Point of no Return

Uncertain

Eight

Uncertain

The way the Mugulubu females pursed their lips, one would think they always had intentions of smiling. But from the look on Uzira’s finely-cut but oddly-beautiful face, it seemed she really did want to smile, if not for some reason she was holding back, best known to her anyway. Tile didn’t know if this was an assurance of freedom or certain death. If he was sacrificed, Uzira would stand to benefit, if he lived, he believed she would still love the idea. So he could not certainly place her smirking. Then the Kanka spoke.

“You bring us good tidings,” he said, “Welcome.”

Tile bowed in the manner he had seen the others do. He didn’t know what to say as response really. Then the Kanka turned to Boju and said, “rhi rhu gha hum ta rhu”. Boju then turned to Tile and said, “Follow me.”

The smirk-look on Uzira’s face was no longer there, but she too followed them. Taku did not come this time. He remained behind in the king’s court. “Clearly that one does not like me,” Tile thought. They went back the same way they had come. Tile noticed that Boju had an aura about him that somehow made him not to be able to speak whenever he was close by; perhaps he was even afraid of him. He seemed to be a very serious-minded person who had little or no time for bullshit. When they got to the large room downstairs however, they did not follow where they had come. Boju operated on another door just next to the one they had come out from and they found another cabin on roller-belts. Now they sped for more than twenty minutes before they came to a stop. They came out into another football-field-large room. This one had occupants. And for the first time since his arrival in this place, Tile saw water. The source of the water was what made Tile to respect these creatures. They had somehow drilled the foot of the mountain to which this very building was attached and had connected a large crusted-metal pipe, through which Tile could easily walk, uprightly. The water gushed out like a waterfall. As it got to the floor, gutters were built to channel the water to various directions. The channel that went interior guzzled into another opening in the wall. It served as water supply to the city perhaps. The water never stopped flowing. Another channel flowed like it wanted to go exterior of the building, but there was no exterior to go to. Clearly this was the foot of a mountain to which the building was attached. But that was the direction Boju took. Most of the occupants turned and looked in their direction briefly as it were. They were engineers of sorts or even excavators. The strange ground-tiling tools they held suggested that.

They followed Boju until they came to a large opening in the ground. The walls of the pit were metallic, but that was its natural composition. Then Tile saw it. This was where the other channel flowed to. But he noticed something very odd. No matter how much water guzzled into this pit, it was never filling up. Rather, the metallic walls seemed to soak and produce a secretion that looked like mercury. Thick and heavy. It bubbled like it was boiling. Tile now understood where these guys got their metal from, or whatever they called it. The substance also seemed to be the ground formation of every technology around here.

For the first time, Boju removed his fur. He handed it to Uzira and his magnificent green tail stood erect. Strapped to the leather he was now wearing was a large sword from his waist. There was a long crusty metal gadget hung on his back like a gun. Perhaps their own kind of gun. There were several crusty amulets to his arm and other jingling paraphernalia that hung from has now exposed body. Tile wondered how one could carry all these on their body all day and be so comfortable the way Boju comported himself. He glided over to a rocky area from which a large lever extended and began pulling unto it. He dragged clumsily and whatever he was dragging seemed very heavy. The pulley too seemed to be hidden inside the body of the rocky mountain. A wide hole began to gape into the foot of the mountain.

There was something else happening to Tile. Since his arrival on this planet, he had been feeling very light. Although he had noticed it, it never really mattered until now that he was giving a thought to it. At a point, it felt like he could float. Or perhaps, if he jumped, he was not going to land his feet back to the ground. However, inasmuch as this may have been a source of concern, his physics and geography lessons in High School gave him a nudge that clearly he was on another planet and he definitely needed to acquaint with the gravity here. To him, the gravitational pull seemed to be going upwards and there was this continual nagging feeling of wanting to jump. He hoped to talk about these things later with Uzira. That is, if he survived this place they were taking him to.

When the gaping mountain was large enough for them to go through unscathed, Boju beckoned to Uzira. Tile noticed that their gaze was now avoiding his.

“Let’s go,” Uzira said.

With Boju at the far side, Tile seized this brief window period.

“Where are you guys taking me,” he asked.

“You will see,” was all Uzira said, firmly.

“Heavy Jesus!!! I knew these guys were not to be trusted,” Tile thought.

They glided into the mountain’s opened mouth and it swallowed them into its belly. It was not dark inside as Tile had imagined. The walls were metallic like those in the large pit of mercury outside. It was obvious that there was a large deposit of this mineral in the ground here, or perhaps, just underneath this very mountain. The usual rainbow light reverberated on the walls and it was all beauty. They walked down about a few minutes and turned left. “These guys were geniuses!!” Tile could not help but acknowledge. “How come they dug rocks and drilled mountains this cute? And according to Uzira, this was a three-week work”. However, Tile would later understand that the Satr or week here was a twenty-day enterprise. And a day went twenty-five hours as compared to earth. Even at that, this was too much for these clumsy beings to achieve in such short time.

They came to a dark area. For the first time here, Tile saw fire. It was the only source of illumination in this part. It came from a hearth in the very centre of the caved room. Two beings were seated on boulders by the fire. Tile recognized them to be Ipotu and his companion. As they stepped into the clearance, Boju collected his fur from Uzira and wrapped it back on. No words were said. As soon as Ipotu saw them, he waddled into a corner and opened a large metal box. He brought out… “Oh heaviest Jesus!!!” …a large knife that looked sharp it could cut air.

As he turned to face them, Tile’s heart began to gallop ruthlessly. One’s life is so precious, even when they are in the most desolate places; the first instinct is always to stay alive. And inasmuch as Tile understood his now precarious situation, he wanted to stay alive nonetheless. Ipotu strode to him.

“Remove your covering,” he commanded in no jovial tone.

Tile obeyed meekly, he removed all his clothes and dropped them on the ground.

“And those too,” he motioned to Tile’s underpants. Although Tile felt uncomfortable with this latest command, the recent experiences he had had, made nakedness a very familiar undertaking already. Besides, did he have any options? Slowly, he removed his underpants too.

“Rhi bhutu rho ghum serheteh!!!” Ipotu ordered Uzira.

She came and picked the clothes from where Tile had dropped them. She searched every bit of it and brought out Tile’s belongings. A large bundle of money, a sleek silver phone, a ring and a wallet. She dropped all of these in a heap. She rolled the clothes and placed them gently besides the small heap of various belongings. She came over and requested for Tile's wrist-watch too. From his own end, Boju removed the abedegȏdo from under his garment, observed it briefly, and then came forward and dropped it on the heap of personal effects.

As soon as Ipotu’s companion saw the abedegȏdo, she stood from her seat for the first time since their arrival. Ipotu too was transfixed upon the latest collection. He strode with a determined glide and took it in his hands, then asked: “who gave you this?” his voice was stern with concern. His companion whose name was Liza, took it and also observed it.

“That is what brought me here,” Tile said.

“I know,” the priest said, gentler now. There was a knowing in his voice that Tile could not place. “It is the one who gave it to you I want to know.”

“Ortwar,” Tile said without caring to mention the prefix of ‘Baba,’ or even giving any other additional information. Perhaps the priest was familiar with the name or something. Ipotu only nodded. He came closer to Tile. He was expecting another question, but what came was no longer a question, it was action.

Without warning, Ipotu swung his knife with untold prowess and a large cut appeared on Tile’s chest. Tile expected to be dead but he was still standing. Blood oozed happily from the wound. With a large tongue, Ipotu wagged and licked the blood. He repeated the licking exercise thrice. Liza came over and did a similar performance. She looked happy afterwards. What caused her joy, no one knew. Ipotu placed the blunt edge of the knife across his chest under the wound and collected the blood on the blade. Then he said in his face: “we did not know that life exist where you come from, but now we do. But we do know that life exists elsewhere apart from Kuv. The powers that brought you here are of the spirits and gods; it is for traveling the dead. That very one that brought you was stolen from Isu our great queen by another god from across the dark lands, but it was not in this form.”

Tile thought he was going to say more, but he had finished. He strode to the fire and dripped most of the blood he had collected into the fire. Miraculously, the flames accelerated as if the blood was some kind of fuel. The fire grew very tall. The priest went to another corner and brought a container, like a bucket, full of the mercury substance. He drained all its contents on Tile and stepped aside. He observed Tile all over then held him by the wrist and led him to the fire. Tile noticed that as the substance bath over him, the pain in his chest was gone completely. Even the small pain that had been on his finger had evaporated. He noticed also that the substance smelled very sweetly. Suddenly, and without warning, the priest whisked Tile into the tall growing flame.