Star Side

Chapter 55

"Jolene comes from the sky," Gilrack told him.

Hochak spat something that couldn't be anything by profanity. He said something about children stories and not being real.

"She is real. We have children."

Hochak stopped and twisted around, eyes bulging. The spikes on his tail actually clicked on the walls. He whistled through his fangs in what I knew was basically, 'no way.' It was their utmost sound of disbelief. Gilrack had been nothing but fang whistles when we'd cracked open the inner workings of the space station to him.

I almost expected Gilrack to ask me to zip open my suit and show him, but Gilrack only fluttered his wings as much as he could in the small space and grunted at Hochak to keep moving.

Hochak kept trying to peek back at me through my helmet as he walked, but I don't know how much he got. The outside of the helmet had the same reflective, one way coating that the windshield of the life pod had. Only took one time for solar rays unhindered by an atmosphere to fry your eyeballs.

"Is he your friend?" I asked.

"He is my brother," said Gilrack, with a tone of fondness. "We were in the same brood."

"Huh. He seems like a dork."

Gilrack did his purr-rumble chuckle, attracting Hochak's peepers once again. At this rate the poor guy was going to walk into a wall.

It had actually been Naomi who had taught Gilrack what 'dork' meant.

"He is that," said Gilrack. "But good. Our brood watch this particular tunnel." He paused. "It was my youngest brother who...killed your fellow."

Ah. Good man, Gilrack, getting that out of the air before I could start questioning it.

Hochak chattered his curiosity. At Gilrack's translation, Hochak gave an offended squawk and stopped completely to once more turn around and puff up his narrow chest, which he pounded. It sounded like a meat mallet hitting wood.

"I mighty," he said. "Great predator. Never reveal my neck."

It was what Gilrack always said whenever he described what he was trying to be.

Gilrack huffed out of his nose and kicked a loose pebble, which bounced on Hechek's chest.

"Move," he clicked.

Hochak gave their version of a pout, which was all in the droop of the ears and rounding of the eyes, before once more turning and plodding on.

It wasn't long after that Hochak's green glow began to gave way to something much purer and brighter.

I straightened up, eager to get my first sight of real light.

And then, we were around the bend, and light filled the world, glittering in a plethora of colors beyond the shades of the rainbow.

"Jo," Gilrack murmured. "My city."

It definitely looked like it had been carved from the insides of the mountain. The span of the city was monolithic to the point the distant lights and rounded 'buildings' were blue and blurry, like distant hills. Several spiraling colums, like one would imagine at the center of an ant hill, spanned the height of the chamber sporadically, though with some sort of pattern in mind. Sprinkled along the walls and floors were rounded dwelling places, glittering with windows and decorations of glowing color, and some of the largest carved stone places had balconies, where I could see figures moving or watching the traffic below them. The streets were not straight through affairs, but winding veins branching up and up until you got to the far off distant ceiling, where the lights grew more sparse.