Ch 3
"I take it you're still not going to tell me what's up with you and this sudden need to get away from the Wonder Organization." Caleb remarked suddenly as the group of friends sailed from the shoreline towards Altamira. Wren sat in the co-captain's seat beside him, gazing dully out at the ocean through the clear glass windshield.
"No. Can we please just not talk about it until after I get my hands on those dwarven recipes?" the blonde sighed. Caleb shook his head in exasperation.
"Fine. But you'll tell me once we find the Moria Gallery, right? Promise?" the doll pressed.
"I will. Promise." Wren mumbled.
Traveling to Altamira took less time than Lloyd's ship could make the trip, as Caleb kept the ship powered and motored it through the nights and days it took to reach the island resort. Wren kept Pepper busy with games that challenged her mind, and fruit treats. Even though he was busy with keeping the EC on course for Altamira, Caleb could notice that his friend seemed far too preoccupied with some secret worry to keep him comfortable with the idea that whatever was going on was going to be easy to work out. He sighed quietly and looked up at the buildings and bright lights of Altamira's resort.
"We're here." Caleb announced unenthusiastically and docked at the pier. He climbed out of the EC and helped Wren off, then opened the rear hatch for Pepper before collapsing the vehicle into the Wing Pack. "Pepper, why don't you go and wait outside the city for us? I'll whistle for you when we're ready to go." the doll told the mana beast. Pepper pouted and tried to look extra-cute, pulling her ears down as she flopped onto her belly, her head on her paws and batting her eyes. Caleb smiled, unable to help himself. "I bet there are tons of trees outside. Maybe even an apple tree!" he bribed. Pepper seemed to think about it, then whistled as she stood back up, a picture of the EC leaving the island blooming into Caleb's mind. "I know. We'll be leaving right after we get that permission to enter the Toize Valley mines. We won't be gone for too long." he agreed, "In the meantime, practice your FireBlossom abilities. I bet you can really scare monsters if you can blow a big fireball at them!" The mana beast cheered at the idea and took off into the air, bell ringing brightly as she made her way to the little forest not far from the resort.
"So who are we visiting in Lezareno?" Wren asked as the two men made their way into Altamira and headed towards the Elemental Rail boarding station. Caleb grinned.
"Duke Regal Bryant and Ms. Presea Combatir. They're the ones in charge of the Lezareno Company." he answered. Wren stopped in shock. "Wren? Are you okay?"
"Regal? He's the one I called the God of the Kitchen." the young chef told him, "He has the greatest potential to be a Wonder Chef successor that I've ever seen! I told him so myself!" He ran his hand through his hair. "If anything ever happened to me that could keep the Wonder Chef Family from continuing, and my family couldn't find an alternative way of carrying on, then Regal would be the first person they'd contact to take over the Wonder Chef Family and the Wonder Organization."
"So why didn't anyone try that when you lost your memory last year?" Caleb asked as they resumed their walk. Wren sighed and shook his head.
"Because Regal had told them that he couldn't take on that kind of responsibility until after all efforts to find me had been truly exhausted. The time-table on my life was almost over when we sealed the Famine Lord in Flanoir." he replied, "If we had been just a few days too late, I would have lost my position as Wonder Chef, marked dead by the family." He looked away then, sighing almost regretfully. "I would have been free." he added as a whisper. Caleb looked at him strangely, but said nothing about it.
"Now boarding for the Lezareno Company! Last call!" the resort-wide sound system crackled to life with the announcement, "Please board the rail car for the Lezareno Company!" Caleb broke into a run with Wren dashing after him.
"Hurry! We have to catch that car or we'll have to wait until later tonight to talk to Regal and Presea!" the doll cried out. They raced past crowds of vacationing men and women, darted down the bridge to the elevator that dropped them off at the boarding station just as the gate began to close. Caleb sped towards it as Wren reached back for the Wonder Fork, whirling it around in front of him.
"Wait for us!" Caleb yelled as he slid under the gate and slammed into the rail car, surprising the occupants as well as the attendant, "Wren!"
"Let's go." the Wonder Chef murmured, holding the fork up and focusing on the rail car image in his mind. A blast of smoke later, he was standing by the redhead on the car, sliding the fork back into place. "Are you okay?" he asked with a chuckle. Caleb glared up at the blonde from his upside down position against the side wall of the car.
"Have I ever mentioned how many times I've wanted to steal your fork for myself?" he grumbled.
Regal and Presea were both surprised to see Caleb waiting for them in the lobby, but the duke was doubly shocked to see the blonde beside him. After introductions were made, an unnecessary gesture as they all knew each other one way or another, Regal calmly asked why the Wonder Chef was there, out of full uniform and undisguised in the open.
"For the same reason I'm here." Caleb answered, "I'm on a quest to gather and preserve the world's knowledge. Wren is searching for ancient dwarven recipes to help the fight against the Dark Chefs. We heard that both can be found in the Moria Gallery in the Moria mine. But, to get there, we need to enter the Toize Valley mines."
"And you need our permission to enter the mines and the secret tunnel entrance to Moria." Presea murmured, her body grown to suit a young lady but her hair still in pigtails.
"Wonder Chef, your name is Wren?" Regal asked in surprise.
"Not really. Wren is the name Caleb gave me and it's the name I feel comfortable with when I visit him." the blonde answered and gave the duke a wry grin that seemed both joking and sad, "The world isn't supposed to know I have any identity other than Wonder Chef, so my real name is very much unimportant to people."
"You have a real name? Why didn't you tell me? Wouldn't you rather go by that name than 'Wren'?" Caleb demanded. Wren shook his head in irritation.
"Does it matter? No one cares who I really am, so my name means nothing to the world. As long as I'm Wonder Chef, that is all the people want to see me as. The title is about as on par as 'Chosen'." he growled, "I'm not important enough as myself to keep my name in public, so the name isn't important either."
"It's important to me." Caleb grumbled and looked up at Regal, "Anyway, we're asking for the permission needed to enter the Toize Valley mines and the Moria Tunnel. May we have it?" Regal and Presea looked at each other in concern.
"You... haven't heard?" Regal questioned the doll. Caleb looked confused. "The first seven floors of Moria collapsed more than a year ago when a mechanical dragon escaped from underground and terrorized Symphonia. The dragon was destroyed by Kratos, but we haven't been able to fully excavate the mines to see the extent of the damage."
"I miss a lot of stuff when I lived with Altessa." Caleb sighed, "What in the world was Kratos doing near Moria to begin with?"
"Looking for something important, as far as we know." Presea told him, "You can enter Moria's mid-levels through Toize, but the tunnel has a special lock in place. Once you pass through the doorway, it will seal itself off and you won't be able to get back through there. You will have to find another way out of Moria on your own."
"This card key will open the gate to the tunnel and override the previous locks on it. That way, I won't have to physically be there for you to open the door. Since there's no one trying to get Exspheres again, it should be safe to release the seal this time." Regal added and pulled a hard plastic card from his pocket. He handed it to Caleb. "Also, during our initial forays into Moria after the collapse, we found it had become inhabited by monsters and wild beasts. For your safety, as well as the Wonder Chef's, we recommend you take a few of our security guards with you. They will defend you from most of the dangers in the mines."
"Thanks, but that won't be necessary." Caleb remarked, "Wren isn't as helpless as one would think, and I've got some surprises of my own for any monster that tries to tango with me." He winked, freed of his need for the hat and glasses when with the Heroes of Union. "We also have a special companion who can scare off most monsters before they even become a problem! We'll search Moria for the Moria Gallery and bring out as much as we can from it. I'm sure the world could benefit greatly from the data there, especially the dwarves."
"Well, as long as you know the dangers you'll be facing, good luck." Regal sighed.
"The probability of a successful retrieval of the legendary Moria Gallery is thirteen percent. Probability of returning alive from Moria with no outside help is thirty-five point two percent. Probability of completing both goals is six percent." Presea counted off the odds, her eyes turning ice cold for the time it took to do so, "You know your chances of success are slim to none, yet you still pursue this course? I don't know whether to commend you for your courage and optimism, or commit you for insanity."
"Commit us after we get out with the information." Caleb joked brightly, "Wren and I will need free room and board while we sort everything out."
The two friends returned to the pier and found Pepper waiting overhead for them. Caleb pulled out the EC and opened the rear hatch. Pepper landed inside with a whistle and clack of joy.
"Sorry if we took too long, girl. Wren wouldn't let me back here until I got this." the doll apologized and showed the mana beast his new Lid Shield and over-sized steel teaspoon. "I suppose it will do, though I miss my old soup spoon."
The EC was on its way south to Toize Valley, this time set on auto-pilot so Caleb could work with Pepper, training her mind with puzzles and telling her stories and fables from the books he read in Sybak. Wren spent time listening to the stories himself, and seemed to finally come out of the depressed mood he'd been in all that time. Pepper worked at the puzzles, chewing on her lower lip and snorting as she mulled over each one. Every day that passed, the mana beast grew sharper at each game and strengthened her mind enough to move large pieces of furniture with just her telekinesis.
With the same intelligence and perception that her bloodline gave her to use such powers, Pepper began to learn to read the people and environment around her. She would sit for hours, focusing on Wren so hard that the Wonder Chef would complain of a headache and Pepper squeaked in exhaustion. Caleb was next on her list of practice reads, but the doll learned to throw off her probing by plastering silly images in his mind, like dancing apples and pink rabbits flying. She whistled and clacked in laughter so hard, her concentration would break, ending any probing she might have been doing.
"Stop trying to read my mind!" Wren snapped one day when Pepper went into that gradual trance that was becoming associated with her probes. She jolted out of the phase, rearing as best she could in the cargo hold and screeching angrily. "If you'd just leave me alone, you wouldn't be freaking out right now!" the chef added irritably. Caleb looked at him in confusion and the blonde passed his hand over his eyes. "I need to take something for this headache and lie down for a while. How much longer before we reach Toize?" he sighed. The doll checked the control board of the Elemental Cargo.
"According to the readouts, we should arrive sometime later this afternoon, provided we don't hit a storm or anything. The weather has been with us so far." Caleb replied and began collecting his supply pack. "I'd better get the right things this time. And I bought a good supply of Life Bottles, just in case anything does go bad down there. I don't want to take a chance on either one of you."
"Us? What about you?" Wren asked as he began brewing a tea in the kitchenette. Pepper squawked her agreement, looking indignant at the idea that anything would dare to bring harm to her or her friends in that stupid mine.
"I should be fine with the Tri-Crystal System in me. If I lose primary power during an ambush, I can easily switch to secondary." Caleb replied, sliding the teaspoon onto his back, "I'm an automatic doll, I don't die."
"First time for everything." Wren commented dryly and went to lie down with his tea in one hand.