Disclaimer: Power Rangers are... you already know this. I still don't own them.

RESTLESS WARRIORS

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Eleven: Searching

Taylor tried not to glower as Dustin cheerfully clambered over a pile of rubble on Kelsey's command. This searching thing was not going entirely well. Kelsey knew where the ruins of the old temple were, but all of that had been destroyed in the Lightspeed Rangers last battle with Vypra. When she had risen from the grave again, she had stolen the Solar Amulet from the Silver Hills Museum to raise a powerful demon. Apparently, her idea of a powerful demon was not something that could overwhelm two teams of rangers. Now they were combing over bits of rubble looking for an entrance to… something that didn't seem to exist.

That morning had been an experience—especially since she had been ready to throttle Dustin and his light show last night. Then again, it was easy to forget how light shone through tent material like there was nothing there. What did he have to be afraid of? He had been camping before, he had said so himself. She shook her head. They all had reason to be afraid, but it was so intangible and so elusive that it hardly seemed a threat.

Maya seemed to have appointed herself to give the wake-up call. Not that Taylor needed a wake-up call, since she had already gone running and showered, long before Maya had decided the others needed to get up. She didn't know what Maya did, but Kira, Kelsey and Dustin emerged from their tents in a surprisingly good mood and didn't look groggy at all. She was tempted to ask what the secret was, but decided that there was no point, since the chances of Maya actually telling her were slim.

After a breakfast of cold cereal and Pop-Tarts, they had begun this endless expedition of hiking around ruins with no results. (Kelsey and Dustin had gone to the grocery store yesterday afternoon and it was a good thing that Kelsey went with Dustin, because there was no telling what they could have been eating if Dustin chose everything.)

Maya was humming to herself and meandering along behind Dustin and Kelsey. Kira was studying a strange inscription on what appeared to be an old altar in the middle of everything else. Taylor decided to join Kira and see what the Dino Ranger had found.

"Find something?" she asked, as she approached the altar.

Kira turned to face her, her hazel eyes guarded. "I don't know," she replied. The musician traced the writing with her fingers. "It's a beautiful script. I wonder what it says."

"Probably nothing good since we're in the middle of a demon temple."

"And you've never been interested in the occult?" Kira retorted, a biting edge on her words that could rival Taylor on a bad day.

And she had to admit, Kira had a point. When she had been in high school, she had been ferociously interested in Wiccan spells and rituals, along with rune stones, tarot cards and palmistry. The idea of ghosts and evil spirits never bothered her and, to her knowledge, she had never been plagued by one. However, her faith in that kind of thing died. She had tried a spell to stop her family from squabbling and fighting all the time. She had followed what the book said to the letter—down to the time it had to be performed. It didn't work. Her family continued to argue and, just before her high school graduation, her parents got divorced. She had quit dabbling in the occult and believing in that crap.

Lavender by the gate of a garden… for luck.

We honor the old ways simply because they have existed for thousands of years.

Time is a powerful thing.

As Cam's words came floating back to her, she wondered how he had lived life for so long, straddling the practical and logical world of computers and technology, while adhering to the traditional life and values that the ninjas aspired to. She had tried to do that in high school and couldn't find a happy medium between the two. It was like they could never be reconciled to one another. Even when she had been a ranger, she had viewed their ranger powers as technological and man-made—much like Kelsey's ranger powers or even Dustin's ranger powers. She liked to think that Princess Shayla got their powers from someone who had made them a long time ago. Everything had to be logical and reasonable and practical… nothing could be from the occult mindset.

Everything has a price… Had she forgotten so quickly what it had been like to be a part of a team, to be valued and appreciated for what she was? Had she forgotten so quickly what the first kiss that she and Eric had shared had been like? Had she forgotten the things that he whispered in her ear when no one else was listening? Beautiful… intelligent… She drew in her breath sharply. He had been the first one to call her beautiful. No one had ever called her that before—not her parents or her previous boyfriends… she was the type that people dated because she had 'personality', whatever that meant in the long run.

"You all right?" Kira asked.

"I'm fine," she snapped.

"Well, we need to figure out what language this writing is, so we can translate it." Kira gave her a mild look. "It might tell us something we need to know."

"Do I look like I have an Arabic dictionary on me?"

"I don't think you'll find that writing in any dictionary of yours," a cultured voice with a slight British accent cut in. "Although, it is possible to translate it, if you know the right people."

Kira and Taylor turned to see a very tall, very skinny man standing behind them. He had a shock of light brown hair, spilling over his forehead. His nose was large and accentuated by the glasses that kept sliding down. His eyes were large and owlish. He blinked at them as he took in their shocked faces.

"Oh!" he said suddenly, like he remembered something. "So rude of me not to introduce myself! Sorry about that! I'm Arval Parrot, a scout and a scholar in the court of King Boric."

King Boric… he was the fairy scout that Boric had promised he would send last night, although the man looked extraordinarily human to be a fairy. "You look human," Taylor said in a flat voice, trying to sort out her thoughts.

"Well, it's called a disguise, isn't it?" Arval replied, sounding indignant. "I can't very well go parading around your realm in my true form, now can I?"

"Hey! Cool it!" Taylor snapped at him. "I was just asking."

"Magic is so easy to forget," Arval said sadly, shaking his head at her.

"How do we know you're not a spy from Vypra or someone?" Kira asked him.

"Oh! Right-o!" Arval waved his hand and a strange looking sword appeared in his hand. "The Magna Defender asked me to take this, just in case you should ask that very question."

"And what does that prove?" Kira said.

"Well, I suppose that the one who fought with the one the Magna Defender gave his powers to would know and not some chit barely away from the schoolmarm's ruler."

Kira's jaw dropped in shock. Taylor fought the urge to snicker. She liked this guy already, even if he did sound a lot like Mary Poppins. He tossed around subtle insults almost better than Eric did and looked nonchalant while doing it, not angry or spiteful or frustrated, just nonchalant. It was like it didn't really matter to him whether or not the subject of his insults was offended or not.

"I think she's that way," Taylor told him, motioning in the direction the remaining trio had wandered.

He nodded curtly. "Well, since I have introduced myself, it is only polite that you two introduce yourselves."

"I'm Taylor," she replied quickly. "That's Kira," she added pointing at Kira, who was still scowling from Arval's apparent insult about her age. She could commiserate with her. It wasn't a compliment, being thought younger than one was, until about age thirty or forty. If he had said that to her, she would have been pissed, but flattered at the same time.

"Well, we're all on the same footing now," Arval said. "Shall we be off?"

"Sure." She paused as she started to lead the way to where the others had gone. "What was that supposed to mean?" she asked him, referring to his last statement.

"Names have power," Arval said. "I have given you my true name. You have given me yours. In essence, we could use that knowledge against one another, but since we are fighting for the same cause, we are allies and do not need to know names for nefarious purposes."

"How can you use names for evil purposes?" Kira piped up, trailing along behind them.

Arval turned and gave her an appraising look. "So the chit is starting to live up to her title in this quest." He paused. "Have you ever seen Spirited Away?"

"No," Taylor replied succinctly.

"It's a movie," he said, now sounding bored and disgusted with their lack of knowledge. "Honestly! Are fairies the only ones who go to the movies?" He shook his head. "It's a Japanese movie. A young girl gives an evil woman her name. When the woman has her name, she forgets who she is and the woman creates a new identity for her."

"So, it's a good thing that these demons don't know our names?" Kira ventured.

"And you do not know the true names of the demons," Arval said. "I can tell you right now that Vypra is not that demon's real name. Neither is Lucivar her brother's name." He shrugged. "Demons take on new names when they become what they are."

"What are they to begin with?" Kira asked him.

Arval shook his head. "No one really knows. The only known thing is that they never lead a mortal life. Some old legends say that they are fairies gone evil. Other legends think that they are fallen angels. No one in the spirit realm who still sings was around during those troubled time."

"Do you?" Taylor questioned.

"Do I what?" he retorted.

"Lead a mortal life."

"I am a fairy," he replied, sounding annoyed. "Fairies are the angels who fell to Earth and decided to remain there."

"So the legends say," Kira amended.

"No," Arval responded. "This, we know, is true." He paused. "Now let us find this human who will recognize the Magna Defender's sword. My time in this realm is brief."


They were silent as they came upon Kelsey, Dustin and Maya shuffling through some old stones, looking for some kind of entrance to an underground tunnel. Kira shook her head slightly and tried to put what Arval had said into perspective. Three days ago, she would have said she didn't believe in ghosts, fairies, talking to the dead or angels. Now, she had no idea what she believed and Arval was not helping that any, by insisting that fairies were angels who fell to Earth. How did they exist in the spirit realm and the mortal realm then? Duh, because they were descended from angels and probably more comfortable in their original habitat.

Maya looked up as they approached and a smile came over her face. "Mike's sword," she said, indicating the weapon that Arval held.

"The Magna Defender said you would recognize it," Arval replied, smiling for the first time since he had stumbled across her and Taylor.

"Of course," Maya replied. "You're the fairy scout?"

"I am." He bowed slightly. Kira found his etiquette a strange mix of formal court behavior from medieval times and things that the modern world condoned. "You must be the other ones destined for this quest, although mission is the more appropriate word."

"You're a fairy?" Dustin asked.

"I am a species of fairy," Arval replied airily. "My brother and I are what is left of the avian fairies—caretakers of the birds and all winged fauna. We had split the duty." Arval scratched his head, like he was not used to having hair. "I had cared for the grounded birds, while my brother cared for the ones in flight. However, he has been missing." At the mention of his brother, his green eyes flecked with hazel clouded over and he looked almost… sad.

"Where's your brother?" Maya asked.

At the same time, Kelsey asked, "Who's your brother?"

"His name is Owling Byrrd and I don't know where he is. If I knew where he was, he wouldn't be missing, now would he?"

Just like that, Arval was back to snapping at them and sounding like he generally found himself superior to humans.

"How do we know you're really a fairy?" Dustin spoke up.

"Dustin!" Maya reprimanded.

"How am I supposed to know?" he defended himself. "He could be a giant demon in disguise just waiting to pounce."

"You read too many comic books," Taylor muttered.

"I do not!" Dustin protested.

"You want proof?" Arval asked. Dustin nodded. Kelsey and Maya looked fascinated. Taylor looked ready to strangle someone.

The supposed fairy screwed up his face like he was trying hard to remember something and with a faint 'pop' his appearance as a human melted away. In its place, he looked… like an owl… He was still tall and unnaturally skinny, but his limbs no longer looked fleshed out like a human's wood. Instead, they resembled bird feet. His torso was covered in feathers and his face was heart-shaped like an owl's. And his large nose had turned into a beak.

"You see?" Arval asked. "I'm not exactly inconspicuous like this!"

With another 'pop', he changed himself back into his human disguise. Dustin gaped at him, while Maya grinned from ear to ear.

"Now," Arval started, clapping his hands together. "We need to get started on translating some of these ruins. If I am correct, then the demons will have left a details lay-out of their entire layer around here somewhere." He looked around at the five of them and then pointed at her. Kira started. "You," he said. "You are the one to help me!"

"Me?"

But he wasn't listening. He started waving his hand and thick, leather-bound books began to appear out of thin air. As each book appeared, he grabbed it and shoved it into her arms, before starting the same procedure with the next book. Soon, she was holding books up to her chin and sputtering out bits of questions.

"What is all this?" she asked.

"Books on demon-writing!" Arval replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's a hard language to master and since the demons aren't amenable to writing a volume on it themselves, we've had to surmise what we can." He paused, looking thoughtful. "The language is and isn't quite like others I've stumbled across." He made a Latin-English dictionary appear in his hand. "In fact, it's some kind of mix between Arabic and Latin, with a little Greek and a little Chinese thrown in here and there for good measure." He shrugged. "We shall have to copy down what we can and then work on translating it."

Kira tried not to blanch. She had never been good at foreign languages. She had barely passed Spanish in high school and the only phrases she actually remembered would be pointless if she went somewhere where people really did speak Spanish. Arval was suggesting she help him translate a language that was a mix of some of the most difficult languages to master, not to mention some of them were dead languages!

"I-I… can't…" she tried to say and still hold all the books.

"Silly girl!" Arval chided. "You're not here to help me translate the writing itself! You're here to help me solve their riddles! Honestly, did you not listen to anything Trini told you?"

"I know some Japanese," Dustin volunteered.

"You know Japanese?" Taylor sounded skeptical and her words had a biting sarcastic edge to them.

Dustin frowned at her. "I know some," he stressed. "Sensei made us all learn the basics for good measure."

"That might come in handy," Arval mused. "Come!" he said to her, making a large pad of paper and pen appear out of nowhere. "The sooner we get the writing on paper, the sooner we can begin the translation and the sooner you can solve their riddles!" The fairy paused for a moment and then made a handful of drawing charcoal appear. "That might work better. We can do rubbings of the markings and they'll be more accurate."

"Oh great! The almighty fairy king sends us the biggest bozo from his court!" Taylor growled, looking like she thought the mission was going downhill quickly.

Kira sighed. She didn't know what had made any of these people think she was good at logic problems or riddles. The path of bread crumbs is yours to decipher. What path? Did these markings tell them something? Her experience with markings around altars was that they normally were some kind of incantation or description of the worship that went on, praises to the particular deities or something…

Arval ignored Taylor's outburst. "Let's get going!" he said to Kira and then began striding back towards where the altar was.

"Hold on!" she called after him, trying to balance all the books he had shoved in her arms and match his pace. Arval didn't appear to hear her since he was so intent on the task at hand. She thought about indulging in a Ptera-Scream since she did have her powers back, but decided against it. That might shatter some of the ruins that they needed intact.

"Here," Dustin said quickly, stepping forward and relieving her of some of the books.

"I thought fairies were nice," she grumbled as he fell into stride with her, following the path that Arval had taken towards the altar. Maya was saying something to Taylor. The latter nodded and the trio moved back towards their camp site.

"That one's sure an ass," Dustin semi-agreed.

"He has a superiority complex," Kira said. "I just want to know what makes anyone think I can solve riddles better than the next guy."

"I think you're smart. I mean they just don't hand out scholarships to NYU to anyone who can fill out a scholarship form."

Kira remained silent. He had a point, as much as she hated to admit it. Well, she was turning her life around after this quest was over. She gave Dustin a sidelong glance. He hadn't really divulged much of his personal life over the past few days. Sure, he had told her about his suspicions regarding what Trini told him and his last girlfriend, but aside from the fact that he had a faulty car, she had no knowledge of his current situation.

"Do you go to class?" she asked him.

To her eternal surprise, he colored slightly and looked guilty. "No," he admitted. "I wanted to take some time off after high school graduation and I had thought it would be okay since I had two jobs and got some money from races on the weekends. You know, I could pay rent." He sighed. "Didn't work out."

"Are you trying to save for college?"

"That's not as easy as it sounds."

They came upon Arval studying the markings on the altar closely. Kira dumped the books she had been carrying on the altar, while Dustin put his gingerly next to them. Without a word, Kira found herself alone with the crazed fairy, making rubbings of the markings. She wondered what had happened that Dustin didn't want to talk about… but it got pushed out of her mind as Arval started issuing orders.

The sun was high overhead and hot, despite the cool air. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her that it was almost lunchtime and all she had had for breakfast was a Pop-Tart and some juice. Arval had dragged her all over the camp site, making rubbings of any markings they could find and then making a note of where those particular markings were.

"That should about do it," he announced.

Kira rolled her eyes as he picked up the books and she gathered up an armful of rubbings. The others had started making lunch when they came to the camp site. Arval sat down at the picnic table with the books and began to look up things for the rubbings. Kira fought the urge to roll her eyes again and accepted a bottle of water that Dustin offered her.

"Want something to eat?" Kelsey asked Arval.

He shook his head, looking like he didn't want to be disturbed.

"What are we having?" Kira asked.

"Grilled cheese," the Lightspeed Ranger replied. "Want ham on yours?"

She nodded and sat down in one of the lawn chairs next to Dustin. Taylor was pulling out dishes and shooting Arval annoyed, yet appraising looks. Kelsey was working on the grill while Maya was putting together the sandwiches. Dustin was absently twisting the disc on his morpher and looked like he was in deep thought.

Well, if Arval got the markings translated, then it might be a step in the right direction. They might have some idea of what it was they were looking for. Kelsey had said there might be underground caverns… who really knew?

To Be Continued...


Author's Note: I saw SPD the other day... (blinks)... words cannot describe... Needless to say me and some of my close companions have agreed that the powers that be should have continued with Dino Thunder. (No offense to any SPD enthusiasts out there.) And I love the fact that the A squad has the same helmets as the Space Rangers. That cracked me up... At any rate, the usual thanks to reviewers and a big 'howdy' to all the lurkers. (Reviewers can have a big 'howdy' too- whatever makes you happy.) Let us take a moment to remember the good old days of Power Rangers... (moment of silence)... thank you. Have a great week and don't pick up hitchhikers. They are heavy and you might strain yourself. Cheers-EK