Fractured Worlds (Book 1 of the Fractured Worlds Trilogy)

by Alan VanMeter

17: THE DEEP BLUE SEA

  Chirp Swee stirred back to consciousness about ten minutes into the flight. Leena had to calm her immediately, as one of the first things she’d focused on was the Grogak sitting there on the console, staring intrepidly at them with its glossy little eyes. As soon as she was breathing a little easier, mainly by averting her eyes from the beast; she could talk to Leena.

  “Where are they taking us?” Chirp Swee asked in English.

  “I was hoping you could tell me, I can’t understand those two.” Leena answered.

  They were both quiet for a while, trying to pick up the brief conversations the two white birds would have. A little while after the most recent of these, Chirp Swee spoke in a hushed, but excited tone. “They said they expect to make their homeland in six days.”

  Leena looked blank.

  “Their homeland is a large island far out in the sea!” Chirp Swee was very anxious sounding.

  Leena’s eyes got big, and so did the other four kids; as they were intently listening as well.

  “The sea?” Leena gasped.

  The bird nodded, very afraid herself.

  “Breack Kreel!” Joshua said loudly, as all their faces distorted in alarm.

  Their kidnappers looked back at them and scowled.

  “They mustn’t know that I speak their tongue, or for that matter that you understand ours Leena.” Her bird friend warned.

  “OK.” Leena agreed, and turned to the others. “Shhh, huh?”

  They all tried to pretend they weren’t listening.

  The white birds soon made some more talk, and then the Grogak spoke. Its voice was thin and raspy. Leena thought that it said the word ‘Cracowck’ in the sentence. Then she saw that Chirp Swee was breathing kind of funny.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Her friend didn’t answer for a few minutes, and then she whispered hoarsely; “One of the white ones just asked why they didn’t just let the little black devil have me now. The other said that it might upset you all, and that he wanted an easy trip.” Chirp Swee swallowed hard.

  “NO!” Leena was in disbelief.

  Chirp Swee could only nod sadly.

  Becky shook her head in denial, then asked, “What did that ugly little black one say after that?”

  “It said it couldn’t wait to kill me.”

  Within thirty minutes the kidnappers said something while pointing out the dark widow, and then they pulled some rolled up charts from a cabinet below the console to verify something.

  Again Chirp Swee waited a little bit before she translated into English what was said. “They were just confirming that we are now passing the last of the outer reefs, and heading out to open sea.”

  “But what about the Kreel?” Leena whispered. “Aren’t they worried about coming across one?”

  “They said something about just having to chance it.” She stuttered.

  The children all looked scared and helpless.

  “What are the odds of running into one Chirp?” William asked.

  The birds quiet shaking was answer enough for him.

  The night was a long one, but eventually the gray of predawn crept into the windows. Their kidnappers turned off the cabin light, and set some fruit down by the captives. One of the white birds untied Sarah so she could feed the others. They told Chirp Swee in Threelt that if any of them needed to use the bathroom hole, they could, but only under their close guard.

  Leena and Chirp Swee had quietly talked through the night. Leena had asked how come the white birds, known as Fretolocks, were even allowed in the country if they were obviously so dangerous. Her friend told her that they could not control whom the other kingdom sent as diplomats, or ambassadors; though Grogaks were never allowed, ever. Soon Chirp Swee overheard their motive for the kidnapping.

  One of the Fretolocks mentioned that he still didn’t understand the importance of these strange creatures. The other said that their own King was trying to unseat Crathra, and install a Cracowck that was easier to deal with, and even Fretolock friendly.

  He then said that these creatures were protecting King Crathra somehow, and their own ruler wished them dead, but had changed his mind at the last minute, and now wanted them for himself. When the Grogak had told them of the children’s’ obvious plans to escape by ‘air-fish’; they had reported this to their King by secret radio transmission, and the order to capture instead of assassinate came down. The other replied that it was a good thing the Grogak had missed the opportunity earlier. When one made mention of the ‘pointy headed’ one being the new King of the Cracowcks, both white birds laughed.

  Chirp Swee didn’t quite follow everything, but she didn’t like what she heard overall. A possible collaboration with these birds wasn’t a good idea at all, and a puppet leader installed for them in Crathra’s place would be down-right dangerous for all Cracowcks. The Fretolocks just weren’t trustworthy creatures. They had been the ones to start the terrible wars that had occurred in their history, and it was known they still harbored a great deal of animosity towards the Cracowcks.

  Even though their King Crathra was mad, and had some rather preposterous rules, he did let the Cracowcks live their lives in relative peace. A ruler whom was friendly to their natural enemy would most likely not. These were not her immediate concerns though, as the Grogak still stared at her with evil desire.

  William and his team of crack commandos were busily making desperate plans to over-power their abductors, when suddenly the Fretolocks started making all kinds of clamor. Then the Grogak even started squawking with its nasty voice.

  “What’s wrong Chirp Swee?” Leena questioned.

  The bird seemed as if paralyzed, and couldn’t talk.

  The Fretolock steering the ‘air-fish’ began to rapidly change course.

  William urgently asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Chirp Swee!” Leena yelled.

  The bird’s attention snapped back, but the horrified look stayed in her eyes.

  “Breack Kreel.” She softly mouthed.

  Within minutes the Fretolocks were downright panicking, and the Grogak too. From their vantage point on the floor they couldn’t see anything, until Sarah said, “Look!”

  The Fretolocks began backing away from the windows as a strange blue glow came from below the ship. This was bright enough to even over shadow the early morning light. The Grogak suddenly jumped straight up, and began to maniacally fly in tight circles around the cabin, until it flew into a window; breaking the glass, and knocking itself unconscious.

  One of the Fretolocks crawled into a fetal position near the children, and began to make a moaning like squawk. The other sat in the center of the deck, and started pulling feathers from itself. The children watched this with bewilderment, and then Chirp Swee began to make a funny swooning noise.

  “Chirp Swee!” Leena tried to get her attention.

  Her friend didn’t even look at her. She just started rocking back and forth while swooning. It was then that the children first noticed the light-headedness.

  “What’s happening?” Becky said as she tried to steady her sense of balance.

  A large tentacle like appendage floated outside by the window. It seemed to be almost see through, like a gauze or something, and it had a bright bluish glow to it. Several more tentacles appeared.

  “It’s going to eat us!” Joshua screamed.

  The Fretolock that was pulling its feathers out suddenly got up, and walked over to the entrance. It flipped a switch, and the ramp began to open. They watched as it then flew out of the ship. All of the children became very light-headed, and things got weird.

  Several moments after the first Fretolock flew out, the second got up and did the same thing. The kids saw this, but their state of mind made it hard to comprehend. It was like all of a sudden there were all these thoughts, colors, a
nd sounds running through their minds, and they weren’t their own.

  “Yes.” Sarah said.

  The blue light got brighter outside.

  The Grogak came to. It jumped up and began hop walking around in a circle, letting out an almost sorrowful moan. Then it coughed roughly, and puffed up, and suddenly it gagged on something. The thing instantly went into convulsions, writhing on the deck, until after several moments it stopped moving.

  Leena was trying her best to keep her mind focused, and keep her own thoughts.

  Then there was Sarah, walking over to the window.

  Leena didn’t know what she was doing. “Sarah!” She called out.

  The little girl did not answer.

  Leena looked over to William who was blinking hard, and shaking his head.

  “William!” She yelled at him.

  That seemed to help him. He focused his eyes at her, still blinking. “Yeah? Leena? Lovely Leena.”

  “William! I think Sarah is in trouble!”

  “Trouble?” he blinked.

  She saw that he was having a hard enough time keeping his thoughts from becoming chaos. She was too, but there was Sarah. The little girl walked to the open entrance ramp, and a stronger blue glow came from there.

  “SARAH!! DON”T!!!!” Leena screamed as loud as she possibly could.

  That got the little girl’s attention. She looked back at Leena across the still swooning Chirp Swee.

  “Come back here Sarah.” Leena pleaded with tears running down her face.

  “They just want to talk.” Sarah said as a matter of fact, “But they don’t know how.”

  “Just move away from the ramp honey.” Leena beseeched her.

  Then a glowing tentacle wafted up the ramp, and hovered right over the little girl.

  “NOOOO!!!!” cried Leena.

  Sarah just looked up at it as if there were no danger.

  “They didn’t know they were hurting anyone.” Sarah said calmly. “They won’t hurt anyone again.”

  The tentacle pulled out of the ship.

  Leena couldn’t believe her eyes.

  “All they wanted to do was talk.” Sarah said again as she walked over to Leena.

  The light-headed feeling, and the invading shapes and colors faded from their minds.

  “Untie us Sarah.” Leena gasped.

  The other children were alright after a moment or two, but poor Chirp Swee was a mess. She was merely sitting there with her head draped loosely on her breast feathers, drooling. Leena got up first, followed by William and then Josh and Becky. They went right to the window to see.

  In the early morning light the bluish glowing tentacles filled the view, as the long thin appendages of the Breack Kreel were everywhere around them. There were a couple of weird thick knots on one of the tentacles, and as they looked closely the children saw that these were the Fretolocks. They were stuck to, and seemingly becoming part of the tentacle. Brighter pulses of the blue light sparked, and flashed between the long thin strands every now and again; making the whole scene preternaturally beautiful. The kids watched in awe as the tentacle strands were slowly retracted into the mammoth Breack Kreel below. Its body extended almost as far as the eye could see, even from their altitude. The huge flat body had replaced the entire sea below them, and its far off edges very slowly undulated, moving massive waves of water.

  “It’s even bigger than I had imagined.” Josh breathed out.

  Leena turned to Sarah. “What did you mean that they only wanted to talk?”

  “They just wanted to say hello, and talk.”

  “I don’t understand Sarah.” Leena implored.

  “They had seen the other fish swimming in the air before, and they always liked to talk, and they always joined them before. They didn’t understand that they were hurting the birds, or us.” Sarah explained.

  “How do you know this?” William asked with genuine curiosity.

  “I could feel-talk with them.” She smiled sweetly.

  “What?” They all asked.

  “That’s how they talk. You feel what they say, not hear it. I told them they were hurting us, and they said they were sorry.”

  The children watched the great beast again, as the last of its tendrils were retracted into a large dark area behind the myriad eyes it had, all looking up at them.

  “It’s so big it’s spooky.” William uttered.

  “They really are nice.” Sarah educated him.

  “Well it really saved our butts.” Josh said as he moved to investigate the Grogak. He prodded it with his foot to see if it moved. It didn’t.

  Leena warned him, “Careful Josh, that thing is supposed to be a real killer.”

  “It’s a real dead killer.” He came to the conclusion.

  William quite gingerly pushed the dead bird over to the entrance with his foot, and then gave it a good swift kick right out the door. After he raised the ramp, he brushed his hands together to signal; ‘that was the end of that’.

  The Breack Kreel started to disappear beneath the surface, and they all watched it go. Soon they were all alone again in the big blue sky, over the deep blue sea, but now they were shy three kidnappers; one of whom had been the pilot.

  “What are we going to do now?” Becky was the first to ask.

  “How hard can it be to fly this thing after all?” Leena grabbed the large wheel and gave it a turn.

  The blimp slowly responded as the ‘tail’ steered them on a new course. She then tried the set of levers by the wheel. As she suspected from watching the Fretolock, they were the throttles for the engines. She cut them way down, and then revved them up again.

  “Now all we have to do is figure out how to make it go up and down.” She said with a smile.

  Chirp Swee came out of her comatose state about then. “What happened?” she asked wiping drool from her beak. She looked about at the children whom were untied, and she had been untied too. There was not a Grogak, a Fretolock, or even a Breack Kreel to be seen. Instead Leena smiled at her from behind the wheel.

  “Are you alright Chirp Swee?” Leena asked.

  The bird couldn’t believe her eyes, so she blinked them several times. “Oh, you are good!” she told them.

  They told her of what happened, and she was mesmerized by Sarah’s account of communication with the Kreel.

  “But how did you talk to it?”

  Leena said, “I think she has some kind of a gift.”

  Chirp Swee began to ask all sorts of questions of Sarah about the great creatures. What did they eat, how long did they live, etc. Sarah could only answer a couple of these, and it only frustrated Chirp Swee. She was an amateur archeologist, at least it was one of her hobbies, and the Breack Kreel had been an enigma to her as long as she could remember, and to all Cracowck scientists.

  No one could ever get close enough to even study one, as the birds would just disappear. Now she had access to someone that had actually communicated with a Kreel directly, and she wanted answers.

  Leena interrupted them. “Right now we have more important matters folks.”

  Chirp Swee looked at her most curiously.

  “Like which way do we go?”

  “Oh, right, right.” The bird clucked, and she retrieved the chart that the Fretolocks had been using. Opening the chart and rolling it out onto the console top, where Leena could see it, Chirp Swee said; “Let’s see now. We would have to be somewhere around here.” She pointed to a section of ocean near a large continent.

  “Which way are we headed?” Leena asked.

  “Pretty much due east.” William piped up.

  “I meant on the map silly.” She explained.

  Chirp Swee looked at the Threelt markings on the compass imbedded in the console. “This way.” She pointed on the map. “It translates to pretty much due east.”

  William smiled.

  Leena asked, “That means we need to
go back that way, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, Breek Ka Caw is right here.” She touched a dot on the map.

  “Great, but we’re not going there.”

  “Oh, right. The spire. It’s right here.” She touched another dot.

  “OK, here we go.” Leena spun the wheel hard, and started to turn the ‘air-fish’ around.

  “Chirp Swee, tell me what this handle is for?” Leena pointed below the wheel.

  “It says, ‘Gas Release’.”

  “That’ll make us go down.” Josh said excitedly.

  Chirp Swee began searching the console, while William, Becky, and Josh searched the rest of the ship. They found provisions stored in a back cabin, and warm cloaks, and Chirp Swee found an operators manual for the blimp.

  “See. Nothing to it.” Leena told William upon his return to the front.

  He grinned from ear to ear.