by Maia Starr
The ship opened, and I flew inside. The door closed behind us. “Yes, and you are coming with me. We are leaving Earth. Step back, will you?” I said to her.
I put her on her feet and moved away from her. “Like hell I am going with you! Let me out of here!" she yelled at me.
I moved away from her and used the space to shift. In a flash, my wings vanished and the scales on my skin receded into my body. I now looked like any other human man, except I was almost 9 feet tall.
"What was that? You are a man! What the hell are you?” she shouted at me. I laughed.
"Come on,” I said, putting my hand on her small waist and leading her to a seat. I sat her down in it. She stood right back up. “Oh no, you don't! Let me out of here! I am not going anywhere with you,” she said.
I locked eyes with her. “You want to sit here. You are excited to be on this ship with me. Sit here calmly,” I said.
Her demeanor changed. She was no longer panicked; she was now calm and sat obediently with her hands in her lap. I strapped on the seatbelts, one over her left shoulder down to her hip and the other from her right shoulder down to her opposite hip, creating an x across her chest. I had to move quickly, because judging from my experience with her earlier, my persuasion did not last long on this human female. I quickly jumped into the pilot seat and did not bother with setting coordinates. I had it on manual pilot, and I shot straight into the sky and into space within seconds.
"What just happened? Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God!” she shouted.
I laughed at her. I don't know why I found her amazement so amusing, but it was to me.
"Do not unstrap those safety belts or you will go flying across the ship and hit the wall. At this speed we are flying, it will not be pleasant,” I said to her.
"Please tell me we are still on Earth,” she said.
"We are now in space. It is not black out the windshield because it is night, I am sorry. That is space,” I said to her. She turned her attention away from me and towards the windshield and gasped.
"Holy shit. I am in space. I am really in space. Am I dreaming? This all has to be some weird, bizarre, very real dream. None of this is possible. You, a dragon shifter, a man-thing creature, you are not possible. Your invisible ship, that is not possible. And now me in space, that is not freaking possible!” she said.
Again I laughed at her. I was actually having fun with this human female; it was the first time I had ever experienced such fun with a human. Usually I only had this much fun with Jix and Baca; they were my closest comrades and were also hybrids. This was going to be a lot of fun.
CHAPTER THREE
MELODY REEVES
This was not happening to me. Yes, I asked for adventure, but nothing like this. I just wanted an adventurous boyfriend for a change, someone that did not bore me or make me pay for the dinner tab even though he made a lot of money. I never asked for an alien being to come down out of the sky and swoop me away from my planet. Not just any alien, but one that could shift into a half-man, half-dragon form. All of it was too bizarre, and it really felt like something that can only be true in a dream. But I knew this was reality; this was no dream. It was absolutely insane. What was worse was the sense that I kept losing control over my own mind. This alien had some sort of telepathic powers, and that was very dangerous.
I sat strapped into the seat on a spaceship, yes, a damn spaceship. I looked out the windshield at the blackness of space. Then I looked over at my abductor. Now that he was shifted, he looked just like a human man, only much larger. His hands were larger, his physique was larger, his bare feet were larger. I wondered if everything was larger… He sat there in a loincloth and nothing else, leaving very little to the imagination. He was still damp from being in the ocean, his long black hair layered and framed his face. A couple of beads of water dripped down his back. I found myself becoming very turned on by him.
"Are you doing it again? Stop,” I said, realizing that he must be doing it.
"Doing what?” He looked over at me with his thick, dark eyebrows furrowed.
"That thing. That stupid mine thing that you do. The mind trick to get me to do and think as you want,” I said crossing my arms in front of my chest.
"No, I am not. Whatever you were thinking of, you thought of on your own,” he said with a smirk as though he knew what I was thinking about.
"Oh…” I said feeling embarrassed and felt my cheeks flush. “Where are you taking me? You know you can't just do this. You can't just come to Earth and take a person and do what you like with them. Where the hell are we going?” I asked him in anger.
"We are going to paradise. Nothing on Earth can compare to it,” he said quietly in a calm, deep voice.
"And where exactly is this paradise? Somewhere in the solar system?” I asked him.
"No, it is in another galaxy,” he said.
"Another galaxy! Are you serious? I can't believe this. I can't believe this is happening to me. Why me? Why is this happening to me?” I rambled on. I did not understand why I was the only human on this ship with this alien. None of this made sense to me.
"Don't worry, human female; where we are going you will fall in love with it instantly. There is nothing like it. It is beautiful. The water is crystal clear. The islands are formed of white sand from crystals so fine that it feels like cloth beneath your feet. The breeze carries a scent of the flowers in the air, and it caresses your skin with just the right amount of cold under the hot sun. The food is clean. The air is clean. The plants and the health of the planet come first before everything, and we live in harmony with all of it. We are the caretakers of our planet. We value the health of it and live off of that. We have long been the custodians of the beauty that you are about to experience. You are very lucky,” he said softly.
I was completely surprised by this. A dragon shifter alien that had shot fire from his mouth only moments before was now speaking almost poetically about his home. I could tell that he took great pride in his home and I found that to be almost sweet. The way he spoke about it, it was almost as if he became another personality.
"What is it called? This beautiful paradise that you call a planet, what is it called?”
"I call it home," he smiled at me. I cocked my head to the side.
"It is called Kelon. That is what we Draqua call it.”
"Draqua?”
"That is what we are called. Draqua,” he said. “You are called humans. We are called Draqua.”
"I understand. What I don't understand is what I am doing here. None of this makes sense to me. Why did you take me? This paradise that you speak of sounds like it has everything that you could possibly want. You speak of it so fondly,” I said.
"It does. It does have everything that I could possibly want. But it does not have humans,” he said.
"And because of that, I have to be the one taken from my life? That is not fair. I want to go home. I want to be on Earth. That should not be your decision,” I said to him.
"It is too late for your protest. We are far from Earth now. There is no going back. And you can call me Cylo. Understood, human female?” he said in a very dominating voice.
"And you can call me Melody, not human female,” I said to him, biting every single syllable. He laughed.
"It is safe to get up from your seat now, Melody, if you would like. There is a sleeping area in the back along with food and drink,” he said as he pressed buttons and flipped switches.
"I can get up? Aren't you scared I am going to run away?” I asked him.
"We are on a ship in the middle of space. Where would you run to? It is impossible,” he said with a laugh again. I was tired of him laughing at me, so I awkwardly struggled with the seatbelts, finally getting them undone. I got up from my seat and nearly fell over. He caught me with his hands on my waist. I felt very small in his massive hands.
"Whoa, are you all right? You have to watch those first steps. When it’s your first time and space, it takes a while to get
used to it. It is a lot like being on a boat in the water. Use the walls to help you walk,” he said. But I could barely focus on his words because the heat from his fingers on my skin was too distracting.
"I think I got it,” I whispered. I did not mean to whisper the words, but that is how they came out. I grabbed onto my seat and pulled myself away from him. I continued to walk along using the walls of the ship to help me stay balanced.
I found the area in the back of the ship. There were two small beds that were more like padded benches inside of a little nook. There was a counter with storage containers that were bolted to the wall. I was very thirsty and hungry. I had been on a hike, after all. It now seemed like days ago. I opened a container and found bottled water that was in clear round circles. It almost looked like they were in bubbles. It was very strange. I picked one up, and it was soft in my hands. I found the opening and unscrewed it and put it to my mouth and drank. It was the most delicious, clean, fresh, crisp water I had ever drank in my life. I was astounded by the taste of it, but it was in fact water.
"What do you think?” Cylo asked as he came up behind me.
I turned around startled. “It is delicious. Is this water?” I asked.
"Yes, it is. It is water from my planet of Kelon. It is very different from the water that you drink on Earth, is it not?” he asked.
"Yes. I am afraid that water on Earth is very dirty, full of chemicals and all kinds of crap. This, on the other hand, is absolutely delicious,” I said to him.
"Maybe water used to taste like this on your planet but does not any longer. Here, try some of this,” he said, handing me a strange looking pink fruit that reminded me of the fruit of a cactus.
"What is it?” I asked.
"It is called lita fruit. I think you will like it. It is very sweet and very filling,” he said.
"But I am human. What if I cannot eat the same things that you Draqua can eat?” I asked him.
"Do not worry. Many human females have eaten this fruit before you,” he said.
I looked at him confused and with shock. “Human females? But how? You said that Kelon did not have humans.”
"No, you misunderstood. We do not have native human females, but there are human females on the planet now. Slowly over the years, we have brought them there,” he said.
"What?! How many exactly?” I asked.
"It must be somewhere between 800 and 1,000 human females scattered across the planet. I do not know the exact number, but my brother does, and so does my father,” he said, getting annoyed and turning his back on me.
"Wait. What are you talking about? How did these females get there?"I asked.
"The same way you are. Over time,” he said.
"You mean that your race of Draqua has been stealing human females from Earth for years?! I shouted at him in rage.
"Don't get mad at me. I am not the one that started it. I had no control over it. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go back to the front of the ship. We will be in my galaxy in a matter of an hour or so,” he said.
"An hour? But we only left Earth less than an hour ago," I said following him to the front of the ship. I was startled by what I saw. Outside the windshield was no longer black; it was stripes zooming by us.
"I put the ship into hyperspeed. It gets us there faster,” he said, sitting back down in his chair and going to work. I was mesmerized by the sights zooming by us. It was very beautiful. But it was nothing compared to what I was about to see on the planet of Kelon.
"There it is. There is my home,” Cylo said as I sat next to him in the front of the ship. The planet was a blue and white marble from space. It reminded me of Earth, only there was more blue than Earth had.
"It is beautiful,” I said as we zoomed toward it. Soon we were entering the atmosphere, and white puffy clouds were like a wall in front of us. But then the clouds gave way to a blue sky.
"Unbelievable,” I said as I could see the white sand islands that Cylo had spoke of. They were sparkling white, like diamonds at this height, and the crystal-clear water looked like vast swimming pools. It took my breath away.
"I told you it was beautiful,” Cylo said with a smile.
"I did not think anything could be this beautiful,” I said as the ship flew lower and I got a better view. It reminded me of Tahiti, but Tahiti on steroids. It was prettier than any island paradise on Earth; Cylo had been right about that.
"What is all of that?” I asked as I noticed that there were different colored patches on the island that did not look like trees.
"Those are the roofs of our homes,” he said.
"So high up in the trees?” I asked.
"Yes, we can fly, remember?” he laughed.
"Oh, right,” I said realizing that I was truly on a strange trip. These were creatures that could fly and lived in the trees. As the ship lowered through the lush vegetation, I could see that it was practically a tropical jungle with massive trees. The tree trunks were the size of the house in thickness, and they shot straight into the air by hundreds of feet. Platforms were built off of these trees with several levels, and they were all connected by very long rope bridges, or very thick, sturdy bridges, depending on which area I looked at. It was a treehouse luxury village.
"You were right, Cylo: this is stunning. It is unlike anything I have ever seen. It is unlike anything I could ever see on Earth,” I said, admitting that the place was practically a fantasy. It looked so perfect that it looked fake.
"I told you so. Wait until you see inside and swim from the beaches,” he said.
When he said it, I realized that I was actually excited to do all of those things. Only hours before I was begging to be taken back to Earth and my life, but now that I was here I was eager to learn. I was eager to experience. I was eager to have an adventure unlike anything that I could ever expect to experience on Earth.
"We are here,” Cylo said as he looked at me. The engines of the ship turned off as we parked on a landing pad. It too was high in the trees. Cylo unbuckled his belt and stood up. I did the same, and he held his hand out to me. I took a deep breath and put my hand in his. I was very aware of how large his hand was compared to mine. It was burning with heat. I was also aware of how I suddenly felt warm all over. Having my hand in his felt good, it felt safe. I looked at him, and he smiled, and he led me to the door of the ship. The door opened and a rush of cool ocean breeze hit me. The air was so clean that as I took a breath, I almost started choking on it. It was something that my body was not used to. It felt good. I breathed deep and felt almost high on the air; it must be rich in oxygen, I thought.
"Are you ready?” he asked.
"Yes, I am ready,” I said.
He walked out of the ship, and I walked with him. We stood on the large platform, and it was then that I was able to get a good look around.
"Holy shit,” I said in complete amazement at what I saw. I looked up, and there were massive houses in all the trees surrounding us. It reminded me of a fairy village but built to house these large dragon people.
"You really live here?” I asked as I took a few steps forward.
"Yes. I'm glad you like it. I knew that you would,” he said as he grabbed my arm and moved me quicker. We got to the end of the landing pad. I stopped and jerked back.
"Well, I cannot step on that,” I said as I looked at the narrow bridge in front of us. It looked to be built solid but it was narrow and the drop down to the ground was 100 feet or more.
"What? Why?” he asked.
"Because I'm scared of heights,” I said.
He laughed a little and said, “But I found you standing on a cliff high above the ocean?”
"Yes, but that is different. My feet were on solid ground, not on a narrow rope bridge. It looks like a gust of wind would make me fly off,” I said taking more steps backward.
"It is solidly built. You have nothing to worry about. You must get used to the height. This is your new home,” he said.
I looked at him
with wide eyes realizing exactly what he meant. He was never going to let me go back to Earth. This was permanent for him. It wasn't for me. I was going back to Earth at any cost.”
"No,” I said in response to him telling me that this was my permanent home. But I think you meant thought I meant that I was not going to go on the bridge. His sighed and then moved over to me and picked me up.
"What are you doing?” I asked as he threw me over his shoulder. “Don't. Stop,” I said.
He walked on top of the rope bridge, and I could see down all the way to the ground while hanging over his shoulder. I started to get dizzy. I felt full of fear, and my body began to shake. “Don't. Put me down,” I said.
"You want me to drop you here?” he teased me.