After the terrifying experience with the garden emporium, they decided they wanted to spend no more time there. The snack-bar didn't look so appealing to Whiskers, so he decided to hunt for his food and, after much disagreement with Annabeth, he took of into the forest, food on his mind. He returned to them in half an hour, claiming to have found a camp-site, his mouth was caked in the dried blood of his kill, they weren't sure how he found something so quickly, but didn't question it.
The demi-gods camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers. Whiskers had chosen the spot because it was the only place with enough room, could be easily defended and that the trees here would be uncomfortable to sleep in. The others agreed, after they saw some of the insect life that was currently occupying the trees.
They had taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but didn't dare light a fire to dry the damp from their clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day, so they didn't want to attract anything else.
They decided to sleep in shifts, Percy volunteered to take first watch.
Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground, Whiskers was acting as her pillow and wrapped his tail around her. He seemed happy with this, even though being slept on was not something that looked particularly comfortable to Percy, especially when the person who was sleeping on you was so much bigger than you. Grover slept on a log next to Percy's own one, the bark looking much softer than the son of Poseidon's.
"Go ahead and sleep," Percy told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."
He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."
"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"
"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground.
"And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."
"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."
He glared. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."
"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"
"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"
A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rain water, things that might've once been in these woods. A felling of nostalgia washed through the clearing, like they were remembering something they had never known before, but it was so familiar.
"Tell me about the search," he said.
Grover looked at him cautiously, as if he were afraid he was just making fun.
"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told him. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."
"And you want to be a searcher."
"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand... the statue you saw back there."
"Oh, right, sorry."
Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So, did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."
"Hang on the first?"
Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."
"Not once in two thousand years?"
"No."
"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"
"None."
"But you still want to go," Percy said amazed at his determination, and fearlessness of his death. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"
"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."
They stared at the orange haze of the sky as both keeping their thoughts to themselves.
"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" Percy asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me-"
"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."
"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.
"What do you mean?" Percy asked. "Forgave you for what?"
Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.
"Wait a minute," he said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago, Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong-"
"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if he was pressed about it. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Some-thing isn't what it seems."
"What am I in this?" They turned to see Whiskers was apparently awake, "why do I not get to be part of the idea team."
"Sorry." Grover said. "Well back at Medusa's, Annabeth, Whiskers and I agreed," he looked pointedly at the fox who seemed quite pleased with himself, "there's something strange going on with this quest. Some-thing isn't what it seems."
"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunder bolt that Hades took."
"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur- the Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."
"They seemed plenty aggressive to me." Whiskers shivered as Percy said this, the memory of Parrot coming back to him.
Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"
"Asking about me," Percy said.
"Maybe... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."
"That doesn't make sense."
"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." He looked like he was hoping for answers, but neither Percy nor Whiskers seemed to have any.
Percy looked conflicted for a moment, before his eyes showed determination, "I haven't been straight with you," he told Grover and the listening fox. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld, so I could bring back my mother."
Whiskers snorted, and Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"
"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."
Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you." He looked at Whiskers who seemed to be daring him to say something, "or as… sly?" Whiskers seemed to grin at him and he accepted it, "as Whiskers, but I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."
"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."
Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."
"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."
"Always look on the bright side of life." Sang the fox lightly, before turning to Annabeth's sleeping form and holding her tightly.
Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."
He wanted to protest, but Grover started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and Percy turned away, eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, he was asleep. Whiskers grinned at the goat.
"You got to teach me to do that, imagine the pranks I could do." He said, a smile on his face.
"Sorry, you have to be a nature spirit to use nature magic." Grover said, a cheeky grin on his face.
"Yeah…" Whiskers said, he looked down a bit, "umm, Grover, if I were a nature spirit, could anyone tell? I mean, if there were a new type. Would there be any way to tell?"
Grover looked surprised for a minute, before he looked back at the fox with a scrutinising stare. He looked confused for a moment and sat there in silence, "nature spirits are all different. We aren't all the same, your scent is strange, like a demi-gods, Demeter's or Dionysus, but different, it's more… concentrated for one thing, but it's fractured. It's like I'm only smelling part of you. Do you know where you came from?"
"No… my first memory is being in a forest, I was alone, but I felt a pull, no it was more than that, it was like a magnet, loads of magnets. They were all over the place, I could feel them, but there was only one close to me, I went to it, and found Annie. The pull disappeared once I first taught her, but I… I felt the need to stay with her. Like she could bring me… she could bring me home." Whiskers said, "but I don't have a home."
"There's nothing more?" Grover looked confused, "nothing? That's all you can remember?"
"Yeah… no." Whiskers looked up to the moon, "falling… I remember falling, I was in pain, it felt like my head was going to burst, then I hit something and blacked out. When I met Annie I knew some words, I knew how they made me feel. I remember… one word more than the others." He looked at the moon, "hunter, it made me scared, terrified, like I would die if I got caught."
"Hunter… like the hunters of Artemis." Grover asked, he looked even more confused now.
"I think so, when we were on the run, we were fighting hordes of monsters, we were losing, then me and Parrot, we smelt them. The hunters were coming, me and him, we both knew, we felt like we were about to die, we ran, we left them. The hunters saved them, but we left them, out of instinct. I left Annie…" He sounded so broken at the end. "I promised to keep her safe, but she nearly died."
"Hey, it wasn't your fault, maybe you had a bad experience with the hunters." He snapped his fingers, "maybe you lost your memories. You might be able to get that healed, ask the Apollo campers, or Castor or Pollux, Mr D has domains in the mind, it might count."
"Alright." He looked up to Grover, "I'll take next watch, you go to sleep." When Grover looked ready to argue he spoke again, "I've been asleep for a while already, you need rest too. Besides, I'm nocturnal anyway."
Grover sighed, but agreed, he lay down and dozed off, when Whiskers was sure he was asleep he looked at the reed pipes in his hands. The fox lengthened his tail, he had managed to figure out the trick to it a while ago, and for some reason it could grow more than the rest of his body. He wrapped the tail around the pipes and lifted them off the goat's head.
Whiskers then moved his tail in front of his face, his mouth in front of the pipes and he blew gently, a small shrill squeak came from the pipes. After much trial and error, the pipes weren't built for his mouth style, he managed to make it not sound like a suicidal cat. He then tried to imagine how the magic worked, he tried to picture the grass growing as he blew the notes he remembered the spirits at camp used.
Nothing happened for a while, but he kept trying, about an hour later something actually happened, the grass directly in front of him grew. A small patch grew like it was a video being sped up. There was very little growth, but it happened, meaning he could use nature magic.
He snuck the pipes around the goats, neck and looked onto the rising sun, he decided to wake Annabeth up, he was actually tired now, probably from using the nature magic. He gently nudged the daughter of Athena and she awoke alert and ready, typical child of Athena.
"Hey, it's your turn to watch." He said, before hoping into her arms and dozing off almost as fast as Grover. After a while he woke up and saw Annabeth doing the difficult task of waking Percy up, he didn't look that good, he was pale, and muttering incoherently.
Annabeth looked worried for a while, until his eyes opened, he looked around and was nervous looking.
"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."
He was trembling, whatever dream he had must have been pretty bad for him to be so shaken up after it. "How long was I asleep?"
"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed him a bag of nacho-flavoured corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar.
"And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend." Whiskers was also surprised by this, they both turned and came across the sight of Grover sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.
No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.
The poodle yapped suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not." Whiskers growled, drawing the attention of the dog, who yapped again. Whiskers looked affronted for a moment before he growled once more and grew to the size of a husky, the puddle whined and shuffled about in Grover's arms.
Percy blinked. "Are you... talking to that thing?"
The poodle growled, but Whiskers growled louder, Grover looked embarrassed, his red face giving Percy the impression that whatever Whiskers had said was not for children's ears.
"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."
"You can talk to animals?"
"Of course, he can, we both can," Whiskers said, "little mutt has been chatting shit," he growled once more, "and I'm getting pretty hungry." Whiskers spoke, the boy looked pretty confused but then his eyes widened, "come on Grover, let me eat him, I don't want to go hunting now, nothing's ever out in the morning, nothing that makes good eating anyway."
Grover ignored the fox. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."
Percy stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing, but she looked deadly serious.
"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," he said. "Forget it."
"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."
"Hello breakfast." Whiskers said, the poodle shrunk away from the predatory gaze the fox was giving him.
The poodle looked at Percy though and growled slightly, then Whiskers stood in front of him and snarled something in what Percy assumed was fox, the poodle whimpered and hid in Grover's arms, who looked quite pale.
"Whiskers… please don't do that." At the others questioning gazes he shivered while Whiskers looked the epitome of innocence.
Percy decided to say hello to the poodle, if only to distract Grover and the poodle from whatever Whiskers had described to them in his native tongue.
After he stopped shaking, though he still looked pale and glanced at Whiskers warily, Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation.
The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.
"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked.
"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."
"Yeah Percy," Whiskers chimed in, "we animals aren't dyslexic, for the most part." He whispered the last part to himself, not really wanting to tell him that he too was dyslexic.
"Of course," Percy said. "Silly me."
"Don't you get snarky with me young man." The fox said.
"So, we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained, in her best strategy voice, trying to stop the two of them fighting, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."
Percy looked nervous, his eyes glazed over slightly, before he seemed to realise something, "not another bus," he said warily.
"No," Annabeth agreed.
She pointed downhill, toward train tracks that hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west bound train leaves at noon."
(With the jinchuuriki)
"I say we split up." Roshi said, "it is the wisest option, now that we have an idea of what we are looking for we can find him easier. Especially now that we have the link back up. We can cover the distance in between our jumps while you wait for Hana to be healed. Then we can meet in the next area."
"No!" Fu disagreed, "we just got back together, I say we stick together and go to camp by boat."
"I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Roshi here." Utakata said, "me and B are nearly useless in a fight on the water, we have the best chance of defending ourselves if we can make it there by foot. This way we can check out the land in between jumps, for all we know we've passed him."
"You two have the largest scents, along with me, the best place for you two is on the ship. The monsters can't find you here." Yagura said.
"Yeah, but if the barrier gets broke, we won't have high hope." B said.
"Look, I think it is a better idea if we can stay together, if something happens then we'll be able to get through it together." Yugito said.
"Okay, we'll have a vote." Garra said, "all for staying together?"
Fu, Yugito and Yagura raised their hands.
"Those who want us to split up?"
B, Utakata, Roshi, and Hana all raised their hands, Garra also stuck his hand up.
"Fine!" Fu said, "but you have to enter the mindscape every night, and every day."
"Of course." Utakata said.
"Where are we going to find him though?" Yugito asked, "we've looked everywhere, it isn't like we'll just find him wondering about, we wouldn't be able to see him unless we see him. There is no way for us to track him down, he mightn't even have a working chakra system, and even then, he mightn't know how to use it, and it'll be small."
"Maybe we can hire a satyr or something, they find demi-gods by scent." Roshi said.
"Yeah, that was a satyr with your brother wasn't it Yagura." Fu said.
"Yeah." Yagura said.
"Weird kid," Yugito said, "I think he was checking me out."
"Of course, he was," Utakata said, "you are quite pretty, that became even more pronounced when your mother claimed you."
Yugito blushed and then looked annoyed at the memory, "I thought we wouldn't bring that up again."
The Greek half had all been claimed soon after they had arrived at the camp, they decided to live together instead of going to a separate cabin. They stayed in one of the spare rooms in the big house and were claimed, none of the campers knew of the parentage of B as apparently, a child of the big three would make a lot of them nervous, but the others met their other siblings before they left. They didn't exactly talk due to the language barrier, but they at least knew they had more family, Yugito got the traditional claiming from Aphrodite and was horrified to find she was wearing a dress, makeup and high heels.
The Greek jinchuuriki had shared this story with their Roman siblings during their travels and they all enjoyed teasing Yugito about it.
"Yugito, wore a dress fo show. Looked real pretty but poor kitty, didn't like it much and screamed a bunch." B said, the others facepalmed while Yugito, because B didn't seem to get the memo, face-palmed him herself.
"Idiot." She said, "I didn't scream." The slight blush she had indicated otherwise, as she relived the memory.
"Sure, you didn't." Fu said, giggling slightly.
"Oh, wise up, daddy's little girl." Yugito said, a grin plastering her face.
Fu went slightly red, "I'm not a daddy's girl." She said with a huff.
"Sure..." Yugito said with a grin.
"He gave me a present. It's not that big a deal." Fu huffed.
"Yup, and you wear it all the time, even when you sleep." Yugito had a sly grin on her face.
"Oh, be quiet." Fu was blushing slightly.
"You sleep with those in your hair?" Roshi asked.
"…No." Fu said, failing to hide her embarrassment.
They all laughed for a while at their sister's expense.
"Right, anyway, so…" Roshi said, his tone turning serious instantly. "Who's going with who?"
"Hana, Fu and Yagura are staying, that should be obvious, but I think it would be best to split B and Utakata." Yugito said.
"Two and three." Yagura said, "B with two extra, and Utakata with one extra."
"Don't you love it when you become an extra." Yugito said with an exaggerated frown, "Roshi and me with B, and Utakata with Garra. Seem fair."
"Yeah, but why is B with three, y'all picked that pretty quick, what's with that shtick."
"I don't think you know what that word means, but anyway, us two are with you to make sure that we can take shifts making sure you don't do something too stupid."
"Okay, lets get ready to go then." Garra said.
"Before you do…" A voice said, they turned and found the owner to be Juno, Garra's mother, sitting on the deck, her staff by her side and her goatskin cloak around her, "I must ask that you do something."
"Mother." He said, "why are you here?"
"I can't take some time out to see my son?" She said, a hint of a grin on her face.
"Apparently not." Hana muttered, thinking about the fact that she hadn't even met her father.
"I am here to warn you of something." Juno said, completely disregarding the daughter of Hephaestus, "you cannot tell the camp of the others existence." She said, "I am here to make sure that you do that, you must swear an oath on the river Styx not to tell either camp of its counterpart. We have worked for too many years to keep them separate, you must swear this oath. I am not sure if you have done this for the Greek half's, but we need you to do this."
They each swore the oath as thunder boomed overhead.
"I must go now, Garra, tell your brother and sister I love them." Juno said, before disappearing from view.
"Well…" Roshi said, "at least we know what to do now."
And so, they split up, they didn't need to pack much, but any personal possessions were stuffed away in small rucksacks.
Roshi, B and Yugito went first, having made the decision to leave two hours apart, to ensure less monster activity. They all agreed to meet in the Salt Lake, as that was their next stop, group A, Utakata and Garra, would go through all the forest parks and see if he was there. Group B (three guesses who picked that name) would follow the main roads, hoping their brother wouldn't be found as roadkill.
The journey was long, but they had somehow managed to avoid any monsters, maybe groups of three were good luck after all.
Eventually, Roshi, B and Yugito decided to stop once the sun started setting, they had made some good progress, having passed through Laramie a few miles back. They went to a random motel, they didn't want to travel by night to much and they were exhausted.
For some reason, though, Roshi couldn't sleep, he was the eldest of them all and felt that they should listen to him, he had fought in the third shinobi war. He was the most experienced, yet they ignored his advice for so long, he was nervous to find his brother, that was why he wanted them to split up.
He sat there staring at the ceiling of the motel room they shared, Yugito got a room to herself and B was with him, it's not like any of them minded sharing a bed. Though he could be annoying he was his brother and Roshi could deal with him, he smiled at the thought, but his thoughts once again drifted to his other brother. A frown appeared on his face.
They had betrayed him. There was nothing else to say, they may have done it to keep him alive, but the pain he went through, he must remember every single time he was hurt because of them. His skin was permanently branded, it was all their fault.
He hoped they could be forgiven.
He tried drifting off to sleep, but again he couldn't. He sighed.
Suddenly he heard a noise outside.
He was raised a ninja, he was always cautious. In this world monsters lurked around every corner, they would always try to hunt down demi-gods. Since he was a demi-god he would face them on a regular basis, because they travelled in their group they would attract more.
Since they were trained ninja they could take on most of the monsters alone, some they would need help with, mostly due to their child-like bodies, but they could handle themselves well.
He looked out the grimy window and saw a figure outside. It was a woman, dressed in jeans and a pair of hiking boots, she had a red flannel shirt, she had dark hair flowing down her back. She had a backpack slung over her shoulder and held a walking stick in her hand. She stood there with a map, looking at it occasionally but then looked up, she caught Roshi's gaze and beckoned him to come to her. Roshi was surprised, he felt something familiar about this woman, she reminded him of someone.
He went down and walked over to her, he stared at her for a few minutes, she kept glancing from the map to him. Grey eyes being something alien to him, he was intrigued. She was muttering something intelligible every once in a while. Roshi wondered who she was, she gave off an aura, it was like when they met Apollo.
"Athena." Roshi guessed, she turned to him and her form changed, her clothes changed to elegant grey robes, her walking stick became a spear and the map a shield. Upon her head a helmet made of what looked like gold appeared, Roshi was shocked at the transformation, he stepped back.
"Yes, I am Athena." She said, she looked at him and her eyes softened very sightly, "hello Roshi."
"Mother." Roshi said happily, he didn't know what else to say.
"I am your mother yes." She said with a smile, Roshi returned it, "you look so much older when I last saw you, I'm sorry for never returning."
"I understand, Artemis explained it all to me, I…" Roshi said, unable to think of anything to say.
"Good, I am sorry about it though, I have come to give you a gift." She stabbed her spear into the ground and then held her hand out, from it a hat appeared, it looked like the one Roshi wore in the elemental nations but instead of the symbol of Iwa, an owl was engraved on a strip of metal on the front. "This hat, will make you invisible to all, I have given one of your sisters a similar hat, it does not hide your smell or any other sense. Use it wisely." She said as she handed him the hat. She then held her hand out again, this time a spear appeared, like her own, it shrunk down until it became the form of a pencil. "This spear was made especially for you, I had my brother Hephaestus make it, it can handle any temperature, and conducts heat well, I understand that you can control lava due to the four tails. Tell your siblings to avoid using elemental powers, some gods do not appreciate their domains being used, my brother has allowed you to use his domain as long as you only do so through this spear. To turn it into a spear simply break the lead, and to turn it back, tap the bottom with your palm."
"Thank you, mother." Roshi said, he was amazed at the gifts, "if a god is the parent of a child who can use an element can they…"
"Yes, their parent already gives them power over their domain. Your brother B will have greater control over lightning and your sister Yagura will have the same for water, now that they have been blessed. Since Hera has commanded it, Garra is allowed to use his sand, the others are going to have trouble. Tell Utakata not to use his power over water, the elder brothers do not like their children anywhere near another's domain."
"Thank you. Err, mother, why did you look so different until I said your name?"
At this, the goddess gave him a pained expression, "that is my… Roman form."
"Minerva?"
Her form flickered between the two before she finally settled on Athena, "yes."
"Is there something wrong mother?"
"No, just, being her is not a comfortable experience."
"I apologise, I didn't mean to cause you discomfort."
"Do not worry about it. I must leave you now though."
"Thank you, mother, I should probably go back too, we're heading to the Roman camp tomorrow."
At this, she flickered to Minerva and looked at him, "Romans, they stole from me, they made me weak, avenge me."
"Mother?"
"You are my child? My child shall avenge me, destroy the Romans, my son, go."
"Mother, I can't destroy the Romans."
"Then you are not my child."
"M-m-mother, why are you acting this way?"
"The mark." Her form flickered once more, and Athena appeared once more, "I apologise, as you can see, my Roman half is not too happy with her kind, but that is not something you should concern yourself with. I am sorry, but for now I must go."
She then disappeared into the darkness of the night, leaving a very confused Roshi standing there.
(The next day)
The group had all woken up, but before they began their journey, they checked in with their other siblings in the mindscape
"So, are we ready to go? Time to start the show?" B asked.
"Yeah," Roshi said, he then looked away from them, "my mother visited me last night." He said.
"Oh, what did she say?" Yugito asked.
"She gave me some gifts," he pulled out his pencil and hat. The others looked at him for a minute, before Fu started giggling slightly.
"So, at least you won't get cold, and can write notes for us." She said, the others looked confused.
Roshi sighed, he then snapped the tip of his pencil, causing the spear to appear, enjoying the shocked look on Fu's face, "she also told me to give you a message, don't use any elemental attacks."
"Why?" Garra asked.
"The gods don't appreciate us using their domains, B, Garra and Yagura are safe, your parents gave you control over the domain, but the rest of us shouldn't. My mother arranged a deal with Hana's father to let me use lava, but only through the spear."
"Oh, does that mean I can't use this anymore?" Utakata asked, holding his pipe.
"Probably, sorry." Roshi said sadly.
"Anything else?" Garra said.
"Not really, but this hat can make me invisible apparently." Roshi said as he put the hat on, if the shocked looks on his sibling's face were anything to go by it worked.
"Umm, could you take it off." Hana called out to him. Roshi appeared in front of them, his hat in his hands.
"Well," Garra began, "if that is all we'd better get going." They left the mindscape and each began their journeys.