Chapter 9
Sometimes it was hard for him to get up in the mornings. Lantis knew it was going to be one of those days as soon as he woke up that morning. It was amazing that the night had passed so uneventfully before. The search party arrived back at the palace dejectedly in little patches, with he and Hikaru being the last. They had arrived just in time to see Eagle taking Emerria back to her rooms and being very careful with her. Umi and Fuu were safe in the arms of their loves, but the group of all four were hovering over Emerria's room like a bunch of nannies and when he and Hikaru had shown up, they began to bicker about who was going to watch over her. Lantis had effectivly silenced that conversation when he shut the door and began looking for Presia, and the group had dispersed. Later on, when Presia had taken care of Emerria, they had all gathered in the main hall to recount events and decide what the next course of action should be. The meeting was effectivly over when they all realized that the most vital element to any plan they concocted was out of action until she came out of shock. The group gradually drifted out of the main hall and they settled in little groups. They tried to act as normally as they could until each of them began yawning at remarkably early hours.Going to bed, each person that was there had to make a decision. The last thought on many of the visitor's minds was "Do I really want to stay?" and each of their answers was "Yes, I do."
Lantis awoke that morning with a terrible headache. The palace seemed to quiet, and as he dressed, he realized that it was too quiet. Usually, if they had this many visitors, things would be up and running, people would be chattering, regardless of what time it was in the morning. Lantis hurriedly dressed in his armor and walked out. A surprising scene greeted him.
Hikaru was standing outside of his door with her hand ready to knock. Fuu and Umi were behind her, and behind them was a great deal of his friends. Lantis looked at them and suddenly they all began to talk at the same time.
"Lantis, we need to get Eme-chan up and we need to take some action! I'm sure we can get Clef back!" Hikaru began shouting.
"Lantis, do you think it's wise to wake Emerria at a time like this. We could logically plan this out without her. We were all just too tired last night." Fuu said.
"Lantis..."
"Lantis..."
"Lantis!"
All of the voices in front of him began to blur together and he began to growl. He was upset. He was cranky. He really didn't want to think about it right now. "Will.... Everyone.... Please..... take..... a MOMENT!!" The voices in front of him stopped, in shock. Everyone was acting so out of charachter lately.
"There. That's better." Why don't we move this out of the hallway so we won't wake Emerria with all of this shouting.
The large group moved en masse to the main hallway where the shouting began again. 'Ahhh... the beauty of the republic system', Lantis thought to himself.
Hikaru was still dead set on waking Emerria up and getting the quest on the road, Fuu wanted to leave her alone, Umi wanted to see if they could get any information out of her when she woke up, whenever she did, Eagle was just fretting aloud, Presia was trying to tell everyone that Emerria was alright but she needed rest.... and the rest was just jumbled garbage from everyone else. Lantis looked up and over the crowd of people to see something in the doorway.
"Why?" A soft voice pierced through the din of the shouting as if everyone already knew it was there. "Why is it that with my master gone, everything dissolves into chaos? Why can't everything just be calm and silent?" Emerria looked at her friends sharply. "He would want you to look at this logically and not stand there screaming at each other. He wouldn't want you to worry so much about me either! I'm not that important!" Her eyes turned downward for a second and then she began to walk towards them. "He is the important one, and we will get him back no matter what happens."
Lantis sighed in relief that Clef's student still had her impressive backbone. Hikaru was already looking more like herself now that Emerria was awake.
"Now, what do I have to do to get him back?" Emerria asked solemnly.
On to Chapter 10
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