Angels without Wings

Chapter 32

I didn't fully remember entering the cabin, and I certainly didn't remember crawling into bed, yet that's where I found myself, when I woke up. And that wasn't all; my shoes were on ground next to the bed and not on my feet, my jacket was hung on the back of the only chair in the room and my mask was on the bedside table. Had Whitey put me to bed?

For some reason that had me blushing, I really had to stop doing that...

I quickly got out of bed, feeling refreshed, and got my shoes, mask, and jacket back on, then I turned to the other bed, intending to wake Yuuto, only to find it empty. Where was he?!

I quickly left the room, he had to still be on board, right? Whitey or Naruto had him, right? Maybe Hinata?

It didn't take me long to track them down and to my relief Yuuto was with the group, they were sitting around a table in the eating area, eating bread and playing some kind of game, and for a moment I just stayed there, watching them. Somehow the sight of them, happy and laughing, made me feel calm, it was sort of peaceful, relaxing. Whitey looked up and caught my eyes, quickly I tried hide the way I'd been looking at them, but the way his eye lit up, and the fond look in it, made it clear that I'd been too slow. He motioned for me to join them, which I slowly did. Most of them played the board game, that the cow man had apparently taught them, for most of the trip, while I just enjoyed the atmosphere.

When we arrived in the Land of Noodles, I led us straight through it to the other side, where we got on another boat. Throughout the next 8 days I led the way, leading them through both Naga Island and O'Uzu Island, without telling any of them where we were going. As we got closer, it got harder to say anything about it and I became very aware of how little any of them knew; Whitey hadn't been there, when I told the group about the massacre, and neither had sand siblings, the Hokage, the cow man and the masked boy. None of them, absolutely none of them, not even Yuuto, was aware of our parents' titles. None of them knew of the guardians, the throne, the shielded village, none of it.

And what was worse, I didn't want Whitey, of all people, to find out, without me telling him. I didn't understand why, but I felt like it had to come from me, that I had to tell him, yet I had absolutely no words.

I had to warn them about not being seen, I had to tell them about the shield, I had to tell them about so many things; yet it wasn't that important, they could discover it along way. Naruto, Hinata and the brood already knew of the massacre, they'd probably guess it rather quickly; the Hokage, the cow man and the masked boy could draw their own conclusions with the others' help. But not Whitey. I had to tell him, but I had absolutely no words.

On the evening of the 8th day, we arrived at the Land of the Moon; it was stormy, which was a nice cover for us as we made our way through the rain filled streets. I paused slightly, when I heard a young boy scream up, demanding that random people serve him as he was going to be the new king after his father; that wasn't true; he had no way of becoming a king. He could only become a temporary proxy, unless of course he married the heiress, and I certainly wouldn't marry him. Deciding to ignore the loud boy, I started walking again and the group followed me; I led them to the forest and all the way to where I knew the shield would be, where I stopped, and they stopped with me. They were probably curious as to why we stopped so suddenly in the middle of the forest as the shield was, as it usually was, invisible...

The guardians had undoubtfully 'cleaned up' after the massacre, but I still couldn't help but fear that the bodies, the bodies of all the people I'd grown up with, would be there, laying in the streets, where they'd fallen.

I took a deep breath, before reaching out and letting my hand run across the shield, setting lose a visible ripple through it; behind me several people gasped. I closed my eye and focused on the shield, using my connection, through being of the royal blood, to check over the village, making sure it was empty, it was, and then removing the permissions of every person, not of the blood, that had been granted permission to cross through the shield. Someone, more likely than not, from the Guardians, had betrayed us once, I wasn't going to let them try again, so I made sure that no one, but Yuuto and I, could cross through the shield. Of course, I could, and would, give the whole group permission to cross through as they pleased, but it had to be done in the royal library by someone of the royal blood, like me, through the shield stone.