"You sure I need to see this, Cuth?" Alexander asked. He didn't think it was a good idea. He stared at the boy's face, unable to believe it. "Trust me Alex, just once. We'll hardly be there for five minutes!" Cuthbert pleaded.
"Maybe Sue wants her space, you know. Maybe she doesn't enjoy being disturbed." Alex tried to reason with Cuthbert, which was going absolutely nowhere. "She loves it! She just wants visitors all the time, and she hates being alone."
Alex looked away, trying to find another excuse. He imagined old Sue, looking more shrivelled than ever, wheezing and coughing in a bed in a dark room, her wheezing only interrupted by her incoherent mumbling. Really? Can't think of anything better? He told himself.
The afternoon sun was getting lower, and there was no sign of life other than the two of them in the main square. Cuthbert was dancing around while pulling Alexander's arm, and Alex, sitting on the edge of a well, trying to resist the urge to tell Cuthbert off. "Come on, her house isn't far anyway, just around the corner. And it looks like Yoldru and Naomi are taking their time!"
"Fine. Lead the way." Alex exhaled, trying hard not to grind his teeth. Alex did not want to meet Sue. She was really kind to him all the time he knew her, but he also did not want to see one of the strongest people he knew in such a fragile state. Cuthbert didn't let go of his grip as he escorted Alex through the streets. "So… anything you could save from her house after it… you know, burnt down?" He asked Cuthbert, who for half a second put on a concentrated face. The boy then nodded. "I think they got quite a few stuff salvaged from her house, but made sure not to get anything with burn marks on it. You know, in case it sets her off again."
It hardly felt like ten steps when Cuthbert eased his hold and pointed at a house. "That one. Go knock." With the sun right on the back of his head, Alex's irritation only increased. "You wanted to visit, you go knock!"
Cuthbert made a face at Alex as he marched dutifully and knocked on the door. Alexander stood right beside him on the porch. The house looked well kept, as expected of Sue, although seeing her live here was like imagining an elephant in a corset. Cuthbert rocked back and forth on his heels as he waited, and jumped a little when the door finally opened.
Sue had not changed a bit. Her white, cloud-like hair, her tiny beady eyes, her slightly hunched, tiny figure greeted them at the doorway. Her already massive smile widened in recognition. "Tubbles and Princess! I was expecting you both! Come in, I was just warming the water for your tea!"
Alex looked at Cuthbert, visibly uneasy, as Sue walked into the house, scooting into a doorway. "Really Cuth? Tubbles?" Alex hissed at Cuthbert, who grimaced. "For god's sake, just play along, Tubbles."
The house on the inside was much more welcoming than it was on the outside.A mild flowery fragrance scented the air, the tea table from the old house had survived, but was now a darker shade of brown and a stuffed elk head decorated the foyer wall. Cuthbert immediately made himself comfortable at the dining table, picking and examining the condiments. When Alex joined him, he could already smell the strong scent of tea. "This isn't that bad is it?" Cuthbert asked while looking at the jar of salt. "Not as bad as I thought, at least," Alex replied. Cuthbert lowered his voice to a whisper. "Just don't say anything about water wheels and gnomes."
Oh, great. Slipping up random words would give her a breakdown as well. Who knew what other words they hadn't found out about yet could do the same? "I really don't see how this is not bad for Sue's health, Cuth." Alex said and was immediately met with a disapproving frown from the boy.
Five minutes later, Sue came carrying a tray with three cups, walking at her unnaturally fast pace. She set it on the table and sat down herself, and didn't speak until she had poured tea into all three cups and held her own in her hand. "Well, Tubbles, I know you have very… interesting days. Why don't you tell me about today?"
Alexander smiled warily. "Uhm… today was very interesting indeed!" He looked at Cuthbert for help, but got nothing other than an expectant smile. "I recently bought new plants… They seemed nice." Sue narrowed her eyes, but then laughed. "Stop lying, Tubbles dear! What an ordeal you have every day with your dragon!"
"Oh yeah… I can't stop it from breathing fire on all my… corn?" The last word came out like a question. Sue laughed hysterically. "Where did you get corn from Tubbles? Very hard to find nowadays. I haven't seen corn for the past three summers!"
"Uh… actually… I'd gone to… Arolus. Yes, Arolus. Plenty of corn there. Pity my dragon burnt it down." On the inside, Alex was screaming and wanted nothing more than to cave Cuthbert's face in with his teacup. "Oh, Tubbles, what an interesting life you have! If my joints weren't as bad as they are, I'd come over to pet Nibbles."
Cuthbert mouthed 'dragon'. Tubbles and his favourite pet dragon, Nibbles. Not to mention Princess, who was an eleven-year-old boy. She's really out of her mind. Alex thought sadly. He could still remember Sue narrating to him "Tales Of The Bravest Warriors", a really exaggerated version of life as a soldier. The rest of the tea party went in a haze as Sue shot him increasingly brutal questions and he narrowly dodged them. She didn't seem nearly as interested in Princess as she was in Tubbles, and when Cuthbert tried to talk to her, she hastily showed them to the door.
As Sue held open the door, Cuthbert walked out dejectedly, and Alex sent a last smile Sue's way before stepping out. "You know Tubbles, you remind me of a certain Alex Torman."
Before Alexander could react, the door was slammed in his face, and he staggered off the porch. "Did you hear that?" He asked Cuthbert. "Hear what?"
At the square, Yoldru and Naomi were waiting for them. "We've been waiting for ages!" Naomi complained, which Cuthbert answered with a "We left because you took so long!"
When Alex told them what happened at Sue's, all he could get was, "At least she remembered you. That means you should visit her more!" from Cuthbert.
"So, what do you want to do?" Naomi asked, while rolling her dark hair into a bun. Alex didn't have anything in mind. He looked around to find something to do. He saw a fruit shop, then the old leather shop, a new butcher's seemed to have opened, and where the old wine shop stood there was now an open patch of muddy land.
His eyes drifted around the square and finally settled on the largest building there,
The Temple of Halose.
"Why don't we go there?"
All three sets of eyes followed his pointing finger to the large structure. Naomi was the first to respond. "That place?" She seemed uncertain, her eyes reflecting her doubtfulness. "No one goes there… and I don't know why anyone would want to."
Yoldru sighed. "I can't be that bad." Cuthbert, however, seemed absolutely repulsed by the idea. "No way we're ever going there! No lighting, no fun, all stony and cold, we could be building that treehouse you know, I have an idea to hold up the floorboards, and I found a way to make it support crazy amounts of weight, and we can-"
"All in favour?" Yoldru asked, raising his own hand. Alex followed him. "All against?" Naomi and Cuthbert put their hands up. "It's two-two, so we still can't do it." Cuthbert said. "Let's just build the treehouse?"
"No…" Yoldru said, winking at Alex. "It's two to one and a half. You're eleven Cuth, so you count as half."
Naomi frowned. "That's not fair…"
"Pff. Grow up."
Cuthbert didn't even hear him. "Fine, let's explore the temple today… We'll build the treehouse tomorrow. Do you know of the Midas Touch, by the way? It's like there was this king…" As Cuthbert went on, Alex exchanged a guilty look with Yoldru, "Did you tell her that we're not going to stay?" he whispered. I told her, Yoldru mouthed.
Even in the afternoon sun, the temple cast a strange shadow over the square. Its stone walls appeared to be leaching the warmth from the air. Even Cuthbert had stopped talking. It was as if everyone could feel the same feeling. A creeping cold. It wrapped around his legs and climbed faster as he got closer to the temple. People freeze to death. Every night has been brutal. It was this temple. It was freezing the town. "Wait a minute…" He heard Naomi whisper. "It's kind of cold, isn't it?" Cuthbert was shivering, but stepped into the temple without a word. Alex could see the vapour escaping from his nostrils as he exhaled.
The inside was dark. Too dark. Not a single source of light, not a single sign of life. Alex leaned on a wall for support as his eyes adjusted to the dark. It was ice cold. He looked around. They stood in a large hall, its dark stone walls didn't give out a sense of hospitality, the mosaic floor seemed to dance on its own, and on the other end of the hall, on a giant throne sat a twenty foot tall marble statue of a man. It was the only discernible object in the dark. Plates of armour covered his shins, his feet adorned with pointed, bejewelled boots. His chest was armoured, horns jutting out from its sides, and a cloak flowed from his shoulders. His arms were bare, showing details of multiple scars and tattoos. A sword rested across his knees, its hilt glimmering faintly, its blade long and thick enough to cut down a tree. His long and narrow face held an unfriendly smile and his long, wavy hair fell onto his shoulders.
"Whoa." Cuthbert exclaimed. "I… I…" for once, he was speechless.
"None of you ever came in here?" Alex asked. Naomi shrugged. "No one ever needed to come in here… look at this place!"
At the centre of a hall, a circular pool of water glowed, illuminating the ceiling, which was domed and spotted with stars. "It's frozen." Yoldru said, looking at the pool, then touched its surface. Alex rested his hand on the ice. Underneath the surface, he could see the liquid water moving. "Well, it looks like a nice place to stay when the sun's trying to kill us," Naomi said, examining a statue on the wall. It was the same man on the throne, but now standing up and covered in robes instead of armour. Alex took little time to realise that the statues of Halose ran the whole length of the walls, one every few feet, all looking toward the main statue on the throne.
Alex walked toward the nearest statue. This one was glowering instead of smiling, and looked to its left. In its right hand lay an open book, and from the book sprang weapons. Spears, swords, maces, arrows, all bursting through its pages. The next statue was in peasant clothes, turning the ground with a scythe instead of a plough. Before Alex could move to the next statue, Yoldru put his arm around him. "Very interesting, eh Alex? Weird temple for some weird god. Halose? What kind of name is that? Sounds like a type of cow-feed."
Cuthbert laughed. "That was hilarious." Yoldru poked at Alex. "Wanna explore the other rooms?" He gestured to doorways on either side of the hall, but as Alex was about to answer, he noticed a very bored-looking Cuthbert and an angry-looking Naomi. "Actually… It's not that interesting, is it? Let's go build that tree house."
Naomi gave him an approving smile. Yoldru frowned, apparently disgusted. "What a wasted potential of exploration. Anyway, treehouses sound fun."
As they left the temple, Alex turned around at the doorway, and he couldn't help but notice that the statues on the wall weren't fixated on the throne anymore. They were all looking at them walk away.