Chapter 6: Ice Scream
Vyse lounged outside the Yafutoman quarters on Crescent Isle. His broken leg was still healing, and he was forced to wear a cast. His friends Aika, Fina, Gilder, and Enrique were all away saving the world, and Vyse was lonely. Clara had dropped by, bringing freshly baked pies and trying to cheer up Vyse. At the moment, Vyse was watching Belle and her friends play in the pond. He had never felt so bored in his life.
Therefore he was understandably surprised when a huge silver and purple ship soared overhead, racing southwest as fast as it could, with huge boulders, smaller rocks, random pieces of Mt. Kazai, and even a piece of the Flying Flail tailing closely. As quickly as it had arrived, the Delphinus disappeared into the distance, while a rain of pebbles and gravel fell on crescent Isle.
"Damn! I wish that was me up there." swore Vyse as he hobbled toward his quarters to escape the shower of rocks.
The Delphinus continued to fly, thundering south toward Glacia.
"Okay, I can understand why you gave permission to the countries to claim the moon crystals after you recovered them. I mean, they are symbols of great power and history to the people of continents. I just don't get why you had to take the purple one back to Glacia! No one lives there! Who would want it? What the #$ were you thinking?" exclaimed Gilder as he watched Don pilot the Delphinus. He was mildly alarmed at the slightly drunken stupor the man appeared to be in, but the ship continued in a reasonably straight line, so Gilder didn't complain.
"Well, it just seemed right at the time . . . all of the moon crystals should go to the continent they're from. Glacia is the home of the Purple crystal. No one else knows it's there, it just seemed like a good hiding place, and a potential failsafe should another war break out. Two gigas on Valua's side would be able to keep us safe. Not that I expect that to happen . . ."
"Enrique, you're stupid. It's easy to the close relation to your dearly departed twelfth cousin Alfonso."
Enrique blushed with suppressed rage, then turned and looked up at where the Valuan flag hung over the captain's chair. He gasped in surprise as he saw, covering the Valuan rose, a painting of Kirala, wearing nothing.
"I figured that as long as I'm in command of the ship, my favorite painting should adorn the official flag."
Fina blushed, and giggled lightly while Enrique and Aika tackled Gilder to the ground, preparing to pummel him.
"C-c-c hiccup! captain! We've r-r-reached Glaci hic! a. Prep-p-p oh screw it! We're landing! hic! hic!" spoke the drunken pilot.
The Delphinus headed down toward the icy wasteland of Glacia, and Don accidently speared the nose of the Delphinus into one of the buildings. Gilder and co. left the ship to explore. Suddenly, Aika started to turn blue . . .
"Aika! What's wrong?" asked Fina, when she suddenly realized Aika was not walking next to her anymore.
"I'm too cold, and I can't move!"
Enrique launched a pyri spell at her, which set her aflame and burned off her clothes.
"Whoops! Sorry!" he called out as Aika collapsed in shock.
Gilder laughed, walked over, picked her up and carried her back to the ship. He instructed the cook to make some soup, and had another member make sure she stayed warm and get her a change of clothes. Then the three warmer members of the party continued on, searching for the crystal.
"Okay, I left the crystal here, in this chamber . . . oh no!"
"What?" asked Gilder and Fina simultaneously.
"I have bad news and worse news. Which one do you want first?"
"um, bad news."
"Okay, the bad news is, Rhaknam had a baby, and the purple crystal attached itself to the child arcwhale. You can see the egg over there, and the dais where I put the crystal next to it."
"Aw, man! Now we're going to have to find an Arcwhale! That's nuts! What's the worse news?"
"There's a mysterious dark shape that looks a little like Vigoro in the air above us . . ."
"Aaaah! Run away! Back to the ship!"
The party dashed back up to the ship, even as Darknoth prepared its destructive powers. They had just made it to the Delphinus when the dark energy struck the top of the icy continent obliterating ice, rock, and ruins alike. Gilder knocked a sleeping Don out of the way and quickly launched the Delphinus into the relative safety of upper sky. When they had a chance to look back, Darknoth was nowhere to be seen, and most of the icy glacier covering Glacia had disappeared, making another bite-shaped cut-out of a continent. Fortunately, there were no casualties in this icy plain, and even the beautiful girl in the icy prison atop the highest mountain remained safe. The Delphinus headed north-east to their next stop, Nasr.
Meanwhile, on Crescent isle, Vyse returned to lounging on the deck of The Yafutoman quarters. Belle and her friends had returned to the pond, and the three young children from Pirate's isle joined them. They were having a great time, until a strange, Vigoro shaped shadow blocked out the red moon from view . . .