The Earthians
A Webnovel by Miko Wu
Chapter 1: Mulzafar
In the pale-green and misty scenery of the Mulzafar morning, Jandi silently stood on the horizon as if waiting for something. As the loving warmth of the vigorous sun kissed her cheek for an infinitesimal moment, she suddenly leaped into the sky head held high as if she was grasping each strand of air that touched her face. A cold breeze plunged into her nostrils then spread down her spine. It felt like liquid ice slowly occupying every crevice of her body forcing her disciplined soul to shy and shiver like a shame-plant. Still, she appeared at ease as her training would ensure that she was both calm in mind and heart.
She lightly tapped the silky air with her right foot to propel herself higher; as she ascended, the wind got cold then even colder at a greater height. Majestically she flew, not like a bird but as the air itself. Her control was peerless and perfect. Only after a slight pause as she reached the zenith of her grand leap that she started to descend violently and gravity like a deprived lover pulled her further down. The warmth slowly left her cheeks and lugubriously moved towards her ears leaving a residue of static uneasiness. The air began to sicken her in the stomach as it turned gauzy and dense. Like a crashing frog, she thumped down on the solid earth. Beneath her, the icy dust quivered and flew outward as if fearing her presence. Despite the minute theatrics, it was silent on this new ground. Around her were mighty trees up against the air-strewn sky though their backs on her like cowards; around these behemoths of ancient were shrouds of vivid blue, mist, and purple morning glories that were faintly blooming towards the youthful sun. Clad in tight and black leather, Jandi was an alien dot in a scenic painting. Imagine a composition of pastel purple inkblots with gentle strokes of white and green and in its center a daunting stranger. Indeed it was a strange scene in a cosmos of serene beauty.
The contradiction that dawned on Jandi caused her to smirk, but as she was about to muse further, she heard a bristling noise. At first, she thought that it was an illusion, an after-effect of the usual battle that darkness and light engage at this time of hour, the noise that these bickering siblings make when they are at each other’s throats. However, it was not. Alas, the Earthians were approaching from the north.
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Hurriedly, she leaped slightly southeast and hid behind the bristles of a bushy branch of a giant ancient. She carefully veiled her presence and traced four shadows emerge from the bright and misty shroud. Four Caucasian men in military uniform and Kevlar vests: an aged man with a sidearm and a sheath-like perfectly-pentagonal cane; an angry-looking fellow with a sidearm and a thick short-sword, its scabbard ornate with eastern dragons; and two average men who merely held machine guns and accompanying sidearms. The first man’s face showed cracks of age and scars of experience intensified by the bright light behind him. As if each ridge and wrinkle told a story of his glories and defeats and every shadow and shade told of his prominence. Though for some reason, he also looked kind and wise or rather tired and weary, Jandi could not make the distinction.
At last,” the old one uttered with a surprisingly shrill voice most similar to that of a Eunuch's, “the time has come.”
“Indeed it has.” replied the bearer of the short-sword. “At midday, the company…”
As Jandi leaned forward to hear more of their idle chatter, a grain of a minuscule wood-skin fragment of the flaky branch detached silently downwards and cooed by gravity. This small movement was enough for the old one to notice.
“Silence! I sense another presence!” he barked.
Jandi’s heart gasped, jumped upwards, and crashed downwards like a dying toad. She felt gravity pulling every cell of every organ in her body. Her knees shivered, and her pericardium collapsed. She felt weightless and weak. She was found out.
“Search the perimeter!” shrieked the eunuch.
Jandi, through training and instinct, regained her composure and now more cautious, discreetly and slowly like a lizard, moved downwards from the tree. The two heavily armed men then dashed towards every direction as the eunuch and the swordsman stood still paying close attention to the environment.
“Stop.” the swordsman ordered, and the two minions froze.
“Hmm,” he continued, “perhaps it was simply a bird or some cretin. No human can veil his or her presence this well, especially with both of us here, General Mathus.”
“Perhaps you are right lieutenant,” the general answered, “perhaps you are right. We have no time to waste, but be alert.”
As the four men left the scene, Jandi exhaled a sigh of relief.
END OF CHAPTER 1
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