E arnings …

 

»Why did you do that to us, Professor? We loved you! We trusted you!«

KussKuss, the llama, is getting all melodramatic.

»I am not a professor, I told you«, answers Claude Sideburns, who is not a professor for archaeology and not as they used to call him Claude Burnside. »And what did I do to you?«

The llama is drowning in tears.

With a shaky voice it says, »You betrayed us. Twice! You wanted to steal our treasure map and led us to that fiery dragon under the lake just to take all of our belongings. How yould you be so rude, so mean?«

Taken aback Sideburns is waving his hands in front of his body in a defensive gesture.

»But that was only a tall tale some artificial intelligence from the internet wrote. Nothing but a pack of lies. Don't you remember?«

Now Gerald, the butler, who might or might not be Sideburns' father, takes back the stack of paper and is waving it in his hands in a most dramatic way.

»But it is all printed out here, loud and clear«, he proclaims. »Ehm, I mean, black on white, printed out black on white, word by word.«

»We are wasting time here, my dears«, Hildegard, the housekeeper, remarks. »Feels like we are walking and talking into our fourth season here without getting anywhere. And still we have no signs of Bromford Bibble and the other two and not the slightest clue how to use that circle-dial of stones no-one has ever seen before.«

»Sorry, Hildegard«, Gerald whispers. »I got carried away.«

But Hildegard is smiling a very smirkey smile and I do not know whether the other two heard her following words or not,

»There still might be dragons.«

And a faint choir of voices like from the laurel leaves of the hedge labyrinth itself keeps on singing its' bittersweet little song,

Bored of the life in the City of Gold

He'd left and let nobody know.

Gone were the towers he had known from a child,

Alone with the dream of a life

He travelled the wide open road,

The blinkered arcade,

In search of another to share in his life.

Nowhere.

Everyone looked so strange to him.

They've got no horns and they've got no tail

They don't even know of our existence.

Am I wrong to believe in a City of Gold

That lies in the deep distance, he cried

And wept as they led him away to a cage

Beast that can talk, read the sign.

The creatures they pushed and they prodded his frame

And questioned his story again.

But soon they grew bored of their prey

Beast that can talk?

More like a freak or publicity stunt.

Oh

No.

They've got no horns and they've got no tail

They don't even know of our existence.

Am I wrong to believe in a City of Gold

That lies in the deep distance, he cried

And broke down the door of the cage and marched on out.

He grabbed a creature by the scruff of his neck, pointing out:

There, beyond the bounds of you weak imagination

Lie the noble towers of my city, bright and gold.

Let me take you there, show you a living story

Let me show you others such as me

Why did I ever leave?

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Today is Saturday, the 23rd of September 2023.

Bon automne ! Bon automne !