Prologue

Armhianthia

Prologue

The late evening sun, sat low in the sky, casting long shadows through an open window against the ever white walls. The white of the walls broken by the brown colour of the furniture only. Closets made of finely crafted wood. Most of it chosen in almost the same colour. The shadows flew through the room, to the other wall, putting the entrance door in spotlights. As if anytime, the main character of the play could appear through that same door. As if hypnotised by the view, Luse was absentmindedly watching the door. His head was occupied by studying and thoughts that had nothing to do with neither sun nor door.
He had spent his whole day inside this same room. And he had only been out for breakfast. He had skipped lunch and his stomach tried to remind him of its lack of attention by its owner, but even a stomach couldn’t break the thoughts inside Luses head.
In front of Luse was a desk, with only one book there. It was open and several pages had been read, but since his mind got wandering, some pages had turned back.
Breaking his view from the door, he looked back at the book. Leafing through the pages again, to find the passage back where he had last been. Reading again, he pointed his finger on some words on the page.
At that moment the sound of a gong sounded from behind the door. Luse stood up, not even thinking at his actions. He took a piece of very small wood and put it at the books page edge, then closed the book.
He put his hands in his back and stretched his back. Cleared his head and walked for the door. He could use a break to make his head clear. And a good dinner would do that trick just fine.
He opened the door and walked into the corridor. Half way he almost ran into Arabon. The boy had his head in some parchments, trying to walk and read at the same time. With one hand on the boys shoulder, Luse could prevent from topping him over, but his hand shook the boy back into reality so much, that he lost control overhis hands and the parchments fell to the ground. The boy stood there speechless of what had happened.
Ashamed over letting the boy shock that hard, Luse bowed to take up the papers. It took Arabon some moments to realise what had happened to him. Then he finally looked down and saw Luse crawling, over the Floor, for the parchments.
“Good afternoon to you too,” Arabon said quietly. “I’ve not seen you for today.”
Luse looked up at the still confused boy. “A lot of reading for today. And I can see, that you have a lot to read too.”
Arabon nodded. He was a young boy, with his mind more caught up in thinking, then in real worlds business. Mostly his clothes were simple, and his eyes are most of the times caught in reading or thinking. He wasn’t old enough either to shave. But his mind and his clever thinking made him the youngest Eagrival in decades. It had caused many words in the circle to make him accepted as a real Eagrival. Of course he wouldn’t be able to lead powerful kings, who’s minds were solid into big problems already. But maybe in time he could learn the tricks of it, in practice.
Standing up, from gathering the parchments, Luse offered the papers to Arabon.
“King Trakand keeps me busy.” Luse raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question any further. If it was real important Arabon would have told already, all Eagrival share knowledge, so they could evaluate schedules between kingdoms.
“They rang the gong, Arabon. We rather get going to the dinning room.”, Arabon looked up to Luse, “O, yes. Good you told me.” Rolling the parchments into each other, he stoke them all in the insides of his clothing. “I never heard those things sound. I wonder why.”
Luse stuffled a chuckles behind his hand, and looked another way. Pressing himself to look serious again, he turned back to watch Arabon, who’d started to walk to the dinner already. Quickening his pace, he caught up with Arabon.
“And what have you been reading Luse?”, Arabon asked to Luse, “Still busy with that nasty book?”
Luse nodded. The book was indeed nasty. It was written several ages back, when words are used different. Making many strofes a struggle to get through. Sometimes even meaning came out different then in recent times.
“This writer really did his best to tell many things about everything. Trying not to forget one little detail. Its a struggle to get through.”
“Then why even bother reading it?” Arabon looked towards Luse, as if het ried to puzzle out Luse.
“There is some information in that book, that the writer does not write about. And I want to find out, what it is, he hadn’t written about. He’s so detailed, that I don’t think he had forgotten about it.”
Arabon raised an eyebrow. “You try to read something that is not written?”
Luse couldn’t help but chuckle at Arabons comment. Turning a corner the hallway gave way to an even larger hallway. A double door stood open. Both doors fully opened against the wall, sounds of dinner and stuffled voices extracted from the room at the other side. Arabon and Luse rounded on the doors and watched over the dinningroom. Students walking with trays to tables. Some advisors had already taken a place and had started to eat already. Arabon and Luse took place at a table where one other advisor already had seated himself. Not yet eating.
They greeted each other. Students had to get their own food at the give away point, but advisors were served. A maid appeared at their table, with 1 tray. She hadn’t seen Luse and Arabon appear, she apologised and went to get two other trays.
“Good evening, Boreo.”Luse greeted. Boreo lay down his spoon and raised a hand to answer the greet, he’d started his eating already and didn’t want to be rude with talking with full mouth.
Arabon added his greeting to Luses in silence. Arabon was not really sure how he had to set his emotions towards Boreo. This man was a puzzle to Arabon.
Boreo was advisor to a troublesome king. He had to work hard to get his ruler go in good ways. Boreo had canceled many wars already and at least 3 riots in Lagos’ capital. But Arabon couldn’t figure, why someone would want to advice for such a terrible person, risking your neck time after time. Of course Eagrival couldn’t be executed without the right trial, which was normally held at the Eagris halls. But Roghar was known for his temper and short sighted visions. He once had stabbed a steward already, because he hadn’t brought the right merchandise.
Boreo cleaned his mouth before he spoke, “Roghar had put his mind on 5 acres of land to the south.”
Luse had to think a moment on his geographic memory before he could realise that there were no other countries in the south of Lagos. “So, whats the problem then?”Luse asked. Boreo looked at Luse as if he was sure Luse had no idea what he was talking about.
“You are aware that the ealf live there, I presume. Roghar wants to push those creatures more south, putting an extra ‘no-mans-land’ between Lagos and the ealf.”
Arabon whistled softly. Luse looked up at the maid arriving with two trays of food.
“I wasn’t aware of the ealf.” Luse answered. “I had no idea that they were captured to one place.”
Boreo looked at Luse, to see if Luse was mocking him. But Luse had his eyes on the food he was eating. Arabon looked at both men for a moment, then bowed to start his dinner. He was quite hungry after all the work he had done. The rest of the dinner was done in silence, only now and then disturbed by a greeting to a passing eagrival or student.
Boreo left half of its food standing, excused himself of being tired and walked off to his quarters. Luse and Arabon finished their trays and walked off together to their rooms.
“If you need my help, Arabon,” Luse said, “Don’t hesitate to ask.”
Arabon nodded. “I will. But for now, its ok. I can handle. Tomorrow I will travel back to Nadirand.” Luse nodded, “I think I will be going too. This book speaks about some country which doesn’t exist anymore. I have to find where it once was.”
Arabon looked happy, “If you prepare yourself to go early, you can come with me to Nadirand. I think Trakand will be happy to talk to you for a moment. And I’ll be happy to have your company on the road to there.” Luse smiles gently. “See you tomorrow morning then.” He said. Arabon waves amicable to Luse, turning around the corner in the hallway, leaving Luse standing, watching the back of this young man disappear. He was a strange person. But the right man for his job. He’d chosen well. But, he had to visit Parcema first.

Not long after he left Arabon, or rather Arabon leaving him, he walked the stairs up to the chambers of Parcema. A knock on the door gave silence. But some moments later the door swung open to a filled room. Trunks and closets were covering the walls, while books and instruments of all kinds where covering floor and desks. Parcema has been head of the Eagris institute for a long while already. His eyes were getting a bit backwards, but his mind made up. And even tho his sight got worse, tho nothing serious sof ar, he was too stubborn to wear glasses. His opinion was that it was better to train his eyes, then to spoil them with helpfull tools.
He invited Luse in and pointed out a chair somewhere in a corner. Luse eyed the chair and left it at its position. It was covered with clothes and some left over papers. Luse turned to Parcema. “I won’t be long, I had some questions, that I might need some answers on.”
Parcema looked to Luse. “Very well. What did you wanted me to ask then?”
Luse watched the headmaster for a moment. In his head he went over the topics, which way to ask these questions. “I found this book in the library, written by Leana dir Ychasa, he is very sure about what he writes about, but he describes a place I am not custom with.” Luse described the place to Parcema, while the headmaster was listening close.
An hour later Luse left the quarters for his own, after telling Parcema that he was off the Eagris for sometimes. He wanted to see this place himself.
Back in his own quarters het ook his luggage and put some things in it for the road. He ran through the little things he had in his room, what might be necessary. It was near midnight, when he finally found his bed and fell on its surface, not troubling about his clothes nor blankets.

The Road is Long

The Road is long

Standing at the edge of the platform, he shook the hands of his officer. They won’t see again. His co-workers and the board people ran with him through the schedules of the panels. Parce nodded at each explanation they told him once again. He studied all those lights last night once again. And each button and switch he could tell himself. He even had made some last time check up himself, before it was dark. Had been to the mechanic once again, to make a little change for some things. Small things, so his fingers could run more smoothly over the panels, some combinations of buttons easier visible.
Underneath the platform, the sound of turbines were to be heard. After all the duties, Parce turned on his heels and walked the platform towards the large vessel. He felt the floors under his solid boots tremble, everything inside this vessel was trembling of the large engines. Those engines only were necessary for the big start. But none the less did they need large amounts of energy. And those energies were being bundled as he boarded the rocket. He took a last look outside the door, before it closes. He saw the extra rockets at the sides of the vessel. Four of them were there, filled up with fuel, only for the lift off. The vessel itself would only start after those four rockets would be dropped. If those intelligent people were right, it would be just outside the atmosphere. He went inside and gave his signal to the ground working people. They made his door close. He was cut off the outside now.
He took his cell phone off the insides of his coat. He searched for his wives number and pressed the connection button. Not long after wards came the trembling voice ofhis wife.
Her voice was broken and filled with emotion. “Hello.” They wouldn’t see each other alive again. He was in a way sentenced to death. While on the other hand, he was the first to find live outside earth.

Ten years back, they found a planet long distance away from earth, where it might be possible for humans to live. The first discovery was not even brought out as a big discovery. Only after they ran some tests and they were sure that the atmosphere was perfect for humans to breath, they made the first flight. A test flight, with a very small vessel, to determine how much time it would take for a human to get there.
Of course, the first test flight took but seven years. With nothing more in weight, then its own fuel. For humans it would take much more time, for there would be more weight and supplies and support would be there too. After approximating the real time, they came at fifteen years of travelling. Thirty years, for coming back too.
Parce started as a pilot some ten years back already. After some years of training in the army, he became a real pilot. He had flown some wars, after some five years of flight, he moved bigger and range. He became trainer and trained many a successful pilot.
Now he was in this cockpit and looked at the lights and screens. He interpreted their meanings and with his cell phone on his ears, he spoke to his wife. The last words for at least thirty years. Thought ran through his mind, would she still love him, would he still like her. How much would this travelling change him, change her? She passed the cell phone to his child, his girl. She was but 2 years old. She wouldn’t know him. She would see a strange man appear back home, someone she wouldn’t know. She would at least be 32 years old. Maybe married already.

Some lights flashed on on the screen and a piercing alarm went off with it.
He poked some buttons, his finger flashing over the screen. The alarm silenced. He ended the call for the screens demanded his attentions and as his fingers moved over the screen.

Somewhere in teh galaxy

Somewhere in the galaxy

It took him some moments to have his thoughts back on track. Still that alarm sound wouldn’t leave his head. Looking around he found the source of it and walked over to the desk. He had been sleeping, for four hours, he guessed. The lights in his life space dimmed and rose with the schedule of the sun back home. Giving him the idea that there was still night and day. Even though the screen only give darkness. He had no window, to look outside. The differences in pressure, outside and inside would blow the window right out. Still he had a screen on the hull of the vessel, which made an impression of being a window. Little pixels corresponding stars and planets, showing themselves outside shove over the screen. One of those pixels was cornered with a focus. His destiny.
In his records, it was called Gliese. The bottom of the screen was covered with vessel items. Calculated distance, approximated speed, oxygen inside the hull.
He stood up from his bed and stretched. Time to get that annoying alarm sound off and go back to sleep. Most probably the sensors caught another meteor again. They mostly did.
His legs still felt wobbly from sleep. Reaching the screen, he ran with his fingers to turn off the alarm. He ran the tests again, where the alarm was set off, what had caused it. There should be records of it. Grumbling he indeed found the meteor that caused the alarm to howl. It wasn’t even larger than his own hand. The hull outside was toughened with shields, able to withstand twice as big meteors. He closed the windows and turned to go to his bed again. He pulled the cover over his body, took a last glance at the screen. His thoughts turned to the last few years. Captive inside this cage, flying to somewhere. He felt like a prisoner sometimes. Other times he was glad that he got this opportunity.
He looked around him and saw his life space. The screen took up the most of the space. Covering the walls on one side. The floor was a hygienic white, like a hospital floor. The walls were white aswell, covered with some soft tissue, to prevent Parce from getting hurt when he accidently would have weightlessness, or other objects laying around the cockpit. He had one of his paintings from home covering the wall. In front of the large screen a chair, bolted to the floor. The whole room wasn’t larger than an average prison cell, three meters wide, five large. A small portal on the egde of the chamber just large enough for Parce to access gives way to a large stairway from top to bottom. One stage higher is a technical room, where the wires accessing the cameras that are watching out are. Under the cockpit, was a little kitchen room. With the same hygienic white floor, soft tissue walls. It was a small room, as large as his cockpit. There were some rooms like this below even, all with just the main supply for living. Not much room for practice anything, or exercise.
His eyes almost closed when sleep came over him again, when another sound woke him again.
He was out of bed, before he knew what he did. This was a message from earth. The further he was away, the longer it took to reach him. He walked to the screen again and put up his voice set. He saw the icon flash up on the lower right corner of the screen and he opened it.
A voice entered his head. “Goodday to you Parce,” a sweet female voice spoke to him. He didn’t reckognice her, probably a new employer. It has been 2 years back, since he parted earth, many of the people he knew then would have been gone already. “I hope your journey is still in progress. Could you reply to this message to let us know?”
The female voice died out.
Parce threw the voice set on the desk. What a nonsense to wake him up for this. He walked back to her bed again, when his eyes were caught by something on the screen. Most stars were yellow spots on the screen. Some spots appearing weakly from far, some gliding gently off the sides of the screen. But this one should have left some hours back already. Yet it was growing. And not yellow. But some bluish green. Suddenly wide awake now, he walked back to the screen. His fingers ran over some buttons and the screen enlarged with focus of this blue green spot. He send some orders off to scan this object.
It would take some hours before the first results would be back. He set off, down the shaft, to go to this kitchen cabin. The wall just on the otherside of the man hole, which gives space to the kitchen was a screen. His fingers flashed over it, and in front of him a small space opened. Two straws lay in there which he took and closed the space again. It was a large machine, some of which he hoped never would break. For the techniques of this device was far beyond him. Somehow it took the small amounts of dusts which seem to fly loose around in space and turned it into something edible. Of course the small amounts in space were barely enough. So a large compartment behind this machine was filled with basic supplies.
Thankful for this device, he opened the straw. He pushed the subject inside this straw in his mouth, disposed the straws into the machine. It would clean it and refill. Then he left the kitchen again and walked the stairs back up again. He fell back on his bed again and slumbered off, till his dose would start to work.
One hour later he was back up again and cleaning his bed. After doing this he turned to the screen, to investigate if there were any results back yet. Still it took five more minutes before the first result came back. The distance. He looked at the results with a bit of a surprise. The distance was approximated. It always was. But the approximation shouldn’t be as ranged as this one was. Not when this thing was as close as the distance meter told it was. Quickly Parce set out a new course. Of course this was not the goal of his mission. He was supposed to fly off to this new planet. Report the results to a manual then fly back home. Thirty years later. But Parce had a background of laying demands on the sides and dictate otherwise for himself. He quickly set a new course, a double course, to this new object.
Not much later the other results came in. This was a glowing rock, floating in the universe without guide. The first results were amazing already. The distances were right. It was moving. Not towards, but away from Parces vessel. Not fast enough not to fly in to it, but the course it had set now, would mean Parce would pass it some miles away. But now, Parce was destined to find out all he could of this flying rock.

New Meetings

New meetings

Two hours later, the rock was close enough to make out some estimated calculations on its size. After running some tests the results were astonishing. It was supposed to be the size of quarter earth size. Roaming free across the universe, a strange comet. “No, this was no comet,” Parce thought, “This is more a planet. But without live. Without a sun too.”
No meteor, no comet. No planet either, for it had no sun, but it was definitely far from being a star. Parce prepared the vessel for a landing. He was destined.
First thing he needed to do, before he could start the real landing procedure, was cleaning. The cabin was a mess with little things laying around. And as far as it was flying, it was no problem. But if the vessel would have to turn, all those things would fly anywhere. Parce started to clean. Half an hour he sat back at the chair, satisfied of his work he had done. Looking to the floor behind him, one more time, he turned and flashed his fingers over the buttons. The screen turned into a massacre of screens opening and closing. The engines inside the vessel changed tune. The monotone rumbling ended. After two years, Parce finally heard it back again. The floor rumbled and as Parce locked the seatbelt, he felt something tucking him. Trying to take him off the chair, taking the chair with him. Now the synthetic gravity of the forwards trusted vessel was lifted, things started to lose weight. Pushing his arms back to the panel, with strong effort, he made his way over the buttons to process the landing. Some hours later he was standing still. The screen went blank and he took the belts off, from the chair.
Feeling light, he walked down the cabin. Every step taking longer than normal. He descends down the shaft, to the door. The tests had shown enough air to breath normally. Good chance to refresh the oxygen supply inside the vessel and get new food.
Parce let himself into the pressure chamber, between the outside and the inside door, waited for the pressure to slowly level itself to the outside pressure then let the door open after the light gave green light. For first in two years he saw fresh air, green grass and trees. He stared over this new view for some moment with a hint of emotions. His mind tried to remember a place in his memory. A place on earth that looked like this, but there was nothing. The Horizon was never that low on earth. The trees never stood that crooked. The vegetable had nothing like grass features in them, though they were a slight colour of green, they had a brown strike in them. As Parce gently steps off the vessel, he feels the grass with his cloved hand. It felt hard. Grass back on earth would have given away, then slowly go back to position, but this grass simply refused to give away that easily. Looking further something tucked his mind. He studied the area in search for all this new phenomenon The trees were not tall, mostly never more then twice Parces size. And a bit wrecked in statue. Never standing tall and as gracious as on earth, but they were never the less trees. Wood, leaves, and nerves in the outside of the trees, where the bark of the tree burst in the trees growth. Other vegetables were about, bushes grass and other small weed. Parce took some hours to examine all. Thenwent back to his vessel to get some food and take his camera. This was really something to get back to earth. Sitting inside, he ran his experiences through his head. The strange behavior of the grass, the trees were easy to explain. The planet he was on now was smaller then earth, By means the atmosphere was smaller and the trees too. The grass had that strange brownish nerve inside, that was a strange thing. The rest of the weeds were uncommon for Parce, but he was no herbalist, he did not know all the strange weeds on earth, so he couldn’t know which weed was strange and which was not. He shook his head, this was no earth, everything here is supposed to be strange.
After the eating he went back outside with his camera. Looking again out of the doorway, he suddenly looked up at the sky. A silvery light was over the whole sky, no clouds no sun. Everything was the same grey-silver colour. And light seem to seep through it, giving off strange shadows. He hadn’t realized this before, for every planet is supposed to have a sun to turn around by. And stepping into the open, had him never realized this planet was a solemn stranger in a wide universe, moving his way in a un prearranged schedule. No sun, no star, no moons. Then, where did the light come off from?
He took his camera and shot at the sky, this was a question for the professors back home. He took a look at the screen, the picture he just had made. It was a stale grey picture. He had to make one more, with some trees on it. So it was clear, this was no ordinary failed picture. He took a shot from the trees with a large amount of sky with it. Then he moved to the grass. He took some pictures of the strange new species of grass, that he just discovered. A voice in his mind told him he was to have grass named after him: Parce grass.
With a grin he got back to work. Till he had to go to sleep. No difference in the light gave any sign of day or night rhythm. He went back to his vessel to have a night sleep. After closing the door of the vessel behind him, he waited for the pressure to get back on level again, then got through the second door, into the small shaft leading to his cabins. The lights in the screen cabin had set to night already. The screen he had set to blank, to save energy, so he had no idea what time it was. But he didn’t care. Some hours sleep would be enough. He was too enthusiastic to really sleep for long anyway. He laid himself down on the bed. Realicing he was still clothed, he took off his uniform and cloves. He inspected the cloves for damages as was his routine and his uniform for any insects or traces of damage. Besides four streaks on one of the cloves, it was all alright.
He put the uniform on the chair, in front of the screen. His muscles were well used today, and for the first time in two years, he had sweat. The faint glow of the lights reflected on his bare muscles. Too tired to care for sleeping clothing, he let himself lay back on the bed again and slept.

He woke finding the lights in the cabin changed to daylight setting. He had no idea how long they had been this way, but since they were on full light, it must have been an hour at least. He guessed that it should have been eight o clock morning, earth time. He took his uniform again and dressed for going outside.
Some little moments later he passed the kitchen cabin and after taking th caffeine straw, he went for the outside doors again. Standing in the pressure room, he waited for the green light to glow again, but when the outside door opened he was up for a surprice. The outside that he had left the night before, wasn’t as it was now. The trees were gone, the grass was still the same, but he had landed in the mid of a green spot. Still nothing was the way it was as he had left it the night before.
With a mind filled with questions, he stepped down to this new space.
Had the vessel been moved by something? Or did the trees move on their own?
He tried to study his new surroundings. Made new pictures making sure he took the pictures at almost the same place as he did the previous day. To make sure they understood at home that things had changed.
A sting in his foot made him look down. He took his leg up and saw a piece oof grass peaking inside it. In all his efforts to inspect his uniform, he had not took a glance at his boots. This tough grass had apparently worn his shoes. And now a little hole was there, to make this grass get through it. Even though it was a surprisingly small change for one straw to get through this small hole, there was a large amount of grass.
He took the grass out of his shoe and looked at it once more. Now he had it up close, he saw the details better. The nerve was not really brown, it was more a streak of red. Almost the colour of dried blood. He let the piece of grass fell to the surface, where it vanished amid the rest of the grass.
He took a second look at the little hole, then realized it was better to be precautious. He walked back to the vessel for a new pair of boots. But half way he felt another sting in his other foot this time. And there, again was a piece of grass in his shoe. Feeling a sting of warning, he walked back to the vessel, a bit quicker. Some meters away from the vessel he felt another sting, and something tucking his foot.
With a glance, he saw the grass trying to take a hold of his foot. His other foot was almost prone to the same. Pulling his leg in, with more effort he got his foot free. He walked stronger, instead of running, pulling his leg in, with every step. Reaching the steps of his vessel, he saw a bit of blood coming from his shoe. Apparently, those grasses had pierced and scratched his feet to the skin, this time.
In the pressure compartiment, he took off his shoes, to examine the damage. To his surprise his feets weren’t scratched. Some grass straws were still stuck in his feet, apparently they were sucking his blood. Horror came over him. Those nerves were blood sucking intestines. This grass was feeding on animals and life. Having enough evidence now, on his camera, he thought it time to continue his course through the universe.
And now for sure, he had enough of this planet. Stepping up to the screen cabin, he started the screen back on again and started the lift off procedure.

The Long Journey

The long journey

Finding it difficult to keep his eyes open, he took a glance outside. The coach was softly rocking side to side, with this pace of the horses Luse had enough chance to survey the horizon and all the people, towns and villages they passed. The younger Arabon was caught up in the papers from his ruler. But every now and then, he had a question for Luse, keeping the older Eagrival awake. At least he tried to be a good company, despite the amount of paper work he has to get through.
Despite the effort to keep his eyes from closing, he was smiling. Arabon had such wonderful set of brains, working in such wonderous way, that Luse wouldn’t dare to sleep off.
Still the next stop he felt Arabon tuck at his sleeve.
“Luse?” A face hovered in front of his nose, “Luse? Have you gone to sleep?”
Luse tried to make up an excuse but found nothing.
“You should have slept longer last night, and probably I should have told you yesterday that this journey would be long.”
Luse shook the sleep off his head. The fresh air outside the coach did his head some good.

It was still a long way to Nadirand but the horses were tired and had to freshen up. The inn they stopped, was large, custom to passengers and coaches. Luse and Arabon went into the inn, find the keeper for some drinks and refreshments. The inside of the inn was busy. People sitting at the wooden tables and drinking or eating while talking with neighbours. All eager for news. News travel by mouth here.
But the news was not always trustworthy either. When the people heard one thing, they told them to other, who changed a little to make the story worth listening to, after some exchanging from mouth to mouth, the story could have been over exaggerated at the end of the day. But a trainecd ear, like Eagrivals have learned to filter news to the core subject, would be able to make out the real news. Or at least the bit that are still left intact in the story. Someimes a piece of news has been altered so much after many mouths, that even trained ears can’t make out the best of it.
But Luse tried anyway.
He took a seat near one of the walls at the back of the inn, with Arabon in his behind. Arabon was as normal not aware of anything around him. And looked disturbed, when the inn keeper stood next to him, to ask for his drink. Arabon ordered a wine for Luse and himself, sweet red wine. Luse had took a seat next to a person, seemingly a farmer. He even smelled of animals and dust from the land.
After some short introduction, where Luse introduced himself as a traveler, the farmer talked about what was going on in the land. His brother was sheepfarmer and had heard that someone at the markets told him that the people of Riss were holding their trades with Aramir. The ruler at Aramir would have been rude to the sailors.
Luse smiled, it was a strange story. If someone was rude, he was told to be a ‘Riss-sailor’. Those people could sound as rude as a cursing maid, while talking everydays business. If you would offend a Riss-sailor, you would have to be very faul-mouthed. Luse paid the farmer back with a news fact that he had heard. You exchange news with news. Onlyif you are really eager for some news, or information, you could pay the informant, of course. And depending on how well you could use the news, you paid more or less. But everyday news, was just repaid with telling back news. The farmer nodded, LUses news wasn’t very breathtaking. He had seen the road, today and nothing much more. So he thought of telling the farmer the first thing that came to his mind. a news he heard four days back already.
The inn keeper came back with the drinks Arabon had ordered. Luse took his mug. At the same time, via the backdoor the coach driver entered the room and Arabon waved to the man, to show him where they were sitting. The driver nodded to see he’d seen Arabon and went to sit at the bar. Some quick drinks, they would soon be leaving again.
Luse and the farmer still talked some more and Arabon only sat there, observing the inn and drinking his wine.
Not long after the driver waved at the two Eagrivals. Luse said his goodbyes to the farmer and they left the inn for another long drive to Nadirand.
Soon both Luse and Arabon were sleeping in the coach. It would take still some hours before they would be there.
When they finally arrived at the court of King Arbnad it was well dark. The Coach driver sent the horses right to the stables, where Luse and Arabon exited the cart.
They were waited for by a servant, bringing them both to their quarters. First Arabon was escorted to his own room, then the servant walked Luse to his chambers. Half way the halls, the servant turned to Luse. With soft voice, he said: “My lord. There has been no message of your arrival here at the court, my lord.“ As the servant turned to look at Luse, it was indeed a hint of sorry touching his eyes. “If we had only known a day earlier, the guests rooms for Eagrival would have been made ready, but so far, we’d only have the real guest quarters.”
Luse nodded. Not many know that the cells where the Eagrival live, at Eagris, were nothing more then four walls and a study. Nadirand was not a rich country and neither was the palace. Everything was made with eye to logic. Decorating buildings was something only the richer people were able to effort. And the regents at Nadirand had never been looking down to the common people. Therefore the palace was not really very luxurious And many of the rooms were only readied when people were expected. Even in the last years no more then one Eagrival had given visit to Nadirand. Of course Arabon is that Eagrival and he just passed off to his quarters.
Luse was escorted to the guests rooms, where four maids were still busy with the bed, the cleaning was done quickly but thorough enough to be clean enough. Tomorrow they would make things better again. The guestroom wasn’t large, but enough for Luse and the time he was visiting Nadirand. He turned to the servant, “No need to clean the other Eagrival chambers, my best. I will only spend a week here, so no use to make more troubles then necessary.”
The servant looked at Luse with a blank stare. He obvious had ordered some maids already to ready the Eagrival rooms. Or at least he had made up a schedule for tomorrow in his head.
After some moments he nodded, wished Luse a good night and left the room. In the doorway he signed for the maids, to leave the room.
Luse turned to the bed, but because he had been sleeping in the coach, he was not that ready for bed, yet.
Just as he was deciding what to do, he turned from a sound at the door. A young servant stood in the doorway, with Luses luggage in his hands. He looked disturbed at Luse as if he hadn’t expected him to be there. Quickly he left the luggage at the inside of the door, slammed the door shut behind him, and Luse could see the boys face on the other side of the door, blushing and running off to hide his shame. A smile touched Luses eyes. He wouldn’t report the boy. That was not his way. The shame on the boy’s face, was enough for him already.
Taking his sleeping clothing out of the luggage, he changed clothes, put himself to bed and waited for sleep to come.
Then sat right back up again and got out of bed. He really had no sleep. Walking over to his luggage, he searched his belongings for his book. Took it out of the luggage and took a stool un aware of the shady light, he sat down and read that one page once again. He read it so many times already, that he could tell it by heart already. But maybe there was a combination of words he forgot.
After some hours of reading he took himself to bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Next morning Arabon woke up. His room was filled with light, beaming through the large windows. He had not bothered closing them last night. After leaving leaving Luse and the servant, he let himself fall on the bed and was sleeping before he could have counted to ten.
Now, he stared up at the light brighten up his quarters. The bed was in an chamber with open access from the other room. Where a large table stand. Half of the table was filled with parchements and quilts left at the desk. The other half was readied for breakfast. His bedroom was board covered at the bottom, worked with carvings. The walls were in strokes of yellow and white from floor to wall, while a stained white ceiling over his head hold to a crystal chandelier. Arabon changed his clothings, for he still was wearing the old clothes from the day before. After changing he went to the door.
The halls were empty besides some servants or maids entering rooms, or leaving them, carrying baskets of laundry. Some clean, other dirty.
Arabon left his chambers walking straight to the kings hall. Turning the hall left into a new hallway he passed the servants. Some he did notice and greeted a good morning, while he forgot others passing by without giving so much as a glimpse.
Strolling around the corridor he noticed fewer maids, till he stopped facing a wall. He turned and look down over an old hallway which seems to be out of use for more then some years. The hall was fully dark, no windows in the walls only two doors, one on each side of the hallway. Leaning against one of the walls, he overlooked the situation and had to come to the conclusion, that he was totally lost. And since this hallway was a dead-end he had no options then to return the way he came. He saw five seven meters ahead of him the corridor make a turn to the right. Not that he remembered that he came that way. But he seldom realized till he had to look back. He knuckled his head with his right hand, a habit his father used to do, when he stood at the field watching his work of the day and forgot that he was standing there, in the hot sun. Or when he was doing other jobs. His parents never gave him much trouble when they found him like that, they thought he would learn in the end, after discovering his error, His father just knuckled his hand over Arabons head. After Arabon left his parents house, to attend the Eagris and learn about the world, he missed his father’s knuckles, therefore he started, first out of joke, later as a habit to kuckle his own head instead. But as much as Arabon did try to change, he did not seem to be able to lose the habit. Knuckling his head, he pressed himself off the wall and walked back to the corridor. After three other hallways, he remembered his place again and walked to the kings hall. This time without wrong turns.
Appearing before Trakand, a young man just in his twenties, he bowed his head. Outside the halls, Trakand and Arabon were almost the same age. And they both shared same interests. But where Arabon was absent every now and then, Trakand was a man with a clear mind and logic reason. Looking for a place to sit, he saw Luse sitting there, with a plate of bread and something to drink in his hand. It reminded Arabon, that he had not yet had breakfast. Looking around he noticed all the plates empty and the people sitting there holding their mug in hand. Trakand looked up at Arabons entrance nodded to Arabon. Some meters away from Trakand one of his generals was sitting there, solid as a rock, only eyeing the crowd.
“I took the liberty to send your breakfast to your rooms, my best. I hope you enjoyed it.”
With a shock Arabon remembered his writing table, which was half covered with his writing material and the other half he wondered why he had left his breakfast there before going to the Eagris. Now he realized that it had been fresh breakfast, most probably already cleaned up by maids. Feeling sorry for the waist, he nodded a mouthless thank you to Trakand, then took a seat near Luse.
The kings hall was filled with people, seeking audience to Trakand. Some farmers for higher rates for supplies, some merchant applying for places for market and other things people need. Some more important then others. But Trakand had an ear for all of them, listening to every small problem, dealing with it like a judge with years of experience. Luse turned his head to Arabon and whispered softly to him, “Trakand has asked for a meeting with me, but since you are his Eagrival, I think its very useful if you would attend this meeting too.”
Arabon nodded, “Thank you. I will be there.”
Luse smiles softly.
“We will be sitting in the private speaking room of Trakand. As far as I know, we are supposed to have lunch there too.”
Arabons face froze. With those lunch meetings, the lunch most often came only after the meetings. That meant he had to keep up without food till after the meeting with Trakand. Luse saw the expression appear on Arabons face and chuckled. “You passed on breakfast? When this meeting is over, you can have a little run to the kitchen see if there is something saved.”
Arabon had that figured already. It was not the first time he left his breakfast. And it wouldn’t be the first time he appeared in the kitchen, he only wanted that he had eaten. That was all. But he nodded again to Luse and turned his attention to Trakand.
It still took some good hour before Trakand ahd spoken to all the people. He stood up from his chair, raised his hands to request for silence. When all the people silenced down, and they all turned their heads to Trakans, he raised his head a little more.
“Right has been done today. Now take your leave and see that you live to the choices made. By decision of Trakand, ruler of Nadirand, all is right now. A good day to you all.”
Trakand still stood there, waiting for the people to depart. Until they were all gone, servants back to their work and some higher royalty only present, he sat down again.
A servant brought him his mug of wine. Trakands eyes looked over the room, then saw Luse and Arabon sit there. Luse with a mug in his hands, Arabon with head bowed to Luse. Luse took little sips from his drink, while Arabon was talking softly to Luse. Then Arabon stood up, and bowed his head to Trakand. Trakand answered the bow with a gesture of his hand, then Arabon turned and walked away. Luse stood up from his seat and approached Trakand, in his eye corners Trakand could see the guards at the sides of the room stir at the sudden open movement of Luse, but with one stare at them, he set them at ease. Luse was no threat, tho he was more sure of everything around him, then Arabon was. Arabon needed more knowledge of the kingdom. And of the lands and customs. That boy was so caught up in his own thoughts that it was hard to work with him.
Trakand opened the conversation with Luse. One way to make an advantage to the Eagrival, other way to unease the guards that they hadn’t seen Trakands gesture to let Luse approach, even though he had not.
“Is there a way to solve that cloud around Arabons head, Eagrival Luse?”
To his surprise Luse did not look surprised. This man actually laughed about the question.
“Sometimes I think we were too late for that, when we found him.” Luse answered. “But even now and then I think he sees more then we think he does.”
“He has been my disciple ever since his arrival at Eagris. He must grow and he must get to know the customs at the courts. There is more in him, then you should think and he needs to learn that himself.”
Luse looked back at the guards. Trakand looked again and then saw that Luse was not looking at the guards, but at the place, where Arabon had left the room. Somewhere behind the door.
“We should go to the speaking room.” Luse said to Trakand. Trakand nodded and stood up from his chair. The general stood with Trakand, and walked to one of the doors at the side of the stage, where Trakand had been sitting. At the door the general turned and waited for Trakand before opening the door to let them both pass. In the doorway Trakand turned to Luse, “Take half an hour, I’ll change into something comfortable and we will meet at the speaking room.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the door and left the room. Just as the general shuts the door, Arabon entered the hall, with two breads in one hand and a mug of wine in his other hand. He had opened the door with his knees and was now trying to close it with his head. Luse walked across the room, waving for Arabon to hold his mug straight. Arabon looked up and saw Luse come close. Turned to put the things in his hands on a table nearby, when Luse closed the door for Arabon.
“You trip over your own feet one day.” Luse said to Arabon.
“You know, that’s what my father used to say too.” Arabon thoughtlessly replied. He put his mug on the table without spilling, then sat down to eat his bread. Luse turned around the table and sat down in front of Arabon.
“We have half an hour, before Trakand is ready. Eat your bread.”
Arabon looked at Luse for a moment, then turned to his bread again.
“We will have a conversation with Trakand in a few moments, Arabon. For you speaking with Trakand is like old new to you, he is your assigned ruler. But this time, you will be present as Eagrival, not as his Advisor. We both came from Eagris, both as Eagrivals. We both have to give him the news we have. As older Eagrival, I should be the one having the conversation. Because Trakand is custom that you are his Advisor, he may turn to you to ask for your advice over the information. But at that moment, you are just an Eagrival.”
Arabon looked up from his bread and was thinking the information over, than nodded.
He turned to his mug and started to drink. Halfway he lowered his mug and looked at Luse.
“What is so special about the news we are going to tell?”
Luse looked at Arabon and was pleasantly surpriced. Sometimes Arabon could surprice people with a sharp wit.
“There is a little passage in this book I am reading, or studying, talking about a new born human. Now, this book is old and written in a language we hardly use anymore. I gave it a large amount of learning to come to an explanation. It is still not very clear to me, but one of the clues is Trakand. Eagrival give both peace and war to countries, Arabon. We are not only nice. But I hope it won’t come to a war.”
Arabon watched Luse with a blank stare. No expressions, no emotions, “I know Luse. We’ve been told this when we started as students. But Trakand is my Liege. If it comes to a war, I will rather stand behind him, then behind the Eagris.”
Luse felt proud of this young Arabon.
“Very well. Then I suggest that you go first and meet with Trakand, I will come in when I’ve been summoned.”
Arabon nodded, stood and walked out the room. Luse watched Arabon leave. Only after Arabons back was well out the door, the smile fell off his face and a mask of serenity appeared. Luse had been Eagrival for Tyr for ten strong years, he knew what it was to have to change sides. The Eagris did not only give peace in the lands. They gave wars too. Sometimes wars were unavoidable. Luse had started a war himself already. The five years of Tyr battling Bregar, just before the three brothers Rahl took over the throne. The Eagris had many power inside a court, but they had no hands over who entered a throne. Eagrival were supposed to advise the sitting ruler, discuss royal decisions with other Eagrival make them match together, then give back advise to the ruler, who could take the advise, or lay it beside. If he laid it beside him, the Eagrival had to make sure that the other countries were not getting involved in the decisions.
The door opened to a servant entering the hall. He nodded to Luse.
“Prince Trakand is ready to meet you, Eagrival.”

Escapes

Escapes.

“The court holds you responsible for the loss of money for the company and the damage done to the face of the company to the outside world.” The hammer fell like in slow-motion.
“Your punishments will be determined in two weeks from now.”
Parce felt an arm going over his shoulders. He took a glance to the side and saw his wife reaching over the woodpanel that divides the audience with the real court. Her face was strong and supportive, but in her eyes he saw tears. He nodded to her. Before long he already knew that he wasn’t going to get away with it.
His feet hurt. His right foot was throbbing like it tried to knock on the insides of his boots. As he looked down, the pain went from throbbing, to be stabbed with knifes. Invisible knifes, stabbing his foot.

The pain in his feet woke Parce. He had lost track of time, days and night were automaticly solved in the capsule, like it seems earth. But his mind had lost track of counting the days. Now his eyes, dazed with tears, tried to take in the cabin. But his focus darted back to his foot. His right foot was back to throbbing again. The feeling of knifes were gone. With care he took his leg in one arm, with the other hand, he carefully removed the bandage. The bandage was once fully white, now it had the colour of some spilled wine, on the outside several spots, but the more he saw the inside of the bandage, the bigger the stains. He needed to clean the bandage, for this one was getting dirty.
Finally he got the bandage wrapped off his foot. It made him think it took ages to get it off. With care he took the wounds of his foot in examination. The wounds weren’t large. Some tiny pin holes, like someone had tried to use acupuncture needles on his foot. But these wounds didn’t seem to heal. First he used some tape, to cover the wounds. But after some days, the wounds didn’t seem to heal. He had tried some medical stuff that was in the kitchen cabin, but those didn’t seem to have any effect. As much as he tried to clot the blood, it didn’t seem to work. After the tape, he went to bandaging the foot. At first one winding, taped to secure it to the foot, however not even a day later the cabin floor had signs of blood smears everywhere he had walked. Now the bandage was five windings thick, or more, he lost count of how thick he taped it in now.
Not long after the last winding went off his foot, he saw the first drops appear from the pinholes. The edges of each pinhole were now better visible, for the skin around it, went to a strange purple colour.
He let go of his foot and stepped to the floor. It felt a bit strange to feel his foot on the cold floor again. But no sooner had he put his foot on the floor, or the pain went from his foot straight to his head again. Like every pinhole, was not in his foot , but now inside his brain. He tried slowly to stand up again and tried some weight on his foot. It still hold. Even tho the energy put more needles in his brains, he put his other foot outside the bed. With two hands still on the bed, he tried to stand up. Only after being sure his feet would hold his weight, he pushed himself off the bed. Still uncomfortable, he tried some steps. On the screen he saw the destination again, and in the corner some red flashes, indicating earth-messages had arrived again. He scheduled inside his head, to go find a new bandage for his foot first and then come up again to read and reply the posts.
He stumbled to the man-hole laid his hand on the edge of the opening, to give support. He turned to put his foot on the first step, but in the action, he forgot which foot to use first. Too late he realized that he put all his body weight on the wrong foot. Then all things came in one moment. With a shock on his face he looked down, to see blood pour out of the pinholes, making the whole step one slippery bloody surface, felt the pain welt up again. Like a brick it hit him on the head. He felt his hand loose grip of the edge of the portal and then there was nothing he could do. With one hand, he tried to find one of the steps but he only felt air, looking down he saw the bottom coming towards him very rapidly, the air flowed pass his face. Then everything went dark.

Several moments later he woke up again. His whole body was in pain. First he thought every bone in his body would have been broken, after such fall. But moving his arm, he felt it was still whole. And his head was too. Some bruises and he might have an concussion with it. Slowly he lifted himself back up again. His pants was stained with blood, from his feet. And even so, was the floor. He reached an arm to find support from one of the steps of the stairway. After finding it again, he lifted himself up. He felt his muscles burning with the effort, most probably bruised from the fall, they got another strain. He hoisted himself back to his feet, then crawled slowly up. He didn’t feel the pain anymore. Every other part in his body was covered with pain from the fall, dimming the pain in his feet.
Step by step he hoisted himself up, only after ages reaching the kitchen cabin. He pushed himself up, just enough
His face was covered with sweat and his vision blurred from the effort of getting himself this far.
Over his head, he saw the box with first aid hanging at the wall. He reached up to with his hand, trying to reach it, but he was inches off.
He felt his vision blur from the effort. Something was wrong in his body. The fall was bad, he knew that much. But not so bad, that he lost so much power in his body.
The pinholes in his right foot were turned deeper purple. His entire foot wasn’t looking healthy. All color from his skin there, was gone. Like it was starving. He thought it with a shock, the grass was poisoned. It had put something in his body, that was poisoning him and he had no idea how to find what poison it was. If it was any poison that was custom at earth at all. He had to get that first aid kit. He had to bind off his foot.
With new effort he reached up for the box, lifting himself a little more. With his fingertips he felt the box and with more effort he felt his fingers slight over its cover. At some point he felt grip, his fingers cornered over the edge of the box. He pulled all his weight on the box, trying to pry it off the wall. A new wave of blackness covered his brains. He felt his eyes close and in the same time he felt his fingertips slight back over the edge. He felt lost. If he couldn’t reach it, he couldn’t heal and steer the ship. He might die. With renewed effort he strained every muscle and pulled his full weight on the box. Finally he heard the box crack, the cover broke in two. His fingers slipped off the lit, that was now torn in two, he felt the broken edges open his fingers. Over his face he felt the inside of the kit fall down. Relieved of his achievements, he felt tears stream over his cheeks. For a moment he let his hands rest in his lap. He laid his head against the wall till his vision was back again and then looked down to see what the damage was. His fingers were in a bad shape, plastic splinters still stuck in it. With trembling fingers he tore the splinters out and then looked at his lap, for what the first aid box had spilled.
He took some tape, to fix his fingers, two glances later he saw a cloth next to him, useful for when someone broke an arm. He took the cloth from the ground and with his other hand he gripped his right leg. With effort he laid his right leg over his left, than with both hands, he strongly binds off his right leg just over the foot. Wrapping the foot with the cloth first, then tying a knot over the ankle tight enough to slow down blood stream.
With dazed eyes he looks at his achievements then relaxed. With tired hands, he strokes the remains of the box off his legs. He had to get back up again to the control cabin and his bed. He waited some moments, to get some energy, then pulled himself up. One hand on the deck, another hand clamped around one of the steps, he heaved himself up on his feet, almost like dangling on his arms, his left leg barely holding support, his right leg felt odd and useless. With effort he pulled his right foot on the support of the stairs and put some weight on his left leg. More dragging then climbing, he pulled himself up, to the steering cabin. With hands and feet crawling over the floor he tried to reach the screen. He had to send those messages back to earth. But first he had to sit down.
The climb up on the stairs had taken his tolls, his arms felt like on fire and his temples were beating like a drum. Releasing the weight off his arms, he laid his body down on the floor. His head on the cold floor felt so wonderful, like he had pulled his head in a waterpool, down at earth. He could remember a time where he had taken this girl out for a walk. A warm day it had been and to refresh he had pulled his head into the pool.
With a shock he came back to reality. He was not on earth, he was inside a space vessel, traveling with high speed away from earth and destined to a planet, which was supposed to be able to have life.
He glanced up at the big screen. The black darkness outside the vessel was still the same, star positions were changed a bit. He tensed his muscles and felt the sting of his arms. He didn’t even feel the pains in his feet. Crawling bit by bit to his chair, he finally reached the seat.
He made himself sit upright against the desk. Then took the chair in his both hands, strained himself and with all effort in his body, he heaved himself into the seat. Closed the belts and fell back into empty darkness.
He had used so much of his energy, that he could not do anything more. His whole body was in pain, the poison of the grasses were consuming his body and inside his skull some little creatures were trying to hammer their way out.
After some minutes of rest, he ran his hands over the buttons again and send the messages back to home. The routine was still in his mind. His arms and fingers followed the imprinted routine as they always did. Inside his head though, his mind didn’t follow his fingers. A numb feeling slowly covered his mind forcing his eyes to close slowly. Memories of long ago crept from behind and gave him images for his eyes, like photos they appeared in front of his eyes. He dismissed the images and watched his hands work, but as quickly as he trid to focus, his mind seem to wander off again. Battling his own focus, he send the first message back to earth, with his status of health in it. He hoped it explained the lack of messages of the last sending. And he hoped that some medical person from earth would be able to help. Some ideas to reduce the effect of the poison. After sending the messages he was so tired, that he didn’t even think about moving to his bed. His eyes followed the stars on the screen empty minded.
When a star left the screen at the corner, his eyes shifted to a new star. Eyeing it with a blank stare, his mind wondering about the color of it, what the purposes of those colors were. What kind of star it was. His education went through his mind in instances. Every color told an amount of minerals inside the star and its age. In his mind he went through them all. He remembered a teacher, trying to teach them the significant of stars. The professor never understood the lack of interest of his students.
“If you lay with your girl underneath a tree, after spending your whole evening at a disco. Wouldn’t it be great that you could tell her that there was something written in the stars?”
In the back of his mind Parce heard the professor talk. The class was silently grinning on the professors ideas. Parce heard someone say: “I say that all the time already.”
The professor smiled widely as if he was expecting this reply already.
He raised his hand to point to the speaker. “And if she asks you what it is, that is written, can you answer her?”
The speaker hesitated a bit, by this personal addressing.
The professor took that moment to push on further. “You couldn’t tell anything. Because you would have had no idea what a star is saying.”
The speaker of before tried to be funny: “I don’t speak Stars.”
“No you don’t,” the professor replied. “Unless you listen more closer to my lessons. I will make you understand the language of the stars.”

The college room faded from Parces mind. A tree appeared in his mind. He was looking from an other ones view, to his own body. He had taken too much drinks. His girlfriend had been troubled. She woke in the middle of the night, not finding him next to him. He had promised her to be home before midnight.
She had been furious not finding him and had been waiting in the living room for him, when he didn’t arrive an hour later, she had turned to restless. Parce had the history of getting into fights at the end of en evening. Half hour later she’d pulled her coat over her sleeping dress and walked to the party, where Parce had said to be going. Arriving there, no one could say, where he had gone. One of his friends told her Parce had gone home several hours back already.
Disturbed she walked the streets back to home, looking in every direction to find him, when finally she found him, laying asleep against a tree.
Her breath got stuck in her throat. Silently she called him, but he gave no motion. He laid there slumpy against a tree in a square area, at the borders the fences of the neighbours stood a dim yellowy wood sparsely lit by the half moon over head. His head against the tree, resting with his chin on his chest, his arms slumped besides his body. Approaching two steps she saw a very faint motion of his chest moving up and down.
All her fears washing off her, she felt like she could scream. Wake him up and yell at him for scaring her so much. But she hesitated. She walked up to him, sat down next to him at the tree and watched him sleep. Relieved nothing serious had occurred to him, she trailed with a hand over his cheek and cuddles herself next to him. Her back against the tree, just like him and silently she watched him, than moved her view to the tree and its branches. The leaves were green and bright rustling gently with the sparse wind, or maybe some animal like a bird moved in its top. She moved her view to the stars watching a stellar.
“...there is something written in the stars for us...” Parce mumbled. He had woken somewhere between the moment she left her focus off him and when she looked at the stars. Or maybe he had felt her looking at the stars. He somehow always seem to feel those special moments from her. She liked stars, they gave her a feeling of rest and easiness. And those easy moments, when she was totally herself, Parce seem to feel that in her. She looked at Parce, not sure she had to slap his face for this indecent joke. She thought it better not to. Instead she raised her hand to stroke back some hair from Parces eyes, and watched his drunken eyes.
“Did you really had to drink so much, Parce?”
Parce tried to say something, but after three attempts he stopped trying.
“… there is something written for us in the stars…” He replied.
Marine looked up at the stars. “What do they say then, dear?” She asked.
Parce tried to point with his arm up into the sky. With his eyes he looked at her and said: “That your eyes have the same color as Betelgeuse.”
She smiled. She had always thought that the constellation Orion had something special. And Betelgeuse was one of the oldest stars of Orion.
“Come we have to get home, Parce.”

With a shock Parce lifted his head up. He had fallen asleep. He felt a pain in his neck muscles and his breast was tight as a knot. Suddenly awake he felt all the pains in his body come back up again. His feet were killing him and his arms were almost impossible to move. After the heaving of his full body, only on his arms, they were tensed because of the strain put on them. Moving his arm slowly, he tried to avoid too much muscle pain, he reached for the belt. He had locked the belt to secure himself to the chair, to prevent from falling off. With trembling hands, from tired muscles, he had a hard time getting the belt lock to open. With a click the lock fell open and Parce glided off the chair to his feet. But at the same moment he put his weight on his feet, they failed hold and Parce fell on his knees. Immediately he felt the pain from his feet like stinging bees through his body. On his hands and knees he crawled to the bed and rolled on to it.
Not a moment on bed, and he already thought why he hadn’t done that earlier. He felt the stress and tension fell off him. His head started spinning, giving him the feeling that he was flying in circles. He didn’t care for blankets, not even his clothes. The bandages of his right foot was all bloody and dirty again, but he didn’t care anymore. He felt everything in his body ache.
He just had to sleep. That would take the pain away and give him strength for the next day. He laid his head on the pillow again, stared at the ceiling for a moment, then his mind drifted away.

The Search Continues

The Search continues

A week has past since Luse left prince Trakands court. His coach was empty beside him. The prince had ordered a coach for Luse alone, for the Eagrivals comfort and pleasure. But Luse would rather have had company. The coach was good and luxurious, but it would not make a long road shorter. He gave up reading his book. As much as he had read it now, he could literarily spell every word that stood in there, word by word. And the writer was good detailed about everything already. In his thought he tried to figure that one thing the writer wasn’t writing about. The headmaster of the Eagris told him about this town, what the writer talked about as Ardika. Today little was left of the city. But it was just outside the borders of Lagus. South west side, in the mountains there that cut off the borders of the habitant world, with the rough outside world. But for now, Luse was heading with his wealthy coach to the farthest city possible. From there he had to find someone able to travel him to the borders of Lagus. Of course if there was no one to bring him there, he had to walk the whole distance, but he couldn’t start to think about the distance he had to walk. Let alone the time it took him to travel it, by foot. For another time he eyes the interior of the coach. He could not say the Nadirand people were rich with luxury. But the prince had his coach be decorated with patches of gold, aligning several figures which decorated the inside of the panels. At the doors figures of soldiers were painted, standing in guarding or attacking poses. Over the seats on both sides some Nadirand royalties were painted. Looking down on the passenger below. Different heads on either side of the coach. The seats were made of red plush. With diagonal gold thread linings. The storage room underneath the seats were closed with carpentry panels. The crème coloured panels of the door, with the red of the couches were hard to the eyes. But the wood coloured covers under the seats gave a relaxing contrast.
Luses eyes went up to the roof, where a thin fabric was pinned to the roof with copper nails, with a big head, every ten thumb. A neat pattern of copper color, combined with the thin crème fabric gave a nice texture.
His eyes dashed off to the outside world again. He had been watching the inside for far too long already. But he saw the outside world slowly change. The long pine trees had been exchanged to thicker trees. The soil was slowly turning more yellow, instead of the brown dirt of higher up north. He wondered if he had to sleep in the coach again, this night, or that he was able to spend the night in a bed. It would have been a good change for once. He had been using the red plush for bed for five nights already. That last inn had had a good bed, but after five days of plush his bones were sore now.
Looking at the sun he thought it time for something to eat and opened one of those covers from under the seat. He pulled a bag from underneath it and pulled it open. With one hand inside he felt for something to eat, till his hands struck on an apple and he pulled it out.
Nodding for his trophy he took a bite. He was halfway his apple, unaware of the outside world for a change, when suddenly the coach stopped.
Luse looked up from his apple halfway his bite. With the bitten peice of apple in his mouth, he opened the coach door and looked outside. Five horsemen in leather jackets stood in front of the coach, the coach driver was nowhere to be seen, but he heard him speak on the other side of the coach. Closing the door he went to the other side of the coach and peered through the window. He saw a sixth horseman at the side of the coach, speaking with the driver. When he opened the door, the horseman turned his head to watch. Eyeing Luse he heeled his horse and approached. With one hand he opened the door fully, leaving Luse standing in the open space. Realising the piece of apple still stuck between his teeth he started to chew. Sadly though, it left him no possibility to speak right away. With a serene face the horseman demanded Luses duty in Lagus.
Chewing the apple piece quickly away, he threw the rest of the apple away. This horseman’s attitude made his appetite vanish quickly. He swallowed the apple, straightened his shoulders before he answered.
“My business is my own, soldier.” Luse did not care whether this man had a rank or not. “By hospitality of Prince Trakand have I had the possibility to use this coach to travel to my destiny.”
The horseman did not look very happy to be addressed as a soldier. If his face had been sour before, it definitely was rotten now. “King Roghar is sure not liking other royals property out on his lands.”
Luse suddenly felt this was not going right. If he didn’t take matters in hand, it was for sure that he had to travel on foot or be send back to Nadirand with the coach.
He was an Eagrival, but as much authority an Eagrival has, he never could out rule a king.
“If you could move your squadron, my man, then we could pass.”
The horseman did not look any impressed. “And to where did you want to go?”
“We’ll be travelling to Arkena, where the coach will drop me off. After that, I will travel alone.”
The horseman thought for a moment, then said: “We will escort you to Arkena. From there, the coach will return with the driver and you can do, whatever you came here for. But I won’t allow a Nadirand coach to enter a Lagus city without proper escort.”
Without waiting for an answer, the horseman turned his horse and signalled to the squadron to make way. “And it’s Lieutenant for you, Eagrival.” Saluting he heeled his horse and shouted orders to his men. The coach driver stepped off his seat, and closed the door for Luse. Not much later, the whole caravan was moving. Back in his seat again, nothing much has changed for Luse. The road was still the same for him. Only the exterior has changed since every now and then a horseman was appearing outside the window. Two horsemen were riding in the back and the rest was riding in front. But every now and then two of the horsemen from the front fell back to catch up with the two riders in the back.
It took the rest of the day, when the lieutenant changed direction. He fell back from the front of the company, to the coach driver, then a bit more back, signing Luse to open the door. Luse opened the door on a small crack, enough to be hearing the lieutenant but not big enough to fall through. “There is a small in just outside this road. With your consent we will spend the night there.”
“That would be wonderful, lieutenant.” Luse replied. “After five days on these seats I can do with a good bed.”
The lieutenant nodded and heeled his horse back to the front again. Not much later, the coach turned course and they left the big road. The sun was now directly shining through the coaches window on the left side. It had now turned orange, slowly turning red, leaving coloured shadows of trees on the front panel of the inside of the coach. Not much later, Luse became aware of some small farm houses. A little fence around the houses held the spares amount of animals in. When the coach passed the houses, Luse could see the men and women working on the land, children doing their best to help. More people were helping with the animals, shaving them for the full season. There were more houses then farms, most probably they all worked together for one big farm. And all were responsible for the total income of the village. Not much later the horsemen halted their horses and the coach stopped too.
The silence after so many days of listening to the rattling of the wheels left a strange sound in Luses ears. He remained seated for a couple of moments to get used to the silence, before leaving the coach personally. Luse felt a moment of relieve feeling real ground under his feet. No more rocking and swaying, but solid sturdy ground. He exhaled a big sigh then turned back to the coach and reached for the panel under the seat to get his bag out.
The driver was already taking care of his luggage, while the lieutenant was talking to the innkeeper. It was a little square of cobble stone. Three houses made out of wood stood around the square and gave it a visual border. One of them was turned into a little inn. A sign hanging on the front of the house told Luse that the inn was called ‘The Stay’. Heaving the bag on his shoulder Luse walked over the sandy stones of the square towards the inn, while horses were guided to the stables and entered the inn.
Stepping through the door, Luse was addressed by the innkeepers wife. She was standing in the middle of the room, with cloth in her hands, trying to get her hands on everything at one time, cleaning the room for the unexpected guests. As Luse opened the door, she turned on her heels to see who entered the room. Her cloth still in her hand she eyed Luse as if daring him to make anything dirty. But Luse was so tired of the long road he only wished one thing: sleep.
“Good evening, my lady.” Luse greeted the lady. “Could you please show me a room, where I can put my stuff?”
The lady made a short and quick reverie, then turned to show Luse upstairs. Luse followed her silently, till the lady turned to Luse. “For one night, was it?”
“Yes, my lady. One night only. Tomorrow I will be sitting on those hard seats again.”
With a stern face, she pointed a room to Luse. “I will ask my husband to make you a warm bath.” Luse turned surpriced to watch the lady, “That would be lovely.” Without further due, he stepped through the door.
The small furniture room only had a chair, a cabinet for clothes and a bed. But Luse didn’t mind giving them a second glance. He tossed his bag on the chair, and laid his body on the bed. Even though the bed was not the best he had had, after five days of hard coach seats it was a relieve to relax his back. He felt every muscle in his back ease down. For his idea he had only been laying for some moments when he heard a knock on the door. He lifted his head off the pillow, then heard a voice on the other side of the door.
“Your bath is ready, Sir.”
“Thank you, my lady. I am on my way.” Luse answered the door. He pulled his legs off the bed, then sat straight for some moments before standing up. Glancing through the window, he saw that it had lookout over the village square. The coach and the horses were already gone from the square. From the other two houses at the square came yellow light through the windows throwing silhouettes over the stones. He must have been laying longer then some moments, most probably an hour if not more. His bones felt tired even, how long had he been travelling. Not willing to make the woman wait much longer and not wanting to have a cold bath, he hurried to the door.
Outside the door a young girl, twelve or thirteen years old, was standing there, waiting for Luse.
“My mom told me to lead you to your bath. The water is still warm.” The girl was twelve years old and from the day she could walk, she had been helping out for her parents. She pointed to the direction where the bathtubs are standing. Then walked ahead of the man downstairs. The guestroom was now filled with peole she didn’t know. She looked a bit weary towards the weapons of the soldiers, she had seen them enough to know what they can do. Leading the elder towards the door to the back, she was happy that she could shut the door and leave those drinking soldiers behind. Although she knew she had to get back there later again. They walked down the hallway to one of the doors on the right, she opened the door for the older man.
“The water maybe still warm, my lord.” She told the man. The man smiled gently and thanked her.
“I will ask my father to warm another bucket of water for you, my lord.”
The man bowed his head in a nod. “That would be wonderful, thank your father from me, if you please.”
With a sharp nod of the head the girl showed that she would do so. After pointing Luse where he could find the soap and towel, she turned and left the room. Closing the door behind her, she walked further into the hallway to the backdoor. The evening air was fresh and made her feel better.
“Stupid soldiers.” She muttered to one of the goats standing outside on a rope. She looked up at the stars and tried to recall all the stars as she had learned them from her father. She always wondered what those points of lights were. Sometimes they seem like a giant fabric laying over the earth, where someone with a pin made openings where lights of the day came through. But other times she had the idea that that was not fully true. She turned away from the sky and watched the backside of the house, the lights up at the single window, beneath the roof was lit with a yellow glow. The small glasses held by strips of metal in squares were yellow by themselves, but with the light coming through from the candles now, made them even brighter yellow. If the night really was a piece of fabric, like a blanket, that light would make a new star.
She broke her gaze from the night and walked back inside. She had to help her mother. She hesitated by the thoughts of the soldiers inside, and the stupid beer that made them do all strange things. But helping her mom was more important.
Reluctantly she stepped back inside.

Dreamscape

Dreamscape

Everything was quiet. From deep within a constant hum gave vibrations on to the metal structure of the vessel. Lights were dimmed, due the day and night settings. The big screen gave a soft blue light off to the room. Spots of stars and planets moved over the screen. The chair was empty bathing in the blue glow of the screen.
The lights in the ceiling were glowing softly just enough to make everything shimmer. The manhole was a black hole in the wall, out lit by purple tubes, softly glowing a warning for anyone willing to enter unaware. If you missed your safety of holding on to handles you risk a fall of several meters.
On the other side of the room was a bed, where Parce was sleeping on. He tossed every now and then to the other side of his body, laying on his left or right. The blankets were laying about on the bed, but Parce didn’t care if they covered him or not. On the feet side of the bed, from underneath the blankets some smears of blood were visible. His bandage over his feet were both covered in blood, some parts stained, some parts still wet. The bandage over his right ankle had slowed down the bloodstream to his feet. It was swollen and blue now, the bandage had been laid on by weak hands and almost falling off his foot now. The little pinpoints were now black on the edges and blood dripped off them with a steady tempo. Parce’s face was showing pearls of sweat. His head was sickly white with strange spots of red around his eyes. The pillow for his head, was wet and covered with the silt of dried sweat.
When he opened his eyes, they were blank and stared to the ceiling without seeing anything. But as quick as he opened them, he closed them again too. And fell back into his dreams that haunted him. Parts of his memory, poison fevered dreams and scary fantasies shimmered his brains.
His eyes opened up again showing the white of his eyes. Suddenly glancing down he let his eyes run the cabin, trying to see the interior in the shimmering darkness. Cursing at the screen, then his eyes dashed from one side to the other side in their sockets. Then he let his head fall back on to the pillow and closed his eyes again.
His pupils dashed left and right, behind his closed eyes.
Parces ears deceived him. He heard the sounds of the motors deep in the vessels center humming, but they sounded like giant wasps. He was flying on the back of this giant wasp with one string in hand, caught behind the wasps fang. He had a hard time controlling the beast. It flew from left to right, trying to lose its rider. Every now and then arching its body, trying to sting whatever came on its way.
Parce held tight and had to press his thighs on to the wasps back. His hands both gripped tight on the string. Every now and then, the wasps sting struck home on his ankles or feet, burning into his feet with the poison dripping from the sting.
Looking down Parce saw the grass float by in a rapid tempo while the skies overhead slowly turned from lightly blue into purple. He felt his fingers loose grip on the leash and tumbled backwards from the back of the wasp. The beast was glad it got rid of its visitor and turned all its anger on that plummeting object. Seeing the wasp and its sting closing in on him, Parce felt fright and terror take over his emotions. Just as the wasp closed in, the ground hit Parce in the back hard and real. Struggling for breath he opened his eyes and looked into the cabin interior. In a haze he saw the screen flashing its blue light and the points of stars on it. For a small moment he let his eyes follow some of those stars and wondered how it was possible, that they didn’t flow off the screen and into the cabin, just as it happened. The entire cabin got filled with pinpoints of light flashing off the screen and bouncing from the walls. Several of those pinpoints turned towards him and flashed up right in his face.
Closing his eyes he fell back into the unreal dreams of the poison again.

He heard her voice. She was calling him. Her voice was sweet and just as he recalled her. As he opened his eyes, he saw her face waver in. She was looking serious and in her eyes there was a hint of concern.
“How are you feeling today?” Her voice was sweet and he felt so wonderful. She made him feel so good.
“I am feeling better already, my darling. You take good care of me.”
“Just so you know it!” She looked very stern, but in her eyes was a hint of a smile.
The curtains let a little stream of sunlight in and the air smelled of fresh laundry. Every now and then her hand went to her belly, she was now some weeks pregnant and she was so proud that she now finally could become a real mother. As Parce was proud to become a real father.
Weakly he moved his hand from the bed to her belly, and laid his hand over her hand. He felt the love from her, her soft hands and strong fingers. He knew she would make a perfect mother.
The fever had asked much of his energy and tired he closed his eyes again, his hand still on hers.
Not much later he opened his eyes again. The sun had moved towards afternoon and Marine had left the room. Alone with his thoughts he went through the things that had happened. Looking sideways he noticed a glass with very faint green tea in it.
He was a coffee person but his wife knew something about herbalogy. Reluctant he took a sip from the glass. The bittersweet taste of the tea ran down his throat. The tea was cold, which made it even worse than normally. But as bad as the taste was, he felt his body needed the moisture. And the bitterness of the fluid made his stomach ease. He took another sip, then sank down into his pillow again. He had been in bed for two days now and he felt better now then he had felt yesterday. Even though his muscles were sore and painfully, he felt his could do more, without up heaving his stomach. It would still take some days before he was good enough to get out of bed, he knew it. And at that moment it seems like forever.
The moment he closed his eyes, Marina entered the room. She was so concerned about his health. Normally he got annoyed by people who care. He could take care of himself, but as Marina and Parce grew into a relationship and as much as he wanted to show her how self dependent he was, the more she showed him that he was not. Maybe she tricked him but he did not care then and he did not care now either.
She took a glance at his glass and at Parce before she faintly smiled and turned. Not much later Parce heard the door close as she left the room.

Parce opened his eyes and felt lost. He missed his wife. Marina. And he wondered about his daughter, if he would return back to earth would she still remember him. He looked around the cabin which was bathing in full light now. Daytime schedule. The screen was clean. In the distance some pinpoints showed the presence of stars, while in the mid of the screen the final destiny of the voyage was centred in a focus box.
For a moment it seemed as though the destination point was growing bigger, but as Parce blinked again it was the same size again.
The screen wavered and the borders of the screen became a blur. Parce laid his head back on the pillow to give his neck a bit of a rest and felt a pain behind his eyes. He had strained them too much already. The pain in his eyes flowed into the back of his head, giving him a tremendous head ache. He closed his eyes and laid a hand over his eyes to suppress the pain. He felt the pain like needles in his skull.
It must be a concussion from the fall from the ladder. With a sigh he let his hand slip off his head and eyes and let it fell nest to the bed. The colder floor felt good under his warm hand. His entire body felt like a furnace and the cool floor felt a good way to take some of the heat off.
He felt a strange sensation in his body, like he wasn’t laying on the bed at all. His hand was still on the floor and he knew he was still laying in his bed, but he felt like he was floating just some inches off his bed.
It was his fever that made him feel this way, he knew that, but at some level it felt good to feel nothing at all for a moment.
He has had dreams like this when he was back down at earth and he could steer his own dreams sometimes. And when he had been ill, he had times he felt like this too.
Fever dreams and disturbed reality caused by fevers could make a man believe strange things.
And as he enjoyed the feeling of numbness he slowly drifted off to sleep again.
no alarm bells or buzzer could not wake him up.

Long Road

Long road

It has been days since Luse left the last civilized world. He had seen no human in the last day and the last animal was some hours back too. He must have crossed the Lagus border already, or he was a good way in the direction of the Lagus border.
No one dared to escape the safety of civilisation this far. It was rumoured that strange things happened here. New born babies lost, people getting robbed, but no thief were to be found. Sometimes even people got lost too. Never to be heard of again.
That was why Luse left a note at the inn he last visited. He made sure people were aware of him and that he left. If the eagris would come and search for him, they would found the note and knew enough. But at this point Luse had no need of getting lost, he wanted to travel to the part of the world, that his book was written about.
“Somewhere several miles outside the Lagus borders.” Parcema had said. Luse wondered why Parcema knew, but Parcema knew quite some things. And he was sure old enough to see the world has changed around him. Luse was not young, he had to admit it. Partly he thought he was too old to travel these kind of adventures. But he had found that book and he was destined to find out. And he was hardly as old as Parcema.
Thereby the fact that he would not endure someone else finding out what he was looking for.
Luse shook himself back to reality. He had to travel and watch where he was going. He was not sure of the surroundings here. He heard some animals in the bushes some distance away from him. And overhead he saw a bird flying over. He thought it strange that such small things could make so much difference at feeling at ease.
His legs grew tired of walking. He was not custom to walking such distances, but there was no other transportation this way. He was travelling to the edge of the world for all it matters. There was nothing known outside the southern borders of Lagus.
Mountains and forest. Sand. Unknown land. That was all.
And why would anyone write a book about that all. About something that was no civilized world.
He stood still and opened his bag. After looking inside he took a glance outside the bag for a place to sit. Finding nothing suitable, he thought the ground suitable enough and sat down on the ground.
Reaching inside his bag with one hand, he overlooked the area and inspected the differences with what he knew.
He saw some features in trees, that he knew from the book he had been reading. He read it so many times, it was printed in his brains.
And now he could see what the book was written about. He realised that he had his hand still inside the bag. Taking it out again he remembered he was looking for something to drink and something to eat too. So he reached in to the bag again, this time extruding a flask of water. And a small piece of bread. He drank something from the flask and put it back in the bag. He tied the bag close again and heaved it back on his shoulders again. But he remained seated on the ground till he finished eating his bread. In the meanwhile looking around him he watched for more leads to the book. The grass on the ground and the herbs around the tree stems here and there were little leads. This was not the region that Leana dir Ychasa had been writing about. But he came closer to that region, so only naturally the vegetables around him would slowly become more like that the further he came towards that place.
Cleaning the last crums of his clothes, he stood up and watched down the grass covered road. It really has been a road, long time ago. If you looked at the positions of the older trees you could see that they were anywhere but on the little trail that was left of the old road. In his mind Luse could see Leana dir Ychasa walk here, looking at all the trees, then much younger, and the grasses. Maybe he even met some people walking by, because further down south there had been a town once. But that town was long time ago abandoned and Luse wondered how much even would have been left of it.

“Well, only one way left to find out.” Luse talked to himself as he turned on his heels, heaved the bag back on his shoulders and started to walk again.
As he walked further through the dense vegetated area, he tried to capture the parts of the book, for clues that he might be getting closer to the area of the book.

The nature around him was open. Trees stood far apart of each other the ground underneath him was dull beaten by sun and grass grew slowly, with much open space to show the sand and dirt underneath.
Lugas was the most southern country of this side of Armhianthia, and the sun was far hotter then Luse was used to, in the more northern Eagris.
In front of Luse he saw a hill coming up, behind him, he saw the trees and undergrowth where he’d been walking through.
There actually was something of a road there. And ahead he saw that same feature go thought up to the hill, in front of him. Up ahead him, the sun slowly rose to its highest position. At the time Luse reached the bottom of the hill, the sun was beaming down and Luse was wishing he had taken other clothes with him. His heavy wool robe was not very comfortable in this heat. And as he looked up to the hill he had to get up to, he saw the sparse existence of trees there. No shades to hide under. Sighing deep, he straightened his back and he started his walk upwards.
By the time he reached the top his bag on his shoulders was so heavy it felt like bricks and his feet were tired. He had taken almost every hole there was to trip over, or so it seemed to him. He sat down again for a moment, but it would not give any relieve. After two minutes of stretching his legs and relaxing his leg muscles, he pulled himself on his legs again and walked on. As he looked around him he saw the whole area was hills. Slowly the whole landscape in front of him, the further he watched, the higher it gets. Suddenly looking up at the hills in front of him, he felt small. He was a small human being, somewhere lost in a big world. Putting one foot in front of the other, he took his first step knowing that he had changed into a new level of being. The big hill in front of him, just on the other side of a small valley, was steep enough for the sun to not reach this side of the slope.
In need of shadow and rest he took that as a point to walk to and made his way to there. As he reached the shadow of the hill, he noticed the grass was more colourful and more alive then before, on that lost road behind him. But even here, he could see a road go into the hills. Not by any signs of the grass but he saw it in the contour of the land. Where once had been a road, the landscaped had created a very small hole. Something you could see better when you looked at the egde where hill and sky reached each other.
The sun broke away behind the edge of the hill bathing Luse in pure shadow. He suddenly felt cold. Sitting down without even looking where, he let his bag fall on the ground. Without a thought he took the bag, pulled some food out of it and as he laid his body on the ground, he ate without a thought.
Finished with his small meal, he closed his eyes, which were tired of the hard sun that had shone almost the entire day for so far.
“I could use a break.” He muttered to nobody. And at the same moment he knew that there was no one who would change places with him.

It was dark when Luse opened up his eyes again. Of course it was dark by the shadows when he closed them, but now the sky had turned into dark blue, instead of bright. Scrambling to his legs he looked around him. Everything was still the same, the hills, the slope and the invisible road. He took his bag up again and looked upward to the top of the hill.
“Here we go again.” He said. With new energy of his nap he started on his journey again.
By the time he reached the top of the hill, though, the sky had turned into darker blue, and the sun was about to disappear behind some other hills in the distance. Behind him, Luse could still see the south borders of where he had left Lugas, without real notice. The hills were Lugas’ borders. Or so it seems. No one would be able to tell him. The people who had lived here ages back were long gone and maybe even they would not be able to tell for sure.
In the back of his mind he heard the voice of Boreo, talking about King Roghar. King Roghar wanted to claim some lands in the south to enlarge his country. Although Roghar probably had his own ideas about that, Luse couldn’t see why land like this would be so wonderful to have.
In front of him he saw forests appear gliding backwards away out of side, the start of another small valley where the forest fell in to.
Glad that he now had made the hardest part of today, he thought it time to really get some rest. He was alone and there for he needed to be aware of things that could be out in the woods, or lurking out in the hills.
The first tree was surely some good distance away and Luse was quite sure he couldn’t reach them in time, before it was actually dark. So he walk back to the top of the slope and laid himself on the ground. His only belonging was his bag, so he used that as a pillow. Although he had been sleeping half the day, Luse was tired enough to fall asleep right away.

Suddenly Luse woke up. He opened his eyes and in front of his face he saw a big animal head. Startled he sprang up searching around him for something to hold on to in defence, but the head belonged to a fox, that was as startled by Luses reaction as Luse was by the fox’s appearance, it gave a small yelp and ran off to the forest. Luse felt his heart racing in his chest and knew he would not be able to fall asleep again. Tomorrow he hoped he could spend his nights in the trees, or he could use some branches to cover himself.
He laid himself back on the ground and tried to get some sleep again. But the fox had startled his sleep too, it seemed. Luse found himself staring upwards to the night sky, looking at the stars above him. Star constellations and knowledge was common lessons for the Eagris. He could trace constellation after constellation and named them one by one easily. To get his heart pulse back to normal he traced the constellations. Star by star he could back trace his own position on the ground and he estimated that he was far from home. After several he moments he stopped counting stars and looked puzzled to one particular star.
It took him some moments to figure out that this star was not supposed to be there. In surprise he sat straight up and began to count all the stars in the serenity of this new appearance.
It was not right. Stars did not appear or disappear. They grew and slowly there would come a new star. Of course he knew that. Some of the constellations were not as they had been era’s back. Some stars had died, others had grown into constellations. But no star appear like this, just be there.
As he looked up at the star, he wondered even more. In wonder Luse stood up, as if that little more higher would make things more visible.
But the longer Luse was looking up, the more he was certain the star was showing a tail. Luse was standing astonished of this natural wonder he was observing. And for a short moment he wondered if he was the only person looking at this strange star. But as quick as the thought raised, it was gone from his mind too. That star did grow. And its tail was growing as well. Normally Luse knew about a comet years in advance. Since most comets were time scheduled, to some months or weeks. And because the Eagrivals new about their existence, they could warn citizens about the arrival of a work of nature. But no comets were said to be about the first five years. And than the tail was gone. A growning glowing object was closing in on Armhianthia and Luse was the first to see it happen. Or when it would collide Luse was the first to go with it.
Glowing metal, forged with the hand of a crafty blacksmith it seems as it came in closer and disappearing behind the horizon.
Fire burning at the bottom, like tongues trying to take away the earth underneath it, than with a crash it burst into the surface.
Luse felt the ground ripple under his feet because of the impact.
Making haste he forgot about the dark and set off to this star that has fallen from the skies.

The Sign

The Sign

Boreo had been searching the Eagris for Luse. In the end he learned that Luse and Arabon had been set off together for Nadirand. In the back of his head he wondered what prince Trakand for use had with two Eagrival.
Now he was already back in the Kingdom Lugas for some days. And had his head full with politics. King Roghar was on the egde. Boreo had to use his power as Eagrival to make ends meet with Roghar. The king had set his eye on expanding his kingdom, for his own people. The most of Lugas was bare and wasted land and Roghar seeked ways to make his population expand further. Boreo had been sending letters off to Aramir and Zrland, questioning both countries at what rate they would be letting go of a part of their country. But Roghar had no patience.
Only two days past the letters had been send off and already Roghar asked for results.
Guards had been drawn closer to Roghar, because the king had been growing afraid of murderers. Noone entered the castle without the guard knowing who came and went. Not only Roghar was on the edge. Due to the heighted security around the palace, and the king not willing to take any surprises, the servants scurried about the palace trying to run their errands as quick as possible. Maids collected more ear boxes than usually and never stopped for for a fling with a guardsman anymore. The whole palace was tensed.
Even though his head was occupied with politics, he send some letters to the Eagris in order to know about Luse. But he was shocked that one of the soldiers told him one day about that Eagrival that had been travelling through Lugas. The description was Luse, but when Boreo went for one day to find him, Luse had left the place already. Not able to make more free days to find Luse, he had to return to the palace.
Back at the palace, Boreo found the place crowded with generals and army soldiers.
Entering the audience hall, he saw Roghar speaking to one of his officers about warfare technicalities. One of the walls on the side was covered with a map of Lugas and some iron pins with flags were showing where some of Lugas’ armies were.
As Boreo entered the hall, he saw some faces of soldiers turn towards him, their pain clear showing.
Roghar was not in a listening mood anymore. He had but one mission and his head only thought about getting to results. Taking in the whole scene, Boreo regretted his leaving. He lost his grip on Roghar, with terrible results. Soon an army would be send southwards, with some people to establish a small town, provoking everyone.
And a fight with ealf, now, was exactly what Roghar could not use.
But of course Roghar thought different. He had the idea the whole world was against him and his plans, and killing was the only option left.
Therefore he planned provoking the Ealf in order to make them come out and attack him, giving him the option to fight back as hard as possible.
Knowing Roghars temper, Boreo thought it best not to provoke Roghar now, amid his advisors but wait till a better moment, when he could speak Roghar alone.
Retreating on his way, he left the hall and went for his room.
On his way he saw Roghars servant and he asked this mans attention.
“Could you please get me in my room, when you find out that Roghar is alone?” Boreo asked the servant.
The servant nodded, “Yes Eagrival. I will come for you personally as soon as Roghar is alone.”
Boreo made a small gesture to dismiss the servant and while the servant bowed, Boreo went off towards his own rooms.
As soon as he slammed the door of his room behind his back, he sat himself down on a chair. With his elbows on the table, he laid his forehead in his hands. Something was happening and he had no idea what it was. Things slipped through his hands. And somehow Luse was involved with it.
Roghar was slipping through his fingers, Luse was nowhere to be found, and the Eagris was not helping with informing him either.
The fact that that old and always present Eagrival Luse was gone from the Eagris, was disturbing him for some reason.
And Roghar was slipping through his fingers aswell. With him, Boreo had two options: Either go along with Roghar and make his plans work as a good advisor. Or Boreo could leave Roghar behind, leave Lugas and retreat back to the Eagris.
Following all options possible, Boreo suddenly stood up.
He slammed the door open, walked the corridors to the hall, never thinking about closing the door behind him, and walked right in to the hall.
Roghar was already yelling at one of the captains because of something he was told, with one hand on his dagger.
Holding his hands up to all attendees, Boreo walked right up to Roghar. Because he was Eagrival of the king, he was granted pass. When he stood in front of Roghar, the king eyed him warily, but when Boreo tried to talk, something prevented him from speaking. Looking down he followed the sleeves of the kings dress to this persons shoulder and watched the face of Roghar, that was painted with anger.
Slowly Boreo's knees felt weak and he felt something in his stomach that stood in the way of dropping down. Look down that same arm he saw the arm holding a dagger, which was planted in his stomach.
Falling backwards, he felt the dagger slip out of his body, unable to support his body any longer, he felt down on the ground.
As he felt the strength leave his body, he tried to speak, still. When Roghar bent over him, Boreo grabbed Roghars collar and with great effort he forced the words out:
“I am on your side.”
As his sight dimmed, he saw Roghars surprice flow over his face.
Seeing the dead Eagrival on the floor, Roghars head spun with strategies. The Eagris would be angry with their subjects death.
He took his captain by his shoulder and pulled him towards him. The captain in fear tried to back away, but Roghars grip was far too strong.
“Close all the borders.” Roghars voice was far from strong, yet he hoped it still was stable enough to force the people to hear him.
“Lagus' borders will close for all Eagrival. No Eagris powers anymore inside Lagus.”
Gaining his strength in his voice, Roghar pushed the captain away.
“Go, send your men to the borders.” The captain saluted and heeled away.
He send for a servant, then turned to his throne and sat on it. Suddenly he felt tired and he knew that there was a heavy time coming on. As he stared out of one of the windows, he saw a pulse of light in the already dark air outside.

Arabon walked the corridors of Trakands fortress in Nadirand. He has not been outside for weeks and thought that today was a good time to do so.
After a week of paperwork and meetings with the Prince, he was happy to be able to see no papers for today.
Turning a corner he saw the darkness outside and wondered that it took him so long to figure out that it was due to the evening, that the Prince had let him alone. Trakand would be sleeping already, as would anybody else in this castle.
But sniffing the cold outside air was enough to clear his minds of governments business. Despite the darkness he could see well enough to clear out that he was standing on one of the walls outside the castle.
The air was fine after a long day where the air inside the castle had been hot, he was happy to find the colder air running through his cloths. A small breeze puffed his hair and gently tucked his clothes. He felt the heat fell off him.
He could not recall why he suddenly was looking at the sky, a bird flying by could have been the cause. Or maybe his eyes drifted to see the top of a tree waving in the gentle breeze. Whatever the cause, his eyes caught a line of light as it was descending from the sky, towards the south. It only took several minutes before it was gone, but it suddenly was there. In the back of his mind a thought wakened that he was possibly making things up because of lack of sleep, but he was well aware that it was not the cause. He was well awake, and he knew what he saw had really happened.
Thinking the event through, he went back inside, taking three detours before he reached his appartements.

Parcema was scurrying about his appartement, trying to get rid of the amount of books lying about.
Every now and then his eyes drifted towards the windows. It was weeks back, since he received any letter from Luse. And that was what occupied his mind. The books he picked up, ended either on his desk, or on a chair. Some really made it to the bookcase, but most were simply replaced to another place about the room.
The last letter Parcema had received, was from a place far in the south, after Luse left Nadirand and had entered Lagus’ borders. An inn that he had found because of some Lagus soldiers. He had written about the soldiers and how well they had treated Luse. And how some girl there at that inn, possibly the daughter of the innkeeper, had got his attention. At the end of the letter Luse wrote about the ongoing road to the south of Lagus. He thought he would have to make a stroll through a wild outdoors. No roads and no people to meet along the way. But he promised to send a letter or a sign anytime as he was able to do so.
And that was some weeks back now.
Eagrival Boreo had send many letters to the Eagris, with pleads for help with his regent. And with one of those letters he mentioned he heard rumours of an Eagrival in Lagus, who never arrived at the palace of Lagus.
Things went wrong at Lagus. Parcema’s thoughts went from Luse to Boreo, while his hands went from the floor to the desk, filled with books.
His mind stopped thinking and he watched his desk, that was now filled with books. He should write Boreo back. But he had no idea how to help Borreo. Sending another Eagrival was not the solution. But sending advise alone was neither good.
But for writing he would need his desk, which was now filled with books for at least six books high. In thoughts between putting the books back to the floor, or leaving them where they were, he looked out of the little window. Just as his eyes caught sight of a line shooting from the sky to the south. With quick pace Parcema went to the window to have a better view.
With renewed energy, he forgot about books, or Lagus. It took him some efforts to find the things he was looking for, but after a while he found what he was looking for. With a calendar and a copy of the book that Luse took with him on the road, Parcema muttered unhearable. Nodding he lay the calendar in the bookcase. The sign. He was sure about that. The sign had shown.

Awakenings

Awakenings

Parce felt a rough shock go through his body and through the entire ship.
Beams of steel made a noise as if they were not made to hold these forces. Like in a fog, he heard parts of the vessel break, but he could not open his eyes to see what was going on. Sweat was running down his forehead, his feet were numb and from his waist down he could feel the blankets were wet, as were the entire bed. Still he could not move at all, neither would he move, if he have had feeling in his legs. He felt the poison in his body run through his veins. His thoughts were like in a fog and he has been dreaming about his partner for several times already. But everytime that the dreams seems too real, the dreams broke off. Everything was distances away from reality. And reality was out of reach.
Unable to move he heard the engines run, but with a different sound now.
And he felt all gravity in the vessel had changed. It took some time, than he heard the engines fall silent.
Silence came over the vessel and over his head. He must have found his time. It was all over, he was going to die, his vessels thrusting power had stopped and now he was left somewhere in space. A floating, if the vessel was still floating, coffin, in deep space.
Earth was nowhere around.
The silence was a relieve against the constant hum of years. With the new silence a tiredness came over him, like he had never felt before. It pulled his eyes close. He felt every muscle in his body come to relax. His head felt empty like it had never been before for a long time.
Not sure whether it was a long time, he was aware that he was still in the same position as some moments back. Of course he could not move but his mind wandered off from time to time, so he had no idea when he slept or not. But from time to time he became aware that he was laying on a bed.
And shortly after that he drifted away in thoughts and broken dreams again.
Always this sensation of the poison in his body.
He heard a noise and he saw a black monster enter the vessel. Light of a nearby star shone through the hole where the monster came in. As Parce tried to focus, the whole room darkened again. Through the slime over his eyes he saw some spots floating around, and that was all he could make out. Tired of straining his eyes, he floated off to sleep again. Dreaming about air and plants. Suddenly he felt a stinging pain in his feet, looking down, he saw that same grass again penetrating his boots. In panic he tried to kick off the grasses from his boots. Trying to avoid of what he now knew what they could do. But as hard as he kicked, the grass would not let go.
He reached down with his hands to pluck the pieces away, but as far as he reached, he could not reach his feet.
Suddenly he felt something touching his body. Pressure of little things on his body over his body, and movement of his body up and down.
Somehow it seemed they were searching for something. He tried to open up his eyes, but all he could see was a yellow-green light. He felt the slime over his eyes had hardened. But he felt that the air had changed. It felt clear.
His lungs relaxed and opened to the new fresh air that filled inside him. He could feel that he was no longer inside the vessel. In his thoughts he was back on earth.
He heard voices or sounds that could be voices. Something cold suddenly touched his lips. Unable to react due to his poisoned body his shock was only for himself. Then he felt a cold liquid flushing over his lips and chin. Apparently his lips were not pressed close, for some of the liquid came in his mouth.
At first he was afraid that he would choke on the fluid, because he was not able to use his body functions, but to his own surprise he did not.
The fluid was cold, but tasteless and it remind him of one time he was in the army.
He had been out for training and the night had been freezing cold. He volunteered for guard and had been out for half the night. In his green uniform and armed he strolled the camp for half the night. To stay awake he took little nips from his flask, which he had laying on the ground in the cold. He could almost relive the entire night again, like it happened for real. He dreamed the whole dream out not disturbed by poison or troubled thoughts.

Luse ran for the star. Not thinking about the bushes and tree branches that tucked his clothings and scratched his skin. He had been witness of a star falling from the sky with such power, that it shook the earth. He would be the first to see it with his own eyes. Even though that star did not fall far from his position, it took Luse longer than he had estimated.
The hill sloped downwards and the further he descended the hill, the higher the trees grew. And the higher the trees, the bigger the branches. In the end Luse was prevented from running and cautiously had to duck and dodge trees and thick branches.
Trying to catch his breath again, Luse halted and leaned against a tree. Panting fast because he was not used to running anymore and lack of air made his head feel light. Feeling his sides, he realised that he had left his drinking flask and the rest of his food behind. Looking back in wonder if he would still get it, than looking forward to where the star had hit earth, he came to the conclusion that he better headed back.
Luse turned to walk the whole way back to the place where he slept last night, but as he turned, he saw a glittering in the morning sun. Stopping halfway his turn, he looked for what that glittering was. Stepping some steps in that direction, he realised, something metal was laying around in the forest. It had broken his way through the forest with great force, for some trees were broken where they stood and some crowns were torn away.
The circle of broken trees was large. Large enough to make place for many people to stand in its position. Luse stopped halfway his first step. Not only because of the massive amount of metal on one place, but something was moving around the vessel too. Small creatures, like animals, were strolling around the metal heap.
It took Luse a moment to see better, he could make out that the creatures were walking on their hind legs. Although very furry, they had humanoid features about them. But their ears were almost like pig ears.
The heads as broad as the shoulders, but none of those creatures really reached higher then Luses chest.
Carefully Luse set a step backwards. He did not want to disturb these creatures.
Even though he wanted to be the first to see the fallen star, he had no will to disturb these creatures, not knowing what they were up to.
Carefully he took another step back, and a second. Only after he took five or more steps away from the metal heap, he dared to take his eyes off the scrapheap of metal and wood. With these unknown creatures trying to understand what had happened.
Luse decided that is was best to first get his flask and food and after that come back for investigating this star.
Since now there was no real urgency pushing him, Luse took more care to look around him, and for the first time he saw what kinds of trees were here and what kinds of vegetation.
He stopped.
This was just as the plants that were discussed in the book he was studying. He had it read so often, that now he was able to read the book, without having to hold it. He looked around and everywhere he looked, parts of the book relived by the looks around him.
Careful not to lose track, Luse tried to remember everything he had passed in his way towards the metal heap. And by this way, he finally found his way back upwards the hill. Till he reached the place where the forest grew less tall, and the hill stopped climbing.
The sun had raised up high again in the sky and the heat immediately hit him in the face. The forest had been much cooler than here in the open. But he had to catch his things.
When he finally found his things, he turned back towards the forest again, and tried to get sight of where he had been for that fallen star. The sun had risen far more towards noon and the temperature had climbed as well. Wiping the heat off his head, he started for the forest once more. Descending down the hill side, he was glad to come in to the shadowed parts of the forest again, but at the same time was asking himself, whether he was going the right way.
Obviously he had lost track. He had no idea where he was, nor where he was going, since he walked far longer now, than he had when he was running down the hill for that fallen star.
Stepping more careful through the dense parts of the forest he tries to look for trees or plants that he had seen earlier that day.
In the end he gave up.
Parts of the book endlessly started popping up in his mind, with almost every tree he saw, and they made it impossible for Luse to think. Every time those pages flashed in front of his eyes, he lost track of where he was, or could be.
Finally on his right, in the far distance, he could finally see something that looked like metal.
Relieved that he finally found it, he went straight for his goal. Prepared to see the little creatures again, he was surprised they were not there.
He entered the open space, tried not to trip over the fallen trees and splinters of wood that was everywhere.
The metal was cold to the touch and very smooth of structure. Of course, the crash into the woods had not done it any good. Small cracks and ripples are all over the exterior, but the parts that were unharmed felt smooth. Careful not to tear a wound by the sharp edges of any of the cracks, Luse walked around the metal heap.
After three times walking around it, Luse sat down on one of the fallen trees and took his bread out for a bite.
Not long after he had some bites, he felt the lack of sleep pushing heavy on his eyelids, now that most of the pressure of today was gone.
With the heat now slowly entering the shadows of the forest, he felt his eyes heavier than before. He searched an easy place to lay his head, found a big branch with enough leaves still on it, and laid himself for a moment of sleep.
The first next thing he recalled was waking up in the dark and feeling revived.
Wiping the sleep off his eyes and stretching his muscles, for the branch had not been the best bed he had had, still it was sufficient.
With stiff legs he made some careful steps, before his muscles wanted to cooperate.
Only then did he realise he was not alone there. Some of those creatures were about too. They were busy with the metal heap, using wooden instruments to get through it, tearing small cracks open, to make larger cracks. Thinking back how he got up, Luse realised he had made quite some noise. Still those creatures gave him no attention what so ever.
Slowly Luse closed in on the scene, watching closer as those creatures worked on the metal. Onnly when Luse was close, one of the closest creatures glanced sideways to Luse, but get back to work again.
Luse realised he was not strong enough to give these creatures any help, but still he did not want to feel as if they had to do all the work. Searching the large heap of metal, running with his hands over it to find parts to give these creatures help, one of them walked from the group of workers and tucked Luses clothing.
He walked back to the group, looking at Luse once again, Luse followed him.
They had made a small hole through the metal. Not enough for Luses hand to pass through, yet one of these creatures could put his hands in.
Luse felt his skin prickle. It made him uneasy for some reason he could not say. Maybe the heat of the day and the cold and damp of the forest now was too much difference on his skin.
He saw that the upper side of that tiny hole was coloured with oxidation. The creature took his hand back out, and with two, they started to make the hole bigger.
Luse wanted to help, but could not see how he could. He stood up and started to walk around the metal heap again. As he had rounded the heap he saw that they had made the hole as big as his own hand. Curiosity was not strange to those creatures, he saw. For one of them had laid himself on the ground, just to be able to look into the hole.

It took them the rest of the night, till there was a hole big enough for one of them to pass through. Luse did not really see much difference between them all, fur and large ears was all he saw. But for some reason when the hole was big enough, they made way for another of them, to go through the hole. He was armed with a stick, but for the rest was he just the same as the others were.
It took him some time to get through the hole, but as quick as he was through, he was back too.
With the first light of the new day creeping through the trees, Luse could make out a little of what was behind the hole. It seemed the metal was just outside, and the rest was paper, or something that looked like paper. Behind that there was the blackness of the interior. Suddenly the face of the creature inside came back to the hole.
In the half dark, his face was more the appearance of an animal. As soon as he appeared, he vanished from sight again as he dashed back inside again.
A second creature went inside.
The other creatures outside began to chatter at each other, some animalistic bark, with humanoid sounds to it. And nothing guttural. More spoken from the front of their mouth, using lips and tongue to make sounds, they communicated with each other.
Luse went closer to the gap, studying the sounds that the creatures made.
After a small moment he let go, to try to understand what they were saying, but it was clear they were upset about something.
It took a while for one of the creatures inside, to reappear at the gap again, at that same time, another creature entered the open space in the forest, with an iron bar.
Using the iron bar, he forced the gap open till it was wide enough to give way for Luse to enter.
On the other side Luse saw a small chamber, good enough for one person to work, just a little smaller than his office at the Eagris. But all the walls were made of iron. One of the walls was covered with a black, now broken, picture, underneath it a bench, with ribbons and reliefs. Quickly he ran his hands over the bench, But took his hands off of it, when he faced the other side of the cabin.
He saw the remains of a human being, strangely clothed, pale as the metal inside that little office, and two of those creatures working their hands on the body.
In shock he stood still, afraid he was facing some horrid scene, but then he realised that the body was still alive. The breast of this man was slowly and inconsistent, but yet still moving.
Panting for breath, like after a run of many miles, but slightly visible, this man was fighting for life. The creatures were prodding the body of the man, for signs of life, other than the panting. Luse entered the bed and laid his hands on the forehead of the man. He felt the heat and wondered why this man had not died because of the fever.
As he wished he had taken his flask with him into this cage, one of the creatures entered the gap with the belongings of Luse in his small hands.
Dashing for his flask, Luse returned to the bed uncorking the flask.
With care he let some drops of fluid fall on the lips of this man.
This man had to go from here, and had to get a good bed, with lots of fresh air too. The whole cabin had an odour of disease and sweat.
He let some more drops fall in the lips of this man, than put the flask back.
He took some steps back from the bed, than saw the two creatures take the man off the bed.
With them two they had a hard time carrying him, but soon a third and fourth creature entered to assist.
A fifth signed Luse to follow him.

With all those creatures after each other and Luse between them all, it was a strange procession.
The day was halfway through when they finally stopped.
Luse looked up in the trees and saw more of these creatures about. In and on the trees, over the ground and from under they appeared out of nowhere to greet their comrades.
Startled with the view of so many creatures he thought to be but fables, Luse slowed his pace, but kept on walking behind the procession of these creatures.
As animalistic as their appearance at first seemed, so human were their behaviours.
Their bodies covered with fur, but to some point they covered with minimal appearances of clothing. Even though their bodies resembles something like an oversized mouse, their ears look like giant cat ears, placed on the side of the head, instead of the top as with normal cats.
And unlike mice their faces hold strangely normal nose and mouth features.
On the other hand, as much humanity they hold in their features, so few humanity they had in greeting each other.
Fully adept to a life between animals and forest, these creatures fully belong here.
Even the forest around them seemed fit. Trees all hold holes in which the creatures could nestle, or make their homes. Luse was not sure which of the two these creatures would do. The largest of these creatures only reached up to Luses leg. The smallest of them was only as big as his hand.
Because of the size of this very sick person, they had to lay him in the centre of their village. On the hard ground. In little time they had made him a small bad made out of leafs of all sorts and twigs.
Luse knelt down besides the person and investigated the sort of his illness. He saw no direct wounds, nor bruises. He needed to undress this man.
He then realised he had forgotten his pack. Most probably this night when he woke up and saw that falling star.
He muttered in his breath. Searching for something sharp to cut this mans clothing, because he could not find buttons with which the strange clothing was closed around this mans body.
He took a small stick, hard and most probably fit to its task, when a creature came about Luse. It laid another piece of wood next to Luse than disappeared again.
Looking down at the piece of wood, Luse realised it has been made in the shape of a knife. Or something to cut through something else.
He took it from the ground and tried to work it on the mans clothing. At first with no result what so ever. Only after many trials, he finally got the knife through.
And when that first cut was made, he could make his way through the heavy and thick clothing.
When he finally got the skin bare, he saw something that shook him. With every beat of this mans heart something greeny pulsed through his body.
This man was poisoned.
Luse started to examine the man more closely. He had trouble stripping the man off all his clothing, but until he reached the mans feet. Heavy boots with some green smears and through the heavy leather of which the boots were made some small cuts were made. Not bigger then a finger, each cut was rimmed by green smears.
Luse took the boots off this mans feet and was horrified of what he saw. The feet had turned all green. All life seemed taken out of the feet.
Luse took the knife and carefully punctured it through the skin of the feet, instead of blood a green ooze appeared.
He took the clothing he had cut off, to catch the slimy green stuff.
At the time the green slime poured out of the mans feet, one of the creatures came about to hold the foot on which Luse was working.
Another came to catch the clothing on which the green stuff was oozing on.
As fast as the creatures took care of the clothing, the green slime turned slowly into brown and stopped running.
The skin of the foot slowly turned white.
Whenever Luse had to make a new puncture hole in the mans foot, the first cut closed and seemed healed for sure.
After a while Luse took the other foot and proceeded the actions he had done on the other foot.
After a while the mans old clothing was filled with brown bristles of what had once been green slimy stuff.
Away in the darkness, Parce heard voices. Calling.
He opened his eyes and saw a man standing beside him. On the lowest of this bunk it was hard to see who was standing beside him.
The man was standing in blue uniform and that was the time he realised that it was time.
He was to order his people in to duty.
“Captain, Mayors orders to make it happen!” a man in uniform filled with stripes and stars made him waken quickly. He came out of bed, clicked his boots together and saluted.
“Sir. I had not see you come in, Sir.” Parce replied.
“Sir, the duty will be fulfilled end of today!”
Parce took his vest and shouted into the bunker filled with bunks.
He shouted his men in to action.
They stumbled out of their own bunks saluting as they got into position.
“Get to your wings and await my commando!” Parce commanded as the last got himself in line.
Again the men saluted then went past him towards the door.
Outside the bunker people were going around their stuff, walking for chores. At other bunkers portals opened to let airplanes out, slowly rolling to their purpose.
His men ran around, gathering their stuff readying themselves for a new day and new battle. There was not much else they could do here. They were stationed here for one purpose: Oppress the enemy, and today they would bring heavy casualties to ground troops of the guerrillas, who have opposed the coming of Parces army.
News papers told everyone that they had no purpose there. That it was all internal affairs, on which outside countries had no purpose to mingle with.
But the president was sure he had every right to put his hand down, and make a stand against this country, as he said they treated human dignity with hands and feet.
So now they were here. Trying to bring common sense to these people by heavy force.
Their position was well hidden. It had taken great measures to keep it that way. Well positioned inside the mountainous surroundings on the border with an other country, the airplanes always left the mountains on the side of the other country.
Taking altitude there, and than re-enter to make their way over the enemies country. Most often to patrol, sometimes to wipe away small flocks of military activity.
A few days back Parce and his men had flown further than normal, discovering new activity of large measures.
Now they would wipe them away. Ground troops had scanned the grounds and whereabouts of these station yesterday, only discovering military actions.
Today they received green light for a large bombardement. And if all was right, it would bring a large set back for the enemy.

Not much later Parce was in his own plane. He tested his voice and than asked his man whether they could reach him.
After that he made contact with the ground people.
“All is set. Ready when you are.”
Parce commanded his flight to leave. One by one the planes rolled for the runway.
A few minutes later they were all gone. Keeping low over the mountains they left the enemy borders, entering neighbour countries space.
As the scouts were right, they had five targets. With nine planes and two heavy bombs per airplane they had sufficient possibilities to get the enemy off the map.
Parce made his plane circle slowly to few his men and their plane getting into position. Once in position, they went their nose towards the enemy country.

Pain soared through his body. Parce winched against the pain. He felt it run through his whole body for a few minutes. Stars flashed in front of his eyes before he sank back into a black darkness.
As he slowly faded away his dream came back again. Minutes later, all chaos. The formation of planes was broken, one plane was down already. They had been waiting.

It was one back set up. The buildings were no buildings, they were disguises for rocket launchers. People on the ground ran about and he saw orders being given.
Joan was down. His plane turned on its axis nose pointing nose down.
Colin was heading for safety as his plane had taken casual damage.
Parces plane was still intact, as the others. But this was not planned.
He ordered his men back into formation, change of plans. He let his mind spin on possibilities and came with a new plan.
He ordered them back up high. Very much higher then the rockets could follow.
Then from high ground he ordered two planes per time to lower and lock their missiles, release and then get back up.
No looking back on results, touch and go. From high altitude.
The first two went in for the lock, but Parce had some surprices planned. As the enemy rockets pointed for this planes to come in, Parce let his plane plummet out of the sky. Nose down he let his plane fall straight down, at some point ordering the first two planes to get back up.
Surprised that the planes did not attack, the men on the ground had no idea what to think about this sudden change of plans, as Parce released his first missile. Unlocked, it simply fell out of the sky, nose down as Parce tried his best to get his nose back up again.
Following his role, two other planes entered the scene putting use of the suprises down on the ground. Getting his plane straight low by the ground, Parce felt the impact of three missiles in the back of his plane. Large clouds of dust and debris flew around, for a short while even covering his plane.
He felt his engines having trouble with the dust in the air, instead of fresh oxygen. Struggling to keep his airplane levelled, he escaped the cloud of dust. He pulled up towards the sky again.
They had removed the enemy off the map.
“We head home, men. Good work!”, Parce commanded through the radio.
“I saw Joan pull his seat. And Colin is already safe back home.”
He changed his channel to the base frequency and ordered a searching for Joan. He gave the location where he last saw Joan and hoped they would be in time.
He was glad things turned out the way it did now, but was shocked that the enemy had outsmarted them.
With his head in thoughts he let his men go for the base. He made one last circle over the place that once had been the enemies base than headed to base as well.

First back to the neighbours country, than back up the runway.
But as he turned his plane down, his landing gear would not come out. People down on the ground waved him to get back up again. Something was wrong with the plane.
But he could not stop his plane from its downward way.
That was the time he realised he had yet one missile on his plane.

Blackness came back as a rock, putting dreams and thoughts out of his mind.


A knock on the door.
The hand is removed from the door and tries the handle. But the door did not budge. Locked.
A mutter is heard as the hand goes away from the door. Footsteps leave the door on the cold paved corridor. Parcema is not in his room.

Parcema sat in his coach, is mind going all ways. While he faced the outside world pass his window.
His mind was not focussed on the outside world. It was rambling on about thoughts. Thoughts on Luse who went away and for some reason even off the map.
Thoughts on things he was busy with back in the Eagris.
People in the Eagris should have to deal with things without him for a while.
He has more important things to deal with, than simple questions as why the cook made dinner in the morning. Or why mister Grindle was not at his studies.
Something would happen anytime soon. Something that was important. Something that an old Eagrival once told about. He saw something in the future, when everyone thought him to be crazy.
Parcema thought him to be crazy.
And crazy Eagrivals are not able to function.
Still Parcema had to question him.
His last place where he had been living was somewhere in Lagus.
He hoped he could find him there.
For more than a half day he was in the coach already left early at first sunlight. But after so many miles of travelling his behind was sore of bumping up and down the bench. As comfortable as the coach seemed at first, the bench was only made of wood with a bit of fabric over it.
It would be about time they entered Lagus’ borders.
Parcema’s estimations seemed right, because the coach halted.
Looking out of the window, he saw the coach had halted at the signs of two military men standing in uniform of Lagus’ colours. Both with halberd, sword at side and gate closed.
“Please turn this vehicle around, driver.” One of the men ordered the driver.
Parcema stepped out of the coach and approached the men.
“Please step in to the coach, mister.” The other military man ordered Parcema.
“May I ask what the purpose of stopping us is,” Parcema questioned the men, “Since when are people no longer welcome in Lagus?”
“All borders with other countries have been closed. On order by King Roghar.”
“Is Roghar at war?” Parcema asked. His eyebrows frowned, giving him much more authority than he seemed at first.
“We have our orders, Mister.”
“I am an Eagrival, best men. If there is something going on that we all have to know, than I best get that information, soldiers!”
The men lowered their gaze.
One of them pushed the other. “You best tell him.”
“Tell me what?” Parcema questioned.
The other man pushed back at his coworker, “You outrank me. You can tell yourself”
“Tell it now, man.” Parcemas eyes narrowed.
The first soldier shove his feet, then said: “Roghar had his worst anger and killed someone in his fury.”
“Yes mister. Lord. That is all we know.” The other soldier added to his comrades reply.
Parcema rose himself to his largest stand, “then you best let me pass.”
The soldiers cornered by the towering First Eagrival before them seemed unable to decide whose orders to follow. The driver went back up on his place, Parcema strode closer towards the soldiers.
“You two, you let me pass. No harm will come over you. And if it would, come to the Eagris.”
This was enough convincion for the two and as they placed their halbards away, they opened the gate.
“And be aware to open again when I return!”
The coach passed Parcema, halted for him to be able to enter the coach then drove off again, leaving two soldiers closing the gate again, with trembling knees.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 01.04.2010

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Widmung:
To my wife. As she is my inspiration always.