"Hello, Spotty. Can you hear me?" said the figure projection of an old man.
"Yes, I can hear you," replied Spot.
"Where are you currently? Why did you leave so soon? Lune told me that you were back?" asked the old man very hastily in a single breath.
"I am in the Red Desert currently. I had to look after the kids, so I left without meeting you," Spot replied to every question of the old man in a very calm manner.
"Where in this goddamn world were you hiding all these years. You can't just disappear and then appear with two little kids," said the old man with anger that could not be contained on his wrinkled face.
Answer the old man demanded, but the reply said by Spot was a resounding "NO", probably to avoid talking about it in front of Ry and Zen.
"I will tell you everything, trust me," said Spot, and showed the kids to the old man.
Seeing the kids, the old man inquired, "Who are the boys?"
"Samuel's kids," replied Spot.
"Samuel's kids, eh… why did you take them to that place?" questioned the Old man, "Bring them to my shop."
He looked pretty worried about them.
Uncle Spot felt the worry on the face of the Old man and hence replied. "There was some important stuff that needed to be taken care of here. I will talk with you later about it," replied Spot, and asked, "Have you completed the work?"
"Ok, we will talk later. And yeah, I have!". Replied the old man.
"I will come pick it up tomorrow," said Uncle Spot."No need for that, I still remember my way to your Home," answered the old man with his fingers pointing towards the side of his head.
"Well, I can't help but worry because I know it's tough for you as well," Spot replied with a saddened face.
Seeing the sad expression on Spot's face, the old man reacted accordingly and quickly asked about the kids who were curiously examining the old man.
"If I remember correctly, the older one's name was Zen, right?" questioned the old man.
Uncle Spot, realising that he had completely ignored the kids that were with him, He pulled them closer and introduced them thoroughly this time to the old man, "Yeah! The older one's name is Zen, you met him when he was just a baby, do you remember though?"
"Yeah, he used to never leave Samuel alone. Look at this little guy's eyes…. Hello there," said the old man.
"Talk like he is a year old again, and he will begin to hate you in no time," joked Uncle Spot with a smile.
"Hey, don't say that..." said the old man with a laugh.
"And the little one here is called Ry. Zen Ford and Ry Ford," Said Uncle Spot while pinching Ry's cheek.
The old man looked blissful seeing the kids and said, "I can't wait to meet them, Spotty!"
"Where in the Red Desert are you? How long will it take for you to reach home?" asked the old man.
"It will take a day to get back home," said Spot."I will be waiting," Said the old man with acknowledgement.
"Yeah, right," replied Uncle Spot.
"Then I will get on with my work in the shop. Come back soon," continued the old man.
"By the way, in the red desert, did you encounter any strange things… like?" enquired the old man.
"No, the desert seems to be the same as far as I remember. What are we talking about? "asked Spot.
"The annual reports of the Red Desert recorded strange phenomena, and the news recently covered them. Pretty major stuff, you know, like huge sandstorms and Sinkholes, which pull you into the ancient caves underground, "Said the old man, with a worried look, but Spot oozed confidence, the old man knew what Uncle Spot was going to say next.
Uncle Spot raised his arm and said,
"Are you forgetting this desert is my home? The only people who can navigate this place are me and my family," Uncle Spot said with confidence that could not be hidden.
"I know… I know that you and your people have the deepest connection to that place, but the place that showed no change for tens of thousands of years, a place where no modern navigation tool works, still requires caution," said the old man. This was now changing from a 'hey, how are you, my old friend?' to a battle between two guys who have a long, deeply bonded competition of 'You know I am right and you have to acknowledge it.' But Uncle Spot thought for a while on the news provided to him by the old man, and Uncle Spot, with a slight hint of worry in his eyes, said.
"Now, when you say that, it's something to worry about. The Red Desert, where the temperature and climate are always constant, showing change means something has to have happened when I was not here,".
Uncle Spot was zoned out and was thinking about something, and read the situation, probably not to worry the kids who were still in the place they were talking about.
The old man suddenly raised his arms and, with an amused expression, said.
"Maybe the undead king has woken up from his slumber; I'll tell you kids about the Great and real tale of THE UNDEAD KING."
"We have already heard about it from Uncle Spot on our way to Red Desert."
Said Ry with a smile.
"Do you believe that Story?" questioned Zen.
"Is it a real tale?, Because Uncle Spot doesn't believe it," said Zen, and continued," Don't dwell on the story."
"I believe in his existence. He was called the protector of this world," replied the old man.
"Yeahh!!" Ry screamed at Zen mockingly and moved to the right side of Uncle Spot while getting near to the projection as well… the kids were getting comfortable with the old man enough to have a little chat with him now, and Ry's shout brought back Spot, and while joining the lighter conversation,
Uncle Spot said, "You better not say that to anyone else,".
"Why? Freedom of speech, it's called freedom of speech. It's the newest law that was passed, "spoke the old man while raising his hand, making a fist also with the pizazz of a senator, just to mock Uncle Spot. Zen and Ry, on the other hand, were loving it.
"No matter how many new laws they make, somethings are forbidden, like believing the existence of Undead King as well as implying that he was a good guy can send you to a place where even light cannot escape" said Spot with a stern look on his face which hid the truth of the word he spoke.
"Even after leaving the Confederate service, you still support them… One Loyal Man, you are," mocked the old man.
"It is not support but fear I have because of the things I have seen and endured while I was an officer," said Spot.
"Well, the new coalition is doing some things well, I guess, but those benefits will not reach this forsaken planet," replied the old man.
"The new coalition has at least stopped all the wars and improved the lives of Billions of people," said Spot.
"Well, let's save our world talk for later, the kids look tired of the things we are talking about," Said the old man.
"You always start these kinds of conversations with me. There is a lot of work for me to do now," said Spot.
"I and many others are always there for you, Spotty. Just don't give up on us this time," spoke the old man with a tear in his eye.
"Thank you, I am blessed to have you," replied Spot with a small smile on his face, which did not go unnoticed by the old man.
"OK, then. Come back safely, and do not get into trouble when you arrive in the city," the old man said.
"Yes" was the only word uttered by Spot.
After saying that, the screen lost its light, and the projection of the old man disappeared. Seeing an unknown man suddenly ask about them and talk warmly with their uncle, the boys were longing for some answers to their thoughts and looked towards Spot for them.
Seeing that he had not yet revealed the identity of the old man, Spot started to tell them about him.
"His name is Drun and he is a close friend of mine and your Father," said Spot.
"Our dad had friends? " questioned Zen.
"Yes, why wouldn't he have friends? We have lived on this planet for a hundred years, of course, we will have friends, " said Spot.
"I want to meet him," said Ry with a huge smile on his face.
"Yeah, then let's quickly pack up and go back home, and then we can go straight to the city," replied Spot with a smile on his face.
After saying that, they started to pack up their belongings and the clutter that Ry had spread around. While packing, Spot jokingly asked Zen why he thought his father would not have any friends.
"It's just that I never saw him interact with anyone else at the slave colony," said Zen.
"Your father was always wary of strangers, and the slave colony is not the place to make friends as well, so he might have kept his distance from others there," said Spot.
"But he always took good care of us and Mother," Ry chimed in.
"Well, that's to be expected," replied Spot, and picked up Ry to kiss him on his cheek, and said, "Who can keep their distance from you, Ryu?" and started tickling Ry.
The laughter of little Ry echoed in the red desert. Seeing them, Zen also joined in on the tickler attack on Ry.
But unbeknownst to them, they were being watched from afar by an unknown man who appeared to only have one arm, wearing a tattered Cloak.
After they had their fun, the group started the journey back home. When they were coming here, their hearts were filled with sadness that could not
Be erased, but the hope and closure from their parents had alleviated it.
Spot's pov
Halfway through our journey to go home via the red desert, the kids looked really bored on the vehicle.
Well, that's to be expected as there isn't anything exciting to see except reddish sand and the occasional rock.
To get rid of their boredom, I took out something called a radio.
As soon as I took it out, Ryu's eyes started to shine, and his hands reached out to the device.
The device wasn't big for me, but for him it was quite a handful.
Zen, looking at his Brother was going and doing something without his approval, tried to stop him. In their scuffle, the balance of the vehicle was at risk, and I did not want to have any accidents in the open desert.
So I said, "It's okay, Zen, I took it out for you guys to use."
Zen quickly replied with "It's something he doesn't know about, and if it's something he doesn't know about, then it means it will be broken as soon as he touches it."
"That's not true, it's known as a radio," replied Ry at Zen.
It looked like Zen was shocked by the fact that Ry knew about the device.
"How do you know about it?" questioned Zen.
"Well, if someone doesn't know about the radio, they are probably dumb," said Ry
It looked like Zen didn't know about radios, so he couldn't reply to his younger brother's remark.
I chimed in to tell Zen about it. " It's something that can be used to communicate with others."
Hearing my words, He looked even more embarrassed.
I comforted him that not knowing about something is not a big deal.
Probably seeing the difficult look on his older brother's face, Ry spoke, "It was present at the place I worked at, brother. So that is the reason I know about it. Do not feel bad about it, because there's so much more that you know that I don't."
Hearing Ryu's words, Zen smiled and praised Ry for his knowledge by saying, "You know a good amount about technological things, Ryu."
"It's because you always picked up my work when I slack off to read," said Ry.
Seeing the boys, I couldn't help but remember the contrasting childhoods of me and Samuel. We used to fight all the time; those were the days I would like to go back to.
As I was reminiscing about the old days, Ryu asked about why I took it out.
I replied, "To listen to the news".
Hearing me say that, his expression changed drastically, and he lost all interest in it.
"What happened?" I asked Ry.
But Zen was the one who replied.
"He probably wanted to hear about new technologies and cartoons," said Zen.
"Sadly, we cannot do that on this radio as I do not have access to the frequency of timewaves at which they broadcast it," I replied with a look of nothing I can do.
"What are timewaves?" asked Zen, as it was a word he was hearing for the first time. Ry also looked at me to hear my answer.
"I do not know completely about them, but they are something that can deliver messages in an instant, " I said, beating myself up about not knowing about something that is universally used nowadays.
To steer the conversation away from it, I started to change the channels on it to something the kids might find interesting.
"Let me do it, Uncle Spot," said Ry.
So I let him change channels. He stopped on a channel on which someone was singing.
"Why stop at this?" Zen asked.
"Because I like this," replied Ry.
"Just now," a quick reply by Ry.
"When did you have an interest in singing, Ryu?" questioned Zen.
"Do you like it?" I asked him.
"Yes, I do. It feels nice to listen to, doesn't it?" said Ry.
Me and Zen both nodded in unison. And our conversation died down, and the pleasant music took its place.