Basket of Cupcakes

Yori was the name of the creature.

This much Kiki was sure off.

There was no formal introduction, but the creature always referred to itself in the third person. Yori was just fine in his cosy nest. Yori does not like confusion. Yori plans for a reason. And it went on and on while swinging from branch to branch, smearing an odd type of mixture on certain leaves that gave it a mirror finish.

They were finally out by the oak tree.

When Kiki first heard the tap on the window and finally opened up, Yori had flown up to Victoria almost immediately and blew some powder into her face causing her to fall asleep at the kitchen counter, midway thru her conversation with Jen. Once Victoria was asleep, getting outside was easy, but time was ticking away and they didn’t have much time to find the location of the book.

According to Yori’s moon dial, they had two minutes left before the moon reached the perfect height to reveal the location of the book. He flew down and perched himself on Kiki’s shoulder. “Now wait and watch carefully hooman. When all the rays of the moons reflection cross, that is where we will find what you’re looking for.” Kiki and Yori stood in complete stillness. So still in fact, that they had forgotten to breathe for a second.

The first ray of the moon became visible as it struck the oak leaf and reflected in an angle down onto the overgrown grass. Then the second, then the third and soon all the rays were visible. You would think something like choosing the spot that all rays crossed would be easy, but not in this case. At every angle they stood, the rays crossed at different positions.

“This is hopeless,” Kiki said as she sat down in defeat. “How will we ever find a location like this?”

“Stop whining and start thinking hooman, we don’t have much time left before the moon changes position and we lose the rays.” Yori scolded.

Kiki felt hopeless. What other angle was there? As she looked around frantically, she noticed the old iron chair her mother used to love sitting on at the very end of the garden. It was almost hidden by all the overgrown plants around it and Kiki had almost forgotten that this was where her mum used to teach her how to read. Could it be?

She ran over to the chair as sat down, closing her eyes for a minute and taking a deep breath in. This was their last chance. As she exhaled she opened her eyes and there in front of her, she caught the point at which all the rays crossed just as they started to disappear.

She ran as fast as she could to the cross point. By then, all but three rays were visible, slowly disappearing into the night.

Kiki started to question whether she was at the correct spot that she had seen when the rays were visible.

Either which way, there was no turning back. It was their last chance. It was either there, or her mum stays trapped for another year. The points crossed about a meter away from the oak tree before they vanished. Kiki and Yori fought through long tufts of grass to get to the bottom of the dense greenery to find the ground and hopefully some clue that they were in the right spot. After much yanking and pulling away of their overgrown foliage they reached the soil.

To their disappointment, there was nothing but sand. No signs, no books, no chests with books, nothing. They both flopped down on the ground and Kiki began to weep.

Yori didn’t weep, he just stomped around complaining what a waste of his time this was when, in the middle of his tantrum, the ground below him gave way and he fell into a hole. Kiki heard him yelp and ran to see what had happened.

She too almost fell into the hole that appeared. She spotted Yori’s purple paw holding onto the edge of the hole and pulled him up.

They both looked in and saw that the hole was half a meter deep and equally wide. If Yori let go, he would have landed comfortably on his feet, but neither Kiki nor Yori made mention of it. Something caught their eye at the bottom.

Kiki jumped in and dug around until she felt something solid that felt as though it did not belong in the ground.

With all her might, she pulled at it and finally it loosened from the stubborn ground. Kiki blew off the dust and realized that she was holding an old book in her hand. Its cover was entirely metal with fine filigree of creatures unknown. They did it! The book was finally in their hands. Kiki could finally save her mum.

It was a bright night, and knowing that they were that much closer to saving Kiki’s mum made it a magical one.

Yori smiled for the first time when he saw the book in Kiki’s hand. The brighter the night got, the brighter Yori’s fur sparkled. He seemed like something out of a cartoon show, the type of magical creature that would be ever willing to help and brought sunshine into your day. Yori did help Kiki, except, his mouth was as foul as magical creatures could get and his personality definitely did not suit his appearance. In fact, he looked cuddly, but when he spoke, you knew hugging him would only invite trouble.

“Well done little hooman! This means you and I are stuck together for a while.

Might as well tell you now, I don’t like crybabies!”

“Ummmmm, thank you, I think. And I will promise to try and not cry around you then.” Kiki said.

She was too happy to really get mad at this twinkling ball of rudeness.

“So now that you have the book, what are we to do with it? Does it come with instructions? What’s our next move?”

All these questions quickly wiped off the satisfied grin on Kiki’s face. She did not have a single clue where to begin now that she had the infamous book in her possession.

“Yori, my mum had said the signals change, how did you know it would have been moon rays?”

“Well, the story has it, you used to talk to the moon often and the moon heard you ask for help, so I was sent to guard you and was told to smear certain leaves with a special mirror substance.”

To hear Yori say the moon heard her plea for help warmed her heart. It’s not very often that one gets this sort of proof that your prayers are heard.

As for the guarding bit, Kiki wasn’t convinced that this tiny creature could protect her much but she kept that to herself as well. Just then they spotted headlights coming closer and the hum of the engine was distinctly that of her fathers.

They grabbed the book and ran inside before her dad caught sight of her out in the yard all alone.