¿* Pinked * Memories *?
¿* Chapter Four * Dorothy's Funeral *?
Shiine woke up to the smell of something that appalled his senses. He was immediately pulled back to the land of the living.
He jerked awake.
His eyes focused to see Cha-cha and the others all huddled around him, looking at him with concern.
(Riya was nowhere to be found)
Then he turned to look at the one who was kneeling beside him. It was Seravi!
"Are you alright now?" Seravi gently asked.
He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He was much too shocked by what he had seen.
Seravi has changed. He has greatly changed. He seemed to have aged 10 years overnight. His eyes showed the signs of no sleep. There was a change in the way that he spoke to others. And his hair and his robe was disheveled, he hadn't even bothered to tidy himself up.
He stood up and gave Shiine room to get himself up.
Then Shiine remembered his last thought before he fainted. He looked around for the wolf that had almost killed him.
"Mr. Seravi..." he inaudibly started, planning to tell him his discovery. Tears welled up in his eyes.
"What are you doing here children?" Seravi asked, turning to the others.
"We're looking for Miss Dorothy too teacher!" Cha-cha answered.
(Shiine, looked away and saw the bushes that he had tried to go to earlier, he then crawled and passed the bushes, unnoticed)
"Don't listen to her Prince Seravi, we were out here looking for you!" Yakku said, pushing Cha-cha away to be by Seravi's side. "I was so, so worried, please don't do that to me anymore! You don't look so good, what have you been doing? You're pushing yourself too hard... Please just forget all of this and let's go home my Prince... I'll take care of you..." Yakku said, blushing furiously while she was pulling his robe towards her direction.
"That's very sweet of you Yakku, however I'm not finished yet... I haven't found--"
"SERAVI!" came Riya's voice. It was faint, as if it had just been an echo passed by the wind to his ears.
Seravi snapped immediately and went to the direction of the voice.
He jumped through the bush, and the first thing that he noticed were the broken little pieces of stick that were scattered in front of him.
It was a thin stick with a white stalk, it was broken in several places, it's pieces formed a trail to be followed.
It leads up...
Seravi walked cautiously, following the trail of debris which had ended on a large rock up ahead. There was an opening around that large rock. The path to it ended on one side with a tall, steep cliff and a fall to the river below.
The sound of the river could barely be heard, signifying a very high drop should he make a mistake. However there was a sound which blocked out all the rest.
It was his heart beating wildly, as if he knew what he was going to find uphill.
He didn't even hear it when Cha-cha called him to ask what was wrong.
He slowly followed the trail of the broken sticks to the large rock where the narrow path led up to. As he went closer to the rock, he began to see colors on the rock. Colors that should not be there.
On the sides of the rock, where the view was unobstructed. He could see the edge of the cliff clearly now, and beyond that the ocean.
He began to hear a soft crying sound...
"SERAVI!!!!"
The scream came back to him as stood face to face with the forbidding rock that measured up to his waists. He can truly see the colors now, the colors that had stained the rock... the red...blood...stains....
Seravi stood there, shocked. It was as if all his world had collapsed before him. He fell down on his knees.
He now knew what the sticks were... they, as he had seen a thousand times were the ones that she held in her hands whenever she made magic....
And that now, as his tears freely flowed down his cheek and his vision clouded until he could see no more, he realized that he was standing before the grave of his love.
On the other side of the rock. Shiine was crying softly,
as was Riya, who was beside him, unable to look at him.
Shiine tightly held a dirty piece of bloodstained dark purple shoe in his arms.
Less than a foot in front of him, were the tattered pieces of cloth that was
once his teacher's hat and clothing...
¿¿* *??
Seravi woke up. It seemed that he has awakened from a long, long sleep. His muscles ached from not moving.
Something in his brain was telling him something but he couldn't remember anything. It must have been a very bad dream that he wants to forget, so pushing the thought away from his head, he got up from his bed.
It was a normal day. He glanced at his night table to see Elizabeth sitting there, still smiling.
He had planned to go to the kitchen to start cooking meals when he saw Cha-cha already up at this hour, sitting on the steps of the front door. He walked up to her and leaned down to speak to her.
He saw the long face that she wore. "What's the matter Cha-cha? Why are you so grumpy, so early, at such a beautiful day?" Seravi asked his student.
Cha-cha looked up to see him standing there quietly. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, hesitating. Then she faced him and said "Are you alright now Teacher?" a look of worry crossing her face.
"Huh? Of course I'm alright," He answered with a smile.
"That's good. But poor Shiine..." Cha-cha said, returning to her depression.
Seravi frowned. "What's the matter with Shiine? Did Dorothy kick her out of the castle because he failed to cook food for her?" he asked.
"Why Teacher! How could you be so mean? Have you forgotten?! Miss Dorothy's dead!"
The last words echoed throughout him. It was as if he was slapped back to reality.
"NO!" Seravi cried out. He immediately rushed to the basement of his cottage. He saw the crystal ball lying on top of the table there where Cha-cha had put it back.
"Where are you?!" he said frantically to the crystal ball with a wave of his hand.
"Where are you Dorothy?! Dorothy!!! DOROTHY!!!!" he said, getting more desperate by the second.
The crystal ball gleamed, and, as if to mock him, showed a fuzzy image of the blonde haired Dorothy, but only for a moment. She had her eyes closed and had a very peaceful expression on her face. And then the crystal ball began to crack and broke into a million pieces.
Along with the crystal ball, his heart also shattered...
"NO!!" he screamed. He still refused to believe.
He goes to the shelf and searched for anything--anything that might help him.
"She's not dead, she's not dead, she's not dead... she's not!!" he said as he clumsily browsed through the items, bottle per bottle, shelf per shelf. Some of the potions fell on the floor and broke, but he didn't even mind. After a while he started throwing all of the potions to the floor, not even looking at them anymore, releasing his anger.
"She's not dead...!!! How can she be dead?" a glassy look started to take over his eyes. He stopped throwing the potions on the floor. On the shelf there was a stashed picture of when they were young, the two of them. Doris was the one who had taken the picture. Dorothy was smiling sweetly to the camera, and he was looking at her, enchanted by her smile. A distant smile formed on his lips.
"T-teacher...?" Cha-cha asked, a tone of fear in her voice. She had just now gone down the ladder. She came when she heard the noises made by glass being broken.
"You... you promised to marry me... How could you die when you promised that you'd marry me...?" Seravi said, talking to the picture of his beloved Dorothy.
"Oh Teacher..." Cha-cha said, tears brimming in her eyes.
The look in Seravi's eyes were instantly replaced by anger. "LIAR!! You liar!!!! Come back and fulfill your promise!!!" tears were now flowing freely down his cheek. It stained his robe. "Come back...." his voice broke.
He fell to his knees,... and was left unanswered...
¿¿* *??
Shiine stood on the edge of a cliff.
The castle was full of memories of his late teacher, so he ran away from it and found himself heading to the place where she had spent her last moments.
The wind was blowing against his skin. It was a chilly wind full of vengeance, never ceasing to remind him that...
He hugged his robe closer to his body.
He looked to the estuary below where the river met the sea, there was a very steep fall, and there were several rocks that looked up to him from there. They looked like deceitful arms, who promised to catch him should he fall.
He wondered if this were where his Teacher had fallen to her death, and if those arms had indeed caught her.
A tear fell down his cheek. He immediately wiped it away.
He promised not to cry after all...
It took him this long, to finally gather his strength to visit where his teacher had died. Time passed slowly so the wait had seemed like an eternity,... But only two weeks had passed since then, since they were here...
He stopped looking down to the rocks below and just looked at the ocean.
The ocean that had carried his Teacher's body somewhere, maybe to heaven...
And so it didn't matter even if they hadn't found his teacher's body, even after searching for so, so long and with such a wide network of volunteers... For all that they know it could very well be on the other end of the ocean already...
Wherever it was that his teacher was in now,... He only knew that she was far, far away from him.
"Be good alright Shiine?"
He remembered the words that his teacher had said to him.
Yes teacher... of course...
"Please don't forget me..."
Never teacher. Never. I will never forget you... Please...
wherever you are, please give me some strength...
Watch over me...
He remembered the last smile that she gave to him.
Through it, he was somehow able to smile. Smile with the wind blowing against his face.
And finally he was able to say goodbye, to a tragic chapter in his life.
Then, at the edge of his eye he saw something caught at one of the roots of the plant at the edge of the cliff. He looked closer to see the round image of a star that used to hang at the end of his teacher's hat.
He kneeled down to try to get it.
It seemed to be out of his reach, but he adjusted his body's position and tried again, his left hand was clutching a rock for anchor, while his right was reaching for the small memento that his teacher had left.
After a few seconds of stretching, his fingers were finally able to close upon the small round cloth.
Then, suddenly, the rock that he was holding on to gave a crack and was dismantled from the ground it was rooted on. He gave a shriek and anticipated the fall down to the ocean below when he became aware of the hold that saved him from the danger and had pulled him back to the safe ground.
Shiine looked up to see Riya standing there, looking at him uncertainly, not knowing whether to smile or to get angry at him for almost falling.
"You scared me Shiine, I thought you wanted to jump?" he said after a while.
"Did you think that I would want to commit suicide falling face first?" Shiine said sarcastically, somehow angry at him for suggesting such a stupid thing. "What were you doing here anyway?"
"What else? I followed you. I came here and saw you trying to commit suicide, and for a moment I thought about not stopping you at all, so that I could have Cha-cha all to myself but..." while he was speaking, he had half of his eyes closed and was not looking directly at Shiine. "It would be such an easy life without you as a competition," he finished finally.
Their expressions eased after a while.
Shiine relaxed and said "Thank you Riya...".
Riya scratched his head and nodded. "Let's go to Cha-cha..." he suggested.
Shiine looked at him again, he had a new look in his eyes. "Alright Riya, lead the way..."
¿¿* *??
They arrived in Seravi's cottage after a while of walking. Cha-cha was the one who answered the door. She gave a weak smile to the two boys.
"Who has come to visit my house?!" came Yakku's voice from inside the cottage.
Riya opened the door widely and then was immediately greeted by hugs and kisses by Marin.
"Ohhh, my darling Riya! You're alright!! Where have you been my darling? How can you be so cruel as to let your wife wait out here while you go out hunting for our food? Why, I'll give you as many food as you want, my darling, just promise that you won't leave me anymore... hu hu huu..." Marin exclaimed as she hugged the air out of Riya. Riya transformed into a wolf and was immediately dropped to the floor.
"Shiine, are you alright now?" Suuzu timidly asked Shiine.
Shiine turned to her and smiled a bit. "Yes I'm fine Suuzu," he answered.
"I see your friends are all complete Cha-cha..." came a weak voice from further inside the house.
They all turned to see Seravi standing on the hallway, almost back to his old self.
"Prince Seravi! Why did you get up? You shouldn't be up yet! Not after what happened a while ago when I wasn't here..." she gave killer looks to Cha-cha, as if blaming her for what happened. "Please my Prince, go back and rest..." Yakku said in all sincerity.
"Yakku, I'm fine already. I think... I have to face reality now... she's... Dorothy's...." he paused. A glassy look began to cloud his eyes again. But he shook his head immediately and looked at them. "Dead..." he finished the sentence. He swallowed down the bitterness that he was beginning to taste.
Shiine looked down on the floor. Cha-cha winced. Riya was in Cha-cha's arms and was teary-eyed at seeing Seravi like that. Marin was busy looking for Riya. Suuzu was sadly looking at Seravi and was at Shiine's side, while Yakku was actually suppresing a happy smirk on her face, trying to look sympathetic to Seravi's suffering.
"It's been two weeks now... that's long enough... I must... let her go... Let her rest..." he paused once again and blinked away the tears.
"So, tomorrow, let us return her to where she should be... Tomorrow, will be her funeral..."
¿¿* *??
The next day, the people were all lined up and was wearing black in town. There were all sorts of people, even the Royal family was marching out on the streets. They were honoring the memory of the beloved woman who had come and brought all sorts of memories on their lives.
Some friends in front were the one who were carrying the rosewood coffin. Atop the coffin were all sorts of flowers, not really arranged. The persons that they had passed threw flowers on the wood, and most of them were retained and formed that clump of flowers. At the middle of it, still in sight, but barely, was a simple picture of Dorothy, smiling sweetly. By the way that it looked, she seemed so happy being surrounded by the flowers as she has now.
The first person immediately following after that was Seravi.
He held his head up, but his eyes were cast down. He had Elizabeth in his arms, as always, but she has been dressed black and didn't look so happy anymore.
No one spoke the entire time. They were either mourning for Dorothy, or were sad for Seravi. A chosen few was actually quite happy...
Cha-cha followed his teacher with her family. She too was dressed formally for the occasion. She spoke nor looked at anyone, she feared for her teacher and what will happen to him now, after this.
Shiine was with his parents. His usual blue robe had been replaced with black. His parents were looking at him every now and then, and were relieved to see him bearing himself all too well.
Riya was in his Grandfather's shoulders and was at the back row, because of his height. He was busy crying his eyes out and nibbling chocolate that had been given out earlier by the Royal Family.
The procession was held in the middle of the streets. Traffic was stopped for them. Most of the onlookers knew the deceased so, they too joined in the line.
After a while of walking the people started to think about where they were headed. They had already passed the 2 graveyards and they were almost out of town. They started to look at each other and wondered in silence.
Cha-cha noticed this and asked her family about where they were heading.
Her mother smiled sweetly down on her and said, "Shhh, Cha-cha, we're almost there..."
"But where are we heading?" she asked again, unable to repress her curiosity.
"I do believe," this time, it was her father who spoke "That we're heading towards her house,"
"What? But we came from there earlier!" she said.
"No, no Cha-cha..." said her mother. "We're not heading back to Dorothy's castle, I do believe that we're taking her back, to where she truly belonged... to her parent's house..."
"Seravi is returning her to where he has taken her from all those many years ago..." continued her grandfather. "This is just so tragic!! Ohhh!!" he said as he broke down and sniffed.
Then they stopped. True to her family's words, they were now looking at the big wide gates of Dorothy's family.
However, there was quite a commotion inside.
From the outside, they could see fireworks exploding ever so often in the skies, even if it was daytime. It came from behind the large mansion.
"There's a party?" Riya said. He was able to look inside through his elevation. "Wow look at all those people!!" he said, getting wide-eyed. "They're dressed richly and.... There's so many food!!!!!!" he said, he jumped from his grandfather's shoulder down to Cha-cha's side.
"Halt!" said one of the black-uniformed soldiers at the gates.
Seravi calmly went into the front ranks and talked to the guards. "We would like to see the owners of this house..."
"Impossible. None may pass," one of the soldiers said. "And what is that... is that a coffin? Is this some kind of a joke?"
Seravi shook his head. "Tell them, its Seravi..."
"Seravi?!" One of the soldiers reacted. They began to talk in whispers. Finally, one of them spoke.
"I'm sorry Mr. Seravi, but we're not allowed to let anyone in. We have strict orders,"
By this time, Cha-cha and her family was already by the gate and had taken over the negotiations. His father started to swing the royal emblem in front of the soldier's face. "Do you not recognize this young man? Do you not know who we are?" he asked them.
"Honey, don't be rude..." said Cha-cha's mother.
"Hey, that's my line!" piped in Cha-cha's grandfather.
The soldier froze and perspired coldly. "I-I'm s-sorry y-your Highness-sir... but we were not to allow anyone under any circumstances..."
"Excuse me," Cha-cha said, approaching one of the nicer guards. "But what's happening inside, is there a party?" she asked courteously.
"Hmm?" the guard asked as he leaned in closer to level with Cha-cha. "Oh yeah, its some sort of an engagement party,"
"An engagement party?! You mean Doris is actually getting married?!" Shiine said, unable to believe his ears.
"I can't believe it, you mean someone was actually blinded by him?!" then Riya made a vomiting gesture.
"Ohh no, its not for Ms. Doris, its for the other one... The one who came back after so many years..." he paused and seemed to think deeply.
"If I'm not mistaken, her name is...Dorothy,"
¿...Dorothy...?
¿¿*!*??
¿¿***?? Hahahaha!!! What a fine turn of events! Umm... no comment as of the moment. Alright, 3, 6, 12, and now the next update will come after the 24th post. That'll take a while so, yay! I could focus on my studies first! :P if you want to know what's going to happen next, you know what to do right?