[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal: Fourth Entry
Title: Entries in a Holy Knight's Journal
Fourth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Stir the Blaze Knight's Concern, Kidnap the Sun Knight."
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 3,998
Notes: In which the story rambles without a destination. Seriously. I started this in July, thought I'd finish it very quickly, and here we are at the end of October...*dusts this Entry off for
no_true_pair, Storm & Blaze, "give me your hand"* So, we left off this story with Leaf angering Ice. As a reminder, this fic takes place a few months after they've officially taken over their new positions. There was supposed to be an overarching plot connecting each Entry, in which this would be happening somewhere near the end of the story...but the plot decided to run away, resulting in...this. *stabs it*
Previous Part
Fourth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Stir the Blaze Knight's Concern, Kidnap the Sun Knight."
After correcting document after document, I paused. I had realized something profound. Actually, I'd already known it, but I willingly let the blurry words in front of me trick me until I could no longer ignore what was staring at me in the face.
It was either this (doing paperwork until my eyesight blurred) or that (winking at every single female within my vicinity). I...prefer the first option. Most of the time. It meant that my eyesight would blur enough that I would not be able to tell who I was winking at.
But enough was enough, that lazy bastard.
All of these papers belonged to Sun!
In a fit of rage, I tossed the pile into the air, the loose papers falling around me endlessly, like the aftermath of a silent storm. Immediately, I regretted my actions because I now had to pick those same papers up from the ground. I bent down and reached for them, the papers hard to see with only one good eye. I touched the eye-patch over my other eye. Between Sun and Earth, one day, I truly was going to go blind.
As I shuffled the papers back into one pile, I couldn't stop thinking about Sun and how he always manages to trick me into doing more of his paperwork. I almost crumpled the papers in my hand at the thought, but that would have been even more idiotic than tossing the papers in the air given how much time and effort I had spent on them.
Sun is not what I expected the leader of the “good, warm” faction to be like, and I will never forget that he was the one who trapped me into doing paperwork for practically the entire Holy Temple. There was once a time when I did no paperwork, but now I don't even remember what it used to be like not having clauses and signatures plaguing my dreams, imprinted on the back of my eyelids.
That's the kind of person my leader is, a devious person who condemned me to endless paperwork and who never does his own. In fact, Judgment, even though he's the leader of the "cruel, cold-hearted" faction, is actually a much better person. You might be intimidated by his stare and his deep voice, as well as his harsh judgments, but you have nothing to fear from him if you stand on the side of the law (and are generally a good person). I've always wondered how Sun and Judgment became friends... What's best about Judgment, however, is that he always (and I repeat, always) does his own paperwork. Thoroughly. And on time too. He would be my favorite person in the Holy Temple, that is, if he were to lend me a hand too, but that would never happen. We are in opposing factions after all, and he believes in doing your own work.
Are you now wondering who my favorite person is? You are, aren't you? I bet you can't guess because he's not actually one of the Twelve Holy Knights, but he is a holy knight. Have you narrowed down your guesses? If you guessed Adair, you've guessed right. Yes, Adair. He is absolutely the best.
Knock knock.
Just when I was thinking about him!
Like I thought, opening my door revealed Sun's vice captain Adair. I couldn't be happier to see him. If not for Adair, I'd have murdered Sun a long time ago. Sun has made many questionable decisions, but his decision to pick Adair as his vice captain was one brilliant move that even I had to give him my props for.
“There you are, Adair. Here you go.”
With a nod, Adair took what I handed to him and left. The smile on my face remained wide even after his departure.
If you're confused by the exchange that just happened, don't be. It is a frequent occurrence. Sun gave me his paperwork. I gave half of it to Adair.
Isn't Adair the very best?
-----
The next abuse my door took wasn't polite knocks from Adair -- his manners were impeccable because of Sun's drilling -- but rather a fierce kick that broke my door down. I jumped at the sudden noise and raised my head to stare blurredly at my door that was no longer standing.
"Storm, it's an emergency!"
I would hope it was an emergency. Otherwise, my door would have died a meaningless death.
That was Blaze's voice, and he sounded frantic. Last I heard, Sun had sent him on a mission out of Leaf Bud City for some exorcism. He shouldn't have been able to return so quickly, but then Blaze has always dealt with his duties swiftly and aggressively, true to his personality.
When my eyesight finally focused on him, I saw that Blaze looked just as frantic as he had sounded. I was glad I hadn't still been trying to pick my papers up -- I would have gotten knocked over on the head by my now flattened door. I really didn't need a concussion to go along with my eye-patch.
Speaking of my eye-patch, it looked like Blaze had just noticed the new addition to my face.
“What in the name of the God of Light happened to your eye?” he asked incredulously.
“Earth's fault,” I replied. “But that's not important at the moment. What's the emergency? Also, you better fix the door before you leave.”
My door had been perfectly fine before he came and kicked it down.
“Sun's missing!” he exclaimed as he picked the door up.
“Really?” I asked skeptically. I was up-to-date on all of the gossip around the Holy Temple, the Church, and the Palace. I hadn't heard anything about Sun being missing, and Adair had looked normal when he came to split Sun's paperwork. If his captain had been in trouble, he wouldn't have looked so relaxed.
Besides...did it matter whether Sun was missing or not? The Holy Temple operated just fine even without his continual presence, and I'd have some more peace than usual. All he had to do was show up now and then to remind everyone that yes, the Church of the God of Light's walking billboard was still around, and then he could disappear off to do whatever he always did from the shadows.
"Yeah, so hurry up and help me find him!"
With those words, Blaze forcefully dragged me out of my room, giving me no time to refuse his request. He didn't even consider that I still had a mountain of paperwork to finish! At this rate, I'd need to pull another all-nighter.
I was barely able to make a grab for some documents before he slammed my door back in its place.
I surveyed the door. It was cricked.
I definitely need a new door now.
-----
Sometimes, I felt Blaze worried more than Leaf. Sure, Blaze was brash and quick-tempered, but if he were to claim to be the most worried about Sun, no one would be able to claim to be more worried than he was, not even Leaf. I was sure nothing had happened -- this was Sun we were talking about after all. Even though he was terrible with a sword -- he'd almost impaled me once when his sword flew out of his hands during practice -- he was terrifying in many other aspects, including how he can bring about headaches merely by talking. If he'd been kidnapped, his kidnappers could only be described as suicidal. Most likely, however, Sun was just skiving off his duties and was just unfortunate enough that Blaze had caught him during one of his disappearing acts.
I glanced towards Blaze. He was practically biting his lips with worry, his brows furrowed. As we "searched", he told me about how he had returned from his mission and couldn't find Sun to make his report. He'd even heard a rumor that Sun had been spotted with blood on his shirt the day before he'd disappeared, so what if Sun was hurt?
If I had even a tiny bit of Blaze's high opinion of Sun, I might find myself more welcoming to the stacks of paperwork Sun always liked to toss at me. I turned the thought around in my head and snorted. Who was I kidding? Sun's work attitude completely gets on my nerves, and I more often than not wanted to maim him, regardless of the fact that I know he can be a good leader when he puts his mind to it. He just doesn't do it a lot.
As we walked, I sorted the documents I had managed to grab, intent on working on them without wasting any time, but Blaze snatched them out of my hands.
"Hey!" I protested when I found my hands empty.
He glanced down at the papers, nose wrinkling before he waved the papers in the air to make his point. My uncovered eye followed the motion.
"It's not like you can sign these without an inkwell," he said.
I know that, but I can still look them over right now to save time later...
I moved to snatch my papers back, but Blaze tucked them away under his arms, holding my paperwork captive.
"Come on, let's go find Sun!" Blaze exclaimed as he lengthened his strides.
I sighed. It looked like I'd never get to finish my paperwork if I didn't help Blaze find Sun first. Blaze probably even thought he was doing me a favor, having gotten me out of my room, but all I could think of was all the paperwork that was waiting for me back in my room.
-----
With my paperwork held captive, I began stringing together the information Blaze had given me, trying to piece together where Sun could have disappeared off to, and whether or not he'd been injured or kidnapped. His room had been empty when Blaze had checked. He wasn't with his platoon. He wasn't over at the Sanctuary of Light, though that didn't reveal much about whether or not he was injured, since unless he was heavily injured, he was usually able to take care of his injuries himself. Blaze had already combed through many of the places Sun could possibly be before he'd come to me. Even I had to admit that maybe we should be worried about Sun's disappearance, but then, Adair hadn't been worried, so I wasn't worried.
There were a few more locations I thought Blaze should have checked before declaring "Sun's disappearance" an emergency, so we did just that. We stopped by the kitchen where the cooks were busy preparing the day's meals. Seeing how many of the cooks were female, I winked at them and decided to stay by the entrance where it was safer, letting Blaze walk inside and ask questions. Several of the cooks looked like they wanted to drop their ladles and sidle over my way.
Hurry up, Blaze!
If he didn't hurry, I was going to have to wink at all the females once more, starting with the lady on the left who was staring at me with sparkling eyes that made me want to disappear from the room.
When Blaze finally came back, he came back with a bulgy sack of apples.
"Looks like Sun hasn’t been here," Blaze declared.
"The apples?" I asked, wondering if the additional sack of apples would be enough for Blaze to relinquish my paperwork from captivity.
"As I said, Sun hasn't been here."
Blaze hefted the sack over his shoulder and was somehow still holding my paperwork under his other arm. I just hoped he wasn't going to crinkle my papers.
Right. Apples.
I made a mental note to myself about Sun neglecting his apples. It seemed that Sun wasn't anywhere public, so logically, the next place to check would be our private quarters.
-----
Slam!
There went another door destroyed by Blaze's foot. I think this door took more damage than mine had. At least mine had stayed whole. This one looked a little bent in the middle even though it hadn't fallen off its hinges.
From within, Ice turned to glare at Blaze, his expression cold. I hurriedly stepped in to mitigate the damage. As I spoke, Blaze made a poor attempt at fixing Ice's door by kicking it back in place.
"Ice, have you seen Sun today?" I asked. With Sun's sweet tooth, it was very likely that he'd have come to visit Ice since he hadn't gone to nick desserts from the kitchen, though I could now see that he currently wasn't here. Ice was alone with his creations and a ton of...strawberries, though it looked like there was a bunch missing from his stash.
Ice shook his head.
I knew it couldn't have been that easy to locate Sun, but somewhere inside of me, I had hoped that it would be that easy, and that I could return to my room already.
"If you see him, tell him that Blaze and I are looking for him..."
Ice pushed a plate at me.
I looked down at the plate of chocolate-coated strawberries in confusion. Ice looked at me expectantly. The silence was a little awkward.
"Uh, I think I'll have a strawberry!" I said, grabbing a strawberry so that Ice would stop staring at me with the same gaze he used to stare at enemies that he cut down the moment they took a strike at him. I knew he used the same gaze all the time, whether he was baking or cutting an enemy down, but it was still unnerving being under his gaze.
When both Blaze and I ate a strawberry and gave our compliments, Ice handed us the entire plate.
"For Leaf," he said, hand rubbing his reddened fingers. His fingernails were pink from strawberry juice.
I didn't know what was going on, but this plate of chocolate-coated strawberries was making me very curious.
That decided our next stop, but not before we gave Ice some apples to thank him for the strawberries.
-----
Leaf's door fell to the same fate as Ice's, but the sad thing was, he wasn't even in his room. After Blaze fixed Leaf's door with a kick, we headed outside and thankfully found Leaf doing drills with his platoon. We observed them for a moment. While Judgment was a captain who led by example, with both physical and mental strength, spurring his knights to reach beyond their limits to follow his lead, and Blaze was a captain who fought alongside his knights, inspiring his knights to invoke strength lent by comradeship, Leaf wasn't like either. Rather, he was a captain who protected and was protected at the same time. His knights took the frontline to keep opponents away from their captain, while their captain kept them safe in return with his deadly marksmanship.
It was a humbling and inspiring sight to watch.
"We shouldn't interrupt them," I said. But of course, Blaze was Blaze, and I was speaking to air.
"Hey, Leaf, got a moment?" Blaze yelled, already gone from my side. He was now up against the fence. If this side of the fence had a gate, he'd have kicked it down.
Why did I even bother?
Leaf lowered his bow and left his vice captain with some instructions before he jogged over to us.
"What's the occasion?" Leaf asked with a smile.
"Strawberries," Blaze said while grinning, though what he held was a sack of apples in one hand and a stack of paperwork in his other hand. I hadn't forgotten that Blaze was holding my paperwork prisoner, and I was sure now that he was crinkling my papers.
I watched as Leaf's smile wavered a bit, but that expression disappeared when I walked closer with the plate of chocolate-coated strawberries Ice had given me. At the sight, Leaf tilted his head.
"These are from Ice," I said. "He wanted you to have them."
The smile on Leaf's face relaxed, and his eyes lit up. "Oh," he said. "Oh!"
I raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what the story behind that was, but Blaze had a one track mind and steered us away from what would have been juicy gossip.
"Have you seen Sun today, Leaf?" asked Blaze.
Leaf sprinkled something powdered on the strawberries before he popped one of the strawberries into his mouth.
"I haven't seen him since I handed some papers to Ice."
Which meant Leaf had last seen Sun with Ice...?
After he said that, Leaf shuddered.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, though now I was wondering what had happened between Leaf and Ice, since I was sure Leaf wasn't shuddering from the delightfully sweet strawberries.
"No, nothing," Leaf replied with a weak smile. "I'm just glad I received nice, whole strawberries..."
I filed that comment away, watching as Leaf proceeded to share his strawberries with his platoon.
-----
Slam!
Inside the room, a female voice squeaked before a streak of white tumbled out of the room. I hadn't even been quick enough to wink at her before she disappeared down the corridor.
"Sun, you!" Earth's voice died down when he realized we weren't Sun. "Oh, it's you two," Earth said with a sniff as he straightened his clothes.
I did not want to know what he'd been up to.
"Earth, has Sun been around?" Blaze asked. He was still carrying my paperwork and a sack of apples, so that meant Earth's door was still lying on the floor since Blaze had no extra hands to prop the door up.
"Nah, haven't seen him today. Yesterday though, or was it the day before yesterday? He was walking around with a red-stained shirt."
"Seriously?" Blaze exclaimed, his eyes wide. "So he was hurt? I thought that was just an exaggerated rumor!"
"So what if he is hurt? It's not like he's going to topple over so easily anyway, that resilient bastard," Earth muttered.
"Don't talk like that about Sun!" Blaze growled.
Earth rolled his eyes. "Funny thing was, he didn't even stop to take a jab at me."
I filed that info away too.
Earth glanced at us. "That enough info for you two?"
"Yeah, thanks," I said, one hand on Blaze's arm to keep him from flying at Earth, but I almost couldn't stop him when he remembered that my eye-patch was actually Earth's fault. At least I'd gotten over that already, or else I'd have let Blaze do his worst.
-----
We tried a few more places. Blaze's face became paler and paler by the second, pale enough to give Sun and Cloud a run for their ducats, but I had a fairly good idea of what had happened.
When we stormed the bathroom in the Judge's Complex, both of us blinked at the sight of Judgment who was calmly splashing his face with water. He had two plates of untouched blueberry desserts by his side.
"Looking for Sun?" he asked us after he finished drying off his face.
"Yeah," I replied.
He handed me the blueberry desserts. "Give these to him when you find him."
With that, Judgment left the bathroom. Apparently, Sun hadn't shown up here either, but I'd suspected this would be the case. Having my suspicions confirmed only made me all the more exasperated with Sun because Blaze was even more worried than before while I was even more sure about what had happened.
-----
"Cloud!" I yelled out. "Cloud!"
Next to me, Blaze was also yelling for Cloud since kicking his door down hadn't aided us in finding Cloud. We didn't go as far as rifling through Cloud's drawers and his closet, since we figured he'd at least poke his head out of them if he really was hiding in one of them. He hadn't poked his head out, so that meant he wasn't in his room. We then headed outside to continue calling his name in hopes that he'd show up. At least we could expect him to show up just by calling his name. The same didn't work with Sun.
Even though I knew he was going to materialize behind us, I still jumped when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around to face Cloud, his eyes hidden behind his bangs.
"Have you seen Sun?" I asked when my heart calmed enough for me to speak.
Cloud shook his head.
"Dark places are great," he said quietly. "I've never been to the best one yet."
Beside me, Blaze had dropped my paperwork and the sack of apples at Cloud's sudden materialization. As I chased my flying paperwork, only able to reach for them with one hand as my other was occupied with blueberry desserts, I filed away Cloud's random comment. He knew hiding places much better than me.
-----
I hadn't taken a look at Sun's room yet, and the apples were getting heavy for Blaze, so we decided to stop by Sun's room. My paperwork was also safely back in my grasp, so I'd helped Blaze long enough. With a slam, Blaze kicked down Sun's door. He'd already kicked it down before, so he didn't have to do much to topple the door a second time.
When Blaze dropped the apples next to Sun's drawer, I left the blueberry desserts on top of the drawer and proceeded to take a look around his room. I knelt down beside a basin filled with pink water that Sun had probably washed his red-stained shirt in.
"What's that?" Blaze exclaimed in alarm when he saw what I was looking at. "That's...!"
The air was sickenly sweet.
I stood up, eyes roaming across the room once more before I spotted a small trap door that was cleverly hidden.
"Blaze," I commanded, finger pointing at the door. "Kick that door down."
Eagerly, with my permission even, Blaze propelled forward and smashed the door in with his foot, the small door flying open from the impact.
I knew it.
Inside Sun's cellar, like I had predicted, was our missing Sun Knight. He had bottles and bottles of wine surrounding him, and he was in the midst of brewing more.
He blinked at us before he smiled to cover up his surprise. There were streaks of strawberry juice across his apron. "Might Sun offer his brothers some strawberry wine?" he said at last, as if he hadn't holed himself away for who knew how long, causing Blaze to go frantic with worry. He'd worried so much that he even pulled me in on a pointless search for our whimsical leader who, if we really wanted to use those terms, was the one who'd kidnapped himself.
I patted Blaze on the shoulder -- he'd sagged with relief at seeing Sun -- before I gave Sun some parting words.
"Judgment sends some blueberry desserts."
Sun perked up at this, though I could also tell that he'd just remembered that he'd forgotten he was supposed to meet him personally. Judgment wasn't going to be too happy about that, but that was their business.
"Also, Blaze kicked down a total of fifteen doors today," I said with a smile. My smile grew wider when Sun just smiled back at me in incomprehension. "He was truly very concerned about you, unable to dally around and wait for people to open their doors, finding himself in need of kicking their doors down to gain precious time in his search for you. I'll let the Pope know we've found you."
And that he should take repair fees out of your salary.
With a wave, I crawled out of Sun's dark cellar.
"Wait! Don't leave, Storm! Come back! I'll give you some strawberry wine! Or would you like apple wine?" Sun yelled at me, having realized what exactly I'd just said. "Come back!"
I yawned. I had a lot of paperwork waiting for me, and a door that still needed replacing.
-----
the end (to be continued with another two knights)
This was seriously more about Storm than Blaze, haha... For a good while, I was sure that Storm was the one who had kidnapped Sun. XD; It was almost going to turn out that way. Storm's characterization was very difficult, since I keep imagining him as this cute and very shy teenager, but by the time he's actually become the official Storm Knight, I feel he's much more confident in himself... hence this characterization. Yeah.
Adair's appearance in this story was a little strange (and unnecessary). It was the first time I'd written him... he didn't even speak either. XD;
I completely fail at mystery. OTL Need to rethink about writing mystery for NaNo...
Let's see, I still have Judgment, Cloud, Earth, Metal, Moon, Stone, and Leaf left to write "about", and Sun, Cloud, Metal, Moon, Stone, Blaze, and Ice to write from... this will take some planning to see who should be matched... I'm thinking maybe Blaze & Cloud for one. XD;
Next Part
Fourth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Stir the Blaze Knight's Concern, Kidnap the Sun Knight."
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 3,998
Notes: In which the story rambles without a destination. Seriously. I started this in July, thought I'd finish it very quickly, and here we are at the end of October...*dusts this Entry off for
no_true_pair, Storm & Blaze, "give me your hand"* So, we left off this story with Leaf angering Ice. As a reminder, this fic takes place a few months after they've officially taken over their new positions. There was supposed to be an overarching plot connecting each Entry, in which this would be happening somewhere near the end of the story...but the plot decided to run away, resulting in...this. *stabs it*
Previous Part
Fourth Entry in a Holy Knight's Journal: "To Stir the Blaze Knight's Concern, Kidnap the Sun Knight."
After correcting document after document, I paused. I had realized something profound. Actually, I'd already known it, but I willingly let the blurry words in front of me trick me until I could no longer ignore what was staring at me in the face.
It was either this (doing paperwork until my eyesight blurred) or that (winking at every single female within my vicinity). I...prefer the first option. Most of the time. It meant that my eyesight would blur enough that I would not be able to tell who I was winking at.
But enough was enough, that lazy bastard.
All of these papers belonged to Sun!
In a fit of rage, I tossed the pile into the air, the loose papers falling around me endlessly, like the aftermath of a silent storm. Immediately, I regretted my actions because I now had to pick those same papers up from the ground. I bent down and reached for them, the papers hard to see with only one good eye. I touched the eye-patch over my other eye. Between Sun and Earth, one day, I truly was going to go blind.
As I shuffled the papers back into one pile, I couldn't stop thinking about Sun and how he always manages to trick me into doing more of his paperwork. I almost crumpled the papers in my hand at the thought, but that would have been even more idiotic than tossing the papers in the air given how much time and effort I had spent on them.
Sun is not what I expected the leader of the “good, warm” faction to be like, and I will never forget that he was the one who trapped me into doing paperwork for practically the entire Holy Temple. There was once a time when I did no paperwork, but now I don't even remember what it used to be like not having clauses and signatures plaguing my dreams, imprinted on the back of my eyelids.
That's the kind of person my leader is, a devious person who condemned me to endless paperwork and who never does his own. In fact, Judgment, even though he's the leader of the "cruel, cold-hearted" faction, is actually a much better person. You might be intimidated by his stare and his deep voice, as well as his harsh judgments, but you have nothing to fear from him if you stand on the side of the law (and are generally a good person). I've always wondered how Sun and Judgment became friends... What's best about Judgment, however, is that he always (and I repeat, always) does his own paperwork. Thoroughly. And on time too. He would be my favorite person in the Holy Temple, that is, if he were to lend me a hand too, but that would never happen. We are in opposing factions after all, and he believes in doing your own work.
Are you now wondering who my favorite person is? You are, aren't you? I bet you can't guess because he's not actually one of the Twelve Holy Knights, but he is a holy knight. Have you narrowed down your guesses? If you guessed Adair, you've guessed right. Yes, Adair. He is absolutely the best.
Knock knock.
Just when I was thinking about him!
Like I thought, opening my door revealed Sun's vice captain Adair. I couldn't be happier to see him. If not for Adair, I'd have murdered Sun a long time ago. Sun has made many questionable decisions, but his decision to pick Adair as his vice captain was one brilliant move that even I had to give him my props for.
“There you are, Adair. Here you go.”
With a nod, Adair took what I handed to him and left. The smile on my face remained wide even after his departure.
If you're confused by the exchange that just happened, don't be. It is a frequent occurrence. Sun gave me his paperwork. I gave half of it to Adair.
Isn't Adair the very best?
-----
The next abuse my door took wasn't polite knocks from Adair -- his manners were impeccable because of Sun's drilling -- but rather a fierce kick that broke my door down. I jumped at the sudden noise and raised my head to stare blurredly at my door that was no longer standing.
"Storm, it's an emergency!"
I would hope it was an emergency. Otherwise, my door would have died a meaningless death.
That was Blaze's voice, and he sounded frantic. Last I heard, Sun had sent him on a mission out of Leaf Bud City for some exorcism. He shouldn't have been able to return so quickly, but then Blaze has always dealt with his duties swiftly and aggressively, true to his personality.
When my eyesight finally focused on him, I saw that Blaze looked just as frantic as he had sounded. I was glad I hadn't still been trying to pick my papers up -- I would have gotten knocked over on the head by my now flattened door. I really didn't need a concussion to go along with my eye-patch.
Speaking of my eye-patch, it looked like Blaze had just noticed the new addition to my face.
“What in the name of the God of Light happened to your eye?” he asked incredulously.
“Earth's fault,” I replied. “But that's not important at the moment. What's the emergency? Also, you better fix the door before you leave.”
My door had been perfectly fine before he came and kicked it down.
“Sun's missing!” he exclaimed as he picked the door up.
“Really?” I asked skeptically. I was up-to-date on all of the gossip around the Holy Temple, the Church, and the Palace. I hadn't heard anything about Sun being missing, and Adair had looked normal when he came to split Sun's paperwork. If his captain had been in trouble, he wouldn't have looked so relaxed.
Besides...did it matter whether Sun was missing or not? The Holy Temple operated just fine even without his continual presence, and I'd have some more peace than usual. All he had to do was show up now and then to remind everyone that yes, the Church of the God of Light's walking billboard was still around, and then he could disappear off to do whatever he always did from the shadows.
"Yeah, so hurry up and help me find him!"
With those words, Blaze forcefully dragged me out of my room, giving me no time to refuse his request. He didn't even consider that I still had a mountain of paperwork to finish! At this rate, I'd need to pull another all-nighter.
I was barely able to make a grab for some documents before he slammed my door back in its place.
I surveyed the door. It was cricked.
I definitely need a new door now.
-----
Sometimes, I felt Blaze worried more than Leaf. Sure, Blaze was brash and quick-tempered, but if he were to claim to be the most worried about Sun, no one would be able to claim to be more worried than he was, not even Leaf. I was sure nothing had happened -- this was Sun we were talking about after all. Even though he was terrible with a sword -- he'd almost impaled me once when his sword flew out of his hands during practice -- he was terrifying in many other aspects, including how he can bring about headaches merely by talking. If he'd been kidnapped, his kidnappers could only be described as suicidal. Most likely, however, Sun was just skiving off his duties and was just unfortunate enough that Blaze had caught him during one of his disappearing acts.
I glanced towards Blaze. He was practically biting his lips with worry, his brows furrowed. As we "searched", he told me about how he had returned from his mission and couldn't find Sun to make his report. He'd even heard a rumor that Sun had been spotted with blood on his shirt the day before he'd disappeared, so what if Sun was hurt?
If I had even a tiny bit of Blaze's high opinion of Sun, I might find myself more welcoming to the stacks of paperwork Sun always liked to toss at me. I turned the thought around in my head and snorted. Who was I kidding? Sun's work attitude completely gets on my nerves, and I more often than not wanted to maim him, regardless of the fact that I know he can be a good leader when he puts his mind to it. He just doesn't do it a lot.
As we walked, I sorted the documents I had managed to grab, intent on working on them without wasting any time, but Blaze snatched them out of my hands.
"Hey!" I protested when I found my hands empty.
He glanced down at the papers, nose wrinkling before he waved the papers in the air to make his point. My uncovered eye followed the motion.
"It's not like you can sign these without an inkwell," he said.
I know that, but I can still look them over right now to save time later...
I moved to snatch my papers back, but Blaze tucked them away under his arms, holding my paperwork captive.
"Come on, let's go find Sun!" Blaze exclaimed as he lengthened his strides.
I sighed. It looked like I'd never get to finish my paperwork if I didn't help Blaze find Sun first. Blaze probably even thought he was doing me a favor, having gotten me out of my room, but all I could think of was all the paperwork that was waiting for me back in my room.
-----
With my paperwork held captive, I began stringing together the information Blaze had given me, trying to piece together where Sun could have disappeared off to, and whether or not he'd been injured or kidnapped. His room had been empty when Blaze had checked. He wasn't with his platoon. He wasn't over at the Sanctuary of Light, though that didn't reveal much about whether or not he was injured, since unless he was heavily injured, he was usually able to take care of his injuries himself. Blaze had already combed through many of the places Sun could possibly be before he'd come to me. Even I had to admit that maybe we should be worried about Sun's disappearance, but then, Adair hadn't been worried, so I wasn't worried.
There were a few more locations I thought Blaze should have checked before declaring "Sun's disappearance" an emergency, so we did just that. We stopped by the kitchen where the cooks were busy preparing the day's meals. Seeing how many of the cooks were female, I winked at them and decided to stay by the entrance where it was safer, letting Blaze walk inside and ask questions. Several of the cooks looked like they wanted to drop their ladles and sidle over my way.
Hurry up, Blaze!
If he didn't hurry, I was going to have to wink at all the females once more, starting with the lady on the left who was staring at me with sparkling eyes that made me want to disappear from the room.
When Blaze finally came back, he came back with a bulgy sack of apples.
"Looks like Sun hasn’t been here," Blaze declared.
"The apples?" I asked, wondering if the additional sack of apples would be enough for Blaze to relinquish my paperwork from captivity.
"As I said, Sun hasn't been here."
Blaze hefted the sack over his shoulder and was somehow still holding my paperwork under his other arm. I just hoped he wasn't going to crinkle my papers.
Right. Apples.
I made a mental note to myself about Sun neglecting his apples. It seemed that Sun wasn't anywhere public, so logically, the next place to check would be our private quarters.
-----
Slam!
There went another door destroyed by Blaze's foot. I think this door took more damage than mine had. At least mine had stayed whole. This one looked a little bent in the middle even though it hadn't fallen off its hinges.
From within, Ice turned to glare at Blaze, his expression cold. I hurriedly stepped in to mitigate the damage. As I spoke, Blaze made a poor attempt at fixing Ice's door by kicking it back in place.
"Ice, have you seen Sun today?" I asked. With Sun's sweet tooth, it was very likely that he'd have come to visit Ice since he hadn't gone to nick desserts from the kitchen, though I could now see that he currently wasn't here. Ice was alone with his creations and a ton of...strawberries, though it looked like there was a bunch missing from his stash.
Ice shook his head.
I knew it couldn't have been that easy to locate Sun, but somewhere inside of me, I had hoped that it would be that easy, and that I could return to my room already.
"If you see him, tell him that Blaze and I are looking for him..."
Ice pushed a plate at me.
I looked down at the plate of chocolate-coated strawberries in confusion. Ice looked at me expectantly. The silence was a little awkward.
"Uh, I think I'll have a strawberry!" I said, grabbing a strawberry so that Ice would stop staring at me with the same gaze he used to stare at enemies that he cut down the moment they took a strike at him. I knew he used the same gaze all the time, whether he was baking or cutting an enemy down, but it was still unnerving being under his gaze.
When both Blaze and I ate a strawberry and gave our compliments, Ice handed us the entire plate.
"For Leaf," he said, hand rubbing his reddened fingers. His fingernails were pink from strawberry juice.
I didn't know what was going on, but this plate of chocolate-coated strawberries was making me very curious.
That decided our next stop, but not before we gave Ice some apples to thank him for the strawberries.
-----
Leaf's door fell to the same fate as Ice's, but the sad thing was, he wasn't even in his room. After Blaze fixed Leaf's door with a kick, we headed outside and thankfully found Leaf doing drills with his platoon. We observed them for a moment. While Judgment was a captain who led by example, with both physical and mental strength, spurring his knights to reach beyond their limits to follow his lead, and Blaze was a captain who fought alongside his knights, inspiring his knights to invoke strength lent by comradeship, Leaf wasn't like either. Rather, he was a captain who protected and was protected at the same time. His knights took the frontline to keep opponents away from their captain, while their captain kept them safe in return with his deadly marksmanship.
It was a humbling and inspiring sight to watch.
"We shouldn't interrupt them," I said. But of course, Blaze was Blaze, and I was speaking to air.
"Hey, Leaf, got a moment?" Blaze yelled, already gone from my side. He was now up against the fence. If this side of the fence had a gate, he'd have kicked it down.
Why did I even bother?
Leaf lowered his bow and left his vice captain with some instructions before he jogged over to us.
"What's the occasion?" Leaf asked with a smile.
"Strawberries," Blaze said while grinning, though what he held was a sack of apples in one hand and a stack of paperwork in his other hand. I hadn't forgotten that Blaze was holding my paperwork prisoner, and I was sure now that he was crinkling my papers.
I watched as Leaf's smile wavered a bit, but that expression disappeared when I walked closer with the plate of chocolate-coated strawberries Ice had given me. At the sight, Leaf tilted his head.
"These are from Ice," I said. "He wanted you to have them."
The smile on Leaf's face relaxed, and his eyes lit up. "Oh," he said. "Oh!"
I raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what the story behind that was, but Blaze had a one track mind and steered us away from what would have been juicy gossip.
"Have you seen Sun today, Leaf?" asked Blaze.
Leaf sprinkled something powdered on the strawberries before he popped one of the strawberries into his mouth.
"I haven't seen him since I handed some papers to Ice."
Which meant Leaf had last seen Sun with Ice...?
After he said that, Leaf shuddered.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, though now I was wondering what had happened between Leaf and Ice, since I was sure Leaf wasn't shuddering from the delightfully sweet strawberries.
"No, nothing," Leaf replied with a weak smile. "I'm just glad I received nice, whole strawberries..."
I filed that comment away, watching as Leaf proceeded to share his strawberries with his platoon.
-----
Slam!
Inside the room, a female voice squeaked before a streak of white tumbled out of the room. I hadn't even been quick enough to wink at her before she disappeared down the corridor.
"Sun, you!" Earth's voice died down when he realized we weren't Sun. "Oh, it's you two," Earth said with a sniff as he straightened his clothes.
I did not want to know what he'd been up to.
"Earth, has Sun been around?" Blaze asked. He was still carrying my paperwork and a sack of apples, so that meant Earth's door was still lying on the floor since Blaze had no extra hands to prop the door up.
"Nah, haven't seen him today. Yesterday though, or was it the day before yesterday? He was walking around with a red-stained shirt."
"Seriously?" Blaze exclaimed, his eyes wide. "So he was hurt? I thought that was just an exaggerated rumor!"
"So what if he is hurt? It's not like he's going to topple over so easily anyway, that resilient bastard," Earth muttered.
"Don't talk like that about Sun!" Blaze growled.
Earth rolled his eyes. "Funny thing was, he didn't even stop to take a jab at me."
I filed that info away too.
Earth glanced at us. "That enough info for you two?"
"Yeah, thanks," I said, one hand on Blaze's arm to keep him from flying at Earth, but I almost couldn't stop him when he remembered that my eye-patch was actually Earth's fault. At least I'd gotten over that already, or else I'd have let Blaze do his worst.
-----
We tried a few more places. Blaze's face became paler and paler by the second, pale enough to give Sun and Cloud a run for their ducats, but I had a fairly good idea of what had happened.
When we stormed the bathroom in the Judge's Complex, both of us blinked at the sight of Judgment who was calmly splashing his face with water. He had two plates of untouched blueberry desserts by his side.
"Looking for Sun?" he asked us after he finished drying off his face.
"Yeah," I replied.
He handed me the blueberry desserts. "Give these to him when you find him."
With that, Judgment left the bathroom. Apparently, Sun hadn't shown up here either, but I'd suspected this would be the case. Having my suspicions confirmed only made me all the more exasperated with Sun because Blaze was even more worried than before while I was even more sure about what had happened.
-----
"Cloud!" I yelled out. "Cloud!"
Next to me, Blaze was also yelling for Cloud since kicking his door down hadn't aided us in finding Cloud. We didn't go as far as rifling through Cloud's drawers and his closet, since we figured he'd at least poke his head out of them if he really was hiding in one of them. He hadn't poked his head out, so that meant he wasn't in his room. We then headed outside to continue calling his name in hopes that he'd show up. At least we could expect him to show up just by calling his name. The same didn't work with Sun.
Even though I knew he was going to materialize behind us, I still jumped when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around to face Cloud, his eyes hidden behind his bangs.
"Have you seen Sun?" I asked when my heart calmed enough for me to speak.
Cloud shook his head.
"Dark places are great," he said quietly. "I've never been to the best one yet."
Beside me, Blaze had dropped my paperwork and the sack of apples at Cloud's sudden materialization. As I chased my flying paperwork, only able to reach for them with one hand as my other was occupied with blueberry desserts, I filed away Cloud's random comment. He knew hiding places much better than me.
-----
I hadn't taken a look at Sun's room yet, and the apples were getting heavy for Blaze, so we decided to stop by Sun's room. My paperwork was also safely back in my grasp, so I'd helped Blaze long enough. With a slam, Blaze kicked down Sun's door. He'd already kicked it down before, so he didn't have to do much to topple the door a second time.
When Blaze dropped the apples next to Sun's drawer, I left the blueberry desserts on top of the drawer and proceeded to take a look around his room. I knelt down beside a basin filled with pink water that Sun had probably washed his red-stained shirt in.
"What's that?" Blaze exclaimed in alarm when he saw what I was looking at. "That's...!"
The air was sickenly sweet.
I stood up, eyes roaming across the room once more before I spotted a small trap door that was cleverly hidden.
"Blaze," I commanded, finger pointing at the door. "Kick that door down."
Eagerly, with my permission even, Blaze propelled forward and smashed the door in with his foot, the small door flying open from the impact.
I knew it.
Inside Sun's cellar, like I had predicted, was our missing Sun Knight. He had bottles and bottles of wine surrounding him, and he was in the midst of brewing more.
He blinked at us before he smiled to cover up his surprise. There were streaks of strawberry juice across his apron. "Might Sun offer his brothers some strawberry wine?" he said at last, as if he hadn't holed himself away for who knew how long, causing Blaze to go frantic with worry. He'd worried so much that he even pulled me in on a pointless search for our whimsical leader who, if we really wanted to use those terms, was the one who'd kidnapped himself.
I patted Blaze on the shoulder -- he'd sagged with relief at seeing Sun -- before I gave Sun some parting words.
"Judgment sends some blueberry desserts."
Sun perked up at this, though I could also tell that he'd just remembered that he'd forgotten he was supposed to meet him personally. Judgment wasn't going to be too happy about that, but that was their business.
"Also, Blaze kicked down a total of fifteen doors today," I said with a smile. My smile grew wider when Sun just smiled back at me in incomprehension. "He was truly very concerned about you, unable to dally around and wait for people to open their doors, finding himself in need of kicking their doors down to gain precious time in his search for you. I'll let the Pope know we've found you."
And that he should take repair fees out of your salary.
With a wave, I crawled out of Sun's dark cellar.
"Wait! Don't leave, Storm! Come back! I'll give you some strawberry wine! Or would you like apple wine?" Sun yelled at me, having realized what exactly I'd just said. "Come back!"
I yawned. I had a lot of paperwork waiting for me, and a door that still needed replacing.
-----
the end (to be continued with another two knights)
This was seriously more about Storm than Blaze, haha... For a good while, I was sure that Storm was the one who had kidnapped Sun. XD; It was almost going to turn out that way. Storm's characterization was very difficult, since I keep imagining him as this cute and very shy teenager, but by the time he's actually become the official Storm Knight, I feel he's much more confident in himself... hence this characterization. Yeah.
Adair's appearance in this story was a little strange (and unnecessary). It was the first time I'd written him... he didn't even speak either. XD;
I completely fail at mystery. OTL Need to rethink about writing mystery for NaNo...
Let's see, I still have Judgment, Cloud, Earth, Metal, Moon, Stone, and Leaf left to write "about", and Sun, Cloud, Metal, Moon, Stone, Blaze, and Ice to write from... this will take some planning to see who should be matched... I'm thinking maybe Blaze & Cloud for one. XD;
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