Chapter Text
Aqua held a thick book in her hands, it was a manual, it was supposed to be a manual.
It’s more like one of the big books Seth liked to read when bored.
Or maybe one of the plays Blue read! But this manual was boring so blue wouldn’t read it because it’s boring! Boring!
Aqua simply tucked it away in her dress and gave Ralsei a thumbs up before bouncing forward.
Ralsei looked slightly discomforted, not because of Aqua’s reply in particular, but more because they’re standing next to a dummy that’s been torn to absolute shreds by knives after telling the child repeatedly to hug it.
She felt a bit heavier because of how dense the book was…
Maybe she could use it to attack! Book throwing game! Book throwing game! While no one’s there to scold her!
There was a golden door in the distance, it was wide open, Ralsei commented on it.
“Oh my, the great door is opened?!”
“Opened wide like a mouth! Or an eye!”
Aqua giggled, skipping towards the door.
“No wonder Lancer was able to come through. . . Once we go through, our journey will really begin, the pro—”
Ralsei couldn’t finish their monologue, Aqua took their hand and pulled them forward.
“Come on, come on! Let’s play! I want to play! We can’t wait forEVER uuuu!”
Aqua tugged Ralsei forward.
Ralsei chuckled a little, it didn’t sound happy, why not happy?
“Yes, let’s go forward and… try to get through the enemies without hurting them, like playing a game, do you like puzzle games?”
Aqua stuck out her tongue.
“Uuuu…. Only if they’re easy! I don’t like losing anymore.”
“You won't lose, I believe in you.”
Ralsei held their paw suspended in the air, almost reaching out for Aqua’s head but pulling back at the last moment.
“I believe we can give this tale a happy ending, let’s try our best, alright?”
Aqua nodded violently before finally pulling Ralsei through the big door successfully, why were they acting like such a dummy?
The door slammed close behind them with a loud thud.
The power of adventure shines within them as they step into a forest of red and purple, it almost looks like their garden!
Aqua bounced around the area.
“Garden! Garden! Uuu! It’s just like the garden!”
“Um… no, this is a field.”
Ralsei tried to correct aqua, but Aqua wasn’t listening in favor of bouncing around and heading forward.
She usually didn’t slow down for others, but she remembers others got upset when they couldn’t keep up and being sad is horrible! And if she goes too far from them, what if she can’t find them anymore!!!
Aqua stays close to Ralsei as they head forward, a hopeful tune comes to mind as they head down the grassy path.
There was a sign beside a small field where a weird floradinn stood turned away.
Aqua read the sign.
‘Enemies ahead! You’re gonna die! SIGNED, LANCER’
Aqua laughed a bit as she bounced on the sign.
“Uehehe! Silly sign! There’s no dying in games! No dying! No no!”
Ralsei nodded.
“Well said.”
They headed forward towards the white floradinn, the second they noticed them, they charged for attack.
Aqua looked left and right, what… do they do?
She spun in circles looking for an answer, the enemy politely waited as Aqua failed to come up with a strategy for several minutes.
Ralsei whisper-yelled towards Aqua.
“Aqua, rudinn are easily swayed if you ask them things!”
“Uuu?”
Is that a tactic? It’s a tactic! Seth likes those! They are smart! They are Good! They should ask the rudinn then? Ask the rudinn! Ask what? Ask to stop!
“Quit fighting, fighting is bad, boring, boring! Let’s play instead!”
The rudinn’s eyes lit up, they were utterly swayed! Aqua didn’t tell Ralsei what to do, the goat stumbled back a little and ended up defending without guidance.
“Yeah I guess that makes sense.”
Rudinn nodded thoughtfully, though spades still appeared around aqua and Ralsei.
Aqua jumped over the field from spot to spot, spinning and laughing and flying around as Ralsei was left to stumble and get hit a few times in Aqua’s dust.
Oops! Oops! Oops!
Aqua spared the enemy by giving it a small knife!
The rudinn looks at the knife with something glimmery in their eyes before running away.
Aqua helped Ralsei up before hopping forward, bounce! Bounce! This was getting boring.
Aqua started walking, like a real human! Uuu! Human! human!
The next board was at the end of the field ‘If you’re reading this, I guess you’re dead. SIGNED, LANCER’
Aqua flopped to the ground dramatically.
“Why are so many things called lancer, that’s boring boring boring!”
Ralsei helped Aqua back in her feet, even if it took three attempts because Aqua kept flopping back down.
“I don’t think the signs are actually called ‘Lancer’ the things written on it are just written by the lancer you saw.”
“Uuuuu! Does that mean we can give these signs names?”
Aqua hops to the sign and carves ‘Bibby’ onto it.
“Now it’s a bibby!”
Ralsei gives a small applause for Aqua’s excellent naming skills before heading forward.
Aqua looked onwards to see the many trees in her way, she jumped and flew up to the top of one looking over the field.
“Aqua! Be careful up there, you might get hurt!”
Ralsei shouted upwards, but Aqua wasn’t paying all too much attention to them.
“Look! Look!”
Aqua bounced on top of the tree and pointed towards a big castle in the distance surrounded by an old time looking town.
“It’s the castle, it’s a cool castle! With a fountain! The fountain!”
“Oh, can you see it, that’s where we’re headed.”
Ralsei clasped their hands together in front of their chest.
“We need to go to the field and then s- um. Go to the game at the top of the fountain.”
“That’s fun! Fun! Fun!”
Aqua jumped down bouncing a little on top of Ralsei’s head before landing back on the ground.
“Let’s go! Let’s play! Let’s do less boring stuff when we find another rudinn! Real games! Games!”
Aqua grabbed Ralsei’s paw and pulled them forward, it wasn’t long until they saw another sign, albeit a work in progress with a lancer next to it.
“Oh ho ho! Isn’t it my two favorite people?”
Lancer stuck out his tongue.
“Except not really, you’re not even in my top five.”
“Lancer what did you do to-”
“Uuuu? why are you naming all your signs lancer?”
Aqua interrupted Ralsei.
“That’s boring, boring! There’s too many lancers then Uehehe!”
Lancer posed.
“Ho ho ho! But if there are so many lancer’s which lancer will you know to attack?”
Aqua laughed.
“I’ll have to play with all lancers uuuu!”
Knives stabbed the sign.
“…. Boring.”
“Lancer!!”
Ralsei caught the two kids' attention.
“What did you do to Susie?”
Lancer thought.
“Well it’s quite complicated really, I got beat up and then I ran away.”
“That’s… simpler than I thought.”
Ralsei squinted at Lancer.
Aqua giggled.
“Come on! Come on! I want to explore! I want to play!”
Aqua bounced away from the two, leaving Ralsei to follow her away from the conversation.
There was a small clearing in the room Aqua ran into, it has a funny black tree.
She saw some funny black trees when up high but she thought they were there so it would be less boring.
They weren’t boring though they had funny stars! She wants to try a star!
Aqua summoned a knife and knocked down the candy, catching it instead of jumping up.
“I win! I win! I won the catching game! Ralsei! Ralsei! You need to play as well!”
“Me? . . Um.”
Ralsei hits the star with his scarf, barely catching the sticky fruit that fell down.
“There, do I win?”
“Yay! We win! We win! Uehehe!”
Aqua shoved her star into her mouth.
Oh! It’s sweet! So sweet! She feels like she wants to bounce around for hours! Tasty! Tasty!
Ralsei Nodded, Aqua can imagine the fluffy princess smiling.
“Here, you can have mine.”
Aqua crossed her arms and turned away.
“No.”
“Is the dark candy not good?”
“No.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing.”
“Why don’t you want it?”
“Uuuu… Because it’s YOUR prize, and I don’t eat the prizes of other people, Seth said that’s rude, rude! And humans are polite!”
Aqua spun around and pushed the dark candy against Ralsei’s face, looking up at them with big eyes underneath their metal visor.
Ralsei looked at Aqua with… tre-pe-di-sjion… or however Seth would spell it. Before caving and eating the candy.
“Yaaay!”
Aqua bounced around Ralsei.
“Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! We are winners! We win! Let’s get more prizes! More more! Uehehe!”
Aqua followed the path back, she won’t go into the trees, not yet, trees are for escape, for fun! Not for walking, when you go into the trees you need to play the screaming game until someone finds you.
She was about to round the corner before Lancer butted in again.
“Hey, if you head that way my troops will thrash you.”
“Is that a threat?”
Ralsei didn’t seem all too bothered by being threatened.
“I prefer to think of it as an invitation.”
Lancer smiled. Menacingly(?)
“So it’s a game! Game! Game!”
Aqua rushed forward, running right into one of the two Rudinn.
“Let’s play! Let’s play! Let’s play!”
Aqua swung around the rudinn, making them spin in circles at rapid speeds.
The Rudinn turned a more vibrant shade of green in the face.
Aqua only jumped off when little pointy not-knives were thrown at her and Ralsei again.
Aqua slid over the ground as Ralsei defended, the girl danced between spades letting the air graze her little heart ma-thingie.
She felt so energized.
“the enemy is tired do you remember what to d-”
Ralsei pointed towards the green Rudinn, but Aqua had already jumped up to the other one and played a game of ‘dodge the knives’ together which the Rudinn didn’t appreciate.
Fun! Fun! Fun! The world's going round! Just like her knives! Round and round and round and round and-!
The other rudinn went green, uuuu? Where did the first go?
Aqua jumped around the rest of the pointy play things, dodging game, dodging game!
Before she was able to start another game though Ralsei did a sparkly magic trick and the rudinn left the fight.
Ralsei rested a paw on Aqua’s shoulder.
“Aqua, not everyone has as much energy as you do, if an enemy is tired, ask me to use pacify so we can end the game and win.”
“Win? Uuuu… okay.”
Aqua nodded a little, that’s bad. Stupid. Like a dummy. Why do people get tired? But winning is more important!
The duo pressed forward to a small yellow bakery in the forest, its door was kicked in so Aqua peeked inside.
It was a quaint little bakery, small, cozy, a few chairs but it seems to be thrown into disarray with a smoldering cake on the counter.
“Mama miba!”
A spinning baker was crying on the floor.
“I’m TOPCHEF! My latest cake worked me to exhaustion.”
Aqua looked around the cafe with growing disinterest, green would’ve done better, Ralsei seemed more interested though.
“So I took a little nap…”
Topchef jumped up and threw themself over the counter next to the smoking cake.
“But, mama miba! A scary noise woke me up!”
He dabbed their hands to his eyes, tears spilling out uncontrollably.
“A beast was hunched over my counter, eating the cake like an animal! I spritzed it with water and it hissed and ran off!”
They reached out to their ruined food.
“But my wonderful cake is…”
“Aww.”
Ralsei hunched down next to Aqua.
“That sounds like Susie! We must be going in the right direction!”
The royal one averted their gaze a little.
“Let’s try to keep her out of any more trouble.”
“What’s trouble if it’s a game, game! Uehehe! It’s just a game!”
Aqua patted the chef on the back and left the disappointing bakery to advance forward.
The second the two stepped into the next room another Rudinn and a heart themed darkner blocked the path.
Aqua once more flung herself to the heart shaped monster before bouncing off.
“Let’s play! Play a nice game! Catch the knives with pretty! Pretty tentacles! So fun!”
Aqua started flinging knives into the air, the enemy scrambled to catch them individually, they seemed tired from the work out and flattered at the same time.
“Face my diamond cutter!”
Rudinn started throwing more diamond cutter things at Aqua, Aqua considered jumping erratically but a field of hearts kept her contained.
She ran around the dome in zigzag motions, successfully avoiding the rather simple and lackluster attack.
Ralsei spared the heart enemy for Aqua as Aqua ran up to the Rudinn.
“Let’s play, play!”
Rudinn looked at the heart enemy leaving.
“No thanks, I’m joining her.”
The hurried after its teammate before it became the next victim of Aqua’s energy.
Aqua was thoroughly disappointed, almost running after them if Ralsei didn’t follow after the first five steps.
Stay together, staying together is nice, safe, together, together!
The area was more blue, blue! It looked like it was fenced off from the field they were in and had a sign, clock, buttons and more boring stuff there.
Aqua ignored it, opting to jump over the barrage of spikes instead.
“Wait, Aqua!”
Ralsei stood right in front of the spikes.
“We need to finish this puzzle, it’s what we’re supposed to do, I can’t pass this way.”
“Uuu? Really?”
Aqua flew over to Ralsei and looped her arms underneath theirs to carry them over.
“Now you can!”
Ralsei stared at the puzzle and cleared their throat to regain composure.
“I guess that… works!”
Aqua paid no mind to Ralsei’s tone as they pushed forth, it was a field leading into a hedge maze with a sign and funny star in front of it.
Aqua read the sign.
‘Behold, the maze of death, prepare to get lost, clowns!!!’ SIGNED - LANC— — -’
Aqua didn’t finish reading the sign before destroying it, one less lancer.
Aqua looked at the maze and giggled.
“Silly! Silly silly! Can’t we just fly over it?”
“No, that’d be cheating.”
Ralsei shook their head, taking a step to the entrance of the maze.
“Uuuu? What’s so wrong with that?”
Aqua walked up to Ralsei and kept tugging their cloak.
“Well if you cheat you won’t be able to win, something goes wrong and you lose really badly, so don’t cheat, ok?”
Ralsei’s words made Aqua probably go three shades whiter, lose, they’ll lose? LOSE??? If she cheats? Lose again? Lose that way again?!
Aqua lowered her head.
“Okay, then we won’t jump. Or fly. Or go around it.”
“Thank you.”
Ralsei held out their hand for Aqua to take, Aqua did so, leading them into the maze.
It splintered into paths and holes with slides and passages, thorns and bristles stuck out of the bushy walls.
Leaves and grass crunched under their feet, every sound being like an alarm bell that’s capable of drawing enemies towards them.
The walls were so close up to them that it elicited a sense of claustrophobia, there was an overgrown sign.
Something was written on it, but a paper was slapped over it.
‘Your maze was rather lackluster and the Sheary’s were rather antsy, I hope you don’t mind the improvements made.’
“Uuu! They made the game more fun!”
Aqua spun around, careful of the walls.
“Haunted house fun! Fun! Fun!”
“Um… yes I guess it’s… fun..!”
Ralsei seemed to be the opposite of having fun.
The two heroes continued forward, left right left left dead end back left right left left forward back-
Ralsei and Aqua walked into a larger area, finally some space to move.
Leaf sculptures of Rudinn’s and Hathy’s lined the path forward.
There was rustled from one of the sculptures.
Aqua skipped forward, humming happily, so close! About to win! Win! Win!
Ralsei held Aqua’s hand a bit tighter.
“Be careful, something might jump out.”
Aqua didn’t mind their warning, keeping up her tempo.
One of the bushes burst out, a purple figure rolling to the ground before brushing off their clothes and getting up.
They straightened their glasses with a hand, once familiar more casual clothing seemingly being longer more scholarly robes with papers strung together into decorative streamers with mind numbing information scribbled upon them.
They huffed a little as they muttered a complaint to themself, not turned towards the duo yet.
“If I say ‘hide your allies in one of the bushes’ I don’t mean myself.”
The last leaves are plucked out of their hair.
Aqua was pretty sure there was a name for their new ha in some fancy other language, but Aqua could only think about a black cream puff with a flower design and how it wasn’t important to remember.
Aqua was frozen in place next to Ralsei, unlike Ralsei she didn’t get ready to play another game that involved anything pointy.
Instead, she dashed forward, latching onto Seth’s side.
They jumped upon contact and turned to look down with surprising speed, expression cycling between shock, annoyance, confusion and something Aqua can’t place.
“Aqua?”
Aqua felt the warmth of her little heart thingie appear again as three Rudinn jumped out of the bushes.