Chapter 10
They arrived at the tree house and sat on the couch and chairs. After everyone settled in Randal spoke up. "...Since we know their working with the Sorcerer, then we have to make sure they're not near him." Rachel nodded quietly. "Uh then what? It's not like they hang out together or anything." Howard questioned. "Howard, they're triplets. Almost every time I've seen them was when they were together." Rachel replied. "I know that. I meant the Sorcerer." Howard said quietly. Randy looked up at the ceiling. Rachel nodded slightly. "I don't know what to do about him..." "He might be a little different from yours." Randal said to Rachel.
"I doubt he's, you know, 800 years old or anything like that." "Yeah. He's not." Randal slightly chuckle. Randy stretch. "Which means he's not as experienced with magic as ours." "So then we're going to use magic to fight against them?" Randy asked. "Or at least try." Rachel replied with a sigh. "Don't know how though." "...Maybe we should...take a break?" Howard asked. "You guys can if you want but I need to work on figuring this out." Howard sort of nodded. Randy looked at Rachel. Rachel had walked off toward her room. She set to work immediately. Randy looked at the others, feeling a bit useless and stood up.
Rachel was quickly getting frustrated. Randy went over to her room. Rachel was getting so frustrated and sat down and sighed. "Hey Rachel." Randy said, as he took a seat from her. "Hey...I have no idea what I'm doing..." "You're not the only one. We're in this together." Randy said looking at her. Rachel smiled at that. "Alright." Randy smiled. "Now...we just need to get close enough and ambushed them?" He said thinking out loud. "Yeah. I've been thinking about what you said, about using magic. If we can figure out something then that might just work." "Sweet." Randy said happily and sighed. "Cause I miss home." "I'm thinking about asking Nicki for help." Randy nodded but then stopped. "Yeah. I haven't heard anything from the Nomicon for a while..." He said, looking around. "And I haven't talked to Nicki in a couple of days..." Randy looked at Rachel. "Maybe we should go find them..." He said feeling a little guilty for not consulting with the Nomicon for a while.
She nodded. "Maybe they can help us with this." "Yeah." Randy said, walking off to find Nomi. Rachel followed and Nomi and Nicki we meditating in the other room. Randy just strolled on in before realizing that they were meditating. Rachel waited until they noticed them. Nomi opened his eyes and Nicki did as well. "We were wondering when you would need us." Nomi said. "Sorry about that." Randy apologized. Nomi waved his hand dismissively. "It's alright. You two have been through a lot. We decided to let you come to us when you needed us." Randy nodded. "Ok. Good, cause we have a problem with the triples." "Do you have a plan?"
"That's kind what we need help with." He replied. "We think magic would be the best choice." Nomi nodded. "We might have something." he looked at Nicki who summoned a small box. She held it out to them. It had the Norrisu symbol on the top. Randy stared at it in amazement. "Whoa. What is it?" He asked. Rachel gently took the box and opened it inside were talismans. They each had a Japanese styled engraving of different animals. Randy slightly raised an eyebrow before reaching in to pick one up. Rachel took note of each one. Nomi watched randy cautiously.
Once randy picked it up a light similar to that of the ninja suit surrounded him and when it faded he had sleek black tengu wings. Randy looked at his wings, spreading them out a little. "...That's so bruce." He said with a grin. "Each talisman gives the user the abilities of the animal on the talisman." Nicki explained. Randy looked at the Tengu talisman that he was holding. "Almost like what the triplets have." He said. "We should take them to the others and let them choose and practice." "...Yeah. Thanks." Randy said to both Nomi and Nicki. They nodded.
Rachel took Randy's talisman and put back in the box and brought it into the other room. Randy followed. Randal looked at them. "What's up?" He asked. "Nomi and Nicki gave us these," Rachel said as she approached. "I will show them to you outside." Randal nodded and walked outside with them and the others. Rachel then opened the box, revealing the talismans inside. "They are magic talismans. When you pick one up you get the abilities and features of the animal you choose." she explained. They seem to nod their heads, Randal then let the girls pick first.
Caramel approached first and looked the choices she saw three that resembled dogs of some kind. She pick one of them up and stepped back as she was surrounded with light. When it vanished she had dog ears and a tail much like a Cocker Russell. Howard blinked. "Huh." He said quietly watching. Debby went next, the same thing happened except having the features of a mexican death bear. Theresa took one and got a cheetah tail and ears. She looked at herself in amazement. Randy watched them almost beside Rachel. Heidi got a snow leopard. Two dog like ones were left along with a tengu, a bird of some kind, and a cat.
Howard chuckled at his sister, just a little bit. Heidi glared at him. "Alright mister, you choose one." Howard sighed. "Okay." He then picked one up, getting fox ears and a tail. "...This feels weird." he said. Heidi snickered. "Aw. You're a fox!" she said. "Pfft! Sorry, Howard." Randal laughed and Randy started to as well. Howard's ears flatted against his head. "Your turn." he said. Rachel held the box out towards Randal with a smile. Randal looked inside and picked the tengu one, getting its black wings. He then stepped back beside Howard. "Ok, Your right. It's just a little...weird." Randal said.
Caramel was playing with her tail excitedly. Rachel grinned. "But these should hopefully somehow help with nightshade." "If these will help then count me in." Debby said with a smile. Randal looked at Rachel and nodded. Caramel agreed with a wide grin. Heidi and Theresa agreed too. "Here's hoping we won't have to use them unless we really have to." Rachel said. They all agreed, even Howard. "You guys should practice with them just in case." Rachel said. "Probably not so close to the treehouse." Randy said. "Probably farther away from the tree house and the town." Rachel agreed. "Yeah." Randal said, looking at the path leading back to the sidewalk.
They headed deeper into the forest. Once far enough in, they found a large grassy opening. "How about this place?" Randal asked. "This should work!" Rachel said with a nod looking around. Randal began testing how each wing work while Howard oddly just started wondering through the tall grass. Theresa ran around the trees and then around Howard a couple times. Caramel was sitting and testing her hearing and sense of smell. Heidi tested her claws. Randy watched them. Randal manage to fly up to a tree branch, looking down at the rest. Rachel summoned her wings and landed beside him with a smile. They were all playing with their new abilities.
"I think I figured this out...a little." Randal said with a smile. "It really helps once you have had a lot of practice." she replied. She started helping him figure out how to use his wings. Randy was then watching the two. "Are you going to practice?" Howard asked from behind him, startling Randy. "Ah! I Um...I-" Randy stammered. "I um is not the answer ...Tag!" Howard exclaimed, pushing Randy over as he ran away. Rachel noticed and laughed slightly as she went to assist him. "You alright?" Randy looked up at her. "Yeah...I'm good." He answered, giving her a thumbs up. Howard was out of sight. She helped him up with a smile. "If you say so." "I- guess everyone getting the hang of using their talismans." Randy said.
Howard ran over to the tree Randal was in. "Certainly appears that way." "We still don't really have a plan." Randy said, looking at her. "I know..." she replied with a sigh. "I don't know what we should do..." She said. "We need to find out how to get close to them without drawing suspicion." Randy looked at the others with all their animals features. "Yeah. But we still have some time to think of something." He said. Rachel sighed again. "I just don't know how. Maybe if we get to the finales cause I'm certain they will." Randy nodded. "We would be closer." he said. Randal landed on the ground without crashing.
Rachel nodded. "We'll aim to get that far. Once we do well come up with more." Randy looked up at the sky. "Okay." he said. Rachel watched the others play with their powers. Randy looked to the side and then put on his ninja mask. She noticed it was starting to get late. "I think that's enough practice for today." she said. "Ok. I'll go tell them." Randy said, walking off to tell the others. Rachel leaned up against the nearest tree and waited. After a while, Randy finally got everyone heading back to the treehouse.
Rachel waited for them. "What do we do with the talismans?" Randal asked Rachel as the group gathered around. "I'll hang onto them for now until we need them." she pulled the box out. The girls put theirs back inside. Howard and Randal put their in the box last. "My ears feel long?" Howard said almost questioning himself. "You will be fine Howard." Randy reassured him. He was not wearing his ninja suit anymore.
Rachel smiled and put the box away for now. "It's getting late. We'll see you all tomorrow." Some of them nodded, said their goodbyes and headed back to their homes. Randy went to the treehouse. Rachel headed to her room. Randy shooed some of the animals off the couch and sat down. Rachel made herself comfortable on her bed and went to sleep. Randy fell asleep on the couch.