[Intermission] Befriend the Bird

Special Quest:

Befriend any type of bird. 250P

RULES: Noel cannot find out about the specifics of the task. If found out, the quest will be terminated. Special quests cannot be removed and will be refreshed weekly. Special Quests completed before the week ends will only be refreshed the following week.

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What kind of quest is this?

Befriend a bird? A bird in the sense of-- a living one? Vague. Truly vague. Why would this week's quest be so queer? Wouldn't it usually take into account Noel? It seems as if it was an entirely separate task. One that did not involve him in any way.

Though, thinking about it, I have never tried to befriend an unintelligent creature.

Coming in front of Prune I asked her for advice.

"Befriend a bird?" she had an unusual expression on her face as she stared at the panel. "How would you go about this.. maybe try to spread some food on the ground?"

"Isn't that equivalent to merely giving away food? Birds lack the intelligence to treat anyone who serves them food as acquaintances don't they?"

It seems Prune herself wasn't too sure. I turned to Nine for opinions.

"Any birds huh.. let's see. Maybe we can go to a zoo? A bird park would be nice too-- where you can feed the birds bird feed," Nine said.

"Another way to question this decision-- would this trip be worth the effort," I asked both Nine and myself to ponder.

Part of why I thought this plan was inefficient was because the quest amounted to only 200 points. And to make sure Noel doesn't catch wind of my plans, it's inevitable I can't go together with Noel-- I c-could go with him, there were underlying risks involved.

"It depends. You should just go. Just the two of you," Nine smiled.

And the third reason being my awareness of what normal people refer to as 'dates'. How embarrassing..

I pouted to hide my fluster while Nine laughed.

"It's totally up to you. Maybe you should just try whatever you can think of. Noel has skipped a lot of his previous weekly quests, you know?"

"Is that so?" I tilted my head at her remark.

"Like last week's quest where he had to make you moan on purpose," Nine said with a faraway look.

It seems Noel wasn't the only one having trouble completing these quests.

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"Befriend a bird?" Wendy repeated my question.

"Befriend Qui?" the animate rabbit misheard.

"Do you know of any way to do so? I want your take on this," I thought perhaps I could gain a few different opinions regarding the matter before taking action. It was important to gather information before drafting a plan.

"I don't really have any ideas, how about you Qui?"

"Qui has one, we force Ping to help!"

"Good idea," Wendy nodded as if understanding.

"So you do have an idea?"

"Keep it a secret Qui. Wait until we finish preparing everything you see-- Qui," the adorable rabbit sounded rather sinister.

Wendy stared at Qui blankly.

"So it's something I should not know?" I asked.

"Qui wants to surprise Liliath Qui. Qui also doesn't know if it'll work Qui."

"Qui, I thought you hate Ping?" Wendy interjected.

"Qui!?"

"Who is Ping?" Genuinely confused by their conversation due to the lack of context. The only thing I could recount besides it being a name was Nine's explanation of 'ping' in a gaming context. Low ping meant good things, a high ping meant you were going to die.

"Don't tell her Qui!"

"You will know tomorrow."

"Pororo is a big fatty Qui!"

"Then I appreciate your help," I bowed. Though, I should keep in mind her plan might not be so effective.

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"What are you doing?" Noel called out.

"Feeding the birds?" turning around, I blurted without much thought.

"Feeding the birds? Why?" Noel looked suspiciously at the cup of uncooked rice I was holding in hand.

"I thought to see their reaction when it comes to finding food--"

A lie.

"Biology again?"

"Regarding the food chain.."

Though I have no idea how Noel related my actions to that educational subject. However it related, my highest priority was to drag this conversion towards a different direction.

"I think bread would be better."

"Prune said rice would work too."

"True. I remember my mom used to scatter raw rice out in the field wherever we saw a flock of pigeon-doves."

I took the rice, about 4 dozen or so grains from my calculation, and was about to head outside the apartment when Noel asked.

"Are you going to just scatter it outside?"

"As long as I can attract the birds and watch them feed."

Noel had a difficult expression on his face.

"You know, let's go to the local park. Since you want to see the birds eat rice.."

I took Noel's suggestion and together with him, walked to the closest park with a small bag of rice. The park had what I learned to be a playground with a swing and slide.

"Noel, how does this work?" I pointed at the swing.

"That.. I think it's better to just show it to you."

Noel sat on the swing and kicked the ground, propelling himself forward. This process repeated a few times until he built enough momentum for the swing to oscillate himself without needing to apply any more force. Quite an interesting concept for a kid's game.

Noel came to a forceful stop, came down and invited me onto the swing.

I sat on it, my butt sinking into the seat-- it was quite uncomfortable so I bore with it.

"How exactly do you do this.." I tried kicking against the ground a few times, making sure I didn't apply too much force. However, no matter how I tried, I just couldn't make it work similarly to how Noel did.

"How about I push you instead, just hold tight onto the chains."

Noel stood behind me and touched my shoulder, I felt a jolt through my spine.

Making me realize-- could this be a date?!

Before I had anything to come to a conclusion, Noel had already sent me forward into the air. I felt myself float a moment, hands gripped onto the chain to steady myself in place-- then I fell backwards, floating again, I felt Noel's hand touch my back, sending me forward.

The breeze generated was pleasant, how I could see the world with a slightly elevated vantage point was exhilarating. Instinctively, my only thoughts were that I wanted to go higher.

Soon I found myself making an entire loop around the swing, Noel became silent and stopped pushing against my back however.

"That was fun--" I got down from the now higher than usual seat of the swing.

"I forgot you're not normal.." Noel said. I was slightly annoyed at his remark but I let it pass.

"I do have to unwind the swing don't I?" tracing Noel's line of sight-- the swing that had wound around the supporting beam at least twice.

"Please do.."

After that we came to an area with a wooden bench, a group of birds were seen in the middle of a patch of green.

"Just throw the rice towards the birds, but be careful not to scare them away. It'll take some time for them to notice the food."

"Understood," I took out one grain and threw it to the grass-- making sure it didn't kill them.

"Um.."

I took out the second grain and threw it a few centimeters away from the first. Then the third a few centimeters away from the second-- making sure to repeat this until I encircled the group of birds with rice. That way, no matter where the birds walk outside their current grounds to explore, they would indefinitely stumble upon a grain.

".."

"That should do it right?"

"Yeah.."

I couldn't understand the troubled expression Noel had on his face. I wonder if I did something wrong? This is clearly an efficient method, isn't it?

"Mom! Look, pigeons!" a young child shouted, pointing at the birds.

That moment, the flock took off into the air, and then landed on the ground to the farther left end of the park.

I blinked twice.

"Too bad," Noel let out a sigh.

"H-how.."

Ah-- I see. I never did erect a concealment barrier around people other than Noel and I.

"Sorry that just happened… do you want to try again?" Noel tried to console me by being patient. Though, it was very clear the day was getting late. Prune must be cooking something in the kitchen by now.

I took a peek at the bag of grains, now empty.

Dejected, Noel and I returned to the apartment. It seems to be much of an impossible quest after all…

"No wonder.. you two went on a date after all," Nine said during dinner-- I could only shyly deny her accusation. It was for work-- not a date!

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Coming to Wendy's seat for salvation, I was greeted by what looked to be a different plushie. A penguin. A small penguin that was no bigger than my palm.

"Good day to you madam, you can address me as Ping," it spoke in an unusually deep tone, a great contrast to it's cute stature.

"Good morning Liliath, this is Ping," Wendy said.

"Good morning. So this is the bird you spoke of?"

"Yes madam-e, I am Ping the penguin. I extend my humble greetings to your beautiful self."

"He does have an eccentric speech pattern doesn't he?"

"Which is one of the reasons Qui dislikes him."

"So it's a male?"

It seems plushies have genders, prodding me to question Qui's gender.

"It is so Madam," the penguin who could neither bow nor move could only speak akin a statue.

"I don't understand what this idea of your's is Wendy?"

"The quest said any type of bird. So I thought maybe Ping the penguin could help with that."

"If I may speak my thoughts, I infer that you would like to befriend this lowly me?" Ping said solemnly. Was it because it deemed itself a bird that couldn't fly? One that had no ability to soar through the clouds high above?

"I would be glad to befriend such a humble individual," I replied back.

Ding.

'Liliath's special quest completed.'

The voice resounded. It worked!

"Thank you Ping, You have my gratitude."

"It's an honor to meet madam."

"So did it work?" Wendy asked.

"Yes. Thank you Wendy, I own you one," I showed her the special quest panel. [COMPLETE] situated at the side, marking its completion.

"Thank you for your help Ping," Wedny said, smiling at the penguin.

"My pleasure."

"Liliath, what quest is.." Noel called out but stopped when his sight caught onto the penguin.

"I see. So you must be Madam's friend."

"DID THAT PENGUIN JUST TALK?!"

I nodded. Glad that this quest had a loophole in its completion.