The flash was intensely bright every time. Ship after ship after ship landed somewhere between the three neon green shimmering alien towers. Each sleek blue craft reflected the slow flashing green light as it disappeared between the three walls slanted at odd angles. Fast whispering played back and forth behind him.
Josiah turned to see several soldiers, appearing to be in their 30’s, standing at the entrance to an underground tunnel. One gazed around anxiously at the upper slopes near the peak, then whispered something to the other. The two of them quickly turned and disappeared down the tunnel.
A loud roar overpowered the upper mountain slopes. Dark mud and rocks slid down from the three high spiky rock clusters, glittering even in the dreary dark gray morning, at the high left steep slope near the peak. Josiah watched with sharp concern. The mudslide rolled all the way down to the bottom.
He started quietly humming again, turning back to the crumbled rough, black oval shaped stones the entire fort was built with. He walked along the rubble, slipping in the slick grass as the soft drizzling continued, stopping at the corner of the wall still standing. He looked over the rough, black oval stones, running his hand over the dusty surface, studying them intensely.
A loud boom shook the wall. Dust fell on him, with small crumbling rocks cascading off the remnant. Josiah turned to see Casey pouring powder into a small cannon at a lower flat meadow surrounded by glistening blue Sunday Evergreens.
Josiah looked over the meadow with sharp curiosity, running his hand through his wet, matted down blonde hair flopped slightly to the side. Cade appeared, standing on a slick rock, right at the edge. Next to him, Blake was crawling up a small rock cluster. Josiah broke into a smile when he looked over at Drew standing far back from Casey, in a heavy coat with his hood pulled down low.
Josiah jogged at a straight diagonal down slope toward Casey, singing a semi-fast rhythmic song with a bouncing melody. He slid to a stop next to Casey, who barely looked up from the cannon.
“What are you doing?” Casey just stared intensely into the barrel.
“We’re shooting the different rocks and jewels we’ve found,” said Cade, sliding awkwardly as he turned. Josiah turned to see Casey put his hand up. The cannon fired ahead into a small stack at the end of the meadow. The kids sloshed across the slick meadow toward the rubble.
The kids looked over the pile showing crushed slim, dark arrow shaped stones, dusty small blue and white speckles, broken pieces of flat, octagon shaped gray stones, multi-coloured dust, broken black rough, gravelly stones, crushed small bright jewels in different colours, and broken up small, smooth black stones.
“Looks like none of these are the one,” said Blake, looking over at Josiah just staring sullenly.
Cade dug through the rubble and pointed to some glittering small jewels and small, glittering gold glowing marbles. “These jewels and marbles held up well, do we have any more?”
“Piles,” said Casey, pointing off to the left.
“Let’s build two walls, see how each one holds up,” said Josiah with a shrug. The kids got busy building up a small wall of jewels and a small wall of marbles. A sonic boom shook the sky. The kids stopped cold. They gazed up at the dark gray masses slowly moving in different directions across the sky.
A low flying creamy blue alien ship shaped like a wide triangle drifted slowly overhead. Several soldiers shouted out, “GET DOWN, GET DOWN!” Casey held up his hand, staring intensely at the drifting ship.
“Move back to the rocks if they drop anything,” Blake said quietly. The kids waited in silence. The birds went quiet. Everything stopped. Sonic waves pulsed out. The ship began to turn. It angled to the left, drifting slowly over the three high pointy rock clusters toward the peak on the left. Then it picked up speed before disappearing over the mountain. Casey put his hand down. The kids went to work piling up the jewels and marbles.
“They’re going to attack again tonight,” said Blake.
“I think they’re going to hit us hard,” said Cade.
“Then we better hurry up and find the one that can hold out against them,” said Drew.
Rain began to fall harder as the kids finished building the two walls. Casey shot the blazing dark orange fire at each of them. Josiah jogged up toward the two walls anxiously, but his eyes fell with a heavy sigh as the two dusty rubble piles came into focus.
“We got nothing,” Blake said quietly. Josiah walked off hurriedly. He sat down on a flat stone near the broken fort wall. Several people worked on the wall, clearing the rubble, placing new stones, setting them in place, rebuilding the wall.
Josiah just stared at the workers. He stared with an empty, distant gaze. His eyes drifted up the empty mountain slope. His gaze just drifted, searching, but his eyes had no shine in them. He sat there completely still on the slick rock as the rains fell hard.
The scattered trees remained still among the silent, empty upper slope of the mountain. Water cascaded down through the spiraling branches holding thick clusters of small, bulb shaped leaves. The rain sounded like distant, but empty applause.
The bright blue leaves shimmered in the falling water drops. The grassy patches underneath the various evergreen clusters glistened. Vague, stretched images reflected across the slick black rock clusters rising up the mountain slope. The images kept bouncing out, falling back, then bouncing out, then falling back in a steady, slow rhythm, over and over and over again.
The dead images kept stretching out, reaching, but never formed any clear pictures. The noise of the rain droned on, becoming the sound of silence, cold silence droning on in the dreary, dark gray day.
Josiah pulled out of his pocket a small, smooth blue stone. He looked at, rolling it over in his fingers, slowly, slowly, just staring at it with an empty, distant gaze staring right through it. A few tears streamed down his face.
Sweet, peaceful singing cut the silence. Josiah gazed up curiously. Callie appeared, bringing in a pile of stones. A few moments later, David appeared with several tools. Josiah sat up, watching as David worked on the wall, carefully placing one rock after another after another, fitting them together to rebuild the wall.
Callie worked along the upper slope, finding small, arrow shaped rocks, then bringing them to the others along the wall as they placed them among the stones to hold them together. Josiah stood up and approached David.
“I thought you guys were leaving.”
“No,” David answered, barely looking up.
“You’re still running the fort?”
“That’s right.”
Josiah watched him working hard and fast for several long moments. “We’re getting nowhere finding the stone or jewel. None of them are holding up. I’m not even sure where else we can look.”
“Did you talk to the miners?” David asked, looking up at Josiah, meeting his gaze.
“No,” he answered, looking away.
“Thought you wanted to find it.” Josiah just stared back. David went back to work as Callie worked fast through the slope behind him, singing quietly.
Later that afternoon, Josiah worked his way deep into the lower tunnels, following the distant sounds of clanging and shoveling. He rounded a dark corner, then saw an elderly couple working along a wall. The man was digging into the rough soil. He was mostly bald with a few long strands of gray hair and had a hard face.
The woman was cleaning various tools. She had short gray hair falling back slightly and had a kind face. Josiah approached them slowly and said, “Can I talk to you, ask you some questions?”
“If you help us finish our work,” said the man. “Then you can ask all the questions you want.” Josiah turned and walked away. The man sighed and shook his head.
“I think I saw a shovel back here,” said Josiah looking around the tunnel corner.
“I could use help cleaning these tools,” said the woman.
Josiah spun around, flashed a smile, and said, “Cool, my favorite thing.” He glanced up momentarily and said, “Stop laughing.” The man shot him a curious look, before shaking his head again. Josiah worked quietly with the couple for several hours as the dark orange lantern lights began to fade.
Later that afternoon, the couple led him to their home on the other side of the mountain. Josiah sat down at a small, black marble table on a large porch overlooking the lower, smaller dark green rounded mountains stretched out far to the west.
“My name is Bob, and this is Ardis,” the man said, sitting down to his left. Ardis handed Josiah a cup of tea, and placed a plate of bread on the center before sitting to his right.
“You have a really nice home,” said Josiah, gazing out at the various wide, triangular shaped evergreens called Vaysas with light green twisted leaves. Several rose up high in front of them on the left and right leaving a wide window in between.
“So what do you want to know?” asked Bob.
“My dad told me there’s a stone or jewel that can outlast any alien attack, any weapon. We’ve looked everywhere, tested so many of them, have you seen any deep in the mountains no one else has seen?”
“I’ve seen all kinds,” Bob answered, “but we build with the best ones.” Josiah shot him a confused look. “You’re going about it all wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll never just see it, you have to build them up. Whatever stone it is, it’s not going to have any power by itself, but only when stacked together with a bunch of them. For that, you have to look close and take your time.”
“But we’re running out of time,” said Josiah, glancing up at the dark gray rushing clouds. Soft drizzle continued to fall over the lush green valleys below. “This rain isn’t helping either. I saw a mudslide today.”
“From up high, near the bright, pointy rocks left of the peak?” asked Ardis.
“Yeah, how’d you know that?”
“That location is always a weak point in this mountain,” Ardis answered.
“What if the aliens find out?”
“They already know,” Bob answered, “but striking it won’t crush the mountain unless they placed a ton of bright minerals there to ignite the cave ins. We won’t let them do that.” Josiah nodded with a half relieved, half concerned look.
“Did you guys know my dad?” Josiah asked quietly.
“Definitely,” Bob answered, as Ardis nodded. “We worked with him all the time in the mines when he established the fort. He was a great leader.”
“One night I realized I had left my necklace in the mines. It was given to me by my Grandma. I went down there, this was hours after our shift, and I saw your dad still working down there. I didn’t even know, but he did that all the time, putting in extra work. But he did it secretly.” Josiah listened with wonder. “And we’re glad he picked David to take over if something happened to him.”
“David knew my dad?”
“They met a few times when Todd would travel to Marcaydas, back when David was a miner there,” Bob answered.
“I thought David and Callie were going to give up, after what I heard.” The couple chuckled.
“That’s not going to happen,” said Bob, with a smile.
“I guess David believes there’s a special stone here too,” said Josiah.
“That’s not why he values this fort,” said Bob, as the rain stopped.
“It’s the people here who are valuable,” said Ardis. “Many of us can’t really travel, and mining here is all we know. But it’s not great stones or minerals or jewels that we find that make it valuable, it’s how we build, simple but strong.”
“What we build lasts,” added Bob. Various brightly coloured birds began appearing in the trees, whistling different tunes.
“You see, the aliens think they can destroy us with all their advanced weapons, but the way to stand strong, the way to find answers is to stand still,” said Ardis.
“Stand still?”
“That’s David and Callie’s message,” said Bob. “To find the answers you’re looking for you don’t need anything special, you just need to really look, really listen, and take your time.”
“People don’t think our mines are that special until they get to know us, and see how we build,” said Ardis.
“It’s the same with this fort,” Bob added.
“My dad left a message for me here, but I haven’t…”
“Todd didn’t talk much,” said Bob. Ardis laughed quietly, nodding along. “If he left a message, it won’t be a letter, it will be the kind of message he left when he was alive.”
“What’s that?”
“An example.”
Rain began falling over the lower slopes as evening began. Dark blue and purple coloured the lower rushing clouds over the horizon. Josiah stared up at David, standing to the left of the DadeStar flag set still just behind the front gate, gazing out over the lower slopes. As darkness fell, deeper shadows stretched back further and further from the fort top wall. Several soldiers talked quietly with David for several moments. They shut the tall, arched front gate and hurried down slope to their positions.
David pulled out a single blue lantern. Blue lights flickered out across the fort top. Chilling winds rushed directly at the mountain side. Trees whistled, their leaves glowing bright blue.
“It’s quiet out there,” said Josiah, walking up to David.
“The calm before the storm,” he answered. Josiah nodded.
“What if they hit us with something we’re not ready for?”
“We don’t need to be ready for them,” said David. Josiah shot him a sharply curious look. David smiled and added, “We just need to stand strong. They can’t move us.” Josiah shrugged, and started pacing as the winds blew harder. He turned back to David, standing next to the DadeStar flag, holding still against the winds.
“How does that flag stay so still?” asked Josiah.
“The stones reinforce it,” said David, pointing to the pile of rough, black oval shaped stones at the base of the flag. Josiah stared at the small pile. Chilling winds blew harder. The evening turned into a dark night. Heavier shadows fell. Silence fell over the entire mountain.
Josiah kept staring at the stones and asked, “Who placed those stones there?”
“I did.”
“Did you do anything different with them? I mean, did you put anything else with them to hold them together?”
“I placed them together the same way I always do, but I took a lot of extra time with this pile.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted the DadeStar flag to hold strong no matter what, as a sign to everyone on the mountain.” Jagged blue lights glowed within the long, arched shadow. Josiah continued staring down at the pile of stones holding the DadeStar flag.
Just then, his eyes lit up as he turned to David. Slowly breaking a smile, he said, “I figured it out.” His smile disappeared. The DadeStar flag’s colours grew bright. Josiah gazed up. Numerous alien ships covered the entire sky.
