The Legends Of Chima: Journey to the Lands Below

Chapter 19- Laval

It was a long walk up the mountainous and narrow streets, we passed by a lot of wide open houses and people waving at us, they looked friendly but some of them looked at me weird. Eventually we came to the top where the ground evened out into a wide open square and Ry'Tharr told me to wait while he stood by a set of large doors to a tall building of white stone. I stood looking around for a few minutes while he was talking to some locals, then from the top of the tower a loud bell rang.

Soon after a crowd of people poured out into the square, filling it up quickly and engulfing me in it, good thing I was taller and could see over most of the people there. I saw Ry'Tharr on the other side of the crowd going into the building but I couldn't reach him so I went for the buildings at the edges to get some breathing room.

I popped out of the crowd in front of a nice looking restraunt. I peaked over the crowd some more and thought it was strange how a lot of the people look the same, all felines like myself, spare a few birds. Then I saw one poking out like a sore thumb, one with dark green scales and an area of people avoiding his large tail with every turn of his body, It was Cragger. I made eye contact with him and he started to push his way through a little quicker than before and he tripped on his way out of the gathering.

"How'd ya get out here? I was told this place was private. Anyways it's nice to see you!" I said greeting him.

"Oh I just got a little lost in the main city and some folks helped me out, don't know why they thought I belong here though." He told me with a little nervousness in his voice. "What're you doing here?"

"Well the guy I was with told me to wait for a little bit while he did something else." I told him.

"Oh, well while you're waiting wanna get something to eat, I'm starving." He said while looking up at the restaurant we were taking shelter under.

I agreed and we headed inside for something to eat, when we entered I realized it wasn't just a place to eat, the lights were dimmed and the tables were candle lit. Still we went in, we were too hungry to go anywhere else and the crowd outside was only growing.

We went up the stairs in the restaurant to an empty table by the window, overlooking Ry'Tharr's manor, lit by the sunset behind it. We were given menus by a waitress and some bread as a sort of appetizer, but it was quickly devoured. After that we talked about what we saw around here, while Cragger was talking, however, I was thinking about what Kyten said last night. I started to feel more and more uncomfortable about the environment we were in, now that I'm starting to notice every detail of it with my hunger starting to subside. He must've seen my face starting to slowly contort with discomfort because he brought it up.

"Is something wrong Laval?" He asked. I let out a short sigh before answering.

"It's about that night, before we left Chima." I confessed.

"If your worried about how I think of you, it didn't. We can still be friends and out that behind us if you want." He assured me.

"It's not about what you think of me, it's more about what I think of you, it's something I've been wanting to tell you for a couple days now." I confessed to him.

"Is it that you have a crush on me?" He predicted.

"You've known? How long?" I asked.

"Since the day after the phoenixes dissapeared. When we we talking in the markets you acted differently than before. You paid a lot more attention to what I was saying, you were looking me in the eyes, and you were noticeably holding back a smile." He revealed to me.

"So did you have a problem with it?" I asked.

"Not really, I've never been in a relationship like that before, which is what I thought that was, so I figured I'd give it a chance and try it." He admitted "After what happened inside Mt Cavora we could've came out as completely different people than when we came in." He went on.