Starting message…
Hello again everyone! Xeno here and ready with another chapter of 'Heirs of a lost world'!
I'm really sorry that the chapter is sooo late, but I just couldn't find any imagination anymore, and wrote barely a couple sentences every time, before getting annoyed and closing the file again. After around two weeks, my inspiration came back and I started writing with energy again. Nonetheless, I tend to write late in the night, so I might fall asleep while writing and all that. But fret not my friends! I'm back and writing in full force again!
Last chapter we left our friends to their ship, unknowing that another team was about to get on their tracks trough space.
Now, it's your turn Alex!
Alex: "Steven Universe, all characters and places related to the show belong to Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network. The story, Daniel and me belong to Xeno. Was this all?"
Xeno: "You forgot to say: enjoy, favorite and review!"
Alex's P.O.V.
That was definitely a hetic couple hours. Finding out you died, running from some place, then being caught, then helping Daniel killing off two guards, then running again, then stealing a spaceship might exhaust almost anyone, I suppose.
Still, while Daniel was looking around the ship for some supplies or whatever, I was stuck there, twiddling my thumbs and checking is there is anyone following us. How come he does all the funny stuff and I can't? I can understand the tower, but this place? There was no one except for us in here, at least standing to what the security cameras show.
Speaking of cameras, I've found Daniel! He's walking around like he expects something to pounce behind anything. He really should calm down, I mean: we were alone here, right?
Anyway, I was still bored as hell! Is there anything funny in this computer to pass the time or whatever? Not that I could find any, and either way I would have been surprised if I would have.
Still, there's some logs and files and security things, not that I could make heads or tails of it, but maybe Daniel could understand it. After all, he is the computer expert, while I am the one with people skills. Speaking of which, let's see if he found anything.
He's walking back here, but seems pretty downtrodden about something. I didn't even know I was aware of that word! You do learn a lot by hanging around with smarter people.
Still, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the cabin's door sliding open, and Daniel's steps upon the metallic floor. Daniel then threw himself onto one of the chairs near me, and stared dead in the eye while saying:
"We are dead." Slumping in his chair afterwards, a tired sigh escaping him as his hair covered his right eye. "This ship has no supplies whatsoever, if you don't count weapons or random spare pieces, probably for the ship, as comestible. We could hunt if we were on the ground, but I really have no idea about what are our odds in outer space. A pretty accurate estimate would be low."
That was definitely a sobering thought. What if we actually met our fate here?
No. Not now. Not after all these efforts. We will get on Earth, no matter what. If only we could go faster…
A hopeful look latched onto my face as I looked back up to Daniel and asked: "What if we would make the ship go faster? We could get to Earth fast enough, hopefully, to begin hunting and foraging. What about it?"
Daniel looked thoughtful for a couple seconds, before smiling and replying in a slightly more confident voice: "That is a good idea. I definitely feel like an idiot now for not thinking about it."
"Well, of course it has to be me saying it. The chapter is in my pov, after all!" I replied, leaning in my chair with a cheesy grin spread onto my face.
Daniel chose not to comment and turned around to place his hand into the control panel. His eyes turned fuzzy and distant, all the while muttering his commands to the computer. After a minute of this, he became seriously nervous and reverted back to his speedy talk. I mean the kind of talk someone tries to avoid when calm, but when you lose it you start spewing out words like a machine gun.
After trying to get himself back in check, he removed his hand and turned to me with a small grin and a mischievous glint in his eyes. Now, I had saw that look on his face, and there were only three reasons why he would wear it: he planned a prank on me, he has to tell me something awesome, or the one I fear worst, he has done something incredibly stupid and dangerous, which I am involved into.
Daniel then started buckling the belt of his chair, while exhorting me to do the same. I did so, but after that I decided to address the matter and ask him:
"Just what did you put me into this time?"
Daniel glanced my way, and snickered. After getting a hold on himself he said: "Nothing terrible, but right now the ship is getting ready to be the fastest thing you'll ever ride in your life."
That scared me quite a lot. I mean, I did ask to go faster, but I have seen fast stuff, and if this is any faster, then we're absolutely in deep trouble. Before I could voice a complaint, however, the whole ship shook, and we picked up some speed. Then a lot of speed. Then we were close to Mach whatever-hundred in terms of speed. This whole matter was terrifying for me, but not my friend, who seemed fine, just chillin' and wearing a big grin, while still looking at me.
After I got used to the speed, I looked back to His Craziness and said in a trembling voice: "What in the fucking world is wrong with you?! I was telling you to crank up the speed, but not to perform a fase jump! You know I hate super fast stuff!"
Daniel looked at me contemplatively, before deciding to give me a damn answer: "I know that was a dick move, and I was also quite sure you would yell at me like this, but this will let us reach Earth in only a bunch of minutes, and also your face when you noticed I did something was absolutely hilarious!" He finished his short speech with a thundering laugh, which was not much dislike a wolf's barking to be honest.
Thinking about it, I suppose my reaction was pretty amusing in some ways, and decided to join in the mirth a little.
After taking a couple minutes to get back control on ourselves, I looked outside again, and I could swear I saw a certain blue speck behind a star. The ship was heading in that direction, so I supposed that we were heading there.
Daniel looked towards what I was looking at, and went to talk to the computer for a couple seconds. He came back to the 'window' with me and told me:
"We are only ten minutes away from home. Finally. To be honest I don't know what to expect, but I suppose we'll make due."
I wordlessly nodded, and kept looking to the approaching star, wondering what a world without the 'plague' would be like.
10 minutes later
This is starting off as extremely weird. I mean… There' s no Russia! Not that I cared that much about Russia, but that's still a big blow.
Going in order: we reached Earth a little earlier than expected, noticed the continents are all screwed, even tough Daniel gives it off for a time change, us being maybe waaay ahead in the future, or ended up in a possible alternate past, or some shit. I'm not a scientist, ok? Being the smartass is more of Daniel's job anyways.
Anyway, we landed between two hills and close to a forest, so that the ship would be somewhat protected against the elements while we gathered info.
After a quick debate, we agreed to proceed towards the hills and then proceed north. Our trek trough the hills was somewhat winding, but after twenty minutes on the lookout, we spotted a quite astonishing sight.
A massive plain expanded in front of us, the end of the plain barely visible to us. What made it astonishing was the bunch of strawberry plants that covered said plain. And If that wasn't enough, gigantic weapons dotted the field, seemingly abandoned by their owners. Time was standing still as we let the surreal setting settle in our minds, admiring the work of nature towards whoever went against it.
Daniel was the first to recovery, jogging down the small hill we were standing on, and starting to pluck strawberries from the plants, followed shortly by me, as we made a decent supply, using his coat as a makeshift bag to store our fruit.
We also took the opportunity to eat some of the berries, and damn were they good! Best thing I ever ate, and pretty surely Daniel would have said so too, was his mouth not full of strawberries. We then decided to walk back towards our ship and get some rest, before exploring better the zone. Something useful is always where you would expect it less, as Daniel says.
30 minutes later
The walk back was pretty uneventful, so I'll just summarize it and be done with it: we got back here, Daniel dumped half a crate of ice outside to make place for the berries, while I was getting a fore ready, since thee weather was getting pretty chill, even with the little light left outside. Using a trick my uncle taught me, I calculated there was around half an hour left of sunlight. I should hurry up and gather all the wood I can get in order to make a decent fire, although luck isn't in my favor lately, since some weird creature similar to a sabretooth leapt from the trees towards me.
I wonder why they always target me, but all in all it really isn't the moment, is it? Nonetheless, I was running with a bunch of sticks in my arms, God knows why, but I decided to get some time and threw them all in the feline's face. It was dazed for a moment, and I choose to bail it straight towards the ship.
I managed to get to the ship, where Daniel was waiting for me, leaning on the wall of the ship with a pretty miffed expression. Once he took notice of me, he took a breath, probably getting ready to ask me why I had no wood with me, but I cut him out and wheezed:
"No time *huff* huge cat *huff* coming this way *huff* got to help me." With that, I took his hand and tried to lead him inside the ship, but he just looked at me like I would be stupid and said:
"A huge cat? Did you eat anything weird in the woods?" He queried while cocking his head, a worried frown crossing his visage.
I shook my head and replied vehemently: "I'm being serious here! A real sabretooth leaped at me and I stunned it throwing sticks at it, but now there's not much time! It's coming here and it's going to kill us all!" My face had assumed a strained and desperate look, adding to the danger of the situation.
Daniel was taking a second to reason on this, but it proved to be too much, since the underbrush parted as the thing that was following me made itself known. Now that I had a chance to properly look at it, I noticed that only the structure was that of a sabretooth, its fur being a greenish yellow, tending to lime. It had four eyes, disposed to form an X onto its forehead, crystal-like spikes running across its back and tail, to form something along the lines of a spiky club on the tip of the tail. All of this in 4 by 7 feet of pure horror. We were absolutely dead.
Thee beast charged at the two of us, letting loose a roar that would put a dinosaur to shame.
Daniel was fast enough to push me away and to summon his scythe. I should probably mention that we tried multiple times to call our weapons, and now we had a good hang of it.
Still, Daniel wasn't fast enough to dodge the beast, but could keep it at bay from chomping his face off. Reminding myself of how to call my falchion, I did just that, and my gem lighted up, the handle of my sword fasing out of it and jutting out of my belly. I then gripped the handle and unsheathed the blade, turning my attention towards the battle in progress. They were still in the same positions, but Daniel was obliviously getting tired fast, and I had to help.
I dashed towards the tiger, and collided it with all the strength I could muster, effectively making it jump away from Daniel. The latter got back to his feet, and stared at the beast with me, getting ready for its next move. The tiger started circling us, all four eyes pointed at us, while we had our own four eyes trained towards it.
This game went on for a while, until the beast decided to lash at us again, this time using its tail-mace, but we both jumped out of the way, and sent our own attack: we started to run around it in opposite senses to confuse it, and in the moment we found an opening, we lashed out to hit, just to get back at a safe distance from the predator. This went on for two minutes or so, and we all were extremely tired, the tiger moving sluggishly due to the massive amount of wounds on its back, legs and abdomen. It wasn't easy to get close enough to slash, tough, and both of us showed some cuts here and there. Mostly scratches, but we had a couple close calls when the tiger started throwing at us the spikes on its back: a couple nicked close to our eyes, and a thin one nailed Daniel in the back. Nothing deadly, but it would be probably painful for a long while.
The tiger was wobbling visibly at this point, so me and Daniel locked eyes and nodded: it was time to finish this. With a jump we were unto the beast in a moment, and a combined cut of my falchion and Daniel's scythe managed to decapitate finally the tiger.
The head fell with a wet thump, followed immediately after by the body. This only lasted for a second, tough, as the whole tiger disappeared in a puff of smoke and retreated in a gem we hadn't noticed earlier. Said gem had a prismatic cut, with a blue-purplish color. Daniel picked it up and gave it a once over, then put it in his pocket.
We were both too tired to deal with that, and wordlessly agreed to sleep in the ship. Once inside, I helped Daniel to pull the spike from his shoulder. The weird thing was, that he had no blood whatsoever leaking from the wound, and also from neither of the others. The same was happening with me, however, and I was about to bring it up to Daniel, but he gave me a glare that screamed: 'I don't want to deal with your shit right now.' ,so I took the hint and shut up. We both fell asleep under Daniel's coat, which was a bit smelly, but otherwise was fine.
Still, a lot of questions floated in my head: what was that thing? Why did it have a gem like Daniel and me? Why didn't we bleed? I had a feeling that Daniel could shed some light, but it was mostly hoping. Nevertheless, Daniel proved himself smarter than one would give him credit for multiple times. If someone could figure it out, that was him. But for now, goodnight…
Welp, here it is! Our friends have reached Earth, but it seems the planet has become very hostile! Will Alex get his answers? Will they ever meet the Crystal Gems? Will I bee able to write a story with an actual sense?
This and a lot more in the next chapter of…
Daniel, Alex and Xeno: "Heirs of a lost world!"
Xeno: "Ok, guys. See you next time."
Daniel: "Not so fast mister. Do you realize that stupid prank of yours had me in casts for a week and half?! Now you gotta pay for it."
Xeno: "*nervously laughs* Now, now… there's no need for violence…"
*bolts out of the door*
Daniel: "No you don't! Get back here!"
*runs after Xeno*
Alex: "I actually expected that. To be the same person those two actually fight a lot. Oh, I didn't tell you? Xeno created Daniel using his own appearance, even tough the character is quite different. As of myself, I'm based off Xeno's actual best friend. They came up with the story concept together, so there. Now excuse me, but I must make sure that those two don't kill each other. Goodbye!"
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