Star Date #13

A really confused old face was looking straight into mine.

From way too close. His beady little eyes betrayed an unnerving curiosity, he was clearly not sure about me. He was being a lot nicer to the girl who had already been up a few hours.

When we had reached his dwelling he hadn’t been home. So me and the girl had made ourselves comfortable. As we had been ordered to do so by Chief.

He had come home late at night, worried, disturbed. Clearly not at all pleasantly surprised by our arrival. He had given us bedding and a light but sufficing meal and had then retired to his private comforts.

Clearly in the morning the girl had made him coffee, or the other way around. And I had kept on sleeping. On the couch like furnishing in front of the fire place.

The place looked like the inside of an old tree but it was carved into a big rock, apparently. The furniture was quite impressive, with a pleasingly hand made look and feel. Think DYI meets mid century modern. A lot of dark wood and stone slabs. But quite designy and thin I had to hand to him. As if George Nelson had redone the Flintstones home.

He was crouching beside me, pretending to be worried about my coffee. Carefully pouring it in, ever so ardently. But I knew it was to better take me in.

‘Have you found a bowling ball, by chance?’ I asked to break this awkward, awkward silence.

The girl looked at me with a suspicious eye. It was only to break the tention really.

‘Why yes I have!’ The little man exclaimed. His teeth where quite dark, red even. From chewing a certain root I found out later from the girl. ‘I have it hidden away in here to keep it safe from scavengers!’ The little fellow went on.

Don’t get me wrong here. I was still in quite the love daze from the amazing tree people. Everything and everyone here was beautiful and deserved respect. But there was something in this little man that was a little bit eerie. Like he was keeping a bunch of his cards hidden behind his back. Plus he looked a little bit more like a toad than an actual person.

The guy huddled off in his little cape and the girl kept staring at me.

‘Subtle.’ She exclaimed a little too sarcastically.

‘What?’ I asked. ‘I thought I was making a joke. Who needs a bowling ball here anyway?’

‘He was just explaining about an object, unique in the entire universe, that’s revered over here, seen as something quite valuable and bearing a powerful magic.’

She wiggled her hands in the air to extra emphasize she was imitating his reverie.

‘Ok. So I just gave away our best trump card?’ I asked.

‘Well, I think he’s going to give it to us anyway so let’s see.’

‘K.’ I mumbled while taking a sip of my coffee. Or coffee type substance. It was delish. And just the right temperature. However this was going to go, this sip was amazing.