One review, huh? *sigh* I guess I'm no good at humor. Anyways, thanks to MinaBlahBlahAnimeFan for ALWAYS reviewing. So yeah, that's it. Read and review… please?
"Uh, Bubbles. N-nice to meet you. . .?" I stood on tiptoe and reached out a hand to the earth giant, who stuck out his pinky figure and gave me a clumsy handshake that rattled me from head to toe.
"Your turn, Ikuto. Say hi to Bubbles," Rima said dispassionately.
"Hey." Ikuto gave Bubbles (I was still getting used to that name) a brief nod. Bubbles roared a greeting in response.
He was at least twenty feet tall, an enormous size for a baby giant. His long arms draped down to just past his knees and his legs were short and stubby. A huge potbelly poked out from a lioncloth wrapped around his torso. Fat giant, stubby legs. Just great.
"Now, let's meet the mother," Rima continued briskly, setting off into a tall, narrow opening in the mountain where Bubbles had first come from.
"H-how tall is she?" I sped up to catch up with Rima, who shrugged.
"Who know? Eighty feet, one hundred?" I shuddered internally. I honestly could not even image Bubbles times four.
"And everyone else is safe?" Ikuto half-mumbled.
"Yeah, Utau's fine," Rima said breezily, causing Ikuto to shoot her one of his best death glares. "We ran inside here after Kukai warned us about the avalanche and there was Bubbles and his mom. They've been taking care of us for the past two days." Rima glanced back at us with our skin, tinted blue from the cold, and our bodies shrunken slightly with lack of food. "You look like you didn't get so lucky."
"I went after Ikuto and Kukai a couple hours before the avalanche - you were asleep, Rima - but we didn't get away fast enough and the avalanche hit us full force. I used magic to save our lives but I was out like a light for the next two days," I narrated my side of the story.
Ikuto took over, relating what had happened more recently. "It was tough, because I couldn't get us out while was Amu was unconscious, and then all we could find of you was footprints."
"You really thought we'd die on you?" Rima snorted. "Sorry, but it'll take more than that to finish us off." I could barely see a tiny smile on the little blonde's face.
"Rima." A low growl interrupted us. I jumped, knowing exactly where it came from. "You have returned. I trust you punished Bubbles adequately?"
The earth giant mother stepped into full view. Her size was just, just. . . overwhelming. It was like I had suddenly become a mouse and here was this giant, staring down at me with unreadable eyes of mottled jade. Sure, I had seen buildings taller than this, but seeing human form this size took my breath away.
"Who are these two?" The giant rumbled.
"Amu, a Guardian, and Ikuto, a longtime friend of ours," Rima replied promptly.
The giant narrowed her eyes. "Guardian? Your people stay away from the mountains, do they not?"
I swallowed nervously, trying to explain my peculiar situation. Somehow the thought of lying did not enter my mind. "I'm being tracked, Your. . . Your Earthiness, I'm technically a criminal."
She laughed, and each guffaw of hers reverberated along the caves walls, and bounced into my ears in an endless mesh of sound. When it finally slowed, the giant continued, still restraining laughter, "My dear Guardian, call me Daisy, for I am no Earthiness. Size is no guarantee of power, as your, ah, petite friend so kindly displays."
"Hey!"
"I, uh, where's Utau? Ikuto's crazy worried," I blurted. Ikuto elbowed me sharply.
"All your friends are right here." Daisy (another odd name) led Rima, Ikuto and I through a twisting passageway of stone. It seemed like an endlessly wide cavern, though it just barely fit Daisy's size. There were no windows - the only light source were enormous fiery torches that lit up the cave with a flickering glow.
"I live with my children, Bubbles and Pebbles, as well as my husband Obsidian. So do not be surprised, Guardian and friend of Rima, at the presence of other beings my size." Daisy's way of speaking bewildered me. As far as I could make out, she was warning me that Obsidian and Pebbles were humongous as well.
As time passed Daisy's footsteps sped up, and we were forced to begin running to keep up with her. (Poor Rima was going full speed ahead and falling behind the rest of us already.) By the time we reached a set of large granite double doors set into the cave, even Ikuto was panting slightly.
"Welcome to our home," Daisy said grandly. I hesitated, afraid of such a house where the doors alone cleared one hundred feet tall.
"Come on." Rima tugged at my torn jacket. "It's not that bad."
Daisy knocked once on the doors, sending off an eerie echo that chilled me to the bone. Thumping footsteps on the other side of the doors followed. I gulped and gripped Rima's wrist anxiously. She shook me off, striding up to the doors and meeting the giant who swung them open with a loud creak.
It must have been Obsidian standing there, for this giant was larger than Daisy by nearly fifty feet. He was muscular, with broad shoulders and big, worn hands and calloused, bare feet. His eyes were stormy gray, unreadable as Daisy's jade-green eyes.
And so I was completely taken aback when Rima called up to him, "Hey, Pebbles!" I blinked uncomprehendingly, trying to imagine Obsidian's height if this was what the son was like. I was not kept waiting long, however, as more heavy footsteps followed.
Obsidian, as a matter of fact, was not taller but considerably shorter. He had a slightly stooped figure and a lightly wrinkled face. His eyes were pitch black and oddly glossy, as though they had been coated in liquid glass.
"Rima!" Pebbles scooped her up in the palm of his hand. Next to him,Obsidian's glass eyes found me and he promptly asked in a low rumble, "Friends of yours, Mashiro?"
Rima nodded. "We'll explain everything. Can we go inside? Ikuto's dying to see his sister."
"Shut up," Ikuto mumbled. He had been quiet - well, quieter than usual - since we had entered the cave. I had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with his dear sister.
"'Kay then, come on." Pebbles lumbered past several large doors and showed us over to a small (in comparison) room where the familiar faces of my friends were already jumping up to meet us.
They all looked healthy, so much more alive, and it hit me only then how much they had been changing since we arrived in Tiraldae. Slowly, their health had been declining. It was only now that they were back in a somewhat normal state that I realized how Tiraldae - how I - had hurt them.
Yaya bounded up to us as if she were on a sugar high and tackled me in a hug, shocing me out of my mini-trance. "AMU!" she screeched. As fast as she had attacked, she detached herself from me and attempted to hug Ikuto in a similar manner. He sidestepped, though, and Yaya landed face-first on a foot-thick rug.
Nagihiko clapped Rima on the shoulder. "So you found Amu and Ikuto, huh? What a coincidence."
"I'm just that skilled," Rima said, suddenly assuming an aloof attitude.
Tadase and Kairi approached us together. "Amu, Ikuto! I'm happy to see you're okay." Tadase smiled brightly.
"You're safe. I'm glad," Kairi said calmly, though the look in his blue eyes displayed his relief.
"Ikuto, you had me all worried that I shouldn't have left you there. Idiot." Kukai punched Ikuto by means of greeting.
Utau shoved her way through everybody else, rushing forward to Ikuto. I watched, waiting to see Ikuto's face melt in joy. But he only smiled briefly and patted his sister on the head. "Yo, Utau."
That was strange. Even for Ikuto, I would have expected something more out of him, especially the way he'd been acting. Could it be that it wasn't even Utau that had been bugging him?
A suspicious part of me nagged me to ask him about it later. Everything that guy did was a different puzzle to solve. It infuriated me at times (most of the time) but it was also just Ikuto.
A warm surge of feeling surged through me, neither happiness, nor sadness, nor frustration. It was just that being here, safe for a little while, with all these people who trusted me by my side, it was nothing like what I had ever experienced before. Despite the darkness of the caves that enclosed us or the fact that there was a death threat issued against me -
I felt free.
"So," Obsidian stooped further over a giant-sized map that was large enough for us to run a race across. "You have come from here," he pointed to Klohodäe, "and wish to reach the capital?"
"Yes," Kairi confirmed.
"That's one heck of a long walk for you puny guys." Pebbles leaned back in his chair. "And you say you've only got three months?"
"Two, now," I supplied. "Nearly a month's passed since we came here."
Daisy frowned. "That is simply not possible. Assuming you are extremely fit and need few breaks, you can cross the mountains in three weeks. You would have reached the central district, which is highly populated. I take it that you want to avoid capture?" We all nodded. "In that case, you would have to wind around here," Daisy sketched an elaborate path skirting the towns with her finger, "and somehow get to the palace. This road would take four months in itself."
"Four?!" Kukai gasped. "No way!"
"Can't you help us?" Utau asked.
Obsidian gave a long sigh, casting a glance back to where Bubbles was babbling to his giant toys. "Earth giants are generally emotionally bound to their homeland. We could take you as far as the towns, but even then we would have a risk of being hunted down."
"Do Guardians not accept you or something?" Rima questioned.
"Kinda." Pebbles took over. "You guys must have realized, we don't have names in Yue, the language spoken 'round here. English is spoken down south, where we come from. We're technically not s'posed to live up north, so those little Guardians would freak if they saw us."
"We could give you transport," Daisy said thoughtfully, "but we giants need something in return."
"What?"
"Freedom."
"So you're saying," Yaya began incredulously, "we have to beat up EVERYTHING in these mountains?!"
"No," Obsidian corrected. "Just the Durakn."
"Yeah, but, they're giant DRAGONS!" Yaya spluttered.
"Why can't you do it yourself?" Kairi challenged.
"They've put us giants under a spell - they have powerful magic - as we were their only threat. We can't find them, even if they were right under our noses," Pebbles grumbled.
"Aren't you the invaders, though?" Kairi continued his interrogation.
"The mountains belong to us!" Daisy roared, green eyes suddenly turning poisonous with rage.
"What should we do, Tadase?" Kairi turned to the taller blond.
"I don't have authority over this. We have to ask our magic experts - Ikuto, Utau, Rima, and Amu." Tadase turned to us.
"Well then, what do you say?" Kukai asked us.
"Go for it," Rima said promptly. "The giants did save us, after all." I expected no less out of her. It was ironic how the the smallest of us all had been the one to become closest to the giants.
"I dunno," Utau said dropping her voice so that the giants couldn't hear her, "But it seems wrong to drive out the people who were here first."
Ikuto glanced at me, and I could feel him analyze everything in the situation, the balance between doing the right thing and getting home. "I say, let's do it. We have to get home before we all die."
"Ikuto," I whispered. "Even on Earth, they're going to track us. You know that, right?"
"Of course," he muttered back. "But it'll be easier to fight in home territory."
"Don't do this for the sake of going home, or whatever," I told him. "Do it for what you feel is right."
Ikuto ignored me. "I'm sticking with my answer."
"Amu?" Tadase asked.
"I. . ." I looked at all of them, waiting for my answer. If I sided with Utau then it'd be a tie. But I knew even before I began speaking what my answer was.
"We have to fight the Durakn."
"Welcome, Kimura family," King d'Atsa greeted the family of three that filed into the grand study. "Please, be seated." he gestured to the empty seats set at an ornate wooden table. The room was slightly dimmed, lit only by a few lamps at the corners of the room. The light provided cast a dull glow over the bookshelves and desks that made up the royal study.
"You are the family whose house was broken into by Amu Hinamori?" Queen Kiandyr asked.
"Yes." Midori answered tensely.
The queen flipped through a file filled with various information on the family. "You are Amu's family, previously with the surname of Hinamori, am I correct?" They nodded again.
"So, tell me what happened." Kind d'Atsa leaned forward.
So Ami began with her high, trembling, voice, narrating the story of how she had encountered her older sister on the stairs, asking to use the portal. How Ami had declined, blasting Amuout of the house, where she disappeared.
"You did well, Miss Ami Kimura," Queen Kiandyr complimented. "Perhaps it would have been wise to capture her, but for a seven-year-old with your magic capabilities this was the best thing to have done."
"Thank you," Ami mumbled.
"Now, if we could discuss further matters with your parents, I will see to it that a servant attends to you. Miki!" King d'Atsa called.
The blue-haired servant walked inside with her tense, robotic footsteps. She kneeled at his feet in one graceful move. "Yes, Your Majesty?"
"Attend to Miss Ami Kimura. See to it that she is treated well."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Miki stood up stiffly and said to Ami in an emotionless voice, "Come." Ami followed rather nervously, scared of this robotic girl with a blank face.
"Um, where are we going?" Ami asked as Miki closed the study door with a soft creak. She flashed the young girl an unexpected smile. "You don't have to be scared of me. I know I look intimidating when I serve the king and queen, it's just that. . ." Miki glazed up at the ceiling.
"Just that what?" Ami prompted as they turned the corner.
"Never mind.I'd be put in jail if I finished my sentence," Miki said wryly. She paused, looking at Ami's little figure, bright golden eyes and bouncing curls of creamy brown hair. "So, you're Amu Hinamori's sister."
"Don't judge me," Ami snapped.
"I'm not," Miki chuckled. "Was she nice?" she added.
Ami shuffled nervously. ". . .Yes," she admitted finally. "I thought she was the best sister ever."
"There's nothing wrong with that," Miki continued, opening a door to luxurious sleeping quarters. "I envy your sister," she confessed.
"What?!" Ami cried.
"It's a good thing the inner part of the castle has no security, or I'd be dead by now," Miki sighed. "It's because just by surviving, she's standing against the laws of the king and queen."
Ami sat down on a fluffy bed. "Yeah, and that's bad, right?"
Miki avoided Ami's eyes, instead gazing out the window. "Amu. . .is free. We are not."
"Mi-ki!" A muffled voice struck through the door. The servant jumped and rushed to the door. She paused there, one hand on the doorknob, and gave Ami a sad smile. "I hope we meet again, Miss Ami Hinamori." And then she disappeared down the dim hallways to serve someone else, cart around something else.
Ami leaped off the bed, calling down the hallway, "Miki!"
Miki turned, her sapphire eyes wide. "What?"
"It's just Ami, if we ever meet again!"
Miki looked ready to burst into tears, but then the voice called sharply again, "MIKI! Idiot, come here!"
"Very well." Miki's voice broke. "I-if we ever meet again."
In the hours after Miki's departure, Ami could do nothing but brood over what the blue-haired servant had said. Miki had talked of freedom, but weren't they free now? Weren't the king and queen doing the best for the country, by hunting down Amu? And if Amu was truly free. . .what was the price she paid in return?
Yeah, I'm done with honorifics. The bit about 'feeling' goes to Prisoner of Readers, whose ideas are really awe-inspiring.
Like it? Hate it? I'd like to know. ReachForTheSky is out.