Guess what? I can't figure out anything to say right now other than, "Yeay! I'm finally updating again! Go me!" and then move on to the disclaimer, so that's what I'll do!

Disclaimer: Hayao Miyazaki owns this, not me. I just came up with this particular story.

Last chapter: moments of fluffyness between Asbel and Nausicaä, plans made for telling everyone about the big move, and the first group is being led to the room by Asbel.

Chapter 6: frightening discovery part 2

Asbel rounded up the first group of people in a few minutes. Some of them had been working in the fields, but left without complaint when they were told that Queen Nausicaä requested there presence in the castle. From there he led the group into Nausicaä's room where the entrance to the pathway was located. He paused for a moment, taking in the looks of confusion before he addressed them.

"Nausicaä has come up with an idea that may save everyone here and those still working in the fields from the Jungle's toxins, but I am warning you now you may have a hard time believing it. You must all trust her." he said, letting the words sink in a moment before pressing on the wall where the door was hidden. The door replied by swinging silently inward (they had had to oil the hinges during the clean up because it was starting to become hard to open), "follow me." Asbel commanded, walking down the torch-lit hallway.

There were ohhs and ahhs at the idea of a secret room, but everyone filed slowly into the door way, gazing over at all the old faded tapestries depicting epic battles, past Kings, and prophesies of all sorts. They looked in awe at the old rusting battle armor, shelves of long forgotten books, and everything else that Nausicaä and Asbel had spent hours cleaning and re-arranging. Asbel came to a stop in front of the Garden Room, as they had come to call it, as he turned around and addressed the small group.

"Ok, we're here." he said, his own apprehension starting to get to him. he could only imagine what the suspense was like for Nausicaä, and silently said a quick prayer to the gods for support and good fortune as he opened the door to the room and poked his head inside. "Nausicaä, they're here."

"Alright Asbel, we'll take it from here, thanks." She said, doing an excellent job of concealing her own fears. Asbel nodded and opened the door for all the people. There was utter silence for a moment as all the people gazed in at all the plants known to be from the Toxic Jungle before a man pushed through the crowed and spread out his arms as if to grasp all the plants in the room.

"MY QUEEN! THERE'S TOXIC PLANTS IN HERE! we must get everyone out before we all inhale the poisons! Hurry!" He said franticly, waving for her to come with him as all the people behind him started turning to leave in a hurry, covering their mouths.

"It's ok, Mito, the air in here is clean. There's no need to worry." Nausicaä shouted above the sounds of worried people just loud enough so that they all heard her and turned around to get a second look as she addressed the man, who was indeed Mito.

"She's right. See for yourself," said Lord Yupa, drawing the attention to him. there where whispers of surprise at seeing not only Lord Yupa standing in the room, not too far from where the Queen herself was standing, but also the other Queen that inhabited the Valley of the Wind, Queen Amiko of Pejitei. Mito along with all the other people present tentatively started to lower their make-shift masks (1) and began sniffing the air for signs of poisons.

"She's right! The air really is clean in here!" said one of the women in the back.

"I can breathe fine! It's amazing!"

"My Queen, how can this be? These are all plants from the Toxic Jungle, are they not? How is it we can breathe in here?"

"The reason the air is so pure down here is because the water I use is drawn from deep underground. Same thing with the water. You see, the toxins are not in the plants, they are in the soil and water that the plants are grown with. The Jungle holds many secrets, and I have been learning some of these secrets during my visits there. That is why I have decided to show all of you this room. What you need to understand is that the jungle is not there to harm us. Actually, what it is doing is using the plants to gather the impurities from the soil and water. When the plants die, they fossilize, and then they are slowly broken down into fresh soil. Mito, you remember that day when the Toulmakian ships were shot down, right?"

"Yes, of course I do my Queen."

"Well, when I went off that day to find Asbel, we ended up being pulled under the jungle by quick sand. This led us to an underground chamber, where the trees were being fossilized. The amazing part is that the air down there is completely pure, not like the air here in the valley. As much as I hate to admit it, it just isn't safe here anymore. I have found that even our topsoil here is polluted, as are many of our rivers. If we don't do something the Valley will soon be clamed by the jungle, and even more people will have to die. That is why I am suggesting that we all move down to the caverns under the Toxic Jungle. I have already gained permission from the Ohmu to take up residence there, as well as worked out plans of how to get there." At this mummers of worry and surprise suddenly broke out, washing over the room and echoing throughout the passageway.

"Queen Nausicaä has already told us of these plans, and I support her whole hardheadedly," said Amiko over the whispers. "The move will be hard for me and my people as we jus moved here to the valley recently trying to get away from the jungle ourselves, however I believe that the many positive outcomes should be considered before the discomforts. This move will save hundreds of lives, and I think it is a wonderful idea."

"I agree. She has put much thought into this and has planed out everything. She just returned from her conference with the ohmu a few hours ago, and they have given her two weeks to settle in should you choose to take it." Lord Yupa announced. His hint that the final decision was theirs did not go unnoticed.

"In two days from now I will hold a meeting to decide this matter. You have until then to make up your minds." She said, clearly finalizing the meeting. For a few minutes no one moved, or even spoke, and simply contented themselves with some time to let all the new information sink into their reality. Eventually a man in the back broke the silence.

"I must go tell Miyae the news!" and with that the man, who was currently in the middle of the group, weaved his way out and headed for the door. Soon after the others followed his lead.

"Well, that was the first group. It went quite well I think. I just hope that things go as well in the next groups." Amiko said to Nausicaä and Lord Yupa. Likely for them, all the groups went equally as well, if not better. It seemed that news could travel quite fast in the Valley. After the first few groups had gone, it seemed as if most of the others had already been told about the room by some one, and the shock didn't appear to be as great anymore, though there were still murmurs of surprise and some people saying things like, "Rokuta told me about this, but I have to admit, I didn't quite believe him." or "this is absolutely amazing!" and as had been expected, there were a few people who had worn masks into the room, not trusting that the air would be clean, though most of them had been convinced to take the mask off and see for themselves that the air was truly clean. Asbel had stopped by periodically to make sure Nausicaä was alright and to give her moral support, which she accepted even though she told him she was fine.

Soon enough the two days were up and it was time to make the decision. Everyone had high hopes for the day as several people had already started coming up to them asking what sorts of things they should take with them as well as telling their Queen that they had complete trust in her. Even the small children in the valley had been coming up to her and telling her how excited they were and asking if she could really talk to the ohmu. This cheered her up considerably as she thought of the young, worry free minds of the kids and remembered how she herself had been at that age. After a while Asbel came over to greet her.

"Nausicaä, hey!"

"Oh, hi Asbel!" she said, pulling out of her childhood reminisces and smiling at him, glad for the company.

"The meeting's going to be in three hours! It's amazing how much progress has been made. Would you believe it? There's actually people packing for the trip already! Lastel's (2) parents are even starting to collect what seeds they can get from their fields to plant once we make the move! You really are a great leader, you know that?" Asbel said warmly, pulling her into a hug which she returned.

"That's wonderful! I'm glad that things are going so well. Now we just have to worry about the meeting and then we can start figuring out how to get all these people over there in as few trips as possible. The ohmu were wonderfully understanding, but I don't want to have to disturb them too many times. After all, it is their territory, and it must be hard making sure that all the other insects will allow us safe passing. I was thinking that we can load everything we need to bring with us in the barge and your airship, and let the elderly, sick, pregnant, and the younger children ride in them as well, and have everyone else use the gliders. Most of those who are able have become quite good at it. I would go with them of course, and we would need to take a few breaks for such a long journey. Even though it's only about a half a day's flight, it's still longer than most of them are used to, and so I don't want to push them too much…" Asbel let out a small laugh at her.

"Nausicaä, let's just get through the meeting first, ok? We have most of this planed out already, so don't worry too much about it. We still have a while before we have to leave, and there will be plenty of time to work out the kinks then. For now, you should take a short nap. You've been staying up really late recently doing all this planning. You need your rest." He said firmly, guiding her towards the castle with his arm wrapped firmly around her waist line.

"Asbel, I thought we went over this already! I'm fine! I don't need any more sleep! I need to get this planning done! I'm the queen of this Valley, and so my people come before I do at all times! You know that!" she said, weakly attempting to get out of his grasp, both wanting to escape the impending nap and wanting to stay in his arms at the same time. She silently cursed his power over her as she finally gave into the idea of a nap. She really was tired, although it is something she would never admit to him.

"Fine, I'll go. But make sure you wake me up an hour before the meeting. I need time to prepare."

"You don't need an hour to get ready. You look fine. All you have to do is get dressed and run down to the meeting hall."

"Just promise, ok? I need an hour."

"But—"

"Promise." The finality in her voice told him that there was no other option and that there would be hell to pay if he didn't. Nausicaä was very easy going, but when she wanted something done, it would be done, regardless of what was better for her. She could be quite stubborn sometimes, but he liked that about her. It was her strength that made her who she was, someone who stood out from the crowd and had the solid conviction that could make anyone tremble. It had been that that had actually gained her the respect of the Toulmakians after all.

"Alright, alright, you win! I'll get you up an hour before the meeting." Asbel said, raising his arms up in defeat. Nausicaä smiled at him before waving good bye and heading up to her room.

---------scene divider----------

Two hours Asbel walked out of his room. he had been figuring out what he wanted to bring with him on the move, but remembered his promise to Nausicaä. He sighed as he knocked on her door.

"Nausicaä! Nausicaä, it's time to get up! The meeting will be starting in two hours! Are you awake?"

"Ummm? Oh, yah, yah. I'm up. Thanks Asbel," came the groggy reply from the other side of the door. Asbel shook his head at her insistence to wake up so early when she clearly needed her sleep, but walked back into his own room once again to clean up a bit before heading out to gather everyone for the meeting.

Nausicaä got up slowly from her bead and stretched her arms above her head, arching backwards and letting out a yawn as she slipped on some slippers and headed over to her closet. After changing out of her night clothes she changed into a royal blue dress with her family's crest embroidered around the neck and pulled her hair into a neat braded bun on top of her head. She usually tried avoiding walking around in the royal clothes because it made her stand out so much from everyone else. She believed that a queen should be no better off then her people, for she was just another one of them who just so happened to be put in a position of high rank. However, this was not any other day, this was a special occasion that she had to be the queen, and so she needed to look the part. It took her a while to get all the bobby pins in place and tame the stray hairs that kept falling out, but eventually she finished with her hair and headed over to her bookshelf. She had been keeping a notebook with all her ideas and all the questions she thought that might be asked and had jotted down all the possible answers as well. She wanted to make sure to give herself time to go over it all once again before the meeting so that she would be completely prepared. After fishing it off the shelf she walked over to the windowsill and sat down on it, leaning her back up against the rim, she carefully opened the black leather-bound book. It had been a gift from her mother on her tenth birthday, which made it one of her most precious belongings. Careful not to tear the thin paper she opened up to the first page and started reading.

The meeting itself went very smoothly. Although there were about fifteen or twenty people that didn't want to move, most of them were eventually convinced when every question they had and all the worries they had about the idea were all explained and rationalized by Nausicaä with such conviction and sincerity that they simply couldn't come up with any reason not to, and the few that still didn't want to were overruled anyway, so it was soon decided that they would be moving out in another six days. Arrangements were made that those who were capable to would fly in the gliders that had been built to save room in the airship and the badge for necessary supplies and those who were unable to fly the distance for whatever reason. The journey was at hand.

(1): this is anything from hands over faces to clothes that they used to try to block out the toxins they thought were in the room.

(2): remember that babies from the beginning of the movie that Nausicaä and the parents asked Lord Yupa to name? I decided that she was named Lastel after Asbel's sister. No she's not back from the dead. Sorry guys!

A/N: there ya have it! Sorry if it went too fast. I was going to go into more detail on the meeting, but I couldn't figure out how so I just left it like it is. Also, I'm asking for some help here. I found a song that I think I could easily put in here for extra special fluffyness with Nausicaä and Asbel, but I'm not sure if I should use it, because I don't know if it would be so incredibly fluffy that it made this fic more of a romance then I was goin for and lead away from the other plot or not, so I'm asking all of you if you want me to put it in or not. It's called would you go with me and it's by Josh Turner. Yes it's a country song, cuz that's what I listen to. Yah, I know I'm weird, but hey, I like what I like. But any way, I need to know what you think, because I worked out a good way to put it in if you want, but I also know how to continue on with out it, so it's up to you! Also, I'm debating if I should have a conflict when the actual moving takes place or not. Once again, I have a story line for either one, so just let me know about those two things in a review and I'll get it out to ya! Also, if you have any questions, comments, or some random piece of info I'd be glad to hear about it! Reviews are what keeps me from forgetting things and get me to update faster. So once again, input is greatly appreciated!