The Wonders Of Vast Emptiness

Chapter Eight: Wonders

Upon hearing the doorknob turn, this sent both Dr. Twolson and Sam into a panic. Now, Sam was quite a bit younger than Dr. Twolson. Which naturally meant he was quite a bit more nimble, as well. He darted out of the door, Dr. Twolson behind him.

A gruff voice shouted, "I know you are in here, outsiders!" Sam could hear by the various banging and crashing that most of the men were also wielding an evil-looking object. He was scared for his life, and so was Dr. Twolson. They tried to hide, but this time the men caught up with them.

Instead of shooting, they approached them with neutral faces. The captain looked at them, and said kindly, "The leader would be very happy to have you two."

He then scooped both of them up, and Dr. Twolson and Sam exchanged confused looks. They were taken to a giant place, with many turrets and observation decks, and a giant gate. As the captain barked his name, the gates opened. Who came out next was horrible.

Sam saw that his face was covered with scars, he had a shaggy beard, and his hair was shoulder length. He had a very sharp sword poking out of a hilt on his belt. If this was the leader, Sam was very worried. Sam was staring up at this man like you would look at a deadly poisonous snake. Everything about his was unpleasant.

His voice sounded high, like nails on a chalkboard, but also bold and defiant. "You must be the beings from the gateway." How did he know that? Sam wondered, beginning to trust this man less and less every time he set eyes on him.

Dr. Twolson's eyes were brightening up every second, and Sam had the feeling that he was beginning to get a brilliant idea of what to do. "Yes, the gateway. I understand that you two have come here to research, hm? But steal any of our resources, and I guarantee that both of you will be executed in the morning. But, I have been watching you since you came, and you have appeared to do nothing that is a flagrant disregard of my rules."

This relieved Sam, but it was still very hard to find this man trustworthy. "So what am I to do? Let the two go? Sure, that would be risky, as I don't want them leaving with anything that belongs to us, but at the same time I doubt the people beyond the gateway would be very happy to find out that two people were gone, presumed dead, especially the young one. Yes, a tricky situation indeed. I could take them to the feast. Maybe that would work" muttered the leader to himself, and then realized that Sam had heard it.

Sam thought for a second that something terrible was about to happen to him or Dr. Twolson, or both, perhaps, but nothing did. The leader thought about it, too, but he just stood there, gazing at the two people with immense curiosity.

"Well, chaps, I have made up my mind. You can stay here for as long as you want, and to pardon you to stay here, we must first have a feast." This entire idea sounded particularly fishy to Sam, but he decided to table it. After all, what would happen if he refused? What if his head was chopped off in the morning? No, sir, that wouldn't work. So he decided to go along with what the leader said.

The leader lead them both to a tremendous dining-room, with the most amazing pots and pans, made from diamond and gold, even the richest men in the world would have trembled at such a sight. Next to all of the expensive pans, were some of the most delicious things Sam had ever seen before. Mountains of cakes, turkey, ham, many other meats, vegetables, fruit, pork pies, many other pies as well, and so much more that would take hours just to explain.

This must have been the feast, then. There was no way it couldn't be. In the midst of all of this, stood a very fat, very short man, who brandished a cooking-knife like it was a medieval sword. He must have been the chef. The leader sat down at the table, as the food was dished out. He took a bite himself, and then produced a bloodstained sword, and Sam for one terrible moment thought both of them were to be run through by the leader. But instead he carved the ham with it.

The leader ate some more, and Sam made up his mind that he would eat, but he wouldn't if he was offered anything by the leader, even if it was considered bad manners in just about every country you could think of. This was mainly because Sam didn't trust the leader still, there was something about him that ran a chill down Sam's spine.

He ate one of the small cakes, and oh, how delicious it tasted! It was made from the finest sugar, and topped with fresh-picked cherries. The leader then proceeded to raise his glass for a toast. "And, now, to the people from the gateway, I honor them for coming here to my humble kingdom, and they shall stay for however long they would want!"

With this he drank from his glass, and Dr. Twolson and Sam did the same. As this was happening, the leader suddenly snapped once, twice, three times. Whether this was some ritual to be pardoned or just an impulse, Sam didn't know. But he soon found out.

Two extremely large men with bulky shoulders clapped their hands over Sam and Dr. Twolson's mouth, and took them away. As they were being carried away, Sam could see a devious smile emerging from the leader's face, as he raised the sword again, to cut himself another slice of ham.