This is a story I have been thinking about for a long time. It has been changed and revised so many times that my head reels every time I look at the first one. It has been a long time in the works and I am hoping I finally have something good that is worth people's time in reading.
Without any further a do, here it is... The Third Earth.
The rope began to hurt my hand.
That was the only thing I didn’t blame Orin for.
I released my death grip on the rope. My body was plummeting toward earth, but all I could do was pick out the sights that reminded me of him. Mount Otium, the only mountain to be both a school and a training facility for the newly Verum (the protectors of our world and the soldiers fighting in the war). Orin and I had spent our entire childhood there. Including The Year of Silence.
It brought an acidic taste into my mouth. That too had been the fault of Orin’s.
I shook my head trying to dislodge the memories from my brain. I found myself looking at the park. Park Donum seemed to be lounging against Mount Otium. With all of the trees surrounding the mountain's northern base and none on the outskirts, it seemed as if the trees were the body of some massive green giant taking a nap after a long day of work. But the park meant much more to me. It was where we spent our first date and also our last. Even from the distance of 50 miles and the streaking of clouds across my vision, I could still pick out the tree.
Fresh pain came up with those memories. I knew it wasn’t fair to blame him; he had to leave… it was his duty.
“All of our duties is to serve and protect.” I murmured.
“What the malus do you think you’re doing!” a deep voice bellowed in my ear.
My body convulsed; my stomach flip-flopped like a half-dead fish letting out its last final attempts at survival. I recognized my mentor’s voice but was hoping to avoid contact with Y., at least until I landed.
“Training.” I kept my voice flat. My hand circled my stomach to push the button deploying the hologram persecute.
The sudden slowing of my descent jerked my body slightly.
I closed my eyes, for a minute, enjoying the graceful moment before I had to talk to my mentor.
“I don’t think you are, Thelma,” Y. replied. “I believe you are trying to avoid me.”
My eyes opened regretfully. I hate how perceptive he is sometimes.
“And I think I have good reason to.”
“Oh yes.” His voice went high pitch in his attempt to imitate me, “My boyfriend left to go on a super important mission that may end this war, and I am pouting because I don’t know what it is.”
I glared angrily at the land beneath me.
“That’s not it, and you know it!” I argued behind clenched teeth.
Y. was silent.
“It’s just like how my dad left.” My throat burned as though the rest of me was punishing it for spewing the truth.
“Thelma, you --” before he could say another word, the world below me exploded into light.
I was barely two miles from the ground now, and my face could feel the heat of the bomb that generated the light. My entire view of the world below was impeded by a mushroom cloud of dust.
Before I could even comprehend what happened, something flew at me.
My brain registered the shiny metal and confirmed that it was a dagger.
Why is a knife coming at me? I thought.
Just shut up and change course. My brain growled.
My hands obeyed, pushing the button next to the parachute deploy button.
The parachute jerked left, and I followed with a grunt.
Flashes of silver came at me once again, this time, they were smaller much more compact.
“Malum!” I swore.
They were bullets, but not just any bullets. Prima bullets. The weapons of the enemy.
Worse than that, they were designed specifically to take out the most powerful Verum. I was a level ten. The most powerful level a person could ever reach. It was highly unusual for Verum-in-training to be any higher than a seven. But I was a particular case, in more ways than one.
I growled in my throat. No way was I going to be taken out by a couple of bullets. I pushed the button again, making me swerve even farther to the left. The shells continued flying upward as though searching for something that could never be found.
I smirked. So much for Prima being the smartest of them all; they can’t even design a bullet to take one Verum trainee out.
Then the Figura Trabea showed up.
The Figura Trabea was Prima Terra’s most deadly invention. It possessed the fighting ability of a trained soldier, the indestructibility of a diamond, and the smarts of the Prima. The Figura Trabea were the improved version of the Prima’s people. If you were to join the fighting force on the Prima side, you would have to have your soul implanted into a Figura Trabea. Their way of weaning out the traitors and making it just about impossible to have their soldiers destroyed.
Fortunately, the Verum were able to figure out a way around that.
I raised my wrist to my mouth so that my lips were almost kissing my watch.
“Camo Mode, code word: mixtio,” I whispered.“
Camo Mode engaged.” My watch replied through the earpiece, opposite of the one I had talked to Y. through.
I looked down at my body, grinning at the translucency of it.
“She is here. I can smell her.” One of the Figura Trabea spoke up. One of the others begun to scan the sky.
There was a total of three Figura Trabea. Their faces were the same as every Figura Trabea I have ever seen, expressionless and sleek with shiny new metal. Each creature had three orifices on its face. Two side by side, a little bit above the halfway mark. Those were eyes of a sort. The other hole resided in the direct middle of their faces. A screen covered all of the holes to prevent any bugs (the listening kind and insects) from flying in. The rest of their bodies were vaguely human shaped, two arms and two legs with a torso in between. Of course, the arms were each capable of becoming any weapon one could picture in under three seconds, and the legs were rocket powered. The torso didn’t disappoint either. It was covered with the same shiny metal as its face and the rest of their bodies but in the middle a red light emitted.
The core, I smiled.
I told my watch to make my hologram parachute hold its position so I could get a clear shot of the Figura Trabeas’ core. I fingered around my belt searching for my knife. My hand made contact with something smooth and hard.
My sheath, where I kept my knife. I reached further up, my arm revolting against the uncomfortable position. I managed to pull the knife out.
My hand coiled tightly around the handle, tensed and ready for action. I made the mistake of looking down at it.
It was the one Orin had given me when we were kids. The marks confirmed it to be my tenth birthday. Just before The Year of Silence. It was one of the years where I felt the impact of what I lost, and I could barely even move with all my grief.
I remember his words exactly, his little ten-year-old eyes wide with honesty.
I will never leave you, Tel. You are my best friend, and I will always be there for you.
But he did leave me, just like everyone else. All I had was him and Y.
Now he is gone. And Y. is…
I looked down at the cloud of dust that still had yet to settle.
Dead. Tears were a nest of angry bees invading my head. They destroyed every rational thought and made my eyes swell with tears, leaving only fear in their wake.
I wanted to curl up into a ball and stay there until I died. I deserved that. Everyone I loved was dead and gone, so I should be, too.
I should just give up and let them take me, I thought.
Wow, remind me never to invade your head again! So much teen drama is going on in this thing!
My head jerked, Y.? How are you still alive?
Force field, my mentor replied like that was obvious. Even in my head he still retained his snarky nature. When the bomber started the countdown, it emitted the specific waves of electricity that let our experts know that a bomb was about to blow. They used the droids to create a holographic dome around the city, protecting it from the bomb.
Smart, I thought back at him, follow-up question: how are you in my head?
Oh, just a new power I have been testing. One of our communication towers was outside of the dome and blew up, so I had to contact you somehow, Y. stated matter-of-factually.
I ground my teeth. The people of my planet, Praeditos Terrae, have unique gifts. Unusual abilities that normal humans do not have. Super strength, super speed, levitation, just to name a few. The Verum, however, are blessed with having many different gifts. Throughout their lifetimes, the Verum can find up to ten different abilities.
This new ability added to the other ones Y. had already discovered means that he now has a total of six.
As happy as I was for him –discovering a new ability was a pretty big deal, I was still mad. It infuriates me when people fail to clue me in on critical things. Like the fact that there was a force field that could protect the entire city from an explosion. Or that Y. discovered a very useful ability.
“She is over there.” A Figura Trabea voice cut through my thoughts like a razor saw. I turned, it was the one who had been scanning the sky. His multipurpose hand turned to fingers and pointed one of them at me.
Malum! They found me! I thought angrily.
Thelma, what’s happening up there? We can’t pick up on your heat signature! Y. responded in my head sounding slightly worried.
I’m in Camo Mode. Some Figura Trabeas are trying to attack me. I replied, mentally.
But none of the three Figura Trabea moved toward me.
Weird. I thought.What? Y. sputtered.
I didn’t reply.
“Get the boss up here, tell him we have found her,” the Figura Trabea, who had spoken first ordered the one who had found me.
The Figura Trabea, who had found me, went directly up in the air then circle back around, using his boots to induce the gravity so that he was hurtling toward the earth at speeds that made my hands shake slightly.
I had two options; I could wait around here so their boss could take me away or I could leave.
I liked the latter better. I pushed a different button on my side.
My hologram parachute fell floating down softly on top of me before morphing as though it were a clay art project that someone was remolding.
It pulled off of me, and begun to change into a large heavy looking backpack with metal spouts for looks.The second it released me, my body began to fall.
I tried not to panic; I knew that my newly formed holopack would catch me soon enough. Still it was hard not to be terrified when your body is falling toward the earth with no way to prevent myself from going splat. The wind was tugging at my hair gently at first, escalating to a full blown wind storm. Not for the first time, I was glad I had decided to keep my hair boy short. My eyeballs were dry, but I couldn't find the courage to close my lids. But, the clearest sensation I felt was the torrent of rabid butterflies attacking the delicate insides of my stomach. I clamped my jaw down tight to prevent a scream from escaping from it.
Thelma! Thelma, talk to me what’s happening? Y.’s voice was like razor claws knifing through my thoughts.
Currently falling, how about you? I thought the pressure making me sarcastic.
Why are you not slowing down? The holopack I gave you? Why is that not working? His thoughts were frantic even in my head.
It is. Just slowly. I replied.
Well, hurry it up. I would prefer not to lose an apprentice.
An unspoken ‘again’ was ringing in my ears. My head began to buzz as the tremendous feeling of guilt flooded the banks of my brain. The panic of the situation I was in, added to the flood waters.
Thankfully, my holopack swooped in (literally) just before I had an epic meltdown.
It grabbed me, attached itself to my back and took me up to the same place I was trying to escape.
“So you came back.” The voice of the creature was like a tone-deaf dolphin that developed the need to sing its heart out.
“Turn,” I commanded the holopack.
The low hum sped up slightly. It rotated 180 degrees, so I was facing the Figura Trabeas.
There were four now.
The other three had been joined by one that was at least twice the size. His eyes were like the other ones, but it had two glowing marbles that stuck out like a bug-eyed chihuahua, in a way that made you think some little kid had jammed them into his eye sockets in a violent rage. His “skin” was metal, like the others, but it was tinted a golden yellow. He had two tiny holes on either side of his head, giving him the ability to hear. A unique ability among Figura Trabea. Like the others, he had a single hole in the middle of his face. His arms morphed into machine guns, each pointing at me. His feet gave off a blue light as the jets caused him to float gently. The main difference between him and the other Figura Trabeas was the lack of weakness. The other three had their initial power source exposed, but his was covered by a sheet of shiny metal.
Y.? I thought at my mentor.
There was no reply.
The large Figura Trabea smiled, or what could be deemed as a smile, at me.
“Sorry, your mentor is unavailable.” the creature intoned.
I ignored him.
There was no way he could block a Verum’s power. The people of Prima may be smart, but their tech was nowhere near that level. The Verum had been keeping an eye on their tech development, and it was progressing slowly. Unless…
Unless they knew that we were keeping an eye on them. I thought.
My head jerked as I came to another realization.
If the Prima found a way to block a Verum’s power, then the war is over.
We will lose.
Y. was silent.
“It’s just like how my dad left.” My throat burned as though the rest of me was punishing it for spewing the truth.
“Thelma, you --” before he could say another word, the world below me exploded into light.
I was barely two miles from the ground now, and my face could feel the heat of the bomb that generated the light. My entire view of the world below was impeded by a mushroom cloud of dust.
Before I could even comprehend what happened, something flew at me.
My brain registered the shiny metal and confirmed that it was a dagger.
Why is a knife coming at me? I thought.
Just shut up and change course. My brain growled.
My hands obeyed, pushing the button next to the parachute deploy button.
The parachute jerked left, and I followed with a grunt.
Flashes of silver came at me once again, this time, they were smaller much more compact.
“Malum!” I swore.
They were bullets, but not just any bullets. Prima bullets. The weapons of the enemy.
Worse than that, they were designed specifically to take out the most powerful Verum. I was a level ten. The most powerful level a person could ever reach. It was highly unusual for Verum-in-training to be any higher than a seven. But I was a particular case, in more ways than one.
I growled in my throat. No way was I going to be taken out by a couple of bullets. I pushed the button again, making me swerve even farther to the left. The shells continued flying upward as though searching for something that could never be found.
I smirked. So much for Prima being the smartest of them all; they can’t even design a bullet to take one Verum trainee out.
Then the Figura Trabea showed up.
The Figura Trabea was Prima Terra’s most deadly invention. It possessed the fighting ability of a trained soldier, the indestructibility of a diamond, and the smarts of the Prima. The Figura Trabea were the improved version of the Prima’s people. If you were to join the fighting force on the Prima side, you would have to have your soul implanted into a Figura Trabea. Their way of weaning out the traitors and making it just about impossible to have their soldiers destroyed.
Fortunately, the Verum were able to figure out a way around that.
I raised my wrist to my mouth so that my lips were almost kissing my watch.
“Camo Mode, code word: mixtio,” I whispered.“
Camo Mode engaged.” My watch replied through the earpiece, opposite of the one I had talked to Y. through.
I looked down at my body, grinning at the translucency of it.
“She is here. I can smell her.” One of the Figura Trabea spoke up. One of the others begun to scan the sky.
There was a total of three Figura Trabea. Their faces were the same as every Figura Trabea I have ever seen, expressionless and sleek with shiny new metal. Each creature had three orifices on its face. Two side by side, a little bit above the halfway mark. Those were eyes of a sort. The other hole resided in the direct middle of their faces. A screen covered all of the holes to prevent any bugs (the listening kind and insects) from flying in. The rest of their bodies were vaguely human shaped, two arms and two legs with a torso in between. Of course, the arms were each capable of becoming any weapon one could picture in under three seconds, and the legs were rocket powered. The torso didn’t disappoint either. It was covered with the same shiny metal as its face and the rest of their bodies but in the middle a red light emitted.
The core, I smiled.
I told my watch to make my hologram parachute hold its position so I could get a clear shot of the Figura Trabeas’ core. I fingered around my belt searching for my knife. My hand made contact with something smooth and hard.
My sheath, where I kept my knife. I reached further up, my arm revolting against the uncomfortable position. I managed to pull the knife out.
My hand coiled tightly around the handle, tensed and ready for action. I made the mistake of looking down at it.
It was the one Orin had given me when we were kids. The marks confirmed it to be my tenth birthday. Just before The Year of Silence. It was one of the years where I felt the impact of what I lost, and I could barely even move with all my grief.
I remember his words exactly, his little ten-year-old eyes wide with honesty.
I will never leave you, Tel. You are my best friend, and I will always be there for you.
But he did leave me, just like everyone else. All I had was him and Y.
Now he is gone. And Y. is…
I looked down at the cloud of dust that still had yet to settle.
Dead. Tears were a nest of angry bees invading my head. They destroyed every rational thought and made my eyes swell with tears, leaving only fear in their wake.
I wanted to curl up into a ball and stay there until I died. I deserved that. Everyone I loved was dead and gone, so I should be, too.
I should just give up and let them take me, I thought.
Wow, remind me never to invade your head again! So much teen drama is going on in this thing!
My head jerked, Y.? How are you still alive?
Force field, my mentor replied like that was obvious. Even in my head he still retained his snarky nature. When the bomber started the countdown, it emitted the specific waves of electricity that let our experts know that a bomb was about to blow. They used the droids to create a holographic dome around the city, protecting it from the bomb.
Smart, I thought back at him, follow-up question: how are you in my head?
Oh, just a new power I have been testing. One of our communication towers was outside of the dome and blew up, so I had to contact you somehow, Y. stated matter-of-factually.
I ground my teeth. The people of my planet, Praeditos Terrae, have unique gifts. Unusual abilities that normal humans do not have. Super strength, super speed, levitation, just to name a few. The Verum, however, are blessed with having many different gifts. Throughout their lifetimes, the Verum can find up to ten different abilities.
This new ability added to the other ones Y. had already discovered means that he now has a total of six.
As happy as I was for him –discovering a new ability was a pretty big deal, I was still mad. It infuriates me when people fail to clue me in on critical things. Like the fact that there was a force field that could protect the entire city from an explosion. Or that Y. discovered a very useful ability.
“She is over there.” A Figura Trabea voice cut through my thoughts like a razor saw. I turned, it was the one who had been scanning the sky. His multipurpose hand turned to fingers and pointed one of them at me.
Malum! They found me! I thought angrily.
Thelma, what’s happening up there? We can’t pick up on your heat signature! Y. responded in my head sounding slightly worried.
I’m in Camo Mode. Some Figura Trabeas are trying to attack me. I replied, mentally.
But none of the three Figura Trabea moved toward me.
Weird. I thought.What? Y. sputtered.
I didn’t reply.
“Get the boss up here, tell him we have found her,” the Figura Trabea, who had spoken first ordered the one who had found me.
The Figura Trabea, who had found me, went directly up in the air then circle back around, using his boots to induce the gravity so that he was hurtling toward the earth at speeds that made my hands shake slightly.
I had two options; I could wait around here so their boss could take me away or I could leave.
I liked the latter better. I pushed a different button on my side.
My hologram parachute fell floating down softly on top of me before morphing as though it were a clay art project that someone was remolding.
It pulled off of me, and begun to change into a large heavy looking backpack with metal spouts for looks.The second it released me, my body began to fall.
I tried not to panic; I knew that my newly formed holopack would catch me soon enough. Still it was hard not to be terrified when your body is falling toward the earth with no way to prevent myself from going splat. The wind was tugging at my hair gently at first, escalating to a full blown wind storm. Not for the first time, I was glad I had decided to keep my hair boy short. My eyeballs were dry, but I couldn't find the courage to close my lids. But, the clearest sensation I felt was the torrent of rabid butterflies attacking the delicate insides of my stomach. I clamped my jaw down tight to prevent a scream from escaping from it.
Thelma! Thelma, talk to me what’s happening? Y.’s voice was like razor claws knifing through my thoughts.
Currently falling, how about you? I thought the pressure making me sarcastic.
Why are you not slowing down? The holopack I gave you? Why is that not working? His thoughts were frantic even in my head.
It is. Just slowly. I replied.
Well, hurry it up. I would prefer not to lose an apprentice.
An unspoken ‘again’ was ringing in my ears. My head began to buzz as the tremendous feeling of guilt flooded the banks of my brain. The panic of the situation I was in, added to the flood waters.
Thankfully, my holopack swooped in (literally) just before I had an epic meltdown.
It grabbed me, attached itself to my back and took me up to the same place I was trying to escape.
“So you came back.” The voice of the creature was like a tone-deaf dolphin that developed the need to sing its heart out.
“Turn,” I commanded the holopack.
The low hum sped up slightly. It rotated 180 degrees, so I was facing the Figura Trabeas.
There were four now.
The other three had been joined by one that was at least twice the size. His eyes were like the other ones, but it had two glowing marbles that stuck out like a bug-eyed chihuahua, in a way that made you think some little kid had jammed them into his eye sockets in a violent rage. His “skin” was metal, like the others, but it was tinted a golden yellow. He had two tiny holes on either side of his head, giving him the ability to hear. A unique ability among Figura Trabea. Like the others, he had a single hole in the middle of his face. His arms morphed into machine guns, each pointing at me. His feet gave off a blue light as the jets caused him to float gently. The main difference between him and the other Figura Trabeas was the lack of weakness. The other three had their initial power source exposed, but his was covered by a sheet of shiny metal.
Y.? I thought at my mentor.
There was no reply.
The large Figura Trabea smiled, or what could be deemed as a smile, at me.
“Sorry, your mentor is unavailable.” the creature intoned.
I ignored him.
There was no way he could block a Verum’s power. The people of Prima may be smart, but their tech was nowhere near that level. The Verum had been keeping an eye on their tech development, and it was progressing slowly. Unless…
Unless they knew that we were keeping an eye on them. I thought.
My head jerked as I came to another realization.
If the Prima found a way to block a Verum’s power, then the war is over.
We will lose.
Love how this first chapter jumps right into the action, grabs my attention, and makes me want to read more and more of the whole book !
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