A Blossom's Gift

Chapter 8. Hopeful dreams.

The group walks into the castle, everything quiet as everyone watched, anticipating on what the trio would do and/or say next. Lillian looked over to Raven and Zonor, they both nod. She walks forth. "Your majesty.." she cowers as the Duke stands from the throne he sits on. Harlow stands to the side and smiles at Lillian, Lillian smiles back. "Have you came with information about who did this?" He stands firm. "Yeah, we.. have a mask." She gulped, and set her arms out with the mask in hand. The Duke very softly takes it from her grasp and examines it. "The Katakuray.." he quietly spoke, and Lillian's eyes widened. "You know them?" "Yes.. we have been enemies for long enough. Yet I never knew they would stoop this low." He sighs, and hands the mask to Harlow. "Harlow, put this somewhere safe." He slowly blinks, and Harlow quickly nods and skitters away. "How did you get this?" The Duke looks back at Lillian who was holding her bag, she was quite nervous. "Someone gave it to us, he said he found it in the water below Haru's statue." She breathes in deeply "I don't know who would do—" "Listen, we have your thanks. You two." He looks over to Raven and Zonor "Step up." He demands, the trio gulped as the demon and traveller stood beside Lillian. Harlow ushers back and stands in her place, while guards line the hall. Bards, travellers, monsters, and other beings stood by the pillars which structured the hallway. The trio were confused, "Why was everyone here?" They thought, until the Duke breathed in and spoke. "We all lower our heads and bow to these brave travellers, as they have been granted our respects." The Duke and everyone else lower their head. "Lillian, and Raven, have been in this kingdom for a long while now. Their new friend, Zonor, accompanies them on their journeys. We thank you three, for helping us find the cause to this outbreak. So hereby stand.." The Duke reaches for something from Harlow, it were three clips with the trio's chosen gems in the Center. "You three will be ranked by a noble, and you will forever be remembered. Anything you want here, will be granted. Thank you." The Duke clips them onto the travellers' belts' and kneels. Everyone else in the castle does so too, the guards kneeling, and passers bowing. After a minute, everyone stood again. "Thank you. Now go about your journeys young ones." The Duke smiles and the trio nod, leaving the castle as changed people.

"Wow.." Lillian breathed out as she stood in front of Haru's statue, looking up at it in great awe. "I'm sure he respects us." Raven nods with his hand on his chin. "I wonder if he's a real person.." Zonor examined the statue's facial features "Imagine it comes to life." Raven laughed and Zonor chuckled "That'd be crazy." Lillian grabs her flute, and begins to play it. Miru would now fly over the kingdom and dive down, landing beside Lillian. Lillian smiled, as Raven put his fingers to his mouth and made a very loud whistle. Fossil also flew to him. "Hey Zonor, how do you call your dragon over?" Lillian peeks over to Zonor. "Watch this." Zonor clasps his hands together, ice now rising from the ground around him and shooting up into the sky, it turns into a star. ZoZo would come flying over to Zonor, landing behind him. "Woah! When'd you learn that!?" Lillian beams, and Raven claps. "In my spare free time." He nervously laughs. "So, what now?" Zonor looked around and pet ZoZo, Lillian looked over to Raven. "Yeah, what now?" She innocently chimed in "Am I the team captain now?" Raven chuckled, so did Lillian and Zonor. "Guess so." Zonor would cross his arms. "I think we should go see someone, aka, Nickademus and Xero, I'm guessing Xavier will be there to greet us too." "Nice, let's go!" Raven smiled and hopped on Fossil as Lillian got on Miru and Zonor got on ZoZo.

The trio now flew to Nyland, joking and laughing along the way there. "Hey guys, have you ever noticed that everyone in GoldenLock have the same appearance? Like their ears, freckles, skin, eyelashes.. their eyelashes are white! That's crazy" Lillian rambled "Lillian they're probably a race of elf, and have just populated at GoldenLock." Raven shrugged. "Sounds cool!" Zonor smiled. "Zonor, what does your realm look like?" Raven questioned, and Zonor paused. "Oh look! We're almost there! Race ya!" Zonor would laugh and zoom towards Nyland "Oh you're so going down!" Raven had Fossil dive down near the water to pick up more speed "Hey! No fair!" Lillian yelled after, giggling as her and Miru went into the clouds. Once at Nyland the group got off their dragons and let them fly away, they now walked to the cathedral and opened the door. Nickademus sat at his usual desk and looked up. "Oh! Hello! I haven't seen you three in quite a while. How's it been?" His wings puffed up in excitement. "We've been good, you?" Raven smiled "Me and Xero have been just fine! Xero! Come on out!" He called throughout the cathedral, and Xero walked out from a door "Yeah Da— oh hey!" He saw the group and waved, they waved back. "What's brought you here?" He yawned and sat down by Nick. "Well, we helped GoldenLock's Duke with figuring out who took Haru's necklace!" Lillian beamed "Wait a minute, someone stole Haru's necklace?" Xero leaned in. "Yeah, Duke said it was the Katakuray who did it and that he'll deal with them personally.. which scares me" Lillian nervously laughed, while she spoke about what the group had been through Raven and Zonor were casually playing "rock paper scissors" in the background. "So, how's Xavier?" Lillian sat down on one of the benches "He's been doing good, and he's very proud of you guys." Nickademus softly smiled at Lillian "Baga waga laga shaka!" Lillian paused and laughed, bringing Bob out of her bag. "Oh hi Bob!" She chuckled "And it's good to hear Xavier is proud of us.". "Very, I'm glad you guys have figured out who has taken Haru's necklace though. I wonder if he'll come alive." Xero smiled, crossing his arms. "That's what Raven said!" Lillian giggled, Xero and Nickademus did too.

Duke of GoldenLock's POVy

"Uhhh.. Drask? Are you.. okay?" Harlow cracked open the door to the Duke's room, peering in. "You seem quite stressed.." She muttered "I am fine, Harlow" He sighs, he was sitting at his desk with ink and a feather, writing some letters to the Katakuray. "Oh.. well, I brought you some tea! It's just the way you like it, not too bitter but not too sweet." Harlow warmly smiled, walking over to the Duke and setting the cup down. "Thank you.. it means a lot to me" He looked over at the elf, he had visible bags under his eyes. ". . . I think you should get some rest, your majesty." She put her hand to her chin. "I said I am just fine, please, do not worry about me and my well-being." Drask looked away and continued to write, Harlow walked to his bed and sat on the side of it. "It's all my fault, I'm the reason why the Katakuray took the necklace. Why did I not notice?" Drask cut through the awkward silence, his voice trembled with guilt. Harlow looked up and over to Drask. "It's not your fault." She spoke "You didn't know, and nobody informed you until Lillian arrived. They probably did it while the guards weren't watching" She tried to reason with the Duke. "No, I should've trained those guards more, I should've put everything into security— now Haru sees me as a fool—" Before Drask could finish his sentence, Harlow spoke "Haru doesn't see you as a fool, he sees you as someone who cares for his kingdom. He probably respects your guilt and honours you. You've been the Duke for a couple of years now, and our kingdom has never seen any days better than this. Ever since you stepped up and showed everyone what GoldenLock truly was, I've noticed people were happier, more alive. Not afraid of what's next to come. They trust you, Drask." Harlow stood, her hands clasped together and low. "I'll leave now, you get some sleep." She smiled and exited the room. Drask, the Duke, sat there and thought about what Harlow said. Was he truly the cause for the kingdom's happiness? Is everyone more lively because they trust him? All these thoughts rushed through his head. So he called it quits for the night. He could deal with the Katakuray tomorrow, and the world would have to wait. Drask stood and walked to his bed, getting comfortable and going to sleep. He had fond dreams that night.