2199 Extinction

I Followed Them

              "Amancia?"

                 "Yes?"

                 "How did you get here? How did you find me?"

                    "After waking up under the tree, alone, I decided to follow the Talfarians. You kept talking about saving one of them, so I figured if I followed them, I would eventually find you, again. And I was right. As for finding you in this particular building, I just decided to search every building for any sign of you. I saw a strange creature leaving this building and decided to check out this building."

                  "Does that mean my mother and Malum are heading this way?"

            "I don't know where Malum is, but I do know that your mother and her entourage are on their way here. I saw her not too far away petting one of those Loftin things."

                "They are heading here?"

              "Looked like it to me." She says, shrugging her shoulders.

                    "That means Malum will be here, as well. We need to hide and make a quick plan. But first, lets shut and lock this door back." I say, following Amancia out of the room.

              "Why?" she asks, just outside the door.

                 "Hopefully Malum won't check it. Won't know anything is amiss. I don't need him paranoid, he's unpredictable enough, as it is. Wait. Hold on." I run back in the room, grab the journal, and jog back out. "Don't want to forget this."

                "What is that?"

              "Malum's journal. Apparently, he worked with the scientists that caused all of this." I hold my hands out. "And it will hopefully shed some doubt about him, in my mother's eyes." I check the handle on the other side of the door, no lock. Maybe that means it will lock automatically when I close the door. I close the door behind me, as I walk out, then turn around and rattle the handle. Good. It's locked.

                 "Okay. Whatever."

              "Let's go to the roof, and chat, before we get caught." We walk back to the entrance and towards the stairs that I saw earlier. Amancia stops at the table and picks up a square bag and slings it over her left shoulder.

                "What's that?" I ask.

               "Medical kit. You never know, right?" she asks, before climbing the stairs. I am at the bottom of the stairs, when I notice off to the right, a long table with a few scattered papers, and some pens on it. Inspiration strikes me and I grab a pen and write on the inside cover of the book.

                 To whom it may concern:

                   I'm not sure who is going to pick this up and read it, but I really hope it is you, Princess Nova. I shouldn't be telling you this, since our people don't even like each other. But I just had a baby and I'm feeling a little overjoyed. Having a baby is such a wonderful thing, it really changes how you see the world, the universe, and everyone in it. Having this baby has lit a fire in my heart, a fire to see our peoples reunited under one planet and one leadership. It was that way before and I hope it can be that way, again. But that's beside the point. Princess, please know that Malum is not your friend. He has hired the Copaie general, Soltig, to hunt you down. He hopes to use fear to divide you from the Talfarian named Henric. Do not fall for his tricks. He aims to steal your throne, have a child or two with you, and then kill you. You must be asking yourself why you should believe me. I know it's a lot to ask, for you to just blindly trust me. But I want you to know that I do hope that one day our people can be reunited, but I do not believe that will happen under the rule of Malum. Hate and fear are his weapons. Please take care, so that we may, one day, meet and reunite our people.

              Signed,

                Amancia Princess of the Copaie

                     There we go, maybe this will help her to believe how dangerous Malum really is. I leave the book and walk up the stairs to join Amancia. I am just starting to shut the door, behind myself, when I hear the front door open. I leave the door cracked and stare through the crack. The sound of four individual voices floats up to me on the rooftop. I can't tell what they are talking about, but they sound like they are arguing about something. I hear a familiar growling sound followed by a high-pitched chattering noise. What the heck is going on down there? I hear the voices moving closer to the stairs so I back away from the door and into someone. I spin around to find it's only Amancia.

                "You scared me to death. Why didn't you say something? Let me know you were there?" I whisper.

                  "Sorry, I didn't expect you to be sneaking around. I thought we were both coming up here. I got distracted, looking around and didn't notice you missing, at first. And then I was just curious what you were doing." She says, following my lead and also whispering.

               "I was leaving that journal for my mother to find and writing her a quick note."

                 "Why? She doesn't know who you are, yet."

                "No, but I needed to warn her about Malum. Don't worry, I didn't use my name. I used your name."

                     "Why would you do something as crazy as that?"

                "Call me sentimental, but it would be nice if we were able to unite our people's together. You know, live on the same planets. Not fight each other."

               "Sounds nice, but you do know that will never happen, right?"

                "It could." I pause a minute, listening. "I think someone is coming. We need to hide. Where can we hide?" I look around and see an elevator just past the door. That won't work. The elevator may not make it up here in time.

                 "Over here." Amancia says, grabbing me and pulling me down behind a short wall.

                      I duck down, just behind the wall when I hear the door slam open. I hope they didn't see me ducking back here.