CHAPTER 39 – DEPARTURE

Current Time

Later in the day the others arrived, and Priya as well, sporting a new look. Phantomess waved to her, and parted the crowd to where two big furry squirrels with mittens where tending to a kitchen oven, situated alone on the grass. Melina-Squirrel bent over and opened up the door, pulling out a tray of chocolate chip cookies, then lay it on top. "There's years of work ahead of us, but they stored away almost everyone in the silos that succumbed to the acorn fever" Phantomess confirmed. Seeing their daughter, the two of them waddled over and gave her a big hug, squeezing her with their oven mittens. "Mom, dad, I'm so glad it's all done. Now we can rebuild and see what this place offers" she conveyed with the humor of the recent days lighting up her eyes. "Echo-girl, ever since you came to help me and your mother in our time of need, we have been so proud of you" Linden-Squirrel replied, wagging a bushy tail. "It's because I love you two so much. A lot of things happened because of that, but nothing I couldn't handle" Priya answered. Melina-Squirrel looked to her husband, then back at her daughter smiling, "we feel the same, but it's obvious we have been a burden on you". "Nothing could be further from the truth" she disagreed. Returning back to the oven, the cooks laid the metal tray on the ground below, causing it to magnify as the crowd made room, growing until the cookies were the size of dinner tables. Like twin orchestra conductors in harmony the divine couple caused one of the them to lift up off of the tray. Hovering in air it accepted the elements of metal, changing its shape into a saucer. "Is that a UFO!" Snow burst out, fixated by the silvery vessel. Individual chocolate chips in their original places still interrupted the surface of the hull. Melina-Squirrel brushed the echo-girl's purple hair with her mitten, then touched her shoulder, "Honey, dreams are your thing. We are getting too old for that". "But mom, dad, where will you go" the scientist stammered, a single tear falling from her right eye. "Another place to settle. Another Bacteriae. We have one Silo with us and we can repopulate at another site that looks promising. Echo … no matter what you will always be in our hearts" Linden-Squirrel promised, and bidding her farewell a blue tractor beam lifted them up into the ship, and it sailed through the Atmo and left the warmth of the corona. Priya said nothing and let the moment be as the crowd applauded without regards to the intricate inner workings of what had transpired. The mantle of leadership fell upon her, replenishing every thought. Then … a weird feeling. "From where is this coming from?" the scientist asked as her arms of their own accord replicated the symphonic movements of her parents. Absorbing the magic, the chocolate chip cookie adjacent to the one that they had selected likewise did the same, becoming a UFO that cast a shadow onto the crowd below. Alarm began to course through her as she realized she was unable to regain control of her movements. "Am I three feet higher?" thought Priya as the crowd was repulsed. With a quick thin incision, her head levitated. Slick red blood oozed from the opening, then in one motion came the passage of a figure coated in wetness ... falling, plopping onto the grass. "Come back!" willed Priya, and the incision healed on her neck as the parts reattached, more comfortable than the other alternative. Arising from organics, a woman of long blonde hair stood, and walked over to the sweating, pale-faced goddess. "Thank you, host" Orchidia Everglow said, planting her lips on hers and tasting mirror lip-gloss. Unable to move, the interloper retreated up into the UFO, carried by a green tractor beam. Recovering from terror the patrons thought to give chase, but the tractor beam came out again, the green energy forming into a dragon that shot out from its mouth a burst of flame, scattering them just long enough for the ship to part through the clouds and escape from view. A minute ticked away, and as the parasitism faded the woman lifted up a finger to her lips, feeling the residue of the greeting. Later on, it was Emzeser's task to tell her that she had taken Visioness and half of the Metacoma with her.