Chapter 162 - Edelweiss

"Here we are, wear your uniforms and wait for me at the platform," Venedette announced after putting their yacht in a stop just above a tall mountain made of snow.

"I didn't know there were a lot of these uniforms in our closets," Gem muttered while checking out herself in the mirror.

And because it was already time for the meeting, Fily made sure to use the excess medicine that Halma gave her during her visit to combat her sleepiness.

"Look at that, is that where we're going?" Gem asked while pointing at the cluster of igloos, caves and straw houses that were built beside the mountain's foot.

"That's right, welcome to Edelweiss, everyone," Von said while hovering around the edge of the Levi-yacht's platform while Gem slowly made her way towards the edge of the platform where Lei was sitting comfortably while waiting for Venedette to finally carry them down. He even had his feet swinging in the air which made Gem worry about him falling down the platform accidentally.

But since Von was there, Gem also gathered her courage up and sat beside Lei, also swinging her feet to the beat with his, which made Lei smile a little bit.

"Are you ready for this, Gem?" Lei asked whilst the lack of attention that he was giving her made Gem wonder if she should reply or not.

And since she was the only other person that was closest for Lei to talk to, Gem quickly fixed her posture and looked at Lei with her nervous eyes and said, "More than ever." Pertaining to the meeting they will soon have with the tribes of this place where the Salamanders were said to have come from.

"Did you know that Edelweiss used to be a flower that could only be found in the Alps? And that it was made into a song during the 21st century?" Fily suddenly said after appearing beside Gem and even sat beside her with Lei on the edge of the yacht's platform.

"N-No, I didn't know about that," Gem answered and gave Fily a small smile before getting distracted with her thoughts once again, "If Petunia was here then maybe she could have known. She was very interested in herbs and potions after all," Gem added which made the group a little bit gloomy on the inside.

"Well, at least now you know something about Edelweiss and its history with the flowers and stuff."

"Why did they name their village 'Edelweiss'?" Gem asked out of curiosity which also caught the curiosity of others, temporarily deleting all regretful thoughts about Petunia and getting interested in the place that they were going to instead.

"Because they're in the Alps." Fily shrugged.

"That's it?" Gem asked back with an unconvinced expression.

"Yes, that's just it… well, aside from the unpopular myth that was circulating in this tribe for so long about a man who flew here from the other side of the world just to see the Edelweiss flower. He said that the flower was calling for him the first time he saw them on the internet which led to him flying over here and even taking his family with her in this snowy cold weather just to see and take care of those flowers until his death."

"And this was before the Great Doom by the way, which only meant that there were no Salamandites and Salamanders here yet by that time. They're not even sure if that guy or his family survived the plagues or the apocalypse and even the meteor shower that destroyed nearly half of earth's population during the great doom."

"So, how did they even get a hold of this story if the man's family did not survive the Great Doom anyway?" Gem asked.

"Good question, I think you'll get to see soon enough why they named this place Edelweiss and not after the said man that died for the flowers in this area."

"Will we also get to see Edelweiss flowers down there?" 

"Of course! You could even take a look at the biggest Edelweiss flower that these townspeople created in honor of their mentors which has been passed down from generation to generation after the Great Doom," Fily said which made Gem and the others look forward to their visit at Edelweiss.

"Just get reminded that we can't and shouldn't touch anything of their creations over there, okay? Including the Edelweiss flowers that you guys were just talking about," Venedette suddenly said after double checking all the requirements that they need in order for their presence to be accepted in this village's courtroom full of tribes from various places around the world.

"Okay," Gem answered and stood up to get carried by Venedette but instead of being carried, Venedette only went past Gem and proceeded to carry both Fily and Lei in her arms while calling for Von.

"Von will carry you," Venedette said to her before launching herself and the two kids with her for a free fall.

"I guess you're the one I'm carrying today, great," Von said in a passive-sarcastic tone before proceeding to pick her up and fall with her to the ground anyway.

"This is getting easier and easier for me the more I do it," Von muttered while Gem quickly understood what he meant by it.

"You mean free-falling? With me? I'm sure you had a hard time the first time we did this,"

"And now it doesn't even tax on my strength anymore. Don't you think I have gotten stronger because of my flight practice?" Von asked as a joke which made Gem roll her eyes at her.

"Let's just be quiet, okay? I'm really getting nervous here about meeting all those people who might know something about how this works." Gem held on to her necklace and caressed it.

"You should be excited, not nervous. Although those two are often just the same anyway… just think that you're excited and not nervous and you'll have a lower chance of messing up this meeting with those people," Von said which sounded dumb and wise at the same time in Gem's ears.

"Okay, that might work," Gem said and tightened her hold on Von's shoulders as she was being carried by him in the usual bridal style, unlike the others who were placed on Venedette's shoulders just like two bags of rice.