by Rich Scribes
heart suddenly felt like stone.
“Nancy, don’t be a fool. Your husband hid too much in order to protect you, and Bryce. Look at her. Look at me. We are not limited beings. Sadly, your husband is no longer with us. He fought to keep our race and your race in peaceful harmony.”
“Ziora, please, tell me this guy is lying,” I pleaded when I finally found my voice. I knew the truth already but wanted her to say it. The girl I’d crushed on for years wasn’t even human. Oh, and (small detail!) her dad killed my dad. Ziora remained silent, but the blue glow was more pronounced than before.
“Well?”
“I…” she attempted to say but the sound of her sweet, soft voice sickened me.
“What!” I was shouting now. I wanted her out of my house.
“You don’t understand… I didn’t know it would come to this. I was supposed to just watch you…” her voice broke and sob soon followed.
“So, you being nice to me. You wanting to talk to me… it was all a lie? You needed information for your father?” I was angry. “You saving my life was just for show: An act. You wanted to make it look like you were on my side?”
“No!” She blurted out as she wiped the tears off her face. “After talking to you, after watching you for so long, I…”
“Get out…” I snapped. “Out of my sight. Out of my house.”
“But…”
“I don’t trust you, and I don’t care about you…get out and tell your dad to…”
“Bryce, you have to listen…”
“No…get out, and I don’t ever want to see your face again!” I said. Ziora accepted that it wasn’t any use to argue with me. She nodded before she walked passed me. Her shoulder brushed mine.
“I’m sorry.” I heard her say then she walked out of my house.
“Zelter will come. We have to move you,” Zalie said. I don’t know why hearing that news about Ziora made me believe everything that was said, but it did.
“This is the most surreal nightmare. I hope I wake up soon.” I mumbled to myself.
“We must go. Zelter will be along shortly,” Zalie continued. “Nancy you’ll refuge amongst our people, too. Get going pack the necessities.”
“Uh, what about me? You guys know I’m still here, right? Do I have any say in this?”
“No,” Zalie said quickly.
“Wow, a short response from a short man,” I muttered. I felt a hand smack the back of my head.
“Again mind your manners boy,” Zalie growled. “Nancy, pack your things. I will wait here. Be quick. We have little time.” Zalie said. My mother nodded before she hurried off to pack. He raised an eyebrow at me. I interpreted that to mean: are you a two year old who can’t get his own bag packed? So, I grabbed my back pack and went to get clean underwear. I made it back to the kitchen in two minutes, and with the time I had left while my mom was getting ready I decided to closely examine Zalie. Outwardly, he was like any other human much like Ziora. Of course, he was smaller than most, but looked like anyone else. He was white, had a shaved head and a long wide nose. The most interesting thing about him was a tattoo on his neck that I couldn’t see all of.
“Ready,” my mom said making me jump.
“Good, let’s move,” Zalie commanded as he made his way towards the door. Once outside we ran into a big problem. The guy in the hood was standing in my driveway.
“So, old friend, why are you trying to keep him away from me? Why not just had him over, so that we can control this world and open up our world again.”
“Aren’t you sweating your ass of in that creepy outfit? I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt and I’m sweating my ass off.” I said.
“Bryce…shut up,” Zalie growled under his breath.
“You betrayed our people. You are a traitor… I’d die before giving you the boy.”
“That is what you said about his father, and look how he ended up. Why don’t you save yourself the bother and hand him over,” my would-be captor suggested menacingly.
“Not happening.”
“So be it then, old man,” the man’s arms started to glow red again.
“Uh, Zalie, I’ve seen that glow before. It’s not a good thing. I think it means he is going to open up a can of whoop ass.” I said none to calmly.
“Not to worry, young Bryce. He won’t be able to hurt me.” Zalie sounded confident even as a fireball landed squarely in Zalie’s mid-section sending him cart wheeling into the flower beds.
“Oh crap.” I said.
“Now, let us continue our conversation from earlier, young man.” I stepped in front of my mom. Not that would do any good. A flash of green light sent the man flying into the street. It was Ziora I knew before I even spotted her.
“You have to believe me that I’m sorry. That I’m on your side,” She said. I still had a lot of anger stored towards her, but she’d just saved my life twice within the last hour. Before I could say anything Zalie joined us. He seemed disoriented and extra cranky, “Girl, just leave us. You do not belong here with us. You belong with him.” He pointed to the man that had been sprawled on the street but was now standing up. He came closer to us again.
“So, Ziora again you try to ruin my plans. So be it.” The man shrugged and without warning he shot a flame of fire from his hands at Ziora. She again surrounded herself with a force field.
“This is our time; we must go now…” Zalie urged.
“What about Ziora…” I looked towards her and she was now on one knee struggling to keep the force field up.
“Go!” She shouted.
“Well, there you have it. She is telling you to go,” Zalie said my mom had barely moved since coming outside, was in shock. My dad never had brought work home with him, and I was suddenly glad for it. We started to run away from the fight, but I knew he was going to chase us down. Ziora seemed to be no match against him, but she was trying.
“I don’t think you could move that fast,” I commented to Zalie in between heaving breaths.
“We are feeble and slow and he will catch up to us.” All of a sudden Zalie made an obscure hand gesture, and three small green beasts appeared out of nowhere. They looked an awful lot like dragons; mini dragons. One scooped me up and let me ride it; the other two did the same to Zalie and my mom.
“Whatever you do, Bryce don’t come back for me. Keep going,” Zalie ordered before he halted his own ‘magical dragon’. Ours kept going. My mother was frantic. I was so surprised by what was going on that I couldn’t put a feeling to it. Thankfully the dragons seemed to know where they were headed. We continued on in this way for several minutes.
“Halt,” Zalie said as he appeared next to me. I nearly slid off my dragon. I looked at Zalie and noticed that his left arm was burnt.
“Told you not to mess with the BBQ.” I said. We dismounted the dragons, and they vanished.
“Zalie, are you alright?” My mother, who had regained her voice, asked him.
“Yes, I am, but I cannot defeat him. Only delay him. He will come after you, Bryce until he succeeds, or we kill him.”
“Wonderful choices to make me feel better.” I muttered.
“We must go into hiding,” Zalie said.
“I need to know what is going on, Zalie! You aren’t going to keep me in the dark. I want to know why there is this guy trying to fry me up for dinner. And, what’s with the dragons? Riding them? Talking to them? My brain can’t comprehend anything more right now.”
“Zalie, he needs answers. Answers that only you can give him. Answers that will clear up who he really is,” my mom said.
“Do you know how many times I have seen this in a movie? Too many times to count. I’m just Bryce Walop. A high school kid that found out that the girl that he likes, well liked is a super freak.”
“Boy, we must first get you and your mother to safety, and then I will explain everything.”
“Where are we going anyway?”<
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“You will see, but we must move. I only slowed Zelter down. He will regain strength and come after you.”
“What about Ziora?” I blurted. “She did save my life twice.”
“We must treat her like an enemy right now. They are clever. All that could have been was just a ploy to get you to trust her, and then she would turn on you and me at the most convenient time,” Zalie responded, as he wiped some sweat off his forehead.
“Always negative, huh?”
“No more. We must go. Grab each other’s hands,” he directed. I was a little hesitant, but I did what he asked. So did my mom. His arms were glowing a grayish color, and then what seemed to be a hologram of a dragon surrounded us. I had just enough time to think before everything went white. I felt numb. I couldn’t feel anything. I tried to squeeze my mom’s arm, but I couldn’t. Then I felt my feet hit the ground. Almost instantly I threw up.
“Well there goes yesterday’s food.”
“You will get used to that, boy. At least, I hope so. Your mother did.” He commented before he started to walk.
“You can’t give me a minute?” I asked after wiping my mouth. “What exactly did we do just now? Teleport?”
“Boy, I knew you were a geeky-genius, but this is going over board,” Zalie smirked. Giving up on informative conversation for the moment, I turned my attention to my surroundings. We were surrounded by wild life, were we any better off here?
“If that guy doesn’t get me, I’m sure a big ass bear will,” I muttered. I was beginning to feel a little better. I examined the wilderness some more. I really didn’t