by Maia Starr
“I understand. I hope that she is making you feel very welcome here,” I said.
“Yes, she is. She has come to admire me, I think, and I admire her in return. At first, she was drawn to the general, but he refused her. I should say that I am glad that he did. Otherwise, I would not be with her,” he said with a big smile.
I looked at him in shock. “How do you know he refused her?”
“Because it was him that put us together. She had been trying to be with him since we arrived, but he had no interest, even if it was very important that he did,” he said. I stopped walking. He knew. He knew about the sickness.
“Important? Are you talking about the blackness that he had?” I asked. He stopped walking and looked at me with shock.
“I was not supposed to speak of this. The general will be pissed off at me,” he said.
“Your secret is safe with me. I already know that he was sick; he told me yesterday. But that being with me healed him,” I said.
“It is true. But do not speak of this to anyone else. He was showing the signs of the blackness. I feared for his life. He could've died at any moment, and I thought it was very selfish of him to not simply mate with any of the humans here in order to save his life. He has an army to run. The soldiers look to him for leadership. The king gave him an important mission, and he was being stubborn and would not take just any female,” he said.
“And why is that? He could've died waiting?” I said confused.
“I asked him that very question daily. He did not want to hear it. His heart was set on another; I believe you are that human female he was willing to wait for or die. With all due respect, Sheila, it was a risky move that he should not have taken,” he said.
“Yes, I agree with that. Come; let's go see with the engineers say,” I said urging him to continue walking. I didn't want to admit that I was on the verge of tears. I now understood. Azlo could have had sex with any human female to save his life. But instead, he waited because he wanted me. He wanted to bond with me. I didn't know how I felt about it, but I was overwhelmed.
Chapter 11
General Azlo Bron
I had bonded with Sheila, but she still would not let me in. She was angry with me, and she had every right to be. I did keep the plague secret from her, but it wasn't because I was trying to use her to heal me. It was because I did not want her to think that I only wanted to use her; I wanted her to want to me without suspicion. But I had ruined all of it. I should've been honest with her from the start. Now I had made a mess of things. It was wrong. But now we were bonded, and I did not want to live without her. Now more than ever. I could feel her inside of me. I felt extreme joy. I had the strength of three Veruka. I have never felt better in my one hundred years of life, and it was all because of her.
“General, we intercepted radio static,” Lieutenant Reqan said as he came into my office.
“Humans?” I asked as I stood up.
“We don't think so,” he said.
“Clenok… We need to find out where it is coming from,” I said.
“Should we send out a scouting party?” he asked.
“Yes, but I want to go myself,” I said.
“I will prepare a ship,” he said.
“No, we should fly as Dragon. We cannot be detected.”
“Is that wise? We cannot have you injured,” he said.
“That is up to me. You will stay here. If I do not return I leave you in charge. Sergeant Sheila has one copy of the virus; you know where the rest are. You will continue this mission,” I said.
“But, General—”
“Enough. I want ten soldiers with me prepared to leave in fifteen minutes. I want coordinates of the radio transmission,” I said.
“Yes, right away,” he said.
I stretched and prepared to go on the scouting journey. I walked to the roof of the tower building. I had still been thinking about the drones dropping the cyborgs onto the bank building. It was obvious that they had somehow connected to the keddle panel after we turned it on. I feared that they had our location locked and that a bigger army would be coming. The cyborgs that we battled with were only the beginning. So I had to know for myself. If there was a Clenok army out there mobilizing toward us, then we would need to plan for it. I was ready to stretch my wings and get out there in the thick of it. I shifted into weredragon form. I stretched my emerald wings out behind me. I needed to let go of some of this energy that had built up inside of me since being with Sheila. It was itching to explode.
I looked and saw several dragons flying toward me. They were flying from the base camp and landing on the roof.
“Reporting for duty, scout team,” a captain said.
“Good. Do you have the radio transmission coordinates?” I said.
He walked to my side and pressed on his armband. A hologram appeared floating above his arm with a map and the coordinates of the transmission.
“Good, swipe those to every armband here, including my own,” I said. He swiped, and the hologram information traveled and copied itself to every armband of the scout party.
“Team, listen up. We are going to scout in this direction. We are going to fly at our vertical capacity to be high above the cyborgs. We are hoping they will not even know we are there. When we come in range of this coordinate, all radio communication between us shall be silenced. We do not want them picking up on our transmissions. This is scouting only. We do not engage. If we see an army, we are trying to get a headcount. We want to see which direction they are moving. That is all the information that we need. Then we turn and head back. Is that understood?” I said as I walked back-and-forth in front of the team.
“Yes, General, sir!” they shouted.
“Good. Let's scout. After me!” I shouted and then ran off of the roof and flew into the air. My wings stretched out behind me, and I dove over the base camp. The weredragons below cheered and whistled as the team flew over them. Then we flew straight up toward the sky and flew out over the fence lines toward the coordinates. It felt good to fly and to be reckless again.
Chapter 12
Sergeant Sheila Adams
After talking to Lieutenant Reqan and hearing about the sacrifice that Azlo made in order to be with me, wait for me had me thinking all night. I could not get him out of my mind. I knew that I was falling in love with him. There was no escaping it. So the next morning, I decided that I would go to him. I would talk to him. I wasn't sure if I was ready to trust him or believe everything he had told me, but I ached for him. I needed to see him. I needed to touch him.
“Lieutenant, I need to speak with the general,” I said as I found Lieutenant Reqan walking around the base camp.
“Sergeant, good to see you. The general is not here,” he said.
“What? What do you mean? Do you mean he is in the village?” I asked.
“No, I mean he is not here in Providence,” he said.
My eyes grew wide. I did not know what to think of this information. “He left us?” I began to panic.
“No, he went on a scouting mission to look for the Clenok army. We intercepted a transmission yesterday; we think it is Clenok. So he went with the scouting party to look for the source of the transmission. He was very stubborn about going even though I told him it was too dangerous for him to go,” he said.
“Yes, it is very dangerous. It was very stupid of him to leave like that to go look for the Clenok army. He is so frustrating. How do you deal with it?” I said getting angry that he was putting himself in this danger. But really, I was angry with myself for being angry at him and separating from him, leaving things the way they were. Now he could die.
“I take it day by day. It isn't easy working with the general. But he is the bravest Veruka I know, besides my king of course,” he said with a wink.
“Which direction did the scout go in?” I asked.
“South of the front gates,” he said.
“Then that is where I will be, at the gates. Please let
me know if you hear anything, as soon as you hear it,” I said, and I could not fight back the water gathering in my eyes. He put his hand on my shoulder. “He will be all right, Sheila. He will return to you,” he said. Then he turned and walked away. My worry for Azlo must have been all over my face. I pulled myself together and went to the front gates. I climbed the spiral staircase and took a position in the guard tower. I scanned the sky hoping to see the familiar sight of dragon wings headed toward me. The sky was empty except for beautiful clouds on a bright sunny day. Even the snow on the ground was starting to melt. Spring would be about a month away.
I sat down and felt angry. That damn reckless weredragon! How dare he go on the scout and not tell me. Even if I wasn't talking to him, he could've given me the courtesy of letting me know that he was leaving. Then I would have a chance at least to tell him. Then I would've had the chance to tell him that I couldn't resist him anymore. I wanted him. I wanted to be by his side. I wanted to be in this together. I wanted to be in his bed every night. But most of all I wanted to thank him for saving me. He thought I saved him from this blackness, and maybe I did. But in return, he saved me. Before he arrived, I was losing my mind trying to keep this village infrastructure from falling. I was frustrated all the time that I seemed to be the only one that could make things happen and keep a system going. Defending the village was all on my shoulders, and he saved me from that. I was forever grateful to him. It only made me love him more.
“It's getting dark, Sergeant. Would you like me to take over?” a guard stepped into the tower. I looked around; the sun was setting. I scanned the sky and still did not see a formation of dragons coming toward us.
“No, I am fine. I will be staying here,” I said.
“Understood, Sergeant,” he said as he walked to the cabinet against the wall. He opened it and took out several blankets and tossed one in my lap.
“Thank you,” I said.
He turned around and left.
I waited all night with intense anxiety. I must have fallen asleep at some point. I feltthe sun blazing on my skin. I opened my eyes and the day was just beginning. I stood up and ran to the tower window opening. It was quiet. Not a sound from the village could be heard. I ran out of the tower to the next tower post.
“Any word on the scouting party? Have they returned?” I asked the guard.
“They have not returned, Sergeant,” the guard said.
“Thank you,” I said as I walked out, feeling a heavy weight on my shoulders again. If Azlo died, I could not handle it. I could not handle going through the death of someone I loved again. It would crush me. I walked slowly back to my tower post. But stopped before entering in the sunlight that was beating down on me. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, absorbing the sun. Then I opened my eyes, and the light was bright. I squinted my eyes against it. As my eyes adjusted, I saw dark silhouettes in the sky. Then I could see the wings. A big smile came across my face. A formation of dragon wings was flying toward the gates high in the sky. It was him. He had returned to me, my weredragon lover.
Chapter 13
General Azlo Bron
We flew in high above the coordinates of the transmission. There was a large mountain range, and we flew over the tops covered in ice. On the other side of the mountain was a large basin, a flat rocky terrain. The sun was reflecting off of a vast ocean of metal.
“Motherfucker…” I looked over at the dragon flying next to me. He saw it too; we all saw it. Below us was a vast Clenok army, numbering in the one hundred thousand range. We could see about twenty keddle, but there were likely more. The army went on as far as the eye could see.
I lifted my arm and gave the signal to turn around. We all flew directly straight up into the sky as high as we could go and turned in the opposite direction. We needed to get back to Providence. The army was moving in the direction of the village. This was not good. No amount of electrical fence or my army of two hundred soldiers would survive against a Clenok army of that size. It was impossible.
We flew for about twenty miles after seeing the army. I gave the signal to land on a nearby rock ledge.
“Everyone accounted for?” I asked.
“Yes, the numbers are here,” the captain said.
“You all saw what I saw,” I said.
“I have never seen an army that large before. It was heading in this direction as well,” the captain said.
“It was impossible to get a count, but it had to be more than one hundred thousand strong,” a scout said.
“Yes, those are the numbers I was thinking exactly. It is a very large Clenok army; there is no way we can defeat it. Even if we were to attack it miles away from the village, there would be more than enough cyborgs to continue moving to an attack on Providence. We need to get back as soon as possible so that I can put a plan into place,” I said not knowing what that plan would be just yet.
“We are ready,” the captain said.
“Let's go,” I said. Then we jumped off the ledge and flew in the direction of Providence.
Bam! Boom!
“Fire!” I shouted as laser blast flew by me. We were under attack.
“Where is it coming from?” the captain shouted.
“Evasive flying!” I shouted as I flew in an eratic pattern, zig-zagging over the sky, making me a hard target. I could fly directly up as high as I could, but I needed to see where the fire was coming from.
“There’s nothing below us!” the scout shouted.
I looked down at the ground expecting to see a band of cyborgs, not the large army, but a small band like the one that had attacked Providence. I could not see anything.
“They’re in the sky! Coming at us!” the captain shouted.
I looked directly ahead of us. Coming at us were the same drones I had seen before. The ones that had taken Dr. Vanessa Lopez from Haven Brook and the one that had dropped cyborg at the bank. But this one looked different.
“It’s armed!” the scout shouted.
“Take it out!” I commanded.
“There’s another! And another to the west!” someone yelled.
“Take them all out. We can’t have them follow us!” I shouted. Then we went into full attack mode. I shot my blaster gun at the drone headed straight toward me as I weaved in and out of its line of fire as it shot at me. It was not going down easily. It was coming straight for me, and I was head straight toward it. Then I felt a sting on my arm. I looked at my right arm; I was bleeding. I drew the fire within my belly, and when I was within a couple of yards from the drone, I released fire and fury from my mouth. My dragon’s fire hit the drone, and it burned to a crisp and dropped out of the sky.
“Fire! Use your fire! It fries the circuits!” I shouted to my team. I flew after the drones, taking out more and more as fire filled the sky from the Veruka team of soldiers.
“They’re gone! We got them all, General!” the captain flew next to me shouting.
“Good. Those fuckers!” I said.
“You are bleeding, General!” he said.
“It’s just a scratch. I got grazed. Let’s fly high and out of sight. Follow me,” I said. I flew straight up as far as our lungs would allow in the thin air of the upper atmosphere of Earth. We now had a new enemy. These drones were now armed, and that meant they had an air assault team. Even if it was a small one, it was not good for defenses that relied on high walls around human colonies. It was probably why the machines were starting to build these drones. They were smart. They were evolving to take out their enemy, and that was terrifying.
When the village gates came into sight, I was surprised to see Sheila standing on the fence. She waved an arm at me enthusiastically. She even looked to be smiling.
“Take the scouts back to the base. I am landing on the gates,” I said to the captain.
“Roger that, General,” he said. “All of you with me!”
I flew in low over Sheila, making a circle around her before finally landing on the fence beside her. She loo
ked at me with wide eyes.
“You returned.”
“Of course I—” But I didn't get to finish my sentence before she ran into my arms. She threw her delicate arms around my waist and pressed her cheek against my chest. I was surprised by this sudden change in attitude. When I left, she wasn't even talking to me. What had changed?
“Damn, it feels good to have you hold me,” I whispered.
“I was worried that I was not going to be able to hold you ever again,” she said looking up at me with her green eyes. I brushed her red hair away from her face.
“I will always come back to you, if you want me to,” I said.
