From the train terminal, Delah left Teeabu behind. She cut through the parkway where the hydro-lifts and buses waited for passengers. Sprinting across the road to the hills, she headed northwest. She passed some dead trees, ran through wheat and cornfields. Looking both ways for traffic, Delah ran to the other side of a small dusty two-way road that led to her home.

Cornstalks, twice her height, gave way as she thrust them aside. Some ears of corn looked ready to pluck and would be a good meal. She picked a few and headed towards the clearing just ahead. She skipped past the orchard of crystalline trees, which she cherished in contrast to the stark brown dead ones. A crystal-like covering protected them against the fire and rain. Waiting for them to bloom was like waiting for a watched pot of Reedpod to boil. The beautiful clear flowers with a hint of pink in the center would blossom on the trees weeks before the fire and rain. After jogging a mile north, she finally made it to the small shack. Her haven, the little shack where her secret, someone or something not of her world, waited for her.

Like the dead trees, the weathered brown shack in the clearing added a rugged texture to the beautiful green rolling hills.

She let herself in through the little door. Inside the windowless shack, gaps in the Reedpod-resin coated planks let in the sunbeams to light her way. This was her hideaway near home.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark, revealing shadows and movement under the chaff across the shack. She saw it bustling to her, fuzzy with tan hair and huge eyes, dark amber and round.

Her guest had appeared here two days ago.

Delah put the ears of corn on the floor and plopped down in a mound of hay, holding out her arms. The creature leaped into her lap and gurgled, sputtered. She bent her face to it to cuddle and her long hair enveloped the creature. It batted its paw at her long tresses. She giggled.

“You know what?” Delah said, talking to the creature. “I have to get back before I’m too late for dinner. But I‘ve got a surprise for you. My cousin, Teeabu….” She trailed off watching the creature’s eyes and its little round mouth mimicking her words. Its round ears and two antennas perked up as she spoke.

“Do you know what I’m saying?” The creature kept pursing its lips after she spoke.

“Maybe not.” She’d spent so much time alone, it would be nice to have someone around. Now she had this little creature to converse with, and she enjoyed her animated audience.

“Teeabu has promised to meet you.” Delah picked up an ear of corn and peeled the husk away. “I’ve got something for you to eat. I think you’ll like this. You won’t like what I’ll have for dinner.” She wrinkled her nose and contorted her face. “Ugh, can you imagine eating boiled Reedpod leaves? Every time I turn around, my mother always cooks Reedpod into some dish that’s boiled, baked, fried, grilled, whipped, or liquefied. It’s not like this corn.” She scraped some kernels easily off with her fingers as if they were cooked. “Mom always likes me to grate the corn for dinner. I’m her little professional corn scraper. That’s what she says.”

The creature gently picked some kernels out of her hand and nibbled on them. “I’m glad you’re enjoying the corn. Well, imagine dark, crusty, and sometimes slimy stuff you have to eat. That’s Reedpod. It tastes bitter and sweet. I like the meat pies, though. Delah imitated her mother’s voice by lowering hers. My mother says, ‘It’s because we love you, my dear. This will keep you healthy and strong. You’ll even be blessed with long life.’”

She groaned. “I hope she’ll cook something good tonight.”

“Click, click…arghma…” the creature squeaked.

“Are you trying to say something?” Delah asked. It put a paw in hers and sat contentedly, nodding its head up and down.

“You’re smart for a…a…I don’t know what to call you.” Delah petted the creature’s head. “Here, take some more” She unpeeled another cornhusk and wondered where Teeabu was. She rose from the hay that covered the floor. Her eyes caught the chaff dancing from a vibration she hadn’t heard before. The humming grew louder shaking the shack. The creature let out a freakish scream that pierced her ears, and it bolted to the opposite side of the room. The vibration kept growing until she felt her body and everything in the shack flail in a deafening explosion.

Delah wanted to hide under the straw like her little friend, but crawled to the door and jarred it open enough to peek out. The door crashed open and smashed into her face. She reeled backwards, the fall nearly knocking the wind out of her. Blinding light from the sun streamed through the doorway and a silhouette stood above her. It blurted something out, nudging her legs with a long instrument.

●

Teeabu leaped into the gray two-seater hydro-lift with the canopy down, parked in the four-column port attached to their home. He jammed the card-key into a small slot to the right of the steering gear. He stepped on the throttle and gripped the wheel. It wasn’t long before steam ejected from the chassis and the engine hummed. Teeabu backed out of the drive port and sped down the road.

He bit his lip and patted the dashboard while listening to fast music that pushed him on. His long single braid came loose in the rushing wind as he peeled back the ebony strands that flapped around his eyes. The wind whistled, chanting him to go faster, faster to find Delah. If the situation didn’t call for him to take this vehicle, he wouldn’t have.

Disregarding the ramifications of driving under age and without an adult, he zipped past scattered Reedpods on both sides of the road. His hydro-lift zoomed by acres of corn and wheat. With the need to speed above fifty miles per hour, he bobbed his head to the beat, drumming his right hand on the dash.

The beautiful day belied his troubles. Brilliant blues knifed the sky, tipped with a hint of orange. In the distance, to his right, behind the corn and wheat fields, dead trees littered the base of hills rolling by, slowly. As Teeabu drove east, the Algathgama snow-capped mountains stood strong, guarding the northeast horizon. It wouldn’t be long before he reached where Delah was. Another minute and he’d park the hydro-lift, turn on the security lock, and run through the corn and wheat fields for a few minutes until he reached the clearing.

Steam and dust from the eastern wind blew against the vehicle. He didn’t think to bring up the canopy as the dirt blew onto the seats. There wasn’t any time to worry about minor pet peeves. He looked up and shielded his eyes from the sun. With a sky like that, Teeabu couldn’t help but admire Adoini’s hand in his creation.

Teeabu gazed at something moving fast in the atmosphere.

At first the six dots appeared like tiny bugs flying against the stark blue.

They enlarged too quickly as they flew west toward Irema. Teeabu squinted at the sun and slowed down to a normal speed. A loud crack filled the air and startled Teeabu, jumping out of the hydro-lift seat. A ring of clouds evaporated from around the six massed balls that separated and flew into different directions.

Whoa! What‘s it doing?

He kept driving down the road. One came streaking toward him, close enough to see the red strip of light volley the circumference of the ship.

Ships? Araidian spaceships!

It looped around and a yellow beam struck near the hydro-lift, hitting some of the corn crop to his right. The stalks flared up. Dust and yellow streaks plumed around him. Teeabu heard a sizzle from below the chassis that took his attention from the ship. He wasn’t hanging around with this threat over him. No time to think, he floored the throttle and tightly gripped the wheel. Within seconds, the hydro-lift sped faster down the road through the pall of smoke.

Again, the terrible hum came up behind his rear, vibrating through his skin. After a second when he looked up, it skirted the rear and hung in the sky in front of him, flying in reverse and matching his speed. Huge, wide as the road, it took up five feet of the fields on either side. An ebony carapace that shined like glass watched him. The red eye bounced back and forth on its thin track around the ship. Teeabu had heard of the captured, the slaves, and death. He’d heard of Araidia’s cruelty. He pressed on, not stopping.

Breathe now. Die later.

With fierce determination, Teeabu sped ahead and a deafening boom from the beam’s impact on the road threw his hydro-lift into the air. He was airborne in the vehicle. A sensation of the orange-tipped sky rotating around Teeabu from the spinning hydro-lift made him nauseous. Spiraling in midair a few times, it crashed landed on its side and sent Teeabu flying out of the lift onto the road. Grit, blood, heat choked him. He rolled over, pounding away the dying flames on his chest and arms.

Boom! Again, the ground trembled. He looked toward the sound and the beam pulverized Yutva’s hydro-lift, bursting into flames.

Teeabu covered his eyes while black smoke and fire erupted. Shrapnel flew in his direction from the final explosion. One side of metal panel nearly cut his head as it flew toward him. He rolled on the ground, afterwards covering with hands over head. Ringing, the ringing in his ears wouldn’t stop. He felt a warm fluid stream down his cheek. Touching his temple with his fingers, he looked and saw the rich red fluid on them. Finally the ringing subsided. A few pops emerged from the destroyed hydro-lift and muffled noises in the distance sounded. He got up and brushed off his linen tunic, riddled with black holes. That fast, the ship had gone. Standing there alone, shaking, he thanked Adoini the flames hadn’t penetrated his tunic top.

In the distance toward Irema, he could see large clouds of black and gray smoke rise from the hillsides. His home Irema was under attack. Delah could be in trouble.

He had a job to do, to get her out of danger. Running in the direction of the shack, he cut through the cornfields leaping, jumping and sprinting like madman. He didn’t look back.