Venturing: Beli's Rung

“Hey." I blinked, turning around, and looking at Kyro who frowned a bit and folded his red wings. He looked directly at me with those eyes as he says his next words to me, “We are schedule to meet up with Yang. Over on the crossroads nearby the headquarters." “What for?" I questioned, tilting my head to one side with a frown as I looked to him, “Are we not told to search for the culprit as to who killed the chief inside the police headquarters at all?" “It had been changed recently." Kyro finished before waving his claw over to me, spreading his red wings again and flew off. I frowned while watching him a few short moments later before spreading my own and catching up to him. Confusion and anxiety washed over me while I pondered over our new case that we were told to do. We flew westward and a short distance away from where we were standing, heading forth to the entrance of the headquarters where everyone else was. As we landed, Natty suddenly hugged Kyro. Zander walked up to me and growled a bit. I said nothing in response to him but kept my eyes towards Yang as she landed too upon the grounds, folded her wings, and stepped forth before responding to the silence surrounding us.

“We are told to head to the battlefield of Neither and Chaos, organize the discord of seeds between the realms about a case of their beli being rung." “Beli?" Zander frowned, Natty and Kyro looked surprise at her while I remained silent. Yang nodded to the black dragoon, adding “Yes. The beli or as we like to call it, the bell. But its history is not important right now as we have more important things to fry. As of now, we will focus our attention on this and not the current case." “Does anyone need to be left behind to check/patrol the surroundings in case of a crime?" I questioned her, Yang shook her head and frowned “No. We will need everyone for this. No one is left behind here as of this moment." “Good enough." I heard Kyro started as Natty nodded her head and smiled a little bit. Zander growled, remaining silence for the rest of the departure as Yang motioned everyone before we spread our wings out and headed forth Northward where the battlefield was.

We have arrived upon the sunrise where the sun basked upon our scales as we landed upon the soft, rocky roads below our feet. Zander growled again upon hitting a pebble that struck against his foot and pulled his foot upward, positioning it elsewhere. Around the moment, Kyro and Natty snickered behind his back as he turned around to them, narrowing his eyes upon them. Shutting them up. With the following silence setting upon our ears, Yang decided to break it by stepping forward towards the Neither leader Queen and bowed suddenly. I stared out onto the battlefield a bit and remained silent while hearing Zander hitting Kyro behind me. The battlefield was huge and tall buildings were about. Obstructing my views upon the horizon, I squinted my eyes upon the buildings and studied them as best I can. I had realized that these buildings were in different randomized order. All of which were unique. Most of them were one color; the remained were different parts of colors. These buildings reached upon the horizon until I was able to see the center building at last.

Although the last building was a bit harder to see, I could see faint colors upon it and no windows were plastered upon the surface of it. It was as if the building was some sort of a tower but disguised as a building instead. “Wow." I muttered a bit surprise by it but I heard a voice to my side questioning me and I turned to Zander before shrugging, saying nothing to add to that sentence. Though, he looks frustrated as I found him gnashing his fangs together while I turned my attention to the conversation between the Queen, Yang and Winteria. Here is their story:

'They were playing a game. A military exercise or something to sharpen their wits and intelligence about. Chaos, Whitria's forces, were attacking the tower while Neither, The Queen's forces, were defending the tower. They had a few moments to prepare and strategize before the actual game starts. For once it had started, everyone was already mobilized. In the start of the game, two lines were formed and thus the game had started. However, the queen claimed 'thirty seconds into the game, the beli had already rung. Sending the game's end before actual strategies have started. Upon this realization, everyone, including the Queen and Whitria, was already frustrated. Chaos had left, leaving Neither the victor. But the Queen claim it was not even a satisfying victory at all…'

When the queen was done, Yang finished jolting down her notes. Looked up to her and nodded firmly before turning around and smiling upon us. “I wonder who rung it?" Zander wondered, tilting his head to the side with a confuse look upon his face. I nodded in response to the black dragon, wondering as well while both our heads turned over to Yang who stepped forth towards us. “Here is what I know so far. 'The game started and finished in a short time. With Neither forces patrolling around these streets. Given that time, I do not think anyone would be stationed at the apex of the tower and glance down to watch from the overhead." “Yeah. Neither and Chaos did wanted action after all. Although both for entirely different reasons." I concluded while Zander suggested, “Base on what Ling had said, do you think that the Queen had positioned someone at the apex of the tower?" “I do not think she did." Yang replied, shaking her head and turned around halfway pointing to the Queen, “She only had four other wolves with her. One of them was a robot." “Given that she only had four wolves, there is not enough men to cover the streets." I analyzed as Yang's and Zander's heads turned to me, I continued forward with “I mean, the tower at the center of the battlefield and perhaps that many roads were surrounding it." “Could be." Zander remarked, shifting his attention to Yang “Should we ask to check." She nodded.

As she walked over to the Queen and requested, Zander turned to me and spoke “If what you said was correct and that many roads were surrounding the tower. Given that the queen had only four wolves, think anyone can slip by?" “Hopefully." I started, “But there are other things to factor in." “For example?" The black dragon questioned me, tilting his head to one side as I continued, “How long was the battlefield? Are they taking it half of what the entire place was or full? How fast were the foxes? How fast are the wolves? And by the time-" “We are allowed at the center." Yang announced to the rest of us interrupting my list of questions while I nodded, smiling warming to her. But a quick glance over my shoulder had me realized that I had already overwhelmed the black dragon, as he frowned and swirled his head around as if he was dizzy. Kyro, on the other claw, rolled his head and exhaled before slapping his forehead with his claw snapping him out of his daze as he rejoined the conversation.

“Great news." Kyro responded shifting his eyes to Yang who nodded. “However, due to another realm's absence, the two realms are forced to take on half of the battlefield instead." “Just as I had thought." I muttered underneath my breath while feeling a nudge against my sides while I growled over to Zander who remained silent but stared at Yang momentarily. Yang looked between me and Zander before shaking her head, exhaling in silence before replying. “Alright, Kyro stay with Ling. Zander you are with me. Ling's team is the insides of the tower. Yang's will be outside. Any questions?" Silence was her answer as she slapped her claws together and grinned, “Great. Lets move now." And we spread our wings again and flew off towards the center of the battlefield where we landed adjacent to it. According to the orders set by Yang; me and Kyro was to head inside of the tower while the rest was outside. As me and Kyro entered through the brown large doors settled before our eyes, we realized that the tower was dark. It was impossible to see anything inside of here.

I stared upon our surroundings. Quickly noticing the brown dark walls surrounding us and a set of small staircase ascending to the apex above. I frowned giving a flap of my wings, wondering if we had to walk/run towards the top. A quick look over to Kyro confirms everything and I mentally growled to myself while we prepared to walk and run. By as we stepped to the front of the stairs, Kyro questioned me “Do you have the stopwatch that Yang had when she was training us?" “As cadets?" I remarked, shifting my attention to him and he nodded in response. I shoved my claw into my pocket and fished around for the object in question. For after about some seconds long was the reveal of the stopwatch in my claw. I heard Kyro slapped his claws together and smiled, I said nothing in response while staring upon it in silence before looking away towards Kyro. “Press the middle button whenever you are ready. We do know what we are going to do right?" “Right." I nodded and pressed the button. We walked ran up the stairs, our loud footsteps echoed into the hallow of the silence darkness.

Hours into our run later and we had finally reached the apex of the tower. We emerged from the silver metal manhole below the surface of the tower as we stepped out from it. However, due to me running and Kyro walking. We have arrived in different times. I had arrived two minutes earlier than Kyro as the red dragon announced to me, “Five minutes." “Surprising…" I remarked, smiling at him while he nodded. But due to me arriving the apex first than Kyro, I had found myself breathing heavily than I normally would and I settled for three breaks. “You took like three breaks before arriving here." Kyro informed me as our eyes met up, I nodded responding to him. “Each break only allowed me to replenished half of my stamina before I had started moving again." “How long was ea-" “About a minute." I interrupted him as he huffed and growled one after the other before nodded his head and gaze to the horizon afterwards, “Do you think we should catch up to the others and announce our times to Yang?" “We should." I replied but groaned again remembering we still had to take the stairs.

“You forgot." Kyro laughed seeing my frustration and groans as he spread his wings, “We are dragons we can fly off the tower you know." “Oh… right." I answered remembering. He laughed again before shaking his head, our wings spread out to our sides and jumped from the tower. Allowing the gravity to take hold of our bodies during our descents, we flapped our wings a few times and ascended in the airs, slowing down our gravitational descent while we both smiled suddenly. Around the same time, it had seem that the Natty and Yang were already arriving upon our positions. Zander was already standing with his feet firmly place upon the cold hard grounds below him, wings outstretched and his claws behind his back. He gazes at the horizon with half of the sun hitting against his side as I called out towards him. He turned his gaze, settling upon me with a warm smile upon his face. I wave, he responded with his own as he removed himself from his spot, advancing towards us.

“What have you guys found?" Zander questioned me, “Kyro was walking, I was running. It took us a total of seven minutes of arrival. Three minutes for me, five minutes for him." “That was fast." He replied, marveling over our times. I nodded while he settled his eyes upon the ground before remarking to us, “Well; if it takes over a minute to arrive up the apex of the tower. Then it is confirmed that neither wolf or fox committed this." “That is a fact." Kyro answered, Zander nodded his head before frowning again. I pulled myself away from them and shifted my attention towards the horizon. I looked for Yang and Natty, wondering where the two had gone to. It had seemed that Zander had noticed me looking anxious and responded, “The girls will be back. They are with the queen suddenly." “Did you have a look upon the beli in the meantime?" Kyro questioned, looking to me while I nodded. “For the past two minutes in duration of waiting for you." “Like I said," He answered me sternly, “I was walking." Zander laughed at this conversation, but we both ignored him and continued.

“Yeah. I did had a look." I replied, answering his last question “The beli was big and gold. It looked clean as if someone had washed it every now and then. Regardless, I did notice that a small crack was place upon the outer edge of the beli. When I stepped to look closer, I spotted an paw tip upon it. It was roughly two to four inches long. Yet big in diameter." “How do you describe big?" Kyro questioned me, I shook my head afterwards and exhaled drifting to the horizon again as silence loomed over our shoulders. But it was broken again when Zander questioned us, “So two to four huh? I should have given you guys my measuring tape for exact length." “You have your measuring tape?" I questioned the dragon who nodded his head, “Yeah. Although I never kept it at all with me. I left it back at the desk adjacent to Kyro sadly." “Well we know it is smaller than ours however." Kyro suggested, I rolled my eyes exhaled and said nothing else afterwards while listening to their conversation.

About some time, the remaining members of our unit have arrived. Natty and Yang landed adjacent to Kyro and Zander while me and Yang met eyes; we discussed our findings. The girls were surprise by the two to four inches in length and were a bit mad at Zander for not bringing in his measuring tape which he felt a guilty of. In the meanwhile, Yang confirmed “No animals were around at the time the game had started." “No one?" Zander remarked, me and Kyro opened our mouths to say something but we had remained silent afterwards. As we looked shocked, Yang nodded her head over to Zander before adding, “Both Chaos and Neither were focus upon their battle plans. So it did make sense they did not see anyone between themselves or in the blue skies." “When did it take place?" Zander questioned her, “Around dusk." “It makes sense if it was a raven or crow." I suggested muttering to Kyro who nodded in response to me. “But no birds were present during the duration right?" I questioned, Yang also nodded “Indeed. Unless neither side again saw anything around them." “They were completely blind it seems." Zander commented rolling his eyes as he sighed, while the rest of us remained silent allowing Yang to continue.

“According to the queen and Whitria, there were no gimmicks or forms of cheating between the forces." “Did not both Chaos and Neither said that 'there was no time. Thirty seconds was way too short of the game to be over?'" “They did say that they will start over once they found the culprit." Natty remarked, remembering hearing whispering from the members of Chaos and Neither. I nodded, Zander frowned as silence once again took over our conversations and the sun sinks lower into the horizon.

After a while, I spoke towards my coworkers. Their heads were lifted from the grounds and gaze at me in silence as I suggested them this. “What if, during the duration of thirty seconds that someone from Neither had rung the beli because she or he never wanted to participate in a joking game when-" “That could be." Zander muttered while Yang remarked, “We would need their strategy book or something." “They kept theirs did they not?" Kyro questioned towards Yang who nodded in response towards him. “Well. Let find them and find out." I answered and spread my wings while everyone looked at me in the following silence, Yang just smiled before motioning me over pointing towards the group that was just at the perimeter of the tower. Folding my wings, I chuckled softly before shaking my head and stepped to Yang's side. We all stepped in union towards the two groups settle before our faces and views as the Queen and Whitria shifted their heads over to us; excitement were upon their faces while Yang spoke to them.

“Can we see you strategy books for a moment? If you are not holding one. Then tell us the formation of your plan at once." “Is this part of the investigation?" The queen asked tilting her head to one side while Whitra growled at us, “No. I will never tell with her within earshot. We would just be cycling around repeatedly until one of us quits or withdraw from the competition at hand which neither of us would do." “This is important." Yang answered gazing her attention to both of them before huffing, she turned to us. “Split them apart and set some distance between them so they are not within earshot. We will meet by the beli afterwards." Everyone nodded before we split the two leaders from one another and settled some distance according to Yang. As I turned my attention towards her, I saw she had already fled to the beli and I said nothing while Zander snapped his claws together, growling at me. I sharply turned and remembered our objective before nodding my head.

“Alright." I growled at Whitria, “Now that we are outside of earshot. Tell us your strategy now." Whitria nodded and explained in great detail about her glorious strategy. It had involved cleaning the streets of the foxes into one spot. Then catapult them all straight to the tower. “If that does not work…" Whitria replied, raising her paw into the air as she smiled gleefully, “Then this other one would…" She explained another plan of hers that one of her coworkers had thought up suddenly. Using just the night, they would sow discord amongst the wolves by placing blamed Queen's items all around the square, lowering down their numbers to the -" “Are not their numbers already lowered?" I suddenly asked, tilting my head to one side as Whitria glared at me. “Their numbers are above one hundred. It was somewhere around the five hundreds or something. I never knew cause no one told me." 'Five hundred huh…?' Zander muttered underneath his breath which resulted in Whitria not answering and me nodded unknowingly towards the black dragon while we allowed Whitria to continue,

“... four and-" “Their numbers are showing four." I replied, “Let me finish." She snarled at us and we granted her wish, “...before moving upon those black grayish ropes we had gathered prior to the 'battle' we have with the wolves. Move in and boom! We rung the beli." “Now… How long would each of these take?" Zander asked, tilting his head to one side curious while she answered him, “About some time. Maybe three minutes to an hour. It really depends on our trick against the wolves, really." “Then that not be the case…" I said indirectly to Zander while talking with Whitria who nodded and crossed her arms, “Yeah I know… Now can someone tell me who-" But we stepped away from her and spread our wings, flying forth towards the apex of the tower where we would meet up with the rest of our squad. As me and Zander landed and folded our wings, we looked to Yang as Kyro and Natty turned their attention towards us as we stepped forth towards her. As we did, I explained the results of our investigation. “Nothing." I answered, “Not even the plans and strategy of Chaos could have gotten to the beli in thirty seconds." “Not even the Neither either, LIng." I heard Kyro answered me and I nodded at him while Yang growled, “This makes… zero sense. If it is not Neither or Chaos and no other animals were around the battlefield… Then who did it?" “Should we classify this as a 'lost cause'?" Zander suggested raising his claw while everyone else glared at him.

I had realized then that everyone fell to silence after the glare. As I looked nervously upon my group staring upon each and every one of them, I frowned and lowered my wings as well as my head. I gaze at the ground while the silence loomed over us. Everyone was thinking, pondering over all of the notes and clues we have and stringing them together into one with hope of finding the right answer. But do we really have the answer with all these clues? Or are we just looking for more and confusing our readers? It was really hard to tell otherwise. Then, Yang perked up. I shifted my attention to her. As she stared onto me, she had a weird smile upon her face as if she had taken drugs or something along those lines. Really, her ears started pulling back. Wings were already spread about as her tail started slashing about. I had decided to take her bait and spoke which prompted Yang to speak and forced the other officers to gaze her way. “What if going back onto our previous statement that a fox or wolf did not want to participate into the battlefield and just dressed up as a raven or crow and hit the beli?" “Around this point, I am willing to say that could be true." Kyro started, crossing his arms with a nod. Zander and Natty said nothing in response towards her as they watched Yang smiled but frowned right after before she lowered her head. “We are now going around in circles…" I muttered, “It does not help that this case is so opened minded, you know." Zander complained, I just nodded back at him saying nothing more while raising my head towards the skies and exhaled,

“Well… according to one of the clues. What if that was it. That someone had decided to dress up as a raven or crow and hit the beli, forcing the game to end in just thirty minutes." “Wait." Kyro started and pointed out the obvious, “Foxes or wolves cannot fly at all. They do not have the means of flying." “What do you mean?" Yang asked him, turning over to Kyro while he met her eyes “Well I mean, both canines are land animals and have no wings. Even if they dress up as a raven or crow; they would need to climb the steps of the tower which takes three to five minutes to reach the apex of the tower. So, it is logically impossible for any of them to finish the game in just thirty seconds." “He is right you know." I commented, nudging Kyro as he nodded which causes groans to emerged from the rest of the officers as they sighed and looked up upon the skies above them. Silence came again looming over our heads while me and Kyro stared upon the ground. We all pondered once again, before shaking our heads and Yang declaring, “That is it. I am not sure about the answer anymore. Come, everyone. Let just head back to the station and relax a bit." Everyone nodded for a moment, although some of them wanted to secretly solve the case and leave Chaos and Neither to play their games again. Yet as Yang spread her wings and started flying off, I spoke out of turn.