Day Seventeen - The Man with Two Faces

SpaceWizards
(Another SpaceWizards Action/Adventure Mystery)

There are several thousand races that are two-faced. Most of them are on two heads. The ones with two heads most of them are side by side. But there are a few that are one behind the other. And a few with one head on top of the other. The ones that are only one head, most of those faces have one on the front and the other one on the back. But there are a few that are side by side too. Whether there are two heads or one, and where they are at, most of them are the same gender, but there are a few that are both. This is a story about one individual from one of those races.

“The Man with Two Faces”

A Short Story

Remembered By

Yena

    Delorei just stared at a Fire Ball as it was headed toward her. Pacill mumbled something. And a few seconds later Delorei was pushed out of the ball’s path just as it passed her to explode against a nearby building. Pieces of that building soared towards Delorei's back. Yena mumbled something. And a few seconds those pieces suddenly stopped and fell to the ground.

     Yena stood next to Pacill on an extremely busy pathway. There were Doctians everywhere. And they were panicking, running in all directions, into each other, trying to find shelter from a hovering giant Alien just below the cloudy skies.

     The other five SpaceWizards stood in a line between Horrald and the Doctians below. They were continuously shooting Fire Balls and electrical strings at Horrald. A few of them struck Horrald. But most he just swatted away or into each other. The ones he swatted sailed away exploded or just disappeared in the near distance.

     Horrald did get hit a few times. But they only pushed him back or sideways a little. Whether he got hit or not after the SpaceWizards attacked, he would attack them. He mostly tried to hit them back. But he had also been trying to get past them. He used the attack against them to cover up the Fire Balls he shot at Delorei. One of those balls just got past them.

     Mairon shot an electrical string at Horrald that struck him in his shoulders and spun him sideways just a little as he fired off another Fire Ball at Delorei. Only that one wasn’t aimed for Delorei now. It was headed toward a small group of Doctians, mostly females and Young Ones. Mairon saw that Pacill and Yena both fired Fire Balls at Horrald's ball to divert it before all three of them exploded.

     There are too many innocent Doctians down there to protect thought Mairon. We need to get Delorei away from here. Let’s try to do that by connecting ourselves. It might just destroy Horrald’s blocking spell he has against us.

     The SpaceWizards held each other’s hands and started mumbling two things one after the other. Horrald started firing only Fire Balls at the SpaceWizards. First, it was single shots to each individually. Then at two or three of them at once. All of them connected. And they did push them back or sideways a little. But it didn’t break their connection. A few seconds later they disappeared. And so, did Delorei.

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     A few seconds later and the eight of them appeared in the Control Chamber. “If you could have done that all along, why didn’t you do it? Why did I have to run for my life for the last three hours? He almost killed me a billion times.”

     “It wasn’t that many times,” said Angoria. “At the most, it was about two hundred times.”

     “I’m not talking about just the ones that got past you. Why didn’t you do it?”

     “We were constantly trying to do it.” Jacci sat behind the controls of their spaceship. “But Horrald put a spell on us to stop us from doing what we did.”

     “Horrald also kept us busy protecting you so we couldn’t do it together,” said Mairon. “But when we saw all your fellow Doctians in danger, we had to try to do it anyway. It was extreme hard for us to do while defending ourselves against Horrald’s attack, but we did it.”

     Mairon sat down in one of the chairs behind Jacci. So, did the other SpaceWizards and Delorei. “Delorei, why did you contact your friend Yena a couple of weeks ago. You said something to her about you knowing where Horrald is keeping his army.”

     “I didn’t say that I knew the information on where they are. But I do know someone who says she does. It’s another old friend of yours, Yena. Do you remember Cathion?”

     “Of course, I do. But I haven’t seen him in almost ten years.”

     Yena looked at the other SpaceWizards in shock. “He was one of the first taken to become part of Horrald’s Army. Cathion must have found a way get away from Horrald.”

     “How could he have stayed alive this long?” Borrele asked. “It sounds like another trap to me.”

     “It might be,” said Yena. “But I don’t think so. Cathion has always been a fighter. If anyone could survive his death sentence, it’s him. She’s probably one of his Rejects.”

     “So, instead of becoming one of the dead he became a Follower. Either way, it’s still a trap.”

     “I don’t think that’s true either. Doctians are very good at not becoming part of Horrald’s Army. And I know for sure he’s not a Follower.”

     “Yena is right, we do have the ability to fight Horrald back. We might not be wizards. But we will fight back anyway way that we can.”

     Delorei continued a few seconds later. “We think it’s because we have two faces. One face is always protecting the other.”

     No one spoke for several minutes. It was Mairon who broke the silence. “Whether it’s a trap or not we need to check it out. If there is a chance we can save Horrald’s Army we need to do it.” Mairon looked at Delorei. “So, where is Cathion?”

     Before Delorei could respond, Angoria did. “Why didn’t Cathion contact us instead of you?”

     “That’s a good question,” said Stavon. “Why didn’t he do it?”

     “Because he couldn’t. Horrald almost caught him. He couldn’t get away long enough to do it. And he knew the sooner you knew about it the better. He also knew we were friends too. That’s why he asked me to do it.”

     Once again, no one spoke for several minutes before Jacci broke the silence. “So, Where is Cathion?”

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     Two Fire Balls shot out between three large trees next to each other. And a few seconds later five more shot from the trees on both sides of the first two. All of them aimed at the SpaceWizards. The SpaceWizards stopped their speed flying toward a Wooded Area below them. They easily destroyed those Fire Balls.

     Mairon destroyed his ball by firing a Fire Ball of his own. So, did Jacci and Borrele. Stavon used his Fire Ball aimed at him and the one headed for Yena by going in between and barely touching them, while Pacill and Angoria did the same thing. Only she hit the one headed for her and bumping it into the one about to hit Pacill a second before all three exploded.

     I told you this was another trap. Borrele fired a FireBall in the same direction the one that attacked her. A few seconds later she saw six other balls headed for that Wooded Area.

     That’s not what’s going on here. It’s worse than that. I think we are too late to save Cathion.

     Whether it’s a trap or not, it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is saving Cathion, thought Mairon. And the fastest way to do that is to split up. The first one to find Cathion let the rest of us know.

     Without another thought they headed in different directions to surround that Wooded Area. And within a minute that’s what they did. After getting to their destinations, each one just floated above it for several minutes. Then suddenly three Fire Balls came out the Wooded Area and were headed right for Yena.

     Yena smiled and fired about twenty electrical strings at where those Fire Balls came from. Several went through the balls and disappeared. But the rest missed them and went into the Wooded Area. Just before the balls hit her, Yena mumbled something. And a second later a large hand swatted one into the other two.

     After just floating there for several minutes and nothing happened, Yena headed in the direction of the three Fire Ball attack. Yena entered the Wooded Area a few seconds later. Just after she entered she stopped and looked down at six of the dead.

     So far, the only ones I have killed are the dead. Yena started spinning around as she mumbled something. All around her about fifteen more dead got saved as their neck got sliced off their bodies one at a time. Their bodies had hit the ground before their heads did.

     “That’s all I have saved too.” Yena could hear a fight going on behind Angoria's voice as she started walking through her part of the Wooded Area.

     Sometimes Yena stopped to engage the dead every few seconds with an electrical string to the head or chest. And sometimes she kept walking as she saved them. A few of the dead fired back with some strings of their own or a Fire Ball. But most were saved without firing back.

     Yena saved about a hundred more dead before she reached her destination. All of them were saved with electrical strings. She stepped out of the Wooded Area. And almost right in front of her was a cave entrance. Yena mumbled something as she entered that entrance and a bright light appeared in front of her as she followed that tunnel into a large cavern. She kept diverting her eyes and the light every few seconds. But didn’t encounter any more of the dead.

     Angoria has found her. We are in the sunsetting caves. Yena walked toward Angoria who was squatting over someone. “Why didn’t you think us?”

     “I only got here a few minutes before you. And I was about to think to all of you when you showed up.”

     A few minutes later the others showed up one or two at a time. They all surrounded Cathion, looking down at her. “We’re too late. She’s almost dead.”

     “How do you know that?” Mairon asked.

     “It because of her two faces. Normally, they are back to back on the sides of their oblong head. They only face forward when they are speaking or trying to speak. He’s trying to speak to us. Look at his mouths moving.” Cathion moved his mouths for a few more seconds. Then he stopped. He closed his eyes and his faces returned to their sides.

Word Count = 1,696