The Guarded Princess

XIX

"En-nii!" Kouha waved excitedly.

The three siblings stepped onto the terrain of rock that they had all met on. They were the last three to arrive for they were the last three that Lucy had found. As soon as their feet touched the rock, the rukh fluttered away and disappeared.

"Everyone had gathered already?" Koumei remarked as he saw that everyone was present. "None of you got caught up in that?"

"You think?" Sharrkan said, his entire bottom portion wet.

"Forget that I asked."

"Kougyoku," Alibaba said, walking up to her. "Did that girl also help you?"

"That girl?" Kougyoku tilted her head. "Ahh. You mean Lucy-neesama," she grinned happily before turning sour. "Alibaba-chan, don't call her by something so insignificant. It's rude. Besides, if you have trouble calling her, why don't you speak to her more?"

"S-Sorry," Alibaba fretted.

"As long as you know," she smiled.

"But in any case, she-" Alibaba stopped midsentence seeing the grin on Kougyoku's face. He sighed and changed the name. "L-Lucy didn't come back with you guys?"

Kougyoku looked at him with a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Lucy-nee is right behind us, isn't she?" Kouha turned around with a smile. "Right, Lucy-n-!"

Lucy wasn't there. The three of them thought that they had returned with Lucy right behind them but she was nowhere in sight. Looking behind them with a pale face, they didn't know where she could be. Moreover, with the dungeon in this shape, there was no way that they could move around freely to find her. Needless to say, upon seeing that she wasn't here and that they didn't know where in the world she could be, they began panicking one way or another.

"Hey, hey, isn't this a bit bad?" Sharrkan said.

"Isn't that obvious?!" Yamraiha yelled. "This is a dungeon! For her to be alone without anyone by her side...of course it's bad!"

"We have to go find Lucy-chan!" Pisti said, getting ready to jump.

"Pisti," Spartos held her back. "Don't be rash."

"Spartos," her voice suddenly dark and her expression no longer cheerful. "Let me go."

He widened his eyes for never had he ever heard her speak to him in such a tone. But, nevertheless, he held onto her for in this situation, it was dangerous to move around. Moreover, this might've been what the Djinn wanted.

"Even so, stay calm," he held her. "In this situation, going off on your own won't help."

Pisti knew that but thinking about Lucy being all by herself left her empty and in a state of turmoil. The bottom of her lip quivered as she turned around and buried her face into Spartos's chest, small drops of tears forming in her eyes.

"Lucy-chan..." she cried.

Hinahoho gritted his teeth. "Sinbad, give me the order. I can swim and go looking for her."

Sinbad had a conflicted look on his face. His eyes were dark and he, too, wanted to go find her this instant no matter how difficult it was. Even if he was to be injured, he didn't care. He wanted to go find her. But, he couldn't. None of them could. With no control over their magoi, they were practically useless. Though, what Hinahoho said did make sense. Even if he didn't have magoi, he was from the Imuchakk tribe and could swim through the dungeon. He could find Lucy. But, Sinbad didn't want to risk it. Even if Lucy did manage to engulf the dungeon in water, there was no telling what kind of other creatures might be in the water.