Astra sat in the light of a snapping fire, enjoying the stinging warmth as it pinched her skin. She leaned against a large stalagmite and stretched out her limbs. In front of her, Vojin placed more wood upon the flames—wood that he had collected from a thorn bush only an hour before.
The fire on this planet burned a little bit differently than it did on Earth. It seemed to produce very little smoke and though the tops of the flames were orange, the bottom of them glowed a shade of pale pink.
It was already dark in Pannotia and even darker in the cave to which they had walked deep enough into so that the light from the fire would not be seen from the outside by any curious eyes that passed by.
As soon as the sun had set, the land seemed to come alive. Every few minutes a distant howl or scream would echo through the canyon, bouncing off the walls and making it hard to tell which direction it was coming from or exactly how far away they were.
Where was Prosperine? She seemed so betrayed after she watched Sidero die. Would she come back here in the dead of night and kill them while they slept?
What did Sidero mean when he called her a virus? What was he intending to do with her? How was he planning on using her to open this gate and what would he do if he found out that she wasn't the key? She knew whatever it was, it was bad.
"Did you enjoy the food?" Vojin's voice snapped her from her thoughts.
She looked down at the remnants of plants she had just eaten. Her stomach was filled and her thirst quenched.
She nodded. "I am pretty sure that was about the best damn meal I have ever eaten. Thank you for gathering those for me. Where did you get them anyway? It seems so barren out here."
"It's only barren if you don't know where to look."
"Can I ask you something?"
"You can ask me whatever you want. It doesn't mean I will answer it but feel free to ask anyway."
"What did you mean when you said to that monster, not to touch what is yours? Am I your prisoner now?"
He rolled his twinkling eyes as he crossed his arms. "You do realize that we are not the monster? You are."
"That's ridiculous. I'm not a monster."
"To most of the species on Earth, you absolutely are."
"Well we are not on Earth so why would your kind see mine as a monster?"
"That is a long story. Your species is viewed as being one of the most evil in existence by even people on Pannotia. You are our biggest enemy."
"How did we become your enemy? We aren't even from the same planet."
"That is a story I will explain when it isn't this late at night," Vojin yawned. He morphed his body back into his original form. "Come here. You are safer if you remain close to me."
Her cheeks burned and eyes watered. Why did he change back? What was he planning?
"Why did you change form?" she asked as she touched the knife at her side.
Vojin rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Because you are not going to want to wait for me to change out of my human form if someone sneaks up on us at night. During the day, I can see any attacks coming. At night, I need to be prepared for the worst. If you stay close to me, I can protect you easier."
"Why are you protecting me?"
"Because you remind me of someone I used to know."
"Who?"
Vojin's eyes lowered. "Someone I lost long ago but if it's okay with you, I don't want to get into that."
"I understand, but how do I know you are not going to attack me? How do I know you are not just saying this to get me to put my guard down?"
"If I wanted to attack you, I would have already done it," Vojin replied as he rolled his massive body over on his side.
"How do you change form? Am I able to do that too now that I'm here? Is there a technology or something?"
"No, there is no technology to help," he chuckled. "I can shapeshift into whatever form I choose because of evolutionary traits. It's the perk of being a Besnik."
"A Besnik?"
"It's my species. Human's call us demons but we are actually called Besniks."
"You're a demon? If you are a demon and you live here," she could barely get out the last words, "Is this hell?"
"Hey," Vojin said with a gentle voice as his eyes softened. "Calm those thoughts. I am not a demon. Human's call us that because they slap a label onto anything they don't understand. This place is far too beautiful to have such a horrible name tied to it."
"But you're called a demon and I was always taught that demons live in hell and are evil. Are you telling me what I was taught was wrong?"
Vojin nodded his head. "Your religion has tarnished your mind. Just because you were taught something, doesn't make it true. You have to question the information that you are fed. Especially stories that have been told by power hungry men with political agendas, who use religion as a way to control the masses through fear."
"Does this mean there is no heaven or hell? Is there no God? Was everything I believed in, a lie?"
"There is eternal paradise and there is a place of punishment, but it is far different from the stories your species have come up with to explain the unexplainable and yes, there are higher beings. The place of punishment is a place of justice. The only evil that resides in that place comes in the form of those who are punished. Paradise, from what I have been told, is a place where those that are truly good reside. There are a few judges who determine who will go to which place."
"Are there demons who live there?"
"You could say that, but they are not evil. They are nothing more than justice seekers, making sure that no crime goes unpunished."
Shadows danced across the walls. The dark outlines created ominous shapes, far bigger than the objects that stood in the way of the light. Though the hot fire reached its flames up to the ceiling of the cave, she felt cold.
"This all makes no sense to me. You are telling me that you are called a demon, but you are not a demon and that is just something that religions have come up with. Then you tell me that there are demons, but they are not bad. So, what part did religion come up with if demons exist?"
Vojin smiled, "Come here, lay down and I will tell you what you want to know. Consider it a bedtime story."
She squinted her eyes and crossed her arms. "What am I, five now?"
"No, but you're going to be sleepy like a five-year-old by midday if you don't start resting soon."
She sighed and walked over to the beast. Curling up in a ball, she leaned against his stomach and put her cheek on his chest. His warm heat throbbed against her face, bringing her a strange sort of comfort.
"Okay, now explain," she said with a yawn.
"There are certain species here that watch humans through a different plane of existence. It is parallel to your own. When religion first began on your planet, mankind thought that these creatures who came in the form of shadows, were demons. They were not. They were watchers.
"Religion was formed to explain the unexplainable and to control others through fear. It had very little to do with being a good person and more to do with creating a nation of individuals who would do what their leaders commanded. They wanted them to think the way their leaders wanted them to think, using the crutch of a religion to enforce these views and laws. No matter how heinous the commands would become, people felt justified to do the unjustifiable just because they believed their 'god' told them to do it."
Astra woke to a soft nudge on her shoulder. She curled her nose as the aroma of something sweet caressed her senses. The cave was dimly lit by a small crack found on the top of the ceiling, close to her head. Her legs felt warm now that they were close to the smouldering ashes of what was once a fire. She looked into the dark eyes of the one who'd saved her. He was squatting in front of her with a round, prickly fruit in his hand.
Astra rubbed her eyes, trying to get them adjusted to the dim light of the cave. All around her, stalagmites and stalactites clung onto the surfaces. Each formation slowly fed the other with small droplets of mineral rich water. There were some that had become thick columns, while others looked more like tiny spikes clinging onto the walls.
"I know you're used to eating breakfast, so when you were sleeping, I dug this up."
"How did you know that I eat breakfast?" she wearily asked before she took the food from his fingers. Her stomach grumbled.
"Because I have studied your kind."
Shrugging her shoulders, she smiled, "Learn anything interesting?"
"Only that you are a weird species."
She chuckled, "How so?"
"Well your species likes to decorate beaches, forests, and virtually anything that is naturally beautiful, with trash. You enjoy sitting in front of a box containing flashing lights for hours, watching other people's lives, instead of going out and living your own life. You eat virtually anything that is edible, even at the cost of your own health. Every year you make a list of goals on the first of the year but never seem to follow through with those goals, and in your culture, you ask people how they are doing but most of the time, don't even mean it. It's just a weird way of saying hello and if anyone answers the question honestly, things get awkward."
"First of all, there is nothing more relaxing than to watch other people's fake lives unleash their drama onto other people on the television. Second of all, my new year's goal this year was to lose five pounds and exercise more often and I am pretty sure that by the end of this "vacation," I will have met both of those goals. For the rest of the stuff you mentioned, I have no excuses for those. We are kind of weird."
"See? That's what I mean. You are a strange species," he chuckled.
She sank her teeth into the surface of the fruit, enjoying the sweet and tangy taste that burst into her mouth. It was by far the best fruit she'd ever had.
Pulling off some of the juicy flesh, she handed it to Vojin. "I don't want you to be hungry."
"Thank you," he smiled. "But I rarely ever need to eat. You on the other hand, require regular feedings."
"Well you are missing out. This fruit tastes like the love child of a strawberry and a kiwi."
"What?"
"Only the two best fruits on my planet."
Wiping the juices from her jaw, she slurped up the remaining fruit before setting down the seed. Vojin immediately picked up the seed, dug a small hole in the ground and buried it.
"What did you do that for?"
"Why waste a seed? The next person who spends the night in this cave might be hungry. I want to make sure that they are fed too." She smiled as she looked at the man in front of her. "What's that smile for?" he asked with a twinkle in his eyes.
"No reason," she shrugged, hiding behind her hair as she looked down at the ground where the seed was buried.
Vojin and Astra walked for hours through the maze of the canyon. The air was hot but not as hot as it was yesterday. She wiped the sweat off her brow as she looked up at blue heavens cut in half by the thick lines in the sky.
"Are those rings?"
Vojin glanced up. "Yes, they are."
She thought of her father. What was he doing? Was he okay? She couldn't imagine that he was, and the thought of how distraught he must be, made a pain shoot through her stomach.
"Vojin," she said as she nibbled on her lip and looked at him.
Vojin turned his head and raised his brow. "What is it? Are you okay?"
Astra's heart sank even lower as she thought about her father. Did he think she was murdered? She imagined him finding a way to contact her uncle and rushing to her apartment, only to find an empty room. Would he feel guilty? Would he blame himself for her death the way she blamed herself for her mother's death? It was hard enough for him to lose someone he loved so dearly but now his daughter too? She needed to get back home. She needed to let him know she was still alive.
"I think my father thinks I was murdered," she said, touching her chest as she tried to find the right words to say.
"I am sorry to hear that. I know from experience how hard it is to go through life knowing that you lost a loved one. This must be very painful for him."
"I'm sure it is. But he doesn't have to live with that pain if there is a way back for me. Is there a way I can get back home?"
"Yes, but I have to figure out a safe way to get you back. Right now, it's too dangerous for you out here. That is why we need to get you to a safer area first. I'll leave you with my friend. He is the one person I trust the most on this planet. I know he'll care for you like you were his child and will protect you, even at the cost of his life. That's where we are heading."
"Wait, you're leaving me with a stranger?" Her jaw clenched so tightly, she thought her teeth would crack.
"I am bringing you to my friend who I trust. You have nothing to fear, I promise."
"You told me not even to trust you and now you're telling me that I'm about to be given up. How do I know you aren't going to give me to the people who kidnapped me in the first place?" Her fingers shook as she thought back to Prosperine. Though Sidero was dead, she wasn't sure how many others were searching for her and planning on bringing her to Cadoc.
"If I wanted to give you back to the people who took you in the first place, why would I kill one of them? I would have just let him take you. That would have been easier for me."
She nodded her head. "I'm sorry, I'm just on edge."
"And I want you to stay that way. You can't trust anyone, not even if they look like you. I want you to live. I want to help you get back home."
"So how am I going to get back home? What do you need to figure out?"
"There is a door on the other side of the world. It's a pretty long journey and a dangerous one too. I need to figure out how to get you there alive and undetected, but that's the easy part. The difficult part comes with getting you through the door undetected and finding an opening that will allow you to cross over from our planet onto yours."
"Has anyone ever found an opening?"
"A few have, which is why you have stories like Medusa. The stories of myths claiming monsters once were or are roaming the lands, are just lost people trying to find their way back home."
She chuckled and raised her brow. "So, you are telling me that a woman with snakes on her head was a real thing?"
"She didn't have snakes on her head, but I can see why people would have thought that since her hair looked similar to it. The story behind her was made up but she was not," Vojin sighed. "She was actually a sweetheart. Unfortunately, she was murdered by your people."
"According to the legend, she turned people into stone. That doesn't sound like a sweetie to me," she shrugged.
"The legend was not entirely wrong, but the real story was twisted to make her look like a villain when she was actually the victim."
"How so?"
"She was just studying mankind and she accidentally fell through an opening which quickly closed up behind her as soon as she fell through. I was there, but on the other side. I tried to help her get out by finding another one. Openings are very rare and difficult to determine when and where they will happen." Vojin looked off into the distance. "I couldn't get to her in time."
"What was she like?" she wondered. "What happened to her?"
"She was a peaceful person, a good mother, and loyal to those she loved. Despite the distain that so many have for mankind, she was not one of them. Medusa believed that mankind had good in them, despite their evil tendencies. She felt as though they were misunderstood.
"When she fell through the opening, she fell into a busy market square. She tried to calm the people down around her, but they started screaming that she was a creature of hell. When they became aggressive, she became afraid and ran.
"She was hunted down like a wild animal and her last defence was to turn some of her attackers temporally into stone. But there were too many of them and they ripped her apart using animals as weapons. When they were done with her body, they cut off her head and gave it to the king. He preserved it in cedar oil to display as a bragging right."
"Why did they kill her if she wasn't harming anyone?"
"Because humans on Earth would kill anything that they are not comfortable looking at or being around, no matter the innocence," Vojin replied. "Even their own kind."
Astra gazed upon the walls of the canyon as they climbed up a mountain slope. The red rocked walls had given way to green vines, bushes and trees. It had taken a few weeks before they finally got to this lush area. All around her, ancient trees with thin curling bark and a dense canopy loomed over her head, protecting her from the sun's harsh rays. Below her, an emerald ribbon of water curled through the gorge, drinking from the white waterfall tumbling from the heavens.
During the day, they traveled through the twisting paths of the canyon. As soon as the night fell upon the land, they would find a place to sleep for the night. Sometimes it was behind a large rock, while other times it would be in a cave.
For the most part, they didn't cross any other dangerous creatures. When they did, they would hide behind a boulder until it passed, before continuing down their path.
Astra's legs ached from traveling up and down the steep terrain. Her swollen feet begged for a full day's rest but Vojin wouldn't allow it.
"You'll be there soon enough and then you can rest for a few weeks. My friend will take good care of you." He smiled and shook his head.
There were times he took pity on her and would morph back to his original form when he saw her begin to limp. He would wipe his healing blood over her blistered feet and allow her to climb on his back for an hour or two while he walked, just to give her a moment's rest.
"Am I too heavy? If I am, I understand. My feet are fine now that you healed them. I'm a bit tired but I can walk."
"No, you're not too heavy and you need to rest a bit before you continue by foot," he nodded.
Astra rocked back and forth as Vojin climbed up the mountain. Closing her eyes, she felt a cool breeze gently push her hair behind her shoulder. To get a moment's rest felt like heaven to her aching muscles.
Gazing up at the canopy, she saw small creatures with a hooked face and bulbous eyes, jumping from limb to limb, watching them from above. They chattered to each other in a strange tongue, nodding their heads before hiding behind clusters of golden leaves.
"Are these creatures dangerous," she asked as one of them pushed another off their branch.
"No. They are talkative but never dangerous. In fact, they have no idea what kind of a creature you are. They are not the most intelligent beings and though they have been exposed to the war, they still don't understand it."
"What war?"
Vojin abruptly stopped and twisted his head to the side, glaring at the sky with hollow shark eyes. She gazed down at the beast she sat upon. Vojin's neck cracked. His lips raised above his serrated teeth. For a moment he looked like a statue carved by the hands of Lucifer.
"Get off of me," he growled.
Quickly, she slid from the side of his back. "Did I do something wrong? Should I not have asked about the war? I'm sorry if I offended you or—"
"Shut up," he snarled as he turned to face her. "Do not say another word. Do you hear me?"
She nodded her head. Was this it? Was this the moment he turned on her? With shaking fingers, she slid her hand into her pocket and felt the handle of the weapon.
Astra wasn't sure if she was ready to use this and to use it against someone she thought was her ally. It felt unnatural. Would she hit him in his temple in time? She knew he was able to move with blinding speed and now that he was already in his natural form, there would be little chance she would move quickly enough to even make a paper cut upon his flesh.
"Get your hand out of your pocket and leave the weapon there until you absolutely need it," the beast took a step towards her.
She took a step back, raising her hands in the air to show that she was unarmed. "Please. Please don't hurt me."
"When I tell you to run, I want you to run. Run as fast as you can up this mountain and to the other side. Do not look back, no matter what you hear." As Vojin spoke, droplets of poison flew from his lips, blackening the leaves of the plants in front of him. "I will find you. Stay hidden. Stay safe and follow the brightest star in the sky. It will get you to where you need to be."
"Hello Vojin," Prosperine said in a bone chilling voice behind Astra.
"Run." As the words left Vojin's lips, the beast jumped over her head, colliding with the monster behind her.
Her heart lurched in her throat as the mixed sound of roaring and screaming exploded in the air. As she rushed up the mountain she heard the cracking of a tree as the monsters slammed into its bark. With a thunder, the tree came tumbling down, its canopy scratching the back of her legs. That was close, too close.
"Don't look back," she repeated to herself like a mantra while begging her aching body to move faster. Ducking under another branch, she took a fast turn, jumping over the roots of a tree as she continued to run up the mountain.
Astra couldn't move fast enough. She could see the peak of the mountain beckoning her to come to it, reaching its arms out like a mother to her child.
Her legs flew across fallen logs. She ducked underneath low hanging branches, before she jumped over several large rocks. Her screaming mind silenced her lips, only allowing the sharp wind of her gasping breath to rush in and out of her.
She pushed herself onto a rock and climbed the large stones as fast as she could. The sun attempted to light her path, brightening itself as a cloud moved away from its yolk body.
Crossing over the peak, she weaved between trees and stumbled over stones before making her way down a thin path. Though the sounds of the beasts fighting grew fainter, she felt as though they were just as loud as when they had first begun.
She felt the sting of the bark as she scraped by a tree and the ache of her lungs as they sucked in another mouthful of air. Her head swung behind her. There was nothing but forest and it was in that moment she regretted not listening to Vojin's warning, to not look back.
Her body twisted, then her foot slipped out from underneath her. It was in that moment that time seemed to slow down. She felt her body fall backwards and the sensation of the wind ripping through her hair. She felt the way the air rushed between her fingers as she grabbed onto nothingness and the way her muscles stretched around her bulging eyes. For a moment, she could have sworn her heart stopped beating, until the wind was punched from her lungs by the rocks her body bounced off of.
She tried to scream but not a sound came from her lips. She tried to grab onto the ground to slow herself down but felt her nails instantly bend back, ripping from her tender nail bed. She was falling down the mountain and could hardly slow herself down.
"OH GOD, OH GOD!" her mind shrieked repeatedly.
Finally, with a firm THUD, her body skidded to a stop. A puff of dust circled around her while coating her body with its residue. She lay on her back, trying to catch a breath of air, which proved to be difficult to do as her lungs no longer wanted to fully inflate.
"Astra... Astra," the sound of her mother's voice whispered through the wind forcing her eyes to flutter open, but she was greeted by only the sight of the sun shining through the brown branches of a tree.
She lay on the dirt ground which was scattered with sticks and rocks. They poked into her soft flesh. The leaves of the tree danced in the wind as it pushed the thin branches back and forth. As it did so, tiny beams of light opened and shut, leaving an abstract design on the ground.
Her temples throbbed. Every muscle in her body felt like it had been forced through a grinder. Slow and shallow, her breath slipped from her nostrils while her fingers and eyelids were the only things she could move.
"Hey over here!"
Faintly she heard a male voice fading in and out with the breeze. She wanted nothing more than to turn her head so she could see who this person was, but she found that her muscles refused to cooperate. Now more than ever, even doing the simple task of opening her eyes had become a challenge.
"Alek! Get over here! I found her, and she's really hurt!" the voice called out in a slightly scratchy tone.
She looked up and saw the blurry outline of what she could have sworn was a man. Was this another Besnik who had changed form?
"What's wrong with her? Did they attack her?" Another voice responded with urgency. "Should I grab the herbs?"
"Grab everything," he desperately replied as he bent down and tended to her wounds.
Even though he was close to her, he sounded as if he was miles away. From the little bit that she could see, she could tell he was tall with a muscular build and pale skin. For some reason his eyes looked unnaturally large and dark but she couldn't quite tell if that was just her blurred vision fooling her.
She closed her eyes and felt the sensation of warm blood trickling from her nostril and down her lip as the vibration of another pair of footsteps approached. Who were these people and what did they want with her?
"Oh God, oh God," she faintly heard the voice of another man seep into her ears.
"Alek, this doesn't look good, look at this... When I pull apart her eyelids, the whites of her eyes are red," he said with distress, before her consciousness faded into the darkness.