by Maia Starr
“Oh, I see. This is all very overwhelming,” I said.
“Yes, of course, it would be. It makes sense. But it seems that we have found some luck. You said that you are medical. You are a doctor?” he asked.
“Yes, I am. But I don't know how much help I can be. I am a doctor for humans. I know nothing of your race. How do I know if something is wrong with you if I don't know what normal looks like for you? You kind of need that base in order to figure out an illness,” I said.
I looked into his light brown eyes, and for a second I thought I saw a moment of vulnerability. There was sadness there. I had just told him that his situation was hopeless. I regretted it.
“But, I can get you into my lab and run some tests. Then I can go from there. Who knows? I might see something that could be the key to all of it,” I said.
He perked up at my words.
“We would be very grateful to you, human. We cannot live without our king. If he were to succumb to this illness, our entire race would perish,” the dragon with the platinum blond hair and green eyes said.
“Jex!” the king snapped at him. I guess he had told me more information than the king wanted me to know.
“There is a problem though,” I said.
“What is that?” Karik asked.
“I don't know how to get you into the lab without the entire village seeing you. They will go into a panic. They do not like the unknown. We are a group of untrusting humans. There is too much at stake for us. How do we know that you are not in alliance with our enemy? This could be a trick,” I said suddenly feeling suspicious. I was letting the attractive and vulnerable nature of these dragon men put me off my guard. I was not thinking clearly. I was not thinking defensively.
“We know about your enemy the Clenok Clenok cyborgs. That is what we offer in exchange for your help and for acceptance of the humans in your village,” Karik said.
“What? What do you mean?” I said.
“We will help you fight the Clenok Clenok cyborgs in exchange for your medical help. We want and need your medical knowledge, and that knowledge can't be ours if you are dead. If the Clenok cyborgs kill the humans, then we are also out of luck,” he said.
“Gee, thanks,” I said.
“It is the truth,” he said matter of factly.
“No, I understand. I got it. It is just a little cold,” I said.
“Cold or not. Honesty is what we live by,” he said.
“Loyalty and honor!” the other two weredragons said in unison as though they were saluting an army officer.
“We took out a cyborg repair facility one hundred and fifty miles away from here. That should take some of the pressure off of this village for a while,” he said.
“You did what?” I said in shock. Humans have never had success in going after a repair facility of the Clenok cyborgs. Any attempt at doing so was left in defeat. The human army never returned. It was something that we never tried again even though we knew it was exactly what was needed if we were to ever defeat the cyborg armies.
“We took out the facility. We blew it up,” Azlo said.
“But how? We can never do such a thing,” I said.
“Yes, but you are not dragons,” Jex said with a cocky arrogance.
“Just the three of you? You want to defeat all of the Clenok Clenok cyborgs out there on Earth?” I said raising an eyebrow.
“No, of course not. My army,” Karik said.
“army? You have an army?” I said looking around in the sky and in the trees.
“Yes, of course, I do. I am a king,” he said arrogantly.
“Where is this fabulous army?” I said crossing my arms over my chest.
“It is camped out one hundred miles from here,” he said.
“Oh, how convenient. An army that I cannot see,” I said.
“It does exist, human,” he said with anger in his voice.
“Vanessa. My name is Dr. Vanessa Lopez,” I said.
“Vanessa…” he said in a deep husky whisper, repeating my name. I don't know why, but as soon as his voice hit my ears, I felt fire in my loins. Shit.
Chapter 5
King Karik Korinth
She was the one. She was the one that could help us. I knew it the moment that she ran to my side after I collapsed. That was the kind of considerate nature that we needed to help us. She was a medical doctor, and I knew right away that there was something special about her. It wasn't just that her scent drove me crazy. Or that I felt completely entranced by her every time she moved and jiggled. There was something else to her. I was drawn to her. I did not know why.
“So I guess the only way to solve this problem is to get a town meeting going. We have them in the middle of Main Street. Everyone gathers there. I could call a meeting and explain what and who you are. But you will have to hide until I tell you to come out,” Vanessa said.
“We can do that. We can follow your orders,” I said with a smile. I liked to be ordered by this human female. She was petite, but she had wit and sassiness to her. I liked her.
“All right. I need some time. There is a large building with a clock on it. A tower of sorts. If you can, fly there without being seen and stay there. I will have the meeting right underneath that building. When I call you, only one of you come. One at a time. This is very important,” she said.
“Yes, we understand,” I said.
“Then I guess I will get to it. I need at least an hour or so to gather everyone. But right now is a good time for you to go there because everyone is barely waking up. No one should see you. But I am trusting you blindly. I still have my suspicions. I probably shouldn't be doing this at all,” she said.
“Trust me,” I said to her. She had every right to be suspicious, but I wanted her to trust me. I wanted it badly. And it wasn't just because we needed the help of the humans; it was more than that. I wanted her to trust me deep down.
“I trust no one. But we do need your help, that is if you really do have an army. That is why I am helping,” she said. Then she walked away. She walked down the trail and out of our sight.
“What do you think, my king?” Azlo whispered to me.
“I think we can trust her. But it is hard to tell how the rest of the village will react. We scared her when she first laid eyes on us. I expect the others will react the same,” I said.
“Maybe it would be better to appear to them in our normal state, not shifted into dragon form. We look more like them without our wings,” Jex said.
“That could be a possibility. We should go check out this building. Perhaps we can just walk out the front door instead of flying down from the tower. That might be too much for the humans at first,” I said.
“What about her words? She said that she does not know if she can help you with the plague because she does not know our race medically,” Jex said.
“Yes, that is a chance we have to take. We have no other choice. I only know that something happened when she touched me,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Azlo asked.
“When she touched me, I felt myself getting better almost instantly. I don't know how or why. I felt the weakness subside and it wasn't just the regular passing of the symptoms like usual. It was something else. I felt a rush of adrenaline, the same that I feel when I am flying very fast and dangerously. I felt a small amount of happiness surge through me. It was an odd sensation,” I said, recalling the moment that she touched me.
“That is a very unique reaction indeed. What do you think it means?” Jex asked.
“I don't know, but I would like to find out. Come, let's get to that tower. Follow me. Stay low,” I said.
An hour later, two thousand humans were gathered on the street in front of the tower building. We had shifted out of dragon form and hid inside of the building instead of on top of it. I took the advice of my soldiers to appear to the humans not in dragon form in order to keep it less frightening for them.
I watched as Vanessa addressed the humans ga
thered in front of her. I was very impressed with her. She was a commanding presence. Everyone was paying attention to her. It was obvious they respected her and that she was a leader of this community. I found it very arousing. As she spoke, I found myself growing hot. I found myself feeling strong, and that sense of happiness was returning. Just her voice was having this effect on me. It was a very interesting reaction. I wondered what could be causing it. But I would have to figure that out later. For now, I had to continue with the task at hand. That was important. I had to stay focused and not let this unusual reaction I was having distract me.
“I have called this meeting today because of the most unusual circumstance. I hardly believe it myself!” Vanessa said to the audience. This was it. It was going to be time to reveal ourselves. She continued with her speech.
“This news will seem alarming, but it is good news. We have been fighting the Clenok Clenok cyborgs for so long. We have stayed hidden from them and have fought off small bands of the Clenok cyborgs when they find out where we are. Sometimes it is successful, and sometimes it is not. We have lost many lives trying to find a way to defeat the Clenok cyborgs once and for all. But one thing that we have not tried is getting help. We need help. The Clenok cyborgs are made of metal; they are very strong. We are human, and our bodies are fragile. The Clenok cyborgs do not feel. They can fight and never age. They are able to repair themselves. They are machines created and lead by other machines. It seems that they just keep replicating over and over again. There seemed to be no end in sight… until now.
“I have met someone that brings me hope. I have met someone that says they want to help us fight against the Clenok cyborgs. They are much stronger than us. They have a vast army. I only met him today, and I want you to meet him as well.
“My first reaction when I saw him was to be scared. But after I spoke with him for some time, I knew that we had nothing to fear. They want to trade with us.
“You must be wondering what I am speaking of at this point. Please keep the commotion down as I continue to tell you. I met an alien. These aliens are known as the Veruka. They come from a planet called Tivoso, galaxies away. They are led by a king. This team is called king Karik Korinth. I have met him and two of his soldiers today. They come to us for a trade. They want to trade knowledge that we humans have in exchange for their protection. They have a vast army that is stationed a hundred miles away.
“I know that all of this sounds unbelievable, but there is more. They are not like us. True they look somewhat human, but they are taller and larger than us. They are what they call shifters. They can shift into a half-man half-dragon form: a weredragon. I know that this is extremely incredible. I agree. But I think that we should trust them because they ask for very little, and in return, they could save us all. I want to introduce you to King Karik Karin!”
The crowd was in commotion. They were all looking at each other and talking to each other. I could hear the fear in their voices. I looked at Jex and Azlo.
"That is our signal,” I said.
They opened the door. Together, the three of us walked out and stood behind Vanessa. She turned and looked at me. She had a look of sympathy in her eyes. She nodded at me.
“Say nothing, just stand here and let them look,” I whispered to my soldiers. It was then that I noticed that Vanessa was looking at our bodies. She had not seen us out of dragon form. I think she liked it. I nodded to her, letting her know that she still had the lead. The crowd grew very loud, and we could hear some humans saying that we were there to kill them. Others were saying we were going to eat them. Others said we were in league with the machines, the Clenok Clenok cyborgs. There was panic. This is what we were expecting. Humans were suspicious by nature.
Vanessa put her hands up in the air to silence the crowd.
“Attention! Let me have your attention! They wish to speak. They speak our language!” she shouted. Then she looked at me, and I stepped forward by her side. The crowd grew quiet.
“Humans of Earth! Thank you for allowing me to speak. What Dr. Vanessa Lopez has said is the truth. We have come here to help you fight the Clenok cyborgs. Yesterday, we blew up a repair facility located a hundred and fifty miles from here. That should keep the number of cyborgs low within this region for now. We did this in order to help you. We admire the humans and seek your knowledge, and nothing else. We have known of you from across the galaxies for many years. We know that you are intelligent beings. We want to learn from you. We want to gather and store your knowledge, especially that of medical expertise that could possibly help our race as well.
“It is true that we are weredragons. Right now we are in normal form. But we can shift into a weredragon form. We won't do that now as we do not wish to frighten you.
“We come in peace. We have come to help you, if you will let us fight for you. I have a vast army of weredragons that are stationed far from here. But they are ready to defend you if you shall come under attack by the Clenok cyborgs. I hope that you will give this some thought and not immediately banish us from your home. It is just the three of us. My name is King Karik Korinth and beside me are two of my trusted soldiers, Azlo and Jex. We are the only three in your village.
“We know that this comes as a surprise. Dr. Vanessa Lopez has agreed to meet with us to share her medical expertise, and we will not be in your way at all. But we wanted our presence to be known; honesty, loyalty, and honor those are words that we live by.”
“Why should we trust you?” a man asked as he came up on the stage beside Vanessa. He was looking directly at me. He had brown hair with brown eyes. He was short, not much taller than Vanessa. He had a look on his face that was a cross between fear and jealousy. It was an odd combination, unless he was protecting Vanessa. Perhaps this was her mate.
“Why would you trust anyone?” I said to him in return. “You cannot trust someone until they have proven themselves to you; isn't that correct? When you first meet someone, you do not know them. But I will tell you this: we are stronger than you. We have a vast army. We shoot fire from our mouths. Knowing all of this, if we meant you humans harm, you would not be standing here right now. We would have launched a surprise attack. But why would we do that? You are living beings. Why would we want to be here with machines? We owe them no allegiance. But know that if we were here to harm you, it would already be done. You can trust that,” I said directly to him but loud enough for the crowds to hear. I could hear murmurs of agreement as people understood what I was saying.
The man looked down at his feet. That was it. He wasn't going to argue anymore? I thought it was strange for him to give up so easily. There was something about him that I did not trust, but I guessed he was thinking the same thing about me.
Chapter 6
Dr. Vanessa Lopez
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” Dr. Bradley Douglas said to me.
We were inside the lab while the three weredragons were outside of the lab. I had led them to the lab after we gave our introduction speeches to the people of the village. The village was now buzzing with all kinds of talk. Some people were glad that these aliens were there to help us. After seeing just how big the soldiers were, they believed they could help us. Others were suspicious and did not believe them at all. I knew that this would be the state of the village from now on. You couldn't please everyone. People were never on the same page. This was how it had to be for now. It wouldn't be until the Veruka proved themselves as soldiers helping us that people would be convinced. But it was all that I could do for now.
So I lead them to the lab so that I could get started on helping them. I did not mention the blackness illness that they were dealing with because I knew that would cause more harm than good. People would think that it would spread to them, and as far as I knew, it possibly could. I didn't know anything about it at all. How could I? I had only known about this for a couple of hours and only seen it in action once when the king fell over. That was all that I knew.
But now
Dr. Bradley Douglas was lecturing me and shouting at me in the lab. More so than his usual berating of me.
“Don't worry. You don't have to deal with this at all, Douglas. I am going to work with these aliens and share medical knowledge with them. They are also allowing me to gain knowledge from them. I am going to run tests on them. Who knows? They could offer medical advancements for our people as well. You don't have to lift a finger. Just go on with your regular work as you always do,” I said, lying to him. I was trying to make it look like I was going to be testing the weredragons out of scientific curiosity and nothing more. It would be a good cover.
“You cannot trust them. They are not here for the reason they say that they are.”
“How do you know that?” I said narrowing my eyes at him.