Support Refused

  Topaz Hauyn

  Daily life and security or alien item and curiosity?

  Nea lives in the rainforest. Large leaves cover her from nightly rain.

  A hard blue, foreign chip smashed through them. Nea never saw such an item.

  Nea's curiosity rise. Who made this? Shall she find out and leave the security of her group?

  An alien artefact smash through the peace of daily life in the rainforest.

  Nea looked down at her hand. She held the blue, circular chip between her thumb and index finger.

  With her other hand, she grabbed the stem almost at the treetop to avoid falling down deep onto the forest ground. Her feet were grounded perfectly on a branch, large enough to carry her weight.

  The cold, crafted metal felt foreign against Nea’s skin.

  She was used to rough surfaces, untouched by any tool.

  The color was something she hadn’t seen either in her life. The cool vibrant blue was a bit like the blue sky and completely different at the same time.

  Nea moistened her lips with her tongue.

  The dry air with the ongoing wind so high above the forest ground dried her lips and eyes quickly.

  Nea blinked several times.

  The sun burnt on her bare head, bleaching light strips into her dark brown, ear long hair.

  Normally she hid her hair in a tight bun.

  Today was different.

  Her hair, still full of leave remainders flew around her in the wind.

  Her bun was forfeit the second she opened her eyes this morning.

  Nea shook her head to move the strands out of sight. There was only the green treetops as far as she could see. Nothing special, nothing uncommon.

  She turned carefully on the branch she stood to look into the other direction, the one she came from.

  She shivered remembering this morning.

  She was in the middle of a wonderful dream when the blue chip brutally woke her.

  The blue chip smashed through the palm leaves Nea used as cover over her head during the nights. Usually the cover kept the nights rain outside and Nea dry. The weren’t made to hold a hard item trying to smash them.

  The cracking sound of breaking leaves had made Nea jump. Sleepy but ready to defend herself against one of the wild animals trying to snack on her or anyone of her group.

  From time to time, wild animals left the steppe and entered the forest, searching for easy game.

  Nea and her group were used to those attempts and ready to fight.

  Normally they won and got some delicious meat to eat, fur to make clothes, bones to make tools. Everything was useful.

  Out in the open they would never be able to hunt down one of those hunting animals. But in the forest …

  Nea touched her necklace with the toenails and the sharp tooth of the tiger she killed last year. It was her most precious possession. She used to cut everything with the toenails. It saved a lot of energy for her.

  Covered with water from the nights rain and pieces of palm leaves Nea had looked around, listening for more noises to give away the position of the attacker.

  It took her a while to realize, there was no attack.

  Searching for the origin of the noise and her broken palm leave cover, Nea finally found the blue chip. It laid next to the stone on which she had placed her head for the nights sleep.

  It shimmered blue.

  Now she stood on the highest place she could reach, the top of a forest giant and looked over the tree tops.

  It had felt like a good idea to climb up to look around.

  At least, Nea talked herself into this idea.

  She loved to climb and most of the days she was to busy searching for food or looking after the children of their group, teaching them survival knowledge.

  Her first intent had been to throw the blue chip away and return to her wonderful dream. But the moment the chip left her hand, it made an u-turn and returned to her, hitting her shoulder.

  All around Nea were tree tops, giving her the sense of standing in the middle of a green ocean.

  On the horizon the brown steppe winked at her, as if saying: “Bring the chip to me. Come closer.”

  Nea stood on the rough branch of the tree, feeling it’s patterned surface under her feet.

  She tried to see clearer what the steppe in the distance looked like. But the dry winds made her blink too much to recognize details.

  She listened to the concert of the birds.

  Even they sounded different so high from the ground. Lighter, funnier, happier.

  Nea wished to fly and sing with them.

  She sighted.

  There was no way to fly for her.

  She inhaled the scent of new leaves growing this high. This was a welcome contrast to the damp, rotten smells from old leaves and wood on the ground.

  The forest was too dense to allow the wind to breeze through.

  Nea inhaled deeply the fresh air.

  She felt the wind dry out her lungs too.

  Walking over to the steppe to find out if the chip belonged there sounded like the next logical step to Nea.

  She didn’t want to keep the chip that disturbed her sleep.

  But she couldn’t just throw it away either. Her shoulder still hurt. A little dark spot on her brown skin showed the point where the chip hit her.

  Not knowing its origin it could be dangerous for the forest keeping it. Especially, it’s touch made it foreign enough to safely assume, it didn’t belong here, as Rae, the first woman of her group had stated.

  Nea agreed with Rae on this point.

  But she differed with Rae on the way to get rid of the item. Maybe because Rae wasn’t hit by it.

  The urge to find the chips origin felt like a hunger in Nea’s belly. She had eaten well this morning, so it couldn’t be hunger for banana’s or berries.

  The rumbling in her belly and the calling from the steppe was surely the chips making.

  Nea took the chip between her teeth, holding it tight. It tasted strange to the tip of her tongue. The small side of the coin wasn’t as smooth as the top and the bottom. It was riffled rippled all around.

  With both hands free, she started to climb down the stem of the huge forest giant.

  She had carried the chip the same way climbing up. The taste on the tip of her tongue was still as strange as before. She couldn’t sort it out.

  It was a bit similar to the meat they ate, if they managed to hunt down an animal, but not quiet so. Meat was warm and juicy. The coin was cold and more intense in taste.

  The bark rubbed over Nea’s brown skin while sliding down. Some pieces broke off and tumbled down, rustling along their way. Some birds flew up by surprise, others stopped singing.

  The silence around Nea was only broken by more bark pieces that tumbled down while she climbed and slid her way down over the branches and twines.

  Slowly the scent of the fresh air and new leaves vanished.

  It was replaced by the smell of the ground coming up, reaching her like the fingers of the children she usually looked after.

  They liked to grab her, trying to get a ride on her arm. She understood pretty fine, that walking was hard work to the little ones.

  Most times she refused nonetheless. They had to train themselves. Being carried around wouldn’t help them develop their skills.

  Nea spit the chip out of her mouth into her palm and looked at it.

  Here in the dim light of the forest it’s color returned to blue. On the top of the tree it had been more of a black-blue.

  She turned the coin around, trying to find out how this color changing worked.

  The only thing she saw was the wet spot, where here tongue had touched the chip. It glittered a bit.

  Nea climbed over fallen stems and walked around young trees fighting to grow faster than their neighbors, to reach the light first.

  On her way to the steppe, she passed some of the groups members.

  None hold her back.

  She felt their curious glances. They stared at her hand, where she held the blue chip, which was too smooth to belong to the forest.

  Rae had made clear, after her dispute with Nea, that Nea was only welcomed to come back after getting rid of the alien chip.

  In the morning, when they gathered, everyone had stared at the chip. None had tried to touch it. Everyone stepped back clearly trying to avoid it.

  Nea wondered what the others felt, seeing the chip.

  Danger? Maybe a threat?

  Nea agreed with them. She felt the urge to get rid of it too.

  But not at any cost.

  She felt more like having to return the blue chip to the right place.

  Nea looked past the tree in front of her.

  Hiding her body behind the tree she glanced at the wide, brown soil with only a single tree every now and then.

  She felt uncomfortable thinking about the little cover those rare trees gave her out in the open of the steppe.

  There were some bushes between the trees, but they had rarely leaves. She could easily see through them even from her distant point of view.

  The light green, dray grass, didn’t spread even over the ground. Even if she tried to crawl, it wasn’t high enough to cover her.

  Nea turned the blue, smooth chip around in her hand.

  Where did it belong to? To which direction should she turn? Straight out into the open, or better following the border between the forest and the steppe until she found a clue of her target?

  Nea rolled her thoughts back and forth.

  She leaned closer at the stem, feeling the rough bark under her naked skin. It felt familiar. She lived in the forest all her live. Never had she left it before, except in her dreams.

  The birds who sung behind her sounded familiar. The sounds from the land in front of her was foreign.

  There was a rustling. It seemed to come from the dray wind, blowing through the grass.

  In the distance she heard some stomping. Maybe from a wild hunter, maybe from a drove of not so dangerous animals.

  Carefully Nea hid behind her tree. Trying to make herself invisible to everyone watching from the open land towards the forest border.

  Watching out to the open land made Nea feel very solitary and vulnerable.

  Everything looked different, sounded different, even the grass smelled different. It was neither the fresh scent she smelled high on the top of the forest giant looking over the treetops, nor the rotten smell from the forest ground.

  The open land smelled light and fresh, but not sprouting.

  It looked dry and hard.

  Nea looked closer. The many fissures in the ground spoke a clear language: The ground hungered for water.

  Nea wondered. In the forest it rained every day. She needed her palm leaves to stay dry during her nights sleep.

  The steppe looked like it rarely rained.

  It looked like she felt. Devastated, exiled, abandoned. Would she ever return to the forest? Would Rea allow her to come back?

  What a contrast by only going a step or two forward.

  Nea thought about how her day had changed by only one action: Picking up the alien item that smashed her night’s leaves.

  She would miss teaching the children and talking to her friends, no matter the fact, that they ignored her today. They were afraid.

  She was afraid too.

  Should she try to get rid of the chip again, by throwing it out? Maybe it would stay in the steppe and not flying back to her.

  Nea didn’t really believe it.

  The blue, smooth chip in her hand suddenly jumped a little bit.

  Nea grabbed tighter, then opened her hand.

  She hoped the chip would jump again. Jump out of her life like it jumped in.

  The chip felt hot. It jumped again.

  Nea’s hand jumped with it upwards and then to the left as if glued to it. She felt the pull to follow the jump. Follow it out into the open, walking along.

  Nea made a step to the side. Now she stood next to the tree instead of behind. She was visible to every eye that might hide and watch the forest border.

  Steps behind Nea rustled through the twigs and leaves laying on the soft brown forest ground.

  Nea looked over her shoulder.

  Rae, the leader of her group, stood in a bright spot. Rae’s eyes were black and felt like piercing arrows on Rae.

  Nea straightened and turned around. She held the chip tight, to avoid further jumping, but failed. Her hand was pulled to the side, trying to make her walk into the open again.

  “So you’re leaving the forest?”, Rae said.

  Nea nodded cautiously.

  What was Rae doing here? She normally never left the group. But Nea normally didn’t either, she reminded herself.

  Rae held out her hand with her sharp, thin stone on the open palm. The leader’s knife. A sun ray glittered over the edge which was sharp enough to cut through skin.

  Was Rae going to mark her as an outcast? But the knife was held wrong to do so.

  Nea stared at the hand of her leader.

  Cold fear crept over Nea’s back.

  “Take it. You need every help you can get”, said Rae.

  Nea checked Rae’s face.

  Rae’s mouth was pressed together to a thin line. Her eyebrows were drawn together. She never saw Rae making such a face.

  But Rae hadn’t attacked her, hadn’t threatened her like earlier this day.

  “I’ll return it to you”, promised Nea.

  Her promise didn’t lighten up Rae’s face. But Rae nodded nonetheless.

  Nea stepped forward.

  A little branch snapped under her foot. Was it an omen of the separation from her group? Would she ever be able to come back, to fit in again?

  The soft forest ground felt warm. It felt like home and alien at the same time.

  The ground Nea had watched already looked hard from watching. Yet it seemed to shout “welcome” to her mind.

  The blue, smooth chip pulsed on her palm, still pulling it to the open land.

  Nea took the stone knife from Rae’s hand.

  Following an impulse she hugged the leader of her group. Inhaled the earthy scent of her skin and the forest, felt the warm pulse and the black, curly hair pressed against her cheek.

  When Nea finally felt Rae’s arms close around her she let her breath out.

  Relieve swept through her. The leader didn’t exile her.

  Nea felt invited to come back.

  A smile spread over her face as she stepped back and turned towards the border.

  With the confidence of having a home waiting for her, she would succeed. The blue chip wanted to get home to. It was so simple with the support from her leader.

  THE END

  Extract from: Sweet Depths

  “You bought those nasty, environment destroying chocolate lenses again?!”, Ramona felt the rage pulse through her veins. They had a spaceship credit to pay down and her partner knew nothing better than throwing all his Christmas salary towards the sweets shop. She paced up and down through the room, searching her thoughts for a solution. Being late with the next payment rate meant the bank would sent their space ship to the next auction to get as much as possible to cover up for the unpaid costs. Ramona felt hot and cold the same time. Sweat started to pearl over her forehead and whetted her shirt on the back. Losing her ship would be the end of their dream of independence. Freedom from the empire which decided who worked what. The last months had been slow with transportation orders, but everyone had to start somewhere. She had worked hard for a good reputation as independent transport ship captain. Teckkars had joined the work force again to pay the credit while she fulfilled the orders alone until he could quit again. At least she had decided to do so.

  “Have you forgotten why you are working there? To pay down the credit faster”, Ramona remembered her husband. “Well then, darling”, Ramona stopped in front of Teckkars who still ate those dreaded chocolate lenses, which, how she had to remind her to avoid eating some of them too, not only ruined the earth climate and forced people to live in space but was now in charge of ruining her freedom too. “I will set up a household plan and give you a monthly budget for sweets. All other money is administrated by me and only me.” Ramona paused, hoping he wouldn‘t protest but expected a fiery and fierce refusal. It didn‘t came. Surprised and unsure if she liked the outcome of this discussion, she left the room to change the authority of his money account to hers.

  She would implement a thoughtful budget plan. Ramona smiled at the screen. She preferred being in control. The money she withdraws from Teckkars account had nothing to do with that feeling of superiority, she reassured herself.

  End of the extract "Sweet Depths" by Topaz Hauyn

  More Titles of Topaz Hauyn

  Fantasy

  Beaten Path in the Mist

  Vampire Hunting with the Tiger Eye

  Marlene's New Monster (Monster Commercial Series)

  Remorse of the Mermaid

  Wipe off the Dust (Talking Sword Series)

  The Book Burning

  Stars Flying into Philosophy

  Red: #890000

  The True Mage Survives

  Romance

  World Cup and Pink Ropes

  An Invitation to a Wedding

  Corrupted Food Storage

  Dance to your Love

  Fighting the Cinnamon Guy

  Forgotten Communications

  The magic Book

  Science Fiction

  Abandonned Time Travel

  Alien Visit

  Coloring an Apple

  Corrupted Food Storage

  Dicovery (Flying Worlds Series)

  Red: #890000

  Served like red Wine

  Shards of her Life

  Support Refused

 

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