Chapter 39 The Lost Diary

“If you could do it on Earth, you can do it anywhere.” He answers a bit too loud for our leader’s liking.

“Is there anything you’d like to add, Izumrud?” Yasen’s eyes are fixed on my newly found friend.

“N-no, sir…” Stutters Zumi.

I could add about my ability to track people just to distract angry Yasen from annihilating Zumi on the spot. I remove my hands from Zumi’s tentacle-tight grip, put them in my pockets for courage, if anyone ever found it there, and get up slowly.

“Actually, I can…” Suddenly I feel something in the right pocket of my shirt. Something that was not there before. Neither was it supposed to be there. “I’m able to…” I pull that something out of the pocket, and it is a leather book with a dried up flower glued to the cover.

I distinctly remember it as a diary I found in my mother’s stuff over two decades ago. Everyone is looking at me. Moro’s face is sarcastic and resentful. I can’t read their minds but he is clearly sending me only one word: “Loser!”. Others are less spiteful about it, their emotions ranging from disdain to pity.

Zumi is the only one who is looking at me with utmost compassion. The heavy feeling of shame and fear envelops me, while my hands are opening the diary all by themselves.

“Domiarn, speak up!” Orders Yasen.

Instead I look down at the diary and read a passage, written in uneven lines in childish handwriting: “I was gathering herbs on the meadow. He walked out of the forest. It was a man, but he looked very strange. He was dressed in an unusual one-piece suit and weird shoes. His face did not look like any of ours, maybe because his eyes were so piercing and intelligent.

Before I could scream in fear, he touched my forehead and I heard his voice in my mind: “Please help me. Can you hide me in your house?” I could’ve said “No”, he was not forcing me at all, but my lips said “Yes”, I don’t even know why. I took him home. He suddenly spoke my language. He said his name was Ari.”

I start shivering at the realization of the importance of this lost piece of my mother’s life.

“Gotta go” I say and walk out of the building.

“You’re not allowed to leave!” I hear Yasen’s disgruntled voice behind, but it no longer matters. The diary enchants me with it’s spirit to the point where I start crying. How could I have overlooked that? How was it possible for me to forget about it?

Ari’s name, written on a piece of paper by the hand of an unknown woman is burning my mind, as I take a path of light-colored sand, and walk away briskly. The forest appears to be large, but not dark. I can see tree trunks everywhere, some other growth here and there, and then I suddenly feel lost.

Someone is running down the path and my heart sinks with fear. I’ve only been here a couple of hours and already broke all kinds of rules of obedience. Clearly, Yasen controls his people with an iron fist and I’m probably going to get it now. Clutching the diary, I do not dare to turn around.

“There you are!” Someone hugs me from behind.

I turn my head and it’s Zumi.

“He is mad at you for disrupting the meeting. But… thanks for covering up for me.”

Zumi takes my hands in his and I feel the hot wave of desire.

“Let’s go back then!” I try to break away, but he only holds me tighter.

“Yes… In one second… You’re so lovely!” His eyes begin glowing with dangerous fire and he covers my face with kisses.

“What are you doing? I belong to Yasen, he’ll kill us both!” I whisper, unable to resist anymore, wondering how could I have crashed down the slippery slope of chemically-induced love so fast?

He pushes me against a tree whose foliage moves around us in quizzical patterns. I only hope the tree is not angry. How many alien creatures can I piss off in one day?!

The neurotoxin gives me the regular euphoria, but this time the feeling is somewhat true to what I actually experience with Zumi. His green eyes glisten with tears of adoration, and his face is sweet and peaceful. His hands are thin, but very muscular, as he squeezes me tight in his embrace.

“One more second… Just one more… kiss…” He whispers.

At this moment the tree behind me starts moving its foliage at an alarming rate. In time I’ll learn to discern the language of these tree-resembling creatures, but now all I know is that we’re in trouble.

“Let him go!”

I finally tear myself away from Zumi and see Yasen walking down the path towards us.

“We’re so profoundly screwed, my friend.” I say, preparing for the worst.

“Get away from him, Izumrud!” Yasen comes to me and looks into my eyes intently, penetrating my mind. “Did he hurt you?”

“No… I don’t know what happened… I did not let him kiss me at first, but I collapsed into…”

“It’s his sweat glands, Demi! He’s been rubbing your hands during the whole meeting!”

“Ohhh…” Too high to think, I slide down the tree. I’m so dizzy, but I still hold on to the diary. It was a marvelous ride, though. I don’t care what happens next.

What happens next is I pass out. The last thing I hear is Zumi’s apologetic tirade and Yasen yelling at him for “overdosing” me.

I have a dream of Ari in a small village house of a young girl and her mother. He wears a one-piece suit, as he sits at the table with this girl. They smile at each other, while the girls’ mother looks at them with disapproval.

Ari has long, beautiful eye-catching blonde hair. In all my dreams and visions I see him with this type of hair, but this time it is vividly white. As if I’m looking at him through the eyes of this village girl. He sure is extravagantly handsome for the small peasant dwelling. This girl is already head over heels in love with him.

She feels fortunate. He feels stuck, in need of shelter and help for him and his crew.

She’s been lonely for too long, she wants romance. He is too grateful to turn her down.

They get up and go to her bedroom. Her desire is fulfilled in a beautiful, riveting scene of lovemaking.

I wake up with a startling revelation that I can download images directly from the diary, and that the girl who wrote it was Leozarit’s mother. Ari crashed on Earth. Walked out of the forest. Found a girl collecting herbs. Went to her house and lived there for 19 years. Leozarit was born. The rest is history.

I look around. I must be inside of one of these domes, because the room has a round concave ceiling. It’s quite big with whitish walls. I notice a remarkable lack of furniture. I’m laying on the floor on some cloth with my back to something cold.

I try to get up, and that something moans quietly. I jump up with an unpleasant feeling of fear. Apparently I was laying against a big slab of black stone. It makes the same moaning sound as I touch it’s smooth surface, surprised to see it here.

Yasen walks into the room with a concerned face.

“I’m delighted to see you alive!” The ederi says.

“Will you forgive Zumi for loving me?” I blurt out the first thing that bothered me even in my dream.

“How do you feel?” He offers me to sit down again, and for a good reason. I start feeling dizzy.

“There is nothing to forgive.” Yasen sits on a cloth by my side. “It’s natural for us to crave humans. Each of these idiots… I mean, my leaders, covets after you. They all imagine themselves being Leot with his humans, so to speak. Zumi is just the fastest and the sneakiest of them all!”

“He is cute, though…” I muse, remembering those beautiful bright green eyes.

“Zumi is a soft-hearted loser. I would’ve expelled him out of the council, but he controls the whole Northern seashore, and his people adore him! You can date him if you want, I don’t care. Let’s deal with our problem first!”

I pause, wondering if I should tell him about my dream, and if it has any importance, when I feel the cold draft on my face and Immaul appears in the air in front of us.

“Did it work?” He asks Yasen.

‘Did what work?” I bite my lip in irritation, feeling like everyone knows more that I do.