Out in Space part 5

A gentle wave of anxiety swept over Chili as she walked slowly towards a tall castle door.  Everything here was blue, because of their "sun."  There was no color except for blue, black, white, gray, rusty orange and the occasional red.  A dark, misty landscape was all they could see.  Buddy whimpered and cuddled closer to Baby's body.  Iceberg slowly pressed the huge doorbell.  Their alien friend, Gafi, was babbling in Hogapew.  "Heio lafgin bou harrineh?"  "Are you sure about this?"

The huge door creaked open.  Coco, Sally, and Buddy huddled close to the dragons.  The other dogs were still inside the rocket.  Suddenly, a huge blast of greyish green mist exploded out at them.   A tall, black-robed, goblin-like creature holding a candle with a blue flame appeared out of the fog.  It had huge bat ears, a dark red cape, loooooooong legs with thorny feet at the ends, a lipless mouth, needle-sharp teeth,       a huge grin, and a heavy, spiny tail that slithered back and forth across the ground nonstop.  Despite its looks, the gruesome monster before them would soon become a guide in the Castle of Troubles.  "Ettawah, finemia," murmured the thing.  "Hello, friends."   "Eeeh... maconita...HAGADORAH!  AROHAH HINBA... racutia!  Aaaah...  anborco. Aaaah!  How Ernboi." It stuck out a scaly black hand.  Gafi translated.  "Um...come in...WIPE YOUR FEET!  FOR GOODNESS SAKES...fools!  Aaaah...better now.  Aaaah!  I'm Erbonoi."  Erbonoi, which means "Cutie" in English, was just that compared to the male creatures.  She was a Criffae, and became known to the dragons as "Cuddles."  Cuddles told them to call her Cuddles, in Dragonese this time, and then set off.  They followed her, up and down steep ramps and across wobbly chain bridges, to a huge glass-walled room.  It seemed like an elevator, as there were rows and rows of buttons with strange symbols on them- not unlike the "numbers" that Becky had tried to teach them- in the corner on a metal panel.  Cuddles slither-walked over to the panel with the buttons and punched one of them.   As she did, a fabulous little creature popped out of her cloak, which seemed to be covered in large pockets.  It had big black eyes like those of a chameleon, a huge tail about twice as long as its body, scales from its curved white horns and along its back to its tail, long legs, a horse's head and droopy whiskers as long as its tail.  As the room began to descend, the tiny critter made a loud clicking noise and swished its long tail.  "Oh! That's Figi," explained Cuddles.  She cuddled the little animal.  Where there were not scales, there was silky grey fur and a hard shell around its thighs.  Figs, as they called it, was a Baroidiomus Cape. They got their names from the great explorer Baroidioma Apiro, who discovered the tiny thing in a forest.  The "Cape" part came from the scales, which formed a sort of cape shape.  When the little guy wanted to go fast, he shook himself and the cape split in half.  Big, scaly black wings would unfold and it would zip around like a hummingbird.  Figs did just that, and alighted gently on Chili's shoulder as the elevator bumped to a stop.  Cuddles led them out into a long hallway and opened a door.  The dragons could not believe what they saw!

Continued in part 6