READ THE ORIGINAL GERMAN VERSION HERE.
The Wind Raider slowly took off the ground. He-Man pushed buttons and the spacecraft accelerated. “Course on Eternis,” Orko said happily. He sat comfortably on the second seat. Orko and He-Man had searched for Queranium in the desert of time. This rare quartz was needed by Man-at-Arms for a new invention. Thanks to his Power Sword, He-Man had quickly found the place where the quartz lay under the ground. Now they were on their way home.
The strongest man in the universe was just joking with the little Trolan, as He-Man suddenly stopped talking. Before him the clouds had shifted. Suddenly and in an unusual formation. The clouds had changed into a strange pattern and had darkened. Then a second and a third cloud formation emerged. Almost at the same time, the three objects began to glow. It was a red, menacing light. He-Man took the Wind Raider’s control lever steering firmly in his hand and tried to dodge the objects.
But it was too late. The three objects simultaneously fired a red light beam from their innermost core. The three beams converged to one. They met the Wind Raider. It crashed loudly and He-Man cried out to Orko: “Hold tight! We are going to crash!” The Wind Raider’s instruments failed. He-Man could no longer control the spacecraft. Now it was necessary to survive the crash. The Wind Raider shot free-fall in the direction of the earth. Then came the impact. And He-Man and Orko blacked out.
Orko woke up first. His head ached. He lay on the ground. The impact had thrown him out of the Wind Raider. “He-Man?” Orko cried. “Over here,” said a voice. Orko’s powerful friend lay in the debris of the Wind Raider. “He-Man,” Orko said. “Are you hurt?” Orko hovered over to his friend. “I do not think so,” said He-Man, pushing the debris aside. The mystical power of Grayskull had saved him from worse. “Orko, what’s going on? I’m fine!” He asked because Orko would not stop staring at He-Man. Then Orko started to talk: “You-you-you …” Orko could not finish the sentence. He-Man now saw his reflection in the Wind Raider’s broken window. Then he realized the reason for Orko’s reaction. “I’m old,” said He-Man in disbelief.
He-Man’s face was wrinkled. His skin had become gray. Gray strands passed through his hair. This change must have been caused by these strange flying objects. What kind of force was that? But He-Man had no time to continue this thoughts. Because at that moment a red laser beam was fired at him. The objects continued their attacked. “Take cover,” shouted He-Man. He grabbed Orko and rescued himself with a jump behind a solid rock.
At this moment, another laser beam was fired at them. He-Man muttered: “It’s all just because of a small piece of quartz.” The ray had not hit the two, but the light seemed to have an effect. “I cannot hover any longer”, Orko yelled. The Trolan had sunk to the ground. And he looked tired, too. “On my planet Trola, only the children and the older people are not able to hover.” Old. That seemed to be the key to the whole thing. He-Man raised his Power Sword sword and looked at his face’s reflection. He now looked even older, his hair now completely white, his cheeks sunken, wrinkles and furrows running through his face.
“Orko,” He-Man said. “With each ray, these beings steal a little more of our time.” Orko looked at him in surprise. But then he understood. Yes, they had aged after each shot. That was it. These beings were nourished by the life energy of others. Orko clenched his fist and shouted in the direction of the objects: “Beware, time reapers!” “Be careful, my friend,” said He-Man. “Provoke them further and they make take even more of our life energy.”
—
They ducked behind the rocks, while the three time-eaters hovered over them. Protected by the rocks, the attackers could not see He-Man and his little friend. He-Man thought hard. He had to find a solution quickly to stop the attackers and to stop the aging process. He looked at his sword. A fight alone would not take them far to reverse the effect. But still looking at his sword, he had an idea: If the charm of Grayskull could transform him from Adam to He-Man, then it could possibly also change him back to young Adam and get rid of the aging effect. It was worth a try.
He-Man stood up from his cover and held aloft his Power Sword. He said the transformation formula in reverse order: “Power-the-have-I. Grayskull-of-Power-the-By.” He also pointed his sword at Orko. Both were now covered in glaring light, which now slowly began to diminish from the outside to the inside. A weak glow, then the light completely disappeared into He-Man’s sword. Or rather said: In Adam’s sword. For now the prince stood there. The re-transformation had worked. Adam held his sword against his face. “I am my old self again,” he smiled. Orko smiled and corrected him; “You mean your young self.” And indeed, He-Man’s gray hair and wrinkles had disappeared. “And I too can hover again,” rejoiced Orko.
Suddenly, a loud blast could be heard. Adam defended the incoming laser beam with his sword. The time reapers attacked again. Then another shot. Adam again parried this. This time the reflected beam hit the time reaper. Suddenly the red glow in the interior of the being stopped. The colossus fell to the ground and no longer moved. Adam acted quickly now. He hurled his sword at the second time reaper. It was hit and turned black instantly. And then fell to the ground. Another moment later, Adam had also defeated the third opponent.
He-Man looked at Orko and said: “The energy of my Power Sword has stopped the time-eating mechanism. This means that these beings, who feed on life energy, have fallen into a kind of shock.” Orko smiled at him, “Or you can call it a winter sleep. But for this, it’s really not cold enough here in the desert.” The Trolan giggled and He-Man was now able to laugh, too. The danger was over. Time to go home.
Read my other MotU fan fiction short stories:
