by Maia Starr
“Yes. We all do,” Luka said.
“That is a very delicate matter and one that I have to give much thought to. It is not as easy as you think to just get you back to Earth,” he said.
But I couldn’t hold my tongue anymore either. I needed to know the answer to the question that was burning inside of me. “Where are the other humans?”
“How do you know there are humans here?” he asked.
“I put it together. It’s obvious that there are, but I have not seen any so far in the hours that we have been here.”
“Yes, Dekario said you were smart,” the king said. I suddenly felt very impressed that Dekario had commented on something other than my body.
“They are here,” the king said. “My wife is human. My mother was human. So was Dekario’s and the other hybrids'.”
“What the hell?” Phoenix said.
“How is that possible?” Luka asked.
“We Draqua came across a problem many years ago. Our females suddenly became barren out of nowhere. We don’t know if it is a phase or not, but so far it has been the same. So we had to find a way to keep our race alive. This is when we started mating with human females. It was successful and created a hybrid dragon, like I am.”
We sat in shocked silence. So many questions ran through my head, but I couldn’t even figure out how to get the first question out of my mouth. Luka and Phoenix were dumbfounded.
“So you mean that there are human females here that are married and mating with Draqua and creating offspring?” I asked.
“Yes, at least a thousand or more of them,” he answered.
“What? How is that possible? Where did they come from? We never even knew that you existed!” Luka said.
“Yes, that is the delicate situation that you find yourselves in. We take the human females from your planet. We have for years now, unknown to your species, and that is why it is almost impossible to let you go back. You now know that we exist and that is information that could put the future of the Draqua in jeopardy.”
“You have been stealing humans from Earth?” Phoenix said angrily.
“Phoenix…” I said trying to calm him.
“What makes you think you can just do that?” Phoenix continued.
“Phoenix,” I said again.
“I understand you are upset. I would be also, but it is a necessity. Therefore I need time to think about his return to Earth. It all comes down to trust. If you return to Earth, would you not tell anyone about us, or would you tell? It has been done before long ago. A human female was returned to Earth after spending time with us, and she said nothing about it.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“She chose to return here and be my wife,” the king said.
I was in complete shock by his answer. I didn’t believe him. “Can I meet her?” I asked.
“Yes. She is always happy to meet new humans, but she is away on the other side of the island with our son, who is in warrior training. When she returns, I will tell her about you. For now, let me think about this return to Earth decision. Antaris!” he shouted.
The door opened, and a beautiful Draqua female with long black hair that fell down her back walked in.
“This is Antaris; she is born of a human female and an elder Draqua. She is a hybrid like me, but she cannot shift like I can. She is the new generation and hope for the future. She is to be your guide today and take you around the village,” the king said as he nodded to her.
“It would be my pleasure,” she said as she looked directly at Phoenix. It was then that I noticed that Phoenix’s jaw was practically on the floor as he looked at her. I guess his anger had suddenly left him.
“Come with me,” she said as she turned toward the door. Luka and Phoenix followed, but I stopped in front of the king.
“King Hydros, I still have many questions,” I said.
“That is understandable. You will get your chance to ask me in time. For now, see the village. See what the Draqua are about. There are humans about the village, and you can see for yourself if they are happy. Go,” he said to me. I sighed and followed everyone else out of the grand palace and down the spiral staircases that led to the beaches.
Once we were on the sand, I was surprised by what I saw. What I had seen from high up in the trees was only part of it. Now that we were on the beach and in the thick of the bustling activity I could see just how many that I thought were Draqua females were actually human females. They were dressed the same as the Draqua females, so it was easy to see why I had mixed it up.
“This is the beach. This is where we swim and fish and have fun,” Antaris said. It was then that I noticed a large mound moving in the water. I stopped and stared at it. Then with a burst of water, a Draqua surfaced and flew straight in the air. It was beautiful. I was jealous of what they could do. They could fly and swim fast and who knows what else. Then I realized something. “Oh, I get it!” I said out loud as they turned to look at me. I smiled a big smile proud of myself as I said, “Draqua means aqua like water and Draq like draco or dragon, so it’s water dragon.”
“Very good,” Antaris said.
“Antaris!” I heard a female voice call out. We all stood in shock as a beautiful human female bounced her way over to Antaris. She was probably thirty-eight years old or so, and she looked very happy as she held up a large shell. “Look what I found. Your father is going to love this.”
“Mother,” Antaris said. “These are humans newly arrived to Kelon.”
“Oh! Welcome! You are going to love it here. Isn’t it beautiful? Nothing on Earth can compare, right?” then she stopped and looked at Phoenix and said, “A male? That’s a first.”
“Yes, the king has asked me to show them around. I will return home for dinner,” she said as she gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and then turned to us. “Come; I will show you the center.”
Luka, Phoenix, and I all looked at each other in shock. I think we had all thought the same thing. We were thinking the human females were locked up in chains and forced to be here against their will, but that was not the case at all. As we walked with Antaris, we passed more and more human females all engaged in the daily activities. None of them showed any signs of being ill or oppressed.
“This is the center. This is where we gather for celebrations and announcements and such,” Antaris said.
“When is the next celebration?” Phoenix asked, flirting with the young Draqua female.
“A month from now. We give thanks to the planet of Kelon for providing for us every month. We are very fortunate to live in such a place and celebrating it reminds us just how grateful we should be,” she said.
“I can’t wait to see it,” Phoenix said with a grin.
“A month from now?” Luka said looking at him, but he was too much in a romantic stupor to realize that he had just said he was going to stay here for a month when we had just asked the king to take us back to Earth.
“Now I will show you the communal eating areas. You can go there any time of day and be fed. No one goes hungry here. Then I will return you to your huts,” Antaris said.
“Lead the way,” Phoenix said.
Luka looked at me and giggled at Phoenix’s sudden change.
In the communal eating areas, we had a lot of fun. There were massive outdoor kitchens, and we learned to take part in the work. I helped cut fruit. It was red and reminded me of mangos. Luka helped the women by beating a sort of flour that they created out of a ground seaweed of sorts. The scientist in me wanted to know how it was all done. I wanted to see the entire process. I wanted to see where the seaweed was harvested and how they got it into flour form. I wanted to know where this fruit was picked. Did it come from a tree, or the ground? I picked up a slice and smelled it then I ate it. It burst with flavor in my mouth. I looked over at a hybrid child that laughed at my reaction to the tartness of the fruit. I laughed too. I saw Phoenix learning to clean and cut open fish as he worked with Antaris. I could
tell that he really did like her.
When we were done in the kitchens, we joined for a communal meal. It was much more satisfying to take part in making the meal because now I appreciated it more knowing all the work that went into it.
When we were done with the meal, Antaris took us somewhere I had never seen before.
“Are you sure that we are allowed to go in here?” Luka asked.
“Yes, it is fine, I assure you,” Antaris laughed.
I was concerned too. We were following Antaris away from the beach and away from the village, deep into the jungle. She was following a very narrow path.
“What is in here?” I asked.
“Everything,” she said. “This is where most of the food grows,” she said.
As soon as she said it, I perked up. I looked around and noticed all the wild fruits and vegetables that I had seen in the kitchen.
“Sometimes, if you want to help, we come in here and pick the food but you must do it and right and not overdo it. We need to leave some to grow and feed the jungle animals and keep it all alive. It is a system. You will learn. It takes training,” she said. Then she spent the next hour pointing things out to us and showing us various trails. I knew that I would not be ready to wonder off alone into this jungle any time soon. I needed to study the trail layout first.
After we walked down a very long path, I heard the rushing of water. We emerged from the trail into a clearing. “This is the emerald pool,” she said as she pointed at the stunning scenery in front of us.
There was a pool of water the color of emerald jade. The waterfall coming down the side of the cliff into the pool was small and shallow, which made it perfect for swimming.
“This is incredible!” Luka said.
“I just want to jump right in,” Phoenix said.
“Yes, please go ahead. We use this for swimming too but most Draqua prefer the ocean. This water soaks into the rocks under the ground and travels in an underground river toward the village. It is where our drinking water comes from,” Antaris said.
“Fascinating,” I said as I realized they had their own aquifer.
“Woo!” Phoenix said as he jumped into the pool. Luka giggled and then followed him in. Antaris jumped in, and I followed. The water was refreshing as it hit my skin. It did feel good to swim in some cold water after the long space journey that we had endured. We played and frolicked for quite some time.
A couple of hours later, we were all back at our huts. I looked out the window expecting Dekario to pop in at any moment. The sun was setting, and I remembered he said he would try to be back by nightfall. I wondered where he had gone. I decided to take this opportunity of being without him to run the hot water in the tub and take a long bath. I had gotten a little dirty on the path through the jungle back to the huts and I wanted to clean up.
Plunging myself deep in the water felt great. All of my muscles relaxed, and I realized that I had really needed this. I had done a lot of work in the kitchen and then sightseeing with Antaris. It was more than my muscles had done in a long time.
Boom, the loud thud startled me. I felt my hut shake a little. I grabbed a cloth and pushed it into the water over my naked body.
“Dekario…” I whispered.
The door burst open. Commander Triq stood there. My entire body quivered, and my face turned white.
“Reena, I see you have been waiting for me. You don’t need to wait anymore.”
“Get out!” I shouted at him.
“You don’t mean that. Don’t worry; once I am inside you, it will feel so good you will forget you played hard to get. Look at you lying there wet. How can I not?” he said as he came toward me.
“No! Phoenix! Luka!” I shouted at the top of my lungs over and over.
“They are in the communal area, eating. They are not up here,” he said as he came toward me.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to get out of the tub. I thought it would be harder for him to get a hold of me in the bath. I screamed, “Get away from me, you pig!”
But it didn’t work. He hovered over me as I trembled in the tub screaming. His smile was menacing. He plunged his hand into the water and caressed my leg. I jerked it away from him. “Get away from me!”
BAM! The front door burst open as though a large gust of wind had hit it.
“Get the fuck away from her!” a booming voice shouted.
Wham! Commander Triq was thrown across the room by an invisible force. He hit the wall hard. I looked at the door to see Dekario standing there. His wings were spread wide behind him, and he was staring down Commander Triq with eyes that seemed to be glowing a light brown. I didn’t know what was happening, but I was glad that he was there. I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I was more than happy to see him at that moment. I felt safe.
“What do you think you are doing?!” Dekario shouted.
Commander Triq stood up from the ground and growled at Dekario. I knew he was about to shift. I didn’t think the hut would be able to hold him if he did. I remembered how large the black dragon was.
“Don’t do it,” Dekario said as his head jerked up, and as he did, Commander Triq was raised off the floor. He was floating in the air. I couldn’t believe it. It was then that I realized that Dekario was doing this.
“I’ll pull you out that window and drop you down to the ground before you can shift. Now get out!” Dekario said as he walked in a circle inside the hut, never turning his back to Commander Triq. Commander Triq floated in the air inside Dekario’s force field toward the door. He was finally set down on the platform just outside the door. Then… bam. The door shut and locked.
I was in the tub with my mouth wide open. I could not believe that this had just happened. I truly was in an alien world with these strange alien dragon men that had all kinds of mystical powers. It was a lot to wrap my head around. Yet one thing kept interrupting my science logic, and that was that I was completely turned on by Dekario’s rescue. He was so damn attractive to me at that moment. I never thought I would enjoy being the damsel in distress, but now that I was rescued, it was a heady feeling. It filled me with desire, lust, and passion for this dragon being.
“Did he hurt you? I will kill him,” he said as he moved over to me and knelt down beside me.
It was then that I could no longer hold back my feelings and the floodgates opened. I cried. I put my face in my hands, embarrassed that I was not being strong, but I couldn’t help it.
“He didn’t physically hurt me. But he scared me. I really thought he was going to… I mean he wanted to…”
“Shh… it’s going to be all right now. He’s gone,” Dekario said as he put his arms behind my wet back and pulled me against his chest. The moment he did it, I felt a sense of safety. I relaxed against him and cried as he moved his hand up and down my back. The thin piece of cloth was still stuck to my body, but I knew that it didn’t cover anything. I was naked against him, and it was a confusing mix of emotions. I felt turned on beyond anything but also still in fear of the encounter with Commander Triq. It was a lot to deal with after dealing with drifting in space aimlessly, then crashing, then losing my crewmates in such a brutal way, and then learning about these alien beings. It had all built up inside of me to this moment of release, and I needed to release.
“He will never hurt you again. I promise you that,” he whispered to me as he pressed his lips against the top of my head in a gentle way.
“Promise?” I whispered back.
“Yes. I promise on my honor as a Draqua,” he said. “You are shaking. Come on; let’s get you out of there,” he said as he let me go and stood up. He moved to the cabinet shelves on the wall and grabbed a bright yellow cloth. He handed it to me as I clung onto the wet cloth trying to cover my body.
“Turn around,” I said as I grabbed the cloth from his hand. He grinned and then turned around. I stood up, and the sound of the movement of water was joined by the sound of Dekario letting out a small moan and a sigh.
“This is torture, Reena,” he said playfully.
“Then you will just have to be tortured,” I said as I stepped out of the tub and wrapped the cloth around me. “Okay, you can turn around,” I said.
He turned and looked at me up and down. I knew the wet cloth sticking to me wasn’t much of a cover up and I was dripping wet.
“That really isn’t much difference, thankfully,” he said with a grin.
“Dekario!” I said as I crossed my arm over my breasts. He cleared his throat and said, “Right, I will leave you now, or I won’t be able to not kiss you,” he said, moving toward the door.
His leaving left me in panic. “Wait!”