Sliding Into Antar
The Beasts And The Children
Chapter 10
X
"Lord Kivar, we are six veskits from Antar. We will be arriving soon."
"Good… Very good." Kivar waved his hand dismissively at the captain of his shadow shifters. "You may go, Bezto."
Bezto turned to leave but then paused and turned to face Kivar again… "Sire… are you quite certain of your information?"
Kivar lifted his head and stared at Bezto with an intensity that made Bezto tremble inside, though it was hardly noticeable in that dark, shadowy form. Then, for some reason that Bezto did not begin to understand, Kivar threw back his head and roared with laughter…
"Bezto! I do believe you're jealous of Dunjin!"
Bezto's head writhed in the strange, serpentine, ritualistic motion of denial that was customary of the shadow shifters.
"Yes! You are!" Kivar insisted. "But don't worry, Bezto… it's one of your better qualities."
Kivar laughed again.
"Sire, I am not jealous… especially not of a Torvon shapeshifter. The Torvons are vastly inferior to the shadow shifters. I do not understand why you bother with them at all."
"They got me information," Kivar said. "Information that eluded your shadow shifters." Kivar's smile disappeared again. "I never intended to allow those brats to inherit Antar, Bezto. You assured me that they would all starve to death or die in the strange storms that have been bedeviling our attempts to return and reclaim the planet. Now I find out that not only are the children still alive but the storms have all been mere illusions… CREATED BY ONE OF THE CHILDREN!"
"You are taking the word of Dunjin, Sire… He is of an inferior race… Do not forget that, my lord. His information cannot be trusted… at least without checking it out."
"And that is exactly what you are going to do, Bezto… CHECK IT OUT! Do you think you can handle that?"
Bezto's head bobbed up and down oddly, looking for all the world like a flickering shadow cast on the wall by dying candlelight.
"Good. Now get out of my sight. Let me know when we are two veskits from Antar. I'm looking forward to removing the last traces of Zan's existence from my planet."
>>>>>>>>>>
At the same time, in the strange "room" at the bottom of the black bog, on Antar, questions were flying faster than the remnants of a supernova, as the newly-awakened parents struggled to learn what had happened to them, where they were, and just about everything about the last seven months.
"We should go back to the palace and discuss all of this," the newly awakened Max said, taking a deep refreshing breath and letting it out with an audible sigh. "We have to make immediate plans to defend the planet if Kivar tries to return again."
"I agree," Michael said, "But let's do it right now… right here. If there ARE enemies among us, we're in the safest possible place right here where we are. Kivar thinks we're dead. I think we should stay that way… at least until we have a plan. If we go back to the palace and our enemies see us, we will have tipped our hand."
Max nodded.
"Maya… what did you say this place is," Liz asked, turning to her daughter.
"It's called 'the healing place,' Mom."
"The healing place…" Liz looked around at the children with a baffled look on her face. "Who named it that?"
Zorel shrugged… "The pawgors did, I think."
"Pawgors can't talk… the last time I heard," Liz said.
"Danyy hears them sometimes… when they're thinking," Liz-Jolee said.
"Pawgors?" Liz asked.
Danyy nodded. "The pawgors know that this is a place that makes them well. I learned it from them."
"When were you ever near a pawgor," Liz asked.
"Well… I never was," Danyy admitted. "I don't ever see them. I just hear their thoughts sometimes."
"All the way at your house?"
"No, not that far away, Aunt Liz. Only when I'm here."
"And where would 'here' be," Kathleen asked her son.
Danyy smiled almost sheepishly… "The Nan-Torel?"
Kathleen's jaw dropped… "The Nan-Torel? You've been in the Nan-Torel? Alone?"
"No. All of us have, Mom."
"Oh my God," Kathleen exclaimed, looking at the children.
"We're in the Nan-Torel now," Danyy said.
Kathleen looked at her son aghast. "This place… the… the 'healing place…' is in the Nan-Torel?"
"It's kind of poetic, isn't it," Jim said, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. "The most dangerous place on all of Antar… the place that everyone knows as a place of certain death… is also a place that gives life. I like it!"
"You've never been in the Nan-Torel before?" Jim from the New Granolith asked his double. The local Jim shook his head.
"Then you don't have a pet pawgor?"
The local Jim shook his head again and smiled at the utter outrageousness of that thought. So did Danyy.
"You can't make a pet out of a pawgor," Danyy said. "That's silly."
"Couldn't you talk to them and make them understand that you wanted to be their friend?" Maria from the New Granolith asked.
Danyy laughed. "No way! Pawgors don't want to be your friend. I hear their thoughts. They aren't friendly."
"Oh, Danyy!" Liz said, "Have we got a surprise for you on our ship!"
Maria laughed and nodded.
"Well…" Jim said, "In all fairness to Danyy here… and to my double… most pawgors aren't tamable. At least, I don't think grown ones would be. Jung-Jo was young, and the circumstances were unusual. And we didn't tame his mate… Jung-Jo sort of did that himself. And their babies grew up knowing us, but they're all grown up now. I haven't seen them since they went out on their own."
"Well, there IS one benefit to our being in the Nan-Torel, the local Michael said. "No enemy who doesn't have a death wish is going to come in here looking for us… not even a shadow shifter. We can talk freely here without worrying that any enemy will hear us. Our only problem is, can we get back out of here ourselves without getting killed now by a pawgor or by any of the other wild or poisonous creatures that live in here?"
"We do it all the time," Zorel said proudly, indicating the other children and himself. "Danyy knows when something dangerous is close, so we can avoid it."
"You HOPE you can avoid it," the local Kyle corrected.
"Well, for now, we're here," Max said. "And Michael is right… we can talk freely here. Let's make the most of it and make some plans while we can."
"Do you have any ideas, Max," Jim asked.
Max shook his head. "I'm thinking. I don't think very quickly after seven-month naps usually."
Maya and Andya giggled, and Liz smiled.
Michael turned and looked at Jiba… "You've been scaring ships away with your illusions… your mind warps… ever since we were… we were… injured?" Michael couldn't quite bring himself to say, "killed," but in his mind, he knew that they had been… in every conventionally-known meaning of the word.
Jiba nodded. "We thought we should try to keep them from coming back."
"Sounds like excellent logic to me!" Kyle said.
Michael nodded. "It was a great idea. It still is. For now, at least, do you think you could keep doing that, Jiba? Only maybe check with me or Max to make sure it's a ship that we WANT to chase away."
Jiba nodded and smiled.
"How did you know when a ship was coming," Isabel asked.
Jiba grinned… "Maya can sense the people on the ship before they ever get here… and sometimes she can hear their thoughts if she tries."
"That's right," Liz said. "Maya can do that."
Michael nodded then turned to Tess… "You can help Jiba… if Kivar or his shapeshifters try to come back, right, Tess?"
Tess nodded enthusiastically. "With the show Jiba and I can give them, they'll never come back again."
Michael smiled. "I wish that were true. But I kind of doubt that Kivar will just go away and stay away. He's not stupid. Eventually, he'll figure out what's going on, and we'll need to have another plan in place before that happens."
"I agree," Max said. "Zorel… was anyone else killed… besides us?"
"I don't know," Zorel said, shaking his head. "I don't think so."
The crew from the New Granolith listened to that statement with a puzzled reaction…
"We didn't see anyone at all except the children when we got here in our ship," Max said. "We assumed… naturally… that Kivar had killed everyone… or at least that he had killed a lot of the people."
"No, he didn't," Zorel said, shaking his head and grinning. "That was one of Jiba's mind warps. After they attacked our parents, she made everyone else disappear so the shadow shifters couldn't find them."
"Well, actually," Jiba said, correcting Zorel humbly, "I didn't make everyone disappear… That would be too hard for me. I just made Kivar and the shadow shifters… and you… not see them."
Kyle laughed. "She's reached enlightenment! Genuine humility is a virtue. It's one of the ten sacred qualities outlined by Avalokite Bodhisattva, the Buddha of Compassion… along with the four noble states of mind: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity."
"It's gotta be a Kyle thing in every dimension," Michael said, rolling his eyes.
"Well, if I made everyone disappear," Jiba said, "Even if I could, then they wouldn't be able to see each other or even see themselves. But if I put a mind warp on people that I don't want to see them, then only those people can't see them."
"She's got a point," Isabel said with a grin.
"Seems like you've got everything all figured out… Are you sure you guys need us," Kyle asked jokingly."
"YEAH, WE DO," every one of the children exclaimed at the same time, sounding like a chorus.
Maria and Liz looked at each other and started laughing. "I'd like to have that recorded so I could play it back from time to time," Liz said, hugging her children. Maria nodded and wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye, as she and all the other parents hugged their children, too.
Rayyn and Taz put their arms around Kyle's waist and held onto him. "We need you, Dad. Don't ever let something bad happen to you again."
Kyle started to laugh, but somehow it caught in his throat and he couldn't speak. He bent down and put both arms around his children and nodded. "I'll try real hard not to. I promise."
"Okay, here's the deal," Max said, after everyone had found their voices again, "Jiba and Tess will do their thing if Kivar and the shadow shifters try to come back again. If that fails… and eventually, I have to agree with Michael, Kivar is bound to catch on to us… then Jiba and Tess will make everyone invisible, including themselves… and us. That will at least give us an equal fighting chance with the shadow shifters, because for all practical purposes, they can become invisible by melting into walls and popping out as we go by. I think we can take them. We just need to have a fighting chance."
Michael nodded. "We can take Kivar. And we can take all his shadow shifters, too. They won't have an insurmountable advantage anymore."
Max looked around the room. There were nods from all of the parents.
"Then it's settled," Max said. "Let's go home."
"We can stay and help you," Max from the other dimension said.
His double shook his head. "Thanks… but you've done more than we could ever ask you to do for us already. Besides, it's not your fight… and we don't know when they'll come back… or how long Jiba and Tess' mind warps will keep them fooled. You could be here for a very long time."
Max swallowed and nodded. As much as he wanted to help their doubles here, this Max was right. Nobody knew how long it would be before Kivar would come back… or when he would finally catch on to the fake storms and attack them. It could be weeks, months… or even years.
"I do hope that you'll stay with us for a few days, though, at least," Max said, "So that we can thank you properly and get to know you better."
"Yes… absolutely!" Liz agreed.
"Well… I don't know," Max said, looking at his own Liz and at the other crew members. He knew that they were all dying to get home. "Maybe we might stay one more day… two at the most."
Max smiled. "Welcome to Antar, friends." Then he turned to Zorel… "How do we get out of here?"
"Follow me," Zorel said, with a big grin.
Zorel and the other children led the adults over the soft, spongy ground a distance of about three hundred feet then pointed to a gently sloping rise ahead of them…
"Walk up that hill. It takes you out of the bog."
Max nodded and looked around to make sure that everyone was with him, then he started walking up the rise behind Zorel and the children. The others followed. As they walked up the slope, Max noticed that something did not seem right… water was appearing under their feet. In fact, the further up the rise they went, the deeper the water became, until finally, it was above their knees.
Max stopped Zorel… "Zorel, I know I've been asleep for seven months, and maybe I'm still a little confused, but if we're going UP, shouldn't the water be getting shallower, not deeper? Maybe we're going the wrong way."
"We're in a room under the water," Zorel reminded Max.
"Yeah, I understand that," Max said… "I do. I thought we would have to go into the water… or through the water… or something… but it should be above us. We should have to go through it… above us… but the water seems to be rising from beneath us instead. How can it be rising from below us if we're going up… through it? Does that make any sense?"
"We didn't try to figure it out," Maya said. "We just did it… because the pawgors can do it."
"The faith of a child," Alex said, smiling. "It takes the faith of a child to get out of here."
"Or a pawgor," Jim said.
Kyle nodded. "Bless the beasts and the children."
The others looked at Kyle, and he smiled…
"The beasts and the children… It's something I heard somewhere… in a song I think."
tbc