The Bird (Toraun Part3)

The shriek of the bird sounded like a freight train as the bird screeched toward the old…hmmm ….young… no that’s not right either.

Oh forget it here’s the info dump just so we don’t need to worry any longer about how to describe the old/young man. Wait that’s it! No info dump here.

The shriek of the bird sounded like a freight train as the bird screeched toward the old/young man. The old/young man dove for cover behind what appeared to be an innocent shrub, however he soon realized that it wasn’t that innocent at all. The needles jabbed deep into his precious, young skin and within nanoseconds tiny spots of red appeared all over his body. He squirmed and squealed, which of course only caused more injury to his already hurt pride and of course to his skin. It reminded him of his much older hands and the pain he felt when the rain came. After what seemed like an eternity he finally cleared himself from the bush only to hear the terrible shriek of the bird once again. The young/old (see how I switched it just so there’s no show of favoritism) man scanned the horizon for cover.

Toraun received its name from the first people who had settled the planet. They had come from a similar planet named Torown, but had disagreed with the name and had decided to settle their own planet so that they could call their planet the correct way of the true God, Toraun. However, to their utter astonishment they realized after arriving on the planet, and using up their only means of space travel to form their new city, that Toraun, that is the God Toraun, quite enjoyed the planet Torown, so he never followed after them. The naming ceremony, regrettably occurred before anyone took the time to realize this and so the new inhabitants of the planet Toraun were stuck on a planet named after a God that didn’t reside there. This of course didn’t deter another God from taking up stakes on the planet, and no he did not prescribe to the name of Toraun, but of Toranis. So once again the inhabitants of Toraun resided on a planet whose name did not match that of the God that presided over it. This of course disappointed the Toraunians, but they made the best of it and started to build yet another space ship.

Anyway, as the old/young man scanned the horizon for a place to hide from the shrieking bird, his breath caught in his throat. Giant trees speckled the landscape along with large shrubs. He scowled at the shrubs surrounding the trees. A giant mountain loomed off to the west where the sun had just begun its long descent behind it.  The top of the mountain sparkled as the rays of the sun reflected off its snowcapped peaks. A river gently made its way down the side of the mountain to a valley far below to end in a sparkling blue lake surrounded by green (not shrubs just in case that’s where your mind was heading) grass. The grass waved gently from the slight breeze that blew across the meadow to end with a whisper as it hit the base of the mountain.

The shriek came again, ripping the young/old man from his reverie. He dove behind a boulder and the bird swooped past. He pulled from his waist pack (no not a fanny pack, that’s so 80’s) a small gun and aimed for the bird. His breath caught again. How could he destroy such a lovely bird? It swooped around as it shrieked once again. Oh yeah that’s how. He aimed the gun level with the bird and squeezed the tiny trigger. A bright beam of yellow crackled toward the multicolored bird. Its flight forever ended in an instant as the beam struck. The bird fell and the old/young man stood triumphantly, with a broad smile across his face, not realizing that Toranis had sanctified the bird.