literature

The Veterans, Pt. 1 of 5.

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                                          Prologue:

         The brilliant white flashes were no longer visible in the roiling blue-glowing fog to professor Stanson and the others outside the mayhem.  The strange Carboniferous forest, the ri, and all else inside turned into a vaporous state, like ectoplasm, and merged with it at a central point, the unknown origin and source of the primeval world, before finally condensing into an energetic mass.  

                                                      --  From "Ri's Sanctuary, Reunion."

        *               *               *               *               *                

         The exotic female swam in the passages of her native environment superior, with an unmatched grace, but was keenly aware that something was very wrong.  The water that rushed past her face, through her hair, and caressed the unique features of her strange dimorphous form from all around with each movement seemed to have an unnatural silence.  She had recently defeated dangerous infiltrating opponents, but at what cost?  What were the results of their intrusions?  What harm did they cause?  

         She entered a wider channel but did not have to study it carefully to know that the entire place was re-materializing with different structure but the same form.  The clear turquoise water became rapidly brighter everywhere as the very sky above stabilized; she could not be sure how much time had passed beyond her special sanctuary, or where it all exactly was.  It's behavior of reintegration was premature, atypical, and her primary objective was to make sure it was secure and undisturbed.  Too much was at stake, and its unusual reformation caused much consternation in her.  

         She moved closer to the quiet shimmering surface of the water before boldly breaking through it after a short pause of apprehension.  Then, she looked about for more aquatic activity and carefully listened for anything unusual while hovering steady in the fluid medium like a weightless astronaut.  Only a large predatory placoderm fish could be barely seen in the distance beyond a small group of more primitive silvery creatures in the immediate vicinity.  The odd, mostly greenish underwater plants swayed back and forth slowly in the passing current, and when the large dark organism disappeared from view, she emitted a short loud ruffling noise by the rapid sculling of her many long leafy flukes together in a spiral at the water's surface.  A few other colorful marine flatworms and a flurry of trilobites emerged into view briefly next, before scattering and hiding once more.  A warning from her, or something more threatening?

         The ri could only deduce that the reason for their evasive behavior was due to the same thing that made her feel so uneasy.  Under normal circumstances, she could swim amidst any of the diverse aquatic organisms in perfect harmony, as if in a weird Garden of Eden, but not anymore.  Maybe, she was contaminated somehow and considered more human by them, or had a prevailing trait since having last intermingled in their world.  Even the hypersensitive ameoba-like gelloids dispersed randomly throughout the place acted more defensive, frequently floating closer than usual to her.  However, she was still the ruling mistress of the otherworldly biome.

         She slowly and cautiously rose through the surface again by using her rippling transparent tunic and was greeted by a yellow-orange sun in a very humid hazy sky between the ascending fantastical flora, but amidst prevailing strong sporadic breezes.  Patches of fog still lingered just above the warm water and snuggled to the scaly trunks of the numerous ancient and exotic trees that grew dense in the soggy ground.  Soon after detecting a feeble greenish light glowing in them at the end of the narrow branching passage in the distance, a voice in her head, a sort of primordial female intuition, told that her ultimate mission and purpose was not yet fulfilled, to confirm something was wrong.  Thus, necessary assistance would be required to complete it, but by whom, or what?  

         She wondered if her methods of conducting the primary mission for the sanctuary were insufficient, as she had been brought so near the central core of the place -- an area much different from where she last was when the whole environment dematerialized and departed its original position on the Earth.  Her main purpose for even existing became unclear again by confusion: To rule or to serve and protect?  Defense had to be a part of the mystery, and she did her duties well.  However, she also did not know how important her methods of such were.  Analogously, as passion and intimacies are important to a marriage, they are not the only reasons for its long-term continuity or very origin.  As such, the ri's existence alone could NOT be the only reason it's sanctuary prevailed and returned to mankind's modern world.  She had to be an expression, a construct, of something much greater.  This was a question that now had to be answered.

         The viridescent illumination emanated through the primeval forest and thick fern foliage from within the core of the sanctuary a few more seconds, before it abruptly diminished more.  Then, it brightened ten fold just as fast to surprise and even frighten her.  Its action indicated instability, a visual extension of her initial feelings this time, and although silence persisted, the source of it initiated a series of vibrations that first felt faintly by her in the water grew into a brief violent quaking.  All of the trees swayed for half a minute - the large stately lepidodendrons and the graceful calamites, with its whorled branches; she was jostled on the water like unimportant flotsam.  Even to the native of this uncanny world, its behavior was atypical, and she wondered if she had any cause for it.  

         After nearly a dozen large primitive dragonflies flew wildly about overhead, to appear more confused than all of the thoughts in her mind, she effortlessly dove back far below the unsteady surface of the water showing concern and fear.  Her long pitch-black hair trailed and swirled about her head when she finally came to a stop; she again looked like the most special and enchanting part of the biome alone.  She could only guess that her appearance and structure was to help meld her form with either that of her apex human rivals and that of the sanctuary at whim.  On another planet, her appearance would be just a little more different, alien.  Her brain reasoned then that she had been brought to an evolutionary peak here.  Why?  

         When the trembling stopped, she swam toward the center of the place from near the bottom of the deep channel and let the silence and soothing water relax her again.  It was obviously in the water that she felt most secure and superior.  She thus passed more trilobites, crustaceans, and disturbed aquatic arthropods near dead sunken trees and stopped in front of the special area, where the wider channel divided off toward a shallower open body of water.  Only then did she realize that the initial light and vibrations, as well as the strong inner intuition, were a collective signal for her to come further and investigate the damage done by the outside intruders.  It was not visible underwater.  Instead, it could only be seen from high above and best from that unique location.  

         The small "island" of dense plant growth that the strange light was coming from was so special that it even made her feel inferior, as like the first humans that discovered Yosemite Valley.  In all of her extensive lifetime, she had only ventured randomly TO it twice, and just recently at that -- each time about twenty years apart.  Now, she had been attracted to it again with her curiosity visually tweaked.  The central area looked much the same as any other place in the entire sanctuary from the outside, but each time she ventured beyond the "normal" exterior growth, it took on a markedly more different appearance unlike nowhere else she could even imagine.

         Undulating her strong membranous tunic some, she easily brought herself to the surface of the water again at the fringe of the core zone.  Behind a few broad dark-green fern fronds, a tall old lepidodendron tree rose skyward where its many branches unfurled; she proceeded to climb it with a skill almost like that of a squirrel.  Although she could not see what was wrong before, the abnormalities were well-sensed to indicate that were very significant.  

         The ri soon saw the damage to her world after resting securely on one of the large side branches.  It was obvious to her but probably would not be to an outsider -- a human intruder.  The behavior of the fauna and even the area weather was clearly understandable then, like the irregular more resisting currents of the water in the channels also signaled.  She trembled as adrenalin surged through her system and ultimately let out a shrill, somewhat bestial scream in anger and some fear upon fully recognizing the problem: parts of her precious sanctuary were MISSING.  

         From her high location, she could tell by the close proximity of the dense fog and the way it moved and spiraled in different directions outward which areas were gone.  She likewise knew that the process of retrieving them was simultaneous and ongoing, very much to a healing of sorts.  Thus, first-aid was required of her too, as she could not be sure when or if they would reform with the larger biome, or what they might contain.  Otherwise, most of the remaining far horizon of the sultry primordial place merged with a stable dense fog bank all around her.  

         Although she had a spectacular view of her weird world from the perch, the erratic breezes continued to blow inward from its exterior, sometimes strongly.  Some parts of the mysterious enchanting environment were stirred by the warm wind, with fog patches uplifted into the dense trees, while other parts remained very still and eerie.  There had to be stable comforting uniformity throughout the place, and she descended back down the prehistoric tree after she felt a cool breath of an outside draft pass over her bare body.  There was no need for her to explore the narrower streams leading into the restless core zone of the habitat to answer any further questions that lingered in her mind.  They were trivial now.  Much more important instructions were provided by it, and the duties of the new mission were very clear.  


Continued to Pt. 2.                        
First portion of "The Source" (Ri's Sanctuary sequel).  A startling discovery in a primeval forest.  
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