Zef stepped on the dry tile to check its strength. He then squinted back at Tamelle to be sure that this wasn't some elaborate trap.

Tamelle retorted back with a vigorous wave; Zef sighed and quickly planted his body on top of the large transparent glass and crouched to stabilize his body as if he was on top of a surfboard, his hands-free for balance.

Good thing he did as he held his breath when the plate suddenly hovered to move across the white lake then cruised over to Tamelle's direction. It soon connected to its original position as if it was part of a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Zef got off lightly, inspecting the transparent floor, which he estimated to be around five hundred square feet. Tamelle cut off his attention with a coo and suddenly leaped towards his chest, cooing in glee as if to tell him what a good job he did listening to its instructions.

Zef held him and chuckled softly. Although he felt annoyed with Tamelle's shenanigan, he felt less isolated in this alien world, and not too soon was that thought gone when the floor suddenly brightened so quickly that he instinctively closed his eyes.

His free hand quickly covered up Tamelle's eyes, then that the sudden light promptly vanished.

Zef blinked off the spots in his vision and found a mysterious dark object standing in front of him. He was pretty sure there wasn't one earlier unless his mind was playing tricks with him.

Yet Tamelle debunked that thought as it pulled Zef's large hand off its face and cooed in excitement, pointing towards the object, which turned out to be a sizeable marble-looking pedestal stand with a dark book on top.

Zef looked at Tamelle, and Pup eased down on the cooing. Zef didn't utter a word and studied its large amber eyes, which just gazed back at him.

The stare down took several seconds until Zef blinked first and sighed again. Tamelle patted Zef's shoulder then pointed at the dark green book. Zef snorted and walked up to the pedestal; his free hand hesitated before touching its cover to feel the texture.

The cover had a rich leather-like appearance which reminded him of the many classic books his grandfather coveted in his old worn-out treasure chest, as he called it.

He quickly brushed that memory away before it brought the unpleasant abominations of his mind and inspected the cover with the dark seaweed coloring. It looked spooky as if it belonged in a sorceress cave.

Zef quickly said a word of prayer and was about to remove his hand off the book when Tamelle's eyes suddenly beamed a pale ray of light which landed on the book, and within a second, something pricked the center of his palm.

The prick quickly turned into a large tear on his palm. Added to that was a force of suction that kept his palm glued, and horrifying enough, the book drank his blood like a mosquito. Then the transparent floor beneath him started to rumble.

Zef quickly fell to his knees, his arm still glued to the book, his other arm on the pedestal, trying to push himself away from the menacing book.

He shouted at Tamelle, "Stop it, Tamelle, damn you! stop it", and it quickly did as the world went back to normal. Tamelle's eyes no longer beamed light, and Zef hugged his bleeding left hand and slipped to the side, feeling sluggish. His eyes landed on Tamelle, who sat next to him, looking apologetic.

He groaned in relief and was about to unload a bucket load of obscenities to Tamelle when the words around him roared, "$!#$#@%^%&^& $%%^% @#$$!#$#."

The echo of that strange language lingered for a time before it disappeared as if proof that it wasn't his mind playing tricks on him due to blood loss.

Silence returned, alongside his heavy breathing.

Zef knew what he heard, he was sure. It was a loud alien statement that still left a shiver down his spine when he recalled it.

Whatever it was, It seems that Tamelle wasn't all coy and innocent, it had a mission, and he was now part of it. Zef had mixed feelings of what to do next with Tamelle, and he could only lie there in silence. His hand had a dull ache and felt a bit numb due to the sudden loss of blood.

Zef lay there on his back and stared at the dome roof and ignored Tamelle as he collected his breathing for several minutes till he finally calmed down. He got up and stared down at Tamelle which sat next to him apologetically as if to give him time, then slowly bounced towards him. Zef flinched only to realize that it hopped towards his injured hand to inspect the wound, which Zef's surprise was no longer cut open or bleeding.

He looked at his hand, and there was an apparent white schism on his palm.

Tamelle grabbed his hand and patted him, and looked at him as if to say he was sorry. It was weird, the tiny rubber ball didn't have a mouth to say the words, but Zef could understand it to some degree; Tamelle's jeweled eyes said so much even without its facial orifices.

Zef, confused, did not know whether to swat it away or give in. He stared upwards towards the dome and realized he was still stuck here, this alien world that leads to other strange worlds.

With that thought in mind, Zef just breathed out all his frustrations.

Tamelle watched him and pointed at the book, and cooed.

Zef groaned and replied, "you're serious, you're not completely forgiven, you know," and got back a soft coo for a response.

Zef stiffly got up to his feet to look at the vampiric green book. He made an ugly face when he saw it flipped open, revealing two pages on each side, and each page had numerous card slots.

Most cards were blank with a dark green background, except for a few which had compelling images.

Each card with an image had cryptic words on the bottom. He did not recognize the language.

One such card which grabbed his attention had the image of Tamelle entering through a dark portal, its back facing the reader. Another similar card had the opposite intention, and instead, Tamelle's body seemed to exit from a similar outlet, thus facing Zef.

He felt a hint of excitement and looked at the remaining three cards. One had the image of a white backpack with large amber eyes on the back. Zef found that one disturbing and quickly ignored it.

He inspected the second card. It was a large white teapot or kettle with a lid; he wasn't sure. But I could identify two amber-eye-looking jewels right in the center and that looked even more disturbing than the first card.

Zef shook his head in slight dismay and looked at the final card. The last card had a white box with images of gardening tools. The box of tools also had eyes.

Zef groaned.

Each card had cryptic letters that he did not know or recognize. It looked gibberish, and he only knew three languages, his mother tongue, some Arabic, and some english.

Even if the war didn't happen and he continued his education, he was pretty sure he wasn't going to identify such an alien-looking language.

Tamelle tapped his arm, pointed at the card with the portal logo, and urged him to pick it up. Zef, no longer distracted, pulled it up to his face, hesitant at first. Then more confidently.

"What no..", he didn't even finish the sentence. The card suddenly vanished into tiny balls of green light. Zef jumped back, and out of nowhere, behind the pedestal was a large square portal that could easily fit him and two others.

His companion cooed in triumph, bounced towards it, and jumped in.

Oh heavens...