Tea Leaves and Opal Necklaces

Centaur

Match Six: Centaur:

Gilbert was the one who called for "that" measure. The other countries didn't have time to argue about this.

"Is it really that bad?" Antonio asked on the other line when the Prussian man called him up.

"Yes!" Gilbert shouted. "West is to feel the effects!" The color drained from the Spanish man's face.

"You can't mean...?" he began to ask.

"Yes! Since we don't have Greece's mother, we have to get Greece to do it himself!"

"But can he do it?"

"He's going to have to learn how or else we're all screwed!"

"Okay, I'll get Turkey to talk to him."

"Thank you!"

On Sunday, Sadık pounded on Heracles' door.

"Yo, Greek bastard! Get out here this instant!" he shouted. "This is serious!" He beat on the wood until the door opened. The Greek man stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked. Sadık folded his arms across his chest and snorted.

"Antonio sent me over here to talk to you about it," he said.

"About what?" Heracles asked. The Turkish man threw up his hands in the air.

"You know... that measure!"

Heracles' jaw dropped. He slowly shook his head. "No..."

"Gilbert was the one who said it."

"But it took mother days to summon and master the Great Beast. Even then, it wore her out. She slept for close to a year after the Woman in Red was sealed away into the Land of the Dead. Even I don't have enough strength to do it all again. If I tried to summon the Great Beast, it would kill me."

"So?! We will all die if you don't do something! I wouldn't be over here if Kiku wasn't getting worse!" Sadık noted the Greek's man shocked expression on his face.

"Yeah, that's right," he said. "Sena wouldn't let me see him today. But I did find him in the back yard. Kiku's in real bad shape. He didn't look like he had been eating or sleeping for weeks. I don't like you, but please at least do it for Kiku!"

Heracles' stomach dropped. His mother was right in that Yao shouldn't have locked the Woman in Red in his territory. Now, his dear friend was paying the price as she was escaping into the living world again. The Turkish man gritted his teeth as he tapped his foot.

"So what's it going to be, Heracles?" he asked. The Greek man lowered his head.

"Give me five days to get started," he said at last.

"Five days?!" Sadık shouted. "Are you kidding me?!"

"You want me to save Kiku, yes?" Heracles asked. The Turkish man puffed up his cheeks and frowned.

"Yes," he groaned.

"Then five days for me to learn how to summon the Great Beast," the Greek man said. "No less."

"But why so long?"

"It took my mother years to learn the summoning spell. I will try to the learn that exact one in a short amount of time. But I have to have no distractions or interferes. Do you understand me?"

"I'll leave you to it."

"Thank you." Heracles closed the door behind him.

-300 Years Ago-