Razing Pel

Chapter 6: The Second Help

CHAPTER SIX

THE SECOND HELP

            Kaj awoke in a strange cave on a bed.  He was in a poorly lit room with just a candle burning on the small stand next to the bed.  Kaj leaned forward and noticed that his empty backpack and his sac, which contained his dagger, were on the floor near his feet.  He reached down and put both of them on before heading out the same doorway to another room.

            "Where am I?" Kaj questioned as he walked into a larger cave room.  There was a long desk with a mess of papers over by the corner of the room.  Another bed was opposite of that.  The room was brighter than the room he was just in.  Kaj looked to the right of him to see a cloth covering another doorway.  He walked over to the desk of papers and started looking around.  He picked up one of the papers.  "Nosidda?"

            "Hey!" A voice yelled out.  Kaj jumped, dropping the paper, and looked over to see an older human enter from the doorway that was covered, which led to outside.  The man had a long gray beard and was absent from hair on top of his head.  He wore a dirty white t-shirt with a gray vest over it.  The man was also extremely skinny.  His hands and face had dirt on them.  What really shocked Kaj was that his legs were not organic but mechanical.  His legs were rusted and squeaked when he made his way over to Kaj.  The knees bent backwards with big circular platforms instead of feet.  "These are my private research papers."

            "Sorry," Kaj said, backing away from the man as he shuffled around the papers.  "Uh, not to be rude but, where exactly am I and who are you?"

            The man turned and saluted to Kaj.  "My name is Phos," the man said.  "Former Captain of the Galactic Soldiers."  He brought his arm down.  "I found you out in the desert, collapsed.  When I brought you here I thought you wouldn't make it."

            "Uh, thanks," Kaj said.

            "No thanks needed," Phos said as he went back to shuffling around the papers.  "Ah, here it is!"  He turned and faced Kaj again.  "Come with me.  I want to ask you a few questions."  The man led Kaj back into the room he just came from.  "Take a seat on the bed."  Kaj sat back down on the bed as Phos pulled over a chair.  "So, you know my name.  What's yours?"

            "My name is Kaj, sir," Kaj said.  Phos placed the piece of paper on a wooden board and started to write down what Kaj said.

            "Ok, where did you come from?"

            "I came from a small village that was located underground.  You know, to hide from the Oce."  Again Phos frantically wrote that down.

            "And you are a Daj, right?"

            "Yeah."

            "Fascinating!  You see, with the studies I have made while being out here, I can conclude that your species is a sub-species of human.  While being out here, I have found several dead Daj out in the wasteland.  I took in their bodies and began to study them.  Everything about them is similar to that of a human.  I'm not going to lie, I have dissected a few.  And from learning about the human body when I was in school, they are very similar in the way their bodies operate to that of a human.  Of course, there are some differences.  The height of your species, not to mention the bigger hands and longer fingers.  But other than that, I can say that our two species are somewhat related."