by Zara Zenia
Back home I lay in my bed, exhausted by my injuries. During the battle, I was not aware of all the cuts and bruises, or even of the broken rib, but now they caused me much discomfort. From where I lay I could hear the victorious chants outside the palace that were emanating from the city. They cheered at my chamber, shouted that they thought I was a hero. Somehow, however, I didn’t feel like one.
The psionic attacks had played on my mind since the return. They had injured, even killed so many of my troops but why was I spared? Surely I should have been the last person to be shown mercy. My thoughts were soon interrupted by a knock at the door.
“You may enter,” I announced.
The door glided open and one of my servants entered with his head bowed and his footsteps humble and shuffling.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Sorry to bother you. I just wanted to bring you some libations. I hope this drink will make you feel better. It is crafted from the finest herbs found on the dark side of the Gotan Peninsula.”
“Oh… that is kind of you. Thank you.”
He brought the jug of over and poured me a glass before holding it to my lips. I sipped thirstily, not realizing how parched I was.
“Thank you,” I gasped as I pulled my mouth away. “I feel rejuvenated already.”
“No need to thank me, master,” he waved his hand at me. “It is my honor to serve a hero such as you.”
Hero. That word again. I’d never heard it so much in my life.
“It is my duty to protect all planets within our system,” I explained.
“But you are a hero! All other battles against the X’Sorians have ended in defeat, but you are the first leader to bring us to victory. Your arrival home must be rejoiced, master. It must be!”
I paused for a second, remembering the details of the battle. I remembered the club as it hit the X’Sorian on the side of his head and how his teeth were spat from his mouth. I remembered the sound of the gunfire and the explosions, the screaming and the terror.
“I’m sorry. I’m weary and I feel I must go back to sleep.”
“Yes, master. Sorry to disturb you.”
I watched as the servant scurried away through the sliding doors. The chanting was still continuing outside although the sky was becoming dark. I rolled over and faced the wall. Unable to shake the psionic attacks from my mind, I thought about them in every minute detail. The noise they made as the ground shook and the sound of the force hitting my troops.
“Why wasn’t I affected?” I whispered as I rolled back over and stared up at the ceiling.
At the bottom of my bed lay all my weapons. When I returned home I had torn my suit from my body and left my weapons where they lay. I could see the butt of my rifle standing up against the bed frame with my sword propped up beside it. In the distance, my club was on the floor amongst my strewn clothing.
I remembered the day I carved it myself from the most peculiar of rocks. I’d found it and was immediately struck by its beauty and strength. From the moment I saw it I was enamored with its texture and had carved my beautiful club so I could walk around with a piece of its beauty forever. Often, it had felt like a good luck charm and when I thought back to the psionic attacks, it certainly feels that way more than ever.
With my eyelids growing heavy, I rolled over and pulled the heavy blanket up over my head. For the briefest of moments, my thoughts of the war faded and were replaced with more mundane matters. It was to be my birthday soon. Maybe my family would throw a celebration for the birthday hero.
“Twenty-five,” I whispered into the cold night.
I felt as though I was growing old, faster than I had anticipated.
Chapter 2-Samantha
My legs were burning but I loved it. To me, there’s no better feeling than the pain and invigoration you get from a hard workout. I was jogging on my usual route through the forest at the edge of my neighborhood. The sun was lingering low in the sky, dipping behind the houses as twilight began to descend.
As I entered the dense woods, I reached for my phone to change the tunes. A more natural setting required a more natural soundtrack. Flicking through my playlist I found my favorite Enya song and shoved my phone back in my pocket, making sure not to trip over a fallen branch as I looked back at the trail.
I’m not usually a paranoid person. Actually, I’m the opposite. I love adventure, fear nothing and grab life by the horns. My mom worries about me, though, she’s not like me. When she discovered I was running at night in the forest she gifted me a rape alarm for Christmas. She’s always worrying and fussing over me and I’m always trying to reassure her that I’m ok. Not that she ever listens.
But it was times like this when the air was crisp and the endorphins were pumping that I felt like she was missing out. Life is beautiful when you step out of your comfort zone.
With the music playing softly in my ears, coaxing me further into the woodland I was in a state of pure bliss. The birds were rustling in the trees with the dusky sunlight glinting off the wet leaves. The rain had trailed off an hour ago leaving puddles on the path and I leaped over them one by one, taking them in stride. It was starting to get cold now too and the chilled air lashed against my face as I ran, reviving me and cooling me against the waves of perspiration that were coming over my body.
The most cherished part of my run was the glade that I passed at the halfway mark. It was isolated and although it was only half a mile from the main road that ran through my neighborhood, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in the center of a national park. Well, until you got through to the other side and heard the traffic once again.
As I reached it, I took my designated break and leaned against a tree. Pulling my headphones from my ears I took in the surroundings, gulping water fast as I rested. Then something struck me. There was something different, something missing. I couldn’t hear the bird in the trees. The only sound was my throat as it swallowed back big mouthfuls of water. I placed my bottle on the ground and looked around. There was definitely a strange feeling in the air. It was silent, eerily silent with not even the scurry of an animal through the undergrowth or the distant sound of a robin chirping.
I stood still. It was as though time had stopped still. For a moment I cast my mind back to a story I’d heard in elementary school.
“It has been said that animals can predict natural disasters and escape cities days before they occur,” my teacher had told us.
Was that true? Was there about to be an earthquake and all the birds, bees and squirrels had run away? It didn’t feel like that. There was an insidious atmosphere, a feeling of being watched. I was never one for believing in ghosts but this was as good a time as any to start. It felt like there were eyes boring through the back of my head, searing into my soul. I shivered despite feeling hot. It was time to get out of there.
Taking a few slow steps before reaching my natural jogging pace, I made a quick exit from the glade, eager to get away and back to the hustle and bustle of the city. But the feeling only got stronger as I ran. I couldn’t stop glancing behind me, imagining hot breath on the back of my neck as I escaped an invisible attacker. It was so strong it made my stomach flip. I was looking behind me more than in front of me and tripped a couple times as I failed to see where I was treading.
Fuck, what’s got into me?
I gasped as I tried to keep my spirits up and steady my nerves.
You’re probably just tired, exhausted from working and jogging too much. You need to get home and take care of yourself. Think of a hot bath, think of chocolate and a movie, think of your puppy who loves you more than anything.
I started to feel better but the moment of mental respite was fleeting. The feeling was back and even stronger. Something rustled in a nearby bush. It sounded huge, bigger than a fox, almost the size of a human.
Just your mind playing tricks on you. Calm down.
I kept running, picking up a faster pace.
Just calm the fuck down, Sa
mantha!
I was angry at myself. It wasn’t like me to lose my cool, to see or feel things that weren’t there. I was a professional, strong woman, one that wasn’t intimidated by anything but here I was, afraid of a few rustling leaves and a mysterious “feeling.”
But the end of the forest was in sight. I could see the faint electric glow of the distant street lamps. In under a minute, I would be stepping out onto the pavement. Yet, there it was again, the rustling.
“Shit!”
I swerved out the way of a bush and tripped over another branch I hadn’t seen hiding in the darkness. My mom was right. It was insanity to be out here in the dark, jogging like everything in the world was innocent, sweet and lovely. I was being watched and nothing could make me think otherwise.
Just think of the street ahead.
I tried to focus my thoughts on the street ahead. The lamps were getting brighter with orange beams drifting through the trees like warm beacons of safety.
“Just a few more feet,” I said under my breath as I pumped my legs.
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as the blood and adrenaline rushed through my body. I was manic, my body going into overdrive.
Just a couple more steps. Come on….
The bushes rustled again. I jumped, screamed, felt the back of my head hit the ground.
“What the fuck!” I yelled.
My legs were restrained. There were people on me. I was being mugged, attacked or something worse. I kicked with all my strength, the sweat making me slippery against my assailants. It felt like there were so many of them as our limbs flayed in a tangled mess but I could only see two heads. They were struggling to keep hold of me as I struggled. Through the darkness and panic, I couldn’t make out their faces. They loomed down on me as I saw the stars behind them, the crescent moon high above their heads.
I screamed again, bit down on one of their arms. They yelled and recoiled in agony, a strange strangled voice uttering a dialect I’d never heard before. They argued with one another as they held me down, obviously annoyed that I was putting up more of a fight than they anticipated. Their accents were weird, distorted almost with voices that were low and grumbled. One of them held their hand over my mouth and I bit down again, the acidic taste of his blood running between my teeth. It was then, as his arm was close to my face and caught a sliver of the moonlight that I noticed his color. His skin was blue.
Wide-eyed in horror I struggled to free myself again, but this time, they were angrier and held me down to tie my arms and legs. As they stood up, pulling me up along with them I could see them clearly for the first time. It felt as though there were more of them because they had four arms. Dumbstruck into silence and frozen out of fear, I could do nothing but let them drag me deep into the forest.
My heart was hammering hard in my chest, so fast I was certain I would pass out or have a heart attack. In the moment I prayed that I would die before my captors could do anything to me. As my feet brushed through the long grass and they pulled me through the foliage with their hands clutching at my elbows, I listened to them. I’d seen enough crime shows to know what evidence they needed. It was the little things that mattered like what they smelled like and what their accents were. It was the unassuming physical traits that often got criminals caught like whether they had a limp or talked with a lisp. As I listened to their voices and felt the weight of their four arms, I came to the conclusion that no policeman would believe a word I said. Their voices came from no human voice box and their limbs were... Blue and multiple. I was shocked and in fear of my life, paralyzed as I helplessly became the victim of a kidnapping, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized what was happening. I’d been pushing the thought out of my head since the moment I saw the blue skin but the four arms confirmed it. They were alien.
As I looked up I could see something through the trees. It was large and black, almost invisible in the dark. As we approached, the side of it opened and revealed a sparkling spectacle of modern technology. It was the innards of their ship. Dragged inside, I was immediately hit by the smell of an unknown species. There was peculiar beeping all around and the deafening sounds of machinery. However, I was soon dragged far from the buzzing lights and taken deep within the bowels of the ship.
There was darkness all around and cold metal pressing up against my back. I wasn’t sure if there were other prisoners hiding within the shadows. I certainly couldn’t see them but I could sense their breath, feel their fear as though it were my own.
My captors closed the door behind them. I could hear them chuckling as they walked down the long corridor. Then silence. It seemed to last forever and permeate everything around me.
“Hello?”
I spoke to no one in particular in my desperate longing for human contact.
“Is anyone here?”
There was no response. Then suddenly, when I thought the silence couldn’t last any longer, the rumbling started. I felt it in my gut first, then beneath my bottom as the floor began to shake. The engine was roaring into life, growing louder, then louder again until the walls trembled. Then we were off the ground, weightless and free as we shot up through the sky. My ears popped as we ascended and a deep nausea weighed heavy in my stomach. I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes, praying that when I opened them I would wake up and discover it was all a dream.
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Book 1 of the Aliens of Dragselis Series: Zaruv: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance
Chapter 1-Zaruv
Tick, tick, tick, tick. My eyes darted across the emerald table, meeting those of my youngest brother. The incessant tapping continued, much to my chagrin. Every time the heavy, golden, ring on his middle finger brushed against the table, the noise rang out across the silent ship. He was going to start a fight without ever lifting a fist in anger.
That was Pavar’s thought. He had a way of stirring the pot to his liking. Young and wild, my twenty-five-year-old brother shot me an easy grin. At once, I felt my anger giving way to amusement. It was damn near impossible for me to stay angry at his hotheaded ways. The youngest of five brothers, Pavar always seemed to play on the line between prince and prisoner.
“If you continue to act like this, you will be the death of us all,” I said finally.
He cocked his head and the tapping finally stopped, “Come now, Zaruv. We both know that the Dragselian people are not going to change their ways. The system has worked for thousands of years.”
“It’s flawed and you know it. Hell, I would even venture to say that the other brothers know it too. None of you want to speak up though. Even now, we are all heading to our exile and still, you won’t speak against the old ways.”
“It’s not my place to speak ill of them. Nor is it yours.” Came Karun’s steady voice.
He stepped into the ship’s hull and nodded toward me as a sign of respect. As the second oldest son, I held the honor of being charged with my younger three brothers. We all knew that the day of exile was coming, but now that it was here, old struggles seemed to be flaring up. It didn’t help that we’d been stuck in the small passenger spaceship for the last two weeks. No amount of preparation could ready one for spending so much time in close quarters with their siblings.
Pavar glared at Karun while nodding in respect toward his elder brother. “We are heading to Artax, where we are sentenced to live out our lives away from our home and our people but you still support the rule?”
“I do,” replied Karun confidently. “The system, though flawed, has worked well long before we were here. It will continue to work long after we are gone.”
“You make Artax sound like a prison,” I interjected. “Artax is a resort planet, dear brother. We are going to live out our lives with more Dragselian woman and servants than we can handle. Yet you seem to find a way to make it sound terrible.”
“You are so ready to start a fight when our father has not even been dead a week. You mourn the loss of your comfort, but not the man who provided it. You should be ashamed, Pavar,” Ragal said.
My two brothers sat down at the table with myself and Pavar. Looking around at them I saw the stark differences between them. Each one of them had a different personality that had its flaws, but also its winning qualities. I could think of no better warrior than Karun. His strength, speed, and agility were almost matched with my own. An anger boiled below the surface though. He hated the exile even more than Pavar, though his loyalty to the Dragselian way ran deeper than his disdain.
“We are not far from Artax now, I think you will sing a new song once you see what waits for us there, Pavar,” Karun said
“Karun, you won’t win. I would encourage you to let it go now before a war of our own starts,” interjected Ragal.
“I agree,” I said while nodding to Ragal. “There is nothing that we can do about it now. Pavar, you may voice your concerns among us brothers, but once we reach Artax, there will be no room for that hostility.”
“Why not?” Pavar fumed.
I started to speak, but it was again Ragal who answered. “Because Artax is a haven of Dragselian. To speak against your king would be unforgivable.”
“Maybe that’s what I need to do then, at least I wouldn’t be living a lie.”
Karun sighed and shook his head, “Then we will be forced to live with your death. You will be painted the selfish, spoiled brat that you are.”
Pavar leaped up, but I raised my hand in a command for him to sit. He begrudgingly listened. This wasn’t the first time that he’d tried to start a fight in the close quarters and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. I didn’t worry about Ragal. His level head and passive nature wouldn’t allow him to partake in such a pointless fight. It was the others that I was worried about. Karun was a fighter and Pavar was an instigator but Ragal only wanted peace to reign out over all others. I smiled at him as he sat silently, looking out at the stars as they flew past us.
