A
diminutive story
By
Travis Brown
Warning: this work contains mild adult content of an odd nature.
If there were ever a reason
to cry it would be now. The battle had been lost and all that was left of his
race was just a few hundred.
Jarkan looked at his gun
protrude from his arm and knew that there were no more rounds left in it.
He was of a race of
creatures that were made for war. But now all that didn’t mean anything. His
family, his home, his companion and offspring were all destroyed in this horrid
holocaust. Bitter fear overwhelmed him as this shadowy enemy drew more rapidly
to him. They had no remorse and no feelings. At least that is what he knew of
them. They at least seemed that way. One thousand years ago this war probably
would never have happened if the creatures had not fired upon them first. They
would probably have gotten along. To share technology and ideas about the
universe… nevertheless it seems that the only thing they wanted was war to
begin with.
“The humans are closing in
Jarkan! We are finished now!
What were they to do? The
humans had far greater weaponry then they could ever have anticipated. It
almost seemed that the Lonescine race was about to go extinct to these horrid
beings that had no care for them in their heart.
The battle raged for another
hour before Jarkan and all of his friends and fellow war comrades were slain.
Everything came to an end.
* * *
“What…what happened…where…am
I?”
He looked around in a big
white nonexistence. The entire place was without form or void. He wasn’t even
standing on everything that he could see.
Beneath him there was no
ground upon which he stood. He felt a bottom but couldn’t put his hand upon it.
It just passed on to more space.
He felt his mechanical body.
Everything was working appropriately. The gun that put a large hole throughout
his mid section was also gone.
“Can anyone hear me?!” He
screamed.
Jarkan looked around some
more. And out of the corner of his eye he saw a black shape coming toward him.
He turned to see a creature
that resembled nothing he had ever seen before.
The creature’s eyes were
very blue and his body seemed to be nothing short of a bipedal human.
But…the one difference was
he had a red helmet on and horns that came out of the helmet.
He carried himself with a
small, slow but steady pace as he approached Jarkan. Clad in that and a green
cape that covered the rest of his body, he could not see what lie below the
cape as the creature neared.
“Who are you?” Asked Jarkan.
The creature stopped in front
of Jarkan and his cape lifted to reveal to green leather gloved hands with the
same amount of digits as a human and not the usual Lonescine three were now
visible as he folded his arms looking at the disorientated soul.
“It does not matter who I am
Jarkan. What matters more is that you know where you are.” The strange creature
said.
“Well where am I?” Asked
Jarkan.
“You are at the edge of
imagination, and also the edge of existence. It is here your dead body placed
its soul. You are one in a million to come here. I myself come here at my
leisure…I heard your cry.” Said the Creature.
“I assume my race is dead.”
Said Jarkan, looking down closing his eyes. “My world is in ruin. I might as
well be dead.” He said unemotionally.
“Oh if only you knew what
this place that you have fallen into Jarkan. You do not realize what it is that
you have become. It is for me to say what you are now…you have become the
single. And you are the last. No other will ever take your form again for a
very long time. Not after what I have to offer you. My name is Lock and I am
here to tell you that you can have a new life. It just so happens that there is
a way for you to do that now.
“What do you mean?” asked
Jarkan.
Suddenly as he said that a
huge planet appeared before him surrounded by endless stars. One white sun
shined off in the distance. The world also looked very rich and pleasing to the
eye.
“My friend…I wish to show
you your new home. In the endless dimensions that are out there is a barren
world devoid of any sentient race to live upon it. You are to be given this
world. Now tell me that that is not the greatest gift you have ever received.
Jarkan just looked at him
and gawked for a moment. Then his mind caught up with him.
“Unquestionably there is a
catch.” Said Jarkan.
Lock looked at the Lonescine
warrior with all that could possibly be a smile…. or a frown? He couldn’t tell
through the odd helmet.
“Indeed there is one Jarkan.
This world is yet to be explored. It is filled with many dangers and perils…one
might say you probably will not survive down there.” Said Lock.
Jarkan looked down at his
exoskeleton body made of its hard polymers and detailed plates.
He also looked at his arm,
where his gun was fastened to his arm. The place that weapon had been since he
was born.
“I don’t think terrestrial
danger will be a problem.” Said Jarkan.
Lock just looked at him.
“My boy…when you go there
you will go back to the way things were for your race. And I can also promise
you that while you are there you will find others like you. They are primitive
compared to you. They still have primitive ideas and frames of mind compare to
you. They need a leader. But they need one that looks like you.
And so Jarkan nodded to
Lock.
With that Lock brought his
head down in a slight bow.
Your technology will be
gone. You will start at a young age in your life...after all you are going to
need your resilience…but you will not forget much. After all you need your
knowledge of survival in order to come to terms with this world.
With saying all of that the
entire void vanished. And Jarkan found himself no longer able to breathe.
“W-Water! I am in water!”
Jarkan thought.
He arose to the light, which
he thought was the surface. Then he hit it and breathed in the oxygen which his
body desperately needed more of than usual.
He then moved over to the
side of the small stream which he had…fallen into?
How did he get there anyway
he thought. And what was this place.
He climbed out of the water
and felt a new sensation. A drop in his temperature was what it felt like. He
immediately shook himself off causing the water to fly everywhere. He had not
even thought about shaking.
He looked down at his body
and was startled by what he saw: nothing but a bunch of brown fur. A little wet
to the touch but still fur.
This soft rich fur covered
his body. He fell back into the water as he was looking at the pink protrusion
that came briefly out of a large crevice on his stomach. It went back in as he
dried. “That was my…” Said Jarkan as he stood up again now looking around. Foliage
surrounded the area. There were rows upon rows of dense, damp towering
vegetation. It looked as if he was now in a rainforest.
He smelled things
differently as well. It wasn’t a strong as it might have been with his
biomechanical body. But it seemed all right for what his needs were. Which at
this point seemed to be food. He was also thirsty, so her turned around and
faced the rivulet. He saw his reflection in the water.
The machines were gone. His
fur strayed from his face making it as bare as it always was. His horns were no
longer a gold metal color but more of a dull yellow. He looked back around at
his tail, which seemed to also be covered in the rich fur. He also looked at
his hands, which had black pads at the places of contact where he would touch
things. The black talons that were once silver no longer were; Instead they
were a beautiful ebony.
Suddenly Jarkan heard a
rustling in the bushes. And out came a native creature of the world.
It looked like a plant
eating creature due to it munching oddly on the nearby foliage.
Jarkan knew better than to
try approaching it. This creature smelled like something to eat to him. His
stomach rumbled intensely as the animal continued grazing.
Jarkan moved to a nearby
bunch of reeds and bamboo looking plants and began to sharpen one of the hollow
stocks of the bamboo. The animal was definitely slow for it only moved five
feet in its grazing pattern
Jarkan; in his years of
training knew that one great lesson was to know how to throw objects with great
precision.
The muscles in his arm
worked differently as he threw the makeshift spear. He however was successful
in hitting the beast’s heart. The creature made a peculiar noise and limped to
one side and fell erratically. It kicked a couple of times and that was all.
Jarkan then ran to it and
ripped at the hole in its belly. The beast began to scream some more as its
blood ran to the ground. The beast then silenced after a minute as Jarkan
worked his skin of and started chewing on the muscular flesh below.
Jarkan swallowed the
nourishment and began to feel some strength come into him.
He then heard another rustle
in the trees. Jarkan cocked his head upward and toward the sound.
“Who is there?” Said Jarkan.
Jarkan smelled the creature.
This one smelled very unusual and yet very recognizable.
Then it made itself known.
It was a similar person as
he. Only…this one was a she! He wiped his mouth off and stood up to look at the
female that stood before him.
“Hello.” Said the Lonescine
warrior.
“…” Said the female.
“What is your calling? Don’t
you talk?” He asked.
“…” She looked at him with
big eyes.
“Um. If I am scaring you I will move away.” He
said.
“…. You hunt.” She said.
“Yes I do.” He said to her.
“Most males don’t hunt. Hunt
is female job.” She said.
Jarkan looked back in his
journals during his learning periods back in those days. He remembered that it
was indeed the females that did the hunting for the colonies.
“Well I was hungry. And this
was easy to catch.”
Jarkan said.
“Horgos easy to catch. They
eat too long. It make them easy to track” Said The Female.
“What is your calling?”
Jarkan asked again.
“Calling?” asked the female,
puzzled.
“You do have a name do you
not?” asked Jarkan.
“Mecan.” She said.
“Me take you to colony…I
need help bringing back the pray.” She said.
“That’s fine…I ate enough
anyway.” He said.
The two gathered the animal
and wandered back into the woods. While out there she told him about her.
“I am on big summer hunt. I
have been put into coming of age ceremony. Soon I will have a male claim me as
mate. This hunt will be the prize for the male that wins me.” She said.
“Hey I helped you get that!
No wait…I did get that! And I would have eaten a lot of it until you came to
take it from me.” Said Jarkan.
He had already seen that he
wanted to mate with her. He could smell her heat a mile away. Of all the drives
of that time that he had, he needed that thirst quenched the most.
She stopped right there and
started sniffing around. She looked at him and down at his stomach.
“You know what?” she asked.
“What.” Asked Jarkan.
“I have been needing to be
mated for a week. My body feels bad without attention of male…what tribe you
from?” Asked Mecan.
“You wouldn’t believe me
even if I proved It.,” said Jarkan.
“I am Jarkan…I am from well
a very long ways away…much farther than you have traveled in your life.
“Well since you from no
enemy tribe and you speak same language as me I will give myself to you…but my
body might give young if you do.” Said Mecan.
Jarkan put down the animal
carcass and looked at her.
With this they mated with
eachother. They were connected for a good hour.
Finally they separated and
he looked at her now with the eyes of a father to be.
His past was erased…Lock had
given him a future. He now saw the meaning of the perils in which he might face.
He now had children he needed to take care of finally he had a real reason for
living again.
Jarkan and Mecan lived
peacefully and together they changed the society forever. All was peaceful once
more. And no race ever did interfere with their happiness. Eventually many
years after Jarkan walked that world they all became a technological race once
more. And their views were changed after they looked back at the hero that
changed the way all was seen by them.
The humans eventually came
to their planet bearing peace and sharing their views with the Lonescines. All
was great in their universe.
“Hey buddy, what World did
you change this time?”
“Oh some world called
Lonesince.”
“What did you do to change
it?”
“Merely I just changed
certain circumstances in which their world was supposed to end.”
“How many times have I told
you not to do that Lock?”
“Oh come on your always a
party pooper! You never let me have my fun anymore.”
“Well next time think of who
you might hurt okay?”
“Yes mother, I will.”