by Sy Walker
They both laughed at his words, and then she stopped walking to face him, the curious stares from his people all but forgotten. “Ask me now” she told him and looked at him from her emerald green portals.
“Okay. Aurora, will you be my date tonight?” he asked and grinned.
“Why, thank you for asking; I was not expecting it,” she told him and laughed. “I would love to go on a date with you Nevaeh, to any place we won’t possibly get stoned.”
He held her hand and let ring a loud and melodious laugh that reverberated in the streets and drew the attention of another couple that was passing them by. Maybe it was the happiness in his tone, but they smiled as they ambled along. Or perhaps, it was in their own happiness that they could easily accept the strange couple that didn’t belong.
Later that night, they snuggled up to each other in the 4-D theatre studio, with the first eight seats around them being vacant. They didn’t seem too perturbed by it, and when it was over, and Nevaeh led her through the exit, they were bombarded with insults once more.
“Get her out of here,” a man behind them barked. “We don’t need it on our planet.”
“And will you be the one to remove her?” he asked and turned to face the voice.
“You are a traitor to keep her here like this,” the man continued. “They killed your father Nevaeh.”
“It may have been her people, but it wasn’t her, and you are wrong about her,” he tried to explain.
“Wrong my ass,” the man snarled and bore down on them.
“I think we had better go,” Aurora said and held onto Nevaeh who had started assuming the color of cherries.
“I think you are right,” he told her, though standing his ground and challenging the man to make a move. He got close enough to Nevaeh, but he didn’t dare make a move. “That’s what I thought,” Nevaeh said and grabbed Aurora by the hand, and walked through the throng of people who had already gathered.
“I think it’s beautiful,” one woman said and gave Aurora a friendly pinch on the arm.
Aurora smiled at her, and was pleased to find that there was one voice in the crowd that wasn’t looking to maul her.
Nevaeh pushed the door in, angry and hurt that he wasn’t receiving the response he would have preferred. He flung himself on the bed, with his hands sprawled like he was about to make an angel from linen rather than snow.
“It’s alright,” Aurora told him. “Maybe you can just sneak me off the planet; this probably won’t work no matter how we may want it.”
“I will do no such thing, unless…” he started and then got up to look her in the eyes. “Do you want to go?”
Aurora thought about the question, and immediately she thought of how lonely her life had been on earth; ever since she lost her brother, she had found meaning only in her job. And that job had led her to Nevaeh, who was giving her every woman’s dream. “No,” she responded. “I think I like being here with you, despite everything.”
Nevaeh leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips, and then more sweetly the longer his lips played over hers. Then they locked in an embrace so strong and all consuming, that it filled Aurora’s eyes with water to imagine she had found love in a strange place.
CHAPTER 9
As the days went on, some longer than others, Nevaeh’s and Aurora’s affections for each other grew in proportion to the public’s acceptance of their once taboo relationship. They no longer received hard stares or curse words hurled at them, but smiles and nods-worst case, indifference.
“I do believe you have won them over,” he told her once when they returned home.
“I’m not so sure of that; Bjorn still looks at me like a fly stuck to a trap,” she said while referring to one of his closest friends-the only one still having a hard time with them being together.
“He will come around; he is just stubborn and foolish. Who knows? Maybe you will be the reason earth learns my people are not the enemy, and we can have some peace between us.”
“I doubt that will happen,” she said and sighed. Shortly after, a mischievous grin crossed her lips, and she walked seductively over to Nevaeh. “In other news, there is a ‘peace’ of you I would like to sign an agreement with,” she told him. She was standing directly before him now and she pulled him forcefully to her. Aurora had been tempted to be with him on many occasions, but the gentleman in him wouldn’t approach her to solicit sex, and she was all but frustrated with being that close to him and not feeling him.
“Are you sure? It is not customary…”
“Shh,” she whispered. “Enough about your people. Let me show you some customs of mine,” she grinned and slid his pants to his ankles and helped his shirt over his head. She had never seen him naked before, and she marveled at how perfectly proportioned his frame was. Her eyes roamed his firm body, and he stood there like a marble statue while she had her fill. Then he reached out and traced her fingers along the markings on her skin, and as she drew closer south, she saw his hard member perk up, and its head elevated as if to meet her touch.
She held onto it, and squeezed and stroked until he closed his eyes. She felt him quiver when she took him into her mouth and greeted him in a way she was sure he wasn’t familiar with. Nevaeh looked down at the woman who was controlling his ebb and flow, and he grabbed her red head as the unfamiliar feeling escalated into sensations strange and sweet to his consciousness. He rocked his head back as Aurora licked from base to tip, and then covered him inch by inch. The choke effect she felt which caused her to gag, threw Nevaeh over the edge, and he pulled back and looked at her, her hair tossed aside, and her green eyes wild with passion.
He pulled her to him, and buried his head in her neck as he slid the straps of the dress from her shoulders, and Aurora stepped from the thinly veiled fabric and let her arms envelop his body. Neveah’s lips moved from the cleft at her neck and down to ripe nipples already throbbing and aching for his attention. His warmth was welcomed when he ran his tongue along their circumference, and then he cupped one with his hands and suckled her. Aurora cried out and ran her hand over his bald head. She kissed the top of his head as he moved from one twin to the other.
Then, with skilled hands, he lifted her and gently rested her on the bed, and as she spread her legs wide, giving an all access granted path to heaven, he buried himself within her. He stroked hard and fast and Aurora trembled each time he pulled back and re-entered. She watched as he held his head back, his eyes closed, and penetrated her deeper. By the time she felt him increasing in speed and tremors, she knew he had all but reached his climax, and she dug into his hips with sharp nails, eliciting cries from him. Then she matched him, and in one glorious and united effort, they molded their bodies into one
When it was all over, he relaxed on the bed next to her, a broad smile on his face. She smiled too, and played with the markings on his skin that had seemingly gotten illuminated by the passion they shared.
“What do you think would be a good name for a boy?” he asked her.
“A good name? What are you talking about?” she asked him.
“For our son-the one you will soon have. We have to make preparations for his arrival, which means our nuptials, and we need to…”
“Hold it Nevaeh,” Aurora said when she realized his line of argument. “What are you talking about?”
“Darling, don’t you know?” he asked, and then placed his hand on her stomach.
“What? No!” she said. “That was our first time, and based on my cycle I wasn’t even ovulating, so there is no way I can be pregnant. And how could you know that right off the bat?”
“What does that mean ‘right off the bat’?” he asked, a confused expression possessing his features.
“We just made love, so how could you know that already?” she asked. She was feeling a sudden and intense sense of panic rushing through her because of what he had said. She had not imagined herself a mother before that time, and the words flowed right through her like water throug
h a cave before crashing on rocks in descent to the enormous pool at the end of the waterfall.
“You have much to learn about us,” Nevaeh told Aurora. “Why do you think we don’t take things so lightly? We only kiss when we mean it to be more, and we only make love when we are ready for a family. Just once with a man of Thrax and the woman is guaranteed conception.”
He looked down at her stomach again and smiled, and Aurora watched him, but all she heard was the blood rushing though her veins as they made the endless circular journey.
CHAPTER 10
It didn’t take long for Aurora’ body to prove Nevaeh’s words. Within a week she was already experiencing symptoms systematic of pregnancy. She, like her kind, began developing nausea, and what she once detested in food she now had a craving for.
“My son knows good food,” was what Nevaeh would always tell her whenever he saw her rushing to the bathroom.
When Aurora returned from one such trip, she plopped down on the chair, her cheeks the color of her eyes. “I don’t get it. How does that work? That one-time thing that makes a baby? Is it the atmosphere?”
Nevaeh laughed when she spoke. “I don’t know the biology of it; I just know that’s what happens.”
Just then there was a knock at the door. Nevaeh went to answer, and his face grew cold when he saw who the caller was. “Hi Bjorn.”
“May I come in?” his friend asked.
“That depends on whether or not you will attack Aurora,” Nevaeh said and stood there blocking the entrance still.
“I won’t,” he promised, and then Nevaeh stood aside to let him pass.
“Hi,” he waved uncomfortably to Aurora. She smiled at him, and then he turned to Nevaeh, and then back at her. “Is she having a baby?” he asked with surprise.
“God, is it that obvious? It’s only been a week,” Aurora replied and held her head down as she felt another bout of nausea.
Maybe it was the idea of the baby, or the time that had passed that had driven a wedge between the friends that needed mending, that cause Bjorn to display elation at the news. He went over to Aurora, and knelt next to her. “May I?” he asked, signaling her stomach.
Aurora looked to Nevaeh and when he nodded, she approved. The man looked awed when he touched her stomach and then his face lit up and he looked at her. “This is the first baby between a being of earth and one from Thrax,” he said as if the baby had suddenly developed grave importance to his people. He spoke reverently and with respect that Aurora couldn’t help being filled with wonder.
“I suppose so, though I am dreadfully frightened. I don’t know what to expect,” she said to him.
“You have a good guide,” he said and stood to congratulate Nevaeh. “Now I see the stars had something different planned for you altogether my friend,” he said and clapped him on the back. “This is big; you need to have the ceremony, and make her official.
“Wait, what ceremony?” Aurora asked.
Nevaeh walked over to her and held her hand. “It is our custom here to have a celebration when a woman gets impregnated, so that the Gods can bless the baby even from the womb.”
“But what about…the people?” she asked. “Will your leaders agree to that? I don’t belong here.”
“You carry a son of Thrax,” Bjorn spoke up before Nevaeh could even answer. “That is your right to be here.”
Aurora smiled after he spoke, and then she looked back to Nevaeh. “And this is something you want to do?”
“It is something I must,” he told her. “I was planning to bring it up today.”
“I will speak for you Nevaeh,” he said and the excitement returned to his voice as his face lit up. “The first of his kind-that child will be something special.”
“Thanks Bjorn,” Nevaeh said.
“You two will have to excuse me,” Aurora said as she made another mad dash to the bathroom.
“Yes indeed,” Bjorn grinned. “I’m sorry man,” he turned to Nevaeh and said. “But you know we were taught that the people of earth…”
“No need,” Nevaeh said and silenced his friend. “I’m just glad everything is working out.”
“Me too,” he replied.
The two men stood there in the room grinning like Cheshire cats when Aurora returned, and she couldn’t help but be affected by their contagious attitude. She walked over to Nevaeh and kissed him lovingly, and Bjorn stared as he witnessed the novel yet strange phenomenon that was about to change the lives of everyone on Thrax.
************
Aurora stood nervously at the stone pillar just outside the sacred halls. She was dressed in a long white gown that fell to her ankles. Nevaeh stood next to her, in a long white robe with a broad golden belt. It was an important day for her, and for them; the day when she would officially be welcomed by the people of Thrax and blessings would be bestowed on their baby. Nevaeh stood there beaming with pride as he looked at the small swelling on her stomach. The bells pealed then, and the two marched off to meet the elders as they waited for them at the end of the march. There were rows of ministers, leaders, commanders and regular citizens lining the walk, and two little girls marched before them scattering white petals.
It felt like a grand coronation to Aurora, and she was as nervous as she was excited, and she returned the smiles of many of the people who nodded their approval as she passed. She felt Neveah’s grip tighten on her, and she squeezed his hand in return.
“Will it hurt?” she whispered as they walked.
“No,” he told her. “They have a special technique to applying the paint. It is usually done just as the baby is born, and sealed into him forever.”
She drew a deep breath and kept walking into the future she could not have foreseen. The elder took her hand as she got to the podium, and then he held both their hands and turned them to the people. They chanted and hummed something unfamiliar to Aurora, but it had to be good, because when she looked over at Nevaeh he was grinning.
Then the elder held both Aurora’s hand and turned her to him. “Welcome, woman of Thrax,” he smiled.
Aurora beamed when he spoke, and she felt the baby inside her move, and she knew that though nothing would be the same again, that it would be better too.
THE END
RETURN TO TOC
Star Dragon
CHAPTER ONE
“Shit!” Staff Sergeant Keandra Calhoun carefully got out of her rocket ship and surveyed the damage. She’d been sent out on a routine patrol of the area, but somehow she’d lost control of her ship and crashed into the rocky mountains on Hoth. The cold, gunmetal gray planet was in enemy territory, and she did not want to be stuck here. Unfortunately, her ship was inoperable. The entire front engine was gone, and there were jagged gashes along the hull.
She also had a gaping hole in her leg, where debris from the ravaged ship had stabbed her.
Frustrated, Keandra slapped the hull with her hand. “Goddammit!” She took off her goggles and looked around to make sure no one was around. Thankfully, the Hoths had not been alerted to her presence. Not yet anyway.
The Hoths were a brutal, fierce and militant race of aliens known for taking other species prisoner – the ones who weren’t murdered became subservient slaves who likely wished they were dead. They were shifters; half humanoid lifeforms, half slimy monsters with poisonous tentacles.
Keandra did not want to meet one of these filthy fuckers.
Leaning against her ship, she did her best to stay down and hidden in case any Hoths were also on patrol and came across her. If her ship was working properly, she might have been able to use her invisibility force field, but alas…
“Come in, Terra One,” she said into her communicator. “Terra One, this is Calhoun.”
There was no signal on her device. Eventually, she had to give up and put it back into a pocket of her green cargo pants. What now?
Suddenly, she heard footsteps approaching. Reaching into her pants, she pulled out her small, purple blaster gun, read
y to shoot whoever this stranger was. Thankfully, it was only one pair of footfalls or she would have been in big trouble. Keandra could take one Hoth. She knew she could.
But what appeared instead was a tall, blueish man with dark green hair held back in a low bun on his head, and light green scales on his forearms and neck. He was wearing a green patrol outfit, similar to hers actually. Instead of coming in to attack her, this stranger seemed more… curious. He stopped several feet from her crash site.
“Don’t shoot,” he said, raising his arms to show that he did not have a blaster. “I am Albion Pogona. I am a weredragon. I am not from Hoth. Please.”
Keandra slowly lowered her blaster. “Are you with the Resistance?” she asked him, keeping her blaster in her hand but no longer pointing it at him.
The dragon shifter swallowed hard and nodded. “I want to get you out of here before anyone sees you. Come with me.”
Accepting that her ship was a loss now, Keandra nodded and went to this Albion Pogona. Up closer, she could see that he had gold eyes and a more reptilian appearance than she had noticed before. It was much more difficult to notice such traits when all she was focused on was defending herself.
The green uniform almost matched his green scales. They were a few shades lighter, whereas the uniform was olive, or whatever term the weredragon aliens had for olive. Albion was at least six and a half feet tall. He towered over Keandra, who was tough and fiery at only five foot two and a half.
More importantly, Albion was gorgeous. He had chiseled features, a pointed chin and a long, well-defined nose like a Greek statue. His attractive face and muscled body could almost make up for the fact that he was covered in scales and obviously an alien.
She did not know if she should feel safe with him, but what choice did she have now?
Albion walked her back to his ship, which was parked nearby. She limped along beside him, trying not to noticeably wince or grimace as the pain of the accident finally got her attention. She acted tough and brave so that he would not hurt her.
They walked aboard as quickly as she could handle, and he set the autopilot’s course. Keandra made sure to stay close so she could monitor his coordinates.
