Prologue
It was a long time in coming. Neri was the first to step on the island, followed closely by Mera. It had been a long, two year struggle to get to the point where the elders of their people would finally allow them to return home, with Mera finally citing the facts that both of their abilities had grown immensely in the last two years and the fact that they would still be available for anything in a relatively short period of time if they were needed to make the council of 13 agree.
"Only if you take a communicator with you so that we can contact you if we need to," the leader of the council had finally agreed.
"That is reasonable. Thank you," Neri said with a nod.
Now it was a week later, and Neri and Mera couldn't be more thrilled to be setting foot on their island.
It was nearly midnight though so they made plans to go to ORCA the next morning.
"Man," Mera said as they reached the former site of their nest. "This place is trashed."
"We rebuild tomorrow. Tonight we sleep on ground."
"Oh, like that's really comfortable."
"Mera, we are home. That is what matters."
"Yeah, all right."
++++++++++
The next morning at dawn they headed out to ORCA, but they couldn't believe their luck when they couldn't even get on the lift with their apparently defunct pass cards.
"What do we do?"
"I do not know. We
could risk being seen and go look around below, but I do not think that is a
good idea."
"So we just give up?"
"I do not think we have a choice."
Chapter 1
"I am going to search for Jali," Neri said four months later.
With no sign of Jason or Brett for four months, both Neri and Mera had given up on ever seeing them again.
"What are you going to leave me here?"
"Mera, on the off-chance that Jason or Brett do come here I want you to be here."
"Let me go, Neri. He knows me too and you should be the first one reunited."
"No. Thank you for offering. But I have a deeper connection with him and may have an easier time of finding him."
Mera nodded, eyes on the ground. "You're right. I want to go with you, but someone should stay."
"Mera," Neri said after a second, taking her sister's hand. "Do you know of some way we could leave a message for them to find? You can write, I can't. If there is some way, we will go together. Besides, the elders would not be happy if they knew we separated for so long."
"Yeah," Mera answered, perking up. "If we can find a large peace of bark I can use a knife to carve a note into."
"Where do we leave it?"
"In the nest I think. Tucked into the grass where it's still visible if you're looking for it, but not from the ground."
"Good, let's go look for a piece."
It took some looking, but they finally cut a piece off a fallen tree large enough for a rather lengthy message.
"You write tonight, we go tomorrow."
The next morning they left the island.
++++++++++
Four months later, Brett and his friend John came to the island to swim and look around.
"How did you find this place?" John asked, looking around in wonder.
"When my family lived on ORCA, me and my brother found this place. It's amazing with an inland lake and a rainforest. Come on, let's go swimming."
It didn't take long for Brett to notice the newer condition of the nest and had no idea what to do, since he wanted to check it out without giving an indication to his friend that something special was going on.
"Oh wow," John said when he saw the lake and it's waterfall. "That's amazing."
"You go ahead and start swimming. I've got something to do quick."
"What?"
"Nothing major, I'll be right back."
He walked out of John's into the forest before John could ask any more questions.
"Come on Neri I know you're out there," he said quietly.
He waited a couple minutes and then shook his head in confusion when he didn't get an answer before thinking to check the nest.
He quietly climbed up to it and at first didn't notice anything unusual before realizing that there was a piece of bark poking out of the grass.
He pulled it out and unfolded the large piece.
Jason or Brett,
If you're reading this, you've obviously realized that the nest is in too good of a shape for us to be still gone. You're right, we're back on Earth, but we're searching for Jali. Hopefully we won't be too long and we'll all soon be reunited.
If you have a way of doing so with you, leave a note telling us how we can find you and leave it in the nest, we'll look for one when we return.
Hope to see you soon,
Mera and Neri
Brett folded the bark back up and leaned back against the trunk in thought before sliding back down to the ground and hiding it in his backpack.
"Brett come on, the water's wonderful," John said from the water, noticing him.
"I'll be right there," Brett said, removing his shirt.
++++++++++
"Come on Neri," Mera said, supporting her sister onto the beach. "We're home. They're not going to find us here."
"I am so tired," a tattered and dispirited Neri said.
"I know me too, but we can go right to sleep once we get to the nest, but you have to help me. I can't carry you there."
When they reached the clearing Mera was surprised to see Brett sitting at a fire with a stranger. Not even caring about the stranger, she yelled: "Brett."
Brett's head shot up, as did his companion's, but Mera didn't care.
"Good lord," Brett said shooting to his feet and getting under Neri's other arm to help Mera get to the fire.
"John, put more wood on that fire."
"Who are they?"
"I'll explain later," he said as he and Mera set Neri down and Mera collapsed next to her.
"Brett," Neri said quietly.
"Later Neri," he said running to his backpack and grabbing his cell phone.
"Did you find the note?" Mera asked as Brett dialed and cursed when he got a busy signal.
"Yeah I did, what happened?"
"People had Jali. We had to rescue him."
"Why didn't you come find us?"
"We tried. Our cards don't work," Mera said slowly, her eyes closed.
"John, I'm staying here over-night with them. Take the boat back to the mainland."
"But…"
"My Mom will understand," he said, scribbling a note down on a piece of paper. "I'll call but give this to her or Jason anyways."
"But who are they?"
"Jason will explain it to you. I'm not leaving tonight, they can come pick me up tomorrow, or they'll probably come tonight," Brett said handing the note to him. "Thanks, I appreciate it."
John took the note and picked up his bag, then paused before setting it back down. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Brett blinked at him in surprise. "Yeah. Take one of those shells and fill it up with water from the lake. Thanks."
John did as he was asked and handed the shell first to Neri.
"Thank you," Neri said, taking a long drink.
"Are you guys all right? You look horrible," Brett admitted as Mera got a chance to take a drink.
"Just exhaustion mostly. Some cuts and bruises. We've been running for the last week, afraid that they would capture us," Mera answered as she handed the shell back to John. "Thanks."
"I should get going," John said, picking his bag up. "I'll stop at your house and let them know what's going on."
"Thanks John. I'll see you at school Monday."
"Give me a call tomorrow and let me know if I can be of any more help."
"Thanks."
Brett gave the phone another try but it was still busy. "Come on guys, get off the phone," he muttered.
"Brett, relax," Neri said, putting a hand on his arm. "We are not hurt badly, just exhausted."
"Yeah, but if you've got guys after you, we should get you to the house where you'll be even safer. Who are they, Ubri?"
"No, some American institute," Mera said. "They came very close to getting us too, but we eluded them, fortunately."
"Are you guys all right for now? Do you want me to go get some food?"
"No Brett, please stay with us," Mera said, almost pleading.
"Ok, I won't go anywhere," he said, taking a seat between the two. All of a sudden he had heads on both of his shoulders as both Mera and Neri took advantage of it. "Go ahead and get some sleep. I'll keep trying Mom and hopefully it won't be too long before they get here."
"Thank you."
On the next try, he finally got through to Jason.
"Hello?"
"Jason, thank goodness I finally got through," Brett said quietly.
"Brett, what's the matter?"
"John's heading back toward you guys on the boat. You're going to have to quickly explain to him who Neri and Mera are and get the heck out here with Mom."
"What?! Why, what's wrong?"
"We were just about to leave and they stumbled into the clearing, not even caring about the fact that John was right there. They're both exhausted beyond belief Jason and on top of that, Mera said they've got some guys on their tail. We've got to take them home with us Jason."
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just happen to be sitting here with both of them asleep on my shoulders right now. We're next to the lake so try and get out here fast, all right?"
"Winston's here so he'll probably come out too. How long is John going to be?"
"Ten minutes at the most probably."
"All right, we'll be out there in a half hour."
"Thanks, Jase."
"Thanks for telling us."
"I was planning on just spending the night with them until Mera mentioned that there were guys after them."
"Ok, we'll be there as quickly as possible."
"Thanks."
++++++++++
Brett woke up to a hand jostling his leg. He opened his eyes to find Jason grinning at him.
"I figured I might as well take a nap since I couldn't go anywhere," he explained softly.
"Come on, let's get them home," Dianne said with a laugh as Jason picked up Neri and Winston picked up Mera and Brett stood up.
The pair barely stirred and Jason shook his head. "You weren't kidding."
"Mera said they had been running for about a week," Brett said as he stood up and stretched.
"Good god," Dianne said with a gasp. "It's not Ubri, is it?"
"No, Mera said it was an American institute," Brett answered as they started walking back to the beach.
"I can't believe we didn't know they were back," Winston said.
"Apparently, their cards didn't work at ORCA and they gave up looking for us. Mera wrote a note for one of us to find and I was going to bring it back home with me before they showed up."
"Well, thank god you didn't leave before they arrived."
Chapter 2
The next morning, Dianne was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the paper when Neri walked in.
"Hey," Dianne said, folding up the newspaper. "I didn't think the two of you would wake up till this afternoon."
"Bad dreams," Neri admitted.
"Do you want some water?"
"Please."
Dianne filled a glass up and sat back down, handing it to Neri.
"Have you two really been running for a week?"
"Yes," Neri said, taking a drink. "Mera thought we started off the coast of United States and just kept going all the way to island. We didn't even have time to sleep and barely enough time to eat."
"Oh goodness. No wonder the two of you were exhausted."
"We almost gave ourselves up to them just so we could rest."
"Brett was right to call us as soon as he could then."
"We were so glad just to be on the island, it didn't even matter that someone else was with him."
"Jason and I talked to John last night and he understands that he can't tell anyone about the two of you."
"That is good."
"So, how long have the two of you been back on Earth?"
"Almost a full year. We had given up on ever seeing you again."
"Us too. We never expected to come back to the island and see Brett there."
"Well, I guess we were kind of lucky in that sense, that was the first time any of us had been back to the island since you guys had left."
"Why are you not on ORCA?"
"Jali disappeared about a year after the two of you left. Winston still has his job there, but he's working for another researcher. With Jali gone I just couldn't find another suitable subject and we had to leave."
"All right."
"It wouldn't have done any good, even if we were still there since your cards don't work."
"That is true. I am so glad to see you."
"Me too. It is just wonderful to have you here, even though you two scared the heck out of us last night," Dianne said, putting a hand on Neri's arm.
"I know. It was not our intention to do so, but when we saw Brett there, we knew we needed some help and all that mattered to us was that he was there to give it."
"He showed me Mera's note last night. That was a great idea."
"It was either that or have one of us stay on island and Mera wanted to come with me."
"How is Jali?"
"He is doing much better now that he is free again."
"I'm so glad to hear that."
"Morning," Jason said with a yawn as he entered the kitchen. "Hey, you're awake," he said, sitting down next to Neri.
"It is good to see you," Neri responded, giving Jason a hug.
"Hey, how come he gets one and I don't?" Dianne asked with a smile.
"You can have a hug, of course."
They hugged for a long moment across the table.
The rest of the day was spent completely catching up with each other.