(Bonus chapter for you guys! This chapter wasn't originally part of the book, but I decided to give you something special. I hope you all like it! I dedicate this chapter to Bailey 😊)
Two years ago.
Heva: Terilli
It was just like what I had seen from my dream.
What I had recorded after I had the dream, maybe three years or so back, was a surrounding of jagged black rocks, a grey emotionless sky above, and a frightening looking mouth in front of me gaping from the ground. A literal monstrous mouth. The curled lips seemed to melt into the rocks around them, and the slippery gums were a sickening pinkish grey color. It had yellowed fang-like teeth and hot breath poured out of it as a steam. It was as if the rocky ground as a monstrous being was finally gasping for air after years of holding its breath.
In my dream, I kicked a rock down into the mouth, and watched as the mouth sputtered and choked. That was all I could recall.
I knew from the moment I woke up that it was going to come true. It had that feeling to it—I called them my secret dreams—they didn't feel like normal dreams.
And... there I stood.
I didn't think this would be where the dream became real, but I usually didn't.
The jagged black rocks were porous and serrated, almost as if they were begging to puncture and tear into living flesh. The sky was overcast and bleak, matching the freezing temperatures of the day.
And in front of me was the mouth.
Of course it wasn't a real mouth; not like it had been in my dream. But it certainly looked like one. The two corners of the gaping slit were pinched together, and it opened up more on the far side. Along both sides of the maw, the black volcanic rocks pointed inwards like sharp teeth, almost surreally.
Out of the mouth came a fine steam, only just faintly visible. There was the sound of breathing too. It must have been a blowhole of sorts because I could hear air rush in and out methodically.
I don't know why this happened to me, why I could dream about events that I was going to experience. But that wasn't all. I could sense things too.
"It looks like a mouth." He said with a grin next to me.
I turned to look at Ked, wishing that he knew the significance of those few simple words. I hadn't told him about the dream. I never told anyone about my secret dreams.
Ked was not much bigger than me, same shade of dark blue, more lumpy than spherical, and the large tendriled feather emerging from his head was a deep dark brown with faint white stripes along the tips that only became noticeable further up.
That was his most handsome feature in my opinion, his feather. It always made me think of the skin of an island Karecevat; wild and boundless, yet gentle and soft. I never told him that though.
"...What?" He said with a confused smile, catching me staring at him.
I shrugged my small shoulders and looked away, blushing slightly. I hope he didn't notice. Then, fulfilling the dream, I kicked a small loose rock that was nearby into the mouth.
It knocked against other rocks several times as it fell, but eventually I heard the distinct plop of it hitting water. The small opening gurgled slightly as air rushed out of it.
"So... is this it, Hevapi?" Ked asked reservedly, glancing around. 'Hevapi' was the little nickname he had given me when we started dating. I thought it was cute.
We were out on a frozen lake, a little ways off the shore. The ice from the lake encased the demonic rocks surrounding us, reaching its frozen fingers around the small outcropping we now stood on.
I waited a moment, staring at the dark mouth as a puff of steam rose out of it. Then I nodded.
For as far back as I could remember, I had been interested in studying the different species of the Pentaverse. All of its beautiful diversity fascinated me deeply. I studied everything: from the thousands of diverse cultures, to the millions of tongue twisting languages. Everyone told me I studied too much, that I needed to take a break and live my life.
But this was my life. I loved all the fascinating details that made two species completely different, and then finding the simple things that made them mysteriously the exact same...
But as much as I loved studying species... I was fascinated even more with the paranormal.
There were only a handful of species that actually had beliefs and tales of ethereal beings existing after death, which made studying them a lot easier. There were tales of reanimated dead heads from the Brakina species, myths of fluorescent immaterial entities from the Dohaydos, the malicious poltergeists of the Humans, obscure records of invisible beings dwelling with the extinct Oidians, and...
...The treasure ghosts of the Strammarts.
I watched Ked as he looked back at the hole, examining its dangerous rock lining while anxiously shifting the weight of his little backpack hanging from his shoulders.
"Do we have to go down there?" He asked nervously.
I tensely eyed the hole, organizing my response thoughtfully. "I don't know if either of us will fit."
I dropped down to my belly, my thick clothing shielding me from the cold and the sharp rocks. I could see only part way down the hole, but from what I could see, there were no jewels or any other valuable objects.
"I don't see anything." I muttered, admittedly disappointed.
"We should have brought a light or something... why didn't I think of that?" He said, shaking his feather in the cold.
There was a Stramart story that told of a Stram that hid some stolen jewelry in a hole by a lake, and the Stramarts believed that evil spirits were attracted to lost treasures. Evil spirits that cursed anyone and everyone they encountered.
That's why we were here. Or at least, that's why I was here. I didn't actually care if I could see anything shining from the hole or not; hence why I did not bring a light. I didn't care to find a valuable gem.
I was here to catch a Stram Ghost.
I laid there silently, studying the darkness within the maw. "Can you get that little machine for me? The bubble one." I asked him softly, still keeping my eyes on the blackness.
His eyes widened as he slipped one strap off his shoulder and began rummaging around in the bag.
Maybe I should have been afraid of the ghosts. They did supposedly curse beings. But I never could let the fear overpower my drive. Life did not give us fear so that we could cower underneath it. Life gave us fear as a reminder that we were alive.
I stared into the pit's nonexistent face, feeling relatively warm air rush gently past me. The exhales from the mouth ruffled my feather and sent a tingling sensation down my little arms. Blackness. Dark. Shadowed. Endless? Did it ever occur to anyone that depth and death look almost identical? This is what I saw as I looked into the nothing.
'Nothing' was an interesting concept for me. Not that there was nothing that I found interesting, but that 'nothing' itself was interesting. As I stared intently into that mouth, I was looking at nothing. But that 'nothing' was a lie, a lie pulled directly in front of my eyes; everyone's eyes. For there was something in that deep pit, even though I couldn't see it. And that something, as long as nobody could see it, was anything and everything all at once.
I peered into that hole, searching the 'nothing', full aware that I actually was looking at something.
"Here it is, Hevapi!" He exclaimed proudly, holding a small wiry device above him.
I pried my eyes away from the immeasurable.
Ked was realigning his backpack and holding out the device to me. I took it from him and smiled.
The small mechanism was something I had bought from a self proclaimed Stram paranormal fanatic. The crazed Rapiki was a retired ghost hunter, eager to be rid of his old equipment, along with his past it seemed. This particular device was meant to coax the spirit, draw it into the open with a ethro-thermal pulse. Supposedly it gave a supercharged version of what the ghosts sensed from lost treasure. the device was round and solid, with large bundles of wires spewing from opposing sides. A transparent bulb filled with a light pink liquid was positioned on its face near the top, and a series of switches and dials lined its bottom.
I held the device cautiously over the hole and flipped its 'on' switch. A small green bubble in the midst of the pink liquid formed in the transparent bulb, and it started to make a rhythmic clicking vibration.
Ked shuffled nervously at my side. I don't think he was as fond of ghost hunting as I was, but he was always willing to follow me out on these adventures.
He was a good boyfriend. Not the best, but a good one.
I gazed harder into the pit, moving the small machine off to the side so that I could once again get a good view of its darkness.
I would like to think that the gaping maw was actually just a small opening to a chasmic abyss, a void that extended beyond anyone's fathom. But it probably wasn't. It was likely just a small blowhole that if looked at with a tilted head, seemed to remotely look like an open mouth.
As before, there was nothing I could see in the hole. And by my logic, there was everything I could see in the hole.
Suddenly there was a twitch that ran through me, originating from my sensitive feather that extended above my head.
Something was coming.
That was another thing that I had learned was unique about myself. Although all Terilli had long feather-like appendages that were sensitive to air currents, pressures, temperatures, and that sort of thing—my feather seemed to be able to pick up on other things. Things that were unforeseeable by everyone else.
I looked up from the hole, scanning the gray scenery around us.
"Ked." I said calmly, trying not to spur alarm. "We should leave."
He looked at me quizzically, as if not sure whether he should wait for me to explain myself, or ask me what I meant.
Then we heard it, the sound of a mechanical vehicle in the distance. I watched as Ked spun around, scanning the horizon for the origin of the soft buzz. It was definitely getting closer.
I looked back down, turning the device in my hand off with a quick snap of the switch. In the process, my eyes glanced back into the blackness of the mouth.
There was a pale face in the darkness staring back at me, its mouth with sharp teeth was closed and grinning and its eyes stared wide as if with wanton.
Then it was gone.
I had grown used to not jumping in fear or surprise in scenarios like that. But that didn't mean that it still didn't terrify me.
I picked myself off the black lava rock, never pealing my eyes from the dark opening where the face had been.
Then, after cautiously stepping back from the hole, I took my eyes away, finally freeing myself from its captivating trance.
I didn't have to look around to find the source of the approaching sound; Ked was already turned towards it.
I followed his gaze, studying the black shape that was slowly getting larger as it approached. It was moving across the frozen lake from the opposite direction we had come from. I could see several beings haphazardly hanging from its open frame.
Without a second thought I grabbed Ked's hand and pulled him onto the ice, in the direction away from the approaching vehicle.
"Pirates." I said quickly, maneuvering my body as swiftly as I could across the treacherous ice. Ked looked back over his shoulder at them and quickened his pace.
This was Gargro, another freeland planet mainly inhabited by Strams. Unfortunately, due to its outlying position in the Gallidon universe, it didn't get much attention from the PPF. It was a dangerous planet where outlaws and pirates were not as rare as they should be.
The sound of the vehicle was not too far from us now.
We dashed across the ice, moving as quickly as we could without letting gravity take advantage of us. Fortunately as Terilli, we were small and very close to the ground. That made it much easier to maneuver across the ice without slipping.
We were close to making it into the embracing cover of the blotchy alien woods at the edge of the lake, but the motorized vehicle was faster.
It skidded in front of us, stopping as two heavily scarred Strams hopped out of the open canvas-covered back end.
We slid to a stop, panting heavily as two more Strams climbed out and encircled us. Our breath cast small puffs of steam in front of us as we eyed the four approaching beings.
Strams were much bigger than Terilli, but that was the case with basically every other species. The shortest Stram of the three was still taller than mine and Ked's feathers. Their bodies were long with thick necks, two gangly arms sprouted from their sides and atop the thick neck was a round and squat head. They had six beady black eyes each, three making triangle shapes on the far sides of each head, and a large mouth clamped at the head's center. Probably the most notable feature about the Strams were their teeth. Their mouth was so full of razor sharp teeth that it pooled out of the front and sides of their mouths.
None of them were very impressive looking. Covered with scars and dressed in thick layers of bleached rags, they stunk of Laugémas Hulla. The two on the left side were pretty average sized, but the one on the right was tall and intimidating. I doubted any of them were actually good at fighting, but they had a big size advantage and neither I nor Ked knew how to fight either.
They sneered at us, keeping a fair distance as to rule out the possibility of us quickly slipping between one of their legs. One of them was brandishing a large sharp object, a makeshift shiv.
"You lil ones ou' trrrrrrrrreasure huntin'?" Smiled the middle one with the shank. His voice was sly and weaselly, and a little more higher pitched than I imagined it to be. He was pricking himself with the sharp end of his makeshift knife, as if the pain was entertaining to him.
"We're... out for a walk. Lost the path." Stammered Ked. He was kinda cute when he acted brave.
"Mmmmmmhhhmm an' what's you got in that pack? An' in your lil hand there?" He said with a slight sneer, gesturing to us with his tool. Ked and I were both familiar with the steps to these procedures. I myself had been robbed three times before.
Ked hesitated slightly, then slowly slid the backpack off his shoulders and held it out. The big Stram on the right side stepped up and snatched it. The guy then proceeded to empty its contents onto the ice in front of him.
Couple of pieces of food, a farming hexfade, a container of water, and a couple other paranormal devices.
"An' in your hand sweetie." Reminded the head Stram, eying me.
I had forgotten about the device I was holding. Without responding, I gently held it out to him.
"Mmmm drop it kiddo. An' kick it." The Stram said with a smile.
I did as he asked. It slid into one of his booted feet and he reached down and grabbed it.
"Hey what is chis rubbish?" Demanded the tall Stram at the side who had emptied the pack. His voice was much deeper and he talked with a slight impediment.
The Stram with the shiv handed the large weapon to the other Stram next to him, then spun the small device around in his hands repeatedly, examining it with squinted eyes. "Gun? Nahh..." He muttered, answering his own question.
"It's... ghost hunting." I mumbled quietly after a moment.
The head Stram looked down at me with wide disbelieving eyes. "Ghos??" He gawked.
The group was silent, then they broke out into reserved chuckles.
"Ghos." The Stram Said again, shaking his head. "Here, mmmmmate." He tossed the device to the tall Stram with the deeper voice, and then grabbed back his knife from the other.
The Stram with the deep voice began to pile the items back into the pack, including my mechanism that had just been tossed to him.
Suddenly in the far distance, I heard a PPF alarm sound shortly. The Strams heard it too, each of them lifting their heads in unison.
The alarm was not for them; it was too far away. Regardless, the four of them apathetically strode back to their black vehicle, hopping in with just as much vigor as they had hopped out with. Within moments the band was buzzing away with our possessions, the hum of their machine fading slowly into the icy distance.
Ked and I quickly made our way back through the woods and eventually to the safety of the uraban streets, and then to our individual homes.
I was slightly peeved that I had lost all my hunting devices that day, but I suppose it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened.
*************************************
It was only a few nights later that I had another secret dream. I dreamed I was in a peculiar looking cave, carved out as if with strange alien tools. A frighteningly large insect looking creature towered in front of me, rising up from beyond the edge of a cliff. There was something in the darkness of the cave that was invisible. That's all I could recollect.
These dreams always managed to surprise me. No matter how bazaar it seemed in the moment, when the dream later played out, it all made sense.
I made sure to record the dream thoroughly upon waking up.
The strange thing was, I never had another secret dream after that.