Soon we left behind the whirlpool and also escaped from the watermen. As weak as they were; when together they could put up a good fight. Without the Zantai power, I wouldn't have survived against them. It was late evening now.
We swam to the nearest shore and decided to relax. I threw my bag – though it carried the valuable flowers we needed – and myself on the sand. Druk joined and we took a few minutes of rest. I would have gone to sleep if Druk hadn't realized we had to save a world. I grabbed my bag and opened it. Along with a lot of water, which I later threw away, the flowers were safe. I open the other zips to find them too filled with water. My meal I had prepared for the journey was no longer eatable. Maybe drinkable but no one would want to drink what I had seen inside.
I got up and sheathed Magnum. Druk asked if I was ready and I nodded. "Alright, I just remembered something." He admitted. "What?" I asked. We guilt, he replied, "I am not sure if we'll end up back exactly where we were in Darknor. I'll need to concentrate but I can make no promises." I didn't know how to react. Of course, I was disappointed. My mouth was wide open in shock and that was all I could manage.
Druk began doing his same old technique of summoning a portal. Once, again the ground parted and stairs leading to the portal rose. The portal was formed a little later with the rainbow aura and all those magical stuff I didn't understand. In the end, we had a giant circular portal – just like the one we had while entering Glacidon.
With fingers crossed (we actually did not), we entered. When I walked on the other side, I was back to Darknor. My first reaction was a big question mark. Druk too joined in and he was as startled as I was – maybe even more than me as he had been to Darknor only once. "What is this place?" Druk looked at me for answers. I had none.
We were in a jungle. Out of all the places we could end up, we were in a jungle! The huge trees made it difficult for me to notice the sky. But I knew that it was midnight. My watch had stopped working after our trip to Glacidon due to the entire swimming journey we undertook. But there was no denying that it was dark and probably turning morning soon. I took a round by myself, exploring the area. Druk was right behind me, halting near each tree and examining them.
Then I found an exit – a hint of proper road in front of us. The trees all around us were blocking the view but I had spotted the road. I told Druk to follow and ran towards my find. I was right. I had seen a proper traveling road. On either side was the jungle.
"I have seen this place before." I told myself, straining my head to remember. All of a sudden, I recognized the place. Druk asked, "Go on." I looked at him and then back at the road. "This is the road between Trouflet town and Saffron town. This is the short route that Oliver, Xavier and Adonis had taken!" I exclaimed. How had Druk managed to bring us all the way over here?
"Weren't Xavier and Oliver captured here? The warship wasn't taken though?" He enquired. I nodded, "Possibly, yes! That means that their warship must be somewhere in the jungle." I figured. I smiled and went back in from where we had exited. Druk freaked out and said, "Oh come on! We aren't going to search this whole jungle for a warship, are we?"
Though protesting, he followed me. "I just want to see if we can spot the ship somewhere near us. Xavier built it for the final battle against the Xorains. It would be a shame if we'd not use it. We need to try and find it." I explained. Druk snarled. "We are never going to find a warship in a jungle!" He ridiculed.
I suddenly spotted something. "Druk, what's that?" I muttered. He too looked in the sky. The trees blocked the view but even still we were able to spot a smoke which was coming from ahead of us. "That may be the warship! We need to get to the smoke." I announced. Druk rolled his eyes but agreed to join me.
We travelled towards the smoke. My legs though tired moved fast in order to get to the ship. At this time, travelling in a vehicle would be appreciated very much since we had very less time. Druk went on four legs and chased the smoke. I followed close by. It took us fifteen minutes to find the source. The trees around had fallen, creating difficulties in our progress. But I managed to peep though the leaves and confirm that the warship was situated in the middle of the trees. The smoke was coming from the damage it had taken. Druk and I climbed and crawled through the obstacles and finally made it to the ship.
"Here it is." Druk declared. He had his hands on his hip meaning that he was quite tired. But all that work had paid off because the warship was found. The ship was tilted sideways. I told Druk to give me a hand. Together, with all our might, we rotated it back to the ground. I walked backwards and took in all that was damaged. Nothing much was. I mean I had seen worse. I have seen Xavier building almost the whole ship again because it had crash landed. I had seen its roof and seats devastated. Now those are some heavy damages. But seeing the warship in its current state, I sighed with relief. Not everything was lost.
The hard metal on the right side which defended the ship from any enemy firings was half destroyed. The left defense seemed proper. The side glass had shattered just a little bit. The door had become loose but was still of use. The only major damage that I could see was the smoke coming out of the top. Apparently, a small part of the roof had broken and some wiring had been torn down as well which led to the generation of smoke.
"Do you know how to fix this?" Druk asked. "Actually Xavier is the mechanic. But watching him, I have learnt one huge detail: Any unknown fix can be fixed with Zartinum." I said. Druk had no idea what Zartinum was as he wasn't from Darknor. I explained to him about the Darknorian electricity and narrated how Zartinum had helped us in times.
I entered the ship. Nothing seemed to be destroyed inside. I went inside the storage room where Xavier used to keep all his tools. In such a situation, the way to fix the roof, I had not known. So tools weren't of any help. But what was relieving was the bucket of zartinum which Xavier had filled for emergency.
I picked it up and carried it outside. Druk looked inside to see the liquid which he had seen for the first time. Although we had the supply, zartinum had almost depleted. The bucket had the liquid in scarce amounts which would be useful for only one last use. "Alright, let's at least fix the warship so that it can be used. Xavier can figure how to repair it fully afterwards." I told Druk.
The guy looked at me with a confused look. I myself wasn't too sure if this would work. But I had seen Xavier many a times pouring the liquid in parts of the ship which he could not repair at that moment and it would magically stick together for quite long. Then he used to repair it permanently when he had time to do so. Half of our trips were travelled in this means – pouring zartinum wherever the damage was for a quick and temporary fix.
Climbing the roof was easy. I have climbed mountains – roofs aren't much of a deal to me now. I saw one corner of the roof damaged through which smoke was being emitted. I rotated the whole bucket of zartinum upside down and waited for the smoke to fade off. It did. There was some instantaneous reactions and the smoke vanished. The bucket was now all empty. "Xavier needs to keep more stock of this stuff." I said as I climbed down the roof. The warship was ready for travelling.
I signaled Druk to enter inside. He looked around in awe. He gazed at the door to the storage room, the six cozy seats and the glass surrounding all around. We could even see through the glass on the roof and luckily it hadn't shattered when the metal corner of the top was destroyed. He was most fascinated when he saw the complicated controls that the ship contained. I sat on the pilot's seat and told him to sit on the assistant pilot's seat.
Looking at me, he enquired, "Do you know to fly this ship?" I looked at him and smiled. "We'll soon find out." I answered making him startle. "Don't scare me by saying that, kid." He complained. Flicking a few buttons, I turned on the system. "Well, you should be. We may end up crash landing even before reaching the Palace. That's how confident I am about my driving skills!" I laughed. Druk didn't. He didn't want this flight to be his last one.
I declared, "Let's go to the Abandoned Palace!"