Suddenly, the night sky tore open, and a flash of light pierced the darkness above the thousand-year-old pine forest.
Jacob jolted awake on the tree branch where he had been unconscious, followed immediately by a deafening tremor.
promising!
A deafening explosion rocked the ground, shaking the giant pine tree Jacob was clinging to violently, as if it were about to break and fall.
"Agh!" Jacob exclaimed in surprise. He had to hold onto the tree trunk tightly to keep from falling.
As the explosion subsided, Jacob gasped for breath, his voice trembling with panic. He climbed a little higher onto a branch, craning his neck to see through the darkness what had happened.
The sight left him stunned. A massive plume of smoke and flames rose from where a mysterious object had fallen, not far from where the scooter had landed.
The explosion from a mysterious object that had just impacted Earth not far away sent a shockwave violently shaking the giant pine tree Jacob was perched on. Flocks of birds scattered in panic throughout the forest. Jacob was breathing heavily. A meteorite? What was it?
"What is this...?" Jacob muttered. "A meteorite? Or a second spaceship crash?"
His mind immediately went to Uncle Breeze. That kind of explosion... if his uncle were nearby...
In a panic, his heart immediately began to pound at the thought of Uncle Fareez, or 'Uncle Breeze,' the only relative who was with him when the incident occurred. He started frantically piecing together the events in his head.
He hastily grabbed the crystal communication stick, trying to search for Fabrice's vital signs, but the screen displayed only a purple emptiness.
Jacob took a deep breath, trying to suppress his trembling hands. He gently pressed on one side of the device. A blue holographic light flashed in the darkness.
"Find... Scooter number 2445. Signed, Fabrice," he ordered, his voice trembling as he tried to keep it from shaking.
"Damn it!" Jacob cursed, frustrated and desperate. His voice echoed through the vast forest.
"You stupid machine, get to work!"
He irritably swiped across the holographic screen, instantly switching modes.
"Switch to observation mode."
At the sound of the command, a small, white ball of light, about the size of a ping-pong ball, was released from the tip of the metal rod. It emitted a soft buzzing sound as it soared above the treetops, serving as his third eye.
A hologram projected from the silver rod's head displayed a real-time aerial view from the light ball's camera. The darkness of the Bledizzico pine forest appeared even more terrifying from this angle. Towering trees stretched as far as the eye could see, like a natural wall trapping them.
Jacob lightly swiped his hand across the screen, manipulating the ball of light. The image moved with his touch. Far in the distance to the right, about 180 degrees away, were the flickering lights of residential towers. They were probably almost ten kilometers away, far too far to reach on foot in this condition.
The Tower of Horathea, constructed from the trunk of a giant velome tree with a diameter of 250 meters at its base and standing almost two kilometers tall, is built up in layers with windows, balconies, houses, markets, offices—everything. It's a small city housing over fifty thousand inhabitants.
There are approximately 40 such towers in the Bledizzico area, built amidst a forest of giant pine trees and millions of wild animals that inhabit the forest, providing them with food and acting as a watchful eye.
He slowly rotated the camera to the other side of the tree, scanning the ground for any abnormalities. And then he saw it...
Thick, black smoke billowed above the treetops, contrasting with the faint starlight. It wasn't natural fog, but smoke from combustion.
"There it is..." Jacob bit his lip, thinking to himself, "It must have come from the exploding scooter."
Fear began to grip his heart, not just because Uncle Breeze was his only remaining relative, but because he was the one who had raised him. During the six years his mother was away as a 'Solheya' on the moon Io, if Uncle Breeze hadn't taken on the role of guardian, he would have been sent to the Center's orphanage as a central child. Uncle Breeze was like a father, a friend, and a family he couldn't lose.
====
Suddenly, a pink ball of light floated up in front of me. It was an incoming call from Hal.
"Jec! Are you there? Answer me!" Hal's voice rang out, but it was so hesitant and almost unintelligible. "Je... Jec... Is that you?"
The sound emanating from the glowing ball called a 'prop' was a crackling and frantic.
"Hal," Jacob retorted to the pink propeller, his voice filled with immense relief at hearing a friend's voice, "Why didn't you call earlier?"
"Oh, you idiot! I've been calling you for ages! I thought you were dead!" Hal shouted, a mixture of relief and anger in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm not dead yet... calm down!" Jacob brushed it off. "By the way, did you see? A huge meteorite just fell."
"I saw a ghost! But from here in the tower, I could hear a deafening roar," Hal said cheekily. "Sorry, I didn't actually see anything. I was sitting in the control room, but the alarm was blaring everywhere."
"Why are you so late, Hal!" Jacob began to vent his frustration.
"I've called the rescue vehicle, I've called the control center, I've called everyone until my throat is hoarse! And nobody cares about you!"
"Aren't you the one in charge of the monitor? Why didn't you use infrared to find us? You left me lying dried out on a tree for six hours!"
"Are you crazy! Do you think it's that easy to find him?" Hal retorted instantly. "I called you several times and there was no answer. Your vital signs were intermittent, so we had to use satellite scanning to locate you. Besides, that 500+ square kilometer forest has hundreds of thousands of those nymphs! Their body heat readings fill the whole screen. How can we be sure of where you are and where the nymphs are using infrared?"
The frustrated voices from Propeller came through, revealing the chaos on the tower side.
"So you've figured out which nymph I am," Jacob retorted sarcastically, though he understood the situation perfectly well. "And... have you found Uncle Breeze yet?"
This question put the other end of the line silent for a moment. A silence that made Jacob feel colder than the night air.
"I sent out 13 signals to locate you and old man Breeze..." Hal replied, his voice strained. "But there's been no response for two hours..."
"That means Uncle's vital signs are gone..." Jacob said, his voice filled with despair. His throat was constricted.
"We're not sure yet. Don't jump to conclusions," Hal quickly corrected.
"So, are you still at the Nims hunting base? It's late," Jacob asked.
"Yes, I'm still here. I'm just waiting to get in touch with you. Everyone else has gone back, but… uh… and then…" Hal looked towards the spot where the meteorite landed on the screen.