Moon 514- Blaze and the White Griffon

by Drew Briney

  “We’re setting up camp sir?” The inevitable white elephant was finally exposed. Other crew members exchanged glances.

  “I don’t know that we will be staying here Vardn,” Blaze assured him, “but I have a hunch that we are going to find something useful here. It isn’t always necessary to explore other planets to find new and exciting places to visit you know?” Although sincere and lighthearted, Blaze cringed a little at his own speech. In his heart, he had abandoned the need to avoid contractions some time ago – somehow, it even seemed like years had passed since he had made that decision even though it had been much, much shorter in reality. Nevertheless, old habits die hard and he continually questioned his own wisdom in departing from this vestige of youthful innocence.

  “Yes sir,” Vardn dryly responded. He was clearly less than enthusiastic about this new development.

  How are we going to see through all of those white clouds, Blaze questioned silently.

  If you had given me more than ten minutes, I could have given you a competent lesson, Evelia answered. I learned about this in my last session. Then, without any further word-based explanation, Evelia shared with Blaze images that explained how to focus the energy in such a way as to make it less visible while still maintaining a keen awareness of its presence.

  Are you excited? she gushed as they walked down the corridor towards the hanger.

  We better stop by Jazz’s room so he can watch the baby while we go outside, he instructed, hardly noticing that he had ignored her question. And I need to pick up my staff.

  “Blaze?” she said out loud this time. “Are you excited?”

  The young warrior looked over at his best friend, took her hand in his, kissed the back of her hand and laughed. “Are you kidding?” he answered. “Of course I’m excited. Who wouldn’t be? Whatever that is,” he said, gesturing randomly towards the outside of the ship, “whatever that is, it’s full of excitement wouldn’t you agree.”

  Yes! she silently but enthusiastically agreed. “Yes, something very exciting.”

  IN THE GENETICS LAB, ARIA casually laid down on the sofa, one foot resting on the armrest, the other resting on the floor, and her torso somewhat twisted as she smashed her head down on one of the several comfort pillows haphazardly laying across the sofa. She was beginning to realize that she was a workaholic. Without Toka staring over her shoulder, Aria had nevertheless been more productive since he had left than she would have ever thought possible. Work was therapy to her soul sometimes. It helped her forget her worries and pain. It distracted her from heartaches and sorrows. With a jealous heart, she swathed through her linatech cube to observe the live broadcast of her captain exiting the spaceship. Sure, she could have watched the scene with other crew members on a larger screen but today, she preferred to be alone – she often felt that way – few people can hurt you when you stay to yourself. Life is safer that way.

  Watching the captain lead a small crew onto a new continent was largely ceremonial anyway. People were watching mostly to celebrate their arrival back home and to get their first glimpse at this new – and hopefully exciting – place where they may or may not set up camp for a while – or perhaps where they might establish their new colony. No one really knew – not even Blaze.

  As she watched Blaze descend the ramp onto the live soil below, Aria felt mixed emotions. She yearned to be with him. She wanted to be among the front ranks of explorers checking out this new environment. She wanted to carefully observe every little plant or animal that might prove useful to her research – or even those creatures that might be interesting despite their lack of apparent scientific usefullness. She wanted to explore. She yearned for freedom. While she was slowly beginning to feel like she was embarking on a new, fresh life without her task master, Aria was also slowly beginning to realize that she didn’t know what to do with this newfound freedom. That was partially why she worked so hard. And while she had resolved to become a better person and to become more useful to her captain and his crew, she also felt a little uncertain as to what that really meant on a day to day basis.

  That was another reason why she worked so hard.

  As the other members of Blaze’s small expedition crew exited the ship, Aria felt pangs of jealousy that she wouldn’t have been able to articulate. She didn’t deserve to be with them. She practically engaged in a treasonous act against her captain. She proved that she couldn’t be trusted. The strongest, most conscious part of Aria felt these things. But somewhere deeper in the recesses of her soul, she felt entitled to be with them. From a certain perspective, she had saved his life, she had protected the entire crew. She deserved recognition for that – and a whole lot more. This side she suppressed – and as she had made resolutions to become a better person, this side was hidden up with great fervor. But then again, it resurfaced ever so easily.

  In short, Aria was a conflicted person.

  She tossed her long, full hair behind her so that its body curls draped over the armrest of the couch like a hundred coiled snakes ready to strike. She adjusted her top so that it quit pulling on the back of her neck and partially slipped off her right shoe with her left foot, leaving it dangling and loose. She was tired and worn. Perhaps that explained her dark temperament today. Perhaps not. She sunk deeper into her chair and placed a small pillow on her stomach for the linatech cube to rest upon so that she could watch the scene outside the ship without having to hold onto the cube.

  Startled, she watched as a large flying creature swept into view, approaching the small group of explorers from behind and diving in for an attack. As her heart began to pound with surprise and alarm for Blaze and those who were with him, she responded to something even more startling: her name.

  “Aria,” the familiar voice boomed.

  Horrified by the sound, Aria instantly snapped her body into an upright position, her right shoe falling off and her left leg hitting the front side of the couch a little too hard for comfort. Her heart rate nearly doubled. She gasped for breath and suppressed an instinctive scream. She felt sweat gathering on the back of her neck and on her forehead. It couldn’t be. This couldn’t be real. Mentally confused – even dumbfounded, physically panicked, and heart ablaze, Aria fought off a primeval urge to fall into the deepest abyss of a mental breakdown.

  “Toka!” she exclaimed matter-of-factly. Or was the expression nothing more than a question? An apparition? She fought to grasp onto anything logical that might explain this terrible appearance.

  He grinned. His entrance was precisely as he had hoped it would be and Aria was as transparent as she ever was. Puppet, he exulted to himself. “No child, but you could call me Tokatu if you wish.” His insider’s pun was lost to the young woman who held no vestige of a sense of humor for this new intruder. His grin turned more malevolent and mischievous as he sauntered towards Aria, one side of his smile larger than the other as he squinted the eye on that same side. He reveled in her fear as she coiled her knees towards her chest and pushed her body nearly upright on top of the couch. She then quickly hopped to its other side, all the while facing him and trying to maintain composure.

  “Tokatu?” she repeated, expelling twice the amount of pheromones that might have normally been necessary to achieve her purposes. It was instinctive now, a primeval response, an unconscious method of self-defense. But her strong emotion caused her to overreact, sending out a much stronger pulse of scents than she intended.

  Tokatu slowed his approach, breathed deeply through his nose and smiled. “Ahhhh,” he exulted again, “there is something magical about actually experiencing something instead of simply remembering ...”

  The comment left the siren speechless. Aria had no idea what he was talking about. This was nonsense. Neither was it real. Was it? Markedly changing his demeanor, Tokatu proffered a theatrical bow, allowing his eyes to completely lose contact with Aria for a brief passage of time. “Please allow me to introduce myself, my lady,” he swooned, enjoying the play. “I am Toka’s clone. Modifie
d with enhancements he was too cautious to try on his own body, filled with every memory – likely until moments before he died – and ready to start life anew!”

  Aria barely suppressed an impulse to wretch out of intense emotional duress. This couldn’t be true. She yearned to wake up. Or, perhaps she simply wished she was dead. Life was hard enough with Toka. Living with him after knowing what it was like to be free – even for a brief moment – was too much to bear.

  “Let’s start from scratch shall we?” The comment got Aria’s attention. “You tell me what happened to Toka and I will offer you a proposition you can’t refuse. Deal?”

  Aria had nothing to say. Perhaps she couldn’t say anything at all. Besides, she wouldn’t be able to resist. She knew what was coming: the beating. Toka had told her for years that her mind seemed blocked from achieving its full potential. It needed something to make it snap and realize its majestic powers. It needed to experience something so traumatic that her subconscious would take over and reveal itself. That was why he had created her in the first place. She was the perfect puppet, the perfect pawn for his experiment, the perfect specimen for his life’s achievement. In many ways, he had been pleased with her progress and his efforts. But in this particular way, she had failed him and he hated her for it. She couldn’t bear to look into Tokatu’s eyes but she knew they would be glaring down at her with that condescending look. They would be expecting her compliance. Nay, they would be demanding her compliance. She nodded in agreement. “Where would you like me to begin?” she asked in her seductive alto voice, masking her fear, controlling the tremor that would have instinctively surfaced had she not preemptively suppressed it.

  “Tell me about the virus you gave to Blaze,” he almost purred in response. There was something different in his voice Aria had never heard before. The sound of his voice was all too familiar but his tone reflected something she did not recognize at all. Fear of the unknown enveloped her. So she told him everything.

  EVELIA’S INSTRUCTIONS WERE HELPFUL but Blaze still saw too many billowing energy clouds to allow him to feel comfortable about his surroundings. It was easier said than done: focus on absorbing energy around you and then release it through your eyes. Releasing energy escaping from your muscles when you were using them was intuitive to Blaze – those lessons had come easily. Something about the endeavor seemed innately familiar and harmonious with his martial arts training. But pushing energy out of your eyes was somehow less accessible. Although he could do it, he could tell that his success was less than optimal. Perhaps he would be able to do better if he tried harder, he guessed.

  But as he exerted the effort to see better, he felt a strong pulsing from his subconscious surfacing. He was starting to recognize the feeling but he had zero ability to control it. Besides, his body responded to his subconscious before he knew what was going on. He dove into a strong shoulder role, banking left towards lower ground, moving his thumb over the staff’s panel as he did so. While he spun around, his fingers further engaged the staff’s functions, letting out that familiar, loud buzzing sound. Blaze stepped further to the side and swiped the spear edge of his staff into the sky with an energy enhanced blow towards an enemy he neither saw nor heard.

  The shriek from the creature left every member of the crew horrified and shocked. Everything had happened so quickly that no other member of the scouting team had the slightest idea of what had happened until it was all over. Blaze swung his staff in a large arching motion and severed its head as its writhing body smashed into the ground. The few men who had fought with Blaze against the natives quickly recognized this flying creature and recoiled in fear as uncertainty entered their hearts.

  “Back into the ship!” Blaze ordered, releasing a stream of energy bolts into the air above them. Two more creatures fell to the ground and one more let out a shriek as it crashed into trees not too far from the crew.

  While Evelia and the others ran back into the ship, Blaze held his ground, finally feeling in control of his own body and emotions. It was surreal to have your subconscious take over your every action and thought. It both felt very natural and violative at the same time. Blaze felt like someone was taking away his freedom of thought, his agency. Ironic, he thought as the implications of these ideas took hold upon his brain. It nearly made him laugh. Meanwhile, his eyes darted around the skies, looking for any signs of danger.

  If someone had asked him how he knew the flying beasts were approaching, he could have offered a laundry list of things that he had noticed: the tone of sounds coming from local insects, the way the breeze moved through the trees, a flash of negative energy that approached him from above, the way birds had stopped their cheerful chirping moments earlier. But these explanations didn’t really make much sense to Blaze because his conscious mind hadn’t noticed these things at all. If anything, he had been lost in his own thoughts.

  As these and a dozen other thoughts flashed through his mind, Blaze realized that he had started walking towards that huge chasm he had seen from the ship. He hadn’t intended to go anywhere by himself but that was exactly what he was doing. Something pulled him that way. He couldn’t explain that either but it was as real to him as the coolness of the day. The humid, cool air almost seemed biting. That was a real feeling. In the same way, the tugging sensation was real too. Something willed him to see the chasm. Something moved him to obey that will. Perhaps that something was himself, his subconscious. Blaze really didn’t know – and it didn’t matter – because it was growing stronger and he was following it anyway.

  He ran.

  It felt refreshing to run. Blaze ran in the ship from time to time as part of his exercise and training but sooner or later – even in a big ship – you have to run in a circle or backtrack. Here, he just ran wherever he wanted. More or less in a straight line, Blaze took the time to enjoy the sensations of the air whipping past his face, the thumping of the ground against the weight of his feet, and the pumping of his own heart. Exhilarating!

  His subconscious began to pulse again. It felt different this time but it made Blaze feel stressed nonetheless. He ran to the foot of a nearby boulder and jumped no less than ten feet to land on its flat top, sprawling his body to the ground, one arm bracing himself upright and the other holding his staff in ready position, his eyes riveted on whatever might be approaching.

  Peace. The voice was unknown to Blaze but he knew that it could be trusted. Besides, it was not spoken out loud. Somehow, that detail instantly inspired trust.

  Blaze watched as a large, white griffon pounded its wings towards a full stop, causing no small breeze to push against his face. Then, the beast all but fell straight down a few feet as if doing so was greatly invigorating. Shaking its head like a Labrador ridding itself of too much water, the griffon almost seemed to smile before slowly spreading its wings again and kneeling towards the young warrior.

  Blaze! it said. Can you hear me when I speak to you this way?

  Yes! he excitedly responded. Yes, I can. Blaze wasn’t sure what to think but somehow, this development was refreshingly exciting.

  Come, climb upon my back. I have something to show you. Obedience was no question. As the captain of a ship, Blaze was becoming accustomed to giving orders but somehow this particular order sounded more like an invitation than a command so he obeyed without question. Who wouldn’t?

  Moments later, the duo was flying towards the chasm. No more words were exchanged. None were necessary. While Blaze noticed that he had more control over his vision now, he could still discern that there was a very strong wind of white energy clouds originating directly in front of him. The intensity of the clouds was so strong that for a moment, Blaze could see nothing once more and tried hard to focus on pushing energy out of his eyes so that he could see something. The effort was futile. As the griffon pulled in its wings and forcefully plummeted into the unseen depths below, the density of the energy subtly shifted and Blaze could see once again everything in front of him. It seemed nearly an eter
nity of flying straight downward but Blaze gave little thought to that sensation – this was a joyful eternity, something you didn’t want to end.

  As time passed, the air got much cooler and then again, it grew warmer. As it grew warmer, Blaze could have sworn that he saw an alien hanging upon a cliff to his right. The white griffon recognized the tensing of Blaze’s grip on his mane and his shifting against his backside. You saw it, he asked.

  Yes. Was it …

  Yes, there are some aliens here, the griffon interrupted. There are not many and they keep to themselves but they are definitely present. I don’t think the others know.

  The others? Blaze asked, both unsure that he had heard correctly and aware that he knew precisely what the beast was intending to tell him. The griffon said nothing in response but Blaze felt a feeling emanating from the beast that instructed him to wait and see.

  Several more moments passed and the young warrior suddenly realized that he had absolutely no idea how long he had been flying and that he had not informed anyone onboard the ship what he was doing or where he was going – he hadn’t known himself. Tempted to doubt the wisdom of his impulsive decisions, Blaze nevertheless ignored these considerations and fully embraced his destiny as it unfolded around him.

  They were flying over seas now. Seas filled with small islands, rocky outcroppings, lots of birds, and the refreshing sounds of waves crashing against the shorelines. The air was more moist here as well and Blaze noticed that the griffon’s fur was beginning to soak up the moisture. If that continues, Blaze thought, he won’t be able to continue much longer.

  No matter, the griffon said. We don’t have much further to go. Embarrassed that his thoughts were heard by the beast, Blaze wondered whether or not he would ever get the hang of communicating telepathically.