Chapter 11

Kayla

CW: Bullying, physical violence

“Kayla!” Taylor greeted me with a running hug. She nearly tipped the chariot over as she hopped on and wrapped her arms around me.

“I was so worried! I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen you again.” She panted as she pulled away to check me over for any injuries.

“Told you.” Brexl gave Taylor a tight smile.

“Told you what?” I asked.

“Brexl assured me that Drovo was a skilled hunter and that he’d keep you safe.”

The skeletal shifter nodded his head in agreement.

“Hello friend,” Brexl greeted Drovo with a bow and a fist on his chest. He may have told Taylor not to worry, but his shoulders seemed to relax slightly at the sight of his friend. He’d definitely been concerned for Drovo and me.

“Hello friend.” Drovo bowed his forehead to Brexl’s for a brief moment and they both relaxed.

“How are you holding up?” Taylor asked me as we walked toward the ruined ship.

“I’m alright,” I lied, and Taylor gave me a knowing look.

“I’m a little tired. The stress from last night is catching up to me, but I’m mostly fine. Really.” I assured her.

“If you say so,” she looked at me doubtfully, but let the topic go.

“It feels surreal looking at it again,” I commented as we stood in front of the ship that once held us captive.

“Yeah, I didn’t think it would creep me out as much as it does. I tried walking up the ramp earlier, but I couldn’t do it. I felt scared all over again, like if I went in there, the alligator aliens might be waiting for me.”

“I’m here now. It’ll be okay.” I assured her. It was unnerving to see the most confident person in our group look scared.

“We’ll go first.” Brexl and Drovo moved as smoothly as sharks in the water as they slid up the ramp and walked into the ship.

The small orange lights that had lined the floor when we crashed were still glowing. We let the guys check every inch of every room we entered to make sure it was safe. I had to hold back a laugh when Drovo moved a bent metal chair out of the way. He rubbed his fingers together as if he were trying to analyze what he’d just felt.

These guys hadn’t figured out how to smelt ore to make metal yet. I wondered if our children would be the generation that brought us into the bronze age. Not our children. The next generation. Drovo and I were friends, just friends.

I shook those thoughts from my head as we entered the room that still held our cryotubes. A shiver went up my spine as I spotted the one that had held me.

“What are these?” Drovo asked as he passed one.

“They’re small chambers that kept us asleep until we reached Valo Prime,” Taylor answered.

Brexl reached into one and pulled out a retraining belt. His face darkened into a terrible frown. “They held you like animals.”

Taylor and I looked at each other before I answered. “We were less than animals to them. We were just goods to be sold for profit.”

Drovo frowned down at the cryotubes now and Brexl clenched his fist around the strap as if he could choke the life out of our captors by doing so.

“I don’t like this place. There’s no nature here, just the dull humming of this strange cold material.” He ran his hand along a metal wall and shivered.

“I don’t like it either,” I agreed.

“Over here,” Taylor motioned for us to join her on the other side of the room, where Brexl was doing his best to not hover over her. He looked ready to lunge at anything that might harm her, as if the walls themselves might come alive and attack us.

“The cabinets are behind these heavy tables that fell down.”

Drovo and Brexl quickly got to work, moving the tables to the side so Taylor could fiddle with the cabinets until she coaxed one to open by pushing on the door causing it to pop out against whatever latch had held it shut.

“There are rations in here!” She joyfully exclaimed, but her joy quickly turned to disappointment as she reached the back of the cabinet. “There’s not very many, though.”

“What about the next one?” Drovo asked.

Taylor pushed on the next cabinet door and it opened to reveal even fewer rations than the first one. She opened all five cabinets, four of which only held a small amount of ration packs, while the fifth held medical supplies such as bandages and medicines with labels we couldn’t read.

“It’s better than nothing.” I tried to cheer Taylor up as she counted the rations she had neatly laid on the ground outside the ship.

“I really thought there would be more in there. We nearly got eaten last night, and for what? So we could have a few more days of food in the winter?”

“A few more days could be the difference between life and death in the last month of winter when the food has run out and there are no beasts to kill,” Brexl assured her.

Taylor looked up at him and smiled in appreciation of his encouragement.

“I’m going to walk the perimeter,” Drovo announced before he disappeared behind the ship.

“You wanna help me put these under your bench seat?” Taylor asked as she held up a few ration packs.

“Sure.” I agreed.

It didn’t take long to stuff the forty packs of food into the storage compartments of my chariot. It had been decided that we’d camp here for the night, so as Taylor and I packed the chariot, Brexl gathered wood for a fire.

The grim reaper shifter had finished gathering wood and had even dug a hole for an underground fire, but Drovo still wasn’t back yet. The ship wasn’t that big. Where could he be?

Brexl had started to grow concerned as well. “I’m going to walk the opposite way around the ship. I’m sure he’s close by.”

Brexl’s blue form disappeared around the corner and I got up and informed Taylor I was going to go search for him, too.

“I’ll come with you.” Taylor got up and together we started walking.

We hadn’t walked far when we heard voices, unfamiliar voices.

“Is this your doing, you shifter filth? Was it not enough to be an abomination that you had to bring another down upon us?”

There was a vile disdain in that voice and he had said the word shifter as if it were a curse word that fell like lead from his tongue.

I picked up the pace and rounded the corner first. Down on the ground, with his hands tied behind his back, was Drovo and for the first time since I’d met him, he looked terrified.

It didn’t make any sense. He was powerful, like super-hero levels of powerful, and yet the group of Sirret males who stood gathered around him didn’t look scared at all. One even kicked Drovo in the ribs causing him to wince in pain. The trees surrounding us all shuddered at once, but none of the Sirret’s noticed.

“What are you doing?!” I walked up the group of bullies with my fists clenched.

Their mouths hung open as they took in the sight of Taylor and I.

“Are you the Sirrets from the valley?” Taylor asked, putting two and two together. “Why did you tie up Drovo? Did he threaten you?”

A short male with cropped black hair snapped his jaw shut and admitted, “Well…no.”

“Untie him then.” I demanded with my chin up, daring any of them to defy me. Taylor and I had the edge at the moment. We were an unknown entity to these guys, a novelty. They might do as we say.

The tallest male of the group, with long brown hair that reached the middle of his back, bent down and undid Drovo’s bindings. The leader looked at the tall male with disapproval. The youngest of their group looked wide-eyed with fear. There was a strange familiarity to the young male”s face. I know I’d never seen him before, so why did he look so familiar to me?

Drovo held his side as he got up and limped toward me. I held out my hand and took a step toward my crush…my friend. At this point, I didn’t give a damn what our relationship status was. I was about to throw hands with a bunch of blue bullies if they tried to hit my Drovo again.

“Don’t touch him!” The short leader cried out. “He’s cursed!”

“He’s not cursed,” I sighed with exasperation. Drovo hesitated before taking my hand. I sighed again, grabbed his hand, then pulled him toward me and draped his arm around my shoulder. He smiled down at me, thankful for the help.

“Who are you?” Shorty asked.

“We’re humans. We were captured and crash landed on this planet almost two moon cycles ago now.”

“Females?” he asked with a sickening gleam in his eyes.

“What’s it to you?” Taylor asked, with her arms crossed over her chest.

“You are not safe with these males. They are dangerous and cursed,” he huffed.

“We’re safer with them than we are with you.” I eyed them definitely.

“They’re an abomination,” one of the others added, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Or have you not seen them in their other form?” Shorty eyed Drovo suspiciously.

“Oh, you mean their super powerful shifter forms that they use to protect us and their dekes?” I stared shorty down and he deflated under my unwavering glare.

“That doesn’t matter. It’s still too dangerous to have females living under the mountain instead of in the valley.” I could tell he wasn’t going to budge from this issue. There was something in his tone when he said the word female that made me think that he saw Taylor and me as walking wombs instead of people.

Everyone turned as they heard heavy footsteps thudding along the ground. Brexl turned the corner with his claws out, ready for battle, but he stopped short when he saw the Sirrets surrounding us. His eyes were wide with terror as he took in the sight of them. Again it struck me as strange that this shifter, who could easily wipe the floor with these guys, was so scared of them. Shame was a powerful emotion and the other dekes knew exactly how to hold it over the shifter’s heads.

Seeing Brexl gave me an idea. “It doesn’t matter how safe it is in your valley. Taylor and I have luminesced. Brexl and Drovo are our mates.”