“They want to come with me!” Lark exclaimed defensively, as she clutched a pile of branches to her chest. I rolled my eyes.
“And yer just going to carry them for how long?”
“Oh until I get enough.” The jungle had thinned out, and trees were steadily becoming sparse. Ahead a mountainous region filled the horizon. The foothills swelled around us, as we began pressing upwards.
“Anatos? Metudo?” I heard a voice come from behind us. Surprised I hadn't sensed his presence, I turned. Despite the torn clothing, dirt covering a pale face, and the spiked blond hair, I recognized him immediately.
“Leukos?” He grinned up at me, one of our two cousins. I thought we were the only ones left. In a second he was standing next to me.
“I can't believe I found you guys. I mean, really. With all the shit that's going down.” I felt my hair standing on end, just with him next to me and took a step back. “Oh.” He thought for a moment. “Yeah that, sorry I'm not used to the new me.”
“What happened?”
“Some guy. Now I can't seem to stay still anymore. I mean, I have so much energy.” He was literally vibrating. “And the static cling gets annoying, I still can't get my shirt to stay on correctly.” I touched his mind for a second.
“Electricity?” I asked, half to myself, half to him.
“Sounds about right. But it's so cool. Watch this.” With that he was gone. I turned my head looking for him, and finally caught sight of a person high up the mountain; they were waving. Then in another instant he was next to me again. “Pretty cool, yeah?”
“I guess.”
“Also cool to see Anatos up and moving again. It's been forever since I've seen him so healthy.”
“True. Then again he got some sort of water power.”
“Well. I've been staying with this one guy. He's pretty neat. He's just up the mountain a bit.” Leukos moved ahead and waved us over.
Night was falling by the time we reached a cave. Strangely there were lights on as we went in.
“Leukos?” A short, thick built man wandered out. “You brought friends?” He said incredulously. “I didn't think anyone was still alive. I mean, the math said there was only a five percent chance anyone survived this mess.”
“Guys, this is Tech. He let me hole up here until this whole mess was over with.”
“Yes, the Solarus are making quite a mess of things.”
“Wait, you know the Solarus?” I asked.
“Yep, my predecessor left files on just about everything they knew about Avarus, his minions, and his toys. I haven't gone too deep into them. I've been far more curious about Leukos here. Did you know his body structure could be considered fluid?”
“Wait... What?” Anatos asked.
“God you sound old. Speak English.” Jato said.
“Impossible.” Tech declared proudly; opening a panel on his arm. “Huh. That is interesting, none of you are giving off any normal readings.”
“Yeah that's probably because none of us are normal.”
“Ooh, do tell.” As he spoke he started hooking equipment up to Anatos.
“Well, we each had a run in with some older folks. I got mental powers, Anatos got water, Jato got some sort of balance or something, and Lark got apparently plants.”
“Wait, Jato? Lark?” Leukos said, leaning over a counter. “You guys don't look like I remember you.”
“Yeah, we were gonna try and explain it to you, but well.” Jato shrugged towards Tech.
“Ah. Well if you guys are still kicking I'm sure Antigon is too.”
With these two Metudo's group is just about filled out. I was planning on having Tech and Leukos appear separately, but when i started writing it, the whole thing just came together. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI finished Borderlands today. I can see now why it got so much acclaim, since it's kinda a fusion of World of Warcraft meets Team Fortress meets Diablo 2; spiced with a well told story and ridiculous characters.
Other than that I learned that what I thought was going to be a six day vacation is actually a four day vacation, which basically means I get one extra day off.
Oh well, I'll still try and get the blog as a whole looking a bit better. I was thinking of adding links at the top and bottom of each chapter to the previous and the next. I dunno if I could keep up with that kind of maintenance though.
Leave comments, criticisms, point out typos. (Seriously, someone mentioned there was a typo in one of these chapters but didn't say which one. It's been driving me nuts.)