Nero dropped down to Urs looking her in her powdery white face and pointed purple nose. "Get big."
"What are you doing?" Frides called from up ahead.
"I'm trying to tell her to get big. It works with flowers." Nero called up to him.
"That's just a theory." Elle refuted. "There is no science to back that up."
Ouran slipped to Nero. "Do you think it'll work."
Nero looked down at Ouran's feet and smirked. "It's worth a try?"
Ouran nussled his face next to hers and closed his eyes. "Get Big. Really big like a house."
"No, a castle." He looked at her again. "Get as big as a castle."
"She's the only girl in the world that's ever been asked to get big and fat." Frides said sardonically.
Elle looked down at her curvy figure and asked Frides. "Am I fat?"
"What?" He put his hand to his chin.
"Why are you thinking about it? Forget it."
"No. You are actually very agile. Where I'm from we don't value uselessness but youre not useless."
"I said forget it." She walked past him in a huff.
"As fat as a house!" Ouran yelled.
"As fat as a castle!" Nero screamed and lifted her up and ran forward with Ouran running close behind him. "And we can soar through the clouds high up in the sky."
Ouran spread his arms and mimicked flying. "Through the clouds. I wonder if their as soft as they look."
"Softer." Nero said. Urs copied Ouran and spread her wings and flapped them. "Just like that."
"How close are we to the town that we're stationed in?" Elle exclaimed, yearning for a room with a door that she could close. They had been traveling for a few days and compounded with the other days they spent on the road she was getting worn out. They were surrounded by an endless sea of trees and waking up in the dirt. Finding all sorts of bugs that had housed themselves in her clothes and hair.
"It's on the other side of this mountain." He pointed at the mountain that was up ahead. "It's the same thing I told you five minutes ago before he started trying to make Urs grow with encouragement."
"I know but hearing you say its almost in view is kinda comforting." She smiled to herself.
They walked for a long time after spotting the mountain. No matter how fast they walked the mountain always seemed just as far away until they were walking through a little town at the base. An hour later they were walking up on an old stone house with a tall tower coming up from its corner. It was the only house in the woods next to a small town that the townsfolk called Ioanim. It sat at the end of the Ioanima Mountains between the Shuri and Fidam Forests.
"I cant believe we went all the way up to New Oania only to have to come all the way back down here. The Shuri Forest is not too far from here and the town that I grew up in is just a little north of here." Nero bellowed as he walked up the path to the front door.
Frides pulled on his shirt. "Wait." He moved ahead and walked over to the windows.
"What are you doing?" Ouran followed him slowly to the window and stood on his tip tows and looked in.
Frides looked down at him. "There could be Peace Corps members or bounty hunters waiting to ambush us."
"Is that Nero?" Ouran pointed at Nero through the window.
Frides ran around to the door and jumped in Glowing two purple daggers. "Why would you just walk in?"
Nero pointed to the door as Elle and Ouran peeked in. "It was unlocked."
"No need to lock it really." Bliperilla stepped out of the hallway and walked into the kitchen. "Last meal?"
Frides raised his daggers. "Is that a threat?"
Bliperilla stared at Frides unflinching. "Good. You've still got nerves." She lifted the wood flap and stepped behind the bar. "So last meal. It's a right to those soon to be dead. I can make anything."
"Anything?" Ouran hopped up on a stool.
"Oh you're young." She looked from Nero to Elle still in the doorway. Though she was behind the bar Frides hadn't released his daggers. She looked back down at Ouran and leaned down on her elbows on top of the bar. "How did you end up here?"
"What?" Ouran had never seen such an intense gaze before.
"You do know you could die, right?"
"So." He fumbled trying to sound surer than he felt. "I am a Retainer and I will help people."
Bliperilla shrugged. "Well, I was a only little older than you when I became a pirate, so what would you like?"
"Cookies." Ouran smiled seeing the gaze be replaced by a kindly smile.
"Cookies, huh?" Nero walked up and took a seat and rustled Ourans hair. "I'll have some cookies, too."
Ouran moved Neros hand away from his head. "That was different. Who doesn't like cookies."
"Well as a cookie lover myself I whipped up some dried cherry and chocolate chip cookies. Do you guys want some?" Bliperilla asked Frides and Elle.
"Sure." Elle was walking around the living room and stopped at the bookshelf. "Where did you get these books." She ran a finger across the spines. "These are all rare books from all over the world and a lot of them have to do with the Sacred Beasts."
Frides walked through the door into the hallway.
"Does that mean their expensive?" Bliperilla asked.
"Some of them are borderline priceless. Can I read read them. I'll be careful."
A golden glint in Bliperilla's eyes sparkled. "Don't damage them please."
Elle pulled one from the shelf and sneezed against the dust that puffed into her face. She shook her head and took a seat in an orange love seat by the bookshelf.
"Nero these are good!" Ouran smiled with his teeth covered in gewy chocolate.
Bliperilla giggled. "Oh we got a new Brown tooth?"
"What does that mean?" Ouran asked.
"Well when I was a pirate there was a man on our ship that we called brown tooth. Oh, I just remembered why we called him that." She giggled again.
Nero watched her smile and when she met his gaze, she forced a deeper smile. "What?"
Nero had a contemplative expression on his face while maintaining eye contact. "You were a pirate?"
"Yup!" She exhaled harshly and turned away to put the cookies back up on the shelf. "I'll put these up here if anyone else decides they want some I can just grab them for you."
"I don't understand why you're here." He tilted his head.
"I'm Bliperilla, the housekeeper of this house."
"Housekeeper?" Ouran looked at her quizzically. "Is that normal?"
"I think so." She hadn't speculated on the title before but shrugged it off. "It was the job given to me."
"But you used to be a pirate?" Nero asked again.
"Yup." She responded same as before.
"Well your not a pirate anymore right?" Nero asked.
"It appears so." She chuckled. It was a weird question to ask let alone this many times. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"Why wouldn't I believe you?"
"You've asked me if I'm a pirate three times and my answer has been the same each time. This feels oddly familiar and I'm feeling a strange sense of solidarity. What's your point?"
"I'm just making sure you're not a pirate anymore. I hate them."
"What? Why?" Bliperilla was stupefied.
"Are you kidding me?" Nero rolled his eyes.
"Pirates are the best! They live freely going wherever the waves and wind take them. There's nothing better." She challenged.
"And yet, you are no longer a pirate?" Nero smiled smugly and took a bite of the cookie. "These are good!" He smiled at Ouran with gewy chocolate covering his teeth.
Bliperilla leaned back against the kitchen counter.
"Where'd you get these dried cherries?" Nero asked.
"What?" She took a second as she was still reeling from the thought that she herself must not have thought being a pirate was the best though she had just said so. "I made them from one of the berry trees outside."
Nero sat up straight and looked around. He hopped up and speed out the door. "Urs!" When he rounded the corner he was greeted to a vibrant garden full of fresh flowers, vegetables, and fruits. Lying atop a recently uprooted cherry tree was Urs, of course, face dripping with black cherry juices.
He walked back into the front door holding Urs outstretched in front of himself.
"Oh my?" Bliperilla's eyes shot opened and she sneered. "Who'd it eat?"
"A cherry tree. Sorry, I didn't get its name." He sat her on top of the bar. "Her name is Urs. She's a Domaku and a near and dear friend."
"A Domaku?" Bliperilla laughed.