Ineq (Dragons Of Kelon) (A Sci Fi Alien Weredragon Romance)

by Maia Starr

  "I am ready,” she said and she grabbed her backpack.

  "I will carry that for you,” I said as she handed me the backpack and I put it on. I did not want her unnecessarily weighed down. We would move faster if I carried all the burden. She held at the map and said, “I will guide us.”

  "Let's get out of here,” I said as I moved toward the cave opening. She followed me. Soon we were taking strides through the thick forest. The ground was rough, and the grass was high. We were making our own trails.

  I stopped in my tracks after we had been walking for an hour, “What is that?”

  I heard a noise that sounded like thunder. I looked up into the sky. It was clear blue with not a cloud in it. I was not used to the sound of storms on Earth, but it was the only thing that I understood that sound to be.

  "I don't hear anything,” Trish said that she studied the map, giving the noise only half of her attention.

  "I know that I hear something. It's very faint, but I hear it,” I said, realizing that perhaps the Corillion hearing was better than that of humans. We had more strength. We were taller and broader. We had the defense of our hard scales. So we probably had better vision and better hearing as well. I took a risk by stepping out into a small clearing in order to get a better view of the sky. The sound grew louder and louder: thud, thud, thud.

  I could not see anything in the sky. I looked at Trish. Suddenly she looked up from her map and said, “Now I hear it. Run!” she shouted.

  I ran out of the clearing back to her side and followed her as she ran. Suddenly the sound was roaring on top of us. The wind picked up, rustling the branches and trees. I looked up to see something flying above us.

  "It's a helicopter! It is the Earth army looking for us!” she shouted. She ran faster, and I was on her heels. I scanned the area and saw the perfect hiding spot.

  "Follow me!” I shouted as I ran in front of her, leading the way. I stayed under the cover of the trees until I dove under a rock ledge. Trish followed. I pulled her close to me and we huddled together underneath the protection of the rock. I peered out slightly to see the helicopter hovering, but not directly over us. This was a good sign.

  "I don't think they saw us,” she whispered in my ear.

  I stayed watching the helicopter with my eyes glued to it. It circled around and then flew away in the opposite direction.

  "That was close,” Trish said.

  "I don't think they saw us or they would have dropped a few soldiers on us,” I said, analyzing the situation.

  "I think you are right. But we do know now that they are definitely hunting us,” she said.

  "They are hunting me,” I said, reminding her. “Remember, this was not your choice. You are my hostage. You are not in trouble.”

  "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else,” she said as she kissed me on the cheek.

  "We should stay under the protection of this ledge for half an hour or so just in case they swing back around. They are scouting the area to figure out where to hunt for us on foot. Let us stay here for a while.”

  "That is a good idea. Look, there is fresh water. I'm going to refill the containers,” she said as she peeled the backpack off my back and roughly zipped it open and rummage through the stuff. She pulled out two containers and walked over to a trickle of water that was coming out of the wall. I sat down and organized the contents of the backpack. There was a notebook. I opened it. I had taught myself to read the human language long ago. But I was not expecting to read something like this.

  "What are you doing?” I heard Trish ask me. I looked up to see the water containers in her hand, and she stood over me.

  "I could say the same thing to you. What is this? What are you doing?” I asked her.

  "That is my personal notebook. You are not allowed to read that,” she said as she yanked it out of my hand.

  "This is all about me. Why are you writing about me? There are details of everything that we said in conversation. Things that you promised not to tell anyone,” I said, trying to restrain my anger.

  "I didn't tell anyone. What I write down in my own notebook is my own personal business!” she said angrily, and she pushed it back into the backpack.

  "No! It is my business when you were writing about me. Why are you writing that down? If it is not just for you?”

  She was quiet. She zipped up the backpack and sat down. She looked sad.

  "Look, Jedrian. I haven't exactly been completely honest with you. But I hope you know that things have changed. After last night, everything has changed for me,” she said, looking at me with her sad blue eyes.

  I locked my jaw. “What do you mean you have not been honest? What are you hiding from me, Trish?”

  "This is not how it sounds. But I told you that I was a scientist too. I am at a school where I am required to do a big project. It could make or break my future. That is why I came to the research facility in the first place, to do that project. But my father wouldn't allow me to see any of the real work. Then when I stumbled upon you, I knew that you were the perfect project for me to write about. My own project. It was going to be about my own experiences studying the personality of a Corillion warrior. I wasn't going to reveal who you were, your identity. I was just going to write about my own personal experience conversing with you. I swear, Jedrian. That is all I was going to do. But then all of this happened. So then I thought I would write about my adventure with the Corillion warrior in the woods. It is really good work. It is great for my scientific career.”

  "You are a monster! You are just like your father! I knew that I should not have trusted you!” I shouted at her. I stood up and walked back-and-forth. I was trying to get rid of the anger I had inside of me over her betrayal. But it was no use.

  "Jedrian. Please believe me. It is not like that. It may have been in the beginning, but I have changed. I promise you that,” she said to me and she put her hand on my arm.

  "Your promises mean nothing,” I said as I yanked my arm away from her. Her touch made me angry. I was angry with myself for trusting a human female that had told me she was a scientist, the very humans that had been experimenting on me. She had already admitted to me that she was the daughter of Dr. Maxwell, the leader of the torture that I have been under. I was a fool not to think of these things like warning signs that she would be exactly the same. I thought she would be different. I gave into it, and this entire time I was an experiment to her. Each conversation with me was part of her experiment; she was studying me just like her father. She was doing it under the guise of a sweet and honest human female, and I had fallen for it. I felt like a fool.

  "Jedrian. Look at me. Nothing has changed for me. I still feel that what we did last night is very special. Please do not pull away from me, not now,” she pleaded with me.

  "I do not want to hear any more of your excuses! I do not want to hear any more of your lies. You will not talk your way out of this one. I see the truth of what and who you are. It is all there in that notebook in your own words. In your own writing. You were using me to make yourself important in this world of Earth, and you will still be able to do that when I leave you.” I started walking away from her.

  "What do you mean when you leave me?!" she asked as she began to cry.

  "When I get to the lake, you are free to go. I will help you get to a road or in a place where you will be found by the soldiers that hunt us. Then I want nothing to do with you. I never want to see you again.”

  "Do not say that to me,” she said begging.

  "I don't want to hear your voice anymore. It should be clear for us to go. Let us get a move on. The faster we get to the lake, the quicker I will be rid of you,” I said as I grabbed the backpack and moved out into the woods.

  I could hear Trish following me. Her soft sobs were hard to hear. But I was pissed off. Even though I wanted to pull her into my arms and stop her crying, my pride would not let me. She had betrayed me. Loyalty was everything to the Corillion. She had violated my trust for
her. I could not let her back in, no matter how much I wanted to. We walked in silence. In a few hours, the lake would be nearby, and I would have to make the decision to leave her forever.

  Chapter 9

  TRISH MAXWELL

  I was in deep shit. I had messed up everything. Being with the Corillion warrior had changed the way I saw him. Even though my scientific curiosity was still there, and I had been making notes all along in my mind, I had stopped thinking of him as a scientific experiment. This was so much more. He had my heart.

  But I would never be able to explain that to him. After he saw my notes, he thought I was no more than my own father, that jerk. He only saw me as a scientist, like the ones that had tortured him. It tortured me now to have him thinking of me in that way. I wanted him to believe me. I wanted him to trust me and to let me in. I didn't know if he would ever look at me the same way, like he did when he was inside of me.

  "How much longer, Jedrian?" I asked him.

  He did not answer me. Instead, he marched ahead of me. He was stomping along the forest floor. He was moody. He was angry and felt betrayed. I had done that to him. But now I’d had enough. I was starting to get angry too. First of all, he should not have been going through my stuff. That was private. Secondly, did he forget that he had betrayed me as well?

  "You know, for a Corillion that took me hostage by holding a knife to my throat, you should still be apologizing to me. You forced me to come against my will after I told you that I no longer wanted to go. Did you forget that? You did it to save your own skin. Therefore you aren't any better than I am. Yet you seem to forget that you did that to me,” I said, stomping ahead of him.

  He stopped in his tracks. I could hear his heavy breathing.

  "Yeah! Think about that for a while,” I said in a smart ass tone.

  "Stop. We will rest for a few minutes. The next leg of our walk should take us to the lake. We will not be stopping until we get there, so you must rest up now," he said with anger.

  I rolled my eyes at him. I was really angry that he was acting this way. But I was angry with myself as well. I stopped and sat on a rock. He sat down and opened the backpack. He took out the cheese and tossed me a large chunk. He stared at me with anger in his brown eyes. I couldn't stand to have him staring at me like that. I got up from the rock and moved into the forest.

  "Stay close,” I heard him say.

  "I need some privacy,” I said, trying to make him think I had to use the privacy of squatting behind a bush, but I did not. I just wanted to get away from him. I walked cautiously on the thick forest floor. In my mind, I was repeating all the hurtful words that he had said to me. It was driving me insane, but it was also forcing me to not pay attention to my surroundings.

  I heard a rustle in the bush. I turned towards it. “Jedrian?”

  There was no answer. Great, he was still ignoring me even though I was a bit frightened by the noise. It got louder. Suddenly I realized that it was not Jedrian. It was something else. It was moving fast through the bushes, and it was moving toward me. I froze. I could hear a loud grunting sound. It was breathing loudly.

  "Jedrian…” I said quietly.

  Boom!

  Suddenly a very large brown grizzly bear burst out of the bushes directly in front of me. I wanted to scream, but I could not. I was completely frozen. It stood up on its hind legs and growled at me. I looked at the chunk of cheese in my hand and realized that I had attracted the bear to me. They could smell food from miles away. It looked hungry. It looked deadly.

  Then it came down from its towering height. It had all four paws on the ground. It took one step and then another toward me. It was showing me it's large white teeth. They were pointed like daggers and saliva was coming off of them. It was very fierce looking.

  I took a slow step backward, and then another, knowing that I should not run. That would be the last thing to do in a situation like this because it would only chase me and catch me within a second. But I didn't know what else I could do. I was about to die. The bear was about to eat me.

  It growled. It startled me because it was so loud. It was like a roar that seemed to echo off of every mountain rock wall around us. My heart fell to my stomach.

  "Trish!” Jedrian shouted as he jumped in front of me. He was now between the bear and I. Jedrian faced the bear and put his arms out protecting me. “Get out of here, Trish. Go and hide."

  "No. It will kill you,” I whispered to him.

  "Do as I say. Walk backward slowly until you are completely out of sight of this creature. Then run and hide. Do it.”

  I took a few steps backward but I was not going to leave him. Then the bear roared and charged him. I screamed at the top of my lungs. Crash! Jedrian fell to the ground with the bear. They rolled across the forest floor.

  It was then that I noticed that Jedrian had a knife in his hand. The same knife he had held to my neck. He was stabbing the side of the bear, but it didn't seem to do any harm to it. The bear's snapping jaws were trying to get him. Jedrian dodged them.

  I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I knew this was not a good thing considering that the Earth military was hunting for us in the forest. But I could not control myself. I realized in that moment that I loved him. I loved this Corillion warrior that had thrown himself in front of a bear in order to save my life. I did not want to lose him in the same moment that I realized this.

  I was frantic. I looked around and picked up a heavy branch. I wanted to do something. I wanted to hit the bear over the head with it, but they rolled across the forest ground so frantically that I could not get in a good swing, even if I wanted to. I could hit Jedrian instead.

  "Go! Go!"

  "I can't! I can't leave you here!” I shouted and cried. I was in hysterical tears. I did not know what to do.

  "Don't let me die for nothing!” he shouted at me through heavy breathing.

  He was right. I wasn't doing him any favors by staying here where the beast could get me after it got away from Jedrian. He was doing all of this for me, and I was being disrespectful toward that.

  I turned, and I ran, but I did not know where I could possibly go. Then I heard it.

  Bam! Bam!

  I stopped cold. Those were the sounds of blaster guns. “Jedrian,” I whispered.

  I turned and ran back toward the bear. I ran fast and hysterically until I came across the large brown bear lying on top of Jedrian.

  "Jedrian!” I shouted as I ran toward him. But large, heavy hands grabbed me and yanked me back. I was shocked and surprised. I looked at the hands and up into the towering physiques of Corillion warriors. They had shot the bear. Jedrian groaned underneath it.

  "Get that bear off of him,” a deep voice said. I turned to see a large Corillion warrior with long blond hair and green eyes standing with a blaster gun in his hands. The other warriors, four of them, obeyed this warrior. They let go of my arms and moved over to the bear. They lifted it off of Jedrian and pulled him out from under it.

  I ran to him and knelt down beside him. “Are you all right? Where are you hurt?” I asked him.

  "I am fine. I think I am fine. I am just a little bruised, maybe a few scratches,” he whispered.

  "Jedrian Glomerorum, who is this human female? What are you doing here?" the warrior asked.

  "Cultan. I have come seeking the safety of the secret hideout. It is a long story," Jedrian said as he got to his knees.

  I was glad to see that he was able to get up to a standing position on his own. I was completely surprised that he was not gutted. There was not one bite on him, or a slash of a claw. He had fought a large grizzly bear and kept an equal footing. I was impressed and in shock from it all. I had not expected to find Corillion warriors helping him out here in the middle of the woods. He said something about a secret hideout, and suddenly his mission to find this lake made sense to me. It wasn't the lake that he was looking for, but this secret hideout. He had not been completely honest with me. I had not been honest with him,
and yet he had just risked his life to save mine.

  "You are close. We were on patrol when we heard the noise here. But we were surprised to find you, and this human female,” the warrior that Jedrian called Cultan said.

  "This is my human female," Jedrian said quickly.

  Cultan looked at him with suspicious eyes and then looked at me. His eyes looked at me up-and-down, as though devouring me. Although he was a very attractive warrior, there was something menacing about him. He had just been told that I belonged to another and yet he was taking the liberty to look at me in this way. I could tell that Jedrian did not like it because his body tensed up.

  "We should get back to the safety of the hideout. It is not safe out here,” Cultan said. “Follow us, Jedrian Glomerorum, and your human female.”