"Happy birthday to you!"
"Happy birthday to you!"
"Happy birthday dear Trikka!"
"Happy birthday to you!"
A huge smile lit up Trikka's snout as she watched her friends and brother sing for her. The whole table shook with laughter despite the confused looks from many of the restaurant's other guests.
"Thank you guys. And thank you Fischer for teaching us that little cheer!" She chirped. Fischer nodded as she chuckled. He still found it a little odd that the carcans didn't have any sort of birthday cheer. He had always assumed it was a universal thing. Apparently not though.
"Heh, how do you not get annoyed by that?" Kori jested.
"Kori!" Trikka and Quin both scowled.
"No no it's alright, it honestly is annoying. Quite annoying. Buuuuut considering you guys have never experienced it before, I felt it was my duty to expose you to it. You're welcome."
Ko let out a hearty giggle. Fischer couldn't help but smile at seeing her finally laughing at something. In the eight weeks since they had met the carcans she had barely said a word. It seemed like she was starting to enjoy herself now however, something that he definitely wouldn't grow tired of.
"Well, we may not have birthday songs like that, but we still follow all the other rules," Kori stated. Reaching under the table he pulled out a small wrapped box with a ribbon tied on top. The ribbon was white with two thin blue stripes running along the sides of it. The stripes almost appeared to glow, something Fischer was slowly becoming more and more accustomed to.
"Happy birthday sis," Kori smiled, handing the gift to his sister.
Trikka let out a cute little gasp as she placed her hands above where Fischer assumed her heart was, right in the middle of her chest.
"You didn't have to!" She cooed.
"Oh please, it's your birthday. Of course we did!" Quin exclaimed.
Trikka gave them all a flattered look before turning her attention on the little box she had been given. Untying the wrapping, she opened it up to reveal a small picture frame that was coated in beautiful silver and black accents with small glowing speckles around the frame. Inside the frame lay a photograph of the five of them all huddled together by the jetty at the edge of their house with the bright lights of Amaryllis Falls lighting up the night sky behind them.
"Aww, thank you guys so much! It's beautiful!"
Fischer felt a bright smile gleam across his face as he watched her. It felt good to finally be able to give something back to her after everything she'd done for him and Ko.
"Ay well I'm glad you like it. A little something to say thank you for everything you've done for us," he gleamed, pulling Ko slightly closer, who intern gave her a cheerful nod.
"You don't have to thank us for anything. These past eight weeks have been real fun for us as well. It's been a blast having you two stay with us," Quin exclaimed.
The table was suddenly interrupted by a yellow carcan dressed in a very stylish white and blue suit. He carried a metallic dome in one hand and a small hexagonal towel in the other.
"Pardon me ma'am, sorry to interrupt the celebration but are we ready for dessert?" The waiter placed the dome on the table then took the silver lid off to reveal a green and white cake covered in pink and yellow frosting.
"Oooooh, thank you very much sir. I think we are indeed!" Trikka said, rubbing her hands together enthusiastically.
The waiter gave a slight bow before heading back inside.
"Wow. Can't say I've ever seen a cake like that before," Fischer stated.
"Looks like a bit of sponge and pich. And there's no good in just staring at it. Dig in everyone!" Quin chirped.
Everyone took a slice of cake and began to feast.
"Oh wow. This tastes incredible!" Fischer exclaimed, scoffing down the spongy cake.
"Yea, it definitely doesn't disappoint. You sure know how to pick 'em," Quin replied, motioning to Kori who gave a cheeky smile.
"What about you Ko? What do you think?" Trikka asked.
But instead of getting a happy reply, the zapher was staring blankly at the cake with a small piece on her fork.
Fischer's brow lowered slightly. "Ko?"
Her chest was visibly rising and falling and she was breathing very heavily. She wearily looked over at Fischer before letting out a slight moan and suddenly collapsing, falling off of her chair and tumbling on the ground.
"Oh my god! Ko!" Quin cried as she and Fischer jumped off of their chairs and kneeled down next to her.
Several gasps came from surrounding tables as carcans and other races Fischer wasn't acquainted with gazed on in confusion.
"She's unconscious again. Probably having another glimpse. We need to get her home, quickly." He exclaimed.
Quin gave a short series of quick nods while she ran her fingers over Ko's forehead. She noticed a slight gash above her left eye, right where she'd impacted the table as she fell.
"That looks pretty nasty as well," she grimaced.
The yellow waiter from before suddenly came rushing out from inside after hearing the commotion. "Good lord! What happened here?"
"Oh she fell off her chain, she's had a lot of sleepless nights lately and is just really tired right now. We'll get her home quickly, thanks though. Sorry about all the noise," Kori explained with an award winning grin.
The waiter didn't seem to share his enthusiasm. "Right. . ." he doubted, nodding his head. "Well if you need anything, be sure to let us know alright?"
Kori gave him a sharp nod and he reluctantly walked back inside.
"Alright, party's postponed for now. Lets get out of here. We're getting a lot of unwanted attention right now."
--\/--
Ko's eyes slowly forced themselves open. She blinked wearily a few times before coming to her senses. Before she could look around and take in her surroundings, she felt something soft on the back of her head. Realising she was actually lying down, she looked up and saw a familiar face staring back down at her.
"Heya. Wakey wakey," Fischer whispered as he stroked her head gently. She blinked in confusion before slowly sitting up with Fischer's help. Closing her eyes tightly, she held her hands up against her throbbing forehead.
"It happened again didn't it?" She asked sheepishly.
"I'm afraid so." Quin replied as she took a seat next to them on the couch.
Ko looked around for a bit. They were back in the house, sitting on the main couch in the middle of the living room. The holographic television was on and seemed to be playing some sort of news program. It was dark outside, the house flooded with the interior glowing walls and pale blue lights.
"W-where's Trikka and Kori?" She asked.
"Oh they went off to bed. It's quite late. You were out for a little while. I kept telling this one here to head to bed as well but he insisted on stay with you. I didn't want to leave him alone so I stayed up as well." Quin explained as she pointed to a rather embarrassed Fischer, his cheeks a bright raspberry red.
"Thank you," she cooed. Fischer replied with a sheepish nod.
"How you feeling?" Quin asked as she took a sip from her mug.
Ko rubbed her eyes gently and winced as she tried to recall everything that happened in her head while she was asleep.
"My head hurts a bit. . . b-but I kept hearing this number. Over and over again, it just wouldn't stop. I think it was one four eight seven. It just kept repeating itself over and over."
Quin gave her a puzzled look. "One four eight seven? Was there any letters before it?"
Ko shook her head. "N-no. I don't think so. Why?"
"One four eight seven is the tag given to a planet out near The Rift. NGC-1487. That ring any bells?"
She shook her head again.
"A planet? Wait why would she have the name of a planet on repeat in her head? Does that number mean anything else to you?" Fischer asked while stroking his chin in confusion.
"Nah, can't say it does. There's a possibility that it could mean something else, but given your previous glimpses and the fact that the planet is located near The Rift, a place where the lost Temple of Agaron is rumoured to be. . ." Quin guessed.
"That. . . that's where the voice wants me to go. . ." Ko finished.
Through gritted teeth Quin gave a slow nod. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I reckon whatever it is that's giving you these nightmares, you might find some answers on that planet." She stated.
Fischer felt his blood run cold. On one hand, they finally were picking up some clues as to what was going on with Ko. But on the other, this also sounded like a huge coincidence. There was no way that some random planet out in the middle of dead space was going to contain the answers. It just didn't feel right. But for right now, it seemed to be the only lead they had to uncovering what was talking to Ko.
The zapher looked up at him with her big blue eyes, a small spark of what looked like hope dancing through them.
"W-well even if that was where we needed to go, we have no way of knowing what is waiting for her there. Hell, we don't even have a way of getting there. And I don't know about you bit that seems like a huge long shot. We've come so far in the past few months. I really think that potentially throwing it all away on something we can only call a hunch is a pretty risky idea," he exclaimed.
Quin and Ko both stared at him with pensive looks on their faces. He could tell they were thinking the same thing.
"You're right, it is only a hunch. But it's all we've got. I mean what other options do we have? We can either explore this mystery signal or ignore it and potentially have Ko suffer these visions over and over," Quin advised.
Fischer thought for a few seconds. He knew she was right, what other options were there?
"What do you think Ko?" He asked.
She shook her head gently, staring pensively at the ground. "I-I don't know what to think. . . I haven't heard anything about a planet before. A-and this is the first time I've ever heard this number before either, I don't know if it's a planet or not. . . but this is the first time we've ever had anything close to a clue. I don't want to leave. . . I don't want to risk everything I have. But at this point I don't think I have much of a choice. Whatever this is it's. . . it's breaking me up inside. And I'm scared I'm going to start breaking apart on you guys. If this. . . whatever it is, is what is going to give me an answer, I don't think I have the option to say no," she whimpered.
Fischer held her arm gently. "She's right. It's not much to go off of. But it's something at least."
Quin nodded. "Agreed. Now go get some sleep. We can discuss this with Trikka and Kori tomorrow morning," she said before taking the cups over to the sink.
Ko looked at Fischer with nervous eyes. "Do you really think this will help me?"
Fischer forced a small smile. "If there's even a slight chance that it will, I'm ready to take that risk. I refuse to watch you suffer any longer than you already have."
He pulled her into a tight hug and they sat there for a few moments in each other's arms, glad to finally know that this path they were on wasn't just a dead end.
Something, or someone was leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for them, and they'd just found the first piece.