The Essence Within Ch. 03

Hearing the crash, she looks to the north to see a plume of dust and smoke rising from the forest. Not knowing what to make of it, she decides to investigate the phenomenon. Making her way, she comes upon a scar in the ground never before seen. You can see how the tops of the trees are broken, then at an angle it's like they are shaved off until it reaches the ground. From there it continues along the ground for 100 feet where she sees the strangest thing. It appears to be a very large black box shaped object. As she approaches the object she notices that one section of it is slanted from about the middle of it to the top. She also starts to notice strange markings on it as well.

Walking around the side to the back of it, she jumps with a start as she hears a sudden rush of air and a whirling sound. At which point the whole side of it begins to move. She quickly rushes for some cover not knowing what to make of it. When it finishes moving she see something moving around inside of it. She notices it's a biped and it's hurt.

***

Jonathon finally comes to after the crash. He looks around but making sure not to move too quickly as his head hurts like hell. He realizes the ship is sitting upright but looking at the instrument panels he's filled with dread. The damage to the ship is massive and the computer is offline. He will need some titanium sheet metal and wiring to start with. He won't know the extent of the repairs needed until he goes outside to survey the damage the engines.

Making his way to the back of the ship, he hits the override and opens the hatch. As it's lowering he thought he caught a glimpse of something but quickly dismisses it, he needs to survey the ship. He moves to exit the ship but as he starts down the ramp, a wave of dizziness hits him, he stumbles, falls, and passes out again.

***

Watching as he tries to exit the object, still not knowing what it is, she sees him stumble and fall. Forgetting her fear she rushes to him, noticing the red fluid on his head and the gash by what appears to be his left ear she knows that it's blood. She drags him off the ramp and onto the ground carefully keeping half an eye on the cave he came out of not knowing if there are others with him. She opens her pouch on her hip and removed a bandage. She places it over the gash on his head applying pressure to try to stop the bleeding. With her other hand she takes a strip of leather and ties it around his head to hold the bandage in place. Once she is satisfied with the bandage she quickly scans him for any other injuries. She mumbles a phrase and his wounds start to heal with the exception of his head wound. Not seeing any, she shifts her attention to him in general. Sensing there's something special in him, she focuses more intently on the clothing he's wearing. As she leans in to take a closer look, he moans.

***

Jonathon is coming around again, he remembers opening the hatch and trying to exit the ship then nothing. He realizes he passed out again. "Damn, must have hit my head pretty hard." He thinks to himself. The next surprise he gets is noticing he's not on the ramp of the ship but lying on the ground several feet from the ship. He can also feel something on his head. He opens his eyes seeing her for the first time. She appears to be about 5 foot 2 inches tall with red hair and green eyes. She's of medium build and fairly easy on the eyes. The only thing he notices different about her is the wedge shaped ears, at least from what he can tell.

She looks at him and sees the faint greenish glow to his eyes though his eyes are the same shade as hers.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" she asks not knowing if he will understand her.

Surprised he can understand her, then quickly remembering the translator he replies "I don't think so."

Now it's her turn to be surprised. "You can speak my language yet look nothing like us."

"That's true." he thinks, she reminds him of an elf he read about it a book back on Earth.

"I have a translator that allows me to understand your language and speak to you." He states as though it doesn't matter to him.

"What is a translator?" She asks sounding out and clearly not understanding the word.

"Ah, never mind let's just say I know your language." Realizing she's a primitive yet knowing he's not going to be able to keep the information of where he comes from a secret for long.

She moves off to start building a fire.

"I don't plan on being here long enough for a fire."

"You are very pale and obviously cold, you are in no condition to move let alone travel." She says continuing to prepare a fire.

"I'll be fine." he says as he tries to get up. As soon as he lifts his head a wave of nausea and dizziness hit him. "Whoa." he lets slip as he rests his head back on the ground. "Maybe she's right, might as well find out what I can about this planet and population." he thinks.

"My name is Jonathon. Where are we?" he asks.

"My name is Striya; we are located in the forest to the west of my temple." She replies.

"Your temple, are you a priestess?"

"I was, now I'm a Paradigm."

Jonathon notices the look of sadness in her eyes and surmises something happened at the temple.

"You should rest, and it's going to be dark soon. We can head to my temple in the morning." she says.

The next morning, Jonathon wakes up before Striya. Feeling much better he tries to get up. No dizziness strikes him so he stands up. After a couple minutes with no adverse effects, he heads towards the ship. Once inside he gathers some of his belongings to take with. He heads back outside to survey the damage to the ship. As he walks down the ramp, he sees Striya starting to stir about to wake up. Ignoring her he needs to know how bad it is. As he finishes checking the ship over Striya walks up to him.

"How's your head this morning?" she asks.

"Fine." he says as he continues looking over the ship.

"What are you doing?" curiosity getting the better of her.

"I'm checking to see how bad the damage is to this." After a moment of silence he slams the cover back in place. "Crap, where in the hell am I going to find the parts I need to fix this."

"Do you need metal type things?" she asks.

Surprised by her yet again he asks. "Do you know where I can find some?"

"My temple was attacked, I was out here looking for them when I heard a crash in the forest and saw the smoke. If we head back to my temple you might be able to find some clues as to where they went. I believe they might have what you need as I have never seen the weapons they have used before." Striya states full of emotion.

"Hmm, you might be right. Okay lets head to your temple."

After packing up the camp, they begin heading towards the temple. Shortly after the ship is out of sight, a group of three men step out from hiding to confront Jonathon and Striya.