For the first time, without even an incantation, she released her energy in one large blast, knocking the soldiers to the ground and forcing the chimera back. She hit it again and again. With tears streaming down her face, she began launching electric shocks at the creature. Its screams filled the air. Es didn’t even give it the chance to recover, launching one assault after the other. She began alternating between fire blasts and electric shocks, burning off some of its legs and one of her mother’s arms.
It shrieked and despite parts of its body burning, came after her, dodging the fire but taking the electric shocks. Es changed tactics. She let it come close and just as it reared up to pounce, she sliced it in two with a sharp wind. For a moment, the creature froze, confused as to what hit it, then it continued its attack. As it launched itself at Es, she released a brisk breeze that sent the two halves of the chimera falling on either side of her.
The creature defeated, Es made her way to her brother. She rounded the corner to find a group of guards and her father. He saw her and walked over, holding out his arms. “No, Revlis, stay back. You don’t need to see this.”
“I just killed Mother! That thing was mother! It said its master sent it after Kalis! He protected me! I will see him! You will not stop me!”
She must have had a wild look in her eyes because her father looked quite shocked and stepped aside. She pushed her way through the guards to see her brother. Or what was left of him. She felt all of her energy drain away in an instant and she collapsed to her knees, tears streaming down her face. She was all alone now.
Ӝ
Es woke to tears streaming from her eyes with feelings of sadness, loss and loneliness filling her. She wiped the tears away and tried to think about her current situation instead of the horrible dream she just had. Why was she, and other humans, on this ship? Where were they being taken? Would they be traded out in the space market? Would they be made slaves? Or would they be sold off as food? Thinking she could be eaten by something like the nightmare diagonally across from her, made her shiver. Becoming a slave wasn’t exactly ideal either.
With a sigh, she got up from her cot and went to her bars. The only things interesting she ever saw was when she wasn’t on her cot. As usual, the nightmare was looking at her and smiled its creepy grin as soon as it saw her. She turned to look at the crocodile to find him sleeping.
Voices echoed down the corridor coming towards them. The werewolf, cheetah and Pomeranian were coming down the hall. Es noticed the clipboard the Pomeranian was holding was nothing more than light, a fairly advanced piece of technology. The werewolf gestured at each cell as they passed by, lost in their discussion.
They passed right by the nightmare, her, and the crocodile, and continued on down the corridor and out another door. It looked like they were nearing their destination and plans were being made about what to do with them. She’d find out soon enough whether she would become food, a slave, or a dissected lab rat.
With another heavy sigh, she sat back on her cot and let her mind return to the books she had found and the dreams she’d been having lately.
Ӝ
“Does everyone understand?” Valdrik asked his crew.
“Yes, sir!” they replied in unison.
“Good. You are to begin your assigned tasks as soon as we land on Gildaire. Meeting adjourned.”
Valdrik had given everyone their orders. He just hoped everything would go smoothly. Their ship couldn’t take another attack with so many people aboard. Gildaire was less than twenty hours away, where they could hand over the criminals they’d caught to empty a few dozen cells, as well as drop off all the humans they had collected.
Still, a lot could happen in such a short time, and their human cargo seemed to be the reason they were being attacked by pirates in the first place.
He returned to his cabin, grabbed the bag of books he’d taken from the human drawn by the Memcry, and sat at his table. He pulled out the small, navy colored book with an embossed gold border and looked at it in disgust. Valdrik could hardly believe the secrets written within this notebook.
It was King Relik’s journal, filled with his exploration of the dark arts and his many failed attempts to perform black magick. He went on to list his plans for his people, including his own children. He also explained a few things that had only been discovered over the last few years since the King’s disappearance.
The part that angered him the most was that King Relik had always been a good and benevolent kind of ruler. It wasn’t until after Revlis had disappeared that he announced Kalis’ betrayal. The King claimed that after faking his own death, Prince Kalis returned later and stole away his eldest sister, Princess Revlis. However, a few weeks after that announcement, King Relik decided to show his true colors. Valdrik believed that even the King himself didn’t think that his plans would go so perfectly.
Valdrik also discovered the reason behind Draconis’ father’s murder. Trédü was killed because he found out the King’s secrets. He knew King Relik poisoned his own wife and planned on ridding himself of all impure Elves, with the exception of his children.
The king planned on forcing his children to mate with each other if he couldn’t find suitable mates for all of them. Except for Revlis. The King had other plans for her. His plans for everyone else were so vile it was as if Relik had been wearing a mask all along.
Question was, though, how had the King’s journal ended up with the spell books? How had the books end up on Taniro? And why had the female had them?
Valdrik sighed and put the book back in the bag. There was only one way to find answers, and that was asking the female.
Ӝ
Es looked at the dark werewolf standing before her, his bright green eyes boring into her blue ones. He had turned off her cell and was holding out the cloth bag she had found and filled with books.
Cautiously, she stood up and reached out her hand, her gaze never leaving him for a moment. She took hold of the strap and he released his grip. She sat on the cot and rifled through the bag, checking to see if he let her have all of the books back. Happy to see all were there, she pulled out the one with the Elvish script and popped it open to a random page. She slid her fingers across the script, in awe of its beauty.
She looked up at the werewolf and felt he seemed sad, a bit confused. Es put the book aside and stood. Standing in front of him like this, she could finally get a better look at him. He was clad in all black, a skin tight shirt showing off his well-built muscles. He stood a good foot taller than her and his shoulders made him look wider than he was. His thick black hair was disheveled and his face betrayed his exhaustion. He had a small scar above his left eyebrow.
His emerald green eyes stared back at her as he let her observe him. Her eyes followed his strong jaw up to his long pointed ears on either side of his head.
She wondered if his arms were thick and muscular to match his chest and she got the feeling that if she made him angry, he could kill her a hundred different ways with one blow. She cautiously reached her hand up to touch the little nick on the right side of his chin. Inches away, he grabbed her hand. Her eyes met his and they stood there gazing at one another. Warmth flowed across her hand, her skin beginning to tingle. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her breath became shallow.
An announcement over the speaker caused her to jump. She hadn’t realized just how nervous he made her until that moment. He grabbed the book off the cot and the bag from the floor and left her cell, returning her bars, and he left without so much as a glance back in her direction.
Revelations
Valdrik shook his head. What are you doing, you fool? Are you some little love sick pup? Revlis could be dead or lost out there somewhere and you’re falling for a human. He scolded himself. But she’s not human. That thought paused his steps. He was so hopeful that the female was his Revlis, and honestly, it was simply because he was reacting so strongly to her.
He knew she was still alive. He could feel it in h
is soul. Werewolves only reacted to one person. Revlis was his person. So it stood to reason that this female had to be her, right? He couldn’t possibly be reacting to a second female. If that were the case, Revlis was dead. And that thought, he couldn’t bear to accept.
Valdrik pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind as he helped escort the humans out of the cargo bay. He quickly found the female and headed for her.
Ӝ
Es was amazed at all of the ships around her. There were all manner of sizes, colors, and shapes. When she looked closer to the ground, there were so many unique species and creatures that she felt as if she had fallen into a science fiction novel. A hand on her arm drew her attention. The werewolf pulled her along with him, out of the crowd and towards a white building.
It was bigger than the ship she’d been on but with fewer windows. The building appeared to have five floors and a dome shaped building to the right. As they got closer to the building, Es realized the werewolf wasn’t taking her into the building but around it. Behind the building, Es saw that it was sitting upon the edge of a cliff, but more importantly, the werewolf was walking straight for it!
Thinking he might push her over, she resisted him by digging in her heels and trying to break free by pulling on her arm. He grunted and swung her over his shoulder. She began punching and kicking him, trying to wiggle out of his grasp. Upon reaching the edge, he set her back on her feet and spun her around, his hands firmly on her arms. She tried to back away from edge, but his body was firmly planted behind her.
He sighed, his warm breath flowing across the back of her neck. He wrapped an arm around her waist, and used his other hand to grab her under the chin and turn her head to the right. There, just below the edge of the cliff, was another crystal. A beautiful green one the same shade as the sky from the planet she had landed on where she was chased by spiders.
Then he tilted her head down, released her, and stepped onto the platform hidden by the cliff’s edge. He held out his hand and nodded his head at the crystal. Guess he figures he may as well take me to it, since the last one yanked me through a forest like a human yo-yo, she thought.
Es took his hand and stepped down onto the dirt path. It sloped slightly toward the crystal, but the path was so narrow she had to follow behind him. The crystal began to hum as they approached it.
The path widened, allowing her to move around him. She reached out her hand and touched the crystal. Her hand felt warm and her body began to tingle. She closed her eyes at the familiar dizziness as images flooded her mind once more.
The crystal cooled and the humming stopped. Es opened her eyes and turned to the werewolf. She understood now. She wasn’t being sold off at a market or made a slave or a lab rat, nor was she going to be eaten. Not if the wolf before her had anything to say about it.
She didn’t know what to do. She felt like crying at finally seeing her beloved again, but she didn’t want him thinking she was a weak little fool. But if she hugged him, his reaction probably still wouldn’t be favorable. She closed her eyes at the familiar headache until her mind settled.
She chuckled at herself, shaking her head at all the nonsense she’d been thinking the last few days. She took a deep breath and headed back up the path with him not far behind.
She now knew all of her recent dreams were actually memories. She once had a beautiful mother and a caring older brother. Her loving father had turned out to be the villain in her story and the man she loved was behind her, watching her every move. So many memories and so much emotion welling up inside her and all at once made her want to collapse right here and cry it all out. But she swallowed it back.
First, she needed to get her original body back so she could reconnect with her beloved wolf and tell him everything he wanted to know. Then, they need to go after her father.
Ӝ
Once Valdrik was informed he could bring in his group, his crew herded the humans in to the building where lab staff lead them down a few corridors and into a large waiting room. The humans sat on the floor since there were no chairs. They waited for over an hour before a lab member came to start collecting the humans.
As the room emptied one human at a time, Valdrik never took his eyes off of the female. Something had happened with the green Memcry. She hadn’t cried out in pain nor had she passed out this time. Plus, the way she had looked at him afterwards, it had made his heart ache. He had seen something there, recognition maybe. Whatever memories she had gained must have filled in some blanks.
Unlike all the other humans they had collected, she was completely calm. She was avoiding him, but at least she was behaving herself while the rest of the group behaved like small children. Valdrik ensured with a staff member that she would be the last one taken. Finally, it was down to her and him. When the lab staff came to retrieve her, he walked alongside her down the corridor through the hall of windows to the dome.
Upon entering the dome, there in the center, stood a rather large contraption.
“Hello, Captain,” the lab director said as he walked up to Valdrik. “Have a good trip?”
Valdrik scowled. “I don’t appreciate being sent on a collection errand all over the place and being attacked by pirates twice because of the cargo I picked up.”
The lab director smiled at him. “Oh, is that so? So you didn’t find anything the least bit interesting?”
“What I find interesting is your vast knowledge of science and lack of common sense. Do you have any idea how much damage the pirates did to my ship? How many Gispi I lost on Taniro because you failed to mention anything about an aquatic creature residing in a lake there that most likely destroyed the nearby village?”
The lab director chuckled. “You need to have some fun these days. Loosen up.” He glanced down at the female and smiled. “Considering the fact that you saved her for last, I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now, correct?”
Valdrik looked down at the female, who was looking at everything in the lab but them, before answering, “I think I know what you did, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”
“Just guide her into the machine and you will see,” the lab director replied.
Valdrik grabbed her arm and led her into the gigantic metal cylinder. This thing had seen many a species in its time, based on all the damage it had taken. Claw marks, broken glass, parts of the floor in rubble, and holes in its walls. He left her in the center and the staff closed the door to the chamber as soon as he stepped out.
He turned to watch the process, hoping that in the next moment, his beloved would be standing before him.
Ӝ
Es knew what was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. As the machine came to life, the humming became a loud buzzing, as if she was surrounded by a swarm of bees. She covered her ears as the air in the room began to spin around her, soon picking up enough speed that she found it difficult to remain standing. Her hair whipping about her face, she knelt down on the floor and sat. What came next was her least favorite part of the whole process and she already knew it would be best for her to be as close to the ground as possible.
It started as a little static shock, resulting in a tingle which grew into pin pricks that intensified into stabbing pain. She clamped her mouth shut to prevent herself from crying out, but a particularly strong shock to her back caused her to snap backwards.
The shocks came one after another and before long, her will lost out to the pain and she screamed. She tried not to glance in the wolf’s direction, for she knew if she did, he would see the pain in her eyes and try to smash down the door to save her.
She squeezed her eyes shut as the pain overtook her and darkness soon followed.
Ӝ
Valdrik watched as the machine came to life, growing louder by the second. Inside the container, a wind had begun to blow, followed by electric shocks. He shuffled his feet as he heard her cry out again and again until she blacked out. He looked over at the director, who just nodded his head and returned back to t
he monitors. It seemed everything was going well, but she was in a lot of pain. He felt sorry for her and all of the others who had gone through this process, not once, but twice.
Finally he saw what he had been hoping for. The long, beautiful, silky strands of his beloved’s platinum silver hair flowing like feathers drifting on a breeze. The wind inside the machine died down, the humming stopped, and the door opened. With his heart pounding, he took a deep breath and stepped inside. He paused and closed his eyes to breathe in her wonderful, sweet scent: the smell of gardenia and vanilla. He hadn’t smelled anything so sweet in a long time. He walked over to his beloved, careful not to step on her hair, and knelt beside her.
Lotus: Dark Lotus Chronicles One Page 7