Chapter Eight

It seemed like days and weeks, actually I wouldn’t object if it were months, that we were still walking and tumbling across the forest floor.1

Despite of the futuristic year, the forest really didn’t look from the future nor did it cope with its surroundings of robots and technology. In fact it reminded me a lot of home. For the first time in my -living in 2045 life- I realized that we had no trees or plants in the roads or even in our houses. No wonder people were always under constant pressure.2

'Feels fresher dunnit?' asked Sandy as she breathed in and then out. 3

I gave a jerky nod 'Sandy, can we please rest' I asked as I felt a sudden pain in my knee.4

'We've still got far to go…' 5

'Please?' I asked with desperation in my voice.6

'Fine, it's getting dark anyway' she finally sighed.7

Sandy opened her polka dotted suitcase and pulled out a rather old and grayish tin.8

'These are fire granules' she said 'just add hetchtwoO and get instant fire'9

She sprinkled a few into the circle of twigs that I had made;10

'hetchtwoO?' I asked11

'Oh…OK, we use a lot scientific words, children here speak like scientist in the 2004!'12

'Oh, so it's H2O?'13

'Yes'14

'But doesn’t water kill fire?'15

'Well yes in the past but you are forgetting we are in 2045, is like… oh it's complicated' she finished as she poured droplets of water into the circle and after a second or two it burst into loud crackling flames that instantly heated my body.16

'Why is it called Diphthong…the forest I mean?'17

'Ar,' she said awkwardly as she was fishing through the polka dotted suitcase again, 'Its named after the most generous and kind man, he was a Montegero, he was the leader of the early us and tried to find a way to make us free.'18

'Montegero people' I started 'what can they, I mean, we do? Why are people afraid of us?'19

'Ahhh, well, we are told to be those vicious, non-merciful creatures that kill for happiness and will go on living if we have… mmm, polonium.'20

'How did it all start?' I asked eager to know more 'How did I become a Montegero?'21

She looked me in the eye and smiled,22

'It's not a pretty story Marie, no it isn't' she sighed23

'I can handle it sandy…'24

'Well, all Montegeroes were born in the early life of the Elprup, now that is vicious creature. Unlike us, Elprup is three hundred pounds of anger, spikes and dirty purple skin. It all started when the earth was first formed, long before human beings have ever existed. Did they teache about the big bang Marie'25

I nodded26

'Well, the Elrup was there to witness the birth of our universe… in fact, he caused it. You see, he was the early life of human beings and not monkeys at all! They've been brainwashing all the human race'27

She licked her spoon as she gave another sigh, clearly she wasn't comfortable saying this;28

'This is what really happened Marie, before the Big Bang, before anything ever happened, Elprup and his kind were actually living behind the black hole, him and all his kind. That is until the day he decided to leave it. You see those creature were smarter than we will ever become in centuries to come'29

'So if the Elprup is here, than why aren't we smaerter'30

'He was only a kid, and anyways, his brother's built an amazing machine that will leave the black hole once and forall. But as they finished it, they tried to test it and something went terribly wrong so terrible that it destroyed all the existence of their kind. Whatever they did or put in that ship, reacted violently with everything as soon as their ship left the black hole and that violent expolsion was called the big bang. But what they don’t get is that everything can sucked into a black hole yes, but there are ways out. And they don’t believe that yet. I don’t think they ever will either.'31

Sandy seemed so sad telling me all this, it's a wonder I kept the story straight with seeing her face so sulky…32

'So you're saying that the Elprup is one year younger than Earth?' I asked bewildered.33

'That's exactly what I'm saying, and if its one year younger than what does it mean?'34

I felt like I was on quiz show about to be splattered with gooey green slime if I have answered wrong. 35

'The Elprup has seen the earth's birth?' I said though it came out as a desperate question.36

'No, no, no you silly girl, he was formed when the earth was formed.' She gave a weak smile. It was so quiet that even the fire seemed to have quieted down to allow the eerie silence go on.37

'hungry?' she asked as she passed me a large plate with even more granules on. I watched as she put a drop of water on her plate, and as if it were magic, appeared steaming hot jacket potatoes and gravy with beans.38

'Wow…' I said now peering at my plate which seemed nothing beside Sandy's dinner,39

I took the flask of water and poured it on the granules and…40

'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?' screamed Sandy; though I could hardly see her behind giant jacket potatoes and what looked like millions of bottles of gravy. I was shocked to even realize that my left leg was stuck under the potato which wouldn’t budge. 41

'I have told you before, Marie, a drop, DROP of water, not the WHOLE FLASK!'42

'I'm SORRY OK' it hardly looked like the time to be scolding me and my feet were feeling like it detached itself from my body 'Would you help, Ow! PLEASE! IT'S STUCK!'43

She heaved, pulled and even pushed it towards my face and yet it stubbornly stayed where it was. 44

'There is no other choice, we are going to have to eat it' she said as she collapsed on to the hard forest floor which let a crackling sounds from the dry leaves. She, once again, went into her suitcase and pulled out a massive spatula. 'I knew I'd need this one way or the other!' She said with a smile. She suddenly dug the spatula into the jacket potato and started shoving her face with lots of potato. After about ten minutes I realized something;45

'Sandy?'46

'Wuut?'47

'Maybe, you don’t have to eat it, just shovel it out, oh and maybe can you please start from the bottom, that way I'll be out quicker…maybe?'48

She stopped eating and looked at me, 'Great Idea!'49

She started shoveling her way threw to my leg and in no time at all I was free. I gave sigh of relief as I rubbed my numb leg. Sandy was lying on the ground half asleep, half awake. 50

'My stomach aches…'51

I went through my yellow and green striped suitcase for the first time since we left Sandiola's house and pulled out a dark orange roll of cloth. I clearly remembered that when I was living in Sandy's house, I refused to go in the bed once again, so she gave me a 'Comforter' to which she opened and said 'I'm tired' and almost at once it puffed up complete with pillows, a duvet and even a glass of water with a couple of sleeping pills.52

'I'm tired' I said as the roll of orange cloth opened and laid itself onto the ground.53

I -with utmost difficulty- dragged sandy into the bed and covered her.54

I didn’t feel particularly tired so went rummaging through my suitcase to find a couple of books I took from the living room in sandy's house.55

I picked up a book called 'The Past life of Modern Filthy Part Human' it was written by Hematite Galileo, Sandiola's son-in-law. I opened its thick crusty cover turned a couple of raspy pages before a picture caught my eye. It was photograph of a little girl's face, enlarged to show her neck that had a familiar strange symbol. It was a clear octagon with a square inside it, and within the square was a circle.56

I looked at the page opposite and started to read;57

…one of the many visible signs that can be used to recognize dangerous and vicious Montegeroes is a Shapeless Shift which is usually found on the neck right below the ear. It is said that this sign was used by Elprup itself to distinguish its prey and use them to wipe out the pure human race. Though the filthy half breeds are entirely deceivable, this sign is one which can't be hidden-58

I hadn’t finished reading as I heard a sound, to which I slammed the book closed, stuffed it back into the bag and looked around. And there it was again, the sound of twigs being crunched up.59

I slowly walked to the tree where I thought the sounds were coming from, my heart beating fast and swiftly, I slowly look behind the trunk and gasped.60

There sitting cross-legged was a creature like I have never seen before. It looked like a strangely proportioned turtle with a face. It had a large leaf covering its back and weird looking flower petals covering its lower half. It suddenly looked up and stared at me, I noticed it had large, bulging eyes that shone a fair color of hazel brown.61

'Amada CAMADA!' it suddenly shrieked in its high pitched voice, I backed away. As I did, I felt a strange feeling of fear that had just come to me and a sudden urge of… killing someone.62

It then let out loud and angry tears. Its triangular face suddenly turned circular as it turned bright red and even more fogged tears came out. 63

I ran back to the campsite and scooped up a large "spatula" of jack-potato and ran back to the tree trying to fight that urge I had… trying to control it and when I tried I felt that very same sensation I had when I was waken up… I couldn’t understand.64

I carefully kneeled down beside the crying creature and offered it the potato.65

'Here, you go…' 66

It quickly stopped and looked up and then quickly snatched the spatula and licked it greedily.67

It was soon sitting beside the fire, eating the potato, giving huge smiles here and then.68

'So, what's your name?' I asked as it stretched on its spotty stomach, it didn’t answer as it let out loud bubbling sounds. It was asleep.69

* 70

I woke up the next morning to loud screeches and shouts;71

'MARIE! WAKE UP! HELP'72

I sat up and waited for my vision to focus and was shocked at the motion picture that was going on; the turtle creature was holding a small twig as if it were a dagger at Sandy who was trembling beside a tree.73

'STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING' I demanded 'GET AWAY FROM HER!'74

At my word it stopped and looked up at me with its wide eyes. I ran to sandy that was shocked and crying her eyes out hardly breathing.75

'Marie…you b-bb-befriended a…a…a spiked kumtauq!' she whispered loudly76

'Yeees I hamm an Kumtauq…' he said in a squealing tone 'onlee te bestest'77

'You talk?!' I gasped after hearing grunt, hiss and cry I didn’t think he knew English at all though at a poor rate I wouldn’t have expected it.78

'Wey, yeeas' he declared 'I hamm yoeur servace'79

'What are you doing Marie?' said Sandy suddenly feeling strong 'Do you realize what a kumtauq is?'80

'Noow yaoung lady-' he started81

'DON'T YOU YOUNG LADY ME' bellowed Sandy 'YOU HAVE KILLED AND MURDERED-'82

'Yoou d-dogt understand, we weare, weare- framed, we aare actueally fery p-p-peaceful-'83

'PEACEFUL? PEACEFUL? You don’t know what you are saying you-84

'Thin howw can yoau be knoaw that I knewa what I was doing whena we weare killing innocenta humans?'85

Though he was hard to understand, Sandy had no answer but merely glared at the creature, until it looked away and started on me;86

'I hamm now your sirvant, Marie'87

'heh?' I said rather not-knowingly88

'Oonce a human or halve human safes the live or heelps a kumtauq a great deal then we willa forefer be at your serfice' he finished showing a smile (-which didn’t look so pretty)89

'Do you have a problem prouncing the "v"?' was all that came to my mind90

'Sorry vor my English, nota fery good'91

*92

'You can't possibly trust such animals, Marie!' begged Sandy while we continued our way through the forest, and Oregon (-which was his name-) in front of us trotting happily 'kumtauqs are dangerous animals they-'93

'Listen Sandy, he looked so helpless and you just were shouting at him…ah, I mean look at him he barely know how to talk'94

'Fine, don’t say I didn’t ruddy well WARN YOU!'95

'isa eferything ok' stopped Oregon and glared at sandy 'isa she bithering you mistress?'96

'Bither- oh no she isn’t bothering me Oregon, keep going'97

Since Oregon joined us, Sandy and I have hardly told each other anything. She seemed to hold a grudge against Kumtauqs and hold me responsible for befriending one.98

That night I told Sandy to stay up until Oregon slept and when we heard the same bubbling sounds, she was almost bursting to tell me.99

'Listen to me Marie, You have no idea what Kumtauqs are capable of doing!'100

'Shhh, Sandy!' I quickly whispered 'Don't wake him up!'101

'Ok, OK, OK… Long time ago when I was in living in the 1800's, you know on the ranch, a Kumtauq is what… a-a-attacked my parents'102

I looked over to Oregon who didn’t seem too vicious to have the ability to kill someone.103

'Don't bother looking at him and wonder Marie!' began Sandy 'He was cute, friendly and kind and I let him go near my parents… and he KILLED THEM!'104

'How can you be sure its Oregon?' I asked 'There is more than one Kumtauq Sandy!'105

'I know there is, but they are all the same!'106

We were so focused on our argument that we didn’t hear the bubbling sounds seize.107

'Madama' Oregon had woken up and turned to Sandy 'he vorced, he didn’t wanta to'108

Sandy turned her head in shock she wasn’t going to forgive easily;109

'WHY, WHY' she started to cry 'did he take the people that matter most to me? He took my life'110

'yesa he did but-but-but' he squinted his bulgy eyes trying to remember 'they made him do it'111

'Wait' I said 'who is he?'112

'My vather' he answered almost at once 'they gafe him fidhey and he murdered sandy's p-p-pa-parents, he didn’t mean it!'113

'YOU KNOW WHAT I CAN'T DO THIS ANY MORE, FIND YOUR OWN WAY!' shrieked Sandy so hard that her veins were shown bulging out her neck as she stormed into to the darkened trees.114

There were moments of silence we just stood there shocked at Sandy's outburst.115

And then I yet again realized something else 'Fidhey? Do you mean VIDHEY OREGON?'116

'yesa madaaam' he said nodding slightly 'it makes people do horrible things'117

It gave me a really scary flashback of that man shouting 'VIDHEY' when I had complained about a headache.