Solsae Kingdom - Part 7

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== Episode 01: "Siakunae's Bizarre Adventure!" == "Hello! My name is Siakunae Lakura. I have Cotton-candy coloured eyes, and cherry blossom hair and Peachy pink skin. I'm 5'7 inches - I weigh 141.4 lbs. My three sizes are 40-28-34. And I smell like lilac today!"

The class looked dumbfounded. Siakunae flashed her sweet smile. She loved her job.

"Well; the things I just said, they are alllll things that you can see. Things that you can tell, just with your senses that you have honed through years of strict darwinism. On the other hand, there are things that you don't know - that you can't simply see, hear, taste, smell, touch, things gone uncomprehended for mannnny long years!"

The room changed on cue, in response to her striking a pose and pointing her fingers towards a piece of apparatus in the center. Calling her eccentric would be an understatement, but calling her high as a kite would be no exaggeration. A vast sheet of meteors and waves and Islands spread out like a parachute before the class, and was met with the appropriate shock and awe. it was a huge starmap programed by Aruderon. Siakunae chuckled and opened her arms wide, “this is our world, class! It's vast, isn't it? Can anyone find where Aster Novus is located on here?”

One guy, athletically toned, with long hair and sapphire eyes responded by reaching up and clutching one meteor in his first.

“it's this one” he replied darkly. Siakunae couldn't help but feel from the trembling of his aura (because feeling a person's aura was second nature to a sage of Hastur like herself), that he he was lost, and in a great degree of internal turmoil. She felt a profound sympathy for him. He felt like he had been torn asunder to her.

“C-Correct! That is right!” she composed herself briefly. “Novus hurtles through the waves of Maya energy like a boat through the oceans. Unlike the other lands like this one here - Terraia”, she said, indicating an island like world floating on the waves, our own Aster Novus is built on a meteor. It's unique in that way.

The waves on which the lands, commonly referred to as “Kingdoms” are adrift upon, are waves of life aura released from the great World Tree, Ygdrake, whose roots are said to have brought the universe into existence! Isn't that remarkable? The Ygdrake sustains us with breathable air and currents of life and eternal beauty and sweet blossoms… it's so beautiful!”

The blue-haired man speaks up again, “Right.. But you forgot to mention one thing - Aster Novus is not a part of Ygdrake’s root canal system. It stands alone and only Novan technology powers it.”

“A splendid point! You are very astute, Mr…?”

“... Hood”

“Yes, Mr Hood! I'm impressed. You have a scientific mind - you seek knowledge, don't you? Alright. I'll answer the question that you didn't ask to the best of my abilities!:

I theorize that before the world of Aster Novus came to be, we were a settlement upon the supposedly now defunct kingdom of Terraia.

A tragedy that put that world in jeopardy created a divide, and the old Novan civilization advanced rapidly to flee swiftly yonder to outer space. When this asteroid come close to Terraia, we jetted off with Godspeed and set up shop! setting up an artificial atmosphere to sustain us and genociding the natives to pave the land for our new homes, our civilization come to flourish on its new found adventure through space.

Okay, the last bit is the plot to the movie ‘stariens' but you get my point. Of course, you won't find this in your textbooks! These are my own theories and if perchance you can use them to wade even deeper into the mysteries of this world, then wade! I implore all of you to keep an open mind and keep learning! “ she smiled. Once again, as though on cue, a bell chimed signifying the end of the lecture. It almost seemed like she could see the future at times, our Mr Hood thought. She took a bow before the class, and looked over them like a Shepherd over his flock.. Some yawned after a deep sleep, many more had chattered through amongst themselves - but some got involved. She hoped her words could Inspire the people here, as her grandfather had inspired her.

“thank you for listening. I'm pleased to have had such a wonderous class today and I wish you all a dreamy life! Toodles! ♥ “

she raised her arm high, waving as eagerly as a child to her mummy after first day of school. One by one the students left the study and once the class had filtered out completely, she began packing up for the night, humming a little ditty to herself. Her thoughts returned to that one individual - the handsome fellow with the deep eyes and the gorgeous hair. His questions were why she loved teaching classes like this - why when she was insulted and ignored, jostled and heckled, she could pick herself up and continue doing her best for the people who do need her.

She tapped the papers on a countertop to neaten them and began heading back out of the lecture Hall when the lights flickered violently, then the whole room blackened and locked down.

“oh phooey, the power is out” she grumbled, groping the darkness for the stair rail and using that to lead her to the exit. She stumbled clumsily from one row to the next and then into something else. She bumped into a person who was definitely not there when the lights were out. She had another feel trying to make him out. He felt like a him anyway…

“who is this?” she asked.

“I'm here for you” he replied with a familiar voice. Her hand on his stomach all of a sudden was grasping air and like a gust of cold wind, she could feel him behind her, his icy breath on her neck, and her arms wrenched round and pressed to her back in a grip like a vice. she didn't struggle. She saw no need.

“It's you, Mr Hood?’

“...”

“Whats wrong. How can I help?”

“I need to escape Aster Novus. And you are going to be my well-endowed, flower brained ticket off this dungeon.“

“I see. A hostage. The government is pursuing you… It won't work though.”

“h-how… And why the @$&^ not!? Why won't it work!?”

“put yourself in their shoes - why would you hesitate to kill me, to get to Demonix, renowned son of High-Tide?”

“krh… You knew?”

“I can read you like an open book. You picked me because I'm the daughter of the son of the son of an important man to the empire, but that will matter not - to the public I'm little more than a pompous brat born into a family of junkies. You must know that? They would kill us both, stage it as an accident, and be rid of the problem - you, that they created. And you are a problem to them. The media would have a field day if they learned of how they genetically created there own super soldier. Anyway! I have a better plan. And if you work with me, we might both get to see a bit more of this forbidden world!” she giggled, smiling joyously.

Demonix just gritted his teeth, his face flushed with embarrassment.

“just follow me okay, handsome?” his grip had slackened in his bewildered stupor and she grabbed his wrist leading him through the dark like a dog on a leash.

Chairs crashed and papers fluttered away as they stumbled clumsily, quickly through the dark. She kicked a glass pane through with what Demonix had to agree was one of the most sublime kicks he had seen in all of his years of martial training - and then she leaped - with him yelling profanities In tow. She smiled inwardly. He was a very straight-laced fellow. cute.

“I will die if you don't catch me, blue boy! She giggled. No sense of fear. Was it the incense of the Moonshrooms that her people used infamously to get high - or could it be just her own brand of insanity that emboldened her and numbed her to fear that most would so justly clad themselves in? Demonix snarled. He felt manipulated, but nonetheless he Grabbed her with both arms, and the reckless woman wrapped her arms around his neck in what could only be described as a lovers embrace. They landed gracefully, Demonix’s hair fluttering like a cloak of midnight, his open-shirt parachuting behind them. She kissed his cheek teasingly, “My hero” - Demonix just dumped her on the ground like trash “ahh, another man betrays me” she sobbed in mock despair.

“E-Enough with your clowning. Where are you taking me?”

“back to my place to introduce you to gramps, clearly”!

“how is that clear!?”

She ignored his complaints and ran off again with his hand firmly in her own. Demonix gave an exasperated sigh. Was a ticket off here really worth all of this embarrassment?, he wondered silently.

______________________________

“Gramps! I'm home!” The young woman called swinging the door open like a gale force wind. An eerie pink smoke wafted out from the cottage - glittering like a thousand tiny stars held captive by the plume. Demonix got a big wiff of it for the first time in his life, and started coughing and spluttering like he inhaled tar, his eyes burning like fire. An elderly man dressed in what appeared to be an elf costume responded with a chuckle, his egg chair rotating to face his rowdy guest.

“Ho-ho-ho! I see you brought your little boyfriend too! Welcome to our humble abode, Conner.”

“Connor? No, it's It's Hood... No, Demonix Adamantite”, he admitted knowing Siakunae had already deciphered his ruse. “Thanks for having me.”

“Your quite welcome Kevin. Make yourself at home - I'll put on a pot of djaoh and be right back.”

The geezer shuffled off into the chemistry lab that Demonix presumed to be the kitchen. His lungs still felt… light, but he had mostly gotten used to the incense. Siakunae pounced him, pushing him back into an armchair with a thud.

A scarlet hue washed over Demonix’s pale complexion as she leaned in so close he could feel her breath on his cheek, and whispered:

“The shrooms spoke to me, told me in my dreams the secrets of Terraia masked from our eyes. She’s wounded, yes - but neither barren nor desolate. She was flourishing with life, love and harmony, and it got me thinking… If Terraia were still so alive, why do the imperators want us to believe otherwise? What are they hiding from us…

As a student of the world, I will, nay, must uncover the truth!”

“you’re mad…” Demonix uttered. He pushed her off and back to her feet.

“Maybe. But I'm ready to leave here and search for farther horizons. Is what you're running from enough to take you there too? Or are you going to run from this new gate that I’ve kindly opened for you?”

Demonix said not a word. Was he really such a coward? He was nothing like the man who almost, almost saved the slums now. He had changed. He was scared.

Under the leash of the government, he was a tool - a weapon to strike fear and impose sanction. He wasn't alive. He was maintained by them, and he killed for them… When he realised his sin, he fled. He was reduced to poverty, stealing to get by, hiding out in slums and becoming the wastrel he had become. Because at least a wastrel was alive.

He had carved from the blank slate that was the living weapon Demonix, a symbol - the rookeries devil hood, a symbol of anarchy and rebellion in uncertain times. A ray of hope and fortune for those crushed beneath the boot of society. Until one day - when the hood was torn away and the face of hope was revealed to those who once believed in him to be the very monster who took it away in the first place. He took a deep breath, and took Siakunae’s outstretched hand in his own.

“yeah… let's go.” he said, exhaling.

“the past is in the past. When you step forward, you notice that more doors will open up before you. This is the right thing to do.” she smiled, trying to cheer him up.

Demonix felt pathetic. He let this stranger worry about him. He wiped his eyes, damp with the sorrows of yesterday and grinned his trademark grin.

“alright, partner. How do you propose we get off of this rock?”

“oho, that's why I’m the brains of this outfit, dear Voltson!”

Demonix had no intention of granting a reply to that comment. He asked again, more sternly - “what is the plan?”

Siakunae responded with a wry smile. She mounted him on the armchair again and flipped a hidden panel on the arm to reveal a series of buttons.

“I always knew this day would come…” Grampy Aruderon muttered, sipping his djaoh and watching in silence.

Siakunae pulled down a lever and hit a large red button.

A ray of golden light erupted them skyward in a series of jolting bursts. What appeared to be a soap-bubble poofed up and surrounded them it it's squeaky clean embrace. The aforementioned armchair - really a comfortable chassis for a high-tek bubble rocket, rose higher and higher into the air through the clouds and through the atmosphere and deep into the vacuum of space until it abruptly stopped as though it hit an invisible ceiling.

“Wow, most people puke on their first take-off!” Siakunae congratulated.

“I am - used to be, a trained imperial assassin... Something like this is nothing.”

The ship emitted an elastic-y substance from its arms. The thread adhered to the void, and the ship reeled back - As though a giant sling shot was loaded - And they were the shot. The elastic thread creaked and groaned under the tension, but it pulled back farther and farther, and then, PTEWW! They were flung through space at a speed that far exceeded common understanding of velocity and space travel.

From the way the stars stretched and distorted like reys, Demonix presumed that they were traveling at beyond the speed of light.

Siakunae squealed like a teenager on a roller coaster, pushing herself into Demonix’s chest.

“it's so fast! It's so amazing!” she cried out in awe.

“I can see alllll of space rushing past us like it's so small, but to think - that way, and that way, and that way and all the ways, different people and different cultures live in infinite Kingdoms all provided for by the great Ygdrake! Kyahhhhh!”

Demonix was flabbergasted. She must have had all of this set up… did she know that she would meet him today? That she and him would be thrust on this whirlwind tour of space, hurtling in a giant soap bubble past stars and comets and Kingdoms alike? One thing she said was right though… It was indeed amazing

The pod slowed down gradually, this time, and Demonix noticed a world - The world he indicated on the star map, was in view.

Terraia.

It had a distinct look. curved fang-like Mountains, a golden atmosphere, waters and Deserts and lakes of magma...

Amazing.

Most Kingdoms were very… basic. Autumnal Kingdoms or sub-aqua Kingdoms - those kind of things. This kingdom had near perfect harmony though. For the pair, born and raised on a dull asteroid world, it was like something out of a painting.

“W-whats happening!?” Demonix yelled, snapping out of his daze to notice the protective bubble was vanishing rapidly.

“We’re entering the kingdoms atmosphere! Don’t worry about this, its the impact you have to worry about!”

the chair was the only thing remaining, and the jets of light that launched them from that small suburban house less than 60 minutes ago once again burst forth - more intensely than before, trying to slow the speed enough to avoid fatality upon entrance. They were cutting it close. Demonix gripped the arms for dear life, and Siakunae buried herself into him.

The blinding light that the ship emitted grew brighter and brighter. To the denizens of the world below, it must appear as though another sun had just bloomed in the sky.

They were close to touch down. Demonix could see a mountain. It looked like they would be landing on the peak. “Good. we won’t have drawn too much attention.”

“Bad. we’ll impact at that high of a terrain quite forcefully” Siakunae corrected him.

“Is there anything we can do?” He asked.

“Not a thing.”

And as though on cue with the seer’s final prediction this day, they crashed, in a blinding bright golden explosion of light…

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