by Mikael Aizen
* * * * *
"It's Real," Taimu gasped, clutching at his chest. He was laying in a couch. Janice was standing in a kitchen in her purple jumpsuit. She was cooking.
She flipped something inside her pan and grabbed a plate. She put the plate down on the coffee table in front of Taimu. Something meaty was smoking on it. "Welcome back," she said.
"It's Real, it's really Real!" he said.
"You're repeating yourself." She waved at the plate. "Are you gone mad like the others?" She asked it in a way that was absolutely serious.
"No no. No," Taimu said. "I saw it. It's Real like you said. The True world."
She looked at him. "You could walk again, couldn't you?"
Taimu lifted his eyes, he couldn't help it as a giant grin spread across his lips. "Yes. I could walk and I could jump. I could move in a way...better than I had even as a child. How?" he asked.
"Your mind made you paralyzed, even if you never had to be. Are you going to eat?" Janice laughed. She leaned forward and hugged him. "I'm happy for you."
Taimu tried to move a leg, or just a toe. Nothing happened. It wasn't his mind. It was the reality. He looked at the meat. It had a touch of pink, cut into strips with circular striations like the strips were cross sections of muscle. "What is it?" Taimu asked, reaching out for the two-pronged fork by the plate.
"Koala," she answered.
Taimu withdrew.
"What? Real people have to eat Real food. Koala is Real."
"They aren't Koalas," Taimu said. "They're monkeys."
She nodded, sitting besides him. "So we've been told. But they taste like Koala." She leaned forward. "Is it true? Is it paradise?"
Taimu nodded. "Yes. It's indescribable, it's incredible, it's...impossible." He looked at his arms which seemed so frail. "I felt like a god."
"So you understand now why we fight for the Real," she said.
Taimu nodded. He did. All he wanted was to return to that place.
She nodded. "You're lucky, and special. You aren't supposed to survive entering the center. You are more Real than anyone else in the League. Maybe that's why you can't move your legs. Even close to the center of the universe, we aren't far enough away from your reality."
"What happened after I left? I saw them attacking."
"They attacked, but when you passed through the portal, they retreated."
"So what are they, exactly?"
She forked a piece of Koala and shoved it into her mouth. She leaned back to chew. Taimu finally grabbed a piece between his fingers. He lifted his head and put it in his mouth. It was delicious. It had a smokey flavor that spilled between his teeth, each bite like a ripe fruit of meat. "Oh my god," Taimu groaned.
"It's good?"
"Yes," Taimu answered, shoving another piece in his mouth, savoring it.
"The Koalas are aliens. We only know that since we started searching for the Real, they showed up. Like us, they take different forms between realities, but unlike us, they have access to the True world through the portal. They do not want us to enter."
Taimu nodded. "That makes sense. We're the invaders, taking over their world."
She shook her head. "Our ancestors lived in the True world, these Koalas drove them out. I believe that it is our destiny to win back our land."
"Why can't we co-exist with them?"
"You can try convincing them, if you'd like," she smiled, glowing in a way that was growing on him. He felt his heart thump. He considered kissing her.
"Finally, we have you," Janice said. "With you, we will be able to find another Real person, someone as Real or even more Real than you are. We only need one other, and from there we can begin a race. An Adam, and an Eve," she said.
"Begin a race," Taimu repeated doubtfully.
"Yes. And after we find her, we can send you both through. In time with protection and survival, you will be able to start a new generation of Real people in the True world."
"Why couldn't it just be you?" Taimu said.
Janice's glowed dimmed. "Because I cannot, I am not as Real as you are and I would probably die if I tried."
"So what happens to the League after I and whoever it is goes into the True world?"
Janice sobered her expression. "Our role was to find you and protect you. As our predecessors' roles were to find us. We who are not as Real as you are meant only to pursue the quest, finding things more and more Real. You are eternal, we are not."
"There is no way for you to come with me. To see the True world?"
She shook her head. She touched his arm. "Not me," she emphasized. "This is our destiny. I am fulfilled enough to have found you."
Taimu did not say anything for a moment. He took another bite of Koala and remembered how it felt to stand, and to walk, and to run. He hadn't tried flying. He totally should have. "When do we start?"
Her eyes danced. "Anytime you wish."