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Inhuman Judgment
- Inhuman Judgment -
The walls of the expansive chamber were of a dark color, a mixture of gray metal and red mahogany paneling. The windows were all round, and through the glass of them I could see the clouds that were all shot through with sunlight, the fading golden hues of the afternoon, the colors that presaged the fall of night and the coming of the pale luminous majesty of the moons. The chamber was filled with rather tall transparent containers which held within them all manner of plants and flowers. These were being preserved, so that they could be made use of when restoring life to worlds that had been ravaged by war or by environmental catastrophes. They could, at simplest, be used to create beautiful gardens! But on this occasion, it was not in any use at all. Walking through the chamber was a girl whose name I did not know but who I had seen here on many occasions in the past. The craft we were traveling in, it was very massive, and it lumbered through the atmosphere of the planet we were going to be landing on within the next several hours. I had never been on so slow and cumbersome a vessel, and I found landings in one such vehicles to be tedious at best. The girl was one of many passengers, I assumed. Many families had come aboard to assist in the colonization efforts along with various scientists. It occurred to me that I honestly had not given myself the time to get to know any of these people. I found that sometimes I could feel a bit awkward during interactions with strangers, which was why on this day I was surprised.
She just stood there smiling, with her shoulder-length brown hair framing her sweet looking face. Her eyes were closed, and she appeared to be lost in deep, absorbing thoughts. She looked beautiful, serene! Like a princess, in her frilly yellow dress with its' long puffy white sleeves. She had one hand upon her hip, and in the other she held a red rose. She inhaled its' fragrance and said to me calmly: "This flower just whispered its' secrets to me! Do you wish me to tell you what it said?” she must have removed the flower from one of the containers that were marked for civilian use. There were a great many of those, and it was permitted to handle their contents and even take them if a person wished to. Apparently, the young girl had a fondness for that rose, which she had decided to keep. Something about this felt very surreal, and I nodded in assent to her, feeling not dissimilar to being in a daze. This felt like a dream. The girl appeared to be thoughtful for a moment, as if decided what to say next. Then, she murmured in a somewhat odd tone: “It told me its' name, the rose did! Then I realized, that all roses have names that start with the same letter of my peoples' alphabet.” She opened her eyes after saying that, I saw that her eyes were totally white, which shocked and startled me. Her face glowed with a radiant smile right at that precise instant. “Ah!” she said, continuing, with her gaze becoming more serious and intense: “You know the letter I speak of. If you learn how to say it just right, you can speak in the language of roses as I can.” I smiled shyly, and then nodded. “How fortunate is the hour, in which I find you here, being a kind of rose in the garden of my dreams!” she stated, saying softly: “When we exchange our secrets in this place, we might never be apart. Can you understand me? I have many secrets!” With that she then stepped over to me, a suddenly vapid expression upon her face. She seemed to be distracted, as if some other series of events was occupying her mind. She motioned for me to lean towards her closer, and as I did so she placed the palm of her hand upon my forehead. This gesture seemed very strange to me, and I could not understand her intention with it. She closed her eyes, whispered something in a very foreign tongue, and then lowered her hand. She offered me the rose, which I accepted, and the she walked away towards the sliding doors at the other end of the room. The rose told me nothing, whatever it was that the flower had revealed to that strange girl. I could not seem to let go of the thought that I was meant to comprehend some greater meaning that I had failed to notice the significance of. She had seemed very odd, and had the most unusually pink shade of skin too, of a sort that I had never seen before. It would be a long journey, I suspected. The planet was one I had not visited previously, and yet here I was! In all my years, I had never participated in such an expedition. I was used to taking action, not long waits.
Did I really see her at all? I asked myself. Had she truly spoken to me just now! I began to wonder if I had perhaps imagined the odd encounter. I was never one prone to delusions, however, and I was even now holding the rose that I had been gifted. I returned it to its' container and sighed. The girl had been in her later teens, and had seemed charming enough if rather mysterious. And yet I had a feeling of very great unease when I thought about her. Was this a sign? I realized that it would be good if I could meet her again and learn from her whatever I may. To that end, I set out along the hallways and corridors of the great star-faring craft, asking everyone and anyone I could if they had seen any young girl matching such a description as I gave of her. Yet no one seemed to have noticed such a person, and if they had, I realized they were not being truthful with me about it. I had no name to go by either, although deep in my mind I had named her Ari'osa, which meant “Rose” in the language the girl had spoken of. How did I know what language it was even? She had not told me. And yet I did know! I returned to the chamber in which I had met her, and there she was once again, waiting for me to arrive. “Greetings.” she said in a flat, emotionless tone. Then suddenly, she seemed to be filled with emotion, as she joyously cried out in an almost musical way: “My name is Ari'osa, for that is what you have decided it should be!” which struck me very odd since I had articulated my desire to call her that, to no one outside of my own mind.
She then skipped around very childishly, spun about, and gazed at me with a familiarity I found to be disconcerting since I knew her not. “The flowers here, they all told me that you are like a treasure that has been lost to time! That you have a beautiful heart, an ancient soul, and that you feel alone. I would like to happily inform you, however, that you are not alone! Just this morning, in the darkness, I heard a voice. It spoke unto me, and I listened. It said: 'Tell that one, when you see them, that they are definitely not alone!' and oh my dear there are so many who share pain like that which you harbor within. You do not have to suffer alone, nor in silence. Is that not wonderful?” Once she had finished proclaiming this, I stared at her, my wonderment clear in my face. Then, I said to the pink-hued girl: “My dear girl! What ever are you talking about? Have we met before and I simply have forgotten the occasion perhaps! I do need to know, for this has been bothering me since our first encounter.” She then laughed, giggled, and then said in a conspiratorial tone: “Am I dear to you, now? I am only a messenger, nothing more. I told you my name, and it is the one you gave me. I already know your name!” and she spoke it, exactly as it actually was. My truest name, the one I have never revealed to anyone. Her smile then faded, and as it did she whispered: “I will speak to you again, but do not seek me out! I will find you. Ta ta for now!” and then she skipped on through the door and was lost to my sight. I knew it was pointless to seek after her, and so I would need to bide my time and see what might await me once we reached the surface of this strange world. I made my way to the ship's observation deck, eager to give this new planet a look.
It was a large forested landscape that stretched out below us, filled with woods of dense trees and vast jungles of great natural diversity. It was clear that we would not need to assist with the environment on this planet, at least. Although I wondered if we could even remotely locate an open space of reasonable size to land our vessel at. This clearly was a lush world! All I could see below, was small grassy plains between unimaginably vast stretches of those living, green forests. At our slow pace, I felt bored and in no way pleased with the seeming lack of any viable landing zone. But I was not the one in charge of the expedition, and I had no way to hasten things. It was like being in a dream where you want to run, but are held back and can only move as if underwater. I blinked several times, half expecting to awaken but finding that I was wide awake enough already. I stifled a yawn, and stretched as we inched ever closer to wherever it was the navigators determined we should be landing. Standing next to me were several families, who were all entranced by the view of the planet outside the observation deck's window. Even surrounded by people as I was, I felt like I was apart from them. Pains of the past held me in their grip.
The craft had touched down at last in a large desert area just beyond the farthest jungle. The place was as primeval as you might imagine, this planet much like a world in its' early days might appear. I had in truth expected to have seen large lumbering beasts making their way across such a wild landscape, but at least on this occasion we saw none as we filed down the landing ramps like ants from their hill. Such was the size of our massive vessel, that to a giant it would have appeared not dissimilar a comparison. The air was warm and humid, rather than hot and dry like I had expected. Likely this was due to the fact that we were quite close to the jungle, and not very deep into the desert which would have been a great deal drier and hotter by far. Everyone separated into their assigned groups related to the tasks at hand, with the families remaining in the vessel and choosing not to come out until it was deemed safe to. That would be the expedition captain's call to make, when the time came. I decided to accompany a party of explorers who intended to have a look in the jungle that lay before us, beyond the desert's boundaries. The sky was dark and filled with stars, two moons looming high in the heavens. One large, one small. It would have been nicer to see this place by daylight, since my sleeping schedule was messed up enough by this trip already. I was not tired, however, and had slept reasonably when I had been able to. Not at all well, but reasonably. I was dressed in a pair of long red pantaloons, very full, gathered at the waist and ankles with drawstring. This was paired with a matching red tube top. On my feet I wore a pair of black ankle boots, perfect of any terrain. The only adornments I wore were a soft cloth choker around my neck and a pair of red cuff bracelets with black gemstones decorating them. My head was shaved bald, and my body was hairless. I lacked eyebrows as well. I was not human, but of a different race that was somewhat similar to humans... for the most part. My head had a series of small ridges that ran from the middle of my forehead just above the brow, all the way up and then down the back of my head, and on down my neck and spine, all the way to just above my tailbone. My skin had a light purplish color to it, and my overall appearance was rather androgynous. My ears were slightly pointed, and I had highly developed, keen senses. It was my senses that made me an asset on this expedition, along with the fact that I was an expert on ancient cultures. I had a long history with exploring old ruins from distant ages, on many worlds all across the galaxy. This was not the first journey of this sort for me... not by far! My race was rather long lived, and I had lost track of the years. I was equivalent in human terms to being in my forties, but often felt a great deal younger. I had always been active... though less so now than I had been in previous years. I had grown restless of late, and so I thought that this trip would be good for me. In contrast, the explorers were dressed... perhaps less flamboyantly... than I. They wore tunics of several different colors, all based on fashion rather than meaning, paired with black shorts and black boots that were not unlike my own choice of footwear on that occasion. They were of various human races, and I had been told that they were all experts in their various fields. We all gathered up our equipment and made ready to depart. I myself carried a supply pack slung over my shoulder, and in my hands I held a long metal spear with a curved blade mounted atop the shaft. There were hand grips on the spear that made it easier to wield as a weapon. I had no intention, after all, of going into a wild jungle unarmed!
At times the ground was sandy and flat. Then, it would rise into a gentle incline filled with a carpet of moss and rich, soft dark soil that grew more pronounced as we reached the grasslands that led directly into the jungle beyond. We passed through, at first, lush forests with tall leafy trees that were mixed all together with wilder looking, scraggly tress with hanging vines. Once in the jungle, the ground got to be in turns soft and spongy, and sometimes rocky and uneven. We walked along as best we could, dealing surprisingly well with the humidity. I had come from an arid world originally, and so I could not really complain, since this was less harsh by far. The desert was soon far behind us, and before long we were trekking through the dense underbrush that had, so far as we could tell, been untouched by any sentient peoples. I hacked at the plants before me with my spear's blade, the explorers using machetes similarly.
I was informed we were working our way through the jungle from the north. I felt a rush of curiosity, but also a strange realization that I was wholly out of touch now with any semblances of civilization. I was in the wilds again, on yet another adventure. In that incarnation of mine, I had a taste for such. But I was always cautious, always careful, since such expeditions were typically quite dangerous. Doubly so, since we knew less than nothing about the local animal life. So far we had seen more insects than animals, however! There were bird-like sounds from high in the tree canopy, and all manner of noises in the underbrush, thankfully coming from places where we were not. We heard things skittering about but never saw anything. At that hour, so late at night, it was not too surprising either! Aside from more nocturnal creatures, there would honestly not have been much to see in any case. One of the explorers expressed a desire to encounter something, while I cautioned him: “Be mindful! Just because you long to see some peaceful creature, that does not mean you will encounter such a one. You might, with just as much ease, run into something far deadlier... only to end up devoured or torn to pieces! Watch what you wish for, sir. You might get more than you bargain for, and endanger us all.” To which he got a bit of a dejected look upon his face, and seemed taken aback somewhat by my less enthusiastic but more realistic outlook. After a while, we saw various lizards and smaller, furrier things, and it looked a great deal like something had woken them up and stirred them into a panic. Something other than our party.
Soon, we came to a wide stream, and a rickety wooden bridge spanning it. “It would seem that at least at one point, this place was inhabited.” I declared. The leader of the explorers, a tall woman with a short military style haircut wearing an olive green tunic stated: “Apparently so. Which is bad, because now it looks like we will have to deal with the natives if we are ever to colonize this planet successfully! In all honestly, I would have much preferred it if the planet had remained devoid of humanoid life entirely.” I asked the woman why and she replied: “About ten years back, I was on an expedition to a planet that I had been told was clear for colonization. That means, no native life-forms aside from animals and the like. Well, we were wrong! And the people... they were not people so much as beasts... savaged all of my party, except for myself and one man. And him... he was missing his genitalia and one hand when we got him back from their main camp. The women suffered something far worse than death and a lot more shameful than simple mutilation. Every one of them committed suicide before we could get them out of the caves where the beast peoples' camp was hidden. Like I said, just me and that one man made it back out alive. He, is now working for the royal family on Icarin Theta... as a eunuch harem guard.” I understood well, her reservations about this. I offered to lead the way along with her, since between us we had the most combat experience compared to an otherwise predominantly academic team. She gave me a wry look at one point and teased me: “So, do you have anything down there you could afford to lose?” referring to my own genitalia. I assured her: “I am of the male variant of my species, so... yes.” And she shook her head, regarding my serious answer as an indication that I did not get she was joking.
We climbed up several small hills once we crossed the bridge, and it was difficult going because the hills were all very rocky, with steep trails going up and down them. These actual trails, at least, were a bit easier to follow than the crude trail that we had been making for ourselves previously. We had not at all been gone long, but it seemed an eternity all the same. We passed through sections of high and hilly ground that were covered in strange mushrooms that grew in the darkness of the deep jungle, and even the light of the moons could not reach this place. We came to a small lake filled with lily pads, and saw something leap into the water as we approached. It was like a toad only far larger, more the size of a big dog. Ahead of us was a large rocky cliff, with a massive, towering tree rising up from just in front of it. Several posts were set up all along the trail leading to the base of the tree, atop which were mounted the skulls of several large animals. Perhaps, I so reasoned, the people who lived in this jungle were hunters.
There appeared to be a large cave-like opening in the trunk of the tree... with a tunnel leading deeper into the cliff behind it. “So, should we go ahead?” asked one of the explorers, the youngest man of the lot. The leader... Ykat'la was her name... said angrily: “Yes! What do you think, we came all this way just to go back now?” Her military rank was commander, and she was not used to being questioned on her decisions. She ran a tight group when she led it, and suffered no foolishness. We entered the tunnel and Ykat'la produced a flashlight with a wide beam so that we could see where we were going. One of the other men had been checked her body out (he was walking immediately behind us) and once I head him whisper something to one of the other men and they chuckled. I had no use for crass, crude men of this sort! And I suspected that our leader would not put up their antics for too long, either. I made not a single comment on noticing this, however. Instead, I shook my head disapprovingly and kept my own counsel. However, I remained close to Ykat'la the whole way and kept an eye on those men to be sure that they would not try anything stupid. Such men as these could be worse than savages, I had learned. The tunnel took us down deep, and it opened up into a massive subterranean chamber with a vast lake that filled it from one end all the way to the other. A wide stone bridge crossed the surface of that body of water, from which rose steam in various places. “Be careful! The water here is likely scalding hot... you fall in, and you will boil alive.” I cried out to the party. The commander then nodded her head in full agreement, and warned the others: “You hear that? No screwing around on the bridge, unless you want to end up cooked down to your bones! Now come on.” and we made our way over the bridge with haste, being extremely mindful not to trip on any loose stones or gravel as we did so. Suddenly, a large stalactite crashed down, crushing the bridge just as we made it across. “Well, we will not be going back that way now!” the commander shouted. “Just have to keep going... nothing for it.” and I could hear one of the men, the one who had been eyeing the commander lewdly, cursing at this turn of bad luck. I wanted to strike the fool, or throw him screaming into the boiling water! But I restrained myself nicely.
Soon we found our way into the bowels of an immense underground temple complex, and at the very heart of it was a shadowy cathedral-like chamber containing tall pillars worked from stalactites that had merged with stalagmites to form natural columns. There were withered flower garlands entwined all around the pillars, brown petals covering the floor beneath. On the far end of this area there loomed a giant statue in the shape of some horrific looking winged creature, in shape humanoid but with a very massive, hunched form from which emerged tentacle-like appendages with claws at the ends of them. The whole of it was covered in what looked like eyes, and the entire carved image was unsettling and bizarre to put it mildly. This thing held in its' two main hands (it had so many arms and hands!) a big black orb that was blood red in color. At the feet of this horrible looking idol there sat a wide wicker basket filled with dead roses and faded rose petals from very long ago. Human-looking bones were all scattered about in places, covered in thick webs. A young boy sat huddled next to the basket, sobbing uncontrollably. He looked very human, but with naturally green hair, very long and flowing. He was wearing a long pretty looking teal colored dress that had petal-like frills and a floral print upon it. His feet were bare, and he was unadorned but had a noble look about his features. At first, I took him to be a girl, and at best he was about eight years old. “Have you come to worship at the temple? I fear that all the priests have abandoned this place so long, very long ago. I am the last to remain here! My name, if it matters to you strangers at all, is Nalkimaku. I am the last boy-priest of my tribe, in service to the old god of the jungle, whose name we dare not utter.” I asked him: “Is no one left of your people at all? We saw no one on our way here!” to which he replied: “Look, and you will understand!” as me motioned to the spaces behind the statue. The commander shone her flashlight there, and stacked to a great height were walls made wholly of human skeletons that rose up nearly to the ceiling. Ykat'la whistled loudly and shouted: “Oh my gods! There must in all, be thousands of them... and all of them very long dead.”
“What happened here?” I asked the boy, who replied: “The god demanded we do this, said that all of the men, women, and children of the tribe had to die except for me. And that when this was done, then all the priests and warriors who undertook to sacrifice everyone... those same were to cast themselves into the boiling water. This they did, and so now I am all alone, waiting to die. But we live long, and I have been waiting even longer!” The way he said that last part was very sinister. If his story was true... what was he even living on? Surely the food would have gone bad a long time ago! I raised this point to him, and he dismissed it stating: “As a priest, I was taught a secret of how to subsist on energy from a neighboring elemental plane. I no longer require physical sustenance in order to continue living. I no longer need to eat, nor excrete. I am... barely even human... any longer.” But how did he come to be able to speak our language, and why would he refer to his people as human? Surely this world aught to have had its' own unique languages, and its' own terms for its' races and species of sentient beings. I so brought that up to the boy as well, and this time he grew very angry, shouting: “I am not used to having people question me so persistently! I am a priest, do you understand me? We wielded more power than the kings did, and when the time is right my kind will be powerful again.” To which I asked the boy in a simply, polite tone: “What is your kind, boy? You say that as if you are not human after all!” and that was the final straw for him. His eyes glowed with a dim reddish glow, as he growled: “You ask far too many questions for your own good, strange one!” and with a motion of his hand, gesturing towards one of the men in our party, he somehow caused some invisible force to tear the man's limbs from his body, blood spraying out, gushing and oozing down along with plasma and pus while that man died horribly, shrieking and gurgling as he did so. The boy motioned towards another of the men, and that one seemed to have his skin peeled from his muscle tissue by yet another unseen force. Skinned alive, what was left of the man ran around screaming: “Oh gods! Oh gods! Just kill, please!” until he collapsed from shock and blood loss, expiring after some time. “Any further questions?” the boy asked, chuckling. To which the commander inquired: “Only one! Will you let us leave, and if so... is there any exit other than that bridge over the boiling water? It was broken, and now we have no means to get back. We will... leave you in peace... if you would only help us to get out of here!” But one of the remaining men, the one that had been acting inappropriately toward Ykat'la, screamed: “You are not going to trust that little bastard, are you? Did you see what he just did to those two! He'll do the same thing to us if we let him. I am not going to let him!” and with that he charged at the boy with a bone he picked up to use as a makeshift club. The boy simply clenched his left fist... and the man clutched his chest as if in mortal agony. The boy pulled his fist back, and the man's heart tore its' way from its' mooring and out of his body, along with fragments of his rib cage and a great deal of blood and other fluids. His death was horrible, but it was no more than the vile man deserved, at least in my eyes. “I will show you the way out.” the boy had said to those of us who remained. Just myself, the commander, and two women. “You will follow as I lead you, and you will ask me no questions unless they be reasonable ones. So, do we have an accord?” and we all nodded our heads in agreement. I volunteered: “Yes, we do!” which sealed our arrangement.
“My father, he had been a great general of sorts, from a distant empire.” Nalkimaku informed us as he did wrench the large blood red orb free from the statue. He simply gestured... and the orb tore itself out of its' moorings and floated down to rest on the ground before the boy. “This orb had been a symbol of his power. He conquered all the tribes and united them under his banner, but he could not conquer the spirits of nature, nor the ravages of time. When he died, his spirit tried to cause many to die, by means of madness, but he could not reach every mind in order to taint it. However, he tainted most! Which so you now realize, was what led to the entire tribe who lived here becoming corrupted. That is why they had to perish. And what better way, than through their very faith, however foolish and misplaces it had been to begin with?” I knew then, that he had never been a priest... or any member of that tribe, either.
As soon as he had finished telling us what I just related to you, dear reader, I said to him (being very careful not to ask any questions in so doing): “Your father is the creature depicted in that statue, I see! You are only choosing to look like a boy. You are obviously something... other.” To which the boy so nodded, admitting: “Your perception does you credit, strange one! It is as you have observed.” and on hearing that, the commander swallowed hard and seemed at a loss for words. She was frightened, and visibly so. I doubt she ever encountered anything like Nalkimaku before in all her years in the military. I, however, had seen the like of such things, and knew enough to be wary of incurring their displeasure. The boy drove his right fist through the orb, shattering it. Within it was a glowing red ruby, which he did retrieve and hold in both of his hands. “This is my father's greatest treasure, the source of both his power and my own.” the inhuman child explained, showing us the jewel. He gestured to the basket and said: “That contains all that is left of the source of my sister's power.” The dead roses, I realized. And I thought back to that girl I had met back on the ship. Was that a vision of this boy's sister? No, for she had been all too real to be a vision! And then there had been the matter of the rose she had given me. I almost thought to call out to her, but then I remembered that she said she would seek me out. That kept me from saying anything, and from revealing to the boy that I had met (I suspected) the girl he spoke of.
I picked up a dead rose from the basket and gestured for the boy to lead us onward. Nalkimaku, very slowly but purposefully, walked towards a wide archway set into the left side of the chamber. Then, he picked up the pace and indicated his wish for us to follow him. We entered into a second temple area, but this one was like a vast, enclosed library with immense shelves filled with crumbling and decayed books and tomes. Metal and wooden ladders and stairways climbed high, as high as the shelves rose up, and all for nothing. Whatever knowledge had existed here was long since lost in another age. “What a waste!” exclaimed the commander on noticing this. I commented: “More was lost here... than I would imagine, has been learned in many universities.” to which the boy responded: “But what good did any of it do these people? All here, lies forgotten and forsaken.” the smell of so much rot, and old death... had at last become nearly stomach-turning to me. The commander was used to such smells, and though I had never been a stranger to death, or to decay, this place had seen both on a scale that was wasteful, perverse, and maddening to contemplate. “The mysteries of sorcery were studied here.” the boy stated. “But in reality, it was only another sort of science.” he elaborated. He pushed inward on one of so many book cases, and it spun sideways to reveal a secret passage leading into deeper, and darker tunnels. The smell of damp earth rose up from the passageway, and various tiny insects scrambled out as it opened. I had placed the dead rose I had picked up into my pack, but was mindful of exactly where. I had a very strong feeling that I was going to be needing it again... before we were well free of this terrible domain.
Very quickly after entering that passageway... we came to a set of steps, leading up at a gradual pace. Higher and higher, the steps took us and I had the feeling that we were within a great mountain of some sort. Eventually, there were breaks and cracks in the walls and ceiling through which the morning sun was shining. Had we really been under the earth the whole night through? I did not feel like it had been that long at all! We passed under a high archway, and down a stone hallway filled with high windows of stained glass. A strange red-yellow light shone through those windows. Ahead of us was a set of tall double doors, both of some kind of light looking metal, with large rings on the fronts that allowed one to pull the doors open. The boy motioned to the doors and cautioned us: “That is where the evil lives!” and he motioned for the doors to open, while they did so at his mental command. Behind the door, was a well-lit area not unlike a series of living quarters. Small apartments containing long abandoned things that had been the properties of those who had once called this domain their home. Two long hallways filled with rooms met like a large cross. We had just come down one, and proceeded to the very center.
In the middle of the crossed hallways, there was a circular open space... like a plaza. A small dried up fountain stood in the center of it, containing a foul looking blood-like liquid that appeared to bubble. At once, the two women who were all that remained of our party of explorers decided insanely to drink the fell ichor. No sooner had they done this, than both of us began to vomit up blood until they were wholly drained of all their body's blood, their now pallid forms twitching on the floor as they perished in pain. “Oh good lords!” shouted the commander, who had tears streaming from her eyes. “Why? Why would they even do something so foolish!” she wept, half angry and half lost to sorrow. The boy then said to her: “And what would you do, to be free from this place?” The boy then vanished as if into thin air. We were now all alone in that place, just myself and Ykat'la. There was no obvious way out, at least as far as we could tell. No doors leading out, and the windows being too high up to reach... even by climbing. All of a sudden, the commander began to stair at me in a lascivious manner that made me feel strongly uncomfortable. She then said: “You are not human, but I would wager you have got something human enough for my liking... down there! Show it to me... if you are not a eunuch after all.” Her manner was crude and as offensive as it sounded. She pushed me, trying to unbalance me. “Madam commander, I think this is neither the time nor...” and before I could finish my words, she leapt towards me, forcing a feral, impassioned kiss upon my lips, her tongue finding its' way into my mouth. I found myself unable to resist, my willpower suddenly drained. I returned her wild kiss with passion of my own. “I assure you that I am no eunuch!” I said quite angrily, as I proceeded to violently tear open the front of the woman's tunic, exposing her full, round breasts. Her hand was between my legs, grabbing my manhood, which I found getting extremely hard at her touch. Before I knew it, she was undoing my pants' drawstring and pulling them down, while I had slid her shorts down so that she was able to kick them off to the side. We took off our undergarments after that, and cackling madly Ykat'la threw herself unto her back on the floor, with my body wedged firmly between her legs as I entered her with a ferocity born of pent up sexual tension. I moved in and out of her... she was wet, warm, and felt good with her breasts jiggling as I took her. I pulled on her short chestnut brown hair, and she enjoyed that. “Mm! Yes, ravish me like a whore! Like a freaking whore!” she screamed, her fingernails digging into my back furiously. I licked her face in an animal-like way, biting her cheeks a bit but not enough to hurt her. I squeezed her breasts very roughly, feeling her hard nipples between my fingers. We were sweating in the hot underground air, slick with each other's sweat as I heaved atop her, ravishing her without a care. I felt myself orgasm inside of her very intensely, keeping going just enough for her to reach her own climax. Our bodies had shuddered with our climaxes, and I kept raining kisses all over her face, her own lips kissing mine, our tongues licking. I lay atop her, still so very hard inside of her. I had wanted her worse than I realized! At least she had been honest with herself, about her lust for me. Once we got up, we dressed. I was the swifter to do so, while she took a bit, shaking her head. “Oh gods, what did we just do?” she asked. All of a sudden she looked at herself and screamed: “What the hell did I just do!” I was stuttering, unable to articulate any logical, rational, helpful thoughts. I could say only: “You wanted me... and I wanted you. You were not taking no for an answer, and I would be lying to say I did not enjoy what we did together. Although I am beginning to wonder... did something fuel these thoughts in us, driving us to this act?” She could not muster an answer. She shook her head, gathered her things, and said weakly: “We need to get out of here... now.” and something in her eyes told me that she harbored feelings for me but had no idea what she felt about them. It was lust, plain and simple, between the commander and I. But now we had to face the fact that we were trapped, with no exit anyplace in sight. Because, certainly as I had suspected, every part of those hallways we searched ended in a dead end... save for the way back to the library. And it was pointless to bother going there! I took the dead flower from my pack, and on a lark, threw it into the foul scarlet liquid of the fountain. The rose was consumed, and for a good long while it seemed as if nothing whatsoever was going to happen. However, something very strange then occurred.
Walking toward us from the hallway across from the one that led back to the library, was the teenage girl in the frilly yellow dress, the mysterious girl whom I had named Ari'osa. “I will take you both back to your craft now, but you must abandon any thoughts of colonizing this planet. It is not for humanoids such as yourselves to call your own... not any longer, anyway.” I asked her why, and she explained to us the reason: “In some of you, my brother noticed a capacity for violence and aggression... and he dealt in accordance to their evil, a righteous justice. In the two of you, he noticed a capacity for unbridled lust, and darkness of a different sort... which the fountain here magnified, until you acted upon the thoughts you had been both denying regarding each other. Primitive, carnal thoughts!” Ykat'la asked regarding this: “And just what is wrong with having carnal thoughts about someone? Seems normal enough, at least to me!” and I nodded in agreement. “Lust can hardly be considered akin to violence.” but to that the girl replied: “Is it not! You two were both willing, but the same lust that fuels carnal attractions can also fuel rapacious deeds enacted upon not so willing victims by those who are of a crueler nature still. And for that reason, my kind have ever equated violence and lust as being merely two sides of a single primitive coin. Your respective species are beneath us, we have decided! This place has long been a kind of testing ground, for sentient beings to measure themselves by our standards of morality. Just as the peoples who once lived here had, you two have miserably failed. As did all who accompanied you.” I felt somehow unashamed, however, and it was evident that the commander was likewise unbothered by such a judgment. I merely stated: “We are as we are. Imperfect beings, one and all. Tell me... when you and your brother were playing judge, jury and executioner over us all, did you not feel even just the slightest bit of satisfaction when meting out your twisted 'justice'? You called it righteous! But when you called it that, you had a tone of superiority and satisfaction evident in your voice. How, then, are either yourself or your brother any better than even the worst of our respective species?” That caused the girl to become silent just then, and her face was grave looking. She exclaimed, flatly: “I am not in the business of explaining our ways to outsiders. It is time for you to leave, both of you, and after that... you are all to leave this planet. Tell the captain of your ship... that this planet is so off limits... forever.”
The girl then blinked her eyes, and as soon as she had done this both myself and Ykat'la found that we were back upon the bridge of the vessel that we had come to that planet on. The captain and all those so stationed there were shocked at our sudden appearance, seemingly out of thin air. He made very little to no comment on the state of the commander's torn tunic and somewhat disheveled appearance. She tried to cover up as best as she could. “It seems you are somewhat out of uniform, commander.” he stated on the matter, and that was about it. The tall black haired man was very perceptive about things... but even he was at a loss to understand what was fully going on. “Would either of you please care to tell me how you managed to appear just now out of thin air... just like that?” he asked, snapping his fingers. I looked the man squarely in his steely gray eyes, and then began to tell him about what had befallen our ill-fated expedition but tactfully leaving out the intense sexual encounter that had occurred between Commander Ykat'la and I. The commander corroborated literally everything I had said, while also adding: “The two siblings, they are powerful beyond anything I have personally seen before! We should depart this planet as soon as would be possible, sir. The female sibling seemed very... particularly cross... with us.” After which everyone was recalled to the ship and plans for departure were set in motion. It would be a long, slow journey to the nearest civilized world, but at least we would all be alive to make the trip. Later on, in the observation room I sat at a table by one of the windows, with Ykat'la sitting right next to me, her arm around my shoulders. She was a very strong woman, in so very many ways! I respected that, and so many other things as well about her. “Now let us get to know each other a bit better... I mean, of course, beyond just the physical. I want to know who you are as a person, and I want you to know all about me in turn.” That was how she began our conversation. She already knew my name, so we went from there.
The walls of the expansive chamber were of a dark color, a mixture of gray metal and red mahogany paneling. The windows were all round, and through the glass of them I could see the clouds that were all shot through with sunlight, the fading golden hues of the afternoon, the colors that presaged the fall of night and the coming of the pale luminous majesty of the moons. The chamber was filled with rather tall transparent containers which held within them all manner of plants and flowers. These were being preserved, so that they could be made use of when restoring life to worlds that had been ravaged by war or by environmental catastrophes. They could, at simplest, be used to create beautiful gardens! But on this occasion, it was not in any use at all. Walking through the chamber was a girl whose name I did not know but who I had seen here on many occasions in the past. The craft we were traveling in, it was very massive, and it lumbered through the atmosphere of the planet we were going to be landing on within the next several hours. I had never been on so slow and cumbersome a vessel, and I found landings in one such vehicles to be tedious at best. The girl was one of many passengers, I assumed. Many families had come aboard to assist in the colonization efforts along with various scientists. It occurred to me that I honestly had not given myself the time to get to know any of these people. I found that sometimes I could feel a bit awkward during interactions with strangers, which was why on this day I was surprised.
She just stood there smiling, with her shoulder-length brown hair framing her sweet looking face. Her eyes were closed, and she appeared to be lost in deep, absorbing thoughts. She looked beautiful, serene! Like a princess, in her frilly yellow dress with its' long puffy white sleeves. She had one hand upon her hip, and in the other she held a red rose. She inhaled its' fragrance and said to me calmly: "This flower just whispered its' secrets to me! Do you wish me to tell you what it said?” she must have removed the flower from one of the containers that were marked for civilian use. There were a great many of those, and it was permitted to handle their contents and even take them if a person wished to. Apparently, the young girl had a fondness for that rose, which she had decided to keep. Something about this felt very surreal, and I nodded in assent to her, feeling not dissimilar to being in a daze. This felt like a dream. The girl appeared to be thoughtful for a moment, as if decided what to say next. Then, she murmured in a somewhat odd tone: “It told me its' name, the rose did! Then I realized, that all roses have names that start with the same letter of my peoples' alphabet.” She opened her eyes after saying that, I saw that her eyes were totally white, which shocked and startled me. Her face glowed with a radiant smile right at that precise instant. “Ah!” she said, continuing, with her gaze becoming more serious and intense: “You know the letter I speak of. If you learn how to say it just right, you can speak in the language of roses as I can.” I smiled shyly, and then nodded. “How fortunate is the hour, in which I find you here, being a kind of rose in the garden of my dreams!” she stated, saying softly: “When we exchange our secrets in this place, we might never be apart. Can you understand me? I have many secrets!” With that she then stepped over to me, a suddenly vapid expression upon her face. She seemed to be distracted, as if some other series of events was occupying her mind. She motioned for me to lean towards her closer, and as I did so she placed the palm of her hand upon my forehead. This gesture seemed very strange to me, and I could not understand her intention with it. She closed her eyes, whispered something in a very foreign tongue, and then lowered her hand. She offered me the rose, which I accepted, and the she walked away towards the sliding doors at the other end of the room. The rose told me nothing, whatever it was that the flower had revealed to that strange girl. I could not seem to let go of the thought that I was meant to comprehend some greater meaning that I had failed to notice the significance of. She had seemed very odd, and had the most unusually pink shade of skin too, of a sort that I had never seen before. It would be a long journey, I suspected. The planet was one I had not visited previously, and yet here I was! In all my years, I had never participated in such an expedition. I was used to taking action, not long waits.
Did I really see her at all? I asked myself. Had she truly spoken to me just now! I began to wonder if I had perhaps imagined the odd encounter. I was never one prone to delusions, however, and I was even now holding the rose that I had been gifted. I returned it to its' container and sighed. The girl had been in her later teens, and had seemed charming enough if rather mysterious. And yet I had a feeling of very great unease when I thought about her. Was this a sign? I realized that it would be good if I could meet her again and learn from her whatever I may. To that end, I set out along the hallways and corridors of the great star-faring craft, asking everyone and anyone I could if they had seen any young girl matching such a description as I gave of her. Yet no one seemed to have noticed such a person, and if they had, I realized they were not being truthful with me about it. I had no name to go by either, although deep in my mind I had named her Ari'osa, which meant “Rose” in the language the girl had spoken of. How did I know what language it was even? She had not told me. And yet I did know! I returned to the chamber in which I had met her, and there she was once again, waiting for me to arrive. “Greetings.” she said in a flat, emotionless tone. Then suddenly, she seemed to be filled with emotion, as she joyously cried out in an almost musical way: “My name is Ari'osa, for that is what you have decided it should be!” which struck me very odd since I had articulated my desire to call her that, to no one outside of my own mind.
She then skipped around very childishly, spun about, and gazed at me with a familiarity I found to be disconcerting since I knew her not. “The flowers here, they all told me that you are like a treasure that has been lost to time! That you have a beautiful heart, an ancient soul, and that you feel alone. I would like to happily inform you, however, that you are not alone! Just this morning, in the darkness, I heard a voice. It spoke unto me, and I listened. It said: 'Tell that one, when you see them, that they are definitely not alone!' and oh my dear there are so many who share pain like that which you harbor within. You do not have to suffer alone, nor in silence. Is that not wonderful?” Once she had finished proclaiming this, I stared at her, my wonderment clear in my face. Then, I said to the pink-hued girl: “My dear girl! What ever are you talking about? Have we met before and I simply have forgotten the occasion perhaps! I do need to know, for this has been bothering me since our first encounter.” She then laughed, giggled, and then said in a conspiratorial tone: “Am I dear to you, now? I am only a messenger, nothing more. I told you my name, and it is the one you gave me. I already know your name!” and she spoke it, exactly as it actually was. My truest name, the one I have never revealed to anyone. Her smile then faded, and as it did she whispered: “I will speak to you again, but do not seek me out! I will find you. Ta ta for now!” and then she skipped on through the door and was lost to my sight. I knew it was pointless to seek after her, and so I would need to bide my time and see what might await me once we reached the surface of this strange world. I made my way to the ship's observation deck, eager to give this new planet a look.
It was a large forested landscape that stretched out below us, filled with woods of dense trees and vast jungles of great natural diversity. It was clear that we would not need to assist with the environment on this planet, at least. Although I wondered if we could even remotely locate an open space of reasonable size to land our vessel at. This clearly was a lush world! All I could see below, was small grassy plains between unimaginably vast stretches of those living, green forests. At our slow pace, I felt bored and in no way pleased with the seeming lack of any viable landing zone. But I was not the one in charge of the expedition, and I had no way to hasten things. It was like being in a dream where you want to run, but are held back and can only move as if underwater. I blinked several times, half expecting to awaken but finding that I was wide awake enough already. I stifled a yawn, and stretched as we inched ever closer to wherever it was the navigators determined we should be landing. Standing next to me were several families, who were all entranced by the view of the planet outside the observation deck's window. Even surrounded by people as I was, I felt like I was apart from them. Pains of the past held me in their grip.
The craft had touched down at last in a large desert area just beyond the farthest jungle. The place was as primeval as you might imagine, this planet much like a world in its' early days might appear. I had in truth expected to have seen large lumbering beasts making their way across such a wild landscape, but at least on this occasion we saw none as we filed down the landing ramps like ants from their hill. Such was the size of our massive vessel, that to a giant it would have appeared not dissimilar a comparison. The air was warm and humid, rather than hot and dry like I had expected. Likely this was due to the fact that we were quite close to the jungle, and not very deep into the desert which would have been a great deal drier and hotter by far. Everyone separated into their assigned groups related to the tasks at hand, with the families remaining in the vessel and choosing not to come out until it was deemed safe to. That would be the expedition captain's call to make, when the time came. I decided to accompany a party of explorers who intended to have a look in the jungle that lay before us, beyond the desert's boundaries. The sky was dark and filled with stars, two moons looming high in the heavens. One large, one small. It would have been nicer to see this place by daylight, since my sleeping schedule was messed up enough by this trip already. I was not tired, however, and had slept reasonably when I had been able to. Not at all well, but reasonably. I was dressed in a pair of long red pantaloons, very full, gathered at the waist and ankles with drawstring. This was paired with a matching red tube top. On my feet I wore a pair of black ankle boots, perfect of any terrain. The only adornments I wore were a soft cloth choker around my neck and a pair of red cuff bracelets with black gemstones decorating them. My head was shaved bald, and my body was hairless. I lacked eyebrows as well. I was not human, but of a different race that was somewhat similar to humans... for the most part. My head had a series of small ridges that ran from the middle of my forehead just above the brow, all the way up and then down the back of my head, and on down my neck and spine, all the way to just above my tailbone. My skin had a light purplish color to it, and my overall appearance was rather androgynous. My ears were slightly pointed, and I had highly developed, keen senses. It was my senses that made me an asset on this expedition, along with the fact that I was an expert on ancient cultures. I had a long history with exploring old ruins from distant ages, on many worlds all across the galaxy. This was not the first journey of this sort for me... not by far! My race was rather long lived, and I had lost track of the years. I was equivalent in human terms to being in my forties, but often felt a great deal younger. I had always been active... though less so now than I had been in previous years. I had grown restless of late, and so I thought that this trip would be good for me. In contrast, the explorers were dressed... perhaps less flamboyantly... than I. They wore tunics of several different colors, all based on fashion rather than meaning, paired with black shorts and black boots that were not unlike my own choice of footwear on that occasion. They were of various human races, and I had been told that they were all experts in their various fields. We all gathered up our equipment and made ready to depart. I myself carried a supply pack slung over my shoulder, and in my hands I held a long metal spear with a curved blade mounted atop the shaft. There were hand grips on the spear that made it easier to wield as a weapon. I had no intention, after all, of going into a wild jungle unarmed!
At times the ground was sandy and flat. Then, it would rise into a gentle incline filled with a carpet of moss and rich, soft dark soil that grew more pronounced as we reached the grasslands that led directly into the jungle beyond. We passed through, at first, lush forests with tall leafy trees that were mixed all together with wilder looking, scraggly tress with hanging vines. Once in the jungle, the ground got to be in turns soft and spongy, and sometimes rocky and uneven. We walked along as best we could, dealing surprisingly well with the humidity. I had come from an arid world originally, and so I could not really complain, since this was less harsh by far. The desert was soon far behind us, and before long we were trekking through the dense underbrush that had, so far as we could tell, been untouched by any sentient peoples. I hacked at the plants before me with my spear's blade, the explorers using machetes similarly.
I was informed we were working our way through the jungle from the north. I felt a rush of curiosity, but also a strange realization that I was wholly out of touch now with any semblances of civilization. I was in the wilds again, on yet another adventure. In that incarnation of mine, I had a taste for such. But I was always cautious, always careful, since such expeditions were typically quite dangerous. Doubly so, since we knew less than nothing about the local animal life. So far we had seen more insects than animals, however! There were bird-like sounds from high in the tree canopy, and all manner of noises in the underbrush, thankfully coming from places where we were not. We heard things skittering about but never saw anything. At that hour, so late at night, it was not too surprising either! Aside from more nocturnal creatures, there would honestly not have been much to see in any case. One of the explorers expressed a desire to encounter something, while I cautioned him: “Be mindful! Just because you long to see some peaceful creature, that does not mean you will encounter such a one. You might, with just as much ease, run into something far deadlier... only to end up devoured or torn to pieces! Watch what you wish for, sir. You might get more than you bargain for, and endanger us all.” To which he got a bit of a dejected look upon his face, and seemed taken aback somewhat by my less enthusiastic but more realistic outlook. After a while, we saw various lizards and smaller, furrier things, and it looked a great deal like something had woken them up and stirred them into a panic. Something other than our party.
Soon, we came to a wide stream, and a rickety wooden bridge spanning it. “It would seem that at least at one point, this place was inhabited.” I declared. The leader of the explorers, a tall woman with a short military style haircut wearing an olive green tunic stated: “Apparently so. Which is bad, because now it looks like we will have to deal with the natives if we are ever to colonize this planet successfully! In all honestly, I would have much preferred it if the planet had remained devoid of humanoid life entirely.” I asked the woman why and she replied: “About ten years back, I was on an expedition to a planet that I had been told was clear for colonization. That means, no native life-forms aside from animals and the like. Well, we were wrong! And the people... they were not people so much as beasts... savaged all of my party, except for myself and one man. And him... he was missing his genitalia and one hand when we got him back from their main camp. The women suffered something far worse than death and a lot more shameful than simple mutilation. Every one of them committed suicide before we could get them out of the caves where the beast peoples' camp was hidden. Like I said, just me and that one man made it back out alive. He, is now working for the royal family on Icarin Theta... as a eunuch harem guard.” I understood well, her reservations about this. I offered to lead the way along with her, since between us we had the most combat experience compared to an otherwise predominantly academic team. She gave me a wry look at one point and teased me: “So, do you have anything down there you could afford to lose?” referring to my own genitalia. I assured her: “I am of the male variant of my species, so... yes.” And she shook her head, regarding my serious answer as an indication that I did not get she was joking.
We climbed up several small hills once we crossed the bridge, and it was difficult going because the hills were all very rocky, with steep trails going up and down them. These actual trails, at least, were a bit easier to follow than the crude trail that we had been making for ourselves previously. We had not at all been gone long, but it seemed an eternity all the same. We passed through sections of high and hilly ground that were covered in strange mushrooms that grew in the darkness of the deep jungle, and even the light of the moons could not reach this place. We came to a small lake filled with lily pads, and saw something leap into the water as we approached. It was like a toad only far larger, more the size of a big dog. Ahead of us was a large rocky cliff, with a massive, towering tree rising up from just in front of it. Several posts were set up all along the trail leading to the base of the tree, atop which were mounted the skulls of several large animals. Perhaps, I so reasoned, the people who lived in this jungle were hunters.
There appeared to be a large cave-like opening in the trunk of the tree... with a tunnel leading deeper into the cliff behind it. “So, should we go ahead?” asked one of the explorers, the youngest man of the lot. The leader... Ykat'la was her name... said angrily: “Yes! What do you think, we came all this way just to go back now?” Her military rank was commander, and she was not used to being questioned on her decisions. She ran a tight group when she led it, and suffered no foolishness. We entered the tunnel and Ykat'la produced a flashlight with a wide beam so that we could see where we were going. One of the other men had been checked her body out (he was walking immediately behind us) and once I head him whisper something to one of the other men and they chuckled. I had no use for crass, crude men of this sort! And I suspected that our leader would not put up their antics for too long, either. I made not a single comment on noticing this, however. Instead, I shook my head disapprovingly and kept my own counsel. However, I remained close to Ykat'la the whole way and kept an eye on those men to be sure that they would not try anything stupid. Such men as these could be worse than savages, I had learned. The tunnel took us down deep, and it opened up into a massive subterranean chamber with a vast lake that filled it from one end all the way to the other. A wide stone bridge crossed the surface of that body of water, from which rose steam in various places. “Be careful! The water here is likely scalding hot... you fall in, and you will boil alive.” I cried out to the party. The commander then nodded her head in full agreement, and warned the others: “You hear that? No screwing around on the bridge, unless you want to end up cooked down to your bones! Now come on.” and we made our way over the bridge with haste, being extremely mindful not to trip on any loose stones or gravel as we did so. Suddenly, a large stalactite crashed down, crushing the bridge just as we made it across. “Well, we will not be going back that way now!” the commander shouted. “Just have to keep going... nothing for it.” and I could hear one of the men, the one who had been eyeing the commander lewdly, cursing at this turn of bad luck. I wanted to strike the fool, or throw him screaming into the boiling water! But I restrained myself nicely.
Soon we found our way into the bowels of an immense underground temple complex, and at the very heart of it was a shadowy cathedral-like chamber containing tall pillars worked from stalactites that had merged with stalagmites to form natural columns. There were withered flower garlands entwined all around the pillars, brown petals covering the floor beneath. On the far end of this area there loomed a giant statue in the shape of some horrific looking winged creature, in shape humanoid but with a very massive, hunched form from which emerged tentacle-like appendages with claws at the ends of them. The whole of it was covered in what looked like eyes, and the entire carved image was unsettling and bizarre to put it mildly. This thing held in its' two main hands (it had so many arms and hands!) a big black orb that was blood red in color. At the feet of this horrible looking idol there sat a wide wicker basket filled with dead roses and faded rose petals from very long ago. Human-looking bones were all scattered about in places, covered in thick webs. A young boy sat huddled next to the basket, sobbing uncontrollably. He looked very human, but with naturally green hair, very long and flowing. He was wearing a long pretty looking teal colored dress that had petal-like frills and a floral print upon it. His feet were bare, and he was unadorned but had a noble look about his features. At first, I took him to be a girl, and at best he was about eight years old. “Have you come to worship at the temple? I fear that all the priests have abandoned this place so long, very long ago. I am the last to remain here! My name, if it matters to you strangers at all, is Nalkimaku. I am the last boy-priest of my tribe, in service to the old god of the jungle, whose name we dare not utter.” I asked him: “Is no one left of your people at all? We saw no one on our way here!” to which he replied: “Look, and you will understand!” as me motioned to the spaces behind the statue. The commander shone her flashlight there, and stacked to a great height were walls made wholly of human skeletons that rose up nearly to the ceiling. Ykat'la whistled loudly and shouted: “Oh my gods! There must in all, be thousands of them... and all of them very long dead.”
“What happened here?” I asked the boy, who replied: “The god demanded we do this, said that all of the men, women, and children of the tribe had to die except for me. And that when this was done, then all the priests and warriors who undertook to sacrifice everyone... those same were to cast themselves into the boiling water. This they did, and so now I am all alone, waiting to die. But we live long, and I have been waiting even longer!” The way he said that last part was very sinister. If his story was true... what was he even living on? Surely the food would have gone bad a long time ago! I raised this point to him, and he dismissed it stating: “As a priest, I was taught a secret of how to subsist on energy from a neighboring elemental plane. I no longer require physical sustenance in order to continue living. I no longer need to eat, nor excrete. I am... barely even human... any longer.” But how did he come to be able to speak our language, and why would he refer to his people as human? Surely this world aught to have had its' own unique languages, and its' own terms for its' races and species of sentient beings. I so brought that up to the boy as well, and this time he grew very angry, shouting: “I am not used to having people question me so persistently! I am a priest, do you understand me? We wielded more power than the kings did, and when the time is right my kind will be powerful again.” To which I asked the boy in a simply, polite tone: “What is your kind, boy? You say that as if you are not human after all!” and that was the final straw for him. His eyes glowed with a dim reddish glow, as he growled: “You ask far too many questions for your own good, strange one!” and with a motion of his hand, gesturing towards one of the men in our party, he somehow caused some invisible force to tear the man's limbs from his body, blood spraying out, gushing and oozing down along with plasma and pus while that man died horribly, shrieking and gurgling as he did so. The boy motioned towards another of the men, and that one seemed to have his skin peeled from his muscle tissue by yet another unseen force. Skinned alive, what was left of the man ran around screaming: “Oh gods! Oh gods! Just kill, please!” until he collapsed from shock and blood loss, expiring after some time. “Any further questions?” the boy asked, chuckling. To which the commander inquired: “Only one! Will you let us leave, and if so... is there any exit other than that bridge over the boiling water? It was broken, and now we have no means to get back. We will... leave you in peace... if you would only help us to get out of here!” But one of the remaining men, the one that had been acting inappropriately toward Ykat'la, screamed: “You are not going to trust that little bastard, are you? Did you see what he just did to those two! He'll do the same thing to us if we let him. I am not going to let him!” and with that he charged at the boy with a bone he picked up to use as a makeshift club. The boy simply clenched his left fist... and the man clutched his chest as if in mortal agony. The boy pulled his fist back, and the man's heart tore its' way from its' mooring and out of his body, along with fragments of his rib cage and a great deal of blood and other fluids. His death was horrible, but it was no more than the vile man deserved, at least in my eyes. “I will show you the way out.” the boy had said to those of us who remained. Just myself, the commander, and two women. “You will follow as I lead you, and you will ask me no questions unless they be reasonable ones. So, do we have an accord?” and we all nodded our heads in agreement. I volunteered: “Yes, we do!” which sealed our arrangement.
“My father, he had been a great general of sorts, from a distant empire.” Nalkimaku informed us as he did wrench the large blood red orb free from the statue. He simply gestured... and the orb tore itself out of its' moorings and floated down to rest on the ground before the boy. “This orb had been a symbol of his power. He conquered all the tribes and united them under his banner, but he could not conquer the spirits of nature, nor the ravages of time. When he died, his spirit tried to cause many to die, by means of madness, but he could not reach every mind in order to taint it. However, he tainted most! Which so you now realize, was what led to the entire tribe who lived here becoming corrupted. That is why they had to perish. And what better way, than through their very faith, however foolish and misplaces it had been to begin with?” I knew then, that he had never been a priest... or any member of that tribe, either.
As soon as he had finished telling us what I just related to you, dear reader, I said to him (being very careful not to ask any questions in so doing): “Your father is the creature depicted in that statue, I see! You are only choosing to look like a boy. You are obviously something... other.” To which the boy so nodded, admitting: “Your perception does you credit, strange one! It is as you have observed.” and on hearing that, the commander swallowed hard and seemed at a loss for words. She was frightened, and visibly so. I doubt she ever encountered anything like Nalkimaku before in all her years in the military. I, however, had seen the like of such things, and knew enough to be wary of incurring their displeasure. The boy drove his right fist through the orb, shattering it. Within it was a glowing red ruby, which he did retrieve and hold in both of his hands. “This is my father's greatest treasure, the source of both his power and my own.” the inhuman child explained, showing us the jewel. He gestured to the basket and said: “That contains all that is left of the source of my sister's power.” The dead roses, I realized. And I thought back to that girl I had met back on the ship. Was that a vision of this boy's sister? No, for she had been all too real to be a vision! And then there had been the matter of the rose she had given me. I almost thought to call out to her, but then I remembered that she said she would seek me out. That kept me from saying anything, and from revealing to the boy that I had met (I suspected) the girl he spoke of.
I picked up a dead rose from the basket and gestured for the boy to lead us onward. Nalkimaku, very slowly but purposefully, walked towards a wide archway set into the left side of the chamber. Then, he picked up the pace and indicated his wish for us to follow him. We entered into a second temple area, but this one was like a vast, enclosed library with immense shelves filled with crumbling and decayed books and tomes. Metal and wooden ladders and stairways climbed high, as high as the shelves rose up, and all for nothing. Whatever knowledge had existed here was long since lost in another age. “What a waste!” exclaimed the commander on noticing this. I commented: “More was lost here... than I would imagine, has been learned in many universities.” to which the boy responded: “But what good did any of it do these people? All here, lies forgotten and forsaken.” the smell of so much rot, and old death... had at last become nearly stomach-turning to me. The commander was used to such smells, and though I had never been a stranger to death, or to decay, this place had seen both on a scale that was wasteful, perverse, and maddening to contemplate. “The mysteries of sorcery were studied here.” the boy stated. “But in reality, it was only another sort of science.” he elaborated. He pushed inward on one of so many book cases, and it spun sideways to reveal a secret passage leading into deeper, and darker tunnels. The smell of damp earth rose up from the passageway, and various tiny insects scrambled out as it opened. I had placed the dead rose I had picked up into my pack, but was mindful of exactly where. I had a very strong feeling that I was going to be needing it again... before we were well free of this terrible domain.
Very quickly after entering that passageway... we came to a set of steps, leading up at a gradual pace. Higher and higher, the steps took us and I had the feeling that we were within a great mountain of some sort. Eventually, there were breaks and cracks in the walls and ceiling through which the morning sun was shining. Had we really been under the earth the whole night through? I did not feel like it had been that long at all! We passed under a high archway, and down a stone hallway filled with high windows of stained glass. A strange red-yellow light shone through those windows. Ahead of us was a set of tall double doors, both of some kind of light looking metal, with large rings on the fronts that allowed one to pull the doors open. The boy motioned to the doors and cautioned us: “That is where the evil lives!” and he motioned for the doors to open, while they did so at his mental command. Behind the door, was a well-lit area not unlike a series of living quarters. Small apartments containing long abandoned things that had been the properties of those who had once called this domain their home. Two long hallways filled with rooms met like a large cross. We had just come down one, and proceeded to the very center.
In the middle of the crossed hallways, there was a circular open space... like a plaza. A small dried up fountain stood in the center of it, containing a foul looking blood-like liquid that appeared to bubble. At once, the two women who were all that remained of our party of explorers decided insanely to drink the fell ichor. No sooner had they done this, than both of us began to vomit up blood until they were wholly drained of all their body's blood, their now pallid forms twitching on the floor as they perished in pain. “Oh good lords!” shouted the commander, who had tears streaming from her eyes. “Why? Why would they even do something so foolish!” she wept, half angry and half lost to sorrow. The boy then said to her: “And what would you do, to be free from this place?” The boy then vanished as if into thin air. We were now all alone in that place, just myself and Ykat'la. There was no obvious way out, at least as far as we could tell. No doors leading out, and the windows being too high up to reach... even by climbing. All of a sudden, the commander began to stair at me in a lascivious manner that made me feel strongly uncomfortable. She then said: “You are not human, but I would wager you have got something human enough for my liking... down there! Show it to me... if you are not a eunuch after all.” Her manner was crude and as offensive as it sounded. She pushed me, trying to unbalance me. “Madam commander, I think this is neither the time nor...” and before I could finish my words, she leapt towards me, forcing a feral, impassioned kiss upon my lips, her tongue finding its' way into my mouth. I found myself unable to resist, my willpower suddenly drained. I returned her wild kiss with passion of my own. “I assure you that I am no eunuch!” I said quite angrily, as I proceeded to violently tear open the front of the woman's tunic, exposing her full, round breasts. Her hand was between my legs, grabbing my manhood, which I found getting extremely hard at her touch. Before I knew it, she was undoing my pants' drawstring and pulling them down, while I had slid her shorts down so that she was able to kick them off to the side. We took off our undergarments after that, and cackling madly Ykat'la threw herself unto her back on the floor, with my body wedged firmly between her legs as I entered her with a ferocity born of pent up sexual tension. I moved in and out of her... she was wet, warm, and felt good with her breasts jiggling as I took her. I pulled on her short chestnut brown hair, and she enjoyed that. “Mm! Yes, ravish me like a whore! Like a freaking whore!” she screamed, her fingernails digging into my back furiously. I licked her face in an animal-like way, biting her cheeks a bit but not enough to hurt her. I squeezed her breasts very roughly, feeling her hard nipples between my fingers. We were sweating in the hot underground air, slick with each other's sweat as I heaved atop her, ravishing her without a care. I felt myself orgasm inside of her very intensely, keeping going just enough for her to reach her own climax. Our bodies had shuddered with our climaxes, and I kept raining kisses all over her face, her own lips kissing mine, our tongues licking. I lay atop her, still so very hard inside of her. I had wanted her worse than I realized! At least she had been honest with herself, about her lust for me. Once we got up, we dressed. I was the swifter to do so, while she took a bit, shaking her head. “Oh gods, what did we just do?” she asked. All of a sudden she looked at herself and screamed: “What the hell did I just do!” I was stuttering, unable to articulate any logical, rational, helpful thoughts. I could say only: “You wanted me... and I wanted you. You were not taking no for an answer, and I would be lying to say I did not enjoy what we did together. Although I am beginning to wonder... did something fuel these thoughts in us, driving us to this act?” She could not muster an answer. She shook her head, gathered her things, and said weakly: “We need to get out of here... now.” and something in her eyes told me that she harbored feelings for me but had no idea what she felt about them. It was lust, plain and simple, between the commander and I. But now we had to face the fact that we were trapped, with no exit anyplace in sight. Because, certainly as I had suspected, every part of those hallways we searched ended in a dead end... save for the way back to the library. And it was pointless to bother going there! I took the dead flower from my pack, and on a lark, threw it into the foul scarlet liquid of the fountain. The rose was consumed, and for a good long while it seemed as if nothing whatsoever was going to happen. However, something very strange then occurred.
Walking toward us from the hallway across from the one that led back to the library, was the teenage girl in the frilly yellow dress, the mysterious girl whom I had named Ari'osa. “I will take you both back to your craft now, but you must abandon any thoughts of colonizing this planet. It is not for humanoids such as yourselves to call your own... not any longer, anyway.” I asked her why, and she explained to us the reason: “In some of you, my brother noticed a capacity for violence and aggression... and he dealt in accordance to their evil, a righteous justice. In the two of you, he noticed a capacity for unbridled lust, and darkness of a different sort... which the fountain here magnified, until you acted upon the thoughts you had been both denying regarding each other. Primitive, carnal thoughts!” Ykat'la asked regarding this: “And just what is wrong with having carnal thoughts about someone? Seems normal enough, at least to me!” and I nodded in agreement. “Lust can hardly be considered akin to violence.” but to that the girl replied: “Is it not! You two were both willing, but the same lust that fuels carnal attractions can also fuel rapacious deeds enacted upon not so willing victims by those who are of a crueler nature still. And for that reason, my kind have ever equated violence and lust as being merely two sides of a single primitive coin. Your respective species are beneath us, we have decided! This place has long been a kind of testing ground, for sentient beings to measure themselves by our standards of morality. Just as the peoples who once lived here had, you two have miserably failed. As did all who accompanied you.” I felt somehow unashamed, however, and it was evident that the commander was likewise unbothered by such a judgment. I merely stated: “We are as we are. Imperfect beings, one and all. Tell me... when you and your brother were playing judge, jury and executioner over us all, did you not feel even just the slightest bit of satisfaction when meting out your twisted 'justice'? You called it righteous! But when you called it that, you had a tone of superiority and satisfaction evident in your voice. How, then, are either yourself or your brother any better than even the worst of our respective species?” That caused the girl to become silent just then, and her face was grave looking. She exclaimed, flatly: “I am not in the business of explaining our ways to outsiders. It is time for you to leave, both of you, and after that... you are all to leave this planet. Tell the captain of your ship... that this planet is so off limits... forever.”
The girl then blinked her eyes, and as soon as she had done this both myself and Ykat'la found that we were back upon the bridge of the vessel that we had come to that planet on. The captain and all those so stationed there were shocked at our sudden appearance, seemingly out of thin air. He made very little to no comment on the state of the commander's torn tunic and somewhat disheveled appearance. She tried to cover up as best as she could. “It seems you are somewhat out of uniform, commander.” he stated on the matter, and that was about it. The tall black haired man was very perceptive about things... but even he was at a loss to understand what was fully going on. “Would either of you please care to tell me how you managed to appear just now out of thin air... just like that?” he asked, snapping his fingers. I looked the man squarely in his steely gray eyes, and then began to tell him about what had befallen our ill-fated expedition but tactfully leaving out the intense sexual encounter that had occurred between Commander Ykat'la and I. The commander corroborated literally everything I had said, while also adding: “The two siblings, they are powerful beyond anything I have personally seen before! We should depart this planet as soon as would be possible, sir. The female sibling seemed very... particularly cross... with us.” After which everyone was recalled to the ship and plans for departure were set in motion. It would be a long, slow journey to the nearest civilized world, but at least we would all be alive to make the trip. Later on, in the observation room I sat at a table by one of the windows, with Ykat'la sitting right next to me, her arm around my shoulders. She was a very strong woman, in so very many ways! I respected that, and so many other things as well about her. “Now let us get to know each other a bit better... I mean, of course, beyond just the physical. I want to know who you are as a person, and I want you to know all about me in turn.” That was how she began our conversation. She already knew my name, so we went from there.
Published 11th Jun 2022
Author's Note
This work is based upon some of my past-life memories.
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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