The Innerring Temple

In other news...

Mark stood next to his guards, waiting either for his brother to come out, or for the other royal family members to leave their ships. Eventually, the Earth kingdom began letting their people off. The seal on the ship was easily recognisable. The mysterious leaf was shaped to look like an eye. The first person to get off was Mark's mother. "Mark!" She ran over to hug her children. "Hey mom! Mark said. It had been a couple months since he had last seen her. They had last seen each other at the Earth Kingdom champion tournament. "Wait, your highness!" A tall familiar face came off the boat as the two let go off their hug. "Tyler, my man!" Mark said.

"Hey Mark. How's a- hi." Tyler didn't really know what to say. He didn't seem to want to bring up the elephant in the room. "Hey, we'll need to catch up later. I have a lot of stuff to tell you, but I need to escort your mom to her room." He said quickly. "Oh okay, see you later then I guess," Mark said, somewhat confused as his friend walked the castle, guiding Mark's mom.

Mark turned around to see another familiar face. "Seán!" What's up!?" He said. The rest of the family was talking to Wade and Bob. "Where's Tom?" Jack asked. "Ummm..." Mark didn't really know how to answer the question. "Getting ready for kingship I suppose?" He asked. Mark looked at him and chuckled nervously. "Yeah, something like that." He said.

"Oh hey, if you get permission, you can come hangout with me and the other princes. I have a restaurant I've been wanting to show someone but I don't have a lot of friends in the fire kingdom aside from my brother and the guards." Mark said. Jack smiled. "Yeah sure. I'll be right back." He said. He took off to talk to his family.

The next group was the air kingdom. The seal was a cloud in the in the shape of fist with waves in the background representing moving wind. Mark was familiar with the royal family, they had celebrated the decade festival earlier that year together. He and Felix were close, being only a few months apart.

Felix quickly made his way off the boat and over to Mark with two girls by his side, helping him off the boat. One was Fanny who Mark was familiar with, but the other one... wow she was beautiful.

"Prince Mark" Felix said as he came closer, and the two girls walked over to Marcie. The beautiful woman walked with Felicity. "Hey Felix, quick question, who is that?" He asked pointing to the beautiful stranger. "Oh that's Amy. She's Fanny's lady in waiting or something. I don't really pay attention." He was clearly groggy, probably from the nap he took to help with his sea-sickness. But Mark was looking at her. Her beautiful hair, her beautiful smile, and he heard her beautiful voice as she spoke with some of the guards. "Dude, you okay?" Jack asked. He came over and stood next to the other two princes. "What oh yeah, sorry." Mark finally tore his eyes away from Amy.

Mark introduced the two. "Felix, this is Jack, Jack this is Felix." He said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Prince Jack." Felix bowed. "Dude, what's with the formalities?" Jack asked. "Excuse me?" Felix didn't mean it in a rude way, he was just confused. "My mom taught me to speak properly to people if I'm greeting them, or not acquainted with them." Felix couldn't shake the feeling he had done something wrong. "Who said we weren't 'acquainted'?" Jack asked. Felix looked at him, surprised by the bluntness, but eventually he smiled. "Well I guess we could be,"

"So can you come to the restaurant?" Mark asked. "Oh yeah! But you're going to have to show me to my room after we get back to the castle." Jack said. "Wait you're hanging out?" Felix seemed eager to come as well. "Yeah do you want to join us?" Mark invited him. The smile on Felix's face got wider and he said excitedly, "yes! I would love too! Let me talk to my father," he said, and he took off with his guards.

The two princes made their way to the final ship form the water kingdom. The seal looked to be a sun, or a gear, barley over the horizon of the ocean. They approached the water ship and called out Ethan's name, because he had fallen asleep on the ship. "Ethan!" Mark called. Ethan woke with a startle. "Ah! Oh Mark. Seán. It's just you two." He said. He stretched and stood up. He yelled over to his older brother. "Hey Andrew, tell mom I'm going into town with Mark and Seán" he said. "Yeah yeah whatever." He seemed used to having his siblings randomly leave.

"Hey Mark, I'm allowed to go!" Felix called. "Cool! Hang on we're getting off the boat!" Mark called. They left the ship and Mark introduced Felix to Ethan. "Alright, my friends, off to the Nerdy Nummies restaurant" Mark said excitedly.

—

The four managed to ditch the guards trying to keep them under watch, and Mark showed them the way to a small restaurant, on the corner of a street, with a painted sign saying "Nerdy Nummies" in multiple different colors. They walked into the restaurant, and were approached by a small girl with brown hair. "Your highness!" She said excitedly. "What brings you back to my restaurant?" She asked. "Hey Ro. I wanted to show my friends this place. These are Princes Jack, Felix, and Ethan from the other kingdoms." He said. She handed the four menues and led them to a booth. "Well it's nice to see you with some new folks! I'll send a waiter your way in just a moment." She smiled and took off.

"Who was that?" Ethan asked. "That was Rosanna Pansino, or just Ro. She's the owner of Nerdy Nummies." Mark explained.

The four of them began talking about trivial things, and Felix began warming up to the two new strangers. "So Felix, why haven't we ever met you before?" Jack asked. "I uh... I'm not sure. I guess my family never really had a reason to meet yours. Mark's family was the only one that came to the decade festival." He shrugged. He still seemed a bit groggy from the trip.

Eventually a waitress came over. She had a small apron tied around her waist, and mid length brown hair, tied in the back with a pink bow. "Hello, welcome to Nerdy Nummies, my name is Marzia, what drinks would you like to order?" She asked. "I'll have some cola," said Jack. "I'll take a simple orange juice," Ethan told her. She wrote down their orders and looked at Mark and Felix. "And for his highness and his friend there?" She asked, pointing to Felix. "I'll have my usual," Mark said. He turned to look at Felix, who was looking at the waitress intensely. Not enough to be creepy, but enough to recognise something was up. "I'll have a G-Fuel, kiwi strawberry," he said. "Okay, Ro will be back with your drinks!" She said with a cute smile, before almost skipping away.

"Hey Felix, you good man?" Mark asked him. "What? Oh yeah I'm fine." He said, he watched as Mariza left and went back into the kitchen. "You sure, cause you're kind of ogling our waitress," Mark teased. Felix cheeks flashed a shade of pink as he scoffed at Mark. "Whatever"

A little while later, Ro came back to their table with a tray of their drinks. "Cola?"
"Here" called Jack "Orange Juice?"
"Ooh, that's mine," Ethan said. "G-Fuel" she placed it in front of Felix. "And the usual, for your highness," she said handing something to Mark. "Corn?" Ethan asked. "Your usual drink is corn?" He emphasised. "I like corn." Mark answered simply, before taking a swig.

"Wait, are you Prince Jack, form the earth kingdom?" Ro asked. "Yeah, he said. "Wow! That's where I originally came from. My step-brother Matthew Patrick still lives there," she said. "Really? He's the royal detective," Jack said. "I know! I was talking to him the other day, and he said something about a red moon coming up," she said. "A red moon huh?" Mark lifted an eyebrow and drank more of his corn. Ethan stopped drinking and looked at Ro, worriedly. "Yeah. Apparently there's supposed to be a red moon on the night of the coronation. We're still not completely sure, but apparently weird stuff happens when the moon turns red. Hank Green came with the royal family to investigate in the fire kingdom. He's staying with me until he goes back home, per Mat's request." She said. "Anyway, what food do you guys want?" She asked.