ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (18 page)

“That’s where we’re going,” she said.

They reached the top of the hill. Elizabeth put Q down and ran towards a large tree in the middle. It had a huge hole in its trunk. It was quite odd-looking and that went well with its whitish pink leaves.

Elizabeth jumped into the hole and disappeared.

“Elizabeth? Where are you?” Q asked nervously.

“Get in. It’s perfectly safe.” Her voice echoed through the tree.

Q suddenly had a flashback. He remembered the time Taylor had jumped into the portal and had said the same thing to him. She’d said it was safe. Look where that had gotten him now. Be that as it may, he was already in a heck lot of trouble so a little more couldn’t hurt.

Q reluctantly got into the tree. There was a staircase in there! He climbed the staircase. It opened up on a huge branch.

You could drive two cars side by side on the branch. That’s how wide it was!

Q looked on to see Elizabeth sitting on the edge of the branch. She gestured at Q to come sit next to her. Q went and sat next to her.

“Now that we’re here what did you…”

Elizabeth put her finger on her lips and pointed towards the horizon.

Q hadn’t realized it before but the planet they were on was in a four star solar system. There were four ‘suns’ setting before his eyes. Each of a different color.

Blue, Purple, Green, and Red.

Elizabeth put her head on Q’s shoulder.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Ummm…. yeah,” Q said while inside his brain was going “What the hell is she doing?!”

The suns gave out a last burst of light and disappeared from the sky. The light formed a rainbow-like image. It looked unlike anything that Q had seen.

“You know I’ve never seen a sunset with anyone else,” she told Q.

“You’re…”

“Not an orphan,” she finished.

“My dad was an actor, so was my mom. My mom died in a plane crash and after that my dad was never the same. He lost all interest in his life and in mine too. I was only eight years old at the time.” Tears slowly formed in her eyes.

Q hugged her. He had no idea that she had suffered so much. She was facing this world all alone. No one to help her.

He was still thinking when he suddenly felt drowsy. He fought it off for a few seconds but the feeling was too strong. In his last moments of consciousness, he felt Elizabeth slump onto his lap and then he fell asleep, the image of the night sky imprinted deep in his mind.

The Tracker

“I don’t get why he had to go with her,” Taylor mumbled.

“You wanted to go?” Kai asked her.

She just glared at him.

“Maybe we should talk about this some other time,” Kai said backing off.

“Just admit it,” Chris said.

“Admit what?”

“How you feel.”

“Look, I took care of him from when he was young so I don’t want him being involved with someone who I feel isn’t right for him.”

“So what’s wrong with Elizabeth?”

“There’s just something about her that isn’t right. She’s hiding something,” Taylor said.

She walked into the ship.

Chris stopped her just as she was about to get in.

“Why don’t you just go see where he is?” she suggested.

“And how do I find where they are?”

“Because, this genius just built a tracking device that locates Q’s energy signature.” Chris pointed to Kai.

Taylor grabbed the device Kai took from his pockets. The screen showed a map and a glowing dot a little to their north.

“I’m going,” she said and rushed off.

“Wait... it might be…”

Taylor ran into the vegetation.

“…dangerous,” Kai finished.

Beast

“Stupid Q,” Taylor mumbled as she walked through the tall grass.

“Why can’t he listen to me for once?” she mumbled.

She kept mumbling until she heard a noise come from the bushes.

“Who’s there?” she asked, walking to the bush nervously.

They hadn't seen any giant insects yet and she hoped she wasn’t going to be the first one to see one.

She walked through the vegetation towards the sound. It wasn’t a giant insect. It was a griffin. There was no doubt. With its eagle head, lion body and beautiful pair of wings, this was a real griffin!

It screeched at Taylor. That’s when she realized that it was only about her height. She figured that it was a griffin baby.

“What’s wrong boy? Lost?” she asked.

It came closer to her and nudged her arm.

“You’re such a sweet little thing.”

“
You’re an idiot,
” a voice said.

Taylor’s face changed.

“Who’s there?” she asked.

“
It’s me silly,
” the voice said again. Taylor could make out that the voice was feminine.

She looked around but only she and the griffin were there.

“
I’m here.
”

“Where are you?” Taylor asked her.

The griffin walked up to her. “
It’s me
!” she said.

Taylor looked stunned.

“Griffins can talk?”

“
No, but we can communicate telepathically.
”

That was when Taylor saw that the voice was inside her head. It wasn’t coming from the outside.

“So what’s your name?” Taylor asked.

“
Ruby.
”

“Just to make sure, you’re a girl right?” she asked.

“
Yup.
”

“So where are your parents?”

“
Haven’t got any. A griffin egg hatches years after it is laid. The parents abandon the egg before it hatches.
”

“That’s so sad.”

“
Not really. That’s what makes us such a fierce race. Growing up on your own is quite the character training.
”

“So how old are you?”

“
About a hundred; give or take five years.
”

Taylor just stared in awe.

“
We are near-immortal beings you know.
”

“Fine, fine.”

“
So where are you going?
”

She showed Ruby the tracking device.

“
I know this place. It’s that hill over there.
”

Taylor looked at it. She could see a huge tree and she could almost make out two small figures sitting on one of the branches.

“
I can take you there if you want.
”

“But you’re too small.”

Ruby insisted and so Taylor got on. Ruby took off without any effort at all. She was surprisingly strong for such a small griffin. But in Ruby’s defense, she was a griffin after all.

“
You don’t know much about Griffins, do you?
”

“Apparently not,” Taylor said sheepishly.

“So you only grow up to be this big?” Taylor asked.

“
This is my sophomore stage. I’ll shoot up in a few days.
”

“So are there any more of you griffins around here?”

Ruby just remained silent.

“Hello?” Taylor asked.

“
I’ll tell you later.
” 

Looks like every mythological creature has a mysterious side to it, Taylor thought.

“
I’m not mysterious. You’re just too nosy.
”

Taylor just stared.

“You can read minds?” Taylor asked in awe.

“
I communicate telepathically, so I have to read thoughts.
”

Taylor felt like an idiot. How could she have missed that!

“
Anyway, we’re here.
”

Taylor was about to look when they suddenly fell but Ruby was able to stay level again.

“Ruby? What’s wrong?” Taylor asked, worried.

“
Sleeping leaves. That tree emits sleeping gases at night. Got to leave...
”

That was the last thing Taylor heard and then she fell along with Ruby, her last image being the thorny bushes below them.

Umm…

Taylor woke up to the irritating nudge that Ruby was giving her.

“
Wake up.
”  Because Ruby used telepathy, Taylor couldn’t stop listening to her even if she wanted to.

“Where are we?”

“
Don’t you remember? You wanted me to take you to your boyfriend.
”

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

“
Anyway, we’re only a few minutes away.
” Ruby flexed her wings.

“Let’s go,” Taylor said climbing onto her back. That’s when she realized that Ruby had grown a bit.

“
Told you.
” Ruby took off.

After a few minutes they saw the tree. They went up closer.

“
Okay then, let’s go back.
”

“No wait, let’s go closer.”

“
I think this is enough.
”

Taylor figured out that Ruby was trying to hide something. They went closer and closer till she realized what Ruby had tried to keep her away from.

Q and Elizabeth were face to face. So close to each other that it made even Taylor uncomfortable.

“Let’s go,” Taylor said.

Ruby just kept quiet and flew back to the camp.

Take a Swim

Q sat up and looked around him. It took him a while to get what he was doing. He remembered everything that had happened to him last night.

Elizabeth was sleeping peacefully next to him.

“We didn’t go back to camp,” he muttered to himself.

Taylor is so going to kill me, he thought.

Q stared at the sky. It was only when he saw the sunrise did he snap back into reality.

“Elizabeth...?” 

Elizabeth was right next to him. She’d woken up.

Her eyes locked with his. A multicolor sunrise shone behind her. The pink leaves flew around them in the breeze. Her coffee brown hair blew in the wind like it was water.

She brought her face closer and closer to Q’s.

Elizabeth leaned forward.

Q on the other hand got a little nervous and backed off. What he didn’t realize was that he was at the edge of the tree. He backed off the branch and onto the ground.

It had all been a fairytale moment until he fell down. Elizabeth jumped off and swooped down.

“You okay?” Elizabeth asked Q.

He picked himself from the ground, not a single bruise on his body.

“We’ve got to get back to camp,” he said.

Elizabeth nodded and lifted Q up. It seemed like he hadn't broken anything.

They reached the camp only to find that it was empty. They landed and Q went around searching the place.

There was a mechanical dome in the middle. Q wondered what it was.

“That’s the high tech version of a tent,” Elizabeth explained. “It comes in little capsules that you place on the ground, press a button and voila! A ‘metallic dome’ tent.

They searched the entire campsite, but couldn’t find their friends. Q searched inside the dome but found only three empty sleeping bags.

He walked out of the dome worried.

“I’ll search from the air,” Elizabeth suggested and took off.

Q waited around. What had happened to them? In a planet like this, anything could have. For all he knew, an animal the size of a building could have just eaten them up.

Elizabeth flew down next to him.

“Not a trace,” she said.

Q looked at the sky. He wondered where they could be.

“You don’t think they’d leave us and go, do you?” Elizabeth asked nervously.

They searched further away. It paid off when Elizabeth found a small brown bag.

“That’s Kai’s!” Q exclaimed. He was sure that they’d gone that way.

He searched inside the bag. The only thing there was a book. Q opened it. It was full of diagrams and blueprints. Kai seemed to be a seasoned engineer.

“They’ve got be somewhere close by,” Q said, slinging the bag on his shoulder.

“They could’ve only gone to the…” And then it struck him. Elizabeth understood what he was thinking.

“The Temple of Giants,” he finished.

Elizabeth lifted him up in the air. They flew fast and swift. In a few minutes they were at the temple. They searched from a height but they couldn’t find anyone.

Q wondered where his friends were.

“It’s no use, let’s scout from up close,” Q said.

Elizabeth flew up high.

“What’re you doing?” Q yelled.

Elizabeth just smiled and plummeted to the ground. Q did the only sensible thing possible. He flailed his arms and screamed like there was no tomorrow.

He would’ve screamed for at least a minute (Which is a Guinness record by the way) and then he realized that a minute was too long a fall. He opened his eyes. They were in an underground chamber. Elizabeth stood in front of him, laughing.

Q blushed bright pink. That was one of the most embarrassing things to happen to him.

“There was an opening in the ground, silly.” Elizabeth smiled.

They moved forward. They seemed to be in a tunnel. There wasn’t any light anywhere. Q’s hand, as if in reflex, lifted up and a flame was in his palm.

“Cool,” Elizabeth said, impressed.

Q himself couldn’t believe. He wondered how many of his talents were still latent inside of him.

Elizabeth suddenly froze.

“What’s wrong?” Q asked.

She put her finger to her lips and gestured Q to move forward.

They heard a scream in the tunnel.

‘It couldn’t be’ Q thought.

“Kai! Chris! Taylor!” he called out.

He could see the familiar faces run towards him.

“Where were you?” Taylor shouted at him.

“Well.... I was....”

“
Yes?
” said a new voice.

A griffin appeared next to Taylor.

“Whoa... Who’re you?” Elizabeth asked.

“
My name is Ruby.
”

“I found her,” Taylor said. “She can even speak!”

“So? Every griffin can do that,” Elizabeth said.

“
Told you,
” Ruby told Taylor.

“Anyway, if you can’t tell me, I’ll ask your winged girlfriend here,” Taylor said.