Chapter 3

"…lulu!"

"Kolulu!"

She heard them, but did not heed. The sound of her name only made her want to run faster as she did not want to confront the possible questioning:

"Are you okay?"

No, of course not. She wouldn't be running if she was.

"Do you want to go home?"

That was also a "No". She didn't want to inconvenience her mother's visit. She also didn't want to inconvenience Zatch and Tia. If she were to ask her mother to go home while crying, she may not be allowed to play at Zatch's house again, which would only make all future playdate invitations awkward. She wouldn't forgive herself if she did that to her family and friends.

"Are you hurt?"

No, not physically anyway. She stopped to check the underside of her arms. Even though she hit the ground hard, there were no scratches or bruises on her. The shock and embarrassment of the situation was more than the actual pain.

She started running again when she heard Zatch's and Tia's voices getting louder. She eventually found a large tree with a small hallow at its base. She crawled inside and panted heavily, trying to catch her breath.

Despite the opening being small, the space inside was surprisingly large enough to fit three or four other children her age. She stayed near the entrance where there was light, but was buried in the darkness enough that she couldn't be seen from the outside. She did not want to venture further into the hallow as it was even darker in the back, and its unknown regions frightened her.

"How long do you plan on avoiding them?"

She turned sharply towards the darkness behind her. She knew the voice belonged to someone with silver hair, and she saw his purple eyes pierce through the blackness.

He inched closer, exposing himself under some of the light, which only confirmed Kolulu's guess as to who it was.

His toothy grin and low chuckle made her shudder and she turned toward the exist to flee, but his hands grabbed her and he held both of her wrists together with one hand while he covered her mouth with his other hand. She tried to scream, but her struggles only made him tighten his grip.

"Be quiet," he said, "and stop struggling."

She stopped, not because he demanded it, but because she felt the ground shake. The tree they were in shook, and a puddle that was just outside the hallow started to ripple.

The sounds were in some sort of rhythm, one loud boom a few seconds after another. She concluded there were footsteps once she saw a shadow looming right outside the hallow. She did not dare look in fear she would be spotted, and considering Zeno was also hiding, was a sign that whatever was right outside must have been a serious threat.

She peeked at the puddle, curiosity overcoming her. There, in the reflection of the water, was some sort of quadrupedal beast about three stories tall. It mostly resembled a beige colored canine with saber fangs. It wore a metal helmet that covered its eyes and ears, and all four of its paws were dark brown with large white claws. Despite its body being covered in fur, its tail was long and thin with a metal rod at the tip. There were also vibrant green vines with leaves weaving around its body and limbs.

Once the creature passed them, and its footsteps were out of hearing range, the ground stopped quaking. Zeno slowly removed his hands from Kolulu. She held her wrists up to the light, and while he had a tight grip on her, there were no apparent markings of a struggle on her. She was unscathed. Again.

"Wha-what was that thing?" Kolulu asked.

"It's a creature that guards this area. It's blind, but I'm not sure how well are its other senses, which was why I told you to keep silent."

"Are you hiding from it?"

Zeno grunted, taking her question as an insult. "Nonsense. I was observing it's movements. I don't know too much about it, nor was I aware of its existence until I arrived here. For some reason, I am unable to sense its demonic energy, but it doesn't look like much of a challenge if we ever have to fight it." He paused for a bit before continuing. "You sure picked an interesting place to run to."

She winced, knowing that Zeno was the cause of her running away. She wanted to point that out to him, but held her tongue in fear of disrespecting the one who just saved her. Instead, she thought of something he mentioned earlier to distract her. She recalled Zeno mentioning about his ability to sense other demons and asked, "How were you able to find me so quickly?"

"Simple. All I did was scan the area for any demon presence. Considering your personality, and how you have yet to use a spell to exert your power, I assumed that the weakest source of energy was you. Since you were headed in this direction, and you had no intension of having Zatch and Tia find you, I assumed you would hide out somewhere in this general vicinity to catch your breath before running back out."

All Kolulu could do was stare at him. How did he analyze that so calmly? she asked herself.

When she didn't respond, he asked, "Am I right?"

"Uh…" she nodded. "Y-yes."

She turned away, not wanting to look at him anymore. They were both sitting across from each other, but she was fidgeting while he sat completely still, half cloaked in darkness. She twirled the ends of her hair with her fingers, looked at the ground next to her, and kept moving her legs in awkward positions to try and feel comfortable, all without saying a word.

"Listen."

She stopped fidgeting when he spoke, but still didn't look at him.

"Are you not going to face me when I'm speaking to you?"

She resumed twisting the ends of her hair, making them curlier than they normally were.

"If you won't look at me, then fine," he said, annoyance dripping from his voice.

He leaned forward and forcibly turned her to face him. He cupped her face with one hand, holding it in place, and Kolulu's eyes grew wide. She remembered his exchange with Zatch earlier and how he threw the ball at Zatch when he refused to look at him, then gave him a noogie later as further revenge for it. Even though both of those gestures were playful and harmless, she didn't want those – or something similar – to befall on her.

I don't want him to hurt me!

"I apologize."

Her face softened and she blinked a few times. "Huh?"

"My actions earlier were quite rude. I should not have pushed you, and that would not have happened if I hadn't forced you to do something you didn't want to do. Forgive me."

"Huh?" She asked again as he released her. She was a bit confused as her initial reaction told her that this wasn't like Zeno, but accepted the apology regardless. She reacted when he raised a brow at her, wondering about her delayed response. "Oh…yeah, thank you, Prince Zeno."

"Now then, back to my original question, how long do you plan on avoiding Zatch and Tia?"

"Oh, yeah." She had almost forgot. Since she didn't hear them calling anymore, they either gave up or were in a deeper part of the forest. Knowing them both, she knew neither of them wanted to stop searching until they found her. She crawled out of the hollow. "I feel bad for running away now."

He followed her until they were both standing side-by-side in the sunlight. His eyes adjusted to the light before looking around. "They won't be hard to find."

"Do you know where they are?"

"Of course." He pointed in the opposite direction of where the beast was headed. "Several miles east. Let's go."

He started walking, but Kolulu didn't follow. When Zeno noticed this, he half-turned to her. "What's the matter?"

"Um…well, can't you teleport or fly to where they are? We'll find them faster that way, right?"

"It's best if we don't attract the beast's attention. Right now, it's innocuous. Firstly, if I were to recite a spell and use a lightning bolt as a signal to let Zatch know of our location, the thunder might attract its attention. I would be giving away my location, which is foolish. Secondly, if I were to fly or teleport, I would be exerting some of my power, enabling it to sense me at such a close distance in an enclosed area. It's best to be discrete once you encounter a new enemy. After studying your opponent, you'll have a better idea of how to fight them, if necessary, but you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Kolulu wasn't fond of how Zeno's last question sounded like a taunt. His rudeness saddened her, but she tried to ignore it. "So…did you study that…dog-thing long enough for you to be comfortable enough to fight it?"

Zeno turned away from her and started walking again. "Not as much as I would like, but that's not the priority right now. We must find Zatch and Tia and leave this forest, so I can go back to work."

Kolulu started to follow him. "Well, you said it doesn't look like much of a challenge for you," she said as she caught up and started walking beside him.

"What's your point?" He asked.

"So, then, it doesn't matter whether you attract its attention or not, right? You seem confident enough to take it head on right now."

"I am, but we should avoid any unnecessary fighting. It's currently doing no harm."

Wait. Kolulu thought to herself. 'Avoid any unnecessary fighting?' Does he not like to fight either? Or is not causing a scene his way of protecting me from any possible harm? It's rare to find boys who don't like to fight.

She juggled on her thoughts for a while until she started giggling.

The random laughter confused Zeno. "What?"

She waved her hand at him dismissively. "No, nothing."

"What is it?"

"Nothing, it's fine." She giggled some more.

When her laughter settled, Zeno didn't pry any further. He only raised a brow at her. "Okay…"

''''''''''''''''''''''''''

"We're lost!"

Tia held Zatch's neck as she was performing one of her signature-strangles on him. "I can't believe you got us lost! You ran in here without thinking! Even if we did find Kolulu, how are we supposed to get back? Did you even think about that part, huh?"

When Zatch patted Tia's hands, she released his neck. He coughed and gasped for air before speaking. "No, I didn't."

Tia growled in frustration, and Zatch screamed and tried to cover his neck, but to no avail as Tia got a hold of it and started choking him again.

"T-Tia…" He managed to say before she threw him on the ground, releasing him in the process.

He coughed some more before she crossed her arms and glared at him. "What is it?"

"Even though I didn't have a plan," he coughed again. "I was only thinking about Kolulu."

She stepped back. Her face softened a bit, but she didn't uncross her arms.

He continued. "If we can find Kolulu first, we'll figure out the rest later." He smiled. "Don't you worry. Everything will be fine once we're all back together!"

She uncrossed her arms and looked at the ground. That's so much like him. Here I am, panicked because I'm in an unfamiliar place, yet he always finds a way to calm me down and cheer me up despite whatever situation there may be. It was always like this, even during the battles. I was always admiring him because he always came to my rescue, whether physically or emotionally. No wonder he's the king. He's always looking out for everyone and putting them first before himself. That's SO much like Zatch. May that never change…

"Tia…?"

She looked up at him and realized that her train of thought took longer than she expected.

"Are you okay?" Zatch asked.

She smiled and nodded. "Hm! Yeah! Don't ever change, Zatch!"

He had a confused expression at first, but quickly bounced to a cheery countenance with a huge smile. "Yeah! Of course! Thanks, Tia!"

She nodded again before scratching the back of her head. "And, um…sorry for choking you…twice."

"Oh, it's okay. I'm used to it by now. You're very strong, Tia. I like that about you."

She slightly blushed. "You…like that about me?"

"Uh-huh."

She felt her face grow warm and turned away from him, holding her cheeks. "Uh, Zatch?" She closed her eyes. "What else do you like about me?"

"Kolulu."

She opened her eyes and suddenly remembered where they were and why they were there in the first place. She turned to him and saw him staring towards the west. "What did you say?"

He pointed in the direction he was facing. "Both Zeno and Kolulu are in that direction, and it seems they're heading this way." He faced Tia and smiled. "Looks like we found each other. See? Everything is going to be just fine."

She removed her hands from her face and started shaking, "Did you say Zeno is with her?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Zatch, let me repeat myself. Zeno is with her?"

"Yeah, why?"

Tia slapped her forehead and sighed. "Zatch, we ran in here in hopes that we'd find Kolulu before he did, right?"

"Hm…" He looked towards the sky for a bit before answering her. "I don't remember this being a race. Did we agree on that?"

"Zatch!" She yelled, causing him to yelp. "Kolulu ran off because Zeno was the cause of all this! If he's with her, what else could he be doing to her? We have to get to them quick!"

"Oh. I'm not worried about that."

"You're not…what?"

"She's with Zeno, so that means she's safe, so there's nothing else to worry about. If they keep walking east, and we keep walking west, we'll eventually meet in the middle."

"She's…safe with Zeno? Are you crazy? What sense does that make? He just made her cry!"

"I know, but knowing Zeno, he probably apologized to her by now, and considering how the two of them are walking together, they probably made up too, which is great!"

Tia calmed, remembering that Zeno was also quick to apologizing when he was at fault, which was rare, but not impossible. Tia thought it admirable for Zeno to at least take responsibility for his actions, but that did not excuse the fact that his personality was the complete opposite of Kolulu's, and it worried Tia that Zeno would do something that would frighten Kolulu.

"Still…I say we hurry and find them."

Zatch nodded. "Yeah, but that doesn't explain why they're walking here. Maybe something happened."

"Even worse!" Tia balled her fists. "Can't you launch a spell to let them know where we are?"

"Ooh! That's a great idea, Tia!"

Zatch faced the sky and launched a Zaker spell towards the canopy of trees, but instead of the spell colliding with the ceiling of the greenhouse – as they were expecting to hear glass shatter and fall on them – the spell turned in midair and shot towards the east.

Zatch and Tia looked at the spell until it was completely out of sight, confused as to why it took such a turn, literally.

Zatch scratched his head. "Huh. I've never seen it do that before."

"What does it mean?"

Zatch cocked his head and shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well, what do we do now?"

Zatch crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and slightly bowed his head, seemingly taking some time to think of a plan. He soon brightened and snapped his fingers. He extended his mantle until its ends were large enough to sit on. "Get on. I'll fly us there."

Tia was hesitant at first, knowing that his flying habits were something to be embarrassed about that she wouldn't want to be seen near him whenever he used his mantle to fly, but since no other demons were around, and it was for the sake of getting to Kolulu faster, she quickly shook off the thought and stood on his mantle. "Okay, I'm ready."

He smiled at her. "Okay. Hold on tight."

Zatch crouched and leaped into the air. They flew past the trees and burst through the canopy until they were over the forest. The glass ceiling was high above them, and in the distance was a tree that towered over all the others that apparently served as the epicenter to everything. The tree also had a waterfall flowing from its trunk onto the ground floor.

Tia marveled at the view as Zatch was taking them westward. There was no wind, but at the speed he was going, Tia kept losing her grip on his mantle and had to keep readjusting herself. "Uh, Zatch?"

"Yeah?"

"It's kind of hard to hold on."

"Oh, wait a second."

Tia felt something tighten over her hands as she was brought closer to Zatch's back. He took her hands and wrapped her arms around his neck. "How's that?"

Tia felt her cheeks grow warm again. "What are you doing?"

"This way, you won't have to worry about falling if you're holding on to me."

Tia felt her blush deepen, but since Zatch was not facing her, she did not need to turn away. "But…is this okay?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't it be? Just don't choke me, okay?"

She giggled. "Don't worry. You're safe with me!"

"Hey, shouldn't I be saying that?"

The two of them laughed together for a bit while cruising through the sky. When the laugher died down, Tia hesitated before she placed the side of her head on Zatch's back. She enjoyed the comfort and closed her eyes. "Zatch…" she sighed.

"Yeah?"

"How do you feel about Kolulu?"

Silence. It went on for almost a whole minute. His hesitation made her nervous, and her blush started to fade as she lifted her head from his back. Zatch finally answered before Tia could repeat her question.

"She's very important to me."

Tia knew the story all too well, how Kolulu was the one to motivate Zatch to become a benevolent king, so of course he would find her to be important. Tia didn't think Zatch viewed her to be on the same level as Kolulu. She wasn't even subpar compared to Kolulu. Kolulu gave him a reason to become king. All she did for Zatch was choke him nearly to death countless times.

"Oh." Was all Tia could muster.

"Why do you ask?"

"No reason." She looked down at the canopy of trees and lightly loosened her grip, wondering how far of a fall it was to the ground. She took hold of Zatch again when a section of the canopy started parting in the distance.

She pointed towards it. "Zatch, what's that?"

"Huh?" He looked at the parting trees. It wasn't difficult to miss. It was as if something was rampaging through the forest and destroying the trees in its path. "I don't know, but it's headed this way."

They heard a howl as the canopy directly below them opened. A large beige colored canine with saber teeth leaped towards them with its mouth opened wide, saliva dripping from its several smaller teeth inside its mouth.

Both Zatch and Tia screamed. "What the hell is that?!"