Protector

by Sam Ryder

  Persepheus shifted position slightly, her skin changing color from blue to green before settling on a color somewhere in between. Though the last time I’d seen her she and her sisters had been rewarding me for Leveling up to Protector, there was no awkwardness between us. She was a goddess, after all, and had been with countless mortals over her lifetime. I was surprised she remembered my name half the time.

  She took a long time answering, combing a hand through her long hair, which resembled the color of seaweed. “The residents of one of the Eight have figured things out,” she said. The Eight were the major inhabited planets within our galaxy, which Eve visited about once a week to Find new recruits to bring to Tor. I counted them off in my head: Earth, Tor, Lri Ayem, Oceania, Primo, Askander, Corrun and Protos. Lri Ayem was where Vrill once called home, while Millania was from Oceania and Lace from Protos.

  Persepheus’s response wasn’t the answer I was hoping for or expecting. Even if our Finder had been attacked, I was hoping it was a one-off. Then again, Eve had used the word trap, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. I glanced over at the unconscious bodies of the four new recruits, which I’d untangled and situated in a row on the ground. There was a gray-skinned female from Corrun, where Protector Kloop had been from, her snout sporting a sharp-looking spike. Beside her was a small creature of unknown gender covered in white fur. An Askandian, I knew. Third was a human, another female. She wore glasses that had been cracked and mangled during the melee, and had a distinctive librarian look to her. The fourth was clearly from Lri Ayem, his skin as dark as night. He was strong looking, and I wondered how much stronger he would be after he’d been leveled up. “How?” I asked Persepheus. “How could this happen?”

  I thought about when Eve had found me. From a practical standpoint, she’d selected well. I had no family or close friends who would notice I’d gone missing. At least not for a while. My parents usually checked in once every few months or so, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it took them a year to realize I’d never responded to their e-mails. I’d just been fired from my job. My landlord would continue to get paid automatically from my checking account until it ran out of funds. Then she would simply evict me and rent it to someone else. Even if I was eventually labeled a ‘missing person,’ there would be no extensive police search—the cops had limited resources and too many unexplained cases like mine.

  Oops, I realized. My mind had spiraled again, which was something it did when I was stressed. And I was stressed. Though I was technically the one leading the Warriors now, Eve was my safety net. She had the experience and the strength to hold things together. If she died…I wasn’t certain I’d be able to fill her shoes.

  I also realized Persepheus was gone, having slipped from her rock and into the pond without making so much as a splash. Beneath the water, her long legs morphed into a long tail and she vanished.

  ~~~

  “Like this,” I said, demonstrating the technique that Eve had shown me the last time she’d brought back new recruits. Beat, Lace and Millania had arrived in a hurry, sliding down the glowing vines and dropping into the gully ready to help. Lace had apparently explained what had happened as they’d run up the slope.

  There was nothing we could do for Eve right now. But we could take care of the newbs. Level them up from Outcasts to Warriors.

  I wrapped the gossamer, cocoon-like material around the first of the recruits—the one from Corrun. “Lift her,” I said, and Beat’s strong arms were there to pick her up as I circled her body with the material, wrapping her like a mummy. Out of respect for the females, I’d turned away to remove the clothes of the dude from Lri Ayem and replace them with the standard loin cloth while the women had handled the human female and this gray-skinned lady. Now she was clad in a loin-bikini, her small chest rising and falling under the fabric.

  After watching a little more of the wrapping technique, Lace and Millania started working together on the white-furred creature, which didn’t seem to need any clothes at all because of its thick fur.

  Beat and I switched roles so she could practice wrapping. As she worked, she said, “What the fuck happened?” in her usual no-nonsense way.

  “Eve and Souza were attacked. That’s all I know.”

  “Do we know which planet?”

  “Not Earth,” I said, making an educated guess. “Anyone talking about abductions there would just be mocked and/or locked up.” Which left six other potential planets, each of which we knew very little about.

  Lace, having overheard, jumped into our conversation. “It could be my people,” she said. “We’re a highly evolved and violent race.”

  “Do those two things really go together?” I said.

  “When intellect meets instinct—yes,” she said, baring her fangs. She and Millania were making short work of wrapping the small white-furred creature. Because of its small stature, they would finish before we were done with our newb.

  “I don’t know,” I said, glancing at the alien woman in front of me with her horned snout. Though she wasn’t particularly large, Kloop had been massive and I suspected others from their planet would be capable of goring a hole through Eve’s stomach. And the slash down Souza’s side…

  My eyes found the sleek, black panther. She rested on her haunches, staying close to where Eve continued to soak in the ooze bath. Thankfully, the large animal seemed none the worse for wear. The wound, it seemed, was superficial, and had stopped bleeding on its own. Which saved us from trying to care for a beast that might take one of our hands off if we touched it.

  “What now?” Lace asked. The white-furred creature was fully mummified, resting on the slab.

  “The ooze,” I said, gesturing to a tub of the good stuff resting nearby. I’d never actually seen the goddesses spitting into the tubs to provide the potent ooze, but they always seemed to find the energy to provide a sufficient amount. The cocoon-like webbing was also well-stocked, which was Airiel’s role to play. Though I’d only seen the beautiful sky goddess once—an experience I would never forget—I imagined her lying on a cloud spinning the material with her delicate feet.

  “Not too much!” I commanded, barely stopping Lace and Millania from dumping the entire vat of ooze onto the new recruit’s cocoon. Lace fired darts at me with her eyes and I got the distinct impression she wanted to leap over and eat my face off. Good to have you back, cat-woman, I thought. “Pour a little, then rub it in.”

  Instead of eating my face off, Lace complied, allowing a small amount of the ooze to dribble from the pot’s spout. She and Millania used their hands to spread the ooze out. The liquid seemed to multiply, filling in all the cracks as it seeped through to the body.

  Lace looked back at me with her eyebrows raised and I nodded. “Good. One down.”

  Beat and I finished up on the Corrunese woman while Lace and Millania got going on the Lri Ay guy. “He’s attractive,” Lace said, eyeing his sculpted chest like he was dinner. “Most Outcasts aren’t so attractive until after leveling up to Warrior.”

  The reminder almost made me laugh. It had certainly been true of me. I hadn’t ever turned a head back on Earth, but here I was considered desirable. Weird.

  When Beat and I were done oozing our first subject, Beat lifted the human woman onto the next slab. Wearing the leather bikini, I could see just how thin she was. Her ribs were practically poking through her skin, which was mottled with bruises. Had she been injured during the trip to Tor?

  I imagined what her life might’ve been like back on Earth. Was she really a librarian, like I thought? If so, did she enjoy it? Did she have any friends?

  I removed her glasses, setting them aside. She wouldn’t need them anymore. The goddess spittle was better than Lasik for eyes. Because she was so thin, Beat and I finished wrapping her about the same time as Lace and Millania finished with the guy.

  We stepped back to judge our work. “Not bad,” Millania said, a rare statement from the quiet Warrior from Oceania.

  “Not bad at
all,” I agreed. “Good work. Eve would be proud.” My own reminder at the present state of our Finder brought back a flood of worries. What if she died? What if—

  “That bitch is tough to kill,” Beat said, doing that usual mind-reading thing of hers. “She’ll pull through.”

  I nodded, taking comfort from her words.

  “What next?” Lace asked. “How do we get them to the Circle?”

  That was one question I knew the answer to. “No Circle,” I said. “We’ll be doing things a little differently from now on. All these Warriors are going to survive to fight in the Black. Our army is about to start getting a helluva a lot bigger.”

  ~~~

  The newbs awoke an hour or so before the next Black.

  We watched together, eager, almost like soon-to-be awaiting the birth of their children. In the back of my mind, memories of my own violent rebirth played. I wondered if the others were experiencing their own memories of the Circle. I hoped not.

  Over the last few hours, the cocoons had lifted off the slabs, hovering in the air of their own accord—a final piece of magic.

  The goddesses were noticeably absent for the event. Eve was still in the ooze, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow. Souza had vanished a while ago, presumably off to hunt.

  The first to break through the cocoon was the horned female from Corrun. She was at a distinct advantage, her sharp snout piercing the white shroud as she bucked her head.

  “Whoa,” I murmured. The horn was several times larger than the one Beat and I had covered. I should’ve expected it, but still…the power of the ooze was a sight to behold. Outcasts had gone into the cocoons, but Warriors would emerge.

  The other cocoons were moving now, too, hidden hands and feet shoving against the insides. It was tempting to help them, but I knew at the least the newbs needed to do this on their own.

  The Corrunese female punched several holes in the barrier with her powerful arms and feet, her horn severing the space down the middle. She spilled from the hammock to the ground, landing hard on her shoulder. She was only slightly taller than when she’d gone in, but noticeably broader. Her muscles were larger and rounder, her horn bigger and longer. It was interesting how the ooze had different effects on each of the different races. For example, Lace was still a lithe creature compared to the bodybuilders Beat and I had become. Millania likely grew taller, but she was still as wispy as a reed. I wondered if the effects varied depending on the genetical makeup of the individual too. I suspected I was about to find out.

  We watched as the rhino woman fought onto all fours, dripping ooze. Her eyes darted from side to side as she tried to make sense of the situation she found herself in. Her gaze found us and she froze.

  “It’s okay,” I said, trying to make my voice sound as soothing as possible.

  She grunted, “Get away from me!” and began to reverse. The effect of my attempt at a soothing voice was likely erased by my hulking form.

  “Let me handle this,” Lace said, but to everyone’s surprise, it was Millania who stretched out an arm to stop her.

  “Let me,” the gilled woman said.

  For a second I thought Lace might bite her way clean through the Oceanian’s arm, but then she grinned a fanged grin. “Knock yourself out, but don’t blame me when you end up with a hole in your gut.”

  Millania moved forward without another word. The rhino woman took another step back, her head dipping slightly as if preparing to attack. Millania stopped several paces away. “I am Millania. What is your name?”

  The gray-skinned woman cocked her head to the side. “Where am I?”

  “A planet called Tor. You were taken from your home and brought here. For that I am sorry.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Yes. The same was done to me and my companions. We are in this together.”

  The rhino woman seemed to finally realize that her body had been changed, her eyes roaming down the expanse of her leathery skin. “What did you do to me?”

  “We call it leveling up. You are a Warrior now. Stronger. Faster. Tougher. It was necessary because of the dangers of this planet.”

  “I don’t want to be here,” the woman said, unshed tears sparkling in her eyes.

  In that moment, I felt horrible. More horrible than I’d ever felt in my entire life. It didn’t matter that I’d been her not that long ago. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t the one who’d abducted her. It didn’t matter that I wouldn’t return to Earth even if I had the chance. All that mattered was that she hadn’t been given a choice.

  Was there a better way to handle this? Was there a way to give our new recruits a choice before bringing them here?

  At the same time I wondered whether I would’ve come if I’d been given such a choice.

  Millania stepped forward. “I know,” she said. “Neither do I.”

  Those five words provided more insight into the ocean dweller’s mind than I’d received in the ten or so days I’d known her. In my own mind, I’d rationalized my lack of effort by the fact that she’d been quiet and made no effort of her own to get to know me. Now, however, I knew that was wrong, selfish. I should’ve tried. I should’ve asked. If I was going to lead, I needed to be better.

  Regardless, Millania’s words and gentle nature worked like a charm. The rhino woman became less defensive, practically melting to the ground as Millania moved to comfort her. While we watched, she spoke to her in soft tones. Explaining things, I supposed. When she finished, the rhino woman nodded. Millania turned back to face us, her eyes meeting mine. “Her name is Floot. Take her above,” she said. “I’ll handle the rest.”

  “Thank you,” I said. And then to Floot, I said, “I’m Sam. Sam Ryder. This is Beatrice, though I wouldn’t recommend calling her that unless you like getting hit. She prefers Beat. The one who looks like she wants to make a meal out of you is Lace. And you’ve already met Millania. You’re one of us now. Follow me.”

  With that, I turned away, gesturing for the others to come, save for Millania, who stood waiting for the next newb to emerge.

  We climbed the glowing vines to the cliffs above.

  ~~~

  Floot was sniffing at the charred leafrat curiously, yet to take a bite. She had, however, drunk a bunch of water. She had yet to speak or ask any questions, but I was prepared to answer anything and everything she asked when she was ready. I didn’t want secrets to be kept from the newcomers, like they’d been kept from me.

  The white-furred creature, Guz, had been the second to clamber from the gully. He—it?—looked much the same as when he’d gone into the cocoon, except for the fact that his fur was matted and tangled from the ooze. He was sitting beside the fire across from Floot, nibbling on his own leafrat. Our caretaker, Hunch, was a gnarled old alien I knew little about. He busied himself around the camp, cleaning and cooking more leafrat.

  The third newb to arrive was the dark-skinned dude. I grinned as he strode down the slope. As expected, his strong form looked even stronger—more so than even Dravon had been. He looked every bit the Warrior that he now was.

  “I’m Protector Sam,” I said. “I mean Protector Ryder.” Beat snorted. She and I had talked a lot about what would sound better, Protector Sam or Protector Ryder. And yet I still sounded like a dumbass.

  “Jak,” the Warrior dude said, sounding cooler than me by a megaton. “I feel like I’ve done some hard drugs. But this is real, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. “You’ll get used to it. Grab a bite to eat. The leafrat’s not half bad.”

  “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

  I mentally facepalmed. “Right. The Lri Ay don’t require food for rejuvenation.”

  His eyebrows rose, surprised. “You know of my people?” he asked as he sat.

  “I’ve met two of your kind,” I said.

  “Where are they?” He looked around our camp, which was looking pretty sparse.

  I was trying to decide how best to answer the question, but Beat, well, beat me to it. “One
was devoured by a monster called a hellhound, and the other was trapped in a cursed mirror.”

  The guy didn’t flinch. “Intense,” was all he said. He slumped down, looking tired.

  That’s when Lace sauntered up, looking unfathomably sexy in her tight, form-fitting bikini. “Need a boost?” she asked. Just like that. Not even starting with, “Hiya, I’m Lace. Wanna bang?”

  “You mind?”

  She grinned a cat grin. “I’ll take one for the team, if it’ll help.”

  “It’ll help.” Jak pushed to his feet and accepted Lace’s outstretched hand. They walked to one of the huts and disappeared inside.

  Beat punched my shoulder. “Jealous?”

  I wasn’t. Yes, I’d been with Lace, but there was nothing exclusive about this place. I’d also been with Vrill—twice—Minertha—also twice, including a foursome with her two stunning goddess sisters. I shook my head. “For him, it’s just like eating dinner. And Lace deserves to have a little fun.”

  Beat rolled her eyes, unconvinced. “Whatever you say, Protector.” She had a way of making my title sound like Clown, which was probably closer to the truth.

  I changed the subject. “Millania has a way with the newbs,” I said. They still looked shell-shocked, except for Jak, but at least they weren’t backing away from us like cornered animals anymore. That was progress in my book.

  “Surprising, right?” Beat said. “I wonder what other tricks she has hidden up her gills.”

  I was thinking the same thing.

  That’s when the last newb arrived, making her way down the hill slowly, tentatively. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. Holy holy holy shit.

  She still had that quiet, timid manner about her, but it was like she’d been on Extreme Makeover: Librarian Edition. Unlike Beat, she hadn’t become a female bodybuilder version of her old self. She was no longer too skinny, her body having developed some meat, including toned arms and legs and a washboard-ab stomach, but she’d also gained curves, like the hairpin turns on some hardcore racetrack. She’d grown a few inches too, and now her legs went on forever, her skin still slightly moist from the ooze.