A/N: comparatively, this it a rather short chapter... Then again, that might not be so bad for you readers!
Chapter 14
Below the Surface
"Ooh...! This is so exciting!" Mindona squealed, rummaging through a few smaller containers of clothes.
"No occasion to dress up for though," Kahlua commented, watching with a slight awe as the girl scurried from the boxes to the mirror to admire herself.
"Oh, how can you say that!" the girl asked with an ever-present smile. "Not only are we visiting a planet, but Ren told me that the people there are different than any we have ever met before!"
"Humans are so strange..." Pyoro commented.
Kahlua just rolled her eyes. She knew, for a fact even, that that was not the girl's reasoning behind her actions.
"Thank you!" Liewa chimed in with a giggle as the communication with Ren cut. She had, unasked, monitored Jurani's request for transportation, and had incessantly translated his sentences to sound sugarcoated with sweetness.
"Butt out next time," Jurani yipped at her, and she scrambled into his seat with him and began to tease his hair. She was overjoyed, for this would be her first visit to an actual planet's surface. She let her excitement shine through while sitting in his lap, legs folded under herself as she messed with his once tied back locks. "Get off of me..." he sighed impatiently, and he shoved her off with a careless gesture.
She stumbled backwards, trying to catch her footing from the unexpected push, and ended up falling onto her rump. She stared at him, and a sudden guilt grabbed him. He opened his mouth to apologize, then realizing he felt that he had nothing to feel sorry for he bit his tongue turned away in his chair; her eyes welled with tears before she ran out.
"Lighten up, will you?" Genikuro scolded. Jurani glowered up at his friend, who had just dodged a fleeing Liewa. He did not see the sudden scowl though, for he was watching the retreating figure for a sympathetic moment, then faced around and continued with, "I mean, she is your sister..."
"Shut up," Jurani broke eye contact and backslapped the air in a burst of anger, "you know how sisters can be!"
Genikuro flinched as though struck, and Jurani's face suddenly blanched as he realized the sharpness of those words. He sighed and shook his head.
"I... I'm sorry..." Jurani blurted as Genikuro left.
"Just be quiet," the boy barked. "No girl is worth all of this...!"
It was Jurani's turn to give a start. They both knew that it was no sister he made reference of.
"Liewa, honey, what's wrong!" Kahlua cried as the poor wretched thing burst into the room and collapsed onto her lap.
"H-he hit m-me!" she choked through body wrenching sobs.
"Who did!" Mindona demanded, turning sharply from the mirror.
"M-my... brother!"
"Jurani!" Kahlua asked with strained disbelief. "But why?"
"I don't... kn-know!" the girl wailed, her voice muffled in Kahlua's thick blue kimono. Her tears changed the various pattern colors darker, a thing both she and Mindona noticed as she coaxed the child to sit in her lap, and Liewa began to cry upon her shoulder and in her bosom as the mothering figure whispered reassurance to her.
"That jerk...!" Mindona growled. She threw down the shirt she had been admiring earlier and stormed out before Kahlua could advise her not to. The girl didn't know the facts...
Genikuro was a tad startled when he saw Mindona, boiling with anger, stomp past him in a corridor. He actually stopped and stepped out of her way in fear of that anger being unleashed on him.
He walked by the women's room and heard faint sobs within, and a quick pang of sorrow passed through him. Not only did he feel sorry for the victimized Liewa, but it made him think of his own sister, crying with her unexplained pains. Duero couldn't figure out what it was, and the doctors of Mejale, who specialized in that gender, couldn't either. Some said that it was what minglers, people who cohabitated with the opposite sex, created and had to suffer with. He knew it not to be true though, since he himself was alive and healthy still. Maybe it was just a certain mix of genetics...
He thought through this and more as he sat in his vanguard, staring at the family picture he kept to one side, and he waited for the clearing to go.
"Min...?" Jurani started as she burst into the room, her presence like that of a burning torch in a dark ice cave.
"What the hell has gotten into you!" she demanded, throwing up her fists before planting them on her hips as she stood before him with the full glory of perplexed enragement filling her very being. It made the hairs on his neck rise. "How dare you treat Liewa that way! What has she ever done to deserve what you did to her! If I were in her shoes, I'd be kicking your ass right now! The poor thing is crying her heart out now and it's all because of you! How dare you ruin this day for her, for all of us, like this! How dare you! What had gotten into you lately!"
His mouth opened and closed, not knowing what to say, but she abruptly turned heel and left him. He was transfixed on her yet fading aura, and all he could do was shiver and whisper, 'what... was that about?"
"Rather the sorry bunch..." Ren whispered to Utan as he glanced back at the others onboard his ship. No one took a seat in one of the readily available chairs, but it seemed like something had transpired while he had waited on the ship for them to board. Kahlua was actually holding Liewa upon her hip and Jurani stood to one side of the room. Utan nodded in agreement to Ren's comment, cowering in her chair and not taking her wide eyes off of Mindona, who stood on the opposite side of the room from Jurani. The orangutan didn't even make a run for Pyoro, who was trying to make funny faces for Liewa to laugh at. Despite himself, Ren couldn't help but to take a glance at the bristling teenage girl, and he shivered for the sudden chill.
Genikuro was speeding ahead of him, his Vanguard a tad more sluggish than it had been during battle. Ren wouldn't doubt that the something that happened between all of them was a negative issue, and he began thanking whatever scant luck he had that he had left for his ship before the outburst. Luck had nothing to do with it though, he knew. His life had been a total mistake, every action, every word, every second, and standing proof was the situation he was in now. Whatever good things he could remember happening, he had to work for them. Indeed, his history would prove to show his miserable fate to an inherited bad fortune...
"Hey, where do we land?" Genikuro asked over the intercom, oddly remorse. Ren was taken aback to see wires plugged into Genikuro through the Mecha and the shiver came anew.
"Just fall back, I know of a good clearing," Ren suggested. The boy, surprisingly, listened. It truly must have been something troublesome.
"Damn this heat!" Genikuro cursed as they shot through the planet's atmosphere. When they landed he was surprised to discover his Vanguard hard to maneuver, and credited it to the gravity. He had never taken it on land before, and it was a dramatic change compared to the weightless space. He took five steps forward and soon ended up missing a step on the ground. He fell on his rump and decided to just leave it as it was.
Everyone else was already out of Ren's ship by the time Genikuro clambered out of the suit, and he made his way over to the rest of the party. He automatically began to go towards Jurani, rebuked the idea, turned to the only other male around, and decided to hear what the girls were talking about. It was odd to actually force himself to walk to the ring of their little circle.
Liewa's head was on Kahlua's shoulder, and the woman was talking with Mindona. When he stopped he stopped a good five feet away and merely watched, feeling like an outsider. He was only mildly relieved that the two standing turned his way slightly and automatically involved him in the group. It was then that he listened in on what they were saying. They were talking about the other two guys.
They were discussing matters with a logic he couldn't comprehend, and he soon began to look around at their surroundings, relying on their body language to inform him on a change of track. One gesture was of stress, another anger, and one he noted was Kahlua sighing and readjusting Liewa on a now tender hip.
"Here, I'll take her," Genikuro offered.
Mindona and Kahlua shared a quick look, and she handed Liewa over.
"At least he's considerate..." Mindona began things off again as he took Liewa up. He didn't mind her so much now, compared to their time on the Nirvana, she was actually a little bit of a relief with the lingering memories of his sister. She, on the other hand, seemed a little curious at the fact that he was holding her, and she sat upright in his arms for a while. He began to talk with her muted form, starting to feel uncomfortable as well, and within a few minutes she was laughing and playing with his bushy hair and Mechas.
Mindona paused in her ranting when she heard Liewa squeal happily and she looked to see that Genikuro had her upside-down. She glanced at Kahlua, once again surprised by his sudden change of attitude. He seemed happier and more lenient.
Kahlua was smiling at them, and based on the older woman's reactions Mindona was automatically relieved to find this a good thing and actually giggled when he began to tickle her by pinching slightly above the knee. Liewa cried out in happy laughter and the others soon laughed along with her.
"Ah, so he serves as a jungle gym too?"
Mindona beamed at Ren as he approached with the comment, and her smile faded when she saw the melancholy Jurani standing to one side. His mood brought her back to what had happened, and she lost her mirth even while watching the two. Genikuro lifted Liewa upright, and she scrambled onto his shoulders, which looked a little painful for him, and they listened for what they would be doing.
"Where do we go?" Kahlua asked, still giggling slightly.
"To the village," Ren answered, taking the lead. Mindona walked up with him and began to ask many questions. Genikuro and Kahlua walked behind them, and Jurani a little further back.
"Are you comfy up there?" Kahlua asked Liewa. Genikuro felt her nod and smirked. It was a long walk to whatever their destination was and on the way Kahlua asked to stop a moment, feeling tired.
"Aw, getting old so soon?" Mindona teased after five minutes, and after a quick snap Kahlua was back on her feet and they were again on their way, the girls walking ahead. Liewa eventually climbed down from Genikuro and ran ahead with the girls. This was a relief, since then he could fall back and have a normal conversation, if one was ever to strike up; the other two were perfectly content with their silence.
"So... we're going to a city or something?" Genikuro asked after a minute or two.
"Not quite," Ren explained, telling the girls to make a turn up ahead. "It's the same size as a city, but not as developed." Genikuro gave him a questioning look and Ren just shook his head. "You'll see it when we get there, okay?"
For a time the only sounds to be heard were the girl's muffled talk, Ren's directions and the crunching of stones and gritting of multi-colored sand underfoot; also it was hard not to notice the ever-present bickering coming from Pyoro as Utan dragged the poor robot along, licking him every now and then.
"So how did you come by this place?" Genikuro tried again.
"It's my home planet," Ren answered, sighing. He explained no further.
"So your family's here, right?"
"No," was all he said as they marched on.
"Oh, so you were born here and went somewhere else to live?"
Ren breathed in a vexed manner. "No, again."
"Then I don't get it... How exactly is it your home planet if you weren't born here?"
"It's complicated, alright!" Ren yipped, running a hand through his short ashen hair. He was obviously feuding with himself over his decision on bringing them all there. "Sheesh, it's amazing how you don't shut up!"
"What! You bastard! How...!"
Ren thrust a hand over is mouth and looked up. Genikuro threw it out of his face and followed his gaze. There was a figure on top of one of the columns of rock towering above them.
"Hey!" Ren greeted. "I can't see you too well, who's there?"
The girls stopped and noticed the figure as well. Utan suddenly cried out and began to rapidly scale the column; poor Pyoro, still in her clutches, hit nearly every outcropping of rock along the way.
"It's Tatanka," said the silhouette
"What was that!" Genikuro asked, looking around as did everyone else, save for Ren. The man's voice seemed to echo, and not from their surroundings but within their minds.
"So what are you doing out of the city, chief?" Ren asked. "Did you see us coming?"
"Yes," the man replied, giving an oof when Utan threw herself at him. "What is this thing?" he wondered, looking a banged up Pyoro over, before resuming their talk. "The spirits have enlightened me to something more, though. Come to the village, and we shall discuss it further. I'll have a food ready."
At that the Tatanka turned and headed off, Utan waving goodbye over his shoulder.
"What was that all about?" Jurani asked, the first words out of him since leaving the Pod.
For the rest of the walk Ren explained to everyone the history and nature of the people of that planet. He explained that long ago Earthlings had taken their voices, wanting not the hear them or their 'crazy' ideas because they did not understand, and deposited them on that planet. Since then they were able to contact the spirits more sufficiently, and in return they, or most of them anyways, harbored no anger over the loss of their speech. They are a peaceful society that thrives in the desert. One who's logic is derived from spiritual guidance, not emotions.
Genikuro listened only in part. He had already heard this information, from his father. He began to wonder if he was following his old man's footsteps... Ren explained it in detail, and finished right upon topping the rise and seeing the village.
Genikuro, listening in part of their prosperity, was taken aback to see mud huts and buildings of red rock carved out of the matching colossal mesa.
"What the hell...?" he asked in sarcastic awe as the girls complemented its completely natural beauty.
I really do hope everyone knows of the episode this writing is beginning to reflect. Personally, I was disappointed that it lasted for only one episode, so here it is again! They never gave certain things names though (like the planet for instance) so you're going to be reading some made up information from here on out. I'll try to do my best though to make it not sound too foreign! Also, my writings to this point have had some notes made, so if things start to not make sense, please tell me. Review on what you liked/disliked about this chapter, if you would, and I can't guarantee when the next will come out! (It might take some time, sorry!) Oh, and if you have some guess work as to what you think might happen, I would like for you to make a comment personally to my e-mail instead of a review, that way other readers don't build up the same expectations : ) My e-mail is and the more reviews/comments the more results!