Destiny's Call

Chapter 4 The Secret of the Map

"Where should we look first?" Fidget asked. Hunter who was scouting from a nearby tree climbed down before answering. "How about we start at that beautiful waterfall we found a while back?" Fidget nodded thoughtfully "That's a good idea but we should hurry." Hunter looked up at the sky; the day was half over "Ok let's go Fidget." Hunter said. Soon Hunter and Fidget were at the waterfall "It's just as I remember!" Fidget gasped before rushing to the lakes edge. "Look there are even more vines then last time." Hunter pointed at the rocks clustered around the waterfall; lush vines grew out of the cracks of the wet rocks. Fidget's eyes grew wide when he saw the thick tangle of vines hanging over the rocks. "Wow! They grew so much!" Fidget exclaimed as he walked over and touched one of the low hanging vines. Hunter chuckled when Fidget slipped and fell into the shallow lake. Fidget grumpily trudged out of the water dripping wet "Not a word." Fidget said with a scowl on his face. Hunter nodded before bursting into a fit of laughter and before long Fidget was laughing too. "You should have seen your face!" Hunter giggled "It was hilarious!" Fidget smiled mischievously "Oh yeah?" he said as he scooped up some water and splashed Hunter. "Hey!" Hunter giggled "Quit it you fuzz brain!" Soon the two siblings where splashing and laughing together. After their short game the continued to search for the village. Hunter and Fidget searched for hours but they found nothing. Soon the sun started to set and Hunter and Fidget had to go home. "I don't get it." Hunter said as she and Fidget relaxed in the living room "Why haven't we found the village yet?" Fidget thought for a moment. Suddenly Fidget's eyes lit up and he dashed out of the room. Hunter stared after Fidget, confused. Soon Fidget returned with a fairly worn scroll. Before Hunter could ask any questions Fidget spread the scroll out on the table. "This is a resent map of the whole forest." Fidget explained "I found it a while ago. It might help us to find the most likely place for a village to be built." Hunter studied the map closely looking for possible areas where a village might be. "The forest is mostly trees and small fields according to this map." Hunter murmured "None of these fields are big enough for a village." Fidget peeked over Hunter's shoulder "Mmph! Mmph!" Fidget murmur and pointed crumbs sprayed all over the map. "Fidget! You're getting crumbs all over the map!" Hunter exclaimed as she brushed of the map at Fidget. Fidget with a jelly doughnut in paw smiled sheepishly "Sorry, I was just trying to show you that big field right there." Fidget said as he pointed to a wide spot on the map with a jelly stained paw. "You mean the spot covered in jelly?" Hunter said irritably as she got up to get a napkin "When did you get a doughnut anyway?" Hunter grabbed two cloth napkins off the kitchen counter then rushed back to the living room. By the time Hunter returned Fidget was finished with his doughnut but he was covered in jelly. Hunter rolled her eyes and handed Fidget one of the napkins. "Did you get any of that jelly in your mouth?" Hunter asked teasingly as she gingerly cleaned the jelly off the map with the other napkin. "Of course I did and for your information-" Fidget stopped mid-sentence and stared at the map completely surprised "Hunter, look!" Fidget said as he excitedly pointed at the map. Hunter looked at the map in surprise; the jelly had revealed a secret engraving. "It shows a sketch of a village called The Flowering Garden." Hunter said happily "And it's not too far from our home either, it's practically next door!" Fidget chimed in excitedly. Hunter rolled up the map before asking "Where did you find this map exactly?" Fidget twitched his ears nervously "Oh I found it in one of gramps' big old books." Before Hunter could say anything else Ki walked in from the backyard. Fidget quickly snatched up the map and hid it behind his back. "Hey gramps!" Hunter called cheerfully "Hello Hunter, Fidget." Ki said as he greeted each of his grandchildren in turn. "You were out for a while." Fidget shrugged "I guess so, we were just exploring. I'm going to my room; call me when it's time for dinner." Fidget said before heading to his room. "Well I guess I'd better start on dinner." Ki sighed as he grabbed a veggie basket and sluggishly headed back outside. Hunter quickly rushed over and gently took the basket "I'll help you gramps. That way you won't have to do as much work. You look kind of tired." Ki smiled gratefully "Thank you Hunter that's very thoughtful. Truth be told I am a bit tired." As the two walked toward the garden Hunter couldn't help but wonder, what her grandfather was doing with that map.