| Part 3: Twin Cities
Tron came to a stop, her eyes scanning the area. They
were at the edge of the Haunted Woods, and a light at the other side. The forest
was thinner where they were. Bunny fell on her knees panting heavily. They had
been walking all day and she was more than happy to stop. "Come on, you can't
be that tired. We're almost out." Tron held back a snicker as Bunny slowly got
up. Bunny wondered how Tron had this much energy. Tron was carrying a large
backpack filled with stuff and Bunny was just carrying a cross-sword and a half-full
water bottle. They had been walking through the forest for hours, and yet Bunny
was exhausted and Tron looked better than she did when they started out!
Bunny took a gulp of water from her water bottle.
She wiped her forehead and continued walking. She winced as they got out of
the woods and into the light. Letting her eyes adjust, she took a look at her
surroundings. The temperature suddenly went from extremely damp and cold to
extremely hot and dry. Bunny stared in awe. They were at the foot of a huge
desert. Sand dunes rolled around the area. A canyon was a while away, a river
flowing between it. A city laid far off in the distance, several smaller towns
surrounding it. To the West was another large city. The city in the East had
a huge stone statue of a Grarrl a few miles behind it's metropolis of sand and
tents. A forest of palm trees separated the two cities. Bunny just stared in
awe, not even noticing that Tron was already walking towards the cities.
"Welcome to the Lost Desert. Well it's not really
'lost' anymore, but hey nobody ever listens to me anyway... Are you coming or
not?"
Tron flashed a grin at Bunny after finishing
her slur of words. Bunny snapped out of it and walked after Tron.
"Okay, here's the plan... we're gonna be going to
the Eastern City first. It's called the City of Kashi-Tara, you got it?" Bunny
nodded a response to another rambling of Tron's. She had never met anyone like
her. Everyone in her town was so prim and proper except for her mom and the
blacksmiths, so much so that it was sickening. Nobody cared about feelings-
they put manners in front of everything. Not so with Tron- it seemed like Tron
didn't even know what manners were!
"Why are you so quiet anyway?" Tron asked, looking
already impatient for an answer. Bunny kept herself from growling. She didn't
have a single quiet moment since she had met Tron.
"Isn't it obvious... I don't have time to talk!"
she almost said that out loud. "Um... I don't... really want to talk..." she
said nervously. The last thing she wanted to do was anger a Dark Faerie.
"Oh well, by the time we get there you'll have
plenty to talk about- either that or you'll be speechless... Well I'm bored
of this peace and quiet- if you want something then just poke me." With that,
Tron took out a portable CD player, put on her headphones and let the music
blare in her elfish ears. "Finally... some time to think... What the- oh...
my... gosh..." Bunny's Zafara ears flattened against her head as Tron had the
music up so loud Bunny could hear it!
"How can you stand that?!" Bunny tried yelling
over the music.
"WHAT?" Tron barely even paid any attention.
"I said, HOW CAN YOU STAND THAT?!" she yelled
again.
"I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
Bunny sighed. "Nevermind..." she mumbled quietly.
"WHAAAAAAT?"
"I SAID NEVERMIND!!!" she sighed again.
"Okay whatever..." Tron put on her sunglasses
and proceeded to be oblivious to everything around her. Bunny wondered how she
could walk without crashing into things with her eyes closed. Bunny glanced
at her sword and back at the twin cities. Sooner or later they'd get there.
If I can get there without losing my sanity...
Bunny thought to herself. She glanced again at Tron. Tron didn't even notice,
and if she did she obviously wouldn't care. Bunny smiled. "What's your story?"
she wanted to ask her, but she decided not to ask. Especially not with an Ayumi
Hamasaki CD blaring in her ears.
***
"Okay, y'see that big crowd up there? They're all haggling over food. The
shopkeepers won't even notice us if we snatch a few bits of food- so you do
what I tell you to do, okay? Stay here and watch me." Tron walked calmly into
the crowd, ignoring Bunny's objections.
Bunny sighed, "You're impossible... maybe I shouldn't
have come with you afterall..." But she did what Tron said and watched her weave
through the crowd easily. The aisles were crammed with people. But thankfully
Tron was a little bit taller than the rest of the crowd so she could at least
see her face.
"She sure knows how to not act suspicious though...
even though she is a Dark Faerie..." Tron glanced around, then took a few scraps
of food off of the shelves and into her backpack. Few people saw her, and even
then those few people couldn't care less, or were too busy with other things
to worry about it. Tron snatched a few more foods off the shelf and put them
in her backpack. She innocently sneaked past the shopkeeper and the hustle and
bustle of the haggling people and out of the shop. She calmly walked back to
the dark alley where Bunny was waiting with a confident smirk on her face.
"Isn't stealing illegal?" Bunny blinked as Tron
set down the bag of food.
"Yeah so what? Who needs money anywhos?"
Bunny sighed, "I guess..." she didn't seem too
amused at the thought of stealing food. Sure, she's done it a couple times in
her early childhood, but she didn't know any better then. Was stealing really
okay? Bunny started having doubts about traveling with Tron.
"Oh come on, quit being so 'proper'! Just dig
in already- 'cause if you don't dig in I will 'cause I'm starving!" Tron yanked
out a big loaf of bread in the shape of a pyramid and started chowing down.
"Well... I am sorta hungry... alright gimme that
darn thing!" she grabbed a big Tut Trout and sank her teeth into it. Tron smiled.
"So... why did you need to come here?" Bunny
asked through her chewing and swallows. She had to keep herself from laughing
as Tron gulped down a huge bottle of water without even stopping.
"Well... you see... I have to do some business
with the Princess of this city... she wants me to do something for her and she's
offering quite the pay for it. Good pay means I can actually buy items that
I'd have problems stealing. I mean- it's hard to haul around a frost cannon
or something of the sort without someone noticing you," Tron said.
Bunny swallowed her food hard and burst out
laughing. "What are you laughing at?"
Tron glared at her with a smile. "Nothing..."
Bunny finally calmed down, "But... the PRINCESS
of this city?! You must be a famous person if you caught her attention!" Tron
grinned and flicked her hair back.
"Well not really, but I am known to be an adventurer
that causes more mischief than the law allows..." she laughed and thought about
some of her previous misadventures. She sighed and put the rest of the food
away.
"So whaddya say we go and visit Karen's castle?"
she grinned a mischievous grin. "Alright," Bunny said, "Let's go!"
***
"Well, we're here," said Tron.
"Whoa... it's... HUGE..." said Bunny when she
saw the size of the castle.
Bunny stared in awe. They were at the foot of
the Kashi-Tara Castle. Bunny couldn't even see the top as if she tried she would
fall backwards. The only thing wider than her eyes was her mouth. Not even her
Clan's King had a castle as grand as this!
"All this belongs to Princess Karen?" she wondered
outloud. Her stream of thoughts were interrupted once again by Tron.
"Yup, all this belongs to her. In fact the entire
Kashi-Tara City belongs to her. Well it belongs to her grandfather anyway but
she owns most of it. Anyway, come on let's go!" Tron was about to go into the
castle when both of them heard a voice.
"Shh! You two! Come here!" a strange voice called.
They both turned to look. Around the corner, an arm was stretched out and motioning
them to come over. Tron found no harm in it so she just went over to look. To
Bunny's surprise, it was a creature Bunny had never seen before. It had a lot
of catlike features. It had small cat paws and a long tail. It had two sets
of ears- one of which were on stalks. It's eyes were naturally narrowed and
around them had sky blue eyeshadow. It's fur was sand-colored and it had a nice
big sapphire tiara on it's forehead. It's sky blue hair was pulled back into
a ponytail and she had a long purple dress on. Had it not been for the tiara,
she wouldn't be recognized as Princess Karen. She was a desert Aisha.
"Your majesty, what may I ask are you doing
out here?" Tron grinned. Bunny just stared. She had no idea that creatures like
Karen existed.
"Don't call me your majesty, or your highness,
or princess or anything like that. Just call me Karen," the young Aisha smiled
and held out her paw. "Your name is Tron, right? And what's your name?" she
glanced at Bunny.
"Oh, my name is Bunny." They shook paws and
got down to business.
"So what did you want me to do for you, your
ma- er, I mean, Karen?" Tron inquired.
"Well you see," Karen stared at the ground before
continuing, "I'm sick of being the Princess of Kashi-Tara. My grandfather never
lets me do anything! I have to be all prim and proper and I'm not allowed to
go anywhere without a bunch of guards. I got sick of it! So when I heard about
you and your adventures I wanted to join you. So can I?" she looked hopeful.
"What, join us? You just wanna abandon all your
priorities and join us??" Tron was surprised for once. Her expression changed
in a matter of seconds, from almost a jaw-drop to a huge grin.
"Sounds good to me! So you wanna leave right
now?" said the princess. She started tapping her foot. Karen nodded in response.
"Wait, if you're the princess, then how come
you aren't dressed like one?" Bunny blinked, not knowing whether it was rude
to ask that question or not. Apparently not since Karen didn't seem to mind.
"Well if my grandfather or if any of the guards
saw me they'd go crazy and ground me for life. I didn't dress like one so it
wouldn't be so obvious that I'm... me!" Karen laughed. Tron put her hands on
her hips and smiled.
"I see... so let's get going then! Come on, we
already got tons of food and stuff so we can just leave. So let's go!"
Tron turned and walked towards the end of the
city. Karen & Bunny followed her, more than happy to get out of the busy city,
especially Karen. Her grandfather, however, was not as pleased with this action
as she was, when he heard the news about Karen's disappearance....
To be continued...
| 
