by Maia Starr
I ran hard at Luka’s warning. I didn’t need to turn around to see that the creature was very close behind me because I could feel the ground shaking as it got closer. I could feel the hair on my neck stand up as the awful screeching sounds it was releasing filled my ears. We’re going to die. All of us are going to die, I thought to myself.
“Captain?! What are you doing?” I shouted as he ran by me in the opposite direction, toward the creature.
It was then that I turned to see that Marcy had lagged far behind me and had fallen in the blue-grey grass. Captain Wallace was running toward her shouting, “Get up! Get up!”
“I can’t. I can’t,” Marcy cried. But she wasn’t getting up because she was hurt; it was because she was paralyzed with fear.
“Marcy, get up!” I shouted. But it was too late. Whoosh! The creature picked her up. She screamed! Then it swallowed her whole. We all stood in complete shock. Captain Wallace shouted, “Nooo!” This got the creature's attention as he looked down at the Captain.
“Run!” I shouted. Then I heard Luka and Phoenix shouting as well. They were almost near the tree line, and they had stopped running to shout at us. “Run! Run! Hurry!”
I turned and ran for them, but I could hear Captain Wallace firing a couple of blasts with his blaster gun at the creature. Then there was a blood-curdling scream, and I did not need to turn to see that the creature had a hold of the Captain. Luka was screaming as she watched. Phoenix was shouting at me, “Hurry, Reena! Hurry!”
I felt a whoosh of air above me. I was next. I had to be. I cried out as I assumed that the creature was on top of me and that was the wind that I felt. But then I heard a different sound. It was the sound of fire crackling. I watched at Phoenix and Luka who were both observing at the sky with a stunned look. I knew that couldn’t just be the creature. I looked up and saw something that I was not expecting.
There was a dragon. It was a real life black dragon flying in a circle and breathing fire, directed behind me. I turned to see that it was not the only thing attacking the creature. Others joined the dragon, but these others were not full dragons. They were alien men with large dragon wings and a scale-like pattern on their skin. They shot fire at the spider creature and shot at it with blaster guns. But I didn’t stop running. Before I knew it, I was with Luka and Phoenix.
“What the hell is that?” Luka asked as we all watched the dragon men battle the spider creature.
“I have no idea. We don’t even know what planet we are on,” Phoenix replied.
“I, for one, am glad that they showed up, whoever, or whatever, they are. They seem to be against this creature, and that is good for us. I only wish they had shown up sixty seconds earlier. Marcy, the Captain, Jason…” I said breathing hard trying to catch my breath. The creature was screaming as it was now on fire, turning in circles and fighting the dragon men.
“I think they are going to take it down,” Phoenix said.
“What should we do? Should we hide? Run?” Luka asked.
“And go where? Who knows how many more of these spider creatures are in those woods. We are no match for them. We have no ship. We are stranded. If these dragon men speak, then maybe we can communicate and figure out where we are and how to get off this planet and back to Earth,” Phoenix said.
“So we wait? We speak to them if they come to us?” I said.
“It is our only choice right now,” Phoenix said.
We watched as the dragon men finished off the creature. There were three dragon men and one full dragon. They were unlike anything that I had ever seen. I was mesmerized as I watched these warriors take out such a massive creature. There was one that caught my eye. He was rugged-looking with long dark hair down to his jawline and a perfect body that could rival a Greek god. He was covered only from the waist down by a thick loin cloth and heavy boots that looked like they had some sort of weaponry attached to them, but it was hard to tell. I watched as this dragon-man warrior flew in dangerously close to the creature, taking risky shots at it. He was either very brave or very stupid. The other two men were very distinguishable by their hair as well. One had blonde hair and the other had chestnut brown hair.
“They did it. Unbelievable,” Luka said as she snapped me out of feeling hypnotized by these alien warriors. I turned my attention to her and Phoenix. The warriors amazed them as the spider creature fell dead with one last thud and screech. It was a horrifying sound but one that I was relieved to hear. Then the alien warriors and their dragon turned toward us. Luka, Phoenix, and I shifted on our feet.
“Shit. What if they are hostile?” I said quietly.
“Then we will be in same situation if we turn and run anyway. Besides, they saved us from the creature. If they wanted us dead they would have let the creature finish us off then kill the creature for whatever trophy they want or whatever their reason is for taking it down, but I genuinely think it was to help us,” Phoenix said.
“Shh… they’re coming this way,” Luka said.
I held my breath as they came toward us. I could not believe that we were in this situation at all. We had left Earth on a science mission. I was a scientist with a focus on extraterrestrial biology, which was mostly just microbiology in space, or so we thought. But now I obviously had extreme proof that there were massive life forms out in space, and one had just killed half our crew, and another species had rescued us.
When we left Earth, we were a small crew with one mission: gather research. I was the main research scientist. Marcy was the onboard engineer to help with any mechanical issues and Jason was the pilot. Captain Wallace was in charge of the entire mission, and Luka was the doctor but also a research scientist as well. Then there was Phoenix; he was sort of security. We had all set out on a pretty standard mission to gather samples from a large asteroid just outside of the solar system. Then it happened.
“What the hell?!” I shouted as I got up off the floor, having been thrown from my bed. Then the sirens went off,and red lights flashed. I ran toward the flight deck in my tank top and boy shorts, not bothering with modesty.
“What the hell is going on?!” Marcy shouted as she came out of her bunk too.
“I don’t know! It doesn’t sound good!” I shouted as I noticed Phoenix already ahead of me in the hallway running toward the flight deck. I could hear Luka and Marcy shouting behind me.
“Captain! What is it?!” I shouted as I saw Jason in the pilot’s chair sweating and swearing as he grabbed the controls. The Captain was pissed.
“We were just hit by a large chunk of asteroid. The autopilot did not steer clear of it. Now we are out of control. All of you, in your seats and belted now!” the Captain shouted. We all buckled in, and I said a prayer. This could not be good.
“We have no power whatsoever! I’ve turned the engines off and on and nothing!” Jason shouted.
“Mission control, come in control. We have an emergency; this is Captain Wallace,” the Captain said. There was only static on the line.
“Oh shit! We’ve lost communications too! We are so screwed!” Jason shouted.
“Quiet!” the Captain shouted as he tried the radio communications over and over again.
“We’re going to just spin out into space forever,” Jason said as he flipped switches and tried everything he could to get the engines going.
“Are you serious? Please tell me you are kidding,” Luka said.
“I’m going to the engine room to see what I can figure out!” Marcy shouted as she got up and left the flight deck.
And that was it. That was the end of our mission as we knew it, and the start of drifting into deep space for almost three months. We had drifted very close to an unknown planet that was a bright orange and white color. The gravitational pull of the planet pulled us in, and we crash-landed onto the surface. Fortunately for us, we landed in a lake full of a water-like substance. But without knowing where we were or if there was civilization on the planet, we had no choice but to hike until we figured something out.
Which is how we found ourselves in our position.
“Who are you?!” the dark haired dragon alien warrior shouted to us as they all flew down to the ground, landing only twenty feet or so in front of us. We were in shock and silent. They were tall, almost nine feet tall, and they had a pattern on their skin that looked like a tattoo of scales. They were fierce-looking and took my breath away. The scientist in me was completely fascinated, but the woman in me was drooling.
“We are from Earth,” I finally said. The dragon warriors looked at each other as though they were pleased.
“You are humans then?” the dark-haired dragon asked.
“Yes. We are humans from Earth,” I said.
“I am Lieutenant Dekario Dundra from the planet Kelon,” the dark-haired warrior said.
“If you are the Lieutenant then who is your Commander or Captain?” Phoenix asked. Then out of nowhere, and to our surprise, the large black dragon flapped its wings, and in a flash, it shifted into a man-like warrior. He looked like the dragon-men, but he did not have wings. “I am the Commander!” he said in a deep voice. He was menacing looking with short black hair and piercing green eyes that looked like they were still glowing from the dragon eyes he had before. He was older than the others and obviously in charge. “I am Commander Triq. What are humans doing on Tiok?” the Commander asked in an angry tone.
“Tiok? Is that the name of this planet?” I asked.
“We crashed here. We are not here by choice,” Phoenix added. I could sense the tension mounting between the dragon men and Phoenix, so I had to do something.
“Thank you. Thank you for saving us from that thing. We are no match for it. It took some of our crew,” I said.
“You are welcome,” the dark-haired dragon man called Dekario said as he looked directly at me. His gaze was so strong, and his brown eyes were burning a hole through me.
“You are in need of rescue. Are you expecting Earth to come save you?” Commander Triq asked.
“No. We are on our own,” Luka said. “We are grateful for any help we can get.”
“We will take a look at your ship and see if we can fix it,” the Commander said.
“Not possible. We landed in a lake far from here. It sunk to the bottom,” Phoenix said.
“Then you will come with us to Pacu. It is a village not far from here, and you can eat and rest there,” the Commander said. We were silent.
“Just a second… can you remain there while we speak among each other,” I said but did not wait for an answer. Phoenix, Luka, and I huddled together and whispered to each other.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I think we don’t have a choice. We can’t stay out here without them. You saw that creature. We would be dead right now if it weren’t for them,” Luka said.
“But what if we go with them and are sold into some sort of slavery?” Phoenix asked.
“Well, I guess that is a chance we have to take because we can’t stay out here. I am willing to take that chance. If it happens, then we will figure something out. At least in the village we will be in some sort of civilization and can eat and get some water,” I said.
“I am okay with that plan,” Luka said.
Phoenix sighed, “All right. Let’s do it then.”
We turned to the dragon men. “We are thankful for your help. We are ready to go to the village,” I said.
“Good. And do not worry: you will not become slaves,” Dekario said with a devilish grin on his face. My eyes widened. How did they hear us whispering when they were so far from us? The three of us looked at each other very embarrassed.
“So how do we get there then? We hike?” Phoenix asked.
“We fly,” the Commander said.
“But we can’t,” Luka said.
Then in a flash, the commander shifted back into dragon form and flew high in the air. Whoosh! I was suddenly off of my feet. Strong hands were around my waist, and a mass of dragon man was in front of me. I looked up and into the eyes of Dekario.
“Put your arms around my neck and hold on,” he said as we hovered above the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and for extra support, wrapped my legs around his waist. I was well aware that he had not asked me to do that, but I wanted too. I would not be falling from this flight. I looked over to see Luka in the arms of the blonde-haired dragon man, and Phoenix was carried by the chestnut-haired dragon man, but in a less sensual way. I smiled to think of Phoenix feeling really embarrassed by the situation. He was a Navy SEAL after all.
The dragons flew after their Commander high over the tall trees of the alien planet. Now I felt complete sadness. I had the time to let the deaths of our crew sink in. Marcy, Jason, and the Captain were now gone, and it was unbearable as we had all grown very close in the months we were together. But we had to pull through and keep going, taking it day by day, not knowing what this adventure was going to bring.
I looked up again at the dragon man that carried me and the scientist in me was very curious. “What are you?” I asked.
“We are Draqua,” he answered.
“Draqua. I have never seen anything like you,” I said.
“I am more like you, human female, than you know,” he said.
“Meaning what?” I said arching a brow at him.
“You will find out in time. For now, just hold on, and we will get you fed and to safety,” he said.
Find out in time? What the heck did he mean by that? I didn’t like the way it sounded because it almost seemed like he meant he was part human, but that couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.
CHAPTER TWO
LEUITENANT DEKARIO DUNDRA
Being second in command of a warrior troop of Draqua was right where I wanted to be. Battle was where I thrived, and it made the blood course through my veins. I was a warrior, and I was damn good at it. I could fly and dive faster than any other Draqua I knew. I was skilled with the long knife we held strapped to our boots, and I was a great shot with the blaster guns.
But nothing compared to my ultimate weapon. It was the weapon that made me the best of the best and the envy of many elder dragons, including my commander, Commander Triq. This ultimate weapon of mine was the ability to move objects with my mind. I was the only hybrid Draqua that had it. Others, like Kavik, who fought at my side often, had different powers. He had the ability to paralyze others with just the touch of his hand. My ability was better, I thought. But I was glad to have Kavik at my side fighting at any time. He was a trusted friend and a hybrid like me, and he was always up for a mission. So when Commander came to us with a new mission, we could not say no.
“Dekario! Kavik! We move out at the noon sun today!” Commander Triq shouted at us as we stood at attention on the beach of the village. We had been doing water drills only moments before.
“Yes, Commander!” I shouted.
“Where to, Commander?” Kavik shouted.
“We are to go to Tiok. Be ready, warriors, as you know there are many dangers on that planet. Be ready,” he said. Then he turned and walked away.
Kavik turned to me, and we both grinned. “Woop! Tiok!” I shouted.
“The most dangerous planet near us. Sounds like a good time to me,” Kavik said.
“Agreed. Tiok, the planet of giant deadly creatures that want to swallow you whole, sounds like a party to me,” I said.
“And of course, there’s the rumors…” Kavik said.
“Oh come on. You don’t believe that, do you?” I said.
“Why else would we be going?” Kavik said.
“Same reason we always go: to flesh out any opposition,” I said as I shifted out of dragon form. Kavik did the same. Then we walked back toward the village to make our way to the launching ports.
“Yes, to flesh out the opposition, which we have been doing for years now and we never find anything. If the opposition still exists then they have been really good at hiding.”
“Well this is how we keep them in hiding and not be active ag
ain: we go patrol any rumors we hear about them,” I said.
“Or the other rumors…” Kavik said.
“I don’t believe it. Another hybrid of Draqua does not exist on Tiok or any other planet. We are the only hybrid Draqua. That is the way it has always been and always will be. The rumors of Aeriwana crossing with Draqua are just that” rumors,” I said.
“Still that would be one mean hybrid. The Aeriwana are mean as shit by nature. Can you imagine?” he said.
“No, I can’t. Come on, let’s prep for the mission,” I said.