Part 3 (9)

A guard opened the door of the underground. A huge light from the hall of the headquarters pierced the penumbra of the cell and blinded Babida. He blocked the might of the glow with the palm of his right hand.
In the meantime, Suzie walked back on her toes to the right corner where uncle Bibi was still dozing. She tried her best to go unnoticed.
"Who are you talking to, disgraced warrior?" The guard reprimanded from the doorstep.
"Pardon me, comrade, I can sometimes be loud during my meditations. I will lower my voice next time." The lumberjack pleaded with the imperial sentinel.
"You better do." He responded to Babida and then closed the door.
"Young maiden, are you alright?" The logger asked his rescuer.
"Yes I am but my uncle is still slumbering. I hope nothing is wrong with him." She declared worried to the lumberjack.
"Yes I hope too. Nevertheless, what's your plan?" He quizzed the young maiden.
"To be honest, without my uncle we are lost. I am the mastermind and he is the commander of the field operations. He is now a retired warrior but he still got it." The young woman confessed powerlessly.
Babida remained quiet. A long silence took hold of their spirits. Each one had the feeling of being alone in the underground. The vis-a-vis didn't exist for a while. After a moment, their solitary trip through the universe ended.
"Are you there, young maiden?" Babida asked.
"Yes, I am." She replied.
"Wait a minute! My uncle is moving."
Haaaaaaaaaaa
"Where am I?" Uncle Bibi queried while yawning.
"Thank our ancestors! You are doing well." Suzie expressed her excitement.
"The gods are with us. My Commander, you are waking up from a long journey in the Kingdom of Iyô, the god of deep sleep." Babida revealed to him.
"Yes, I remembered now. It's because of the fragrances in the room of our hostel." He admitted while gradually recovering consciousness.
"We left our hometown Ekule to save the lumberjack and...wait a minute! You are the lumberjack." Uncle Bibi remarked, stunned.
"How did I...did we land here?" He interrogated while staring at his niece, dazzled.
"It's a mystery we will solve later, uncle Bibi. Now we have a divine mission. To free the lumberjack and escape from this obscure place." Suzie put her uncle back on track.
Uncle Bibi stood up. He advanced toward the cell's gate. He shook it but it was sturdy. A special force was necessary to topple it and would have anyway attracted the attention of the imperial sentinels.
So he discarded that option. He paused for a moment, looked at the woodsman and his niece, then asserted: "If we need omelets, we will have to break the ducks' shells."
Suzie and the lumberjack were confused by uncle Bibi's statement. They glared at him like they were waiting for clarification and finally it came.
"Someone will have to spend some days with the native doctor for the sake of the Batang empire." Suzie's uncle added but still, it was incomprehensible to his interlocutors.
"What…" The young maiden was about to say something, yet, she could not finish her sentence.
Trrr, trrr, turrrrrrrr
A guard unlocked the door of the underground. The light from the hall of the headquarters smacked Babida's face again. As usual, the logger barred the power of the glow with the palm of his right hand. Then the imperial sentinel began to go down the stairs.
The door shut itself. He held in his hands a bowl of cooked rice, tomato stew, and fried chicken along with an orange and a bottle of fresh water.
As he neared the lumberjack's cell, he uttered to him: "Comrade, here is your lunch!"
Since he had his hands full, he could not open the door. So he placed the food and the drink on the concrete ground.
He detached the cell's key from the rope around his silk trouser and unlocked the door. The ideal moment that uncle Bibi who was hiding in the left corner had been expecting.
BAM!
Uncle Bibi came from behind and with his right hand, he whacked the back of the head of the imperial sentinel. The latter fell and hit his forehead against the floor. He sustained a severe commotion.
"Oh my goodness! What have you done, My Commander?" Babida exclaimed.
"Uncle Bibi, why?" Suzie shouted.
"That's what it takes to make omelets." He responded with no remorse.
BOUM!
A guard kicked the underground door with impressive force. It broke. He entered in a hurry followed by a squad of about twenty imperial sentinels. They were heavily armed. They carried with them sharp stainless steel swords, curved knives, poisoned arrows, ebony sticks, slingshots, and ropes.
Uncle Bibi, Suzie, and the lumberjack were caught red-handed. Their plan collapsed like a castle of cards. A new chapter of their lives was now going to begin.
TO BE CONTINUED…