A Peeble swoops from the night sky, releasing a spear. The spear impales Jibbawk’s backpack, throwing Jibbawk off balance so it tumbles to the sand.
Rubic slides to a stop and pulls the spear from the pack. Jibbawk gathers its feet and sprints away. Rubic eyes the spear’s colorful flags and intricate carvings. He looks up, still crouched. A dozen black-winged Peebles fly in circles above him like vultures. A spear stabs the sand a foot from Rubic. “Oh God!” he yells. He grabs the spear and pulls it from the sand and runs. He slides and stumbles and almost rolls down a steep decline, but stabs the sand, gaining stability from the spear like a walking stick.
Jibbawk pauses and scans a nearby valley. “Good news!” it yells as Rubic catches up.
“I need some good news!” Rubic answers as he ducks under the swoop of a Peeble, so close he can feel the breeze from the beat of its wings. “Ahhh! Get lost!” He jabs the spear at a bat-creature that comes at him, but misses.
“We get to eat well tonight!” Jibbawk, while running, takes the punctured backpack off and wrenches open the damaged lid. He pulls up the shelves, taking out the pistol. It has a typical handgrip, but the rail of the gun has two bulbous protrusions on each side like cystic tumors. Jibbawk takes out the goggles and slips them over its eyes. Without missing a step it crams the shelves back into the backpack, forces the lid closed, and re-hooks it on its shoulders.
“Eat well? Tonight? What?” Rubic gasps for air.
“Yessss. I will roassst one of these creatures over a fire before this night is done!”
Rubic sees a spear coming at the last moment and dives to the side. He wants to focus on surviving the attack not eating the attackers. How did Allan ever get along with a creature like Jibbawk? There had to be something about their connection that Rubic couldn’t remember.
Jibbawk aims the pistol into the sky and fires off a bright white laser shot. It speeds through the air silently, and harmlessly sails into space. Jibbawk and Rubic head down the sand dune and into another lush oasis. Rubic descends faster than his feet can move, so he braces them forward and skis down the sand. Jibbawk aims and fires off a few more rounds. None of the shots hit.
“Sssilly thing.” Jibbawk tosses the pistol over his shoulder.
Peebles swoop from every direction; their black shapes backlit by the bright planetary rings and starlit firmament. A spear glances off Rubic’s arm, causing him to fall to his knees. The pain doesn’t register over the drum of his heart and the gasping of his lungs. He chucks his spear and dives toward the pistol Jibbawk had tossed away.
Jibbawk is as nimble as a quail, and Rubic loses sight of him. The Peeble flock follows, waiting for an advantage. As Rubic descends into the valley, he has trouble seeing. The shadows and dark shapes of trees and bushes trick his eyes, and he stumbles over everything.
Rubic retreats under a tall tree. The tree’s canopy overhangs the trunk like an umbrella and creates a shelter underneath. The sky is obscured, but not the valley. Jibbawk is gone.
“You jerk of a bird,” Rubic hisses. “Someone ought to eat you.” He clenches his teeth and tries to think of a way out of his situation.
Peebles land all around the tree. Rubic can see their dark silhouettes as they fold their wings and approach with spears drawn. His heartbeat deafens the night sounds. They get closer. Blood tickles his arm as it drains from his wound. He suddenly feels the pain register. Rubic knows he’s lost. This is it for me. I won’t be able to help Allan. I’m sorry, kid. I failed you.
Rubic looks at the alien gun in his hand and tucks it under his belt at his lower back. Fighting will get him killed for sure. His only chance is to reason with them. “I’m not going to fight you! You’re going to have to kill an unarmed man!” Rubic holds up his hands and steps out from under the tree.
The siren song dances through the night air. The sleepy, dreamy song of death! It gets louder. There is some confusion in the Peebles.
Rubic moves back under the tree’s canopy and presses his back against the tree trunk. His eyelids grow heavy, but he knows how to beat the hypnotic lullaby. He claps his ears to make them ring. Dizziness rolls over his brain, but the ringing fogs out the song. Some of the Peebles leap into the sky successfully, others fall down, asleep. Checkmate.
Jibbawk emerges from a dense bush, stopping at the feet of the sleeping Peebles. He’s holding the bell horn of one of the dinosaurs, blowing into it like a trumpet.
When Jibbawk is sure the threat is past, it stops and looks at Rubic, “Thisss will come in handy!” it says, triumphantly swinging the horn over its head.
Rubic looks away, simultaneously feeling relieved and horrified.
Jibbawk crams the horn into the backpack like a dirty sock and grabs a spear. It raises the spear and aims at the heart of a Peeble. “You will taste better than sugar!”
Rubic catches the spear. “Oh no you don’t. These beings are intelligent. You can’t just eat whatever you want. Look at this weapon. They used tools to craft this. It’s got colorful flags, for crying out loud!”
Jibbawk looks sideways at Rubic for a moment. Its muscles tighten and then they release. “Fine. Thisss one time we will do it your way.”
Rubic steps back.
“You’re wounded.” Jibbawk notices the blood on Rubic’s sleeve.
“I’m fine.”
“I know, but just in casssse.” Jibbawk rips off the sleeve in one quick motion.
“Hey, was that necessary?”
Jibbawk inspects the wound. “You are able to continue. Your blood is clotting nicccely.” Jibbawk spins and marches away.
Rubic looks at his arm. The cut is long, but not deep. He picks up his sleeve, wads it, and presses it to his wound. After running to catch up, he says, “Let’s get off this planet, please, before I freak out. You might have to use that sleep horn on me to keep me from screaming like a little girl.”
Jibbawk ignores Rubic, though Rubic can sense an exaggerated roll of its eyes. “The map shows me where Hubbu plantsss have made holes. We’re near a large one, the one Allan used to leave this placcce.” Jibbawk taps the goggles it’s wearing. “My goggles will tell me what color the pollen was ssso we can sssee where he’s gone.”
“Music to my ears.” Exhaustion paints itself over Rubic’s thoughts. He’s never wanted his bed as desperately as he does now. His feet drag and he stops trying to see in the dark.
After hiking over two more hills, moving quickly over the tops so as not to be seen, Jibbawk finds the Hubbu signature. It stops next to a large patch of Hubbu flowers. The color is hard to see in the monochromatic light of the planet’s ring.
Jibbawk looks at Rubic, its goggles focus themselves. “He’s gone to Katonaay.”
“So that’s good, right?”
“Wrong.”
“Don’t say wrong. Say, great. Say, yeah. Say anything but wrong!”
“They don’t let people leave Katonaay.”
“Oh come on!” Rubic flops down on a large boulder. He kicks sand like a child. “I really don’t like being hunted or on anyone’s menu!” He’s so tired his brain can’t seem to motivate his muscles to move. He wonders how Allan survives all this. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m a goddamn fish out of water here.”
Jibbawk reaches out and grabs Rubic by the neck and pulls him face to face. “There’s one thing I cannot sssstand. Men throwing hissy fitssssssss.” Rubic chokes, unable to breathe. He’s petrified, unable to respond to the change in Jibbawk’s demeanor. Jibbawk releases Rubic.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Rubic chokes out while rubbing his neck. In normal situations on Earth, Rubic is tough, durable, and resilient. But he’s never been tested like this. Nor has he ever feared anyone as much as he does Jibbawk. Rubic recognizes Jibbawk’s overpowered strength, but was not threatened by him until now, and the moment he saw him, of course. He thought they were on the same side. Bonding even. Now Rubic knows without a shadow of a doubt that Jibbawk will kill him in an instant to get what it wants. The onl
y thing keeping Rubic alive is that they both want Allan.
Jibbawk plucks two large flowers then grabs Rubic, pulling him close. “I’m ssssorry for being rough, Rubic Wesssterfield. Sssometimes I get a little frustrated. I did not plan on going to Katonaay.”
Rubic feels the heat from Jibbawk’s breath. It’s rank like rotting roadkill. Jibbawk raises the flowers and shakes them, raining down pollen.
The pollen works its magic, and a moment later the two arrive on Katonaay.
“Gaaa, I hate that,” Rubic mutters. He shakes off the sickly feeling of being twisted up like Playdough and reformed.
The two land in a jungle at night. It’s swampy, hot, and misty. Jibbawk, without saying a word, trudges off.
Predictably, Rubic follows, knowing he cannot survive alone. The trees are tall with thick dark canopies. Rubic shivers. I don’t like any place where they won’t let you leave. ‘They’, whoever they are, will come out of the shadows and attack at any moment. They’ll have bazookas or magical hammers or ten heads, and they’ll pound me and Jibbawk into the ground.
Rubic sees Jibbawk snap its head toward any noise, no matter how distant or small. Obviously, this place makes Jibbawk nervous. And Jibbawk doesn’t scare easily.
After an hour of hiking, Rubic begins to think the dangers of Katonaay are hyped. It’s nighttime, but there are no singing dinosaurs to knock him out and slurp him up, no lightning storms, and no swooping, spear-toting bat-creatures attacking from above. At least, not yet. The jungle is dark and dense. Rubic begins to feel hidden and sheltered.
“Don’t you want to look at your map to find the cluster of Hubbu signatures first, then look at them with the goggles?” Rubic crawls over a root as thick as a car, a root Jibbawk simply leaps over.
“Katonaay is a shipping waypoint. Many worlds send large packages here by Hubbu. The locals take a percentage and sssend the goods off to their dessstination. Ssso there will be lotsss of Hubbu sssignatures everywhere. No way to dissstinguish between them. I need to look for sssomething out of place. Allan will not have arrived unnoticed and neither will we.”
The two emerge from the jungle into a grassy area that ends at a cliff. Rubic can see a city in the jungle far below. “Can your goggles see down there?”
“Yesss, now be quiet.” Jibbawk’s goggles zoom in as it inspects the valley below.
Rubic paces in the grass. He’s pestered by biting flies and smacks them off. The night sky here looks like Earth’s. There is no gorgeous planet ring, just a lot of stars and a half moon and some clouds. He doesn’t recognize any constellations and wonders how far from Earth they really are. His late brother and wife never let Allan cross the street without an adult. Under Rubic’s watch, Allan ends up a dozen light years away all by himself. Poor kid. This is all my fault. I never listened to him, but should have. Maybe he is not by himself. Allan met some people on Lan Darr that helped him get home. Rubic wishes, as deep a wish as he’s ever asked for, that Allan finds help to stay strong, to stay alive. Rubic tries to remember Allan’s story. He remembers someone named Asantia and a Mizzi character. He just can’t remember the details.
“There,” Jibbawk says and points down to the city far below.
Rubic falls to his knees next to Jibbawk. “Where? You see him?”
“He’s created quite a racket down in the city. The army seems to be looking for him.”
“How do you know that?” Rubic asks.
“I’ve heard stories. When sssomeone, anyone arrives in Katonaay, they ssseduce them with pleasantries.” Jibbawk looks at Rubic sideways. “You would probably fall for their ruse.” Jibbawk returns his gaze to the city below. “But if someone tries to escape, the army arrestsss you. They have an enormousss army. It is the reason no one comes to Katonaay.” After a moment it adds, “I believe Allan isss at the dome.”
Rubic can see the huge dome at the right side of the city. It’s glowing softly in the dark, surrounded by the speckled lights of homes and buildings. Without the zoom on the goggles he can’t see much else. “How do you know he’s in the dome? You can zoom that close?”
Jibbawk watches intently. “I can sssee the army heading toward the dome’s gatesss.”
“How do we get down there? We gotta do something!” Rubic stands.
“If you go down there you will never sssee him again. But it is niccce you’re not sssniveling anymore.”
“Fine then, what do you suggest?” Rubic kneels down again at the edge of the tall cliff.
Jibbawk watches through his zoomed-in goggles. The lenses extend over a foot. “Interesssting.”
“What, tell me what you see.” Rubic strains to see something, anything.
A flair of light erupts from the left side of the dome. It’s like someone turned on some floodlights.
“Your Allan is very resssourceful,” Jibbawk mutters.
“Give me a play-by-play. Or somethin’! I’m crawling out of my skin over here.”
“That’s it! He’s inssside the dome.” Jibbawk presses a button on his goggles and the lenses retract. He takes them off then places them back in his damaged backpack.
“What is it?” Rubic feels like grabbing Jibbawk, shaking it by the shoulder and smacking it across the face—though he would never do such a thing because it would probably be the last thing he would do.
Jibbawk’s eyes glare at Rubic, their fire-red hearts beating rhythmically. “Where will Allan go? I brought you along to help me find Allan, now where will he go?”
Rubic could feel the intensity of Jibbawk’s words like the heat of flames. “He… he wants to go back to Lan Darr. That is his ultimate goal. He wants to see his friends again. And to see you, I presume.”
“Then we will go to Lan Darr now.”
“Why? What did you see?”
“They were rioting down there. Crowds lit fires along a major ssstreet and sssoldiers had to sssubdue the insssurrection. Marvelousss job they did. I watched them put down the rioters then turn to the dome and infiltrate it.”
“So Allan got inside the dome?” Rubic’s heart is full with pride at how strong Allan is, how smart he is.
“Yessss. They ssstore Hubbu pollen there. Every color. Allan will be able to find the pollen to take him to Lan Darr. I am sure of it.” Jibbawk pulls out his tin of pollen. “We will go to Lan Darr and head off Allan.”
Rubic knows the routine and moves close to Jibbawk, careful not to impale himself on the quills. “Yeah, let’s go. He’ll be so surprised to see us.” Energy returns to Rubic’s veins, and a second wind awakens his thoughts.
Jibbawk sprinkles the blue pollen over their heads, and the sparks ignite like a thousand falling stars.
Chapter 18
Return to Lan Darr
Allan stares up at the top of the crate that holds the Hubbu pollen he needs to get to Lan Darr. It’s a huge crate, the size of a semi-trailer, with a ladder on one side. He’s never attempted to pull himself up a ladder like this, and it seems impossible. To weaken his confidence further, his muscles are fatigued and feel like well-kneaded dough. I can do so much more than I ever thought possible, he reminds himself and reaches for the first rung. His fingers shake.
Down the aisle two crates away, a door crashes inward. A dozen soldiers march through. Allan backs around the corner to hide, but another squad has entered a door down this aisle.
Allan rolls back to the ladder. Good-bye chair. I’ll miss you. He slams the brake on, seizes the first rung, pulls himself off the chair, and starts up the ladder. His arms tire immediately, and after four rungs he pauses, hanging and gasping for breath. He just can’t find the strength to go higher. Looks like I’m gonna get a job picking Hubbu flowers for the rest of my life after all.
“Allan Westerfield!” a soldier roars a few feet away. He’s not wearing armor like the other soldiers. He’s sporting a funny hat that looks like a stuffed grocery bag and a bright red coat that has so many medals and ribbons there isn’t an empty spot left. “You will come back down
and stand trial for desertion.”
“What!” Allan rolls his eyes. His fingers slip. He falls and lands on his chair. “You have no right. This is kidnapping!”
“By decree of the Articles of Katonaay, you will repay a debt incurred during the welcome celebration in the palace. Once you repay what you spent you will be released.”
“That’s a steamy pile of bull crap and you know it!”
Four soldiers in armor draw swords and march toward Allan.
“Psst,” someone above Allan whispers.
Allan looks up. One of the homeless children has climbed to the top of the crate. “Going to Lan Darr they say?” The boy winks one of his glowing eyes.
“Yes.”
“You up there! Stay where you are! Get that boy!” a soldier yells. Four large soldiers sprint toward the crate.
“I hope you never come back,” the child says with a toothless grin, then sprinkles the blue pollen above Allan. The pollen swirls down, opens a wormhole in space, and folds Allan into it.
Allan moves painfully through a familiar darkness. When he feels solid again, he opens his eyes and looks up. Three sliver moons hang in the sky. Allan raises his hands. “Yeahhhh!” He tips back in his chair and whoops as loud as he can. “Thank you, homeless kid, with no teeth and glowing eyes! Thank you.”
Allan digs out his flashlight. The light illuminates sparse dead trees reaching into the night like skeleton hands. It reflects off dust that swirls and falls through the light like a dance. Boulders and rocks litter a rolling landscape, but most of what surrounds him is dirt. He recognizes where he is. He’s on Lan Darr now, and it makes him smile wide. It’s been a long while, but the place is as familiar as a favorite summer home. He’s near where the Lithic Furies lived. He has seen this landscape during the day and knows it pretty well. The air smells familiar. The moons overhead crown him in their astral glow.
Allan reflects on the mechanical legs Mizzi had made for him. They were powerful exoskeletal legs that carried him through this area and gave him twice as much power as normal human legs. If only Laura would believe what he did here a year ago. He had snuck by all the towering rock monsters, lassoed the tooth of the Lithic Fury Baroon, and swung from its mouth like Tarzan. That tooth popped off, and Allan was able to recover the key inside it; the key that Mizzi used to lure Jibbawk out into the open. It was so difficult and scary then. Now, Allan reminisces, discovering a pride that had nestled deep into his bones. According to Mizzi, it was his Testing— a way to prove himself worthy of tackling seemingly insurmountable obstacles and an ultimate quest for his soul. Even though he was stuck in a wheelchair, he wasn’t useless.
Return To Lan Darr Page 16
