The Invisible Planet

Part 24: Human

Angeline flailed in a panic as she slid into the beast's throat. An arm grabbed her firmly around the waist as a red flash of light shot through the air.

"I've got you," said Shay, but they were still sliding down. He cried out in effort, and a red flash of light shot upward. The Goliath's throat closed beneath them and then suddenly they were moving up, back into the mouth and quickly toward its many teeth.

He pulled her close as they fell, spat out quickly toward the ground. She landed on top of him amid a sea of hard sand.

"Look out!" He turned over, covering her body with his and holding one hand up. A red shield appeared over them as a stream of brown and red sludge shot out of the Goliath's mouth.

From the ground, Angeline had a much better view of the beast. It was covered in shimmering green scales and standing on two massive hind legs. It was several stories tall, with small front arms that curled in front of its chest with three clawed fingers and a thumb, and a long tail thicker than most trees.

The Goliath moved back a step and then roared at them, a thunderous wail that made them both cover their ears. Then it turned slowly around and began to stomp away into the desert.

"Are you alright?" Shay asked softly.

She nodded, holding back tears of relief. "I— I thought you were going to—"

"Let you get eaten?" he finished with a look of amusement. He grimaced in pain as he attempted to get up. "Maybe I should've," he grumbled, clutching his left side as he climbed to his feet. "I told you not to look it in the eye."

"I didn't mean to."

"I said don't, and then you immediately did it," he said, shaking the saliva off his hands. "Now I get to spend the day with a broken rib, covered in Goliath spit, and I have to ask Takka for a new cloak. Why didn't you listen?"

"I'm sorry," she muttered, lowering her head.

"I don't want you to be sorry, I want you to trust me enough to listen when I'm trying to save your life." He offered her his hand to help her up. "Come on. Don't step in the vomit; it'll eat through your shoes and burn your skin."

She looked around at the large doughnut of puke that surrounded them. "How am I supposed to not step in that?" she asked, making a face.

"Well, you should've thought about that before you looked it in the eye. They take it as a challenge." He grabbed her waist and lifted her over his right shoulder like a sack of flour, walking forward into the sludge as he held his left side.

"Shay!" she cried, both shocked and concerned.

"My boots are made of SkyTail skin," he said in a strained voice. "They won't corrode." He set her down safely in the sand with a grunt of pain. "Fuck's sake, that hurts," he muttered.

"Sorry."

"It is entirely your fault, but I'll forgive you eventually." He strode into the hot sand with a slight limp, still holding his left side.

She followed, remaining quiet for a few minutes. The desert wasn't nearly as exotic and beautiful as the other things she'd seen. There were large rock formations jutting out from the sand, providing shade and cover. The hot sun overhead was drying out the slime that covered her from head to toe, making her skin itch. She reached up with a wince and scratched a few flakes from her face.

"Unpleasant, isn't it," Shay asked sourly.

She rolled her eyes. "You're the one who threw me head-first into its mouth."

"It was the only thing I could think of to keep you out of the way of its teeth."

"Can't you stop time?"

"In a limited area. Not nearly enough to stop a Goliath. If you'd just listened to me—"

"I said I'm sorry," she interrupted in a low voice. "I didn't mean to look it in the eye, it was just... there."

"Well, at least we're alive," he said in a defeated tone.

"You're immortal," she grumbled. "Of course you're alive."

He smiled slightly, and they were quiet again for a bit.

"Do you remember what it's like to be human?" she asked.

He blinked, pausing for a few seconds before he continued walking. "Vaguely, yes. It's similar in a lot of ways," he answered. "I still have basic needs, though they're not as dire. I feel hunger and thirst, but I don't sleep. I'm a lot stronger, and there's the magic energy of course. I don't know what I'd do without it at this point."

"What about your family?"

"The other Guardians?"

"Your original family."

He was quiet for a moment. "My parents worked quite a bit. It was just me and my sister, most of the time. She was only a year older than me, so we pitched in equally. We'd go to class, then come home, do the chores, and make supper for ourselves and our parents. We were close during our childhood, despite all our bickering. She moved out when she turned eighteen, and then I followed. We were never half as close with our parents as we were with each other."

"Did you ever go back and see them after you became a Guardian?"

"Only my sister, once. I was twenty when I killed her boyfriend, and she was very adamant that she never wanted to see me again. She was... eighty-four when I saw her next. I had to wear glasses dark enough to hide my eyes, which meant everything else was hard to see as well. I couldn't look at her, not directly. She didn't even recognize me. When I asked if she remembered her brother, she told me she never had one."

"I'm sorry."

"I suppose that's what I get for killing the man she loved, even if I still think he deserved it."

"You didn't have anyone else?"

He was quiet again for a moment. "There was a girl. Tamaria. Tam, I called her. She was... lovely, but I— I lost her, in the end."

"What happened?" she asked.

He didn't reply, and they continued through the hard sand in silence. The sun beat down from overhead as they began to cross a clearing. There was a muggy quality to the air; not quite humid, but enough to make the heat feel worse and limit visibility.

"It's so hot," she complained, peeling flakes of crusty saliva from her arm.

"It's a desert."

More silence. She was beginning to wonder if she'd upset him by asking about his past.

"She was human," he said finally, "and I'm over two hundred years old. I think it's a little obvious what happened."

"Oh." She looked down. "I— I'm sorry. How come you... didn't make her a Guardian?"

He stopped suddenly. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" she asked.

He glanced quickly around them with a worried frown. There was a barely noticeable tremor beneath their feet.

"Oh, Stars help us," he muttered.

"What?"

"He's coming back."