All sentient life is connected. The appendages may be different, we may eat different things, and live in different universes, but at the end of the day, we’re all one big family.
It’s time to explore the branches of the multiversal family tree, and today, we present:
(Node 2 Talj Junction Earth Year 2044)
Amazing Alius and the Masters of the Universe
– Issue 2 – Deep in the Rainforest
The planet Wiis has many continents that are inhabited by the three dominant species of the planet, the Rhasdwiis, the Hafjeris, and the Bromeris. The Northern Hemisphere of Wiis has large mountain ranges and hilly lowlands, the Southern Hemisphere is dominated by tropical rainforests. The foliage of Wiis is shades of red.
Whadgaf Jiris hacks at the dense foliage of the jungle with a machete to uncover the trail to a base camp of the Weris Sharp deep in the rainforest. She wears guards on her arms and legs, and enough, but her wings and the light layer of feathers that grow at her back and shoulders protects her from the blood sucking insects, so they are exposed. The foliage is thick, and even though she hacks enough to make room enough to move, the vines and leaves and branches still slap at her limbs and her body as though the foliage is alive and hostile to her presence. She moves swiftly despite the hostility of the jungle and she sighs when she finally slows enough to check on the Earther who had been following her eagerly at the onset.
“Are you still there?” she shouts over her shoulder.
“Yes!” Ali calls from a distance.
“What are you doing? You don’t want to get lost in this forest. Everything looks the same when you aren’t familiar with it. If you get lost, I will not look for you and you will be lost to the forest forever.”
“Just a moment then, I’m trying to figure out what this is,” Ali shouts again from a distance.
“Whatever it is, it will probably kill you. Leave it and come now. I want to be out of these woods and at the camp, I don’t want to be in this forest for longer than I have to. The humidity is so much worse in this foliage.”
“I’ll bring it with me,” Ali says and she can hear him approaching her and when he emerges from the leaves, he has a snake-bat in one hand, its long, thick tail wrapping his forearm. The body of the snake-bat is about the size of a football and Ali hold it at his side against his T-shirt that is soaked with his sweat, but despite that, the snake-bat seems to nestle against him. It makes subtle cooing noises like it is very comfortable, and its face is happy. Even with its large flat nose that looks like its exposed skeleton, and the sharp fangs that hang from its mouth, and its beady black eyes, it looks very happy next to Ali.
“What are you doing?” Whadgaf asks again, but this time she seems to be more angry and a little afraid for Ali. “Those things are poisonous, their bite and the stingers on their tails.”
“Stinger?” Ali asks and he shifts the cooing snake-bat to find the tip of the tail.
“When they get defensive, the stinger emerges. I’ve never seen one outside of the caves, and so docile, it looks like it loves you.”
“He’s a cute little guy,” Ali says and lifts the snake-rat to his face. He babbles at it like it is a baby and it seems to laugh and smile at him.”
“Bring it with you if you want, let’s get going.”
They continue through the forest and after a while, Ali asks, “Why didn’t we just fly again? It might have been faster to fly over the trees and cut our way down.”
“Because you can’t find the Sharp camp from above. To find the Sharp, we will have to descend into the caves, but the entrance can only be accessed underneath a waterfall. We have to find the river that we can’t see from the sky, and it will lead us right where we want to go. There it is,” Whadgaf says and points to the river that is barely visible from their position, but Ali hears the sound of it in the distance.
Whadgaf hacks a path to the river and they follow it for what feels like hours to Ali before they arrive at a cliff where the water rushes over. The snake-bat had left Ali for a while, presumably to eat or use the bathroom, but it finds him again when he and Whadgaf stare over the edge of the cliff as the water rushes loudly over the edge.
“Now we fly,” she says and falls over edge into the misty spray of water.
Ali looks at the snake-bat who stares up at him with wide eyes.
“You got wings, you don’t need to look so worried.” Ali fell over the side of the cliff and he felt the tail of the snake-bat tighten on his arm, but soon he was levitating through the mist looking for Whadgaf. He levitated through the current of water falling over the cliff, using telepathy to prevent the water from washing away the snake-bat and drenching him.
“Down here!” Whadgaf yells over the sound of the water and he sees her standing on a stone ledge. When he lands, she points, then leads him into a passageway in the stone, and Ali can feel them descending. Soon they arrive at a dark hole in the stone floor.
“After you,” Whadgaf says, but before they can move, something flies up, out of the black hole and the snake-rat on Ali’s arm begins to shriek and hiss.
A Hafjeris male carrying a Rhasdwiis female with beet-red skin and wearing taters of fabric over her chest and waist hover over the entrance.
“What have you brought to the Sharp caves, Whadgaf?” the Rhasdwiis female asks. She is angry and glares at Whadgaf. “You have broken our rules too many times. You have left us no choice but to kill you.”
Ali is about to make a move to protect Whadgaf, but something grabs him and he feels a sharp pain in his neck before his vision starts to blur. Before he passes out, all he hears are the hisses of the snake-bat.
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