Magnifico

The uncomfortable journey

Sun, Jonas, and Viruz stood up and followed Timon who was going to show them where they will sleep for the night. As they were walking out of the food shop from the back door, Jonas felt like opening up a conversation.

“Timon, I thought your room should be right here inside this shop. Why are we then going to the back of your shop?” Jonas asked.

Timon who was leading the walk, turned around to answer Jonas who just right behind him while Sun and Viruz were behind Jonas.

“We have two semi-detached bungalows here. The two bungalows all belong to us. This particular one is for the food business while the other one is for people that couldn’t make it home sleep there” he paused and continued walking. Timon took a torch that was hanging at the backdoor. He opened it the door and went outside while Jonas and the rest followed him.

As Timon came to the door of the second bungalow, he opened it and it was dark but thanks to the torch he brought, they could see the interior quite well enough. The interior of the room looks abandoned from the entrance. Old broomstick we’re seen hanging on the wall. Cobwebs bridged most of the interlocking ceiling boards. When they went in further, they opened a door which leads to a room. They saw tables and chairs in the room. The bed's blanket on the right-hand side was filled with rat shits. Cockroaches were seen spanning out from the tables and going into hiding as the light illuminates the room.

“You see, this part of this bungalow looked abandoned and there is a reason for that. Due to we don’t normally have visitors that come to our city, people normally don’t sleep here. You know most people here have their houses or places they stay so it is assumed that it is a waste of money to move to an inn that is also very close to their houses. We want to convert it to another food shop so the rooms become useful but the problem is it wasn’t designed to be a hall” Timon said.

“I don’t believe we are paying extra three gold coins for this. This is ridiculous” Jonas said as he walks around touching some of the objects in the room.

“Don’t worry. You can keep the remaining gold coins” Timon said.

“Well, thanks. I will need you to get another torch for us. This one isn’t enough to see all around.” Sun said in a friendly tone.

“Okay, sir.” Timon zoomed off. He brought an extra torch for them which they hanged at the far end of the room.

“General, you really did a great job asking him to bring an extra torch. Snakes might be hiding in this room.” Jonas said.

“Common Jonas. Here is better than the bushes we have been sleeping on so far. We are going to sleep here tonight and zoom off tomorrow morning so chill” Viruz said.

“What's in this bottle?” Jonas asked as he picks up the bottle on top of a table. It appeared it was an empty bottle of used opium and probably other impure mixed concoction. Jonas dropped it and inspected the room. He went to the entrance and brought the broomstick he saw, he used it to sanitize every corner and removed the cobwebs in the room. He swept away the specks of dust and dirt from the room and changed the bedsheet with theirs before sleeping on top of the bed. When he was done, they all went to the bed and crashed in till the following morning.

“Wakie! Wakie! Sleepyheads” Jonas said as he wakes Viruz and Sun up from sleep. Viruz and the General woke up immediately and started rushing to get things ready.

They rushed into the food shop that early morning and saw Timon with a young plump lady helping him out to set things to continue their daily business.

Timon saw them coming into the shop as he was cleaning the tables and chairs inside the shop.

“Good morning all” Timon greeted as he dries the tables with a rag he was with.

“Good morning Timon,” Sun said.

“Tim. We will need to eat and please make it fast. Anything you can get is okay, we are in a rush” Jonas said quickly.

Timon served the food as requested and they ate it in a rush. Sun later gave Timon the remaining three gold coins and asked him to keep the change. When they were about to leave, Timon made them know that taking the valley side will be a lot easier for them. The valley is on the right side of the village if you are looking at the village from the mountain top. They zoomed off without wasting much time in Brux following Timon's guide. The long and slim valley they followed was only shallow if you cross it while still in Brux and riding further away from the village would later make Sun and his comrades realized that the river became broader and the initial plan of crossing it while still in Brux was the best decision they have ever taken since they commenced that journey. They rode fast because they wanted to cover a long distance before their horses become exhausted and they did all they could to maintain straightness while journeying through this forest. It was not until the afternoon that they decided to stop and take a break. They settled close to a shady dense place, winds rustling around trunks and squirrels chattering from trunks to the trunk, branches to branches. The trees were dancing in the direction of the wind current and the environment seemed so cool though the heat from the sun was hot and the sun was just above their head but thanks to the shady trees, they didn’t feel it. They came down from their horses and sad at the small tree branches hiding under the shade.

“Today’s heat is exasperating. I couldn’t believe we will make it this far” Jonas said as he brings out a small gallon of water he had kept inside his sac.

“I swear when I see Kylian, I’m going to kill him. I can't believe that stupid man has made us suffer as this” Viruz said with this bitter resentment in his voice

.

“No. We won’t have to kill him. He has to give us what we are looking for” Sun said.

“And if he doesn’t?” Viruz asked

“We make him answer. But to kill him is pointless.”

“How then do we make him pay for what he has done to us?” Jonas asked.

“Jonas doesn’t deserve to die on our own hands. Everything he has done, I believe he did it out of anger and bitterness. I believe he never has really done it if he didn’t blame us for all he had lost. And the only way we can make it up to him is if we can spare him. He can then move on and do whatever he wants to do with his life” Sun said.

“Well,” Jonas said as he drinks water from the small jar. “If you say so General” Jonas added.

Jonas knew that what Kylian did was a tip in the iceberg to what he did in the past. For Kylian, he had an ostensible reason why he did what he did. A man that lost all he had to a war he never wanted or expected but later did happen anyway had a good reason to be sad, unlike Jonas who had everything but was intoxicated by power, and yet he was forgiven. Jonas understood that if Sun could forgive him then he can also forgive Kylian and pardon him for his crimes. He imagined the type of person was and the type of spirit he has. He knew that wouldn’t be the case if he was in Sun's shoes. He knew he would have killed Kylian the first day he will set his eyes on him. Jonas was beginning to learn a lot from the General especially from his patience when there are crises and his perseverance about his situations.

“I have been thinking about what Timon said about Zaphra and it has made me uncomfortable ever since,” Viruz said as his face looked worried.

“What? You are what?” Jonas asked shockingly.

“I am having a bad feeling about this place. It’s very remote and the feeling I had when Timon was telling us about Zaphra. My mood changed and I can’t really define what kind of feeling it was.”

“Haha. Look Viruz, the feeling you had was fear. You were scared soldier” Jonas said laughing hysterically.

“Oh, Jonas. For me, If I say that I am comfortable with this journey, then I would be lying to myself. None of this makes me comfortable especially traveling like nomads without any sight of home or where we are going. We have families Jonas but here we are, we don’t know how they are doing and they also don’t know if we are alive. Imagine how worried King Zulu would be by now. Common Jonas, believe him when he tells you that this journey doesn’t make him comfortable because it doesn’t make me comfortable too.” Sun said calmly.

Jonas knew that the journey wasn’t easy for them but he finds it more useful being on the mission with Sun than staying back in Quinax where he has many enemies and presumably the King’s his enemy too. In Quinax, Jonas wouldn’t normally participate in any conversation or anything not just because he wouldn’t be allowed to but because he wouldn’t want to owning to the type of person he was in the past. This journey was the only thing that gave him a voice and made Sun look past his sins. In as much as the journey was tiring and mind-boggling, it still wouldn’t bother him.

“Yeah. Yeah,” Jonas muttered.

When they felt that the rays from the sunlight have doused down, they rode off and maintained traveling west. They rode till evening before they made another major stop.