The Wizards of Xitt

The Three Wizards

CHAPTER ONE 

The Three Wizards

Night was awakening from its long and restful daylong slumber as darkness spread her arms to enrobe the planet. Two near full orb-like moons unrobed theirs bright pearly eyes to keep the grounds and the deep marine blue sky from descending into a despairing likeness. A thousand stars stirred and beamed like polished stones, adorning the colored canopy of the little planet. Such arid lustrous canvass could have excited anyone, though not the lone figure on the verdant plane. His eyes were skyward, affixed to a pea or walnut shaped star with a greenish hue. It looked anything but the huge meteor it was, bound to bring an end to life on this surreal planet.

He knew also that the meteor was travelling at a reckless pace, its trajectory meticulously laid unto the little planet. In just over eight hours, impact would be confirmed and the little planet would be toast. His brain had also already figured out the casualty, not just human, but the planet as well.

He put his hands up and closed his eyes, he had no idea what he could do but felt he was the only one who could do something.  He felt his feet lift off the ground and propel him towards the meteor. His core temperature were at the roof as he put his hands against the meteor. Next thing his hands were catching on a smokeless yellow flame that was roaring loudly. The meteor began to slow as his entire body caught on the flame, then a tremor began at his hands.

A sweet feminine voice was saying something he could not make out as the tremors became outright violent and wracked his entire being. He felt faint and his vision of the meteor blurred.

“Sir? Sir?”

Kaila Maentel shook some more before reaching out to arrest the  hand that was going to his towards his face. His eyes flickered open at that instance and a could see a panicked hostess staring down at him. It was a dream.

Kaila was seated at an almost empty aisle on the economy class cabin of an airplane. The other occupant on that aisle was deep asleep. Kaila could hear the violent beating of the hostess’ heart and could see her wide eyes and deep steamy breaths. He forgot he still had her hand in his.

Sweat broke out on his forehead, dripping down his shirt collar as, as he took some deep breaths himself.

“What- what was that?” The hostess started, but her voice was a mere squeak.

“A dream,” Kaila said after a long consideration.

“Some dream...” she was saying but didn’t finish because Kaila had stilled again.

In his mind’s eyes he could see a plane coming to a complete halt in midair. The label on it was ‘Delta Airlines’, the very plane he was seated on. The pilot and co-pilot looked frozen in their seat. ‘1:30 pm’, a small clock by an Embry Riddle badge showed. The front screen of the plane was covered by what looked like snow. Then the plane began revving again, and skidding downwards towards a rowdy sea.

All these happened within a few seconds. Kaila suddenly stirred to find the hostess still hunched over him and still looking intently into his eyes.

“Are you alright?”

“I don’t know...”

The hostess shook her hand and Kaila freed it. “Sorry” he offered.

He knew the hostess was not satisfied, but that was all he had for her for now. He could not tell her that he just saw this plane crash into the sea.

The hostess turned a glass of wine in her other hand to Kaila. “You ordered this”

Kaila took it from her and downed it in one gulp. He checked his watch, it was 1. 29 pm. “Damn! It’s not a dream...”

“What?” The hostess asked.

At that moment, the plane stuttered to a complete halt in midair. The sudden cessation of movement slammed Kaila into the back of his chair and threw the hostess herself into his arms.

“Attention please,” the voice of one of the flight crew came crackling to life over the public address system after a few uncertain moments. “The plane is experiencing some technical problems... There is absolutely no need to panic... Everyone is hereby advised to return to his or her seat, and fasten their seat belts. Thank you.”

In spite of that assurance and the relative silence that followed as people took their seats. Kaila could hear silent prayers and singing, even thanksgiving.  

The hostess seemed blank and terrified. She forgot she was clinging tightly to Kaila, who had not yet released his own steadying grip on her. She seemed certain that whatever was going on was not ordinary.

After a few moment Kaila made to rise, the sat her down on his seat and fastened the straps. He bent and picked up his back pack to put into the overheard luggage hold, but at that moment, he stated hearing the pilot’s and co-pilot’s unmagnified voices from the cockpit.

“...engine two, negative...”

“What’s going on here? The engines are not responding.”

“Frequency 121.5, negative!”

“Code 700, negative!

Surprisingly, Kaila understood what they meant. The plane was completely stalled in midair, the engines were not responding, probably off and they had not been able to inform the tower. Kaila knew that something extraordinary was hapening, and he had the uncanny feeling that everything happening to the plane, was because he was on board.

Then, out of nowhere, the plane’s engine came alive again and started off at an alarming speed. Some seconds later the plane began inclining downwards.

“May day! May day!” Kaila could hear the pilot’s panicked voice. “We are losing height... 900 feet AGL...”

The crew member over the PA was advising people to put on their safety jacket and prepare for emergency landing on water. There was pandemonium now, everyone for himself.

Kaila closed his eyes, like he’s always done in the thousand dreams he’d faced the impossible. In his mind’s eye he could something like himself float towards the cockpit. As he had seen earlier, the pilot and co-pilot were down, neither had on safety jackets. Obviously, this was not an accident.

Kaila mounted the controls, his pearly self passing through the pilot. He realized that the control of the airplane had somehow been locked and the deceleration was fixed. He pulled with all his might and finally managed to unlock the mechanism. He took the plane a few notches on the path of ascension. But somehow, he knew, he could not hold course and thus, he had to configure the plane for landing. He began trimming for best glide speed, slowing the plane to a modest hundred and eighty knots per hour.

Then, he saw a huge pillar of rock. It was less than five miles from the plane. Kaila knew he could not maneuver his way past the obstacle, considering the speed of the plane and distance to impact. He decided on a head-on collision. But as he flew close the pillar burst into tiny bits and pieces. Few sparks flew, but overall, there was no significant damage to the plane.

Three faces soon appeared across the windshield. One was like the face of a bearded monkey. His hair was like the mane of an ox, and his eyes were like tongues of a wild flame. His teeth were pointed and the top of his leather overall seemed charred. The other face was like that of a child, it was beardless and pale like frost. His eyes were deep blue and his lips had more contours than the waves in the ocean. And his mossy hair was mostly hidden by a blue pointed hat that may have endured many stitches. The third face was too terrible to belong to a man. It was as crumble as an old hide, and it was scarred on every other part. The eyes were pearly cream and dry. The nose was like a beaten hill which slanted to one side, and the pointed hat on his head was equally as scarred as his face. Overall, the third face was more like dry earth cracked from too much exposure to an unfriendly sun.

The people or creatures that had those faces seemed to be pushing the nose of the plane downwards and the plane was dipping fast. Added to the fact that there was a downward wind, the descent was threateningly speedy.

Kaila closed his eyes and pull upwards at the control. But even he knew that it was not the poor mechanism at work. It was his own strength against the creatures’.

After some struggle that couldn’t have stretched beyond moments the creatures were hauled one after the other away from the plane.

Beyond the plane, water seemed to stretch onto a familiar landscape; Pearl Harbour. Kaila calculated the distance at which the plane would halt from the Harbour. One meter on the panel displayed Seventy Knots. Suddenly he knew what it meant, and knew what he had to do to bring the plane to a safe landing. He did just that and as he landed a huge column of pacific water rose on either side of the plane. The plane continued skidding briefly on the surface of the water, before plopping to a halt.

As Kaila watched the first wave settle, his vision blurred. Suddenly, he was back in the first class cabin, leaning limply against the windowpane. He was no longer aware of his surroundings.

Kaila woke up later that evening in a hospital bed. Malena Spars his colleague and friend was seated beside him. Her face had tear tracks and she looked drained.

“Hello sweet heart,” she smiled now. “I almost cried myself dry that you won’t wake up...”

“Where am I?” Kaila did not seem hurt.

A polka-faced nurse trudged towards them with a file. She was mumbling something, as if to the benefit of her ears alone “... Lucky youth this one,” she was saying, “can’t imagine the horrors as he was being thrown about in the plane.” She was directing her monologue to Malena “could have been worse than the humeral fracture and dislocation.”

“My arm is fine!” Kaila snapped out.

The nurse spared him a know it all matronly gaze, denial was usually one of the first psychological symptoms of trauma, she had seen it oh so often. “Aren’t we all?” She asked, then added “A doctor will be with you shortly.” She shrugged and grabbed a thermometer off the table.

“Look, my arm is fine.” Kaila swung his arm around to her consternation and then disbelief.

The nurse seemed temporarily frozen by the shock.

Kaila got up from the bed. “I shouldn’t be here.” He said, turning to Malena.

“Y- young m- man,” the nurse rallied. She checked his name on the folder. “Mr. M- Maentel- you can’t just go. There are panels and a full MRI scheduled. You can never rule out internal injuries and haemorrhage in this matter.”

“Believe me ma’am I’m fine.” He said, he wasn’t about to reveal to this woman that when it came to his body, normal didn’t just about cut it. He had never had any cut or injury that has ever warranted treatment. In fact as best as memory served he had never been sick, except the one time around twelve when he had developed this persistently high fever that had been termed pyrexia of unknown origin after a gamut of investigations.  “Where are my clothes?” He asked.

The nurse didn’t seem to understand him at all. Dislocations, and broken bones did not just align themselves and heal in minutes even with the best intervention.

“Come on Malena,” Kaila said and led the young slender woman out of the cubicle without another word.

The nurse just stood there watching them go, almost open-mouthed.

Moments later, she shook herself back to the now empty cubicle. It was just one of those things that one would call a miracle, or magic. That boy was definitely something special.

“Oh of course, his clothes are in the basement.” She supplied as if she was just hearing Kaila’s question.