Keep Her Safe Chapter Twelve
Disclaimer Applies
Lady Prin
"Why's it called Acid?" Sammy asked.
"Because of the sound it makes when it burns through stuff." Serena explained.
All at once they heard asssssssssssssit.
Mina quickly pushed her chair over while trying to get her legs out from under the table. Her legs had been right underneath the container. And a drop of acid had fallen from the lip of it, to the table, burned through the table, and landed on the dirt floor underneath. Mina had gotten her legs out just in time.
"How's it staying in there without burning through the container?" Mina asked as she got up off the floor.
"You know how." Serena said calmly.
"No I don't." Mina said looking at her.
"Yes, you do." Serena said looking at her sharply.
"No. Really, I don't." Mina answered, with a confused face.
Serena sighed, as Rei, Ami, Luna, Artemis, and Sammy watched this failed attempt to exchange information.
"Yes, you DO!" Serena said a bit more forcefully. And for good measure- "How did we get out of the tower?"
"We fell." Mina said simply.
"And how did we survive the fall?"
"We-- OH!" Mina answered. She finally got it.
"You've got to explain to me what just happened here." Rei said. "But first thing's first. Ami said that you girls were plotting to stop a war?"
"Yes." Serena pipped up.
"A war between whom, may I ask?"
"Japan and England supposedly." Mina said.
Rei and the cats looked at her sharply.
"But we just came from England! Faster than you did, it only took us a few mi- hours to get here! England wasn't planning a war with anybody! Sure they found that the Princess was in Japan, but they sent somebody to tell Japan and see if they could search around for her! Besides! Queen Ikoku and King Kenji would NEVER want to go to war with anybody!" Rei cried.
"That's why we want to stop them!" Serena said. "It's not England Japan is going to war with! But whoever they are up against is using England's name! This might destroy England before Japan realizes anything is wrong! So we're going to try and stop the war."
Rei paused for a moment.
"Great! I'm up for it!" She burst out enthusiastically.
Ami looked at her sharply.
"You must be related to them."
Rei looked at her dolefully.
"No. I don't really want to go. But I know that I won't be able to change Rena's mind. Not when she's like this. So," She continued. "How do we get to the battle field?"
"I'm not sure." Serena paused. "I don't know where it is."
"It's on one of the not so populated islands north of us. You'd have to take a ship or boat to get there. That's how the Prince and his troops are getting there. They had to take three large ships." Ami broke in.
"How long would it take them to get there?" Mina asked.
"Let's see, they left around mid-day? They'll get there around tomorrow at noon. If the weather holds well." Ami replied.
Serena sat on the floor, legs crossed, thinking hard.
The others leaned over the side of the table to look at her.
Serena opened her eyes, and looked at Ami.
"Just estimate, theoretically, how long it would take for two horses to get from here to the island, running, if the ocean was land." Serena said.
Ami frowned slightly in concentration.
"If they left soon, they might get there a little behind or at the same time as the ships. Once again, if the weather holds up."
"If only we had two horses. . ." Serena muttered.
"You can't be serious?" Ami asked. "The ocean is not land! Horses would never make it!"
Serena looked her in the eyes and said softly:
"They would with me."
Ami felt that what she said was true. So true, that Ami couldn't find it in her heart to disbelieve her.
Ami blinked.
"I can buy you a couple horses." She offered. "I have a friend down the street who has some."
"Great!" Serena said happily. "It's settled then."
Rei and Mina looked at each other with a worried expression.
As Serena started packing up some food, and Rei and Mina talked quietly in a corner of the room, Ami sat down at the table with a piece of paper in from of her and a pen in her hand.
"Dear Mistress Taknisha," She began.
"You remember how I had told you earlier about feeling like something big was going to happen soon? Well, it's happened. Rena and Mani, there's more to them.
Especially, Rena.
I'm leaving with them tonight. We're going to try to stop a war.
I may not be coming back, so I wanted to thank you for everything! And please take care of Sammy! He's really a good boy.
Love,
Aqu--"
She paused.
Then scratched out "Aqu" and wrote "Ami" instead.
Writing that name, felt right.
She folded up the paper and left it on the table.
"But I want to go too!" Sammy cried.
"No, you have to stay here." Ami stated firmly.
"Rena?" Sammy turned to Rena with pleading eyes.
Rena glanced at Ami, then walked over to Sammy and knelt in front of him.
She gently took his hands in hers.
"You need to stay here, Sammy." She began. Before he could reply she added.
"There's someone coming here, looking for us. You need to be here to meet her."
She hugged him and quickly whispered in his ear.
"Her name will be Lita. And you'll need to be able to take her to us. My name, is Serena."
She pulled away from him, and with a smile turned to walk out the door.
Leaving Sammy standing there wide eyed and stunned.
"It's going to rain, isn't it?" Mina asked softly. The others could tell she wasn't looking forward to it.
It was around midnight, and they were standing on the shores of the island. The ones pointing straight for the island where the war was to be held.
They had purchased two horses rather quickly, Ami having known the seller personally. They were both males. One was pure black, and one was pure brown. They were two well built horses, very well cared for, and could hold two people each.
Which was perfect for what Serena had in mind.
"Everyone, on their horse." Serena said softly.
As they seated themselves upon their horses it began raining.
Serena was on the brown one, with Mina behind her.
Rei was on the black one with Ami behind her.
Ami held a bag that held food, the container of acid and the two cats. Ami could tell you, Luna and Artemis weren't too happy at being in the same space with the acid.
"What do we do now?" Ami yelled at Serena through the lightening and thunder. The rain plastered her blue hair onto her face, and made the blue seem almost black.
"Just follow me, stay close, and be quiet." Serena instructed.
Then she reined her horse in, turned to face the rolling waters, and started her horse galloping toward it.
Without hesitation, Rei followed with Ami holding on tightly around her waist.
As they reached the waters edge, Serena's horse leaped up as she started muttering something underneath her breath. Rei's horse leaped as well.
When they both came down, they didn't slosh into the water, as Rei and Ami half expected. Instead they were galloping across the water like as if it was solid ground.
They ran through the night like the wind, and soon caught up to the Prince's ships.
The ships were having immense trouble with their sails. A couple of their big sails had been torn already, and a couple of solders had been thrown overboard.
Serena, still muttering softly, motioned for them and their horses to ride to where the fallen men were flailing about in the water.
Mina held onto the back of Serena's clothes, as Serena leaned over the side of the horse and pulled the man from the raging water. Rei mimicked her with the other man.
The men acted like they couldn't see the girls, as the girls hauled them over the backs of their horses.
All three ships went silent as they watched their comrades basically float above the water over to the side of the ship.
Then someone aboard ship had enough presence of mind to drop a rope over the side.
Serena and Rei helped the scared men to grab hold of the rope, then let them go as they started to climb.
As the men were being helped aboard, the girls resumed their flight toward land.
When they reached the shore of the island, it had stopped raining and the storm was moving on. All four girls were soaked to the bone, though Ami was the only one who wasn't shivering.
"That was great!" Ami said breathlessly, as all four girls climbed stiffly down off of their horses. "I don't know how we did that, but that was great! Did you hear the ocean? It was like, singing to us! And did you see the dolphins? I had only seen them in books, I never thought I'd see them for real! Wow!!!"
Ami hugged Serena very tightly.
"Thank you, Rena! Thank you!"
Serena laughed.
"You're welcome Ami. Though it seems you're the only one of us who isn't frozen."
Ami stood still for a moment.
"I'm not cold." She confirmed.
"Well, I'm cold, and I'm stiff." Rei complained. Then she squinted toward the horizon from whence they had come. The sun was just rising, turning everything orange, pink, and red. "And I see the ships. We outdistanced them, because the storm was causing them problems, but they're coming now."
"We'd better start moving." Serena told them.
"I'm not getting back on that horse." Rei stated, glaring at Serena.
"Okay, you can walk. Looks like you need to anyway." Serena said cheerfully as she pushed the reins of Rei and Ami's horse into Rei's hands.
They then continued their journey into the grassy hills of the island.
'Tokyo docks. . . very crowded. Lots of ships. . .but which one is the right one?'
A tall girl with reddish brown hair wove her way through the crowds at Tokyo's dock.
She looked at all the ships that were parked, but they all looked the same.
Very suddenly, she was grabbed by the arm from behind.
Lightening flashed in her eyes, as she whirled around, twisted the mans arm around, and only stopped when she heard a satisfying snap.
The man yelled in pain, and cursed her as he ran for his life.
But the girl was already walking away, like nothing had happened.
"Miss?" A small voice spoke.
The girl looked around, and finally spotted the person the voice belonged to. It was a boy of about twelve, with short brown hair. He looked dirty, and skinny, but alive and alert.
"Are you talking to me?" The girl asked.
"Yes." The boy nodded.
The girl knelt down in front of him.
"What?" She asked.
He stared at her for a moment.
"Are you. . . Lita?" He asked.
The girl's eyes went wide.
"Yes." She replied in barely a whisper.
The boy smiled.
"I'm to lead you to someone. Follow me."
He took her hand and lead Lita to a small boat set apart from the bigger ships. It was only big enough to seat two people. Three, if they sat tightly packed together.
"Climb in!" The boy bid her.
As she carefully climbed in the boat, untied the boat from the dock, unrigged the main sail (in fact, the only sail), and started paddling away from shore. For a destination only he could see.
"Where are you taking me?" Lita asked him.
"To an island where a war is to be held. I'm taking you to see Serena." He replied.
A smile lit Lita's face, but within a moment it faded.
"What would Serena be doing in a war?" She asked him.
"She and three others are going to try and stop it." He replied.
"Who are the three others?" She asked.
The boy thought for a moment.
"Mani, Fireia, and Aquesta."
'I know Fireia. She's Rei's mother, but what would she be doing here?' Lita thought.
The answer came to her. 'She would be here herself, if something happened to Rei. What happened to Rei?!'
"Oh." The boy continued. "My name is Sammy."
A couple of hours into the ride, the wind had died down, but the rain and the thunder kept on.
'This isn't a natural storm.' Lita thought as she helped Sammy to rid the boat of water.
"We need wind to fill the sails if we are to have any hope of making it to the island to help the girls!" Sammy yelled through the storm.
"I might be able to help." Lita yelled back.
She held onto the mast as she closed her eyes.
Her thoughts reached out through time and space, to somewhere in England.
'Amora. . . The Princess needs me. . . Can you send the wind to help me?'
Somewhere in England, walking down a street, a tall young women with short blond hair stopped in her tracks.
'Lita?' She thought.
'Yes.' Came the reply.
'Where have you been? Where are you now?' Amora started to ask.
'I can't talk now. At the moment I'm caught in an unnatural storm. But the wind isn't blowing. Could you help me?'
'Yes. Just a minute.'
Amora (aka Sailor Uranus) reached deep within her heart, and called for the wind to help her friend.
The winds all over the world blew up, until it located that one small ship which held Lita. And then the wind just concentrated all its being on that one sail.
Soon that ship was moving faster than the three big ones it passed.
A half hour later Lita and Sammy touched down on land.
'Thank you Amora!' Lita said. 'The Princess is on this island. She's trying to stop a war.'
'A war between whom?'
A moments pause.
'Japan, and. . . England. . . '
'But that's impossible! England hasn't declared war on anybody!'
'Japan seems to think otherwise. The Prince of the Earth and his troops are on their way to this island to fight with whom they presume to be England's army.'
'Whoever they are, they are not England.'
'I'll soon find out who they are. Thank you Amora!'
'Good luck, Lita.'
Amora took a deep breath and continued on her way.
"I now know where the Princess is. My job has just been made allot easier." Amora muttered as she entered the darkened doorway of a tavern.