by Maia Starr
I sat in the field near the structure, not wanting to move just yet. Was I really ready to hand myself over the rebels? What if there was another warrior there just like the commander? Then I would be in the same, troubled situation, only Korin would be nowhere around. I knew right then in that moment that I loved him. I was willing to give up my freedom for him. Freedom was the one thing I had been seeking since before I left Merton Loy, and now I was willing to give it up for this alien warrior with blond hair and blue eyes.
“General,” I whispered to myself as I remembered what Commander Yun had said. He said that Korin had exchanged me in order to become a General. Could that be true? It had to be true. Why would the commander make that up? He had already gained possession of me. I began to cry hard as I lay down on my side. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.
Chapter 8
GENERAL KORIN HAFAH
I fought the commander long and hard. We were of equal match, and with no one around to break us up, we hit each other blow after blow. He hit me on the chin and I fell onto my back. He jumped on top of me and landed hard on my body, knocking the wind out of me. He had me pinned against the ground as he punched me with his right and then his left across the head over and over. Suddenly, he was winning.
I felt myself go into a hazy existence as he pummeled me. I thought this was it. He had won. He would take Silver from me and do unspeakable things to her. I had failed her. I only hoped that she could make it to the rebel base before he could get her. Then a flash of Silver’s face came into my mind. Her skin was delicate and her green eyes were stunning.
Then her smiling face change to horror as the commander grew near her. I saw her the way I saw her on the moon base of Tyla Wen when he was attacking her. Her eyes were full of fear. The way she cowered in the corner of the bed after he had left. I was suddenly filled with an enormous amount of rage and pushed the commander off of me by pushing him off to the side as I rolled over.
Now, I was on top of him giving him blow after blow to the head just as he had done to me. I pictured him hurting my sweet Silver, and it gave me the energy to want to destroy him. He kicked me and pushed me off of him and I stumbled backwards onto my feet. He stood up and let out a growl as he charged toward me. I dashed out of the way and he hit the wall like a clumsy fool. This only made him angrier, but not as angry as I was picturing him doing awful things to my human female. I would not allow that to happen; I would die trying if I had to.
"Stop running from me! Stand up and fight me like a true Kalazaron warrior would!" he sneered at me. I stood tall in front of him and he swung at me and I dodged out of the way and punched him back in his ribs. He punched me again and I’d had enough. I needed to go after Silver, and there was no time to lose.
I punched the commander hard one last time and it knocked him out cold as he fell against the wall. He was bloody and so was I. Cuts and welts on my body were covered in my blood and his.
“What the hell are you doing, Korin?!” Lukah shouted at me as she ran up to me.
“He attacked me,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes at me in hate and said, “Where is the human female slave?”
“I do not know; I have not seen her today. I assume that she is inside with my servant doing house slave work. The commander here came to fetch her and I was ready to hand her over, but he has a mouth on him and I have a heated temper.”
“I do not believe you. I had my father sell the human female slave to the commander today. Hand her over to him now. It is done. And you are now general. Get rid of her and we can continue to be together,” Lukah said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Yes, as soon as he wakes up, but if he continues with his insults, I will continue with my punches,” I said. I was trying to give Silver as much time as I could to hide in the fields and get away from the city toward the rebel base. I walked with Lukah as she began to search my home.
“Where is the human female?!” she shouted.
“I do not know. Perhaps she went to the market. I was not expecting her to be purchased today so I did not demand that she stay here. I will go and bring her back here to the commander,” I said as I began to walk out the door.
“Stop, Korin!” she shouted. “You are going to help her escape. I can tell when you are lying. How dare you! How dare you do this to me. You know the embarrassment you will cause me if everyone finds out that my betrothed ran off with a human female slave instead of being with me. It will ruin me! If you go to her, I will have my father order for both of your captures and your extermination. Is that clear?” she shouted.
Her words were clear and I moved over to her and got in her face. “Do it, Lukah. I have never loved you. You are a dark-hearted, spoiled bitch. You care only about yourself. I will be glad to know that you have become one that Kalazaron laugh at after knowing that I picked a human female slave over you. You do not compare at all to her. She is everything, and you are nothing. Is that clear?” I said to her, but I did not wait for her to answer.
I walked away from her and out of her life. I walked away knowing that I could never go back. I had done it. I had given up everything that I had worked so hard for my entire life, and now that I was granted general, I gave it all up for the human female slave known as Silver Brooks. I could not believe it, yet here I was.
Minutes later, I was in the fields making my way toward the structure. As I grew closer to the structure, I saw an indentation in the tall plants. This is how I found her the first time when she was hiding in the tall grass when we were in the wilds. I knew it was her, but why was she waiting.
I found her asleep as the night began to fall. “Wake up, Silver,” I said as I nudged her.
She awoke and said, “Korin? Is it really you? Or is one of the projections you told me of?” she asked.
“This is real. I am really here. I left it all behind. I am on the run now with you. Together we will figure this out,” I said to her.
“What happened? Are you all right?”
“Yes, I am fine; just a fight with the commander. I won.”
She threw her arms around me and hugged me. I held her against me strongly and then said, “We should go. Lukah said she was going to order a capture on us and if we are caught, we will be killed. We need to leave as soon as possible.”
“I wish we could go back to the wilds,” she said.
“I do as well, but we cannot get there from here. We must go with the rebels; it is the only way. Come, I will take care of you.”
“Wait, I have to know. Is it true? What Commander Yun said about you becoming general and how that came about? You gave me to him?”
I did not want to answer her. But I had too. “Yes, it is, but you don’t know the whole story. I want to tell you but we must get out of here first. I promise I will tell you all of it after we are in the Blue Mountains.”
She was satisfied with this for now. I led her low and slow along the fields toward the structure. I only hoped that this plan would work.
I had heard about the transportation to the rebel base. Different stories reached us now and then, and I knew that there would be a challenge of some sort as there always was with anything concerning the Kalazaron. It was the warrior way. It was a way for the rebels to weed out the weak, and I knew that it was a big challenge, but I did not know how big.
I also knew that they were very cautious and suspicious of anyone that came in asking to join. There were many spies, and if I were not in the circumstances that I was in at the moment, I would have been a spy.
When we had first received the report about this structure, it was on my list to get a spy in there and to find out what was going on before we did a raid. It was interesting that now I was going there in order to beg for exile for Silver and I. Planting a spy was going to be part of my new responsibilities as a general. It would be the first mission on my list and would make me look like the great Kalazaron warrior that I was.
I was glad that I was not made gener
al before this moment, because now I needed this structure. Now we needed the rebels. Now I needed the service of transportation that they provided. I didn't know if I would enjoy being a rebel, but it did not matter. I owed it to Silver. I owed her some sort of freedom with me at her side protecting her, and this was the closest that I could think of to give that to her.
I did not want to tell her what was up ahead, and that we would probably be held with laser blasters aimed at our heads within minutes of arriving. I did not want to make her fearful and more panicked than she already was. I kept it to myself. I would handle this for the both of us.
As we moved toward the structure, I made sure to look around. I noticed that there was a presence on the roof, but because we were in the capital city, they wouldn't exactly shoot us. But they were aware that we were coming from the fields. I held onto Silver's hand tightly and led her toward the structure and toward the large door.
Chapter 9
SILVER BROOKS
When I awoke and saw Korin’s bruised and bloody face hovering over me, I thought it was definitely a dream. There was no way that my heart would allow me to hope that it was real and he had really come for me. But it was real, and he had come to find me, and he was going to run away with me. That thought made me happy until I remembered about the rank of general and I had to know the truth, but Korin would not answer me because we needed to move. I would have to wait. We moved slowly toward the structure and I was glad to have him at my side as I could not do this alone. It was darker now as night came, and I was very glad that I had fallen asleep in the fields.
“This is it. Now remain quiet and let me do the talking. Just agree with what I say. Let us say that we are betrothed to each other and that we wish to be together. This will keep you from being taken from me if it is clear that you are mine. Do you understand?” he asked me.
I shook my head yes and we walked to a massive door on the side of the white structure. Korin knocked on it in a rhythmic way. A small opening slid open and he said, “We wish to join the cause.”
The door opened and we were welcomed inside. A Kalazaron that was dressed differently than any of the Kalazaron that I had seen so far led us. His hair was shaved into a sort of Mohawk hair style and it was painted with a bright-green paint. He had tattoos on his body and he led us into a chamber.
“This Kalazaron and his human female have come to join the cause,” he said to another, larger male Kalazaron that was sitting in a grand chair.
“Come forth,” he said. Korin held my hand in a sign of ownership as he stepped forward and stood proud.
“You are Sergeant Korin Hafah,” the male in the chair said. Suddenly there were weapons pointed at us as everyone suddenly became on edge.
“Have you come to raid us? You and your female human will not live long enough to contact your brigade if there is one outside waiting to raid,” he said.
“No. I have not come to raid. I am Sergeant Korin Hafah, as you said. This is my betrothed, Silver Brooks. We wish to live and serve at the Blue Mountain base.”
“Why?” the male asked.
Korin was silent for a long time and said, “I could lie to you and tell you how passionate I am about your cause, but that is not why. This human female, I love her. I cannot be with her here in Konthos. If I do, we both face death. Therefore, I offer an exchange. If you take us both to the Blue Mountain base and let us live together as one, then I will serve as a sergeant in the rebel army. I have much information and I know everything there is to know about Tyla Wen and the training grounds. I offer my assistance and knowledge in exchange for your protection by simply letting us live on the Blue Mountain base. Simply for getting us out of the city undetected.
“I am the only one, plus one other guard, that knows about this structure and that you arrange transport to the Blue Mountains from here. I will give you that guard’s name and perhaps you can pay him off, but it won’t be long before that report I read makes it to the proper channels. So although I am not here to raid you, eventually there will be a raid, so I advise that you move this operation soon.”
Everyone was silent, and I was very nervous that the weapons were still pointed at us. What if they said no and killed us? I was terrified as the male Kalazaron in the chair thought this over.
“Very well; you have provided us with good information. We will grant you transportation, but only if you beat this challenge that all male Kalazarons must go through before they are transferred to the Blue Mountains.”
“Anything. I will do it,” Korin said.
“Aftra!” the male shouted.
Just then a very large, eight-foot Kalazaron entered the room. He was terrifying and he growled as he looked at Korin.
“That is the challenge. A fight. It is the Kalazaron way. Prove to us that you are a useful warrior that does not just hide behind your title of sergeant on the far off moon base. We need real warriors,” he said.
Korin grabbed my hand and kissed it and led me off to the side of the room. I wanted to plead with him not to do it, but I remembered that he told me to say nothing. So I remained silent. Then he moved back toward the middle of the room.
“Fight!”
The giant Kalazaron warrior charged at Korin and he dashed out of the way. Then the giant charged him again and Korin moved out of the way again. He was using his smaller size to move around the giant. He made the giant look clumsy and uncoordinated, and I suddenly felt better that Korin was a great warrior that knew how to handle himself.
He moved around the giant and then ran and jumped in the air with both feet impacting the giant’s side. It knocked the air out of him and as he was doubled over, Korin took the opportunity to punch his head repeatedly. Cheers rang out as suddenly everyone was cheering for Korin and his warrior fighting skills.
Then Korin ran around the back of the large Kalazaron and ran up his back like he was running up a hill and wrapped his arms around the giant’s neck. The giant gagged and choked as he fought for air until he landed on his face, passed out cold. The crowd cheered as Korin lifted his arms in a V victory. Others ran to the giant’s side and threw cold water on him. He awoke and they helped him into another room.
“Very good, Sergeant; you have proven yourself. We will take you and your betrothed to the Blue Mountain base, but it will be under severe watch, as I do not trust you yet. How do we know that you are not a spy?”
“You do not, but if we return here to the city, we will be killed, so why would we ever return to give anyone information? That is all I can offer you, but in time you will see that I can be trusted; we both can,” Korin said.
The male Kalazaron in the chair was silent for a long time and then said, “I am called Aran Fyn. You will be on the next transportation to the Blue Mountains, leaving in an hour under the cover of night, Sergeant Korin Hafah.”
“Thank you,” Korin said. We were shown to another room where there were other refugees waiting to be taken to the rebel base, mostly other warriors, but a few female Kalazaron as well.
As we sat down next to each other and waited, I had to take my mind off the thought that the master’s guards were going to burst in at any second and take us and asked him the question I needed to know the answer to.
“Now will you tell me? Why did you trade me for a general rank?”
He looked at me and said, “I had too. At the time I thought it was the only way. I have been working toward the general rank for five years and everything I have ever done was to achieve that rank. Lukah, I did not love her. But she is the master’s daughter and I knew being betrothed to her would get me the rank. I had no second thoughts about being with her even though I did not love her, as I never thought of love. I only thought of achieving that rank.
“When you came into my life, I was so close to getting what I wanted. It was all in the process, but then you changed me. So when the master summoned me and told me that Lukah was angry and demanding that you be sold to the commander, I agreed in exchange for the
general rank. But I knew all along when I agreed to it that I was going to help you run away before the commander was scheduled to have you. I had a week at least, but Lukah sped that up to today.
“That is why I agreed to the rank, because I had wanted it for so long, and I could not see straight. But I thought I could get it and help you not be in the hands of the commander. But when it came down to it, all I wanted was you. I don’t want that general post anymore. I gave it up when I confessed to Lukah that I love you.”
“You did?” I asked in shock.
“I did, and I do,” he said as he leaned in and kissed me. I kissed him back, feeling like I had finally had some answers to the chaos and feeling good that we were one more step toward freedom and being together.
An hour later, we were in what Korin called a speeder. I had heard the sound before. It was the sound that I heard when we were in the wild and he pinned me to the ground. It was funny to think about how he had strived so hard to keep me from letting the rebels know where we were at that time, only to end up here, begging for them to take us.
