The flight on the way to meet the Council was definitely a strange experience for Heksis, having never flown on any vehicle before. His gurney was tightly strapped against the floor's metal handles, so he wasn't going anywhere. He was perfectly safe in this little room, which was still faintly illuminated by the gentle white light of the hallway. He wasn't afraid of the dark, despite his age. As a pup, he'd been exposed to plenty of dark rooms in the short, precious years he'd been alive. It was primal in a way, kind of reminding him of his own room. The cargo stored behind him was tied down to the floor just like his rolling bed was, so when the ship suddenly rose upward, whatever was in the crates fell back. Heksis fell back too, gravity pulling him backward as the ship gained altitude, with the only thing saving him from sliding out of the bed and slamming into the crates behind being the little hook he was making with his right foot, holding onto the railing at the end of the bed for dear life for a solid 3 minutes before the ship went back to normal, thunderous vibrations below him calming down to a light shiver that refused to stop.
He stayed like that for quite awhile, things seemed to slow down to a standstill without any stimuli to indicate the time of day, or anything else for that matter. Time didn't matter to him, its not like he chose to come on this trip of his own free will. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, eventually weakening to the vibrations by putting his head over a pillow, which seemed to dampen the engine's shivers for him. He didn't have any dreams during this nap, it was just plain, boring sleep. Despite what had happened, Heksis was too naive to believe that such things had occurred. That certainly kept the nightmares away. For now.
"Hey. Pssst. Little runt. Wake up." A familiar tone said from the left, which only barely managed to wake the boy up from his little nap. A cold sensation covered his back as the blanket was pulled off of him and thrown to the side. All Hek let out was an annoyed peep as his shoulder got grabbed and lifted up, roughly flipping him over on his back and waking him back up fully. Soon as he opened his eyes he looked up at the source of the voice with drowsy, puppy dog eyes. A tall, weathered adult came into view, cloaked in furred indigo blue robes that reflected the light seeping out of the now open door. He wasn't smart enough to remember faces very well, but if there was one thing pup's specialized in...it was voice recognition. And this voice? It belonged to Captain Giln. He almost started whimpering again, only being stopped by the sensation around him, or to put simply, the lack of sensations. No vibrating. No shaking. They must've reached their destination.
"Sleep well?" Giln said in a casual tone, a cruel heartless grimace on his mandibles as he looked down at Heksis. All the boy could do was give him a wide eyed stare, frozen in place like a prey animal. He didn't choose to reply, instead he simply let out a short sneeze as he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and lifted up from the gurney, a numbed sensation running down his spine as he was gently set down on the floor. His senses returning, he looked up at the captain. Giln replaced the grin with a plain expression. This didn't last long though when the adult squinted down at him, reaching down and grabbing him by the shoulder. They heaved him up, forcing him to support himself on his legs as they slowly softened their grip on him. When they let go Hek only let out a short squeak as he balanced himself, albeit clumsily
"I won't allow you to go speak in front of the Council of Eliksnios while napping on a gurney you little fool." The captain hissed, holding a hand out as Heksis wobbled his cast around, still thinking he could move it somehow. This only awarded a small little chuckle from the adult as the boy grabbed onto their hand for support.
"You can't move it runt. Castes aren't meant to be walked like that. Keep it stiff. Use the other leg to move." They ordered, turning around and forcing Heksis to wobble behind as he was walked out of the cargo room. The boy followed along in the same clumsy, inexperienced manner. He still hadn't gotten used to it. Heksis let out a short "Slow down." to the captain as they made their way out of the hallway, took a left, and descended down the steep metal ramp. The ramp was an obstacle to say the least, and shortly after his first attempt Hek was holding onto the captain's arm for dear life, holding his caste in front of him as he hopped his way down, with the cold sensation of polished granite hitting his bare feet being enough to inform him that he'd reached the end. As he opened his eyes...the majesty of the palace before him sparked a burst of mundane curiosity.
The landing platform was a large, oval shaped area,covered in speckled, polished granite, with heavy railing fences all around. When it slowed...walking on the slippery floor must've been a nightmare. But the platform was of little concern. All he cared about was the gigantic entrance before him, only a small catwalk away from the where he was. The catwalk was the same as the landing platform, except a large triangular set of walls leaved against each other covering them up, obstructing the view. And it was gorgeous...
He didn't know where he was...but it was high. Really high. Normally...sometimes at his home you could see the cloud just a few feet above his head. But this place? Here the clouds were far off in the distance, a massive mountainside barely in his view as he looked over the railing, which earned him a hard squeeze from Giln, and a stern growl as they pulled the boy closer to their side.
It didn't take long for him to be brought to the entrance. A massive, tall doorway with two soft metal Aviasni statues at the sides. A brown cloaked worker was busy repainting the left statue in a silver, reflective color, replacing the faded and worn paint from before. The majesty and grandeur of this place was unlike anything the boy had seen before. The captain only gave him a short huff as he took him into the buildings grand interior, filled with gorgeous paintings of vibrant, water colored mountainsides and flowing rivers that had signaled the end of the winter season's fury since the artwork's creation. Glass rectangular prisms filled with clear liquid. Dirtied gray stones stuck out from the beautifully crafted base of fluffy moss, which covered the short gaps and miniature valleys between the rocks. The stones had been carefully crafted into the shape of wide spires. A small pump carried sand from the small funnel out of sight behind the gorgeously crafted trees. This unseen um carried the silky grains of sand up into the back of the small cave that had been drilled into the side, lazily pushing the sand out which fell back down into the funnel behind the small jungle of tiny trees like a waterfall. These small arboreal lofts were just moss that had been attached onto the tops of the small salt stained twigs that stuck out from the powdered black substrate. The small balls of green moss had been trimmed and deformed into wide oval shaped canopies.
Heksis was captivated by the beauty of the sculpture, and when Giln maneuvered him to the side to get a closer look the boy made an excited squeal. A small fabric railing of red fabric had been deployed around the beautiful piece, supported by small little poles that had been placed onto the white stone floor. But the captain seemed to...wish to give Hek a better view of it...as if he himself had a fascination with the glass container's beauty. So when the adult grabbed him by the fluffy scruff of his neck and lifted him up from between his legs, helping the child onto the other side...Heksis could only make a short turn to look back at the captain, his fascination now shattered and replaced with confusion. He...helped him?
"This is called an Aquascape." He barked gently, raising a his upper right hand up and pointing to the aquarium. The pup didn't have the chance to ask why, Giln had spoken up already and given him his answer. Aquascape? A memory quickly popped into his mind, recalling a similar word his mother had once spoken about with a friend. Landscaping. They'd called it that. She'd told her friend that she could get the lava rock she needed at the landscape supplier in...Sinegosst. The name sounded strange in his mind, bouncing around like a toy ball before it eventually went out. The child brought a hand up to his ear after, as if closing a hatch that the weird word had escaped from. He shook his head afterwards, looking back at the sculpture. A small furry rodent came into view, flapping its bat like wings as if swam from the Hek's left and over to the other side. A thin reflective layer covered the creature's dark beady eyes as it swam through the heated light of the small lighting that had been hung from the ceiling above him. The strange creature was small, about the size of one of Hek's stubby little digits. It didn't pay it's observers any attention as it swam to the left side, curving its body as it went behind one of the small mountain shaped rocks and disappeared from view.
"What was that?" Heksis asked with an excited chirp, lifting a hand up to the 'mountain' that the creature had disappeared behind. He asked as if him asking the captain about it would make the creature appear once again. Giln only gave a short shake of his head in response, followed by a short "I don't know." as he reached down and picked Heksis back up again. As he was gently put down at the captain's side, his unbroken leg sticking down like a twig so he didn't hurt his caste...he felt a little reassured. If not in himself, than in Giln. Maybe he'll be fine after all...
Authors Note
WOW what a wait! Yes yes I know my lovely readers, Dumb Ol Pegleg sold out. Not while I still draw breath! My editor has gone a bit dark on me which has slowed my progress. BUT I prevail. I'm gonna work on improving my typing speed whenever given the chance, so hopefully I'll be posting more frequently in a couple more weeks! Btw. School is slowly killing me. Send halp.