• Story 3: A Story of Love and Music
    For the rest of the day, Maddie gave Kataro and Jiro a tour of her house. It took the rest of the day because the place was so large. By the time they had made it to the backyard Kataro was pretty tired. As soon as Maddie opened the back door Kataro went to a bench next to the door, laid down, and fell asleep. “Poor little guy the tour wore him out,” Maddie said as she walked over to the bench and sat near Kataro’s head. Jiro wasn’t listening to Maddie. He was looking out at the back yard.
    “You know,” he said, “This yard isn’t what I thought it would be.”
    “What do you mean?” Maddie asked.
    “Well it’s… boring. The rest of the house is so beautiful and exquisite, but here there’s nothing to really look at,” Jiro said.
    “Yea well the construction on the house just finished. I haven’t had time to work on the landscaping yet. I wanted to do it myself.”
    “Really? You want to landscape this whole yard by yourself?” Jiro asked in awe.
    “Well yea I want to design it. I’ll probably hire some help to help me actually plant everything.”
    “Oh. Well how about Kataro and I help you. I know that’s something Kataro would like to do,” Jiro offered.
    “Thank you. It’ll be a lot more fun with you two helping.” At that moment Kataro slid his head so that it rested in Maddie’s lap. Jiro looked as if he was going to move Kataro, so Maddie said, “Don’t disturb him. We can just let him sleep for a little while.” Maddie began to stroke Kataro’s hair, and then she began to hum. Jiro listened to the mesmerizing melody. He began to feel tired himself and decided to sit on the ground. The song was so peaceful that Jiro had to prop himself up on his sword just to keep himself from collapsing. Maddie looked up and saw this. She immediately stopped humming, and Jiro was able to stand up. “Sorry about that,” she said, “Sometimes I forget how that song affects vampires.”
    “It’s ok, but I have to ask what is that song called?” “It’s called Blanc est Monté.”
    “Really, that’s French right, so what does that mean?”
    “It means White Rose. You see there was this musician and he wasn’t the most handsome man you’d ever seen. He wasn’t ugly he was more homely. Needless to say not very many girls liked him. Well one day he’s walking down a road to the next town he was going to try to perform in. Then he sees her.”
    “He sees who?”
    “He sees Renée. She’s a girl who lives in the village. She had been picking flowers in a nearby meadow and she was on her way home, and she was very beautiful. Well she greets him and offers to walk with him to the village. He wasn’t used to girls being nice to him so he was a little nervous and she ended up doing all the talking. She was very kind, and the musician fell for her. The girl offered him a place to stay for the night and he immediately took the offer. When they got to her house a very handsome man came out to greet them. The man turned out to be the girl’s fiancée. The musician was heartbroken to find this out, but he didn’t give up. Over the next month he stayed with the girl and played his music. He hoped that if his face couldn’t win her heart maybe his music could. Well he locked himself in his room for 3 weeks straight and when he came out he had finished this song. He wrote it for her.”
    “So what happens to them? Does he win her over?”
    “He goes to the outside of her window that night and played the song for her. She absolutely loved it. She went down to him and told him how she had fallen for him in the time he had stayed with them, but they couldn’t be together because of her fiancée. It turns out that her fiancée was a vampire who she was infatuated with but did not love. She was afraid that if she tried to leave him he would kill the musician. The next morning they planned to sneak away while he slept. However, they didn’t even make it to the door. He had heard their plot from the bedroom with his sensitive hearing and he wouldn’t let her leave. He started to throw things around the room in fury. Afraid for Renee’s life, the musician pulled out his pipe and began to play the song he wrote. The vampire began to slow down, but he was still able to throw things and block the door. That’s when Renee began to sing. She made up the words on the spot and her voice was so soothing and so beautiful that the vampire began to get very sleepy. Then the beautiful music was too much. He fell down to the floor fast asleep. The musician and Renee ran off together and it’s said that to this very day that vampire is still asleep in that house. Apparently when a pipe plays this song along with someone singing it, it can put a vampire into an eternal sleep.”
    “That’s a beautiful story,” Jiro said, “but why did he call it White Rose?”
    “He called it that after her. He said that she was as beautiful as a rose and as pure as new fallen snow, so he called it White Rose as a way to describe her.”
    “Wow. I could never come up with anything that romantic.”
    “I’m sure you could find a way.” They both looked into each other’s eyes. In that instant they went numb, and it seemed like they could hear the sweet music of the musician’s pipe as he played Blanc est Monté, White Rose.
    Story 4: Lost in a Mansion
    Mimiko came back after work and started to get to know Maddie some more. She found out that Maddie loves music, cooking, and designing of any kind. She also found out that Maddie doesn’t like sports at all. While Mimiko and Maddie were getting to know each other Jiro and Kataro were playing around in her bounce room (it’s a moon bounce constructed into the walls of the room). Jiro figured that 9:00 was long enough to stay so he took Kataro and went downstairs to get Mimiko, but he got lost. Jiro and Kataro walked around for awhile, but could never figure out where they were. “Big Brother where are we?” Kataro asked.
    “Uhhh. I’m not sure, but I’m going to find a way out of here ok.” Jiro was smiling, but he was a little worried inside. Kataro knew what was going on in his brother’s head so he looked around the corner and saw something shinning on the wall.
    “Hey Big Brother what’s that?” Jiro went over to where Kataro was pointing. It was like a computer screen. Jiro read the sign above it and it said Mansion Map. Jiro wasn’t sure what to do with it. It didn’t have a key board or anything. He was already bad enough with electronics. Jiro wasn’t sure what to do so he touched the screen and it lit up. “You did it brother!” Kataro exclaimed.
    “Yea I guess I did,” Jiro said reassured in himself. Jiro looked at the screen and it had opened to a menu with a bunch of icons. Jiro started hitting a bunch of things because he wasn’t sure what to do. Suddenly the screen started beeping and Jiro stopped touching it. Then the screen began to smoke. Jiro was getting really worried now. Then in a flash of sparks the screen flickered off. Jiro tried to touch it, but nothing happened.
    “You broke it didn’t you brother,” Kataro said.
    “Yes,” Jiro said ashamed of himself. Once again Jiro was showing his sad lack of knowledge of modern technology. Jiro grabbed Kataro and walked to the end of the hall. He opened the door and it was the bounce room. “We’re going in circles,” Jiro said with discouragement. Kataro walked down the hall and opened the door that was 4 down from the bounce room and on the right. It was a stair well.
    “Big Brother I found the stairs.” Jiro ran over there and began to run down the stairs. Kataro followed him with his arms out and shouting, “Wee” like he was playing a game. They reached the bottom of the stairs and Jiro opened the door. He walked in and realized that Maddie had a basement that she hadn’t told them about. Jiro turned around to go out, but when Kataro stepped into the room a trap door opened and they both fell down the tunnel. Neither of them got a good look at the tunnel because it wasn’t good for sliding down, but with the initial fall they were both sent rolling down the tunnel. Jiro hit the ground first, and Kataro came down on top of him. They both scrambled to their feet and say that the tunnel opening had shut behind them.
    “What have we gotten ourselves into Kataro?” They took a good look at the room around them and saw that they were in a dark, dank room with stone walls that made it feel like a dungeon. The room was round and it had 5 doors along the walls. All of the doors looked exactly the same. On the ceiling there was a candle light chandelier. It looked ancient. This room didn’t look like something Maddie would have designed. Jiro started to think that this wasn’t a part of the mansion.
    “Big Brother what do you think we should do? We can’t go back.”
    “Then we have to move forward one door at a time.” Jiro went to the door that was right in front of him. He opened it and looked inside. It was a room filled with paintings and sculptures of all sizes. Jiro couldn’t even see the walls from how many paintings were put up on them. “Well we’re not getting through that way,” Jiro told Kataro as he shut the door. “All right next door.” Jiro opened the next door and saw a room that was empty except for a stone trough full of water. The room looked like there had been a battle in it. There were pieces of the wall missing, there were charred marks everywhere and water was running down the walls and dripping from the ceiling. There was no other door. “Ok we’re not getting out that way either.” Jiro went to the next door. When he opened it, he saw that it was blocked off. Someone had built a stone wall to keep people from entering this room. “Let’s try the next door,” Jiro said. He really didn’t think it was a good idea to try to go in that room. He figured that someone blocked it off for a reason. He tried the next door and it was locked. The next one was locked too. Jiro wasn’t sure what to do. He had three options for doors to choose. He could break down one of the locked ones or he could break down the one that was sealed. Jiro was thinking and Kataro decided to try to open one of the locked doors. He pulled on the first one, but it wouldn’t budge. He went and tried the next one. It didn’t open, but he noticed that something was written on the door, but it was hard to make out.
    “Big brother can you come and look at this? There’s something written on this door." Jiro went over and looked at the door. He knew what to do.
    The door was made of stone so he went into the room with all the paintings and found some white powder left from one of the statues. He rubbed it over the writing. When he whipped the powder away it stayed in the carvings so that they could read the words clearly. Jiro read it aloud, “The door you need is half of five, but only one third of two. Then take the end of through and take it with you, then the proper room you’ve found. This room is the key, close the door and you’re free. But don’t ever turn left.”
    “Brother, what does it mean?”
    “It’s a riddle of some kind. Kataro be quiet for a minute while I think.” Jiro paced for awhile trying for figure it out. Then He glanced at the door across from him. It was slightly open so he could see inside. “Fight.”
    “What was that brother?”
    “The word is fight. The first half of five is F and I and a third of two it T. Then you take the end of through which is G and H and place it just right. It spells fight. That must mean that we go out through the room that looks like a battle took place there.”
    “But brother there’s no way out of that room we looked already.” Jiro scratched his head and thought some more.
    “Close the door and you’re free. Come on Kataro let’s try going in the room and closing the door.”
    “Huh?” Jiro dragged Kataro into the room and closed the door. Then there was a click from the door and a thud from the back of the room. A boulder had fallen out of the wall. Both of them ran to the opening and saw a long tunnel stretch both ways. “Which way Big Brother?” Kataro asked.
    “Never go left,” Jiro repeated from the riddle. The brothers followed the tunnel going to the right and every time there was a fork in the tunnel they went right. They walked for hours until finally they reached the end of the tunnel. They threw the door open and saw that they were at the other end of the special zone over 10 miles away from the Mansion.
    “Hey look Mimiko they finally got out.”
    “Well it took you guys long enough. You want some tea?” Jiro turned around and saw Maddie and Mimiko having a picnic just as calm as can be.
    “Weren’t you worried about us?” Kataro asked. Maddie responded,
    “Nah. I know those tunnels so well I would have come after you if you weren’t out by sunrise, and it looks like you guys made it just in time.” Sure enough over the horizon Jiro could see a little glimmer of light. They had been walking all night. “Hey Jiro How about next time you let Kataro look at the electronic map. Ok?” Jiro looked back at her feeling really embarrassed and Maddie was just laughing like it was funny and no big deal.