"What exactly do you remember?"Mina repeated Kino"s words in her mind.
"What do I remember?"
"Should I tell him the truth?"
Mina eyed the orangutan who prompted her to say something with its eyes. Mina looked at her toes while trying to figure out how to start explaining or what to say. She wriggled her toes from the big toe to the little toe while trying to organize her thoughts.
"Hmpf!"
The loud sigh caught Mina"s attention and she looked up to Kino who was shaking his head while looking at her.
Mina felt as if she was being skewered under Kino"s intense gaze. The silence suddenly felt too much and she couldn"t help but say something. Without thinking further, Mina said the first thing that came to mind.
"I think It"s impossible to tell if the two little toes next to the big toe are moving without looking at it!"
Kino slapped his head in frustration and used the stick to hit Mina on the head.
"Hmpf!"
Mina knew she couldn"t stall forever and she needed answers. Throwing caution to the wind, she found the courage to ask one question as she hugged her knees closer to her body.
"Where am I? What is this place?"
Kino"s face lit up while looking at her and the monkey gave the stick an adoring look.
"Never fails."
Mina couldn"t help but hear the monkey"s muttering. At that moment, she felt like one of those old, humongous, TV sets that had to be slapped to have a clearer display.
Using the stick, Kino drew a large circle on the soil inside the sandbox. Mina"s whole face scrunched up while looking at Kino draw a small dots on one side of the large circle. Kino studied her for a while before pointing the stick to the small dot.
"Here. We"re in this Deadend, er, Checkpoint Node."
"The what?" Mina couldn"t help but ask again.
Everything was just too confusing -this place, Kino, and even how she seems to be ending up in the pod.
"This is the place where dead things go when they leave their sh.e.l.l, er, body behind. Where we are now is the Checkpoint Node." The monkey emphasized his statement by pointing repeatedly on the small dot.
"This is where we monitor any irregular activities in the entry points surrounding this area." Kino explained patiently while encircling the area surrounding the small dot.
"So," Mina finally said after a long silence as she tried to grapple with all the new information Kino has been throwing at her.
"I am in the Checkpoint Node. This Egg Pod is the checkpoint node." Kino beamed at her in the same way a mother smiles when their baby calls her "mom" for the first time.
"What exactly are these entry points for? How many are there? Why is there a checkpoint?" Mina asked, this time more curious than confused.
Kino traced the big circle he drew earlier. "This, this entire circle is the Meerkat Network. Souls travel to different areas in Existence through this network."
Pointing the stick on the small dot, he continued to explain. "This, this small dot where we are is one of the checkpoints. Not all souls are allowed to enter the Network. Some are turned away, others have to be ...dealt with."
Mina nodded, either confused nor enlightened.
"Is this... the afterlife?"
Kino scratched his head and shifted on his feet. "I am not fond of calling it "that" but yeah humans call it the afterlife."
"If this is the afterlife, does it mean I"m dead?" Mina couldn"t help but wonder.
"That"s exactly why I hate calling it afterlife! Are you dead?"
"Am..."
Mina was about to answer Kino when the orangutan took out a banana, peeled it and fed it to her. She had no idea where the banana came from and how Kino managed to do the feat in just a few seconds.
"Stop having stupid thoughts. Leave the thinking to philosophers."
Kino looked at her again and mumbled.
"This is exactly why human souls are harder to deal with. They introspect too much."
Mina couldn"t do anything but eat.
"The soul enters Existence through thousands of entry points in the Meerkat Network. Sometimes, some souls detach from their sh.e.l.l it prematurely because of an external force and they have to be sent back. Others are not allowed to proceed and have to be handed over to the Chimaeras.
Mina was in the middle of chewing when she heard Chimaera and she couldn"t help but mumble a question with her mouth full. But the only discernible word was myth, lion, and goat. Using the stick, Kino hit her head again.
"You only remember useless human things. Chimaeras, they"re the ghost sharks inhabiting that Void."
Kino pointed in the evident blackness in the middle of the view below them.
"The void looks like a black hole to me."
"Some souls like yours and mine remain in the Network for various reasons."
Mina was about to ask him about the reasons but Kino was quicker.
"Don"t ask about the reasons, there are thousands of them and you can"t expect me to remember everything!"
"Why am I here then? Am I a soul too?"
Kino had both hands on his head and was about to pull out his hair when Mina asked the question but he answered anyway.
"I am not sure. I bet the higher-ups sent you here because this Checkpoint Node has been idle for years. Yes, you are a soul right now because you are stupid enough not to wear your sh.e.l.l when traveling to this pod."
"I don"t even know how I managed to travel here."
Mina complained not caring if Kino thought she was stupid or not.