by Celeste Raye
I swallowed. Was this some sort of trick?
“I guess?” I said unsurely.
“Well, what’s going to shut her up?” he asked impatiently.
“Her quarters are up a floor. C9 cabin. Why don’t you just lock her in there?” Christina said quietly.
I shot her a tense look, wondering what the idea was behind it and why she would bother with such a ridiculous idea. But, to my surprise, the shifter quickly stood and turned to face Libby.
“Will that make you happy?” he snapped, both impatient and parental.
Libby sniffed and moved her hands from her face, sitting up in her bed and shaking as she finally caught sight of the shifter.
“W-what?” she asked.
He clicked his tongue. “You want to go to your room, or what?”
Her eyes moved slowly back and forth from his, also unsure of the trap.
“It’s not a hard question!” he pestered impatiently, his slick wings spreading while he spoke, just as though he were gesturing with his hands.
The shifter blew out a long breath and slid his card along the lock so Libby’s cell door opened. He scratched the back of his neck and then held out a hand to the girl.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
She swallowed and blinked off a few more tears. “Libby,” she petered out nervously.
“Libby,” he said, testing the words out. He took her hand in his and said, “Gandadirth.”
“Hi,” she said.
“Yeah, hi,” he rushed. “Okay. I’m going to take you to your room, making sure there’s nothing in there that you can use to contact your people and make our little mission any more unpleasant. Alright? Oh, yeah, and don’t even think of hitting me with something.” His eyes darted to the chair he’d brought in. “Like that,” he offered. “You can bash that across my back, and I won’t even flinch. Got it? In fact, you can try it right now just to get it out of the way.” He paused. “You want to try it? Go ahead: grab it!”
His tones were surprisingly jovial and light, as though he were teasing a small child. I didn’t know if that made me feel settled or absolutely terrified.
Libby said nothing, the tears welling up again as he spoke to her and he began waving his hand in front of her face.
“No, no,” he begged. “Don’t do that… thing again. Let’s just be quiet, alright? No chair necessary. Let’s just get you to your room.”
Libby nodded and took his hand more eagerly this time. She walked behind him, hand in hand, as he made his way toward the exit. Libby brushed her blonde hair behind her ear with her fingertips and locked eyes with me. A silent promise that she would try whatever she could to get us out.
Gandadirth must have seen us make eye-contact because he jerked her forward and spun her to look at him. He twisted her arm so she was pulled close to his chest and he leaned far down to meet her face.
“I said don’t try it,” he warned. “Now, I think I’m being pretty generous here. If they had sent anyone else down here, you would be a heaping pile of goo on the floor. Got it?”
She swallowed hard, and I scoffed.
“Oh, that’s nice,” I snapped at him, grabbing the bars of my cage and trying to get a better look at the massive beast.
“Well!” he argued back petulantly and then tightened his grip on Libby’s arm, dragging her out of the room.
A desperate silence built between me and Christina as we watched the door close behind Gandadirth. We both stood frozen in the quiet for minutes before I finally exhaled, long and loud. I didn’t want to say it out loud, but I was sort of happy for the sudden silence. Scared for Libby, of course, but it was the first time the room had been completely silent since we’d been down here.
Christina sat back down on her cot and looked at me through the bars.
“That was…” she began and then trailed off.
“Odd?” I finished.
“Yeah. That was odd.” She paused for a long time before asking, “Do you think they’re going to kill her?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly.
The raven-haired girl brought her legs up onto the bed and shrugged. “Maybe she’ll be able to–”
I cut her off with my finger to my lips before she could finish her sentence, moving my eyes carefully toward the security camera in the corner of the room. If they were smart, they would have had someone in the security sector watching us over the monitors.
Christina stared up at the camera in silence before offering a middle finger to the lens and flopping back down on the bed.
Days went by then before we saw Gandadirth again. We were slipped food and hydration packs from one of the other shifters, but he came in, dropped the supplies, and then left without a word.
I watched the door open on what I could only calculate was now Tuesday and saw the blue-and-yellow shifter walk through; his massive stature was intimidating. He wore some sort of armor on his legs and remained shirtless, showing off his muscular build with just a weapon strap crossing his torso. I could see my laser pistol resting comfortably in a makeshift holster at his side, and I groaned inwardly.
“We meet again,” I said, standing to face him.
He approached my cage, close enough for me to smell him and he smirked and said. “Did we really meet before? I felt more like that was a ‘scuffle.' A blip in time.”
“Whatever, then,” I shrugged.
“Whatever, indeed!” he mocked. “So, how should we go about this? Should I just kill you now, or did you want to make polite chit-chat first? That’s what you humans do, isn’t it? Or, is this just female specific?”
“And that’s what you Weredragons do—kill first and think later?” I set my jaw. “Where’s Libby?”
Gandadirth blinked in surprise and let out an amused, if not annoyed, breath. “So, we’re not smart?”
“I don’t know,” I seethed. “Whose planet was shrouded in darkness and whose isn’t?”
“This is your argument for staying alive?” he mocked. “And hey,” he defended in a firm, strong tone, “that wasn’t my choice. Dobromia’s a wreck, and I’m blaming you.”
“I was the one coming to help,” I argued.
“Wow!” he said, slapping both massive hands on the sides of his mouth in mock shock. “Magical female, come to fix all our woes!”
“Fiona,” I said sternly.
“Wow!” he repeated. “Magical Fiona, come to fix all our woes!”
“I was the representative come to–”
He waved me off. “Yeah, yeah. Look,” he said sharply. “That’s not going to happen now, obviously. Now I get to get rid of you in whichever way I see fit.”
We locked eyes in a battle now, and I felt a tingling up my throat. “If you were going to kill me,” I dared, “something tells me you would have done it already instead of taking me back to the Earth with you.”
“And how would I have done that?” he asked, leaning into me.
“Strangulation? Throw me out the airlock?” I offered, and Christina widened her eyes at me in a silent protest.
“Some excellent ideas!” the shifter said with a laugh. “So, why would I be keeping you alive?”
“The same reason everyone keeps a prisoner alive,” I said with a twirl of my hand. “Information.”
“No, see, I’ve had enough human information. In fact, I’ve had enough human!” he announced, going higher on his last note. “We have one of those now, co-ruling our planet. Remember? That’s what plunged us into this never-ending cold that’s formed. Thanks.”
“Then…” I took exactly one step back and craned my neck to get a better look at him. “What?”
“Simple,” he said. “You’re going to help us get onto the Earth.”
Chapter 5:
Gandadirth
“Hey,” I said and approached the tan-skinned woman. Fiona, I remembered. “Fiona,” I confirmed, “I need to talk to you.”
“About what?” she asked and sat up.
&nb
sp; I slid her cage door open and quickly grabbed her arm. She seemed feisty, and I didn't want to risk her trying anything stupid.
“Wait,” she said, struggling against my grip in vain. “Where are you taking me?” she demanded.
“Just relax,” I hushed and pulled her up to what the humans called their observation deck.
The deck spread across the middle section of the spacecraft and held giant glass windows that were thick and rough to the touch. The panes spread wide across three sections. There were various screens around the room that were turned off. And, my favorite part, endless rows of benches set out on a raised platform for observing space.
While Fiona struggled against me the entire way up to the deck, she became eerily calm once we reached the observation room. I kept hold of her hand as we ascended the staircase and she looked out at the overwhelming blue sphere before us.
“Is that it?” I said, breathless.
“Earth?” she asked and then nodded.
She stared at the massive sphere with a saddened recognition. I followed her gaze, and without thinking, I squeezed her hand, overcome by the immensity of it. By the finality of my mission. I stared through the window and felt a wave of consuming emotion crash over me with such force I thought I might fall over. My wings spread out instinctively at the pull of it and I pressed my fingers against the thick glass, splaying them out as though I could touch it.
My throat seized with an overtaking of emotion and melancholy as I stared at the globe. It was blue and green and white; lights as bright as stars were lighting up sections of the land as a green aura danced just above the atmosphere like music. We spun around its surface, and I saw the plains covered in fog and stretching on for what seemed like forever.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
“Those are the Northern Lights,” she said, pointing to the magical aura that glazed the surface.
I didn't know what that meant, but I watched it in wonder and could feel moisture hit the base of my eyes.
My hand left hers entirely then, my mind racing with the knowledge that I’d finally found it. Earth. We were finally here.
“How’s Libby?” she asked, breaking my stream of thoughts.
With a sigh, I said, “Fine. Cry-free for cycles now. I think we scared it out of her.” The brunette gave me a testing look and raise an unsure brow, and I widened my eyes in response. “She’s fine!” I laughed. “Unharmed.”
Fiona crossed her arms and leaned back on the bench we occupied, staring up at the beautiful Earth that appeared in front of us.
“Humph,” she breathed. “Good.”
“Good,” I said with a steady sigh, still unwilling to look away from the sight. Part of me wondered if I would even muster standing if Fiona ran. If I would be bothered to move if she grabbed a weapon off my strap and cocked it at me or if the serenity of this moment would keep me relaxed and accomplished.
Alright, so, I’d probably go after her. But I hoped she wouldn’t do that because this seemed too perfect a moment to ruin.
My next interaction with the brunette was just cycles later when I reentered the prison. We were landing soon, and Tesyduss had the brilliant idea of setting down at a human spaceport. Having already entered the atmosphere of the blue planet, I marched up to Fiona’s cell and exclaimed, “Your time has come. How exciting!”
“For what?” the darker haired woman in the next cell over asked, her giant lashes hitting her eyelids as she looked up at me with round eyes.
“Not you,” I batted her away.
“What does that mean?” Fiona asked, now standing up to greet me.
“It means,” I tempted and pulled a gold ring from my pocket: a small band big enough for a human finger. “You get to be my… what do they call it? What do they call it?” I bit my bottom lip for emphasis, trying to think what Diana Montanari, our D'Karr's mate, had exclaimed on so many occasions. Finally, I snapped my fingers and shouted, “Wife!”
The girl looked down at the ring and then presented curious hazel eyes to me as she laughed a pleasant, throaty chuckle, and said, “Why would I do that?”
“You would do that because we need to get off this ship and the only place to land without destroying your ship is to head to one of your spaceports.”
She scoffed at me, crossing her arms. “You… want to try and pass for humans? That’s laughable,” she finished, laughing again.
“Yes. I can see that. And why don’t you think I could do it?” I teased. “I pull off an impressive human, thank you very much.”
“Hm.” Fiona tapped a slender finger against full lips in quick succession and then looked down at my tail. “Well, that really gives you away.”
“Fiona doesn’t like?” I asked with faux offense as I swayed my tail back and forth before retracting it to a more human form. “It’s gone!”
Fiona swallowed, and I could hear her friend make an audible gasp. I narrowed my brows and asked, “You’ve really never met one of us before, huh?”
“Tredorphen,” she offered of an old betrayal. “But he never looked… like you.”
“Ah, right, right,” I snapped. “I bet you all love him. I bet he’s your little grandstand hero.”
Fiona scoffed. “Do you even know what that means?”
I grabbed her hand through the bars and pressed the ring firmly into her palm. “It means,” I announced loudly, “we are now married, as they say. And you and I will come out of the space station, grab a ride, and then me and mine will be on our merry way.”
“No, it’s ridiculous,” she argued. “No one will buy you as a human.”
“What, then?” I asked, tapping my foot.
She stared at me, and I watched the apprehension, the fear, take over her gaze. She shrugged in defeat. “You’ll have to come in as a shifter,” she offered lamely. “I’ll just… say we hit it off.”
I smiled. “And haven’t we just.”
“So… where are ‘you and yours’ going, exactly?” she asked in an authoritative manner that put me on edge once again.
“You really don’t understand what’s going on, do you?” I said. “Not that it doesn’t speak well for me that you’re completely in the dark. In fact, this pleases me.”
“Super,” she said, toneless. “And what’s to stop me from screaming for help once we arrive? Call for some of our security to come fry your dragon ass?”
My eye twitched at her enunciation, and I set my jaw. This one was starting to bug me. Perhaps I’d been too soft with them. But the fact was we needed them for this. Getting through the terminal without too much damage. We wanted to steal all these ships, after all. They wouldn’t do us any good if they were torched.
I stared her down and saw that she wasn’t about to back down. With a whimsical, ‘alright then!’ expression I walked up to Christina’s cell and slid the door open. The girl crawled desperately to the back of her cage, and I reached in, grabbing her by the arm and raising her off the ground in front of Fiona.
I dug the claw on my thumb deep into the girl's shoulder, and she elicited an ear-piercing scream. Blood drizzled down my fingers, and I could feel the tendons pulling in her arm as I dug deeper.
“Okay, okay!” Fiona screamed, reaching her hand out in a vain attempt to touch her friend.
“Do we get the rules, yet?” I said. “I’m in charge here. That means you listen to me, or I get rid of you. Simple, right?”
“Right, okay,” she gave in frantically.
I dropped her friend to the ground and watched as she clutched her arm. I gave Fiona a pointed look. I set my jaw, serious then, and regretted ever taking her out of her cage to the observation deck: for showing emotion. I didn’t want her to feel like she could talk to me. I wanted her to fear us.
It wasn’t long before we were entering the space station. I retracted my wings and tried my best to dress up like a human. A strange jacket thrown over my armor, all despite Fiona’s insistence that we should appear more Weredragon.
My wings itched to come out. I looked down at Fiona and then quickly turned to my men behind me. Some of our warriors waited in the ship for clearance, while Tesyduss and I came out with Christina and Fiona on our arms.
A well-armored security officer walked up to us, an older female, and she recognized Fiona right away and waved off the rest of the security personnel, which I was pleased by.
“Oh, Fiona!” the officer called and shook Fiona’s hand right away. “Welcome back!”
“Hello, Officer Marques,” Fiona said with a guarded smile.
“You’re back so soon?” the burly woman said, eyeing Fiona happily and then offering me a wary once-over. “What happened?”
I felt a tinge of nerves plummet into my stomach as Fiona hesitated. I squeezed her hand roughly and she exploded, “I left my crew up there, but it was in our best interest to bring one of their top shifter representatives back to show him what the Earth has to offer.”
“You didn’t tell her the best news, pookie,” I said with a high-pitched mock.
Fiona grit her teeth and looked up at me with a nervous smile.
“We’re married!” I announced and then held Fiona’s finger up to the guard and then whispered, “Or are going to be.”
“Wow!” Officer Marques said with a gasp, inspecting the ring with pride. “Wow, um, congratulations. That’s excellent,” she continued unsurely and then nudged Fiona in a publicly seen ‘private moment’ and whispered, “Hey, that's one way to ensure good space relations. Hey, no need to keep it hush-hush from me. Plenty of people do it. Did you hear about Polly?”
“Ah, Polly!” I interjected before Fiona could respond. “Fiona told me all about…” I paused, wondering what adjective to use, “Polly,” I finally concluded. “We had a great laugh about it.”
Fiona bit back an argument and rolled her eyes, squeezing my hand in protest. “Yes, I heard. I just wasn’t sure what kind of reaction the board would have. Usually you’re supposed to get permission for these things.”
“Oh,” Marques shrugged playfully and dropped her tone even lower. “Like anybody does?”