Page 5 of Redondo (Mates of the Mylos #7)

CHAPTER 5

REDONDO

The dirt from the street swirled up in little dust devils as something screamed down from the sky. I glanced up as all around me, people ran for cover, some of them screaming. I stood mesmerized as I saw the gleaming ships darting down from far above, agile things reminding me of the stinging insects that hung around the linea vines, hoping for a taste of their pollen. My mother grabbed me, pressing me against her chest as she ran towards the nearest shelter, the general store where we’d just been to purchase flour, seeds, and fuel cells after first selling them some of our eggs and produce.

Everything was ruined now, my mother having dropped our purchases onto the ground. I watched wide-eyed as a beam of light shot out, strafing the road, people dropping in their tracks as they were hit. The smell of cooked meat and smoke began to fill the air, as the beam then turned our shopping into nothing except ash. A boom, and we were airborne, my teeth clacking together uncomfortably as my mother hit the ground. She released me.

“Run,” she wheezed. “Go hide. Get as far away from here as you can.”

“Come on, Mittir,” I begged her, as she struggled to sit up.

“Go!” she commanded. “I need to find your father.”

Another boom and I turned, startled to see that the ships were firing upon the buildings. It made made the air shove against us as it boomed.

She stood now and reached for the small blaster she always carried. I’d never seen her have to use it, not once, but when I asked, she said things about ‘frontier’ and ‘danger that could come knocking’. I understood then that this was what she meant.

I began to run, zigzagging like she’d taught me when we played the ‘Danger Danger’ game. More beams shot out, one narrowly missing my tail. I made it all the way to the spaceport, thinking that surely they knew that was too important a place to blow up. Offworlders came there and important people! I soon learned my mistake. More of the ships were there, already on the ground, with armored warriors firing blasters and swinging blades.

One of them noticed me as I tried to hide in what little shadow there was.

He called out something I couldn’t understand, gesturing towards me. One of the others replied and whatever it was he’d said, it was obvious neither of them saw me as a threat as the first one holstered his blaster as he approached. It was not a reassuring sight at all. I saw people I knew had to be dead, pieces of them lying about, some with holes through their chests. This warrior might not shoot me or use his sword to cut me up, but the claws on his hand and the spikes upon his arm told me he could still carve me up like one of my mother’s roasts. He reached for me, grabbing me by my arm, pulling me towards him. I fought back, baring my fangs and swiping at him with my claws. He smacked me, hard across the face and blood dripped down into my eye as I howled from the pain of it.

“Just you wait!” I screamed at him. “My mother and father will get you!”

He laughed and reached for me again. This time I fell and rolled away, another skill I’d learned playing ‘Danger Danger’.

Now it sounded as if he was swearing at me and his friend laughed as the others ignored us, marching into town. I could see more smoke in the air and heard the panicked bleating of animals carried on the wind. They were burning our farms and hurting the sweet faced grassies that grazed in our pastures and provided us with milk, meat, and wool. Why?

Infuriated, I tackled his legs, only to catch his arm spikes across my chest as he swatted me away.

His friend shouted for him, and he turned away then, leaving me bleeding on the ground as he joined the rest of the warriors bent on finishing the destruction they had started.

Hide, my mother had said, but where? They knew I was here and they were destroying the buildings. All except this one. I got up, clutching the throbbing wounds on my chest, and went into the spaceport. I promptly wished I hadn’t, and ran back out, vomiting the sweet treat my mother had bought me at the store. I’d only finished eating it mere moments before the attack.

There! Some crates which must have been waiting to be loaded on the destroyed ship burning on the landing pad. I wedged myself behind them, the solid feel of the building behind me reassuring in its continued existence.

I sat there for I didn’t know how long, my legs cramping and my wounds throbbing, but then I saw it. The warriors were returning, this time with people. I saw my mother, one of her arms a bloodied, bandaged stump, and a handful of young I knew, and several adults my mind refused to put names to even though I knew many of them. They were all wounded in some manner, the young nearly all crying. My father was bound along with several other males,\ and was being dragged.

I fought the urge to run out to them, to let them know I was safe and had hidden like a good boy, just as my mother had told me to. Two of the warriors broke off from the rest and began looking around and I swallowed back a whimper, knowing it was me they sought. A shake of the head and an arm wave from one of the other warriors had them rejoin the group as a shuttle landed. They shoved everyone inside, made off for their fighters, and took off.

I didn’t come out. I knew I had to be the last Dragonii on the planet and nothing but fire and death awaited me out there. I sniffled, crying until I fell asleep.

I startled awake, my scales clammy.

“Fuuuuuck!”

I sat up, waiting for my hearts to calm down from their incessant hammering in my chest. It had been years since I’d dreamed of that moment, the day the marauders came to our small colony, destroying the buildings, killing nearly everyone they came across, capturing the rest, and taking them away. It was only as I became much older that I realized that everyone there who hadn’t died that day had most likely been sold as slaves. Everyone except me, because of luck.

I got up and walked to the replicator, asking for a drink of cool water to soothe my parched throat. Glancing at my kunnarskyn, I saw I had two hours before my fathers arrived to have a celebratory graduation breakfast with me before the ceremony. My adoptive fathers, but still my very real ones. I couldn’t greet them like this, nerves jangling, scales damp with flop sweat, smelling of childhood terror revisited.

“Bath,” I mumbled, hurrying into the special bathing chamber the academy had given me, to accommodate the sand bath most Dragonii preferred. Honestly, I only used it when burying myself in the warm, golden sands would absorb the sweat quickly and allow me to polish the fine scales upon my skin without having to dry myself off before oiling and buffing myself all over in a laborious process.

I climbed in, already nude as I slept that way, and asked the bathroom’s AI to start filling the large basin.

“Your heart rate is elevated,” he told me.

“I had a nightmare,” I replied.

“I’ll add some essential oils to help calm you,” he replied.

“Thank you.”

“But of course.”

The sand began to pour in slowly from spouts on all four slides and I waited until my legs were covered before leaning back. I picked up a handful and sniffed. Lavender, from Earth. How appropriate, that the very planet I was being assigned to would also be the origin of that which soothed me. The warmth soaked into my bones and I felt my hearts slow as my muscles lost their tenseness. I took the handful of sand and began rubbing the scales on my chest with it. All too soon I felt nearly boneless and knew if I didn’t get up, I was likely to fall back asleep and my fathers would end up coming to find me. I reluctantly stood, the sand covering me sliding down into the tub in a shower. I bent down, grabbing more sand, and began rubbing myself clean all over.

“I’m done,” I told the AI as I stepped out onto the mesh topped grate in front of the basin. The bottom of the tub dropped open, taking the sand with it. A blast of directed warm air gusted, blowing the remnants off of my skin and from the sides of the tub, into the opening below where it would be fed into the recycler to feed the replicators.

I grabbed a towel, using it to rub the stray bits of sand still on me off before making my way back into my room. I pulled out a pair of Mylos Fleet uniform pants, the leather soft against my hands. I put them on, along with my weapons belt, followed by my newly issued lined boots. A quick brush of my hair and I was finished. Staring back at me was no youthful cadet, nor a frightened young who’d had to hide in order to survive. Before me stood a warrior, a Dragonii Mylos who would protect Earth with his last breath from such violence. One who came in peace, who saw war as a last resort, wanting nothing more than to live in joy among the trees and flowers.

I gave this latest incarnation of myself a nod. It was time to go meet my fathers and face the day.