Chapter 13: Traveling Stars

“There comes a time in a man’s life when he must break free from his caging and set out on a rite of passage. Though there may be many paths and many troubles in this journey, every person with an ambition must partake in it, for it is only by the heat of the fire in which the blade can be sharpened, and so must it be for all young people as well. Destinies are not set in stone.” --Ancient teachings of the Remnants

Gregory was not much for plans. He had succeeded in finding Sahn and convincing him to join his journey, but as to their destination, it was still unknown. Only Jerwon was with them, so other than the three of them, there was nobody else. Such a strange triumvirate of males would be a questionable sight no matter where they went, and even on the racially-diverse Earth, there were still enough people who stared at them.

But for the moment, the three males seemed to be doing okay. They had just recently broken away from a much-larger group, and were now set on enjoying life a little before things got hectic again. A suspicious character named Cattia Prepells had came to them with a job offering, and as unreliable as always, the Space Cat claimed to not have all the information needed to execute the job properly. She also added that there would probably be a few hired assassins coming after her from then on, so it was recommended that the gang split up.

Greg didn’t mind leaving everyone for a little while. He liked everyone in the group to a point, but spending time by himself was also good. He had wanted to while away his time with the other guys, but Zet and Diana were like Velcro, so that left him with just Jerwon and Sahn to hang around with. Greg was starting to like the smaller fellow, even though Jerwon himself could barely stand the human, and Sahn...

Well ... there’s always one of “them” in every group...

When the three guys first got together, Sahn was filled in on the situation. Although he had no more involvement with the Space Cat than anyone else did, he simply shrugged and came along for the ride. Sahn was a thrill-seeker by nature, and one who loved a challenge and a good fight. His size might’ve been puny, but his strength and his lust for battle made up for it all. As for Jerwon, he seemed to just want to travel, and although he preferred Diana’s company to Greg’s (it seemed he preferred Sahn’s company over the human’s), he still followed the taller guy around.

“Eh, so!” coughed Sahn once they were out on the streets. “Where’n we goin’, hm? You got any ideas, Sheeft?”

“Not particularly,” shrugged the only human among them. “I guess we can just wander around until what’s-her-name calls us back.”

“Humans...” sighed Jerwon, shaking his head in defeat. He almost made the species name sound like an insult; at least, that’s how Greg interpreted things.

“Hey! Whaddya expect from me? This came kinda sudden! What, do you have a plan?” A pause. Jerwon crossed his arms and turned around bashfully.

“No.”

“I thought so...” Greg crossed his own arms and nodded his head, when suddenly, he got an idea. “Oh, hey! I know where we can go for our next destination! Yeah! Hey, we can visit my old man’s grave!”

“Who, ol’ J.R.?” asked Sahn. Greg nodded his head, and the demon-like Kobrian rubbed his prickly chin in thought. “Hmmm ... it’s a way’s away, but if’n we don’ got nothin’ else to do ... ehhh, sure! ... Eh, why not?!” The little monster smiled a swindler’s smile, and flapped away backwards until he was a good distance away from the two. Jerwon, who had never heard of Greg’s family before, couldn’t help but inquire.

“Your father?”

“Yeah, old man Jerad Rodriguez, alias J.R.,” answered Greg nostalgically. “He was one tough sonofagun, I tell you what. He fought in the last big war, became a hero’n everything, but he got killed before the war ended. People gave him a soldier’s burial, twenty-one guns, the whole shmeer. Pop was a demi-human, but he and mom were fanatically in love with each other. I guess you could say that I’m not completely human myself, but oh well.” Shrugging slightly, Greg wandered off to join Sahn, leaving Jerwon by himself.

The little Leduadian stood there in the streets for awhile, tilting his head back and forth in thought. He knew for a fact that Greg was mostly unwilling to share his past with Dana, and the two had known each other for some time now. To have him say such things to Jerwon, who a week ago was a complete stranger, was something akin to flattery. True, the information wasn’t exactly shocking, or a deep secret, but it was comforting to know that a foreign face like Greg was so willing to share such information.

Luckily, Jerwon still couldn’t stand his guts. Nevertheless, the smallish young Leduadian waddled off after Greg and Sahn. He preferred the company of fools and idiots over no company at all.

The cemetery where Jerad Rodriguez was buried was located in the farthest reaches of a small, deserted town. The village itself was forever covered in darkness, even in daylight. Not only did an eternal cloud of odorless smog float through it, but the emptiness and the silence of the town was also pretty bleak and depressing. There were not even bones lying around; not even plants. Everything was destroyed or abandoned, there was burnt soil lying everywhere, and the air was thicker than year-old tomato soup, with the stale smell added.

The graveyard was in no better a condition. It was haunting, and in a very dark sense, it was also quite beautiful. The cemetery had a very gothic look to it: graves were painted black with the dust and dirt from the ground, skeletons of trees leered above, clouds of dark fog and mist slowly snaked through the tombs, and the ground was as dry as sand. The carvings on the headstones were so thick with moss, decay, and dirt that they were nearly unreadable, but Greg knew precisely where his birth-father was buried.

He led Sahn and Jerwon through the ghost town and towards the cemetery, all the while shivering in his shoes. He hated coming to this place--not just because it bore bad memories for him, but that it also was just plain creepy. Even Jerwon’s breathing was thinner because of the loneliness of the town, and even Sahn looked slightly afraid. The graveyard didn’t settle any nerves, not even when Greg found the tomb of his desires. Standing somewhere in the northwestern part of the cemetery was a headstone resembling a simple crucifix, and several withered flowers beneath it.