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calyfornian · 7 years

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Keylo and Cataleya : Travelers pt. 3

The moon graced us with its bright presence that night. It made things incredibly visible.

"No, you're not grasping it." I sat down at the edge of the cliff in between Keylo and Cataleya. I had found a kind of flattened hook to attach the light rod to my waistband, so that took some adjusting upon throwing my legs over the cliff. The pouch of tiny explosives wasn't a problem. It was actually a cute accessory; I might use it when it was empty. When my cigarette was lit, I cuffed my black skinny jeans to reveal my ankles, then rolled up the sleeves of my black t-shirt. This trip was turning into something.

"No, I get it," Keylo pulled the cigarette from between my lips and took a good drag, he hit the ash off and it fluttered onto his white cropped tank top and small black shorts that his massive things seemed to hang out of, "They were like, the first soldiers, the humans couldn't really conquer them, so they naturally were viewed as superior, as they were." He stole another drag then passed my cigarette back to me.

"No, no, it wasn't like that, Keylo," I took a drag and tried to gather my thoughts, "They didn't have any ability. They didn't have any physical or mental manifestation that made them superior to the beings around them. The strength they referenced, the right to be superior, it was something they claimed was given to them by a higher being. It was just, I don't know."

"What were they? Rulty?" Cataleya was fiddling around her bright red backpack for cigarettes, when she found them, she placed one in her mouth, lit it, then tossed the bag about a foot away from her, to be a bit away from the mountainside.

"No, Leya, royalty. They were kings and queens. They ruled the land. Think of them as sector commanders, but, but with even more ability." I took a drag then passed it back to Keylo who quickly accepted.

"Honestly, I don't know how you retain all of this. Beside birthing, I couldn't be interested in anything else about the humans. They didn't do much besides kill each other." She took a steady drag and let the smoke dance out of her mouth before inhaling it through her nose.

"That's the thing Cataleya, they were so much more than that. They were definitely odd creatures, living in ways that were counter to their survival, but they also created so much, and their experiences were so intense. Not in the serpents falling out of the sky, but, I don't know. I don't fully understand what some of it means, but they were just, they were a lot more than birthing." I was all worked up from the fascination of humans.

"Well, we'll just have to take your word for it, babe." Keylo planted a kiss on me, and I turned to give him on back. I tasted the smoke in his mouth and on his tongue, and it soothed me.

We smoked in silence for a moment while Keylo rummaged through his small shoulder bag to reveal a larger than life bottle of enthia. He started off quicker than usual, hitting three droplets in each eye before passing me the bottle. I decided to take it slow with one drop in each eye. When it was Cataleya's turn, she did three in each eye, like her brother. They were too much sometimes.

"Christ," Keylo spoke up after lighting two cigarettes in his mouth and passing me one, "The trees at the bottom of this mountain are huge. They'd probably tower over us."

Keylo was under the influence of enthia when he took everything as an ethereal sight of beauty. That, and his eyes red, like fire.

No one responded, instead we all just took another drag.

Then, like all attacks, things happened at once:

The cliff side we were on exploded outward and I can say for myself, I was flung a good chunk away from where what used to be where we were sitting on the mountain side. The feeling in my stomach was new. Eventually I'd recognize it as falling, a feeling I'd grow to hate. My body collided with trees, and I couldn't differentiate between leaves and branches. Then I collided with the ground, and I took a long blink.

When I opened my eyes, everything was still black, like I was caught in that blink. My eyes began to adjust when they saw an orange glow through a thicket of trees that wasn't too far off. I was half way there when the sparks stopped shimmering. That's when I noticed the screaming.

Instinct pushed me towards it. I had never heard Cataleya scream like that. Come to think of it, I had never heard Cataleya scream.

She was hunched over Keylo, well, at least I assumed that how little moonlight was making it through the tops of the trees

When she stopped screaming, there was a ringing in my ear, that muffled most things that night.

Cataleya. She can't hear you. You have to say it out loud. Leya. Say it. Say her name out loud. you can't communicate if you don't say anything. Cataleya. What's wrong with you? Why aren't you moving your mouth? Cataleya! Cataleya! What's going on!? Use your fucking words. Move your fucking mouth. Cataleya! Cataleya! Fuck, why were you screaming? What happened to him. Fuck! Cataleya! What happened!

"Cataleya!" She turned around in a flash and this is what the moonlight gave me.

There were shining lines across her face and where Keylos left shoulder was, along with the arm, there was nothing but empty space, and pooling blood. Keylo's left arm was missing and he wasn't moving. I had never seen him so still.

He wasn't moving.

"Jay! My bag. you have to find my bag, now!" After too long, something clicked.

I could see her bright red backpack, sitting beside a tree as clear as if I were staring right at it. I darted back through the way I came and sprinted for what I assumed was the difference between light and dark. I sprinted, for what I thought meant saving Keylo's life.

When I could sense I was near the bag, I saw what happened next. In about thirty seconds, when I would be reaching the bag, a portal was going to crack open in the sky, and it was going to illuminate the forest better than sunlight. Cataleya and I would take a breath, and I'd grab the bag and sprint back. When I'd reach the final layer of trees I'd have to cross to get to Cataleya and what had to be a still living Keylo, demigons would begin pouring out of their portal, then the visions split into two paths:

The first one, we got out of there, the second one wasn't an option.

I held on to the idea of the first one as I grabbed the back, as the portal ripped open, as I made it to Cataleya while the eight foot tall spiders with wings flew out of their portal.

I tossed her the bag and she ripped it apart with her telekinesis. The cure-alls she had in there flew into her neck and her brothers. Then there was a glass container of some shiny liquid. Like someone had melted down metal and it had managed to stay in liquid form.

She tore the bottle that held it apart with her mind, demigons were closing in.

She splattered it across her brothers massive wound and he immediately inhaled and began writhing in pain. His suffering relieved me; it meant he was alive.

The hoard of demigons had to be about thirty feet away. I tried to trust my visions. I tried to trust Cataleya.

She'd have her energy back in two hundred and twenty-seven seconds.

Two hundred and twenty-seven seconds. That's all we had to last before she could get us back. That's all we needed to survive.

Four minutes, just about. Give her four minutes.

I grabbed a couple of the small metal bombs that Keylo had given me, and I unhooked the energy bar from my waist and let my finger rest on the button. When I held it, with enough room in the forest, it grew to three feet. I clicked the buttons on the explosives and threw them as far west as I could and began a full sprint towards the direction. When the bombs exploded in the sky, they helped the demigon swarm change direction and head in the direction that I was running.

The trees were going to be a huge advantage. The demigons were too clumsy and no where near as agile as they needed to be to maneuver in this area so tight.

When I tried to peak forward, I couldn't see much. There was a lot of grey, it had to be due to the indecisiveness of my mind. Our fates weren't set in stone.

A demigon struck me on the side and sent me flying, losing my grip on the energy rod. I really wasn't a fighter.

Standing up as quick as I could, the creature was on the ground, charging at me as wild as it could.

I tossed an explosive, and relied on my returned visions.

Jump right, the energy sword is behind the rock, get up, slice off its- No, its too fast, you'll lose your life. Grab the energy sword, dive behind a tree. Another explosive. Its stunned, sever the head. Two more are there now, you were just ripped from your torso, you're dead.

Jump right, the energy sword is behind the rock, dive behind the adjacent tree. Pull out three explosives, one for the demigon you're dealing with, two for the ones that are going to ambush you, throw them three seconds apart.

The first one's dead. One of the other two is on fire. Kill the third one. Straight through the torso, then pull up. The energy sword is sharper than Keylo's crimson blade.

Catch a breath. What's next. Cataleya, head back- No, there's too much open space. There's too much open space. They'll pluck you from the ground as you run, you're not quick enough.

In here, you don't have to be quick enough.

Toss another explosive, get the hoards attention, then another.

Funnel them in through the entrance that the first three came in.

Bombard them with those damn things.

No, set off one in the bag, toss the whole lot at them. Where does that leave you?

Three of them were dead and I had attracted the hoard through the opening in the trees. It was all grey again, I couldn't focus.

My original plan was all I had. There was no second call, there was no back up.

I unhooked the waist band from around me, clicked a spherical explosive and dropped it in the bag before throwing the entire thing at the fuzzy arachnids with wings.

The explosion felt like when a portal exploded open next to you. Heat, light, pressure.

I landed on my ass. When I sprung back up, through burning corpses, I could make out demigons convulsing and writhing about.

Through the smoke of the corpses and dying bodies, one flew straight at me and dug its sharp claws into my left arm, with my right hand I activated the energy bar and it drove through the best on its own. I made a sprint through the forest back to Cataleya.

The flutter of wings above the trees terrified me, but not as much as dying away from Keylo and Cataleya did.

A couple demigons crashed through the trees, it was too tight for them to maneuver, it was easy enough to get away.

When I made it back to Cataleya and Keylo, she was sitting cross legged, floating above Keylo's body. Demigons were flying into the invisible shield where they immediately began disintegrating into their usual cinder.

"Cataleya!"

The next part felt like slow motion.

Cataleya fell to her brother's body, with her hand hitting his chest, like magnets, he stuck to her as she flew across the space between us at what had to be record speeds for her.

Their bodies collided with me and the wind was knocked out of me, when the electrifying feeling began stabbing every part of me.

Next thing I knew, we were slamming into other soldiers in a brightly lit medical center and I was hearing Cataleya scream for the second time ever.

#CataleyaandKeylo

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