Calmer of the Storm: hides from all the angry readers Sorry!!!!! Really I am!! I've been swamped with ISU's (really big projects) and I've been in Boston for and band trip, and I was just in Kingston for Youth convention (awesome time… God moved in powerful ways) and I'm really stressed out! (plus it was my birthday on the 11...I'm 16 now, yes!! Ahaha! All you people on the Ontario roads ((particularly around Ottawa)) better watch out! I don't have the best steering capabilities) Okay well, enough rambling…here I go again!
I'm actually not really a Mimato fan (I prefer Joumi) but it works with this story.
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Hikari, after being told that she was well enough to leave the healing ward, was led back to her room. She had learned that she was in some sort of castle. It was beautiful, and it had things that she had only ever seen in books. Her room (at least, they told her it was hers) was up two more levels, on the fifth floor. It seemed that all other royalty was there too. Guards stood at the entrance of what looked to be a grand room at the end of the hall, assumedly the king's room.
For a long while, she sat on her bed. It was a large room, almost three times the size as her one back home in Odaiba. She found that in the massive dresser there was a series of dresses, very nice ones that little girls dream of one day owning. She had chosen to but on the white one; it was the simplest of them all. She was still overwhelmed by the whole thing, and wanted to feel more comfortable than anything else.
A soft knock on her door diverted her attention from her thoughts. She rose from her spot, and opened it. On the other side stood a boy, maybe seventeen or eighteen. He stood with impeccable posture, and was dress rather nicely.
"Yes?" she said, not sure why he was here.
"My lord has requested that you join him for dinner in fifteen minutes, as you are now better. He hopes that it may jog your memory." the boy told her.
She looked at him strangely, but decided that it would be best to comply with the requests that were presented before her.
"Tell him that I will be there, but also that I will not remember anything for I have not lost my memory. I know who I am and where I come from, and it isn't here."
It was his turn to give the strange looks, but he quickly straitened his face. He gave a slight bow, turned on his heel, and left.
Hikari gently closed the door, wondering what she was about to go into.
Cody had explored the area further. He found that there was a cellar just around the back of the church. Inside, there were even more spices than inside the small room with the bed. There were other substances which he wasn't too sure of, but he knew they were there for a reason. He had found a few small paths, and one that led to the main road. A few people had come by since his arrival, and they all seemed to know him, or they had at least heard his name. They came to him for various things, rest, food, even counselling. The young boy did his best to comply to their wishes.
During all of this, he had found out the dogs' names. Each had their own mat, and each mat was labelled with a slab of wood. The biggest one was a male called Duke. The middle one was another male, though he was not quite as big. His name was Hunter. The third, a female, went by the name of Lady.
They three were all purebred bloodhounds, very beautiful ones at that. They were older dogs, and Lady was even partially blind. Even through this, they proved to be very good guard dogs. Lady was more of a companion, though. They were all, he found, very protective of him. They seemed to know when a visitor was worth welcoming, and when they had to go. They warned him of much danger.
Cody decided that it would be best to stay put for the time being, as he didn't know where he was and would have no clue where to go. At least here he had food, a place to stay, and even companions. He passed time reading some very old writing of the Bible. It was a church, after all. He even got accustomed to reading the old English, though it was no piece of cake.
As he was doing this, he came across a map. It was poorly done and most likely out of scale, but it was a map none the less. He was in Sherwood forest.
"Sora, honey, are you feeling okay?" A feminine voice called from the other side of the wooden door.
Sora rolled her eyes. "Curse you, Oraclemon. Because of you, these people think they're my parents…" she muttered under her breath.
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired, that's all."
The door opened slowly, and a small, plump woman entered. She closed the door softly behind her. Pulling up a chair, she sat herself beside Sora's bed. The woman smiled.
"That's good." She placed the back of her hand on the girl's forehead. "You don't seem to have a fever, but you should rest for longer, just in case."
The look on her face softened. "We were so worried. We all thought that you were dead, but when William found you in the forest, we knew you'd be okay. We all thought that you had gone after that forest boy again, but that didn't seem to be the case."
Sora became confused, but said nothing.
"We know you were upset, but, it's for the best. William is a nice boy, but I think you ran because you don't know him all that well. But that will change."
"Wait…uh, I seem to have forgotten about the 'forest boy', and the whole reason why I ran…would you mind jogging my memory?"
Sora was smart, and knew that if she played her cards correctly she could find out what was going on and find a way out of this mess.
The woman sighed. "For many days you would go off with one of the outlaws. We were very afraid that one day, you just wouldn't return. You never told us who you were with or where you were going, and for the first while we thought that you had just been going into town. But when your father saw you with…him…we knew that we had to do something. Your father knows what's best for you, Sora. That's why he arranged for you to marry William. The wedding is in five days."
Sora almost fell off the bed. "This is insane! I cannot and will not marry him! He's the biggest snobby rich man I've ever met! He's fat, and down right ugly!"
"YOU WILL NOT SPEAK THAT WAY ABOUT YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND!" came a booming voice.
The two heads whipped around and Sora saw her 'father' standing in the doorway. He walked over to the bed.
"Listen young lady. I have arranged this for you out of the deepest parts of my heart and out of my utmost love for you. Earl William is a nice man, and he will give you a good life, lots of money and many children. You will not speak that way of anyone again, or there will be serious consequences. A lady must be seen, and not heard. Ever since you met that-that thing, you've become an obstinate little wench." His voice was hard and cold.
Sora's fiery spirit began to bubble to the surface, but the deadly look in the man's eyes told her to be quiet.
"Now, you will marry the Earl, and you will enjoy it." With this said, he stormed out of the room.
Sora looked over at the woman, who was gazing at the floor.
"Please, postpone this, delay it, do anything! Please?!" Sora pleaded at a whisper, though her voice had none the less desperation in it.
"I'm sorry." the woman replied, her voice barley audible. At saying that, she stood up and left, leaving Sora emotionally spent, and utterly alone.
Yolei had been put to work in the kitchens. This was rather ironic, for she could not even boil water without something going wrong. The head cook soon found this, and reduced her to peeling potatoes. She did this non-stop, and if it wasn't potatoes, it was either carrots or some other vegetable.
"I swear…after this, I'm going to become a meatatarian…if there is such a thing…" she mumbled under her breath while hacking viciously at a rather large potato. When she looked down, she realized that she had unconsciously chopped away half the vegetable. In frustration, she stabbed the knife right through the middle, and gave it repeated wounds. This earned her the stares of all the other servants.
"What, might I ask, are you doing?" the head cook asked.
She looked up. Fortunately for her, he was a kinder man, and more understanding than most.
"Uh…"
"Never mind I asked. Just don't let me catch you wasting good food again." He walked back to his duties.
"Yes sir." she grumbled.
A few minutes later, the head cook came back. "I would like you to take this platter out to the lord and his guests, and the lady, of course."
She nodded mechanically. It wasn't anything she wasn't used to. Back in Odaiba, her family owned a convenience store and she had to continually balance things in her arms to get them all on the shelves. She was a klutz at everything else, but this she knew she could handle.
Placing her knife down and drying it with a cloth, she picked up the silver platter and headed out to the banquet hall.
The boys, and Mimi, had made quite the camp. They had found a way to make shelters, and found them to be very useful, especially in the rain. Davis had stumbled upon a small river, and the boys quickly began to teach themselves how to fish with spears. The first few days they came out with not much more than a small fish, but Yamato, with practice, seemed to be getting the hang of it. His younger brother wasn't too far behind him.
Taichi eventually got sick of the fish, and decided that he would hunt. Again, he didn't come out with much at first, but he soon was able to actually sneak up on an unsuspecting creature without making any noises. This was an incredible feat for the tall, mop-headed soccer player. Silence and sneaking around was never really his thing. He even managed to teach Daisuke how to hunt.
Mimi, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with anything. Ken offered to clean what came in, as his father had taken him camping on a few occasions and taught him the art of wilderness survival.
Eventually, they had coaxed Mimi into at least eating the food.
Presently, the group was just sitting around. They had made a trip to the city, and had almost paid for it. Everyone knew who they were, and that only made things worse. The good thing was that the forest was huge, and they had found that they knew it fairly well. The guards, however, did not. They didn't even dare to venture from the main road. That was outlaw territory, and everyone knew it.
"Ugh, it's so boring here!" Takeru said, with an exasperated sigh.
"Tee, we just got back from almost having our heads cut off, and you're bored?" Yamato said.
"Well, I just can't sit back here and wait! We have to find the others, we don't even have the slightest clue where they are!" he stood up. "And have we done anything about it? NO!"
"Look, bro, we've tried to look, but we can't! Wherever we go, there's people either asking for money or food, which is something that we ourselves don't even have much of, or they want our heads. I agree with you that we need to find them, but their situations can't be any worse than ours now, can it?"
Takeru looked away from his brother, to a nearby tree. The other three just sat and watched.
"Fine. I'm going to go down the little path. I want to know where it goes. I don't care what you say, you can't stop me." With that, the younger blonde left.
Ken quickly went after him, not wanting him to go alone, and wasn't about to trust Daisuke with him. The two were friends, but clashed occasionally.
Yamato didn't even try to stop them; he just went the other way.
Tai leaned back against the log he was in front of. "Well, that was unusual."
Mimi nodded silently.
"Hey TK, wait up!" Ken called out. Takeru didn't stop, but he slowed his pace.
He caught up. "What was with that? I've never seen you like this before."
The blonde sighed, "It's just, I'm so worried. We've been here for nearly a week and we haven't found any trace of the others. They could be in whole different towns!"
Ken studied him a moment. "You're worried about Hikari."
"I'm worried sick about her."
Ken nodded, understandingly. "I know how you feel. There isn't a moment when I'm not thinking about her…Yolei, I mean. She's always had that effect on me, but now that I have no clue how she is, or ever where she is, it's constant. Love does that to you, I guess."
"Yeah, I guess." His eyes were fixed on the small path ahead.
There was a heavy silence between the two boys as they walked. It was only broken when TK noticed a clearing ahead.
"Look! There's something up here!" The two broke into a jog, and went to the edge.
Duke emitted a low growl.
"What's the matter?" asked Cody. Hunter soon joined in. The two massive dogs bounded outside. Cody followed, but only peered through the door. He watched as the dogs bounded into the bushes. Loud baying and barking, followed by the sound of screaming, could be heard from the other side of the tree line.
Soon, two people flew through the bushes, landing on the ground just inside the clearing. The dogs came out, and pinned the two to the ground.
Cody broke into a smile as he found out who it was.
"Duke, Hunter, that's enough!" The dogs looked at him, but backed down. The boy ran over to his friends.
"Ken! TK!"
The two boys, dazed and confused, looked up,
"Cody!" they cried in unison.
After the reunions were complete and all had settled, they looked around.
"So this is where you ended up, eh?" commented Takeru.
He smiled lightly, "I guess so. How did you to get here?"
"We walked. Ken, Matt, Tai, Mimi and I were all dumped in this massive forest."
"I see. That would explain the clothes. Do you have any idea where we are?"
"Actually, we do."
"Yeah. We've figured out that we've been placed into the medieval times, in history. We're living out the fact and the fiction. This," Ken pointed behind him, "is Sherwood forest. The town of Sherwood is not too far from here." He poked at TK. "Our friend over here has been given the mantle of the ever-so-famous 'Robin Hood' and we are his band of merry men….and woman…"
"Hmm, that's interesting. So, who would that make me?"
TK thought a moment, then declared loudly, "Friar Tuck!
Hikari slowly made her way down to the banquet hall. She had asked for directions, and a servant was now leading her. He stopped, and opened the door for her. She kindly thanked him, and he went away.
The room before her was like nothing she'd ever seen. It was massive, and a long, but small in comparison to the room, table sat in the middle. She assumed that additions could be made if need be.
A man, maybe in his late twenties, approached her with a bright smile on his face.
"Kari, dear, I'm so glad you could make it! I was so worried about you after the fall…I thought I'd lost you for good…"
She didn't move.
His face fell. "Is your memory still impaired? I've heard that it isn't what it used to be. Oh well, you can't forget for long. Come, now, the food is being brought out now." He took her hand, and led her to the table. Before her, was food that she had only dreamed of seeing. There were meats and breads of all kinds, fruits and vegetables that she had never even heard of. There were all sorts of casseroles, rolls, cakes, pies, and other dishes that she could not name.
"We have the finest cooks in the country here, as I'm sure you'll remember soon. Have a seat." he pulled out a chair for her, and she slowly sat down.
A certain lavender haired servant caught her attention. Her eyes widened as she realized who it was.
Yolei had placed the platter down on the table, and took one glance at the people across from her. She took a second glance, and was about to cry with joy, but noticed the man beside her friend glaring at her. The two shared some unspoken words before Yolei disappeared through the kitchen doors.
Calmer of the Storm: So, there you have it. I have a few ideas for this story, but like I said, I'm winging most of it. You're ideas would REALLY REALLY REALLY help. I won't get this finished before the summer, as there virtually isn't a week where I'm around a computer…no word of a lie. If I do get around one, it'll be a spur of the moment thing. I'll try to get one more chapter up, as I'll have lots of time to loaf around my house and do nothing in between exams. Well, I've talked for long enough (or typed….I guess) so I'll see you later!
p.s. reviews are greatly appreciated! ;)