Heaven's Will

Chapter 6

  The stranger led him into the woods a little ways away from the palace. Mafumafu had to stick pretty close to him in order to not get lost. It was so dark out he could barely see a thing. The walk was taking longer than Mafumafu expected, so he tried to think up any conversation topics that could fill the awkward silence.

"So, um, what's your name?" Mafumafu started.

"Hmm, I guess you can just call me Ama. That's probably fine," the stranger responded thoughtfully.

Mafumafu was confused, but he didn't get the chance to ask anything before Ama spoke again.

"You don't need to introduce yourself. Sol has already told me way too much about you," Ama said.

Mafumafu's face flushed red in embarrassment. "Oh, really? I didn't realize he talked about me that much..."

"Well, you're his favorite human. Of course he's going to talk about you a lot," Ama said simply. He paused for a moment. "Although, it might become a problem if it keeps going like this."

"Huh?" Mafumafu gave him a confused look.

Ama waved his comment off airily. "Nevermind. Anyway, we're almost there."

They walked for another couple of minutes in silence, until Ama pushed past some low hanging branches to reveal a large clearing. In the center of the clearing was a huge bonfire, from which some embers jumped as high as the trees. A few logs were set up around the bonfire. And sitting on those logs was Sol, along with two other people Mafumafu had never seen before. They were all chatting merrily amongst themselves.

"Hey, guys! I'm back with Mofu," Ama called out to the three.

Mofu? Mafumafu wondered where that nickname had come from. Before he could think about it much, Sol was already in front of him.

"Mafu, I'm so glad you could make it. I hope my friend didn't give you any trouble," Sol said with a warm smile.

"No, Ama-san didn't give me any trouble at all," Mafumafu said. "Still, it would've been nice if you told me about this earlier. It really scared me when Ama-san just appeared on my balcony all of a sudden."

"I'm sorry, Mafu. I would've told you earlier, but this was honestly a really last minute plan. Next time I'll make sure to plan things a little better," Sol apologized.

He then grabbed both of Mafumafu's hands and dragged him over to one of the logs. Mafumafu could immediately feel the heat of the fire, and he was glad that winter's cool temperatures still remained at night. Across from where Mafumafu and Sol sat was the two males the prince didn't know. The one with brown hair gave him a friendly wave, and the redhead beside him smiled invitingly. Ama came over and sat on the log between the two duos.

"I guess you two should introduce yourselves to Mafu, huh?" Sol said to the brunette and redhead.

"Probably," the brunette responded. He looked over at Mafumafu. "Call me Tanuki, I suppose. Nice to finally meet you."

Mafumafu held in a giggle. There was no way that was his actual name. "Nice to meet you too, Tanuki-san."

"Since you're the famous Mafu, you get the privilege of calling me Saka," the redhead said with a wink.

"It seems like everyone already knows me," Mafumafu laughed shyly. "That must be because of you, Sol-san, right?"

"You've got me there," Sol admitted.