The Cinders of Dezu

4th: Stolen (1)

(Audiobook listener note:
This chapter is combined in a video with chapter 5. If you listen to the full video you can skip chapter 5 and go straight to chapter 6 from here. Although a like on the skipped pages is still appreciated 😉)

Cairo woke up with a start. He sat up quickly and was dismayed to see another new location. This time it was a small cabin room. He was sitting up in a small bed next to Julian who was sleeping but beginning to stir. At the foot of the bed stood a man with his back to them. He was standing before a workbench in a light brown coat working on something Cairo couldn't see. The window near the bed showed the night to be nearly over as a soft blue began to filter into the dark night sky.

Cairo began to gently shake his friend. Julian's eyes fluttered open. He locked eyes with him and Cairo gestured to their captor. Julian nodded and then slowly began removing the knitted blanket from off of them.

"I'm glad you're awake, " came the mans voice.

They both snapped their attention to him but he was still facing away working on the bench. They almost weren't sure he was talking to them.

Cairo started to respond, "Uh..."

"Go ahead and ask your questions, we haven't got much time, " the man said.

He still wasn't turning around to look at them. Cairo could see now he had a bag of some kind that he was loading with things. Neither of them said anything for a moment.

Julian decided to get right to the point.

"Who izz you and how di-... Did we go from... get from...?"

Julian's eyebrows furrowed as he touched his lips. It felt like his tongue was too big for his mouth. He felt a bit fuzzy too.

The man turned around. He had long hair with lots of gray in it, but clearly, at some point, it had been a vibrant blonde. He was thin with cool gray eyes. This man too was aged but had the face of a younger man.

"I'm Harper, " he said.

He walked to the side of the bed and tapped his fingers on an unseen surface. Before their eyes the thing appeared as if from nothing.

"And you traveled by wheelbarrow."

He went back to the bench and began working again. The boys were looking at a large wheelbarrow that had suddenly appeared next to them. Cairo spoke up next.

"Wool... wom... why can't I talk good."

"I stuck you with this," Harper held up a small needle, "It's a tranquilizer and anesthetic derived from a local flower called a seemee seemee. It puts you to sleep almost instantly when it's in your system. But it also has the temporary side effect of making you... loopy? I guess you could say... And not in full control of your speech patterns."

The man was speaking quickly. Cairo blinked several times at the needle as Harper put it back down on the bench.

"You and things... disappear...?"

"Right," Harper turned around.

His lips were pressed together.

"So, you met our king. A lot of what he said to you was true. You are in another dimension. The most relevant thing to know about this world is that it's permeated by a substance known as dilinium. It changes everything about this place, from the animals to the plant life. There are things here that truly boggle and baffle the mind..."

He looked out the window a moment, lost in thought. He then snapped back to attention and continued.

"Anyway, that goes for the people here as well."

He lifted his arm to show them his hand was missing. His face then faded along with the rest of his body so that only his clothes hovered in place. The clothes leaned over and touched the foot of their bed. The bed and the blankets vanished. The two now looked as though they were reclined, yet hovering in mid-air. They were dumbfounded and instinctively tried to grab at something to hold themselves up. Then with another tap of his invisible fingers, all of it came back into view.

Julian was looking down at his blankets and realized he had drooled just a little bit. He slurped his lips and asked a question.

"Are you a science... science... science man?"

Harper smiled.

"Good catch. And a good sentence. I am actually. An engineer. But since I've been here I've had the privilege of dabbling in many other scientific fields a great deal when I had the resources."

Julian tapped the side of his forehead and looked to Cairo.

"I... I'm on it."

Cairo's eyes widened as a realization occurred to him.

"Raina!"

Cairo could see Harper's shoulders sag though he was turned away.