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.