Andal looked around and stared straight into her eyes. «Of course it was worth it» he said, changing the tone of his voice to make her understand that he would do it thousands of times if it was necessary.
Myah blushed, understanding that Marco was probably right.
He had done it for her.
The door behind them opened and King Karmora entered the room, a little surprised to find his daughter there.
Andal snapped back to attention.
«Sir, I still wanted to apologize for the incident and I'm ready to answer ...»
«Shut up!» the king ordered, turning to the young solaryan soldier, who could not finish his sentence. «What you did today is unforgivable» he shouted again.
«Yes, sir!» he replied without batting an eyelid.
Then King Karmora unexpectedly approached the boy, gave him a slap on the cheek and said «Good boy! Nice punch. You did well!».
Andal was speechless.
He looked at his incredulous sovereign, trying to stay at attention.
Myah watched the scene and barely recognized her father.
King Karmora turned, smiled at his daughter and winked at her, «Don’t be late, eh...?»
«Daaad?!» she answered with wide eyes, following him with her stare as he left the room.
The young Andal stood at attention, but could barely hide his pleased air.
20
Patrik walked the corridor in the company of those huge beasts, wondering where they were leading him.
He limped slightly because of the bad blow he had received from the Kentauro, which now preceded him by a few feet.
The visibility was guaranteed only by some torches hung intermittently on the wall and in his heart he wondered why it was these very primitive creatures that assigned important things such as siels, thus ensuring the selection of the best Guardians.
Although some of them walked ahead of him and others followed him who knows where, nobody cared about him. They walked indifferently without even communicating with each other, like passengers crossing a corridor to catch the same train.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, finally, a light began to gleam at the end of the tunnel.
Coming out, they all found themselves inside a forest.
Only one path marked the road to follow, while the sun was about to fall on the horizon line well covered by dense vegetation.
Patrik watched everything around him.
Every so often he was distracted by some insect or animal he’d never seen before that caught his attention.
All in all, the scenario was not so different from some places on planet Earth he thought, but for his part he knew how to recognize dangerous things.
On Kentaura, of course, everything was different, the most beautiful and colorful butterfly could be lethal, or a big beast with a disquieting look might be totally harmless.
Moreover, the night he was about to draw in and that didn’t make him feel comfortable.
He squeezed his siel, which answered, ready to intervene for any eventuality, and it was then that he realized that the Kentauros were walking all around him as if they wanted to protect him.
He smiled.
He felt safe.
His house, his school, the city where he had grown up and everything else seemed so far away, as if he was living inside an illusion until then.
And basically that was it.
The complex machine of the universe had surrounded its planet in a completely hidden way, without showing itself.
It made him, and every inhabitant of the Earth, live in the silly illusion of being alone in the cosmos, with the insane belief that the race for power, money or success, was their only meaning in the world.
And thinking about it, his world was just a little gear of something much bigger.
Now he knew it, and everyone would understand it. Greymar's ship in the middle of a Bavarian meadow was just the beginning.
Everything would have been different from that moment.
They walked for a few minutes until they found themselves in the middle of a clearing that broke, if only for a while, the dense forest that they were going through.
The biggest of all, who led the group, stopped suddenly and let out a loud hiss to the others who followed him.
All of them extracted cutting weapons from their belts, knives, swords and big, big axes. They positioned themselves in a circle around Patrik, looking towards the trees.
Something was going to happen, but he had no idea what.
«What's up?» he asked aloud, but none of them answered.
He glanced nervously, looking around, but he could not see anything.
He felt danger and every second of waiting made him mad.
His siel had literally gone crazy around his forearm and he knew that shortly he would have to use it, perhaps to kill.
Yet.
More blood.
Suddenly, about fifty menacing creatures emerged out of nowhere, surrounding the group.
They were big and walked like gorillas, erect on their hind legs and occasionally even on the front ones. The mantle was similar to that of the cheetahs and the decidedly canine head. The most troubling thing was the teeth, which were in snarling mouths, waiting to attack, and the long sharp claws similar to those of big bears.
Patrik's siel turned into a halberd, with two long, sharp blades, ready to fight.
Two Kentauros turned towards him and began to utter strange words.
«I won’t sit on my hands. With one more we will have more chance» he replied, and had understood well that they didn’t want to involve him in the fight that would take place shortly.
Suddenly a Kentauro fell on him, causing him to drop to the ground. The figure held him down, unable to move, protecting him with his body. Three others surrounded Patrik much more closely to prevent any of those creatures from approaching.
The pack attacked as one, as if in a perfect military tactic.
Patrik could not see well, lying on the ground, with that big beast on him.
He couldn’t even move a muscle.
«Let me go, get off!» he shrieked as loud as he could, but his voice was lost in the angry and painful soundsof the battle, that was deafening.
A couple of those ferocious beasts managed to reach the Kentauro that protected him, but nevertheless it didn’t get up, enduring the bites and claws on its body. His companions tried to help him from time to time, their primary concern being protecting themselves.
This lasted only a little less than an interminable minute, until the survivors of the ferocious pack disappeared into the forest from which they had come.
One of the Kentauros helped the young Terrestrial stand up. Patrik was breathing heavily and with tears in his eyes he saw what was left on the battlefield.
Twenty of those dead creatures, three dead Kentauros and many others injured.
The one that had decided to protect him was on the ground gasping, covered in blood, his gaze turned to the sky.
Patrik knelt beside him and put a hand on his face.
«Why??! Whyyyy?!» he screamed crying, as he saw that beast dying, that he had never seen or known before, and yet had decided to die to protect him.
«You should have struggled. You could have defended yourself, stupid!»
Patrik was bent down crying, hoping that the Kentauro would be saved, but the wounds were deep and the breath was very weak.
Instinctively, he took his siel and placed it on the breast of the dying creature. The weapon came to life, lit up and surrounded for a few moments the face of the Kentauro and then returned to Patrik's hand.
Before exhaling the last breath, the creature managed to rest its hand on Patrik's shoulder, and then drop it to the ground, lifeless.
The boy stood up with the expression of one who has exhausted all tears.
He was tired.
He felt himself lacking strength, his head was spinning and above all he was fed up with the tra
il of death that he left behind him. He didn’t even want to walk any more.
However they couldn’t stop. Staying there with the night ahead was not safe for anyone.
They resumed their journey, entering the forest again.
After a while Patrik clearly felt that some of the creatures that attacked them had returned to feed on the bodies left in the clearing. He wanted to get back there and exterminate those beasts. He felt that with his siel he could kill them all.
But he didn’t.
A Kentauro had died for him to live because he didn’t risk his life. The least he could do was to respect the decision of who gave him the most precious thing he had.
They walked a little further while the darkness was about to take over, but it didn’t matter.
They would not have to walk much longer.
*
Patrik sat down on a large stone near the fire that the Kentauros lit right next to a small river that had popped out of nowhere.
Some of them had gone, inexplicably. Shortly after they returned with small dead animals and strangely shaped fruit.
Patrik was content with the latter to put something in his mouth. He was hungry, but he was not yet ready for a do-it-yourself barbecue in the Kentaura forest. He couldn’t even prepare a chicken, let alone animals of which he had been ignorant of the existence of until a few minutes ago. And then he would be the only one to cook the meat, since all the other diners seemed to like raw meat.
«Is there still a long way to get where we’re going? And above all, could you tell me where we're going?» he said aloud trying to break the silence.
One of them got up and, after having placed some strange grass in water, placed it on a small scratch that could be seen on Patrik's left hand.
Nobody answered and he understood that it was useless to insist.
Those strange creatures seemed to follow a well-defined pattern, something very far from their nature but which they did because it was their task, without asking too many questions. If he wanted answers he had to wait for the end of the trip, that was clear.
He sat down on the ground to get closer to the fire and laid his head on the rock where he had just sat down.
He was tired, so tired.
The adrenaline of that day was now giving way to calm, a calm that sounded like the crackling of the fire.
He closed his eyes for a moment and without realizing it, he fell asleep.
When he opened them it was already morning, though very early. The fire was extinguished and all the Kentauros had disappeared.
Patrik stood up, scared by their unexpected absence.
«Oh. Where are you?!» he began to scream, but didn’t get an answer.
He took the siel and began to look around.
Nobody.
Everyone was gone.
«Hey! Where are youuu?» he asked again.
Still nothing.
What kind of joke is this? He thought.
He tried to concentrate.
He looked again at the forest where they had come from, the dead fire, the river and the other part of the bank. It was then that he thought he saw a faint light coming from the trees.
He crossed the river, not caring that he could sink to his shoes and jeans, turned his siel into a sort of machete and began to hack his way through the thick vegetation to find out what that light was, that seemed to want to show him the way.
Removing the last bush that prevented him from seeing clearly, he found himself at the top of a sort of very ancient circular amphitheater, a stone ruin hidden by the forest. All the Kentauros were positioned in a circle, at the top like him, and looking down.
And down there, right at the end of the stone steps, a woman was sitting, a human, with a little girl playing beside her.
The woman was dark-skinned, with long, curly black hair and a kind of white robe. Patrik thought for a moment that she was an angel. The girl was of white complexion with long black hair tied on one side with a sort of blue flower. She wore leather ankle boots and a light beige dress with a belt around the waist of the same material as her boots.
Patrik began to walk towards them. He didn’t think it was possible to find his fellow men there.
The woman stood up and smiled at him.
«Patrik Jones. You're finally here» she said.
At the sound of Patrik's name, the little girl whirled around and started running towards him, hugging him around his legs.
Patrik was very confused.
«Who are you?» he asked, still looking amazed at the woman and the child, who kept hugging him.
«My name is Evanah and I belong to this place. Her name is Kaira. You have to forgive her reaction, but she's been waiting for you for a long time» the woman replied.
«I don’t understand. What place is this and why am I here?» he asked again, more confused than before.
«Tell me Patrik. Have you ever looked at the sky at night?» she asked, sitting down and touching the tips of her hair falling to her side.
«What?!». He didn’t understand the meaning of the question.
«See, the essence of the universe is all there. The continuous alternation of light and darkness, of the visible and the invisible. See for example the creatures that brought you here. Long ago, when we found the Flower of Souls, we gave them the task of guarding the fate of the Guardians. The Kentauros are the most evil and ferocious creatures of the galaxy and their dark nature makes sure they kill many of the candidates chosen by the Code, but it is their aspect of light that pushes them to sacrifice their lives to give the siel to those destined to watch over the Flower».
Patrik thought for a moment about the Kentauro who had protected him a few hours earlier.
«I cannot give you the answers to the thousand questions you have in your head right now. There is not much time and I don’t even have many answers. The question you must ask yourself now, the only one that really has to matter to you is: who are you?»
Patrik was about to speak, but the girl stopped hugging his legs and took his hand. At that moment the siel began to go crazy around his forearm.
«Armintala...» the woman said, sighing and smiling at the same time, as if stolen by a distant memory as she watched the siel spinning.
«You have a long journey to take, boy. The Code chose you for this but remember: it shows you the way, but the steps are yours».
At the sound of those words, Kaira turned away from Patrik in the direction of Evanah. The latter bent down, placed the flower on her hair, hugged her and said «Go now!»
The girl came back to Patrik and took his hand, smiling at him.
«Kaira will come with you. This is her destiny».
«What ?!» Patrik asked incredulously. «Where would you get such an idea? Her parents will be worried about her. How can I take away a child that’s not mine, into space?»
«Ahahahaha...» Evanah laughed out loud. «The girl you're talking about is four hundred and eleven years old, according to the Earth calendar. She knows the galaxy better than anyone else».
Then the woman stood up again and her face suddenly became serious.
«You will have to protect her at the cost of your life. Preserving and protecting the life of one living being has the same value of doing as it has been for billions of others, don’t forget it».
«But I don’t know what to do» he said confused.
«You'll understand Patrik Jones. You will understand!»
A door opened on one side of the wall a little further and the woman began to move away.
Patrik was nervous.
He didn’t understand the meaning of the whole situation and had even more doubts than when he arrived.
Before disappearing behind the door she turned again.
«Remember Patrik, the Code shows you the way but the steps are yours».
«This makes no sense!» he began to scream. «You come out of nowhere, you tell me things that I barely understand and I just get a little girl to look
after. What is this? A joke?!».
Patrik was beside himself.
«Well, is there not anyone here who can explain what's going on?» he asked, still swearing at the sky.
Evanah smiled, turned to him and said, «I love the Terrans!»
She disappeared behind the stone door, which closed behind her.
Patrik remained with his eyes closed and his head turned towards the sky for about ten seconds, trying to regain his composure. Then he turned to the girl and she smiled at him as if his first scream had not bothered her in the slightest.
«Are we going?» she asked.
Patrik laughed.
It was all so absurd that at this point it was better to be carried away by events.
«All right. Come on» he said, smiling at her.
Now he had to save his father, for anything else he didn’t care very much.
The Kentauros moved to escort the boy and their new little guest in the same direction from which they had come.
«Evanah, that lady, says you know the galaxy well. Do you know how to get to Arkass and Vortix by chance?» Patrik asked as he held her hand.
«Sure!» she answered, sure. «And also quickly ...».
21
Kaira continued to talk nonstop describing to Patrik all the plants and animals that they saw.
He noticed almost immediately that the road they were taking was not the same, but no one gave him any explanation.
As usual.
He also asked the child about it, but he felt stupid talking to someone who could have been no more than six or seven years old.
She most often looked at him puzzled, and then smiled and continued to talk about her things.
This story of the four hundred and eleven years must have been a crazy hoax.
«What part of the Earth are you from?» he asked suddenly.
«I'm not terrestrial, Patrik» the little girl replied.
«Well, you look it! Little girls on my planet look like you».
She shrugged as if it didn’t bother her.
Patrik Jones and the Code of the Universe Page 16
