Chapter 240: The Quest Begins

Day 7

The sun was just coming over the horizon when the thirty-four of us approached the gate carved into the rock face. As we got closer, the area in the center began to glow a milky white. I stopped next to it and turned to address the others.

“Okay, everyone. Remember what we said. Stay together unless Penny or Kip tells you different. Good luck everyone and remember that I love you!” I told them.

As I turned, Kip and Serkia slipped through the gate. A moment later, Serkia stuck her head back through.

“All good. You come now,” she said.

“Do you really need to do this?” Rie’ka asked as we watched the others begin to file through the gate, one at a time.

“I thought we had already had this discussion?” I thought to her. We had discussed her accompanying us for the last three days. We finally left it up to her mother to decide. We didn’t hear anything else about it until Rie’ka showed up first thing this morning carrying a small woven bag over her shoulder.

“The god-of-the-old-ones never told me anything about you going through the gate,” she thought back.

“Does your god-of-the-old-ones tell you everything he knows?” I replied.

She never replied as we stepped through the gate.

“Looks like we all made it,” Penny said as everyone stood there studying the forest we had emerged in. “Okay, listen up. Make sure that everyone keeps their eyes peeled. If you see anything moving, sing out.”

We moved slowly through the forest with Penny and Serkia leading the way. I knew that Kip was somewhere ahead of us, scouting along the old forest trail we were following. I noticed that several of the girls were taking turns pushing the cart with our extra weapons, ammunition, and supplies.

I shivered once as I suddenly realized that we were no longer in a tropical climate. The air here actually felt crisper. I must have gotten used to the heat because I found myself hoping that it didn’t turn any colder.

The trail through the old forest was fairly wide. I figured that the lack of underbrush was due to the extensive canopy of the taller trees. The ground we were covering was slightly downhill, but not uncomfortable. So, all-in-all, I thought we were making good time.

I took a moment to see if I could connect with Captain Tab, back on the ship. But there was nothing. That led me to believe that the portal had led us to yet another dimension.

When we came to a clearing about midday, we decided to take a break for a quick bite of lunch. Sandwiches that had been prepared before we left this morning were passed out, along with juice from one of the local fruits that we all thought resembled orange juice. The main difference was that the fruit was blue.

Kip sat down beside me tiredly as I was starting on my sandwich.

“See anything?” I asked between bites.

“Nada.”

“How far did you get?” I asked.

“I’d guess about three miles or so, but I wasn’t going in a straight line,” he said. “How about you? Your sword or rings sensing anything nearby?”

I just shook my head. I wasn’t upset or surprised. I knew that the quest to bear the Armor of Life would not be easy.

The sword and the rings had not told me where their brother was, but led me to believe that he was still on the spaceship and that it was probably still under water. If what I had been told about this being a world of islands with much water, that didn’t make me feel real optimistic at the moment.

A short time later, we resumed our journey.

It was late afternoon when we came out of the forest to discover Kip sitting beneath a small copse of evergreen trees. They looked like scrub pines to me, but appeared to be a greenish-gold. There was a small creek less than ten yards away.

“I thought this might be a good place to camp tonight,” he explained when I walked up. “If you walk to the top of the next hill, you can see the shore and if you squint real hard, you can just make out some sort of settlement up the coast a ways. Maybe five miles or so.”

While several of the girls started supper, Kip and I strung a few ropes between the trees and stretched what canvas we had over them for some minimal protection from the dew that I expected to form in the late evening. Then we helped everyone with their bedrolls.

Finally, I sat down on my own bedroll to await the coming dinner. Narvenia was seated next to me and holding her bracelet clad wrist with her other hand. I knew that signaled that she was recording her thoughts and observations for later, when she could pass them on to her home world for further study.

“Michael?” Lydia asked softly. “Can you tell us some more about kissing and sex?”

“Michael! Don’t be that way!” Izzy thought before I even had the chance to think anything.

“Yeah, but we all know what you were going to think” Grace added.

“Please, Michael. We know you don’t really like us. I mean, not like you like the others. But no one else can explain it like you do,” Aida added. “It must be one of your special powers.”

“She didn’t mean it, Michael!” Adriana quickly responded as she saw my shoulders sag and my mouth gape open at Aida’s words.

That she felt that way, I didn’t doubt. I had not been the most gracious towards Aida, even from when we first met. That I was responsible for her feeling that I didn’t like her, struck me to my inner core. I felt the sadness and despair welling up inside of me. Aida was right that I had treated her, and by extension, Lydia, poorly. But I never wanted to hurt them. I had only been trying to keep my mouth shut and avoid them most of the time.

However, I had conveniently overlooked their ability to read me.

“I attempted to tell you that you should always shield your thoughts if you desire privacy, “ Narvenia thought to me.

“Great! Now I’m getting an inter-galactic ‘I told-you-so!’ And I already feel bad enough!” I thought to myself as I raised my shield.

“Thanks, Narvenia!” Vickie blasted out. “Now, even I can’t read him!”

“Don’t worry. He is upset with himself because he just learned that he has hurt the two young ones,” Narvenia explained. “He will figure it all out and then he will apologize to them and teach them to feel the earth shake and the stars in the sky collide in a display of fireworks that will turn night into day.”

“He’ll WHAT?” asked Aida and Lydia together.

“That is his way,” Narvenia explained patiently. “First he will think it to death, then he will figure it out, and finally, he will teach you all about the sex things that you want so desperately to learn.”