A Summer Of Missing Princesses

As the Goblins are still busy fighting the knights, Korallee and I make it back to the castle. If I had been feeling better, I would have gladly joined in on fighting the Goblins. Also, I would need my armor which is back at the castle.

“Where are you headed to next? You said something about rescuing princesses,” Korallee says to me after I switch back to my own clothes.

“I... I don’t know. There are three princesses left to be rescued. I was told there were seven and I only have found four including you,” I say.

“Three more...? Hmmm... I know some other royal families...” Korallee says.

“I’ve got Mór from Snyvolon looking after Sìneag from Mycono and Aleena from Fairwood,” I say.

“Ah... What’s Snyvolon?” Korallee asks.

“Never mind, that’s not too important...” I say.

“I think, perhaps, you’ve got all the princesses on Earth,” Korallee says.

“Huh? Then where are the remaining three?” I ask.

“Outer space, of course! Have you read any of the stories?” Korallee says with a chuckle.

“Wait... So we have to go to space?!” I ask.

“Yeah, I know, it’s a pretty far fetched idea... I’m just going off of what I’ve read in books,” Korallee says.

“And how are we supposed to go to space?” I ask.

“Well, we’ll need a spaceship!” Korallee says.

“I don’t suppose you randomly have a spaceship lying around?” I ask.

“Not entirely,” Korallee says.

“Oh no...” I say.

“My father surely won’t mind me helping you out,” Korallee says, “We owe you big time for your willingness to suffer for us.”

“It was the right thing to do. No way could I have left you there,” I say.

“I look forward to meeting my fellow princesses,” Korallee says, smiling.

We hang out for a little while longer as I am still feeling a little sick. As soon as the first Knights and their horses begin returning, Korallee and I get up and head out. I lead the way back to where I left the other princesses.

“Oh my goodness! Selima has multiplied herself!” Aleena cries out as soon as she sees Korallee and I.

“Huh? Oh, no, this is Princes Korallee!” I say.

“Awwww, so little!” Korallee says, bending to be at eye level with Aleena.

“Hi!” Aleena says, grinning.

“She’s not that little!” Sìneag says, crossing her arms.

Sìneag isn’t that much taller than Aleena, so of course she would think this.

“Aw, two little ones!” Korallee says.

“No! I’m not little!” Sìneag complains.

“Are you guys ready for something cool?” Korallee asks.

“Huh? What?” Mór asks.

“I’m ready for something cool!” Aleena says.

“We’re going to outer space!” Korallee announces.

“We’re going where?!” the three other princesses ask, staring wide-eyed.

“Outer space!” Korallee says again, pointing to the sky.

“Whoa...” Sìneag says.

“And we’re going to build a spaceship and space suits!” Korallee announces.

“And I thought chiseling a boat out of a stone was awesome...” Mór says.

“We’re going to need some supplies... And we’re in luck! We recently obtained some space ship pieces!” Korallee announces.

Korallee then waves for all of us to follow, and we do. She takes us all the way back to Tellis Castle.

“Father? Are you back yet?” Korallee calls out.

“We just got back, Korallee, where were you?” the king asks, coming into the front room of the castle.

The king stops abruptly when he sees the other princesses.

“Visitors!” the king exclaims, “Nobody told me the other princesses were coming over!”

“Heh, sorry about that... We won’t be staying long anyways,” Mór says.

“And are you also a princess?” the king asks.

“I am from very far away. Too far away to be much of a bother to you,” Mór lies.

“So I see...” the king says.

“Father, is it alright if we have a look at those spaceship parts?” Korallee asks.

“Why? They’re just a bunch of sea rubbish,” the king says.

“Just for fun...” Korallee says.

“Alright, please be reasonable, though... Don’t try anything risky...” the king says.

“Thanks!” Korallee says.

The king of Tellis stares on as his daughter leads us to the secret room where the spaceship parts are being held.

“Here they are!” Korallee says.

“Whoa!” Aleena exclaims.

“Ew! It’s ugly!” Sìneag exclaims shortly after.

“This thing here is the engine,” Korallee says, walking over to a strange metal box.

“What’s it do?!” Aleena asks.

“It powers the thingy!” Sìneag answers.

“And this must have been the front panel of the craft,” Korallee says, lifting a large thick sheet of glass.

“How are we ever going to reassemble this whole thing?” Mór asks.

“Teamwork!” Korallee says, “And fire!”

With that, she reaches up and yanks a torch off the wall.

“If we can heat the metal enough, we can stick it together like glue...” Korallee says, “I think.”

“It’s worth a shot,” I say.

“Thank you,” Korallee says with a smile.

Mór and I lift the heavier pieces into place as Korallee melts things together. Sìneag and Aleena help rearrange the smaller pieces.

“With all of us working together, this ship should come out stronger than it was when it crashed!” Korallee says.

As we are building, the king casually strolls in and bursts out screaming.

“I THOUGHT I SAID BE REASONABLE!” the king exclaims.

“Dad! We are being reasonable!” Korallee says.

“Then why are you reassembling the hunk of junk?!” the king asks.

“There are people out there that need our help desperately. This spaceship is our only hope!” Korallee says.

“There is no way it’s going to work! It will explode before it even reaches the sky!” the king exclaims, “And you all will die and it will be considered my fault!”

“I know what I’m doing, I’ve read plenty of books!” Korallee says.

“Reading books is different than actually possessing the ability to do something,” the king says.

“Don’t you believe in me?” Korallee asks.

The king sighs.

“Fine, but those wings are facing the wrong direction. You’ll have to put the engine on the other side if you hope to fly that thing,” the king says.

“Oh... You’re right...” Korallee says.

The king points out a few more things to us before leaving us to work. Taking the king’s advice, we work very hard for the next few hours. After that, we all step back and admire the spaceship we constructed.

“Whoa! How did we get such an amazing thing out of a heap of trash?!” Sìneag asks, staring in amazement.

“Teamwork!” Korallee says, grinning.

“But will it actually work?” Mór asks.

“Hmmm... We’ll see! Uh... We still need spacesuits,” Korallee says.

“Aw man!” Aleena whines, “I thought we were finally ready!”

“No, you are ready,” the king says, returning to the room.

His servants wheel out a cart of spacesuits.

“Magical spacesuits. They change to fit their wearer,” the king says.

There is a light blue one, a pink one, a gray one, a green one, and a purple one. Immediately, I know the purple one must be for me.

“Thank you so much! I promise you, the girls and I will return safely!” I say.

“Watch out for space debris and black holes... As far as I know, there is no way back out of a black hole, you’ll be crushed so small it will be like you never existed!” the king says.

I don’t even want to think about such a possibility... Being crushed inside a black hole sounds horrible!

The king and his servants leave and us girls get our spacesuits on. I do manage to get the purple one, but Sìneag and Mór argue over who gets the pink one.

“I should get it because I am the youngest!” Sìneag cries out.

“But I’m older than you so I should get it!” Mór argues back.

“Hey, hey... I’m sure we can work this out somehow... That gray spacesuit looks pretty nice,” I say.

“Oh... Hey, you’re right!” Mór says and chuckles.

With that, Mór abandons the pink spacesuit and goes to get the gray one.

“Yay!” Sìneag says, hugging the pink spacesuit.

Aleena takes the light blue spacesuit and the green one goes to Korallee.

“Everybody ready? I’m going to fly it by the way...” Korallee says, opening the door to the spaceship.

“Wait, we might need a snack...” I say.

I’m still not very hungry after earlier, but the younger girls like Aleena and Sìneag might get hungry.

“A snack?” Korallee asks.

“And we’ve been working for hours!” Sìneag adds.

“You can’t eat with that spacesuit on,” Korallee points out.

“Oh, and then we’d have to get dressed up all over again...” I say.

“It shouldn’t be too long to get somewhere new,” Korallee says.

“Okay, then we should be ready to go,” Mór says.

We all climb in and Korallee shuts the door. Then we all sit there silently for a few minutes as Korallee tries to figure out the controls.

“Book knowledge, don’t fail me now!” Korallee says.

“Here, I’ll pray for us,” I say.

Without waiting for anyone to reply, I say a prayer. Afterwards I find both Korallee and Mór staring at me as if I am weird.

“Anyhow...” Korallee says, slowly turning back to the control panel, “If I flip these three switches...”

She moves her hand over to a set of switches and flips them one at a time. The engine revs and the lights come on.

“WHOA!” everybody says at once, including me.

“It’s on!” Korallee says, “The books are correct!”

“You doubted...?” I ask.

“Uhh... Well... Not too much, no...” Korallee says.

She pushes a lever forwards a tiny bit and the space ship begins to move very slowly into the hallway. From the window, I see guards and servants freaking out and jumping out of the way as the spaceship taxis through the castle.

“Maybe we should have assembled this outside?” I suggest.

“Probably should have...” Korallee says.

“Oh no!” Aleena cries out.

The king runs and throws open the castle door and then hops out of the way as well. Korallee moves the lever a little bit further and the spaceship begins to speed up. We exit the castle, only damaging the door slightly, and Korallee pushes the lever all the way forward going into hyper speed mode or something like that.

“HANG ON TIGHT, GIRLS!” Korallee cries out.

“And you’ve never done this before?!” I ask.

“YEAH! THIS IS MY FIRST TIME!” Korallee says and laughs.

The ship rattles and flies up off of the ground up into the sky. In a flash, everything around us changes to darkness.

“We made it! We’re in space!” Korallee cries out.

The rest of us are still flat against our chairs from takeoff. Korallee briefly glances at us, but then resumes her job of piloting.

“So. I think I know where I want to go next. Ever heard of vampires?” Korallee asks.

“No?” I say.

What in the world is a vampire? Hopefully nothing like a Goblin...

“Well, there is a collection of planets, according to my space books, where vampires live. They love darkness, dance parties, and blood,” Korallee says, casually.

“Uhhhh...” I say.

“And they have a royal family. Which means they are probably missing a princess,” Korallee says.

“Oh no! Darkness?!” Aleena screams, “AND BLOOD?!”

“Yeah, that’s their thing. Just as we need food to survive, they require blood,” Korallee says.

“This sounds like a terrible idea!” Sìneag complains.

“There are some bad vampires and some good ones. Just as there are some bad humans and some good ones,” Korallee adds.

“Then let’s hope they are the good kind!” I say.