Chapter 26
Growing Hope
“I’ve finished the manual, Clyde.”
“Well done,” he replied, seeming to smile, “I’m sure you’re more than happy to start the simulations and start flying.”
“Absolutely, it’s only taken two days to study that book.”
Clyde lead me back into the ship and had me sit down in the pilot’s’ seat. “Now put on your goggles, you should always fly with your goggles on anyways, they tell you all the important things you need to know and keep an eye on various cameras on the external wings and guns, see the—.”
I glared at him to keep him from rambling on and on.
“You’ll see,” he said.
“So I get to start flying now?”
“In simulation.”
I didn’t quite get it. “I don’t think the ship will fit in the simulation room, or even get there for that matter.”
“I neutralized all the controls and buttons so that they don’t actually register on the ship. The commands go through to your goggles.” He handed me a headset in addition to the goggles. “You won’t feel anything, but the sound and sight of flying will take care of that. I know how organic life forms can be when one or two perceptions are overloaded, everything else starts playing around, making it more real than it actually is. But don’t worry, if you crash you won’t feel anything in real life, I also turned off the sensation of burning replacing pain in the simulation. It’s not needed here.”
I rolled my eyes and put on the headset. “So you want me to turn it on and just start flying?”
He said yes, so I turned it on, recalling the picture of the controls in the manual and pressing the buttons that turned it on.
“Next you’ll want to make sure the engines are stabilized at optimum level and not overheating while idling, ensure safety is on, because we’re not shooting anything today and then check the runway to ensure it is clear. You can open specific camera’s view in your goggles, and you should to be safe.”
“Thanks, I remember the protocols on starting.” I said. I really did. I was all too eager to get to flying.
Everything was in check so I took the controls and took off.
In the simulation I was taking off right out of the hangar, soaring above the trees and banking around to get a whole view of the forest. I circled higher and higher until I was as high as Midnai took me.
“Just be careful to keep your altitude below a one hundred thousand feet in real life. If you do want to, just let me know, I’d have to do a few modifications on the engines and exterior to make it safe.”
“I’ve already been this high before.” I said.
“Really?” He thought it over for a second as I guess he dug out of his circuits the time I had been captured by a Murid. “I thought it was just a malfunction of the suit and wrote it off as a bug to fix.”
“It was an ambush, I was kidnapped and taken up, and I passed out on the way down.
“I should add then to my last clause, to even make it possible to get the ship, and not you specifically, out of the atmosphere safely.”
I nodded and just kept flying around and around. I took off straight for the city, burning an unimaginable and virtual amount of fuel, and in a few minutes I was just reaching the suburbs and houses to the west of the city. Another minute went by and I was over central Xenobia and a few more and I was crossing the shores of the east.
“Is there anything out this way?” I asked Clyde.
“Oh yes, lots of things.”
“Besides ocean?”
“I guess there are somethings, but the humans have decided there wasn’t much but a few large deserts and small islands that are either overgrown with vegetation or just too small to settle.”
“Is it worth checking it out?”
“No, the simulation will just keep taking you out into the ocean and over the islands. The pictures you’re seeing are really just satellite pictures blended together of a few years ago.”
“Oh well.” I turned back and zigzagged my way back to the jungle. Finally ready to land. This is what seemed to be a bit tricky, but really it wasn’t too hard. I just had to find the hangar, which was easy as it was located with a beacon on my goggles, then turn around and fly backwards into the hangar.
I didn’t have too hard of a time with that. There were plenty of cameras to see behind and to the side and top so that I didn’t hit anything. Even if it was a simulation.
“Great job.” Clyde said, seeming to be very happy that I didn’t make too many mistakes. “But there were a few things you didn’t notice, the engines were starting to overheat while you were high tailing it over the city, and you flew over a ‘no fly zone’, which is really just a tiny little spot in the center that holds most of the telecommunications and signals of the whole planet, and if you did fly over it in real life, we would have at least one federal ship attempting to either blow you up track you back to here, which would be a big mistake, nobody knows about this hangar, not even your ‘King.’ Which reminds me, I have to get this ship licensed soon, before you go out to the city.”
“That should take long?”
“It does, just a month or two. You know how they are. But bureaucratic agencies do things just a bit little bit faster if you send them some extra money.”
“I have some rings and jewelry from the Island of Dakur if you need some real gold?”
“That’s fine. I have money.”
I looked at him like I sarcastically understood why he has money.
“What? I don’t do nothing while I’m in here. I’ve had a job for the last few hundred years, working in software development and whatnot. It’s really fun watching them ohh and ahh over the simplest things I come up with.”
“So you’ll pay for the license?” I reassured.
“Yes. And now it’s time for your next lesson. There are a few of them, just carry out the missions, the first mainly include loading and unloading, then you get into secretive operations.”
“Sounds fun.” I said, and put on my goggles to see what was next.
The first few were quite simple. I had to load some crates into the ship, the virtual couriers helped, then I flew over into the city, had to find the correct docking station, comply to all legalities and then open the shipment bay and let them take those items.
I had enough fun doing this, but I didn’t think I would just be a courier while flying this ship. I got enough practice with that, after making sure I was in the legal speed limits in the city and not flying to high or too low.
The next lessons were more interesting, I had to either fly at night, detect and maneuver through radar, or, during the day, use the ship’s cloaking and radar scrambling devices. Much more fun, but it was very tricky, as you don’t always know where they are before you run into them. I had to be fast, detect being spotted and, turn on cloaking, though the software would eventually do it for me instantly. And there was the fact that if I flew to close to buildings, someone would see or hear me, even with the cloaking, though they wouldn’t know what it really was that they heard.
After a few of those missions I found that it was late afternoon and went to have a snack.
“You seem to be doing well Dawn.” Clyde said.
“I am,” I replied. “But I’d like to get done with this, though it is fun, there are still many more problems I have to solve. Such as building my army and destroying the Ancients. As you know.”
“Yes, I know,” he said. “You’ll be done soon enough.”
I finished my late afternoon lunch and went back to the ship to finish off the simulations. After, completing the last of the radar series of missions, I got onto shooting.
These were fun, there were stationary targets and moving targets that I had to use the main guns for. Then there were targets that were halfway across the city that I had to shoot without getting into trouble. Then I had to do it all again while being shot at, burning up my shield and energy, and use flares at the appropriate times.
That took up the rest of the day and Clyde said that I was pretty much finished now.
I was glad, there’s a lot to know about flying, but then actually sitting in the chair and really flying the ship, might be a bit different. It’s not just a simulation.
I went to sleep that night, happy that my training was coming to an end. The future holds untold threats.
———
“There’s a war! The war has started! Are you coming to join us?” Cedar was recruiting the small band of Dryads that were still alive in the southern jungle. “We must leave our home and join forces, a Feline is forming an army. You will be the first to join.”
A number of harried and hurt Dryads, many of which couldn’t walk or move very fast, huddled around Cedar as he held up the feather of Midnai.
One of them piped up, “I will join. I want revenge on those beasts. They destroy for no purpose, they burnt villages and broke families. We will stop them.”
“We need more than just one, there is a war, the beasts will not succumb by just the will of us two and the Feline.”
More started coming out from the dark spaces they had found between rocks and trees. More came, helping up others who might have a chance of healing soon.
“There will be more coming back at dawn.” an elderly Dryad told Cedar. “There are a few making rounds through the nearby jungle, they will come back, hopefully with more that are alive.”
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Cedar waited until dawn while the few he had stood by made their preparations and grabbed their belongings, including what could be salvaged of the weapons and armor.
———
I could hear rumbling in the distance. I ran towards it.
There were the Ancients, maundering through the smoldering ruins of the Apes’ village. Rounding up those that were alive or dead.
One was holding a cage at the end of a rope and the other was throwing them in.
Doors and walls were pushed down, or lifted up and thrown to the side, while the few Apes still living tried scurrying out of their grasps, but eventually all would be caught, the survivors left in cages and brought to Dakur. The dead, snacks for the Ancients, prolonged their stay in the the southern jungle.
I watched, cringing at every failed attempt the Apes made to escape their tragic destiny.
I wanted to do something, there was only two of them. But I know if I make a futile attack I could risk myself, the only hope there is right now.
I have to try something.
I snuck up on the Ancients, waiting for a moment when they made some noise, and I opened the cage, using Ungu to cut the bolt loose. The Apes inside didn't know what happened. I made an apelike sound and a few of them turned their heads. I guess what I was hoping for wouldn’t come, they didn't jump out, excited that one had come to rescue them. They looked at the open cage door, and for a moment I thought I saw some hope in their eyes, but it vanished before recognition, and the Ape looked down, hopeless, completely despaired.
It made me mad, how hopeless one could be. But I put myself in their position, and I saw, there was no hope.
I climbed back down from the cage, still careful the Ancients don’t find me sabotaging their dinner for the night, and sliced the rope on the way. They stopped and I tied the rope to the branch of a fallen tree, then ran off to hide.
I was just in time. They stopped and threw more Apes in the cage, but when he went to pull the cage again, it barely budged, he pulled and pulled but hadn’t realized the rope wasn’t on the cage. The Apes noticed and bounded out of the cage, nervously leaping out and running off to go hide again.
A few had run down the street from where they came, but a serpent twice the size of the whole path was slithering it's way behind the other two Ancients, unnoticed.
I couldn’t tell if the serpent could see me, but then it came my way, head rising up, tongue tasting the air. He was right in front of me.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and was pulled away.
“I told you, don’t make any advances yet. Not until you’re ready. There’s more of them than you think.”
“I can see that.” I told Ares.
“I want to show you something.”
She pulled me again and we were back in the desert garden, entering the temple and silently sitting down between the conversing hooded black figures.
“So it was a Feline who woke the Ancients. Xeres, what do you say to that?”
“If she can wake them, she can put them to sleep.”
“I hope it’s not just to sleep, I’d rather have them dead. But what can you expect from a little Feline?”
“There’s more to us than you think. Research, devotion, personal connections. There’s more than I can tell you, and for me to simply ask you to take my word while the solutions unravel would be a lot to ask for any Canine, much less yourself.”
“There better be a solution, and if it doesn’t come soon, the Canines will have to do something about it. Not just talk.”
Other voices added their thoughts. “Rather than arguing about it, we might as well aid the only solution.” Now he spoke slow and clear to make his point, “if there is a solution, Xeres?”
“There is, I do know it would be selfish of us to finish off the Ancients ourselves. We are building a small army, the best warriors of the Felines are in it.”
“Then joining forces and building an army is what we must do!” Another voice said. “I will furnish my best warriors and smartest minds to that army.”
“Add us, the Centaurs, who will lead them all into battle, the bravest and strongest of any warrior on Xenobia.”
“And the Aves, they couldn’t do much without eyes in the sky.”
“The Pisces will be on guard, as long as there is water nearby.”
“The Ursines too, as long as the Ancients are alive, we will fight for our peace, even including the winter.”
A few more added themselves to the list.
“But where will our warriors know where to go?”
“Send them to the western jungles and find the Huntress, we will have a party to bring them to refuge for collaboration.”
Ares took me outside to the beautiful oasis.
“They didn’t know I was there?” I asked her.
“Maybe, maybe not. There are a hardly visitors here, so no one usually looks.”
“It seems like the tension is growing less.”
“It is, thankfully. There is a lot happening. The commissioner of the Apes hasn’t shown his face for quite some time. Some think he will mourn for eternity, and in dark solitude.”
“I would have.”
“You don’t have to. But he might have already died, as we do when our children die.”
“You don’t have to worry,” I said, “you won’t die. I’ll make sure of that.”
“There won’t be much more of this. Though I’m afraid time is running out before the next village will be conquered. Fortunately, Dakur isn’t annihilating every last one of the species just yet.”
“I know, but it’s tragic, it’s torture, even to watch them do it.”
“Go back and build your army, as you heard, there will be plenty of help.”
I took a pear from the tree and bit it, sending me rushing back to my bed.
———
In the morning I awoke, finding myself sleeping with an exotic yellow fruit.
I have the final tests to do on my flight training, but I’ll have to find the rest of my army, I’m assuming I’ll be seeing them coming in the next few days.
Clyde greeted me when I came out into the hangar. “Good Morning Dawn,” he said, “having some exciting dreams?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I need to finish this flight training and round up my army. I have a few friends that should be more than willing to help.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of Xenos willing to help. Let’s finish your training.”
I went to the ship and got myself ready. Clyde had been doing some final checkups on the ship, making sure everything was fine for real training, not just simulations.
I put my goggles on, strapped in and waited for Clyde to let me know when we were all ready to go.
A few moments later he came to me. “The ship seems ready to go, start her up and do the routine tests.”
I did so, checked the engine temperatures, made sure the external parts moved as they should and pulled up the landing gear, hovering a few feet above the floor.
Clyde opened the large hangar doors, “Good to go.” He said, and I took the ship out of the hangar and into the jungle. “We still don’t have a license, so just stay over the jungle and we should be fine.”
Oh no, I thought. “How are we supposed to do anything?”
“I worked something out, we’ll have a temporary license, tomorrow. Don’t worry.” He said.
I rolled my eyes at the bureaucracy and flew straight. It was surprisingly easy, and the real forces of accelerating, banking, slowing, was more than I thought it would be, being pushed to the sides and forwards and backwards. I learned to keep myself still. That was something Clyde had talked about earlier. But I liked it.
I flew north and south over the jungle, weaving up and down and around and around, getting used to the feeling of actually flying. All the simulations paid off and I got used to it quite fast.
Clyde let me have my fun rolling around and soaring up and down for quite sometime before he instructed me to test out the other, as in normal routine abilities and made sure they worked properly as well. He had me turn on cloaking and fly over the hangar, then again, using anti-radar and a few more passes without anything at all.
Clyde seemed satisfied and told me to land in the hangar for now. “I don’t have many complaints, you seem to be doing very well, besides having the tendency to jerk the controls very rapidly, I was starting to get sick to my stomach, as you say, yet I don’t have one. I was surprised you weren’t too.”
“Thanks, I was just having fun, practicing for more exciting times later on.”
I landed back in the hangar and got out, heading upstairs to get some lunch.
“Before you go anywhere,” Clyde said, “the King has been in his ship, he seems to have said some interesting things.”
“I’ll just go and have lunch first.”
“Fine, and while you’re at it, the Maiden of Truth wants to bring back the suit we gave her.”
I ran upstairs and went to finish up the stew from the other day.
There was a knock at the door. It was the Maiden of Truth.
“I came to return the suit,” she said. “It seemed to work fine, nobody has any idea I was there.”
“I’m glad it worked, we heard something come in on the bugs you planted the other day.”
“We? There’s more than just you up here?”
Uh-oh, I had to think fast, she doesn’t know about Clyde. “Me and my helper,” I said. Hopefully she doesn’t ask any questions.
“Oh, very nice. So what did you hear, anything the King is doing that he isn’t supposed to?”
“We know that he’s doing things he’s not supposed to. But nothing specific, just some noises here and there.”
“Ok, well I think he’s going out today, hopefully not with any Felines. I would hate for any of us to…” she rambled on and I took the time to message Clyde quickly to see if we could shut down the King’s ship before he took off. She was still rambling on when I got his reply.
I stopped her rambling with a quick gesture. “We can shut his ship down. In case he thinks he wants to send half the village off to work for the Murids.”
“Then what do we do if the Murids come for us?”
“They’re Murids, they can’t do anything to us Felines.” I said nonchalantly. “Secondly, I’ll handle them, in case they want a confrontation.”
“Then what do I tell the King?”
“Nothing, unless you really need to, tell him the Huntress is handling it because he couldn’t handle it in the first place.”
She seemed mystified to say something like that to the King, but I went to get my bowl of hot stew and another one for her.
“Lunch?” I asked, and placed a hot bowl in front of her. She didn’t seem to notice, but started eating anyway, still trying to work some things out in her head.
I finished my bowl and sat there looking out the window, actually messaging Clyde to make sure the King’s ship didn’t take off, especially with him in it.
“I think,” the Maiden of Truth finally spoke up, “I think, it might work, keep him from going anywhere, and if he gets mad, just tell him that his authority is being overridden by the Huntress.”
“And yourself,” I added.
“You think so?” She asked, in her newly common face of confusion. “You think I can override his authority?”
“None of us can take orders from the other, but there are three of us, and the Queen falls under the King, not as a fourth. So the two of us can, and should, take action against the third, who, by his mistakes is putting the Felines into grave danger. We’ll have to stop his behavior, the only way is grounding him from leaving the village, and maybe he can take care of his real duties.” I told her.
That was one thing he can’t get around, the law binds us all. And if he won’t cooperate, he can be overthrown and another can take his place.
“I guess you’re right. We both know the law, but how can we stop him and make him reform? He’s out of control.”
“Don’t worry about that. I can handle him if he tries anything.”
“Then he has only two options, surrender to us and come to his senses or be taken off the throne.”
“It seems so, but I hope it goes well. I’ll be listening.”
She had a hopeful look in her eye, yet still based on despair. She isn’t one to be so forceful, without her prophecies. But the prophecies stopped, I was the last one of a long line, a lot of books, and the last Huntress of the legacy of Ares and Xeres.
I watched her leave, hoping she could make it happen, the minimal turbulence the betters but I have a strong feeling I’ll have to step in at some point.
I finished my stew and headed back downstairs.
There wasn’t much to do now. The ship would be getting licensed soon, I’m waiting for Cedar’s return, a few other Xeno warriors will arrive soon and I’ve completed my training.
I entered the hangar and greeted Clyde with exhaustion. “I really hope she doesn’t get hurt, the King has been acting strange. He even tried killing me.”
“You think that was intentional?” Clyde asked.
“Sending a young Huntress into the center of Xenobia to kidnap and kill the biggest gang leader of the Xenos?” Answering his question with a question. I continued, “But after a moment of thought I think that it was intentional. Probably a set up.”
“If you say so.”
I stared at him. “You have more data?”
“No, but if you think your King is out to get you… I mean, you are entitled to your own opinions you know.”
“I know that. But the way he’s been acting. It doesn’t add up. He’s not being our King if he’s trying to sell out his own people.”
“Justice will be served.” He stated wisely.
“It will.”
I headed off to the back room to get a drink and sit down, hopefully plan for the next attack of the Ancients.
There were too many liquids to choose from so I grabbed what Clyde always makes and whipped up a nice glass of water and put a few drops of this vial and a few of that, then sat down to contemplate.
I don’t think I’ve been this down in a long time, maybe never. But with all that’s going on, the only thing to do right now is wait.
I dozed off just before Ares came and guided me outside onto the path to the top of the mountain. We walked on, up to the top.
“Dawn, the Ancients are moving, fortunately not north. Which means our village will be safe. Just remember, do not attack until you are ready.”
“I know.” It was the one thing she’s said every time we’ve met since the last month. “Cedar is coming back with his army soon.”
“They’ll be here after night fall.” She said, she seemed to know more than I did. “Plus, the Equine Warrior has been chosen and is on his way, the Aves Warrior is coming as well.”
She pointed out across the jungle and into the fields. Somehow I could see the Equines in the distance, much too far to be able to see, but I saw them in my goggles, they were prancing around a fire, the chosen one seemed to be still, in front of the fire, the others gathered around further outside. Their leader waved his hands and whispered enchantments and spells to keep his warriors strong, (not safe as the Equines are never in such danger they can’t manage) to ensure his warrior came back and to renew and enhance the gift of the Equine which kept them safe, I mean strong, over the millennia.
“They seem to be ready,” Ares said and pointed again, this time into the sky.
Further across the lands, there was a flock of Aves, one in the front, and six on each side, while one more flew between them. There was another ritual, unknown to those who live off of the ground, but the sensation it brought me gave me shivers, they were coming.
The advent of our battle crept up on me now, and I knew we would fight, the war is just one battle, and the fear which was held at bay for so long came back to Xenobia, this time with a hope. The hope grew within me.