A Long Quest

Chapter 11: Spellbound

Zoria 1000 buried her face in her hands. She brushed the stream of tears from her reddened face. She sobbed, all her words being choked back into her mouth. She could still see herself standing in front of Agzin 107868 as he removed all of her clothes like he was removing them from a doll. Then she saw herself sitting in the bedroom with all the other hostages, unable to move and unable to speak. The pain of her kidnapping was more than what she could bear.

She gasped, choking back a bunch of tears. The words weren't coming out. She looked at the faces of Kyle, Pix 200, and Zinka 160, all of them waiting to see what she would say next. She then looked back down. The pain and embarrassment gripped her and it wouldn't let her go. It seized her, paralyzing everything she knew that she was.

Kyle got up and sat next to her. He placed his hands on her shoulder, hoping to comfort her. He looked down at Zoria 1000, her face still bent down, gazing intently on her sweaty hands. "Zoria 1000," he said, twisting her face upward as he brought his face to the same level as hers. "Relax. Relax for all of our sakes...Please?"

Zoria 1000 got up and sat on Kyle's lap, wrapping both her arms around Kyle's torso and pressing her face on his shirt. Her tears dripped off her chin and onto Kyle's shirt. Her choked sobs faded, turning into soft, forlorn tearful sighs.

Kyle sat there, feeling the sound on his shirt from Zoria 1000's incessant crying. He ran his hands down her long strands of golden hair. "It will be alright. Just breathe..."

Zoria 1000 breathed, choking back a few more sobs. Her sighing quieted and she choked more tears again. It was like hiccupping, but with tears. Both her hands pressed against Kyle's stomach. "Thank you, Kyle..."

Kyle patted the cheeks of her warm moist face, red with tears. "We're all here for you, Zoria 1000. Don't worry about what happened to you..." Her face bent up from Kyle's shirt, leaving a wide and moist patch. He felt the patch and smiled. "Now, let's get back to what you just told us. You said that you flew out of the hotel and all the way to the castle? You then entered the ship hangar and got kidnapped? Why did you do this? Why go through all this trouble?"

Zoria 1000 stood up, wiping the remaining tears off her eyes. "You're asking me why I did it? I wanted to help. I wanted to fix the ship and get it back to the hotel..."

"And you did that..." Pix 200 told her with a bright smile. "We were all just very concerned for you. You went ahead and did this and you didn't even tell us that you were going to."

Zinka 160 nodded. "Yes. You never told us anything about what you were going to do. How were we to know? We can't read minds like you can!"

"Well except for me..." Kyle proudly chimed in.

Zoria 1000 frowned. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell all of you. It's kind of strange, but I just wanted to do it myself. I wanted to get the ship back with my own plan. I didn't expect it to fail..."

"Well, it's like the old saying." Pix 200 told her. "Those who puff themselves up with too much pride explode with humility."

Kyle nodded. "And yup! You exploded alright!"

Zoria 1000 sighed. "For anything that we do in the future, I promise I will tell you all what I plan on doing before I do it!"

Zinka 160 smiled. "Please do. We don't want to worry about you disappearing on us again."

Kyle smiled, standing up. "Why don't we check out that new book that we got from Tikrez. The Poq Rez, right?"

"Right!" Pix 200 said with a smile. "But remember what we agreed to! " Pix 200 grabbed the heavy tome, which he quickly sat down. "Man, this is heavy!"