Chapter Two:
The man stood in shock for a second, then he quickly shook his head and looked at the rest of the group again. His eyes widened at seeing Kish, Pie and Pudding.
"Rin, what happened?" He asked, something that had been in the hand hidden behind the door clattering to the floor. He carefully took Pie off of Rin and Keiichiro's shoulders and held the young man in his arms like he weighed no more than a small child.
"They've been poisoned," Rin explained, entering the house, gesturing for the others to follow. She nearly tripped on something, and glanced down briefly before glaring up at her father.
"Really, Papa?" Rin said as she picked up a double-ended spear that was on the floor.
"I did not know who was behind the door!" Her father said defensively. "And what is this about them being poisoned?"
"Where's Mama?" Rirī said. "We don't need to explain this more than once."
"Curry." A woman's voice called down from upstairs. "Who is it?"
"Risa, come down, it is safe," Curry responded.
A petite woman with a braid of indigo curls as long as Rin's with two chin-length curls hanging beside her face came down the stairs. It was quite obvious that she was Rin, Rirī and Rōzu's mother as she looked exactly like them. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, and wore a gray dress with long sleeves and she wore black ankle-high boots. Her indigo eyes widened as she saw her two oldest sons, both unconscious, and the little girl that her youngest son held in his arms.
"Bring them to the healing room, now," She said without preamble, turning sharply on her heel and leading them through a door beside the stairwell. Her husband, Rin, Rirī, Ryou and Tart quickly followed her, the others trailing behind.
Risa ordered each patient to be laid down on one of the five cots in the round room. She laid her hand on Pudding's forehead.
"Rirī-San," She said immediately.
"Hai, Sensei," Rirī said, knowing that she was again her mother's student.
"Tell me what has happened to them," Risa ordered.
Rirī quickly explained the events of the previous months to her mother, who listened intently. Risa's scowl continued to deepen as Rirī went on. When she was finished, she turned to Curry.
"Go find Rishi-Sobo," She said. "Rirī and I will need her assistance. You will need to temporarily take down the shields, there's no need for her to be out in the elements longer than necessary."
Curry nodded and quickly left the room as Risa turned to the others, who quickly realized that she was the one whom Pie, Rin and Rirī had learned to dish out orders from.
"Rin, get out a pot and boil some water, you will find the pitcher in the icebox," Risa said. Rin nodded and ran out of the room. "Taruto, go bring in more firewood from the back porch. Rōzu, get out the spare sleeping mats for your friends and set them up in your room, then bring some more blankets down here."
Rōzu and Tart both quickly nodded and ran out the door. Risa paused as she heard a baby cry. She sighed and turned to the human girls.
"I do hate to ask this, as we have only just met, but could one of you tend to Asagao? She is in the first room on the left on the second floor." Risa said.
Zakuro and Mint nodded and they went to get the baby together.
"We'll go help Tart bring in firewood," Keiichiro said, indicating to himself and Ryou.
"That would be greatly appreciated," Risa said with a nod. The two men left the room, leaving Ichigo, Lettuce and Rirī.
"Rirī, bring over my box of supplies, we are going to need it," She said sadly, looking down at her three patients. "Mew Ichigo, Mew Lettuce, I will need your help as well."
"How do you know our names?" Lettuce asked with a gasp. Risa smiled softly.
"I have heard a great deal about you girls from my sons," She said, her indigo eyes twinkling. "You two and Mew Pudding especially."
Lettuce and Ichigo smiled, blushing some. Risa's frown lowered some as she looked back at Pie, Kish and Pudding.
"Though I must admit this was not how I imagined our first meeting would come to be," Risa said. She sighed and shook her head. "Come here, girls."
"What would you like us to do, Ikisatashi-San?" Ichigo asked.
"First, do not call me 'San' unless it is preceded by 'Risa' or 'Oba'," Risa said with a smile. "You and your fellow Mews are family in my mind and heart, and those of my husband, and therefore you do not need to use formalities."
"Hai, Risa Oba-San," Ichigo and Lettuce said together, smiling.
Lettuce and Ichigo helped Risa put cool cloths onto Pie, Kish and Pudding's foreheads, hoping to soothe the fever.
"Have you ever seen something like this before?" Ichigo asked Risa, glancing up briefly from Kish's flushed face.
"Not to this extent," Risa said. "Typically, the antidote would be administered. But as we are unaware of what the antidote is, we will have to look towards other means of treatment."
Rōzu came back into the room as Risa began trying to light a fire with a flint stone. The little girl smiled coyly.
"Let me, Mama," Rōzu said, kneeling beside her mother. Risa was about to hand her the stone then saw that her daughter's hand was on fire, the skin unharmed. Rōzu put her flaming hand into the fire-pit and lit the longs, then looked up at her mother proudly.
"Fire," Risa whispered, smiling as she blinked back tears, hugging her daughter. "Of course your power would involve fire. You always were a little fireball in Cyniclon form."
Rōzu just beamed.
Just then, Rirī reentered the room, carrying a wooden box much larger than the one she owned, followed by Rin, who brought in a steaming pot of hot water. Shortly after, they heard the front door open.
"Risa?" Curry called.
"In here," Risa called back as she ruffled through her box.
They heard the sound of wood-on-stone and the door creaked open. A tiny, withered Cyniclon woman entered, followed by Curry. She wore a gray dress like Risa's and a black hooded cape and she leaned on a gnarled wooden cane.
"Poison unidentifiable?" The woman asked in a croaking voice as she removed her hood. She had long gray hair that was in a single braid with two parts of her hair hanging beside her cheeks, going to her waist. She had brilliant blue eyes, but they were unfocused and foggy, staring straight ahead of her. Lettuce and Ichigo realized that the woman was blind.
"Yes," Risa said. "Three patients, same poison and symptoms, different exposure time."
The old woman nodded.
"I will be in need of Taruto's services," She said. "As I am afraid we are in a shortage of Sunblossom leaves."
"Yes, of course," Risa said. "He is moving firewood out back."
"I will fetch him," The woman said. "Ichigo, child, please accompany an old woman, will you?"
Ichigo looked surprised that the woman not only knew her name, but knew she was there. Despite the strangeness of the situation, Ichigo went.
"Forgive me, I know your name, but you do not know mine," The woman said as she hobbled through the hall, Ichigo at her side. Ichigo marveled at the fact that the blind woman knew her way around, though it occurred to her that she probably had been to the house enough times to have memorized the floor-plan. "You may call me Rishi-Sobo."
"Are you my friends' grandmother?" Ichigo asked.
Rishi-Sobo chuckled.
"No, no, I am afraid I am not. Though I love them as if I were their grandmother. I trained Risa and Lila in the ways of Healing Arts many years ago, though it feels like just yesterday," She paused. "I have been called Sobo for many generations, centuries before you or your friends were born."
"If you do not mind my asking, how long do Cyniclons usually live?" Ichigo asked.
"Our life spans are normally the same as humans," Rishi-Sobo said.
"Then, how-?" Ichigo started, her eyes wide as she fumbled for a way to phrase her question. If Rishi-Sobo was as old as she said she was, shouldn't she be dead?
Rishi-Sobo chuckled again and smiled up at Ichigo.
"I never said I was normal," She said mysteriously. She stopped walking and Ichigo stopped as well. "Ichigo, child, are we alone?"
"Yes," Ichigo said, confused. "The others are either upstairs, in the healing room or outside."
Rishi-Sobo smiled wryly.
"Good," Rishi-Sobo said. She grabbed Ichigo's wrist and the teenager felt the pull of being teleported.
Ichigo was surprised to find herself in the middle of a snow-covered forest, the wind howling around her. Ichigo shivered, having had taken off her winter gear and boots in the warm house and not expecting to leave any time after that.
"Rishi-Sobo, where have you brought me?" Ichigo asked, rubbing her arms for warmth, her socked feet sinking in the snow.
"To a place where no one can overhear us," Rishi-Sobo said. Her thin hand reached out from under the cloak to grab Ichigo's wrist, startling the teen.
"I need you to promise me something, Ichigo," Rishi-Sobo said as her blind blue eyes stared past Ichigo's eyes, into her heart and soul. "Promise me that after the Summer Solstice, you will bring your team—all of your team—to see me here on Cynnth. There are things we need to discuss, but they can only be discussed at that point in time."
"Why did you bring me out here to tell me this?" Ichigo demanded. "Why couldn't you have told me back at the Ikisatashi's?"
Rishi-Sobo glared.
"Promise me!" She demanded, shaking Ichigo's arm.
"I promise you," Ichigo said, slightly scared by the eccentric and cryptic old woman.
"Promise me what?" Rishi-Sobo pressed.
"I promise that I will bring my team to see you on Cynnth after the Summer Solstice," Ichigo reiterated. Rishi-Sobo's shoulders relaxed.
"Thank you," She whispered. "Do not mention this conversation to anyone until that day comes."
"Yes, ma'am," Ichigo said, nodding her head vigorously.
Rishi-Sobo smiled and she bowed her head in gratitude.
The air around them shimmered and when Ichigo blinked, she found that they were back in the hallway of the Ikisatashis' home, where they had been only a moment before.
Tart turned the corner of the hall just as Ichigo and Rishi-Sobo were on their feet again.
"Mama said you were looking for me, Rishi-Sobo," Tart said, approaching the two.
"Ah, yes, I was, Taruto," Rishi-Sobo said with a smile. "Thank you, Ichigo, for accompanying me. You may head back now, I believe Risa is still in need of your assistance."
Tart gently took the old woman by the arm and led her down the hall, leaving Ichigo, cold, wet, and more confused than she had ever been before.
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Tart paced back and forth anxiously, his hands clasped behind his back. He sighed and plopped down on the floor beside Rōzu. He sat there for a few seconds before floating in the air and flying back and forth slowly, now pacing while levitating.
Zakuro glanced up from the face of the sleeping baby Rin held in her arms, pausing briefly in running her fingers over Asagao's soft indigo curls.
"He looks like an anxious new father-to-be," She muttered to Ryou and Rin, sitting on either side of her.
"Ichigo and Lettuce aren't much better," Ryou whispered back. Ichigo was nervously tapping her foot and drumming her fingertips on her arm while Lettuce was clearly restless, puttering about the spacious living area of the house, putting things away, poking the fire, unbraiding then re-braiding her hair.
"Still, I would have thought we'd have heard something by now," Rin said, wrapping the blanket around Asagao tighter.
"What exactly are they doing to heal them, do you know?" Keiichiro asked as he came to sit beside Rin.
"Yes, Mama explained the process to me and Rirī while Tart was growing the Sunblossoms Rishi-Sobo needed. They'll be using a variety of mixtures to purify the bloodstream, which will kill off the poison," Rin explained, staring down at her baby sister's face. "The primary one is injected into the scar tissue from the original wound, where the poison would be most likely to gather. Occasionally, they would have to reopen the wound if it was there for over six months. Fortunately I don't think that will have to happen, though they may have to so with Kish as he has no scarring from his encounter with the poison. Then the rest are just potions to drink and slaves to put over the wound to kill the poison in other places other than the bloodstream."
"Then they'll be awake soon?" Lettuce asked, her fingers pausing in mid-braid.
Rin shook her head.
"The mixture that is injected works better if the body is still," She said. "Also, the first hour of having it in your system is painful. With their bodies weak from the pneumonia, it could take longer. It's better that they stay asleep."
"And Mama and Rishi-Sobo have made sure that they stay asleep well into tomorrow, so that they can rest, heal and begin regaining their strength," Rirī said as she and her father came out of Risa's healing room.
"So now we just sit around and wait?" Ichigo asked, standing up.
"Actually, there is someone I would like you to visit while you wait," Curry said, grabbing the preoccupied Tart by the shirt collar, shaking him out of his reverie with confusion.
Curry chuckled at his son's reaction, then went into a closet and pulled out several black hooded cloaks.
"Put these on in addition to your winter clothing," The tall Cyniclon said, passing them out, then taking his infant daughter from his eldest daughter. He looked his youngest son directly in the eyes. "Do you remember the waterfall we went to last summer?"
"Yeah, the one with the cavern behind it," Tart said, fastening his cloak around his neck. "We set up our camp there. Why?"
"Go there," Curry said. "The leader of the rebels wishes to speak with you and your brothers. I promised him that if you or any of your siblings returned, I would send you to him."
"Who is the leader?" Rōzu asked, pulling the hood over her head.
Curry's bronze eyes twinkled.
"You shall see," He said knowingly. "Now, go, while it is still dark out. I will temporarily lower the teleportation hinderers. Do not worry about the others. When you return, they will be well on their way to regaining their full strength."
Tart nodded, though he looked past his father to the room where his brothers and girlfriend lay being tended to by his mother and adopted grandmother.
Tart, Rirī, Rōzu and Rin each took the hand of a human and they teleported. They were on a snow covered cliff, a waterfall raining down in an icy stream.
"This way," Rin said, leading the others up the path.
They carefully went past a small crevice between the waterfall and the cliff. Inside the cave were several torches and fires surrounded by laughing and chatting Cyniclons, their ages spanning from younger than Rōzu to those with white hair, wrinkles and droopy ears. However, they all stopped when they saw the group, a few grabbing the weapons that lay at their side. Tart instantly pulled back his hood. A few people gasped.
The children, teens and adults jumped to their feet and bowed low while many of the wizened ones simply stared in awe.
"I was told your leader wished to speak with me," Tart said in a crisp, professional tone. The six humans looked at each other in shock. They had never heard Tart speak like this.
A fourteen-year-old girl with plaited dark blue curly hair and dark blue eyes stepped forward.
"I can take you to him, General Ikisatashi Taruto-San," She said with a bow.
General? Ichigo, Mint, Lettuce, Zakuro, Ryou and Keiichiro thought, their faces reflecting the surprise they felt.
"Since when is Tart a General?" Mint asked in a whisper as they were led down a hall. The people they passed all bowed low when they saw Tart.
"He, Pie and Kish were promoted to General following their return," Rin whispered in response. "Have you ever wondered why they have longer pennants than Rirī and I?"
"Pennants?" Keiichiro repeated, his brow furrowed.
"The strips of fabric that hangs out from the back of our clothes," Rirī explained. "They symbolize rank in the military. The longer they are, the higher-up you are. Kish's are the longest, though he wears them so that they don't look it."
"Wait, if Kish's are the longest, that means-" Ichigo started to say.
"That up till recently, Kish was completely in charge of our military," Tart said, not looking back.
The six humans walked in stunned silence down the torch-lit stone halls.
Finally, their guide led them to an area sectioned off with thick red curtains. The girl rang a bell that hung outside.
"Enter." Came the response. The girl pushed aside the curtain, admitting entrance.
"General Ikisatashi Taruto-San, Major Ikisatashi Rindou-San, Sergeant Ikisatashi Rirī-San," The young solider looked at Rōzu and the humans before adding, "And guests."
The stone room was covered with cushions with a long table taking up most of the space. Candles, paper and ink were everywhere. A few men and women sat around the table, but a Cyniclon man sat at the head of the table, higher than the rest, his face hidden in the shadows.
"Thank you, Chun Mee. That will be all," He said. The girl bowed and quickly left the 'room'. When she was gone, the man climbed to his feet, throwing his features into the light.
The man was anywhere between sixty and eighty with wizened white hair pulled into a low ponytail that hung past his waist and two short pigtails framing his face wrapped with dyed green leather strips, round glasses framing warm blue eyes and was dressed in a long green robe. He smiled as he saw Tart, Rin, Rirī and Rōzu. Their eyes widened.
"Chai-Sofu Sensei?" Rin whispered, smiling as her eyes brightened.
"Hello, my mago," The man said, spreading his arms. "Come give your old Sofu a hug."