Descendants of the Emperors

Cacti Pt. 2

Warning: Anger issues and mild violence

I breathed a sigh of relief as most of my Pixandrians had a place to stay until we could thaw the ice. Ruby sat down next to me.

"You did good," I said to her.

"Thanks." It was almost the end of the day and the only news from the other dimension came from Coral, who was having a mental crisis about her worth towards others and this didn't want to talk to anyone.

Then I saw a silhouetted figure flying towards us on elytra. It turned out to be Wilder. He crashed onto the docks of Mezalia then stumbled to his feet and run up to us.

"Guys, where have you been?" He asked.

"Here," I simply put, "When did you get here?!"

"Well, I came over with Cherry and Coral and Ares. Whenever that was! I lost track of time!"

"What have you been doing for the past two hours?" Ruby asked with a wild look on her face.

"Oh, I was taking Enoki to a hospital. I tried the Ocean Empire's but it's underwater so I had to carry him, although he is small, to my empire, Mythland. What's your excuse?"

"Wait, Enoki's in the hospital?" I shouted. I had been here this entire time, only worrying about my people. "What about Crystal?!"

"Yes Enoki's in the hospital. I thought you would've known that, of all people. As for Crystal, well, right before Enoki passed out he told me that Crystal has been mind controlled by Evil Scott, like how Emperor Joey and Papa were."

"You couldn't started with that?!" Ruby asked slightly raising her voice. I started gathering myself up and  spread open me elytra. "Where are you going?"

"To Mythland," I said before rocketing into the sky and leaving Ruby and Wilder still standing, breathless, on the docks. I touched the clouds as I soared through the air. I waved to dolphins as I glided just over the ocean's surface. The serene peace of the ocean almost made me forget the current situation. Almost.

I sped up with more rockets and soon reached Mythland and found Cherry organizing a final boat to go to Mythland and move to Gilded Helianthia. Pixandria was almost saved. Just the ice to deal with.

I landed and found Cherry. She ran up me and asked, "What do you need?"

"I need to see Enoki." My eyes turned distant and I looked to the setting sun. I needed to find the whole story of what happened to Crystal.

"He's in the healing ward, over there." I followed Cherry's hand and ran over to the healing ward, busting open the door as I enter. I scared a few nurses who quickly pulled me into another room.

"Someone's getting surgery over there and you mustn't break our doctor's concentration."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just looking for my friend, Prince Enoki."

"Oh," was all she said. She quickly led me to a bed in the back of the ward. My gnome friend was in it, looking quite paler than usual and there was still a small bit of blood on his chest.

Enoki was reading a book and he put it down with shaky hands as I neared. "Hey."

"Hi Cacti. Before you blame me just know that I wanted to save her just as much as you do. But Evil Scott has her. She's gone."

"I'm not going to blame you, I just want the full story."

"You promise you won't blame me?" Enoki asked, with concern on the tip of his tongue.

"I won't," I said, then mumbled to myself, "yet."

So Enoki started. "She and I followed Evil Scott's trail and I fought Evil Jimmy. It was supposed to be clean but Evil Scott cheated and I got stuck in ice. She then was weaken as I broke free. I wanted to get to her but she told me to run. We couldn't have won the fight, in any dimension."

"So you left Crystal for dead?" I could feel my anger rising.

"No! She's not dead. As I ran I heard her. She's been corrupted by Evil Scott, like how Lord Sausage was with Xornoth!" I could see the panic bubbling in Enoki's throat.

"So instead you ran away, like a coward."

"That's what she told me to do!"

"I would have stayed with Crystal!"

"You and I are not the same! I fulfilled her wish!"

"You won't even say Crystal's name. I can't believe I ever called you a friend." I stood up from the sitting position I had taken on his bed.

"Cacti wait!" Enoki leapt for me but I shoved him back into the bed.

"You left Crystal for dead! You left her behind!" I was shouting by now. Without thinking I punch Enoki in the temple, knocking him out with one punch.

Then nurses shoved and threw me out of the ward for injuring a patient. He deserved it.

Cherry ran up to me as soon as she saw me. "How did it go?" She asked.

"Terrible," I said, reading my elytra for takeoff. I checked my food supplies and weapons. Nice and sharp, just how I like it. I pulled out me rockets.

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere you can't follow. So don't even try." I was just about to leave when Cherry grabbed my cloak.

"Stop! Tell me. Please."

"No," I screamed. I pushed her into the dirt then took off, at least fleeing the pressure of my peers. Away to save Crystal.

Away.

————

Author's Note: Word count: 882. I published a chapter again! Yay! There's probably not more coming soon.