The Eye of Joy

        Andontis tugged on his mother's white cloak urgently.

        "Did you ever visit the Eye of Joy when you were a youngling?" he inquired.  They had been standing in line for 136 hours approximately, and he was tired of holding his elimination container.  Andontis unstrapped the satchel around his mother's neck and hurriedly pushed the silver can inside.  His mother admired her son's ability to distract her so covertly as he unburdened himself.

        Geniha estimated another six hours or so, as they were getting closer now and she could see the outline of the pale building across the barren landscape.  The craters shed a strange shadow and she remembered the way the structure resembled a youngling's translucent lips.  Adontis had lived nine rotations now, and his lips had turned from a translucent pale to a dark gray already.  Another mark of his turning from youngling to an Overlord.

        Geniha smiled nostalgically and watched the crowd in front, behind.  All various shades of gray as they shifted in anticipation.  The pigment had left their race long ago, and the chemicals used to sustain life made the vegetation and sky a frosty silver.  Even though smoky atmosphere appeared to reach forever,  Geniha had heard the stories of places beyond where her ancestors had journeyed from eons ago.

        "My grandOver, your great-great grandOver took me here when I was about your age, Andontis," she began.  "I had already visited the Relic of Rubix Cube in Tankcora, so I was excited to see another one of the ten Wonders of ROYGBIV.  The line back then was somewhat shorter, or maybe it didn't seem as long because we didn't complain back then," she joked.

         Andontis broke open a Fuel Capsule and drank the milky center, rolling his eyes.

       "Back then very few Overlords got to visit all ten Wonders in their lifecycle.  You should be glad you have a mother who has vacation time from the Colony.  Maybe someday, you will come with one of your own younglings."  Geniha pulled the blanket around both of them tighter.

        "I'm so excited," Andontis beamed, "I can't wait!" 

        He imagined what would happen as best he could from the stories he heard floating around the Colony.  From what his neighbor told him, he would enter a large spherical building.  There would be armed guards standing on either side of the door, but they were just there to make sure the Eye of Joy was safe and handled gently.  They would be wearing reflective helmets so Andontis wouldn't be able to see their faces but they could see his.  

        Once he entered, he would approach the concrete shelf in the center of the room. (His mom would probably come in with him, just to make sure he knew what to do.)  Andontis would ever so carefully pick up the Eye of Joy and bring it to his visor shield.  He would then lift the shield and peer into it so that it would cover his entire field of vision.  Finally, he would being spinning the Eye ever so slowly to see one of the ten Wonders of ROYGBIV!  The anticipation was crushing him as he sat down on the rocky terrain. 

      "Mom?" Andontis said.

     "Yes, dear?" she replied.

     Andontis wondered aloud, "Is the Eye of Joy heavy?"

     "No, baby," Geniha chuckled.  "Not for a soon-to-be Overlord like yourself!"

     "Good!" he sighed.  "Because it would be terrible to wait all of this time and not be able to lift it."

      Andontis's mother smiled knowingly and began to feel the tingles of excitement growing deep in her belly as well. 

      "I can't explain what it's like," she brushed his white hair out of his eyes.  "There was an old saying about it being worth a thousand words.  But that was back when a thousand was a lot.  So just imagine a thousand words, but alive."

      Andontis shuddered and grinned.

        

This was written for Magpie Tales.