Immortality's Edge

Part 6

PART 6:

After around an hour of Ramses cursing his whole way here, we pull into a little secluded lagoon area. We have to pass through a cave to get to it but once you are on the other side, it’s a whole new place. Instead of the busy commute, there is back in town, all you hear is the wildlife. The place is a giant circle, with a shallowish lagoon in the middle and plants off to the sides. Ramses’ little abode sits off-center, built into a cliff. The whole place is so dense with large and forested trees that it covers the whole sky, making only a little bit of the sun peak through the leaves onto the water. Ramses slowly rows us into his makeshift dock and helps both of us out. Neither Hades nor I say a word, we’re just starstruck at how beautiful his little cove is. Even hibiscus, orchids and lace leaves line the treetops, giving the dark green scenery a splash of color. 

We walk up to Ramses’ little house and stand outside waiting for him to tie the boat to a tree. 

“Ramses...how did you even get this place man?” Hades asks. 

“I built it. My wife decorated it. This is how we spent our honeymoon.”

“No way…” I whisper. Even for royalty, I have never seen anything more cozy and fancier in my whole life. 

“I mean, how did you even discover this place?” Hades re-words his question. 

“Honestly, I just got bored one day of having a place back in town.” He ties a slipknot from the boat to the tree. “I just got a boat and started wandering. It’s a backup house in case something happens to Rania's shop back home.”

Now, Hades and I are even more starstruck. We’re on the moon. How did someone like Ramses, a drunken and timid knight even like, do this all by himself? Ramses wades himself back up to us to show us inside. He takes his cluster of keys and flips through them until he finds the right one. The darkness from the trees overcasting this whole lagoon lets Ramses’ house be the only source of light. It’s not completely dark, but the trees make the whole place feel like it’s sundown. 

Ramses’ house from the outside looks super modern for our time. The house itself, just from looking from the outside, looks like it had 20+ windows. Some of the roof is flat, and what lines it is varying plant growth; some dangling over the edge and some sticking straight up. The other part of the roof is slanted, from the cliff down; a metal type roof. There’s also a deck going out into the water along with a ladder. You can tell how happy Ramses is spending his time here, especially when he starts bouncing up and down trying to open the front door for us. Sooner or later he finds the right key and unlocks the door quickly. He rushes us inside for a better view as he closes the door behind him. 

The place on the inside looks surreal. The inside has a bunch of candles lit and more plants scattered through each section of the house. There are two floors, one being the main living area and the extra bath and bedroom, while the second floor has Ramses’ bed and other supplies. He’s done extraordinary work to call this place home, and I can appreciate that. Dark stained hardwood floors shine below our feet as the plants and wall colors match well with them. He has one big long dining room table facing the deck and lagoon, while the kitchen is behind it along with the stairs. The living quarters are right next to the kitchen. Ramses has an exposed cliff wall to accent everything with some shelves built-in for a home library. A long gray couch frames the living room with a table in the middle. Lanterns with candles light up the stairway along with each room, giving the whole house a type of funkschway. Ramses shows Hades and me to the guest room with two beds, a circular window and a glass door showing off the outskirts of the jungle. Hades and I both plop down on the beds as Ramses sits at the edge of mine to explain some things.