A Hero's Journey: Rivalry

     The rain continued its brutal assault upon Meridell. Rivulets trickled down from treetops and market stalls closed shop for the day. The sky was a gloomy grey, apt for the empty, damp roads, streets and fields, and only lit up when lightning pierced the clouds. Not much could be heard aside from the beating of the rain, interrupted only by distant peals of thunder.

     Fidelity let out a breath as he gazed out the window, mist forming on the glass pane. A new sound cut through his thoughts: someone’s voice.

     “Sir Fidelity!”

     Whipping around, the royal Uni saw that the voice belonged to a bespectacled yellow Aisha with worry written all over her face.

     “Lisha, there you are.” His brow furrowed as he met her eyes. “Did you get to visit your brother?”

     She nodded, knitting her hands together. “Yes, but both he and Rohane are under a sleeping draught. The healers said they’re both running a fever.”

     Fidelity sighed and shook his head. “A cold, most likely, on top of all their injuries. But they should be all right. Anyway…what brings you here?”

     “I wanted to ask you something.”

     “What is it?”

     “Can you tell me everything you know about Sir Reynold’s locket?”

     That gave Fidelity pause. “What for? I can tell you what I remember, but…wait, weren’t Jeran and Rohane looking for it around the castle?”

     “That’s right,” Lisha answered resolutely. “I want to find it. Maybe it’ll help them stop fighting.”

     The two of them became quiet for a while. Fidelity stroked his chin before breaking the silence.

     “Reynold was rarely seen without his locket. It had paintings of his wife and two sons in it, and he once told me it was his way of keeping them close to him, even when they were far apart.” The Uni smiled wistfully. “He asked one of the court painters to render those miniatures for him, and to place them in a locket that was handed down through their family for generations. But as you might have heard, the locket was lost sometime after Reynold’s death.”

     “That’s what Jeran told me.” Lisha took off her glasses and polished them. “Sir Reynold knew he was getting old and wanted his locket to at least find its way back to his family…if he doesn’t.”

     “Unfortunately, no one knows just where Sir Reynold left his locket. It was never found. And now that we’re talking about this locket, his diary is also lost somewhere in the castle.”

     “What?” The Aisha gaped at him. “Sir Reynold kept a diary?”

     * * *

     ”You keep a diary?”

     The yellow Blumaroo nodded, holding up a small leatherbound journal. “I just started, Fidelity. Melissa and I have a shared journal back in Trestin, but I thought of keeping a second diary where I can write about my missions and travels, and everything I do while I’m away from my family.”

     “Hmm, that does sound like a good idea.”

     “And when I’ve filled it up, I’’ll give it to my sons to read. So they can learn all about what it means to be a knight of Meridell, and why I’ve had to leave them many times.” There was a wistful light in his eyes, as though he were seeing something distant and delicate that Fidelity could not. “More importantly, they will learn that…I’m not the perfect hero they think I am.”

     “But you really are a hero, Reynold. You’re one of the best knights the Order has ever seen.”

     “I’m not perfect. My children must learn that even I made mistakes and failed missions. I must tell them about my entire journey – both the good, and the bad.” When he said this, Fidelity saw a weary gleam in Reynold’s eyes that seemed to make the Blumaroo age by ten years.

     Fidelity gazed at the journal and smiled warmly. “You know, that’s an excellent idea, Reynold. It’s like you’re writing a book for Reuben and Rohane when they’re older.”

     Reynold chuckled as he tucked the journal into an inside pocket of his tunic. “It does seem that way.”

     “A book should have a title,” the Uni commented casually. “Have you thought of one?”

     “Heh, no, but I’m open for ideas.”

     * * *

     “Yes, he kept a diary. We talked about it at times, and when he filled all the pages, he gave it to me for safekeeping. After he died…” The royal Uni’s voice caught in his throat. “I hid it away to make sure no one else got their hands on it, and I could bring it to his family one day.”

     “Do you know where it is?” Lisha inquired.

     Fidelity opened and closed his mouth before glancing away briefly, not without shame. “I can’t remember where it is anymore, it’s been quite a while. I’m sorry, Lisha. I brought up the diary because maybe, if we can find it, we could find some clue to where Reynold kept his locket.”

     “It’s okay.” She patted his shoulder. “If we can get enough help around the castle, we can finally solve Sir Reynold’s mysteries. But can you try to remember? At least, just so Rohane and Jeran have one less reason to fight with each other.”

     The Uni took a deep breath. “I’ll try. For my old friend, and for his mentees.”

     * * *

     “What does the locket look like, anyway?” asked Edith as she lifted a corner of a castle tapestry and knocked on the stones behind it. One made a hollow sound, but when Danner pried it from the wall, it showed nothing but a dusty, empty space a Spyder had begun to call home. “It’s not here, though.”

     Fidelity closed his eyes briefly. “It’s round, plain, and gold. I can’t remember if Reynold ever inscribed the locket with his initials, or his coat of arms. His coat of arms is a broadsword with wing-shaped cross-guards, crossed with a flaming torch.”

     Morris and Boris entered the corridor they were searching, brushing off their breeches, tunics, and hands.

     “We turned the war room upside-down. No sign of the locket, or the diary,” Boris announced.

     “Not even Jeran’s secret diary,” Morris added. He and the blue Blumaroo snickered.

     “I hope you two set the war room back in order after you turned it upside-down,” Danner warned them as Edith began peering under the other tapestries. The blue Wocky gasped when the faerie Eyrie bumped into a suit of armour during her search, causing it to teeter, and sprinted over to keep it from falling.

     Fidelity paced the hallway, looking down at the floor and tapping the boards with his hooves before saying, “I know I said I was sure Reynold wouldn’t keep his locket or diary in the kitchens, but I just remembered that his wife used to work in the castle kitchens.”

     “Don’t worry, Lady Colleen said she would talk to the cooks about letting her in,” said Morris.

     “Well, I can’t blame them if they don’t want to let a single knight into the kitchens,” Danner commented as he raised the last tapestry for Edith to inspect what was beneath. After a moment, she sighed and stepped away, shaking her head.

     “Lady Colleen can be very persuasive, in a good way,” the Eyrie said. She mopped her forehead with a handkerchief and squinted up at the tapestry, which depicted Meridell Castle and its surroundings. Hidden in the leaves of the trees were letters like a “C”, an “H”, and an “E”, but before she could figure out if the next one was a “T”, her thoughts were interrupted by the royal Uni.

     “Wait.” Fidelity held up a hoof, his brows furrowed in concentration. “I’m trying to remember something. About the day I hid the diary…”

     Boris bounced in place and asked, “What? What is it?”

     Fidelity scrunched up his face. “Ugh, no, I had it…no, I remembered something Reynold said that told me where to keep his diary.”

     “No offense, but this would’ve been easier if you just kept the diary with you all this time,” said Danner slowly.

     “I know, I know, but…it was so painful, having it with me after Reynold was killed. It felt like a heavy weight upon my heart, and I was afraid that if I died or was taken prisoner, I might lose the diary. It was supposed to be Reynold’s gift to his sons.” Fidelity began pacing again before halting and doing a little jig on the spot. “His sons…his sons…”

     Lisha walked into the corridor. “Any luck?” In response, Morris, Boris, Edith and Danner all shook their heads. “Oh. Some of the other knights are helping me comb the library shelves, but we haven’t found any clues either.”

     “That’s it! The library!” Fidelity exclaimed, jumping.

     “What’s it?” the Wocky asked abruptly.

     “Reynold was going to borrow a book from the library for his sons. I remember that much. And I might have slipped it into the book he wanted.”

     “But which book was it?” asked Danner urgently. “There are hundreds of books in the library! Are we going to open them one by one?”

     “No, not one by one,” said Lisha thoughtfully. Realization dawned upon her face and she grinned. “What kind of book would a father want to borrow?” She didn’t wait for anyone to answer, and immediately took off toward the direction of the library.

     * * *

     “I didn’t even know we had a children’s section,” said Morris as they began looking through each book on the shelf. After sticking his nose into a picture book, the green Quiggle made a motion as if to toss it aside but stopped at a glare from Lisha and instead laid it on a neat pile of books they had already gone through. “Sir Fidelity, are you sure you can’t remember the title of the book Sir Reynold wanted to borrow?” Morris selected a book entitled One Hundred and One Strange Tales about Chet Flash.

     “I’m trying to think,” the royal Uni responded as he nudged a cart full of books toward their table. “Either faerie tales or folk tales.”

     Edith took one look at the stack of books they still had to open. “Yeah, that really narrows our choices in children’s books.”

     “But I’m sure if I saw the cover, it’ll jog my memory.”

     Lisha stared at the spines of some books remaining on the shelves. “Hmm…let’s try a different approach. Why don’t we think like Sir Reynold at that time? He wanted to borrow something to read to Reuben and Rohane when they were kids, and we know he wanted them to become knights.”

     “One out of two, not bad,” said Boris.

     “Especially when that one travelled through five different Neopian lands,” Danner added. “Too bad he’s unconscious in the infirmary after his big scrap with Jeran.” He clapped a hand to his forehead. “Ugh, we could’ve asked Rohane to tell us what books his father read to him, but no.”

     “We could just wait for him to wake up.” Edith placed two more picture books onto the pile.

     “I want to find that locket before they wake up,” Lisha insisted as she plucked another volume off the shelf. “After everything they’ve done, I won’t be surprised if they try to look for it before they’ve fully recovered. And I’m afraid that might cause another fight between them.”

     Danner sighed. “Who knew having them under one roof would cause so much chaos?”

     “I didn’t,” said Fidelity, blowing some strands of his mane away from his face. “I actually thought they would get along, but I suppose I thought wrong. Especially after what happened during the mission. Let’s just say both of them made some mistakes along the way.”

     “I knew it was a bad idea for both of them to hunt down Ramtor’s minions,” the Wocky grumbled.

     “Wait a minute.”

     Lisha’s hand was on a dusty tome entitled Faerie Tales for Young Heroes, and she frowned. “This one feels thicker than it should be.” And as she pulled it from the shelf, something small and metallic dropped from between its pages and onto the floor, creating a ringing noise.

     All activity ceased as they turned to stare at the round, gold item on the floor, which had opened to reveal two miniature paintings of three white Blumaroos.

     “The locket!” Morris, Boris, Danner, Edith and Fidelity all exclaimed.

     The Aisha scowled at them and was about to raise a finger to her lips, but she bent down and picked up the locket with her free hand instead.

     “That’s not all,” she said, placing the pendant on an empty space on the shelf so she could open Faerie Tales for Young Heroes. The pages parted to reveal a smaller leatherbound book with a worn, flaking cover and yellowing pages.

     “Reynold’s diary,” Fidelity breathed as Lisha set it on the table amidst the other books. “His personal record of his travels, his missions, his life as a knight, written for his sons.”

     “We found both the diary and the locket,” said Edith, breaking into a smile and letting out a sigh of relief. The faerie Eyrie collapsed into a chair. “Whew, what a way to spend a rainy day.”

     “We did it!” Morris cried, before looking at Lisha and whispering, “S-sorry.”

     Fidelity nodded as he opened the diary to the inside page. “We did. And it’s all thanks to everyone. Yes, we managed to find Reynold’s prized possessions because we worked together.”

     “We didn’t make a silly bet over who could find them first, too,” Lisha pointed out. “Maybe if Jeran and Rohane hadn’t competed over finding Sir Reynold’s locket, they would’ve been able to find it together.”

     “Well, hopefully they’ll come to realize that while they’re both recovering in the infirmary,” said Fidelity.

     “Hey, there’s something written on the inside page.” Morris pointed to a single line in neat script. Everyone crowded around the diary to read what it said, but it was Fidelity who read it aloud, with an almost reverent tone.

     “A Hero’s Journey.”

      To be continued…