Expedition Dipuma

Chapter 20: Dimitri

Once we reached the forest floor is when things got crazy. It felt like my skin was burning up and tearing apart. Both me and Curly were writhing and screaming at the top of our lungs. I felt like I could barely breathe, there was so much pain. I used all of my strength to crawl on my belly towards Curly. He was barely making a sound, but I grabbed his hand anyway, and his hand squeezed mine. "It was an honor to fly with you." I said my voice was so dry that you could hardly hear any noise. His hand dropped out of mine and I rolled over next to him. As I look on waiting for death, I see a shadow of a person with wings. Ah. My mercenary. She has a strange blue hue to her skin, but she is "Beautiful." I managed to choke out. I feel my consciousness slip away as a tear falls down her face. She closed my eyes and took off. I'm not sure if she left me here or if she took me with her but the next thing I knew was that I could hear voices around me. I ever so slowly reach out for something and I find an ankle and then there was a scream. Then I am picked up with such haste that, if I could blink, I was set down in a blink of an eye. Then I am forced to swallow something as wonderful as chocolate and tabasco sauce. I gasped for air. Oh, it feels so good to breathe again. Then I passed out. I was in and out of consciousness for hours until I tasted something sweet on my tongue and I slept for hours on end.
When I woke up, there was a blue man standing next to me and a human girl on the other side of me, whom I have never met before. But she made it so that I'm not uncomfortable in the giant's watchful eyes, I suppose. "Alright, now can you wiggle your fingers and toes?" The giant asked. I responded by doing as he asked. We did left and then right, one limb at a time. I sat up and he listened to my heart with a bit of help from the girl. She seems to be shy but I don't blame her, this is the first time we are meeting. I wonder how long she has been here. "Okay, you are all set there sir." The giant said. "Thank you, and what do I call you?" "Mike." He said as we shook hands."Dimitri is my name." I said. "Well it's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Dimitri." And then he left. Well, that was rude. Not a goodbye, an 'I'm glad that you're alright', nothing. I just get to chat with this girl. Not that it's the end of the world, besides maybe she could answer my questions. "How are you feeling?" She asked, helping me get down from the table. "Well, I'm not dead, so there's something to cross off on the list." I said sarcastically and she laughed out loud, so loud that I'm sure that there's no creatures in a five mile radius. But it’s enjoyable. "Sorry, I laugh really loud. And I totally agree with you about the not being dead part." She shuffled her feet in the moss. "I don't think I caught your name." I announced, I ended up startling her. "Oh, um, my name is Marie." "Nice to meet you, Marie. Where are you from?" And we chatted for hours on end as we strolled all over the woods. "My I think that we have covered every inch of the planet with all the talking we did." Marie giggled and said "We haven't seen the lake yet." "I don't know if I want to go back there." I said. "Hey, I didn't mean to make you upset." She said walking back to me. "I'm so sorry, but I forgot to mention that we waited to do his ceremony until you were awake. We figured that it would only be right to wait for you, because he was your best friend." I took her hands into mine gently and said "I am ever so thankful for you  Marie. There are things that I have told you that no one else even knows about, not even Curly. She took a moment to take it all in. Her face looks like she is shocked at what I have told her. "It's true. You now know more than my dead best friend. He's great and all but I felt like you would understand more than he ever could, you know?" She nodded her head and said "I do understand and I am truly grateful that I am the one that you trust in." I thought about it for a moment and said "I would like to do the Curly's ceremony now." She turned back to look at me "As in right now?" She asked, eyes full of concern. "Yes, please. I know that it's sudden but if I don't do this now, I probably won't ever want to do it." She made eye contact with me and she knew just what I meant.
Suddenly, I could hear this heavy breathing and it sounded like it came from something huge. The hair on the back of my neck stood up at the sound. "What is that?" I  whispered, with one word at a time. "What's what?" She asked. Then we both heard the noise, looked at each other in alarm, and walked to where the noise was coming from. We found a large dog-like beast that looked like it's in pain. "Oh my goodness! Jiānqiáng!" Marie shouted, while I stood there staring. Marie started petting its face as she spoke ever so gently, "Hey baby girl, I'm gonna go get Mike. My friend Dmitri is going to stay with you, ok?" She gave the beast's face a kiss and walked over to me. "Do you mind being with her until we come back?" She asked me nervously. "Yeah I don't mind. Besides, I used to take care of dogs all the time on Earth." "Thank you so much! I will be right back!" She shouted as she ran off. I turned back to the beast and she looked so sad. She looked like she was sad, exhausted, and in pain. I approached her and cautiously petted her face. "HI, I know that you don't know me but I will be here with you while we wait." Then I went around her nose and knelt above her nose. She lifted her head just enough to set it in my lap, showing me that she trusts me. I smiled and petted her cheek to try to comfort her until they got here. I saw something small and slimy next to her belly, but I have no idea what it is.
That's when I saw Mike carrying Marie and flying above the treetops. I gently scooted out from under her and stepped aside with Marie while Mike examined the beast. He puts his forehead to the beast's face and realizes something. He started to cry as he said "She was pregnant with puppies. After she delivered the first one the second one got stuck and I was too late to save them." He started to sob letting his tears grace her fur. She whined a little as he said "I am so sorry, girl." Then he stood up; looking disheveled, tear soaked, and possibly darkened with grief. He found a large Boulder and smashed her head. Marie let out a screech and tried her best to cut it off. Her face was pale and tears started to roll down her face too. I can't believe that he did that, and yet I completely understand why he did it. We watched as he wiped the slime off of the puppy, picked it up, and held it close to his chest as he turned and walked away. He didn't even look again at Jiānqiáng, nor did he fly. He just walked towards the healing tree. The mood of the atmosphere is so dark and sad that it even started to rain. Although it's not raining in the normal sense like it does on Earth. The dragon eel-like thing is spraying water everywhere to make it rain.
Marie collapsed to the ground and cried out, sobbing so hard that she's having a hard time breathing. I don't know why she's so emotional over this beast thing, but then again I am so shocked that I didn't even realize that I was crying too. That's when the strangest thing happened. The beast disintegrated into dust, but not the normal kind of dust. This dust consists of light particles and then it magically floated away. Then I realized that Marie got up and stood next to me, watching the dust fly away. Once we couldn't see any more dust she wiped her face and blew her nose. "Are you okay?" I asked her gently. "Yeah, I'm okay. She was the best dog around." She took a breath and sighed. "Well, she was the only dog around, but you knew what I meant." She said while looking at the ground as we started walking. I nodded even though she couldn't exactly see my face. "Yeah, I understand that. I had a beautiful, blue eyed, Siberian husky. She was my favorite pet that I have ever come across. Then her kidneys started to fail on her when she was," I paused trying to think, "I think she was about eight or nine years old when her kidneys started to fail on her. The vet said that she would only have a couple years left but she lived for five more years. During the last year, she was suffering from a lot of pain, so we put her down. I stayed with her, stroking the fur on her face, until she let out her last breath. We were devastated by her loss." When I looked up, I realized that we made it back to the ship, or to be more correct, their ship. Marie nudged my arm and said "Hey, don't worry. You can definitely stay with us, besides we still have a few beds that you can choose from." I somehow feel so shy and I have a hard time finding words. All that I do is stand in the ship's doorway light, with hands in my pockets, and I'm just staring at her, not knowing whether I should be overwhelmed with joy, or sobbing in disbelief. Then her expression lightened and she grabbed my arm as she said "Come on you dork. If we were on Earth, It would be about three in the morning. You need rest." I just now noticed how soft she looks in the ship's lighting. She seems to be glowing in a golden hora of light. I gave her a soft smile and walked inside with her dragging me in, and my hands were slick with sweat.