“Well, did you hit him?” I asked Eagle.

“Hit him? What I hit was a boulder for all the difference it made. A single spark flew off, nothing else!”

Eagle replied and looked at me over his shoulder, beckoning towards a certain tree. I followed the direction just in time to catch a blur landed on the ground.

“Are you sure that was a direct hit?”

“No, bu-”

“Shit, try again! This time aim for his chest plate. There should be some wide gashes leaving him exposed!” I shouted at Eagle, while making a slashing motion across my chest.

“You nuts? We both know the first shot did nothing to him, now you want me to completely piss him off?” Eagle responded.

“If they wanted us dead, we’d be buried a long time ago. They either want us as hostages for political purposes, intelligence, or both. So take another shot at it, once he gets here it’s over for us!”

Perhaps convincing Eagle as much as myself, I ordered him to shoot once more.

Dead ahead, the slowly approaching figure marched forward with calculated strides. Eagle turned towards his scope, ten meters separated us from him. Not even a second had passed before the knight covered the entire distance separating us. He stopped crouching over Eagle’s gun, covering the barrel.

‘What in the…’

It was like watching an action figure suddenly yanked forward by a rope, accelerating, and stopping in an instant.

“…uoy erew I fi taht od t'ndluow yllaer I”

The knight threateningly growled at us, the strange language accentuated the threat. I glanced at Eagle, he shook his head, returning a blank stare. I suppose learning ten Earth languages doesn’t help with alien speech.

“?em dnatsrednu ton uoy naC ?morf uoy era yrtnuoc hcihW”,

More words came from the Knight, seeing as how we did little to react, he held out his hand. Eagle and I remained motionless.

A gust of air come from inside the helmet.

‘Did he just sigh at us?’

The armoured man stood up, lifted the rifle with two fingers and swung it around like a metre long toothpick before dropping it to the side. I watched as Eagle rolled out of the way and stood beside me.

“.eM .eviG .snopaeW” Stressing each word's syllable the knight extended his arm once more.

“Cato wha-?”

“He wants to disarm us peacefully, just give him the gun behind your back, no need to pretend.” I reluctantly placed my own pistol in his oversized palm. Seemingly satisfied, the knight curled his fingers and pointed downwards with his thumb.

‘What does he want now? Is he not going to let us live? Perhaps he won’t be able to dodge from this distance....’

“Psst, Eagle-” I quickly got Eagle’s attention and made a few hand signs beckoning at our feet and the enemy in front of us. A quick nod and we sprang to action.

Mustering up all my strength and remembering countless repetitions, I hooked the knife next to my foot, kicked it upwards and jumped after it. Meanwhile I caught a glimpse of Eagle following my lead. He grabbed his at chest-level and dashed straight for the man.

Once I caught the knife mid-air, a metre advantage in height was presented. Twisting my body, I angled myself to land onto the shoulders of the knight. His eyes were my targets. Our blades rapidly approached,

‘Why isn’t he trying to dodge? Or even move?’

Less than a millimeter remained,

‘We got him!’ I shouted in my heart with joy.

Only that happiness was short lived as my knife came into contact with a rock-solid object, completely fracturing my knife and sending half of the blade spiraling upwards. I kicked off the armour and with the aid of a backwards somersault and landed on my feet.

I quickly looked to my left and saw Eagle gripping a knife without the blade.

‘Does he not have any weaknesses at all?’

Not even a minute had passed and the man proved himself invincible. He took a step closer, now towering only inches away from us. Every single muscle in my body tensed up in anticipation for anything, an attack, jab, slash.

What came next was just…

Clap, Clap, Clap...

The man collapsed into a cross-legged seating position and started clapping.

‘Why is he clapping? Was this some kind of test laid out by the organisation? No that can’t be, the expenses for something like this would have been astronomical…’

“…mrah on naem I tub ,tey derettahs t’nevah stirips gnithgif ruoy taht desserpmi m’I”

‘Is he talking to himself?’

A loud thumping noise interrupted my thought, I looked for the source and noticed two shallow depressions in the grass.

Making a quick gesture with his thumb to me and Eagle, the knight beckoned towards the depressions.

“.tiS”

A short grunt echoes from the knight. I looked at Eagle,

“Why don’t we join him? Not like we have any other choice.”

Eagle plopped himself down showing no restraint or hesitation. I took a quick glance in both directions, spotting nothing I followed Eagle’s lead. A short nod from the knight confirmed that we did as he wanted.

‘Now what?’

I observed the knight but he did not stir.

A minute went by, all of my senses were burning from extreme usage to pick up on any sign of danger in advance. Finally, the knight stood up and put his hands in front of us before we could even try to get up. Seemingly content with being offered no resistance, he started taking powerful strides towards our prisoner.

“Hey Eagle, any idea how we will explain the other kid over there?” I asked, trying to break the ghastly silence surrounding us.

“Does it even matter? Wouldn’t he look like one of us, minus a bit of his shoulder?” Eagle whispered back.

“Perhaps, but how do we even explain... no never mind, there is no way for us to even sta-” I gasped under the immense pressure crushing me from every direction. Each breath became a battle for survival. I strained my neck to look at Eagle. His face was rapidly changing colour and was using his arms to keep himself from collapsing.

Less than ten seconds had passed before I was forced flat onto my stomach, unable to take another breath.

‘Is this how I die? Crushed by something I can’t even see?’

I opened my eyes one last time and saw the armoured man carrying a body towards us.

**********

A cold, tingling sensation spread, quickly replaced by a final jolt bringing me jerking upright and looking around. A blazing fire warmed up my left side leaving the right exposed to the raw night air. An itching sensation brought my attention towards my clothes, revealing a-

‘Am I wearing a potato sack?’

I threw off the blanket and spotted Eagle sleeping soundly underneath.

“Psst, Eagle!”

I gently shook him, trying to get him to wake up. He made a grumbling noise and swatted his hand at me.

‘Tch..’

Annoyed, I jabbed his side and he sprang to life, grabbing my arm.

“-nekawa yllanif evah uoy ees I ,dooG”

A raspy voice came from the other side of the campfire. Eagle and I wasted no time jumping to our feet, taking battle stances.

“?uoy era ,sdik yranidro tsuj ton ylraelc er’uoy ,secnaraeppa ruoy etipseD”

A dark, hazy mist began to clear, revealing the old robed man, “.setunim wef a rof nruter t’now loof taht ,yrrow t’noD”

There was a soothing note in his voice, calming me down, whispering that all will be all right. I looked around anxiously, but the knight was nowhere to be found. Then I looked towards the robed man.

“.em dnatsrednu t’nac uoy ,thgir s’taht hO - emos evah ,ereH”

The old man cut himself off abruptly and passed us two brown pouches filled with liquid.

“Eagle wha-”

I turned towards him and saw that he was drowning himself in it, head tilted as far back as possible. Seeing no harm and rather tired of keeping up my defences, I slowly brought the pouch to my lips and took a sip. What at first felt like normal water, instead turned into a substance filling me with energy and renewed vigor.

Newfound strength flowed throughout my body, a feeling of invincibility coming over me. Unable to stop I completely emptied the pouch, my veins and arteries bulging from the increased blood flow.

“?uoy no tceffa na hcus evah retaw did yhW -eht ni tahW”

The old man rose and started approaching us. I took a quick step back but found myself flying backwards a meter. Landing on my feet I brought my hands in front of me and looked down. Nothing about my physique has changed, but this power,

‘Just what kind of drug did the old man give us? I have to test it out…’

I turned away from the fire and bent down like an Olympic sprinter. Kicking off my right foot I broke into a sprint,

‘This is incredible!’.

It took me just four strides to reach the edge of the clearing. On my fifth stride my face was recoiled off a hard surface. Staggering backwards I covered my nose and took a tried to make out whatever had stopped me

‘I swear I hit something hard…’

I slowly walked to the edge once more and pushed forward with my arm. There was nothing there, yet my hand was stopped by something. I walked along the edge some more, leaving my hand to trail the invisible surface.

‘Seems like there is some kind of barrier, did the old man create this? But how…’

“Hey Cato! Come back, this stuff is amazing!” Eagle shouted to me, waving his hand.

‘Not like this can get any worse’.

I took a much shorter step this time, but as soon as I started bringing my left foot forward the momentum sent me forward several paces instead. I couldn’t even walk properly anymore.

‘Am I putting too much force into my strides?’

“Cato you’ve gotta see this!”

Eagle jumped into the air, not several feet, but three times my height, stopped mid flip, and started falling head first.

“Eagle, what are you doing!”

“Just trust me!”

A smile formed on his lips once more, less than two metres to the ground he outstretched his right arm and stopped himself. His elbow didn’t even bend, nothing seemed to be wrong. He remained standing as straight as a pillar.

“You see that? This stuff is freaking incredible!”

Eagle bent the supporting arm and extended it, sending him into the air. A quick somersault and he landed right beside me.

‘He just launched himself by extending his elbow…’

A rumbling noise came from my stomach, only then did I realize I hadn’t eaten anything for nearly two days. A delicious aroma creeped up my nose, turning me towards the fire. Some kind of small critters were roasting over the fire, and had just turned a beautiful, golden colour.

“?doof nevig era uoy fi sneppah tahw ,gnitseretni tsoM”

More incomprehensible words came from the old man. However, he took out a knife and swiftly cut the ropes holding up the creatures, and pierced them with some spare branches.

Eagle and I eagerly extended our hands for the meal, but it did not come. Instead, the old man made a pretend motion of biting off a piece and said a single word.

“taE”

“Cato, I think he is trying to teach us his language. If its structure isn’t riddled with a ton of exceptions, I’ll be able to act as a decent translator within a week.” Eagle spoke words of delight.

“Sounds good, the sooner we have a method of communication the better.” I watched as Eagle took the branch with food and pointed at it repeating the word,

“Eat?”

The old man shook his head. Eagle ripped off a piece and brought it to his mouth,

“Eat?”

The action received a nod from the man.

‘Great, we are able say the word “eat”’.

Devouring the roasted animal, Eagle got up, extended his arm and pointed at his elbow,

“Elbow”

“Arm, hand, palm, fingers...”

“...sregnif ,mlap ,dnah ,mrA”

The old man answered the name of each part in the strange language. I watched as Eagle continued to point various parts of his body, performed some basic actions such as walking and jumping. The degree to which Eagle focused reached a level I have never seen before. The previous happy-go-lucky attitude would fool anyone from the devious nature he hid beneath.

The game of broken charades continued as I ate the roasted animal which, strangely enough, tasted like chicken. Moreover, an effect similar to the one from the liquid came through my body, only far less drastic.

“Hey Eagle, how’s your progress?”

I got his attention and watched as he snapped out of his trance.

“You wouldn’t believe it, their language is eerily similar to latin, but has distinct differences. I didn’t get to grasp the basics yet, but there is now way the similarity is mere coincidence. There has to be some reason that their language structure resembles our own, earlier ones.”

I did not pay much attention to the little comparison.

“That's great, did you at least get his name?”

“Cato, you seriously don’t get it do you?”

“Get what?” I replied, irritated.

“That our worlds are or were connected somehow!” I could swear Eagle’s eyes had a strange glint in them.

I asked once more, more interested in receiving an answer.

“Did you at least figure out his name?”

“Yea, it’s Marden, not sure about his buddy though. Speaking of him, where is he?’

“I’m not sure….” I replied, looking around.

A metallic clinking sound caught our attention.