Little Berry

Rolling down the road, people were amazed and shocked that the Komono lizard could be actually used to pull the carriage.

"Uhm... Big brother said you could help me find dad...Fly little Berry?"

The name just came randomly to Lulu, and when she saw the orange bird flying straight to the forest, the young girl was lost.

"Should I make the carriage go to the forest...?"

Lulu suddenly remembered that she could send a message to Nodus and pulled out her thin tablet.

The young girl slowly tapped on each letter with one finger and received a reply right away as soon the message was sent.

"Hard metal, trees no problem?"

Lulu pouted as she read the reply because she didn't expect the young man to also write short letters just like the way he speaks.

"This big brother... To the forest!"

The Komono Lizard was 4 feet tall and 10 meters long, and its slippery scales took no DAMAGE from the trees as it rolls over everything in the forest.

"Oooh! I see now."

Lulu opened the map software on her tablet and saw a perfect overlay of the forest thanks to the drone that scanned 5 kilometers around her father's location.

Lulu then noticed a round circle on the bottom right of her screen.

"I wonder what does that do..."

She insisted at first but did not want to bother the young man.

"Wow... So beautiful..."

Lulu could see the half of the sun behind the mountain in the horizon as the monitor displayed the bird point of view.

"Berry?... Come back."

The screen switched from the sky to the trees as the bird dove down into the forest and landed on her hands.

.

..

...

....

"Naire, you actually did it!"

"I wouldn't have thought that you planned this...Since when your brain functioned properly?"

The men and women around the candle that was lit up on top of a chunk of molded dirt.

"You guys are so mean... Sniff.-"

*Pah!*

The blue-haired woman slapped the back of her silly husband and then scanned everyone in the room with a smile.

"Thank you, everyone, for being here on such short notice..."

Everyone in the room was dressed like as if they were ready to cross a desert with their thick layer of cloth wrapped around them.

"Why the courtesy? If it weren't for you, I would be sleeping underneath the earth for eternity."

"Right, isn't that what friends are for."

After Lati spoke, the 5 people in the room took off their scarf and gave the couple a hug before spreading out around the dirt table.

"But still...Thank you for coming."

Naire smiled and took off a rolled piece of paper from his belt before placing it on the table.

"Everyone already knows, this is the map of the kingdom and the adjacent cities or villages around it."

The 3 men and 2 women stared at the map slightly confused.

Naire looked up at them and smiled before burning the edge of the map with the candle.

The map quickly disintegrated with embers particles all over the dirt table and revealed hundreds of tunnels that were all connected to the big circle at the center.

"Ohh! A hidden switch!"

The tall man with a long black beard whistled in amazement while the two other men who were slightly shorter smiled.

"Are those old mines...Or the leftovers of the ancient vines?"

Naire looked at his friend who carried a thick book and nodded.

"As expected Demet, you guessed right, these tunnels are not manmade and instead were after the ancient vine were collected."

Naire took a deep breath before pointing at the center of the map.

"This is the kingdom and only a few people know this-."

The loud sound outside the cave caused Naire and the rest of the group to be on high alert as they all pulled out their weapons.