Kidnapped Princess

Lost and Returned

Kanan and Yō entered the house. They went into the secret room. Yō went first. Kanan hung back. She wasn’t ready to face them yet.

“Hey. You’re bloody!” Chika yelped at the sight of Yō.

“It’s the knights’, not mine.” Yō reassured her.

“Where’re Kanan and Yohane?” Hanamaru asked.

Kanan took a deep breath and walked into the room. All eyes locked on her. The room went deathly silent.

“Y-Yohane…” Hanamaru started crying as she ran over to them.

She took Yohane from Kanan and held her close. Kanan hugged her as she started sobbing again. Yō was comforting Chika. She was upset as well.

Kanan took Yohane back from Hanamaru and set her on the bed in the room. Kanan then pulled Hanamaru into a hug and let her cry.

“We should start prepping her. We might not have a lot of time.”

“I’ll go sniff around to see if there are any more knights.” Yō stated.

“Let me come with you!” Chika climbed in Yō’s back. She needed a distraction.

Yō and Chika went to patrol the forest to see if any more knights were coming for them. Kanan slowly released Hanamaru from the hug.

“You’re going to get her ready for burial?” Riko asked.

“Yeah.”

Hanamaru went and started grabbing the incense she would use. Kanan helped her with it. It didn’t take long for her body to be ready. They couldn’t clean her up from the blood. It was too risky to go out and do so. Kanan carried Yohane to the small patch of land for burying things.

Hanamaru used her magic to make a hole for her. Kanan set her down in it and then Hanamaru sealed it up again. The five of them -Hanamaru, Kanan, Mari, Riko, and Dia- all stood silently. They all prayed a small prayer and then went back inside the house.

“What are we going to do? They’ll be after us until you guys are found…” Kanan sighed.

“They probably only need me.” Riko stated.

“Why is that?” Dia asked.

“Because, they could lie and say I had killed you… they don’t need us both.” Riko replied.

“You aren’t doing it. You’re not turning yourself in.” Dia stated firmly.

“But, it would be easier…” Riko mumbled.

“It might be. But, what good will it really do?” Mari asked.

“They’ll still search for me. It’ll just be in secret.” Dia stated, “This isn’t going to be solved so easily.”

“How are we going to solve it?”

“We may be starting another riot.” Kanan stated.

Everyone looked at her with wide eyes, “What?”

“Look, the only way things are going to get better is if we get the citizens on our side.” Kanan explained, “If they rise up, we could take control. It’s the only thing left. Talking isn’t going to work.”

“That will be hard.”

“We have insiders, though. You guys know a lot more about the knights than we do.”

“I guess that’s true…”

“For now, we should wait until things die down.”

“Of course.”