The Tale of Mythia

Chapter 40: Random House Spotted

(Thursday, 25th of Verdant Garden Moon)
Dusk finally fell onto the island of Mokupuni. Well, one of the islands, since Mokupuni is a layman's term used to describe most of the Southern Desponian islands that banded together under an alliance called Mokupuni Hui Hii. Jack and Saorise were on the beach as the sun set, and Jack got a text for him and Saorise to meet up with the rest of the group at a nearby shaved ice vendor called 'Chilling Chirps' with a bird on the logo. Jack looked out at the ocean from his spot on a beach towel, to see Saorise enjoying herself in the ocean.

"Oi, Sealgurl, Simo texted me, our fun time is over." Jack shouted at his teammate, and Saorise's head popped out of the ocean. "Come on, we got a bird man to hunt."

"Okay." Saorise exits the water to reveal that she was actually covered in a series of weights that Jack assumed were filled with lead. Underneath these weights was her wetsuit. "Why don't you swim next time with me?"

"Because someone needs to watch our stuff so we don't get robbed." Jack tossed Saorise a beach towel that she could use to dry herself off. "We already have to deal with bird man, dealing with thieves is something I'm not in the mood for."

"There's a mood for dealing with thieves?" Saorise wondered with curiosity. "What would that mood be called?"

"Bloodlust I guess?" Jack wasn't sure how to respond to Saorise's question as he guided her to the shaved ice. "You're not really up to date on lingo are you? And this is coming from an amnesiac."

"Sorry..." Saorise apologized whilst looking kind of down, and Jack reached his hand upwards and patted the girl's head.

"Hey, sorry if I made you feel bad, I'm kind of a sarcastic jerk." Jack stopped patting the selkie girl's head and continued walking down the path towards the shaved ice.

"No, you are not a jerk, you are a nice person." Saorise smiled, and something inside Jack wanted to protect this giant cinnamon roll.

Jack and Saorise reached the shaved ice vendor to see the group enjoying a cup of shaved ice. TJ's was flavored orange, Hassan's was blue raspberry, Simo's was cherry, and Jojo's was whatever flavor was spilled on the ground by some unfortunate fellow. Saorise got a blueberry flavored cup, and Jack decided to get a rainbow cup with all the flavors.

"Dude, that's a big freaking cup." TJ commented whilst looking at the cup. "How do you plan on burning those calories?"

"Hey, with the workout Herakles has me on despite my missing leg is brutal." Jack whined. "Instead of a 10 kilometer run, he makes me do a 20 kilometer run! He knows the prosthetic can't gain muscle, so he's trying to make my normal leg double strong!"

"I'm not sure if that's how it works, but I'm too scared of Herakles to say anything, so you have my sympathy." Simo pat Jack's back while he scooped some lemon flavored ice into his mouth using a plastic spoon.

"Nightmare murder punchy man aside, what have we got?" Jack asked his teammates.

"The bird man is just as elusive as locals say, but good news is that we shouldn't expect any nests." Hassan explained. "We looked around forever, yet we could never find any more than two of his feathers in any given area. If he had a nest, there would be more feathers in certain areas than others."

"Still, there's something weird, there's a shockingly low amount of feathers in the area, so my guess is that the bird man is only partially a bird." Simo handed Jack a pitch black colored feather. "It's like an ostrich feather, yet lighter."

"So this helps us track him down...how?" Jack asked the group before wincing, Jack once again heard the sound of a baby crying. "Damn, can you guys hear that kid crying? I think it's the same one from earlier. I hope he's okay."