Part 6
A Stroll In The Night
Xephos thrashed around in bed trying to get to sleep, even though he was physically exhausted his brain kept buzzing. Images and scenes of the past three days kept replying in his head like a black and white fuzzy reel. Flashes of Knight Peculiar, as he said goodbye to him to go find Honeydew at Stoneholm, videos of the duo chasing Zombie Boss, to him being grasped by Lalna by the portal. Over and over again it just wouldn’t stop. The piercing laugh of Israphel rang in his head and that made him sit up in bed in fright.
Xephos rubbed his eyes looked around at his surroundings slightly dazed. At first he did know where he was but then he remembered, Tekmania. With sweat on his face and chest he decided he needed some fresh air and got up and out if bed. The still weak spaceman hobbled out the door and headed toward Honeydew’s room to nick one of his crutches, trying to be as quite as possible. Xephos winched every now and again in pain as he didn’t have Lomadia’s help to walk around. After making a bit of a racket and yelping quite loud every now and again, he made it out the door and turned right.
The fresh cold air slapped him in the face with relief as he walked away from the house. He looked to the skies then in the direction he was going, the moons light guiding him. Xephos didn’t really realize how much noise he had made, because he was being watched as he hobbled away. Lomadia gasped, worried that he might hurt himself even more in his current state. She pulled on her dressing gown and hurried after the spaceman, with a slight idea of where he was going.
The blond woman walked in the direction she had predicted Xephos to go, she squinted into the darkness ahead of her trying to get her eyes to adjust. In the distance she spotted the silhouette of a person, she knew right away it was Xephos. She sighed as she realized her prediction was correct, there was the spaceman, sitting on a meter high rock looking at the portal he had arrived in yesterday.
“Can’t sleep?” she said interrupting the insects in the night, Xephos’ heart skipped a beat, shocked at how she had snuck up on him, “huh, whaa!” said blurted before falling off the rock in surprise, as if her words pushed him off. “Xephos!” she said alarmed and ran to help him up, his eyes were shut tightly as sharp pain ran through him.
“My gosh, sorry for frightening you,” she said sorrowful as she leaded Xephos against the rock, “what on earth are you doing out so late?”
“How did you know I was gone,” Xephos questioned as he sat back up,
“To be honest, you’re not very good at sneaking,” Lomadia said with a chuckle. Xephos sighed and looked back to the portal; Lomadia followed his eye sight, and sat next to him, leaning against the chilled surface rock.
“Earlier today,” she started, “when we were talking to the others, I asked you if something was wrong and you said no. But something is bugging you, isn’t it?” She looked to the burnet who was gazing at the portal, he soon turned to face Lomadia with sad eyes then he looked down and sighed.
“Well, I guess there’s no harm in telling you,” he said looking toward the portal again. “Earlier today, I had this feeling in my gut and I didn’t know what it was. I started getting images of the war and my allies shuffling through my head and I need fresh air so I came out here and I clicked. I realized I’m just sitting here while they fight on without us and I can’t do anything about it. They will all think we’ve just left them to die and ran off and I can’t do anything about it! And they will properly all die and I’m just sitting here, injured and I can’t do anything about it!” he finished getting louder and louder. Xephos looked into her worried eyes, “they are going up against a powerful evil that they won’t be able to stop on their own and I can’t do, anything, about it,” he said looking at her deeply then back to the pale green portal, “it’s so, ARGG!” he said putting his head in his hands,
“Frustrating?” Lomadia suggested,
“Yes! That’s exactly what it is! Frustrating,” the spaceman said taking deep breathe in.
Lomadia put her arm around his waist to comfort him, “it’s not your fault Xephos,” she said calmly, “it wasn’t your choice to go through the portal.”
“Yes, because I’m the one who decided to chase Zombie Boss, who was obviously there with Creeper Boss and Israphel, who knocked us cold and shoved us in!” he exclaimed, “it is my fault! I let KP and Adaephon down, and more importantly Honeydew, who didn’t want to go after him in the first place. We’ll never find Daisy now,” Xephos looked down in shame.
“Daisy?” Lomadia asked,
“She got kidnapped by Israphel about a month ago when Honeydew and I first met KP,” he said sadly, “we swore to get her back but you know” he sighed. Lomadia nodded, understanding what he was going through as she had been through something similar in the Tekmania Science vs. Magic war.
She stood up and held out her hands for Xephos to help him up, “come on,” she said clammily, “let’s head back.” Xephos sighed and grabbed her hands, she was about to help he walk when he stopped her. “I got this,” he said grasping the crouch in his left hand. Lomadia chuckled, “you over having to be carried by a girl all day?” Xephos smiled back,
“It’s a little demoralizing, yes,” the blond laughed as they turned to walk back to the house.
