Lesis Teronidia shook his head slightly. He was beginning to wonder if it had been a good idea, calling in Ncaesi.
Oh, she was good. She’d found the small woods not long after he gave her Gae’s description of them, launched a few small drones for surveillance. She had worked up a rather impressive amount of data.
It was just that she’d come to a conclusion that Lesis couldn’t disagree with more than he did.
“So to sum up,” the green-haired Titan said, flipping to a final image, “we have at least a hundred humans, who have developed some rather surprising, if primitive technologies. Unfortunately, they’re in the middle of absolutely nowhere.”
“They’re on the border of the Prenn Ranch,” Lesis said, throwing his hands up. “Come on, that has to be useful!”
“No, I’m afraid Ncaesi’s right, Les,” Leny said, leaning back. “Nobody’s going to care what’s going on in – Medzina, right?”
“Exactly. And no, it’s too far from the media centers. I mean, if they were in Debga, or even Sarotal….”
Lesis glowered. “I just think this is a waste. I mean, they built this! If we could just get people to see….”
“It won’t happen there,” Ncaesi said. “I’m sorry, Les.”
“You and me both,” Lesis said, and leaned forward as they moved on to the next topic. He was beginning to understand why Gae had quit.
* * *
Luke waited patiently outside the door to the Great Hall. He felt nervous. Expectant. Like a groom at his wedding.
The door opened, and Mant smiled to him, and nodded. Luke smiled back, and walked into the room. Though he put his cane down at the usual moments, he didn’t lean on it. He felt far too light to need it.
The tables were full, and everyone watched as he walked down the aisle that split them, toward the throne where Thurfrit waited. He smiled to many in the room – even Hari, who had told everyone of her misgivings, nodded back to him.
Luke took the last few steps, and gave a slight, formal bow to the Leader of the Tribe. Drugar nodded back to Luke, and when the murmurs had died down, Drugar said, in a voice that filled the Great Hall, “Luke of Earth, for what reason do you approach?”
“Drugar, Husband of Roli the Defender, Father of Disa the Defender, Leader of the Tribe; I, Luke, Son of Richard Palmer, Son of Maria Silva, do ask your permission to join the Tribe.”
Drugar nodded, and stood. “Luke, Son of Richard, Son of Maria, has asked permission to join the tribe. Are there any who would support this request?”
“I support this request,” said Quendra and Thurfrit, almost simultaneously. Dozens more spoke up almost as quickly.
“Quendra, Elder Huntress; Thurfrit, Chronicler. You have supported Luke, Son of Richard, Son of Maria, in his request. As have many more in this room.” Drugar smiled. “As do I.”
“Are there any, in the face of this support, who would object to allowing this man to join our tribe?” Drugar looked pointedly at Hari, but she stayed silent, and not just because Donen had threatened to demand his necklace back if she made a scene.
“Very well. Quendra, Elder Huntress, proceed.”
Quendra walked in front of Luke; she was beaming. “Luke of Earth, when you join this Tribe you become one with it, as if your parents and your parents’ parents had been of us, and when you join this Tribe, you are declaring that your children, and your children’s children, will be of us.
“Because of this, you are given this chance: you may choose to wait, or choose to remain apart from us. You are a friend to this Tribe and a welcome guest. You will not be punished or shunned should you choose to delay. So I ask, Luke of Earth, do you still choose to join us?”
“I do,” Luke said, solemnly.
Quendra nodded. “Then Thurfrit, Chronicler of the Tribe, fix the adornment upon Luke of Earth.”
Thurfrit walked behind Luke, and pulled out a necklace; it bore the name Luke in the script of the Tribe, and three beads, symbols of awards granted retroactively, graced it. Next to it was a bead that had just been sculpted, with a symbol that had never existed before, a vocation that was new to the tribe.
“You are no longer simply Luke Palmer,” Thurfrit said, “no longer Luke of Earth. From this day forward, you are Luke, the Teacher.”
He tied the necklace in back, and Luke touched it gently. He wondered exactly how many weeks he would wear it until it was exchanged for another. He almost chuckled; he doubted he could wait even one.
Thurfrit came around to Luke’s front, and shook Luke’s hand; Quendra threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, not caring what anyone thought (not that a hug was unusual between those who were courting, and none in the room begrudged her). Finally, Drugar reached out his hand, and Luke grasped it firmly.
“Welcome to the Tribe, Teacher,” Drugar said.
“Thank you, my Leader,” Luke said.
“And now,” Drugar boomed, “let us celebrate, for we have a new member of our family!”
A mighty roar went up in the Great Hall, and Luke was soon beset on all sides by well-wishers. It took him more than a few minutes before he was able to work his way over to Quendra.
“So, Elder Huntress, how are you?” Luke grinned.
“Well, Teacher. That is a lovely adornment, you know.”
“As is yours,” Luke said. “I’m quite envious of it, in fact.”
“Hmmm,” Quendra said, leaning up against him. “Well, perhaps one of us will have to do something about that.”
“I know. And he’ll have to do it very soon.” Luke looked into Quendra’s eyes, and for a moment, he considered trading his necklace away right then and there, but she bit her lip, and whispered in his ear.
“Um…wait a sunset, at least. I…I’m not quite ready. Well, I am, but….”
Luke looked at her, and saw her blushing even in the reddish light of the room. He winked. “I think I can wait a day or two.”
Quendra gave a weak smile in return; she was quite annoyed that her cycle had chosen yesterday to begin, but there was nothing that could be done for it. And she didn’t want to join with Luke until a day that she could properly…join with him. Quite frankly, she’d half a mind to offer to trade necklaces now and try anyhow…but it was really not the way for a wife to greet her husband, at least as far as she was concerned.
“Teacher,” a voice said from behind him.
“Defender,” Luke said to Hari, reaching out a hand. “I was surprised you did not object.”
“I am hoping,” Hari replied, “that I have been wrong.”
“Believe me, Hari,” Luke said, “I am too. I would be devastated if I hurt the Tribe in any way. I hope you know that.”
“I do believe you feel that way, Luke the Teacher. I just hope that fate does not have a different plan in store.”
* * *
Aisell waved to the autocab as it climbed into the sky and headed for Medzina. She hoped she’d done the right things, hoped she’d helped. There were times she’d wondered….
She shook her head. She had failed Luke by trying to encase him in a protective shield, by trying to keep all the bad things out. But the bad things can always get in. You can’t keep those you care for from facing the worst of things; you can only try to help them through it – and as you never know when the bad things will happen, that means getting them ready to stand on their own two feet – and trusting that they will.
She hoped she’d paid her debt to Luke. Hoped wherever he was, he would know that she finally was willing to believe him – that humans were people. Not tiny people. Not people who needed to be protected. Not people who had to be kept from the world for their own good.
No, they were people. And they had to be able to live their lives as they wanted to. Maybe, like Yamma, they’d choose to be with a Titan. That was fine.
But it had to be their choice. And they had to know they had the right to make it.
“I wish I’d been smarter when I met you, Luke,” she said, softly, into the twilight breeze. “I wish I’d known…but I couldn’t have. I needed you to teach me, and you did. And I am grateful for that. I always will be.”
She sighed. “I’ll miss you, Luke. So, so much. But I’ll never forget you.”
She blinked back one tear, and nodded, and headed back into the house.
* * *
It was several hours later. The Marises had gone to sleep, and for the most part, the Tribe had too. Only a few of them were still awake, including Luke the Teacher, who was finding it difficult to sleep, preoccupied as he was by how, exactly, to offer his necklace to Quendra. He was torn – part of him thought he should take her back to the glowberry bush, and part thought he should take her up to the watch post, under the stars, and part thought he should do it in public, and part thought he should do it quietly with just her there.
You only propose once. Luke wanted to get it right. And….
His thoughts trailed off at that point, not because he was drifting off to sleep, but because he was suddenly aware of something. He couldn’t put his finger on it, exactly. It was a slight shudder in the ground, and the echoes of…something.
Luke sat up, and listened. He couldn’t make it out clearly, but he didn’t have to. He’d spent months on Titan Station. He knew the sensation of a Titan approaching. Even if they were trying to be quiet.
Especially if they were trying to be quiet.
He grabbed his cane by reflex, and headed out the door.
He took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the slight ache it caused, and knocked on Quendra’s door, a harsh, insistent rapping.
It took a few moments for Quendra to open the door, looking tired and bedraggled. “Luke, I love you, but it’s…what’s wrong?”
“Titans,” Luke said. “I think there are Titans in the woods.”
Quendra was armed in less than a minute, and the two of them headed straight for Drugar.
They wouldn’t get there in time.
* * *
“The bots are in position,” Ncaesi whispered.
“Any chance they’ve seen you?” Leny asked.
“Doubt it.”
“Good,” Leny said, softly. “Go ahead whenever you’re ready, Ncaesi. We’ll be here waiting.”
“Thanks, Leny. Switching off for now.”
Ncaesi looked over at her two compatriots, and held up five fingers. She dropped it to four, then three, then two, then one, and when her hand had become a fist, the younger man jabbed a finger into his pad.
The bots roared to life.
* * *
The smoke began billowing in to the tree concurrently with the alert bells. Luke and Quendra had been pelting along an upper-level corridor on the way to Drugar’s quarters when it suddenly overtook them like an apparition.
“Down!” Luke called, pulling Quendra to the ground.
“What do you mean, ‘down?’”
“The smoke rises,” Luke coughed. “Lower we are, the better chance we have.”
“The Great Tree’s on fire! What does it matter?”
“No, that’s not wood smoke. It’s…I don’t know what it is, but it’s not wood. Petroleum, maybe. And it isn’t hot!” Luke shook his head. “They’re trying to smoke us out, like honeybees.”
Quendra looked at Luke blankly.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “We have to stay in the tree,” he said, coughing a bit harder now. “Whatever or whoever it is, they’re trying to make us leave.”
Quendra looked at Luke in horror. “Oh, Great Spirit, that’s just what we’ll do, too. Evacuate the tree. That’s what that signal means.”
“We have to stop them. We have to get to…to Drugar….”
But there was no easy way to do that. The tree was rapidly filling with smoke, and neither Luke nor Quendra were sure of which way to go. Quendra felt along the wall, for the door she hoped was nearby. The smoke was causing her to choke now; she wondered if Luke was right, or if he was just trying to make her feel better, keep her calm before they both died. She wasn’t sure which she’d prefer.
She felt the edge of the door, and taking a lungful of smoky air, she rose, just for a second, to turn the handle.
The door swung open, and Quendra fell down.
* * *
Drugar was coughing and spluttering as he reached the high entrance. Saul nodded to him.
“Anyone left from the upper floors?” Drugar said.
“I haven’t seen Quendra, Leader. But she has two escape routes; she likely went down.”
Drugar considered running back into the smoke, but he didn’t. He just prayed to the Great Spirit that Quendra was safe.
“All right,” Drugar said. “Let’s get on the lift. Get to the rally points.”
Drugar joined nine others in the overcrowded elevator; Saul joined them presently, and with surprising strength, pulled the emergency release.
They huddled together on the wooden board as it dropped toward the ground, slowing up only at the very last moment. The landing was hard, but not unexpectedly so. Saul undid the latch, and they quickly exited, Drugar on a quickmarch to the rally point.
“We need to make sure everyone is accounted for. I….”
The rest of Drugar’s sentence was drowned out by a sudden roar.
* * *
“Have you seen Quendra?” Thurfrit coughed, waving people out the side exit. “Or Luke?”
“No, chronicler,” a young defender said. “Likely with Drugar.”
Thurfrit shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think she’d look for Luke. I’m going back in.”
“Not on the Great Spirit,” Mant said, coming through the doorway. “Thurfrit, it’s too dangerous. If Luke and Quendra are in there…let’s just pray they are not.”
Thurfrit glared at Mant. “I am alive because of them, Elder Defender. I would sacrifice myself to save them.”
Mant looked back at the tree, and the smoke pouring out of it. “Let’s…let’s get everyone to the rally point. If they aren’t there…if they aren’t there, Thurfrit, I’ll go with you.”
Thurfrit nodded. “All right,” he said. “You’re right. We have to get as many people to safety as we can, first. Okay, this way!” he called, loudly. “I…wait….”
Thurfrit paused as he felt the sudden rush of wind. “Oh, Great Spirit…no….” he said, as he felt himself jolted, and then pulled through the air.
* * *
Hari glared daggers at Luke as he reached the high watchpost, but he ignored her, setting Quendra gently on the ground. She coughed a bit, but was starting to breathe easier, as was Luke.
“I warned you, all, Luke of Earth. Look at what you’ve brought us to.”
Luke stared down at the forest floor. Three Titans, two males and one female, were casually walking through with suction devices, vacuuming up fleeing humans as one might a dusty floor.
Luke balled his fists. He looked down. It was too far to jump, but he was tempted. Maybe he could attack them. He’d die, but he’d strike a blow….
He stopped himself. That would just kill him. And he needed to be alive.
He looked at the Titans, looking for anything he could identify them with, but they were not stupid; they were wearing dark colors and gas masks. He got very little.
He could only watch helplessly as the three Titans nodded to each other and headed out of the woods, taking the Tribe – his tribe – with them.
He looked back, and saw Quendra staring after them, incredulously. She looked at him, helplessly, and he looked back at her.
Finally, after an eternity, she shook her head as if to clear it. “All right,” she said, softly. “Luke, Hari, split up. We need to find out who is still here. Bring anyone you find to the healer’s ward.”
“Quendra, I….”
“Teacher,” Quendra snapped, “that is not a request.”
Luke nodded. “Yes, Elder Huntress.”
“You still trust him?” Hari said.
“Defender, did I ask for your input?” Quendra said, eyes blazing. “Go on!”
Hari looked at her evenly, but nodded. She pushed past Luke, and headed down the steps.
Luke followed afterward, and turned only briefly. “Quennie….”
“Don’t,” she said, softly. “Just don’t.”
Luke wanted to throw his arms around her, tell her it was all right. That everything would be all right.
But he didn’t know that it would. So he did what she asked. He headed back into the Great Tree.
It occurred to him that he had no idea what he was doing.
After all, he was usually the one who’d been kidnapped.
Are any of you awesome guys on deviantart.com? I have a profile on there under the username 280077s, I’m an artist and I draw lots of stuff, including macrophilia stuff.
Well, at least Luke will finally HAVE TO go back to the sisters. So there’s a silver lining. As for the rest…
Even the people supposedly on Humanity’s side, TETH (and to some extent HOS) are dangerous assholes, at best. At worst, they are just as bad as other Titans, they’re simply using humans as tools to further their own agenda (which has little to do with Human emancipation).
I’m not even sure the TETH leadership are “sincere idiots”. That they are ready to do anything to get attention to the cause. They are attention seeking but is it even for the right reasons ? I wonder if they aren’t like those people who do charity or community work, not because they believe in the cause but because it will look good on their CV, on their University application or to go into politics later on.
Because if they are sincere… My God ! Smoking people,sucking up people in a machine, women and children, elderlies, just like that ? THOSE are humanity allies in the Titan Universe ? …….
Not all the TETH leadership is on board with this. Notice how Lesis was left out of the loop. Anyway, with Ncaesi I’m pretty convinced that she indeed doesn’t actually believe in the cause. More likely she’s only a member for the thrill of sticking it to the system while getting paid for it. As for Lenyalana, my best guess is that she got disillusioned with how ineffective TETH turned out to be at changing Imperial society, to the point where she is now desperate enough to bring attention to humanity that she lost sight of the middle part of her organization’s very name!
Damn it! First Alex is beaten to a pulp and now The Tribe has been forcibly removed from their home by TETH of all people! Aisell can’t do anything ,we need Gae and Eyrn to kick butt! Or do something less violent but at least do something!
Wow, I always did think that Luke, and to a lesser extent the whole Tribe, needed a kick to get them out of their comfort zone because otherwise the Tribe would eventually lose its home as a result of the Marises losing the farm, but this is rather extreme. I sometimes forget how hard titans can kick.
I have to admit, I have no idea what Lenyalana and Ncaesi have planned, but if it’s so extreme that they even keep Lesis out of the loop it can’t be good.
Oh, and it looks like Trell and her insectoid allies got bumped off of first place for number of humans kidnapped. Didn’t see that coming!
Oh shit… Gae, you really fucked up…! Did she just forget what she set in motion before she left? I suppose she could have been hoping nothing would come of it so she wouldn’t have to spill the beans, but jeez.
Something tells me that whatever TETH is planning is going to be more suited toward martyrdom than well-being for the captured humans. Luke absolutely needs to visit the Marises again – shit’s gonna go down one way or the other.
This chapter gave me some chills. I’m getting shades of War of the Worlds and Fantastic Planet from the image of giant aliens sucking up humans.
BTW, I don’t know if this has been asked before, but have any of the Team Titan authors seen the animated movie Fantastic Planet?
Lol I asked TD that a looooong time ago but he didn’t reply. But yeah I got fantastic planet vibes from this chapter too.
Jeez…Well I guess you can’t have happily ever after in the Titan verse….
Well it turns out that Hari was right..The chapter had more foreshadowing than my ex mother-in-law on a bad hair day… (she needed it too btw..)
It appears that Luke was marrying into the Tribe? sort a mish-mosh of different earth cultures/religions..I see you also threw in a pinch of Amish too…interesting
Wow I’m really disliking TETH now…so they are going to set up the humans and the Tree as sort of a zoo/museum piece? I think I can see where this may be going…
The humans, yes, but moving a tree is something else entirely. In all likelihood, they’d kill it, and it needs to be alive and healthy to be a viable home.
This makes it clear, more than anything else so far, that TETH is the biggest villain. Even Lyroo is much better toward humans than this. There is nothing ethical about taking hundreds of humans from their home. While Gae had good intentions, it now turns out that alerting TETH to this was a really big mistake. Now where’s Darren? He wasn’t mentioned in Aisell’s part.
I’m not sure how HOS would have handled the tribe but I don’t think they would have handled it that much better. Also, Lyroo would have been more than willing to retrain every single tribal human into a proper pet human.
She has one virtue in that she actually cares about the well-being of individual humans…though she’d make life unbearable for any human not raised in captivity.
Physical well-being, sure, but putting the tribe members into cages and “training” them like Darren wouldn’t really be better in the end. They are both awful. That said you could argue that Lyroo might have more room for redemption in the long run, since she does seem to actually care. I’m not so sure about that for TETH at all.
I’ll admit the beginning of the chapter made me let down my guard. I didn’t think TETH was going to do anything….until they did something that even I wouldn’t have expected. TETH essentially handled the tribe the same way they handled Yamma and the other humans when they stole them from the pet store. These people are dangerously inept. I wonder if they stopped to think what exactly they’re going to do with the humans they captured. I highly doubt it. I hope Drugar and Thurfrit survive.
And poor Luke, this had to happen on the day that he became an official member of the tribe. The more superstitious tribe members are probably going to think this is his fault like Hari. Though I’m sure many of the remaining tribe members won’t like it, it looks like he’s going to be forced to get help from the Maris’ sisters now.
Excellent chapter. Looking forward to the next.
If humans do get killed by their vacuum, they will sink to a level below most Titans.
Whoever told you these cliffhangers were a good idea was lying, I DEMAND THE NEXT CHAPTER THIS INSTANT!!!!
Joking aside, amazing chapter. Nice to see Aisell getting closure and Luke getting accepted into the tribe (hope he doesn’t get absconded by the rest of the tribe for “causing” the ending scene)
Rather annoyed at the Titans; whilst in an ideal world they wouldn’t have intervened at all, the least the could do is use a form of knockout gas as opposed to a potentially fatal gas….
Final thing to say is that a penny dropped in that the whole tribe ordeal reminds me very much of the Borrowers, especially now with them getting gassed out of their homes (this is in no way a complaint)
Overall another great chapter added to the Titan repertoire and am eagerly waiting for the next chapters 😛
Now that was a chapter!
First that dreaded day delay! If I’ve learned anything it’s never put off doing something in this story verse. Whether it be forgiving someone, telling them you love them, or marrying them. Nothing good ever comes from waiting!
TETH have gone from horribly misguided to flat out villains, here you have a viable human civilization but because it’s not in a marketable location lets endanger them all by moving the whole thing! It was one thing with Darren all they had to do was nothing, here they’re manufacturing the issue! I don’t think they’ll deliberately hurt the tribe, yet, but they’re undoubtedly moving them to someplace where it’s far more public and far more likely they’ll be martyrs for the cause.
Christ, worst yet Ncaesi was the one that was responsible in Yamanu’s flashback. This isn’t going to be good.
Aisell’s part is…odd. I take it this takes place sometime after events that will occur in Exile, that’s being vague to avoid spoilers. What it seems like is Darren’s no longer with her (for whatever reason) and she’s back on the farm. Which is good because Quendra and Luke will need all the help they can get certainly not how I expected any reunion to be.
One bit of speculation is this DX’s last chapter? I ask because we’ve handed it off to a new author after every kidnapping, and I don’t think we’re going to get any bigger than this. That said JS already has two other stories on his plate, hard to see him handling a third, perhaps OHH gets a second tour of duty? Not sure what he’s working on aside from Hybrid.
This is such a turning point that I’m wondering myself if JS is about to start his part. I’m pretty sure it will be him; I don’t see them deviating from that part of the plan.
And with this chapter the final nail has been driven on any possibilities of a Luke/aisell relationship
I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Sure, maybe not a love relationship, but with TETH? having stolen/killed most of the tribe, Luke may still be having a visit with Aisell at some point in this story.
The only thing I can see Luke doing is going to the house and telling the Marises everything. I don’t think this is something he can fix any other way.
It has taken a lot of nerve for me to finally post a comment on here. I shall say this. I love the titan series, I’ve read all of them. I love the deep symbolism and philosophical questions it raises about what it means to be human, or just sentient. The only things I dislike about the series are the fact that titans outlive humans ( I really wish human/titan couples could be happily together forever) as well as the fact that according to a chapter in Pandemic I believe, they found a way to turn humans into titans. I love humanity too much to see any human character change into a titan. I wish humans and titans in the series could live together as equals, and as separate races. I also don’t like the darker, more violent aspects of the series, mainly because my macrophile fantasies don’t involve anything nonconsensual, harmful to characters, or character deaths. I like fantasies where everyone loves each other, and consents to everything and enjoys everything. I only like gentle, giants and giantesses, who treat everyone as equals and with respect.My dislikes have no bearing on the out stand quality of the series, they are some of the best macrophile stories I’ve ever read. I really think they would make an epic blockbuster film.
Let me just step in here.
First, Stephen thanks for reading and leaving comments. We definitely enjoy hearing from our readers, and we’re glad you’re enjoying the series. 😀
As for your comments Actually, in the chapter in Pandemic, they only discovered that turning a human into a Titan is a theoretical possibility. In one of the epilogues to Physics, you see the results of Dr. Selil’s research. In it they discover that it is *technically* possible, but it results in a rather painful death due to cancerous growths. So, in effect, it’s not actually possible to turn a human into a Titan (one of my hard background rules for the series is that there is to be no actual size changing, so there’s that.)
However, we also learn that one of the side effects of Dr. Selil’s research resulted in a significant slowing of the aging process and, consequently, a much more prolonged life. They still won’t live quite as long as a Titan will, (I recall Physics said it was something like 50 Archavian years as opposed to 20-30) but it’s still a lot closer.
As for the darker aspects… Well, we’re all gentle fans too, but there’s no actual story without conflict.
@JohnnyScribe, Ah, thanks for reminding me about those details, good to know. I agree, conflict is a good plot device. I’m also happy to know that such great writers like you guys are gentle fans, Its really heartwarming, as gentle macrophile fans seem to be a minority. I look forward to reading and talking more with the awesome people that make up the macrophile community.
Feel free to say anything that’s on your mind. We love to discuss these stories and argue about philosophical and social issues and scientific details.
Yeah, kidnapping seems to be one of the hallmarks of this series! XD
It was a great chapter, overall. Mainly because it greatly progressed things with the Tribe and finally had them make contact with Titans…And I gotta say, the Titans weren’t exactly being gentle here…The smoke would have killed anyone that stayed behind, and vaccum’s for slurping up humans? Really?
Hoooooooo boy!
We really are developing a kidnapping trope…at least it’s not luke this time.
Yeah but he is going to have trouble from the remaining Tribe members who will blame him for this. Luke’s hand is now forced…but you probably know this being a Titan insider. .:)
I keep saying if I could have a do over, I would have insisted this story be called Titan: Abduction 😛