Eclipsis: Water

Chapter 41

Ondine and Cetus scoured the ocean homes to see if they could find any traces of Rin. Ondine had explained rather sneakily to Cetus that she thought Alara liked Kōri, hence why she had suggested the group split-up, and Cetus had immediately cut her off with "I don't want to hear this" , proceeding to make humming noises to drown out any theories she proposed.

It was not so much that Kōri was a Moon that bothered Cetus, it was just that he was not much interested in any potential romances. He was still a juvenile dragon, therefore thought romance was rather unpleasant. Not to mention that it made him feel sick to converse about or listen to. As with many non-humanoid creatures in Eclipsis, Cetus did not really have a family. He did, in the sense that they were alive and he could visit them if he wished, but dragons became independent at a young age and "moved out" of the home their parents inhabited very early. He did not experience his parents affection in the way that Ondine, or Alara, did.

Ondine decided to stop attempting to speak directly into the dragon's ear about Alara and Kōri once he shook her off and jokingly swam away from her. The search by Cetus and Ondine resulted in nothing, and they returned to the fountain in the town square, where Alara and Kōri were waiting for them. Ondine noticed they were sitting close together, but they stood up abruptly once they noticed Cetus flying towards them.

"No luck?" Alara asked them.

Ondine shook her head. "I'm guessing you didn't have any either?"

"Unfortunately," Alara glanced at Kōri, who was trying not to look upset. "C'mon, let's check the other buildings."

The group searched each and every building in the water kingdom. Every shop, all the medical rooms, the training centre, even the lake by the forest - Ondine retrieved her shell necklace and put it back on contentedly. Kōri noticed that everything was free here. He felt he had been cheated, as back in Lune, even obtaining a necessity like a warm pair of shoes had to be paid for. The rehabilitation centre, where they corrected bad behaviour and reformed criminals - though there were only 3 there - was also thoroughly searched. Rin was not found anywhere.

By the time they had finished combing over every single place in the water kingdom, it was late afternoon, the warm sun bright and high in the blue sky. Kōri looked utterly defeated. Though he had told himself not to, he still had a glimmer of hope that his brother would be here. The other three all empathised with him.

"We will have to get permission from the other kingdoms, but we could try looking for him there?" Alara suggested.

Kōri shrugged. "There might not be any point. This kingdom seemed like it was the most logical place to hide an ice-fairy. It would be the easiest kingdom to keep him alive in as he would be able to turn the water into ice to use. Only the earth kingdom has a need for water, right?"

"We have friends in the other kingdoms," Alara said. "People we can trust. We can ask them to search for us. We don't have to go there ourselves. It would be especially dangerous to be in the fire kingdom, for example."

Alara could see that he wanted to give up, so she made the decision for him. She exchanged looks with Ondine. "We'll talk to our parents about it."

"If Rin is in Sol, we'll help you find him." Ondine added.

"And if he isn't?" Kōri asked dejectedly.

"I don't know." Alara said. She couldn't help but feel guilty that she hadn't reunited the brothers.

"I'm sorry, I..." Kōri sighed, closing his silvery-white eyes momentarily. "I have been hoping that he was out there, that I'd be able to find him one day. I would just hate to imagine that he's been dead this whole time, or that he's somewhere I can't find him. I don't want to have to mourn my only brother."