Eos: Epilogue
#8 of Eos
Epilogue
By Shadow_Walker
A boy, scarcely three years old, hid amongst the beautiful landscape of a freshly furnished park built to commemorate a great sacrifice. The boy was not human, but appeared to be Azrulian except that he had only two legs and his lion-like features extended beyond his bottom half.
The boy waited, only barely able to contain his excitement as he waited with a smile on his face. The bush shook nervously. The boy heard a sound like footsteps and felt someone brushing aside the limbs. He spun his head around and looked into the face of a man wearing a khaki space-fleet uniform with the word "Marthus" inscribed on it. The man reached into the bush and grabbed hold of the boy.
"Gotcha," he said.
The boy squealed as he was hoisted out of the bush and struggled against his captor. Marthus turned to the face of an Azrulian he knew well. Memories of older times flooded back, threatening to sink his concept of the present.
"He really is a handful isn't he?" Marthus commented.
"I'll say," said Ginasa. "Just yesterday he got into the crawl space beneath the foundation."
The three of them began walking through the park following a concrete path. Marthus lifted the child onto his shoulder and held on to him with the other hand.
"That doesn't sound much like who he used to be," Marthus said.
"I know," Ginasa said; her face was more serious than before. "It's strange."
"Maybe his upbringing has something to do with it."
"No, if the upbringing had anything to do with it, he'd be afraid to go outside."
"Now what are you talking about? You're a great mother."
Ginasa sighed and looked away down the path. A bird fluttered on the path behind them. The child's head spun around and spotted it. He leapt off of Marthus's shoulder and hit the ground on all fours.
"Theron!" Ginasa shouted.
The child turned around, smiling, not caring that the bird had flown away when it heard his feet hit the ground. He ran back to his mother and she craned down to hold his head in her arms.
"Don't do that again," she told him.
"I won't," Theron said reluctantly.
Marthus looked at her with a curious look.
"You didn't change his name?" he asked her.
"No."
"He doesn't look much like you. Or your people."
"It looks strange, I know. There aren't much of us like him."
"What do you mean?"
"There are very few of us who walk on two legs like he does. It's an extraordinarily rare trait."
"So he's not just a freak of nature?"
"My child is not a freak in anyway."
"I know, and I'm sorry."
One of them began walking again and the other followed. Theron took up the middle ground, bouncing along, so full of energy.
"I heard about Skyra," Marthus said. "I can't believe she never told anyone while we were on the ship."
"Told anyone what?"
"You haven't heard?
"No, I haven't."
"She was the daughter of a powerful woman-of her species of course. The whole thing on the Storm Gale was about proving herself to her people. Something about her mother's firstborn being a still birth. I don't know. The details aren't all that clear to me."
"I hadn't heard that. What about Jaavi? I haven't heard anything from him."
"He went back home. That's the last I even heard his name."
"That is odd. I wonder what became of him."
"Knowing him, he's probably gone back to flying jets."
"I never really got to speak much with Jaavi."
"You've heard about Sehrab obviously."
"Yes. We caught up a couple of months ago during the Lycan/Azrulian peace summit. I was there to smooth over negotiations. I saw Carnassus." she turned to Theron. "You remember Carnassus don't you?"
Theron giggled. "He was funny."
"I just can't believe the guy I hired as a thug has become a grand general," Marthus said.
"He seemed to be more polite when I saw him at the summit than when we first met."
Ginasa looked up from the path. She stopped and Marthus took a couple of more steps before realizing she had. He whirled around and faced her.
"What about you?" she asked.
Marthus smiled.
"There will be more wars," Marthus said. "There will be more conflicts. The presence of inbred disagreements between sentient beings will ensure that peace will never go on forever."
***
TWENTY YEARS LATER
Theron ran forward, ever forward. In his hand was a gun sleek and sinister. It had a bulky look to it, but that was what made it so menacing.
Theron had become grown older. He had fiery red hair that flowed in the wind as he rushed to the top of a hill on a decimated planet. On his solid chin was stubble of the same colored. He hadn't had a good shave in weeks. His arms were now muscular and defined through rigorous training. In his eyes was a wild and hungry look like that of a predator on the hunt.
He reached the top of the hill and starred down and a massive valley. The wind caused waves in the fabric of his khaki uniform. In the distance, small, square dots loosed comet like objects with tails of smoke. The missiles rose high over head, arcing like a grayscale rainbow and heading straight for him.
Theron leaped from his perch on the hill and descended rapidly into the valley below as the wind rose up and ripped at his uniform, barely slowing him.
In the sand of the hill from which Theron had just jumped off of, a head piece was lodged in the ground. A voice made its intentions clear over the radio, not aware that Theron was no longer on the line: "Do you hear me? Your orders are to fall back soldier! NOW!"