(Previously on Immortal Wars.)
(Small tidbit: At the time, I thought calling this spot the ‘game room’ was genius. Why did I think this? I was 15 and didn’t get out much.)
Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school. I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books. That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins. FYI- I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day. Enjoy!
In the game room, Miracle and Infinity have been spending the past hour and a half enjoying the many games that are at their disposal. The six-limbed, robotic cook stands behind the bar whistling an alien song to itself and preparing the food that it’s two visitors had just ordered. Miracle had discovered an interesting holographic chess game that allowed the game pieces to fight like they were real people and also defend themselves against the attacks. Infinity had decided to play a laser warfare game in the arena that filled the entire game room with loud, echoing noises.
“Aren’t you done with that loud game yet!” yells Miracle over the sound of laser blasts and minor explosions. She notices that her friend had not heard her complaint, so she calmly walks into the middle of the arena. A golden laser pistol suddenly appears in her hand and she begins to shoot down the scattered army of holographic enemies. In a matter of a few seconds, all of the holograms are lying on the ground and only the two immortal teenagers are left standing.
“I didn’t need your help!” exclaims Infinity after the guns disappear.
“Who was helping? I just wanted to stop that obnoxious noise. You should have turned the volume down when I asked.”
“Oh. Sorry about that. I didn’t know it was so loud. The computer gave me some noise dampeners, so it sounded low to me. I just gotta ask you one question, Miracle. How did you win so easily?”
“Oh, please. Both my dad and my older brother were in the Marines, so they brought me to the firing range when I turned fourteen. Of course, my dad never let me go there without him and my brother kept warning me about using guns. You know, just so I wouldn’t do anything foolish and stupid.”
“You be foolish and stupid? Never. Let’s go see if the food is ready.” As Infinity turns around, Miracle slaps him upside the head for the sarcasm. A similar shot hits Miracle a few seconds later and Infinity gives her a cunning smirk.
“Don’t start with me, boy. I’ve kicked your ass before and I can do it again,” threatens Miracle.
“Calm down, Kelly. You don’t have to prove that you’re tough. We all know it. So, just calm down and be peaceful. You really have to get control of that temper.”
“I’m trying. But I’m just being playful. You’re my friend. My pal. We always roughhoused before. Remember when we were kids and we were goofing off. You broke my leg and I broke your nose. That was all in good fun.”
“Until we ended up in the hospital. But we aren’t kids anymore. We’re not even human beings. Not anymore. We’re immortals and we should start acting more mature. That means no hitting your friends.”
“Fine. I promise not to hit you unless you deserve it. At least I still have Hydrana to have fun with. She always gives me a reason to hit her.”
Infinity shakes his head before saying, “We’ll work on that. Now, let’s get some food. I’m starving.”
The two guardians go to one of the many black tables that are in the room. As they sit at the freshly cleaned table, a flying robot places two plates of strange looking food in front of them. Their alien breakfast resembles waffles, but they’re multicolored and the side orders look like decaying roadkill.
“Uh. This definitely looks . . . interesting. You try the smoking black whatever and I’ll try the waffles,” whispers Miracle. As they each taste the two sections of the interplanetary cuisine, they show very different reactions. Miracle starts to smile once she swallows the piece of waffle. On the other hand, Infinity nearly throws up because of the foul taste that hits his taste buds.
“The waffles are pretty good. Tastes like a bunch of different wild berries that have been mashed together. Although, it’s a little on the dry side,” says Miracle, so she takes tiny sips of a yellow drink that is placed in front of her. Once the liquid hits her tongue, it starts crackling like a group of firecrackers and she jumps out of her seat.
“Yuck! Whatever this stuff is, it tastes a lot worse than it looks,” mutters Infinity as Miracle sits back in her chair. Her wild hair is letting a few sparks fly into the air. Infinity doesn’t notice and devours the colorful waffles, but the disgusting taste remains strong in his mouth.
“But that is exactly what you ordered. Neptunian berry waffles with a side of Tiberian bacon and Korlanian firecracker juice,” explains one of the robotic waiters.
“Tiberian bacon? Let me take a wild guess here. This bacon isn’t made from a pig, is it?” asks Infinity. He gulps down his crackling drink in hopes of the awful taste disappearing, but it still stays in his mouth. It does give his entire body a full glow and causes him to get knocked off his seat.
“Of course not. There have never been any kinds of pigs on Tiber. The long dead inhabitants of that moon made the bacon from a rotten tasting lizard. Now that I think of it, most of the Tiberians did not have any taste buds and therefore could eat any kind of horrible tasting food imaginable. As long as it was food and could be digested.”
“Thanks for mentioning that little bit of information. Of course, it would have been better if you said that two hours ago!”
At that very moment, the game room’s door opens and Fate enters the room. He silently walks over to the same table as his friends. He attempts to order the same food that Infinity and Miracle were eating. Just as he was about to order the bacon the other two talk him into getting scrambled eggs.
“Your breakfast should be ready in a few minutes,” says the robot. It flies toward the bar in order to give the cook the new order.
“What was wrong with the bacon?” whispers Fate.
“Don’t ask. Just don’t ask,” mutters Infinity, who still tastes the disgusting lizard meat on his tongue.
“How did you sleep?” asks Miracle. She slides her chair over to her boyfriend and kisses him before he can answer. The potent firecracker juice is still crackling in her mouth, which makes for a very intense kiss.
“Wow. I feel great after that shock to the system. What have you been drinking, Miracle?”
“Some kind of alien drink called firecracker juice. I am definitely going to be drinking more of this stuff before I kiss you.”
“Lucky me. Have either of you seen Solix today? He’s doing that disappearing act again and I’m getting tired of it.”
“Not since yesterday’s afternoon training session. Is something wrong? Besides the fact that you hate doing the same stuff over and over again,” says Infinity.
“Nothing’s wrong. There are just some basic questions that I want to ask our mysterious host. Like, why the old guardians suddenly quit and what those evil immortals are like? There has to be a reason we haven’t been told this stuff.”
The airborne robotic waiter soon returns with Fate’s food and places it in front of him. The waffles are the same, but the scrambled eggs are speckled blue and red. Fate starts shoveling the food into his mouth while Infinity walks off toward the arena to restart the laser warfare game. The drink that came with Fate’s food is a shimmering pink one instead of the bright yellow one that Miracle asks to get refilled.
“Don’t worry yourself over things that are in the past. Just remember that we have a long future ahead of us,” whispers Miracle.
“Maybe you’re right. I could just be acting paranoid. But I’m still going to take an unscheduled look around the sun base. We are never allowed to walk around unless Solix is with us or SEAS is keeping an eye on us. I think something is being hidden from us and I want to know what it is,” replies Fate. He finishes the multicolored waffles and speckled blue and red eggs in a couple of quick minutes.
“Fine. Just don’t get into any unnecessary trouble.”
Fate gulps down his glowing, pink drink and gets up to leave. Just then, the black door hisses open and Hydrana walks in wearing her dark green guardian uniform and a very annoyed look on her face.
“It’s way too early for any of us to put up with her complaining,” mutters Miracle.
“Don’t I know it. I’ll see you later.”
“Wait. Don’t leave me with her.”
When the Neptune guardian takes a seat, she quickly orders an omelet with a voice that has an angry edge to it. Fate decides it’s the best time to leave because he’s really not in the mood to put up with the spoiled brat. He was having enough time accepting the fact that she would live forever.
“I hate this ugly uniform and this stupid sun base,” Hydrana announces as she places her head on the table.
“What are you talking about? These uniforms aren’t that ugly and I don’t see anything wrong with the sun base,” answers Miracle just to get under Delila’s skin.
“You would. I just do not like the color I got. My favorite color is violet. Not this gross, dark green. And, why did I have to be the one who gets this short skirt when the air conditioner is deep-freezing my bedroom as we speak? Anyway, Solix said immortals’ don’t feel pressure and temperature changes that much. But our bodies are still working on that part of the super powers. I hate being turned into an ice cube while I sleep.”
“How should I know about any of that? Besides, I would have liked to have the skirt. I mean, I do have much better looking legs than you.” A smirk crosses Miracle’s face when Hydrana’s head turns bright red.
“Don’t start with me, tramp. So, where was your boyfriend going in such a hurry? You tell him that you’re pregnant or something.”
“At least, I have the ability to have a child. Unlike you who isn’t even allowed into the human gene pool. If you must know, he went looking for Solix. He has a couple of questions for the old man.”
“As long as it doesn’t concern me, I don’t really give a damn right now. Here’s my food,” says Hydrana. Her food arrives and she is shocked by what she sees on the plate. The omelet she had ordered is yellow and violet spotted with a pulsating blob of thick, black slime on it.
“What is that . . .stuff? It looks like it’s alive,” whispers Miracle as she stares at the moving food.
“The food is not alive and it never was. It is a Titanian omelet. Is that not what you wanted?” asks the robot.
“I didn’t want this. I wanted an omelet from Earth. You know the kind that actually looks edible and won’t try to eat me!” yells Hydrana when her ability to speak returns to her gaping mouth. She throws the plate of food high into the air and deep freezes it to the metal ceiling. The startled robot quickly goes to get her new breakfast while Miracle looks at the frozen plate and starts laughing.
“It wasn’t that funny,” mentions Hydrana. But after a few seconds, she starts to laugh as well.
“Then, why are you laughing?”
“I’m allowed to change my mind. Did this food problem happen to you and Infinity this morning?”
“Yeah. I ordered waffles and they ended up being multicolored. Honestly, they didn’t taste that bad. But I think we should try to be a bit more specific with our orders from now on. A lot more specific. Unless we want to keep trying alien food that looks plain nasty.”
“No kidding. Of course, I think we should get a menu with pictures from SEAS because I don’t want to put up with this again. You want to play that chess game. I really feel like I can beat you this time.”
The two female immortals stay in their seats and play a few long games of holographic chess. During the game they start talking about the future and trade insults. They mostly trade insults because Hydrana accuses Miracle of cheating once every five minutes.
Many of us authors spend a lot of time seeking out reviews. After all, a review can be very helpful to readers and validate our books. A glowing four or five star review can also make your day we. Reviews can also be hard to generate but they are gold when received. Personally, I should probably do more to seek them from bloggers than I have. It’s something else to work at in my spare time, spare time being twist of words for me these days.
Legends of Windemere 