Number 965

Part II: Earth III

"People." My voice got lost in the wind but everyone got the idea and we started to move. The ground was rough and covered in rubble but we moved with such speed and agility it didn't matter. Over fallen buildings and under reminisce of bridges and tracked across the dead landscape until Rupert stopped us and pointed. Just around the next building, there was a large group of people. They were all so brightly colored that after seeing nothing but brown rust, old grey building and the red sun for a week it was almost hard to look at.

"Wow." Sam smiled.

"Never in all of my days." Ethan sat down at the edge of the building so he could just peek around the side. We stood behind the building and watched as they finished their discussion and began to move in the direction of the dead forest.

"Come on." I lead us a bit further away and then down the same way they were going.

"Why don't we just go and talk to them?" Caleb whispered when we paused behind some rubble.

"I don't know if they are friendly yet or not." I tried to sound confident but I really just didn't know how to approach these people that I didn't even ken existed until barely five minutes ago.

"Okay." He but sounded unsure, we continued on but I lost sight of the group of people after a few minutes of stumbling over gravel. They just moved too fast through the ruin.

"I can't see them anymore." I sighed stopping and sitting down.

"Neither can I ." Tim scanned the landscape.

"Well, I kind of know what way they went. That direction more or less, so we could follow behind and see if we can find anything." Echo offered heartily, gesturing to the woods.

"Yeah," I smiled and took a small sip of my dwindling water. We begin to walk on in the general direction of the tribe of people went when a girl drops down from the building in front of me. Her hair was pin straight and bright orange it fell to her knees, she had red hand prints on her face and on her bare arms, her clothes were a strangely tattered sort of mix between cloth and plant weaved together to make clothing that I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Her eyes were discolored and they seemed to have a hard time deciding what colour they were, green, purple, brown, yellow, blue. She was tall and angular all of her features were sharp, pointed and purposeful.

"Why are you following my hunting party." Her voice was thick with an accent and sounded strange, she motioned behind us were a large group of people had formed silently. They all had strange hair of bright colour, wore the strange clothes and carried dangerous weapons. I stepped forward wiping my sweating hands on my pants.

"We didn't mean to be sneaky." I took a deep breath and looked carefully at our strange new companions. "We are very lost." I continued in a cautious tone raising my hands in surrender.

"I can see that." The girl moved closer to me, her hair flying in the light breeze, and bent down so her face was right in mine. "What is your name little person?" she boomed.

"Ari, Miss and..." I trembled.

"Ari." She stood back and up to her full height. "Why then Ari do you lead your companions here?" She gestured around her. "This is my tribe's territory." her voice was cold and calculating, "Which tribe are your from." Suspicion was creeping into her voice.

"No, no tribe Mam. We're... we are from.." I began to point to where I believed the base was located but she cut me off.

"Oh, I see." She scans our little group. "Take them with us." She snapped and the others in her group burst into action. We were suddenly grabbed by a colorful tribe member and steered off down the street. The people lead us into the dead forest that was so many different shades of the brown that I didn't know there were so many shades of one colour. We had only gone a short way before I caught a glim's of A camp That was as vibrant and full of colour as the people were. The tents were made of cloth and wood, and were bright greens, reds, and purples. Clothing hung on lines flashing pinks and blues and smoke rose from fires in yellows and oranges. The whole village made the brown forest seem even duller. As we walked into the village people came out to see us. The women all had long hair of amazing colours and the children danced in and out from behind tents their bright green clothes catching the sunlight and standing out from the brown dust. Men wore black standing out against the bright colours. We were lead into a small tent near what seemed to be the middle of the village and shut inside. I could hear people outside talking in a strange language and in our language.

"What is this place." Echo was staring at the tent we are in. "It is so beautiful." The tent was blue and had many carpets on the ground and beads made of wood frames with odd matrasses. There was a fire in the middle of the tent that let yellow smoke up and out of an opening at the peak of the roof.

"It is incredible" Caleb mused "I don't really understand how these people survived."

"I know." Ethan was breathless.

"How is this for people." I joked nudging Ethan's shoulder, he grinned faintly but it it was pained and forced. I wandered around the tent thinking while Sam lay down on one of the beds and everyone else found little spots to make themselves comfortable. The carpets were weaved impeccably and I couldn't get my mind around the idea of these people who live out on the surface of this little sun-scorched planet could make such beauty and had survived this long. A rustling came from the tent door and the lady who had brought us in the city entered.

"The Chief will see one of you now." She had to duck to fit into the tent but stood at her full height and looked down on us. "He is looking for a story and will want a good one." She scanned us and looked right into my eyes. "You wouldn't want to disappoint him." there was a menacing pause, "I will be waiting outside sent the best storyteller out. Only one." She turned her orange hair billowing out behind her as she exited.

"Air you should go." Caleb touched my arm softly.

"What?" I looked around frantically "You all know I crack under pressure."

"No you don't that is such a lie." Echo smiled sweetly at me. "You speak like your mother. Your stories are enchanting and you know it."

"Yeah, my fake ones."

"You will do fine besides your the leader now." Ethan stood looking down at me. "You will be fine. We all need to take risks to get to where we need to be. Besides we can't send Caleb now can we." He smiled and gave me a small push and I stumbled through the tent opening.

"Follow me." Her voice was curt and she took off quickly through the city I had to run to keep up with her long strides.

"Where are we going." I tried to ask her but she doesn't respond so I stayed quiet until we reached a tent much larger than the others that have green smoke coming from its roof. "The Chief." She halted and pointed into the tent. "Try not to stare." I looked at her confused and entered the tent cautiously. The room was huge but much duller than anything we had seen in the village. All of the colours were muted and dull, the reds more of a pink and the pinks more white The blues had faded to almost nothing and the yellows were just a stain. In an old armchair next to the little fire was an ancient man. I assumed that this was the chief he wasn't impressive in a way that he was tall or strong or warlike, he was impressive in a way that was humbling. He was so old and wore torn that I felt like I was looking into the great past just by looking at his face. As he stood I found that he wasn't much taller than I was mostly because he was so hunched over he almost parallel. If he were able to stand at his full height he would have towered over me like most other people did. His back was so bent with age and hard labor that he needed a crooked walking stick so he could get around. His one eyes were so dark brown it was almost black and the other wasn't a real eye at all. It was a strange white glass like a ball that didn't quite fit in his eye socket properly, it was painted with a light blue iris and stared at me unblinking. His skin was dark with the sun like the rest of the people here and his face was covered in deep wrinkles. There was one thick scar that slashed across his face. it went from his forehead through his glass eye across the edge of his nose and into the top of his lip . When he smiled it was a crooked old man smile that showed his lack of teeth and bright pink gums.

"Come in." He gestured to a chair near the small table "I am so looking forward to your story."

~~~~~

"And now we are here" My eyes turn to the chief as I finish my story.

"Well, that was very nice." His voice was cool and airy.

"I wouldn't really call it nice, it was more traumatic actually." I turn away from him to face the tent opening.