Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ XLVIII. CHIRO ❆ ❆

Chiro thinks he's never seen Kumari so happy.

And he sees her happy every day — she's such a happy girl. Really giggly and smiley, always looking on the bright side of things and seeing the good in people. So naive and loving, from being stuck inside so long, nothing to keep her company but her books and fairy tale heroes...

But now, after so many days, her reaction when she sees snow — real snow, real snow, because Chiro almost can't believe it... Not his fake snow, not an illusion, real, honest to goodness, snow, like Kumari's always dreamed of and read in stories.

Her reaction is true happiness. Absolute bliss. She walks around and tries to catch the snowflakes with her hands, on her tongue, putting her face into the snow then pulling out, her hair all messed up and wet... She slips and slide on the ice, she dances down the street, swings around a lamp post — how would that even work in this cold? — and then throwing herself face-first into the snow again, moving her arms up and down in a strange repetitive pattern.

"What are you doing? Jae snorts, but looks half-tempted to join her himself.

"I'm making snow angels!" She splutters, after pulling away from the ground. "However, I think I was supposed to do them while lying on my back."

Chiro reaches out to help her up from the ground, brushing the flakes of white fluff from off her back. He can't believe how cold it is, ice to the touch... He's seen ice in Cevalon before, but that was when it just started getting frozen over, before they left... This was so strange and new to him.

"What do we... Do... Now?" Chiro asks, turning to Jae slowly.

Jae scratches the back of his head, "Well. We found Ruisea."

"This... This is Ruisea. It is, isn't it?"

"I'm pretty sure," Jae nods. "It's the exact right description. The kingdom of ice and snow... I didn't think there'd be people here, though. I thought it was... Gone for good. Lost to time."

And Chiro turns around to see where Jae is pointing — he's pointing at the people. And the people...

The people are like nothing Chiro's ever seen before.

Perfectly like Kumari's description of her grandmother's prince, with pale skin, white hair, and bright blue eyes.

Blue eyes like Jae's... So strange.

They mill about in thick fluffy coats, and how Chiro wishes he had one of those right now...

Some of them notice. Some of them notice the three strange teenagers, and he can make out people covering their faces and whispering conspiratorially, at who they are and what they're doing here, surely. Chiro doesn't blame them — they don't belong here, they don't blend in at all.

"Jae..." Chiro asks again. "Did you have a plan?"

"Several, actually. It's kind of my job as leader."

"Since when are you—"

Jae ignores him, "There was the plan what to do if Ruisea was empty. Ruisea is, very much, not empty. So there's a few plans for that, too."

"What's the one you're going with?"

Kumari suddenly grabs Chiro's arm — he looks down at her to see her nose and cheeks are completely red, which is a wonder, as redness or blushing on her skin is never visible, what with the dark tone of it.

"What is it, princess?" Jae asks the question on Chiro's mind.

"Can we see the palace?" Her eyes are wide and pleading. "The castle! The shiny one in the distance... Pleeeease?