TAT: Our World TEEN/CC- AN 3/28[ WIP]

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littleroswell
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TAT: Our World TEEN/CC- AN 3/28[ WIP]

Post by littleroswell »

Time After Time: Our World

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Roswell or any of the songs I might use in this fic. I’m simply borrowing the characters for a little fun in my imagination. Please don’t sue.

Rating: TEEN
Pairing: All CC, mostly M/L centered though
Category: AU w/ aliens, FF

Based on a challenge by Fred:
"Time After Time is a series of loosely linked stories throughout history. Each story will feature Max and Liz in a CC relationship. Most of the other pairings will be CC, but it is not required (meaning that mild UC is a possibility). Nor is pairing the other characters with anyone necessarily going to happen. The stories in this series can all be read independently, but will be connected by Max and Liz's relationship, and by one other trend. See if you can pick it out! The stories may end happily, or not. This is at the discretion of the author. The backstory in each fic might be different. These stories are not necessarily canon based. The events of the TV show Roswell are just another link in the time after time chain."

For more information, please see the challenge on the Fanfic Discussion forum. Thanks for the opportunity to participate, Fred!


Setting/Summary/AN: Not going to give away too much in this but this story is set in the 51st century. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m jumping forward a few thousand years. The names of our characters will be spelled/said a little differently so I’ve included a character list, even though I’m pretty sure you would have been able to pick out who is who without it, and a pronunciation of some of them in parentheses. There is a reason for my madness. Earth is not exactly what you might expect for it being so far into the future. I just happen to use the theory that history repeats itself. I thought when writing this, “Look how far we’ve come in only a couple thousand years. I wonder how far we’ll be in another couple.” I got inspiration (and inspiration only) from several places and I want to give them credit. The list of my inspirations is below. Please feel free to check them out…I’m sure they’ll entertain you.

Inspired by:
1. “TAT: In the Beginning” by Breathless (completed fic in the TAT series)
2. “The Clan of the Cave Bear” series of books by Jean Auel
3. The movie “The Time Machine” made in 2002
4. My imagination

Part 1 – “Return to the Home World”

Characters:
1. Mackz - Max
2. Mikale – Michael
3. Izahbel / Iza (EEZ-ah) – Isabel
4. Tezz – Tess

Spring, 5030
Solar System, Approaching Earth


Mackz sputtered and coughed, his lungs and sinuses trying to adjust to being without the mask of the hypersleep chamber, or “the coffin” as he and Mikale called it. He was not the only one trying to get his bearings. He looked down the row of chambers and saw that his fellow shipmates were sitting up. Mikale was holding his head and shook it a couple of times, running his hands through his hair. Iza was coughing and holding her chest. Tezz was coughing and sneezing.

The chambers were oblong ovals in shape, and were attached to a frame that allowed movement and had originally been standing upright when they first went inside them. There were restraints to hold the occupant in place because at timed intervals, the chamber would rotate positions so as to keep the occupant from developing sores on any side and to help keep the muscles feeling like they were being used. Neural stimulants were used as well so that the muscles would not atrophy. They had been in hypersleep while the ship crossed from one galaxy to another within the past year.

“Everyone ok?” Mackz asked.

He got various answers but all mostly on the positive side so he moved his focus to what had awoken them. Alarms were sounding and the computer had lowered the hypersleep chambers from the upright positions they had been in to the floor. Listening for a moment to the announcements from the computer, Mackz hopped out of his coffin quickly and shivered at the change in temperature. “We’ve made it to the solar system,” he said, repeating what the computer had been trying to tell them.

He quickly pulled on his flight suit over the underwear he had been wearing and looked back to see if his shipmates were following his lead. They were all shivering at varying degrees. Tezz’s teeth were chattering. She caught his eyes and pulled a blanket around her small body. “Why is it so cold in here?” she asked.

“I’m not sure but I think it’s just a reaction of our bodies to being awake and out of the coffins,” Mackz answered.

Izahbel grimaced at him. “Mackz, do you have to use that word? The whole idea of us being in those things for a year is already a disturbing thought without your choice of names for them.”

“Sorry,” Mackz apologized. “I’m gonna go up to the control room. You guys get dressed and meet me there as soon as you can.”

He wasn’t in his seat in the control room but a few minutes when he realized that something was very wrong. Using the intercom system on the ship, he yelled for the other three to get up there immediately. Iza and Mikale came running in minutes later. Mackz kept glancing for Tezz but she didn’t follow.

“Where’s Tezz?” he asked.

“She was so cold, she decided to take a hot shower to warm up. She should be here in a minute,” Iza explained. She took her post and looked at the instruments and read outs she was getting.

Mikale looked up at the view screen in front of them and asked the same question that was on all three of the minds in the room. “What the hell?”

“Iza, can you tell me why it looks like Earth has two moons?” Mackz demanded.

“I’m working on it,” Izahbel replied shortly, nervous about the information that the computer was giving her.

Tezz came into the control room at that moment, moving quickly to her station. Throwing an apologetic look at Mackz, she said, “I’m sorry, Mackz, but I was just so cold…”

Mackz dismissed her apology. “It’s okay, Tezz, I just need you to try to contact Earth. We’re kind of in a bit of a crisis right now.”

The look of confusion that passed over her face was replaced by one of horror and confusion after a few moments of staring at her personal screen. Tezz paled considerably and swallowed hard as she frantically attempted to establish contact with the blue jewel on the main viewer.

Mikale looked at his personal computer screen and was baffled by what he saw. “Mackz, I’m looking at the landmasses on my screen and what I’m seeing doesn’t make sense. None of these continents match exactly what pictures we have in the computer memory banks. Some of them are close but there are some serious differences…the kind you just don’t get in only 2,500 years.” Looking back up directly into Mackz’s face, Mikale asked, “Are you sure that we’re in the correct solar system?” When Mackz only gave him a pointed look, he added, “Ok, but are you sure we weren’t asleep for longer than that year we were supposed to be? Maybe we weren’t able to jump into hyperspace after all and we took a lot longer to get here than we thought it would.”

Mackz sighed and called out, “Computer, what is the Earth date?”

“Using the calendar of the former USA, it is the spring of the Earth year five thousand, thirty,” came the ever cheerful response of the computer.

“Guess that answers that question,” Mikale muttered.

“It doesn’t matter what’s going on, what we have to do is get some data on that other moon and how it and the other changes are going to affect our reentry. Iza, I need all the information that you can get on that second moon. Mikale, I want you to take the information Iza gets and try to recalculate our new entry angle, speed, everything. Tezz, any word from Earth yet?” Mackz spouted out, being the leader he had been trained to become.

Tezz looked at him helplessly. “No! I’m not picking up anything,” she cried.

“Well, don’t worry about it; just keep trying. They might just not be able to answer just yet for some kind of interference,” Mackz tried to soothe her.

“No, Mackz, you don’t understand. I’m not just not getting a response from Earth; I’m not picking up anything from there. There are no other stellar communications, no air traffic control frequencies, not even any radio stations! I’m not getting anything!” Tezz exclaimed.

Mackz frowned at that information. This was supposed to be an easy ride. The ship was programmed with an autopilot to take them to Earth, armed with some very high tech computers and they had all undergone hours of training on how to do the necessary jobs they would have to aboard the ship that would get them all there safely. Now there were many new variants that were popping up that they had not prepared for. Was it possible that something cataclysmic had happened in the two millennia since the colonists had left Earth? Had something happened to the human race?

“Mackz, we have a real problem. The computer is having problems taking the new information and making the necessary adjustments so that we don’t crash either into that second moon, or Earth, or that we don’t burn up into the atmosphere. It’s taking too long to take readings on the gravitational effects of the two moons, the…” Iza started babbling. Her terror was only evident because they all knew her so well.

Interrupting her, Mackz said a few words that froze everyone for a full 30 seconds. “Okay, then, Mikale, I guess we’re just going to have to take her down manually.” The engines were the only thing that made any noise as the other three stared at him. Jumping into one of the other seats, Mackz started hitting the buttons that would override the computer’s original settings and program of their landing.

“Mackz, have you lost your mind? We can’t fly this bucket of bolts!” Mikale yelled, on the verge of hyperventilating. “If you want to kills us, you could just set the course for that moon because it might be faster and less stressful.”

“Mikale! We don’t have a choice in this! That’s an order!” Mackz barked back at his friend. Then he gave him a sympathetic look. “Look, I know you’re scared. We all are, but we have to get through this together. We prepared for how to fly this in case of an emergency and this is definitely an emergency.”

Reluctantly taking the seat next to Mackz’s, Mikale argued, “Yeah, but simulations are a whole different scenario from actually flying this tin can.” After swallowing visibly, Mikale turned and met Mackz’s eyes. “Truthfully, I didn’t always pay that good attention to all of the lessons. I didn’t think we’d actually have to fly this thing ourselves,” he admitted.

Mackz sighed and placed a hand briefly on his friend’s shoulder. “Well, let’s just hope that you paid attention to the lessons that I didn’t and between the both of us, we can land this thing without killing ourselves.” At Mikale’s incredulous look, he nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t exactly pay rapt attention in all of those lessons either.”

Feeling somewhat better about himself as well as the whole situation for some bizarre reason, Mikale grinned at his friend and captain and slapped him on the back before getting things ready to switch to manual control. Mackz tapped a couple of buttons before addressing one of the pressing issues of landing blind. “Tezz, are you still not picking up any sort of communications on Earth?”

“No, sir,” she answered formally.

“Iza, I need you to find some sort of landing coordinates based on whatever data you have in the computer of the way Earth was based on the last updates. Try to find a desert with no large cities around,” Mackz ordered.

Izahbel pushed a couple of buttons on her console and finally said, “According to the memory banks, there is a large area of desert on the western side of the North American continent. But looking at my current information and the information from Tezz, I don’t see signs of any major cities.”

“We can’t worry about that now,” Mackz said, pushing thoughts of an abandoned or barren Earth out of his head. They couldn’t fail in their mission now. “Just get me those coordinates, Iza.”

“Sending those coordinates to your screen now,” came Izahbel’s reply.

Mackz took those coordinates and then pushed a couple of buttons before murmuring under his breath, “Here goes nothing.”

Suddenly, the computer’s voice sounded. “Manual override initiated. Auto pilot has been turned off. Warning. Danger imminent. All personnel please secure yourselves.”

“Everyone get strapped in and put your helmets on!” Mackz yelled.

Mikale looked at the read outs on his controls and yelled back, “We’re coming in too fast! We have to put on the brakes a little.”

Mackz applied the brakes but they weren’t slowing down fast enough. The whole ship began vibrating. “The gravitational pull from the two moons is making it harder to slow down. I’ll pull us up a little so that hopefully the atmosphere will help slow us down.”

“NO!” Mikale screamed. “I might not have been listening to all the lessons but I was paying attention when Greeg said we would burn to a crisp if we didn’t get the entry angle exactly right. I don’t know about you but I’m not ready to become bacon!”

“Ok, Mikale, I’m open to suggestions. We have to slow down or we might just end up going through the planet!” his Captain barked.

Taking a deep breath, Mikale turned to Mackz and said, “We have to wait until we’re through the mesosphere and into the stratosphere before we can try pulling back. Once we’re inside the stratosphere, we don’t have to worry about the temperatures cooking us at a shallower angle.”

Swallowing at that answer, Mackz couldn’t help voicing the problem with that plan. “That only gives us 50 kilometers (21.1 miles) to work with before we hit ground.” Mikale only nodded. Sighing, he made a decision. “Ok, then we do it that way.”

All four members of the crew started to sweat, biting their lips, saying prayers. The vibrating of the ship turned to outright shaking as the planet surface came racing up to meet them at a dizzying speed. Slowing down as much as possible, the ship began to shake violently and the pressure of the opposing forces on it started to take its toll. Pieces of the ship started to come off on the outside and inside. What should have been a desert on their screen was a forest of trees and everyone started to panic.

“I thought this was supposed to be a desert area! Where the hell are all the open spaces of sand?” Mikale shouted.

Ignoring that comment, Mackz looked from one crew member to the next. “We’re going to crash, everyone, there’s just no getting around that. I’ll bring her down as gently as I can but if…if the worst should happen, you all are the best friends and crewmates a man could ask for,” he told them sincerely.

Before anyone could respond, the ship lurched and jerked, hitting trees. The girls screamed in terror. Mackz and Mikale pushed buttons and controls as fast as they could but there was no stopping the inevitable. When they bounced off the ground several times, they started to head for a mountain. Mackz jerked hard to the right and he lost count of how many times they flipped over.

Pieces of the control room were flying everywhere. The horrific noises and crashes and bangs drowned out the screams of the occupants. Mackz saw his relatively short life flash before his eyes as he prayed to a higher power to deliver, if not himself, the other people in the ship with him. With one bounce and spin of the ship, the lights went out and Mackz realized with a horror that he had forgotten to strap his helmet on and it was no longer on his head. That was the last thought he had before his whole world went black.
Last edited by littleroswell on Wed Feb 13, 2008 12:06 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
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littleroswell
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Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
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Post by littleroswell »

Ok, I'm back with the new part. I've decided to post a new part at latest every other week. That's the schedule I'm aiming for right now because I can concentrate well on each of my fics. The other fic I am working on is on the CC board, "Against My Programming". Check it out and let me know what you think. I'll be on to check on feedback before two weeks from Tuesday, but I'll probably update then. Thanks for your feedback and patience!

Beth

Time After Time: Our World

Part 2 – “Lyshabess’ Sign”

Characters:
Lyshabess/Lysha/Lyz (Lisha-BESS, LYSHA, LIZ) – Liz
Mariah (MAR-ee-ah, like Mario but with an “ah” instead of “oh”) – Maria
Alicks- Alex
Khile – Kyle
Jyf – Jeff
Rina – Serina
Nivek – (deceased) original character

A/N: I forgot to put this note on part one but when everyone finally meets up, it will come to light that the four from the ship will not understand the people on Earth right away. So even though it looks like right now they all speak the same language, it is different. That too will be explained.

Alicks watched his eight year old sister trying to get his other sister’s attention. Rina was trying to ask Lysha about a certain herb, but Lysha was off in her own world again, far away from their family shelter. It tore at his heart to see his sibling so lost, as she had been since the last big quake almost a year ago. In fact, it would be a year next month. Everyone was worried about Lysha, especially their father Jyf. It was his idea, with Alicks’ wholehearted agreement, that Lyshabess move back into their larger family shelter after the earthquake that turned her world upside down yet again.

“Lyshabess,” Rina sang, trying to get her sister’s attention and getting frustrated. “Please tell me what this plant is used for. I promise if you tell me, I’ll leave you alone.”

“Rina!” came their father’s firm but loving voice from behind Alicks. “Will you please go outside and gather the special fuel for the night lamps? We are running low.”

The eight year old, always eager to please, immediately dropped the herb she had been holding, threw her arms around her sister briefly, and skipped off to do as her father had asked. Once the flap of their dwelling had closed behind her, Jyf looked down at his older daughter. Lysha was sitting on her folded legs, clutching something to her chest. Her long brown hair hid her face, but she was rocking back and forth ever so slightly.

Alicks watched with concerned eyes as his father placed a hand on Lysha’s shoulder. He felt his throat constrict when she looked up at Jyf with tears filling her large dark eyes and trailing down both cheeks. Holding up her hands, she showed the contents to her father. It was an animal skin pouch with the head used as a closing flap. Alicks recognized it as the one that he had seen on his brother-in-law’s shoulder everywhere he went.

“Lysha,” Jyf whispered sadly.

“I just found it. I was cleaning out that carton of things, trying to sort out the things I wanted to keep and the things to get rid of and I found it, fadad,” Lysha sobbed. “Why now? Every time I start to make progress to healing from it, something like this happens! Why must I constantly be reminded of the fact that I lost him so quickly…so violently? Why, fadad?”

Jyf hugged his daughter for several moments. Pulling back slightly, he wiped her tears from her face and smiled down at her, placing a quick kiss to her forehead. “Perhaps a walk would be good for you. You could take your basket and gather what plants you are low on. It’s been a while since you did that on your own, usually I send Rina with you since she loves it so much.” At the sharp look he got from her, he added, “Or if you would like Alicks to go with you…”

Shaking her head and flashing her brother a smile, Lysha said, “As much as I love Alicks and spending time with him, I think I need a little time alone.” Standing up, she lovingly placed the bag over her head so that it hung diagonally over her torso. Giving her father a kiss on the cheek, she grabbed her gathering basket and whispered, “Thank you, fadad, for everything. I’m sorry that I’m being such a bother. It’s just…It’s just so hard.” She looked down at the ground.

Placing a finger under her chin, Jyf gently forced her to look at him. Giving her a sympathetic smile, he said, “You have never been a burden to me, Lyshabess. You are grieving and it takes time to get over a loss like that…I should know.” His eyes filled with tears at the memory of the love of his life.

Lysha would not meet her father’s eyes as she nodded. “I suppose so,” she mumbled. Brushing past him, she went up to her brother and smiled briefly. “I’m sorry if it sounds like I don’t want you around. You know I love you right?”

Alicks gave her half a smile and pulled her into his arms. “Of course. You go take a nice long walk. Fadad is right, you haven’t done that in a long time,” he told her.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Lyshabess had felt a surge of hope in her heart at her father’s suggestion of her walk. It hadn’t been fifteen minutes since she had left the village, however, and she realized why she didn’t go off alone anymore. It meant that she was alone with her thoughts. She picked or dug up a few plants to put in her basket. She had been almost completely out of dandelion root; it was good for kidney and liver problems, heartburn and jaundice. But today, her mind wasn’t on her herbs and medicines. It was on her late husband and that day almost a year ago when her life was turned upside down by the quake.

Growing up in the small village she lived in, everyone was very close and played roles that were expected of them. Lyshabess was the daughter of two members of the council, until her mother died in a quake six years ago. It was the same quake that took the life of several other members of the village, including the mother of Khile and Nivek, twin brothers, though not identical, who were good friends of hers. Nivek took it the hardest and they found a mutual sympathy and understanding in each other. Adding to that the interest that Lyshabess showed in becoming a healer, which Nivek and Khile and their father were as well, and it naturally brought the two of them closer.

But Lyshabess had always pictured more for herself than her quiet role as a wife and mother that had been expected of her since she had come of marrying age. The world was a big place, the universe even bigger, and she had always felt that more was out there than their little village. She was not alone in her thinking but it was kept very quiet. There seemed to be an unwritten law that said you should be content with your life and your role in it. Everyone played a part and everyone was important but there were limits to where you should go and what you should do.

That had been the source of her argument with Nivek the day of the quake. As Lysha stopped alongside the river she had been following, she lowered herself to the ground to gather some roots. Leaning back on her heels, she quietly watched as a doe and her two fawns cautiously made their way to the water edge on the opposite bank. She smiled as she watched the doe quickly lower her head and drink water, all the while her ears moving constantly. She then kept watch while her offspring helped themselves to the cool water. When they had disappeared into the woods again, Lyshabess stood up and let her mind wander with her steps.

”Nivek, let’s take a trip somewhere,” Lysha suggested as she entered their small hut. She stopped short as she realized that Nivek was not alone. “Oh, I’m sorry; I didn’t realize you had a patient.” She started to turn around to go back outside but the older woman with her husband called her back.

“Lysha, come back, dear. I have nothing to hide from you, and Nivek and I were just finishing up,” Caro said, her eyes almost disappearing within all her wrinkles. As she pulled her woven blouse back on and redid the buttons with gnarled fingers, she continued to smile at the young woman whom she had watched grow up. Patting Lysha’s cheek, she said, “You are becoming as good a healer as Nivek. Another year or two and she will pass you up, eh Niv?”

Caro cackled and Lysha smiled in pleasure at the compliment. Nivek beamed at her and readily agreed with the older woman’s assessment. Smiling down with obvious love at his wife, he said, “Oh, she’s already a better healer at some things. She has the patience for some of the children that I don’t. It’s one of the things that will make her such a wonderful mother.”

Unwilling to show her inexplicable disappointment, Lysha continued to smile but it was forced and she pushed her hair behind her ears as a distraction from it for the two people looking at her. “Nivek gives me too much credit. He’s a good teacher,” she mumbled. Everyone in the village, her husband especially, was always pushing for her to try to start a family. When were they going to have a baby? Have they tried using this special potion or drinking this special tea that so-and-so used? And those were the tame questions! It was when the questions turned extremely personal that Lysha would stutter or mumble some excuse or need to get away and she would…as fast as possible, the questions ringing in her head. Did they try this position in bed? How often did they make love? Didn’t anyone else, other than her brother, Mariah, and Khile, think that there was more to life than getting married and setting up house to start a family?

Caro simply shook her head and clucked. “Nonsense. You are a good healer, Lyshabess, in your own right.” Patting the younger woman’s abdomen, she asked gently, “Any signs yet?”

Not wanting to insult or explode on the woman who had been like a grandmother to her all her life, Lysha bit her tongue and would not meet her eyes. She could feel the heat rise in her cheeks, however, as she shook her head at Caro’s question. The older woman patted her hand, mistaking her red cheeks and refusal to meet her eyes as embarrassment or sadness. “There’s still plenty of time, little one,” she said, trying to comfort Lyshabess. “You haven’t been married that long and you are still very young.”

Guilt plagued Lyshabess as soon as the words she wanted to say came to mind. She wanted to say that she wouldn’t be able to be pregnant as long as she took the precautions that she was. But she couldn’t say that. No one knew about the measures she took against becoming pregnant. She couldn’t even explain to herself why she did it…how would she explain to anyone else. Contraceptive measures of any kind were against the law unless there were sound and proven medical reasons for the woman in question. Instead, she kept quiet save for a polite goodbye to Caro as the woman thanked Nivek for his help and left.

As Nivek cleaned up, Lyshabess perked up as she remembered what she had been saying as she had entered their dwelling. “Nivek, let’s go somewhere,” she requested with hope and happiness in her voice.

Looking at her in confusion, her husband echoed her words. “Go somewhere? Where do you want to go? If you mean to gather more plants or to visit those ruins that you are obsessed with, it’ll have to wait for another day. I have a lot of herbs to prepare and two families with colds that need treating or visiting…” he said, turning away from her and putting his animal skin medicine bag on his table and pulling out several of the contents.

“Nivek, I mean a trip. Let’s go off exploring someplace, just the two of us. Let’s go see some of the world!” Lyshabess begged, her words starting to run together in her excitement.

Stopping his movements for a moment, Nivek looked at her like he would a child, with patience and feigned understanding. It grated on Lysha’s nerves immediately. “Lyshabess, what are you talking about? We can’t go on a trip right now! There is so much to do around here. The weather this time of year fluctuates so much that it causes many to catch colds, fevers and coughs. Not to mention the spring cleaning and the planting that we are behind on. There is just too much to do right now. Besides, where would we go?” he told her shaking his head and moving around the room, gathering things he needed to treat the two families he had mentioned.

Feeling a bit frustrated at her husband’s lack of enthusiasm, Lysha spread her arms wide. “Who cares? We can go north to the desert or northeast to the mountains or…no wait! Let’s go west to the ocean. I’ve never seen the ocean, have you?”

Huffing a bit in surprised confusion, Nivek turned and looked at her like she had grown a second head. “You know I haven’t, Lysha. I’ve lived all my life in this village, except for the summer meetings at the various other villages, just as you have. Why this sudden urge to go on a trip?” he asked.

Lysha pulled the flap back from one of their windows in their hut. “There’s a big world out there, Nivek! I want to see as much of it as I can. Don’t you?”

Much to her dismay, he simply shrugged. “Not especially. Everything I want and love is here.” Shaking his head, Nivek rubbed his forehead. “I don’t understand you sometimes, Lyshabess. I thought we were trying for a family.”

Lyshabess was starting to get angry. “Nivek, you used to say that you wanted to understand me…that I fascinated you. Here’s a good opportunity for you to learn more about me. We can go away, just the two of us, and spend some time getting to know each other even better! Please, Nivek. I want to travel a bit, do something important before getting tied down with a dozen children. I just feel that there is more out there for me than just this small village and trying to raise a family!” she told him, then promptly covered her mouth. She had never said that aloud to another living soul, with the small exception of Mariah who felt the same way she did.

Nivek frowned in such a way that reminded her of her father and she felt the divide between her and her husband grow with his expression. He looked disappointed and a little angry. “Lyshabess, this village is important and your role here is important,” he said softly but firmly. “You are the daughter of two council members. Your brother is a natural leader and will probably be voted to lead the village when he gains more years. You are married to a healer and are becoming a great healer yourself. The people come to you when they need a young woman’s sympathetic ear or touch. You are respected and wise beyond your years. It would not surprise me if you were elected to the council in a few years to follow your parents’ footsteps. Being a mother is important! You have a bright and exciting future ahead of you! Why do you sound ungrateful of this?”

Looking in his eyes, Lysha knew that he didn’t understand and he never really would. The thought was devastating…as if she had always known it but had never accepted it. The part that was most devastating was the fact that she felt betrayed, more by herself than Nivek, and she was stuck in a marriage that she didn’t really want. She had never truly been in love with Nivek but he worshipped her, at least that was what people said, and she knew he loved her more than anything else…but he didn’t understand her, not really. She had been swept along by his promises and his attentions, by the encouragement that their family and friends had given them during their courtship, by the idea of someone special to share all those important moments in her life with. She had been so worried about what everyone thought she should do and flattered by Nivek’s attention and worried that she would end up alone that she had ignored all the signs her heart had tried to show her.

Trying one last time to either reach him or accept that they would never really understand each other, she gave him a half smile and nodded. “You’re right. Those are very important things and I’m not saying I’m not grateful to be a part of them…but most of them are in the future. I want this small bit for me…for us…to create memories of things that others might not have but we can share together! Please, Nivek…for me,” she pleaded, looking into his eyes and waiting for the understanding to appear.

What she saw broke her heart. He smiled at last and hung his head in thought. “All right, Lysha, if that is what you want, we’ll go away for a little while…” Just as she brightened and almost clapped her hands, he added, “But we will have to wait until after the summer meeting. There is just too much to do right now and we cannot abandon our responsibilities. Then we can go anywhere you want.”

Her face fell at his words and she felt tears fill her eyes at his words. Anger quickly welled up in her, at Nivek and at the situation and at the tears that she had no control over. “But I might be pregnant by then!” she pointed out, desperate to get away now, before anything else could come up and take their time.

He smiled at the thought, looking off into some unknown future and Lysha felt her heart constrict at the look in his eyes. “So much the better, but if not, we will take this vacation you want so badly,” he said and turned back to his work.


Lyshabess brushed tears from her cheeks as she remembered how she had flown into a rage and deliberately kept a fight going with him all day, until finally, Nivek had decided that they needed some time to cool off and left with his gathering basket and medicine bag. She had watched which direction he had gone before heading off in the opposite direction…to her favorite place to go to think. When the quake had hit, she had panicked as she always did, scared to the depths of her soul that her life would turn upside down once again. She had been right and the guilt over their last words cut her to the bone.

When Lysha finally shook free of her memories and looked around her, she was surprised to see where her wanderings had led her. It had been months since she had last been here…not since the quake. Her guilt over Nivek, their brief life together and the way it had ended, had made her stay away from the place that had held so much fascination for her ever since she, Alicks, and Mariah had stumbled upon it while playing when she was ten. She had thought Lorgah would forgive her of her sins if she sacrificed something she loved.

Descending with practiced ease into the large cavern that held the ruins of the underground town, she paused when she finally reached the bottom to look around. Nothing seemed to have changed since she was here last. It was both reassuring and saddening at the same time. The same calm, warm winds blew through the ruins and caverns, causing eerie sounds and moans to reach her ears. The same shadows seemed to dance around the rubble, looking like things were moving through all the ruins. The same goose flesh rose up on her skin at the feeling of the place being haunted.

Moving forward slowly, she felt the same reverence inside of her for this place. It caused her to make as little noise as possible and to tread carefully through the rubble and debris. Lysha made her way over to a large stone that might have once been part of a building and climbed on top. She had just gotten perched on the stone and was taking deep breaths when she heard a voice behind her.

“Lyshabess! You’re here! I haven’t seen you in months!” the happy male voice said.

Startled, Lysha scrambled to catch herself from falling. Turning around, she gave a small smile to the owner of the voice. His friendly face showed concern and she realized how much she had missed her friend. “I’m sorry, Lyshabess, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.

“It’s ok, TIMM,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around in a while. I know you must get lonely.”

He smiled at her and shook his head. “I know you don’t understand but I can’t exactly get lonely, Lysha, at least not in the traditional sense of the word.” Then he frowned as he looked carefully at her. “You look different…older somehow,” he observed. What he couldn’t put his finger on was the fact that the youthful innocence and hopefulness in Lyshabess was no longer there. Deciding not to dwell on it too long, TIMM brightened and asked, “So what can we talk about today? Would you like to talk about a story or history?”

Shaking her head, Lysha gave him a sad but pleading smile. “TIMM, I know I haven’t been here in a while but would you mind giving me a couple of minutes of quiet? I feel like I need to pray or at least think about some things,” she asked him.

The look of concern crossed his face again, but he nodded. “Of course, I’ll leave you alone…”

“NO! I mean, you don’t have to leave. I just…I just don’t feel like talking much right now ok?” Lysha pleaded, knowing she was being a bit of a coward. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts for long because she was afraid they would overwhelm her.

When TIMM agreed and she turned back around, she found that her desire to pray was stronger than ever. Lowering her eyes to her lap, she took a deep breath. “Lorgah, I know you are out there somewhere and that you know everything that has happened in the last year.” She stopped here for a moment and searched her heart for what she wanted to say. “Forgive me,” she whispered. “Forgive this lowly servant for treating Nivek as I did…for not being the wife he wanted…for being so selfish…for letting my last words to him being spoken in anger and frustration. I’m not worthy of your time and attention but I’m scared. Nivek had promised to take care of me, had promised to love me. Now I can no longer see my future as clearly as I once did. I once wished and prayed for excitement, for something bigger than what I was or had and I know now that I was ungrateful for what I had. Now all I ask is for a sign…a sign that you still watch over me and will continue to guide me in my path, in the way I ought to go…a sign that will show me that you have not left me. Please, Lorgah, I beg this of you.”

The words were out of her mouth and Lyshabess was surprised at what she had prayed for. It wasn’t what she would have guessed only an hour before. But it somehow seemed right. Brushing more tears from her face, she stretched a little just as the shaking began. At first, Lysha was terrified it was another earthquake. Every time a quake hit, her life flipped again. She clutched at the boulder she sat on until her knuckles turned white. But the shaking was quickly accompanied by a loud noise that Lysha had no name for. It was very loud and Lysha covered her ears as her eyes seemed to automatically go up to the sky above. A huge object flew through her line of sight and her eyes widened at the streak of smoke and fire it left in its wake. Suddenly, there was a huge boom and the ground shook violently before everything seemed to still again.

Lyshabess waited several moments for anything else to happen. When nothing did, she jumped up and quickly scrambled out of the caverns. Coming to the surface, she looked around frantically and saw a big column of smoke coming from the direction of the river. Unsure of what to do, she glanced in the direction of the smoke and then back down in the caverns and then back towards the village. Taking a deep breath, Lysha closed her eyes and felt the pull towards the column of smoke. If someone had been near whatever it was that had crashed to the ground, they would need her help. Without a second thought, she grabbed her gathering basket from where she had left it by the entrance to the caverns and headed off in the direction of the river and smoke.
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Post by littleroswell »

Hello, everyone! I'm back with the new part. It will probably be two weeks before I get another one out as I'm working on the other fic for next Tuesday. It sure looks like there are a lot of lurkers out there. Please drop a line once in a while to let us know who you are and that you are enjoying this story! I write faster with more feedback! Thanks to Flamehair and also Natalie36 for your fb. I dedicate this to you two.

Beth

Time After Time: Our World

Part 3 – “Rescue”

“Ok, what’s going on?” Khile demanded as he joined up with his three friends.

“That’s what I want to know. Do you have any idea how hard it was to convince my madah that it was safe to go off? Those tremors have the whole village on edge. I’m surprised your fadah let you two outside your shelter,” Mariah said, nodding to Alicks and Lyshabess. When they exchanged a guilty glance, Mariah’s eyes narrowed at them. “What?”

Alicks cleared his throat and tried to smile. “Well, technically, he thinks I’m going to look for Lyshabess and I’ve asked you two for help,” he admitted.

Khile steadied his 4 year old black stallion and looked to his sister-in-law for an explanation. What he saw surprised him. For the first time since his brother’s death, Lyshabess didn’t look lost, depressed and haunted. She had the air of determination, and he saw a tiny spark of the fire he had always admired in her eyes. “What is it? What’s going on?” he repeated, though more gently this time.

With a gleam of excitement in her eyes, Lysha allowed her normally gentle mare to turn in a complete circle. North Star sensed her mistress’ impatience and was itching to be on the move. “We’re going to the river…not far from the ruins, about three miles.” When Khile tried to question further, she shook her head, met his eyes and pointed off in the direction they were going. There was still a visible cloud of smoke and everyone’s eyes widened. “It wasn’t an earthquake,” she said simply and rode off, not looking to see if they followed.

After a couple of miles, she flashed a smile at each of her friends. They gave nervous smiles in return. As they got closer, the horses seemed to become more skittish, sensing something in the air the humans couldn’t. Coming over the rise of the hill that was hiding the source of the smoke, they froze at the sight before them. Mariah let out a gasp and looked to Lyshabess. The brunette’s eyes were searching the scene in front of them, but she didn’t look as surprised as the rest of them.

“Lysha, you’ve already been out here haven’t you?” Mariah whispered.

“Yes, and there’s no need to whisper,” her friend answered.

They all studied the scene in front of them in silence for a moment. Something big was on the ground at the foot of the hill. It had obviously slid along the earth before coming to rest in its current position as evidenced by the large trench that had been freshly dug out, going back along the ground to the base of another hill a couple of miles away. The large object itself was huge, fairly round, and had smoke coming off of it, though there were no visible flames.

“What is it?” Mariah asked in a hushed tone. It just didn’t feel right to speak at a normal level. She looked at each person in turn but waited for an answer from Lysha or Khile…Lysha because she had found it and Khile because he looked excited at what lay in front of them.

“It’s a spaceship,” Khile answered in awe.

Mariah’s green eyes widened as far as they could go at that declaration. Alicks snorted in disbelief. All eyes turned on him. “A spaceship? Come on! We all know those don’t exist anymore,” he scoffed.

Khile raised his eyebrows and said pointedly, “Not down here.”

Alicks looked stunned and a little ill at the prospect that Khile could be right. Then he turned to his sister and swallowed. “Lyshabess, do…do you think it could be…?” he left the question hanging.

Lysha looked from her brother back to the crashed object and cocked her head to the side. Finally, she shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out, I suppose.” With a clicking sound from her tongue and a gentle nudge with her knees, she urged North Star forward once again. Khile followed without hesitation and Alicks waited only a moment before following the other two, more out of a duty to protect his sister than anything else. Mariah wavered between the decision to stay behind, go along, or turn around and go home. She dismissed the last option almost instantaneously. The other two weren’t so easy to choose between. Was her fear stronger than her curiosity or the other way around? Finally, she urged her gelding down the hill after the others, although she couldn’t quite force herself to keep up with their fast pace.

Alicks tried not to show outwardly that Khile’s words had affected him but they had…profoundly. He had grown up with the tales of long ago just as the others had…of travelers from other worlds…of the technology that had once taken humans to other worlds…of that same technology that had caused so many problems and much of which was now forbidden. The idea that there might be aliens on that “ship” scared him to his toes.

They all approached the ship cautiously. Lysha was the first to dismount from her horse and start on foot. Khile and Alicks weren’t far behind, although more cautiously. Mariah refused to go any further. She volunteered to watch the horses and stayed mounted, ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Alicks briefly envied her openness with her fear. He almost volunteered to stay behind with her but his fear for his sister pushed him onward.

Circling the outside of the large object, Lysha tried to make out something underneath the dirt, leaves and other debris from the crash. It looked to be made of some kind of metal. She had just found what looked to be a difference in the relief beneath the mud when Khile called to her. Rushing over to his side, he pointed up at a place he had cleared above his head. Four symbols were painted onto the metal. At first, they made no impression on her, but then she tilted her head towards one side. The symbols were actually letters.

“N – A – S – A. What does it mean?” Lysha murmured aloud. Khile only shrugged in response.

Alicks nervously looked over the object until something round caught his eye. Forgetting his fear for a moment, he leaned down slightly as the round difference was a couple of inches shorter than eye level for him. He realized then he was actually looking at a window. Brushing away at some of the dirt and mud that coated it, he peered inside. What he saw made him gasp. “Khile, Lysha! Over here!”

The other two rushed over and Mariah bit her lip nervously at what might have Alicks so worked up. Glancing inside, Lysha’s heart stopped and then kicked into high gear. “There’s someone in there! They look like they’re unconscious. We have to help them!” she cried.

Khile and Alicks immediately started clearing branches away from the crashed ship, looking for a way in. As they moved the debris from where the window was, they discovered that the window was actually attached to a door. All three of them tried pulling, pushing and turning what appeared to be a handle but to no avail. Alicks and Khile started throwing their weight against the door, trying to force it open.

Lysha’s eyes darted around, her healer instincts telling her that whoever or whatever was inside needed her help. A small panel just to the left of the door caught her eye. Reaching out, she ran her hand over it and it lit up in a red glow. Pressing the one button that was white instead, the panel switched to green except for one other button that remained red. She pressed that one and just as the guys started to ram the door again, it opened, sending them sprawling to the floor inside.

Rubbing his shoulder, Alicks stood up and froze at what he saw around him. Khile glared at Lysha for a moment. “You could have told us you were going to try something that might open the door,” he muttered.

Lyshabess ignored him, rushing right over to the person she had seen from outside. Carefully, moving to where she could see the creature better, she caught her breath. It looked human! A little taller maybe than most, though that was difficult to be sure of with the heap they laid in, but otherwise, it looked completely human. Even with the helmet they wore, it was easy for Lysha to see that the creature before her was extremely beautiful. There was no other way to describe it…well, except maybe female.

The individual before her had long hair that flowed out from beneath the helmet, a gorgeous blonde color that rivaled Mariah’s, and had what appeared to be breasts in the same location Lysha’s were. She was unconscious and her left forearm was bent in an unnatural angle, obviously broken. There were numerous abrasions and scratches visible as well as burns along her back that would have been much worse if not for the material she wore.

Before Lysha could go further in her examination, Khile called to her softly. Glancing around, she saw that he was bent over a second being whose back was to her. Khile met her eyes. “There are three more here. I can’t say if there are more in some other room somewhere, but these obviously need our help.” He started looking over the one before him carefully, not rushing to move them for fear of internal injuries.

Lysha looked over at her brother, who was frozen and in shock by the sight of the sophisticated craft he stood inside. She had to call his name three times before he finally seemed to snap out of his stupor enough to acknowledge her. “Alicks, I need you to go out and tell Mariah what we’ve found and bring my pouch back. You brought it right?” she told him.

Alicks nodded. “Yeah, it’s in the basket on Black Foot,” he answered absently, speaking of his horse.

He seemed to be rooted where he stood and Lysha called him again. “Alicks, please I need you to hurry! Tell Mariah that they need our help and to start a fire. If she has something to boil water in, get it started.” When he still didn’t move, she got up and moved to stand in front of him. Placing a hand on each shoulder, she waited until his eyes met hers. “Go take a look at one of them, Alicks. They look human, or at least the one I saw does. They need our help. I have to help them. I took an oath when Nivek started teaching me to be a healer.”

That moved Alicks to action. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and ducked back outside, calling to Mariah as he exited. Lysha moved back to the woman she had been examining and placed her fingers to her neck where a human’s pulse would be felt. She felt the steady thumping and breathed a little easier. She decided to do a cursory examination of each of the patients before doing anything more in depth. Khile was a seasoned healer as well, but she wanted to see each of these beings herself.

Moving to one of the others a little further up, she first noticed that this one didn’t have a helmet on. The dark hair was matted with blood and there was a terrible bump on the back of the head. Moving around to better see the person’s face, she caught her breath again. He was amazingly beautiful. Despite the goose egg on his forehead accompanied by blood that was running down his face, she could tell his dark skin and strong features were terribly attractive. His suit did nothing to hide his well sculpted body. She was relieved to see his chest rise and fall with his breathing, though it was a bit sporadic. She wondered what color his eyes were.

Shaking her head, Lyshabess got back to business. His right lower leg was obviously broken and like the woman, he was covered in scratches and bruises. It was the bumps on his head, however, that most concerned her…those and the possibility of internal injuries. She glanced over at Khile, who looked up at her at the same time.

“They look like us, Lysha,” he said quietly. “I wonder if they’re human.”

Before either could say anything else, Alicks returned. He handed Lysha her medicine bag and squinted at the man at her feet. “We got a fire started and Mariah’s boiling some water in a basket she found in her packs. She seems calmer since I told her they look like us. What else do you want me to do?” he asked.

Looking around, Lysha noticed another door a few feet away. “You could try looking through the rest of the ship to see if there are any more. Then we’re going to need a couple of litters to carry them out on. It will take some time to make sure they are stable enough to move.”

Alicks nodded, not asking the questions that popped into both of their minds. Where would they take these beings? How would they explain all this to the council and other members of the village? He moved off to the other door, pushing all the questions to the back of his mind and concentrating on the task at hand.

After a couple of moments, he found his way into a chamber that had four large, oval containers that had landed in various positions with the crash. They were just large enough to hold a person and as there were harnesses in each of them, he thought they must do that for some reason. As there were only four and they had found four bodies, he didn’t hold much hope for finding anymore people.

An hour later, a thorough search of the ship turned up no other creatures, humanoid or not. There was quite a mess, however. The crash had done a real number on the craft. Alicks wasn’t sure if it would ever fly again, but then again, he had very little knowledge of such things. The four strangers had been examined closer and neither Lyshabess nor Khile could find anything that seemed life threatening, with the possible exception of the dark haired man’s head injuries. If the brain swelled, he might not make it. Time would tell, though.

In the meantime, the ship had been creaking and sparks had occasionally shot out of various areas. The three friends agreed that it was time to move everyone outside. They knew nothing about this ship and were afraid it might blow up, collapse or something else might happen to endanger them all. Mariah had refused to come inside, terrified of anything and everything she might find. She did everything she could to help outside, however, and said she would continue to do so.

With litters made of fallen trees, the blankets from the horses, and other various items, Khile and Alicks carried the beings out of the craft carefully and placed them by the fire where Lysha continued to treat their injuries. She would need Khile’s help setting the broken bones, but she and Mariah cleaned the beings and treated the burns and more minor wounds using what supplies they had. Lysha wished she had her more extensive store of medical supplies from the village.

Mariah studied the man whose face she had just washed. His light brown hair was sticking out in every direction, making him look more childlike as he slept. Khile and Lysha had given them tea to help them sleep and to ease their pain. All four were good looking and if the other male hadn’t had dark hair, she would wonder if everyone was blond where they came from.

With a groan, Khile helped to lower the last of the four to the ground. “Well, they’re all out. Now what do we do?” he asked.

Lysha looked up from where she had been treating one of the women. “I need you to help me set her arm, the other woman’s shoulder needs to be popped back in place and set in a sling, and that man’s leg needs to be set as well,” she answered nodding toward the dark haired male.

“Ok, but then what, Lyshabess? I mean we can’t stay out here all night…everyone will worry and come looking for us. We can’t take them with us either. You know what the law says about technology of this magnitude,” Alicks spoke up.

Everyone looked to Lysha for an idea. She seemed to be the one with the best head for problems. None of them ever doubted that she would one day be a member of the council, if not the head. Her brow furrowed in thought as she looked at the four strangers who needed her help. When her face cleared, she set her jaw determinedly and looked back up at Alicks. “We have to take them back with us. We can change their clothes and have the horses drag the litters with them on them. We can tell everyone the truth…that we don’t know where they came from but they needed our help and we always help strangers.”

Khile stared at her for a long time with the others. Then he nodded. “Ok, but you know this will probably backfire on us. It could get as bad as being tossed out from the village. Are you ready for that possibility?”

Looking back at the dark haired man and his companions who all looked so helpless, Lysha nodded emphatically. “If they go that far, we will have the adventures we’ve always wanted. I don’t think it will come to that, but I will take responsibility. I can’t leave them here like this.” She turned to her best friend and added, “Mariah, if you don’t want to be a part of this, you could go ahead and tell them you got separated from the others and decided to go home. You don’t have to get in trouble with us.”

Mariah knew why Lysha had singled her out. Khile was a born healer and never turned his back on any creature in need…not to mention the deep affection he held for Lyshabess. Alicks would always stand by his sister and his light, easy-to-like manner kept him out of trouble. It was her mother who would have the biggest fit over this whole situation. Aimee was the most adamant councilor against technology.

Lifting her chin, she answered with courage she didn’t entirely feel. “I’m in this with you. Tell me what to do to get ready to go.”

Smiling, Lyshabess turned back to the woman she sat by. “You might want to walk away for a little bit until Khile, Alicks and I can get these bones set. I wouldn’t want you to pass out like you did when your mom had to be treated after the last earthquake.” With that, they all got to work.
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Re: TAT: Our World TEEN/CC-All part 3 pg 2 12/18

Post by littleroswell »

Hello, everyone! I'm back with the new part, for anyone who's interested. I was going to wait to post until tomorrow but I decided to go ahead since it was done. I make no guarantees of when part 5 will be posted but I'm aiming for the every other week schedule again which puts part 5 out about the 22nd. Please, please, please tell me what you think. I'm working really hard and am not above begging for feedback.

Thanks,
Beth

Time After Time: Our World

Part 4 – “Waking Up in a Strange Place”

Mackz regained consciousness with a massive groan for the pounding in his head. His right leg was throbbing and the rest of his body ached so badly, he felt sure he had been run down by something really big. He couldn’t seem to get his eyes open, squeezing them tightly shut against the pain. Groaning again, he reached up to find that his head was bound. Huh. He couldn’t seem to remember why he would hurt so badly, or who had taken care of him. Was he in the infirmary?

He heard some voices coming from a little ways away but couldn’t seem to make out what they were saying. Trying to call out to them, Mackz had to clear his throat a couple of times before he could produce any sound. He was so thirsty! “Hello? Is anyone there? Please, could I have some water?” His voice sounded weak to his own ears, and he wondered if anyone had heard him.

The voices stopped and there was a rustling from off to his left. If only it didn’t hurt so badly to open his eyes! He felt around with his hands to find he was laying on something incredibly soft…and furry? Frowning a bit, he felt around more to find that the same type of material he was laying on was also covering him as a blanket of sorts. To his surprise he found that blanket was the only thing covering him. He was naked. What had happened to his clothes?

He tried to sit up at that revelation and had someone rush to his side. They pushed him back down and cooed and fussed. He could tell by the voice that it was a female, but of what age he couldn’t say. Nor could he be sure of anything he was hearing from her. He didn’t understand a word. Odd. He spoke two of the three languages on his planet fluently and the third he was working on, usually understanding more than he could say. He couldn’t hold onto that thought long however, for his throat was on fire, reminding him he had yet to receive water. His head also reminded him that moving could cause even more pain, and he hadn’t thought it possible.

Groaning again brought more fussing and fretting from the female. She sounded genuinely concerned. Suddenly, a hand moved to hold up his head and before he could question why, there was a cup placed to his lips. He drank greedily, at first starting to choke but the voice, in words he still couldn’t understand, encouraged him to slow down and drink his fill. When he had drained the cup, it was removed and he thanked the woman.

She lowered his head back to the pallet where he lay and he felt the softest, gentlest hands that had ever touched him smooth his brow and comb through his hair. He grabbed one of those hands and found it was attached to an equally soft and smooth forearm. It was suddenly very important to him to be able to see this kind young woman who was taking care of him. If only he could make his eyelids remember they were lighter than lead. They seemed to get heavier by the minute, and they were telling the rest of his body to relax and get heavy as well. Just before he lost consciousness, Mackz heard a male voice call to the female and she answered him and there was a child’s voice from somewhere near the male. So she was married. Pitty. He had never heard a more beautiful voice.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Tezz moaned as she came back to consciousness. Her entire body hurt, but especially her right side. Trying to move her left arm to feel her side, however, she discovered that her arm was in some kind of sling made of a soft woven material and there was a pulling pain in her shoulder. Confusion filled her head and she couldn’t seem to remember a reason why she should be in this condition. Then she remembered awakening on the ship and the crash to Earth. Groaning at the fearful memories, she felt someone move to her side and heard two voices, one male and one female, though she couldn’t understand them.

Frowning at the realization that they were speaking a language that sounded totally foreign to her, Tezz made the effort to open her eyes and met a pair of very blue ones staring back at her. The kindness and concern in them touched her and she felt the need to reassure the stranger that she was ok. What came out of her mouth was a croak and she realized she was incredibly thirsty. Before she could even try to communicate her need, another person moved to stand behind the male kneeling beside her and handed him a cup. He quickly moved the cup to her lips, supporting her head as she drank her fill.

Looking around as she drank, she saw the second figure, a female, move back away from them and seemed nervous, fidgeting. She was extremely pretty with long blonde hair, though not as blonde as her own or even Iza’s, full lips and tan skin. She moved with grace and it was obvious that she used her body for hard work as the muscles were beautifully honed. Then the cup was removed and she noticed that the male who knelt beside her was equally good looking. His dark blond hair fell just into his eyes which were a deep, deep blue. The closest thing she could compare them to was the color of the gems her mother had been fond of on her home world. She knew of nothing else of the same color. And though she couldn’t see his entire body, the parts that she did see were obviously used to working hard as the muscles were easily seen even beneath his loose clothes.

It took a moment for her brain to register that he was asking her something. What it could be, she hadn’t the foggiest idea and shook her head. He frowned and tried again, asking her something. She gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you,” she said softly, her voice not wanting to work at full force yet.

Now it was his turn to look confused and apologetic. He turned to the woman behind him and they conversed for a few moments. Whatever he said must have made her even more nervous because her eyes kept darting around, especially towards what appeared to be the only opening to the area where Tezz was. It drew Tezz’ eyes around the rest of the area and she felt confusion almost overwhelm her.

What manner of dwelling was this? She had never seen anything like it. The walls were not of a solid material but a couple seemed to be made of some kind of cloth and the others of maybe a skin of some kind. These materials were attached to poles of wood at the tops, sides and bottoms of the walls. The ceiling itself was maybe two feet at most above the young woman. Tezz’ eyes dropped to the pallet she was laying on. It was only about six inches off the floor, which was covered in rugs of various materials and colors. Underneath and on top of her were several furs, softer than anything she had ever felt. As she studied them, she realized that she could feel them on her entire body. Her eyes widened in surprise. What had happened to her clothes?

The male was trying to get her attention again and she brought her attention back to him, fighting the urge to question him about all of this as she knew she would not understand the answers…if he could even understand her questions! Tezz smiled at him and he smiled back and Holy Creator! What a smile he had! He seemed to light up the whole room.

He pointed to her shoulder and made a couple of gestures. She shook her head and he repeated the gestures, slower, and added an explanation she didn’t understand along with pointing to the sling. Then it dawned on her what he was trying to tell her. She had dislocated her shoulder and someone had put it back. Evidently, he realized that she understood and then pointed to her right side, almost precisely where she was hurting and again he demonstrated with gestures that she had apparently cracked a couple of ribs. That explained the pain with deep breathing. She indicated that she understood and he smiled, seemingly pleased at their ability to communicate after all.

It was then that she started to feel sleepy again. After using the same methods to determine that those seemed to be the worst of her injuries, the young man gestured she should rest. She tried to ask about her shipmates but it was too complicated when her body was getting heavier by the moment. Just before she succumbed to sleep completely, she sent out a silent prayer to the Higher Power that they too had been rescued.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Alicks was just about to go outside to relieve himself when he heard groaning from behind him. He turned around and noticed that the beautiful blonde was stirring. “Lyshabess! You’d better come quickly. This one is coming around too,” he called to his sister. He grabbed up the cup of water that had been set beside the pallet where the stranger was laying and dropped to his knees just by her head. One of the side effects of the medicine Khile and Lysha had given them was a dry mouth.

Groaning again, Alicks felt terrible for the pain all four must be experiencing. He doubted that he had ever been through anything like what must have happened to these creatures. The female tossed her head back and forth before finally trying to turn over onto her back. Her broken forearm stopped her before Alicks could, and her eyes flickered open. He was startled by their depths. They were such a dark brown that they were almost black. Framed by all that golden wheat hair, even with the bruises, he thought her one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen.

As the young woman’s eyes met his own, she asked something rather hoarsely and he suspected it was for the water he forgot he was holding. Now he realized he had a bit of a problem. The young woman’s back had some pretty bad burns so they had laid her down on her stomach on the pallet so Lysha could treat her. She couldn’t drink this way, though. Alicks was pretty sure she was too weak to sit up without help, and he couldn’t hold her up and keep her covered and hold the cup to her lips. Just as he was trying to figure out this problem, Lysha came running into the room.

“I’m sorry, Alicks. Rina wants to help so badly she’s in the way and I’ve had to give her tasks to keep her out of my hair,” Lysha said a little out of breath from rushing. She took the cup from Alicks’ hand and told him to help the woman to sit up. He did so and she helped her to drink. “There now, this will help with the pain and help you sleep a little bit longer. You need the time to heal,” she cooed at the woman who guzzled down every drop. “Mariah just came by and said that the other female had awakened a couple of minutes ago. The male has not yet awakened. I thought he had the least serious of injuries but perhaps he was worse than I originally thought. I haven’t had a chance to question Khile about him.”

Alicks nodded and then studied her face carefully. “Any word from the council yet?” She paused in her movements only a moment before shaking her head with firmly pressed lips. He was proud to see only nervousness and no regret in her body language.

“They are still in the meeting tent. Guards were posted to prevent anyone from eavesdropping. I tried sending Rina to try to find out what they were saying but the guards told her to go play somewhere else.” She took a deep breath as she helped to ease the blonde woman back to the pallet on her stomach. “They’ve been in there a long time,” she said quietly.

They were prevented for a moment from continuing this line of conversation as the woman tried to turn over and she seemed to be trying to ask them something. Lysha and Alicks both quickly stopped her from turning and using gestures and then finally gently brushing one of the burns, conveyed why this wouldn’t be a good idea. She fought the sleep that tried to overtake her, saying three words again and again in a questioning manner and they could only assume she was asking after her companions. Finally, the drugs in the tea they had fed her took affect and she dropped back to the pallet, her breathing evening out.

Blowing his breath out his mouth in a long sigh, Alicks looked at his sister. “If you think they’ve been in there a long time as of now, wait until they find out that these four don’t speak the same language as us. It was already odd and disturbing to them that we found them without any clothes on or anything else with them. Everyone we’ve ever met has spoken our language.”

Lysha shrugged, trying to seem unconcerned but she didn’t fool Alicks. She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “They would have been more disturbed by what we really found them wearing. Those…clothes were unlike any kind of material we’ve ever come across. They might not have let us help them.”

As he stood up, Alicks scratched his head. “Yeah, I know that’s what we all agreed on when we decided to bring them back here, and it was the right idea. But now we’ve got more to deal with. This is going to get out of hand pretty fast. You have any idea how we’re going to explain all this?”

As Lyshabess moved out of the room and into the communal room, he followed her waiting for an answer. She kept busy, trying to tamp down on the nerves threatening to shake her body into uselessness. She frowned and shooed away their cat, Loki, as she knelt to the stew that hung over the fire. Stirring it, she finally huffed and shrugged again. “We don’t really have to come up with anything. That was the great thing about saying we found them the way that we did. It puts all burden of explanation on the strangers and since they don’t speak our language, maybe it will actually be better for us. By the time we’re all able to understand each other the village will have accepted them and won’t care where they came from.” She grinned at him, knowing that what she spoke was wishful thinking.

He smirked at her. “Pretty clever pile of droppings you just made up. I hope it dries before you try to use that on the council members.” She just laughed and shook her head.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Mikale scowled at the young woman kneeling beside him. In spite of her protests, he had pushed himself to a sitting position and had his arms crossed over his bare chest. “Where the hell are my clothes?” he demanded. He tried to ignore the temptation to flirt with her.

She was absolutely stunning and usually he wouldn’t waste time in trying to put her at ease and getting closer to her…much closer. But as it was, he had awoken feeling like he had gotten run over by an Orvanian water tonka, in a strange place, and with not one speck of clothing on. He knew he had scared her when he had jerked awake and grabbed her wrist as she was pulling his covers up higher. She had literally yelped at his touch and fell backwards, knocking over several things in her haste to remove herself from his reach. That had annoyed him to no end. No woman had ever been afraid of him.

Now she was staring at him, fear in her eyes and making her tremble slightly. Mikale’s scowl deepened. “I’m thirsty and I’d really like to know where my clothes are,” he tried a little less hostilely this time. She blinked at him and he huffed. Pointing to his open mouth and mimicking drinking, he repeated his request for water. Was she daft, hard of hearing maybe?

Understanding filled the young woman’s eyes, they were a gorgeous moss green he noted, and she rushed over to where there was a cup made of pottery set on the floor. She came over just close enough to hand him the cup before backing away again. Mikale gave her half a smile and thanked her. A pleasant aroma floated to his nose as he put the cup to his mouth. It wasn’t water. Wary of anything that might be in the concoction, he tried to hand it back to her and shook his head.

“I don’t know what this is, and I’m not drinking it. I just want some plain water,” he told her. She shook her head and pushed the cup back to him. This resulted in a small shoving of the cup back and forth until finally the contents of it spilled all over the young woman.

Mikale was amused to see her fear replaced quickly with annoyance and a cry of outrage. She wiped at her clothes with another scrap of cloth, trying to mop up the damage and muttering under her breath at times and at others, scolding him for what she obviously felt was his fault. He grinned at her and was just about to try flirting with her after all when a young man appeared in the doorway. He questioned the woman and Mikale could tell that she was telling her version of the events and explaining that he refused to drink the tea.

The man must have been around the same age as Mikale and the woman, a good number of inches shorter than Mikale and had some very unusual blue eyes. He looked at Mikale and pointed to the cup, obviously trying to ask about all this and Mikale shook his head. “I just wanted some plain water. Please, my throat feels like it’s on fire.”

Seeming to understand or at least guess what Mikale was trying to convey, the male brought over a second cup, this one filled with what looked and smelled like water. Mikale took the cup and nodded, thanking him. He drank it all down and asked for more. When he had drunk his fill, he pointed to his body. “Now all I need is some clothes and I can look for my friends,” he said.

The other male shook his head, showing he didn’t entirely understand. Through several gestures and inference on Mikale’s part, he gathered that the shorter male wanted him to rest. Shaking his head, Mikale started to stand up, clothes or no. “No, you don’t understand. I’m fine. I just have to find my friends. Mackz, Izahbel, and Tezz? Do you know anything about them? Where they might be?”

The woman squeaked at his attempt to stand up with the furs wrapped around him. She rushed from the room and Mikale bit back a curse. He hadn’t meant to scare her. The other man glared at him for a minute before sighing and motioning that Mikale should wait there. Then he too lifted the flap that constituted a door and disappeared. Mikale sighed and looked around. Too bad that gorgeous woman was married. He would have liked trying to figure her out.

A few minutes went by and Mikale started to think they weren’t coming back. Finally, though, the man came back carrying several pieces of material. He started holding one piece up to Mikale at a time and shaking his head, trying to find clothes that would fit him. Finally, he handed him a shirt and pair of pants made out of a soft woven cloth. Mikale sat on the floor and threw on the shirt. It was a little snug and the sleeves were too short but it would do for now.

Then he tried to pull on the pants, and couldn’t even get them all the way on. He glowered at them and handed them back to the other man, shaking his head. Sighing, the man called out and motioned for Mikale to wait once more. He was gone for several minutes before returning with another pair of pants. Mikale got a glimpse of a second woman on the other side of the flap, this one smaller with long dark hair and bronze skin. So maybe the first woman had been his sister? Mikale felt a little hope at that thought. Maybe he had a chance with her after all.

After Mikale had pulled on the pants that fit rather well, the male pointed to his own chest and said one word. Mikale didn’t catch it and shook his head. The man repeated it. “Khile.” Then he gestured to Mikale’s chest with a questioning look. Realization dawned on Mikale what the man was trying to tell him and he nodded. Pointing at the shorter man, he repeated the name. “Khile.” When Khile nodded, Mikale pointed to himself and said his name. Khile repeated it and Mikale nodded and smiled at him. Then he tried to ask after his friends. He wasn’t sure Khile understood everything, but he finally gestured for Mikale to follow him.

They moved out of the room where he had been into a small hall and through another flap in the cloth walls. Here Mikale found Tezz’ body laid onto a pallet very similar to the one he had been on. Her left arm was in a sling and she was covered in furs. There were bruises and scratches all over her face but she was breathing and it was obvious that she had been taken care of. He knelt down beside her and started to gently shake her. Khile rushed to him and shook his head. He gestured that she was sleeping and he seemed to think she shouldn’t be disturbed. Mikale was torn between waking her to make sure she was ok and leaving her to recuperate but finally decided to leave her alone.

“Ok, what about the others? Are they nearby too?” he asked. Khile seemed to think about his response and Mikale started to fear the worse. He jumped up and took the shorter man by the front of his shirt, nearly lifting him off the ground. “Where are my friends?” he demanded loudly.

Khile glowered at him and then gestured that they too were sleeping, though didn’t really offer an explanation of where. Mikale felt relief flood through him and he suddenly had to sit down again. They were ok, at least for now. Khile clapped a hand on his shoulder and motioned that Mikale should stay where he was. He disappeared behind the flap and Mikale jumped up again. “Like hell I’ll stay here,” he muttered, following after Khile.

He followed him back into the hall and through yet another flap into a much bigger room with many different areas. Rugs of various furs and other materials covered the floor. Cushions were littered here and there and a small table and four chairs, all made out of wood, were against one wall. There was a fire in the center of the room in a dug out pit with smoke flowing up to an opening in the ceiling. There was also a big pot of something that smelled like heaven to Mikale over that fire. Mikale’s stomach growled and Khile started at realizing he had followed him. Grabbing a bowl off some type of shelving unit, Khile moved over to the pot and ladled some of the food, stew it looked like, into the bowl. He handed it, along with a rather unusual spoon to Mikale and gestured that he should eat.

Sitting in one of the wooden chairs, Mikale stared into the bowl for several long moments before he finally decided to try it. It was delicious and he quickly dug into it. He heard female voices not far away and sounds of other people from the other side of a more sturdily framed door. It must lead to the outside and that was where Mikale determined he was going, just as soon as he finished this wonderful food.
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Re: TAT: Our World TEEN/CC-All New part 4 pg 2 1/7

Post by littleroswell »

Time After Time: Our World

Part 5 – “Mikale Meets Jym and Jyf” (Stupid title, I know but it’s all I could come up with.)

New Names This Part:

Jym – Jim
Jyf – Jeff
Aimee – Amy

Jym caught up with Jyf outside the meeting tent. All in all, Jym felt the meeting to have been premature, long, and had accomplished very little. Jyf was walking quickly and determinedly to his tent which stood next to Jym’s but not too close. The gap between their tents where their children’s tent or hut used to be, depending on the season and location, had closed somewhat since Nivek’s death and Lysha’s return to her father’s home, but the space between their homes was still larger than those between other neighbors’. Jym sped up a little, trying to catch Jyf before anyone could come out and see they were out of the meeting.

“Jyf, wait a second!” he called. His friend stopped and waited for him to come up beside him. “So what do you think about the meeting and this whole situation?” he asked.

Jyf frowned at the meeting tent and then back at his own home and Jym’s. “I think it was a waste of time to have a meeting with so little information, especially for as long as it was,” he answered bluntly. “All we did was state the few facts we had in about fifteen minutes and then speculate for a couple of hours. It got us nowhere. Not only that, but it left those strangers in our children’s hands and in our homes. For all we know, they could have been thrown out of their own village for being criminals.”

Jym nodded in agreement. “You and I both like Aimee…”

Jyf grinned at him. “One of us more than the other,” he teased.

Jym’s face colored a little but that was the only response he gave to Jyf’s words. “But I’m not sure she was really ready to be council chief yet.”

Jyf shrugged. “It takes time to get the hang of things and start thinking like the chief instead of just a council member. It’s hard to push aside your own feelings to be able to really listen to everyone else’s. This is the first thing like this to happen to our village. I don’t mind having the meeting. I just wish when we took the situation to Aimee, she would have waited to call the meeting until we had more to report to everyone. It would have cut down on a lot of speculation, and some of the ideas people brought up were scaring the younger members.”

Jym grimaced. “Hades, some of that talk scared me! Talk about active imaginations!” He clapped his friend on the back. “Let’s go see what the kids found out and eat. I’m starving.”

Sighing, Jyf followed him towards their tents. “They haven’t been kids for a long time, Jym. It seems like just yesterday that Lysha was born and now she’s been married…and widowed, and she’s so adult now. It scares me sometimes, but she does make me proud. And Alicks! I have to remind myself that he’s my son. He’s so tall and so good at keeping people organized and their equipment working. I’m just thankful Rina’s still little and still needs me. When did we get old? I missed it somehow.”

“Hey, speak for yourself. I’m not old,” Jym joked, knowing that he had a good handful of years on the other man. “They’re good kids, Jyf, and they’ll always be your kids. Just like Khile will always be my kid. I don’t care if I watch him live to be a hundred, he’ll always be a kid to me. I’ve been thinking that someday Lyshabess and Alicks would make good joint chiefs. They’ve both got good heads on their shoulders and they seem to always balance each other out.” Jym shook his head. “That’s a few years away, though.”

At that moment, there was a commotion coming from Jym’s tent. They both looked at the entrance in time to see one of the strangers come storming out of it, stopping suddenly and staring around him. He was the larger of the two males with the lighter hair that reached to graze his shoulders. The look of determination and anger he had worn was replaced by surprise and confusion as he looked around their village. Other people of the village milling around outside stopped their activities and were staring right back at him.

Jym and Jyf glanced at each other. “He’s wearing one of my shirts!” Jyf exclaimed.

“He probably couldn’t wear Khile’s or mine. He’s too big. You’re probably one of the only men in the village about the same size as he is,” Jym surmised. “He looks confused.”

“Well, he was unconscious when they brought him and his friends here. He’s probably wondering just where he is.” Jyf stepped forward and waved in a friendly manner at the stranger. He called out a greeting and introduced himself and Jym. When he asked the stranger his name, Jyf noticed for the first time that the stranger’s expression had changed to pure confusion…directed at him.

Jym and Jyf exchanged a glance and Jym repeated, “What’s your name, son?” When the string of sounds that came out of the stranger’s mouth were totally foreign to both of them, their eyes widened and they looked at each other again.

Khile stepped out from behind the stranger, a look of annoyance and a little nervousness on his face. “I got from him that his name is Mikale. His injuries seem to be pretty minor. We gave him something to eat and then he started asking us about something. I couldn’t really make out what he wanted.”

Mikale watched the exchange between Khile and these two older males. One of them looked a little like Khile, and since he seemed to direct his words mostly to him, Mikale assumed he must be Khile’s father. He had finished the stew and had tried asking Khile about Mackz and Izahbel, but Khile hadn’t understood him. Not a very patient man, Mikale decided to look for them himself and marched from one room of the tent to the other, trying not to think what his mother would say at his blatant disregard for proper manners as someone’s guest. Khile had followed him, confused and seemingly a little offended, but Mikale hadn’t stopped until he had found that they were nowhere in the tent. That’s when he had decided to see what was outside this unusual dwelling.

Completely taken back by the small village of tents he had found instead of some type of city, Mikale hadn’t known what to do next. All he could do was stand there and stare. The people were simply dressed in comfortable looking clothing. There were tents like the one he had come out of and of various other sizes everywhere, the outside “walls” made of furs and hides and the roofs too covered with furs and hides. There was some sort of plant material sticking out from underneath the hides on the roof so Mikale assumed it had more than one layer but they looked pretty light and simple. There was no evidence of any communication device in sight, and he saw no wires, antennae or other evidence to suggest any other type of technology of any kind!

The tents that Mikale could see were organized around a central area where there was indication of a large fire pit that more than one family might share, although it was not currently lit. There was also a large tent with a sign on it, the flaps thrown open to suggest that it was empty. He could not make out the words on the sign but the letters were recognizable. This was as far as he got in his observations before he heard someone calling his attention back to where he was standing.

Khile was standing in front of him, along with the two older men…and the beautiful blonde he had frightened earlier. He couldn’t stop a smile from forming at seeing her, although she was still keeping her distance. She started to smile, seemed to realize what she was doing and turned her head away. Mikale sighed. She could take some work. He turned his smile to the men and tried again to explain that he wanted to see Mackz and Izahbel. He was getting frustrated and just about to give up when he heard a female voice call to Khile from their left. He turned to see the brunette he had gotten a brief glimpse of inside the tent.

She was pretty, petite, and carried a presence that commanded attention, not unlike Mackz. There was also an unmistakable aura of sadness and loneliness surrounding her. Intrigued, Mikale waited for her to approach from the other tent. As she moved to the side of the larger, older male with dark hair, he immediately saw the resemblance. He must be her father. She talked to the men, gesturing from Mikale to the tent she had exited. He saw realization dawn on their faces and Khile snorted in seeming self derision. He and the brunette then gestured for him to follow them into the second tent.

Huffing a little, Mikale trailed after them and was happily surprised to be led through the tent into a room where Iza was laying on her stomach on a platform bed much like he and Tezz had been on. There were poultices on her back and she had bruises and scratches everywhere. Her left forearm was wrapped up with long sticks to serve as a splint and tightly bandaged. He assumed it must be broken. He moved to her side but the brunette stopped him just as he was about to touch her. She indicated that Iza was sleeping and should not be disturbed. After he had watched her for several minutes, he was satisfied with this and nodded.

Khile and the female moved out of the room and again he followed them, this time being led into a room where he found Mackz in the same unconscious state and again on one of those low platform beds covered in furs. His head was bandaged and Mikale frowned in concern at the pale color of his friend. He turned to the two strangers. “What all is wrong with him? Is he going to be ok?” he demanded.

They exchanged looks and talked softly, appearing to be trying to figure out what Mikale had asked of them. Finally, the brunette stepped forward and pointed to her chest. “Lyshabess,” she said. She pointed at him and said his name then repeated the first name while pointing to herself again.

Getting a little impatient due to concern for his friend, Mikale sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Your name is Lyshabess,” he repeated gesturing toward her. Then he gestured back towards Mackz. “What’s wrong with my friend?”

Frowning a little, Lyshabess moved nearer her patient. She showed Mikale with motions that he had the two bad bumps on his head and then pointed to his right leg and demonstrated that it was broken. Mikale examined his friend pretty thoroughly and Lysha let him, trying not to be insulted. After all, this stranger couldn’t possibly know that she and Khile were trained healers. Perhaps he was a healer where he came from. That thought startled her and made her nervous. She was thankful they hadn’t brought any of the strangers’ things with them.

Mikale ran his hands lightly over Mackz, checking the extent of his friend’s injuries. He frowned at the size of the knots on Mackz’s head, and his frown deepened when he touched one lightly and Mackz moaned. He moved down to his friend’s leg and found that it had been a bad break, but whoever had set it had done a good job. It was in good alignment and cast with some materials Mikale didn’t really take a lot of time to study. Wishing he was a better healer, he sighed softly and sat back on his heels. He looked up at Lyshabess and Khile and, even though he knew they probably wouldn’t understand him, asked, “Are they going to be ok?”

Lyshabess murmured something and patted his shoulder and for some reason, he felt reassured. Then Mikale gestured at the bandages and then at them. “Who has been taking care of them? You two?” He had to try again before Khile pointed at Lyshabess and himself and demonstrated several things they had done for his three companions. He nodded and made sure they understood when he said, “Thank you. For all your help, thank you.”

They were pleased by his gratitude and Lyshabess surprised him by moving to place a hand on his shoulder. Her touch was calming and he felt strength in her. Maybe he had tried hitting on the wrong girl. He smiled up at her and then stood up. “Well, since they’re ok for now, I suppose I just need to wait for them to wake up before figuring out what else to do. I hate waiting,” he muttered.

He saw they were struggling to make sense of his words, but before he could try to communicate anything, one of the older men called to Lyshabess. A nervous look passed over her face before she squared her shoulders and moved towards the door flap. Khile followed, gesturing for him to stay where he was. Mikale did not object as he wanted to see if there was anything more he could do to help Mackz.

Lyshabess and Khile stepped out to the main room of the tent. Jym and Jyf had come inside and were standing there looking puzzled and concerned. “You both must be starving. I know we haven’t had a chance to eat yet. If you sit down, we have enough stew in both tents for everyone. Alicks took Rina down to the well to fill the large water jug. They should be back in just a minute,” she babbled, worried at what questions her father and father-in-law might want to ask her and Khile.

Khile must have been worried too because he volunteered to get Mariah and bring some of the bowls of stew over from the other tent. Lysha just glared at his back. Coward. She smiled sweetly at the two older men and Jyf’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. She busied herself and told them to sit down. They did so and discussed the stranger.

“This just keeps getting more and more bizarre,” Jym stated, shaking his head in bewilderment. “I’ve never met anyone that didn’t speak our language. Even the groups in the far south speak our language, although they do speak another tongue as well. And his words didn’t sound like theirs. I wonder where they came from now more than ever. Things just aren’t adding up.”

“They certainly aren’t,” Jyf said, watching his daughter carefully. She gave no indication of nervousness really, but still…something was bothering him. “Lysha, after we eat, you and Alicks will go with me over to speak with Aimee. We should tell her these latest developments.”

There was only the slightest of hesitations in Lysha’s movements, but she frowned in concern at the rooms down the little corridor. “I don’t want to leave my patients, fadad. They need to be watched carefully right now, especially the one with the head injuries. It was a good sign that he woke up earlier, but there still could be swelling of the brain or bleeding inside. I need to check out the scanner and run it over the four of them.”

Jyf nodded. This sounded like good reasoning on a healer’s part…or a good stall tactic for his daughter to come up with. “Very well, I’ll get the scanner and tell Aimee to come over here. That way you don’t have to leave them alone.”

Unable to voice any more objections without definitely getting her father’s attention, Lysha said nothing. What exactly had she gotten herself into? Should she just go ahead and confess everything? Aimee was especially against technology of any kind. It was she who had brought up the idea of having the pieces of technology still allowed to exist and be used locked up and checked in and out by users. Many were still unhappy about the decision and grumbled about the hassle, but a large number also understood her reasoning when the old stories were recounted. As a healer, Lysha felt a strong responsibility toward the strangers who might or might not be alien beings, and she knew Khile felt it too. If she and her friends explained to the village and the council about the strangers, would they still be willing to help?
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Re: TAT: Our World TEEN/CC-All New part 5 pg 3 1/29

Post by littleroswell »

Hello, everyone! Yes, I know I'm a day late but I took a little longer to edit the new part than I thought it would. Anyway, let me address fb and then post the new part.

I guess I'll have to go back and watch season 3 again but I remember Michael being a real doll when Isabel was shot and even patient with Jesse for her and I remember Maria totally dumping Michael after he had stayed behind to be with her. I honestly don't remember much else about it right now. I only have seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and watch those the most, but I loved Michael's look that season and I loved how he was with Isabel and I loved that he was finally making some real human friends. Maybe that's the Michael I remembered most because that's what I liked. I'll go back and review it, maybe even try to watch it again. I do have netflix. I'm glad that you guys like the story though and I hope you will continue to tell me what you do and don't like about it. Now for the new part.

Beth

Time After Time: Our World

Part 6 – “A Puzzle”

Lysha was a nervous wreck, her emotions in turmoil. Her father had gone to the technology holding and checked out the scanner she had requested, and she had breathed a sigh of relief when he had only been followed by Jym into the tent. But that relief had been short lived when moments later, Aimee entered the dwelling. She was smiling and some of Lysha’s nervousness dissipated. After all, this woman was like a second mother to her; she had known her all her life and Aimee was a good woman.

“Hello, Lyshabess,” Aimee greeted her, pulling her into a quick embrace. “I came to see these strangers you and Khile are treating. How are they doing?”

Taking the scanner from her father and thanking him for getting it, she concentrated on the device as she thought carefully about exactly what she would tell Aimee. “Well, we know for sure three of them will live, and we have every reason to hope for the fourth as long as he doesn’t have any brain swelling or bleeding.” She held up the scanner. “That’s where this comes in.”

Aimee nodded thoughtfully. “I also understand that one of them is awake and he apparently doesn’t speak the same tongue we do.”

Swallowing hard, Lysha tried to control her hands that had started shaking. “So it would appear, although…” she was suddenly hit with an odd thought as she thought back to when she had heard Mikale speak.

“Although…?” Aimee prompted her to continue.

Shaking her head slightly, Lysha shrugged. “It did sound somewhat similar on thinking on it, Council Leader.”

Aimee chuckled. “Lysha, you’ve always called me Aimee and I don’t expect that to change. You and my Mariah have always been the fastest friends and that makes you my second daughter.” She sighed. “I had dreams when I was your age of a tent full of children. Lorgah must have decided otherwise. I remind myself I am blessed with a beautiful daughter who fills me with pride.”

Tamping down guilt over her friend having to lie to her mother at her urging, Lysha gestured toward the short hall leading to the other rooms in the tent. She was suddenly eager to get Aimee’s scrutinizing over with. “Shall we check on the patients? We had two here and two in Jym and Khile’s tent but the one who is awake, Mikale, has decided to sit with his friend, the other male,” she explained as she led the way into one of the rooms.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Mikale grinned down at the precocious little girl who was sitting cross-legged in front of him studying him with such a serious expression. She was a beautiful little girl, maybe nine at the oldest, with long dark hair and brown eyes like Lyshabess’. She had just popped into the room and with a wide-eyed glance at Mackz had planted herself in front of Mikale on the floor. Was she not taught to fear strangers? Mikale was surprisingly glad she didn’t fear him.

“Hi, my name is Rina. What’s yours? What’s your friend’s name? Is he going to be ok?” she spouted off. When the big man with long dark blond hair only shook his head and shrugged, she frowned up at him and squinted, shaking her head.

Mikale choked back a laugh. He had seen that same look on Lyshabess’ face as she had looked Mackz and Izahbel over to make sure he was doing ok. Whoever this little slip of a girl was, she was definitely related to Lyshabess somehow. Was she her daughter? If so, who was the father? Maybe Khile? He pointed to himself and decided to at least try to get her name. It might have been in all those foreign words she had chirped at him. “Mikale.” He gestured to her and waited.

Pursing her lips for a moment, suddenly her face cleared and she smiled. Pointing at him, she repeated his name and clapped delightedly when he nodded. “Great! Mikale. My name is Rina,” she said, placing a small hand on her chest. “Rina.”

His grin widening, Mikale nodded and said her name. “Rina.”

Rina beamed at him and rocked back a little. “So how come you didn’t answer me a minute ago?”

He shook his head and told her he didn’t understand her. Her eyes widened and her little mouth formed an “o” as she realized she didn’t understand him either. He chuckled a little and pointed to his sleeping friend. “Mackz.” Mikale decided to start small, even with the little girl. Something about the way these people talked was familiar, but he knew he had never heard it before.

Hopping a little in excitement, Rina giggled. “Mackz,” she repeated. When he nodded and grinned, she giggled again.

The door flap pushed back and Lyshabess stepped through, followed by another woman Mikale hadn’t met or seen yet. Lyshabess frowned at Rina and scolded her. Rina hung her head and tried to stand up for herself, her young eyes tearing up slightly. Mikale slung an arm around the young girl and hugged her briefly.

“It’s ok,” he said, knowing they wouldn’t exactly understand him but hoping they understood he was ok with Rina being there. “She’s been a great little hostess.” He smiled and winked at Rina who tentatively smiled back, patting his leg as she moved towards the door.

Lyshabess changed her tone with Rina and after a few words, the little girl left the room skipping and smiling. Mikale stood up and smiled at the brunette. Then he turned his smile on the other woman, who was maybe Jym and Jyf’s age, and noticed she was taken a little aback by his height. He nodded slightly at her and introduced himself. She gave him a guarded smile and said her name. “Aimee.” Mikale repeated it and she nodded and smiled a little wider. Immediately, Mikale noted the resemblance to the younger blonde woman he had doused with tea earlier.

Aimee looked him over and asked Lyshabess something. The two women conversed for a minute before Mikale figured out they must be discussing where and how he had been hurt because Lysha, as Aimee called her, pointed to several areas he had found tender or bruised on his body. Suddenly, something in her hands caught his eye, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of it as he tried to see exactly what it was.

Finally, Lysha got his attention and gestured for him to sit down. He did so and then using motions, she demonstrated that she wanted to check him over again, apparently for Aimee’s benefit. He shrugged that it was ok with him and then gasped as Lysha held her hand over his body. She was holding some kind of electronic device!

Lysha and Aimee both jumped slightly at his gasp and Lysha snatched back her hand, wondering for a moment what could be wrong. Aimee was the first to guess. “Oh, Lysha, why didn’t we think that maybe these strangers come from a village completely against technology! He must have been terrified when he saw your scanner,” she declared sympathetically.

Frowning, Lysha knew better. Unlike Aimee, she knew that this person in front of her had far greater technology than her little medical scanner. It was more likely that Mikale was amazed to see any kind of technology in their little village given what he had seen, or more like what he hadn’t already seen in the little bit he had had glimpses of. She showed Mikale the device and when he reached for it, placed it carefully in his hands.

Mikale was baffled. So far he had seen absolutely no evidence of anything that could remotely be called advanced technology, and he had just come to the conclusion that, as absurd as it might sound, they must not have any when Lysha produced this. The device he held in his hands seemed foreign and out of place in the village he had seen glimpses of. His amazement of its very existence made him forget for a moment he hadn’t a clue what it might be for. He had only just begun to study it when Lysha gently took it back from him.

She pushed a couple of buttons on the scanner and started to run it over Mikale’s body, not actually touching him. The device beeped and chirped and Mikale finally decided it must be some kind of medical scanner. It was about the size of the readers his own people used. He waited for her to finish patiently. When she was done, her face lit up happily and she beamed at him and nodded. “I take it I’m going to live,” he quipped with a grin.

Lysha didn’t understand exactly what Mikale had said but she grinned back, knowing he was trying to tease or joke with her. Turning to Aimee, she waved the scanner at her. “He’s fine, no more serious injuries than Khile and I first thought. He’ll be stiff and sore for a few days but he’ll be fine.”

Aimee gave her a puzzled look. “Why would he be stiff and sore? What happened to him?”

Fighting down the urge to curse herself out loud for her slip, Lysha shrugged. “I’m just going by the bruises and information from the scanner and the way he’s been moving. Obviously, I haven’t been able to ask him what happened due to the language barrier.” Yeah, that sounded good and believable. When Aimee just nodded, Lysha gave a soft sigh of relief.

Moving over to Mikale’s friend, Lysha was once again struck by how handsome these two men were. Their features were different enough not to think them related but they were both good looking. She knelt down beside Mackz and felt Mikale move to sit beside her. From her peripheral vision she saw Aimee sit down on the other side of the pallet.

“His head is all bandaged up. What do you think is wrong with him?” Aimee asked.

“He had two big lumps on his head, one on his forehead and the other on the back of his head. He’s also got a broken leg that we set and various other more minor injuries and burns. I’m most worried about his head. I can’t tell if he’s bleeding inside or if there is brain swelling just from looking at him. That’s why I needed the scanner,” Lyshabess answered. Lifting her head, she met Aimee’s eyes and smiled at her. “See, there are good things about technology too.”

Snorting, Aimee threw up her hands. “Did I start campaigning to get rid of the technology we already have? I know there are some good things about it, but I also know the bad things can quickly start to outnumber the good. That’s what I want to prevent.”

Lysha said nothing and turned back to the scanner. She began running it over Mackz’s body, starting at the bottom with his legs. She nodded and grunted in approval at the way they had set it. It would heal nicely if he took the time to let it. As she moved up she wasn’t surprised by the things showing up on her scanner when suddenly that thought struck her as odd and she paused in her scanning. Shouldn’t something be different? These creatures had crashed from the sky. Shouldn’t scanning their bodies show something totally different from their own human scans?

She frowned in puzzlement over that until Mikale called her name to get her attention and she jolted back to what she was doing. Looking up, she saw the worry and concern on his face for his friend and she smiled in reassurance. Shaking her head, she gestured that she had been daydreaming and he closed his eyes and sighed in relief. Continuing up Mackz’s body, Lysha studied the scanner as she finally reached his head. After a couple more moments she smiled and nodded at Mikale. Mackz had a concussion and it was pretty bad but she saw no evidence of anything really life threatening. She communicated this to Aimee and then, as best she could, to Mikale.

Mikale hadn’t realized just how worried he had been for Mackz until Lysha told him his friend would be ok. Mackz was the one to have worried about the most, and if he was going to be ok, then there was no reason why the others wouldn’t be, as long as they didn’t catch any infections, but this was usually unlikely for them. He expressed his thanks to Lysha for taking care of them and for checking and she beamed in pleasure and, if he was not mistaken, a little embarrassment.

Lysha ran the scanner over Mackz a second time, resetting the device to look for any signs of infections or abnormalities in his blood. She should have done the same for Mikale but he seemed so well she hadn’t thought about it. What she found made her pause again, but she was careful not to reveal anything by her facial expressions. If she had been looking for some type of anomaly, she had found it. It was in his blood that Lysha found the differences between Mackz and other people. His blood was definitely not human, but it did have many similarities.

When the device started to chirp in alert to the differences, both Aimee and Mikale’s eyes whipped to Lysha. “What’s wrong? What does it say?” Aimee demanded.

Turning off the device, Lysha forced herself to breathe calmly. She shrugged slightly and shook her head. “It’s just letting me know it was done with what I had asked it to do. Nothing’s wrong.” She was grateful she and Khile were the only ones in the village who really knew how to use and read the scanner. Alicks might know more than most as he did work on the device from time to time to keep it working properly, but the use of the medical scanner was knowledge passed to healers only.

Lysha stood up and the other two followed her example, preparing to go check on the other two strangers. Mikale seemed to be thinking hard about something and studying her, trying to discern something. She smiled at him and he smiled guardedly back. Maybe after a while, they would be able to communicate better and she could ask more about their differences. Sighing, she realized that if they were able to communicate better, it was also almost a certainty that the rest of the village would find out the strangers were from a village a lot farther than they could ever imagine.

“What’s his name, the man on the pallet? Do you know?” Aimee asked as they stepped out of the room.

“Mackz,” Lysha answered absently. She decided not to run any more scans on the strangers’ blood while Aimee was around. She would wait until after the Council Leader had left, for she felt she still needed something to compare the results from Mackz’s scan to another of his own kind to look for differences.

As they entered another room, Mikale remembered this was the one where Iza was, a dark haired young man stood up from where he had been sitting next to the pallet. Mikale glared at him and demanded to know who he was, his tone getting his message across. The young man looked a little taken aback but Lysha laid a reassuring hand on Mikale’s arm. “Mikale,” she said, getting his attention and then gesturing at the dark haired man, “Alicks.” Mikale repeated the name, still a little wary. When Lysha motioned that Alicks had only just been watching over Izahbel, he relaxed a little.

Studying the young man more closely, Mikale noticed he looked a lot like Jyf and also similar to Lysha and Rina. They must all be related somehow. Perhaps Rina was either Lysha or Alicks’ daughter, or even possibly their little sister. It made him relax a little more and he gave the other young man a tentative smile, which he seemed to find a bit amusing for some reason.

Lyshabess sat down beside the pallet and when the others had sat down as well, she looked to Mikale. Gesturing toward the young woman lying on it, she asked him something and he seemed to remember those words asked about names. After repeating the names of everyone in the room, he waved his hand over Izahbel and said her name. Lysha looked a little surprised at it, but why that should be, Mikale couldn’t begin to guess. Everyone repeated her name, but Alicks’ repetition was done almost reverently so that Mikale began to study the young man all over again through narrowed eyes.

“Alicks, I’d be careful if I were you about how you look at her. She’s obviously special to M…him, maybe even his wife. I wouldn’t start imagining any kind of future if I were you,” Lysha warned her brother quietly, careful not to use any names so that Mikale would know for sure she was speaking about them.

Alicks sighed somewhat sadly and nodded at her, eliciting a sympathetic smile from his sister. It would stand to reason a creature as beautiful as Izahbel would already be spoken for, and the truth was, he knew nothing really about her. But in the brief time he had been watching over her, something had moved inside of Alicks, causing him to possibly hope for some sort of relationship with the angelic being. It was probably just wishful thinking for someone to love and care for. He had been thinking about looking for a wife for some months now, not really pursuing it much as there was really no one in the village he thought of in that way, and it was still many weeks until they left for the large summer gathering. Not to mention Lyshabess had needed the support of her family in the last year to overcome the paralyzing grief over the loss of her own mate.

Lyshabess ran the scanner over Izahbel, happily noting they had set her arm well. There were no surprises on her scan, no damage other than what she and Khile had already discerned. She did find evidence of prior injuries, but she had found worse older injuries on the males. Reporting her findings to the others, Lysha stood up and prepared to go to Jym and Khile’s tent to run the scanner over the other female. Aimee and Mikale moved to follow but Alicks didn’t budge.

“Alicks, are you coming?” Lysha asked softly.

Shaking his head, her brother’s eyes didn’t leave Izahbel’s form. “I’ll stay and watch over her…to make sure she doesn’t turn over or try to use her arm too much.” When Mikale didn’t seem to object at Alicks’ staying, Lysha shrugged and they left the room.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
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littleroswell
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Re: TAT: Our World TEEN/CC- part 6 pg 3 2/13

Post by littleroswell »

Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry I've been gone for so long. RL has just been too crazy to do much writing lately. I am working on the new parts to this fic and my other one, Against My Programming. I'm hoping to have the new part out soon. This month and next is just really busy so I'm not sure how often I will be able to post. Thanks for your patience and your feedback. Let me address that now.

Oops, I forgot, I've already responded to fb for the most part. So let me just thank flyawayraven for your fb and for reading. I'll be back with the new part soon. Michelle, I'm currently working on two fics at once. This one is one of them and the other is Against My Programming on the CC board. You're also reading that one and maybe you didn't realize I'm the author of both. Thanks for your fb and reading as always.

Thanks for your time and attention, everybody! I'll be back as soon as I can.

Beth
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
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