Razing Pel (4 page)

The Guardian walked past Kaj and
over to a tree branch that was hanging down.  Kaj turned
around and watched as he picked three leaves off of the branch.
 He turned and handed them over to Kaj.

"Here," the Guardian said.
 He gently slid the leaves from his palm to Kaj's.  "The
reason why the Oce haven't attacked this forest is because of the
pure energy that lives in the plant life.  This is why all
wildlife in the forest is still here, including me.  I know
that you are heading to United City to get off this planet.
 If you could somehow find someone to extract the energy from
the leaves, the littlest bit could purify the Oce."

Kaj had never been so excited
before.  He could turn this war against the Oce around.
 The leaves he held in his hand could make him become a hero.
 The life that he had always wanted could finally become a
reality.

"You don't have much time," the
Guardian blurted out, snapping Kaj out of a daydream.  "You
only have a few more hours until the ship leaves."  He walked
over to the lake and looked in.  "The way the water ripples
tells me how close are moon gets.  The more powerful the
ripples, the closer to dusk we get."  The Guardian examined
the water, trying hard to find the ripples.

Kaj dropped his backpack on the
floor and reached into his still unzipped backpack.  He pulled
out a small purple clamshell container that seemed to have survived
in his backpack after everything was dumped out.  Flipping it
open, he gently placed the leaves in before sealing it tightly.
 He placed it back in his backpack and zipped it up
firmly.

As he stood up, he looked around,
watching the strange creatures fly around.  He saw what
appeared to be insects, but instead of them being their almost
microscopic size, they were about the same size as Kaj
was.

Kaj went over to the Guardian as
he was concentrating on the ripples in the water.  He was very
thirsty.  "Do you mind if I have some ..."

"Shhh.  I suggest you go
now," the Guardian said.  "You can take my pet here.  He
will bring you to the other side of the forest but will go no
further."

Kaj walked over to the cat-like
creature, who was still lying down.  The Guardian snapped his
fingers and the creature instantly rose.  Kaj climbed around
on it, holding on to the back of the creature's neck.  As soon
as he was secured on, the creature ran off towards the other end of
the forest.  It took a matter of minutes for the creature to
get Kaj across the forest.  The creature jumped through a bush
and landed back on the familiar sandy terrain.  He laid down
to signal that he would take him no further.  Kaj hopped off
the creature, burying his feet in the sand when he got
off.

"Thank you," Kaj said.  The
creature rose and Kaj gave it a gentle pat on the head.  It
let out a roar like it did before then traveled back into the
forest.

Kaj turned to face the desert
wasteland again.  He had nowhere to go but forward.

An hour or so passed and Kaj was
getting dehydrated.  He started slumping around in the sand.
 A few times he went to check his backpack, only to realize
that all his stuff was dumped before.

In the distance, Kaj could see
what appeared to be a lake.  The glistening water from the
lake made Kaj lick his lips.  
Finally, some water to drink
, he
thought.  He sluggishly made his way over to the supposed lake
that he saw.  Kaj took a swipe at the water.  His hand
remained dry.

"Huh," Kaj said.  He tried it
again.  Still, the water hadn't attached itself to Kaj's hand.
 He was baffled as to why this outcome kept occurring.
 The water moved when his hand was in the lake, but somehow,
no water appeared on his hand.

Kaj slipped off both of his clunky
sandals before lying down on the sand.  He slowly moved
forward until both his feet were in the water.  As weird as it
was, Kaj didn't feel the water hit his feet.  No cool
sensation.  Even when he moved his feet around in the water,
it felt as though he was just kicking his legs around in the
air.

As Kaj started sliding back,
pulling his feet out of the water, he felt something wrap around
his right foot.  Kaj halted for a second before tugging his
right leg to move up.  It wouldn't budge.  He grabbed his
right leg with both hands before giving it another forceful tug.
 Nothing.

Whatever was wrapped around Kaj's
foot decided to return a forceful tug, pulling Kaj slowly back
towards the lake.

Kaj flipped around on his stomach
as he was being pulled, trying to find something to grab on to.
 He looked back, and to his amazement and shock, the lake was
gone and a long grey tentacle was wrapped around his foot, pulling
him.

Out from the sand, seven more
tentacles sprouted out in a large circular formation.  Kaj
knew he was in trouble now.

"Ahh!" Kaj yelled as he was being
pulled towards his doom.  Inside the ring of tentacles was a
large oval that was the same color as the tentacles.  The oval
opened up in three separate parts, revealing a sea of jagged
teeth.

Kaj looked forward, scratching at
the sand.  The oval mouth of the mysterious creature leaned up
towards the tentacle that held its grip on Kaj.  Looking down
at the spinning teeth, Kaj felt his heart drop.  He was mere
feet away before the tentacle would twirl him around and into the
creature's mouth.

An idea suddenly popped into Kaj's
head.  He had to make it quick.  He knew that he didn't
have much time left.  Kaj reached for his blade, pulling off
the cover, launching it far from where he was.  He twirled
around, and with one swift motion, sliced the tentacle off his
foot.  The tentacle spurted out weird colored liquids before
it retracted back towards the creature's mouth as it let out a
whine.

Kaj tripped as he got up, but
managed to escape.  He went over to where he had tossed the
cover for his blade and slipped it back on before putting it back
in the case on his back.  Kaj looked back to see the
mysterious creature dig back down into the sand. He stood there for
another few seconds, taking in what had just happened to
him.

Kaj then continued his journey
forward.

A loud crackling sound from above
got Kaj's attention.  He noticed the moon was out.  Kaj
squinted as he thought he saw cracks appearing on the surface.
 His eyes widened when he saw about three weird creatures
hopping around on the moon.  Kaj heard a few more loud
crackling sounds.  Before he knew it, the moon split apart.
 The creatures hopped off of the surface and landed back down
somewhere on the planet.

"The moon has fallen," Kaj
whispered to himself.  "Ahh."  He dropped face first in
the sand.  "The Oce have taken the moon."  Kaj rolled
over on to his back, facing the dusty sky.  "I was so close."
 He licked his dry lips.  As hard as he tried to keep his
eyes open, Kaj suddenly blanked out.

CHAPTER SIX

THE SECOND HELP

Kaj awoke in a strange cave on a
bed.  He was in a poorly lit room with just a candle burning
on the small stand next to the bed.  Kaj leaned forward and
noticed that his empty backpack and his sac, which contained his
dagger, were on the floor near his feet.  He reached down and
put both of them on before heading out the same doorway to another
room.

"Where am I?" Kaj questioned as he
walked into a larger cave room.  There was a long desk with a
mess of papers over by the corner of the room.  Another bed
was opposite of that.  The room was brighter than the room he
was just in.  Kaj looked to the right of him to see a cloth
covering another doorway.  He walked over to the desk of
papers and started looking around.  He picked up one of the
papers.  "Nosidda?"

"Hey!" A voice yelled out.
 Kaj jumped, dropping the paper, and looked over to see an
older human enter from the doorway that was covered, which led to
outside.  The man had a long gray beard and was absent from
hair on top of his head.  He wore a dirty white t-shirt with a
gray vest over it.  The man was also extremely skinny.
 His hands and face had dirt on them.  What really
shocked Kaj was that his legs were not organic but mechanical.
 His legs were rusted and squeaked when he made his way over
to Kaj.  The knees bent backwards with big circular platforms
instead of feet.  "These are my private research
papers."

"Sorry," Kaj said, backing away
from the man as he shuffled around the papers.  "Uh, not to be
rude but, where exactly am I and who are you?"

The man turned and saluted to Kaj.
 "My name is Phos," the man said.  "Former Captain of the
Galactic Soldiers."  He brought his arm down.  "I found
you out in the desert, collapsed.  When I brought you here I
thought you wouldn't make it."

"Uh, thanks," Kaj said.

"No thanks needed," Phos said as
he went back to shuffling around the papers.  "Ah, here it
is!"  He turned and faced Kaj again.  "Come with me.
 I want to ask you a few questions."  The man led Kaj
back into the room he just came from.  "Take a seat on the
bed."  Kaj sat back down on the bed as Phos pulled over a
chair.  "So, you know my name.  What's yours?"

"My name is Kaj, sir," Kaj said.
 Phos placed the piece of paper on a wooden board and started
to write down what Kaj said.

"Ok, where did you come
from?"

"I came from a small village that
was located underground.  You know, to hide from the Oce."
 Again Phos frantically wrote that down.

"And you are a Daj,
right?"

"Yeah."

"Fascinating!  You see, with
the studies I have made while being out here, I can conclude that
your species is a sub-species of human.  While being out here,
I have found several dead Daj out in the wasteland.  I took in
their bodies and began to study them.  Everything about them
is similar to that of a human.  I'm not going to lie, I have
dissected a few.  And from learning about the human body when
I was in school, they are very similar in the way their bodies
operate to that of a human.  Of course, there are some
differences.  The height of your species, not to mention the
bigger hands and longer fingers.  But other than that, I can
say that our two species are somewhat related."

Kaj was somewhat intrigued about
what Phos was saying.  He was also fascinated to see what an
actual human looked like as the Galactic Soldiers were covered in
armor from head to toe.

"Just one more question," Phos
said.  "Where are you headed?"

Kaj hesitated for a second, but
then thought that the human might actual help him reach United
City.  "Well, a few hours ago my uncle and I were listening to
the radio.  One similar to that one over there.  We heard
the Galactic President announce the withdrawal of all Galactic
Soldiers from this planet.  And every time he makes a decision
like that, the very same planet is eventually destroyed by the
Oce."

"The Galactic President said
this!" Phos said, now in a serious tone.  "My radio has been
broken for some time now.  Ever since then, I was cut from the
outside world.  I'm sorry little one, go on."

"The announcer on the radio said
that all Galactic Soldiers need to head to United City.  I was
shocked by the news.  My uncle told me to go pack my things
and head down to the Galactic Soldiers' base in my village and beg
them to take me … which they did.  They chose a small group of
us to take with them so that my species wouldn't be wiped out.
 On our way there, my shuttle was attacked by the Oce.
 Everyone on board was killed, except for me of course.
 After leaving the crash site, I was chased by some wild
animal into a forest."

"The Ancient Forest," Phos
whispered under his breath.  Kaj heard him but didn't bother
to ask how he was aware of the location.

"After that I met ... uhh."
 Kaj decided not to tell the human who he met and what was
given to him in the forest.  He decided it was best to keep it
a secret.

"Who'd you meet?" Phos asked.
 He sat there, pen in hand, ready to write down the next few
words that would escape Kaj's mouth.  His hand
trembled.

"Uhh ... it was nothing," Kaj
said, scratching the top of his head.

"What was it!" Phos said, his
voice beginning to get annoyed and furious.

"It was nothing.  Just a
hallucination.  I was dehydrated.  It was nothing," Kaj
struggled to say.

"And then that's where I found
you," Phos said, writing down something on the piece of paper
again.  "Well, that seems to wrap up your story."  Phos
got up and stretched his arms.  "We should be heading out
soon."