Chapter 7

Present

Jasper awoke in a small hut, to his left lay Mina, Tindu, Amane and…. He shot up realizing Sydonna wasn't there with them. He started to panic, tripping over the blanket that covered him while trying to get up. He ran out the hut, the sun was high in the sky indicating it was possibly early noon. Some people were looking at him as he frantically looked around mouth agape. " Hey Sy!" He screamed. He ran back inside to wake his friends. " Wakethehellupwe'reinastrangeplaceandSy'smissing!" Mina smacked her brother with one hand, while the other rubbed at her temple. " So you gotta speak so loud though?"

Tindu grunted as he sat up, but fell back down hitting his head on the hard floor. That for sure got him up. " Aagh, damn that hurt. Why is the floor so hard?" He looked at his surroundings, " Where are we?"

Amane stood up and walked to the opening, " Surely not in the middle of the sea dead. But this doesn't look like Hyrule." He turned to everyone and finally realized what Jasper was panicking about. " Um, where's Sy?"

"That's what I was waking you guys up for."

"There's no danger, so keep calm and we'll find her." Said Mina as she stretched.

Jasper peaked his head out the opened archway, he gestured for his friends to follow him. The people outside the hut looked at him with confused expressions. His sister walked up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You making us look weird."

The village was quite peaceful, children were playing tag, women were carrying babies in sacks on their backs while shopping at the stands and men were at the shoreline fishing. The houses looked like traditional huts, some small and some big.

The people wore something that resembled the people's clothing in Lurelin village, just a bit more islandy.

On one side of the village was a swimming spot, a waterfall towered the village. Many younger villagers were jumping off the top and jumping into the water below.

"It's going to be difficult to find Sy, the place must stretch on greatly," Said Tindu.

"You're right, maybe we should ask around," replied Mina. She was beginning to walk to a woman carrying a baby when a female voice ranged throughout the village.

"ALRIGHT, YOU GUYS ARE IN FOR A SPLASH!" They raised their heads to the top of the waterfall and standing there was Sydonna, she went in for a dive, making the children cheer for her performance.

Mina, Tindu, Jasper and Amane ran to where Sydonna was getting out of the water. She spotted them as she was wringing out her hair and shaking excess water off.

" Good afternoon you guys, it's about time you all woke up." Sy said with a big smile on her face, she scanned her friends and was able to tell Jasper was uncomfortable.

"Are you going to be alright?" She asked.

"Bro here thought something happened to you when he woke up. Had the whole village looking at us funny," explained Mina. Sydonna laughed as Jasper blushed some more from his embarrassment. ' I never thought he would freak out, but it's nice he worried. We patched things up, but it seemed to have been hard on a few occasions.' She thought to herself.

"I'm sorry to worry you guys. It was getting pretty boring after I woke up, so I explored a bit and talked to some of the locals." She walked them over to a small eatery.

Amane looked around in amazement, "This place looks cozy. I've never been to something like this, too much time staying low."

Tindu patted Amane's shoulder, "Well there's no need for that anymore. Right now we need to have a game plan about this invasion."

"Oye! Sydonna!" From behind Tindu, a girl screamed Sydonna's name. the group looked and she was walking towards them. "Who's that," asked Amane.

"That's Ayano, she's the chief's daughter." Sydonna got up to greet her new friend. "Good afternoon Ayano, what brings you here?"

"My father wants to speak with you and your friends, when I went to get them from the hut, they weren't there and you weren't at the waterfall. Lucky I saw you all come in here."

" Yeah we were just thinking about eating and coming up with a plan, to free the lands, but I don't think it'll be easy."

"Hello there everyone, I see you all doing well." Ayano waved at the rest of the group. "It's good to meet you as well, what does your father need us for?" Asked Tindu.

"I don't actually know, I have to bring you all right away. And don't worry about food, I'll have someone prepare you a meal while you talk to father."

They all left out the cafeteria and headed to a big hut on the far side of the village.

Sydonna, Jasper, Amane, Mina and Tindu sat in a line in front of the village chief on the floor.

"I'm you five could sit with me today, I know you all have just woken up but the matter I need to discuss is urgent. I am Kyo chief of this village and you all met my daughter Ayano," he cleared his throat before continuing. "You've all seen the pillars around the country correct?"

They all nodded.

"Many things have been popping up since 4 months ago and it's causing a problem between us, the other cities, towns and villages and of course the other countries," he got up and walked to a bookshelf, taking out a book. "Some of my soldiers who took the liberty of going around the country to investigate have come back with some reports they recorded in this book along with pictures."

He placed the book in front of the teens, "I've been informed that the pillars also created some wall preventing us from getting through to the other lands."

"Meaning we're stuck here and can't get home," Asked Mina.

"It seems that way, unless we can find some way to shut them down."

"There are four pillars," Started Amane but was interrupted by Jasper, "Really just four, this should be easy."

"If you would have let me finish, four per country and since I didn't see the other attackers, they must be here somewhere."

"The only one on the ship was the little guy."

"Which is there leader and don't let his size fool you. he is very powerful and his followers are the strongest from their respective galaxies and planets," a light emitted from Sydonna's bachi as Yuklan talked.

"WAAAAH!" Ayano screamed after walking back into the room with maids carrying trays. "You're bachi just spoke!"

"I'm sorry to have startled you madam," Yuklan apologized.

"It did it again, how is that possible?"

"Don't worry it's just Yuklan, she's a spirit that lives in her own bachi sticks. We all have a spirit in our instruments, except Amane."

"I don't even have an instrument anymore, it actually got broken in the attack. But back to the task at hand."

Kyo cleared his throat and nodded in agreement, "There's a pillar in each major city of the country." Kyo grabbed a remote on his desk and pointed it to the wall and a screen comes out displaying a map of the countries.

"Through information my men can gather, there's one in Akiko Prefecture near Yoko City, Shima Prefecture near Hyogo City, Fukui Prefecture near Seiji City and Sapporo Prefecture near Maiya City. This is us Kawa Village, not many of us has journeyed from the village and are even more afraid to leave."

"We'll need to find someone who can help us navigate the country if we're going to shut those things down," said Tindu.

Ayano perked up at Tindu's idea, "Let me go father. I can help them around the land and I always wanted to visit other cities. Just think, tall structures, cute clothes, different people, different food, all types of entertainment and the list goes on!"

"That's out the question, the world is a lot worse for you to be out there and I'm not letting my only child go on a dangerous mission like this," Kyo protested.

"But why, it's boring here, the same people I have to see. Don't get me wrong I love the people in my village, but there's more to living than staying here."

"I'm sorry Ayano, but it is not safe." Ayano huffed and stormed out the room, leaving the others to talk business.

"I'm sorry about that, she takes after her mother's adventurous personality. Ever since her passing it's been hard, going on adventures is the only way she can cope with the loss." Kyo had a heartbroken expression on his face, it was actually making the teens think about how their parents felt for so long.

"Our parents thought the same as you, my mother trained all of us in secret, because she believed something was going to happen. And it has, I know she's worried. All of our parents are," explained Sydonna.

"All the more important for you all to shut these things down and head home. I can have someone meet you all in the morning at your hut. They live outside the village, she's our best cartographer in the country, her family runs the most famous cartography shops in the major cities."

"You sure it won't be too much trouble," Asked Mina. "Either way Mina, you will have to get someone, there is no time, Torn is on his way back here to take us again and I think this time he's planning on killing you all," Enmi.

"You all should get some rest, if you're to leave tomorrow. It's going to be a long journey," added in Klerin.

"He's right, go get some rest, I'll have someone escort you back to the hut. And take the food with you, I know you're all hungry." Said Kyo.

"Will Ayano be fine?" Asked Tindu. "She will, just give her time." Kyo replied.

They all walked out the door carrying their food.

They were finally in their hut, time went by quickly as the stars started to shine brighter .

"Regardless of everything, it's a peaceful night," Amane says as he looks out the window and Tindu walks up beside him. "It is, this will be the first time we really went without the guidance of aunt Kyra. I hope everyone is okay."

"We'll be back soon and everyone will be fine, I promise." Mina reassured with a smile.

Everyone woke up before the sun did as their first journey was to the cartographer's house outside the village. All their gear was packed in bags that were left in the hut by the villagers the day before.

"Ready," asked Jasper. They gave him a thumbs up and made their way out. By time they made it to the house the sun had risen a bit leaving the night sky behind.

There was a woman sitting outside in front of an easel painting, she looked up to see the group walk up to her.

"Good morning, you must be the children the chief told me about? My name is Erika," She introduced herself and bowed.

"Thank you for helping us and I'm sorry if we're a burden of any kind," Said Mina.

"Don't worry, it's about time I got a job to do. Haven't had work since those pillars landed and since I'm not much of a fighter I haven't been out into the wild seeing what new things came up."

"We're happy to be of assistance," Said Amane.

"I'm happy to hear that, since we don't have time to go back I guess we just have to carry around some more baggage. Come out child." Erika ordered in the direction of the door and Ayano walked out wearing traveling clothes and a traveling pack.

"Ayano what are you doing here?" Asked Sydonna. "Simple, father wasn't gonna let me travel so I snuck out. What else will there be to it?" Ayano replied.

"We should get you back home, it's dangerous to go out there." Sydonna went to grab at Ayano's hand, but Yuklan spoke up. "Says the one who kept her training secret from her father because he had the same concerns."

Sydonna flinched at the accusation and sighed, "I have no comebacks. Just don't get too much in the way okay, I don't want you to get hurt."

"There's nothing for you to worry about," Ayano pulled out 2 kusarigama and a nunchaku, "just like you trained in secret by the best soldier in the village."