Chapter 8 - The Zafisi Clan

“Grawl! Grawl!” The visibly tired beasts immediately roared in delight as they stepped into the city. They knew that the journey would soon come to an end and they will finally be able to rest. “Ho Ho! Ho Ho! Almost there, Almost there! Keep marching my children!” The man driving the carriage shouted in encouragement.

“As noisy as ever,” Oliver said whilst smiling. Kane nodded in agreement as he soundlessly let out a small laugh. He was still under the effect of the silence pill.

The carriage barged fast throughout the city. Along the way, Kane was already getting familiar with the various buildings and locations. Of course, this was just a small glimpse of this part of the City. Actually memorising such a large city, would take even the brightest geniuses over ten years at least.

From one of the windows, Kane saw a weird mountain that came from within the city. However, upon further inspection, he realised that it was actually a statue of a fierce tiger! Forget about greatness, the existence of this statue made the likes of statues such as that of Frederick IX look like shit!

The carriage kept going on for an hour, before it came to a halt. Oliver promptly said, “We have arrived kid. Let`s get down.”

They stepped down from the carriage as Oliver left to thank the carriage driver one last time. Kane took this opportunity to explore his surroundings. Ahead of him was a gate of a large circular wooden wall, which encompassed a large area within it. There were several wood constructions inside, and in the middle of the area stood a large wooden constructed palace. On top of the gate, artistically written was a caption that read: “Zafisi Clan.”

As both of them entered the palace, they were instantly greeted by two little girls that rushed out from a nearby shop. “Daddy! Daddy! You have finally arrived! We missed you!” as they both jumped up on Oliver hugging him. Oliver felt overjoyed as he lowered himself to hug them, “I have missed you too… my two little flowers.” Kane stared at them for a while, until he noticed an old man and a middle aged woman approaching, who immediately yelled at her children.

“You two little rascals! Who told you to leave the shop without first asking for my permission!?”

Oliver turned his gaze towards his enraged wife, then he quietly stood up and coolly replied, “Come on Tania, they haven’t seen me for all this time, they were eagerly waiting for my return…” However, he was immediately interrupted by the angry Tania.

“That`s what I hate about you the most, you always defend these two little brats. They are already disobeying us now, I can’t imagine how they are going to treat us when they grew older!” Tania turned her gaze to the left as she put up a stubborn expression.

Oliver put his right hand after his head as he slowly itched his hair in embarrassment. “Come on Tania, aren’t you exaggerating a little with your reaction?”

However, Tania totally ignored Oliver. After a while she turned and looked straight into Kane`s eyes. “Is that kid the promised servant?”

Oliver nodded his head in agreement.

“Good, come with us kid, we will be taking you to the head servant, he will tell you everything you need to know.” Tania calmly said.

“No wait Tania! It is normal practice that new servants meet with the Matriarch of the clan,” Oliver immediately stated.

Tania`s face showed a worried expression. “The Matriarch isn’t really in a good shape at the moment. In my opinion we shouldn’t interrupt her rest.”

“I agree with your reasoning Tania, but I would be disobeying her orders if I don’t bring this youngster to her. It was her who summoned me to fetch him from Violet Eagle City, and it was also her who requested me to bring him to her once we arrived back.”

Oliver then looked towards his two little daughters, whilst he placed his hands on their heads. “Be patient and wait obediently with your mother. I have a small matter to attend to, then I will return back to home.” The two adorable girls nodded gracefully.

Oliver made a hand gesture towards Kane signalling that it`s time to start moving again. Both of them then walked away from the rest and went deeper into the lands of the Clan. They kept walking until they arrived before the middle palace. The guards at the palace gate saluted them, whilst Oliver nodded respectfully.

“Elder Oliver and this youngster request an audience with the Matriarch of the Clan. It was her grace that summoned us.”

Upon hearing Oliver`s words, one of the guards calmly said, “We are already aware of this. Quick, follow me, I will be taking you to her.” Both Oliver and Kane followed the guard inside the Palace. Kane was impressed by the grandiosity of this Palace. Its art, architecture and decorations made it look like being in a land of dreams.

Shortly after, they arrived ahead of a large door. Two other guards were standing in front of the door, as one of them opened it. Oliver quietly entered into the room, followed by Kane.

In the heavily decorated room, there was a large bed, and laying silently in the bed was a middle aged woman. She looked very weak, like she was suffering from sort of terminal sickness. She struggled to turn her head towards them, then she smiled and weakly spoke.

“You have finally arrived Oliver. I presume that this is the kid that the Patriarch of Violet Eagle City Titu promised me right?”

Kane gaped in disbelief towards the Matriarch. Countless of questions suddenly popped into Kane`s mind. “Titu? Patriarch???! He was such a big shot?!”

Seeing Kane`s dumbfounded expression, the Matriarch laughed softly. “Don’t be that shocked kid, Patriarch Titu has an eccentric personality and he likes to live in simplicity. I am actually not surprised that he hid everything from you.” Both she and Oliver continued laughing, whilst Kane simultaneously put up a bizarre smile on his face.

Shortly after, the Matriarch looked towards Kane for a while. She kept staring into his eyes, seemingly inspecting him. “Not bad… Not bad… You will make a fine addition to our servant squad. I approve of you. Oliver take him downstairs so that he meets Head Servant Colin.”

“Understood Matriarch Tracy. Hurry up youngster, follow me.”

Oliver and Kane bowed respectfully, then left the room. The Matriarch smiled whilst she watched them leave, then she rested and closed her eyes.

Both of them walked down towards the basement. “The Basement of this Palace is the residence where the servants of the Zafisi clan live. Of course, there will be times where you will be assigned outside duties, but those will be kept to a minimum.” Once at the basement, they walked towards a large room, then Oliver knocked on the door, before opening it. Inside the room were around fifty servants. The servants all had different ages and genders. They immediately recognize Elder Oliver.

“Greetings Elder Oliver,” they all stood up as they shouted together, like a choir.

Oliver spoke calmly, “I am just passing by… I just have a small matter I need to discuss with Colin. Please continue.” Both Oliver and Kane kept walking towards the other exit of the room. Kane couldn’t help but not notice that all the gazes of the servants were locked tightly on him. Some of them were whispering into each other’s ears.

“Oh? That must be the new recruit?”

“His younger than I thought, that is a good thing right?”

“I was expecting him to have a tougher body … but as long as he fulfil his duties, I don’t really care that much.”

“Oh… his actually quite handsome.”

Kane just pretended he wasn’t listening and ignored them, as he kept moving together with Oliver, until they arrived into a small room. In the room stood an old man, and next to him there was a small kid that was totally lost in concentration.

“Elder Oliver, what a surprise!” The old man stood up to greet him.

Oliver was now clearly exhausted and in need of a rest. “Colin I wish to chat with you privately.”

He then leaned towards Kane, “I will be leaving now youngster. If you ever need me you can find me at the clan`s inn between 6:00pm and 8:00pm. Oh… and by the way, welcome to the Zafisi clan.”

Oliver then left the room along with Colin. Kane was now alone together with the young kid. The kid was standing up, with both palms of his hands positioned straight out perpendicular to his chest. His eyes were closed and he had a slightly nervous expression. He kept in this position for like five minutes, sometimes biting his tongue out of frustration. Suddenly, a small glass that was upon a chair roughly three metres away from him, started vibrating. The kid`s mood immediately changed into a positive one as he kept focusing.

“Come on baby! A little more… a little more…”

Kane kept staring at him, wondering what the kid was up to. The kid somewhat felt Kane`s gaze was upon him, as he annoyingly opened his left eye whilst shouting.

“Hey you! What are you looking at? Stop gazing at me. You are making me nervous!”

Kane smiled as he pretended to turn his gaze away, but he was still secretly spying on the kid.

All of a sudden, the glass levitated as it was pulled straight towards the kid`s hand. The kid opened his eyes as he prepared to grab it. However, he was distracted by the sudden cough of the returning Colin, and the kid totally lost control of his movements.

SPLASH~~~~~ BLING… BLING… BLING…~~~ Various sound were heard as the small pieces of glass spread out across the floor. The kid frowned comically in disbelief.

“Damn it! I was so close! Why you had to come in now!? And above all that, you had to cough too!?” The kid screamed in anger.

Colin didn’t say anything, but instead he started laughing crazily. Kane, who appeared like he was viewing a little play, couldn’t resist anymore and he too laughed out soundlessly at the kid. The kid who was already furious, couldn’t take it anymore and left the room whilst stomping his feet.

“His still young and he has a bright future ahead. However, he is a little clumsy when it comes to concentrating. I coughed in purpose to see if he could still manage to grab the glass but he failed. He needs to work much harder.”

“Well then, welcome to the Zafisi Clan Youngster. My name is Colin, and I am the head servant of the clan. I am the one in charge of all the servants here.”

“Oliver already gave me a brief description about you, so I will not be taking a lot of your time. Here take this.” Colin threw a key towards Kane. “That is the key of room number 21, which will be your room from now on. I have also left some cloths there for you.”

“Tomorrow you will be off duty. I encourage you to use this opportunity to grow a little familiar with the surroundings of our clan. The day after tomorrow, you will be doing some cleaning in the Palace. Let me remind you that this planet takes roughly three galactic days to complete one revolution onto its axis, so at times you will be working totally in the dark. In view of this, I recommend that you keep a watch on you to keep track of time. The last thing I wanted to bring to your attention is that every month, you will be receiving 500 Piras as compensation money.”

“You can leave now.” Colin coolly said as he relaxed on top of his chair.

Kane nodded in agreement, then left to his room, and shortly after he took a deep rest. When he woke up, it was early morning on his watch, but the light outside appeared like it was late afternoon. He went outside for a stroll as he began inspecting the various buildings. After some walking, he arrived in front of a large farm. At the entrance of the farm, he observed a notice that read: “Gululu farm”.

Kane curiously entered the farm to inspect it. There he saw camel-like animals, without the humps, but with much bigger spherical heads. He slowly approached towards one of them to examine it better. As he saw it eating with such a funny head, Kane couldn’t restrain himself from laughing. Unfortunately for Kane, what he didn’t know was that these Gululus were highly intelligent animals, much more than the familiar dogs. Although Kane made no sound, the Gululu could still figure out that this young man was laughing at it. Slowly, the Gululu approached Kane, then suddenly, without any warning, it spit out its digested food accompanied by the disgusting saliva, that totally covered Kane`s face.

Kane`s entire body turned green, and he started to feel dizzy. He panicked, as he quickly rushed towards a big tank that was filled with milky-like water. He rapidly cleaned his face with the tank`s water, as a sign of relief appeared on his face. He had never before suffered such form of humiliation in his whole life!

Meanwhile, an old man who happened to be sitting on a rock near this water tank, stared at him in disbelief. “I know you young ones are adventurous, and you like to do stupid things… but I cannot understand the idea of bathing your face in that tank. Do you know that this tank is filled with the urine of the Gululus?”

When he heard this, Kane`s body turned stiff and became completely paralysed, then it started to shiver. Shortly after, he stood up, as he ran straight towards the Gululu, like a fierce predator preparing to tear the Gululu apart into tiny pieces of flesh. However, when he was only about one metre away from the Gululu, it swiftly did a double-barrel kick that landed on Kane`s chest. Kane was thrown into the air and landed around six metres away onto the ground. It was only now that Kane understood that this was a lost cause. He gathered his remaining strength, then he ran away almost crying towards the Palace. The Gululu raised its head proudly, apparently happy about the outcome of this little skirmish.

This was the start of Kane`s short period of peace at the Zafisi clan. Of course, this period of peace didn’t exclude the possibility of random misfortunes such as what ensued today at the Gululu farm.