Out of the Woods (The Coalescence Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  Hess held him with his two upper arms.

  “Nonsense. All of you are allowed to come at any time. You should connect with Ancient of Mars Karina, and see if she would be available for that as well? It is part of her duties to meet others, I believe? That or mine, but if so, then I have not been doing it well. Most of my efforts have been in physical materials management so far. That, and arranging for workers to find the right positions. You say I may call on the Ancient of Soam for such things, as well as yourself? Do you think I may do that with all of the Ancients? I’ve been uncertain as to how that worked.”

  Count Ward nodded, as if that were a real thing.

  “I think that is allowed, particularly if it crosses with their lands or worlds in some fashion? It certainly can’t harm anything to ask about it.”

  Will knew they really needed to leave, so tried something, bowing low to the colorfully dressed being in front of him.

  So, using broken Ysidril, he tried to leave without being rude.

  “There is a news unit waiting, from the Forten. I am, being that is to travel to worlds not here. If you’ve need of communications, please allow me to serve.”

  It took four breaths to finish the whole thing, but Hess hugged him, with all four arms.

  “Truly? I have no need of that at present, but I may call upon you soon for such. You need to go now, I can see. It has been wonderful to see you again, Count Ward. A great honor to meet you as well, Pine Tree Emblem.”

  They all had to bow again, but then were able to tuck the floating case, which looked like it was made of polished pine wood, inside the thing and locate World Ship Seven on the menu. Location six, since the world ship was well appointed that way. It made sense. If he’d been putting the things up, Pine Creek would probably have three of the things. The ship was, from the name, likely a good bit larger than that.

  “Oh, the gravity here is a lot lighter, so step gently. You’ll be about half your normal weight, I think.”

  Marvin nodded.

  “Thank you. I had occasion to experience that before. On this very world, in fact. Shall we?” What they stepped out into was very eerie. Mainly because as soon as they did, everyone started snapping their fingers at them. Then three beings stepped forward. Behind them, in three lines, were twelve Ysidril, so probably the botanists. They had gear with them. Held mainly in their lower hands, but a few had packs on, that rode on their fronts. Those were in different colors.

  Interestingly, one of the people was a man who had yellow blond hair and yellow eyes. It was an interesting combination. One that Willum was almost certain he could copy, now that he saw it. The man wasn’t big either, being only about five-eight or so. He wore a simple brown outfit that matched student brown in color, very nearly. It was a few shades lighter. The cut was different, but not so much that anyone would have looked at him strangely in Noram.

  Next to him was a child of about ten. A human girl, by the look of her. One with skin as pale as his own was now. Her hair was brown but she had blue-green eyes. The last being was Neesa, thankfully. The yellow on yellow man held a device. It was probably either a weapon, or meant to be used like a handheld, taking sounds and images.

  He bowed, followed perfectly by Count Ward.

  All of the Ysidril and the little girl did it back. The last man didn’t but that was probably due to the fact that doing so would mess with the image being captured. Handhelds were like that. If you moved them too fast the images blurred and could make you feel a bit dizzy. He’d seen it several times now. From almost everyone.

  Ambassador Neesa stood first, then stepped in. Oddly enough she gave Will a nice hug. That got eyes to go wide, from everyone else there. Probably because it meant they were dating now. He didn’t think that would work physically, but a man could do worse than her in most other ways.

  Interestingly Count Ward moved in for his own hug.

  “Ambassador Neesa! I didn’t know we’d get to see you today. Sorry about being so late. Willum and I realized that we’d forgotten to get the weight reducing magics, so had to travel to Mars first for them. High Leader Hess aided us in that. Personally.” He spoke as if the words meant something, which got the yellow man to nod a bit.

  He managed to speak then, in accented Standard.

  “You spoke with Hess of the Ysidril? He’s well? We don’t have regular…” He said something, which got passed to Neesa.

  “Regular contact. The handhelds are rare here, so the news gathering teams haven’t been able to reach him daily.”

  She laughed, bobbing and opening her mouth, which got a few of the others to do the same.

  Willum nodded.

  “I see. I’ll try to get a few of those for you, if I can? We should pass out the weight lessening devices. Are we all going?” It was more than twelve people, but the Count didn’t even blink at the idea.

  The little girl smiled up at him then.

  “That would be wonderful, if we’re allowed? Dustin here, and I can’t stay. We’re recording this for our various people, for release. We didn’t know that it was allowed to travel to Earth. Not with information gathering devices. That might be too close to spying equipment.”

  It was a good rationale. Still, seeing the planet wasn’t exactly going to harm anything. Even interviewing some people shouldn’t. These were their friends, as far as he knew. Still, asking about that kind of thing made sense to him. Pulling his handheld he considered things, then tapped in a particular name. Which, about a minute later had a sleepy Prince of Noram looking at him through one eye.

  “Eh? Sorry, just waking up. Is there an emergency?”

  Behind him in the bed, there was a form. From the skin color it wasn’t Princess Abbey, which wasn’t his business at all. Focusing on the red haired man he simply smiled.

  “Hello. Willum Baker here. We have several people from the three fleets that wish to come and visit? Twelve are botanists, who are traveling around to see the plants, I think. We have places for them. Two seem to be… Ah… information gathering people? They share the data with everyone here I think, so not strictly spies? They want to make certain that we aren’t worried about that. So I called you, figuring you’d be in a better place to handle that than I would.”

  There was a bit of noise as he sat up, then a loud yawn.

  “That is… A good idea, actually. What’s the current plan.”

  “First we’re headed to Warden. Count Ward is hosting our Ysidril friends.”

  “Oh? Nice of him. I can meet you there? Are you coming in by the bake shop?”

  “Exactly. We can be there in a few minutes.”

  The Prince smiled at him then, but shrugged.

  “Stall for twenty? I need to scrub up first. Get some people around. It might take longer than that. It happens once you get the government involved. Sorry. Give everyone my apologies?”

  “Certainly. See you soon. We can spend the next minutes learning about botany?”

  That it seemed was both possible and considered amazing, since he got Neesa to help him with her language at the same time. Even Count Ward made an attempt at learning a few names and phrases. Everyone seemed pleased enough by the effort.

  Chapter eight

  It was interesting, listening to thirteen Ysidril argue about the meaning of different hiss tonalities. Some of them clearly felt that his efforts were fine as they stood, since even a half garbled attempt was a wonder and should be encouraged. The others were showing different levels of strictness as to how exact he needed to be that way. Interestingly Neesa was one of that last group. She finally put her Ambassadorial foot down after ten minutes.

  In Ysidril.

  “Negative. It is fundamental to know the first hard stop! We finally have one of the outer people who is willing and able to attempt this. We will perform to highest example and expectation! If I catch any of you allowing less than that in your interactions with either green and brown shrubbery or large blue circle, I will be forced to repeat this lecture.
No one desires that outcome.”

  There were interesting things involved in the speech that Willum was able to pick from the whole. For instance, in the new language, it was totally clear that the descriptions, like large blue circle, wasn’t a name. When the Ysidril used a proper name, they actually inhaled first. Always. It was what indicated that they were doing that. Now that he was paying attention he understood that some of them had been doing the same thing before names when speaking in Standard.

  That was also fairly clear. Every single one of them who was planning to travel to Earth that day had taken pains to learn not just one of the languages, but several. Not all of them, but the collective group spoke Standard, Afrak and one of them had the Vagusian tongue down.

  Neesa had learned them all. As Ambassador, she considered it her main occupation, when she wasn’t studying. That part of her life had, apparently, stayed the same. Part of her day was taken up with learning new things. Mainly about technical equations and high level mathematics.

  He learned that, as part of his language lessons as they stood there.

  After twenty-five minutes, Count Ward bowed to everyone, his eyes glossing over as he tried to keep up with all the hissing and slight whistling that was being used.

  “I should go through alone, to announce the delegation. If all is well, I’ll be back for the first group momentarily?” Why it wouldn’t be well, the man didn’t share with them.

  Some things came to mind for Will, and it seemed the small girl and the yellow eyed man. The Ysidril all just bobbed in place, excited about the new situation.

  Edith, the small human seeming lady, who looked to be about ten or so, was one of the mech fleet. That bit of information had been dropped, but only in one line. From a female botanist. Her name had been given as a series of hisses with a single whistle. That meant she had the number three in her name. The whistles were all numbers or mathematical statements of some kind.

  Will wasn’t certain, but he kind of thought that Three had been warning him about that fact. That, or showing off her ability to tell the difference between human looking subjects. Either one was useful to know about her. That she was willing to warn him, or could tell the difference in others like that. Not all of the Ysidril seemed to be able to do that.

  Not that it wasn’t fair enough. A lot of people would probably find it difficult to tell one of the new four-armed people from the others. At least if they didn’t have distinct differences, like Erath. Ye was small enough that it wasn’t that difficult to tell ye from Neesa or Hess, for instance. Which could be the same trick that Three of the Ysidril was using.

  After a minute, Count Ward came back through the hut, smiling as the giant stepped into the hallway it was located inside.

  “It seems that everything is ready. We should make certain that everyone that has need of one is given a device to counter the weight on the other side. I nearly forgot about that myself. It’s an impressive difference.”

  That meant getting the small white tiles out of the box. They were the same kind of focus stone that Taman used for a lot of her gear. All the things from Harmony had more or less looked that way. From what little he knew about the universe, that might be the only location for that color of focus stone, which meant that the girl hadn’t been in Soam that long. She’d mentioned it being measured in months, which was also a great sign of that. Plus, she was an Ancient, which meant she’d just come back. There had been a large party for that, or so it had been hinted at.

  They went through in groups, with the news people going last. Will had gone through each time, so that no one would feel too alone or anything. At least that was his hope on the matter. Just as they got the last group of people inside, Prince Alphonse and his contingent bowed to them. The Ysidril did it back easily, along with Count Ward. The news people didn’t do it at all, which got several of the Noram folk to go wide eyed at the implied insult.

  When they stood up, the Prince looked stiff. Not combative, but he clearly was thinking of it as an insult. The four guards behind him were readying weapons while scanning the world. Probably for expecting an attack.

  Not wanting that kind of thing, Willum bowed again, catching their attention. Then, foolishly, he spoke.

  “The news crews and units from the three fleets consider themselves to vanish when they’re working, collecting pictures and facts. I’m certain that those back at their fleet will be bowing in return however. These are only those people’s eyes. These two aren’t really here.”

  It was a clumsy lie, naturally. Of interest one of the botanists, a man who wanted to be called Rik, even though that wasn’t his name, bowed as well before speaking.

  “True! They are most dedicated to their work in such ways.” Knowing it or not, that statement sold the Prince on the topic and got the guards to relax without killing anyone.

  The giant red headed man, who had three hand sized green circles on his front, smiled.

  “Thank you all for coming here today. This is a momentous occasion for us here on Earth. These good people of the Ysidril have come to examine plant life all over this world. Starting here in County Ward. We’ve arranged for their examination to hit each land of our planet. Please feel no hesitation to call on myself, or one of our representatives if anything is needed or desired to make this effort more comfortable.” It was interesting, but the Prince looked at Count Ward then, bowing again. “Do we have anyone picked out for that task specifically?”

  Bowing back, Count Ward smiled grandly.

  “We do, Prince Alphonse, three green circles. I myself will be available at any time day or night for that. As well as the Ancients of each land. Primarily, I believe that Taman Baker, the Ancient of Soam has been put forward for that? Which, if I understand correctly, will mean her sending out her assistant, Willum Baker, Pine Tree Emblem.” He gestured grandly at Will, so that everyone could understand who he meant.

  The Prince smiled very happily then. Probably because they weren’t attempting to dump all the work on him without warning. The man clasped both of his hands in front of his body. It wasn’t very strong looking, but about half of the Ysidril were doing that with their lower arms. Three or four of them bounced as he did it, which was a good sign.

  “Very good. Count Ward, Ambassador Neesa, Countier Lairdgren… Please don’t hesitate to call on me at need. Now, I believe my task for the day is to escort the information gathering people to different locations? Is there an itinerary for that?”

  That bit was addressed at Will directly. Since he was the one clearly in charge of that bit of trouble.

  So he bowed, going low to buy himself a few extra seconds to put things together.

  “I was thinking that it might serve to show where the contingent will be staying while here? Then, as they go to look at some of the foliage, the rest of us could possibly impose on High Leader of Mars, Hess? I don’t know if he has free time for that, but Dustin of the Forten seemed most anxious to make certain he’s being treated well and cared for. I spoke to him earlier, so perhaps he’ll receive my call if I bother him again?”

  The Prince was pleased enough with that.

  Enough so that they all were allowed to move to Count Ward’s grand palace. Edith the little mech girl looked around carefully. Dustin actually pointed a device at things, which was much the same in function as the kids eyes, Will had to guess. The place was incredible inside, but the Ysidril seemed to be a bit uneasy with that portion of things. Except Neesa.

  She moved over by Will.

  “This is one of those magical houses that use no energy or resources? The one that I reviewed in the Capital City of Noram was impressive. I believe that one was created by Erath’s Tor?” She glanced at the others, ready to explain that to them.

  Only it wasn’t the case.

  “No. This one is real. The place being provided in Soam will be as you described. This is… Simply as it seems.”

  She stiffened a bit then, hissing at him in Ysidril.

&
nbsp; “The waste… For one small group to have so much more than others… I’d thought that it was only a thing done because any might have use of such things…” A part of her seemed slightly scared then. “Dareg, at the port here, lived in only a small single room. Made of your magic, so without cost to anyone.”

  That seemed about right.

  “A pod house? Taman Baker, the Ancient of Soam, lives in one of those as well. I’ve just been sitting outside all night, myself. Not everything is shared fairly.” He wanted to add more, but his vocabulary of hissing noises failed him then.

  Switching to Standard, he spoke a bit more loudly.

  “I think everyone is eager to see the plant life?”

  That got everyone’s attention, the Ysidril had come to do that part, after all. One of them, the female he kept calling Three, nearly leaped in the air she bounced so hard.

  “May we start with the forest in the direction we came from? That is most impressive.”

  She meant the twenty or so trees, with some bushes, that they’d passed. None of the botanist had stopped to examine the funny looking trees, but it was clear that they’d been distracted by the things.

  Count Ward smiled, moving over to her. He put a single hand on her back, which didn’t stop the bouncing, but did get several of the others to go very still.

  “Certainly. Everything in my County is yours to examine or explore at will. That isn’t a forest however. I wouldn’t correct you in public normally, but I don’t want you to be afraid when you see a real one. They’re quite impressive.”

  Prince Alphonse, who was near the back, out of the way, called out then.

  “This is true. You should also go and see the northern forests. Willum, you come from there, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Prince Alphonse. I’m from Pine Creek, to be exact. That would probably be a fine place to visit. I have lessons at noon today, but we have a few hours, if part of the group wishes to go there. Though, they might be too busy here for that. Otherwise, well, we can do that at any time, really. Best to go during the day however, since the nights will be dark.”