Search in Kirtos Chapter 3: The Search
No trace has yet been found of the ladies, even though Porom and Lotte did woke up early.
She looked at her daughter, Lotte didn’t slept well after the story Porom told her. The little girl yawned loudly and didn’t seem fully awake yet.
‘How long do we have wait, until miss Karima is here?’ Lotte asked her mother.
‘Calm down, sweetie. Calm down.’ Porom held her daughter closer to her, ‘You’ve gotten so excited, last night.’
‘Why are we so early, mommy? I wanted to lay in bed for a little longer.’ Lotte yawned again.
‘I told you last night to go back to sleep, but you wanted to go on a adventure right away.’ Porom shakes her head, ‘After you finally got to sleep, it was time to wake up.’
The two noticed Karima, Solyana and Young-hee approaching them. The ladies were wearing their traveling clothes again and were carrying the weapons with them.
‘Good morning Porom and Lotte, are you ready?’ Karima asked, ‘I think we can go now.’
‘Haven’t you slept well, Lotte?’ Solyana kneeled down to the sleepy girl, ‘You don’t have to go, if you are too tired.’
‘I do want to travel with you! Tired, or not tired!’ Lotte placed he arms to her sides and seemed insulted.
‘Oh calm down, I didn’t want to make you angry.’ Solyana looked distraught to Lotte.
Porom chuckled, ‘Oh yeah, that’s how Lotte is. Always up for an new adventure.’
‘Alright, let’s hop on board quickly. We have no time to lose.’ Karima suggested.
The ladies entered the ship, Solyana walked towards the edge and looked in the far distance.
‘If my calculations are right, we will make a landing in half an hour.’ She said.
Porom took also a look, but even on daylight she didn’t saw the island.
She gave Solyana a weird look. The dark skinned girl noticed Porom looked at her and giggled.
‘You wonder how I am able to see from a distance, right? It is because of the power of the sun, every royal family member of our Kingdom Tanïro has been blessed by the Goddess sun powers. That’s why I have gold colored eyes, since my birth. And also exceptional eye sight, that’s why I am good in archery. Why else do I hit the bullseye every time?’
‘But...how are you able to make the arrows turn into a different direction?’ Porom asked.
‘Also because of the suns powers. As a child, I’ve practiced a lot to shoot with bow and arrow.’ Solyana explained, ‘By using my sun abilities I am able to control where the projectiles will land. After impact, the enemies will combust into flames, since my arrows are as hot as the sun.’
‘That is awesome! But one more thing. How did you manage to move into the crowd?’ Porom went on, ‘I was afraid that you got trampled by the soldiers last night.’
‘I running every day, that is what I needed to do for my profession in Tanïro.’ Solyana said, ‘I am a clan leader, I am leading ‘The Order of the Rising Sun.’ We from our clan make sure that the travelers, who are traveling through the Mahira desert, will make it safe to their destination. We have to move quick and freely through the desert, to make sure to safe the travelers, or defeat the enemies in time. I’ve run many long distances in my life to get strong legs. That’s why I dressed so lightly. If I had to run in my princess dress, I couldn’t get far, with all that fabric around my legs.’
Porom wanted to open her mouth to ask for another question, but decided to be silent. Solyana seems to be happy in who she was.
‘Let’s cast off. The earlier we will go, the better.’ Karima said.
The captain of the ship gave orders to the crew, and in no time the ship set course.
‘Hmm, it doesn’t look nice here.’ Porom said. The ship was close to the beach of Kirtos.
Even though the island looked pretty, with the white sand and green leafs on the palm trees, it was completely uninhabited. There were even no birds flying through the sky, or other animals that were suppose to live there.
‘Lady Karima, are you sure we are suppose to be here?’ The captain asked the blonde warrior.
‘I am sure of that.’ Karima looked at the deserted beach. Porom also took a look, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hop off board. The beach had an ominous feeling, something she couldn’t put a finger on.
‘Right then, we will lower a boat where all five of you can hop on.’ The captain said.
The ladies climbed on a small rowing boat that got held up with ropes. After everyone took their seats, the crew carefully lowered the boat.
Young-hee and Solyana each took a paddle, and rowed towards the beach.
Lotte sat close to her mom and didn’t want to go overboard. Now she was closer to the waves, it was a more scarier than when she was on that ship.
After rowing for a while, the ladies hopped out of the boat and towed it further into the island.
Young-hee grabbed a rope, and tried to tie the front of the boat at the tree. But suddenly her eyes get blurred.
‘Eung...be quick...be quick...’ She murmured, with hazy eyes she looked towards the group, ‘Two men had found our village...the discovered our secret place...be quick...uuh...’
‘Young-hee!’ Karima shouted in shock. The Yeonamese woman collapsed and was breathing heavily. Lotte held Poroms hand tight and looked scarred towards Young-hee.
Porom could only agree with her daughter, her moments of being in trance seems to only gotten worse.
‘Solyana, can you take a look where the village is located?’ Karima asked.
Naeam sadiqi, I’ll be right back.’ Solyana nodded. She turned around, and “SWOOSH”...she took off at full speed.
Porom blinked with her eyes after she saw Solyana had disappeared between the trees.
Karima helped Young-hee back up, the lady still looked pale, but her brown eyes seems more lively again.
‘I want to know what is going with you.’ Porom got fed up, ‘My daughter get very scared of you.’
Lotte looked confused from her mom, to Young-hee. She wanted to say something against it, but she decided that it is better to be silence.
Young-hee looked apologetic at Porom. ‘Joesonghabnida, I had to tell you this earlier. So I will explain this now. I am a medium, I can see people who had passed away, and talk to them. Sometimes I get a “visit” from a spirit that wanted to talk to me. Then I will allow it to let me go into a trance, especially when it is a important message. Sometimes people think that I am crazy, but at least those spirits helped me before.’
‘But is it not difficult for you?’ Porom asked, ‘It seems really scary when a ghost temporary take control of you.’
‘That’s how I always was, since I was a little girl. Even tough...sometime I just wanted...to be more normal.’
Young-hee turned away, Porom felt a bit sorry for her. Maybe she shouldn’t snap to her.
‘But miss Young-hee, can you make little ghosts appear, right?’ Lotte asked curious.
Young-hee looked at the little girl and her face brighten a little bit.
‘Of course, dear. I can summon Kyu for you. He really loves to make new friends.’
She formed her hands into a bowl, from her palms Kyu appeared.
‘Annyeonghaseyo.’ The little ghost waved with his flame hand towards Lotte.
‘Hello ghost, you look really cute.’ Lotte was radiating after seeing this little trick.
‘Kyu sadly can’t understand you, he only speaks and understand Yeonnamese.’ Young-hee shakes her head, ‘But I will tell him with love that you want to be his friend as well.’
‘You are the coolest girls I have ever seen!’ Lotte said happy. Porom and the other ladies laughed, the whole incident seemed to be forgotten and forgiven.
They noticed Solyana running back towards them.
‘Ooh, guys! You will never guess what I just found!’
‘The village?’ Karima raised an eyebrow, ‘We were already looking for that.’
‘Not only that, I discovered also the dungeon.’ Solyana didn’t seem to be out of breath in the slightest, but also ready to rush back towards her discovery.
‘Take us to the village. I am ready to take back what belongs to us.’
Porom and Lotte went after Karima. Solyana was already way ahead of the group.
‘It feels completely dead for sure.’ Karima looked around through the abandoned village.
Porom could only agree with her. Not only where the houses and streets empty, but it looks like no one has ever visited the village ever since.
The houses have not been maintained for years. There are cracks on the walls and moss did start growing on the doors.
‘I told ya?’ With a smug look Solyana placed her hands on her hips, ‘Not only that, when you enter that house, without the door. You see underneath the cupboard, a hatch.’
The entered the home, which had the door torn off. Inside the saw indeed a cupboard. Carefully, the four woman moved the piece of furniture aside with Lotte watching the floor, she noticed the hatch on the floor.
After Karima opened the door, the group saw the stairs that ascends to a dark cellar. Porom and Lotte couldn’t see where the stairs will took them.
‘Hmm, I think I see a row of torches through the darkness. Let me try this.’ Solyana took her bow and aimed at the dark hallway.
After she shot the arrow, a few lights appeared in darkness.
‘Wow, that was really cool!’ Lotte jumped up and down from happiness.
‘Thank you, now we don’t have to play Blind’s Man Buff in the cellar.’ Solyana winked.
The group ascended the stairs and entered the barely illuminated hallway.
Porom didn’t had a good feeling about this. She knew last time when she entered a cave with Lotte, to retrieve the amulet, that a bad surprise was waiting for the two.
Even though she knows that the group is bigger this time, she want to protect Lotte as best as possible.
‘Huh? The hallway stops here.’ Karima said.
Porom looked up, it did look like that the owner did stop excavating the cellar, for...whatever reason.
‘Now what?’ Porom looked around and wasn’t sure what she needs to look for.
‘Hmm, maybe it was a normal cellar.’ Solyana said thoughtfully.
‘But we had to enter a dungeon, somewhere in this village.’ Karima looked from Solyana to Young-hee, ‘The spirit did told you about that, right?’
‘Ooh, a chessboard! Let’s play!’ Lotte noticed a chessboard and two chairs in the corner of the hallway, that strangely look perfectly fine.
The chess pieces were not put away however. I did seem like a game was being played, but never being finished after the owners escaped from the village. The pieces weren’t standing on their starting position, like they needed to be.
‘Lotte, it doesn’t seem like a good idea now.’ Karima shakes her head.
‘I’ll take white, so I begin.’ Lotte wanted to pick up the knight.
‘Lotte, don’t touch it! The board does not belong to you!’ Porom spoke sternly to her daughter.
But Lotte ignores her mother completely. She picked up the knight and moved it closer to the black king.
‘Check!’ She giggled mischievously.
Quickly she stopped, the floor underneath them starts shaking.
Slowly they feel how they ascending into a hole. The floor felt like an elevator that goes deeper and deeper into the ground.
With a light bump the elevator stopped, revealing a small room with no way to escape.
‘Lotte, look what you have done!’ Porom snapped at her, ‘Now we are stuck inside a hole.’
‘I’m sorry mommy, I only wanted to play.’ Lotte looked dejected to her mother.
‘That looks like a strange wall.’ Karima looked at a stone plaque that has been surrounded by a arch made of bricks. The plaque had a white and black checkered pattern.
Her fingers slid over the painted squares, the paint must be really old.
‘It looked like...a chessboard’ Porom said while looked up, ‘Oh yes, look! There is the black king, at the same position like the real chess piece is now.’
In the upper row of the painted chessboard, a white square was occupied by a chess piece. The king was standing lonely in the row, with few red arrows pointing at it from different spots.
‘Hmm, I think it is a door that only opens, when you checkmate the king.’ Solyana looked at the door in thought.
‘Kyu, I want you to go through that door, and explore the dungeon further.’ Young-hee spoke in her own language to the ghost, that appeared next to her.
With a weird laugh, the ghost went through the door and disappeared. Porom wanted to know what was there at the other side.
‘Shall I quit playing?’ Lotte asked timid.
‘No Lotte, I actually want you to checkmate the king.’ Porom smiled at her daughter.
For a while, Lotte was solving the puzzle. It was harder than they thought it looked.
They noticed that there were not much pieces available on the board. It wasn’t easy to make sure the king couldn’t move anymore.
From time to time, Lotte took another look at the image and tried something new.
Restarting the entire game was impossible, there were just too few pieces to start a fresh game.
‘Do you have an idea?’ Karima whispered to Solyana.
‘I don’t know, I can’t play Chess.’ Solyana whispered back, ‘I can play Senet though, but the squares has no symbols, and I have no sticks or pieces to play.’
Lotte looked questioningly at her mother, she gave her daughter a reassuring smile.
‘Keep trying Lotte, you can do it.’
‘Oh? Hold on?’ Lotte looked all of the sudden at the edge of the board. She started to move the pieces, like a real game was being played. At one point, she managed to put the king at the same spot as on the painting.
‘Now it is white’s turn and then...checkmate!’ She moved the bishop to the spot, diagonal where the king is standing.
After she spoke the words, the plaque of stone starts moving downwards. A new, illuminated hallway was being revealed.
‘Amazing Lotte, you did it!’ Porom said amazed.
‘Am I a good chess player, or what?’ Lotte proudly jumped off the chair.
‘Eung? Beolsseo dol-awass-eo?' Young-hee said surprised. Kyu has appeared next to her.
The ghost starts to rattle in Yeonnamese to her. Even though Porom couldn’t understand any what has been said, she knew something was wrong. Young-hee’s eyes grew wide.
‘We have to be quick now, the portal will open any time soon!’
‘Let’s put a stop to this. Come with me!’ Karima shouted.
The ladies ran through the hallway, and descended into another set of stairs.
After they reached the end of the hallway, the girls entered another large, round shaped room. At the back of the room, a large stone tablet stood there, with a hole that is big enough to fit a coin in.
Strangely, the room was completely empty, was it the end of their search?
‘End of the line, gals!’ A voice sounded from behind. Gregory appeared from a dark corner of the room. With a evil smile he holds the coin in his hand.
‘So that’s where you hid from us!’ Karima grabbed her weapons and held her shield in front of her.
‘Don’t forget me.’ An icy voice sounded. Fergus entered also the room, from the dark corner.
‘You guys are so busted.’ Karima spoke as calm as possible, ‘You guys can’t go anywhere, now that we five of us have surrounded you.’
‘Oh, don’t worry about it. But you are right, we don’t need any more onlookers in this chamber.’ Fergus didn’t seem impressed.
He snapped his fingers, and the door behind the two men closed. Now the entire group was locked in.
‘I give you one final chance.’ Karima’s look sharpened, ‘Hand over the coin and let us go!’
‘Do you really think we will hand over the coin, now we are this close to our goal?’ Gregory roared with laughter.
‘Mommy told me that you want to summon the Eidolons, that is not allowed according to the master!’ Lotte stood in front of the two men, with her hands placed on her side.
‘Oh, and that’s up to you, little runt?’ Fergus smiled scornfully.
‘Oh look, Fergus. The little girl is having a family trip with her mommy.’ Gregory laughed even louder.
‘Get your hands of my daughter!’ Porom grabbed her staff, her grip getting tighter out of frustration.
‘Try to touch the girl, if you dare!’ Solyana shouted while grabber her bow, ‘With five against two it wont be easy.’
‘Of course, princess. You are right about this. We can use some reinforcements.’
He raised his hand and zombies starts the crawl out of the walls. They started to surround the women.
‘See, now the battle is more fair.’ Fergus spoke calmly, ‘Now I am going to do, what I came for.’
The necromancer moved carefully between the zombies, that came closer and closer to the ladies.
‘Lotte, please don’t panic now.’ Porom said with a shaky voice.
‘Don’t worry, mom. I’m going to do what I’ve practiced at school.’ Lotte raised her hands and shouted, ‘Cure!’.
The arm of the zombie that tried to grab Lotte burned off first, and then the walking corpse collapsed.
‘See, that master is right. Zombies will die from Cure.’ Said Lotte proudly.
‘I think you have to use it more often, because it will get tough here soon.’ Karima slayed a few zombies down, with her sword. She noticed a small pool of water, in the corner of the room, and concentrated on it.
After the blue stone of her chain start glowing, the water from the pool rose up in a giant drop.
The drop flew quickly at the zombie that Porom didn’t noticed. The drop exploded and it blasted a hole in the zombie’s body.
‘Phew, thank you.’ Porom looked up after she killed a different zombie with Cure. She must make sure that her magic supply also had to be used to heal her friends.
Young-hee had a big scratch on her cheek.
‘Gamsahabnida.’ she said after Porom healed her. Young-hee already slayed some heads off, and Kyu was helping her to battle the undead.
Meanwhile, Solyana had fired an arrow to the ceiling. From that one arrow that got stuck there, a whole rain of burning arrows was being formed. The zombies that were unlucky got burned with a screech.
‘You...stupid brat...’ Gregory said through clenched jaws. He noticed the amount of zombies quickly decreasing by Lotte “healing” spells. The girl was happily casting Cure to kill of the enemy.
‘I’ll make sure you won’t tell the story after all!’
He grabbed her by her collar, and tried to stab the little girl with his dagger. Porom attempted to stop the large man, but Kyu flew just in time towards Gregory and hit the big knife out of his hand. It felled with a clatter on the floor.
‘You darn ghost, I will crush you!’ The man ran after Kyu, who stuck his tongue out. With flailing arms he tried to catch the ghost, but his hands went through his transparent body.
‘Don’t worry, Gregory.’ the voice of Fergus sounded calmly, ‘The portal opens, we are out of here. Enjoy the rest of the show, as long as it will last.’
He cast a spell, and his body start to fade into smoke.
‘That’s great to hear Fergus, I’m done here. Time to report to Sarumor.’ Gregory’s body start to also disappear into smoke.
With an evil smile, the bandit and the necromancer disappear from the dungeon.
An bright light suddenly appeared from the stone tablet. A strong wind starts blowing inside the room, out of the hole where the coin had being placed.
The white portal starts opening from the hole, long black claws came out of it. The zombies that hadn’t been defeated yet, started to disintegrate. The ladies however are still there.
‘Aah, do something!’ Karima yelled. She tried to keep standing straight, but the wind keeps pushing her towards the wall.
Solyana fired a few arrows towards the portal, but they bounced back when they came near the portal.
‘It doesn’t work! The portal is way too strong!’ She shouted back.
‘Kyu!’ Young-hee shouted. The little ghost started to disappear as well, it wasn’t strong enough to resits the powerful portal.
Porom looked with fear to the growing portal. Any moment now, the darkest Eidolons would exit the portal and enter this new world. Killing the women first, and later destroy Olympica.
She look at her daughter, Lotte was shaking all over and was making gestures with her hands. Gestures that Porom remember when she was a child, gestures that she and her brother did...when the danger...get too close...
Wait...
‘Lotte! Foucus on me, please!’ Porom called her daughter over. Lotte turned around and seems to be frozen out of fear.
‘Let’s make the same gestures as I do. Trust me.’
Lotte nodded and folded her hands, in the same way as her mother did. They made the gestures at the same time, almost synchronized. Like as they practiced it for years.
‘What...what are they doing?’ Porom heard Solyana asking.
‘I don’t know, but we are screwed...’ Karima groaned.
Porom and Lotte ignored them, they kept making the hand gestures, like mother and daughter. Maybe for the last time.
Just as Porom was about to give up, it happen. Their hands starts to glow green.
Lotte looked up surprised, and Porom nodded her.
‘Comet!’ They shouted together.
A lot of small comets shoots through the room, towards the portal. A series of little bangs were being heard. The portal starts shrinking, but it was still present.
‘Keep going Lotte, this works!’ Porom said to her daughter.
‘I’m not giving up!’ She answers.
Another series of comets flew through the room. “BOOM!”
After the loud bang, the stone tablet started to crack.
The group saw how the portal started to close even further, the claws retracted themselves in the portal that starts to disappear in the hole.
After the wind stops blowing and the portal was completely gone, they saw the coin shatter in to pieces.
The little sharts of the coin fell quietly on the floor. Porom walked upon it and picked up the shattered remains of the coin. The beginning of all the crazy events was no more.
‘Well, I am happy to say even today Fergus and Gregory had failed their plan.’ Karima sighed with relief, she put her weapons away.
‘Oh Kyu, you are back!’ Young-hee happily said. The ghost appeared again next to her, but it seemed really weakened.
‘I don’t know what you did, but that was amazing!’ Solyana looked amazed towards Porom and Lotte, ‘You two saved us!’
‘Oh, I saw how mommy made these gestures before, when I was little, and that was funny!’ Lotte laughed, ‘I was thinking about something cheerful, before my end was near. But luckily, it wasn’t necessary.’
But Porom knew better. She was only able to do these kind of spells with Palom, because she had a strong bond with her brother. But she never knew that she also could do these spells with Lotte. It didn’t work with Kamil, and Alphonse was too young to understand it.
Maybe it was...the love between a mother and her child. Lotte was also a white mage, like Porom. Maybe when Al is getting older, she can teach him to do Twincast with Lotte.
A sound of moving stones sounded in the room. The door that had trapped the group into the room, opens again.
‘Come with us, Porom and Lotte. We are done here. Let’s go back and get some fresh air.’ Karima said to them.
Lotte didn’t need to told her twice. She ran back into the hallways, looking for the chess table.
‘I am sorry to know that you didn’t retrieve the coin.’ Karima said regrettably.
The group had sailed back towards Olympica and arrived at the harbor safely.
‘Oh, it is actually for the better.’ Porom shrugged her shoulders, ‘In the end, I only lost one coin, by saving your land.’
‘That’s true, I am very happy that you two helped us today.’ Karima smiled, ‘You guys are always welcome here to celebrate holiday, and travel with us, whenever we need your help.’
Lotte yawned again, it was a long day for her.
‘You wanted to go home, right?’ Karima asked the little mage.
‘Go home? Heck no! I will first go to the beach to make some sand goblins, with Alphonse!’ Lotte shouted happily.
They all started to laugh. ‘We sure are going to do that soon.’ Porom said, ‘But first let’s go to father and Al. They will wonder where we are, for sure.’
‘Yeah, that’s a good idea!’ Lotte turned around and wanted to go, but in time she turned back.
‘Goodbye everyone, I will see you guys next time!’
‘Have a nice holiday Lotte, and see you next time!’ Karima laughed at her.
‘Thank you for everything, and we will keep having contact. Goodbye!’ Porom softly lay a hand on Lotte shoulders and brought her back to the hotel.
She though about the Twincast-spell she had done with Lotte. Later, back home in Mysidia she will talk about it for sure.
Right now, it is time to celebrate their vacation.
It's been too long since I've promised to release Chapter 3 of Search in Kirtos, but it's finally here.
Hopefully it was worth the wait, and that Porom, Lotte and the rest of the family will enjoy their vacation.
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