Fento: Oh, look! Another disclaimer!
Baron: (grumbling) already? Didn't we have one already?
Muta: (popping out of nowhere) Yeah, but t'was for the other chapta'. And why do I speak with an American accent?
Ellenlome: 'cause I decided so.
Muta: Oh yeah, and since when do you control me!
Haru: She's the author, she does whatever she wants.
Toto: She's got a point Fatso.
Muta: (stomps over to Toto) FATSO!
Toto: (goes into Tare-form) Meep! (takes off flying)
Muta: (runs after the crow)
Ellenlome: these two…
Fento: (painting white roses in red) Are they gone already?
Baron: Sure looks like it. (looks at what Fento is doing) And why are you doing that?
Fento: (whispering) The red queen will have my neck if I don't!
Haru and Baron: (look at each other, then start backing away) Oookay…(disappear)
Ellenlome: (takes a look at grinning Fento) I think I'll second that. (fades away in the background)
Fento: (keeps painting the roses, then stops as he realizes he's not alone) (looks over his shoulder at the readers) Why are you all still there? Shoo! Go read the chapter!
White Rabbit: (runs while consulting his watch) You're late! You're late! (keeps running until he is no longer in sight)
Fento: Oh, right. The disclaimer. Ellenlome doesn't own anything recognizable from "The cat returns", it belongs to Studio Ghibli. She does own me and a few other things in this story though.
Random dust bunny: That was a boring disclaimer…
Whispers of a distant land: Chapter five
Hours later, sunset finally came. The two companions were ready, Baron had put on his "cloak" and was lying on Toto's back, with only his eyes showing from underneath. To anyone, they would appear as an old deformed crow. Some minutes ago, Toto had started doing some lazy and apparently pointless circles in between the trees, sometimes coming closer and sometimes moving away from the prison, although always in the general direction of it. At the beginning, Amiki had looked at them with a latent interest (you didn't see a deformed crow everyday, after all), but now that he had got a good look at the strange bird for several minutes, his gaze had wandered back to the left, where Amiko came from when it was his time to take on watch duty. Amiki knew it was a bad habit he was taking, but he couldn't help to focus in that single direction for the last minutes of his watch, eager to get home and have something served to him by his servants. Finally a grey dot appeared in the distance, and Amiki's head snapped in its direction. It was what Toto and Baron had been waiting for.
Be it by luck or by their careful planning, no one saw the "hunched" crow suddenly dive to the entrance and fly in like a moving shadow.
Toto stopped short as soon as they were inside and past the first turn, and the pair finally got a good look at the place. They were in what they assumed was the ground level of the prison. Directly in front of the entrance corridor and on their left was a low square door that most likely gave onto the barracks and the officers' quarters, they had surmised, were right above these, into the tree itself. On both side of that door, two twin and enormous tunnels dove into the ground.
The two looked for a second, and then moved forward, down into the tunnel on the right. As they proceeded onwards, the darkness deepened, and soon they were in a patch of complete darkness. But a meter or two away the light came back, in the form of phosphorous mushrooms, placed at regular intervals on both sides of the tunnel. Deeper and deeper they went, not encountering any guards. Toto thought this suspect and mentioned it to Baron, but the cat said that it was traditional in the Empire's culture to have a change of guard right after sunset, which was quite logical since they had a fresh sentinel that had just been posted and would alert them as soon as he spotted something suspicious. Luckily for the two, the "something suspicious" that they were had managed to sneak in unseen by both sentries.
Finally, after much walking, they came to a level, where the corridor branched off into multiple small tunnels, each of them having rows and rows of small doors on each sides.
"Wow, guess I shouldn't have said they didn't have many criminals," breathed Toto.
"The Empire of Birds is one of the largest out there," said Baron absently as he examined the panels hung over each of the tunnels, "It is quite normal for such a large society to have a lot of criminals, in proportion with the size of the Empire. Toto, can you decipher these signs? I'm afraid I don't have any skills in claw-script."
Toto came closer, looking at each sign. "Which cell did Omar say the advisor was in?" he asked finally.
"I believe he said: 'Hawk-claw, 131 b'" answered Baron, slipping his cane under his arm.
"Then it should be this way," said Toto as he motioned to the third corridor on their left.
Quietly, they proceeded forward. They did not want to alert the other prisoners to their presence. They would most likely turn them in to the guards. However, Toto couldn't help to sometimes peep into one or two cells. Fortunately for them, the ghastly light of the mushrooms gave his feathers a grey tint that made the few that looked up mistake him for one of the guards. But as they preceded forward and past cell number 100, Toto noticed something odd.
"Baron, all the cells since the 100th one are empty," he whispered.
"I suppose that this is where they keep the most dangerous criminals," answered Baron, glancing at his friend. "Or the ones they most likely want to forget in their cells to perish. Since Advisor Natoru is considered, according to Mr. Omar, a dangerous assassin, I would guess that this is the appropriate section."
Toto looked at him for a minute, eyes wide, before saying as he hung his head: "Baron, I've known you for a long time now, but your mind always amazes me."
"Thank you, Toto. But I believe we've reached our destination already."
And it was true. In front of them was a lone door, the last one in the tunnel, labeled (in what Toto could decipher of the faded script) 113. No b or a whatsoever, which was quite surprising. Toto shrugged and Baron called:
"Advisor Natoru? Advisor? Are you there?"
From the other side of the thick door, a very recognizable voice answered: "Who…who is it?"
"It is nice to hear you're alive, Advisor. It is Baron, from the Cat Bureau. We've been sent to rescue you."
"Baron? Is that really you? Oh, the great cat-Lord be praised, someone came for me."
"Who's that?" asked another voice - female no doubt - from inside the cell.
"That's Baron, the one I told you about!"
"That's the one? A pleasure to meet you sir, although I would very much like to see your face soon," continued the female voice.
"Most certainly Madam," answered said cat, still the gentleman. "If you would give me a moment, please."
With that Baron proceeded to pick the lock with a set of lock picks he had taken out of his inner pocket. Toto was quite astonished at this new skill of his friend, but knew better than to say anything. Baron would explain when he felt like it, no sooner. Soon after, they heard a soft click, and the door swung inwards under the push of Baron's hand. It creaked on its hinges, the sound painfully loud in the silence of the deeper tunnels. This cell seemed a bit larger than the others, and with reason: it had two occupants, a small brown cat, and a large white eagle. The former bounced forward to the two companions, but could not reach them restrained as he was by chains at the ankles.
"Let me help you with that," said Baron as he stepped to the advisor, quickly picking the lock of the chains.
"Thank you!" exclaimed Natoru. "Would you please do the same for Miss Myril?" he nodded towards the eagle, who had been watching with interest.
Baron turned his attention to the eagle: "May I inquire as to who you are, miss?"
The eagle chuckled. "You may. I'm Myril of Clouded Tops, the sea eagle."
"The guards put me in this cell and didn't feed us for a few days, expecting for Miss Myril here to eat me, which I am extremely grateful she didn't."
"How could I? Besides, I only eat fish, and rarely any other meat," said the eagle, Myril.
"That makes you a friend in our eyes," said Baron as he unlocked her chains. "A pleasure to meet you, miss Myril of Clouded Tops."
"Oh please call me Myril that title doesn't mean anything now."
"Then please call me Baron. Most find my full name too complicated to use in common conversation, including myself."
They all chuckled slightly at that.
"So, Baron," said Toto, "any idea as to how we're going to get out of here?"
"Yes, but I'm afraid we'll first have to do something with Myril's white feathers."
"My feathers? What's wrong with their color?" asked Myril, taken aback.
"Oh, nothing. It's just that they are a bit too visible for my plan to work." And with a smile Baron proceeded to tell them exactly what his plan was.
Advisor Natoru had never been the sportive type, much less the kind of cat to take risks, and it was why he was asking himself what in the name of the great cat-lord he was doing here, making his way towards the entrance as quietly as possible - alerting whatever guards were in the barracks was not part of the plan - ready to shout at the guards outside. Why did it have to be on my record that I attended drama school, why? Now I'll have to do this insane plan of the baron's to the end. Oh, if only Baron didn't have a look in my records, if only I hadn't told them that when I was engaged, I may not be in this situation now, Oh! Natoru wriggled his paws together in a last attempt to shy away his nervousness. Not even the Emperor had managed to make him that nervous. Finally, with a deep breath, Natoru stepped forward and into the dim light of the entrance.
The guards of Raïtal's prison weren't any ordinary birds. No, they were a special breed, a cross between a fighting cock and a long-necked grey hawk (a very rare species, the kind that only lived in the city and were well concealed from human eyes by their fellow bird caretakers). They could see well during the day, and not too badly during the night, had a long retractable neck and long legs to run fast with very dangerous-looking talons. Never before had they failed at their task as guards of the dungeons, for never before had a prisoner managed to escape, which is probably one of the reasons they were so astonished at seeing the criminal Natoru come out into the open and openly defy them with a "Hey you Birdbrains! I escaped your stupid prison, what do you say to that!" Now, the guards aren't stupid, just very quick to anger, a particular trait to their breed that their caretakers were trying to eradicate, and so when called birdbrains (a very bad insult to a bird. Toto never really reacted to being called a birdbrain by Muta, since they were, despite all appearances, great friends and both knew that it was just to joke) they reacted quite violently and most of them shot out after the terrified Natoru who dashed back inside and to the right, expecting to loose them into the maze of the tunnels. What a fool! Did he really expect to outrun them, much less loose them in the maze they themselves had constructed?
Of course, what they didn't know was that Natoru didn't keep running for long. He stopped as soon as he came into the deep shadow of that part of the tunnel, placating himself against the wall with the friends he knew were there, and holding his panting breath in as long as he could feel the air moving with the running guards. Now, one thing that was really interesting with the tunnel and that wasn't mentioned at the beginning was its many turns, as well as infrequent areas of darkness. This led the guards quite far before they realized they had been tricked and that the prisoner wasn't actually before but behind them. By the time they came back, Baron and Co. had collapsed the tunnel and, after knocking down the few remaining guards, flown out and away from the city, south towards the sea and Japan.
As they flew onwards (Natoru was being carried by a very cheerful Myril), Toto was torn between congratulating Baron on their escape, or simply berate him for not thinking of a better plan. When they finally stopped for rest, the sun was rising and the sea was right in front of them. Depositing her charge in a tall tree, Myril soon excused herself and went fishing (she hadn't had a decent fish for years, poor creature). They didn't sleep long, all of them too nervous at being captured, or, in the case of Baron, quite worried about Haru.
Effectively, the cat advisor had told them of a "farewell" visit Fento had given him, and how he had ranted about his plan (albeit very briefly, thank the Lord he wasn't one of those I-give-you-a-monologue villain type) and as to how he was happy to finally have the thorn in his side that was Natoru out. He also talked about another thorn that he would take care of as soon as he came back, and from his attitude Natoru could tell that he was talking about Baron. Said cat knew that Fento lived (ironically enough) on the other side of the little plaza of the Refuge for Creations, and thus had been witness to Haru's visits, as well as his own behavior towards the human. Baron didn't doubt a second (although he never told the others) that Fento had seen straight through his attitude like he did for him. Yes, he had finally admitted to himself that he cared quite deeply for the human, and if Fento had come to the same conclusion…He shuddered at the consequences.
As they flew onwards, Baron's thoughts were focused solely on one person: Haru…
Author's note: here is the promised second chapter:) Ok, as you can all see, I've decided to have a bit of fun with the disclaimers. And yes, I'm insane, and the disclaimers will probably get worse, for anyone who's wondering. :) Also, the Red Queen and the White Rabbit are from Alice in Wonderland, and that belongs to Lewis Carol. Hope you're enjoying the story so far! -
P.s: If you're reading this Crimson Starlight, I hope I didn't accidentally copy one of your disclaimers! I just found them funny and thought I'd do my own.