I quickly go to Brandon, having no choice, but to step on some of the book-sized insects. “Hey, you okay!?” I yell, as I approach him, “Yeah, I’m fine” he responds.
Brandon’s shirt was torn in several places revealing his chiseled abs and pecs. It also revealed a large number of gashes and scars that had been healed in the past.
Brandon gets up, “Hold on, I’ll get your sister out of the ground,” Brandon says a quote I never thought I’d ever hear.
The ball that Athena was in was quickly brought up above the ground. The ball then unwrapped and reverted into its seed to reveal Athena still sleeping on a bed of leaves.
She was sleeping soundly; I wonder if sleeping underground is comfortable… probably not. I dismiss my intrusive thoughts.
I go to pick up Athena, but I'm stopped by Brandon.
“What is it?” I ask
“Hold on, we got a bit of a walk back, so I know the perfect thing we can use,” Brandon says, with a goofy-looking smile.
Brandon pulls out a seed from another pouch as if he’s a kid opening presents on Christmas. Brandon then flicked the seed into the air. However, the seed started to float, and slowly grow in strange directions and bending in forms that shouldn’t be possible for a tree. At the same time, Brandon started straining his muscles, while making weird hand gestures. It appeared as if he was trying to bend the wood into a specific shape, but he was struggling at it.
As Brandon continued the more distinct the object he had been making was becoming. It had 2 large reinforced wheels, a front seat, and a back seat that could hold multiple people, but had no split indicating such a thing, and a wood mesh that was covering the top of the object from the back of the object. Brandon had finished his project by putting a bunch of leaves for the seats.
The final product consisted of a vehicle that seemed to be nearly identical to the Flintstones car.
After having completed his invention, Brandon starts breathing heavily, “How was that?” Brandon says, between breaths.
“Why did you make this?” I ask
“You know the Flintstones?” he asks
“Yeah, why?”
“I love the flintstones,” Brandon says, with battered breath.
“Understandable.”
“Does it even work?”
“Eh? Of course, it works,” Brandon says in an Italian accent and stretches his back with a huff.
Brandon picks up Athena from her leaf bed puts her in the backseat of the Flintstones vehicle, and gets in the driver's seat.
“Alright, get in,” Brandon says with a confident smile in the goofy-looking Flintstones-esque car.
I get on the other side of the car and notice that there were peddles.
Hold on, is this just a glorified bicycle?
“Alright prepare your seatbelts,” Brandon twirls his fingers, making roots manifest to hold Athena and me in place. “And Let's go,” Brandon says with enthusiasm.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
I don’t know what I was expecting from a Flintstones car but this thing was fast- really fast. The car felt as if it was going up to speeds of around 150 mph. Even though the roots were holding me in place firmer than any seat belt would. I still felt as if I needed to hold onto something.
I grip onto my roots as we sped off through the desert. Suddenly I’ve come to realize the great importance traffic laws had on us in our previous world; to keep us safe from people like Brandon “WILL YOU SLOW DOWN!” I screech for my life “WHY!?” Brandon tries to speak over the wind “IF WE WERE BACK HOME YOU’D HAVE THE ENTIRE MILITARY ON YOUR ASS FOR THE AMOUNT O-” I catch myself after we hit a bump on the road, putting us in the air for more than 5 seconds, which was 5 seconds too long for my liking. “WOOO, THAT WAS AWESOME!” the man shouts with gleeful laughter.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
I’ve never been carsick before, but there's a first time for everything I think to myself as I hold onto dear life to my safety roots.
Brandon starts to speed up.
Oh lord
“HOLD ON TIGHT, I SAW SOMETHING NICE!” Brandon yells with childlike excitement. In contrast, I was crying like a child.
Ahead of us, I saw what seemed like a hill. However, to Brandon, I imagine he saw something more like a ramp.
We continued approaching the hill, which only intensified my fears.
By the time we had reached hill, I had realized that I Sadly, had been correct.
“Oh no- YOU CRAZY SON OF A BITCH!”
Me and Brandon scream for vastly different reasons as we hit the ramp. Oh god I looked to the side of me and we were in the air, we were high up, very high up, uncomfortably high up.
Am I going to die?
Time began to slow All I could do was sit there as I watched the car slowly approach the ground.
I brace as hard as I can noticing we’ve been in the air for a whole minute. Despite, being in the air for a whole minute I was not getting any more comfortable with my airborne position.
The world returned to normal speeds only when the car began to violently shake. The shaking had me screaming as if I were in a crashing airplane. While Brandon was screaming as if he was on a rollercoaster.
When the car started to stabilize Brandon slowed down to a leisurely speed. “ah, that was fun,” Brandon said with a satisfied smile. I looked at my hand, the car was no longer shaking, but I was.
I take a deep breath as I pull my hair back. I will never get in a vehicle with Brandon again, I firmly decide.
“How was that did you have some fun?” Brandon asks with a fatherly grin “I thought I was going to die” I respond with a flat face which Brandon laughs “Yeah, when you live in this world long enough you’ll get enough of those experiences”
Yeah, I feel like I've had several already. I sigh checking back on Athena to see if she is fine, which she was.
I sighed once again and leaned back in my chair, as we continued to travel across the desert.
After a while of a leisurely drive, my nerves had calmed down a bit, so I just let my mind wander. The first thing I think about was the fight that had occurred between Brandon and the Flies just minutes prior.
If I had been as strong as Brandon, Athena would have been able to sleep without worry, If I had been as strong as Brandon, Athena wouldn’t have had to cover for my sorry ass so many times- to the point of passing out.
I wanted to get as strong as him.
No, I wanted to be stronger.
“Brandon?”
“Yeah?” he asks, keeping his eyes on his open desert plain.
“Can you tell me how to get as strong as you?” I ask
He answers slowly “Why do you want to be strong?” he asks as if it wasn’t obvious already.
I look at him; Brandon tries to keep his eyes on the road before, he glances at me for a second. He looks back at the road and sighs in defeat “Ask Andre, he’s the strongest among us”
“Okay… Thanks,” I accept without my typical bitching.
If he can make me not so useless, I’ll do anything.
“Gael, you know there is more than one form of strength,” Brandon says
Is he talking about some sort of inner strength bullshit? That’s not the problem! The problem is that I'm fucking useless! I’m stuck in a world where diplomacy is some dinosaur's bitch! Vague shit like finding myself, or coming to terms with myself isn’t going to do shit!
I need to change.