292 Smoke of The Cigar Galaxy
"That's an amazing idea! Hehe… now I look forward to seeing how the food or the drink prepared with this water would taste like…" She commented with flashing eyes of happiness.
"Okay, we should collect some water and leave quickly before we face a headache." Mouthing this, he turned his head toward the spaceship momentarily. Following his gaze, five Worker Robots exited the spaceship in an orderly fashion. Each of them was carrying a 200-liter 55-gallon drum as they casually walked toward the river before starting to fill them up.
In the meantime, as the Worker Robots filled one 55-gallon drum after another, Virus and the golden beauty had nothing better to do, so they could just sit under the shade of a tree with strange leaves in the shape of mugs while watching the Worker Robots do their job.
"The leaves of this tree are so weird, master. We could literally use it as cups to drink water whenever we feel like it… if there are any intelligent races on this planet, it must be nice for them to have access to mugs whenever they feel like it…"
"You're the weird one for thinking that!" Barked Virus in response.
Not paying any attention to his sentence though, she continued, "Since I'm the first person to see the tree, I shall name it… hmm… let's just call it the 'Mug Tree'."
"It already had a name. But sure, 'Mug Tree' sounds appropriate."
Happily, she said back, "Right?! Named it like that because it literally bore us mugs!"
"No shit!"
"Oh, right! Master, where do these waters come from?" Staring at the waterway, the golden beauty questioned.
Standing up, Virus severed a single mug leaf as he strolled toward the river. While dunking the leaf into the water flow, he elaborated, "This water comes from deep within the planet itself, probably the deepest spot this kind of water can exist in."
"Oh, is that so? So is the water so extraordinary because it gets mingled with some unique material under the ground?" Looking at her master's strong back figure, she queried.
"That's not what makes the water so special… apparently, what makes this water exceptional are three things. First, it's a certain attribute of this planet to attract energy from the entire Cigar Galaxy. Second, it's the position of this planet in the Cigar Galaxy, which is said to be exactly in a spot where it makes it possible to attract energy from all over the galaxy itself. And the last but not least is the unique energy of this galaxy which adds that certain characteristic to the water itself." Taking out the mug leaf full of Water of Life, Virus drank all of it in one go.
Giggling in humor, she phrased, "Hehe… so it's the energy or rather… the smoke of the Cigar Galaxy that's unique. Hehe… anyway, joking aside, that's really aweso-"
Roar!
She was just about to finish her praise of the water when she was interrupted by a strange roar.
Shocked, she turned in order to see the source of the noise…
But what she witnessed next stunned her even further.
Because, in front of her, there were two 1 meter pitch-black beasts which were very similar to panthers! However, unlike panthers, even their eyes were entirely black. Moreover, their paws were more similar to the fingers of a human being, only, instead of nails, there were sharp claws attached to the end of them. This fact alone made them much more dangerous than panthers with claws.
Still, to the golden beauty, these parts weren't the astonishing points of the beasts in front of her. The astounding fact was that the two beasts were wearing leather armors on their bodies and they had even trimmed their claws and fingers with some iron-like materials!
Even more so, the golden beauty could swear those sharp eyes which were gazing at her were totally comprehending exactly what they were looking at!
"M-master… what are these things?" Asked the golden beauty with a bit of a chill apparent within her tone.
Not making any sudden movements, while staring at them, Virus replied, "Didn't you ask if there were any intelligent beings present on this planet? Well… you're looking at them. At this moment in time, this is the current dominant race on the planet… they were lucky enough for their brains to evolve to the point of acquiring consciousness and free will. Though they're not as smart as humans, they still have some basic wisdom."
"Ah… you mean… they are capable of thinking?" Said the golden beauty. In return, Virus responded with, "What else could I mean! Yes… their intelligence can be placed somewhere between apes and humans. Anyway, you can address their race as Panumans."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Ok…"
"Grr… owl… grrri, grroarrrrrr?" Suddenly, one of the Panumans started producing weird noises.
"What's happening right now?" A bit speechless by the continuous weird noises the Panuman was making as if it was expecting her to understand its growls, helpless, she could only turn to her master.
"They just demanded an answer from us, they asked, 'What are we? And why have we intruded into their sacred ground of Water of Life?'."
"For real?"
"Yeah… lemme transmit their language knowledge into your mind, you'll get it then." Muttering that, Virus sent a lot of information regarding the Panuman's current language into the golden beauty's head.
"Oh… I see!" Receiving the knowledge of their language, a shimmer of comprehension passed through the golden beauty's eyes.
After that, she inquired, "But why do they consider this place their sacred ground? Could it be they're also aware of the value of the Water of Life?"
"Of course! Their evolution toward gaining consciousness itself mostly took place because of the presence of the Water of Life. Otherwise, they wouldn't have acquired wisdom at this point. They were still far from it." Virus explained.
Understanding the situation, the golden beauty stated, "Oh… I see! So they evolved because they continuously drank from the Water of Life!"