CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Lezura!” a largaph woman in a dark green robe shouted as she ran towards Lezura.
“Heliri!” Lezura said as she opened her arms and embraced the woman.
Joey stepped away out of Lezura lifting the shorter woman and spinning her around. Both laughed like two lovers holding hands and running across of field of flowers under the sun.
Lezura put the woman down. Both held each other by the hand.
“My goodness, it has been so long since I last saw you!” Lezura said.
“You too Lezura,” said Heliri, grinning with a smile so wide it seemed to slice across to her ears holes. “I thought you would never come back, until I picked up your honoi across the city.”
Lezura noticed Joey and quickly turned to him. “Oh, where are my manners? Joey…this is Heliri Zuger.” Lezura gestured to Joey, “Heliri, dis dua-a di si’ili Rakai, Joey Sadowski.”
Heliri was as short as Joey, which made him feel like he finally got get a break. Her bronze skin seemed to have been polished to sheen just like her carapace; which had a green symbol painted on the surface, a custom indigenous to largaphs from the Wynoddi tribe along with their brown skin. Her large eyes with flecks of yellow and silver stared at Joey with such intensity he had to look away for a moment to prevent himself from being drawn into the vortex.
Her Xemingi styled, knee-length robe was tight around the upper arms but loose below the elbows. The dark collar was mint green and segmented closely around her slender neck. Light green trim, frilly hems and a slight down the middle of the chest finished off the robe. She carried a pouch on her hip, and behind her in a sheath Joey could see a blue and brown staff with an end similar in design to Flivi’s tail, but larger.
“Owwo dua yuh?” said Joey, waving at her.
Heliri walked up to Joey, held him by the back of the head and put her forehead against him. Her large breasts rubbed against Joey’s chest and gave him shivers all over. “In the Zongat’s name, I greet you, Rakai Joey Sadowski,” she said. Heliri let go of Joey, and studied him with her big eyes. “You seem quite short to be able to fight anybody.”
Lezura gasped. “Heliri,” she said.
Joey’s expression change from happy and calm to outright enraged. “Ma’wha?” he said, “yuh dua koah-in mi didge?”
“My goodness,” Lezura said, “Joey that was the longest sentence you ever said in Naasi!”
“Off course you’re short,” Heliri said, grinning so wide that all her teeth were nearly showing. “I know I’m short too, Rakai. You just have to accept it and get over it!” Heliri’s suddenly looked alarmed. “Wait…” he eyes narrowed at Joey “…is every part of you short…?”
Blushing like a mad, Joey said, “What—the—I—No! Ne!”
“Then show me!” Heliri said.
Lezura found the nearest stone and slammed it in Heliri’s head. It shattered across her carapace into dust. Heliri turned around to her, seeming unfazed, and said, “What, is he your man, Lezura? If he is then that is quite fine—just make sure he doesn’t—”
“Would you stop already?” Lezura said with her fists clenched and trembling. “Goodness. Heliri, could you not have presented a better side of yourself? You just met him for goodness sake!”
Heliri took the staff off her back and poked it into Lezura’s chest with the top. “Oh!” she said. “And I suppose you did a better job when you met him—showing off those ugly braces like they’re accessories?”
Joey burst out laughing, clutched his gut and dropped on the ground.
Lezura bit down on her lip and realized something. My goodness, it is two of them now…May the gods have mercy on my soul.
“Lezura, I’m loving your friend already!” Joey said, getting up and wiping a tear.
Lezura pushed off Heliri’s head with a finger and said, “All right, you have made your entrance, Heliri, now lead us out of this musty old cave.”
“Hey,” Heliri said,” it is not some ‘musty old cave’. I rather like it here.” She turned and walked back to the nossil. “Okay everybody! The nossil express is leaving right now. All aboard!”
They trailed behind Heliri, watching her dirt encrusted bare feet plow into the ground with each step. Flivi flew around them with its tail still glowing.
Heliri expertly climbed up the hind quarters of the animal tree times her height and onto its back behind the head. Joey had trouble climbing up until Heliri lent him a hand and pulled him up. Lezura sat at the back, with Joey sandwiched in the middle.
Heliri reached for the reigns hanging from the creature’s head and slapped on its neck.
“How does she even see pass this thing?” Joey said, tilting his head to long around the animal’s neck.
“All right, Dweep, let’s get going!” said Heliri.
“Dweeeerrrp…” growled the nossil.
Heliri spun Dweep around and the animal took long strides into the cavern. Apart from Flivi’s light, the nossil had bioluminescent bacteria in sacs on its throat that produced four beams of light that stabbed the darkness. Going further through the cave they came discovered buildings that had sunken into ground, creating small shafts of orange light that shone from above.
Glowing insects flickered all over the place. There were some burning piles of debris that Heliri had previously lit to help guide them through the architectural graveyard.
“Heliri, dear,” said Lezura, “I hope I am not being picky after meeting each other for so long, but could you please speed things up a little?”
Heliri scoffed. “Lezura you’re always picky. But anyway, I’ll grant you request!”
Heliri kicked Dweep once, “Put it in four-gear, Dweep! Hang on tight everyone!”
“Dweeeerrrp!”
Dweep stopped and placed its three-toed feet together, and in one bound it cleared twenty meters, continuing this quick pace onwards. Dweep went over, under and through broken rooms. After nearly an hour travelling, they came upon a suspicious looking area within the cavern.
So far inside the cave was rocky and nearly dark. But here fluffy blue-green grass grew on the ground, along with large flowers—including cune flowers and red ones that spiraled to a point. There were brown colored trunks of large trees tapering into the ceiling and bored their way through. They had hollow tubes through were they could hear the breath of air rushing from the surface.
“You all made air-vents,” Lezura said in Naasi.
“Yup,” said Heliri.
Joey silently took in the surroundings as well, and noticed that the yellow light source in the place came from many large, lavender colored vines that were strewn all over the place like arteries inside a great beast. They had giant strawberry-looking fruits with a base of a dozen or so bright green leaves, which were the source of the light.
“What kind of plants are those?” Joey said, “Can you eat them?”
When Lezura translated it for Heliri, she said, “Those are norinori vines. They’re filled with microscopic bacteria that cluster together to produce light to warm the plant, as well as attract animals that eat the fruit and spread the seeds. It is amazing what Zongat can do with nature. Yes, you can eat them, if you’re a largaph…”
“Freaking cool,” Joey said.
The plants and stalagmites lessoned up ahead, and they saw some arrangement of stone megaliths and pillars with ornate carvings. In the center of it was a large opening like a gateless entrance, which would explain why three nycarmans on mynamathers were riding up to meet them.
Heliri stopped Dweep, patting him gently on the shoulder. The three men, who Lezura identified as Ixians, circled them slowly. Joey noticed their slanted eyes studying him, but didn’t react until Lezura gave him the “okay”.
They marched their animals in front of them. The one in the center, a black-haired man, said, “Thank Kinu for preserving your lives, and we welcome you back home, Lezura.”
“It is my pleasure to be back,” Lezura said.
The man turned to Joey and said; his translator translating, “Our three greetings will not be sufficient for the introduction of the Dielengann Path, third Rakai. We will take you to our leaders, who will greet you more formally.”
“Okay,” Joey said, pleased already that the people here would worship at his feet. Well, not so extreme; but he hoped they would stare at awe in his presence.
The men led Heliri, Joey and Lezura through the gate, where they stumbled into a community of homes carved out of brown, yellow and silver stone and/or wood. Some were even made out of clay and plant matter. Most where oval shaped huts supported on four thick legs, but some looked like a small house having more than one room.
Overhead thousands of norinori plants lit the place almost as if it were day. The air was an amazing mixture of rich, wet soil, plants like leaves were crushed and held directly to the face, and other scents similar to burning coal and cooked food.
The underground pipelines of the city above were broken apart by the destruction of the past wars and harvests, but were mended by the people living here to flow their water from the walls like streams and waterfalls from the ceiling of the cave.
The dark purple faces of nycarmans, the browns of the largaph and greens of a few rapturans slowly enclosed Joey and his companions as they were lead through the community, getting smiles and silent stares.
“Tough crowd…?” Joey said.
“These people are actually the ones who appointed the key to you, Joey,” said Lezura with a cheeky smile, “basically they are like yours bosses—well co-workers. The leaders of the various religious groups that make up the Dielengann Path are your superiors.”
“That’s a blow to the bean-bags,” Joey said, pouting, “I thought the Rakai was supposed to be all bad-ass, awesome, gets all the girls, and totally listen to no one?”
They slowed down were a small group of people approached them. The men got off their mynamathers and led them out of the way and stood to the sides. The crowd was closing in like starving crunchems to a piece of meat.
“Only Conner Wondonner ever got the title of the Sexiest Man Alive,” Lezura said as she climbed down Dweep.
Heliri simply leaped off. Flivi perched on her shoulder with a happy chirp.
Lezura said, “He was soft spoken and easy to get along with. And Yefia Illowise was already a multi-billionaire who was ever arrogant, confident, and knew how to get what she wanted.”
Climbing down Dweep, Joey said, “Conner Wondonder blah-blah-blah! Yefia Illowise blah-blah-blah! Look Lezura, I might not be some rich-bitch, or good looking like some movie star, but I know I have what it takes to be the Rakai. So everyone who doesn’t like me can suck my d—”
Joey slipped and fell on his butt. He quickly got up, brushed down himself and reset the bag on is back. He walked up to Lezura and Heliri in the middle, and stood face to face with three robed nycarmans, a largaph woman and dracoid man in a Xemingi robe.
Joey noticed that all of them had translators. And said, “Sup guys? My name’s Joey Sadowski…”
The nycarman woman in the center of the two men said, “My name is Murbella.”
“My name is Telkit,” said one of the nycarman men.
“And I am Dunit!” said the other man with a bright face and smile. He gave Joey a hug and rocked him side to side. “My! Though you are quite small, you have very hard muscles!”
Joey snarled. “Get off me…”
Dunit let go of Joey and scurried back to his spot, giving Murbella and Telkit a sideways grin.
Murbella slowly took her piercing gaze of Joey, and said in her semi alto-tenor voice, “It is with great honor, that we, they wyassies and leader of the Tyhuny people, humble greet you.”
They crossed heir right hand across their left breast and bowed their head, the other Tyhunies followed as well.
“DUUUNIIIIT!”said a voice from Lezura’s belt.
Dunit winced. He said, “Oh dear…”
Honoi erupted from the Sheikon-box around so violently that it lurched Lezura backwards. Dunit was already into a sprint by the time the honoi formed Donnowarru.
“I have you now you little prick!” Donnowarru said, shooting a blast of honoi at Dunit’s heel.
Dunit yelp and leaped. “Donnowarru…dear friend,” Dunit said in a shaky voice as he ran out of the community, “let us talk this over…!”
“You put me in the blasted toilet!” Donnowarru said, sending another burst that nipped the flesh on Dunit’s shoulder.
The wyassy wailed all the way out of the sight with Donnowarru behind him. Even fifty yards away, they could still hear Dunit’s wails, Donnowarru’s shouts, and the explosions of honoi.
The whole community was silently staring at the exit, until Lezura got up and said, “You know, I am just realizing that I am surrounded by morons…”
The tall largaph woman, with her brownish-green skin of the Zemenchi people, (also characterized with slightly longer necks), said in a sharp voice, “I am the Sekku Jivel Brainberri, who leads the Felkremin people. It is our pleasure to meet you Rakai, as it is Nonshede’s…”
“And to her name be praises!” echoed the voices of the Felkremin around.
The Sekku was slender and graceful. She wore a long, red silky skirt with silver faces around the lower hems and curving patterns on the upper section, with a split in the middle that showed a glimpse of her green tights. Her upper garment had a wide collar which was a trademark of Felkremin designed clothes. The rest of it was red, with the short sleeves tight and large, oink frilly hems. The rest of it was adorned in silver and black spots, and a green sash was tied around her waist—an indicator of her higher rank as Sekku.
The dracoid walked over to Joey, lowered himself a few inches and placed in forehead on Joey’s. “Greetings in name of Zongat,” he said in a subtle voice, “my name is Bensaur. I am the Xemingi’s sub-Nemine for the people here.”
When he let go of Joey, the human said, “Wait, I thought only largaphs were Xemingi?”
Bensaur chuckled and said, “Not so, Rakai. The way of the Xemingi is open to anyone.”
“That’s right,” said Heliri, “Bensaur here completed the ritual journey to the Gebberdon Wastelands back on my homeworld. He had to survive on the harsh land Zongat provided for him for four whole months.”
Murbella cleared her throat loudly. She said, “Forgive us for being blunt, Rakai Joey Sadowski, but we called you here to update you further on your mission—which we assume you have accepted…?”
“Yeah,” Joey said. “But I need your help with medical supplies and weapons for a couple dozen people. We’re staying at an immigrant camp were some stupid racist group’s trying to kill us. I don’t wanna leave the people like that when I leave here.”
“We will provide you with the aid you need,” said Telkit, “but first we must brief you on the location of the God Titan.”
“It’s on the other side of the world,” said Joey. “Isn’t that what you told Lezura?”
“Yes,” said the Sekku, “but you must decide where you will travel from to reach there. You see, Rakai, if you were to view this continent from the perspective of a map, you will see that most of the Prestige Nations are to the west, while the orderran occupied territories are to the east. Without a doubt the Prestige Nations will try to stop if you venture into their territory…”
“But there is a chance that the orderrans might leave you alone,” Murbella said. “They do not wish to get involved in the affairs of our planet other than to gain what profit they can from their territories and trade with the Prestige Kingdom.”
“Wait,” said Joey, “I read that each planet has its own armada around it. Is that why no one can come here to help?”
“Correct,” said Bensaur, “the Prestige Kingdom has total control of the planetary ships entering their world, and permits only those of the orderrans and their lesser known allies that supply them with arms, usually smugglers. Members of the UPN have been trying to get through to this world, but along with the ships of their orderran allies around the planet, their defenses are quite strong.”
“But that can’t really stop, what—five other planets and their ships?” Joey said.
“Actually, Joey,” Lezura said, “It is a treaty the reason why they UPN forces cannot come to this world. Under the UPN treaty, it cannot intervene in the actions taking place on a world unless there are those who ask for their assistance.”
“What the hell?” Joey gaped at her. “And harvesting people and sending werewolf men to kill us doesn’t seem like we need help?”
“Rakai,” said Murbella, “understand that as far as the UPN knows, the conflict took place between two sides; the Planet Sangetsu and the Alliance of Orderran Nations. They did not know the Orderran Alliance was really attacking the weaker nations, while the more powerful ones retreated, and propagated a lie that they were coming to agreements with their enemies.”
“Shit…” Joey said with a pained expression, “So you mean the UPN people don’t really know what the hell’s going on here?”
“I’m afraid so,” said the Sekku, “which is why we cannot allow this to go on as it is, Rakai. We need the God Titan to break free.”
Joey rubbed his head in contemplation, still having thoughts that he wouldn’t have to be responsible for all of this if he had just stayed back on his homeworld. Yeah, and you wouldn’t have live to see the other day, or saw it through a window in a jail cell for the rest of your life! Man up already!
Joey dropped his hand and stared up into the faces of the aliens in front of him. He smirked and said, “You guys don’t need to worry your pretty little heads off. I’m not goanna mess-up like the other Rakai did.”
The corners of the Sekku’s mouth turned in a light smile. Murbella raised an eyebrow and smiled at him.
“Ooooooo…” Heliri said.
“Have you been acquainted with the key?” said Telkit.
“That Fopi dude, yeah,” Joey said. “But,” Joey patted his thigh nervously, “I can’t really…use the key that well…”
“Well you better learn,” Murbella said sharply, making Joey flinch, “time is not a luxury we have. You have to be able to fully harness the power of the key by the time you reach Maltatabi.”
“S-sure,” Joey said.
“Rakai!”
Everyone turned to the entrance to the community to see Dunit running back, but this time he didn’t have Donnowarru behind him hurling death. The wizard gracefully floated on his cloud in tail.
Dunit jogged down the split in the middle of the crowd.
“What is the matter, Dunit?” Telkit said.
“You have a visitor, Rakai,” Dunit said after catching his breath.
“Who is it?” Joey said.
“A woman named Hanim,” said Dunit.
Before anyone could ask Hanim came charging in on a greshku. She leaped off the animal before it even stopped and ran towards Joey. Two nycarmans went to stop the animal.
Her giant eyes told them all of the alarm the carried for them.
“The camp has been attacked!” she said.
“You are joking!” Lezura said, stepping forward.
“Are you being serious?” Joey said.
Hanim caught her breath and said, “Does it look like I came all the way here to say hello to everybody? The Hapchenan attacked the camp about fifteen minutes after you left.”
Lezura turned to Joey and said, “They were practically on her tails…” she turned to Hanim and said, “What of your children?”
“They are with my husband,” she said. Hanim looked at the many faces around her, finally laying her eyes on the ones closest to Joey, and said, “You…” she went closer “…can you help us? Please!”
Joey put a hand on her shoulder and said, “What about the security guys? Didn’t they do anything?”
Hanim said with disgust on her tongue, “Rakai, the attack came from the front gate. They managed to get in and kill seven people. How they hell would they do that if they weren’t let in?”
Appalled expressions popped up within the crowd.
The Sekku stepped forward and said to Hanim, “What do you require of us?”
“Are you really willing to interfere?” said Bensaur quizzically, “we could get ourselves exposed to the Prestige Kingdom!”
“It is much better than lying down here while people die in front of us,” said Murbella, stepping forward as well. “Besides, I am pretty sure I heard the Rakai ask of our assistance.”
“We’re goanna find where these guys are living and kill them, plain and simple,” said Joey.
Lezura whacked him in the head. “Do not be so stupid, Joey. You cannot simple walk into a community and just start killing.”
“Lezura has a point, Joey,” Heliri said, her voice steady and without the usual zest, “I do not believe in the crap that says war doesn’t solve anything. War solves a whole lot. But we have to make certain we don’t become the antagonists in this fiasco. So let’s try to be civil fist. And if they refuse”—Heliri hefted her Sugarstick in her hands and grinned—“then we give them what they deserve!”
Heliri turned to Bensaur, “But I cannot go unless you order it so, Bensaur.”
Bensaur ran a claw across his neck thoughtfully. He had a duty to keep the last living Xemingi on the continent from Harm. Even though Zongat stated clearly the spilt blood of an enemy will nourish the land to bring forth new life, he was worried about how many of his own would die.
“Listen,” Bensaur said, “first, let us go to the camp and see the situation.”
“Well said,” said Dunit. “But just in case, I will get the weapons.”
“Crossbows and swords won’t be enough,” Joey said.
Dunit stopped with a few people, turned to Joey and laughed. He said, “Oh my dear Joey Sadowski! I am offended that you think so primitive and backwards of us. Have you ever seen a Plasmapumper?”
Back at the campsite, mounds of burning rubble and tents gently spewed streams of black smoke in the air. Personal belongings were strewn across the ground as a testament to their hurried pace to get themselves out of harm’s way.
Now everyone, the civilians, the dozen police from Suride Town and the nycarman security officers were gathered at the smoking remains of the gate that had been blasted to shreds. The soldiers, including a few nearby civilians native to the city, were on one side, while the immigrants argued their rights, lust for revenge and accusations against the nycarmans from inside the camp.
Between them, three Suride Town police officers waged a verbal war with the captain of the train security, who had been summoned by the ruckus to the camp.
One of the police officers, a yautgan, stared down at the captain and said, “They practically let them inside here!”
“Do you have any proof of this?” the captain asked, with a few suspicious and suspected military personnel who were stationed at the camp cuffed and standing behind him, secured by the captain’s own men. One of them had a swollen eye.
“Then how the hell else would they get to blast down the gates with the guards outside on duty?” the yautgan said. “Did they just happen to fall asleep at the very instant the Hapchenan came?”
The captain unfolded his arms and said with a finger pointed at the yautgan, “Look here, your people killed a few of the Hapchenan that attacked, that is fine with me,” he gestured behind him, “but you attacked members of the Ugatin security force in your bloodlust—now that is something we cannot overlook, regardless if you are all suffering people or not.”
“Sir,” said one of the soldiers that were stationed at the gate.
“What?” the captain said.
“These officers that we arrested were trying to flee from the scene, sir,” he said, “that was enough to make them appear guilty for us to arrest them.”
“And the beating…?” the captain inquired.
“Well…sir…” the officer said, “the refugees got to them before we did.”
“Look! Look!” someone in the camp shouted.
All heads turned inside the premises to see who it was. Those at the back couldn’t as yet, but the remarks of the people said it all.
The Rakai, his nycarman friend, and an entourage of people coming from the hole in the fence at the back everyone had now established as the back entrance.
Joey didn’t get a chance to go far before the people swarmed him with questions about his whereabouts and accusations.
Joey, Lezura and Heliri had come back along with some of the Dielengann Path, and with aliens towering around him his mind was pushing his body into a defensive mode.
His shirt was pulled and yanked by people who wanted to talk to him one on one, and Joey actually had to pry the hands off him.
“Would you people listen?” Joey said. “Just shut up and let me explain!”
A woman came up to his face and said, “Where the hell were you when this was happening?”
“I was—”
“You Rakai, no?” said a raizean dragging him by his arm. “You protect us, no?”
“I went to—”
“He knew the Hapchenan would come here and took off to save his skin!” said a yautgan. “This Rakai is a coward!”
Heliri whacked that yautgan across the head with her Sugarstick, sending him staggering back.
“Watch who you’re disrespecting, moron,” Heliri said. Seizing the opportunity, Heliri whacked a lazhinian woman and another.
Lezura pushed someone away from her and said, “Would you all just listen to us?” She grimaced from the headache from the noise around her.
Hanim tried getting the people back, as well as calling for her husband and child, but the larger people were just pinning her against Joey. The few members of the Dielengann Path that came with them were pushing the crowd back, sparking small brawls here and there.
“What the fuck’s wrong with you people?” Joey said.
“Coward!” said a largaph woman, stepping into Joey and pushing him back.
Lezura saw Joey stumble, and stepped up for him and push back the woman. “Pick on someone your own size!”
And Lezura got a punch in the face from the woman’s husband. Watching Lezura fall flat on her back Joey gritted his teeth and sprang off the ground, seething with rage. He punched the largaph in his crotch and let him crumple to the ground. Heliri had seen her friend fall, and whacked the woman in the neck dropped her.
Lezura wiped her bloody nose and crawled to her feet, only to be pushed back down by a Xemingi and a yautgan fighting.
In the massive brawl, Bensaur tried to break free from the hysteria, clawing at the air for help. “Shit! I knew I shouldn’t have come here!”
After watching the fight from a distance, the captain shook his head and unfolded his arms. He gestured to one of his men. The soldier turned up the frequency on the HSC and let it scream. The frequency affected everyone in camp except the soldiers who had on their headphones.
Satisfied with the wails of pain from the people the captain told the soldier to turn off the weapon. When he did, the captain marched through the crowd still recovering from the auditory assault. He pushed those too slow to move out of his way and found Lezura, Joey and Heliri.
Lezura was checiking her waist to see if anything got stolen. Joey was gingerly touching a lump on his head, and Heliri was waving her Sugarstick threateningly at a group of people.
Bensaur burst his way through a rank of Xemingi behind the three companions and stood next to Lezura. He panted a full minute while the captain projected his voice to the crowd and spoke.
“So…you are telling me that just one little attack on you people and you have all turned into mindless idiots attacking each other. Instead of falling back to reorganize you have all resorted to running around without your heads and bumping into each other, huh?”
The captain’s word hung over the camp like a residual echo. When no one answered, as how the captain liked it, he approached Joey and looked at him log and hard.
Fingering his translator back in his ear, Joey looked at the captain from head to toe and said, “Don’t look at me! I didn’t have anything to do with this!” Joey looked around at people, some of who couldn’t meet his eyes and raised his voice to its grating tone, “I didn’t have a thing to do with any of this shit!”
It was then that Bensaur stepped forward, put a hand on Joey’s shoulder and whispered to him, saying, “Lad, you are going about it the wrong way.”
Joey spun to him. “Then what’s the right way then?”
“Part of being a leader is not blaming your subordinates for the fault, but trying to correct it,” said Bensaur. “Right now, you’re just acting like a little child throwing a tantrum. That’s not the kind of Rakai we want.”
Joey screwed up his face like he was going to respond to Bensaur. But his muscles relaxed and he stopped frowning. He took a deep breath and came to a decision.
“Lezura,” Joey said, “can you translate for me?”
“If I took a punch in the face for you, I can definitely translate for you, Joey,” Lezura said.
With Lezura at his side, and after a reassuring hold of each other’s hands, Joey projected his voi