The Forgotten Journey

 

Chapter Two: The Dream

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don’t own this series, just whatever I make up

 

            The kid and I continued to walk into the forest till sunset. At sunset she said that we should stop for now and have dinner. So she made me go catch something. Stupid brat. I came back shortly with a rabbit that I had caught. Surprisingly, she had everything set up, the stew, campfire, and our beds.

            “Well, here you have, one genuine cotton tale” I said. She looked up and saw it and smiled.

            “That was fast. But I should have expected that from you, shouldn’t I?” said Muad’ib. She took it, and in a flash, skinned and gutted it; I couldn’t even keep track of her. Before I could say anything, the rabbit was already inside the stew.

            “H-h-h-how did you do that so fast?” I said amazed

            “Trade secret” she said and had the playful look on her face. We waited for the rabbit to cook, and when it was done, she served us the broth.

            “Hey! What about the rabbit?” I said, pissed off that I had done that for nothing.

            “It was just for flavor,” she said “but we’re gonna have it for lunch tomorrow. We can carry it, not the broth.”

            “Oh” I said backing off. We finished out dinner without words or incident, and then went to sleep. She’s one interesting girl.

            Mmmm, smells like rabbit stew thought a shadowy figure. It quickly, but quietly went up to the outskirts of the camp and stalked it to be sure its inhabitants were asleep. When it was sure that the girl and half-demon were asleep, it made its move. It went after the girl first, since it was sure it would be a quick kill. It slowly went up to her, until it was close enough to touch its face. Then it opened its big gaping mouth, ready to swallow her whole. Its big green, slimy tongue rolled out, about to snatch the girl and put it inside the mouth. It touched the girl, but something went horribly wrong. A blue bolt of energy sizzled out of her and engulfed the beast, turning it into blue energy itself. Then the creature turned into a rat.

            Where’d it go? I thought. One second that demon was near the girl, and the next it vanished. The smell of demon vanished with it. I opened my eyes and looked it the direction of the girl and saw that the only thing that was near her as a dead rat, dead from shock or a heart attack. What could have scared a rat so much?

 

            The boy and I walked (well, more like jogged; this boy has energy) on till sunset. At that point I told him that we should stop for the night and have dinner. He was deeply upset about this, since he seemed to be able to job for forever, but understood my need to rest. I told him that I would make camp and dinner, and that he had to just watch over everything while I went out to hunt for something. He said that that would take too long, and compelled me (by crying and whining like any little boy who wants something) to let him hunt for our game.

            “So what should I get?” he asked me.

            Jokingly, I said “a bear if you can, but a rabbit will do”

            “Yes boss!” he said and did a salute and ran into the forest with his head sticking in front, and his arms swept back. I just smiled and started my work. I would just wait for him to return empty handed so I could catch something hearty.

            I toiled until nightfall, and waited for him. He seemed to be gone for a long time, and I started to worry that something had happened to him. But then a heard some twigs breaking and put my attention there. I saw something that baffled me. There was a bear with a rabbit in its mouth that was walking towards me in an odd way. When I realized that its eyes were closed I waited for it to come up to me. Then it fell to the side and there was the boy, exhausted from carrying the bear on his back. Words cannot describe how dumbfounded I was by what I just saw, and I just waited for his explanation.

            “Well,” he said “I wasn’t sure by what you meant by all those things, so I just got of them”

            “I was joking about the bear” I said as my sweat dropped.

            So I toiled for some time to skin and gut the bear, as he toiled to skin and gut the rabbit. After much frustration and cursing (which I must ashamedly admit I did in front of the innocent youth) we finally finished. I cut the bear into strips for later used, and barbecued the rabbit. We ate our dinner, glad to be rewarded by our toils, and went to bed.

            Mmm… bear strips thought a hungry demon. It ran to where it smelled the aroma. A little boy and his mother. This should be easy. It thought from the outskirts of the camp. It was about to make its move, when…

            “AHH!” shrieked the little boy. It instantly woke my up, and I had my arrow loaded in my bow.

            “A worm!” he whimpered.

            “A worm? Aren’t little boys supposed to like things like that?” I said, half amused and annoyed.

            “Ya… but I’m different” was all he could say. I was about to go back to bed until I noticed something at the edge of our camp. I lay down on my bed, and waited for it to make its move. When I sensed it, I shot one of my arrows. All I did was kill a helpless sparrow that was near the boy, who was sleeping soundly.

 

            There are few that deserve second chances, and even fewer who get them… said someone.

            “Who are you” I managed to say.

            Who are you to decide who lives or dies? he questioned me instead.

            “What do you mean?”

            It was their fate for them to lose each other and hate themselves when they died. Who are you to meddle with fate?

            “Because it’s a game. I have nothing better to do. But you never answered my question. Who are you?”

I was created before creation.... I will exist after all things end… I am nowhere, but everywhere… yet I was created. I WAS CREATED. Just like you. Our destinies have been determined, and we cannot change that. Who are you to change someone else’s destiny?

“Because I’m righting a wrong! Surely some things weren’t meant to be… some who live deserve to die, and some who are dead deserve to live”

But who are you to decide that? Surely you have known this for some time now, since you have never revived your other companions that died in other planets.

“And who are you to question me? SHOW YOURSELF!!!”

Very well… He appeared before me.

“No… it cant be…”

 

            “Ahhh!!!” I woke up to the sound of the girl screaming. At first I thought something was attacking her, but she was intact. I checked again, and found no threat, so I went up to her.

            “What happened?” I asked her.

            “It was me…” was all she said, and stared into the moon. I finally noticed the tears that were glistening off her face. She must have had some sort of nightmare. I was about to ask her what happened, but it looked like she wanted to be alone. All of a sudden, I heard a similar shriek, but it sounded very distant. Was that her friend?

 

            “AHHH!!!” I woke up to the sound of the boy crying. At first I thought it was a beast or something that scared it, but I couldn’t see anything out there. So I slowly went up to him and asked him what was wrong.

            “I was me!!!” was all he could say, and he kept on saying it. He must have had some sort of nightmare, and it must have really upset him. So I tried to comfort him, and held on to me. He instinctively held on to me, as if I were his mom. I tried to comfort him how I comforted other village children from before, and eventually he calmed down. He finally went to sleep, with his head buried in my chest, but I could still hear him crying a bit. All of a sudden, I heard a similar shriek, but it sounded very distant. This made him whimper a bit more but then he stopped. Then he let go of me and stared at the moon. I was about to say a few comforting words, but it seemed he wanted to be left alone, so I sat next to him and looked at the moon with him for a while.

 

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