Remnants of Hope

by Antoine Henderson

  “How much further, Blurb?” Nadal-Ti called out.

  “Based on Garbon’s archaic tracker, we are five kilometers away—due West.”

  “We rest for five, and then continue on,” Lake ordered.

  The lack of clouds and the heat from the sun baking the dense forest made them fatigued. Lake drank from a large canteen and passed it to Blurb who did the same. Nadal-Ti gave their guests water to keep them hydrated.

  Several moments passed until the ground beneath them thumped loudly, grabbing their attention. Looking around, they saw nothing, Lake and Nadal-Ti instinctively reached for their weapons and shot one another a glance before surveying the area, taking defensive positions as Blurb fumbled to hold the blast rifle up-right. Several more thumps shook the ground followed by a loud roar in the distance.

  “That doesn’t sound good!” Blurb said, retreating onto the hoverspeeder.

  “What the hell is that?” Lake asked.

  Lake and Nadal-Ti walked cautiously toward the sound of the roar, passing around thick trees and brush as. Lake held his Ripper firmly in front of him while Nadal-Ti held her twin blaster pistols out. They ignored Blurb’s pleas for them to get back to the hoverspeeder and to forget the mission. Instead, they continued until they reached the west side of the cliff where below, a large tan-skinned four-legged beast standing over four meters was using its horn covered head to bang against a tree, scraping at it and ripping off its bark as it tried to ascend it.. A group of smaller creatures sought refuge and safety high in the tree branches, trying their best to avoid the wild beast.

  Without a word, Nadal-Ti fired several blasts at the beast, grabbing its attention. It roared again in fury, until one of Nadal-Ti’s blasts grazed its thick hide near its sensitive underbelly, making it flee in pain as it cried out. Delta and the others arrived shortly after to find out what the blaster fire was all about. Blurb led the two men from behind, having them walk in front of him as Delta arrived at Lake’s side.

  “Thanks, Ti,” said Lake.

  “For what? You were going to do the same,” she remarked.

  “True, but I thought you were going to kill it.”

  “You misjudge me, Lake. I only kill things that deserve to die.”

  “Fair enough—”

  Their attention was taken by the ruffling of branches and leaves as the smaller creatures descended from the top of the tree and onto the forest floor looking around for signs of the threat. They were barely a meter tall with white fur lining their backs extending to their long white hair that fell past their shoulders. Red and brown scales lined their fronts and stared at Lake and the others with big gray eyes. Communicating among themselves in an unfamiliar dialect, their gazes shifted to each of them.

  “Those are abuchillas, natives to this world,” Delta said. “They are a form of primate only found here on Abuula.”

  “I remember them,” Blurb remarked. “Cruel little creatures!”

  “Quite the contrary, Blurb,” Delta argued. “They are peaceful creatures that keep to themselves but are hunted for their fur and protective scales by poachers. That’s why the Senate rules this place a preservation planet. To protect them.”

  “Let’s get going,” Lake ordered. “I don’t want to disturb any more wildlife.”

  “Wait,” said Delta as she walked toward the cliff. “I… I can understand what they are saying.”

  “You can?” Lake asked. “I know you can understand various languages, but these creatures are primitive, how’s that possible?”

  “I don’t know,” Delta answered. “But, their language is one of the first programmed into my system.”

  “What what are the little things saying then?” Blurb asked.

  “They’re talking about… us… and most of them do not trust us and want to leave before the jarog that just tried to kill them comes back with its pack as we wouldn’t be able to survive.”

  Lake sighed. “That’s just great, more of them.”

  Several roars sounded from the distance, alerting the group. The creatures stood and eyes widened before several of them scurried off into the forest away from the incoming roars while one of the creatures stayed behind and ran toward the foot of the cliff and screamed at them.

  “What’s it saying, Delta?” Lake asked.

  “She’s telling us to follow them if they want to be safe… great danger is coming… jarogs, lots of jarogs.”

  The female abuchilla then turned and followed behind the other abuchillas into the forest. Nadal-Ti and Lake looked at each other, when the ground started shaking. A horde of jarogs stampeded toward them, closing in on the group.

  “Perhaps we should follow them?” Taran suggested in a panic.

  “That’d be wise,” said Delta.

  The group bolted toward the hoverspeeders, jumping onto them and descended the left side of the cliff that would safely bring them down from the steep fall and onto the forest floor. They could see hundreds of the wild jarogs running toward them in the distance and pushed their hoverspeeders to their limits to avoid them, with some of their cargo falling off from the twists and turns of their getaway. They caught up to the abuchillas, who now used the trees to escape, leaping from one to another.

  In the distance was a large and wide rive, with large trees leading from one side to the other in the center, a pathway used by the abuchillas to get across. The hoverspeeders had no problem reaching the other end as hundreds of jarogs appeared from the forest and stopped at the river, avoiding entering it as the group stopped on the other side.

  “Well look at that Blurb, the cruel little creatures just saved your life,” Lake remarked.

  Blurb was too shocked to respond as he held up the now broken tracker in his hand. “It—it happened while we tried to escape, it fell while we avoided crashing into the tree.”

  “Please tell me that you can fix it,” said Lake. “This is the last thing we need right now,” he moaned.

  “I… I think so,” said Blurb. “It will take time, though.”

  “Great, just what we need,” Nadal-Ti remarked. “At least the tracker was pointing in this direction before wet-fingers broke it. The zaranium is close.”

  “I didn’t break it—it slipped!” Blurb argued.

  The jarog’s roars stopped as they backed away from the river and into the forest until they disappeared from sight. Lake turned to both Taran and Bulgrim and saw they were visibly shaken. They were still cuffed, without weapons and their lives were in the hands of people they’ve just met so he fully understood.

  The abuchillas left, except for the one that warned them. She walked up to them, stopping just short of their hoverspeeders and spoke. Delta stood and smiled at the creature.

  “She’s thanking us for saving them and telling us to follow her to her home… There we will be safe… safe from the jarogs.”

  “Can you communicate with her in her own language, Delta?” Lake asked.

  “I can try.”

  “Tell her we thank her for saving us and we would be happy to go to her home.”

  Delta did as ordered and spoke in the abuchilla’s language, a human sounding language with long sounding vowels with every word. The little red creature’s eyes lit up in excitement as Delta spoke.

  “She’s excited… they have never met someone to speak their language and her home is not far,” Delta explained before the abuchilla scurried off into the forest and the group followed close behind her.

  Chapter Four

  Village of the Abuchillas

  Lake stepped off the hoverspeeder and scanned the area. Around him were large trees that were taller and thicker than those he encountered when entering the forest and they held over a dozen handcrafted huts on their thickest and highest limbs.

  The heads of abuchillas poked out, admiring the group from the metal sides of the protective cover the huts provided. On the floor of the forest, much was the same. Various huts of different size
s stood on the forest floor toward the small mouth of a cave on the side of the mountain. Some hid inside while others stood frozen in confusion or fear. The crew entering the village startled the abuchillas, but they were unmoving and looked at them as if they’d never seen another being outside of their own before.

  Everyone followed closely behind Lake, departing the hoverspeeders and admiring the village, except for Blurb who still was distrustful of the natives and refused to move. It was the first form of a civilized society they’d encountered while on Abuula, other than the abuchillas, the only other life form were the carnivorous jarogs. Walking toward the threshold of the village, they came to a stop as several large abuchillas wielding spears surrounded them, aiming the sharp ends at their bellies while shouting in their native language. The group threw up their hands as the smaller abuchilla that saved them raced to their side and spoke with the spear-wielding guards.

  “What’s going on?” Lake asked through stiff lips. “I thought we were welcome here?”

  “They’re saying we can’t enter,” Delta explained as she listened to the abuchillas. “They haven’t had good encounters with others outside their own species it seems and want us to go back and never return.”

  “It makes sense,” Nadal-Ti said in a low voice. “Look at the tip of their spears and the walls of their huts. We know where the hulls and metals of the other ships went now. The groups Garbon sent before us must have encountered them and things didn’t go so well.”

  “First pirates and now wild creatures with spears,” Taran said.

  “You could still be crammed into an escape pod, floating in space and waiting for rescue,” Lake remarked. He turned to Delta. “Talk to them, Delta, I’m out of ideas here.”

  Delta spoke to the spear-wielding guards as their eyebrows raised and big eyes widened. The other abuchillas stopped what they were doing, looking attentively at Delta. The spears slowly withdrew as she continued, only for their sharp crafted ends to be aimed at the bellies of the crew when the bigger of the abuchillas spoke once more.

  “What did you say, Delta?” Lake questioned in a panic, thinking she somehow offended them.

  “Nothing of offense,” she explained. “I only told them what happened when we arrived and how we got here. It seems not to matter as they will not let us enter. They don’t trust our kind… or your kind, rather. Nadal-Ti’s assessment of them was correct as he’s now explaining that people like us have come to them in the past and attacked them to get their God.”

  “Their God?” Lake asked.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Blurb suggested. Not out of strategy, but out of fear. “Let’s leave these… creatures and get back to the mission!”

  Several guards turned to Blurb and pointed their spears at him, causing him to throw his hands up. He dropped his tech-kit onto the hoverspeeder’s base.

  “Gah, I should learn when to shut up, shouldn’t I?”

  “Just now figuring that out?” Lake asked with a smirk.

  The abuchillas shouted at Blurb, waving their spears at him to join the others in the group. He fumbled off the hoverspeeder, keeping his hands up, until joining the group in the circle.

  In the distance, a group of abuchillas walked in their direction led by one whose scales and fur were almost completely white, having only a tint of red remaining. He carried a wooden staff and his wizened features signified his old age. The brown hand-crafted necklace seemed to signify his status as no one else wore a similar accessory. He conversed with the guards as he approached, stopping short of the group. Delta spoke, and from the way she moved her hands, Lake figured she was explaining once more what occurred. The abuchilla that saved them joined her in speaking with the old one.

  “He’s thanking us for saving his people and he’s apologizing for their behavior. They have had several bad encounters with outsiders and find it hard to trust anyone anymore,” Delta translated. “He says his name is Chinsapa, leader of the abuchillas.”

  The guards’ spears fell slowly to their sides as they withdrew them from the bellies of the crew.

  “Oh thank Solaris!” Blurb blurted.

  “Solaris? Since when did you start believing, Blurb?” Lake asked. He lowered his hands. “I didn’t take you for the praying to the sun type.”

  “Since you’ve almost gotten me killed a handful of times!”

  Lake laughed before walking to Delta’s side. “Tell them we mean them no harm and we won’t be staying long. We just need to fix our device and we will be on our way.”

  Delta did as instructed, speaking with the village elder. “He says for saving Taruu and her family, we can stay as long as we wish.”

  The Elder stepped aside, followed by the guards with spears, who still stared at the group, with distrusting eyes. The group ambled inside the village as other abuchillas poured from outside their huts and trees to greet them, tugging at their clothes and equipment as they walked.

  Several hours passed for the crew as dawn was within reach. They waited for Blurb to finish fixing the tracking device. It wasn’t easy for him as small abuchilla children surrounded him as he worked, watching in wonder as sparks flew from his tools inside the tracker’s computer. He’d occasionally have to chase several of the children away as they grabbed his tools and played with them, trying to figure out if they were toys or not, while the others watched in wonder.

  The crew surrounded a small fire they started to which the abuchillas welcomed as they hadn’t seen a fire in a long time and used their eyes for sight at night. Lake and Delta sat next to each other as Delta translated Lake’s adventure stories he told to a growing group of the abuchillas, though he went above and beyond to portray himself in a great light, but Delta sprinkled truth in when needed about Lake’s clumsiest mistakes and mishaps during their adventures, which brought laughter to the group at Lake’s expense.

  Nadal-Ti sat with Bulgrim and Taran, sharing a bitter pluel wine she’d brought with her for the journey. The two men weren’t where they wanted to be, but sharing wine with strangers and a village of creatures was a better situation to be in than where they were only hours prior. For that, they showed their gratitude by helping the crew of the Iron Saber in any way they could while trying to stay out of their way at the same time.

  Bulgrim stayed silent most of the time, giving the crew curious and distrusting glances from time to time, only for Taran to pull him away and calm him down. The crew figured their ordeal had a severe impact on him and let the frail man be while Taran was more open and spoke with the crew only to return to silence when glancing at Bulgrim and noticing his reserved demeanor.

  Lake could only imagine the torment the two men endured having their friends and closest allies murdered right before their very eyes. Dark thoughts seeped into Lake’s mind when thinking about it. Imagining himself in their position with his own crew turned his stomach and the more he thought about it, the more he felt he’d made the correct choice in saving the men from their doomed fate.

  With the final spark of one of Blurb’s metal tools, the tracker beeped to life once again, sending young abuchillas scurrying away from the foreign device and getting the attention of the crew. Blurb slid the metal cover over the device’s inboard computer as the crew came to his side.

  “Good job, B!” said Lake, elated at the sound of the functioning tracker. “Picking you to be my tech guy over Bradish was the right call after all.”

  “Very funny, Lake,” Blurb remarked with a twinge of annoyance and a half-smile. “It would have taken my brother weeks to fix this! You should be lucky to have me.”

  “I guess we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?”

  “Let’s hope it leads us to what we came for and not another herd of jarogs this time around,” Nadal-Ti said.

  Blurb snapped a cold glare in her direction before straightening his face at the sight of her retrieving one of her twin blasters from its holster and admiring it.

  “Let m
e see where it is leading to,” said Lake as he took the tracker from Blurb’s frozen hands. “The zaranium is closer than before and seems to be around here somewhere.”

  The signal beacon of the tracker beeped as Lake held it in front of him, turning it slowly and aiming it outward. Loud and sharp beeps became more frequent as he moved and the crew’s eyes followed until the beeps became a constant high pitched sound when Lake stopped. He aimed the tracker at the mouth of the cave as the others joined him by his side.

  “Give me that,” said Blurb snatching the tracker back from Lake as he winced. “Yep… there’s no mistaking it. It’s inside the cave.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Lake snatched the tracker back and placed it inside his jacket.

  He was several feet away from the mouth of the cave before the abuchilla guards descended upon him from every direction. Their spears were aimed at him again while they shouted what Lake could only assume were death threats, should he dare to take another step.

  “Don’t, Lake!” Delta shouted.

  Chinsapa, the abuchillas leader exited one of the huts near the mouth of the cave to see what all the commotion was about. He pointed his staff toward Lake and spoke harshly toward him.

  “Delta… help me out here,” Lake pleaded with his hands held up while glancing at all the abuchillas around him.

  “We may not enter there, Lake! That’s sacred ground for the abuchillas. They pray to their God in there!”

  “Their God?”

  “Yes. They call him Savior, the Sky God,” Delta translated. “Many years ago, they were drawn away from their homes and they were destroyed by a great war with Sky Devils and many of their people died as a result. But one day, another came from the sky. Their Sky God came, and he saved them from the destruction of the Sky Devils. The Savior saved them. So they saved him and his resting place is inside that cave.”