The Shrooms

Planet Reach

        (Woman) The shrooms worked as intended. Warping time as if she's traveling at speeds unknown, an illusion. She comes upon a planet. Purple land illuminates from the ground as four moons revolve counter-clockwise. She enters its atmosphere pulling up on her gear shift with as much force she can muster up. Fiery winds spew at the sides of the make-shift rocket impairing the ability to see through the ill-shaped windshield. Hurtling towards the ground the ship crash lands into a body of liquid.

        She squeezes through the door that was held up by one last screw for the past ten minutes. Luckily her dad made her take swimming lessons when she almost drowned from a mother's lack of attention. She swims to a red shorefront resting on her back desiring nothing more than her breathe to boomerang back and her nerves to simmer. At least enough for her eyes to open. The ground feels sand like but doesn't look like it, air dirty with a purple tint, a distasteful stench that crinkles her nose instinctively.

        Turns to see her ship sinking in the liquid. Her food, water, shoes she took off when she slept and never put back on, the journal she was excited to write about the brief time on a new planet ruined. Bear Grylls never made a survival episode of this planet or any for that fact. Curiosity kicks in when logic should. She approaches the liquid sticking her toe in like someone testing the jacuzzi temperature. Bending down she gets a closer look at the peculiar deep blue liquid. Swishing her hand around it feels normal, safe even to drink so she does. Purity floods her tongue.

        "Hello. We have been waiting for you to arrive. Come with me." A being says to her. It surprises her that the thing looks human, handsome at that. She doesn't answer. "I can speak your language, we all can. If you follow me I can explain everything."

        (Prince) "There's something out there. I wonder?" the Prince says. His interest elevated towards the unknown sight. His urge to investigate too strong and has gotten him in trouble before but he just has to do it.

        "No my Prince, we must stay on course. The King will have my head if we do anything other." Quake says stern like. His stance comes from a lack of respect for the prince like many people. He's smart, hard-working, loyal. The perfect worker for a King and the prince is the total opposite with worlds as his playground.

        As usual, the prince begins turning the ship to follow the speeding object as he watches it shed pieces of itself entering the atmosphere of a planet he learned about from reading in the library, Reach. Quake then takes the controls back attempting to place them on course once more but the prince won't have it. He leaves Quake at the head of the ship to find the ship power panel. He opens it finding the safe coded touch screen directory that he told the engineers to only activate from his fingerprints, he'll be damned if someone else has control of his custom-built vehicle. Next, he shuts the pilot functions off and inputs a new destination for Reach.

        Quake's confusion for the sudden non-working controls quickly shifts to anger as he applies increasing pressure to the buttons and steering mechanisms. Nothing works. He knows of another way this can be but doesn't believe it's that because that would require the spoiled uneducated prince to understand the specs of the ship. Not a chance he knows past the basics of what he taught him. So he thought.

        The prince comes back from changing course. "We go where I say we go." the prince says. He got one up on Quake and the anger combined with fear on his face brings the prince some joy. He's seen that look on the faces of kings his father vanquished.

        "I will not die for your decisions. You will make sure of it my prince." Quake says.

        "Promise."