Koro was still in shock several
minutes after Wonder left her in the Rook Museum. This was exactly what she was
afraid of happening. She should have explained things as soon as they met, but
she was afraid of how Wonder might react. She definitely should have broached
the subject when Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets joined them. They seemed to come
to an understanding and maybe they could have helped explain things to Wonder.
Koro knew she could sit in the
dark for hours thinking about all the ways she had messed up, but there wasn’t
time for that now. She needed to get to Magic Rock somehow and tell him what
had happened. She quickly came up against her first problem when she realized
the door was shut and door knobs were not designed with Rook feet in mind. No
matter how hard she tried Koro could get the door open. She was stuck in the
Rook Museum.
“This is no time to panic,” she
told herself, though she suspected this might actually be the perfect time to
panic. She sat perfectly still trying to force an answer into her brain. She
was concentrating with all her might when her feathers were ruffled by a slight
breeze.
“A breeze?” She looked around
the room but couldn’t see much in the dark. “If there’s a breeze then there
must be a way out.”
She took to the air to search
the room and find the source of the draft. She was flooded with relief when she
found several small windows set into the wall near the ceiling and one of them
was open just enough for her to squeeze through.
It wasn’t a perfect solution
because she still couldn’t get back in the tower to search for Wonder, but it
was better than being stuck in that awful museum for the rest of her life. From
way up here at least she could easily keep an eye on what was happening on the
ground without alerting any suspicion. She desperately wanted to talk to Magic
Rock, but she found him on the steps of the tower talking to several Vendors and she didn’t dare risk exposing herself to them.
She flew a few laps around the
tower and made a note of the exits and then perched on a ledge above a side
door to think about what to do.
***
Inside the tower Wonder was still
turning the Crystal Heart over in her hand and sifting through everything
Gwendolyn had said. She knew Gwendolyn was telling her truth about not being
able to put the world back together, but it wasn’t easy to think about.
Wonder also thought about the
advice Gwendolyn had given her about trusting her friends. She thought about
Koro and if she was really her friend. Wonder just wasn’t sure after what she
had seen. The voice in the museum said that the Rook are evil, and Koro hadn’t
tried to deny it. Even Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets were terrified when they saw
Koro, and they had talked about how terrible the Rook were. Of course, they had
also traveled together after Wonder introduced them and even seemed to get
along. They never did tell Wonder the truth about the Rook, which made her
question what the truth was.
Maybe Koro was different. She
certainly didn’t act like she wanted to destroy everything. And she had
mentioned several times that she never really fit in with her family. Maybe she
really did just want a friend.
“I’ve made a huge mistake.” Wonder
admitted to herself. She resolved to find her way back to the Rook Museum and
talk to Koro. She still wasn’t sure what was true, but she would decide for
herself and not base her feelings on some voice in the wall.
Wonder climbed back down the
vines and walked out the door into the familiar hallway. She tried to retrace
her steps as best she could. The run down to Room 23 had been a bit of a blur,
but she made her way back to the Mezzanine with relatively little trouble. She
opened the door to the Rook Museum and cautiously poked her head inside.
“Koro?” She asked the dark room.
“Koro, are you still here?”
No reply.
“Come out, Koro, please. I need to
talk to you.”
Still nothing.
Wonder stepped all the way into
the room and pulled out her Firefly Jar. She checked the museum, avoiding
looking at the other Rook-related artifacts as much as possible. Koro was
nowhere to be found and Wonder was at a loss until she looked up and noticed
the open window. Her spirits fell. “I’ve probably frightened her off and she’s
flown away to where I’ll never find her again.” She stepped back outside and
sat down in the hallway to think about her next move.
“Koro’s gone, maybe for good.
Everyone else is waiting for me outside to tell them how I’m going to save them
and fix Ur, but now I know I can’t do that.” She let out an exasperated sigh
and leaned back against the wall. “This is a fine mess.” Further down the hall
she noticed a set of stairs leading down and got an idea. She thought up her
new plan while she was walking down the stairs.
‘Maybe there’s another exit I
can try. If I can sneak out a side entrance I might be able to get Magic Rock’s
attention and talk to him alone. He always has good advice.’
This set of stairs ran straight
and long right down to the ground floor. She inched open the door at the bottom
and found it opened directly onto a street adjacent to the one the Vendors were
waiting on. She stepped silently out and closed the door behind her. Now she
just needed to figure out how to get Magic Rock’s attention without alerting
anyone else.
Wonder had only been considering
what to do for a moment or two when she heard a rustling noise in a tree
nearby. She looked up into the branches but didn’t see anything.
“Koro? Is that you?”
The street was silent for a
second before she heard Koro’s voice from the tree. “Please don’t run away
again.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Wonder
was so relieved to hear Koro’s voice she almost shouted, but then she
remembered the feeling of betrayal and it cooled her excitement. “Why did you
lie to me, Koro?”
Koro’s large, black bird head
peeked from around the trunk of the tree. “I’m sorry. I really am. I just thought
if you knew what I was you would run me off like everyone else.” She sounded
sincere and Wonder’s anger lost some of its edge.
“I didn’t even know what a Rook
was, why would I have cared?”
“Because everyone hates the
Rook! If I had told you what my people did what would you have thought of me?”
Wonder considered that. “I don’t
know, but it would have been nice to have gotten the chance to make up my mind.
You were my only friend; I’m sure I would have taken your word over some old
stories about what happened in the past.”
“You’re probably right, I was
just so afraid of being left alone again. You were my only chance at having a
real friend. The Rook kicked me out because I didn’t want to attack the Glitchen,
but the Glitchen only ran or tried to attack me because I’m a Rook. I spent
most of my life on my own, hiding and watching. I thought the Giants waking up
would be the best thing that could happen. I would disappear and nothing would
matter anymore, but then I was still here and everyone else was gone. I was
more alone than ever! When I saw you just waking up I thought, ‘Here’s my chance.
Maybe this is the start of something better.’”
Wonder was dumbfounded. Koro had
always changed the subject when Wonder asked about her family. She just assumed
Koro missed them and it was too sad to talk about. She had never considered
that anyone might be happier in this new version of Ur. “Oh… wow. I don’t know
what to say. I’m really sorry, Koro. I didn’t know.”
Koro dismissed it with a flap of
her wing. “I know, I know. It’s not your fault. I should have told you. When
you’re forced to live your life as an outcast I guess it makes you paranoid,
but that’s no excuse. I just wish—“ but Koro never finished her sentence.
“Well, what do we have here?” Uncle
Friendly stepped out from behind a large root near the end of the street
looking very pleased with himself. “I heard voices and thought I would come
investigate. I’m glad I did. Conspiring with the Rook? I expected more of you,
Wonder.”
“No, Uncle Friendly, you don’t understand!”
Wonder protested, but Uncle Friendly cut her off.
“I understand enough! The Rook
are the enemies of this world and if you’re conspiring with them then that
makes you the enemy as well.”
“But—“
“Now, I know you’re young. You’re
still learning about this place, but you need to understand: the Rook are evil
and they want nothing more than to see this world destroyed. Now, I’ll give you
a chance to redeem yourself.” Uncle Friendly was towering over Wonder staring
into her with his gigantic eye. “What did you find in the tower? Did you learn
how to call the Giants back?”
Wonder didn’t know what to do. She
was feeling panicked and her brain wasn’t working. All she could squeak out
was, “No, not exactly.”
“Not exactly? Well, what does
that mean?”
And then it was over. Wonder was
too scared to think straight and started recounting everything that had
happened in Room 23 including Gwendolyn’s plan to wake the Giants. Luckily she
was so frightened she jumbled most of it and forgot some key parts, like the
Crystal Heart, but Uncle Friendly got enough to understand that she wasn’t
going to put the Giants back to sleep, she was going to wake them up and end
this world for good.
He stared down at Wonder for a
long time in shock until his surprise turned into a self-satisfied smirk. He
pulled something from his pocket. “I don’t blame you, Wonder. You’re
too young to understand what’s going on and the Rook have twisted your mind.
But I can’t let you destroy this world. I have to do what I can to protect it.”
He pressed something into Wonder’s hand.
Wonder looked down and saw what
looked like a piece of paper. “What is—“
Uncle Friendly squeezed Wonder's hand
around the paper and with a pop she disappeared.
Koro squawked and flapped her
wings in the tree, but Uncle Friendly just looked up at her and smiled. “Go
back to your friends and let them know your plan failed. Uncle Friendly is
defending Ur now, and he won’t go down without a fight.” With that he turned
and walked back toward the front of the tower.
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