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Science Fiction Fantasy

I don't have anymore than this written, so ya'll have to wait a little. (1/3 chapter 2)


As they drifted through space, Rune was muttering angrily to himself. His siblings all watched him with worried eyes and tight mouths. Tycho watched all of their serious expressions with wide eyes. “Where are we going, Rune?” Amarillius asked for the fourth or fifth time. Her older brother sighed and fiddled with the small earring in his left ear. “This transport is piloting itself, we'll go where it takes us.” the girl sat back and sighed. “Why did the Admiral eject you after making you the newest cybersoldier?” Rune sighed, half sigh half growl, and didn't answer.

Tycho crawled into Rune’s lap and gazed wide-eyed at the mass amount of buttons in front of him. “don’t touch.” Rune told him roughly. After a while, his little brother fell asleep on his big brother, his small head on Rune’s chest. Rune felt a glow in his chest as he watched his siblings sleep peacefully.

With a slight sense of regret, he realized how much he cast aside when he was too focused on his job to even talk to his younger siblings. His parents had cast them aside, and now he was doing the same. He heaved a sigh, watching the stars drift lazily past against the veil of darkness that had become his home. Their home. Not anymore, though. The siblings couldn’t float in space forever.

As the transport neared a certain quadrant, dread coiled in Rune’s gut as he had a feeling he knew where the transport was going.

Earth.

Home of the humans, every one of them completely detested sarsh. Rune and his siblings would have to morph into human form. He groaned quietly. It would be a nightmare.

Rune’s fear was confirmed when he watched the blue, green and grey planet grow larger.

He sighed, Amarillius and Sharn shifted in the back.

Tycho’s long-lashed eyes flicked open. “are we there yet?” he asked sleepily. “Yeah.” Rune said.

His siblings all pushed each other to see the large planet. “We’re going to Earth,” Rune whispered. “Do you all know how to morph?” Amarillius and Sharn nodded. Rune groaned. “What are we going to do about Tycho?” Sharn raised an eyebrow at his brother. “He can morph. Lyris taught him early. We all learned when we were about his age, didn’t you?” Rune pursed his lips and didn’t answer. Amarillius smothered a giggle. She knew her older brother hadn’t mastered morphing until he was at least eight.

The small transport entered Earth's atmosphere and landed in a muddy forest. When they were just above earth’s atmosphere, Rune saw a town nearby. Hopefully, he and his siblings could find sufficient shelter there. With a jolt, he realized earth was going to become their home. Their permanent home. Once a soldier was ejected, there was no going back. Unless there was some mistake. Rune was positive something went wrong.

The four siblings exited the transport, glancing about them with wary expressions. There were no humans nearby. “Okay,” Rune said, keeping his voice low in spite of the fact that they were alone. “Okay, hair color?” His siblings smiled as they turned to one another, whispering. “Pink!” Tycho shouted, his siblings all shushed him at the same time. Rune shook his head. “The humans have boring colors.” His siblings thought for a moment more. “blond!” They cried.

Rune crouched and picked up Tycho, who was playing in the mud at their feet. “what about eyes?” “Black!” Sharn suggested. Rune frowned, then shrugged. “Skin?” “Light!” Amarillius called. Her older brother nodded thoughtfully. “Is that everything?” His siblings nodded.

White-blond spread across their heads like dripping paint, their ears disappeared from the tops of their heads and reappeared on the sides, their fangs retracted and their teeth flattened. Their eyes darkened and their slit pupils rounded. Each of them shortened by several inches. When they finished, there was four odd-looking humans standing next to a sarsh transport in the middle of the woods. Their clothes had changed to jeans and t-shirts the same colors as their tunics. Unfortunately, their other clothing was still sarsh. With a sigh, Rune told his siblings to leave them. They didn’t want any chance of being discovered. As he thought of this, he frowned at the sarsh transport, then shrugged helplessly. There was nothing he could do about it, it would have to stay in the woods and they would have to hope it wasn’t seen.

“come on.” Rune told his siblings, gesturing for them to follow. Then, the four of them set off in the town's direction.

Everything seemed larger because they were shorter. Rune, being originally 7’2, now felt like a child. He now stood a grand total of 6’6. At four, sarsh are 4’5, but now Tycho stood only three and half feet. Amarillius stood 5’5. Sharn, 5’2. Each of them had shortened by eight or so inches.

As the four of them wandered through the forest, they gazed up at the trees and the blue sky beyond them. White clouds scudded across the blue in the mid-summer breeze. Birds fluttered in the treetops, the sarsh gazed at the animals with a look of wonder. There were no animals on any of the sarsh ships, so it was a novel experience. “Where are we going to live?” Sharn asked quietly, his face upturned. Rune sighed and pushed his hand through his blond hair, the hand that would have been metal but wasn’t any longer. It felt like he had regrown his hand, only with the same strength as his cyber arm. It was an odd sensation. “I'll figure something out.”


But he didn’t. When they arrived at the small town, the sun had sunk below the mountains in the distance. There were very few people out, if any they were in cars. Rune and his siblings had learned about Earth, they knew what things such as cars were, but still found it frightening. The siblings filed into a sun-filled alley and sat to rest. Tycho and Sharn played a quiet game under Amarillius’s watchful eye. Rune sat apart from all of them, watching. His heart and mind felt twisted. All at once, he was angry and upset, but also he felt strangely happy for being trapped on Earth, apart from his stiff, work-filled life.

Amarillius kept snatching glances at Rune, her brow pulled into an angry V. Rune frowned at her when she wasn’t watching. Something he did must have made her upset. He scooted a little closer to her; she now sat apart from the younger boys, her back against the stone building towering above them. “is something wrong?” he asked. His sister’s head snapped up, Rune saw a single tear slip down her cheek. “This is all your fault.” she whispered.

“What do you mean?” Rune's usually blank face was pulled into a confused expression.

“Ever since momma and poppa left us," Amarillius responded. "it was like you left too. You have been distant and cold, only caring about being the best there is, and now look where it got you.” She gestured widely to the dirty alley they sat in.

Rune’s head dropped a fraction. He muttered something under his breath and stood, stalking to the far side of the alley. “something was off about them.” He said, louder this time so his siblings could hear. Amarillius crossed her pale arms and frowned. “what are you talking about now?”

Rune turned. “The General.” He replied. “He was almost robotic, the Admiral was supposed to be there when we left, and nobody took my rank chain.”

He fished his necklace out from his deep red shirt, showing his siblings. Amarillius shrugged, muttering something. Rune glared. “what did you say?”

“You deserved it!” she shouted, her voice bouncing off the surrounding buildings. Rune stood stock-still, glaring down at her.

Amarillius pursed her lips as a steely light appeared in her eyes, she continued her rant. “You deserved to be ejected.” Rune looked like a statue in the sinking sunlight, his face trembled with anger and his fingers curled. “I did nothing to deserve this. Someone wanted me gone and they found the right way to do it. It isn’t my fault we’re here.” He barely contained his anger. He swore quietly and stalked away, he disappeared around the corner of the building.

Amarillius stared after him, then dropped her head into her knees and huffed.


The large red ball of a sun dropped behind the background of mountains and the sky darkened. The stars shone their dim light on the only living creatures out. The four siblings still sat in the alley. The younger siblings were asleep, Tycho in Amarillius’s arms, Sharn leaning against her.

Rune sat apart from them, watching his siblings with hurt eyes. What if what his sister had said was true? What if this was his fault?

He shook his head, standing to pace and keep himself from drifting off. Maybe it was his fault they were here, but even if it was, there was nothing he could do about it now. What he could do was get to know his siblings and protect them as best he could while they were on Earth, while he was figuring out how to get them home.

February 15, 2021 16:05

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5 comments

TJ Squared
23:40 Nov 06, 2021

"Home of the humans, every one of them completely detested sarsh." ... I don't detest him (and his siblings)....especially in human form... lkjhgfghygfdftyfdfrfgyujuiyglkjhgvgfdftfcv I love it. I just simply love it. seriously, make it a book. It would see world-wide.

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Creed .
23:41 Nov 06, 2021

Shucks, it's not THAT good. :D

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TJ Squared
23:42 Nov 06, 2021

yes. it. most. certainly. is :D

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Creed .
23:43 Nov 06, 2021

I'm speechless. :D

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TJ Squared
23:51 Nov 06, 2021

:DDDDD

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