Earth's Children: 'Duty Calls'
#1 of Earth's Children
Heyah. This is first chapter of my new story. The first few paragraphs are same like the teaser since it pretty much explains main things that need to be included for you to understand what the hell is going on in this story.
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Earth's Children: 'Duty Calls'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2iZQL6smsg&feature=related
My footpaws make no noise as I sprint through the forest to soon hide behind a tree, seeing two, bright lights pass nearby. Humans... They use those strange vehicles. We've been told such vehicles are one of the main reasons earth is being so violated.
„I'm at my position." - I said to a blue crystal in my paw. We use it to communicate on short distances.
„Great. Wait for us to get there. Told you not to sprint that much." - The voice bolnged to Jaine. A leader of this 'mission'... although I can hardly call it a mission. It's more like planet-saving.
While waiting for others I took the chance to look around... this place was quite different from our hidden home. The trees here seem so... simple. While looking further down I spot a puddle and see my reflection in it. A 16 years old fox with still quite a childlish face and green eyes. Those strange, unusually green eyes... almost toxic-green. I wonder why no one else has such color apart from my family.
„Okay... we're here. Your highness... we are at the nearby lake. Feel free to join us."
„Again with the highness?" - I said with my eyebrows raised. - „I told you. No need for the formalities. I feel silly. Just call me Koda."
„Pardon. Koda..."
„I can see the lake. Will be there in about a minute." - And so I sprinted in the lake's direction. Yeah... people will often call me 'your highness' because of my status in our homeland. I am the Earthwarden's son. What's Earthwarden? It's something like a king or president for humans. Too bad my father will be the last one. You see... our race... The Fera is responsible for the earth's future. A few thousands of years ago we were allied with humans. We lived and co-existed in peace until one day the first Earthwarden has been chosen. Althoug many of the Fera race disagreed with someone having higher rank than others, it stayed that way until day. What happened is that the Earthwarden felt like the entire earth belongs to him, which is not true. No one owns the earth. We belong to earth, we are part of it... Some see it my way yet some follow the old rules... like my father.
Eh... I keep on getting off the subject. Anywho... the humans did not like the idea. Even though we were technically much more powerful than them, they had that 'power' of overpopulating. They outnumbered my ancestors and forced those few Fera to retreat into place far from humans. Somewhere we could live in peace and keep low numbers of our kind to somewhat keep the balance. If we couldn't force humans to stop populating so quickly then we had to make a sacrifice of reducing our own numbers... For years and years we've seen humans slowly but unreversabily destroying our's and their own planet... this is why we can no longer simply watch.
Soon enough I reach the lake and get greeted by others. Jaine was explaining important things about this mission.
„Remember... we are very far away from The Essence which means we have to eat way more than once a week. You will also feel tired easier than back home." She was the type of cat that knows everything.
„Your h-" - Started Jaine but I interrupted her.
„Koda..."
„Right... Koda... need I mention that you are too important to lose?"
„Jaine... this is not a war. We are here to scout and learn... not kill."
„Indeed, but we don't know how they'd react if we got spotted."
„With all due respect, I am no longer a small kid, Jaine. I can now take care of myself."
She nods but still seems to be quite worried. „Okay... spread out."
Time to see what I've learned so far. I focus on the warm feeling inside of my chest. All I have to do is spread that feeling all over my body and... it works. I can see my limbs first getting transparent before completely fading away. Silently sprinting through the forest gave me time to really consider the whole operation... my father said it's only a scouting mission but what's next? What plan has he got to save the earth? They have the right to live as much as we do. Maybe my father wants to use a similar thing to The Essence?
You might wonder what it is. The Essence is what keeps us, Fera, from damaging the earth. It's like a life support device... thanks to it we only eat about once a week, reducing numbers of animals we kill. We need little sleep and live much longer. Our life span is longer than humans and thus we develop slower. For example... human boys start puberty at around age of 11 or 12 while Fera start puberty somewhere around 15 or 16. Humans are considered adults at age of 18 while Fera reaches adulthood at the age of 22. When it comes to total life span, it differs by a lot more than 4 years. Human males are lucky to live 70 years while for Fera 90 years is quite a normal thing. That just reminded me... I must be a late bloomer since my voice is still childlish.
Anywho... I soon reach what seems to be a road. I am responsible for finding out what humans eat and possible estimate of how much they eat. What scared me is that I didn't even have to go anywhere to spot 2... what do you call them? Shops... yeah... to spot 2 shops. One of them was filled up with fruits and vegetables that would be enough to feed our entire race for at least 2 weeks. The other shop was quite scary... Flesh... Tons of meat... Seems my father was right to be concerned.
I walk up to the shop to take a better look... what I didn't realize is that my little invisibility trick failed and I have a female human with a young offspring staring at me. The very situation I tried to avoid.
„There's still some time left until The Halloween." - Said the female in her native language. Yes, I understand English. We've spent a long time learning the entire language just for this mission... although she seems to have a different accent.
„I am sorry, 'The Hallowein'?" - I tried to sound like her but failed.
„Yeah... the day kids walk around collecting sweets and what not... you must've heard of it. I was pretty sure this costume was for The Halloween." - She said while moving her child away from me. The little boy looks like he wants to hug me. I say he's about 6 years old.
„Costume?... I mean... Yes, the costume. I suppose I mixed up the dates of... Hallowein." - Seems like all was not lost. They think I am a human with costume on.
„The Halloween." - She corrected me with a chuckle before asking: „Um... do you mind if Jake hugs you? Seems like it's something important to him. Haha."
„Yes, that is not a problem." - I said before picking the child up. He laughed and hugged my neck... they seem so innocent.
„So where do you come from?" - She asked... that's a strange question... does she know I'm not a human?
„Pardon?" - I tried to play calm while petting the child.
„Your accent sounds British and posh." - Oh, so it's just my accent.
"Um... My parents were born in England."
"Ah, that explains. Right... Jake... let go now or we'll be late for the bus."
"Moooom." - Pleaded the child but she pulled him off me.
"Oh, before you go; I have a question. You know this shop with meat? How quickly do you think all this meat will be consumed?"
She was a bit confused with me asking this random question but answered anyway: "Well... I'm guessing no more than two days."
"So... People in this city eat such amount of meat in around 2 days?"
"What? No, silly. There's loads of shops like this." - She said as if it was obvious.
"If you were to estimate... how many shops like this do you think there are?" - I asked, not sure if I want to know the answer.
"I don't know... 10? Ops... there's my bus. I'm really sorry but I have to go, my husband is waiting." - She said and quickly ran to the bus stop along with the child.
I look back at the shop. I am guessing there's about 400 dead animals in there... Times it by 10... that's 4000 animals eaten per 2 days and it's just this city. That's disastrous.
"Oi! Furfag!" - I heard from behind. Two males... Assumingly 17 years old. I could straight away smell their aggression. I ain't sure what 'furfag' means but it's quite easy to guess that it meant to be offensive. They walk up to me, trying to push chest out in front to look tougher. I wonder what's the reason for such aggression. Last thing I need is trouble with humans.
"Got a fag?" - Asked the taller one while the other one cackled. Seems it was suppose to be some sort of offensive joke that I didn't get.
"A fag?" - I asked in a calm voice.
"Yeah... a cigarette, moron." - He said, shaking his head.
"I am sorry but I don't have such thing."
"Then give us your cash so we can buy some." - Cash... money. Yes, I heard of this primitive way of 'sharing' things between individuals. I knew something is coming and focused on creating a transparent barrier in front of me. They didn't see anything. Only very few of the Fera that have same abilities as me would be able to see this.
"I don't have money either. Perhaps getting a decent job would be more fruitful than asking a 'furfag' for 'cash'."
"Who do you think you are, shitbag?" - He said before spitting on the floor in front of me. I cross my arms. So pathetic... all bark and no bite.
"Someone that is more educated than you. I never underestimate others. And I do not try to look big while being afraid deep inside." He looked at me with confusement. I could tell he's worried because of the scent that changed after I crossed my arms.
"You seriously want to get banged in the face, do you?"
I could easily shut him up but I didn't come here to fight.
"Stop acting tough and be yourself. Maybe then people will like you for who you are and not for pretending to be hard." - I said while turning away and starting to walk the other way.
"You little cunt!" - He shouted before trying to walk up and hit me. I couldn't help my survival instinct. An invisible arm reached out from my back and grabbed the human by his throat. I turned around to see them both shocked. I could see the transparent arm, holding that teen one meter away from me but all they saw was the taller one choking. He is lucky... very lucky. If any of the teammates saw this they would probably strike him down straight away in order to protect me.
As soon as I realized what I've done, the arm let go of his neck and faded away, leaving him gasping for air with confusement. I took the chance to sprint back into the forest. I am so dumb sometimes! I literally teased him and almost got into a fight.
About that arm... We differ from humans in many ways. Their main support is technology while we get help from earth itself. We care for earth and it cares for us. Most of the Fera has a power that helps on daily basis. We try to give each of us a task that will fit our powers. The arm mentioned earlier is just a form of kinetic power. I could form pretty much anything but for some reason when it comes to reacting instantly I form an arm without thinking. Fera with kinetic power are often used for building new houses since we can move things without taking a single step. The wood we use has to be quickly replaced and so the ones with ability to directly control nature makes sure to grow the trees back. More and more people use the term 'Druids' on Fera with such powers. I guess it kinda fits them. The ones with more destructive powers like fire are used for hunting food. Heck... I remember there was a guy with unusual power. He could deform his bones whenever he wanted to which was kinda creepy. I've seen him hunting once. Bone spikes would stick out of his arms which he would use to slay down the wild animal. There are some powers which are forbidden to use with certain exceptions in the time of need. Jaine is a good example since she is able to literally read your mind but my father trusts her so the promise she won't use it was enough to comfort him.
Finally... there are those very few people that we call Hybrids. I am one of them. Hybrids are not limited to anything specific. We can use any type of power to our will as soon as we grasp the nature of it and how it works. So far I only grasped a bit of kinetic power. It is very easy to predict who is a Hybrid since normally people are not able to use any type of power until middle stage of puberty. This is a good thing because children have weak minds and are quite... stupid sometimes which would cause all sorts of trouble. Hybrids show signs of their powers even at the age of 10 but it's nothing serious. The worst possible thing they could do would be set a small bush on fire or cause something small to fly up for a second or so. Now... when it comes to me, my parents are really scared by the fact that I didn't even hit puberty yet I can successfully form a tough forcefield... I don't get it. They should be happy by the fact I can protect myself.
There I go... talking about myself again. Well... even though I got myself into bit of trouble I still got all the information we needed. I'll have to ask Jaine how many human cities and towns are there on earth and multiply it by it by 4000 animals killed per 2 days. Now what's left to do is to wait by the lake for others to come back. The first person that came back was Jaine.
"Back already?" - She asked.
"Yeah... listen, have you got any estimates on how many cities and towns are there on earth?"
"Jeez..." - Jaine started - "That's impossible to count... Probably millions... why?"
I didn't answer. It was quite a shock... millions? Million times 4000 would be-
"Four billion..."
"What?" - She asked.
"If there were one million cities... it would give us four billion killed animals per 2 days... and you said there is more than a single million."
She looked down at her footpaws with sadness. - "I... I think the Earthwarden is right... For the first time in many thousand years we must intervene... We have to reduce their numbers."
"We can't kill innocent people!"
"I never used the word 'kill'... But I think we will have to forbid any new offspring. That would reduce numbers by a lot each year without killing anyone."
"Jaine... there are billions and billions of humans and there is only about a thousand of us. How could we possibly tell them what to do?"
She shook her head while others were gathering back at the lake. - "I don't know..." Jaine then turned towards rest of the group. "Alright... those who fulfilled their task: put your paws up."
Everyone, including me and herself, put the paws up.
"Good... now let's get out of here." She reached paws out for others to grab her. She has two powers. The second one is literally teleporting.
We all grabbed her arms. Suddenly I started feeling my insides being squeezed and my head getting dizzy. The feeling faded away as quick as it appeared. We were back to Arbor; our home. As soon as people realized we're back they started surrounding us, asking how the human world looks like. I let others explain everything and headed straight for the mother-tree. A place where me and my parents live along with other leaders.
Before reaching it I spotted Hunter. A wolf with cool name and long, spiky headfur I adore... Most people avoid him, thinking he's not a friendly type but I think it's just stereotypical thoughts because of his size. He's at least 2 heads taller than me and his musculature is better than average, yet not deforming his body. I smiled at him while walking past and surprisingly he smiled back. Too bad I couldn't stop to talk to him as there were more important things to do.
"Koda! You're back!" - Shouted mother in happiness as I entered the main chamber. I walked up to and hugged her before turning towards my father.
"Dad... I bring bad news." - The smile he had after seeing me dropped.
"What is it, Koda?"
"The numbers of killed animals exceeds many billions per couple of days. Most natural recourses will be gone in no more than two hundred years. The earth is basically dying..."
"It's as I feared..." - Started father. - "We will have to act immediately."
"Father... I gave you my view on this earlier and-"
"Yes, Koda I know." - He interrupted. - "I believe your way of solving this problem is the least brutal one but if they do not agree to forbid having offspring... we will have to reduce their numbers in our own way."
"I understand..." - I said before turning away and heading for exit.
"Koda..." - He said just before I reached it. He smiled at me as I turned back to him.
"Even though you are young... I can see your decisions are already wise and merciful... you will be a great Earthwarden."
No, I won't... I wonder how he would react if to the fact I don't want to take his place... guess we will find out in a few years time.
To Be Continued...
Story and characters are copyright to © Mickey Torrento