Fantasia

Arc2: The Quest

Chapter7: One day closer

"Juan! Come down here it's dinner time!"

"Don't worry bro, your brother will be always here to protect you!"

"Juan! If you can't hold the sledge, then leave the shop you're gonna hurt yourself!"

"And this is how you catch a fish with your mouth!"

…

"Where am I? Who am I? Ceci…lia, yes Cecilia! Where is she? I have to warn her, Tsuki…Tsukiname, she wants to murder her fiancée, Dean and Marcy are there too, she could kill them all…I have to be there! But I was there! And Artemiciano was there…and he…he killed ME! I am dead! And if I'm dead, am I in heaven or hell? Or maybe there's no such thing as heaven and hell! What am I saying? There's heaven, and there's hell! But where am I?!"

These were Juan's distorted thoughts, after his monstrous battle against Artemiciano, everything seemed black to him, did he get blind? No he didn't! He could see blurry images, wide blue surface, is it sea? He can see some white blots moving gently on its surface, what are these? Boats, perhaps?

He tried to open his mouth, he felt some cold sensation, it wasn't water, it's just air, he tried to move his hand upward, but a severe pain hit him, changing the course of his palm to his head, after few rubs he could hear an annoying noise piercing his ears, but it cleared away and finally he could hear vividly; the sound of galloping, and creaking of wooden wheels, is he in a windmill? No it can't be! The blue surface that his eyes are catching sight was the sky! He's outside!

Then a familiar boastful voice hit his head intensely, it was Roné's! No, no, no! Roné's petrified! It was his armored new friend's voice, what was his name? Dune, no Dean, that's right Dean! He smiled feeling unexplained safety with that man near him, he raised his heavy body slowly, so he finally felt the soft thin layer of textile under his bottom:

"Dean?" the shepherd said asking the man who was in front of him, before he realized that he's on a wagon and Dean was driving it.

The knight turned back and halted the wagon, and in a flash! He jumped at the orange head hugging him until the harsh cold edges of his armor stressed Juan's ribs:

"Shit man! I thought ye'll never wake up!" Dean said with eyes and nose dripping on his friend's messy hair.

"Dean! You are squeezing me!"

"Sorry man but…you! And the prince! The palace!" the knight tried to explain but he could only say gibberish things.

Then Juan's eyes went to the other side of the wagon, there he saw Cecilia, sleeping and okay, and a straw hat with a pink bow on it, Tsukiname's! He rushed to her to find the imp sleeping like a baby next to his gift.

He thanked God from the deepest of his heart, he wanted to ask about what happened to him? To the prince? And everyone? Where are they? But it was interrupted by Dean waking up the girls:

"Princess! Tsuki! Wake the hell up! He's okay! Juan woke up!" the Dean shouted from the bottom of his heart freaking the women up.

Tsukiname heard that! She woke up and jumped at the shepherd giving him a soft embrace, with all what her weakened body had, followed by the princess, he didn't care what they were saying to him, it just felt so warm, is it because they are safe? Or is it because women are hugging him? He just didn't care as long as his conscience is relieved; he succeeded and stopped Tsukiname from murdering the prince…the prince!

"The prince?!" Juan asked in worry.

Everyone's expression turned gloomy -of course Juan didn't remember that he turned into a fiery beast and attacked the prince- he only remembered that the prince planted his chest with glass shards, and then everything gone black:

"Oh you don't remember?" the princess asked.

"Remember what?" Juan answered the question with another one.

"You've blasted half of the royal palace!" Dean shouted.

Tsukiname slapped the knight like she's saying: "I thought we agreed not to tell him!"

Then the imp approached Juan and started to tell him everything:

Juan's rage turned him into a fire demon that attacked the prince blindly, everyone thought that they are goners, but somehow the prince managed to match those wild powers and calmed the beast.

After that he left the castle in silence apologizing to Cecilia about his brute behavior, at that time Juan and Tsukiname were in coma, and as told by Dean; Marceline suggested that Juan won't be able to wake up soon, so they assumed to take him to an empyrean mage as well to be healed, and so Dean was in charge for the mission, Tsukiname joined them mysteriously, and with much ignorance Cecilia ran again to follow the, and here they are six days away from the tower of Grimoires.

By the end of this brief story, Juan found it hard to believe, but he just nodded in silence, and set his mind toward reaching the tower of Grimoires, he actually started to enjoy this quest, he made new friends, he felt that he's starting to escape the cage of his fears, as he learned more about his body and his special powers.

Six days of traveling taught him a lot about them, and made him closer to his companions, they were like family, they shared secrets between each other, and they molded bonds that are near to perfection.

He and Cecilia took basic lessons of self-defense from Dean and Tsukiname, while the two humans learned many things about fields and wild life from him, he learned that imps can switch their shapes between adults and children in order to conserve their magic flow, yet he didn't dare to ask her about her true motive to attack the prince, because he felt that she's starting to forget her vengeance, and become more calm.

It was the sunset of the sixth day, they had only to cross the Morau Forest that separates them from the northern shores of the main continent; a widely spread sea of trees, it's rumored to contain many magical species of animals that one cannot find anywhere else in the main continent.

They had to set a camp, as usually they spilt chores; Juan gathers twigs for fire, Dean takes the steed to tie it in a safe place and while he's back he brings water, Tsukiname would keep an eye on them, and Cecilia set the tents and the pots for food, yes even a spoiled girl like Cecilia learned how to cook, from her keen impression of her childhood friend Marceline.

Around the camp fire, they shared stories of their previous adventures, of course they did this every night since Juan woke up from his seven days coma, but this night was special, because the tower of Grimoires is one dawn ahead, the shepherd was too excited, soon! Only one day! He'll be able to reach the promised place!

There he was ready to do anything in return for saving his clan, he didn't care if he had to pay a fortune or to live in slavery as long as his clan is saved, and for that main reason he slept too early, he wanted this night to pass quickly.

But something felt wrong, especially for a decently raised kid like Juan, that was selfish from his side; he didn't care of what the other three felt, it's true that the princess wants to heal her father as well, and Dean was helping them for the money he'll get.

But Tsukiname, that mysterious midget, she just followed them, accompanied them for no obvious reason, this left a gap in his heart that chased sleep away from his eyes, he woke up looking for her, he noticed a shadow up the pine tree near his tent in front of the big moon, he called her by name, she ignored him at first, but she somehow jumped down to meet him:

"So Juan, couldn't you sleep?" she asked.

"Um yeah, so Tsuki, I want to ask you something, I mean…why did you come with us? You could've left us…" he answered.

"Because I had a vow on myself" she answered with a pale smile.

"Vow?! What sort of vows?"

"I swore that I'd protect you until you finish your quest and return home safe" she explained.

"Wow! Thanks but, why me? We just met days ago…" the shepherd asked.

Then the imp wiped a tear that dropped from her bandaged eye: "Because you are too kind, you remind me of my deceased brother; Inari" was her answer.

Inari? Juan heard this before, yes! That night when the prince almost murdered her, she called him by this name, he reminded her of a dead person! No that wasn't any dead person, it was her brother, this moved something in his heart.

This warm moment made the orange headed youth embrace the pale pigmy involuntarily, but this moment was interrupted by Dean's swearing on another tree, they headed toward him to see the knight throwing daggers at the branches like he was hunting for something:

"Dean! What's wrong?" the shepherd asked.

"Some damned monkey or something hit me with a freakin' pine while I was pissin'!" the knight answered in anger.

"No that's No monkey! It's a magical tribal!" Tsukiname answered with her mage eye focused on the tree.

-Mage eye: It's a very common notion in such magical world; when someone is born with a sufficient magic power in his/her bodies, their five senses gets adapted with magic so they can see, smell, and feel through their skin the existence of other magic users, their sight sense then is called mage eye-

The imp didn't spare a moment, and unleashed her extending arms, and with swift swings she made her target fall on the ground.

The freaked out Cecilia joined them holding a pan for a weapon, as they approached this shadowy figure, slowly they came closer to this threat, before it stood up on two feet, and in a matter of seconds they found out, it was a woman!

The four of them looked closely to this bare footed girl whose identity was revealed by the pale light of the moon; she had such an attractive slender curvaceous body, pale skin with a weird purple tone, she had a round face with her eyes wide and yellow in color ,her mouth was small, as her scruffy green hair flowing beyond her thighs, her body was covered by a revealing green dress of leaves, that only covers her breasts to reach what's above her knees.

She lifted her right hand and pointed her finger to Dean: "Metal boy! Stop urinating on Nimmy's friend!" she ordered him with a vicious accent.

The other three looked with a disgusted accent to the knight, who looked confused:

"I didn't pee on anyone! I just pissed on the tree!" he objected.

"Metal boy! Dare say it again!" the girl said in a gibberish way.

"Okay we are sorry, but who are you?" Juan said trying to calm her down.

The girl started dancing like a ballerina in a so peculiar way introducing herself: "Nimmy's name is Nimmy, Nimmy lives in the forest with Nimmy's friends; the grass, the flowers, and the tall trees, but metal boy came and urinated on penny, and now Penny is sad! Nimmy's sad! No! Nimmy's mad! Nimmy wants to hear metal boy apologize!" she finished her introducing with an angered squeal.

Everyone looked mad at Dean asking him to apologize, and so he did by putting his hand on "Penny" and saying nice things, making Nimmy applaud:

"So Nimmy, where are your parents?" Cecilia asked Nimmy after she calmed down.

"Parents? Can Nimmy eat parents?" she asked.

"No no, Parents; like mother and father?" Juan tried to explain.

"Mother? No Nimmy've been in these woods for many times, but Mother never passed by here." The forest girl answered naïvely.

"She doesn't seem to be familiar with people, she doesn't even seem human to me." Tsuki concluded.

"No! Nimmy is not human, Nimmy is a Nimmy!" she introduced herself more.

"Well I think we'll be alright since she's harmless" Juan commented.

"So Nimmy, have you seen the tower of Grimoires?" Cecilia asked.

"Grimoires? No, Nimmy don't remember knowing anyone with this name".

"So I think she's useless for our quest, I think we should sleep" Tsukiname suggested.

"Yeah I think I'll sleep too, better than wasting my time with a half naked big breasted forest chick!" Dean added.

"I think Nimmy will sleep in my tent then" Cecilia said making Nimmy jump of joy naïvely like a little kid .

But at this moment Nimmy gazed toward the north, as her teeth clenched, Juan noted that and asked what's wrong, Tsuki felt threat coming from the north too, as her beastly instincts floated to the surface of her mind, but Juan pleaded her to calm down, before he too felt the air turning heavier, and gloomy aura burdening his shoulders, it was worse than the day he fought prince Artemiciano, this threat is way deadlier! Everyone set themselves for another troubling battle.

To be continued