by Maia Starr
They reluctantly left my side.
I went to my room and laid down. I needed to conserve energy. I knew that I would be leaving within the hour or by the end of the day on the journey. I wanted to be alert and rested. The plague did not scare me. I risked my life every day fighting in battles. When you were a soldier, you had to come to terms with death. I lived on the edge of life and death daily. I fought hard, and I was arrogant in battle. So the plague did not scare me. What scared me was abandoning the Veruka to uncertain futures.
The next morning we had coordinates to a human village one hundred miles away. Our fast ship could get us there in twenty minutes or less. Jex, Azlo, and I set out on the journey. I left General Razook behind in charge of the army.
“There it is,” Jex said.
I looked out the windshield in front of us. There was a massive wall, almost a hundred feet or more high. It went around the entire human habitation.
“It looks like they have a good defense set up against the Clenok cyborgs. Look at the coils on the ground in front of the wall,” I said.
“Electrified?”
“Yes. The Clenok cyborgs would fry in that tangled mess.”
“What are your orders, my king?” Azlo asked.
“Set the ship down over there, far from the village. We will shift into dragon form and fly over the wall. Then we will dive low among the trees. Let us see if we can find one human alone. If we make a surprise visit to a group, they could grow hostile before we are allowed to speak our terms. With our flying speed, it will be easier for us to go undetected in weredragon form.”
“Roger that,” he said.
A few minutes later, we were out of the ship that we had set underneath a crowded area of trees. We shifted into dragon form and flew fast. We were over the wall and diving low among the trees inside the human habitation, looking for a human to speak to. Then we finally found one. It was a lone human female walking along the woods alone. I landed directly in front of her. She let out a soft scream as she jumped back.
“Do not be alarmed. I will not hurt you, human. My name is King Karik Korinth.”
Her mouth fell the wide open. She said nothing, and she looked at me in shock. Her long black hair was down around her shoulders. Her brown eyes were full of fear. She was trembling. Her pink lips were shivering, and her body was petite and shapely. She had a figure that was unlike the female Veruka on Tivoso. I was enticed by it. She was beautiful. I was not expecting the human females to be so beautiful.
Jex and Azlo landed on either side of me. The ground was shaking underneath me as they landed. It must've been a fright to her. She let out another scream, turned, and ran. I looked at Jex and Azlo in disapproval.
“Perhaps you should've waited to make yourself known,” I said. Then I went after her.
Chapter 4
Dr. Vanessa Lopez
I was taking my daily walk. It was my alone time. I did it every day before going into the lab or the clinic. It was a way to wake myself up. It had replaced coffee. As I walked, I heard a strange noise, like a giant bird flapping its wings overhead. I couldn't see anything. But then suddenly, boom! The ground trembled as a tall figure landed in front of me. I felt like I was hallucinating because there was no way that I could possibly see what I was seeing. It was a very tall man with skin that looked like he was spray-painted in silver sparkly dust. He was almost nine feet tall with emerald green wings that spread out from his back. The wingspan was at least five feet. He did not wear a shirt, only tight gray trousers that were fitted against his legs and tucked into very high boots that had straps on them. Inside were the straps for various gadgets. There was a belt around his waist and a clunking gray metal with lots of compartments.
I looked into the eyes of this monster. They were light brown eyes accentuated by his long black hair. He was looking at me as though he was just as shocked to see me as I was to see him.
I was shaking. What the hell was I looking at? I had never seen anything like it. What was he? His wings reminded me of a mythical dragon. But that could not be. There were no dragon men on Earth. I waited for him to say something even though I knew it wasn't possible that he would speak my language. As I look at him up and down, I found myself feeling to emotions clashing together. On the one hand, I felt aroused. I have never seen such a perfect male form before. On the other hand, I was scared out of my mind. He was so large, intrusive, and dominating.
“Do not be alarmed. I will not hurt you, human. My name is King Karik Korinth.”
Holy shit. It was speaking. It was speaking English. I took a step backward, ready to get out of there. Then suddenly, in a blur, two more dragon men landed on either side of him. They looked frightening. I screamed and turned around and ran away. I knew that at any second they were going to pick me up off of my feet and carry me away. They were going to eat me.
Then the first dragon that called himself a king was standing in front of me once more, blocking my path.
“Get away from me!” I shouted.
“Human, I am not going to hurt you. Please allow me to speak,” he said as he got down on one knee. I did not know why he was doing it. Was he simply trying to show me that he was not going to be aggressive? Even kneeling down he was still taller and bigger than I was. It didn't make him any less frightening.
“What are you? Where did you come from?” I trembled the words out of my mouth.
“My name is King Karik Korinth. I am from a planet called Tivoso. We have come to Earth to plead with the humans,” he said.
“Tivoso? Are you not from Earth? You are an alien?” I asked.
“I am a weredragon. I am king of a race known as the Veruka. I am alien to you. But I do not consider myself an alien,” he said. There was some sarcasm in his tone. It caught me off guard. Was he making a joke? A weredragon? Was he serious?
“Weredragon? You mean that you are a dragon?” I asked.
“We are shifters. We can shift into this half-dragon form that you see before you. We do not want to hurt you. We only want to help the humans, if you will help us,” he said.
“What? Nothing you are saying is making sense to me,” I said.
“It is a long story. But we have traveled across the galaxies for your medical expertise and…” He did not finish his sentence. Suddenly, he toppled over onto his side into the grass.
"My king!” The two other weredragons were at his side in a flash. I didn't even see the move. I realized that they moved so fast that you couldn't see anything but a haze. What were these things?
“What is wrong with him?” I asked, taking a step forward but still cautious.
“It is the blackness,” one of the weredragons said.
“The blackness?” I asked.
“It is a sickness making him weak. We don't know what it is. It has spread among us. Our king started showing symptoms yesterday. That is why we have come. We seek the medical expertise of the humans. The knowledge of humans is known to be advanced, and we hope that medical experts can help him,” he said.
“I am a medical expert. I am a doctor,” I said as I walked over to them. I was still scared of them, but my need to take care of others was kicking in. I was a doctor, after all, and this alien shifter needed my help. I got on my knees beside him and began to do some basic checks. I was checking his heart rate, pulse, and temperature.
"He is burning up,” I said.
“We are dragons. We are always hot. It is the normal state of us,” one of the weredragons said.
“Well, that makes things difficult, doesn't it? I treat humans. I know what is normal for a human, not an alien. I can't help him out here. We need to get him to my lab,” I said.
“I am fine,” the king said as he sat up. He suddenly had more energy. I was confused by this.
“This is what the sickness looks like. It only comes in waves,” the weredragon with the silver hair said.
“Thank you, Azlo,” the king said looking at him. I guessed that was the name of thi
s alien shifter with the silver hair and stark blue eyes that looked like ice.
The king got to his feet quickly. I was still on my knees as he rose to his tall height. He was even more impressive from down on the ground. He towered over me. Then he extended a hand out to me. I placed my hand in his. It was very hot. He helped me up to my feet. I was only inches away from his strong chest. I was in awe of him.
“Okay. I need a minute to gather my thoughts. This is all very strange to me. I don't know what to think of this. I would think that I was dreaming. This can't be real,” I said, pacing back and forth in the forested area of the Haven Brook Village.
“That is why we chose you,” the king said.
“What? You chose me? What do you mean… um… King…?”
“King Karik Korinth, but you can call me Karik,” he said with a bright white smile.
“Well, I definitely wasn't going to call you king,” I said with a sassy tone that left me shocked that I had said it in the first place. These dragons could snap me in two in a second, and I was being sassy?
“We chose you as we moved over the wall into the village and saw you alone. We did not want to cause alarm by appearing to a large group of humans. We wanted to explain that we come in peace and seek your help before a group of humans found us to be intimidating and violent without giving us a chance. That is what we mean by we chose you, human, alone. We would like the chance to explain to you and then perhaps you can explain to the other humans for us,” he said.
“Oh, I see. This is all very overwhelming,” I said.
“Yes, of course, it would be. It makes sense. But it seems that we have found some luck. You said that you are medical. You are a doctor?” he asked.
“Yes, I am. But I don't know how much help I can be. I am a doctor for humans. I know nothing of your race. How do I know if something is wrong with you if I don't know what normal looks like for you? You kind of need that base in order to figure out an illness,” I said.
I looked into his light brown eyes, and for a second I thought I saw a moment of vulnerability. There was sadness there. I had just told him that his situation was hopeless. I regretted it.
“But, I can get you into my lab and run some tests. Then I can go from there. Who knows? I might see something that could be the key to all of it,” I said.
He perked up at my words.
“We would be very grateful to you, human. We cannot live without our king. If he were to succumb to this illness, our entire race would perish,” the dragon with the platinum blond hair and green eyes said.
“Jex!” the king snapped at him. I guess he had told me more information than the king wanted me to know.
“There is a problem though,” I said.
“What is that?” Karik asked.
“I don't know how to get you into the lab without the entire village seeing you. They will go into a panic. They do not like the unknown. We are a group of untrusting humans. There is too much at stake for us. How do we know that you are not in alliance with our enemy? This could be a trick,” I said suddenly feeling suspicious. I was letting the attractive and vulnerable nature of these dragon men put me off my guard. I was not thinking clearly. I was not thinking defensively.
“We know about your enemy the Clenok Clenok cyborgs. That is what we offer in exchange for your help and for acceptance of the humans in your village,” Karik said.
“What? What do you mean?” I said.
“We will help you fight the Clenok Clenok cyborgs in exchange for your medical help. We want and need your medical knowledge, and that knowledge can't be ours if you are dead. If the Clenok cyborgs kill the humans, then we are also out of luck,” he said.
“Gee, thanks,” I said.
“It is the truth,” he said matter of factly.
“No, I understand. I got it. It is just a little cold,” I said.
“Cold or not. Honesty is what we live by,” he said.
“Loyalty and honor!” the other two weredragons said in unison as though they were saluting an army officer.
“We took out a cyborg repair facility one hundred and fifty miles away from here. That should take some of the pressure off of this village for a while,” he said.
“You did what?” I said in shock. Humans have never had success in going after a repair facility of the Clenok cyborgs. Any attempt at doing so was left in defeat. The human army never returned. It was something that we never tried again even though we knew it was exactly what was needed if we were to ever defeat the cyborg armies.
“We took out the facility. We blew it up,” Azlo said.
“But how? We can never do such a thing,” I said.
“Yes, but you are not dragons,” Jex said with a cocky arrogance.
“Just the three of you? You want to defeat all of the Clenok Clenok cyborgs out there on Earth?” I said raising an eyebrow.
“No, of course not. My army,” Karik said.
“army? You have an army?” I said looking around in the sky and in the trees.
“Yes, of course, I do. I am a king,” he said arrogantly.
“Where is this fabulous army?” I said crossing my arms over my chest.
“It is camped out one hundred miles from here,” he said.
“Oh, how convenient. An army that I cannot see,” I said.
“It does exist, human,” he said with anger in his voice.
“Vanessa. My name is Dr. Vanessa Lopez,” I said.
“Vanessa…” he said in a deep husky whisper, repeating my name. I don't know why, but as soon as his voice hit my ears, I felt fire in my loins. Shit.
Chapter 5
King Karik Korinth
She was the one. She was the one that could help us. I knew it the moment that she ran to my side after I collapsed. That was the kind of considerate nature that we needed to help us. She was a medical doctor, and I knew right away that there was something special about her. It wasn't just that her scent drove me crazy. Or that I felt completely entranced by her every time she moved and jiggled. There was something else to her. I was drawn to her. I did not know why.
“So I guess the only way to solve this problem is to get a town meeting going. We have them in the middle of Main Street. Everyone gathers there. I could call a meeting and explain what and who you are. But you will have to hide until I tell you to come out,” Vanessa said.
“We can do that. We can follow your orders,” I said with a smile. I liked to be ordered by this human female. She was petite, but she had wit and sassiness to her. I liked her.
“All right. I need some time. There is a large building with a clock on it. A tower of sorts. If you can, fly there without being seen and stay there. I will have the meeting right underneath that building. When I call you, only one of you come. One at a time. This is very important,” she said.
“Yes, we understand,” I said.
“Then I guess I will get to it. I need at least an hour or so to gather everyone. But right now is a good time for you to go there because everyone is barely waking up. No one should see you. But I am trusting you blindly. I still have my suspicions. I probably shouldn't be doing this at all,” she said.
“Trust me,” I said to her. She had every right to be suspicious, but I wanted her to trust me. I wanted it badly. And it wasn't just because we needed the help of the humans; it was more than that. I wanted her to trust me deep down.
“I trust no one. But we do need your help, that is if you really do have an army. That is why I am helping,” she said. Then she walked away. She walked down the trail and out of our sight.
“What do you think, my king?” Azlo whispered to me.
“I think we can trust her. But it is hard to tell how the rest of the village will react. We scared her when she first laid eyes on us. I expect the others will react the same,” I said.
“Maybe it would be better to appear to them in our normal state, not shifted into dragon form. We look more like them without our wings,” Jex said.
“That could be a possibility. We should go check out this building. Perhaps we can just walk out the front door instead of flying down from the tower. That might be too much for the humans at first,” I said.
“What about her words? She said that she does not know if she can help you with the plague because she does not know our race medically,” Jex said.
“Yes, that is a chance we have to take. We have no other choice. I only know that something happened when she touched me,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Azlo asked.
“When she touched me, I felt myself getting better almost instantly. I don't know how or why. I felt the weakness subside and it wasn't just the regular passing of the symptoms like usual. It was something else. I felt a rush of adrenaline, the same that I feel when I am flying very fast and dangerously. I felt a small amount of happiness surge through me. It was an odd sensation,” I said, recalling the moment that she touched me.