Lost Within the Winds

A desperate attempt to save Earth from Global Warming

 

Lost Within the Winds

 

“She’s lost,” I thought to myself as I noticed the smallish child in the woods. Either that or someone had been exceptionally careless. No child would dare venture this deep into the woods unless they were hopelessly lost. Her back was to me and at first, I did not notice anything except the long dark brown hair that hung to the middle of her back. 

            I did not want to startle her, make her run away in fear so I did my best to circle around to face her. I cut a wide path to get in front of the child, keeping my eyes on her cautiously as I walked through the trees.

            I came into the clearing and her eyes met mine, fearful at first, but she seemed to understand I meant her no harm, but she was frightened all the same.

            “I’m not here to hurt you. Are you lost?” I asked in a low voice.

            Her ears perked up and I think I jumped back a step when I saw the long pointed ears. They were very striking, not pixie like, not elf like. They were long like a canine’s ears but without hair. She must have exquisite hearing I thought to myself.

            “I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said. “I am lost, but not like you must think. I am trying to get my bearings, but I have to wait for the lesser light to rise, the light your people call the Moon. Then I can see my star guides.”

            “You use the stars to navigate? You seem very young.”

            “In your years, I am quite young, but we do not count time as your people count time. I think I am eight of your years old, but in my home, time means nothing. A thousand of your years might seem as a day, but a day of your time could last a thousand of our years.”

            “I’m confused,” I admitted. “You are not injured in any way? Hungry or thirsty maybe? I have food and water close by.”

            “You are most kind. Many of your kind would not be so caring. It is a quality quite rare in humans now, and yes, I could use some water.”

            “Your ears are something very different. What are you?” I asked. My curiosity made me ask, even though my mind was not ready to hear whatever answer she had for me.

            She laughed at my question as I knew she would, and then the wings appeared. They were very striking as well. Blue stripes feathers intermingled with white and attached just below her shoulders. Her wings had covered her chest and I noticed she was only short pants. She held no modesty in her appearance as she noticed my face redden somewhat. 

            “I should have expected that. I’m ‘humavian’. We evolved separately from humans and birds, but we have some very similar structures to both. My wings and my ears are all real. Feel, see for yourself”

            I touched the ears first and they flickered somewhat the way a cat’s ears flick when touched. They were extremely soft, but they had muscle tone. Her wings were also very real, and they were very soothing to rub, to me and to her.

            “I’m sorry,” I said as she cooed a bit from my touch. 

            “It’s okay. You have a very gentle touch, and it seemed to calm you to touch my wings. It is very soothing to us to have our wings rubbed, by humans or humavians. I could have warned you.”

            “Quite alright,” I said. “I’m quite curious about you, and your kind. Are there many more of you? Where are you from?”

            “You promised me food and drink?” she reminded me. “We have a few of your hours before the moon rises. I feel you are one I can trust.”

            “Yes, I did make that promise. I have a campsite just over that ridge, maybe a fifteen minute walk from here.”

            “Walk into the trees, I will follow you. I feel I can trust you, but I must protect myself from others. There are those who I can not trust.”

            “Do you have a name?”

            “I am called Cheylah, and you are?”

            “Colton, my friends call me Colton. Follow me. It isn’t far.”

            Humavian? The name almost struck me as a scientific name given to an experimental cross between birds and humans. Her story seemed to fit together, and I started thinking I possibly encountered these creatures before on other camping trips, maybe even this particular one. A ghostly small figure swooped into my camp and made off with some food late one evening. I thought it was a hawk or eagle then, but now it made a little more sense.

            I arrived at my camp and lowered the bag of food from the tree branch. I decided to let Cheylah pick her own food. I took two bottles of water from the cooling bag and opened one for myself. It was a bit hot and the surprise of finding this creature along with the hike back to my campsite made my mouth dry. 

            She flew in after hovering just outside the camp for a moment. She folded her wings in front of herself and she looked like a normal child. Her ears even curled into a normal human shape.

            “Amazing,” I said as she walked to sit on the camp seat I indicated. 

            “We can blend in nicely when we desire. Our wings can fold to look like a vest or coat and our ears can look like yours. Oh, you have high protein energy bars, with fruit as well. I love these!”

            “Do you have these where you come from?”

            “Not always. Our home does not always sustain us, and we do not always need food such as this. Now, I do need to eat. May I?” She asked as she took three of the date and grain energy bars. 

            She was a riddle to me. How could a day pass like a thousand years and yet a thousand years pass as a day? There were times of famine in her land and yet times when they did not have to eat?

            We shared a meal of sorts. She ate the energy bars with an almost child-like hunger and drank the plain water rather than the flavored water I preferred. She looked at packet of soup mix and quickly read the list of ingredients. 

            “Where are you from Cheylah?” My curiosity could stand it no more. It may have made me a rude host, but I had to know.

            “Colton, I am from a place you can never go. Aside from this meeting, we may never see each other again. My people are many, and yet few.”

            Another of her riddles. I could not wrap my brain around this one either and yet it made sense to me. 

            “Cheylah, you are a very beautiful being and you appear very intelligent, but I need to know where you come from whether I can go there or not, whether you are the only one of your kind or one of millions. I simply need to know.”

            “Beautiful? Intelligent? Your people value such qualities in others, but I consider myself neither. I think I should thank you for saying so. Your people have a saying that knowledge is power?” she challenged me. “Would this knowledge give you power?”

            “It would not, I suppose, but now I feel so much comfort in your presence, I sense you must be some sort of angelic being.”

            “Angels are creatures who carry out special missions from your gods. I carry out no missions from any god, nor do my people.”

            “So will you tell me Cheylah?”

            “Colton, you know me from today. You know I will leave you. Will you try to come to me once I leave? Is that why you must know this?”

            “Maybe, or maybe my human brain has to place you in some type of home, or I will simply think of you as an experiment escaped from some sick scientific lab somewhere.”

            “Very well. Do you trust me as I have trusted you? Will you ever betray my trust in you, my friend?”

            “As my friend, I will never betray you or your trust. I will promise you.”

            “In your language, promise is a very big word. It carries with it a debt which has not been paid, and can be called upon for payment at any time. I accept your promise, as you have offered.”

            My mind began to spin as I followed her reasoning. This creature sitting with me so calmly at my campsite was exquisite in beauty, form design and intelligence. She reasoned far beyond my capabilities and I did not want to see her leave, but the time was coming fast. 

            “The sun is setting Cheylah. You said you would leave upon the rising of our moon. Are you from another planet by any chance?”
            “Yes, and yet no. I come from here, and yet I do not live here. I come from another place and yet I live here. It may be hard for you to understand Colton. You try hard to understand, don’t you?”

            “I do. Are you from another time on our world?”

            “Colton, you speak things that are possible, and yet have never happened. I am from this place, this time and this world. This troubles you. I sense it. Rub my wings, it will soothe you and I can tell you where I will live.”

            I placed my hand on her wins and softly rubbed them again. She cooed softly a sound that relaxed my mind and soothed my nerves. She stroked my hair softly and I began to see her world as she could see it.

            Many beautiful winged beings flew around tall trees, hills and mountains. The landscape looked very alien, desolate and barren. All the land area seemed to be very marshy, muddy and devoid of life. Only hills and mountains had any greenery at all. It was not a pretty place. It was not a place I could visit, because I could not fly.

            Tears filled my eyes as I stopped rubbing her wings. She softly cooed in my ear and stroked my hair some more. Softly she wiped away the tears as I looked into her eyes.

            “You see now Colton. My world is this world, only not this world. Our worlds are the same, yet very different.”

            “I see Cheylah. What happened?”

            “We are the last of any race or species on this planet. Only the hills and mountains remain, most of the land covered in a muddy bog. Salt water does not grow much food, so we found a way to come here, to this place and visit. We come and go by night, to find food and fresh water. This is your world and my world, but your world will soon be gone. We adapted to survive, but not quickly enough. We will soon die, as all other life died. All knowledge, all beauty, all will be gone forever.”

            “Is there a way to change this?”

            “Only if we all work together, but if we come to your people the way we are now, your people would only take us into captivity to study us, driving us into extinction. We don’t have all the answers yet, and we may not have enough time to stop the disaster. Some of our elders think you all deserved to die anyway, yet I told them I could find at least one who would care and understand.”

            “I care, but I am not sure I understand.”

            “You can save this planet, but in doing so, you will destroy ours. We will never come to be a species, and this meeting will be our last if you succeed.”

            I could save our planet with this creature’s help, but in doing so, I would destroy her and all her people. She was here on a suicide mission if I understood her correctly. 

            “Did they send you to me Cheylah? And why me?”

            “You are a kind, intelligent man of power Colton. You have the power to carry out the tasks we tell you, and you are loyal to your species. You have worked tirelessly to save lesser creatures with the knowledge you have now, and we trust you will work just as hard to save your species once we tell you what you must do and when. Billions of lives are trusted upon you and your kindness.”

            “You know who I am and what I do?”

            “You are the President of your nation, Colton. You come to the woods here to relax and unwind. You have twenty agents who clear the area before you take your walks, and they leave you alone until it becomes dark. That is when they must protect you, and when I must leave. Do as I tell you now sir. When you rise in the morning, take your morning walk. I will leave the secret to saving your people where you found me. Please do this for your people, and my people will cease to suffer.”

            The darkness began to fall and Cheylah unfolded her wings. She flapped them softly to loosen her muscles and slowly, quietly rose on her beautiful wings into the trees. Only a solitary feather ever marked she was in my camp, and I quickly hid it in my jacket.

            I slept fitfully that night, waiting for the dawn. My agents patrolled the woods to insure my safety and I took my morning stroll through the woods. As promised, I found a package where I had found Cheylah the day before. Knowing my agents were leaving me to myself I began to read the instructions she left for me.

            The plan was indeed brilliant, and feasible. It would work, but I had to start today. I gathered my agents and put the first step of the plan into action. It was a small step, but one Cheylah’s plan said was critical. 

            “Gentlemen, today, we walk to the airport.”   It had to be done, and I took the first step to place the Earth on the road to recovery.         

Reviews

[deeps]

I really liked this and the imagery
Loved the characters you have as well
This is a wonderful story here

[Sean M. Addams]

very nicely done .... found to be interesting and characters in this were done well too... nice job on this.

[Starting Over]

Not what I was really looking for but me personaly I loved it! Hope your not mad!!!! I really did enjoy this!

[Marie]

Nice write.