Post date: Jul 30, 2016 2:10:23 PM
Caradorynee: Feats & Wagers
#15
Lark’s stomach clenched as he watched the Human girl begging him for help. The fear and distress in her eyes clearly told him that she knew something was terribly wrong.
Guilt tore through Lark.
There was nothing he could do. Nothing that wouldn’t jeopardize the girl’s life even further. At least not at the moment.
He unfurled his left hand and allowed a small amount of his Human energy to seep away from his body.
The girl’s eyes widened and desperation filtered across her pretty features. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
Lark continued to slowly permit his Human energy to drain from his fingertips as he allowed his Dueanian half to begin fusing with his immediate surroundings.
The Shegata marking ceremony ended and the Human girl was abruptly nudged by a Karco master into once more getting dressed.
When the girl finished she looked back in his direction. Lark knew she could no longer see him. His Human half had dissipated sufficiently enough so that his Dueanian half could hover safely between several of the other occupants of the rowdy crowd.
All he could do now was watch and wait.
Star swallowed hard and unsheathed ‘Mr. Bladey’ as she was escorted off the platform and down the ash brick steps towards a pair of skeleton Pouriecolts.
Her lethargy had turned to depression.
She was going to die and no one or nothing was going to stop her from dying horribly.
The Karco master grunted loudly and a Tooacua snapped the pair of reins in it’s tentacle appendages to attention. The pair of Pouriecolts, pulled at their restraints but the Tooacua held fast until Star was loaded up into a cage-like cart that the Pouriecolts were harnessed to.
Before the clanking of the cage door closed she was flung backwards as the cart began to move swiftly. Star reached out and grabbed a bar of the cage. She was surprised when the bar crumpled beneath her touch revealing a large gapping hole where the bar had once been.
Docarass. The cage was constructed of Docarass. Unsure why a cage that was supposed to hold someone or something within would be made from such flimsy material, Star wiped the sugary substance onto her pants and took a more solid grip of her blade.
Nothing seemed as it should be. The one time she’d witnessed the last Shegata challenge she had seen the contestant transported to the cone fields in a contraption that resembled that of a sled. Was the Tooacua even taking her to the cone fields?
Star glanced back toward the platform where she’d just been but it was already well out of sight.
A booming sound exploded nearby forcing Star to whip her head around in time to see a large plume of gas expel from a distant Dormoan volcano.
Star’s mouth went dry.
The Dormoan volcanoes had started their ritual preparation of expelling gas before they eventually exploded. Where had the day gone? Did she even have enough time to complete the cone climb before one of the volcanoes erupted?
The cart came to an unexpected halt. Star slammed into the brittle bars. Her weight crumbled one entire side of the cage.
Star tried to right herself and was in a kneeling position when the cart, cage and all, suddenly dissolved beneath her. She fell crashing to the Caradorynee surface. Pain jutted up her spine as her bent knees took most of the impact.
The Tooacua driver, now positioned on a circular disk, slapped the reins against the bones of the skeleton Pouriecolts and was gone in an instant.
Star got gingerly to her feet and sheathed ‘Mr. Bladey’. She looked around gauging where she was and how far she was from the cone fields.
Star’s stomach sank. The base of the closest cone in the distant cone fields was at least a good quarter to half a mile away.
Star took a deep breath and was glad that the air at this distance was still somewhat clear.
A small reprise at best for she knew that the corrosive gases that surrounded the cones would soon begin to erode her lungs.
How much the Shegata markings would protect her she had no idea.
Resigned to her fate, Star reached for the tattered cloth that she once more had wrapped around her neck. She tied it tightly around both her nose and mouth, making sure that she tucked the ends securely into the collar of her shirt. Star then buttoned the shirt at her throat and then at both cuffs.
Anger simmered beneath the surface of her fear.
How she hated this damned planet.
The people, for she’d not met one creature that had been kind to her in any way. The barren wasteland that stretched endlessly. The heat, the humidity, and her inability to breathe.
But most of all, at this very moment, she hated the translucent orange coloured man with the green eyes. Why hadn’t he put himself forward to help her? Was he not a Human after all?
Another boom echoed and Star ground her teeth.
She had better get going. The longer she stood still, the faster her limited supply of oxygen would evaporate.
Star took another deep breath. She was strong. She would conquer the cone by climbing to its apex and claiming the prize that awaited her there.
She had no other choice.
She was on her own in a world that she knew very little about.
Stuck with no other choice but to survive or at least die trying.
Star unclenched her jaw and set off at a brisk walk.
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt