Chapter 3: The Cat’s Dwelling

“Your majesty I have found ‘the chosen one’! Here he is!” Zafar announced with a bow. He pushed forward Shinobu, whose hands were tied behind his back. The Queen sat upon her throne, Yuji standing next to her. “So he is ‘the chosen one’,” she stated solemnly. “Good work Zafar. Now hand over the map to me.”

“Of course, let me find it.” Zafar began searching his pockets, pulling out all kinds of junk. “Oh my, it seems that I must have dropped it while at the maze..”

“What?!” the Queen hissed.

“Well...” Zafar began to say but the Queen put her hand up motioning silence.

“Yuji bring ‘the chosen one’ to his new room. And as for you, since you lost the map you will have to figure out your way through the ruins without it. You must get the treasure before Reiko and Kenji get it or before she finds them.” Zafar nodded nervously and teleported away.

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“Here we are, the Yoko Ruins!” Koume declared.

“Good job navigator,” Reiko said with a grin to Koume, who returned the grin. “Now the most important navigating will begin, because ruins usually are pretty tricky to get through. So you better lead us Koume.”

“Uh-huh. Follow me!” Koume said with pride as she marched into the ruins, Reiko and Kenji following close behind, Reiko with gun in hand in case of monsters. Once inside all of them gasped. “It’s so beautiful” Koume whispered. She and Kenji stared at the room in awe. The room they were in was made out of silver stone that seemed as if it had been crumbling for centuries; and the paths advanced around rivers of sapphire blue water that reflected off the silver walls, creating a most breathtaking scene. Reiko cleared her throat, taking Koume and Kenji out of there trances. “Sorry Reiko, it’s just that I’ve never seen such a sight,” Koume apologized.

“It doesn’t matter, just start navigating, okay?” Reiko said with a sigh.

“You know what, Reiko?” Kenji asked as he peered at the map dangling from Koume’s hand, “I think this is a treasure map!”

“Treasure?!” Reiko yanked the map out of Koume’s hand and investigated the map. “My god Kenji, I think you’re right!”

“Why would the people who took my brother be looking for a treasure?” Koume asked.

“They use money too, of course. And they’re just as greedy as your creature of the light, sadly.” Kenji answered. “Reiko we better hurry and see if we find any clues to Shinobu’s whereabouts,” Kenji sighed, “And see if there is any treasure worthy for you, Reiko the great, of course.”

Reiko handed the map back to Koume, grinning from Kenji’s remark. Koume stepped in front of Reiko and Kenji and began leading the way. After wandering around for awhile they came upon a dead end. Words were carved into the wall. Koume squinted at the words, then brushed the dust away. “This is interesting,” she commented.

“What’s so interesting about it?” Reiko asked.

“Let me read it to you,” Koume cleared her throat, “Dawn rises to face the world, the light covering most the land. Except the land where it never touches, the land of the dark. The land of no sun. No dawn. No Dusk. You have entered this world, and there is no turning back from here. One thousand years from the day this is written the Dark will be reborn from the eight elements and into the body of a young one. One who bears the power within. One will bring back the ultimate dark, bringing chaos to both worlds. On that day the light will perish forever and the dark will rule. Unless one with the light and dark within comes and defeats the Dark will all live.

Guardian of the Yoko Ruins, First Day of the Year 1000.”

“That is very interesting and a definite clue to what they may want with Shinobu,” Kenji stated.

Reiko put her hand up on the wall. “Unless one with the light and dark within comes and defeats the Dark will all live. What do they mean ‘one with the light and dark’?” All of a sudden the words carved in the wall began to glow a gold light behind Reiko’s hand. The wall disappeared and revealed another path. “How’d that happen?” Reiko thought out loud.

“Well now we can continue to the treasure since the wall’s gone,” Koume replied as she started ahead. They continued north until another dead end. “Another message,” Koume said with a sigh, “You read it this time Reiko.”

“Fine,” Reiko uttered while she stepped up to the wall and brushed the dust away. “So you’ve made it past the first test, but are you really the ones we’re looking for?”

“Test?” Koume squeaked.

Reiko continued on, “My voice can be heard even from afar. I seem to have no end, I seem to go on forever. I bear a home to many creatures, dark and light. Who am I?”

“Oh not a riddle! I’m horrible at riddles!” Koume cried.

“I wish there were more clues,” Reiko muttered as she pondered the answer.

They all sat in silence for awhile. “I know it,” Kenji said, breaking the silence. He stepped forward. “My voice can be heard even from afar. I seem to have no end, I seem to go on forever. I bear a home to many creatures, dark and light,” Kenji recited, “My voice can be heard from listening to seashells. One look at me and you would guess I would go on forever, till the end of the world. Creatures of light and dark enjoy themselves in my waters. I am the Ocean.” As Kenji said the last sentence the carved in words began to glow a dark red and the wall disappeared just like the last one.

“So I’m guessing we’re going to be bumping into more puzzles,” Reiko stated. She turned around to Kenji and ruffled his fur on his forehead. “That my Kenji!” Kenji beamed with pride.

“Great job Kenji!” Koume exclaimed as she bent down and gave him a quick hug. For a moment Kenji’s cheeks seemed to have a reddish tint to them. When Koume stood up she turned to Reiko. “How come the first wall opened so easily? All you did was touch it.”

Reiko shrugged. “Who knows. Let’s just be glad we made it past two of these walls. Now let’s hurry to the others.” Koume again leaded them, left then right then right again till they reached another wall. Kenji stepped forward. “I’ll read this one,” he announced. He blew at the wall, sending dust flying everywhere. “Determined you are. It seems you are the ones, but to be sure you must pass one more test before seeing the recent Guardian of the Yoko Ruins. One must state there reason for entering here. An answer straight from the heart.”

“Straight from the heart?” Reiko asked, “I don’t have a real good reason, Kenji?”

“No, but I think Koume should do this one,” Kenji answered as he peered up at Koume.

“Me?” Kenji said softly as she pointed to herself. Kenji nodded. Koume took a deep breath. “Okay then, here goes. My reason for wanting to enter is to find my brother. I’m not sure if he’ll be here, but at the last place we were the only clue we had was a map to here. I really must find him though. He is my twin, he is part of me. I just couldn’t bear to think of any harm coming to him. He is the only one that truly understands me and I need him. I don’t care about treasure or anything else. I just want my brother safe, even if it means risking my life to help him. So please let us pass. Let us continue our journey to find Shinobu.” All was silent when Koume finished. Koume wiped the tears from her eyes with her right sleeve. “I don’t want to be alone,” she whispered ever so softly. The words carved in the wall glowed a turquoise and yet again the wall vanished. The three of them once more stepped forward, this time into an bare, spacious room. All that was in the room was a silver throne with blue jewels lining the sides of it, and a few chests along the walls. Reiko leaped at the chests and flung the lids open. Inside was a pile of colorful silk blankets. She began to dig through the blankets, hoping to find the treasure.

Kenji and Koume watched from the entrance to the wide room. Kenji shook his head in disgust as he watched Reiko greedily search through the chests. Koume on the other hand was not staring at Reiko, but observing the room itself. She walked up to the throne and carried her hand over the precious stones. Each jewel was unbearably cold to her touch, causing her to flinch slightly as her fingers passed over each jewel. But the jewels also gave her a feeling of courage, none like she had ever felt before. The feeling of courage kept her fingers moving across the precious stones, instead of pulling away her hand and wrapping it up in as much cloth as she could to try to bring the warmth back. As her hand came closer to the biggest jewel on the center of the throne, the feeling of courage became more and more intense. Her fingers were about to touch the center jewel, but a soft voice stopped her. “Excuse me,” the voice said, the owner of the voice rested her hand on Koume’s shoulder. At the touch of the stranger, Koume jumped and quickly spun around. The stranger looked like nothing she had seen before. The stranger was female and wearing a dress of the silken fabrics from the chest Reiko dug in. The fabrics she wore were different shades of blue and she wore blue jewels, like the ones on the throne. She also wore an orange colored crystal, which rested at her chest. She wore pink makeup on her eyes and lips. Her eyes were orange and her hair red-orange. Her hair was long, about down to her waist. Her bangs were long at the sides, but short in the middle. The thing that suprised Koume the most was the cat ears on the top part of her head. They were similar to lynx’s, having black tips sticking out at the peaks of her light brown ears. All of her skins was light brown, with black stripes covering the parts of her body that were seen through her dress. She had two stripes on her face, one on each side. Her nose was a human one, with freckles going across it. When she spoke a pair of gleaming fangs could be seen in her mouth. The lady came closer to Koume and she now could see that the lady had a tail; a tail with stripes like the rest of her body and a black tip. “You made it past the tests?” the lady asked Koume.

“Tests?” Koume asked, she then remembered the doors that each of them had to open by doing different things. “Yes, we passed those tests and made it in here. I have something to ask of you,” Koume said calmly.

The lady opened her mouth to speak but was then interrupted by a very annoyed and ticked off Reiko. “Where is the damn treasure?!” she yelled. She came up to the lady and glared at her. “We had to past stupid tests to find a room filled with treasure chests that only contain worthless blankets!? I thought that there was a treasure!?”

“There is a treasure of course. But no one is stupid enough to leave them in one of those chests where it can be easily found,” the lady answered with a slight grin on her face.

Reiko growled and clenched her fist. “Then where is the...” Before Reiko could finish the lady had jumped at her and knocked her down to the ground as a laser bullet zooms past where Reiko’s head just was. The lady stood up and quickly chanted a spell, a blue light forming in her right hand. The lady chucked the light at the direction the laser bullet came from. A chorus of screams and cussing was heard and then a voice yelling “Retreat!” as Koume helped Reiko up. The lady clapped her hands together and turned around to give Reiko a big grin. “You were saying?” she asked.

“Why’d you help me? I’m here to get your treasure,” Reiko answered solemnly.

“Because I am on your side, not theirs.”

“But you’re one of them, a creature of darkness!” Kenji exclaimed.

“Just because I was born of their blood doesn’t mean I must act as they do! We have good and bad darkness creatures as you have good and bad ones of the light, am I right?”

“You have a good point,” Kenji answered.

“Will you help us then, since you’re on our side?” Koume asked, her eyes tearing up with hope.

The grin disappeared from the lady’s face. “Aren’t you quite young to be going on such a dangerous quest?”

“Yes, but I must find my brother! And I’m not going alone, Reiko and Kenji are helping me! You’d be a great help to the three of us, since you probably know your way around here better.” Koume replied.

“If it’s alright with the great Reiko,” the lady replied, once again a grin on her face.

“If you tell me where the treasure is then I’ll let you come,” Reiko said with annoyance.

The lady laughed a little. “If you let me come then the treasure will already be with you.”

“Huh?” Reiko replied.

The lady just laughed. “I think I might enjoy joining you on this quest! My name is Sachiko of the Yoko Ruins, but you may call me Sachi. And let me tell you now, any question you ask of me don’t expect a solid answer!”

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