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Everything Jake #384 Jake's Final, the penultimate chapter (that means it ends tomorrow…) M geared up and tried to clear his head from the ale. It wasn't that bad, the transport would take them to the front lines and then they would be assigned, more than enough time to sober up. He could see it on the rest of his squad they felt the same way. There was silence most of the way there, except for Kelion explaining what was going on. M was seated across from Shamya, who was the only one who didn't look scared. They smiled at each other, M couldn't stay mad at her, and he hoped that's what her smile meant as well. After all, they might never see each other again. Pawal's voice barely came in over the air. "Back-up, we've in deep fire fight" and then it went off. Kelion sent over the coordinates to M and Megroth. M punched them into his flyer (and was especially feeling good after smoking three of the enemy, this wasn't so bad after all), and readied himself for another battle. The men got to fly, the women were stationed at the base to defend to. Shamya and Emily were terribly upset at this, but you could see relief in their eyes. M thought of Shamya, her eyes, deep thoughtful eyes, she was amazing. Why did they have that fight, and why did she--- M's control grid shut down and then bounced back to life. He radioed Kelion, "I'm having a problem, my grid just kaputed, and then fired, oh, shit, there it goes again…" Kelion and Megroth kept going, as M thought they would. Kelion's voice came over the radio as M's grid came back to life, "Repeat, M's down, M's ship has been shot-" Nothing. The ground was closing in. Did M just hear Kelion say that he was-the controls tightened up in M's hand, and he started to totally lose control. He knew he had only one option, and that was to eject, but it would only work if the power came back. The window was small, the ground fast approaching, the power totally gone. M counted down in his head, he didn't have time to think about anything else except pushing the button and getting out alive. 10, he thought, 9, 8, one of the wings broke away from the craft, 7, 6, I'm so dead, I'm so-the power flashed on and M slammed his fist into the ejection release. He heard a snap-hissing sound, a burst of sulfur filled his nose, and then he was free. He was too close for his chute to work, but he opened it anyway. There was an Zankot human squad which softened the crash of M's ship with their bodies. M floated up for a split second, a moment of total weightlessness, and then he fell to the earth. It wasn't a far fall, but he managed to bust up his ankle rather badly. "This," M said, in amusement, "is an Eldin?" A glowing creature that resembled, as far as M could tell, a rat sans a nose with fairy wings, floated in front of his, leaving a trail of sparkles. "Yes," Kiani answered, whose eyes seemed to sparkle as well. She was pouting a little bit, and M sensed that she might be a bit younger than he had thought. "His name-" "His? How could you tell?" "I… I just know, silly. His name, well, what I call him is Muffin…" … "I… I just know, silly. His name, well, what I call him, is Jak." … "Jak, eh?" Jak the Eldin…. (no… Jak is a stupid name… think, man, think… I'm almost done…) "I… I just know, silly. His name, well, what I call him, is Flaan." "Flaan, eh?" Flaan the Eldin flittered about, leaving trails of sparkles in his midst. M was really not sure what to think of the fairy. Kiani seemed to communicate with it somehow, and M honestly thought it was a myth, but the world was a strange place. A strange place, M thought, and I've only seen war, destruction. Flann flew circles around Kiani and she giggled. M smiled too, and let out a chuckle. "Oh, so Mr. stranger 'my name is M' does know how to laugh, Flaan! And, yes, Flaan, I do think he should smile more, since it is such a wonderful smile…" Kiani looked at M with much older eyes than he had thought. What a magical girl. She moved closer to him. "M…", she softly said. M backed away. "I'm sorry, Kiani… I.. I can't… how old are you anyway?" Kiani seemed amused by this. "How old do you want me to---" A thunderous noise rocked the both of them to ground. Flaan sped off in the direction of the forest, screaming. M knew what it was instantly. Someone, something was attacking the village.    
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EVERYTHING JAKE is TM & (C) 2000-2011 by Mike Rosenzweig. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
