"I'll miss you," Tami's warm embrace made him smile and return the affection, "next time you'll have to stay longer. I know you have important business at the moment."
Jolark stood back from his friend and watched her expression fade to one of sorrow. Neither looked forward to his next destination, the depressing Lengrat but both knew he had to do it.
"Don't worry." Jolark offered her a smile and thumb up gesture. "I won't let it phase me. Not again."
Tami nodded and stood aside to let Iilya past to say her goodbyes. Ulo was being hugged by Argyle while Mr. Lombat watched on with a broad smile. Not far from the group of well-wishers stood Adanas and Etad, with distracted looks on their faces.
"If you want, Ulo can stay here with me." Argyle chuckled as Ulo rubbed his metallic nose into his chin and neck with glee. "Lengrat is no place for this little fellow."
Jolark turned to the kind offer and thought about it, carefully. The tynko hugger had a good point all things considered but he wondered how Ulo felt on being left behind.
"What do you think, buddy?"
Ulo wanted to bark in acceptance but knew it was impossible so instead he leapt over to Jolark to signal his approval by nestling into his neck. However, everyone misunderstood this gesture as him wanting to go with the driver to Lengrat.
"Seems he really wants to go with you," Enbo grinned and nodded to his friend next to him, "wouldn't you say so?"
"It certainly seems that way." The well-built man with a strong smile agreed.
In agreement with everyone but Ulo himself, Jolark set the little dog in the backseat and nodded as he realised it was time to head off before any sandstorms blew in from the desert. The only road to Lengrat from Arbo was treacherous for those at this time of year and he certainly did not want to get stuck in one. Tami, Iilya and Argyle stood huddled together as they said goodbye, while Mr. Lombat went back to his work and his friend to his job at the shore. Ulo whined internally as he looked around impatiently for something to print out his thoughts on, but as usual, there was no paper in Jolark's jeep.
"Think he'll be all right?" Iilya whispered to Tami as they started to walk back inside of the garage. She held Argyle's free hand as his other was in Tami's.
"I hope so." The taller woman looked back to the car and watched Jolark having a serious chat with Adanas and Etad. "I hope so..."
Jolark turned the car into the colder fields and away from the sunny shores as the city appeared over the horizon. Off to his left, he could see the forests of Vodren and his conversation with Iilya replayed in his mind. She must have been joking, surely. What a terrible reality if that was true. Frowning heavily while he drove onward, Jolark slipped on a pair of driving goggles he carried for times such as this and sped on into the haze of sand particles that crossed the road. Eerie walls of warm sand that acted like a shield to perhaps stop people from entering Lengrat.
6 - LENGRAT - Codul Tjed
The first time he remembered his favourite hobby was when he was nearly four years old. He had stolen his father's watch and taken it apart with tools, setting all the parts neatly aside and spending as long as he could putting it back together. The watch did not work as well as it had done afterward though, which enraged his father and the boy was punished. Not being deterred, the boy had found a mouse in the family pantry and caught it with a wire trap. Finding a safe place to partake in his pastime, he held the mouse still by its tail and sliced it open with a knife he'd stolen from the kitchen. The colours had been varying hues of red and pink and the tiny organs got removed carefully with little fingers. After he put the organs back to where they had been and stitched the mouse back up with some string he had found near his mother's sewing basket, the boy stared at the dead animal on the floor. Crying because it would not come back to life, he wrote in his diary about it because he knew his parents would not understand. He did not write very well at this young age, but he had to talk to someone about his discoveries. Hiding his diary in the corner under his bed, the boy opened a little wooden box and placed the mouse heart inside. Next to the tiny red organ was an equally small cog, from his father's watch.
The stairs to the dungeon were long and very easy to get dizzy if you walked too fast. Spiraling down into the depths of the mansion, they led to a special place to the man descending them. Several small cells, each containing one of his guests. Some had been there for only a few months but others had been with him for years. He just could not bring himself to say goodbye and let them go back to the world and possibly, their families. If they were still around, of course. Walking up to the heavy door that blocked any ill advised escape for his guests, Codul pressed the button that opened the door and waited for it to open. It would be a fair wait but he was not going anywhere. Not that evening. Aware that as soon as he had pressed the switch, that sweeping, red searchlight on top of the tallest tower would have alerted anybody that there was trouble afoot. He chuckled to himself as he remembered what this place had been used for in the war, several hundred years ago. The terrible things that had happened within these very walls at his ancestors' hands. At least he was keeping the family tradition going in his own way. As the door opened, Codul switched on the torch he carried with him and shone it into the dark, cold and rather awful room. Big enough so that even one of those bulky cat men could have an orgy with twenty others and not touch either wall, this place was perfect for holding so many interesting specimens. Codul strode over to his desk in the middle of the room and switched on the lamp. Picking up a notebook as he sat down, the old man flicked through the pages looking for the details of his guest in cell three.
"Let me see," his voice echoed throughout the room while he tapped a bony finger on the desk, "cell three belongs to... Kauda." Looking up over his four lenses, Codul made a disappointed face at the empty view between the bars. His guest, nowhere to be seen. "Where are you?" Getting to his feet slowly, Codul walked over to the cell and with a cane, rapped on the metal bars. "Show yourself, woman!"
Two red eyes appeared in the darkness on the other side of the room, near where the bed frame was. There was no mattress on the bed, this was not a hotel. He did not want his guests getting too comfortable after all. He did not want them feeling relaxed or at home...
"Come closer..." Codul beckoned to the creature as he watched her move slowly over towards the light and her captor. "Hmm, yes. You're healing up rather well, aren't you?"
Kauda snarled at him, baring her fangs and soon regretting that as he sprayed her with an aerosol which burned her face. He had done this before, to the acquaintance in cell five. It burned so hot, she had no choice but to turn and throw her head into the cell's toilet. Feeling the cold water taking away the heat, Kauda slumped on the toilet with her arms and tried not to cry.
"I have warned you about that temper." Codul scolded and smiled at himself. "How unladylike." He heard her start to sob as he turned away, whistling out of tune while he approached the seemingly empty cell next door to this one. "Now then, cell four... oh," he remembered that they had died in the night two days ago and shook his head, with a little laugh, "I forgot. They were not very memorable after all."
Returning to his desk, the old man sat down and flicked to the next pages in the guest list.
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