Otherworldly Beasts : Finding the Royals (ONC Entry)

Chapter 4

"Meet Lambis!" Floufli's booming voice announced.

The room was round and big, almost the size of a football field. In the middle of it, stood a huge machine. Sarah had to tilt her head all the way back to be able to see all of it.

Lambis, the machine, had no similarities to other machines she saw on documentaries on TV, far from it. Lambis was orange-pink, and square with round edges.It had two crazy, dizzy eyes up top and an enormous big and open mouth. In its mouth was what appeared to be a screen. And its tongue, it was sticking out with a keyboard on it.

Sarah was standing with her mouth dropped opened. She was so shocked at the mess in front of her, she couldn't make a sound.

Well, I wouldn't blame her to be honest. What would you do if you saw what she was currently faced with? Cables half eaten spilling out of the machine. Buttons and knobs missing from what looked like the remains of a keyboard. A thick viscous brown liquid was slowly dripping down the display screen. I, for one, would start to feel the hopelessness that would slowly crawl through my veins.

Sarah glided her palms on the sides of her face and sat cross-legged on the ground.

"Alrighty then, let's go take a look at the prophecy book," Floufli said, and moved closer to a yellow pedestal in front of the machine.

Sarah pushed herself off the floor. A loud bang made her jump. Her head snapped at the noise. Lucas was inside the machine pulling on something. "Lucas, what are you doing?"

"Me? Checking Lambis out," Lucas replied.

Sarah, with a grim expression plastered firmly on her face, walked behind Floufli. She took a peek at the prophecy book that was opened on the pedestal. "This is a manual."

"No, this is a prophecy book."

"No, this is a manual."

"Little human, this is a prophecy book."

"Shall we agree to disagree?" Sarah asked, frustrated with wasting precious minutes arguing.

"Yeah..." Floufli scratched his head embarrassed.

"What happened to the machine?"

"The machine? Oh, you mean Lambis. Well, the Crits got in here. They managed to eat part of the pipes and wires. Also, there might be some parts missing. I believe they might have taken them with them for a midnight snack. And I might have fallen asleep on my watch but please, pretty please, don't mention the last part in front of Lalapap, she will nag my ears off," Floufli pleaded and his ears started a frantic shake.

Sarah tried to hide the small twist that was forming on her lips. "Ahem," she coughed and placed her hand in front of her mouth. "I thought you said that Crits eat magic, happiness and sunshine. Why would they eat the pipes and the wires?"

"Magic, happiness and sunshine are all channeled through the pipes and wires of Lambis. They are, if you will, the essence of what makes Lambis work; the fuel."

"Oh, let's get to work then. We have a Lambis to fix."

She took a step towards the 'prophecy' book. She flipped the pages of the book and a loose page slipped out. Floufli snatched it before it fell on the glossy gray floor.

"Here," he said and handed it over to Sarah.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. I can only speak the human language, not read it," Floufli informed her.

Ra-ta-ta, pop, pop! Bang!

It seems like Lucas the Destroyer is at it once again. Startled, both Floufli and Sarah jumped and searched around them for the source of the noise. A heavy pink fog started to swirl around them, filling the room.