Across Book 2

Chapter 10 : Daniel

Her cheeks had pointed marks, a feature that her face carried symmetrically, and she had the exact same white marks on the other side of her cheek. Above Metuna's eyes, dark pink-ish circular patches formed an eyebrow on her face.

Daniel realised he was just plainly staring at Metuna at this point while observing her physical features. Then he walked away while offering Metuna a place to sleep. Daniel had only one thought before he went back to sleep - if he was doing the right thing.

The morning that followed, once Metuna woke up, she noticed that Daniel was gazing at her bow, that she had left last night on the table.

"This is yours, right?" Daniel questioned, once he realised Metuna was awake.

"Yes, it is," she answered.

"This is only the bow. Where are the arrows? I don't see it with you."

"They were with my group. I left it with them."

"The two beings of your kind whom I and Fabio fought at Livorno Hills and had to force them to retreat?"

"Yes. Them."

"Oh. Too bad they left without you."

"I wanted to be away, anyway," Metuna said, looking away.

"Earlier you mentioned, your planet is in danger ?"

"Yes," Metuna replied, softly. "There have been rumours going around that Knonox will conquer our planet, Astekan. And thus, few of us prepared to stay and fight and the rest, left the planet to find other places to survive. There rarely is any planet left that Kronox has not conquered yet."

Daniel sighed and looked tense.

"But I guess you already know about him, don't you?" Metuna confirmed, "Afterall, the human race fought Kronox on planet Earth and this was one of the only wars in which Kronox felt weakened and abandoned the war towards the end."

"How do you know about that?" Daniel asked, restlessly.

"I do not know about the others, but this kind of war stories don't take much time to circulate among us, especially when Kronox stepped out to a war and backed out."

"Yes, it was a tiresome battle which even I was a part of a few years ago," Daniel replied, "but I believe the reason we won the war was because Kronox underestimated us and his army was nowhere near to its full capacity. And I think at one point, Kronox realised that and retreated from the war. But the next time, there will be no escape from him. Kronox will bring his wrath alongside his army."

"Did Kronox give the human race an ultimatum?" Metuna asked

"8 November, 2022" Daniel sighed.

"You should be proud," Metuna commented.

"About what?" Danied raised his eyebrow.

"Kronox only gives an ultimatum to those who he deems worthy of a next battle."

"I do not think that is something to be proud of, but something to be alarmed about." Daniel replied.

"What year is it now in your format?"

"It's 1998"

"You have plenty of time to prepare for the War I assume. I'm still unaware how many times this planet revolves in a year"

"Just enough. Not plenty. Maybe sufficient." Daniel replied.

"I'm hungry", Metuna spoke and got up.

"Here, try this" Daniel offered her an apple.

Metuna was unaware of what it was but after trying it, she seemed to like it. There was no other option to avail the food from her planet Asketan here on Earth.