#finding roots

This is me with Finding Roots right now.

It was cold.  That was the first thing Cee registered upon waking up.  Next was the usual dull whiteness of the walls, and the roughness of the old blankets.  Then, there was Ezra’s course snoring which reverberate through the entire cabin.  He sounded like a Jata Bhalu with a cold. 

Cee flipped over to face the interior of the room, Ezra has his back to her with the blankets wrapped around his body in a cocoon.  Cee stared at his back for a few seconds, watching the rhythmic expansion and contraction of his torso as he breathed.  He was alive.

It had been around a year since their shared nightmare on the Green Moon.  They had barely survived the shootout with the mercenaries, particularly Ezra, who had been stabbed in the stomach, puncturing a hole in his already old and worn-out suit.  He had yelled at her to leave him behind, to let him rot to his death on this lush hell.  But Cee could not bring herself to leave him.  Yes, he had killed her father, but she had shot him during their first up-close encounter, causing his infection, then she had left him to face the wrath of the Satyrs alone, during their negotiating session gone wrong.  This led to her also being partially responsible for him losing his right arm, since the Satyrs had not given him the medical attention he needed to save the limb from infection. 

They had both cause each other a great deal of anguish, and yet, they understood each other.  Despite their beginning, they were still here, together, battered and bruised, but alive.  They really were all each other had now. 

Cee’s mother had died years before she had set foot on the Pug.  Damon, Cee’s father, was also gone.  Number Two, Ezra’s prospecting partner, whoever he was, was also dead, gunned down in the altercation that had killed Damon as well.  The crew Ezra had initially come to the Green with had been scattered after a disagreement turned to bloodshed.  Ezra had mentioned having a brother once, but they were not on good terms from what Cee could tell.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden ceasing of Ezra snores and the shifting of his linens.  Cee shut her eyes tight, making it look like she as still asleep.  Ezra lifted his head, his short, dark brown hair messy and fluffed out with sleep.  He turned he head to Cee, “I know you’re up, birdie, you know the eyes in the back of my head are always open.” He quipped.  Cee tried, and quickly failed to stifle a smile.  The most shit-eating, cornfed hick smirk appeared on his face, before rolling over to sit up, shucking the blankets off his body.  He grimaced for a second, feeling the sharp change in temperature.  “Damn, it’s cold.” He remarked “How are you not a popsicle? Although, I do suppose, unlike myself, you gotta warm heart.”  Cee sat up, “You sure about that?” she replied. “I have not a singular doubt.” “I meant about you, Ezra, that you don’t have a warm heart.” Cee said. 

Ezra paused, he had been tying his indoor shoes.  He looked up at her, his expression was hard to read.  It only lasted a split second before he chuckled.  “I am usually always in the mood to debate, little bird, but not before I’ve had my coffee and some grub.” He finished lacing his shoes and stood up walking to the small washroom. “I wanna be there early, more for us.”  Cee stood up going over to the small chest at the foot of her bunk where she kept her clothing. “-And more importantly fewer stares and less whispering.” She said under her breath as Ezra shut the door.

Even though a year had passed since their return to the Pug, the rumors had hardly died down.  Word traveled surprisingly fast.  Before their misadventure, Ezra had a reputation as rather chatty hothead with the inability to NOT put him self in danger.  He was reliable when it came to finding aurelac, but a liability when it came to not losing it as a result of some hair-brained, half-baked idea to get a bigger cut. 

Damon, on the other hand, had been much quieter, but his drug usage was an open secret.  He never used publicly, but once, while most of the Pug was asleep.  He’d gotten high on some hallucinogen from a plant on a planet they had been prospecting.  It caused him to have a terrible nervous fit, resulting in him hooting and hollering while dashing about the halls.  Thankfully, he had the wherewithal to keep his undergarments on despite being otherwise naked.  Cee, of course, being only 11 and his only associate, had to drag him back to their cabin, while onlookers emerged from their own rooms to investigate the commotion. 

Naturally, the crudeness of Damon’s behavior soured others’ view of Cee as a result.

Then, Cee, the daughter of an aimless druggy, and Ezra, whose greed made him a ticking time bomb, both returned to the Pug in a ship neither of them owned.  To make matters more jarring, there was the gaping wound in Ezra’s stomach and, perhaps even more noticeably, was the matter of his missing arm. 

Furthermore, the absence of those that had travelled to Green with them only raised even further questions.  They were an odd pair, sticking out like a sore thumb among the other prospecting groups.  Bits and pieces of their story circulated, but it could never paint the full picture. 

The trip downward was, luckily, uneventful.  Cee had done exactly as Damon had taught her: watch the altitude gauge, keep a film grip on the control stick and send a prayer to Kevva that the heat-shielding on the outside held in place.  The familiar whine of the braking system filled the control space, and soon they were jerked upward briefly as the parachutes opened, drifting downward towards the wide expanse of thick forests below.  Cee felt the motion of the pod as it swayed in suspension from the cables connected to the parachutes. 

Ezra had already started unfolding the map of the territory they were landing in.  The edges of the map resembled the Green Cee was familiar with the lush, dense, moist, temperate forests that gave the moon its name.  It was the everywhere else, which took up most of it, that made her stomach uneasy.  The majority of the map was in shades of grey, indicating the topography of several large foothills, the darker the grey, the lower the elevation with the higher areas marked by lighter shades.  It was not comforting to see how many areas were marking in patterns of diagonal red and pink stripes, indicating they were unexplored and therefore likely dangerous.

An alarm sounded and bright yellow light on the control panel near the braking system shined, warning them they were approaching the ground and to brace for impact.  Outside an apparatus of leg-like supporting structures unfolding from beneath the pod.  Each one with e series of tiny air jets to right the angle of the pod for a smooth-ish landing.  The jets fired at the same time, adjusting in propulsion accordingly to prop the pod upward in the air.  Even with all that preparation the glorified tin can still landed with an ungraceful, echoing thud that uncomfortably rocked through their spines and jostled their insides.

Ezra grunted as the pod landed, grabbing at his lower back with his lone hand.  “Swear to Kevva, every time I land in one of these things,  I end up with a heartbeat in my ass.” Ezra quipped, worming his way out of his safety belt.  Cee snorted as she unbuckled her safety belt and strolled over to a pair of cupboards where their suits were folded up.  She unfurled her faded blue and white suit before handing Ezra his even more ratty-looking olive one with black trim.  Cee made a note to start looking for a new suit for Ezra when they returned to the Pug.  It didn’t need to be fancy, hell, it could even be used, as long as it had no holes and was relatively cheap.  After struggling with the zipper on the back for a few minutes, she helped Ezra with his own, before, connecting the grey piping to the filter which lay across his chest to pair of ports on the upper back of his suit.

            After getting her on filter connected to her suit, they exited through the small hatch in lower portion of the wall.  The sunlight was very bright and Cee could not help but squint.  It was a reminder of how long Cee had been without natural sun.  The area they had landed in looked just as wooded and wild as the Green typically was.  The same ferns, mosses, trees, and bushes enveloped the two prospectors in a world of a what must have been more than a million shades of green, only being interrupted occasionally with the browns and off-greys of soil and tree bark.  Cee looked at her wristwatch: humidity was very high and it was very warm.  Small droplets of condensation were already forming on the outside of her helmet.

Ezra looked at his own wristwatch.  The small square face lit up with the coordinates of their destination.  “Hope you brought your walking feet, birdie, we have a myriad of paces to cover.” He said,  turning his head in the apparent direction of the dig.  Cee was puzzled, “Why do we have to walk so far?  It’s not that I can’t do it.  Just seems stupid to land so far away….unless, are their raiders out there?” she asked.  Ezra turned to her, “Where aurelac goes, raiders most certainly follow, like a fly to sweet nectar.” He replied, “but the natural elements of this ‘ere region are a much more concerning adversary.”  Cee knew the Green could generate some Kevva-awful weather, especially during its three-month monsoon season, but this area was dry and barren, not a tree or lichen to found.  “Sandstorms, little bird, are the real killer.  That sand’ll wear out a ship worse than an armada o’ channel rats.   I must admit I myself have never borne witness to such a phenomenon, but I do know for certain, f’we get caught in one without proper shelter we’ll be meetin’ Kevva real soon.” 

Cee swallowed, Ezra would never put her in a situation he did not believe she could handle.  She knew that.  Still, she quickly found the image of them being buried alive under dark dunes, swimming into her mind.  It sent chills down her spine.  The one-armed man must have sensed her fear, “As long as we keep our heads screwed on right, we’ll get through this, thousands of units richer, got the ole’ tent sand-proofed just for this occasion.” He smirked.  Cee nodded, she trusted his judgement, but still, she hoped to Kevva he was right.

***

Only a few hours had passed and the change in the environment was drastic.  For the first one, they walked through the typical temperate, muggy woods, the leaves and fronds shining like jewels in the daylight.  The ground was smooth, brown and flat, dotted with fallen pine-like needles and dead foliage.  A caterpillar hanging by an invisible silk thread from the branches landed on Cee’s helmet with a loud bumping sound, that made her jump and Ezra giggle. 

The next hour, the greys and muted browns of rocks became more prevalent.  The ground was pebbly and gave a swishing crunch with every steps.  The green of the Green was still dominant, but it felt like the plant treated the supposedly planet-native stones and bedrock as alien.  The plants seemed to grow in a way that bended away from the stone like they were utterly repulsed by it.  The sky seemed to turn greyer, but the sun still peaked through. 

Over the next few hours, the plant life vanished altogether save for some struggling, rotted-looking shrubs.  The ground was completely stone, resembling volcanic rock in some patches, and limestone and quartz in others.  Pebbles were fewer, but were still scattered across the landscape and were uncomfortably building up in Cee’s boots along with copious amount of white sand. 

It was then she realized how much she actually missed the dense forests.  The trees and humidity seemed oddly comforting despite the obvious dangers they could hide.  This terrain was rough, like it had been a tissue paper that hands crumpled it up into the tightest ball possible and then tried to smooth back out again, but the numerous folds were irreversible.

Ezra took a glance at his watch, it was buzzing audibly and the display had turned into bright red letters and hazard symbols.  The same warnings and buzzing were present in Cee’s watch.  A dreaded sandstorm was coming.  “Ez! We need to stop.” Cee warned, her voice modulated.  “Already ahead of you little bird.” He chirped, “Just looking for a spot to retire for the night.” He looked around a few more seconds before he slung the large pack, containing their folded-up tent, off his back as Cee ran to join him. 

It was hard to hammer the stakes in to the bedrock.  Thank Kevva Ezra’s left arm was still strong.  She held the stake in place while he hammered.  By the time the tent was beginning to take shape, ghostly ribbons of white sand had arrived, dancing in the air surrounding them, whispering tales of doom with the setting sun.  Just they finished sealing the red covering to the wire mesh beneath, they were bathed in a gritty fog, that visually resembled snow as night fell. 

Cee felt her way around the outside of the tent, careful not the trip on the stakes and cables they held in place.  As soon as she caught the zipper, she yanked in down, eager to be out of the oncoming blight.  She turned on the filter which sapped the sand and any other toxins out of the air within the tent.  Ezra came in right after shaking sand off his boots before sealing the tent for the night. 

After a few minutes a chiming sound was heard from the filter, indicating the air had been filtered to safe levels.  They eagerly undid their helmets and began to remove themselves from their suits.  As soon as she was free Cee flopped onto her cot.  The fading adrenaline from trying to get their tent set up in time was leaving her feeling worn. 

Ezra undid the trunk Cee had been carrying with them containing various flavors of bit bars.  By the time he turned around to hand one to Cee, her snoring rung in his ears.  She was out like light.  He wanted to apologize, tell her that he was sorry for making her walk so much, but it had been necessary to keep the pod and anything inside from being eaten alive by the elements. 

He smiled; her snoring was welcome against the sound of tiny sand grains pelting the outside of the tent.  After giving her hair a soft ruffle, and munching a bit bar.  He turned out the light and settled into his cot. 

He couldn’t help but look at Cee as she slept.  Anxiety about the next few days was turning in his chest.  Keep our heads screwed on right and get through this thousands of units richer, that was what he had told her.

He hoped to Kevva he was right.

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IT'S FINALLY HERE!!

I am SO sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter!

I hope the other content I've been posting has kept y'all tied over.

Thank you being patient with me, it truly means a lot.

I would start writing chapter VI like right now but its literally 11 o'clock at night and I'm tired.

All likes and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

TW: violence, kidnapping, blood/gore, death, unethical science, sickness, human test subjects and experimentation

One year after barely escaping the Green Moon with their lives, Cee and Ezra return, hoping to strike it rich with dreams of a better life for the two them, but they would like to start with a new cybernetic arm for Ezra, first. But the Green seems determined to keep them there. Taken captive by a shady group, and, seemingly, now stuck on the planet for good, they must endure a their new, horrifying reality and try to make allies where they can to survive. And maybe, just maybe, they can find some new roots.

Will be updated as new chapters are posted, please be patient!

All likes and reblogs are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Chapter List:

Act I

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter IIX

Chapter IX

Act II

Chapter X

Asha was, once again, trying to figure out how long she had been here.  She had been using her fingers to count the months.  However, she mainly went off what felt like a month, so she could be very wrong.  She had not been outside since she was stowed away here.  Whatever the case, these four concrete walls were all she had known.  She was a woman of 32 years (at least she believed she was still 32 years old), Asian descent, black hair and green eyes.  She was a harvester…well, likely now a former harvester, apparently lab rat was a full-time job. 

When she first arrived, there were six other people in this chamber.  She had not known them well, likely other harvesters like her.  She had hardly gotten glimpses of them from the narrow windows on the cell doors, none of them had been outside of their rooms at the same time.  She concluded they likely were not allowed to.  The only reason she knew there were six people besides herself was because she had heard one of the low whispers of the personnel. 

At least every other day she saw certain disheveled figures, escorted by men in thick hazmat suits, pass by her window.  Each one at least had enough features discernable to where she could remember them.  Then one face stopped appearing, then another, and then another.  Eventually, there were no others, the grim procession stopped.  The only other people she saw were the men in the suits. 

Ever since then, she had not seen a human face once.  It was disorienting, to say the least.  But, in a twisted way, just like all animals when the environment became hostile, she adapted.  Her mind and body just became…numb to it all.

Then something happened last night.

It started as bits and pieces of conversation she could not distinguish, then there were shouting and shuffling sounds and the muffled crash of bodies on the floor.  She reached the window in time to see three men in hazmat suits carrying a thrashing figure past her door.  Judging by the continued sounds of struggling nearby, it had seemed they had dumped him in the cell next to hers. 

She could hear his chaffed breathing through the broken grate on the wall by the floor, clearly spent.  Sometimes, she could hear him sobbing softly, other times she heard him mumbling.  What he was mumbling about, Asha could not make out.  She sighed as she curled up on her sleeping bench.  Asha was so numb to the sounds of pain at this point, all she hoped was that he would be a quiet neighbor.

***

            “CEEEEEEE!!!!”

Asha was jolted awake by the sound of shouting and fist beating on a cell door.  He had only been here for a few hours, and she already hated her new neighbor.  Thanks to him, that last hour of precious sleep had now slipped away.  She leaned back with her hands on her hips, stretching out her back from all the time spent in curled-up ball.

Scratching her head through a greasy head of hair, she took a few steps to the door, peaking out the window.  The dingy hall beyond was painted in its usual shade of dusky orange from the lights.  Her new neighbor was still pounding on the door, “Cee! Holler if you’re here little bird!  My shriveled heart aches to hear your voice again!”

Great.  He’s a fucking weirdo. She thought, annoyance building.

“Will you shut the hell up?!?” Asha yelled into the broken grate.  The pounding and shouting ceased immediately.  That seemed to get his attention.  She heard what sounded like waaaay too many footsteps for such a small space approaching the adjacent wall.  “Do my ears deceive me?  Thank Kevva above, another voice!  Haven’t heard so much as a peep outta anyone since I found myself in the dungeon.  What’s your name?” 

Asha pulled her lips tight; her name was not something she intended to hand out.  No to someone who would clearly be dead a week.  “I said shut up.” She replied.  “Pleasure to meet you ‘I said shut up’,” he replied jokingly, “Name’s Ezra.”

If Asha could ask Kevva to bless her with one ability, it would be to step through this wall and squeeze the literal life out of this idiot, whose name was Ezra apparently.  “Listen, I am not aware of the extent of your knowledge regarding these ‘ere shady corridors,” he continued, “but I would be most greatly appreciative if you could give me a smidgen of informa-” “How high are you right now?” Asha interrupted, “Oh I ain’t high, ‘I said shut up’, I am simply attempting to find my little bird. ‘Er name’s Cee, girl of about 14 years, blond hair, blue eyes.” Ezra replied, seemingly unfazed by her clear irritation. 

Asha rubbed her temples, ‘I haven’t your pet,” she spat back, “It’s been only me down here for Kevva knows how long, until you showed up last night.”  She sighed, “Now I would like to attempt to go back to sleep.”

There was a pause.  He seemed to be thinking, trying to figure out what to ask next.  It was a blissful minute of silence.  Then Ezra opened his mouth again: “Alrighty, can you at least divulge what in blazes we’re doing ‘ere?”  he asked.  Asha decided to ignore him.  He would find out what went on here soon enough.  She curled back up on the sleeping bench, already exhausted from the few minutes of conversation she had just endured. 

“I have often found the silent treatment does little to hamper this tongue.  Suppose we should get to know each other, us being neighbor and all.”  He cleared his throat.  “Name’s Ezra, but I already told you that.  Harvestin’ is my main game, extractin’ aurelac.  Cee’s my ward, found ‘er on the Green Moon…”,

Asha’s mind shut out the rest of the man’s words.  She could handle this, though, he wouldn’t be here much longer.  He might have had fight in him, but at his core he was clearly soft.  Soft and sentimental types like him would break easily. 

Then she could go back to the occasional pain from whatever batshit insane testing would be done and the quiet of her thoughts. 

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I would not even consider this chapter really "done", I just felt like I needed to put SOMETHING out.

I may end up starting another story or writing about something else.

Writing Finding Root is starting feel more like a school assignment, which I never wanted it to be.

I may also rewatch to movie for more inspo.

AH, true love XD

Yup, I'm actually working on Finding Roots again!

I thought this interaction was such an Ezra thing to say.

~TW: violence, blood, attempted kidnapping~

Time itself seemed to freeze.  As though the hand of Kevva had stopped its flow.  Ezra’s brows knit together, he seemed to bristle like a frightened cat trying to make itself look bigger and more threatening.  This man in the leather coat sat there, unfazed by the display.  Cee swallowed hard.  What was their next move?

“Ezra…...?” Cee whispered, trying to decide.

Time then unfroze, not with a hushed continuation of the café’s regular activity, but with a roar. A roar from Ezra’s lips: “No!”, he shouted, “You can’t have her!” If anyone was not watching, they certainly were now.  The man shifted, crossing his legs.  “And why not?  I’m making it worth your while.” He sneered, “Not like you’ve had the greatest track record when it comes to keeping your precious cargo secured.”

“What the hell does that mean!?!” Ezra spat, Cee had never seen him lose his powers of articulation like this before.  They needed to leave, but the man continued: “You seemed eloquent, but-”, he chuckled, “then again, I suppose there is a reason you ended up a harvester.”

Then, quick as lightning, Ezra snatched the mug of the table, still steaming and thrusted it forward, sending the brownish-black sludge right into the man’s face.  He let out a yell so loud that Cee was certain the entire Pug would here.  The man in the leather coat sprung straight up as Ezra pushed Cee to the side behind him, jumping back. 

The man threw a fist landing with an audible, meaty thud.  The crowd in the café came alive; those closest to the unfolding brawl were scrambling to gather their things, if they had any, and clear.  No one wanted to be on the end of either man’s strikes.  Just as the two men at the table behind clear away, Ezra’s back slammed into the edge of the table, he was holding his nose.  There were twin trickles of blood flowing down to his lips. 

Not wasting a second, the old leather coat-man stepped forward grabbing Ezra by the collar with his left hand and driving another solid punch with his right into his left temple just below his eye.  Ezra grabbed the man by the throat and two fell over to the side, with Cee narrowly avoiding being crushed.  The side of the man’s head hit the hard floor, stunning him, but only for only a second.  A second Ezra used to roll himself on top of the man, pinning him. 

He then began wailing on the old guy unleashing punch after punch with his lone left hand.  The man in the leather coat then spat in Ezra’s face throwing him off a bit, before he sat up and slammed his head into Ezra’s.  Cee wondered how his brain would still function after two hard, almost back-to-back hits to the head.  He pushed Ezra off with his old but strong hands, untucking his feet from under his adversary’s body before kicking him with his feet square in the chest.  Ezra was sprawled out on the floor.

He whirled over onto his stomach, before pushing himself up and grabbing Cee by the wrist.  He yanked her along as he started running for the entrance.  Cee refused to let herself be kidnapped.  She pulled her face forward and sank her teeth into his hand as hard as she could.  She wanted to make him bleed, if possible, for the extra hurt.  He quickly turned to try and his hand grabbed her head, covering her eyes.  He was trying to push her jaws off his hand.  Cee felt a kick to her stomach, forcing her to release his hand as she toppled back.  She tried to grab a table for balance but ended up bringing it down on top of her.  Two pearly mugs came down with it, shattering into pieces that skidded across the floor.  The man in the leather coat stepped forward briskly, shoving the table away and leaning to grab Cee again when and one-arm shadow slammed into him from the side.  The two men were back to their brawl.

This had to stop.  Cee’s eye scanned her surroundings.  There were still a few patrons cheering on the fight, evidently having nothing better to do.  All the others had either ran off or were huddled against the wall.  A few other tables had been overturned.  Cee heard a loud thud and whipped her head around to see Ezra being slammed into the wall by the man.  He had gripped him by his left arm and was repeatedly hitting him against it. 

Cee looked around some more: there it was.  A sharp piece of the shattered mug.  She scampered on her hands and knees, grabbing it.  She held it like she would a pocket knife with her fingers wrapped around the wider part and her thumb pressed against the skinnier, pointier end.  She got her feet to find the man turning to face her, Ezra was slumped down against the wall, bruised, nose bleeding more profusely. 

Cee wound her arm across her chest, makeshift blade so tight in her hand it began to cut her palm, but she hardly felt it.  Whipping her arm outward, she landed a perfectly time slash on the man’s left cheek, the sharp piece slicing the skin.  He had not been expecting it as evidenced by the yelp he gave out. 

Cee shoved him aside running over to Ezra to help him up.  He was in bad shape.  The bruising had spread over his left eye and although the trickle of blood from his nose seemed to be slowing, dried drops of it were caught in his mustache. 

“Kevva-dammit...” Ezra croaked.  “Did he hurt you, birdie?” Cee helped him onto his feet.  “No, I’m okay because of you.”  Tears began forming.  He had sacrificed his body, again, for her sake.  Her hand had been on his chest, so when she removed it, they both noticed the bloodstain from the small gash on Cee’s hand.  That was when she realized the shard of the mug had cut her.  “Oh!” she gasped.  Her mind also now registering the stinging pain.  The onlookers from before had also cleared out, administration would probably be here soon as well.  There was no way a brawl like that would go unnoticed.  They needed to leave before they found themselves in even more trouble. 

“Hey. Where’s….?” Ezra questioned.

Cee had somehow forgotten the man who had just tried to kidnap her, too wrapped up in comforting Ezra.  But when she turned around, the man in the leather coat, boots, grey hair and all…was gone.

***

They were on their way back to the cabin.  They were likely going to have to hide out in there until dinner.  It would likely be a very late dinner to keep a low profile.  Ezra was able to walk on his own but Cee could tell he was exhausted.  “Lean on me, Ez, just breathe.” He nodded.  “Gotta patch up that hand too.” He replied.  “I’ll handle it, been through worse.”  she replied.  The one-armed man leaned on her and chuckled a bit.  “If your lucky, it’ll turn into a scar,” he quipped. “That would suit you.”  She smiled, but inside she was worried. 

Ezra had fought, yes, but this man was stronger than he looked and Ezra clearly was not used to fighting with only one arm.  He also seemed to act like her knew a lot about them and their story.  Had he been watching them?  Most worryingly of all, Cee could not help but wonder: What would they do if he came back?

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Well, there you have it. My motivation has been kinda low lately. I hope it didn't have any noticeable effects on the quality of the story. I also had trouble thinking up the fight scene but I hope it turned out alright. See y'all around!