Ten large stoneware mugs slosh and spill their bubbly contents onto the worn intertwining branch floor as the girl carries them to the soldiers. Shia slams down the two fist-fulls of mugs onto the living wood table. Rough rog hands greedily grab for the ale, clearing the table in seconds. Many of the enormous soldiers drinking down the entire contents of the huge mugs as the felac server stands by waiting for her money.
"More." Growl an extremely ugly pocked face soldier as the thirsty man slam down their empty glasses. A few of the big men throw crysteel coins onto the table which Shia quickly gathers up.
The frazzled girl walks back to the bar to get ten more mugs of ale. At least they are making some money for the tribe. The girl thinks as she stows the crysteel coins in the money basket behind the bar.
Most of the federal citizens prefer either ale or wine to mead and thus all businesses within the federation must keep an ample stock of both. One reason they do this is so federal corporations that produce ale and wine have steady customers. But the felacs are such excellent brewers of mead, ale, and wine, that they do not need to buy the spirits. They are able to make it from the numerous plants and yeast growing in the rainforest. Thus the felacs that still live in the rainforest are able to make money from the thirsty federation travelers, soldiers, and businessmen which are becoming more and more frequent visitors throughout Memnonia.
The girl looks over at the felacs, gathered on the other side of the room, while she waits for the bartender to pour the ale. Only male felacs remain in the tavern, except for the four female barmaids. The rest of the females decided to retreat to the upper branches with the children when the soldiers arrived.
The forest men sit huddled together at a few large tables far enough away from the rogs so they can talk in low voices without being heard, while still keeping an eye on the soldiers.
"Why would they come here?" Asks Serrek of his fellow felacs.
"Maybe they wanna fight, so they can arrest a few of us!" Replies Jeva bitterly.
"Yeah, and then they can get big bonuses and promotions." Ryke, a feisty young warrior adds.
Serrek gives his friend Jeva and then all the other men a hard look that all the felacs know the old warrior can back up with his chee prowess. "We are not going to start a fight. As your chief, I forbid any of you from starting a fight tonight." All the men agree, although some agree reluctantly. All the chee warriors then go back to quietly sipping their mead.
Only Slade takes any notice of the conversation taking place amongst the Felacs. He listens to the conversation by amplifying the their voices via his black synthocrystal earpieces. He is happy to hear that they do not intend to start a fight. At least that means if a fight does break out, the felacs cannot be charged as criminals for starting a fight with a federation officer. He files the video and voice recordings of the felacs conversation in his armors memory and then informs the colonel of the felac’s conversation. Nocte is openly disappointed. Slade knows full well what's going on in his commanding officer's mind, if he can get a felac to start a fight he can make an arrest. A definite bonus for a harvesting mission.
"It never hurts to take a few criminals back with you from an away mission." Slade recalls the colonel's words from a few years ago and is disgusted by the look of obvious disappointment on his commanders face. All that Nocte cares about is how he can further his career and thus make more money and control more power. Slade thinks to himself as he once again sees just how corrupt and evil his commanding officer really is. Ever since the rog captain has known Nocte he has wanted it all, just like the Equus. As Slade looks at the colonel he wonders if the greedy, power hungry man could ever change.
How many men are you going to be content on killing before you achieve your personal goals, you bastard. The disgusted captain thinks as he empties his glass of ale.
"Can I get you another one?" The sexy female voice asks, surprising Slade as he stares at his empty mug. For the first time the preoccupied rog officer looks up at the felac barmaid, and he is shocked by what he sees. Thea!
Piercing his soul like a laser the young woman's beauty ignites emotions suppressed in the middle aged rog soldier for many years. From the top of her wild mane of hair, through the striped tanned muscles of her lean body, to the beautiful tips of her perfect little toes Slade can see the forests spirit flowing through the pretty girl. The deep rich diversity of the rainforest is especially apparent in the girl's emerald eyes, speckled with flecks of brown they seem to be out of place indoors. He has not seen such beauty since he was a young soldier.
"Well?" The girls perfect mouth asks him.
"Huh?" Dumbfounded man responds.
"More ale?" Shia asks again, perturbed but use to the attention of rog men. Ever since the soldiers started coming to the tribes lands the felacs have been forced to wear tunics. The forest people think the tunics are cumbersome, but most federation citizens see them as skimpy. Shia has had to tolerate the leers from rog men since she began to develop as a woman.
Slade smiles at the young girl and replies, "Please." In a very deep soft voice.
Shia is shocked by the rog officer’s response, but she is even more shocked by her reaction as she flushes and strange feelings course through her veins. The teenage felac quickly turns away and goes over to the bar. Once again Shia stands at the bar waiting for more ale.
What in Ultor was That? The flushed, and flustered female thinks as the bartender hands her more mugs of ale. She quickly glances over at the large rog, and is very startled to find him looking back at her. Their eyes lock and Shia is trapped by the confident man’s steely gaze. Once again Slade smiles at the pretty girl.
"Here you go Shia." The bartender’s words bring the girl back to reality. She grabs the mugs of ale and rushes back to the soldiers table.
"Here are your drinks." The forest girl says shyly as she places the ale in front of the soldier. Shia then puts the other drinks down and the soldiers greedily grab for them.
A large strong hand holds down Shia’s small hand as she tries to retract it. Instincts ignite in the girls blood as she feels trapped. She is surprised to see that the man who has her is not the large handsome officer. It is a very ugly rog who has obviously had too much ale. Shia’s first instinct is to fight, but her grandfather has always said that patience prevails. "The true warrior gets to know his opponent first. He gains a feel for his foes strengths and weaknesses. It is only through true knowledge of his opponent that he will be able to use chee to turn his foe against himself." The chee rhetoric of her sole guardian, Jeva Sundance, is tattooed on the girl's psyche.
The small forest girl looks into the rog’s eyes, the way her grandfather would have, reading the man in ways that he cannot read himself. Her gaze hard and piercing, she watches with satisfaction as the soldier gets a little nervous. The seasoned soldier knows that women are not chee warriors, yet he is still put off by her strong stance, she can see it in his eyes. The small girl's confidence grows.
"Move that little tail faster wench, we can get the drinks from the bar quicker ourselves." The ugly man growls hostilely as he holds Shia’s slender wrist in his strong grip.
The young, rash teen has had all she is willing to take from these men. She quickly and deftly slips out of the rog’s grip, her hand going to the secret pocket in her tunic containing her weapon. But before she can draw it, a hand is on hers. Shia spins around, her heart pounding, ready to fight, only to be confronted by her grandfather.
"No my dear." The wise old warrior says with a look.
The old man then looks at the offending rog soldier and says. "Perhaps you men should just go up to the bar for your drinks from now on. If you can’t treat the barmaids with respect than you shall not be allowed to use their services." With that Shia and her grandfather turn and go to one of the felac’s table’s.
Craz, a middle-aged felac, looks at Shia as she sits down near her grandfather. "It looked to me like you was gonna wup up on that rog soldier Shia." Craz says as the young men around him break into muffled laughter. The thought of a female felac fighting a federation soldier brings some of the warriors to tears. The laughter relieves some of the tension the felacs were feeling.
Shia sits near her grandfather. She does not feel like working any more tonight. She watches satisfied as the soldiers start going up to the bar to get their own drinks. The girl feels like a drink herself.
"Can I get anyone a refill while I’m up?" Shia asks the man as she gets up to get herself a mead. Two men reply.
"Three meads." The girl tells the bartender. As Shia stands and waits for her mead, a somewhat handsome young Rog walks up to the bar and asks for an ale. Shia avoids looking at the man, but she can feel his stare, like a heat ray, all over her body . Retrieving her mugs of mead she heads back to the table. All of a sudden a hand grips her shoulder and restrains her.
"So you can get drinks for them but not for us?" A deep, slurred voice says as Shia spins around and faces the young brash soldier. The top of the small girl’s head only comes up to the large man’s chest. The soldier has a big, confident grin on his now not-so-handsome face, and without being provoked the hateful man spits in the three mugs of mead.
A fiery tide of hatred suddenly surges up in the small forest girl. Shia loathes the man before her and the federation for which he stands. Embers of a hot hard hatred buried deep inside of her for as long as she can remember begin to burn anew. Shia’s vision blurs as the inflamed rage wells up threatening to consume her. She fumes as she relives in her mind all the injustice done to her and her people by the federation.
"Momma... Daddy.... " The little orphaned flitten inside of Shia screams.
Suddenly and without warning Shia focuses her rage into her fist striking the large man right in his smug face. The large soldiers head whips back on his thick neck, and in what seems like an eternity to the girl he falls to the floor. By the time the three hundred fifty pound soldier hits the ground the entire tavern is looking at the forest girl. Both rogs and felacs are completely surprised by the felac girl’s action. A deafening silence falls over the bar as the rog soldier lays motionless on the ground.
It does not take long before a few of the more inebriated federation soldiers take offense to the girl’s action. Nocte sees his chance, and before Slade can do or say anything, Nocte thinks the command in the soldiers earpieces: "Arrest her."
The federal soldiers hear the words they have been waiting for. The trained fighters now have a lawful reason to do what they do best, kick ass.
Shia sees the large well armed and armored men get up and she instantly reads their intentions in their body language. Her hand instinctively goes to her concealed pocket, but she hesitates. She has never drawn her weapon in real combat. Despite her hesitation Shia has been trained well, and she does not hesitate for too long. The scared girl draws her laser whip from the secret pocket inside her tunic. Bringing the shiny black cylinder back Shia ignite the long flowing red and green laser whip.
The rog soldiers close in on the girl as she begins to move. The inexperienced chee warrior spins the whip around over her head very quickly, thus creating an effective forceshield surrounding her entire body.
Magic bursts of intense energy shoot from the soldier's black gloves and visors, pouncing off of Shia’s flowing forcefield as she dances around the tall men, randomly striking out at them when she gets a chance.
Slade watches the felac warrior in awe, he has never seen such a command of the chee. She’s making short work of my well trained men. The captain of the soldiers thinks amused, and fascinated, as he watches the felac girl's beautiful flowing movements. "Her command of both body and weapon is phenomenal." He mutters to himself as he watches the forest female use every muscle in her body while leaping from a chair to a table to the bar and then back to the floor.
The soldiers fill the room with bight red and green incapacitating magic energy beams. Like the felac's laser whip the federal troops are using non-lethal magic since they do not have the authority to kill a federation citizen unless they are given the order.
Shia practically bounces off the walls as she defensively and offensively dominates the rogs. The small agile forest girl uses her whip to lasso, trip, and stun the well trained soldiers.
Jeva Sundance can't believe what his granddaughter is doing. He trained her better than that, or at least he thought he did. Standing next to Jeva Chief Serrek is also surprised, but for different reasons. As soon as he realizes the training this girl must have gone through he looks at his old friend standing next to him. "How could you Jeva?" Is all the old chief can say.
Eventually the male felacs, starting with the youngest, join in the fight. Stunned and appalled by the girl’s actions at first, the forest men are not willing to be left out while a girl has all the fun. It takes the male felacs awhile to comprehend what is happening, and whether they should be fighting the soldiers or the offending female who has stolen their sacred martial art meant for men only. But , despite all of that, She's not bad! Is the most common thought among the men as they step into the fray, in which the small lone forest girl is holding her own against the squadron of super soldiers.
The dark sea rhythmically laps against the bare feet of the unconscious figure. Bent over the strange chubby boy Wingsong prays to his god. "Thank you Papa. I knew you would provide for us in our time of need. These are desperate times, the landscape and climate are changing, and with them the shape of life on Aryn is evolving... quickly! I was not sure if you in your infinite patience, and wisdom would have provided for all of the acts of your impatient children. But here he is, a gift from Aryn, like all creatures, born in the shadows of death. Thank you Papa Aryn for providing me a new purpose."
Looking down at the unconscious boy as he finishes his prayer the old owlwin realizes that the wet naked boy may be cold. He extracts a tunic that Shia once left at the swamp after she went skinny dipping in the sea one day. That night she returned to the tribes tree naked. Like most felacs she has neither modesty nor shame when it comes to nudity.
Laying the tunic down by the chubby pink boy Wingsong then pets his head. While running his left hand over the boy’s stubble, he plays a healing spell on his amulet with his right hand. Red, blue, and yellow rays of energy burst from the old wizard's talisman focusing on the boy’s forehead, slowly changing to orange, yellow, green and blue rays. When the boy begins to stir and the owlwin backs away.
Papa teaches observation and patience. Wingsong in his wise ways decides to observe the boy for a while before he openly acts. It is sometimes better to let one come by their knowledge naturally. The wise old man thinks as he sits on a branch near the boy and watches.
The teen’s body stirs, drifting in and out of cognizance. Slowly, very slowly Tyc struggles with his consciousness; the fight is hard but once his mind starts working, his fear motivates him to push on. Thick almost impenetrable clouds of pain hold him back as he attempts to open his eyes, then he suddenly recalls being helped by someone, and his eyes fly open.
Tyc manages to scream meekly, his voice barley making any noise. The excruciating feeling of searing white hot sand in his eyes, and agonizing spasms grip every fiber of the boy's body and being. His eyes shut, the tortured teen grabs his head as everything swoons and writhes in agony, his psyche teetering on the edge of the darkness of unconsciousness. Fighting with all his might to stay awake, he once again utilizes his fear of death to push him beyond the limits of his weak little body.
The pain lessens as Tyc lies on the ground and grasps his head trying to hold on for dear life. His eyes do not hurt nearly as much after he closes them and they hurt even less when he touches them, so he starts to slowly rub his painful eyes.
He cautiously cracks his eyes open as he rubs them. Opening, and rubbing, opening, and rubbing. It seems to work: he is able to tell that it is dark, and he can make out that he is outside. He feels the hard wet ground under his naked body and turns so he can look down.
Taking his hands away from his eyes to help himself turn over, he is suddenly faced with the difficulty of the task which causes the boy tremendous pain throughout his entire body. Once he is on his stomach he can see that he is on some rocks. He tilts his head up, which quickly gives him piercing neck pain, and he sees rock cliffs stretching up in front of him. The teen turns back over with much suffering and a few groans and looks up at the sky.
Wow! That’s really big, and bright!" The boy thinks groggily. Tyc turns his head a little, and is so dumbfounded by what he sees that he forgets about his pain for a few seconds.
"What the hell is that!" The startled boy sits up and stares at the small circle of light in the sky. "What is that?" The boy squeaks. He hears the way his voice cracks and his attention is momentarily drawn away from the strange light in the sky. "Hello... my name’s Tyc... what the hell is going on." The boy squeaks like a prepubescent adolescent, as he reaches up to his throat. His throat feels strange. He then looks down at his naked body, as his eyes adjust to the light of the moon... moons!?
"I’m huge!" The boy squeaks through his shocked numbness, as he brings his hand down to his stomach and squeezes the flap around his waist. Tyc then feels back up to his head which doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as it did.
"Where the hell is my hair." The boy’s voice cracks as he rubs his stubbled head. A great fear starts to build in the boy as he tries to comprehend what is happening.
"Mooooooom! Daaaaaaaaaaad!" He shouts hoarsely into the darkness, but no answer comes. The frightened boy looks around at his peculiar surroundings as a strong feeling of foreboding crawls through his consciousness.
"I remember something was happening in town, and I was really scared." Tyc thinks to himself as he tries to recollect what happened to him and why he is here. "And then me and Josh went up to cat rock..... No it wasn’t Josh it was...." "Hilly!?" The teen squeaks as the hazy fragments of the past days events flow in and out of his consciousness.
"I do remember someone helping me up out of the....." The boy looks around at a loss, he has no idea where he was to be helped up out of. He looks down at his chubby wet body. "I guess I fell in the water." The boy says as he realizes he is quite wet. "But who the hell helped me out of the water," He looks from his body back to the rocky forested landscape, as a breeze blows over his wet naked body. Sitting up and shivering Tyc pulls his knees up to his chest as he looks around at a complete loss.
"And where the hell are my clothes!?" The boy manages to shout a little more loudly before his voice cracks and falters. Fear. Cold, pure, overwhelming fear grips the boy's mind and threatens to pull him down into its deep pit of despair. The fierce and severe fear of the unknown strangles the boy as he sits shivering, searching for anything.
Strange, startling, sights and sounds surround the lone teen as he scans all around. Animal instincts suddenly kick in and the boy’s brain relinquishes it’s control of his spirit to his feral physicality. The boy’s mammalian evolution has left his body with two choices in any stressful situation, and considering the small chubby boy has nothing to fight, he chooses flight.
With a surge of adrenaline Tyc jumps to his feet and says with a small quivering voice. "I need to get the hell out of here and find some damn people."
But as soon as he gets up an enormous head rush blinds him, he sees sparks, and specks of light and dark all around as he tries to keep his balance, and fails. Slipping on the slick rock Tyc tumbles into the water.
Bursting out of the water the boy receives a shock as the sea breeze hits his wet naked skin. An internal chemical explosion blasts the boys body with more adrenaline which rushes through him like raw, forking energy. The teen is unaware of the head rush, which subsides before he gets over the shock and adrenaline rush.
Wide, wild brown eye’s survey his surroundings, as an excited nervous energy pulses through Tyc's body. "Where in the hell am I!" The bewildered boy shouts as he crawls out of the water and hunches down on all fours to examines his surroundings. Tyc is suddenly aware of a saltiness as he looks at the body of salt water he just crawled out of.
Blazing the boy sees everything very clearly for the first time as he looks around at the landscape, his eye’s adjusting to the night sky’s faint light. The body of water is surrounded by cliffs on three and a half sides with the sea channeled through the other half . Tyc can see the silhouettes of the large rocks which make up the cliffs all around him. He can see crystals growing faintly all around him and quickly realizes that he must be near where he and Hilly were sitting.
But something about one of the cliff faces isn't quite right. For one it towers above the other cliffs. It is by far the strangest rock formation the boy has ever seen. Keeping his eyes focused on the rocks until he can see them more clearly. The rocks seem to form giant columns which flare more and more towards the tops, and he keeps seeing stars which seem to be moving through cracks in the tops.
"Stars shouldn't move like that..." and it is at that moment that Tyc's eyes fully adjust and he suddenly realizes what he is actually looking at.
"My god they're giant trees!" The shocked boy exclaims.
"They must be over two hundred feet in circumference!" Tyc squeaks as he stares at the base of the closest tree.
Tyc slowly looks up the tree’s tremendous trunk, and as he tilts his head back farther and farther he is blown away by the plant’s reach into the sky.
"It’s over a thousand feet high!" The little tike thinks as he stands, openmouthed, staring straight up into the air at the largest living creature he has ever seen.
"What in the hell is this place ?" He reiterates as he looks around, now once again unsure of his location. Tyc then looks up at the large moon again. It has already moved, much to quickly for the moon to move in such a short time. He then looks over at the smaller light which has not moved. "Those aren't moons! What the hell are those?" The completely confused boy wonders aloud.
A breeze blows off the sea and hits the teens naked wet skin. Tyc shivers as he looks down at his naked body. "I need to get some clothes if I’m going to find people." The cold boy thinks, his adrenaline souring in his system as his senses return to him. Tyc takes a step and his food gets entangled in a dark, previously unseen object.
"Shit!" The boy manages to think as he trips and hits the water with a splash. The fall sends pains through Tyc’s entire body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" The teenage boy screams quickly emerging from the salty water, shocked and pissed that he's fallen in again.
The teen spot’s the item which tripped him and grabs it from the rock as he gets out of the water again. The frustrated and pain ridden teen brings the offending object back so he can throw it, when he feels it's texture and wonders what it is.
Tyc examines the soft subtle object and realizes it is leather. He holds it out in front of him, and sees it is some kind of large leather dress-like shirt, with a head hole and two arm holes.
Instantly becoming alert the teen uses the leather to cover his privates as he scans his surroundings realizing this means someone was helping him and they are most likely still close by.
"Hello!" Tyc yells as loud as his weak voice allows him. He waits but there is no response.
"Well at least something is going right". Tyc says as he slips the tunic over his head.
Dazed and confused the teen looks toward the forest. All around him large, exotic sounds of the jungle's nightlife pierce the boy’s psyche with twinges of fear, motivating him to press on. Frightened and discombobulated Tyc looks towards the huge strange forest. As enticing as such a forest should be to the nature lover, under these nightmarish circumstances it seems very foreboding. He is aware that any forest can be very dangerous at night, especially when you don't know where you're going.
So he carefully analyzes the cliffs as best he can in the dim night light. The cliffs to the right as he faces the water appear less steep and foreboding, so he heads off in that direction. Skirting the edge of the forest and water he stumbles over several small rocks before he gets to large boulders at the bottom of the cliffs.
Tyc looks up and down the rocky face and he thinks he sees an easy way up the side. There’s lots of vegetation to help support him as he climbs up. And so he climbs.
The large full moon provides plenty of light as it shines down from almost directly above the boy. Damn that thing is moving fast! The boy thinks, Or slow! He begins the long arduous climb up the rocks.
Although the way he chose to go isn’t very steep, it does take quiet a bit of skill and muscle. Quite use to climbing the rocks around Greenfield since he was a old enough to climb Tyc becomes very frustrated when he realizes how weak he is.
"I don’t know about this." He manages to grunt as the pain and exhaustion quickly threaten to overtake him.
The rocks tear at the boy’s tender pink flesh as his heart pumps in his chest painfully. Tyc’s head pounds, pulsing in waves of pure agony, and his lungs burn like a thousand knives of fire with every breath. Tyc is forced to stop several times during the climb and rest for fear of passing out from the exhaustion and pain, yet he pushes on.
An hour later and a couple hundred feet higher the exhausted, bleeding teen emerges over the edge of the hill onto the shrubby plateau. Tyc lies on the rocks, his lungs bursting, his head pounding, every muscle in his body aching, some even twitching uncontrollably. He can feel the blood pulse through every vein. His forearms throb, his calves throb, even his lips and chin are throbbing. The boy is so exhausted he can’t even think. Looking up at the sky Tyc sees the smaller un-star-like, un-moon-like speck. He focuses on the speck trying to figure out what the hell it is. He looks around for the moon and sees it is almost about to set behind the shrubs on the horizon.
Are they moving in opposite directions. Tyc thinks befuddled as he looks back to the small light.
"That looks like a small moon!" The boy squeaks.
"What in the f**k is going goddamn on and where in the shit’n hell am I!?" The boy yells at the sky, as he sits up staring at the odd objects in the sky. "Is that some find of airship?" Tyc wonders as he sits fretting, as frightened as a child of the dark, his imagination trying to comprehend what’s going on.
This just doesn't make any damn sense. He thinks as he begins to work himself into an ineffectual state.
Tyc closes his eyes and slowly takes a few deep breaths as he tries to think through his situation.
Sharp tortuous blows threaten to pulverize the boys consciousness from within. He tries to think, sort out his predicament and come up with a plan of action. But he can't think because of the throbbing in his head which seemed to get worse when he stopped moving. He can't take anymore and decides to get up and look around from this new vantage point. As he gets up sparks of light pop in front of his eyes and he almost passes out. He steadies himself and looks around.
The cliffs drop off on one side and slowly slope down on the other side. Scattered knee-high to waist-high shrubs cover the exposed cliff face. A rhythmic sound suddenly separates from the agonizing pulsing in his head. That's the sea, but what sea and where on Earth is there a forest like that!?
He looks in the opposite direction of the lapping sounds towards the other sea of tall trees which dominate the landscape as far as he can see. The boy is shocked by how much low level light is coming from all around him. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue ,and violet crystals seem to be growing everywhere. In the water, along the rocks, and especially in the forest colorful combinations of crystals emanate a little light from every niche. But what really surprises Tyc is that even after the flickering sparks clear from his vision he still sees lots and lots of twinkling and flickering lights floating above the bushes and amongst the tall trees.
Since he stood up his head has felt a little better. But all his muscles protest in pain as he attempts to move. He decides to keep going in the same direction he was going, following along the coast line. That way still seems to be the best: only shrubs as far as he can see, no trees, no seas. A large dark thunder head fills a large section of the sky up ahead. "I better keep my eye on that." The boy says to himself.
The going is slow as he is careful to not walk over the cliffs, while he tries to avoid the annoying little shrubs below. At one point he comes to the edge of the cliffs and is taken aback by the beautiful sight of the large moon hanging over the enormous body of water stretched out before him.
"It must be the Atlantic," the boy says as he looks around, "but how in the hell did I get here." Tyc gets even closer to the edge and looks over. The moonlight reflects off the white froth of the surf below as it crashes against the rocky cliffs. He continues walking parallel to the shore side cliffs. There are not as many shrubs close to the edge, and the ones that are there are stunted from the constant torment of the strong sea winds.
Stopping so he won't trip on one of the twisted bushes Tyc looks up at the large storm cloud. It has not changed shape since the last time he looked at it, but it is a lot bigger, now taking up half the sky. Maybe it’s a mountain. The boy thinks, hoping he won't have to deal with a storm as he continues walking towards the large dark mass. Strange shape for a mountain.
After awhile it is obvious that the ground is gradually slopping downward. Thirty minutes after Tyc starts walking he gets sickeningly dizzy and has to stop. All of a sudden he feels overwhelmingly nauseous, and is brought to his knees by crippling dry heaves. Eyes watering, he shrieks at the ground.
After the dry heaves subside, Tyc sits back on his feet, bent underneath him, and rests for a few minutes. The cool sea breeze soothes his tear stained face. He wants so badly to just break down and cry, but he won’t. The strong-willed teen stands back up and presses on.
