After their magical flight over the island, the girls landed softly a few feet away from the lost boys. Slightly and Nibs had gone to look for food leaving the twins, Tootles, and Curly. Peter had been flying with them, pointing out the different areas where the pirates, Indians, and animals lived. At the mention of Pirates, Nox had gotten particularly excited and almost flew off in that direction before a connon ball had wizzed past her left ear. off in the distance, the sun began to sink slowly below the horizon casting a red glow across the sky. "We should find shelter soon," Tempest adviced when her small feet found firm ground again.
"Well, we would let you stay with us..." Peter mused. "But I don't think we have enough room in our den," Mitsu looked up into the canopy of trees.
"We could build a tree house," She suggested.
"That will take at least a day to build," Nox pointed out. "And we don't have that time, the sun will set in less than an hour,"
"Don't worry," Curly spoke up. "We can build it for you, it won't take very long," He smiled reasuringling at them and Peter nodded.
"If we all work together we can get your house built in half an hour," Peter flew up to inspect the trees. "This one looks good," He pointed at a rather large tree with a limb jutting out of it's side. "We can start now, we just have to find some wood and the spare nails we keep in the den," Peter shoed Curly off to find the nails and everyone else set off to find wood. Sometime during the frenzy of climbing up the tree, placing wooden planks down and nailing them together with the hilts of daggers used as hammers, Slightly and Nibs returned holding arm fulls of fruit. They hung their fruit in a large net already well stocked with all sorts of food that was used to keep animals and what not from stealing it.Finally with still twenty minutes before full darkness, the girls' tree house was errected and stirdy and ready to live in. Individually, the girls climbed up a retractable rope ladder and throw a hidden door in the center of the tree house floor. The finished treehouse circled al the way around the tree's trunk and was connnected by a bridge to a five smaller similar tree houses built around a circle of trees surrounding the main one.
Inari woke first the next morning. She stretched and yawned and rubbed her tired eyes. "I'm hungry," She murmured to herself. She looked around her tree house, which ahd been furnished with chairs grown from roots and hamocks made from entwined leaves. "The trap door should be around here somewhere," Inari began to stumble across her room. Her eyes staring around the floor, looking for the trap door handle. Clunk! "Owe!" Inari hopped on her left foot, while nursing her right foot. She had just kicked the heavy wooden handle by accident and now her foot was thrubbing painfully. Grumbling angrily, Inari knelt on the floor a few inches from the handle in order to give the door room to open. Giving another grunt of pain as her foot pressed against the floor, she lifted the door to reveal the dirt floor of the forest far below. Inari let go of the handle and the door thudded against the wood floor. Leaning dangerously over the edge, Inari began to feel around the bottom side of her tree house. She was looking for a rope ladder. After all, how else was she supposed to get down? Her finger tips touched nothing as they raced across the boards searching. Finally, Inari poked her head out of the opening. Her wolf ears drooped from the pull of gravity and she had to keep her left hand clentched to the edge of the door frame for support. SHe turned her head left and right, but there was no rope ladder to speak of. "How did I get up here then?" Inari asked herself. Thinking hard, she remebered yesterday's events and the fact that with the help of Peter, she and her friends could now fly. "Oh, yeah, that's right," Inari nodded. She started pushing her self back up with her left arm, intending to lower herself feet first. Suddenly there was a high pitched screach behind her and she felt the impact of a small body slam against hers. Both bodies dropped toward the ground, rapidly losing altitude. Inari screamed as loud as she could. The sound echoed through the forest, waking her friends from their own slumbers. WIthout warning, there was a sharp jerk behind her navel and her descent to the ground stopped. After a moment of confusion, Inari understood what was happening and slowly lowered herslef and her passenger to the ground.
"What was that?" Mitsu called down from her tree. Her face was framed by the square hole where her trap door was a few moments ago.
"Nothing, just me!" Inari called abck up. Her three other friends peered down at her questioningly.
"Inari!" Mitsu screamed before she lightly, yet quickly floated to the ground. "You have a Tumer on your back!"
"What?" Inari wrinkled her nose and narrowed her eyes incredulously. She peered over her back just in time to whitness a long fluffy tail scamper down her back. "It's a squirell, Mitsu," Inari said.
"Oh, well, one can be mistaken form a distance," Mitsu said, clearly embarassed.
"You just forgot to put your eye contacts in this morning," Inari said. Mitsu nodded.
"Hey, I'm hungry, how bout you guys?" Ayame said, rubbing her hands together.
"The lost boys had a net where they kept all their food didn't they?" Tempest asked peering up through the trees, searching for said net.
"There it is!" Mitsu scampered below a low hanging net filled with fruits and vegetables. She flew directly above it, looking for the opening. "Aha," reaching her hand inside, she grasped a large purple mellon. It was soft and fuzzy to the touch and if you were to shake it near your ear, you would have heard the satisfactorial sound of juice. "Here's something!" Mitsu threw the mellon down and Nox caught it with a grunt.
"What is it?" Nox asked, rolled it around in her hands for a better inspection.
"Can't you pick a normal fruit?" Inari called up.
"Hang on, here's something else!" Mitsu tossed down an overly large mango, which was caught by Ayame.
"Oh, I love mangos!" Nox exclaimed.
"That's not a Mango," Inari said, taking the fruit from Ayame and looking closely at it.
"Yes it is!" Mitsu called down defensively. "It smells just like one!"
"No, sorry Mitsu, But this," Inari tossed the fruit up lightly and caught it again. "Is a tumer,"
"Oh shut up!" Mitsu called down with a smile. She picked out three more fruits and floated down to join the rest of the group. They ate excitedly, at first only nibbling lightly on their fruits.
"We should go exploring," Nox stated matter of factly.
"Ok, where do you want to go first?" Tempest asked, peeling apart the rest of the purple fruit.
"I saw a big black castle off in the distance when we were walking here," Mitsu suggested through a mouthful of green juice.
"That would be the Black Castle," Peter said, pushing aside a fern as he entered the clearing.
"Very creative name," Ayame smirked.
"Hey, I didn't name it, the Indians did," Peter said casually leaning against a lick trunked tree.
"Indians! There are Indians here?" Mitsu asked excitedly.
"Oh yeah, they live that way," Peter pointed to the east where the girls could just make out wispy grey threads of smoke. "And the black castle is that way," Peter pointed again, this time north east.
"We should go Mitsu! First the Castle and then to visit the Indians!" Nox exclaimed jumping up and grabbing Mitsu's wrist.
"Hey, I wanna go," Ayame scrambled to her feet and raced after them. Tempest sighed deeply and shook her head.
"We should go explore the mountains," Her eyes twinkled brightly with excitement and Inari nodded. They both clambered up to a standing position and flew away.
"Great, now I'm left here, alone, with no girls to fawn over me," Peter said hanging his head. "Oh, well, I suppose it is time to visit the mermaids," Peter lifted his head again and began to saunter off towards the lake.
Ayame, Nox, and Mitsu landed on the balcony of a large black stoned castle off the coast. The dark waves of the sea splashed menacingly against the side of the castle far below. Inside was a cavernous hall which was once beautifuly adorned with flags and tapestries but which was now in ruins. There was a staircase, which, instead of ending on a platform, spiraled down through the water. This told the girls that the was once much bigger but was now half under water and home to dark under water creatures. In the center was a large rock, where there were chains clinging to it's wet surface. The chains were, notsurprisingly, attached to an old skeleton grinning a toothless grin in the girl's direction. Farther up the staircase, jutting from the curved wall, was a large stone hand. It was big enough to hold all three girls and keep them unseem from any visitors.
"Hello!" Ayame shouted at the top of her lungs. The sound echoed back to them in a wave, sending a few stone peices crashing down near them. A particularly large peice of stone broke free from the ceiling and hit where the large hand connected with the wall. An earth shattering crack sounded and the wall that was hit broke away.
"Nice one Ayame!" Nox marveled. After she was sure no more rocks would come down on her head, she flew up to the opening and peered inside. "Hey guys! Look at this!" Without waiting for the other two, Nox hopped inside the wall, which opened into a room. There was a loud jingling sound and Nox let out a woop. Ayame and Mitsu looked at eachother and flew up together towards the opening. Inside was a narrow, high ceilinged room filled half way with glorious jewels, crowns, gold, armor, and chests most likely holding even more of these items.
"Wow!" Mitsu exclaimed as she landed with a jingle hear a particulalry large wooden chest. It was kept closed with a large golden lock with a rusty key hole. SHe nelt down beside it and rattled the lock firmly. She looked up, hoping to see somekind of clue as to where the key was. It was staring her right in the face. A skeleton of a groan man sat, holding a sword and wearing the finest jewelry in the room. On top of his faded white skull, sat a large heavy gold crown. It was tilted slightly to the side, about ready to fall off. Around his bare neck and tangled with his ribs hung a large gold key. Mitsu crawled over to the skeleton and removed the key with a small dagger laying off to the side. She crawled back to the chest and stuck the key inside with impatient care. It turned and the lock clicked and snapped open. Mitsu pulled it off and lifted the lid. Inside were more jewels and gold coins. Some where strung together on necklaces, others were bits and peices of larger, broken jewels. In the right hand cornor, sticking out of the gold and jewels, was a long gold stick. It was intrecatly carved with strange designs and seemed to glow with it's own light. She pulled it out gingerly and began to roll it back and forth in her hands. A thiught popped into her head. "Is it a magic wand?" She asked herself. She gave it an experimental wave, but nothing happened. "I guess not," She thought. "Oh, well, it's pretty," And with that, she stuck the strange stick into her pants pocket and stood up to investingate the rest of the treasure.
Nox had managed to find a cornor filled with shiny swords and sheilds, spears, and maces. She found a particular one. It was slightly curves with a black hilt shaped like a dragon and red jems stuck where it's eyes were. She pulled it up and staggered slightly from the unexpected weight. "Wow," She grunted to herself. There was a click and clang as the sword broke in half, the long way, down the middle. Nox still held one half while the other dropped to the gold peices laying all around the floor. She picked up the other half and inpected them carefully. They were twin blades, made to look like one sword. This was a trick used for both lighter travel, or an advantage over an opponent. Guessing from the looks of this place, and the way the treasure had been hidden, the king, lord, or what ever he was, had lots of opponents just waiting to get him.
Ayame gazed around at the glittering treasure. No one else knew about this place! It was all theirs for the taking. She staggered up a particularly steep hill of gold. Resting at the top, she stared around her, Nox had found a sword and was now fighting off invisible enemies. Mitsu was waving around some kind of gold stick, maybe a wand. Ayame tried to lean forward for a closer look. Her foot slipped and she off balanced herself, sliding down the steep hill face first making the gold beneath her clink brightly. Her nose skidded to a halt two centimeters before a large red ruby. Ayame lifted herself up with her forarms and stared down at the ruby. As she could now see, it was framed with a golden pheonix and was knotted a leather cord. Ayame picked it up and the pheonix seemed to wink at her in the torch light. She blinked in surprise and experimentaly tipped the amulet this way and that trying to copy the effect. Nothing happened.
"GET DOWN HERE!!" There was a shout from outside the treasure room and the three girls jumped making the clinking noise of gold. It sounded almost like it was laughing at them.
"What was that?" A different voice this time said in a whisper that echoed through the chamber.
"Shhh," The first voice quieted the second one and the chamber fell silent. As lightly as she could, Nox, while still holding her twin blades, rose from the gold strewn floor and approached the gaping hole in the wall. Mitsu and Ayame followed her example and they all peered, as one, over the edge of the hole in the wall.
Far down below, were three men in a paddle boat. One wore a long red coat adorned with gold buttons and sported a large red hat accumpanied by a large pink feather. In place of his right hand was menicing looking gold hook. It gleamed in the sunlight as he twisted it back and forth with his left hand. The other two men were much less important looking. They wore ripped clothing, no shoes and hat that looked more like an over grown sock. Each one held a pair of paddles in their hands and were gazing around the chamber as if waiting for a ghost to pop out and shout "boo".
Nox leaned in close to Mitsu and Ayame and whispered; "Pirates". The sound of her "s" echoed from wall to wall, making the two men with the paddles jump. The boat then rocked and the man in red teatered precariously over the edge.