Eclipse of the Heart

by J. L. Hendricks

  My eyes glazed over as I took in the entire scene in front of me. Some of the warriors sent to protect me were laying on the ground in pieces. The car that was supposed to transport us back, or what was left of it, was ablaze in bluish orange flames. Whatever accelerant they used hadn’t burned up yet. I wondered if we would even make it out of the driveway before another car exploded.

  We started making our way to the location Anise gave me, very slowly. Four of the guards carried Lancer on the stretcher while Ash and I walked in front of everyone looking for any rippers. The other ten guards who made it out with us covered the rear and sides.

  I was barely hobbling along as my back was knocked out of whack from hitting the side of the building so hard. I had blood and dust all over my body and cuts grazed my face and hands.

  “B, stop for a minute.” Ash reached down and pulled up the leg of my pants and found some shrapnel in my left leg.

  “Alright everyone let’s stop here and assess any injuries we might have. Does anyone have a first aid kit or something we can use as bandages?” Ash took off his shirt and ripped it up to use as a cleaning cloth and bandages. He took the shrapnel out of my leg and cleaned it up as best he could then wrapped a strip from his shirt around my leg to try and stop the flow of blood.

  My leg started to feel better and I could walk a bit better, funny how a piece of shrapnel in your leg makes it difficult to walk.

  Fillie found me right after we left the courthouse and she stayed close above us scanning for any enemies. I was exhausted and having trouble walking, I didn’t think I would be able to use any of my mind powers. Thank goodness for Fillie!

  “Girlie, you don’t look too good. Can I get you anything? How about a small water bottle? I bet I could find you one of those around here.” Fillie was worried about me and fussing over my appearance. I was covered in dust from all of the debris of the explosion.

  “Fillie, if you could find some water for all of us, that would wonderful. I think we all need it right about now.” I wasn’t going to be the only one drinking any water. Fillie flew off to look for a store. My mouth was so dry my tongue was sticking to the roof of my mouth. It felt like I had a mouthful of dust I couldn’t get rid of.

  She flew back to me about ten minutes later with a water bottle in each claw. We all stopped along the side of road to share the two bottles of water amongst the sixteen of us. No one got more than a couple mouthfuls. But it helped.

  “Thank you Fillie, please let me know if you see any more on our path.”

  “Girlie, I see trouble up ahead. There looks to be a blockade on this street. That must be why none of the emergency vehicles made their way to you. I will go get a closer look to see if friend or foe controls that blockade. Probably foe.” Fillie took off.

  “Ash, I think we need to go down a different path. That blockade up there is most likely controlled by the rippers. We are not in any position to fight right now.” I looked at him with pleading eyes. I was exhausted and I knew the guards were as well. They took turns carrying Lancer but they were still exhausted.

  “I agree B, let’s turn right down this next street and see where that leads us. I know a few more turns and we will be in a different district, one that will get us closer to Anise and help, but I don’t know where the enemy has their blockades set up. We might have to lay low somewhere while a few go out and scout the area.”

  “We could have Fillie fly up higher and check for safe pathways.” I knew Fillie was not tired and would help us out.

  As we turned down another street, we heard a noise. I looked to my right and saw movement. I brought out my knife and all of the guards slowly came around us with their weapons drawn as well.

  “Whoa, whoa, it’s just me. You know, your friend, Xandrie” She put her hands up and was walking slowly towards me.

  “Xandrie! Am I happy to see you! How did you find us?” I asked her as I hugged her.

  “I was walking towards the courthouse after I heard what happened. There are multiple checkpoints that are manned by Rippers. Did you know that? They must have known you were all going to be there today. How did they know that? This took some serious planning to put in motion.

  “Our government is trying to get enough warriors together to attack the blockades and get you guys to safety. I have water for everyone and a bit of food too, along with some medical supplies. Who is on the stretcher?” Xandrie started taking out the items she had in her backpack and passed them around to everyone.

  Xandrie looked at my leg and took off Ash’s makeshift bandage. Then she cleaned and dressed my wound. She told me I would most likely need to see a real healer to have the wound cleaned out and get some medicine so I wouldn’t get an infection.

  While Xandrie made her way around our group checking wounds and redressing them, we all started drinking and eating the snacks she had for us. After a ten minute break we were ready to go again. All of us seemed to have more energy now.

  Fillie came back to tell us basically the same thing that Xandrie did, the checkpoints were manned by the enemy. This was a huge effort on their part. We couldn’t figure out how they knew we were going to be there. We didn’t even know until three hours beforehand.

  Xandrie and Fillie both discussed the best way to get us out of there. So we headed the way they directed. Fillie would fly around us to make sure no one was sneaking up on us. However, the safest path was at least five miles from the meeting spot with Anise. Ash figured it would take us at least another hour and a half to get there. And that was only if we didn’t come across anything to slow us down.

  Which of course we did…

  As we turned down a street that Ash guessed marked the half way point, someone found us.

  “B’Lana, I am surprised you made it this far with Lancer in tow. But I sure am glad I am the one who found you. It makes up for what you did to me the other day.”

  “Reuben, so NOT nice to see you again. I had hoped you would stay away. But I guess you aren’t that smart.” Sometimes my mouth really did get the better of me.

  His face turned red and he stuttered, “Y…you, you stupid piece of pond scum! You have no idea how much trouble you are in.”

  I looked around and took in his companions, there were only six of them. While they were better equipped, we had the numbers on our side.

  Ash told the guards who were carrying Lancer to set him down and guard him. The rest of us were to engage with Reuben and his friends.

  “Reuben, before I kill you, I gotta ask, why would you leave your family and friends to support a losing cause?” I really did want to know. He had it good, and he was serving in the Reverend’s guard. It didn’t get much better than that for guards.

  “It’s not a losing battle, it is the just and pure cause I fight for. This planet is not meant for the Sennafae, we should never have settled here to begin with. This planet belongs to the Rippers. They were the first to settle this place. We came along and took it from them. Like so many of your governments back on Earth. It is time we give the Rippers back what was theirs and we move on from here.”

  Reuben really had lost it. What Sennafae in his right mind would support leaving the planet?

  “Reuben, where would you go? What planet do you think you can inhabit? None of them are empty. At least none you can reach from here.” I was curious where the movement thought they were going to go.

  “Those who support the Rippers get to stay here and serve alongside them to make this a better planet for all of us. The rest will be sent to Earth or the dark planet. It makes no difference to us where they go. Our planet has been stripped of its natural resources and most don’t care that we are starting to feel the effects of global warming, similar to what Earth is going through. The only way to protect my planet it to get rid of those who are quickly killing it.” Yup, he had lost it.

  Xandrie used my distraction to make her way behind the enemy. Once she was in place, Ash and I went forward and started the attack on them. Xandrie
came up behind the ripper in the back and slit his throat before he even knew what happened.

  Ash and I double teamed Reuben while the rest of our guards engaged with the four enemy troops who were left. Most where rippers, but two were Sennafae traitors. They deserved what they had coming.

  The enemy troops were taken down very quickly by our guards and Xandrie. Reuben had been trained quite well and he had a long sword while Ash and I only had knives. Xandrie threw me one of the swords she took off a dead ripper. While I was exchanging blows with Reuben, she also got a long sword to Ash.

  I went in to strike Reuben with my sword and Ash was behind him. I was too slow because of my injured leg and Reuben got a slash on my arm. It wasn’t deep, but he did draw blood and it hurt, badly. The knife going through the outer edge of my arm felt like fire running along it. I fell back to the ground and though this was it.

  Ash screamed my name and Fillie flew over Reuben’s head and distracted him enough that I was able to roll away and Ash came up behind him and lobbed his head off before he even knew what happened. They made a great team!

  Ash leaned down and yelled for Xandrie to come over and check out my arm. Then he wrapped he in his arms, being careful not to touch my left side, as that was the arm that Reuben sliced through.

  He kept kissing my head and temple and saying over an over how happy he was that I wasn’t killed. “He could have killed you. We should have found a place to hole up while waiting for help. I never should have let you make this trek while you are so injured. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t make it.”

  “Ash, thank you for your concern, but I am fine. It is better that we kept moving. Lancer needs the medical attention and splitting up would have only made us all that more vulnerable.” I reached up and kissed his cheek, which had blood and dust on it.

  “Ugh, I need some water to clean off my face. There is too much blood and dust on us all. Xandrie, do you have any more water?”

  Xandrie handed me a bottle; Ash and I shared that bottle and used a little bit to clean our faces off.

  His reaction made me think about what he said earlier, regarding his feelings for me. Maybe he did really care for me. But I still doubted he changed enough to keep my heart safe.

  We went around and picked up all of the weapons the enemy troops had on them and then started back towards Anise and safety.

  Chapter Five

  We finally made it to Anise and her friends just before sunset. We were all tired, hungry, and thirsty. Anise had expected this so she had a cooler full of food and water. She also had a medical vehicle ready to take Lancer to the clinic and Netty was waiting for him.

  “Lancer, even though you can’t hear me, I want you to know that I am praying for you to heal and come join us on Earth as soon as possible.” I kissed his forehead and wiped a tear from my eye before looking back at Anise.

  “Will he be alright? He’s been unconscious this entire time. That can’t be good, right? I don’t want to freak out, but now that we are safe I think I might. Please tell me this isn’t uncommon?” I was really nervous about Lancer still being out of it. It worked out better that way for the trip, but he should have been awake after several hours of walking to the meeting spot.

  “B, don’t worry, he will be fine. I am sure it is just a bad concussion and he will wake up as soon as they healers treat him. It isn’t uncommon after being in an explosion. You are lucky you were in the back of the group. Even though you are a hybrid, I doubt you would have survived if you had been next to Lancer. He will survive this and be back with us soon. I bet he is back on Earth within two weeks.” Ash put his arm around my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

  Then in my ear he said, “Don’t worry, I know he heard you and will do everything he can to get back to you. If anyone can motivate him to get back up it’s you.”

  Anise had orders from the local police captain to get Ash and I to the portal right away. It would be safer for everyone if I was off-world.

  The local government felt that my presence would bring about a civil war. Since I had been there, the violent acts had increased almost 25%.

  Xandrie said, “Basically you are no longer welcome here. That’s cold. And stupid to play into the hands of the enemy like that. I hope that when they get control of the city, the High Command welcomes you back here.

  “Ash do you want me to go to Earth right away, or should I stay here and keep an eye on Lancer?” Xandrie was supposed to go to Earth with us and join Squad 1. Lancer wasn’t happy about that as the two of them did not get along since she had left him for Cash fifteen years ago.

  “Xandrie, I would appreciate it if you could stay here at least until he wakes up. You know he won’t want you around. But I know that if you are there with him he will be safe. So until he wakes up and kicks you out, please stay with him.” Ash asked her to stay even though we needed more warriors on our squad. We had lost half our squad between all of the attacks on Earth and now with Lancer injured. I just hoped that the other warriors who had been assigned to our team had already made it to Earth and were just waiting for us to return.

  “Thank you Xandrie, I appreciate you staying with Lancer while he is unable to defend himself. I hope to see you both back on Earth soon.” I gave Xandrie a hug goodbye.

  “Anise, thank you so much for all of the help. You saved us by waiting here and not letting the medics leave without Lancer. Please keep me posted as to his health. And let him know that we can’t wait to see him as soon as he is able to come home.” I hugged Anise and then we all got into the various vehicles.

  Anise had brought fifty warriors with her and ten vehicles, not including the medic van that took Lancer to the clinic. One vehicle filled with four warriors took Xandrie straight the clinic and they were to keep guard over Lancer. The rest of the vehicles split up and took different routes back to the portal, in case any of them were followed.

  Fillie followed my van at a distance and kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Thank the moons we made it to the portal safely.

  We all got out and started to walk towards the portal. Fillie was on my shoulder and prepared to go with us back to Earth. But the guards at the portal wouldn’t let her. “I am sorry miss but you can’t take a Sennafae animal to Earth. How would you explain it to the humans?” The guard asked.

  “Listen here you big oaf! I am not an “it”! I am a female dragonette that is older than you by several centuries! You better show me the respect I am due or I will burn your hair off right here and now!” Fillie was flying very closely to the guard and flapping her wings close to his head. She was mad and was not going to let him get away with disrespecting her.

  The guard put his hands up around his head, “I am sorry, I’m just following orders. I can’t let you through to Earth. Why would you want to go with a hybrid human anyway? I mean no disrespect but you belong here with us, where we will take care of you and not try to hunt you down. Have you ever been to Earth or heard the stories about how they hunt anything different there? I spent one year on Earth and have no desire to go back there again, they are barbarians.” The guard shook himself as he said the last sentence. He was obviously not a fan of Earth and humans.

  “Listen here, I am Filligree Samone Coral Sennhauer the second! I am over 500 years old and if I choose to bond with a human hybrid, no young guard is going to stand in my way!” Fillie blew some fire just above the head of the guard and singed the top of his head.

  “Now get out of my way as I have a date with destiny, and her name is B’Lana.” Fillie landed back on my shoulder and flapped one wing back at the guard and nudged my cheek with her head to get me to walk through the gate. So I did.

  I walked through the gate holding Ash’s hand and had Fillie on my shoulder. Once we made it through to Earth the guards on our side looked at me funny. But kept their mouths shut. I figured they were shocked to see a dragonette sitting on my shoulder.

  “Fillie, I am going to have to hid
e you from the humans. Here, they would not understand a dragonette, and they would freak out if they heard you speak. Please don’t say anything until we get inside of headquarters, Ok?” I put a jacket over the top of Fillie but she was not happy.

  “Can we wait here until dark and then I can fly to your headquarters? What is the time difference from here to Sendryl?”

  “It is three hours earlier here, but the sun sets later here, I guess it would be at least four hours before the sun sets. But there should be a car not too far from here. You won’t have to stay under the jacket for long. Once we are in the car if you sit on the back seat and don’t fly around you should be fine.” I was trying to coax her into staying quiet under the jacket for the short walk to the SUV’s.

  “Do we have a hummer here? Or should we call in to HQ and ask for Cash to bring one?” I asked the guard closest to me who was stationed here. There had been some new additions since I left and didn’t recognize this one. We also brought through five more warriors with us to join our team. Each of the squads where down at least two warriors. This time I was going to learn everyone’s name. And I had Fillie to help me remember them.

  “Hi B’Lana, my name is Petre and I have been assigned to Squad 3. I already called Cash as soon as we received the message that you were coming through. He should be here shortly with your Hummer. How is it you were able to bring a dragonette through? We have all been told it’s illegal to bring any of our pets with us.”

  “Listen here you uneducated, stinky excuse for a warrior! I.Am.Not.A.Pet! I am a dragonette of the highest order and have bonded with B’Lana. No one tells me what I can or can’t do. Humph!” Fillie buzzed his head with her wings. Thankfully she didn’t singe his hair.

  I just shrugged my shoulders and put my hands palms up while trying very hard to keep from laughing. Poor Fillie, everywhere she turned today someone was trying to tell her what to do. “What am I gonna do?”