Chapter Five

Telyn Owen

“I’m just saying, the wolverine would be able to beat the armadillo,” I say to him. “There’s no way that the armadillo would be able to win! They have no offensive abilities!”

“They have their teeth!” Tiago argues. “And besides, the wolverine wouldn’t be able to get through the armadillo’s armor!”

“The underbelly. And the wolverine would bite the armadillo’s head off the second the armadillo stuck its neck out to bite it! There’s just no way that an armadillo would win.”

“What are you talking about? There’s no way that a wolverine would win! Be realistic, now-” he’s cut off by a resounding crack off to our right. We immediately shut up, and face towards the source of the sound, his hand on his knife handle, mine on the handles of my pistols hanging at my belt.

With a loud crash, a guy lands right in front of us. We peer down at him as his eyes flutter.

“Is he dead?” Tiago asks.

“Obviously, not, crater-brain. His eyes are moving.”

Tiago frowns. “I’m not a crater-brain,” he mutters under his breath. He kneels down next to the guy, who has strangely neon green hair and brown markings on his face that hint at feathers. “Dude, you ok?” he asks, kneeling by him.

“Don’t go toward the explosion…” he murmurs, eyes still fluttering.

“Probably good advice,” Tiago quips. I kneel by the half-conscious dude and tap him on the shoulders as I learned in a CPR class forever ago. Wait... How do I remember that? In my mind’s eye, I see an older fireman, standing up in front of what looks like a classroom, demonstrating a CPR class. Huh, weird. I turn back to the mysterious green-haired guy laying on the trail in front of us. Is he one of us? Did he escape as well? His eyelids flutter again and he mutters something that sounds like “Just do it like a seductive salad, I dunno.” My brow wrinkles in confusion, my mind trying to figure out why the phrase sounds familiar, and the meaning of the odd phrase. I look over at Tiago, whose expression mirrors mine.

“He said, do it like a seductive salad,” I whisper urgently.

“What?”

“Do it like a seductive salad!!”

“Do what??”

“I dunno, he was talking to you, not me.”

“How do you know?”

I’m saved from responding as the guy’s eyes flicker open. I gasp a little when I see that his eyes are the same neon green as his hair.

“Tiago, he’s one of us!” I whisper.

“Niko wapi?” he says. His voice is deep, but not as deep or as gravely as Drazon's. “Wewe ni nani?”

“Wait...” Tiago says. “I think that I can understand him...”

“Well, what’s he saying?”

“He said, where am I? who are you?”

“Can you speak whatever language he’s speaking?” I ask.

“Um, let me try. I'll ask him if he can speak English.” Tiago answers. “Unaongea kiingereza?”

“No, English is the only language I can’t speak,” the stranger replies, in perfect, unaccented English.

“Really?” Tiago laughs.

“Uh, are you sure? Because you just did...” I say. There’s something that’s tickling my brain, like I’ve forgotten something.

“Really?” he asks. He jumps a little as he hears himself speak. He sits up, brushing the dirt off of his jeans. “That’s weird.”

“Dude, where’d you come from?” Tiago asks.

The green stranger stares right into his eyes. “My worst nightmare.”

I start to laugh but stop at the solemn look on the stranger’s face.

“Sorry, I thought that you were joking,” I apologize.

He levels his gaze with mine, his soul looking out of eyes far older and wiser than what his young twenty-ish body suggests. I look away after a few seconds, not able to hold his strange gaze.

“What’s your name?” Tiago asks.

“Uitgelaat,” he replies. “But my friends call me Wilson.”

“Uitgelaat... Wilson... Yeah, I’ll stick with Uitgelaat.”

“So, Uitgelaat... Is there an imminent danger we should be wary of, or have you traveled quite a bit from where you can from?” I ask.

“The Zrikryb are coming…”

“I’m sorry, what?” Tiago asks.

“The Zrikryb are coming.”

“The who?”

“The Zrikryb, gosh, Tiago, catch up,” I taunt.

“Bet you don’t know who they are,” Tiago replies.

“Shhhh,” I tell him. “Be quiet. Uitegelaat is trying to talk.”

Uitgelaat gasps suddenly. “How… how did you get here?”

“Uh, good question.” I look at Tiago. “How did we get here?”

“Don’t ask me! I don’t remember anything!”

“Well, neither do I!”

“You’re supposed to be dead,” Wilson informs me.

“What?!?!” My yell scares the birds out of a couple of nearby trees.

“Yes, alert the ACRI to our position, good going, Telyn,” Tiago says.

“Well, I’m sorry, I just found out that I’m a zombie.”

“Telyn? Your name is Talon,” Wilson says.

I laugh a little shakily. “I’m pretty sure that I know my own name,” I tell him, even though I’m not so sure...

“How? You don’t even remember anything,” Tiago says.

“Well, I like Telyn better. Besides, a new person deserves a new start, right?”

He stares at me. “You don’t remember anything, do you?”

“No, not really,” I say, getting a little uncomfortable. I cross my arms across my chest.

“You don’t remember Spar?”

“Wha- What’s that?” The name tickles the back of my brain, but I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is...

“Sparrowhawk? Don’t you remember him?” He looks sad.

“N-no? Should I?” I can feel my face go red.

“He loved you,” he says softly.

“Oh...” There’s an awkward silence for a couple of moments, which is interrupted by what sounds like a bomb exploding.

Tiago and I turn to each other. “Nika.”

“We gotta help them,” I say, and he nods his agreement. But I also gotta find out what this guy knows about my past. I turn to Wilson. “Hey,  come with us, we have some other friends, we can help protect each other. Safety in numbers, right?”

“Sure…” he says, but he doesn’t look sure.

“You don’t have to fight,” Tiago says. “Just come with us, and we’ll protect you.”

“Ok…”

We start off towards the source of the battle sounds and soon see our old companions. I jump right into the fight, blasting fire out of my hands and melting the cyberghosts left and right. Nika is getting close and blowing them apart with her light-exploding powers. Drazon is swinging his huge broadsword and chopping down enemies left and right, as quick as lightning. Zephyr is here as well, throwing his boomerangs with frightening precision, knocking out bad guys at a pretty impressive rate, but nowhere near as fast as Drazon. I look for Alekai, not seeing him at first, until I spot a fluffy silver tail darting in and out among the cyberghosts, his long, thin, silver dagger stabbing cyberghosts in spots that make them collapse immediately. So maybe he isn’t completely useless after all...

I turn to see Tiago, standing there, frozen, not looking like he’s all here.

“Tiago? You ok?” I ask, waving my hand in front of his face. Tiago jumps, then looks around as if he doesn’t recognize anything.

“Tiago? You ok, man?” I repeat.

“What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” he replies, his voice shaky.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, really.”

I raise my eyebrows, not convinced, but I drop the issue. “Do you know how to use that dagger?” At the mention of it, his hand drops to the hilt, and he nods confidently. “Then go kill some cyberghosts!” I tell him and push him into the battle. I watch him for a few seconds to make sure that he actually does know how to use it, then plunge back into battle.

After liquifying cyberghosts after what feels like forever, no more attack me. I put my hands on my knees, breathing heavily, then look around to see everyone else standing there, as exhausted as I am. Except for Drazon. He doesn’t seem tired at all.

“Everyone ok?” I ask. They all nod, then notice Uitgelaat.

“Who are you?” Alekai asks.

“I’ve gone by many names. Wilson the griffin, Uitgelaat, the fourth dirthawker...”

“Tiago and I found him in the forest,” I say.

“Yeah, but where’d he come from?” Alekai persists.

“We don’t know where we came from, why would he?” Tiago points out.

"Maybe the storks brought him," I say. I feel like I've forgotten something extremely important, and it has to do with the green stranger. I'll have to get him alone and figure out who I am and where I came from, and how we're connected. And that Sparrowhawk guy he mentioned.

“I remember where I came from,” Uitgelaat speaks up. “I came from the end of the world.”

Silence reigns for an awkward second.

“If you came from the end of the world, then why hasn’t the world ended yet?” Nika asks.

“I don’t know,” Uitgelaat, says, holding out his upturned palms. “I don’t know,” he repeats, sounding resigned.

“He looks like one of us,” Tiago says, referencing Uitgelaat’s green hair and eyes.

“Yeah, true,” Alekai concedes.

“I think that maybe we should stick together,” Zephyr says. “If we get attacked again, I don’t know if we could defeat those guys by ourselves.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” I agree. After a second, my stomach grumbles. “Does anyone know of burger joints nearby? I could go for some food right about now.”

Author's Note

Here's a fifth chapter and another character:
Uitgelaat: oo-iht-gehl-ae-aht
Disclaimer: Uigelaat does not belong to me, I'm using him with permission of Peregrinator7

Reviews

[Jay_Bluefire]

I CAME FROM THE END OF THE WORLD

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

yup he did (he accidentally teleported from the end of afd after everything happened)

[Jay_Bluefire]

whelp 10 characters

[Jay_Bluefire]

How does one pronounce "Uitgelaat" anyway?

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

Did you read the author's note?
quote
Here's a fifth chapter and another character:read moreDid you read the author's note?
quote
Here's a fifth chapter and another character:
Uitgelaat: oo-iht-gehl-ae-aht
Disclaimer: Uigelaat does not belong to me, I'm using him with permission of Peregrinator7
end quote

[Jay_Bluefire]

oh.
oops.
=)

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

Yeah, good job.