Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 24: Last Tribe of Sirius

The blue fish carried us across the sky. From atop the fish, we were able to take in the beautiful scenery of Sirius B. In a short while, we left the black mountain area, passing through a dense purple forest, tall waterfalls, beautiful seven-colored clouds, and numerous adorable small flying animals. What we saw gave us the feeling that this was a peaceful and beautiful world.

"Canyue, Canyue," Zhang Bao'er approached me with his fat fish. "Canyue, do you still remember an old movie from a hundred years ago called Avatar?"

"What movie is that? I never saw it," I said.

"There is a flying mount in that movie, and the mount greatly resembles these flying fish. The strongest of their mounts is called Toruk, the last shadow in their language. I am planning to name my little fat fish Toruk as well," said Zhang Bao'er.

"Don't even think about it. Look at how obese your fish is. How is it the last shadow?" I laughed.

"You have the leading fish. If you're so smart, name your fish," said Zhang Bao'er.

I sank into thought as I stroked my fish's head.

"What about Blueflash? Yes, Blueflash it is!" I said.

"Blueflash? What a lame name. Yes, truly the kind of name you'd come up with," Zhang Bao'er laughed.

I ignored him and softly stroked my mount's head. "From now on, I'll be calling you Blueflash. Remember your name."

The blue fish responded by shaking its body, as though it understood my words. After about an hour, we arrived at an area filled with purple oval mountain peaks. These mountains were massive, and unlike the mountains on Blue where only the tip would reach for the clouds, the entire body of these mountains stood erect like massive walls, reaching the seven-colored clouds in the sky. The numerous mountains dotted the landscape and blocked out the sunlight from the sky.

I could feel Blueflash suddenly accelerate toward the ground. After Blueflash circled a massive mountain and made a turn, the world before me opened up to reveal a majestic waterfall. To be precise, I was looking at a group of waterfalls of different sizes. The tallest of the waterfalls seemed connected to the very clouds in the sky.

The water flowed smoothly down, almost like a curtain of silk that dropped all the way to the lake at the bottom. A deafening sound constantly rang out in the area as the many waterfalls crashed into the lake. The water vapor filled the entire bottom part of the mountain. Numerous tiny animals lived amid the fog. The sunlight of Sirius A caused the fog to shine slightly, making the sight before me akin to something from paradise.

"This place is way too beautiful," Zhang Xingxing exclaimed. We were all mesmerized by what we saw.

Suddenly, Blueflash shrieked and nodded at the other flying fish. It then shot toward the biggest waterfall before us. Droplets of water the size of beads rained down upon us. When the fish brought us through the waterfall, a massive cavern appeared before us.

The light from Sirius A shone through the many holes in the cavern's ceiling. All sorts of flora grew within the cavern. One plant, in particular, was a species of tree with massive branches that grew alongside the lake. On each of the branches, a beehive-shaped construct could be seen. And each construct was connected to a slide that led straight to the lake.

"Canyue, look! Purple aliens!" Zhang Bao'er cried out.

I could see numerous life forms similar to the Nommo prophet frolicking about in the gleaming lake. There were also a lot of these aliens on the shore. All of them seemed to be busy with their own tasks. These working aliens were tall and sturdy, while the ones playing in the lake looked like they were children.

Unlike the prophet, these aliens all had a pair of legs and a massive fishtail behind them. The massive Blueflash and the other flying fish descended at the lakeside. They were so massive that when they hovered beside the lake, the area below them darkened, as though they were massive curtains covering the very sky.

The aliens seemed alerted by our arrival. All of them gathered together, and I could see many sturdy aliens running over with weapon-like objects in their hands. I was somewhat worried to see so many aliens. The continuous battles we had gone through in this world had greatly exhausted us. The aliens only needed to throw enough bodies at us to defeat us.

"Be careful, everyone. We don't know the situation here. Be on alert and maintain combat readiness at all times," I reminded everyone.

"Activate your suits. We don't have to preserve our energy anymore," Zhang Xingxing commanded decisively.

I immediately activated my morph-capable suit and drew my trusty gun.

"We only have 12 hours' worth of energy. What should we do afterward?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

All of us were too nervous to answer that stupid question.

The aliens grew even more nervous when they saw us take out our weapons. The warriors among them wielded a type of round equipment that seemed capable of shooting projectiles. There were about a hundred of them. With weapons in their hands, they surrounded us. The smaller aliens, which I assumed were the females and children, hid behind the warriors and looked at us curiously.

The weapons must have caused Blueflash discomfortit started howling loudly at the aliens. The other flying fish followed its lead, filling the cavern with thunderous howls. The aliens seemed threatened by Blueflash, and they started behaving as though they were fearful. They whispered among themselves, and none of them dared to attack.

"Old Du, they seem afraid of these flying fish. Your fish is the biggest guy. Why don't you go and scare them more?" I suggested.

"Sure, I'll give it a try," Old Du replied.

He then rode his bulky flying fish forward and stood in the very middle of the circle surrounding us. He looked incredibly formidable, and he seemed to have awed the aliens, as they no longer dared to advance. However, their discussions grew louder as the situation became more and more intense. It seemed the situation was going to reach a tipping point soon.

Suddenly, Blueflash howled loudly at the sky, silencing everyone. Blueflash also sank into silence and waited. Shortly after, the crowd parted, and an aged alien walked out. He had the mouth of a fish, and his whiskers were turning yellow. He seemed much older than the other aliens, and they all appeared respectful of him. Wherever he went, the aliens moved aside to make way for him.

'Looks like this person is probably a leader, perhaps an elder or a priest?' I wondered.

The elderly alien studied all of us carefully before turning to face Blueflash.

"Nommo!" the old man suddenly yelled.

He pressed his entire body onto the ground, and his tail lifted into the air and swung about forcefully.

When the other aliens saw that, they all prostrated on the ground as well.

"Canyue, what's going on?" Zhang Xingxing asked.

"I think they are treating us as the representative of Nommo," I said. "Nommo might be an ancestor of theirs. This is probably some sort of traditional ceremony to greet their ancestors."

"Yes," Dodo said. "On Blue, the Dogon people called the alien visitor Nommo. The visitor from Sirius so many years ago could very well be their ancestor."

All the aliens were fully concentrating on the sacred ceremony, and it was as though they had completely forgotten we were there. After about half an hour, the ceremony ended. Once again, everyone sank into silence. After several minutes, the priest stood up and started speaking. I couldn't understand him, but from his gestures, I understood that he was inviting us somewhere else.

"Xingxing, do you see that? This old man doesn't seem too nervous seeing us at all," I said.

"Yes. He acts like he had seen us before. He's completely calm," Zhang Xingxing agreed.

"Perhaps they had seen a Blueling before? Like your father?" Old Du speculated.

"That is possible," I said. "I feel like he wants to bring us somewhere. We might be able to find more clues about your father's whereabouts there."

"Is there a chance this is a trap?" Zhang Bao'er asked.

"It's not like we have any other choice," I said.

Zhang Bao'er lowered his head and shut his mouth.

"We must go. This might be a perfect chance. Zhang Bao'er, keep your defensive system on and get ready for combat. Everyone else, shut your suits to save energy," Zhang Xingxing commanded.

At this time, the priest stepped forth and pointed at the distant forest, gesturing for us to go on foot. Zhang Xingxing nodded at me, and we all leaped off our mounts.

I said to Blueflash, "Good fish. Wait for me here."

Blueflash nodded as though it understood my words. It lay down on its stomach and started resting on the ground. I carried Dondon on my back, and we followed the priest into the forest.

This forest was slightly different from the forests elsewhere in this world. Apart from the massive trees that the aliens lived on, the other plants were much smaller. Also, it was clear that these plants were all products of agriculture.

Some trees were filled with beautiful translucent fruits, and I could clearly see swirling liquid within the fruits. Some plants actually looked and functioned like fencing as we could see some chubby animals being reared on the branches of these trees.

"Look, the Sirian locals are rearing their pigs on trees," Zhang Bao'er remarked.

We couldn't help but burst out laughing at that remark. Slowly, we went deep into the forest. The flora around us grew denser, with the sky itself being covered by a thick purple canopy. Our surroundings became darker the deeper we went.

I turned on my flashlight, but the priest immediately gestured at me to stop. We continued advancing. Soon, we came to a large group of purple shrubs. The priest started chanting, and magically, the shrubs parted to reveal a path. A cave was visible at the end of the path.

"Wow, what a hidden cave," Zhang Bao'er said.

We followed the path toward the cave. To our sides were dense purple shrubs, and a chilly wind blew on the path. I kept having the feeling that something was observing us from the thick shrubs.

"Canyue, can you feel it? I feel like something is looking at us," Zhang Xingxing whispered.

"Yes. The feeling is intense," I replied. "Get everyone to prepare for combat. Be ready to activate our suits."

Zhang Xingxing relayed the command.

Suddenly, a loud sound rang out from the purple shrub beside us. Then, an imposing creature jumped out and landed in our path.

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