by Poppy Rhys
She was the only one who could touch us. The four of us belonged to her, and her alone.
Our brethren had moved on with the few valo women left and we had no one but each other. Even hundreds of cycles with no return of Ghishwy, the women of our race gave us a wide berth, no matter if they believed we were truly abandoned or not.
That was the power Ghishwy wielded. If she really was gone for good, we’d be alone forever, surrounded by our people, but set apart from them as well.
I used to bask in the glory of being one of Ghishwy’s chosen soldiers and lived for the attention I’d receive when I struck our enemies with the power of the gales I helped create.
Look at us now.
I swallowed the anger boiling up from the pit of my being.
The she-creature’s body called to me on a physical level, but I craved something more—anything more—than what sad existence we had now.
My gaze twitched to view her again. I couldn’t take my eyes off the restless crowd though.
“I’m inclined to agree,” I finally said, breaking the glaring match between Riv and Dason. “She will not be imprisoned.”
I knew Dason was surprised—we hardly agreed on anything these days—but he didn’t show it. Only his eyes narrowed, though our brethren couldn’t read him the way I could.
“She will be our charge,” Lonan declared.
“It doesn’t belong here!” someone shouted, and the crowd murmured agreement.
“We will see to her return to the surface!” Lonan raised his hands to subdue the gathered. He was the peacemaker among us, the calm before the storm.
Dason’s muscles flinched and I knew he wanted to argue, but he wouldn’t. He’d wait until we weren’t surrounded. We never showed a divided front. Ever. In battle it could mean defeat, and while Ghishwy’s army may have failed her in various battles on occasion, the four of us had never lost a fight.
We didn’t know how.
I shifted, my charge lessening as the agitation of the crowd thinned. What was Lonan talking about? It was too dangerous this time of the cycle to leave Ghi. Dason should have never been topside this d—
The horn of Ghi blew, cutting my thoughts short, and solidifying my concerns.
The ero’ha migration had begun.
NINE
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” I realized, so far, these aliens hadn’t understood anything I’d said, but the words came from me anyway when a loud sound erupted and subtly vibrated the stone beneath my feet.
I once had a target in Japan—a country plagued with an abnormal amount of tsunamis in the past five years—and the unease I experienced whenever their alarm towers would echo through their modified cities filled me now.
Very few people risked living on the ground anymore in that country. It had the least amount of poor and orphaned citizens of any country I’d been to on assignment.
I saw the crowd shift when I caught a glimpse of them between the torsos of Trouble and Kid, their gazes lifting skyward. I, too, tilted my head back.
My mouth fell open.
Shark-sized barracuda fish lazily floated over the domed city. Barracudas had been extinct on Earth for a few decades, overfished, despite their high toxicity levels due to the polluted oceans, but I still remembered their harrowing pictures.
Long and slender with a mouth full of shred-ready teeth—exactly like what swam through the waters now. They’d never grown to shark-size on Earth though.
My skin tightened. I was in that water not very long ago. I could’ve been fish food had Kid dragged me down here any later than he did.
I had yet to see a cuddly critter on this planet, and I was starting to think it was one giant death trap. The US military should consider this planet for training. Make it out of this place, and you could survive anything.
My lips thinned. How would I get back to the surface now? The barracuda-sharks were everywhere. The clusters moved all around the dome, casting large shadows and blocking most of the sunlight.
Goddammit!
I righted myself, my eyes meeting Kid’s who stared back at me, his full mouth curved into a lopsided grin. The others stared at me too, except Brick. I followed his gaze.
My hand was gripping the waist of Kid’s pants, my clenching fingers pulling just enough to expose the skin of his defined V abdominal muscles.
I snatched my hand away, wiping it along my thigh like he’d just given me cooties.
They continued to watch me and I became aware the gathered hushed crowd did too.
“Still a’kon sa Ghishwhy?” Trouble tossed to the crowd, smirking, before returning his gaze to me.
He’d asked a question. I could tell by the playful timbre of his voice.
Wait. I understood a word! My translator wasn’t failing me. If it got ‘death’ and ‘still’, it was learning the alien language. Wasn’t sure it was possible, before. I didn’t think the US government had aliens in mind when designing the translation technology.
I supposed a language was a language, so maybe it didn’t matter.
The need to know what Trouble said was palpable, because the others gawked at me like I’d just uttered some ancient curse and darkness was about to consume the planet.
LONAN
“Still believe she’s Ghishwy?” Kahn asked our brethren. His humility was as subtle as the ero’ha that traveled the waters around Ghi.
He was right, though. I ran a hand through my hair. Ghishwy loved the ero’ha and their vicious natures. She wouldn’t have grabbed onto Dason and stared upon them with apprehension.
The she-creature did.
“I told you.” Dason’s excitement was evident.
My eyes flickered to Riv and the others. We’d all seen the topside female touch Dason. No woman had dared to do that since Ghishwy.
My current raced along my arms.
I was jealous, I realized. Kahn had touched her, Dason had held her—she’d even grabbed onto him for comfort—and she’d assaulted Zaid.
I had yet to know what her skin felt like.
“She looks at the ero’ha with hesitation,” Zaid confirmed at my side.
“You saw it, Riv.” Kahn was openly relishing this moment. “You all saw it.”
“Only Ghishwy would touch the four of you,” Riv countered, and I couldn’t help but shake my head.
“Or an outsider,” I said before the crowd ran with Riv’s argument and we had to convince them all over again. “An outsider would not know us.”
Our brethren finally calmed, knowing what I’d said carried weight.
“Ghishwy would not come back as something so ugly!” a brave valo shouted from the crowd, drawing nervous laughter.
My jaw muscle ticked, and I felt Zaid stiffen beside me. I raked my eyes over the she-creature’s profile. She was peculiar. I wouldn’t say ugly, but different.
She had strangely curled hair, and in spots where it was drier, it held an odd red hue I’d never seen before on a valo.
Her face was a puzzle to me. She had eyes, though they were two-toned, the smallest pupil I’d ever seen like a black pinprick in a dirt-colored sphere.
She had a nose like ours, but much smaller and I wondered if her sense of smell was hindered. Otherwise, wouldn’t she have scented Dason and fled?
Thinking of scents, I could smell her. It was distinct, and I was unsure if I liked it, but I couldn’t seem to stop inhaling, trying to pinpoint every variation emitting from her pigment-blotched skin.
That was another thing that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from: the darker flecks that were misshapen and littering every surface of her exposed skin. Were they underneath her orange shell too? What were they for, I wondered? Maybe they acted as camouflage in whatever foliage surrounded her home.
The laughter continued after another rude remark. It pulled me from my observation.
“Enough of this,” Zaid rumbled. “There is no more to discuss here.”
“We’ll be watching,” Riv warned, lingering mome
ntarily and glaring at Kahn who snorted dismissively.
When we were the only ones left in the gathering center, the strangely encased female said something. Her words made no sense to us, but her mouth was curiously fascinating when it moved.
“LET’S TALK ABOUT GETTING me back on land, eh?”
They ignored me.
Not only did they ignore me, they walked away as if they expected me to follow. Like a pet.
A fucking pet.
I rolled my eyes skyward, my fingers curling into my sore, wounded palms as I jumped off the platform and not so easily caught up with their long strides. My exhaustion was all too real, but it was safer to follow them—the ones who defended me even after I punched one of them—than wait around for the ones who chanted for my death.
“Did you hear what I just said?” I asked their backs, trying hard not to focus on the way their muscles moved beneath their skin that varied in shades of blue.
I didn’t know why that was a task. I’d never been the type of woman who let the male species distract me from anything. Ever. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had sex. Real sex. Or a boyfriend. Five years ago, maybe?
My career—ex career, I had to remember—wasn’t ideal for most friendships, never mind intimate relationships.
“Have you heard the word submarine?” I queried, jogging behind them as they walked with inhuman speed. I tried not to think about their differences too much. They were the most normal thing I’d seen on this planet so far, but they were still a far cry from familiar.
Light reflected on their backs, catching my eye, and I noticed a smattering of translucent scales that shimmered with a rainbow hue in the sunlight whenever there was a break in the barracuda-shark clusters. They marked their backs and arms in unique patterns that reminded me of a fish.
I scratched the itchy skin across my covered chest, ignoring their pearly scales and skidded to a stop before I smashed into Stick’s back when all four abruptly halted before a raised pool.
Stepping around them, I peered into the water that fascinated them. It was teeming with fat gray and pink fish.
Without warning, Trouble planted his head in the water like an eager dog, pulling back just as quickly but with a squirming fish clenched between his teeth.
I gasped, jumping back when he transferred the fish to his hand and then shook out his soaked hair, sending cold water flying in all directions.
“Really mature...” I muttered under my breath, wiping my hands over my face to brush away the droplets. He grinned, that troublesome gleam in his dark eyes, his white teeth holding a predatory sharpness.
The fish came flying at me and my instinct kicked in before it registered what it was I was catching.
My hands gripped slippery scales and a wiggling body. Immediately, I tossed it away, but Kid snatched it from the air with quick reflexes before it hit the ground.
I didn’t know why Trouble threw a fish at me, but I wasn’t too happy about it. If that was their alien version of an insult, I was half tempted to enlighten him of all the colorful ones humans have come up with.
Trouble did that a few more times until everyone had a fish, Kid carrying two, and then they were back to striding away.
I realized it wasn’t an insult, and those fish were probably dinner. I was too wound up to thank him just yet, currently trying to think of how I would get back to the surface.
“So, about that word submarine,” I hedged, trying to keep up.
MY LEGS WERE SORE, my arms were sore, my hair was sore. I didn’t know it was possible for my hair to hurt, but it did. My exhaustion only grew as I trailed them through their strange underwater mermaid city that proved much larger than I originally thought.
I wasn’t sure why I kept referring to it as a mermaid dome or city. I scanned the aliens’ backs again. Their legs weren’t fused together, and they had no fins of any kind.
There were sand roads here, but they were more like paths, the main ones wider than the others that snaked through the intricately carved stone dwellings.
It was like they’d picked a spot in the sea and dug out a trench, carving structures from the solid stone on their way down.
These aliens obviously weren’t backward. While I didn’t see vehicles or computers, I noticed there was electricity. Covered lights were mounted beside every doorway dotting the gray stone structures, and I could hear music playing far off. A tinkling, tribal, tropical sound that reminded me of steel drums.
This was a civilization, similar yet completely parallel to the one I came from.
The one I desperately wanted to get back to, despite my ruined career.
By the time I’d climbed a short flight of stone steps and hesitantly followed them through a door at the top, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand on my jittery legs.
I bent forward, resting my palms on my knees as I tried to breathe away my lightheadedness. My stomach felt hollow, my head felt airy, and my body sagged like a bag of dirt.
When I looked up, four sets of eyes were staring back.
“What?” I exhaled, thinking I’d never been this tired in my life. “Don’t get any ideas. I can still kick all your asses.”
Very well-formed, muscled asses.
More chatter that I couldn’t understand. They were carrying on a conversation that sounded like a debate, saying more words than I’d heard from them since I woke, and louder, as if they didn’t care who listened now.
“If you’re fighting over who’s going to cook dinner, please,” I waved a hand, “decide soon. It’s not like I’m withering away here or anything.”
They ignored me.
On Earth, I liked being ignored. It meant fewer people noticed me. It meant I could get my job done quick and painless.
Being ignored by Brick, Stick, Trouble, and Kid was different. It annoyed me. Mainly because I didn’t come here willingly, and now Kid and his ridiculously built friends acted like what I said didn’t matter.
I blew out a breath, my unruly curls floating away from my forehead only to drop right back. I pushed the locks from my face, feeling like I could stand upright for a moment while my gaze darted around the room.
This must be where they live.
Colorful furniture big enough to hold their massive frames was scattered around, reminding me of strange dried coral draped in a rough, hemp-like fabric. The same fabric was stuffed, creating cushions for seats on the carved furniture, and pillows.
Aliens with throw pillows. Hmm.
Beyond the four, directly across from the entrance, was a wide, arched stone doorway. I saw four platforms with thick padding and more pillows. The sunlight, when it was visible, tossed watery blue glints over the room.
So they lived together. Interesting.
A loud grumble pricked my ears and stole my focus. A large figure on one of the beds rustled. Something with a massive, sleek-furred, gray head with leonine features lifted from crossed paws bigger than my face.
Our eyes locked. Two pairs of double-pupiled, slate colored irises pinned me.
It stood on the bed, lifting on all four of its legs and shaking out its poofy mane of onyx and sapphire feathers. Its thickly furred tail shook with its body, the end rattling like a snake.
I’d never experienced a moment in my life that seemed to move in slow motion—until right then.
My body tensed as the creature leapt from the bed, mouth open and knife-like fangs exposed as it beelined for me.
A delayed scream shot from my lungs as it pounced, tackling me to the ground.
The air was flattened from me in a whistling wheeze. Its huge maw yawned right before my face, large enough to swallow my head whole.
“Help!” I gasped for air, sure I was going to die when it lowered its crown and its extremely long, bristled tongue swiped up my face, nearly peeling off my lips and eyelids on its journey. “Oh, god!”
I choked, animal saliva getting in my mouth. Its poofy feathers made their way in there too when it
laid its head on my face.
Forget dying at the hands of an angry mob. I was getting suffocated by a giant lion-bird-snake.
“Rezz!” Someone grumbled, and I felt the weight of the creature lessen as Brick pulled the massive thing off me.
I sprawled there, utterly depleted, sputtering for air.
Brick grabbed my lax hand, pulled me up, and helped me to the couch where I flopped back like a limp noodle. I was mildly surprised the cushions weren’t stiff.
“Wi’k believe sa u’ker!” Brick exclaimed, immediately drawing my attention as he yelled at Kid who nonchalantly took a bite out of a fish he was holding.
My insides turned as I heard him crunching on bones, seemingly uncaring that it was raw or that Brick was angry with him. It was evident with how Brick’s skin rippled, and his thick midnight-blue brows dipped low into a scowl.
“She’s fi’ash enin fine,” Kid gestured toward me before taking another bite out of the fish, its pink flesh clearly visible from where I sat.
They were obviously talking about me. I understood a couple words, and his arcing hand was clearly referencing me.
I had a feeling Kid was used to the other three ganging up on him. They all looked ready to slap him upside the head, but it didn’t faze him. In fact, he caught me staring and stopped chewing to flash a bright, fang-filled, lopsided grin at me.
Stick did slap him upside the head that time.
I bit my lips to keep from laughing.
They fought like brothers. Or what I imagined brothers fought like. They shared physical similarities, but they were too different from each other at the same time. I didn’t think they were blood relations, but what did I know about alien genes?
Lion-bird’s rattling tail thumped the floor as he gazed at me.
“Nice kitty...” I mumbled, trying not to encourage him to jump the couch, which is exactly what he looked like he was about to do. I brushed a stray black feather from my shoulder. Didn’t even have the energy to contemplate how weird that was.
Of course these aliens wouldn’t have a normal pet. What did Brick call it? Rezz?