The Nine Dancing Princesses (TWICE FF)

11. The Bird

The only thing that was there was the cage. The rest of the area was covered with grass. The grass wasn't long it was well trimmed and yet it felt like no one had visited the place since forever. There was a melancholy in the air, it felt so lonely even though they were together. They all were feeling sad and happy at the same time.

They went near the cage where Mina stood to see what exactly was there. They surrounded the cage from all sides only to see a strange species lying down. It wasn't dead but certainly not well. The chest was heaving up and down but rather than that there was no movement.

"Water, we need water hurry!" Dahyun exclaimed. As Momo quickly fetched the water carrier from her bag. "But how do we feed it?" Nayeon said.

"Wait" Mina said as she ran to the trees, plucking out a couple of long leaves as she played with them making a pattern, she returned with what looked like a small bowl of leaves just enough to hold a small amount of water. They placed it inside the cage as they sprinkled a little water on the bird. It shook and stirred.

Weakly wobbling on its foot it took a sip of the water before spreading its wings and then closing back again. Seeing its subtle desire to fly Jihyo said "let's break the cage, who has the strongest hands?"

"I practice archery, so I think my arms are quite strong." Tzuyu said.

"Go for the door, the cage is quite old so it might be the easiest target." Jungyeon analysed as Tzuyu gripped the bars and applied a little force.

But before she could apply any more strength an invisible force sent current through her hands and knocked her backwards. Tzuyu stumbled as she fell down. Immediately all of them surrounded her.

"Are you okay?"

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, I am fine." Tzuyu said as she got up.

Things are not as simple as they seem. Not everything you see is the way it appears.

There was a sudden voice heard as all of them looked around. They stared back at the bird as it appeared unusually calm, staring back at them.

Normal human strength can never break this.

It was then they realised that the voice was of the bird and it conversed directly with their minds. The voice was inside their head.

"Then how can we set you free?" Mina asked the bird.

That is not for me to tell. You need to find the way yourself.

They didn't push it, they understood that if they want to help it they would have to help themselves.

"So what is your name?" Sana asked as if the bird was a person. Momo nugged her and glared "what do you think you are doing?" Momo whispered.

People call me soul.

The bird answered nonetheless and everyone somehow liked the name. It was as if the name was familiar like it should have been obvious although they were hearing it for the first time.

Being the polite person they are they introduced themselves and talked about their kingdoms and their different cultures. The bird listened to them and did not say much. They had to admit that the bird was really beautiful right out of a fairy tale. They had never seen anything this marvelous before.

When they decided to eat their lunch they wondered what should they offer soul.

Love.. the only thing I need to survive. Even if one person remembers me from time to time it is enough.

They sang different songs for soul and spent a great time there. But suddenly Nayeon exclaimed. "Oh no how much time has passed till now?"

That's when everyone realised that they spent way more time than they should have.

"We will visit from time to time" Mina said as they went for the exit. The moment they all got out there was a bit of wind as everything got back to normal again. They had returned to their world.

"We should hurry, I am pretty sure it's past the lunch time and probably the servants are looking for us." Jihyo said as they hurried back.

Once out from the forest they searched for the time. The big clock on the main building surprisingly showed that only forty minutes had passed.

"What is this?" Jungyeon huffed as they all were confused.

"Only forty minutes passed? Is the clock broken?" Chaeyoung asked in disbelief.

"And...?" Momo asked still not grasping the situation.

" Wait, we took almost twenty minutes to go inside and twenty to come out of the forest." Tzuyu said.

"What does... Ohhh!" Momo said finally realising.

"Yeah, the time that we spent with soul... It didn't affect the time here." Dahyun said.

"The time stopped for us while we were there, so that means we can spend as much time we want there." Mina said happily.

"I am so glad we went there." Sana said.

"But we have a mission to accomplish." Chaeyoung said dramatically moving her hands.

"What mission?" Momo asked yet again as everyone sighed.

"We need to find how to set soul free." Jihyo explained. "Let's think about something and discuss it over lunch. Let us perform our individual research first."

" What is happening there?" The herbology teacher asked them as she saw nine of them standing near the forest.

As soon as they heard their teacher they stopped talking and turned around greeting the teacher.

"Its good to see Chaeyoung and Dahyun here, can you help me with a plant, I want to teach you something about it." She said as both of them agreed and went with her.

"Let's meet at lunch." Jihyo said as everyone went there own ways.