"I do believe so, Natalie." Eva provides an answer to her question after she ruffles her son's hair with one of her hands.
"Where are you going, daddy?" Kiera curiously poses to her daddy once she hooks her arms around his neck and nestles her head in the crook of his neck.
"We're going to show Princess Mai our kingdom. Plus, Natalie will be our security." Aikka answers his daughter's question.
"Can we come too? We don't want to stay in the castle it's so boring!" His daughter inquired about if they were allowed to join their party.
"Is that fine with you Natalie, if they come along with us?" He faces the raven-haired woman and catechizes.
"I don't see a problem with it. So shall we get started?" Natalie agreed to the now expanded group of six people.
They observed a horse pulled a carriage in their direction.
"I'm surprised that you dragged this old thing out, Natalie, good job." The orange haired male compliments her after he registers the particular horse.
The carriage halts right in front of him.
"It wasn't really hard. Actually, all I had to do was mention your name and they gladly built another one." The captain discloses to him after she, along with King Aikka, helps Eva up the carriage.
"Ladies first," Jordan says before he allows Mai to enter the carriage and decides to sit on the opposite side of the queen.
"Alright Kieran get in after Ms. Natalie." The king instructs the eldest twin before he climbs inside of the carriage and sits to the left of his mom.
"Jordan" "Aikka" The two politely and simultaneously greet each other's by name.
The Avatar opted to go ahead and settle in a seat between a highly irate Natalie and a super clingy Mai.
The Noursaian hooks the door on to the special latch so it would not randomly fly open if they were to hit a rough bump.
It would then become a potential hazard for both his kids and riders.
"Kiera, I want you to sit next to your brother, okay?" The young man advises after he places his daughter down.
She nods her head and obediently joins her brother.
"Alright everyone is in, let's go." The solider gives the signal to the horse driver when they feel the carriage wheels turn.
They were making there way down the front courtyard of the castle.
0000
'This is getting me absolutely nowhere. All of the reports seem to say the exact same thing.' He inwardly grumbled before he came across a report that was filed from Natalie's battalion.
It began as the others had but this one was reported for the Noursaia Priest Water Fountain. "There is a possibility that there are two assailants that are after the king and queen."
Rick instantly rose to his feet once he finally had his first solid lead. He was going to capitalize on the fact that the Royal family was currently under Natalie's watch.
'It has to be something that those idiots overlooked when they processed the crime scene.' He mentally presumes as he develops a mental list of all the locations that were in reports.
The closest one was where he had found Eva when she disappeared that day.
A gentle breeze blew his long hair away from his shoulders once he traveled where the little mouse would go if she ever wanted to escape from the castle.
'A perfect hiding spot would be…those bushes.' The man determines once he stands in front of the pool of water that was a lake.
He then faces the rather large bushes that were about ten feet away from his current position.
'There has got to be something in these bushes.' The knight inwardly assumes.
Rick starts to mimic the actions of a stalker with the intention of not being discovered.
A small piece of brown cloth caught his sights when he reached in and gently yanked the small piece of fabric out of the branches hold.
'So there was someone here…the gardener uniforms aren't brown but a yellow color.'
The older male ruled out the fact that it could have been someone, who cared for the flowers in the surrounding area.
Suddenly, he could make out two prevalent spots that were in the ground.
'The first one comes from someone heavier than the person on the right since this one is well-defined.' He examined after one of his hands lightly grazed across the two flat spots of matted grass.
'This confirms that someone snuck inside of this area to spy on Eva, but for what reason?' Rick concludes to himself.
The knight stuffed the piece of cloth inside an empty pouch before he decided that he should probably move on to the next location for some more clues.
0000
"You have a beautiful kingdom." Mai says to no one in particular during their rounds of the entire kingdom.
"Why thank you, but you should really thank the architects who first founded Noursaia."
"They pretty much nailed everything down to a tee when it came to building a new civilization." Natalie states before she feels Jordan shifts in his seat.
Kieran and Kiera constantly stared at the woman that they learned, whose name is Mai. They briefly caught a glimpse of each other and nodded their heads.
'She's the one that was talking to that black rabbit.' The two recall from the other night.
Natalie was directing their sights to the park that was semi-busy with Nourasians leisurely walking around enjoying the day.
"Legends say that if you state the name of the person you love over the statue, your wish will come true." The Avatar revealed to Mai, who suddenly seemed interested in the legend.
"Did it work for you King Aikka?" She directs the attention toward the King, whose arm is around his wife, when he searches for the asker of the question.
When he saw Jordan nodded his head toward him, Aikka knew that he lied but he wanted to keep her with a smile on her face, "Yes, it did."
"Ms. Natalie, tomorrow can we cone here? I would like to see if the legend would come true." The princess curiously demands with an expression as if she was about to burn down buildings with her gaze.
"Sure, why not? It won't be a problem, at all." The captain confirms.
A thought soon passes through her mind, 'I can't believe she fell for that lie…she must really be an airhead.'
"You know it's not nice to talk about people you don't know." The golden figure leans over and whispers to Natalie, who merely jabs him in the side with an elbow.
'Look whose the one talking…' She permitted her mind to drift back to the conversation that Jordan had with King Aikka and Queen Eva in their private room.
"So while we were there, I was using my powers to read her mind to see whether or not she was enjoying spending time with me but my little plan backfired."
"Natalie found a way to block me out when she was attentive to what she was doing and not only that but she managed to use my technique against me."
'People who use their powers to bring misery on to other people, the Avatar isn't suppose to have that image.'
The rest of the tour went smoother than Natalie had expected.
Princess Mai was keeping the Avatar busy along with the king and queen there silently keeping him in check. This in turn was allowing her much more freedom and a worry free trip.
"Mommy, we're hungry." Kieran and Kiera verbalize in unison while they look towards their mother.
"We're almost home you two. Can you wait a few more minutes for mommy?" Eva calmly suggests to her children when she glances over toward them.
"Mhm," The two were humming before nodding their heads and going back to talking to each other.
"You know you never told me how many you were having. I would love to know." Jordan unexpectedly popped the question, which earned a glare from Eva and a smile on Aikka's face.
He asked the exact same question earlier.
"I don't feel like talking about it right now. I feel sleepy." She retorts when she gently drops her head on to her husband's shoulders.
The lights of the castle had somewhat of a homecoming feeling for the twins. Their mouths began to water at the thought of what all they might have to eat for dinner.
"Alright everyone, we made it back to the castle. This is the last stop on our tour."
"You did a fabulous job on being our tour guide, Natalie." Mai sincerely complimented her while Aikka rose to his feet and unhook the latch on the door and swung it open.
"I agree with Princess Mai, you did a great job." Eva extends her personal compliments to her, who thanks them for their appreciation of her job.
"Thank you Queen Eva and Princess Mai for the compliment."
Jordan merely rolled his eyes at how Natalie sounded so fake toward Mai but truly sincere toward Eva.
'She's just going to live her life like a little…never to amount to her potential.'
0000
"I see you made it back with all your limbs intact." Rick teases Jordan after he approaches his old friend.
"She wanted to kill me that badly?" He demands.
The raven haired male merely shakes his head in disbelief at his blantant attitude about the situation he was in with Natalie.
"Is there something important that you wanted to ask me?" The Avatar wondered why he was stopped in the first place.
"Nope, just wanted to see if you would come back dead or alive. Luckily for you, my wish came true."
"Well see you later then." The older man replied before he drew closer to Natalie, who cordially chatted about the tour around Noursaia.
"Natalie, are you done here?" Her father politely interrupts after he approaches his daughter.
"Yes, sir. I had to tell him to come back here tomorrow so I can pay him for the services he provided to us."
"What's wrong?" Rick hears her poses to him.
"I wanted to tell you that someone else has been added on the mission along with us." He discloses to his daughter.
"Who is it, dad?" Natalie requests about the identity of who was going to join the case along with them.
"Don't flip out when I show you who it is. Follow me to my office." The raven haired male advises his daughter, who dutifully complies with the order.
'I wonder who it is?' She was conjuring up some ideas in her mind the whole time she was following her father to his office.
"Come on in." His voice instantly snapped his daughter out of her thoughts while he opened the door.
"Hey there, Natalie." The person cordially greets her while her pupils grow wide, "Not you…"
0000
"Come on you two! Take your seats at the table or you won't eat." Eva threatens her kids once they run right pass her to take their respective seats.
"Food!" The two happily exclaim after they observe the butlers bring out food for dinner.
She innately sensed that her kids wanted her to join them for dinner.
"Is there something wrong, Eva?" The raven haired woman with crimson tips overheard her husband asked upon his entrance in the dining hall.
"Oh…it's nothing now." The young woman brushes it off as she trudges over and sits next to Kiera. Her husband settles in a seat next to Kieran.
"Mommy, isn't the Avatar and the lady going to join us for dinner?" Her daughter innocently posed after she took her seat.
"I don't know. They were pretty tired after the tour of our home so I think the butler will send their food up to their rooms." Her mother provides an answer as best as she could.
"Did you two enjoy Natalie's tour?" Their father purposely queried to his kids in order to change the topic.
"Mhm, she sure does know a lot about our world doesn't she?" His son replies to his question when he asks another one.
"I didn't know about that legend of wishing on someone's name and they will be your lover." The little girl expresses her delight in her favorite part of the trip.
"You shouldn't be worried about love for a while young lady." The Noursaian sternly warns her.
Eva could tell his protective nature emerged after what their daughter said.
"...but mom, what do you think?" She hears her youngest asks her.
"I say listen to your heart and go with your instincts. But like your father said, you shouldn't be worried about that at this moment." The older woman delicately handles it since she follows along with her daughter thought process.
"If mommy says I have to wait then I will!" The light brownish red head declares while she peeks up at her mother, who returns the same small gesture.
Aikka simply stares at his wife, who could only shrug her shoulders, since she knows what that look means.
"So are you two ready to go back to your lessons with Master Canaan?"
His sights observed his daughter froze for a moment before she proceeded with her meal, "No, not really, since Morose is going to be back there."
"Besides her, don't you want to go back to learn so more of Master Canaan's teachings?" The orange haired male was probing until Eva was sending him the look of a mother lion protecting her cubs.
"I am sorry if I brought up any bad thoughts of you and Morose, Kiera."
"Will you accept my apology?" He quickly apologized to his daughter before he noted that her eyes dazzled at him.
"Mhm, I do, daddy. But I am ready to go back and learn so I can be as great as an archer as you are." She excitingly conveys with a tone of happiness.
"Kieran, do you have the same goal as your sister or is there something else you want to do?" The older woman directs to her son since she did not want him to feel left out of their conversation.
Her crimson eyes watch him nod his head a yes, "I want to be better than both dad and Master Canaan put together."
Aikka was ruffling his son's hair after hearing his goal, "Well good luck with that. Now since you told me that I'll have to up my training then."
"Hey, I want to be better than dad and Master Canaan, too!" His twin suddenly changed her goal after she heard what her brother said.
"How about this Kieran and Kiera...work as a team to be better than your father and Master Canaan?"
"You will get there much faster." Their pregnant mother encourages her twins to work as a team.
The y nodded their heads and once again, in synch, responded with a "yes".
2222
Author's Notes:
11.28.16 Major editing revision
Major editing cleaning 06.24.17