Zaldizko - Chapter 20 Happy Place

[“I’m mighty annoyed with you Colonel!” I pouted.

Leinard and I were chatting in the Library Room’s main sitting area, which we had to ourselves.

My thoughts had wandered back to a memory of when Small Cap was being hunted around a lab bench by a mad doctor and Leinard had stopped me from going to my spider friend’s aid.

“What do you mean?” Leinard innocently asked.

“You held my arms back when I tried to save Small Cap from that Mad Doctor Mercer.” I continued to pout.

I sidled up next to him on the two-person love seat.

“Oh, that time.” Leinard remembered.

His stoic response further ticked me off that I felt I had to apply some revenge on him.

“I’m absolutely annoyed.” I leaned in and kissed him, wrapping my arms around his waist so he couldn’t escape from me.

He relaxed into my arms, reeling me closer to suckle my neck. His hands stealthily undid my outfit; their feathered touches were making me swoon.

“Revenge? You’re ten years too early to try this on me.” His whispered voice heated my ears.

His mouth continued his sensual retaliation on other parts of my exposed skin, his fingers toyed with the buttons of my blouse and a hand was… whacking me?!]

Whack!

“Yeek!” My voice involuntarily yelped from the throbbing pain I felt to my head.

I groggily pushed myself up in a sitting position, nursing my bump.

“Finally decided to wake,” huffed a woman’s voice.

Flickers of blue light danced about my eyes. I glanced down and noticed the squiggly silver veins on the snow-white marble floor I sat on.

When I raised my head, I saw that the source of the blue light was from glistening kyanite gravel speckled throughout blue ink walls of a modest-sized room that was empty of furniture and other tell-tale signs of being lived in.

I glanced about for Colin and saw him sitting near me with his back to the wall and legs stretched out like he was a propped-up rag doll. His mouth was parted with a spaced-out smirk. The green of his eyes glistened dreamily, and his pupils were dilated. Was he drugged?

“A safeguard that he won’t surprise us with magic,” said the voice.

“So, you keep drugging him?!” I glared at the expressionless face of the blond woman before me.

Although she was physically alike to Ryoko, the comparison would be an insult since Ryoko wouldn’t keep a man down with drugs.

“I haven’t drugged him,” the woman answered back. “The kyanite in the walls sedates those with high mana. Those sorts of magis continue to find themselves in a happy place in their minds when resting in this room.”

“Happy place?” I frowned. Her explanation was further alarming.

The woman chuckled with a knowing look in her eyes.

“Wasn’t your happy place with this Leinard person whom you were moaning about in your sleep?”

“WHAT?!” I blurted, feeling my cheeks burning with a deep blush. “I would never!”

“Teehee, you just did. Letting out those sultry moans as if you were being held.” The woman laughed and teased me further.

“Please stop!” I grimaced.

I mean, my brother was in the belt pouch and earshot away. Brother? I suddenly remembered about Small Cap and Death and hoped that they hadn’t been discovered.

“That’s enough Lyra.”

My body froze at the sound of Leinard’s voice. I came to realise that it couldn’t be him.

I saw the Leinard look-a-like standing near a scotomatous door made obvious by his presence before it. I suspected this man and this happy room were the reasons for my earlier weird dream that I was keen to push aside and pretend it never came to my mind.

“Bring them both to the Office of Exacles. I want to have a talk with them in private,” he ordered the woman called Lyra.

“By your command Sire,” Lyra respectfully acknowledged his orders with a bow.

He exited the room, leaving the door open, so we’d be able to follow him out.

“Okay you, time to snap out of it.” She waved a vial of smelling salts under Colin’s nose and sat back when his body jerked about as his mind wandered back into reality.

“You okay.” I mouthed to Colin, so he could read my lips well enough. He reassured me with a nod.

“He can’t speak?” Lyra asked as she met Colin’s glaring eyes.

“Not like you and I,” I answered back.

“Chet,” she grumbled under her breath and ordered us to stand up.

I allowed Colin to use my shoulder as a prop as we clumsily rose to our feet.

Lyra let out an ear-piercing catcall that caused the ground to tremor from approaching heavy footsteps.

I gasped at the sight of the bull-man stomping his way into the room.

He was at least two meters tall with a beefed body of hardy muscle, which he had no shame in being topless, showing off his chest area and a healthy dark tan to his skin. Fortunately, his bottom area was contained within dark denim jeans and black rider boots. His head was one hundred percent a bull even with the ivory curved horns poking up from the top of his head near his round ears.

Cute tufts of black hair hung over his matching coloured eyes. A solid, gold, ring was looped through the nostrils of his snout and his mouth was set with a mild manner expression.

“Yah called milady?” His baritone voice politely addressed Lyra.

“Adorable!” I accidentally blurted to the bull-man, followed with a muttered apology.

The bull-man gave me a funny look. His laughter roared around the room.

“Kid’s calling meh adorable,” he continued to laugh.

“Buru, that’s enough!” Lyra scolded.

She gave the bull-man’s shoulder a light slap with her folded fan, which quietened his laughter.

He listened obediently to her orders, which was for his assistance in manhandling us out of the room for the Office of Exacles.

Buru’s clunky hands (that were like a human’s) rechecked the tightness of the silver binds around our wrists with hard yanks.

He coaxed us into a walk with a firm kick to our backsides and kept to our rear flanks as we followed Lyra out of the happy room.