The Mantis Continuum - Book Four - 2. Chapter 2 - Thech & Jzuna, Part Two

Lonklam’s eyes fell on four life forms, and he honed in on the two photonova glands that were present. The bearded man with the tray of cookies looked shocked, and Lonklam thought he smelled most enticing. However, those wicked senses that allowed the monster to target his prey were not able to focus on the second photonova gland; he could only pinpoint one. Lonklam’s powers of deduction were much weaker than they once were, and two things drew his attention. He did not comprehend what he saw.

A small human-shaped figure was standing beside a hovering blob, and somewhere between them was the thing that would satiate his monstrous desire. Their photonova gland felt different than any of the others Lonklam had consumed over his years of addiction, and he wanted it.

The man with the beard also possessed the answer to Lonklam’s craving, but he was curious about the other photonova gland. There was something unusual and unique about it, and about the two weird entities.

There was also a woman on the patio, but Lonklam sensed nothing within her that could fill the void of his growing hunger. She screamed at the sight of the two monsters, and Lonklam lunged, but the patio behind the café was suddenly empty. The delicious-smelling bearded man, the two intriguing beings, and the woman had vanished.

Lonklam breathed the air. “They’re still here,” he growled to Ronging.

Thech and Jzuna, along with their mother and the owner of Weirdo Beard-O’s were all invisible, and the red-bearded man was trying to silently coax the other three back into his cafe, but then the air exploded. Bivon was so startled, he inadvertently turned off his power, and the four of them reappeared on his patio.

Jzuna was attached to Thech’s chest with her tentacles holding her firmly in place, and a radiance was coming from their three eyes.

The two monsters from Gunge were surrounded by what appeared to be a thin shell of fire.

“Don’t hurt our mama!” Jzuna’s voice roared from everywhere.

Lonklam’s gaze shifted to the woman behind the two children. He grabbed one of Ronging’s many arms, and Lonklam threw his fellow monster with all his might. Ronging passed through the flaming bubble, and he shrieked in agony as the radiation of Thech and Jzuna’s power burned into him, but his body penetrated and was beyond the sheen of energy in an instant.

Ronging crashed into the two adults like a wrecking ball. The bearded man was knocked back into a table, and he fell to the ground. Ronging’s impact with Kynpri was much worse. Her body was crushed beneath the monster’s strange form, and she was broken.

Jzuna wailed, “No!”

Together with her brother, their powers grabbed hold of Ronging and Lonklam, and it was as if the two monsters were fired from a giant invisible catapult. Ronging and Lonklam were sent rocketing up into the sky above the treetops, and their weird bodies hurtled deep into the forested mountains.

Jzuna detached from Thech’s chest, and they both turned to their mother.

The woman was in a bad state.

“Mama!” Jzuna cried.

Kynpri tried to reach out and touch her children, but her twisted body was in agony, and her limbs would not obey her commands. “I’m sorry,” she gurgled to them. “Come… come closer, my babies. I’m… I’m… I…” her voice was failing her. They reached out to hold her, and tears streamed from her eyes as the cool viscous ooze of her children covered her hands.

“No, mama!” Jzuna wailed.

Thech was moaning and stomping one foot.

“I love…” their mother faltered, forcing her words to come out. “I lo… love you both.” Her eyes shot to the owner of Weirdo Beard-O’s and she said in a pleading voice, “Bivon, please, we have… have no one… no family.”

He knelt by her side.

“Help my… my babies…” She coughed and blood splattered out of her mouth.

Bivon looked unsure and nervous, but he nodded and said, “I can take them. I know people who can help.”

Kynpri turned to her two children, and in a raspy voice, she said, “Go… with him. Thech, Jzuna, I love… you both. I’m sorry, I can’t…” but her voice failed. She turned her eyes to the bearded man.

“I can watch over them,” Bivon said quietly.

Thech and Jzuna’s mother looked with love at the faces of her unique children, and her life left her.

“Mama!” Jzuna cried.

The owner of Weirdo Beard-O’s left the children, locked his shop, and he rushed across the street. He knocked urgently on his neighbor’s door.

A moment later, two men who looked like they had just woken up opened it. They both seemed a bit surprised.

“Bivon?” one of them said to him. “What are you doing here? What’s wrong?”

“You’re bleeding!” the other added. “Please, come inside.”

“It’s not mine,” Bivon said. “There’s a body.”

The two sleepy men snapped into action.

“Where?”

“At the café.”

“Who is it?”

“A local woman whose kids are Bio-Shifts. Some sort of abominations came out of the forest and attacked the four of us on my patio.”

“What happened to the children?”

“I’m taking them to Tophilogin.”

“We’ll handle their mother’s body.”

“She’ll be honored.”

“Those poor kids.”

The two men followed Bivon to his café, and he unlocked it. They entered and the men froze at the sight of the strange children, and they were struck with how comfortable Bivon was with the unusual pair.

“I’m sorry, Thech and Jzuna,” he said gently. “We need to leave. I’m sorry,” he repeated.

“But mama,” Jzuna whimpered, and her voice came from the air all around.

“I know,” Bivon replied, “it’s terrible.” He looked at the corpse of the children’s mother and held back his tears. “Come with me, please,” he urged. “She’s gone. I’m so sorry, but there are other people like you who can help.”

He reached a tentative hand toward Jzuna, and he tried not to cringe as one of her slime-covered tentacles wrapped around his fingers.

“Come on, you two. Please, come with me.” He coaxed them away from their mother’s body and brought them outside, around his building, to where his old mobile beverage cart was parked. It had remained unused since he opened the café, and the top was covered in dry leaves.

Bivon took a breath, and he tried to speak with a positive tone of voice. “Thech, Jzuna, will you go on a trip with me?” He patted the cart. “I used to take this thing up the coast. I’ve got a lazy horse who can pull it for us. Will you come with me?”

He was surprised to have Thech respond to him.

The unique boy huffed a noisy breath, and he used his shoulder to nudge Jzuna where she floated, but her voice remained silent.

The children faced each other and there was a quiet moment.

Bivon watched them. “Kids, are you alright?”

They remained motionless and silent.

“Thech, Jzuna?”

Jzuna then spoke in a quiet voice. “Are you sure?”

Bivon turned back to ask what she meant, but Thech made a gentle hum noise.

“Okay,” Jzuna said. She rotated in the air, and her one weird eye looked at Bivon. “Okay,” she repeated.

He gave them a weak smile and tried to sound bright. “You may already know my name, from coming into Weirdo Beard-O’s, but in case you don’t, I’m Bivon. But you two can call me Beard-O, or if you’d like, I suppose you can even call me Weirdo,” he added with a kind chuckle. “Why don’t you bring me to your house so we can get some of your things for the trip; is that okay? I’ll feed the horse so he’s ready to go when we get back.”

It was still early morning, and the sun was slowly climbing in the clear sky, as the children brought Bivon up the path that led to their home outside of town by the creek. Once inside, Thech immediately climbed into the basin he used for a bed, and he started quietly moaning.

Bivon knelt beside him. “I’m so sorry, Thech.”

“That’s his bed,” Jzuna informed the man. Her voice sounded small.

“Should we take it for the trip?” Bivon asked gently.

“Yeah,” Jzuna replied, “we can sleep in it together. Can we bring my ribbons?” and her disembodied voice choked on a sob. “I like my ribbons.”

“You can bring anything you want,” Bivon replied. He leaned over Thech’s tub bed. “You’re not gonna be okay, not for a long time, my young friends. And you should feel all those feelings. Let yourself feel the hurt and the angry and the sadness; feel everything that comes up in your heart.”

“Thech has a really big heart,” Jzuna’s voice said from the air, and she sounded like she was crying. “Thech might be quiet, but he is so sweet. He’s the best brother!” Jzuna declared.

“He’s lucky to have you,” Bivon replied. “Can I pick him up in his tub? Will he let me?”

“He won’t mind,” Jzuna said miserably.

Bivon carried Thech all the way back into town with Jzuna floating beside them. Clutched in her tentacles was a bag containing a few of the children’s possessions. Bivon positioned Thech’s basin inside of the large traveling cart, and he secured it so that it would not shift during the journey.

“I’m sorry,” Bivon said down to the monstrous, slime-covered little boy, and he repeated himself to Jzuna. “I’m sorry, child.”

Bivon got his horse and hooked the animal to his cart, and before long, the three Shifts were starting on their journey. They were at the very southern end of the Great Southtrack, headed north.

The road out of the village led into the forest, and Hazel Cove was almost immediately out of sight. Their first day passed uneventfully, and just after sundown, the lights of Port Judy began to flicker through the trees.

A few folks enthusiastically approached Bivon to order teas or coffee, pleased to see the traveling vendor back in their village after being away for quite a while, but he informed them that he was fresh out of everything. He convinced his potential customers that he was headed to Teshon City in order to replenish his stock, and that he looked forward to serving them on his return journey.

Bivon parked his cart at the northern edge of Port Judy, out of the way and off to the side of the next leg of the Great Southtrack. Then he poked his head into the cart.

“Thech, Jzuna, are you two hungry?”

“No,” Jzuna mumbled, but Thech’s head popped up over the lip of his basin. His eyes were still rolled up in his head and his mouth still hung wide, but he was facing Bivon. He grunted once.

“I’m sorry,” Jzuna said to Bivon, but she did not say anything more.

“You have nothing to be sorry about, Jzuna. I know you’re sad, and there’s nothing that can take away your sadness. You don’t have to eat if you don’t want to.”

“We are hungry,” Jzuna replied. “It just feels like everything hurts.”

Bivon looked concerned. “Are you injured?”

“No, we’re both just… just sad.”

Thech let out a single moan, and Jzuna’s voice fell quiet again.

“Give me a few minutes to get some dinner going for us,” Bivon said. He sighed. The heartbreak he felt for the children’s loss had been weighing on his soul throughout the day, and he wished there was a way to ease their sorrow.

Bivon gave his horse some feed, and he organized a little circle of stones and collected kindling while the animal ate. After a few minutes, a fire was crackling merrily, and Bivon stuck a cast iron pan in the flames. He let it heat, then removed it and cracked four eggs onto the hot surface. They sizzled.

“Dinner’s nothing special,” he informed the children. “Just frying some eggs for us to put on slices of bread I baked yesterday. It’s a little crusty and should be nice. Jzuna,” he continued, “I’ve seen your mother help Thech with his drinks, does he need help with his food?”

“Only sometimes,” Jzuna replied. Her voice sounded empty. “You can just put his on a plate.”

“Jzuna, Thech,” Bivon said to them, “I’m so sorry she’s gone. Your mother was a remarkably compassionate woman.”

Neither child responded.

He decided to let them sit in silence.

The eggs were nearly done, and he used a spatula to gently flip them. He took the pan from the heat and let the eggs finish cooking as he sliced four thick pieces of dense bread. He placed an egg on each and put plates in front of the children. Bivon kept two eggs for himself, and he watched Thech and Jzuna as he ate. Each of them consumed their meals in different ways.

Jzuna stared at her egg and slice of bread, and they dematerialized and disappeared.

Thech appeared to struggle getting ahold of his food, and when he did, it seemed to take the unusual boy a significant amount of effort to get it into his sagging mouth. Once he succeeded, however, he chewed it up and rocked back and forth in a content way. He was also surprisingly tidy as he ate. After a few bites, both children’s dinners were gone.

Bivon took their plates and asked, “Did you two have any friends in Hazel Cove? Or family?” He could still hear their mother’s words in his head, We have no one, no family.

Jzuna answered Bivon in a quiet voice. “Mama used to let us play with our friends when we were Mai, but when we became Jzuna and Thech, the other kids’ mommies and daddies didn’t want them playing with us anymore.”

“I’m sorry that happened.” Bivon sighed. “There aren’t many of our kind in Hazel Cove or these other coastal towns, but up in Teshon City, there are lots of people like us. I lived there for a few years, and I made friends with many Shifts. Before I moved back to Hazel Cove, I’d even gotten to know a few Bio-Shifts, like you two.” He cleaned the slime left by Thech’s fingers off the plate. “Teshon City will be different.”

It was dark, and the unusual little boy climbed back into his basin.

“I think we’re just gonna go to bed,” Jzuna said.

Bivon was used to hearing her bright voice like chiming bells at his café. She had always been full of life and enthusiasm, and it crushed Bivon to hear her sounding so empty. “Okay, Jzuna,” he replied, “I’ll dim the lantern and let you rest. I’ll be out here beside the cart if either of you need anything. I hope you both sleep peacefully.”

Jzuna joined Thech in the basin, and she wrapped her many tentacles around his arms and legs and neck.

Bivon could hear Jzuna quietly sobbing and Thech groaning, and beneath the starry sky, the big red-bearded man was also brought to tears.