The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (17 page)

  So there I was, lost, starving, with the locals being little help whatsoever. Feeling the cold icy grip of the artic gripping me ever the more tighter and deeper, to where I could feel it deep within. Searching for that damn asshole who just had to go there. Oh well... what’s done is done.”

  “Did you find him? And how long did it take?”

  “Yeah... I found him all right... frozen to death. It took me like two to three months just to do it. I spent the rest of my time there just trying to find my way back to civilization further south.”

  “So how long did it take for you to get back?”

  “Five years.”

  “Damn! That’s really fucked up!”

  “No shit. All because of that fucking asshole and all of those people. You wouldn’t believe how many times I came close to dying there.”

  “I can image.”

  “Well... like I said... what’s done is done. To the south of Iraxxan and Xiy’o’tlo is the continent Yynol’bkko (e-no baa-ko).  I don’t know how large it was. There was just too many conflicting opinions about it size. But they all agreed about its type of environment; it was like that of Australia. But not as flat.”

  Vaistll paused for awhile because she really didn’t want to mention the next part. Ramirez knew that, but he knew her well enough to know that she was fixing to mention it. So he didn’t say anything about it.

   After she’d prepared herself to mention it, she continued on. “I’ve been to Yynol’bkko only once. It was the same continent that I... that I... was on when I had to go on my... long march home. By the time that I got back to Natas’ palace I had to have traveled at least... four or five thousand miles.”

  “Holy shit! How long did it take for you to get back? Why did you go back to his palace if he’d put you through so much?”

  “It took me about as long as my body would permit. I just kept on going. Pushing my body to the breaking point. I just wanted to hurry up and get back. But you know... I have no idea why I went back to his palace. I guess it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t know that continent that well, or the surrounding continents. .And I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life on a continent where a whole bunch tribal people wanted me dead. I just wanted to get back to the continent that I was born upon. And his palace was the closest, so called ‘friendly’ place that I knew of.”

  With bad memories coming back to haunt her, memories that is too painful for her to talk about, making her feel much more worst as time goes on, and seeing this and knowing from his own experience how she feels, Ramirez put his arm around her to comfort her. With soothing words of compassion he said, “It’s okay Vaistll... you don’t have to continue on. I’ll understand.”

  After several moments Vaistll said, “I feel better now. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Growing up... I was always a handful to my parents. Too much spunk I guess. I drove my mom Nincylste crazy because of it. She really shouldn’t complain since I took after her. We were always close, and I was the only one of my siblings who was like that. And yet, I was the one who drove her crazy. She really loved my dad a great deal. And yet it always bothered her in knowing she couldn’t give him any children. Since I got my temperament from my dad, I was Nincylste favorite. I guess in some way she saw me as her birth child because I took after her and my dad.

  I had seven siblings. Three of them died before they reached the age of five.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Well... that’s what life was like in an ancient society. Death happens. We weren’t poor, more like upper middle-class, but if we were, and my three siblings lived, they would have had a tough life. Life in an ancient society is full crap you know.”

  “Yeah I can imagine.”

  “I had three brothers and one sister who survived into adulthood. I was close to my siblings, along with my dad and my mom Unatoos. My sister was an fllustl, and like me, she never got married. She worked in the palace as a translator and as a diplomat. So she never really got the chance to find somebody. You know, I don’t think that she even cared.”

  “Why?”

  “She was really good at reading people. So much so that if she was on Earth, people might think that she has telepathy, or something. Which is not true, but it would give you an idea of how good she was. And because of that... she could tell that all the men around her were either a nogoodnik, or, she never would have been able to fall in love with them.”

  Vaistll had the look of that she can relate to that, and wished that she had that ability as well. She then continued on, “One of my brothers also worked in the palace as well. He took after my dad. But the big difference is, he was smarter, more skilled, more... Well... I guess you could call him a scientist or something like that. Of course he made more money than my dad, and my dad never cared. He was really proud of him. We all were. My brother was well known all over and his skill was highly prized.”

  “What was his name?”

  “Well before I forget. My sister’s name is, Iakuoyr. Oddly enough, if you reversed it, and put ninmu in front of it, you get ninmu ryoukai. Even stranger than that; one of my brothers, who was a tracker, name is, Okuoyk. And if you reversed it, you get kyouko.”

  “Wow that is strange.”

  “I don’t know of any other Apollinarian names like that. The reverse word of some human language. But since I don’t speak multiple human languages, there could be more, but I doubt it. My brother who worked in the palace his name is, Ikknustll (ik-noose- stall-la). He never got married either. Neither did my other two brothers.”

  “Why?”

  “With Ikknustll he was just too busy to find anybody. What’s more, he had to travel around a lot. With Okuoyk and Ryyuoxx (re-o-ks) they were trackers, the type that track down criminals and those with a price on their heads. Knowing both of them, and with them traveling all over Iraxxan, they were probably more interested in woman, than marriage. Both of them had a lot of charm and charisma, so I can imagine why that in all likelihood, they probably left a lot of broken hearts all over Iraxxan. They would have put you in mind of Martinez. Both of them, myself, Ikknustll and Iakuoyr were pretty damn good singers. Our parents used to...”

  “Oh really! You should have mentioned that sooner.” Ramirez said with a very big smile. That caused Vaistll to have the look of, ‘Oops; I guess that I shouldn’t have mentioned that.’ Seeing that caused Ramirez to laugh out loud. He then said, “Well... I guess I’m gonna have to get you drunk then.” She then gave him the look of ‘Oh no you don’t. Not in front of the men.’ That caused Ramirez to laugh a little. He then said, “I’m teasing.” She knew that he was, but she still didn’t say anything. He then said, with a smile, “Go on.”

  “Well... anyway... like I was saying... the last time that I seen either Okuoyk or Ryyuoxx, they wanted me to come with them and help them track down this group of rogue guards who, not only killed the king, but also all of the nobles of a small kingdom. And then they took off with the kingdom’s wealth. I didn’t take them up on their offer because I had a better opportunity that I wanted to take advantage of. After that I never saw or heard from either one of them again.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know why. Knowing both of them, they probably pursued those guards to the ends of the universe. So if you see a couple of Apollinarian males around here... it’s probably my brothers.... still looking for those guards after all of these years.”

  “Well... I’ll try to keep that in mind then.”

  “All of my siblings disappeared, a short time after...”

  “’After what?’ ‘A short time after what?’”

  “After Natas gave me an army and told me to use them to take a city. I’ll tell you about that later. I really don’t fell like talking about that right now.”

  “Okay.”

  “I made have been close with my parents and my siblings, but not with the rest of my family.”

  “Why?”

  “Why are some families like that? Where they just seemed too distanced from their own family. That the only time that they care is when somebody dies. I hardly ever seen, or heard, from any of them. No, that’s not totally the truth. I did hear from at times, or rather about, my aunt. She was a faith healer and was pretty good at it. Unfortunately, my aunt put too much of herself into it. So it probably caused her to die early. The only time that I seen her, is when my father died.”

  “What about your mothers? Did she come when they died?”

  “Nope. Only for my dad. They were siblings.”

  “Well... that not right. Your mothers are still family.”

  “I know. But that’s my family for you. They cared, and they didn’t care about us. If it had any thing to do with us being upper middle-class, then it would be that we would never loan them any money. Not my parents, or my siblings, let alone myself. We would have if they cared more about us then the money that we had. Then again, only my sister and Ikknustll could be called upper middle-class. Not Okuoyk, Ryyuoxx, or myself. We were more like upper lower-class.”

  “Were the rest of your family upper middle-class? Or just yours?”

  “Just mine. The rest of my family was between being lower lower-class to middle lower-class. My aunt, the faith healer, made people pay for her services. So she was the only who could be called upper upper-class. And yet... the rest of my family seemed to love her, even though she too wouldn’t loan them any money. It’s hard to believe that she’s my father’s sibling.”

  Vaistll drank from her glass that had some soft drink in it, and some whiskey. She was thinking about her family, and how much she missed her parents and her siblings. The death of her parents brought her and her siblings closer. Despite the pain that each of them felt at their loss, it did change them in a positive way. Neither one wanted to dishonor their parents’ memory, or the love that they gave to them, by becoming a bad person. But it still hit each one very hard. Especially Vaistll.

  Vaistll continued on, “When it comes to the Apollinarians ability to perform a faith healing, I don’t know if we could, or if there was some trick to it. If so, then it probably has something to do with the fact that we have better control over our bio-electrical field than a human does. If it’s not a trick, then it probably would work as follows: An Apollinarian faith healer uses their body ability to heal itself, and then transfer some of that energy to a person who is sick. Once they do that, the faith healer would then become weaker.

  When I first arrived on the Earth people mistook all of that to mean that we were psychic. They also mistook hyper-sensory perception to mean telepathy, which it is not. As you already know the reflexes of my right arm is quicker than that of a normal human. So, people took me seriously when I jokingly said that I could catch an arrow. And I didn’t care if people thought that I could.

  You know... if the condition is right, and I’m wearing the right type of glove, then there is a slight possibility that I could catch an arrow in my right hand. But no fllustl could do it without the right type of training, and closing their hand at the right moment before the arrow got to their hand. I mean a person would have to be able to close their hand five times faster than a normal human could. Only cyborgs can do that. I can hear it... the arrow that is. I know where it is coming from, and where it is going. And yet, I was not trained to catch it... I was trained to avoid it. Not to do something dumb by trying to catch it.

  I remember reading a story that indirectly explained how fllustls got that form of muscle memory. Basically it said that a very long time ago a fllustl and her... well I guess you can say husband, had to team up in order to kill this one type of an animal for food. That animal was as big as a buffalo, fast, and worst of all... it had armor. So spears and arrows just wouldn’t work on it.”

  “Do you remember its name by any chance? And why is it that they had to kill it? Why not go after something else, something without armor? And why didn’t other couples help out?”

  “No I don’t remember its name. The animal was extinct in my time. Because of my age at the time, I found the story more interesting than its name. The story made the excuse about family honor as to why other families couldn’t help. But yet, in my time it would not have went up against family honor, but rather compliment their honor if they did help.

  What I found interesting about the story is what they had to go through just to kill it. When I was becoming interested in boys, I started to think more about that story because it helped to explain the complex feelings that I was having. As I got older, I remember it because of my poor relationships that I had with men.

  As time dragged on... I forgot a little here and a little there of that story. But the only thing that I always remembered is what they had to go through just to kill it. A man and a woman... who obviously loved each other... were doing something together. A man and a woman... who are soul mates... just like... Tsk’llk and Llyysta.”

  “So what do you remember about the story?”

  “That story is probably as old as that one ice age story, if not older. And both of them are lost to the sands of time in the minds of the people. And yet... from all of my travels, on each of those continents that I’ve been to, I found that story in some form or another. But not the ice age one. The ice age story can only be found on Iraxxan.