Chapter Twenty Five: Papilliowalayo

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"Sam what time is it?" June asked after she had awakened.

"I don't know? We are on another planet June," Sam answered.

"Can we go home now?" June asked.

"I don't know! Are you worried about your Mom?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," She replied with a frown and then fell back asleep.

Sam watched as they flew just above the trees, he could almost smell their scent in the breeze as he breathed in the fresh air. It was very relaxing watching the trees fly by below the clear blue sky, Sam almost fell asleep himself. But just as he was about to nod off he heard a loud clanging of metal on the ceiling of the car.

It was Toido running to the front of the car in a panic, he bent upside down in the view of the windshield to get Reegan's attention. Reegan was startled and swerved the vehicle slightly when he saw Toido' head yelling and pointing to the right at what looked like a swarm of black triangles flying in formation. Carlyle climbed over a few other Tigris and poked his head out the window.

"Flying raiders!" he said. "They are far away I doubt they have spotted us yet."

Carlyle looked below and noticed a small cave.

"Let's land for a bit shall we? We can just let them pass," Carlyle suggested calmly. Reegan stopped the car and they slowly descended into the trees.

"That cave over there should do nicely for a hiding spot!" Carlyle told Reegan and pointed at a cave with a large opening and small stream of water coming out of it. Candillice sat up to take a look out the window and immediately recognized the cave.

She gave Carlyle a slap on the arm. "Carlyle we can't go in there it's sacred!" she yelled.

"What about the Guardian?" She added.

"No one has seen or heard from it for a very long time!" Carlyle replied to Candillice.

"If you could kindly fly us into that cave there my good sir!" Carlyle asked and Reegan replied. "Righto!" As he piloted the craft into the cave, landed and shut it down.

"Let's stretch out our legs shall we?" Carlyle suggested as everyone exited the vehicle except for the old Tigris they rescued who was sleeping and receiving oxygen.

They also decided to leave June who was still asleep.

They thought it would be a brief stay inside the cave but as Carlyle and Toido stood watch near the entrance they noticed the flying triangles return. It appeared they were still searching for them, the Virillians were not going to give up easily.

Hours passed as they hid before Sam walked towards the entrance to speak with Toido.

"How's it going Toido?" He asked noticing that Toido appeared to be depressed. Toido looked down to the floor and then pointed to his broken antennae on the back of his head.

"That is too bad," Sam said but suddenly Toido changed his mood It appeared that he was very frustrated. Sam thought his attitude suggested he was angry at himself as he projected an image of the Genetic Harp to Sam. The image was then followed by a recording of Captain Choleska giving him the responsibility of looking after it.

"Oh I got it here! It's in my pocket!" Sam exclaimed.

Sam handed it back to Toido which appeared to make him happy. Just then Reegan and Rufus walked up and they both appeared to be very excited.

"Samuel! I have been conversing with the Ambassador on the subject of his popular television program Reegan's Galaxy of the Unknown!" Rufus exclaimed.

"How would you guys like to help me film a new episode documenting our findings here?" Reegan asked Toido and Sam.

"Uh Sure," Sam said and Toido also seemed to like the idea.

"Let's call it a come back special! Here you can be the camera man," Reegan said and handed Toido his camera.

"Sam my Man! You can be in charge of audio here's a microphone just keep it out of camera view and Rufus here is my producer. He already lined us up a guest interview with the Princess!" Reegan exclaimed as he signalled them to follow and set up for the scenes they were going to be filming in a far corner within cave.

When June woke up and only saw that the old man was in the wagon, she wondered where everyone went. She walked out of the car when some of the Tigris children they had rescued ran past her. They were running around the car chasing each other but one of them did not see June and bumped into her.

"Hey watch where your goin!" She yelled but the small Tigris fell down from the force of bumping into her, she reached her hand to help him up.

"Thanks who are you?" The Tigris asked. "I'm June whats your name?" she replied.

"I don't have one!" The small Tigris replied and shrugged.

June felt sorry for the little one and decided to give him a name. "I'll call you Purby!" she said. "Hey I want a name too!" Another child shouted. "Me next!" Another shouted.

Soon they all came to crowd around and receive their names from June.

Deeper into the cave Reegan and Toido had finished setting up a spot for their interview. Candillice walked towards them following Rufus. She sat down opposite to Reegan on some stones and a little fire they had set up stood between them. Toido and Sam were in position with the audio microphone and Camera centred on Reegan.

"Take One Action!" Rufus yelled.

"Hello viewers and welcome to Reegan's Galaxy of the Unknown. This episode join me Fenz Reegan and my special guest Candillice as we get to the bottom of the oldest mystery of our Galaxy!" Reegan said.

He was still a natural at being a celebrity and began the show with great excitement in his voice. Toido Pointed the camera in Candillice's direction and she smiled and waved as Rufus and Reegan had already explained to her the concept of a television show.

"Now Candillice I am going to ask you a few questions and we can edit this later but maybe we can start with a little about you?" Reegan asked Candillice.

"Well my name is Candillice and I am well actually. . . .Princess Candillice of Catlinburg but also I just recently started my new role as Prophetigress," She explained to the camera. Reegan began to look around the cave with great interest.

"This is a pretty interesting cave, looks like it had a purpose," Reegan questioned.

"Oh! I do actually know a little about it. My father brought me to this place when I was a small child, It was once a temple over a hundred years ago!" Candillice said. Reegan stood up to walk towards some statues that were between two pillar ruins.

"So this was a temple? Toido get some video recordings of these walls and film the statues man this is some really good stuff!" Reegan yelled in excitement. Toido finished documenting the archaeological finds very carefully with the camera and then Reegan proceeded with the interview.

"We met Candillice in an underground theatre the night before, she was on stage perfoming. That was a fascinating song you sang for us last night can you sing it for us again for the viewers in our audience?" Reegan asked. Candillice appeared to be hesitant. She thought about how difficult it would be to sing without the power of her golden wheel.

In the past she would never sing without it.

"Come closer Sam lets get a good recording of her singing. Sam? Sam? Where did he go?" Reegan noticed that Sam had gone missing.

Toido pointed toward where Sam was standing just around a corner further in to the cave. There was a large room filled with many small statues and one larger statue that was a part of a water fall pouring water into a stream.

"They look very sick!" Sam said as he pointed to the floor of the temple.

The floor was filled with insects that were flapping their wings slowly, there must have been thousands of them huddled close to the water. June and the children ran into the room but June stopped the other children from running further.

"Look butterflies all over the floor and the walls and the ceiling and drinking water over there!" June said with so much excitement she almost forgot she was sick until she started to cough.

"Butterflies!" the children said repeating June.

Reegan was suddenly concerned about poisonous gas in the cave, he looked at Toido very seriously.

"Is it gas?" Reegan asked but Toido gave Reegan a head shake no.

"Maybe it's the water?" Sam said. He looked around for the source of the water and noticed that it was filling into a bowl that the statue was holding before it entered the waterfall and into the stream on the floor of the cave.

"Let me check," Sam said and he used his Proboflotter on the small stream that the butterflies were drinking from. The device indicated it was contaminated.

"There's definitely something in the water," Sam said. He looked behind the statue and found a small hole, he crawled inside it by himself.

Carlyle had been guarding the entrance of the cave and when his shift was done he decided to check on everyone else. As he entered the back room he noticed that everyone was watching the small hole near the large statue and waiting.

"What is everyone here gawking at?" Carlyle asked Candillice.

"It's Sam he walked behind the statue and crawled into that hole!" Candillice explained. "Oh Carlyle what if it's dangerous! I have to go back there and help him."

Carlyle grabbed Candillice and pulled her away from the crowd.

"You seem very concerned about this Sam fellow! Why is he so important?" He asked.

"It just feels like the right thing to do!" Candillice told him.

"That's not a very good reason Princess!" Carlyle replied.

"Okay here lemme show you something Carlyle!" Candillice reached into her bag and pulled out her wheel. The wheel was entirely grey except for the symbol of the egyptian cat's head which had turned back to the original gold colour the wheel had before.

"How is this possible it was entirely drained of its power?" Carlyle exclaimed.

"Sam placed his finger there. There is something about him," Candillice replied. Carlyle was amazed and looked towards the small hole that Sam had crawled into.

"You stay here Princess I will go!" He said. Carefully he walked past the insects on the ground and over to the hole.

Sam was further inside, there was a small cavern passageway and Sam had reached the end of it. He could hear a dripping sound above him and spotted another hole in the ceiling. He crawled up it and into another large chamber where rain water had been gathering into a small pool. In the middle of the pool there was a very alien looking device.

"I don't think that belongs there," Sam said to himself. The device was a cylindrical metallic object with a handle on the top part of it that was not submerged. There was a blinking red light. He thought that it must be administering the poison to the water.

Sam didn't want to get wet or even touch the impure water. He looked around the room for some way to pull the device out.

The ceiling was covered in the roots of the trees above, Sam decided to climb along them to get up over the alien device. He climbed the roots along the ceiling carefully to the point of being just above the handle, he reached for the cylindrical device but it was still too far.

Carlyle silently caught up to Sam and was watching his attempt to reach for the device. "He will never reach it why bother?" Carlyle thought. Suddenly to Carlyle's shock he watched as the ugliest looking tail that he had ever seen in his life protruded from under neath Sam's baggy shirt and latched on to the root connected to the ceiling.

The bony and skinny tail had a firm grip which enabled Sam to grab the handle of the device and remove it from the water. With a little swing he threw it to the back of the room where it made a large clunk sound. The sound caused some of the ruins to shake and debris to fall from the ceiling. The root shook as well but Sam was able to maintain his grip. He carefully reached into his pocket and pulled out his Proboflotter. He reached for the water and inserted it just long enough for the green light to appear on the indicator.

"There we go it's purified."

But before Sam could place his proboflotter back into his pocket a very beautiful and small butterfly like insect entered the room. He watched as it flew around him and then landed next to the edge of the pool to take a drink.

Sam was curious to see what would happen if the insect drank from the newly purified water source. As it drank the wings of the insect became more colourful and started to flap very fast. "That should do it!" Sam said to himself as he thought about how to get down. He looked over to the dry ground where he wanted to go. He turned back once more to see the insect had finished drinking but something seemed to be wrong as it's body was now pulsing and vibrating at an intense rate. Sam couldn't believe his eyes as the insect appeared to be increasing in size, soon the entire room was shaking. He climbed away by the roots along the ceiling. His plan was to drop back down the hole to get away. As he was dangling from the roots by his tail just over the hole, he noticed the shaking had finished. The room was silent except for a heavy breathing sound he heard from behind him.

He looked behind and was now face to face with an enormous beast. Sam stood still, the beast had two giant black eyes and a furry face. It's mouth was a small beak, Sam was afraid but also in awe. He could not believe how colourful and beautiful this massive insects wings were. The large beast just stood there and stared into his eyes. Sam was not sure if the beast was thankful or considering to have him for a snack. Before Sam could find out there were screams and loud noises coming from the other room, the beast turned his head.

Carlyle was still watching everything and he took this opportunity to grab Sam from below and pull him back into the hole. "Run Sam!" Carlyle whispered and they moved as fast as they could through the small confined space. The beast must have noticed Sam was gone and became angry because he started to bash into the wall while letting out a terrible scream.

Carlyle and Sam ran into the room from behind the statue to see that the other insects were starting to grow large as well.

"It's the Guardian! Run!" Carlyle screamed but everyone else was already in the Wagon ready to go. Sam and Carlyle had just jumped in and Reegan was about to take off when two of the dark triangle craft descended in front of the entrance. Their hiding spot had been discovered.

Sam saw what was happening in front of the car and the cave was shaking in the back behind them the as the creatures were all becoming much larger. Everyone knew the cave was too small for the new giants, It was about to get crowded and they needed to soon be flying out of that cave to escape.

The triangular shaped Virillian craft flew into the cave towards the Wagon, it's gun cannons extended and began to spin as they were readying to open fire on Sam and his friends. Sam heard the spinning but over top of this sound he also heard a very loud noise from the back of the cave. It sounded like stomping and it was getting closer. He could hear it above them and then in front of them. Suddenly the creature that had made the stomping noises was at the entrance of the cave behind the triangular shaped scout craft.

It was the same beast that Sam had been face to face with moments before. The massive Butterfly like creature grabbed both of the scout craft and smashed them against the rocks.

"It's The Guardian!" Carlyle yelled.

"Papilliowalayo!" Candillice exclaimed in fear and amazement.

Toido Screamed at Reegan, He was crammed into the Wagon as he was too afraid to sit on the roof this time. There was suddenly thousands of the massive insects almost as large as the Guardian flying through the cave behind them. Reegan lifted the Wagon off the ground and the car took flight past the screaming Guardian at incredible speed.

Toido panicked as he pointed to hundreds of scout craft that were in the area and it looked like they were just about to be spotted when the other creatures flew out of the cave as well and quickly caught up with them.

Everyone was filled with fear of being attacked by either the scout crafts or the massive creatures. But their fear turned to awe as the flying giants spread their massive colourful wings and surrounded the Wagon flying with and concealing them. Their massive wing span and numbers covered their escape.

"What just happened?" Sam asked Candillice.

"That was Papilliowalayo! The Guardian!" Candillice replied.

"A Guardian of what?" Sam asked.

"We should ask my Mother she knows everything! She told me he spoke to her once and! guess what! Papilliowalayo never speaks to anybody!" Candillice replied.

"Toido is the camera still rolling? You got all that right?" Reegan asked.

Toido gave a thumbs up and filmed Reegan who was making a few wise cracks for his television audience. Toido then proceeded to gather footage of the massive butterfly like creatures flying around them. "Mr Toido, Protolian sir there appears to be a settlement ahead perhaps you should document that as well?" Rufus mentioned to Toido.

"That's my good little Producer!" Reegan said and laughed.

"That is our destination," Carlyle said. "Behold the city of Catlinburg!"


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