Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ LXXV. CHIRO ❆ ❆

It's a long road home. Just as Chiro's sister had told him.

But it's a peaceful, relaxing train ride... They don't get off much — except to tour harbor fronts, as the group doesn't find the idea fair to Alexei, that they got to see bits and pieces of every kingdom whereas he wouldn't. So they go out with him, and bring the knights too, so that he can safely take a quick walk to sightsee, before eventually returning to the train.

Other than that, on the train they stay. And how amazing it is, once again, to be on the Ocean... Chiro can't believe it's better the second time around (third time for him personally, he remembers after a while), but it is. It's better because they're all together, they're not being attacked, and they're not on a road to potentially nowhere.

They all know exactly where they're going.

Home.

It takes a few days — morning, ride, stop, dock, walk around, get back onboard, talk, laugh, eat, sleep, on the road again, repeat...

When they get to Huven, Alexei starts to complain.

"Mmmh," he says, putting a hand to his forehead. "I don't feel so good."

"What's wrong with him?" Kumari asks, looking worried.

Jae laughs, "Don't get so stressed. He's just getting used to the heat, that's all."

"My forehead won't stop leaking," Alexei whines, using such a childish way of phrasing that Chiro has to muffle his chuckles.

"It's okay," he says instead, patting him on the back. "Now you know how I feel."

Nobody feels too bad or worried about Alexei, not even Alexei himself. Because they all know that one stop after Huven, they get to Cevalon.

And when they get to Cevalon, that's when they start to worry.

"So you don't know whether the ice has melted?" Kumari asks one of the knights, but faces away from them, nose pressed against the window. She's watching the ocean roll by, waiting for when the blue waves will be replaced by golden beaches instead.

"No," replies the black-haired knight. "When we left, it was even worse than when you'd left it. Our eyelashes would frost as soon as we stepped outside, and inside wasn't much better."

"It was weird," the blonde knight frowns. "Then we got to Ruisea and well, that was weirder. I don't like snow."

"Snow's a-alright," stammers the brun knight. "Soft and pretty. Ice is n-no good though... So I hope that the tr-trouble you three went to really did fix it."

"What if it didn't fix it?" Kumari pulls away from the window, looking between the boys with worry etched all over her features. "We'll have gone all that way for nothing..."

"Nothing?" The blonde knight snorts. "Excuse me. Prince Alexei, doesn't that offend you?"

"I suppose it does," but Alexei sounds miffed. "Why does it offend me, though?"

"She went all the way to your kingdom," Jae offers to explain. "We all did. And we found out what happened to Cevalon, and Chiro got mastery in sun-based magic, and we found you, and like, so much closure."

Chiro puts a hand on Kumari's shoulder, "What Jae's trying to say is... It wasn't for nothing. Not even close."

"Besides," the blonde knight says, leaning back in his seat and putting his arms behind his head. "If the ice is still there, it'll be good for the prince's health. Huven jungle heat got him beat, it'd be awful to see what Cevalon sun does to him."