The three boys were taking a break in a large
meadow. A full six hours of walking has passed since they have left Shu’s
house. Even though they hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night, they all
agreed that they have had too much excitement to be able to sleep.
“So, where are we heading from here?” Futch
pointed down a path that leads between two faraway mountains. “Should we
go to Muse..,” he moved his arm towards another path, “or should we go to
Kyaro?”
Luc couldn’t believe it. They had taken
some of Sasuke’s “shortcuts” again and they ended up missing a whole town of
Toto on their way from Radat. They didn’t even see Viktor’s old
fort. If Sasuke had just stayed on the dirt path, they would’ve passed by
something that would’ve given them something decent to eat. For the last
six hours, they saw nothing but grass. It was only in the last hour that
they had located a range of mountains and a forked path that leads to Muse and
Kyaro.
“Oh oh, let’s go to Muse!”
Sasuke jumped up and down to show his
excitement. The other two easily complied since they were not sure which
way they wanted to go anyway.
“I always wanted to go to Muse,” Sasuke
chatted along the way. “I heard that the city’s packed with people and all
kinds of things to see. But by the time I joined Lord Riou’s army, Muse
was already abandoned.”
“Why didn’t you go back when the war was
over?”
Futch asked as he walked beside Sasuke.
“Almost everything went back to normal within
a month.”
“Nah, I was too busy in Rokaku and I started
helping out in Gregminister by running errands for them.”
“No wonder,” said Futch. “Luc and I had
to go all that way into Toran Republic to find you.”
They became silent for a while. ‘But I
wonder,’ Futch thought to himself as they walked. ‘Why would anyone be so
excited about seeing stuff in Muse?…’ Sasuke had on a straight face, but
he was really laughing on the inside.
‘Heh heh heh…finally, I can get that necklace
that Kasumi-neechan was always talking about. She’ll be so happy when she
sees it,’ Sasuke thought to himself. His joy was getting harder to
control and Sasuke let a small smile creep up his face.
They had reached a rocky part of the path and
were walking slowly through the narrow road.
“Apparently, this is not the main route to
Muse. The main way should be from going through Toto where we didn’t need
to pass by any mountains,”
Luc said it while glaring at Sasuke behind
him, but Sasuke only ignored Luc.
“Hey, since this isn’t the main path.
Why don’t we take some shortcuts.”
Sasuke pointed up and moved his finger along
the mountain ridges as he said, “We can climb across the mountains where there
are less monsters or…” Sasuke pulled out a little black ball from his
shirt. “I can blow away some of the mountains’ base to see if there are
any caves that will lead us out faster.”
When Sasuke was done only Futch with Bright
was standing there listening to him. Luc was ahead walking over the
broken rocks and pebbles.
The magician had not even stopped when he
heard Sasuke say the word “shortcuts”.
“Hmph.”
Sasuke crossed his arms as he looked at
Luc. Then he spotted something. The path that the magician was
walking on was fairly rocky, but just several feet away from Luc’s feet, there
was a circular patch of dirt that remained awkwardly uncovered by
pebbles. The boy scrutinized the ground from where he was standing.
His suspicion was confirmed. There was definitely something wrong with
that spot.
“Hey Luc, I wouldn’t go that way if I were
you,” Sasuke called as he started trotting up the bumpy road. He had
expected for Luc to stop but…
“No. We are not taking anymore
shortcuts!”
The ninja’s statement only caused Luc to stomp
faster.
“No, wait!”
Sasuke ran past Futch at full speed to the
other boy, but it was too late.
“Ah!”
Sasuke and Futch watched Luc’s body disappear
through a hole in the ground as a loud “thump” quickly followed. They
hurried over to see what happened. A large hole was dug out of the ground
and someone had carefully covered it with a dirt-covered piece of cloth, hoping
to deceive the person that would step into it.
Luc was lying on his side in the bottom of the
hole. He had curled himself up into a ball and was desperately holding
onto his left ankle. Even though Sasuke and Futch couldn’t see the boy’s
face from where they were standing, they could both tell that Luc was in pain
from the way he was shaking.
“Luc!”
Sasuke jumped into the 4-feet trap. He
kneeled and lightly shook the boy’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
Luc turned hiss head over his shoulder and
said through gritted teeth, “My ankle…!” He let out a small cry before he
quickly pulled his head back to his chest. Seeing how much pain his ally
was in, Sasuke immediately scooped the boy up.
“Help me get him out.”
Futch heard the ninja’s command. He
placed his baby dragon on the floor and walked up to the hole. Together,
they pulled the injured magician out of the trap.
Luc has been settled on the ground beside the
trap. He was sitting up, but was still grabbing on to his ankle and
refused to look up. Futch and Sasuke stood beside him. They knew
that Luc was hurt, but they didn’t know how to help him. They were
worried; they were thinking and they didn’t know what to do until…
“Hi there!”
A rough but friendly voice broke the tense
atmosphere. On the path in front of them, a stout and bearded man was
looking at them.
“I see you’ve got some trouble. Do you
need any help?”
“Our friend twisted an ankle,” Sasuke slowly
answered by instinct.
“Well…”
The tan-colored man rubbed a palm on the back
of his neck. “My house is just down this path in the mountains. If
we take him there, I’ll see what I can do for him.”
Futch watched Luc then Sasuke. Luc
seemed too occupied, with his head down, to be listening. Sasuke
nodded. He saw Sasuke pick Luc up and follow the man. Then he
hurriedly scooped Bright up and followed as well.