Chapter 9

From Sari's place, they had taken an Uber to the point where the two oceans meet. It was a 30 minute drive which felt longer because tourist season was ending and people were quickly flocking to the beaches and restaurants.

The three girls paid for their tickets to hike up the peak. Mbilu made a mental note to fight Sari for not telling them it was a hike after the cable car ride. The annoyed look on Laylah's face confirmed she felt the same way. Sari tightened the straps of her backpack, took a sip of water and cheerfully went to the tour group. Mbilu and Laylah swapped shoes. Mbilu was used to walking up mountains barefooted or with unconventional shoes while Laylah wasn't. They'd swapped their sneakers and pumps with each other. The tour guide, a tall and beefy looking woman, stood on top of a small boulder and addressed the group. She'd told them the rules and regulations of the hike. She'd given them warnings of feeding wild animals and steering clear of the hostile creatures. Laylah and Mbilu kept on either side of Sari. She was a wild card, who do definitely feed an animal to see what would happen. Chaos in a tiny package.

"Guys, don't worry. I won't feed the monkeys" Sari giggled.

"We're not protecting you, we're protecting the monkeys" Laylah chided her.

"You might harm them with your chemical filled fruits" Mbilu joined in the chiding.

"Dried fruits doesn't have chemicals" Sari rolled her eyes.

Laylah and Mbilu looked anywhere but at Sari. It was a known fact that anything nowadays, no matter how much they boast freshness and untouched nature, was filled with chemicals and other boosters. The tour guide had started the tour. The group started off at the base of the peak. Narrow sandstone stairs with metal railings winded up the peak. Clean cut grass laid on either side of the stairs. Off the sides of the peak were beaches. On the left side spanned a clear tawny beach where various species of birds had made their home along side the cliff side. In the right side spanned a rocky boulder filled beach where the African penguins had made their homes alongside the seals.

Where the flightless approach flight. Two different types of birds ever so parallel but never quite meeting. A flightless penguin and a seagull takes flight. That further cements the riddle sending them here. If not then at least she and her friends got to travel across the Cape.

The climb up the stairs had been excruciating. Laylah had to sit down halfway from the top. Sari spent the rest of the trip complaining about the walk. Mbilu had her tiny battery powered fan in her face the entire time. Though she didn't sweat as much as her friends or feel any muscle pain in her legs, her arms were killing her. It had been months since she's had to keep them up this long. A warm pain throbbed in her upper arms and a cramp had settled in her wrists. She'd hoped this riddle was worth it or she'd have to start all over again in finding clues to substantiate her claims.

Majority of the people from the group had plopped to the soft ground once they'd reached the top. Sari laid on her back and stretched out her body. Laylah sat on a near by boulder and drank from her bottle. Mbilu leaned against a railing and overlooked the view. A flat land of clean cut grass with a pebble stone pathway leading up to another pair of railings standing at the edge of the point. Dark trees sprouted on either sides of the point serving as a border and barrier between the harsh forceful winds from the ocean and the people standing atop a point from which they could be blown away from. After their little five minute break the tour guide ushered them to the point. The three girls slacked behind the group and took their time walking.

"How do we find the next clue?" Laylah whispered.

"I don't know. Look for something out of the ordinary." Mbilu shrugged. Did she even know what she was looking for? Would she like what she found? She had to know.

"Laylah, you've been here before. Is there something here now that you didn't see before?" Sari turned the girl stretching out her arms.

"The trees are bigger." She shrugged.

"Aside from nature doing its thing. Is there something else?" Sari huffed in annoyance.

"Let's look carefully and walk slowly." Mbilu placed an arm between Sari and Laylah. Sari often got aggressive when they were annoyed.

"Let's take pictures and zoom in on everything."

"Cool."

The three friends stayed by the edges of the trees and took as many pictures as they could. Each taken picture took them closer and closer to the edge of the point. Soon enough they'd catch up with the group and if they didn't find anything by then, then it would be all a waste. The girls split up and went to different sections of the peak. Mbilu went to the right side of the point and found a nice boulder in front of a tree to take a picture. She placed her phone on the boulder, pulled out its ring snap and set it up. She stood in front of a tree and took a picture. Pulling up her phone and scrolling through the images, she'd zoomed in on the most recent photo and found something off in it. There was a little sparkle from the corner of the screen. It sat on the ground just under the shadow of a tree. Turning around and lifting the phone to the area where the sparkle came from, she follow the image to where the sparkle is located. A little mound just beside a tree. It was still moist and fresh. The soil hadn't dried or shrunk or sunk yet. Her foot tapped the mound and carefully spread it apart. Sitting in the mould was a bracelet. It looked very special. String seemingly made from gold, pearls and lapis lazuli decorated the sides of a coral shell with some odd inscriptions on it. Her hand reached out for the bracelet. A static shock zapped her fingers making her pull back. She blew on her fingers. Her eyes darted around the trees. A broken branch hung from a nearby tree. Her fingers wrapped around the thick rough branch and pulled it free. She positioned the branch underneath the bracelet and pulled it up. Counting up to five and hoping it didn't send shock waves down the branch, she dropped the bracelet into her open fanny pack.

"Mbilu, there you are! Let's go see the meeting points."

She gave her friends a bright smile. The tour guide looked over to the giddy girls taking pictures of the oceans and themselves and turned to the rest of the group satisfied. They'd rushed over to the metal railings at the edge of the point and took more pictures of their eventful day.

**

"So…We got a bracelet?" Sari scooped a spoon of pomegranate seeds from their fruit salad.

"A magic bracelet you idiot." Laylah gave her a scathing look. Sari stuck out their red tongue at her.

"Why would someone send us out to look for a dumb bracelet?" Mbilu thought outloud.

"Maybe they saw your wallet when you dropped it by mistake and felt bad." Sari pocked Laylah on her belly.

"The letter was dropped off at Mbilu's place not mine." she swatted their hand from her stomach.

"The bracelet isn't important. The writing on it is." Mbilu shook her head at the bracelet.

"How?"

Mbilu stared at her phone. She'd taken numerous pictures of the bracelet and tried to translate the languages. "I've never seen it before. It's not showing up either. "

"There are millions of languages out there, how can't Google find this? "

"I don't know. It keeps giving an error."

"Give me that thing." Sari grabbed the bracelet off the table.

They dropped it in shock as quickly as they picked it up. "What the hell? It shocked me!?!"

"Why do you think I took it out with a stick and took pictures of it?"

Sari took her phone and stared intently at the screen. Her eyes went wide and she gasped.

"I've seen this before." they muttered. They twirled their wrists forward while trying to think of where they'd seen it.

"There's this game I played last year. It had these symbols on them. We had to decipher the symbols and it opened up a new labyrinth." thwy looked up with wide eyes and explained.

"What's the name of the game?" Laylah asked.

"I don't know but I'll check if I still have the game cover. It came with an alphabet and a map." They squinted at the phone screen.

"Looks like we found our next lead." Mbilu leaned back on the wooden log bench.

"We're a mystery solving team." Laylah squealed.

"The Lore Solvers!" Sari cheered.

"I will rebuke you over the cliff. Change the name." Mbilu gave them an incredulous look.

"Oh so we get to have a name?"

"Don't say it in public." Mbilu groaned in embarrassment.

"The Fable Finders."

Mbilu looked away from her friends. Despite her efforts a small smile crept up on her face.

**

A small jolt of electricity greeted him as soon as he opened the door. An unfamiliar magic had entered his home. He placed his bag down and surveyed the room. There was nothing out of place. He closed his eyes and sniffed the room. Three scents. His, Reuben's and Mbilu's. Reuben's scent was faint and slowly dissipating. He hadn't visited in a while. Mbilu's was strong and pulsing. Rain over copper, rooibos and jojoba oil. A surprising jolt shook him as heat flash through him. She was here. He followed her scent to the empty office room she'd turned into her own. She pouted her lips and furrowed her brows in concentration. Her left hand playing with one of her braids. Her right hand tapping a pen on the table. She sat cross legged on the chair and squinted at the screen through her glasses. Her head slightly tilted to accommodate her better seeing eye. A slow sensual heat pulsed off of him. He took a deliberate step towards her. Her concentration broke and her eyes locked with his. A cute dimple filled smile broke out. His hearts fluttered with joy. She was so adorable. He knelt beside her chair. She let go of her hair and took one of his hands into hers.

"Hi." she drawled out in her soft voice.

"Hey." he did the same.

"How are you?" she patted his head.

"I'm happy and you?" his thumbs traced circles on the back of her hands.

"I'm so excited." a grin broke out.

"Why?"

"You first."

"Just happy to finally see you. I missed you so much."

"It was just two weeks." she rolled her eyes.

"Two weeks of agony and stress. When my heart misses you, it burns up." he touched his heart and leaned back.

"Drink Gaviscon next time that happens." too oblivious. She was too oblivious.

"You're a clown. I'm professing my love to you and you shut me down." he pouted.

"Sorry, sorry. Alright let me play along. Oh no your poor heart." she put her palms on his cheeks and squished them together.

"It's too late now. I've been wounded by your words."

"Let me heal you with words of… sweet… honey." sometimes he wondered how such a remote and disassociative girl could come from such a loving family.

He cringed. She was so bad at being romantic. "You're getting better." he lied.

"I wish my speaking words matched my writing words." she looked away.

He stood up and walked to his room. "Your speaking words are what makes your writing words memorable." he said as he left.

"Just say I sound like an idiot and get on with it." she yelled.

"You do at times but that's only because your mind has already moved on to the next sentence." he yelled back. A grin formed on his face. He loved coming back to her. She offered him a soft break from the noise.

"You're so honest." she called out after him.

A few minutes later he strolled out the room feeling better after his shower. He hated staying in his coat and work clothes after working with a lot of blood.

"What are you studying about this time?" he leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen.

She turned her chair and faced him. "Ooh! My friends and I found this bracelet. The bracelet is not important but the words on it are."

On the screen was a 3D rendition of a mer anklet. On it was frustratingly difficult language of Atlantis. Or a modern version of the ancient language. The ancient Greek faded to make way for pre-modern Amharic mixed with ancient Arabic before a few centuries ago. "What does it say?" he really wished he knew what it said. He figured it would probably be the name and family of the owner and something like 'if lost please send to this location'.

"Don't know yet but I think it's an ancient form of Greek or Sumerian. I can't really tell." she guessed one of the first languages already? He had to make that thing disappear fast.

"Are those real jewels and real gold?"

"Definitely."

"Where'd you find it?" he prayed that she found it by accident.

"On the top of Cape point." it was not an accident. Who randomly climbs a cliff and finds hidden treasure there?

"Maybe a tourist lost it." he tried to shrug off her findings.

"I thought about that but it shocks you when you touch it."

"Hmm…interesting."

Fucked. He was beyond fucked. A mer anklet. Why did she have a still charged mer anklet? Despair gripped his heart. He couldn't stop her. There was no easy way to stop her from investigating this further. How did she find it? Just how shallow was the hole she found it in? Maybe she bumped into it and she took it because it looked cool? He groaned inwardly. She didn't just bump into it. There was no way she just bumped into it. It was given to her. Shown to her.

After an hour of her constantly trying to convince him that magic was real and that someone sent her to find it. She'd given him half the story. He knew she was hiding more but didn't push it. He was still a step ahead of her and constantly behind her covering tracks. She gave him the letter she'd receive. Fear gripped his hearts. The first riddle belonged to him. They found him. And her. The letters didn't come from the fae. They took riddles and poems far too seriously for some amateur attempt at it. It wasn't djinn either. They were also known for their poetic prowess. Something he could never achieve. Too many creatures associated with the moon. Too many creatures were at the party. Too many of them thrived in the chaos they'd created. He didn't know who it was and couldn't narrow it down. But this threat was real. His private life could go to hell now. If one person of importance saw him that means the whole magic world did too.

He couldn't do this alone anymore. He needed backup.