Asking me in all sorts of ways, but repeatedly nonetheless, who I was or what reason

could I have to write such things. And after he untied the now even less threatening

beast of burden, he helped me find my place on top of its generous back.

He then went around it, patting its massive head as he passed quite comfortably in

front of it; and then he too took his place to my left.

Now, with the both of us sitting side by side and ready to go, he smiled at me

through the corner of his mouth before shouting for our advance. But the one he

called ´Gorliochi´ merely let out a howl of sorts... “Quit your blubbering.” He then

began to pull those reins on the big beast’s neck repeatedly until finally, the beast

began to move... “There we go. By the way, you pay no heed to these misbehaviours,

alright? Ol’ Gorli here likes to act a bit lazy these days.”

“I have never seen such a creature.”

“Yeah,” He let out a sad and drawn-out confirmation, “There are not many like him

around anymore. Frankly, I would be surprised if we ever encounter another one of his

kind.” He looked at me and then threw half a smile through the right corner of his

mouth; “Now, why don’t you start by telling me what made you write such a thing?

And more importantly: what is your real connection to that old fool? You know, he

and I; we have been friends for the longest time girl, and I even spoke to him just

recently.” He threw a quick look my way, obviously trying to fish for any kind of

reaction; “And he has never mentioned a single word about any plans for an adoption.”

“I am not that used to talking...” I warned, “what I mean is: I have not done it with

that many people yet so, I might - how you say - run off at the mouth.”

“Oh? Well then,” he explained through another crooked smile; one that revealed

how few teeth he still had left, and also how big his gums were, “You can be at ease

since I am not that used to listening myself. “Besides,” he continued, “We still have

ways to go, and nothing to do for the whole way but talk to each other. You just go

on for as much as you like without a worry. I am sure no word will feel unwarranted.”

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“Alright,” I replied nervously, but also thankfully. “I guess it would be better if I just

went back to the beginning; to the very first time I opened my eyes...”

“...” He threw me a look of disbelief, but after that initial scepticism, not once did

he dare to interrupt me again. Not until I was done with that longest of replies, and

by then, we would already be making ourselves comfortable inside his most peculiar

household...

“...I slowly opened my eyes, like I had done so many times before, but still, they

could not trespass that pitch-black. It seemed that yet again I was to be frustrated by

blindness, and darkness was to remain as my only company. How long had it been

since I first regained consciousness? How much time had already been stolen from

me? To seemingly punish me even further; I was to endure it all while strapped to a

bed and surrounded by all sorts of sounds and smells that only increased my curiosity,

only fuelled my already immeasurable desire to see - what a sentence. Another kind of

darkness then swept over me as the shadows of frustration and anger began curving all

around my mind, slowly turning into large black circles of depression.

And then my body began telling what I could not: my fists clenched involuntarily

as my tiny arms trembled, my entire strapped body began to twitch and turn

whichever way, and shortly after my teeth too were showing eagerness in joining

that demonstration. I wanted to shout, to scream, to expel all that I was feeling, but

before my mouth could make its first echo, I began noticing that this time it would

be different. The darkness that had always been there in front of me, no matter how

much my eyes would widen, began to dissipate and those feelings with it; slowly, they

all faded until other doings began to take over.

I began moving my head as much as those restraints would allow, and as soon as

most of that blurriness left me, I found myself laying down in a poorly lit room.

All sorts of machinery scattered about, there were also other beds like the one I was

laying on, most of them empty but a few with others like me. I knew right away they

were like me.