Everglow: Friend From Far Away

17 - Faded Future

The mattress felt soft under her weight as she gently rolled around on its surface. It was a strange feeling, one she'd never experienced before. It almost felt like she was floating slightly. It was a nice feeling though, one of comfort. She pondered just how they managed to create such a feeling. From what she'd seen from humanity thus far they weren't too technologically advanced. They had only just learned how to conduct space bearing travel a few years ago, making it to the planet's moon and back.

It wasn't very much compared to what she knew about back at Diamar. The rest of humanity seemed to live fairly primitive lives, nothing they owned had caught her eye too much, save for their Christmas holiday.

Fischer kept telling her about 'revolutionary' inventions that had pushed humanity even further, things like RADAR, nuclear power, electricity and something else called porn. She'd never heard of that last one though. She guessed it must be something in human culture.

As she laying in bed, gazing up at the slightly rusted tin ceiling of the shed, something began to feel amiss. Like it was out of the ordinary, but she couldn't tell exactly what.

Tossing and turning around in the bed, she tried to figure out what exactly she was feeling. It was like an ache in her hands, but it didn't hurt like you would expect when hearing someone has aching hands. She raised them up as she lay there, holding them above her head to have a good look at them.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They were the same two hands she'd had all her life. But they felt. . . hot.

It felt like they were burning, but there was no pain. It was like she'd just pulled them out of a boiling pot of lava. But nothing hurt.

She looked around the shed to see if there was anything she could use to maybe dull the feeling, when she spotted something. There was a camping lantern sitting on the bench towards the back of the shed.

Suddenly, the world around her exploded.

She was instantly taken aback by the wall of static in front of her. Images of different things began whipping in front of her eyes, the same thing that had happened to her in Fischer's car.

She started twitching and shaking, her head began to growl and scream, agony being the only thing she felt. More and more images began to zoom past her vision, like she was dying and these were her final thoughts before death.

Images of a strange desert seemed very prominent, one with colossal pillars of rock and sand, a strange temple seemed to cover the land as well.

The next she could figure out was some sort of beach. It looked like there was a strange house built on the water, with long jetties protruding from it, strange creatures that looked similar to her but different, in ways she couldn't determine given how quickly the images were flashing.

The next was an image of two strange creatures she'd never seen before. They were of similar height, one being big and bulky while the other was lanky and skinny. The lanky one had strange red feathers atop it's head and looked to be some sort of avian creature. It wore some sort of coat around itself with strange technological devices attached to its arms and its left leg. It looked to be some sort of pirate. The bulky one wore a grease stained tank top with a green sash adorned with bullets over its right shoulder. A huge knife lay on the creature's chest and there were thick boots on its feet and a set of goggles over its head. It had a strange symbol on it's left shoulder with scars and pouches all over its body, six strange white fins protruding from its head. It too appeared to be avian in nature, however the two creatures didn't look like one another at all.

The last image she saw was very similar to what appeared in the car. A strange object, one she couldn't determine. It appeared to be cylindrical in shape, but that was all she could make out. Everything else was fuzzy, but for some reason this last image seemed. . . almost important. Like out of all the information she was seeing, it was this specific thing she was supposed to take with her. While the images were crashing around in her head, the deep rumbling voice seemed to return as well.

"Stargazers of a lost race, their efforts and hopes fall in vain, their divide heard through all of space, a special kind of worthless pain,"

It spoke in riddles, cryptic ones at that. It's voice sounded like someone was simultaneously banging a gong while also scratching a chalkboard.

"Knowledge that they were doomed to fail, upon one fell the duty. Through fire and wind, earth and hail, the task of creation, a world of beauty,"

"Find the lantern, Agaron's prize. it's knowledge and power will lead you to the skies,"

"Your journey starts with a cage of lies, trapped, forever on the inside. An accident led you to your ally's estate, in time you both will recuperate. Dodging bullets from your own hands, weaving through mazes and foreign lands,"

"A treacherous journey, a dangerous foe. Though for each other, blood and tears demonstrate how far you both are willing to go. An enemy of acronym hunting you down. Brute force in vain, outsmart them, but how? "

Before she could see anymore, the voice ceased and everything instantly cut to black. She lost all control of her body, collapsing onto the mattress.

---\/---

Ko sprung up from the mattress, a small scream of terror leaking from her mouth. The sound of the voice was still ringing in her ears. Her pupils slit, her horns facing down, she looked around. Back in the shed. Everything was back to normal. No deserts, no demon voices.

She tried to control her heavy breathing as she sat there, trying to understand why she was having these flashes in her head, these visions. Something about a lantern, that's what the voice was telling her. What could that mean? It made no sense. She didn't know if it was all in her head and she was making this up unintentionally, or if this really was some sort of vision.

She looked around the shed, nothing had changed in the two weeks she'd been sleeping there. Fischer had said she could tidy it up however she wanted, but she just didn't know how to make it look nice after living in a shack her whole life.

Fischer.

His name rang about in her head. He had been acting. . . differently over the past two weeks. She'd noticed that he wasn't talking much, that he was keeping to himself more than normal. She thought back to the first day they'd met, and how his mood seemed to switch from excited and curious, albeit quite nervous, to droopy and lifeless, all within five minutes. She was beginning to suspect something wasn't quite as it should be.

Brushing the thought to the back of her mind, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. There was no way she was getting back to sleep after that dream. The image of that object still haunted her, the voice's howling laugh echoing through her head. Shivering, she stood up and had a peek through the boarded up windows. The lights in the house were off, which meant Fischer and his mother were probably asleep.

But something else caught her attention. Facing the house, back away from the shed sat a figure who was dressed in little more than a long sleeve shirt and some fluffy pants. They wore strange fuzzy boots on the ends of their legs and had a small scarf wrapped around their neck.

Ko immediately recognized Fischer as he sat there, but was confused as to why he was there, staring up aimlessly at the sky.

Slowly opening the shed door, so as not to disturb him, she tested the waters a little and waited to see if he'd respond.

Nothing.

A frown spread across her face as she slowly shuffled closer to him. He wasn't moving, his head tilted upwards at the sky.