Chapter 25 Cyber Soul

Chapter 25

Cyber Soul

   His mind churning with mixed feelings, Kian hunkered down in Wayferra. The Chimerans were clearly ready to embrace the Lunans. Tyndale had told him Kia and Alex were with the Centaurs in the east, but after his conversation with them, he saw no need to leave Wayferra until the storm passed. He was in no hurry to see her anyway. It was going to hurt. He would just indulge his procrastination a little while longer. The pain would come, but it did not have come right now.

 Although Wayferra had weathered many storms, he feared this one was a dark harbinger of things to come. He could linger until a while longer, just to make sure everything would be all right.

    Besides he wanted to find Kress and tell her Penny was near safe and changing. Luckliy, he did not have to go looking for her. Moments after Kian and Tyndale determined the distortion, whatever it was had left she zipped down from the ceiling and lighted on his ear.

   “Kian, you’re back.” Her tiny fingers bit into the top of his ear, but he felt no pain of course only delight and gratitude she was back with her family. 

   “Yes little one, did your father say you could visit me?” he asked only half teasing her.

  “Yes Kian, I have learned my lesson, no more adventures for me.”

  Her words pricked his heart. Somehow, he knew better.

  “Where is Penny? Is she all right? Is she here?”

  “Yes, yes and yes. She’s in my ship and soon she’ll have wings. She wants to fly. She wants to change.”

  “You can do that for her? Oh Kian you are a God, just like everyone says. How soon can I see her?” She asked, skipping over her God statement as if it were simply a matter of fact.

 “A few days and her change should be complete.”

 “Then we can fly together, just like she always wanted.”

  “Yes, she’s lost so much Kress but at least she still has you.”

 “And a God that loves her,” she tossed out the words as if they were pebbles, but they hit him like boulders…

   The storm passed and Kian left them. He did not know what to say. Even Kress worshipped him as a God now. How could he change their minds, how could he change their hearts, maybe he should not try, maybe he simply would not try. Their worship could be a good thing. He would have to be careful; he would have to be wise, but most of all loving. Maybe it would work. Could he by sheer force of will remold Chimera into a paradise fit for everyone. It was a lofty task, certainly worth sacrificing his humanity, if necessary. At the very least it was a productive worthwhile distraction, a means of seeing past his heartbreak and dealing with Kia as a subject not a lost love. Yes, his newfound deity might serve him well after all…

  A strange peace settled over him as he looked up through tattered storm clouds racing beneath the moon and smiled at the stars twinkling down on him against the black. Were they winking at him, showing their approval? He’d imagine they were and take comfort and assurance from them... 

   The grist meal was a massive structure, a stone monument to Centaur artisanship and brute strength. It towered above the rushing river rivaling the massive oaks that grew nearby. Decades earlier the Centaurs realized they would be happier living by the river. The other Chimerans were smaller beings and preferred their treehouses. And even though they were welcomed the centaurs and accommodated their great size and weight when they set about building their treehouse city, the Centaurs never felt comfortable high above the ground. That plus the fact that many of them had a particular talent for stone masonry while others of their number relished fresh baked bread, a delicacy not found in found Wayferra. Its inhabitants feared fire and were quite content with raw fruits and vegetables.

  Rather than force their tastes and preferences on the smaller creatures. The Centaurs moved east found a suitable location by the Great River and built their cathedral like mill on its steep rocky banks.

   Moonlight streamed through the charcoal remnants of the dead storm casting a milky magical glow over the entire oak forest as it highlighted the three- story grist -mill’s yellow river rocks and gray mortar.

  Kian sailed down gliding toward the mill’s seventy -five foot water wheel entranced by its slow but steady turning. Creak splash, creak splash, it sang in the moonlight playing tickle and slap with river’s racing silver water.

  Kian could have watched it all night. But he had more pressing matters that he must deal with. Swinging up and over the Mills great smoke stack and lingering just long enough to smell the sweet warm aroma of fresh baked bread rising from bakery, he swung around the rocky parapet and swooped down to enter the Mills’ twenty foot tall entry arch.

   Flaming torches protruded from either side of entrance, filling his nostrils with the pungent but sweet odor of incense. Kian could not help but feel like he was entering a church. 

  “The Centaur’s really love their bread,” he said as he glided feet first onto the highly polished marble floor, “Looks like Kia has found her castle.”

  “I have Kian,” she said from bottom step of massive stone stairway that spiraled up the cylindrical wall of the giant stone and mortar tube.