The Bird, Some Glowing Masks, and A Mission!

The next day they awoke and spread out into the living room. Elle slapped Nero's hand away from the book she was reading. He was standing over her behind the couch trying to read along but she was reading too fast. Each time she turned a page he huffed and reached for the book only to be rejected by a swift and hard thwack. Frides walked through the front door dragging Ouran who was holding onto Urs. Frides had insisted that they keep up his training until they had another mission.

"Where were you, Elle?" Ouran croaked. He was excited by Frides' enthusiasm to continue his training, but he had run the same drills over and over again for the past four hours. Now he was glad he couldn't feel his legs because they would be screaming in pain.

"You said you could do it on your own and you didn't want us to watch." She responded before slapping Neros' hand away again.

"That's good because there was a lot of failing involved." Frides picked Ouran up by his collar and he swayed in the wind. He threw him towards the couch and he floated down next to Elle.

"I can't move. I'll never move again. I am a leaf separated from a tree forever, no will of my own. Let the wind take me." He turned his head and wheezed.

"Breakfast is ready." Before she could put down the plates, Ouran was the first to slide into a bar stool. "Its spicy sausage, toast, and eggs with a side of cherry jam."

"Mm Mm Mmn!" Ouran pulled the plate towards his face. "I thank The Twelve for this meal. Thank you for guiding me to this meal. Let it nourish me and get me to my next meal."

"That's a lot of lofty words for a failure such as yourself." Nero laughed taking a seat repeating the words.

Elle sat down next to Nero. "Thanks."

"That's all you have to say." Nero dropped his jaw.

"What else should I say?"

"The stuff about nourishment. And and, and your next meal."

Elle took a small bite of her toast. "I don't feel it."

"Pft. No manners." Nero dug into the breakfast in front of him piling the eggs and sausage on the toast, then dropping a dollop of the jam on top. His eyes glazed over and he slammed it into his mouth.

"Lets just eat." Frides said picking Urs up and putting her up on the stool next to him. She jammed her face into the plate. Frides pulled the plate away from her. "Slow down!"

Bliperilla looked at all of them. Elle her face squeezed between the pages of a book she found on the bookshelf. Nero and Ouran racing to see who would finish first. Frides stoically kept Urs from choking on the spicy sausages. "How did you all get together. Were you all just assigned together?"

They all looked at Nero. "Don't act like I ripped you from your cribs." He shot a look at them. "We were all going the same way and we're friends."

"Friends? You guys?" Bliperilla cocked her head.

Nero cocked his head to the side. "Yeah. Why not?"

"If I placed a rock down in the middle of this room you all would be spread out across the world in opposite directions. You're, so different."

Nero saw Ouran had got a lead on him and took another bite of his sandwich. "Not about the important stuff." He said with a mouth full and jam sliding from the side of his mouth. "We're together on that stuff."

She thought for a second. "What are those things?"

Before he could answer a bird squawked in a cage connected to the window in the kitchen. The bag next to the front door glowed behind them. They all stopped and turned to look at it.

"That's new." Ouran said.

Nero walked over slowly and kicked the bag with the lit-up masks.

"Don't." Frides commanded nervously.

"I have to know what's going on." He put his hand to his chin then nodded. "Get on the other side. Lets kick it at the same time."

"I'm not doing that!" Frides protested.

"I'll do it." Ouran started to get up but was pushed back into his bar stool by Frides.

Frides got up. "I'll do it." He walked past Nero to the other side of the glowing bag. "Like here?"

"A Little more to the right. We have to be directly opposite of each other." Nero professed.

"How do you know that?"

"Just hurry up and do it." Nero waived his hand and Frides moved over more. "Okay, on three. One."

Frides looked intensely at the bag. "Two."

Nero gulped and grinned. "Thre…"

Bliperilla stepped in between the two of them and pushed them away from the bag. "What are you guys doing? Are you stupid?"

Frides and Nero got up and rushed over to her. "What do you think you're doing?" Nero said.

"You don't know what could happen if you pick it up. Put it down now!" Frides demanded.

"You guys are stupid." She said coming to an obvious conclusion laughing while walking over to the bar with the beaming bag over her shoulder. She grabbed the bird out of the cage and pushed it on them. "The masks glow when there is a mission on the birds leg."

"How do you know that?" Elle said slumping sideways away from the bag in her hand and the bird in the other afraid to be touched by it.

Ouran puffed up his lips and poked the bag. "How are they glowing on their own?"

Bliperilla pointed the bag at Ouran and the bird at Elle. "All Retainers know this much. I've been told."

Nero walked up to the bar and brought his face to the bag for a closer look. "Now what?"

"I don't know. Usually you read the note on the birds leg. Here."

Nero turned his head away and crossed his arms. "I don't want to."

"Me neither." Elle said resolutely.

"I'm not doing it." Ouran said.

They all looked at Frides and he looked at Bliperilla. She looked at all of their faces, as they shied away from the bird."Why should I do it. I'm just a housekeeper. Every time I look at a mission all I see is a blank paper. It might be because I'm not a Retainer or something."

"Just look at it." Nero said. Bliperilla dropped the glowing masks on the bar and pulled the letter from the bird's leg. She unrolled it and made a surprised look.

"What does it say?" Ouran was interested and had leaned forward.

"Nothing." They all exhaled. "I told you. I'm not a Retainer."

"Why aren't you a Retainer?" Nero asked.

"You should know you're the one who made us Retainers." Elle stuck her nose up still bitter that she didn't solve the riddle.

"I don't know. They did give us the bag and the masks, that we know now glow on their own." Nero snapped.

"It might be the masks." They all looked at Frides as he reasoned. "We all put the masks on when we became Retainers. That might be it."

"I've never put on a mask before." Bliperilla admitted.

"Try one on. There are like twelve in there just grab one that isn't glowing." Nero suggested.

"But these are your masks. Which one should I grab."

"Just grab one. I didn't choose one. Seems like it doesn't matter." Elle said grudgingly.

"I chose the one that was at the top." Nero snubbed Elle's comment. "Grab the one at the top not glowing."

"Is that okay." Bliperilla looked around skeptically.

"I'll allow it. Go for it." Frides asserted.

"I will." She said defiantly as she reached into the bag facing her head away from it and closing her eyes. "I think. I got one." They gasped. "I got one. I'm pulling it out."

It was wooden and warped and resembled a block of wood more than a mask. Underneath was a smooth side that had been caved in for the place of a face. Two holes were drilled out for seeing. "Should I put it on my face?" She tilted it onto her face unprompted.

It glowed and then all the masks flickered out.

"That was weird." Nero announced. "Can you read it now?"

"Clear the thicket. Climb the stalk. A dull stone in the trees, will shine, and must be returned to the earth. Lest, another will follow it. Save one life and take another, to safety. Listen and differentiate between selflessness and brazen recklessness. One Hundred Thousand Cardis."

"I can read it!" Nero and Ouran looked at Bliperilla and grinned, a light in their eyes.

Frides looked at Elle as she slammed her book down on the coffee table in front of her. "Where are we going and what are we supposed to be doing? This is hopeless!" She screamed.

"Oh look at the top. It says the Island of Brissage." Bliperilla looked up at Elle, but Elle didn't seem any less annoyed. "At least now you know where?"

"We still don't know what we're supposed to do when we get there. Also how are we supposed to get there? Brissage is in the Citrine Crossing." She wailed.

"About that. I was reading the papers left in that bag." Frides cut her off.

"There were papers in that bag?" She put her puffing red face next to his. "Why didn't you let me read it?"

Frides cautiously pulled some papers out of the pack on the back of his hip. "The things on the parchment pages were so ludicrous and so abstract and impossible. It's filled with old Fari Tales."

"Let me see it." She snatched the paper from his hands. After taking one look she thrust the papers back into his hands. She turned away rustling her hair then stomped back and snatched them again. She walked over to the couch and took her seat.

Frides grabbed Elles plate and the other finished cleaned plates. "Nero can you give me a hand?"

"Sure." Nero got up and grabbed Urs' plate in the middle of her licking the cherry juices from it and he grabbed his and Ourans.

"What are you doing?" Bliperilla watched as Frides lifted the counter flap and walked past Bliperilla to the sink. "You don't have to clean those I'll clean them when you guys are gone."

Frides grabbed a towel and threw it into Nero's face as he walked behind the bar. "You dry."

Bliperilla moved aside and leaned against the counter. "Hey Blipp, can you hand me the paper the mission was written on. There was some kind of crude pictograph on the back." Bliperilla looked over to her astonished. "Can I see it?" Elle outstretched her hand waiting.

"Okay…" She handed the paper to her and grinned and ran her hand coolly through her hair.

"There is something in here about the first Queen of Nobrocl. Its about how she was taught the Droganic language by the dragon Kashmir. Droganic in written form is very powerful. It is very effective when combined with wood from Pinus Longaeva."

"What's Droganic?" Ouran asked walking over and sitting next to her.

"It's the language of the dragons." Nero explained. "It can grant powers to the wielders. She used the Droganic language to bind the soul of the dragon, saving the world from a dragon apocalypse."

"That's a Fari tale. An allegory for the king. Her father was intent on taking over the world and she subdued him with her love. Its about the power of the words of someone you love." Frides explained.

Elle shook her head befuddled. "If that's true then where have you ever seen this word." She pointed to a pictograph that looked like a dog. "

"That's just a picture of a dog." Frides shrugged.

Nero turned around and looked at the picture she was holding up. "Yeah, I remember that picture. Its in one of my dads' old books." He flung the dish he was drying on the counter and rushed into the hallway.

"Hey! Don't break them!" Bliperilla's eyes shot open in disgust.

"Sorry Blipp." He called from the room as he made a ruckus.

"For the second time." Bliperilla smiled.

"Damnit!" Nero walked back into the room. "Criselda didn't pack it. My dad had a book in his study that was filled with pictures just like that one. I must have left it at home."

"What's that?" Bliperilla pointed at the frame in his off hand.

Nero looked to the side. Its just a picture of me and Criselda on a trip to Shinoa port. She must have packed it for me. I didn't even notice it was in there. Didn't notice I was holding it."

"Let me see it." She walked around the bar to him.

"The strange thing is that these masks have similar pictures drawn onto them, in what looks like blood." She looked up towards Frides. "When Nero and Ouran were on that stage in New Oania I couldn't tell it was them. I guessed and jumped in. Once I put on the mask it was obvious. When I looked at them it was like they weren't wearing masks at all. Like I was looking at their actual faces."

Frides remembered having the same thing happen to him. He didn't know if it was Nero and Ouran but figured it was something Nero would do. "Do you think the masks were doing it? Because there is also a tale in there about totem chains that help build confidence."

"Even weirder, our front door is made of the same wood as the masks." She compared the pictographs on the back of the paper and masks. They were different but they both had the same core shape. The other markings stemmed from the center that was a polygon with lines curving away from it, inside a dodecagon.

"Do you think we're supposed to do something with the door?" Nero grabbed the paper and Glowed a dagger and walked over to the door leaving Bliperilla focused on the photo of Criselda and Nero.

"She is beautiful. Is she your mother?" She couldn't find the resemblance.

"Kinda. She was my master." Nero sliced open his hand and the low hanging sunlight coming in from the door blinded her as to what he was doing.

"I've seen this face somewhere." She thought to herself.

Nero shook the door. "Nothings happening!"

"It didn't work?" Elle said.

"I told you it's just a Fari tale." Frides concluded.

"What was he trying to do?" Bliperilla looked between Frides and Elle.

Elle stood up and walked towards the door. "Transportation."

Ouran choked on his milk. "Transportation!"

"The Dragonic language is famous for two things. First granting the speaker elemental powers. The second is spacial transportation. The first Queen of Nobrocl was said to have sent an entire army across the world without any ships. This was before they had a fleet that rivaled the Robs Bend Fleet. Guess it's just a Fari tale. We'll just have to travel the old-fashioned way."

Bliperilla remembered the snowy white mountains and the feet of snow that appeared in front of her when she opened it to find Fedora covered in snow. She had shaken it off as a hallucination after finding Fedora dead. She could still remember the chill sinking in and burning her hands as she dug him out. It all felt so real.

"We might have to go into the city to get enough food for a trip that far. Blipp, can you take me into town. I want to go into the market district." Frides asked. Bliperilla didn't respond but walked towards Nero. It was real. The mountains outside of the door. The cold wind and ice covering Fedora. Since that day she had watched people walk through that door to their deaths.

Bliperilla pulled him aside. She looked outside and saw that there was in fact a ridge of trees on the border of the path across from the house. She exhaled a sigh of relief and closed the door again. They had been denied. They could go home. Go back from where they came and live a long life, but when she closed the door, the pictograph glowed a multicolored across the dragonic writing. When she opened it again, she saw a field of tall grass surrounding the door.

"What did you do?" Nero looked out at the field of grass. Far off in the distance he could see the tall peaks of mountains and straight ahead was the top of the largest tree he had ever seen in his life. There was a Forrest of densely packed pine trees about fifty feet tall surrounding the massive tree. The trees were still very large by anyone's standards unless compared to the tree that sat in the middle of the pines. Its branches floated over the tops of the pines reaching up over two hundred feet above them. An unimaginably large flower stem curved above the top and sunk back into the tree canopy.

"Ouran, Frides come look at this!" Nero bellowed commandingly with a broad grin on his face. "Elle, its incredible."

Elle stepped over to the door with Nero and Bliperilla. "How is this even possible?" She whispered awestricken. Then she looked out of the kitchen window as Frides walked out of the bar and stopped when he walked past the bar peering out of the door. Frides like Elle found a window to compare what he was seeing with. Elle watched him. "I know. That's not what's outside. Through that window we are in the middle of a completely different forest."

Frides looked out the door. "How is this possible."

Ouran waddle over to the door with Urs in his hand but when he got to the door frame he dropped her and his jaw. Nero clapped his hands and ran out into the tall grass with his hands wide. He carved into it, going from one way to another. "Ouran! Let's play hide and seek. You're it!" He ducked down and disappeared in the thick and long grass.

Ouran ran through the door blistering with joy. "No fair."

"Close the door…" Bliperilla whispered to herself.

Elle grabbed Bliperillas hand. "You did it, Blipp. It's amazing."

Bliperilla gritted her teeth. "No, its not." She snarled pulling her hand away. "Close the door!" She rushed out and put Ouran under arm and grabbed Nero dragging him behind her through the door.

She slammed the door behind her and threw Nero across the room. "What's going on?" Nero looked to Elle and her arms were crossed and pulled up against her chest. He looked up at Frides and he shrugged.

Bliperilla stood in front of the door using a rag from her hip to wipe off the blood. "You can't go. I won't let you!"