by T. J. Quinn
Meanwhile, Cuyler would live in a small house near the vessel, and he also asked his men to build him a cabin up in the mountains, a place where he could be alone and rest from all his problems.
Now, that they were established and people started to go back to the lives they had before, the lack of women amongst them was even more acute. After so many months with no contact whatsoever with other vessels, people had lost hope of ever seeing their families again, but that meant they had another problem on their hands: finding mates for all his men.
The problem resided in the fact drogons couldn’t mate just any female. For the mate to be perfect and fertile, each male and female had to find their soulmates. So far, that hadn't been a problem, but now, with a population of mostly males, they would have to find mates on other planets.
He let out a sigh, running his fingers through his long, platinum hair, as he looked at the hill where his palace was being built.
“Don’t you think it’s time for you to name our planet?” Igor, his captain, asked him, from the chair he was sitting on.
“I’m sure it already has a name. We should go and ask our neighbors.” He replied, with a scowl.
“Our explorers returned this morning. There are no other intelligent beings in this solar system.” They had discovered earlier that none of the other planets had oxygen in their atmosphere. “So, it’s your job to name it, my king.”
“We could call it Zuvrak, to honor my father, don’t you think?”
“Yes, it’s the perfect name. King Zuvrak was one of our best leaders.” His man agreed. “I’m sure everybody will agree with me.”
"Then, Zuvrak it is." He took a deep breath before he mentioned the problem worrying him these days. "We'll have to send some explorers to visit other solar systems, and other galaxies as well." He announced.
“Do you still have hopes of finding the other vessels?” his friend asked him, with a concerned tone.
“No, I have to admit I don’t. But we need to find females or this planet will lose its population in no time.” He explained, turning around and sitting down at his desk. “All of our females are mated, and most of them can’t even bare more children. Finding compatible females is imperative.”
“Yes, I understand. But do you have any idea where we can start looking? For all I know, none of the species we knew were compatible with us.” Igor asked, with a frown.
“I know, and even if they were, we have no way to go back. We need to explore this side of the universe and hope we’re lucky enough to find at least one compatible species.” He explained.
“Who do you have in mind for this search mission?” his friend asked.
“I need you to be the captain of the exploration vessel. Between the two of us, we’ll recruit the best men for the job and leave as soon as possible.”
“Are you planning to come along?” Igor asked surprised.
"I feel it's my duty. I can leave Endre in charge while we go searching. He has been my main counselor for a long time, and I'm sure I can trust him with my people," Cuyler explained, rubbing his eyes, feeling a bit tired.
"Yes, I believe it's a good idea. Everyone appreciates Endre."
“Prepare everything. We should leave as soon as possible,” he ordered, concluding the meeting.
If he was leaving the planet for a while, then he had a few things he needed to take care of.
Igor left his office, and he immediately started planning everything.
Chapter Three
Finding compatible mates turned out to be harder than they expected. They had visited several planets and met countless species, some with amazing females his men had been attracted to, but they all agreed none of these females were even potential soulmates. They knew their instincts would tell them when a potential soulmate was near, and so far, none of them had felt it.
They had been out for two months now, with no luck whatsoever.
“Perhaps we should consider going back home. Our people need their king.” Igor suggested.
“I’m aware of that.” He nodded, with a stern tone. “But I would like to try this last planet I was told about. The man that told me about it even gave me its coordinates, and according to him, the species that inhabit this planet also breathe oxygen.” Cuyler said, keeping to himself that the man had shown him some images of the women on the planet and his instinct had quickly reacted to them.
He knew it could be his just his craving need to find an answer playing with his mind, but he needed to be sure.
“Very well, my king.” Igor nodded. “Give me the coordinates, and we’ll go and see what we can find.” He added, trying to sound a bit more enthusiastic than he felt.
“The people on this planet are very primitive. They have never left the planet’s surface, and their contact with aliens has been brief and very rare,” Cuyler explained.
“So, we’ll need to be cautious,” Igor concluded.
“We’ll stand out amongst them, so it will be impossible to go unnoticed, but they’re no rivals for us. Once they realize that, I’m sure we won’t have many problems.”
Igor nodded and started to introduce the coordinates into their systems.
Even at full speed, it took them six days to get to the planet’s orbit. Had it been empty, Cuyler would have brought his people here without thinking twice. Even from above, the planet looked like a true paradise.
"I'll camouflage the vessel and land near the coordinates the man gave you," Igor announced.
“Yes, that sounds perfect. Land it as far as possible from any city or village. The fewer people we meet, the better." Cuyler said. "At least, until we find out if what we've been looking for is here."
“You’re right. By any chance did the man provide you information about their language?” Igor asked, examining the images he was receiving from the planet’s surface.
“Yes, he gave me all he had on them. I’m sure we’ll be able to communicate with them once we’ve installed the software in our translators, but since they have nothing similar to that, we’ll have to try and speak their language.”
“If they are as primitive as the man told you, I’m sure we’ll have no problem doing it.” Igor assumed.
“I’m not so sure. This planet is a bit peculiar. It has a single intelligent species on it, but they have several races with diverse cultures and languages.” Cuyler explained.
"That sounds interesting," Haskell said, entering the conversation. His people's gift had been beneficial during their journey, and Cuyler was happy he had brought him along with the other men. “They can’t be that primitive if they have managed to do that.”
"I believe the man I talked to was referring to their technology skills more than anything else," Cuyler said, as he observed the vessel's approach to the planet's surface.
The more he saw of it, the more he liked it. The mountains, the seas, the rivers, the lakes, the forests, they all looked amazing.
“It’s a pity we didn’t find this planet before they did,” Haskell said, with an amused scowl.
“According to what I was told, they are natives of this planet,” Cuyler informed, smiling. “But I share your feelings for the planet. It’s really amazing.” He turned to look at Igor. “Get as close as possible to the coordinates we were given. Let’s see if we can get some clothing like theirs.”
“Very well, I will go down to the range of the cameras.”
Soon, they were hovering over a small town, with what looked like stone construction and a few people wandering around the place, mostly men. They all were some sort of cloaks, not very different from the ones the drogons were wearing at Zuvrak, due to the chilly weather.
But what took every man assembled around the vessel’s main screen’s breath, was the women. They couldn’t see more than just a few, but they immediately knew they had found what they had been looking for.
They all looked at each other and then at the king.
“You knew we were going to find them,” Igor said
, with sheer enthusiasm in his tone.
“I wasn’t sure. The man showed me some images of them, and my instincts immediately responded, but I preferred to wait and see it with my own eyes,” he admitted, with a wide smile on his face, something his men hadn't seen on his face in a very long time.
“We finally found them,” Haskell said, cheering.
“Let’s wait until we meet one face to face before we celebrate,” Cuyler asked his men. They had been through too many disappointments.
His men nodded and Igor searched the area for a place to land their vessel.
"We need to find out more about these people's ways. See if they are willing to sell their females to us, or even trade them," the king announced as Igor landed the vessel at the top of a small hill. "I would prefer to avoid conflicts as much as we can, but be prepared at all times to change into your drogon form. If they become a threat to us, we will have to act.”
“We need to find what they use as currency and where to find it,” Eirik, another of his men suggested. “We should send two men out to investigate.”
“You saw them… we are very different from them. We would be noticed immediately,” Igor replied, in a scolding tone.
“Igor is right. We’ll send a few camouflaged bird cams, they’re small enough to go everywhere, and we’ll be able to recollect all the information we need to approach them.” Cuyler informed, referring to some small devices with cameras on them, small enough to enter anywhere and when camouflaged, the device was invisible to naked eye. They could be programmed to scan the whole town and send the images back to the ship. "This mission is too important for us to rush things. Though we could take these women by force, that would only make things harder for us, since we're talking about our soulmates. How would you feel if you were forced to kill their families, and more important, how do you think they would feel about us in such a case?”
His men nodded, understanding his point of view.
They prepared four bird cams and sent them to the small village. The images were recorded and analyzed by four of Cuyler’s men.
Soon, they had a preliminary report. People in this town traded small round metallic pieces for food, clothes and everything that was on sale. The metallic pieces were made of different metals, and the most valuable one was made of something called gold.
“Where can we find this gold thing here on the planet?” Cuyler asked Gandalf, one of his best explorers.
“I need a piece of it so that I can scan it and search for it.” He explained.
“Program one of the bird cams to get one of the round pieces. Make sure you know who it is taking it from so that we can return it," the king ordered. "For what I've seen, there's a lot of poverty in this town."
Igor nodded and proceeded to do as asked.
“According to what I’ve seen so far, this town is ruled by some kind of leader and most of the people in the village either work for him or belong to his family,” Haskell informed. “I don’t think there are more than a couple of thousand people gathered here and most of them are soldiers.”
“The presence of a big army implies conflicts are a natural situation in these parts,” Haskell concluded.
"That would explain the thick walls they have around the village and especially around what looks like the palace," Cuyler stated, still looking at the footage the cams had sent them.
“We’ll need clothes like the ones they’re wearing to go as unnoticed as possible,” Haskell said.
“Can we duplicate them?” the king asked.
“Yes, I’m sure of it. Our fabrics look a lot like the ones they have on, and I’ve provided the main system with clear images of the males’ clothing. We should have it in no time,” Eirik replied, with a confident tone.
"Most people here have dark hair, my king." Igor pointed out. "Even if it weren't for our height, the ridges on our foreheads and temples, you would still stand out," he said, with a teasing tone, referring to the almost white hair that adorned the king's head, a rare feature amongst the drogons whom mostly had black hair.
"Yes, I've noticed that as well. But it won't keep me from visiting them when we're ready," Cuyler assured him, with a scowl.
“Their living conditions are deplorable,” Haskell informed, continuing with his report, “at least, the ones of those that live in the village. We haven’t received images from the palace, but I doubt their conditions are much better from the ones I’ve seen so far. There’s no bathing facilities, nor channeled water in the houses.”
“What about the women?” Igor asked, curious. “How many of them have you seen?”
“Not that many, I’m afraid. But that might have a cultural answer. I haven’t seen many women alone in the streets. They all walked accompanied by other women or by men,” Haskell replied, showing them the images that corroborated his theory.
All the women wore long dresses. Some a bit more sophisticated than others, but they were all long, showing very little skin, just some cleavage, and some wore short sleeves.
“If war is a constant in their lives, it’s understandable,” Cuyler said, nodding. “Do we have images of their fighting skills?”
"Yes, in fact, we have," Eirik replied, pulling another set of footage. "This seems to be some kind of training camp. As we imagined, they wouldn't stand a chance against us, and we wouldn't even have to change into drogons."
After observing the images, Cuyler had to agree with his men. Though they had sophisticated weapons, all drogons were trained to use several weapons, including swords similar to the ones these people used.
“Their swords look too heavy for them, which removes maneuverability to their moves.” Igor signaled.
“Perhaps, but not all of them. Look at this one over here, his sword seems different from the other ones and I'm sure it's lighter and by the looks of it, deadlier," Cuyler said, pointing at one of the men training. "Either way, our primary goal is to avoid confrontation. Like you said, they are no match for us, and any battle against them would quickly become a slaughter,” the king warned them.
“We know, my king,” Haskell assured him.
“Well, let’s call it for today. We’ll receive more information in the morning and decide what to do.” All of the men nodded, and the meeting was adjourned.
Chapter Four
Feeling restless, Cuyler decided to go for a walk. It was a dark night, and he was sure he wasn’t going to find anyone out there.
Picking up his cloak, he abandoned the vessel and walked through the forest near the hill where they had landed.
The night was cold, but the moon lightened it enough to make the stroll a pleasant one. Not that he needed the moonlight to see. Drogons had a perfect night vision. It just made it more enjoyable. After all, they had been through these stolen moments alone were very precious to him. They gave him time to remember what he had left behind and mourn the loss of his family.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t hear anything, not until whoever was walking through the woods was almost on top of him. It was the person’s scent what hit him first. His nostrils flared, and his whole body tensed up warning him of her presence.
He turned in her direction and finally saw her silhouette drawn against the tall trees. She was walking slowly as if she had all the time in the world. The darkness of the forest didn't seem to scare her, on the contrary, she appeared to feel at home, as she caressed the harsh rind of the trees she walked by.
The closer she got to him the more certain he was, she was the one for him.
The urgent wave of passion and lust that rushed through his body almost made him run and take her. The thin threads of self-control he managed to keep, made him step back and hide behind a tree.
It wasn’t the right moment. He would ruin all the plans they had been doing if he acted driven by his passion. He could wait. He had waited for her for so long he could wait a few more days.
He watched her walk by him, and her scent was so strong he almost lost
it. She took a few more steps away from him before she stopped and swirled around as if sensing his presence.
“Who’s there? Show yourself,” she shouted out, swirling once more.
Kaylein waited until Millicent; her maid walked out of her room for her to jump out of bed. She had been feeling restless the entire day, sensing something bad was going to happen. She hated when she felt like that, because most of the times, she was right, and something bad did happen.
Of course, she couldn’t tell anyone about her feelings. Her mother would say she was spending too much time with the town’s healer, someone everybody called a white witch, and that was the last thing she wanted. Luanda was one of the few people that actually understood her and being kept away from the older woman would be far worse, than dealing with her bad feelings by herself.
Her father, on the other hand, avoided her presence as much as he could. Being the last of six daughters, she had been his last disappointment, and she was sure he had never forgiven her for not being the boy he had hoped for.
There wasn’t a thing she could do to please him, and she had learned that lesson the hard way, trying and trying, endless times to be the son he wished she was.
It didn’t matter if she was the best rider, the best archer or even the best swordsman in town, nothing mattered to him, because she wasn’t the son he wanted, so she just had given up on him.
That night, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. She had been feeling all day as if she had an iron fist clenched around her heart, and no matter how many times she took deep breaths or rubbed her chest, the feeling wouldn’t go away. A walk through the woods wouldn’t make it go away, but it would calm her, that was for sure, and probably tire her enough to make her sleep when she returned.
