It is a man, old and scraggy. He wears a jacket that lays over the red plaid button shirt and blue jeans. He wears an old baseball cap and a pair of glasses. He yelled something to Dad, holding his hands up like he was pleading, although we couldn’t hear it over the truck engine. They talked, but we couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Hey, what are they saying”, I asked, while petting Matt’s hair, calming him. The old man then put his hands down and came close to Dad in a cautious way. They seem to start having some kind of conversation.
“I don’t really know, hopefully, something good”, Mom answered. They talked for a little while, with daylight beginning to disappear, giving us a sense of dread, and making me more worried about what weird creature was going to show up. Eventually, the old man turned and pointed toward what I think is the northeast. They then shook hands and walked back to their respective vehicles. “What’s going on”, Mom asked as Dad got into the truck.
“Well, our new friend here invited us to dinner at his farm”, Dad replied.
“Does he have supplies?”
“Well, he says has supplies for us to make the journey.”
“Should we even trust him? We just met h-”
“Relax, he’s just an old man, living alone at his farm, feeding his cows. What could go wrong”, Dad countered. The old man then entered the truck that was running and drove slowly, expecting us to follow him.
“Alrighty then, but we have to be cautious”, Mom said, with her suspicions of the old man. We then followed the old truck along the dark, frozen road. It just feels like something is going to show up along the road, but nothing happened. Matt did eventually stop crying, but he is still upset about the Joe escape thing.
“Where are we going”, Matt lamented, with the prior series of events in mind.
“I guess somebody is offering us dinner”, I answered.
“Why can’t we just go home?”
“It’s only going to be a stop, like a hotel. After that, we go to our new home, I guess”, I said, taking another look at Matt and cradling to comfort him. “It’s going to be okay.” I stared out into the darkness. I looked to the sky from the window and I faintly saw something in the clear, dark sky, lit up by the waning moon. They were brilliant, green auroras that defy the bright moon, dancing across the sky like ribbons in the wind. The truck eventually took a right-hand turn into another road, with us following suit. I can see a bright, orange light emerging from a patch of tree. When we passed by, it seemed it was a house, at a farm, burning in a massive flame.
“I guess those people aren’t so, uh, lucky”, Dad said, taking a quick look at it before looking at the road. Passing by, we went on and continued to follow the old man’s truck. We passed onto another intersection until he turned into a driveway to what I believe to be his farm. Going into the driveway, I can see an old house, along with a dilapidated farm further away, barely visible by the headlights. The old man parked by the house, where there were a few other trucks there. We parked alongside the truck and we got out into the cold, near-silent night.
“Welcome to sanctuary, where all are welcome”, the old man bellowed. This is the first time I’ve heard his voice. Matt was the last to get out of the truck, slowly and clumsily climbing out of the truck.
“What’s your name”, my Mom politely asked the old man.
“Oh, I guess your husband didn’t tell ya. My name is Steven, but you can call me Steve”, the old man said, with some crackling in his voice. “I am very proud to host a dinner for you and your family”, he continued. “What’s your name, ma’am?”
“Oh, my name is Janice”, Mom replied, quite pleased at his politeness.
“Hello, Janice, and what are their names”, Steven asked, pointing to me and Matt.
“That’s my daughter Kate and my son Matt”, Dad said to Mom.
“Oh, what wonderful names for a couple of beautiful children you have”, Steve grinned. “Come, it is dangerous out here.” We followed him to the house, which looked like it had seen better days. He entered through the double-set door, the first a solid door and a screen door behind. Entering the house, it smelled like what you’d expect, old man. Looking onto the floor is made of glossy wood and walls with cracks, likely caused by the earthquake. It is dark in there, lit by candlelight from many candles, yet it’s fairly warm here. I don’t know why we went into the house, but Dad was right, Steve is just a lonely, old man. Matter of fact, there seems to be nothing wrong here, other than the cracks in the walls. “Sorry, the power went out. Had to resort to the candles. I knew my wife would come in handy”, Steve explained as he took his coat off. “Oh, supper will be ready right away. Had to use the fireplace to cook. Also, can you take your boots off?” We took our boots and set them aside. We went into what seemed to be a living room, with dusty old-style furniture.
“So, where do we sit”, Mom asked.
“Oh, well, follow me”, Steve commanded, leading us to the dining room, with a long, wooden table and six wooden chairs, along with their corresponding old-fashioned plates, glasses and cutlery, lit up in the candlelight. We noticed that everything on the table was covered in a thin veil of dust. “My apologies, the recent shocks dropped a bit of dust on the table”, he explained as he noticed us looking at the plates and moved into another room nearby. “Take your seats if you like.” We all settled onto the chairs, and blew off our plates of the dust settled there.
“When will we eat”, Matt impatiently said.
“Once Steve comes out with the food”, Mom answered. Matt sat there with a tired look on his face. Dad seemed to be in a better mood than before and it looked like he wanted to start a conversation.
“Hey, should we talk about something”, Dad asked. I then see Steve with a bowl and a silver plate.
“Here we go, may not be much, but at least it’ll fulfil the soul”, Steve said, smiling when he served us mashed potatoes and meatloaf. “So, shall we pray?” That came unexpectedly, as we are not too religious, but we were in his house and gave us shelter and food.
“Sure, we can do that”, Mom said and we all bowed our heads and put our hands together. Steve cleared his throat
“Thank you, Lord, for this good food to feed the soul in these hard times. I shall pray, in the name of the Lord and Jesus Christ, that these hard times shall be over, so we can get on with our lives. Amen.” We raised our heads and grabbed whatever food there was onto our plates. “Oh, there’s no gravy, so we have to deal with bare potaters and meatloaf.”
“Oh, not to worry. Thank you for the food”, Dad thanked Steve. We began to eat the food once we got it sorted.
“So, what brings you here”, Steve asked.
“Well, there is an evacuation order in effect for this area, so we had to go to Regina”, Dad explained, with Steve taking in every word. “So, we came from Strasbourg, we tried going south towards Regina, but we hit an obstacle in the way and we had to take another route, leading us here.”
“And we encountered a few odd things along the way”, Mom added.
“Huh, interesting. What do you guys think is going on”, Steve inquired.
“By the things we saw, we have no idea. Dinosaurs, devil dogs, hell pigs, the whole deal. I shouldn’t forget the earthquake. They told us a pipeline leak caused by the earthquake”, Dad clarified to Steve.
“Hmm… is that so”, Steve wondered. “Wonder what I think is happening? The Rapture is happening. Do you know how the Bible tells us of the end times? Good people sent to be with God and his kingdom, the rest here to suffer the Hell unleashed by Satan.” By this point, he was beginning to rant, but we couldn't stop it as we all began to feel tired and powerless. “So, the Devil will send his demons in the form of these illusions so that they can torment the sinners. It is happening, it is-” Steve manically continued as I drew towards blackness and his voice becoming less coherent. My vision is now all black.
I saw those same lights, but more rapidly than before. I then emerged onto the same clear sky, but something felt different. I can smell something in the air. I can smell what seems to be chemicals in the air. Looking down, I was terrified. Dark, grey rock in the shape of ropes and folds, similar to those I saw of lava flows on a volcano in pictures. This went on as far as the eye could see. I can see no tree this time, just the cooled lava everywhere. I then walked, feeling every bump and crag. I thought I walked forever until I heard a rumbling sound and woke up.
I am in total darkness. It is cold and it smells like cow manure. I tried to move my hand, but it seemed to be bonded behind my back by a rope. I tried to move my feet, but they were also bound by rope to the legs I tried to speak, only to realise my mouth was agape by a cloth in my mouth. I heard shuffling nearby but I could not see. It was then shone in light when Steve entered the door, holding a candle, revealing all of us in the same situation. I then can see what we are in. We are in that same wooden dilapidated barn we saw earlier and seems to be more damaged than the house, wood creaking can be heard.
“These sedatives are more effective than I thought. Maybe I should use them more often”, Steve smoothly explained, like he’s some kind of agent and began pacing. “Wonder why you are here? Well, I wondered the same thing to myself, why didn’t God take me to his heaven? When I first heard of the government telling us of those evacuation plans, I thought it was that, a leaking pipe. I began to notice things I couldn’t believe myself, at least at first. Earthquakes, weird creatures showing up, people disappearing, the whole spiel. I connected the dots. The Rapture is happening, for sure, but why me? Why was I the one left here on this Earth”, Steve calmly ranted, pacing around the barn, but it seemed to sound crazier and angrier the more he paced. “I thought I had lost my way. I’ve been unfaithful to God and his son. But, I realised that God always has a plan and he left me on this Earth to serve a purpose. I wondered what my purpose was until I had a moment.” He then stopped in place and calmed down. He turned to look at Mom with accusing yet crazed eyes.
“I’m supposed to keep the sinners here in line, to earn a place in God’s kingdom, or suffer in Hell. I know you are a sweet woman, Janice, but your treachery with Satan is over and I am going to do what’s right.” Mom then looked at all of us, with assuring eyes like that of an innocent yet caring mother we all know knew. I began crying and trying to speak through the cloth, but I was helpless to watch by. “Forgive me, Father, for what I am going to do.” He then pulled a knife from his pocket and plunged it into Mom’s neck with no mercy. I looked away once he did that, trembling, with tears pouring out and my vision glazed and I fell limp. I could see my brother tearing up, but he did not look away. I can hear Dad behind me, with his screams of agony and anger covered by the cloth. It felt like I was in slow motion, taking in every moment.
I then heard the chair, screeching as Steve dragged the chair containing Mom’s lifeless body towards the door, leaving behind a trail of blood. I couldn’t bear to see my mother like this. I shut my eyes very hard and hoped it would go away. The door then shut, leaving us alone with a candle, fearing what would come next. I stared at the candle, seeing it dance in the flames like a woman dancing in the darkness. Is this how it’ll end, I thought. End up dying to this sick man? My Mom was killed in front of me. I sobbed with that thought, then I began to think about the inevitable death of me. I hope there’s something after I die. Maybe I’ll see Mom again.
It was silent for a while, nearly no sound other than our moans. Dad seems to be fidgeting at the back of his chair, rocking it slowly. Looking past him, I shuddered at the glistening pool of blood, where Mom was last alive, could be my fate. I then see Dad release his arms from the back of the chair and remove the cloth from his mouth. He silently stood up and bent down to untie his legs from the chair legs. He then went to me and removed my cloth.
“H-h-how did you do that”, I silently wept, fearing that Steve would show up at the door and kill us all.
“My binding is loose. The old man probably took a liking to me”, Dad whispered. “I should remove your binds.” He untied them, releasing me, doing the same for Matt. “Now, we need to be quiet.” We then walked, quietly, along the painfully creaking wood in the near dark, following the blood trail, glistening in the candlelight. We cringed and dreaded each sound we made and watched the door in case it began to creak open. A few silent steps later, we made it to the door and we slowly opened it so as not to make any noise. What was revealed to us is nothing new, other than the blood trail continuing in the snow directing towards the back of the barn. “Okay, Kate, Matt, you guys run to the truck.”
“What about you”, I sobbed.
“Don’t worry about me”, Dad responded, giving me his keys and forcing them into my hand. “If I’m not back in a few minutes, leave. Don’t look back, take care of your brother, okay? I love you, no matter what happens.” He then kissed me on the head and ran to follow the blood trail. We quickly walked towards the black truck, stranded there for maybe hours. Getting closer, freedom is getting closer. When we got to a fair distance to the truck, I heard footsteps behind me and, the next thing I knew, I was knocked over to the ground into the hard snow on my face. A hand turned me over to give me a glimpse of a crazed Steve, his eyes wilder than before.
“Oh, yes, trying to escape”, he bragged. I looked at him, frozen in fear, like a deer in headlights and he caressed my face with his bloodied blade. “You do have a pretty face, but I’m afraid you are just one of Satan's creations, made to pull me to lust.” He then raised his knife in the air when a familiar side emerged, out of the blue.
Joe came and bit him in the arm that was holding the knife. Steve screamed in agony the moment he realised what happened. He shook Joe off and stood up to stand his ground. I stood up as Joe hissed and walked around the crazed being he wounded, not in fear but in aggressiveness. “Is this one of your pets, demon”, Steve screamed as Joe came in for another attack, but Steve countered that with a slash to the snout. Joe then ran away, whining, into the darkness. This sequence of events gave me the chance to enter the truck on the driver’s side. I had some trouble starting it, besides this is my first time driving a truck.
Steve menacelily walked towards the when Dad came barreling and tackled him to the ground. Dad was on top when he went limp. I finally put the keys in the engine turned it on and backed out, with memory serving me the instructions on such a vehicle. Steve pushed Dad’s body and stood up, but by that time, we left the farm.
“Turn back, we have to get Dad”, Matt cried, but I was very emotional, accepting what happened. I felt that, without my parents, I feel… useless.
“Dad’s dead”, I screamed at Matt and he began gagging uncontrollably in tears. I began to feel sorry for him. “Sorry, I, I don’t know.”
“It’s okay”, Matt sniffled. “I guess Mom and Dad are dead anyways.” It was silence for a few more minutes, tears welling in our eyes.
“Hey, our parents are in a better place”, I said, trying to make the situation positive.
“But we are stuck here, without them? Don’t we deserve to go to a better place?”
“Don’t say that”, I huffed and I paused for a bit. “I know we are in the, uh, right place now. Let me tell you something, once we get to Regina, I will take care of you, no matter what life throws at us.”
“What about Joe”, Matt asked.
“He’ll be fine. He probably found his girlfriend already.”
“Hey, don’t you have a boyfriend?”
“I, uh, I don’t have one. That I know of”, I spoke, bringing me back to Sam, remembering that she’s the only friend that I ever knew, and I left her. Without her, I felt alone, no one would ever relate. I began to tear up. “I don’t have any friends. I am alone,” I sobbed.
“What do you mean? I’m your brother!” I looked at Matt, and smiled, happy that he acknowledged that we were in this together.
“Thank you”, I thanked him. I slowly stopped on the road, just to hug Matt hard, crying my eyes out. We then heard what sounded like an elephant in front of us. We looked up to see a walking snow-covered brown fur wall with four pillar-like legs in front of us. Its curved tusks gleaned in the light and the eyes reflected in the light. The furry trunk waved around like a searching snake from a tree. We both knew what it was.
“Hey, look at that, a woolly mammoth”, Matt said, excitement running through him. At this point, we weren’t surprised.
“Yep, that is a woolly mammoth”, I added. The mammoth turned to us on the road, seemingly confused about where it was. It looked at our truck and seemed to growl, like an elephant. We are starting to realise this thing is becoming aggressive.
“Uh, should we move”, Matt asked. I remembered hearing something about standing your ground in case of an encounter with an elephant. I hoped it would work for a bigger, furrier version of one.
“No, we have to stand our ground.”
“But, it’ll attack u-”
“Trust me!” I then honked my horn and it backed up. It then rushed, then stopped, a mock charge. Eventually, it moved out of the road, disappearing into the darkness. We sighed in relief.
“That was close”, Matt sighed. I then continued to drive in the night, headlights leading the way. The road is bumpy, as noticed by every ditch and peak we hit, but surprisingly, Matt was fast asleep. I began to get comfortable driving and used to the road by that point. It was silent for a while until we hit a smaller intersection. That is when the truck shut down, completely and stopped. I tried the gas many times but with no effect. There is no light, nothing. It is near-darkness here, shone only by the moonlight.
“Shit”, I yelled, desperate to turn the truck on without much success. Matt woke up, confused.
“What happened”, he yawned.
“The truck turned itself off. I can’t get it back on”, I fretted and at that moment, Matt was just as panicked as I am.
“Why?”
“I-I don’t know. One moment, we were driving, another it just-”, I quavered, when I heard something rustle in the distance. We stood still, hoping whatever it was didn’t find us. I looked around, hoping to see something in the moonlight. I then see a long, walking animal. It looked like some sort of alligator at first, except for a dinosaur-like head. Once I strained my eyes to the darkness, my fear levels rose as I could see it walk on its hind limbs, with its forelimbs dangling nearly touching the ground.
It was wandering around on the road when I heard a near-crocodilian growl at Matt’s side of the truck. Another of those creatures appeared, seemingly looking into the window like a hungry bear, giving us a chance to see its scaly head. Its exposed alligator teeth gleaned in the light like knives, but more terrifying was the eye. Its serpentine pupil shone brilliantly in the light like eyes in the dark. It then ducked down, gave a hiss, and moved towards the other one. A few more showed up and formed a group.
“What should we do”, Matt asked. “Should we stay?” I looked around, hoping for another way to escape them without them noticing. I further strained my eyes and mentally mapped out the area. There is a cemetery on my right-hand side, a grain bin storage yard on my left and a series of trailers on the other side of the highway, which is ahead of us, from the storage area. There, I see a series of white, storage buildings, something we can go to and wait it out inside.
“Okay, so slowly open the door”, I instructed Matt. The click of the doors opening cringed us. We looked at the group, but there was no response from them. We then, as slowly as we could, opened the door and stepped out. Still no response. Matt then quietly ran to the other side, towards me. “Okay, we are going into the storage yard and go to the other entrance”, I said, pointing to the other right-hand corner. I wanted to get as far away from these things as possible before making a safe crossing. “Then, we cross the highway on the other side, run into the buildings and stay there for the night. Are you ready?”
“I guess”, he whispered, looking at me in fearful doubt.
“We are going to do this”, I whispered back. We then silently ran over, having to rely on our night-adapted eyes, to the corner, walking past the bins. We made it and nothing behind us so far. “We’re good so far.” We then crossed the road and noticed nothing. We noticed a tanker truck, leaking some sort of fluid across the road. I easily recognized it as fuel, based on its distinctive, sickly smell. I wouldn’t be worried about it if it weren’t for a collapsed light pole that is somehow still flickering with electricity near the area where the fuel would be flowing. We quickly avoided the fluid when I froze to see the group of the walking alligators, running towards us. “Run!” Matt tried to run, but one of those things appeared and clamped its jaws at the back of his neck. He yelped in pain and it took him down to the ground. “Matt”, I yelled, helplessly watching as the creature tore into him.
Matt reached out his arm before the others came to him, then a flash of fire came. At this point, I knew what happened, but I couldn’t even think before it exploded. It blew me towards the building, far away. I was knocked out for a few seconds before I regained consciousness, groaning in pain on the ice. I noticed something especially painful just below my chest. I reached towards the area with my hand. I pressed on it, more painful than ever and raised my hand, only to see blood, brightened by the fire. I realised I was wounded, maybe by shrapnel made by the explosion.
I looked toward where the truck was and all I saw was a blaze. Those things weren’t there, at least. I also noticed something else, too, there’s no Matt. I tried to look around for something, some sort of sign of my brother within the fire, but I saw none. I then wept, realising I had failed. I have failed to keep him safe. I have failed to give him a better life. I failed him as a sister. I could’ve done better. The thoughts poured in as tears glazed my eyes. At that moment, I failed to look around me.
I noticed a dark thing beside the blaze. I thought it was Matt, preparing to greet him back, even though I knew he couldn’t survive the explosion. The image became clearer and clearer as I noticed it was one of the walking crocs that, glazed by the fire, was coming towards me.
“Just kill me”, I screamed, preparing to painfully die to meet my maker. The creature was about to attack me when something large, silent as the wind, came charging and clamped down its massive jaws, filled with conical teeth on the hapless creature and raised it. The crocodile struggled before going limp with a crunch within its strong jaws. The big, dark and scaly monster that it is towered over me and is as long as a bus, possibly longer. Its large legs are a contradiction to its small arms that hide beneath its scarred, bulky body.
It turned to look at me with an oddly bird-like expression, revealing in the firelight numerous scars from battles I could never know and looked at me with its beady bird-like eyes, breathing out wisps from its nostrils like a dragon in the cool air. I recognized it as a creature I know too well, a T. Rex. I breathed heavily and sickly, looking at the thing, nearly expecting me to drop the body and go after me. Instead, it simply walked away, carrying its bloody prize with it, and steadily retreated into the darkness.
I then lay down in agonizing exhaustion on my back, thinking of the next step of action like I'm on a suicide mission I would never come back from. I looked in the direction of the graveyard and had one thought. I guess I am dying. a graveyard will do. I struggled to stand up, noticing my blood-soaked clothes and felt a broken left leg. I grasped my wound, limping step by step and enduring the sharp pain while shaking in the cold. Every step I took, I remembered all the memories, good or bad, that I had with my parents. My brother. My friends. My family. I eventually reached the cemetery and slouched at a tree.
“Guess I’m joining you, guys”, I said, speaking to the snow-covered gravestones, only to hear something. A familiar sound of chirping emerged and, lit by the blaze, it was a sight I can hope for. “Joe, what are you doing here”, I depressingly cheered as Joe went to me and curled up in my lap as if he were a cat. I noticed the new-found scar he had on his little snout, but I paid no mind as I petted him. “I guess you came back. Thank you so much for what you did”, I thanked him, not expecting such a loyal creature would be with me, comforting me, to the end, like what my mother used to do when I was a newborn. I heard another noise, this time a deep rumble.
I thought it was another earthquake coming, but it got louder the closer it got to me, becoming more animalistic only felt small vibrations I barely felt. Joe stayed put, oddly enough, as T. Rex, different from the first one, came. It walked towards us until it stopped short of us. It began to produce a low-pitched, bird-like purring, attracting Joe. I realised something, that this T. Rex is Joe’s parent. He joined the rest like him, whom they showed up and all chirped around.
The grown Rex then brought its snout closer to me, not to kill me, but to look at me. It did not reveal its teeth and was still purring. I put my hand out and its nose came close to it. It rubbed it against my hand and started to pet its cold, scaly skin as it breathed through its nose and put it on my chest. I rested my head on it before it pulled away. It gave out a hiss, but I knew it wasn’t that of a threat, but more of a thank you for bringing its small, sometimes immature, child home.
That gave me relief, as it felt like I at least did something for once. They walked away, along with Joe, towards the darkness amongst the gravestones in the cemetery. I glimpsed one last desperate look at Joe before walking beside his parent. I looked up at the sky and I could see all the stars, twinkling, and the dancing green auroras. I began to feel limp and felt the cold embrace of death coming over me, tears pouring out of my eyes. The sky then grew brighter and brighter, the stars faded into the light and I could see my family welcoming me to a new home. It then slowly went black, darker than a cave.
You would think this is the end of me. It wasn’t, or else I wouldn’t be writing this right now. I eventually woke up in a hospital in Regina. I was told I was rescued by a team that transported me while I was in a coma. The doctors said I was very lucky to be alive, as the shrapnel narrowly avoided my vital organs. After that, I was adopted into a new family, but I was only with them for a couple of years before finding a new job and moving out.
As for Sam, I don’t know what happened to her. I would like to think she is safe, somewhere else. As for my family, I think of them all the time. I was in a depressive period right after that. Eventually, over the years, I accepted that they were gone and went to a better place. For Joe, I would like to think he is all grown up, like his parents, and becoming the king of the jungle. I hope we meet again.
As for the evacuated area, it wasn’t some pipeline rupture that caused an evaluation, but an anomaly, with the exact reason not known. There are excuses for the claims of weird stuff going on in there, from disease to chemicals, to eventually a previously unknown geological event, but I saw through it all.
You may ask how, it's because I've been there. Take it or leave it, this is the story I have. As the decade came by, cover-ups were made to hide it, even walls were put around it. Since the incident, the exclusion zone grew from a mere 80 kilometers in diameter to 460 kilometers in diameter, emptying entire cities of the likes of Regina and Saskatoon. I had to move to North Battleford, by the recommendation from the same government covering it up, making me think that time will tell before the floodgates of truth open.
The anomaly didn’t have a name initially, however, over the years, everyone agreed on one name in particular: The Saskatchewan Anomaly.

It is a man, old and scraggy. He wears a jacket that lays over the red plaid button shirt and blue jeans. He wears an old baseball cap and a pair of glasses. He yelled something to Dad, holding his hands up like he was pleading, although we couldn’t hear it over the truck engine. They talked, but we couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Hey, what are they saying”, I asked, while petting Matt’s hair, calming him. The old man then put his hands down and came close to Dad in a cautious way. They seem to start having some kind of conversation.
“I don’t really know, hopefully, something good”, Mom answered. They talked for a little while, with daylight beginning to disappear, giving us a sense of dread, and making me more worried about what weird creature was going to show up. Eventually, the old man turned and pointed toward what I think is the northeast. They then shook hands and walked back to their respective vehicles. “What’s going on”, Mom asked as Dad got into the truck.
“Well, our new friend here invited us to dinner at his farm”, Dad replied.
“Does he have supplies?”
“Well, he says has supplies for us to make the journey.”
“Should we even trust him? We just met h-”
“Relax, he’s just an old man, living alone at his farm, feeding his cows. What could go wrong”, Dad countered. The old man then entered the truck that was running and drove slowly, expecting us to follow him.
“Alrighty then, but we have to be cautious”, Mom said, with her suspicions of the old man. We then followed the old truck along the dark, frozen road. It just feels like something is going to show up along the road, but nothing happened. Matt did eventually stop crying, but he is still upset about the Joe escape thing.
“Where are we going”, Matt lamented, with the prior series of events in mind.
“I guess somebody is offering us dinner”, I answered.
“Why can’t we just go home?”
“It’s only going to be a stop, like a hotel. After that, we go to our new home, I guess”, I said, taking another look at Matt and cradling to comfort him. “It’s going to be okay.” I stared out into the darkness. I looked to the sky from the window and I faintly saw something in the clear, dark sky, lit up by the waning moon. They were brilliant, green auroras that defy the bright moon, dancing across the sky like ribbons in the wind. The truck eventually took a right-hand turn into another road, with us following suit. I can see a bright, orange light emerging from a patch of tree. When we passed by, it seemed it was a house, at a farm, burning in a massive flame.
“I guess those people aren’t so, uh, lucky”, Dad said, taking a quick look at it before looking at the road. Passing by, we went on and continued to follow the old man’s truck. We passed onto another intersection until he turned into a driveway to what I believe to be his farm. Going into the driveway, I can see an old house, along with a dilapidated farm further away, barely visible by the headlights. The old man parked by the house, where there were a few other trucks there. We parked alongside the truck and we got out into the cold, near-silent night.
“Welcome to sanctuary, where all are welcome”, the old man bellowed. This is the first time I’ve heard his voice. Matt was the last to get out of the truck, slowly and clumsily climbing out of the truck.
“What’s your name”, my Mom politely asked the old man.
“Oh, I guess your husband didn’t tell ya. My name is Steven, but you can call me Steve”, the old man said, with some crackling in his voice. “I am very proud to host a dinner for you and your family”, he continued. “What’s your name, ma’am?”
“Oh, my name is Janice”, Mom replied, quite pleased at his politeness.
“Hello, Janice, and what are their names”, Steven asked, pointing to me and Matt.
“That’s my daughter Kate and my son Matt”, Dad said to Mom.
“Oh, what wonderful names for a couple of beautiful children you have”, Steve grinned. “Come, it is dangerous out here.” We followed him to the house, which looked like it had seen better days. He entered through the double-set door, the first a solid door and a screen door behind. Entering the house, it smelled like what you’d expect, old man. Looking onto the floor is made of glossy wood and walls with cracks, likely caused by the earthquake. It is dark in there, lit by candlelight from many candles, yet it’s fairly warm here. I don’t know why we went into the house, but Dad was right, Steve is just a lonely, old man. Matter of fact, there seems to be nothing wrong here, other than the cracks in the walls. “Sorry, the power went out. Had to resort to the candles. I knew my wife would come in handy”, Steve explained as he took his coat off. “Oh, supper will be ready right away. Had to use the fireplace to cook. Also, can you take your boots off?” We took our boots and set them aside. We went into what seemed to be a living room, with dusty old-style furniture.
“So, where do we sit”, Mom asked.
“Oh, well, follow me”, Steve commanded, leading us to the dining room, with a long, wooden table and six wooden chairs, along with their corresponding old-fashioned plates, glasses and cutlery, lit up in the candlelight. We noticed that everything on the table was covered in a thin veil of dust. “My apologies, the recent shocks dropped a bit of dust on the table”, he explained as he noticed us looking at the plates and moved into another room nearby. “Take your seats if you like.” We all settled onto the chairs, and blew off our plates of the dust settled there.
“When will we eat”, Matt impatiently said.
“Once Steve comes out with the food”, Mom answered. Matt sat there with a tired look on his face. Dad seemed to be in a better mood than before and it looked like he wanted to start a conversation.
“Hey, should we talk about something”, Dad asked. I then see Steve with a bowl and a silver plate.
“Here we go, may not be much, but at least it’ll fulfil the soul”, Steve said, smiling when he served us mashed potatoes and meatloaf. “So, shall we pray?” That came unexpectedly, as we are not too religious, but we were in his house and gave us shelter and food.
“Sure, we can do that”, Mom said and we all bowed our heads and put our hands together. Steve cleared his throat
“Thank you, Lord, for this good food to feed the soul in these hard times. I shall pray, in the name of the Lord and Jesus Christ, that these hard times shall be over, so we can get on with our lives. Amen.” We raised our heads and grabbed whatever food there was onto our plates. “Oh, there’s no gravy, so we have to deal with bare potaters and meatloaf.”
“Oh, not to worry. Thank you for the food”, Dad thanked Steve. We began to eat the food once we got it sorted.
“So, what brings you here”, Steve asked.
“Well, there is an evacuation order in effect for this area, so we had to go to Regina”, Dad explained, with Steve taking in every word. “So, we came from Strasbourg, we tried going south towards Regina, but we hit an obstacle in the way and we had to take another route, leading us here.”
“And we encountered a few odd things along the way”, Mom added.
“Huh, interesting. What do you guys think is going on”, Steve inquired.
“By the things we saw, we have no idea. Dinosaurs, devil dogs, hell pigs, the whole deal. I shouldn’t forget the earthquake. They told us a pipeline leak caused by the earthquake”, Dad clarified to Steve.
“Hmm… is that so”, Steve wondered. “Wonder what I think is happening? The Rapture is happening. Do you know how the Bible tells us of the end times? Good people sent to be with God and his kingdom, the rest here to suffer the Hell unleashed by Satan.” By this point, he was beginning to rant, but we couldn't stop it as we all began to feel tired and powerless. “So, the Devil will send his demons in the form of these illusions so that they can torment the sinners. It is happening, it is-” Steve manically continued as I drew towards blackness and his voice becoming less coherent. My vision is now all black.
I saw those same lights, but more rapidly than before. I then emerged onto the same clear sky, but something felt different. I can smell something in the air. I can smell what seems to be chemicals in the air. Looking down, I was terrified. Dark, grey rock in the shape of ropes and folds, similar to those I saw of lava flows on a volcano in pictures. This went on as far as the eye could see. I can see no tree this time, just the cooled lava everywhere. I then walked, feeling every bump and crag. I thought I walked forever until I heard a rumbling sound and woke up.
I am in total darkness. It is cold and it smells like cow manure. I tried to move my hand, but it seemed to be bonded behind my back by a rope. I tried to move my feet, but they were also bound by rope to the legs I tried to speak, only to realise my mouth was agape by a cloth in my mouth. I heard shuffling nearby but I could not see. It was then shone in light when Steve entered the door, holding a candle, revealing all of us in the same situation. I then can see what we are in. We are in that same wooden dilapidated barn we saw earlier and seems to be more damaged than the house, wood creaking can be heard.
“These sedatives are more effective than I thought. Maybe I should use them more often”, Steve smoothly explained, like he’s some kind of agent and began pacing. “Wonder why you are here? Well, I wondered the same thing to myself, why didn’t God take me to his heaven? When I first heard of the government telling us of those evacuation plans, I thought it was that, a leaking pipe. I began to notice things I couldn’t believe myself, at least at first. Earthquakes, weird creatures showing up, people disappearing, the whole spiel. I connected the dots. The Rapture is happening, for sure, but why me? Why was I the one left here on this Earth”, Steve calmly ranted, pacing around the barn, but it seemed to sound crazier and angrier the more he paced. “I thought I had lost my way. I’ve been unfaithful to God and his son. But, I realised that God always has a plan and he left me on this Earth to serve a purpose. I wondered what my purpose was until I had a moment.” He then stopped in place and calmed down. He turned to look at Mom with accusing yet crazed eyes.
“I’m supposed to keep the sinners here in line, to earn a place in God’s kingdom, or suffer in Hell. I know you are a sweet woman, Janice, but your treachery with Satan is over and I am going to do what’s right.” Mom then looked at all of us, with assuring eyes like that of an innocent yet caring mother we all know knew. I began crying and trying to speak through the cloth, but I was helpless to watch by. “Forgive me, Father, for what I am going to do.” He then pulled a knife from his pocket and plunged it into Mom’s neck with no mercy. I looked away once he did that, trembling, with tears pouring out and my vision glazed and I fell limp. I could see my brother tearing up, but he did not look away. I can hear Dad behind me, with his screams of agony and anger covered by the cloth. It felt like I was in slow motion, taking in every moment.
I then heard the chair, screeching as Steve dragged the chair containing Mom’s lifeless body towards the door, leaving behind a trail of blood. I couldn’t bear to see my mother like this. I shut my eyes very hard and hoped it would go away. The door then shut, leaving us alone with a candle, fearing what would come next. I stared at the candle, seeing it dance in the flames like a woman dancing in the darkness. Is this how it’ll end, I thought. End up dying to this sick man? My Mom was killed in front of me. I sobbed with that thought, then I began to think about the inevitable death of me. I hope there’s something after I die. Maybe I’ll see Mom again.
It was silent for a while, nearly no sound other than our moans. Dad seems to be fidgeting at the back of his chair, rocking it slowly. Looking past him, I shuddered at the glistening pool of blood, where Mom was last alive, could be my fate. I then see Dad release his arms from the back of the chair and remove the cloth from his mouth. He silently stood up and bent down to untie his legs from the chair legs. He then went to me and removed my cloth.
“H-h-how did you do that”, I silently wept, fearing that Steve would show up at the door and kill us all.
“My binding is loose. The old man probably took a liking to me”, Dad whispered. “I should remove your binds.” He untied them, releasing me, doing the same for Matt. “Now, we need to be quiet.” We then walked, quietly, along the painfully creaking wood in the near dark, following the blood trail, glistening in the candlelight. We cringed and dreaded each sound we made and watched the door in case it began to creak open. A few silent steps later, we made it to the door and we slowly opened it so as not to make any noise. What was revealed to us is nothing new, other than the blood trail continuing in the snow directing towards the back of the barn. “Okay, Kate, Matt, you guys run to the truck.”
“What about you”, I sobbed.
“Don’t worry about me”, Dad responded, giving me his keys and forcing them into my hand. “If I’m not back in a few minutes, leave. Don’t look back, take care of your brother, okay? I love you, no matter what happens.” He then kissed me on the head and ran to follow the blood trail. We quickly walked towards the black truck, stranded there for maybe hours. Getting closer, freedom is getting closer. When we got to a fair distance to the truck, I heard footsteps behind me and, the next thing I knew, I was knocked over to the ground into the hard snow on my face. A hand turned me over to give me a glimpse of a crazed Steve, his eyes wilder than before.
“Oh, yes, trying to escape”, he bragged. I looked at him, frozen in fear, like a deer in headlights and he caressed my face with his bloodied blade. “You do have a pretty face, but I’m afraid you are just one of Satan's creations, made to pull me to lust.” He then raised his knife in the air when a familiar side emerged, out of the blue.
Joe came and bit him in the arm that was holding the knife. Steve screamed in agony the moment he realised what happened. He shook Joe off and stood up to stand his ground. I stood up as Joe hissed and walked around the crazed being he wounded, not in fear but in aggressiveness. “Is this one of your pets, demon”, Steve screamed as Joe came in for another attack, but Steve countered that with a slash to the snout. Joe then ran away, whining, into the darkness. This sequence of events gave me the chance to enter the truck on the driver’s side. I had some trouble starting it, besides this is my first time driving a truck.
Steve menacelily walked towards the when Dad came barreling and tackled him to the ground. Dad was on top when he went limp. I finally put the keys in the engine turned it on and backed out, with memory serving me the instructions on such a vehicle. Steve pushed Dad’s body and stood up, but by that time, we left the farm.
“Turn back, we have to get Dad”, Matt cried, but I was very emotional, accepting what happened. I felt that, without my parents, I feel… useless.
“Dad’s dead”, I screamed at Matt and he began gagging uncontrollably in tears. I began to feel sorry for him. “Sorry, I, I don’t know.”
“It’s okay”, Matt sniffled. “I guess Mom and Dad are dead anyways.” It was silence for a few more minutes, tears welling in our eyes.
“Hey, our parents are in a better place”, I said, trying to make the situation positive.
“But we are stuck here, without them? Don’t we deserve to go to a better place?”
“Don’t say that”, I huffed and I paused for a bit. “I know we are in the, uh, right place now. Let me tell you something, once we get to Regina, I will take care of you, no matter what life throws at us.”
“What about Joe”, Matt asked.
“He’ll be fine. He probably found his girlfriend already.”
“Hey, don’t you have a boyfriend?”
“I, uh, I don’t have one. That I know of”, I spoke, bringing me back to Sam, remembering that she’s the only friend that I ever knew, and I left her. Without her, I felt alone, no one would ever relate. I began to tear up. “I don’t have any friends. I am alone,” I sobbed.
“What do you mean? I’m your brother!” I looked at Matt, and smiled, happy that he acknowledged that we were in this together.
“Thank you”, I thanked him. I slowly stopped on the road, just to hug Matt hard, crying my eyes out. We then heard what sounded like an elephant in front of us. We looked up to see a walking snow-covered brown fur wall with four pillar-like legs in front of us. Its curved tusks gleaned in the light and the eyes reflected in the light. The furry trunk waved around like a searching snake from a tree. We both knew what it was.
“Hey, look at that, a woolly mammoth”, Matt said, excitement running through him. At this point, we weren’t surprised.
“Yep, that is a woolly mammoth”, I added. The mammoth turned to us on the road, seemingly confused about where it was. It looked at our truck and seemed to growl, like an elephant. We are starting to realise this thing is becoming aggressive.
“Uh, should we move”, Matt asked. I remembered hearing something about standing your ground in case of an encounter with an elephant. I hoped it would work for a bigger, furrier version of one.
“No, we have to stand our ground.”
“But, it’ll attack u-”
“Trust me!” I then honked my horn and it backed up. It then rushed, then stopped, a mock charge. Eventually, it moved out of the road, disappearing into the darkness. We sighed in relief.
“That was close”, Matt sighed. I then continued to drive in the night, headlights leading the way. The road is bumpy, as noticed by every ditch and peak we hit, but surprisingly, Matt was fast asleep. I began to get comfortable driving and used to the road by that point. It was silent for a while until we hit a smaller intersection. That is when the truck shut down, completely and stopped. I tried the gas many times but with no effect. There is no light, nothing. It is near-darkness here, shone only by the moonlight.
“Shit”, I yelled, desperate to turn the truck on without much success. Matt woke up, confused.
“What happened”, he yawned.
“The truck turned itself off. I can’t get it back on”, I fretted and at that moment, Matt was just as panicked as I am.
“Why?”
“I-I don’t know. One moment, we were driving, another it just-”, I quavered, when I heard something rustle in the distance. We stood still, hoping whatever it was didn’t find us. I looked around, hoping to see something in the moonlight. I then see a long, walking animal. It looked like some sort of alligator at first, except for a dinosaur-like head. Once I strained my eyes to the darkness, my fear levels rose as I could see it walk on its hind limbs, with its forelimbs dangling nearly touching the ground.
It was wandering around on the road when I heard a near-crocodilian growl at Matt’s side of the truck. Another of those creatures appeared, seemingly looking into the window like a hungry bear, giving us a chance to see its scaly head. Its exposed alligator teeth gleaned in the light like knives, but more terrifying was the eye. Its serpentine pupil shone brilliantly in the light like eyes in the dark. It then ducked down, gave a hiss, and moved towards the other one. A few more showed up and formed a group.
“What should we do”, Matt asked. “Should we stay?” I looked around, hoping for another way to escape them without them noticing. I further strained my eyes and mentally mapped out the area. There is a cemetery on my right-hand side, a grain bin storage yard on my left and a series of trailers on the other side of the highway, which is ahead of us, from the storage area. There, I see a series of white, storage buildings, something we can go to and wait it out inside.
“Okay, so slowly open the door”, I instructed Matt. The click of the doors opening cringed us. We looked at the group, but there was no response from them. We then, as slowly as we could, opened the door and stepped out. Still no response. Matt then quietly ran to the other side, towards me. “Okay, we are going into the storage yard and go to the other entrance”, I said, pointing to the other right-hand corner. I wanted to get as far away from these things as possible before making a safe crossing. “Then, we cross the highway on the other side, run into the buildings and stay there for the night. Are you ready?”
“I guess”, he whispered, looking at me in fearful doubt.
“We are going to do this”, I whispered back. We then silently ran over, having to rely on our night-adapted eyes, to the corner, walking past the bins. We made it and nothing behind us so far. “We’re good so far.” We then crossed the road and noticed nothing. We noticed a tanker truck, leaking some sort of fluid across the road. I easily recognized it as fuel, based on its distinctive, sickly smell. I wouldn’t be worried about it if it weren’t for a collapsed light pole that is somehow still flickering with electricity near the area where the fuel would be flowing. We quickly avoided the fluid when I froze to see the group of the walking alligators, running towards us. “Run!” Matt tried to run, but one of those things appeared and clamped its jaws at the back of his neck. He yelped in pain and it took him down to the ground. “Matt”, I yelled, helplessly watching as the creature tore into him.
Matt reached out his arm before the others came to him, then a flash of fire came. At this point, I knew what happened, but I couldn’t even think before it exploded. It blew me towards the building, far away. I was knocked out for a few seconds before I regained consciousness, groaning in pain on the ice. I noticed something especially painful just below my chest. I reached towards the area with my hand. I pressed on it, more painful than ever and raised my hand, only to see blood, brightened by the fire. I realised I was wounded, maybe by shrapnel made by the explosion.
I looked toward where the truck was and all I saw was a blaze. Those things weren’t there, at least. I also noticed something else, too, there’s no Matt. I tried to look around for something, some sort of sign of my brother within the fire, but I saw none. I then wept, realising I had failed. I have failed to keep him safe. I have failed to give him a better life. I failed him as a sister. I could’ve done better. The thoughts poured in as tears glazed my eyes. At that moment, I failed to look around me.
I noticed a dark thing beside the blaze. I thought it was Matt, preparing to greet him back, even though I knew he couldn’t survive the explosion. The image became clearer and clearer as I noticed it was one of the walking crocs that, glazed by the fire, was coming towards me.
“Just kill me”, I screamed, preparing to painfully die to meet my maker. The creature was about to attack me when something large, silent as the wind, came charging and clamped down its massive jaws, filled with conical teeth on the hapless creature and raised it. The crocodile struggled before going limp with a crunch within its strong jaws. The big, dark and scaly monster that it is towered over me and is as long as a bus, possibly longer. Its large legs are a contradiction to its small arms that hide beneath its scarred, bulky body.
It turned to look at me with an oddly bird-like expression, revealing in the firelight numerous scars from battles I could never know and looked at me with its beady bird-like eyes, breathing out wisps from its nostrils like a dragon in the cool air. I recognized it as a creature I know too well, a T. Rex. I breathed heavily and sickly, looking at the thing, nearly expecting me to drop the body and go after me. Instead, it simply walked away, carrying its bloody prize with it, and steadily retreated into the darkness.
I then lay down in agonizing exhaustion on my back, thinking of the next step of action like I'm on a suicide mission I would never come back from. I looked in the direction of the graveyard and had one thought. I guess I am dying. a graveyard will do. I struggled to stand up, noticing my blood-soaked clothes and felt a broken left leg. I grasped my wound, limping step by step and enduring the sharp pain while shaking in the cold. Every step I took, I remembered all the memories, good or bad, that I had with my parents. My brother. My friends. My family. I eventually reached the cemetery and slouched at a tree.
“Guess I’m joining you, guys”, I said, speaking to the snow-covered gravestones, only to hear something. A familiar sound of chirping emerged and, lit by the blaze, it was a sight I can hope for. “Joe, what are you doing here”, I depressingly cheered as Joe went to me and curled up in my lap as if he were a cat. I noticed the new-found scar he had on his little snout, but I paid no mind as I petted him. “I guess you came back. Thank you so much for what you did”, I thanked him, not expecting such a loyal creature would be with me, comforting me, to the end, like what my mother used to do when I was a newborn. I heard another noise, this time a deep rumble.
I thought it was another earthquake coming, but it got louder the closer it got to me, becoming more animalistic only felt small vibrations I barely felt. Joe stayed put, oddly enough, as T. Rex, different from the first one, came. It walked towards us until it stopped short of us. It began to produce a low-pitched, bird-like purring, attracting Joe. I realised something, that this T. Rex is Joe’s parent. He joined the rest like him, whom they showed up and all chirped around.
The grown Rex then brought its snout closer to me, not to kill me, but to look at me. It did not reveal its teeth and was still purring. I put my hand out and its nose came close to it. It rubbed it against my hand and started to pet its cold, scaly skin as it breathed through its nose and put it on my chest. I rested my head on it before it pulled away. It gave out a hiss, but I knew it wasn’t that of a threat, but more of a thank you for bringing its small, sometimes immature, child home.
That gave me relief, as it felt like I at least did something for once. They walked away, along with Joe, towards the darkness amongst the gravestones in the cemetery. I glimpsed one last desperate look at Joe before walking beside his parent. I looked up at the sky and I could see all the stars, twinkling, and the dancing green auroras. I began to feel limp and felt the cold embrace of death coming over me, tears pouring out of my eyes. The sky then grew brighter and brighter, the stars faded into the light and I could see my family welcoming me to a new home. It then slowly went black, darker than a cave.
You would think this is the end of me. It wasn’t, or else I wouldn’t be writing this right now. I eventually woke up in a hospital in Regina. I was told I was rescued by a team that transported me while I was in a coma. The doctors said I was very lucky to be alive, as the shrapnel narrowly avoided my vital organs. After that, I was adopted into a new family, but I was only with them for a couple of years before finding a new job and moving out.
As for Sam, I don’t know what happened to her. I would like to think she is safe, somewhere else. As for my family, I think of them all the time. I was in a depressive period right after that. Eventually, over the years, I accepted that they were gone and went to a better place. For Joe, I would like to think he is all grown up, like his parents, and becoming the king of the jungle. I hope we meet again.
As for the evacuated area, it wasn’t some pipeline rupture that caused an evaluation, but an anomaly, with the exact reason not known. There are excuses for the claims of weird stuff going on in there, from disease to chemicals, to eventually a previously unknown geological event, but I saw through it all.
You may ask how, it's because I've been there. Take it or leave it, this is the story I have. As the decade came by, cover-ups were made to hide it, even walls were put around it. Since the incident, the exclusion zone grew from a mere 80 kilometers in diameter to 460 kilometers in diameter, emptying entire cities of the likes of Regina and Saskatoon. I had to move to North Battleford, by the recommendation from the same government covering it up, making me think that time will tell before the floodgates of truth open.
The anomaly didn’t have a name initially, however, over the years, everyone agreed on one name in particular: The Saskatchewan Anomaly.

My family has always been of great minds. I hated it. Growing up and having to study day and night to try and live up to them was extremely exhausting when I couldn't care how things worked as long as I was happy. I gave up but somehow everything kept turning out to be true.
Over my lifetime I have become the Gorden Ramsey of the science world. Known for my temper and also for huge things like curing world hunger using play-doe and cancer with baby powder I got in a back street ally while drunk.
To get my family off my back I started making random ideas so they could see me as a failure and leave me alone but...they keep working. And soon people started to praise me. Fame has left me with nothing but more and more attention. So today I plan to make sure that everyone can just think I'm insane and leave me alone and not some king.
I chuckled like a kid who was opening a Christmas present as I heard the crowd of people chatting and talking loudly as I hid behind my stage in a grey tight suit that my sister had picked out. I sighed and was ready to walk out and make a fool out of myself but my brother stopped me.
" Jack... I just want you to know how proud I am of you. Dad would have loved to see you right now. "
I thought it was ironic because last night while chilling on the couch watching TV and eating chips I made this theory up. He dusted off my shoulders held them tight and looked me in the eyes taking in the moment.
" go give them hell man. "
He had a goofy smile just like Dad but spoke with confidence.
" you got it, man. "
I heard my name being called onto the stage and the uproar startled me for a second but I collected myself and headed out after giving him a nod just to entertain him.
The lights were blinding as I grabbed the mic and looked at the table in front of me with a small box with the ingredients I needed and a chalkboard behind me.
After I stood still for a minute the crowd died down. I had not told anyone what I was presenting so the whole world was watching without a clue of what I was doing this time.
"Hello everyone. Today I believe I have my most important presentation yet..."
The crowd grew silent and hung on every word. And I heard my voice around the room through the speakers.
" Today I have with me a box...and inside is spaghetti I had for breakfast. "
The crowd laughed thinking it was a joke
" shut up "
The crowd grew silent once more
"Behind me is a chalkboard and I will now present my new findings to all of you...I have found out how to make portals to other worlds. "
A man in the far back of the audience yelled bullshit in a heavy Indian accent but he was so far it was a faint sound for me. I smiled at that thinking I had finally found something that would make me lose my title and I could go ahead and live a life without people making me feel like an evil man for not helping others.
I opened the box got a handful of the noodles and threw them at the chalkboard. I then grabbed a paper towel on standby to clean myself.
The noodles hit the board and slowly moved and rested on a spot on the board. I made eye contact with my brother backstage and he had a look on his face showing he believed in me.
I spun the board dropping the noodles to the ground I then grabbed the chalk and drew around the sauce and noodles that stuck to the board then drew my attention to the others that had fallen on the floor and drew an outline of that.
After it finished I threw the chalk in the crowd violently hitting an old lady in the face.
" Quickly I want a show of hands who thinks I'm a crazy guy "
Everyone raised their hands and I laughed to myself
I then went behind the board and laid it horizontally. I grabbed a small knife in my pocket and poked my finger with it. The crimson blood fell and hit the chalk and then as more and more blood hit the chalk it started glowing.
" you have got to be joking. "
I said out loud as it started to spark an orange glow and it slowly grew color to the rest of the chalk in orange sparks.
Once the symbol was fully sparking with orange the sauce began to swell and move around in a counterclockwise manner. I stepped away from it in shock as small parts of the blood in my finger began to float to the parts where it fell on the floor I drew my outlines on and started sparking those as well.
It started to smoke and hiss as if lightning could whisper and the orange began to take shape and the sauce made a doorway. The parts that were not on the board began to grow ice around them and started to make designs on the floor circling me and the board. Suddenly it grew in size and a large booming voice was heard through the portal as I felt panic of people start to set in.
A huge claw came out and scrapped the sides of my table trying to crawl out from the world it had been trapped in. Cold winds hit me as they cut my skin and threw around my clothes. As I saw the table was now melting from its touch.
A slimy green claw with mucus like a face-hugger egg from the movie Alien carved through the floor and pulled the rest of its body out slowly. A beast stood at 12 feet tall adjusting to our world as goop grew and shaped its body as people screamed, ran, and stood frozen in fear.
As it looked around it locked its spider-like eyes and swerled around coming out from the portal and twisting and turning around the body as it made its way to its head finding a place to rest. It then locked its eyes with me and its jaw twisted slowly from an ant-like maw to mine and slowly shrunk and it soon took the shape of me and knelt on the floor and spoke to me.
" master. "
I stood in shock as everyone seemed to calm down and watched to see what I would do.
"...umm "My family has always been of great minds. I hated it. Growing up and having to study day and night to try and live up to them was extremely exhausting when I couldn't care how things worked as long as I was happy. I gave up but somehow everything kept turning out to be true.
Over my lifetime I have become the Gorden Ramsey of the science world. Known for my temper and also for huge things like curing world hunger using play-doe and cancer with baby powder I got in a back street ally while drunk.
To get my family off my back I started making random ideas so they could see me as a failure and leave me alone but...they keep working. And soon people started to praise me. Fame has left me with nothing but more and more attention. So today I plan to make sure that everyone can just think I'm insane and leave me alone and not some king.
I chuckled like a kid who was opening a Christmas present as I heard the crowd of people chatting and talking loudly as I hid behind my stage in a grey tight suit that my sister had picked out. I sighed and was ready to walk out and make a fool out of myself but my brother stopped me.
" Jack... I just want you to know how proud I am of you. Dad would have loved to see you right now. "
I thought it was ironic because last night while chilling on the couch watching TV and eating chips I made this theory up. He dusted off my shoulders held them tight and looked me in the eyes taking in the moment.
" go give them hell man. "
He had a goofy smile just like Dad but spoke with confidence.
" you got it, man. "
I heard my name being called onto the stage and the uproar startled me for a second but I collected myself and headed out after giving him a nod just to entertain him.
The lights were blinding as I grabbed the mic and looked at the table in front of me with a small box with the ingredients I needed and a chalkboard behind me.
After I stood still for a minute the crowd died down. I had not told anyone what I was presenting so the whole world was watching without a clue of what I was doing this time.
"Hello everyone. Today I believe I have my most important presentation yet..."
The crowd grew silent and hung on every word. And I heard my voice around the room through the speakers.
" Today I have with me a box...and inside is spaghetti I had breakfast. "
The crowd laughed thinking it was a joke
" shut up "
The crowd grew silent once more
"Behind me is a chalkboard and I will now present my new findings to all of you...I have found out how to make portals to other worlds. "
A man in the far back of the audience yelled bullshit in a heavy Indian accent but he was so far it was a faint sound for me. I smiled at that thinking I had finally found something that would make me lose my title and I could go ahead and live a life without people making me feel like an evil man for not helping others.
I opened the box got a handful of the noodles and threw them at the chalkboard. I then grabbed a paper towel on standby to clean myself.
The noodles hit the board and slowly moved and rested on a spot on the board. I made eye contact with my brother backstage and he had a look on his face showing he believed in me.
I spun the board dropping the noodles to the ground I then grabbed the chalk and drew around the sauce and noodles that stuck to the board then drew my attention to the others that had fallen on the floor and drew an outline of that.
After it finished I threw the chalk in the crowd violently hitting an old lady in the face.
" Quickly I want a show of hands who thinks I'm a crazy guy "
Everyone raised their hands and I laughed to myself
I then went behind the board and laid it horizontally. I grabbed a small knife in my pocket and poked my finger with it. The crimson blood fell and hit the chalk and then as more and more blood hit the chalk it started glowing.
" you have got to be joking. "
I said out loud as it started to spark an orange glow and it slowly grew color to the rest of the chalk in orange sparks.
Once the symbol was fully sparking with orange the sauce began to swell and move around in a counterclockwise manner. I stepped away from it in shock as small parts of the blood in my finger began to float to the parts where it fell on the floor I drew my outlines on and started sparking those as well.
It started to smoke and hiss as if lightning could whisper and the orange began to take shape and the sauce made a doorway. The parts that were not on the board began to grow ice around them and started to make designs on the floor circling me and the board. Suddenly it grew in size and a large booming voice was heard through the portal as I felt panic of people start to set in.
A huge claw came out and scrapped the sides of my table trying to crawl out from the world it had been trapped in. Cold winds hit me as they cut my skin and threw around my clothes. As I saw the table was now melting from its touch.
A slimy green claw with mucus like a face-hugger egg from the movie Alien carved through the floor and pulled the rest of its body out slowly. A beast stood at 12 feet tall adjusting to our world as goop grew and shaped its body as people screamed, ran, and stood frozen in fear.
As it looked around it locked its spider-like eyes and swerled around coming out from the portal and twisting and turning around the body as it made its way to its head finding a place to rest. It then locked its eyes with me and its jaw twisted slowly from an ant-like maw to mine and slowly shrunk and it soon took the shape of me and knelt on the floor and spoke to me.
" master. "
I stood in shock as everyone seemed to calm down and watched to see what I would do.

"...umm "

Part two of the noodle demon.
Now that this creature knelt before me I realized that the room I was in was so terrible quietly you could hear everyone's ass get tight in anticipation of what would happen next.
" ...what...are you. "
I spoke carefully to the being that had taken the shape of myself. It still took my breath away and my throat was dry.
The beast was a deep green. The color mixed with shades of grey streaming from it. The longer I looked at it I could see it getting closer to what I looked like shaping itself.
From small flowing green tendrils to an arm they grew as they twisted and made bone then muscle and finally skin.
It locked eyes with me and it smiled deeply at me. As it formed the face finally.
" Your vassle. "
My eyes had not moved to the crowd at all but even though the lights hit the stage so hard it was enveloped in smoke.
The creature's eyes glowed as it answered brightly, not figuratively. This thing's eyes were glowing.
"To serve you, We are bound by blood magic. I am a reflection of your desires, Master, " it said, its voice now a whisper in my mind.
It began to stand up as my grey suit began to form on it and by the time it stood fully up it had copied what I looked like.
" let me explain everything. "
My body frozen in fear woke up with adrenaline as I blinked and a flash of green smoke covered my vision as he teleported right to me face to face.
Its body turned to smoke and went into the slits of my eyes. I felt visions follow me in my peripheral vision but surprisingly no pain followed power filled me and it felt like one hell of a drug.
My body and mind altered.
I was now in a very dark place with no walls or light except my reflection on the floor which waved like water.
I took a step back looking around and back to the reflection of me on the ground.
Soon the water rippled and my reflection fell through the floor like gravity was inverted. he flew upright and water fell off of him as he looked at me as he now stood straight ahead of me. He was just reflecting in the water but now eyed me down.
Collecting my nerves.
I begin to speak.
" what do you want..."
He was still in my form and stood perfectly straight. Now with water dripping from his...my hair.
Slight stubble with hair that hung down and my hazel eyes were not present within him but I was greeted with a swelling acidic green that doubled the size of my pupil.
" to serve you. "
He made no other movement than putting his hands behind his back like a soldier at ease.
I could not tell if it was lying or not.
" ...is that it? "
" I am the embodiment of your fear desires and brilliance. You have shaped me. Your desire for solitude birthed me. I will aid you in shaping the world how you see fit. Your reality becomes mine. "
There was a slight echo in the room as he spoke.
" wait...where are we "
I questioned haphazardly
" your mind. "
An awkward silence was in the air until I spoke
" so...am I just standing on the stage not making a sound? "
He gave me a concerned look.
" no...time has frozen outside for you. You may sleep here without having to in the real world so to others you look as if you never rest and you may think and plan what to do in battle here. For them, it will be about two seconds...Do...do you not have any knowledge of what I am? "
Suddenly I felt bad like I had encountered someone famous and I had no idea who they were. A slap in the face like a popular kid meeting someone who had never heard of them. Ego shattered.
" ok sorry no. I...don't go around reading about...monsters?"
I felt like was I saying the n-word of the demon realm not knowing if that word was offensive.
He folded his arms a little upset.
"Are you not a warrior? "
" well...no I...just watch TV and cook here and there- "
The demon cut me off
" weak. "
" excuse me? "
" look. I am an immortal being and after a while you get bored. So I'm sorry if I may be a little upset after being bonded with some nobody. "
I got quiet and I was a little annoyed that I was being roasted by some demon that I just met.
Its form wavers and eyes begin to open on its skin. Cheeks forhead etc.
"After being a god for so long it's fun to play with limitations. Makes things extremely exciting. "
" what do you mean by that? "
" look. You can only be so entertained by the same things. Life gets boring and now...you are going to help me with this. I get to have pure entertainment while you get every wish you could ever want. A mutual bond no? "
He then closed his eyes annoyed and the other eyes meshed back to his skin.
" though... the TV is not that interesting...life is what gets the blood pumping"
I felt the need to quickly change the topic
"Are there others like you? "
The room began to take shape very slowly as the water floor turned to wood and walls went around us.
" of course. You may meet them one day "
Confused and curious I pressed.
"Meet them? "
" yes. Summoning one of us is considered a threat to them. "
He spoke while opening and closing his newly found hand except backward.
" hm...no that don't look right "
I quickly responded
" Wait! How is doing that a threat! "
"Well, one doesn't just accidentally Summon one of us to suddenly get powers beyond human control. "
I thought back to how I summoned him by accident with some food I made.
" well...funny story but I summoned you using my breakfast..."
I had never regretted speaking so much as in that moment.
" What... "
Acid dripped from his words. Literally. His pupils split in half and his bottom jaw ripped open like an ant and curved giving sharpness to the bone.
"Please don't kill me. "
The room began to look like a cozy cabin with a fireplace and he slowly went back to normal.
" I would if I could. I've never felt so disrespected. We are bonded by your blood. If you die...I die. "
Suddenly I felt at ease by this new information.
Then a thought came to my mind
" ...God's can die? "
" you did hear me, right? "
The SAS from this guy was unneeded and I was starting to miss him being on his knees as weird as that sounds.
" so...all that power gone.... in an instant... "
" well...no actually God's powers don't just disappear they transfer to whoever killed them...wait...hold up."
He suddenly had an epiphany.
A smile grew on his face and he grabbed my shoulders
" you! You are going to help me kill the other gods! "
He sounded proud but I let him down.
" ha! No. "
" oh come on! Don't be like that. "
He did a pout.
"Look, man. I'm not killing gods for you. Just because you are bored. "
" hey...they might send people to kill you because you bonded with me. "
"What did I ever do to them? "
"They have a system to this stuff. They like to build and watch things play out. You're a problem. That can mess it up. So...they kill ya...to be honest, I don't know any other way to explain it, man. You know people normally just use my power to kill people and become a king and know this already. "
"This is outrageous. "
" bro. Look if you do this I will be able to get their powers and you will be able to do so much more than what I offer "
I tilted my head
" what can you do? Know what never mind. I will just talk to them and figure things out. "
He groaned and his form melted down sagging and it shot back up reforming
"Is there not anything that you want? Anything in the world? Gods don't put themselves in physical forms. They give people power and can make beings to hunt you. And if they care enough to come down themself. Ha, good luck."
I stopped and thought about it trying to weigh the options of pissing off higher beings.
Suddenly. I found something.
"Can you bring back the dead..."
He stopped confused.
" well...no "
" then I don't want anything "
" wait! "
He threw his arms out pleading
"I don't...but another God does..."
He crosses his arms smiling. He had left the question hanging letting me reconsider his offer.
I stopped and thought for a while before looking back up to him.
I let out a sigh and looked him in the eyes
" ok...you are going to help me get my father back. "
The demon smirked.

Context

This story fits into my world-building as an example of how people of the tribe at Saàkirlaasiik name one another. It illustrates that names are given by men to one another within their trade groups. Women ask their potential husbands to name them at their binding ceremony. This story illustrates both of those things.
The story is about two characters - 'Rows-in-loud-waters' and 'Hatchling'. They are on a battlefield against a tribe that broke apart from them long ago. Things get rough and a naming ceremony happens in the end. This takes place between the border of Saàkirlaasiik and Saàronit. It takes place in the second age after the Great Sundering.

Spoiler TL;DR

Summary: Rows-in-loud-waters is something of a squad leader to Hatchling. The two of them are in the alligator clan and are waiting for the 'Deceived' to come and fight them. When they finally do, the men fight with one of the Deceived for the majority of the story. This leads to some banter back and forth, but in the end, Hatchling dies. Hatchling tells Rows-in-loud-waters what he would have named his would-be wife if she had asked him to wed her. At the final end, Rows-in-loud-waters gives Hatchling a true proper name.

If You Read / Enjoy

Please drop me a comment. Just hearing that someone liked it would be awesome.

What's In A Name

“Stand firm! Men of Nafóótkirriinhaa”, Leans-on-the-spirit, chief of their clan spoke over all present before him. Riding by on a horse, he raised a spear and pranced the line of warriors. “It saddens me that we will shed the blood of our cousins! But they come to steal, pillage, and destroy. Show no mercy, brothers. For, I assure you, the Deceived will not return it.” His dark hair streamed in the air behind him as his steed carried him far down the line of men and out of earshot from him. Men cheered as he galloped by and smacked the flat of their weapons against their chests.
Hide banners whipped as the wind bid them to their will and the trees bent with each gust. Each banner displayed the spirit patron of the clan lined up to do battle. Some tribes gathered hides from the animals that embodied the attributes of their families' skills and nature. Behind him, alligator scales bent against the howling air. They dyed the animal biting its tail with an eye in the middle. A single line split the banner in the middle horizontally, and the eye peered out from the line. It represented the watchful eye of the clan, looking from the lands around Eversun. Sniffing, he smelt the hint of trees mingled mostly with warpaint against his flesh. A drum rang out behind him, then another sounded in the distance echoing it, and further out another did the same. This echoed on for a few more raps. His heart pounded in his chest, but he steeled his face.
The dark brown hair smacked the back of his tanned neck and his dark eyes scanned the woods before him. Across the grassland, they stood like a wall in the distance, dense and ominous. He had fashioned leather armor from the scaled hide of his swamp-dwelling, neighbor beast. He added stone studs to it in places that stuck out. On either side, men stood around him and he glanced out of the corner of his eyes. Younger men stationed themselves on either side of him entirely still and they both wore similar garb.
Each man painted their body with different symbols to display their strength, ferocity, or, in his case, battles fought. He used the black dye they made to draw scales against his skin where it remained exposed to the elements. Each drawn shape represented the number of times that he challenged a Deceived in combat and won. To his right, Paako Saàchalkoorrich Tínafsorlor, whom he lovingly calls Hatchling, dyed his face with ferocious teeth in the hope of scaring his enemies.
Hatchling's eyes widened as a horn sounded in the distance. Lootookcholatnapàrooti placed his hand on the young man's shoulder and smiled. Not showing his teeth, the sparkle in his eyes faded as quickly as it came. Recalling his first battle, the now chief, captained his line then. He hoped he could offer as much hope as the chief did then.
"Hatchling, I understand. This is your first bout with the Deceived. The tales we've weaved of them are terrifying and vicious. I must tell you, those tales are half true, but the half is still terrible" Lootookcholatnapàrooti's eyes trained on the forest head of them across the clearing. Any motion in the trees hid from his view and he sensed it lingered beyond the tree line, in the underbrush.
“Rows-in-loud-waters”, which Lootookcholatnapárooti meant, said Hatchling, “I don’t like the nickname. I am strong and proven in the tests.” Rows-in-loud-waters almost heard the pout on the young warrior's face. Smirking, he gave the young soldier a soft elbow to the ribs. “You’ve fought them enough times. How well do you know their tactics?”
Choosing to ignore the dislike of the nickname and how proven he may or may not be, Rows-in-loud-waters answered, "More than fought them. I engaged the enemy when the sundering happened, those years ago, when the clans had made it across Saàronit and into the valleys of the east. When Kolotatliíchiit revealed himself as the spirit of lies and trickery known to us as Naríhììnanathìnafòò”, chortled Rows-in-loud-waters. His mind rowed back to the day on the ship of his mind through the sea of memories. Every day, the river of life eroded them from his mind and they became less and less tangible.
The young man remained silent but peered from the corner of his sockets with intent. The horn blew again and the wind howled against the dusk sky. Rows-in-loud-waters guarded the lands of the tribe for several years, being an ‘eye in the swamp’. The Deceived envied Eversun and believed it promised to them instead of the men around him now. They fell, though, tainted themselves with the lies of the evil their false god fed them. The land of ever-sun had been promised for believers of the beat-giver, not the nest-stealer.
The horn sounded again, this time a bit closer. Rows-in-loud-waters tensed his hand around the shoulder of the young man again, in an attempt to reassure him. He worried the giant they built in tales to keep children near the settlements, backfired in moments like these. Fear, if unchecked by faith and courage created by faith, ravaged a man and tore through his resolve like the monsters created in stories of the age past and gone. “I have heard the Deceived are industrialized people with forges and explosives.”
"They hold fewer explosives and kilns as they once operated in the realms of Setting-Sun and the Teal Forests. We all practiced forging or so I’m told. The sundering was a quick bout of brother against brother and clan against clan. At the base of the white-ridged mountain, where the Nòònchààrrílììsììnat dwelt, we fought for what seemed like hours. We fought until our muscles ached, until our bones hurt, and until our lungs screamed for relief. In the end, Kolotatliíchiit fell and their usurper king called the retreat", he retold the story, holding on to the ax in his hand, keeping it at the ready in his off-hand. "The spirit of Naríhììnanathìnafòò spread over those who lost their way and inhabited all of them. It spread like sickness and as they fled, it fled with them." He shook his head and removed his hand from the young man's shoulder. "Half the priests left with them, and four of the seven first tribes dictated by Wááchlachtat, the great beat-giver."
Hatchling murmured a short prayer, both, Rows-in-loud-waters thought, in reverence for the name of their god but also the fear his heart currently harbored. "And they come now astride giant wolves, Rows-in-loud-waters and hunt in the dusk to find weaknesses in our resolve and steal into the land of promise. There they hope to kill our king, our clan chiefs, and place themselves at the seat of it all. How many times have they tried?" Fear waivered in the voice of the young man, but he kept his eyes straight ahead. They both did. The last they needed, Rows-in-loud-waters thought, wolf-mounted cavalry running them down while they stared into one another's eyes.
"Since the sundering", Rows-in-loud-waters asked and pondered in silence. The horns dinned again and got a bit closer. "In a host of the size the scouts report? Here I face them a second time, but they have always sent scouts almost yearly and they try skirmishes against us almost every five years. So in the twenty years since the sundering, there have been four skirmishes and two battles. Neither side seemed eager to meet the other in open war." To keep the young man from falling deeper into despair, Rows-in-loud-waters kept to himself the assumed reason. The potential allied dark powers of the Deceived deterred the king and the clan leaders from open war. They feared, maybe rightfully so, that the enemy sought other children of Naríhììnanathìnafòò like the Chììktonààn with their horrid owl-shaped faces and wrinkled talon-like hands.
Though none have seen a Chììknààn in a generation, tales of their malice lingered around the fires of public areas. Elders spun tales of heroes fighting the demi-god-like beings. Their eyes could see a spirit walker, and their strength could wrestle to the ground men twice their size. The claws, razor-sharp on each wrinkled and pimpled hand, extended its arm into the spirit world itself and could yank a spirit walker out from between the realms.
He ventured to guess the enemy refused open war with them because of the fear of the great beat-giver intervening against them, as he had done at the sundering. Spirits of the eagle, the buffalo, and the snake descended from the skies and took shape around them. The eagle came to the aid of the great teacher and fought with him against the enemy. The sight still filled Rows-in-loud-waters with awe and fear. These great spirits with such power existed in their realm - the Wààchlachtatpààtiit. Who knew what else existed beyond the reaches of the seas and northern mountains? The horn blew again, but this time it had not moved. He grabbed the other hatchet on his belt with his right hand.
"They're stalling", Hatchling breathed out, almost in a whisper as if he dared not alert the enemy to his position...
"They are and it is not like them to do so. But remember the spirit of our clan. We watch like the eye in our banner. We wait. We strike. Let the panther clan hunt through the woods and draw them out. We are to wait here." Rows-in-loud-waters convinced himself but pondered what the spirit-walkers of the panther clan waited for, or worse if the Chììktonààn horde lingered within the enemy host and snatched them from between the material and immaterial. "We wait." He echoed again and stood at the ready. The scales on his armor glinted in the setting sun to their left as it sank over the rolling hills at the place where the mountains met the lowlands and fled into the prairies.
A sea of pinks, reds, and oranges washed over the sky to the left of them as they faced north. The sun sat at the bottom of it all, at the horizon in the planes before the Saàronit. He failed to see it but, past the seas of grass - it sank. The sun sought its evening home beyond the lands of teal forests and red cliffs. In the land of gold and beautiful ridged coastlines. It almost yanked him away from the battle before him. It almost drew him away from the moment.
"So they're not as bad as you've told me my whole life?"
"They're bad, but they're human. They bleed and die like you do. The tales your elders have taught you as a child have not been altogether false or altogether true. They *do* practice human sacrifice of those they capture", Rows-in-loud-waters stated. He hid the fact they often sacrificed young children of their clans in the event they captured no one. "But they are not able to speak with wolves or command spiders. These are lies for story-telling effectiveness."
The young man grinned, "Ah then I will bring back my weight in scalps and wolf heads to the feasts of the return party." The young man raised his hatchet in response. "Each being an honor to my family and a possible trophy to convince Fóó Pafààlktiit Tínafsorlor to ask me to give her a name. Been courting her for two years now, and she still hasn't asked me. Perhaps this shows her my ability to provide and protect." Rows-in-loud-waters nodded. Sometimes spoils of war could convince a woman to request a naming. He wondered if women had it better in their tradition of naming. A woman received her name from her husband at the naming ceremony, but a man got his name from his peers. One bad name could stick forever.
His eyes scanned over to Chàànatatnafsorhapààt, named for hiding during a skirmish with the Deceived a handful of years ago. At least his name, he thought, sat in the middle of the road. Not too over the top to be too ridiculous but not to note some character flaw. Once given a name, your name stuck with you for the rest of your life. Shaking his head, he heard screams in the woods before them. "Get ready", he squatted in his ready position. Silence oozed over the field as the sun made a half-eye like of their banner against a pink sky.
"Fóó pafààlktiit tínafsorlor, I will bring you back spoils! I will show you I am a man to father your children", the young man mimicked the position Rows-in-loud-waters took. The two of them stood side by side. "Wááchlachtat, please be with us. Guide our strikes. Smite our foes", the young man glanced up at the sky. Rows-in-loud-waters followed his gaze with his own eyes and witnessed a single eagle flying overhead. “A good omen”, he noted. "He is with us", the young man shouted and pointed up to the sky. "He. Is. With. Us." The fervor spread through the line as men glanced up to spot the eagle before it disappeared.
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, Hatchling. Have faith, but the battle is not yet over. Wááchlachtat is not ours to master. We are his. His will is not ours. He will do as he wishes with this day." Then they came. Oversized wolves burst from the treeline and the men in the front of the formation readied their spears. "When the charge breaks, move with me. Understood, Hatchling", Rows-in-loud-waters asked. The young man nodded a response and the two of them faced their full attention to the front. Drums around them wailed with each passing moment and the panther clan did their duty - pinching the Deceived and drawing them out.
Rows-in-loud-waters smelled them before they got close enough to attack. They reeked of sulfur, oxidized iron, and sweat. Of all the deceits sown by the evil spirit, the greatest blazed fire and iron. Though he lived too few years to have experienced the splendors in the teal forests. The forest they laid bare, the mountains and valleys they flattened to build large metal works. All of this culminated in the great lie the beat-giver gave them conquest as a purpose. Their people knew the truth as inherited from the great beat-giver. Upon creation, he gifted man with more than a heartbeat, but also a goal, a purpose, and a stewardship over the world. The Deceived abandoned it and clad themselves in metal armor atop their steeds.
Charging furred beasts broke against the spears of the stag clan who had adorned their heads with antlers and little white speckled furs along their backs. Wolves howled and snapped their jaws at them as they died against the spears. The drool from their large agape mouths dripped onto the stag clansmen and drenched their armor. The area around Rows-in-loud-waters filled with the reek of wet dogs, which, smelled more pleasant than their riders.
One Deceived soldier, overlapping plated armor, hopped from his beast as it hit the spears, and landed behind the line, rolling as he did so. Tumbling to his feet, he drew two swords made of crude metal and eyed around the Rows-in-loud-waters and Hatchling. He licked his filed-down teeth and stepped forward to the two of them. The smell shifted back to the scent of sulfur and rust. Evil, its stench, hung to the Deceived.
Rows-in-loud-waters turned to face him and tugged Hatchling to do the same. The two of them flicked their hatchets in their hands and semi-circled the Deceived man This outsider appeared like they did: dark tanned skin, darker hair, dark eyes, and markings along his skin denote his tribe. This one hailed from the wolf tribe, which drew its heraldry from the initial Coyote tribe of Kolotatliíchiit. "Traitors", the wolf warrior shouted and raised his sword to charge forward. Rows-in-loud-waters noted the warrior before them bore the scarred claws of the man-butcher on his face. Three scarred lines trailed down his face and missed his eyes by a half-inch.
Other men broke through the formation of spearmen at the front of the line. One by one, more Deceived lingered into the lines of their tribe and the tempest of blades and shields whirled to life. Swords clanked against hatchets, spears against armor, and maces against faces. He heard the crunch of bone under the pressure of horse hooves. The air filled with the smell of metallic liquid, not like rust but a bit more like copper.
Hatchling and Rows-in-loud-waters moved in and, like the jaws of the mighty alligator spirit, pinched the Deceived warrior between themselves. Hatchling threw a slashing move with one of his hatchets, preparing a parry with the other arm. As he did so, Rows-in-loud-waters lunged forward and hacked hard downward to put a severe dent in the helmet of the enemy. The outsider struggled between them. He blocked one blow from Rows-in-loud-waters, then turned around to parry a blow from Hatchling. Sparks flew off the crude metal weapon as their chiseled stone axes hit it. The two of them stepped back from the Deceived outsider before he could counterattack.
Charging in again Hatchling dented his armor, leaving scuffs and scratches, while the enemy pushed Rows-in-loud-waters back away. "Traitors? You fight for the enemy, cousin!" Regardless of how far out the family they believed all clans related through the first men created by the beat-giver. "Turn your heart to Wááchlachtat and see! See the error of your ways and your kindred, they betrayed our ways and clung to Kolotatliíchiit even when revealed himself as the enemy!"
"Kolotatliíchiit was a hero, a paragon of our people! He hunted and slew the Chììktonààn. He mastered the realm given to us and showed us how to bend it to our will", with each phrase the enemy slammed his sword against Hatchling. Raising both his axes to catch the oncoming slash, Hatchling grunted as each hit staggered him backward.
"Perhaps it is not ours to shape?" Hatchling posed the question now and pride welled up in Rows-in-loud-waters’s heart. The young one came to grasp the purpose, the great mission for all of the men on Laaliíoota, one of them anyway. They lived in harmony with nature, not against it, not bending mountains to their will. To protect the young soldier, he jabbed forward with the ax in his main hand and moved back. It acted as a deterrent to pressing the young soldier further.
Around them, the din of battle drowned out the sounds of any other thoughts or fears. The Deceived soldier before them held their full attention. Another enemy sped toward them but caught a spear in the back of the neck. It pierced through him and pinned him to the ground. Gurgling nearby, he struggled and flailed his arms against the ground. A pool of crimson soaked the grass.
"Why", he pushed back Hatchling with his foot. "Would the beat-giver", he slashed and cut a gash in Rows-in-loud-water’s arm. "Give us", he kicked again trying to keep Hatchling back. "a realm to exist in. He wants us to conquer it."
Glancing at the blood running from his arm, Rows-in-loud-waters shook his head. "Then you are lost, cousin. The beat-giver never commanded us to conquer anything. He asked us to live in love with one another, to defend the wilds and beauty he created, and to worship him." Rows-in-loud-waters spun his hatchets around his hands and stepped back. Love of nature, love of others, and love of Wááchlachtat existed as the key commands of their god. The spirits echoed this in their defined sub-goals for each clan.
"Cousin", Rows-in-loud-waters said, "I will ask you once more to lay down your arms and come to try and reform... And we will see to it you are integrated with your people. That you see the truth and the life." In all ways, if possible, he felt required to extend out to the lost and try and pull them back to the way. His eyes met the Deceived man’s eyes and they shared a moment. Contemplation washed over the features of the enemy for but a moment as he narrowed his eyes to Rows-in-loud-waters.
"Never. Your way is a lie. Designed to deceive us." He kicked Hatchling back away again when the gap between them closed, then turned and charged. Rows-in-loud-waters and the enemy met at full force. The two of them traded blows. A slash on the cheek of the Deceived, bleed and he could see the ivory teeth within his joules. He hissed with pain and stepped back again. Droplets of blood oozed from the wound of the enemy’s mouth and down his chin. He reached up and wiped the blood away and licked into the wound with his tongue.
Hatchling charged at him from behind and jumped up into the air to attempt to plunge his axes upon the Deceived's shoulders with two raking blows. Rows-in-loud-waters rose his axes to try and deter the young warrior from his actions against the Deceived. With sudden premonition and supernatural celerity, the Deceived turned around and jammed his sword upwards in a single motion. Hatchling stopped in his tracks, his body caved save for the spasms. The pain must have racked him as he shuddered when the enemy pulled the blade out and fell to the ground.
"No!" Rows-in-loud-waters shouted and charged, but even as he charged forward Hatchling continued to fight. Standing from his prone position, he struck the Deceived in the back of the leg with his hatchet and it bit into him. Crimson liquid sprayed out onto the ground, but he pressed against his abdomen with his left arm. Slashing with the other arm in rapid succession. They wasted too much time, thought Rows-in-loud-waters and he needed to press the combat now. The enemy must fall before Hatchling expired.
Rows-in-loud-waters smacked him with the flat side of his weapon so he turned back around. The blood of his fellow clan mate dripped from the crude metallic blade. The air smelled of rusted metal. Fuming inside, Rows-in-loud-waters swung his weapon again and cleaved through the enemy's collarbone. The Deceived’s neck slacked and the weapon fell to his side. Ringing against his armored thigh, the sword clacked there, tapping as the enemy struggled to hold on.
Heaving for breath, Hatchling continued slashing with his axes and making deep cuts against the enemy until he stopped moving. Blood, a mixture of his own and the Deceived’s covered his face and shoulders. His body rested over the Deceived’s body and he lay there motionless. The battle swirled around them, cousin against cousin. Night fell around them and the three sister moons lit the darkness. The pale, vulnerable light glinted off crude metal and seeped into obsidian weapons.
Rows-in-loud-waters dropped to his knees beside the two bodies as Hatchling gasped for breath. The battle waged on, but numbers weighed on their side. The Deceived brought a thousand men to this battle, where they fielded three times. His ally wrapped both arms around his stomach to try and slow the bleeding.
"Rows-in-loud-waters, tell Fóó Pafààlktiit Tínafsorlor I wish I could have made it back to her. This", he lifted the scalped hair of the enemy soldier on the ground beside him, "is for her." He placed the skin and braided hair into Rows-in-loud-waters’s hand. "Tell her", he coughed, "I would have named her... The most poetic names." The scalp’s blood leaked from the cracks in his hands and down his wrist.
Wrapping his fingers around the other man's hand, Rows-in-loud-waters nodded his head. "What would have named her, Hatchling?" He squeezed as the young man faded a bit more, though he looked far older now than he had ever looked at him before. The mission at the moment remained to keep the young man from dying in fear and panic. Blood gushed from the open wound under his rib cage.
"I would have named her for the way the crickets sing in the summer as the sun sets under the moss-draped trees - Saàriifòònaforchiínaforchiit. I could have named her for the light reflected in her eyes as the fire burns under a full moon and frogs croak out beats for our souls to dance to. I would have named her", he gurgled blood between the words, "queen of my heart - Kiwáátattalkti. Most importantly, Rows-in-loud-waters, I would have named her my wife..."
"I know, friend. I know. I will tell her", blood leaked from the scalp in his hand and down his wrists as he pulled Hatchling's head into his lap. "Rest now, friend." Rows-in-loud-waters leaned in close to his friend and embraced him. He wrapped his arms around the wound with him and tried to provide him warmth as all the blood left his body. The savage blade of the enemy, ripped as it came out. Shuddering, Hatchling closed his eyes, knowing the end came soon.
"Tell her", he whispered again.
"I will", Rows-in-loud-waters responded.
The battle wrestled to an end with the final Deceived being chased away from the battle lines and into the woods where the Panther clan decided to let them go further by themselves. Rows-in-loud-waters watched from his place on the ground and hand on the side of Hatchling's cheek. A set of footsteps jingled through the battlefield behind him, but he kept his face downcast. A clattering of bones against quartz rung with each step. Blotting out the light from the moon, a shadow towered over him.
"Rows-in-loud-waters, losing a soldier in your line is unforgettable and crushing of the spirit, but he is not gone forever. You will see him again when we return to the beat-giver and live with him in the land of peace. Do distress yourself." The chief of the alligator clan knelt and placed a hand on Rows-in-loud-waters’s shoulder. He remained silent for some time, and Rows-in-loud-waters continued to look at the young man who served beside him.
"He fought valiantly, but even in the halls of the beat-giver he will be unnamed."
"Because he has not earned a name? Do you believe he has not earned a name, Rows-in-loud-waters? I hardly think that is fair." The chief shook his head and clicked his tongue against his teeth disapprovingly. Rows-in-loud-waters placed both hands of his friend on his chest and then placed his arms at his sides to shake out the anxiety and pent-up energy there.
"But, Leans-on-the-spirit, no one named him in life. He would not know it when we meet him in the halls of the beat-givers home. How would he answer". At this question, the chief sat and nestled into the ground near Rows-in-loud-waters. Squeezing his shoulder with his hand, and looked into the warrior's eyes.
Removing his hand from the shoulder of Rows-in-loud-waters he lifted the hand of Hatchling to his lap and took in a deep breath. "Do you imagine the names we give one another are for them to know who they are? Do you think our understanding of self is so small we have to have our brothers explain our behavior to ourselves?"
"So the names we give one another are for those around us."
"They're not for the beat-giver to know us", the chief chortled in response. "He already knows who we are before any name is given." The chief looked into Rows-in-loud-waters’s eyes and Rows-in-loud-waters sensed a tenderness and joy in the life of the man which grew in him like a ripened fruit. Here, the fruit offered out to him in guidance and words. “He knew us before the foundation of Laaliíoota and before the breath of the first man”
“Then I have a name for him.”
The chief motioned his hand. “Go on, Rows-in-loud-waters. He fought his trial against the Decieved. He may not have survived, but as far as I am concerned. He passed the test.”
Rows-in-loud-waters pondered for a moment and then closed the eyes of Hatchling on his lap. The wreckage of the battle around them reeked of shit and blood. "Goodbye, Nilchiiltatnawànàt." He inhaled and let out a long sigh. It ripped through him. He sobbed and tears dropped. "Goodbye..." The name echoed in his mind, and the meaning of the syllables slammed together. *Goodbye*, he thought, *Goodbye Died-in-honors-of-all.*
The chief bent over him, wrapping his arms around him and holding his shoulders. "We will see him again. I promise." Standing, he turned his back to Rows-in-loud-waters and looked over the battlefield. "Many of the men who died here will be seen again. Some will be seen in the final moments of the Last End. When we line up before the beat-giver he unfurls the hide of our hearts and examines the colors we dyed there. Should he find there are more colors of lust, hatred, envy, or pride than of love for one another and Him... We will have to answer for that."
Rows-in-loud-waters rose behind him and looked over the battlefield, he knew even the Deceived, flawed, and wrong, stood before the judgment of the beat-giver, regardless of their beliefs. Mangled men lay with broken arms and legs twisted in unnatural directions. The great wolves splayed out with matted fur and broken jaws. He scanned the carnage and another tear came along the curve of his cheek. "Will they attack again?" The sound of men directing clean-up echoed throughout the mass grave before him.
"The enemy will continue to push, ever-escalating the power at his disposal until he is finally defeated in the final moment of the Last End." The chief of the alligator clan offered his words and it warmed Rows-in-loud-waters' heart.
"I don't understand why we must wait for the living spirit of the forest to take on human flesh to defeat Naríhììnanathìnafòò'', a hint of anger rose in Rows-in-loud-waters’s voice as he placed his hatchets back against the belt that held his pants in place. "Why can we not hunt the enemy." He kicked the head of one of the enemy soldiers near him, forgetting his place and not respecting the dead that now belonged to the spirits.
"Even if you hunted every vessel of evil. Even if you slaughtered all the clans of Chììktonààn. You would remain with yourself and the evil in your blood and heart." The chief’s mouth twitched a bit, as he knelt and placed the enemy’s head back where it lay before the kick.
Rows-in-loud-waters took a step back, staggered by the thought he harbored some part of Naríhììnanathìnafòò in himself. "What do you mean? I have never accepted the tenets of evil. I do not forsake my vow to stewardship. I do not forsake my family. I do not forsake my god." He listed out the beliefs every man of the tribe agreed in their ideology. But the chief shook his head in response.
"You are thinking too largely, my friend." The chief pointed softly to the muscles over the heart of Rows-in-loud-waters and pointed out to the battlefield for them both to see. "It is not these large acts, though terrible, that will weigh our hearts with the ink of debt. It is the small ones. Like putting your wants above your wife's needs. Or talking back to your parents. The taint of Naríhììnanathìnafòò is in all of us from the earliest days of his coming to us. Big and small all these evils stain our hearts the same. The smaller ones are easier to commit."
"I... I don't know what to say", Rows-in-loud-waters stammered and stared down at his own feet.
The chief shrugged his shoulders. "Seldom does anyone. It is hard to imagine the taint or the extent of contamination that exists in the world. What we can do is attempt to bring our cousins back into the fold, so to speak, and lead them to a life of stewardship over the realm Wááchlachtat has given to us." The chief’s eyes closed and he mumbled under his breath. Turning again, he left the battlefield and the warrior behind him.
The banners flapped against the wind as they packed up. Men from each clan gathered the dead they had and placed them either over the backs of horses or over their shoulders. The three sisters, moons each larger than the last, trailed across the sky in various phases. Rows-in-loud-waters chose to carry Nilchiiltatnawànàat instead of casting him to the side on the back of a horse. The man's limp arm fell down Rows-in-loud-waters’s back and blood dripped. It trickled the sections of bare skin on Rows-in-loud-waters’s back.
They marched on into the night, headed back south toward their families in Eversun and the drums played a slow, solemn tone with each step they made through the woods. His eyes scanned from person to person. All their eyes cast down to the ground as if looking to make sure they would not trip and fall, but he knew they felt the pain of losing a young one or an unnamed one, or even a brother or a friend.
As they marched, the air started to smell more like home and less like sulfur and metal. The hint of pines, the stench of swamplands, and the sound of water lapping against the sides of shallow ponds in the soft wind. An inhale drug air into his lungs and past his nose where he sniffed the familiar smell of rotted leaves. As they left, he heard a voice from his left. When he turned to face and looked at the voice, no one stood in the darkness of the trees. A voice in his ear, or his heart, told him all calmed for now.

Bright illuminescant flashes bolted through the dark-lit sky, rushing and raging through clouds seemingly made of gossamer and finely woven felt. You could almost reach out and touch them if not for the raging storm ripping and hollering. It shone and splintered along the sky, splitting into a thousand arcs, each converging and convexing along the stars. Electrical currents spun like lavender spider webs along a farmhouse wall. The arcs traveled, painting a vibrant tapestry along its wake before reaching their climax and releasing a wicked KRAK as the lights slowly faded.
The gossamer clouds wept tears of dull acidic rain that fell, cascading downwards. Down to the swampy fetid fields below. Their droplets splashed and sizzled against the sand, slowly fizzing before hardening into a thin velvet glass before beginning all over again. A sad display of god’s fury laid bare and plain for all to see. The rain had begun just a week prior, but its assault had persisted in a constant pattern ever since. The swamp ached and squirmed in an agonizing way as the rain melted away any sign of basic life.
Puddles of the acidic deluge collected along a road leading to the once fertile silver mine, just three miles from the town of Crestfall. Near the edge of the road, a fork splits off into multiple directions. South of the fork leads to the entrance of Deep Rock Mine. The mine’s entrance stands agape, resting at the base of a mountain. The mine’s layout, a cavern of crisscrossing and haphazardly formed tunnels, awaited past the thick darkness entrapping the entrance. They curve and wind up the spine of the mountain, as well as descend deep into the now dead earth.
The face of the mountain was bare but rough. Rocks jutted and sloped along its curvature, forming a near mesmeric pattern of spiked granite. Towards the peak, a malicious and not all entirely natural pattern emerged. As the acidic rain fell, framing the mountainous backdrop, the pattern watched and waited. An almost human-like visage stretched along the face of the mountain like canvas pulled over a wooden frame. It’s design scorn into the rock itself as if meticulously laid out to warn any who dared breach the confines of the swamp.
Silence lingered amongst the misty atmospheric dredge, save for the muffled and subtle ambietic sounds of the rain. Through the dead foliage and gnarled remains of creatures recently passed, a sound rang forth. Distant exclamation and reverberated clanging rhythmically sounded from deep within the mine. Up and down the mine laid stalactites and stalagmites haphazardly stationed around every corner. Their abrupt positioning cast shadows wherever light felt unable to reach. The mine walls were smooth from years of work and toilage, along with the long uninterrupted tunnels, created an almost echo chamber for sound.
Abrupt crashes and distant thrashes echoed through the winding chamber. Its sounds detailed a fierce battle between clashing swords and fervent blows.
Or so it would seem.
A sword, emblazoned with the sigil of a raven, flew across the dimly lit room. Its body crashes and clings as it skips along the floor, its blade slashing and carving thin lines into the granite flooring as it makes contact with the ground. A fierce shadow sprawls along the cave walls, depicting a struggle between foes.
The wanderer-and recent owner of the raven crested blade-crashes to the floor. Leather straps firmly tied around his shoulder blades catch most of the weight of the fall, but pain still echoed through his nerves.
“Hells! You slimy bastard!” The wanderer winces and yells in a blinded fury. “You don’t play fair, and here I thought we were having a nice sport of it.”
No reply immediately came from his opponent, still standing off near a downed torch. Flame wisped and flicked along the ground, casting shadows and dreaded omens as if they were ripped directly from a child’s nightmare.
At once, the foe stepped forward. The shadows sprawled across the walls painted a disturbing picture of horror and grotesque form. Imaginative figures born from shadows were always so much more terrible than the beings that cast them, but in this case it was clearly the other way around. The foe opposite The Wanderer lurched forward, it's body a gnarled vestige of exoskeleton and mandibles. It almost resembled a large insect, like a praying mantis that decided its evolutionary cycle had not quite finished yet.
On multi-socketed legs, it snapped and convulsed along. Every movement of its body felt agonizing, as if the creature was hastily thrown together by a quite absent god. Various olive and violet fluids oozed and dripped from its husk like body as it vocalized terrible sounds. The creature-seemingly unable to speak-produced noises from its mouth that resembled a mix of gargles and marbles being tossed along a wooden floor. All the while, its grotesque pincer like appendage snapped and clicked almost involuntarily.
The wanderer-still recovering from his fall-slowly pushed his body along the cold rocky ground, his arm still pulsing with pain.
“Oh my, what big mouths you have.” The wanderer teased sounding much more worried than he intended. ‘Always good to keep in control of the situation. Confidence is key.’ As he was always want to say, but this wasn’t an ordinary situation.
His arm traced along the ground, reaching and prodding for his recently lost weapon. Daring not look away from the oncoming threat, he felt nothing. His sword was currently resting near the opposite side of the cave room, resting flat along the ground. Away from The Wanderer’s grasp, far away from being of any further use here it seemed.
Doubt surged through his mind, but only for a short time. ‘Doubt breeds more doubt, and further doubt breeds ruin’, another favorite.
Clenched palms moved along the granite flooring. Leather gloves scraped and bruised as The Wanderer lifted back to his feet, regaining balance and fervor. The arm that had broken his fall felt numb and altogether absent.
‘Dislocated most likely, not a big enough fall to break.’
The insect-like foe-still closing the distance between them-snapped and gurgled in an almost territorial display of aggression.
The Wanderer grinned, placing his uninjured arm against its opposite’s elbow, before violently, yet methodically, pushing it upwards. A clear snap, followed by a dull pop echoed through the room. Feeling began pouring back into his arm as the vibrating itch of numbness faded. Both arms began to raise, fists clenched, the leather gloves creased and squelched from the sheer pressure as his hands formed tightly wounded fists. Fists pointed squarely towards the all not entirely normal creature still gurgling and jerking along the shadow filled room.
“Oh...” The Wanderer began. “I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t enjoy every second of this.” His fists raised up, reaching level with the bridge of his nose. “Come one now, give us yer best.”
As if understanding -and altogether disliking- the series of vulgar remarks thrusted toward it, the creature squealed through its deformed face. The jerking motion its movement seemed to have before was replaced with a fluid dash as it quickly closed the distance between the two adversaries. Arms outstretched as its gnarled and jagged hands opened and closed with violent snaps and twinges. Reaching out, grasping the air between them. The gap closed quickly, much quicker than he anticipated, but not enough to catch him entirely off guard as he shifts weight from right the left. The slender frame of his body flanking to the side of the creature.
Shadows arched and flailed with each movement, creating a strange optical illusion across the cave walls. The subtle shifting wind and osculation of the two fighters created an almost mural of events through the flames. Clashing swords, trumpeting horns and creatures that rivaled the tallest spires in Etheral began to converge into an unrecognizable painting of events. The fire loomed, gazing at the creature, at The Wanderer. Its gaze almost purposeful and full of intent. Neither the two beings made any note of the grand display unfolding around them. Fire is known to be a harsh mentor, and an even harsher ally. If one was to wander too deeply into its wounding gaze, one might find themselves trapped, forever living in the tapestry it painted.
The creature was fast, but nowhere as fast as him. Once useless, now repaired, the dislocated arm wrapped between the creatures glistening forearm, interlocking before weight shifted again. The creature stalled as if to reorient itself to face the man, but its movements were not its own. Quickly and deftly, The Wanderer placed immense weight on his forward foot, counterbalancing against the creature as their locked arms rotated and shifted sideways. Arching forward, the shift in balance quickly broke as the creature began to lift in the air as The Wanderer’s rear leg lifted to relegate pressure onward. Flailing and spewing its noxious fluid, the creature flipped entirely, finally crashing to the floor in a savage crunch. The Wanderer stands above, looking downward as it convulses in a fit of pain (could it even quantify pain) and anger.
A greyish foul-smelling slime coated The Wanderer’s chest and forearm. Small indentions formed along the hard leather surface of his jacket, most likely from the not entirely cosmetic spikes embedded into the creature.
“Alright, now I’d say we’re fairly close to a draw here.” The Wanderer began. “How’s say we handle the rest with a bit more diplomacy and grace? No point and making a bigger stink than we already got, but telling by the state of yourself, I’d say you know all about stink.”
The maddening gurgle of the creature slowed as its body began to calm. Its arms moving outward, sprawling along the hard granite rock as its legs raise along with the rest of it. Wet dew drips along the ground, rippling and casting weird reflections from all directions as the creature steps slowly along their puddles. Slow anxious steps it takes. Its demeanor changes from a wild and disturbed animal to a more methodic and wary being. Eyes of bluish gray sink into its head, pupils moving slowly, analyzing and taking in information. It stands straight, back locked into an opposing stance. God it was big. The man couldn’t much get a good measurement before with its body slouched over in a hermit like stance. It must be at least seven feet tall, equally proportioned from its legs to its torso. The head was rounded, almost human, with its bug-like mandibles protruding in a horrific fashion.
The Wanderer had dealt with creatures before. Along his travels he had come across a litany of monstrous beings; Wargs, Secrolants, Jittering Fiends, Goblins, Spiderlings. None of them quite matched the state of this one. Although he had heard of such beings, none had crossed paths before. The way it moved, the way it thought, it all was abnormal. It's quite simple to take a beast down, some you anger and gain the advantage, some you outsmart, others you can simply scare away. But this one.... oh, he was a different breed entirely. The way its mood could change mid-fight, or how it seemingly understood what was being said. And the way it stared. Thoughts were jutting along in the bug brain of its, and when monsters start thinking, all strategy and preparation goes out the window. Unpredictable is what they become, and prediction was The Wanderer’s bread and butter.
Wary now he waits, staring back at the creature. Locked eyes, they waited. Eyes filled with thought, filled with understanding and reasoning -but most egregiously- they were filled with malice. The fight was not over, they had just reached half-time.
“Let it not be stated that I did not strive for peace and harmony at every turn.” The Wanderer quipped, his hand raised once more, ready for another assault.
A flame flickers, casting shadows once again. Shadows of a man holding wolves at bay, hands outstretched to create a distance between them. The wolves circled and plotted, looking for weakness at every tune, but finding none. Leaves fell, becoming ash as they reached the ground. A fire spreads amongst the ash laden floor, consuming the visage, the man, the wolves. All in consumed in an immense concentrated heat, until the shadows fade to nothingness once more.
The creature meanders onward, just a few steps at a time; looking on as The Wanderer holds his footing, fists raised and ready. Each step of its hard glistening exoskeleton crunches against small rocks and debris sprawled along the cave floor, knocking them aside, producing echoed wails that seemingly bounced from surface to surface. After the third step it abruptly launches at the man, arms outstretched once more in a fit of animalistic fury. Thought seemingly left its eyes as they glazed over into a dull grey, the feeling and reasoning sinking further and further to the back of its mind. The Wanderer grinned, his stance loosening as the soles of his feet began to trace an outline of movement, preparing and readying for a counteroffensive. As its dripping breached the outline, The Wanderer shifted his weight once more, quickly flanking the creature to the side once again, but something was off. His eyes traced the movements of its body, of its arms, of its legs. The animosity in them seemed to almost shift mid attack, becoming lucid and methodical. As if the creature was dancing along with him. Even tracing down to the ground, the footing was wrong. Not his footing. He was always perfect. The dance was memorized, trained, honed to a sharp edge. No, it was the creature’s.
Abruptly the creature’s body shifted, its legs tracing backwards, its torso shifting to the side. A corrective action, a counterattack to his counterattack. Shadows of the pair danced along the cave wall, depicting a wickedly abstract waltz. The creature’s arm whipped outward, its claws barreling towards the thin leather separation between his elbow and forearm. God, it was fast. Faster than The Wanderer. Rip, flash, a bright light, then the crashing of feet as the two returned to their original standing.
It all happened so fast. Faster than he could articulate. He was used to speed, used to tracking and understanding battle situations, creating countermeasures, analyzing the most likely move and executing it within a fraction of a second. All of that was done, but it was all wrong. The creature moved in peculiar fashion, acted as if it were moving on instinct while simultaneously acting with thought and strategy. How could it possibly go both ways?
As he thought, mouth slightly open, breath pouring between his lips in a hot and heavy fashion, he hardly thought of anything else. They had made contact, but there was no feeling. Checking for wounds mid-encounter was generally out of the question with beasts. Often, they gave little time for thought or first aid, but the creature stood and waited. The dull grey look in its eyes were gone again, replaced with the methodical gaze of a strategist analyzing a battlefield. The Wanderer lowered his right arm and traced it along the path of his elbow, reaching his shoulder before he felt it. A definite gash traced about two inches wide, the depth of it couldn’t be guessed, but it had breached the leather. As his hand returned to a fist, warm fresh blood dripped between the fingers, falling and coagulating against the dust and pebbles along the ground. He had indeed been injured, but there was no feeling to it. All felt well, and that’s precisely why all was, in fact, not well.
“You’re a strange one. Not quite like anything I’ve seen before, but I’ll get to know you real well soon enough.”
His eyes moved from the creature, scanning along the ground. Before when this was a simple clean-up, a weapon would be handy, but hardly required of someone with his skills, but this was anything but simple. Parameters had changed, he’d very much like his sword back now.
It was nowhere to be seen initially. The room was dark, with little else than a soft glow from the fallen torch illuminating a small area and casting shadows that obscured others. Then it appeared. Near the feet of the creature, the raven crested blade sat where it had since the beginning of this strange dual. Thoughts echoed along in his head, casting suspicions and doubt in every facet of the encounter. Things were not as they appeared.
A slight grin crept along his face again, before quickly subsiding. “Think I have enough time for one more go of it. Care to lead?”
The creature stood, watching and plotting before the dull grey of its eyes appeared once again, launching it into another fury. It lunged, arms outstretched again, running full speed to the man. He simply stood, his hands loosening from tightly wound fists of rock to loosely packed fists of snow. His palms opened slightly; his footing loosened as the heels of his feet digging into the hard rocky floor. They began to move slightly, tracing a straight horizontal line where he stood as he slowly began to back away. The creature, still in a frenzy, closes the distance fast. Seemingly faster than any previous assault as The Wanderer ceased his slow backing retreat, his feet returning to a strong stance, soles digging deep into the earth. He takes in a breath, his heartrate slowing. The light sounds of the cave begin to grow, becoming more apparent and concentrated. Small droplets of dew falling from the ceiling, wind softly blowing along, echoing through the harrowed halls and the flickering of a flame slowly speaking its ancient language. They all converged, mirroring themselves as The Wanderer’s eyes closed. Time seemed to slow as the creature came closer, its steps further apart, its maddening gurgling seemingly floating away. It stepped, stepped and stepped along the ground, pushing pebbles and dust without thought.
Finally, it reached the line carved into the rock. Its foot crunched, making contact with the earth, and in an instant its eyes reverted again. The grey dullness seeping away to its methodically stategistic norm. In that instant, The Wanderers eyes erupted open. The chittering thing’s arms stretch out for his neck, hoping to seize his artery with its horrific claws. Quickly, quicker than anything that day, The Wanderer moved in a fast range of motions that all seemingly happened at once. His weight once again shifted, flanking the creature. His arms locked into a position of counterattack. The creature quickly issued its own countermeasure, once again whipping its body and throwing its claw outward, aiming higher than before, aiming for his neck.
A flame moved. Shadows formed along the walls once more, although they showed a different scene. A scene depicting two swordsman locked in deathly combat. Their swords swinging violently but with grace and purpose. They clashed a thousand times. Each time sending a spray of bright sparks that swelled through the air creating intricate patterns that lingered before slowly fading.
The creature was stuck, unable to move, unable to continue its assault and unable to return to its desired location. The Wanderer's palm grasped the creature's wrist tightly, locking it into a hold. The grey of the creature’s eyes were completely gone now as its pupils darted around in panic. His hand arched forward, his foot kicking –what would assumedly be- the creature’s calf, buckling its knees and forcing it to the ground. Cracking and popping erupted from the joints of its arm as his grip tightened. It’s gurgling became sporadic, as if pleading to be set free. He simply watched it, once against studying its behavior, its patterns, its mannerisms.
“You really are special. Not like anything in the world I imagine, but what makes you so special.” The Wanderer clenched his hold tighter, the creature falls lower, its face pushing into the cold rock. “You were playing a game, weren’t you? You understand what I’m saying too, and that I can assure you is indeed something special. Predicting my movements, using the techniques against me. You weren’t just fighting for a meal. You were learning, weren’t you?”
The creature clicked and gurgled, chittering against the ground as the hard surface of its arm began to crack.
“Now, I’m not opposed to teaching if I aim to gain something from it, but what I won’t abide is being played with. Now...” He plants his foot against the back of the creature's neck, both arms holding its locked appendage in a pulling motion. “I think I deserve to know a little more about you my foul-smelling friend, and if I’m right up until this point, you outta know exactly what I’m saying. I also assume you know a threat when you hear one. So...” His grip tightens, his leather boot slowly crunched against the creature’s skull. “Tell me what you are, and where you learned to be so damn special.”
The creature’s eyes widen, the dull grey returning, filling its retinas as it begins to violently convulse. A shrill screech fills the room, echoing along the walls, traveling through the twisting and winding tunnels of the long-forgotten mine. Shadows creep along the cave walls once more, scattering and convulsing, twisting into horrid and unimaginable shapes. Creatures that belong to fables and horror tales begin flooding along the shapes as the flame whips and crackles. The torch quickly combusts, the flames turning a sharp blackish violet. Heat bellows from the waves of ember emitting from the now monumental display of hellfire as the shadows multiply, taking over every inch of coverage. The Wanderer’s ears tremble at the immense noise, his vision begins to weaken as the shrill echo reaches a climactic crescendo. Any more of this and it’s all over, lights out.
He looks downward to the creature, its mind warped with whatever dark arts influenced it. His grip tightens as his foot presses firmly against the back of its head. Slow crunching and cracking sounds begin to intermingle with the terrible sounds of its cry. As the boot came down, harder and harder, the creature’s terrible screech began to thin and grow in pitch, like the air being slowly released from a balloon. Then, a horrendous snap before the head was no more. Violet and green brain matter covered the area around its neck as small fragments of skull of tissue caked along the sides of his boots. All at once the cry stopped, and along with it the room slowly began to darken. The flame began to slowly dwindle back to its original size, its color returning to a soft orange glow.
The Wanderer stepped back; his eyes firmly planted on the now deceased creature lying before him. A pool of its blood slowly trickled along the floor, reaching for his sword. Slowly, his body lumbered to the lost blade. Its handle was wrapped in scaled pitch blade leather, its blade a vibrant silver, still glistening with oil. The visage of a raven prominently scorn into the finish of the blade itself. Before the foul-smelling blood reaches the blade, the man slowly leans down to collect it. His body ached, his arms felt heavy and as the world around him began to dim, he retrieved the blade. Weighing it in his hand he felt secure, like a lost piece of him was restored with its retrieval. It felt so much heavier than before, or maybe he had just been weakened from the encounter. He gazed down upon it, his hand clenched hard around the dark leather handle. A dark fluid began to pool around his hand, streaming softly down from his arm.
The Wanderer turned his arm over, now looking at the wound he had taken from the creature’s first counterattack. It didn’t seem very bad, or at least not as bad as previous wounds he’d sustained, but the bleeding was alarming. It streamed softly, almost without notice. The blood itself was dark as well, as if it had already begun coagulation. A strange wound. A worrying wound. Suddenly his head became light, the room began to dim, and the walls started to blur. No, everything about this was wrong.
In the strange lucid state he was left in, he almost didn’t notice the changes around him. A quite fell over the room, the flickering flame seemed to even quite down to a faint whisper. A soft noise crept along the ground. Soft tapping, the sound of pebbles and rock being pushed aside, dust parting between single soft strides. The pain in his head grew louder, his heartbeat thumping from his chest to his forearm, ending finally against his forehead.
What is happening to me?
As if to answer, a rapid movement jostled him back to reality as he quickly turned, sword still gripped tightly in hand. A quick flash of movement rushed towards him, its motioned and sounds all too familiar to him. As nimbly as he can muster, he raises his blade outward in an attempt to impale the newfound enemy now barreling towards him, but a twinge of searing pain in his shoulder halts the attack. All he manages is a defensive stance, sword raised, arm placed behind the blade to prepare for impact as the creature crashes into him.
They both fall, splashing into the violet puddle of dank smelling blood that has pooled along the cave floor. A creature –almost identical to the one lying dead beside him- lies atop the blade protecting his body. Its arms crash against the leather bracers protecting his soft flesh. Claws come crashing down, scrapping against leather, making large slashes in them but not enough to break fully through the thick coating. Slime and mucus drip down from its maw, coating The Wanderer’s arms and neck. His arms are placed defensively against the side end of the blade, separating the two, but he can feel himself weakening further and further. Rough outlines of the creature emerge through blurred vision. Heat travels along his arm and forehead, casting confusion and sweat to pour over his body.
What the hell is happening!?
Suddenly, the creature lunges its head down, breaching the space between the blade and The Wanderer’s neck. Its snapping pincer like mandible opening and shutting in rapid and rabid bites. Before it has a chance to make contact, The Wanderer frees one of his trapped hands and grapples the creature’s head. With strength slowly fading from his body, he fruitlessly pushed back the creature's disgusting face. With every inch he pushes, the creature seemingly gains two. A battle of attrition begins. Snapping, clawing, drooling the creature continues its unending assault. Reach for the soft part of his neck in hopes of ending the encounter in a single bite. Just one slip, and its lights out. Forgotten and left to be fed on to a host of disgusting bugs. The thought rips through his mind, his veins fill with hot fire, his muscles contract creating energy that wasn’t there before. He pushes hard against the creature’s head, pushing it past the breach in the sword until his arm reaches full length.
The energy’s fading, the small window of opportunity’s closing, and for once in his miserable life, he can’t think of a thing to do. The hand not grappling with the creatures head pulls free from the back of the sword. His fingers slowly begin moving, drawing a pattern in the air. Faint lines form, like strokes from a dry paintbrush. Lines sparkle and faintly crackle with weak power, power being sapped away. The pattern is rough and unfinished, its edges not straight, its lines fumbling. The feeling in his fingers is weak. Strength fading, the pattern breaks as his hand twitches before returning to the blade. Fire begins erupting from the torch again, the strange violet flame re-emerges and casts strange shadows once again along the cave walls. Shadows depicting men falling in the thousands, figures standing above them. A strange light emits from the wrecked battlefield as the dominant figures rise, floating above, breaching unending clouds and sending a cleansing fire downward. Fire spreads along the walls, engulfing the shadows, casting them far away as it shrieks and flickers violently. The Wanderer’s vision begins to fade. The world around begins to dull. Rocky walls, granite floors, the creature all fade, losing color and becoming shadows themselves. Heat wells in his head, as tears stream down his cheek.
I can’t.
Shadows slowly engulf him as the energy drains from his arms.
I won’t
The creature’s face inches closer and closer to its target.
This is where it ends.
The fire erupts, banishing the shadows away once more, filling the room with soft orange light as the creature lunges uninterrupted at its prize.
Then nothing. The pain of stabbing pincers ripping along his throat never occurs. Instead, a loud CLAP echoes along the walls. It’s deafening and almost endless, but it's over in an instant. A river of fluid splashes along The Wanderer’s face and body. It’s warm and thick like syrup but smells like rotten apple cores. For a moment, he contemplates if this is death. A strange death, and a strange place to end up, but who’s to know. Before long his eyes opened. The creature that stood hunched over him was still there, but its head was entirely missing. Fragments of skull and viscera lined the walls and floor around him as the creature stood cold, dead. Seemingly out of nowhere, its head just seemed to explode.
“Did...” The Wanderer began quizzically. “Did I do that?”
Before an answer could be given, a shuffle could be heard across the room, hidden against the far wall deep within the dark. Slowly The Wanderer rose, knocking the deceased creature away from him, the feeling and strength slowly returning to his body. He stared off to the dark corner, waiting in vain for his eyes to adjust to the dark. They didn’t. Bending down, he grasped his sword in one hand, and what remained of the faint torch in the other as he cautiously meandered to the muffled sound coming from the dark corner.
“Gods, if it’s one more of these disgusting fucking things, I’m straight gone.”
Slowly, the image of a man appears. He almost seemed affixed to the wall due to some form of slightly translucent webbing sprawled across his body. His feet were a few inches raised from the floor as he hung limply against the wall. A thin layer of the same substance covered his mouth as he muffled violently to The Wanderer, his eyes red and spread as wide as they could go. Near the middle of the webbing his right hand was tightly bound, unable to move. On the other side, it seemed he was able to shake loose enough to free it. A silver revolver with gold carved inlays held tightly between his fingers. Faint trails of smoke emanated from the pistol’s barrel. The smell of spent gunpowder lingered In the air, a smell The Wanderer had memorized.
The Wanderer looked puzzlingly at the man stuck to the wall, before a spark of remembrance and realization came to life in his eyes. Sweat beaded down the side of his head, slowing before soaking into his shirt collar. That chance encounter had taken its toll, and had gone on for longer than he thought, longer than he had hoped.
“Hells man, I had forgotten entirely of you. Why not speak up next time?”
The stuck man convulsed in a fit of annoyance and fury as The Wanderer laughed heartily.

So I have a Sandstone bedrock that begins about 3 feet below the surface. My picture is a screenshot from the Oklahoma Geological Survey that details what I have on my property. I know sandstone rootcellars are common around the world, including the Midwest region of the US, but not really in Oklahoma. Historically, that might be because pioneers from 1889 and onward brought minimal tools and found less labor intensive methods of cold storage. But, I wonder if there are differences in sandstone that lend itself to be better or safer to excavate in one variety versus another.
I've always thought sandstone was sandstone and the differnces are region and timeline of their formation. Is there anything about the geology of my sandstone that wouldn't make a suitable or safe rootcellar?

Last week's post https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cl1pkm/roundup_ufos_and_bob_universal_object_tracke
Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20240505212215/https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cl1pkm/roundup_ufos_and_bob_universal_object_tracke
Moon phase waning crescent, three days before new
Mars Right Ascension 0h 17m 54s
.1 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cl2c9f/1st_postlondon_sighting_today/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, daytime, from airplane, over London England the UK 🇬🇧, single dark object, dark grey, metallic/glass material looking and probably a stereotypical “spinning top” shape., moving fast, interaction with airplane, flew under it,
.2 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cl52m9/the_dr_gary_nolan_post_earlier_has_me_thinking/ childhood experience description, no craft, at home, nighttime, light shining in bedroom, repeat visitor, flashing light coming from under my bed., physical effects paralysis, emotion of fear, has anyone seen?
.3 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cl5zaa/strange_metallic_color_object/ video, daytime sky, single object blackwhite, elongated, horizontal orientation, possible disk shape, Hanford California, near Lemoore navy base., horizontal trajectory, low over treeline, contemporaneous report
.4 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1clidos/uap_off_the_coast_of_virginia_beach_sept_14_2021/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, over water Atlantic Ocean, off Virginia Beach Virginia, single dark object, angular, not seen by eye, greenish glow, possible military response jet, OP comments downvoted, [GOODPOST], heptagon
.5 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1clogf2/observation_during_flight_unidentified_object/ video, daytime cloudy sky, from airplane, single dark object moving, elongated, diffuse trail, horizontal orientation, Palma Mallorca Balearic Islands Spain 🇪🇸 , observed exiting cloud, horizontal trajectory, contrails type, downvoted to zero in 1 hour, OP comments downvoted
.6 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cleqly/triangle_or_tr3b_sighting_in_colorado_about_20/ sighting description and drawing, nighttime sky, at home, urban area, Boulder Colorado, triangle 🔺️ observed, threelights with central red 🔴 light, lighting configuration change, butterfly 🦋, ⚪️🔴⚪️, physical effects paralysis, transfixed, trajectory change observed, the craft was ascending into the sky, but it would also dip back down and hold steady for a bit before heading up again., contemporaneous report,
.7 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cl77ee/personal_possible_sighting_2018/ video, nighttime sky, single light object moving erratically, zigzag movements, brightness change, flareup and dimming, over water, Belgrade Lakes Maine, duration 30 minutes, vanishing, possible cubensphere,
.8 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1clsdmw/all_the_relevant_uap_updates_from_april_29_may_5/ information, state of disclosure USA https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cl29t3/mexico_and_peruvian_ufo_disclosure_roundup/ state of disclosure, Mexico and Peru
.9 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1claaol/ufos_appearing_in_different_photos_on_different/ photos, daytime cloudy sky, two events, single object blackwhite, metallic sphere observed, twolights, Pima Air Museum and at my house, at home, backyard, observed vanishing,
.10 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1clg5nq/100_genuine_ufo_need_help/ video, daytime cloudy sky, from airplane, near Newark New Jersey, fleet, multiple objects, flashing erratically, not seen by eye
.11 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1clrp5a/ai_recreation_of_2010_las_vegas_summer_sighting/ sighting description and drawing, downvoted to zero in 1 hour, OP comments downvoted, two witnesses, twolights, nighttime, urban area, Las Vegas Nevada, single light object moving fast, possible reaction to being observed, trajectory change, approach, jumpy movement, wavy trajectory, haze, While it was descending it appeared to be teleporting or waving in an up and down motion while emitting a purple and green mist until it came to a stop. 🟣🟢, moving and stationary and moving, sudden departure upward, the white lights extended to the edges and the perimeter of the craft appeared to have “metal” plates evenly spaced around. The whole craft was a dark metallic purple., texture visible
.12 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/1cl9ryu/yall_ever_seen_a_tr3b/ discussion of sightings, threelights, triangle 🔺️
.13 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/1cl9xt0/i_just_saw_a_ufo/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, at home, outside window, single light object, approach, The light seemed to be strobing instead of flashing, and would never fully go dark., trajectory change, wavy trajectory, almost swerving through the air., U-turn, moving fast, rural Wisconsin, has anyone seen?
.14 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cluf14/did_i_actually_see_a_ufo/ sighting description, Yosemite California, nighttime cloudy sky, near water, hottub, single light object, speed change, suddenly start to accelerate in one direction(close to the direction it was moving slowly), then it made a big U-turn in the sky, like it drew a check mark ✔️ in the sky., trajectory change, two witnesses, similar sightings in comments
.15 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1clwlpe/uap_july_22_2023_south_dakota/ photos, daytime sky, single object blackwhite, angular, heptagon, south Dakota , two witnesses, at home, backyard, flew over the witness home, horizontal trajectory,
.16 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1clxdne/lights_in_the_sky/ video, nighttime sky, from car, single object multiple lights, threelights, close formation, low over treeline, observed moving slowly
.17 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1clx2z3/i_saw_a_ufo/ sighting description and drawing, Crescent 🌙 shaped with a pointed tip , geometric scaly rigid body , cloud like cloak, manta shape, texture observed, flew overhead, two witnesses, irregular shape, angular, gave a feeling of being old or out of time., felt compelled to follow it, refused cause I didn’t want to know what was inside the big thing.,silent, west Texas , similar sightings in comments, [GOODPOST]
.18 https://old.reddit.com/Skydentify/comments/1clv208/seen_some_trance_lights_i_cant_explain/ video, nighttime sky, twolights, angled from the horizon, stationary, powerlines, low over rooftop, western Kentucky, some moved kinda erratically and some moved straight https://old.reddit.com/Skydentify/comments/1cmeavl/better_view_of_the_lights_i_cant_explain/ more video
.19 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1clbq63/ufo_sonoma_county/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, Sonoma County California, single light object, low over treeline, reaction to being observed, descending below treeline, As I was thinking to myself why is that light so bright, it got dimmer and seemed to drop down below the tree., repeat visitor or second object, flareup, ascending, trajectory change, U-turn, descending,
.20 https://old.reddit.com/UF0/comments/1clauxl/bright_color_changing_expanding_uap_above_my_yard/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, multicolored, flareup or size change, at home, possible smaller object accompanying it or emitting orb, blue 🔵, repeat visitor, similar sighting in comments
.21 https://old.reddit.com/Skydentify/comments/1clalrd/strange_lights_in_sky_is_this_normal/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, descending below rooftop, at home, urban area
.22 https://old.reddit.com/CLOUDS/comments/1cl9obd/volcano_above_the_clouds/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, cloud anomaly, tower, from airplane, southern USA, near water gulf of Mexico,
.23 https://old.reddit.com/atoptics/comments/1cl9kg0/what_is_this_over_vietnam/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, rainbow 🌈 anomaly, urban area, powerlines, Vietnam 🇻🇳
.24 https://old.reddit.com/UFOB/comments/1cl99el/just_saw_an_orb/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, at home, West Yorkshire the UK 🇬🇧, single light object, descending, ball of white plasma with a central core that was comprised of green and rust orange filaments. 🟢🟠, disappeared behind treeline, similar sightings in comments , silent
.25 https://old.reddit.com/BackwoodsCreepy/comments/1cl5goq/strange_feeling_in_appalachia/ experience description, possible bigfoot, camping, Appalachia, footsteps, knocking, humming, Like as if a person was just humming a tune., felt observed, witness went to sleep
.26 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cm9jr3/ideas_on_what_this_is/ video, nighttime sky, Jeollabukdo south Korea 🇰🇷 , single light object, observed stationary and moving, possible reaction to being observed, oval-shaped, possibly illuminating clouds, overhead, silent, urban area, starlink?
.27 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cmhl2uaps_in_edmonton_ab_may_4_2024/ photo and video, daytime cloudy sky, photo shows twolights, angled from the horizon, Edmonton Alberta Canada 🇨🇦, 53° 32' 45.1788'' N,
.28 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cm2wio/anyone_in_dayton_ohio_see_a_ufo_on_friday_night/ sighting description, Dayton Ohio, has anyone seen?, single light object moving fast, illuminating sky, vanishing, All the sudden the sky lit up. I looked up and it appeared the moon was very full and very bright. Then it immediately shot across the sky and burned out., near USAF, Wright Patterson air force base, meteor?
.29 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/1clx1gd/an_experience_i_had/ experience description, at home, nighttime, single light object, size change or approach, flew overhead, moving and stationary, orange 🟠, vanished, emotion of happiness, repeat visitor
.30 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cmkfms/does_anyone_have_any_idea_what_this_could_be_my/ video, daytime cloudy sky, single dark object, elongated, diffuse trail, jellyfish 🪼 , from airplane, shape change, contrails type, submission statement issues, removed, lost data
.31 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/1cm44sl/peoples_reaction_to_when_i_tell_them_what_iv_seen/ sightings, ongoing, discussion of stigma
.32 https://old.reddit.com/Skydentify/comments/1cmpv22/can_anybody_tell_me_what_the_quick_flash_is_that/ timelapse video, nighttime sky, single light object, appearing and vanishing, low below treeline, directly in front
.33 https://www.reddit.com/useRollinnZaZa95/comments/1cmmhuq/2018_phoenix_lights_ups_hub/ video, nighttime sky, at work, threelights, flying in formation, low over rooftop, multiple witnesses, urban area, Phoenix Arizona
.34 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cmqyj1/what_is_this_found_it_at_indialantic_veach/ photos, possible metamaterial
.35 ➡️ https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cn2tqe/my_bil_just_experienced_contact_of_the_third_kind/ experience description, family story, brother in law, from car, nighttime, single light object, directly in front, cylindrical shape, metallic cigar shaped object. , followed the witness, approach, zigzag movements, emotion of fear, physical effects goosebumps, everything in his car suddenly felt charged with a huge amount of static electricity out of left field. All of his hair was sticking up - head, arms, entire body and when he would touch his dashboard or other parts of the car he would get shocked., felt observed, vibration, felt pulled, witness left the area, subsequent electronic effects car began locking and unlocking itself throughout the night in his garage- making the lock honk and unlock honk for hours., near Joshua Tree National Park California, camera can't detect it, dashcam goes from normal to seeing a bright white flash to being blurred out, to going back to normal again as he was driving away. , sleep disruption, having really bad nightmares about an abduction since, [GOODPOST] https://web.archive.org/web/20240508173925/https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cn2tqe/my_bil_just_experienced_contact_of_the_third_kind/ Archive
.36 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cmtbbw/possible_ufo_sighting_arizona/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, single object blackwhite, elongated, horizontal orientation, possible rectangle, not seen by eye, Arizona
.37 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cn5ntb/i_took_this_while_driving_through_nebraska/ photo, from car, daytime cloudy sky, single light object, not seen by eye, Nebraska
.38 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cmvnov/did_anybody_see_the_bright_flashing_lighting_up/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, from car, nighttime, driving east from wentville Missouri, single light object, flashing, very bright, illuminating sky, multiple witnesses, the whole highway slowed down., vanishing, has anyone seen?, similar sightings same area in comments
.39 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cn62ry/some_strange_experiences_ive_had_do_any_of_these/ experience descriptions, entity, inside bedroom, witness woke up, shadow figure, felt observed, witness went to sleep, subsequent dream description, entity, felt observed, subsequent information transfer, lying down in a room and having some information being put into my head and freaking out from whatever I had just learnt., emotion of fear,
.40 https://old.reddit.com/Skydentify/comments/1cmy6y2/what_is_this_light_moving_through_sky/ photo, nighttime sky, single light object, elongated, angled from the horizon
.41 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnads9/wtf_is_that/ photo, daytime sky, powerlines, plane for comparison, single light object, not seen by eye, urban area, Miami Florida, near water Atlantic Ocean, downvoted to zero in 30 minutes, OP comments downvoted
.42 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cncumx/my_sons_drawing/ art 🎨, drawing , flying saucer
.43 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnd105/phenomenon_related_dreams/ dream description, entity, The being/craft/king telepathically told us he was going to reveal himself to us and he ripped off his mask to reveal another plastic like clown mask., physical effects paralysis, vibration, I awoke in my bed (had to be 3am-4am) and I could not move but there were intense "electric" like pusles starting in my head and moving down my body through my feet.. They were extremely intense and slowly faded. It was not really painful but it was a little frightening, very intense and like nothing I have ever experienced.
.44 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnbxpu/my_mom_saw_a_ufo/ video, nighttime sky, from car, single light object, central Texas., very bright, moving fast , pulsating
.45 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnd42o/large_stationary_disk_ufo_over_north_atlantic/ sighting description, three witnesses, over water Atlantic Ocean, Myrtle Beach south Carolina, disk shape, very large, electronic effects camera can't detect it, stationary, nighttime https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cncxy4/large_stationary_disk_shaped_ufo_over_north/ reposted
.46 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cmxs3c/flying_object/ video, nighttime sky, single light object moving slowly, low over rooftop, the Netherlands 🇳🇱
.47 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cngbc7/spotted_this_evening_north_london/ sighting description and reference image, evening sky, threelights, orange 🟠, from car, urban area, London England the UK 🇬🇧, witness looked away and looked back, vanished, Went under a bridge and then they were gone.
.48 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cninhn/lantana_fl_ufo_or_something_over_ocean/ video, daytime cloudy sky, over water Atlantic Ocean, single object blackwhite, possibly rotating, moving slowly, vanishing and reappearing https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnip7a/lantana_fl_ufo_pics_to_go_with_video/ photo, Lantana Florida, beetle 🪲 or doughnut 🍩 shaped , submission statement issues, removed https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnv797/lantana_fl_ufo_or_something_in_sky_over_ocean/ photos reposted
.49 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnja67/vulture_to_the_left_ufo_to_the_right/ photo, daytime sky, single light object, possible disk shape, bird for comparison, not seen by eye, overhead, reddish glow, near Medford Oregon, downvoted to zero
.50 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnzjh1/introducing_anomaly_network_document_and_share/ original project, iPhone app, Anomaly Network, available at anomalynetwork.net, is a community-driven app where users can share their UFO sightings in real-time or document past encounters.
.51 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnl49k/what_is_it/ video, nighttime sky, single dark object, reaction to being filmed, It saw I was filming and try to hide., low over treeline, downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted, big debunker energy
.52 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnlcz8/video_i_took_not_sure_if_it_is_a_ufo_please_tell/ video, daytime sky, plane for comparison, single light object moving fast, elongated, horizontal orientation, tictac, horizontal trajectory , Jefferson City Missouri
.53 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cnp5z4/sighting_report_south_of_niagara_triangle_craft/ sighting description, south of niagara Canada 🇨🇦, contemporaneous report, nighttime, triangle 🔺️, threelights, lights on each point, moving towards niagara from the south , trailed by a slow moving jet matching speed , interaction with airplane, followed by plane, both objects silent, The jet appeared to be a military design, one or two passenger and had lights on it as well it was silent as well and had no plume trail.,
.54 ➡️ https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/1cnnjg5/my_wife_sawsomething_strange/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, two people at home, Camp Pendleton California, military, animal reaction dogs growling and hair standing up on their backs., twolights, vertical orientation, two bright white circle lights, kind of stacked up atop on one another. One smaller, one a little bigger. , moving, approach, similar sightings in comments and discussion of apathy, [GOODPOST]
.55 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/1cnpi63/i_just_had_my_first_experiance/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, British Columbia Canada 🇨🇦, nighttime, two witnesses, single light object, wtf_is_that, reaction to being observed, sudden departure, It swiftly shot away the moment I looked at it, hovering about 20 feet above ground, leaving behind a trail of orange flame-like glow as it moved. 🟠, silent, emotional reaction shock, similar sighting in comments, over the witness home, backyard
.56 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cnwr98/ufo_corrientes_argentina_090524/ photo, nighttime sky, single light object, elongated, haze, corrientes Argentina 🇦🇷, contemporaneous report, low over treeline, two witnesses, blue glow 🔵
.57 ➡️ https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cos8he/what_is_this_off_the_coast_of_walton_county_fl/ photo, daytime cloudy sky, Walton County Florida, over water, gulf of Mexico, single dark object, low over horizon, elongated, vertical orientation, possible haze or diffuse trail, rectangular shape, duration a couple minutes, vanished, contemporaneous report, [GOODPOST] https://old.reddit.com/MobileAL/comments/1cpskoc/military_helicopters/ possible military response helicopters
.58 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1codh6n/uap_close_encounte sighting description, at home, Brookline Missouri, nighttime, backyard, felt observed, single light object, metallic sphere, low over ground, silver colored spherical object about beach ball size. It was moving very slowly from my left to right., crossed directly in front, reaction to being observed, flareup, lighting configuration change, began flashing, moving and stationary and moving, jumpy movements, vanishing, silent, military aviation OP, telepathy, seemed to me like it could read my thoughts, [GOODPOST]
.59 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cohyet/uap_over_burbank_ca/ video, nighttime sky, urban area, Burbank California, near airport, single light object, orange 🟠, approach, possible reaction to being filmed, trajectory change, vanishing and reappearing, contemporaneous report, downvoted to zero
.60 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1co544x/saw_a_weird_light_in_the_sky/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, evening sky, from car, single light object, splitting, lighting configuration change to twolights, dimming, vanishing, scardovari Italy 🇮🇹 , near water river Po, downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted
.61 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1com61m/liberty_nc/ video, nighttime sky, from car, liberty north Carolina, fleet, low over treeline, orange 🟠, moving slowly, silent
.62 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cotyqj/3_flying_objects_found_in_night_sky_with/ video, nighttime sky, multiple objects, moving erratically, low over treeline
.63 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cowsz0/what_was_this/ video, daytime cloudy sky, from airplane, single object blackwhite, possible disk shape or possible island, approaching Seoul Incheon Airport., south Korea 🇰🇷
.64 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/1cos39a/people_always_ask_why_do_ufos_only_come_to_the/ sighting description and discussion of the Bahamas 🇧🇸 as a Hotspot, especially as of lately in the last few years it’s spiked. contemporaneous report, nighttime, three witnesses, threelights, smaller objects accompany it, previous news report entities observed, tall tridactyl owl like beings that were zooming around in pods.,
.65 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1coxv5o/i_experienced_an_orb_51024_621_utc_i_saw_it_drop/ photos, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, possibly emitting orbs, possible telepathy,
.66 https://old.reddit.com/UFOscience/comments/1coz2gold_pictures_from_2009_showing_strange_objects/ description of photos, single light object moving, twolights, plane for comparison, near airport, Mantova Italy 🇮🇹, facing the mountain called Monte Baldo.
.67 https://old.reddit.com/StrangeEarth/comments/1coycsz/juno_spacecraft_took_this_picture_am_i_imagining/ photo, Jupiter anomaly, possible structure
.68 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1conlyh/what_is_this_machine_preview_in_belgium_yesterday/ photos, daytime sky, contemporaneous report, single dark object, angular shape, blue glow, contemporaneous report, Gemmenich Belgium 🇧🇪, audio description funny noise, RC Wing/Plane
.69 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/1cohwgd/encounter_beyond_earth_unraveling_alien_tech/ detailed experience description, near Whitmore Lake, Michigan, possible abduction, location anomaly, ended up way off route, 40 miles north past my stop, right over the Zilwaukee Bridge. , subsequent telepathy, Since that night, my mind has been different. I’ve developed abilities I can't fully explain, like intense intuition and predictive dreams that actually come true https://old.reddit.com/AlienAbduction/comments/1codwhq/beyond_time_and_understanding/ same OP, more details
.70 https://old.reddit.com/space/comments/1cohf2x/iss_and_vsfb_rocket_flew_over_me_at_the_same_time/ reference ISS, reference rocket launch, video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, Vandenberg Space Force Base
.71 https://old.reddit.com/BackwoodsCreepy/comments/1co3xap/im_from_a_remote_village_in_northern_alaska_and/ sighting descriptions and local folklore, northern Alaska, entities, Innuligarraq (in-new-thli-gar-uck) (irrecenrat on my Yup’ik side), or the Little People. , In my personal experiences, I’ve seen the little ones and the big ones. They both can resemble humans, or just a blur on the land. I believe they’re part of another world or dimension and that’s why they cannot always be seen, similar sightings same area in comments , [GOODPOST]
.72 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cozlks/a_friend_of_mine_filmed_a_uap_with_greer_gree experience description friend of OP, human initiated contact, celebrity event, Greer confiscated video of single light object, it hovered a few feet over their head. They recorded the whole encounter, including it hovering over Greer and then flying off into the distance.
.83 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1coznlg/uap_spotted_after_spacex_launch/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, Central Valley California, at home, near rocket launch, observed moving and stationary and moving, sudden departure, vanishing, object moving left after the rocket, it seemed to stop, then started going off quickly to the right before completely disappearing
.84 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cp1sx7/i_witnessed_something_that_i_cant_explain/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, at home, single light object stationary, very bright, two witnesses, witness looked away and looked back, vanished, near water, west coast of Denmark 🇩🇰
.85 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cp1kyk/night_flights_around_reserve_nm_weird_cluster_of/ video, nighttime sky, cosmic campground in Glenwood New Mexico, camping, duration 20-25 minutes, fleet, appeared out of nowhere
.86 https://old.reddit.com/StrangeEarth/comments/1cozhx1/uap_caught_on_camera_oc/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, vanishing, low over rooftop, central California, just after a space X falcon launch
.87 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cp8lsd/weird_uap_captured_tonight_in_south_dakota/ photo, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, crooks south Dakota, threelights, elongated, yellowish 🟡, trail, at home, backyard, similar sighting same area in comments , horizontal trajectory , northern lights
.88 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cp8yv9/filmed_this_tonight/ video, nighttime cloudy sky, powerlines, Wayland Michigan, contemporaneous report, single object moving fast , northern lights
.89 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpggt2/could_this_movement_be_attributable_to_parallax/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, Walla Walla Washington state, single light object moving and stationary, possible trajectory change, it appeared to veer from its arc and turn to the left a bit and then… it stopped.
.90 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cp7b16/airplane_satellite/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object moving, plane for comparison observed, video shows moving erratically, multicolored, white observed, low over rooftop, downvoted to zero , northern lights
.91 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpiwtg/northern_lights_ce5_contact_a2_michigan/ photos, nighttime sky, hard to see, contemporaneous report, human initiated contact, Michigan , northern lights
.92 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpiosv/am_i_crazy_or_is_this_weird/ video, nighttime sky, at home, single light object moving, multicolored, contemporaneous report, near Pawling new York state , northern lights
.93 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpjrp0/what_does_everyone_make_of_this_saw_this_last/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, single light object, low over treeline, Tennessee, moving slowly, descending below treeline, trampoline, appeared out of nowhere, similar sighting in comments, ISS? ,
.94 ➡️ https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cp82oq/did_i_see_the_triangle/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, from airplane, downvoted to zero, from Chicago to Austin , central USA, possible interaction with airplane, plane banked hard away causing me to drop the phone., dark shadow of the triangle with glowing light around it. https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpkybt/triangle_stills/ still images , removed, The rest of the flight was normal, we felt lower than before and landed ~30 mins later than we should have. When I landed in Austin, the Airport’s alarm system was going off and people were evacuating briefly.
.95 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cp90nh/saw_this_while_looking_at_the_aurora_satellite/ video, nighttime sky, single light object moving slowly and straight, flew over the witness home, Tennessee, disappeared behind treeline, similar sightings in comments , northern lights
.96 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpblvq/flashing_greenblue_light_moving_erratically/ video, nighttime sky, single light object flashing, contemporaneous report, northern lights, urban area, Calgary Alberta Canada 🇨🇦, observed green-blue 🟢🔵, moving erratically, trajectory change, right angle turn, started off very bright with a bit of a tail moving vertically. Started to change direction and move horizontally, at different speeds. , speed change, sudden departure downward, downvoted to zero
.97 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpbr3j/iron_city_tennessee/ sighting description, downvoted to zero, Iron City Tennessee, three witnesses, multiple objects, fleets, they would appear and travel in perfect formation. In two’s, 3’s, and the biggest I saw was 6 in a sideways U-shape formation., flying in formation, appeared out of nowhere, similar sighting in comments, contemporaneous report, northern lights,
.98 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpc3d7/orb_shaped_object_in_redding_ca/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, multicolored, plane for comparison, speed change observed, silent, low over rooftop,
.99 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpe5o5/orbs_in_the_sky/ video, hard to see, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, Iowa, northern lights, human initiated contact, repeat visitors, sometimes i get blinks back or a small ball of light slowly or sometimes swiftly moving across the sky, in all different directions., physical effects goosebumps, the second i saw them tonight, i had tingles all up the entirety of my body and i felt electric, downvoted to zero
.100 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpjdd2/a_friend_got_some_cool_photos_of_the_sky_last/ photos, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, northern lights, Tennessee, downvoted to zero, multiple objects, fleet, worm 🪱, blue 🔵, not seen by eye
.101 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpo1zg/ufo_spotted_in_holly_springs_nc_7282021/ video, daytime sky, single dark object, elongated, irregular shape, vertical orientation, at home, two witnesses, low over treeline, stationary, felt observed, texture visible, scaled with a texture like rust and was maroon in color. The bottom was like a corkscrew spiraling and resembled snakes moving around a pole. It was confusing and made no sense to observe., reddish glow, possibly rotating, shape change, reaction to being filmed, departing, Holly Springs north Carolina,
.102 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpr67m/weird_orange_lights/ video, nighttime sky, fleet, two pairs of twolights, low over treeline, orange 🟠, submission statement issues
.103 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpqay7/ufo_sighting_near_canada_usa_borde photos and videos, nighttime sky, camping, near the border of Montana and British Columbia Canada 🇨🇦, contemporaneous report, northern lights, single light object moving erratically, over water, river, loops, trajectory change, flying around in strange circular motions and could fly back and forth at unreasonably fast speeds and stop and turn around on a dime., red 🔴, color change observed, duration 20-30 minutes, vanishing, repeat visitor or second object, made three passes, low over ridgeline, zigzag movements, emotion of fear , [GOODPOST], decided to sleep in the locked car instead of my tent for the night.
.104 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cp8wig/green_blinking_lights/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, northern lights, nighttime, at home, backyard, southwest Ontario Canada 🇨🇦, twolights, flashing, green 🟢, possible diamond 💠 formation, low over rooftop, stationary and moving, almost diamond shaped on its side with two lights horizontal on the ends. Eventually the lights stopped blinking and it move East and I lost sight of it. , felt observed, downvoted to zero
.105 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cprste/no_idea_what_this_is/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, low over rooftop
.106 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpnzeg/51124_1208_am_cdt/ photo, nighttime sky, twolights, elongated, worm 🪱, blue 🔵, northern lights, prior single light object moving erratically, flashing, intermittently flashed like a disco ball and darted around in a very small area for approximately 10 seconds. , reaction to being filmed, vanishing, two witnesses
.107 https://old.reddit.com/HighStrangeness/comments/1cp9v6a/low_hum_in_the_hudson_valley/ audio description, no craft, humming sound, at home, duration 30-40 minutes, The sound was undulating up and down in pitch, like a very slow vibrato, and it sounded like it was coming from the sky or just the air around us. It didn’t sound mechanical, or like wind or a plane, it had a very clear, almost musical tone. It felt like the air was vibrating, like we were inside a giant violin., Hudson Valley new York state, contemporaneous report, northern lights, sky trumpets, similar sightings in comments
.108 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/1cp7byz/saw_this_tonight_in_the_south_of_norway_at_first/ video, nighttime cloudy sky, contemporaneous report, cloud anomaly, fleet, flashing erratically, northern lights, southern Norway 🇳🇴
.109 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/1cpfggg/woke_up_to_hear_about_the_crazy_g5_storm_tried_to/ photo, nighttime sky, single light object, elongated, angled from the horizon, not seen by eye, moving fast , near Philadelphia Pennsylvania
.110 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/1cpmh65/any_maine_ufo_nerds_here_see_anything_a_few/ sighting description, nighttime, fleet, moving and stationary, all different directions, over water, Grand Manan Channel near Lubec Maine., duration 1 hour, sometimes in pairs, and they would move, stop, change direction and make sharp curves as if scanning or observing the enviroment, and although they all made different movements they would all eventually fly up into the same spot in the clouds and out of sight., has anyone seen?
.111 https://old.reddit.com/aliens/comments/1cp82pz/what_did_i_just_witness_here_in_kentucky_watching/ video, nighttime sky, single light object, color change, red and green 🔴🟢, silent, observed moving erratically, contemporaneous report, northern lights, northern Kentucky
.112 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpsi34/ufos_over_uk_south_coast_right_now/ sighting description, contemporaneous report, nighttime, Northern lights, Duration 30 minutes, two witnesses, at home, curved trajectory, all different directions, All of them are flying in different directions, different speeds, some fly straight and some fly curved, some travel in pairs as if they're racing, with their speeds fluctuating! , Worthing the UK 🇬🇧, near water, similar sighting same day in Belgium 🇧🇪 in comments
.113 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cpnebi/spotted_last_night_brilliant_bright_light/ photo, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, northern lights, single light object moving fast, haze, possible beetle 🪲 or rectangular shape, flew overhead, ISS?, Denver Colorado, similar sightings same day in comments, emitting brilliant sparkly light.
.114 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cnts0q/fastmoving_orange_light_over_tuscolagenesee/ sighting description, single light object moving fast, zigzag movements, orange 🟠, over Genesee or Tuscola counties, near Millington Missouri, has anyone seen?, nighttime, two witnesses, trail
.115 https://old.reddit.com/ufo/comments/1cnszys/maybe_just_maybe/ photo, nighttime cloudy sky, single light object, elongated, angled from the horizon, disappeared into cloud, fleet observed, individual objects one behind other. Disappeared behind the cloud like it never existed. , low over rooftop, at home, urban area, Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
.116 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpt88u/white_light_moving_across_the_sky_satellite_o video, nighttime sky, at home, backyard, contemporaneous report, northern lights, single light object, silent, moving straight, the Netherlands 🇳🇱 , plane for comparison
.117 https://old.reddit.com/UFOB/comments/1cpqq54/very_bright_solid_white_round_light/ photos, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, northern lights, single light object, Iowa City Iowa, silent, moving straight,
.118 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpvvgp/anyone_in_phoenix_see_pure_white_orbs_fading_in/ sighting description, has anyone seen?, urban area, Phoenix Arizona, from car, two witnesses, contemporaneous report, northern lights, nighttime, single light object, appeared out of nowhere, stationary, vanishing, repeat visitor or second object, made four passes, circle shaped, had a clearly defined end to the circular light source, a big circle of light that would fade in, hang around, then disappear., similar sightings in comments
.119 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cq6i6u/my_first_ufo_encounter_with_a_twist_a_whole_fleet/ sighting description, Eningen unter Achalm Germany 🇩🇪 , daytime cloudy sky, two witnesses, single dark object, lighting configuration change to metallic sphere, duration 5-10 minutes, hiking, black ⚫️, directly in front, moving slowly, eye 👁, physical effects paralysis, transfixed, flashes of light, ascending at an angle, haze, disappeared into clouds, photos show fleet and possible repeat visitor, [GOODPOST], emotional reaction feeling shook
.120 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpxi33/triangle_craft/ photo, OP is not the witness, witness is law enforcement friend who works near a major airport., nighttime sky, threelights, triangle formation, repeat visitor, he calls it in to the air traffic control tower every time. They tell him “they know about it and could he please quit calling.”, [GOODPOST], observed stationary, over powerlines, duration 10 minutes, similar sightings in comments
.120 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpycff/satellite_tough_to_tell_in_first_video_with_plane/ video, nighttime sky, single light object , contemporaneous report, Michigan
.121 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpyxou/anyone_else_seen_this_before/ sighting description and discussion of sightings, repeat visitor, has anyone seen?, single flash, it just flashes white once then… nothing., many similar sightings in comments, [GOODPOST]
.122 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cq1myc/just_spotted_this_in_auckland_nz/ video, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, northern lights, single light object moving slowly, orange 🟠 horizontal trajectory, low over treeline, urban area, Auckland new zealand 🇳🇿, similar sighting same area in comments, downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted
.123 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cq3h3c/ufo_swarm_spotted_near_elk_creek_ca_during_sola photos, nighttime sky, contemporaneous report, northern lights, elk creek California, multiple objects observed, zigzag movements , downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted
.124 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cq832t/ufo_spotted_on_singapore_bay/ video, daytime sky, over water, Singapore 🇸🇬 bay, contemporaneous report, single dark object, irregular shape, tendrils, jellyfish 🪼, stationary, downvoted to zero, OP comments downvoted, big debunker energy
.125 https://old.reddit.com/UFOs/comments/1cpxjlf/possible_uap_sighting_dover_nh_51224_2200_edt/ video, nighttime sky, single light object moving slowly, powerlines, urban area, dover new Hampshire, contemporaneous report, northern lights
Continued...

[First] [Previous] [Next]
Edited by sensei WaveOfWire
- - - - -
Everything had gone exceptionally well for the farmer, despite the daunting task forced into her talons. Kegara had ordered her to begin a march east in search of the expected banished by sunrise—not alone, but in a group of fourteen others. She thought it was too many for such a task, and would assuredly catch the ire of the abhorrent; the more Malkrin present, the more creatures would pursue them…
It was a risk. One she was willing to take if her beloved was safe, but he pleaded for her to find a way to avoid it. Unfortunately, were she to stay, it would land her in the worst of Kegara's rage. The orange-skinned female would have been made a gruesome example for those who disobeyed, tied up in the center of the camp and… She did not wish to think of what ghastly fate would have awaited her.
So, in the dark of night, her and the baker’s plan of escape was struck. Perhaps it was foolish to leave their safety behind, but considering the blood-moon and forced orders, was it truly ‘safe?’ They would gather their pitiful belongings and set off in the direction of the previously ostracized members—the water worshiper, and four others. There was little hope of finding them, less so after the blood-moon, but with so few of them, there was still a chance they evaded the beasts and the warped oddities of the mainland altogether. Maybe if the field hand and her mate could find them, they could start their own settlement. At least, those were her thoughts when she set out…
Her initial reaction to being thrust into the open wilderness was nothing short of horror. Indistinct animalistic screeches, otherworldly hums, and unsettling creaks from trees sent chills down her spine throughout the night. Hazy shadows underneath the dim moonlight crawled like creatures, stalking… prowling around the mated pair. Every step she made was made in pure uncertainty, every pace bringing her further into an abyss of unseen nightmares. Maybe Kegara would not have punished her so severely… Maybe it would have been best to stay where it was safe.
But, she continued. She stayed strong. She had to.
They had already ventured too far, and it was her job to protect her love. Her tail wrapped possessively around his waist as he stuck close to her. Morning would break soon, and they would be far away from the brutish paladin… Free to start anew. It would be difficult, but the two of them were far from incapable of fending for themselves; they learned enough in the way of survival from their time on the mainland and their respective professions, despite both being from the Golden City.
- - - - -
They were able to survive the night, persevering well into the day by making crude implements and harvesting what they could. They had even managed to discover a large cave perfect for their habitation! It was dry and large enough for a fire, though it went deeper than expected. Food and cooking arrangements were their prerogatives, so they elected not to scour it any further as it would only be a waste of their time. They worked tirelessly until the sun set beyond the red expanse of trees. Her love busied himself with making the smooth gray walls into a home by gathering small resources and forming makeshift beddings, while she had gone out to hunt. By the luck of the Mountain God, she managed to bring back not one but two feathered creatures, each of which were more than plump enough to feed the mated pair for the evening.
Her aching feet patted against the grass, the blades poking her worn soles. The vegetation swayed from side to side in the weak breeze, almost appearing to celebrate her small victory with her. The cavern entrance came into view, its shape too small for her frills to fit under. The edges were covered in pinkish moss, giving it a distinct feel compared to the rest of the biome. Perhaps it was a sign of the Mountain God’s will for them to inhabit it. The moist malleable moss stretched further inside, resembling small veins inside the larger chasm.
She ducked underneath the mouth of the cave, appreciating the yellow reflections of an ongoing fire from within, each flick casting long shadows over every rock edge. Yet once she entered the homely cavity, the flames were the only thing present… Her eyes scanned the room for Baker, only finding an unused leafy bed, piles of edible berries, and a stack of wood. A shock of anxiety bolted up her spine, sharply settling on her frills like cold ice. Where was her mate?
She stepped forward, her webbed toes pressing into… liquid. Her eyes shot toward the ground, the orange-skinned female only now realizing how slick the floor really was. Viscous moisture clung to her leg, stretching across like mucus. The room was… dry before. Her initial thought that it was blood, but that was easily proven false by the thin film’s clear color. That did not ease her worries, however; her betrothed was still out of sight. Perhaps he left to forage, or was possibly looking for her?
A deadened wet thwack from further inside the cave echoed throughout the room, drawing her attention and causing her ears to perk up. Baker…?
She squinted down the black corridor, its sturdy stone now only reflecting the low howl of the cavern’s natural wind. Her eyes stayed locked on it as she slowly grabbed a makeshift torch and set it alight with the campfire. It had to have been her mate down there. Perhaps the tunnel curved so that she was unable to see his torchlight? What was he doing in the dark? Was he searching for something? Food perhaps?
She was already heading toward him before she considered any other possibility. Short drips accompanied her footfalls into the talon-width thick liquid that proliferated along the ground, grabbing onto her every time she raised her foot with a disgusting sucking noise. Her skin soon felt a similar spreading moisture from the humid cave, a low heat building up as she went. It would have been welcoming if not for the sick feeling that settled in her stomach.
The flickers of her torch illuminated the smooth cave walls and the ever-present pink moss that accompanied them. The ‘flora’ grew in volume and presence, stretching everywhere in random lines, often crossing and connecting with one another into larger segments. It eventually lost its fuzzy texture, only a moist reflective red taking its place. The way it almost appeared to… pulse in sync with the surrounding ambience only furthered the notion of veins and arteries…
A creeping sense of wrongness etched itself in her mind. Her ears slowly drooped down and her back hunched as her wide eyes failed to make out anything a pace or two in front of her. She scoured the blackness for anything and everything as the stone path ebbed and flowed, bringing her further down into the heart of Ershah.
thwack
A startling yet familiar noise halted her advance. She stepped back, swiveling her head around wildly to locate its source. Nothing made its presence known. There was only a permeating darkness within the… tunnel… She froze. When did the corridor become so large? Just before, she was able to stretch her arms to reach both sides of the walls, but now… Now it was open like the ocean, the blackness surrounding her entirely, obscuring… everything. She couldn’t see the entrance, nor the ceiling. Her pitiful torch illuminated the ground below her and nothing more.
Plip... Plip… Plip. The dripping continued, now suddenly an overbearing presence… like that of a predator’s breath riding down one’s neck.
Her breathing quickened, eyes widening. Was her mind playing tricks on her? Hesitant paces backward drew her into what she presumed was the direction she came from. It was no use. Further and further she went into the abyss, finding nothing but more of the tenebrous expanse.
The only true sense afforded to her was hearing… Every stifled breath, every wet footstep, and every flick of her torch felt deafening and… revealing. She was but a spark in the wider cavern, waving herself down as prey in the unseen eyes of what awaited her. Something could have been right behind her, and she would have been none the wiser… especially with no wall to guard her back…
A shiver ebbed through her frills. Would it be wise to suffocate her only flame to cover her presence? She stopped her palm from doing so, realizing that the fire was her only light. If its illumination perished, she would be trapped in the abyss with no way out… She needed to leave. She had to find the tunnel. It was—
“Fa…r...mer?” a voice croaked out, its intent shaky and bogged down in black tar.
Her shoulders stiffened, back straightening as she turned toward its direction. It was… Baker’s… but it felt uncanny… foreign. Was that even his? It had to be. M-Maybe he was harmed, too injured to move? Perhaps it was a broken frill? It would make sense. She had to find her mate… no matter how much his pained voice terrified her. That was why she was here in the first place…
The thickness of the viscous ground liquid increased as nervous footsteps brought her closer, the air around her getting warmer with each pace. She called out hesitantly, praying for a positive response.
“B-Baker? Are you there?”
Another wet, fleshy sound echoed through the large cavern, followed by a sickening crack. Then, his voice returned. It was much clearer this time, despite the aura of unsettling… distortion to it.
“Come… closer.”
Her steps were tentative, but she continued forward. Everything around her screamed something was amiss, but that painful string in her heart told her to never let her lover go. He was in pain. He was clearly suffering. Why should she ignore the one who warmed her heart with a simple smile just because she was perturbed by unproven nervousness?
Labored breaths filled her ears as she descended a small incline toward her mate. The shin-high murky liquid at the bottom was ignored, only becoming a small nuisance as her long strides carried her across the unknown fluid. Her motions caused it to sway in all directions, the ripples and turbidity preventing her from seeing what caused the squishy feeling beneath her feet. It smelled putrid, though not like that of rot… The scent was something she could not place, yet it was consuming with how it pierced her nostrils with its presence. It hardly mattered. She was close to him, she could feel his very presence in front of her. She could almost hear the breathing of…
Her torch lit up a rock… no… a figure. It was upright, but its head was pointing downwards. She couldn’t see the legs well, but she did notice how its… his familiar gray arms hung limply.
Baker!
Joy and anxiousness ran thick within her intent. “My dear! Are you okay? W-What has happened to you?”
She received no response for an unsettlingly long moment before his head shook… loosely… Like that of a puppet, reminding her of the black abyss that surrounded everywhere his body was not… It hid something.
“Come… Closer.”
“…W-What? No… M-My Dear… I…” In a moment of fear she raised her torch closer, illuminating everything.
Flesh surrounded him wholly, replacing his legs with undulating tubes and wet meat. Tendrils attached to his back, pulsing from their ceiling-bound origins. His limp arms moved slowly… falling… melting. The very skin slopped off onto into the pile of red beneath him with a sick thwack.
She jumped backwards, but the viscous liquid beneath her held tight. She couldn’t move. Her torch flickered and flared as she fumbled with her footing.
Lumps and nodules swelled from that thing’s chest, the very organs within rearranging. Deafening cracks and vile squelching echoed. The skin down his center slowly tore itself apart, strings of sinew breaking like twine to reveal malformed limbs within.
She ripped her legs from the grappling pond beneath, doing everything in her power to turn away.
But it was no use.
Bolts of force perforated her body. Agony seared every surface of her body.
The chest had burst open, sending several tendrils right through her. They squirmed and extended into her, moving like worms. They ripped and melded to her own flesh. Roaring pain flowed through her being like fire and lightning, consuming her wholly.
She screamed, but nothing escaped her lungs. Blood and tissue filled them. She needed to rip at the invading terror, but could not move. The red abomination pulled them for her; a sickening puppet of muscle.
Everything faded. No pain. No breathing. No sight.
The last thing she saw were the sockets in which her beloved’s gorgeous yellow eyes once laid, now replaced with pulsing meat.
She missed them… dearly.
\= = = = =
Several days of ridicule and a merciless sea voyage were sure to have an adverse effect on one’s mental state—being cast out of one’s own religion even more so. Some would perhaps cope with such by lashing out against those higher up the mountain than themselves. Others might resign themselves to prayer and labor, hoping to fit back into place within God’s graces. However, an exceptional case may change the way one perceives their circumstance.
The script-keeper and her village-mates were hardy people, having survived the worst of the Gods’ trials and then some—rogue waves from the water worshippers, grand storms from the Sky Goddess, and great famines brought from those who sinned before the Mountain God. They persevered through their community, pooling what little they had and relying upon one another to get through. She had seen it for fifty winters.
Now, eight of them have been stripped of those they became interdependent on, thrown forth into an uncertain abyss with only the clothes on their backs. Yet, by the luck of the Gods, the very shore they came upon happened to be owned by that of a diety-sent. Perhaps it was a sign from the Gods that there was hope for them yet…
And it took all of a singular night to prove that assumption correct. The four Malkrin that followed the star-sent freely regaled their struggles with the vile wilderness and the cruelty of the only other settlement before they met with the Creator. Their opinions on Kegara’s settlement were duly noted, but not taken to heart as they were just that: opinions. The script-keeper would have to see it for herself; feeble belief in the words of few should not sway the mind of someone, especially with her profession. Still, the stories of the abhorrent were taken much more seriously, since despite the confidence shared by the few females about defeating them, the elderly Malkrin could certainly see their ears droop in disquietude when the topic was broached. Furthermore, the other more elusive star-sent refused entirely to elaborate on her experience with the beasts when the paladin wrapped her into the conversation.
Fine new clothes, filling meals, and protective castles could only do so much… In the splendor and awe, the script-keeper understood it could only cover up the aching wounds each of the villagers had come here with. She knew the lumberjack quite well, commonly having to assist her with purchasing and selling items across the sea… the very same sea that now separated the woman from her mate. God knows how the wood-cutter felt now.
All the elder knew from the sparse conversations she had with the orange-skinned female was that she wished not to think of it anymore. To which, the harvester did just that, delving into the work allotted to her without a second thought, and basking in the benefits of the star-sent. Much was the same for the others from their island—their hopes of returning to the Land Kingdom having already been thoroughly sundered by the inquisitors. The script-keeper was not privy to everyone’s pains, but she knew they were similarly prepared to shelve them away in service of building themselves anew with this peculiar situation.
\= = = = =
Female Malkrin eat a lot. Seriously, all the meal boxes Harrison and Akula had prepared were ran through like crab rangoons at a buffet. There were a few left, but certainly not enough for dinner that night—and especially not for the winter, much to his displeasure. The engineer wasn’t looking forward to cooking anymore than he already had… But, he had a trick up his sleeve. Not only did the green fisherwoman know how to use the kitchen, but their little camp just so happened to have another who was experienced in the culinary arts.
Around the time they put their tools down for lunch, Harrison was approached by the pink-colored chef who was assisting with some of the masonry prior. He was apprehensive, yet his eyes were practically sparkling when he asked about the barbecue sauce, spices, and common vegetables. The engineer had a bit of time before he needed to get back to work, so he gave in. They conversed about it over their meal, the human explaining the ingredients and methods of making several types of dishes while the several Malkrin in attendance listened intently.
That was around the time he got the idea: why not have Akula teach the cook how to use the barrack’s kitchen? She was pretty reluctant to return to cooking… until he reintroduced her to her new sous-chef, giving her the task of overseeing the male’s modern culinary equipment and meat smoking tutorial.
Harrison didn’t know exactly why she seemed happier then. It could have been something about her prejudices, just having someone else to help her, or something… else… That didn’t matter to him. As long as the job was done, he was happy—especially since it meant he could focus on other projects.
Take the entire home they were building for example; it was practically completed by the time the chefs were sent off to make dinner. They were working on it since dawn—the engineer was still incapable of sleeping—digging the foundation behind the barracks, layering the brick walls, and getting the wooden supports down in record time. Having several extra Malkrin around made the labor requirement almost trivial, even if he needed to ensure they were doing the job right by constantly keeping a close eye on them. It also helped how eager some of them were to settle in with their tasks—the fisher twins and the lumberjack specifically.
The new arrivals were definitely a lot more lively than last night, that was for sure. They held onto caution in the morning, but that broke rather quickly after they got more accustomed to Harrison’s group and received basic clothing—literally just sturdy plaid shirts and black pants. Cera’s—the ceramist’s newly accepted name, created by Tracy’s shorthand of her profession—tendency to look out for the group also had a hand in the change from guarded acceptance to genuine and vocal appreciation. She did as much as she could to ease their burden by offering water or a helping hand whenever she and the lumberjack weren’t busy bringing wheelbarrows full of clay to the workshop. The two new males gladly accepted both, but the females were quite set on keeping their honor, completing their share of the work ‘with their own talons.’
Then, there was the juvenile. He didn’t want to force a kid to work, but the decision apparently wasn’t his. She quietly joined her older village-mates in hauling wheelbarrows full of bricks to and from the workshop. She didn’t seem upset nor did she seem too enthused about it. His singular attempt to persuade her otherwise was only returned with a terse shake of her head before she continued working. She didn’t like to show much emotion, that was for sure. Were all Malkrin teens like that, or was it because of her situation? Christ… the fact that she was sent to the mainland without her parents—or at all—rubbed him the wrong way. It was fucked, but at least she would be safe here… or as ‘safe’ as was possible.
That was the other job of the day: defense via the new fabricator. Tracy helped out a good bit with organizing and designing the second barracks for the first half of the day, thoroughly combing through the engineer’s ideas and ripping out the ‘brutalist’ and ‘soul-crushing’ lack of ‘real’ architecture. She inserted her own ideas, further backed up by the input of Craftsman’s prior experience, making for an admittedly more pleasant-looking layout of the house’s exterior and interior. It would end up looking vaguely like a white-brick colonial house, but with less ‘posh noble,’ instead making use of Germanic-style exterior wooden supports. It was just big enough to fit eight Malkrin-sized cots, space for movement between them, and all the basics such as lighting, airflow, and a little bit of storage on top—because, what was a building without storage? Luckily for the tradeswoman, it hardly used any more resources than his original plans, so he allowed it.
After that, Tracy realized there wasn’t much else for her to do, so she returned to their other project. The technician did well in assembling the most basic parts, working well throughout the day to complete the forging and welding components. Again, having someone else to do help with a job that big was a massive blessing, cutting off hours of time he would have had to slave away in the workshop.
Hours of time that he was able to use for overseeing the now-completed barracks, simultaneously teaching the Malkrin and getting a feel for how to best utilize their strengths with a substantial amount of help from the craftsman. The male did a bang-up job at explaining tasks and concepts to the others. Much better than Harrison was able to. Once more, it was a job the engineer was more than happy to let someone else take off his hands. The olive-colored Male was perfect for the job anyway, having the technical know-how and experience explaining similar things to Malkrin back on the islands, so the pioneer trusted the task to be completed with little issue.
Now, the day was finally reaching a close, ending with the settlement eating their dinner by the fire. There were a few more benches made to give everyone a seat. That meant the radius had to be extended somewhat, but that wasn’t anything a bigger fire couldn’t fix. Plus, the alien’s intent meant that he could still hear clearly from anyone around the pyre.
The muted sounds of silverware clanking against meal boxes and plates were muddled by the constant breeze. The flames lazily flickered in all directions, casting shadows along the flowing grass, each person in attendance being doused in a mellow orange. The Malkrin conversed with one another over their meals, each sitting in pairs on the furniture. Shar was out on guard patrol, so Tracy ended up taking the seat beside him. It was a bit of a surprise given how much she preferred to stay in the workshop, but he didn’t mind her taking a break—she deserved it. If anything, it should have been him on the fabrication floor, picking up where she left off.
“…Hey…” Tracy’s soft, worried voice took him from his thoughts.
“Hm?” He lazily looked down at the shorter woman beside him, her legs swinging as they couldn’t quite reach the ground.
She worriedly raised her brows. “You alright, dude? You’ve had some major bruised eye action going on all day. Did you even get any sleep? I didn’t even see you when I woke up.”
“No, I actually didn’t—” He held up a palm, stopping the technician’s troubled response. “—but it’s more because of that potion… thingy… Cera gave me. I don’t feel tired at all.”
Her face contorted in confusion, the shadows cast by the fire’s glow emphasizing it further. “The… potion…? Oh, yeaaaah, right. It was supposed to help you with dizziness, I think, but it also prevents you from feeling tired. How does it even feel? Like taking an energy drink, or something else?”
He held out his arm, tracing a finger along it. “I just feel like I’ve got pins and needles all along my skin… and I don’t feel like sleeping. That’s it really, so sort of like taking a bunch of caffeine.”
Her brows dropped in faux-annoyance. “That can not be healthy for you. Have you checked up on yourself with the scanner? If not for that, then at least the radiation? Maybe the fuzzy stuff is from all those grays of radiation you received?”
“I did… I did, don’t worry. The scanner had nothing besides the usual, so I guess it was just a good bit of caffeine or something… I don’t know. It’ll probably wear off soon, though.”
She nodded, returning her gaze to the fire. Her voice mellowed, just barely loud enough to reach his ears. “Good. The aliens were worried sick about you, yesterday, ya know—Shar ‘specially… and so was I…”
He hardly heard that last part, barely able to piece it together seconds after she muttered it. He wasn’t trying to make them worried, it was just a part of being on this planet. Every day was a new close call. The first blood moon, that pink monster, the workshop ambush, the second blood moon, and now the anomaly field all terrified him, haunting his very dreams with brief flashbacks of those sights and sounds. Though, they all served to teach him, forcing him to stay on his toes and never stay complacent… Which was something he was doing now.
He had plans in the works already—the new fabricator being the crux of at least half of them—but what could he do currently? How could he prepare? Or, at the very least, what could he do to advance the group further?
Their day-to-day jobs had already been discussed, plans for a new wood storage building were already made, and his work on the printer was cut out for him tonight… Okay. Well, what could he prepare for in the future? Defense? Of course, now that people were going to be out doing their own jobs, they would be too spread out to protect everyone at once.
There were two components to any solution for that problem: reconnaissance and protection. The first was self-explanatory. If he had, say, a few dozen drones scouting around where people were, it would take a lot of the surprise out of random swarms. That would give people time to either return to the castles… modules… or prepare themselves to take the bugs on. That led him to the second part. Firearms help to kill spider-crabs, but are also pretty dangerous in the wrong hands… He was more than willing to trust the Malkrin he knew with guns to defend themselves, but he couldn’t just start handing them out to strangers. Maybe in time, though. There were always other means of protection, anyway; Kegara’s camp was apparently alive and well, despite practically being from the stone ages.
Cera, Akula, and Shar were most certainly getting some firepower, that was for sure. He’d have to think about what sort of weapons would suit them. That also brought up the current metal deficit… and his gunpowder was running out quite quickly…
That was definitely something he wanted to get on before the next blood moon. He wanted to revisit that metal cave he saw when the paladin and the fisherwoman got cornered by three colossi. He hadn’t analyzed the chunk of ore he hacked off yet—he’d been pretty damn busy—so it was about time he figured out whether or not he had a nearby source of metals. It would be a damn blessing if it was aluminum or iron, despite only being a surface deposit. No matter what it was, it was sure to be of use.
Then there was the gunpowder issue. The last time he checked, there was enough to last him for at least the next blood-moon, but it wasn’t enough for several other firearms, especially if he wanted anything automatic. There were three main ingredients—potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal—which were essential for the production of any explosives. Charcoal was already solved for them, and potassium nitrate could practically be made out of thin air and water, considering they were right by an ocean. Bless the Ostwald process and acid-base neutralization.
The only real issue was sulfur… Christ, natural elements sucked. Either he had to deal with excessive organic recycling of amino acids… or go and mine the stuff directly, and there weren’t any obvious volcanic deposits or fault lines around. Neither of those methods sounded great.
Again, that would have to come later. He needed that fabricator done first and foremost. Then he could deal with the assorted problems that followed it and, well, every other compiling issue. Material harvesting tools, automatic defenses, larger fortifications, and radio-protectant armor were but a few of the big-ticket items on his mind.
Cera’s concoction was still running through his veins anyway, so he might as well finish the printer while he was at it. It looked like he wasn’t sleeping tonight either.
- - - - -
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Next time on Total Drama Anomaly Island - Hard work. Good company.

Chapter One: Awakening
Undauntable
“Boy, wake up!”
Undauntable woke in a cold sweat. Grown hands seized him from his regal mattress. A sudden jerk was enough to startle the prince as he slammed down hard onto the ground. Undauntable sputtered a gasp of fear while squirming to pick himself up. He had no time to register the combat boot coming down hard onto his face.
After being head-bashed against a leg of his bed frame, Undauntable could hear snide laughs coming from the royal guards. A surge of anger came forth as he looked into the eyes of his dictating father. Today would be the day he would finally stand up against his abuser.
Unfortunately, that day was not today as his face met another hard kick.
“Get your ass up,” his father growled. “You were supposed to be up an hour ago, and yet here you are, lazing around in bed. Dress yourself and meet me in the throne room.” The Lord waved a hand, and the rest of his guard exited the room in an orderly fashion. A few still snickered at the public humiliation.
Silently, Undauntable gathered his strength and regained composure. His whole body screamed in pain, especially his head. It didn't hurt that his father wore steel-toe boots, perfect for stomping on bugs… and almost crushing his son’s brains out. The prince began to cradle his head in hopes the pain would ease away. As always, it hasn't. But at least Undauntable was lucky enough to be alone with his thoughts.
Ever since Undauntable’s secret has been discovered, the existence of Wren and her ability to speak dragons, the young prince has found his life filled with much more agony than before. Undauntable didn't know where to begin, but he knew the abuse began with his dad clenching his nails into his wrist. From there, it escalated into pure sadistic cruelty. His wake-up call was just an example, on top of the iceberg.
But it wasn't the only strange thing that had been happening lately.
As Undauntable dressed, he recalled his dream. For the last three nights in a row, the prince had dreamt of the same dream: the world being burned alive. Despite knowing it was all fiction, Undauntable could swear he felt the presence of the dream: The burning scent of flesh, the howling of souls in despair and relief, the burden of faith laying heavily upon him.
It's been like this for three days, a year since Wren left… Undauntable thought cautiously, as he slipped a robe on. The mention of Wren gave him a depth of sadness, but Undauntable shook it off. What happened, happened. At least she was safe, far from the city, wherever she was.
Undauntable sighed. The world was a strange and dangerous place, but he was safe from the dragons… he wouldn't be safe from the wrath of his father if he didn't get a move on.
Petting his cat Dragon one last time, Undauntable hurried off to see his father.
As Undauntable smoothed off the wrinkles of his robe and made sure he looked presentable, he couldn't help but bump into the woman he despised the most.
He knew he wasn't looking where he was going but he now learned his lesson as she glared down upon him. The sight of her made Undauntable’s skin crawl. The feeling became worse as the curves of her lips swelled into a smile. One that reeked of sin.
She didn't say much, but Undauntable knew she would at this meeting. He didn't know what to think of her; he wasn't exactly intimidated by her but he knew he didn't like her either. He did know who she was: his birth mother.
By Instinct, Undauntable hid himself close to his bodyguard, Citrine. She didn't flinch an inch as Undauntable secured himself behind her. A pang of embarrassment struck the prince as he recalled Wren calling him a coward. He always hated to admit it, but as always she was right.
“Your Majesty, is something the matter?” Citrine asked politely. Undauntable let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding. At least his retainer was nice enough to take care of his well-being.
“I’m fine…,” Undauntable quickly muttered, his tone on the verge of cold cruelty and awful anxiety. “Just needed a moment to myself.”
Citrine nodded. “As you wish.”
Undauntable entered the throne room, Citrine took her spot at the closing doors. Thanks to a new rule, only Undauntable’s guard wasn't allowed to attend the meetings his father held. Undauntable lowered his head and kept himself composed as he followed the horde of flowing humans. All of them were eager at the prospect of buttering up the Lord, excited to see what greedy desires they could be granted from Invincible. To them, Invincible was a genie in a bottle, full of making their deepest wishes come true. To Undauntable, Invincible was as ruthless and tyrannical as any dragon.
Undauntable kept his head lowly as the royals made room for his father. As much as he would love to place himself in the back of the crowd, the prince knew his place was with his father, his most trusted advisors, and his harem of concubines.
One of them, being his own birth mother.
As per tradition, his father came first. The Invincible Lord stood with tyrannical triumph as he made his way to his chair. As always, his scarlet-colored robe waves in the air elegantly. It was rumored that Invincible dyed his clothing in the blood of dragon babies and humans who would rebel against his name. Undauntable, himself, didn't know how true this was but he certainly didn't want to know; It was hard enough being his son and the last thing he needed was to become the next dye set needed for his wardrobe.
Beady hazel eyes glowed with thrilled animosity as Undauntable crept up to the throne. While his father resided in The Black Iron Throne, Undauntable was given a small footstool that was horribly made. His mother gave him a sadistic smile of glee. The thought of her looking down on him was enough to quell Undauntable's hope to find strength. So much for having confidence.
“Greetings, everyone,” Invincible announced, after a moment of silence. “I thank you all for coming. We have much to discuss.”
Then came the bore of the meetings. Undauntable sighed with a slouch. This was where precious hours of his morning went as he was stuck in a room with a bunch of false people, wearing facades of greed to a king of snakes. And here he was, a lowly coyote pup, chained to the charms of his father. It took a lot to say this, but Undauntable hated his life within the castle walls.
As the meeting progressed, Undauntable couldn't help but to stare out at the window. From what Undauntable had heard, the world was as barbaric as the dragons. Human tribes littered disgustingly across Pyrrhia, all with their backward cultures and unique customs. There had been reports of a sacrificial dragon cult, who would choose young children as an attempt to satiate the hunger of the Dragon Kingdoms. Even though Undauntable hated the way he was treated here, the outside sounded like a chaotic land full of hell. Raping pagans cults, murderous barbaric tribes, and sinister dragons were out there and the only thing keeping the Prince safe was a barrier of stone and an encampment of refugees.
He hoped Wren was safe, wherever she was.
Undauntable was so consumed by his thoughts of her that he hadn't noticed his mother yanking his hair. A sudden jerk pulled his face back to his sad reality. He had expected this was the time for his annual beating, but surprisingly everyone was looking at him with curiosity.
“Undauntable,” his father stated with a mild tone of coldness. “Have you been paying attention whatsoever to the conversation at hand?”
Undauntable couldn't speak up. He lacked the tongue to speak. So he couldn't help but lower his head in shame and whimpered a no.
Invincible only grunted in response, a sign of discontent. Whether this would be a foreshadow of abuse later or not was not clear, but Undauntable could breath easy for the moment. He was not humiliated publicly again.
“We're discussing the fate of the refugees, outside our precious encampment,” Invincible stated clearly. “They've been wallowing in their own filth for too long, and with the Dragonslayer exposed as a fraud, I tend to solve this dilemma. Boar has a solution.”
Undauntable stood silent as his father's agent bowed before Invincible. Undauntable found Boar to be strange. There was something unusual about his father's new agent. The man's posture was oddly shaped and he constantly grinned in a creepy manner. He spoke awkwardly as if he wasn't used to his own skin or words. He didn't know how his father hired him as one of his goons, but he certainly didn't trust him.
“Mee-lord, I have traveled across the desert dunes of the west. It is nothing more than a wasteland, full of dangers unimaginable. Scorching sandstorms, little to no water, only the vicious sun. On top of that, sand dragons alike wage war upon each other. Human life is virtually uninhabitable.”
Undauntable was growing bored with the meeting. Everything Boar was stating was all the same as before. It didn't help that Undauntable couldn't think of Wren's words about Human Survival.
Maybe she was right. We can't do jack shit against an army of apex predators. What's a measly group of human scum gonna do to talons and teeth? We're good as dead.
“... Or so I thought.”
Instantly, Undauntable snapped out of his thoughts as Boar held a grin.
“Slaves. An army of slaves resides somewhere out in the desert sands. Marauding warriors draped in the flesh of man. Raping priest, who worship sin, at altars made entirely out of infantile intestines! An ultimatum of necropedophilic blasphemy!”
The entire room was silent. Even the most elite royals weren't vain enough to challenge or oppose Boar's words. Undauntable knew he wasn't smart by any means, but even he could comprehend the horrors Boar spoke of. Undauntable didn't know how true Boar's claims were, but there was no way he would deny them. The Three Moons be damned.
The only one who wasn't affected by his words were Invincible, which didn't surprise Undauntable. In fact, he expected his father's reaction. His father was known to be incredibly emotionless at times.
“M’lord,” Boar continued. “I believe it would be wise to avoid this newly found society at any cost. But at the same time, be prepared. They're growing at a rapid pace. It won't be long before they set their sights on nearby kingdoms.”
“Duly Noted, Boar,” The Invincible Lord stated with a cold demeanor. This made Undauntable feel uneasy. Judging by his father's emotionless stare, the prince could tell the gears were shifting in his mind and his face began to curve into a sadistic smile.
“Allow the refugees in, Undauntable.”
Undauntable had to take a second to process what he had heard. “What?”, he asked.
There came a slap. His mother, Hyena, left a red gash on his cheek. Apparently, his mother was her claws. He recalled them being in his father's room, next to the bed. Whatever they were used for, Undauntable had no clue until. Perhaps they were a new torture tool.
“You heard me,” Invincible stated, annoyed. “We're going to let the refugees in. In return, they become our slaves.”
Everyone gasped at the sudden revelation. In response, Invincible began to explain.
“Why should I waste any precious men and material I have left when we have an entire resource of force waiting at my doorstep. They're parasites, the whole lot of them. Festering upon us, beginning for Asylum. Cockroaches are what I can best describe them. Former Indigenous freaks, they ruin the image of our city. A place of society and civilization. If we are to face the outside world, then we must have a collateral. We'll use them as slaves. We can sell them to the Western Barbarians or use them as our own personal army. I rather not risk our clean reputation.”
Everyone applaud in fanfare, in agreement to his father's words. Undauntable, on the other hand, despised them. Not for the idea of slavery, but for the mask they wore and the false smile they wore. Fake people in a fake world of vice and sin.
His father turned to him. “Undauntable, since you're so keen on spending time with the animals, you get the honor of sheparding them. Start with the children. I imagine they'll be the most valuable, due to their moldable minds. Do this and I will reward you. If not… I will punish you accordingly.”
Although there were no words spoken, Undauntable knew what he was thinking. With the topic of the room hung in the air and the royals boasting about owning slaves of their own, Undauntable was just as well a slave of his own, his master being his sadistic father.
With the meeting over, Undauntable left the room. A series of emotions were being played in his head. The one strongest being present was his fear. He couldn't help but stood at his favorite window, the one where he would await for Wren's arrival.
While he stood above the horde of dirty refugees in his clean manor, Undauntable couldn't help but take pity. He didn't know what to think of the refugees at first. Sure they were dirty and odd, coming from a multitude of different cultures and tribes, but Undauntable liked the stories they told and the things they were trading. At least they gave him attention, rather than his own dad. He had thought of them as mundane, always corraling the walls of the city. But now, he didn't what to think of them anymore.
Ever since Wren's departure, he recognized his feelings, his heart. But he knew better. He grew accustomed to the nasty remarks of his parents and the beatings they enjoyed. To them, cruelty and violence was a form of power and he was the weakest thing ever seen in their eyes. No wonder why Undauntable was chosen to Shepard these refugees.
A uncertainty lingered in Undauntable. How would He do this? Would be able to betray these people? These were human beings, all with lives of their own and families to take care of. And he would have to break them apart, cattle them. It was their lives or his own.
Another thing Undauntable realized is that if his father wanted to protect his society from the western slavers, sooner or later Invincible would set his sights beyond the refugees camps. They were tribal villages out there in the wilds. Two of them were mentioned In his mind and that was the Dragon Cults Sprinked around the mountains and the Underground Towns that the fabled “Dragonslayer” lived. The legend was lured as false, but where he lived wasn't.
And Wren was out there, doing whatever dragonspeakers do.
Anxiety pricked at his mind. Undauntable couldn't help but grip the curtains. His breathing was becoming more heavy per breath and his head was beginning to ache. His morning concussion was coming back to bite.
It was here he noticed his amulet. It was one that almost resembled a tribal necklace at first glance and he couldn't blame. Undauntable learned how to make it from watching an elderly tribal grandma from afar. Undauntable procured the material, but what stood out was the scales that hunged around it. These were the scales that Wren had traded, and he loved them. They were a beautiful color and matched his clothing nicely. It was a pale orange that reminded him of early mornings and late nights. A beautiful sun, dying away in light.
With them came the reminder of Wren and his vow. He would protect her in the best way he could. His silent promise, fueled by his connection to her. She may not have been able to hear it, and maybe she hated him now, but he swore he would protect her. He may be weak and pitiful, but this was his first promise. He wouldn't break it. He will not.
He clenched his necklace and closed his eyes. No matter what happened next, he had a promise to keep.

Alisandra:
Catz and Tenty walked in to see the crew pushing more generators and battery rocks onto the ship, her petite form looking lovely in a frilly pink dress. Flicking her tail with curiosity, Tenty waved me over. Succumbing to her request, her eager eyes glittered with excitement. Pressing her gloved hands together, the new leather button up dress looked fantastic. The bonus thing was that leather was easier to clean.
“When you go to that planet, could you get your hands on this tea called thistleburg? It has the sweetest taste of strawberries and cream.” She pleaded an even bigger smile than the one she bore a few seconds ago. She did watch my kids while I was gone, the tea wouldn’t be an issue. Placing my hand on her shoulder, admiration brightened her smile.
“Sure thing. I look forward to trying it.” I returned simply, Scampy leaping into my arms. “Be a good boy. I promise to pick up when you call.” Tears glistened in his eyes, my real smile doing little to relieve his fraying nerves. Setting him down, Tenty offered him her hand. Accepting it with a weary smile, Jack came out of the kitchen with Basy. My pets slithered up to my side, my palms rubbing behind their heads. Passing her over to Tenty, they exchanged words for a couple of minutes. Running the plan through my head, something had to come to fruition. Kissing the tops of Scampy and Basy’s heads, Mortos came in in his space suit. Dusting off my own, Jack had my usual mechanic’s suit on his arm. Climbing onto the ship with me, Icy came on with Jack. Whiskers and his brother found their way into their seats, Whiskers’ eyes watching me hook up my harness. Zoning out while everyone got settled, it dawned on me that I was the one lady on the trip. Fussing with my golden chains, Jack played with the tip of my ears as he took the captain’s chair. Scarlet flushed my cheeks, his crooked grin caused my heart to skip a beat.
“Stuck in your head again? This mission should be fairly simple.” He assured me with a crooked grin, flipping the switches. “Then again, trouble seems to find you.” The door opened, my snakes hissing the moment I strapped them to my chair. Shooting them a stern look, their tongues flickered against my cheeks. Ignoring the odd looks, anxiety built in their eyes as the ship backed out onto the street. Straightening out, the ship shot into the inky sea of diamonds. Stabilizing the gravity of the ship, a sigh of relief cascaded from my lips. Plucking the files from the side pocket of my chair, the information not adding up. Another problem lurked underneath the surface, a monster had been plaguing the refugee camp. Why not, right? Missions could never be simple and everything had to go wrong if it was going to.
“What is this monster plaguing them?” I inquired with a pensive expression, Jack asking for the details. “Webbed feet and leaves a trail of blue slime on the trees.” Seeing my snakes recoil at those words, Jack groaned gruffly with an impressive eye roll. What fresh hell were we flying into?
“Sounds like a galgatoad.” He grumbled under his breath, his eyes flitting between my snakes and me. “They eat Ratalia and Ratonia for a snack. Not to mention that damn slime is rather venomous to certain aliens. That probably should be dealt with.” Mulling over what he said, the wheels of my mind began to churn. If it was poisonous to them, then it would be poisonous to me. Continuing down that line of thought, Solomon would die if he came in contact with it. Please don't hate me for my next suggestion.
“Correct me if I am wrong but we could boil that slime down to create a proper venom to kill Solomon, right?” I suggested calmly, shock rounding my comrade’s eyes. “Hear me out! If that venom can kill me, it can kill him. He is the purebred version of me.” Jack grinned slyly in my direction, his mind picking up what I was putting down. No wonder we were perfect for each other.
“That might actually work. One thing we could do is make a wine laced with it and make an oil to coat your staff.” He suggested with an equally calm tone, the others seeing the reason behind it. “You won’t absorb it this time.” Chewing on my lip, there was no animal to tame. A lack of answer gave him a bit of relief, his hand cupped mine for a second. Other conversations broke out, neither of us speaking to each other. Letting the hours pass lazily, the worn dock was in sight. Descending into the last spot, chains curled around the holders. Undoing my harness,it was time to get changed. Excusing myself, the mechanic’s suit felt soft on my skin. Locking the door behind me, the outfit change was as swift as it came. Buttoning the last button under my chest, a dull ache had my teeth gritting. Hissing mixed with rattles on the other side of the door, big grins exposing their fangs. Snuggling into their scales, a rare moment of serenity washed over me. How lucky was I to have them, especially alive and well! Images of them taking deadly hits had tears welling up in my eyes, Jack calling for me in his usual leather jacket and khakis. A worn leather bag hung over his shoulders, new weapons sticking out of the top.
“Ready to go, my dear wife. Gosh, I adore saying that.” He chuckled sweetly, yanking me close to his hips. A throat clearing had him releasing me with scarlet cheeks, Icy and the others wearing similar outfits. I suppose the options of clothing weren't there in the first place, the outfit seemed quite comfortable. Stepping off with my boys, a sea of trees and hearty ferns greeted me. Wonder brightened my eyes at the vast amount of tree houses made of the finest wood, Shaulleaux coming out with the carts of generators and rocks. Calling over Whiskers and his brother, his sharp eyes lingered on me while pulling out complicated instructions penned by me. If anyone could figure them out, he certainly could.
“We have this. Go make that beast croak for good.” He urged with a wink, dragging my poor friends along to the first home. Taking note, Mortos and Icy were the only ones besides the two of us. Mortos had excellent marksmanship with his new rifle, Jack surpassing him by a good few points. Seconds from reaching for our staffs, Jack’s hand rose into the air. Tossing us four sticky covers, our brows cocked at the same time. Tracing the salt based metal, his attention shifted to Mortos. Throwing him an old fashioned rifle, bullets made of the same metal his other palm.
“Salt is the one weakness this damn toad has. Hit him with all you have.” He commanded with his million dollar smile, Icy's strong hand jamming on my tips before doing his. Spinning his staff over his head to test the weight, a triumphant grin curled across his lips. His scales shimmered in the lilac moonlight, his grin growing wider.
“I might simply keep these on. The added weight is brilliant.” He announced with a toss of his staff into the air, ice crawling down his arm. “Time to wake up the toad, Ali.” Sprinting into the woods, a low growl rumbled in my throat. Chasing his boots, an idea came to mind. Cutting my palm on a dull brown rock, shimmering blood pooled in my palm. Running while marking random trees, the scent would draw out our freaking toad. Checking on my scaly friends, pride glittered in their eyes. Tears wet my eyelashes at the obvious scars, guilt eating at me. Crouching down, a quiet fear lingered in my eyes the moment I placed my palm on the dirt. Watching it soak into the dirt, the ground trembled underneath my boots. Pushing off the ground, a neon green toad the size of two houses crawled from the loose dirt. Hitting a bit of slime my skin hissed in protest, a steady stream of curse words exploded from my lips. Allowing golden energy to build around my boots, dead trees cracked onto the forest floor upon my impact. Whistling sharply, Ratalia and Ratonia took my side with eager fangs dripping with their own venom. A wave of ice blocked a row of sharp teeth coming our way, bullets whistling by our head. Shrill shrieks joined hisses, steam curling off of the slimy porous skin. Watching the skin patch itself up, a groan escaped my lips. Massaging my forehead, my snakes aimed their heads in the direction of his throat. A translucent heart thumped with wild beats, my hands petting Ratalia and Ratonia. Smashing the wall of ice, ice shards sparkled in the air. Kicking up a pile of dirt, a pang of pain had me grimacing at my raw burn. Sprinting around the toad, Icy joined my side. Waiting patiently for my next order, our bond was one I cherished greatly.
“Freeze the sack holding his heart.” I whispered into his ear, skidding into the monster’s view. “Come and get me.” Dodging the flurry of venom attacks, ice devouring its body. Too frozen to move, a sly grin danced across my lips. Sprinting along the edge of the toad, my hands spun my staff over my head. A flick of my wrist had it flying deep into its heart, I raised my foot over my head. Allowing golden energy around my boot, my staff glowed brighter. Slamming my heel into the dirt, a blast of energy had ice chunks whistled by my head. Stumbling around, a cloud of dirt had us choking the moment the monster hit the forest floor. Stepping over the pooling puddle of slime, Icy freezing every ounce of it. Gagging as I plucked my staff from its decaying heart, jolts of pain shot through me upon contact with the venom. Whipping off the slime, a golden gleam cleansed it of any venom. Leaning against a tree, my left arm was covered in minor burns. Icy froze the last piece, he placed his hand on my arm. Wonder brightened my eyes at the ice cooling down the wounds, a barrage of bullets melting the toad into a fog of steam. Mouthing thank you, the relief proved to be rather welcome.
“You did great. Let’s get those checked out.” He urged with a tired smile, his words fading out as Solomon came out of the shadows. His slow clap pissed me off, nasty burn marks covered the left side of his face. The shriveled flesh had me smiling softly to myself, the smile fading to sheer panic. Of course, the ring leader of a his own sick circus had to make an appearance.
“Since you can’t stop being a damn brat, you have to play my game. All along this town are some bombs you missed.” He bragged with a Cheshire Cat grin, his fingers snapping. “I am going to leave in case you fail.” A metal ladder hit his head,his fingers curling around the rung. Pushing through the raw agony, my boots pounded into town. Solomon was an ass but one thing he did was never lie. Calling my snakes over, their sense of smell was better than most dogs. Sending them out to seek out the bombs, the others caught up to me. Spinning on my heels, this problem needed to be dealt with. Gathering my wit, the next stop had to go off without a hitch.
“We are probably minutes from getting blown to bits. Find those bombs and call for me if you don’t feel confident enough to disarm any bomb you find.” I ordered while chewing on my lip, everyone shifting around uncomfortably. “Let’s go!” My lips parted to speak, Ratalia hissing for me a couple of houses down. Branches crunched with every step towards her, an idea came to mind. Scanning the land for a crater of sorts, a barren circle caught my eyes in the far distance. Skidding to a stop, horror rounded my eyes at the complicated setup of dangerously unstable bombs. A loud fuck burst from my lips, my fingers fished around my boot for a simple screwdriver to unscrew them. Noticing Shalleaux in the distance, a wave had him sprinting over to me with a cart. Noticing the dilemma at hand, relief crashed over me at him shooting me orders. Following them to a tee, the unstable bombs rattled on the cart. Running his hand through his hair, both of us knew what to do. Building energy around my boot, Shalleaux grabbed my shoulder last minute.
“That is too much! We aren’t trying to set them off, are we?” He barked impatiently, not hiding his fear of the situation too well. Lowering the amount, a new layer of sweat dripped down our chin. Nudging it gingerly, the cart took off like a rocket. Watching it with paling faces, the metal stopped short of the crater. Cursing under my breath, something had to move it along. Scooping up a rock, my vision blurred while energy built around my fingers. Adjusting my aim, a quick flick had the rock shooting the cart into the pit. Summoning all I had left, a golden dome hummed to life over the settlement. Counting to three, orange flames decimated the dead plains around us. Every muscle in my body protested, fresh blood pouring from my nose. Listening for more ticks, one remained. Digging at the dirt underneath me, the corner of my lips twitched at another bomb. No other one remained, a steel box catching my eyes. Ripping it from the dirt, the beeping sped up with every step towards my target. Chucking it in, my palms held the door shut. Shalleaux sprinted over to me, old chains rattling in his hand. Pushing me to the forest floor, his trembling hands tied the chains around it. Lifting it out of the ground, he bounced it off of his palms until enough of the air had built in his palm. Spinning it off of his palm, the bomb exploded midair. Rolling his hand around, a blast of wind sent the flames and debris into the dark side of the planet. Not one drop of new sweat glistened on his brow, his attention falling on me. Too weak to move, his strong arm tossed me over his shoulder. Bewilderment mixed with wonder at the display of powers.
“Let’s get your dumb ass patched up. Neptune must have a cure.” He sighed with a goofy grin, his head cocking to the left with a hearty chuckle. Purified water glistened in his palm, a tip of his hand cleansing the land of any nuclear chemicals. How the hell did he manage that?
“When did you learn to do all of that?” I queried with a twinkle in my eyes, his grin widening. “Why not inform your captain about all of that?” Shrugging his shoulders, a muscular snake demon in a simple button up shirt and worn leather overalls waved with a natural smile. His violet scales shimmered in the light, his golden snake eyes shimmered with pure bliss. Assuming he was Neptune, his smile grew bigger to reveal his curved snake fangs. At least his aura was as pure as the morning suns.
“Shally, you brought me the prize snake.” He teased playfully, Ratalia and Ratonia slithering up to us with wagging rattling tails. “Your snakes came to me to inform me of your little burns. Thanks for taking out that pesky croak of a toad.” Wondering how he was so cheerful naturally, my eyes flitted around the room he guided us into. The inner markings of the trunk made a lovely study of sorts. A crackling fire called me, the river rocks casting shadows in the light of the flames. Setting me down in a plush green chair, Neptune seemed head deep into a beat up box. Plucking out a tub of neon green ooze, nausea flipped my stomach about. Melting the ice with one touch, Whiskers skidded in. Leaving a cloud of dirt, my new friend slopped some of that darn ooze onto my arm. Biting my lips until a small ribbon of blood dribbled down my chin, the raw agony had me seconds from crying out. The agony died down to a dull throb, the sight of Icy and the boys had containers full of the frozen slime. Waving as they walked by, Whiskers wagged his tail, his ears pinning back at my clear annoyance. What was my issue? All of us were in one piece which meant that the mission was a success.
“I managed to gather a six month supply of that tea. Tenty will be tickled pink.” He chatted with me brightly, the attempt not easing my mood. “A feast is being held in our honor tonight.” Pressing his palms together, the sight of being at ease had my heart fluttering. Adjusting his jacket, he didn’t need to be here. Fun needed to be had in order to keep the well-being running smoothly among a good team.
“Go on a little date with your dear Shally.” I urged with a meager wink, his features illuminating to life. “Trust me, you both need it.” Shalleaux offered his arm, Whiskers’ arms hooking onto it. Gliding out, the fire and Neptune kept me company. Taking the seat across from me, his cheerful demeanor slipped to a more stern one. Resting my hands on the laps, the scars were going to be hideous. Would they make me hideous to my husband?
“Who are you? I mean who are you really?” He asked tersely, a maid setting down a tray of tea. “People like you are like a comet that comes by once a millennia. What scares me about you is that you are a ticking time bomb emotionally.” Shrinking back into my chair, no one had read me that well since Jack. Scratching at my cheek, his sharp gaze demanded my answers. Why did his aura demand answers?
“I am the literal half-breed of you. All I want to do is to become president of the universe to bring back it a new glory where all can be free to live. As for the ticking time bomb, you aren’t wrong. Enough shit haunts the recesses of my mind to kill the weak.” I returned with a gulp, hating the harsh feelings nipping at me. “Maybe we could reach a trade deal and get your people things as impressive as the current power systems illuminating your homes.” Leaning onto his hands, curiosity brought his eyes back to life. Please say yes to increase my chances against Solomon.
“Sure. The legends have been proven valid.” He mused with a bemused grin, his hands dropping to his lap. “How many independent planets have you made your unofficial allies? Our supplies have increased greatly since you have been running around fixing the systems. One more question! How come you never prosecuted any of us on our little planets? “ Massaging my forehead, this conversation had a strange hold on me. Wondering that myself, the principality of it was what held me back. Independent planets deserved to remain free as long as they desired.
“Why prosecute what wasn’t ours to prosecute?” I commented simply, waving my hand around. “You guys never joined the union. Running around on your own makes you guys stronger than I could ever dream to be.” Parting his lips to speak several times, Jack pounded into the cozy space. Cupping my face, his lips brushed against mine feverishly. My breath hitched, the release of his spell had me realizing how tired I was. Wiping away the blood with his sleeve, Jack doubled for a minute. Snapping his fingers in front of my face, the inability to focus had alarm bells ringing away. Giving him a list of certain medicines, Neptune excused himself to gather his supplies.
“I hope this lands on good ears but you can’t keep pushing yourself, Ali.” He chastised me clumsily, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “Next time you use your magic, let’s keep it within your limits.” Neptune came out with a big grin, the medicines clanking in another worn box. Accepting them with a gracious smile, Jack mixed the right ones together with a jolly hum. Pouring the muddy liquid down my throat, voices came in and out. Swaying back and forth, exhaustion had to be a nasty side effect. Falling from my chair, Jack’s strong arms caught me. A severe paralysis had me at his mercy.
“What did you give me?” I slurred languidly, my tongue weighing about twenty pounds. Pressing his palm to my lips, his face floated in the new lights. His lips moved a mile a minute, the words not entering my ears. Blinking a couple of times, his hand cupped my cheek. Mixed emotions flashed in my eyes, an apologetic smile lingering clumsily on his lips.
“It is a heavy sedative mixed with the best pain medication around.” He explained calmly, his voice getting deeper and slower by the second. “Sleep is what you need the most. Nightmares plague you but you still need slumber at the end of the day.” Nodding once, a rough darkness stole me away.