Chapter Four

"Hurry! Lay him here!" said Alice, clearing a big table off books and papers. Joachim obeyed putting a dying Yuri on it. Alice reached him and analyzed his wounds. He had an enormous wound on his chest, caused by an enormous spike still carved deep in his flesh. The blood dripping from it had a strange greenish colour due to the creature's poison.

"Well? Is he going to be alright?" asked an anxious Margaret. The others were just as nervous: Karin being the most troubled, still feeling guilty, couldn't sit down.

"I think I can heal his wounds with my magic. As for the poison I'm not sure if I can handle it." Answered Alice unsure.

"But quick, we have to hurry and pull that thing out of him!" stated Zhuzhen, pointing to the venomous spike.

"Let me help, I can take it off" offered Keith.

"Very well." Alice opened her bible. "On the count of three. One, two..three!" The vampire pulled the enormous spike from his friend's chest, while Alice cast her most powerful healing spell. The wound closed at once.

"Well I think that's done it!" said Lucia, cheerfully.

"I don't know, he still doesn't look so good." observed Halley.

"He isn't. As I feared my magic couldn't heal the poison." Answered Alice, sadly.

"Don't worry Alice we'll find a way to cure him" the Russian princess consoled her.

"Alright. First thing to do is to find what kind of poison that monster had" suggested Geppeto.

"And for that you have my books" offered old Roger." I have hundreds of books on all subjects you could imagine. We'll do a thorough investigation."

"Let's get started then, the sooner the better for Yuri" said Karin rushing for the shelves. She finally felt useful: not being able to use healing magic like Alice, she was feeling a bit down, especially since it was her fault that Yuri had almost died. But that she could do. She would not rest for hours if that could help Yuri get better.

"Let's get to work, then" said the handsome samurai, picking a thick book. They were followed by the rest of the group, except for Alice who was nursing Yuri, now with a high fever caused by the poison, and Blanca, that was sleeping under the table.

"This is more difficult than I thought" complained Anastasia, with a yawn. "He doesn't even has the books sorted! How are we supposed to find something in this mess!"

"Hey I thought princesses had to study hard. I didn't think you'd find this boring." Said Halley.

"Well I've never liked studying much, anyways."

"Well, no matter how difficult I'll find a cure for Yuri." Said the red haired woman, reading through The world's most vicious monsters.

Just then, the big old clock stroke 3 a.m..

"That time already? I wonder if he'll last much longer" thought Margarete. "No, I can't think that way. He'll make it. He has to."

Alice was getting sleepy. She kept wetting Yuri's forehead and face with a cloth, as there was not much more she could do. "Why? Why did this happen to you? You keep putting yourself in danger for others. I'm glad Karin's safe but… you didn't deserve this" she thought, her eyes feeling with tears. She felt something wet on her hand, that rested on her lap. She looked down and saw Blanca, his big white head stroking her arm.

"You're worried about me? You're so sweet, Blanca" she smiled, caressing his head.

Just then Yuri started to struggle in his sleep. She touched him: his skin was so hot. She tried to wake him up, to no avail. "Yuri, please hang on. We'll find a cure, I promise." She said, kissing his lips.

Dawn had arrived. Almost everyone had fallen asleep, tired from the battle with the great spider. After all night searching the cure was still not found. Only Karin and Kurando remained awake, with a pile of books in front of them. All the others were scattered through the room, resting on chairs or on the ground as there wasn't enough places for everyone.

"I found it!" Karin yelled, suddenly, causing a snoring Roger to almost fall from his chair with the fright.

"What is it girl? You almost gave me a heart attack! You should be careful while people as old as me are around…" and he continued mumbling on about young people and their lack of manners, while the rest of the group approached Karin.

"You've found it?" asked Margarete, anxiously.

"Well, it isn't exactly the cure, but this was the closest thing I could find" said Karin " I found a book about a monster named Sabnog and the description was an exact match to the monster we fought…"

"Oh yeah! It told us its name when we were fighting, remember?" interrupted Anastasia.

"Anyways, the book described these monsters. It appears there are many scattered throughout the world. Sabnog was one of the most powerful. Maybe it was attracted here because of Nemeton Monastery (author's note: sorry if I got the name wrong. It's been a while since I've played the first game). It had a section about their attacks and their poison…"

" Did it say how to heal it?" this time Kurando was the one interrupting. He was usually a calm and collected person, but he was really worried about his cousin's health.

" Shh. Don't interrupt" Geppeto scolded him.

" No." Karin went on. "But it was written that it is a very strong and rare poison. The only people to have survived this kind of poison are all from Athens."

"Athens? Isn't that the capital of Greece?" asked Lucia.

"That's right. Now, that you mention it, there's a great hospital in there. They might be capable of healing Yuri" said Roger.

"Well, then it's settled! We're going to Athens!" said a cheerful Margarete.

"I'm going to tell Alice!" hurried the energetic Anastasia.

So are you enjoying my story? I don't know if in Greece there's such an hospital. I just made that up :-)