by B. C. Harris
“Frank, I need your help.”
She hops a little closer.
“What is it? How can I assist you? Do you still want to get back to the planet Earth?”
I recall asking Frank last night if she could take me back to my home.
“No,” I say. “I have a new request.”
Frank looks at me as though she sincerely wants to help me.
“Have you ever heard of the Red Mountains?” I ask, not expecting a positive reply.
Frank shifts her weight nervously from one foot to the other. She appears to be anxious.
“Yes,” she finally says.
“You know the location of the Red Mountains?” I reply with excitement. “How do you know this?”
“I saw the Red Mountains off in the distance once when I was flying to another mountain range. When the sun shines on the Red Mountains, they glow a bright red color.”
I can’t believe my good luck. The Red Mountains exist on Tamor.
“Can you take me there?”
Frank nods tentatively.
Sensing Frank’s discomfort with our conversation, I ask, “Is there something that bothers you about going to the Red Mountains?”
Frank hesitates before answering, first looking one way and then another as though she’s searching for an answer to my question.
“Yes. Some parts of the Red Mountains are filled with wild animals. I have heard others say that anyone who goes to these parts never returns.”
“That’s okay,” I say. “I don’t intend to go into the Red Mountains. I just want to see them. Take me to the beginning of the Red Mountains. That’s all you have to do. I’ll be okay.”
My insides are churning. What am I going to do once I reach the mountains?
“When can you take me there?” I ask, trying to sound confident in the hope that this will help to overcome Frank’s fears and maybe my own.
Frank looks at me nervously and says, “I guess that right now is as good as any other time.”
I look at the kabinga, wondering how she will ever carry me. I see her tiny wings beginning to beat slowly. How can such small wings possibly make such a large animal fly, never mind carry me as well?
I recall that it was Frank who brought me back to the Land of Limnits after I had fainted from the heat on the plain yesterday. If she somehow carried me before, I guess there’s no problem in her doing it again.
“You will be safe,” Frank adds, sensing my discomfort.
I look around at the sleeping limnits. I think how nice it would be to stay with them spending the day sleeping, eating and having fun. That would likely be much easier than trying to find a lost world.
I hesitate.
“Please Emily, it’s going to be a very hot day. You remember what happened to you the last time you were on the hot plain.”
Yes, I remember.
“I’m ready,” I say as I step onto Frank’s back. I try to get comfortable, but I feel awkward, almost like I will fall off at any moment.
I close my eyes as we slowly rise, trying to find some courage within me in case we encounter any wild creatures during our flight to the mountains. For a moment, we don’t move. I take a brief peek to see what’s happening. We’re hovering like a helicopter, not going forward and not going backward.
“Ready?” Frank asks.
“I think so.”
Frank begins to swish her big tail back and forth like a fish does when it swims. We start to move forward. As the large tail moves faster and faster, we begin to rocket through the sky. At the same time, I feel something digging into my shoulder. As I look to see what it is, I’m surprised to find that one of the little purple zakabibbles is holding onto me for dear life. The little creature looks at me and smiles that strange limnit smirk. I can’t help but smile back.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Squirt, Squirt, Squirt,” it replies through a wide silly grin.
I remember Squirt from my previous visit.
Quickly the Land of Limnits disappears behind us. Once again, I find myself crossing a barren plain, except that this time instead of walking, I’m clinging to the back of a large green kabinga with a small furry purple zakabibble gripping my shoulder.
How did I ever end up in such a strange place?
Looking into the distance, I see mountains. Although most of them are a bluish-purple color, I notice a few of them appear to be orange. Regardless of how hard I look, I can’t see any mountains that are red.
We continue to fly at a very fast speed. A massive forest looms closer. I wonder if we’re going to have to fly over the forest before reaching the Red Mountains.
Suddenly a horrendous scream pierces the air. Even before I look up, I know it’s a sethaurus.
Panic instantly grips me. It doesn’t help that Frank abruptly dives downwards.
I manage to take a quick look up as we plummet. A huge sethaurus is circling above us.
“Hold on tighter,” Frank says, but her words are not very comforting. I sense the fear in her voice.
I stop breathing as we drop like we’re on a gigantic roller-coaster.
An ugly cry above us signals that the sethaurus is coming after us.
Frank begins to swerve back and forth in sharp jerky movements as though she’s trying to confuse the attacker. I’ve never felt so nauseated in my life. It’s all I can do to hang onto the kabinga. The little purple zackabibble frantically digs its tiny claws into my shoulders.
The air swirls around us like a wild cyclone as the sethaurus barely misses us. As the huge black creature turns sharply below us, we’re almost at the forest. The sethaurus looks angry. There’s a fierce fury in its fiery eyes as its powerful wings take it higher until once again it is ready to attack.
I close my eyes until I feel something strike my arm, almost pulling me off Frank’s back. As I open my eyes, I realize we have entered the forest. Branches on the trees tug at my arms trying to rip me away from the kabinga. We shoot in and out of the trees at a high speed. I push myself further onto Frank’s back in an attempt to protect myself.
Above us, the sethaurus crashes through the upper branches of the trees, its screams haunting the forest like a deranged demon. Large limbs snap off the trees like tiny toothpicks as the mighty beast comes after us.
I cry for help as the sethaurus comes closer. Its ferocious scream is deafening.
At the last second when huge talons are about to rip us apart, Frank somersaults, bounces off the ground, and then speeds off in the opposite direction. The maneuver fools the sethaurus although it almost sends me tumbling from Frank’s back. For an instant, we’re safe.
“We’re going to have to split up,” Frank says, gasping for breath.
“Why? If you leave me alone, I can’t possibly escape the sethaurus.”
“You won’t have to. You can hide while I draw the sethaurus away from you. When I fly again near the ground, I want you to jump off my back and hide behind the biggest tree you can find. I’ll take the sethaurus off in another direction. It will be easier for me to escape without you on my back. Once I have led the sethaurus far away I will return back for you.”
Before I respond, I hear a terrifying shriek behind us. Instinctively I know that the beast has spotted us again even though we’re twisting in and out of the trees.
Looking back in the direction of the numbing scream, I see the sethaurus picking up speed as it smashes branches from the trees. It looks like a massive monster in a movie pulverizing anything in its path.
“Over there!” Frank shouts as she abruptly drops besides several large trees.
“Where?”
“Those trees. You can hide behind one of those huge trees.”
Even though I can see the trees that Frank is referring to, I’m too frightened to leave her. What if the sethaurus catches Frank? How will I ever survive in the forest on my own? What if there are some other dangerous creatures hiding in the trees?
“When I say jump, y
ou’ve got to get off me. Hide behind one of the trees.”
“Jump? Are you crazy?”
Frank jerks to one side causing me to lose my grip on her. The sethaurus is almost on top of us.
“Jump!” Frank shouts.
Without thinking, I fall off Frank’s back. As I tumble on the ground, I roll behind an enormous tree.
Above me, branches are exploding from the power of the angry sethaurus.
Frank begins to bounce along the ground like a kangaroo in a haphazard pattern to confuse her attacker. The sethaurus closes in on Frank in spite of her efforts to escape.
As Frank hesitates, looking like she is unsure where to go, the powerful sethaurus leaps. There is a terrible cry followed by silence.
I hold my breath. As I peer around the tree, the sethaurus is sitting on the ground as though it has Frank trapped underneath it.
Squirt is clinging in terror to my shoulders.
After a minute or two of eerie silence, the sethaurus begins to moan like a child who has lost her favorite toy. The ferocious beast is looking for something. Has Frank somehow escaped?
As the sethaurus begins to swing its huge head in every direction, I crouch behind the massive tree and shut my eyes.
For what seems like an eternity, there’s only a terrifying stillness around me. I wonder what’s happening.
Where’s Frank? What’s the sethaurus going to do next?
I dare not move even though every cell in my body is shaking with fear. I wonder if the sethaurus can smell me.
I try to breathe as slowly and softly as possible, even though my heart is pounding like a drum in a marching band.
A loud scream suddenly echoes through the forest. The sethaurus is rising. Huge powerful wings cause the dirt from the ground to scatter in every direction as the angry sethaurus flies upwards. I hear the branches snapping.
After a few terrifying minutes of wondering what is going to happen next, I realize that the repulsive cries are getting further away. There are no more branches and leaves falling around me.
The sethaurus has left.
“Wow, that was close,” I hear a singing voice whisper. It sounds like Frank.
“Frank? Is that you? Are you still alive?”
“I most certainly am,” her lilting words drift to me.
“Where are you? How did you escape the sethaurus?”
“I’m right here.”
I look in the direction of the voice, but I can’t see anything except for the trees.
“Where? I can’t see you.”
As I search for my friend, I think I see something move on a tree in front of me. It looks like the trunk of the tree is coming apart.
It’s Frank.
The kabinga looks exactly like the trunk of the tree. She is the same brown color, even the same rough texture. Like a chameleon, Frank has changed to perfectly blend in with the tree.
“How did you do that?”
“Just before the sethaurus struck me, I synthated.”
“Synthated? What’s that?”
“I changed my color and texture so I looked like the ground. When the sethaurus hit the ground and missed me, I jumped to a tree and synthated to look like the tree.”
“Oh, I see,” I say, although I’m not completely sure that I do. “I think we call that camouflaging.”
“It’s sort of like camouflaging,” Frank says, “except that synthating involves more than changing color. My texture changes as well so that I become almost invisible when I’m next to the object that I am synthating with.”
“Wow. If I could synthate I could be invisible and trick my friends. Can you teach me how to synthate?” I ask eagerly, momentarily forgetting the danger we have just faced.
Frank laughs in response to my question. “I think it has taken kabingas a very long time to learn how to synthate.”
“Does everyone on Tamor know how to do this?” I ask.
Frank ponders my question.
“I don’t think so, but everyone does have some way to help them better survive.”
“Like a doadling’s two heads?”
“Yes, like a doadling’s two heads,” Frank laughs. “Now, we must get going again before the sethaurus returns.”
“Returns?”
“A sethaurus does not give up so easily.”
A tremor of fear runs through my body at the thought of a sethaurus attacking us again.
“Let’s walk through the forest for awhile,” Frank casually says in her lilting voice as though we are about to go on an afternoon stroll in a park. “If we take our time and keep quiet, it will be more difficult for the sethaurus to find us.”
- 12 -
AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY
After a long time walking, Frank, Squirt and I exit from the dense forest where we’re greeted by the sight of an enormous beautiful turquoise-colored lake that stretches all the way to some distant mountains; mountains that are glowing red.
I can barely contain my excitement as I begin to dance and jump. “We found them! Frank, we found them! Thank you so much for bringing me here.”
The green kabinga blushes at the praise.
“I’m sure you must be very tired but we’ve got to keep going. I need to actually reach the Red Mountains as quickly as I can.”
Frank looks at me sheepishly.
“Unfortunately this is where I will have to leave you.”
I don’t reply at first. It’s as though the waters of the lake hold a magical power over me. The colors are hypnotic causing me to fail to comprehend what Frank said to me.
“I can’t take you any further,” Frank repeats reluctantly. “This is as far as I can go. I must return back to the Land of Limnits now.”
I’m bewildered by the comment that she’s going to leave me. It’s as though a friend is abandoning me at a time of need.
I notice that Frank is beginning to creep away from me.
“Leave me? How can you do that? How will I ever get across the lake to reach the Red Mountains? It would be too far to walk around the lake. Why can’t you fly me across the lake and then you can go back to the Land of Limnits? You told me that you could take me to the Red Mountains. Why have you changed your mind?
Frank looks pensively at the ground as though she’s embarrassed.
Tentatively, she begins, “I have a fear of drowning. I don’t know how to swim. I could never fly over this huge lake. It would be too terrifying for me.”
I consider what Frank said to me as I glance across the massive lake. The more I look towards the mountains, the more I realize that they are still far away.
I’m not a very strong swimmer so I have some understanding of how Frank feels, but just the same I say, “You would be flying over the lake. You wouldn’t have to get close to it. Besides, how can you say you are frightened by a lake when you live beside a lake in the Land of Limnits?”
“Actually, I never go near the water in the Land of Limnits. I always stay high up in a tree.”
I think back to my time in the Land of Limnits. I recall that Frank never went near the water and that she was in fact high in a tree when I first met her.”
“As well,” Frank says, “if the sethaurus returns and we’re flying over the open water, we’d have nowhere to hide.”
Frank has a valid point there.
“Isn’t there some way you could help me?” I say with frustration. “Is there some other route we could take to reach the Red Mountains?”
Frank shakes her head. “I’m not exactly sure where we are right now so I don’t have an answer to your question.”
Before there’s any chance for us to talk further, a horrendous scream fills the air. Frank and I both look up at the same time to see a massive sethaurus circling above us. Squirt, whom I had forgotten about, jumps from my shoulders into Frank’s pouch.
“Emily, you must get into the water,” Frank says, her voice filled with fear. “The sethaurus will leave you alone there. They have an extreme fear o
f the open water.”
My gaze shifts back and forth between the sethaurus hovering above us and the lake in front of me. My mind is telling me that if a mighty creature like a sethaurus is afraid of lakes, I should stay away from them too.
“Take me back into the forest,” I nervously say to Frank.
There is no reply.
Frank is gone.
“Frank, where are you? I need your help.”
An evil scream pierces through me. Alarmed, I look up. The huge beast is diving at me.
I rush to the lake and leap into the water. I feel a huge surge of wind sweep past me as the sethaurus changes its course at the last second.
As I bob back to the surface of the lake, I glance in every direction for the sethaurus. It doesn’t take long to find it circling above me. I know that as soon as I leave the water, it will attack me. I also know that I can’t keep treading water forever. If a mighty creature like a sethaurus is afraid of monsters in the lakes of Tamor, how can a helpless girl like me ever survive in these waters?
“Someone, please help me,” I beg.
With my eyes glued to the huge sethaurus, suddenly there is a splash beside me. Is it a beast from the depths of the lake coming to attack me?
As I turn towards the noise, there is something swimming towards me.
Whatever it is, it has the face of a cute dog with floppy light brown ears, big brown eyes, and a white area around its eyes and nose that resembles a mask. Overall, it looks like it is about as big as a medium-sized dog.
It begins to talk to me.
“Hi Emily, I’m here to help you,” it says, its voice sounding like a man. “My name is Capurni.”
“Help me?” I anxiously reply, puzzled as I wonder how a dog-like creature can protect me from a menacing sethaurus.
“How can you help me? How do you know my name?”
“Using sensergy we have been able to hear many of your thoughts since you first arrived on Tamor. I live in an underwater world. We must go there to escape the sethaurus.”
“You live in an underwater world?” I say. “Is this some kind of joke?”
Above us comes a blood-curdling cry from the sethaurus.
“We need to go,” Capurni says urgently “There are many things I need to explain to you, but first we must get to a safe place. The sethaurus will wait until you get tired from swimming and return back to the shore. Once that happens, you will be an easy target for it.”
