Chapter 23 Cyber Soul

Chapter 23

Cyber Soul

  With Penny lying in her transformation pod, Kian saw no need to land his ship on the beach. Seventy-five feet long with a sixty-foot wingspan, it would have been a snug fit anyway. Therefore he simply let it hover one just above the mountainous shore line and flew out its’ side like a bee leaving its hive.

   Pleased as he was to see the forest and the Common, looking very much the way it looked the first time he saw them, he still ached for yesterday. His love for Kia burned bright as ever regardless of their split. She was out there somewhere with Alex, maybe even in their old tree house home making love, this very moment.

   They were married after all, well married as anyone could be here. So that would definitely be the last place he would go looking for her.  

  A mere two hours had passed since he left western region. Kia, Alex and Roman had just slipped beneath oak grove’s thick canopy of foliage. Cool grayness soothed Romans sweaty flanks as his eyes slowly adjusted to the sudden grayness. The sun had just dipped below the western hills prompting Roman’s wife Michaela to light the torches lining the narrow footpath that led to the river and waterwheel.

   Seeing their approach, Michaela came trotting down the path. Her beaded blue shawl swung back and forth across her chest, keeping her ample bosom covered until Roman would gently remove it later that night.   

  “Mistress Kia, Master Alex!” the beautiful golden-haired centaur said as she galloped up to them and fell down on her front knees before them.

  “Michaela, your legs” Kia scolded, “you’re going to hurt yourself! Get up.”

  “As you wish,” she said rearing up with reverent slowness.

   “As I wish, no Michaela, you know better.” Kia dropped her feet to the ground. She habitually flew everywhere. It was easy; coming more naturally to her than walking, but it only strengthened the facade of deity she so wanted to dispel.

  “I know I breathe the clean air of Chimera because of you,” Said Michaela.

  “Stop,” Kia said as she turned took her hand, kissed it and lovingly combed her fingers through Michaela’s pale palomino hair flowing down until it became a thick golden mane. “I serve you, Michaela, we serve each other. Do you not remember our vow?”

  Roman clumped up to his wife nuzzling her neck, and whispered “Humor our Queen my sweet.”

   Michaela kissed his cheek, whispering, ‘very well’, as the four of them made their down the shadowy trail that crooked and twisted beneath the ancient oaks’ leafy rafters…

   Peter, Kress’ father and Tyndale one of the few surviving squirrel men had during this time met with Kian on the Common, where they sat on wooden rocking chairs, looking out over the sluggish surf.

  Though pleased to hear Kia and Alex were leading the Chimerans back to their former pastoral society by reestablishing their agrarian way of life, he could not help but notice some troubling shifts in their attitude toward Kia.

   Peter perched atop Kian’s right ear seemed the most changed.  Kian wished he could see the Sprite’s face as he chattered away about Kia and Alex…

   “I tell you Kian, the stormy day she left us, I must confess, I was glad to see her go. It only proves how foolish I was.”

  “Peter, you were grieving over Kress," Kian said, ", no one blames you.”

  “Yes,” said Tyndale, “pain embitters the tongue and fills the heart with darkness, no one is holding anything against you.”

“Most especially Kia,” Peter said, “if she had not flown away and you had not taken such good care of my precious Kress who knows how badly things might have turned out.”

  Tyndale of course could not hear Peter, but no matter, he already knew what he was telling Kian. “Your arrival in our world shredded the curtain of deceit our forefathers lived under. You gave us the truth and then you gave us a choice. You gave us freedom. For that we will ever be grateful.”

   Kian stood letting his chair continue to rock as if occupied by a ghost, “Grateful enough to share it with the Lunans?” He asked walking up to the railing and looking out over the purple skyline.  

 Tyndale reached out and stopped Kian’s chair, the creaking irritated his sensitive ears and then joined Kian at the railing. “Kian we too are Lunan. We rebirthed there. Of course they are welcome. Our past is dead because it was a lie. Our present is based on truth, not fantasy, just as theirs’ is.”

   “Do all Chimerans share that sentiment?”

  Kian could feel Peter tightened his grip on his ear. “Yes Kian," Said Tyndale," our time on Luna, opened our eyes as well as our hearts. The Lunans suffered under The Company’s lies and cruelty far more than we did. Now we must inform our King and Queen of our new neighbors soon arrival. They will be here shortly will they not?”

   Kian leaned toward Tyndale and laid his hand on his furry gray shoulder. “Yes, yes they will. So Kia and Alex are now your Queen and King?” His tone betrayed his disappointment, which was not lost on Tyndale or Peter.

  “You don’t approve,” Tyndale said bluntly, “of course you don’t. Well our hearts have settled the matter. As you are our God, they are our royalty. Not even you can change the way we feel or believe. You do understand.”

  “We damaged you,” Kian said, trembling in his helplessness, “we hurt you but we can’t heal you, not of that!”

   “Good,” said Peter. “That is very good.”

   Off to the right just above the tree- fringed ridge Kian’s ship Penelope began to radiate a soft white glow as the sun finally sank behind the churning sea and allowed the night to spread her charcoal shroud.

   Kian watched it glow against the black as did Tyndale and Peter, taking no small comfort in the giant dove like craft's' heavenly appearance.

    And as they watched it glow Penny watched them, unseen high above and disembodied. She was truly Kian’s daughter now. The transformation was even now mixing her DNA with Kian's DNA making her a thought transmitter as well as a super being, something Kian had not anticapted and could not undo...