Story 35

35

The three men lay tangled and smoking slightly, clothes in rags. The women were nowhere in sight. The rock lay quiescent by them.

They took a deep breath to help clear their senses and nearly choked. The air itself was heavy with a hint of sulphurous noxious odour that made them nauseous.

Davi lay stretched out, incapacitated and unable to stand. The other two struggled and finally hauled themselves up. Where on earth was this? WHEN on earth was this!

The smoky clouds lifted and they saw dense jungle with strange trees and creepers that moved as if alive themselves. A long slow river flowed past to an area of harsh volcanic rock that was wearing into a reef before an endless ocean. Petar shivered as they heard roars at a distance. The place of the jungle again? This time they WERE totally defenceless. No, this place was ANCIENT. Petar knew better than to try making fire in THIS atmosphere.

And as they looked around a feral screaming howl came on the wind, or so it seemed, as a crazed Mitchell ran at them out of the cloud, still firing.

Davi rose just enough to stop the bullet from hitting Dave, taking yet another blow from Mitchell. One he would not recover from. He slumped.

Petar ran at Mitchell roaring in his own anger, pulling up short as something moved past him, faster than he thought anything could move.
Mitchell shrieked and was silenced as the raptor/fish figure with long legs took his head with a single bite.

Petar moved backwards to Dave, who was cradling Davi in his arms, stifling his own screams as a second creature rose behind them.

The second creature seemed to kneel, if that is what you could call it, beside them. A gurgle arose that turned into guttural speech.

“Well met friends. Rock takes where we do GOOD. We, grow BACK, change; still changing. Pleasant! Good home. Long, long way back your planet.”

The first brushed blood from the long jaws as he approached. “Dave, now understand fish taste good too. Happy mad man gone, happy help. Sorry for friend.”

“Don’t be sorry, friends.” Davi spoke with difficulty. “Not gone yet. Never gone, can’t. Dave, hold me please.”

“I am holding you, Davi. I won’t let you go.”

“Not enough. CLOSER. TIGHT. Good, that’s it. Time for you to be whole again, Dave. Goodbye.”

Davi closed his eyes and MELTED. Dave opened his mouth in a silent, frozen scream as what was Davi encompassed him in golden light and melted into him.

Dave had never felt such pain; he was hunkered down hugging HIMSELF. The pain receded quickly and he suddenly felt KNOWLEDGE returned.

Petar stood, transfixed. This was surely the hardest thing he had to believe in all his travels!

“Dave? Davi?” he ventured.

Dave rocked gently. “Hello Petar. It’s me, Dave. David Grayson. Davi was ME. The knowing half.”

“But, HOW …… ?”

“The Rock. Now is not the time for the tale though, this place is our friends new home; it is not ours.”

“No, it is not. Yet it IS the home of the First Rock.” The creature that had been called Slongur spoke. “What came to you, Petar, merely UNCOVERED the deeply buried rock that had washed near the surface again.”

The other spoke. “The rock cannot take where is/was NOT. Come here as planet grow. This place, come from mountain long disappeared. Place only we of creatures dare visit. Come, we show.”

A short distance away uphill through the dense foliage, they came to a small clearing with a bright light emanating from the centre.

“Here. Take. Make whole, like Dave.”

The light around them turned pale gold and deepened as they approached. As the rocks merged in incandescent light a voice spoke inside their minds and their thoughts were read as they transported in the white light for the last time.