Hello, everyone! Here is the second chapter of Book 2. It took me longer than I expected to get this finalized because of outside work, so I hope you enjoy it all the same.
DISCLAIMER: The 'Amulet' series is created and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi, and published by 'Scholastic'. The author owns any original characters and custom elements included into the story.
Onward!
On the day Charnon House was expected to arrive at its destination, everyone got up early. Even with hours remaining until Alledia's equivalent of the Sun rose, the robots had the house's engines running at optimal speed and charted the course necessary to get to their destination. However, there was still some time to indulge in other, less strenuous activities. The kitchen was one area of indulgence; specifically, good food made from scratch.
Miskit, Bottle, Theodore, and even the vacuum-robot Ruby began to cook up a substantial lunch for their human friends once there was enough daylight to see clearly by. The ones who could wore aprons and the classic tall white toques to appear more humanlike while cooking. Their efforts to make a human-like meal of sausages, eggs, and pancakes for Emily, Navin, and Caleb to enjoy became more difficult as the house began to shake and rumble in a different way than usual. After the first set of shakes, a repeated pattern of THOOMS came from outside the kitchen window as the house's feet rose and fell.
A muttered "Uh oh…" came from Miskit as he lowered the spatula in his hand to a cooking batch of pancake batter on a frying pan. His fears came to pass when Theodore gasped at a sudden and sharp tilting motion; some of the plates he had piled in his extendable hands crashed onto the floor with a loud clattering. Miskit winced at the noise but managed to flip the pancake in the correct manner.
In the medical room at the end of the hallway, Emily glanced up from beside her mother to look out the open doorway, one of her gloved hands holding onto the bed as the room began to tilt to the left. Morrie did not react to the sound of breaking dishes and only held onto the monitor he was already watching. Caleb grunted as he pressed a hand against the wall adjacent to where he sat, the tiny stool able to support his weight but not provide great balance.
"Is Navin driving right now?" Caleb asked as he glanced up at the ceiling. "Cogsley kept things more under control."
"I guess he is driving," Emily answered as the room reverted to its normal angle. "But how was I going to keep him from doing that after he flew the Albatross? You got him started with that truck of yours."
Caleb smirked as he withdrew his hand from the wall and shifted back into the best seating position he could on the stool. "Guilty as charged. I was about as eager as him when I was his age, always thinking how 'cool' stuff was and wanting something bigger and better each time." He glanced at the ceiling again, trying to picture the young boy's glee as he got to drive a robot bigger than a house on Earth. "He'll have a really cool story to tell back on Earth, if anyone is going to believe all this."
Emily smiled for a moment before returning to her usual concerned expression. Her eyes fell back on her mother, still resting and comatose in the bed; still beyond anyone's help of curing. Caleb remained silent, giving Emily time to think. He saw one of her hands brush her hair back from her face – did her skin look a bit paler now? – and touch her amulet with the other set of fingers. That object, still tied around her neck, was dull and lifeless to its owner's touch, just like any other bit of jewelry a young girl would wear.
Caleb inhaled, feeling awkward in the nearly silent atmosphere of the medical room. "So," he slowly asked Emily, "we'll be arriving in that city today. How do you feel about it?"
Emily's eyes lingered on the edge of her mother's bed. "Nervous," she said. "But I'm not afraid."
"That's good to hear. I'm nervous, too," Caleb admitted as he leaned forward and put his hands on his knees. "But we have to get this done. And if we run into trouble, we're not powerless," he declared with a gesture towards Emily's amulet.
Emily's hand gripped the amulet to hide it from sight. "Right," she muttered. Caleb's hand dropped limply back to his knees while he tried to continue the conversation. It was either that or go to the kitchen to figure out what the robots were doing crashing the plates around, and they probably didn't want to be interrupted in their cooking.
Unexpectedly, Emily turned on her chair to face Caleb instead of Karen and Morrie. Her hand still held her amulet like it was going to fall on the floor the moment she weakened her grip. She opened her mouth, paused, looked back at her mother and Morrie, and then stood up to go out of the room.
Caleb frowned when Emily turned at the doorway into the hall and gave Caleb a "follow me" gesture with her head. She did it again, more fervently, when Caleb did not get up as well. Frowning, the high schooler finally stood from his not-so-comfortable seat and followed Emily out the door. A glance Morrie's way revealed the robot did not appear to notice they were leaving.
Emily led Caleb down the hall, away from the kitchen and ladder to the cockpit and towards the bedrooms. Suddenly, before they got to any room worth entering, she stopped and appeared to come to a decision. Caleb felt the urge to scratch his wrists but kept his hands away from the medical wrappings over his bite scars. "Caleb," she asked after she had looked around for eavesdroppers, "did Navin ever tell you what happened in the forest? After the Albatross crashed?"
"No." Caleb's frown deepened, crease lines spreading on his forehead. "Should he have? It was your business, that's why I haven't asked you about it. I'm not part of your family."
Emily nodded, but did not look any better. "Well, that gray man from the caves was out there. He was an elf, about your age. And he's a Stonekeeper."
A rancid taste spread in Caleb's mouth, created purely from the memory of venom-induced fever. He remembered a fanged mouth growling in anger, light shining from an amulet inside a metal collar. "He got out from Gondoa Mountain? I thought Miskit shot him down those rocks with that blaster!"
"That wasn't enough to kill him." Emily's pupils dilated a small degree as she recalled the teenage elf for herself. "He got out and followed those bugs that Mom was stuck in. He killed the one that had Mom inside it with one of these things." She tugged her amulet up, squeezing it between her fingers like a rubber ball. "When I tried to get Mom back, he used his powers on me."
Caleb tightened his lips. "What did he want with you?"
"He said I was destined to kill his father, the Elf King." The hand holding Emily's amulet slowly fell to her chest, her breathing picking up speed as the amulet thumped back onto her chest. Words began spilling out of her mouth: "He wanted me to do it, and when I didn't agree he tried to make me do it. He used Mom to get to me, and he was going to kill all of us if I said no!"
Caleb took a step towards Emily, not sure how to comfort her. "Did you say you'll do what he wanted?" he carefully asked. To his relief, Emily shook her head. "That's good. You aren't a murderer, Emily. It's not right to kill someone for somebody else's benefit."
Emily nodded back, brushing some hair back from in front of her eyes, the cloak around her clothes shaking as tears glistened inside her eyelids. Caleb wanted to hold her shoulder, but he didn't feel privileged enough to do it. He settled for asking her, "What happened next? You got away with Ka – with your mother, I mean?"
Emily wiped her nose and eyes with the sleeve of her coat. "Yes, we got away." Her voice remained steady without cracking. "I used my amulet to break his control, and… and I think I scared him, too." She stepped a bit away from Caleb before wiping her face again with the same sleeve.
Concern for Emily clashed in Caleb's mind with a new question, but before he could speak, the house leaned to the left and then righted itself again. "Why are you telling me this, Emily?" Caleb asked once he figured the house was balanced again. He had his own reasons for why, but he knew without a doubt that saying them would get Emily angry at him again.
Emily's fear changed into a dark mixture of determination and worry; her face twisted between the two feelings as she leaned forward slightly in the middle of the hallway. "I think you need to know what happened," she finally explained. "If that elf comes back, he'll come for me first. I don't know if I can face him again without killing him."
"Next time will be different, Emily. You'll have Navin and Miskit and Morrie and Cogsley and everyone else to help you. I promise."
Caleb felt no qualms about not including himself in his list. Emily appeared to get the message and smiled in clear gratitude as she straightened her posture. Those two actions brought a bit of light to her face from beneath the pale skin, something like the Emily Caleb had known before her family had suffered their tragic loss.
The house shook for two seconds straight; Caleb bent his knees and nearly put a hand on the floor to keep himself from falling, but it turned out to not be necessary. "That does it," he huffed, secretly glad to change the subject, "I'm going up to the cockpit before Navin makes the house fall on its face."
"That won't be easy," Emily said with a quick laugh, and Caleb smiled back with a wave before fast walking with dogged steps towards the retractable ladder. As the vibrations of further giant footsteps vibrated along the walls, the narrow ladder became an athletic challenge to climb; every step climbed could be lost when the house tilted to the left or right. Caleb held onto the rungs with equal amounts of fear and courage as he went up one step at a time. He left the ladder down as he peeked his head into the cockpit to see just how well Navin was doing.
Up in the cockpit, Navin was in the left front pilot's seat, the spot where Cogsley had been the day Charnon House had woken up. Now Coglsey was in the other pilot's seat and watching Navin go through the same motions. As Navin pulled one of the two levers by his hands back, the house tilted forward with audible creaking noises. When Navin pushed the other lever forward, one of those loud THOOMS came up from the ground; the house had just taken a step forward. The tilting and shifting between steps was not as bad as down in the kitchen, and Caleb appreciated that as he tiptoed over to the two occupied seats. The view out of the front arched window was filled with what looked like pine trees, judging by their pointed tops like a Christmas tree in a store on Earth.
Cogsley picked up Caleb's approach quickly enough to greet him. "Ye come to watch the show, lad?" he casually asked. Navin then looked back, noticing Cogsley was not speaking to him, and stared in awkward surprise at Caleb being there at all. Another footstep came as Navin's hands shook around the levers, and the entire house shook with him. Was it about to fall?
"Navin! Stay relaxed!" Cogsley snapped back to the role of an instructor at a moment's notice, causing Navin to twist his head and mind back to what he was previously doing. Thankfully for everyone, the house had stayed still beyond its trembling, waiting for its pilot to calm down and take control again. Navin pressed down on a pedal with one foot as he pushed the other lever forward, and the house raised up one foot while swinging the opposite arm. The raised foot came down as Navin lifted his foot off the pedal, and the arm came back when he pulled the corresponding lever back. The cycle repeated itself with the opposite motions, four actions to make the house walk like a human being.
"There we go, kid. Ye've got it now." Cogsley did not smile, but his voice articulated his satisfaction just as well. "Just keep the rhythm going."
"Yes, Cogsley." Caleb leaned a bit further forward, moving in between the boy and the robot as Navin continued walking the house like he would his own body. Caleb's eyes passed over Navin's clothes without comment, the boy wearing almost exactly like the ones he had first worn from Silas's collection except the undershirt was white instead of blue. Those sneakers did not look very out of place pressing on metallic pedals, as a sixteen-year-old Navin might do with his first car.
'Good that someone else can help me teach you about driving when you're older, I guess.' Satisfied that Navin had things under control, Caleb turned to Cogsley and asked, "Are you the… uh… a second pilot? I saw Bottle with you before, but you were where Navin is now."
The robot snorted good-humoredly. "Navin's my copilot, lad. If I can't pilot the house, he'll take over. I don't expect that to happen any time soon, though."
Caleb silently hoped that would turn out correct as he looked back at Navin. "He seems to be taking it well," he remarked to Cogsley despite not looking at him.
"Ye can speak right to him, ye know." Caleb felt Cogsley's gaze on him like a dull heat on his cheek. The rhythm of the house's steps did not match his heartbeat, and he drew his head back to make eye contact with the robot.
"He's busy right now," was the best counter Caleb managed to give. It was true, wasn't it.
"I'm right here, guys!" Navin loudly announced while making his next lever pull particularly hard. The house's subsequent stomp sounded deeper and stronger to match Navin's anger; against that much force, Caleb realized he had overstayed his welcome.
"Sorry." Caleb grabbed the back of Navin's seat as the house stopped moving, the balance in the cockpit momentarily thrown off. "Looks like you're okay. Both of you, I mean. Didn't mean to upset you, Navin."
"You're fine, you're fine," Navin stated before Caleb could get away from the conversation. "I'm just… This is just hard, okay? I need to concentrate."
"Which I'm sure you'll do with me not being around. No," Caleb told Navin when the boy turned in his seat and opened his mouth to speak, "it's alright. I'll so you can concentrate. I'm not used to being around kids for this long, that's all." He paused to wet his lips. "There are good and bad things to being an only child at my age."
Navin's mouth clamped shut as his eyes turned down to the floor. Guilt sprang in Caleb's chest like a cough, but he said nothing else. Cogsley also remained quiet, no doubt keeping his own feelings to himself. By the time Caleb had started to climb down the retractable ladder to the floor below, Navin had started walking the house forward again, returning to the task at hand like Caleb hoped he could do by checking on that meal Miskit and the others were making.
As it turned out, Caleb got a report on the progress before he ever reached the kitchen; the aroma of freshly cooked sausage and eggs was a hard scent to miss. The state of the meal was further improved at the sight of Theodore whirring out the kitchen doorway, tray held up like a server would carry a meal at a hotel. The robot almost didn't see Caleb as it turned away to go further down the floor's passage, but at the last moment it saw him and turned back around with a skilled pivot of its single wheel.
"Your brunch is ready, Mister Caleb, for whenever you wish to have it." Theodore's upbeat tone proved the meal was a success to Caleb's mind, and his stomach agreed from the pleasant smells floating his way. "I just need to deliver this meal to Master Emily," the robot continued, "and I will be ready to assist you if you need it."
"Thanks, Theodore," Caleb said before he walked the remaining few steps to the kitchen and stepped inside. The broken pieces of plate were gone, the various cooking utensils and items being washed individually in the sink by Bottle, who wasn't wearing the apron and toque anymore. Miskit did not have those things on as he gave Caleb a wave with his three-fingered hand.
"Care for some eggs, Mister Caleb?" Miskit asked as he took a tray on the counter beside the stove into his hands. "They're scrambled thanks to Navin's driving, but they should still taste good. We also have sausages, pancakes, toast, and bacon if you want something different."
Caleb's mouth watered a little at the list of food he heard, smelt, and saw on the large tray a plate with a various assortment of the foods Miskit had described. "I'll just eat what you have there, Miskit," he said. "Is there still some juice in the fridge?"
"There is. I'll fill up a glass for you." Caleb sat down at one of the stools as Miskit went to collect his drink, digging into the food with gusto. Two weeks of travel with Miskit had revealed the robot's talent for cooking, and he had to thank Silas for that. The juice Miskit brought was the Alledia equivalent of an orange on Earth, the juice tasting tangier and less sweet but carrying the same flavor. Miskit didn't have a name for it beyond "orange", and he claimed that name had come from Silas and Earth. Regardless of the name, it helped wash down the food as good as anything Caleb had consumed at a meal.
'I should ask Miskit for the recipe before we go home.' Caleb's pace slowed as he realized a crucial point to that thought. 'Well, it's not going to be the same as when he makes it, since he won't be there.' He put the nearly empty glass of juice down on the tray and looked at Miskit and Bottle working together to wash and dry the dishes at a rapid pace.
'I'll miss these robots when we have to go,' he admitted. But he had to get home, he had a family to return to. And today was supposed to be the day that might happen. So, why did he not feel excited?
[HOURS LATER…]
A chime from one of the cockpit-attic's computer screens made Caleb glance up at that object, having returned to that space with no objection from the two pilots. Seated in one of the rear pilot seats behind Cogsley, the teenager noted the digital numbers "14:00" marked on the screen's lower left corner. He felt how taut the muscles in his legs were from sitting down in one place for a long time, no wanting to go down into the house when they were so close to their destination. He could tell they had gotten farther along on their journey simply by looking out of the arched window.
Instead of trees and rivers, valleys and hills, there were houses perched onto the sides of mountains and cliffs like bird's nests. Civilization, people, existed in Alledia. Caleb hadn't fully believed it during the weeks of journey through Windsor's natural landscape, but the proof was now in plain sight. As the path Cogsley guided Navin on curved to the left, passing along the edge of a cliff that promised a steep drop to anyone foolish enough to try and walk on air, Caleb could see smoke rising from beyond the end of the trail. Something else, something bigger than these tiny homes, was around the corner.
"I don't remember all those houses on the mountain before," Coglsey commented as Navin passed them by with thundering footsteps. "The city must have expanded again since Silas was last here."
"How long ago was that, Cogsley?" asked Caleb. Even without a formal education in architecture or urban planning, he knew houses did not get put up very quickly if they were supposed to last. He could see little ladders and nets placed around some houses or connecting houses together where stairs would have otherwise worked. Squinting his eyes revealed there were, in fact, tiny people on the ladders scurrying around like ants.
"Ah, at least a few years. Probably more, I can't say for sure." Cogsley scratched the side of his metal head, searching for a better answer. "Well, at least I know our contact code still works. We need that to enter the city."
"You know someone there?" Navin asked as he pushed one lever forward and pressed down with the other foot. The houses passed out of view, the bend in the path getting even closer.
"No, not that kind of contact," Cogsley corrected. "I'm talking 'bout the code this old walker is registered under. We need to give that when we go in, otherwise they'll think we're an invading force. Been that way for decades, far before the elves started causing a fuss."
Navin's concentration wavered under a deep frown. "Elves, huh?" he quietly said.
Cogsley responded quickly and tartly to Navin's worry: "Worry about that later, kid. No sense thinking over stuff that may never happen." Caleb agreed wholeheartedly with that statement, true as it was to their current predicament.
The young boy's frown relaxed as he continued to guide the house towards the approaching turn, never getting close enough to the cliff's edge to risk falling over. For a boy of ten or so years old – Caleb didn't have an exact number yet – Navin was proving quite adept at handling large vehicles. That explained his fascination with the truck Caleb had driven on Earth, but the Alledian equivalent of a truck or car threw the Earth version out of the water.
"There it is, lads," Cogsley remarked as the area around the bend came into view. "The city of Kanalis."
It was certainly a city to Caleb's eyes, bigger than any he'd ever been to on Earth. Built over a thundering waterfall and situated by the edge of the same cliff that Navin worked to not walk off, it appeared to be a densely packed den of people, places, and things. There was power in its design: power from the water streaming out of multiple holes above the cliff like a dam would on Earth; power from the cliff itself preventing anyone from trying to get inside from that direction; power from the massive stone wall that rose higher than Charnon House from the ground shining sandy white in the midday sun; and power in the battlements all along the wall's top, and the towers with extra bracing to keep the dam's roaring water contained. The tops of nearby mountains or hills peeked over the tallest point of the various brown-roofed stone towers that jutted up from inside the wall, nature still present within the sprawling industry such a city no doubt contained. There were giant clocks mounted onto the highest towers; metal smokestacks identified where several factories were working away; houses were stacked on top of other houses to try and stay within the walls' protection.
The city of Kanalis was the largest gathering of people in one place Caleb had ever seen. He didn't entirely like the thought of entering so packed a space, but if this was the place Karen was going to get cured then he would bear going inside it.
"Keep going straight," Cogsley told Navin while pointing to a smaller section of buildings outside the wall and right by the cliff's edge. "Just right up to those docking piers. Watch out for oncoming traffic."
'Traffic' meant another walking house, with pointed rooftops to mark its head and shoulders, passing by from the great city. Unlike Charnon House, this home had two cockpits for "heads", and each head had a square window placed like eyes on a human's face. Caleb stared at one of those windows and saw a robot very much like Bottle standing inside. The only real difference between Bottle and this unknown automaton was that Bottle was colored a darker shade of blue.
"Oy! Eyes on the road!"
Cogsley's shout made Caleb jump in his seat, but he quickly figured out it was Navin who had been yelled at. The boy's hands trembled as he let out a deep breath and synchronized himself back into the same rhythm from a few moments prior. But Caleb saw Navin's cheeks looking a bit paler than before – something spooky must have been visible in the other window. The other house moved out of sight before anyone could take a second look.
"I know it's strange seeing another house like ours," Cogsley chided, gently but firmly. "That doesn't mean ye can go forgetting yer duties, okay?"
"Okay, Cogsley," Navin answered. "I get it." The two fell back into silence as Navin guided the house towards the set of buildings apart from the rest of Kanalis. On closer inspection, the buildings consisted of a single large roofed structure, several stone bridges going out from that structure in symmetrical straight lines, and a large crane on the end of each bridge. Some of the cranes were moving, and people were coming and going out of the open space in the rear structure. It appeared to be the only way to get inside the walls, and into Kanalis proper.
Cogsley reached forward and pulled a communicator like the one in the control room several floors below from a small cradle amongst the cockpit's various instruments. Muttering to himself, he then held down a button on the object's side and held the receiver right up to his metal mouth. "This is Choga-Hoffa-Five-Six-One-Nine calling Kanalis Port Control," he said into the receiver. "Requesting permission to dock, over."
Cogsley released his hold on the button while keeping the object close. Caleb's eyebrows rose at the name Cogsley had given for Charnon House; if that was the contact code, it sounded kind of silly. A few seconds later, a response came back over the communicator, a male voice with some additional static that provided an extra crackling: "Choga-Hoffa-Five-Six-One-Nine, this is Kanalis Port Control. You are cleared to dock at Pier number Ten. Please have your travel documents ready for inspection by a Customs Officer once the docking procedure is completed, over."
Cogsley quickly held down the button on his side again. "Roger that, Control. Choga-Hoffa-Five-Six-One-Nine out." The communicator was then put back into its cradle with a click, the dialogue apparently over. "Travel documents," Cogsley repeated as he sat back in his seat. "That's a new one."
Caleb's wrists started itching again as he leaned towards Cogsley's seat. "Do we have those things?" he asked, cautiously. "Can we still get into the city?"
"We've got those papers somewhere in the house." The dome-headed robot gave Caleb a sideways glance. "Ye can get Miskit to look for them; he spoke with Silas the most often, so he'll know where they are. Navin," he continued while shifting his focus to the younger copilot, "take us in slowly. Pier number Ten, got that?"
"Yep." Navin did not look distracted now, not by the wall that got bigger as he got closer, or the sound of the waterfall to his right as it dispensed probably thousands of gallons from beneath the city to some place far beneath the cliffside every second. Caleb told Navin, "Good luck!" before he got up and walked as quickly as he could manage towards the cockpit's retractable ladder, his chest tightening as he rubbed his wrists and tried to stay calm. He had never been in an inspection like this before, though his mother and father had talked about "customs" and "immigration" when they had gone to airports. Maybe this was like that?
Caleb hoped the inspectors wouldn't ask too many questions about where they had been and what they were going to do. Kanalis probably didn't welcome strangers from another world with open arms.
Caleb did not watch the docking procedure into Kanalis from a window. In fact, he didn't look out of a window once as he helped Emily and Navin get ready to step outside for the first time in two weeks. Clothes had to be checked over for any obvious stains and if they were constricting or loose around the body; Emily gave her hair a good brushing with a makeshift comb from one of the house's bathrooms; boots, gloves, and cloaks were distributed between all the people who would be walking around. The shirts beneath their cloaks were different, but these travelling outfits gave Caleb, Emily, and Navin a similar appearance, as if they were really part of the same family.
Everyone gathered in the foyer, the glowing tree not actually glowing in the daytime. The front door was closed tight, a passage or stairway placed up there from Pier Ten for them to enter Kanalis. Morrie had a large brown bag slung over his shoulder for whatever the group might buy in the city. Karen was wrapped in a thick blanket and held in Bottle's large, strong hands. The oxygen mask from the medical room was now connected to a port on Bottles back, air flowing through a see-through hose made of a material called "silicone". Caleb was as clueless about the thing as the kids, not having studied about silicone in science class. At least Karen was still able to breathe and stay warm when not in a proper bed, or so he hoped.
While thinking about hopes, Caleb idly patted his pants' pockets and felt the weight of his cell phone in one of them. He knew no one else knew he had it because he hadn't told anyone of his personal hope: getting his phone repaired in Kanalis so he could contact his parents. As a goal, it was an incredibly lofty threshold to climb over, and it might not ever happen, but Caleb's want to try overrode his fears of whatever might happen.
"Everyone ready to go?" Miskit asked from by the front door. He had a travel cloak on as well, tied around his neck with a tight knot. In one of his hands was a manilla folder from Morrie's pouch, looking like what Miranda kept files in. Cogsley was staying behind to, as he claimed, "keep the place spruced up until ye get back".
"We're ready, Miskit," Emily said as her fingers tapped Silas's amulet still tied around her neck, while Navin bobbed on the balls of his feet, not looking completely eager to go outside. "You have the documents, right?"
"Right here, Miss Emily." Miskit raised the folder up and lightly shook it twice for everyone to see. "You can let me do the talking with the officer. They're probably waiting outside now. Before we go meet them, though, I need to tell you something else about the people in Kanalis. They…" He paused with a flustered look. "Well, they look different."
"What do you mean, 'different'?" Emily asked. Caleb silently agreed with Emily's unspoken opinion that 'different' was not a good enough answer.
"Are they like what I saw inside the other walking house?" Navin suggested with wide eyes. "Because that man had a raccoon's—"
"He had nothing like that, Navin," Em cut her brother short, "don't be silly! You probably just imagined it."
"But Cogsley and Caleb saw it too! Didn't you?" Navin turned to Caleb expectantly, wanting him to agree. Caleb unfortunately had to shake his head in denial and admit, truthfully, "I just saw a robot in the window. No raccoons."
"Whatever you saw in that house doesn't matter now," Miskit remarked as Navin pouted from Caleb's refusal to take his side. "Just don't stare at what you see outside here." Then, he moved up the door and pressed a button beside it that blended conspicuously into the wall. With a "Fwoosh!" and a rush of air, the door opened. Alledia's Sun cast blinding rays into Charnon House as the sounds of thudding footsteps and whirring machinery joined with a distant roaring of water.
The three human's eyes and ears were dazzled, to the exact appearance of the person – the "Customs Officer" - standing outside the door, waiting for them as the first barrier into Kanalis. "Good afternoon!" they said with the voice of an older man, jovial and high-spirited. "Welcome to Kanalis! I'll need to see your travel documents and passports, please."
Blinking the spots out of his eyes, Caleb saw a man with small glasses, a white mustache, and… the body of a spotted pig?
Alright, that's all for now. We have arrived at Kanalis, and the group's first reception is not quite as expected. How they will deal with what they find will be shown in the next chapter. As usual, any feedback and constructive criticism given is appreciated.
Draconos is taking off!