The flying machine stopped beside the travelers, a few centimeters above the surface. In it stood a young man of the usual size, as the earthlings. He had curly blond hair and a light yellow tunic. He bowed to the earthlings and invited them up onto the flying machine with a gesture.
“Oh, Dandin,” Van sang happily, “how glad I am to see you.”
“Thank you, Van,” the young man replied, “I see,” he looked at the Valikhilya for a moment. “Are you feeling better?”
Van bowed in embarrassment.
A semblance of a small gangway extended from the ship. One of the sides thinned out, forming an entrance. The earthlings, still breathing heavily with fear, began to come to their senses and looked at the ship and the young man.
David walked over to Van:
“Were you not feeling well?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” the flying escort said and shook his head, “I was sad for the first time in a million years and I had to leave the castle.”
“You had to?” David clarified.
“I was told to,” replied Van.
“For being sad?” Yulia was horrified.
Van nodded.
“But why?”
“Because sadness is the beginning of madness,” Dandin answered for Van. “If you’re sad, you have forgotten your position. You can be angry, you can be happy, but you cannot be sad,” he smiled. “Come up to the chariot,” Dandin invited everyone.
“But this is the King’s chariot,” Van shuddered.
At that, everyone looked at each other.
“I’m not sure,” Jean-Pierre interjected. “What if we come with you and sneeze for example, and you throw us from the top, because it is not supposed to.”
“You are the Emperor’s guests,” Dandin laughed. “You are allowed anything. My lord has sent his chariot for you. Isn’t it an honor?”
“I guess so,” said Dr Capri. “But who are you?”
“My name is Dandin, and I’m a servant of Vivasvan the King of the Sun. He has found out that you have come to see him, so he is graciously willing to welcome you. Have you come to ask for something?”
“Ask for something?” Dr Capri repeated.
“Yes, travelers most often come to ask for something from the emperor,” Dandin said.
“Is there something he can give us?” David wondered.
“Do you often have visitors?” Jean-Pierre added softly.
“He gives what is asked for,” Dandin smiled and then looked at Jean-Pierre. “It happens, they drop by.”
“We’ve been looking for the source of the signal,” Dr Capri interjected, “it brought us here. It’s a signal from one of our spaceships. We picked it up by accident and went in search of the source.”