“None at all. I will keep trying until success is achieved.”
“We might have to change our methods soon. But that can wait, right now I need you to start an uplink with the station.”
“Yes, Sir. Connection active in four…three…two...and activated.”
A sole horizontal line of neon green flashed on the dark screen.
“Good even, Sir. This is Juliana,” a voice said, and the vocal wave line of the screen spiked accordingly to the vocal tones.
Q realized the computer was creating a communication line between Carlos and someone else.
“Hello Juliana. Just wanted to report that I’ve come back to Earth to check up on the beast,” he smiled.
Q’s brain was going crazy now. Come back to Earth? From where?
“Ah the Felinera. It is very rare to sight it on Earth. Please keep us updated on progress during your stay. We can send you a transportation pod for the beast when necessary, or portals may also be fine.”
“I’ll update you on requirements soon,” he smiled, and with that the link closed.
Q couldn't remember the last time his brother had smiled. His mind was seriously doubting whether this guy was his brother. Maybe he was a look-like? Maybe Carlos made a look-alike robot that then killed Carlos and proceeded to take over his identity.
You’re an idiot, he thought to himself.
He finally stuck to his initial conclusion. All of this was a dream and he’d be waking up any minute.
Carlos got up and stretched out, “Give him some time to run about. An hour should be fine.”
“Very well sir.” the computer said.
“I’ll be back by tonight. Take care of the house securities while I’m gone,” and with that he walked back into the narrow corridor.
Soon everything was quiet again. Q realized that Carlos must have gone back up to the study.
That was also when he realized he had no clue how he was supposed to get out of here.
“Dropping barrier,” the computer said.
Dropping a barrier seemed to be a good thing. Maybe he’d be able to get out of this place through a new exit.
“Deactivating protection protocols...Disabling emergency protocols...Releasing subject.”
Before he could even notice, the computers, peripherals and solitary chair had now disappeared, maybe by retracting back into the wall. The whole place looked completely natural.
The metal wall on the other side rumbled and slowly sunk back into the ground. Retractable wall, wow, he thought.
A deep growl emerged from the unlit part of the cavern, making the air around him vibrate, and a bright purple pair of eyes glowed through the darkness.
Q froze.
Whatever that was on the other side, he was betting it wasn’t going to have a tea party with him.
***
Lights illuminated the underground cavern, letting Q see the large maze of rocks and crevices that had been on the other part of the wall.
And apparently this side of the cavern came free with its very own ferocious, ‘I will eat you for dinner’ beast; a deal that he wasn't really up for.
A huge cat-like creature stood in front of him. Its body was a bluish-indigo shade, and its eyes solid purple. Its sharp claws scratched at the ground, creating grooves within the hard rocks. A large jewel like growth lay embedded on its forehead, purple colors making it look like it was a third eye.
The beast crouched and growled, clearly intent on intimidation. Q had no doubt it had noticed him, and tried to figure what exactly it was that he was supposed to do now.
He came to his previous revolutionary conclusion that he just had to wake up from this dream. But then again, he wasn’t going to stake his life on that solution. He looked as the beast charged at him at full throttle.
“Uh oh.”
Q’s legs froze up as he collapsed to the floor, and the beast flew past him.
He heard a screech through the air. The beast had stopped itself from crashing into the wall by dragging its claws along the floor like an anchor. It shook its body and eyed Q carefully, as though it were trying to predict his moves.
Q, on the other hand, was trying to figure out if he had any moves at all. He wasn't equipped for this sort of battle. He was the guy who played Super Mario and Donkey Kong, not the one who battled twenty-foot tall, blue cats in an underground cavern.
“Video games,” he mumbled, a small grin appearing on his face.
“Hey, bet you can’t catch me, you stupid feline,” he yelled, hoping to get the beast’s attention.
And then he realized he could have done that by just yelling, instead of making a pointless, and probably lame, remark.
It worked though, and he got the beast to turn towards him. He even got a complimentary ‘I will chew you to death’ expression.
It charged at him with new-found vigor, and lunged through the air, its claws aimed right at Q’s body. He took a small step back and dropped down hard.
The blue body of the beast passed over him again, and he heard it crash straight into the wall on the other side, making the entire cave rumble.
He found it funny that the beast actually missed him twice in the same fashion. It was exactly like one of those stupid boss battles where this huge boss did the same thing over and over again. And like boss battles, all he needed was a simple strategy to take the thing down.
His plan though worked a little too well, and now the ceiling was crumbling from the beast’s blows on the walls.
The whole cave is supported by the walls you idiot, he thought, cursing himself for not factoring that part into his plan.
Boss battles weren’t usually like this.
Loose mud fell from the ceiling, indicating that the cave might be near the brink of collapse. To his left was the cause of it all. The beast lay there unconscious, its body leaning against the crater it had made on the wall about five feet above the ground.
That side of the wall didn’t have any protective covering - just plain old rocks-, and the beast had managed to create an opening when it had charged into it. The only thing remaining was to decide if he should head out or not.
If he wanted to get back into the mansion the way he came, he’d have to wait for Carlos to come back down, and that could happen now or two days later.
On the other hand, he could just leave the cave and find another way back to the mansion. It sure seemed better than waiting around for Carlos, especially while facing the possibility of the beast waking up again.
He squeezed himself out the opening and found himself on the slope of a grassy hill. He realized he had absolutely no clue where he was.
The whole cave seemed to be the hollowed out inside of the hill. The underground passage seemed to have connected the basement in the mansion to the cavern that’d surprisingly been inside a hill. But now he had no clue which direction he had to head. He was completely disoriented and the fact that he couldn't see the mansion anywhere in the vicinity didn't make him feel any better.
The hills were generally towards the north of the mansion, so heading south was probably his best bet.
He looked at the rising sun, plotting that direction as east and turned south, walking forward at a steady pace. Around a hundred yards on, he saw a small line of dark green form in the landscape.
The scene looked vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't really place why he felt that way. He just kept walking, getting closer to the border of greenery.
As he reached the area he could see that it was a hedge that rose to about his height. All of this started to seem more and more familiar. He pushed through the branches to the other side.
A muddy, mini-beach, met with a wide body of water.
The lake.
He remembered what this was.
This was the spot he and Taylor had explored just a while ago.
The last thing he’d remembered about this place was heading through the trees. That seemed like a plausible solution for now.
And s
o he walked towards the dark forest, which looked especially ominous in the dim light of dawn. He chose a random path, following it for a few minutes before realizing that it wasn't really getting him anywhere.
His mind seemed to get more confused as time passed. He felt a strain whenever he tried to remember what had happened when he was here before. Why was he feeling like this?
“Q,” he heard a voice call out to him and something pushed him down to the dirt.
He heard a loud crunching noise, which seemed to be an odd sort of sound to be coming from a forest.
Suddenly Taylor was there shaking him and pulling him to his feet.
“Taylor?”
“Thank you for noticing me, now get out of this forest as fast as you can,” she said.
“But why do I-”
Something lashed out from the darkness and hit the trees around him, slicing through them like they were made out of butter.
Taylor led as they ran through falling trees, swerving through them perfectly while making sure he didn't hit them.
“I didn't think it’d be this hard,” she muttered.
What the heck is she talking about? he thought.
She ran for a few minutes, heading deeper into the forest and stopping randomly in front of a tree.
“Stay here and don't move until I say so,” she said. “Okay?”
Q nodded slowly, still confused about what was going on. He wanted to ask her about it but she was giving out a ‘Don’t disturb me’ aura that threw him off.
“I’ll be back in a while,” she said and ran back towards the lake.
He sat there, leaning onto a tree trunk and wondering what in the world was happening.
The blue cat from before was already weird, and right now he’d just seen a few tree trunks being sliced right through. That definitely didn't seem realistic.
“Stay here,” he murmured, repeating what Taylor had told him.
His curiosity was eating him up, but the fear of his own safety kept him stuck to the spot.
He looked up at the wide branches of the trees, noticing that a translucent mist had settled all around him. His vision was already dull from the dim light that came through, and now he had to deal with the mist as well.
He wasn't going to move around for a while so this mist wasn’t going to hurt too much.
His mind played back everything that had happened. Within a span of an hour, he’d entered his brother’s ‘forbidden’ study, seen him teleport, somehow managed to get into his underground base, fought a ‘whatever-that-thing-was’ and then entered a mist-covered forest that made him feel like he was in a graveyard.
On the plus side, he could always say that he’d had an eventful weekend.
A low growl shattered the stillness.
A familiar growl.
The silhouette walked out the dark, mist-filled depths of the forest, its face looking much more ferocious than before, the jewel on its head bright and vibrant in the dull light.
He groaned in despair, “Awww c’mon!”
***
1-3
Q backed up against the tree, trying to move away from the advancing beast. His hands latched onto the first thing he could find on the ground, a large rock, and threw it straight at the beast, plonking it right between the eyes.
It looked at him and growled even louder than before.
Great, you idiot, now you’ve made sure it kills you.
It gave up on the slow advancing and invigorated itself into ‘charge’ mode, surging across the short distance between them.
Q let go of his ‘Keep calm and whatever’ plan and ran helter-skelter, swerving between the tree trunks as he headed through the forest. The beast as usual seemed to have crashed into one of the trees. He’d slowed it down, but now he had a new problem. The whole forest was already a maze and the fast-thickening mist was making it even trickier to find a path. The only thing he could clearly see through the mist was the glowing pair of bright-purple eyes that were slowly catching up to him.
Just his luck that beastie woke up this quickly, and what’s more, it somehow managed to find him in the forest. What were the odds? The low growling sounded once more, this time closer to him than before. He never turned back, afraid that the pair of eyes would be right behind him.
Q started to lose his vision to the mist. It had now thickened enough for almost everything to appear completely hidden. He stopped, put his hands on his knees, and caught his breath while his mind went to work.
His vision was useless right now. He’d have to find some other way to get away from the beast. Fighting it didn't seem plausible, and the loss in vision ruled out the ‘run away from it’ idea. The only thing left for him to do was climb up one of those trees, something that was pretty difficult to do when he couldn't even see even a foot in front of him.
He shuffled about, trying to find a tree within the thick mist. He tensed his muscles as soon as his fingers hit bark, and scurried up the tree, his feet kicking wildly every time he lost his foothold. The growling came closer, and he froze, his arms and legs hugging the tree trunk as tightly as they could.
A few minutes passed. His hands hurt from clutching the bark so tightly. There was no way he’d last much longer. The growls started to fade in and out. The beast seemed to be moving around a bit. Maybe it was lost in this mist as well, but that didn't mean it was safe for him to go back down either.
He figured it was best that he climb higher so he inched upward, as silently as he could. The beast would probably be able to trace him even if he made the quietest of noises. The pain in his hands was excruciating, but he knew this was the only way he could survive. The adrenaline pumped into him and he kept going.
The treetops rose out of the mist, and he climbed up until he was in the topmost branches.
The sun shone quite high in the sky, allowing him to assume that it was close to noon. And that seemed particularly weird because it meant he’d spent the last four to five hours running away from large cats that cut up trees.
Time seemed to have sped by.
He looked below him, at the thick waves of mist that flowed through the trees like they were waves in an ocean. The beast’s growling had slowly faded away into non-existence, but that either meant it had left or that it had simply chosen to keep quiet.
His main focus was on locating the lake, but for that he needed the mist to disappear, and who knew when that would happen. He could hear a dull sound coming from far away. It could have been a growl or a voice, he couldn’t really tell.
But could that have been Taylor?
It was possible, and the only way to find out would be to go and check. He had to be careful though. The cat beast could be right below him, and the last thing he wanted was to give it an ‘I am here, come eat me’ sign. That thing already found it pretty easy to sniff him out from a mile away.
He shuddered for a second. What if it had noticed that he’d climbed up the tree?
He didn't know much about it, but it seemed pretty reasonable to say it had a heightened sense of smell or hearing. How else would it have found him in the forest in the first place?
His thoughts were distracted by a gleam in the mist. He stilled immediately, not moving a single muscle.
Two purple eyes glowed through the mist, almost giving him a heart attack.
He shook his head in frustration, silently cursing himself for not realizing it sooner. Cats climb trees, so there was no way this large one would just lay on the ground instead of following him up the tree. It had even been silent enough to go completely unnoticed.
“This is bad,” he muttered to himself.
He was stuck in a tree, with a beast heading towards him from below. There was no way he could go back down, and he was already at the very top so climbing higher wasn’t an option either. All he could do was stall a bit and hopefully succeed in turning himself from an early lunch into a late evening snack.
And he didn't really like either of his options.<
br />
His mind went to work, giving him a completely unrealistic idea, as expected.
He could jump onto a nearby tree and evade the beast entirely, but that only meant that the beast wouldn't be the one to kill him. Instead he’d probably kill himself by crashing into a tree, and then dropping the entire distance to the floor of the forest.
The growling started again, and the eyes came closer, their glow becoming brighter and more ominous by the second.
He looked at the branches around him. They were his only way out, but missing them meant facing a fifty foot drop to the ground, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to survive that.
The jump wasn’t more than six feet away but that distance seemed quite intimidating when you considered all the other factors he was up against. But the facts remained the same. He either jumped, or ended up as lunch for the thing that was climbing up the tree behind him.
He looked at the nearest branch, eyeing it as it swayed in the light draft. Just a small jump, he thought. That’s all it would take him to get to it.
He stood up on the thick branch he was on and used the thinner ones around him for support. His legs bent, winding up, and he burst forwards with steady speed, trying to keep his balance at the same time. The branch wobbled a bit under his weight, nearly snapping towards the end, but he managed to push himself high into the air.
Now here began the problem.
He had been prepared for never reaching the six feet difference between the branches. But he had never considered what to do if he jumped farther than that. So all he could do was cry out painfully as he rammed into the tree trunk with all his force, sliding down until his hand caught one of the thicker branches. He immediately grabbed onto it with both arms and raised himself to safety.
So far so good. He doubted the beast hadn't noticed him shift trees.
Now that he’d successfully done the Tarzan thing, he moved on to the next step of his plan, which was, ironically, to figure out what to do next.
The beast didn't seem to be close, so it wouldn't be giving him any immediate problems. His biggest worry right now was Taylor. He didn’t know where she’d run off to but she would come back searching for him at the exact spot she’d left him. Only problem was the beast was occupying a space not far from there.
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 3
