Underground and Underfoot Part 2 Chapter 5

Aiken immediately waved both his arms over his head in a wide excited arc.  "Hildegard!  Hi!  Are you okay?  Did they find anything?  You don't have a concussion do you?  I was so worried you'd have a concussion.  I'm glad you woke up because I heard that you're not supposed to sleep with a concussion, but I'm not really sure why.  Like it can put you in a coma or something?  I dunno if that's actually true though and..."

DeBrun shook his head.  Maybe they shouldn't have let the other two in.

Hildegard waved a hand.  "Aiken, I'm fine.  It was a concussion, but I'm okay now.  Though it was all I could do to get this tree lady," she jerked a thumb over her shoulder and behind Simon at a tall, willowy figure covered in leaves, "to keep her branches off of me."

"Well, pardon a dryad for being curious," a melodious, but frustrated voice came from the creature.  "We haven't seen one of your kind in centuries."  The dryad physician gave a small huff, turned away, and left.  Her job was done.

"Oh," Aiken breathed in relief.

Hildegard glanced up at Simon.  "You just gonna stand there?"

Simon started and took a step into the room.  "Sorry," he mumbled.

"I suppose this calls for another round of introductions and explanations," Wolf said.

Hildegard waited until Simon sat at the table and let her off his hand next to Aiken before responding.  "Introductions, sure, but the tree lady doctor already filled us in on a lot.  Magical aliens in power for hundreds of years, you guys trying to fight them without tech.  Is that about right?"

Wolf nodded.  "That would be the long and short of it."

"So when can we go home?  I have a little sister who's probably worrying herself sick."

Practically all of the council members looked at Ellen.  She was the one who had brought them here.  She would also be the one who would know where they had come from.  And if it was safe for them to leave.

Ellen's face reddened briefly, but she quickly shook it away.  "Well, it might be wise to wait a few days at least.  When the other aliens find the body of the one you killed, the area will be crawling with law enforcement.  I think we need to wait until it all blows over.  It wouldn't do to go home and risk leading the aliens right to your front door, especially if you have people there you'd want to protect.  Do you have any way of contacting them remotely?"

"Well, I mean, we've got PDA's that we were using for mapping the terrain, but I don't know how well the signal will cut through from above ground-" Aiken started to say.

"You're underground," Niish interjected humorlessly.

"Ah.  Oh.  Right.  Well.  In that case.  Maybe," he mumbled.

"Try it, Aiken," said Hildegard, anxious to let Louise know she was alright.

"Sure thing."  Aiken pulled out the PDA he had strapped to his wrist and thumbed in the keys to call Awohali.  It buzzed for a few minutes.  The giants around him stared at the tiny piece of metal as Hildegard waited to see if they'd be able to make contact.

"Hello?" came the familiar voice of Mr. Adahy.

"Yo, boss-man," Aiken replied.

"Are you about to return to base?  Wait.  How are you communicating with us from topside?" his supervisor asked.

"Well.  Ya see...  We ran into that human we met the other day again.  Say 'hi', Simon."  Aiken held out his PDA towards Simon expectantly.

"Uh, hi," said Simon, mesmerized by the device.

Aiken brought the PDA back over to himself and continued talking.  Simon wasn't the only one enthralled.  All the other officers were staring as the little man obliviously chatted away.

"And he was getting his face burned by this alien using this weird stuff called magic so Hildegard and I saved his neck, but he passed out.  And then we met a lady with pointy ears and she led us back underground.  Oh, but before that Hildegard shot the alien with the HEIAP and man are those things weird-looking, let me tell you..."

"Aiken," came the voice from the PDA.

"And you shoulda seen her, boss!  She was super cool.  Except she gave herself a concussion and..."

"Aiken."

"...then the pointy eared lady led us all around town and we mapped most of the place and..."

"Aiken."

"...now we're underground and..."

"Aiken!"

"Huh?"

"I need you to breathe between words.  I have no idea what you're saying."

"Oh.  Oops."

"Is this a common occurrence?" Bard whispered to Hildegard, who rolled her eyes and nodded.

"I think he's worse than you, Will," Ellen told the young satyr.

DeBrun chuckled.  "We could use a little more spirit around here."

Knowing the only direction this could go Hildegard snatched the PDA from Aiken's hand and filled in the man on the other end in a succinct manner.

"I see," said Mr. Adahy.  "That's...quite a lot of information to digest.  I'll have to bring this to the top.  Is there anything you'd like me to relay to your friends and family until you make it home and we can discuss this further in person?"

"Yes, please tell Louise I'm fine and I'll be home as soon as I can."

"Oh, and tell Snell to tell Clunes and Duff I said hi!" Aiken added, leaning over her shoulder.

"Understood.  And don't agree to anything until I've had a chance to bring this information to our superiors," Mr. Adahy said before closing the channel.

"Well that's a useful device," Ellen mused.

"Yep!" Aiken said with his usual enthusiasm.  "Glad it actually worked.  Never really had much chance to use it outside of town."

"How have you avoided detection all these centuries?" asked Bard.  "Every time we come up with tech, the aliens inevitably discover it."

DeBrun folded his arms across his chest as he listened to the explanation.  It seemed Aiken's superior was quite astute in telling him not to agree to anything.  The man didn't want to get them involved in what had otherwise been an unwinnable war until they knew just what was going on.  Especially after centuries of being in the dark.

"Well, like we kinda said earlier, us yunwi tsunsdi' live underground.  I mean, we didn't even know the aliens were still around.  It's only just recently that we've started trying to figure out what all is still up here.  Our maps are like, super old.  Apparently the forest has shrunk since we've been gone so I'm guessing that’s why we ran into Simon.  You guys, or him guys, are going deeper into the forest," Aiken explained.

"When do you think we will hear back from Mr. Adahy?" Hildegard asked Aiken.

Her partner shrugged.  "I guess whenever the brass decides what to do.  And you know how they are.  Have to discuss everything and never stop talking."

"Joy," she said, though the irony of that coming from Aiken was not lost on her.  "What will we do in the meantime?"

"I could give you a tour of the base," Will suggested cheerfully.

Aiken grinned.  That sounded interesting.  "Let's go then!"