The Mantis Continuum - Book Four - 30. Chapter 30 - The Kids & the Queens, Part Two

Thech, Jzuna, and Fennah stayed the night with Ninyani, Auntie Peg, and Dotty Marbles again, after spending the day with them cleaning out the old Oselian building. The following morning, the group was back at the site, and they continued where they had left off the day before. That second day was much like the first, and it ended again with a meal at Red Raven’s. On the third morning, the group started to paint.

“This may seem boring to begin with,” Auntie Peg said to the children, “but this is just the base coat. The fun colors will go on later.”

“Are you two gonna tell us what this place is gonna be, or what?” Fennah squeaked up at the queens, but they both just grinned.

“It’s gonna be great!” Dotty Marbles proclaimed. “Grab a brush or a roller, and let’s get to it.”

Quite a few additional friends were there to help, and Auntie Peg directed them into the auditorium, as Dotty Marbles led the children upstairs.

Several large cans of basic primer were stacked in each of the cleaned rooms. She popped the top off of one and poured a little of the bland paint into several trays. Dotty Marbles dipped the tip of one finger into it, and to the children’s surprise, the queen swiped pale grey stripes under each of her eyes, right on top of her gorgeous makeup!

Ninyani, Fennah, and Jzuna all burst out with giggles and Thech lumbered up to Dotty Marbles. She reached out and poked Fennah in the nose, dabbing her with a little grey spot. She also dotted Ninyani’s forehead.

Thech leaned toward Dotty Marbles, and his sister’s voice squealed from the air all around them, “Thech wants you to get him too!”

“Oh, does he, now?” She asked with a silly smirk, and she stuck her painty fingertip into the slime on his chest. “Ding!” she said, and she drew back her finger. A tiny bit of the pale paint remained, and it slowly began to slide down the slime on his torso.

Thech moaned a happy noise and Jzuna let out a peal of laughter. “That’s so funny!” she declared.

Dotty Marbles laughed and said, “Alrighty, kids, let’s get started.” She tousled Fennah’s hair. “We need to begin by painting the wall with the window, and we’ll make our way toward the door a little at a time until we get there.”

They did just that. The five of them painted the first room, and they were well into the second when lunch was called. After eating, Auntie Peg joined them upstairs for the rest of the day. When the group stopped for the evening, four of the empty upper rooms were painted, and the adults in the auditorium had painted almost a third of it.

The next three days were filled with a lot more painting, and each ended back at Red Raven’s for food and fun.

On the fourth morning, Auntie Peg declared, “This is our last day of grey. It’s almost time for the exciting colors! In a few days, we are going to invite some people to come see all the work you’ve done, but Dot and I would just love for each of you to put your own personal touches on the building. However, the two of us need to take care of a few things first.”

That night, the queens brought Thech, Jzuna, and Fennah back to stay with the mystic and Theolan for a couple of days. They also dropped Ninyani off with Zular.

“Thank you for agreeing to keep Ninyani for a while,” Auntie Peg said to Zular.

“I’m so excited to get to know him,” she replied, giving the boy a dainty hug. “Especially now that I know Ninyani is a fan of my performances!” Zular framed her face with her hands and blew him a kiss. The queens and Ninyani laughed.

Two days later, to Auntie Peg and Dotty Marbles’ delight, everything that they hoped to accomplish was completed. Before they headed to the pub that evening with their helpers, Dotty Marbles ushered the group into the auditorium. She stepped up onto the stage that was set into the wall. However, as she tried to speak, a sob of joy choked her, and she brought her hands to her mouth. Auntie Peg jumped up beside her beloved.

“I’m okay,” Dotty Marbles whispered. She then spoke aloud. “I’m just so overwhelmed by everything we’ve accomplished. This space is going to be so special. Thank you, all, very much!”

“We would love to take everyone to Red Raven’s once again in celebration,” Auntie Peg added.

After a lovely meal and plenty of sassy banter, the queens headed home for the night. The next morning, Auntie Peg and Dotty Marbles made their way to the mystic’s house to join Fennah, Jzuna, and Thech for a little breakfast.

“Good morning, you three,” said Dotty Marbles.

“And good morning to you, Muunith!” Auntie Peg added.

“Hi,” Muunith replied to the two queens.

“Are you feeling a little better?” Auntie Peg asked.

Muunith nodded their head.

“That’s wonderful! If you’re up for it,” she added, “we’re having a special event in a few days, and we’d love for you to attend.” Auntie Peg smiled at the child.

“Jzuna and Thech, our bathtub has worked perfectly,” Dottie Marbles commented to them, “and we haven’t needed your tub, but why don’t we come back here this evening and take it with us.”

“That’s a great idea,” Auntie Peg added with a knowing nod. “Oh, yeah,” she exclaimed, pulling a paper bag from her purse, “we brought goodies; candied fruit!”

The mystic stepped up and helped himself to a few pieces.

Bivon turned to Dotty Marbles. “You know, Dot, I’ve been wondering, how do you get your hair so high?”

She let out a shocked gasp and replied playfully, “It’s so rude of you to ask a dame to divulge her secrets!” and she laughed again. “I joke! Ha!” Dotty Marbles turned her head from side to side. “It’s just an illusion. There’s a thin cage framework hidden under the hair. Could you imagine how cumbersome this ridiculous thing would be if it was solid? No, thank you!” She scoffed and the children giggled.

Bivon looked surprised by her answer. “That’s not solid?” He reached up toward her hair.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Auntie Peg interjected, “thou shalt never lay a finger ’pon a queen’s wig.”

Bivon pulled his hands back in a placating gesture. “My mistake, my mistake,” he replied with a chuckle.

There was a knock at their front door.

“I’ve got it,” Theolan said.

The others started to nibble on the sweet treats the queens had brought.

Olona was on the other side of the door.

“Hey,” she said sheepishly, “I hope it’s okay that I’m here. I just wanted to check in on Lahari. Has there been any change in her condition?”

“No, honey,” Theolan replied. “Please, join us.”

“Come in? You’re not… mad at me?” she asked quietly, looking at both of Lahari’s fathers.

“Oh, Olona, of course not,” the mystic replied. He scurried over and wrapped her in a warm embrace. She burst into tears and he held her close. “I know you were helping someone else,” the mystic said in a kind voice. “I don’t blame you,” and Olona sobbed for several minutes. “And to answer your question,” the mystic eventually added, “Lahari still hasn’t woken up.”

Jzuna’s voice issued from the corner where she and Thech quietly waited by their basin. “Can I try to wake her up?”

Everyone looked over at the two unique children, and Olona rubbed the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt.

“Jzuna, honey, Lahari is more than just asleep,” Theolan explained gently.

“But I think I might be able to wake her.” Jzuna’s one huge eye turned toward the mystic. “Would it be okay if I talked to her?”

He gave her a kind and pandering smile, and he shrugged at his husband. “Yes, Jzuna,” he conceded, “go ahead.”

Thech stayed in the corner as Jzuna drifted into the bedroom and over to Lahari’s unconscious form.

The mystic and Theolan watched from the doorframe with Fennah and Olona. Bivon, Auntie Peg, and Dotty Marbles stepped up behind them.

Jzuna floated above Lahari. She turned in the air so she was looking down with her tendrils reaching up toward the ceiling, and her mysterious disembodied voice began, “Lahari, wake…” but she stopped and rotated in the air to look back at the mystic. “Lahari’s not there,” she said in a definitive tone.

“We know,” he replied in a low voice full of sadness. “She’s in a coma.”

“No, she’s not,” Jzuna stated. “That’s just her body, but the thing that makes her Lahari is not with it. The Lahari of Lahari is gone.”

The mystic entered the room, stepped up to Jzuna, and he reached out and took one of her slimy tentacles. “Can you please tell me what that means?” he asked her.

“She’s in the…” Jzuna paused. She floated higher until she was almost to the ceiling, and she looked past everyone in the doorway, right at her brother. The mystic was reaching up to her and still holding one of her tentacles.

There was a silent moment.

Everyone followed Jzuna’s gaze over to Thech.

Nothing happened.

“Honey?” the mystic said to Jzuna.

There was only silence.

Then Jzuna’s enormous eye blinked, and she lowered again. She focused back on the little round man. “Lahari is in the imagination place.”

“What is the imagination place?”

“It’s where Thech and me can talk.”

They all looked back over at the motionless boy in the corner with his weird gaping mouth and his blank eyes.

“Thech can talk to you in the imagination place?” Theolan asked.

“Yes, we don’t go there often, but sometimes we need to talk.”

Olona spoke up. “Is it an alternate dimension?”

Jzuna looked at the young woman. “I don’t know what that means.”

Olona bit her lip in concentration and took a thoughtful breath. “When you go there to talk with your brother, is it a place not in this world?”

“Yes,” Jzuna replied.

Olona turned to the others and said, “Maybe it’s something like Sumi’s teleportation doorways into her congruent reality. Jzuna, can you tell us where the imagination place is located?”

Jzuna rose toward the ceiling again to look at Thech.

There was another silence and Olona whispered to the others, “I think Jzuna is talking to her brother in the imagination place.”

Then Jzuna lowered and answered. “Thech thinks it might be inside our heads. We just think it, and we go there.”

“Alright, so if Lahari is in the imagination place, too,” Olona continued, “can you think yourself to her? Can you find her?”

“Not like that,” Jzuna replied. Without another word, she drifted toward the bedroom door, and everyone stepped back so she could float out of the room and over to the corner with her brother.

“Okay,” Olona said to the mystic, “if Lahari’s consciousness is in an alternate dimension or some other plane of existence, we may need to find a Shift with mental abilities, maybe someone like Tisa’s companion from her days living in the forest.” Olona snapped her fingers. “What was the name of the Bio-Shift woman who those villagers called a witch?” She looked at the ceiling, as if the answer would reveal itself. “Huh…” She shook her head in frustration. “Or maybe someone like Tilby. Tisa doesn’t know whatever happened to him, but he… oh, Liovia! That was her name! Anyway, both she and Tilby had some sort of psychic…”

A shocking light came suddenly from the two unusual children in the corner. Jzuna was attached to Thech’s chest with her many arms securing her to him. Their three eyes were glowing, but Jzuna closed her single huge eye, and the light from Thech’s intensified until it was so bright that the others had to shield their eyes and look away✪