Terrineia

by Brian Whiting

  “Of course.” Buitsi began putting food into his mouth and everyone in the room did the same.

  “You mentioned two realms. Tell me about them.”

  “You are in the realm of Jebney, it extends from the flatlands of the south to the great mountain ridge of the North. Forex controls a larger share starting at the great ridge to the north and extending north towards the great boglands. It’s a lawless territory filled with vile criminals. Jebney was recently ruled by her family.” He pointed to Alesti. “But now it’s ruled by Unbiter and I fear he will not rest until she is killed. I place my village in great danger sitting her here at my table, no doubt spies will inform Unbiter that I harbored you both.”

  “What does Unbiter want with me, I didn’t do anything.” Alex asked.

  “The gods sent you and they sent you with power. You represent a threat to his new rule. In addition it is only the second time a chariot has fallen into our realm. While it has done as much as at least three times in Forex.”

  “Other… Chariots have crashed here before?”

  “It is imperative you inspect each of these ships for a means to get home, Alex.” Symboli said.

  “Why do you keep saying such obvious things?” Alex unsuccessfully whispered.

  “He talks to a god called Symboli, I have spoken with Symboli as well.” Alesti said as everyone looked at him as if he was a mad man speaking to himself.

  “I wish to speak with Symboli.” Buitsi said.

  “Ummmmm.”

  “Alex…” Symboli began but was interrupted by screams from outside. A bell began ringing in the night.

  “To ARMS!” Buitsi shouted, everyone except those seated at the head table jumped out of their seats and scurried off in various directions. The large front door began to close as they tried to shut it quickly, but it was forced open even wider as soldiers began pouring into the hall. Alex pulled out his weapon and waited for an indication on what to do, there were far more than four soldiers and he didn’t want to use the remaining ammo now.

  Alesti stood up and pushed Alex back against the near wall and stood in front of him.

  “What are you doing?” Alex asked as they watched a couple of Buitsi’s men get slaughtered by the advancing soldiers. A few bowmen entered and they released death into the room, each arrow loosed filled the room with awkward, but beautiful, musical notes. Those that had been playing music in the room had already released their arrows into the advancing soldiers, dropping two of them.

  Three soldiers advanced to the head table by running up the side of the room. Alesti tackled the closest one even though he had a long sword while she had nothing. Alex took aim at the next nearest soldier but one of the music players released an arrow into the mans chest. The third solider managed to grab Alex and toss him aside as he made his way towards Buitsi.

  It took only a moment, but Alex recovered from being tossed into the solid wall quickly. As he stood up he was knocked down again as a soldier raised his sword high for a death blow. Without raising his arm he tilted the weapon in his hand and fired once. Every soldier froze and turned towards the loud unnatural bang only to recoil in fear when they saw the soldier as he collapsed onto Alex. Buitsi took advantage of the hesitation by taking a small dagger from the man in front of him and plunged the attackers own weapon into his throat. The soldiers in the room began to move forward as if to continue fighting.

  “STOP!” Alex shouted, some of the soldiers literally stopped, but a few didn’t. Alex fired once more, creating the loud bang in the room and another soldier dead. “I said stop! If you do not I will use the power of god and kill every invader in the room like I did those men.” Alex pointed to the man that had just fallen face first into the floor.

  “Now you will drop your weapons and submit to me as one with authority of god himself.”

  “Herself.” Symboli corrected.

  “Herself.” Alex shouted unsure if he just ruined the scene he was creating.

  Those nearest to Alex dropped their weapons first as Alex swept the room left and right with his weapon.

  “In order for this to work you must get them to swear allegiance to Huvalla, and by extension to you.” Symboli said.

  Alex looked at Alesti who was still trying to squirm out from under the dead soldier on top of her.

  “You men are to go back to Unbiter and tell him that I will not accept any more unnecessary deaths or the last thing he will hear will be the voice of god.”

  “Alex I believe your stipulation is far too vague to be effective.” Symboli tried to reason.

  “Leave now before I lose my patience!” Alex continued out loud.

  The soldiers had all dropped their weapons and slowly backed out of the building.

  Alex checked his weapon, a red number two was visible on the side. He grunted as he put his weapon away.

  “I’ve got to check our ships armory. Perhaps some extra weapons survived or at least ammo.”

  “Possible, there is a fair chance that ammo for your weapon has survived the crash. However, don’t forget Unbiter sent an army to the ship and the threat of the flatlands remain.”

  As the commotion in the room quieted down, Buitsi ran out of the building and Alex began to walk around and check on the wounded.

  Alex learned quickly that they had no concept of keeping their wounds clean. As he watched, several men filled their deeps cuts with dirt to stop the bleeding. He was about to address some of the more serious issues with the wounded when Alesti grabbed his arm and pulled him outside.

  Alex tried to anticipate what she was about to say, as it seemed this was a woman who had a lot to say right now.

  “What do you need right now?” She asked him simply.

  “What do I need?” Alex repeated, completely caught off guard by that question.

  “Alex, we desperately need more information about this realm, its customs, strengths and other details, we need intelligence.” Symboli said.

  Unable to counter that line of thought Alex told the woman. “We need to talk in private and somewhere safe.”

  “Before the attack I thought here would be safe, now I don’t know where to go.” Alesti said as she gazed around the small village.

  Buitsi came rushing around the corner. “Why did you let them leave!” he shouted angrily.

  Alesti stood in front of Alex. Buitsi pushed her aside like dead weight. Alex pulled out the handgun and pointed it directly under Buitsi’s chin.

  “Touch her like that again and I will kill you.” Alex said with an assurity he rarely felt.

  “Those men are escaping back to Unbiter, he will send his army back here and burn it to the ground, with all of us inside. You have committed us to death!” he shouted.

  Alex looked around. It seemed some of the buildings were already burning.

  Why do we keep getting entangled with local problems? Alex thought to himself, recalling the Gothan homeworld. He knew in both situations he did not have a choice, as his arrival spurred the events that were taking place.

  “I asked you a question?” Buitsi groaned out his mouth.

  Alex knew full well he didn’t really ask a question, but knew what he meant all the same. “What would you have me do?” He asked genuinely curious.

  “You need to make haste to the city of stone and remove the king from power.”

  “Of course…” Alex rolled his eyes and turned away. He sat down next to Alesti who was sitting on a log. People were still crying nearby the hall and their pleas for help were distracting. Occasionally his mind would sense someones emotional state which was hyperactive but still hidden behind a thick layer of clouds whenever he tried to reach for it with his mind.

  “I will help you, but in order to help you I need to retrieve… items from my crashed ship. The items are likely under a lot of crushed material. I’ll need tools, tools that cut stone might work.”

  “We have nothing like that here.” Buitsi said.

  “Alex, it is unlikely stone cut
ting tools can cut rip through enough metal to get you to the armory. One unlikely possibility is that one of the Humani kept a hidden weapon in their cabin. Also, waiting for the fire to self extinguish might reveal a rear entrance pathway towards either engineering which will have the required tools, or even a path towards the armory itself.” Symboli said.

  “If you want my help I need to get back to my ship or chariot whatever.” Alex said to both Buitsi and Alesti.

  “The kings men will be there, how will you get by them?”

  “Same way I ran off the men tonight, gods power!” Alex smirked.

  “Is there a safe way to navigate the flatlands without attracting the…” Alex didn’t have a name for them so he used his hands and made monster sounds to mimic begin eaten from the ground. Like a little puppet show.

  “Ming.” Alesti said quietly the translation escaped meaning but Alex assumed it was the name given to the beasts.

  “I’m going to send two of my men with you, go quickly and get back here as fast as you can. I suggest you take the same path the soldiers took to get there. They traveled around the far edge of the mountain that skirts the flatlands. Take the Juntards that are rooted over there.” Buitsi pointed to a building near the edge of the village that appeared untouched. “If you do not come back here within four suns, I will assume you are dead or captured and you will find this village empty, now go.”

  “I will grab supplies.” Alesti disappeared into the hall while Buitsi gave her an unpleasant eye and turned his attention to Alex before stepping closer.

  “Why do you care so much for her, she is beyond the age?” He managed to whisper to him.

  “I care about all people.” Alex simply said not really sure of his answer.

  “No man would protect a woman past the age for nothing, you deceive me.”

  “I am not from this planet, I do not concern myself with your traditions.” Alex didn’t look away.

  “It is law! Do you want to be punished in public?”

  “How many of your peopled have died tonight?” Alex stared unrelenting at Buitsi.

  “I do not know.” Buitsi replied appearing obviously affected by the question.

  A silence began to grow between them.

  “I am not sure I want you to succeed.” Buitsi said as he turned away from Alex and headed back inside the hall.

  A fire that was destroying one of the buildings was raging at that point, a glow was lighting up the surrounding area. The few that were trying to put it out with buckets of dirt and water stopped and let it burn once they realized it was hopeless.

  Alex jogged over to the building that was supposed to have the Juntards in it and found nine inside. Only three were wearing riding gear of any kind, and one of them appeared sickly laying down on the ground on its side. They were very compliant creatures, not startled in the slightest when Alex approached them, took the ropes and walked them out. He made his way to the back of the hall once again and waited for Alesti to return from where ever she had gone. While he waited, two men on Juntards approached Alex, one had a death singer. He was sure that man was recently playing music in the hall with the same instrument. The other man brought nothing but a wooden spear with a metal tip and a pack of supplies.

  It was another twenty minutes before Alesti appeared with a large, full sack. She tossed the sack onto the juntard, and also tossed Alex a small net.

  “To keep Symboli.” She said while pointing to an area behind Alex on the juntard. “May I speak with?” She pointed to his headset being careful as the others were more focused on the fire than her conversation with Alex.

  He handed her the headset then rode to the carriage that had taken them to the village, where Symboli still remained inside. After a couple minutes he managed to secure Symboli to the beast along with the transmitter and the power supply which still had a very high amount of power remaining. He was grateful for the Thean supercapacitors once again.

  It was an odd moment to think about his old friends to be sure, but seemingly unavoidable, and it still bothered him that we wasn’t able to make contact after he found the danger. “I need to get off this damn planet,” he cursed aloud in English. The four of them rode off into the night, the glow of the fire dwindling behind them.

  CHAPTER 5

  LANDMINES

  THE FOUR OF them rode hard through the night and arrived at the cusp where the mountain ridge ends and the flatlands begin. Alex was in possession of the headset again when the Hermes came into view, so did a group of about two or three hundred people about three kilometers away, all were standing still in the flatlands and Alex assumed the ming had trapped them there.

  “How are we going to make it?” Alesti asked everyone.

  Alex was too busy noticing a small group of people who seemed to have made it all the way to the ship and were setting up camp on the huge mound of dirt built up around the crash site.

  “Won’t the creatures attack those up there on the dirt mound?” Alex asked.

  “No for the same reason they don’t go through the mountain, there’s not enough water to keep the soil moist.” Jubane said.

  Jubane was one of the men Buitsi sent with Alex, the other was Keliseo.

  “So, if we make it to the mound we’re safe.” Alex said kneeling next to a regular sized tree with a spiral trunk. Long strings of moss hung sparsely from the branches.

  “The question is how are we to get past the soldiers standing between us, then get past the beasts, then get past the camped soldiers?” Alex looked at his companions hoping they would have a solution that involved local expertise.

  “I don’t think we can make it.” Keliseo said and Alex deflated.

  Alesti looked at the two men with an incredulous face. “Your families are alive and well back at the village, this man wants to protect them, because the king is going to send an army and kill everyone you care about. Either he succeeds in getting what he needs to protect us or everyone dies, including your family.”

  “The king was a fool to think he could have his men protect the chariot.” Jubane said as he thumbed his death singer. “The ming are not to be messed with.”

  “Yeah why did the king think he could?” Symboli asked Alex.

  “How many chariots have fallen out of the sky?” Alex asked immediately after.

  “When I was a young girl there was one, it broke into two pieces. One piece landed in our realm, the other towards Forex.”

  “My father had men go retrieve the chariot, it took thirty men two months to move it to my home. I am not sure what happened to it after it arrived. It was one of my fathers closely guarded secrets. But my grandfather said there have been more.”

  “I do not believe I need to tell you how important it is we examine each of the wreckages.” Symboli said.

  “One step at a time my boxed friend.”

  “If you’re going to reduce me to a shape, at least get it right.” Symboli responded.

  One particular string of moss was in Alex’s line of sight to the crashed Hermes and he finally got tired of it being in the way so he reached out and yanked it out of the tree.

  “No!” Alesti and Jubane said at the same time, but it was too late.

  The pain was immediate. He tried to let go of the lengthy string moss but it stuck to his hand. With his left hand he tried to reach over to pull off the moss that caused him so much pain. However Alesti tossed herself onto him knocking him over. His eyes glistened and he groaned hoping he wouldn’t scream out in hysterics, he was oblivious as to what those around him were trying to do. Alesti tugged his hand and pulled it towards the trunk of the tree where she scraped the moss off his hand against the trunk of the tree itself. Several moments later it had been completely removed from his hand. When Alex initially panicked he had managed to wrap the whole length of moss around his hand and it was now throbbing in pain.

  Alex brought his hand close to him and pressed it into his lap as if he was trying to hide his torment. The hand was red
and beginning to swell. Memories of being stung by a jellyfish sprung into his mind, but this seemed more intense.

  “Everyone knows not to touch the hair of the faux tree. We cannot follow this stranger in our land, he will get us killed.” Keliseo stood up and walked back towards the Juntards standing nearby.

  “So that’s it you’re going to let Yesla be killed?” Alesti asked Keliseo.

  During their travel they had learned Yesla from the school was Keliseo’s daughter.

  “I will go back and protect her myself.” Keliseo said.

  “Can you fight an army by yourself… No… well he can.” Alesti said pointing at Alex.

  “I suggest we wait until just before dawn, we may get lucky, several of those standing might collapse allowing us to rush by them.” Jubane said while looking towards Keliseo.

  “Could work… But, pebbles fall.” Alesti said and Alex tried to figure out the meaning of that expression. The odd response caught Alex’s attention, momentarily distracting him from the pain, but his focus shifted again when the throbbing spiked in his hand.

  “The pain will subside before the sun sets completely.” Alesti said softly while she kneeled down next to Alex. “Have I told you about my family?”

  Alex shook his head no. I could really care less right now, he thought to himself.

  “I was born during the season of rising waters, a very rare occurrence, I might live long enough to witness it as an adult. During this time the water from the flatlands rises up and approaches the city of rock. For two days the water crashes against the grounds around the city. Then the water slowly recedes back into the ground. You can also see the God of waters in the sky. “

  “The story makes sense if this planets orbit came close enough to another orbit, where the gravity pulls the water up like a high tide.” Symboli said, interrupting her story.

  “My mother was young, only thirteen when she birthed me. I was the first born in my family. Spoiled, I was followed by three brothers and finally my sister. The oldest brother was cocky and adventurous, and was always taking me on adventures across the land. Then when I was about eight a chariot fell out of the sky. My father witnessed it fall and sent two men to retrieve the object of the Gods. They said they would need more men, so my father sent ten. They returned and said they would need more men so my father sent thirty, a season later they returned with the object. It was as long as three Juntards, and as wide as two. My father was never the same, rarely did I see him. He had it moved somewhere, no one seems to know where or they never told me. The years passed and I saw my father less and less often, and he grew old and tired. My oldest brother, at fifteen, was chasing prey with me into the wetlands. He told me to turn back and let our prey go but I was determined. I sounded death and felled my prey. We were tying it to the Juntards when the ming caught him and pulled my brother into the ground, to the waist. My brother, the ever brave warrior, told me to run away, so I did. The last thing I saw was blood spewing from his mouth and covering his face. I killed my brother, or so my father told me. He was so upset with me I never saw him again after that. All the apologies in the world never amounted to anything. My mother covered his absence for years. The whispers said that he was old and dying or that he was already dead. I don’t even know the truth.