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Chapter 7: Aftermath

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   Zeke sluggishly awoke to the sound of harsh beeping sounds, pounding in his head and causing his ears to ring. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the blurry silhouette of someone leaning over him. Thinking it was Maren returning to finish him off, he reached for his sword only to find the scabbard hanging from his belt empty. That's right. He took it. How am I ever going to defeat him without it? 
 
"Zeke, can you hear me?" a familiar voice asked.
  As his vision gradually became sharper, the stranger's features grew more defined. It was Lianna. She was wearing a black form-fitting leather suit typical of trackers in the Homeguard which showed off her slender figure. Her short dark brown hair framed the delicate features of her face, which were frowning in a look of concern. Her girlish appearance and fragile appearance hid the strong will and tough demeanor that had allowed Lianna to survive the grueling challenges and hardships that becoming a solider of the Sentorian Homeguard entailed.
  "Lianna...? How did you find me?" he put a hand to his forehead, wincing in pain, "Unnghh, my head feels like it's going to split in half," he finished drowsily.
  "Hold on Zeke, there will be plenty of time for that later. Right now you need to rest. Here," she produced a small waterskin from a pounch around her waist, "Go on, drink some. You seem to have hit your head pretty hard. What happened here?" 
  As he accepted the waterskin and took a few small gulps, the events of the last few hours came flooding back to him. His solitary wandering through the strange forest, the sudden arrival of Kali's spaceship, their brief battle with Maren and futile attempt to escape him after he had absorbed the gem. Thinking of all of the things that happened suddenly made him remember something.
  "But wait- Kali! Where's Kaii??" he asked hurriedly, attempting to stand but finding he was still too weak to get up.
  "Hold on Zeke! He's fine! He's over there," Lianna turned and pointed to the far side of the room. Kali was slumped against the wall with his head leaning forward, his chest rising and falling slowly. A small mechanical pet was sitting on his lap. It had four stout legs, appearing to be a small dog of some kind except that it was made completely out of shiny metal. As Zeke was looking at the strange creature, if lifted one of its small legs and held it over the large stab wound in Kali's chest. An oozing neon green substance poured from the end of its extended limb and covered the wounded area. Faint trails of smoke curled into the air as the substance worked to repair the damage done to Kali's chest. 
    Kali winced in pain as the medicine did its work. "Thank you SAL, you saved me again. I don't know where I'd be without you," he nodded at the creature on his lap.
    "You'd most likely dead, by my estimation," the creature replied with a surprisingly deep robotic voice. 
    Kali laughed briefly before holding his stomach and grimacing in pain."Ow... don't make me laugh, SAL. That hurts... but you're right about that," he stated grudgingly.
    "Indeed I am, sir," SAL responded happily, hopping off of Kali's lap and running across to the other side of the room. "This place is nothing like Planet Helvarr, is it?" he asked as he pounced around and took in the new surroundings. Kali took his eyes away from his small companion and spotted Zeke and Lianna on the other side of the room. Haltingly, he grabbed a ledge for support and cautiously got to his feet. Flexing his arms experimentally, he walked across the room and nodded in recognition to the pair. Miraculously, his chest seemed good as new, his pale skin visible in the hole in his armor where there had been a gaping wound moments before.
    Zeke returned his gaze and nodded. "Quite the helper you've got there. I thought you were done for," he smirked at Kali.
    "Hah, not quite. But it was a close thing. I had just enough strength left to send out a call for help to my ship and SAL responded," he responded with a grin.
    "SAL?" Lianna raised an eyebrow curiously.
    "It stands for Sentient Artificial Lifeform. He's an android created by my people. We use them as medics and gatherers of information. Luckily I was able to bring him with me in my ship since he's so small," he explained to them.
    "An artificial lifeform? That's amazing," Zeke said in awe. He spotted the robot creature on the far side of the room, sniffing curiously at the red carpet near the steps to the dais. 
    "He may not seem like much, but his memory stores contain all the history of my people and the multitude of information we've gathered over the years. He's also extremely proficient at healing wounds, as you just saw," Kali stated as he rubbed his chest reflexively.
    "But he's so cute!" Lianna exclaimed cheerfully. Zeke glanced sidelong at her and sighed.
    "I suppose he is, isn't he?" Kali chuckled. He was looking at Lianna in a way that Zeke didn't care for. 
    He coughed loudly and interrupted, "Aren't we forgetting something here? Maren has my sword, and he will be going for the other gems," 
    "You're right, Zeke. He has the upper hand on us now," Kali replied, drawing his eyes away from Lianna's slender figure.
    "But what can we do about it?" Lianna asked.
    "We? There's no way I'm involving you in-"
    "Zeke, I'm already involved in this. You can't just ask me to sit on the sidelines now and watch you go after Maren. That's something I won't do," Lianna interrupted defiantly.
    "She's right, Zeke," Kali nodded in agreement. Zeke sighed in resignation. The other two seemed to have made up their minds already so there was no use arguing it any further.
    "Bop bop," SAL chimed in.
    Both Zeke and Lianna looked at SAL curiously.
    "Bop bop?" Zeke repeated.
    "What does that mean?" Lianna asked.
    SAL growled softly at the pair. They both backed away slowly as Kali responded. "Ahh that.. you see, I tried to program him to say bark bark, like a real dog, but it didn't quite work as I'd planned. I've been meaning to fix him.." SAL growled again. "Just don't point it out okay? He hates that," he finished.
    Zeke and Lianna exchanged a quick glance.
    "Alright, fine. But we'd better get going if we're going to have any chance of stopping Maren," Zeke responded. 
    As they finished talking, SAL came bouncing over and sat by Kali's side. "Are we going on an adventure? Oooohhh I just love adventures!" he said happily as he leapt up and trotted towards the exit. After exchanging brief glances and reaching an unspoken agreement, the three of them following him through the large double doors and made their way out of the castle.
The 7th Chapter in my original stories
All characters belong to me
© 2014 - 2024 taffz
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