Chapter 10 | Hazel

Chapter 10

Hazel

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I watched the monitor with relief as the last bird of Zorn was released from the medbay quarantine. The Ganpan-Fal worked...

Many died from the virus, and many would never truly be the same. The virus, Solungors, was already too far along, and their physiology was completely altered. The only thing kept was their own consciousness.

"Are you sure it's okay to allow them to leave quarantine?" I asked Yueril. "Their bodies aren't their own species anymore... Only their skulls are the same. Their DNA is warped forever."

The host skin was peeled off if they were too far along in the process, and what was underneath was something entirely different. The skin was hard like rock, and a strange purple which I knew was simply a color associated with a Lightwave that my eyes couldn't process between the red and blue waves. The color didn't exist on Estreldez, at least, not that we’ve discovered. Nothing reflects between those waves within the light of our moons. It was simply the best way to describe such a phenomenal sight.

"It's unlikely they'd be able to reproduce, or infect someone else at this point," he explained.

The medic agreed, "Everyone with any signs of the virus has had their mating organs removed for extra precaution, but scratches, blood transfer, and even biting have been tested by volunteers that wished for someone who was infected to be released."

I nodded. "The nanobots don't seem to replicate beyond the host, though, at least not without a blood contact."

Yueril agreed, "They can't replicate without a host."

This was disconcerting. "You'll need more of the nanobots to defend against the virus. They don't replicate outside a host, and once they've been absorbed and depleted from Delta-Fal, then you're relying on blood transfers and future spawn carrying the nanobots."

"It's not perfect," he admitted. "But it seems to be working."

I didn't know the solution yet, but I couldn't let it go. Vareo awkwardly forced himself to get riled up to activate his runes like he was preparing for battle once more. He was doing that in bursts to help heal my loh, which miraculously was working. Genbi said I'd be able to leave the medtank soon, but they still didn't know how long the effects of Vareo's radiation would last. They reminded me that even Lord Zorn was requesting Vareo's presence several times while he was recovering.

Something about the shol species reacted well with estrelds.

"We're approaching Krelis," Genbi announced.

The damned krelin ship had already departed from Delta-Fal before we could do a recovery mission for Belder, Yueril's second in command.

"And you think she'll be there?" I wondered out loud.

"The human was meant for the queen there," Yueril reminded us all. "They'll have wanted to keep her to tend to him if anything went wrong. She wouldn't have left someone in need. It's likely she went willingly. We'll know for certain if I get in range of her comms. It's on the way to Estreldez, regardless."

He lifted his hand to the outside of the medtank and smiled sadly at me. I lifted my own hand and pressed my palm to the surface between us. We hadn't discussed things between us yet with everything that's been happening, but I knew he was worried. He swore to me that he would stay on Estreldez if I wasn't able to live anywhere else.

I grinned to myself with the thought that I was sure the Almder would have something to say about that. There were things I had to discuss with the leader of my planet after seeing the results for myself from the medic. Lord Zorn, or Ordin, as was his rightful name. The Moon God depicted in monuments, and the namesake of the Ordin rock deep in the mountains of Estreldez. It was more casually referred to as the glorbin flower after being the favorite food source of glorbins, but even those little annoying creatures were in some respect named after Ordin for being friendly and capable of burning off their food in self-defense, making themselves temporarily invisible long enough to be out of reach. They became clever enough to disappear and steal your food right from your mouth if you don't chew fast enough.

I learned that the difficult way, living outside the clan near the mountain, but I'm sure a few of them made their way into the clan occasionally. Not including the few times I purposefully baited a few to do so when I was younger.

According to Ordin, Almder was his mate, and I needed to know if she was my genetic spawn maker. If she was, then did my mother take me from her? Lying to me my whole life... Or maybe she had sent my mother away after realizing that I was not hers?

I really didn't know the whole story, and though I held resentment towards my mother before this, no matter what I found out, it wouldn't change that I loved her, and she cared for me until her return to the great rock.

"Where is your mind at?" he asked carefully.

"I might not be accepted on Estreldez..."

"It's likely you're the leader's spawn there," Genbi added. "Lord was convinced you had her features, even though you do not have her loh coloring."

No one on the ship called him Lord Zorn anymore since Vareo sent him back to the rock. It was as if, by his end, the title of Zorn was stripped from him. Who would take his place, I didn't know, but there were curious glances aimed at everyone in this command room from who they may see as the previous leader's heir stuck in a medpod, the ever devoted second-in-command Genbi, and the two warriors that defeated him in a duel, Vareo and Yueril.

I knew he wasn't a god of my planet, but I still believed in every estreld's return to the rock, though his would be more in spirit than body. There was no discussion in this room that convinced me what the future of the Birds of Zorn would look like, but not a single bird addressed anyone as the Almder of Zorn, future lord, or otherwise.

The prospect of discussing my future with the birds was more appealing than thinking about whether the Almder of Estreldez was my spawn maker. My mother who raised me was certain I wouldn't be welcomed in the clan, and that would mean she was certain the Almder wouldn't accept me. I refused to think she lied to me about something so serious and still kept the secret on her last breath back to the great rock.

Everyone was staring at me now. Genbi hadn't asked a question, but by the looks of things, they had expected some kind of response to his theory about my genetic connections to the leader of my planet. That would, of course, make me an heir to guiding the clan's future, and either make my reunion to Estreldez a prominent one that could benefit us or a target for being destroyed. It's just as likely my mother was correct in not being wanted and I would be rejected before ever reaching the farthest moon, Bina.

The planet was easily protected against unwanted visitors with the strong radiation fields around the many moons.

Finally, I spoke, since no one else would, "Even if they test me to confirm the claims, I don't want to be the next in line as Almder of Estreldez. I've never been part of the clan, and I wouldn't even know how to do such a thing, but we should consider that making any claims of being the Almder's daughter could result in an outcome we aren't prepared for. If Ordin was telling the truth, then the Almder is capable of dark things."

"All leaders are capable of dark things," Vareo said while pacing in front of the monitors. He appeared nervous and exhausted before he groaned and slammed his fist into the wall. Then he stormed out of the room.

"He knows that he can't go with you. One of our vessels isn't responding to our communications to inform them of what's happened," Genbi explained. "It's one of the slave ships, and from experience, it means someone was dumb enough to take advantage of its smaller crew to steal from us."

"You're dropping me off," Yueril acknowledged with a nod that he would be on his own to find Belder down on the planet Krelis below.

Genbi smiled. "Not without your own ship. Though smaller, it will do fine enough to get from this planet to anywhere within a few cycles. It also happens to be of the same make the krelins use."

"Capable of landing on their planet without suspicion, as long as we locate where to land," Yueril agreed. "My crew will take it from here. In many we rise, I give thanks." He returned his attention to me and grinned. The sound of suctioned air and water gurgled in my ears as my medtank drained.

The mask around my mouth unclasped and snapped back into the tank wall. Strands of light green hair clung to my face without the weightlessness of the tank's gel. I hadn't thought about how much it'd grown during the long periods of unconsciousness, but it reached below my shoulders in an uneven mess.

It wasn't until the front of the tank began rotating to open that I panicked because I hadn't used my legs in so long. I feared I'd fall flat on my face.

Yueril kept his eyes on me through the viewing panel, and I locked on as he carefully unlocked the bar I leaned on. His tail wrapped under my arms, and I blushed at the first real touch in several cycles that brushed against the side of my breast. He seemed to understand why I turned my gaze away, and whispered, "There is a saying from my tribe to the Goddess Lumei; on your lips I share with you the fate of the stars. There are three times in a trill's life that we use this phrase."

I wasn't sure where he was going with this, but I enjoyed the way he used his own tongue and then translated it for me. With my legs free from the medpod, he wrapped his arms around me, pressing my damp flesh to his robes without a care for how the evaporating gel should stain his fabrics. Though fabric was the last thing on my mind as I felt his hard scales beneath, wishing that there was no such robe at all between us. Fluttering wisps of air breezed through the top of my head as he cradled me to him.

"When we give someone our name, in respect we say this so that we may meet again to use our names with honor when spoken," he continued. "When we take our last breath, we say this to join the ones we love in the fabric of the universe."

My lip trembled at that one, and I was beginning to suspect he was telling me that this would be the last time I saw him, and not a hope we should say our names together again. That he would go down to Krelis and not return.

"And the third," I prompted.

"This one we save for only our mates to remind them that they hold our first and our last with them always. Treasure," he nuzzled into my hair, and then tilted my chin up to meet his gaze, "on your lips I share with you the fate of our stars."

My loh ached, and my shoulder blades tingled as I stared up at him in awe. I didn't know much about his species yet, but if his fate was on my lips, and my fate was on his, then I didn't want our lips to part. I leaned in and closed the distance to kiss him. He flinched, and I wasn't sure if I had done something wrong, so I stopped in confusion.

Yueril's lips were pressed together tightly, and he too appeared as confused as I was.

I blinked.

"I'm sorry, I thought..."

Genbi spoke up then, and I remembered we weren't alone. "The trill don't normally use their mouth for anything but eating, being as they're full of sharp teeth. You're probably the first being to ever attempt to get that close and not fear being poisoned."

Oh, I thought with a blush. Before Yueril could react, I wrapped my arm around his neck and ran my fingers up his scales along his head. Already I could feel the oils along my skin relaxing me and making my flesh tingly and sensitive. I smiled wryly and watched as the uncertainty in his eyes shifted into something more instinctual.

I was bared to him, fresh from the medpod. It wasn't something I used to be self-conscious of when on Estreldez. Many of our clothes were breathable and hardly more than gauze to allow the moon's rays to touch our loh. Not much was left to the imagination as to our bodies being exposed, but on Delta-Fal... while hiding my identity and what I was meant for, I hadn't felt the stare of another since he'd washed me at the den. My cheeks flushed at the memory of his tail being worked inside my mating loh. Heat pooled between my legs, and I clenched my thighs, wiggling slightly for the friction.

I didn't care if I was making Genbi uncomfortable. On Estreldez, the clan didn't shy from listening to their bodies and I'd seen other couples pleasure themselves, among others doing the same at the dipping pool near the mountain. Back then, I was the one hiding and feeling shame for doing so. The shame I realized wasn't from what I was doing while I watched. It was from the hiding, because I didn't feel the slightest shame for the way I shivered at the way his robe rubbed against my nipples, or for being exposed to more than one male.

Though I'd hardly call being held by Yueril being exposed with all the layers of robes that covered us with his arms around me.

I had no fear that Yueril would harm me, only that he wouldn't do anything at all.

With deliberate slowness, I leaned in again. I stopped, but a sliver away from our lips touching. "Your fate is on my lips; I'd like to give you mine on yours."

A trigger snapped within him, heavy air chuffing from his nose with his restraint, before I gently pressed my lips to his. His shoulders lifted with tension, unsure of what he should do with a strange creature like me that played with a predator. Claws lifted up my back and into my hair as he pressed his own lips to mine more firmly.

His tail wrapped around my thigh and lifted as he hissed and my back slammed into the wall, with his arm taking the brunt of the force of his increased ferocity. The tip of his length curled and slipped between my legs, making my hips rock to warm my mating seam. But I found that it was already wet and ready to stimulate the bundle of nerves within. The oils on his tail's scales heightened the feel of him against me, and I moaned into his mouth. Yet, he made no move to remove his cloak between us.

I tugged at the layers of fabric and lifted and clawed at them. I didn't have sharp nails like he did, but my point was made that I needed more of him. A whimper escaped when I realized he would not give me that minor concession, and I didn't know why.

My eyes closed as I sucked in a sharp intake of air at the thickness of his tail dipping into me. I panted and moaned, using my arms on his shoulders as leverage to move my hips to take more of him.

His tail grew thicker as it sunk deeper, no longer tapered, and I realized that was as far as my body would yield to his tail, yet it hardly seemed deep enough as I clamped around him and squeezed. A shiver of pleasure rippled up my back and made my arms tremble. Heat grew within my loh, and I heard a rough scratching of what sounded like rock against rock behind us, but we were against a wall...

My eyes opened, and I saw Yueril's eyes darting around and then back to stare at me with this look of pure stunned awe. "Blasphemous are my eyes for I have seen a treasure greater than the goddess and I have no care to worship any other."

Embarrassed, I leaned my head back against the wall, only to see from my periphery that my loh had come out beyond their sedentary state. I was glowing all over, and my back loh were sprouted to shards, like lethal daggers spread out like a dangerous flower that framed behind me.

Before I could say anything about it, and what that meant, his lips were on me again, capturing my breath. Back loh were connected with a female's mating. I may have been resentful of my mother, but she had taught me that much. She said, I would know, and my back loh would tingle as my eggs dropped for the right male.

My lips quivered as I kissed him, and I smiled as I pressed our lips together with more passion. Different species or not, he was the right male. I pulled and gathered the back of his robe until I could lift the ends of it over his head from behind.

"I'm okay to simply enjoy your pleasure," Yueril insisted before I could tug the fabric over his head.

"Don't be selfish," I said before nipping at his lip. I had blunted teeth for grinding rocks, but his lip beaded with blood. We both paused, and he grinned.

"I didn't know your species had those," he lifted a claw to tap one of my teeth. I stubbornly yanked the robe over his head for the mass of fabric to gather under his chin and lifted my fingers to my mouth. I flinched as a fang pricked my finger.

"Neither did I..."

"I'm glad," he finally said.

"Why?" I wondered, and he eased away to remove the cumbersome robe between us, and I sucked in my own lip at the sight, accidentally nicking myself, a small dribble of blood tracing down my chin.

"It is customary for mates to mark each other, and there would be no way that your teeth would have been able to before."

I blushed.

"Mates," I tested the word, and he wiggled his tail inside of me, making me pronounce the 'm' elongated as I sunk into the feeling.

"If you'll have me."

I nodded quickly before I pulled him back and nuzzled into his neck. His arms wrapped around me, and I felt a flutter of scales against my cheek and the pulse of his artery beneath. Turning my head, I saw how his scales shifted just beneath his ear. I traced the area with my lips, pressing a kiss there, and he shivered. Was this where mates bit each other?

"When aroused, the scales shift," he confirmed.

I smiled against him and dragged my teeth over the sensitive scales, and he held me tighter until my fangs sunk into him. As I stilled with this heady sensation of fullness and an ache that wasn't being satisfied with his tail alone he gently gathered my arm from around his other shoulder and kissed my inner elbow before his sharp teeth bit down.

I flinched, expecting pain, but feeling nothing but complete.

We stayed there like that for more time than I could focus on. Neither of us unlatched as my hips slowly regained their movement and began to pleasure myself on his tail.

He hissed without releasing his hold on my elbow. "No." He released his tail from inside of me, and I whimpered at the loss. I heard the fall of fabric as what I assumed were his pants crumpling to the floor. My heart felt like it stopped with the anticipation, but I couldn't bring myself to stop biting his neck to look. His tail wrapped around my leg and tugged my feet apart before it caressed my ass and something firm pressed against my mating loh that I knew was not his tail.

He moaned, and I felt his tongue lap against my elbow, sending tingles up my arm. I gasped as his cock pushed inside, and felt so very different from his tail, smoother, but also hitting my nerves in a delicious way that begged for him to give me more.

I wrapped the heel of my foot at his ass and pulled him closer to me, moaning as his cock sunk deeper. He was now as deep as I had taken his tail and yet it didn't feel like enough, and he seemed to think the same as he thrust inside of me to his hilt in one sweep of his hips. I tensed up before I relaxed into it, and the tip of his cock hit something inside me that made me shiver and still—unable to move.

Slowly, he eased his teeth from my inside elbow and licked at where I felt my blood drip, but still there was no pain. Warmth spread from the mark, and I released my hold of his neck. My breath coming in deep ragged, barely controlled pants.

"Do you feel it?" he asked with a bit of a worried tremble in his tone.

His cock throbbed inside of me, and I couldn't describe the way the fullness and completeness felt as it utterly consumed me.

"Treasure?"

He never called me by my name.

Finally, my tongue could move again, and I whispered, "When I milk your seed from your pleasure, you will call me yours, and you will be mine."

The worry faded from his eyes and his scales flared from his head with what I now understood was not a threat, but a mating display.

Yueril pulled out slightly and plunged back in, making me call out to the stars themselves as he hit me so deep, I didn't believe it had anything to do with his cock at all, but something intangible as I quaked against him.