They continued through the tunnels. Over the next few hours they found five more storehouses. Three of them were empty and neglected. One was full of medicines and bandages, and the last one was where all of the infants' things were stored.
"Wow. It's so full.....It's kind of sad, really."
Master Quo shrugged. "Life is hard, child. Not every story is a happy one."
Tam is about to say something, but thinks better considering what happened at the temple.
"Well, we'd better start looking for your things, hun. Then we can get some rest."
She starts looking through the stacks and stacks of things.
"Master Quo, is there some way this is organized?"
"Oh, sure. Master Bim was meticulous about it....too bad he never shared his system with anyone else. Just looks like random piles to me."
"That doesn't sound too encouraging..."
"Guess we'll just have to start looking. At least all the bundles are labelled...."
She starts sorting through piles.
Istara......Bindh.........Liatar..........Zora.....
"Not this pile."
She moves on to the next one.
"Well, guess they aren't alphabetical. Maybe they're arranged by year...."
"Are any dates written down on the labels? Not that I have any idea of the local calendrical system you guys use here, come to think of it, but that's beside the point..." :)
He starts looking through the nearest pile.
"Dunno. Can't read 'em. Old eyes ain't what they used to be. But if they are you're looking for the year of the wombat....or was that the fruit bat? The house cat? Well, it's something that ends in at. Sonny, at my age, you're lucky if you can remember the right decade."
"Dunno. Can't read 'em. Old eyes ain't what they used to be. But if they are you're looking for the year of the wombat....or was that the fruit bat? The house cat? Well, it's something that ends in at. Sonny, at my age, you're lucky if you can remember the right decade."
"Right...guess we'd better get to it then," Tam says with a wry grin.
"It's the year of the muskrat, not that it matters. The piles aren't marked."
She continues her searching.
"Rats. Okay, what does the blanket look like? I assume it will be the easiest thing to spot..."
"Rats. Okay, what does the blanket look like? I assume it will be the easiest thing to spot..."
"Not really. It's tucked into the basket and wrapped in cloth like everything else here. Just look for the label with two names on it. There aren't many of those."
She sighed. "It's like looking for a needle in a bale of rice."
Ryo continues shifting his way through all the items in the room.
"Basket, cloak, pack, stuffed animal, blanket(not the one we're looking for), toy..."
Ryo continues shifting his way through all the items in the room.
"Basket, cloak, pack, stuffed animal, blanket(not the one we're looking for), toy..."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Oooo!!!! Wait....nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Checks label. "Nope."
Growls with frustration after checking a couple dozen piles with no luck.
"Hey Aananda, we're looking for your stuff, so shouldn't you have some sort of connection to it? Even a vague memory could be enough."
"How much do you remember from when you were a newborn?"
She took a deep breath. "Okay. Future me said we found the stuff here. Did she mention where? Cause that would be really helpful about now."
She looked around. "She probably had one of you find it with magic. We'll just have to do this the old fashioned way," she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
She tried it again, experimentally, sniffing at the piles. "Okay, it's unlikely, but it's worth a try I guess. I'll see if I can smell the right bundle."
"Yeah, I guess being a newborn kinda hampers the memory... but sometimes thing stick with some one for a long time. Stranger things have happened, and half of those seem to happen to us!"
"Wish Ruji hadn't flown off like that again since he could have helped. Some guardian he's turning out to be..."
"Well, there's probably a lesson to be learned here in patience and doing things without relying on outside forces, yadda yadda yadda. We'll find it - we just need to invest some time into it." :D
She walked around trying to smell anything that smelled like, well, her. Mostly what she smelled was dust. Lots and lots of dust. She sneezed. Repeatedly. Hard.
She climbed out of the pile of bundles she'd fallen into when she sneezed. Right in front of her was a large bundle with her and her brother's name on it.
"Foud id," she sniffled, holding it up.
She walked around trying to smell anything that smelled like, well, her. Mostly what she smelled was dust. Lots and lots of dust. She sneezed. Repeatedly. Hard.
She climbed out of the pile of bundles she'd fallen into when she sneezed. Right in front of her was a large bundle with her and her brother's name on it.
"Foud id," she sniffled, holding it up.
"See? The nose knows," Tam says with a wide grin as he goes over and helps Aananda up, then finds a handkerchief for her to use. ;)
After blowing her nose, loudly, she found a less dusty spot to open the bundle. There was a large basket woven from banana leaves. Inside were two blankets, one pink and one blue. The pink blanket had Aananda'reavekki embroidered on it as well as a map of Agartha with a star marking one spot. The blue blanket had Chan'trikalliax embroidered on it and an identical map. At the bottom of the basket was a small, yellowed note.
To Whom it may concern: I find myself forced by circumstances to give up these children as I am no longer able to care for them myself. The girl is called Aananda and the boy is called Chan. Care for them well. They are very special children.
She read and re-read it. There wasn't anything else written on the note. She sighed.
"Well, that's no help whatsoever."
"Why do I have the horrible feeling we're going to be back in the skimmer again?"
"Okay, so we have the map. Now what? Do we follow it to the star or stay here and handle things first?"
"Why do I have the horrible feeling we're going to be back in the skimmer again?"
"Okay, so we have the map. Now what? Do we follow it to the star or stay here and handle things first?"
"Oh, the star just marks where my mom's lair is. There's a bunch of old tech and stuff including some journals. Which I've already read cause future me already liberated them in her timeline and she let me borrow them for a bit. I was hoping there might be something more, something that might help us find where my mom is now. But I guess not," she said, disappointed.
"I'm no expert on dragons, given that Agartha was made to get away from them, but shouldn't lairs have some kind of warning system? My house has plenty of alarms set on it, including a few that tell me if anyone is trying to sneak out, so maybe if we get in your mother will hurry to see who got in. We won't have to find her then, she'll come to us."
"I'm no expert on dragons, given that Agartha was made to get away from them, but shouldn't lairs have some kind of warning system? My house has plenty of alarms set on it, including a few that tell me if anyone is trying to sneak out, so maybe if we get in your mother will hurry to see who got in. We won't have to find her then, she'll come to us."
"Could work. Unless Chan has already captured her, in which case we'd be going away for several days to find the lair only to find that he's killed her in the meantime."
"There's got to be a better way."
"We could get out of the jungle and far enough away from it for me to try and scry your mother's lair without setting off Chan's little alarm system. If I can get it to work, that would let us know whether or not she's there, or if the place has been sacked. Then we know whether to keep going there or come back here and start tearing the place down."
"Option two....Quo and I stay here to throw a wrench in the works and you two head to the lair. It would cover both locations simultaneously, even if it is a bit risky."
She looked upset. And then sat down and burst into tears.
"....Or we can do none of those things. They're probably stupid ideas anyway," Tam quickly blurts out after a few seconds' pause. He kneels down and pulls her into his arms.
"I'm sure we've got other options - we'll find one that works. We've stumbled upon a bunch of things that can help us with this. We're almost there, I know we are..."
Master Quo chuckled.
"Never try to reason with a pregnant woman, boyo. They aren't right in the head. What? You think I didn't know. Nothing wrong with my ears, even if I am old."
Master Quo chuckled.
"Never try to reason with a pregnant woman, boyo. They aren't right in the head. What? You think I didn't know. Nothing wrong with my ears, even if I am old."
"You weren't kidding about those social graces being rusty, were you?" Tam quips back. ;P
"Alright, we've been going at this all day. We need to rest. Tired minds and bodies aren't going to do anybody much good."
Master Quo nodded. "Seems like as good a place as any to camp for the night."
"Let's set up where we can see our tunnel and the way to the front door, but not be in plain sight ourselves. We should be able to make that happen with all of this stuff," he says, looking at the piles.
Aananda manages to dry her tears long enough to help them set up camp. The piles do indeed help keep them hidden from the entrance, and since she had set the tunnel in a rare empty spot at the back, they were well protected.
The group rests - three sleeping, one on watch, rotated every few hours.
Ryo finds his watch uneventful, which unfortunately gives him plenty of time to think. He almost would seem to be arguing with himself about something, were anyone else were awake to witness his inner debate.
His watch ends and he falls asleep.
"Stupid heat..." He mumbles as he sleeps.
Tam spends a good bit of his 'rest' time trying to comfort Aananda enough that she can get some sleep herself. He then takes his turn at watch, quietly keeping vigil over everyone.
Aananda's sleep is restless at best. This close it's very difficult to keep her brother out of her dreams, especially when she's trying to find her mother. She startles awake every few minutes. When she does dream all she gets is an impression of underground and near.