The Missing Birds Adventure

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a princess Nea and a princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. Now, Princess Nea and Princess Lulu had just led Prince Paul and O’Lah to the Ocean Temple and restored the Aquarian crystals. And had finally returned back to their castle after parting ways with Paul & O’Lah, who left on their own adventure with Prince William. 

In their castle, they decided to go on a walk. And walked all around the castle on a beautiful path that took them up and around Fox Tail Lake. And there were beautiful ducks and birds on this Lake that would fly and swim all the time. They noticed that there were no birds around the lake anymore. Never in all their years walking around the lake had they ever seen it bare of animals like this. 

Could the rainbow shattering have anything to do with it? 

They decided to keep walking up into the North Woods, but the forest was very, very quiet. Again, more calm and more quiet then normal. Why was the forest was so quiet?

Back at the castle there was a big commotion. [A commotion is when there’s all these people talking about something – the same thing - but someone is talking to someone about it over here and someone is talking about it to someone else over there.] 

When they got closer there was somebody in the middle of the big crowd saying, “We have a big problem up near Moorenvale. Our birds are gone. They have all disappeared!” One might wonder, why would these birds be so important to the boy and his city? 

The boy immediately continued, “We cannot lose them - we farmers know that these birds mean that our plants will be okay. And if we don’t figure out where they’ve gone then our fields and food will go next!” 

Some people scoffed at the boy. Others took him very seriously but didn’t know what to do. Others just walked on by like nothing had even happened.

Princess Nea and Lulu decided to go investigate and immediately pushed through the crowd to talk to the boy. 

“Show us what is happening in your village. If you take us, we will come to your village in the north and help you find out what’s happening.”

The boy, recognizing that Princess Nea & Lulu were royalty, bowed and thanked them most graciously for their concern.

“I am Asher of Timberbrook, a small village outside of Moorenvale.” He said.

“But first, I have an idea!” princess Lulu interjected. “These animals fly, correct?”

The boy nodded.

“They can fly far and they can fly fast - faster than we can walk or run. Let’s gather some scouts and send word to a few other cities around Atheria to see if they are experiencing the same thing - or maybe see if they have just migrated.” 

Princess Nea & the boy both nodded. It was a great idea. 

After sending scouts to all the nearby cities, they headed north to Moorenvale. 

Now something happened when the sent all the notes out to all the ends of Atheria. Darius, the Shadow Man’s son, heard of their adventure and he loved animals and knew a lot about them. He had noticed himself that all the animals were starting to disappear as well. In fact, he was already thinking about it with his friend Rose. And the two of them - Darius and Rose - had already decided that they would both do whatever they could to help all of the animals out.

And another thing happened, one of the notes made it to the Dwarf Mining Camp just beyond Mt. Willow, where the dwarfs had actually seen a cluster of flying animals migrate over their camp and over to the west. So they sent word to the princesses so they could come and follow the trail. 

When princess Nea and Lulu got to the boy’s village, just outside of Moorenvale they walked around the fields and the town. It was just as the boy said. While all the livestock for the farms were okay, the common wildlife animals were scarce - they were all gone. 

But that’s when the note came from the dwarfs - explaining what they had seen of the birds flying over head. The note told the princesses that the birds had been seen there and that they would send a search party beyond the Dwarf Mining Camp to investigate. Before leaving Timberbrook, the princesses wrote back, asking the dwarfs to please, please watch over the animals until they got there for they were one their way.

With much haste, the three adventurers headed to the Dwarf Mining Camp, but as their day was getting long, they needed to rest and camp for the night. They stopped in the a field but found themselves without any firewood to keep them warm at night. So Nea decided to go to a nearby forest to gather some. 

As she quietly gathered wood from the forest, she froze for a second.

“Crack!” she heard. “Crack, crack!”

The noise was coming from behind her. And when she turned around, there stood a black bear with big white stripe down it’s back looking directly at her. 

Now you’d think a kid would be scared to find a bear right behind them in the woods. Especially if they were a long, long way from home, but this bear looked different and seemed different. For starters there was a boy on it’s back. And not just any boy, it was Darius, the boy with no legs who they had helped heal from a sickness.   

“Darius? The ill boy?” Princess Nea asked.

“Yes, your majesty.” He responded. “Darius, son of Simon, grandson of Aylon. And this, this is Rose. You must forgive me for I cannot bow properly.”

Princess Nea gave a slight laugh and nodded, letting him know it was okay for him not to bow. She was more interested in the harness he had. It looked like nothing she’d ever seen. He used it to hold steady on top of the bear, but you could tell it was built to twist and turn and help him change positions based on what Rose was doing.

“You made a harness, so you could travel on your bear. How clever!”

“Oh yes, I’ve had this for quite some time. Hickory helped me build it.”

“The inventory? That’s great. But what are you doing here? So far from home?”

“I got word of your adventure and of the animals. Me and Rose have been noticing a change with the animals too - my father has taught me quite a few things about animals - and me and Rose have been trying to figure out what’s going on.”

“What have you learned?” Nea started, “Wait, first let’s get you back to the camp with the others.”

And with that she led Darius and Rose back to the camp with a few bundles of wood they found, which fit nicely tied to Rose’s back using her harness. 

It was quite a scare for Asher to see the bear but as soon as he noticed everyone else was calm and that she was a nice bear, he eased up a bit. 

“What we’ve noticed is that a few birds (and now I guess some insects),” Darius started, “have been missing but they’re leaving because they got sick, we think from the dirty water that is popping up around Atheria.” 

Princess Nea & Lulu looked at each other.

“But what we don’t know is where they’re going and why. We hoped to meet up with you outside of Morrenvale but just missed you. Luckily one of the townspeople mentioned the note from the Dwarf Mining Camp so we were on our way there.” 

“Well, let’s get some rest and figure this out tomorrow!” Nea said.

And with that they all fell asleep under the stars.


***

When they got the Dwarf Mining Camp the next day they were greeted by a very husky female dwarf with a very large headdress on, indicating that she was most likely the one in charge.

“Princess Nea & Princess Lulu of Sparland, I presume.” She said, bowing. “I am Ruby of Wolfmound and can guess you are here because of our note?”

“Yes, yes we are.” 

“Well, it’s not every week we get formal visits from royalty and two sets at that. Prince Paul, Prince William and an ogre named O’Lah were here earlier as well.”

“You don’t say,” said Lulu. 

“Yes, but let’s get you guys to the thicket in the west - where all the flying animals are.” 

She led them through another forest and to a thicket where the small dwarf they met in the Frost Cave sat with a couple of other dwarfs. The dwarfs were surrounded by a bunch of sick birds and insects.

“Good day, ladies.” Said the dwarfs, all at once. “We’ve been keeping a close eye on these birds, just like Chief Ruby said.

“And you have done a splendid, job.” Said Nea walking up to the birds. 

“Oh but wait,” said the small dwarf. We must keep them calm. Princess Lulu, do you still have the magic flute we gave you?”

Lulu nodded and pulled out her flute.

“Play them the calming tune!”

So Lulu played the magic calming tune she learned.

[calming tune]

All of the birds started to stretch their bodies then settled down into a resting position.

“Any ideas, Darius?” Princess Nea asked.

As Darius & Rose walked around they bent over the birds to take a look at their bodies. Everything seemed okay, they just seemed tired and ill. Some even sneezed. Have you ever heard a bird sneeze?

Darius also had some fairy water left over that he brought in a small vial. Not nearly enough for all the birds here, but maybe he could use some on a few and see if it worked. As he pulled the bottle out of his pocket the strangest thing happened. Something nobody could ignore. Out of his pocket shot a powerful bright light.

“Darius! Your crystal - it’s getting brighter.” Nea said.

He pulled the crystal out of his pocket, and as soon as he lifted it up, the birds started to lift their heads too, towards the crystal. 

“Darius, when O’Lah and Paul healed the water, they used their crystal to do so. Do you think you could with your crystal?”

And that’s when Ruby drew closer. 

“Darius, grandson of Aylon is it?” Ruby asked, sizing both him and Rose up. 

He nodded. 

“Then you are a Keeper.” She stated, and walked up to him.

Darius’s eyes got wide with surprise. “A Keeper?” he stuttered.

She whispered some directions in his ear. Then Darius held out his hand with the white crystal and closed his eyes. Fragments of white light started to shoot out from his palm and flutter through the air, each spark finding it’s way to a bird. When it landed on the bird, the bird’s whole body began to glow. One by one the birds around them started to glow and then sparkle. They all fluttered their wings happily. 

One by one they started jumping and flapping their wings. Before they knew it there was a whole whirlwind of birds flying all around. Nea and Lulu could tell that they were all very, very happy. They were being healed by the beautiful white crystal. And there was another special bird circling above as well. It was the hawk, Ryla, watching ever so carefully. 

Darius, after the shock of it all, was happy he could help out. When all the birds were healed and had flown away - back to their homes, the party went back to the Dwarf Mining Camp and celebrated with the Ruby and all the dwarfs. 

The end.