Chapter 8

The sight of a snowy mountain whose top cap appeared to have been blown off from inside forming some sort of an open crater is what finally halted his aimless pursuit of almost an hour. Amazement held him there. From the look of the dust swirling everywhere, something was up recently; like a geological transformation of sort, he thought.

'What had happened here?' he wondered.

Slowly, he maneuvered his ship atop the hole and initiated metamorphosis of his spacefighter plane to a two legged manlike structure giant robot-- his mecha suit - one of the abilities of a WDF spacefighter plane.

There were lots of mechanical shifting and displacement before this was achieved. This new physical form will comfortably allow him to explore the hollow inside the mountain that the hole unveiled.

As his metallic suit stepped onto the ground, he initiated scanning of the area for any biohazards, but there was nothing abnormal and peculiar as his scanners would attests.

Well, nothing except for a breathing human.

'Impossible,' he thought, as his monitor began pouring in data of a live and breathing human in the vicinity. 'Why would anyone be in a remote cave such as this? And how could anyone survive the explosion that seemed to have transpired here?'

He maneuvered his mecha on its two legs to locate the said human. He finally stumbled upon an old man, lying there pale and emaciated. "You must be wrong computer. Even I could see that he is dead," he pointed out.

"Not him," came the computer's digital voice. It made its own virtual scanning of the area. The screen focused in upon a girl also lying on the ground, unconscious. "That female human being,"

Alec wasted no time. He jumped out of the cockpit and ran towards the girl. She had auburn hair and a rosy face. His heart skipped a beat as he closely examined her face.

"What is a beautiful girl like her doing in this place?" he thought.

He sat on one-knee and held her pulse. 'She's alive!'

His eyes roamed the place for an indication of what occurred in the area. Except for the dust and smoke that whirled around, there isn't anything else that could explain the blown off cave ceiling.

'Whatever it is, it must be something very powerful to hole up a mountain like this,' he thought.

Alec could not see that a mystical shrine once stood there. Nothing of it. Not a single remnant.

Alec then took the girl in his arms and held her close.

"Why did I come for you?" the questioned just popped randomly in his head as he looked closely at her face. She had a cuteness about her with her button nose, small eyes and high forehead. "Why was I compelled to come here?" he asked himself as he fleetingly scanned the open cavern again.

Looking back at the girl in his arms, he uttered. "You're going to be alright,"

**

Lindsey Miles would wake up in a local hospital in Alaska a few hours later.

"Some handsome guy in a military uniform deposited you here and then left hurriedly," the nurse would tell her. "He rushed out immediately so I can't tell you much,"

In military uniform? Could somebody have sent in someone to their rescue? Well, she can't be bothered thinking.

The nurse would then proceed to tell her the bad news that her uncle didn't make it. Sorrow would grip her. And as she reached for the crystal hanging on her neck, she would not find it there, to her surprise. The crystal necklace she has had in like forever is gone. . .