The Quest (Story)

Tink was angry...really angry. It was one thing to force things upon him, but another to force things upon his family, his friend.

But, he search for calm. Kiylo was injured...or had been injured. And that too, was Hegoror's fault. And then here was Kotori, blaming them. He had the gall to blame the two of them for their injuries. Their hurts. Like it was their fault. Tink knew his injuries were not his fault, they were the fault of Hegoror as were Kiylo's. He wanted to shout, to scream at the stupid little boy. But, Kiylo need him to be calm now. His brothers needed him to be calm.

So, he decided to be calm.

"Kotori, leave my house. Please." The please hurt him to say. But he was polite gentleman and gentleman always say please. "Wurthers, Minty, please see Kotori out."

His older brothers looked at the magical boy who barged in. Neither one looked terribly pleased by his presence. "I think the lady has asked you to leave. As has our little brother." Minty looked to Wurthers before continuing. "As are we now that I think about it. You do realize you have just taken us from our businesses and my brother Wurthers here from his wife right? You've scared the daylights out of my baby brothers- who I swore to my dying mother that I would protect and keep safe. I know I am not feeling particularly charitable at the moment. I can only imagine how he is feeling about the matter."

Wurthers looked at Minty, "That is enough." He looked at Kotori and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Please, respect the lady's wishes and just come with me for now. We can have tea downstairs in the kitchen if you like. Maybe in the morning we can all sit down and talk. Alright?"

Tink meanwhile, decided it was best for him to focus his attention on Kiylo. Her hand touched his arm and he smiled. He placed his hand on hers. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry. I'm fine...are you? Are you okay?" He felt strained, the stress and horrible reality of the day weighing down on him. He felt guilt. He knew it wasn't his fault, but at the same time, he felt guilt anyway. "I should have designed something for the windows to make them safer. I should have foreseen...them breaking. You know I didn't want this for you. Let me take you to a spare room. Minty can stay in my room so you can have some time alone. I can find you something to sleep in if you like. I think we have some of my mother's old things in the closet."

He paused, looking at her, "Why are you keeping your eyes shut? Did some glass get into them? Do they hurt?"

"You know what?" he chuckled as he finally was able to stand up, "You know what? YOU KNOW WHAT?!!?!?" He grabbed the hand on his shoulder and picked him up and threw the man far into the air, to point where you couldn't see him. The boys voice turned to that of a deep demonic one that sounded like the devil himself, "I AM TIRED OF TRYING TO HELP YOU GUYS AND YOU NOT GIVING ME ANY THANKS!" he looked at the brothers of Tink, he looked at them with his now black eyes. He let out a loud demonic screech, that shook the house. "I HAVE FORCED NO ONE TO DO ANYTHING! DID I PICK UP THE HOUSE AND TRY TO MOVE IT? NO!" Everytime he answered his questions he yelled loud, "DID I THROW YOU INTO A TOWER AND TRY TO KILL YOU? NO! DID I DO ANYTHING ON PURPOSE TO HURT YOU? NO! SO YOU KNOW WHAT?" He jumped out the window and pushed Hegoror's pressure points to where he couldn't move, and then, he was able to grab hold of the house, and picked it up, "YOU KNOW WHAT I AM GOING TO DO? I AM GOING TO SEND YOU TO SPACE!" He threw them into the sky, and as it went up, the boy he had threw before came into the house through the window. And eventually the house fell back to Earth and Kotori caught it, threw it towards the woods, and warped over to where the house would start to lose altitude grabbed it again and started repeating this process of throwing it in a random direction then catching it.

He was finally able to move again, and when he stood up he started trying to catch Kotori. After a five minute chase, he was finally able to get Kotori and he tried to calm him down, "Stop doing this, these are your friends, they trusted you. Go back to your normal self, before you hurt them anymore then you might have,"

He finally calmed down, and then he saw the house flying and went, "SHIT!" He warped over to the house and caught it, and slowly spun it around until it went to a halt. Great, once again I am going to have to deal with them.... If Hegoror hadn't stopped me though they would be dead.... They need to realize I have not until now done anything to hurt them intentionally.... I can't deal with them now, so if they do not want to come then they won't come.... I will kill myself and then they can stop dealing with this... too bad, guess this generation will not be freed from Deviliculitus..... He took a piece of paper out of his new notebook, and wrote, "Dear friends, since it is nearly impossible for us to get along as a group, I am going to go ahead and kill myself.... Seeing as how are destinies to save the world were caused because of me, I will go to the Volcano in the distance and jump in it.... Guess that this generation will not be freed from Devculitus..... Sincerely,
Kotori
P.S. I will not jump till the sun rises tomorrow, so if you have any intentions of stopping me do it by sunrise.


He placed the note on the window sill when they weren't looking and ran towards the mountain, tears rolling down his cheeks the whole time.

Kiylo was about to speak again, but she was cut off by a loud demonic voice. It was so loud that it made her ears ring, and it made her head hurt. The hands that had comforted her were definitely Tink's, so she slowly took a few steps towards him until she could rest her forehead against his shoulder. Or maybe it was his chest, but it didn't matter to her- she was too tired to care.

But suddenly, her moment of rest was pulled away from her as the floor beneath her seemed to disappear. She hit a horribly hard surface and the impact was mainly in her head and neck area, but when the floor had returned, there was no pain at all.

She had gone completely numb, but as she started to move her hands some, she found the wood floor. She held onto the floor as pieces of glass pierced her skin, making the large caverns of numbness start to fill with rivers of a shocking pain. She cried out, as she tried to hold onto what was rest of the reality she had.

She reached out aimlessly until she grabbed onto a hand. "Tink! Are-ow are you..." she couldn't finish her sentence. Pain overwhelmed her as she even tried to move at all. "I-is everyone... alive?"

Tink frowned slightly as Kotori had his tantrum and turned apparently demonic on them. 'Oh yes, this is a great sign for my ongoing attempts at staying alive...' he thought as Kotori apparently lost it and turned evil on them. He was unprepared when the house, once again, was jostled about with everyone else not holding on to anything.

Luckily his brothers seemed to be mostly okay, though Wuthers looked a trifle upset over the entire turn down for tea and reason he had offered the boy.

Tink attempted to grab Kiylo as she was flung about the house into the wall and failed due to his own precipitous introduction to the wall. With his face. He managed to get an arm between himself and the wall to avoid severe damage to his head- two severe head injuries a day was quite enough. Certainly he had ample brian cells, but he didn't want to risk too many of them in one go. But he still smacked his nose something good as he bounced off the wall. But, that didn't hurt as much as the funny bone he hit in his elbow, causing a jolt up his arm. Nothing serious, just that shock of hitting the funny bone just right.

When the tossing about eventually stopped, he reached to Kiylo, who also reached for him. He tried to pull her close and rest his hand in her hair. "Are you alright? Why don't we get you into something clean and dry, then clean those wounds..they look painful, but not overly deep thankfully. And then we can get you into bed to recover for the day. I think this is quite enough excitement for the day. Hopefully, this is the end of it." He helped her up, offering his arm, shoulder and whatever else she might need as support. It was then he saw the note on the windowsill. He grabbed it, the sound of jostling paper in his hand crinkling. "It seems Kotori has left us a note."

Kiylo was helped up to a standing position. Everything had calmed down, but there was a bit of a paranoid feeling that something else may happen. She nodded the answers to Tink's questions, because if she opened her mouth, she felt as if she might start crying. There was far too much stress on her right now, and the settling feeling that she was blind wasn't helping anything either.

The ringing in her ears was fading away now, her hearing still a bit off. She held onto his arm, knowing full well that if she let go, that she may end up falling again. After a long day of falling, she was not in the mood to fall again.

When Kiylo heard about the note, she looked towards the crinkling noise. "What does it say?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting together. If she couldn't see, she wouldn't be able to read and that was just going to drive her insane.

Tink reads the note, then looks at Kiylo. All at once he knows he can't burden her with the true contents of the note right now. it wouldn't be right. She has enough to deal with. What sort of person would do this? Place this sort of guilt and blame and weight on another person who has just had, quite possibly, one of the most stressful and horrific days of their life?

"Dear Friends," Tink starts, as if reading the note, "I just want to apologize for my actions. I know I overreacted and I am sorry. I know we are all feeling the stress of the day and destiny. I will give you some time to think about things and we can all have a nice quiet breakfast in the morning. Sincerely, Kotori." Tink finished, lying through his teeth about the contents of the letter. He would accept this burden on his own and let Kiylo rest her mind, her body and her weary heart for the evening.

"See, isn't that nice? We can all have a bit of a rest this evening. Let me see if I can find some of my mother's old clothes for you." Tink goes to the closet of the room, then remembers that earlier today, the entirety of his house had been ransacked. The contents of the closet, lie in a pile on the floor of it, tossed back in, probably by the twins, in an attempt to make it look tidy.

He looks through the pile and pulls out a soft nightgown. It is knee length in a soft blue fuzzy cotton with little yellow and white flowers. He finds one of the matching slippers easily, but has to dig around for the second. "I'm sorry I can't offer you a bath, we aren't connected to the water pipes anymore. I will see if I can find a stream and rig up a heater so you can have a bath in the morning. Doesn't that sound lovely? I know I could go for a nice hot soak."

He lays the nightgown in Kiylo's lap along with the slippers. He goes back to the closet and pulls out a dress that belonged t his mother. It is a little rumpled from its stay at the bottom of the closet, but he is flooded with memories and emotions upon seeing it.

He couldn't have been more than five or six. But he remembered his mother wearing this dress and standing in the kitchen, her hair pulled back in a decorative braid as she worked on making some little cakes. It was his father's birthday and his mother didn't know he was watching her as he stood in the doorway, peeking into the kitchen as she hummed to herself decorating little frosting flowers onto the cakes. The sun had lit up her face. It was then that Tink knew what love was. It was the look on his mother's face as she thought about his father. As she decorated the small intricate flowers onto his cake. It was the way she hummed an old love ballad there in the kitchen. It was the way she prepared everything for her family.

Tink looked at the dress fondly, remembering his mother from that day. Before the twins and her death. Though, thinking about it, she must have been pregnant with them on that day.

He looked at the red and white striped sundress. "For in the morning, you can wear this dress if you like. It was my mother's, I think it would look quite nice on you." He says, offering the dress to Kiylo.

Kiylo listened to the contents of the letter Tink read to her and the tension in her shoulders seemed to be released. She sighed and felt a grim smile on her tired expression. She was glad she could finally take a break from the craze of the past day.

When Tink told her about the bath, her sleepy expression seemed to brighten. She would be very happy to get a bath, and just the very thought of not having one made her felt even more grimy and dusty. But she told herself that she would survive another day or two. Her fingertips rested on the soft fabric of the night gown after it was placed in her lap.

She heard the rustling of a fabric, and some steps towards her. She reached out to touch the dress he was talking about and felt its stiff, yet soft fabric. She smiled and turned her face to look at where she was hearing Tink's voice. She was appreciative for a new dress to wear in the morning. It is his mother's... So maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to go running around like we had today. I wouldn't want to mess it up. she thought.

She reached behind her head and pulled her hair to her shoulder. As she attempted to separate it into three parts, she started to get a little aggravated. After a moment, she gave up and furrowed her eyebrows, her lips pulled into a thin line. She bowed her head some and thought about not braiding her hair, but an idea popped up.

"Tink? I know this may sound like an odd request, but could you help me braid my hair? All you'd have to do is separate it into three parts and I think I could get it from there." Her voice was a bit quiet. She didn't want to ask anymore of Tink, but she hated sleeping with hair hair down. In fact, she hated anything that was touching her neck when she was trying to go to sleep.

"Thank you for all you've done for me today."

Tink smiled, then felt slightly silly realizing that Kiylo couldn't see him do it. "Of course I can help you." He opened up one of the dresser and search around in the messy contents (another apparent quick clean up of the twins) and eventually found a brush. He took Kiylo by the hand and led her to the bed. "Why don't you sit down and I'll brush it out for you too. No reason to go to bed with it all tangled."

He sat down behind her and started to run the boar hair brush through her hair- another token of his mother's. His father couldn't bear to part with anything of hers, so this room was a veritable shrine to her after Wuthers moved out. He was gentle as he ran the brush through her hair and hummed to himself one of his favorite songs. Eventually, the hair was brushed and shining as best it could given the state of mess and dust. He parted it into three sections and twisted it into a tight, simple braid as if he were winding wires and coils. Then he got to the end and realized he had nothing to tie it off with and immediately felt foolish. "Have you got a hair tie?"

"I should probably be pretty quick if I want to find a water source and rigged up a water heater before the night is out." It was an excuse to go out and find Kotori without giving it away to Kiylo. "You need some rest. You've worked hard today...you know, healing me so much and all."

Kiylo sat down, listening to the song he was humming. She recognized it and softly sung along with it, her voice barely a whisper. It had felt like it was years ago when she was just walking to the market to get some breakfast, humming songs or just sitting down reading a book. All of that seemed too far away now, as if they would never come back.

When Tink started to braid her hair, she was on the verge of falling asleep. She had started to lean back and drift off into the world of dreams, but Tink had brought her back into reality.

"A hair tie...?" she murmured. There were quite a few in her little bag, but she had no clue where it was, so she checked her wrists. She had one wrapped around her right wrist, serving as a bracelet. She tugged it off and held it behind her head to Tink to take from her.

When he tied off her hair and spoke about the water, she felt a bit worried. "You need rest as well, Tink... Even more then I need it. You've nearly died twice today and you're still hurt... At least let me try to heal you a little bit more before you go." she said quietly, her voice filled with concern.

"I won't hear of it. You need sleep." He said as he tied the end of the braid. he got up from the bed, his hand finding Kiylo's and giving it a gentle kiss before she could pull away, then letting it go. "I am fine. I just want to find a bit of water, then I'll make my brothers do everything. Promise. It will be worth it in the morning. We can have some more of your lovely jam and perhaps some tea."

Tink moved away from Kiylo, "I will leave you to change into the nightgown. If you need anything, I'll make sure one of my brothers is close by to help you." With that he moved to the door, making certain she knew he was making his way out of it by the sound of his steps.

He waited a moment in the doorway to see if Kiyloy needed anything before closing the door behind him and going to gather his things before heading off to the Volcano to fetch Kotori from his tantrum.

"But-" she was cut off by Tink, and she knew any argument she would make, wouldn't stop him from going out in his condition. She sighed and allowed him to take her hand, but she blushed lightly when she felt something brush against her knuckles.

He let go of her hand, telling her that if she needed anything, to ask for the brothers. She nodded her head, wondering if she looked like an idiot. When she heard the door shut, she just sat there, her hands in her lap and her eyes closed.

Well, at least I finally got out of town- check. Met good people- check. Helped save a town- check. she smiled at herself, shaking her head. I'm too optimistic for my own good...

She stood up slowly, starting to undress. It was a bit of a hard thing to do, but she was dressed in the gown. She was comfortable in the dress, though it was just a tad bit big.

She laid back down on the bed, pressing her head into the fluffy pillow. She sighed and felt her mind relax some. Within a matter of moments, she was asleep.

On top of Death Mountain, it was really hot. The volcano wasn't full yet but, it was getting close. Kotori found a nice place to sit while he waited to see if any of his friends would rescue him. He was crying though the whole time. But, then he noticed something rather interesting, there was a girl. She was watching him and just staring at him. "What do you want?" he asked trying not to sound impolite.

She saw the man crying, he looked to be about her age. She heard him and replied, "Why are you crying? Did someone hurt you?" she needed to help this man.

He waited for a second to reply, "My friends do not like me. I can never make them happy. So, I am going to jump into the volcano unless they come. Unless, unless you think you have a better idea,"

"Oh friend trouble? Yeah, well I recommend not killing yourself over them. Are you good at card games?" she said.

"Wha- yeah, I guess so why do you ask?" He didn't understand the relevancy of the question. So he kinda wondered how she thought it would be appropriate.

"Because, I am going to join a pocket demons, or pokedem, tournament so I can become a pokedem master. But, I need a partner first. Would you like to be my partner?" She liked the way he looked. With a costume he could look like a real pokedem player. "Leave a note here, saying that you ran away and if they care about you then, they will find you somewhere in town,"

She had a brilliant idea and he had heard about pokedem before. He used to be the best at it but, he had to give it up as he got older. "Sure, I will be your partner. As long as you can get me a costume that is. I think I still have my old deck here in my pocket. I always carry it so if I ever need them I have them. Aha there it is," he pulled out a tin box full of pokedem cards. He got out another sheet of paper and wrote on it. It said,

Dear friends (if you can call yourselves that),

I am not jumping in, I found someone who appreciates me. If you actually care about me enough to try to find me somewhere in town. I will not leave any clues, you will just have to find out for yourself where I am if you want to find me.

Sincerely,

Kotori

(P.S. I hope we meet again sometime, the world needs us.)

He put a small rock on it, luckily there was no wind so, it was there perfectly and was easily seen against the brown ground. He then went with the girl he had just met down the other side of the mountain. They started to race each other to see who was faster.

By the time Tink got to the top of the mountain, he was pissed off. He didn't have any other way to describe it. In his head he had four different speeches for the petty little brat (at this point, he couldn't think of him any other way). As he took each agonizing step up the mountain, he was reminded how much he had been hurt over the course of the day.

It was a long walk and each step grew more painful. Each jab of pain made him more angry. It was a viscous circle. By the time he got to the rim of the volcano and saw no one there, he could have pushed Kotori into the depths himself. He was angry at the boy for putting these burdens on people he apparently thought were hi friends. The selfish, petty, ridiculous attitude he struck only filled Tinklington with ire.

To find the rim of the volcano empty, only made Tink want to scream. So he did.

This only confirmed what Tink already knew about the boy- he was fickle and couldn't follow through on anything. He thought himself a leader, but couldn't express a single thought, couldn't follow through, couldn't make a plan and didn't care about the trouble and pain he caused others. By the time Tink found the note, he was spitting mad. He wondered who Kotori could have found on the rim of a volcano in the middle of the night. Probably someone out to use him. What sort of sane person just lollygags on the rim of a volcano waiting for people.

This didn't bode well. Likely Kotori would eventually come back and try to get this other person to join them. Hell, every person the boy met was apparently worthy of joining them. A cannibalistic monster who tried to kill him (twice), a crazy person on the edge of a volcano- Tink included himself in that grouping then - and an inventor who hates to kill or harm and is unnecessary to the group.

He was hot, grimy, sore and emotionally weary. He sat on a rock for several long minutes staring into the volcano.

He was glad there wasn't a cap on the magma, at least that meant it wouldn't explode since there wasn't enough of a build up of pressure. If the village wanted to be safe from a lava flow, all they had to do was build a channel to direct the flow. It was common enough. Certainly a pocket of gas could escape, but there wasn't much to be done about that. Carbon Monoxide would kill you before you knew what happened and it had no smell, so at least it wouldn't be the worst way to go.

Tink shook himself out of his scientific mind and back to the matter at hand. He looked at the note and folded it, placing it into his breast pocket. As he did, he realized he smelled of sulfur and sweat...mostly sulfur. How would he explain that to Kiylo, he didn't know.

Well, at least on his walk up here he found water.

Standing, he attempted to dust himself off, but the sweat from the heat made that impossible. He started back down the mountain, limping angrily on his very newly healed leg. The thought of that, just made him all too aware of the beast man who had broken it and tried to kill him and then stolen his house and family out of their lives.

Tink drug himself back to the house. his body aching and sore. In the back of his mind, he wished he had taken Kiylo up on his offer to heal him a bit more, but he also knew she needed rest. Real rest. And considering all she had done for him, he couldn't ask her to do more. He wanted her to just have some time to recover.

Entering his half wrecked out, he slumped into a chair in the kitchen, rubbing at his recently broken leg. There was an ache deep in the bone that he knew would simply take time to heal properly and regain strength from the break. One of his brothers set a cup of tea in front of him, already made up just the way he liked it- lots of cream and sugar. "Thank you." he said as he picked up the cup, blowing on it before taking a sip.

Delightful.

He could feel the stress lighten slightly as he sipped the tea. "I found a stream not too far from here. I would like to set up the hot tub so Kiylo can have a bath." He lifted his arm to take another sip of tea, but paused, bringing the sleeve of his shirt to his nose and taking a sniff. The smell of ash and sulfur filled his senses. The smell of that blasted volcano. "I could use one as well to be honest. I smell like I just stepped out of hell itself. I hate to ask, but can you bring some water back? I can rig something up to heat it."

Wuthers nodded, "Sure thing. We could all use a bit of a wash up." He gathered the twins and Minty with buckets and barrels and a large basic to go fetch water.

Meanwhile, Tink started to work. Eventually he had it all worked out. A large basin that heated the water connected to the old cast iron, claw foot tub in one of the bathrooms. Pull a lever and warm water poured into the tub.

That done, he went back into the kitchen and sat in the chair, sipping his tea until his eyes drift shut and he leaned his head down on the table and drifted off into a tired, restless sleep.

Kiylo opened her eyes and gasped, realizing that she couldn't see. She sat up, reaching around aimlessly for something to grab onto. A scream begged to erupt from her throat, but nothing came out from her lips as she opened her mouth.

She fought to open her eyes, but nothing worked. All she saw was complete darkness. She was sure that if she tried hard enough, that she could see the light of day again...

Why.... Why won't they open? Why? she thought tiredly. Her hands went to his face this time, trying to see if her eyelids were open. They were, and she poked herself in the eyes.

This time, she screamed, but in pain. She began to sob, feeling confused, afraid and startled all at the same time. She wanted to see, know exactly where she was. It was a quiet sob, but it was ringing in her ears.

He followed the girl into the city, they went past many twists and turns. Finally after a long time, they went into a building that was floating in the air. "Where are we?" I asked the girl.

She led the boy into her home. She replied to him saying, "This is my house. My father rules this city. Are you from around here? Most people know who I am but, you don't. Well, I will tell you. My name is Amy Vủ, nice to meet cha. I know of everyone here in this town of Slorth, but I have no true friends. So, I hope you will just be my friend for me and not my money,"

"Oh sure, I would never do that. I hate people who do that,m they make me sick. Oh, by the way my name is Kotori. I have no last name so do not ask. I have a question for you though, do you have any idea where the Jasper heart of slorth is? I need to find it in order to fulfill my destiny," he said. As he thought on what he just said, it sounded better in his head than when it came out.

"Oh you mean that jewel that has been passed down from generation to generation in this town? Well, I used to have it as a accessory in my wardrobe but, then I lost interest in it and my dad gave it to some company and I haven't seen it since," she said.

"Well damn, I needed it. Oh well, I have abandoned that destiny actually just wanted to know. Now my destiny is to be your partner in Pokedem so we may become the grand champions of the world at pokedem," he said, "But, first we need to get to bed. Where should I sleep?"

"You can sleep with me. I won't mind. My father won't care,he knows I sleep with men all the time without doing anything. So, come on my room is this way," she said. She took his hand and took him into her room.

Suddenly her hand grabbed him and took him into her room which didn't look as girly as he thought it would be. It was actually filled with pokedem posters and items. She had some posters she had made that were the best tactics in the game. Her bed was actually kinda plain, it was a double king sized bed. It was the biggest one he had seen before. But, other than the size, it wasn't all that amazing.

"Well, quit gawking at the bed. Take off your shoes and sleep. Don't worry if you get it messy, the maid will change the sheets when we wake. So, relax," she took off her shoes and jumped into the bed and got covered up and went to sleep.

He took off his shoes and got into the bed. It was super comfy, like sleeping on a cloud. It made it super easy to go to sleep. Before he went to bed, he wrote in his journal.

As the sun came up in the morning, Amy woke up. She yawned a little and tried to wake Kotori up. She tried to nudge him, saying,"Hey Kotori wake up. We got to get up," this didn't work. She sighed and got out of the bed, went over to a knob on the wall and turned it clockwise. This knob heated up the bed so if you didn't wake up, it made you so hot you had to get up. So after about a minute, Kotori got up. As soon as he did she turned it off.

He woke up with a start and asked Amy, "What time is it?"

"6:30 in the morning. I know it seems early, but a sign up sheet will be posted for a Pokedem tournament soon and we need to be first on the list. It is guaranteed to make us be in the competition if we sign up first. So come on! Get up! We cannot be late. It doesn't matter if you put new clothes on, look at yourself," she said to him.

He looked at himself and saw that he was clean, "How did you do that?" he asked and he heard her talk about how the bed does it. Something in the design of the bed cleans anything in it without waking the user. "That is cool," he said to her answer, "So lets go then," he said as he grabbed his shoes and put slipped them on. They were slip-on as he usually wore so it is easy to get out of the house. "Where are we heading?" he asked as they reached ground level.

"The other side of town. We are going to take my car," she said as he led him to her underground garage.

"You are allowed to drive? You seem too young. I can't even drive yet," he said to her.

He looked at him with a happy grin and laughed. "When you dad rules a city, the law can't touch you. So I think I am going to take the Speedy Gonzales 300. What do you think?" she asked.

"The... the.... the Speedy Gonzalez 300?!?!!? That is like the most expensive car in the world! How rich is your dad?" he asked. The Speedy Gonzales 300 was an expensive car, like any of the Speedy Gonzalez companies' cars. But, the 300 was the best. It: could go from 0 to 120 in 1.2 seconds; had invisibility feature; could drive itself if asked; had a mini-fridge in the trunk for tailgaters; premium SHD (Supa High Definition, even better than blue-ray) quality speakers; seats made from the finest of leather; an auto-park feature; voice activated ignition; auto-shift; and the newest in power technology, self power (meaning, when the wheels turn it powers itself by a system that turns a generator when the axles on the wheels spin.)

"Lets just say that I was able to buy Microsoft. We renamed it 'Grape.' We then bought Apple and renamed it 'Orange.' Now they are both named, 'the fruit tree. And we still had enough money to buy them both again!" (I couldn't think of a better example that didn't require me making a long ass explanation. You can think up your own companies to replace them.)

"Damn! You are just like olympic swimming in money. But, I digress. We need to go sign that form,"

They walked in and, the car was gone. "Um, we can walk. But, we are going to have to find the thing, because the car knows where it is. I forgot after I programmed it into the car. So, I guess we are going to have to go searching for it," she said.

Tinklington awoke from his nap, pushing his head up from the kitchen table. He blinked, bleary eyed at the window where the sun was just cresting over the horizon, granting a pinkish glow to the room. Any moment now, the sun would veritably blind him. His neck and shoulders were sore and stiff, but he was still exhausted. Why had he woken?

Then he heard it again. The sound penetrating into his mind.

Kiylo.

Standing from the chair quickly (and knocking it over in the process) he rushed back upstairs to the room she was staying in.

He opened the door without thinking, rushing past Wuthers who was rubbing at his tired eyes near the doorway. Luckily she was not in any state of undress. She was however, in a state of complete mental disarray. Her hands flailed about her eyes. From his view it looked like she was trying to claw them out of her head. He rushed to her side, taking her hands in his own and sitting next to her. "Kiylo...Kiylo...it's alright, it's alright. Calm down." He wrapped an arm around her, trying to give her some comfort. "It'll be okay. I'm here. I can help. Let me help you."

"You're in my house, remember? We're outside of Slorth because that... creature... moved my house and nearly destroyed it and us inside?" He tried to pat her head, holding on of her hands in his own. He still smelled of sulfur and ash and sweat, like he had traveled out of the pits of hell themselves, but he wasn't thinking about that.

Kiylo could barely hear the door being opened, the sound of her blood rushing through her ears overpowered anything she could hear. When her hands were taken from her, she didn't fight it. She stopped her war with herself and let it sink in for a moment, tuning out Tink's voice.

When he wrapped an arm around her, she leaned to where she was being pulled. She closed her eyes and continued to have tears going down her cheeks, but she wanted to stop. She didn't want to cry in front of Tink. It would only make him feel terrible.

She pressed one of the sides of her face into Tink's arm, taking in a shaky breath to finally make herself stop crying. He smelt like he went through a burning fire, but she said nothing of it, her bottom lip still quivering.

"I... I remember. I just... Just can't see. There's no light..." she whimpered, bowing her head.

"Well, how about this... I've rigged up a nice warm bath. I think I even have some mint laying around if you would like it scented. While you are soaking, I can fix you up a nice cup of tea and maybe a bit of breakfast. You'll feel better after that. I know I can usually face just about anything after a nice bath and a good cup of tea." Tink smiled, cradling her hand between his. "Then maybe I can try to invent you something to give you some perception of the objects around you. It may take a bit of time though to come up with something that keys off your other senses."

He let Kiylo lean against him for as long as she liked. he wasn't quite ready to tell her about the other note Kotori left yet. He didn't even have to modify that one very much from the original. he decided he would break it to her during breakfast...maybe after.

"I'd like that..." she whispered after a minute or so of silence. She knew she needed a bath, but not nearly as much as Tink needed one.

"But maybe you should take one first..." the comment was accompanied by a light giggle that was hoarse. She felt a little bit better, knowing that someone else was there. She was actually in shock, thinking that she was able to accept it, but in truth, she really couldn't. She was still very scared.

Kotori and Amy had been walking around the town for awhile. They were almost at the sign in thing, but suddenly, A thief ran past them and stole Kotori's hat. "MY HAT! Stay here Amy I will be right back," he said as he ran after the thief. He followed him through an alleyway, went over a box, jumped up and started running on some support beams of a new house being built, jumped into a lake and got out at a pier, went down a narrow alleyway and went left then right then left then left and then couldn't find him, but he saw a ladder. He climbed the ladder and started running on the roofs to find him. He finally saw the person, and he started running towards him and when he had caught up to him he jumped off the roof and landed on the thief.

"Oww.." the girl said, "Why did you do that asshole?"

"You took my fucking hat ass," he said as he took the hat from the man, "What is a man doing out here taking peoples hats? Lets see who is behind the mask," he pulled off the mask and a girl with beautiful blond hair almost golden appeared.

"Well, am I the MAN you expected? And if you must know, I am on a mission. I am the world's greatest thief. I steal anything from anyone, except the powerful ones. My name is Bonnie Parker if you must know. My husband Bonnie should be around here somewhere. Now run along before he sees me, it would ruin my reputation if someone was able to get something I stole back,"

So the boy ran back the way he came from and went back to the sign up post, seeing an impatient Amy waiting for him to get back and sign.

"Sign the damn thing so we can go inside the arena," she said to him angrily.
He signed his name next to hers he loved her signature, it had alot of curls and hearts. It was cute. Suddenly, the board glew green and then the two were transported to a room that looked kinda like a locker room. As he was transported he tripped and fell and landed on the floor of the locker room. Still on the floor he asked her, "Where are we?"

"The battle arena, this is the warm-up rooms where you are allowed to practice your skills and tactics. Now, If you need to get more sleep then here," she said as she threw a pillow at him, "there is a door over there that is a bed, it has no pillows so you see why I gave you it. It was put there knowing that I would come early. So go sleep if you need to, because at 8:30 the competition starts,"

He grabbed the pillow and replied to her saying, "Nah, I am awake after that running. I think I am going to go walk around if it is allowed,"

"Yeah it is allowed, just do not go in any doors that aren't this one, other wise knock yourself out,"

"Okay then," he left her and went to go walk around, because something didn't seem right to him about this place. He had to go walking about.

"Oh, I could certainly use a bath, but I promised it to you. Don't worry. Men can stand to be dirty for a bit. Even refined ones such as myself." He chuckled, helping Kiylo up. "I want to show you the modifications I made, just for you."

He carefully led Kiylo to the bathroom, carrying the clothes he had set out for her the night before. The device rigged to the tub was interesting, but that wasn't what Tink intended to show Kiylo. He moved her hand to one of the knobs. It was covered in small bumps and ridges. "This one is the hot water. See how it is bumpy?" He let her feel it for a moment before moving her hand to the other knob which was slick and completely smooth. "This is the cold knob...completely smooth, like ice." He smiled, letting her explore the two knobs on the tub. "The ridges on the hot look like fire and the cold is slick and smooth like ice. This way, you don't need to see them to know which is which. You can tell by how they feel."

"If you take two steps right from the tub, there is a table waist high with towels on it. Below the towels are a drawer that has an extra toothbrush, tube of toothpaste and hairbrush in it. If you turn around from the table with the towels, you should find a bar if you put your arms straight out. I am going to hang the clothes for you on that bar." And he did. "If you feel the floor, right in front of the tub there is a fluffy rug. There is another rug with a shorter, coarser feel in front of the toilet."

Kiylo allowed herself to be lead to what Tink told her was the bathroom. She felt a cool metal against her hand with a bumpy feeling to it. She nodded at his questions. She was very appreciative of the modifications he made for her, seeing as how a bathroom would be hard to navigate without some kind of help.

After following all of Tink's instructions, she could feel a fluffy floor underneath under her feet. A light smile crossed her lips as she reached down and ran her fingers over it. She looked up at where Tink's voice was coming from and stood up.

"Thank you." she said, putting a hand against the wall to keep herself balanced. She had gotten up too fast and it caused her to nearly fall. She let out a soft sigh. "I'm really grateful that you let me into your home." she really didn't know what to say. She was still a bit in shock, so nothing witty came out.

Walking around in the arena he saw many doors, one of them intrigued him. He read the sign to the side of it, 'The Bosses Office All New Players Should Come Here" He thought about it for a second and he was technically a new player. So he went inside. The lights were off so he turned them on. No one was in the room so he decided to investigate the room. He started looking inside the desk and inside the closet in the room but, he started hearing footsteps so he quickly shut everything and sat down on the couch in the room. Then a man came in he was blue and looked like a monster.

The man looked at him and said,"Well you are here early, you with Amy? You must be, okay if Amy recruited you then, you must be good. So you must be in here to see me for some reason am I right?"

"Umm... Yeah! Yeah, I came to ask about this place, I am new to town but not the game and wanted to ask for a tour of the place so I can see the different places and such," he said. He started to sweat lightly trying to to look nervous.

He looked at the man and said,"Well then if you want a tour follow me. I guess we should start with the....."

For about an hour he gave a tour to Kotori and so he saw that the time was. Kotori heard it was 8:00 and decided it was time to go back to the locker rooms. "Hey I got to go change into my costume seeing as how the thing is going to start."

"Okay hope to see you do good in the tournament," he said.

Tink moved to Kiylo to help her regain her balance. "It is an honor to have you in our home. I'll...um...leave you to bath. Take your time. I'll whip up some breakfast and tea. I've added a rope lead just outside the door to lead you to the kitchen. Just follow the rope and it will get you there. Or you can give a shout and I'll come and help you."

Tink smiled and turned to leave. "Do you like crepes? I was thinking I could use some of your jam and maybe make strawberry crepes for breakfast. Nothing too fancy, just simple." He waited in the doorway for an answer before leaving and shutting the door behind him.

He had plans for the day. He had to cheer up Kiylo after all. He thought about the note in his pocket and frowned at the thought of it. No, now was not the time to burden her with that knowledge. He would take her into town and show her how she could appreciate things even without seeing them. The markets, the gardens...yes, that would be the thing to do.

At the mention of crepes, Kiylo's stomach growled right on cue. She was a bit embarrassed, but she really didn't care at the same time. She nodded at Tink before feeling a light smile cross her lips.

"Strawberry crepes sound delicious." she said. She had never thought to add her jelly to crepes, but added some fun things when she grew bored and her... well, the person who kidnapped her and killed her parents, was asleep. She sighed quietly at the thought, a bit upset that she had thought of it in the first place.

When the door was shut, she turned and faced the tub, running her fingers over the knobs. She loved the bumpy feel of the hot water knob so she waited a little while before turning on the water. She then stood up and turned around, taking the two steps that Tink said would take her to grab a towel. She did that and then placed it on a flat surface that was close to the tub.

After her bath, Kiylo followed the rope that she was told would take her to the kitchen. As she walked into the room, she could smell the amazing scent of strawberries and other sweet scents. She could tell her mouth was watering.

"Ohh... That smells good." she said, staying at the end of the rope, just wanting to stay where she was at so she could enjoy the smells.

Tink turned and was momentarily startled by the sight of Kiylo wearing his mother's dress. The sunlight from the kitchen window landed on her face and in her hair. For a moment, Tink thought he had seen a ghost.

And like that, he was lost.

He froze slightly, looking at her before he cleared his throat and was able to refocus. "I am glad you approve. I also made some eggs." He could hear the beating of his heart in his ears, the blood rushing to his head. And all at once, he was almost glad she couldn't see him blushing like a fool. Even those words had been hard to get out.

Sadly, his little brothers could. They started to snicker before getting to their feet. They cast mocking, but knowing looks at their brother. Each of the twins offered Kiylo and arm standing on either side of her. "M'Lady, let us escort you to the table."

Tink set a plate down at the table, along with a cup of tea. The tea, not the normal black, was flavored with a touch of sugary strawberry syrup to sweeten the drink and complement the meal of crepes and soft boiled egg. The crepes were folded neatly, filled with cream cheese and strawberry jam and one could eat them with their hands. The egg sat in an egg cup, already cracked open with a small spoon inserted within for easy consumption.

Kiylo smiled some and nodded towards the twin's voices. She took their arms and allowed them to lead her to the table. One left her side and pulled out a chair, which she sat down in slowly, trying her best not to fall. She grinned successfully when she was able to sit comfortably without tumbling to the ground like an idiot who's had their chair pulled out from under them.

She wasn't quite sure where everything was, so she slid her fingers over the table, waiting to bump her fingertips against either a plate or a piece of silverware. When that didn't work, she pulled her hand up and put it down onto what seemed squishy and soft- and she jerked it back realizing it was food.

He has been thinking all night and all day about what he should do at this point. I do not know if these guys will ever think of me as a friend.... They all hate me and would rather I die than help them.... But, I do not care I know that I have a prophecy to fulfill and I do not care if these guys like it or not I have to save the world.... So they will have to get used to it because, I will be going with them anyways.... I know my parents would be proud of me for doing what I know is right... You know what, I need to try and figure out what it is going to take to get them to just deal with me.... I do not care if they like me but, I would like it if they would deal with my presence....He went over to the house and knocked on the door, "Hello?" he said, "I would like to talk to Tink, privately please. I will not hurt him I just need to discuss somethings with him for a minute," He didn't think that Tink would come alone, but it would be nice if he did.

Tink smiled tiredly. He had gotten precious little sleep. "You can eat them with your hands, it is fine. They are all folded nicely over. If you feel directly above your plate at 12'o'clock, you will find the egg cup." He rested his chin on his upturned palm, watching Kiylo. His eyes drooped, but didn't close.

He still needed a bath and a change of clothes.

The knock at the front door of the rug shop was startling. Tink turned but didn't get up to answer it. Instead, his brother Minty was there. He opened the door to see Hegroor. His mouth soured immediately as the brute tried to talk to him. "And I should believe you why exactly? You realize our father probably thinks we're dead, Wurthers wife probably thinks the same right? I can see him now, Dad, coming home from his errand with Formi and sees no house, just a pile of pipe, foundation and rubble. Then hears rumors about the cannibal guard taking the house as a whole through the streets. Yep. He probably thinks we're dead." Minty rubs his eyes. A hand on his shoulder gains his attention. He turns to see Wurthers.

"I got this." Wurthers looks at the hulking crab-man for a moment as Minty retreats back into the rug shop in front of the house. "Tink is busy at the moment. He hasn't slept so far as I know and spent all night working and out hiking. He smells like he has been to hell and he apparently came back from the dead twice yesterday. Give the boy a break today, alright? Let him just have a bath and some breakfast." Wurthers looked at the large shelled man, trying to be the reasonable one. "How about you go into town and have some breakfast yourself? I hear Slorth has lovely lamb shank and a few very fine bakeries. You can talk to him this afternoon after he's had some rest. I'll set it all up. Deal?"


---------------
Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, the twins were digging into their crepes and eggs. Tink sat next to Kiylo, watching her with a moony smile on his face. "I am going to take a bath before I fall asleep at the table." Tink paused for a moment. "Oh...Kotori won't be joining us for breakfast. He left another note. Let me read it here." He pulled the note from his pocket and did some quick editing for Kiylo, "Dear friends, I found someone who appreciates me. If you actually care about me enough to try to find me somewhere in town. I will not leave any clues, you will just have to find out for yourself where I am if you want to find me. Sincerely, Kotori." Tink sighed. "I thought we would let Kotori have his pout for a while. We could go into town and take in the market. I wanted to show you all the things there and that you can still enjoy them."

He looked at the man at the door who said he would arrange a meeting. "Fine," he said to the man,"But I will not go into town. I do not think I will be normal there. I would stand out like a sore thumb, I think I will just go look for some food in the forest if that is all right, or you know what I need to sleep too. When the meeting is ready knock on my shell. Have a nice day," He walked a little bit away from the house and curled up in his shell and fell sideways. He was now in perfect blissfulness.

Kiylo heard a knock at the door, but heard it get drowned out by Tink's voice. She listened to his description and did as told, finding everything where he said it would be. She smiled and picked up a crepe before taking a bite out of it, the delicious sweet flavor dancing on her tongue.

But then it hit her.

The smile faded lightly from her lips as she chewed, a bit of depression pulling at her face. She wouldn't be able to cook. With her blindness, she would never be able to handle hot things, seeing as how it could be a terrible danger to her, and she really didn't like pain- and didn't want anymore put onto her shoulders after her healing takes its toll on her.

She perked back up when Tink spoke again, turning her face towards him to listen to him read off a letter. He's a bit self centered... Thinking that we live our lives around him and his decisions. She sighed and took a bite out of her crepe.

He then said something about going to the market, and she smiled again. "The market?" she asked, a light tone of excitement in her voice. She had always wanted to go to the market in Slorth.

"Yep, the market. We could pick up lots of food to cook and I could show you how to navigate the kitchen and make changes to accommodate you. I would be vastly disappointed if this was the last of the delicious jam you were ever to make." Tink got to his feet and smiled. "If you need anything, Ash or Rion will get it for you. I am going to have a bath so I stop smelling and looking like the underside of a kettle. You enjoy a nice relaxing breakfast and I will be back."

With that Tinklington went upstairs and started himself a bath. He looked through his disheveled closet and picked out his very nicest waistcoat (it was black with red piping), his crispest white shirt, a pair of neat black pants, a red cravat to match the piping on his waist coat and a sleek black jacket. He contemplated getting a pair of cufflinks and chose a simple pair made from gold set with small round garnets and a matching cravat pin. Yes, he and Kiylo would match quite nicely on a walk about the markets

It wasn't long before Tink was ensconced in water. it was glorious. He let the warm water soak away the aches in his muscles. Looking over his body, he saw some scars and light bruising, but nothing so bad as to show what he had really been through. Once again he was amazed at the power of Kiylo's gift, unknowing that Kotori had lent his healing skill as well. Refreshed and clean, Tink dried and dressed himself, attempting to put his hair into some sort of order.

He smiled, getting a special cane from his collection- this one would shoot a numbing agent that could render a villain immobile for several minutes. It also had a small blade concealed within should the circumstance call for it. Thinking about it, he grabbed an extra cane for Kiylo. One with similar properties. He clipped a few discreet tools to his belt- lock picks, a small palm torch, multi-tool, and a bit of wire. Then he put on his precious goggles, thick steel toe boots and rather jaunty top hat. Excellent. Perfect. He felt like himself again. At the last moment, he put on a gun harness beneath his jacket and added a tazing gun to it. No telling what people would do in Slorth.

He made his way back down into the kitchen. "I feel very nearly human again." Slinging off his jacket, he sat down at a chair near Kiylo and poured himself a nice cup of tea. "I brought you a present."

"What are we waiting for Bonnie? Lets just go in that house and grab what we can find," the boy said.
"Patience Clyde, when performing a household robbery you wait till the people leave the house," she said to the boy while looking through a pair of binoculars,"I am waiting for the nice dressed fellow with all the gadgets on him to leave otherwise we may just have a few more assholes in places we shouldn't. So be patient unless you want to get killed,"
"Okay honey," he replied,"But I hope they leave soon, I am getting hungry,"
"DO YOU EVER STOP EATING!" she said to him.

Kiylo's blind eyes went wide at the very idea of being able to cook again. There was no words that could form in her mouth to express how excited and delighted she was. Yup. I'm speechless. So very speechless. she thought, a grin going across her face.

She then heard Tink leave and she focused on her food, savoring the delicious flavor of the crepes and the jelly. She finished it and then went on to take a sip of her tea, which she found to taste very sweet, unlike what she was expecting. She gave a soft sigh and smiled.

Soon, she was done with her whole meal, and a light wave of helplessness overcame her. She wanted to help clean up, but she didn't even know where to turn and where to go. She bit down on her lip before finally deciding on calling Ash or Rion.

She was about to call for help, but she stopped herself when she heard Tink come in. Something heavy was hit against some wood and a chair slid against the floor. She guessed that he sat down.

"Did I ever say thank you for letting me stay here?" she asked.

"There is no need for thanks." Tink waved a hand idly. "Any gentleman would do the same." Tink finished his cup of tea quickly. "But, I have somthing for you."

He moved his chair closer to Kiylo and placed the cane against her hand. "This has a dual purpose. You can use it to feel the ground in front of you in case you do not have a companion. And feel the button here? if you press it, the tip will shoot out a numbing gas." Tink grinned, "Also, it is very stylish, smooth light maple, topped with a silver ball cap. The point is titanium so it won't wear down from use. And, it matches mine."

"If you are all ready, shall we head into town? We make quite a fine pair if I do say so myself. You look lovely in that dress." Tink blushed, once again half thankful Kiylo couldn't see him. But, when the twins started snickering, it would be fairly obvious. Tink cleared his throat and stood. "You two should tidy up the house. We need to make the best of things here. I know Minty and Wuthers are already working on some of the damages and various messes. You two should join them. I will get supplies from town while I am there. Anything you two need?"

"Lemon Zingers." "Cocoa Clusters." "Hot Tops." "Lamb chops." "Lamb chops? Really Ashley?" "I like lamb chops. Shut up."

"I'll get you guys something." Tink cut in before they could really take off into an argument.

He offered an arm to Kiylo, gently brushing his sleeve against her fingers as a cue. "Shall we M'Lady Fair?"

Kiylo felt the cane in her hands, her finger occasionally slipping over the little button. She didn't want to actidently push it, so she stopped, resting her fingers on top of the chilled metal.

A light blush went across her cheeks when he complimented her, and from the snickering coming from the two twins, she guessed that Tink was blushing as well. Kind of glad that she was not alone in feeling a bit flustered, she gained a bit of confidence.

She smiled when she heard the twins bicker for a few seconds, before Tink interfered. It was as if anything Tink said, the two would obey it- with a few complaints, but they would do it anyway. She felt a bit out of place in this atmosphere, seeing as how she was never really able to get along with her family, or those who claimed they were family.

She was lost in thought when something brushed against her arm. He took the arm, and they set out on their little adventure to the Market.

"Okay it is time to move out. Be extremely silent," she said, "I will take out the big guys. You go in and take everything you can get. You got that?" She got out her sniper rifle and started aiming at the boys. It was using knockout ammo. She was a great shot so every shot she used hit the target. She aimed at all the boys heads and was about to pull the trigger until she noticed Clyde was absolutely nowhere to be found. "Oh my god did he leave to go get food? Great this operation is dead now. Mother of god, I am going to kill him I swear," she put up her sniper rifle and started to try and find Clyde.

Tink led Kiylo through the house and out the front door, locking it despite the fact that it was basically a futile effort. Who would steal from a house that looked like (and actually had been) it had literally been tossed into its place in the middle of the woods. It was slightly askew on the ground since the ground wasn't flat, the damage to the roof tiles was still evident though the main structural damage had been fixed magically. Even through the windows you could see the general dishevelment of the house that had been ransacked the day before and then tossed about. Tink grimaced at the sight of his family home in daylight.

"They really did a number on our house. I'm going to have to find a way to lift it so I can clear and stabilize the ground so it doesn't get much more lopsided or we're going to have to eat breakfast on the walls instead of the floor." Tink expelled a huff of air as he placed his top hat atop his head. he touched his sleeve to Kiylo's hand again to get her to grab on.

From above, Wurthers shouted down. "Oye Tinklington." Tink looked up, knowing his brother only used his full name when he actually had something to say (or wanted to tease him). "Be back this afternoon, we'll need your...ah...help with some things."

"Alright." Tink shouted back.

He led Kiylo away from the house. "Smell that? Fresh pine with the morning dew just drying in the sun. You can probably also feel the needles beneath your feet, the thin pine needles feel and sound different than the soft squishy leaves of other trees." He led Kiylo through the edge of the woods occasionally telling her "up" "down" "Step high" "obstruction" in a soft voice as he carefully watched the path and to make it easier for her to know what was coming.

Soon the pair made it to town. Loud, noisy Slorth.

Tink made an extra effort to stay out of the way of any guards. He wanted no trouble today. None at all.