Chapter 8
Chapter 8:
"CLEF! NO!" Emerria screamed at the dark figure rapidly retreating into the bright sun. Two strong arms wrapped around her waist and held her back as she struggled. She beat at the arms and cried until after a few moments she calmed down and simply sobbed. The arms around her loosened and one reached up to turn her around. Eagle gently held her against his chest and stroked her hair as she fell against him. The rest of the party around him were either standing in shock of had begun to walk back to the palace. Eagle winced as the bright sun hit his eyes, but suddenly the offensive light was blocked by a large hulking figure dressed in black and decorative blue.
"Lantis," Eagle whispered in a low alto. The figure above him kneeled down to offer a hand up. Eagle gestured towards the shuddering girl in his arms, but Lantis picked her up and held her in his arms. Eagle stood, and the suddenly the shuddering weight was back in his arms.
"Hikaru would kill me if I came in carrying someone other than herself, even if it was one of her best friends." Lantis said solemly. Then his serious face broke into a soft smile. "I doubt your safe either, but definetly safer than me."
Eagle looked down at the weight in his arms and then solemnly laughed. "Ano, if Clef was here, he would kill me too." A waterfall of burgandy hair fell to the ground and trailed along the ground as Eagle and Lantis walked back to the castle. Eagle looked back down at the ground. Suddenly a flash of red, blue, and green came running towards them.
"LANTIS!" said a familiar voice. Hikaru jumped on the extrememly tall man with force and the man smiled.
"Hikaru." He hugged the small redhaired girl and she giggled as he kissed her cheek. As he held her tightly, she smiled into his chest.Not wanting to deal with the reality of the present situation, she just wanted to go back to the palace with Lantis and all her other friends and do something nice like cooking or catching up on the Cephiro gossip. She hadn't gotten a chance to see any of her old friends since.... The trail of thought made her frown and she brought her head up to look at her other friends with her.
Fuu and Umi were looking at Eme-chan with very little humor and poor Eagle looked so uncomfortable holding her in his arms. If Clef were here.... "DAMNIT!" yelled Hikaru, feeling so not like herself it wasn't funny. All of her friends looked at her.
"Hikaru?" Umi and Fuu said in unison. Both looked shocked at the small girl's outburst and frowned.
Hikaru looked up and her eyes were glistening. "None of this would have happened if Clef... if... if....."
"If Clef were here." Umi finished for her. Her eyes were wet too. "This isn't good. We need to get her back to the palace quickly."
Hikaru nodded and turned to Eagle. "Eagle. I'm sorry to make you do this, but you should carry Eme-chan back to the palace and..."
"Don't worry about it." Eagle said softly in his low alto and began to walk back with Emerria in his arms. Hikaru stared silently with a perplexed look on her face as the other Magic Knights did the same.
"You think he's......" Fuu said in a blatantly out of charachter moment.
"Yep! I think he is." Umi said back. And both of them stepped out of their reverie to run after Eagle.
Hikaru kept staring as Lantis came up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Hikaru, I think we need to go back now." Hikaru just kept staring.
On to Chapter 9
Back to the Library
