The Distance We Traveled

“They lied to us. In such frequency and subtlety that eventually everyone would have their doubts. So, they would parade you up to the surface door and have you carve your name in any bare spot on its walls. Then they would push you out that massive threshold, into the grey ash desert and black sunless sky, just so you would know that part was true. You could take however long you needed to come to terms. Years, centuries even, we had the means to do it. But sooner or later you would know without a doubt that dawn would never come. And once you realized that was true you couldn’t help but believe in the impossible plan. Anxious for anything but that cold eternal night. That fear became our collars, shackling all of us to a shared fate. It is said that if you lie to yourself long enough it becomes truth. In the end, we could do nothing but follow the plan and hope that was indeed the case.”

~ Tiristian Az Sesui Hazdin

Article “Interview with an Awakened Citizen”

Habralven Herald (First Edition, Tastudai, Longsun 32/4276)

Quiet as the creeping shade of afternoon the two women skirted away, cautious not to attract attention from any of the armored officers lurking around. Back down the hill towards the now ride-ready kimpra. Soothing jingles and chimes rang from the golden plates and rings that entwined with Yishel’s dark braids as she pulled herself onto the saddle and steadied the moving animal straddled between her legs. Contorting her curvy body to grab hold of the saddle’s brass knob in front of her with one hand as she reached for Tzera and pulled the slender lizard to join her up on the back.

“Grab hold here with both hands here and wrap your tail around me.” She whispered guiding the sage, scaly fingers to the post. The amber-eyed lass followed her instructions, coiling the articulated part of her tail around till it sat upon the cat’s waist like a belt and fumbling with the warm metal handhold as the beast began to shift from side to side. 

“Grab these with your feet. And whatever you do, don't grab the antlers” Yishel added brushing the stirrups backward. Tzera slipped her toes through with the new boots proving much more comfortable than the plantigrade pair. Though the blisters were still a bother, the added thickness of fabric socks helped add more cushion and there was a support notch to grip the strap in the heel. Then Yishel leaned forward and grabbed the reins resting on the two antlers budding from the animal’s shoulders. Remaining slouched as she readied for what came next.

“Hold on.” The cat hollered.

“What?”

A kick to the sides lifted the beast's two front feet off the ground. The kimpra growled and brayed as it brought its hooves back to earth, bounding forward and quickly accelerating down the dirt path out of the camp. Having only ever been transported by gliding lifts and magnetic tube trains, the motion of a sprinting animal was completely foreign to Tzera, and her muscles didn’t know how to respond. The burst of speed nearly threw her off and she coiled even tighter around Yishel as she bounced wildly around the saddle. Her pelvis sharply striking the beast with every gallop adding a beat to her muffled screams.

Yishel’s voice rang out to her in rhythm. “One, two, three, one, two, three.” Repeating.

“Move your legs with the rhythm to absorb the shock” she hollered in between her chants and Tzera started to kick into the straps, singing along in time. Finally, the ride eased, and the constrictor softened her grip once she found her balance. “Good.” The cat complimented and the darkbon’s heart rate relaxed, thumping in time with the rider’s pulse trembling through her tail.

The beast was swift. Rushing air made it difficult to keep her eyes open, but she managed once she settled into the roaring pace. Dashing red and sliver trees pitched against the boundless blue field was all that could be seen at first, but the cruder, pebble-strewn track soon widened, joining with a dug dirt road weaving to and fro through more hills. Their peaks shrinking as they flew further down towards the valley basin.

Soft clops of mud and dirt became thunderous, and the percussion of each solid hooved impact rang at a stinging pitch once they reached the harder main cobblestone road. Their pace slightly hastened with each gallop and Tzera started to enjoy herself, setting her head on a swivel as she kept motion with the dash. More tan and grey stone cottages began to dot the countryside, multiplying, and joining closer to the road. Different travelers sped past from their front to behind in a parade of trappers, hunters, soldiers, merchants, and farmers. Many alone or in small parties, others with kimpras hauling their goods in wooden carts. Some were even guiding along ditherhunds. Dog-sized, four-legged beetles, with an equally sunny personality, leaving some of the handlers struggling to keep the larger, more excitable specimens under control. As the horde grew thicker, cables began to rise from the ground and entwine, held afloat by wooden crosses erected on the side of the road. Then a familiar landmark came into view and began to take over the valley. Warped into a curving, levy-like wall as it pressed up against the gorge with blue grass breaking like ocean waves on its front. Bespeckled in the sky just above by a number of small vehicles; slow, flying boats held aloft by bloated canvas sacks, lumbering at low altitude, and leashed to the summit with rope.

Tzera had at one time made her own journey here to the surface door. A long time ago, on that first leap of faith into the amber that began her journey across eternity. Even then the monument was already ancient and held its own mythology as a remnant from the first haven, engraved with the names of the star city’s earliest refugees. Originally it was only a little over four thousand names. Four thousand two hundred and ninety-one to be exact, a number sculpted into the Lendari’s memory so deep, their very genes seemed to contain this number. It was all that was left of the old star.

 As a student, she had carved her own name to the façade, distinctly remembering in this moment how difficult it had been to locate a jagged stone for writing or to even find a naked spot free of graffiti. Perhaps it was still there, buried somewhere but still legible. One of the millions, possibly reaching hundreds of millions of names carved around a cavernous room that had since eroded away leaving only one section exposed to the air and weathered almost smooth. Time had certainly taken a heavy toll on the structure; the top was crumbling in large chunks in most visible areas. Set out to the elements so long the iron in the earthen print had rusted, nearly camouflaging it against the naturally crimson, rocky canyon.

 Eons before its rediscovery the massive stone door that once stood at the center of the wall had collapsed, and small remnants still littered the pathway up to its entrance. An elaborate decorative cast depicting the three shepherds once adorned frame. Effigies of the legendary leaders, who guided over the shattered sky exodus, now eaten by ages of radiation, earthquakes, rust, rain and snow; with their bones cluttered by more telegraph lines coalescing into black ropes before vanishing into the ground beneath. In the repaired archway, an equally massive wooden door now stood in place, shimmering a bright blue. Smithed out of nebula brablewood that clouded like sapphire mica, with rainbows traveling along the murky grain; adorned with brass bands and rivets that stretched twice the height of the crowd gathering at its feet sewing the boards together where it met the hinges.

Building tops peeked through the lower cracks of the wall and an ancient, colossal white tower stood like a king above it all. The pristine pyramid stretched towards the sky, slicing through the mesa like a protruding arrowhead lodged in the hide of a still living animal. It was a colossus, one of the ancient wandering buildingss that once dotted the surface of a dead planet. The collectors. Now dormant, with the open main-city gate framing it like a masterpiece in a museum and shadowed only by the hazy, purple peaks that stretched far beyond.

Every fresh sight in that moment nearly washed away Tzera’s memory of the barren plains of irradiated ash and sunless sky that once lay on the other side of those gates. Potent scents began to seep their way through P.A.R.E.A’s filters around the time the kimpra entered the crowd and slowed. Thousands of different odors mixing. Smoke, cooking, fire, flowers, garbage, and incense all melded together, burning her sinuses with the cologne of a busy, dirty city. Without hindrance, they skipped the line as more heavily armored city guards in blue canvas coats waved them to the other side of the threshold, into the liveliest metropolis Tzera had ever seen.

Feverishly, her amber-colored eyes scanned the new area, devouring every sight. Finally feeling the emaciation created by the lifetime of carefully coordinated stagnation, stretching and sparsity only now made all the more plain when held against the color that excess and plenty bring. Multi-tiered wood and painted plaster flats snaked in between the familiar, older, printed white stone dwellings that had been risen from the depths of the labyrinth, glued together with grout and treated as a blank canvas by talented craftsmen and artisans. Red brick workhouses grew higher with darkened chimneys billowing steam and soot that was quickly whisked to some other place by the gusting, alpine wind. Newer, gigantic structures of iron and glass grew near the city center, looming over the residential areas. Serving as centers for trade, transport, and even communication with the wider world.

Masses of people, both davrani and lendari stuffed the city to bursting. Electric with activity from the packed streets to their overlooks, open windows, and porches in a mixture of traffic, revelry, and labor. Sitting on lavish chairs as they ate, hanging laundry, shopping, cleaning, and attending to the rainbow of fuzzy and scaly children at play. Even more screamed sales pitches from markets and shops ranging from crude carts of fruit to glass storefronts filled with precious gemstones, decorative knickknacks, and exquisitely colored silks. Every need and desire available for a price; with each citizen peacocking in their unique mix of dresses, proper suits, casualwear, armor, and jewelry. All baking with the late summer heat that rose from the cobblestone streets.

 Trash rained from open windows above the narrower side alleys, at times entangling with the web of cables and signs on its way down, with the litter of the streets swept by workers into grated pits that ran just underneath the square lanterns lining the narrow sidewalks. The main street they rode through was wide enough to fit several of the kimpra’s alongside each other in a cavalry charge and two silver metal rails carved a groove down the center, wrapping around the white marble statues and monuments of larger intersections. Several blocks inward, a floating black box screamed past them. Startling their mount as it twisted along the steel pathway before joining others of different shade and design in a waltz around a fountain.

“Was that a magnetic train?”  Tzera asked, noticing people inside the fast, hovering cart. Ravenously, the robot spanning her face consumed the question. Not that anyone could hear her anyway with the thrumming noise and rhythmic music filling the fragrant air.

Briefly, they stopped at a storefront as the taller buildings began to shrink and the streets widened into a more suburban neighborhood. It was the front of a doctor’s office, or at least that is what Tzera could read in her language in the metal cast letters on the stained wood sign, offset with other characters she didn’t recognize. For the moment though it was closed and absent all activity, with all its ports darkened and ivory blinds drawn shut over the deep forest green painted windows.

Of course, Castus was at the house. Yishel thought to herself with the first roadblock. She was reluctant to bring Tzera home, but it was probably a worse decision to leave her at the office alone. Even that option vanished as a brief search for a spare key came up empty, it seemed as if the doctor had relocated it. It‘s only for the evening; We should be fine. I can bring her back here in the morning without the talking stone. The purple cat hesitantly persuaded herself. It wasn’t as if they never had guests in the house before. Reluctantly, she returned to the kimpra and pressed onward.

The mount kept at a comfortable trot the rest of the way. Yishel was now a little more eager to get her new friend to safety with the change of plans but also still wanted to allow her some time to absorb the environment. After all, this city was going to be her home, and she couldn’t keep the darkborn hidden away forever.

The cat half laughed under her breath at the thought, feeling like a hypocrite.

Red summer afternoon began to eat the remaining daylight again as the band bowed into a small alley aside one of the main roads, leading to a stable behind the ruin guardian’s house. Smooth, river-rock strewn with mortar grew to knee height around the structure, rising only around the alley side into a smoke billowing chimney, firmly affixed to the two-tiered main body of lumber and buttery plaster. Small white bricks peeked through the peeling areas and several holes opened from the level roof for drainage of rain and snow. Heavy wooden doors with black iron-lattice cages at face height sealed the front and back with two pairs of windows made of circular smokey glass that only looked outward from the inside. At one time this house was a vineyard, back before the city had crept across the lake and overtook the rural area. A century old headpiece to vast farmland that grew a hand-sized, spicy berry with a large pit that would be fermented and aged into an alcohol. Though the suburbs had swallowed the farm generations ago enough property remained for a large yard and animal keep, surrounded by tall trees for privacy from their neighboring houses. Only the front door of the house was exposed to a busier street.

Fatigued, the girls dismounted. Being the more experienced rider, Yishel stood easily but Tzera’s legs were well beyond sore from the ride, cramping near solid and making her walk with an arch in her gate. Mistaking her dance for the need of relief the plumb lady directed the reptile to a small wooden shack just off the back door to the house.

“If you really need to go.” She said, grabbing a rope on a door flap and pulling it open to reveal a splintery seat with a hole in the middle, swarming with a loud cloud of maggots and bugs. The nauseating, putrescent bouquet overloaded P.A.R.E.A’s filters, making its way to the lizards sensitive nostrils and buckling her knees instantly out of the cramp.

“You have GOT to be kidding me,” she shouted aloud, her voice still heavily stifled by the robot as she grabbed the door from Yishel, shutting it.

“Yeah, I know. Composting isn’t the best way, but it’s either that, hauling buckets of it to a drain or burning it. Not really a good option, the stink sticks when you burn it. Some places do have indoor plumbing, but it is expensive to get it put in, so no other option at the moment. Luckily, we have chamber pots inside and a nice bath downstairs.” Yishel replied, turning her attention to the house door. “Wait” she paused aloud for a second. “How have you been?” she began to ask before cutting herself short, suddenly remembering the ancient garb Tzera wore underneath her white disguise and how it had both urinary and colonic catheters.

“Oh...”

“Eww.”

There was a rule in this house, Yishel followed it by knocking on the door in a special rhythm. A small scuffle could be heard on the other side of the door. Sure enough, the residents hadn’t seen them arrive. A few seconds later she knocked twice again.

“Come in.” a man with a slight accent beckoned from just the other side of the darkly tinged door. Yishel opened it, and lead Tzera inside.

It was a welcoming, cozy home. Colorless walls and light tan wood molding rest against the darker stained, smooth lumber of the roof and floor that ran through the narrow hallway. There were two doors to the right, the farther one was closed but the one closest to the back was lodged wide open, revealing a workshop filled with tools, specimen jars, books, and paperwork all meticulously organized around a hand-crafted rolling desk and chair. Blue sunlight washing in as it leaked through the stained-glass window, seeping with waves of refracted light, and projecting the illusion of being underwater.

“I’m home!” Yishel cried out, removing her heavy leather corset, and placing it on the floor of the small mudroom. A curved horned lendari male peeked his head out from the kitchen doorway to their left. Same flat, nose-less lizard face as Tzera’s with his skin a darker shade of green, almost matching the hue of the grassy field outside the city. Smaller yellow scales speckling his skin all over with a single square thorn of the same color on his cheeks and chin.

“Ah, welcome back. Hope you are hungry.” He greeted, sliding his tall, slender body out from the wider doorway and wiping his three yellow freckled fingers with a dishrag; purple slit eyes widening in reception. He was taller than the two women with the top of his curved horns reaching the height of the lanterns that hung on the walls, and the tail slinking behind him was the same shape as his new guest’s. Solid and heavy where it met his body but thinner and fully articulated on the last half. That was interesting.

He's what? Ten cycles older than me. Maybe around Yishel’s age.

Wait. How old is she? Tzera thought, just then realizing how little she actually knew about the mauve cat whose residence she had now entered. Or, for that matter how little she knew about Davran in general.

“Famished. Don’t get mad, I brought a guest.” Yishel answered, hugging the towering lendari and gently resting her head on the eggshell-washed tunic clothing his chest. Both squeezing tightly.

” Don’t worry I made enough.” He softly replied.

Humid air, increased interior pressure and P.A.R.E.A’s bursting filters forced the indoor atmosphere through, washing Tzera’s nose with the incense of spices, acid, and smoke that bellowed from the kitchen. Her attention on the embracing pair was quickly broken by the mouthwatering smell. It was starting to drive her bananas. The mad robot had been stuck on her face all day with the flap welded shut, and though he did have a water supply she had been sipping on, she hadn’t eaten anything substantial since the stew the night before.

“Smells heavenly.” She praised. Saying it softly aloud for herself, though the newer language had unexpectedly begun flowing from P.A.R.E.A once more.

Yishel turned her attention back towards the once again vocal lendari with a smirk and raised eyebrow; somewhat humored that the robot on her maw had finally decided to wake up. She motioned her fingers to her head and Tzera took off the veil with the instruction. Revealing her ruby eyed parasite to the new, ram-horned man. 

“Castus...this is Tzera.” Yishel introduced.

“Oh...oh dear.” He stammered as he studied the familiar robot attached to the girl’s hornless face. He was no stranger to these machines and knew that they were genetically locked, never responding to anyone besides their approved user, unless awarded guest access. P.A.R.E.A units were also, in today’s age, mostly dead. As were their owners. It didn’t take more than a second to figure out what she was, and he turned his gaze back towards Yishel. Expressive, amethyst eyes slit in disapproval.

“What have you gotten yourself into?” he asked.

Truthfully, Yishel recounted their story and Castus stood in place silently throughout the whole tale. His three-fingered hand never left his face, concealing his shut eyes while he rubbed them in his paler palms. Shaking his head and nervously twitching his tail as Yishel went over their encounter with Haldit at the camp; tensing even further as she explained what they planned to do next.

“Well, what was I supposed to do? If you have a better plan, I’d like to hear it.” She finished with an obnoxious tone as Castus lifted his head and made his way towards the awakened. In his mind, he knew Yishel was right. The smaller, pale fair was not grunt material and even though he was uncomfortable that Haldit had to get involved, it still saved them all a large amount of exposure that surely would have followed had she been turned in. Yishel’s heart was in all the right places here and though he couldn’t admit it, if placed in similar circumstances he probably would have done the same thing. But that still didn’t soften the blow of the situation they all found themselves in. All he could do now is help and hope his new patient would not make too many waves.

“You’ll excuse me if I’m not quick about this. I do not possess any of the old powers, and I never had a very high level of access. So it may take some doing.” He said to the new girl, using her native language as he delicately grabbed her head in his hands and began to rotate it. A calm, qualified tone now in his voice. Though some of that seemed to still come from P.A.R.E.A.

“Do you have an injury under there, or is it causing pain?” He asked and Tzera hesitated to respond. Deciding on no, as it wasn’t currently causing discomfort. It was just…stuck.

And annoying.

“Well, whether luckily or unluckily, I’m a doctor not a technician. There are a few tricks I know but I’ve never worked with a functioning Dawn Star model before. Not to mention I have no idea what period this one is from.” He added, pulling from his chest pocket a tiny pair of oculars that hooked onto his horns with attached wire forks. Then he pulled out a smaller, more focused iron torch, and began inspecting P.A.R.E.A with its spotlight.

Castus was always a professional first and this was a medical emergency. Assuming basic life support was at its best, in most cases it still only held 3 days worth of water, and divines forbid she had eaten an old ration. “Yishel I am going to need a needle or something that comes to a small point. My house call satchel is on the desk in my study. Could you get it for me?” He requested motioning his hand towards the open door just before the rear exit. Great. More sharp things. Tzera thought.

A small flash of magenta stepped in just outside their vision. Tzera’s eyes drifted from Yishel, face now petrified in fear, over to the pink figure approaching behind her and placing a small needle into Castus’ hands. Suddenly, the doctor’s purple eyes slit again, and he almost struck the patient with his curved yellow horns as he turned and then froze in place too. Everyone’s eyes now welded to the new person who had come out from the closed basement door.

Before them stood a creature that had not yet crossed Tzera’s path during her brief time awake, even back at the camp and on the ride through the city. This one was also bipedal, smaller and childlike but neither davrani nor lendari; standing just around the height of her bald chin. Soft pink and white quills covered its body all over. Shifting and stretching like springtime tree branches in a windstorm, from bushy head down to its tail; only thinning over the four bald fingers and toes. It wore a light blue skirt with flowing fabric of the same color over the chest and shoulders. Gold and green flashing beadwork decorated the longer feathers that drooped from the head, casting long shadows on the neck. Bold, blue eyes dashed between the doctor and Yishel and a clear look of concern held its expression while the two adults lay stiff as statues.

A ticking grandfather clock gave the only soundtrack for the vacuum of activity. Having quickly grown impatient in the awkward silence, the creature retrieved the needle from the doctor’s hand. Pushing the still dumbfounded adult aside and pulling P.A.R.E.A down to eye level along with the fair lizard’s head. Those sky-blue eyes were suddenly much closer, staring right back into her amber yellow and swallowing their color in her reflection. Then, after finding a small hole just above one of the robot’s legs, they jammed the needle into the metal scarab.

Drilling pain struck but receded quickly as the tendrils released and retracted back into P.A.R.E.A’s main body like a spring trap. It was faster than before and did not sting as much but still packed a punch, leaving the hornless lady struggling to stay on her feet. The rusting robot dropped to the floor with a thud, and it swiftly scurried away into the next room; yelping and whining like a scolded pup as he fled.

Moist air from the house finally brushed along Tzera’s dark cheek thorns and across her mouth, washing the divine smell in and sticking to her scales in a cloudy, salty sweat. Yishel and Castus still stood motionless, whispering something to each other but with the translator now cowering under the couch, the alien language kept its message from her. Grateful, she gazed down at the small creature below that had just pried the robot from her maw, its blue eyes kindly staring back with a smile.

The two adults grew louder, softly arguing in velshen under their breath but carrying the emphasis of yelling in whisper. Eyes still locked on their new houseguest, watching for her next move. Then she remembered the fond greeting between the two as they came in. Biology had never been her strong science, with a dead world it hadn’t even been that strong of a science and she had no idea how long she had been asleep. Back in her time the other cities and even her own had many secrets. Any restricted area would sprout an urban legend, with stories of weird experiments any of which could have evolved to populate this world with the life that now flourished, including the Davran. But the idea of two species born an eternity apart coming together to make something entirely new? That was impossible. Yet, with another glance, she could see pieces of both breaking through the quills. Granted it had no scales and horns, or hair but everything else was there. It had four fingers like the davran but also a tail like the lendari. Even with the differences, she could see both of the parents in this child. Like Yishel’s round chin and Castus’ partially articulated tail and solitary cheek thorns; now displayed as a single, protruding sakura-blossom petal of a feather on each cheek.

Shyly, the creature reached out its hand towards Tzera, bald, pale palm upward, and the green-scaled girl grabbed hold.

“Mara” she heard Yishel say softly as the creature began to lead her houseguest into the kitchen. Stopping for but a moment to gawp at the adults from the doorway, eyes locked in a private conversation. Then she shuffled to the large wooden table, presenting Tzera with a seat.

Warily, the adults followed close behind. Their eyes still monitoring the small creature as it wandered around the kitchen, opening cabinets, gathering dinnerware, and setting the table. Tzera’s attention rarely wandered from the wonderful, walking flower bush but the awkward anxiety that now filled the place puzzled her. Up until that point both Yishel and Castus had been very personable, but once the pink child appeared, they became suspicious and quiet. Their arms remained to their sides but twitched with each and every movement. As if sensing danger yet fighting the urge to pull the little one away to somewhere safe. It was similar to Yishel’s body language during the negotiations with Haldit back at the camp.

What exactly are they afraid of?

“Mara. Is that your name?” Tzera enquired, attempting to break the tension, her native lendari on her tongue now that it was free of the robot. Silently the child set a heavy iron pot on the table and began serving a savory soup. Smiling at her without speaking a word.

Maybe she didn’t understand me?

“Yes, that is her name,” Castus replied in lidri as well. His accent now muted but still different from Tzera’s. Proper and perfect elocution, with a strangely traditional vernacular.

“And she is yours.? Both of yours.?” Tzera alleged, with her tone both asking a question and stating a fact.

Shamefully, Yishel sank into the chair across from her. There was a rule in this house, Mara had broken it without warning nor explanation, and Yishel was now powerless over what happened next. She had always fancied herself a smooth talker, someone who could sell anything, especially to people who don’t know her very well. But Tzera had figured it out so quickly that any false tale she could spin to safeguard Mara would fall apart immediately. Their new houseguest was annoyingly perceptive.

“Yes,” The cat confessed, also answering in the fair girl’s native tongue. A thicker accent now in her breaking voice.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anybody,” Tzera assured them with a smile. Suddenly the two parents beamed. Seeming validated, but still not totally disregarding caution.

“I can keep a secret.” She reassured.

Annoyingly perceptive indeed.

Mara sat down beside her after putting the pot away and serving herself. Gently the awakened guest pat the girl on the head, caressing the threads of plumage over her bumpy scales as the little beakless parrot looked back to her with a bratty blush. Still not speaking a word.

After all, who would I tell?