Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (22 page)

             
Harold thought they were funny because they often showed a smiling Low-Born in overalls shaking the hand of a smiling High-Born in battle gear.  Most of the posters had High-Born fighter jets shooting down an A.I. Drone.  Some of the older folks said that very similar posters used to be all over Foxx Hole when they were younger.  Most of them had been torn down over the years.  Colonel Foxx issued a decree of a public whipping if they were taken down, and the people of Foxx Hole were mostly closely knit together, so they would not tear down someone else’s poster for the fear and guilt of having punishment placed upon their neighbor.

             
On one particularly hot morning, just after the automated harvesters had left his fields barren, Harold walked to the woods and pulled on his burlap shorts.  He had only burned one pair since Sarah helped him figure out to control the heat and not the flames.  The only reason that had happened was because he had been very tired one day, and had kept pushing himself in an extended session of air-burning, flipping, and hitting trees.  He had momentarily lost control and had burned them off that day, but since then, it hadn’t happened anymore.

             
As always, he looked around, then closed his eyes and listened, pouring his fire into his hearing.  During his quiet time, he had learned that his fire could actually enhance any of his senses.  He could make himself see, hear, smell, and even taste better if he called his fire into those areas, but at the moment he was using it on his ears.  The only thing he noticed that was out of place was a slight buzzing off somewhere far to his left.  He decided that it was an injured bee, but the important thing was that he heard nothing that would give him concern about being seen.

             
Once he decided that he was alone, he got a running start and began tumbling through the forest, leaping back and forth and air-burning from tree to tree.  He suddenly appeared by a large tree, and leveled a kick to side of it that put a significant dent in it as the top of it shook.  He had only hit it with slightly more than half of his strength, and was afraid to kick it much harder.  As he punched and kicked other trees, he almost felt bad for them.  Harold liked to watch things grow, and something felt slightly cruel to him about it, but he had no other way to train himself.  He made his way all the way around Foxx Hole, back to the spot where he had begun.

             
He decided to take a break, and opened his jar of well water.  He sat down with his back against a tree, and took a large gulp.  Then, he sat there for a moment, with his eyes closed just listening to his own breathing and the sounds of the forest.  He could feel and hear his breathing slowing and was beginning to hear his own heartbeat.

             
He heard something step on the ground to his left.  It sounded metallic.  He quickly turned his head in that direction, but he saw nothing.  He pushed the source of his fire into his ears, and he could hear the slight buzzing that he had heard before he began training.  It was coming from the same direction as the sound of the footsteps.  He pulled his fire into his eyes, and looked, tensing his body for a confrontation.

             
He still couldn’t see anything suspicious, but then he began to feel something as he stood there, just looking and listening.  He could feel heat coming from behind a tree about fifty yards in front of him.  He looked more closely at it.  Something was out of place about eight feet high.  The air looked slightly different, just below it was another spot like it, and another one was at the ground.  He had seen something like it before.

             
A cloaked High-Born vessel made the same appearance in the air.

             
Then he saw the air move and the invisibility field faded, and something that Harold had never seen before came into sight.  It looked similar to a High-Born in full battle gear except larger.  It was made completely of metal and had a very large chest, and a face that looked like a High-Born visor.  It raised its hand out to Harold and he could see some sort of gun attached to the upper-side of its forearm.

             
Harold ducked and grabbed his bag of shorts, air-burning toward a spot several yards to his right.  When he reappeared, he thought he heard it say something, but he was already gone, and he quickly air-burned three times as fast he could to the top side of town.  He was easily more than a mile away from where he had just been.  He frantically looked around for any sign of the High-Born.  He scanned the surrounding area below him, and then he looked at the sky.  He was expecting them to be everywhere, and now he was over the initial surprise.  He was ready to show them what he could do in a fight.

             
But nothing happened. 

             
In fact, all he could hear was the sounds of Foxx Hole, his own heart beating, and a very angry squirrel.  He had appeared almost in her nest.  He found another tree close to him that didn’t have any squirrels in it and air-burned to it.

             
Then, from the top of that tree, he looked back to where he had just been.  He didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, so he just sat there.  He looked back and forth for several minutes, but saw nothing that would cause him alarm. 

             
After another fifteen minutes, his breathing and heartbeat had slowed, but he was still tense.  Just as he was getting ready to come down from the tree, something to his right caught his attention slightly above the treetops.  He looked more closely.

             
It was a faint blue glow.

             
He called to his fire and his eyesight drew it closer to him and his ears focused in its direction.  Whatever the object was, it slightly resembled the thrusters he had seen on High-Born gunships.  However, this was much smaller, and it was already several miles away.  Even with his enhanced eyesight, he could barely see it.  Whatever it was, it was cloaked and what scarce evidence there was soon disappeared altogether.

             
He let out a sigh of relief, and closed his eyes as he leaned back in the tree.  He sat there for a moment, and then picked a tree close to Aunt Nean’s house.  He swiftly air-burned to it and then leaped out of the tree.  While he quickly changed into his overalls, he glanced around the forest floor and the air above him.  Satisfied that everything was clear, he began walking back toward the house.

             
After about fifteen more minutes, he arrived in the back yard, and walked into the barn.  He didn’t even look at the mule as he tossed his shorts onto a shelf.  He took a deep breath, and decided that he was going to be fine.  He exited the barn and could smell the cornbread in the air.  He heard something behind him and he turned.

             
He could see the cloaked outlines of several gunships just above the treetops.  He nearly froze, but he braced himself to fight.  He was completely puzzled when they turned and went in the direction opposite of him.  He stood there for a moment just watching them.  The scant proof they gave of themselves soon disappeared.  He noticed that they seemed to be moving in a westerly direction.  In a few moments, the excitement they had produced in him subsided.

             
He walked into the house, and saw Cooper and Ollie sitting at the table, and Aunt Nean was at the stove.  It looked like she was nearly finished cooking lunch, and he sat down.  As he poured himself a cup of water, he noticed Cooper and Ollie looking at him strangely. 

             
“Betsy wants to know why you’re shaking so bad,” Ollie said as she held up her doll.

             
“I ran a lot this morning,” he replied.  “I guess I’m just tired.”

             
After a few more minutes, Aunt Nean put the food on the table.  The others talked, but Harold was distracted by the strange events that he had just seen.  When he had finished his first piece of cornbread, he leaned back, giving it a chance to settle.  He looked out of the window, toward where he had seen the cloaked gunships.

             
They went in the same direction as the other thing
, he thought.  It dawned on him that they seemed to be following it.  As he chewed on another piece of cornbread, he wondered to himself:
Why?

Chapter 20

              The townsfolk of Foxx Hole were piling into the town circle.  Harold’s burlap shirt scratched against him as the straps of his overalls rubbed into his shoulders.  He walked by the guards posted at the corners of road number six.  Cooper and Ollie were happy as children seemed to always be, and Cooper and Scape quickly found Scott.  Scott smiled widely when he saw Harold and put up his finger to his lips.  Then, with Scape at their feet, he and Cooper began talking about what they were going to do the next time they played Tiger-Man and Wolf-Man.  Aunt Nean was talking to Judy about making a dress when Harold began making his way through the crowd.

             
He noticed that the area for the children seemed larger than normal, but other than that, everything was pretty standard.

             
Across the way, he saw Phil and Maggie coming, hand-in-hand.  Maggie was wearing her scarlet dress and pranced gleefully as she pointed out things to her father.  He seemed to be answering her questions patiently as they sauntered through the crowd.  Harold looked across the crowd in the direction that Scott had come from and quickly found Sarah.  When she looked his way, he waved at her.  She smiled and returned his wave and then they walked toward each other.

             
“Hey,” he said.

             
“Hey,” she replied.

             
“Reckon what Colonel Foxx is gonna’ talk about this time?” Harold asked, smiling.

             
Sarah rolled her eyes and laughed, “I don’t have a clue.”

             
Harold grabbed her hand and said, “Let’s step back some, I’m afraid I might actually fry him if he tells me to find another High-Born’s hand to shake.”

             
“I’ll get you some flour and grease,” Sarah smiled as they milled through the crowd.

             
It wasn’t long until Colonel Foxx appeared, and the woman who always accompanied him handed him her data-pane.  Colonel Foxx queued the pilots and tapped his microphone.  The rotating likeness of him flashed from sight and then suddenly became four separate images each facing a different direction.  He cleared his throat and the crowd became quiet.

             
“Citizens of Foxx Hole,” he said.  “I am glad to see that so many of you have begun to take advantage of the Low-Born trade initiative.  It will move us all closer to unity.  As all of you know, the harvest season is coming soon.  In the coming weeks, my soldiers,” he gestured to himself and then to the crowd, “Your protectors, will be coming around and surveying your fields and assessing it for the proper amount of taxation.  Those whose crops have grown exceptionally well will be pleased to know that we will put your share to particularly good use.  There are many other Low-Born whose fields do not do so well because of various reasons, but we shall be taking an extra tax upon those fields so that others may benefit from your sacrifice.”

             
“More like we’ll steal it and eat it for ourselves, and make you think we’re doing you a favor by using fancy words,” Harold whispered so that only Sarah could hear him.

             
Sarah squeezed his hand and lightly elbowed him.

             
The colonel continued talking for some time about hard work and sacrifice and the greatness of the High-Born.  Soon, the Kristall began spinning and the Vista was playing and Harold heard a dark and ominous bit of music, and saw a dark, cloudy sky.  The roar of jet engines blared, as a deep voice said, “The Forgotten Nations brought war to their many and varied peoples.”

             
Harold just tuned the rest of it out as he rubbed Sarah’s thumb with his and she slid in closer to him and grabbed his hand with her other hand as well.  She caressed his hand lightly and laid her head on his shoulder as they mindlessly watched the Vista.

             
After a few moments, Harold noticed something strange in the sky above him.  He could see several cloaked gunships moving to hover above the circle.  As best as he could tell there were about a dozen or maybe fifteen.  He found it strange, but he could also sense them in a way that he didn’t understand.  He thought it had something to do with the heat they gave off.  He bumped Sarah and pointed to the sky.  She squinted but then signaled him that she saw them, and gave him a questioning look.  He shrugged as he looked around.

             
The soldiers were starting to clap now, and began urging the crowd to clap as well.  Harold and Sarah joined in after few moments and Colonel Foxx did his usual overly-dramatic clapping fit.  Soon, the circle was quieting down again, and the four images of Colonel Foxx flashed into view.