‘So how are you feeling now?’ she said. ‘I’m afraid we didn’t get chance to get properly introduced before. I’m Tamera Swiftfoot, descendent of the line Acinonyx.’
‘Gorgon’s Tails, Whiskers! How about you tell him your height, weight and birthday whilst you’re at it?’ Seth said.
‘There is nothing wrong with being formal. And will you please not refer to me as “Whiskers?”’
‘OK, how about “Kitty-Cat” instead?’
‘That is no better. Is there anything wrong with using my actual name?’
‘Plenty.’ Seth grinned. ‘I have other options... Tambourine? Swifty? Axy?’
‘Ugh!’ Tamera uttered in disgust, ‘I give up! Anyway, before we were so rudely interrupted,’ she shot a reproachful glance at Seth, ‘as I was saying, it is a pleasure to meet you, Gabriel of Gryphus.’
‘Erm... nice to meet you,’ Gabriel said shaking her hand, ‘But it’s Millar actually.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Millar. My name’s Gabriel Millar. Not Grippers, or whatever it was you said.’
Tamera looked startled, ‘No, no – Gryphus. I was referring to your order. You see, people are referred to by their given name, then their ancestral, or family name and then their order, or the line from which they have descended. As it is, you are the start of the new order of Gryphus.’
‘Well, all the same,’ Gabriel scratched his head, ‘I prefer Millar.’
Seth was in hysterics, ‘Woo-hoo-hoo, that put her in her place! How do you like that one, Whiskers?’
If looks could kill, Tamera would have obliterated Seth right there on the spot. Before she could respond, however, more familiar faces entered the room. There was Sattan the Satyr, the enormous barrel-chested individual that Gabriel had only caught a fleeting glimpse of earlier and the fairy, which hovered over the tops of everyone’s heads, its wings beating like a hummingbird’s.
‘Hey, kid. How you doing now? You had us all worried there for a while,’ the man-mountain spoke with a deep, throaty voice. He was absolutely enormous: at least seven feet tall and almost as wide, he had had to duck significantly as he came through the door. Gabriel noticed that whilst his legs (humongous as they were) were appropriately proportioned to the rest of his body, his arms were clearly not. His massively thick arms must have been at least as long as his legs, with huge hands the size of car tyres. His head was just as astonishingly large and as easily as big as a beach ball. His eyes, tiny in comparison to the rest of his head, sat like two small glistening marbles atop his long, wide, snout-like nose. His face was almost completely covered by thick, bristly stubble. He was definitely not the sort of person you’d want to meet down a dark alley at night, Gabriel imagined.
‘Gabriel, this is Tolero Ableclaw of the Ursidae order,’ Tamera said, ‘it was he who saved you and brought you in.’
‘You... you saved me?’ Gabriel said. ‘I don’t know how to thank you, I owe you my life!’
‘Ah... it was nothing, kid. Don’t mention it,’ Tolero shrugged.
Tamera continued the introductions, ‘The Satyr is called Sattan of the order Faunus and finally, Pixell Splitwing of the order Fatae.’
‘Wait a minute,’ Seth cut in, ‘did you just call him “fatty?”’
‘Seth, must you antagonise him?’ Tamera groaned.
Pixell shot towards Seth like a silvery bullet, grasped him by the collar and waved his tiny fist threateningly. ‘Now you listen to me, Brushtail,’ the little fairy spat with furious, yet melodious tones, ‘you may be bigger than I am, but I can still give you a good walloping if need be!’
‘Relax, Twinkle-Toes, I was just joking with you,’ Seth said as he smoothed his collar back down.
‘Yeah? Well... see how funny you think it is whilst looking through two black eyes, mate,’ Pixell shot back. He turned to Gabriel, ‘Mr Gabriel! So pleased to finally make your acquaintance, I am. Of course you may not know this, but I have been watching over you for quite some time now, at the behest of your grandfather.’
‘Yeah, I, uh, actually noticed you quite frequently.’
‘You did...?’ Pixell was mortified.
‘Super Sleuth strikes again...’ Seth chimed in.
‘Last warning, cub,’ Pixell hissed.
‘Oh, I thought you knew I spotted you,’ Gabriel added, ‘that’s why you kept disappearing right before I could point you out to anyone else. You know, it’s actually quite funny, up until I spoke with Omari about it-’
‘Oh, great! Omari knows? He’ll never trust me again! Gone are my days of special assignments! Oh woe is me!’
‘No, he seemed fine about it really,’ Gabriel tried to reassure him. ‘Actually, when I told him that I thought you were a girl, he found it quite funny.’
‘WHAT!’ Pixell exploded.
The whole room, including Tamera, fought without success to stifle their amusement. Seth had erupted into hysterics once again.
‘YOU THOUGHT I WAS A GIRL?’ Pixell continued. ‘HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK I WAS A GIRL?’
Gabriel looked again at the lithe figure hovering mere inches from his face. The glossy white blonde hair, slicked back with not a single strand out of place, pierced by two long, silvery, glistening antennae; the fair glittery skin; the crystal blue eyes shining like sapphires from the distinctly feminine-looking face. How could anyone not think this was the female of the species? Gabriel thought.
‘Well...’ Gabriel began.
‘Leaping lizards!’ the fairy exclaimed. ‘You’re still not convinced are you? Right, OK, wait right here! I’m going to go and get my wife Timpani. Then you’ll see the definitive difference between masculine and feminine looks! A girl, indeed!’ Pixell whizzed out of the room like a supersonic dragonfly.
‘You’ll have to forgive Pixell, he can be rather hot-headed at times. Especially when he’s provoked,’ Tamera said shooting another look at Seth. ‘Now, how are you feeling?’
Gabriel, who had been leant back on his elbows for the most part, sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He stretched and gave out a long yawn. Flexing his arm and leg muscles, he rubbed the back of his head and said, ‘Actually, I feel great! How long have I been lying in this bed?’
‘I brought you in a week ago,’ Tolero replied. ‘You were in and out of consciousness for the first few days.’
‘A week? Is that it?’ Gabriel said in disbelief. ‘I vaguely remember the condition I was in... I could have sworn I’d broken bones and everything!’
‘Well as a matter of fact you had a deep laceration on your right arm, a dislocated shoulder, three fractured ribs, severe grazing to your face and neck, a concussion and numerous minor cuts and third degree burns across your entire body,’ Tamera informed him.
‘Yeah I knew I was in pretty bad shape-’
‘You almost died,’ she corrected him.
‘Well my point is- how on earth am I not dead? Or at least not showing any signs of those injuries?’
‘The doctors and nurses worked day and night on you,’ Tolero said. ‘It also helps that our natural healing factors and medicines far outshine those of the humans.’
‘They do?’
‘Of course! The humans have long ago lost touch with nature and all of its healing herbs and remedies. Despite what they call modern science, it can’t match the healing capacity of the stuff that grows all around us. What may take them weeks to heal we can do in days! Plus our bodies can generally heal themselves much faster too.’
‘We can?’ Gabriel suddenly remembered his sickly childhood. ‘Then why was I so sick when I was a kid? And I mean, like, constantly! There were a few occasions when I even spent time in hospital just from catching a cold!’
‘That’s because you were living amongst the humans and you were catching their germs. Our bodies aren’t used to such viruses so they were bound to hit you harder. Of course, once your body got used to them, that’s when you would have started growing stronger.’
If there
was an element of doubt left in Gabriel’s mind of mistaken identity then Tolero had just quashed it. ‘There’s really not a scrap of humanity in me at all is there?’ he sighed.
Tolero stepped to Gabriel’s side and placed a massive hand on his shoulder in a gesture of reassurance. ‘In terms of being human, then I’m afraid not. But if you’re referring to what humans consider to be their “humanity” as in their kindness and compassion, then that remains unchanged regardless of the blood that flows through you.’
‘Really?’
‘Of course! I can see you’ve got a lot to learn about the Colony.’
‘About the what?’
‘The Colony. That’d be us. Collectively I mean.’
Gabriel rubbed his eyes. This was all a lot to take in. He jumped slightly as he felt a gentle hand placed on his other shoulder.
‘Don’t worry,’ Tamera assured him, she glanced disparagingly at the others, ‘we understand this must be rather confusing. There is such a vast array of species coexisting within our society that we needed a collective term so as not to alienate any one particular group. “Colony” is just a term we gave ourselves a long time ago. By all accounts, it was originally meant as a joke but yet somehow it just kind of stuck.’
Tolero’s face flushed through his sharp bristly stubble. He cleared his throat nervously, ‘Yeah, well that’s what I said, right? – Ahem! – Now, Omari sends his apologies, about not making it back, he says he has some stuff to take care of... my guess is that he’s giving Styne a right good roasting for leaving his post! Anyway he asked us lot to show you around. If you feel up to it?’
‘Yeah... I can’t stay in this room forever, right?’
The eclectic band of tour guides exited the recovery room to give Gabriel the time he needed to change out of his hospital gown. As he walked into the dressing room, Gabriel was dreading the thought of having to don a chafing set of hemp robes similar to what the others were walking around in. It was more than a pleasant surprise therefore to find a t-shirt, light jacket and a pair of jeans laid over a stool with a pair of trainers underneath. It was strange, he thought, that they looked and felt just like human clothing. Gabriel found it even more remarkable that whoever had set aside the clothing had gotten his sizes spot on. Even in the human world, over the last few years due to his growth spurts he had had difficulty finding clothes and shoes that could fit. Once changed Gabriel stepped out of the infirmary to re-join his motley crew of companions.
***
What Gabriel discovered was that Sanctuary was in fact a vast network of natural caves and catacombs, formed over the course of millions of years. It was a spelunkers dream. From the surface to its deepest point, Sanctuary was close over a mile deep and estimated (it had never actually been proven) to be over ten miles across at its widest point.
Sanctuary was but one of several safe havens for the Colony scattered throughout the world. The biggest in terms of sheer volume was located in Australia; the deepest in North America, along the border of Canada and the United States. Another haven in South America stretched almost a tenth of the length of the Amazon River. Along with other larger havens in Central Africa and Southern China, there were also numerous smaller dwellings scattered across the continents, although these generally consisted of one or two species living in them at most.
Sattan had come from one such dwelling in Northern Greece, which the Satyrs shared with the Centaurs. Centaurs were born with the head and upper body of a man and lower body of a horse. Once proud and noble warriors, Sattan informed him that in recent centuries the Centaurs had fallen into drunkenness and debauchery, recounting former glories and retelling war stories from days past. The Satyrs had similar loose morals, Tamera added, when not playing pranks or harassing nymphs, they drank just as heavily as the Centaurs. Sattan, initially shocked and stunned at this, shrugged it off, admitting freely, ‘Well, OK... fair point, I suppose.’
According to Tamera (and reinforced by Tolero) migration in Colony society was exceedingly common. Countless inhabitants within Sanctuary originated from other dwellings across the globe. As well as vampires, werewolves and minotaurs, there were even a few of the merfolk, whom Sanctuary was quite well-equipped to meet the aquatic needs of. Gabriel was keen to hear as much as possible about these other havens, sadly however, his tour guides’ collective knowledge of them was primarily limited to hearsay and what they had learnt in school. Even Tolero, who had travelled a great deal after finishing school, had seen little of the insides of these other habitats. Gabriel made a mental note to quiz Omari about them the next time they met. He was curious to know where his biological parents had been born and raised.
The group covered all the main points of interest within their great home. First off there was the Sanctuary Reservoir where the lead engineer, Archimedes Flattail of Castor, barked orders at his workforce in-between explaining the technical aspects of what was being accomplished. Archimedes was a short stocky fellow, with strong, yet weather-beaten hands and two converging sets of buck teeth. He explained that his ancestors had all been hydro-engineers within Sanctuary and had set up a system of pipes which pumped water into everyone’s homes within the facility. The job had been so lengthy that it had taken two generations of his family to complete. Of course, back when the project had started there had only been a few engineers working on it. In recent years, despite Flattail’s reputation as a tireless perfectionist and workaholic, careers in hydro-engineering were becoming increasingly more popular. His workforce now numbered more than one hundred individuals and was continuing to expand.
Flattail revealed that since the start of his career, he had been pioneering an invention of his own design. This project was at least as grand in scale as that of his ancestors before him and was now nearing completion. The basics of his project involved heating every home within Sanctuary using geothermal energy. Many of the details of the project were too complicated for Gabriel to understand (and to be honest, not very interesting) but he nodded his head and responded with ‘yes,’ ‘no’ and ‘I see’ as he thought appropriate.
Gabriel was amazed by the sheer scale of the cave in which the reservoir was contained. It was so high that he couldn’t even see the roof – it disappeared into deep shadows over two hundred metres above them! Suspended above them were countless overhead walkways, piping ducts and other equipment Gabriel didn’t recognise. The dam alone rose to over one hundred metres in height, but at certain points the reservoir itself reached depths of over half a mile. Even standing on an elevated platform high above the dam, the group could not see the far reaches of the gigantic underground lake, despite their position being moderately well lit. As with the roof, the lake vanished into the gloomy darkness.
It reminded Gabriel of a trip to Loch Ness, years ago with his parents. He couldn’t have been more than four or five years old at the time but he remembered clearly walking back to their hotel one night, the vast imposing lake seamlessly blending with the night sky, stars sparkling on its surface. Gabriel had imagined the Loch Ness Monster ascending from the depths, the scaly head soaring out of the black waters, snatching them in its jaws and then disappearing once more without a trace. He remembered the sound of the waves lapping gently at the water’s edge as if to allay suspicion of an impending doom at the hands of the monster. At his young age those thoughts had terrified him. Remembering them again sent a shiver racing down his spine, but now more because of the loss he had suffered, not the one he had feared. He made another mental note: ask Omari about the existence of the Loch Ness Monster.
***
From the reservoir, the group travelled to Artisan Plaza. In years gone by it had been where craftsmen had exhibited their sculptures and paintings. Over the years, these same craftsmen began to allow people to purchase their work. Soon after, other salesmen set up stalls there. These stalls had then slowly evolved into shops. Now Artisan Plaza was a bustling maze of roughly strewn together shops, market stalls, pubs and cafes assembled from al
l manner of salvaged materials, whether it was rocks, driftwood, fallen tree branches or even just mud. The shops and stalls sold all sorts of goods and wares, from food and clothing to books and even weaponry! Occasionally the group passed one of the few artisans whom still hung onto the old artistic traditions, but on the whole it had become an almost defunct skillset. Those who still practiced it generally did so as more of a pastime or hobby.
The shopping village itself was huge; Gabriel estimated it must have been as big as at least four football pitches, albeit with a decidedly low ceiling for its size. In some places the ceiling was so low that Tolero had to stoop to avoid hitting his head. Although the floor had mostly been cleared and smoothed out, in certain places limestone columns, formed over millennia where stalactites met stalagmites, rose up from the floor to support the roof.
Occasionally the group stopped at some of the many sweetshops and snack stalls, whereby Seth, Sattan, Tamera and Tolero would introduce him to some of their personal favourites. The juicy butterfly-berry chews and oakbean candies recommended by Seth from Mr Brighteyes’ sweet shop and refreshing caramel cola from Martha’s Tearoom were particularly scrumptious. The yak-cheese pastries and rosebud cakes purchased by Sattan from Lutrinae’s bakery were also delicious. The cricket-crunch-surprise pie, bought by Tolero at Dawn’s Delicatessen, was an unexpected delight (he suspected that that was the ‘surprise’ part), but he respectfully declined a stuffed-cockroach. Tamera’s offerings of a dandelion smoothie and sugared nettle leaves were, in truth, quite awful, yet Gabriel managed to force them down, so as not to hurt her feelings. He did feel a little queasy afterwards, however.
A thought then occurred to Gabriel: where did the food, clothing and other products sold here come from? Everything in Sanctuary, as it turned out, was of natural origins. Sanctuary had its own livestock, grew their own crops and sometimes farmed those growing wild. As much as possible was grown within the confines of the cave systems, but for certain crops farmers did still need to venture out onto the surface, as dangerous as that could be.
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