Atticus’ head was about to burst with all the memories careening into it. He watched on with curiosity at the exchange between Luanna and the strange metallic man whom Mars had called SYMBYTHU—yes, he remembered Mars as soon as he saw his face; images of Mars arriving just in time with his soldiers from Earth during the great battle with the Izcir riveted him to his core.

But there was something else…an emptiness he felt and couldn’t explain. Luanna must have seen the look on his face or a change in his demeanor, for she looked at him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

And then the memories of Emelyse came to him. The love they had, the life they shared…the tragically brief time they shared together, all came back to him. He felt a tear fall down his cheek but didn’t bother to wipe it away. The painful remembrance of Emelyse sacrificing herself to kill the bastard Tzr seared through him, tying his stomach into knots, and making him fall to the ground weeping. Adding to his pain was the memory of Phoenix that hit him like a brick wall in the midst of his Emelyse memories. That wonderful little child to whom he devoted his life and what she had become on Proxima Borealis…where was she now?

He couldn’t handle reliving the loss of Emelyse again. He felt himself trying to change into his Hamrammir wolf but couldn’t. He wanted to rampage through a forest like he did the first time he lost her, but he was in space—or so SYMBYTHU said.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Who is he anyways? What was all the jargon he was saying?

He would worry about that later. For now, he couldn’t do anything besides writhe on the floor in emotional pain.

And Luanna refused to leave his side.

----------------------------------------

Zavyr opened his eyes and yelled a resounding, “Noooooo!” He needed to know what came before Zenzig Zare, why they colonized Earth, and what happened on Mars. Was Mars truly the home planet of humanity? What about the other species of humanity? Did the Martians also bring them from Mars or were they already on Earth, evolving completely separately from the humans of Mars? He didn’t see any other people outside of his ancestor’s tribe, but they could have just never had contact with other species of human—a theory that didn’t seem plausible. Zavyr’s questions were boundless.

He leapt out of bed and paced back and forth trying to remember every single thing he just experienced. He noticed his pounding headache had ceased…along with a change inside of him; a change at his cellular level which he couldn’t explain to himself. Sweat dripped from his brow from the energy he exerted as he began investigating the change. Zavyr found his body beginning to shake—but it didn’t seem to be his body. It was the room around him that seemingly began shaking. He looked at his right arm, as he felt a strange tingling feeling there, and saw long metallic hairs growing from it and his arm changing shape.

He stopped everything he was doing. He didn’t want to explore these peculiarities anymore. His arm returned to its normal shape and appearance, and he went to go sit down on his bed again.

Then the door to his room slid open and a strange creature stood there staring at him.