by Grant Fausey
The young lad ran after him, hearing the laughter of friends as the family greeted them from above. "I'm right behind you," answered the boy reaching up to give his father a helping hand with the fresh game they had caught for supper. The hunter watched the lifeboat, scanning the sky for any sign of approaching danger. The anti-gravity pod drifted against the side of the mountain, coming to rest amidst the grassy surface. A huge, ancient castle surrounded on three sides by the walls of a fortress, filled the skyline above the edge of the forest.
Travis gazed up at it in amazement. It was the most overwhelming thing he had ever seen, in spite of its foreboding shape. The thing was monstrous, carved from the stone of the mountainside, decorated with fine lines etched along the timberlines. While below it, the majestic setting was filled with cabins of an ancient village. It looked like as good spot as any to come ashore. Besides, Travis needed to rest. The city of light was still a good day's travel away. Too far for one day. It wasn't safer here in the valley of the castle. Travis slammed his pole into the side of the mountain and stepped off the lifeboat, pole-vaulting over to the mountainside. He reached back, helping Gem onto the mountainous terrain.
"Its beautiful ... isn't it, Travis," she asked thinking of the calm, serene feeling the meadow eluded too. Travis nodded a smile, fighting the overpowering feeling of danger. There was a sense of an unspeakable threat.
"There's something about this place that doesn't feel right," he said to her.
"Yeah, its cold," she answered calmly, but distinctly.
The distant horizon looked quiet enough, but Travis could tell from even this distance that events to shape the future where afoot. He felt his mind slipping, becoming Maccon. Gem patted him on the shoulder. "What is it?"
"Stand still," he said. "I'll be right back."
"Stand still?" she asked. Her head jerked back. "You'll be right back? Where are you going?" Gem leaped back, startled; suddenly paralyzed. Travis' body simply stopped moving. It appeared he had died, standing perfectly still, petrified in his position. It was as if his body had turned to stone.
"What the hell," she continued reaching out to touch him. Her hand passed right through his body, coming out the other side. She screamed, pulling her hand back.
Travis had transcended the dimension of both time and space, being nonphysical transported to a new and distant location––the dunes where the Acreens had laid their eggs surrounded him. His soft ghostly feet stood transparent to nature. He could see below the sand. "Shit," he wailed in a cry that no one could hear, amazed and terrified at the same time. Another feeling that was once Maccon became a part of him. We existed together, on a high plain ... a more spiritual consciousness.
Kristic's ghostly image moved along the dunes, overlooking the spot where the beasts had dug into the ground. There was movement in the sand. Little ripples trailed off the edge of the dunes rolling down across the summits back and forth across the base. The Acreen eggs were beginning to hatch in the heat of the desert. The infants scurried about the surface, wings fluttering to dry then like an unbeatable swarm, the hatchlings mounted for the sky.
"Hatchlings," screamed Kristic in a silence that only Travis could hear. "Wasper hatchlings." For the first time, Travis realized Kristic was standing with him as he watched the swarm rise into the heavens.
"Your task is greater than I had ever imagined, Travis," said his ghostly companion, pulling up his sleeves. "They match us for a war like no other in history. The future course of mankind is truly in your hands. There is little time. You must complete the awakening of the Knight within you, or you're going to die."
Travis stared at Kristic's ghost for a long one. What he was saying was the simple truth. The Acreens were unlike anything he ever dreamed. They were an infestation sent unto man to destroy humanity. Yet, they were nothing more than a swarm of angry babies on a flight across the land to where he would die. Travis took a deep breath and stepped back into his body, rejoining Gem. Only a moment of time had skipping from his life, but he knew the danger that was before him. The Acreen Waspers were on the way.
"Don't do that again," yelled Gem hitting him on the shoulder with her fists. "I thought you were dead."
"Dead? I'm not dead: at least, not yet. I'm fine, Gem."
"Well––just don't do that again, okay?"
"Okay."
Gem turned and started up the hill. Travis looked back. Things weren't okay and he wasn't the only one that knew it. There was an uneasy feeling rushing through his veins; he was frightened and more than a little. He felt Gem's discomfort. She knew he was hiding something, keeping the truth to himself of what he had seen on the horizon and she knew he was deciphering what he had witnessed.
Avenall could see the horizon from the top of the hill; the sky was darkening as if the articulate sun no longer existed. Something was blocking out the light. The event was the strangest thing he had seen in all the years of his life, but there was nothing he could do about it. One more step away from the edge of the stone fence and POW, he wasn't going to have to worry about anything then something, a glinting of light on the horizon, a darkness of shadow frightened him. He felt like a child in the night, alone and afraid of the dark. The feeling was pulling at him, coursing quickly through his body. He drew his jacket tight, tying the leather cords that held it together. He smacked his son on the butt, sending him up the hill.
"There's a storm coming," he yelled. "You'd better tell your mother that we'll be moving into the temple tonight."
"I feel it too, Father,” said the lad. “There's something wrong on the horizon, isn't there?"
"Hurry––tell your mother, Jeremiah."
"What about the two newcomers, Father. Won't they be in danger too?" Jeremiah pointed to the bottom of the mountain.
"You've good eyes, son. You're a credit to your father's fathers. Now go, and tell your mother. I'll bring the newcomers to the temple. Hurry!"
Shroom ran along the ground, jumping over the small bushes that blocked his way up the mountain. He let out a frightened chirp and made another jump into the protection of the trees. Travis watched him fleeing up the hill and took Gem by the hand more out of necessity than romance; he wanted to touch her, to love her, but the timing was wrong ... deadly wrong! It seemed the end of the beginning was always restarting for him. He just wanted to get the inevitable over.
Shroom stopped, clinging to a tree branch. His ears perked up, pulling in the sound of a rumble growing louder by the microsecond: A horrendous sound coming from the horizon reached his ears, screeching and clawing at his mind; his memories. "The hatchlings," screamed Travis.
"Hatchlings?" yelled Gem. "What the hell is a hatchling? She moved fast, pushed up the trail.
"This way," shouted Avenall sliding along the ground to reach her. "We're all in danger here. A storm is coming––looks like a real nasty one."
"It's not a storm..." yelled Travis.
Avenall grabbed Gem's arm, and pulled at her. "Come on––" he yelled. "What are those things?
Gem didn't hesitate; she was right behind him but each step she took seemed too small. The sky was filled with hatchlings, swarms of them. The land hushed in an eerie silence. All that remained was the roar of the swarm.
Travis felt his armor flicker into existence. Gem and Avenall marveled back at him, continuing their flight through the woods toward the temple. "Go on!" yelped Travis. "I'm right behind you. Keep going––I'll catch up.”
"How did he do that?"
A staff of light formed outward from his hand as he gripped it around its center. The entrance to the temple was closing in front of him. It would be touch and go whether or not; he could reach the door before the hatchlings did. The creatures attacked with such fury that even a baby dragon, with the swiftness of a provoked wasp, could not escape them. Travis wheeled his weapon into the air, striking at the hatchlings with a great deal of force, but the beasts had grown in size in only moments; the largest measuring about the length of his
arm.
Avenall reached the entrance first, literally tossing Gem under the door as he pulled down on it from the outside, rolling it downward. "Come on," he hollered at the top of his lungs.
Travis ran for his life helplessly outnumbered. The temple entrance dropped from above, smashing into the ground. The echo rocked the inside, filling the corridor with a false hope of safety. But the high-pitched whine of the fierce hatchling, persisted. One of the infants had managed to get inside. Travis fought for his life; his armor protecting him, while Gem and Avenall raced along the corridor into the darkness. He lashed out at the hatchling, striking it once then twice. The creature slammed into the wall, wings beating against the stone as Travis drove his weapon into its side, pushing on it until it ripped the wall.
The beast squealed in pain, dropping dead to the floor in a burning blackness that vanished without a trace. Travis fell against the wall, hitting his head on the stone. His weapon fell by his side, vanishing into the atoms from which it had come. He whimpered, brushing away the sweat that dripped from his brow, and breathed a sigh of relief.
––– 40 –––
GAYLA
Time passed quickly with every distortion wave that crossed the temple. Before he knew it, a year had gone by. Travis listened to the village people, hearing the cries for help in the night. The temple was the only remaining sanctuary. The cabin dwellers had all moved from the villages into the dungeons of the temple. Homes carved from the nightmares of a thousand children's sleepless nights.
On the outside, nothing living stood a chance against the baby dragon’s waspers or their offspring. The future didn't look promising. Travis had aged, returning from a nightly scouting party with Avenall. The two men took flight at dusk, moving across the land near the mountaintops in search of the Acreen's lair. Night travel was just as dangerous as day, but there were more shadows to hide in. The Acreens had trouble seeing them at night and the Waspers didn't fly in the dark, so they ravaged the countryside like pack rats hunting for food.
The shadows were at least manageable. The Acreens were constantly changed, evolving backward toward the darkness that drove them toward the other end of the spectrum. They were becoming creatures of a deeper darkness, and Travis figured it was only a matter of time until they would have no place left to hide.
Gem grow younger, day-by-day; week-by-week during the year, giving a day for a day, instead of a year older. She was receding faster than Travis had hoped. The genetic regeneration started by Trithen Kellnar was taking its toll, before her departure and arrival on this world of madness; this Nexusphere of inhospitable crossings made it all to clear to Travis: She was evolving backwards, and would obviously do so until she simply ceased to exist. Time would eventually deliver her to infancy and she would eventually die as an embryo in someone's arms. There was no sense of false hope. Silence followed her everywhere, her energies a hopeless cause.
"Kristic," she said, speaking softly to a small toddler who waddled beside her. "Come here, son."
The child smiled at her and reached up with opened arms allowing his mother to picked him up and cuddles him for all he was worth. She kissed him lovingly on the cheek. "That's right," she told him. "Mommy loves you too."
The child settled down, a thumb to his mouth. She cradled him in her arms, rocking him back and forth for a time. It was all she could do, not to cry. She watched from the rim earlier in the early morning hours, hoping for a glimpse of her beloved Travis, but the night was still and the ground covered in darkness. No stars illuminated the heavens, no points of light covered the surface of a brilliantly lit city: Only devastation and despair.
Avenall moved through the brush ahead of Travis, perfectly silent, two women between them, each crouched low among the brush. The morning sun was coming up. Sunrise was only minutes away. The light of day would bring another attack. The waspers ravaged the villages at dawn, killing every living thing that moved out of the shadows. Hiding was better than being caught and killed, but Travis hated the ritualistic events. They had taken a toll on him as well. He didn't know how many more attacks they could withstand. The Waspers always outnumbered them by the thousands.
"Let's go," he whispered to Bevin Tiss. The young woman clutched tight to her baby daughter, Gayla, trying to hide her fear in the darkness that provided a margin of safety in the shadows. Travis eye-balled the distant entrance for what seemed the longest time, remembering the first attack. He had been with Gem, on the Sodin side of the Nexusphere for no more than a day when the Waspers made their first attack, killing the inhabitants of a small hillside community.
Avenal’s quick thinking saved their lives. The hidden cavern below the temple provided the openness, which had become home. Children ran and played there, safely huddled together so they could cry in piece. Smoke filled the upper regions like a thick fog, rising from the fires used to keep the fortress warm. They had drilled tiny holes in the ceiling, trying to give the fortress better ventilation, but the smoke still lingered like a blanket of death.
"Come on," shouted Avenall following the same trail he had forged through the forest years ago. He knew it like the back of his hand, yet it was as treacherous and laced with deadly complications as it was the first time he had crossed it. Suddenly, there was a rumble in the air. "There on the move," he yelled. Travis pushed aside a large piece of brush from between two downed trees: A secret entrance to the underground habitation.
"We'll make it––" he shouted, keeping an eye on the ridges. "When they attack it will be from the ridges."
Travis patted the second woman on the shoulder. "Go on...." he yelled. "I'm right behind you. We're almost there."
The woman, dirty faced and tattered from wear, cried a smile at Travis. Her look wrenched at his heart; he felt helpless to overcome her need for comfort. It just wasn't in him to give.
Gem held Kristic close, placing her medallion about his young neck. She kissed him gently on the forehead, rubbing the top of his hair. "Well ... Kristic, my fine young man. You're a year old today and it's time you get used to being a man, like your father."
Kristic laughed pulling on the medallion, trying to remove it from around his neck while eating what he could of it. He gnawed at it, teething on the golden metal. It didn't matter how hard he tried, the medal was too hard to bite into, but the cool feeling was wonderful on his gums.
"The sun will be up soon," she told her son, "and your daddy will be home little one." Gem smiled a mother's grin at him and bounced him one or twice on her knee. "Your daddy will be home soon," she repeated, feeling the pounding wonderment of uncertainty as he wrenched at her heart.
Travis moved through the brush, leaping over the low branches. He could hear the sounds of the swarm. It was getting louder. The Waspers were on the move. "Travis...." whispered Avenall. "We'll never make it. It's too far to the stronghold."
"I know...." answered Travis tired of the battle. He was as weary a fighter, as the others were victims.
Travis couldn't think fast enough; his adrenaline levels were exhausted. He hadn't slept in days. His body felt like fruit falling from a vine, crumbling under the hooves of the morning beasts. The feeling was tense and mounting in him. They were already under attack. It just hadn't happened yet. The temple entrance was about a quarter of a mountain away, up the side of the embankment––too far to run; too far not to run. Even at a flat out pace, they'd be exhausted before the reached the entrance.
No, thought Travis. There had to be another way. The swarm was everywhere, blackening the sky. Travis didn't have a choice; the events were all to clear. He cringed at the thought of standing fast, fighting so the others could make it to safety, but it had to be done.
"Avenall...." he yelled, giving him the all to familiar look. "Run for your life when I give the signal."
The hunter nodded. Travis didn't say another word. They had done what they were about to do before, just not this far away from the fortress. The chance was a slim one, but one they had to
take. The safety of the families in the temple came first.
Avenall moved with the women through the trees, crawling on his belly. The ground was rough––the stingers of the Waspers deadly. It wasn't much of a choice.
Travis circled the forest going in the other direction, making a long arch along the forest's edge. His steps were as silent as the whisper of the wind. He couldn't make a sound until the right time. The Wasper swarm had reached the temple. He could hear the screams of the people inside; the prayers of each individual hiding in the deepest rooms of the temple.
The sun crested the mountains and it was finally morning. Avenall stayed motionless awaiting the signal. Hatchlings scurried across the ground in front of him. An all too friendly reminder of where and when he was. His path to the temple was cut off.
"My God," screamed Travis. "They've found a way in!"
They were too late. The screeching cries of the children, echoed through the forest from deep within the temple. The Waspers were everywhere; in and around the entrance, with overpowering numbers. Entire families were swept up into the air, taken aloft without a prayer of surviving. Avenall did his best to protect the women, forcing his way along the path to the Temple. There was no choice but to run.
Travis felt his armor flicker into existence again as he ran past the women at a full gallop. Avenall engaged, in the midst of a battle at the entrance to the temple descended with the swarm on the young knight like vultures, ripping and tearing at him from above and below. Travis swung at them, attempting to protect himself, but he was outnumbered a hundred to one.
Bevin ran for cover, driving through the swarm when she reached the entrance with her child in tow. The Waspers were everywhere in a mad dash to secure her child, Bevin screamed in pain stung in the chest repeatedly, and left her to die. She let go of her baby, falling onto the temple floor at Avenall's feet; her young baby carrier away. Travis leaped, saving young Gayla from the clutches of a Wasper. Suddenly, as quickly as it had began, silence returned. The Waspers were gone! All that remained was the ceiling rubble on the temple floor.
