Out of This World (9 page)

Jenna shook her head. “It’s better if I go, Zack. I’m lighter.”

“It's way too dangerous. There's no way I'm going to let you— ”

“You know I'm right,” she interrupted. “Besides, I'm not strong enough to push you out far enough to reach him. But you could push
me
there.” She gripped the vine tightly. “We don't have time to argue about it.”

Zachary frowned. She was right. The armored native had less than a minute before he would plummet to the ground. They had to act now.

“Hold on tight,” said Zachary, shoving his sister toward the broken limb as hard as he could.

Jenna exploded outward in a long arc. When she neared the branch she reached out and hooked one arm around it while keeping her grip on the vine. “Hurry!” she grunted at the alien. “Grab the vine. I can’t hold on much longer!”

The boy reached out and seized the vine just as Jenna lost her grip on the broken branch. They both swung wildly back, overshooting Jenna's starting point by a wide margin. Zachary caught the vine and slowed its wild swinging. Once it was stabilized over his sister’s original perch, Jenna and the native lowered themselves to safety.

The alien rubbed his overworked arms, wincing. He turned to the humans in dismay. “Why did you do that?”

They looked at each other, puzzled.

“Why?” repeated Jenna in confusion. “Because it looked like you were in big trouble. We were trying to save your life.”

“I
was
in big trouble,” he replied. “And you
did
save my life. But I still don't understand. I'm not one of your people. You didn't know me. Why would you put yourself at risk to help me?”

“Because you needed help,” was all that Jenna could think of to say.

“Very, very strange,” said the boy, shaking his armored head.

He reached out and pressed gently on Zachary's stomach. “You're softbodied
people
. I didn't know there was such a thing.”

“We're not from here,” offered Zachary, continuing to be amazed by the incredible performance of the language transformer crystal they had been given. As much as he still resisted the idea, maybe it
was
magical.

The armored native nodded. “That's obvious. I've never seen any creature here who would help a creature of another kind. You are very strange. But . . .” he paused as if at a loss for the right word. “Thanks. Thanks for saving my life.”

“We're glad we could help,” said Jenna.

“My name is Zachary, by the way,” said Zachary, trying to be friendly. “And my sister here is named Jenna.”

“I’m Tular,” said the alien boy.

“Nice to meet you, Tular,” said Jenna. She paused and then scratched her head. “Just out of curiosity, what were you doing up here anyway?”

The alien considered Jenna for several long seconds. “Well, to be honest,” he said at last, lowering his head guiltily. “I was, um . . . spying on you.”

“Spying?”

 “Yeah. I had never seen anything like you before and I needed to learn how much of a threat you were—how dangerous. And then I overestimated the strength of a branch and it broke.”

“Why would you think we were dangerous?” asked Jenna as the three of them began slowly working their way down the tree and back to the ground.

Tular looked confused. “You really don't have any idea what things are like here, do you?”

“I guess not,” said Zachary.

“Well, for one, just about every living thing here is deadly,” he said. “Let's get to the ground and I'll show you.”

They climbed down in silence for another few minutes, at last making it to the ground. A beautiful grove of shiny blue flowers was growing only five yards away from where they had exited the tree. Each had a thick stalk that rose several feet to where an array of delicate blue petals folded back gracefully. The flowers had a bright, metallic sheen, making each look like an exquisite metal sculpture.

Jenna took a step toward the nearest flower. As she did so she watched, fascinated, as the petals slowly lifted from the sides of the flower's stalk, coming together to form a beautiful, pointed Tulip bulb.

“Can I pick one of these?” she asked

“Duck!” yelled the armored boy from behind her, grabbing her arm and pulling her down.

And not an instant too soon.

The plant she had been approaching, the stalk with the pointed metal flower on its end, had swiveled to face her and had blasted off from the earth, hurtling at fantastic speed like a missile right for her chest. It embedded itself like an arrow in a tree branch several feet behind her. If Tular hadn't pulled her down it would have embedded itself in her chest.

They watched in horror and fascination as the rope-like root attached to the stalk contracted, tugging at the stalk until the razor sharp, metal petals at its tip dislodged themselves from the tree. The root continued retracting into the ground, pulling the stalk and metallic flower with it back to its original position—ready to fire again.

“Okay. You've convinced me,” said Tular, shaking his head in disbelief. “I wasn't sure you were telling the truth. These flowers are called Harpoon Tulips. And even the stupidest animal would know better than to approach one on
purpose
. You really don't have a clue, do you?”

They both shook their heads no.

“Then let me repeat,” said Tular in exasperation. “
Everything
here is deadly.
Everything
.”

“But why did it do that?” said Jenna. It just didn’t seem right that such a stunningly beautiful flower would want to attack her like that.

Tular rolled his eyes. “It was hungry,” he said, as if this were the dumbest question he had ever heard. “Once it impales a victim it digests them—from the inside out. I can’t believe you were going to try to
pick
one,” he added with the same expression of disbelief that a human would have shown had an alien wanted to pet a hungry crocodile.

Jenna shuddered at the thought of the horrendous fate she had narrowly missed. It clearly paid to become familiar with the native plant and animal life as quickly as possible. “What about that one?” she said, pointing to what looked like a large, metallic sunflower plant, bright orange in color. “That's dangerous, too?”

Tular nodded. “The Guillotine Flower. It's a lot like the Harpoon Tulip. Get too close and the flower launches the large, circular portion at its center, which becomes a flying disk. It has razor-sharp edges. And it aims for the neck.”

As Tular was talking, a small bird, perhaps the size of Jenna’s fist, flew in and hovered a few feet from her like a hummingbird would. It was soft pink in color, fuzzy, and adorably cute. She smiled at it. In the blink of an eye a lethal, pointed spike telescoped from the bird’s forehead and it lunged toward her head. With blinding speed, Tular threw his armored hand in front of her and they heard the sound of metal on metal as the bird, mere inches away from drilling a hole in Jenna’s forehead, collided with his hand and bounced off.

Unfazed, the bird stood up, shook itself, and then flew away, retreating farther into the forest.

“I wouldn't advise playing with a Swordbird, either,” commented Tular.

Jenna gulped hard. “Good idea,” she said. She turned to her brother. “As horrible as Hirth was, you can’t say he didn’t warn us this shortcut would be dangerous.”

Zachary frowned. He was beginning to think that calling this world dangerous—even
extremely
dangerous—was an understatement. He turned to face the armored boy once again. “Can you tell us more about this place?”

“I'd be happy to,” replied Tular. “Let's walk to my people's encampment while we talk,” he suggested. “They'll definitely want to meet you two . . . because you're so different and also to thank you properly for saving me.”

They set off through the forest, staying very close to Tular as he kept a watchful eye out so they wouldn't stumble into something dangerous.

“The animals here have developed a huge range of offensive and defensive strategies for survival,” explained Tular. “About half of them have armor like I do—hardbody animals. Armor is a very handy defensive thing to have around here.”

Jenna considered her two close calls with sharp, pointy objects. “
Very
handy,” she agreed.

“About half the animals are softbodies,” he continued. “Like you. The softbodies don't carry heavy armor so they have lightning fast reflexes and incredible speed.”

“That makes sense,” said Jenna. “If you don't have armor protecting you, you’d better be able to run and dodge.”

“Right. That's another reason I believe you when you say you don't belong here. I don't want to sound critical—and I am very grateful that you saved me—but you two are,
by far
, the slowest softbodies I've ever seen. You're even slower than
me
, and you don't have any armor.”

“We’re weak, too, at least compared to you,” admitted Zachary. “It’s pretty obvious we’re not from here. We wouldn’t have lasted five minutes here without you.”

“What do you mean? It must have taken you days or weeks to travel here from your land. And you’ve obviously survived just fine.” The armored alien shook his head. “Although I admit I have no idea how.”

Zachary winced. “Yeah. About that . . .” he began, and then paused, searching for a good way to tell the alien how they had arrived. “About our journey here. . .”

“Would you mind waiting to tell of this until we’re with my people?” asked Tular. “I’m sure it’s an amazing tale, and they’ll want to hear every word.”

“Sure,” said Zachary, knowing that Tular had no idea just how amazing of a tale it really was.

“Um . . . Tular,” said Jenna. “You and your people don’t have um . . . magical powers . . . by any chance, do you?”

Tular squinted. “You used a word that I’ve never heard before. I’m not sure what you’re asking.”

Jenna thought about how to respond. “I mean, none of you can float, can you? Or make things move with your mind? Or like, make things appear and disappear? Stuff like that.”

“Is this a joke?” said Tular. “Of course not. No one can do things like that.”

“Right,” said Jenna. “You got me. It was a joke.” She paused. “It’s probably funnier where we come from,” she mumbled.

They continued walking for half an hour. Every so often they were attacked by a different plant or animal. Tular was so accustomed to the dangers of his world that he deflected or avoided the attacks effortlessly, paying them no conscious attention. In fact, he continued with whatever he happened to be saying at the time without the slightest pause.

Zachary and Jenna learned that Tular and his people were called Krugs. They roamed the forest in clans of about a hundred, returning to a central camp. They relied on their heavy body armor, intelligence, vast knowledge of the forest, and skill at working together to survive. While their world had forced them to protect themselves against almost every other life form, they were innately gentle and generous by nature, and formed a very loving and peaceful community.

Finally, they arrived at Tular’s encampment, which caused an immediate stir. Within seconds the entire encampment encircled them, listening spellbound while Tular described how the bizarre, softbody humans had rescued him. The crowd was enthralled, and Jenna and Zachary were showered with praise for saving a beloved member of their clan.

The two humans described their adventures from the time their parents had disappeared. The Krug had an insatiable curiosity and peppered them with question after question for nearly an hour. Despite their story being more fantastic than anything the Krug had ever heard, their honesty was never questioned.

Finally, the most ancient Krug elder called a halt to the proceedings. “Our honored guests have answered enough questions for now. We’re sorry for getting so carried away. Hopefully, you can understand our curiosity.”

“Absolutely,” said Zachary. “In fact, we have some questions of our own.”

A hush fell over the gathering. “We would be honored to answer any questions that we can.”

“Thanks,” said Zachary. “Have you or any other Krug clans ever come across softbody people like us?” he asked hopefully.

The elder shook his head. “None. Nothing even close.”

Zachary nodded, not surprised given what Hirth had told them. “In that case, do you know where we can find a portal like the ones we’ve told you about? A portal to another world?” Zachary described their appearance as carefully as he could, including their strange shimmering.

As he described them, a stunned look came over the elder’s face. “If you had asked this question two days ago,” he said, “I would have told you that we have never heard of such a thing. But, remarkably, just yesterday we stumbled upon something that is exactly as you describe.”

“Do you remember where it is?” asked Jenna.

“Absolutely. It’s hard to forget something so incredibly strange. It is merely two miles distant, to the north. For the last two days it has appeared without fail. It appears and disappears in a regular pattern. It is present for four minutes, not present for five, present again for four, and so on—over and over and over again.”

What a relief. The portals seemed to be staying close to them. “Would you mind if I talked to my sister in private for a few minutes?” said Zachary.

“Not at all,” said the elder.

Zachary walked about ten yards away with his sister and huddled. “So what do you think?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I think we should go through it as soon as possible.”

Zachary nodded. “I agree. We know Mom and Dad aren’t here. And since these people don’t know anything about portals, we probably won’t learn anything from them that will help us.” He paused in thought. “Before we leave, though, can you think of anything important this world and the first world have in common?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. Maybe if we could find some connection between worlds it would help us figure out what we’ve gotten ourselves into.”

Jenna considered for several long seconds. “I can’t think of anything,” she said, shaking her head. “Hirth and Wyland seemed to know about everything—the portals, our family, what’s really going on. This is a primitive forest world, and the people here know nothing about us or about portals. Or about magic.” A troubled look crossed her face. “But this world feels real to me—the first one didn’t for some reason: like it was a fantasy creation from the imagination of some twisted mental patient.”