Just by looking the vast world of snow that spread out before her eyes, Narea felt an immeasurable sadness rose in her heart. Snow is white but this world was so dark. You couldn’t see the sky from here, even with the help of the telescope. There was nothing up there, not even the clouds. Only snow that kept falling down and the raging winds would blow them mercilessly that together they became powerful snowstorms that never stop.
Yes, these snowstorms never stop. Sholan and Tuenam had never seen they stopped, not even once in their life. Narea was supposed to be the princess, a person who belonged to this world, but this world was unfamiliar to her. Even more than the ship that she had wanted to leave few minutes ago.
Sholan arrived at the metal door, standing next to the princess. She could see the loneliness on her eyes. Didn’t know what to say to comfort her, she sighed while looking at the scenery outside the door.
“The ship already went this high up. How are we supposed to get out from here?”
Sholan could see there were trees from far away down. Those kind of trees are five times bigger than any adult man. But from this place where they were standing, those trees looked like tiny toys that children store in their personal boxes. There seemed to be no hope for three people to survive a fall from this height. If they really wanted to leave The Flying Fish, they had no choices but to stop it from continuing to fly.
That’s what Narea had proposed to Sholan and Tuenam after they had regrouped to discuss about the next step.
“There’s a final room that is placed in the farthest point on this ship. I believe it’s called The Fish’s Brain. That’s where we have to arrive if we hope to gain control this ship.” - Narea said.
“Well, but there will be a problem, won’t it?” - Tuenam stated his worry - “We’re lucky that we’ve not yet encountered any Vaporic Soldiers so far. However, in an important place like the control room, it must certainly be guarded by at least few soldiers.”
Sholan had the same prediction with her companion. Normally, she would be able to take down one or two Vaporic Soldiers if they were caught off guard. But in other situations where they could not use surprise as their advantage or the number of soldiers were more than five, then the result where three of them be shot down was very high.
After a moment of thinking, Sholan breathed out a silent sigh:
“We can not avoid fighting with Vaporic Soldiers now. Even with only two of us, we have to fight through all of them without fail. Once this ship arrives at its location and they get more soldiers, all of our comrades will meet their doom.”
“I see, fighting is the only option now.” - Tuenam scratched his head, an unpleasant expression appeared on his face.
“Once we successfully take over that place. The rest is up to you, princess.” - Sholan turned to Narea and said.
Narea nodded to confirm her part. After a silent moment to review everything, Sholan said:
“We should move now. Princess, please lead the way!”
Sholan and Tuenam both went and waited at one of the corners of the room while the princess walked to the telescope that had twice the height as hers. She reached her hand to grab the lens barrel on the telescope and hesitantly pulled it off. She then returned to where the rest was waiting and handed it to them.
“What should we do with this?” - Sholan asked.
“It’s a key. Do you see a strange gap behind you?”
Hearing what Narea said, Sholan turned around and indeed saw a square-shaped hole on the wall right next to her. But the lack of light in the room hid it from the eyes of everyone, except one.
“We really can’t do anything without you now, princess.” - Sholan swiftly smiled then proceeded to put the lens barrel from her hands into the gap.
The moment after, one part of the opposite wall splitted open from the rest, revealed a small stair leading to a new dark hallway whose position was halfway on the wall. Sholan looked up to their new passage and commented:
“It’s like they intended to hide these places from themselves.”
They gathered around the stair, Narea took the lantern from Tuenam and went first. It didn’t take long for them to reach the entrance which only six to seven steps away from the floor. But this hall was a little different from others. For one, the ceiling was too low which made even a short girl like Sholan had to slightly crouch her legs to move. Tuenam also had the hard time moving because the both sides of the hall were very close together, presented a clear trouble for a big guy like him. Despite of that, both of them followed Narea without questions, because it was all thanks her they could make this far.
“The last part will be a little uncomfortable but please bear with me until we get out of this” - Narea turned around to encourage her companions.
Sholan and Tuenam slowly realized what the princess had meant as they went deeper into the dark hallway, now was more like a cave. At one point, the path had became so small that they literally had to crawl their ways through it. Fortunately for them, just when Tuenam thought he couldn't take anymore of this, the princess found the light that was the indication for the end of this hallway.
Narea herself too was not fond of crawling in the dark, therefore she tried to climb out as quickly as possible to make space for two of her companions behind. Sholan was the smallest in the three so she could easily got out without trouble. Tuenam on other hand was almost stuck inside. There was too little space for him to move his hands or legs. Without them he could not advance forward any further.
“Hold on, Tuenam. We will help you getting out of there.”
From the outside they could see Tuenam hands reached out. Sholan grabbed one of his hands, Narea helped her with the other one. Both of them used all their strength to pull a man was almost as heavy as their weight combined out of a pitch black hole which now looked like a living creature trying to swallow its prey.
Took them a while but they finally managed to get him out. Embarrassing because he had to rely on two young girls, Tuenam could only admit:
“I’ve never thought myself to be afraid of small places, until now.”
“You tell me about that.” - Sholan said - “Let’s hope we don’t have to go back that place again.”
Three of them simultaneously looked back the way they came from and had one thought: this small hallway, or rather hole, was not meant for people to go back from this side. Just like the door that had trapped them here.
After a moment to regain their thoughts, Sholan and Tuenam looked around to see what was the kind of place they had to suffer to get in. They realized where they were standing was the lowest point inside a cylindrical room. The light inside was low, but not too dark like other rooms they had been, so it’s almost like gray. Standing from their position and looked up would see a spiral staircase that goes up along with the wall.
“Great. Another dark room, another staircase.” - Tuenam sighed and spoke out his thought.
“Don’t worry.” - Narea said and pointed her finger to a certain place on the farthest point of this room - “See that black gate? That’s the door will lead us to the Fish’s Brain.”
“So it’s finally here.” - Sholan gripped the axe in her hand tightly.
They began to climb up without saying anything more. Because the steps on the staircase were very close to each others, it was easier for them to go up. However they had to step many more steps in exchange. On the way, Sholan noticed there were more doors that were built in the wall. Apparently the black gate leads to The Fish’s Brain was not the only one here.
“These doors, what are they, princess?” - Sholan pointed to one of them and asked
“Well, they’re just normal doors that lead to likewise normal rooms.” - Narea replied - “I don’t know whose rooms they belong to however.”
Sholan slightly nodded, didn’t seem to surprise about the fact these doors just simply belong to some ordinary rooms placing on the wall. Narea on other hand just now realized something notable about Sholan: her hair and eyes are all in gray. Only in a room as gray as this one, when the color black and red of Narea and Tuenam’s hair were so standout that she realized how gray Sholan’s hair was.
Even her outfit, which seemed to be uniform of some army group, was also gray.
Narea didn’t remember anything about Sholan, but the rebel girl seems to be younger than her. She was also short but carrying a heavy axe around like nothing. Seeing Sholan from behind, Narea couldn't help but felt like there were some heavy responsibilities which had been weighted on those tiny shoulders of hers.
Before Narea noticed, they had arrived to the black gate. Sholan and Tuenam suddenly stopped, Narea now realized they were standing before the control room. Sholan took a deep breath and then handed her axe for Tuenam. The rebel girl reached her hand to the small pocket she wore on her waist, took out an unfamiliar metal object. Narea realized it was a handheld firearm, or gun. A weapon that could kill people with only one single pull of trigger needed.
The gate was not locked by the same system that being used to lock other doors. Even Sholan could tell just by looking at the mechanism on it. Before she could do anything, Narea had stepped forward to the gate. She looked briefly at its structure then turned to Sholan, said:
“This gate will need an exact map of your palm for it to open.”
“Map on my palm?”
“Yes, these things.” - Narea open up one of her hands - “These small patterns that caused by the friction ridges on your skin. Everyone has their own unique map of ridges.”
She then turned to the gate.
“I’m about to open this gate using the map on my hands. Are you two ready?”
Hearing the alert message from the princess. Both Sholan and Tuenam readied their weapons for the incoming fight. After confirming that they’re all ready, Narea putted her hand on a small smooth surface belonged to the gate. The moment Narea’s palm contacted with the surface, a beam of green light suddenly glowed. The glowing light revealed many strange symbols carved on the gate that normally people would never notice because they’re too small, just like those friction ridges on their skin.
And the moment they had been waiting finally came, the gate started to move and opened slowly. Sholan stepped behind one step to get her momentum. This was a battle to decide their survival, Sholan and Tuenam were both ready to go all out, despite whatever the cost may be waiting for them ahead.
They expected the worst, but they didn’t expect a completely silent room. When the gate had been fully opened, no sight of people inside the room was found, which confused both Sholan and Tuenam. They weren’t sure if they should charge in or not. The dead silence gave them a creep they had never experienced before. Even Narea herself was surprised because of the lack of people who would have came out the room and tried to kill them. After a long moment of waiting without any dangers appeared, Tuenam decided to move first.
“This could be a trap but honestly I can’t bear waiting anymore.” - Tuenam said as he was walking slowly into the control room, with his axe was ready to strike anytime.
Sholan herself decided to follow her companion but in a reasonable distance to assist Tuenam if he was ever in any trouble.
However, it turned out that they didn’t really need to be too cautious. Because there were no soldiers there for them to fight, no pilots controlling the ship who they had planned to threaten.
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They were all dead now. Their bodies lying motionlessly on the floor, not giving any sight of life.
“This is…” - Sholan couldn't fathom what she was seeing - “What happened here?”
There were total six bodies lying on the floor. One looked particularly standout from the others because of the black outfit it wore. Sholan knew members of Vapor Clan who wore black uniform were important people. All members of the rebels knew this fact, but no one had ever seen, or confronted with one black Vapor. Tuenam stepped close to that said body and slowly took off its mask, which was also in black.
“Well, I don’t recognize this face.” - Tuenam disappointedly said when he saw the face of the dead man - “But according to this guy’s outfit. He must be one of those rare Vaporic Generals that we have never had a chance to counter.”
Narea from behind Sholan stepped forward, she went to Tuenam’s side and took a brief look at the bodies, then moved her eyes to the devices around the room. All these buttons, switches and alarm lamps were exactly like what she had remembered in her memories, even the big screen was showing what would look like of the scenery lay outside this ship, from this height.
While their princess was busying her mind with all the things from her memories. Sholan and Tuenam checked the bodies of the dead Vaporic Soldiers one by one. There were no flesh wounds on their bodies, or at least on the most possible parts. No apparent sign of traumatic injuries or poison were found either. To Tuenam and Sholan, these people looked like they just suddenly decided to drop dead at the same time without any reason.
“Their death is very strange. This situation is very unexpected. But we have to take advantage of it or else we won’t survive this.” - Sholan stood up and said.
They both turned to the princess who was examining the mechanism on the main control panel. Narea seemed to know the function of every buttons and switches in this room, but she didn’t know how to operate them. It’s not like they only needed to push one button and the whole ship would instantly turn around or make a perfectly safe landing. Their initial plan was to capture the pilot, but the pilot probably was one of the dead men now, so they had nothing to ensure their safety.
“Is there anything you can do, princess?” - Tuenam asked - “I hate to pressure people but we’re not in a relax situation right now.”
“I can try to make it fly lower at least.” - Narea replied - “It will take a while but it is the shortest operation I can think of right now.”
“Then we all rely on you, princess.” - Sholan said and gave Narea an encouraging nod.
Narea sit on the chair that belonged to the pilot of this ship and began her operation. Meanwhile Sholan stepped closer to the control board and looked up to the big screen just above it. She could easily see the scenery outside this ship, how unfamiliar everything was because they were so high up on the air. The snow storms never looked so fearful like this before, they were like colossal beasts that waiting to unleash all of their fury into powerful forces of nature, with one purpose was to destroy everything.
Standing before such powerful storm that they had never witnessed before, Tuenam and Sholan suddenly knew the feeling of hopelessness and loneliness that they had seen once on the princess’s eyes.
When the only three people in the room stopped talking, the eerie silence filled up the atmosphere. All they could hear was the cold winds rubbing on the skin of the ship, making the most chilly sound ever. However those sounds suddenly became more bearable than what came after. At first, Sholan heard some low volume noise that sounds like insects were buzzing, then the noise would keep getting louder and louder until a moment when it officially became unbearable and people in the room started to panic.
“What’s with this sound?” - Tuenam asked while using his hands to hold his two ears - “Princess, did you push some wrong buttons?”
Narea expressed a discomfort face, not because of Tuenam’s joke but another serious problem.
“I wish I have pushed a wrong buttons to cause this. But I tried all the buttons and none of them responded anything.”
“What?”
Sholan and Tuenam wanted to ask more questions but the noisy sound now was so loud that made people felt like they head was going to explode. When your ears and brain started to hurt, you couldn't think of anything else but the thought of dying. Now even standing was very hard thing to do for Tuenam and Sholan, both of them knelt down on the floor because the volume of the buzzing sound had reached their limit.
Narea was panick but surprisingly was not affected by the noise. She looked around trying to find the source of the sound but seeing nothing unusual. Suddenly, something in her head clicked, Narea yelled:
“Who are you? What do you want?”
And the sound stopped. As sudden as it appeared.
Sholan and Tuenam could not stand up right away, the buzzing sound had damaged them somehow. Narea came close to Sholan and offered hand to help her stood up, then they both helped Tuenam. When three of them had finally calmed from the sudden event, they realized the big screen behind them now no longer showed any images. At first they thought it was also damaged from the strange sound. But after a moment, the screen turned itself on again. And this time, the scenery outside the ship was no more, instead it was an image of an silver haired humanoid creature with a freaky mask.
Tuenam widen his eyes, he turned to Sholan and Narea and looked at their reactions just to make sure they too were seeing the same thing as he was .
“What is this thing?” - Sholan asked in shock.
“I don’t have the slightest idea.” - Narea truthfully said.
And they didn’t have to wait for long before the creature in the screen started talking.
“Juena rjach ynui emsj!”
“What...what is it talking?” Tuenam confusedly asked.
“Chiloe bhjck nower tu laoap.”
None of the words coming from the creature that they could understand, with one exception was Narea. After focusing her eyes on the screen a moment, the princess suddenly said:
“What do you mean?”
Both Sholan and Tuenam were both surprised that their princess could understand the strange language but none of them said anything.
“Juene rjach vueloue khe fopideen lasend. Nower khe oyunu therig wereteking fe juene a dqed. Khe scep nower iun me cavntil” - The creature continued to talk in gibberish.
“Oh..oh no.”
The last sentence of the princess worried Sholan and Tuenam. She turned to both of them and said:
“We have to leave this ship now!”
“What? But what about controlling this ship?” - Sholan now was the one who was confused.
“They have taken over this ship, we can’t do anything now. Beside, we don’t have time.”
“But…”
At that moment, they heard a final words from the creature before it suddenly disappeared on the screen:
“Fuewell.”
After a moment of blackness, the screen returned to the normal scenery outside of the ship. But this time, something was different.
“What in the world is that…”
Even with all the winds and dust and snow storms, they just could not simply hide the presence of an enormous creature was lurking behind them. Narea hadn’t seen this monster yet, but she had the feeling that she wouldn’t want to know it because by that time it would be too late.
“We have to leave now!” - This time, the princess had almost screamed out loud.
She then rushed to the back of the room, seemed to know full well about all the corners and secrets hidden in this room.
“There is an emergency landing device in here.” - Narea said while using her two hands to open a door that was hidden inside the wall. - “Let’s use it to get out of here.”
“Seems like he have no other choices. Whatever that thing out there is, we don’t stand a chance.” - Tuenam agreeably said and then ran to the door to help the princess open it.
Only Sholan remained at her position with her shocked eyes.
“But...we can’t leave our comrades here!”
Sholan’s words reminded Tuenam that they were not the only rebels in this ship. Facing the dilemma, Tuenam turned to the princess and asked:
“If we go back to alert our comrades right now, will we be back on time?”
He could clearly see the uneasiness showed on the princess’s eyes as she said:
“No, you won’t make it. The door inside the Fish’s Heart was fully sealed. Even if it wasn’t, there is simply not enough time to do anything.”
Then she looked at Sholan and said in a sad tone:
“I’m sorry.”
“Princess, I…”
Before Sholan could say another word, the whole ship suddenly shook violently, the force from bottom was so strong that it threw all three of them onto the air. A moment later, they landed back on the floor, frightenedly. Tuenam was the first one tried to stand up, he looked around the room like trying to see something invisible crawling into the ship. Panickedly, he said:
“That thing that we saw a moment ago….I think it is here!”
Sholan and Narea could instantly knew what Tuenam was talking about. Narea got herself up, ran back to the secret door while yelling:
“Please help me!”
Tuenam followed the princess unquestionably, they quickly opened the door and spotted a strange device that didn’t look like anything they had seen before. It was an almost white square box that had one button in the middle of one of its sides. When the princess pushed said button, the box opened, revealing the structure inside. There were four seats that facing each other, a round control board at center with some more buttons and information screen on it. Narea took a brief look at the device and said:
“We don’t have much time left. Let’s get in.”
“Well, we have a problem here.”
Tuenam said and looked behind him. Sholan was still not moving since the shake. The gray haired girl looked like she had been lost in her thought, didn’t know what to do or think. Narea decided to call out her name:
“Sholan... isn’t it?”
The gray haired girl raised her head and looked at the princess.
“Well...Time for us to go now. Don’t you think?”
Sholan shook her head.
“I think I’ll stay here. You two just go without me.”
“What?” - Tuenam yelled - “Are you crazy? We can not leave you here!”
They immediately knew the reason for this bizarre decision from Sholan, it was the guilt when one had to choose to leave her friends and comrades behind, to their death.
“He’s right.” - the princess added - “Remember not so long ago when you convinced me to go with you?”
She reached her hand to Sholan.
“Just like what you have said. We need you, Sholan. Please, come with us!”
“No!”
Suddenly Sholan yelled. She then stood up and said:
“I absolutely can not leave them here. If I can’t do anything to save them. At least I have to stay here, in this ship with them! Because…”
Sholan seemed to choke on her words. But she decided to continue to say no matter how absurd it sounded:
“Because I have to do it! Because no one else is going to!”
Tuenam’s face turned red, he could not keep his patience in check anymore.
“You fool! What do you think you’re going to accomplish by dying in here?” - Tuenam said in large voice as he walked close to Sholan - “You will gain nothing, you hear me?”
To Narea’s surprise, Tuenam suddenly threw his fist at Sholan, struck her in the face. The gray haired girl instantly feel down on the floor and became unconscious. Seeing that, Narea yelled in fear:
“What...what did you just do?”
“I’m sorry if this looks too barbaric to you, princess. But this was the only way to save her life.” - Tuenam unhesitantly answered.
He then picked up Sholan and putted her on his shoulders. At that moment, the ship suddenly shook violently once again, this time even stronger than the last. They had not only been thrown on the air, but into different directions and then hitted the walls around them. It’s just like the whole ship had bounced into something with enormous size and had to stop for an instant moment.
Tuenam could feel his shoulders hurting as he struggled to stand up. He looked to Sholan lying next to him, wasn’t really sure if she was also hurt. But when he saw the princess, he could instantly confirm that one of her legs had been broken.
“Are you okay, princess?” - Tuenam ran to the position where Narea was sitting - “Can you stand?”
Narea frowned as she tried to get back up, she could feel the intense pain in her leg even with a slightest move.
“I’m sorry. My leg seems to be broken now…”
“Don’t worry.” - Tuenam said - “I’ll carry both of you.”
Tuenam then immediately showed that he was capable of doing what he had said, as he carried both Narea and Sholan on his back and shoulder to the square device. After putting them into two of the seats inside, he then said:
“Well then, the rest now is on you, princess.”
“All right. You should get in as well. We will start the device right now.”
Tuenam nodded and stepped inside the square box. Narea placed her hand on the smooth surface in the control panel. The green glowing symbols appeared all over the object just like they had done with the door that led into here. The object closed itself up, the light outside slowly disappeared, but at the same time there was a new source of light started to glow inside the object where they were sitting.
“Now, let’s get out of here.”
The moment after the princess pushed one of the buttons on the board, Tuenam suddenly felt the feeling of weightlessness all over his body, and after that, the feeling like something was sucking his boy upward. It was very strong and very intense almost like wanting to rip his whole body apart. Didn’t take too long for him to realize what this feeling was.
The feeling of people when they were falling freely in the sky.
<><><>
The fall to the ground felt like forever but in the end it had to stop.
Inside the narrow space of the box, Tuenam couldn’t feel anything beside the pain in his body. It got worse when the fall stopped because the impact with the ground, although was reduced to almost zero by the box, still affected all three people inside it. Tuenam knew that one of his ribs had been broken. Sholan and the princess now were both in unconscious state.
But Tuenam had checked, they were still alive at least.
They had made it to the ground safely. Although what would happen to the rest of the people on the ship was unknown.
Without the princess awake, Tuenam tried to get to box to open by touching random buttons on the board. Fortunately, before he could do something stupid, the box opened itself.
Tuenam let out a sigh of relief then slowly climbed out of the box.
The place where they had landed on was a vast land of snow which could also be called a white desert. There was nothing beside snow and snow. Tuenam tried to look around to find any signs of civilization but his effort didn’t yield any results.
“Wait a minute…”
But then, he saw something.
“That thing…” - Tuenam mumbled to himself - “I know that thing…”
The crystal structure which was so enormous that they could even be seen from the farthest side of this land.
The Temple of Sleeping Giants.