Chapter 22. Are you alright?

“Are you alright?” Gran helped Boss back to his feet as Arthur laughed a distance away. The incident relieved any tension remaining between the two group as they sat around the mountaintop and admired the scenery.

Clip Clop Clip Clop

The sounds of walking horses could be heard again after an hour descending from the mountaintop with the two parties engaging in small talk. The two regular sized horses were replaced with the bigger one to pull along the carriage as Pebble and Cobble returned to their carriage duties.

The first question on everyone’s mind was when did Boss and the two communicate to pull off a stunt like this. Their exact reply was that what Boss had asked was directly transmitted into their minds.

They thought it would be fun, so they asked Gran to get involved since he was supposed to be an escort for Governor’s kid back to Boulderville. He decided to play along, and the resulting scene came about.

The sun kissed sky turned into night by the time they finally arrived in Boulderville. The village was small with a population of roughly 500 inhabitants. The name of the village was accurate as everyone’s home was either made from slabs of rocks or built directly into the mountainside.

“Welcome back Gran! Boulder! Boulder!” An inhabitant who was still walking outside shouted his greeting crossing his arm and stomping his feet as the carriage pulled through the gates.

“Boulder, boulder! To you Elroy!” Gran returned the greeting as he crossed his arm while riding the horse. Every inhabitant greeted them the same way some words followed by “boulder, boulder.”

A large split within the mountain came into view as they walked through it. Natural lighting from plant-based matter could be seen scrawled onto the sides lighting their way as they continued forward.

A large structure could be seen up ahead filled with bright lights illuminating the darkness within the mountain. “Up ahead is the Boulderville Inn a place for all our guests” Gran continued “This will be where you four will be staying during your time in our village. I have some business to do first, so I’ll be leaving now.” Gran’s reply elicited snickers from his two sons.

However, he paid them no mind as he galloped away faster than when he was chasing the kids. “Why are you two laughing?” Arthur asked Pebble and Cobble. They only looked at each other and began laughing harder. “No reason kid, we’re here.”

The door of the inn exploded open as an attractive woman ran out hugging Pebble tightly within her grasp “Gran! You’re here! Are you finally ready to return my confession?” The attractive woman continued to squeeze Pebble tightly as he pried himself out of her arms. “It’s me Auntie! Pebble!”

She stared at Pebble’s faces and immediately pushed him aside. “Tch, I thought you were your father, where is he? Did he come with you?” She began to look around behind Pebble and Cobble and every corner within the carriage.

“Auntie he’s not here.” Cobble’s response made her depressed as she shoved Pebble aside and walked back into the Inn slamming the door behind her.

“Why did she shove me? Why not you?” Pebble complained to Cobble, anytime they visited their Auntie’s Inn Pebble got all the attention, both bad and good whereas Cobble was completely left alone.

Cobble could only shrug as they made their way to the door. “It’s locked again” Cobble responded causing Pebble to sigh and reach for the spare key. “Freaking Auntie, always locking us out whenever we arrive with guests.” Pebble grumbled as he unlocked the door.

The five guests didn’t know what to say besides follow along. Seems like there was something going on with the Auntie and the Chief. The Inn was incredibly well lit as they entered making anyone lose track of time staying inside.

“Wow it’s like daytime in here!” Arthur admired. “Don’t worry it won’t be like that in your rooms.” Pebble replied. The staircase leading to the second-floor lead to their rooms. Arthur, Michael and Boss shared a room with Shelly and Julie in another.

The boys’ room was massive in scale with three beds comfortably fit side by side. Whereas the girls’ room was comfortable for two beds. Every room was as comfortable as a modern hotel with a bedroom, bathroom and living room.

A circular ball was held in Pebble and Cobble’s hand. “This is a bright ball we’ve created using the natural luminescent vegetations and a mixture of other plants.” Pebble stated.

The bright ball was an alchemical creation made by the Auntie of the Inn that is used to light up the entirety of the place. Through trial and error, she managed to make it self-sustaining capable of staying completely lit every single day.

People questioned why there was no way to turn off the lights for the bright ball her response was tossing a black cloth over it to hide the lights.

Handing the bright balls over to the boys and girls and a cloth for each ball Pebble and Cobble bid the group goodbye as they had to go home for the night.

Boss didn’t wait any longer as he hopped into the closest bed and went straight to sleep. The other two followed suit with Barkie snuggled next to Arthur. A black cloth tossed over the ball dimming the room as everyone fell asleep tired from their trip.

The following morning came as some sunlight managed to enter their window from the skylight up above the split within the mountain. Noon arrived by the time the boys managed to wake up. Shelly and Julie woke up much earlier and already had breakfast.

The girls explored the Inn first thing in the morning walking down from the second floor.

It was a simple Inn, there were three floors with the first two allowed for guests. The third floor of the Inn was reserved for VIPs to the discretion of the Auntie.

On the first floor was the cafeteria and bar near to the right of the entrance with a hallway on the left leading to more guests’ rooms.

The entirety of the second floor was rows of rooms for guests and nothing else. The Inn was big enough to hold half the population of the town. However, by the time noon had arrived and lunch was being served in the cafeteria not another person could be seen.

Yawning as he sat at the incredibly large cafeteria Arthur glanced around only to see that their group was the only one sitting at a table.

“Where is everyone?” Arthur asked hoping someone could answer. The girls shook their head since they did not know.

“There is no one else in the Inn besides the Auntie, workers, and us.” Boss answered. He continued “The Inn is extremely large yet, why is no one here?”

The other four sat quietly as they waited for Boss to make his own deduction. Indeed, he did “The Auntie is probably an evil lady who cannibalizes on all her guests and she’s trapped in this Inn never allowed to escape.”

Everyone facepalmed expecting Boss to give a serious answer. Boss tried to explain his bizarre reasoning, but everyone ignored it as they ate. After spending more time with Boss Arthur concluded Boss had more of an imaginative mind than a normal kid.

Pebble and Cobble arrived at the Inn after they finished eating meeting up with the group on the second floor. Everyone crowded into the guys’ room as Pebble and Cobble started answering their questions and concern.

Boss immediately brought up cannibalization and the Auntie being trapped inside. However, it was quickly refuted by the two young adult men as they told him it was an Inn only for guests and the Auntie already ran out of the door of the Inn yesterday.

Boss didn’t back down and said that maybe there is a limit to how far the Auntie could leave the Inn. The young men wanted to refute however; Boss wasn’t completely wrong.

Sigh

“Our Auntie is sort of restricted to the Inn.” Pebble responded prompting Boss to go “see, see, she’s a cannibal!” However, Pebble quickly refuted and continued “Our mother, her older sister is married to our dad. Auntie was always infatuated with dad, but he and mom were the ones that got together.”

Seeing the already confused look on Arthur’s face as he began to tell a long story. Pebble promptly readjusted himself before continuing.

“To keep the story short, Auntie likes my father, but my father and mother are married so Auntie chose to chase after father and mother wherever they went. Annoyed at her younger sister, our mother warned her not to leave the Inn or else she’ll tell their parents where Auntie went since she snuck out chasing after the two.” Pebble concluded.

“Ohh” Arthur said, he completely understood what Pebble had said. “So, she’s crazy.” Arthur came up with his own conclusion. Shelly jumped in and said “Stalker.” The two kids’ choice of words made Pebble and Cobble laugh as they silently agreed.

“Oh right, we forgot what we were supposed to do here. Come with us Gran wanted to see you guys.” Pebble responded as he gathered the group and walked out of the Inn. An irritated looking beautiful woman with green hair and yellow eyes could be seen looking down below at the departing groups.

“Tch, that Pebble, a freaking blabbermouth I’ll shove you even harder next time. Maybe if I injure you Gran will visit. Oh~.” She let out an excited squeal as she hugged herself and continued to speak to aloud “But wait, sister would probably show up too… Tch!”

Pebble didn’t realize the almost sorry situation as he brought the group before an enormous estate at the center of the Village. The estate was gated hidden behind towering fences four Arthurs tall per pillar (5 meters/16.4 feet) surrounding the entirety of it.

“We live a little bit further ahead” Pebble stated calmly as the enormous entrance folded inward allowing for them to enter. Everyone’s eyes darted around as they scanned their surroundings. A completely new world opened before their eyes compared to the mountainous and rocky village with small amounts of vegetation.

In here there was beds of grass as far as the eyes could see with domesticated animals grazing on them. Each pig, sheep, cows, chickens and horses were 1.5x larger than their normal counterpart back at Rouge.

“Wow how come it’s so green in here?” Arthur asked he was mesmerized by the abundance of grass and vegetation all around him. The flowers seemed to be in bloom all year round.

“It’s the work of our mother, she spends most of her day gardening and taking care of the entire estate.” Pebble replied as they made it to the front door of the house. The door opened before Pebble could reach for it.

“Back so soon my sons?” A handsome middle-aged man with bright red hair and magenta eyes smiled as he welcomed everyone into their home. “Sorry, I called for you guys here to talk about something, but I got some urgent business to take care of, I’ll be right back.” Gran Ule replied as he pulled the reins of a horse and galloped away.

“Why is he in such hurry?” Arthur asked.

“Mother is probably craving something weird again. It’s strange though she hadn’t had any weird cravings for a month now.” Pebble replied as he escorted his guests around the home. There was a beautiful marbled shelf in the living room with plaques and pictures of the owners.

A young man with red hair and red eyes was standing alongside a beautiful woman that resembles the Auntie from the Inn a lot was carrying a little brown baby. “That’s me.” Pebble smiled at the picture and pointed at the beautifully innocent looking woman “She’s my mother.”

“Wow, your mom and the Auntie are almost identical, so beautiful” Julie replied her compliment was sincere.

“Yeah” Pebble replied. He continued “Don’t let the picture fool you though, my mom and dad are both the same age, our Auntie is actually 20 years younger than her.”

“Wow…” Julie was shocked, Gran was in his late forties which mean the mom was also in around there. However, from the picture the mom and auntie looked identical, in fact the mom looked younger!

“Your mom is an Exotic?” Julie asked.

Pebble replied with a beaming smile “Can’t you tell?” A figure walked into the room a moment later.

“Oh? Our guests have arrived?” A beautiful woman with short orange hair and dark green eyes walked in. She looked similar to the Auntie from the Inn, but if the latter was a wild tigress, the former was an innocent kitten.

However, that wasn’t what caught everyone’s attention, the round bulge on her belly as she slowly walked in wearing light garments was at the center of attention.

“Hello everyone, I’m Roselyn nice to meet you all” She smiled and greeted, unperturbed by the gazes on her belly.