Random House Spotted!

(Thursday, 25th of Verdant Garden Moon)

Dusk finally fell onto the island of Mokupuni. Well, one of the islands, since Mokupuni is a layman's term used to describe most of the Southern Desponian islands that banded together under an alliance called Mokupuni Hui Hii. Jack and Saorise were on the beach as the sun set, and Jack got a text for him and Saorise to meet up with the rest of the group at a nearby shaved ice vendor called 'Chilling Chirps' with a bird on the logo. Jack looked out at the ocean from his spot on a beach towel, to see Saorise enjoying herself in the ocean.

"Oi, Sealgurl, Simo texted me, our fun time is over." Jack shouted at his teammate, and Saorise's head popped out of the ocean. "Come on, we got a bird man to hunt."

"Okay." Saorise exits the water to reveal that she was actually covered in a series of weights that Jack assumed were filled with lead. Underneath these weights was her wetsuit. "Why don't you swim next time with me?"

"Because someone needs to watch our stuff so we don't get robbed." Jack tossed Saorise a beach towel that she could use to dry herself off. "We already have to deal with bird man, dealing with thieves is something I'm not in the mood for."

"There's a mood for dealing with thieves?" Saorise wondered with curiosity. "What would that mood be called?"

"Bloodlust I guess?" Jack wasn't sure how to respond to Saorise's question as he guided her to the shaved ice. "You're not really up to date on lingo are you? And this is coming from an amnesiac."

"Sorry..." Saorise apologized whilst looking kind of down, and Jack reached his hand upwards and patted the girl's head.

"Hey, sorry if I made you feel bad, I'm kind of a sarcastic jerk." Jack stopped patting the selkie girl's head and continued walking down the path towards the shaved ice.

"No, you are not a jerk, you are a nice person." Saorise smiled, and something inside Jack wanted to protect this giant cinnamon roll.

Jack and Saorise reached the shaved ice vendor to see the group enjoying a cup of shaved ice. TJ's was flavored orange, Hassan's was blue raspberry, Simo's was cherry, and Jojo's was whatever flavor was spilled on the ground by some unfortunate fellow. Saorise got a blueberry flavored cup, and Jack decided to get a rainbow cup with all the flavors.

"Dude, that's a big freaking cup." TJ commented whilst looking at the cup. "How do you plan on burning those calories?"

"Hey, with the workout Herakles has me on despite my missing leg is brutal." Jack whined. "Instead of a 10 kilometer run, he makes me do a 20 kilometer run! He knows the prosthetic can't gain muscle, so he's trying to make my normal leg double strong!"

"I'm not sure if that's how it works, but I'm too scared of Herakles to say anything, so you have my sympathy." Simo pat Jack's back while he scooped some lemon flavored ice into his mouth using a plastic spoon.

"Nightmare murder punchy man aside, what have we got?" Jack asked his teammates.

"The bird man is just as elusive as locals say, but good news is that we shouldn't expect any nests." Hassan explained. "We looked around forever, yet we could never find any more than two of his feathers in any given area. If he had a nest, there would be more feathers in certain areas than others."

"Still, there's something weird, there's a shockingly low amount of feathers in the area, so my guess is that the bird man is only partially a bird." Simo handed Jack a pitch black colored feather. "It's like an ostrich feather, yet lighter."

"So this helps us track him down...how?" Jack asked the group before wincing, Jack once again heard the sound of a baby crying. "Damn, can you guys hear that kid crying? I think it's the same one from earlier. I hope he's okay."

"Baby? I don't hear anything?" Saorise looked just as confused as everyone else at the table, could they really not hear the child's bawling? "Maybe it's a hallucination?"

"Maybe..." Jack wasn't convinced, and was curious as to what the source of the baby's bawling could be. "So about bird man..."

"Since he comes out at night, we were thinking of a night time drive to see if we can draw his attention." Hassan summoned a golden knife and balanced it between his finger tips. "If we can grab his attention...we can get him."

"Reports just say that he just 'harassed' people, and there are no recorded injuries that were directly caused by bird man." Simo spoke up. "All injuries that are from these encounters were caused by people fleeing the scene in a panic state whilst in a tropical environment."

"If he's harmless, then we can try relocating him somewhere else." Jack suggested the idea of relocation to the group. "Changeling and Chariot are both artifacts of mine that excel in shape shifting, forming a means of transportation should be easy."

"Okay, let's keep that as a possible option for now." TJ thought about the option before finishing off his snack. "Come on, we need to get a move on. Chariot has infinite gas, right?"

"Yeah, but you're driving." Jack got up from the table whilst holding his shaved ice. "What kind of vehicle do you want to drive? I'll be riding Sleipnir to spend some time with them."

"I'll take a jeep." TJ stood up from the table with Jack, and Saorise instantly raised her hand. "Yes Saorise?"

"Can I request that the jeep comes with a mounted machine gun?" Saorise asked, and her idea may have been posed as an innocent question, Jack got a genius idea.

"Of course, but why stop at one?" Jack smirked with an evil plan cooking behind his eyes.

(Later that Evening)

Sleipnir trotted on the dirt path that cut through the thick tropical jungle of one of Mokupuni's islands. Jack held the Fox in one hand, and the Hound in the other. The Hound's tip was pointing forward, slightly upwards. The Chariot in jeep form driven by TJ followed you close behind, with a mounted net gun in the back, which was in the hands of Saorise. Simo sat in the passenger seat, rifle in hand while Hassan sat awkwardly between the two men. As for Jojo, she was riding with Jack. It's been three hours since Jack finished his snack, and the crescent moon was high above in the night sky. The crescent moon's beauty was partially concealed by not only scattered clouds, but also the leaves of palm and other tropical trees.

"How much farther?!" TJ shouted at Jack from his spot at the driver's seat. "This island doesn't have that many places you can hide!"

"Well you have a lot more options when you have wings!" Jack shouted back before answering the question. "That aside, I'm not sure how much farther the bird man could be. Hound just tells me the direction, not the distance."

Jack kept looking around for the bird man, yet Jack almost had no clue what he looked like. Jack thought about the details he knew about the bird man. He was the mixture between a man and bird, possessed black wings with large feathers, may not be entirely feathered, has glowing red eyes, and appears most active at night. Jack should have asked how long the bird man has been active, but the thought never popped into his head. Jack was assuming that the bird man was provoked somehow, yet Jack didn't see any construction projects or even any hunters in the area. Could it be rowdy teenagers accidentally undoing an ancient seal? Yeah that's probably the best bet. Jack's group arrived at a fork in the road, and Hound was still pointing straight. Yet there was no path that led straight, only left or right.

"I see something." Simo looked down the left path. "It looks like...an abandoned house? Hassan, you're the guy with the map, are any buildings supposed to be here?"

"Yeah, just one super SUPER old building." Hassan looked at a foldable map. "It's called Crow's Nest, and it was most likely built back when the Heliosian Empire colonized the Mokupuni islands alongside Hinode 500 years ago."

"Damn, it's a miracle that it's still up." Jack decided to go down the left path to satisfy his curiosity about the old and abandoned house. "Come on, let's go check it out, since we have no better leads."

Jack led his group to the house, allowing them to get a better look at its exterior. Its exterior was a simple, rectangular house with a faded blue paint job with some flecks of paint flaking off, the same can be said for the gray shingles on the room. The door had red paint flaking off it, the grass around the house was overgrown, three out of the four visible windows were cracked, and it just looked like a picture perfect haunted house. The icing on the cake was the fact that there was mist surrounding the area. Jack got off Sleipnir and stroked the horse's snout as TJ parked the jeep on the side of the path. TJ put on his gloves and eyed the building.

"Jack, Jojo, and I will head inside." TJ gestured to the badger, who already waddled into the thick layer of grass, checking for snakes or any other traps in the area.

"Simo, Saorise, give us a hand if you think something goes wrong." Jack ordered the two gunners. "Hassan, freeze time and get us out of there just in case shit hits the fan."

With the orders given, Jack and TJ walked towards the entrance of the building and he reached the red door, where Jojo was waiting. Jack and TJ looked at each other before nodding to one another, TJ punched the door wide open, causing it to fly through the dark house. Jack looked inside of the house to see an eerily dark room that possessed furniture like one's average living room, yet all the furniture was abandoned and covered in mold, as though someone left this place in a hurry only to never return. With the entrance of the three of them, disturbing the place that was once frozen in time, dust began dancing in the air, and Jack sneezed.

"Bless you." TJ replied to the sneeze.

"Thanks, I'll check upstairs for anything." Jack pointed upwards before switch Fox and Hound for Stone Cutter. "If anything goes wrong, shout. I'll do the same if anything goes wrong on my end."

"Alright, stay safe my dude." TJ walked down a dark corridor with the light of his phone lighting his way, while Jack summoned your own source of light.

"Path of Heaven: Light." Jack created an orb of light that hovered over his head as he went to a corridor in the corner of the living room, and that corridor happened to have a set of wooden stairs that lead straight up into the second story of the house.

The wood freaked underneath Jack's weight, and the prosthetic leg wasn't exactly making traversing the stairs easy either. Jack had his hand on the hand rail the entire time, yet he couldn't rely on it fully or the wood would break underneath his weight. Jojo seemed to notice Jack's struggling as she wobbled your way up the stairs, and actively waited for Jack with every step he took. After Jack took a step up, Jojo would wobble up one step and turn around to keep an eye on Jack.

"Thanks for looking out for me, Jojo." Jack thanked the badger whilst climbing up the stairs.

After that, Jack finally reached the top of the stairs with his familiar and walked through the hallway of the creepy house. To Jack's right was a hallway lined with old broken windows that were barely clear thanks to the dirt, mold, and cracks in them. To the left of the hall were three doors, with the first of the doors clearly showing a room that had been destroyed by falling wood from the eroded ceiling. Jack turned his attention to the next room, which looked relatively undamaged aside from mold and moss.

"I wonder what's in here..." Jack pushed open the door wide enough for him to actually enter the room instead of simply looking inside it.

Inside the room, Jack saw that the walls were painted a baby pink color with stripes, if it wasn't for the flaking paint and mold destroying the walls, it would have been a pretty color. There was a twin sized bed with wood that was painted a white color, its mattress was covered by a dirty pink blanket. Leaning against a pillow that was brown from dirt, was a rabbit stuffed animal, with half of its body now green from the mold. Jack could see that the dresser in the corner was once a pearly white color, and the stack of wood in the opposite corner was once a dollhouse from the dolls and tiny pieces of furniture sticking out.

"This room...how old could the little girl once living here have been when she had to leave?" Jack asked before stepping back out of the room. "Or little boy. I'm not one to judge, but all evidence suggests a girl."

Just before Jack left the room, Jack took notice of a family picture that was hanging right next to the entrance of the room. How Jack didn't notice it is beyond him. In the picture, Jack saw three people. There was the father, who looked like a fair skinned man with raven black hair, wearing a red shirt with white flowers on them paired with khakis. There was the mother, with fair skin and dark hair. She wore a mint colored sundress, and bump around her stomach, she was pregnant. The third person was the daughter, who had her mother's hair and her father's red eyes. She was wearing a princess-like outfit complete with a crown. The background depicted a sunset, and the sun had nothing on their smiles. It was a perfect family.

"Damn, I hope this family's still okay." Jack tried to remain optimistic, but given the condition of the house, the family being alive wasn't very likely.

Jack exit the room to go towards the third and final room. The door was closed, so he set his hand on the door knob and opened it. The door swung open with ease, and inside the room, Jack saw a mess. The king sized bed was cut in half, the dresser was knocked on the ground, the window was shattered, glass was all over the ground, the wardrobe was nothing but old clothes and wood on the ground, and there was an unknown entity standing in the middle of it all, hunched over something. The only source of the light in the entire room was the moonlight from outside, yet Jack could make out a couple key features.

"What the hell?"

Long and thin legs that wore tattered pants and only one shoe on the entity's left foot. His torso back was hunched, yet his chest was huge and muscular. Jack noticed that his shirt was in tatters, yet he could almost see a pattern on the shirt. His arms were thick, and were connected to long, black wings. His head had messy, long hair that reached past his shoulders, as though he never took care of his hair and got a haircut. Jack took a step forward, and the floorboard creaked beneath his weight. The entity turned his head to look at Jack, allowing Jack to see bulgously large, glowing red eyes, and a massive beak. In the darkness, Jack could only make out the most minute details of the figure.

"CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWKKKKKKK!!!!!" The bird man let out an ear rapturing screech before dropping the object he was holding onto and soaring out of the window.

"WAIT!" Jack tried grabbing the bird man, but he was too slow.

By the time he reached the window, the bird man was already high into the air. Jack watched as the bird man soared through the air, and in the moonlight, Jack finally saw the pattern of the bird man's patterned shirt.

It was a red shirt.

A red shirt with white flowers on it.