The Gift of Volkeye (24 page)

“All right then, Mawg?” he asked, sympathizing with his friend.

“Fine,” Maugrimm, replied solemnly, looking to Lyn Sha. “Me didn’t forget, Lynnie.” He pulled off his brown canvas pack.

The bag was unusually square, and stretched to its capacity, containing something heavy and wide. “Happy belated birthday, Lyn,” he said, revealing its contents.

Lyn Sha gasped as Maugrimm handed her a leather-bound omnibus version of her favourite series of Wrinklegus PoisonTongue stories.

“‘The Legend of Orchis and the Five Sisters’!”
she read aloud, admiring the gold plated lettering of the title. “Thank you!”

With some effort, Lyn put the massive book aside and hugged Maugrimm. He grinned.

“Me thought it better to give it to ya’ this morning, b’cuz ya wudda’ been up reading all night if me let ya’ have it yesterday.”

Everyone who hadn’t already wished Lyn a happy birthday, did so, smiling with guilt. Sing glared enviously at Lyn’s book.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you read it when I’m done, Sing,” Lyn said, opening the book with delight.

Zynathian turned around, looking at Teshunua. “So kiddo, you explore a bit more often than I do...where are we headed?” he asked.

Teshunua thought hard for a moment. “I take it you want somewhere desolate?”

Zynathian nodded.

“Go north a bit, then head far west. There’s a vast open area with a lake, huge rocks, and little islands as far as the eye can see.”

Zynathian set the vessel in motion, and yelled over his shoulder. “Go in back and unpack your hover, Teshunua. We’re going to leave it with Belch since he has no mode of transportation at the moment.

“Aw, man, I like my hover!” He pouted.

A high pitched voice mocked him.
“Ooooh no, I’m going to miss my hovercar, even though I’m so spoiled I’m sure that Uncle Zynnie is going to have a new one for me in the next two days at most!”

Teshunua turned to Maugrimm’s cart of floating luggage, snatching away the blanket that was covering the plants. “Watch it, punk!” Teshunua said, scolding Khyetarah.

“You think I’ve spoiled him a bit, Khyetarah?” Zynathian yelled back.

“Definitely!”

“Ah, shut up you two,” Teshunua blushed, heading to the rear of the ship to unpack the vehicle. Bahzee unclipped her safety straps, grasped his hand and followed.

“Uh…yeah, I missed you too!” Khyetarah Vyx Mune frowned, being insulted that he didn’t even get a hug after not having seen his friend for six months.

“I’ll give you some attention later, you big wuss! Man, you’re worse than Jix.”

Jix flew to Teshunua and swatted him in the head with a forepaw, telling him he wanted to be left out of the conversation. Everyone burst into laughter.

The laughter led to yawns, and those later led to snores. Soon all except for Zynathian, Tesh, and Bahzee were fast asleep. They were tired, having gotten a very early start.

After unpacking the hover, the young lovers had taken a hidden seat at the rear. Exhausted from the happy end of the previous day, they had been far too worn out for their own desire to take precedence over rest. So now they took up where they left off.

Extremely young, but mature by circumstance, the two felt no shame in their acts. They now lay in an innocent but slightly sexual cuddle. Just as the evening before, their eyes met, and each one’s nose tickled the others. This time there were no intrusive eyes to barricade their emotions, handcuffing the moment they had waited over two years to experience. Each of their hearts leapt out into a foreign land, explored by many before them. For the next two hours their lips were locked in a tight embrace, only loosening occasionally to tell one another three words.

4

Zynathian spotted a small river and followed it, assuming that it would lead to a larger body of water. Noticing that Tesh and Baz had gone missing, he flew slowly to give them as much time alone as he could.

The trees swayed as he passed over, dancing with several flocks of birds taking flight as he disturbed their repose. At last, Zynathian came to the lake Teshunua mentioned.

Before him was a vast open area of rock with a lake at its center. There were gigantic boulders scattered sporadically about and also miniature islands jutting from the depths of the lake. About one hundred feet of rock surrounded all sides of the lake before long unkempt blades of grass sprouted abruptly from the earth, stretching for what seemed to be an eternity.

Curious, as he had never ventured to these parts, Zynathian turned on his Arhyz detector. A green light started flashing rapidly on the control board.

Ah hah!
he thought, hovering his shuttle over the coordinates of the buried treasure. It was a large amount, comprised of one big stone and would probably fill at least ten rock bins on the ship.

He hit the switch, and a blue laser shot into the ground, followed by an explosion. The bottom hatch opened, and the Arhyz shot from the earth. Lasers diced the rock before entering the bins. The combination of noise and turbulence the ship was experiencing made such a racket that everyone was startled out of their sleep.

“Whoa, did we hit something?” Belch asked.

“What the bloody hell’s goin’ on, mate?” Maugrimm yelled up front to Zynathian.

Lyn Sha and Sing held fast to one another. The plants were also awake and raising hell.

What’s happening?
Bahzee thought, clinging to Teshunua, as she watched her mother run to the front of the ship.

Asha found Zynathian in the pilot’s seat laughing hysterically. “Sorry, I didn’t wake anyone, did I?” He smirked, realizing they must have assumed the worst. Infuriated, Asha gave him a hard right in his shoulder.

“Owww, woman, that hurt!”

“You bastard!” she said, scolding him, relieved they weren’t all about to die. Zynathian was still rubbing his shoulder, frowning at her. She kissed him apologetically. “Old man, what the hell are you doing?”

He grabbed Asha’s hand leading her to the rear.

“Come, I’ll show you,” he said. “Sorry to disturb
everyone,” Zynathian apologized, looking mostly at Bahzee and Teshunua. “You all have never seen my machine work...allow me.”

They followed him and were surprised that the, once empty shatterproof glass bins on the right side were now filled to the brim with Arhyz rocks, save for the ten opposite them and the last on this side, which had about a foot of empty space. The multicoloured blocks and pebbles glistened.

“Oh my goodness, so this is how you get it,” Asha said.

The others shook their heads, thinking of all the people who died everyday from years of inhaling the toxins of the Arhyz mines. Here Zynathian was, yanking it out of the ground with no effort whatsoever!

“Dad…” Khyeryn began.

“…what are we going to do with it? We don’t need any more money,” Lyn Sha finished.

“Exactly. I’ve got something planned that we can discuss later,” Zynathian said, thinking on a scheme that he had been contemplating for some time. “However, there are other things to attend to at the moment.”

He went back to the pilot’s seat and landed the ship about ten feet from the hole he made. Then they exited the ship. Each of them immediately stripped off many layers, as it was much warmer here—a nice day of fifty degrees.

Zynathian held a pack of several pairs of binoculars with a design similar to the one he used for Teshunua’s camera. He observed the sun peeking shyly around its obstacles, hiding then reappearing as the clouds moved rapidly westward in the sky. The family walked about, examining the beauty of the area.

Zynathian caught Lyn Sha standing over the vertical cave that the laser had created.

“Lynnie, you get away from there, now,” he bellowed. “It’s about one hundred feet deep, and you’ll get a good many cuts and bruises if you fall!”

“Get cuts and bruises? I think it more than likely that she could get
dead!
” a terrified Asha said as Lyn ran to them, away from danger.

Zynathian rolled his eyes at Asha. “Woman, have you no faith in me? No, she would not die. By now, she would instinctively know how to land.”

Lyn caught the tail end of the conversation and wondered if they were talking about her.

What?
Asha’s eyes said, clueless as to what he was talking about. They met the others near an enormous boulder that stood many times Maugrimm’s size.

“Okay, everyone, it’s time,” Zynathian said. “Please save your questions until the demonstration is completed. Khyeryn and Lyn Sha, come here.”

They walked over.

“Starting from here, I want you two to race one another along this stream,” Zynathian said, pointing to the little miniature river connected to the lake.

“For how long?” Lyn Sha asked.

“As far as you must. However, one of you will know when to stop and just watch.”

Zynathian handed everyone a pair of binoculars. Lyn and Khye smiled and got ready. Both of their stomachs were queasy, knowing the one of them was about to do something incredible. The others paced and bounced in place, anticipating an event at least as mind boggling as Bahzee.

“On your mark…get set…go!”

“Whoa, shit!” Khyeryn said, stopping after about ten paces, observing the blur of colour that sped through the grass, leaving a trail of dirt and trampled grass behind her. That was all he could make out. The others were cheering.

“Oh, my goodness!”

“Look at ‘er go!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

Khyeryn ran to his father and dug out the last pair of binoculars from his pack. Even as meticulously designed as they were, the binoculars gave up trying to focus, as they couldn’t keep up with Lyn Sha’s speed. All they could make out was her black coat and red ribbon tied to her ponytail. Her legs, however, were merely a blur of colour splashed across a landscaped canvas.

Meanwhile, Lyn glanced down at her legs, determining whether or not she was actually flying! Moving so fast that she couldn’t even feel her feet touch the ground, she was surprised at how rapidly her environment changed with each passing moment. Now the stream had become a river with a much faster current and was at least thirty feet wide. She took the diagonal jump across, somehow knowing that she was capable. It was an effortless gesture, and Lyn Sha’s ability mocked Mother Nature’s grasp as she defied gravity once again by plunging a bit less than seventy feet ahead, to the other side of the waterfall where the river dropped off. She landed, slowing to a jog and then stopped.

Warm and sweaty, Lyn walked a few feet from the edge of the waterfall, feeling the mist of the raging water land upon her face. Her chest heaved, gasping for a breath of understanding, as she couldn’t believe what she’d done.

I can fly!
she thought.

Blocking the sun out with her hand, she looked into the distance for the family and became frightened when she could see none. Knowing that she couldn’t have been running for more than thirty seconds, Lyn was baffled that she’d gotten so far away that the others didn’t even appear as little black dots in the distance.

(They’d lost sight of her as well, even with the binoculars. Zynathian cursed at himself for not defining a certain distance for Lyn Sha. He only hoped that she hadn’t attempted the waterfall he spotted earlier, over a dozen miles away!)

Looking down at the drop beneath her, Lyn was nervous about trying to go back over the waterfall, wondering if she’d only been able to do it because of the amount of speed she’d built up. Thinking of a way to test her limits, she concentrated and crouched down. Then with every ounce of strength she had, Lyn Sha gave a vertical leap, clearing a massive distance. However, until she was in the air, she hadn’t thought of how well she could land from a height of well over a hundred feet! Lyn Sha howled in terror until she touched down, unharmed.

Gazing through the cloud of dust she conjured upon landing, Lyn stood dumbfounded at her new talent. She knew that what she had just accomplished was a much greater effort than the waterfall, and therefore regained her confidence. Taking a few paces back, Lyn leapt from one side of the waterfall to the other, retracing her every step. Moments later, Zynathian and the others saw Lyn Sha’s blur of colour reappear in the eyes of the binoculars. She was winded upon arrival, but squealing excitedly.

“Oh, my god, Daddy, I’m so fast! …And I can jump off the planet if I want to! Watch!” She leapt to one of the miniature islands in the middle of the lake.

“Oh…my…god!”
Asha said, placing her hand over her mouth in disbelief.

“What next, Zynathian?” Belch asked.

The others stood off to the side with their eyes wide. Zynathian swelled with pride, seeing everyone marvel at his work. He noted that Lyn Sha, too, was quite happy with her talent. Twenty yards away, on the tiny rock surface, whose top ever so slightly peaked above the water, she danced in circles and stuck out her tongue at the rest of them.

Hah, I can do something you all can’t!
her childish actions said.

Zynathian rolled his eyes, grinning. “Come back over here, you silly goose!” He hastily moved out of the way as Lyn cleared the distance in a single bound.