The world still kept spinning for the two new Rueses.
"Can you stop laughing?" Mort grumbled shooting Renee an annoyed glare who paid him no heed at all.
"Why? It's funny. Look at them weakly supporting each other," she said as she watched Yve and Aksel walking together leaning on each other as they tried to contain their vomit inside while their legs wobbled every few seconds in.
The ride on the bird was scary would be the biggest understatement for them.
"Well at least they can walk back themselves, unlike you who had to be carried back the whole way after falling unconscious mid-ride," he grumbled remembering how tough it had been for him to hold her flailing body by one hand and guide Bob with the other.
At the remembrance of what she counted as one of the most embarrassing moments of her life Renee scowled at him and ignoring him she increased her pace and walked forward towards the open base door and vanished quickly inside.
Aksel noted as the people rushed to help with the stacking away the stolen ration as soon as possible. The bags were too big to be brought down the manhole and therefore Jace and Grant were emptying the bags above the manhole while dropping down food items into wheelbarrows that were being rolled by the other Rueses who had come to help.
Watching another one go by and enter the base Aksel sighed and thought to himself, 'Just a little more.'
Finally inside Mort guided them towards the middle tunnel and going in without any question the two found themselves in a big empty hall that had gym machines on one side and a fluffy mattress on the other side which was where Mort had them sit down.
Falling back down Aksel stared up at the curved ceiling of the lighted training room letting his body relaxes from the insane experience it had just undergone. Aksel certainly wasn't scared of heights but when one was forced to sweep down from sudden angled directions while on a feathered creature without any actual safety devices one was bound to feel their nerves crawl one over the other.
"Here drink some water," Mort said, and sitting up feeling better now that he had rested properly for a few minutes Aksel took the bottle and guzzled down the whole thing in a single go. He was thankful that Mort had been mindful to bring another bottle for Yve who still looked shaken as she took small sips of this life-giving liquid to ease some tension off her body.
"You two are really tough! Nobody has held up this good like you two till now, apart from me, of course," he bragged a tiny bit and Aksel remembered how this brown-haired dude had been laughing out loud the whole time they had been swiveling in the air. He also had taken note that though the other Rueses had long before landed down Mort had made it a point to have 'some fun' before he would have to go down.
Easy to say that the 'fun' had been detrimental to Aksel's health.
"What was that thing?" he muttered as he looked at Mort to see him frown and quickly correcting himself, realizing that he had made a mistake he said, "What kind of a creature is Bob?"
On hearing the humongous bird's name Mort had a wide grin on his face as he said, "Oh Bob is a Tross. They are large black birds that are carnivorous and usually spend more than half of their time flying high in the sky."
Aksel tried remembering the mention of such a bird but like the limited information he had on fireflies he couldn't even come up with anything about these birds. He didn't remember studying about them in school and he reckoned that they must be a rare species that the Branding System didn't bother letting them know about since the mind-controlled people would never have been able to step foot out of the city to see them in the first instance.
"You know they used to hunt on us before? I heard they had devoured two to three guys before I came," Mort continued merrily causing Aksel to snap out of his thoughts and Yve to sit up straight. They shared a look that clearly conveyed the message that it was hard to believe that a person like Mort even existed.
Who spouts that information so nonchalantly!
"What? Then how did you get them to act like that? Are you even sure that they won't eat us up?" Yve asked a little frantic and frazzled by having been sitting on a thing that actually used to kill her kind before.
'And who the heck names such a devious creature Bob, anyway?' she thought as she waited for Mort to answer.
"Oh no, they won't harm you anymore. Bob and I are friends so the other Trosses stay away from us and help us as well," He said immediately trying to assure her.
Aksel couldn't believe just how strange this guy was to friend up each and everything that he came across. A prey making friends with the predator is something definitely that only this guy could accomplish, he thought.
"But how did you become friends with it?" Aksel asked trying to imagine Mort harassing the big bird to give him a hug.
"Oh, it's not that big of a deal. I had one day gone to the forest base to steal the rations with others when I saw this big bird heavily injured and ready to be killed by a disintegrating beam by the worker drone that must have caught it trying to snatch a cow. I felt bad for it and therefore I had destroyed the drone and given the bird some meat to eat," he said smiling as if he was reminiscing a happy memory.
"And the bird didn't do anything to you?" Yve asked disbelieving of the fact that a wild creature could act so civil.
"Oh no he scratched me with its claws and almost bit off my head when I was taking it away to the safer side of the forest and he tried to kill me many times while I came to him every day to take care of him and feed him but he just looked so pitiful that I had to help him and soon after we became friends," he said and Aksel realized that the bird had also fallen victim to Mort's suffocating and forced friendship that was kind and good in its own way.
"I heard I was wanted here," Krentis's voice resounded in the room making them look towards him as he came walking in. Aksel hadn't expected him to come so soon but he was grateful to have his mind diverted from the anamoly that his friend was.
"Yes, can you tell us what's up with the brand?" Aksel asked at once pointing at the visible brand on Krentis's arms that he didn't even bother hiding anymore.
"Straight to the point, I see," Krentis chuckled as he hobbled over and then sat down on the mattress beside Aksel. He remained silent for a few seconds and then said, "I don't know if I should tell you about it or not."
"Why not?" Aksel asked becoming slightly suspicious by his prolonged mystery.
"Well, this is a secret that belongs to my people. If you want to know it then you have to be a part of us. You will have to swear to become a Rues and a member of the unbranded people of Novus city. Your every action should be measured and cannot be selfish. They will affect the Rues of Novus as well therefore you will have less freedom in what you do and how you do it."
Hearing this Aksel fell silent for a few seconds and he wondered what he should do.
"So what you mean to say is that either we choose to stay and get to know the truth or we leave here without knowing the truth as we had originally planned to?" Yve asked and Krentis nodded at her.
By their side, Mort seemed to be begging with his facial features for the two of them to say yes.
But could giving up their freedom of thoughts and actions be worth the truth?
"We will accept to be a part of your people if you promise not to stop us from finding out about the outside world," Yve said making Aksel look at her. He was astonished to see her smile and he realized that she had really started to understand him better.
"It looks like we have ourselves a deal then," Krentis smiled, and though Aksel felt slightly disturbed by it he couldn't wait to hear all the secrets of Novus.