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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2285442-Chapter-Forty-Five---Hello-Again
Rated: 13+ · Draft · Action/Adventure · #2285442
A meeting with the Defender from the Point of View of the Old One and Jaz
Chapter Forty-Five

Hello, Again


500 Cycles A.E.

         Now, Jaz, we begin preparing to make contact with the three-legged one I saw close to nine hundred cycles ago. I will do the summoning of the viewing window. Both of us will open the Collective and you will feed me the essence you receive. This will take place of the drawing from everyone.

         After he began to open the Collective, he felt Jaz do the same. Slow down, Young One. Pulling too fast will draw attention to yourself and compromise what we are doing, the Old One recommended. That's much better. Good job. I am getting ready to focus on the three-legged one

         With that, the Old One begins to focus on the three-legged man and a viewing window. He felt the power flowing from the Young One to his effort. He suddenly innately felt there was too much power flowing through him, he needed to dampen the amount of essence he was collecting.

         Young One, lessen your drain on the Collective by halfway, he could feel the immediate withdrawal of the outside power. It still felt too much, Cut all drain on the Collective. I will advise when you are to begin again.

         After stopping her drain from the Collective, she began to watch what the Old One was doing. She immediately saw he was providing all of the energy required to create the viewing window. It alarmed her to see this. The Old One had commented before on how much of a drain it took to create a viewing window the first time. From what she was seeing, the Old One is using his essence alone instead of the essence from the Collective.

         Soon, the Young One saw a faint image beginning to materialize before her and the Old One. It was opaque but soon the image became denser so that details were easier to see.

         I see something, cried Jaz as the form of a viewing window appeared, It is taking shape like you stated it would. I can see the borders of the frame and a little on the inside of the window.

         I am seeing it as well. It is forming much quicker than I remember. There must be a power source on the other side that is helping with the formation of the window. I do not recall it being this easy. There was a sudden intake of air from the window and then it was formed.

         The Old One halted feeding power into the window only to discover it stayed formed and then became solid. He observed no additional power was required to keep it open. He remembered another viewing window that seemed to not need a continuous feed. That was many, many cycles ago.

         Soon, someone was stepping close to the other side of the viewing window. At first, it was just a shadow but once it came up to the window, the Old One instantly recognized the being because it had the color of the Highest Peak of the Mountain. It was the non-Hydranousian from Eternity's cave.

          The Old One watched what the other was doing. After each looked at the other, the Old One held up his right appendage, facing forward. The non-Hydranousian gave an incredulous gasp and raised its appendage, mimicking the Old One, and nodded his head.

         The Old One was about to send a telepathic message to the other when it spoke using the orifice on its head.

         "Who are you?" the non-Hydranousian asked. It then pointed to itself and stated, "I am D?'Fend?r. D?'Fend?r".

         The Old One looked at the non-Hydranousian and the gestures it was making. Jaz startled him by speaking, I think it is telling us its name, 'De Fender'.

         I think you are right. Let me check something. The Old One addressed the one in the window, and stated, De Fender while pointing toward it. The De Fender nodded several times and then pointed to the Old One and Jaz.

         The Old One commented to Jaz, I believe it wants to know our names. Let me see if I can mimic the way it speaks. He then turned and addressed the Defender. While pointing at himself, the Old One sent a telepathic message, Old One. Old One, while pointing at himself. He then pointed to Jaz and announced Jaz. Jaz.

         The De Fender looked quizzically toward the Old One and pointed back to his head and the small growths on each side. He then pointed toward the opening at the bottom of its face. It then covered the orifice and then pointed to its head.

         Maybe it does not want to talk anymore, Jaz began, Maybe I am wrong. Let me try something. I am going to include you in my attempt to communicate directly into the creature's consciousness. I want to use our form of communication. Jaz walked closer to the window and looked intently toward the Defender.

         At this moment, the Defender's third eye opened and shot out two separate beams the color of the Sounds of the Suns to Jaz and the Old One's third eye. While their third eyes were being touched with the light, each one responded in a different color. The large statue's eye turned to the Highest Peak of the Mountain in color and the Young One's eye turned to the Smell of Silence in color.

         After the Sounds of the Sun's beams of light faded, the Defender was left standing looking at the two statues. He suddenly heard talking.

         Young One, are you...Wait. The one who is the color of the Highest Peak of the Mountain can hear us.

         How can you tell? I am not projecting any thoughts. I was going to try and use a stronger form of telepathy but did not have the opportunity. Are you certain it can hear us?          

         "My name is Defender," he stated, "Wait, I just heard you in my head. How is that possible?"

         Jaz asked the De Fender, Can you hear me? I am speaking directly into your mind. Your mode of speaking is different than ours. We cannot talk like you do. We speak through thought.

         "Yes, I can hear you just fine. It sounds like you are talking through a mouth. That is what this is called. A mouth," pointing toward the small hole in its face, "How is it I can understand you? You certainly can't speak English."

         Jaz continued No, we have an idea of your English. We speak Hydranousian, our language, and we would not know how to translate. Jaz offered.

         The Old One stated I have thought about how this may be possible. All of us have an open third eye. It may be providing a link for us to understand each other. Tell us, how long have you had the third eye?

         "Ever since you changed me into this form. It can open on its own and when I will it to open. Wait, I think it opens when I need more power, too."

         Yes, I thought as much. Our Eyes operates on similar needs. We can open them upon will, but when we need more energy or go into our power more deeply, they will open by themselves. The Old One stated.

         The Defender's third eye flared brightly then dimmed. He looked directly at the Old One, "I thought you said you were called the 'Old One'? Why are you hiding different names?"

         The Old One stated, Who said I was hiding different names? He doubled the security of his real name and then tripled the locks on his memory.

         "I saw what you just did. You are trying to hide your real name. Or rather names. One of them is 'Supreme High One' and the other is 'Potentaten'. Why are you hiding both of those?"

         It is impolite to scan another's thoughts without permission, De Fender. As for the names, now that you know them, please lock them away and never call me again. The reason I do not use them is my business alone. Turning his attention to Jaz, forget you heard the last name. I will inform you of that name at a later date.

         The De Fender continued, "It's too late. I learned it by accident. I didn't try to see your personal information. I didn't even know they were there. The first name, Supreme High One, is what you were called before an accident wiped out half of your species, also causing my creation. The remainder of your people believes you were killed during that same accident so you could investigate what happened. The other name was what you were called before becoming the Supreme High One. I sincerely apologize for finding these names out without your permission."

         There were different reactions from Jaz and the Old One. The Old One was upset, but could not beret De Fender because the Old One had gone into countless individuals' minds to gather thoughts intentionally without their permission and continues to do so. And as he stated, De Fender's actions were unintentional and could not be helped. Neither name would be in danger within this small company.

         Jaz, on the other hand, was in disbelief and shock. She had heard of the name, Potentaten, before. A long time ago. She had met him before he fixed her listening ability. She remembers where and under what circumstance she heard that name.

         It was in an Out of Phase Building nearly two cycles ago. She was newly unattached. She saw the adult she came from and was walking away. Right before she was out of the building, she heard the adult brazenly speaking telepathically to someone unseen, the person speaking was named Potentaten.

         Increase your barriers to as high as you can, Jaz. That should effectively stop all conversations from the De-Fender."

         The Young One spoke, I did increase my barriers to their highest level. I can still hear him. I can still hear what is being sent.

         "Why don't you two talk normally? Well, you have no mouths, so it can't be normal. But make sense of what you are saying. What are the barriers you keep talking about? Why shouldn't I be able to hear you?"

         "Young One, I, too, can still hear the De Fender in my thoughts. De Fender has easily bypassed the barriers I placed. They were strong enough to block an Elder using much of the Collective as a source of Essence."

         "Have you tried reading De Fender's thoughts? Surely, he could not block you, Old One."

         Yes, I have but cannot seem to reach them. I have never come across such barriers before.

         "OK, that's it. I am standing right here in front of you and you both are acting as though I am an inferior being. It seems to me that if you can't read my thoughts, but I can read yours, you both are inferior to me."

         The Old One opened his third eye and began to concentrate. and his third eye began to glow. As soon as the Young One saw this, her third eye opened and began to glow. The Defender saw this and thought about opening his third eye. He imagined his eye being brighter and stronger.

         With those thoughts, his third eye opened, and a bright green glow appeared. When this happened, the other third eyes closed. The Defender did not know what this meant but it couldn't be very good.

         What have you done? exclaimed the Old One, you have closed our third eye without our consent? Never has this happened in the known history of our race. How did you do it being a non-Hydranousian? Where did you acquire this power?"

         I guess from you. You did this.

         The Old One gruffly responded, Besides the few occasions I have met you through the Viewing Window, I have never seen or met you before. What about you, Young One, have you ever met the De Fender before?

         No. This is the first time I have met this individual. Being so strange, I am sure I would have remembered.

         The Defender, with his third eye still glowing, spoke up. "I can clearly remember you like it was yesterday. It was when..."

         Excuse me. What is 'Yesterday'? We have no such word in our language.

         The Defender took a deep breath and answered, "I guess the definition of yesterday would be the day before today. Now, as I was saying..."

         What is today? the Young One asked.

         "Today is, well now. The present. The day before tomorrow."

         Are you referring to the passage of time? We do understand that concept. What brings about your passage of time? Do you have Esuoms and Relffs?'

         "I don't know what Esuoms and Relffs are. Days, weeks, years? For years, it takes my planet, Earth, three hundred sixty-five days to circle our sun once."

         The Young One answered, Wait, I understand your information about time better. Your year is based on your planet's rotation around its only sun. If you had two suns, as we do, your year, or cycle as we call it, would be increased. The Young One continued, we do not have the word years in our vocabulary. The amount of time that takes our planet, Hydranous, to go around both our suns, Retpmoc and Tana. There are one hundred earth years in one complete Hydranous cycle.

         "This is all interesting to you, but I want to get it straight about when I first saw you. It was about seven months ago when an opening appeared in front of me while I was in a park. I saw you there by yourself with your third eye-thing glowing bright grey. It was at that instant that the window began to glow brighter and looked like it might explode. I was going to get out of the window's way when three very bright colors, yellow, blue, and green shot out. There also appeared to be a distortion coming out. The distortion was like what you see on a very hot day when looking down a road. The colored lights and distortion hit me as one, throwing me back into a tree. I saw you there in that window as I began to fall unconscious."

         What are yellow, blue, and green? Are they more passages of time? inquired the Young one.

         "No, they are colors. Colors are all around us. The color green is the color of the grass. That is what I am standing on, green grass. Here, let me pull some up and show you." The Defender bent down and grabbed a handful of grass and held it toward the window."

         Oh, you are talking about the Sound of the Suns.

         "Sound of the Suns? You're telling me your suns make noise? Nevermind. Yellow is easy. Yellow is the color of the Young One over there," pointing to Jaz.

         That is indeed easy to recognize. Her color is the Smell of Silence.

         "The smell of silence? I am getting the impression your people use other senses when describing colors. Like what does the Smell of Silence smell like? Are you saying the Young One has a smell? Is it a good smell or a bad one?"

         She has no smell I can detect. She..."

         The Defender cut off the Old One, "You don't have a nose. How can you smell anything? For that matter, you have no mouth, either. How do you eat? Do you eat? I guess it doesn't matter. Maybe I don't want to know how you eat with no mouth."

         "Let's just move on to the last color you wanted to know about, blue. Blue is the color of our sky during the daytime when there are no clouds. Do you have a word for the sky? The thing above us?"

         "Yes, we do. It is called the Crystal Root. It is the color of your sun, Crystal Root."

         "The color of our sun is not Crystal Root. It is a red-orange color. Where do you come up with these names?"

         I would think our ancestors used these names and they have stuck because no other name seems suited for what was being named.

         "What? Even with a direct link to you, it is still hard to follow what you are saying. I know, just imagine your sky in detail and picture it in your head."

         The Defender concentrated hard to picture what was in the Old One and Young One's minds. He saw a desolate landscape with no visible vegetation. He saw the sandy tan-looking ground and then saw the sky. There was no blue. it was as he guessed, the red-orange color of his sun. He saw the two suns of their world. One was a bright red and the other was an even brighter yellow. He thought it was interesting.

         The Defender then offered to show them his world. "Ok, I am now going to show you my world and the colors." He began to imagine what daylight would bring in with all the colors. He remembers the green, yellows, blues, purples, red, white, and a myriad of other colors. He then thought of a cloudless sky. How there are different tints and hues of blue as you go up or down in the sky. He then began thinking of clouds.

         What are those? We have no word or knowledge of these floating objects or their color. Your planet has a lot of this unknown color. When we were examining your planet out of curiosity, we saw this color is dominant. We had no idea it does not touch the ground. Very intriguing.

         "They are called clouds. They are all over the planet. The color of them is white. If you were looking from space, you would have also seen snow, which is also white. Snow is on both poles, the North Pole and the South Poles. It can also be seen elsewhere in the world. The blue you would have seen is from the oceans, lakes, and rivers."

         So, the oceans, lakes, rivers, and smaller amounts of this blue substance are what we call The Vision of Forever.

         "The Vision of Forever is what your people call the color blue. I guess I can understand that one. Makes sense."

         The Young One approached the window and asked, May I ask another question? From what I was told, you had a third leg. They saw you walking on it. And you were smaller, much smaller. Do people on your planet grow a third leg after being injured? How amazing." Asked the Young One.

         "Third leg? I have never had a third leg. I used a cane to walk around but never had a third leg. Was it thin and brown? If it was, it could have been my cane."

         The larger one asked, A cane? What is it used for? Replace an appendage? Also, what is brown?

         "Brown is brown, I guess. It is just a color. It is the same color as your rock body."

         Oh, I see. Brown is the same color as the Hole of a MeeBee.

         "What on Earth is a Me-Be?" The Defender asked.

         Well, a MeeBee is much smaller than you. It would not come up to one of your mid-lower appendages. They are not known to be sentient. However, no one has studied them lately. I guess many of the desert dwellers could be sentient beings given the opportunity.

         What do you mean, given the opportunity Old One? asked the Young One.

         Oh, nothing, just contemplating. As the Old One was remembering Eternity and the Tras. He then remembered his thoughts could be seen by the De Fender and quickly looked toward the De Fender.

         "I saw what you did. You are a monster. You should have stayed in that prison."

         The Supreme High One quickly looked at the Young One to see if she heard what the Defender had stated. If she did, she did not show it. He then looked back at the Defender and stated, I admit I have made mistakes. But what I have done, I truly believed I was helping. You have never made a mistake you regretted?

         What mistake are you referring to, Old One? asked the Young One, You have never shared a story where you regretted doing something.

         "Before you begin telling her what happened, I want to know one thing. Why did you give me this body and powers? Was it to give Earth a protector? Did you pick me because I was handicapped and you felt sorry for me? Why?"

         We are scholars. We observe different planets, realms, and realities. On one such viewing, we were looking at your planet. While viewing the inhabitants, an individual intrigued us. You. The target of our inquiry had three legs, though one was much smaller and connected to the upper appendage. We now know it was your cane, a device used to aid your mobility. Your body was bent and did not move as fast as the other inhabitants, even though it had three legs. A collective thought occurred that you were an inflicted one, soon to be One with the Planet."

         While we were looking through the window, a sudden gasp occurred from half of the population present. I was controlling the window and suddenly felt a great wrong was occurring. Then a giant power surge hit me. I have never felt such an enormous surge of power before or after that day. My thoughts and control were almost gone, all I felt was the power flowing through me toward the Viewing Window. Then an idea flowed from other Hydranousians. The Power Crystals can help. With much effort, I brought up the crystals and pointed them at the window. Three blinding lights shot out and through the crystals and toward the window. The restraining frame began to glow.          

         Then half of our people disappeared.

         As I helplessly watched, I saw the erasure of the Hydranousians who disappeared. I did not understand what force caused this. I knew it was powerful, more powerful than all of the Hydranousians.

         I remember channeling all the raw power and holding the crystals firmly. I do remember seeing the power crash through the Viewing Window and hit you. Then, the power destroyed the window.

         The Defender was quiet for several minutes. He was processing what he was told. He knew it was the truth as the Supreme High One knew it.

         "I am a mistake? There is no grand reason I was given these powers?" The Defender questions the reality of why this has happened to him, his family, his friends, and his planet.

         I am afraid not, said the Supreme High One, as I stated, we are scholars and were examining you and your planet as you are different. What happened was something we had never experienced before, that we knew of. If we knew something like this could occur, we would not have created the Viewing Window.

         "That is all well and good for you. How does it help me?"

         I do not think you are hearing what I am saying. Half of our population ceased to exist! Gone forever without a trace. I witnessed this. No one else remembers who is gone.

         While the Old One was talking, the Defender was not listening. He remembers everything that has happened and everything that he has lost. He remembers everything his friend has gone through. While not all bad, he did have to start over and give up everything. He thought of his family and everything they have been through and still are going through. Their loss. He remembers those who lost their lives on the count of him. This can't go on.

         "I need time to think about this. This window needs closed. We may never see each other again. I don't know. I can't go into hiding and I can go nowhere without drawing a crowd or being the cause of someone's death. However, my place is by my family and that is where I intend to be."

         With that, the Defender walked out of the Viewing Window.

4039 Words

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