Chapter 26: The Boy Named Maoki

Another glass shattered in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. It seemed like a mirror that stood independently on its own and reflecting on this mirror was the image of a black human-shaped shadow. The shadow grew larger and larger until the next object to be seen as a figure protecting his face as he came out through the glass.

After the figure shattered the glass and fell on the ground, there was not single debris of the glass. Like it was invisible or it faded away immediately after dispersion.

Vester took his time to stand on his feet while kneading his almost broken head. Things like this happened too sudden for him. From his still recovering memories, a few seconds ago he was in the mansion. Then those strange pipelines attacked his visions again, exposing the same door he saw previously and when he went through it, the space behind the door sucked him inside. It didn't take long for a glass to appear before him only to block his path. So he shielded his head and went through the glass. Now, he was in the middle of nowhere.

'Where is this..?' he asked and gazed up to the sky. Luckily, the moon was still high up which meant he was still in the same night.

Another uncalled for action broke out. He started panicking since he was currently in the middle of NOWHERE! But then again he relaxed and got himself after he looked behind him.

*Phew!* 'You're still here.'

The onion-shaped building was behind him! Praise his ancestors. He thought he was lost. He could breathe normally again.

Wait! The onion-shaped building was behind him?! And here he was celebrating instead of getting far away from it as possible!

'Yikes!!' If Mordecai were here now he wouldn't see the Vester, only dust and wind.

..

After 2km of running from his calculations, he was certain he wasn't been followed. The agreement he and his diabolic friends had was to meet up here. At one of the narrow roads that lead to the District's outskirts.

Just as he was about to stop running and ponder, he was pulled up by the leg. Before he knew what was going on his right leg was tied to a chain and he was hanging upside down from a tree branch.

'Hello..?!' he shouted.

There was silence but after a while, he heard the bushes rattle. A shadow silently stood close to the bush and watched him.

'Is someone there..?!'

This shadow slowly came forward and shouted surprisingly, 'V-Vester?!'

'Bobby?!' Vester shouted too. Not any less shocked than Bobby. 'What is this?!'

'Why are you up there?' Bobby asked.

'Why am I up here?! The question is why are you down there?! And I'm up here?! Get me down.'

'The trap wasn't meant for you! Sorry!' Bobby yelled back.

'What the..?' Vester tried reaching his feet as he hung upside down but it was useless. 'Where the hell is Mordecai?!'

Unexpectedly another voice rang out, 'Ok! I'm just as confused as everybody right now!'

Bobby and Vester threw their heads sideways and found Mordecai standing close to another bush.

'Mordecai! Get me down from here!' Vester roared.

Mordecai in confusion looked at Bobby and Bobby replied by shaking his head in confusion.

'Now!' Vester's exasperated voice rang again.

'You're not the one who is s'posed to be hanging there right now!' Mordecai answered.

'What?! Then who?!'

'We thought you wouldn't escape the Seraphim Hands so we decided to set a trap for them. Just in case they followed you.' Bobby explained as fast as he could.

'And you didn't tell me?! How thoughtful of you.'

'That was after you left we came up with the plan.' Mordecai added.

'Well, do you have a plan to get me down?!'

'We didn't think you'd be the one stuck, sooo... we don't think of a plan to get you down.' Bobby added while closing an eye out of fear of the unknown.

'What?!!'

'We didn't think of a plan to get you down, then. But we would. So just, hang on!' said Mordecai.

'Of course, I'm hanging on! It's not like I'm going anywhere.'

'Tomorrow!'

'What?! Tomorrow?! That's when the Head of Scrolls is starting.'

'We'll get you down before tomorrow. Promise!' Bobby added.

'Urgh... You've gotta be kidding me.' Vester murmured under his breath. 'Sounds like you guys are leaving me.'

Are guys leaving me?!

Bobby was slow to answer, but he did, 'I haven't told my uncle I finally decided to participate in the Head of Scrolls.'

'What?!' Vester shouted, 'And what about you Mordecai?!'

Mordecai swallowed his spit before answering, 'I gotta tell my mum.'

Vester murmured again and shook his head, 'Seriously.'

'We promise to come back!' Bobby asserted.

'I promise to still be alive by then.' Vester muttered sarcastically.

And so the two boys left their teammate hanging upside down from a tree branch. With a chain attached to his foot. In the middle of the night. When one looked from afar, he seemed like a pendulum. Due to how he still dangled from side to side in slight motion.

The forest was silent. The moon was luminous above and the cackling of the crickets seemed like it may never end. Since there was basically nothing left for him to do, he sang one of the old lullabies him and his uncle used to sing years back whenever they got into trouble.

Hey there my old friend Trouble,

Did I introduce you to my new friend double trouble?

Oooohh... We were a couple,

Until I met triple trouble,

But then, things began to tumble.

Why?

Because of my newest friend quadruple trouble.

Theeeeen I ask myseeelf, why did I ever make friends, with trouble?

Slowly and gently he continued to sing this poem repeatedly until his voice went from incoherent to silence. That was because he fell asleep unknowingly while reminiscing the good times he had with his uncle.

Bam!

'I'm up! I'm up!' Vester yelled after being interrupted from his sleep. 'Ugh, crap.' noticing he was still upside down made him cover his face in exasperation. Assuming he was a none Ascension practitioner, his brain would have probably been over flooded with blood.

To him, something felt odd. He was sure there was a loud sound that made him wake up. But even as much as he tried to scan the area. Everything was just the way they were ought to be. Rubbing his eyes once again and covering his face, he heard a young masculine voice.

'Hi there.'

Quickly removing his hands to see this person he became confused to see there was no one on the ground. And since he was high up, upside down, he could see almost 25ft up but there was totally nothing.

'Urm… hello?'

'Hey, I'm Maoki!' this person sounded ecstatical.

Vester became even more shocked. Where was the voice coming from? He calmly looked towards his leg view and found a boy balanced perfectly on the chain his leg was tied to.

'Argh!!' Vester panicked and the boy followed too before skillfully somersaulting to the ground.

'Who are you?'

'I just said I'm Maoki.' the boy replied.

'Oh. Okay, okay.' Vester panted a little before asking, 'What are you doing here Maoki?'

The boy was amazed, seeing Vester hang like a dead animal. 'I think I should be the one asking you that question.'

Vester remembered his situation. 'Yeah. You're right.' he murmured.

'Anyways, I'm heading over to the First District. I'm participating in the Head of Scrolls.' Maoki said.

'Oh! You too? That makes us... the same, I guess.'

'Yeah.' Maoki said while walking over the where Vester hanged and picked a golden disk from the ground. 'I think you dropped this.'

'Ugh... It must have fallen out when I fell asleep.' said Vester, 'And by the way, how did you get up here?'

'Oh, it was nothing. I just climbed that tree.' Maoki pointed to a tree as he spoke.

Vester looked at this tree and traced it up to the sky. 'What?!' he thought out loud. The tree was so high. Almost 50ft.

'You climbed that?' Vester asked after noticing it was the tree the chain that clutched to his foot was tied to. He cursed Mordecai and Bobby. Of all the trees they could use, they decided to use this particular one. Why?! Why?!

'It's no biggy.'

'Erm.. can you help me? As you can see I'm kinda stuck.'

The boy shrugged and ran to the tree. The moment he put one foot on the tree and removed it, his other leg followed. Like that, it took seconds before he disappeared from Vester's sight. Vester was flabbergasted. He even claimed better than he did. But his thought was substituted for another when he felt the chain shake and swing from side to side. The next shake caused him to descend a little bit even still being tied.

Woah!

But this last shake didn't just swing him around, he fell down from where he hanged. He became jubilant and shouted out of happiness.

'Watch out!'

He looked up after hearing the warning only to find the huge tree branch the chain was tied to descending to his position, and fast. He jumped to the other side and avoided the hit.

'Nice dodge.' Moaki commented.

Vester looked at this boy, now he had a clearer view of how the boy looked.

The boy was the same height as Vester. His hair was brown and so was his eyes. He had watercolour paint on his face and instead of wearing a padded armour the boy wore some kind of furry jacket that looked to be made from the skin of a bear.

Vester stood up and dusted himself. He then extended his hand to meet the boy saying, 'I never got to introduce myself. My name is Sylvester, but you can call me Vester.'

The boy smiled back then shook Vester's hand and a monkey crawled out slowly from inside the boy's jacket.

'I think he likes you.' the boy said.

And Vester gave the boy and monkey a warm smile.