Chapter Forty-One: The Man who Utters Silent Words
Hey there, readers, here's Day 2, enjoy. Cya.
Turning back the clock, hours earlier, the sun was shining over the kingdom as the Black Bulls stood outside their base, ready to head to Raquey.
"It's finally time, are you ready, everyone?" Yami asked as he turned around to look at his squad members.
"Yes!" they replied.
"You all have your stuff?" the dark mage.
The others nodded, each of them had a bag in which they carried their swimsuits as well as anything else they might need for the trip.
"And do you all have your brooms ready, I know some of you can't use one?" he asked again.
"Yes," replied the ones who had brooms, signifying so by raising it into the air.
"I'm riding with Kenos," Asta called.
"I'm riding with Vanessa," Noelle added.
"And I'm riding with Magna," Grey finished, ironically transforming into the flame mage.
Charmy looked at them and playfully shook her head. "You people and your brooms," her grimoire came up to her. "Cotton Magic: Cloud of Wool,"
Yami looked at her as she jumped onto her spell of transport. "Yeah, I know what you mean, I'd rather use my wheels, but apparently, he's only heard of Raquey, not actually went there," he sent an intimidating glare in Finral's direction.
The spatial mage gulped. "W-Well, what are we waiting for, let's get moving," he croaked as they all mounted their brooms and soared into the sky.
But from inside the base, watching them from a window as they all flew out of view, was Gordon, a creepy smile on his face as he waved.
Beside him was a small table, and on it was a slip of paper with words on it, it read, "Good luck with the mission, my dear friends, come back safely, I'll be waiting right here,"
The silent mage then walked over to the couch and sat down, resting his hands on his lap, a few minutes passed before he sighed.
(From this point on, Gordon will speak and not write, but he'll be whispering, despite the words used to describe his dialogue)
"I wonder what I'm going to do here, all by myself?" he asked himself. "I wish I could go with the others, but the open sea makes me feel nauseous,"
He then stood up, but quickly sat back down. "But then again, I don't hang out with my precious friends, I usually just watch them from afar, but now, I'm all alone,"
The Black Bull then felt something on his head, he looked up and saw the anti-bird pet of the squad, perched atop his hat.
Gordon slightly smiled. "Oh, hello Nero, I didn't know you decided to stay here, I guess I'm not by myself after all,"
Nero flew down and landed right on the arm of the couch, next to Gordon, the two merely looked forward for a few minutes.
Gordon then turned his head to look at the bird, Nero looked right back at him with the former speaking up. "So Nero, what do you want to do, the others won't be back until sometime later, we should find something to occupy ourselves with,"
Nero blinked a few times before turning his head again, looking forward once more.
Gordon slightly sweatdropped. "Oh, that's right, you're an anti-bird, you can't talk, but sometimes, I wish you could talk, I'd like to know what goes on in your head aside from whatever birds do, if I knew, perhaps we could become even closer friends than we are now,"
The silent mage then thought of something. "Wait, I know what I could do," he said before unbuttoning his jacket and pulling it back, revealing a plethora of small and sort of creepy dolls, each one in the likeness of a Black Bull.
"Since they aren't here, I can use these to pretend like they are," he said, grabbing two dolls, one was in the likeness of Asta, the other of Kenos, he placed them both on a table.
"Good morning there, Kenos, how are you doing today?" Doll Asta asked as Gordon moved him forward towards the doll in the image of the solar mage.
"I'm doing just fine, still trying to figure the mystery behind my grimoire," Doll Kenos replied as Gordon moved him up and down.
"Oh really? Why don't you ask our good friend Gordon for some help, I'm sure he would love to," the Doll swordsman stated.
"What a great idea, after all, Gordon is really smart," Doll Kenos responded. "Say, what are you going to do today?"
"I'm going to go outside and train my muscles like I do every day, care to join me?" Doll Asta asked as Gordon then took out a miniature version of the Demon-Dweller sword, putting it in the doll's hand.
"Of course, that sounds like fun," Doll Kenos replied.
Gordon then took out a doll in the likeness of Yami and put it in between the first two dolls. "What's all that ruckus?!" Doll Yami exclaimed as Gordon moved him forward. "Asta, would it ever kill you to shut up!"
"Sorry there, Captain Yami," Doll Asta said, turning to Doll Kenos. "Let's get going, we're going to train so hard,"
"You know it, I can't wait to-," the Doll solar mage was in the middle of responding before Nero flew over and landed right on the table, he looked at the doll of Asta and began to furiously peck at it.
"Wait, Nero, that's not the real Asta, it's just a doll," Gordon said, ending his role-playing as he pulled the three dolls away, putting them back behind his jacket and buttoning it up. "If I let you peck at it, you'll ruin it, and I'll have to make a new one,"
The anti-bird then flew up, circling around the silent mage before landing right on his shoulder and looking right at him.
Gordon looked right at him too, he then thought of something. "Hey, now that I think about it, I have a doll for every member of the Black Bulls except myself, and except for you, you're our pet, which means you're a part of our squad too, so would you like me to make a doll that looks like you?"
Nero merely tilted his head and gave a single peck on Gordon's shoulder, the mage then brought his fist to his chest and clenched it tightly. "I'll take that response of yours as a yes, now let's head to my room so I can get the materials I need,"
Gordon then made his way to the hallway and started walking down towards his room, Nero got off of his shoulder and flew beside him, it only took a short seven minutes before they arrived at the door.
"I don't think you've ever seen my room, Nero, usually you only go to Asta's room, well, you're welcome here too, now let's head inside," Gordon said as he opened the door and walked in, Nero flew in as well, but the eyes of the anti-bird did something it never had before.
They widened.
The first thing Nero noticed was how dark Gordon's room was, despite the fact that there was a window, but that window only seemed to shine a light on a desk, failing to illuminate the rest of the area.
On the sides of the room were an assortment of gloomy artifacts, some included a hanging model of the human skeleton, next to it was an eerie-looking table with strange markings etched all over its exterior, and there was a bundle of black scrolls standing on it.
The anti-bird was beyond creeped out by what resided in the room of the squad's most mysterious member.
"I know that since you can't talk, you can't voice your opinion, but I'm going to go on a limb and say you're quite impressed with my room, it looks exactly the same from my room back home, when I joined the Magic Knights, I was able to go back home to collect the stuff from my old room and put them here," Gordon said.
Nero wasn't able to hear his statement, but even if he could, he would never agree that this room would be impressive, the proper word to describe this room would be more along the lines of...terrifying.
The anti-bird then flew and landed on the only place with light, the desk, he looked around and noticed a black skull just lying there, surrounded by a trio of tall ritualistic candles, Nero found himself creeped out again and turned in the other direction, this time seeing a book, he went over to it and started pecking at it.
Gordon quickly noticed this and moved in, taking the book, a light albeit creepy smile on his face as he looked down at his feathered companion. "Wow, you really like to peck at things, I had no idea," he then inspected the book to ensure that no part of the book's exterior was damaged and let out a quiet sigh of relief when he saw that it was fine.
He looked again to see Nero looking up at him. "Oh, do you want to know what this is? It's my diary, this is where I write about all of my precious friends and the things about them, I can write about you too if you want, although I'm not entirely sure of what you do besides basic bird things,"
"Anyways, time to get that stuff for your doll, just need to get my materials," Gordon continued as he knelt down, looking at the drawers that were located on the legs of the desk, he pulled one open and took some stuff out from it.
"Let's see, cotton, needles, string, dark blue cloth, white cloth, and lastly, some…," he listed off the materials he picked up from the drawer, but stopped midway once he realized something wasn't there. "There's no red cloth here, it seems I ran out of it, maybe there's some in another drawer," he opened the other ones, but couldn't find what he was looking for.
Gordon then stood up. "Perhaps there's some red cloth in one of my friend's rooms," he walked back to the door, Nero quickly flying up and perching on his hat, glad to finally leave the scary room.
"Let's try looking in Asta's room first," he decided, once he arrived at the swordsman's door, he opened it, at first glance, the room looked quite plain, he then walked inside and started carefully looking around for some cloth, but found none.
"Okay, let's try Kenos' room," he decided next, once he entered the solar mage's room, he noticed it looked relatively similar to Asta's room, but with a closet, he searched the closet, finding identical copies of Kenos' daily attire, with the exception of a few formal suits, but once more, he didn't find cloth.
"No luck there either," he sighed as he kept walking down the hallway, eventually stopping at another door. "This looks like the door to Gauche's room, I bet he has cloth," Gordon opened the door, but was taken aback by what he saw.
Whether it be portraits, photos, or porcelain dolls, almost every corner of the mirror mage's room appeared to have something that looked like Marie.
Both Gordon and Nero were shocked, the former opening his mouth. "I knew he had a sister complex, but something tells me he might need some therapy...scratch that, a lot of therapy, as his friend, it's my job to make sure he's mentally sane. Now, to see if he has any cloth," he said as he started searching around, eventually stumbling upon a drawer, opening, he found what he needed, sort of.
"Gauche does have cloth, the problem is…," Gordon began as he kept looking through the piles of cloth. "...They're all pink, the color of Marie's clothes,"
He got out of the room and searched the others, Yami's, Finral's, Magna's, Luck's, and Grey's, each time coming up short. He then stood on another side of the hallway, looking up ahead.
"I've searched the rooms of all the boys, but I've had no luck, now it's time to search the girl's rooms, the only problem is that the path to their rooms have been rigged with trap magic to keep boys from getting through," Gordon stated. "But regardless, I must get through, my friend Nero needs a doll, and it's more likely for a girl to have cloth anyways,"
The silent mage then got down into a running position, his two hands in front of him, planted on the ground, his body ready to lunge forward. He then took off.
"Power of friendship, give me speed," he said as he ran forward, the traps went off immediately, firing off a plethora of dangerous weapons, some managed to cause tears in his clothing, but that didn't stop him, he kept running and eventually made it to the other side, with only his clothes suffering injuries.
"I made it, nothing can beat the power of friendship, now let's try looking in Vanessa's room first, she might have something seeing that she does wear clothes around the same color as red," he stated as he walked into the thread mage's room, it didn't take him too long to see all the bottles of alcohol that had littered the room, with the few that were full on a desk, but many empty ones scattered across the floor.
"Holy crap, look at all of this, she really needs to clean this place," Gordon muttered to himself even more quietly than he already spoke as he searched through her room, but ended up finding nothing.
"None in her room, what about Noelle's," he exited Vanessa's room and entered the royal's room that was next door, he quickly noticed that it looked quite extravagant, his feet were graced by a soft and fluffy fuchsia rug that lined the entire floor.
"Wow, it looks so fancy, but I shouldn't be surprised, she is royalty, after all, she must have cloth," he said as he looked carefully around, but like the other times, he found nothing.
"Why is this so hard, all I want to do is find some cloth," he said with a slight slump as he arrived at the door of the final room. "Alright, this is it, Charmy's room, although I highly doubt her room has what I'm looking for, it's worth a try,"
Gordon opened the door and walked in, but his jaw dropped as he saw what was inside...books, a whole entire collection of books. "Incredible, this room looks so organized," he walked over and picked one of the books up, upon looking at it, he realized it was a cookbook, in fact, all of the books were food-based, true to the cotton mage's nature, there were books with recipes and food facts.
"Now, to see where she might keep some cloth," he said as began looking around, but alas, he couldn't find any.
He walked out of the room. "How can this be, not one of my friends' rooms has what I'm looking for, maybe I should look somewhere else," he made his way to the edge of the safe part of the hallway before getting back down into his running position.
"Hold on, Nero," he said as he took off. "Power of friendship, give me speed once more,"
After evading the traps for a second time, Gordon and Nero found themselves going down yet another hallway, Gordon crossed his arms and closed his eyes as he started to think. "Where should I look next, none of the rooms seem to have any, those are best places to search, I wouldn't really find cloth anywhere else around the hideout, perhaps I should check the-,"
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar, the silent mage opened his eyes, he was welcomed to a room with purple lighting, he turned to his left and saw where the sudden roar came from.
"Oh, I'm in the beast room," Gordon realized as he looked at the three beasts behind their cages, they continued roaring and began to bang on the door of their metal prison.
"They don't look happy, maybe they're hungry, since the others have been getting ready for the mission as well as handling other stuff for the past four days, I don't think they've been fed," he deduced.
The banging and roaring continued, soon the three beasts were banging on the cage in unison, resorting to barging at hit with their entire body, like a person trying to barge open a door, their efforts were soon rewarded as the door of the cage burst open, they didn't even pay attention to Gordon, instead choosing to break open a hole in the wall, running outside.
"Shit!" Gordon regularly exclaimed, startling Nero as it was the first time he had heard the Black Bull say something audible. Calming down, Gordon then went back to his muted speech. "Okay, don't panic, I need to focus on finding the beasts, they couldn't have gone far, panicking will only cause the distance between them and the hideout to increase, looking for some cloth can wait,"
He walked over to the newly made hole, looking at the vast forest. "I wasn't able to join the others on the Underwater Temple mission, so I should treat this as a mission of my own, and if that's the case, then I can't fail," he said as he ran out too, hoping to find the trio of beasts.
"How is this possible, how far could they have gone from when I went after them," Gordon groaned.
A decent amount of hours had passed since he and Nero went after the beasts, but he was still unable to find them.
"At this rate, they'll be too far ahead for me to find them," he said before turning to his feathered companion. "Nero, I need your help, I need you to fly and locate the beasts from above, once you spot them, point me in their direction," he instructed at a normal volume for the bird to hear.
Nero looked at him, seemingly nodding before flying high into the sky, about five minutes passed before the anti-bird came back down, perching on Gordon's shoulder, he quickly pointed his wing directly forward.
"Straight ahead, thank you, Nero, we don't have a moment to lose," he said as he ran in that direction, passing through tree after tree, he kept going at that pace for about ten minutes before he had to stop and catch his breath.
"The sun is about to set soon, if I go at a fast enough speed, I should be able to find them and somehow bring them back into their cage before nightfall, but then there's the question of-," he began to say, but stopped as he heard a soft growl behind him, he then turned around.
And there they were.
A few yards away, the three beasts were standing beside each other, looking at something, Gordon breathed a sigh of relief as he started walking towards them, but then he stopped, by getting closer, he was able to see what they were looking at.
"Another beast?" Gordon said as he looked at the rogue magical beast, it was easy to discern from the trio as it had many feline qualities, it growled at the trio who growled right back.
"This is bad, I don't know what that rogue beast can do, and they all look like they're about to fight, this can get dangerous, one of them can even end up getting killed, I need to do something before it gets to that stage," he deduced as he took out his grimoire.
The rogue beast roared loudly and charged at the trio.
The pages of Gordon's grimoire flipped around before stopping on one. "Poison Curse Magic: Aufwachen Dachs," he stated as a flurry of badgers made from poison appeared, Gordon pointed at the rogue beast, the badgers running straight at it.
The rogue beast stopped its charge midway at the sound of growling, it then noticed all the ravenous-looking badgers coming its way, causing it to turn around and run in the opposite direction as fast as it could, the badgers gave chase, but only for about a minute before disappearing.
Unfortunately, the sudden arrival of the badgers didn't just manage to scare off the rogue beast, but the trio as well, one of them quickly backed up into a tree, their strength causing the tree to break off and fall towards them.
"Don't worry, it won't hit you, Poison Magic: Violett Schirm," Gordon then said, raising his hands up as he shot liquid poison above the head of the beast, protecting it from the falling tree.
The poison mage ran over to the beasts and slowly knelt down. "It's going to be alright, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a Black Bull," he said before his lower peripheral vision spotted something, he looked down to see a slightly dirty red piece of cloth.
"Red cloth, it's exactly what I've been looking for, what a coincidence," he said as he picked it up and put it into his pocket, he then noticed something else not too far away either, three fishes, and large ones too.
"Fish? That must've been what they were about to fight over, I bet the rogue beast had the fish, and the hungry trio tried to take them from it. Now that I've found them, I can use these fishes to lure them back to the hideout," he decided as he picked up the three fishes and turned around, but then realized he had a problem.
"Which way is the hideout?" he asked himself before turning to the bird once more. "I'm going to need your help again, Nero, locate the hideout,"
He wasted no time flying into the sky, unlike the last time, only two minutes passed before the bird came back down, Gordon gave him his best interpretation of a grateful smile. "Please lead the way, but before that, I need to find a way to make the beasts follow me, but-," the poison mage was in the middle of turning around to face the beasts, but he stopped muttering midway as he saw that the beasts were already looking right at him, or rather, the fishes in his hand, drool dripping down from their mouths uncontrollably.
"Never mind, you can go now," Gordon said, Nero started flying in the direction of the base, while Gordon was behind him, running for dear life as he too had someone behind, that someone being the trio of hungry beasts.
Fifteen minutes passed and the hideout was finally in sight, but Gordon noticed something. "That's odd, the hideout usually fixes itself after a few hours, so why is the hole the beasts made still there?" he mentally wondered, but then he shrugged it off, the wall had to be broken for the beasts to enter anyway.
Gordon and Nero entered through the opening, the former quickly throwing the fishes into the cage, only a few seconds passed before the beasts came in and entered the cage, Gordon quickly moved in, shutting the door and reactivating the magic lock.
He breathed a sigh of relief as the beasts gleefully helped themselves to the food, tearing it apart to the point where not even the bones remained. "Those fishes should keep their stomachs somewhat satisfied until the others get back,"
Nero landed on his shoulder. "Today has been quite the day for us, aye Nero?" the bird didn't make any gesture to respond, but Gordon didn't mind, he then remembered what he had in his pocket. "Now let's get started on that doll,"
An hour passed as the sun came down and the moon rose into the sky, signifying the arrival of the night, in the main area, Gordon was sitting down on the couch, his head down as he was working on something.
"And done," he said as he stretched, picking it up, he showed it to Nero. "So, what do you think, your own doll?"
The anti-bird looked at the doll that was made in its likeness, he tilted his head back and forth before flying and landing next to Gordon, but instead of pecking at him, he nuzzled his face.
The poison mage smiled. "You're welcome, I'm always happy to do something kind for my friends, and you're no exception," he said before he looked out of the window, hoping that the others would have a safe return.