The men entered the hut and laid Will down on a bed made of fur. The hut was small but was decorated by different types of vines and flowers crawling up and along the walls. In the middle of the room was some kind of a table made of the same bamboo-like sticks that made up the walls. Sitting at that table was a young girl, perhaps only nineteen. Her hair was reddish brown and her skin caramel-colored like the others. Her eyes glowed red like a new sun, with hints of gray. At first sight, Will was speechless; the thoughts of where they were no longer crossed his mind as this angel stared at him. His mind raced... was she real? He longed to hear her say something.
“Hi,” Will said stupidly as he stared into her eyes. She smiled and blushed but didn’t speak.
The girl looked at him with a hidden fire in her eyes and a secret truth in her smile, the corner of her mouth slightly raised. An adorable dimple was showing in her cheek where she fought to hide her revealing grin. Her face hinted that she knew something, that she was hiding something, but what?
“Ehtan tult.” The voice pulled Will’s longing eyes from her face and dragged him back to reality. The man had spoken to the girl, who immediately stood up and left the tent.
“Where’s she going?” Will asked, obviously irritated.
“I don’t know” Tripp answered, “but I would hold on if I were you.” His face was grave.
“What?” Will looked down and the large man who carried him in was grabbing his leg.
The man squeezed and then pulled with one hand at his ankle and the other at his knee, popping the bone back together. Will’s screams could be heard by everyone in the village for a moment until, once again, he passed out.
8 Aydehm
Tripp walked into the hut where Will lay silently, his leg surrounded by more bamboo to keep the bone in place. He had awoken several times over the past few days since the resetting of his bone, though only momentarily. The sun was shining through the holes in the ceiling and landed on Will’s face, but a slight breeze made the sun bearable.
Over the past three days, Will had peered through the holes in his hut to see the world around. The trees had red clayish bark and were surrounded by bamboo. Every once in a while, Will would spot a blue stone amongst the pebbles. It was lapis lazuli, a stone found in what was once Afghanistan. He recalled that the strange rock came only from meteorites as far as Earth’s scientists could tell.
The strangest thing was the insects. The first one Will saw as it crawled across his good leg looked like a spider with a tail. They didn’t seem aggressive, but their appearance was disturbing. For the most part, the world looked the same as Earth. Only minor differences so far, as Will had seen from the holes in the hut.
Sitting at the table was the same girl from before. She sat there staring at Will’s face, not even acknowledging Tripp’s presence.
“Good morning,” Tripp said.
“Ehrs pakrav jar a ul e Tripp,” she replied with a smile, finally recognizing him.
“Ehrs pakrav jar a ul e ja,” Tripp responded accordingly.
Over the past few days, Tripp had dedicated himself to learning the Algaer language and the areas surrounding the village. As far as he could tell, the people that resided here appeared simple, and did not confess to knowing much. It was not that they did not know necessarily, but rather they didn’t say.
“Has he eaten?” Tripp asked. “Txuhmee?” he repeated.
“Cha,” she replied, happy to hear him speak the Algaer tongue.
“Good, grahven,” he replied.
“Tripp?” Will moaned.
Tripp turned quickly, ready to help his friend.
“Ya Will, I’m here, do you need anything?”
“Water please.”
“Shubeh.” Tripp said to the girl, who immediately got up and ran out.
“Aww, why’d you have to send her away?” Will said with half a smile, his eyes slightly open.
Tripp smiled back and chuckled, “do you want water or not?”
“I just wanted you to leave.” Will laughed and Tripp joined in.
“Shubeh.” The girl was back and had half of a gourd filled with water. She ran toward Will with the water, as Tripp shifted his body to look, stretching his leg out. Her eyes were on Will and, for a moment, he saw her and the joy it brought her to see him. But the poor girl didn’t see Tripp’s leg move and she tripped, pouring the water out all over Will, then landed half on top of him.
Will and Tripp immediately erupted into raucous laughter – not at the girl, but at the scene – but when they saw her face they realized it wasn’t funny to her at all. She got up slowly, tears already rolling down her cheeks and her lips trembling. Her beautiful brown hair was all disheveled and she had an adorable pouting face; the kind where you don’t think to yourself, “poor girl,” but rather, “how cute.” She obviously didn’t know the difference, because when Will smiled at her, her face became red and her eyes glared at Will for laughing.
“Hey, it’s fine. It’s really not a big deal,” Will said empathetically to the girl.
She immediately turned and sprinted out of the hut.
“See what you did!” Will said to Tripp, half laughing.
“I didn’t do that on purpose. I would never,” Tripp said, upset by the accusation.
“Oh I’m so sure. Hey, do we have any crutches in here? I want out of this godforsaken hut.”
“Right over here.”
Upon leaving the hut, Will realized the actual size of the village; it was about a square mile total. One quarter of it was beyond the tree line, but still connected to the village via paths. In the middle was a large hut where a good portion of the villagers were sitting and talking. The trees surrounded the majority of the village except a large opening that faced the beach. Will looked up at the sky. It reminded him of Earth, when he was young. Except that now there were two moons in the sky and the sun was larger and redder.
“Where are we?” Will asked, staring at the sky. He was limping down the path to the center of the village.
“I don’t know, only you would know. Did we even take off correctly? Did you accidentally enter in a different code?”
“I don’t remember what happened… except that when we left, the earth looked like it was exploding.”
“What!?”
“I could see a fire that covered at least a fourth of the planet right before I passed out. After that, nothing.”
“Nothing?”
Will shrugged and shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Will, the emergency separation of the ship could only have been done manually.”
“What?”
“You were the one that separated the ship. You had to have done it,” Tripp said.
“I… I don’t remember that,” Will said, impatiently trying to remember. “Did everyone survive?”
Tripp looked away for a moment, bothered by the truth of the answer.
“No.”
“Who…”
“Only four of us made it in the second compartment.”
The gravity of the news hit Will. Five people died.
“Myself, Lo Su, Fernando Castillo and Awad Ahmed woke up immediately after the crash,” Tripp said. Will realized that the names of the only others on the ship were foreign to him. “Your compartment landed half submerged in the water along the beach, whereas our half landed in the jungle, not five miles from the village. Our landings honestly weren’t as bad as they could have been had you not saved us all before landing.”
“I… how?”
“When entering the atmosphere, the ship was designed to use burners all the way down to about 200 feet above the surface of the planet; but once again, that all had to be done manually. The trees from this forest are incredibly strong and managed to penetrate the hull of our compartment. The other five were crushed…”
That last statement hit hard.
“How did you all find me?”
“The Algaer heard your compartment land near the Sahk-Behk. We did
our best to explain to the villagers that we needed their help getting to your side of the ship, but eventually we practically dragged them there. The Sahk-Behk had you for a couple hours before we got there. I only recently found out what they were planning to do with you. From what I understand, they’re a cannibal tribe.”
Will recalled the bones he saw when attempting to escape from their camp.
“You! What did you do!?” A man who was obviously not from the tribe walked toward Will, pointing at his face. “This whole project is ruined because of you!”
“Awad, I told you, he saved our lives. If it wasn’t for him you wouldn’t be here!” Tripp had raised his voice at Awad, shocking Will.
“I do not care what you have to say. I want to know what happened. What did you do?”
Will stood there, not knowing how to reply. Was it really all his fault they crashed? Quickly he looked to Tripp, stumbling over his words.
“He doesn’t remember anything,” Tripp said.
“What do you mean, ‘doesn’t remember?’ Were you not the one flying?” He redirected his questions back to Will.
“Yes… but I…”
“So you were the one who flew us straight onto this God forsaken planet?”
“I don’t know what…”
“I knew right from the start you were a mistake, my friend. We never should have let you join our crew. If it wasn’t for that stupid Marin and his ideas, hiring a bum for Christ’s sakes…”
Will’s eyes locked onto Awad. An all-too-familiar fight response welled up inside him. Without hesitation, Will felt his hand pull back and ball into a fist. Awad’s mouth stopped and his eyes widened. The blow landed at Awad’s nose. The strike could be heard throughout the village and started a commotion among passerby’s. A large circle formed around the now furious Will, a bewildered Tripp and a bleeding Awad. Fernando and Lo Su ran over quickly, trying to find out what the commotion was about.
Awad put his hand to his face, trying to assess the damage. His fingers came back with blood. “Further proof you were a mistake. You are nothing but a waste of time! People are dead because of you!” Awad stood up, and left the circle.
Will just stood there, fighting the flame that had grown inside of him, controlling the drive to not fight Awad.
A large Algaer walked to the middle of the circle, pounded his chest and began to yell to the crowd gathered around. None of it sounded familiar to Will, but Tripp was gathering as much as he could.
“What’s he saying?” Will asked.
“I only understood ‘beware evil can come this, called in night.’ I’m having a real difficult time with this language.”
“Well, what does all that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
The man in the middle finished his speech and left the circle. The crowd began to disperse. The only ones left were Lo Su and Fernando, who shortly after walked up to Tripp.
“What just happened?” began Lo Su.
“Nothing,” Tripp declared before Will could answer.
“Nothing? That didn’t look like ‘nothing.’”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tripp replied again, “I don’t believe you all have met. Will, this is Lo Su, Lo Su this is Will; and Will, this is Fernando. Fernando, Will. Lo Su is our astrologist. He is supposed to help us chart the stars like a map between here and Earth so we can get back. Fernando is our geologist. He should be able to tell us what is what down here.”
“Nice to meet you,” began Lo Su.
“Yes, nice to meet to you,” added Fernando.
Will nodded in affirmation. He knew first impressions were important and he had blown it on this one.
“What was the chief saying just now?” Fernando asked.
“From what I understand, he was warning that what Will and Awad had just done may bring evil in the night.”
All Will could think was, Well, there goes another first impression.
“Like a superstition?”
“I don’t know, he seemed rather serious. He even told some of the men to keep their swords on them throughout the night.”
Awad lay in his tent, furious at Will for delivering the blow. He stared at the entrance of the tent, waiting for anyone to come see him. No one came. Eventually he drifted off to sleep.
9 The Man in the Forest
Awad’s eyes opened quickly and adrenaline surged through his body; what woke him up? He continued to stare at the entrance as beads of sweat rolled down his face. A gentle hand gracefully tapped his shoulder. Awad turned sharply, fist in the air. What sat behind him was a sight Awad could not and would not ever forget.
Its hand slowly retracted. He saw its skin was a light glowing green and its shape that of a beautiful woman. Her body was half covered in some form of scales. Her eyes were a dark shade of orange, and they pierced his very soul.
“What are you doing here?” she asked quietly and playfully. It was obvious who had the upper hand in this situation.
“I… uh..” Awad fumbled out.
“What… are you… doing here?” she asked more forcefully.
“We… we crashed at the beach.”
Her hand rose slowly and stroked the side of his face so softly that he wondered if it was real.
“Where are you from? You’re different.”
Awad gulped, “I’m from Earth, a planet far from here.”
The creature chuckled and grabbed his hair. “Who is the man who struck you?”
Awad’s nostrils flared. He didn’t want to talk about it, but he felt he had no choice. The power of the creature in front of him was so great, he could never deny her anything.
“His name is Will,” Awad pushed out.
“Will.” Her eyebrows furled and now her nostrils flared.
“Who are you?” Awad asked.
“I am a Mudalillah. My name is Daleh, and I am here to warn you.”
“Warn me of what?”
Her eyes squinted and she spoke without opening her jaw.
“Will.”
One might assume that being on a foreign planet with life on it would confound the explorers who found it. But as humans, we learn to persevere and continue as if life hasn’t changed at all. It’s a type of coping mechanism to deal with things that exceed the imagination; just pretend nothing has changed. This is exactly what Will did. It’s not as if he wasn’t intelligent enough to comprehend the whole ordeal, he just chose not to. Pre-constructed behaviors would win at the end of the day, and the scenery would be the only new variable.
Tripp and the other three were busy studying the new surroundings through their particular fields of science, but Will had nothing to do. He had done his job, contrary to popular belief, so he had nothing left to do.
The rest of the day after the fight was rather mundane for Will, being that he didn’t understand a word of the language. He attempted to learn as much as he could, but found it to be exhausting and futile. He wasn‘t like Tripp. What he really wanted to do was see that girl from his tent, but it seemed as if she was avoiding him ever since her little mishap. He didn’t even know her name. All he knew was that her eyes took his breath away. He had to find out more about her, and the key to that was Tripp.
“Hey Tripp, what are you doing?” Will asked.
Tripp was sitting down, staring at a piece of paper trying to figure something out.
“I’ve been given a map and some written works to help better understand the language of the Algaer.”
“That sounds great. Hey! do you remember that girl who was in the tent? The one you tripped?”
“I didn’t… Ugh, yes.”
“Do you know her name?”
Tripp stopped working on the papers in front of him and directed his attention toward Will.
“Why?” he asked with a funny expression.
“I was just wondering,” Will said, trying to appear indifferent.
“Her name is Rya, but Will, I would be careful talking to her. I’m not sure why, but –
socially – she seems to be treated… different.” Tripp stated with the utmost sincerity.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m great with the ladies.” Will smiled and began to jog away.
“I’m serious, Will!”
“Okay.”
Unfortunately, as hard as Will looked, he couldn’t find Rya. So he was forced to go back to his tent.
A tent. Will laughed at the thought of his new quarters. Just a week ago, most would have assumed he was homeless, which he was. The best part of his day was pick-pocketing random passers-by and new people, fresh off the shuttles. It had become a thing of practice for people to wear the belongings on their front upon arrival to the moon. Too many robberies and lost wallets had brought the issue to the public’s eye.
Will hadn’t always lived among the squalor though; he was once in the lower class. Once again he laughed at his undesirable situation. His mother had provided to the best of her ability; working two jobs, moving to the moon to find work. His heart pounded at the thought of his mother.
She had died during his fourth year in the air force. It was the final factor in his decision to get out of the service. He regretted everything: not calling her, not visiting. But that’s who he was, he told himself. The man on the run, in more ways than one.
His first day out among the villagers proved to be quite a busy day, as light went away Will reflected on all that had happened.
As the sun set, Will was about five feet from his tent when he saw a light coming from the forest. It was a bright white light, glowing between the limbs of the trees. Will looked around and saw that no one was around to verify what he was seeing.
The light moved quickly, then stopped a little closer to where he was. The night was pitch black. There were no moons to help Will see what was coming, only the fire from the middle of the camp revealed the tree line.
Once again, the light moved toward him. It was about 100 yards away and glowed like a star.
Will couldn’t just enter his tent and pretend he hadn’t seen the light. He had to go find out what it was. The first step was the hardest and the loudest, as he had forgotten he was wearing a cast.
The Crooked Staff (The Chronicles of Will Book 1) Page 4