by Kylie Gold
The tribes mingled happily, chatter and laughter filling the village. Everyone had plenty to eat and drink, as drummers played an upbeat rhythm in the background. There was such a happiness in the air that I had never felt there before on Shaviro. Peace was over the land, not a single death happening in the last couple of months—not even an attack. While militias did appear here and there, they were easily managed. Hope was coming over the land, and I was proud to be one of the people to help make a difference. Of course Nova, Dracon, Amelia, and I didn’t do it alone, every warrior and person of the two tribes lent a hand.
After a couple of hours of eating and chatting, the evening was winding down to an end. Con was fast asleep on Dracon’s shoulder, crumbs still clinging to the corners of his mouth. The crowds began to thin as families returned to their huts and some of Dracon’s tribe headed back to their village. Eventually, we decided to call it a night as well. We stood and said goodbyes to Dracon, Amelia, and Con before they all headed back to their home. Nova and I helped clear the main table before finally deciding to retire for the night.
We made our way back to the hut, both tired from having full stomachs and it turning late. I immediately went to the restroom before coming out and sitting on the bed. I moved to pull my shoes off, but Nova kneeled down in front of me, pulling them off for me. It was rather sweet of him; I couldn’t reach my feet very well those days. I then moved to stand up, but he still had one of my feet in his hands. He began to massage my foot, working into the forever-sore muscles. Nova chuckled a bit, “Your ankles are starting to swell.”
“Yeah, well, it is your child doing it,” I mumbled, laying back to enjoy my foot rub properly.
“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with it. It’s cute,” he smiled, switching to the other foot.
I smiled at his words. What a weird thing to think cute. Then again, from our conversations before, I was in the understanding that he just found everything about my changing body to be amazing and beautiful in its own way. And when I felt like a fat whale most of the time, it was a nice confidence booster. I gave a small giggle in response, “Who would have thought nine months ago you would be calling my fat ankles cute.”
“I said swollen, not fat,” he retorted, but a smile on his face. “Honestly, I probably would have vomited even at the thought of marrying you.”
“Oh, how sweet,” I remarked sarcastically.
“What’s it matter how I felt back then? What matters is how I feel about you now.”
“And how do you feel now?” I asked, my tone coy.
Nova dropped my foot then. I went to glance at him, only to find him slowly crawling over my body. He held all of his weight off of me, his stomach not even brushing against mine. His face was level with mine, his citrine eyes gazing into mine lovingly, “I’ve never loved anyone or anything more than I love you and our child.” He breathed to me, brushing hairs from my face. “Ever since you came back to the village, I have never doubted for a second that you are the one I want to be with for the rest of my life. You, and you,” he placed a hand on my stomach, “Are my entire world.”
Even though I wasn’t a crier, the sentiment was beautiful. Tears blurred my vision even though I tried to hold them back. “I love you too, Nova,” I managed to get out. Nova moved from on top of me and pulled me to lay in the bed next to him. He reached over and turned the lights off before I cuddled into his side. His large hand rubbed light circles in my stomach as we both relaxed to go to sleep. The baby kicked idly at his hand, making Nova give a sleepy, throaty chuckle.
As we drifted off to sleep, I had never been so sure about our future and the future of Shaviro. Peace had come to the planet for the first time since I set foot on it. Our warriors didn’t live in fear. And in just two months’ time, we would have a little one in our arms.
The world was perfect, and things were going to be okay.
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Keep reading for the full text of the first Rebel Lords book, Dracon!
Dracon: A Scifi Alien Romance
1
Amelia
The clunky craft was moving on its linear route as smoothly as ever, with hopefully only hours to go until the return home. Arlo and I leaned against the cool metal wall. The Thinsulate body suits were warm, but not exactly warm enough to protect you from the cold coming from 50,000 square feet of ice. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you where my train of thought had been, I suppose just lingering deeply in the never-ending inner-monologue about how cold it was—whatever I was thinking, though, was ended abruptly by Arlo.
“What I wouldn’t give for a bowl of my mom’s beef stew right now,” he sighed, followed by ‘mhmm mhm mhmmm’. “Warm me up and fill me up. Tired of those nasty bars they feed us.” He gave his arms a rub, a shiver running up his spine. Arlo had been the closest friend I had on the godforsaken ship. He was rather handsome with rich dark brown skin and brown dreadlocks with big caramel eyes and kind smile. In my couple of years working there, Arlo had become a brother to me; the only family I ever felt like I had since leaving home.
I couldn’t help but chuckle, “What I wouldn’t do just be home right now. I would eat those nasty bars for the rest of my life if it meant I never had to come back on the glorious Union Jack.” While the meal supplement bars that had all of the daily vitamins and fiber you needed, they tasted like boiled garbage with a strong iron aftertaste—yet I would submit to eating those if it meant I could stay at home forever and not have to worry about that ship or these impossibly long mines for ice. Home being a tiny but cozy apartment in an urbanized area of planet Cycle. When it came to space, it didn’t really matter much when you are gone for days to weeks at a time for work. So as long as I had a place to sleep and shower, I was content.
“Isn’t that the truth,” Arlo chuckled. “I can’t wait to be home. So glad we have a week off before the next trip out. When we land, I’m gonna collect that money and take my brother hoverboarding on the comet strip outside the mesosphere. Well no, first it will have to be to go to my mom’s house to get her cooking.” Arlo’s caramel eyes searched off into the distance as he thought fondly of the return home. After a long content sigh, he finally glanced over at me. "What about you, Amelia? Got any plans for that paycheck?”
“Pay rent first of all,” I snorted. “Other than that, I suppose Cycle is my oyster for seven whole days.”
Just as Arlo opened his mouth to speak, the ship suddenly jolted downwards, making us fall to the cold floor. We started to our knees before the Union Jack tilted sharply to the left. Our bodies tumbled into the wall with a painful thud, luckily we were in a barren hallway so nothing came flying at us. Then, just as quickly as it happened, the ship leveled back out. We both stayed on the ground, looking around as if for some sort of annotation as to what had just happened. We looked at each other and began to give quiet, nervous bits of laughter. Then, the ship seemed to take a nose dive and the red warning lights all about the hall went off, blinking rapidly in every direction.
Grabbing onto the metal column next to the wall, Arlo and I managed to pull ourselves to our feet and held to the column to keep on our feet. There was a metallic click before a voice started in on the intercom, “Attention crew there has been a malfunction in Engine B, so we are heading in for a crash landing on the nearest colony planet. So hold the fuck on!” Eloquent wording, Captain Hamish, I thought bitterly to myself. Captain Hamish was nothing less than a brute—a stocky, asshole of a brute. Another metallic click gave before he began to speak again,
“Looks like the nearest colony is on Shaviro. So hold on and brace yourselves.”
“Shaviro?" Arlo exclaimed. "Great. Well, it was nice knowing you ‘Melia!”
I inwardly groaned. Shaviro was a newly established colony, and word had gotten around that the colony there was at war with the natives. And from the rumors going around, the natives were beast-like and bloodthirsty. Yeah, that definitely wasn't somewhere I would opt for going to. All of the men aboard had all heard the same rumors from the colonies we delivered ice to for a resource of water. No one would want to go there, I was sure of it. But there really wasn't anything anyone could do if we were crash landing.
The ship gave a heave as the Captain set the course for Shaviro, steadying out as its course was set. The projection was still at the nose dive angle, making the ship accelerate at an even faster speed despite the ships struggle to boost into warp drive. Arlo and I held to the column for dear life and prayed that the landing wasn't a complete crash. If I was going to die anytime soon, I didn't want it to be on the Union Jack or Shaviro.
2
Dracon
My thoughts seemed to only sour as we moved through the thick jungle, batting large leaves from my path as we searched for prey. It seemed as though even in the deep jungles of Shaviro, there were reminders of the humans lingering in the balance. Scratches covered some of the trees from stray fire from the humans’ guns. My heart gave a painful ache at the reminder of what the war between us and the humans had on the environment as well as the clan itself. Our numbers seemed to slowly deplete by the day. With the only livable area being around the equator of the small planet, and being in a constant conflict with the human colonists, it made it difficult to expand our clan.
We had lost so many lives in the name of useless bloodshed. I yearned for all of it to finally come to an end, to live in peace with the humans or for them to just leave. I was sick of coming back to the clan to find more widows had been made and more children orphaned. Many felt like just giving in, but that would never be the way while I was in charge. Never would we give up our own planet just for these pale beasts to destroy the planet. Already they had dug vast holes into their earth to mine for minerals and metals. They removed the tall, ancient trees from the soil to make way for their expansions. The humans were wasteful, greedy, and violent creatures. Something needed to give and soon, if the clan and our environment were going to prosper into the next generation.
“Dracon, there’s prey up ahead,” Brun called back to me, pulling me from the gloomy thoughts that haunted my mind. I gave a sharp nod and we grew silent, stalking through the trees. Shan and Brun were my two best warriors, Shan being my right-hand man. They were trustworthy men who would put their lives on the line if it meant protecting the village another day, and that was something I would never lose touch of.
“Let’s get this and head back to the village right away. We’ve been gone long enough,” Shan whispered to me. We neared the edge of the tree-line, our slender frames hid well behind the trees. Holding perfectly still, I could hear the faint crunching of leaves underfoot of the prey. Once they were at a certain distance, I gave Brun and Shan a nod. All at once, we launched into the clearing. At first, my eyes widened at the sight of five men; I thought it was going to be wild game, not humans. But from the ill-standing between the humans and us, it wasn’t as though we could just retreat and act as though nothing happened. They would think of us as weak for retreating. So, it had to be done.
There was no exchange of words needed between us, and there was no hesitation. Going at the five humans full force, we drew our weapons. Grabbing the metal shaft from my back and giving it a swing, the laser battle-axe took shape. Running at high speed, I swung the ax above my head as I leaped and struck a man down on the shoulder. His flesh was sliced as easy as a piece of fruit, blood spewing from the bone-deep blow. His body fell to the ground with a thud. With one last blow, the man's head was separated from his body. Shan and Brun were already tackling down two of the others, shrieks coming from the unprepared travelers. The sound of their cries attempted to break my resolve, but I held strong as I took down another human with a single blow. Within just a couple of minutes, five bodies were on the jungle ground with various chunks of flesh and body parts missing due to the effective laser weapons. I stood in silence as we stood over the bodies; my eyes fixated on the man I had given a single hit to the back of the head, splitting his cranium open. His thick red blood oozed into the soil. For that long moment, I stood there in anguished silence, I wondered just how much Navanian and human blood had seeped into the ground. Too much, far too much.
My heart went out to these fallen men. How were they to know they would cross our paths and die on that spot? If only the humans would be reasonable, to find some common ground between the species. But we were treated as though we were the invaders. Man was a brutal, close-minded and greedy species… but as I stared at the bodies, I knew no one deserved that sort of end. No matter race, no matter species, no matter origins.
3
Amelia
Well, the crash wasn’t exactly what I would call smooth, but it definitely wasn’t as bad as it could have been. By some miracle, the drunken Captain Hamish managed to angle the Union Jack in such a way that we gave jolting skips against the ground before coming to a stop- the alternative being crashing violently and in a sonic explosion, obliterating all life and nature around the crash. That wasn't to say it felt nice, Arlo and I had been tossed around the metal corridor, leaving each of us with pretty nasty bruises and killer migraines. How I wasn't dead after my head smashed against the floor as we made impact was beyond me—not like I was complaining, though.
All of the exits opened on the craft, a port just on the other side of the hall opening. Arlo grunted and held his arm as he stood and moved to hop out of the ship. I was a little slower, my head absolutely screaming from the pain. It would pass, but it couldn’t pass soon enough. With one hand holding the top of my head, I managed to climb down from the ship. Stumbling back a bit, I gave a look to the ship along with all the other crew members who stood in the grass. It really didn’t look too bad, but that sparking engine on the back of the ship was definitely causing the problem. My only wish was that the locals could fix it soon and we could hurry home. Our week off between trips was not going to be spent on some savage planet.
Just off in the distance, I could hear someone speaking to Captain Hamish. With one eye closed from the pain of the pressure of my migraine, I glanced over to see what looked like the leader of that colony conversing with Captain Hamish. Captain Hamish was nearly pirate-y looking in contrast to the colony leader. The Union Jack captain was short for a man, with long frizzy white hair, and physique resembled a bowling ball with arms and legs. The possible colony leader was strong with defined muscles, salt and pepper hair, combat styled clothing, and finished off with a robotic arm and eye. The wars there must have been worse than I thought for their leader to get in the cross hairs…
"Oh, of course we can repair the damages. Though those parts you are needing are not cheap, especially for a remote, newly colonized planet like ourselves. Why don’t we go to my headquarters to discuss price and payments,” the local gave the captain a friendly, but seemingly menacing grin.
Hamish just huffed and grumbled something under his breath before turning his head towards the disembarked crew. "Amelia, come with us," he called over to me. Oh, the wonderful perks of being the communications officer… I was hesitant to move from a mixture of my agonizing head, and the fact I just wanted nothing to do with Shaviro. Nothing good could come of crashing there. But… there wasn’t anything I could do to change it and so I may as well do what I can to try and prevent any more madness. Giving a glance to Arlo, I moved to join the captain and the local.
The man with the robotic eye gave me a professional smile, sticking out his robotic arm for a handshake. Grabbing the metal hand, I shook his hand as he introduced himself, “I’m Lyle Grain, leader of the Sh
aviro colony.”
“Amelia, as I assume you heard,” I gave back a rather forced, pained smile.
“As I did,” he gave a chuckle and then moved to walk them towards headquarters. “You guys are lucky to have crashed within the walls of the city,” Lyle told them. My eyes glanced about to see in the distance a massive white wall surrounding the perimeter. “If you would have landed on the outside of it, there is no telling how long you would have lasted. Probably not long enough for us to get to rescue you.” Well, that's comforting. We walked through the city; it looked just as all the other new colonies did. Tall complexes of apartments, strips with shops and factories. It puzzled me really with how ordinary it looked. If this was just like most of the other colony planets, why choose one with dangerous natives to live on? Then again, from what I’ve heard about Shaviro, it hadn’t been fully explored—so most of the people there probably were holding out hope that they would find something worth money.
Finally, Lyle led us into a building in the middle of town, what appeared to be a town hall. The inside was made entirely of an exotic looking wood that I had never seen. It was a brilliant golden yellow in color with the most unique looking grain. My eyes seemed to be consumed by my surroundings, trying to take it all in. We walked through a door and the door closed behind us. Lyle’s office looked like a military tactical tent with maps of local areas displayed on holograms all over the room and attack plans arrayed on each wall. I was in awe, unable to comprehend what life must have been like there. Lyle walked over to his desk and sat in the hovering wingback office chair. He looked to Hamish and me, and Hamish was just as distracted by all of the décor as I was. “Please, have a seat,” Lyle called to both of us, gesturing to the two sleek, hovering chairs in front of his desk. Hesitantly, we walked and sat in front of him. Fat Hamish seemed to grumble and shift quite a bit to get comfortable in the rather small chair.