He cursed the lab director under his breath. He knows something he’s not telling. The director had called him out of nowhere and sent him on a mission to collect a bunch of humans who were, in fact, not human. And on several different planets, at that! Apparently his missing beloved had no idea her project had been sabotaged from the very beginning. Worse, someone just flipped the switch to end the project by causing the planet to rearrange itself.
On the other hand, if the director hadn’t gotten word about it when he had, no one would have survived. He and his team quietly and quickly withdrew every living person in the project from Terra. They had been able to retrieve almost half of them before the chaos had begun, and much to the director’s pride, not a single one of his clients were lost in the destruction of Terra.
So, here he was, retrieving humans. He was on his third planet already. Thankfully, they had been training a group of Gispi spiders to help them out with just this sort of task. Makes for a lot less running around for me and my crew.
The director had provided coordinates of where he had dropped all of these people and how many, but he wouldn’t say who any of them were. However, he did emphasize how important this particular group was to Valdrik himself, though he had yet to figure out why.
“Valdrik, we need a doc to take a look at this little guy,” Draconis said.
“What happened?” Valdrik inquired as he turned to his oldest friend.
“This little idiot,” Draconis replied, tossing the human to the ground. “Stabbed it with this spear,” he finished as he shoved the head of the spear into the ground.
Valdrik growled in frustration as he closed his eyes. Just what he needed, more problems. It was bad enough that there was a language barrier, but hadn’t these humans ever seen a spider or a mushroom before?
He was pretty sure they were introduced to their planet several millennia ago, and yet these humans ran from them as if they were going to be eaten. You would think they would run from each other, since that seems to be the main reason for the planet’s destruction. Instead, they made things easier for his crew to capture them all by hiding out in groups.
“That’s almost all of them, Val,” Kira stated.
Valdrik turned to look at his cheetah crew mate. “How many do we have?”
“Eighteen on my last count. The spiders can’t get into every nook and cranny, but we’ve asked them to sweep the area again to find the last few.”
A disturbance at the lake caught their attention. Massive tentacles whipped through the air catching a few flying turtles. Valdrik turned back to his crew and said, “Have any of them entered the forest? Has anyone checked anywhere besides the village?”
The glances among his crew told him they all figured the humans had taken refuge within the village, since it was familiar surroundings. A chittering spider came running up to Valdrik and pulled on his arm. “You guys sweep the area one last time while I go see what’s going on with these guys.”
Valdrik followed the spider to the lake, where they had lost many of their spiders, thanks to the thing in the lake. Valdrik cursed at it. Getting the spiders back on the ship without much fuss would be difficult with their fallen friends being left behind. As he walked among them, assessing how many had been lost, a group of them came running out of the forest with birds hot on their fuzzy behinds.
He sighed heavily as he pulled out his weapon, careful to set it to stun, and began shooting the birds. Each fell to the ground, twitching where they lay. The spiders grouped around him, rubbing on him, giving their thanks.
Valdrik rubbed and patted them to reassure their safety and sent them off to help out in the village. They took off, but one remained. Bella was walking in circles, stopping to look at him and back at the forest. She must have followed someone and was trying to get to them. Probably would have caught them, too, if the creature in the lake hadn’t smashed her friends and those birds hadn’t tried to eat them.
He let Bella lead him through the forest as the scent of the female got stronger. He smirked. Typically humans were weak and afraid, even more so for their females. Yet here was a female that had evaded their spiders, got past the lake monster, got away from the birds, and had traipsed through the forest all on her own.
A glowing light came from up ahead. The Memcry only do that when someone who left their memories behind in them are nearby. Valdrik entered the clearing and saw the female being dragged toward the Memcry. Bella chittered and shuffled her feet beside him. There wasn’t much he could do until the crystal was done with her.
“It’s like a magnet,” the lab director had once said to describe the Memcry. It essentially held the memories of anyone who touched the crystal for safe keeping and, if they returned for them, the two parts of their soul were magnetically drawn to each other so the crystal could give back the memories. Putting memories into the crystal was easy. Getting them back was a different story.
The female had begun to panic. No surprise there. She was trying to push away from the crystal. Valdrik walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders in a feeble attempt to comfort her. He didn’t expect to react to her. His hands tingled and got warmer with each passing second and a jolt to his heart told him not to leave this female. He recognized, it could just be the electric shocks from the crystal, but his gut told him it was more than that.
The Memcry dimmed and released the female. Valdrik scooped her up and carried her to the ship. Every hair on his body was standing up and his body grew in warmth at every point of contact. Who was this female?
Memories Return
“Mommy?” a small voice said.
Es poked her head through a door and saw a figure standing near the bed. She felt a nudge from behind her and she fell through the door. Someone caught her dress from behind. She turned to see who it was. A gray-haired boy not much older than her, with long pointed ears and lavender eyes, was standing over her, grinning from ear to ear over his accomplished scaring technique.
“Big brother! Don’t do that! It’s not funny!” Es huffed.
The boy laughed as Es was lifted into the air. A baby’s cry came from behind them. She was turned to face a man with white hair and green eyes. He had a large but slender face that fell into a short beard. He, too, was grinning from one long pointed ear to the other as he carried her to the bed.
Es looked through the canopy to see a beautiful woman with long pointed ears poking through lush silver hair that cascaded about her shoulders. The woman was staring at a small wriggling bundle in her arms. She glanced up and smiled at Es, her gray eyes shining with joy. “Revlis, come meet your baby sister, Holly.”
Es looked down at the baby as her father placed her on the bed beside her mother. It was a tiny, pale wiggling thing with small, tight red curls atop its head and teeny pointed ears. The baby cooed and grunted.
Es looked at the woman then looked back at the baby and finally reached out to her. She brushed over her soft curls and warm skin. Es touched Holly’s little fist and Holly grabbed a hold of Es’ finger tightly. Her father laughed and her brother reached out his hand so Holly could grab him too.
Es felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Holly cried out and released her older siblings as she wiggled free of her blanket. Their father escorted them out of the room and told them they needed to rest now. They could visit again later. He smiled down at them and closed the door, muffling Holly’s tiny cries and their mother’s soothing voice.
“You were small like that once, too.”
Es turned and her brother still had a smile on his face. He held out his hand and she grasped it. He led her down the hall as he told her about the day she was born.
Ӝ
Es woke up to find herself facing a wall, lying on a cot with a small blanket. She sat up and groaned as the blood rushed to her head, reminding her how bad her head hurt. She turned around and saw glowing red bars running from the floor to the ceiling at the entrance of her small, empty room.
Realizing her
wounds had been bandaged, she stood up to get a better view of what was on the other side of her bars. Everything was quiet, except for the slight buzzing coming from the bars to her cell. The cell across from her was empty. To her right, all she could see was a scaly tail.
To her left, a pair of snake eyes were staring at her. The creature had the torso of a man with the body of a scorpion and had both human arms and pincers. Its tail had a fairly large barb at the tip and its hands had spindly long fingers with equally long and thin claws. Its entire body was black with a red pattern swirling along the scorpion’s body and up the human portion. It almost looked like flames had wrapped around its body. Its head, however, was neither human nor scorpion.
It was mostly oval in shape and came to a point at the chin. The red pattern upon its head created the illusion of a mask as it flowed down the face and around the eyes. Its nose was a couple of slits just above its mouth. It grinned at her.
In so doing, Es felt more terrified than she ever had in her entire life. The creature was more gruesome than anything from a horror movie. It was like staring at a living nightmare. And then it began to laugh, as if it could read her mind. Or at least she thought that’s what it is doing. It could be growling for all she knew.
She turned around and stiffly walked back to her cot, where she curled up and tried to drift back off to sleep. She swore to kick Fate into next week if that creature invaded her dreams.
Ӝ
“What are you doing, daddy?”
“Hm? Oh, little one,” he sighed as he stroked his short beard. “I’m just busy trying to take care of our people’s concerns and troubles and see to it that everything is resolved.”
“Can I help?” Es asked her father.
He chuckled and lifted her into his lap, knowing his daughter just wanted to spend some time with him but that she didn’t yet know about many things such as taking care of their people’s affairs. He chose a paper at random and read it aloud.
“Dear King Relik, my wife and I are having trouble finding enough money to pay our son’s academy fee. In no way am I requesting any money. All that I ask is for perhaps your good word to the academy so my son Zanan may become a great soldier. He has befriended Prince Kalis and wishes to serve in your army in hopes of being great help to you and your family one day. However, the large sum required to enter the academy is preventing him from doing so. Please help us send Zanan to the academy so that he may serve you well in the future . . .”
“The academy? What’s that?” Es asked.
“The academy is where creatures from all walks of life go to train together to become great warriors,” her father answered.
“It costs a lot?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Why?”
“Well, because we need to be able to supply weapons and uniforms and pay for the instructors’ time, among other things,” he replied.
“Does it have to cost so much?”
“Yes,” he said with a chuckle. “Or we won’t be able to protect our people.”
“But mommy said we don’t have a lot of soldiers and that if we are ever attacked, we might lose.” Es said.
“Yes, I did say that,” Queen Odera said as she appeared. “I have also given both my opinion and many suggestions on this issue, but your father is too stubborn to take my advice. And you. What are you doing in here? I have asked you many times not to bother your father when he is busy in his study. Now, come on. You are late for your lessons.”
“Aww, mom. I don’t like math and history and stuff,” Es whined.
The Queen chuckled as she took her daughter’s hand. “Come. Be a good girl and finish your studies without a fuss like your big brother Kalis and I will ask the cook to make you a treat.”
“Ooh! Can it be cake, mom? I really like the sweet cakes! With cream and berries on top! Please! Pleeaasseee!” Es begged.
The Queen laughed and replied, “Only if you complete your lessons correctly.”
Es imagined biting into the warm, soft cake covered in thick, sweet cream topped with her three favorite berries. Her mouth watered in anticipation as her mother led her off to her lessons.
Ӝ
Es was awoken by a blaring siren and the rocking of her cell. Her once quiet surroundings now clamored with all manner of sounds, reminding her of her last trip to the zoo. Before she could even sit up to find out what was going on, she was thrown against the wall in front of her.
She pushed herself up and glanced through her cell bars. As she lowered a foot to the floor, she was flung forward again, landing on the floor. She picked herself up once more and took a step toward her bars, only to be thrown against another wall.
Now she knew for certain she wasn’t locked up in a building somewhere, but rather on a ship. There was no other explanation for being tossed about like a salad. She knelt down and crawled toward her bars.
The nightmare was still caged up and grinning like a madman. He must’ve noticed her because he turned his creepy smile in her direction. It sent a shiver down her spine. As far she could tell, the alarm wasn’t due to a prison break, but rather the tossing of the ship. Hopefully the storm would pass quickly. She was beginning to feel sea sick.
Movement behind her reminded her of the tail she saw before. She turned to see a large muscular man with the dry, scaly skin and head of a crocodile. His eyes were closed and his snout was pointed up in the air, like he was sniffing for something.
Her eyes wandered down, seeing sharp claws on his fingertips and toes. He opened his eyes and stared at Es. She felt like she was being hypnotized when a loud angry hiss interrupted her lost train of thought.
The scorpion-man didn’t seem pleased in the least. He was at the edge of his bars, hissing at her and stomping his scorpion feet as he snapped his pincers. Her gaze on him once more, he settled down and resumed his eerie grin.
Es backed away and returned to her cot, realizing with relief that the ship was stable now. She curled up, wrapping the blanket around her, and analyzing her recent turn of events. What she knew so far was this: she was not on Earth anymore, she was on a ship, and both fantasy and nightmare creatures actually existed.
What she didn’t know was where she was and whether she would survive. She drifted off to sleep, wondering about the dream she had moments before. Forget about being royalty or Elves. I don’t have an older brother or a little sister. Must have been a dream from when I was a child, wishing to be a princess in some far off fantasy world with a big brother to protect her and a little sister to share secrets with.
Ӝ
“Kalis!” Es giggled. “Kalis, where are you?”
Es wandered through the trees, looking high and low for her brother, but he was nowhere to be found. Ever since father had Kalis begin his warrior training ten years ago after Holly was born, Kalis had gotten better and better at hiding from Es and quicker at finding her. Even more so after his friends began joining in on their little games.
While their father frowned upon his sixteen year old heir and his eldest daughter playing hide and seek in the garden, both their mother and a good friend of their father’s suggested it may actually help all three of them improve their skills.
And indeed it had. Just when Es was finally able to find Kalis and Zanan, they always pulled a new trick the next time they would play. Her magick lessons with Mother had been paying off and usually were the reason she was able to find them at all. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the boys.
“Expulisti eos,” she breathed. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a thin blue strand of light leading around the tree to her right. She stepped around the tree and followed the light into the forest. It wove around the trees and bushes until finally leading her to look up one of the oldest trees in the forest. There she saw them, sitting on a thick branch, surrounded by the gently swaying leaves.
Instead of them laughing while lying in wait for her to find them like they always had, they were kissing! Zanan had an arm wrapped arou
nd Kalis while her brother was holding a fist of Zanan’s black hair.
Es blushed at having invaded their private moment and wandered back through the forest to the garden, wondering if that was her brother’s first kiss and how long they had felt that way about each other. She shook it from her mind. It was none of her business anyway. Besides, as busy as father had kept Kalis, he deserved a little happiness, even if he had to sneak away into the forest to find it.
Lost in thought, Es smiled. She let her thoughts wander as she walked toward the castle. Had she already met her mate? Hopefully, her own happiness would come soon.
Lost & Found
Es was awoken yet again by the rocking of the ship. The cacophony of the siren and all of the prison’s occupants blasted into her brain like before. She would have shoved her fingers in her ears if she hadn’t needed to hold onto something. It was worse this time. If she sat up, she’d either face plant to the floor again or end up with a concussion from hitting the wall. The siren went quiet, but the din of the inmates carried on.
Lotus: Dark Lotus Chronicles One Page 5
