At the center of the room was a stone slab, the sides covered in the same symbols. The codes of the cupids ran through my mind as my brother stood over the stone slab.
The surface was polished black, so smooth and glassy it reflected back our images like the face of still water.
Vock lit a brazier near the slab and put the torch on the floor. We stood over the stone, inspecting the surface.
“Okay,” I said. “What now?”
22
Kimmy
After Vock and Konko left, I felt my heart sink so low I almost felt like it might dig a hole in my stomach and fall out the other side of my body.
I was proud of my men. They were heroes, there was no question about that. But my worry over them wouldn’t let up. And my loneliness quickly became unbearable.
They’d left me in the treehouse with plenty of dried meat and berries to last for weeks. But I couldn’t just hang out in the treehouse alone, waiting for them to come back.
I was desperate, hearing the strangers on the other side of my door walking by. I believed now that I didn’t have to fear the other males of the tribe. But I still didn’t know anyone or really understand this place.
A week after Vock and Konko left, I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t just hang out in the treehouse with nothing to do. I remembered Vero and her baby from the festival. Maybe I could find her and talk to her.
I pushed open my door and peeked out into the hallway. Zimbre males walked passed, their eyes grazing over me like hot coals. I flushed and bit my lip. I knew I’d have to deal with strange looks from the other males if I wanted to find Vero.
I slid out of my room and tried to remember the way to the main public square in this treehouse. Circling around the hall, I came out into the area where the festival had been held the night before. Now, it looked to be some kind of marketplace.
Makeshift stalls were set up around the perimeter of the central fire pit. The vendors had everything from fresh squeezed juice to dried meat, clothes and furs.
I looked down at my dirty outfit. I hadn’t changed it in days. Maybe there was something else I could wear. The other females I saw wore flowing fabric dresses with beaded designs.
I passed the stalls, mostly run by males, and realized that everything was free. I picked up a wicker basket from one stall and started shopping as I walked around the market. I came to a stall with clothes and found a dress with pink and yellow beadwork. It was so lovely compared to what I’d been wearing, I knew I had to have it.
When I looked up from the dress, I saw Vero smiling up at me from behind the market stall.
“Kimmy,” she said happily. “It’s good to see you.”
“Hi Vero. I was looking for you.”
“Oh?”
“It was nice talking to you the other night. You know that Vock and Konko left a week ago to activate the ancient weapons? Now I’m alone. I don’t know if they’ll ever come back. I was just hoping we could talk.”
“Of course. I assumed you might want to be left alone, considering this is a new and strange place for you. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you. You come from such a strange world. So very different from our own.”
“It is really different,” I said. “But not that different. Everyone needs friends.”
“Yes they do. I’m so glad you consider me a friend. Let’s go talk in my treehouse. My brother is coming to mind the stall soon.”
“Did you make this dress?”
“I did. The craftsmanship was handed down from my grandmother to my mother to me. Now I’m one of the last in the tribe who knows how to do it.”
“Why?”
“It’s a woman’s skill. Without women, the skill dies.”
“I wish I could do this,” I said, running my hand over the beadwork.
“I could teach you,” she said enthusiastically.
A massive Zimbre male holding Mar walked up behind Vero and handed her the child. Vero introduced her brother Kip and then carried Mar around the stall to join me on the other side.
“Did you get everything you needed from the market?”
“Yes.”
“Come then. I’ll make you some spice tea.”
I followed Vero from the market around the hall to a wide rope bridge that led into another section of the treehouse city.
When we made it to her place, I saw that it was bigger than my treehouse. With one large main room and several rooms off the main one.
She placed her baby in a crib made of twisted vines and went to put a clay pot over the fire. She dropped herbs in the water, and I watched her stir them as I sat down on one of the chairs at her wooden table.
She poured the tea and brought me a cup. I took a sip and let out a sigh. It was good; the same recipe the twins had been making me.
“You picked one of my nicest pieces,” Vero said motioning to the dress I’d brought from the market.
“I haven’t had a change of clothes since I got here. The men have been keeping me…busy.”
“Vock and Konko are our greatest warriors, but most of these males can be a little…over-zealous.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Do you want to try it on?”
“I do,” I said, giggling.
I picked up the beaded dress and Vero guided me to a room where I could change. I slid out of my dirty leather dress and slid the beaded dress over my shoulders.
It felt butter-soft against my skin. The cut of the garment was far more flattering. I noticed my tummy’s slight curve. I’d been eating a lot of meat, but it was all pure and natural. I doubted it was making me gain weight. I put my hand to my stomach. Could I be?
I walked into the main room and twirled around for Vero with a smile on my face.
“You look beautiful. The twins won’t be able to keep their hands off you. I’d say they would put a baby in you, but clearly they’ve already done that.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I can scent it on you. You might have been a human before, but now you are a Zimbre inside. The panther gives off a scent when it is with child. Most males can’t smell it. But I can.”
I gasped, putting my fingers to my mouth. Vero stood and put her hand on my stomach.
“You’ll have a child for the clan.” She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. “A girl. A strong girl who will carry many children.”
“You can tell?”
“Yes, I have the sight. Like the beadwork, it is a skill that is similarly forgotten, I’m afraid.”
“I think I can learn a lot from you, Vero.”
“I am glad you came to the clan, Kimmy. You will be a powerful addition to our tribe.”
I smiled, sitting down at the table to sip more tea. I was suddenly so full of happiness, I felt a rush of hope filling my lungs.
“A baby,” I whispered. “I can’t wait to tell Vock and Konko.” A single tear slid down my cheek.
23
Konko
I ran my hand over the surface of the stone table, feeling for the symbols the cupids had told me would be there. I couldn't detect anything in the surface: it was completely flat and smooth like polished stone. Placing my other palm on the table, I let out a deep sigh. Vock and I had been at it for days, trying to decipher the codes the cupids had implanted in our minds. It was a series of symbols meant to activate the weapon. But we had no idea how to use it.
“Maybe it was all a lie,” Vock said.
“Why would they lie?” I asked. “They brought us Kimmy. That is all the proof I need.”
“They did bring us our mate,” Vock said in agreement.
“There's obviously something we’re missing.”
“But what?”
“Let's go over it again,” I said.
Vock and I went over the instructions we had implanted in our minds the day the cupids had come to us. There were a series of symbols that the cupids called numbers. Zimbre had a counting system but our symbols were
different than the ones the cupids had brought us.
“Why didn't they tell us how to turn it on? Why didn't they give us the rest of the instructions?”
“You know they said it was because of their prime directive. We have to find it in our own heart.”
“But they gave us the codes.”
“These cupids have strange rules.”
“They took Kimmy from her home world. They obviously have motivations beyond our understanding.”
“I will never regret that they brought Kimmy to us, no matter what,” Vock said.
“I agree.”
Vock and I both put our palms to the table, and I could sense that he was thinking of Kimmy. I was thinking of her too. Inside my mind, I saw a half circle. I didn't grasp what it meant with my conscious mind. Somewhere deep inside, understanding flowered in my brain. I looked up at my brother in the flickering torchlight.
I could see in his eyes that he had experienced the same thing. I took a knife from my holster at my waist and poked the tip into my finger. Vock did the same thing. Together we placed our fingers at the top of the stone table and slowly drew a half circle around until we came to touch on the other side, creating a full circle.
Our blood, our life force, smeared across the stone, thick and dark and unmistakable. We pulled our fingertips away, leaving the circle on the stone. Other symbols appeared, glowing out of the surface of the stone.
Things I didn't recognize or understand. Somehow, we had activated the weapon with a circle written in our blood. A ghostly image emanated from the table: a Zimbre female wearing strange clothing.
“Greetings. I am Cora. An instructional hologram for the use of this weapon. I can answer your questions,” she said.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I am Cora, a hologram,” she said.
I ran my hand through the flickering light, confirming that the tiny female was an illusion.
“What is a hologram?” Vock asked.
“A hologram is a three-dimensional, visual computer simulation.”
“What is a three-dimensional visual computer simulation?” I asked.
“Technical explanations may require extended audio/visual presentation. Should I proceed?”
“We don't have time for this,” Vock growled.
“How do we activate the weapon and defeat this sky devils?” I said.
“What are the sky devils?” Vock interjected.
“Please clarify your question,” Cora said.
“What are the silver discs flying in the sky, sucking up our resources and poisoning our women?”
“The silver discs flying in the sky are ships used by the Xeta race. They are a race who go from planet to planet taking the resources that are there until there is nothing left. They routinely poison whatever native inhabitants live on the planet so they have no competition. The Xeta race are the reason there are no longer Zimbre living in this city. One thousand years ago, according my internal clock, the Xeta race came to Zimbre and wiped out the majority of the population. The survivors were left without technology and a tiny population. My program was the last stored before the Xeta drove most of the Zimbre out of this region.”
“We never saw the sky devils until ten years ago, except in legends,” I said. “Who are the Xeta?”
The hologram disappeared and was replaced by the sky devils’ circular silver bodies. The holographic woman had said that they were ships. Ships that brought destruction.
“How do we defeat the Xeta?
“To activate the weapon, type in the activation on the activation screen,” Cora said.
A screen of symbols, that the cupids had called numbers, popped up on the stone table. I began entering each symbol that was imprinted in my mind. When I came to the last number, I stood back and waited.
From the stone table rose a beam of light that looked like the red fire beam sky devils shot at us. It rose all the way up through the ceiling of the underground cavern and out of sight.
“Let's go look outside,” I said.
We grabbed the torches and hurried through the tunnel to the exit and into the light of day. We had been working on the weapon for so long that my eyes needed to adjust to the light. I could barely see for several minutes.
Vock and I circled around the side of the temple and hurried up the tall steps. The red beam rose all the way up through the top of the temple where it seemed to stop in a glowing ball above the second stone slab in the temple.
Vock and I ran up the stairs as fast as we could, and came to the temple at the top. The ball of red energy pulsed. Lightning sparked inside it. I looked around the area, not knowing what to do or how to proceed. The tiny holographic female had disappeared. How were we supposed to bring down the sky devils with this red ball?
I didn't have to wait very long to find out. As if somehow sensing our presence, a sky devil ship came roaring through the jungle above the canopy and shot its red fire beam right at us. It seared across the stone floor, only inches from my feet.
Then, the glowing red ball did its job. A red fire beam shot from the center of the ball directly at the ship, moving toward the temple. As soon as the red laser hit the ship, the silver disc exploded in the air, raining fragments over the jungle below. My heart jumped and I could smell the scent of burning metal and poisoned gasses.
In all the time the sky devils had attacked us, I had never seen anything touch one of the ships, let alone bring it down. We had shot arrows and spears of every type at the sky devils, but nothing had ever impacted one. Most of the time, even with good aim and a shot in range, our spears and arrows dropped uselessly from the surface of the ship to the ground.
This red ball of light had shot a sky devil right out of the air. Another disk came pouring over the jungle toward us, shooting its red fire at the temple. Again the ball of light shot a stream of fire straight at the disc, causing it to explode in a cloud of smoke and debris.
I was so amazed I had to sit down to gather my thoughts. All this time, I had no idea of the history of our people. I had no idea such a powerful weapon was waiting for us. Somehow the cupids had known. They brought us our Kimmy. And our love for her had given us the knowledge we needed to activate the weapon.
Now, I prayed, our home would be safe from these devils who only wanted to steal from us. Perhaps, in time, we could use the hologram to regain some of the technology our people had had in the past.
And it was all because Kimmy had been brave enough to come to us and give herself to us both. All I wanted to do now was go home and hold her and share my love for her with my twin, our bonds growing ever stronger and more powerful.
24
Vock
I rode back to the clan’s treehouse city as fast as I possibly could. Konko rode beside me, kicking his beast in the flanks to encourage it to run faster. Taking down the sky devils was a feat that would last in legend for the rest of our lives. Even though at the back of my mind, I wondered how our ancestors had not defeated the first sky devil invasion with such weapons.
But that wasn't what mattered to me now; we had activated the weapon. It was still active and would shoot down any ship that came in range. All I wanted now was Kimmy in my arms, to smell her sweet skin, and feel her soft curves against my hard chest.
We would have this world, our Zimbre jungle home, without the threat of the sky devils looming over us every minute. Images of living unmolested in our jungle paradise filled me with so much happiness that I practically floated all the way back to the clan.
I needed to tell Kimmy we had won. I needed to tell everyone what has happened. This change of events meant everything. Now we could raise our children in peace.
The females would return to the tribe and we would be happy again. A female for every male. The cupids had promised to bring us more women when we defeated the sky devils. We had cleared the way for the cupids to bring more mates for the males of this tribe, and the other tribes throughout the jungle.
O
ur world would be safe and peaceful again. We would find new ways to use the old technologies. Perhaps we would even move back to the temples, and come to understand their uses and the mysteries still contained within. The holographic female had told us so much about our history, things we had never imagined before; things we had forgotten.
Perhaps, at one time, we had traded and mated with other species. We knew that our world was round and existed as a ball in the ether of a thing called space. It was part of our mythology. But no one had seen above the filament; no one had direct experience of it.
The cupids had to come from somewhere. The sky devils flew above the jungle and disappeared into the sky, blinking out in the distance. Perhaps at one time we had traded with other races who had ships like the sky devils. Just imagining all the possibilities for the future, I barely noticed when we came up to the corrals. The beast master greeted us with a grunt and took the reins of my Kong beast as I slid off its back.
“We have defeated the sky devils,” Konko said.
The beast master lifted an eyebrow, looking at us curiously.
“You're lying,” he said.
“It is the truth,” I said. “We will never be bothered by them again.”
We walked away as the beast master stared at us, his mouth wide and his eyes staring. I felt giddy laughter rising in my throat, but contained it as we climbed the rope ladder up to the treehouse. Konko and I hurried down the hallway to our private chambers and burst through the door, expecting to find Kimmy inside. Instead we found an empty house. No furniture. No food. No clothing. No Kimmy! My heart dropped and my brain burned.
“Where is she?!” I demanded.
“The chief,” Konko growled. “He must have taken her.”
Fury rose in my gut, but I stopped myself from raging. I looked deep in my heart and reached out for that connection that I felt to Kimmy, the connection that allowed Konko and I to uncover the secrets of the ancient temple.