E.U.R.O Chapter 4
Chapter 4:
The Arrival
Light shone brightly through the cabin window and Arthur put a paw over his eyes and then he rolled over facing the cabin wall to stop the light blinding him. This was not unlike how he woke up at home, Arthur was not fond of mornings and he slowly got off the compact bed in the cabin and cast his gaze around the cabin. He unlocked the cabin door and stepped out into the deck's corridor looking around, Arthur noticed a crew member standing guard over the stairs to the lower deck and other furs around his age going up to the top deck. He swiftly followed them and soon found himself in a small canteen type room on the ship.
It didn't take Arthur long to find Rinus, the striking white cat at one of the tables, or rather it didn't take Rinus long at all to notice a white and orange Huskute looking rather confused and alone, standing awkwardly against one of the walls.
"Arthur over here!" Rinus waved and indicated the seat next to him, and sure enough the huskute sparked into action upon hearing that Irish cat and sat beside him.
"Hey, why are we all here?" Arthur gazed around the canteen and saw several large tables each had little flags all along them, the table they were sat at had the Welsh, English, Irish, Northern Irish, and Scottish flags along the middle of the table, looking at the other tables there were other flags such as the flags of Germany, France and Spain.
"I'm not too sure, I just sat at this table, has the Irish flag on it after all." Rinus smiled and looked around the room.
"As good a reason as any I suppose, Why are the English and Irish sharing a table though?" Arthur looked a little confused, he didn't like the feeling, and it seemed to be a common one today.
"Probably to save space, and we get along, don't we?" Rinus shrugged and looked to the huskute.
"Yes, it could be worse, we could be sharing with the French." Arthur smirked and was pleased to see Rinus grinning back at him.
"You're definitely English then!" Rinus flicked his tail behind him. Arthur laughed.
"No I'm Scottish, Can you not tell by my skirt?" Arthur grinned at the cat.
"You mean kilt, Arthur." Rinus responded after chuckling.
"The difference is?" Arthur looked genuinely intrigued by his own question, however Arthur was just speaking in jest as after all he thought a kilt can look excellent on many people.
"Eh, I don't know." shrugged Rinus waiting for something to happen, as was Arthur.
It was not long before one of the uniformed crew stood at the end of their table, Arthur notice that it was the tiger from before. "Welcome everybody aboard the EURO Dover, we know you have question, and we will answer as many as we can. First things first, we will arrive at our destination by the end of today, it is a small island in the Atlantic sea, no one knows that they are there. The reason for this will be disclosed to you when you arrive there. Now you must all be hungry so eat up!." With that, he left and more members of the crew appeared, with bowls of tomato soup. One bowl was set before each of the young furs who were sat at the table. Arthur looked at his and his stomach rumbled loudly, Rinus laughed before he began eating his own. Arthur took a spoonful of the soup and immediately grinned, it was rich in flavour which was to be expected from its bright red colour.
"This is actually really good!" Rinus said before cramming another spoonful in his maw. Arthur nodded, and began to eat at a ravenous pace.
"Indeed it is." The huskute replied after swallowing a spoonful of the soup. "Pleasantly so actually."
Arthur eventually finished the soup and set his spoon down. "How far from home do you reckon we are?"
"I don't know, I don't like it though." Rinus sighed, looking down and then back at Arthur. "A new school sounds fun... I didn't really think about how bad it would be to leave everyone behind though."
"Hmph... I guess, anyway at least it will be a new place that you can say you've been to? Who knows it may have fields greener than Ireland." Arthur shrugged.
"Bah, That'll never happen you English Dog!" Rinus smirked at him and Arthur chuckled.
"If you insist." Arthur then looked at the crew member who seemed to have been waiting for silence from everyone, a few seconds later everyone else had stopped talking and was looking in the same direction.
The Uniformed Tiger from before was standing up at the front of the room and speaking fairly loudly. "Ladies and Gentlemen, dames en heren, Mesdames et messieurs et cetera. We have arrived at our destination. Please collect your things from your cabins and then leave from the top deck, crew members will be on hand to show you where to go." He then went on to repeat the instructions from what Arthur could tell, in Dutch, German, Spanish and French.
Arthur and Rinus both got up and headed to their respective cabins, collecting their bags before walking swiftly to the top deck.
They looked at and saw the docks of what seemed to be a very small island, there seemed to be a road leading inland to a group of buildings, there was what looked like the outlines of a town further along the coastline, and dense forest around the island in general, Arthur thought it looked quite pretty and was admiring the view before he got nudged by Rinus who pointed at a group of cars, all black with the European Union flag on their bonnets. A group of young furs were already getting off the boat and into any car. Rinus and Arthur decided to follow on, putting their bags in the boot of a car and sitting in the rather luxurious black leather interior. The passenger section of the car was separate to the drivers front seat by a black pane of glass across the middle of the vehicle. Had Arthur been completely comfortable with an anonymous driver he would have probably found this cool, but after all things were considered he decided that the black pane of opaque glass annoyed him, he frowned at Rinus who smiled back at him. "What's wrong Arthur?" Rinus asked, his gold eyes gazing into Arthur's viridian ones.
"I just prefer seeing where I'm going is all." Arthur shrugged and looked out of the dark tinted windows, from what he could gather, they were heading inland and uphill, fast. After what felt like a very bumpy ride the convoy of cars came to a sudden stop, well sudden by Arthur's standards who had been looking out at the sky and not noticing the rather large complex that they had arrived at, it looked rather modern at first glance. Though upon closer inspection, it looked rather post-modern, many of the buildings were curved, with green roofs and solar panels.
The complex seemed quite intriguing and new, the flags of Europe were all in a circle around a large octagonal fountain which seemed to be the centre of the site. In addition to this he noticed several smaller buildings down small roads, each with domed roofs and a unique modern style, from what could be seen the buildings were largely made out of glass. Arthur concluded that this was due to the island being rather south of England, therefore it must, by Arthur's logic; have far better weather than the country of his origin and the glass was a minimalist way to make use of the sunshine.
The dog smiled to himself, perhaps he had learned a fair bit from listening to his brother and reading his projects.