Jerof

by Phoebe Nix

  Jerof sighed, rubbing his forehead.

  “You were going to die.” Her smile faded. “You are so reckless sometimes. You know you do not have to wait until it is almost too late to call for help. We will not think of you as weak. You’re the best warrior in this Kingdom,” she said, crossing her arms as she gazed at his wounds. “But what can I say? I am exactly the same.”

  Despite being a foot shorter than he was, Finoa was just as strong. Her muscular arms would be able to lift his bed with him on it and throw it across the room. She resembled him in appearance, but had a slender, curvier physique. Her eyes were an icy blue with a dark limbal ring around it.

  “The Earthling,” Jerof said, as though he had just remembered. She had been on his mind since he had woken up. “Is she alright? Is she safe?”

  Finoa smiled.

  “I just want to know if she is still alive,” he clarified. “She was sent to me. She looks quite odd, but she is a gift from the sky, regardless.”

  “A gift from the sky indeed,” Finoa teased. “She’s fine. She’s in the guest quarters, sleeping it off.”

  Jerof let out a sigh of relief. “Was she wounded in any way?”

  “No, but the guards must be. They had to drag her there.” She chuckled. “She’s a feisty one.”

  She winked, and Jerof could only sigh and shake his head.

  “Do not get too excited,” he said, sliding his feet toward the edge of the bed, facing his sister. “She is an Earthing. You know that is not good news for us.”

  Finoa shrugged. “I know what they say about Earth beings, but she doesn’t seem to have any evil intentions.”

  “I do not care about her intentions. The people will not be pleased if they find out about her,” he explained. “Father will not be pleased.”

  “Father has an open mind to anything now,” she assured him. “We will be fine.”

  Finoa leaned forward, placing her slender fingers on her brother’s leg. “You just need to get better. Focus on that, will you?”

  Jerof nodded.

  There was a short silence.

  “I never pictured them to be entirely shaven,” Finoa noted. “Her face looks like ours, but she doesn’t have a single hair on her body.”

  “Earthlings are a weak race,” he claimed. “They once had fur coating their bodies for protection, but they have so completely destroyed their own land and killed many of their animals to extinction that they do not need protection any longer.”

  “You sound like father,” Finoa said as she rolled her eyes, pulling her hand to herself. “Did you not pray for an answer?”

  “I did. Just like we were used to. Just like you taught me.”

  “Then she is your answer and you have nothing to fear. We will keep her under our protection until we find out why she is here.”

  “She did not come here on her own accord,” Jerof elaborated, dangling his feet down the edge of the bed.

  Finoa smiled. “She was dragged from where she was for you, Jerof. That is even better.”

  Chapter 8

  Liz’s couldn’t get enough of the view out of her window.

  She had been locked in this room for three days, her only contact with any other living being a guard who came in, like clockwork, to bring her food. Other than that, she had been left alone with her thoughts, and the spectacular view of Url.

  With the way Jerof was dressed, she had imagined that the capital he had referred to would be peppered with horse carriages and huts with hay roofs. She could not have been more mistaken.

  Skyscrapers of varying heights made of glistening material were erected everywhere she looked. The windows were pentagonal in shape, spiraling open from the center. She spotted lush greenery in the distance that she could see between the interlaced bridges where trains rushed fast enough to only be heard.

  Aircrafts were parked in the sky, while others dashed in parallel. They looked like something out of a science fiction movie, but more graceful, more real.

  It did not feel like a dream any longer. Only a very perplexing reality.

  Of course, she was still terrified and desperately wanted to go back home, but a part of her, the adventurous side that had probably been the reason behind her current predicament, wanted to see more of this foreign city. She looked down to find Hagran people wandering the city, but she was high enough only to see the tops of their heads which were like moving dots. They moved at a much faster pace than humans.

  She didn’t notice that she was caressing the edge of the window as she marveled at the sight until she heard steps outside.

  Liz had tried escaping the bedroom she was locked in, but there was not even a doorknob. The doors automatically opened and closed, and she had seen a guard lock it with what looked like a square-shaped remote.

  She climbed down the nightstand, her gaze still fixed on the city. All these buildings with their pentagonal windows looked like beehives from where she stood. Even the sun was different. It looked close enough to set the whole planet on fire, but the warmth was just right. If anything, it wasn’t warm enough.

  Pacing back to the canopy bed, Liz sat on the edge and threw her head back.

  What the fuck is going on? I must be going insane.

  Her senses were clearer, and she quickly came to terms with the fact that life here was far more vivid than on Earth. When she tried to compare them, she realized that her real life felt like a dream in comparison to her present.

  Still, she was not in control of where she was and for this she hated it. She didn’t deserve to be held captive in this room, no matter how lavish it looked.

  All the sheets were made of a velvety material. Even the wood was smooth to the touch. Everything felt comfortable to sit on, including the carpeted floor. She felt like she could inhale more oxygen on this planet than on Earth, and it made her brain more active.

  The door slid open, startling Liz off her bed. It was the same friendly woman from earlier, but this time, she was wearing a collar similar to the one Jerof had been wearing when he spoke to her.

  “Greetings, alien,” the woman said in a thick exotic accent, strongly curling her Rs as she enunciated her words. “How goes it?”

  “Oh,” Liz said, sitting back down on the bed. “Greetings. It goes, uh,” she paused, “great.”

  The woman laughed, revealing her beautiful set of crystal-white teeth. “I’m kidding. Hey, there, stranger. Are you feeling any better?” She sounded as American as Liz.

  Liz smiled. She’d thought that all Hagrans were as serious as the man who had saved her life. This woman had a sense of humor. Despite looking foreign to Liz’s eyes, she could tell that she was beautiful. Her face was heart-shaped with protruding cheekbones and slightly hollow cheeks. Her thick eyes lashes outlined her eyes, which were an icy shade of blue with greenish specks, complimenting her shiny bronze skin.

  “I feel great, thank you,” Liz said. “I just don’t really understand why I’m locked in. I don’t bite.”

  “We’re not holding you prisoner,” the Hagran assured her. “We were just worried you would get lost. This place is kind of huge. You can call me Finoa.”

  “Hello Finoa.” Liz offered her hand. “I’m Liz.”

  “Oh, I know,” Finoa said with a smile, awkwardly extending her fingers, grabbing on Liz’s hand and shaking it sideways.

  “It’s more like this.” Liz shook her hand slowly up and down.

  “I see.” Finoa didn’t stop smiling. “My apologies for coming late to greet you, but with these sudden things, certain measures need to be taken. Of course, I don’t want you to feel unsafe or unwelcome. I want you to know that we’ll be taking good care of you as long as you stay.”

  Liz nodded. “Do you have any idea how long that’s going to be?”

  Finoa shrugged. “No clue. But we’ll make sure you’re more than comfortable; or as they say on your home planet, you can make yourself at home.”

  “Oh god,” Liz moaned, shaking her head in disbe
lief. “This place.” She climbed off the bed, pacing toward the 0pen window. “It looks nothing like home. It’s like I stepped into a time machine.”

  “I hope that’s not a bad thing?”

  “It’s not necessarily bad. I woke up on a different planet. The wolves definitely weren’t fun, but this still feels so bizarre. Like I’m in some sort of dream.”

  “I’m sure it all feels very strange,” she maternally said. “I would probably freak out if I woke up on a different planet, too.”

  Liz turned around. “And you look so different, yet so similar. This isn’t how I pictured aliens would look like.”

  Finoa grinned. “Technically, you’re the alien here.”

  “Exactly! It’s all insane,” Liz said.

  “Well, we do have quite a lot to do today,” Finoa said. “But first, we need to change…this.” She waved a hand at Liz and smiled.

  Liz looked down at her bikini. Since coming to the capital, she hadn’t really thought of a change of clothes, although she did feel naked. The guards’ gapes at her didn’t help much, either.

  “Is this common attire on your planet?” Finoa asked.

  “Definitely not,” Liz chuckled. “We were kind of caught off guard.”

  “We?”

  “My friends and I,” Liz explained. “We were at a resort when that ship crashed. We were all there when it, I don’t know, turned itself on? Bright lights and I woke up here.”

  “There are more of you here?”

  Liz hesitated. She had thought about her friends a lot over the past few days, wondering if they were alright. Had they been zapped here too? Were they still home? She had no idea, and she couldn’t ask anyone about them. It frustrated her, scared her, worried her, everything. A rush of emotions that felt like a tidal wave came over her every time she thought of how they could still be out there. Probably freezing. Maybe dead.

  Finoa smiled sadly, as if reading her mind. “Don’t worry,” she said. “If they’re here, we would have probably already found them. The scouts did a sweep of the entire area.”

  “How do we know they were even transported to the same spot?” Liz asked. “What if we’d been separated? Different parts of the planet.”

  Finoa put a hand on her arm. “Humans are not a common sight here. If they had been transported to Hagran, we would have known. News travels fast here.”

  “Doesn’t make me feel better,” Liz admitted.

  “I’m sure. But for now, all we can do is hope. Until we know otherwise. Don’t lose faith.”

  Liz couldn’t help but smile at this warm creature. For the first time since she arrived in this place, she felt welcome.

  “You’re nice,” Liz blurted out.

  Finoa laughed. “Now, about your clothes.” She pulled out her tablet and pressed a button on it. Within seconds, the door to the room opened and two female maids walked in. Finoa said something to them that Liz couldn’t understand, and they disappeared into the bathroom.

  “First, a bath,” Finoa said. “Then we’ll see what you’ll wear.”

  Liz was eager to agree. She felt like she could still feel the sweat and grime on her, and although she did try to wash up in the bathroom before, she had no idea how anything worked.

  Finoa led her into the large space where the maids already had water running into a large vessel that looked like a tub. She nodded to Liz to get in.

  The water was sublime, clear and with a faint smell to it, like lilacs. The temperature was perfect, and she felt her eyes close as she lay in the tub. The maids worked on her, softly, quickly, but she hardly noticed them. It was like all the stress, all the worries and fears she had been plagued with, were suddenly gone. Washed away like a layer of dirt.

  When they were done, she stepped out into an open towel one of the maids wrapped around her. Liz looked at her arms, the skin glistening as if she had just been scrubbed clean of not only the days’ grime, but of her sins as well. She looked almost angelic.

  The maids worked on her quickly, drying her off, adjusting her hair. And all the time, Finoa was pacing back and forth, picking different outfits out of the closet and tossing away the ones she didn’t like.

  Getting dressed on this planet seemed to be just as hard as home. Liz smiled.

  “The thing is, when you have so much to choose from, it gets complicated,” Finoa said with a frown.

  “They all look the same to me,” Liz ventured.

  Finoa looked at her, eyes wide. “Please don’t say that. I went through hell just to pick them out.”

  Liz laughed. “I’m sorry. You remind me of one of my friends. Couldn’t decide on what to wear either.”

  “Well, hopefully, in time, we can be friends as well.”

  “I’d like that,” Liz smiled. “Wouldn’t just any of these work?”

  “Not for where we’re going,” Finoa said, clicking her tongue as she gazed at two outfits she had finally decided on.

  “Where are we going?”

  Finoa looked at her. “Well, the reason I came here was,” she paused, “well, of course to get to know you, but also because the Council wants to see you. Do you think you’re ready to meet more of us now? Or would you like some more time off?”

  Liz didn’t have to think twice about the answer. There was no point arguing either. The quicker she cooperated, the faster they could help her get back home to the other girls.

  “I’m not sure what the Council would want to do with me, but sure. I feel well-rested,” she said.

  “Not to worry,” Finoa smiled, finally deciding on an outfit. “Just a heads-up, it will be pretty formal. I don’t know if you have the energy for that, but I’ll make sure to be there and try to lighten the mood a bit.”

  “Not the friendly types?”

  Finoa cupped her hand around her mouth. “They’re so serious,” she whispered.

  Liz laughed. “Looks like we’ll be friends faster than you’d think.”

  Finoa handed the robe to the maids, who immediately began dressing Liz. “I think so, too. I’ll have to find a way to stay in touch with you when we send you back home.”

  “That’s what social media is for,” Liz joked.

  There was a short pause. “You know what the weird thing is? This thing,” she pointed to her collar, “actually explained to me what you meant. Now I know what social media is.”

  Liz nodded. “It’s got the accent right, that’s for sure.”

  “Yeah, well, let’s hope so. Otherwise I’d sound too stiff.”

  Liz smiled and shook her head. She felt like she was talking to one of her friends back home. It was surreal.

  The maids took only minutes to get her dressed, then nodded and left the room.

  “Come on.” Finoa gestured with her head toward the door. “Let’s make the Council wish they had called for you earlier.”

  Liz hesitantly linked her arm with Finoa’s, who looked at her in surprise, which made Liz smile. The door automatically slid open. On the other side, a guard appeared to have been eavesdropping. Finoa shook her head at him disapprovingly, and he looked the other way.

  As they walked down the carpeted hallway, Liz said, “I really hope this all goes well.”

  “Don’t worry,” Finoa replied. “You were sent here for a reason. Fate works in mysterious ways.”

  Chapter 9

  Jerof had been impatiently waiting at the long meeting table.

  On his right was his father, King Lamnox, who appeared to be far more patient than he was. The king spoke with his three trustees as Jerof zoned out, wondering what they could possibly do with someone as primitive as an Earth being who couldn’t even do so much as survive in the forest for a couple of hours on her own.

  Finoa had excused herself earlier to fetch Liz, but she had taken much longer than expected. Jerof’s heart beat faster the longer he waited, tapping on the gold-plated table with his fingers.

  “Jerof,” King Lamnox called out. “Stop that at once, you are making us all tense
.”

  “I apologize,” he said, making himself more comfortable in his chair. “I guess I just fail to see how a being whom we all know is corrupt by nature is going to be of help.”

  “We have not spoken to her as of yet. Let us not jump to conclusions.”

  “I could barely keep up a conversation with her. In fact, I am getting quite worried that Finoa is taking so long to fetch her. They are probably fighting to the death now.”

  “Jerof Url’San,” King Lamnox said, looking his son in the eye. He was leaning forward, barely mustering the energy to sit still without his head shaking.

  Laughter could be heard before the two women walked into the Council Room.

  “I know what you mean. They’re called Wanderhounds, and it’s always a challenge when they’re that big,” Finoa’s voice said.

  “I was scared shitless. I don’t know what made me light up that stick and try and fight with them off with him.” Liz’s smile could be heard from her tone.

  The duo walked in wide smiles fixed on their faces.

  “You’re about as reckless as Jerof and I. The Council will love you,” Finoa said, snickering before noticing the Council members had been staring at them. Liz’s smile vanished upon seeing the Hagrans waiting for her arrival.

  “Hello,” she said before she sat down on one the chairs at the other end of the table, right across the king.

  Finoa sat next to her brother, shaking her head at Liz, who noticed too late that she had sat on the wrong seat.

  Just as she was about to rise to switch seats, the King waved downward, allowing her to sit right where she was.

  “Hello,” the king greeted back after adjusting the collar on his neck.

  Jerof could not keep his eyes off Liz. She was clad in a velvet black robe with a long tail that dragged behind her. He could tell she was bare underneath her dress, with her cleavage protruding where her robe was wrapped in a V-shape. Finoa had styled her hair in a thick bun. The Earthing’s skin was much shinier after being bathed.