Broken Earth: Unveiling the Secrets of the Worlds

Elves and Humans Part II

Xerxes woke up early in the morning and saw that there were no attacks from the beetles. “Good morning Mr. Xerxes.” Flora greets him and the young man also greets her back. “You got up early, fortunately there was no attack so everyone was able to rest well. Your men have already scouted the area, the man named Rupert, was it? What is he doing? He is holding some kind of a book and a pen.” Flora ask.

Xerxes smiles when he realize that Rupert have made it into his habit to take notes of things that he deemed important. “We were trying to make some safe route as our mission but we end up staying here. I’m sure he is documenting everything.” Flora tilts her head and that’s when Xerxes realize that they may not know what documenting means, so he explains it in an easy way to understand.

“He is keeping record of things. There was a certain time that I had him record the monsters to make my people aware of them and after that he does it regularly whenever we enter the portal.” Xerxes finally sees that Flora understood it quite well. “The elf leader woke up early as well. He ask me if they can bring bits of the beetles, he said that he wants to present the monster to his chief and when I gave the okay, he immediate ordered some of his men to bring at least a part of a whole beetle.” Xerxes looks around and sees that the bodies are compiled in a certain place.

“What do you suggest that we do with the corpses Mr. Xerxes?” Flora ask him. “That depends on what your chief wants to do. We can just burn it or some thing but their armored limbs can also be used as armor.” He turns to her and ask what does she want to do with the bodies. “I don’t have much experience in such things so I don’t really know. Of I should guess, I would do as you suggested.” Xerxes looks at her suspiciously and sigh.

 “Flora, you are the chief of this tribe right?” she froze the moment she heard Xerxes’ question. “Why are trying to hide it? That person that introduce herself as the tribe chief. What was the point of all of it?” Flora could not answer and just turn to him with a teary face.

Xerxes then takes out the trinket in his pocket and realized something. “Don’t tell me, the man that had given me this is the chief.” After saying those words. Flora burst into tears and there, she told him everything.

“We tried to rescue him a lot of times. But we were unsuccessful, the tribe is on its last knees only a few weeks after our chief is captured, knowing that the tribe will die off without a leader, they chose me. As my grandfather’s successor, the closest and the only person that taught me everything that I need to know about leadership. All the things that I learn, the things that gave us the ability to survive. All of those originated from him, that’s why his death is a great loss for us. That time when you and Casim brought down that giant, it feed us for many days. We were so grateful that we no longer have to risk our lives to hunt for food but the greatest gift you gave us is when you told us that my grandfather died after you rescued him.”

“We were grateful that you were able to rescue him from that place and gave him a peaceful death. “ Flora continues to cry. Xerxes embraces Flora as his only way to comfort her. “I’m really sorry that I am not able to bring him back. He said that he is contented that he is able to get out and breathe fresh air. And moments later, he breathe his last. I though he still has the will to return home because he doesn’t look too weak. His death surprised not just me but those two as well. They saw him move like any normal person even though his constitution is not in the best condition.” Xerxes tells her the entire details before he died while combing her hair with his hands.

“He was masking his weakness, he is not the type of person to show others his weak side. Whenever he gets sick, he will not allow a person inside his room, we did not see him sick our entire lives.” Xerxes then breaks away from Flora and offers her the trinket that belongs to her grandfather.

“You should have this back. It was yours from the beginning. That person, she introduce herself as the chief in order to protect you right?” Xerxes smiles and place the trinket in her hand and folds it. “Don’t cry too much, it will ruin your beauty.” Xerxes hands her a handkerchief before leaving to look for his friends. “If you’ll excuse me miss chief, I’ll go look for those idiots. Who knows what trouble them might cause if left alone.”

Flora stares at his back as he walks into the woods. Xerxes looks around and sees that the two are looking at the creature that he took down when he saved the little girl. “Strange isn’t it? I have not seen a creature like that at all. It looks like two different creature merged together.” Xerxes said while Rupert draws the creature’s appearance.

“Good morning master, yes, strange indeed. It has the wings of a bat but the face of something that I can’t recognize at all.” Rupert says with squinted eyes. “Is this perhaps a sign that a new type of creature is surfacing? First the behemoths and the beetles, and now this. You are right master, something is happening inside the portal.” He added. “Master, I was not able to ask you this yesterday, did see weapon work?”

Xerxes smiled when he hears what concerns Ramirez and smiled. “Yeah, it’s only a bit stronger than a flintlock in short range but it works. It pierce the beetles armor easily. The only problem that I had was the limited bullets. We did not create more because this is just a test run but when we get back, I will personally make a lot, and when I mean a lot, I mean a lot.” The excitement on Ramirez’s face can’t be hidden and shows on his face.

Then Rupert’s inspection on the creature’s corpse resulted with a strange finding. “Master, looks like this creature is wounded and was flying away from something when you shot it down or maybe even before the day yesterday. The legs are quite dislocated and there are strange scratches on some part of its body aside from the gun shot wound.” The news surprised Xerxes and Ramirez.

“If these creatures that we have not seen decide to appear that even the natives here doesn’t even know of, then something is wrong inside the portal. What do you think made the monsters show themselves like this?” Rupert closes his book and turns to his master. “I think I need to ask them about it in the meeting. And we need to hold the meeting right now.” Rupert nod his head and follows Xerxes back to the tribe.

“Yusaf, have you seen your friend Xerxes?” Yusaf shakes his head and approach his brother who seems to be conflicted after he order the others to return first and show the chief the monster that they fought with. “Is there a problem?” Yusaf ask with a concerned tone. “Nothing much, I’m just curious. Does the weapon he used creates scratches like this?” Flugar shows what he means to Yusaf who strongly deny that the pistol can make a scratch mark like that.

“This is not the scratch that a bullet can make, this is much larger and sharper, like a claw or something.” Yusaf says after inspecting the scratch on the beetle’s back. “What kind of creature would prey on something like this?” Yusaf could not give his brother a definite answer since he doesn’t know it himself. All of the sudden when the two are wondering what kind of creature attacked the beetle, Faras appears and tells them that Xerxes asked for an emergency meeting.

The two brothers then immediately walk fast to where they are gathered. “What is the meeting all about?” the older woman continues to act like she is the chief and Xerxes finds this funny but that is not the time for jokes, a more concerning thing is on his mind. “Lets just wait for Yusaf and his older brother first.”. And right at that moment when he speak those words, they arrived in the room.

“Now that everyone is here, I want to tell you all that the creature that I took down yesterday have signs that it has been attacked by something. We don’t know what kind of creature attacked it and basing that it was a flying creature, the creature that tried to take it as its food is also a flying monster. The sky is no longer safe.” Xerxes words made them think of their safety but due to the lack of evidence, some of the native humans slightly believe him. Flugar raise his hand and tells them his findings as well.

“Now that its come to this, I also want to tell everyone. Some of the beetles that we killed have some signs of being attacked as well. I know Mr. Xerxes’ weapon can kill them so I asked my brother if the things I saw were achievable with the use of the weapon and he strongly denies it so I want Mr. Xerxes to confirm this.” Flugar signals the other elves to place the limb of the beetle that has large scratches on its surface.

Everyone’s eyes widen when they saw the scratches and gasp in terror. “Their armor is tough enough to deflect our weapons and our arrows bounce off like they are completely dull and the katana has a smaller scratch unlike this.” Flugar explained. “Its just as you said Xerxes, the sky is not safe now. There is also a new predator that is strong enough to scratch their armors like this. Whatever it is, even if they are only able to do this much, it is more than enough for us to be wary of what kind of monster it is.” Yusaf turns to Xerxes who is pondering what kind of creature would prey on the beetles.

“What do you propose to do Xerxes? This is the first time that we have encountered such things so we don’t really know what to do.” Yusaf hopes that Xerxes could give them a proper answer but then he asked him a question. “Have this place experienced winter?” Everyone fall silent when they heard his question.

But that is more than enough for Xerxes to confirm that they have not gone through winter their whole life. “Winter? What is that?” Yusaf's words further confirms his suspicion about their climate for centuries. Xerxes bit his lips, hesitating if he should tell them the truth what winter is all about but to help the people inside this world, he needs to tell them. “Winter is a season where white cold things fall from the sky and blankets everything in white cold snow. Because of that, some of the creatures hibernate or move to places that has the same environment as the places where their previous habitat is. That’s what we call migration, that must be the reason why other strange creatures appear around this area because of winter. The prey along with their predators move to this place. I don’t know how many creatures moved to this area and the only thing I’m certain of is that this place is even more dangerous that it used to be.” The faces of everyone listening drown in terror when they realize that even more dangerous monsters appeared.