Fantasy Kaizoic: Earth Reborn

[Da Doofus]

The sigh Rufus let out distorted his helmet's speaker like blowing into a microphone.
"Ok, kid. I'll follow your lead." He turned and started descending the stairs.
"Watch your step."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo was glad to hear Rufus's response. A bit of a smile made its way on his face as he began his descent.

The city had been dark, but going down into the tunnel was something completely different. Even with his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he found that he could barely see inside the tunnel. He grabbed another flare and pulled of its tip, squinting his eyes as the surrounding lit up in front of him. Walking down the stairs became much easier to do, now that he could actually see them.

The tunnel itself looked much like the rest of the city. As in it was completely and utterly decrepit. Cracks in the walls seemed to be a common sight, so were chunks of concrete building up on the floor. He had to make sure to walk carefully to avoid tripping on the latter. That, coupled with Bom's wider gait, made it much harder for him to catch up to the reptile.

"I'm assuming you come down here a lot." He said to Bom, as he finally reached talking distance.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Not as often as I used to, but the underground must always be monitered." He explained as they passed a corpse of what was now an ancient railcar.
To the men, it was only months ago that they rode one of these when being transported to the launch facility.
"You are most fortunate to have crossed my path."

Rufus laughed.
"You can say that again."

Bom glanced curiously at the human.
"You are most fortunate to have crossed my path?" He repeated with confusion.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo's eyebrows perked up a bit. He wasn't expecting Bom to say that of all things. His words really signified the difference in cultures Bom must have come from, compared to him and Rufus. It was a bit unsettling, and a bit shocking.

But most importantly, he found it extremely funny.

"Pfft No no no. You don't take that literally. It's more like...an expression to show that we agree?" He explained with a bit of a chuckle.
"But yeah. You're right. We were really lucky to have crossed paths. Don't think being dinosaur food would really sit well with me."

 

[Da Doofus]

"Indeed." Bom nodded as the trio reached a fork in the ruined tunnels.
Bom sniffed the air and gestured to the right.
"This way, please." He grunted, limping on.

Silence filled the space between the humans and reptilian for a few minutes until Bom cleared his throat.
"I beg your pardon for my asking; but are you two from the Old World?" He paused. "That is, the time before the Gods' awakening?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

“The god’s awakening.” He mumbled under his breath. He didn’t know who Bom referred to as god, but he was pretty sure he meant the apexxes.
“If by god’s, you mean those giant beasts bigger than the tyravi. Then I guess we are.” He answered.

 

[Da Doofus]

Bom turned his head at his words.
"I would not label them as mere 'beasts', but nontheless it is fascinating to meet you, Young Kairo."

Rufus let out a quiet sigh in his helmet, his instincts making him nervous as they always do when religion comes up in conversation.
"So where are you taking us?" He said, desperate to shift the subject.

"To the outskirts of a nearby village. You'll find them most hospitable to travelers." The reptilian gestured to Rufus's helm. "Although such armor like that may need to be kept out of public eye.
Such technology worn by humans tends to make the locals uneasy."

"Wait, you mean there are other humans?" Rufus was legitimately surprised by this information. "Alive?"

"Oh yes. Aside from the colonies on the coasts, the heart of Hennasia has many settlements founded by refugees of your kind.
Nearly all from the previous Noah landing almost three centuries ago."

A moment of quiet passed from the former smuggler.
"And you all get along?"

"For the most part, yes. Like all meshes of cultures, there are clashes; but it is to be expected."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Realizing that he’d entered a pretty sensitive subject, Kairo pretty quickly regretted the way he described the apexxes. Although Bom didn’t seem too affected, he still felt a bit guilty. No matter how much he harm the apexxes had done to the past world, he still had to make sure that to be on Bom’s good side.

Thankfully, he didn’t have much time to brood on his poor word choices, as he and Rufus were quickly bombarded by what Bom was telling them. It was a lot of information for Kairo to take in. He looked between Rufus and Bom throughout the entire conversation, trying his hardest to fully comprehend what was going on. His eyebrow cocked and and his mouth slightly agape, it seemed that Bom’s words hadn’t completely processed in his head.

“Three...centuries ago?” He mumbled to himself. How could the last Noah have landed three centuries ago? That pill seemed to be particularly hard to swallow. But the more he thought of it, the more it seemed to make some sense. “So there’ve been other humans here for 300 years?” He asked. “That could explain the signal you were getting back from your camp!” He added excitedly, a finger pointed at Rufus.

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus shushed him with a hand.

"A signal?" Bom asked. "From a technology source?"

Rufus sighed. "Yes. I got a signal deeper in the jungle a few weeks ago, I had the idea that it was another Noah.
Am I right, I take it?"

"Yes you are." Bom nodded, leading them down another change in route.
"At the same time you are mistaken.
The ship that brought the humans to Hennasia was destroyed shortly after landing. The surviving humans fled in all directions. Those that remain are few, but live in safety among the Vindav."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo knew why Rufus had shushed him. The information that he disclosed wasn't something to just throw around. But still, Kairo had a gut feeling that Bom would have known something about the signal. To his relief, he seemed to be right about that.

Kairo looked at Rufus, a knowing glance in his eyes. If the other Noah had long been destroyed, then there was another Noah out there. Bom's statement made that painfully obvious.

Besides that, he was intrigued, and slightly concerned about how the Noah had been destroyed. That thing was built to withstand mountains, so how could such a ship be decimated so quickly since its arrival on Earth? Whatever it was, he hoped that it wouldn't happen again.

"If you don't mind me asking. What happened to the Noah?" He said as he followed Bom onto the new route.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Records of that time are few, and spoken as tall tales nowadays to be honest, youngling." The saurian's tone softened, his booming voice gone quieter on the subject. "However, from what can be discerned from the tales; the ship landed without any problem. The humans quickly began expanding, and exploring the Hollowed Peaks further north." He gestured in a direction. "Three mountains that stand beyond the Canyon River."

He had to have been speaking of the mountains that lined the horizon from the camp's view.

"At some point, the very ground beneath the ship erupted in smoke and collapsed. Half of the ship was buried in the cave-in. The other half still stands, abandoned but functional enough to make signals evidently."

 

[Chai_T3a]

“The ground collapsed?” His forehead scrunched up. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was just coincidence that the floor had collapsed on them just a few hours ago.
“That seems to happen a lot here.” He added. “Like the floor is hollow or something.”

 

[Da Doofus]

"Well that WAS what the whole Emergence was. The big creatures woke up from the earthquakes and dug out of their lairs." Rufus pointed out. "Remember how they shut down travel on the roads and pushed for strict air transports? It's cause the ground was unstable in a lot of places."
He thought for a moment.
"But half of a Noah . . ."

"It is debated to this day whether the catastrophe was through Kavera's will or by sheer misfortune." Bom commented.

 

[Chai_T3a]

“Whatever it was. It doesn’t sound all that fun.” He stated. He’d imagined endless amounts of ways the Noah could have been destroyed. Falling through the ground was not one of them.

“You think something like that would happen to our Noah?” He asked

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus shrugged.
"I'm not much for predicting disaster, only avoiding it."

"It is doubtful." Bom added in once more. "Much has changed since then. Less chaos wreaks the planet."

 

[Chai_T3a]

“That’s good to hear.” He said, letting out a sigh in relief. “You we’re getting me worried there.” He chuckled.

 

[Da Doofus]

"Worry is justifiable in short amounts." Bom stated. "Too much can be poisonous."

The traveling party arrived at a rusted freight car tipped on its side.
"Wait here." Bom instructed, planting his walking stick into the loose soil. He limped toward the battered metal husk and latched his claws into it. The sheer strength of the cloaked giant was impressive as he began to move the blockage. Slowly but surely it dragged along the ground until the tunnel it concealed was visible.
With a cavern-shattering crash, Bom left the hunk of metal to drop at his feet, which he then leaned on to breathe in gasping heaves.

"As I get older, that gets more difficult."

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo watched in awe as the towering reptile pushed the freight car out of the way. The amount of strength required to move such a thing was catastrophic. If Bom could move such a thing at his age, he couldn’t help but wonder how strong the man was in his prime.

His 150 pound deadlift definitely didn’t seem as impressive anymore.

“Wow. You just...moved an entire train car.” He stated, clearly impressed. He went to grab the walking stick and looked between it and Bom.
“Do you really need this?” He handed it back to Bom.

 

[Da Doofus]

The staff was long enough to be a spear for a human, but the tip came up to Bom's chest. The old saurian took a step forward on his left leg, and cautiously limped with his right before taking the walking stick.

"Yes, I do actually." He chuckled weakly, taking a few slow steps toward the newly revealed path. "This leads straight to the surface, and the nearest road is not far from there.

Go on, I'll be behind you both." He said, moving noticeably slower.

Rufus was already ahead, then glanced back at Bom and walked back to his side.
"Might be dangerous still." He said stalwartly. "Think I'll keep hiding behind you." He joked, keeping pace with the tired elder.

The reptilian laughed softly, holding his staff with both hands as he limped.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo laughed a bit at that.
“You go do that. I want out as quickly as possible. He added, speeding up to add a bit of distant between Bom and Rufus.

He walked along the path with renewed vigour. With the prospect of seeing natural light again, the ache in his muscles seemed to fade away. He was definitely ready to leave this damn place.

“Stay down here any longer and I’ll forget what the sky looks like.”

 

[Da Doofus]

Behind him, Bom limped down the tunnel with Rufus keeping pace with him. The ex-smuggler kept glancing at the elderly saurian as though he were waiting to assist should it be needed.

Eventually, Kairo would see sunlight peering down at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Chai_T3a]

In a few moments, Kairo emerged from the cave exit. To Kairo's unadjusted eyes, the bright light coming from above came off as a veil of white. It temporarily blinded him, and he needed to squint his eyes in order to make anything out. But besides this small inconvenience, the relief and calm he felt to see natural light again greatly outweighed it.

Turning around to face the cave entrance, he waited for the other two.

 

[Da Doofus]

Before him lay a mountainside path down to a clear plain of astounding tropical beauty. The distant treeline was the border for an expanse of grass as tall as a man. The horizon was similar to the one back at camp, but the mountains were further away and Kairo saw them from a different angle.
It was official, the camp was nowhere nearby.

Rufus and Bom finally caught up, with the saurian man stopping next to Kairo to sniff the air.
"Ahhhhhhh . . ." He sighed. "Right on time.

Come along, fellows." He smiled, beginning a careful descent down the path toward the field.

 

[Chai_T3a]

At the elevated height. He got a nice vantage point of his surroundings. It had been a while since he'd been able to look far into the wilderness, and he'd almost forgotten how spectacular it was to lay eyes to such a beauty. The tall grass offered a nice change of scenery, but he knew that it would probably be a bitch to walk through.

But even with the excitement, came a bit of apprehension. Judging from the distance that they were from the mountain, they weren't going to make it back to camp anytime soon. Him and Rufus had been too caught up in their own little adventure to return back to camp, and that made him feel more than a little guilty. He really hoped Stryx and Helen were faring alright. For all he knew, Stryx could have already lost control of camp. Or worse, their could be no camp to come back too.

'Nope...back it up. You've gone too far again.' He thought to himself, pushing the worry to the back of his mind. His damn mind was going to be the death of him one day.

"Right on time? Is something going on at the village?" He asked, trying to divert his attention to something other than the camp.

 

[Da Doofus]

"They are preparing for the yearly arrival of a tribe of my people. It is a time of celebration." Bom began, treading a path through the grass. "I forget that humans' sense of smell is not as acute as ours."

Rufus covered the rear of the trio.
"And what, exactly, are you?" He asked.

"Your kind have called us Archosaurians I believe the word is. A broad term that includes all races of the world."

"All? Which are you if you don't mind me asking."

"I am a Kendian. We come from-"

"Kendia?" Rufus guessed, earning a silent gaze from the Archosaurian.

"You are a human, yes? Do you come from Huma?"

Rufus coughed uncomfortably.
"Sorry."