Chapter 12

        Knock. Knock. Knock.

 

        Aiko brought her knuckles to the great, red door three times. The door opened. A little girl stuck her head our the opening. She was scarcely more than six years old, sucking on her thumb.

 

        “Minyi,” Aiko smiled at her.

 

        “Auntie Aiko!” She squealed and, throwing the door back, ran straight into Aiko, throwing her little arms around her. Watching this little girl's childish innocence, I couldn't help but smile.

 

        Chrysanthemum made a noise that sounded a lot like “awwwwww”.

 

       “This is my niece,” Aiko turned and introduced her. Minyi waved to us, smiling wide. Aiko turned back to Minyi. “Do you know where your father is?”

 

        Minyi nodded eagerly, waving her arms in the air, “He's in the garden! Come on! Follow me!” She gave a wild squeal of excitement when she saw a butterfly and ran from Aiko towards it. Aiko sighed and turned, shrugging.

 

        “She can't seem to focus,” She smiled, “But then, she's just six years old. Come on. She said he's in the garden.”

 

        “She's so cute!” Chrysanthemum whispered to me.

 

        “I know,” I agreed. Minyi was adorable.

 

        We followed Aiko towards the garden.

 

*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *      

 

        “Shoji?” Aiko stepped into the garden.

 

        Aiko's brother, apparently named Shoji, was a round man, with chubby cheeks and a red, red nose, “Aiko!” He gave a hearty laugh and ran over, sweeping Aiko into what must be, I gather from her cringing, a rib-cracking hug.

 

        “What are you doing here?” he released her, grinning, “Shouldn’t you be running all over the kingdom for you lives? You know how much you’re worth, right?” he held up a bundle of papers with our pictures on them. He must have gotten at least two dozen copies.

 

        I winced. How did news travel so fast? Two nights and Aiko and Kyo’s been added to the “wanted” list.

 

        Kyo grinned. “I am an outlaw. That is so awesome!” He took the pieces of paper from his uncle’s hands.

 

        “I think it’ll be safer now,” Aiko replied, “the entire kingdom is looking for the assassin that killed Emperor Lu.”

 

        “An assassin?” Aiko’s brother looked amused, “Is that what you heard? These papers say that the king’s younger son killed him. He's on the run, also wanted,” he laughed. Aiko didn’t look amused. “Although,” he added, “You are right. It is certainly safer for you and your companions to travel now.”

 

        Kyo nodded, grinning. He had already finished the paper.

 

        Aiko shot him a warning look. “But that is not what we are here for,” she said, “We must talk. In private.”

 

        “Ah-ah-ah,” he wagged his finger, “Aiko, where did your manners go? You haven’t introduced me to any of these lovely young ladies.” He winked at us.

 

 

        I blushed. How did he see through our disguise? Were we really that obvious? I mean, it’s not like I want people to identify me as a boy, but…well…I’d like to fix my disguise if it was really that obvious.

 

        “Of course, how can I forget,” Aiko murmured, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “Really, this matter is urgent.”

 

        “Alright then,” He gave a mocking bow, “This way then, ladies.”

 

        He opened the back door and, with a few long, determined strides, walked in.

 

        “Tell everyone to keep clear of the drawing room, alright?” he told little Minyi, who had apparently caught her butterfly and was now playing with it, watching it flutter in her palms. I wondered if she was paying attention at all as she cooed at the little butterfly.

 

        She nodded, her big brown eyes twinkling. And then she dashed down the hall, shouting, “Keep clear of the drawing room!!!!” all the way down. The sound did not cease to ring in my ears until she disappeared behind a door and we could no longer see her.

 

        Shoji shook his head. “Ah, little Minyi. Never seems to be able to focus on anything, eh?” he laughed, “Well, one can't expect that much from a six-year-old.”

 

        We followed him down the hall until we came to an old wooden door.

 

        “Come on in,” he said, opening the door for us, “Private as can be. We've tried to soundproof the walls, but it never seems to work. Oh well, at least no one's going to stumble on our little meeting.” He sat down on a plain, old, little couch and gestured for us to sit. I sat in one of the longer sofas, sandwiched between Chrysanthemum and Wen-Ling.

 

        “Shoji,” Aiko began, clasping her hands, entwining her fingers with each other, “According to my friends here, the Pear of Air is in danger.”

 

        “Hmmm.” was all he said. Okay. His reaction seems relatively calm.

 

        Aiko turned to us. “What led you to Ka Dun?”

 

        “A riddle,” Wen-Ling told her, “As you know, my grandfather was a guardian. He left us a clue in one of his scrolls.” She took the scroll out from her sleeve.

 

        Aiko and Shoji shared it as they read.

 

        “From what I know,” he grinned, “We should go look at that mine a few miles away from here. The owner is a good friend of mine. He’ll let us in. Besides, it’s been shut down because the workers say it’s “haunted”. It’s the only haunted mine in the entire city. Maybe that’s your “Lady in Gray”. Besides,” he added, smiling, “A mine is a hole in the land.”

 

        “It may be our best hope yet,” Wen-Ling agreed.

 

        “Alright,” Aiko said, handing the scroll back to Wen-Ling, “What time is it? Chrysanthemum, would you please go see the time?”

 

        “Okay,” Chrysanthemum stood up to get a better look at the old clock hanging on the wall, “It’s…noon! Well…uh…almost noon anyway.”

 

        I raised my eyebrows. If it was noon right now, it meant that our supposedly “long” climb lasted only a span of three hours.

 

        “Perfect,” Aiko smiled. She turned to Shoji. “Shall we walk or is there other means of transportation?”

 

        Shoji grinned in a strange way. “Oh no, we won’t need to walk.”

 

        I swallowed. I had a feeling something really…interesting…was going to happen.

 

 

*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *      

        I hate goat carts. Okay. It’s actually a little closer to the truth if I say that I hate goats. I groaned, laying my head against the edge of the rough, little wooden cart, feeling very sickly, my stomach apparently deciding to protest in a very violent way.

 

        The cart jumped as the goat dashed on.

 

        “Oh, poor you,” Chrysanthemum patted my hand. She wasn’t showing any sign of nausea, and was, I believe, quite enjoying herself, sticking her head out to the sides to watch the scenery as it passed. I should’ve known better than to take a cart on mountain road. I think we all should’ve. And those goats. I should’ve said I wanted to walk when I saw the goats.

 

        You know one strange tendency about goats? They like to chew on your hair. I pushed my wet, half-down hair away from my forehead. Ugh.

 

        “Hang on, guys,” Aiko shouted from the front, “There’s a huge bump right here!”  She pointed to the ground…the goat that was pulling her cart galloped a little faster and they sped away, disappearing.

 

        We were falling behind, since Kyo wasn’t exactly a genius at driving goat carts. Speaking of which. He cursed as the goats went in the wrong direction.

 

        “Where did they go?” he asked us. My stomach lurched to one side as he, without an answer from either of us, made a sharp left turn. I was almost sure none of us knew where the cart with Shoji and Aiko and Wen-Ling went.

 

        “What’s that?” Chrysanthemum asked, “Is that a clearing? I don’t see anymore trees…”

 

        We were speeding towards the clearing Chrysanthemum was speaking of…

 

        My jaw dropped, and my stomach did a little flip-flop as I realized, with each step the goat was running, that the clearing wasn’t a clearing.

 

        It was a cliff.

Author's Note

YES! Finally, a decent cliffhanger!!!!! I currently have two ways to go with the next chapter. I'm going to go with the one that's a little epic-er. :) hehehehe.

~9/19~ Sorry about the weird name problem! It is now fixed!

Reviews

[Professor Xeronian]

Again, literally a cliff-hanger.

[Rose of Gondor]

......I have a strange love for those, don't I?

[Rose of Gondor]

Oops! Sorry, Crystal Marie Rome and anyone else who thought that was confusing!!! I was debating which name to pick and in the end I chose Shoji instead and had to rewrite everything and I couldn't find the "find and replace" button on my microsoft document...so sorry that it came out weird!!!

[Crystal Marie Rome]

O.O Ahhh! Their going to fall off a cliff!? I'm so happy that you got this chapter up so soon.
Also when Aiko is first talking to Shoji (love the name!) you said 'Aiko's brother, apparently named Kenji'. Just wanted to point that out because it's a tad confusing.
Okay now I'm going to go read the next chapter.
Awesome job and do your best!!! =))))

[rae52]

one question Pear of Air i thought they were pearls
lol oh well you get my point

wow amazing