Chapter II River of Spirits
Elindo followed Ruxted through the thick leaves and water dripping from the trees. There was a jaguar following them.
‘What is he doing?’ Elindo asked Ruxted curiously.
‘He’s stalking us like he would stalk his prey, they rarely attack humans but a lot of animals can see ghosts that humans can’t.’
‘So he doesn’t know we’re ghosts?’
‘No.’ Ruxted answered with a carefree voice as he went deeper into the dark Amazon rainforest without fear. Elindo thought about his crashed space ship, he was sure it was somewhere close to their path.
They heard a groaning sound as dark, spider-like shadows moved around them. Elindo stopped to look at them.
‘What are they?’ He reached out a hand to touch them but they seemed to jerk away, like recoiling spiders floating in the air.
‘They’re the Bony Blacks.’ Ruxted looked briefly in the direction of the Bony Blacks but kept walking.
‘What’s a Bony Black?’
‘It’s a forest spirit.’ Ruxted knew a lot about the rainforest.
Elindo saw the Bony Blacks dance around them and then suddenly rush away through the trees and disappear as though they had found Elindo and Ruxted uninteresting.
‘Are they humans?’
‘I don’t know for sure but I heard they don’t actually have souls like you and I, they are just empty apparitions conjured by forest shamans in order to scare away intruders.’
Elindo looked behind them, the jaguar had stopped following them and was nowhere to be seen. He heard a bubbling sound ahead. Ruxted, who was leading the way, turned around with a grin which flickered in and out of view with his phantom body.
‘Have you ever seen a spirit river before Elindo?’ Ruxted asked curiously while still grinning and flickering. Elindo was confused again. He took a few steps forward.
‘We need to let this river take us some of the way, it will take us close to the office.’
Elindo followed Ruxted’s gaze. In front of them was glistening dark blue water; a rushing river, but Elindo also noticed something else…
‘Are those…?’
‘Yes, they are.’ Ruxted knew what Elindo was asking before he finished his sentence.
They both looked at the streaky white ghosts who were flowing down the river, along with the water. Elindo squinted and looked closely, he saw some of their faces and they looked happy.
‘What are they doing in the river?’ Elindo wondered if he should ask Ruxted to read his mind again but got the impression that Ruxted was not an expert and he would not get more information from telepathy than he would from just asking.
‘Some of them are using it to travel to other places like us, some are just having fun in the water. There is a waterfall downstream and it is wild to fall down it! The ghosts are already dead and have no fear of dying so they just enjoy the thrill of rushing water!’
‘Don’t they want to get to The Other Side as soon as possible? How is there time for this?’
‘Not really, sometimes when living things die, it’s fun to hang around and do things you can never do as a human because it was just too dangerous. Once you die there’s nothing to fear and a lot to do if you’re a spirit before passing through to The Other Side.’
Ruxted was still grinning and looking at the spirit river. He turned to Elindo.
‘Ok are you ready to jump in?’ Elindo felt scared, the current was strong and he was without any of his instruments or space ship.
‘Is this the only way to the office?’ He asked Ruxted, wondering why there wasn’t a way to avoid the river.
‘I’m afraid not Elindo, the office is in a place that is difficult for humans to find, but ghosts can find it easily by flowing down the river.’
Elindo stared at the water. Ruxted was sympathetic but stern;
‘Don’t worry, we’ll just jump in and let the water carry us some of the way. Relax!’ Ruxted continued grinning and flickering at Elindo.
Suddenly, Ruxted jumped in as the river quickly took him away.
‘Jump Elindoooo… quickly!’
Elindo saw Ruxted moving away too quickly to think any longer. He jumped in and felt the powerful and heavy water around him.
His head went underwater and he saw ghosts all around him now. He could hear ghostly laughter and giggles of joy as the water crashed around them and they were swept along at a fast speed together.
There were all types of ghosts in the river – some of them were white, some of them were grey or blue. Some of them were round, tumbling or rolling along the water, some of them were long and thin; slinking along.
Elindo had been at faster speeds than this, when he was in his spaceship. The water tossed him around and his head went underwater regularly.
‘Just enjoy it!’ Ruxted shouted from nearby.
Elindo reminded himself that he was a ghost, that he had already died and he wasn’t in danger of being killed by the river. Then he let his body relax. He lay on his back as the current took him along. He looked at the overhanging trees above him; he could see small patches of the sky peeking out.
Elindo started to have fun. He smiled amongst the spraying water. They didn’t have rivers like this on his home planet – the rivers on Esplanar were all slow moving and calm.
Suddenly a hand around his thin Alien wrist pulled him out of the water and dragged him on to the side of the river bank. It was Ruxted who was still grinning and flickering.
‘You see! I told you it would be fun!’ Elindo smiled, he was happy Ruxted had decided to come with him.
Ruxted and Elindo trudged through the forest floor again, through the trees. Elindo thought about how the river was fun and how he wouldn’t mind doing it again.
‘How do you know so much about the rainforest Ruxted?’
‘It’s part of my community service – I have to help some tribespeople here.’
They both continued walking underneath the canopy of trees. Elindo could hear exotic birds singing and he thought about how nice some parts of Earth were; there weren’t singing birds on his home planet.
Elindo was about to ask Ruxted more about his community service when a ghost appeared to come from a corner of the worn path they were following.
It was another alien ghost like Elindo. Elindo and the ghost both stopped to acknowledge each other. It was the first alien Elindo had seen since his space ship crashed.
Elindo heard the telepathic words Hello in his head from the alien.
My name is Linko, the alien sent the thought to Elindo.
Elindo and Ruxted both looked at the alien from head to toe. He had a large head on a short, skinny body like Elindo.
‘Hello Linko, this is Elindo; we’re heading towards the Alien Division of the International Office. Elindo here wants to get through to The Other Side.’
Linko smiled at Ruxted, they knew each other.
‘What planet are you from Elindo?’ Linko could have asked telepathically and Elindo could have replied telepathically but they decided to speak out loud because it was more polite in front of Ruxted.
‘I’m from Esplanar, what planet are you from?’
‘I’m from Merru. I know other aliens from Esplanar.’
Elindo was very excited to meet another alien on Earth, especially one in ghostly form.
‘I’ve just come back from the office actually, it’s quiet today so you’ll probably be seen quickly without any queuing.’ Elindo noticed that Linko was carrying papers in his hand.
‘What are you still doing on Earth Linko? Haven’t they helped you pass to The Other Side yet?’ Ruxted was curious, he had first met Linko around a month ago and was surprised to see him still around.
Linko looked thoughtful; ‘I have a few wreckages to clean up, a few living human witnesses whose thoughts I need to erase and a few abductions I need to compensate for – only then will they let me leave and go to The Other Side.’
Elindo wondere
d what Linko meant but knew he would soon find out.