Teraphon felt very alive and blissful as he watched his daughter and her mother drink tea on a gorgeous summer afternoon. Just seeing them laugh was worth more than anything else that his flesh or spirit could desire for. They were sipping in the shade right beside their house.
“More tea, Mommy,” the young girl said after finishing her first cup.
“Here you go, Nova,” her mother said as she refilled the cup with tea.
“Daddy, come drink with us. It’s really good.”
“Sure thing, sweetheart.”
Teraphon was walking to their picnic table when the mother suddenly began coughing.
“Elly, are you all right?” Teraphon asked nervously.
I’m fine, babe. I just need to-“
Her cough had become more fierce. It got to the point where she was coughing up blood into her hand. Teraphon rushed to her and cupped her face in his hands. Her skin felt very warm and she looked confused.
“Tear, I don’t feel right.”
“We’re gonna get you to a healer right now. You’ll be okay, Elly. Just relax and breathe.”
“Daddy?”
“Yes, Nova?”
“I can’t see anything, and I feel really cold.”
Teraphon reached across the table to pick up his daughter. As he did so, Elly lost consciousness and fell off of the picnic table bench.
“Elly!”
Teraphon scooped Nova up and brought her close to Elly. He placed Elly over his right shoulder and then lifted Nova and carried her in his left arm. He began to run towards the city center.
“Talk to me, Nova. You feeling any better?”
She gave no response and eventually passed out. Teraphon ran as fast as he could.
“No, no, no. I’m not losing either of you. I’m not!”
The perfect and sunny world around him became grey and gloomy. He could hear the obnoxious laughter of a mad man. While still running, the source of the laughter appeared right in front of him. It was a fat man dressed in jewels and a red silk robe. Teraphon recognized the unmistakable figure as the Spider King. The King spoke to Teraphon.
“Ah, poison. I hear that it brings out the flavor in tea.”
“You did this?”
The king continued to laugh like a maniac. Teraphon realized that Elly and Nova were no longer in his arms, and he stopped running. He looked around for them, but they were nowhere to be found. He held his hands up and looked at them. In his left hand, where he once held Nova, he was holding a sword.
The king continued to speak. “Let this be a lesson to anyone who challenges the king. Know your place and stay there, filthy peasant.”
Teraphon screamed as he charged towards the king and thrust the sword through his fat belly. Even after taking the deadly blow, the king continued to laugh in his face.
“Congratulations, Teraphon. You got your revenge. Unfortunately, killing me will never bring them back to you!”
Teraphon woke up from the frightening dream. It was still night time. He stared at the ceiling.
Because of the many similar dreams that he had in the past, he knew that going back to sleep was not an option. He slid out of the lonely bed and went over to the window. It was too dark to see Arach City, but he knew it was there. He knew that when the sun would rise in the morning, and the city would always come back to him.
# # #
After four days of traveling, Team X had finally made it to the Sporadical base in the Land of Mammals. The biome cruisers were brought onto the base by the manpower of the walkers. Mory was carrying a pole that was fixed near the bottom left corner in the front.
Even though he was on transport duty for the last half hour, the elegance of the coniferous forest took his mind away from the weight that he was carrying. He was intrigued by the tall and skinny conifer trees with green, needle leaves. The air had a sweet and fresh scent that could almost be tasted through the nostrils. The ground was covered by dry, rough grass and fallen pine needles. He could feel and hear pine cones crushing under his feet. The forest was vastly different than the deciduous forests in the Land of Birds.
The biome cruisers approached a group of people that appeared to be waiting for their arrival. When they got to within a few meters from the young and friendly-looking people, they set the biome cruisers on the ground. The flyers climbed out of the cruisers. Rubi and Gryphin, who had just helped with moving the cruisers, went up to a man and greeted him. He was a bald and dark-skinned man who looked like he was in his mid to late thirties. After hugging the man, Rubi turned around so she could introduce him to the team.
“This is Barin, the leader of the mammal base.”
While smiling, Barin said, “I look forward to working with you all.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder to draw attention to the people behind him. “These guys are your fellow Team X comrades. We may be from different lands, but we are one team now. Learn together, grow together, and fight together.” Barin turned around and introduced his bunch to Gryphin and Rubi.
Gryphin added, “We want you all to relax for the rest of the day. Training will begin tomorrow morning at eighth hour. Take this time to get to know each other.”
And with that, Rubi and Gryphins’ group were led to their log cabins, where they would be sleeping during their time at the mammal base. Mory shared a cabin with Thacris and their friend, Rolar. Once they got their stuff set up and choose their beds, Mory was ready to head out. He couldn’t resist the urge to go explore the wondrous forest that surrounded them.
“Going somewhere?” Thacris asked.
“I’m gonna go take a look around the forest.”
Thacris laid back in his bed.
“Have fun with that. I think I did enough exploring while carrying that heavy box across the continent.”
“Rest up,” Mory said with enthusiasm. “We gotta be on our A-game for tomorrow.”
Mory opened the cabin door and left. A short trip in any direction would take him to new and fascinating sights. He walked straight ahead. As he advanced, he captured every little detail of the wild place, from the ants that crawled upon the trees, to the burrows that creatures had dug into the ground. He listened as many different birds sang and called out to each other. The calm and soothing place made him wonder how such a beautiful planet could be stained by bloody wars.
Mory kept going, making it about a couple of kilometers away from the spora base. He was satisfied with the discoveries he had made and decided that it was time to do some gliding. He transformed into his flying squirrel form and then climbed to the top of a nearby tree. It was the tallest tree that he had ever climbed. He could see the log cabins of the mammal base from there. Even though he was so high up, he jumped without any hesitation.
Gliding was a piece of cake for him. He had gotten so used to the feel of it, that it almost felt as easy as walking. Mory decided to mix things up a little. Instead of doing his usual maneuvering around the trees. He chose to land on them and then hop to other ones. This allowed him to spend less time climbing and more time gliding. The task was a little tricky, but he got the hang of it after a few landings. He hopped on about twenty trees and then climbed down after latching on to the last one.
Mory felt like he had seen enough of the forest and started to walk back towards camp. It was only after a few steps when he saw something bizarre. Someone was gliding up above and they were coming towards him. Unsure of what to do, Mory just stood there. When they were close enough, he could tell that it was an old man who was in his manek form. The man landed just a couple of meters away from him.
The sudden arrival of this man was puzzling enough, but Mory questioned how the man was able to glide like him, yet his manek form didn’t resemble a flying squirrel. His face was covered with a colored fur pattern that was different from Mory’s. Black fur ran down from his forehead, between his eyes, and down to his nose. It also encircled his eyes. The surrounding areas were white. His paws were also wider than Mory’s and his claws were shorter.
The short, elderly man spoke with a friendly but also mocking voice. “I’ve seen monkeys falling out of trees that glide better than you, kid. Your technique’s all wrong.”
“You were watching me? Was it that bad?”
“I sure was, and yes, it was sloppy. You looked like you were trying to copy a bird’s flying style. As a squirrel, flapping will just mess up your glide and make you get tired quicker.”
“I don’t get it. My gliding feels fine to me.”
“Oh, really? Well, can you do this?”
The old man dove forward, looking like he was about to faceplant into the dirt, but then he miraculously began to glide before he could hit the ground. Without even needing to fall from a height, he smoothly soared over the soil like a Frisbee. He flew past about fifteen trees before double backing and gently landing where he began. He smiled at Mory, inviting him to see if he could mimic the impressive skill.
“I’ve never even thought about trying that, but I’ll give it a shot,” said Mory.
He positioned himself as if he was about to race on foot. Without having any knowledge or experience of what the old man just did, Mory jumped forward. He flew for a second before plopping down hard onto the ground. Mory felt like an idiot as he laid prone on the forest floor. As he slowly got back up, he heard the man laughing.
“Ah, goodness,” the man said while still chuckling. “You literally have a bird-brain. Did you grow up in the Land of Birds?”
“Yeah.”
“That explains everything. All your life, you’ve wanted to fly just like them. Well, I got news for you. You’re not like them and you never will be.”
“You don’t think I already know that? Only birds, bats, and bugs can fly, right?”
Mory could feel repressed anger rising to the surface. The man sounded as rotten and arrogant as the bird people who had mocked him for so many years.
“Wrong,” the man replied. “I said you can’t fly like those animals, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t fly at all. You have to do it your way.”
“What do you mean? The bestiary states that mammals can only glide at best.”
“If you let that book determine your limits, you’ll never reach your full potential. Take some time to think about what flight really is, then meet me here tomorrow at this same time. You should be done with your spora gang training by then. Not only will I show you how to fly, but I’ll teach you the real meaning of flight as well.”
“How do you know about our group?”
“I’ll include that in tomorrow’s lesson. Right now, I need to get home.”
The man jumped up and glided as he had done before. This time, he kept on going without turning back. Mory wanted to ask him some questions, but he would have to wait until the next day if he decided to actually see the man again.
Why do I keep meeting weirdos in the woods?
Fantasy
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