14

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"He what?" came the voice of amazement.

Icerii shrugged. "The little human brat made it to the old Cats' Lair," she repeated.

"And managed not to get fried by it. That thing still works," Chilldon added, and shook his head. "Those people are so completely primitive, I never thought I'd see the day one of them could make it this far. And a child no less!"

Fintii paced. Or rather her mount, Havok, paced, as most Lunar clan Lunattacks had not the leg strength to walk on their own. "Hmmm." She turned to face her subordinates. "And what of the villagers?"

Sounder, the hyperaudio Lunattack in the room, spoke up. "They stopped looking for him. I was surprised they went a few hours beyond their southern and even the north borders, and didn't find him, so they think him dead. The kid's brother is convinced he is alive, but everyone else is mourning him."

Fintii nodded in satisfaction. "Good. I was worried they'd begin to wander from their village. We can not have that. All right. You, Chilldon, you, Sounder, and Infra." She considered for a moment. "And Earthquake. I want you four to take this kid and bring him back here. I want to find out more about what he knows and what he has seen."

Chilldon grinned. "And if you don't like it, you'll supply the villagers with a body so they can prepare their funeral rituals, eh?"

"Exactly, Chilldon. Take the larger Icerunner, the four-seater." She chuckled. "One seat for the boy of course; Earthquake needs no vehicle." No one moved. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Sounder smiled and stood from where he had been leaning against the wall. "I am ready," he said calmly, a nasty glint in his eye. "And if he fights us?"

"He won't fight us," Chilldon sneered. "If the adults in his valley think us to be demons, one little runt of a human will be too terrified to fight us."

"Don't get too overconfident, Chilldon," Fintii warned.

Chilldon made a scoffing sound but did not argue. It would only earn him an earache if she screeched at him. "Well let's go," he said. "Sounder, get Infra and Earthquake, will you?"

Sounder nodded, and went to fetch them.

That morning, Saber had awoken to find himself staring at a blank screen, wondering where he was. And then as his mind woke up, he remembered. With a big grin, he sat back down at the computer console he had taken to thinking of as a magic photograph, fiddled with the buttons until he got the little drawer to pop out, and put another of the little disks inside it. He was absolutely enraptured by this new wonder, and watched eagerly as scenes of people thousands of years gone began to play.

It was the fighting that he was most interested in, although he enjoyed watching their strange flying carts as well. However he watched most closely the fights with the demons, whom he was beginning to think were not demons at all. They might even be mortal! Mortals with the powers of gods.

As he watched one battle, that took place in the rocky terrain that was beyond the Northern Boarder, the place the strange animal warriors called Darkside, he saw little balls of metal floating above the fighters, with a glass eye in the middle of them. He thought these might be taking the pictures; they looked like strange versions of the giant cameras some of the tradesmen used to make their photographs. They were leftover technology that had been figured out and simplified by his people.

But the important thing was, he saw the animal warriors bleed. When they were hit, they bled; they were mortal. But even more importantly, the horned beings also bled! Even as he watched, a blue colored one shrieked in pain and outrage as an edge of one of the child warriors' flying boards hit her in the head. He shuddered as he watched her ice the unfortunate kid, but then cheered as his? her? sibling zapped her with a little pellet of lightning, and thawed his sibling out the same way.

Saber had watched the little disks for a few hours when he heard it. Even down in the lower level of the place, he heard something outside and realized it was coming from the front.

The boy ran from the room, even as he ran, looking amazed at everything he passed. He found what must be the giant doors he had seen from outside, and experimentally shoved one of them. It did not open.

The other budged, but only an inch or so. He was about to get very frustrated when he spied a button on the wall and pushed it. The doors opened with an earsplitting shriek of metal scraping on metal The doors were no longer properly aligned.

What he saw made his eyes fly open and his jaw drop. A giant metal cart, hovering in the air, with three hostile looking demons! Where'd they come from? He thought they only lived in the rock lands!

With a cry of fright, he pushed the button again, hoping frantically that it would also close the doors. It did, and once again the fortress was sealed.

Saber ran back to the room he had slept in that night, and gathered the little disks. He snatched up his duffel, but before he could even sling it on his back, something huge crashed down through the ceiling like a steel ball through balsa wood. The boy cried out in startlement, then screamed when he saw who it was. It was the round, metal demon from the Gathering day! "Oh, you again!" the demon exclaimed, his wide mouth twisted in a savage grin. "Too bad I can't flatten you!"

Not demons, they're not demons, they're NOT demons! The frightened boy ran this phrase over and over in his mind as he snatched his spear from the bed. "S-s-stay away from me!" he warned in a voice that he had meant to be solid but came out as a frightened stutter.

Earthquake began laughing hard, as he reached out and easily took the spear from Saber. He snapped the solid stick in half with three fingers, as if it were no more than a soft writing stick.

Saber said no more, only bolted from the room and ran down the hall. He could hear the others breaking in through the front doors, and heard it when the doors exploded inward. Laughing, Infra, Chilldon, and Sounder burst through, Chilldon with a coil of rope on his belt. Infra scanned through the walls and pointed. "There!' she said. "There goes the little creep! She ran forward...

...just as Earthquake busted through the door without opening it. They collided.

"Ohhhh..." Infra groaned as the other two caught up. "Get off of me you great oaf!" she cried irritably when she regained her senses. She saw Chilldon laughing at her, and Sounder grinning his unsettling grin.

Earthquake shook his head rapidly as he stood up. "Watch where you're going!" he said with a scowl.

"Why don't you watch before you come busting out of a closed door like some kind of bat out of hell?" she retorted.

"Knock it off, you two," Chilldon said, shoving them both down the hall. "That little freak's gonna get away!"

Earthquake snorted. "Where's he gonna go?" But still he bounded down the hall after the small fugitive. "Hey! Where'd he go?"

Saber had taken in the argument between the strangers who he was now sure were mortal now that he saw them in such a different environment. At Gathering Day, they had been living up their reputation as demons, and in the dim light of Darkside, and the flickering flashes of the torches, they had seemed it. But Saber was seeing them act as they always did. They were powerful yes, but not immortal.

He was cowering in a room that had been an armory. There were the rotted remains of a bola whip, a termite ridden staff, and some others whose materials had not decayed down here inside the great lair. There were clawed sticks attached by a short metal chain that he had seen the gray warrior wield, daggers, and swords, a mace and chain even. He saw a crossbow like the hunters in his Valley used, and a hammer that looked like an animal's head. All the animals of the place looked similar, and it was one he had never seen before in his life. A dog was as close as he could get.

"Where did he go, Infra?" Chilldon asked. Sounder was listening carefully, and as Infra scanned, they both grinned, having located him at the same time. Infra pointed as Sounder was already on the way there. "Here!" she said, and tried the door. "Locked. Earthquake, care to do the honors?"

Saber's eyes widened in terror as they located him quickly, and wondered what kind of powers they had to have been able to. He had been so quiet! However, he did not know that Sounder could hear a heart beating anywhere in the building, and Infra could see through walls. He looked around and grabbed one of the heavy blades. It clanged to the floor as he was not strong enough to wield it.

Instead, he grabbed a dagger, and trying not to whimper in fear or wet himself again, he crouched next to the door, clutching the dagger as tightly as he could.

It was just in time. Earthquake came crashing through the door, looking around wildly for the boy, and Chilldon was right behind him Saber swallowed hard and lashed out quickly with the knife, and was shocked, even though he had seen it on the little disks, that he bled!

Chilldon howled, in surprise and pain, as he fell to his knees clutching his thigh. Saber ran for the door.

"I think not." Sounder reached out quickly and snagged Saber's oversized belt and yanked him back with a shriek of protest.

"Let me go!" the boy screamed, scared out of his mind. He turned around to take a swipe at the Lunattack with his fist, but Sounder easily dodged it. Saber was no brawler. Even through the fear, he was half surprised they were solid flesh, and not insubstantial like a spirit.

Sounder frowned, and took a hold of the boy's arm as he fought, finally bringing it behind him and catching the other one so he had him held with his hands pinned behind him.

As Infra and Earthquake looked on with some interest, Chilldon got to his feet, and limped over to the struggling pair. Saber stopped fighting, too frightened to move, frozen in fear. Chilldon was holding the dagger Saber had dropped and wearing a look of rage.

"Hold on, Chilldon, Fintii wants the kid alive," Earthquake warned.

Not answering, Chilldon seemed about ready to simply ignore this warning and slit the boy's throat anyway, but he turned with a growl of anger and hurled it. It flew between Infra and Earthquake's heads to lodge in the far wall, and then the icy Lunattack spun around and backhanded Saber across the face.

Saber yelped, and started coughing, the breath knocked from him from the viscous blow. He started crying, trying very much not to, but not able to stop it. He closed his eyes.

Chilldon grabbed Saber's dark brown hair and forced him to look at him. "You had better hope that Fintii does not decide you need to be disposed of. Because I will make sure it takes a long, long time." He turned to limp away.

"Wh-why can't you leave me alone?!" Saber cried. "I w-wasn't doing anything wrong!"

Chilldon narrowed his eyes, turned, and blew a thin burst of ice at Saber's throat. The boy's eyes went wide as he felt an immediate sharp chill, and felt his breath stop. Desperately, he tried to get in a breath, but could not, and only succeeded in making a thin strangled sound.

As Sounder pinned Saber to the wall with his own body weight, Infra snatched the rope from Chilldon's belt, and had Earthquake snap it into a few manageable pieces. She took one and tied Saber's hands tightly behind him. The boy did not fight much, as he was discovering he could take small breaths through the ice, but it was hard work, he had to force every inhalation into his lungs.

"You're lucky you're not dead right now," she growled as she finished the knot, and Sounder shoved him in the direction of the front door. "No one attacks a Lunattack and gets away with it."

Saber did not answer he was too busy trying to breathe and walk at the same time. Infra said something quietly to the injured man, and Chilldon turned, firing a beam of flame like the one from the fortress' eye at Saber, and the ice melted immediately. After gasping and sputtering, he began to cry once more.

Saber was shoved into a seat of the Icerunner and strapped in tightly with the safety harness. The other Lunattacks piled in, Earthquake simply bounding above the trees as they began to lift off. Saber shrank away from them as much as he could and silently wished he had never left home.

Chilldon, an ice Lunatatck that Saber meets
Chilldon

Part 15: Darkside

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