Karrin Warrior Child

by Sahara Foley

  “The Calens hired you to kill me, and Mamma hired you to save and protect me. But, why? What’s so special about me? And, why did Mamma have to die?” Her question ended in a broken sob as she fought the urge to cry.

  Everyone is dead because of me. Even my family. She hung her head, the guilt lying heavily on her heart. Tears slid down the small girl’s face.

  Ispepyein’s didn’t cry. They seldom showed any emotions. Seeing the guilt and grief on Karrin’s face made Lurga’s chest tight and uncomfortable.

  Why did I agree to the bond? he chastised himself. I am not prepared to take care of a small, emotional child. The code and duty were firmly entrenched in his nature. He really had no other choice.

  “Child, I have no idea why the need for your death is necessary. The Warrior Woman told me you had a destiny, and she sacrificed her life to make sure you fulfilled it. She understood she faced enormous odds, and she chose the only path in front of her. If I did not accept her offer, she would still be dead, and you would be, too. However, I did take her life in exchange for the contract with the Calens.

  “Somehow, the Warrior Woman understood a blood bond was the only way for the Code to be broken. So, I swear to you, now, that I Lurga Pukani will also sacrifice my life to protect yours. I will keep you from harm and will kill whoever seeks your death, even if it means protecting you for the rest of your days.”

  Karrin contemplated what the chubby man told her as she licked the last of the fish from her fingers. Maybe it isn’t my fault everyone around me ends up dead, but I still blame myself. She peered around at the dark and dismal surroundings. London may have been a dangerous place to live, but at least it had color and a bright, warm sun. Will I ever see my home again?

  “Lurka, how long will we be staying on Switch?”

  The man growled. “My name is Lurga, not Lurka. We shall stay here until I find a safer place.”

  Under her breath, Karrin repeated his name a few times. She nodded in satisfaction when she adequately pronounced it.

  “What is an Ispean Warrior? Why do you always fight and kill?”

  Lurga grunted and stepped away from the fire a few paces. Thin-skin hands on fat hips, he turned. “I know not how you will react, but THIS is an Ispepyein Warrior.”

  The air shimmered around him and suddenly a tall, gray shark standing on two clawed feet, was in front of Karrin.

  The girl cried out in fright as she scrambled back into the warm, black rock behind her. Her eyes felt like they were going to pop out of her head as her jaw dropped to her chest.

  “Do not fear, child” the massive, gray monster growled in words she barely understood. “This is my real appearance. I only kept the Human form so as not to frighten you.”

  “You’re… you’re a big, ugly, gray monster,” Karrin finally managed to squeak out.

  Lurga cocked his head as the Contruda hand-link explained what Karrin said. He growled, gnashing his triangular teeth a few times. “You think your form is pleasing to gaze upon, girl? You are the ugly one – with your pale, thin skin.”

  Karrin dropped her head and covered her eyes with her trembling hands. “Please, can you change back,” she whimpered. “You scare me.”

  Lurga grunted in disgust. “And so, I wish you could turn and become a form more pleasing to look upon. Even the dual-headed Grotons were easier on the eyes. Your race is the ugly one – all that hair and weak, white flesh with bones that break like dry twigs. Yug!” As he spoke, he shimmered, again, and turned back into the chubby Human male.

  Karrin peaked between her fingers. When she noticed he transformed, she jumped to her feet and ran to him, flinging her arms around his tubby waist. “I’m so glad you’re back,” she mumbled into his tummy.

  Lurga peered down at the small head pressed into his stomach. He felt foolish at being hugged in such a manner, grateful no other Peps were around to witness his disgrace. He studied the girl.

  Does she not understand I am still the same ugly monster who frightened her before? He shrugged. Maybe her smaller brain made it harder for her to comprehend.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Lurga bit off the head of a flapping fish, enjoying the crunching of bones as he chewed. Over the seven years since he came to Switch with Karrin, he became accustomed to eating cooked meat, especially while in his Human form. Yet, he still relished the taste of salty, warm blood from a fresh kill.

  At the sound of approaching footsteps, he turned to find Karrin striding toward him. A wide grin split her face as she held up the blue-furred 'rabbits' she caught that morning in her snares.

  He grunted to himself. Poor child.

  In the past six months, two small bumps started forming on her chest, making her more unappealing to look at. The blood she leaked once a month disconcerted him the most. Worried about her bodily changes, they'd consulted Contruda. It had no idea either, not being programmed for the Human physiology, but its best guess, Karrin had started her breeding cycle.

  Ispepyein females didn't bleed. They only exuded a musky odor, which caused the males to go into breeding lust. The same type of smell that also accompanied Karrin's bleeding time. Lurga had to distance himself several days a month to keep from going into a full rut.

  Karrin dropped her two rabbits next to the fire pit, squatted, and began cleaning them with a knife Lurga made for her from spare parts in his fighter. She hummed to herself as she worked. A melody she picked up from Contruda’s extensive digital database. She didn’t understand the words, but she enjoyed the tune.

  Starting on one of the rabbits, she chopped off its head, the two long hind legs, and the one that protruded from its chest. She peeled off the blue fur, intending to use it for a new outfit.

  Out of the two common animals she caught with her snares, the rabbit had less flavor. She’d been looking forward to the juicy flavor of ‘squirrel’ meat. Still, meat was meat, and it didn’t taste nearly as bad as the rat they were forced to eat at the Home.

  Squirrels were the hardest to remove from the snares. Vicious, the size of a medium dog, with sharp teeth and long claws, if they weren’t dead when she found them, she had a fight on her hands. Karrin earned many battle scars before gaining enough strength to kill them with a single blow to the head.

  “Lurga, before we begin our training lessons, I want to check the rest of my snares. I’m really hungry for squirrel meant this morning.” She licked her lips and peered at him with an arched brow.

  Lurga grunted in return, giving a slight nod. Secretly, he was very proud of his Little Karrin. He trained many warriors over the years, but none had excelled in weapons training like her. She mastered his Seeder pistols and rifle like a true Ispepyein. She even piloted his fighter with a skill beyond his expectations. If she had been born with PSI powers, she would most likely be better than him.

  He trained her in the battle ways of all the different sentient life forms he’d encountered in his travels. Being a shape-shifter, he demonstrated to her what they looked like. He enjoyed surprising her by changing when she left camp and quizzing her about who he was when she returned.

  The warrior chuckled to himself. A few times, Karrin didn’t want to come back because his appearance was so frightening.

  Before she left to check her other snares, Karrin put the rabbits on spits around the outside of the fire pit. She picked up her cub and gave Lurga a wink and took off up the path toward her traps.

  The teenager weaved, in and out, around the boulders Lurga told her were alive. She didn’t know whether to believe him or not. In the years since her arrival, she never saw any evidence they were anything, but rocks. Being warm to the touch, she slept next to one every night. Still, they were just rocks to her.

  When the girl got close to her traps, she stopped and peeked around a black boulder. Her heart leaped with joy, her mouth watering in response. She caught a squirrel.

  Karrin cautiously approached it - club raised. They liked to fake being dead, and leap at you, all teeth and c
laws. Stepping closer, her muscles tensed.

  The creature looked dead. It showed no signs of breathing or moving. Raising her club higher, she swung it down as she aimed for its head.

  The squirrel sprang up and went for her legs.

  Shocked, she missed with her first swing.

  The squirrel attacked her, tearing at her pant leg.

  Tightening her grip on the handle, she swung again and smashed the squirrel’s head to a pulp.

  Karrin dropped to the ground, breathless, afraid to look at her leg. The squirrel’s teeth had sunk into her calf, the claws tearing at her skin. She stared at the shredded remains of her pant leg.

  Holding her breath, and with a grimace, raised it up, expecting to find her flesh laid bare to the bone. Her mouth dropped open, eyes wide with surprise.

  Nothing. No blood. No torn flesh.

  Karrin blinked several times before she looked again. She ran her hand up and down her leg. No injuries, only the drool from the mouth of the squirrel.

  This makes no sense! My pant leg is torn to pieces, so it got me. Why aren’t I hurt?

  Dizziness overcame her, so she rested her head on her bent knees. Ever since she started bleeding each month, she’d been feeling strange.

  The first time she woke with blood running down her leg, it scared her senseless. She thought something horrible had happened. After consulting Contruda, the AI said the bleeding was apparently a part of her growing process. It didn’t matter, she was still embarrassed over the mess her monthly cycle caused.

  Karrin sighed. Since the bleeding started, she could also hear Lurga’s voice inside her head. Not all the time, but enough to concern her.

  When it first happened, she thought she hadn’t heard him very well, so she asked him what he said. He only looked at her as though she was crazy.

  A pounding of running feet, and Lurga appeared beside her, then knelt on the ground. “Are you all right, child? You cried out. What happened?”

  Karrin shook her head. “I’m not sure, but I didn’t shout. The attack happened too fast.” She glanced down at her shredded pant leg. “The squirrel bit me, but – well – I didn’t get hurt.” She pulled up the torn material. “See. No teeth or claw marks.”

  Lurga examined her leg, moving it back and forth. “Hmmm,” he growled, and ran one of his sharp, gray claws down the soft flesh of her leg, leaving an indent behind, but no scratch. As much force as he used, he should’ve filleted her to the bone.

  “Interesting,” Lurga mused. “I am not sure what happened to your skin. You used to have scars on your legs, but they seem to have vanished. See?” He tapped on a spot by her ankle that used to have an ugly, jagged blemish.

  Karrin bent over and studied her ankle. “You’re right. What’s going on?” She bit her lip, frightened.

  “I am not sure, but when you cried out, I heard you in my mind, not with my ears.” He sat back on his haunches. “I think you might be developing PSI powers. Psychic abilities occur in Ispepyeins when they reach breeding age.”

  “I’m not an Ispepyein,” Karrin protested. “I’m Human, and we don’t have PSI powers.”

  Lurga eyeballed her, scratching his chin. “Are you really Human? The Calens wanted you killed for a reason. Why spend so much effort for a mere Earthling? No, I think there is more going on here than we realize. Maybe your destiny, which the Warrior Woman spoke of, is true.”

  “No, I don’t believe that,” Karrin said, vehemently shaking her head. “We’ve been here for seven years, and no one came looking for me. There has to be another reason.”

  “Well, the only way for me to prove my theory is for you to fly the fighter with only your thoughts. Shall we try?”

  Karrin shrugged. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I don’t have PSI powers. “Okay.” She stood and took off toward the fighter, parked next to their camp.

  The fourteen-year-old girl climbed into the silver, bullet-shaped craft and settled into the pilot’s seat.

  “Remember, use only your thoughts,” Lurga instructed from the ground, a safe distance away. Not knowing what to expect, he didn’t want to be bowled over by his own ship.

  Karrin’s forehead wrinkled in concentration, and the ship vanished.

  Lurga glanced around, amazed. She didn’t fly it away, it just disappeared. Maybe the girl turned the Tespada on by mistake? With that thought, he hurried over to the spot where the fighter vanished from. Reaching out, he couldn’t feel it with his hands.

  “What the –?” Lurga managed to say before his seven-foot-tall frame got slammed flat into the ground. His nose vents pressed against a solid wall of silver, he grunted and snarled, trying to push the obstruction off himself. The ship wouldn’t budge.

  *Lurga, Lurga, where are you?* a frantic voice asked telepathically into his mind.

  “Underr the ship!” he said in a deep, growling roar. “Remove the fighterrr from me, girrrl!”

  The silver ship jumped ten feet into the air, glided over, and sat back down on the ground. Karrin hopped out of the cockpit and ran over to the cavity in the dirt where Lurga lay.

  “Are you all right?” Karrin asked in a tiny, frightened voice.

  Lurga slowly sat up, scowling at the teen. “Of course, I’m all rrright,” he said in a frustrated, gargling roar. “Now, tell me, what did you do?”

  “Em, well, you said to think what I wanted to do. So, I thought about being on the other side of the planet, and well, I ended up there. Then, I thought about coming back here, and I did. I didn’t know I was going to land on you, I swear.”

  Lurga gnashed his teeth. Karrin knew that look. He was pissed.

  “I did what you told me to. You said think to fly, and that’s what I did, damn it.” She glared down at him, hands on hips, tears in her eyes. She usually cowered when he got upset. This time it wasn’t her fault.

  Lurga snapped his teeth together several times, and then took a deep breath. “I have never met a person who moved from place to place instantly.”

  He studied her some more. Quick as lightning, he grabbed her foot in a vice-like grip, drew his Seeder pistol, and pressed the barrel against one of her toes. “You may lose one, however I do not think so.”

  “Don’t,” Karrin screamed as she tried jerking her foot away.

  Lurga pressed the button. Dust and debris flew into the air, some of it landing on top of Karrin’s foot. He brushed off the dirt and inspected it. Her toes were intact. Not a mark or scratch. He shook his head, baffled.

  Whatever happened to her, she was more impervious than he was. A Seeder pistol could penetrate an Ispepyein’s skin, but not all the way through. The grids left bleeding wounds, nothing else. A Seeder rifle was more powerful.

  He stared at his pistol. I doubt my rifle would hurt her either. My weapons are stronger because of the Lear ore I installed in them.

  The warrior watched with concern as the girl rocked back and forth, clinging to her toes with both hands. "That did not hurt, did it?"

  “Like hell, it didn't –‘ damn you," Karrin admonished. She stopped rocking as she rubbed her toes. "Well, maybe not that bad." She sighed, peering up at Lurga through her dark bangs. "Well, actually, all I felt was the dirt landing on the top of my foot. But, it should have. Why did you want to shoot off my toes?"

  Lurga reached out and tapped the top of her foot before he swiftly jabbed down, fast and hard, trying to drive his claws into her foot. With as much force as he applied, his nails should’ve gone all the way through and into the ground beneath her. Instead, his hand bounced back into the air with a jarring sensation. He shook his hand from the pain.

  Karrin scooted back as fast as she could from her dangerous protector. "Why do you keep trying to hurt me?" she hollered. "You're supposed to protect me, not harm me. Remember?"

  "I am sorry, little one. I am totally baffled by the changes in you. I have never met a being who could withstand a blast from a Seeder pistol. Even our own skins cannot protect us from the grid. You are more
impervious to harm than I am. The fighter. How did you make it disappear?"