by Kylie Gold
As they collected themselves and helped the injured, I began back to the village. As I walked in the trees, I felt my eyes become drawn to her face again. Her face was sultry and alluring. What was going on with me? Humans were vile and disgusting—even the ones easy on the eyes should make me want to projectile vomit. Yet I caught myself taking in the details of her face, my gaze even gazing down to her sizable bust. Luckily, I approached the village and I could push the thoughts away as my people cheered my return. I gave a slight smirk, glad to have their support. At least they weren’t weak like our neighboring tribes.
I carried her limp body through the village until I reached my hut. Moving inside, I shut the door. Once inside, I walked her through to my living area and placed her down on a cot. With a sigh, I pulled a small snake lock from my pocket. Grabbing both of her hands, I placed it around her wrists and set it in place. With those injuries she had, it wasn’t like she would be able to move very much. Even if she managed to, the moment she stepped outside she would be slaughtered.
3
Julia
Consciousness wasn’t welcomed. Before my eyes could even attempt to open, the overwhelming pain covering my body came crashing down on me. It felt like I had been run over by a tank. I was in agony, and my entire being was completely exhausted from whatever events had taken place. I groaned from the pain as I began to finally open my eyes. For a moment, I felt dazed. Was I dreaming? Or had someone spiked my drink and I was hallucinating? I had genuinely no idea where I was for my first minute or so of consciousness. The room was made of a rich chocolate brown wood with accents of wood that looked golden. Paintings of strange symbols and letters hung on the walls. My eyes scanned around slowly, confusion and a migraine setting in. But then, I saw him.
My eyes grew wide as I looked at him, blips of memories coming back. I couldn’t remember exactly what happened, but I remembered seeing men that resembled him. The man had deep crimson skin with navy blue tribal tattoos covering his entire torso as well as his left arm, his right arm bare. He had intense citrine eyes and pitch black hair, one side of his head completely shaved and the hair he had was short and slicked back. The being was completely ripped, being shirtless showing off his deeply defined muscles—he resembled a humanoid tank with how large his muscles were and how tall he was. He had strong bone structure with a sharp jaw line and high cheekbones; his nose was defined as well, but was slightly bent at the bridge from being broken in the past. Something was strangely handsome about him… I couldn’t place what it was that I found so appealing about him, but it was there. I must have really hurt my head to find a being like him attractive; he wasn’t even human, how could he be handsome?
“Don’t move around too much, you’ll hurt yourself worse,” he spoke to me, his voice deep with a slight, strange accent. Wait, he knew English?
I had never been one to listen very well unless it was an employer, so I rolled onto my side but let out another groan. I didn’t know what my side looked like, but it couldn’t be good. It felt like it had been sliced open and then stomped on. “What happened…?” I grumbled, not really to him, but just saying my thoughts aloud.
“My men and I attacked your convoy. You’re a very valuable asset when it comes to gaining power within the war with the humans,” he spoke to her. “All but three guards were slaughtered. You weren’t meant to be targeted, but had been by accident in the heat of the moment. You’re beaten up pretty badly.” The man then stood and walked out of my sight for a second before returning. He kneeled next to the bed with a small jar and a spoon. Pouring some of the liquid into the spoon, he sat the jar down and put his hand under my head and began to lift it. “This is medicine. I assure you it is safe. I have no plans on poisoning or killing you.” Of course my first reaction was to deny it and not believe it wasn’t going to poison me, but I quickly weighed my options. If he wanted to kill me, he would—and it wouldn’t have to be poison. So while I had no reason to trust this creature, I didn’t have many options, and with how much pain I was in I couldn’t resist a pain reliever. I opened my mouth and allowed him to pour the medicine into my mouth.
It tasted like cinnamon, pepper, and spearmint at the same time, making my face screw up from the taste. But within just a few short minutes, I actually felt it begin to work. I could still feel the pain, but as the medicine worked through my system, the pain died down to an achy pain rather than overwhelming. Once the pain was cleared up a bit, I felt like I could think a little better. My eyes followed him around the room as he moved to put the medicine away. “Who are you?” I asked, unsure as to why this particular alien wanted me captive.
He paused before answering, almost like he didn’t want to tell me; but he eventually spoke, “Nova. I’m the prince of this tribe, and general over the warriors.” There was a pause before he looked to me, “And who exactly are you? Why are you so important for their mining?”
I couldn’t help but glare at him, “You kidnapped me and you don’t even know who I am?”
“I saved your life,” he fired back, “My men were ready to kill you but I stopped them.”
“Yeah, to use me in some sort of gambling war tactic.”
“Enough,” Nova snapped. “Just tell me why you’re important to the mining. Now.”
Well, wasn’t he a demanding man? I gave a huff as I sat in silence for a moment as I debated whether or not to tell him. Really, I didn’t see how him knowing my job title would help him at all, and not telling him would only piss him off and get me closer to death. “I’m Julia, an administrator for Intergalactic Mining Corporation. Without my say so, they can’t drill anymore at the site they are working on.” Nova was silent, the man looking deep in thought as he processed what she had said. “You seriously kidnapped me over mining?” I asked, annoyed at the very idea.
“I did what I needed to do. Mining is killing our planet, and I do not intend on sitting idly by as it happens.”
“Killing the planet? They are just digging up rocks in the wasteland between the jungle and the icy mountains,” I defended. Really, what were they hurting by digging into the ground and removing some valuable rocks?
“You are naïve if you do not think that mining kills the environment. They are robbing us of our resources and damaging the planet in a way that can never be reversed. Our people take only what we need from the planet, and reserve the rest for the sake of nature and our future generations,” Nova spoke in a condescending tone. He moved back to me with a small sack in hand. “Roll onto your other side.”
I stayed where I was, looking up at him with a glare in my eyes, “It’s not the humans’ fault that you guys didn’t take advantage of the resources you had.”
Fire was in his eyes then, a new hatred for me kindling just before my very eyes. “Just because we are not a monetary people does not mean we do not use Shaviro to its full potential. Humans are destroying any future potential the planet has. What will they do when they mine away the entire planet, leaving Shaviro in ruins? Pack up and move on, leaving our people to go extinct. Roll over, unless you want an infection on that wound.”
Hesitantly, I rolled over to the other side and stayed completely silent. He had trapped me in a conversational corner. It was true, if they ran out of resources to frack, cultivate, or mine, the humans would leave with no concern for the native people. But, I supposed that wouldn’t matter since the native inhabitants were slaughtering humans left and right—I had witnessed it with my own eyes. The Navani had attacked the convoy, the humans hadn’t attacked them. I could feel him lifting my shirt up to just under my chest. My eyes glanced over as I watched him clean the wound. Nova poured a liquid over the long gash that went from my lower ribs down to my hip. A pained breath escaped me as whatever he poured onto it burned. He then used a brush to rub an ointment over it, which was cold and soothing; it took away all of the sting from the liquid. With the painkiller coursing through my system and my body being physically worn out from the beating I had received, I fe
lt like I could pass out at any moment.
“I want you to give me the details of all of the upcoming mining sites,” Nova told her firmly as he packed away the supplies.
“What makes you think I want to help a race of aliens which are slaughtering my own kind?” I remarked as my eyelids began to droop.
“You know, if they weren’t attacking us or killing as well, it wouldn’t be considered a war—it would be genocide. But our numbers are depleting while the human colony is growing at an impossible rate,” he pointed out. “Fine, if you do not wish to help me, then that is alright. I have more plans for you, Julia.”
I was only half listening though, my body unable to fight sleep any longer. I did hear that he had more plans for me though, what the hell did that mean? I couldn’t fight sleep any longer, unable to give any sort of comeback. My body gave in to sleep and I passed out within moments.
4
Nova
For whatever reason, my eyes couldn’t leave her as she slept. This ridiculously stubborn and vile human was gorgeous. I couldn’t even begin to estimate how many times I scanned over her plush rosy lips, defined cheeks, and gently closed eyelids covering her pale olive hues. With her shirt raised to let the wound air out, I could see the dip of her hip bones and the slight muscle lines she had. I could tell she was strong for a human woman, which rather surprised me. The female guards we had fought over the years were always rather slim and easily squashed. There was something different about this woman, I could feel it; and something about that both excited me and made my stomach turn into knots.
How could it be that I was so attracted to this puny human? I couldn’t understand it. Never had I found their pale skin or their small statures at all appealing. In fact, I had always had the outlook that they were just vile and boar-faced. There was something about her that was almost…. sexy. And it unnerved me completely. Julia was just as pigheaded as the rest of the humans, completely blind to the destruction the humans were bringing to Shaviro. If anything, I should want to kill her just for the things she had said. But, I didn’t even have the urge. Perhaps the urge to smack her in the mouth, but nothing that could cause bodily harm. I tried to convince myself that was because she was already in rough shape, and that I needed her alive to use her for bargaining—but I knew that those reasons weren’t all of it. It all was driving me completely insane.
As I sat watching over her, there was a jolting explosion from outside, shaking the hut and all of my belongings. I rose to my feet and ran out of the hut, looking around to see my people scrambling from the panic of whatever had caused the explosion. My eyes jumped around until they landed on my second in command, Dran, who was running up to me. “Nova! The humans have opened up a new mining location just outside the village. It isn’t as large as the other, but it’s much closer.”
My eyes narrowed at the news, looking to the sky to see thick black clouds of smoke coming from the west. They were mining just on the brink of the jungle, closest to our village; and they were using explosives to create craters in the earth to expose the site. My eyes fell back onto Dran, “Prepare the men. Bring on archers and the lower ranks. We’ll need them to help us destroy that site,” I instructed him. Dran gave a brisk nod. “We’ll attack tomorrow.”
Dran ran off to gather the men to inform them of the attack. I briskly walked towards the building where we had kept the additional weapons. Traditionally our people only made one weapon per warrior, but with the relentlessness of the attacks we had planned, our blacksmiths had created several backup weapons. Every warrior had a traditional sword, a laser weapon of choice, and a war-hammer. They had also made an abundance of arrows for our archers. I knew it wasn’t the best or the noblest to use access materials to make weapons, when we were fighting humans because they were using too many resources. But, our expansion of weapons was a miniscule amount of additional materials compared to what the humans had extracted from Shaviro.
I checked over the weapons to make sure we had enough war-hammers. We were going to destroy any equipment they had to set them back as much as possible. I have had it with the humans and their selfishness. I was taking back Shaviro by force, no matter the consequences. No longer would I or my people be disrespected. Once I saw that we did, I grabbed one for myself and crossed it over my sword. War-hammers were heavy from the metal plates, but it wasn’t too much. Walking back, I headed to meet up with Dran and the warriors to discuss strategies; already ideas were formulating in my mind.
5
Julia
My body turned as I slept, but when I did, a dull pain shot through my side. The pain woke me up, my eyes fluttering open. Ugh, I had never felt so groggy and disoriented. I couldn’t even remember where I was and why I was in pain. As my eyes regained focus and looked about, reality came crashing down. My convoy had been attacked, my best friend murdered, and I was kidnapped and held captive by a savage group of aliens—not before being beaten to a pulp, though.
After a few moments of just lying there and gaining my strength, I finally pushed myself to sit up. I strained to do so with the large open wound on my side and my back covered in bruises, but I did it. My head spun a little bit when I did, really being able to feel how groggy I was. That painkiller he gave me must have really doped me up. Hell, it probably was some sort of native street drug or something. My eyes fell to my hands, my wrists bound together with a strange thick black lock; my ankle was tied with a regular rope to the leg of the cot. I supposed he had doubted my ability to move because of my injuries, but he had certainly underestimated me. Struggling to scoot down to the edge of the cot, I pulled my ankle up to me and began to try to get the knot out of the rope. Even trying to reach the knot was difficult, it being around my ankle was awkward and hard to reach with my wrists being bound. I tried from several different angles to get to the rope, having to be mindful of which way I turned my body. After several minutes of attempts, I finally managed to get both of my hands to the knot.
My attempts felt fruitless at first, with the knot not at all budging. But, the more I worked at it, it began to loosen up. Finally, after several minutes of sitting there pulling at the knot, it began to come undone. The rope finally fell to the ground and I wanted to scream in victory. I tossed my legs over the edge of the cot and slowly stood up. I had to get out of there, I needed to get home. I wasn’t about to hang around to be these aliens’ bait just to wind up dead. I moved across the room, looking for the best way to escape. My eyes took in the room as I walked, completely surprised by how lavish this alien’s home was. All of the furniture looked handcrafted and polished, giving it an expensive look; the blankets and curtains were made of valuable looking fabrics. I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised, considering he was a prince of some sort. I just hadn’t expected a savage people to have such intricate décor, nor the technology I saw. The lights around the room weren’t LED lights like humans had, but rather were like light bulbs in the fact they were little glass shapes. But instead of filament, they had blue electricity coursing through it, giving the room a light blue shade. Nova also had weapons hung above his bed, made of materials I wasn’t sure I even recognized. They were made of some sort of metal, with a line of blue light running down the side making it seem like it had some sort of power or something to it. Honestly, I hadn’t expected them to have electricity or any sort of advanced weaponry.
But none of that mattered, I didn’t care about their advancements; I cared about getting the hell out of there. I slowly approached one window after another, but outside of each I spotted Navani people, who would definitely kill me if they glanced over and saw me climbing out of a window. I groaned from frustration, looking around for any more options. Even though I knew there was no chance in hell of being able to just walk out the front door, I moved into the front part of the hut to see if there was anything at all that could help me escape.
When I walked through the doorway between the bedroom area and what appeared to be a kitchen area, the front d
oor to the hut opened. I hardly had time to register that the man in the door was Nova, before he charged at me. He tackled me to the ground with a large hand around my throat. My eyes were wide as he hovered over me, completely terrified that he was going to kill me for trying to escape. I realized as he loomed overhead just how large this man was; I wasn’t exactly a petite human, I was over an average weight and I was 5’7” in height—but this man was seriously huge. He had to be over six and a half feet tall, and his muscles were so large that his bicep was the size of my head. Nova could kill me with his bare hands without even breaking a sweat.
But as I stared up at his face in terror, I realized that he didn’t seem to want to hurt me. While his hand was around my throat, he didn’t squeeze it or apply any pressure. It was as though it was his way of warning me that he could, but he wasn’t going to. His citrine eyes bore into mine, anger flared in them along with other mixed emotions. After a few long, intense moments, he finally stood and pulled me to my feet by the lock around my wrists. He dragged me into the other room again and sat me on the bed. Nova walked across the room to a dresser. The front of the wooden dresser had cerulean blue panels. The man reached through the blue, the material parting around his hand. He then withdrew his hand with another larger lock in hand. Pacing back over, Nova knelt in front of me and wrapped it around my ankle and then the other end around the leg of the cot. “These locks were designed to constrict the more you struggle against it. So if you like blood being able to flow to your foot, I suggest you don’t try to escape again,” he said in a plain tone. Nova stood then, looking down at me before walking away as he spoke, “We’re attacking your people soon. They’ve opened a new mine just outside the village, barely outside the jungle.”