Gloria yawned and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and saw that Niku was asleep in a very awkward position. "I should wake him up now..."

She lifted herself up and walked over to the sleeping swordsman. "Ehem.... WAKE UP!" Gloria screamed in his ear. “Sorry for the rude awakening”, Gloria said as Niku woke up startled, “But you see, we need to get going.”

“Yeah…” Niku shook his head and rubbed his eyes, clenching his jaw so his ears would pop.


Gloria took Niku’s arm and lifted him up with all her might. “Phew… Well, we’d better get to the holding place of the leaf.”

She gathered her stuff and within minutes was itching to go. As soon as Niku was ready they were on their way. They walked in silence for what seemed like forever and Gloria wasn’t sure what she should do. It’s not like they had much in common either.

Gloria flapped her wings and took flight. “I’ll see if the place is visible from up in the air.” Niku nodded and Gloria rose above the tree tops. She looked in all the direction and found that several trees created a dome shaped building. “That must be it!”

She flew down and landed beside Niku. “Did you see it?” He asked.

“Well… I’m not sure, but it sure does look like it. If we make a turn here and keep gong we’ll be sure to reach it by sunset.”

“Alright.” Niku briefly said and resumed walking at his pace.

Gloria was so excited she dashed ahead. “Hurry up Nikudemon!”

Within hours, the dome she’d seen earlier was in view. She pointed and exclaimed, “That’s it! It must be!”

“Wow. It’s huge.” Niku said looking up at the giant dome. With each step they took the tree building seemed to grow in height.

When they finally reached the entrance, the dome was looming over them like a huge tower. The trees intertwined in a way so that the structure had plenty of support, but still grew to the length it was capable of. The entrance to this monstrosity was a mere crawl space just big enough for them to enter.

“I’ll go first!” Gloria said brightly. She folded her wings and kept them close to her body. She then quickly dove straight into the hole. She scuttled through and emerged in a huge room. The entire building composed this one room. It was completely bare, except an immense hole in the center of the building floor. Gloria unfolded her wings and without even blinking flew toward it, not even bothering to wait for Niku.

“Wow.” Peering down into the hole was like looking into pure darkness. “Only one way to go… Right Nikudemon?”

“Let’s go in.” Niku said after he had caught up with her.

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