A Complicated Incident with a Portal Glove and a Music Box.

[anori]

((No warnings at all, only for adorable cute silliness.))

*

With the anori in the Ocean goddess’s residence for a few weeks, the time had come to visit another god in another realm. Tua had expressed a desire to go and see the God of Dreams, and as his household was always such fun, the others agreed.

However, with the goddess out of her palace at the time, the anori were not sure how to move Tua's only possession from A to B. The possession, a music box, had a history both tragic and joyful, and meant a great deal to the owl. He disliked being without it. So without a convenient god to assist, the anori had decided to try to move the thing themselves.

They could all teleport, but Vivi, Kesh, and Ash, could only summon very small things. Tua could summon a perch on which to rest, but the music box was a complex item full of moving parts, and imbued with a certain amount of magic.

Vivi had a bright idea and disappeared to find something. When he materialised, he was inside the item he'd gone to ... borrow. One portal glove. A piece of technology that the anori weren't strictly permitted to touch. Inside the portal glove, the carp was swimming around, much as usual, giving the comical effect of the portal glove being alive and dancing around in mid-air.

Eventually, Vivi had allowed the thing to fall to the floor. He was so fleeting and moved through the dimensions so quickly, that he could never be truly stuck in anything.

The anori had pored over the item. Ash eventually picked it up and had dropped it onto the music box.

“If we all touch it,” she suggested, “we might all carry the music box to the realm of the Dream God.”

It had been a splendid idea and they had each taken a finger of the portal glove. Vivi, Ash, and Kesh, had taken the fingers in their mouths, and Tua had carefully stretched out a talon to take the thumb.

“You have to press the buttons!” Cried Vivi, somewhat muffled, because he had a mouthful of portal glove finger.

“Which one?” Ash had mumbled.

“The blue one, then the green one,” Kesh had advised, having seen one of the gods use it before.

“I do believe it's the blue one, then the green one, then the blue one again,” corrected Tua; who could see the truth in these things.

“Do it! Do it! squeaked Vivi, excitedly.

So Tua did it. Carefully. With his beak.

There was a flash of unfortunate magic, which - even more unfortunately, had clashed with Kesh's innate power of the lost and misplaced. Vivi's slippery-fleeting nature and Ash's connection with searching or seeking, had also caused the power of the glove to go haywire.

The next thing they knew, they had all landed on the ground, in some abandoned area of some great city.

“Hoo,” said Tua. “I think I know this place.”

“Is it Dakuranai?” asked Ash.

“Is it Caldeira?” asked Vivi.

“Is it Naidrah?” asked Kesh.

“It is not even Keldra,” Tua told them. “This is Terra. The 2020's, if I'm not mistaken.”

Terra! Not only a whole 'nother world, but a whole 'nother galaxy to boot, and in a whole 'nother time. The anori spent the next few minutes panicking and talking to each other all at the same time, and very loudly, before Tua managed to calm them down.

“Someone will come to find us,” he promised them. Tua always spoke the truth, and the others felt heartened by this. Yes. Of course their gods would realise they were missing, and someone would come to find them.

“They spend plenty of time here,” said Ash, sagely. “It's a logical place to look.”

“Agreed!” piped Vivi.

“We should find somewhere to stay,” suggested Kesh. “And we should keep together.”

With that decided upon, the four anori set about finding a sanctuary, where they could wait for their kind gods to come and find them.

Unfortunately, anori are curious and easily excitable. One by one, they each smelled a smell, or heard a sound, or felt a feel, that they wanted to explore.

“Be right back!” cried Vivi, who was sure there were children laughing nearby.

“Oh... food,” said Kesh, and slithered away to see what that delicious smell was.

“Halloween,” said Ash. “I'm sure our angel told us about Halloween. Isn’t that this time of year?” And she wandered off to find some people who might be... 'trick or treating'. Or whatever it was the angel said they did.

“It's November,” said Tua, sure that they had missed it, but Ash was already gone. With Vivi and Kesh gone too, Tua suddenly realised that the music box was missing... as was the portal glove. Surely the objects would be here on Terra too?

Seeing the truth of this, that they were, only they were not with the anori; he flew away to search for them.

And that is how four alien animal gods came to Earth in 2020, and why they are all running around looking for each other.

And a music box.

And a portal glove.