Chapter 35
The First Encounter
Part 6B
Goosebumps 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 felt the horror almost overwhelm him, to the point where he forgot he was using his skill's ability to see these things.
He knew how to control and use his skill, although he doesn't use it that frequently. At the same time, in this situation, he forgot about all that. The next thing he saw, something came out of the gate: a humanoid creature, nothing he had seen the like of it before in his life. Although there were hundreds of different creatures in this world and wild beasts, this was the scariest thing he ever saw in his life. It was almost more than two and a half meters tall; his head was huge according to the rest of his body; there were two big red eyes that seemed to be looking at him, which made him feel tingling all over his body; there were many noticeable things, but the big horn on his forehead was something else; and the four arms dangling from the sides of his torso, holding two strange weapons in two of the arms.
Behind it were standing several different creatures without any movement, none of which looked like the other one, with different sizes and shapes; each one of them was scarier than the other one. It was looking straight towards me, then I looked around me, and all of us were facing him in a single straight line, like a defensive wall, and behind him were his children and the young boy. As soon as I turned one time in front of him, the creature, with a swift movement that was weird for his big bulky size, started killing the people beside me. With each hit, one of us was down within a few seconds. Only it was facing me straight, face-to-face. I couldn't even comprehend how many of us fell down dead or alive; I couldn't tell either. I couldn't even tell who was first or who was before me at all; all I could see with a blink of an eye was that those who were beside me were dead, and on the ground, fast too fast even to follow with the naked eye, showing formidable strength and speed at the same time. Maybe one or two of them resisted, but just for a few seconds maximum, that was all it took. And that was enough for me to wish to wake up from the nightmare I was having.
Now that he understood how the young boy was feeling, and why he was shaking like a leaf, he was able to see until the end, and things will end, even if he falls to that monster creature, but the only thing that he didn't want to see was his family meeting their end. And there was not enough time. Now that he knows what is coming, they have to move and move from this place as soon as possible. He was even regretting the few precious minutes that he lost watching what would happen, but that was needed for him to be convinced, and now he has to take action immediately. The rest of them don't require any convincing at the moment, although he has to tell everyone what is going on, but he couldn't anticipate any resistance from anyone so far.
The way skill worked and the reason behind it were not totally clear to Emperor Haider, but he knew he could see a whole one-day event in just less than one minute in real time. How was that possible? He stopped wondering about that a long time ago, so looking back at the boy in front of him while he himself was still shaking from what he saw, he said, "You were telling the truth; let's go. There are so many questions I want to ask you, but I guess we don't have much time to discuss anything at the moment." The boy nodded at him, the relief apparent on his face. The rest of the group, some of them still eating their meals, and others were standing or sitting in front of their tents. There wasn't much empty space between the tents to begin with; for safety reasons, of course, they arranged the way, and the emperor's tent was in the middle of it, so by just calling them, everyone was able to hear him without him moving from his place, so he didn't hesitate to raise his voice, calling them, "Everyone, we are not safe here; we need to move now.".
The raised voice of the emperor alarmed most of the people. Although the tents were not clustered together, there was not much space in between them, so everyone was able to hear him. At the same time, nobody was eager to move and leave. Still, no one was able to argue with the emperor or even question the reason behind his order. Captain Murad and Luke, who were guarding the parameters from a distance not that far from the clearing where they built the tents, while they were standing at the edges of the clearing, noticed the activities that were going on in the camp. Each of them was standing in a corner opposite the other, but they could still see each other. For safety reasons, they decided on that setup from the beginning. Both of them noticed the activities in the camp at the same time and decided to go and check what was going on at the same time.
Like it was a prior arrangement, both of them approached where the emperor was standing beside his tent at the same time. As soon as they reached him before any of them asked any questions, emperor Haider started talking to both of them and said, "I will explain everything while we are moving, but now we need to clear the camp and start moving as soon as possible." Looking at captain Murad, he said, "Don't mind us; me and Luke will be able to handle here; please help the others." Murad nodded to the emperor with a slight bow from his head only and left without saying anything else. He went straight to the tent he was supposed to be sharing with Ozak, although he wasn't supposed to leave him alone since it was his responsibility and he knew he was supposed to be guarding him all the time. But the situation they were in was totally changed from the beginning. Yesterday, he was complaining to himself about how boring the assignment he was giving, which was guarding the alien, was and was wondering why he was chosen to do that, although there were so many others more suitable for guarding and monitoring this alien. Still, without complaining to anybody, he did his job; he was not allowed to talk or socialize with him; he just watched him from a distance without hiding that he was watching him or guarding him. Still, he had to keep his distance from him.
He couldn't imagine today in the morning that his day would end in an unknown place, with an emperor and his family and different strange people claiming they came from different parts of the world. Still, that was exactly what was happening now. While thinking of those things, he reached the tent that Ozak was dismantling by himself. As soon as he saw Murad, he asked him, "What is going on? Why are we moving? Where are we going?" not just one question but several questions one after the other without waiting for a response, Murad shook his head and said, "I don't know more than you, but the emperor said he would explain later' then started helping him with the tent. They were not carrying anything that belonged to them to begin with or any luggage, so finishing this small task didn't take any time at all. Carrying the tent with him, he went to the first group near him.
Amran and her group were next to him, and she was the first one to notice him approaching them. The same questions that Ozak asked, were also the same thing on her mind also, but she didn't ask anything but waited, Ajbadan was the one who was at least expecting some clarifications or at least some details, but when their eyes met, Murad shook his head, answering him the question that he had yet to answer. This group had two small tents, so they were folding the last one when he reached them and asked, "Do you need any help?" Now it was Ajbadan's turn to shake his head and say, No, thanks; we are fine also," and he looked at the last two tents still standing, then he said, "I will help the girls; please help the young boy.". When Murad turned to look at the boy's tent, it was still standing, and he was sitting in front of it doing nothing. His tent was somehow different than the others, and Murad remembered when they got the tents from the sick girl, and by the sick girl, he meant the girl who passed out without introducing her, who happened to have dimensional storage, which is not something you expect a girl of her age to have. The boy said he had his own tent at that time. Murad had a lot of questions about this very strange, uncommon group that happened to meet on the battle field, but he knew better than to ask any questions at the moment and was waiting until they were clear of any danger to ask his questions.
Little did he know at that time that these questions would be the least of his worries.