Kingdoms Away 1: Jorian Cluster Archives (10 page)

Ed ran down the hallway, slid left and raced
up the left stairwell. He could hear his mother following at a more
sedate pace and when he heard her pace quicken, he increased speed,
with a laugh. They were running by the time they reached his room.
He could hear his mum breathing hard and laughing behind him. A
hand tousled his sandy hair and her two arms went around him for a
hug. They entered his room.

The fire was burning brightly, welcoming the
tired pair. Mum tucked Ed into bed and, as he snuggled into his
large pillows, his mother gave him a kiss on the brow and gently
brushed the straying hair from his forehead. He could feel his eyes
grow heavy as she continued to stroke his head but managed to stay
awake long enough to make sure she had put his torch under his
pillow.

The Eventus was released the next day
headlining the little girl’s kidnapping. For some time the news was
the highlight of everyone’s life. Ed would often dream of being a
part of the Space Corpus and saving the little girl. He would
imagine different scenes where he would fight huge wars or come up
against the most appalling conditions to get to her. He discovered
that his dark-haired buddy was also full of ideas for saving the
girl. Ethas and Ed played together a lot on the mission, and the
games they discovered were much more exciting when they were based
on something real. Ed got to make exaggerated decisions, with Ethas
encouraging the lavish use of resources to get the girl. For the
first time Ed was quite happy to play the Top Supreme Sovereign and
Ethas was the Grand Admiral of the Guard happy to follow his king
into battle.

All the while, when he wasn’t dreaming or
playing, he was still increasing his skills in carpentry or
continuing with the general education for his age. He and Ethas
shared some classes and continued to play together. Their
friendship developed and Ed found someone he could trust. The boys’
adventures led them into many scrapes but neither betrayed the
other and at times took the blame upon themselves. Ethas learnt a
new side to Ed’s father and took the blame whenever the Sovereign
was home.

Ed and Ethas stumbled into the small stone
cottage, laughing their heads off. It was a hot and sunny day.
Ethas’s dad, Lyam, shushed them.

“Your sister is asleep.”

Ethas nodded solemnly and dragged Ed to the
kitchen, where cookies were cooling on a rack. Since Ethas’s dad
pinched one too, Ed happily accepted a stolen cookie. After the
Captain of the Guard left the room Ed whispered, “Dad would kill me
if I stole a cookie at home.”

“Did he use his belt again?”

Ed shrugged and lifted up his top to show
Ethas his back. To his chagrin Ethas’s dad came back in and gave
him a kindly smile. “Let me see that, Ed.”

“No, it’s okay. I was bad.”

A strange look crossed Lyam’s face, his black
eyes showing concern. “I just want to make sure there’s no
cuts.”

Ed glanced at Ethas, who nodded. Ed turned
and accepted the administrations of healing ointment. To his relief
Lyam said no more. “Now, what are you boys up to now?”

“Mmmmm, playing outside?”

“Good idea. Stay in the yard though.”

They both pinched another cookie each and ran
outside. After some time they headed back inside, sweaty and
thirsty. Just as Ed stepped up the last step he heard Ethas’s
pretty mum, Jasmine, say something to Lyam. She was saying, “…
offer some momentary, blissful peace, to ease the hearts of those
who tread upon eggshells—”

“Shh, they are just outside.”

Ed opened the door, smiling, looking for
eggs. Ethas grinned, pushing past him.

Jasmine glanced at Ed but turned away. “Just
in time. A cold glass of milk to go with some of those
cookies?”

Ed stammered but Lyam laughed as Ethas
moaned, “Dad stole them first!”

“Did not!”

“Did too.” Ethas rolled his eyes at his
father.

Lyam pulled out a couple of chairs. “Come on.
Sit down.” As they sat Lyam glanced at his wife. “Ed, how would you
like to spend some more time here? With us? Ethas is enrolling into
some new classes and I’m sure your father would approve.”

Ethas’s black eyes widened just before his
face was lit by a smile. “We get to sleep in the soldiers’ quarters
and everything!”

Ed saw another way to escape from his
uncompromising father. Once he had stood by his open bedroom door
with his fists tightly clenched, promising himself that when he was
big enough he would defend his mother and fight his father. As it
was, he felt helpless. How he longed for it to end but on the days
the Sovereign left the castle, the days brightened considerably.
Maybe he could learn how to defend from the soldiers. He nodded
quickly. “I’d like that.”

“…
and the ARTHODPODA shall have
its part in tearing down the Enemy: …”

Excerpt from the Joiran Cluster Archives, the Third
Hostility.

{[AIS] [Aislant] [caves]

[605887/1396/23/winter]}

When Serafina woke, it was not what she expected. It
was so cold and icy and there was a terrible noise close to her.
She thought she saw something move away from her. She was on her
right side, half lying and half sitting, nestled in a slight
concavity of snow. She didn’t want to look but she had to. Numb
with shock and fear, she raised her head. The falling snow did not
yet cover the sight before her. She vomited and a new wave of
blackness threatened to engulf her. Some distance away and all
around her lay what was left of the beasts that had taken her,
except she now saw that they were only people in disguises. Her
feeling of relief that they weren’t the Twisted Ones was fleeting
because then she saw and heard animals tearing apart flesh.
Terasian. The beasts were supposed to have been exterminated
thousands of years ago. Feena only knew this from having listened
to a cook’s tale when her mum had let her stay in the kitchen while
working a compulsory ship duty. The cook had even shown her a
picture when her mum was busy elsewhere. She never forgot what they
looked like. The beasts were modifications of a wolf with several
other combinations. The resulted creature was larger than a male
wolf, hyena shaped, grey to black fur, long fangs and green cat
eyes. She was frightened; for every beast, there should be a
master, but all she could see were the animals. Since the Third
Hostility, it was in direct violation of Absolute Law that Joirans
could be masters of animals. Their roles became carers or to simply
coexist with them. Scientists had made the Terasians in a time when
they had no boundaries, until the Elysians installed some for them.
The scientists had lied. They hadn’t killed the beasts as they said
they had, but she hoped they had killed the masters. Both the
master and the beast shared the same name, forever entwined in some
way.

The vile taste in her mouth and the sight
before her made her cry; there was no one to help her. The tears
fell from her large golden eyes, but she uttered no sound. What was
worse, she couldn’t move her cold body. Pain coursed through her
hands and feet, and her fingers looked strange. The blanket had
come undone. There was loose black hair all over it and the torn
fabric of her top made her colder. Her mind grew foggy and she
watched, horrified, as the beasts devoured their meal. She then saw
one of the beasts look at her and saw it bare its fangs under its
lips. Then, another looked at her and then at the other beast. From
where she was half lying on the snow, she tried to see how many
beasts there were, but her mind didn’t want to work and she didn’t
really want to know anyway. She just wanted Mum, Dad and Mr.
Pollocks. She blacked out again.

Feena regained consciousness and saw three
Terasians move away from her. She was panicky. She thought it was
her imagination, but all the beasts at the wreckage to her left
started to back away, growling and snarling. It was then she heard
growling and snarling behind her and then on either side of her.
There were many white wolves moving in on the Terasians. One wolf
got down on her belly and shuffled over to her. The beautiful
creature stopped a meter away and gazed at the young Joiran whose
tears began again and everything became foggy. In that fog, she
thought a large being covered in soft white fur gently picked her
up.

The creature protected the fragile body in
its warmth and waded back through the deep snow with ease toward a
mountainous range.

When she awoke, it was to warmth and
softness. Her body still hurt, but when she looked at her hands,
they seemed to be normal again. Someone had wrapped her, not in fur
as she expected, but in woven fabric of varying colors and
patterns. She looked around and saw that she was in an enormous
cave and that fires were burning in different places in the central
area. The entrance to the main cave was dark and narrow and she
couldn’t see to the outside due to a turn in the crevice.

Around the fires hunched tall creatures
covered in long white fur. They had friendly faces of varying
shapes and colors, ranging from narrow to round, pink to brown.
Then she realized it wasn’t fur. Long white body hair covered every
section except their faces. The hair was shorter around their
wrists and ankles. One, a lot smaller than the others, came over to
her, smiling, and offered her a clay bowl while making drinking
motions.

A little shyly, she took the large bowl and
smelled what seemed to be runny soup. She took a sip. She hardly
tasted it but it was hot and it warmed her. The creature smiled and
looked back at the group whom she perceived to be adults. They
nodded in encouragement and began talking amongst themselves. They
had deep voices that sounded almost musical to her. She wondered if
they spoke the common language, Unuslingua. The creature touched
its chest and said, “Thonnurr,” looking at her expectantly. Having
glanced down its body and noting its small stature in comparison to
the others, she realized it was a boy.

Pointing to her chest, she said, “Serafina.”
She wondered how old he was. She held up all five fingers on one
hand and two on the other and tapped her chest. He repeated her
name but frowned when she wiggled her fingers.

He gestured for her to lie back into the soft
covers. She looked around again and saw many creatures coming and
going through smaller crevices around the entire cave. As her face
clouded over with emotions, he bent down, patted her hands and
quietly left. Only a few seconds passed when a female came over,
much taller and wider than the boy and, to her amazement, the
female stroked her head just as her own mum did. Serafina began to
cry and allowed herself to be comforted. She soon slept, and
whenever she awoke, there was someone there with comfort, food or
drink. She wondered if they had chocolate. She liked chocolate. She
just wasn’t allowed to eat a lot of it.

{[AIS][Aislant][caves]

[605894/1396/30/winter]}

As Serafina became more aware of her
surroundings, she wondered about the wolves. The cavern they were
in was massive. She could hardly see the ceiling. The light from
the fires barely reached up the walls and, now and then, she could
make out golden patterns lighting the top. She touched her head in
an unconscious gesture, moving the hair away from her face. Her
small, sharp, inquisitive features studied the surroundings, noting
the groups of creatures busy with different activities.

Within the great cavern, Serafina could make
out motion in the dark recesses above. She was sure bats inhabited
these caves and it was their movements she could see, but there was
no way to communicate her interest.

As Serafina lay in the arms of a female
comforter, she pulled away slightly to look toward the base of the
cave walls. What looked like bundles of white fluff were in fact
the white wolves. Some of the wolf groups were playing and eating
and others were caring for their families. One of the wolves
trotted over to her on the smooth sand floor. Serafina looked up at
her comforter and moved to indicate she wanted to stand. The helper
supported her and as Feena’s eyes set upon the magnificent animal,
everything else faded into the background. She took two uncertain
steps toward the wolf and felt the pain in her body from the
injuries she had sustained. Her golden eyes were at the same level
as the wolf’s eyes in front of her.

The comforter behind her smiled and said
something that sounded like, “Sheca.”

“Sheca,” Serafina repeated to the large wolf.
She knew to thank the wolf but wasn’t sure if these wolves would
understand. She bowed her head slightly and knelt down, still
facing the wolf. The she-wolf approached her and placed her
slightly wet nose briefly on her cheek. Serafina saw the tail
wagging slightly and so she gently reached up and scratched around
the ears. The she-wolf backed away, gave Serafina one big, sloppy
lick and then loped back to her pack.

The young girl looked at her current carer
and saw the approval in the kind face.

“Fin …” the carer beckoned and finished
speaking words that Fin did not understand. They had shortened her
name at some point. Fin reminded her of fish. She remembered that
the people of Earth used to eat fish and chips. She liked chips and
so decided she’d not complain about her name. She had tried
shortening Thonnurr’s name but he shook his head and pointed to his
height. He then pointed to her height and said Fin, then went a lot
higher and said Fina. Fin doubted she would reach the height
Thonnurr measured. The names of her carers were complicated, but it
was permissible to use what she considered were their titles.
Matura was the standard for both male and female.

She began as a geongling, a young one,
adopted by a family that included Thonnurr and thirteen others. Her
new family lived in a cave some distance from the main cavern. When
Thonnurr had directed her through one of the smaller crevices, he
kept turning around to smile at her. His pink face crinkled in
encouragement. She could make out his features clearly from high
recessed lights of some kind. The lights dimmed to represent
nighttime, just like ship life. She was ushered through a heavy rug
overhanging a tall cave entrance into a large cave. A big fire was
off to one side, with smoke drawn through discreet ventilation
shafts. She could hear the muted sounds of bats.