Chapter 26
The First Encounter
Part 3B
Julian Point of View
For the last hour, I have been in a state that has affected me physically and emotionally. For one thing, I have never walked or run approximately all my life. The one I did today was meeting the famous emperor in this forest, then again meeting this other group of people. Some of them look suspicious to me, though I can't figure out the reason. I was trying my best to keep calm, and stay away from the sight of the people, and not to get the attention of any of them. I don’t know why?. I am here, but when I saw the emperor and heard his story later, I got a little excited. I felt like I was on an adventure, but that excitement quickly changed to anxiety, which overtook me completely when we came to the place where we were supposed to rest. I was tired and hungry at the same time, although usually I don’t mind the hunger that much since I usually eat less than anyone else that I know of, and the small meals that I have, which are mostly two meals a day, were enough for me to keep going until the next day. But since I was running for a distance I couldn’t tell how and walking also for a while, that consumed the small amount of energy I had in my body. That was the reason I felt what I was feeling, including that I was scared of what I didn’t know, but without a doubt the situation that I was in was not one I could control the outcome of. That may be part of the reason, but still, with all those people around and beside me, there was nothing that could make me feel relaxed and not make me feel afraid of what may come or what will happen in any minute.
The feeling of fear, the feeling of hunger, feeling cold during the night, when there is no cover from the heat of the sun during the day, how many people can say that they get to feel all those feelings every single day in their life? All living being feel one of those feeling several times in their life time, some doesn’t even for once in their life, lets start with the feeling of fear,when this ominous feeling called fear starts invading your body, it starts form the heart with feeling that is like something squeezing your heart, and from there it radiated to all your body flowing the veins of your blood, then the body starts shaking, your arms and legs becomes week, so week that you cat even hold your body, here people are different since there are those who are able to face their fear, and still try to go ahead even a step at a time, and those who became overwhelmed by that feeling and who froze in their place, and those who cant endure it and loose consciousness at once as a defensive mechanism from the brain to save it self from that overwhelming shock.
As for the hunger its totally a different storey, since no one can describe the true feeling of the hunger, people my miss understand the word hunger by being hungry, which are totally different things, although everyone feels hungry some times even during the day when you miss a meal, that when use that world “I am Hungry” some even go to the extant and say “I am Starving”, but far from it he or she never felt the real feeling of starvation of hunger, the real hunger when you are starving even you are unable to breath, your body consumes itself until nothing remains from you except some skin and bones that will fade with time it self, when you become like a ragged doll without weight or power unable even to fend the wind from yourself by covering this skin and bones with even a sheet.
Those were the feelings that I grew up with every single day and night, whether I was awake or asleep: hunger mostly during the day and fear at night; fear of the unknown; fear of the things that I see when I close my eyes; nightmares that, when I wake up, still follow me during the day; vivid in my memory if I was able or had the items for drawing, I would be able to draw them. Unfortunately, I don’t get those nightmares only at night; even during the day, they don’t spare me. The difference is that between day and night, there is only one thing: at night, it comes as a dream, but at daytime, it comes as a different episode that makes me look like I passed out and lost my consciousness, but the fact is that I enter a state like a dream and awake at the same time, a state like I am dreaming at the same time I am awake. In that state, I become in a strange state where I am able to see what is going on around me, but I cannot communicate with anyone. At the same time, the vision of the nightmare I see, which is not all the time much different from what I see at night, still runs in the background like a suppurate scan that I can watch both of them simultaneously, and on some occasions, it involves the people or the places that I am around. That same thing was what happened to me right now. While I was standing and waiting for the instructions of the emperor about what we were going to do next and ready to assist with setting up the tents, suddenly the nightmare started. I don’t know when I fell on the ground without any notice this time, not like it used to give an advance notice, but I used to it, so I developed a sixth sense for it when it was about to attack.
But this time, my nightmare was totally different than any one I have ever seen before. It felt like I was literally looking and watching myself from above, and I was looking at the same place that I was at this moment, but instead of being on the ground, I was standing beside the emporer, his wife and kids were behind him, and his brother Luke was guarding them from behind, carrying the same rifle that he had on him last time I looked at him a few seconds ago. The rest was in front of us, making a semicircle in front of us, between each one of them a little more than two meters. The view didn’t change for a few seconds; nobody was moving or talking; everyone was looking in front of him or her. I looked at the location they were looking at in front of them; about five hundred meters ahead of us, there was a mass of black smoke, covering almost, if not more than, one hundred square meters, from above where I was watching at that moment. I could see clearly that it was shaped like a cube, although it was not a solid, and I could see the smoke moving within it and at the same time around it, but still, the shape of the squire cube was totally clear to me. The height was the only thing that was different from the location I was watching, which was increasing and reducing simultaneously like it was breathing going up and going down.
Suddenly it shook, like somebody was shaking it, and on the front side, or accurately, the side that was facing us, it opened up, like waves parting ways, and what came out of it was one of my worst nightmares. the one that whatever happened I will never forget, the one that always when I see it in my dreams or accurately nightmares, the one that gives me the most fright and scares me the most always, and the worst thing was that it was looking for me specifically; its eyes were directed above everyone else and looking at me directly. That happens a lot of times, and it's always my que to wake up since my week heart can't hold it anymore. The fear inside me goes to a different level, but this time something else tells me that what I was seeing was not just a dream or nightmare, but it was real. When I have those kinds of nightmares, I always can't wait to open my eyes and see that everything around me is different from what I was seeing in the nightmare. But this I wished that everything would just start as a nightmare and end as a nightmare. This feeling that when I open my eyes, I am going to see that thing in reality was truly overwhelming, because simply because I always used to see the nightmares, but I was just a spectator, but this time I was in the nightmare, and that was still looking at me, and I didn’t wake up.
Chapter 27The First EncounterPart 4AWarning Gore and bloody, readers discretion is advised.The monster that came out of the cube was over two meters tall; what makes its humanoid shape totally odd is not its height but everything else. Although he was standing at two feet, his arms were taller than anything else, and they reached blew his knees. His torso was naked, with nothing covering it, and was almost one meter wide. Each one of his arms was as thick as my full body size, bulging with thick mussels. His head was round like a ball, and huge on top of it were two silver-colored horns extending from each side of his temple and then curved towards his forehead. Below the horns were two round ears, each bigger than the palm of an adult human, and his eyes were each as big as a fist without any eyelids; their color was as crimson as the color of the blood. Below the center of the eyes, there were two holes, probably the nose, that he or it could breathe from.The mouth was the scar
Chapter 28The First EncounterPart 4BI used to wake up jumping, but that was a long time ago when I was not aware of what was happening to me. But now I am aware that I am having a nightmare, so there is no reason for me to yell, jump, or act anyway, different than what I usually do with or without a nightmare. Apparently, I was taking a nap or actually passed out inside a tent, and someone was cooking some food because of the smell that drifted to my nose. That reminded me that the last thing I ate something was yesterday afternoon, I guess, really this trip, although it was so short and not that long, just hours or half a day. I think maximum; I couldn't even tell if that was yesterday or a few days ago; the time and what happened were so much for me to comprehend accurately at the moment. The smell of the food made me put aside the ominous feeling that I had. I didn't forget it, but I shelved it somewhere, not that far. Why would I think of something that I couldn't do anything a
Chapter 28The First EncounterPart 5AAnther's noteIt's been a couple months since I've written any new chapters, for some health reasons and other technical issues. As much as I like to keep it steady and regular, sometimes things are beyond your control. All I can promise now is that I will do my best. I may skip a week or two, and then I may make it up to some bonus chapters (who knows?). Also, to cover up any inconvenience, remember that the chapters are now longer than ever, and, I will try to increase the length of the chapters as much as I can from now on.One more thing: although this is my first work, with your support and encouragement, it already attracted enough attention to be offered an exclusive contract, which I hesitated to accept due to a lack of commitment, but at least that made me happy and encouraged me more. So I can't thank you enough, so please keep on supporting me as usual.It was not just an explosion that I heard; at the same time, I felt the ground sha
Chapter 32Intermission Jack’s side story Part 1Anther's note:This is Jack’s story recap as I told it in the first volume, but I will now add the missing parts that were not known to anyone in the first volume or the second volume until now, or what was his connection to the storey line? So far, all we knew in the first volume was that he was looking for his wife, and that was all he was looking for. Where was he imprisoned? What for? There were a lot of questions that no one asked and nobody answered, and no one will unless someone dares ask the correct question.Also, I edited the previous chapter, its not just a copy of the same chapter of the first volume to go along with the current retelling of the story without changing much from the original story as a recap because of the importance of the story line. I remember one reader asking me if I was just filling in the characters for the sake of my book, and he was specifically talking about Jack :) I hope now he got the answer.
Chapter 33The First EncounterPart 5B“We need to move from here; the monsters are coming; he is coming, he is coming; and we are all going to be dead." That was the only word that came out of his mouth, and then all he did was stare at the man standing beside him, although his body was shaking, like somebody who is scared or feeling cold, but his eyes were totally blank, like a blind guy who is just looking but not seeing anything. From the blank way he was looking at him, the emperor noticed that the boy was looking at something else, and most probably he also got, “The lost art.” As one of the few humans on this planet who has knowledge of “the lost art” and has learned a few of its skills, he can tell that this boy has it. This is his first encounter with not one but two unexpected individuals in an expected situation with unexpected knowledge. While Juian was talking to the emperor, the skill foresight was activated, and he was not actually looking at or talking to the emperor,
Chapter 34The First EncounterPart 6A“If you don’t believe me, use your Predict skill, and you will see it.” That was it. I had to let him go and step back a couple steps. He knows two of my skills not just one but two. That is ridiculous. I have been shocked. In a manner I never had before, if it were anybody else in front of me telling me that, the first reaction that would accrue to me would have been to cut his head immediately, without even getting the opportunity to get questioned about where he got the information. But fortunately or unfortunately, the one who said that was a child, although the expression on my face changed and my hand was on the gun and the sword in my waist, a complete involuntary reaction from my side.It took me nearly a minute to gather myself and regain my composure. During this time, I came to the realization that someone else must have informed him about my skills. Therefore, I felt compelled to find out who that person was. At that moment, the only
Chapter 35The First EncounterPart 6BGoosebumps ran down his spine when he saw what he saw when he used the skill. He was staring at a black portal that was enormous, over four meters tall and ten meters wide, with a black square shape instead of the typical gateway portals seen on this planet. It was both smokey and liquid-like at the same time, and he was unable to determine what material it was composed of. It was moving like a live entity with a pulsating heart, but it was not changing shape. In a matter of seconds, it gained shape and materialized in front of him at the location the youngster had indicated. He felt a terrible sensation throughout his body. This is what the young man was talking about. He told himself, "So it's all true then," confirming the first thing the boys had mentioned. "The time was the next thing he confirmed, and it was true too." He had the chance to glance at the clock now that it was getting to be the time of sunset, but he didn't think of it. He fe
Chapter 36Beginning of the Invasion Part 1AThe girls had a large tent and they were struggling with it, Since Ajbadan said he will help them, he decided to go to the boy Still, he was wondering why didn’t dismantle his tent? Or at least why? if he is not doing anything, why did he help the girls? Aren’t they his companions? At least they have been together more the rest of them, Regardless of their meeting in the forest, as they said, Murad shook his head like he was dropping the questions that filled it and went to the boy. Aden stood up when he saw Murad approaching him and smiled while saying, “It’s embarrassing to say that, seeing you came to help me, but I am actually leaving the tent here that way I didn’t dismantle it.” Murad was not expecting to hear that at all While the surprise was showing on his face, he asked, “Can I ask you why?” Aden didn’t expect to be asked that question either, so he hesitated for a second and said while scratching his head with a small laugh, ”ha