Chapter 6: The little house.
Dino, Neocro, Sean and Rick sat down on the top of Volcano, far enough from the Cyclops now who might appear again. Everyone was quiet while Dino tried to gain his powers back by eating Star Candy and drinking Vital drinks. Sean caught himself staring at Neocro's yoyos. They were Bloody yoyos, they looked stronger than any other Bloody yoyos he saw before though. Sean wondered how she got them but didn't dare to ask her. "I'm fine now." said Dino. "Let's go back to Darken." "You can go ahead." said Neocro. "I'm going back to that forest." "W-what?" Sean looked shocked to Neocro. "Then you'll have to go through volcano again, past all this monsters!" Neocro lifted her shoulders. "I'll be fine, I got Dark Illusion." "Why do you want to go to back to the forest?" asked Dino. "I want to take a closer look to the ruins I saw there." "Oh." said Dino. Sean sighed. "I'll go with you." "No, go back to Darken. You'll only be troublesome for Neocro." said Rick. "But we can't let her go alone!" said Sean. Neocro listened in silence to their discussion. "She might even get lost!" Rick got up. "Then I'll go with her, I can use Dark Illusion too." Dino got up and stretched himself. "Then it's settled." He grabbed Sean's arm and disappeared before Sean could stop him. Rick nodded to Neocro. "I'll see you outside Volcano." He disappeared in Dark Illusion. Neocro closed her eyes and disappeared too.
Volcano looked even more impressive in Dark Illusion. She passed all the Cyclops and Meteonykers without being seen by them. Neocro held her yoyos firm in her hands. None of the guys made a comment on Neocro killing the Cyclops so easily who were attacking Dino. Did they already know that she was that strong, or were they now afraid of her? Neocro ran outside volcano and appeared back out Dark Illusion. Rick didn't seem to be here yet. She stared to the pyramid in the distance. There were big stairs to a platform between 2 pyramids. Neocro narrowed her eyes. What was that place? She jumped on her board, totally forgetting about Rick, and flew to the platform. Neocro was surprised to see 8 women there. She walked to one. "Who are you, why are you here?" The woman smiled to Neocro. "I am the Ranger Guardian, Kailreard. It is my duty to protect the will of the Ranger Hero, Hainan." "Guardian..." murmured Neocro, she looked to all of the women. Rick appeared from the stairs. "Neocro, here you are." "Who are they, Rick?" asked Neocro. "This are Guardians who give you your second job, you should have been here once." Neocro shook her head. "I can't remember ever being here to become a Jester." Rick laughed. "There is no other way you can get your second job. Let's go to the forest." He jumped on his bike. Neocro looked again to each of the Guardians. If she ever came here to become a Jester, she should at least be able to recognize the face of the Jester Guardian, but she couldn't. Suddenly a face seemed familiar to her.
Sam walked to the Ringmaster Guardian Romvoette. Lari stayed at the stairs. "Welcome, successor. You passed the last test! Now I appoint you the successor of the Ringmaster Hero! Now you will get the power of the Ringmaster. Don't use it wrong, but use it to help other people and to save the world. I wish you good luck!" Sam lifted her stick in the air. Blue light appeared around her."You are now a Ringmaster!"
"Ringmaster...?" murmured Neocro. She jumped on her board and followed Rick to the forest.
They flew all the way over the lava rivers again, the air felt fresh and clean when they reached the forest. Neocro followed Rick carefully between all the trees, she almost forgot about how beautiful this forest was. When a big gate appeared, Rick flew more east. There they landed between the roots of one of the trees. Rick was surprised to see a boy sitting on the roots of the trees. He was wearing dark brown cloths. Neocro landed too. You could say that Neocro was surprised to see a person there, but she wasn't. "MrBored..." said Neocro. "What are you doing here?" MrBored got up, ignoring Rick who really didn't know what was going on, and walked to the ruin. He stared to the black burned beams. "The same what you are doing here, I think." "This place..." said Neocro after a short silence. "It must have been precious to us." MrBored nodded, agreeing.
The three sat down near the ruin, eating their lunch. Rick was really curious about who this stranger was, and how Neocro knew him. When Neocro told the stranger about what happened in Volcano, Rick got very nervous. Just as Neocro, the stranger was very shocked by the fact that Andy got Hero not more by handing over some items. To Rick it was the normal way of becoming a hero. "What's wrong, Rick?" Neocro noticed that Rick didn't seem to feel comfortable. He sighed. "I barely can't believe I had to save you a few days ago, back then in Darken." Neocro laughed. "You really did save me back there, I'm glad you did." Rick nodded. "And... If I may ask... Who is your friend?" Neocro's smile disappeared. Could she tell Rick about the statue? "I'm MrBored." said MrBored. "I'm not sure who I am, or what I am. I'm afraid I can only tell you my name." "How do you know each other then?" asked Rick. "I found Neocro's yoyos and gave them back to her. That's how we met." Rick still didn't really get it, but decided to be quiet.
They finished their meal in silence and enjoyed the sun that shone through the trees. "I'm going back to town." said Rick. "Are you coming with me?" asked Rick, looking to Neocro. Neocro shook her head. "I'll be staying here." "Will I see you tonight in the guild house then?" asked Rick. Neocro lifted her shoulders. "I don't know." She smiled. Rick left.
"Do you remember something?" asked MrBored. "Not really, but this place feels like home." "I agree." said MrBored. They stared to the ruin again. Both diving into their own thoughts. "Let's rebuild it." said MrBored suddenly. Neocro looked surprised to MrBored. "Rebuild it? Why? And how?" "I got this feeling that... it stayed a ruin for a reason. Like, it's waiting to be rebuild someday. Since this place feels like home to us, it's up to us to rebuild it." "We're just with two, will we manage it alone?" MrBored lifted his shoulders. "It's not like we have something else to do." Neocro didn't reply. She really didn't have something better to do. This might be a good thing to do. "We can cut down some smaller trees for wood." "And we can get mud out of the swamps nearby." continued Bored. "We can get materials in Darken, it's not that far from here." They smiled. "Let's do this."
They first dragged all the beams away, sorted out the stones they could reuse later and marked where the house would come. When the sun threw long shadows on the forest ground, they stopped working. They put themselves down close to the trees and made a camp fire. MrBored and Neocro discussed how they'd build the house while it got darker and darker. After they had eaten dinner. They were staring quietly to the stars. Neocro felt really comfortable. This was a place she knew. The trees around her made her feel save. The fresh air, the stars high above in the sky. This were things she used to expire before. "Will we be save here tonight?" asked Neocro. "Won't there appear some monsters that will attack us? I saw a few around today." "I don't think they'll attack us. They need sleep too." said MrBored. Neocro laughed. "It's weird to think that even monsters need sleep." Suddenly they heard a noise close by. "W-what was that?" MrBored grabbed his weapons. Neocro grabbed her yoyos. They tried to be as quiet as they could while they got up. It sounded like there was a creature coming closer and closer. Neocro kept her yoyos firm in her hands, ready to attack as soon as she knew what was approaching. She glanced to MrBored, he was ready to attack too. A shadow appeared in the darkness, followed by another two shadows. Neocro narrowed her eyes. Suddenly one of the following shadows came quickly closer by. Before Neocro knew what was happening, the creature was hanging around her neck. Neocro gasped.
"Neeeeoooocrooo!" called Jess. "I found you!" The other two shadows came closer. It were Sean and Lucrecia. "Guys..." Neocro sighed. Her heart was beating really fast. "Why didn't you tell me you would go to Volcano? I have been searching for you the whole day." Jess looked angrily to Neocro. "I-I"m sorry I didn't know that we would go." "Hi Neocro!" said Sean. "Hi Sean." Neocro smiled. "Jess almost killed me when I walked through Flaris, she forced me to bring her to you." "And she forced me to go with her." sighed Lucrecia. Neocro laughed. "Come, join us at the camp fire. It seems like we'll have to spend the night together here." Suddenly they noticed MrBored in the shadows. "W-who's that?" asked Sean. "Ooh! It's that boy that was with Neocro before!" said Jess. "Are you having a secret date?" Neocro shook firmly her head. "No! We just... happened to meet here." Jess laughed. They put themselves down at the camp fire. "Why didn't you go back to town for the night?" asked Sean. "We're going to rebuild this house." said Neocro. "Why would you do that?" "It just feels like we have to." said MrBored quietly. "We used to be here a lot, I think. Like, we lived here?" They got quiet. "That would be strange." said Lucrecia. "Strange that you used to live here..." "What is this place, Lucrecia?" asked Jess. "I don't know everything." said Lucrecia. "You do, you do!" said Jess. "Tell us what you know!" Lucrecia sighed. "It is just a fairytale but, ... there once used to live a powerful Magician on this place. Not a lot people dared to get closer, only really powerful heroes dared to enter the house. Then, one day, a Clockworks burned the whole forest down, and the Magician died fighting it. Of course they say her ghosts haunts the ruin now." Sean chuckled. "How can a Clockworks appear in a forest? They are all locked up." Neocro and MrBored stared to the fire. Powerful Magician. Clockworks. Forest in fire. Tears welled up in Neocro's eyes.
Neocro and Sam walked near Toro so he could lean on them. When they walked trough the gate they shocked. The forest... It was burning. Everywhere broken trees were lying on the ground. There was a lot smoke and it was difficult to breath. This was once a place with fresh air. This was once a peaceful place where high trees made the sky. "What... What the hell?" said Larimar. Toro walked forward. "This can't be..." "Laola!" said Neocro. "We have to go to her house!"
"Laola..." murmured MrBored. "How could we forget?" Neocro got up, ignoring the others who were very confused. She walked out of the light that the fire spread. She walked straight through the darkness to a hill. On the top she fell down. She stared to the starry sky. "How could I forget?"
