The Underworld of Planet SSARG [Part IV]
The Underworld of
Planet SSARG
[Series: IV]
By Dennis L. Siluk
Chapter One
The Shadowlands
Flying tick-vampires [Ftv’s],
The Shadowlands is a boarder land between the plateau of the physical planet, and once into this dark abode, that covers 20% of the planet, it has been said, are the living dead; that is to say, it is a land not fully understood, but it is where, if you dare to enter, where once into it, you never leave; where lost and ancient civilizations of the planet went do once, died out and now, linger on; where hideous winds and shadows reside, and carry the souls of those who live there about.
Of all the planets in the Universe, SSARG is a most mysterious one, yet Siren and Tangor had visited it before, Siren had lived on it a number of years previously, in her youth, was known as the Queen; even her daughter, had visited planet SSARG and Rognat, another close friend of both Siren and her daughter. So the planet was not knew to Siren. She had fought with all the creatures on the planet at one time or another. What was once thought as legend, had become real, and that is why Siren had to return, the vipers were summoning her, by whatever means it was, she was under stress to return, hearing the hissing of 50,000-vipers calling her name, her sixth sense was over working. And by way of death and resurrection, she did will herself to the planet, as she had done in other occasions.
But the legend went something like this: eons ago, when there were a number of species perhaps, trying to fill the planet, there were these insects called Flying tick-vampires [Ftv’s], mistaken often times for large bull-mosquitoes. They existed, and lived in harmony with whatever creatures were on the planet, it was said, rather than share the planet, they wanted to conquer it, and killed every living thing that was on it, until some power, more powerful than them, imprisoned them in the Shadowlands. There they could do no harm, yet they were physical, and the dead were ghostly. No one yet, has the full story of this poisonous legend, but it had come true now, for the living specious on the planet, and somehow, someway. As Siren thought about the legend, she figured a few were never brought to do penitence in the Shadowlands evidently, and hid out, and breed—perhaps underground, in the underworld, in a large nest: that would make sense, since no one had seen them in thousands of years. Making no big noise, or bothering anyone, until now, feeling it was their moment to retake the planet, and at this juncture, 25% of all living creatures, to include: Manticore’s, and Cliff Bears, and Space Fish, and the humanoids who live in the west in the cliffs likewise, they all, everyone of them, to include the rats and vipers had lost a quarter of their populations to these deadly tick-vampires.
Not one could fight them; all the lands of the planet were infested with this plague. It was no longer superstition, but reality, a renewed living legend, and extermination to be.
Chapter Two
No Horizon
Invulnerable to the insects, was Siren the Great, who had decades earlier become a living legend in her own time on SSARG. The head Viper, Blaze II, met Siren, as she appeared in the Grasslands, and was greeted by the many homo-vipers that remembered her: as she often referred to them because they had somekind of reasoning, dwarfed as it was.
The planet was helpless, watching the storm of insects sweep across sections and regions of the planet. Their inhabitants hiding in fear they would get bite, and die of its deadly poison.
Daylight was upon the planet, and the mysterious insects were overhead, a pool of them attacked Siren, and to their dismay, died instantly, with the thick blood of hers, thus, they quickly fled (astound at what happened) to regroup and figure out their next strategy, their next move: for a short time anyway. At that point, the skies were emptied out with the flying foe.
Said King Blaze of the Vipers (a question to Siren as they stood in the grasslands looking up): “The flood of insects will come after they figure out what to do, than what?” Blaze the Viper, moaned in a way Siren understood to mean ‘disaster.’ She knew, like him, once the insects put two and two together, the skies would turn hellish again, despite doom in his eyes, he smiled at Siren, hoping she had a plan ‘B’.
Perhaps fifty percent, of the living creatures were infected by the insects, a high percentage dead, many in the process of dying; even after the attack on Siren, she herself was drained to a point she was weakened, and should they attack her on a regular bases, she’d be bone dry, even though she might kill a few million with her blood, what was that, when there are billions.
Siren did notice one thing, they avoided water, as she looked down, she noticed pools of them n water, they evidently fell to the water trying to get to her, and died in the process, not all dying of her blood. This was a motivating find for her.
Chapter Three
Blue Mist
It rained the following two days and Siren witnessed the sky was empty of the insects, she concluded the down pour would give her time to create a plan for action, that might serve to defeat the insets, or at least cause them to stop their activities for a long, long period of time.
Her other plot was to figure out what or when was the source that incarcerated them in the first place, so long ago, and they could help.
After the 3rd day, the rain ebbed, and a mist appeared; yet no insects, things were in their favor, at least for the immediate. The Viper and Rat habitat was at peace for the moment; actually, all the kingdoms of he planet were hoping desperately Siren would solve this riddle, this issue, and this plague of sorts. Fro the second time in SSARG’s history, the planet was united in fighting against a more devious foe than them, instead against one another—Xinimi the Hermit, was the link to the Ancient Blue Mist, a deadly substance that kept the dead, alive in the Shadowlands, it is why the ghosts, and ghouls—the dead never left.
Ghoul From the Shadowlands
What took places was this: the Hermit’s father’s grandfather’s, grandfather, had his sons long ago, being some of the blue mist out of the Shadowlands, for just this reason, and the Hermit’s father, left three containers with Xinimi, for just such a purpose; it was a feat never achieved again. Once ingested by insects these insects, it would cause a ripple effect in their bodies and their insides would cascade as the bodies hardened to an iron type hardness, and death would prevail in a matter of seconds; for some reason it was not deadly to anyone else, nor was it deadly to the insects if they were in the environment, it was a substance, taken out of some substance in the air in the Shadowlands.
So the insects figured it was time to recapture the planet, they had hidden in the bowels of the planet, for this very occasion, and now they numbered as many as the sands, or pieces of grass in the grasslands, uncountable.
Siren, having a sixth sense, also had a stronger stamina, she climbed the tallest tree in the forest of he Rats, and there she opened up one of the huge canisters of mist, waited for the endless stream of insects to infest the land, and it happened to be, the mist found its wind, and it soaked into the wings and bodies of the insects, and they fell to the surface of the planet like little stones, with everyone’s delight.
After several hours, the planet stood still, for good reasons, the mist had left, and so did the insects, to some hidden place in the underworld of the planet, the place they had been breeding for centuries.
Chapter Four
(The insect’s nest)
The planet was no longer reduced to panic, and Siren made her way back to her Castle, on the Quiet Mound, her home on SSARG, the one she built so long ago. But her goal was not completely accomplished, she wanted to find the nest of the troubling insects; she had sensed it was in the bowels of the earth, and she knew the forest had many, many tunnels that went from one corner of the planet to the other, should one be able to follow them. She had heard of a legend of little people also, that lived in the underworld, in a large cave, perhaps fifty to a hundred miles, corner to corner, yet the tunnels provided a number of stairways to the surface. These little people—she did not know what they were called, but could travel in any direction within the tunnels and never get lost, and always find their way back home, something like the penguins of the South Pole on earth. Therefore, if this was the case, her instincts were perhaps correct, the insects probably found an abode in one of the long tunnels, and since they were attacking so close to the forest and grasslands, it possibly could be right under them, several miles, or a few hundred miles into the crust of the planet; all conjecture, but it was all she had. And where did they go. She killed masses of them with the mist, but not all.
Bringing this theory up to Blaze II, king of the Vipers, he had 10,000 of his snakes search the grass lands, and forest, and King Rat did the same, but with 30,000 rats, since he had more to spare. They searched high and low for an opening big enough for a billion if not ten billion, insects to disappear in a matter of minutes if not hours.
Siren had realized, should she not rid the planet of these pests, they’d simply return in the future, and she’d be called back to clean up the mess with only one canister left to fight the insects with, so on she went, looking and searching for the prized, entrance. She realized evil is unaware of wrongdoing.
—Blaze II, motioned he had found a big deep abyss in the middle of the forest; it penetrated beyond a mile deep. When Siren looked down its pitch dark depths, she knew they were down there somewhere, in consequence the snakes made themselves into a rope and one by one lowered Siren into the pit, foot by foot they lowered her one mile deep, winding down the hole, mud soaked hole, and lowered her deep in the bowels of the planet. It got hotter and hotter, and she was sweating all her life liquids out of her body rapidly. Yet she held tight onto the snakes until she was on solid ground. In the side of her mouth, in a crevice, she kept some liquids, it was often used for starvation purposes, and she released them, to gain her strength back. The snakes held tight onto one another, knowing Siren had to scout the area out first, and they’d have to allow her to climb back up onto and over them to get back to the surface, although at times the tunnel did not go straight down, but curved, helping a climber, and allowing less pull on the snakes; plus, if she wished to climb out herself, it was not impossible, just slower.
Chapter Five
In the Crust of the Planet
After twelve hours of searching, the journey seemed hopeless. She walked some sixty miles through the tunnels at which point, she was more than willing to give up, and go back (yet she knew the long term consequences for the planet should she: that being, the insects would return, and it would only take a matter of perhaps days, weeks or months, before the ecosystem on the planet collapsed. The insects had polluted the atmosphere, and the water system, also, and the planet had lost already 25% of its species almost overnight. At such current trends, it would not take long, should they return to do a replay, especially the vertebrates, and vegetation was subject to extinction. Again, the outlook at best, was grim, and grimmer should they return sooner than expected. Hunting and vegetation was the environmental man sources of protein).
On the surface, Blaze II, and King Rat were becoming more hopeful, although worried for Siren’s life; likewise, the rope the vipers made was being sustained by pure will.
The stress of it all affected Siren’s mind, she stopped halfway back through the tunnel, towards the entrance, held her head in a tight grip with her hands and put pressure on her sides, her temples, for they were throbbing. She had not spoken a word for hours. Her thoughts were filled with sad regrets. She pondered on the inside of her mind, mentally debating, ‘should I give it a few more hours, and can the vipers hold out that long.’
The heat was suffocating at times in the long dark halls of the caves, and then would cool for a few hours more, as if the planet had shifted; a few times she felt like she was losing consciousness, and would stand supported by the walls of the tunnel until her dizziness subsided; the ceiling was high above her, when all of a sudden she heard a buzzing noise, ten miles high up, the insects were waiting, wings flapping, chatter in their own indefinable language.
What she hoped for she couldn’t explain to her minds eye, but the very fact was, she found them, and it was a grand moment, and she had to rush back to the surface to set up a plan; hence, once she found the opening, she quickly climbed over the bodies of he vipers, their heads, and slimy torsos, of which they were all torso, and told the two foes the discovery. In explaining, she emphasized it was essential for the next few days to walk lightly on the ground, lest we make our selves too obvious, for we will be planning something; in consequence, being conspicuous was crucial.
Chapter Six
The Hypothesis
Siren explained her hypotheses to the creature kings, “We will hope for the best...” it was a very good and logical plan, thought the two foes, and for the next three days all the rats and vipers created a dame some miles away from the abyss [hole], down along the river, as the rains came, it helped even more so, as the water seeped over the banks, and soaked into the ground, and onward to the entrance of the underworld. Slowly the ground became like a sponge, it could not hold anymore water, and thus, it became a swamp for the most part, and then the dam broke, and flooded feverishly everything on the surface of the ground; all the creatures climbed to high areas, dry areas, as that section of the earth became a flood region It sunk to the depths of where the insects were, down the abyss, and up and through the tunnels. They were trapped, should they come out, the rains would kill them, should they stay put, the flood would kill them, “Great!” said Siren sitting high up in a tree, the water flooded down, down, down into the abyss, and parts of the SSARG started crumbling, and taking masses of insects with them—in the process, this was the end for the menacing insects, as the abyss hole flooded over itself.
The Underworld of SSARG
Chapter Seven
Distortion
Siren had fallen to sleep in the tree, and when she awoke, intending to see her viper friends, she was dumbfounded, she was in some strange habitat, a world different than where she was previously, so it looked, so she told herself (for it wasn’t the grasslands or the forest, or any place she had been to before). Perhaps she was dead, and resurrected on another world, so she pondered, but her senses said ‘no’, it was not that either—but what else? She had not left SSARG, to her understanding, with a sigh she just paced back and forth.
She now noticed a swarm of little people starting to surround her, no bigger than a foot, their eyes seemed cruel and malice, but she was, as they also were, curious, if anything; and of course, she was their main attraction. (She soon would find out, they were the Cuma people, a race long forgotten on SSARG).
She noticed they wore hides of rats, as she looked them over; women had robes, the children naked, completely. The men had loincloths, some hides. They somewhat used a 3rd language, one Siren heard was used on a far off planet called, “the: Pale Planet.” She adjusted accordingly, and witnessed these folks eating dead space fish, roots, walking and looking for any kind of foliage, or eatable thing. She could hear a stream of water nearby. Perhaps some terrestrial force left these poor souls, ugly, odd creatures here long ago, she was guessing, that was all she could do, than a voice from the thinking mind of one of the little people came up to her, and in his mind he said “We are the Cuma People,” the man was 900-years old she learned, he didn’t know Siren could read his thoughts, and he was trying to figure out how to communicate with her. As she looked about, she noticed a woman named Naid the Ugly. She was the pitiful ignorant one, there were sever of her hideous kind mixed with the Cuma people, they were pre-Cuma people, with wings, they could fly, and were used to fly around looking for those that would harm the Cuma people, and like a slave, notify the brother of Tolomeo the Leader (Ajooh the Creep). Often times, Siren found out more information this way, reading minds, than talking to the person in person.
She now stared into their eyes, they didn’t seem so cruel or malice now, but they wanted something from her. She continued to scan the area, the caves in the back ground, the caves near by, some wooden small huts, many tunnels, one main tunnel, where she was broth in, she assumed, it lead to the outer part of this underworld. Underworld, she heard them say several times, now she believed it, seeing the roots hanging all about, crooked streets, more of mud, and wooden walkways here and there.
The little people seemed as if they were cornering her, perhaps unintentionally, for they knew who she was, and should she seek to escape, she’d surely find a way. Again, Siren knew they wanted something, and no one seemed to be in a hurry to try and take her prisoner, but she did not now, or has the remotest idea, no one was talking.
Siren seemed again, as if she was talking to herself, and the tone of her voice was heard by a man called Tolomeo, a little old man, then he said, “Siren,” he hesitated, “we are happy you are here, and want to thank you for ridding the upper and lower world of those nasty flying tick-vampires [Ftv’s], and put his hand on her leg to show his warmth. He had seen her before, when she was checking out the tunnels for those mosquito type insects called: Ftv’s, the little people were inquisitive and followed her, and then blocked the entrance into their domain, in fear she would bring ruin to them, but it was the other way around.
Chapter Eight
Tolomeo
“You are precisely, 250-feet below the surface of SSARG. We have a numinous, a great bear brought eons ago to our underworld to haunt us, eat and kill us, it was brought over by some inhabitances from the ‘Pale Planet,’ (also known as: “The Grey Planet,” in the Dark Galaxy). He is our antagonist,” said Tolomeo.
“Yes,” said Siren “continue…”
“We have made a great discovery!” said Tolomeo.
“And what is that?” asked Siren.
“You, yes you. You are equal to the bear, you can kill it for us.”
“You are crazy little old man, what do you suppose I can use to do this with, I have no weapons?” replied Siren.
Chapter Nine
Little People of the Underworld
(Small than midgets, dark skinned, hairy folks, were the little people of the underworld, where Siren found herself. Families: wives, young ones, and males, hey all seemed to have ornaments on their ankles, writs, around their necks; most wore somekind of loose garments, yet half naked.)
There was a source of perpetual light and heat to this inner world, dull at times as it was, and bright at other times, the hollow world was not without light, warmth, and cooling stages—and Siren learned Tolomeo was its spokesman, an elder of the group, the mud and cave village that is, with its seven hundred or so inhabitants. They were no taller than a foot, she concluded.
Siren had also learned Tolomeo had no family to speak of, they were eaten by the bear, or ears. And he tried to explain to Siren, the best he could, on how the light worked in the underworld. He spoke a different language, but Siren was good at manipulating languages, breaking them down to an understandable form.
Said Tolomeo, in is own way: “There is a nebulous of gases behind the crystal roof of our underground world; it serves as a source of light and heat. The roof has been here for a million years we are told; it is perhaps all of one million square meters. As the planet shifts about in its orbit, it seems to misplace some of the gases into other rivers and tunnels within its domain, and then when it gets back to a smoother orbit, its eternal light comes back again. We were never without light, or heat, only in degrees.”
Siren was surprised at the grotesque looking little inhabitants, how they survived in such a living hell, perilous environment to say the least. Liken to the Shadowlands, she presupposed, although different, and of course, you normally had to die to get into that part of the planet.
Chapter Ten
Stumbling about
Siren stumbled about, looking for the big bear, evidently some twenty feet tall, with a spine that seemed to bend as it went after its prey, what kind of gravity held his bulky body up was beyond Siren’s understanding, it extended outwards, and its small legs griped the ground solidly, why it didn’t fall flat on its face was remarkable, she thought, she had to hold back her laughing when she first caught sight of this voraciously, odd looking beast, whom tried to corner her, but fled into the dark tunnels of the underworld’s caves, when she would not stand down. Perhaps the bear had to regroup and think things over a bit, she pondered.
Time seemed to be erased here, in the underworld of planet SSARG, and Siren could not tell if days or hours were passing by, if anything, after what seemed a long period of time—still puzzled on the matter of the bear and waiting for him—time had elapsed, and to her better judgment it was days, several days she figured, not hours. But she held her ground, let a fire outside the several entrances to the caves, and figured the big bear would have to come out sometime. When I say big bear, I mean big ear, it was 6000-pounds, and could rush its prey at fifty-miles per hour, thus on the 8th day, the beast left the cave.
Siren saw the beast as it slowly left the arch of the dark tunnel that led into the guts of the cave, she had been the cave several times, but in fear of getting lost, she opted to remain outside, realizing the ear would have to come out sooner or later.
Then on the 8th day, the east left the cave, it saw Siren, she had a bestial look on her face, she had made two knives form old fangs she found in the mud, one in each had she held as the beast neared her.
In a dash for her, the 6000-pound bear, twenty-feet high moved at speed an incredible speed, across the 1200-meter clearing to where she stood, in the snarling dash the pray (Siren) made no offensive move, but kept her stance. She knew the animal had intelligence of some sort, she had seen its claws had dug into the sandstone walls of the cave, as if it was leaving a sign how to get out of the tunnels, should it get lost. She had picked up microfossils as well, the cave was ancient, and perhaps some 800,000-years of usage from its kind.
She stood firm in her stance, and as the bear got within several feet in front of her, it stopped abruptly, and stared at its prey. In Siren’s magical linguistic manner, she asked the bear its name:
Nodoneayh,” came out of the bear’s mouth in broken up sounds.
Next, She looked at its hind legs, short, and muscular they were, its huge jaws had opened up wide, it was showing her its fangs, in the clap of an eye, Siren twisted her body forty-five degrees, after that, she jumped in the air, and as she came down (inches away from the bears head), she held her self balanced on the bears shoulder, and dropped into its wide open roaring mouth, the two fangs she had sharpened into knives, crisscrossed they dropped into the throat of the bear, and instantly, she pushed herself from the bear back onto the surface, as the bear choked, and dropped to its knees.
Chapter Eleven
Dying Bear [Nodoneayh]
Siren the Great was surprised at her control of the whole matter, as she witnessed the bear dying, madly gasping for breath. It rolled about in terrific speed, and agility, its muscles budging out, he was now on its back, the howls had stopped, and Siren knew this was the last moments for the bear, its life would be extinguished soon. At the same time, the villagers the little people all surrounded the back area of Siren; still too fearful the bear might dislodge the fangs, and then what? Siren heard the little people shouting, “Die, die, die…!” on and on, they looked like little demon now to her—with fierce little faces. For the first time in this jaunt, or stream of events she had second thoughts about the bear and the balance of power in this section of the underworld. She also knew the bear had cubs, several of them she had spotted them off and on as she investigated the interior of the tunnels, perhaps there were other bears inside the tunnels. She then did something that was not only surprising for the little people, but shocking: to her they were both strange creatures in a world she knew little about. She grabbed a knife out of the hands of Tolomeo, and cut open the midsection to the bear’s throat, and dislodged the fangs she had thrown into its mouth. The little people were horrified at what they saw, yet too fearful to attack the bear, and too much in shock to question Siren’s motives.
Said Siren in a language the bear understood, “Should I here of you returning to kill or eat the little folks, I will come back and chain you to the cave, and let them slowly eat you alive!”
After saying that, with no further ado, Siren left the village, and its excitement. She figured she’d find her way out somehow, her senses were working well, and if the little people saw her, then it should not be too difficult to retrace her old tracks back to the main hole, and climb the muddy walls to the forest of the Rats, and back to the Grasslands where the Vipers lived (and she did just that).
Chapter Twelve
Bestial Rage
Out of the labyrinthine grottos came Siren, now within the front of the large tunnel, where previously the snakes had once roped themselves to one another to help her down the abyss hole, she had climbed up its towering sides, inch by inch, and now was standing on its rim looking at her old friend Tangor, whom out of instinct, or telepathy, came to her rescue, although not needed at this point.
“Bestial rage is going on in this forest, and near your mound, and castle,” he explained to Siren, adding, “what happened here to get them so enraged?”
“I am really a woman warrior of another world, every time I come here, I do believe, the beasts take leave and with heated hearts and eyes find reasons to war with one another, kill and are killed, this is a land of perpetual combat. Perhaps out of boredom.”
Tangor smiled, almost laughed, hearing this from such a warrior as Siren, who almost lived for the battle.
“Coming out your mouth that sounds serious.” He said cunningly, as not to offend her, so she’d not be so hard on the beasts, and try to create another peace. He knew she loved the planet, and all its inhabitants, she was called Queen of all the Lands, not to include the Shadowlands or the Underworld of course, but all the other lands—and so there was regard for her.
“This is really disloyalty, we made a pack, the rats and vipers would seek peace, not forever of course, but for an extended period of time, must I have to remain here unto my dying days to keep them from eating one another?”
“It is a strange cruel world,” commented Tangor, who had come to see Siren, but now things had changed, and in his mind was not really needed, yet, hoping she’d go with him in his spacecraft, on another voyage after settling this dispute (they once were lovers from years before).
Siren only shrugged her shoulders, as she looked about, as if not hearing Tangor: looked here and there, bodies of rats and vipers all over, dead from previous battles in the past several days.
It was a long hike back, and as they hiked, they talked some, and then Siren shifted her mindset, so it seemed to Tangor, and she started talking as if to herself, but it wasn’t it was to her mother. This was not the first time she had done that, have silent or aloud conversations with her dead mother whom was in the back of her mind, some residue that she implanted years before. After a light conversation, her lips kept moving, but no sound now came out, it did in the beginning, but she noticed Tangor listening, “They will both treat you with marked respect, so force the two kings to a peace, so you can leave in peace, otherwise you will be haunted by the fact you did not bring one about. And such thoughts in a warrior are not good, rather haunting at times, distracting” Thought Siren: how true those words were.
Chapter Thirteen
Ranhar the Dupe
As they marched to the mound, she caught sight of two large twenty-foot vipers guarding her property, the gateway was blocked; involuntarily they both hissed at her, not being perhaps familiar with her, or trying to impress one another, and still possibly trying to impress the several rats that were on the edge of the forest looking at them. Whatever the case, Siren was not impressed with these two young reptiles and the hissing, with laughter they were doing, it was more of a power play, or to show who was all-powerful, so she concluded. Their large white fangs sharp as any knives Siren knew were gleaming at here.
(In the forest these several rates mingled and chatted among themselves, they knew well, this was Queen Siren, and made no attempt to do a thing, perhaps waiting for Siren to kill them both, and save them the trouble. In any case, they feared Siren, and were most intrigued the young vipers were acting so brave: perhaps they didn’t know who she was, they could have come back after the war, the seven-day war, and again, perhaps they were gone for a spell, and didn’t know. Usually her castle was guarded so this was not unusual, but she was obvious, who else could it be but Queen Siren, as she told them she was, but they paid no head, and pretended to not know who she was, or acknowledge the name.)
Again, Siren spoke to her mother, looked at Tangor, who had a weapon in his belt, a revolver or sorts. But she motioned to Tangor to stand down, unless both were attacking her; and should she die here, she’d have a second chance to live, on another planet, but should Tangor become the prey, or the second victim, he’d not be able to regenerate his body parts onto another planet. (She had perhaps at this time, used up half her resurrections, of which Moirommalit’s have about 100.)) The problem being: they never know where they will end up.))
She stood gazing at the vipers, in a defensive posture, she wanted them to attack, thus, she’d have the advantage, the counterstrike, but it would have to take place in the clap of an eye. Said Tangor “I can shoot them, but it seems, a might too easy for you?”
Siren had a sixth sense, her mother had given it to her I do believe. With her mother it was more like telepathy when they both spoke, with these silent vipers projecting to one another their thoughts, she could understand them though, it went something like this: I will jump her (the large one conveyed to the other, the large one was called Ranhar), and when I do, you be by my side, and make sure the other one does not get involved.
While she was reading these thought conversations, she took the two sharp fangs she had used against the great bear out of the side of her string like belt, and positioned them in her hands, then the ground shook, with the thrust of the leaping viper called Ranhar, and as it leaped, it knocked Siren smashing onto her back, but at the some time, the fangs went into the vipers eyes, blinding him completely, next, the second viper started to leap, and Tangor shot him dead. Siren constantly kicked the snake hard in its head determined to escape its winding around her body, and fate would not be on the Vipers side; the four hundred pound snake was now blindly trying to feel, touch Siren, but could not find her. It was a humiliating defeat for the viper, and the rats chuckled like squirrels, but were stunned to see Tangor did not have to fight, he just pulled out something, and pointed it, and something came out of something, and killed a viper. This was most unusual, yet this person, respected Siren, thus, it was to their advantage to do the same, and they quickly went to the King Rat, to explain what they had witnessed.
Chapter Fourteen
The Sleeping Worms
The planet had seen a total upheaval in the past month, with insects, and flood within the forest, and aggressive ness between the rats and vipers; Siren had her work cut out for her, and then after fight with the guarding Vipers, to her gates, it easy exhausting, and she was hoping her and Tangor could rest in her castle on the mound, the one she had built so many pears ago, if that was possible. They did spend one cozy night in the castle, and on the second night things happened again. Tangor was quite watchful both nights, and her heard an uproar outside the castle gates, he was alarmed, echoes that were saying “The Sleeping Worms!” Whatever that meant.
(Seven feet or so, below the upper roots, the thick roots of the giant trees of the forest, and those leading around Siren’s castle, and down into the Grasslands of the Vipers, there were what was known on the planet as sleeping worms, and they were no longer sleeping for the most part. They were known to sleep for a hundred years or so, and thus in the process many died, they never woke up; they only woke up during atrophy. And there were billions upon billions of them. They sucked their nutrients from the roots of the tree; should the tree die, they’d die. Hence, the rats and the worms and the Vipers were gathering outside of Siren’s gates; masses of all three species were awoke, and eating everything eatable in site.)
Tangor, hastening back to Siren to inform her, of the crowd, and the pile of meaningless worms that were gathering outside the gets, when he approached Siren, he looked horrified, not quite understanding the circumstances.
“I think we have to come up with a plan to exterminate these worms, worms I say, that is the problem we are having outside the gates, millions of worms,” he said to Siren “before they eat everything, and every body.
Said Siren, calmly “Here the worms are not that deadly, and are quite evolved, yet they scare the rats and vipers, simply because they eat so much, then they go back to where they come from. They grow several sizes larger than what they are by the time they return of course, but should you stop them, then we do have a problem, its called suffocating when you are sleeping, they will cover you up like a blanket, and suck you dry for nourishment.
Chapter Fifteen
Fate
Said Siren to the crowd gathered outside her gates, “Life within the crust of your planet is older than that of which is on its surface, and some have to take that into consideration if we all want to survive.” Her sixth sense was pickup up that they were listening to what she was saying and understanding, the reptiles and rodents, even the worms. “We should understand that neither of the species on this planet have an advantage over the other, if one wars with the other, both get wiped out, in this case perhaps three species will be wiped out: you can’t stop a species from eating if it is hungry, it would be a frightful battle trying, for it is survival they are seeking. We all see one another with different eyes, but most understand that—we need to eat or extermination is possible, as in a war with one another, so I say to the rats and vipers, let the worms eat all the foliage they can, there will be enough for all the rest of us thereafter.”
—Siren was hoping the animals could reason this out, if not mentally, at least instinctively, that there was no dominate species per se on the planet that was not subject to extinction, and that the planet was molded to balance out the way it was, that is, separately, but in times like this, cooperatively, or all vanish together, totally. She did get this across.
It was hard for the vipers to stand down, they were in essence, the brutes of the planet in this section, but they seen Siren’s lips in motion, and understood her seriousness.
Having said that, both Siren and Tangor went back to their room, Tangor could not sleep, and therefore, started to outline the history of the planet SSARG, according to Siren (for the most part).
The creatures of the land, took what Siren said to heart, and accepted her plan as the only feasible one available, plus, they of course considered their horrible fate, had they not.
Planet SSARG
[Series: IV]
By Dennis L. Siluk
Chapter One
The Shadowlands
Flying tick-vampires [Ftv’s],
The Shadowlands is a boarder land between the plateau of the physical planet, and once into this dark abode, that covers 20% of the planet, it has been said, are the living dead; that is to say, it is a land not fully understood, but it is where, if you dare to enter, where once into it, you never leave; where lost and ancient civilizations of the planet went do once, died out and now, linger on; where hideous winds and shadows reside, and carry the souls of those who live there about.
Of all the planets in the Universe, SSARG is a most mysterious one, yet Siren and Tangor had visited it before, Siren had lived on it a number of years previously, in her youth, was known as the Queen; even her daughter, had visited planet SSARG and Rognat, another close friend of both Siren and her daughter. So the planet was not knew to Siren. She had fought with all the creatures on the planet at one time or another. What was once thought as legend, had become real, and that is why Siren had to return, the vipers were summoning her, by whatever means it was, she was under stress to return, hearing the hissing of 50,000-vipers calling her name, her sixth sense was over working. And by way of death and resurrection, she did will herself to the planet, as she had done in other occasions.
But the legend went something like this: eons ago, when there were a number of species perhaps, trying to fill the planet, there were these insects called Flying tick-vampires [Ftv’s], mistaken often times for large bull-mosquitoes. They existed, and lived in harmony with whatever creatures were on the planet, it was said, rather than share the planet, they wanted to conquer it, and killed every living thing that was on it, until some power, more powerful than them, imprisoned them in the Shadowlands. There they could do no harm, yet they were physical, and the dead were ghostly. No one yet, has the full story of this poisonous legend, but it had come true now, for the living specious on the planet, and somehow, someway. As Siren thought about the legend, she figured a few were never brought to do penitence in the Shadowlands evidently, and hid out, and breed—perhaps underground, in the underworld, in a large nest: that would make sense, since no one had seen them in thousands of years. Making no big noise, or bothering anyone, until now, feeling it was their moment to retake the planet, and at this juncture, 25% of all living creatures, to include: Manticore’s, and Cliff Bears, and Space Fish, and the humanoids who live in the west in the cliffs likewise, they all, everyone of them, to include the rats and vipers had lost a quarter of their populations to these deadly tick-vampires.
Not one could fight them; all the lands of the planet were infested with this plague. It was no longer superstition, but reality, a renewed living legend, and extermination to be.
Chapter Two
No Horizon
Invulnerable to the insects, was Siren the Great, who had decades earlier become a living legend in her own time on SSARG. The head Viper, Blaze II, met Siren, as she appeared in the Grasslands, and was greeted by the many homo-vipers that remembered her: as she often referred to them because they had somekind of reasoning, dwarfed as it was.
The planet was helpless, watching the storm of insects sweep across sections and regions of the planet. Their inhabitants hiding in fear they would get bite, and die of its deadly poison.
Daylight was upon the planet, and the mysterious insects were overhead, a pool of them attacked Siren, and to their dismay, died instantly, with the thick blood of hers, thus, they quickly fled (astound at what happened) to regroup and figure out their next strategy, their next move: for a short time anyway. At that point, the skies were emptied out with the flying foe.
Said King Blaze of the Vipers (a question to Siren as they stood in the grasslands looking up): “The flood of insects will come after they figure out what to do, than what?” Blaze the Viper, moaned in a way Siren understood to mean ‘disaster.’ She knew, like him, once the insects put two and two together, the skies would turn hellish again, despite doom in his eyes, he smiled at Siren, hoping she had a plan ‘B’.
Perhaps fifty percent, of the living creatures were infected by the insects, a high percentage dead, many in the process of dying; even after the attack on Siren, she herself was drained to a point she was weakened, and should they attack her on a regular bases, she’d be bone dry, even though she might kill a few million with her blood, what was that, when there are billions.
Siren did notice one thing, they avoided water, as she looked down, she noticed pools of them n water, they evidently fell to the water trying to get to her, and died in the process, not all dying of her blood. This was a motivating find for her.
Chapter Three
Blue Mist
It rained the following two days and Siren witnessed the sky was empty of the insects, she concluded the down pour would give her time to create a plan for action, that might serve to defeat the insets, or at least cause them to stop their activities for a long, long period of time.
Her other plot was to figure out what or when was the source that incarcerated them in the first place, so long ago, and they could help.
After the 3rd day, the rain ebbed, and a mist appeared; yet no insects, things were in their favor, at least for the immediate. The Viper and Rat habitat was at peace for the moment; actually, all the kingdoms of he planet were hoping desperately Siren would solve this riddle, this issue, and this plague of sorts. Fro the second time in SSARG’s history, the planet was united in fighting against a more devious foe than them, instead against one another—Xinimi the Hermit, was the link to the Ancient Blue Mist, a deadly substance that kept the dead, alive in the Shadowlands, it is why the ghosts, and ghouls—the dead never left.
Ghoul From the Shadowlands
What took places was this: the Hermit’s father’s grandfather’s, grandfather, had his sons long ago, being some of the blue mist out of the Shadowlands, for just this reason, and the Hermit’s father, left three containers with Xinimi, for just such a purpose; it was a feat never achieved again. Once ingested by insects these insects, it would cause a ripple effect in their bodies and their insides would cascade as the bodies hardened to an iron type hardness, and death would prevail in a matter of seconds; for some reason it was not deadly to anyone else, nor was it deadly to the insects if they were in the environment, it was a substance, taken out of some substance in the air in the Shadowlands.
So the insects figured it was time to recapture the planet, they had hidden in the bowels of the planet, for this very occasion, and now they numbered as many as the sands, or pieces of grass in the grasslands, uncountable.
Siren, having a sixth sense, also had a stronger stamina, she climbed the tallest tree in the forest of he Rats, and there she opened up one of the huge canisters of mist, waited for the endless stream of insects to infest the land, and it happened to be, the mist found its wind, and it soaked into the wings and bodies of the insects, and they fell to the surface of the planet like little stones, with everyone’s delight.
After several hours, the planet stood still, for good reasons, the mist had left, and so did the insects, to some hidden place in the underworld of the planet, the place they had been breeding for centuries.
Chapter Four
(The insect’s nest)
The planet was no longer reduced to panic, and Siren made her way back to her Castle, on the Quiet Mound, her home on SSARG, the one she built so long ago. But her goal was not completely accomplished, she wanted to find the nest of the troubling insects; she had sensed it was in the bowels of the earth, and she knew the forest had many, many tunnels that went from one corner of the planet to the other, should one be able to follow them. She had heard of a legend of little people also, that lived in the underworld, in a large cave, perhaps fifty to a hundred miles, corner to corner, yet the tunnels provided a number of stairways to the surface. These little people—she did not know what they were called, but could travel in any direction within the tunnels and never get lost, and always find their way back home, something like the penguins of the South Pole on earth. Therefore, if this was the case, her instincts were perhaps correct, the insects probably found an abode in one of the long tunnels, and since they were attacking so close to the forest and grasslands, it possibly could be right under them, several miles, or a few hundred miles into the crust of the planet; all conjecture, but it was all she had. And where did they go. She killed masses of them with the mist, but not all.
Bringing this theory up to Blaze II, king of the Vipers, he had 10,000 of his snakes search the grass lands, and forest, and King Rat did the same, but with 30,000 rats, since he had more to spare. They searched high and low for an opening big enough for a billion if not ten billion, insects to disappear in a matter of minutes if not hours.
Siren had realized, should she not rid the planet of these pests, they’d simply return in the future, and she’d be called back to clean up the mess with only one canister left to fight the insects with, so on she went, looking and searching for the prized, entrance. She realized evil is unaware of wrongdoing.
—Blaze II, motioned he had found a big deep abyss in the middle of the forest; it penetrated beyond a mile deep. When Siren looked down its pitch dark depths, she knew they were down there somewhere, in consequence the snakes made themselves into a rope and one by one lowered Siren into the pit, foot by foot they lowered her one mile deep, winding down the hole, mud soaked hole, and lowered her deep in the bowels of the planet. It got hotter and hotter, and she was sweating all her life liquids out of her body rapidly. Yet she held tight onto the snakes until she was on solid ground. In the side of her mouth, in a crevice, she kept some liquids, it was often used for starvation purposes, and she released them, to gain her strength back. The snakes held tight onto one another, knowing Siren had to scout the area out first, and they’d have to allow her to climb back up onto and over them to get back to the surface, although at times the tunnel did not go straight down, but curved, helping a climber, and allowing less pull on the snakes; plus, if she wished to climb out herself, it was not impossible, just slower.
Chapter Five
In the Crust of the Planet
After twelve hours of searching, the journey seemed hopeless. She walked some sixty miles through the tunnels at which point, she was more than willing to give up, and go back (yet she knew the long term consequences for the planet should she: that being, the insects would return, and it would only take a matter of perhaps days, weeks or months, before the ecosystem on the planet collapsed. The insects had polluted the atmosphere, and the water system, also, and the planet had lost already 25% of its species almost overnight. At such current trends, it would not take long, should they return to do a replay, especially the vertebrates, and vegetation was subject to extinction. Again, the outlook at best, was grim, and grimmer should they return sooner than expected. Hunting and vegetation was the environmental man sources of protein).
On the surface, Blaze II, and King Rat were becoming more hopeful, although worried for Siren’s life; likewise, the rope the vipers made was being sustained by pure will.
The stress of it all affected Siren’s mind, she stopped halfway back through the tunnel, towards the entrance, held her head in a tight grip with her hands and put pressure on her sides, her temples, for they were throbbing. She had not spoken a word for hours. Her thoughts were filled with sad regrets. She pondered on the inside of her mind, mentally debating, ‘should I give it a few more hours, and can the vipers hold out that long.’
The heat was suffocating at times in the long dark halls of the caves, and then would cool for a few hours more, as if the planet had shifted; a few times she felt like she was losing consciousness, and would stand supported by the walls of the tunnel until her dizziness subsided; the ceiling was high above her, when all of a sudden she heard a buzzing noise, ten miles high up, the insects were waiting, wings flapping, chatter in their own indefinable language.
What she hoped for she couldn’t explain to her minds eye, but the very fact was, she found them, and it was a grand moment, and she had to rush back to the surface to set up a plan; hence, once she found the opening, she quickly climbed over the bodies of he vipers, their heads, and slimy torsos, of which they were all torso, and told the two foes the discovery. In explaining, she emphasized it was essential for the next few days to walk lightly on the ground, lest we make our selves too obvious, for we will be planning something; in consequence, being conspicuous was crucial.
Chapter Six
The Hypothesis
Siren explained her hypotheses to the creature kings, “We will hope for the best...” it was a very good and logical plan, thought the two foes, and for the next three days all the rats and vipers created a dame some miles away from the abyss [hole], down along the river, as the rains came, it helped even more so, as the water seeped over the banks, and soaked into the ground, and onward to the entrance of the underworld. Slowly the ground became like a sponge, it could not hold anymore water, and thus, it became a swamp for the most part, and then the dam broke, and flooded feverishly everything on the surface of the ground; all the creatures climbed to high areas, dry areas, as that section of the earth became a flood region It sunk to the depths of where the insects were, down the abyss, and up and through the tunnels. They were trapped, should they come out, the rains would kill them, should they stay put, the flood would kill them, “Great!” said Siren sitting high up in a tree, the water flooded down, down, down into the abyss, and parts of the SSARG started crumbling, and taking masses of insects with them—in the process, this was the end for the menacing insects, as the abyss hole flooded over itself.
The Underworld of SSARG
Chapter Seven
Distortion
Siren had fallen to sleep in the tree, and when she awoke, intending to see her viper friends, she was dumbfounded, she was in some strange habitat, a world different than where she was previously, so it looked, so she told herself (for it wasn’t the grasslands or the forest, or any place she had been to before). Perhaps she was dead, and resurrected on another world, so she pondered, but her senses said ‘no’, it was not that either—but what else? She had not left SSARG, to her understanding, with a sigh she just paced back and forth.
She now noticed a swarm of little people starting to surround her, no bigger than a foot, their eyes seemed cruel and malice, but she was, as they also were, curious, if anything; and of course, she was their main attraction. (She soon would find out, they were the Cuma people, a race long forgotten on SSARG).
She noticed they wore hides of rats, as she looked them over; women had robes, the children naked, completely. The men had loincloths, some hides. They somewhat used a 3rd language, one Siren heard was used on a far off planet called, “the: Pale Planet.” She adjusted accordingly, and witnessed these folks eating dead space fish, roots, walking and looking for any kind of foliage, or eatable thing. She could hear a stream of water nearby. Perhaps some terrestrial force left these poor souls, ugly, odd creatures here long ago, she was guessing, that was all she could do, than a voice from the thinking mind of one of the little people came up to her, and in his mind he said “We are the Cuma People,” the man was 900-years old she learned, he didn’t know Siren could read his thoughts, and he was trying to figure out how to communicate with her. As she looked about, she noticed a woman named Naid the Ugly. She was the pitiful ignorant one, there were sever of her hideous kind mixed with the Cuma people, they were pre-Cuma people, with wings, they could fly, and were used to fly around looking for those that would harm the Cuma people, and like a slave, notify the brother of Tolomeo the Leader (Ajooh the Creep). Often times, Siren found out more information this way, reading minds, than talking to the person in person.
She now stared into their eyes, they didn’t seem so cruel or malice now, but they wanted something from her. She continued to scan the area, the caves in the back ground, the caves near by, some wooden small huts, many tunnels, one main tunnel, where she was broth in, she assumed, it lead to the outer part of this underworld. Underworld, she heard them say several times, now she believed it, seeing the roots hanging all about, crooked streets, more of mud, and wooden walkways here and there.
The little people seemed as if they were cornering her, perhaps unintentionally, for they knew who she was, and should she seek to escape, she’d surely find a way. Again, Siren knew they wanted something, and no one seemed to be in a hurry to try and take her prisoner, but she did not now, or has the remotest idea, no one was talking.
Siren seemed again, as if she was talking to herself, and the tone of her voice was heard by a man called Tolomeo, a little old man, then he said, “Siren,” he hesitated, “we are happy you are here, and want to thank you for ridding the upper and lower world of those nasty flying tick-vampires [Ftv’s], and put his hand on her leg to show his warmth. He had seen her before, when she was checking out the tunnels for those mosquito type insects called: Ftv’s, the little people were inquisitive and followed her, and then blocked the entrance into their domain, in fear she would bring ruin to them, but it was the other way around.
Chapter Eight
Tolomeo
“You are precisely, 250-feet below the surface of SSARG. We have a numinous, a great bear brought eons ago to our underworld to haunt us, eat and kill us, it was brought over by some inhabitances from the ‘Pale Planet,’ (also known as: “The Grey Planet,” in the Dark Galaxy). He is our antagonist,” said Tolomeo.
“Yes,” said Siren “continue…”
“We have made a great discovery!” said Tolomeo.
“And what is that?” asked Siren.
“You, yes you. You are equal to the bear, you can kill it for us.”
“You are crazy little old man, what do you suppose I can use to do this with, I have no weapons?” replied Siren.
Chapter Nine
Little People of the Underworld
(Small than midgets, dark skinned, hairy folks, were the little people of the underworld, where Siren found herself. Families: wives, young ones, and males, hey all seemed to have ornaments on their ankles, writs, around their necks; most wore somekind of loose garments, yet half naked.)
There was a source of perpetual light and heat to this inner world, dull at times as it was, and bright at other times, the hollow world was not without light, warmth, and cooling stages—and Siren learned Tolomeo was its spokesman, an elder of the group, the mud and cave village that is, with its seven hundred or so inhabitants. They were no taller than a foot, she concluded.
Siren had also learned Tolomeo had no family to speak of, they were eaten by the bear, or ears. And he tried to explain to Siren, the best he could, on how the light worked in the underworld. He spoke a different language, but Siren was good at manipulating languages, breaking them down to an understandable form.
Said Tolomeo, in is own way: “There is a nebulous of gases behind the crystal roof of our underground world; it serves as a source of light and heat. The roof has been here for a million years we are told; it is perhaps all of one million square meters. As the planet shifts about in its orbit, it seems to misplace some of the gases into other rivers and tunnels within its domain, and then when it gets back to a smoother orbit, its eternal light comes back again. We were never without light, or heat, only in degrees.”
Siren was surprised at the grotesque looking little inhabitants, how they survived in such a living hell, perilous environment to say the least. Liken to the Shadowlands, she presupposed, although different, and of course, you normally had to die to get into that part of the planet.
Chapter Ten
Stumbling about
Siren stumbled about, looking for the big bear, evidently some twenty feet tall, with a spine that seemed to bend as it went after its prey, what kind of gravity held his bulky body up was beyond Siren’s understanding, it extended outwards, and its small legs griped the ground solidly, why it didn’t fall flat on its face was remarkable, she thought, she had to hold back her laughing when she first caught sight of this voraciously, odd looking beast, whom tried to corner her, but fled into the dark tunnels of the underworld’s caves, when she would not stand down. Perhaps the bear had to regroup and think things over a bit, she pondered.
Time seemed to be erased here, in the underworld of planet SSARG, and Siren could not tell if days or hours were passing by, if anything, after what seemed a long period of time—still puzzled on the matter of the bear and waiting for him—time had elapsed, and to her better judgment it was days, several days she figured, not hours. But she held her ground, let a fire outside the several entrances to the caves, and figured the big bear would have to come out sometime. When I say big bear, I mean big ear, it was 6000-pounds, and could rush its prey at fifty-miles per hour, thus on the 8th day, the beast left the cave.
Siren saw the beast as it slowly left the arch of the dark tunnel that led into the guts of the cave, she had been the cave several times, but in fear of getting lost, she opted to remain outside, realizing the ear would have to come out sooner or later.
Then on the 8th day, the east left the cave, it saw Siren, she had a bestial look on her face, she had made two knives form old fangs she found in the mud, one in each had she held as the beast neared her.
In a dash for her, the 6000-pound bear, twenty-feet high moved at speed an incredible speed, across the 1200-meter clearing to where she stood, in the snarling dash the pray (Siren) made no offensive move, but kept her stance. She knew the animal had intelligence of some sort, she had seen its claws had dug into the sandstone walls of the cave, as if it was leaving a sign how to get out of the tunnels, should it get lost. She had picked up microfossils as well, the cave was ancient, and perhaps some 800,000-years of usage from its kind.
She stood firm in her stance, and as the bear got within several feet in front of her, it stopped abruptly, and stared at its prey. In Siren’s magical linguistic manner, she asked the bear its name:
Nodoneayh,” came out of the bear’s mouth in broken up sounds.
Next, She looked at its hind legs, short, and muscular they were, its huge jaws had opened up wide, it was showing her its fangs, in the clap of an eye, Siren twisted her body forty-five degrees, after that, she jumped in the air, and as she came down (inches away from the bears head), she held her self balanced on the bears shoulder, and dropped into its wide open roaring mouth, the two fangs she had sharpened into knives, crisscrossed they dropped into the throat of the bear, and instantly, she pushed herself from the bear back onto the surface, as the bear choked, and dropped to its knees.
Chapter Eleven
Dying Bear [Nodoneayh]
Siren the Great was surprised at her control of the whole matter, as she witnessed the bear dying, madly gasping for breath. It rolled about in terrific speed, and agility, its muscles budging out, he was now on its back, the howls had stopped, and Siren knew this was the last moments for the bear, its life would be extinguished soon. At the same time, the villagers the little people all surrounded the back area of Siren; still too fearful the bear might dislodge the fangs, and then what? Siren heard the little people shouting, “Die, die, die…!” on and on, they looked like little demon now to her—with fierce little faces. For the first time in this jaunt, or stream of events she had second thoughts about the bear and the balance of power in this section of the underworld. She also knew the bear had cubs, several of them she had spotted them off and on as she investigated the interior of the tunnels, perhaps there were other bears inside the tunnels. She then did something that was not only surprising for the little people, but shocking: to her they were both strange creatures in a world she knew little about. She grabbed a knife out of the hands of Tolomeo, and cut open the midsection to the bear’s throat, and dislodged the fangs she had thrown into its mouth. The little people were horrified at what they saw, yet too fearful to attack the bear, and too much in shock to question Siren’s motives.
Said Siren in a language the bear understood, “Should I here of you returning to kill or eat the little folks, I will come back and chain you to the cave, and let them slowly eat you alive!”
After saying that, with no further ado, Siren left the village, and its excitement. She figured she’d find her way out somehow, her senses were working well, and if the little people saw her, then it should not be too difficult to retrace her old tracks back to the main hole, and climb the muddy walls to the forest of the Rats, and back to the Grasslands where the Vipers lived (and she did just that).
Chapter Twelve
Bestial Rage
Out of the labyrinthine grottos came Siren, now within the front of the large tunnel, where previously the snakes had once roped themselves to one another to help her down the abyss hole, she had climbed up its towering sides, inch by inch, and now was standing on its rim looking at her old friend Tangor, whom out of instinct, or telepathy, came to her rescue, although not needed at this point.
“Bestial rage is going on in this forest, and near your mound, and castle,” he explained to Siren, adding, “what happened here to get them so enraged?”
“I am really a woman warrior of another world, every time I come here, I do believe, the beasts take leave and with heated hearts and eyes find reasons to war with one another, kill and are killed, this is a land of perpetual combat. Perhaps out of boredom.”
Tangor smiled, almost laughed, hearing this from such a warrior as Siren, who almost lived for the battle.
“Coming out your mouth that sounds serious.” He said cunningly, as not to offend her, so she’d not be so hard on the beasts, and try to create another peace. He knew she loved the planet, and all its inhabitants, she was called Queen of all the Lands, not to include the Shadowlands or the Underworld of course, but all the other lands—and so there was regard for her.
“This is really disloyalty, we made a pack, the rats and vipers would seek peace, not forever of course, but for an extended period of time, must I have to remain here unto my dying days to keep them from eating one another?”
“It is a strange cruel world,” commented Tangor, who had come to see Siren, but now things had changed, and in his mind was not really needed, yet, hoping she’d go with him in his spacecraft, on another voyage after settling this dispute (they once were lovers from years before).
Siren only shrugged her shoulders, as she looked about, as if not hearing Tangor: looked here and there, bodies of rats and vipers all over, dead from previous battles in the past several days.
It was a long hike back, and as they hiked, they talked some, and then Siren shifted her mindset, so it seemed to Tangor, and she started talking as if to herself, but it wasn’t it was to her mother. This was not the first time she had done that, have silent or aloud conversations with her dead mother whom was in the back of her mind, some residue that she implanted years before. After a light conversation, her lips kept moving, but no sound now came out, it did in the beginning, but she noticed Tangor listening, “They will both treat you with marked respect, so force the two kings to a peace, so you can leave in peace, otherwise you will be haunted by the fact you did not bring one about. And such thoughts in a warrior are not good, rather haunting at times, distracting” Thought Siren: how true those words were.
Chapter Thirteen
Ranhar the Dupe
As they marched to the mound, she caught sight of two large twenty-foot vipers guarding her property, the gateway was blocked; involuntarily they both hissed at her, not being perhaps familiar with her, or trying to impress one another, and still possibly trying to impress the several rats that were on the edge of the forest looking at them. Whatever the case, Siren was not impressed with these two young reptiles and the hissing, with laughter they were doing, it was more of a power play, or to show who was all-powerful, so she concluded. Their large white fangs sharp as any knives Siren knew were gleaming at here.
(In the forest these several rates mingled and chatted among themselves, they knew well, this was Queen Siren, and made no attempt to do a thing, perhaps waiting for Siren to kill them both, and save them the trouble. In any case, they feared Siren, and were most intrigued the young vipers were acting so brave: perhaps they didn’t know who she was, they could have come back after the war, the seven-day war, and again, perhaps they were gone for a spell, and didn’t know. Usually her castle was guarded so this was not unusual, but she was obvious, who else could it be but Queen Siren, as she told them she was, but they paid no head, and pretended to not know who she was, or acknowledge the name.)
Again, Siren spoke to her mother, looked at Tangor, who had a weapon in his belt, a revolver or sorts. But she motioned to Tangor to stand down, unless both were attacking her; and should she die here, she’d have a second chance to live, on another planet, but should Tangor become the prey, or the second victim, he’d not be able to regenerate his body parts onto another planet. (She had perhaps at this time, used up half her resurrections, of which Moirommalit’s have about 100.)) The problem being: they never know where they will end up.))
She stood gazing at the vipers, in a defensive posture, she wanted them to attack, thus, she’d have the advantage, the counterstrike, but it would have to take place in the clap of an eye. Said Tangor “I can shoot them, but it seems, a might too easy for you?”
Siren had a sixth sense, her mother had given it to her I do believe. With her mother it was more like telepathy when they both spoke, with these silent vipers projecting to one another their thoughts, she could understand them though, it went something like this: I will jump her (the large one conveyed to the other, the large one was called Ranhar), and when I do, you be by my side, and make sure the other one does not get involved.
While she was reading these thought conversations, she took the two sharp fangs she had used against the great bear out of the side of her string like belt, and positioned them in her hands, then the ground shook, with the thrust of the leaping viper called Ranhar, and as it leaped, it knocked Siren smashing onto her back, but at the some time, the fangs went into the vipers eyes, blinding him completely, next, the second viper started to leap, and Tangor shot him dead. Siren constantly kicked the snake hard in its head determined to escape its winding around her body, and fate would not be on the Vipers side; the four hundred pound snake was now blindly trying to feel, touch Siren, but could not find her. It was a humiliating defeat for the viper, and the rats chuckled like squirrels, but were stunned to see Tangor did not have to fight, he just pulled out something, and pointed it, and something came out of something, and killed a viper. This was most unusual, yet this person, respected Siren, thus, it was to their advantage to do the same, and they quickly went to the King Rat, to explain what they had witnessed.
Chapter Fourteen
The Sleeping Worms
The planet had seen a total upheaval in the past month, with insects, and flood within the forest, and aggressive ness between the rats and vipers; Siren had her work cut out for her, and then after fight with the guarding Vipers, to her gates, it easy exhausting, and she was hoping her and Tangor could rest in her castle on the mound, the one she had built so many pears ago, if that was possible. They did spend one cozy night in the castle, and on the second night things happened again. Tangor was quite watchful both nights, and her heard an uproar outside the castle gates, he was alarmed, echoes that were saying “The Sleeping Worms!” Whatever that meant.
(Seven feet or so, below the upper roots, the thick roots of the giant trees of the forest, and those leading around Siren’s castle, and down into the Grasslands of the Vipers, there were what was known on the planet as sleeping worms, and they were no longer sleeping for the most part. They were known to sleep for a hundred years or so, and thus in the process many died, they never woke up; they only woke up during atrophy. And there were billions upon billions of them. They sucked their nutrients from the roots of the tree; should the tree die, they’d die. Hence, the rats and the worms and the Vipers were gathering outside of Siren’s gates; masses of all three species were awoke, and eating everything eatable in site.)
Tangor, hastening back to Siren to inform her, of the crowd, and the pile of meaningless worms that were gathering outside the gets, when he approached Siren, he looked horrified, not quite understanding the circumstances.
“I think we have to come up with a plan to exterminate these worms, worms I say, that is the problem we are having outside the gates, millions of worms,” he said to Siren “before they eat everything, and every body.
Said Siren, calmly “Here the worms are not that deadly, and are quite evolved, yet they scare the rats and vipers, simply because they eat so much, then they go back to where they come from. They grow several sizes larger than what they are by the time they return of course, but should you stop them, then we do have a problem, its called suffocating when you are sleeping, they will cover you up like a blanket, and suck you dry for nourishment.
Chapter Fifteen
Fate
Said Siren to the crowd gathered outside her gates, “Life within the crust of your planet is older than that of which is on its surface, and some have to take that into consideration if we all want to survive.” Her sixth sense was pickup up that they were listening to what she was saying and understanding, the reptiles and rodents, even the worms. “We should understand that neither of the species on this planet have an advantage over the other, if one wars with the other, both get wiped out, in this case perhaps three species will be wiped out: you can’t stop a species from eating if it is hungry, it would be a frightful battle trying, for it is survival they are seeking. We all see one another with different eyes, but most understand that—we need to eat or extermination is possible, as in a war with one another, so I say to the rats and vipers, let the worms eat all the foliage they can, there will be enough for all the rest of us thereafter.”
—Siren was hoping the animals could reason this out, if not mentally, at least instinctively, that there was no dominate species per se on the planet that was not subject to extinction, and that the planet was molded to balance out the way it was, that is, separately, but in times like this, cooperatively, or all vanish together, totally. She did get this across.
It was hard for the vipers to stand down, they were in essence, the brutes of the planet in this section, but they seen Siren’s lips in motion, and understood her seriousness.
Having said that, both Siren and Tangor went back to their room, Tangor could not sleep, and therefore, started to outline the history of the planet SSARG, according to Siren (for the most part).
The creatures of the land, took what Siren said to heart, and accepted her plan as the only feasible one available, plus, they of course considered their horrible fate, had they not.
posted by Dennis and Rosa Siluk at 6:56 PM
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