Chapter V: We're Back!

"Are you comfortable, Sir Chrono?"

Chrono lay, head lazily propped on a pillow. Sure, he was not seriously injured from his bout with Yakra (maybe he was bruised a little) – but if the King wanted to give Chrono a rest in the sopoforic knight's quarters, he was more than willing to take it. He'd definitely slept his best since coming to the old Guardia. And he didn't mind the roommates – a few injured knights here and there whose only excuse for being bedridden was that their injuries were great enough to keep them from full battle performance. Oh yes – and the frog, who had been asleep ever since Chrono awoke, and who, aside from being impaled and poisoned, was looking fine.

"Sir Chrono?" It was the maid. From her looks, Chrono would guess she was pushing seventy. But from the sound of her young voice, he would never guess. She never left his side while he was awake – unless he could assure her beyond any doubt the size of a pinhead that he was, indeed, fine, and only needed to be left alone to sleep. The assurances were few and far between. "Is that comfortable for you?" The maid had just applied a washcloth to his forehead (which apparently was injured in battle more than the rest of him) and tucked the boy in for the sixty-third time.

"Yes."

"Good, then. Do you need anything else?"

"No."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Good, then."

Chrono sighed – but he was saved having to endure such suffocating hospitality, for at that moment the doors burst open with all the subtlety of a goose being launched out of a cannon. And in flew the goose.

"Hey, Chrono! What are you doing, still in here?" Lucca squawked, stomping over to the bedside. "You're going to milk your injuries for everything you can? Get out of bed! The king wants to see you anyway. Along with Froggy – who is still sleeping… hey! You could sleep through an earthquake!"

"Lucca – "

"Are you coming or not? Apparently you two are the heroes today – lucky. Or, are you too tired to get out of bed?"

"I'll be there, Lucca. By the way, how is the Queen?"

"Oh, Leene. Yes, well, she's doing fine, for someone who'd been stuffed in a coffin for several hours. The King won't let her take ten steps away from him! It's almost funny… considering… well, you should just get up there."

"Can I have my forehead bathed first?"

"What?"

"Never mind. Tell them I'll be up in a few minutes."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was actually half and hour before Chrono came upstairs. The first thing he saw was Lucca – staring him down from two feet away. "Sorry!" Chrono blurted. "I was… occupied."

Lucca clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Just come on. You've only made the entire place wait half and hour to decorate you."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize!"

"Sorry. I mean… never mind."

Lucca grasped his arm and dragged him into the throne room, crowing all the way – "Here he is! Here he is!" She released her friend and proudly tossed him into the room, where he sprawled in front of the king and queen – and a few dozen knights, squires, nobles, and various other castle-dwellers – who all stared at the red-topped pile of limbs on the floor.

"Ah!" the king beamed, his smile threatening to cut his face in half. "Sir Chrono!" He stood, his left hand firmly entangled in the queen's. He motioned to Leene, and she stood, and they stepped down to Chrono. "Today," the king said, bringing his voice down, "today, Sir Chrono, you are a hero – that is… you've returned my wife to me. You destroyed the monster. Do you realize how much you have done for the kingdom?"

"…"

The king cleared his throat. "Well… Sir Chrono… ah… let me be brief. You shall be honored. Do you have any family?"

Chrono waited a moment before realizing he was to respond. "Oh! Yes. Of course."

"Then they shall be here for your ceremony."

"Ceremony, sire?"

"Yes…" the king gave the boy a sideways glance. "A ceremony of honor…"

"Oh… well, I can't… bring my family."

"I'm sorry. I don't understand. If you have a family, I will send for them at once. They will be here to see you honored."

"I… what about the frog?"

"Frog?" the king arched his eyebrows. "I heard of a frog… a… knight. Where is he?"

Chrono was beginning to tire. "Down in the knights quarters… Sire."

"There's… the frog is… here? Then, why is this frog not here?"

"He's sleeping."

"Pardon?"

"Never mind. I… uh…"

"Hush." The king smiled. "I'll not hold you here any longer. My thanks to you for saving my wife, the chancellor, as well as some others of our more fortunate subjects. Goodbye, Sir Chrono." With that, he pulled Leene even closer to his side, turned, and the two of them strode out and up the stairs. On cue, everyone else in the room packed up their awed expressions and withdrew.

Lucca broke the silence. "That went well." She hurried up to his side. "Maybe that was the rehearsal."

"Lucca!" her friend stared her down. "Now what am I going to do? The king expects me and my family to be here!"

"That's not my fault."

"What am I going to do, just disappear?" He turned to storm off – which would have been far more impressive had he known where he was storming off to.

"I can arrange a disappearance," Lucca said. "That is, you and I can both get out of here. Remember the gate key?"

Chrono stopped. "No."

"Okay," Lucca smiled. "It's our way of traveling those weird time portals. You remember that at least. With it, we can simply walk in and leave."

Chrono had to think for a moment. "So, you're asking me to leave the king without so much as a good-bye?"

"It'll do good for your image of mysteriousness. Come on, what did you eat? You walked in out of nowhere with the 'Queen,' and single-handedly saved the kingdom. It won't hurt anyone if the mysterious knight leaves, on another unknown quest to help those in need."

"I didn't – " Chrono began to protest.

"Whatever. Nobody will mind. Let's go."

"No! What about M – the girl? Isn't she what we came for?"

Lucca stopped for a moment, gritting her teeth. "All right. Fine. Where did you last see her? She might be there."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Chrono!"

It was the girl – sitting on Chrono's guest bed as if nothing had happened. As soon as her rescuer came in view, she hopped right off. "I knew you'd save me! I knew it."

Lucca groaned. "Have fun, Chrono." With a chuckle, she patted him on the back, and slipped away.

The girl came up within two feet of Chrono but didn't step any farther. "You don't look so happy to see me. What's wrong?"

I didn't save you… "N… nothing. Well… do you want to go home?"

"As in, the future?"

Yes. "Home."

"So, you're not much for formalities. Who cares – I don't want to stay cooped up here any longer than now. After being dead for a day."

That would be awful. "D – dead?"

"Sort of. It was awful." She knelt down for a moment. "Like I didn't even exist. It was so dark – and cold – and, I don't know."

I'm sorry. "I suppose it sucks being dead."

"Yeah. Sort of."

Lucca's kind of waiting for us downstairs. "Shall we go, then, N – Marl – er – Princess…"

The girl suddnely grimaced. "I knew you'd figure that out," she whispered.

Figure out you're a princess? That would never have surprised me. "Yeah." Where did that come from?

"Oh, Chrono – " her eyes were staring at the floor, her mouth unsmiling. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie."

I don't mind. "…"

"I just thought that – that if I told you who I was, you wouldn't have… shown me around the fair… but you're not that kind of person, are you." She looked up and began to smile again. "I bet you would have shown me around anyway, wouldn't you?"

I don't know. "Well, yes."

"Thought so."

Well, it's good to see you're safe, exactly as you were before. "Well… we should probably leave."

"What? Without saying a good-bye to everyone here?"

Yes. "I thought you hated this place."

"You're right…"

But nothing. "C'mon – let's go."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"As I said, this 'gate key,' as I call it, is designed to channel the portal in the same way that your pendant did, Princess Nadia."

Lucca finished the climb up to the forest a few steps ahead of the other two, who had quit listening as soon as the opportunity came. Chrono and Nadia had tried to make conversation, but Lucca kept interrupting, and they were climbing, and despite their previous adventures, had nothing to say. The scenery was nice, though – considering that they could all stop to appreciate it.

Nadia had eventually fallen quite far behind, considering she wasn't exactly dressed for the occasion. She had found her own clothes from the future, but for some reason, there were no shoes anywhere. In a gentlemanly fashion, Chrono had offered his own, but they fell right off the girl's feet. (Chrono put his shoes back on – after all, if she couldn't use them, why couldn't he?) He had also offered to stop by a clothing shop and buy some shoes, but both Lucca and Nadia were not anxious to spend an extra second in this Guardia.

All were glad that no surprises awaited them at the top of the cliff. Of course, by surprises, they excluded the glowing blue sphere hovering a foot or two above the foliage. (Chrono didn't think it unwise to assume that was the portal back to the Millennial Fair.)

"Well, then, Chrono, Princess Nadia, let's go."

Nadia shot Lucca a look. "How?"

"Weren't you even listening? This!" she waved the gate key in front of the princess's face. "It's our way back home, Princess Nadia."

"Stop calling me Princess! That's really annoying."

"Fine, then."

Meanwhile, Chrono had already taken the liberty of trying to enter the portal. "Hey, Lucca!" he called, waving his hand through the sphere. "It's not working! Look, I'm going right through the – thing."

"Well, duh! I haven't used the gate key yet."

"What do you mean?"

"I have to activate it – otherwise that portal remains in a separate timeline! Of course you can't interact with it until I bring it into this timeline!"

Nadia put her hand to her head. "You lost me."

"Never mind. See, Chrono, let me show you how it works. It's just a push of a button – okay, that's all you have to know… got it? This shouldn't be hard."

"Right. I understand. Trust me."

"So, then, what are we hanging around here for? Chrono, you can let me do the honors."

"Obliged."

Lucca raised the key heroically, allowing the disk to glisten in the sun. "Okay," she brought the device back down. "Enough with the show – now watch this." With the push of a button, the portal suddenly opened until becoming a circular door into a shining blue mist. "What are you guys waiting for? It's open."