ODDILY (28 page)

“
Hurry, we need to cross over to the other side!” Kip jumped out onto the closest rock and steadied himself.

“
I can’t!” Starla’s chest heaved from lack of air.

“
You have to! We need to get the hell out of here!”

“
Don’t remind me!” she shrieked.

“
Come on, babe…jump!” Kip turned to leap over onto the next rock.

“
No, wait!—I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Starla jumped out onto the first stone, trying to be careful with her footing. She had grabbed onto Kip’s arm for extra support, and then followed him by hopping over to the next one. She wasn’t prepared for slippery rocks and stumbled.

“
Damn you, Kip—I almost fell in,” she complained with her, ‘I Hate You’ voice. “I can’t do this.”

“
Will you stop acting like a spoiled Princess for even one minute?!”

“
But I am a Princess, you stupid shit!”

Kip began to mimic Starla’s high, whiny voice. “Kip, I want this! Kip, I want that! It’s always about what I can do for you, and you’re driving me nuts!”

“
How dare you!” Starla started to fire off her own round of verbal abuse.

Kip and Starla became so caught up with one another’s back and forth squabbling; neither noticed the humanoid while it approached. When they did get a glimpse at what was following them, they were scarcely prepared for the astonishing sight. The thing stood near the embankment at a fair distance from the waters edge.

“
Oh my God,” Starla cried out with renewed panic.

“
What the hell!” Kip went slack jawed, but recovered quickly as he jumped the remaining rocks. But in his haste to get to the other side of the river, he had knocked Starla off balance. She slipped and fell into the river, her upper torso still clinging to the rock.

“
Help!” she screamed while the currant tugged at her body. She was beginning to lose her handhold while Kip just stood there and stared at their pursuer. She tried to dig her fingers into the slippery stone, but the struggle was of no use. She lost her grip and was dragged down the river.

Kip wanted to go after her, but his stunned mind wouldn’t allow him to move. All he could do was eye the robotic thing-a-ma-jig as it leaped over the river to take a stance in front of him. Kip didn’t care that he had wet his pants. He wasn’t able to think clearly enough to become embarrassed. The only thing on his mind was the smooth metal face that inched closer and closer as it inspected him. When they were nose to nose, Kip became horrorstruck by the eyes. Were they real? Then the unimaginable happened. The thing spoke, letting him know that he couldn’t escape!” Kips eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed, buckling from the knees into a boneless sprawl on the ground.

* * * * * *

Starla whirled down the watercourse for several miles all the while flailing about, trying to stay afloat. She was drowning, and thought her existence would end at any moment, but wait! She bumped against something in the water and grabbed hold, but the force of the current was too powerful. It caused the weight of her body to fight against her, and the object began to cut into her fingers. It forced her to let go. The water closed over her head as she whirled round and round in a downward spiral. She struggled to hold her breath while fighting for her life.

Finally, she smashed against a fallen log blocking her from going further down stream. The tree limb made her rescue possible as she pulled herself out of the river. She dragged herself onto the embankment and rolled over on her back. Barely able to breathe, the water poured out of her mouth. She sputtered and choked while taking what air she could into her lungs.

Starla felt a sharp pain in her leg and realized she had been hurt.

“
Oh, crap,” she moaned, knowing that if she ended up with a scar, she would totally die!”

“
Help me.” She made a feeble attempt to holler, but her voice sounded too weak. She cringed to think of herself all alone in the woods. What if she ended up being food for a wild beast or something? Starla glanced around in all directions, feeling small and insignificant compared to the backdrop of the ancient forest. How weird to think of the humongous gnarled trees as hundreds of years old or she at least thought they were.

This sense of unimportance sucked, so she decided to focus on being angry at Kip. After all, he had been the reason she fell into the river in the first place, so she began scheming on how to seek her revenge. The animosity beginning to rise in her while she plotted against him felt completely normal, so she relaxed a little with her hateful thoughts.

Starla didn’t know how much time she had wasted with her mental meandering; but her anger had subsided, leaving her to face the pain in her leg as well as an uneasy sense of doom. She had been glancing around, hoping for some sign of help, when all of a sudden a beam of light resembling the rays from the sun broke through the canopy of trees not too far from where she sat. Maybe a helicopter was illuminating the woods to find and rescue her. No, this wasn’t ordinary brightness. What she saw appeared to be soft and translucent. It was filled with chaotic dancing particles, meshing together to create a dense formation of matter. She blinked hard to try and clear her vision, but the molecular dance continued within this tunnel of brilliancy. Had she become delusional because of her injury?

When the light dissipated, what remained was both astonishing and horrifying. Whatever had formed in the ray of light took on the formation of two human-like bodies curled up in fetal positions. Were they alive? Her question was answered when the bodies uncoiled and got to their feet.

Starla stayed breathlessly still, not moving a muscle while she gawked at them. Their backs were to her as they came to a standing position, and then stretched their tall, statuesque physiques like someone waking up. The male had a bald head but couldn’t be old because of his lean and well toned torso. He could have easily passed as the poster boy for health and youthfulness.

Starla watched while, very slowly, the male turned his head and looked over his shoulder at her. While he stared at her, the female companion had become a blur and disappeared into the woods.

Starla blinked hard, wondering if she had imagined the companion. She couldn’t help but question if maybe she had gone crazy. No—crazy wasn’t the right answer, not with the male purposefully walking straight towards her. She stared at the way the light fabric of his long seamless robe bellowed from behind while the material clung to his front side, exposing all his maleness underneath. She tried to scoot back on her butt to get away from him as agonizing sounds of distress escaped her lips.

The stranger from the beam of light hovered over her. Majestic and godlike, his presence was formidable. He had no facial or body hair what so ever…including the absence of eyebrows. But what freaked her out the most was his skin.

She tried calming herself; but his presence seemed to stir the air around them, charging it with a sense of foreboding. It momentarily took her breath away and she couldn’t help but wonder where such a being had come from.

“
Why is your skin bluish, and how did you do that?” Starla pointed to the trees where he/they materialized.

“
To answer the first question, I’m thin skinned,” his deep, strong voice resonated like the roll of low thunder. “Concerning the other, consciousness converts back into energy, and then the physical body is needed no more. I did the reverse.”

Starla didn’t understand a word he had said, but realized that his confession meant he was totally insane.

“
You are hurt.” With one sweeping motion, he hunkered down on one knee and went to touch Starla’s leg, but she squirmed to get away.

“
Don’t. Touch. Me!” she said each word with as much authority as she could muster. She tried to draw her leg up to her chest, but her movement caused too much pain. “If you lay one hand on me, I…I will…!”

“
You will what?” the stranger’s extraordinary face filled with curiosity. “Never mind, I will help you anyway.”

Starla stared into his deep brown eyes and became transfixed while she mumbled, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Starla realized this would be a good time to avert her eyes, but she couldn’t get over how gorgeous this human was. Even without eyebrows, his large eyes mesmerized her, not to mention his chiseled face and full lips. His features were oddly familiar, but she wasn’t able to make a connection.

The stranger unexpectedly laughed out loud, and Starla wondered if his sudden sense of humor had anything to do with her checking him out. Had she been too obvious? Did he know she thought he was hot? Was he comfortable with being stared at?

“
You have behaved foolishly, venturing into places you do not belong,” he said, all the while studying her eyes and hair with considerable interest. “You are not a natural blonde.”

“
At least I have hair,” she snapped back.

“
It is unfortunate we have met this way. What brings you here?”

“
We…I…someone invited me here. My friend asked if I would follow him home, but I got lost.”

“
What does this friend look like?”

“
Well, he’s tall, has light blonde hair with sky blue eyes, and he has…”

“…
Full lips,” he finished the girl’s commentary.

“
Then you know him!”

“
Yes. Your description sounds like my son, Maxim.”

“
Oh no—he can’t be,” she laughed despite the pain it caused her leg. “You have the right name, but the guy I’m referring to is a teenager like us.”

“
He is my son,” the stranger repeated with a knowing nod of his head.

“
Oh my God, you truly are crazy!” her beautiful eyes bulged in their sockets. “You’re going to hurt me, aren’t you!? No, don’t tell me—I don’t want to know.”

“
Stop and desist from your incessant chattering!” he spoke with a power previously unknown to her. “You fear harm will come to you, and yet you find me…hot.”

“
Oh my God—you are so full of yourself!”

“
Your nonsensical jabbering is bothersome; however, you are safe with me,” he assured her. Then he took her by the chin and encouraged her to gaze, once again into his eyes.

Starla defiantly tried to stare him down, but that turned out to be a big mistake. She immediately and completely became trapped in the depths of this wondrous stranger’s large brown eyes much like an innocent fly captured in a spider’s web. Those hypnotic windows to his soul were drawing her deep into a void, until all of a sudden he broke eye contact and cocked his head like a bird to listen. Suddenly, his neck snapped in the direction of a clump of bushes.

“
Sshh, we’re not alone!” he warned as he released her chin and stretched his torso to its towering height. He took a position between her and the area of the woods that drew his attention, and acted as though he were protecting a prized possession. Or was his stance a guarded pose over his prey? Starla shuddered at the last thought.

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Linda Pohring

lives in Southern California with her hubby, and two cats,

Princess Popeye and Pee Wee.

She is currently working on her next book of the Oddily Series