Kastori Revelations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 1) (13 page)

It’s just one more day. I bet I could make it tonight if I tried! Don’t do that. No fighting monsters. Don’t be that stupid.

But as he time went by, he began to think he should try it. Was
Omega One
really that far? He decided it couldn’t be, and thus, even as the sun disappeared on the horizon and the sky filled with dotted stars, he kept going, close to the edge of the forest.

Suddenly, he heard an awful shriek that sounded like a hungry arachnia, followed by the scooting of numerous legs. He quickly bailed for the closest tree, dropping the skull on the ground, and climbed about fifteen feet with the quickness a man of his dehydration and starvation could only pull off with adrenaline. He could hear the shrieking even up on the branch, but the footsteps came from different directions. The creature’s cries echoed off the trees, making it impossible to pinpoint its exact location.

Cyrus remembered how he had promised Celeste safety, and wished he had something similar—Crystil’s toughness to push him. It was easy to defy orders in a simulation where death just meant hitting the reset button. Outside, Cyrus wanted nothing more than his commander to tell him to shut up and for her to kill the arachnia.

Eventually, the cries settled down, but the point remained. Cyrus knew he needed Crystil when he got back to the ship—provided she gave him that chance.

He slowly crawled down the tree, his eyes constantly bouncing from left to right in search of the arachnia. He quickly grabbed the skull and darted back up the tree. He pressed himself against the trunk and placed the head about three feet in front of his outstretched feet.

“You better be pretty valuable, you know. I just risked my life to save your sorry skull.”

He laughed as the remains faced him, unmoving and without a sound.

“You probably have a lot of great stories, don’t you? The things you’ve seen, the things you’ve heard. What kind of stories do you have?”

Nothing else made a sound. The monster was not present. Cyrus had as close to unadulterated silence as possible at that moment.

“Well, let me tell you my story. I’m Cyrus. I came from a planet called Monda, where I was the son of the emperor. I have a sister, Celeste, who is just… she’s awesome. She’s super cool. She’s the one who gives me my confidence and keeps me in line. She’s pretty much the greatest person I know, if I’m being honest.”

Cyrus paused.

“And I miss her. I don’t think I could go on without her if she were gone forever. But good news! That’s not the case! I’m going to see her soon, so it’ll make things right. Anyways, while on Monda…”

Cyrus rambled for a good five minutes to the skull, telling it his life story, from his childhood to coming to Anatolus.

“So yeah, that’s me. Awesome, I know. You’re talking to the son of an emperor!”

Again, Cyrus laughed.

“What’s your story, Mr. Skull? Do you got one?”

The sound of an aviant flying overhead provided the only sounds before the ensuing silence.

“Oh come on, I know you got one.”

“Ahh, you got me,” the skull “said,” its scratchy, croaking voice added by Cyrus. “I used to be a skull for a giant lupi. And then some big mean monster came and burned me to a crisp! Can you believe that? I was just trying to protect my food!”

“I knew you had a story!” Cyrus said, snapping his fingers. “You’re a shy one.”

“What, me?” the skull “said.” “Nonsense, I just need to know who I can trust! When you’re a skull you have to be careful, since you don’t have a body or muscles to move you around. You get tired of being picked up and tossed around.”

“Oh, I can imagine,” Cyrus said, moving forward and lying on his belly. “I know a bit about being pushed around, but it’s not really the pusher’s fault. Well, it is, but it’s my fault for encouraging it.”

“Oh, you, Cyrus? I never would have guessed.”

“Geez, got a nasty tongue, don’t you, Mr. Skull?”

“It’s the teeth. I’m just sharp like that.”

“Oh, hahaha, you’re a funny one, Mr. Skull! Funny guy! What if I pu—”

The sound of a giant crash quieted Cyrus immediately. He braced himself on the branch and looked ahead in horror at the feet of the monster. The feet sported four toes with sharp claws, which had the size to clutch him and anything else he’d seen on the planet. Maybe not
Omega One
, but that was about it.

Cyrus bit down on his lips and breathed very slowly through his nose. He closed his eyes as the rumbling produced by the monster’s breathing surrounded him. He opened one eye and looked up to see the creature looking down from the top of the trees. Cyrus closed his eyes and buried his head, praying for either a quick death or his luck to continue.

The creature flapped its wings and took off without even a grumble. Cyrus couldn’t believe his luck. The monster had shown up without any warning, growls, roars or tremors. But it had also left the same way, without any threatening sounds. He half expected his mind was playing tricks on him.

It did have the effect of shutting him up and throwing ice on the previous 15 minutes, which, much to his embarrassment, he’d spent talking to a freaking skull. A lifeless, inanimate skull.

He was losing his mind. Whether from stress or physical malnourishment, it didn’t much matter. He slunk down on the bark, closed his eyes, and begged for sleep which he would wake up from, just well-rested enough to continue home.

21

“You had your chance, Cyrus. And now it’s gone. Thanks to you, it’s over.”

“No!”

Cyrus woke up in a cold sweat. As he lowered himself from the branch with the skull in his right hand, he trembled both from the lack of sustenance and the newest nightmare.

Once again, a woman who sounded like Celeste had pushed him away. Cyrus tried to come near the unrecognizable feminine figure, but she somehow always kept her back and distance to him. No matter how he pleaded with the girl, she would not so much as turn to give him a view of her. It was almost certainly Celeste, but that made it even worse—knowing it could’ve been her, yet she had chosen to not face him.

When he landed on the ground, he dusted himself off, fatigued beyond anything he’d ever felt. He looked up at where he’d come from and considered it a miracle he hadn’t fallen from the branch.
Or died yet.

With nothing but salvation and the ship on his mind, he set out to the plains and sprinted to his right, as if believing he could run the entire way to
Omega One.

Then he groaned in exasperated pleasure.

“Are you serious!”

He yelled and laughed and wanted to kick himself when the ship appeared a mere thirty seconds later. Cyrus knew if he hadn’t gotten so caught up in the insane conversation with the skull last night, he could’ve seen the ship.
Then might’ve gotten eaten. Either way! Either way! It was right there! Oh, if I’d died this close…

He sprinted to the ship and inputted the code to open the airlock, so hungry for food and thirsty for water he’d eat the dirty sheets on his bed for fiber and drink from the oceanic water. The platform lifted him up, and he placed the skull on the ground and hurried for the mess hall.

He grabbed the first ration he saw and tore it open, not caring if he splattered eggs and vegetables. He devoured the ration, bits of food falling onto his chest and the ground, as he finished in less than a minute. He grabbed a second one and repeated the process, his chin dirty with egg bits. He saw the sink and turned it on, drinking straight from it, not even bothering for a cup.

He drank for nearly a dozen seconds, water dripping onto the ground and his clothing. He collapsed to the ground, his legs spread, as he deliriously laughed at his good fortune.

“I should’ve known you were this close! I would’ve outrun that mother of a beast. Oh man. Oh man. Water and food! Water! And! Foooooood!”

He felt the nourishment settle into his stomach, and his stomach digested the food at triple the normal speed. Still hungry and craving more, he grabbed a third ration but cooked this one first. Never before had eggs and vegetables felt like a meal fit for a new emperor. He ate his third ration slowly, rather than devour it as a starving man would. When he finished, he still didn’t feel full, but knew any more would possibly overrun his allotment.

“Whew,” he said as he slumped in the chair. “Disaster for Cyrus Orthran averted! Mission accomplished!”

The last two words reminded him that he actually had a mission, and it involved the other two inhabitants of the ship.

“Celeste! Crystil!”

No response came. Thinking they might still be asleep in their quarters, he walked to their doors and knocked gently. He stood at each one for a minute, listening for any shuffling in a bed or footsteps. When he heard nothing at either door, he walked to the cockpit. No one was home. He tried the last two places on the ship that were open, the medical research bay and the virtual training room, but he was the only human on the ship. He considered going into the abandoned quarters, but even in his half-sane state, he couldn’t come up with a reason for the other two to go into those rooms.

“Well,” he said. “Think of all the trouble we can cause on this craft. Cortanus!”

“Welcome back, Cyrus,” the ship said.

“Wanna plan a surprise party for Celeste and Crystil when they get back?” he said with a cocky smirk.

“You will have to wait a few days. They ventured into the mountains.”

The words sunk Cyrus’ elated mood but did not drown it. He knew Crystil would keep his sister safe.

“They left two days ago, shortly after you left the ship. They have enough supplies for five days, so they should be returning soon.”

“So we gotta plan the surprise party fast,” Cyrus said, though the jovial tone had left as his mind scrambled to think as Crystil would—
what action can I take now to fulfill the task at hand?
“Cortanus, when they left, did they say anything about why they were leaving?”

“Crystil said they were going in search of water.”

Cyrus headed out of the virtual training room, planning on relaxing in his quarters for a couple of days. When he glanced at the research bay, he saw the bone Celeste had brought back, and smacked himself in the head for forgetting the skull. He grabbed it, figuring he could at least contribute by providing more info to Cortanus. He truthfully wanted to head to the mountains and play the role of hero, but knowing how Crystil would react and how he wanted to make amends, he decided to stay put, painful as it was to his ego. Facing Crystil and Celeste when they got home would be a painful enough experience.

He walked into the research bay and saw data on a tablet next to the original bone and the glass of water.

“Cortanus, have you found out anything new since I lost my mind?”

“Unfortunately, I have not. The water remains undrinkable, and until I have more data to compare with what I have on the bone, then I am afraid I cannot do anything more.”

“Well,” Cyrus said, holding the skull aloft. “I know you can see this. The question is, can you analyze
this?”

“I will try,” the ship said.

Cyrus placed it into an open container, and the container slid into the ship. Cyrus patiently waited as the ship analyzed the skull. He read through the data on the water, which reported salt and other contaminant levels much higher than the water on Monda. An analysis of the bone had produced data incomprehensible to Cyrus, who wished even more than usual that he had Celeste there for her intelligence and reassurance he hadn’t botched everything in the first week of the mission.

“I have finished my analysis,” Cortanus said after about a two-minute wait. “It would appear this creature is artificial as, given its size, it cannot possibly have existed as long as it has.”

“Uhh…” Cyrus mumbled, nervous and unsure about what this meant.

“By my analysis, this skull was charred within the last few months. However, the age of the skull seems to suggest that it was created around roughly the same ti—”

“Created,” Cyrus said. “This creature, it was created?”

“It is the same structure and genetic content as the bone Celeste brought,” Cortanus said. “Identical, in fact. Both of these seem to have been created only a few months ago. Both resemble what you see on the screen.”

What Cyrus saw was a creature that looked like the lupi. What he’d seen that night, up on the branch, was that lupi. Except lupi now had been annihilated by something much worse.

Perhaps most frightening of all was that the lupi seemed like the perfect killing organism. Its jaws could crush a human skull with no effort and could produce enough pressure per square inch to break the casing on the ship. It had claws that could kill just about anything, including a nakar, with its power. Though only given a range, the creature could run at obscene speeds, in excess of seventy miles per hour.

And still, that monster killed all of the lupi easily.

Cyrus quizzed Cortanus on everything he could think of. Did the burn marks on the bones indicate anything? How could a fire have been contained so perfectly? Could Cortanus connect the monster in the sky to the destroyed lupi?