Hey everybird! What's up!?
So before we get to the next part, I'm still waiting for the responses to those I challenged in my ice bucket post I made. I really want to get that started!
Other than that, please enjoy the next part!
Friend in Need Part 2
As Jewel arrived at the museum, there were of course police officers posted outside the front entrance to the building and they raised their handguns as Jewel came closer, not knowing whether she was aa threat or not.
"Stay where you are!" One of the officers shouted in Korean. "Put your hands above your head."
"My name is Jewel, I'm a friend of Dr. Ellie Kim, I just wish to see what happened." Jewel spoke back in her best Korean.
However the police officers didn't listen as a couple of them went to detain Jewel, only for a male Lynx wearing a suit to come out from the museum's entrance, obviously having heard the commotion outside.
"Release her right now officers, she's clear to enter." The Lynx ordered.
"Yes Dr. Lee." The officers about to detain Jewel replied as they released Jewel.
"Very sorry about that, these officers are just a bit jumpy now." The Lynx named Dr. Lee apologized to Jewel.
"I been through worse." Jewel said back as she looked at the Lynx. "And who might you be?"
"Dr. Dong Lee, I'm the curator for this museum." Dr. Lee answered. "And you must be Ellie's friend, Jewel."
"How do you know that?" Jewel asked, curious.
"Dr. Kim called me about 24 hours ago, she was clearly in trouble as she was working late, I left about a couple of hours ago and I told Ellie to go home and rest, but she refused." Dr. Lee answered. "I'm guessing she must have placed a two person call on her phone.
"That sounds like her." Jewel agreed as she knew Ellie was very passionate about her work.
"Shall we go inside and continue this conversation?" Dr. Lee asked.
And Jewel followed the curator into the building, Jewel looking around as except for the clear signs of the museum being broke into, nothing seemed to be touched, all the ancient artifacts were where they should be.
"So what exactly has been stolen?" Jewel asked, confused as to why someone would break in for nothing.
"Nothing on display, it was what Dr. Kim recently found, it's in the artifact preservation room." Dr. Lee explained. "She found an artifact that's still very much alive in a way."
"Alive?" Jewel more confused now.
"Thousands of years ago, there was a sorceress named Lily Rose and she had the power to make anything ugly and deformed into something beautiful and lovely." Dr. Lee telling the story. "And she got her power from an enchanted flower, Lily Rose never used it for herself, only for others, but there were other animals who would have liked to use it for their own purposes. The legend goes that the flower not only had the power to make things beautiful, but could unlock the secret to immorality. When Lily Rose finally died, her friends buried the flower where no one could find it and it hasn't been for many years, until Ellie found it."
"Ellie was one to keep going until she found what she's after." Jewel softly told herself. "Ellie also mentioned, "Fierce Dragon", what did she mean by that?"
"There has been rumors that there's a private military organization, who's interest lays in ancient treasures, for what purpose I don't know, but since they took the flower Ellie found, I'm guessing they want to unlock the flower's secret if there is one." Dr. Lee explained. "This way, the preservation room is just around the corner."
And as the two came to it, there was police tape covering the entrance and a couple of officers.
"Officers, if you please." Dr. Lee asked nicely. "And this one's with me."
The officers allowed the two to enter and when they did, the room turned out to be a mess, equipment either broken or not in their original place, papers, most of it torn up scattered everyone and signs of struggle, indicting that Ellie put up a fight to protect her work, but there were also some blood stains, whether or not it was Ellie's, her attackers, or both was unclear.
"Please be okay Ellie." Jewel quietly told herself as she bent down and looked at the dried blood. "So where was the artifact?"
"Right here." Dr. Lee pointed out a broken glass container, of which the flower was kept secure and to avoid containment.
The glass of the container was scattered all around the floor, blood hung down from the broken glass still in place, indicting Ellie's attackers were in a hurry to get the flower, not caring if they hurt themselves. The key thing was that there were flower petals which fell off, but these weren't normal flower petals, they were growing, radiating a magical light of some sort. Jewel picked on up and could feel the power inside.
"So she did find a rare ancient artifact." Jewel noted as she examined the petal. "And it looks like her attackers went through a lot to steal it…"
"What are you thinking?" Dr. Lee asked Jewel.
"I'm thinking I need to find the Dragon's base of operations, that's where I will find Ellie and the artifact."
"But we don't know if Dr. Kim is even alive or if it was the Dragons who stole it or even if they did." Dr. Lee pointed out.
"No, after what you told me, it has to be them and they wouldn't kill Ellie or else her body would be here, no they most likely need her in order to understand how the flower works and see if she can help unlock the secret." Jewel pointed out.
"Well, we should call the army, we need their help if we're going to break into the base." Dr. Lee, obviously not knowing Jewel at all.
"No, I'm going in alone, every second puts Ellie at risk and I dealt with hard situations like this before and it's best to be discreet." Jewel replying in confidence. "Thank you for your help curator, now I just need to talk to the officers about the DNA from the blood stains to find out where these Fierce Dragons are."
Jewel exited the museum and went to one of the bigger police vehicles, where investigators were there to look at the clues, as Jewel entered, all of them stopped what they were doing and looked at Jewel.
"Who in charge here?" Jewel asked.
"I am." A bear answered. "You must be that Jewel with the curator I heard about."
Yes I am and if you don't mind, I would like to ask what you found from the blood samples." Jewel demanded politely.
"Well, not much, at least half of the blood samples we got was from the doctor, but we got a positive ID from the blood on the glass container, belongs to this guy." And the head investigator showed Jewel the animal on a tablet screen. "Seems like he has a cover because he looks like a normal animal, but it's obviously a cover."
"Do you have his address?" Jewel asked.
"Yes, why?" The head investigator asked, curious.
"Because I'm going to follow him." Jewel answered.
As soon as Jewel got the address and thanked the investigator, she got a taxi and told the driver to go to the address. As Jewel arrived, she saw the animal had a truck, which was perfect, allowing her to hide inside until the animal would leave with her in the vehicle.
"Thanks for the lift." Jewel thanked the taxi driver as she paid him before getting out and waiting for the taxi to leave before sneaking up, making sure she wouldn't be seen by whoever was inside the house, before climbing into the truck's back and making sure she was hidden underneath a tarp in the back.
For hours Jewel waited and waited, her patient getting tougher and tougher to bear until she heard a door open up and an animal talking into the phone as he was walking towards the truck.
"Boss, I just don't understand, I was part of the group who broke into the museum." The animal spoke in Korean. "I should be allowed to have a longer rest, especially since that doctor put up a real struggle against us, why is she even alive still?"
"Thank goodness she's breathing still." Jewel thought in her head about Ellie.
"Yes, yes, I know boss, but that doctor's being more of a burden than being helpful." The animals continued as Jewel heard the animal open the truck door and went in, closing it as he buckled his seat belt. "Okay boss, I'm just leaving now, I'll be there shortly." And the animal hung up the phone, starting the truck's engine and driving away.
It was a long trip, Jewel, even not being able to see, could hear that they were driving further away from the capital, the city sounds getting dimmer and dimmer as the truck drove into the countryside. Soon enough the truck seemed to drive in an upward direction as the air became cooler, Jewel guessing they were driving up a mountain road.
As the air became cooler still, the truck slowed down before coming to a stop, Jewel heard the sound of heavy boots walking outside and the metallic noise of guns as one of the armed men came to the driver's side.
"ID please." The armed man told the driver, the driver presenting his ID. "Okay, you're clear, move on."
And the truck began driving again, this time it entered a tunnel because Jewel could see it was getting darker, not because of the sun going down as lights lit up the walls.
"Looks like I'm in, there's no turning back now…" Jewel sighed. "Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of this." Jewel told herself in confidence as she waited until the truck stopped again and the driver came out.
So one of you already made this connection, but this is partly inspired by the MLP: FiM season 7 episode, Campfire Tales, in which one of them was about a unicorn sorceress who gives up her beauty, by way of a flower, in order to restore her hometown's own beauty and even her friend's, who turned evil.
See everybird later!
