Chapter Two Conquest of Chimera

“Someone is trying to play God.” He said, his eyes scouring her face for answers he already knew he would never find there. 

   He saw fear in her eyes as his voice rose with anger. “This is not right.”

  She shrank away.

  “No, little one” he pleaded, reaching out to her as he spoke, “I’m not angry with you. They did this to you too, apparently because of me. Yeah, that’s got to be it; they are trying to accommodate me.” He gently grasped her hands and drew her back to him. “No more like manipulate me,” he muttered under his breath. “Can you tell me where you came from, your name your past? I bet you have a lot more words now, am I right?”

  Bending her head down as if she were letting her mouth fill up with words, she said nothing for a while then…

 “I can take you there.” She finally said through a spreading smile. Clearly she was delighted by her new found vocabulary. “Thank you. You have given me words. I can talk.”

  “Don’t thank me, little one,” He kissed her forehead, “but don’t thank them either. And we’re back to my question. You can take me there? Can you take me to them?”

  She shook her head. “Them? I only remember the empty place where I awoke, the plateau.”

  “Now there’s a new word.” He said as he led her to the window.

 “You gave it to me. Can you give me a name too?”

  “What, you, you have amnesia?”

  “No I have no name.” She paused and peered out the window, “I have no past. I feel nothing beyond this morning, nothing beyond the plateau. All I feel is new.”

  “Yeah that makes sense, makes me angry too. You are a person, not a product. I am so sorry. This is my fault. All this is about me and my weird childhood, should have dealt with my ability then, but I ran from it. You would not be in this mess if it weren’t for me.”

  She blinked and turned toward him. “But if were not for you I would not be. That was the first thing I knew, that my beginning, my home was beyond the place of my waking, across the sky, here with you. I owe my existence to you.”

  “You owe me nothing. They drew you from me and they forged the bond between us. I won’t hold you to it.”

  “But that is all I have. Would you drive me away just to get back at them?”

  “No, of course not, but this whole thing is so plastic. None of it is real.” He said as he looked down at his new hands and grunted. “I’m not even real. I am not myself anymore, just what they made.”

  “Then I am just a dream, a fantasy.” She backed away, looking down at the floor as if she were ashamed.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Then what are you saying. If all this is not real, nothing more than a dream, then wakeup and end me!”

  “I can’t.”

  “Of course you can’t, but would you if you could?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then the life you had before was better than this, better than me?”

  He shook his head, “No, it was actually kind of empty-hollow as a tube and just as predictable, in one end and out the other, predictable but safe. Born live and die. Except I had a boat load of questions I dare not ask aloud.”

 “Don’t you think you are much more likely to find your answers here than there?”

    He looked up at her and grinned, “You know you’re pretty smart for a newborn. Thing is, I’m not sure I want to know the answers.”

“Whatever it is, it brought me into being and brought us together. That is a good thing. We must live where you are. The how and the why are matters for another day. And are they not questions you can finally ask out loud.”

  “You got me there. Okay then one problem at a time. What would you like me to call you?”

   “Wife,” she answered without hesitation.

  “Are your sure? We did just meet.”

  “No Kian, we did not just meet. You have been carrying me around inside of you your entire life; all the parts that make me who I am.”

 “Well I’m not calling you daughter!”

 She made a face, “no please don’t do that. This is new, something they made happen, but nothing we can escape or undo.”

 “A new reality, then what do I call you?”

  “Kia,” she said rearing back and fanning her wings out until they arched over her head.

  “You want to be named after a car, oh after me I get it. Still, that’s better than Composite, which is what you are.” He said as he stepped back to better admire her beauty.

   “They, these makers, my makers, must have complete access to your mind. But then you are a sender.”

  “A what,” he asked.

  “That word just popped into my head.”

  “And it means I send?” Kian nodded his head, “Send what, my thoughts my memories, my experiences, my location on Earth. They must have been tracking me, monitoring me since birth.”

  Kia lowered her wings until they disappeared behind her, “Apparently.”

  “Well then, what do we do with that?”

  “Forget it. We can nothing about it anyway. Kian I just want to live, explore learn and be with you. I love you. I cannot help that. I simply do!”

  “You were designed to love me,” He said, unconsciously backing away from her.

  “It doesn’t matter Kian. It is deeper than that. Don’t you think?  I feel what I feel. I want what I want. I want you. I want this world. Its’ mystery beckons me. Do you not want to know what lies beneath the clouds? ”

  “I want you safe Kia. That is enough for me. You’re the one thing I want I never had back on Earth.”

  “We were given wings Kian not just each other.  I know they want us to fly. But you don’t want to cooperate, do you? You had rather die here just to spite them. That is foolish. ”

   “Maybe, but for the rest of my life every choice I make will be choices they set up for me to make. I, we are just gold fish in a bowl, their bowl.”

  “But we don’t know how big that bowl is Kian. Besides it doesn’t matter. We are here. We go from where we grow. I am brand new and even I now that.”

 “You’re not new Kia you are just as old as I am, I just didn’t know you were there-inside me, but they did. But you’re right. Moving is forward is flying downward. There must be a whole world down there beneath the clouds. But first,” he looked down at his bare chest. 

   “But first we explore your room,” she said as turned her attention toward the wall, “surely they have more for us than each other.”

  Kian laughed, “Well, that’s one way to put.”

  “I’m getting hungry and this silly gown is getting in my way.” She said as wound up her gown up to her knees and walked to the back of the room.

 “The window is not just a window,” Kian said as he stepped up beside her.

  “And the wall is not just a wall,” she murmured, as she pressed the fingertips of her right hand against the walls smooth ceramic surface and watched a chest high six foot by six foot section of it vanish.

    “Now how did they know you were looking for clothes,” Kian said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he reached into their newly discovered closet and pulled out a tan leather tunic and pants. “These are not clothes these are costumes.  Soft though,” he mused as he removed the outfit from it's wooden rack.

  “I get pants too,” Kia said as she pulled a much smaller outfit from the opposite end of the closet. 

  “Leather,” Kian said as much to himself as to her, “Must be pretty rustic down there. They want us to blend in.”

    Kia was hardly listening. She had already focused all her attention on the bottom of the closet where she spotted a pair of small leather boots, “Not exactly delicate footwear.”

  “Rough terrain,” Kian said not trying to hide the apprehension in his voice.

 “But we can fly,” said Kia, holding her tunic by the wings holes in its back.

  “I’m guessing there’s a lot of dense forest down there.”

  “Trees and grass covered hills you think,” Kia said, dropping her gown without giving him the slightest warning.

 Kian jerked his face away as he covered his eyes, “What are doing?” he yelled.

 She looked at, her face a perfect question mark, “trying on my news clothes, what are you doing?” 

  “Girl put some clothes on, really. You maybe new born but you aren’t a little baby.”

  “No I’m not but apparently you are. I said I was your wife. Why do you hide your face?”

  “Just get dressed, I’m sorry. This is all new to me, okay; please don’t get your feelings hurt.”  

  “No” she said wriggling into her pull over tunic as she talked. “But I don’t understand, does my nakedness offend you. We are married, husband.”

  “Well not formally, and I’m just not used to this.”

 “But you held me, kissed me. You do want me, don’t you? You do love me don’t you?”

 “Oh yes,” he said lowering his hand and slowly looking toward her. “Oh boy, you are so cute,” he said as she drew up beside him wearing nothing but her thigh length leather tunic. 

 “Then love me husband.”

 “They’re watching Kia. And I won’t put on a show for them.”

 “Again you punish me to get back at them. They have already seen everything.”

 “They haven’t seen that!”

 “Then it will never happen?”

 “I didn’t say that Kia.”

  “Yes you did. They will always be there. They will always watch. And we don’t even know what they are. They may not even be human. They probably could not care less what we do. No more they we care about what ants do in their ant hill. We cannot live like this. Kian I told you. I want to live.” Even though he heard anger in her voice she drew closer reaching out to him as she neared. How could he not succumb?

  Afterwards, he awoke on the bed. Her tiny frame gentled nestled on his right arm. A gleaming fan of golden hair covered her face. He smoothed it away and kissed her cheek.

 “Kia,” he whispered, “Wake up.”

  She grunted and rolled off his arm and promptly fell back to sleep.

  He shrugged and rolled of the bed, stepping on his pajamas, “Shows’ over guys,” he said glaring at the ceiling as he pulled up his pants then snatched up her gown from the floor and gently spread over her petite beautifully toned body.

  “Shower, shower, I want a shower, and a cup of coffee, and a doughnut, and maybe a couple eggs, bacon, toast and butter, real butter. Putting in an order here, I know your listening.” Striding away from the bed he approached the wall and reached out as if he were reaching for a door knob. An eight foot by four foot opening appeared. He stepped through it and found he was standing at bathroom sink, replete with a typical mirrored medicine cabinet.

  A tall handsome heavily muscled stranger stared back at him. “There you are. Okay, okay, it is an improvement. “At least you let me keep my hair.” He said racking his thick fingers though his long brown locks.

 Scanning the rest of the ten foot by ten foot room he found the bathroom was just that a bathroom, nothing fancy. It was functional and plain, just your run of the mill bathroom complete with curtain enclosed shower, soap, shampoo, toilet paper towels, razor and wash clothes under the sink, two toothbrushes and toothpaste on the counter and toilet facing the door, which was now bare wall again.       

 He assumed he would he would find a similarly simple kitchen, after his shower. That is exactly what he found a short time later.

  The sweet smell of coffee and bacon soon filled their room. Kia breathed in its fragrant aroma batted her eyes and sucked a deep invigorating breath. Rising up from the bed she smiled when she noticed the gown that Kian had covered her body in. She pulled it to her neck and slid out bed and headed for the large curved opened that led to fully furnished twelve foot by twelve foot kitchen and dining area.

  Silently padding up behind him she whispered in his ear, “You know I have never eaten, but I am so hungry.”

 “So hungry you willing to try anything even my cooking, huh?”

   He turned to kiss her but turned away suddenly.

  “What is wrong?”

  He scratched his freshly shaved chin. “Your breath, it’s ah not great. Tell you what go freshen up and I’ll finish breakfast.”

 “Oh. I can do that. I’m sorry,” her eyes wondered about.

  “It’s right next door Kia, just walk up to the wall and reach out.”

  Blushing she eased out of the kitchen.

  A short time later she returned looking like a Native American princess, clad in leather from foot to wrist. He was already seated at the table situated at the center of the kitchen.

  “With a set up like this,” he said as she took her seat directly across from, “they must not want us to leave. I mean we have everything we need.”

  She sighed, “You’re going to take my appetite. I thought we had settled this. I love being with you, but not as a bird in a cage. They are just giving us choices.”

 “And every choice has a consequence. What if we leave and they lock the door behind us, what then?”

  “Simple we make a new home, our own home down there. Least it would our home we made with our own hands, not a prison we made with our fears.”

  “You mean my fears, my fears for you.”

 “Hush, I am hungry and tired of arguing.”

 “Fine we leave,” he hesitated, “first thing in the morning.”

  Kia rolled her eyes at him, “You think I’ll change my mind by then.”

  “Maybe Kia, why rush it. Besides I haven’t flown yet, I need the practice.”

   She shrugged a reluctant approval, “That is true, very well husband, Kian. We wait.”