Hey, everyone! :D
I'm back. X,D
I hope, you're allright and not suffering from the summer heat outside too much...^^~
So sorry, that the chapter took me such a long time. And then, it's such a 'filler-chapter'... VV''
Next time, there will be a cover, too. And a little more emotions again. And then we continue with some action. :D
I guess, it won't take me too long this time, until the next upload can be done. So, until then enjoy reading and have a very wunderfull time, wherever you are. ^~^
Love, Eeva
CHAPTER 6: When Seven becomes Three
When we finally arrived at Old Corona, each one of us was as astonished, as if they had just seen a Dragon, or something as fantastic as such. Especially, when Varian turned towards the place where his old laboratory had been, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. I asked myself, if he really wanted to go back there after all the things that had happened...
Varian must have read my thoughts somehow, because suddenly, he changed direction and led us into a part of the village, which seemed quite abandoned. Strangely, there seemed to be less of the black rocks, than in any other part of Old Corona. Actually, the rest of the village was full of those rocks. Everywhere, they stuck out of the ground, shattering the ground, wells and even houses. But not here and that was strange enough...
Despite of the questions in our minds, none of us said a word, as we walked past the nightmarish scenario. Even Eugene and Cassandra were not in the mood to argue for once...
"This way.", Varian conducted and we followed.
For one single moment, the thought appeared in my head, that all of this might just be fake. A trap, Varian had settled for us to finish what he had started one month ago. But as quick, as the thought appeared, I banished it from my mind again. How could he have prepared anything, when all the time, he had been with us? Sure, planning works in silence – but no. Even after all that he had done, I refused to believe in the alchemist as a bad person. Couldn't he have stayed in prison, instead of agreeing to help me – no, us – to finally save Corona an the rest of the country, too? And: Didn't he have the chance to run away for more than one time during our journey? Or the chance to take his revenge during the time we tavelled together?
He did.
But Varian was still here with us. And no one got harmed in any physical way...
Cassandra scolding Varian for putting me in danger sure wasn't the best thing she could have done so far. But seen from her side, it was the right thing, as she had put herself in charge to protect me, her friend and princess. Anyways, I still don't even think, that she really hated Varian. Not even for trying to kill her a few weeks ago. Why in the world should she continue wearing the necklage, Varian gave to her on the science-contest then? Cassandra wasn't the person to forget to put off such things after really finishing with somebody...
"Hey! Hey, kids!"
All of a sudden, a very well-known voice from behind us made us turn – and when we faced the source of the voice, Shorty welcomed us with a big, broad and toothless grin.
"Hey, princess.", he grinned, "Now, that's some kind of nice coincidence, isn't it? What's ya doin' down here in Old Corona? Got some business left?"
He walked over to the seven of us.
"Hey, wait... If that's not Quirin's son there... Aren't you supposed to be in prison after bulldozing Corona with those crazy machines last month?"
Oh, my... That wasn't all that good...
"Heeeey, Shorty...", Eugene was the first who was able to react to our old friend. Quick, he walked over to Shorty, while Cassandra and I prepared to react to some eventual actions from Varian's side. To my surprise, nothing happened. The alchemist stood still, his blue eyes fixed on the old man, but not a word came out of his mouth.
"Nice seeing ya, too, old boy", Eugene meanwhile took care of our unexpected visitor, "Look, it's great, that you're here, but we actually don't have the time to talk now..."
"Why?"
"Because... ehrm...", Eugene looked at me as if begging me for help.
"Because, we're on a mission."
The words had left my mouth even before I could properly think about what I was saying.
"Cool! And what kind of mission is it? Do you need help? Want me to join ya?"
"Some kind of Nobody-should-ever-know-where-we-are-mission!"
Cassandra answered before I could make things any worse. I was so thankfull, because, she was right: Nobody should know where we went. At least, not until the mission was done and the mystery of the moonessence was solved...
"Why don't you just shout a little louder, so everyone might just hear where we are?", Varian asked and seemed even kind of amused about the whole situation.
I felt a shiver running down my spine, when a saw the cold smile on the boy's face. Something really must have happened to his mind, after I rejected his request for help. Something really, really bad...
"Oh! Big party, that's great!"
Shorty didn't seem to understand what Varian had wanted to say and, of course, he raised his voice while continue speaking.
"I'm pretty sure, the others will be glad to -", he nearly shouted, unless Eugene simply put a hand over his mouth to make him shut up immediately.
I'll take care of it.", he said and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Fortunately, Shorty wasn't all that big and heavy, so Eugene was able to carry him under one arm, while keeping his mouth shut with his other hand.
"Are you sure?"
I was worried, but Eugene simply nodded and gave me a self-confident grin.
"Don't worry, Blondy, I'll find you... I'm still the big Flynn Rider, who can handle any kind of problem without any problem, you know?"
He laughed, but I felt it, too, that he wasn't all that sure about his words himself.
"Come back, soon.", I said, after kissing him on his cheek, "And don't get caught by the guards, okey."
"Who? Me?", Eugene laughed again, "Never ever."
Then, he turned to Cassandra.
"Hey, Cobra-Lady. Keep a snake-eye on her, untill I'm back again, okey?", he demanded before he put himself and Shorty on Max's back and left the scene waving back at us.
"Are you done?", Varian asked after Eugene had left us standing in the small alley, where shorty had found us, "Fine. Then let's continue walking. In the middle of an alley, it might just be a little difficult to examine the drops inside the stone in the box..."
He turned and continued walking without any further comment. Cassandra and I hesitated for a moment, because we weren't quite sure, if it was a good idea to follow the boy as blind as we did until now. She too had seen the expression on his face, when Shorty talked to him abut Quirin and the things that had happended one month ago...
"We have to trust him. At least a little...", I took a deep breath and looked at Cassandra, standing still next to me, "He knows more about the black rocks than anyone else in Corona... - And he's still here with us!"
Cassandra stared at the spot where Varian had stood the last few minutes.
"However, we should still be careful.", she said, "Now, come. Let's continue this crazy journey, before we loose his track..."
"Okey."
I smiled crookedly, while Cass and i followed the alchemist to wherever the way should take us in the next few minutes...
The building was small and looked quite old and a little shabby from the outside. But the rocks didn't seem to have reached the place yet. Also, I realized, that we were a little outside from Old Corona, when we finally arrived at what seemed our destination for the present.
"An old barn?" I was slightly irritated.
"Yes. I'm sorry, princess. I know, you are used to something better, but if you still want to solve the mystery behind the strange fluid coming out of the rocks, this old barn will have to do for the next few days."
Varian looked at me with a poisonous sweet smile, before he turned again and started rummaging around under a big stone next to the front door of the barn.
"I hope, it's still there.", he said, obviously searching for something pretty important.
"Ha! I got it!"
He pulled out a small key from underneath the stone and walked over to the smaller door, which was integrated in the big frontgate of the barn.
"So, that's why nobody lives here!", I said, when he put the key into a small lock at the door.
"You're just that smart, princess..."
Varian chuckled deprecative, but silenced immediately, when Cassandra gave him a glance wich could freeze even hellfire.
When he finally managed to open the door, the smell of old wood an dust met our noses and made Pascal sneeze.
"It's okey, Pascal.", I said in a lower voice, while being occupied to get rid of some spider's webs.
Inside the building, there was only a little amount of light, which fell through the rifts of the wooden walls around us. But Varian clearly seemed to know his way through the room and towards an old ladder, which led into the first floor of the building.
And Cassandra did, too.
"This is the place, where we met each other for the first time.", she explained to me, when she realized the questions in my eyes.
"Varian and I. He was about six years old and running from some wild dogs, which obviously didn't like the idea to be domesticated by the collar, he had made for them."
"I remember, your wooden plank hit them very hard until they became too many and we had both to run for our lifes..."
Cassandra's lips curled a little, when Varian suddenly joined our conversation.
"We had to sit up here all day, until the dogs got bored by barking at a ladder and went away on theyr own."
My lips curled into a warm smile, too. I tried to imagine, how they both must have looked when they were still children. Dismiss the fact, that Varian still was a child. They both must have been pretty cute, sitting up there in the heyloft together, waiting until the dogs loose interest in them.
„I was five hours late for dinner. Don't ask, how peeved my da was that evening..."
Cass chuckled and Varian couldn't help, but smile, too.
We climbed up the ladder which led to the heyloft, leaving Fidella down on the ground floor.
But, to my surprise, up there wasn't any hey, or food for animals on a farm.
The room was fully build into a real chamber with furniture, shelves – and even a small bed!
"Could use a little cleaning...", Varian whispered to himself, when he opened a small window on the other side of the room. Fresh air and light pressed into the room and swirled the dust on the shelves and the rest of the furniture.
Now, I recognized some smaller glass containers and test glasses on one of the small tables. Next to the testing materials lay piles of books. Most of them were about the adventures of Flynn Rider, while others seemed to be scientific books or about Alchemy.
"Wow... -Oh! Hello, who are you, little Cutie?"
I put up a small plush toy, which was sitting next to another pile of books on one of the shelves on the wall next to Cass and me. It had the shape of a racoon and it seemed to have been a really good friend to someone once. Its left ear and one of the beady eyes were missing and dust lay in several layers on the once shiny grey fur of the plushy.
"Pancake!", Cassandra seemed again to remember something, when she examined the little plush-racoon.
"Varian always had him with him, before he found Rüdiger..."
"Hey! Put - Put that back!"
Varian nearly ran into the three of us when he stumbled and almost fell over his own feet, because of too much hecticness. He ripped the toy out of my fingers and placed it back on the shelf where it had been before.
"We don't have time to play now...", he said, his cheeks bright red, "We've got work to do, remember?"
He didn't manage to look at Cassandra or at me. Instead, he turned towards the table with the alchemistical tools on it and started blowing off the dust that lay on the place.
"And what do we have here?"
I picked up a small package. It was wrapped in some kind of harder paper, but seemed formable, when I carefully started squeezing it.
"I'm sure, that's som more kind of super-cool interesting Alchemy-stuff, isn't it?"
"No.",
Varian seemed all unimpressed. "It's butter.", he explained, "Just normal butter. - But, it's good, you finally found it. I'd been searching for it quite a while last time, I had been up here..."
"You know, how to make butter on your own?", I asked.
"Of course, I do. I had to help my father with the household from time to time... - Besides: It's pretty simple. Just some particles which change their form from fluid to hard, if you churn them long and fast enough..."
"That's great, Varian! Then you sure know, how to cook, too, don't you?"
Again, the words left my mouth without thinking. Maybe it was because I didn't realize, how hungry I was until now, as we hadn't eaten too much the last few days...
"Shall we make something good all together, then?"
"No."
"No?"
"Yes: No. Or do I look like some kind of housewife to y-"
"Varian!", Cassandra interfered, before one of us could say anything more, "It's okey, Varian. It was just a question."
"But, the princess and I are not friends anymore. Did you already forget that...?"
"I'll cook something for all of us.", Cassandra finally said, without answering Varian's question this time.
"Then, I'll help you, Cassandra."
"Thanks, but no, Raps... I can do this on my own. I'm still a maiden in wait, too,aren't I? Besides, we'll first have to search for some food somewhere, as our reserves are completely gone by now..."
She rummaged around in her pockets but found nothing left to eat in them.
"This means..."
"Yes. I'm sorry, Raps. But one of us will have to go search for something to eat,before we starve..."
"And you're going to do so."
I eyed my friend carefully. Cassandra nodded.
"I'll take Fidella, so I'm faster. And alone, it's less striking than the three of us."
She looked at me, and then turned to Varian.
"That means: I'll have to leave you both here alone for a little while. If you plan to do anything bad to Rapunzel, be sure, I'm going to find you. And then I'll do the same thing to you. - Understood me?"
Varian said nothing. He wasn't even able to stand her gaze. When the tension in the room finally began to get really uncomfortable, I was the one who had an answer for both of them:
"It's allright, Cass. You don't need to worry about me. I'm pretty sure, Varian won't do anything bad to me, while you're absent."
I smiled confidently, while Cassandra still seemed insecure, wheter she could leave us alone, or not.
"Don't worry, Cass! You said, you won't be away for too long, didn't you? Varian and I will get along with each other like brother and sister during your absence – I promise!"
Now, I had convinced her. Cassandra sighed, but nodded, as she finally seemed to trust my words, while Varian just rolled his eyes and turned away from us.
"I won't do anything.", he said, while arranging his working table, "but, just stop making those stupid promises again, okey..."