Chapter 5

           Chapter 5: But…

            For a few seconds, she simply sat, next to us on the nice couch, her tear soaked eyes looking into ours with gratitude. She simply stared and stared, holding warmly my hand as she did. She did not move for a whole minute.

            Now a bit concerned, I asked, “Miss? Are you okay?”

            Her eyes suddenly refocused, the tears disappearing, as she looked back around herself. As if she had been deep in thought on some other matter.

            “O?.. Hmm, what? What’s that?”

            She looked into my eyes again, as if paying attention to what I was about to say, but then her eyes peeled back into the same empty look and her head relaxed.

            “Queen Lavinia!!” Naomi and I called in unison.

She shook her head, as if coming out of a deep sleep, “O! What’s that what’s going on? I do say I’m kind of phasing out.”

She looked around, as if about to tell us a secret, then leaned in close to my ear and said, “It always happens on Mondays. It’s these clothes, they can be so uncomfortable! Imagine! I was just thinking of my comfy old pajamas. O those really are the most comfortable….”

“Lavinia!!”

“O yes! What were we talking about?” She asked, looked back down at us, smiling.

“You were telling us how we could save Ukulele Town from ultimate doom.” I said, dryly and calmly.

“O yeah! That’s right!” She jumped off the couch, startling me, and began to jump around the dimly lit room.

“A quest! You guys are going on a quest!”

“A quest?” Naomi asked.

“Yes, a quest!” She began passing the room, “O, there's so much to do, so much to plan, so much to see. O you’re going to have the most wonderful time!”

“Wonderful time?” I asked.

“I thought we were defeating evil and the dark forces of hell?”

“YES! Wonderful. And then we can….and you can…” She started to mumble and count on her fingers.

“Then maybe I’ll… o and then they can.. but maybe if…. Raqem?!!” she called, startling us both.

Equally surprising, we heard the almost immediate response behind us, “Yes Madame?” causing us to turn behind in surprise as the unannounced presence.

“To the war room!” Lavinia called out, jumping and pointing at Raqem with both arms.

“War room!” I asked, quite confused.

“Well that must come in handy.” Naomi commented, sarcastically.

Suddenly, Lavinia grabbed Naomi’s arm and was pulling her, who pulled me along with them. She laughed as she took us, following Raqem out of the gloomy room.

“Well, I’ve never been in it before, myself. But I’m very excited. I mean who would have thought I’d get to use it today, of all days. So exciting!”

Raqem led us into a room, as gloomy as the last, and as we entered, the smell of dust hit me hard. Inside I saw a room completely gray with age. There was a grand oval table in the center, with a huge 3-d model map. Massive cabinets and shelves were on either side, holding old smelly scrolls and books and one massive mantelpiece where a big blue flag was hung. The flag had a golden Ukulele as an emblem.

“O my God! Wow! So this is the war room?” Lavinia stood, the two of us still in her grasp, for a second in silence. “Well…This is old.”

Raqem, sighing replied, “Yes.”

Naomi, loosened from Lavinia’s grip, commented as well, “Well, I think the last war must have been in a while. That’s good.”

“Raqem, dear, remind me. Why haven’t we just torn this down and put in some clubroom with chocolate bread or something?” Lavinia, asked, still smiling.

Raqem sighed again, “The fifth one, Madame?”

“O yeah. Well…why not?”

“I believe; Madame, that in the words of your mother, ‘Better safe than sorry.’"

“Ah, yes,” she looked at us and repeated, “Better safe than sorry!”

She then brushed aside a few cobwebs and took a seat at the head of the table/diagram. The two of us followed, carefully, taking seats on either side of the table. Raqem, in the meantime, stood next to the table.

“Now! What to do? What to do?” Lavinia examined the diagram in front of her, carefully.

“Wait a minute,” I seemed to suddenly realize, “Where are we, anyway?”

I looked at Naomi who simply shrugged, “I don’t know.”

            "Well, Ukulele Town! Of course.” Lavinia suddenly raised her voice expectantly.

            “Yes, yes, but… where is thaaaat?”

            “Well..” She seemed more doubtful now, “In Nitzanland of course.” She motioned toward the diagram.

            I looked down at the 3-d map indiscriminately, “Yes. But where in Nitzanland? And even worse what is Nitzanland to begin with… where is it and where….”

            She interrupted me all of a sudden, “O! Yeah! Of course, well it’s just around… well… you can find it if…” She traveled the map with her finger and eye looking for her location, until suddenly with a start she yelled.

            “Raqem?!”

            Raqem, without moving an inch, replied, “Yes Madame?”

            “Where is my town?”

            Without even looking down at the map, Raqem sighed and pointed, “Here, Madame.”

            “O! Yeah!” She looked at us again, “See, there it is.”

            “And where do we need to go?” asked Naomi, examining the map as well.

            “Hmmmm…” Lavinia leaned into the diagram and again and began to look around the map. Then again with a yell, asked, “Raqem?!”

            Raqem, without moving an inch, replied, “Yes, Madame?”

            “Where do they need to go?”

            Raqem, sighed again, then in a calm whisper, answered, “Maybe it would be best if we read mother’s notes?”

            “Mom’s what?!”

            “Mother’s notes on the disappearance of Mr. Barrows.”

            “O! Yeah!” She laughed, then stood up, looked around and in the same loud voice asked, “Raqem?!”

            Without moving an inch, he replied, “Yes, Madame?”

            “Where are they?”

            Without even looking, Raqem lifted his finger and pointed toward one of the shelves behind Lavinia.

            “O!” She leaned over and picked up an old, moldy, leather bound book.

            Opening the book, she sat down at the table and began to flip through the pages. She examined the book thoroughly, until suddenly she declared, with a loud, half laugh, half scream voice, “It’s empty!”

            She threw the book aside, still rambling, “Empty! Not a word. Void. Dead. Gone. O well.”

            I picked up the book and began to look over the book myself. It was old and some of the paper even broke in my fingertips. But it was as she said, every single page was empty.

            “Are you sure these are the notes, Raqem?” Naomi asked, sounding worried.

            “Yes, she left only this one book, before the…great tragedy.” Raqem, suddenly looked down, grieved and melancholic.

            “What tragedy?” Naomi asked again.

            “O! Raqem, don’t be such a drama queen.” She flapped her hand as if to say it was no big deal, and then looked at us, “Mom was just such a lazy lady. She went and retired down south, NEAR the BEACH! She wasn't even that old. O Mom! She really did love the beach? I remember this one time….”

            “The tragedy!...” Raqem continued, “Was that she left you in charge! With me to take care of everything!”

            Lavinia laughed and answered, “O please…. It wasn't so bad…. It’s not like I didn't get the hang of things.”

            While they were talking I suddenly passed by a segment of text which caught my attention. On a page, somewhere in the middle of the book was a single word, written in handwriting which may or may not have been colored in crayon.

            It read, “Celaphais.”

            While examining the word, I called out, “Guys, I found something.”

            Lavinia was in the middle of laughing and in between spurts, calling out, “…and that time… hihi…that time… hihi...I accidentally…haha…started the great….fire…haha….of 73?! Haha!”

            Raqem, as up in arms as before called back, “That was the fifth time! It was nowhere near as bad as the fire of 68! I think that was the second time I lost my eyebrows!”

            “O! Yeah! You were literally screaming out, the flames licking your forehead, just…”

            I called out again, “Guys! I found something!”

            Lavinia and Raqem, both at the same time looked my way, “O, hmm, what?”

            I turned the page their way to show the page.

            “Celaphais?” Naomi asked, confused, “What’s that?”

            “O my God! You’re going to Celaphais! How exciting!” Lavinia yelled, her loud excited voice, now more than normal to us all, “I’ve never gone there, but mom always said it was the nicest place. O how she loved to just ramble about how nice it is. O how nice.”

            “Is that really all it says?” Naomi asked, looking at the page and even picking up the book.

            “Perhaps,” Raqem, re-composed and calmed himself, “This is where mother left the rest of her notes.”

            I looked down at the map and asked, “Where is this place? Celaphais?”

            “O! It’s right!...” Lavinia eyed the map and went over it with her finger.

            “Here!” Raqem interrupted with his finger, pointing at a spot on the map, apparently up on the mountains.

            “Way up here? Really?” Lavinia asked in disbelief.

            “What is it?” I couldn’t help but finally ask.

            “It is the city of dreams, the holy city of the tribes of Ecuador. The city lies up top, past the high mountains.” Raqem squinted his eyes, as if remembering something he had known long ago. “However…if you need to reach the city, you will need to leave soon.”

            Raqem looked deeply into the diagram and the mountains he had pointed towards, “This city is not like any other. It is sacred to the Ecuadorian people. None live there. But the city is filled, only on the holidays of the sun.”

            I quickly asked, “Holidays of the sun?”

            “Special days where all the clans of Ecuador gather to worship the sun in the holy city. The city is closed until the day of the holiday, and then closes again the day after. You will have to arrive on that day.”

            Naomi looked up from the diagram, “No one lives there? No one at all?”

            “Well…” Raqem turned towards the door, his back towards everyone in the room and spoke silently, calmly, almost in nostalgic euphoria, “There is one…”

            “Who?!” I and Naomi asked instantaneously.

            “O, it does not matter. But what does matter, is that you must be at the city on a specific day, and that day is only 3 days away!”

 Lavinia, quietly jutted in a little giggle as she was staring at Raqem and almost whispered, “Wow, Raqem…you have such a way with words. Then she laughed again and jumped with a start out of her seat.

“O, but there almost no time, O my God!” She yelled in her high chimed, melodic voice, “Celaphais is a far place and the road is dangerous.”

“Right!” she asked, looking towards Raqem.

He nodded.

“O my Goooood! You need to go!”

I quietly asked, in a mutter, “But…”

But I was suddenly cut off by the consecutive and musical call of her voice, signing out, “Sofiiiiiiiaaaaa!”

The call shook in the room like a high note breaks a glass and the entire room vibrated with the harmony when she had let it die.

There was a few seconds of silence as she stood, waiting, when I again tried in a mutter to ask, “But….”

Then I was interrupted again suddenly by the steps of something big approaching the room. The entire castle seemed to shake in the footsteps of something. Something walking towards the room.

I looked over to Lavinia, who was smiling and laughing, her eyes squinting, with delight.

Then, as the footstep got louder and louder, I closed my eyes, frightened of what might step through the door.

Then suddenly the sound stopped, and everything was silent. Curious as to what had happened, I opened my eyes and saw a young woman, with sparkling green eyes, and curling smile looking at me. She had blondish hair and white skin, sparkling in the grayish light.

She looked at me in the eye and suddenly yelled, happily, “HEEEEEY!”

Then, Lavinia, next her called out in the same, raspy, mirthful tone, “Sofia!”

Then Sofia, in an equally loud voice, and looking around the room called, “Hey guys!”

She jumped over and hugged Lavinia. Lavinia, laughing, stood then, returning the hug.

 She pulled away and asked, in a happy, but suddenly serious voice, “What do you need me to do?”

Lavinia, still laughing and smiling looked towards me and Naomi and said, in a calm voice, “These two need to get to Celephais and fast! Can you take them safe and sound?”

I stared, surprised, and once again tried to mutter and ask, “But…”

Then in a start, Sofia jumped again towards me and yelled, “Of course!”

Then, surprising me and Naomi alike, she picked us both up under her arms, easily and began to lift us out of the room. She began to pull us out with the slightest of ease, my legs still dangling uselessly. She began to run through the door, out of the room. Just before smiling Lavinia left my view, I managed to whisper back into the war room, “But…”

And there she whisked us away at all speed.

We flew through the castle, past paintings and corridors of colors I had never even imagined existed. I looked towards Naomi who was next to me, wide eyes looking at the walls. I turned to her, and asked, “Where are we going?”

She smiled, and laughed, and answered, “On an Adventure.”

Then suddenly, Sofia flung me and Naomi on the back of a horse. She herself quickly jumped on another right next to it. And with a yell the two horses darted out of the stables we were apparently in.

As Naomi and I flew through the wind, into the cold windy night, out of the gates of the castle, covered in colors and stones, I looked back, away from the bustling wind to the castle. Behind I saw Lavinia, through the window, waving a turquoise shirt and yelling, “Have fun! You’ll do good! Don’t die or anything!”

Then she faded into the background behind as, and we sped on into the horizon, wherever it was we were headed.

The dark night raced ahead of us, as the cold wind brushed against my eyes. I could barely see. I could, however, still see the shine of the city behind, diminishing as it glowed on the sandy surface. The beautiful desert in front of us seemed endless.

I watched, as the rolling dunes continued on and on before us, in the same blueish shine from the dark sky and moon above. The only change was the gliding shape of both Sofia and her stead, along the sands in front of us.

It lolled me, almost like a hypnotic motion and I slowly felt the ties of sleep pull down my eyes.

At first, I tried to hold close, and awake, speaking up to Naomi behind me, asking “Are you still awake?”

From behind, I heard a tired, whimper of a, “uhu…”

I worried I might be tossed off the mount as it strode through, at this amazing speed. I worried; the winds would tear both me and Naomi off its back. However, the worry could not keep me awake for long, and in no time, my eyes sat shut, for the last time. My final sight was Sofia, still gliding across the dunes. 

I woke, to the smell of fresh air I had never tasted before. At first, it was all dark, and I couldn't see anything. But I knew I was cold, and I suddenly remembered exactly where I was.

Immediately, I opened my eyes, and saw the neck of the horse I had been laying on. Behind me, I felt the weight of Naomi’s head against my back, probably still asleep. It was daytime and the sun beat down on me.

I lifted myself, up, which also stirred Naomi, who suddenly shot up as well, yelling, “Hmmmm! What!?” She looked around ferociously, looking for what had woken her up. Then she saw me and with dreary eyes, sighed, “Oh, Amir, it’s just you.”

“Just me?” I sighed and began to examine our surroundings.

The clear dunes in front of me had been replaced by rolling hills, first yellow and stale, but further and further back, covered in green brush.

At the furthest horizon I could see where the horse was taking us, immense mountains, as far as I could see, all sharp and jagged, glowing in the morning sun, with red and white, from snow and the red rock they were composed of.

As I stared in wonder, still another strong wind blew next to us and made me shiver. It was far colder up here than it had been down in Ukulele Town.

I heard a calm raspy voice, come from next to me, “Are you cold?” I looked and it was Sofia, staring, and smiling, riding her own horse, alongside ours.

I stared and nodded my head in response, shivering uncontrollably.

She reached in next to me, alongside my horse, where, unknown to me, was hanging a bag, from the horses back.

From inside she removed a thick blanket and handed it to me. I smiled, chattering my teeth and took it.

She looked up, towards the direction we were headed, now much less quickly, and began to explain, “The city of Celaphais is far past the Mountains of Privacy, on the foothills, on the other side of the range. We have barely crossed the border of the Kingdom of Lavinia.”

I looked back and saw first Naomi doing the same, and then the long dunes, crossing the vast ocean of sand, endlessly dipping behind us.

“The quickest way is for us to climb the Waterfalls of Ideology, into the high ice fields. There, we can begin to cross the high plateau and go down into the city, within days.” She looked back at me, and asked, “Is that okay?”

“I guess,” I replied, doubtful even of what I was saying, “I don’t really know anything about where I am.

She immediately laughed, “Hon, sometimes I think the same thing.”

She then called out again, and the two steeds, began, to gallop again, at the highest of speeds, over the hills and into the streams and creeks between them. The ground became greener and greener, becoming more and more, covered in a beautiful lush grass.

            We were over moor after moor, when suddenly, when suddenly, Sofia screamed out in a voice, as loud as she could, “Stop!”

 Our horses, running at top speeds, suddenly hit the brakes, making me and Naomi almost tumble off our horse. Our horse came to a complete stop, only inches before the obvious obstruction. A tall cliff lay just over the edge of this hill, leading, after a plummet of a few meters, to a stream down below.

Sofia looked down the way, then in a calm voice laughed and explained, “The hills will get steeper and steeper as we continue to walk along. We will need to be slower and more carefu…”

She was interrupted suddenly by the loudest sound I had ever heard, a horn or something other which echoed across the red rocks of the hills and cliffs.

Sofia’s expression changed suddenly to one of seriousness and she reached over to her back, where for the first time I noticed, a long broad sword was hanging.

Then without warning, 30 or more men sprung out of bushes and grass surrounding us and ran directly at us all. They weren't carrying anything, and only wore torn and old pieces of clothing. They swarmed around me and Naomi, grabbing me by the leg and easily managing to pull me off the horse. In a flurry of bodies and yelling and one recognizable voice, which must have been Naomi, which sounded a bit like, “Hey, those are my socks!” I found myself on the floor, each limb held firmly by someone.

I tried to yell out to Sofia or someone, but I was not even able to hear my own voice over the noise of all the people.

Then in an instant, I felt my hands tied behind my back, and many hands carrying me above them. I looked over to my side and saw Naomi, wide eyed, in the same situation.  She looked at me, scared, and asked, “Where are we going?”

 I looked on, into her eyes, as a raspy voice answered below me, “On an adventure…” and then laugh maniacally.

I struggled and squirmed, but the only thing I could get out, was, “ but…” in a whisper.