Chapter Two: The Cross and It's Brother
unknown POV
I awoke in a cold sweat, panting heavily. My vision was still blurry from sleep. I used the back of my orange hued hand to wipe my forehead. As my vision cleared, I looked at the bizarre landscape around me. An overabundance of reds, blues and yellows dotted the landscape. To be honest it looked like someone drank a bunch of paint and vomited all over the planet. It took me a few moments to remember where I was. Some unnamed planet that just happened to meet our oxygen requirements. It was still night.
"This planet must have a slow rotation" I thought, yawning. "It would be midday by now on T-" catching myself, I shook the thought from my head. "No! If you think about that now, you'll fall into a despair you may never recover from. First, we must find her. Then, we can find a way to work through this."
With a sigh, I stood up and walked over to the cliff overlooking the strangely colored valley. Taking in the bewildering, but still enchanting sight, I leaped off the edge, falling towards the sharp spires below.
A few seconds before I was impaled on the largest one, I let my emotions take hold: fear, giddiness, anger. Drawing strength from them, I lifted up into the air, snapping off the tip of the stone with my toes. As I flew higher, the giddiness swelled into happiness, giving me even more power. Oh, it was such a good feeling, to fly! I flew up to the clouds, actually walking on the surface of one. From here, I could see even more of the strange planets surface. A forest of brown to my left, an ocean of purple to my right, and a field of red grass in the distance. Red... blood... home...
Realizing I was beginning to fall, I stopped myself, but not before falling through several clouds, clothes getting soaked to the bone in a sepia swirl of different shades of orange, green, and pink. Mostly pink.
After being utterly confused by this planet once more, and gagging at the colors my hair was now stained- neon purple with red highlights(SHUT UP!), I floated down to wake the other person in my little "entourage." he was sleeping face-down as usual for him.
"Wake up, you," I said as I kicked him lightly in the ribs. A little too lightly, as it didnt even phase him. narrowing my eyes, I kicked him harder, this time with a response.
"Oww..." he grumbled, just barely awake. He rolled over onto his back and opened his eyes. "Hello, Big Brother Kruxarr'i." he sighed, a sleepy grin on his face.
"Get up, Nuvarr'i" I grumbled. My little brother could be such a pain. He had the normal Tamaranian orange skin tone, though he was quite pale, dark blue eyes, and short maroon, almost black hair. He wore the basic Imperial Armor, with its dark metal chestplate and leggings. His chain mail gloves were a bit big on him, as was most of his armor, but they served their purpose just fine.
"Yes, Sir..." he whined, slowly working his way to an upright position. Once up, he stood at attention, although it was a bit sloppy. as he stood there, his stomach began to growl. He smiled sheepishly. "Eheheh... we wouldn't happen to have any food left, would we?"
I facepalmed and pointed to an almost empty satchel I had filled with food before we left Tamaran. He looked at the bag and squealed like a female as he nosedived at it."just remember to save me some!" I groaned as he pulled out a large cooked scorpion-looking creature with four pincers and a stinger with two large barbs. Seeing the stinger reminded me of training for the royal guards, purposefully getting stung to build up an immunity. The horrible pain of the venom burning in your veins, coursing throughout your body. Then the pain of having the stinger wrenched from your flesh, and used to cut the imperial mark above your heart. "Worth it, they said," I thought in disgust. "Big honor, they said. Lies. Utter lies. All I got was beaten and tortured and then told to stand still and watch a door. Some honor, that."
He mumbled an agreement through an overfull mouth of our rations, smacking loudly as he devoured the meat of the big green thing in his hands. I never did understand how he could rip through the beasts thick armor with his bare hands! Even my commanding officer couldn't! I watched him do it on multiple occasions. Never fun.
The sound of the creatures thick hide tearing snapped me out of my daydream. I quickly flew over to him and snatched the beast from him before he could eat my share. The heartbroken look on his face was priceless.
"what?" I questioned, looking at him. "You already ate half of it!" he just sat and stared at me as I ate what was left of the animal, a shocked expression pasted to his features. The meat was quite tender and flavorful, and there was a good amount hidden within its belly; enough for a good breakfast, at the very least.
When I was done, I tossed the beasts shell away and stood up. With a full belly I turned to my little brother. "Ready to leave this planet, Nuvarr'i?" I asked, pointing to the sky.
"But I'm still hungry!" he complained as he began to hover n the air.
"We will get more food once we find her. The mission comes first," I responded authoritatively. He groaned at me and gave an evil look, like I had just threatened the life of his pet or something. He harrumphed and took off for the sky. I began to fly as well, letting the feeling envelop me. I took off at incredible speeds, passing Nuvarr'i within seconds, heading for the edge of the planets atmosphere. As we approached the exosphere, I turned to my brother.
"Don't forget to take a deep breath this time!" I shouted over the wind. He nodded and breathed in deeply as I did the same. As the planets hold on us disappeared, so did its air, leaving us without a second breath. This didn't matter of course; we can hold our breaths for an entire day if we really tried, sometimes longer if you push yourself. we flew off in the direction of the planet we were assigned to find, hoping to get there in time.
"We're coming, princess," I thought, racing forward as fast as I can.
"We're coming..."