Chapter Nine: Courageous
A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.
-Jean Paul Richter
xxXxx
Yuki nodded subtly, and retreated to a back wall in case the king would want anything else. Even though the crystal ball was on the other side of the room, Baron doubted anything could have made her look away from her long lost human.
"What is it with you and chores, Yoshi-san?" Jack laughed as the females joined the males around the fire. "When you're not in the water, you're doing chores."
"Yoshi-san?" Baron whispered in confusion. 'I thought her name was Chicky.'
"I don't know; what is it with everyone calling me Yoshi-san?" Chicky asked in the same tone, holding her hands toward the fire to ward off a chill. "It's not like any of you don't know what my real name is, you know."
"I know, but Yoshi-san just suits you!" another girl gushed as she passed out small cans to everyone.
The boy who grabbed Lune looked at the can and grimaced. "I thought you were going to get real drinks, Hannah."
"I was, but Dad hid them too well. This was the best I could get without getting caught."
Chicky shrugged, and popped the top of her can to make it fizz with orange foam. "Good thing, too. If any of you had brought alcohol, I'd have stayed home. So, come on; what's the big surprise?" she asked while taking a sip.
"It's our tradition, Yoshi-san," Helen said as she pulled out a large blanket, and carried it to the side of the bonfire facing the beautiful ocean.
It was about then that Baron noticed they were at the top of a cliff.
"Ever since the oldest of our group got a license, it's been our tradition to watch the sun set from here, and have one more party before school starts. Our last night of freedom," one boy said wistfully, pulling some strange looking bags out of the topless metal thing.
By then, Lune had managed to claw a hole in the bag holding him, and had worked one arm and part of his head through. He looked terrified beyond words, but that didn't slow his escape attempt by even a bit.
Wherever the music was coming from, the Magic Dance had come to an end. A new song took its place, one that had a chaotic beat that somehow managed to be triumphant.
"It's also thanks for an excellent competition; you slammed them around like they were nothing, Yoshi-san!" Hannah squealed like a fawning courtier.
'What competition?' Baron couldn't help but wonder. According to his studies, human women weren't allowed to participate in any athletic contest. What had the competition been for?
Chicky shrugged, although a shy smile was present. "If I had known surfing contests were so much fun, I wouldn't have avoided them for so long. So, what? We stay up here, dance around to Jack's boom box, and chow on junk food until long after the sun goes down?"
"That covers it. Unless, of course," Jack said with a wicked smile. "You were hoping for something a little more… interesting?"
Chicky looked at him sharply, and set her can on a nearby rock. "Define 'interesting'," she said in a low, careful tone.
Jack smirked a bit, and nodded at the human who had catnapped Lune.
He nodded back, and looked into the back of the first metal thing. "Hey!" he suddenly barked, jumping onto the metal thing to catch Lune, who had just managed to work himself free from the sack.
"Leave me alone!" the prince yelled as he tried to get away, but was caught too quickly, and grabbed by the back of his neck and uniform. "I haven't done anything to you; just let me go!"
Baron could see how rapidly her eyes changed, at seeing Lune. Knowing that the girl could somehow understand cat speech explained why her liquid eyes suddenly turned as hard and cold as ice.
"Put him down, Mack," she hissed in a menacing tone.
Baron's hide shuddered at how frightening she suddenly sounded.
"Why? Is he a friend of yours?" Mack asked in mock innocence, shaking Lune a bit by the scruff of the neck as he yowled in displeasure.
"Does it matter? Let him go right now, or I'll break every bone in your body!" she ordered, cracking her knuckles in warning.
Baron could somewhat hear Natoru and Natori laughing at that, as if they didn't think she was capable of following through with that threat. Baron had never run across a record of an aggressive human girl, unless one was deeply insulted. However, he was very much inclined to believe that Chicky could, indeed, break every bone in the boy's body if given enough incentive.
"Mack, let him go! You didn't say anything about bringing a cat up here!" Hannah protested as Helen looked on with a satisfied, evil smile.
The song in the background grew louder, and phrases began to be discernable between the instruments.
"I need a hero to save me now! I need a hero to save me now! A hero will save me, just in time!"
In any case, Mack did release Lune. But not the way Chicky wanted him to.
"Someone help me!" Lune sobbed as Mack threw him at the third boy, the one who had driven the big metal thing up to the cliff.
"Zack!" Chicky roared like a lion, running at the boy with raised fists.
But just before she reached him, Zack tossed him to Jack, who started running for the edge of the cliff.
Chicky spared enough time to slam one fist into the side of the boy's face, making him fall to the ground as she ran for Jack, who was eerily calm.
"Goodbye, Yoshi-san!" the leader said cheerfully, throwing Lune off the cliff as far as he could manage.
Baron gasped and jumped to his feet.
"Oh, stop that! I'm right here, aren't I?" Lune asked in the new, snappish tone.
But Baron's attention was solely on Chicky, as she ran even faster, past Jack, and jumped completely off the cliff after Lune!
"Hold on!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, holding her arms out at just the right angle.
When Jack had thrown the prince, he had tossed him higher than Chicky had jumped, which meant that the brave human was able to catch the cat as they intercepted each other in the air. She held him against her shoulder, one hand covering his head as they began to fall to the cold, cold sea.
Lune, mewing in terror, slammed his paw against Chicky's neck and raked his claws deeply into her skin.
Almost bemusedly, Baron noticed that she was wearing a pink satin ribbon identical to Yuki's, although she had for some reason chosen to hide it under the neckline of her white sweater.
"Deep breath!" Chicky ordered as she wrapped her body into a protective, fetal position around the feline prince, and took a deep breath of her own. If she could feel Lune's claws on her neck, she gave no indication of pain.
Lune had no time to answer her, as it was just then that their bodies met the water.
The sea below the cliffs seemed to explode from the impact, sending white water several feet into the air.
Baron's heart seemed to stop in his chest. Rising from the water below the cliffs were several large rocks. It had been a miracle that the two had missed them, but what if there were more large rocks underneath the waves? A number of large bubbles issued to the surface of the disturbed water, but neither of them reappeared.
Now that the crystal ball was focused just over the waves, the humans on the top of the cliffs were much harder to hear, as the sun continued to sink. There seemed to be a good number of cheers, although at least one person sounded hysterical. Baron assumed the hysterical one was Hannah, since she had appeared to be the only one left out of the plan. Out of everything, the clearest sound was the bodiless singer.
"I need a hero, to save me now! A hero will save me, just in time!"
'They were trying to kill her! Lune was just bait! But… why? What could she have possibly done for them to do this?' "How did they know she'd jump for a cat?" Baron mused out loud.
It was one thing to know the girl could speak to cats, but another to know if she'd risk her life for one.
Without warning, the surface of the water exploded again, but to a much lesser degree than the first time.
Chicky took in a deep grateful gasp of air, holding an unconscious Lune over her head. She sank under the waves again for a second while the soaked prince remained above the water. But she was soon back up, and holding Lune against one shoulder. She listened for the sound of his breathing, and squeezed him by the middle until he started coughing up water.
Relief flooded her features, and she started swimming away from the cliffs in long, powerful strokes. She skillfully kept Lune's head above the waves, occasionally bracing herself against one of the large rocks that had come close to killing her to catch her breath. She was always careful to stay on the hidden side of the rocks, in case the humans on the cliff would notice her, but no sound indicated one way or another.
"I'm such an idiot," Chicky growled at herself, lightly banging the back of the second rock with her head. "Of course they didn't really change. They'll never change," she whispered painfully, barely audible above the roar of the waves.
Her neck was bleeding now, staining the nice white shirt she was wearing. The pink ribbon that was briefly glimpsed before was now completely gone.
While resting behind the third rock, since there was a strong current, Chicky began crying helplessly. She held Lune to her face with one arm while using the other to cling to the rock.
"I-I… I'm so sorry… you were dragged into this mess," she sobbed, apparently talking to Lune, who was still out cold. "If I had known what they were planning… I never would have given them a second chance. I'm so sorry, little one."
Baron's heart quite nearly broke for the girl. There was no way he could understand all the details at that precise moment, but he knew pain when he saw it.
Chicky was hurt terribly, and not from jumping off of the cliff or Lune's claws. But after some time, when the sky was almost completely dark, she managed to get herself under control, and continue swimming for shore.
Baron stole another quick glance at Lune. His shoulders were slumped, and a terrible pain was in his eyes as well. But there was also a vast amount of regret, as he silently stared at the girl in the crystal ball. The girl who had not only rescued him, but his secret love as well.
"You'll want to keep your eyes on the sphere, Baron," the king said excitedly, leaning forward in his chair and rubbing his hands excitedly. "This is the true moment I wanted you to see."
Dutifully, Baron turned back to the picture, but didn't notice anything strange at first. Except, of course, that Chicky was a very good swimmer; somehow knowing on instinct whether to swim forward or to the side to encourage the waves to take her and the prince to shore.
Then his eyes widened in disbelief.
After what felt like a lifetime, Chicky was able to get close enough to the beach to stand on her feet, and stumble her way out of the freezing sea. Although she was panting from exertion and shaking from the numbing cold of the water, Lune remained cradled against her chest; both of her arms wrapped protectively around him.
Exactly like carrying a precious baby.
"A human?" Baron yelled in shock. "The Sea Maiden of ancient legend is a human?"
"It would appear so," Lune said numbly, as Chicky fell to her knees in the white sand, and lay down on it for a while to catch her breath.
"Exactly," the king smirked, gazing at the human worshipfully.
Wondering if it was just a coincidence, Baron gave a desperate look to Vulcan, who nodded his head knowingly.
"That maiden will bear the greatest king, ever been."
Without warning, the girl started laughing hysterically, still holding Lune as she sat up again. "W-We're alive!" she gasped, shaking her head in disbelief and horror at what had just happened. "We just made history, little one! No one's ever survived a fall from the cliffs before! Holy cow; Renny's going to kill me when he finds out about this!" she exclaimed, although her tone didn't suggest that 'Renny' would really kill her.
Lune said nothing, since he was still dead to the world, but shivered a bit as the wind picked up.
Chicky sighed, and pulled off her long blue jacket, which had reached a little past her knees. Although the item of clothing was also soaking wet, it was enough to block the wind chill.
That must have been Chicky's line of thinking, because she wrapped Lune inside the coat carefully; leaving herself to deal with the wind. She managed to get to her feet, and begin stumbling away from the direction of the cliffs. She stole a single glance at the distant bonfire over her shoulder; her eyes filled with the pain of broken trust and loneliness.
Magic Dance could just be heard playing again, as excited shadows danced around the flames.
Then she forced herself to look away, and sigh in longing. "I wish…" she whispered softly, holding Lune closer than ever. "I wish… I wish that, someday… things will be different."
The king pressed a button to make the events stop cold within the sphere. "That, my dear Baron, is why I ordered you here as soon as possible. After almost a millennia of waiting, the Sea Maiden has finally been revealed!"
Baron sank back into his seat with disbelief. "A human," he muttered. 'On top of that, Yuki's human!'
"Why are you so shocked, Baron?" Natori asked in a superior manner. "The Sea Maiden's Song even mentions that she's destined to join cat kind. In order for her to join us, she'd have to be something else first."
"I suppose so, but… I never thought she'd be a human," Baron confessed, still stunned that it turned out to be Chicky.
Out of all the humans in existence…
She had to be the best suited for the title. Perhaps that was even the reason she could understand cat speech when other humans couldn't.
Suddenly catching onto something else, he looked at Lune in horror. "Then… you and her…"
Lune nodded sickly, unable to make eye contact with a grieving Yuki.
"Are destined to marry, and produce the greatest king to have ever ruled the Cat Kingdom," the king proclaimed, almost skipping around the room in excitement as he walked to a cupboard, and unlocked it. "And you, my good Baron, are destined to make sure that happens."
"I beg your pardon?" he squeaked, sending a frantic look at Vulcan.
"Without your aid, the Sea Maiden's destiny will never come to pass," the firebird answered confidently. "That is the true reason why you've become the top expert on humans in the entire kingdom."
Baron stared in numb shock. 'How ironic. It was Chicky that sparked my interest in the subject in the first place!' "Even so, the sphere has just proven that there is much I still don't know about humans. Such as how those rabbit-less carriages work, or where all that music came from."
"It was coming from the black box," Lune groaned as he rubbed his temples painfully.
"You still know more than anyone else, Baron. Lune will tell you where to find her, but you'll need this first," the king informed him, taking a golden box from the cabinet before locking it up again.
"You mean… go to the Human Kingdom?" Baron asked sickly.
"Of course. She's not going to come here unless someone goes and brings her, and Vulcan says it must be you to do it."
"As always," Natoru muttered under his breath jealously.
The king walked over, and placed the golden box on the kitten's lap. "I have to ask, Baron; is she pretty by human standards?" he asked with eagerness.
Baron jerked uncomfortably at the question, and snuck a peek at the frozen image.
Her hair was dripping wet, along with her clothes. She was shivering from the cold, but holding Lune close in her coat so that he would not feel it as much. Her face was also soaked with tears, and she looked very tired in more ways than one.
However… her hair was a nice shade of brown, and her eyes had lost their icy coldness. If she'd smile, he'd be able to tell a little better, but from the looks of things, she wouldn't be smiling for some time.
Baron could almost feel Yuki's glare from his hesitation.
"Even if she wasn't, she's clearly beautiful where it counts," he managed to say after some careful thought.
Yuki's glare immediately faded away.
"I suppose so," the king murmured thoughtfully, sinking back into his chair. "I guess we'll see for ourselves when you get that around her neck."
Baron's heart froze for a second, realizing what had to be inside the golden box. He immediately opened it, and stared in wonder at one of the oldest pieces of magic the kingdom had.
By outward appearance, it seemed ordinary enough. An engraved goldfish, hanging by the mouth on a golden chain.
Baron carefully lifted it out of the box, and pressed one finger against the sapphire that was the eye.
The chain immediately doubled in size, becoming large enough to strap around a human's neck.
"Once she stands in a portal and puts that on, she'll be immediately transported to our world as a cat," Natori informed him in his usual superior tone. "The spell binding her to our world will be sealed with just one taste of our food."
"However," Baron said carefully, looking up at the king in worry. "She'll need to put this on of her own free will, won't she?" he asked, since he had done some research on this artifact as well.
"Of course. If we force it on her, something terrible is supposed to happen," the king shrugged dismissively.
"She will be turned into a crazed monster; neither of the Human Kingdom nor the Cat Kingdom," Vulcan offered while preening one golden wing. "I strongly suggest avoiding that; the entire army wouldn't be enough to stop such a creature."
"Your majesty; she won't come willingly," Baron tried to warn.
"Of course she will. It's been foretold, after all."
"I mean to say that I doubt she will be willing to renounce her life as a human. There are bound to be some things she's not going to give up without a fight."
"After almost getting killed for having empathy for our kind? I'd think she'd be grateful to get away. Besides," the king added ominously. "You know the penalty for failure, my lord Baron."
The little kitten nervously raised one hand to his neck, and sighed in compliance. "Yes, your majesty." 'I wish I didn't have to do this.'
"But after the change, remember to bring both the Fish of Nilpan and the Sea Maiden straight to me," the king warned, now shooing the baron out of his presence. "Get going; I need to prepare a banquet to welcome her."
Baron numbly nodded, and set aside the box while slipping the golden fish into a pocket of his jacket. "A word of advice concerning her, my king?"
"Speak," the monarch replied almost dismissively.
"Do not serve mice of any kind. That is a deadly insult in most human cultures, and she seems like the type to take offenses into her own hands. Also, coming to the kingdom will probably be a shock to her; she'll likely more appreciate a quiet and private tea party when she is told of her destiny."
The king thought about it, and how the kitten had implied that the king should be the one to tell her.
Baron did not want to be the one to tell her about the prophecy if he was going to trick her into coming anyway.
"All right, Baron; you're the human expert, after all. Lune, escort him to the bird, would you?"
"His name is Toto, Father," Lune reminded him tiredly as he stood up.
"Whatever. Just hurry up and come back," his father ordered, returning to his favorite chair.
It wasn't until the study was long behind the two that Baron dared to say anything. "So… you're not going to fight this?" he asked gently.
"I already tried, after Father sent you the messenger. All I did was make things worse," Lune whispered miserably.
Baron looked up at him worriedly. "Did you tell him?"
Lune nodded. "Yes. I finally told him. He said that even if the Sea Maiden hadn't been revealed, he'd never allow me to marry her. As things stand, I'm not even allowed to speak to her."
Baron sighed sadly. Although he had long had feelings for Yuki himself, it pained him to see her and his best friend so miserable. "Yet you're going along with your father's plan."
Lune started shaking from fear and horror. "I have to marry her, Baron. Father will kill Yuki if I don't."
Baron's own heart froze up in horror. "We can't let that happen," he said fiercely.
Lune nodded angrily, tears of pain threatening to escape his control. "The portal is the circle of stones beyond the castle walls; the one that's closed off with a gate?"
Baron nodded, although his flesh crawled in horror. 'Why am I surprised? The portal would have had to have been close to the castle for Lune to find Yuki in time for her not to freeze, all those years ago.'
"You'll have to warn Toto to be careful when he enters the portal. The human side is sheltered by a huge rock. That's why Yuki came accidentally; she was just trying to find a dry place to spend the night."
"I'll be sure to warn him. How will I find Chicky?"
"Luckily, that's the easy part. I even had to pass by her home in order to get to the village. She lives in a strange house connected to a tall watch tower, just outside the forest. After dark, light issues from the tower, but I'm not sure why."
"A lighthouse," Baron said in amazement, remembering the invention from one of his more recent books. "They're to warn ships away from rocky waters and other hazards. Muta-san is likely the lighthouse keeper, if he is still caring for her." 'But if that is so, who is Renny?'
Lune made a melancholic scoff. "Even her home's focused on the sea. Why am I not surprised?"
"My friend," Baron said in a soft tone, to keep anyone else from hearing as they walked down the staircase. "What were you doing outside the kingdom?"
The grief in Lune's eyes doubled, and he looked away. "I'll tell you later. Even the walls have ears, you know."
Baron nodded, although by now he was insanely curious. What could have been important enough to the crown prince to risk a trip to the Human Kingdom? Although he had no proof of it, he was certain that it had something to do with Yuki.
"If you had known where to find Chicky from the beginning, would you have been able to avoid this mess?" Baron asked softly.
Lune clenched his fists tightly, but nodded. "If I had known she was Chicky before running away to return home, I might have avoided this."
Baron gaped at his friend. "You mean you couldn't tell? It was blatantly obvious who she was."
"Not to me, it wasn't. How did you know?" Lune asked suspiciously. "Did Yuki sneak it to you?"
"No, but she did confirm it. I mean, really! I can't see how you could have missed it!"
"Keep your voice down!" Lune hissed at him, as two servants opened the door leading out of the palace. "It's not like I talked to her or anything!"
Baron stared at him in shock. "How on earth did you manage to avoid talking to her? Wasn't she around when you woke up?"
"No, but I could hear noises from another room that sounded like her and running water. Steam was billowing from the door. I managed to work one of the windows of the room I was in open, and escape. I thought she was preparing to boil me," Lune admitted shamefully.
"Were you still wet?" Baron asked pointedly.
"Well, no. I was in a nest of towels, and she had left me near a huge roaring fireplace. I was dry when I managed to leave."
"You didn't even thank her for saving your life?"
"My memory was foggy at the time; I didn't remember that she had jumped after me! I mean, who would expect something like that from a human?"
"Yuki would," Baron said softly as they entered the stables, where Toto was happily eating out of a large fruit bowl.
"Yuki would what?" the crow asked after swallowing a peach whole.
"… It's a long story, my friend," Baron sighed, patting one of Toto's wings. "However, here is the short version; as soon as you finish resting and eating, our next assignment is to retrieve the Sea Maiden."
Lune laughed darkly as Toto gaped in astonishment. "I wonder how you plan to do it without telling her who she really is."
"It's a simple matter of probability, my friend. I'm far more likely to get her to come if she doesn't know she won't be returning to her world."
The prince gave him a sharp look. "She'll be furious when she finds out the truth."
Baron sighed heavily, and sat next to a still stunned Toto. "I'm afraid her ire will be inescapable at this point, no matter what we do. I highly recommend you thank her for saving your life, as soon as you get the chance. It may just save your life again when she discovers the truth."
xxXxx
A/N: The lyrics from the song after Magic Dance are from Skillet's 'Hero', yet another highly recommended song.
Oh, and QuickStar had the idea about the necklace being able to change Haru's species. Thanks for the tip!