"Hi Musa... you got in late last night!" she said with a cheeky grin on her face. "I take it the date went well!"
Musa didn't answer Layla's greeting, or even acknowledge she was there - her mind was totally fixed on yesterday evening's events.
"Err, Musa?" she said placing her hand on her friend's shoulder. "You're spilling your OJ!"
Musa suddenly rejoined the land of the living with a start. "Oh man..." she said, shaking her hand as the juice dribbled onto the floor.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"So, how did it go last night?"
"Oh Layla, it went really well. We totally opened up to each other but... wow, it was so heavy."
"Oh... so what did you find out?"
"Okay, he has a little sister called Mei who he loves a lot, he lived in a village called Anchan or something like that, near a Panda Mountain... I wrote it all down... ummm, oh yes, Tecna has it!"
Tecna handed Layla a piece of paper, which she studied briefly. "Hmmm... it's not much, but we should be able to get something from this. We just need to get him out of the way whilst we search the library. Have you got any idea what you guys are doing today?"
"No, I haven't really thought about it."
They were interrupted by a loud knock on the door.
"Ooh, I wonder if that's Teggy!" said Musa excitedly.
"It's okay, I'll get it - you'd better clean up that mess!" teased Layla as she answered it. There was nobody there - just a bouquet of flowers laying on the floor. She picked it up and read the note.
Layla
Meet me at the Theme Park
K
"K?" she wondered - then it hit her... this must be from her mystery man. She sniffed the flowers - they had the same heady, intoxicating scent. Yep, it was him alright.
"Well? What was it?" asked Musa.
Now it was Layla's turn to get totally lost - once again, she was entranced by the scent of her present. She could see nothing but her guy's face smiling at her, she heard nothing but his voice calling out to her...
"Hello? Alfea to Layla, can you hear us?"
Layla giggled. "Sorry, I was..."
"Ooh, flowers! Lemme see!" squealed Musa. "'Meet me at the Theme Park'? Wow, sounds like you have a date!"
"You really think so?" she said, blushing. "But... I can't go alone. I wouldn't know what to do."
Musa clicked her fingers.
"This is perfect! We'll need to keep Teggy away from here while you all do your thing in the library... and anyway, I think we'll all enjoy a fun day out. We'll make this a double date!"
A few hours later, and with Tegryn safely out of the way, the girls arrived in the library.
"Right then," said Tecna. "We need a map of China - the bigger, the better!"
"I'll get it!" said Bloom as she made her way to the library index. Standing on the pedestal, she asked nervously "Map of China?"
'Map of China' came the reply, and sure enough an absurdly large scroll landed neatly in front of her.
"Thank you!" she said beaming, before clapping her hands over her mouth. She knew what was coming next.
'Thank you.'
THWACK!
She winced as something hard hit her on the back of the head with a soft thud. Rubbing the back of her head, she picked it up and looked at the cover... 'Good Manners & Etiquette for Young Fairies' by Madame DuFour. Grinning, she showed the book to the others.
Stella laughed. "Who'd have thought she could be such a pain?"
Bloom opened the map as she walked over to the table. "Uh-oh," she said suddenly. "Guys, I think we have a major problem here."
"What is it?"
She placed it on the table for everyone to see.
"This map... it's written in Chinese!"
"Oh man... this is hopeless." Mimi said as she strained her eyes trying to decipher the characters laid out in front of her. "It was gonna difficult enough to find his village as it was, but now THIS?"
"It's not that hopeless." Charlotte piped up. "I can read a tiny bit of Chinese... I think. I read a book about it a couple of weeks ago."
"Hmm," said Tecna thoughtfully. "What did Tegryn say that mountain was called again?"
"The mountain? Erm, Panda Mountain, I think it was... why?"
"Well, he said his village was too small to be marked on any maps, but that mountain will be on there for sure. If I run those words through a translator on the Realm Wide Web, we should be able to get something to help us... ah, here we are."
TRANSLATION:
Panda Mountain...
熊貓山
Tecna printed out the result. "Right, everybody take a copy... the sooner we get started, the sooner we finish."