Walking through the corridor covered with shelves holding hundreds of books inside them, not just me, but any person in the kingdom would mistake it for the central library.
Though that's what everyone mistake it for, I couldn't make that blunder, because the few people in the whole world who knew what this is, are walking right ahead of me.
They are, my mom and dad. And this is their lab, 'Vebula's building of logical observatory', that's the official name, but my parents call it, Vebula's science lab and they call themselves as scientists.
Mom said, they find things which the world is hiding in store for us humans. Dad had another description for it though, he said something along the lines, it is the king's generous gift to its people.
But for me, this is a building of surprise, mystery, and a sister- the last one was weird, but I can't help it. Every time mom or dad talk about this lab during our dinnertime, I feel this kind of feeling, something empty inside me, loneliness. And when I said this to my friend, he related it with his life, saying he felt the same when his younger sister was born.
He said he needed to learn how to wear shoes, how to take bath on his own and even how to eat on his own, because his parents were always busy taking care of her, feeding her, making her sleep when she starts crying etc.
It's different for me, because to begin with, mom or dad never wore me shoes, nor took me to bathe or never fed me. I was always doing those things on my own, and the reason for that is this lab.
So I always thought of this lab as a sister. Please don't ask me whether I'm the elder one or it is the elder one, because I can't answer it nor want to think about it and feel depressed.
However, today, for the first time, I'm visiting my sister.
A dissected oval structure sleeping on the ground is how my sister looks from the outside, and from inside, a library, a kitchen with weird shaped pans and jars, and a hotel with transparent rooms.
In my eight years life, I have never seen something like this, but if I need to describe it in one word, I would say, 'otherworldly'. Yes, everything about this feels alien, not a man of the kingdom, or maybe the world, have any clue about this.
"Hey kid, what you are giggling for," asked a rough voice from the stairs above me. Just from that voice, I knew exactly who it is and my heart began to sink immediately.
He is what mom and dad refer to as, 'the head.' I never saw him personally, but from how mom and dad described him, I could guess it is he.
"Dumb, are you?" he asked again, while walking to me and with his face few inches away from mine, he said, "Nice face you got there kid, but look at mine."
He had a scar across his face, starting from the right temple to the nose. The scar tore his eyelid into two, but amazingly, his eye is scratch-less and beautiful as if it was painted there.
"But my face is how a true man's face looks like," he continued while pressing his finger on my forehead.
I am surprised at myself, seeing how strong I'm, to hold my urge to pee and look straight into his eyes when my legs inside my loose trousers are already shaking to the point that someone might confuse the movement of my trousers to cloth flapping to the wind.
He continued again, "Now tell me kid, when a man asks a question, what should you do?"
I replied in a murmur, "Answer it", "Louder kid" he commanded, "Answer to the question Sir."
His expression slightly relaxed, like it got a thousandth time less scarier than before, "Now tell me, kid. What you are giggling at?"
I replied honestly, "I know, not many people from the outside world knew about this lab, but from today, I would be the few alien- humans, who get to know what it looks like."
Now, his face clearly showed an expression other than agony, a small smile appeared on his lips. He spoke again, more to himself than to me, "Alien! Nice name for us."
His gaze again became sharp and he continued, louder than ever before, "You are qualified kid."
I don't know what I'm qualified for, but I felt this uncontrollable happiness inside my heart as soon as I heard him say that.
Soon, he walked to the door beside me and disappeared into the room. Meanwhile, a thin pair of hands lifted me into the air by my armpits and a hug followed after.
"I didn't know you were so strong, son," it was my father from behind me still lifting me in the air. "You grew a lot stronger than we thought, Ind" my mom added while still hugging me from front.
After a touching union, they both let me down and talked about how great it is to get a compliment from 'the head' and how surprised they were seeing me stare into his eyes without batting an eyelid.
Afterwards, mom and dad took me upstairs and stopped by the huge see through glass wall. Behind the wall, there are many intertwining transparent pipes above and a large table on the floor, with a small dish shaped glass about the size of my palm on it.
Showing the powder on the dish, dad mentioned, "You see that orange powder there, it's our greatest invention, RUBY, short for 'Rapid vibrating bombarding yield'."
"But dad, it should be called R-V-B-Y, right?" I interrupted.
"Ha ha hahahaha" he laughed comically. He makes the same laugh when mom corners him and he has nothing to answer.
"But what is it dad?" I asked, knowing he wouldn't stop that comical scary laugh anytime soon until I give up.
He stopped laughing and his eyes glowed in a bright glittering light as if he was waiting for me to ask those same words.
"That's our years of research and failures, a weapon ordered by the grace, the King himself. The gift for the people of the kingdom. Our pride." He replied with the same excitement.
However, his words left a doubt in my mind, "What is a weapon?"
Dad replied as a-matter-of-factly, "It's any device used to hurt or ki-" he stopped midsentence and I know the reason why he did that.
"Weapons are Kingdoms treasure. The king uses them to protect his people, us, you, your friends, everyone in the kingdom." Without looking back, I know whose voice it belong to.
"So, that RUBY protects all of us, mom? But it looks like just some random sand to me."
She stopped beside me. Bent down, to meet my eyes and asked, "Do you remember the legend of the 'Great King' and 'The Lady' fighting in a war against the 'Great Arya', right?" I nodded. "the 'Great King' used a weapon like this Ruby to kill the 'Great Arya' and save humanity."
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