What about Teddy? He would have to be there, too. So, I imagined him on Strawberry's shoulders like a toddler as she walked up behind me with her own rifle. Perhaps he could be using a slingshot. I began laughing to myself so hard that I had to bend over and place my hands on my knees to steady myself.
"Are you ill?" Dawynda asked with genuine concern.
"No," Honeysuckle told her as she walked up behind me. "He is just thinking something perverted and funny to himself. That is kind of his thing. Have you heard any of his songs yet?"
Dawynda tilted her head dramatically as her eyes enlarged. "Do you sing, Kash?"
"Please don't," Gako added just before leaping into the air with his powerful legs to return to flight.
I chuckled at Gako's perfect timing. It wasn't often that I found him funny. Perhaps I had been overlooking his humorous comments. I was beginning to think that the massive creature had a dry sense of humor instead of a boring personality. "No, not really. Just to myself, like Honey said."
"Anyway," Honeysuckle addressed me. "I'm ready for your help with the... Hey, where is Gako going?"
Dawynda and I turned to see Gako flying away from us, just about to leave our view over one of the round hills. He didn't look like he was just getting exercise this time. Was he fleeing? Without Dawynda? Was it because he didn't want to hear me singing? That’s going too far! Literally.
Dawynda launched herself into the air in a panic, her right wing nearly grazing my head as she took flight. Honey and I both ducked for cover but recovered quickly as we watched both dragons leaving us. This was disconcerting.
"Fuck!" I yelled as I double checked that I still had my pistol and my sword.
"They'll come back, right?"
"I'm not sure," I answered, letting Strawberry’s earlier comment raise doubt in my mind.
"Why wouldn't they?" Honeysuckle asked. "We were all getting along so well."
"He must have spotted something to eat," I told her, reassuring us both. "But I'm worried that he might like the taste of whatever it is too much that he would want to stay."
"Dawynda wouldn't leave Cinnamon," Honey suggested, but there was a hint of doubt in her tone when she said it.
"I don't know," I told her as I started jogging after them. Honey wasn't following so I yelled back over my shoulder, "Gako says she goes phases of attachment."
I didn't want to take any more time to discuss it. It was important that I didn't lose track of these incredibly valuable creatures. That would cripple my push for power.
Dawynda was flying fast, as fast as I had ever seen her do. Except for that one time when she tried to save Coffee. The thought brought on a pain in my gut as I sprinted after her. Or maybe I was just out of shape. I hadn't been doing much running lately.
She disappeared from my view as I struggled to maintain my pace going uphill. I was nearly out of breath as I reached the top and was able to see into the deeper valley beyond. Squinting my eyes tight I blocked out the pain so I could stand tall and see what the hell was happening down there.
A single structure rested in the bottom of the bowl-shaped terrain. Much wider than a statue, but shorter, it appeared to be made from the same kind of stone. Gako was flying in a circle around it. When Dawynda reached the location, she copied his movement only on the opposite side, like they were in some kind of landing pattern waiting for an opportunity to descend. Or buzzards anticipating a death.
Two strange creatures were cowering along the near side of the low building, obviously in fear of the dragons above them. Instead of large rats, like I had expected to see, they were humanoid in shape. I strained my eyes to make sure that I wasn’t just imagining it.
One was greenish yellow and covered in fur like an animal but rested like a person squatting instead of a four-legged beast. The other had pitch-black skin and a slim build. Shockingly, there were short horns protruding from its head. Were these the people that erected the statues? They had to be. Instead of gods like I had assumed, the idols’ monster like appearances resembled these people that were about to become dragon food.
The scene had stunned me longer than it should have. As I drew my pistol and began to descend the slight slope one of them threw something into the air at Gako. He was easily able to dodge it and made like he was going to swoop down to retaliate. When the person threw another one, he was nearly struck by it, so he returned to the air. I could tell by his wing strokes that he was getting tired. Dawynda was yelling to him, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. When speaking to each other their words sounded more like roaring lions than conversation. Hopefully, she was discouraging him from taking a chance on getting hurt. They were both still recovering from their last battle.
The green one spotted me coming and grabbed the black one by the shoulder. Then they were gone. Inside the building I assumed, but I didn't see a door. In a blink, they simply disappeared.
Gako finally landed on the hillside nearby to regain his energy. He would need it for the flight back to the ship, unless he wanted to walk alongside me. Nothing I saw there told me that he was interested in parting company with us. The guy just got distracted when he saw a new entrée on the menu.
Dawynda snagged one of the huge rats that we had spotted before. She then landed beside her husband and shared the meal with him. It was against my better judgement to linger, but I knew they would need a minute before I could persuade them to go back.
I took that opportunity to examine the round stone building. It almost looked like the drain plug for a giant bathtub which was the smooth sloped valley. Just after thinking that, the structure grinded as it slowly descended into the dirt until it was nothing more than a flat rock.
I stopped abruptly as it dropped and watched in amazement. It was some kind of exit for people that lived underground. That was why we hadn't detected it before. Once flush with the surface it did not look out of the ordinary.
I couldn't help but get a closer look, despite my cautious nature. Engraved in the stone top were images remarkably similar to those depicted in the statues by our ship. We had assumed that the civilization that had raised those sculptures had died out or moved on. Apparently, they had not. They just lived below the surface instead.
"Hey guys," I called to the dragons. They were finishing up their small meal and licking their lips as they cleaned their teeth with their talons. "Let's head back to the ship before more of them come out."
"Why?" Gako asked. The field rat probably did not satisfy his hunger in the least. "They are no match for us."
"That is true," Dawynda told him. "But we have friends to protect now. It is not just about us. Come, dear. Let us go back with Kash. And no matter what you see on the way back, don't fly off without me again. I was worried about you."
"Why?" Gako responded. "I am a dragon."
They flew above me for part of the trip back to the ship. At other times they walked silently alongside me. I was too busy thinking to stir up conversation. As dragons they were used to doing what they wanted when they wanted. Dawynda herself had that habit. I remembered back when Gako got worried over her absence and went looking for her. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to chase after them again.
"I want these rats for food when we launch," Gako said. He was not typically one to begin a discussion.
"Leave Kash alone," Dawynda told him. "He is obviously angry with us for scaring him like that. He probably thought that we would change our minds about getting back on the ship."
"I would say so," Gako muttered in his slow speech. I often had to interpret what he meant since he chose to use the least number of words to get his point across.
"What he means," Dawynda explained. "Is that we would have a discussion with you before deciding to stay. But you need not worry about that. We are excited about seeing the universe that your women have described to us."
That put my mind at ease about that subject. However, these people living underground nearby were a brand-new concern. I would have to infor
m the others and arrange for a guard every time that we needed to work outside the ship. We also needed to be more careful about allowing Teddy and the dragons to roam during our stay here. We suddenly had gained the need for urgency in our repairs after all.
CHAPTER FOUR
"We'll post a guard," Strawberry said. The meeting was impromptu and just between me, her and Sage. "I'm not sure what you saw, but if there is any kind of threat, we need to post a guard while we do the outside repairs."
"I want you checked by the doctor," Sage told me.
"What?"
"I think you have inhaled too much of the air from this location and are starting to hallucinate. For the safety of the entire crew, including your friends, Vanilla should run a quick test on you. It won't take but a minute."
I shook my head and was about to disagree when I saw the doubt in Strawberry's eyes. "The dragons saw them, too!"
"They were breathing the same air," Sage replied. "Everyone should stay indoors as much as possible. No more recreational outings for your pets. Let us get these repairs done and get out of here."
"I can't believe this!"
"Kash," Strawberry touched me on the shoulder. With a professional manner she then said, "I believe that you saw something that is a concern for our safety. We'll take it seriously. I'll make sure of it. The specifics don't really matter. Let's just get our work done and be on our way. Okay?"
I thought that at least she would be more curious about these humanoids that disappeared into the ground. She had been much more intrigued by the statues when we first arrived. But in the end, she was right. It didn't matter what they looked like, or even if they were intelligent. We had a job to do. Repair the ship and take off. I could then resume my role as pilot and get us safely off this planet. After what I saw it was hard to think like that, but I had to do it. Otherwise, I could jeopardize my future.
The test that the doctor performed took less than thirty seconds. She cleared me as healthy but insisted that if I had hallucinated, it was possible that whatever caused it had since vanished from my system.
Honeysuckle scheduled just two trips outside to complete the necessary repair work. One for the forward hull outside my quarters. The other for the engine exhaust repair. Each should take two or three hours. The second one would have to wait until the next morning. Strawberry vowed to take guard duty for both stints. Surprisingly, Sage declared that she could also assist in that regard. I was previously thinking that neither her nor Vanilla would step a foot outside at this location.
The hull work was pretty basic. Seal each layer and test it. At times Honey went to assist Cinnamon or Vanilla inside, leaving me alone to perform the monotonous task of welding panels with a laser welder. The thing was computerized and didn't require all the safety equipment that I remembered from my time. Just goggles in case something went terribly wrong. The mechanic assured me that it wouldn't.
In those situations, only Strawberry was outside the ship with me, standing guard. I had reluctantly followed orders not to allow Teddy or the dragons to leave their holds. But I fully intended to give them one more chance at outdoor exercise before we launched.
We didn't have any breather masks to fit the jumbo reptiles, of course. The apparatus had become a requirement just in case Sage's absurd theory proved correct. We kept them with us but refused to wear them. She claimed that the air in this location was making us see things that simply weren’t there. That was her explanation for the strange humanoids that I had spotted in that valley. I argued that even the ship's cameras could see the statues. Her defense was that it was the statues that fed my imagination when my brain struggled with reality.
"Did you say that one of them was furry?" Strawberry asked from the ground level. She was patrolling around the ship with her rifle in one hand, her tablet in the other. A futuristic type of radar was feeding her device a live stream of any movement in the area. She claimed that it would even register activity in the gently sloped valleys.
"Yes," I replied, pulling my goggles off to answer. "Green and yellow fur. Why?"
"Did it look like any of these sculptures?"
I glanced at the couple closest as I remembered the few that I couldn't currently see. There might have been some similarities. I wasn't close enough to the live one to get a good look before it disappeared. Additionally, the person was moving.
"Not really," I replied.
"So, these could still be depictions of their gods," Strawberry surmised. "Mankind made their idols in human form mostly, did they not? Back in your time?"
"That was actually well before my time," I told her. Did she really think that I lived back in the days that Greek and Roman mythology were prevalent? "But, yes, they did. I can see your point."
"So, maybe the individual that you saw was wearing clothing instead."
I wasn't happy that Strawberry seemed to be leaning toward Sage's view of the matter. I had hoped that our alliance would improve before we launched again. My decision to not reveal Sage's plan to land again had formed a small barrier that I needed to break down. Getting angry with her just because she didn't fully believe what I claimed that I saw didn't make much sense considering my long-term plan.
"I guess that is possible," I relented. "But then we would be rationalizing that humans live here."
"They may have come through this mysterious portal that you did, just like those two other men."
I shook my head before answering. "These people have lived here a long time it appears. Those men came through the portal just weeks or months before me. The statues don't line up with that way of thinking."
Strawberry nodded. "Good point. Maybe they are from our timeline, then. There are colonies scattered across the stars that have lost all contact with our galactic civilization. They could be..."
"They could be what?" I asked before peering down to see her staring at her tablet.
"Hold up," she told me. "I'm picking up movement on the other side of the ship."
"Honeysuckle?"
"No, she wouldn't have exited the ship without notifying me. Plus, the activity did not originate from our exit between the engines."
Strawberry strode quickly around the front of the ship, holding her device in her view while she readied her weapon. I had the pistol and my sword, so I left the welding project to check it out as well. The top of the hull was as clean as I had ever seen it. Our high altitude and velocity before landing here had removed all debris and most of the grime left behind by dragon feasting.
I reached the left side of the ship about the same time that she did, but I didn't have the advantage of her radar image to know where to look. So, I made a broad sweep with my eyes. For an instance I thought I saw one of the statues move, but that would be ridiculous. A statue coming alive. Sage's claim would certainly gain merit if I claimed that.
I watched as Strawberry zeroed in on where the movement had been registered. Strangely, she went to the exact same idol that I had just thought came to life. I held my breath and readied my pistol in case it wasn't only my imagination. Methodically, she circled the sculpture from a safe distance, the barrel of her gun aimed at the base. As she neared the opposite side a giant green rat, maybe two feet long, jumped from its hiding spot and ran under the hull of the ship.
Strawberry was startled, but not enough to fire her weapon. "Shit," she muttered. "It was just a rat." That must have been what I had seen, too. "I was picking up something larger, but it must have been high up on this thing to make it seem that way."
The statue that had drawn our attention was the one that appeared to be a hermaphrodite. Both male and female. At least the protrusion between its legs looked like a penis, while the rest of it had distinct female qualities.
I waited as my new berry flavored friend studied the screen for more activity. When she declared that there was none I returned to my work. Shortly after that Honey was escorted over to rejoin me at the hull breach to finish up the repairs.
Though the t
errain and wildlife were much different, the sky was exactly the same as back in dragon land. There was no denying that we were still on the same planet. I did find it surprising that the flying lizards had never migrated to this land mass. History of animals on planet Earth was never an interest of mine, so there was no reason to feel that way. I just did. There was something too peaceful about this area.
Sage and Vanilla had already eaten dinner by the time that we returned inside. That was customary. Cinnamon was in her room studying her new position of communication specialist. By the time that the three of us cleaned up for our evening meal she had finished a lesson and was ready to dine with us.
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