Chapter 19- establishing the meeting at the Seven Sisters' house
Quaoar, Obi Wan and company followed Cielo through the large house while Bentley and Ozone, who were too large to enter the cottage, were escorted into the Sky Whale farm by some Martlet and Flying Rod servants sent by Cielo around the cottage. Due to the presence of the Giant and the Cloud-Man with the group, Cielo had relocated his meeting to be in the Sky Whale farm instead for the two tall individuals cannot fit into his cottage. As the smaller members walked along, some of the members took in some of the decorations adorning the walls and some shelves. Naihanchi saw an amazing painting of the Lion surrounded by a flaming mane.
"I can see you have a painting of Aslan among your collection of paintings," said the Nekomata with a smile.
"Look, a picture of the Kings and Queens of the Golden Age," said Heather. Naihanchi turned and saw a picture frame of the four Pevensies, the said Monarchs of said age, hung from the wall.
"I'm surprised that for Sky Domain inhabitants, you have some pictures of Land Domain events like the Golden Age," said Orchid.
"High King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just and Queen Lucy the Valiant are among the most important humans in our world's history," Cielo explained, "Even those events happened on the Land Domain, we in the Sky Domain are educated about the Golden Age and other events as they are a crucial part of Narnia's history. It's important that we Skylanders are educated in this crucial area as these events are included as part of Aslan's Book of Narnia, both for truth and for teaching."
"We who live on the Narnian Moon also have resources about the Land Domain's events," said Obi Wan.
"Interesting," said Orchid. She then noticed an entrance to a room branching from the corridor. As the group passed by it, Orchid peered her head into the room and as she did that, she flinched a little.
What Orchid saw in the room was a large complicated creature. At first she thought it was a Giraffe or an Okapi but then she realised that these Giraffids did not have the features the creature in the room had. The creature's face and head was shaped like a Rat's and on its head were greyish horns like a Bovine, large ears like a Hare and a comb like a Rooster. On its chin was a tuft of fur like a Goat. Its neck was scaly like a Dragon and down the neck back was a mane like that of a Horse. Its back was like a Boar's and its front was stripy and orange like a Tiger's (which was what lead Orchid into thinking that this creature was an Okapi). The legs of the creature were bizarre. Its front legs were like an Ape's while its hind legs were Canine. Its tail was long and scaly like its neck and resembled a Snake's. The creature's neck and tail scales shone in a metallic green though the tail also had metallic orange spots. The fur on the rest of its body was reddish and dark red but the Tiger-like belly was orange slashed with black stripes. However, more stripes marked the creature's Rat's face and Boar's back but these weren't natural markings but scars and one of the creature's Ox's horns appeared chipped and missing its tip. Orchid gazed in amazement at the creature but what she was looking at was a creature called a Kotobuki, a Chimeric creature who appeared to be made from parts of 12 different animals: a Rat, Hare or Rabbit, Goat, Ox, Chicken, Horse, Dragon, Boar, Tiger, Ape, Dog and Snake. Male Kotobuki had larger combs, horns and chin tufts than the females and based on the fact that the Kotobuki Orchid was gazing at had such a massive comb, long horns and Goat's tassel under its chin, this individual was a male. Kotobuki were noble creatures like Centaurs, Kirin, Kitsune and their relatives and Unicorns and they should NOT be laughed at or ridden without their permission. Doing so was tantamount to treating such noble creatures like dumb beasts, an UTMOST insult to the Kotobuki. There were exceptions, however such as carrying the injured, the crippled, heavily pregnant mothers of species who bore live young, and in hasty evacuations. Kotobuki called Aslan 'Lion King' like the Komainu do and always revere him though there had been a few rogue Kotobuki in the past who did not fear the Lion nor respect him. Such individuals were seen as traitors and a blot and shame among the noble species by other Kotobuki and were often severely ostracised and seen as apostates. Kotobuki were also long-lived, capable of living for 200 year similar to a Centaur and the individual Orchid gazed at appeared well on in his years.
Orchid continued gazing at the Kotobuki as he examined some sort of device in his Ape's front leg hands until Cielo came in and commanded the Golden-Egg Goose to leave the Kotobuki alone and to not distract him. Orchid did so and continued with the others.
"Who's that Kotobuki in there?" asked she.
"It's Yong Bao," said Cielo, "He's going through some VERY important information Momotaro and his group have managed to bring back during their spy trip last night and wants to get it ready for our upcoming meeting out in the field of the Sky Whale farm shortly."
"So he's in charge of the spy force who have set up base here?" asked Heather the Gold-Fleeced Ewe nearby.
"He is," said Cielo, "He is a war veteran who is now running a spy group and helping to gather information and updates about the crisis in Asgard Sky City. He has sent Momotaro, Inu, Kiji and Saru on their Arrow-Tongue steed Stingray on one last night and they have managed to return in one piece early this morning, albeit singed with a few injuries such as Kiji with his leg and Saru with his arm."
"Sounds like they have had quite a narrow escape," said Orchid.
"Were they near Asgard like Raterpillar the Wapaloosie's team was?" asked Heather.
"No, but they have managed to bring back something UTTERLY alarming," said Cielo, "And Kiji the Pheasant has managed to snap a picture of it on his etch-pod but we'll explain more when we get to the field at the back of our cottage, now let's go. Yong Bao does not want to disturbed until then."
Orchid and Heatrher exchanged nervous looks and continued following the head Acqua of the household as he lead them into a large hall.
As Quaoar, Obi Wan and their group excluding Bentley and Ozone walked through the hall, they heard the sounds of kitchen activities occurring in another room. Naihanchi and Spock turned and saw several more transparent blue Water Humanoids with glowing eyes through a door in what was definitely a kitchen going about their activities. Chatting along with the sounds of clashing, boiling and chopping flooded the room. Cielo came in.
"That's my wife Galassia and seven daughters Alcyone, Merope (whom you've met), Electra, Caleano, Maia, Taygeta and Sterope in their preparing food with my sister-in-law Azula and also with some of my house servants," he said, "They will be serving it to us and you during the meeting."
"Where are your sons?" asked Spock.
"Hippocamp and Proteus are outside tending to one of the Sky Whales in our farm with some other servants, their five cousins who are the sons of Triton and his wife Azula and also some members of Yong Bao's spy team who are helping us while they wait for their next mission," said Cielo.
"Do they sometimes help in the kitchen?" asked Naihanchi. Nearby, Crimsonandil shot the Nekomata a glare at this seemingly impolite question but Cielo didn't mind.
"They do," said he, "Especially when helping to prepare slabs of Sky Whale meat. Hippocamp is an excellent cook and chef."
"That reminds me of one of the young Cheetahs who wanted to be an expert cook back in our community on the Land Domain, Spot," said Crimsonandil, "However, he has drunken a flask of this stuff called Wish Potion which we'll explain when we get to the meeting."
Cielo shot the Vermillion Bird a frown, clearly understanding what the Cardinal Phoenix was talking about. After all, Wish Potions had been one of the things Yong Bao's team had managed to gather. Then putting aside that subject for now, the group continued onward.
Once they were outside the cottage once again and in the field of the Sky Whale farm (which was also home to Cloud Sheep which the Seven Sisters sometimes shepherded), Cielo lead Quaoar and company in the direction of the chosen spot. At that spot, Bentley the Giant and Ozone waited and had already sat down. Cielo gazed at the Land Domain Giant.
"It's a good thing you've brought along a massive individual though I'm sorry he could not come through our cottage," said the Acqua man of the house, "His strength will be useful for your upcoming quest."
"Indeed he will," said Quaoar. Then he shot Cielo a confused look, "Upcoming quest?"
"Yes, you will be helping us sort out the crisis in Asgard Sky City," said Cielo, "That was one of the reasons why Xenon asked you to come here," he then turned to the Kitsumiho, "And we will be needing a Nine-Tailed Fox to go on it."
Then before Quaoar could ask another question, Cielo added, "We'll discuss this at the meeting, now let's get sat down, wait for my wife, daughters, sister-in-law and their helpers to bring in the food and then get started."
Quaoar then abandoned the idea of asking any more questioned and continued to the spot. Within moments, Quaoar and the others had taken their seats in the icy white grass. Cielo then left to return to the cottage to check on the female members of his family and their helpers as well as Yong Bao and a number of other members of his household and the spy team to see if they were ready. Some of the servants stayed behind with Quaoar and company, among them Glint the Yellow Flying Rod.
After Cielo had left, Quaoar and the others, now including Ozone and Bentley, began to talk with the servants left with them.
"The Seven Sisters and their family and group are VERY busy with a LOT of activities going for them," said Glint, "Some activities include Sky Whale farming, Cloud Sheep farming, making garments and clothes, cooking and painting. Cielo is also an Aslan preacher and he often went to Asgard Sky City to preach at their city's Gathering House. Yong Bao was an Aslan preacher for a time as well for some time."
"They frequently visited Asgard Sky City didn't they?" asked Aang.
"To mostly sell their products or, in Cielo's case, to preach at the Gathering House," said Morla.
"They did," explained Ozone, "Cielo and his family have visited Asgard for years and Cielo has preached at our Gathering House quite often. However, ever since Kurama took over Asgard with his false Cult of the Lion and has isolated it in this Incluser Bubble so-to-speak, Cielo and his family as well as everyone else, has been cut off."
"That's right," said a Martlet hovering nearby, his plumage metallic blue like a Swift. The colour palette of a Martlet was commonly shades of blue and green but they could also have brown, red, pink and violet and even yellow, orange and silver in their plumage as well though these colours were rarer. All Martlets were white underneath including their wings and they lacked legs, instead having tufts of feathers, always white, in place of legs. The metallic blue Martlet continued.
"At first we thought it was UTTERLY unusual for Asgard to just close its borders to the rest of the Skylands and other Narnian Domains like that but after a while, Cielo became suspicious and sent some of us Flying Rods and Martlets to go and investigate; his first spy group if you will."
"However, we soon received a call from Xenon and he explained everything to us," added another Flying Rod, a male Magenta one, "And that was the clincher. As soon as we could after our call with Xenon, we contacted Yong Bao who was living on the Land Domain at the time trying to keep the faith in the true Aslan alive down there and explained everything that Xenon told us and as soon as he could, Yong Bao and his group travelled from the Land Domain to our place via Magic Carpet. After their arrival, they came to our place and established it as a base for their spy force with our permission."
"Cielo also reported what Xenon told us to Gelo, our current village leader of Nuvola," added a metallic green Martlet, "and he has commanded one of his inner circle members, Ombro to set up a spy force of his own to help Yong Bao in the investigations."
"And these spy groups have been sent to the area around Asgard since then for over a year?" said Bentley, talking in a low voice so he didn't rattle the air. Glint flew over to him to speak to him directly to his face.
"Yes and most of these trips have been risky," said the Yellow Flying Rod, "Many groups have returned with injured or even deceased members. It's dangerous business being a spy and we are sorrowful for those that have lost their lives but it is important that we gather information about Kurama and his egregious cult and what he is planning to do next."
"Kurama closing off Asgard and trapping the inhabitants within so that he could force his cult on them has been UTTERLY frustrating for you, especially Cielo and his family and his brother and his family since they contributed to a lot of good in that city, hasn't it?" asked Bentley.
"Indeed it has," Glint replied before hovering away from the Giant to speak to the others down below, "As we've mentioned before, Cielo is a preacher there and his wife, seven daughters and two sons as well as Triton, Cielo's brother, his wife Azula and their five sons, sell quite a lot of their products there including the meat from the Sky Whales and Cloud Sheep we farm to help the impoverished living in the city. But Kurama isolating Asgard has completely cut off Cielo and his family's, as well as our as we help our Acqua masters, work for the poor, among other important things such as Cielo's preaching about the TRUE Aslan."
"One of Triton and Azula's sons and the eldest, Crab-Claws," another metallic blue Martlet continued, "Is a doctor and a specialist in rare conditions and is important in managing a VERY rare but deadly internal condition of a young Slugcat named Cloudy who is also blind and crippled. His condition is incurable, even with fire-flower cordial as that red juice will only suppress the condition for a few months before it reappears, and it is deadly if not managed with regular medicine."
"Crab-Claws did regular checkups on Cloudy and made sure he got the medications he needed to keep the condition under control," said Glint before a scowl came upon his simple face, "But after Kurama closed off Asgard to the rest of the world with his cult, Crab-Claws had been unable to see him and his other patients with rare and deadly conditions."
Disgust tore through Quaoar and the others and some of them including Bentley, actually flinched. Ozone and Glitterwing, however, did not flinch for they, being escapees and thus witnesses, understood this deadly implication.
"That's HORRIBLE," Obi Wan grunted.
"Does Kurama even care about poor individuals such as Cloudy?" asked Aang. Near him, Crimsonandil, Spock, Morla, Moana and Naihanchi exchanged glares and shook their heads. They could not believe what they were hearing but what Glitterwing said next made it even worse.
"No he doesn't" said the Cherub woman, "He absolutely does NOT in fact. The only thing he cares about is his cult, the submission of his followers and the money he gets from his followers and illegal acts like selling things. For individuals with an incurable disease or disability, he will just tell them that Aslan will heal them if they and their families and groups do their regular giving duties, that is giving money to Kurama and his higher-ranking cult members. However, if Aslan doesn't heal then Kurama or his higher-ranking underlings will tell them to have more faith and if they doubt, they are faithless."
"A lot of families with disabled members including Cloudy's family have suffered greatly as a result," said Ozone. Then the Cloud-Man drifted into thought, "I think Cloudy was due for another prescription for his medication to manage his internal condition and his family only had enough money for that. One group of Wapaloosies tried to get Cloudy his medication but had been severely penalised by Kurama's underlings for disobedience."
"That was another of your motivations to attempt to escape and get help, wasn't it?" asked Quaoar. Ozone and Glitterwing nodded. Then an ANGRY look formed on Glint's face.
"Cults, honestly," the Yellow Flying Rod growled indignantly, "They are one of the WORST traps anyone could ever set up and for anyone to get lured and caught in. Leaders are often INCREDIBLY narcissistic, demanding FULL submission of their oppressed followers REGARDLESS of what circumstance they are in under the threat of SEVERE punishment such that they cannot question or step out of line. Control freaks that wield fear as a sceptre, that's what they are. And it's even worse if the cult has been set up around a false Aslan and the leader and founder claims to be Aslan's mouthpiece."
"You're spot on there, Glint," said Quaoar with Obi Wan and the others nodding in agreement.
"We have encountered false Aslan cults before on our home Domain, the Narnian Moon," said Weywot the Insect Rabbit Dog, "And often we have managed to shut them down and arrest those founders but Kurama's cult, this is THE worst we have EVER come across and examined," as Weywot spoke, a strange Elf with orange skin and pink cheeks walked in with a male Common Pheasant, a grey Dog and a Macaque, a Cyan Flying Rod flying at the front of them. They had been helping to watch over a flock of Cloud Sheep and had been summoned by the Cyan Flying Rod sent by Cielo to join the meeting.
"You're right on there, Insect Raccoon Dog," said the Peach Elf. The others turned and saw the quartet walk in with the Cyan Flying Rod. Glint introduced Quaoar and the others to the four.
"Quaoar, guys, this is Momotaro and his three Talking Beast friends, Inu the Dog, Kiji the Pheasant and Saru the Macaque," said the Yellow Flying Rod. Immediately, the four newcomers, Momotaro and his three Animal Friends, went round and began to shake hands or wings with Quaoar and the others. Bentley carefully shook Momotaro's MUCH smaller hand with his HUGE one to prevent unintentionally injuring the Peach Elf. Then Orchid and Heather noticed that the Pheasant had a bandage on his leg and the Macaque had a bandage on his left shoulder.
"They had returned home injured early this morning from their spy trip," explained a Martlet.
"Indeed," said the Macaque, Saru as he grasped his shoulder, "We had to beat a hasty retreat when we were spotted by that group that had captured the Blue Arcobalenopod."
Confusion ignited within the Golden-Egg Goose and the Gold-Fleeced Ewe.
"A what?" asked the latter, Heather.
"We'll explain once the meeting gets underway," said Momotaro as he finished shaking hands with Bentley the Giant. He then came in and joined his Animal friends as Glint went on to explain more about them.
"Momotaro, Saru, Inu and Kiji live here and have been since having to leave their home village on the Land Domain," said the Yellow Flying Rod, "Momotaro often helped the Seven Sisters with their weaving while Saru helped Hippocamp and Proteous, Cielo and Galassia's sons and the Seven Sisters' brothers, butcher the meat of the Sky Whales and Cloud Sheep we farm. Kiji is a Sky Whale farmer and Inu acts as a shepherd's dog for the Cloud Sheep and is also an assistant doctor for Crab-Claws."
"Now they are part of Yong Bao's spy force," said Orchid as Heather searched her medical kit satchel for one thing.
"We are currently," said Momotaro.
"And we've been part of his spy force since over a year ago," added Saru. As the Macaque said this, Heather produced a small bottle of red juice and presented it to the quartet. Astonishment tore through them.
"Is that what I think it is?" Kiji asked.
"That very same potion one of the four Monarchs of the Golden Age down on the Land Domain had," added Inu.
"Yes, it's fire-flower cordial," explained Heather.
"That stuff is VERY rare and hard to come by these days," said Quaoar, "and also EXTREMELY expensive. Heather had paid half a year's worth of lions, our Land Domain currency, in a job she did to buy that bottle."
"Then how did you afford such an expensive bottle of the red potion?" asked Momotaro. Near him, Glint and the other Flying Rods and Martlets exchange looks of amazement as Heather took off into an explanation.
"I used to be a weaver much like the Seven Sisters, their mother and some of their servants are now and I made products out of my own shed fleece to sell. Gold-Fleeced Sheep fleece is VERY rare as we are a VERY rare species so our wool was a very valuable material. Then one day, I found this bottle of fire-flower cordial at the market and purchased it using my savings I had built from the excesses from the wages I made from my golden wool products. It was for my brother Sol-Hoof who has a wife and daughter lamb and his family was very poor, the only source of income being Sol-Hoof's job as an assistant crop farmer. Sol-Hoof had fallen deathly ill from a severe lung infection with a nigh survival chance leaving his wife and daughter with an uncertain future. That was the reason I purchased the fire-flower cordial and I used it to cure my brother of the illness."
As she said this, Glint flew in, his sparkling yellow undulating membranes waving through the air like a cuttlefish's mantle.
"Triton and Azula's youngest son, Aragosto, has been trying to grow some fire-flowers, the source of the cordial," said he, "A VERY difficult task since those flowers require such specialist conditions to even germinate, much less grow and bloom and the only perfect conditions that they can do this is the Narnian Sun, their natural home. However, despite the difficulties, Aragosto has managed to get three of the twenty flowers to grow after about two years. He has extracted their juice and now has it in storage in his medical room. However, he will ONLY use the juice in extreme emergencies."
"I could use two drops of mine to cure the Pheasant and the Macaque's injuries," said Heather. At first, Momotaro was about to refuse and tell the Gold-Fleeced Ewe to preserve her meagre supply of the VERY rare juice but Saru and Kiji insisted and so Heather uncapped her bottle. As she administered the juice to Saru and Kiji to heal their injuries (which were indeed nasty for they had been struck by blasts from a phaser and phaser blasts were known to inflict quite nasty injuries and one such sort were severe burns), Scuttle, one of the Meerkats, looked on.
"I wonder if 'Eather could use 'er cordial to 'eal the injured Wapaloosie named... um, Raterpede or something?" he asked. The other Meerkats including the captain looked on in agreement.
"Raterpillar," corrected Inu as Kiji took a drop from Heather's cordial. However, to the Meerkats' disappointment, Momotaro sadly shook his head.
"Even though fire-flower cordial is capable of healing any injury and most illnesses," said the Peach Elf, "Even it has its limits. For example, it cannot cure born-with deformities and conditions such as blindness at birth, injuries that have been inflicted a long time ago such as badly broken bones and spine (the cordial must be administered quickly after the injury to the bones has been inflicted in such cases), and certain illnesses like Cloudy's condition (it can only subdue the symptoms for a few months) and the ultra-rare Jadis' Poisoning, a condition that requires the most powerful potion in all of Narnia, the Nine-Realms Potion, to treat and the one that High King Peter the Magnificent has famously suffered from."
"And one form of injury the cordial cannot cure is loss of limbs or any other body part," said Inu as Saru received his drop of cordial from Heather. Nearby, Kiji took off the bandage from his leg and gazed at his newly healed limb with a smile before gving Heather a thankful gaze.
"Yes," added Momotaro, "Raterpillar lost his back legs and tail to the blast of that Electroshroom bomb during his and his group's retreat, thrown by one of Kurama's underlings."
Quaoar and the others winced, especially Obi Wan and his group.
"NASTY and DANGEROUS weapons, Electroshroom bombs," said Obi Wan, "They are VERY powerful and are known to cause SEVERE damage."
Momotaro, an agreeing look on his face, nodded. After all, he, Inu, Saru and Kiji had managed to escape an Electroshroom bomb themselves without any injury but that was because they had Stingray, an Arrow-Tongue with them and Arrow-Tongues were largely immune to most elemental weapons and blasts (though Electroshroom bombs can still stun them).
"I reckon Raterpilar will have to retire if he's lost his rear legs and tail," said Griffin the Occamy.
"Unfortunately yes," said Momotaro sadly as Saru thanked Heather for the cordial, his shoulder now healed. Then a look of indignation formed on Momotaro's face, "Honestly, Kurama's underlings are SO dangerously armed."
"They had phasers, phaser swords and some other Narnian Moon originating-weapons as well including Electroshroom bombs," said Kiji.
"How they acquired those energy weapons is anybody's guess," added Saru.
"The underlings likely had them imported from somewhere," said Inu. Then Glint saw a familiar form walk in with a small crowd with him. It were Cielo and company.
"Oh, Master Cielo's returning to ready the meeting," said the Yellow Flying Rod, "We'd better get ready."
Immediately, Quaoar and the others broke off the conversation and arranged themselves as Cielo and his group arrived, among them his wife Galassia, daughters Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Caleano, Maia, Taygeta and Sterope, sons Hippocamp and Proteus, brother Triton, sister-in-law Azula and their sons, two of them being named Crab-Claws and Aragosto. With them was Yong Bao, the Kotobuki Orchid saw in the cottage earlier, and a group of various Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures, all of them part of his spy force besides Momotaro and his three Animal friends. Clutched in their hands or wings were important items and some Martlets and Flying Rods brought a large blackboard with them while the female Acquas and their servants that had been with them in the kitchen had a variety of snacks, drinks and dishes prepared for the guests. Then as soon as the group met, they began to set up the meeting while Galassia, the Seven Sisters and their helpers served their products. Not all of the Seven Sisters and their family's servants were present, however for they had to continue the housework tasks and care for the Cloud Sheep and Sky Whales. Only the servants who were helping in Yong Bao's spy team's work were present for the meeting.