Aoraki – Dieter’s House

On the ride to his house, Dieter handed out cold sodas from the limo fridge along with various snacks. For Tag especially, some — like the meat jerky crisps — he had never seen before. He decided that he really was feeling much better now that his paws were firmly back on terra firma, and he eagerly devoured anything and everything that was offered. There were many new sights for Tag to take in: multi-lane blacktop roads, traffic lights, houses that had hardly any space between them, and taller multi-story buildings that Jaak explained had apartments — houses stacked one on top of the other that, yes, people actually lived in.

Once the boys had jumped out of the limo and their bags were retrieved, Dieter assured Jarvis that they could manage to take the bags inside themselves, as Jarvis still needed to take Schön to his next meeting.

The door of the house opened, and a casually but smartly dressed Hunde with flowy chestnut-brown hair came down the front steps.

Tag gave Anna a shy but pleased smile.

Jaak and Dieter just looked at each other and grinned.

Dieter’s house had three living levels, and Dieter’s room comprised the entire third floor, running from the front right through to the back. There was a large double bed at either end, and in the middle a comfy-looking sofa that Dieter explained also turned into another double bed. There were clearly going to be plenty of places to sleep. Jaak dumped his bag on the spare double bed and motioned to Tag to dump his by the sofa. Opposite the sofa there was a large holo-screen TV with a vast assortment of video game controllers. On a low table to one side, a large brick-set model of a Tet sat in pride of place.

On one side was a bathroom with a huge bathtub, complete with an impressive array of spa jets, a separate walk-in tiled shower with glass doors, stacks of thick, fluffy white towels, and, much to the fascination of Tag, a fully flushable toilet — with actual pipes. For Jaak, it was like seeing a long-lost friend.

So, with the noise greater than that of a thousand stampeding mammothants, the three boys pounded their way down the stairs and out the French doors into the back garden. Jeans, sweatshirts, and T-shirts were peeled off, and this time, for the sake of the neighbours, swim shorts were donned. They spent the next couple of hours in happy, noisy aquatic fun. Jarvis had reappeared and left out three blue-and-white striped beach towels, which the boys quickly grabbed as they headed back inside, still dripping water everywhere on the parquet floor.

—as a trail of wet paw prints disappeared up the staircase.

Later that evening…

After a dinner of build-your-own burgers with just about every filling you could think of, the boys headed back upstairs, eager to spend an evening playing video games on the holo-screen. As they entered Dieter’s room, the visitors found that all their things had been neatly put away into drawers and the three beds already turned down. There was one surprise though — on each of the beds they found a set of silk pajamas, each in a different colour: red for Jaak, blue for Tag, and green for Dieter. In addition, there was a monogrammed initial on the jacket pocket — J, T, and D.

Dieter looked at them, nodded, smiled, and knowingly uttered one word.

The three boys slipped into the silk pajamas, which they indeed found to be luxuriously slippery and soft. Their day clothes were left in a haphazard pile on the floor.

One of the cyan stones slipped out of one of the jeans pockets, and it was now glowing a bright iridescent blue, gently pulsating with light.

The other two boys then rummaged through the assortment of discarded clothes and found their own stones, which too were glowing and pulsating with the same blue light.

They then sat on Tag’s sofa bed, each holding a stone in their paw. The three stones seemed to glow and pulse in unison, and when they moved the stones closer together, they glowed even brighter still and pulsated faster.

The boys did just that. They each held their stone out in the palm of their paws. As the stones continued to glow and pulsate, they became completely translucent with diamond-like clarity. Each passing second brought a new surge of intensity.

Slowly, and in unison, the stones gently rose from their palms and then started to revolve in a triangular pattern between each of the boys’ outstretched paws.

Faster and faster they spun. Soon the stones were a solid blur of blue rotating light.

A sudden flash of iridescent blue light permeated each corner of the room.

The hair on each of their heads stuck straight out like it had been supercharged with static electricity.

Then, as fast as it had started, the light faded, and the three stones stopped spinning, landing with a plop into each of their paws. They were now back to their usual faint, bluish, opaque colour.

The boys just sat there for a few minutes, looking at their stones and looking at each other in amazement and wonder.

Once the boys were satisfied that the stones weren’t going to do anything else, they put them carefully away. Next task at paw was to spend a few hours shooting swarms of invading aliens who were attempting a hostile takeover of the Planetary Confederation of Eis. Eventually, when they could no longer keep their eyes open and Tag had already curled up asleep next to Dieter, the other two boys headed over to their own beds.

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