The Strange Arrival
Rainsong woke up on a warm bed, with soft covers, plush pillows and a very groggy head. His eyes couldn't focus very well. He was in a very clean, small green colored room with a gigantic and high triangular window facing the bed. There was a simple wooden table at his side, but it was empty. To his right, there were two doors, both made of some kind of plastic. One of the doors was opened and he could see that it opened to an earth-style metal toilet with a small metal sink next to it. The other door was closed. A large black mirror or screen of some kind occupied most of the wall to his left.
Rainsong shook his head and sat up on the bed. Directly in front of him the window blinds were opened wide and he could see tall, oddly formed buildings of a great city, but not any city he could readily recognize. It was a clear day outside, and form his point of view, it was obvious that he was in one of those tall buildings, and that his rooms must have been several kilometers from ground-level. The city was a fascinating sight, but the room was utterly silent. The window was opened barely to let in some fresh air, but it was also high enough so that the sounds of the city below did not come all the way up.
Even so, there was constant movement down there. He could see thousands of vehicles, down there, many of them flying. Odd little metal things, with the shape of teardrops, cigars, cones and many others traveling and incredible speeds. Thousands and thousands of them going to and fro on the two main avenues and numerous side-streets.The buildings came in all forms and sizes, from small squarish apartments, single-lavish homes, to some gigantic mega structures that could only be described as insane looking.
One of these mega structures in particular, the one to his immediate left, had the shape of old Balder Bloodaxe, son of Korgan, the dwarf who inherited the Bloodaxe Hotel back in Lollipop City, planet Nagaloka. It basically looked as if a giant, armored dwarf stood between two buildings, holding a great hammer, towering over the city. But upon closer examination, Rainsong could see that it was actually a building, with windows cleverly disguised as buttons on his shirt, links on his armor, etcetera. This building in was quite a puzzle to Rainsong. Who had erected a giant building to a dwarf who did much of nothing with his life? Balder was a rich-dwarf's son and spent most of his time writing short stories for children. Certainly, such activity did not deserve such a monument.
So .... where was he? And how had he gotten there?
The last thing he could remember was traveling to Colorado, Planet Earth to talk to his gnome friend, Jigolanthas about the very real possibility of the Apocalypse of Earth.
But right now, he was CERTAINLY not on planet earth. He was also certainly not on planet Nagaloka, nor any other planet he could easily recognize. There was something eerily familiar about this giant metropolis, but he could not put his finger on it.
As if to answer his unspoken question, the closed door opened and in came two beings dressed in white. One was a creature Rainsong had never seen before, a kind of metallic mosquito-humanoid. Perhaps a robot? The other was a gorgeous young blonde woman with large blond hair, and a scintillating nurse's uniform.
The one who spoke was the robot-mosquito.
"You are awake. Good. How do you feel?" He spoke English. His voice sounded like fine metal grinding. It was exactly how one would expect a robot to speak.
"Groggy. Thank you. Where am I?" replied Rainsong.
"You are in the King Agua Memorial Hospital, in Lollipop City. It is Friday 7th of February year Earth-Date 4456."
Rainsong covered his face with this left palm. It was gonna be one of those days.
Malcolm
Malcolm Schiller Lopez had studied in the prestigious Lollipop University earning a Doctorate in Cross-Species Diplomacy. He was married with three kids, and he had made a successful career helping folks form differing species cope with living in Nagaloka. On an average day he would deal with four-armed amazon warriors, giant insects, animated rocks, disembodied spiritual entities and all manner of other weird sentient beings, trying to help them to integrate to ordinary life in the big city. There were rules, and he knew them all. The principal of those rules was compassion, and it was with that rule that he, Malcolm, found the empathy necessary to deal with such rare beings.
During the last few years, tensions between the Goblin races and the Elf races had begun to create havoc in many cities. This caused all manner of new problems for Lollipop City's government, and of course, it kept the balding, paunch bellied bureaucrat quite busy, but it also kept him working and getting paid extra hours and bonuses. His luxury credits quite high. So now, he and his family lived like kings. He had purchased a a large mansion in the prestigious red-district. It was the best place on the city to raise a family.
His wife, Matilda was an elf. She dedicated her life to her children and keeping the house clean and free of bad influences. How such a divinely beautiful being such as her ever took notice of such an average, boring human as him, Malcolm couldn't understand, but he also didn't care.
Matilda was the most important thing in his life, and the greatest source of joy too. Well, except maybe Laura, Larry and Moe, his three kids, aged 7, 5 and 3.
Malcolm worked on the other end of town at a government office in the huge Greenhouse Acropolis one of the many cities-within the city of Lollipop City. The Greenhouse Acropolis was a Forest Acropolis near the Lollipop Forest Reserve. Over 50 thousand souls lived there, mostly self-sufficiently, although many came to work there from the main city, like Malcolm and many went outside of the Acropolis to work in the city too. The principal residents kept to their self-sustainability principle and hardly ever left the Acropolis except on rare holidays. These residents were mostly preparing themselves psychically to go eventually on a planet-forming mission to some remote place in the galaxy, and these missions required great isolation. Well, that was the dream of the Acropolis, to prepare humans, elves, dwarves and others for eventual space-travel.
Malcolm did not own a personal vehicle. He loved instead to use the city's marvelous monorail. It was a very civilized affair because in a question of 10 minutes, he could cross the entire city from one end to another. Getting there meant a nice short walk from his house to the loading docks, where he could chat with his neighbors. The "usual suspects" as he liked to call them. Using the monorail also implied chatting with the folks who, like Malcolm, preferred public transport to other means of moving their bodies form point A to point B. He had made a series of acquaintances in the monorail and some of those acquaintances had blossomed into full fledged friendships.
For instance, there was Mrs. Omigato, the nice lady from New Tokyo, who had a deep love of baked deep fresh water pumpkins, which only grew on Lollipop City's coast. She had moved to Lollipop City only for that. She kept track of her family by visual telephone, but she was also an adventuring soul who liked to make new friends went. She owned a marvelous Japanese Rock Garden in her home, which was the envy of may gardeners in the city.
On this particular work day, Mrs. Omigato had not shown up. She hardly ever missed a sale at the local pumpkin market, so maybe she had visitors from New Tokyo at her home.
Malcolm arrived at his office late that morning. He had stopped for coffee at the local Astro Java, the evil franchise that was threatening to end with all the mom-and-pop coffee shops in the city. Their coffee was excellent.
His secretary Izztixnifflin, a blue skinned, horned (and very horny) Dragonkin was already hard at work, filing her extremely long claws.
"Hiya, Boss... how's the wife. You guys finally agreed on the color of the carpet?" she said, hardly lifting her eyes form her multicolored razor-sharp claws.
"None of your... Did you handle the Noober account, Izzt?" He asked her, mildly annoyed.
Izzit, as her friends called her, had a HUGE crush on her boss. In fact, she really loved humans. Like, loved humans way too much. She had a sex-with-humans addiction. Dragonkin were like that. Addictive.
But Malcolm was the most faithful man on the planet, so she also knew she didn't have a chance with him.
That didn't prevent her from digging it in every chance she got. After all, she knew her effect on male humans. Dragonkin were notoriously sexy, almost impossible to resist, because they had a little bit of that sex-magic that had created her race aeons ago, before Dragons became extinct. In those ages, dragons liked to seduce humans to create perfect half-breeds. Their seduction was magical.
But there was more... lately, Malcolm had the bad idea of telling Izzit about a discussion with his elfish wife about buying a new carpet for their living room. They had totally disagreed on the color of the carpet.
The word "discussion" had given a sliver of a chance to the horned, blue-skinned, drop-dead gorgeous dragonkin. A fight between Malcolm and Matilda could mean that she could demonstrate to her boss her incredible powers of seduction. Maybe a causal romp could save his marriage by giving him a kind of "much needed break" from his boring elf-wife..
Malcolm did not agree.
It was typical for Dragonkin, who did not really accepted human morality standards, to have casual-romps with multiple partners... Their society was such. In Tiamat City, their capital City State, marriage was forbidden, and citizens were expected to have casual sex between strangers..
But this was Lollipop City, a profoundly Vaisnava and therefore ridiculously moral place. The idea of having a romp with his sharp fanged semi-reptilian secretary, although surely desirable for almost any man was actually not so appealing to him. He loved Matilda.
"Mr. Noober said he would send you payment on Monday." she answered, crestfallen.
"He said that last Friday." he replied, his annoyance at his secretary quickly dissipating. He was after all a Cross-Species Diplomat. If he didnt' know how to handle a dragonkin secretary, he didn't know shit about his job!
"And the one before." she said, returning her eyes to her claws. "Your coffee is on the table!" she finished saying.
"Thanks lovely, Izzit. You know I love you most of all.." he said in a typical dragonkin answer.
And he closed his office door behind him.
For the decor of his office, he had chosen simplicity. A simple wooden desk, a simple PC computer with universal windows xp. A simple but very comfortable office shark-leather chair, a couch, a refreshment bar and a pair of Arcadian Ferns to each side of his desk on simple but elegant elf handmade clay vases.
On his desk was a cup of coffee, fresh and steaming, Astro Java. Izzt really knew how to please him. A newspaper lay next to the coffee, and his computer screen, already turned on to his Facebook account, with freshly cleaned keyboard and mouse.. He kept a meticulous office. He loathed clutter. Izzt was a meticulous secretary, and she too loved order.
He checked his screen, and heard the petition for a video conference. He accepted instantly, and the peculiar face of his boss appeared, dominating the screen.
It was the face of a large reptile, a kind of large, colorful humanoid iguana, typical lizard man of Lollipop City.
He was Butch Fry, the least imaginative being in the world, but perhaps the most astute.
Butch lived and died for one thing, and one thing only: his job. And he had quite a job to fill. He was Chairman of the Lollipop City Council Inter-species Diplomatic Corps. This corps was a sub agency of the Lollipop City Council, which besides the Crown, the King and his Court was the most powerful organization in the city.
And perhaps in the whole planet. Lollipop City and it's allies were the principal superpower in Nagaloka.
Butch "the butcher" Fry was in charge of all inter-species affairs. This included all the non-human or lizard man citizens in Lollipop City, diplomatic relations with other-species nations such as the Goblin Kingdoms, the Ogre Republic, and the Dwarf Nations, and all criminal-cases involving non-natives in the city which numbered in the thousands every year. The Butcher was a kind of advocate for non-humans and non-lizard men, which composed, by far, the largest majority in Lollipop City.
It was not a fun job, and not an easy one, but Butch loved every minute of it. Lizard men were like that... Power-hungry. Lizard-brained. Focused. Logical.
"Have you seen the newspaper this morning?" he asked Malcolm with his distinctly reptilian voice..
"No boss. Hold on..". said Malcolm picking it up.
Newsprint never went out of style in Lollipop City.
For some strange reason, in the age of computers, laptops, and virtual books, the idea of holding a freshly printed, newspaper made from biodegradable hemp paper was still quite popular.. The damn things were used everywhere and for all manner of ridiculous things, like cleaning up after the cat, piñatas, and even paper brick-homes.
Nothing went to waste in Lollipop City, recycling was paramount so something like newsprint, which was designed to go to waste, ended up having so many uses other than the intended, that its continued existence became almost indispensable.
Malcolm read out loud: "Man claiming to be City Founder Rainsong Returns from the Past" said the headline, and under the headline, the handsome face of somebody who looked suspiciously like Elder Rainsong, the human who, with a gnome and an elf, had built the city more than 7900 years ago.
Rainsong had disappeared 2400 years ago during the Zombie Apocalypse followed by the Great Flood, which had destroyed utterly the planet and brought all the sentient beings in the planet back to the stone-age.
But Rainsong and his friends were rumored to be immortal. Could it be true? Could this peculiar human be the City's founder?
"Is this for real? Is it really him?" asked Malcolm to his scaly faced boss.
"That... is YOUR job to find out, Malcolm. He is at King Agua Memorial Hospital. Dr. X9UB3, a medical android is waiting there for you. He is the physician in charge. I want a full report by next Friday. The Crown is VERY interested in this case, and I don't need any fuckups. That's why I'm putting you in charge. You are my best agent. The press is already seething to get to this guy. But don't know shit yet. He just looks so much like the real one, you know? The one in the ancient ruins and statues. We can't take any chances." The Butcher did not betray any emotion... Reptiles usually didn't. But Malcolm was sure that the lizard man was sweating under the collar, and lizard men do not have any sweat glands.
History Lesson
Malcolm arrived at the hospital about two hours later. He checked all his mails before leaving, but there was nothing urgent. He wanted to prepare himself to meet this strange person claiming to be a 7 thousand year old immortal. How could he prepare though? The first thing was to learn all there was to learn about ancient Lollipop City 's history.
The human Rainsong, the gnome Jigolanthas, the elf Xan and the dwarf Grumps supposedly arrived in planet Nagaloka on Earth Date 1175 as part of a Naga mission to colonize the as of yet, uninhabited planet. Nagaloka is one of millions of Naga planets that have been given the same name by the Naga Lords, who are reptilian planet-seeders. The four friends are warriors from anther place who have somehow managed to ally themselves with the Nagas to leave their home planet in search of adventure.
First Age: Lord Kukulkan, the Naga leader in charge of seeding this new planet, which is as of yet only known as M-76193 XL 848 introduces various vegetable and animal species which thrive in the new environment. One hundred years later, Kukulkan introduces the first humans, elves, dwarves and other sentient races. It is called guided evolution, and it's a perfected process of the Naga Lords.
Second Age: As expected, humans begin to submit other races and expand rapidly. The human settlement of New Rome rapidly enslaves all other races to human dominion. Kukulkan dispatches Rainsong, Grumps, Jigolanthas and Xan to alleviate the suffering of the non-humans. The warriors are taken in as slaves by New Rome and quickly from the inside of the Empire, form a rebellion, destroying the empire utterly. Thus ends the rein of man on Nagaloka and the Second Age.
Third Age: Beginning around Earth Date 1994. The Nagas are pleased Nagaloka has become a real planet. The only problem is that since the Capital of New Rome was built mostly by dwarven slaves, Grumps decides to form his own Dwarf Nation on it's ruins, and declare himself King. This forces his old friends to leave him behind and take with them with all the refugees who do not want to be dominated by Grumps and the dwarves. Ex-slave elves, gnomes and humans leave the ruins of New Rome to go east and find a new place to live in freedom. Slave goblins, trolls, ogres and others leave north or take sail west to find other places to build their own homelands far away from the powerful dwarves.
Not long after, Lollipop City is founded by Rainsong, Jigolanthas and Xan, with the promise of democracy, freedom and tolerance and love for all sentient beings. They have found fertile land in a coast to the south east of New Rome which is inhabited by peaceful and primitive lizard men. Non-humans and humans alike flock to the New City to become part of the greatest democratic experiment in the planet. The dwarves look suspiciously at the new city blooming. In less than a hundred years, and with the help of the lizard men, Lollipop City rivals the dwarf nation of Grumpslandia, which has rapidly become the most prosperous nation on the planet.
War is inevitable. The excuse for it comes form a religious dispute between Jigolanthas, the gnome and a lizard man known as Agua. Agua wants to build a temple in the city and he does not achieve sufficient votes to do so, so he goes to King Grumps in Grumpslandia and asks for help. The result is that the dwarves now have reason to invade Lollipop City. The much more powerful dwarves defeat Lollipop City's defenses rapidly, and Rainsong, Jigolanthas and Xan are exiled. Agua is crowned King by King Grumps.
Shortly after, the dead wake from their graves, kill all the humans, and a huge flood destroys the world.
But King Agua, immortal and wise ruler of Nagaloka manages to save mankind from sure extinction in the planet by building a Magic Rose Tower in which he saves one couple from each of the twelve tribes of man. King Agua has saved mankind! King Agua must leave the world, but he promises to return at a later date, when he is most needed. The Original Civilization has ended and man, and all the other races who survived the Zombie Apocalypse and the Great Flood must start from scratch to rebuild everything they lost.
Of Rainsong, nothing more was known after his exile from Lollipop City.
All these stories are part of THE ADVENTURES OF AGUA, THE LIZARD MAN. The oldest and most important book in the planet. The only known account of the prehistory of the planet.
.
The Statue of the Great Warrior
The similarity was remarkable. The huge mustachioed man laying on the hospital bed was the living image of that ancient being from Nagaloka's prehistory, whose numerous statues, paintings and other representations had survived thousands only to be rediscovered by the many archeologists trying to put together the history of the planet.
Malcolm could remember seeing one statue in particular, in the prestigious Museum of Natural History of Lollipop City which was so life-like, made form mirthil, a kind of steel stronger than any other, which was so exact to this person lying there to make it almost impossible not to accept that this was indeed the founder of Lollipop City come back from thousands of years of exile.
Dr. X9UB3, the disturbing mosquito-looking android who was monitoring the life-signs of the new patient turned to look at Malcolm.
"He is perfectly healthy, but he is suffering from acute confusion. I have given him a strong sedative to keep him out of mischief until you arrived." said the machine.
"Can you wake him up?" asked Malcolm.
"Of course." and having said so, Dr. X9UB3 ministered a substance into an IV line which was taped to the prone man on the bed. Immediately, his eyes opened and come more or less into focus.
"Get me out of here." he said.
"We are still trying to monitor your health condition." said Malcolm in his best diplomatic voice. "My name is Malcolm, and I have been assigned to help you."
"Well, Malcolm, then help me get this damn needle out of my arm. You are drugging me so I can't ... I want to get up. Now.". he commanded.
Malcolm turned to Dr. X9UB3 and nodded his head. The good doctor did as requested and took out the IV from Rainsong's arm. He then proceeded to help him sit up on the bed.
"Thank you. Now, where am I again?". he asked, a little more subdued.
"King Agua Memorial Hospital, in Lollipop City. It is Friday 7th of February year Earth-Date 4456." replied Malcolm. "You claimed to be Elder Rainsong, the founder of the city, who died more than 7,000 year ago."
"I am he, and I am not dead." said Rainsong. "But I don't really remember how I got here.."
"You were found unconscious in Baldu'r Park in the University District. You were next to a concrete statue of the real Rainsong." said Malcolm. "You seem to be uninjured."
"I feel groggy.". he said.
"You were sedated. We were afraid you could hurt yourself. Or someone of our staff." said Dr. X9UB3.
"What are you!?"
"I am your doctor. An android.". Dr. X9UB3 replied.
"So this is the future, eh? That damned gnome... How did he ... Wait... The zombies... The Demiurge... What...I need to get back to stop the Demiurge!"
" If by Demiurge, you mean our Lord Kalki.." said Malcolm.
"Lord Kalki?"
"In our prehistory, the Gods came down to the planet to Judge mankind. The Judgment was death and the dead were risen to kill the living. This was the work of the King of Kings, and Lord of all the Universe, Kalki, our Savior, who was in that age known as Jesus Christ, Krsna and by the demons and evil-doers as Demiurge."
"What? Savior? ... I ... I ... I don't understand any of this."
"Relax. I'll answer any questions you might have. We are trying to determine exactly who you really are and how you got here. You made quite a stir out there. Some say you appeared out of nowhere, looked at the statue of Elder Rainsong and some thought you were really him." said Malcolm, carefully considering his words.
"But .. I am Rainsong." said the big man, desperate.
"Well, if you are a 7,000 year old immortal, I am sure we will find out the truth, but if you are just a little confused and suffering from amnesia, which is also possible, then the best thing we can do right now, is for you to stay here, and..."
"I am not suffering from... I am not crazy! I AM Rainsong!"
"Fine, fine... easy... then you will be able to show us... but not right now.. right now, what is important is for you to calm down and for us to figure out what to do about all the reporters outside who want to talk to you. You might not understand, but your strange appearance in a public park has caused quite a stir, and the last thing we need is to cause a panic. Okay?" Malcolm was certain this man really thought he was a 7,000 year old warrior. There was no dishonesty in him.
"Okay. I think I get you, Malcolm. Thanks for trying to help. Listen, can you... I need to ... do you have history books. I have some catching up to do." said Rainsong, slowly dissipating the cobwebs in his brain.
"I have something much better. I have an iPad. I just bought it last week, but I'll be happy to loan it to you. It has access to thousands.. maybe hundreds of thousands of books online." said Malcolm, smiling. Things were going exactly as he wanted.
"Huh?"
"Here, I'll show..."
