A/N: Thanks for all the reviews of the last chapter. I really appreciate all I get.
And, as usual, thanks to MarkeyDeSad for the beta.
More of our Chuck story on the planet Retith…
Exo
Chapter 12: Wedding and Flying
The next six months seemed to fly by as far as Chuck was concerned. Of course, he could never get enough time with the love of his life, so that was probably part of it.
Learning to fly took most of the rest of his time. Flying was basically what everyone on the planet did to get around. Even the vehicles used to travel the streets of the city basically flew. The ones used to fly higher, further and faster, were an extension of that.
So, he basically 'learned to 'drive' first. He picked it up quickly and, after taking a test, was qualified to drive around town three weeks later.
His idea that flying the real fliers being just a step up, was quickly proven to be a fallacy. For one thing, the gusts of wind were hardly noticeable within what he labeled cars. Whereas, higher up it required concentration to control the flier's stability. Once Chuck had mastered that, he had to learn to yaw and even fly upside down. All this was to prepare him if he was attacked by an aerial predator or, worse, an enemy flier.
He knew most of the time, he would let S'ra fly. She was great at it, a natural, but sometimes he would have to, so this training was important to him.
It took him many hours of flying and a lot of practical work on repairing a flier before he was ready to take the practical test. However, that wasn't all that was needed. He had to study and pass a written test too. That was a whole other challenge.
The language was, as he'd found, quite straight forward to learn to speak. He'd already done quite a lot of that. The written language, however, was much harder. It took him several months of dedicated study to get to grips with it. That didn't sound much, but Chuck had always been quick at learning something once he put his mind to it.
He passed the flying test in three months, but with the wedding approaching, he took the written test after four and a half months. He failed badly. Not because he didn't know the answers, but because they couldn't understand his words.
He was understandably miserable after that.
S'ra took time off to help him at that point, and a month later, he tried again. This time, those marking his paper could read it and he scraped a pass. However, a pass was all he needed and he found himself qualified as a flier two weeks before their wedding. He'd have to be supervised for the first thirty hours, but that was ok. After all, he wouldn't fly anywhere without S'ra.
Then, it was time for him to prepare for the wedding.
Ironically, this was to be a smaller event than the engagement party, but no less important. There would just be close friends and family there. Chuck didn't expect many friends to be there. S'ra didn't have many and he certainly didn't have more than a couple on this planet. That took him down a spiral of thoughts of Earth. He hadn't really had many friends there either, but one stood out, Morgan Grimes.
Chuck never really expected he'd marry, but if that miracle did happen, he'd have wanted Morgan there. He really missed that little guy. He hadn't thought about Morgan for a while, becoming used to life without him after he died, but now, sitting here, thoughts of the bearded guy did come back to him.
Chuck wondered how Morgan he would have coped, if he'd still been alive. Would Morgan have found a girl and committed to her like Chuck had here? Or would he be floundering in the absence of his best friend?
He shook his head to get rid of thoughts like that, but then he thought of someone back there who he hoped was still alive. He did miss his sister. Ellie was often in his thoughts when he sat on his own contemplating what had happened to him.
He hated that she would have been told that her brother, her only remaining connection to life with their parents, had disappeared, just like their mom and dad had. Actually, that was wrong. Their parents had just walked out of their lives, whereas Chuck had literally disappeared while with many others.
He wondered if anyone had been looking at him as he vanished or if they just discovered his absence later.
Maybe his body didn't disappear at all and it was just some astral projection that left his body to transfer over here. If that was the case, did his body collapse, no longer breathing and with no pulse? Would Ellie receive his lifeless corpse to bury or cremate? That would be awful but was it better than just disappearing? She could at least have closure.
He wished, as he often did, that he could get in touch with his sister and let her know he was safe and living. He was more than just living, in fact. He was about to marry the woman of his dreams, the most beautiful woman of two planets, the woman who had saved his life, not just physically but mentally too.
S'ra meant the world to him and he knew the feeling was mutual. Life couldn't really get better, could it?
Unlike weddings Chuck knew back on Earth, there was no rehearsal here. S'ra had told him what to expect, though.
It was a formal event and seemed much like a wedding on Earth would have been for him.
The ceremony was led by an official. For Chuck and S'ra, that was to be the city governor, Chaldir.
Chuck would stand awaiting the arrival of S'ra with, what he thought of as his best man. He'd asked Durban to be that person and he'd happily accepted.
S'ra would be led to him by her father. This was probably the only time that S'ra accepted traditions. The "handing over of a daughter to her new man" no longer upset her because of who that man was.
Chuck and S'ra had persuaded a local man to make wedding rings for them. This Earth custom would be added to the service. Both would have rings signifying their bond. S'ra loved the concept.
Chuck knew he'd be nervous on the day, but he was also excited.
There was no formal attire expected of the couple. They were just expected to look how they wanted their partners to see them. Often, they would wear what they had when they first met as a reminder of that event.
Chuck was now standing beside Durban. He'd had a suit like he would have worn on Earth made for him. He still wanted a bit of Earth at the ceremony. He knew S'ra would love that he had, a reminder of who he was. The alternative, looking as he had when they first met had amused him, though. Standing here with just a leaf covering his genitals certainly wasn't an option!
He wouldn't object to seeing her in what she'd worn when the first met, though. Her body and upper arms covered in a tight-fitting black bodysuit with her gorgeous long legs completely bare apart from those sturdy shoes on her feet. He remembered being stunned seeing her like that.
He didn't know what she would actually be wearing. He just waited in expectation of what it would be.
Then, S'ra and her father arrived and the waiting was over.
Of course, S'ra looked stunning. She'd decided to wear a white wedding dress, just like a beautiful bride on Earth would wear. If his brain could have functioned, he would have remembered her quizzing him of bride's dresses in great detail. However, he just stood in complete awe at this vision of beauty walking toward him. He couldn't have stopped the tears if he'd tried. Not gushing, but they did trickle down his cheeks. How could he be so lucky as to be marrying this breathtaking woman?
S'ra had felt uncomfortable in this dress when she first put it on, but she knew Chuck would appreciate it. Now, as she and her father walked toward Chuck, all discomfort disappeared. She felt like she was gliding toward the man she loved. The man who looked amazing in that Earth suit. How hiding his lovely arms and legs made him look this good, she had no idea, but she certainly wasn't complaining.
Seeing him standing there, obviously in awe as he looked at her, with tears in his eyes, got hers going too. This wonderful man was the one she was going to spend the rest of her life with. How wonderful was that?
The formal ceremony wasn't long and in no time they were in each other's arms kissing in front of everyone. More tears of joy and laughter together, both overwhelmed with so much unsought happiness, neither having ever expected to find the other, but so grateful to have found the counter point of their soul in the other.
After the ceremony, the couple walked around their friends and family.
Chuck knew Chaldir had run the ceremony, but expected him to leave after that, so it was wonderful to find him with Pal'na waiting to talk with them. What was even more surprising was who was with them. Neither of them expected to see Praid and his wife, R'lna.
After thanking Chaldir for the ceremony, Chuck turned to the governor of Sanklin and his wife. "I didn't expect to see you again, Praid, or you, R'lna."
"We couldn't miss this, Chuck," Praid replied.
"We didn't know you were here for another state visit," S'ra commented to Praid..
"Oh, he isn't. We came especially for the wedding of our friends," R'lna said, smiling at them.
"You've made quite an impression on all of us, Chuck," Chaldir said. "Not just in how you have helped our cities, but we also see you as a friend. S'ra already was."
"I'm honored," Chuck replied.
Praid leaned closer. "We're just people, Chuck. We have friends, just as much as anyone else."
Chuck and S'ra laughed and he said, "Even alien ones."
"I also hear you're both heroes," Praid said as he stood straight again.
S'ra replied honestly, "Chuck doesn't like to think about that. All the killing."
The governor of Sanklin nodded. "I suspected that would be the case after how he behaved when you were with us. Just note our thanks. I'm sure the horde would have headed to our city after destroying this one. You saved us, too."
"Let's talk about other things," Pal'na said and looked at the young couple. "I hear you're planning to go exploring after today."
Chuck nodded enthusiastically. "Exploring is something we from Earth love to do, so, yes, S'ra and I will spend some time doing just that here."
"Where will you go?" Chaldir asked.
"Wherever we can," Chuck said. "First, though, we plan to travel south to the ice caps at the south pole."
"Sounds cold and a long way to go," Praid commented.
"Well, the northern pole takes us where the Frakku came from, so we don't want to go there," S'ra explained.
"We'll explore the lands on the way too, so we'll enjoy the journey," Chuck said.
All four people looked somewhat doubtful. S'ra smiled. "His enthusiasm for this exploring is quite infectious. I'm looking forward to it as well."
After they had talked to the four of them for some time, S'ra excused them as they needed to continue making their rounds, visiting all their guests, as tradition dictated.
S'ra had made sure to invite the others involved in dealing with the crisis. She knew they were friends to both of them now, albeit through a shared painful experience. The fliers were fascinated with the idea of exploring the world and each mentioned places that they'd heard of but never visited.
Durban and his wife did the same, but Durban had already mentioned some of the places before.
S'ra was starting to think that exploring was only an alien concept to herself, although none that seemed interested had actually gone out, other than on missions.
Chuck and S'ra spent some time talking to her parents before leaving.
"You are going to be careful, aren't you?" S'mia asked.
"Of course they are," her husband replied for them.
S'ra glanced at her father first. "Thank you, but we can answer ourselves." She then looked back to her mother. "Yes, we are."
"Who knows what dangerous animals and people are out there," S'mia said worriedly.
"We will be safe," S'ra said. "The two of us work well together." They did work well as a team, but she hoped it would be enough.
Chuck's natural inclination back on Earth was to overpack when going on vacation. Here, he couldn't do that because the flier wouldn't take the weight or the bulk. So, he had to minimize rather than maximize what he took.
S'ra sent him back from the flier the first time he came to it, but the second time she realized if she didn't help him, they'd never get away.
They finally got all that they were taking on the flier, and set off on their adventure.
S'ra let Chuck fly the first part of the journey, something he was more than happy with. However, he suspected there was an ulterior motion, too. In spite of going out on many missions, this was the first time she'd left the city for herself and it was for a long time too. She was wistfully looking back at the city.
"We are coming back, you know," he said.
S'ra sighed. "I know," but she still kept looking back as long as the city was in sight.
She eventually turned to face the direction they were heading. She'd not flown this way before, so the land was new to her as well as Chuck. Of course, for the initial part of the journey it looked just like the other land they had seen, so it wasn't that exciting for her. Chuck, however, seemed to find everything new to be exciting, even if it was just like what he'd seen before.
After flying for a couple of hours, they could both see a mountain range ahead, so who knew what was beyond that.
An hour later, when they got closer, they could both see xynth flying above the peaks..
"I think you'd better take over the flying, S'ra," Chuck said. "I'm sure you're better at dodging those."
She was too and although she was sure he would manage, it was only the start of his flying and she didn't want it to get traumatic for him. Besides, he was better at taking them out with spears.
She took the controls as he stood up and she sat in the place he'd been. "Ooh. This seat's warm."
He returned her smile.
Then, both them looked ahead at the flying creatures in the distance.
As they got closer, the xynth shied away from them, so they posed little threat and the couple passed them quickly.
However, the turbulence caused by the mountain's presence did cause a challenge and Chuck was glad S'ra, the more experienced flier, was in control.
It took an hour to fly over those mountains which tired S'ra out, so once beyond she gladly gave the controls back to Chuck.
The vista before them was very different to what either had seen before. At least on this planet. For Chuck, it felt like he was back on Earth looking at the green plains rolling away ahead of them.
"It's beautiful!" S'ra said, the awe in her voice evident for Chuck to hear. And it was, thought Chuck.
In the distance, further south, they could see a large expanse of water, To the east was another mountain range. To the west, the green plain stretched beyond the visible horizon.
However, the plains weren't completely flat. They rolled away from them.
The sun glistened on the water and on golden shapes before it.
The whole view looked magical.
They hadn't landed to eat or drink, but had taken it in turns to do that, but both now felt they needed a rest, and a comfort break too, so Chuck took them down to land on the green terrain.
He landed their flier carefully on what basically looked like a mid-green version of the moss they had experienced before.
They wandered off in opposite directions for their comfort breaks but neither took long and were soon back together by the flier to lay down together and just chill out.
"This is just what I hoped for, S'ra," he said.
She looked over at him and saw that he was looking at her. "You've taken me somewhere that no one else from Grillain has ever been, Chuck, and I love it."
He reached over and held her hand and they both sighed, happy to be on this adventure together.
After a half hour, they got up and climbed on-board again. S'ra took a turn flying and they set off again toward that expanse of water. They had no idea how long it would take to cross it, so they would land before they reached the shoreline to sleep overnight before setting off across it.
They were getting closer to the golden shapes and both wondered what they were. The distance was still too great to see anything. Maybe before crossing the water, they would stop to explore there.
They'd set off from the city fairly early, so as they got closer to the shapes, it was still light. However, it was still some way to get to the edge of the sea ahead, so they decided to stop near the shapes for the night and explore them in the morning. The seaside stop would be for the next night.
An hour later they could see what the shapes were. They were looking at the remains of an ancient city made of some golden material. None of the tall buildings they could see were complete, All looked like they had been ruins for a long, long time.
"I wonder what happened to the people that used to live here," Chuck said.
"I've never heard of a golden city," S'ra commented. "So, it must have been a long time ago that it was deserted."
"Maybe something like the Frakku swept through and it wasn't deserted at all," he suggested. That was a possibility.
"Or maybe something else killed them off. Something of their own doing," she said.
"We should stop soon and not go in until daylight," Chuck said. "We have no idea what might be prowling in there after dark."
So, that's what they did. S'ra landed the flier a good mile from the ancient city and, after a meal, they snuggled down together and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of what they might find in that city in the morning.
A/N: So, exploring a dead city next. I wonder if there'll be anything dangerous in there.
They have a whole world to explore, so this story could run for a while, only constrained by my imagination and interest from readers.
Glossary (pronunciation in brackets)
People:
B'rack (Bur-Rack)– S'ra's previous boyfriend (we never meet him)
Chaldir (Charl-Dere) – governor of the city state Grillain
Thrace (Thrase) – military commander of the city state Grillain
Durban – (Dur-Ban) Air Sargent helping Chuck
Flack (Flack) – one of the generals under Commander Thrace
Frakku (Frack-Ku) – purple-skinned savages
Garron (Gar-Ron) – S'ra's father
Gralik (Grar-Lick) – second son of Praid
Kaldik (Cal-tick) – son of Commander Thrace
Pal'na (Paal-Nar) – wife of Chaldir
Praid (Pray-Id) – governor of the city state Sanklin
R'lna (Rul-Nah) – wife of Praid
S'mia (Sur-Mere) – S'ra's mother
S'ra (Sur-Rah) – first person Chuck Bartowski meets on the new planet
Tald (TarlD) – first son of Prad
Verzian (Verr-iss-ien) – chief astronomer in Sanklin
.
Plants and animals:
Clarek (Clar-Rek) – plant that produces leaves that people use to clean themselves
Conith (Con-Eeth) – leaves of this plant produce fast-acting, healing liquids
Deak (Dee-Ack) – small plants that manage to grow in the crevasses of rocks in the mountain ranges
Gritch (Grit-Ch)– flesh of this plant used to clean teeth and breath
Ixtag (Eecs-Tag) – black-colored predator that live in forests
Krattak (Crat-tark) – terrifying, huge sea creature
Landic (Land-Ick) – deer-like herbivore
Pake (PayK) – plant, the flesh contains pain-killing properties and is used for that purpose
Vetia (Vet-Ia) – leaves of this plant very flexible and used by Chuck to cover himself. Sap burns people from the planet but didn't affect him
Xaxic (Zacks-Ick) – foul smelling leaves of this plant used to ward off predators
Xynth (Zinth)– flying predator
Zryth (Zreeth) – stone-colored cat-like predator. Related to the ixtag
.
Places:
Garverd –(Gar-Vert) mountain range
Grillain (Grill-Ain) – city state S'ra comes from
Niteth (Nee-Teth) – largest of three moons that circle the planet
Pallain (Pall-Lain) – neighboring city state
Retith (Ret-Teeth) – the planet Chuck was now on
Sanklin (Sank-Lin) – city state governed by Praid
.
Other:
Bract (Br-Act) – nutritious bars carried to eat when access to other food hard to achieve
Chendia (Chen-Dere) – powerful anesthetic, like chloroform
Flaxik (Flack-sic) – new drug created to induce ovulation
Merriclat (Merry-clat) - device for rebuilding and repairing lungs