Mythicals

by Dennis Meredith

  They learned, thankfully, that the Theran governments had ruled that the Pilgrims already on Thera, including his parents, could stay as refugees, as long as they remained peaceful.

  Then came the bliss, when Jack and Sam returned to his apartment. They had made love for the first time—transcendent, intoxicating love. More sublime than any Jack had ever experienced.

  They had joined their bodies in unions that were by turns urgent and gentle, softly tender, and wildly abandoned.

  Her body was unimaginably delicious, a softness beyond softness. Her pixie fragrance, an intoxicating mélange of the most delicate flowers, the sweetest spices. And he found himself moved to emotional depths he didn’t know existed.

  When they had paused to rest, they nestled sensuously against one another, sharing their dreams, sharing their love.

  And they had made love again.

  And then talked.

  And made love again.

  And repeated, until they were both exquisitely, profoundly fulfilled.

  And now, after a shower that had included yet another voluptuous fusion of their bodies lubricated by the warm, streaming cascade of water, they lay nestled in bed. He put his arm around her, feeling little of the pain of the bullet wound, given that she had applied her pixie’s healing kiss.

  He managed to find his voice, but he could only manage single words. “Wonderful. Happy. Amazing.”

  “Yes,” she said simply.

  “Pheromones,” he whispered. “Amazing.”

  She propped herself up onto one elbow and looked into his eyes, smiling impishly. “What do you see?”

  “You. Lovely.”

  “I mean my eyes. What color are my eyes?”

  “Blue.”

  “Yes, blue. They never turned green, did they?”

  “Uh . . . I don’t think so. I don’t remember.”

  “They only turn green when I’m producing pheromones. I never did that. What we had . . . what we did . . . was just us. Together.”

  He grinned stupidly at the ceiling. “Wow, you mean it was just us making love with no chemical . . . uh . . . influence?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “I love you.”

  “I know,” she replied casually, as she had said so many times.

  “I mean I really love you! For you! It’s not me being an enchanted human. It’s me in love!”

  “I know.”

  They laid together for a long time, enjoying the present, imagining the future.

  His cell phone intruded with its ring. He let it ring for a long time before answering.

  His expression began with a smile, but faded to sobriety, then became grim. He ended the call, downcast.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “That was A’eiio. The Wardens Council has met. They have ruled that Therans remain a terminal species, and they will inevitably devastate the planet’s environment, rendering it unlivable. They showed the Theran leaders the video we took of dying Earth. But the Theran leaders were dismissive. They still reject the Remediation.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “The Wardens have decreed that all Mythicals are to evacuate the planet.”

  • • •

  The bleak, smog-enshrouded landscape of Earth slid by on the giant screen, as the members of the Theran Congress of Nations watched the video in silence. There would be no narration. None was needed.

  The scene cut wordlessly to the squalid village along the potholed highway; then to the starving, ragged people; then to the lifeless ocean, then to the flooded, mold-encrusted buildings.

  Months earlier, in the same hall, the same delegates had been stunned to see the alien Mythicals who had lived anonymously among them for all of their history.

  Today, standing before them was another alien, Jack, but one who looked just like them. And, one who had defied his race to help save their planet from devastation. Behind him stood the Mythicals who had become such a cherished part of his life—Sam, Mike, Steve, Vlad, Wendy, Ryan, and A’eiio. Even E’iouy had come, his slim, pale body still encased in the transparent healing film that was used by fairy doctors.

  As the video finished, Jack stood at the lectern, allowing the images of his dying home planet to sink in. This was a last chance to persuade the Therans to save themselves.

  “Your planet is a sister planet to my home, Earth,” he began. “It has evolved in a parallel universe, and you see the fate Earth has suffered at the hands of its people . . . the result of their ignorant foolhardiness, allowing their technology to bring it to ruin.

  “Thera has not evolved as quickly as Earth, but the same forces are at work here that threaten your planet. Rising levels of planet-warming gases, melting of polar ice, acidification of the oceans.”

  Jack paused, smiling sadly. “Soon you will catch up to Earth. Soon you will see the devastating consequences of your folly.”

  He went on to show the charts and graphs that Theran scientists had developed from their masses of unequivocal data that pointed to Thera’s looming fate.

  “I beg you, as do all the Mythicals, to implement the Remediation, to save your planet from environmental ruin.”

  He and the others then moved to the gallery, to hear the speeches in response. The reaction from some of the delegates was supportive. But from most, the statements were disheartening:

  “. . . an interference in our affairs by these monsters from other worlds . . .”

  “. . . an economic burden that would cost jobs and disrupt the carbon-based energy industry that has served us so well.”

  “. . . merely theories that need to be studied more before we take any drastic steps.”

  “. . . an attempt by scientists to justify their existence and enjoy their generous research funding.”

  “. . . a massive hoax perpetrated by those who would profit from these so-called clean energy sources.”

  “. . . a warped and incomplete picture of that planet that probably leaves out all the successful adaptation that has taken place.”

  In the end Jack and the others left the hall in defeat, walking slowly out into the cool night air of the capitol. They stood silently together, their resolve drained.

  A’eiio helped her husband walk to their waiting car, then returned to Jack, who stood with Sam.

  “You tried your best,” she said softly, shaking her head. “The Wardens were watching the convocation. We will all try to dissuade them of their decision. But remember, we are all exiles. We have no say in our fate.”

  Jack said nothing, but hand-in-hand with Sam, walked away into the night.

  The wormhole, a lighted, shimmering globe against the night sky, settled slowly down to hover above the lawn of the vast green-space that extended from the capitol building to the Hall of the President of the Confederated States.

  The ogre who waited to manage its landing did not complain tonight about the elves leaving the lights on. Tonight, the Mythicals wanted the world to see them depart.

  Similar landings were occurring throughout the planet, in all the major capitols. Each interdimensional aperture would take on board the Mythicals species that lived there. They would then all rendezvous in a vast, empty plain in the southern hemisphere. At that transfer point, each species would reboard the wormhole that would take them back to their home planets.

  And so, around the landing site on the capitol lawn had gathered a vast multifarious crowd of fairies, pixies, trolls, ogres, goblins, vampires, leprechauns, demons, angels, elves, and gnomes. Even the reclusive bigfoot had emerged from the deep forests to go home.

  Beyond them stood an even larger crowd of hundreds of thousands of Therans, some cheering the departure, others seeing the event as tragic evidence of their planet’s dire fate.

  As a human, and therefore an alien, Jack had been allowed access to the Mythicals departure area. And he had managed to find his friends among the departing exiles—all but the one he wanted to see most. Each said their farewells
as they boarded the wormhole.

  He hugged A’eiio, and she placed his hand on her swelling belly. He felt fluttering.

  “The little ones are trying to fly,” she said. “You would be amazed to see a fairy birth. It has to take place in a netted enclosure, because they can fly immediately.”

  He embraced E’iouy gingerly, given his healing injuries. His wing was showing regrowth. Soon, he would take to the skies of the fairy planet again. The fairy hugged him back harder.

  “We’re not as fragile as we look,” he chuckled. “I can take a good hug. You know you are welcome to live on our planet.”

  “But my parents are here . . . what remains of my race. And maybe we can convince the Therans to save themselves.”

  Then Mike lumbered up and lifted him off the ground, so the ogre could look him in the eye.

  “You are rather puny,” he growled. “But you have been a worthy Ally. And I am sorry I frightened you so at the beginning.”

  The three vampires, Vladimir, Radomir, and Gennady crowded around, bidding hearty goodbyes, not very successfully hiding their sadness, recalling their dinner together. It made him long even more for the absent Sam.

  Even Ryan approached and emitted a scritchy screech that Jack took to be a fond farewell.

  The whisper of breeze from above signaled the arrival of Wendy, who sailed gracefully down, smiling angelically, and enfolded him in her wings.

  “We all wish you well,” she said. “We will all be so happy to be back in our home worlds. But we will all be sad that you are no longer with us.”

  “Sam?” he asked hopefully. “Did you see her?”

  Wendy shook her head sadly. “No. Maybe she could not bear to say goodbye.”

  Jack felt the soul-wrenching pang of utter sorrow, barely able to hold back tears. Tears at their leaving, but more so because he had lost the magical creature who had brought such light to his life.

  Finally, all had boarded, including the ogre who had guided the wormhole to ground.

  Jack stood back to watch the wormhole glide up into the pitch-black sky, a glowing sphere that shrank and shrank, until it was but a star. Then, having ascended beyond the atmosphere, it accelerated to stunning speed and was instantly gone.

  The crowd of Therans began to disperse, but Jack could not bring himself to leave. He sat down on a bench in the growing quiet, to be alone with his heartbreak. Finally, the only sound was the whoosh of trees in the night breeze and the thrum of traffic.

  “We should go home,” he heard a whispered voice say.

  He gasped. Sam sat down beside him.

  “You’re here!” He stammered. “Oh . . . you’re here!

  He embraced her, not letting go, as if to do so would lose her.

  “Obviously,” she said.

  “Why? How? What . . .” his words failed him.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier. I was meeting with my Warden. I had asked to stay. I told him that the Mythicals still needed an ambassador on Thera. To report back any progress. I asked to be that ambassador.”

  Jack’s heart pounded with joy. He would have leaped up to dance, but he absolutely refused to let this pixie out of his embrace.

  “But really, you gave up your chance to go back to your own planet . . . your home . . . your people . . . to be with me?”

  “I love you,” she said.

  He grinned ecstatically. Now it was his turn to say the words:

  “I know.”