Episode 01

Wings Above, Alien World Below

Chapter Three

Quebec, Canada

Spring, Mid 2006

The days had long since merged into a blur. The only way that either could tell that time was indeed passing and had not become static was the coming of the spring and thus warmth.

Whereas Danny had been with her for one winter, she had been here on this planet for two. The first huddled outside under makeshift shelter and thankfully the second was in this much warmer cabin. Not that one would have known given the complaining from Danny. Though since it was now much warmer, the complaints about the cold had almost completely ceased.

Almost.

That morning the two of them had gone for a short hike. Normally, at least back home, she had liked to fly. Being here with the human kid meant that she spent a lot more time on the ground. Sure, at first it felt strange to roam through the trees from the ground as opposed to the air, but she quickly learned to enjoy it.

But it wasn't all good. Danny was becoming increasingly unhappy with their situation. He missed his friends from his old life and he missed his parents, he missed his family. The thing was there was nothing she could do to help him.

He came from a place called Ottowa, but she didn't know where that was, she didn't know where any of the human settlements were. He couldn't really help her as he didn't know either. The only thing she could do was find someone that could help and she doubted anyone would be willing to help a Thanagarian. Not that she knew anything much beyond the forest.

She had gone through a crash course with the Absorbascon, but that was two languages and very basic information. Their reaction to her was unknown, though truthfully she would rather not find out in case it was a hostile reaction.

So here she would remain, looking after Danny to the best of her ability. Though she couldn't help but feel like she was being selfish. Shouldn't she at least try to help him get back home? He had an aunt and uncle, she knew that much. It was clear that they didn't know where he was, so did that mean his parents hadn't told them?

Zari sighed as she peered out of the window. Right now Danny was sat on the wood floor in the corner looking miserable. Seeing him like that made her miserable in return. The walks were the only thing that helped him forget, helped her forget.

She couldn't escape the truth. He didn't want to be here and she couldn't bear the thought of being alone. Not again.

It wasn't fair on him, though. Didn't she have a duty to help him find his aunt and uncle? Shouldn't he be given the chance to have a normal life?

She tried to push it out of her head as she really didn't want to think about it anymore.

She looked back to Danny. He was sat playing with two small stick he had found outside, pretending he was sword fighting, the stick in his left hand, attacking the one in his right.

Zari watched him for a few minutes before she had an idea. There was a lot of time where there was nothing to do, this gave Danny a lot of time to dwell on what had been left behind. He needed something to do and she knew exactly what.

She stood up and stepped over to the door. "I'll be back in a minute," she told him as she stepped outside.

She looked up to the nearest tree and flew up to it, using her axe to cut off a thick branch. She then shaved off the other side until she had two crude staves roughly one meter in length.

After she had cleaned them up a bit, she had them fairly straight. She stepped back inside, where Danny was now poking the floor with the sticks.

"Danny," she called out.

He looked up at her with a scowl. "What?"

Zari put her axe and the short crude staves, down onto the table. "I'm going to teach you how to fight," she told him.

"Fight?" he asked.

"Yes. It is something all Thanagarian children are taught. As soon as we can walk we begin to learn how to fight. Every one of us is able and capable of defending ourselves. While you will not have the prowess of a Thanagarian, I can teach you what I know, which I will admit isn't a lot."

He nodded. "Okay, I wanna learn."

"That's good," she said as she started to limber up. She quickly noticed that he remained stood there, looking at her.

She smiled. "I guess I'll have to teach you how to stretch your muscles as well. Let's hope you have the same muscles or you might pull something."

She moved over to him, where she stood right in front of him. She then instructed him through the stretches.

It wasn't until they had finished them that Zari realised she had no idea what she was doing. She knew offensive and defensive moves both with or without a weapon, but how did she give that knowledge to someone else?

"Okay," she began. "I guess the best thing to do is to teach you how to stand in a fight. Firstly your body should never be facing your opponent head-on, it should be at an angle."

He turned sideways.

"Before you do that, which is your dominant hand?"

Danny held up his left.

"Then your right leg wants to be behind your left. You also want to have your right leg at an angle, to help stop you from being easily pushed over."

"I don't understand," he said.

Zari moved behind him and helped him with his foot position. She then moved in front and gave him a gentle push. He stayed firm in his footing.

She then showed him basic grapples for the next three hours. This was made difficult due to his shorter stature, but she endured. Finally, he began to complain that he felt tired and she decided to put an end to it for the day.

Summer 2006

The thick wooden clubs glanced off each other as Danny and Zari mocked a fight. She was mostly defending, allowing him to work on his attacks.

Over the last two months, she had seen his skill and ability grow. He was nowhere near her own skill, which wasn't anything special, but he would be able to defend himself at least which was something.

Zari lowered her guard enough to let him get a strike on her, bashing her arm hard.

His eyes went wide. "I'm sorry," he apologised.

She laughed. "It's fine, you're getting good."

"I am? Like Dregnar from that story you told me about?"

She laughed harder, before rubbing her hand on his head, messing his hair. "Just like Dregnar."

He quickly moved out of her reach, before trying to fix his hair, which was pointless. It had been a mess for over a year now, as had hers. Without a brush or a comb their hair had become unmanageable.

"I think we should take a break," she said finally

Danny passed her his club and she put it aside with hers as she grabbed her axe and sheathed it. She then sat by the front window while he sat in a chair on the other side of the room.

Zari had noticed that since they had started training, that his mood had much improved. She had given him something to do, something to focus his mind on. It helped, but there were times in the middle of the night when she still hear him sobbing. It broke her heart but there was little that she could do.

Life wasn't perfect, it never would be, but she felt somewhat content. While she would definitely prefer to be back home with her mother, she knew that that would never be ever again. This was her life now and for the foreseeable future.

Zari rose up from her chair and stepped outside where she stood and watched the leaves rustle in the breeze.

Zari stepped back inside and grabbed a chair, putting it down on the small porch and sat down. There was something about listening to the soft wind blowing through the trees that made her feel at peace.

She sat there, her mind blank for what could easily have been an hour. At one point she saw a pack of wolves. She gripped her axe just in case, but they took one glance at her and moved on, uninterested in her.

Eventually, nightfall came and she headed inside where she saw that Danny was already in his sleeping bag that lay on the old bed. She lay on top of hers that was on the floor and went to sleep.

Autumn 2006

"Do you think Santa will come this year?" Danny asked Zari.

"Hmmn?" she said, looking over to him.

They were both sat on chairs on the porch watching the trees as they dropped their coverings. The ground was covered in the slush of the decaying leaves and gave the dirt a strange look of yellow and brown.

"Santa. He didn't come last year."

She squirmed slightly in her seat. Why did these humans have such stupid customs? Zari clenched her jaw. She shouldn't have to deal with this. "Maybe he doesn't know you're here."

"No, he knows where all the children in the world are," Danny told her matter-of-factly.

"Sorry, I'm not from this world, so I have no idea why he didn't come. Maybe he was busy," she said, hoping that he would shut up about it.

"It's because I haven't been going to school," he moped. "He doesn't bring presents to naughty kids and skipping school's bad."

"That's stupid," she scoffed. "There's nothing you can do about that. Maybe there's another reason he didn't come."

"Like what?"

"Have you ever seen him?"

"Yeah, at the mall."

"The mall?"

"A shopping mall," he said. "Don't you have them on your planet?" he asked in disbelief.

"We had a market, but no shopping malls."

"So you never saw Santa?" he asked her.

She rolled her eyes. "Santa is something of this world. No Santa where I'm from."

"Really?" he asked not believing her.

"Really," she confirmed. "Thanagarians don't have a Santa."

"Then how did you get presents at Christmas?"

"We don't have the same celebrations as here on Earth. Christmas is unheard of among the Thanagarians."

Danny stared at her like she had said something astounding, or unbelievable.

"I thought we had been over this," Zari said. "I'm sure I said last year that we didn't share your festivals and deities."

"But Christmas is different," he said.

"No, it really isn't," she said right back. "It's something of this world."

"But it's Christmas," he urged as though it should hold special meaning for everyone everywhere in the whole universe.

"It doesn't matter what it is. It isn't celebrated beyond your atmosphere. In fact is it something that's even celebrated by everyone on this planet?"

"Yeah, of course. Everybody loves Christmas," Danny said, as though the thought was something that he couldn't even conceive of. "You really don't celebrate Christmas?"

"No."

"So Santa doesn't bring you presents?"

"No, he doesn't."

"Then it's your fault," he accused.

"Excuse me?" she asked, taken aback. "What's my fault."

"That he didn't come."

"You're joking," she said in disbelief, before adding in Thanagarian, "You're an idiot."

"What?" he asked, not understanding the last thing she had said.

She spoke again in English, "If he didn't come because of me, then he's just being petty. I think there's a real reason he didn't show up and I think you know what that reason is. You just don't want to admit it."

Danny crossed his arms and slouched in his chair with a pout. He would sulk for a while, then he would probably perk back up again. She knew it wasn't going to happen, but she wished he would just forget about the whole Christmas thing. It just caused arguments.

There were plenty of Thanagarian festivals and she hadn't brought them up because firstly, she couldn't celebrate most of them and second she didn't want to, mainly because it brought up memories of her family and thinking about them made her feel miserable.

Then again they were both miserable and they both knew it. Sure, they had moments of fun, but both of them didn't want this to be their life. Danny wanted to have friends, to do the things kids his age did. Zari felt the same. She wanted to be back home with her family.

Zari often felt like she was going in circles with thoughts like this. She had gone over it and thought the same thoughts so many times that it was bordering on being a little obsessive. But it was natural, wasn't it? To dwell on what had been lost. To want your life to be back to normal. Life, as it was now, was tiring. She was fed up of living in this cabin and the forest. She was sick of all of it.

But this was her life and she had to get used to it and while she was still classed as a child under Thanagarian law, she had to be an adult. She had to take the initiative and she had to keep Danny safe, even if he frustrated and annoyed her sometimes.

At the end of the day, they were relatively safe, well-fed and sheltered. That was what was important. Anything else was just extra.

Winter, Early 2007

Danny had gotten sick.

It was cold outside, and it permeated into the cabin. The fire roared, giving off plenty of heat, but it hadn't been enough. Danny had caught a virus or something and it had made him ill and quite weak.

Zari made sure that he was well wrapped up, had plenty of food and liquids and had plenty of rest. Unfortunately, though, she didn't have experience in dealing with illness. Back at the farm, there was a doctor in the nearby village that had dealt with any and all ailments. Out here she was on her own and his life might be in her hands.

It was too much pressure.

The first day he was ill, he awoke tired. He told her he felt dizzy and sick. She told him to sit by the fire, hoping to sweat the ailment out of him. It wasn't long till he told her he wanted to lay down.

She agreed and he lay there, sweat glistening on his forehead. He then started to complain that it was too hot. These were signs of a temperature associated with the body fighting a virus or something similar. It was then that she had decided that he needed to get as much rest as possible and under no circumstances go outside until he was better.

Over the first day, he got steadily worse. Luckily he hadn't been literally sick, which would have stunk out the whole cabin and made both of them a lot unhappier.

As the day drew on, she attempted to soothe him by singing some Thanagarian songs her own mother had sung to her when she had been very young. The lyrics, of course, were all in Thanagarian, but Zari didn't know if she could get the words to fit the tune in English.

Danny slept through the night, but she stayed awake, sat by his side in case he awoke and needed something. The morning seemed to take an eternity to arrive, but as the blackness of night began to turn to day, she started to feel more awake, though not necessarily alert.

When Danny awoke and asked for some water, she gave him some and made sure he had some stew, which he complained about. He still had some though. After he had eaten, she gave him another drink of water before she told him to get more rest.

She sat with him for the remainder of the day. It wasn't until the sun was starting to set that she ate some stew herself. She also had to leave him for a few minutes while she quickly got some water from the river. She brought it in from the cold and put it by the fire and waited until it began to boil, before moving it away, happy that it was sterilised as much as it was going to be.

With that out of the way, she sat next to where Danny was sleeping and watched over him.

Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke it was daylight outside and Danny was laid there, looking at her.

"Hungry?" she asked him.

Danny nodded.

She got up to fetch him some stew while Danny sat up slowly. He then started to shake his head as he started trying to climb out of bed.

"No, don't get up," she said.

"I'm gonna be sick," he mumbled.

Zari began to panic. He couldn't go outside, it was too cold and she certainly didn't want him stinking out the cabin. She looked around quickly, before grabbing a rusty old metal bucket from the corner, passing it to him. She then cringed as he wretched into it.

When he finished he was a sorry state, with vomit hanging out of his nose and tears in his eyes. Zari took the bucket from him and took it straight to the river, where she cleaned it out. She then filled it up with fresh water and took it back to the cabin, where with a cloth she helped wipe his face.

"Feeling better now?" she asked him.

Danny nodded. "A bit," he mumbled.

"It's a start," she said, as she headed back out, washing both the bucket and the cloth in the river.

She quickly headed back, where she found Danny back on the bed in his sleeping bag.

"Still want something to eat?"

He nodded and she fetched the bowl of stew. He ate a few mouthfuls before pushing it back into Zari's hands.

"You should eat some more," she urged.

He shook his head in response.

"Do you want some more water," she asked him.

Danny nodded. "Yes please."

She passed him some water, which he drunk down quickly, before passing her back the cup. She took it and put it aside.

"Can you tell me a story?" he asked her.

Zari smiled. "Sure, I can tell you a story."

Danny got himself comfortable and Zari began to tell him the tale of another Thanagarian legend.

Over the next few days, Danny's appetite and strength grew until he was feeling well again. Zari was glad, though it did put some fear into her. What if she got sick? Would Danny be able to care for her?

It was something she hoped they wouldn't have to deal with anytime soon.

Updated January 2018