Hello everyone, thank you to the few reviewers I managed to pull in for the first chapter, here's hoping I can keeping entertaining you people, and get this insane idea of an immortal, planet hopping Potter out of my head.
I won't keep you reading pointless notes, on with the show.
Chapter 2: The Start of Something Different
The trees were singing. A breeze was blowing through this alien forest, and the trees were singing. I closed my eyes, feeling the warm summery breeze slide across my face. Those huge leafy tops were rubbing against one another, creating the sound of a thousand wind chimes are working in harmony. It wasn't a loud jarring sound, quite the opposite in fact, it made me want to take a nap.
I cracked a smile and peered through half lidded eyes at Hermione, she had the most adorable awe struck expression on her face. "This is, this is just wow Harry..." I stepped up next to her and slung an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into me and I could almost feel her quivering with excitement. Always filled with questions, this one.
"I heard stories about places on Earth where the trees would sing, Avalon, Atlantis, but I never got to see it for myself, I was always busy chasing that evil tosser from one side of the globe to another." There wasn't any bitterness in my voice, He'd been imprisoned with the Fae for several centuries now. If the once proud dark lord could even remember his own name, if he even still existed, he wasn't worth thinking about anymore.
"Do you think its like this everywhere?"
I looked down at her, a small smile slipping onto my face. "What do you mean Mione?"
"This whole world seems to thrum with magic, its everywhere. Remember those soil samples I took yesterday? Its practically alive with magic. The dirt here is magical Harry." I laughed at the flummoxed sound in her voice.
"Yes, I imagine this world will be full of similar surprises." I looked up toward those rustling umbrella like leaves and narrowed my eyes. "Our visitor is back."
We'd only been on Fae for three days, well, three Fae days. I hadn't been watching the clock, but the days here seemed longer than on Earth, with a sunrise and sunset that lasted nearly three hours. The axis of the planet must be… strange. Yesterday Hermione had noticed some pale creatures trailing us from the tree tops. They never got close enough for us to get a proper look at, but they reminded me of frogs, with there long bent rear legs. They hadn't attacked us, if anything they seemed simply curious, cautiously so. I suppose they'd never seen something quite so strange as Hermione and I before.
"I wish we could coax one of them down, I'd love to get an up close look." We'd never seen one on the ground, Hermione figured they lived in the trees, I was inclined to agree with her, she was usually right anyway.
They followed us to the edge of the clearing we'd made camp in but never left the trees. I shrugged, they'd come say hello when they felt like it. Right this minute I was more interested in a bush I'd spied off to our left. We'd run across dozens of different plants as we made an ever wider circle around our base camp. Hermione had furiously been cataloging everything she saw, using magic to snap something of a photograph before imprinting it in a notebook she'd been carrying since we landed. Just a short sentence or two along with the photograph. We could live another thousand years and I think she'd still be recording things.
The reason I found the bush so interesting was that this one seemed to have some sort of fruit hanging from it purple and blue leaves. She made an "oooh" sound and trotted off toward it, leaving me to catch up, laughing.
"The little growths are colored like the leaves, but like at this craziness." I bent down as we got closer, the fruit in question was shaped like a bone, not a real bone, but a facsimile of the shape, like a dog's chew toy. Blue and purple swirled and twisted across the surface, blending at the tops and bottoms, and causing the thinner middle bit to be striped. The stripes were moving subtly, like as if in a breeze. I reached out and plucked one.
Hermione gasped. "Be careful, metal hand only for now please!" I chuckled and brought it up to my eyes and smelled it. Kinda like strawberries and lemons, with a hint of mint. I reached out with my magic and felt the fruit. It practically glowed like a magical artifact. It had an aura of health and rejuvenation about it. I took a bite.
"Harry!" Hermione smacked me on the back of the head, trying to dislodge the fruit, but I held on stubbornly. It was delicious. I closed my eyes and took another bite, feeling the purple swirly juice dribble down my chin.
"Mione, you've got to try this." She looked at me like I'd grown another head.
"Harry, you just ate alien fruit."
"Yeah, I know that, like I said, you should try it."
"You… you're impossible, you know that? I swear, why I haven't died of a heart attack by now I'll never know..." She took the fruit from my hands and eyed it skeptically.
"Feel the fruit with your magic, that's why I knew it was safe to eat." She looked at me again, less sure of herself. "Its second nature to me to reach out and touch things with my magic, you still concentrate on doing it, like its not already a part of you." I smiled at her, I put in a good decade's worth of work getting her to loosen up some and trust her natural instincts, but she still loved taking an academic approach to life. Instead of just feeling the intent of the plant, she wanted to study it, dissect it, and catalog everything. There'd be plenty of time for that later, right now I just wanted her to feel it.
Her eyes became half lidded in the way they always did when she was concentrating on something. Only about a second passed before she felt it too, and a wane smile crossed her features. "I should have known that even you weren't that reckless."
She brought the fruit to bear and took a bite, moaning as she really tasted it for the first time.
"My gods that's amazing!" I grinned at her and plucked another fruit, taking a bite. The taste was almost euphoric, which made me a tad wary, I suspected someone could make some fine alcohol from this stuff. I stuck one more into my pack for later and snagged Hermione, she was chewing and furiously scribbling notes at the same time. With the tap of her finger she set the image she'd sketched of the fruit dancing, mimicking the swirling pattern of the stripes.
The two of us walked for several more hours, gushing with excitement over every new discovery. Several different fruits grew in patches along the floor of this alien forest. Periwinkle berries that tasted like sunset, strange gourds that looked like inflated bananas covered in feelers. Hermione wasn't up to trying that one. Bit like chewy potatoes.
The sky slowly darkened over head, signaling the end of this strange and wondrous day. We decided to pitch a simple camp on the edge of a field. We could both see the distant plateau, and the mountain range that rested on top of it. It reached up and scraped the clouds, tearing through them in places. If I squinted I swore I could see the occasional bloom of fire, or a belch of smoke. Probably just my imagination.
The field before us had tall grass with broad blades, they weren't straight green, but had a blue tinge that made them shimmer in the dying sunlight. I pulled out an extra large sleeping back for the two of us to share, along with two tarps. One tarp I spread out beneath our sleeping bag, the other I hung above us, sticking it in place with a bit of magic to four different trees. I few more flicks of my hands and I set some basic avoidance wards around our little camp. It should help to keep any unwanted critters out and away.
Hermione had built a fire off to the side of our make shift tent. The dried 'bark' that flaked off of the singing trees caught fast and burned bright, allowing for a quick fire; plenty hot enough to heat up a tea kettle with.
The two of us watched in dying sunlight, and listened to the sounds of the trees singing. The last rays of light flickered and vanished over the mountain range. Night had fallen. The world stilled and quieted around us, the strange, yet familiar, sounds of this alien forest died away.
We sat, watched, and waited, any second now…
Yes, there they were! All across the clearing within the forest, bio luminescent rods rose slowly out of the ground. They swayed in a gentle breeze, being nearly nine foot long, it was a strange sight to say the least. The rods glowed a swirling blue green color, they shivered in the breeze and then seemed to move with more purpose, almost as if they were scanning the surrounding area. One by one they stood up. A massive four legged creature stood up and shook the dirt from its back. Their legs and body shape resembled a giraffe, but with the same swirling blue color. A long thick neck was topped with a quilled, reptilian head. Two sets of us, stacked on top of each other, blinked and opened, the rod that protruded from their heads lowered one by one, lying flat against their necks and backs. A haunting sound, like whale song, escaped several of them, some basic form of communication.
We watched as several larger members of the strange species lumbered over to a group of younger rodlings. Man Mione hated that name but I think it suits them. They seemed to be some sort of herd, or family, as certain children in the group gravitated toward certain individual adults. I shook my head, grinning at the sight.
"They're beautiful creatures."
I glanced sideways at Hermione. "Yes, to say the least. I'm amazed at how they manage to bury themselves every night just before sunrise. I wonder what they're hiding from?" Hermione and I had been traipsing through these woods for several days now and hadn't encountered any large predators, other than that flying monstrosity that nearly ate us when we landed.
"I don't know, I suppose they could be hiding from those flying beasts, but we haven't seen one since we got here."
"Possible I suppose, we haven't been here too long, hard to tell what we'll-" I was cut off by the sound of toppling trees. We could hear them singing as they fell, the song somehow mournful as it crashed to the earth. The trees were falling someways off, across the clearing full of rodlings. I felt my muscles tense, the trunks of these trees were flexible but extremely strong; whatever was knocking them down had to be powerful.
"What was that?" Hermione was crouched next to me, a bit of magic crackling in her eyes.
I felt a grin split my features. "I think we're about to find out."
The crashing about continued for some minutes, growing steadily louder with every passing moment. One of the rodlings, positioned on the opposite edge of the clearing, let out a deep honking sound, the rod on its head standing straight up. It lumbered off with an awkward run, honking constantly at the others. The creatures must not have the best hearing, to be so late to sound the alarm.
What burst through the trees made my blood run cold. As tall as the rodlings, and nearly twice as broad, the beast scuttled forward on six crab like legs as thick as tree trunks. Its skin was flesh colored, with patches of fur running down either side of its back. The head faced forward, and had a mass of wriggling tentacles for a mouth, a double set of black eyes scowled above them. Something tickled at my memory of the sight, something the fae girl had told me.
They didn't come here. I'm starting to see why, our new home is strange and beautiful, but it had its deadly side.
"Oh my." I glanced sideways at Hermione, her hands were balled into fists, her fingers white. I reached out and grabbed the hand, clasping her fingers with my own, feeling her relax.
"I know, looks a bit familiar doesn't it? But its just an animal Mione." The beast charged toward one of the young, but an older rodling stepped up and used its name sake like a mace, swinging its head around in a strange whipping motion, almost as if the bones in its neck disappeared for a moment. It smashed into the beasts head, sending it rolling sideways. The thing let loose a warbled grinding sound, a roar of some kind I suppose, before clawing itself back onto those crab like legs.
By then, more adult rodlings had surrounded it, creating a wall with their bodies separating the creature from their young. It hissed, a vent of steam leaking from its mouth, but they wouldn't back down. More of them became ready for combat, their necks becoming almost rubber like as they whipped their heads around, using the rods like bats, and striking the beast over and over again. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I heard Hermione snort from next to me and I looked over, catching her trying not to laugh.
"Man magic is a funny thing some times isn't it?" She shook her head, trying to laugh and be quiet at the same time.
"I guess you get some… truly unique defensive measures when its literally weaved into everything like it is here." I was just happy her mild panic attack was over.
We sat and watched as the beast continued to attack, trying to get at the rodlings' heads of bodies, but the natural batons that grew from the crown of their heads worked wonders to keep it at bay. I took a closer look at the creature, noticed the shaggy patches of fur, the desperation of the attack, and the scars that covered its body. It was old, probably nearing the end of its life. Having never seen such a creature before, I couldn't honestly tell you what a young one would look like compared to an old one, but some things, like hunger and weakness, were universal.
One of the larger rodlings gave it a particularly good smack, sending it backward to land in a crashed heap. The beast let loose another grinding sound from it tentacled mouth before turning away from its would be prey and storming off, right toward us.
I heard Hermione gasp from next to me, suddenly it was back to not being funny anymore. Her grip on my hand tightened. We watched as it drew closer, an air of dejection about it. It approached the ward line, and got two pincher like legs inside before pausing. We'd had a few critters com sniffing around camp, but they never managed to cross the ward line before. This guy was bigger, possibly more magic resistant, seeing as how it was a predator of some variety. Its black eyes turned glassy and it stilled completely for a moment.
I just started to relax when it blinked, shook its head, and stepped fully into our warded area. It stilled once more, eyes narrowing. Those feelers on its face lifted and wriggled out in front of it, pointing directly at us. It snarled a grinding screech and charged. Thousands of lifetimes worth of battle kicked in and I gave Hermione a swift swat on the ass to shake her out of her daze. She shrieked in surprise but it got that big beautiful brain of hers working and she dived sideways out of the way, just as I did on in the opposite direction. It came barreling through our position, its feelers separating into two bunches, one following each of us.
I cursed as it turned and immediately took off after Hermione. I fired a blast of pure magical force at its back. The beast stumbled, instead of losing its balance and falling like I planned. It didn't even pause, just continued hounding her.
Hermione wasn't one to cower though, She got a cluster of trees between her and the monster and fired off a stream of curses at its head. Cutting curses that would have cleaved the leg off a giant back home merely cut the creature, allowing an ooze of azure blood to leak out. The beast shook off the superficial wounds and snarled again, moving around the trees. I caught up and blasted its back with balls of fire and ice, I conjured a whip flame and lashed at its legs, bolts of pure destructive viridian lanced from my hands, tearing bit of flesh off the beast's back. Hermione had conjured spears and knives, sending them spinning through the air at the monster's head. One blade got lodged in an eye, but the rest clattered off its fleshy head.
This wasn't working, we had to crank up the heat a bit. "Hermione! This thing isn't giving up!" It turned away from her for a moment and swiped at me with a pincer. I ducked out of the way, and let a trickle of primordial magic enter my system. My eyes glowed green, and power I hadn't used outside of training in centuries roared to life. It wouldn't take much I reminded myself, just needed to scare it off.
Across from the beast, I saw a spark of honey colored light as Hermione let out her true potential. What once felt like a candle expanded with the force of a small star. She started lobbing balls of pure energy at the monster, magic so old it didn't have words of gestures to go with it, just pure will power. I joined her, noticing with satisfaction that my attacks were finally bothering the beast now.
Within a few moments it was over, the monster was beaten into submission, and soon gave up trying to eat Hermione. I let the power fade, sleeping once more as I watched it scurry off and over the ward line. It paused again then, shaking is molten and injured head before heading deeper into the forest of singing trees. I reminded myself then that I was trying to scare off a particularly ferocious animal, not fighting demons. I suppose thriving on such a magical world added in a certain bit of natural resistance. Living here was going to be exciting.
With the beast gone I made my way toward Hermione. She was breathing hard, more from adrenaline than from actually being tired. The honey colored light was just fading from her eyes as I came up to her. "Alright love? That thing wasn't interested in taking no for an answer." I wrapped an arm around her waist as she let out a breathless laugh.
"I almost feel bad for it, but id rather not end up a snack after less than a week of being here." She grinned and looked up at me. "Well, not by that thing anyway."
I grinned right back and kissed her square on the lips. "What a wonderful idea, but lets tighten up security a bit first, yeah?"
She laughed again. "Yeah, we're definitely doing that first."
2.
We spent several more days in th forest, just familiarizing ourselves with the area. Those strange frog like creatures continued to follow us when we were under the cover of trees. Sometimes when the sun was at its highest, we could hear them chirping to each other. It sounded a lot like a language to me, very distint patterns emerged if one listened close enough.
"I think we should make out way back to base camp. Its been days now, want to make sure nothing has been eaten or ransacked." Hermione chuckled and stood from the small forest stream where shed been collecting water. Ever since I showed her that trick with the fruit, she'd been feeling everything. We found a surprisingly large variety of edible plants, and about as many that would kill us. The sense was good for getting a general feel of something. What might be really good for you could be as bitter as a lemon. We were both a little more careful after finding a tuber that tasted like gym socks. A natural defense mechanism I suppose.
"Yes, it would be a good Idea, plus I'm out of specimen jars anyway. And need to restock on those." I stopped short, Her back was one of those fancy 'nearly bottomless' ones. I knew she'd packed at least two hundred and fifty jars…
I rolled my eyes and laughed. "I love you, how many bugs do you have rolling around in there now?"
She grinned. "seventy five different species so far."
I shook my head and reached out giving her a gentle pinch under the arm. "You need to leave something for the colonists to do once they wake up love."
She squealed at the pinch and punched me jokingly on the arm, a scandalized look on her face.
"There's a whole bloody planet to explore Harry! There's plenty to go around!" I'd awakened her inner academic. You know what the say about poking a sleeping dragon…
"Alright, geez, breath Mione!" I laughed, putting my arms up and backing away slowly. She narrowed her eyes and flung a mild stinging hex at me. I yelped and turned, running and laughing as she took chase.
When the two of us became one with the ward stone, something inside changed, we're still human, but we're else now too. A touch of the Fae perhaps? A bit of celestrial magic mixing with our DNA? I'd probably never know. We tried to have children for a few years and couldn't seem to. Superficial signs of aging never showed up as we entered our thirties. Biologically I'm around fifty one, if you count the years I was awake in space, but physically I look closer to twenty five. She hits me with another stinging hex and I yelp, picking up the pace. The two of us, are the only ones like us. We might live another thousand years, or forever. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing her maniacal grin at the thrill of the chase, such a life would be lonely. If it weren't for the woman currently trying to catch me.
I came out of the trees and into a clearing. From the maps we'd drawn, I knew the drop ship lay directly ahead, nearly three miles away still. I jogged to a stop, my breathing easy, and my smile mischievous. She eyed me as she walked into the clearing, not impressed in the slightest.
"If the world could see you now, slayer of demons, vanquisher of dark lords, running away from a little girl."
I held up my hands in a placating manner, like I was trying to calm a wild beast. Man I'd really gotten her riled up this time.
"An incredibly beautiful, talented, intelligent, dangerous woman." She smiled like a cat at those words, I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. I continued backing up, while a little bit of electricity started to dance between her fingers. It was a nifty trick used to intimidate, and it was actually working a little.
"Haaaarrry..." She grinned, a wolf's grin, showing off those straight pearly whites. I kept backing away, when my foot hit something sticking out of the ground. I tripped, arms flailing before falling over and landing on my back. I groaned as she snorted with laughter. I sat up scowling and saw her bent over double, hands on her knees. Her shoulders shook she laughed so harder. Finally she sat down as I made my way into a sitting position.
"I'm sorry Harry," more laughter, "But watching you fall like that, well, its like a jaguar tripping. You just don't expect it." I rolled my eyes and scooted over next to her. I placed an arm around her shoulder and she leaned her head on me. We could hear the sounds of a thousand alien insects chirping and twittering at one another. We'd yet to see any small flying animals, except insects. Those creatures that flew seemed all to be quite big here, and stuck to the cliffs that stretched up into the world's elevated mountain range.
I could see our frog like followers on the edge of the forest, always in the trees, peering curiously, cautiously. I stretched then, and my foot hit something sticking out of the ground; the same thing I tripped on. I opened my eyes, curious over what had made me fall, and stared.
It was a metallic fin protruding from the ground, like one found on the tail of a rocket.
Author's Notes:
Ending is a little bit of a cliff hanger, I know, but I plan on updating a bit sooner from now on. Hope you lot enjoyed, Read and review if you like.
-Harkon
