Yishel
“There are others! Divines they never said there would be others!”
~ Ancient Lidri Graffiti on Mudstone Brick Wall
Est. Early Mid Empire 1000-1500. Old Kadrinja.
Vestridian Cathedral Museum Piece D-8623
Music came first. Pulsing tones, soft buzzing that started off in piano, then growing louder. A second, similar noise chimed in off tempo. Then an overflowing chorus joined in. Pouring water, wind, and thousands of other alien sounds all merged in harmony. The familiar first feelings of wafting, thick smoke had already evaporated or blown away. New, strange sensations flooded in. Her cheek and chin lay on a silky, moist surface that her two, sharp cheek thorns dug into and a faint breeze on her back and tail caressed with cooled, soft hands. She was face down but already breathing. Air hit her sinuses, overflowing with the smell of wet rock and a bizarre, potent perfume.
Blinding light beckoned her to keep her eyes shut just as she tried to force them open. Fireflies danced across her closed eyelids as she eased one of them back open; her pupils contracting into a slit and twitching with the blurred vision. A split image of her arm came into view, with her hand grasping some small, navy toned spikes that flowed across the floor, making it sway. Soreness returned as she grabbed the spears in her hand tighter, rubbing and bruising the blades between her two scaly fingers and thumb.
What Is this? She thought. Weakness came as soon as she started to move.
Everything was heavy. Atrophied. Her first instincts fixed once more on P.A.R.E.A, an impulse born from a lifetime of leaps thousands of cycles forward. First, she moved her legs with the left cramping slightly as she tucked them underneath her chest, raising it off the carpet. Smooth stones peppered around the floor scratched and scraped against her tail, brushing behind her across the smooth, flowing ground. Sting from the motion was muffled by the smooth turf as she pulled her arms towards her; its plushness absorbing her weight until she pushed herself up to her knees.
Glare continued to feed her throbbing headache and distort her vision, beating with the orchestra filling her internal ears. She rubbed her face and head, massaging over her chin and cheek thons, clicking them like teeth on a comb, moving the blood from her cramped muscles to the larger scales over her hornless head, then worked on clearing the sleep from her golden eyes. Through the haze she could see the faint outline of the stairs leading up to her cradle but changed, its surroundings contorting around the living floor like weathered rock on a river’s shoreline.
Where am I? she wondered. Delirious and straining to find more familiar landmarks through the fog.
Suspicion that she could be dead arose as she brought herself to her feet, with the pinch hitting her back as she used her tail to steady herself quickly dashing the notion. The blue bristles on the floor hugged the two toes of her bare feet as it waved between them and the aromatic breeze floated around her body and filled her lungs, pushing against her aching ribs. Dazzling light kissed her sore scales and warmed her blood. A constant stream of pain and pleasure that felt like a confirmation. Wherever she was, her journey ended here.
Instinct took over again and her body began to move without instruction, following the drive programmed into her pushing towards where memory held P.A.R.E.A’s workstation should be. Nestled underneath the ruined stairs. A shadowed panel caught her eye on what looked like a crumbling wall through the mist still obscuring her sight and her hands reached to meet a large wet bolder, glimpsing a small red orb trapped underneath. Without caution, she reached her hand into the crevasse.
Fire suddenly filled her veins, and the blaze engulfed her arm up to her shoulder. In pain, the fair lizard lurched backward pulling her limb free, suddenly aware and awake. Leering towards the source of the discomfort and finding a barb still embedded in her forearm with a pulsing, pumping tendril leading back into the hole.
Her arm split into two, then three, and they began to spin. The light shifted around. Soft ground cushioned the fall as she tumbled over her tail and the choir distorted. Warm sleep flowed into her as she watched the tendrils dance around the void. Three red lights joined in the spinning ballet and moved towards her slowly before the darkness swallowed her whole.
Heavy weight resting on her chest brought Tzera to wake again. Suddenly feeling more rested, her eyes unlocked and cleared, meeting a familiar, petite, rusting robot perched upon her chest like a hungry pet begging for its morning feeding. Staring eagerly back at her with its glazed, crimson eye.
“Good morning, madam,” P.A.R.E.A greeted, lifting his body slightly higher on his four legs, voice no longer monotone but cracking and alternating in pitch. Thin shards at the base of his feet dug through her black shirt into her ribs, irritating them and making it hard to breathe yet the relief of a familiar sight numbed the sting.
I’m alive. What was that? A dream? No.
The quills still stroked her back, the aroma from before tickled her nostrils and tongue with every breath and the music still played. Though it was now weaker with other new cries echoing in the distance. It was darker than before; the blaring light was gone, and she could see clearly, assisted by the blue and orange hue pouring through the gaping hole in the ceiling. Shadows danced in the rays and liquid flowed through the pit, glistening over several spouting falls. Only a few floors above her remained, crumbling into each other forming larger heaps of rubble on their way down with their utilities mangled and exposed. With a pale blue barrier resting atop it all like a skin through which she could see nothing beyond.
“Parea” Tzera groaned, her lungs still pressed under the droid. She didn’t remember him being this heavy and instructed him,
“Please get off me.”
P.A.R.E.A complied without answering, leaping from the fair lendari’s chest with pressure from the push clamping down on her bruised ribs, causing her to wince and cough. Everything was still aching, apart from her tail which had fallen asleep, and a sharp pain in her left arm which pricked as she tried to sit up. Springing from a clean, chrome needle in her forearm vein, attached to a small plastic tube that was snaking its way over to the palm-sized robot.
“That was you?” She asked the droid with a groan.
“Yes.” P.A.R.E.A acknowledged in a voice enthusiastically mad. Eagerly and clumsily swaying from side to side like an overjoyed puppy.
“You were dehydrated from the awakening process. I’m sorry to say it wasn’t conducted in the most ideal manner.”
A small opening appeared along the spiderbot’s spine, and a familiar black cracker emerged with the small chiming of a bell.
“You also seem malnourished. Recommending nutritional intake.” P.A.R.E.A added, pushing the biscuit higher.
Hunger struck as soon as she thought about it, but the dusty wafer drew unappetizing memories. Growling quaked from her stomach as she pulled it from the slot and lifted it up to look it over. Despite holding it gently, the texture began to crumble between her fingers, flaking away like sunburned skin. With the famine threatening to overwhelm her common sense she opened her mouth but stopped just short of taking a bite.
“How old is this?” she asked, shooting the robot a most suspicious glare.
“ERROR,” P.A.R.E.A replied in a screeching monotone, seemingly returning to a more familiar persona.
“WHAT WAS THAT?” he added, looking around him as if someone had bonked him on the head.
Better not.
Putting famine from her mind, Tzera lowered her hand and tried to gain some bearing, looking over the changed environment surrounding her once more now that her head was starting to clear. The dark blue turf on the floor came plainly into focus now, speckled by small purple and white globes rising higher like streetlamps. She remembered learning about plants like these during her school years, but these were a different shape, size and color from the ones seen in her paleo-biology studies. Words for these objects took some searching for. Grass she thought was the name of the organism covering the ground but the bulbs that stemmed slightly higher were unlike anything she could recall.
Familiar typography was hard to find, with only the cradle behind her, half-buried under rubble seeming where it should be. Alongside some yellow pieces of amber still smoldering in the shade. A hallway outside what remained of the doorway had collapsed, slumping toward the large pit that was swallowing the ceiling and the wall at the cradle's head was gone, pulled into the overgrown heap extending up and out towards the light. Small creatures flew around the cavern. Supple buzzing noises sped past, emanating from the few tiny gnat sized bugs collecting nearby. One around the size of her palm fluttered down and landed on one of the purple spheres. Its two mirror-shined wings folded into four attached legs as it touched down and began to scour around the petals with four, leafed antennae on its head swaying with the gentle gust. More life filled the small area surrounding her than she had ever seen before.
“How long have I been out?” she asked aloud, both for herself and hoping P.A.R.E.A could offer some answers, even if they were unacceptable.
“You’ve been out of stasis for almost three days, the collapse occurred a few seasons ago.” The robot answered.
“Seasons?” she inquired. It was an old word rarely used and Tzera still didn’t fully understand the meaning.
“Definition...Climate variations coinciding with timed variations of our star’s path across the sky.” P.A.R.E.A explained. Confusion persisted.
Climate? What did maintaining temperature and atmosphere have to do with time? She thought.
Wait a minute.
Did he say star?
“Unfortunately, I cannot estimate how long stasis lasted.” The robot continued, watching intently as Tzera dazed off in her assessments. With her attention drawn away from the dusty chip she still held drawing ever closer to her mouth.
Impulsively she took a bite and the bitter biscuit detonated into a powder that covered her entire mouth, choking her. Disgusted, she spat out repeatedly trying to remove the rancid dust from her tongue. She coughed and heaved, laboring to produce enough saliva and expel the poison. Then the dust entered her sinuses, and she began to vomit. Vile bile from the earlier ration started to work its way up her throat again and she swallowed, coughed once more and spat to clear it.
“You shouldn’t have given me that.” She wretched to P.A.R.E.A in between the last wheezes and burps, her focus turned away from the robot who had begun dancing about the floor.
“Glad you like it, mam.”
“What's going on with you?” she asked, her eyes now affixed to the prancing robot.
“I seem to be in desperate need of repair.” The droid replied through several cartwheels.
Have his psychology subroutines gone haywire?
With the dancing robot, the stress of freezing to death or suffocating a distant memory, and starvation turning into a comedy routine she couldn’t help but let a small snicker escape her scaly lips. Not everything had changed, P.A.R.E.A sill had his moments. The robot finished his tango, perching himself at Terza's feet, standing on two tendrils with the other two plunged into the air and holding his end of the plastic tube. Applause seemed the correct response, but soreness gripped her all over again as she tried to move.
“We shouldn’t linger here though. I’ve seen some unusual creatures prowling about,” P.A.R.E.A warned, lowering himself back into his default position.
“Oh yeah? What kind of creatures?” the sage scaled fair asked, leaning in to mock the small robot with the grin from the entertainment still on her face.
Neither of them heard the sound of a boot hitting the mud behind them.
“AKNI! HES A O’BEF RUNBEL DAS?!” A female voice yelled, echoing through the expanding halls.
Was that someone talking? Did I hear that right? Tzera thought as she turned towards the source of the noise; befuddled by the strange language.
Before them stood another person of similar height, clothed in a creamy flowing fabric with off-white beadwork that shimmered in the light. Its two hands and feet were wrapped in a brown, fleshy material with a piece sewn from the same fabric on its chest: housing several external pockets. The head was hidden under a loose veil wrapped around two dark, glass goggles. And in its hands, it wielded an artfully embroidered steel pipe with attached drum; both fixed to a hilt made of carved organic material with a small auburn jewel embedded in its widest area.
The jewel disappeared under the stranger’s arm. The dark opening of the pipe lowered and fixed on Tzera.
” Shit.” She cursed aloud. Even though the object lacked a blade or stun club the hostile motion was enough for her to recognize it as a weapon and Tzera threw her hands out in surrender, shouting,
“WAIT!”
A sharp sting swam up her arm when the needle pulled out, retracting into P.A.R.E.A as he jumped onto Tzera’s face with a loud slap. The impact was strong enough to ring her teeth and force her neck back to the ground. Pain and pressure rushed to the sides of her cranium as the machine dug into her tympanums, making a deafening whizzing noise with the drilling. She spasmed all over, squirming on the floor trying to tug the robot free while the onlooking outsider stepped in ever closer.
“PAREA that HURT!!!” Tzera yelled as loud as she could muster once the robot was firmly fused to her face. Fed up with the pain and exhaustion at this point.
“HEY!!!!” the stranger hollered. Then it turned its weapon skyward.
Sparks erupted from the pipe opening. A booming hum quickly rose followed by an ear-splitting crack and whistle that pierced the air and resonated around the cavern walls. Thunder stabbed and scratched her ears with P.A.R.E.A’s shrieking speaker. Tzera’s heart still beat way too fast even as the pain began to dull, and the tone muted. Replaced by the sound of her swift breathing and thumping in her eardrums.
What was that?
“Pay...attention...to the woman ...with the gun.” The lady said. Sternly. Clearly. Tzera understood that.
She lifted herself against one of the boulders close by. Rubbing her hornless scalp, head still dazed from the robot’s punch with sunflower eyes glued to the figure almost upon her. Turning the weapon in her direction once more.
“Gun?”
“Yes...a gun. The big, metal weapon pointed at you.” The lady asserted with a feminine voice coming through more clearly now. “Were you born yesterday? Hands up.” She added, stepping over one last stone, and motioning the sights upward. Tzera complied and thrust her hands beside her head.
“Now. Answer the question.”
“Wah...what?” the hostage lumbered, searching for an answer as she gazed into the barrel thrust a finger's length from her face. Every element of the silver weapon sparkled. Glowing yellow patterns inside the tube reflected the carved slots near the still red-hot, steaming end. Copper wire wove around the barrel and onto the sculpted handle, interlocking with the orange stone and the drum was bored with eight holes that housed several intricate metal spheres.
What question? What do I say? She thought as a feint smell of ozone started to seep through her mask.
“She asked, “What are you doing here?” P.A.R.E.A informed her, flashing his red eye as he spoke.
“What the?” The strange woman faintly stammered, retracting in confusion. Tzera could feel the eyes behind the darkened glasses studying her body as she lay in the grass; her mind still grasping for an explanation. Suddenly the stranger’s attention began to wander about the room though the weapon still fixed on Tzera. With the nuggets of smoldering, yellow amber steaming in the corner drawing its interest for but a second before returning its gaze to her again.
A loud groan roared from the girl with the gun, and she lifted the weapon away.
“Curse the spirits.” The stranger purred. “Guess you weren’t born yesterday, were you?”
“Your chamber?” she asked, easing slightly more, and swiping the gun barrel sideways, nodding towards the bubbling, yellow pebbles steaming in the shambles of Tzera’s cradle.
“Yes,” Tzera replied, her hands still up in the air.
” And your claim to the amber?” The stranger pressed.
“What claim?"
Pressure still hung while Tzera waited for a response, like waiting for a stubborn cork to loosen from a bottle of champagne. Her tunnel vision subsided, yellow eyes grasping the details of the strange woman more clearly. Wandering over the elaborate craftsmanship of the weapon and onto the petal bead pattern stitching of the white gown tucked under the leather utility corset. But something was...off.
Claim? What did I just say? She thought; her arms still raised in submission, aching in the silence. Her heart raced faster, taking notice of the different words from her answer echoing back through the cavern at that moment and a lump in her parched throat started to choke.
“Fair Enough.” The lass replied. Fully relaxing from her threatening pose and throwing the gun barrel over a shoulder. Tzera calmed slightly but still watched the woman closely, the glimmering jewel in the stock catching her interest once more as the person rest the butt in her palm. She could see several larger formations of the same substance in the rubble all around them, it looked like the metamaterial used to make power conduits.
Relaxing more, the sage-scaled lizard, finally lowered her aching arms to the floor as the stranger turned her attention away and climbed over the shallow rubble that buried the stairs up to the ruined chamber. Her graceful movements gave Tzera a scratching unease. Apart from the clothing, there was not much different, it was still a person as far as she could tell. Bipedal, one head, two arms, and legs but the flowing garb seemed to conceal something more.
Feint laughter filled the cavern as it scavenged, stuffing the pockets on her vest full of the steaming amber chunks. Little more could be done than wait and watch and listen. Frozen for the moment as she tried to process the situation, with an imaginative mind already bounding with grim outlooks from the tense encounter.
“What language is that?” She asked P.A.R.E.A in an attempt to gather a little more information and stifle her anxious assumptions.” How did you...?”
“That’s one of the creatures I spoke of.” P.A.R.E.A interrupted, directing Tzera’s attention back towards the tailless woman still stuffing her bandolier.
Creature?
Wait. She has no tail.
DIVINES, do they cut off TAILS?
What do I do? She thought repeatedly, frantically running the question through he mind on a loop and paying little attention to finer details in the panic. Should I run? The creature’s back was turned, she could try to run up towards the top. No. That gun might not allow her to get very far. Should she disappear into the rubble? Probably an even worse idea.
She decided against it.
Whistling surged from the stranger; a small grunt sang from the mouth of the cave in reply. Rubble tumbled into the cavern, following the bumbling footsteps of a heavy, hairy beast heading towards them; its hooves slipping about the rocks and boulders clumsily on four narrow legs. Bags, bowls, and equipment covered its back, stacked upon an ornate rug and secured to the boney flanges budding from the mammals’ front shoulder blades. Bead-covered reins attached to the trident-like horn in the center of its head, bridging the gap from the long neck and concealing four small fleshy ears attached just below.
The beast slowed as it approached Tzera, its four eyes following her closely as its skulked past, tusked maw gasping for breath.
“You’re not supposed to be awake.” The female biped shouted as the two creatures met each other, presenting the beast of burden with one of the purple thistles plucked from the ground. Timidly, the larger creature accepted the plant as food and began to chew it, lips flowing round the protruding tusks as the green and violet blended between its flat teeth. Its breathing steadied and the beast lowered itself to the ground, folding its unguligrade legs underneath and resting its mass across the swaying turf. Dusting the white behind clean with two short tails.
Intently, the woman started to scour the equipment weighing it down. Tying the weapon between two buckle straps dangling across the llama-like animal’s ribs and emptying several of her utility pockets into a satchel drooped over its hind. Clatters and clangs tolled from the moving heap and the animal groaned with every shift as she freed several pieces of buried clothing from the pile. Tzera still lay there static, mesmerized by the tamed monster. Every neuron firing as she searched, digging through old studies of species long extinct simply to define the course, ginger fuzz covering the peaceful beast. Her previous compulsion to flee now subdued by curiosity and awe.
“Sorry about before. There was always the chance you were…something else. I’m sure you have questions, but they’ll have to wait. We aren’t exactly in a safe place at the moment. These ruins are crawling with predators.” The stranger said as she moved confidently back towards Tzera, gaining her attention again as she placed the matching white bead-laden outfit on her lap. “We have a long way to go before it gets dark. So please...” she continued, releasing her four gloved fingers off the dress and raising herself back up to her feet. Light broke around her sleeved arms as they raised to her head, the hide-wrapped hands grasped the dressing around her face and pulled it free.
“Get up and put these on.” She instructed, tossing the goggles and veil atop the pile of laundry. Its creamy bleached color juxtaposed against Tzera’s black and gold sleeveless outfit.
“Where we are going, your attire will attract too much attention.”
Orange, eyes stared back into Tzera’s yellow, warm almost scorching like fire. Their void-black slit pupils widened onto pools, adjusting to the brighter light. Lilac and white fur flowed over the exposed face like a field of blooming flowers, thinning around the forward set jaw and a chubby, dusky black nose. Dark stripes belted around the forehead and two fleshy ears jut skywards from the side, casting streams of shadows as they twitched in the breeze. Thick, darkened, black chords of hair moved over her crown and dangled down past her shoulders and thornless cheeks; with glittering, golden rings and disks tangled within the braids. Every feature was free of scales or horns.
She was... beautiful.
She was something new.
Tzera set the clothes aside and fumbled about trying to bring herself to her feet, blond eyes still fixed to the exotic person standing before her. As she rose, a chunter rumbled from her stomach and the cramp pinched against her bruised rib. She grabbed her abdomen in ache and shame as the strange creature showed her sharp, ivory teeth through a giggle.
The alien reached into one of her utility pockets and pulled out a small piece of dried flesh, presenting it to Tzera as she did the bulb to the beast before. The green reptile reached forward; hungry, dry, fatigued, and still uncertain even though the tension had long died down. Nervously she pulled her three scaly fingers back and gazed once more at the orange-eyed woman with concern in her expression, only a warm smile staring back, shaking the meat in her hand.
I don’t think she would put on this show just to poison me. Tzera concluded, grabbing the snack.
Light pooled through the thin, red, grainy lattice of tissue, enough to see the shadow of her other finger all the way through. Small specks of pale seeds clung to its surface, and it had a slightly syrupy texture that stuck to her scales, kissing them with a soft acidic burn. She tapped on P.A.R.E.A still covering her mouth, signaling him to open so she could eat. Hesitating once more for a moment for the fear of the robot doing something...painful.
P.A.R.E.A did not react.
She tapped twice more.
P.A.R.E.A still stood quiet.
In frustration and famine, she flicked at his eye with her free finger in an unending rhythm until the tiny robot finally opened by sliding the ruby red iris upward.
Sweet and spicy stung her nostrils as the cover over her mouth lifted, with the rest of the mask still remaining stubbornly affixed. Spice flowed through and the aroma danced on her tongue, leaving a pleasant heat as she tore a piece off and began to chew. Intense salivation washed the meat around warming her sinuses with the burning sweetness and tears formed, triggered both by the sting of the spicy chow and the euphoria of its deliciousness. This was far better than any ration, far better than even the most expensive dishes. It was a luxury unlike anything she had ever experienced before.
“Omnomnom.” PAREA said aloud. Flapping the cover open and shut as Tzera chewed and swallowed. Several snickers spilled from the alien, singing a calming song to her.
“Do you have a name?” her rescuer asked, staring back with her kind apricot eyes. Open, honest, and genuine.
“Tzera.” The fair green lizard answered through her last mastication.
“Yishel” the lavender cat introduced herself as she drove her arm over her chest and bowed, her blade-like ears thrust skyward in a familiar greeting.
Tzera responded in kind.
