Acari

Chapter Ten

The fire cackled as it emitted its warm glow in the darkness. Acari sat near it, trying her best to think of ways they could escape Paradoa. Trial and error in her mind was a recurring event as she went through the options: Leave the continent? Nope; without a map they would surely get lost upon flight. Ragnar becomes the new mayor of HindFoot? Not at all; he's most definitely a fugitive. They return to Brain? Not as bad, but still undesirable; dragons there will freak out if Acari brought Ragnar with her (a HindFoot). The options were getting harder and harder to pick apart, and Acari's brain wasn't cut out for all this thinking. If only she had the brain of Aphid...

Aphid! She'd totally forgotten about Aphid and Mango. They were probably waiting for her back at Brain... but no? Acari had this itchy feeling that somehow they weren't waiting for her at Brain. Maybe because she wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her biological parents if anything? Not exactly...

Oh! She remembered Java had told them that if anything bad happened, they should go to Heart and a dragon named Seletste. Could it be that Aphid and Mango knew that if Acari were to come back that she would go to Heart? Knowing Aphid, they probably did. And Heart is closest to the queen, which Aphid had said was Acari's mission to dethrone.

So to Heart we go.

As they flew in the night sky, Acari knew Ragnar was staring at her neck and where Batair had once hurt her. In all honesty, she'd forgotten about the injury after she'd fixed it up with her magic, but never told the others about her doing so, so she could only feel empowered by their curiosity. Papaya flew firmly next to her—determination on her face, but worry in her eyes.

"You alright?" Acari asked her.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about something," Papaya said, sighing. There was a long pause before she let off, "Galaxy is missing."

"What?" Acari said, undeciding if she either was saying that in disgust or astonishment, but she eventually settled on both. "How? What happened?"

"I don't know!" Papaya burst, earning a concerned glance from Ragnar. "Some time after we got back from the Night Kingdom, he was just gone! I tried to find him, I really did, but do you realize how many options there were? The only thing I could do was wait for him to come back eventually..."

"And how did that go?" Acari asked.

Papaya looked at Acari with so much sadness, Acari felt guilty for asking. "It's been half a year, Acari. I don't know how long I can wait."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm here now," Acari offered.

"It does... but..." Papaya replied, sighing. "I don't like him, Acari."

"Galax- oh," realized Acari, who suddenly had the feeling to defend Ragnar. "He's not that bad! I promise."

"I saw what he did to you.. I should have interfered, but you needed to learn."

"That's true.. But he's changed! He- I- We love each other. I don't know when I'm going to get another chance like this in my entire life! Please- just- think about it, okay?"

"Alright," Papaya forced, but she didn't look like she was going to think about it. Acari decided to leave her alone about it anyway because she didn't want to hurt herself and Ragnar at the same time.

Soon, after a few hours of flying, they made it to their destination. As they landed in front of the huge arc (that read: "Welcome to Heart! Where kindness accepts you" smeared in red ink) of Heart, Acari flashed a reassuring glance at Ragnar and Papaya, who were melting in place.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Papaya asked.

"Uhhh-"

"You don't have a plan do you?" asked Ragnar.