Three Princesses, One Wish
Thank you weekend! I thought it would never come!
Sparkly love from sparkleeyes20.
Chapter 8
The group had stopped to rest for the night on a beach. They were getting closer to their target destination. And more importantly, the life jewel (nickname for the jewel of life). Tiff, Tuff and Kirby camped nearby. Making absolute sure that the group couldn't see the fire at their campsite. Seria and Sword had fallen asleep about fifteen minutes ago. Blade was on the verge of falling over from exhaustion and getting sleep the hard way. Ilia, who was sitting beside Blade, was awake and looking at a few pages of their mother's diary. Though she was also about to fall asleep in her position as well. Metaknight just sat and stared at the fire. He occasionally glanced over at Zelda once or twice but mostly stared at the fire. His eyes were green in thought. This reminded him so much of his partnership with Jecra. He sighed lightly, hoping no one heard it. But nothing got passed Zelda. She looked over to him.
"Is something the matter?" she asked.
He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her quickly, "What? No. Just a bad memory is all. 'Tis nothing to worry about."
She nodded her head and turned back to the fire. Her hand reached out of her hooded-cloak and took hold of a stick that was lying beside her. She prodded the fire a bit to keep it going. She also threw about two logs on it to keep it fed, so to speak. She placed the stick down, rubbed her eyes, and looked over to Ilia and Blade. Ilia fell asleep with the book in her hands and her head on Blade's shoulder. Blade had also fallen asleep, his head lightly lying on top of hers. She chuckled and shook her head. Metaknight looked over at her. She looked up and pointed her finger towards Ilia and Blade. He looked that way as well and chuckled at the sight as well. He looked back to Zelda. She was leaning back ever so slightly and her head was beginning to droop. He gently placed one hand on her shoulder and pushed her to the ground.
"Rest. You need it," he said.
She nodded and almost immediately her breathing became heavy and slow. He removed his hand from her shoulder and went back to stare at the fire. His eyes became slightly heavy as well and, for the first time in a while, he fell into a light sleep.
The next morning, when Zelda awoke, she found a still sleeping Metaknight. She smiled softly to herself, although it wouldn't have been seen anyway. She looked up to the sky and saw there were still stars in the sky. She counted the position of the stars and figured out that it was about two in the morning. She sighed silently. She never was a light sleeper and even if she did sleep soundly it was only a few hour of sleep. The dreams she had were painful and agonizing. They made her want to scream. They were always about her father. And occasionally her mother's death. She remembered it fondly, so she dreamed about it in almost every third dream. She shuddered lightly. She quickly shook her head to get the thoughts of her mother out of her head. She stood up and tiptoed away into the ocean. The ocean always calmed her down. And also they needed food so they could keep going. She swam to a deep level of the ocean and grabbed several fish in her grasp. Fishing was one of her natural talents. She never knew why though. She swam back to the top and threw the fish a good ways on the shore, enough so they couldn't flop back into the water. They quickly stopped flipping and went still. They were dead and good for eating. She turned to the ocean and bowed to it, mumbling a few words of thanks for her and her friends' meals. An ocean wave swelled as if to respond to her. She smiled and picked up the dead fish before returning to her spot next to Metaknight. She stuck the fish on a stick and put more logs on the fire, which was just hot ashes. The fire quickly caught back up. She cooked the fish with skill that they were quickly delicious, cooked fish. Ilia, Seria, Sword, Blade and Metaknight all woke right after she finished cooking the fish. Blade and Ilia quickly separating, once they realized the position they were in, and blushed deeply under their 'face covers'.
"*sniff* I smell food!" Seria exclaimed.
"Yeah and it smells good!" Ilia agreed.
Zelda held out the fish to everyone. They were hunger struck. There was only three fish though so they would have to share. Ilia and Seria shared one fish, Sword and Blade shared another, which meant Zelda and Metaknight were left to share with each other. Both shrugged their shoulders and began arguing about who would get which half. More like who would get more. Zelda insisted that she didn't eat much and Metaknight take the larger half. Metaknight, being the gentleman he was, told her she was a lady and a princess and that she should get the bigger half. They argued about that until finally Metaknight agreed to Zelda's idea. She ate quite satisfied. Metaknight was feeling slightly guilty but still eating with vigor. Once they were all finished eating, Zelda stood up and looked to the spot where the sun wasn't. She pulled a hand out of her cloak and put it near her chin.
"Tartarus. Beetle Juice. Polaris. Leo," she said pointing to four different stars in the sky, "good. That means it is almost six in the morning."
Seria looked to her sister, "you sure?"
Zelda nodded and began walking towards the direction they would be taking to get to the life jewel. The others followed suit. They walked for about four hours before something rustled in the bushes nearby. Everyone immediately turned towards the bushes. The guys ran in front of the girls and drew their swords. A bunch of men and some women jumped from the bushes and surrounded them. A man so much taller than everyone approached with a blow dart tube.
"Domo gu somae?" he asked.
The guys cocked their heads in confusion. Zelda stepped forward, unfazed about the language.
"Ponittia se ma jegan," she replied.
The man jumped back in astonishment. He then dropped to his knees and bowed to the three girls. The rest did the same.
"Rise!" Zelda said sternly.
The man immediately got up from his position.
"My mistake dear princess. Please forgive me."
"Of course."
"And I assume the other women behind you are your dear younger sisters?"
"Yes."
"And the men… are your…suitors?"
"Protectors."
"Yes of course. You come for the jewel?"
"Yes."
"You may go after to the shrine but your first test to get there will be to cross the boiling gorge."
"Do not fret. We will be just fine."
"Alright. Good luck your highness."
With that everyone stepped aside and they all continued towards their first challenge of the boiling gorge.