'think! think! think something sad! Something that makes you cry!'
Ash tried to recall whatever made him sad enough to cry tears!
' Think your deepest sad memory!'
He needed a sad memory to shed fake tears but the last time maybe ash cried would be when he was born so it was really hard to cry so suddenly but then a blurry past memory surfaced on itself when he was looking for any sad memory.
( please don't cry)
That one sentence in his head stunned him like he was hit at the most delicate place by someone who he didn't even remember who was.
'huh?'
Ash recalled a small segment of a forgotten memory and in that memory a person lying on a hospital bed wiped ash's tears with a smile face. He couldn't see clearly the face of that person but his sweet smile gave a stinging feeling in his heart.
Drip-
' Eh!? '
Drip drip-
Drops of tears started to flow down from his eyes.
Why? Was the person in that memory someone that precious or important for him to shed painful tears?just only recalling that memory for few seconds? Was it a sad memory of his life that he didn't remember?Ash was not sure who that person was but he was at least sure that he had forgotten something important to him!
"Huh!"
As the drops of tear shed down his cheeks to the man's arm, that man retreated his hands back with a puzzle look while staring at the heavy drops of ash .
Thud-
With the sudden loose force from man's hold on his neck, ash fell on the ground so hard.
'what was that?'
Ash was still in daze forgetting the sudden heavy fall on the ground. His sight was completely blocked by tear drops making it blurry for him to see anything and his heavy drops were still felling on his cloths. He touched his face unconsciously and noticed heavy tears falling from his eyes. He was in such a pitbull situation that he couldn't believe himself crying over some past memory.
"Whoever sent you here just leave and don't show up in front of me again or else I won't be this merciful!"
The man said in a cold tone , he looked at ash's pathetic look and tsked in annoyance and said "pathetic!"
He left the place with his heavy strides and never turned back.
Ash was still in his dilemma that he didn't know when that man disappeared.
''why!? Why can't I recall anything anymore?"
No matter how many times ash reckoned his head to recall but he couldn't remember anything.
But it wasn't that long when he stopped thinking and looked at his surrounding that he noticed that the man had long left him here alone.
"I should have left him to die there huh!"
It would have been great if he had thought that at that time but it was too late to have any regrets but thankfully that man left him after seeing his pathetic appearance that even he was surprise to realize .
"At least I saved my life!"
Ash just wanted to act weak so that man would lower his guard against him but who knew ash will actually cry for real! Nevermind his crying but the source of it seemed to have deep past connection to him that he was struggling to recall to the point his head was throbbing so much so in the end he chose to forget it for now.
" Bounce! ...Rose!?"
Ash called rose but it didn't answer him.
Crack-
Suddenly ash felt earth shaking and cracking movements under him.
" What the fuck!"
Ash quickly run to other side and suddenly fell on the ground with a heavy thump.
"Ouch!"
Ash rubbed his nose as he fell on his face. He quickly looked up and saw the ground was opening and dark roots were spreading out .
" Fvcking shit!"
All the roots started to move in his direction and ash was left with no choice but to escape from its clutches.
As ash was still in no condition to fight back and those roots seemed to be the same that sucked him in the ground that night.
He quickly took out his space boat to run away on it but it was crashed by roots.
" Fvcking shit that was the last one I had !"
Ash quickly grabbed on the branch of tree and jumped down. He started to run in the God knows which direction.
He kept running and running without turning back. Sudden attacks on his foot made him to trip jump and fall many times but he didn't stop. He knew if he was caught there would be no way to escape again like before because he was not that strong to survive bitter poisonous secretions of that god knows monster's stomach!
After running for so long he finally got rid of the roots which were not following him any longer.
Ha ha a
With heavy pants, he sat down on a big rock. He inwardly cursed that man he rescued from the grounds or else he wouldn't have stayed in that dangerous place to nurse him and ended up treated badly!
"Just once I am strong again I will introduce him to his own medicine!"
Ash clenched his fists and promised himself that he will surely give back twice what he had been given for his kindness!
He stood up and opened his direction device , surprisingly he was out of poison fog forest .
Did he unknowingly discovered a knew path to avoid poison fog path or that long path that took mostly a week to reach.
Was it luck or because of those roots that suddenly left him once he was out of forest!?
"Maybe?"
Ash tried to reason as he was running from those roots and just kept running to the directions where the roots weren't covering the paths! But why? Was it maybe just a coincidence or someone just deliberately helped him out?
Soon the dark forest started to brighten up with the sunlight las the morning arrived .
" I am already running late and bounce is still not answering so I should better leave before some other trouble arise!"
Ash left with the help of direction device not caring for his appearance that may give anyone shock like he was back from death but he really came from death so what? He just needed to safely go back and that's all matters for him.
____
12:06pm
'why is he not back yet!?'
Lily was sitting on a big rock while thinking about ash as he was not back yet.
'should I go looking for him? No! I am sure he will be fine by himself!'
She was fighting back and forth with an urge to go look for him but resisted as she believed him to be fine but because of the sudden earth vibration that night that had given her some doubts wether he was really safe or not. She circled around the tree.
Her behavior was too eye catching for both billy and Tyler who were equally worried so they came up to her.
" Senior ! are we really not going to look fo master zan!?"
Lily snapped out of her thoughts when she saw billy asking her with a worried expression.
"Yes it's already the seventh day !"
Lily looked at Tyler who was reminding her that it has already been seven days and ash has not come back yet.
"We will just wait for him today and if....."
Lily was going to tell them that they will look for him once the day has passed and he still hadn't come back but she noticed someone coming closer to them.
" Wait someone is coming near to us!"
She alerted them and looked in the direction of intruder .
"Ash!?"
That intruder was no one else but our tired ash walking like a mummy, surely walking for hours without any prior rest and no sleep will dive crazy to anyone but if it was before when ash had his skills still intake he wouldn't have showed this side to anyone but the situation had changed and he was unwilling to self heal himself due to having no mana left in his body to hold him so he just walked until he finally come to his destination.
"Let's go back I am too tired"
Ash walked pass her and sat at back seat of there car.
Lily was a bit surprised as ash was still wearing dead face and wrapped up in bloody bands but ash was just too tired to change his appearance back or explain so he just told them to go back.
Lily wanted to ask him what happened inside poison fog forest but she quietly listened to him and soon they all left black forest.
"I will rest so don't wake me up until we are back understand?"
Ash leaned back and shut his eyes.
"Yes" they all answered in a low voice.
Through out there travel, no one asked ash because they were afraid to disturb his rest and face the after consequences.
They just silently observed him and left the black forest.
____
Currently on an other neighbor planet of Earth 'Jupiter' on which all military army bases were located was in uproar.
Many important meetings and gatherings were always held there . It also worked as a basic shield to protect earth from any intruders attacks.
Due to high gravity force of this planet only military forces camps were here and no other residents. Maybe almost all alphas and some strong betas that could shake off the gravity force could stay here.
In between many high ending military buildings there was one with blue flag on its top. A tall man in military suit and a long blue cap hovering over the ground with his long heavy strides walked to a room.
"Captain Harrison! Please wait!"
Captain Vincent Harrison, he was known a sweet husband and a soft father to his family but an ice strict man to his blue squad soldiers.
" Are you serious!?" A man with same military suit but short blue cap followed him from behind.
Captain Harrison halted in front of his office door and turned to the source of voice.
The person who called him was known as Eugene Gray the vice captain of blue squad. He was a kind and respected by his many subordinate but was also an indifferent person during the training time and neither his soft nor his kind side could be seen, so people who weren't close to him would believe that he had split personality like the captain.
" I don't joke " Captain Harrison replied with no emotions shown on his face.
"But....why do they have to choose you for this mission? and on top of that we have to find the young awakens to train them!" Vice captain Gray insisted with his reason but he didn't heard a reply from his captain instead saw him entering his office.
He quickly followed him inside and walked Infront of his desk. Captain Harrison sat on his chair and took a small square metallic device and put it on the table and turned the device on.
Vice captain Gray patiently waited until captain Harrison looked at him with same emotionless eyes and opened his mouth "I am sure that idiot is still looking for his wife and also because I am the closer person to him than any other person so only I can bring them back"
A large virtual 3d picture that showed many small dust like particles which were actually stars and galaxies. In among those million stars captain Harrison zoomed out to a specific star that showed a red dot indicating neighborhood star of Apus.
"So you have already decided right ?"
Vice captain Gray asked as he was worried not because he was going alone but because the star there captain was visiting was very dangerous place for the people like them because Apus was the star where dragons lived and mostly dragons were known as second most dangerous creatures of whole universe and it was forbidden to provoke these creatures.
Caption Harrison knew what was he thinking "No need to worry I won't be going to Apus but to the closest star to it"
Was it any different if they were going to same galaxy where dragons ruled anyway?
He looked at star that said Apus with red letters and continued "We need him back as his daughter can't just handle everything and his son who doesn't even care for anything like they both can't even handle his works together so bringing him back is the only option we have and also it won't be that long before the public find out that head of Rodger family has gone missing"
Eugene was silent after hearing him as it was truth that they can't forever hide the missing report of Rodger family's head from public any longer.
But why would they be so worried for the public opinion for Rodger family's head ? Simply put the Rodger family was the ruling family of not just there planet Earth but also the whole milky way galaxy!
All military politics and business of there galaxy were ruled by them and so they were treated as royal family and currently there ruler the person who was needed at the critical moment was missing.
"They have announced the period so I will leave the awakens training to you "
Captain Harrison looked at Eugene who was suddenly left with heavy responsibility but he couldn't refute or oppose his captain as he was in no position to reject the command of their superior.
" Yes captain!"
He saluted as he had no choice but to accept the duty of finding and training the awakens.
"You can leave now"
After listening to his superiors order vice captain Gray left the office room closing the door behind.
When the vice captain left Vincent Harrison leaned back on his chair and rubbed his temple.
" I won't be able to see my granddaughter in the meantime "
A little regret in his tone could be heard as he said those words.
Ting-
Vincent looked at his wrist watch to see a call ring.
He took the call.
(Captain the space ship is ready)
"I will be there in a minute"
(Yes captain!")
He hanged up the call and stood up, before leaving his office, he looked at the picture frame on his table and touched it gently saying
" I will be back soon !"
To be continued...