by Sadie Savage
She walked for a few hundred yards, and was surprised to realize she was right back at the spot where she had begun. She had made a complete circle, but what was most discombobulating was that on the second time around, the only thing familiar was the incline.
CHAPTER 2
“What the…?” Valerie said to herself as she turned about a couple of times. “Wasn’t I just here?” She wiped sweat beads from her brow, an unusual act considering she was in the middle of a cold and wet jungle.
She started again, but the path that she walked before seemed to have disappeared, and she stepped into a clearing that led to a stream instead. “Where did this come from?” She was growing worried and concerned that she was indeed lost, and that no one would find her. “Hello!” she started screaming at the top of her lungs. She knew better than to go across, or she would really be lost. The tour didn’t feature a stream, even though there were supposed to be lakes in the Copa. Her idea of a simple getaway had exploded into something far more than she had bargained for.
She turned around and started walking in the direction she had come. Maybe if she went up the incline, she would find the path again before it got too dark. Her heart was thumping and her chest was heaving as she broke into a slight run. She got to the place, and just like before, she started maneuvering her way to the top by clinging to vines and roots. She exerted more effort this time as she kept her attention focused on the sun taking a darker shade and dipping further west.
She kicked and grabbed, dragging her oversized weight to the top of the incline, and when she got there, she flung herself over the embankment and stretched out on her back. Her breathing came short now, and she stared at the ceiling made of green that towered above her for a considerable time while she waited for her body to slow down. When her breathing resumed normalcy, she flipped over and grabbed onto an overhanging branch for support, and scrambled to her feet. She patted her hands against her jeans and started in the original direction. She came to the fork in the road as before, but there was no reason to expect there would be anyone waiting there, and she wasn’t about to wait for them either.
She started running down the path, pushing the oversized leaves from her path, and stopping once to look at what seemed like a giant mosquito fly by her face. Panic surged in her now, and she could hear the blood rushing through her veins as she went as fast as her feet could take her. And then she felt the sting as something wrapped around her feet. She fell to the ground. There was something like a cord wrapped around her feet, and it prevented her from moving.
She quickly worked her fingers over the hard cords, and as soon as she stood and started running again, she heard wails and cries echoing through the trees. Valerie turned around and around, as she tried to discern the source of the cries. Then she started running again, and came to an abrupt halt when she saw the giant animal standing before her. Its head was like a wolf, but it was as big as a bear, and it growled at her as it commanded her to remain. She did not, and instead started moving slowly backwards. Terror seized her, and with the adrenaline still pumping in her veins, she turned around and started running again.
“Stop!” she heard a voice call from behind, but the blood rushing through her propelled her movements, and Valerie felt incapable of stopping.
Valerie started screaming now, even as she felt the animal close in on her. She felt another sting, and the next thing she knew she was on the ground. She heard a thump, and when she turned around she saw the strangest looking thing she had ever seen. It towered over her, its long hands reaching out to her. She flinched when it touched her, and scurried back, but he moved too quickly, and was much too strong for her. He pulled her to her feet, and the rest of them circled her.
“What…where am I?” she finally found the nerve to ask.
“I am Malek,” he told her. “You are in Tundra. Where did you come from?”
“I am where?” she asked, even while keeping her eyes trained on the vicious animal that still growled at her.
“Tundra,” he repeated. “One of the many jungles on our planet Xenon.”
“Your what? No, I’m on earth,” Valerie retorted, but even as she did, her mind tried to reconcile what she knew and what she saw before her.
“You are an earthling?” the man asked.
“Yes…yes!” she cried and turned around again, as if to flee. “I am trying to find my way back to the group that I followed into the Copa. I am in Mexico.”
“I thought you said you were on earth,” Malek said, now confused.
“Yes. Mexico is a place on earth. Why am I talking like this is real? Clearly I slipped when I was running and hit my head. This must all be a dream and any second now I’m going to wake up in the back of the bus because someone from the tour found me.”
Valerie started slapping her face, trying to wake up from the dream that seemed too real. Her eyes grew wild, and when she thought she could get away with it, she turned right and started off in a sprint. When she felt them upon her, she grabbed a piece of loose log on the jungle floor. She waved it about, and panted.
“Don’t come any closer,” she heaved. She swung the stick from side to side, warding them off, until she felt something come down hard on her shoulder. She crashed onto the ground, and then everything went black.
CHAPTER 3
There was something tickling her face, and she turned about to get it off, but each side she turned, the sensation returned. She lifted her hand and slapped at it, and then turned again. This time she felt the sun on her skin, and then a cool breeze blowing against her feet that appeared to be bare. Why were they bare? She had on sneakers just before they had started the tour. That’s right! The tour! She shot upright, and looked around her. There was nothing recognizable in sight besides the spear that was held against her neck. Her eyes followed the stick, and met the man’s on the other end of it.
She looked around and realized she was in something that looked like a hut, made from wood, vines and some sort of canvas acting as walls. It had a thatched roof and a flap down the front that acted as the only entrance or exit; she only saw it as the latter at present. She smiled haphazardly at the man guarding her, and because she had nothing else to do, she began her survey of him. He was tall, like the other one, and a neck so long it seemed to be detached from his body. But not in an awkward way; it gave him an aura of power and knowledge. He wore khaki pantaloons, and he had the same fabric covering his upper body. His arms protruded from the shoulder, and his bronze skin flexed and glistened in the rays that escaped through the spores in the covering of the hut, and polka dotted the space.
His face was serious, and he held her there with his eyes and his weapon. “No move,” he told her.
“Okay,” she told him and held her hands up. “So, what is this place?” she asked. It was obvious she was either no longer in the Mayan ruins of Copa, Mexico, or there were some native people running around in the jungle no one else was aware of.
“Masawa,” he told her, and offered nothing more.
“Masawa?” she asked. The name wasn’t familiar to her at all. She was growing more bewildered by the moment, and just when she decided to risk it all and make a mad dash to the door, she heard what sounded like a commotion outside. The man’s face twitched, but it was obvious he was concerned. She waited, giving him the opportunity to leave, and as soon as he did, she sneaked to the slit in the wall. She pulled it back just wide enough to see two men roughing it out in the center of a small gathering of people. The man who had just left was trying to break it up, but he was struggling against the weight of the other two and had his back to the hut just then.
Valerie thought it a fitting time to try and make her escape. She lay low and pulled the slit further open. She kept her back to the flimsy material flapping in the wind, and with eyes searching for an opening, she slipped to the back. Her heart was racing in her chest, so she stopped for a second to calm herself. She had only just turned to make a run for it when she felt some
one grab her from behind. She turned and came face to face with the man she had seen on the animal before.
“You need to come back,” he said.
“Okay, okay,” she said and conceded, for she knew she could neither outrun or fight him. Where would she run to anyway? She was lost in the jungle with a native tribe that thought they were on another planet.
“Do not try to leave again, or I cannot be held responsible for what happens,” he told her.
“Why are you keeping me here?” she asked him, and followed him inside the hut once more.
“You are dangerous,” he told her, and sat on what seemed to be the trunk of a once huge tree.
“I am dangerous?” she asked, and then laughed. “I’ve been called many things, but dangerous has never been one of them.”
“You did pull a weapon on one of my men when we saw you in the Tundra,” he told her.
“Why do you keep calling it that?” she asked. “I was in the Copa, not the Tundra, or whatever you call it. And I would like to go back to the hotel now. They must be out looking for me by now.”
“Maybe, but they aren’t looking here,” he told her.
He was wearing the same khaki pantaloons like the other guard, but he had on a green and white tunic at the top instead. Not only was he better looking, and seemed more confident, but he had better command of the English Language too. “So, if we aren’t on earth, like you said, how come you know the language, and better than him too,” she said when she noticed the guard returning.
“English is not the language of earth,” he told her. “I just happened to learn it better than most of my people.”
“Your people? So, that means you are the leader?” she asked and the anxiety on her face was evident.
“Yes,” he said and stood then to face the man who had just returned. “Watch her properly this time,” he told him sternly. “Do not leave this spot for any reason,” and with that he turned and left.
Valerie was about to go after him, even after hearing the instructions that were given to the man, but her guard planted himself firmly in her path, filling every possible angle of escape. She backed away and sank into her seat, prepared to sit there until they decided it was fit for her to leave. She had wanted an escape from the drama in her life, back in San Francisco, but she had not signed up for an excursion on another planet. She still thought she must be dreaming, but the glare in the eyes of the man who stood guard over her was making it less of a dream and more of a nightmare.
CHAPTER 4
The only times the slit in the canvas moved was when a woman entered to give Valerie something to eat. Whenever she had to make an excretion, she had a special place in the corner, which was checked regularly. She was feeling hot and dirty, and she was glad when she saw him return.
“Can’t I go outside? It’s been days since I’ve been here,” she said.
“Only one day.” His eyes swept her frame, and then he grunted and went back outside. When he came back in, a woman was with him. “Take her to the river,” he instructed. “Give her a bath.”
The woman nodded and went over to take Valerie’s hand. Valerie shook her off sidestepped her, not sure whether she should be feeling grateful or annoyed. She squinted her eyes when she went out, and she could tell that by the direction of the sun, it was slightly past noon. She looked around the village as she walked, and saw a collection of huts like the one she had just exited. Women and children milled about, and seemed happy and content. She saw a baby playing with one of the giant wolf like animals, and she stopped in her tracks. She was horrified at first that it might harm it, but she witnessed then the gentleness of the beast.
On her path to the river she saw a man and a woman returning; she was pregnant, and he had her in his arms, her weight not seeming to matter to him. He looked at her in an odd way, and his eyes followed her until they passed. There were many more at the river, and the women were seen washing the men, dutifully, but not seeming bothered by it. It was all new to Valerie, though she felt too self-conscious about taking her clothes off. The woman moved robotically, and began stripping Valerie as soon as she stepped into the water. She stood still, and allowed her to work, and while she stood in the river and allowed the cool water to wash over her, she finally opened her mind to the possibility that this world was nothing of Earth.
Back at the hut, she went directly to the man in charge. “Where exactly am I?” she asked him again.
“I told you; The Village Masawa on the Planet Xenon. Come,” he told her and walked off.
“Where are we going?” she asked as she tried to keep up with him and his party. The heavy tunic she wore that practically hugged her ankles obstructed her walking.
“To the place we found you. I want to know how you got here. Maybe there was a vessel we missed,” he said.
“There is no vessel,” she said when she caught up with him. He didn’t seem to hear her, and kept walking. She grabbed his arm then, and he stopped abruptly and turned to her.
“This doesn’t make any sense. If there is no ship, then how did you get here? What were you doing?”
“I was with some people in the jungle in Mexico when I got lost. I tried to find them, slid down a slope and lost track of where I was. That’s when I ran into you.”
He stood there, biting his lips and looking around, and then grabbed her by the arm and led her in another direction. “Maybe Master Shakh will know.”
“Master who?” she asked.
“Master Shakh. He is our wise one. He will know what happened better than any of us,” he replied and tugged her along.
They got to the dwelling place of their wise one and he left them outside while he went in. After a few moments, he emerged with who she had expected to be an old man, but instead, he seemed as young as the rest of them.
“So this is woman from earth?” he asked, and then beckoned to her. “Come, come,” he told her and waited for her to get to him. Then he placed his arm around her and brought her inside the hut. “I never seen earth woman before. My grandfather told me about one he see, but that was thousands of years ago.” He looked at her, and plucked her skin, and then smiled at Malek. “She is nice one.”
“That’s not why we are here. We need to know how she got here,” Malek told him. “Maybe we can send her back.”
“I’m afraid I can give you idea of how she came, but not sure if I can make a way back,” he said and went over to a table he had filled with candles and herbs.
Malek and Valerie shared surprised looks and then turned to Master Shakh again. “You know how I got here? Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”
“Not so fast,” he told her. “That may not be such good news.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“History tells of gateway from this world to yours. A time portal. My grandfather privileged to go through two times in his life. I never did, but would love to see other world.”
“A gateway? But that means if we can find the spot, then I can go back through,” she said excitedly.
“I’m afraid it isn’t that simple. Gateway only opens once every generation, and only when sun and moon come together. I can try and tell when something like that will happen again, but I don’t think it will be soon.”
“An eclipse!” she exclaimed when she realized what event the man referred to. “That shouldn’t be so hard to track, and it may be soon.” Valerie asked and turned about in the hut as she tried to make sense of it, but even with her limited knowledge, she knew eclipses were rare.
“Only if Earth woman lucky,” Master Shakh told her. Then he went over to her and patted her on the shoulder, and with a grin, “Welcome to Xenon.”
CHAPTER 5
Valerie spent the next couple of days in the Masawa, learning their ways and observing their interactions. After a while, she lost interest in returning home. What was she returning to anyway? At least here, she felt like she belonged; like she was a p
art of something. She accompanied the women when they went to gather berries, herbs and fruits. She helped when the men returned with game from their hunt, and she even taught them new ways to prepare their food. She figured anything that was a bird would require the same preparations as chicken. She even got accustomed to the Tsar, the wolf-bear creature that was nothing more than an overgrown golden retriever at heart.
“Everything is so simple here,” she remarked to Naresh one day. She was one of the women she had grown more familiar with.
“What you mean?” the woman asked.
Valerie smiled when she imagined the girl didn’t understand what simple meant. “I mean, where I’m from, you had to be busy all the time; running to catch the subway to get to work; being stuck in a cubicle all day in a cramped space; smiling at people you didn’t even want to be around; running again at the end of the day to catch the train before it leaves; just to get home to a husband who doesn’t even appreciate that you are there,” she said and sighed.
“What is subway?” the girl asked.
Valerie jumped just then when she heard a twig snap behind her. She was relieved to find that it was only Malek. “You scared me,” she told him.
“There is nothing to be afraid of in Masawa,” he said and held out his hand for her.
“That depends on what scares you. I could be afraid of a spider,” she said and laughed. He chuckled too, and she couldn’t help but notice the sparkle in his eyes when he did, or the way his skin color change from bronze to crimson. She walked next to him, and to the hut that had been a home to her from the beginning. The women had given her clothing, and considering that in this world being oversized was the norm, she fit right in.
“I heard what you were saying to Naresh earlier,” he told her when they got inside and he was sitting on the trunk that seemed to be his personal favorite.
