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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
~ Only Seven Stars ~
The heavens rage and the clouds move rapidly. White lights flash in the sky along with grumbling and claps of thunder. The wind howls and travels diagonally in the air, dumping heavy waves of rain down.
"Lux!" Kai calls to her, rushing to the edge of the cliff and frantically searching for a glimpse of her below. Lux's head surfaces for a moment as she waves her limbs in a desperate attempt to keep herself afloat. However, she sinks quickly when the wind stirs up a large wave that buries her underwater.
'She can't swim…' Kai observes. 'If I don't do something fast, she'll drown!'
He looks around; both land and sea in sight are void of people and boats. Seeing as there is no other way to retrieve her, Kai stands up and takes a deep breath. He then dives into the water. Holding his breath under the waves, he looks around in the dim light of the storm and quickly spots her some ways below him. He swims down to her and attempts to grab a hold of her but the frantic girl, desperate for air, reacts violently, unable to recognize him.
'Argh!' Kai grunts mentally as he receives a painful scratch from her on his arm. He winces as the seawater begins to sting the newly inflicted wound.
Attempting again, Kai makes his way behind her where he is immune to most of her fury of distressed and unfocused attacks and wraps a strong arm around her waist. He then begins to propel them both to the surface. Upon emerging into the pouring atmosphere, they immediately gasp for air.
The two are not home free however; the sky roars and a sizeable wave covers them, moving them steadily away from land. Unable to recognize Kai and unable to breathe again, Lux struggles to try to free herself from the restraint around her body.
'Dammit, if this keeps up, we're both going to get washed out to sea.' Kai succeeds in bringing them both up again for another breath of air but they are soon submerged by the waves again. 'I've gotta try to get to shore and it seems the only way is to try to swim there from underwater…'
Kai then turns his attention to the Lux as he tries to make his way to the surface. Although he has managed to take a breath in, she seems to have failed to and is struggling again in an attempt to breathe. 'She doesn't seem to know how to hold her breath in the water. Guess I'll have no choice but to try to teach her now…'
"Lux," Kai addresses her upon resurfacing. She does not respond as she is still gasping for air and coughing out water. However, recognizing him by the sound of his voice, she stops resisting him. "Listen…"
Kai is cut off as a wave hits them again. Nonetheless, Kai tries to keep them both at the surface. "Take a very deep breath-"
A roar of thunder cuts him off.
"…and try to hold it in. I'm going to try to get us to shore…" He tries again to communicate with her.
Kai takes a deep breath as another wave washes over them.
"Do you understand?" Kai finally manages to finish as Lux coughs out some water.
She nods, somewhat comprehending him before another wave hits them. Kai promptly brings them both back up above the surface.
"You know what to do, right?" Kai asks her to ascertain her comprehension.
Lux coughs and turns her head to him. "Do…?"
"When I say to, breathe in and don't breathe out for a while." Kai rephrases.
Lux nods. Soon the water engulfs them again.
As soon as they emerge, he shouts to her, "Now!"
They both take a huge breath before Kai ducks, holding her in one arm, back underwater. Propelling the two of them with all his might, Kai heads towards the direction of land. As they near it however, Lux's breath runs out and she again frantically attempts to get air. He holds onto her the best he can and soon manages to get them both onto a rocky shore where they climb up some ways out of the water and collapse from their exhaustion and lack of breath.
They both rest for a while in the rain, their wet clothing, soaked and sticking to their bodies. Kai rolls over to sit down on the small rocky shore as Lux continues to cough out seawater.
"You know…" Kai pants, catching his breath still. "You're a handful."
Her lack of response causes him to turn to her to see her leaning against the base of a nearby cliff, still clearing her passages of water. "Are you alright?"
She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and nods slightly.
"Does anything hurt?" He asks just to make sure she wasn't injured during her fall into the ocean. Although there were no obstacles visible, the cliff was of a fair height and impact with the water's surface if made in a poor position could result in injury.
She does not respond immediately but eventually shakes her head a little.
Kai looks around them. He had pulled them both to a mild slope of rocks but all around them were steep cliffs that were too dangerous to climb without any equipment as aid.
'Well isn't this wonderful…' Kai remarks sarcastically in his mind. 'These cliffs are way too steep to climb, Lux can't swim and to top it all off, there's a raging storm overhead that we can't take shelter from…'
As if purposely adding to Kai's displeasure, a bolt of lightning flashes and a loud booming noise follows, affirming the truth of their situation.
"It looks like we're stuck here until someone finds us." Kai tells Lux, turning back to her.
Lux pushes herself off the wall of the cliff and turns to face him. She then asks, "Are we...going to be…okay?"
"Yeah…" Kai tells her. He then turns back to the steep cliffs that surround them. "As long as lightning doesn't hit one of the cliffs near us anyway…"
...
At the villa, Tyson, Kenny, Daichi and Hilary sit quietly in the drawing room, waiting out the storm. They had come inside when the storm hit since it would be dangerous to play at the pool and now Tyson was growing impatient.
"Man, you'd imagine Ventus to have at least one gaming console or something in here." He begins to complain.
"Quiet down, Tyson, it's not like anyone even live here normally other than the maids." Kenny reasons with him. "How do you expect him to even have something like that here anyway?"
"Yeah, I bet he has more important things to do than play video games all day." Hilary adds, further irritating him.
"Okay, but then what about a working TV?" Daichi joins in.
"There's a storm outside," Kenny tells him, continuing to type on his laptop. "The TV works but obviously not in violent weather when the reception is bad."
The front door clicks open and Max and Ray enter to join them.
"Hey guys." Ray greets them.
"Max! Ray!" Tyson greets them happy that they are here. He then comments on their appearance, "You guys are soaking wet."
"Yup, we just made it back from town." Max tells him.
"The storm caught us by surprise." Ray adds.
The door opens again to admit Tala, Bryan, Spencer and Ian.
"Wow…everyone's here." Ian comments on the crowd that had gathered.
"Not quite." Tala corrects him. "Kai and Lux aren't here."
"Where are they?" Daichi asks.
"Beats me," Max tells the rest. "We haven't seen them since lunch."
"Well we haven't seen them all day." Bryan tells them.
"You think they're okay out there?" Hilary wonders out loud, concerned.
"Hm…" Ray looks around. "I think maybe we should go look for them."
"Why?" Max asks.
Ray then reasons, "I don't think Kai or Lux would have gone too far from here; they don't seem to be the type who'd be interested in the resorts. The fact that Max and I were all the way in town and got back already kind of tells me they might have gotten into some trouble."
"I agree." Kenny joins in. "Kai might be a loner and I don't know if he particularly likes being out in the rain but I don't think he'd let Lux stay out with him in this weather."
"Oh come on, the guy's probably just fine!" Tyson interrupts them, still angry with Kai for earlier and trying to hide his own worry from the rest. He turns from them towards the window. "I bet he's having a nice cup of coffee in a café somewhere with Lux and trying to impress her while waiting the rain out. In fact, I'm sure of it."
"Tyson, can you knock it off?" Ray raises his voice at him. "Max and I were just at Porto Santo Stefano. If Kai and Lux were there, I think we would have seen them on the way there after lunch even if they did stay in a café for the storm."
"And there's no way they're at Porto Ercole. We were hanging out there all day." Tala adds.
This silenced Tyson. There were no cafés in the middle of the woods after all and those are the only towns around other than Orbetello, which is located across the lagoon. Not to mention, taking shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm is actually a very bad idea.
"Fine." Tyson begins to make his way to the front door. "You guys do whatever you want. I'm going to go for a walk."
"Uh…Tyson," Hilary stops him. "You're going for a walk…in this weather?"
Tyson turns back to her. "So what if I am?"
"Are you out of your mind?" Hilary asks him.
Having nothing else to say, he ends up telling her, "No, I'm not and I'll be just fine! Now leave me alone!"
He runs out, not even bothering to close the door behind him.
Hilary sighs, "I just wish he'd act more mature…"
"So now what do we do?" Max asks.
"I'd say we go look for Kai and Lux." Ray proposes.
"But where do we start?" Daichi asks.
"How about we split up so we can cover more ground?" Ray suggests. "Kenny, can you bring up a map of the area?"
"Yup, just give me a second." Kenny responds, typing briefly on the keyboard. He then flips his laptop to them. "Here. I've marked our current location with an X too."
"Okay, so Max and I will search here on the west side of the island…Hilary and Daichi will try this area here on the east…Tala and Ian can go here and search up north…and Spencer and Bryan will search the southern portion." Ray indicates to them.
"What about me?" Kenny asks.
"I think it's probably best if you wait here in case they come back." Ray tells him. "That way you can let us know."
"Ok, sounds like a good plan." Max agrees to it.
"We're in too." Tala chips in for his team.
"We should probably meet back here in three hours with whatever we find." Ray adds. "Everybody ready?"
"Yeah!"
...
The rain continues to pour but at a much slower rate than before. Some breaks have also begun to appear in the clouds. Lux sits on a large rock, still rather soaked and looking up at the gold lit storm clouds wondering when they can go home while Kai stands gazing at the slowly, calming ocean.
"How are you feeling?" Kai asks her, turning from the sea to her. "Are you cold?"
Lux turns to Kai and nods just a little as a moderate breeze causes her wet form to shiver.
Kai takes a seat beside her on the rock and wraps an arm around her, pulling her towards him to share some of his body heat with her. The two stay this way for a while as they continue to wait for the storm to pass and for help to come.
Lux then notices a bleeding cut on Kai's arm and touches it lightly with one finger. "Blood…"
Kai flinches at the touch.
"Does it hurt?" she asks him.
"It's nothing." Kai tells her. He had gotten the cut from her when he was trying to bring her to the surface of the water earlier. Although normally not particularly strong, the girl had been terribly violent when on the verge of drowning.
As if sensing her guilt or simply concerned, Lux pulls out a handkerchief from a pocket of her dress. She twists it to force the water out and then starts to bandage his cut with it, finishing with a small knot.
"There," she smiles. "Now it will be better."
Kai smiles at the intention even though he is aware from the way she had bandaged him that it will likely not in any way accelerate the wound's healing. He holds her closer to him, causing her to look up at him momentarily.
"Just so you know, no matter what anyone says and no matter how different your eyes are…" Kai says as the rain begins to lighten. "To me, you're human."
Lux is startled by the statement but smiles and rests her head on his shoulder as the storm clouds begin to clear away in the distance.
...
Tyson wanders aimlessly through the woodlands of the southeastern portion of the tied island. Although still raining, it has become only a light mist. In the back of his mind, he wonders why he had said all those things and ran off. In truth he had really wanted to look for Kai and Lux as well even if Kai had hurt his pride a little earlier.
'Man, what am I doing?' he asks himself. 'Maybe I should just go back and apologize. But more importantly, I wonder if Kai and Lux made it back yet…'
As is about to turn back, two voices catch his attention and he walks a little down the path to find Daichi and Hilary shouting at the top of their lungs for Kai and Lux.
"Daichi? Hilary?" Tyson runs up to them. "Has Kai and Lux still not come back?"
They stop and turn to him. "Oh, hey Tyson, and no, they haven't. Have you seen them?"
"No…" Tyson answers. Feeling somewhat bad for earlier, he then offers, "Let me help too. I can shout with you guys."
They nod and continue the search together. Eventually they find themselves shouting near the top of a hill where an old fortress is located.
"KAI!"
"LUX!"
After a while of shouting and getting no response, they stop.
"Maybe they're not in this area…" Tyson suggests after getting no responses for a while.
"Should we try somewhere else?" Daichi asks.
Before anyone can answer him, a thud sounds behind them and a voice greets them, "Yo."
"Waaah!" Tyson and Daichi scream, alarmed by the sudden presence of the guy they met earlier.
"Ouch, my ears…" he whines, closing his ears with his hands.
Tyson peaks under the hood of the guy's windbreaker, "Wyvynn?"
"Hey, I heard you guys shouting a little ways away." He greets them. "You guys looking for something? I didn't quite hear you too clearly but maybe I can help."
"Yeah, we are. Have you seen either Kai or Lux somewhere?" Tyson asks him.
"Yeah at the pool with you earlier but if you mean after that, no." Wyvynn answers.
"Oh…nevermind." Tyson glances down dejected.
"Why?" Wyvynn asks. "'They missing?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Daichi asks.
"Why else would you be looking for them…?" Wyvynn returns, somewhat amazed he even had to ask.
"Well…we'll keep searching for them. Can you let us know if you see them?" Tyson asks.
"Uhm...sure...but, listen," Wyvynn tells him. "If you guys need help finding them, just ask me."
"Huh?" Tyson looks at him a little confused. "What do you mean? Didn't you say you haven 't seen them?"
"Yeah…but I more or less already know where they are." Wyvynn takes out a pair of binoculars.
Daichi stares at him. "How do you know where they are?"
"Well…." Wyvynn takes out his compass as well. "We Magnanimae are a little special."
The three of them watch him as he begins to look around.
"All Magnanimae emit an aura that can be felt by one another within a set radius. We can learn to hide it but in Lux's case, she has no clue how to control it so her aura has been as prominent as a set of exploding fireworks to me for as long as I can remember." Wyvynn stops and looks in the southwest direction. "That was how Lok kept track of her in Japan."
"Then you can point us in the right direction?" Tyson asks.
"Yup, she's somewhere right over there." Wyvynn points into the distance in front of him. He then tells them, "But they're quite far from here. Why don't you let me look for their exact location and I'll either bring them back to the villa or come back and let you know where they are so you can pick them up yourself. You can wait at the villa in the meantime."
"Uh…sure…I guess." Tyson replies. "But why don't we come with you?"
"If you came with me I'd be hindered in terms of movement speed." Wyvynn answers as he puts the compass away and gets ready do to something. Then, without warning, a strong wind surrounds him and he begins to accelerate quickly into the sky and disappears from view, leaving behind a flabbergasted Tyson, Hilary and Daichi staring after him.
"He…can fly." Tyson mouths astounded.
"He must be very good at stalking Lux…" Daichi comments.
"No kidding…" Hilary agrees. She then turns to Tyson and Daichi, "So do we go wait at the villa like he says?"
"Well if he didn't do anything to hurt us all this time that he's already been following us, I don't see why he'd start now of all times." Tyson reasons.
"Yeah, I guess you're right" Daichi agrees.
"Well, whatever you say, Tyson." Hilary sighs.
"Alright, it's settled!" Tyson leads the other two back.
...
Wyvynn floats a great distance above the sea on the south side of the tied island and looks through his binoculars. The wind, fierce at this altitude, causes his hair and windbreaker to flutter.
"Hm…" he grumbles a little to himself. "I could have sworn I felt them from around here…but I can't see them anywhere."
He flies in a little closer, careful to stay high enough to avoid becoming visually discernible to anyone who might be on the ground. He then spots something hanging off a tree branch sticking out the side of a cliff. Seeing as no one is in the area, he glides closer and examines the object.
"It's Lux's bag…" He recognizes it from when she wore it in Gamla Stan and from earlier. He picks it up and then looks downwards at the gold lit sea. "Don't tell me they've…"
Noticing a boat approaching in the distance, he ascends again as quickly as he can.
"Phew…that was close." He sighs in relief. He certainly didn't want to make the headlines the next day as the first human being to be discovered capable of flight without the use of technology. Raising his binoculars again to his eyes, he searches some more.
...
The sun soon dips below the western horizon. The sky is a dark shade of blue and the stars have begun to appear. By now, the rain has stopped completely and the sea has returned to normal. Kai sits on a large rock in the narrow, cliff-surrounded cove with Lux who had fallen asleep sometime earlier. Although still damp, their clothing has dried off significantly during their wait. Kai watches the girl sleep peacefully with her head on his lap. With no way to start and maintain a fire and with the sky growing darker and darker, their chance of being rescued by the end of the day appears quite small.
A seagull flies by and perches on a small rock before them. It looks at them and then flutters onto Kai's lap, causing a reaction to escape from him. Sensing the movement, Lux begins to wake up from her nap just as the seagull took off into the air. She pushes herself up and off of Kai and looks around, catching a glimpse of the bird before it disappears from view.
"Bird…" she says sleepily, sitting up.
Kai turns her. "Slept well?"
Lux rubs her eyes a little and nods. "We're still here…"
"Yeah." Kai then tells her, "We might have to stay here for the night since it's getting dark. I doubt there will be many boats out there once it's nighttime."
Lux looks up at the sky to see that it has indeed grown dark. The sky is barely lit and everything seems to be dyed in dark blue. Her stomach then let's out a sound, causing her to return her gaze from above.
"Hungry…"she mumbles at the feeling in her stomach.
Having nothing that would help her on him, Kai chooses not to say anything but a voice answers her complaint from above them.
"Here, eat this."
A pack of chocolates is tossed in Lux's direction and lands on her lap. Kai and Lux, both startled by the action looks up to see Wyvynn landing on the rocky little cove before them. Kai stands up in front of Lux to bar Wyvynn from her and eyes him in distrust.
"Hey don't look at me like that; I'm not here to do any harm and it's not like I gave her poison." Wyvynn tells him. "I'm only here because I ran into your friends earlier and they seemed like they needed help looking for you two."
Lux peaks out from behind Kai to see what is going on.
"Then you're here to help us?" Kai asks him, a little less tense.
"You don't trust me, do you?" Wyvynn then holds out a familiar bag for him. "Anyway, I found this hanging off a cliff. It's belongs to her, right?"
Upon seeing it, Lux emerges from behind Kai and accepts the bag happily. She then turns to Wyvynn with a grateful smile, "Thank you, Mr. Wyvynn."
"Uh…yeah…sure…" Wyvynn answers her. "You can drop the 'Mr.', by the way."
Kai takes some steps towards her as she wears the bag around her shoulders.
"So you two must be stuck here…" Wyvynn eyes the two of them and the tall cliffs that surround them. "Let's see…you're too heavy for me to carry you both at once to the top of the cliff and I'm willing to bet you don't trust me enough to let me carry you two separately…"
"You're right about that if you mean that I don't trust you enough to give you the chance to fly off with her." Kai remarks.
Wyvynn sighs. "Well, then I guess I don't have a choice."
Wyvynn looks around and up.
Wondering what he'd do next, Kai places an arm around Lux to secure her to him just in case.
Seeing as no one else seems to be around, Wyvynn leaps upwards to where the top of the cliffs are and stays at that height afloat. He checks again for people. Finding no one above at the cliff top either, he looks back down at them. "I'll be right back with help, ok?"
Kai and Lux watch him as he goes and disappears from sight. Seeing as he is now out of sight, the two of them return to their seats before. Lux then turns to Kai.
"It is ok to eat this?" she indicates to the bag of chocolates.
Kai examines the bag for a little. It is still fully packaged and doesn't appear to have been tampered with. Other than that the guy did say it's not poison. "Yeah…I guess."
Lux sits back down on the rock and happily begins to unwrap and consume the treats. Kai looks out to sea for a moment before joining her on the rock.
...
An hour passes and then two. The two of them sit simply listening to the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. Not knowing the time and already plenty tired, Lux begins to lean on Kai's shoulder, ready to doze off again. Having nothing else to do during this time, Kai gazes up at the stars. The night sky here, undisturbed by artificial light glitters brightly everywhere. Feeling Lux shift her head, Kai turns to her for a moment to find her looking upward at the stars too.
"They're bright…" she smiles, noting their clarity in the sky. She begins to count them. "One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…Seven of them."
Kai looks back up at the sky. He corrects her, "There are a lot more than just seven of them."
Lux silently continues to gaze at the sky for a while, her eyes scanning for more. "But I can see…only seven."
Kai turns back to her, watching her gaze into the sky. Although it had never been asked or brought up, it would seem the girl has a problem with her eyesight. Finding it a shame that she can see only the seven brightest stars, he holds her gently to him before resuming his stargazing.
Soon a sound in the distance grows and approaches. Waking up again, Lux opens her eyes to see a light approach them.
"A boat must be nearby." Kai informs her. The two of them climb down a few rocks to get closer to the approaching vessel.
"HEEEEEY!" a familiar voice calls out to them, spotting them from the approaching boat.
"How in the world did you two get shipwrecked all the way here?" Tala greets them from the boat.
"We weren't shipwrecked." Kai returns the greeting.
"Whatever, just get on the boat." Tala tells them, throwing a lifeboat out to them.
...
Under the same starry sky in the silent night, Zane carefully folds a gigantic wing over the rest of Lok's body by the light of the moon. Once finished, he wipes off the sweat on his forehead with the back of his sleeve. He then pulls out his phone.
"Lok," he addresses the creature in the coffin. "It seems Wyvynn has still not responded."
"He will likely never respond." Lok tells him. "Proceed for now without him. Our preparations are now complete."
Complying with his decision, Zane shuts the lid of the coffin and continues the remainder of the shipping procedure.