Part 3 (7)
They trekked to the location. The exterior was splendid. The garden was magnificently organized. It spoke volumes about the personality of the owner. All flowers were perfectly aligned. Roses were flourishing in the far left corner and Eucalyptus in the far right one.
On the opposite side were growing marvelously green Aloe Vera plants. They occupied a space of about twenty meters long. In the middle of the land was sown an olive tree that was as fresh as the water from the fountain of Ebuka, the god of purity.
Uncle Bibi and his niece went inside and were welcomed by a harmonious melody. A pretty woman in her prime age was sitting behind a wooden counter. She had plenty of Fulani mascara on her face. Her long black hair was falling on her shoulders and her neck was laced with elegant pearls. On her ears was hanging a pair of blue-violet gems. She wore an immaculate white silk gown.
At the sight of the visitors, she gleamed and then spoke to them: "Peace be upon you, dear guests! Be welcome to the Kingdom of Iyô!"
"Thank you, Ma'am!" Uncle Bibi responded vigorously.
Suzie conversed too but her voice was not intelligible. She was displaying signs of extreme fatigue from their long journey.
"How can I help you?" The host interrogated the visitors.
"A two-bed suite, please! One bed for me and one for the beautiful maiden right here." Uncle Bibi ordered.
"Four Batangi each bed. Eight Batangi for both." The receptionist asserted.
Suzie's uncle slid his right hand into the pocket of his right boubou and extracted a ten Batangi coin. He passed it on to their host and uttered to her: "Please, keep the change!"
The lady took the money and expressed her gratitude to the generous visitor. She then grabbed two keys from the mural cupboard overhead, which uncle Bibi found odd but kept his mouth shut. Lastly, she asked the two guests to follow her and they complied.
The three arrived in a very luminous corridor and halted at its commencement. The host remitted a key to each of the visitors and told them to walk up to the end of the aisle and take the room either on the left or on the right side.
However, she underscored that one of these accommodations provided a peaceful sleep while the other one procured horrible nightmares.
Before leaving the two travelers face-to-face with their fate, she mentioned that the good room granted the tenants' wish.
"And the doomed room?" Suzie shouted but it was too late, the pretty receptionist mysteriously turned into a swarm of stars and melted.
Suzie panicked and held her uncle tight. He tried to comfort her but she was still trembling. She began a series of queries to convince him to give up on their project and go back to Ekule.
"Uncle Bibi, let's stop our plan here and head back home! What if we get inside the wrong room instead of the holy one? What if we sleep and never wake up? What if we are hit by a spell? What if…" She interrogated uncle Bibi but he interrupted her.
"Suzie, we are here because you wanted it. Remember! A great danger hovers over the empire, and one of the men who can defend us is unfairly in prison right now. The lumberjack needs our help and we need his unmatched combat power." Uncle Bibi retorted.
"And don't focus only on misfortune! What if we choose the lucky room? Have you thought about it?" He added.
Suzie tickled and glanced at him intensely like to acknowledge he might be right.
"You see! That's what I was talking about. Now you are coming back to your senses, bright spark!" He said to her delightedly.
"Now the future of the Batang empire is in your hands. You are responsible to pick the room we sleep in tonight." Uncle Bibi uttered.
"Go in front, darling! I am behind you." He assured her.
