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Tea had brought snacks this time, she had a small backpack with her. Tea had found one that she felt matched her fuku fairly well, it was a mouse themed mini backpack. Soft pastel brown with pink bows. It could carry a few canned drinks, at least Tea didn't mind them not being cold; some crackers and a few other non-perishable goods like cups with peanut butter, hazel nut butter and chocolate spread. She also included along side that some beef jerky, packages of trail mix, nuts and a couple of cookies. She wasn't planning on being up there more than a day but she wasn't sure.

The senshi ran a hand through her hair. "Surely this'll do for a little while." She adjusted her backpack and made her way back to town to look at the map she'd found. While she had pictures she wanted a better idea of what it was suppose to be she was looking for.

The closest on the map seemed to be a stream or creek running through a meadow. But how would she find it and if she found it, would she find the piece that went there?? Tea was looking trying to see if she could tell landmarks on the map - maybe they'd point her in the right direction?

As she looked at the map she saw there were mountains in the far distance which ironically enough was where the map ended there. She could see a small holler detailed in the mountains that looked like it should have had a land mark or something as there was a place for a missing piece. It also looked like the town was in the center of this map. There was a large field on the side opposite of the mountains that just kind of ended at the end of the board on one side, the other looked as if maybe there was a large body of water. Though she didn't really know how far that went or how large that body of water was since the map just tapered off without further lending information. But Tea thought if she could see the mountains maybe that was the way she'd head for to try and find the creek since that's what this map seemed to indicate. And the places were the pegs were she could see missing lead her to believe she needed to follow the creek. Over looking that the center of town was also missing a peg and a clearing between the town and creek had a home for a peg. In total had Tea paid closer attention she'd see she would need five different pegs to complete the map she was studying. Each piece had a unique way to fit back to the map space. But - -what would happen when she reunited all the pieces on the map?

She picked up her backpack and made sure it was comfortably on her shoulders and she struck out heading outside the little museum like building and looked to see if she could tell which direction she needed to head into.

Really though she wished she could draw a map, she had a compass with her to see if she could figure out which way was North so she could come back to the village easier.

As she walked she paused thinking she'd started to hallucinate. There were people walking around -- not actually there, but it was like watching a memory. They all seemed to be dressed in clothing that very much mimicked a mouse, and some sort of traditional looking clothing that matched the quaint village's style.

"Tea, I'm telling you, you shouldn't go wondering and looking for things that don't exist."

Tea jumped when she heard a voice and looked around finding the person talking to her -- well not her her but there was a child, that looked as if they were dressed fairly similar. "What is going on . . . " She murmured as she watched the vision.

"Look, I know you're the village elder but there's something out there that needs my help." The chibi senshi had replied and started walking away in the direction towards the mountains.

"You're not going to find anything out there expect some animals. So I don't know why you think there's someone who needs help."

The way the chibi was headed was the way that Tea had thought she should head. She didn't like the way the village elder was talking though. Frowning she wondered why they didn't want the small senshi making her way outside of the village.

The vision soon faded and Tea found herself walking behind glimpses of a chibi senshi. It didn't last much longer because when she stepped outside of the village, the blaring sun caused her to cover her eyes a bit, no longer protected by the various canopies the houses seemed to use to protect their front doors. Well what was left of them.

She looked out into an expansive field, it seemed to go on forever before it ended at the mountains. The grass was tall and still. Too still.

"I don't like this." She said softly before looking at her compass, it looked as if the village was going to be in the west. At least she could make her way back.

She walked softly through the grass and a noise caught her attention, it seemed far off but it was running water. There was no mistaking that noise. She didn't know how far it was though because as still as everything else was and as quite. Well . . . it made her question what was out there.

It looked as if there was a small path carved out which was weird. There was nothing that grew here, it looked as if it had been traversed until the grass had all but been worn away. Though no one had been here in eons, she could feel it.

"I guess the worst case thing is I don't find what I'm looking for." She said softly as she started off following the path. She was looking for any sort of marking that indicated there maybe something to see, when she suddenly spotted some sort of statue in the middle of the field. It looked very weathered and had seen better days. But it was unmistakably something important.

She headed to the area to take a look and investigate what was there. The statues appeared to be what looked like a raccoon, but the statue was huge. Tea wondered if they normal sized earth raccoons or if the creature was as large as this statue.

She was looking to see if there was anything written somewhere or something. When she located something, she realized - she couldn't read it. The chibi senshi frowned heavily looking at the statue wondering what it was about.

There wasn't much beyond some totem poles that were carved though they looked as if they too had seen better days and as she searched, she found a small secret compartment in the statue base.

She was looking at it wondering how to open it and sat there curious. It looked as if it needed something that acted a key. The chibi hadn't gotten anything that looked like a key. She seemed to think, maybe she needed to go back to the village to find what she was looking for?

She decided that might be the best course and eventually found herself back looking around town. It didn't look like the key would be in the museum. That would've been too easy she felt. So she stopped outside of the museum to actually look around.

There were small looking shops, though she couldn't tell what the shops were for, the signs looked to have been wooden and petrified over time. Not to mention that everything had some strange writing on it she couldn't see. One of them however looked as if it use to house clothing, just from the shop front and looking like a dress form.

The chibi wondered softly looking and searching, when she paused. Standing near a fountain at the center of town was another vision?

"I don't understand what I need for this quest." The chibi from earlier said, looking towards the village elder. "You're telling me it's in my heart. But my heart can't solve an unsolveable riddle."

"Child," The elder was looking at the chibi senshi from the past, "Look with more than your eyes. The answer is in front of you." The Elder wondered off leaving the child to look up towards the statue.

Tea watched as the vision faded and was looking towards the fountain. Was the answer in front of her? She moved to the fountain. She wondered if it was a sort of riddle. A terrible riddle mayhaps but if it was at the heart, this fountain was the heart of the village right?

She looked around it before jumping into the fountain, there wasn't water. Hadn't been water for eons she was sure. The statue was of a senshi, standing there in a pose from what she could tell. It was probably one of the lesser damaged things in the area.

Chibi Tea was inspecting the statue when she noticed what looked like a little heart clip on the back where the tail was on the fuku. "I wonder if that's the heart. . . " She mused looking to see if there was some some sort of mechanism on the statue trying to push the heart. It did push in and she heard a bell noise. The odder thing was. . . Tea didn't see anything that could've made the noise nor did she see anything like a door.

"There has to be something." She walked around the statue in the fountain puzzling what to do next. She something caught her eye. The bell on the bow. Maybe, just maybe it had made the sound? But how could a piece of stone make a bell noise?

The Chibi senshi stood looking at the bell before tapping at it, she watched it move. This wasn't an ordinary statue. She didn't think this would be a push, she tried to tug on the bell since it seemed as if it wiggled. And when she did she heard something click. Looking upwards she wondered and tugged down on the mouse ears that were on the statue as if she thought that was where the noise had come from.

It seemed as if indeed that was the source of the noise. But she didn't see anything or hear anything else happen. She was looking around, there was one hand in the air as if it shielded the statue's eyes from the sun, the other hand was on the statue's hip. Tea wondered if it could hold something, since it was kind of cupped fingers curled but it wasn't an all way closed fist, nor it was flat on the hip of the statue as probably would normally be expected with this sort of pose.

Upon further inspection. Tea did indeed locate something had come out from some hidden compartment into the statue's hand. This fountain was quite fascinating and Tea couldn't help but wonder who built it. She pulled out the small object, which ended up being a copy of the statue - though it reminded her of a polly pocket only larger. It had a peg on the base where it could be set into something else.

"Hm, could this be the key I need?" She wondered as she climbed her way out of the fountain after having looked around a bit more to make sure she wasn't missing something else.

The chibi felt like this quest was going to take much longer than she anticipated originally. "Ohhh, I hope I can finish this in one go." She said softly looking at the piece in her hand, "I really don't want to lose this piece."

She dismissed it into her subspace pocket and made her way back to the first statue she'd found. The one that looked very much like a raccoon. Tea went back to inspecting the statue, it wasn't quite an actual earth racoon, the ears looked much more mouse like and perhaps the tail wasn't quite as fluffy. However, the rest of the animal did mimic a raccoon. She moved back to where she found the hole for the key and she decided to try this polly pocket she'd gotten from the fountain to see if it happened to unlock this creature's secret.

With a soft click, the little door opened to reveal another little figure, this one of the statue she was looking at. A raccoon, it was about the same size as horse would probably be compared to the polly pocket sized key figure. It too held a peg like base with a tooth on it much like a key would.

Tea frowned, this was going to take a long while. She decided to pause and pick up a snack from her back pack after dismissing both items into her subspace pocket. "I have to decide if I want to be here a while. . . or wait and finish this in a couple of parts. I don't think I have enough snacks to do this whole journey in one day."

She was looking towards the sky, it seemed as if there were at least two moons. Maybe multiple suns but it was space so it was harder to tell which what star went with but a couple were close enough to be considered suns she thought.

"Hm, no -- no I should come back. I need to be more prepared because if I snack while I walk . . . I'll have everything eaten before I finish I'm sure of it." There was a pause, "Not to mention I should probably tell my sister I'm going to be in space for a few days when I come back so she's not worried sick." Another pause, "Assuming time moves the same here as it does at home."

The chibi senshi nodded and paused as she looked around, she noticed the path moved on in a few directions with arrows that had words she couldn't made out. But she could also hear the sound of moving water. It was still far ways away so she wasn't sure how long of a journey that would be. The senshi also didn't know where she'd land next time she came to visit. If the spot was fixed or if it moved her around randomly. So it was also something she had to plan for just in case she ended up being dropped further away from the village and having to figure out how to get there in order to start her journey back up.

After she'd finished her snack and thought it over, Tea decided it was best to retreat back to Destiny city for now. She needed to prepared of the rest of thje trip and what it might bring her.

[2523 words]