Terrineia

by Brian Whiting

  “Who arrives at our door?” One of the village guards said from a hidden location.

  “I am Deetur, I command these men on orders from our King himself. We are here to eat and sleep for we are weary of travel.”

  “Did you bring bars to pay for these things you require?”

  “Yes, we did.”

  “Then you are welcome here. Open the gate!”

  The large gate swung outward and the group trotted into the well lit interior of the village. Alex’s juntard, on its own accord, began to trot to a large collection of stables where a mush of some kind was being put down for the animals. Soldiers of the village stood nearby watching. The riders all jumped off their beasts before the juntards started fighting over who would feed first from the feedstocks.

  “Come quickly.” Alesti said as she too jumped off, a juntard nearly knocked her over when she hit the ground.

  “What about ..our stuff?” Alex asked Alesti as he noticed the men did not take their belongings with them as they scattered among the buildings.

  “Your possessions will be safe here, no one will want to drink your horrid wine anyway.” Deetur said as he passed them by.

  Alesti handed Alex the headset and walked away from the growing herd of jostling juntards. He watched a bit to see if the harness was secure enough for what he was seeing. As the seconds ticked by the juntards began to settle. Alex turned away certain the harness securing Symboli’s tank would hold. After a few moments he caught up to Alesti and followed her through the village. Suddenly one of the nearby soldiers grabbed Alex’s arm. “What the Valem are you?”

  Before Alex could respond Alesti’s foot made contact right under the soldiers nose. The soldier fell squarely onto his back, blood appearing around his nose and mouth. Alesti stood over the soldier ready to take on the others as they drew crude swords and raised them to attack Alesti. Alex pulled out his handgun and pointed it at the nearest soldier, ready to squeeze the button.

  “STOP!” Deetur shouted. “It is my fault… I have not prepared my men for your arrival and truth speaking… You do look queer.”

  “She attacked me! I demand justice here.” The soldier said as he got up from the ground holding his hand over his mouth.

  “You touched a highly honored guest of the Forex you will consider yourself lucky if I don’t whip you in disgrace. These people are not to be harmed or trifled with, for they can easily kill you without any effort on their part.”

  “It is true, we have seen it.” Letrick said to the guards of the village as he re-sheathed his sword.

  “You will escort these guests to the best room available in the village.” Deetur commanded and turned away knowing his orders would be fulfilled.

  An expected bolt of lightning struck far in the distance. Which sounded louder then it should have and appeared half as bright as Alex was accustomed. He watched as blood was dripping from the soldiers chin, even as he tried to cover his nose and mouth.

  “Follow me.” The soldier said as he turned away. Alex noticed this soldiers bone crest was a bit thicker then those in Jebney, in fact now that he realized it they all were to some degree.

  They followed the solider as he led them through half the village to a smaller building. Alex couldent identify what the building was made out of but it seemed sturdy. Sitting at the front door was an old woman, she reminded Alex of the old woman at the cleaning hole. He looked around for another hole.

  “These people seek a room for sleep and comfort.” The soldier said as he turned to Alex and Alesti placeing two fingers on his forehead.

  “What does it mean when someone does that?” Alex asked Alesti.

  “This is an old formal custom of Jebney, but it means, ‘peace to you, you are in my thoughts’.”

  “They aren’t free!” The woman responded interrupting their conversation.

  Deetur approached and held several thinly sized cylinders of what appeared to be gold and silver in his hand. He placed one short silver bar in her hand. “How many rooms do you have available?”

  “All three are available, Vessa two buildings down that way might have two more rooms.” As she eyed the amount of soldiers nearby. “Of course, there’s always the sanctuary for the rest of your men.”

  Deetur turned and looked at Alex and hesitated a moment. “Will you be fine if the two of you shared a room? I make no implications with the inquiry, its a matter of practicality.”

  Alex looked at Alesti who promptly looked at Deetur, “Yes that’s acceptable, of course.”

  “Excellent.” Deetur said as he disappeared into his group of men standing nearby.

  “This way.” The woman led them down a tight hallway to the last door. “This is the best room in the village.” She said scratching out her voice. Alex and Alesti stepped into the room. It was small, an eight by ten foot space. An odd looking mattress of sorts was placed ontop the wood planks of the floor. A bundle of pelts were piled neatly at the end of the bed. A moment later the woman entered the room with a pitcher of water but no cups.

  “If you need food the soldiers table is always open and they are willing to feed anyone for a little bar.”

  “Wheres the restroom?” Alex asked knowing he didn’t know a word to translate for the room.

  “Restroom, I do not know this… Describe it.” The woman said impatiently at the door.

  “Where one goes to relieve himself.”

  “Relive himself of what?”

  “Lady, where do I go to pee?”

  “I am sorry I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The lady shut the door and could be heard walking away down the hallway.

  “Alesti.” Alex pleaded, he stuck his finger by his pants and made a hissing noise.

  For the first time since he saw her she seemed genuinely perplexed.

  “Symboli.” She said holding her hand out.

  Alex rolled his eyes and handed her the headset as he walked out of the room. She quickly began to follow.

  “No… I can pee alone, thank you.”

  “Symboli what is to pee?” Alex heard Alesti ask as he walked out of the building. Deetur was still busy talking to his men about something and the urge to pee became too great to hold back any longer. He quickly ran around the corner of the building where the light was not as bright and peed into the corner of the building.

  “Why do you waste water?” Deetur asked from about ten feet to Alex’s right. Alex looked over and saw Alesti join him. They both appeared bewildered.

  “This isn’t water its pee, don’t you people pee?”

  Alesti took several steps closer to get a better look. But Alex turned slightly away.

  “Why do you waste the pee by ..” Alesti stopped mid sentence as she became distracted by something.

  Now more then ever Alex wished he had a smaller bladder as he continued.

  “I do not understand.” Deetur said.

  “Yeah, I get that.” Alex said as he finished and fixed his pants.

  “Thank God, Huvalla or whatever that I don’t have to take a dump right now!” Alex said as he passed both of them and headed back towards the room.

  “If you need to leave this building I need to know, I will be in the next room over. We will leave shortly after first light. Successful sleep.” Deetur said as Alex walked by him.

  “Successful sleep.” Alesti replied while Alex walked into the room and she followed.

  “I apologize I did not realize you were handicapped in such a terr-..” Alesti stopped midsentence again.

  Frustrated he couldn’t hear the conversation Alex had nothing left to do except take off his boots, socks and try out the large but relatively flat and useless mattress. He tried to guess what the innards of the mattress was made out of but gave up after a minute. He pulled a long strand of hair off his bare leg. Looking at the mattress closer there was an assortment of stray hairs on the bed.

  He tried to pull the hairs away but it was a futile effort, there were too many. Alex tried to go t
o sleep as Alesti asked an uncomfortably large amount of questions about going to the restroom to relieving yourself and the biological remains of such activity. Over the course of the conversation she sat at the end of the bed and continued for quite awhile. Alex learned that these people don’t use the restroom ever. Their bodies use everything that’s put into it, there is never any output waste generated. Alesti learned that Alex used the restroom far less often then most humans due to his heavily modified body.

  After shuddering inwardly knowing there were no restrooms on the entire planet, he fell asleep.

  * * *

  Alex woke slowly. When he opened his eyes he saw Alesti sitting crossed legged on the floor watching him sleep. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. After propping himself up he looked at Alesti and said, “Good morning.” But he noticed it was very bright in the room and the sun must be a fair amount of distance away from the horizon by now.

  “We are not leaving?” Alex asked.

  “I told them you require more sleep than typical. They await you.”

  There was a knock at the door. Alex was amused that knocking seemed to be another universal courtesy. “Can I assume you are awake now, Alex? I hear conversation.”

  “Yes, I am awake.”

  “Good we await your arrival so we can depart, we are behind schedule.” The sounds of creeking wood seemed louder in the morning as Deetur walked away.

  Alex stood up and looked down at Alesti as she remained seated and continued watching him. She handed him the headset and he put it on. She stood up and was face to face with him.

  She looked his face over with such intensity he felt he was being examined and her close proximity was also not unnoticed.

  “Why are you so weird today?” Alex asked.

  Alesti frowned if only slightly and took two steps back.

  “Good morning, Alex.” She said in passable English.

  “Oh really, that’s how your spending time hua… not bad.” Alex responded with a slight smile.

  “Good Morning, Alex. The locals only sleep about three hours a night it seems. A lot is discussed while you hibernate.” Symboli greeted.

  “Ha..ha..” Alex responded while he put his socks and boots back on.

  When he walked outside he noticed it must have rained during the night as the ground was still damp. All the soldiers were standing near the stables several buildings away.

  He ducked out and managed to sneak away to a secluded area near a tool shed of some kind. After he finished his business he dug a hole with his heel and partially covered it up. He stepped away from his hiding place to see Alesti standing nearby as if she knew exactly what he was doing. It irritated him that she was following him absolutely everywhere. She said nothing as he walked by and they both made their way to the stable to continue their journey to the city with Deetur’s men.

  CHAPTER 8

  ALIEN ARRIVAL

  ALEX APPROACHED THE city still on the back of a juntard. It was about midday, and they were still three or four kilometers from the front gate. The land was hard, flat and there wasn’t a tree in sight, just lots of shrubs and low lying vegetation. The city itself was surrounded by an inner wall that looked incomplete and an outer wall that looked like it was getting an expansion. The whole scene reminded Alex of all those movies he watched so few years ago about medieval living and he truly felt he was getting a first-hand experience of medieval life. He saw more built up structures in the center, and as you went further out, the buildings got shorter and the quality of material was noticeably less desirable as well.

  The closer they got to the city the more Alesti got nervous. She let her hair begin to obscure her face, she started picking at skin between her three fingers. More and more often she looked back to see if Alex was still behind her, despite he never moved out of position in the line of Juntards that made way to the city.

  “I will protect you.” Alex said to Alesti in English. “Do not fear.” He wasn’t sure exactly if she understood him, but her knowledge of English was growing rapidly. She did sit up straighter and stopped looking back.

  “Would she have understood me?” Alex asked Symboli.

  “I believe she got your meaning. She is having a hard time with the phrasing of do not, for example. In her mind she thinks she is being told to do fear. Do is an action positive and the word not is an action negative and in their language, they cannot go together. This issue however is resolved when I translate the language to English and provide the meaning.” The last part Alex and Symboli finished together.

  “Yeah, I do the same.” Alex responded proud he was able to translate the language nearly as fast as Symboli could.

  “Alex.” A deeper males voice said abruptly.

  Inwardly Alex’s heart skipped a beat, outwardly he snapped his head towards Letrick, who suddenly appeared to his left and brought his juntard up to ride side by side with Alex.

  “We request that you put this cloth over your body. The permitters will make a scene and we wish to conceal your presence for as long as possible.”

  “The permitters?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, the permitters answer only to the King and they govern who enters the city, most often a small fee is only required for entrance. However, it is not uncommon for them to single out someone and make a spectacle of them, mainly to remind people that they have authority to do such things. You certainly would draw their attention. The Kings men and the permitters do not get along as we are on equal footing with the king.”

  “I see… well, I see no reason to argue with you.” Alex took the cloth from Letrick. It felt like a sheet of wool, and Alex feared he would be a prune before he reached the king under the cloak due to the stifling heat.

  “Do not delay, we approach the locals.” Letrick said as the lead juntard in line passed a family of farmers working the land only a few meters away from the trail.

  Alex forced a deep breath and covered himself with the cloak.

  “What I wouldn’t give to exist in a tank right now.” Alex whispered.

  “If only we could switch places, I would not calculate twice.” Symboli quipped.

  Alex chuckled, and at first he felt cooler as the fabric blocked the suns heat. After a minute however the fabric began to heat up and him with it. He wasn’t sure how long it was but he did notice that sweat was starting to form on his face when the line of juntards finally came to a stop.

  Alex could hear many people talking all at once but could not see nothing. It sounded like a marketplace. He even heard a few pieces of metal clanging. Then he managed to single out Deeturs voice who was directly in front of Alesti.

  “- ness with the King.”

  “And how many men in your company?” Said a man with an older but confident voice.

  “Thirty eight.”

  “Thirty eight, when you left you had a hundred men. Do you suffer such loses?”

  “Half of my men are still on orders from the king, but I did suffer losses.”

  “And who do you have here that is cloaked, a prisoner?”

  “That is knowledge only for the King to know.”

  Alex licked his lips as he strained to hear more. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two men and the market or where ever they were was quieting down a little bit as well.

  “We have a right to know, a right granted by the king for I can forbid entry, you know this! I have no doubt all of your men know who this stranger is. I do not see why I should be denied this knowledge. Remove the cloak.”

  Alex remained frozen, wondering if he should remove the cloak on his own accord or allow it to play out. Grasping one of his weapons tightly he would trust Deetur a few moments longer.

  “Guards!” the old man yelled.

  The area was deathly silent now and there was a commotion in the distance that grew closer.

  “Enough!” Deetur said. “This man is a royal guest of the king, who wishes to remain anonymous.”

  “Lies… you would not suffer a r
oyal guest that cloak. Remove it or be gone!”

  Alex forced another deep breath as he held out his weapon, the cloak falling back, and pointed it towards the old mans voice. The odd sensation of fresh air on his skin mixed with the horrified reactions of those watching was confusing his senses.

  “What is it?” The old man shouted. Rushed murmurs were expressed by everyone present.

  “His name is Alex and he was delivered by god herself in a burning chariot.”

  “Lies, it is far too ugly to be from Viheim, more likely from Valem. You are certainly not permitted here!”

  Alex squeezed the button and the still unknown projectile zipped out the short barrel followed by a loud bang like thunder. The round landed in front of the older man, spewing a large plume of dirt that towered over him, covering him, and those around him, in a shower of dirt.

  “My desire is my own and no one shall interfere with it or you die instantly. By Authority granted by Huvalla herself!” Alex said with a stern voice.

  The old man looked completely dumbfounded as he looked around at those near him. His mouth twitched and eyes blinked rapidly. He wrung his hands together and inhaled a deep breath. Standing up straighter. “Seize that man!” he yelled to his guards.

  Alex watched as the eight guards, two with death singers. approached very slowly with obvious trepidation. “I will give you eight one warning to back away or be maimed horribly, what is your choice?”

  All but two stopped moving towards him. Alex shifted his weapon from the old man to the nearest solider about two spear-lengths away. “Please, I am simply following orders, if you would come down and follow me I will not mistreat you.” The soldier managed to say with a weak voice.

  Before he said that Alex was dead set on shooting him for ignoring his warning. Instead he fired two more rounds at the feet of both soldiers approaching. The loud booms bounced off the nearby castle walls. Horns blared from within the city. Several citizens from within began screaming and running away.

  “He controls the voice of god, he does!” One of the rearmost soldiers from the wall said out loud and continued to back away.