We chose to stay with David for a while and thought about setting up our own place nearby. There was plenty of food and game in the area to the west, and everything seemed safe enough as long as we stayed away from the haunted valley to the east where the cursed Padureans haunted the forest. I woke up early in the morning as Jessie slept, and decided to go on a hunt to the west. David was already up drinking coffee when I began to set out.

“Good luck on the hunt. There are golden stags in this forest and their meat is a delicacy if you are quick enough to catch one. They are speedy devils,” David said.

“Yes, thank you. I will keep an eye out for them,” I said.

I began to walk through the sun-dappled forest, listening to the sounds of the numerous bird species in the trees above my head. The color of the trees was beginning to change, indicating the oncoming fall. The forest was ablaze with dazzling reds, oranges, yellows, and even blue colors. I heard the sound of hoofs in front of me, so I broke into a run to try and catch up with them. As I climbed a ridge, I saw a herd of golden stags retreating. I tried to get a shot off at one of them, but I missed. The herd disappeared from view. I climbed to the top of the ridge where there was a small rocky clearing. I looked around the surrounding ridges to try and spot some more game. What I saw instead, made me feel slightly alarmed. There was a Sarceastian ship landing in a nearby clearing. I saw several of them coming out of the ship and walking in the direction of David’s house. I gave up the hunt at that point and began to run back towards the cabin. I had to warn them so that we could figure out what to do about our new visitors.

When I got back to David’s cabin, Jessie was sitting on the front porch enjoying her coffee. She seemed surprised to see me running back towards the cabin.

“Is everything alright?” she asked.

“Now it’s not. The Sarceastians have landed in a nearby valley and they are heading this way. Come on, we must tell David,” I said. We went inside to tell David. He opened his closet and began to hand each of us a laser cannon.

“We mustn’t stay here. We must wait in the forest and try and ambush them. They will pick up on our presence with their life detectors and will likely be here at any moment.”

We exited the got out of the cabin and took up positions behind the large trees. David hid on one side and Jessie and I hid on the other. We didn’t have to wait long before the Sarceastians came walking towards the cabin.

“Are you still picking up on life forms?” one of them asked.

“Yes sir. According to my readings they are very close.”

“Let’s surround the cabin. That is more than likely where they are holed up,” the leader said.

We waited until they were in firing range just in front of the cabin. David fired first, disintegrating the leader. The others turned towards the tree where David hid and soon the tree was engulfed in flames. David had to run and hide behind a rock. Jessie and I began to fire on the rest of them from the other side. We managed to hit four of them, but there was a fifth that managed to escape into the forest, firing back at us as he ran.

“Quickly, after him! We can’t let any of them get away!” David shouted. The three of us ran through the forest. The Sarceastian was running for his life towards the east.

Finally, we came to the boundary of the haunted valley of the Padureans.

“We should stop here,” David said.

“Are you sure? He’s getting away!” Jessie said.

“Yes, just watch,” he said. We were up on a hill overlooking the haunted valley. We could see the Sarceastian off in the distance running for his life. Then, all of a sudden, the phantom Padureans appeared in a circle around him. He turned and ran in the opposite direction as if he would rather take his chances against us. He had no desire to do battle with these creatures from beyond the grave. More Padureans came in to surround him, and soon he was completely encircled by them. The Padureans moved in and soon we could hear an awful shriek being given off as the Padureans attacked the lone Sarceastian. Soon, there was nothing left of him. The Padureans began to hold their arms up towards the sky as one of them spoke in an eerie voice.

“Now the curse has been lifted. We have been given a sacrifice to avenge the dead. Now we can go to our eternal rest!”

One by one, the Padureans disappeared into the air until none of them remained. The only thing left was the cloak of the Sarceastian.

“Now they can be at peace. The curse has been lifted!” David said.

“What about the Sarceastians? Do you think there are any of them left?” I asked.

“I don’t know. If I know the Sarceastians, it’s likely that they have left someone behind to guard the ship. We must make sure that none is left alive. Then we will need to communicate with their leaders to make sure that no more are sent as back up,” David said. So, we began the long trek down towards the valley where the Sarceastian ship was located.

“Let’s make sure that we are cautious. The last thing we want is for the remaining creatures to be alerted of our presence. We need to be as stealthy as possible,” David said. We split up again- David approached from the west and we approached the ship from the east. When we reached the small clearing, there was no sign of life anywhere near the ship. We got as close as we could while still trying to stay behind the trees in order to give ourselves some cover. It wasn’t long before a door slid open from the side of the ship and a cloaked Sarceastian began to descend the ramp.

“Hello, Hermitis do you read me?” the creature spoke. “Jermitonis, are you there?” He held a laser gun in front of him and proceeded to walk within feet of where David was hidden behind the tree. In a flash, David shot his laser gun and the creature shrieked as it disintegrated into thin air.

“Come on, we have to see if there are more of them on board,” David said quietly. David led the way and we followed close behind him as he walked towards the ship. All of us had our weapons ready just in case there were more of them.

David cautiously boarded the ship. He could hear voices coming from their communication radios from their home base.

“Sargost, do you read me? I said, do you read me?” the voice said over the radio.

We walked all around the round perimeter of the ship and found no remaining Sarceastians on board.

“That seems to be all of them. I will try to talk to their commanders and convince them that the life forms they are looking for have been terminated. I just hope my language skills won’t fail me. It has been a long time since I tried to speak in Sarceastian,” he said as he made his way back into the front room of the ship. He picked up the headset device that lay on the ground as the voice from the commander came over the radio again. I had my language decoder device switched on so that I could understand what was being said.

“Sargost, if you don’t answer soon, we will dispatch a backup expedition. Sir, I’m not hearing from any of the crew. I think something must have gone wrong,” the voice said.

“This is Sargost reporting in,” David said.

“Sargost, you sound different. Is everything ok down there?” the commander asked.

“Yes sir. I have caught some sort of virus down here and it has affected the sound of my voice. A few of our radio transmitters are malfunctioning, which is why you aren’t hearing from the others. We have terminated the life forms and will be returning home shortly,” David said.

“That is good to hear Sargost. Have you extracted the minerals and fuel from the surface of the planet yet?”

“Negative. We are in the process of amassing the resources now. We wanted to make sure that our progress wasn’t hampered by the life forms that we detected.”

“What were the life forms? The Padureans are extinct so we were quite surprised to find a life reading that wasn’t a wild animal,” the commander asked.

“It was two humans and a Karkastian,” David answered.

“The Karkastian and humans were together?” the voice said.

“We believe the humans had captured the Karkastian,” David said.

“Hmm, that makes more sense. Are you picking up on any more life readings? We can send back up if you require it.”

“Negative sir. Our life readings are registering at zero. We believe that we have taken care of the threat,” David said.

“That is good news, Sargost. We will check in later to see how the mineral extraction is going.”

“Thank you sir, over and out,” David said, switching off the communication radio.

“Whew, my Sarceastian language skills are better than I thought they would be. It seems to have worked,” David said.

“So what should we do now?” Jessie asked.

“Well we have bought ourselves some time to be sure, but it will only be a matter of time before more of them come. They will begin to get suspicious if it takes too long to extract the minerals and fuel that they came here to obtain,” David said.

“For the time being, we can go back to the cabin and figure out our next course of action. I fear that we may never be completely rid of the threat of the Sarceastians. They do not give up easily,” he said.

We made the long trek back to David’s place and stopped when we ran across a herd of golden stag passing through the forest. I tried to get a shot of and missed, but Jessie hit one.

“Got it!” she yelled proudly. We picked up the animal and carried it back to the house, knowing that we would have meat for many days to come. That night, we feasted and drank ale that David had brewed himself.

“I should be going back down to the ship. They will be expecting the crew members to give an end of the day report,” David said.

“How do you know so much about the Sarceastians?” Jessie asked.

“When I was a member of the expedition crew, I belonged to a special ops crew focused specifically on the Sarceastians. Even in the old days, the military was aware of the threat that the Sarceastians posed. If only we could have gotten a handle on them before they started to lay waste to the universe. Now it seems that they are destined to rule over everyone and everything,” David said, shaking his head.

“Well they still haven’t conquered the Earth!” Jessie said, proudly.

“Not yet, but trust me, it’s only a matter of time before they attempt it. Let’s just hope the military is better prepared than they were when I was a soldier,” David said as he strapped on his laser cannon and prepared to walk back to the Sarceastian ship.

“I will be back soon. Please make sure that you leave some of that ale for me,” David said.

“Not to worry,” I said. My head was beginning to get fuzzy. We Karkastians weren’t accustomed to alcohol, but I liked the way it made me feel.