Reincarnation

by Timothy McGowen

  Wake up before another one shows up! A voice called from inside my head. Was that my voice, or was someone yelling from a distance? I struggled to move and get my thoughts straight, but something heavy was pushing down on my chest. Finally, getting my eyes open, I saw the problem. A building had fallen on top of me.

  I looked down at my body, expecting to see a bloody mass of mangled flesh, but was happy to see my feet still in one piece. I gave my large toes a wiggle, well those still work. The problem was obvious. A section of the wall had fallen on my chest, and I was pinned beneath it.

  Oh god, you are finally moving! The voice said again, it was Sumahon. I was beginning to worry I was going to wink out into nonexistence! I’m not really looking to die anytime soon.

  “Me neither,” I said and immediately fell into a coughing fit.

  I vote we find a safer profession. How are you at basket weaving? I bet we could weave the crap out of some baskets!

  I laughed and fell into another coughing fit. It was time to focus and get this hunk of stone off of me. To my relief, when I placed my free hand on the stone and hefted, it moved easily, and I was able to roll out of the way as it slammed back down, throwing dust into my face. I noted as I stood that the building was made out of very porous stone. That explained the weight, at least. How had these buildings stayed up for so long if they were made from such weak materials, I wondered.

  The arm that had been pinned ached and pulsed with heat. The dust cleared, and I realized why. Several long lacerations and sections of the flesh on my arm had been peeled away. Bright sapphire blood poured out of a particularly deep cut, and I felt my head spin as I began to lose blood.

  Take a section of cord off your chest and tie off that arm quickly!

  I did as I was commanded, unable to process any amount of critical thinking as my head grew fuzzier. With difficulty, I wrapped my arm tight and laid back to sleep—just a few minutes.

  Its been long enough! Get up before you die!

  My eyes shot open. I felt weak and fatigued, but better. Pushing myself to a sitting position, I examined my wounded arm and the scab forming over the small cut on my leg. I guess I understood what Aetex meant when he said, ‘if I survive,’ this quest was ridiculous so far. I had killed the giant rat, though, and so I guess that meant I’d accomplished my mission. Good for me! I thought. Before letting my body lay back down on the pile of rubble. The suns had pierced the clouds, and a comforting ray of sunshine warmed my body while I contemplated the long walk home.

  I mentally opened my quest. Damn. It still wasn’t complete but had been updated.

  Quest Modified! Investigate Disturbance. -Kill the Rats!-

  You have been tasked with the protection of the roads by way of investigating reported disturbances.

  You have discovered a giant unnatural rat. Discover the cause of its origin and deal with the problem.

  1/? Rats killed. For every ten that you kill, you will be granted 1 Ability point.

  Reward for resolving threat: 1*X Ability Point.

  Failure: Loss of 1 Ability Point.

  “Curse you damned rats,” a voice echoed through the open area, “I am going to get you all!” The yell was shrill and high pitched, but differently than Sumahon, it was a softer shrill.

  I couldn’t just lay here if there were more rats around. I got up and slowly made my way towards the yelling and cursing. It didn’t take long to get to the place I had met the rat the first time, and peaking through the garden, I was met with the most peculiar sight.

  An ivory-skinned Ki’darthian, shorter than me, was swinging a sword twice its height at three huge rats.

  “You won’t get me!” The voice screamed, and they threw the sword at one of them. It missed. While I was still watching with my jaw wide at their ability to throw such a huge sword, they picked up another from the ground next to them. They began swinging away again as if the swords weighed nothing.

  I realized as I watched them fight that they wore similar garb as me. Several bands of white cloth laced from their waist and down their arms. They even had the same skin-tight jumpsuit on, except that they didn’t wear any shorts, just a loose skirt that sat above their knees. As they turned and smashed their tall blade into another advancing rat, I noticed the hair.

  Every Ki’darthian I’d seen so far had a rounded bald head similar to mine, but they were different. They were glorious! The way they swung the blade around was more a dance than a fight. As I gaped towards them in my hiding place, the unthinkable happened. One of the rats got through their defenses and bit into their arm. The sword dropped from the smaller Ki’darthian’s grip, and a terrible scream filled the area.

  That was the scream I had heard before! I should help, I thought as I took a step to leave my hideout, but I hesitated. Would I be of any help? What good would it do for both of us to die?

  Good thinking! Let’s turn around now, and maybe we can make it back before you pass out from exhaustion.

  Sumahon’s words gave me even more pause. If he agreed with what I should do, then maybe I would be making a mistake to just leave them.

  Hey!

  But then again, I really like being able to live. I don’t even know this person- My thought process was interrupted by a scream. I felt the scream and looked up.

  I was surprised to see they hadn’t fallen to the rats yet. In fact, they appeared to be floating several feet above them in the air. That is when I saw the two blades. Their two swords moved on their own accord, swinging, slashing, and overall destroying the three rats below that scrambled around trying to attack the swords. On top of that, I noticed specks of rocks being thrown from the ground at the rats, they didn’t appear to be doing much damage, but it helped to confuse the hideous things. All the while, the warrior floated above the ground, their skirt flapping from some unfelt force. They screamed at the rats and moved their arms as if throwing things at them. They must be controlling the rocks being thrown, I realized.

  Wow.

  I know, right? She can fly!

  I chuckled quietly from my hiding spot and watched the exchange in awe.

  Before long, all three giant rats lay lifeless on the ground, and then the half-pint warrior fell to the ground along with their swords. I rushed out to see if they were okay while keeping a close eye on the horizon for any more rats that might decide to pick me off.

  The landscape here was barren of even dead vegetation and so injured as I was, I still made quick progress to the fallen warrior’s side. Just as I closed in on them, they stirred.

  “If you are another rat,” a soft voice said, barely a whisper but smooth and pleasant to hear after so long, “please go away while I rest.”

  “I’m not a rat,” I declared, standing over them. I was surprised to find the half-pint appeared to be in better shape than me. Their clothing showed remarkable little wear and tear, only their arm where they had been bitten was torn and showed signs of sapphire blood.

  “Well, that is good to hear,” they answered while still laying on the ground with their eyes shut and hands behind their head, “I need a minute, so if you want to take a seat, I will get to you in a moment.”

  I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. The small warrior had fought off THREE of these giant rats and now laid back without a care in the world. I liked the feisty warrior already.

  They looked up while I stared in awe. “Have you never seen a female before?” She said, “I was told we are rare, but you really don’t need to stare.”

  “What no,” I said, confused, “I mean…You are amazing! You killed three of those things!”

  She just chuckled and went back to her rest.

  I sat next to her, putting my book in my lap and leaning on my hands. I noticed one of her tall swords nearby and tilted my head
as I studied it. It wasn’t even a real sword, not really. It had a round handle wrapped in some kind of soft-looking material. The length of what I assumed was a blade before were several long strips of wood tied together up the shaft. And if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, the top was capped with the same soft material as the handle.

  That is a traditional training weapon of the Ki’darthians, called a shi’ahn. We might as well change my name to ‘dictionary’ at this point. Be advised I am working on a way to stop these ridiculously forced informational regurgitations.

  “It’s not like I am forcing you,” I whispered to my book, then remembering he could read my mind I added, I was just wondering what things are and you shoot the answers out.

  “Forcing me to do what?” the small warrior asked, opening her eyes and sitting up to give me a perplexed look.

  “Oh, sorry I was talking to someone else,” I responded.

  Yeah, she isn’t going to think we are crazy or anything. Sumahon said.

  Maybe talking to your Seinkah is normal. I thought back while shooting a smile in the small warrior’s direction. She was looking back and forth over the battlefield now. Her look of confusion just seemed to be growing.

  “You realize we are alone, right?” She finally said in a low whisper, her eyes still scanning the horizon.

  “Yep,” I answered back, the same wide smile on my face as I stared into her warm yellow eyes.

  “You are strange,” she said, standing and grabbing her closest sword and dragging it behind her as she walked to retrieve her other sword, “I like that! My name is In’ah, what’s yours?”

  I stood and followed after her.

  “My name is Neak’o,” I said, then added, “I am the Erusha!”

  In’ah laughed.

  “THE Erusha?” She asked, emphasizing the word and turning back to look at me with a grin of her own.

  Erusha is the title given to ALL born with the abilities to channel Sri, you are one of many, didn’t you know that? See the gem on her head? She is also an Erusha.

  Oh. I felt blood rushing to my face. I knew Aetex had been special, but I figured I was meant to replace him or something. How could I be so stupid?

  “An Erusha,” I corrected, no longer smiling.

  “I heard we had another newborn,” In’ah said, lifting her sword above her head and thrusting it downward at the base of the rat’s tail. Just before the edge of the wooden blade was going to hit the tail, it flashed a gray color and a normal metal blade appeared slashing through the tail. She did this twice more and then tied the tails together with a small length of rope. To my surprise, she also tied the handle of her swords to the robe and began dragging all the items behind her, walking towards the edge of the mountain.

  I watched in bemused amazement, before following her.

  “Another newborn, someone else was born recently?” I asked, wondering who trained the other hatchling.

  “I heard she was a dud, so they just put her to work at a family farm in another village,” In’ah said over her shoulder, “It’s a shame, there are so few of us.”

  “A dud?” I asked, finally catching up to her and keeping pace.

  “Yeah,” she said, “You know, a dud. Can’t channel her Sri, had no Seinkah, the only reason they know they are duds is they still have the gem in on their foreheads.”

  “Oh,” I said, waiting for Sumahon to give me additional information, but it never came.

  “Your ancestral knowledge came in pretty patchy, eh?”

  I figured it out! I can keep myself from responding if I direct the automated response to your visual overlay. Score one for the bookman!

  I focused on displaying the full visual grid, and sure enough, a small bit of information had appeared.

  -According to Ki’darth cultural history, there will occasionally be those born with defects, this problem can affect even those blessed before birth to become Erusha.-

  “Yeah, my information comes and goes as it sees fit,” I said sarcastically while thumping the simple leather tome against my side. I heard Sumahon mentally hmph each time.

  In’ah seemed to notice the book for the first time, and she turned, dropping the robe in her hands. She eyed me up and down and until her eyes came back to the book.

  “A book?” She asked loudly, her head tilting and mouth opening.

  “Yeah,” I said, feeling self-conscious, “So what?”

  “Oh nothing,” In’ah said, smiling, “I just want to see how you fight off things with your Seinkah is all. You can take care of the next batch of rats, right?”

  “You’re a Sri manipulator?” I asked, wanting to change the subject from my non-weapon Seinkah.

  “I sure am,” she answered, grabbing the length of rope with her bundle and skipping forward while the load dragged behind her in the dirt. I cringed at how dirty things were getting, then I remembered that I wasn’t exactly the picture of cleanliness right now.

  “How did you do that last attack?” I asked, “You took out all three of them so quickly. If you knew how to do that, why not start with that kind of technique?”

  “I call it psycho blades!” In’ah said hopping up and down and making mock attacks with her arms like swords and swooshing noises.

  “I picked manipulation because I figured it would help with these oversized stupid things.” She thumbed over her shoulder towards her swords.

  “But it turns out it is really hard to move things around, and I can only use psycho blades when I get really pissed off, something about being mad makes me stronger physically and allows me to leverage my higher energy potential. What path did you pick? Obviously, not a shielder.” She said looking me up and down again, “projector?”

  “Yep,” I said and let some of the energy build in my hand while holding my hand up for her to see, then I shunted the power and let it dissipate. “This is my first quest, and I already got my butt handed to me by one giant rat.”

  “I am pretty new myself,” In’ah said, shrugging, “I’ve been around for almost a year. I told Aetex I’d get to this one when I had time, he is always riding me to go here and do this, but sometimes I just need some time to explore.”

  I watched as she stopped mid-stride and held her arms out to the side while lifting her eyes to the sky and slowly twirling.

  “So, we have the same quest?” I asked, “How many more rats do we have to kill until we are done?”

  “None,” In’ah said not taking her eyes from the sky, “The rats are just a symptom of the problem, we have to figure out what is causing these poor things to grow so big and angry. There are a set of caves that the ancients carved out of the rock ahead and as far as I can tell, that is where the rats are coming from.”

  “Let’s get to work then,” I said, glad to have someone to help me on my first quest, “Oh, before I forget, do you know where I can get any clean clothes or,” I examined my injured arm, “Maybe some bandages?”

  ***

  It was a new day, and the sun felt warm on my bald head. I checked the bandage on my arm again, but it was still in place. Last night In’ah had taken me back to her hideout. It was in one of the smaller abandoned dome houses and she had fixed me up nicely. My sleeves had been nicely cut, the dust cleared off and cleaned as best we could manage with her meager supplies and now we stood at the entrance to a cave.

  We had only encountered one rat so far on our trip here, and between the two of us, we dispatched it quickly. I studied In’ah and focused on her, willing the overlay to activate.

  -In’ah, Sri Manipulator, Level 4 -

  Hey, did you see that? We are stronger than she is! I wonder why you can’t take on one rat and she beat up three without lifting a finger? Sumahon asked.

  She lifted plenty of fingers, I shot back at Sumahon.

  Sumahon gave his usual hmph sound in my head and fell sile
nt again.

  I quickly glanced at my own level, ignoring the various skill and abilities notification, before willing the overlay screen away.

  -Neak’o – Sri Projector – Level 5

  I was improving slowly.

  “You think you can blow these doors open?” In’ah asked, she had walked up to the door and pushed on it several times as I inspected my overlay.

  “If the rats are coming from inside these doored off caves, then there has to be a way in without us blowing things up,” I said in response.

  The door, if you could call it that, was a large ivory thing, and it stood out among the grey stone of the rock face it was set into. I walked closer and examined the thing more closely. It had overlapping patterns, almost like large hand-sized scales from top to bottom. A nearly invisible crease could be seen if you focused. I ran my fingers down the crease, looking for a way inside.

  My fingers rubbed against a missing scale just above eye level, and I hooked my finger inside. It was a small opening. I wiggled my finger around, and after nothing happened, I removed my hand. Pushing on the door to test if I had triggered a secret lock didn’t work either. The door was as firm as it had been for In’ah.

  I spent some time running my hand over the rest of the door, but it was all the same uniform scales covering the entire thing. If I had to blow this thing down it might take a while, it looks really sturdy. Wait, I wonder if…

  I walked back to the nearly invisible opening and hooked my finger inside, then pulled. It took almost no strength at all, and the door swung out towards us.

  Pull, don’t push.

  “Awesome!” In’ah exclaimed, “You did it! Good job!”

  She ran past me and disappeared into the darkness. A call to be careful died on my lips as she poked her head back out and beckoned me inside. I followed.

  “So, what are we looking for,” I asked hoping that In’ah had a plan forming.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” In’ah said in a low whisper. She moved closer before speaking again. “This is my fifth quest. The others were things like, escort this caravan or hunt down a man-eating cat, lizard, or dino. They were all very straightforward. I’ve been putting this one off because short of killing the rats, I didn’t really know what to do. Aetex must have sent you because I was taking so long. I don’t see the problem; I kept the rats away from the road. But anyway, I figure if we kill all the rats, then problem solved. They must have a nest in these caves because no matter how many I kill more show up the next day.”