Page 27 of Xefe (Nozaroc Alien Warrior #1)

D amn, estupido, hijo de la chingada , floating stones.

I perched on the edge of a door-sized wedge, floating hundreds of feet above the ground.

Every time we’d practiced traversing the floating nightmares , we’d gotten stuck right here.

Our short legs couldn’t make the last jump, and I wasn’t sure how to fix it.

The boulders ascended like giant hovering stairs, and got progressively higher and farther away with each one.

“What now?” Nieve screamed into the whirling winds. “Can’t you use your super-powers or something?”

I would. If I knew how. I glanced back at the other competitors.

This was the only entrance point to the neon finish line.

It floated a good twenty feet in front and above us.

Three of the four green-teamers had completed the race, but they couldn’t win until all four members crossed the line.

So far, we fended off a few of the snake-chicks and miners, but Greenie, my bestie from the soup station, was stuck on the beam back at the front of the race.

Tragically, someone had sucker punched Greenie and pushed her off the beam.

I couldn’t imagine who would want to harm such a precious flower— me, me, it was me !

—but it only bought us a little time. She was limping her way closer to us.

Most teams were afraid to confront her and jumped out of her way.

“We need to figure this out soon, or else we’ll be dead meat.” Nieve’s bouncy curls whipped around her head as she balanced carefully on one foot, making room for Nheenya’s larger frame.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat. The fall was unsurvivable. “We can—” Oomph. A solid weight slammed into me. A snake-chick had landed on my back. I reached behind me, but I couldn’t get a hand on her slippery body. “Help!”

Querida let out a banshee cry, grabbed onto the alien’s dark hair, and slammed her fist into the snake-chick’s face until she was knocked unconscious and dropped off my back.

“Thanks.” I wobbled and regained my balance.

“I can make this jump.” Nheenya heaved her uni-boob and crouched low on her strong legs.

“ What? Then why didn’t you go before?” I shouted and watched as most of the half-dead miners walked off the stones, not even attempting to jump. Their bodies littered the floors, looking like small splats of green and red from this distance.

“I wouldn’t leave you.” Nheenya grasped Nieve’s hand, and Nieve actually smiled in response.

Eww , I wasn’t used to her emoting any kind of sweetness.

“Do you think you can carry someone on your back?” I asked Nheenya.

She lunged forward, grasped Nieve’s forearms, and twisted her onto her shoulders. In seconds. “Yes.” She beamed a smile at us. “Or I will die trying.”

“ Dios! You’re crazy strong.” Nieve wobbled and wrapped her arms around Nheenya’s neck. “I would be really sad if I died, so I’d appreciate you not killing us, okay?”

I’m a genius. “Thank God I was smart enough to choose you, Nheenya. You’re welcome, everybody. Team Hera.” I glanced behind me again. Greenie lumbered onto the first stone. She favored her right arm, but with her weird backwards legs, it would be minutes before she landed on our platform.

“That is not our team name.” Nieve glared at me.

“Whatever you say.” I smiled, all the while knowing it was definitely our team name.

“Hurry up!” The three aliens from the green team urged Greenie on in unison. “You must crush the weak earthers.”

If I heard the words “weak” and “earther” in the same sentence… I was going to scream.

“Don’t make us push that bitch off the edge. Again. ” Nieve cackled and started flipping off the green team.

They roared and flexed their impressive muscles, clearly pissed.

Nheenya and Nieve made it across in a lopsided jump, luckily, nowhere near the bad guys. The ugly aliens were focused on Greenie. I’m sure they’d try to kill us after she made it across the finish line. If she failed, they were doomed.

“Hurry,” Nieve screamed. “She’s coming back fast.”

The other competitors had caught on to our piggybacking scheme and piled up on the floating stone below us. We had log-jammed the last platform, but soon they’d overpower us with sheer numbers.

I looked at Querida. “Trust me?”

“Hell no!” She flailed her arms to keep her balance as she stepped back, but there was nowhere to go. “I do NOT—”

“Too bad.” I grabbed her hands and spun her around, praying she landed where I needed her to go.

I twirled her in a wide circle until I built enough momentum to get her across.

At the last minute, I bent my knees and propelled her with all my might.

“Catch her!” I screamed at Nieve and Nheenya as I tossed Querida into the air.

“Heraaaaa!” Querida yelled louder than I’d ever heard her speak. Impressive. “I said n—” Her words were snatched by the greedy winds. Within seconds, she landed in a messy pile of aliens waiting at the finish line—a giant floating stage above the arena.

But she was safe.

Three of the four of us had made it across—everyone except me.

And I’d run out of ideas. I looked over my shoulder and saw Greenie land on the stone below me.

She elbowed and kicked all the other competitors off, her impressive size dwarfing the snake-chicks and miners trying to fight for their lives.

“I am going to kill you, stupid, filthy, weak earther!” She clutched her mangled arm, clearly trying to buy time because she was winded. I recognized the technique because I’d employed it hundreds of times on Earth with my bad shoulder.

The Aavvee exploded in squawks and cheers in the stands.

I understood some of what they said; familiar words stood out.

Kill. Maim. Die. Seemed crowds the universe over shared the same bloodthirsty goals.

All they ever wanted to see was my destruction, and the weight of it crushed me for a split second.

Until I realized… They’d reacted to Greenie’s words.

Which meant they’d heard her threaten me. Heard her call me weak.

I knew this place was monitored.

I could use this to my advantage. Greenie had given me a priceless gift, another tool in my arsenal. I’d been competing my whole life, and I would adapt to this alien planet, kill Freckles, and get home to my sister.

I concentrated and made sure I was ready for the performance of my life.

So I called out to her. Not in her language.

I spoke the screechy Aavvee tongue instead.

I knew where my bread was buttered. “Oh yeah? If I’m so weak, how did I push your ugly ass off the beam?

” I stretched my vocal cords to the limit, screeching at full volume, and slowly my throat adjusted to accommodate the bat-shit ugly language.

“What does that make you, if you’ve been beaten by a little ole earther like me?

Feather-headed. Weak-boned. Pathetic. Loser!

” The Aavvee language had a surprising amount of curse words, granted, most of them seemed bird-related.

So, just to drive my point home, I repeated the insults in Greenie’s language.

The crowd went silent. One beat. Two… Enough to make me feel like I’d made a colossal mistake.

Meanwhile, Greenie lost her shit in response. Spitting and stomping her weird legs. She bent, readying to pounce on top of me.

Let’s go, puta!

I balled my fists, ready to fight for my life to stay on my platform. I may not make it to the finish line, but neither would she. The details swept through me. Brace for contact. Go low as soon as she jumps. Sweep out my leg. Punch her in the tit. Knock her off balance.

Right before she leapt, a strange sound swept through the crowd, a clicking accompanied by an eerie moan that made both of us pause.

The sound grew and grew, swelling into a bone-chilling moan.

It was hard to decipher the meaning, but it evoked…

blood-thirsty pleasure. Need. They seemed to be in a frenzy…

was it because they’d understood me insult Greenie? I hoped so.

“Hermosa!”

I whipped my head around, searching the crowd for the voice. No one called me Hermosa except my sister. Hope flared until I saw Querida waving madly from the finish line. My heart broke a little, and a wave of grief engulfed me.

“Look!” Querida reached into the pocket of her sack dress. She pulled out broken pieces of rock—the same that had littered the practice ring we’d all practiced in—and threw them into the air.

Why the hell?

The pebbles, some as small as marbles, some as large as door handles, spread in the air like stars in the night sky. A few dropped and then hovered in front of me.

Space rocks! Clever Querida had brought a few with her. Pieces of space floaters, but… would they hold my weight?

Greenie landed beside me on the platform, a few feet separating us.

“Earther scum. I will murder you! I will rip off your limbs one by one and tear off your fingers with my own teeth. I will stab you in the womb to ensure you never procreate and bring earther filth to any part of this world. I will destroy you.”

Carajo. She even wanted to kill my future babies?

If I had a heart, it might have hurt my feelings.

“ Rude! Did your ugly mama teach you to talk like that with her ugly mouth?” I delivered the line and spun around.

No time to overthink. I leaped and tried to access the Oro in my system, but I was too distracted by pure, unadulterated fear.

The Aavvee exploded in screams. Hopefully, in support?

I flew, catching a fist-sized rock in my hand. The air whooshed out of my chest as I dropped several feet, but… it held. A few smaller rocks were in reach, and I swung through like a monkey bar professional. After a handful of death drops, I made it within feet of the finish line.

So close.

A shadow whizzed by me on my left, and I came face to face with a seething alien. Greenie had decided to make use of Querida’s space rocks and paced next to me, navigating her own path to the finish line, all while trying to murder me. She could have just jumped, but I’d gotten under her skin.

Greenie kicked at me as I dangled a little below the finish line.

My problem was, I’d run out of rocks. On top of that, the green team crew waited at the finish line.

When one of them swiped at me, sweet, kind Nheenya growled and jumped on her back.

Nieve joined her, but Querida reached out, dragging me by the sack dress and pulling me atop the platform.

Unfortunately, Greenie made it across at the same time. Querida and I were instantly surrounded by a wall of seething muscle. We would have to fight our way out, and it wouldn’t be pretty. For us. I’m sure those ugly puta aliens would be just fine.

“Yes, yes . Yes- yes !” Lights blazed across the stands, blasts of every color in the rainbow.

The Aavvee cheered, and the supreme loomed on a stage across from us.

Luckily, the green team froze when a sparkling spotlight surrounded us.

“Stop, stop . No more fights. Hands- hands off. We- we have our winners. I am pleased. We- we have winners.”

I held my breath, terrified I hadn’t made it in time. What if he favored his champions and let them advance? This win would be the only thing keeping us away from manual labor. And if the zombie-miners were any indication of what it was like down there, we’d be doomed.

Not a sound. Not a breath. Total silence enveloped the arena while we awaited the supreme’s decision.

“We- we have a tie. Five teams advance. Yes- yes ? To see who will be the true champion during our Great Race!” The supreme spread his stubby arms wide, and the crowd exploded with chitters and squawks.

“No! I won! I—” Greenie snarled, but one of her teammates hooked her around the neck and backed away.

Nieve and Nheenya crept over to us, and we all clasped hands in a state of shock as we watched the clucking supreme and his horny harem. Dick-tongues were flying everywhere. I sent a prayer up in thanks that I wasn’t close enough to smell them.

Without thought, my eyes searched the stage and found its target. Sunny stood in the shadows, in his typical pose, arms crossed. Again, he wouldn’t meet my eyes, and it was killing me.

Loxo stood next to him and a smile split his face, but only for a second. I didn’t know who he thought he was fooling. The whole planet must know he had emotions at this point.

“Such- such a surprise. A momentous day- day . We have the Verders champions… we have the Exama aliens…and we have the earthers. Join- join us here in a syads time to see our final champion.” The supreme caught my eye. He followed my gaze to Xefe and clacked his beak.

Dread settled in my chest, making my pounding heart beat even faster. I would have to be a lot smarter about my reactions to Sunny. This feather-headed leader might be smarter than I thought.