‘We will follow that path, Highness,’ Feebru stated assuredly, pointing off into the forest again. Hayden still had to allow his eyes to adjust to see it. ‘When underway you will need to concentrate.’
He knew he’d have to. If Feebru took off like he did from the dock, he’d lose him for sure or crash trying to keep up.
‘I will advance at a moderate rate, Highness.’
‘Thanks. Just ’til I get the hang of it.’
‘Hang Highness?’
‘An Earth expression. Until I get better with it.’
Feebru nodded. ‘As you have experienced much already, Highness, I expect it will not take you long to - as you say - get the hang of it.’ With that said, he spun his airpad around and as promised, accelerated moderately through the underbrush. Hayden followed behind carefully, observing the myriad life around him yet doing his best to concentrate on where his Kuhlian friend was leading him.
He was enjoying his surroundings but he was kind of angry too, not with Kel, but with the situation. If there wasn’t so dire a need to find her and get back to meet The Copernicus, he would definitely have dearly loved the opportunity to really, really explore that wondrous place.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
There was no discernible path on the ground before him until he had begun to see through the gaps in the tree ferns and giant trunks of both the standing and the fallen trees. When he concentrated on where the trunks weren’t, an almost magical path revealed itself to him so vividly that he wanted to power past Feebru but logic dictated against that because he didn’t actually know where he was going. He sidled up alongside the Kuhlian and matched his pace with ease. ‘Do you have any idea where she could have gone?’ He asked at a whisper as he followed Feebru’s lead.
‘She does not know this place,’ the Kuhlian answered quietly. ‘I know of a clearing not far from here. That is where I am taking us.’
‘Are you sure she would’ve gone there? ’ Hayden replied, his eyes still adjusting to the muted and dappled light of the forest.
Feebru seemed sure for some reason that she would’ve.
Hayden had dropped slightly back behind him, keeping a sharp eye out for any sign of his missing friend. He wanted to ask if there were any dangerous creatures where they were in the woods but refrained from doing so as he did not want to distract himself from the task at hand by adding even more worry.
‘Kel, knows how to ride one of these?’ he called a little more loudly as he followed Feebru under a rotted log covered with round fat red hanging fungus. Feebru slowed and let Hayden move alongside again.
‘I would be very surprised if she didn’t. It is something we all learn to do from a very early age.’
‘Like riding a bike?’
‘Bike - highness?’
‘Where I’m from, when we are young we learn to ride on a bike, a bicycle - like one of these but with wheels.’
‘Wheels?’
Hayden then realised just how backward Earth would seem to his new friends. He now lived in a world where presumably the only wheels on a vehicle were to be found as cogs and gears in their workings. Feebru powered forward but not too quickly as he didn’t want the inexperienced young prince to lag too far behind. There were dangers in the woods that he had not revealed to him and if he could help it, would not.
*
Noon had passed and with the suns overhead it’d made the forest a little lighter and easier to navigate and Hayden again looked at his wrist out of habit. They had to find Kel and get her back before they needed to leave Kuhl-Agev. The rendezvous with his family was so important to him but he had to find her before the suns began to set. He couldn’t just leave the girl who had saved his life more than once during their short friendship. Hayden then wondered what she meant by him being a myth to her? How could he be a myth? He was just a kid on a big and literally out of his world adventure. At that very moment it dawned on him. That’s how he had to look at it all. As an adventure. Hayden Blake from Armadale on little planet Earth had embarked on a massive adventure.
*
The shadows had grown longer as the suns moved a little further across the sky. The small flocks of graceful blue birds that had been darting through the air hunting had disappeared now and the swarms of insects they chased with them. Hayden noticed just how quiet it was with the almost constant hum of the insects and the multiple beating of bird wings gone. He was sure he knew why this had happened and it wasn’t because it was later in the day. It was because the giant trees now grew closer together and the light, though brighter only minutes earlier, was disappearing quickly making the air grow markedly colder.
‘How much longer?’ Hayden called nervously.
Feebru moved ahead and turned to say something but as he opened his mouth a bird’s squawk or something from some other unknown animal somewhere around them drowned out whatever it was he said. Stupidly, Hayden nodded back. Feebru pointed to something in the distance, made a fist then a punching action and then stepped the pace right up and was quickly making ground and heading toward the gaping hole in the base of one of the giant trunks directly ahead of them. Hayden had dropped back but Feebru hadn’t noticed. The towering trees here had trunks that were much thicker still. So thick that they measured at least one quarter again the size of the other giant trunks and seemed to join into each other or to overlap or both and they were bigger even than the tree that they had stayed in the night before.
Hayden watched as a light in front of Feebru’s airpad turned on and he disappeared into the darkness of the massive menacing archway of the huge trunk and his light with him.
Not wanting to go through alone Hayden gulped dryly then sped up. Approaching too fast, it looked nastily like a yawning dark jagged toothed, lipless mouth waiting to swallow its next victim. He imagined hearing it inhale as he neared and with some nervousness pressed the headlight symbol and the path ahead of him illuminated brightly, sending a few small creatures scuttling away in search of the dark that they had enjoyed only briefly after Feebru’s passing by. Feebru was some way ahead and obviously hadn’t realised just how far.
Hovering right in front of the gloomy entrance, Hayden was really quite unsure of whether he should venture inside or not but it was only for Kel that he did. He looked up with trepidation at the cave entrance as he passed underneath the wooden teeth that hung menacingly above and the darkness enveloped him but for the reasonably generous circle of light his airpad threw ahead.
Huge greyed rotted pieces of trunk hung haphazardly from the high ceiling and up from the floor like stalactites and stalagmites.
The muggy air was even more humid than outside due to the constant energy employed in the decomposition of the wood. It was where the headlight didn’t shine that had him worried and that disturbing inky, deep blackness was everywhere but straight ahead. Hayden’s headlight flickered and he wasn’t sure at first whether he’d blinked or whether the light was malfunctioning. He watched nervously for it again as he made his way further into the mammoth hollow. ‘Feebru?’ He called meekly, having totally lost sight of him. The lucky Kuhlian had probably reached the other side he thought, wishing he had too. It was at that thought and at that precise moment that Hayden heard a loud scraping noise coming, he calculated, roughly from his left. He moved slightly faster through the dank cavern, trying to focus ahead to where it was that Feebru had last travelled and making sure that he didn’t blink in case his headlight was on its way out. If there was something in here with him other than Feebru, he needed that light to stay on.
Sudden darkness enveloped him and for a moment he was frozen. Stupidly, he called out for Feebru then began cursing the light then himself for calling out in the darkness.
The scraping sound got louder and Hayden just knew that meant whatever made it was nearer. He couldn’t speed up as he would hit a wall or one of the many protrusions sticking up from the floor. He was too far in to turn back and even if he did he’d probably head right into whatever it w
as that created the worrisome noise. The exit far ahead revealed itself only as a slight haze that didn’t shed any light onto the terrain he had yet to navigate.
‘Feebru?’ he shouted again then almost tried to suck the words back into his mouth as he called them. Stupid! He rightly thought again. Stupid! The scraping sound had now become that of heavy dragging and was spine tinglingly close. Brought nearer no doubt by his shouts. Stupid!
Hayden brought the airpad’s already slow speed back to almost nothing. At least he thought he had. There was no way he could judge. The airpad made no sound but a slight hum that didn’t really increase with the escalation of speed as far as he could tell. There was no light to let him see passing objects and any breeze on his face was nonexistent in the humid darkness. He may as well have been stopped with his eyes closed. Suddenly, something brushed his arm and he bit his lip, hoping it was just one of the wooden stalagmites.
Then, breaking through the absolute darkness, a streak of bright light appeared not that far ahead. It was Feebru. In his urgency to find Kel he’d only just realised that Hayden had lagged a lot further behind than he’d expected and had returned as quickly as he could. Rushing toward him his airpad’s light swayed as he negotiated obstacles, giving Hayden a better look at what was ahead. ‘Move faster! Move faster!’ Feebru cried desperately.
Faster? Hayden wondered only briefly before a cold chill shot up his spine and he turned his head slowly, peered over his right shoulder only for his eyes to widen in absolute stunned terror.
The creature was silent and perfectly still.
Upside down, it gripped the cavern’s left side wall. Black slit pupils unmoving in immense yellow rimmed red eyes that stared fixatedly down at its prey.
Hayden.
The tip of its wide and enormously muscular head was at least ten metres from the end of its equally wide sharp paddle-shaped tail, its body glossy black and scaly. Each of its four muscular squat legs ended in large powerful armoured feet with toes tapering to five long matte black scythe-like claws that dug firmly into the inner sides of the tree. Hayden recognised it immediately from the carving he’d seen on the entrance wall. This one though was very real and was hunting him. He pushed forward with such force he thought he was going to lose control of his vehicle but surprisingly and skillfully he righted himself and pressed on into Feebru’s oncoming light. The sudden movement excited the beast and it leapt from the wall, hitting the uneven ground with a thunderous, echoing boom, swiping at him with its right fore-claws and turning pieces of rotted wood jutting from the floor into splinter filled explosions. Hayden sped toward Feebru’s light while, despite its size, the lumbering beast leapt onto walls and the floor on either side of him with impossible ease. Swerving awkwardly Hayden clipped a shard of wood that shot up from the floor, almost falling, and with his heart skipping a beat, ventured to turn around but wished he hadn’t. The creature opened its huge bloodstained, razor tooth edged mouth baring a thick chameleon like tongue that shot out past him, splintering a stalagmite from the floor. When the tongue almost instantaneously returned to its owner, the beast stopped its pursuit briefly to spit out the rubbish it had collected.
Too close! Hayden thought as he tried to push more speed from his airpad. It was hard. The pillars of wood jutting unevenly from the cavern floor made it impossible to keep his pace steady and despite his best efforts the thing was gaining. It wasn’t hard for it - it was at home. The light from the other airpad thankfully looked only meters in front but then there was a terrific boom, the ground shook and all went black again.
‘Feebru?!’ Hayden howled, thinking the Kuhlian had been taken but thankfully hadn’t. The monster had jumped over him and was now blocking the path to safety with its bulk. After a few seconds had passed, Hayden’s eyes readjusted to the dark and he could see that the light still shone beyond, outlining the creature.
It heaved as it slowly closed on the Earthling and he could smell its vile breath. He watched as its body tensed. It was only a tongue lash away from him when, as suddenly as it had gone out, his airpad’s headlight miraculously flickered back to life blasting the creature with a beam of bright light that briefly blinded it. It’s giant pupils disappeared to almost nothing as it reared away and Hayden took his chance. He powered between it and the cavern wall, narrowly passing through and scraping his newly mended shoulder on the beast’s midline scales. He didn’t look back until he was level with Feebru and they were heading out the other side of the trunk. The foul creature turned awkwardly and galloped toward them angrily, stopping only when it reached the relative brightness of the clearing’s edge where it closed its immense platter sized eyes in pain at the sunlight then retreated backward into the gloom with a disappointed and unearthly howl.
Despite its retreat, they sped toward a lake in the centre of the wide clearing and large odd looking bird like creatures that had been grazing on florescent green grass, spread in panic as they approached.
Feebru pulled up to the lake’s shore and stopped his airpad. He stepped from the foot-wells and Hayden did the same and noticed that his feet felt momentarily cold when he did so.
‘Don’t you ever speed off like that again!’
‘My humblest apologies, Highness. I thought you were directly behind me as I requested you be.’
Hayden looked away. He was embarrassed. Not only because he felt really stupid that he didn’t ask Feebru to repeat his instructions before they entered but also because it just wasn’t him to scold anyone, least of all an adult who was helping him, let alone a ninety five year old.
‘I do not understand,’ Feebru said with the most perplexed expression. ‘I scanned the area and no life forms were detected.’
‘Anyway,’ Hayden asked as he looked back up the slope to where they’d come from. ‘What in hell was that thing back there?’
‘That, Highness,’ Feebru said as his expression turned from quizzical to disgusted, ‘ was a Fylax.’
Hayden shook his head as he walked a few steps to the grass above the lake’s pebbled beach and slumped down, legs crossed. He was exhausted. ‘Now I get why the first-mate caved so easily. If a Cro-Ag is anything like that Fylax then - scanned?’ Hayden changed the subject, unaware that the Kuhlian had any such device.
‘With this, Highness.’ Feebru unclipped something from the dash of his airpad and presented it to Hayden. It was a small, flat, white rectangular tray with a black screen.
‘I’ve been using it to find our Devonian friend.’
‘You’re tracking her?’ Hayden asked, finding the energy to jump up to have a look at the device.
‘Her humanoid life signs are traceable.’
‘Well, is there anything showing up on it?’
‘No,’ Feebru answered sadly.
‘Well, I hope we find her as I certainly do not want to go back through that tree and have to deal with that thing again?’
Feebru’s look was solemn.
‘No!’ Hayden felt queasy at the mere thought. ‘Really? We have to?’
‘I am sorry, Highness, but it is the only way back. To find another way, if there was one, would mean that certainly we would not return in time for our departure to rendezvous with The Copernicus.’
While Hayden nodded, only half listening to the Kuhlian, he took in their idyllic location. They were alongside a small lake of the most translucent blue despite the darkening sky. Knee height green grass dotted with bright coloured wild flowers grew all around them and right up to the thick brown roots of the encircling trees. He could see what Feebru meant as the giants did fuse together at their trunks and only separated fifteen or twenty metres up, creating an almost impenetrable organic amphitheatre or - wall. The bird-like animals that they had disturbed had returned to their grazing. Long, muscular, scaly reptilian legs carried their large red and black short feathered bodies, helping to shift their considerable weight as their short thick parrot-like beaks sliced through the grass as easily as razor blades would have. Hayden wat
ched fascinated as their long necks rose to full height in order to swallow. These things survived with that Fylax about. Granted, Hayden would bet that they didn’t venture into its lair but they survived. He nervously looked about the clearing. ‘Do you have any sort of weapon?’ he asked while checking for a holster or anything remotely weapon-like on Feebru’s clothing and the airpad that he may have missed before.
‘I only have this,’ Feebru replied, taking a short stout knife out of an unnoticeable leather pouch he had clipped to his belt.
‘Why would you bring me out here with only that thing as protection?’ He gulped. ‘Sorry - but how is that going to help us if we meet that creature again?’
Feebru now looked ashamed that he’d brought Hayden, his charge, out into the wilds with nothing more than a knife for protection and a small one at that. He watched Hayden pacing up and down but then he saw him return and look into his eyes directly and calmly.
‘I need to see my family, Feebru. If that is the only way we can go back after we find Kel, then so be it.’
‘Spoken truly, Highness.’
The image of the creature’s wide, grotesque, bloodstained, tooth-filled mouth with that vile tongue hadn't left Hayden’s mind. ‘ Feebru, you don’t think that that creature?’
‘No, Highness. I detected nothing.’
‘Wait- you detected nothing?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Not even the Fylax?’
Feebru thought for a moment then tapped the device.
‘No, Highness, I did not detect anything.’
‘Well, then,’ Hayden stepped back a few paces. ‘Is it detecting me?’
Feebru looked at the little screen and his face contorted.
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 23