The Felinites

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Abby's POV

"Here we are," Muck announces in that strange tone of several robots speaking at once.

I shake my head again and take in my surroundings. I see nothing different than all the mountains of tall, jagged stone that we had been walking past for the past fifteen minutes or so.

"I don't see anything. Are we lost?" Princess Cleo asks in a whiny voice, very un-princess-like.

"No. We are in the correct spot," the woman assures her.

The older man walks toward the stone and presses his hand against it. Blue spirals of light spread down the humongous rock until they reach the ground. Then the spirals of light continue twirling outward and backward until the shape of a large rectangle is outlined on the ground in the series of blue spirals. Next, the woman walks to the same rock and presses her hand against the rock as well. This time, the spirals shoot upward toward the sky, forming what appear to be walls.

"Wow," I hear Princess Cleo mutter as we watch the spectacle. I could not have said it better myself. It was amazing watching the hotel and craft station appear out of nowhere.

Finally, Muck places his hand on the rock. The outline of the building solidifies for a moment and a door swings wide open to welcome us inside. Then they all take their hands away from the rock and it all vanishes again.

The three Stepis aliens do not seem to notice, or maybe they can still see the building. They walk toward where it had just been and, one by one, they disappear once they pass what was the hotel's threshold only moments ago. Princess Cleo and I can do nothing but stare after them in astonishment.

"Are you two coming?" Muck sticks his head out the door and asks us in an annoyed voice. His irritation has no effect on us though, because now we are done gawking at the amazing-disappearing-house and staring at his small floating blue head. The rest of his body is inside the building, making it invisible.

"Um, yes, we were just admiring the hotel and craft station," I murmur as I grab Princess Cleo's arm and begin pulling her toward the house. None of the books had really gone into detail about the other alien races or how they lived or even spoke. So everything on Stepis has taken me by surprise.

The inside is no less fascinating than the outside is. Bright blue spirals race across every surface of the white, windowless walls and the transparent ceiling. You can vaguely see the sky above beyond the blue spiraling patterns.

The room is a maze of cylindrical columns that stretch from the floor to ceiling. Dozens of the columns are laid out in every direction. There are no other decorations or furnishings. I stare at the strange sight that does not even remotely resemble a hotel from the human world.

Muck and the other two Stepis aliens approach one of the cylinders. This one is three times wider in diameter than any of the other perfectly uniformed columns in the room. It is also directly in the middle of the first row of columns.

The woman begins deftly moving her finger across the surface of the cylinder in a code unknown to me. In only a few moments, however, she is telling Muck and the other man what cylinder number they should find. Then she turns to me and Princess Cleo.

"Nothing on any planet ever comes free. And the two of you are not from here which means you do not have money that is worth anything on my planet. However, I am going to pay for your stay here for one night and one night only. I expect that this favor be repayable one day from Princess Cleo," the woman informs us.

"Of course," Princess Cleo replies understandingly. "What do you have in mind?"

"I said one day, princess. I need for nothing at the moment therefore there is no favor you can do for me. Yet. I simply wanted to establish an agreement with you so that one day, if I need for a favor, I can enlist the help of another planet's royal," she explains.