The Story
This is the third installment of my story that started with The Dream and then Bliss. I promise more A&A moments. I had this idea of Yori telling the kids a made up story from Ariadne's drawings. Enjoy!
Tokyo
Doctor Yori opened the mail box and was pleased to see a large brown envelope. It would be for the children of course. There Father and his Teams way of telling them everything was alright. The return address read simply Ariadne.
Satio, worked even when he was at home. He had been a bachelor all his life and had planed to remain so. He never had any desire to change his life for a wife and children. But Yori had been an unexpected suprise. She had made it easy for him to leave his work at work. To come home to a meal, to enjoy simple domestic life. The presence of Cobb's Children as well as Sybil had made life different, but in a good way. The blended family had all been living together in an elegant house outside of Tokyo for three months now. Ever since Cobb and his Team went to search for Yuseff and stop COBAL.
"Story for the children arrived today." Yori told Saito that evening when he came home. The business man smiled at her and kissed the top of her head. There were living under assumed names in a tightly gated community. The same kind of home security important dignitaries had. At home, Saito and Yori didn't bother with English. The children had picked up Japanese very quickly and Sybil had no trouble understanding them.
"Have they already eaten?" Saito asked. Yori nodded.
"Sybil is in her room pretending to do her homework." Yori said. Saito shook his head. The now 14 year old was very smart and didn't apply herself in school. She did just fine grade wise without trying very hard. Saito had tried to impress on her the merits of education. Sybil did just enough to get by. Teenagers were frustrating.
Yori knocked on James and Phillipa's door. They were still young enough to share a room and it not be awkward for them. In the absence of there Father, the pair derived comfort from each other. The two children looked up at the Doctor and smiled when she held out the envelope. There squeals of excitement made Yori smile at the exuberance of youth. Phillipa opened the envelope and took out the book inside. It was a fine leather cover. Professionally bound, but with hand painted water colors inside. Phillipa handed Yori the book.
"Tell us the story." She asked as the pair snuggled into Phillipa's pink bed. Yori complied willingly. Inside the book, were no words, only lovely art work done by the Architect. Yori looked at the first drawing. Obviously a man, sad, angry. Next to him a little boy. She began the story speaking in Japanese.
"Once, there was a great king. He had everything any King could want. Power, wealth and a Son to carry on his name. But the King was greedy and cold to his Son. His Son began to feel the coldness that was in his father." Yori turned the page. The Heroes
"When the old King died, the Son was a broken spirit. So the Heroes went and found him. One night they crept into the Son's dreams. They whispered things to him. One of the Heroes changed his shape so the Son would listen to him." A new drawing of dark creatures. Yori thought.
"But the Son's dreams, were not empty. They were full of evil thoughts. All the anger at the King were lurking there. The Heroes had to run away from these things. They had to hide." A picture of a young woman showing a hidden room.
"The Mistress of the Maze, hid them. She told the Hero's where to hide in the dreams, so the Evil thoughts could not find them. The Heroes still had to battle the Evil Thoughts. They were brave warriors. They showed the Son a truth." The two children looked at each water color and back at Yori in amazement.
"A truth that all Father's lover there children. The Heroes freed the Son's spirit and he was able to be a whole man. He awoke from the dream and became a better and wiser King to his people then his father ever was."
"What happened to the Heroes?" Phillipa asked in English.
"The Heroes..." Yori said looking at the last water coloring. It showed a landscaped of a crowded city. "The Hero's went to another kingdom. To help another. For that is what Heroes do." She added.
Later that night, Yori showed Saito the last picture.
"It looks like Morocco." She said to him. He nodded. It had been a month since Cobb and the others had called. Ariadne's water colors were the only way they knew the Team was still alive. It was the safest way for them. No words, only drawings that they knew to be done by the Architect. Yori sighed and closed the book.
In her room Sybil was watching T.V. Saito and Yori left her mostly to her own schedule. As long as she went to school and kept her grades up. She was watching a nature program about how when a predator would come to close to the nest, the mother bird would fake an injury so the predator would chase her. She would pretend she couldn't fly and divert the enemy away from the helpless babies. Yori had told her about the arrival of the book, but Sybil ha no interest in the Team. The bitterness at being left behind had had three months to fester. She was thinking that the time had come to leave again.
Just FYI the HEROES story is the Fischer Inception.