Chapter 22.
Feather
To
The
North

ME: Okay, this will be the final filler before the next arc. It shall feature our favorite Sharky brothers and fishy gal, and show a little more light as to what kind of man Faust was . . . This takes place the morning after "Deep blue smile" so we'll be picking up right where we left off!

I was inspired to write this after reading "Everblue"; a beautiful written and artistically amazing webcomic telling the story of a girl sailing across the seas while meeting friends and running from "Death" himself. Read for yourself if you're interested!

I had originally planned this to be centered on Dr. Marlin and Mother Logai, but I began thinking and thinking . . . and thinking before ultimately deciding just to go with this vignette!

Hope you enjoy it, reviews are appreciated! And I owe nothing! Phooey!

"Lately I been, I been losing sleep,
Dreaming about the things that we could be . . .

But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard,
Said no more counting dollars,
We'll be counting stars . . .

Yeah, we'll be counting stars . . ."

"Counting Stars" – OneRepublic

~X~

When Riley went to bring Cassie breakfast, namely the banana-nut muffins he very nearly inhaled in the kitchen of their sub, – He was a half-shark, what are you gonna do? – He hadn't expected to see the seat she had been sleeping in empty. Especially considering how rock-hard she had been sleeping earlier.

It had taken Tuff and Riley a very loud and utterly noisy half-hour to go through the standard process of lever pulling, valve opening, steam hissing and engine powering to bring their submarine up to the surface. And also scaring the living heck out of a low-flying flock of Seagullets whom were trying to find their own breakfast. By that time, the sun had already risen in the clear, blue sky and was already making way to the mid-morning hour of ten.

After making sure the pressure and all such that was required to keep a sub running properly was functioning normally, Riley had come back to the galley to apologize to Cassie whom he was certain was awakened by the clatter. He fell silent when finding her still out cold, using her arms as a pillow and softly snoring peacefully while her tail lay on the ground with a bubbly, wavy pattern on the fin.

Riley was impressed, to say the least. Cassie must've had some practice sleeping in places with lots of noise and movements. When he curiously poked her shoulder, she didn't even flinch. His most mild guess was that it had something to do with Vince.

He had assumed she'd still be there when he got back with the few muffins he basically had to swear a solemn oath to get in his hands. Swearing to his own brother that they were for her and not him, no less while Tuff had been busy making a new pot of tea. Geez, you nearly eat a whole batch of biscuits one time . . .

Obviously, he had been wrong.

Riley then figured she went back to her room. She probably woke up and thought her bed would be more comfortable then a cold, hard table. With that, he had started making his way to the bunks . . .

. . . Only to stop and blink at the open hatch when he had passed by it.

Thanks to his naturally enhanced hearing, he easily picked up the sounds of the waves gurgling and splashing, the caws of birds over-passing, Cassie's voice as she spoke –

. . . . Wait, what?!

The muffins and common courtesy forgotten, Riley abruptly shoved them in his mouth, gripping them tight with his teeth and scrambled up the hatch ladder and sprung his head out, almost banging his elbow on the frame. "Massie, whaf are you doinf up . . . here . . ."

"Oh, good morning, Riley. What brings you up here?"

Riley said nothing, save the sound of a completely intelligent, "Uhhh . . ."

Cassie sat peacefully on the deck of the sub, a smile on her face as a bunch of birds of random shapes and sizes surrounded her. None of them looked like they belonged to the same flock, each hailing different colors and structures as they garnered around her like a class of attentive kids.

A few of the smaller ones sat on her shoulders, such as one with green feathers about the size of his finger on her right shoulder and another the near exact same size with orange feathers on her left, each tweeting happily. On her thigh sat a pair of hand-sized birds that had every shade of the rainbow and nuzzled each other as they peered up at Cassie. Curled up in the loop of her currently sunny-patterned tail lay a medium-sized bird with dark wings and a particularly large gullet, at total peace as though it was in its own nest. In front of her were a few red and white birds with green-tipped wings, along with a black and white bird and long yellow/red beak and a teal/cerulean bird with a near black beak that shared the same purse-like size they had. Finally, set on Cassie's hand completely docile, stood a large black bird with an orange/red pouch for a throat that inflated with each breath of air it took and an equally black and very long beak.

Riley couldn't help but blink. Okay, he didn't have to be a nature man to know that any normal person would be freaking out about the amount of random wildlife going on about her, let alone on her. He knew he would if the situation was backwards.

But Cassie smiled normally like she had been enjoying nothing but pleasant company. And had been totally cool when the large black bird nudged her cheek with it's lethal look beak, going as far as giggling and stroking it's plumage gently, earning a gentle coo. "Oh, be patient, you. You're not the only man here, you know." Turning back to Riley, she inquired, "What's up, Riley, are we heading down already?"

Riley blinked again and tried to speak, "OH! Nof, nof, I waf –" Taking a few steps further up the ladder and the muffins out of his mouth, he tried to ignore the tasty remnants of nutty, fruity pastries still stuck to his teeth, saying properly, "Sorry. I was just about to ask you what you were doing up here." He cast a withering glance at the bird peeking at him from behind Cassie's tail. "But I guess that'd be pretty dumb of me now."

Cassie gave a sheepish grin as the small green bird brushed up against the fins on her ears. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I didn't know you were looking for me, I was just enjoying some peaceful company."

Peaceful wasn't what Riley had in mind with the way that big-gullet bird was leering at him. More specifically the large muffin in his hand. "Riiight . . ." As he started edging his hand away, he went on, "Anyways, I actually wanted to bring you some of these great muffins ya made. Tuff's down in the kitchen making some more tea."

"Oh, thank you, Riley." Cassie smiled nicely. "That was sweet of you, but you didn't have to go out of your way just to get some for me."

Deciding just to ignore the big, mischievous-looking bird, Riley gave her his most charming grin. "Naw, forget it. You're the one who made them for us, remember? Besides, it wouldn't be very chivalrous of us to just eat them all without –"

SNAP!

"OI!" Riley's reaction was instant; he nearly fell off the ladder from the momentum of his arms swinging back like a bat, keeping the precious pastries a safe distance from the disgruntled looking bird. Luckily, he caught himself, letting out a sigh of relief.

Cassie's ears flew up, startling the little birds a bit, before they went right back down along with the smile on her face. "Oh, sorry, Riley! Pelicans tend to be kind of grabby when they get near food. Are you okay?"

"Erf, couldn't be better . . ." Riley grunted, now sending his own leer towards the said bird. He wondered if Tuff would hate him if he made pelican stew for lunch . . .

The large, black bird beat him to the punch, however, letting out a vicious caw with a rapid furl of his wings that ruffled the feathers of every bird present, almost even Riley's and Cassie's. The pelican ducked his head, as though expecting an attack, before quickly diving back behind Cassie's tail, hiding like a misbehaving child with it's stubby tail-feathers sticking out. Riley chuckled. "Ya big scaredy-bird, don't got enough feathers to take on the alpha bird, huh?"

The appearance of the "Alpha" bird swooping off from Cassie's hand and planting itself right in front of him with a silent flap of his wings was enough to make Riley clamp his mouth shut.

Up close, the red-haired Sharkman could easily see the dark, round eyes of this large bird. They bore down on him with the discipline and fierceness of a hunter. A proud master of the skies that took no prisoners and shown no mercy. The inflation of his pouch and the rise of his lethally sharp curve of it's beak made him look all the more intimidating.

One thing was clear. This bird was not one to snort at. Unless you were aiming to lose your nose.

That Riley had no intention of doing.

He held up the very same muffin from before to the bird and smiled weakly, "Uhm . . . Sorry?"

The bird didn't take it right away. It bore it's cold stare at him and the muffin for one more moment of uneasy silence. Then, it unfurled one wing and preened it with his beak, loosening and dropping a feather. Flicking its head, the smaller black and white bird with the yellow beak flapped over, took it into his talons and flapped right back over to Cassie, dropping it in her steady hand. She thanked it with a stroke on its head.

Riley watched silently as the bird finally took the offered food into its beak, the muffin looking hilariously enormous in it's mouth. He remained silent even as it opened its wing once more, swiping it over his head, petting his hair like Riley would to a passing cat, making his wild spikes muss up.

Cassie remained as still as before as the bird came back to her, only moving to offer an arm as perch which it gladly took, brushing its beak against her cheek and temple like she was it's baby chick, never once dropping the muffin. Cassie, in return, gave it one last stroke to it's chest.

The black bird flew off with a flourish, shooting into the skies. The others decidedly followed the apparent leader, each taking off respectively in a cloud of wings and flaps. The pelican shot one last glare at Riley before lifting. The rainbow and the red and white ones stopped only to tap the nose of their beaks gently to Cassie's forehead, bird kisses that Cassie took with a smile as she watched them fly away. It wasn't long until they were just shapes in the distance.

Cassie and Riley watched this in silence, her breaking it with a sigh. "Well, guess that's that then." Looking down at the feather in her hand, she added, "Good thing he remembered what I asked before I left." To Riley, she stated. "That was good thinking, Riley. Trading the muffin for the feather, I mean. I never would have thought of that."

Riley, who had been in a trance ever since giving up what he intended as breakfast, snapped out of it with a "Huh? Trading the muffin? What are you talking about?"

"Frigate birds are some of the shrewdest negotiators of the Seabirds. They hardly take anything trivial when first offered but they will when it comes to food; especially if it has fruits or nuts included in it." Cassie explained with a raise of her left ear and a shift of her legs. "Which is kind of unusual since they're meat-eaters by nature, but I'm not complaining."

". . . . Uh, right." Riley mumbled stupidly as it was the only thing he could come up with. "Okay, and when I gave the bird the muffin, it gave you just a feather?"

Cassie shook her head. "Not just any feather, Riley. It's the feather that's going to help me find Vince."

Riley looked at her as though a second head just appeared on her shoulder. ". . . . Okay, Cassie, you've officially lost me."

Cassie blinked at him in return before grinning normally and carefully getting to her feet to avoid losing her balance on the deck. "I'll tell you and Tuff about it when we get down below and have some tea. Speaking of which, is that other muffin for me?"

~X~

". . . . . . Y'know, Cassie, you're being strangely cryptic for someone who said she was gonna explain how a feather was gonna help her find a were-shark like a needle in a haystack."

Cassie looked up at Riley's semi-sarcastic statement. Tuff simply rolled his eyes and reprimanded Riley by casually elbowing him, earning a side-glare from his twin. Cassie smiled a bit despite herself.

She, Riley and Tuff all sat in the galley, a tea kettle set to the side along with a basket of muffins and three empty cups of tea and crumble-covered plates, reminiscent of the night before with them all at the very same table. Save now with Riley's plate was littered with the wrappers and the few good-sized crumbs that escaped from his mouth, a few more joining them as he polished off yet another pastry.

The sub was currently powered down with the anchor lowered to sea floor for the moment, allowing the vessel to bob peacefully in the water, the above and below of the surface peering in and spraying against the glass. A stray fish wandered to the window now and again, before promptly leaving at the sight of the hungry leer Riley gave them.

Riley had reasons for what he said; she barely said a thing throughout breakfast and now was fiddling with the Frigate bird's feather over a sheet of paper and a bottle of ink like she was debating to write something or just not.

Which, in actuality, wasn't too far from the case.

"Ehm, sorry." Cassie shrugged, her tail coming up behind her and showcasing clouds and petals. "I was trying to remember what it was exactly that I was planning on doing."

The last large chunk of banana-nut muffin was casually pushed into Riley's mouth by his finger, with him chewing and speaking easily at the same time. "Don't tell me this is your first time doing . . . Whatever it is you're doing."

"Of course not." Cassie waved at him. "I just mean it's been a while since I've even had to use this spell; the last time Vince and I were separated was when we had got caught up in a monsoon and lost track of each other for nearly two days."

"So it's a spell?" Tuff commented curiously.

Cassie nodded. "Yes. It's one of the oldest searching spells that anyone, human, Avian, Beastmen, whatever, can learn. But with magic evolving and changing as it is nowadays, most people don't even realize it still exists." She made no mind of the odd stares as she twirled around a few thick locks of hair before plucking one simple fine strand. "For it to work you need the feather of a bird," She pointed to the long black feather. "Paper and ink," She gestured to the said materials. "An essence of yourself," She slowly and delicately tied the said strand around the spine of the feather. "And the essence of the one you seek."

"When you got the feather, did you really have to climb up on deck and draw all those birds down like a clam-bake?" Riley smirked deviously at her.

Cassie grinned sheepishly. "Well, like I said, I was looking for some peaceful company. You two were busy making such a racket and I did need a feather for my little spell."

"So you were awake!" Riley accused her.

"Guilty, only around when Tuff started berating you about "enjoying things in moderation" from all the way in the kitchen." Cassie pointed out.

Riley snorted a little. Tuff then said, "You know, I still can't believe you got from here to the top of the deck so fast; we didn't even hear you opening the hatch."

"I am pretty light on my feet." Cassie admitted. "It comes from having to chase after Vince so many times."

"Boy, do we know that feeling . . ." Tuff stated matter-of-factly. Something then occurred to him. Looking at her, he asked, "Wait . . . Do you actually have anything of Vince's you could use for essence? I mean, when we first found you, you had absolutely no bags with you or anything, save that knife and the clothes on your back."

"And the jewels she used to pay Mother Logai with that she had squirreled away in her gloves, apparently." Riley added to that.

Cassie nodded yet again. "You're right; I had no bags on me because I usually just keep what I can stash in my clothes. I actually tried using a bag when I was much younger, which was very practical on land, but in water is another story. I ran into numerous problems like the fibers of fabric constantly swelling from the seawater, getting caught on the most random things and weighing me down whenever I carried something heavy. After a while I decided to just stick with wearing long cloths of clothing like my sleeves and gloves, each of them carries a few places and pouches for small things here and there." Digging in her pocket, she pulled her hand out and opened it. "Like this for example."

Tuff and Riley peered at the object on her palm. A solitary shark tooth necklace. Tied to a long sturdy piece of string, it had a cracked, jagged edge that had looked as though it had a fight like a steak knife and lost. It was half the size of Riley's thumb and looked as worn as an old glove.

"A tooth necklace?" Tuff said, looking up at Cassie questioningly.

"The first tooth Vince ever lost. At least, the first one I've ever actually knocked out of his mouth when he got me so mad I just couldn't take it anymore." Cassie stated with a reddened shrug.

Both the Luck Brothers blinked at her, surprised. "You knocked out a Sharkman's tooth?!"

Cassie gave a final nod of confirmation, grinning proudly. "Yep. It sprained my wrist for four days but it was worth it just to see Vince's pride bruised a little."

Riley let out a bright laugh at that. "Remind me not to provoke your wrath, Miss Cassie!"

"That's what Vince said when he gave it to me." Cassie looked at the necklace fondly. Her tail fin patterned into flowers and curls at the thoughts in her head. "Along with something along the lines of it being "good luck"."

Tuff gave a small chuckle himself this time. "Sure wish we had some of that. God knows we need it."

"I can only imagine." Cassie offered.

"No you can't." Tuff shook his head.

Cassie tied the necklace on the feather as carefully as she had done with her own strand of hair. "I guess in a way, it is good luck. Because now, it's right here when I need it."

Both of the men watched her as she touched the tip of the feather's spine to her tongue before placing it in the ink vial. As she dunked the tip in and out, in and out, in and out, Tuff asked slowly, "Sooo . . . How does this spell of yours work again?"

On the fourth dunk into the vial, Cassie just said two words to them, "Just watch."

Before any more was said, Cassie gave a brief whistle of four clear notes that hung in the air for a single solitary moment.

. . . BzzT! Bzzk, BZZK!

The feather, from there, took on the silence with a crackling rage.

The quill shook like the rattler of a snake, sparks of bright yellow magic coming alive from the fibers. The sparks grew larger in moments, twisting and turning, transforming the feather into an electrifying spurt of inky, neon yellow. The glow radiated like a lantern, highlighting the eyes and faces of the table's occupants as the energy made the teacups and plates clatter like walkway gravel on a street.

Cassie's hair strand had vanished, but Vince's tooth remained whole where it was clutched at the end of the stream. Almost like the snapping of an eel, the magic dove onto the paper with a splash, spilling its contents everywhere on the once pristine sheet, making a giant unattractive blob.

It stilled for only a second. The next, like raindrops dripping onto water, the magicked ink rippled slowly, coming into shape. Lines formed, spreading thin and intertwining and lacing together, strengthening and clarifying the letters and images of the intended message as yellow pops and crackles gave out harmlessly.

Stretching out to nearly the entire sheet, the charges of magic slowed and slowed, ceasing with silence. The necklace intact and laying right in the center, the only thing remaining of the spell.

Tuff and Riley stared at the paper, completely . . . Well, completely . . . Completely stunned.

That seemed to be the best word for the looks on their faces, bug-eyed, jaws dropped and somewhat paled skin.

Cassie seemed to make no mind of their reactions, taking the necklace back, turning it over to see if any damage had been done. To her relief, there was none. "Good, still in one piece; that's the one thing that's annoying about this spell. You have to be careful about what you use because when the spell's cast, the thing you're using for essence tends to get damaged –"

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Cassie nearly fell out of her seat from the shock of their voices. Tuff and Riley had both shot out of their seats, startling the dishware once more, and were now leaning over the table and staring at her in something dangerously close to awe. "How did you do that?! With the lightning and the ink and the magic, that– That was amazing!"

Cassie sat rooted to the spot in bewilderment. She had expected shock, yes, just as much as anyone else when they had performed such an odd charting ritual like the one she had just done. To say that she was startled at the amount of sheer excitement she received from the Red-Haired Sharkmen would be a gross understatement.

Suddenly, her cheeks tinged blue and hot as her equally warm hand came up and pressed flat against her right cheek, her orange eyes cast downward with a shy smile. Her tail started conducting scribbles and such of the like to add on to her adorable modesty. "O-oh . . . Uhm, it–it's really nothing special. I-I mean, Faust taught it to me and Vince when we were really little. Like really little. Th-This is nothing compared to what he could do with his own magic."

Tuff blinked at her. "Huh?"

Riley also blinked. "Wait, you mean all that," He gestured wildly to the sheet of paper. "Wasn't your own magic working?"

Cassie shook her head. "Nope. The truth is I have very limited range in magic. My tail at full charge and my shifting abilities are about as much as I can do."

"But your side when it was injured –?" Tuff started.

Cassie shook her head once more. "That was my own natural ability. It's like Vince's ability to be able to grow back a tooth he lost in only a day. I don't have any control over how quickly I heal, - Hence the enormous amounts of blood I'm pretty sure that I shed – But I can control how much electricity I can discharge and how far I can go in my shifted form. But even at that stage I have to be careful, otherwise I'll black out like I did before."

As he and Tuff sat back down, Riley inquired, "So, how are you able to cast that spell, though?"

"Vince and I both were given a little bit of Faust's magic to borrow when we started training with our own magic." Cassie said, her lowering back down to the ground with designs of lilies and raindrops. "It's a sort of a boost to our own that helps us control ours in case it gets erratic. It's acts kind of like a faucet that turns on and off at a time, it's sort of one of the reasons I go unconscious whenever I give a rather nasty shock to someone. It also gives us a little mobility over spells like this one and a few others. But other than that, our magic is pretty much just physical stuff like shifting and the like."

Tuff hummed thoughtfully. "Hmm, so what if you didn't have the tiny bit of Faust's magic?"

Cassie held up both hands dismissively. "That's something I'd rather not think about. I'm just happy that I can do this much, at least. Even if it's just a little thing like making a chart." Picking up the paper, she furrowed her eyebrows a bit at what was on it. ". . . As vague as it can be most of the time." She set it back down after a moment of silent examination.

The three of them peered at the paper. Tuff and Riley looked on it quietly . . . Only to pull a face in confusion a few moments later.

Instead of being a detailed chart of an island or even a city or town, it seemed more like a collaboration of words and random images. A tulip, something shaped very much like a snake's head, a banner sign with nearly legible scrawl, a solitary word that stood alone and a puddle of . . . Of something.

All in all, utter gibberish.

". . . Well, this is certainly odd." Tuff couldn't help the comment. He had see some strange maps over the years ever since he had started traveling with Riley, but never any this bizarre.

Cassie had to nod in agreement, her cheeks tinted blue once again and her tail fin spring-patterned. It deepened even more so as Riley asked, "Uhm, what does all this mean? I mean, is it like charades or what?"

Cassie sighed, "Well . . . That's the thing with this spell; its suppose to be like an interpretation of a bird's eye view, barely glimpsing at where the one you're looking for is while only taking the vision so far. Like a peeking in a magic mirror or crystal ball." Her voice clearly started her uncertainty in her own explanation.

Tuff didn't look all that positive about it either as he peered at the paper. "And you're sure that this pictures relate to where Vince is?"

"I'm pretty sure . . . I think, maybe? I don't know." Cassie admitted, her face cradled in her hands. "Like I said, it's been a while since I've used this spell. Last time it gave a few more specific details. Vince either must be moving around too much or is too far out of range for the spell to pinpoint him exactly."

Riley let a breath of air, blowing his bangs out of his face for a second. "Sounds like typical magical mumbo jumbo to me. I don't know if it's a good idea to trust something that works like some cheap voodoo palm reading. Oh, no offense!" Riley threw up his hands in defense when Cassie gave him an astounded look.

Tuff, during this, had turned his attention back to the pictures. He glanced at each totally unrelated thing one, two, three times like clockwork. He looked for any minor details, something that would be missed at first glance. Just something that would connect everything together. Nothing.

He inwardly sighed. Something about this map seemed more like a puzzle rather than a piece of parchment with doodles and scribbles on it. If it was truly such, he could let it go. But like Cassie said, albeit unsure, it all tied with Vince somehow, so there had to be something.

His sharp sea green eyes looked towards the tulip. Okay, if that was there, it had to important. There was a number of references that he could recall reading about them back in the Royal Library; the meaning of it literally being "Turban". No. The embodied symbol of passion, love, romance and a perfect lover, as similar to the ever-dominant rose. No, that's not it either. The fact it could actually be eaten if need be but not likely since it was practically lettuce-like, bean-like or tasteless. Definitely not . . . Ergh, what was it?

He leaned his head down a little closer to the picture. He couldn't really see anything else about it that stood out. It looked like a standard tulip, save the fact that it looked a little grainy on the paper – WAIT A MINUTE.

Tuff sat straight up. Cassie and Riley both looked up at him in response. "Tuff, what's wrong?"

Tuff didn't answer. His mind was already going into gear, the gears and cogs turning rapidly as he held up the "map" to his face. No, he wasn't seeing things. The texture of the tulip was definitely off. The petals of the flower were supposed to look smooth and fragile, not all bumpy and pebbly like a piece of peanut brittle.

Unless . . . . . . . Wait, that's it!

Riley poked his shoulder, a little concerned at the far-off, yet hard look on his face. "Hello, Earth to Tuff? Are you still with us?"

Tuff kept his eyes on the paper, never breaking focus as he said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm here. Sorry, I was just thinking."

"About what?" Riley asked him, both he and Cassie looking at him attentively now.

Tuff set down the "map" and pointed at the flower he was hard-wired to. "About this tulip here. I think I know what this is supposed to be."

"What do you mean?" Cassie asked him.

Tuff, instead of answering her, stood up from his seat and said quickly, "Hold on a minute." And rushed over to the other side of the galley. Both Cassie and Riley both watched him as he unlocked the clasp in the center and threw the doors open with a creak, revealing rows and rows of books. It was obviously a spare tool cabinet that had been converted into a miniature bookcase, one that the elder Luck Brother knew well as he skimmed his fingers over the spine of the books, "Let's see, "Tea Blends for Dummies" . . . "Epic Sword Masters of the East" . . . "Archipelian Royal Scandals" – Aha!" His hand stopped over his prize and pulled it out with ease. "Here it is! "Famous Places for Clueless Travelers"!"

Riley and Cassie, both of their interests peaked, looked at each other in question before getting up, with the paper "map" in hand, and walking over to Tuff, who had already started flipping through the said book with swiftness. "Something you wanna share with us, brother?" Riley asked him, coming up to his shoulder and peering at the storm of turning pages churning in his hand. Cassie followed his lead with a hand on Tuff's shoulder.

"I read this book a few months ago when I got it from Vein Island over in the northwest islands." Tuff started, his eyes darting to spots all over each page he came to before thumbing to another seemingly random one. "I'm pretty sure that the tulip on Cassie's map is in here somewhere, just on a much larger scale than what we saw."

Cassie whirled her surprised face up at him. "Are you positive? You really think it's in there?"

Where Normal Tuff would've probably turned beet red at the sight of Cassie's face so close to his, Bookworm Tuff had taken hold and left him to simply look at her with a nod. "I'm positive. I never forget anything that I read or see in a book which means if I'm right, as I always am, the tulip should be riiiight . . . Here!"

The page Tuff had found indeed bore proof of his claims. There right in the lower hand section of the page, lay the much larger scaled version of the suspicious tulip. Unlike the small, black and white version, this one showed grandeur and color on the page, bearing the colors of a deep purple near black petals and the standard dark green leaves and stem. Now much larger, both Riley and Cassie could see the tile-like surface of the image and the paved and stony ground that surrounded it. Like a ground or a floor or a –

"A mosaic!" Cassie exclaimed, clutching Tuff's arm excitedly with both hands, crinkling the map. Her ears rose up along with her starry tail at her discovery. "That's what the tulip picture is, a mosaic made onto the ground!"

Riley was starting get it, leaning in closer to the book. Taking the "map", he held it up and compared the book tulip with the paper tulip. "Yup, it's a near definite match! But where is it, though? I mean, this thing could be anywhere on the Archipelago."

"That's why it's included in this book." Tuff stated, not once removing his gaze from the page. "It's a famous landmark that was built sometime thirty to forty years ago back where it's Home Island was still first forming into a bustling, near-industrialized city island. Not like Quillotia or the Dragon Islands but pretty darn close." He said that as Riley looked at him questioningly. "It was made famous by the founder of the Island when he first began planting tulips there to provide its people with medicine from its petals during a time of great famine and disease. All in all, it's pretty important to the current inhabitants of the island now."

Cassie's grip on his arm tightened. "Wait, you don't think Vince went there because he had gotten sick, do you?"

Riley and Tuff looked at each other for a second. Oh boy . . .

Tuff glanced at her with an uncertain frown. "I don't know for sure, but it is a good possibility. But, next to Quillotia, it has some of the best doctors and professors this side of the ocean. If he did go there because he was ill, there's a good chance he's being treated."

Cassie's heart began dropping. That did nothing to reassure her at all.

If anything it made her feel even more afraid and determined than ever to find her best friend.

. . . Provided he was still – No! No! If he had been dead, the spell wouldn't have even worked. There's still a good chance he's okay. Not much but still, something's better than nothing.

With that resolve in mind, she looked up at Tuff imploringly, "Tuff, where is this island that this tulip's at? Wherever it is, that's our heading!"

Riley, who had been watching her facial expression change from nail-biting fear to near-sure eagerness with his own mixture of worry and relief, smiled at the determined glint. "I agree. The sooner we find this Vince guy, the better."

Tuff, looking at them both, gave a firm nod. "Right." He looked back down at the book. With his pair of positive eyes and two more eager sets looking over his shoulder, he read coherently and slowly. ""This remarkable mosaic of lackluster beauty and impeccable uniqueness easily showcases the history of the town Opalliou's struggle and conquest over the dark times of death and hopelessness that had over taken over it decades ago when first founded by Regan Charles II. Centered in the Town Square Opalliou on the massive Score Island, this gem of passion and love has long been named as another embodied symbol of medicine and patience to preserver . . ." . . ."

ME: Whew! Yikes, this filler took a lot longer than I thought! What with lazy spells, and dry moments of un-inspiration, I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get this done!

I originally had this done the night before but I was just too plain tired to upload it. Originally because for some reason the Microsoft word I'm using now won't load quite like the type I used before. It's a long story . . . CURSE YOU COMPUTER PROGRAM GODS! DX

Anyway, I had a lot of fun finding the birds for the scene with Cassie on the deck. A lot of this birds' names I do not know the name of for certain, save the puffin and the red macaws and pelican and the like. But, for real, the Frigate bird I mentioned actually does exist! It was a monster of a big bird too! Look it up on Google if you're curious. Along with those rainbow birds I mentioned, the "Australian Rainbow Lorikeets", some of the most gorgeous birds I've ever seen! :D

I hope the length of this chapter makes up for my lateness and I hope you enjoy it! Along with the beginning of the next arc which I will start up in February!

Until then I will focus my efforts on the next chapter of "Hope and Belief" so please don't hate me for putting this off once again!

'Till the next time!