if we can't get out of this, then you better explain the game to us." Inwe said, and Sora started explaining the game over lunch.
~ * ~
The game was thus: The four of them sat in a circle, boy-girl. Inwe and Alatariel sat across from each other, and Sora and Cellen sat across from each other. In the middle of the circle sat an empty bottle labeled "Potion", but it wasn't there for the same reason as last night. Everyone would take turns kissing the bottle in different places, though no one at the circle really knew why they were doing this, except for Sora. Then they would pass it to the right. That was the entirety of the game, from how Sora described it to them.
Sora started with the bottle, and he kissed it on the neck. Then he passed it to Inwe, the same glint in his eyes that had been there earlier. She kissed it on the back of the bottle, on the other side from the label, and then passed it to Cellen. Cellen kissed it on the front, just above the label, and then Alatariel kissed it on the bottom. Sora got the bottle, and kissed it on the side, sending it back to Alatariel. She sighed, and then kissed it on the lip of the bottle, where the cap would have been if it were there. Cellen kissed the other side of the bottle, and Inwe got it. She kissed the label. Then she handed it back to Sora, who was enjoying himself entirely too much for this to be the whole game.
"This isn't the whole game, is it?" Inwe asked. Sora shook his head.
"Nope, nope nope, there's more! You see, you must kiss the person next to you in the same place that you kissed the bottle. I guess I am the one to start. So, because I kissed the neck of the bottle, that means that I kiss Inwe. . ." He hadn't finished his sentence before he leaned over towards Inwe and kissed her neck. It felt really good, better than Inwe was planning on letting on. She managed to keep control of herself, but when he pulled away, she could see that he knew that she had had some trouble in the area of self-control, at least in her mind. "So, Inwe kisses Cellen on the back, Cellen kisses Alatariel on the chest, and then Alatariel has the pleasure of kissing my feet."
The game continued around the circle, until it started back the other way. Alatariel blushed when she kissed Cellen on the lips in front of Sora and Inwe, and Inwe blushed when she kissed Sora's chest. She could hear his heartbeat, and it was pounding like a mad drum, much harder than it would have seemed to the elves. She kissed him, probably longer than was needed, and then pulled away.
"Is that the whole game?" Alatariel asked.
"What, do you want to play again?" Sora asked her back. The elves were silent, and he decided to take it as a no, being that he was extremely uncomfortable leading the game once, and it wouldn't be as fun when they already knew what was going to happen. "We will just play that for today, but tomorrow is another story." Knowing that complaint was futile, no one objected.
"What time is it?" Inwe asked Sora. He looked at the wall, where a digital clock was situated.
"It's almost sunset. We could have dinner now, and then we can go to bed." They all got up, and went into the kitchen for some more food. After eating, they all headed back to the barracks. However, no one was ready for bed yet, and so they just stayed in the room with nothing to do. Inwe and Alatariel talked while sitting on one bed, while Sora and Cellen looked out different windows, watching the universe pass.
"It's odd, seleramin, I don't feel like myself anymore." Inwe said. Alatariel agreed with her.
"Maybe it is just that we are starting on a journey beyond our wildest imaginings, or maybe it is the company we keep. I saw your eyes, Inwe, during the game. I know your heart."
"Well I can see how ignorant I was to try to keep it from you, 'Princess Of All Knowledge'." Inwe taunted, but Alatariel didn't take the bait. Instead, she looked her right in the eyes.
"I do not joke. I can see how you long, and I cannot say I do not know how you feel. It is how we will act on the feelings we keep that is the problem. What do you plan to do?"
Inwe was at a loss. "I am not sure. But I am going over to him." She smiled at her sister, and then got off the bed, going over to the one that Sora was on. She sat down, and when he felt the shift of weight, he looked over. There was Inwe, looking back at him with stormy blue eyes, like the calm of the sky before the storm. Her blonde hair fell halfway down her back. Her milky white skin was healthy but pale. She smiled shyly, making Sora's heart beat as fast as it had during the game they played that afternoon. He smiled back. She scooted over next to him, her eyes sparkling as if they knew a secret. She leaned over and whispered into his ear, "I heard your heart pounding during the game. Is The Great Sora as scared to play as everyone else?" She laughed and he was glad to hear it, even though she obviously knew some of what he was feeling. He decided to let her know more.
"It isn't like that when I play with other people, just when I play with you." He whispered back. Inwe wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, but she blushed all the same. She looked away towards where Cellen was. Alatariel had started talking to him. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was obvious that they were having a good time. She looked back into Sora's honest blue eyes, and she couldn't read everything that was there. He confused her, and she liked it.
"You know, Alatariel and I are scared to sleep while we're flying." Inwe said nonchalantly, subtly hinting at something.
"It's not that bad, after you've tried it. It's like sleeping on the ocean, rocked to sleep by the movements of the ship. I actually like it."
"I don't know, it seems odd. I can't imagine myself sleeping while floating."
"Well, we could move all the beds together, and then if we die, we can all die together." Sora joked, and Inwe hit him playfully on the head. She didn't object, though. So Inwe and Sora started moving beds, and the other two elves looked over at them as if they were insane. "We are moving the beds together. Inwe told me that you and her were scared of sleeping while flying." Alatariel and Inwe's eyes met, and Alatariel conveyed a single thought, you're good.
When the clock on the wall read ten, they all got into the giant bed. The girls were on one side, and the boys on the other, with their feet meeting in the middle. After kicking around blankets and sorting out pillows, they finally settled. Inwe could see Sora's feet as lumps under the blanket, and she kicked him lightly with her own foot. He kicked back, and they had a war until Alatariel hit her for keeping her up. Finally, they all fell asleep, with only a few hours until they would reached the Kingdom of the Novelistic Continuum.
~ * ~
"Donald, what is the Kingdom called?" Goofy asked. The two were still at the controls, piloting the ship onwards.
"Camelot?" Donald said, hoping that he had read it right. He shrugged, turning back to the controls. "We can ask King Arthur how to say it when we get there.
AN: Here I go with another author's note again. I want to thank Alatáriël (the real one) for the awesome little party game that I could never have come up with on my own, and I want to thank everyone else who reads this thing, even if you don't review. Though it would be nice if you did! :-) I hope you enjoy the fourth installment in this odd story!
Morning came, and the sun crept through the tent. Inwe awoke, and she was about to get out of her four-poster bed in her chambers, when she realized that she was on the floor of a tent that was set up in the middle of the Plains of Rohan. She looked over to her sister, who was curled up in a blanket beside her, still asleep. She sighed heavily, and rolled the blanket around her, wishing the sun would go back down for a couple more hours. However, her wish was impossible, due to the fact that Sora and Cellen were both wide awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Both were rolling up their blankets and packing Cellen's bags, getting ready to break camp.
"I know you're awake, Inwe," Sora said, a mischievous gleam in his eye. "And if you don't get up, we will be forced to make you get up."
"Do your worst," She mumbled groggily, though immediately regretted it. Both of them pounced on top of her, pulling of her blanket and tickling her until she was laughing insanely. "All right! I'm up!" She sat up and pulled her blanket back on top of her, trying to keep the frigid morning air from seeping through her nightclothes. "Wake up Alatariel."
While the two guys were busy rousing her sister, Inwe made her escape outside the tent. Goofy and Donald were both already around the fire making breakfast. She could smell the meat roasting, and it made her long for the warm food that she hadn't eaten since she left Mirkwood. Donald looked up, offering her a piece.
"Thank you," She said, taking the meat and ripping off a piece. It tasted as good as she had thought it would. "Now what are we going to do?" She dreaded the answer, but she had to know. Alatariel, Sora, and Cellen all came out of the tent. Alatariel was still in pajamas.
"We have no idea how, and if, we can seal the keyholes in the Novelistic Continuum." Donald started, and Inwe knew that she wasn't going to like the answer. "Therefore, Goofy and I decided last night that we would seek the king of this continuum."
"We have a king?" Alatariel asked dubiously, "Until yesterday I didn't even know we had a continu-thingy."
"Continuum." Donald corrected. "And there is a king of this continuum. We drew up some maps last night based on information we found in the gummi ship's database. The planet should be about a day's drive from here at top speed. And that means that we have to get started right away."
"Hold on," Alatariel said, "We are going on * the bird? * I don't think so. Besides, Inwe and I have to save our forest. If we leave, there is no hope for Mirkwood."
"If you don't come, we will never find the keyhole. We need someone from this continuum with us; otherwise we have no hope of speaking with the king. We could also use a few weapons, and hands to use them. And besides, this is the happiest Sora has been since we left." The elves could hear him mutter "Don't bring me into this." but Donald didn't seem to hear. "You have to come with us, otherwise your world will be destroyed."
"Group meeting." Inwe called, and the three elves walked away. They stood in a circle to decide what to do. Sora, Goofy, and Donald strained to hear, but the only words they could make out were "Father", "Key", and "Bird". After a heated discussion, the three came back over to the fire. "We're in." Inwe said, "But only if you promise to save Middle-Earth."
"I promise." Sora said.
"Then it's settled!" Donald said happily, rubbing his wings together. "We leave now." Inwe nodded and went into the tent to change, and Alatariel followed, looking pale.
"Stupid bird. . ." She said, crawling in and closing the flap. The sisters got changed and packed their stuff, and then the four of them rolled the tent up. Cellen and Sora carried it up the ramp, and Inwe followed with hers and Cellen's bags. Alatariel stood at the bottom of the ramp, all color drained from her face and her eyes as big as dinner plates. Inwe turned around and came back down to her sister.
"Come on, we have to reach the king's planet by tonight." She said, grabbing her sister's hand and dragging her partway up the ramp. Alatariel took her hand back, crossing her arms and looking up at the ship.
"It's just that I've never flown before." She said, taking in the enormity of the ship.
"Neither have I, seleramin. It will be a new experience for both of us." She answered, smiling and holding out her hand for her sister. Alatariel grinned back, handed Inwe her luggage and walked up the ramp, laughing. "I'm not a maid!" Inwe called out after her sister, now completely bogged down with luggage. Somehow she managed to make it up the ramp, and the sight completely amazed her. She dropped all of the bags down with a loud thump, and gazed around at the ship's interior.
The floor was covered with a soft carpet, and the walls were a warm gray, covered in dazzling lights. On the ceiling were white, glowing holes that shed light, and everywhere things were blinking and beeping. "Inwe, come in here!" Sora called, and she followed his voice, looking at the sights and hearing the sounds of the ship with childish amazement. She entered a room with five large beds. "This is the barracks of the ship." Sora said. "Obviously, it's meant for part of an army to use or something, but I use it as my bedroom. But it's better this way, at least we all get our own bed and light. Donald and Goofy sleep somewhere else." He flopped down on one of the stacked beds and flipped a switch, turning a light above his bed on.
"Lights?" Alatariel questioned.
He hid his surprise well. I have to remember that they don't have this technology, he thought to himself. "These are electric lamps." He pointed up at the glowing holes in the ceiling.
"I guess we better get used to surprises." Cellen muttered, gazing at the room. Suddenly, a crackling sound was heard throughout the room, and they could hear Donald's voice echoing through the ship.
"Get seated for takeoff." He said in his squawking voice.
"That's Donald on the intercom. We have to go to the front of the ship to sit down for takeoff." Sora explained, heading out of the room. The elves followed him through the hallways, and they ended up in a room full of chairs that had straps on them.
"Use the seatbelts to buckle yourself in. Put the one metal thing in the other metal thing." Sora showed them how to do it by buckling his own. Inwe copied him and buckled herself. She then buckled in Alatariel, who then buckled in Cellen.
"We're ready, Donald!" Sora yelled. The ship came to life. They could hear the great rumbling of the engines, and the ship lurched forward. Alatariel gripped her armrests so hard that her knuckles turned bone white, and she squinted her eyes together so she couldn't see them taking off. (At the last second she opened her eyes to see them taking off.)
The ship launched into the air, and Middle-Earth shrunk away from them rapidly, until Inwe could see the whole planet through her window. "Wow," She said in awe, "Who would have thought that Middle-Earth looked like that?" After they were in space, Donald came over the intercom again.
"You can resume your activities again." He quacked. Sora unbuckled himself and stood up. He then looked over at the three elves, and seeing them wrestling with their belts, undid them. They all got up and Sora led them back to the barracks.
"It's not so bad now." Alatariel said, sitting down on a bed. "I could get used to flying."
~ * ~
After flying all morning, they were all ravenous with hunger. For the past few hours, they had been wandering between the barracks and the seating room with windows at the front of the ship. None of them had eaten anything since the morning. They were all laying on their bunk beds when Sora's stomach protested loudly.
"I agree with your stomach, Sora," Alatariel stated, putting her hand on her own belly. Sora laughed. "Let me show you the kitchen." He said, and he led them through another hallway and into a small room with cabinets and a table. Around the table were multiple stools made out of steel with padded seats. He opened one of the cabinets, taking out long sticks of brown bread and bowls sauce to dip them in. He handed the food out, and they all sat down to lunch. The foursome ate in silence for a couple long minutes before Inwe spoke up. "Is there anything to do around here?" She asked between bites. The elves were beginning to feel cut-off from their world without the trees, grass, and life of their planet. On top of this withdrawal, they had nothing to do all day except sit and think about trees, grass, and life, which only made it much worse. "Did you like the game last night?" Sora responded, not answering her. The question caught everyone off-guard, no one had talked about the game all day. Sora had directed it at Inwe, and she felt as though she were being asked a trick question. She wasn't going to say yes, but she couldn't say no. And in reality, she didn't really know the answer. Her distress must have been apparent to her sister, because she jumped in and saved her. "Why, because you have another crazy game for us to play today?" She wasn't sure she wanted Sora to answer. "If you liked the other one, than yes, I do have a game to play." He thought for a moment. "And if you didn't I still have another one to play." He received an exasperated sigh from the elves, and he just smiled innocently, pretending not to hear. "Well, is there any way that we can get out of this?" Cellen asked in an almost desperate voice. "Not that I can see, no," answered Sora, a sparkle in his eyes that made everyone else at the table a bit uneasy. "Well, if we can't get out of this, then you better explain the game to us." Inwe said, and Sora started explaining the game over lunch.
~ * ~
The game was thus: The four of them sat in a circle, boy-girl. Inwe and Alatariel sat across from each other, and Sora and Cellen sat across from each other. In the middle of the circle sat an empty bottle labeled "Potion", but it wasn't there for the same reason as last night. Everyone would take turns kissing the bottle in different places, though no one at the circle really knew why they were doing this, except for Sora. Then they would pass it to the right. That was the entirety of the game, from how Sora described it to them.
Sora started with the bottle, and he kissed it on the neck. Then he passed it to Inwe, the same glint in his eyes that had been there earlier. She kissed it on the back of the bottle, on the other side from the label, and then passed it to Cellen. Cellen kissed it on the front, just above the label, and then Alatariel kissed it on the bottom. Sora got the bottle, and kissed it on the side, sending it back to Alatariel. She sighed, and then kissed it on the lip of the bottle, where the cap would have been if it were there. Cellen kissed the other side of the bottle, and Inwe got it. She kissed the label. Then she handed it back to Sora, who was enjoying himself entirely too much for this to be the whole game.
"This isn't the whole game, is it?" Inwe asked. Sora shook his head.
"Nope, nope nope, there's more! You see, you must kiss the person next to you in the same place that you kissed the bottle. I guess I am the one to start. So, because I kissed the neck of the bottle, that means that I kiss Inwe. . ." He hadn't finished his sentence before he leaned over towards Inwe and kissed her neck. It felt really good, better than Inwe was planning on letting on. She managed to keep control of herself, but when he pulled away, she could see that he knew that she had had some trouble in the area of self-control, at least in her mind. "So, Inwe kisses Cellen on the back, Cellen kisses Alatariel on the chest, and then Alatariel has the pleasure of kissing my feet."
The game continued around the circle, until it started back the other way. Alatariel blushed when she kissed Cellen on the lips in front of Sora and Inwe, and Inwe blushed when she kissed Sora's chest. She could hear his heartbeat, and it was pounding like a mad drum, much harder than it would have seemed to the elves. She kissed him, probably longer than was needed, and then pulled away.
"Is that the whole game?" Alatariel asked.
"What, do you want to play again?" Sora asked her back. The elves were silent, and he decided to take it as a no, being that he was extremely uncomfortable leading the game once, and it wouldn't be as fun when they already knew what was going to happen. "We will just play that for today, but tomorrow is another story." Knowing that complaint was futile, no one objected.
"What time is it?" Inwe asked Sora. He looked at the wall, where a digital clock was situated.
"It's almost sunset. We could have dinner now, and then we can go to bed." They all got up, and went into the kitchen for some more food. After eating, they all headed back to the barracks. However, no one was ready for bed yet, and so they just stayed in the room with nothing to do. Inwe and Alatariel talked while sitting on one bed, while Sora and Cellen looked out different windows, watching the universe pass.
"It's odd, seleramin, I don't feel like myself anymore." Inwe said. Alatariel agreed with her.
"Maybe it is just that we are starting on a journey beyond our wildest imaginings, or maybe it is the company we keep. I saw your eyes, Inwe, during the game. I know your heart."
"Well I can see how ignorant I was to try to keep it from you, 'Princess Of All Knowledge'." Inwe taunted, but Alatariel didn't take the bait. Instead, she looked her right in the eyes.
"I do not joke. I can see how you long, and I cannot say I do not know how you feel. It is how we will act on the feelings we keep that is the problem. What do you plan to do?"
Inwe was at a loss. "I am not sure. But I am going over to him." She smiled at her sister, and then got off the bed, going over to the one that Sora was on. She sat down, and when he felt the shift of weight, he looked over. There was Inwe, looking back at him with stormy blue eyes, like the calm of the sky before the storm. Her blonde hair fell halfway down her back. Her milky white skin was healthy but pale. She smiled shyly, making Sora's heart beat as fast as it had during the game they played that afternoon. He smiled back. She scooted over next to him, her eyes sparkling as if they knew a secret. She leaned over and whispered into his ear, "I heard your heart pounding during the game. Is The Great Sora as scared to play as everyone else?" She laughed and he was glad to hear it, even though she obviously knew some of what he was feeling. He decided to let her know more.
"It isn't like that when I play with other people, just when I play with you." He whispered back. Inwe wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, but she blushed all the same. She looked away towards where Cellen was. Alatariel had started talking to him. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was obvious that they were having a good time. She looked back into Sora's honest blue eyes, and she couldn't read everything that was there. He confused her, and she liked it.
"You know, Alatariel and I are scared to sleep while we're flying." Inwe said nonchalantly, subtly hinting at something.
"It's not that bad, after you've tried it. It's like sleeping on the ocean, rocked to sleep by the movements of the ship. I actually like it."
"I don't know, it seems odd. I can't imagine myself sleeping while floating."
"Well, we could move all the beds together, and then if we die, we can all die together." Sora joked, and Inwe hit him playfully on the head. She didn't object, though. So Inwe and Sora started moving beds, and the other two elves looked over at them as if they were insane. "We are moving the beds together. Inwe told me that you and her were scared of sleeping while flying." Alatariel and Inwe's eyes met, and Alatariel conveyed a single thought, you're good.
When the clock on the wall read ten, they all got into the giant bed. The girls were on one side, and the boys on the other, with their feet meeting in the middle. After kicking around blankets and sorting out pillows, they finally settled. Inwe could see Sora's feet as lumps under the blanket, and she kicked him lightly with her own foot. He kicked back, and they had a war until Alatariel hit her for keeping her up. Finally, they all fell asleep, with only a few hours until they would reached the Kingdom of the Novelistic Continuum.
~ * ~
"Donald, what is the Kingdom called?" Goofy asked. The two were still at the controls, piloting the ship onwards.
"Camelot?" Donald said, hoping that he had read it right. He shrugged, turning back to the controls. "We can ask King Arthur how to say it when we get there.