The Munkwood Mission 3 (Z-Day part 5) [Infinium]

    It was high noon by the time the team reached the tribal village they were to infiltrate, and Cherry was feeling distinctly concerned. She could tell that her behavior was unusual, even as she smiled and bantered altogether too freely. She knew that she should be more worried, that her complete and unassailable happiness was magically enforced and not real, but every time she tried to concentrate on her concerns they just seemed to vanish in a puff of joy.

    She smiled, unconcerned again, and worried only the tiniest bit in the back of her mind.

    “We’re here!” Biscuit exclaimed quietly, grabbing Cherry’s hand as they crouched in a bush at the trunk of a particularly pale tree.

    “According to the map, the leader’s house should be up that tree there,” Dee whispered, gesturing a few trees down. “I’ll fly up there and see if he’s in.”

    “Be careful!” Cherry whispered after him, accompanied with a girlish titter.

    What was wrong with her? Nothing was wrong! The world was just shiny and happy today! She flopped down on the grass with a contented sigh, pleased to have a chance to watch the dappled sunlight through the trees. “We don’t have trees like these up north in Maraschino,” she told Ujina, who was bouncing from one foot to another eagerly, little flames spinning and vanishing in the air ahead of her. “I’ve never seen trees this big before, apart from Sil’dara.”

    “They were right, now is the perfect time,” Dee said, returning from his scouting. “The place is empty.”

    Zitep climbed swiftly up the tree, slipped inside the house, then teleported back to pick up the rest of them. Cherry sipped a little at her seasickness remedy as they arrived; for some reason, teleporting always made her a little woozly.

    Her discomfort was soon forgotten, though, as she looked around the one-room treetop home. Clearly built for someone only a little larger than her, the room was especially interesting in its mode of decoration.

    Almost everything was made of wood, leaves, or vines. The furniture had a rough-hewn but smoothly polished look and a style very unlike that of the more ‘civilized’ towns. Still, the bed was recognizably a bed, the chairs obviosuly chairs, the desk, curtains, and floor-covering all very clear in their function.

    Zitep immediately began snooping under things; lifting the floor covering, moving chairs. Ujina and Biscuit seemed more interested in looking around, like Cherry herself, but after a moment’s gawking they quickly got started searching the place.

    If they wanted to escape without being caught, the faster they could get out the better.

    “I found something!” Biscuit called in a low voice, waving them over. He’d located a bundle of sticks, each about a foot long, with intricate symbols carved into each one. Each stick had a different pattern on it, and whatever language it was none of them could decipher it.

    “Well, looks like we need to go meet what’s their faces, huh?” Zitep said, grabbing the bundle.

    Cherry grinned, excited at the chance to meet the strange munks again. There was something hypnotic about the twins who talked together, they made her really happy to watch.

    They teleported back to the designated meeting place, taking shelter under a wide-leafed plant while waiting for the munk team to get back. Dee and Ujina started tossing the sticks back and forth, laughing softly each time they missed (and they missed often, to Cherry’s immense amusement) while Zitep sat looking the least cheerful of the bunch, with his tail tucked up under his chin contemplatively staring into the distance.

    Cherry wanted to cheer him up; since everyone else was having a good time, it seemed wrong for him to be the one left out. He was usually the fun one, it wasn’t right for him to be sad while they were having fun.

    Before she could come up with a plan to do so, however, the imp leaped to his feet with a wide grin and vanished. He reappeared a minute later with a blanket, some bread, and a gift-basket of assorted jams tied with a red ribbon. He tied this last around his arm in a floppy bow, then spread the blanked out with a flourish.

    “We might as well enjoy ourselves while we wait,” he said cheerfully.

    Cherry immediately reached for the jam. She loved working with berries of all types, and this assortment was sure to have some new ideas for her. While the others settled onto the blanket and started sharing around the bread, she gave each jar a quick sampling. Deciding on a combination of two, she accepted the proffered bread and started spreading it on.

    Of course, Zitep had failed to bring any spreaders, so they were all giggling as they spread it with their paws. Cherry licked the jam from her fur daintily, while Dee opted instead to utilize nearby grasses to wipe it away.

    The time passed lightly, the sun moving from its zenith as the afternoon started past, and then a rustling in the trees above announced their meeting was upon them.

    The bread was long since consumed, leaving only crumbs and the half-used basket of jams as evidence of their midday lunch, as the three munks dropped down from the trees.

    “Well, the chief is in a foul temper,” Barsha said without preamble. “Apparently someone broke in, moved his furniture around, and stole all our tribe’s records.”

    Zitep held out the bundle triumphantly, and Barsha took it and started glancing over each stick. The more she read, the less pleased she looked.

    “I sure hope you got the right ones,” said the twins, taking turns as usual, “because there’s not much chance of you getting in there again; they’ve tripled the guard and he’s swearing if he finds out who’s responsible they’re dead.”

    Zitep waved a hand airily. “No need to worry, we can get in any time we want.”

    Barsha snorted. “Well, these are all public records all right. Nothing covert at all. And this is everything he had in the house?”

    “It’s all we found,” Cherry replied happily, “though we did stop looking once we found them.”

    The munks stared at them. “How. . . much of the place did you actually search?”

    “Maybe half,” Biscuit replied helpfully. “Then we had a picnic!”

    “You know Barsha,” the twins whispered in turns, “if you had to bring in outsiders, it’s a good thing you found some so completely useless. I’m sure they’d hold up great to interrogation too.”

    Barsha’s face furrowed angrily, but she didn’t reply at once. She carefully rebundled the sticks together, then tossed them to Zitep. “Go leave them somewhere they can be found, then get out. We had nothing to do with this, understand?”

    “Does that mean we failed?” Dee asked. “I don’t think we’ve ever done that before either.”

    “Yes, you’ve failed, you bunch of grinning idiots!” Barsha snapped, clearly fed up. Cherry giggled; her face was all funny looking now. “You broke in and stole public records that weren’t even hidden, then didn’t bother to finish searching the place. Now everyone’s on alert, so we couldn’t even hire a competent group to finish the mission. Our leader will be on the lookout now, probably find a safer place to keep his evidence if he even has any to begin with, and we’ll never be free of this extortion! So yes. YOU FAILED!!”

    She stomped her foot in emphasis, then spun around and scampered up into the treetops without another word, swinging away quickly.

    “I’ve never seen her that mad,” one of the twins said. The other nodded. “You really annoyed her. But, her family is under a lot of stress right now, so don’t take it too personally. We’re sure she’ll cool down and forget all about it in a few days.”

    The pair of them stood in perfect unison, turned to follow, but Dee fluttered forward excitedly. “What’s the problem with her family? Is it anything we could help with?”

    The twins hesitated. “Normally we’d say no way, considering your obvious lack of any sense, but in this case maybe insanity is called for. Her younger brother’s mate was kidnapped last week, and the pair of them had a Catalyst almost ready to hatch. And then everyone’s started saying it was the ghost of their angry grandfather who took the girl. Plus the increased pressure on our exports, and you can see how she’d be at the short end of her fur.”

    Ujina perked up at this. “We’re great at rescuing kidnapped people!”

    Cherry nodded, grinning. “I can attest to that. Did anyone say what direction she was taken in?”

    “Toward Goldshimmer, the reports mostly agree. We haven’t been able to spare anyone to search after the first team vanished.” The twins glanced over their shoulders, then leaned forward together. “We’ll go with you, if you want to. The girl was a close friend, we’d like to see her saved. And honestly, you seem like you could use someone sensible with you.”

    “Hey, I’m completely sensible!” Zitep protested. “I’m watching out for everyone.”

    “You just have no talent for infiltration missions, then,” the twins replied. “Neither do we, obviously, or we’d have done it ourselves. So, if you can just ditch that evidence somewhere, we’ll go see if we can save Kasra.”

    Zitep grinned. “I’ll do you one better, and ‘ditch’ the evidence right in buster-face’s house. Just need a little application of proper stealth, and he’ll never even know I was there. Imagine the embarrassment when he comes back and finds he just forgot they were under his bed instead of by the desk!”