Jerof

by Phoebe Nix

  “This has to be a joke.” Liz turned around, taking a second glimpse at her surroundings, all of which emanated an aura of those strange, varying hues. She gazed at the sky, trying to spot an error in the design of this world. A single glitch that would render her suspicions correct. It still looked real, and she could feel the wind caress her skin. The air smelled different, but it did not burn anymore. She must have been freezing before this thing saved her life.

  Nonetheless, she did not feel an ounce of appreciation. It was almost as if she blamed him for where she was, and the attitude he was giving her was not helping.

  “Listen, you,” she said, pointing a shivering finger at him. “I’m not afraid of you. If this is some sort of mind game, I’m not falling for it. I know I couldn’t have died out there, because those animals weren’t real.”

  The alien-man raised one of his brows as she spoke. He nodded as he let her speak her mind, but Liz could tell he wasn’t taking her seriously. It was infuriating.

  “You’re acting like I’m speaking nonsense, but you’re designed to make me think this is real,” she shouted, taking a step forward and tilting her head up to keep her sight fixed on his icy blue eyes. “I know none of this is real!”

  The flames made her shins glisten. The man’s eyes would occasionally glance at her legs then back at her eyes.

  “You are definitely speaking nonsense,” he calmly replied. “But I have heard about this before.”

  “About what? The practical joke that you’re barely pulling off?” Liz was angry enough for her voice to break again. She held back her tears in order to appear intimidating, but she knew that her size in comparison to his did not help the situation.

  “I believe they call it anxiety? Denial? It’s how humans act when they’re in a predicament that they refuse to process.” He sat back down, his legs spread under his long cloak. “So I think it would be smart for me to allow you to take this in. Let me repeat: We are on the planet Hagran. You are a human. I am a Hagran. You do not belong here, but I understand that you accidentally ended up here. I will not harm you.”

  “Stop saying that!” Liz screamed at the top of her longs, flailing her arms.

  “I will not associate with you while you are angry.”

  “I’m not angry,” she said quickly, taking a few steps back before sitting down on her makeshift bed. “I just need to know where the hell I am. I need to go back home.”

  “That’s something we can both agree on. I wouldn’t want you to stay here, either. You’d cause me a bit of trouble if I take you back to my kingdom.”

  Liz scoffed. This alien was either out of his damn mind, or they had trained him well. It was likely a mixture of both. Either way, it was slowly driving her insane.

  “Oh, your kingdom, huh?” she asked, tucking her hair behind both of her ears. She frantically ran her hands up and down her thighs. It wasn’t to keep herself warm. She couldn’t stop moving, and the feel of her own skin assured her that she was still alive. “Because you’re a king in this wasteland?” She gestured out toward the breezy atmosphere.

  “Not yet,” he replied. “I am Prince Jerof Url’San. Url will be my kingdom. But not before my dying father draws his last breath.”

  Jerof’s words seem to pacify Liz’s tantrum. Although she was certain that the world she was in was only a fragment of someone’s imagination, she considered the possibility that she was indeed on a different planet; and that the man-alien before her eyes was real. The idea that this was all actually real scared her.

  He’s not real. If I touch him, my finger would probably go right through. He’s just codes!

  Liz slowly paced toward him and extended her arm. The man turned his head, watching her fingers poke his shoulder and run down his arm.

  “Whoa,” Liz exclaimed with terror in her eyes. She was as fascinated as she was petrified. He definitely felt real. But it still didn’t explain what was going on.

  She wondered if she were dead, but this place didn’t look like heaven. It wasn’t bad enough to be hell, either.

  With her hand still on the man’s shoulder, who was almost the same height as her while he was sitting down, she gazed into his eyes. This time, she looked at him differently as she finally began to accept that he was real.

  Her chest heaved as she moistened her lips and said, “My name is Liz.”

  Jerof Url’San nodded. “That’s quite an odd name, but easy enough to remember.”

  “Right, because Jerolf of Earl Son is not a tongue twister,” she said with one hand on her waist.

  He seemed offended. “Jerof,” he corrected. “Jerof of Url’San.”

  “That’s what I said,” she shrugged.

  Jerof shook his head, his eyes traveling back to the flames. He grabbed the wooden stick that Liz had thrown aside and started poking the fire again, almost as if he were using it as an outlet to diffuse his frustration. “You know, we’re going to have to go back to the city eventually.”

  Liz glanced at the space next to him, thinking about taking a seat on the log. Jerof looked up at her and noticed her hesitation. He scooched to the right, making room for her while gesturing with his chin for her to take a seat.

  She hesitated, then slowly lowered herself on the wooden seat. It was more comfortable than it looked.

  “The city,” she echoed. “You say that so casually, like we’re just going to take a bus and go back to New York City.”

  “I do not know what that is.”

  She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter,” she muttered. “Maybe I’ll find myself back there whenever I wake up from this nightmare.”

  Jerof rolled his eyes. “You are going to stay in denial for a while, aren’t you?”

  Liz was silent. Her crippling panic and fear for her life had slowly spiraled into existential angst. While she had no idea where she was, she also started questioning who and what she was, and why she had ended up in this strange land. She took the alien’s explanation with a grain of salt, but the more she analyzed it, the more his explanation made the most sense.

  This looked too real to turn out to be a simulation, and this clearly wasn’t a gateway to the afterlife. The question was, where had her friends ended up? She feared that they might have frozen to death somewhere, or had been devoured by the hounds.

  “I didn’t come here alone,” she quietly said, trying to accept Jerof’s version of the truth.

  Her words seemed to alarm the giant being. He stopped poking the fire, his eyes widening as he looked at her. “You’re not the only human here? There are more?”

  Liz shrugged. “I haven’t seen them. There are four other women, but they weren’t there when I woke up.”

  Jerof looked relieved. “I haven’t caught scent of any other women than you. We are the only people here, in the Icelands. I can otherwise only smell wild animals.”

  She straightened her lips, confused by his senses. “Cool,” she said. “I didn’t know aliens had a strong sense of smell.”

  “Aliens?” Jerof scoffed. “You are the alien, Earthling.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you,” she hurried. “It’s not like I’m after this wasteland of icy mountains.”

  Liz could tell that he was growing impatient with the way she spoke, but she couldn’t stand where she was and did not imagine spending another night here. She wanted to go home to the hustle and bustle of New York City, which she had thought that she absolutely hated. She longed to see humans with no fur on their bodies; and who weren’t normally over seven feet tall. Liz never thought she would one day appreciate that terrestrial trees did not follow her around wherever she went.

  “I am not offended,” Jerof assured her. “I am just thinking about how I will introduce you to my family. How I will explain your arrival here. You are here for a reason whether you realize it or not, but I have yet to discover what it is exactly.”

  “Do they live in an Igloo in one of those mountains?” she asked, looking around her, trying to see some
sign of life, let alone a supposed kingdom. There was a chance that she was indeed on a different planet, but unfortunate as she was, she had run into a nutcase who thought he was a prince in a land where there was no one else but him.

  Jerof rolled his eyes. “I thought I had made it clear that I had to take you back to the capital? These are the outskirts, Liz of Earth. No one resides here.”

  “Right, right. Sorry,” she apologized, suddenly realizing she should be more grateful that he had risked his life to save hers. “I do have so many questions, though. For starters,” she began as she got a little more comfortable with her new reality.

  Jerof raised a hand to her face, silencing her with the gesture. She slowly spoke more quietly until she stopped talking.

  “Okay,” she said, confused. “Everything okay?” She tilted her head as she scrutinized his face. His nostrils flared and his grip on his scabbard was stiffening.

  “Do you smell something?” she asked, glancing behind the fire then looking back at him. His eyes widened as he stood up and ground his teeth together, his bright white canines showing.

  Liz jumped to her feet, standing next to him. She could not smell or see a thing, but sensed they were soon to be surrounded by enemies. Slowly kneeling as her eyes scanned the surroundings, she pulled the wooden stick closer to her, before grabbing it and aiming it forward like a sword. She glanced at her weapon, comparing it with Jerof’s deadly claws.

  As soon as she heard the same growling of the Wanderhounds, she swung the stick into the flames, making a torch out of the tree branch.

  She was startled when Jerof suddenly let out a battle cry. She looked up at him with wide eyes, watching the warrior who had saved her life ready himself for another fight.

  Liz suddenly forgot her fear, feeling none of it in his presence; his valiance was almost contagious. As she finally spotted the hounds in the distance, the shadows which cloaked them left behind as they approached the fire, she felt she was just as ready to fight as he was.

  This time, though, it wasn’t just two hounds. It looked like the hound Jerof had left to escape was back with its pack – Liz could recognize it from its slight limp.

  They appeared to be three in number at first, but then more began to follow. There must have been six or seven, most of which were much larger than the duo that Jerof had previously fought off.

  Liz knew these creatures were not hunting for a meal.

  They were out for revenge.

  “Stay back!” Jerof growled, leaping ten feet into the air. A hound joined him, only to be met by a swing of his claws. Liz had momentarily frozen in place, as though time had ceased to exist when she saw Jerof and the hound in mid-air with the full moon behind them.

  As soon as Jerof landed in the snow, he was surrounded by three more hounds, the rest of them studying them before making their attack with a lunge, their claws diving into Jerof’s flesh.

  Jerof roared in pain, skidding backward on the snow as blood dripped from his skin.

  Liz took a deep breath and sprinted to battle with the torch in her hand. She cried with every swing she made at the growling faces of the hounds. They didn’t seem to like the fire and jumped back and away from her.

  She was doing something right.

  But she only managed to scare off the animals with her swings, only to have them switch targets back to Jerof, who had to wrestle them off as he cried in ailment.

  “Jerof!” Liz called out. “What do I do?”

  She watched in horror as the beasts dig their canines into the alien’s flesh. He kicked one of them off and punched the other in the chin, rolling backward and yowling. His eyes were a deeper hue of blue, and his veins jutted out of his face and neck.

  “The tablet!” he yelled out, swinging his claws at one of the hounds and missing. One of them sunk its teeth onto his leg and the other lunged at his face. Jerof dove his claws through the latter’s torso before flicking him off like a weightless insect. With both of his hands, he thrust all eight claws into both sides of the other hound’s neck, lifting him in the air to eye level before spreading his arms and successfully beheading the beast. The head seemed to soar in the air in slow motion before falling into the flames.

  Two hounds quickly fled the bloody battlefield, leaving the blood-stained snow behind as they lurked back to their shadows like cowards. The two that were left were not as hostile, their confidence obviously shaken after seeing Jerof mercilessly kill their friends.

  Jerof fell to his knees, panting and bleeding while Liz stood behind him, looking everywhere for the tablet. She finally found the golden disc jutting out of bloody snow right behind Jerof’s feet.

  While the hounds seized the opportunity to make their lethal attack, Jerof kept his hands beside him, sitting completely still, as if he had given up on the fight. As soon the hounds both leaped in the air with their paws aimed at his face, he swung his claws, piercing through the skin under their chins and watching his bloody talons coming out of their skulls. The hounds dangled in the air. With one final upward swing, their heads were cut in half as their lifeless bodies fell on either of his sides.

  Jerof let out a sigh of relief, then fell backward into the snow.

  “The,” he muttered breathlessly, “tablet.”

  Clouds of snowflakes formed behind Liz as she stomped her way to Jerof, struggling to run. She kneeled down next to him, the tablet in both palms of her hands.

  “Here,” she yelled, noticing how Jerof was slowly blinking, as though he was about to black out. “I found the tablet.”

  Jerof snatched the device away from her grip. Without lifting it up to his face, he pressed on the far-right button. It lit up and began to blink, emitting a small beeping sound. Jerof sighed and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

  “Jerof!” Liz called out, lifting his head up. “Jerof!”

  Chapter 7

  Jerof was outnumbered by the hounds.

  They kept flowing in, one after the other, hundreds of them surrounding him. Their eyes were a bright orange as their open jaws drooled. They looked like they hadn’t eaten in days, and they were about to fight over the meal they had just come across.

  These hounds recognized royalty when they smelled one. This made the meal all the more appetizing for them.

  Jerof tried to draw his claws, but he couldn’t, like they were stuck inside his skin. He felt around his scabbard, pointing it in front of him. Behind the pack, he saw the Earthling standing, completely nude. Her hair flew in the direction of the breeze, and she watched the approaching hounds with a straight face.

  “Run!” he called out to her, swinging his weapon, readying himself for the fight.

  But all she did was stand and watch.

  The hounds sprinted toward him, and Jerof let out a loud howl as he leaped into battle. His weapon tore through the hounds, howling in pain. One jumped on his back, and he quickly brought it around, slamming it into the snow and breaking its neck with his foot. He fought on, cutting at the beasts.

  “I said run!” he yelled at the Earthling.

  She still did nothing.

  A hound jumped on his back, and as he tried to fight it off, two more attacked him from the sides. He cut at one, lost his weapon as the heavy body fell and tore it from his grasp. He punched at the hounds, kicked and clawed, and still they came.

  They tore through his flesh and he felt his left arm being bitten off. The sting pulsated in his shoulder. Another tore at the flesh on his back, and a third ripped his Achilles tendon.

  Then, suddenly, the hounds slowly faded away. As he lay across the snow, he looked down at his body. He was wounded, but still intact. The pulsating pain in his shoulder grew worse. Behind a veil of mist, he saw bare legs slowly approaching him. The Earthling bent her knees with her arms resting on her lap.

  “You’ll be fine,” she said through a smile. “You and I will be fine.”

  “I told you to run,” he whispered, coughing blood. “Call for support, you can still
save yourself.”

  The woman shook her head. “My majestic hero, you already saved me. Now let me save you.”

  She straightened, and he looked up at her. His mother, in her velvet red robe stepped forward, as though appearing out of thin air, and stood next to the human. His mother nodded at him, with the kind of smile that had always given him hope.

  Jerof woke up with a gasp, sitting up sharply in his bed. He was covered in sweat, and he could not stop panting. Reaching for the grail of water on his nightstand, he picked it up with his trembling fingers and gulped the liquid down. Damn, he was dreaming but it felt so real.

  Sunlight crept through the wooden ceiling shutters, making him squint as he struggled to swallow his own saliva. The canopy drapes were drawn. He could see that his door had been left ajar. Someone had been tending to his wounds before they had left, possibly to fetch clean water. On the armchair next to his bed was a bowl of bloodied water and a stained white rag.

  He felt a sudden pain in his left shoulder and pressed on his wound. He looked down to see he was covered in deep scratches, some of which had been sewn shut.

  Although it all felt like a dream, he could discriminate between his nightmare and what had happened before he passed out.

  The Earthing, he recalled. Where is she?

  His mother’s words reverberated through his head, which was pounding and felt too heavy to keep up. His world hazed with every move, and his nausea made him wish he could go back to sleep.

  Through his squinted eyes, he could see a woman pushing the door open and strutting in.

  “Finoa,” he moaned. “My sweet sister. I thought I would never see you again.”

  She smiled, sitting down beside him. “You are so dramatic,” she teased.

  He frowned back at her. “I thought I was going to die.”

  “Of course, you did,” she said as she crossed one of her slender legs over the other. Her fur-coated shin was showing through her blue velvet robe. “You took on an entire pack of Wanderhounds on your own; it was no mean feat, even for a great warrior like yourself. It is a good thing you called for support. We found you in a critical state.”