Chapter 3: Best Friends Forever
Carinthia softly blew on her tea, and took a gentle sip.
“Ow!” She exclaimed. “Darn, still too hot”
“Mine too…” Elena said from across the table.
It had been a year since Carinthia and Elena had been
caught after playing outside, but it had hardly been the last time. They often
slipped out to practice swordplay, archery, and Carinthia would practice her
alchemy as well. As their skill grew, so did their friendship. Carinthia was the
daughter of the King and Queen of the Steam Nation, a princess. And, as was the
case with many other royal children, her parents found her a friend. Elena was
the daughter of a farmer who had not been able to care for her as well as he
wanted too. So, when the queen asked him if would like to have his daughter
raised in the palace, he jumped at the opportunity. And so, Elena grew up as a
servant and companion to Carinthia. Her father would visit her every few weeks;
these were fun times for the girls, as he would bring whatever simple gifts he
could. Sometimes, it would be a fresh apple. Other times, he would have made
straw dolls. But whatever the gift was, it was always a delight for Elena to
see her father.
“Elena, isn’t your father visiting today?” Carinthia
asked, stirring a sugar cube into her tea as she spoke.
“Yeah, I can’t wait!”
“Me neither! Oh, here, let me cool of your tea.”
With a wave of her hand, Carinthia lowered the
temperature of both her tea as well as Elena’s, and they both took sips.
“Ah, perfect!” Carinthia said in delight.
“Mine too, thank you, gentle Carinthia.” Elena remarked,
pursing her lips, and making her best impression of an adult.
“You’re most welcome, my Lady Elena.” Carinthia replied.
Then, both girls giggled, and continued to sip their tea.
A few hours later, Elena’s father arrived with a bag of
fresh fruit from his orchard, and spent an hour with the girls. They snacked on
apples together, and shared stories of the past few weeks. Elena and Carinthia
related how they had snuck past Margaret to get fresh cookies from the kitchen
earlier that day. Elena’s father laughed heartily at this, and then told them
about how he had caught a boy in one of his trees and spanked him. All three
began to giggle uncontrollably at this point, and still had trouble finishing
the fruits afterwards. Finally, it was time for Elena’s father to leave, and he
said goodbye, gave Elena a hug, and, leaving the remaining apples with the
girls, left the castle to return to his farm.
Later that evening, as Elena and Carinthia were getting
ready to go to bed, Margaret stopped them and, with a stern look on her face,
asked, “Oi, you two. There were several cookies missing this morning. You
stinkers didn’t have anything to do with it, did you?”
The girls just looked at each other, then turned back to
Margaret and shrugged. After glaring at them for a few moments more, Margaret
huffed and left. The girls looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
Margaret turned and glared them, and the girls stopped laughing and ran off.
Later, as they were getting into bed, Carinthia turned to Elena and said,
“Elena, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I don’t know.” She replied.
“Me neither, but I know that whatever I do, I want to do
it with you!” Carinthia said with a smile.
“That sounds good to me!” Elena said.
“Best friends forever?” Carinthia asked.
“Best friends forever.”
Queen Mary stood on the balcony, gazing out at the
moonlit city beneath her. The palace was a very large building, and one could see
the entire capital from the balcony. A cool night breeze blew her long hair
back, and she closed her eyes to enjoy the moment.
“Mary?” A strong voice behind her inquired.
“Yes George?” She replied, turning to her husband.
“The
time is drawing near when we need to tell Carinthia, about her destiny.”
“I
know. She’s ready, I just don’t know if I am. She’s still my little girl.”
“And
mine, but the sooner the better. We don’t know what will happen in the coming
years. If our research is correct…”
“I
know, I’ve been following the research. It’s just…I don’t know. I don’t want to
lose her, to destiny, or the disaster, or anything.”
“I
know, it’s alright.” George replied, embracing her. “I love her as much as you
do, but she needs to know…”
Jethro stared in unbelief at the pictures of his dead
Aunt and Uncle on the TV screen. How did this night become so twisted? He had
David Forun in his grasp, and had let him go. And now, he had paid the price.
His shock turned into a fierce anger, and Jethro decided to hunt David down. He
threw on his running clothes, strapped his old machete to his back, and left
the house to join the search for David Forun. His first stop was the police
station, where he tried to find as much information as possible. As he entered
the building, he saw his old friend Marcus speaking to another officer. Jethro
had known Marcus since they were in elementary school together. They had been
friends for a while, but had gone their separate ways when Jethro displayed an
interest in music and the arts, while Marcus wanted to go into law enforcement.
They joked that if Jethro’s clubs ever got too loud, Marcus would let them off
easy.
“Hey, Marcus!” Jethro called out.
Marcus turned, and upon seeing his old friend, a wide
grin crept onto his chiseled features. His light brown skin glinted in the
brightly lit police station.
“Jethro! It’s good to see you!” He said, grabbing
Jethro’s hand and giving it a vigorous shake.
“Hey, I’m so sorry about what happened to your Aunt and
Uncle, we’re doing everything we can to find Forun.”
“Yeah, about that. I’m actually going to do a little
hunting of my own. Is there any info you can give me?”
After a pause, Marcus replied, “Jethro, look, I know
you’re upset about losing Jane and Michael, but you can’t just go kill the
guy.”
“Yeah, you’re right, I am upset. But I don’t plan on
killing him.”
Marcus’ eyes widened a bit, but Jethro quickly replied,
“No, what I mean is…look. I can’t just sit around and do nothing. I want to
help too, but if I find him, I’ll turn him in. That’s all; I need to do
something.”
“Than what do you need that machete for?” Marcus said,
raising an eyebrow.
With a chuckle, Jethro replied, “Heh, it looks good on
me. Besides, it’s not like I’m ever really unarmed, right?”
“True.” Marcus said with a nod, “You’re alchemy never
ceases to astound me. Well, here’s what we know. Forun is definitely hiding,
maybe in one of the local thug hideouts. We have teams in all but one, and
we’re putting together a crew right now. It’s the old house, you know, the one
near the hospital? You can go ahead if you want. But remember, he’ll need to be
tried, we don’t want him dead.”
Marcus gave Jethro the exact location of the hideout and
sent him on his way. With a clear goal in mind, Jethro steeled himself for the
coming confrontation, knowing that it would be up to him to make the right
decision for everyone.
Mei had lived a very fine life. Her father being the
royal inventor, and her mother being one of the top scientists in the world,
their family of three had more money than they knew what to do with…sometimes.
Their mansion was closer to a palace, complete with a staff of droids servicing
the multiple facilities they had. These included kitchens, training stations,
and VR rooms. Mei had also received some of the best education in the world,
learning almost everything from home. Her teachers were her mother and various
Virtual Reality programs. Their family owned some of the best VR technology the
world had to offer, including official military training programs, theories on
astronomy and biology, and more. She was often left to her own devices, as both
her parents led busy lives, and though Mei was prominent in the online gaming
community, she had no real friends to speak of. So, it should be no surprise
that one night, she decided to take a night on the town. Grabbing her gauntlet,
she decided to start with a walk down the street.
It was a beautiful night, it was just becoming the cool
season in Asia, and the cherry blossom trees dotted around her house were as beautiful
as ever. A chilly evening breeze blew through her hair, and she shivered.
Drawing her jacket closer around her shoulders, she continued her stroll. Then,
realizing she would never reach Tokyo on foot, she drew the wind around her and
rose up into the air. Flying was always an enjoyable experience for her, the
rush of the wind in her face, the feeling of power as she gazed at the world
underneath her. After a few minutes she reached Tokyo, and landed in front of
one of her favorite restaurants. After enjoying a meal of sushi and fried
calamari, comfort food for her, she stepped outside again. Looking around her,
she noticed the large digital clock on one of the buildings to her right.
Realizing she had been out much longer than she had expected to be, she leapt
into the air and flew towards home.
As Mei flew through the air, she closed her eyes to enjoy
the cool night air. Then without warning, she felt a rush of wind fly past her.
Her eyes flew open, and she turned her head to see a masked man dressed in
black flying a few meters from her, wind surging around his clenched fist. She
looped up as he shot another blast of wind at her, missing. Then, she sensed a
blast of heat coming and threw herself backwards, watching as a fireball flew
past her. Turning, she saw another man, dressed the same as the first one, but
with a jetpack strapped to his back, and holding a fire ball. She looked from
one to the other, and then shouted, “What do you want?”, her voiced straining
as she tried to shout over the wind. The two men did not respond, and instead
flew closer together. The one in a jet pack summoned another fireball, but this
time threw it at his companion. The other man caught the fireball with a gust
of wind, combining the two elements into a swirling orb of electricity, which
he launched at Mei. She barely caught it in her armored right hand, and
redirected the bolt into the night sky above her. It looked like she was in for
a rough fight, and it wasn’t going to end well, for them at least.
Mitchell stood on the sidewalk, drinking his tea with
slow graceful sips. Tokyo was a fun and bright city, and the people here were
civil to their neighbors from the Steam nation. However, he still preferred
Europe’s tea to the cup he held in his hand. He almost dropped this cup when he
saw a flash of purple light up the night sky. Could it be her? Mitchell didn’t
know, but he had to be certain. However, he had no way of getting air-born.
‘This place has a vending machine for everything, if only they had one for
jetpacks’ he thought to himself smiling and shaking his head. Then, his eyes
suddenly widening in surprise, he watched as a woman across the street stepped
up to a machine, swiped a card, and put on the jetpack that had emerged from
its steel frame. He quickly closed his hanging jaw and ran over to her, dodging
the sleek cars that whizzed past him.
“Excuse me miss.” He said, speaking the native language
of the Lightning nation with ease. “What exactly do these do?”
“Well, they’re basically jetpacks. You’re from the Steam
nation, right? If you’re a fire, you can propel yourself using fire alchemy.”
The woman replied.
Thanking her, Mitchell pulled out his credit card, swiped
it down the reader on the machine’s body, and picked up his newly acquired
jetpack. He quickly read the directions, then after a running start, sent a
surge of fire into the jetpack and took off into Tokyo’s night skies.
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