3. Invisible George part 3

George's Dad was screaming at the pool to give his son back, looking around there was nothing to control the pool or hit the pool with, nothing at all, all he could do was yell and shout.
All the commotion hadn't gone unnoticed, in mid scream he was struck hard and fast from the side.
A large flying creature had swooped down from above the canopy, it's talons grasped him whilst in flight & started to take it's stunned prey back up through the canopy of trees.
"NO!" He screamed as his rage overwhelmed him, he wasn't able to harm the pool, but with claws and teeth, but he took his vengeance out on this creature. With one swipe, deep into it's stomach he ripped downwards. The creature screeched and it's grip loosened, but the talon was buried deep into his arm. As he continued to slash and gouge at anything he could reach, the creatures insides fell out of the open wound & blood trailed all over his fur mixing in with his own.

Instead of rising, the pair of them began to lower, slowly at first, then with urgency as if the creature knew it was about to fall from the sky.
As the ground drew closer, he pushed himself free, sliding his crushed arm from the talon & dropped to the forest floor. The creature landed awkwardly not far away, but it kept it's distance, knowing that the hurt it was in was his doing.

The creature started sobbing and talking to itself "this shouldn't happen! How can this happen? I am Shawr! I rule the skies, no creature can defeat me in battle!"

George's Dad painfully raised himself up onto his feet and limped slowly over to Shawr.
"I am Gawaar! And I am the Guardian of this forest and I just did!"
The creature, was suprised "you speak our language! Not even the masters speak our language!"
It was now Gawaar who was surprised "you have masters and you are not free? but you can fly were you will, how can you not be free?"

"Yes, I have many masters, and they are coming this way, they have machines that will tear down this forest and you with it,"
Gawaar turned his head to gaze off to where he had recently been hearing sounds which the others had thought were of a volcano rumbling, had come from. He knew they had been wrong, he had been expecting this time to come and that's partly why he pushed George to remember.

"This is not good!" Clearly he was not concerned by the presence of Shawr as he continued talking.
"My people have protected this forest for a very long time, but without George, I fear we are lost"
"Have you lost a great warrior?" Asked Shawr, re-gaining Gawaar's attention.
"Yes! In a way we lost him a long time ago, mentally he couldn't cope with something, but he is now completely lost to us and I had only hoped to reach out to him, to bring him back, but I was wrong, so wrong!"
He hadn't noticed, but Shawr breathed his last breath and died.

He turned and gazing upon the now dead body of Shawr he added "my arrogance has cost you your life too, for this I am sorry. But your death might save us all!"

He set off home with great haste, everything was about to change and it was not a good time for change. All Gawaar had wanted, was for George to remember the truth for himself and he thought the outstation might have triggered those memories, reminded George why they were there, clearly he was wrong and now the mission was doomed to failure. The fate of a whole species rested on their shoulders and George was the key to it's success, he could control the outstation, send a signal home for help, but now this whole forest was about to be burnt down and the outstation with it and there was little he could do in this form.

When he found Hellarn, he struggled to find the words, but he told her everything and he was not surprised that she was very angry, "I told you!" She screamed over and over, before adding, "why didn't you just turn the damn machine on?"
"Because I can't, it can only be opened from both sides at the same time, you know that, and that is only If the mission was a success, that could be another 1000 years or more before that happens"
"He will never truly die and will suffer for an eternity if he is stuck in the void between worlds and we have neither a spaceship nor coordinates to find him"
"Aaaaaaarghh!" she screamed "leave me, I need to understand!" With that she turned and walked away.

Gawaar didn't need to hear any scornful words from Hellarn to make him hurt more than he already did, George was the second son lost to him, although he was Hellarn's first.
When they had set off on their mission, there was Gawaar, Hellarn, Derwaar who was the oldest son to Gawaars first wife , she was killed on a scouting mission to find a suitable planet for the outstations, the others, George, Patresh, Zeelar and Franzier were all to Hellarn, Franzier being the only girl. In fact George's real name was Peldrawar, but he insisted he should be called George for some crazy reason that only he knew inside his messed up head.

Although they all set off on the mission together, Derwaar just wasn't there when they arrived and all Gawaar could do was hope he was safe and that one day he would see him again. For many years he was hopeful that Derwaar would just turn up, but that hope had long since faded. Now George was lost too!

Since their arrival 400 years ago, their group had grown greatly in numbers, they themselves had kept mainly to themselves, but their disguise as native creatures drew these creatures closer to them and some became surrogate family members like Nanna Loot & Grandad Josh, it was these that Gawaar did not know how to warn, he knew his family would understand, but these poor creatures, they were like family and they would be slaughtered if they didn't listen to his crazy story about creatures from different worlds, warring and destroying planets. But the more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded in his own head

He sent his children to round up the family group and set to his speech "lately there has been many rumblings from the nearby volcano, I believe that is because the gods are angry and soon they will spit fire down from the skies, the ground will shake and it will crack swallowing us up whole, we must leave and soon"
"have you gone as crazy as George" shouted one of the group
Gawaar closed his eyes a moment to keep his composure at hearing Georges name
"The nearest volcano is too far away to cause any nuisance to us" added Grandad Josh, "you should know that. So what's the truth?" He asked

After a brief pause where he considered another lie, he told the truth "I'm sorry, I should be honest with you, there are some dangerous creatures approaching, they are creatures for killing, they hunt in packs bigger than ours, they travel with beasts who's hide is thicker and stronger than our teeth and claws can cut through and their grumbling bellies are sounds we think are the rumbling of a volcano. That is the sound you hear and their footsteps are what make the ground tremble beneath your feet"

"I prefer the volcano story" added Nanna Loot "at least I think I do, what's for dinner again."

Gawaar could do no more to explain! "My family are leaving, they can take a few but only as many as mouths they can feed along the way."
"What about you? You speak as if you will not be leaving!" Asked Fruitip
" I am leaving, though just not with my family. Sadly George is missing, and I must find a way to save him.

He turned in preparation to leave but Fruitip and 2 others, Brander and Shutrak came forward, " we will help save George," said Fruitip.
"I can't allow this to happen, I have to fight these creatures and you must run!"
"Gawaar, do you think that all of us are here in one place near you and your family by coincidence? For hundreds of years there were rumours of an immortal, one of us, who has slain great beasts to protect it's family and this forest, we were drawn closer and closer to you until we all became as one, once we were few, but now we are many, thanks only to you, and because of this, you are our family, so please tell us how we can help!"

"Thank you, all i can ask is that you keep our children safe, move to a different forest, go to the hills find caves, wherever, but keep them safe. Once they realise I am a threat, then you will all be hunted to extinction, or worse."

"Very well" added Fruitip, "my family travelled from the mountain forests to be near you, the journey is treacherous, and it's path is guarded by terrible beasts, we will split into two groups, but in large numbers we will be safe, when you can send word it is all clear, then we will return"

Gawaar, was surprised, relieved and yet sad all at once, with these last words the others slowly dispersed quietly, solemnly they all made their way home to prepare for the journey, packing their belongings and the necessary supplies and for some, tearful farewell's.

Nanna Loot and Grandad Josh, we're two of the few who decided to stay behind.
"This is our home son, we know this forest better than you, living for hundreds of years is nothing if no one shows you round the place and my family have been here for a thousand years, when the time comes we'll return too and we'll get word to the mountains when it's safe"
Gawaar embraced Grandad Josh as he would his true father, "good luck to you, you have been like my forest father of late, teaching us things we never knew about the forest and it's creatures' I will miss you and Nanna Loot, please take care of her" as Grandad Josh left, Gawaar was left alone, Hellarn still hadn't returned and knowing her she will be off doing her own stubborn thing, but he couldn't wait, he needed to see the enemy.

It was two days travel through the forest, when he got there he could see a lightning class huntsman ship and a carver class mining ship both hidden in a small clearing between a rocky wall and an untouched line of the forest, with a tree top camouflage net over both of them.

Once a suitable location for mining had been located, phase one of the mining plan was simple, land, hide kill and flatten.
Phase 2 was all about speed, dig up the essential minerals before the owners found out to avoid conflict.
Phase 3 depended on the worth of the dig, minimal then leave, but sometimes if it was of great value, it meant war providing phase 2 wasn't compromised, and that was Gawaar's only hope, he had to draw attention to these Pirates and cause conflict with the land owners before they realised the value of this planet.

He just didn't know where to begin.