Rise of The Fallen(excerpt)

Chapter 6

-Kora- 

Holding up the notebook I tried to compare the picture to the rock formation in front of me. "another rock and still no match…" I grumbled to myself. 

So far I've come across three different rock formations but none of them match the ones in this notebook. I'm starting to think this map is showing an entirely different part of the world. 

I've been searching for hours looking for this damn rock formation, expecting to find it somewhere in the forest but I've found nothing even remotely similar. It's supposed to be some kind of arch from what I can tell, and there's a river close to it on the map so if I find it, I'll have a direct path to a source of freshwater. 

That's if I can find it… Sighing I looked up at the sky seeing two suns shining above, one much smaller than the other. If I'm going to survive here I should probably also map out constellations and the seasonal patterns of this region. I hope winter isn't close or I'm as good as dead. 

It's reassuring knowing that a humanoid species has managed to survive and thrive on this planet because that means there's a chance I could do the same. But unlike them I'm not seven foot tall, have freaking horns and a razor-sharp tail.

I'm still struggling to comprehend their existence and the fact there was another convict running around actually surviving on this planet. Does krosa know about this? If they knew criminals were able to survive and that it's possible to build up a colony here on the planet it would cause an uproar.

The planet was deemed uninhabitable and too dangerous by its first explorers. And any previous expedition attempts came back with the same outcome. Everyone died. 

Even if the planet was habitable the natives here would prevent any colonization. Humans declared any planets with intellectual native species to be exempt from colonization. To avoid any more Christopher Columbus incidents…whatever that means. 

Earth history never really interested me.

And right about now earth history is useless in my situation. Learning how humans developed automated clothing recommendations or pleasure bots, wouldn't help me out here.

Flipping through the notebook I came across an interesting page that stood out from the others. Most of it was blacked out but in the center was a white drawing of some kind of animal skull with red eyes, underneath it was a small scripture that read, "if you hear it's clicking, hide, cover your skin, blend with the darkness and pray it does not find you. If it sees you then you're already dead."

Ok…that's creepy as hell… I looked on to the next few pages to see if there was any more information but found nothing.

Sighing, I closed the notebook and continued my stroll through the forest. Despite the potential life threatening dangers of this stupid planet it's actually quite nice here. Krosa's red district doesn't have much if any plant life or recreational areas like parks. It was all just commercial or residential buildings and my memories of earth weren't all that great either.

At least here the air is clean and it's pretty… I stopped as I stepped on something that snapped and cracked under my feet. It was different from a branch and as I looked down and loved my foot I realized it wasn't a simple stick. It was bones.

Looking up I noticed what was in front of me. Bright red alien flowers were growing along the trunks of dead trees that looked like they had been strangled. Usually this wouldn't bother me but as I looked around  I could see the ground was completely littered with animal bones. And the small stringy vines of the flowers were growing all around them. There also seemed to be an alluring sweet scent in the air.