It was silent in this place, peaceful, with not a roar, thud, or shriek to be heard. James wondered if he were in fact dead. His body felt numb, with only the cool little tingles of gel to add to his body’s sensation. Then he realised it, James realised that his lungs were trying to breathe. He realised that his body felt heavy, as if some huge weight were suffocating him. This feeling reminded James of a dream, of a nightmare he used to have as a child. There would be shapes, lots of them in a room, all multi-coloured. Generally, the shapes would start off small, and they wouldn’t be too troublesome for toddler James to carry. But then as James was made to pick up more shapes, the shapes would get bigger, heavier, until it felt, to poor little James, that the shapes were crushing him, restricting his airways, suffocating him.
James let out a garbled moan, swishing his arms through the gunk, swimming his way upwards, until at last, his head reached the surface, popping free from the pool of goo.
All noise returned to James at this point. It were as if he had been on a battlefield, knocked out right in the middle of combat. Only now the young space warrior had awakened, watching as grenades and bombs launched and exploded right in front of his very own eyes. Machine guns fired everywhere, creating a scene of total utter devastation.
The reality of the matter was this: It was not explosions that James could hear, it was the roars and shrieks of the ganzar. It was not machine guns, but instead, the crashes and the cries of his friends, as they fought desperately to fend off the giant monster.
As James realised where he was, where he and everyone else was, a thought occurred to the young space warrior. Crystaline had fallen in, only at the time, James had assumed that the princess were dead, that she had fallen to her death in this pool. The young space warrior had thought himself, that he were about to die, and that his friends would all perish with him. Only, he was still here. Phil was still here. Zach was still here. Crystos was still here. So surely, Crystaline was still here? Unless she had been engulfed? Like poor reckless Morcees?
Instead of swimming towards his friends, James found his eyes frantically searching for the Urashan princess. They found her! There Crystaline was, climbing up one of those pillar rocks. She was nearly there, at the peak of the tall structure. James’ mouth gaped open, wondering what the princess was doing? She would be vulnerable up there? On that thin breakable rock?
As Crystaline reached the summit, she stood herself upright on the narrow structure, panting, her lungs gasping for oxygen. The princess seized the ganzar with her golden eyes, watching the creature, working out her next move. Ganzars had no ears, yet they responded to sound. Their bodies picked up the little vibrations in the air. That was how they saw effectively. The creature looked like it had two eyes, but those were not eyes, not really. They were just mere holes.
The princess watched as the creature thrashed relentlessly after her companions. Something had to be done. They, down there, they could not perish.
Without placing much thought into her next move, Crystaline yelled at the creature, watching as the creature suddenly paused, and then swivelled around to face her.
The princess’ chest was still heaving as she looked into the creature, waiting for it to spurt towards her.
The ganzar let out another deafening roar, and then it hurtled its gunky body straight for the Urashan princess. Crystaline held her ground, waiting for the ginormous creature to reach her. Just as the ganzar was practically on top of her, Crystaline made her first jump, landing on the next rock. The Urashan princess had no time to be still, for the ganzar was now chasing her, breaking up the rocks one by one, as it sailed on after her.
Crystos watched, frozen in horror as his sister fought her way across the rocks to avoid being engulfed by the deadly creature. The prince felt Phil’s and Zach’s hands pulling him, dragging him to the cliff.
“James!” Phil yelled, “We need to get to James!”
“We will!” Zach yelled back at his captain. “He’s there! Look! He’s following us! We all need to get back to the cliff! I’ll go back for him if he needs our help.”
Phil saw James, feeling his and Crystos’ body being pulled towards the cliff by Zach. James would follow, he had to.
Unfortunately for Phil, the brave young space warrior had other plans on his mind. He swam towards a pillar rock, using what remaining strength he had in his arms to pull himself up the thing. James’ body felt cold, and his clothes felt sticky, as if they were glued to his body. His hair felt wet, gunky, yet the smell was sweet, surprisingly sugary. James fought his way up the rock, not too sure what he would do once he reached its peak. All that the young space warrior knew was this: he had to do something - anything to get that creature away from Crystaline.
Meanwhile, the Urashan princess herself was still battling against the ganzar. So technically, Crystaline was not fighting the being, and instead, she was running away from it. Nevertheless, the whole ordeal felt like a battle. Crystaline fought hard to outrun the ganzar, hopping from rock to rock, as they crushed away behind her.
As Crystaline jumped over to the next pillar, she turned her head to look behind her. The ganzar was gaining on her, and in one more jump, it would be on top of her. As Crystaline dived onto the next rock, she ducked down, avoiding the pumping gooey fist of the ganzar. Just as the Urashan princess felt the rock crumbling away from her, she made another bold leap onto the next rock, just about managing to land on it, stomach down.
James had reached the summit of his rock at last, watching as the ganzar prepared to make one final lunge at the Urashan princess. Realising that he had no time to lose, James waved his hands through the air, yelling at the ganzar to gain its attention.
Like it did with Crystaline earlier, the ganzar paused, enticed to turn around by James’ yell. The young space warrior watched as the creature ravenously seized him up like he were a piece of meat that it were waiting to devour. Then the beast gave another reverberating roar, plunging itself away from Crystaline, and towards James.
“Oh shit!” James muttered to himself, realising that he may not be quite as dexterous as the Urashan princess. He may not be able to outrun this thing. Nevertheless, James realised that he only had seconds to make his move, so he ran, to the next rock, and then the one after that, wincing as he heard the ganzar gaining on him.
Crystaline dug her fingers through the brittle rock, clambering herself back up onto her feet. What was James doing? He would not stand a chance against that ganzar. Seeing for herself that the creature was gaining on James, Crystaline made a rapid sprint, dashing from rock to rock to reach the young space warrior in time.
James made another run and jump, feeling his legs burning, yearning to give up and collapse under their exhaustion. The young space warrior couldn’t afford to give up. He did not want to end up like Morcees. His legs mustered up another leap, and this time, James felt the ganzar’s swipe just skimming him by centimetres. Realising that the ganzar was way too close for comfort, James’ legs gave up on him, forcing the young space warrior to a standstill. He turned to face the creature, awaiting his death and the grimy fist which was hurtling straight towards him.
James’ lungs let out another scream, just as he felt a solid weight pushing his back, forcing him to fall over onto his rock. Crystaline was on top of him, shielding his body from the gooey fist, which thrust through the air above them.
Just as the ganzar’s fist retracted, Crystaline pulled James back up onto his feet, pointing out the nearby side cliff. Simultaneously together, James and the Urashan princess jumped straight for the cliff, with Crystaline pulling James into a small sheltered crack, just about big enough to squeeze the two of them in together. They were safe - for now. The ganzar could not reach either of them, for the rocks wedging them together provided the duo with enough protection.
James felt Crystaline’s heartbeat beating frantically against his chest, thumping in time with her heavy panting. He’d never been wedged to the Urashan princess before. He�
�d hugged her, and that had been a pretty awesome experience. But being wedged, chest to chest with her, that had just topped the hug - by lightyears!
James searched the princess’ exhausted expression, watching how her long brown hair appeared to stick to her pale moist skin. Crystaline was just as gunky as he was, and as James looked down at his own t-shirt, he realised that it was no longer grey.
“Damn it!” He panted, “my t-shirt’s turning pink!”
Crystaline slowly raised her head to look at James,
“You’re worried about the colour of your t-shirt? When all of this is going on?”
James returned Crystaline’s infectious smile.
“You’re not worried about all the gunk that’s stuck to you?”
Crystaline shook her head, unable to stifle her growing smile.
“You perplex me, James, do you realise that?”
“And you beguile me.” he whispered, right into her ear.
Crystaline tried to harden her expression, to make it more serious.
“We don’t have much time.”
“Can it reach us from in here?”
Crystaline shrugged,
“I don’t know. It’s thrashing about out there - looking for us. Once it finds us, it won’t have any trouble breaking through the rocks which shield us.”
James nodded, fervently searching Crystaline’s eyes.
“You came back for me?” He whispered. “You could have escaped. To the other cliff? Why didn’t you?”
Crystaline let out a dumbfounded gasp,
“You could have escaped, too, with the others. Why did you turn the ganzar on yourself?”
“Why did you?”
Crystaline shook her head once again, trying to shift the conversation onto more important matters.
“Look...James, if we want to get out of this alive, we need to have a plan.”
James’ expression grew more serious, his mind regaining focus on the more important matters at hand.
“Right...right...so how? What do we need to do?”
Crystaline winced as the memory of Morcees hit her.
“Did you see what happened to Morcees?”
James nodded.
“You saw that, too?”
“Yes, I had just began my climb up the rock when I saw him just...jump into the ganzar like that.”
“Is he gone?”
Crystaline nodded sullenly.
“Yes, he’s gone, and whilst his death was very unfortunate, it also taught me something. You see the green inside the ganzar? That’s electricity, electricity which just so happens to react badly to sworsha electricity, set onto its highest red voltage.”
“So what? We throw our sworshas into the ganzar to kill it?”
Crystaline shook her head.
“No. Our sworshas would not be enough to kill the ganzar. I don’t want to kill anything that we don’t have to. The red voltage might just about be strong enough to shock it, to force it to retreat back into its pool. We can’t just throw our sworshas though, we need to have more precision than that.”
“Then what?” James said, shaking his head, trying to work out a feasible solution to all of this. “We can’t just dive into it. You saw...you saw what happened to Morcees.”
“I know! I know that we can’t just dive into the creature. But we can...we can jump onto it.”
“Jump onto it? How?”
“The green crusts on its surface. They’re harmless, ever-changing, but suitable target landing points.”
James nodded. This was all starting to make sense now.
“So once we’ve landed, we set our sworshas red and we stab the ganzar?”
“In effect, yes. If we manage to hold our composure long enough, the ganzar should start to retreat. It should sink back into the pool. Then we can jump, back onto this cliff.”
James gave another nod, thinking this feasible after all.
“Alright then,” he agreed, “let’s do this.”
“Are you sure? Because this, James, it’s not without its risks.”
“I know, but we’ve got to do something.”
Crystaline grabbed one of James’ hands with her own, clutching onto him tightly.
“We do this together. We don’t let go unless we have to.”
James was stunned by Crystaline’s physical contact, by the little twinkles of pleasure that just her touch caused him. The young space warrior could barely even articulate his words, so he just nodded, promising that he would not let this stunning princess go - ever!
“Okay?” Crystaline whispered, looking into James’ eyes for reassurance that he was able to do this. The Urashan princess found her reassurance, and slowly began to slide her way out of the crack, her hand still interlocked with James’.
When they reached the cliff’s edge, both of their eyes were forced to witness the destruction caused by the ganzar. There was barely a pillar rock left in sight, and there was just no way, no way to get to that distant cliff. James did not know what this would entail. The young space warrior did not know what this would mean for the mission; the healing stone.
The ganzar was still furiously thrashing around, beating its body into the cliff at which James and Crystaline both stood. The young space warrior had no idea where the other three were. He could only hope that they had gotten away, reaching the cliff’s peak to safety.
James gave Crystaline’s hand a gentle little squeeze,
“So what now?” He asked her.
“We call it over, then we jump. Remember, James, think green, make sure you stay on the green crusts.”
James nodded, eyeing up the green landing spots all over the ganzar. Crystaline shouted for the creature to hear her, immediately gaining the attention of the dangerous animal.
“Here we go.” she whispered, giving James’ hand an encouraging squeeze.
The young space warrior watched as the ganzar darted straight towards him and Crystaline. He was hardly able to breathe as he watched the being getting closer and closer. James positioned himself ready to jump, until the creature was literally centimetres away. Then he did it. He and Crystaline did it. They both jumped, hand in hand, landing on the largest green crust of the ganzar’s body.
The purple beast roared and writhed, disliking this new sensation of people actually being on it. James fought hard to keep hold of Crystaline’s hand. It was difficult, difficult to stay balanced on this thing. And then the crust, it was shrinking! James’ hand broke away from Crystaline’s, as each of them made a lifesaving dive for new crusts.
“GET OUT YOUR SWORSHA!” James heard Crystaline yelling. The young space warrior did as he was told, mentally preparing himself to think red. He could see, Crystaline’s sworsha was already red, and James used this, he used this to summon that same strength to his very own sworsha.
As his sworsha illuminated crimson, James could hear, and feel its sheer power. It were as if the weapon were trying to escape from his grasp, just wanting to burst out all that power within it. James fought just to hold on. He could not let go of this weapon.
“NOW!” James heard Crystaline yelling to him, just as he saw Crystaline’s sworsha enter the ganzar. The young space warrior took one last, deep fighting breath, and then he did it. He plunged his weapon into the animal, feeling the sheer power reverberating its way back up his arms.
The animal convulsed, writhing in agony, as it tried to shake away the pain, and shock of the sworshas. James had to fight. He had to fight just to stay on the thing. The ganzar was sinking...this...this was working.
“GO!” Crystaline yelled to James.
“WHAT?” He called back to her, “I’M NOT LEAVING UNTIL YOU DO!!”
“JUST GO! NOW! BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! I’LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU, JUST GO, JAMES!”
James was horrified, terrified at the very prospect of leaving Crystaline on this thing. Yet the cliff, it appeared to be rising, getting further and further away from his reach. Without thinking this through any furt
her, James decided to do as he was told, removing his weapon from the animal, as he dived straight for the cliff. Quite conveniently, James had plenty of room to work with now. The ganzar had created a massive slope on the cliff’s face, which James could climb to get at least half way up the tall structure. The young space warrior placed his sworsha back in his pocket, and then he ran, expecting to see Crystaline overtaking him. When James realised that the Urashan princess had not overtaken him, he turned around, seeing the pool beneath him swirling green with deadly electricity. Then there was Crystaline, still on the creature’s back, sinking away from the cliff.
James didn’t even have to think about his next move, he just dived straight down the cliff, with his back and his buttocks skidding straight down the rocky structure to meet Crystaline in time.
The Urashan princess had successfully fought her way to the highest point of the creature’s body. She had already removed her weapon, and had placed it back in her pocket. Now all that was left to do was to jump. Crystaline made a daring leap for the cliff, only just about managing to hang onto a brittle rock, as the ganzar sank back into its sizzling pool of electricity. The Urashan princess fought with all her might to pull herself onto a safer point of the cliff, but the rock was just too brittle, and Crystaline knew, it would give way any second, sending her straight to her electrocuting death.
The rock was going...going....going, caught! James’ hand had replaced the rock. His other hand was clenched tightly around another rock, but his own grip was slipping on the thing.
“Let go!” Crystaline called to him, realising that James would perish too if he held on.
“No! I promised you, Crystaline, I’ll never let you go!” James’ arm felt weak, it would not hold, it would not hold on for seconds longer. James felt it, he felt his hand sliding free from the rock, and just as he began to fall, he felt a soft, yet firm hand replacing the sharp brittle rock. Crystos had caught him! And the Urashan prince was soon joined by Phil and Zach, as the three of them pulled James and Crystaline back up onto a safer point of the cliff.
The young space warrior was the first to be slid to safety, and almost immediately after, James had pulled Crystaline up with him. The princess landed on James’ lap, her legs straddling his. The young space warrior raised his head to the Urashan princess’, tasting her sweet breath as she panted into his lips, hers almost touching his. Her lips were beautiful, moist with lust, with desire. James’ must have looked the same, for he wanted to kiss the Urashan princess, right here, right now. She was beautiful.
Diversion To Urasha (Space Era Book 1) Page 25