Yagrax Page 5

  "If you insist." he said.

  His burn wound looked like a red crater with spots of black dotting it. I pour some water from the nearby sink onto it first and cleanse it using the cleansing fluid that was coming from a nearby tap as well. He hissed as I run the fluid over it before I applied the med gel. I grasped the tube of medgel that was lying on the table and slather it onto his wound as he hisses. I stare at it and wait for the foam that erupted to die down. The wound festers for a bit and fizzes up before I see it die down, the liquid sinks back into the flesh and he sighs.

  "Alright." he muttered and shuts his eyes.

  "I can't believe you have so many scars." I muttered as I dashed my hands along the old cuts and holes that dotted parts of his body. I can only frown as I looked him over, his eyes locking with mine as I looked back up and bite my lip.

  "I...." I started, unable to finish as I feel the heat rush to my cheeks. My brown eyes locked with his crimson and he turns away, grabbing the shirt and slipping it back on. I was dangerously close to him, close enough that he could grab my neck, pull me in, and.....

  "Time to go." he muttered as the shirt is slipped back on and he hops to his feet. I stare at him and nodded as I tailed him, my head still hanging and my mood still soured despite his efforts to lift me out of the stupor.

  We stepped into that large room again and while we are waiting for the door to open and for the guards to arrive I looked over at him with expecting eyes.

  "What?" he asked me.

  "You said you cared. What changed?" I asked him and he turned away, he seemed rather reluctant to speak about it any further.

  "It's not a crime to feel something you know? I'm your friend." I said and he mutters to himself, there seemed to be blood rushing to his cheeks.

  "Friend...I haven't had a friend in so long." he muttered, secretly I wanted to be so much more than that. In the pit of my stomach I knew that I wanted him to claim me, the feelings of lust that had erupted once I had met him were maturing into so much more, it was maturing into some sort of.....affection.

  God I felt like a schoolgirl.

  "You've seen what can happen out there. Attachment will only lead to ruin." he stated and I scowled, perhaps some part of him was right.

  Once that door opened I could see the guards gathering in front of us once more. They all had their guns cocked and aimed at us while I could only look on with a stoic expression, I had gotten used to the feeling of having a firearm pointed at me I suppose. They lead us around but this time they don't lead us back to the old cell but instead down a different room. There is no elevator at the end of the hallway that they lead us down which was nondescript and made of concrete. We all entered and soon I feel us lifting into the air before we arrive at...something a bit better than that tiny cell.

  Once we get out there is a hallway with flooring made out of Jorathian wood, which meant massive blanks with twisting patterns in the grain, we stepped over those white planks and towards a distant room. On this floor was a series of red doors with a series of alien symbols imprinted on their front in gold. The ceiling was about 13 feet high and the walls were all painted a dull white. We arrive at what is the fourth door down the hall and it opens before we both were forced in. The door slams shut behind us and locks and I looked around.

  This was a drastic improvement.

  There were two rooms, one to the left and one to the right. In front of me was an empty room with a single window that gave us a view from what seemed like the third floor of the building. I knocked on the glass and noticed that it seemed quite dense. The room to my right was a bathroom complete with a toilet for both Jorathians and humans, a small hole in the ground with an incinerator for Kasorians, and a small tube that could fit a Neboran for...well Neborans. The variance in species meant that waste disposal varied greatly and so there were many options unlike the old cell where there was just a bucket and some paper on the side...ugh. There was also a large cleansing chamber that was about 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall, nearly stretching up to the ceiling in fact. Finally somewhere to clean ourselves other than the showers after the fight.

  And to my left...was the bedroom

  The room was about 30 feet by 30 feet, larger than our old cell actually. I noticed that there was still a divider there but this time the beds weren't just ants. They were actually comfortable looking, like a bed that you would find on Earth. They were about 7 feet long so they could accommodate Yagrax, although just barely I suppose, and about 6 feet wide. They were fitted with white sheets and had no headboard or footrests, I suppose in order to accommodate all of the species it just needed to be one soft mat and that was all that could be afforded.

  "Alright well...time to lay down I guess." said Yagrax as he walked to his bed and sat down. I stared at my bed with a strange bitterness in my eyes.

  "This feels wrong." I said and hung my head, he glances over at me and sighs.

  "I know that it isn't going to be instant but you have to learn. We have to learn that.....this is a necessity. There are no laws here, no treaties, no false pretenses of technology wiping away any semblance of the savage mind, no...here it is survival and you shouldn't be ashamed of it." he said and I nodded.

  "I know...we went over this already and I feel better but...I just can't help but think of what we were doing. What we had to do to get this.....I just...I don't think i'm ever going to get that back. That side of me that didn't know about any of this." I stated and he nods.

  "I know you will, you will." he states and walks over to me, resting a hand on my shoulder and pulling me into an embrace. If you had told me that he would have given me a hug a month ago I would have called you insane and yet here he was.

  I rest my chin against his broad grey shoulders and I feel his arms tense up as he binds me in place. He holds me and presses his chin against the top of my head. I take in his scent, that wonderful power that emanated off of every inch of his skin was ever present and I feel myself growing...aroused. I run my hands across his hips and his abs while he tensed up, his muscles tensed and I looked up at him while biting my lip before pulling away.

  "Thanks...I really needed another one." I admitted and turned, glancing at the bed and sitting down on it. Indeed it was better than the bedroll that I had been resting on.

  "Anyways...we have about 10 more rounds of this fighting to go through. At the end...I have no idea what will happen if we survive. I doubt that Merdin will allow us to go that easily." he said and sits back down on his bed.

  Now I began to remember the face of the man that was responsible for our servitude, for our imprisonment.

  All Kasorians were...kind of a cross between a lizard and a bird if I had to describe it. They had beaks and a tussle of feathers that sat upon their heads and their bodies. Unlike birds on Earth their feathers were much more durable, almost like they were made out of gel or plastic, they could bend and morph into a variety of shapes but overall they all formed these compacted series of plates along the Kasorian body. This allowed the Kasorians to save water as their shell-like features would often be brightly colored so as to prevent overheating. They possessed large wings that had a span that was as long as Yagrax was tall which they used to soar through the desert skies of their home world and perch on the massive plateaus that proliferated most corners of their homeland. They had large beaks that had pointed ends and talons on both their hands and feet so you would think that they were gifted fighters but that is not the case. Since they were so good at flying their bones had to be quite light, leading them to be rather brittle and easily damaged.

  So that was what Merdin basically looked like as a silhouette.

  Merdin had these horrid yellow eyes that would peer into you and his white feathers were more of an off color tan than anything else. He often wore amulets and jewelry around his neck to emphasize his wealth and the feathers atop his head were brightly colored and stuck up into the air like a headdress. Since he had a beak there weren't many facial expressions to be had but there was a constant...sick delight that dwelled in his eyes whenever he dealt with...well anyone.

  And from the look in Yagrax's eyes he wasn't too pleased about having to think about that monster that had imprisoned us both.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Yagrax

  Each time she brought him up I could only think of the first day I had met him.

  I was dragged across the floor, too many shrapnel wounds on my body to count before I was tossed in front of him. Under any other condition I could have torn him to shreds but his talons curled around my head as he stepped on the back of it. I could only glare at him as my crimson eyes battled with that flash of gold, he began to laugh and said in his shrill voice that I was quite the capture and they took me away soon after.

  That was the only time I had seen him directly but over the years I had gathered...information regarding who he was.

  The son of a wealthy Kasorian merchant that went astray and began to run his own criminal operations. It began with the drug trafficking, then armed robbery, then slavery. I suppose he was born with no knowledge of compassion or kindness, his comfort had bored him and he longed for the bloodlust that only lurked in the hearts of those that knew hunger first hand. He raised up in the rankings of the interstellar criminal world and forged his own empire using his inheritance...that was when we were here now, all because one brat didn't know how to appreciate all that he had.

  "Can we beat him?" she asked me and I chuckled.

  "Of course not, we probably won't make it to the semifinals." I muttered and she angrily glared at me, stepping onto my side of the room and stopping in front of the bed while I laid down. My shirt was off and on the floor and I see her eyes gazing at my torso. She stared at
my abs, my arms, my pecs, every inch of me was a feast for her as her mouth hung open and her pupils dilated. I can see her body shaking ever so slightly and hear her exhale while I tensed my arms up so that the muscles bulged for her.

  She wasn't so bad looking at this moment herself.

  Her curves clung to the shirt and they were incredibly arousing. Her soft pink lips and that head of black hair that slid down the sides of her face, oh god she could be everything to me, I could pin her down right here and take her. I could hold her in place and indulge myself using those ample breasts, that firm backside, I could sniff her lovely black hair and press my lips into her as I slipped deep inside of that wetness that lurked in bet-

  "I thought you had learned to hope!" she said. Oh how I loved it when she was angry, she only looked more attractive once she was.

  "I said no such thing. I said I cared about you. I don't hope." I admitted and she scoffed.

  "What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

  "I will help you but I will expect nothing out of it. I have lost my will but you still have yours so...I will help but I won't take any personal investment in it beyond you." I said and her expression sours.

  I see her arms sway at her side and her eyes gazed downwards as she bites her lip and looks back up at me. In her eyes existed a tiny measure of disappointment that could only be detected if one looked closely enough. I grimaced when I saw her frown and she takes a seat next to me on the bedside. I glanced up at her and she reached hand out to stroke my cheek.

  "You must have been so lonely here..." she remarked and I scowled.

  "What are you playing at? What the hell do you want from me? To tell you that I give a shit? That I want us to win?! What does it matter what I think if I help you?!" I asked her with a sudden urgency in my voice and she only maintains that same facial expression.

  "I want you to feel it too. I want you to regain that will that I know you can have, the will to hope for something. If you care enough for me then you can surely feel that right? A friend can feel and bask in another friend's hope..." she muttered and I sat up next to her, sighing and glancing over at her while she only bites her lip and her eyes lingered on me.

  "I'....I don't want to. You will know soon enough that all of this is just a farce, that you or I will end up back in that cell." I stated and she shakes her head.

  "Then why do you even bother helping me?" she asked.

  "To make you happy..." I stated, shocked at what I was saying.

  Where had I gone astray?

  There had been this idea of pleasure that I had synthesized in the corner of my consciousness. The idea that I would be amused at her efforts to win, that I would only laugh them off as some sort of bad joke but this feeling was all too real. I wanted to...please her, because well...I guess she was my mate. And yet I was still wallowing in my own despair and thinking that victory here was impossible when in actuality a man should be there for his mate, he should support her and strive to fulfill her dreams. Everything that she felt should be something that I felt as well.

  And I was afraid to lose myself in the light of that. Even now I can feel her hand resting on mine and I tried to look down at her while she gazed up. That sparkle in her eyes made me pause for a moment.

  How could I care about her and not care about her dream? It was an inconsistency that made no sense the more I thought about it..

  "You'll know soon enough that the thing that makes me happy is also the thing that makes you happy. Because I care about you too and without the hope of something better than this lingering in your heart I don't know if you're ever going to feel the joy that I feel, I don't know if we're going to be able to win because in order to spark the heart into such action requires...something far greater than apathy...it takes the courage to will yourself towards the light." she said and I paused, my mouth was slightly agape and she sits up, shaking her head and brushing the tears away from her eyes.

  "Sorry, I don't know. Seeing you all lost like that even after a month with me, a month of winning...it just got me down." she said and I kept silent before she walked back over to her side of the room.

  #

  Melissa

  Now was the time for another battle. It has been about 10 days since our last and the nerves were affecting me once again. They never quite left but I had hoped they would have decreased, they didn't.

  Now not only did I fear my own mortality but the mortality of others. Would I be able to claim life with such ease? Would I be able to act when the time came? I wasn't entirely sure about all of that but I was hoping that I would, I was hoping that I could hopefully surmount some effort in order to get past that fear of losing myself but it was ever present and it wasn't leaving anytime soon.

  At least that's not what I thought when the doorway opened.

  We stepped out into a different chamber this time, there were patches of sand here and there but most of what was surrounding us was sea. I looked around and saw our enemies in the distance, there was a Kasorian and a Neboran on the other island. The Neboran sinks into the water and the Kasorian takes to the sky with something long in his hands, almost like a spear.

  "Get down!" said Yagrax as he rolled onto our bed of sand and searched around but there was nothing, nothing at all.

  "Shit." I muttered, there was an island about a hundred feet away and we both make a dive for it. The water was incredibly warm and salty as well as shallow. I could stand in the pool and beneath me I felt the soft rock crumble before we reached the other island. The orange and gold rocks shift beneath me and I dragged myself onto the island soon after Yagrax had already got onto it. He reaches into the sand and drags out a knife. Just as I was about to step onto the island completely, I felt something cut my foot and looked down.

  There was a spear inside of the water and I had just cut myself on it.

  I reached down and gripped it before pulling it out, I looked over at Yagrax who was already snarling and looking up into the sky. His body shook as the Kasorian approached with his wings wide and the spear cocked back in his hand. I stood at attention, my body is quivering and I looked up at the winged beast as he approached. I didn't know if I would be able to thrust my weapon if I had to, I didn't know if I would be able to follow through, As he approaches Yagrax he dodges the thrust of Yagrax's spear and Yagrax leapt onto the flying man, gripping his wings and sailing through the air as he plunged a knife deep into the Kasorians neck before they rocket off into the distant waters.

  And here I was now, alone, only now there was a strange feeling centered on my ankle. I looked down and saw the tentacle of the Neboran gripping me before dragging me into the water

  His wide reach seizes me and I struggle to climb back to the top and my hands get cut on the rock as I tried to scramble upwards but he stops me by pulling me deeper. I suppose that he didn't need a weapon to kill me and I kept my hold on the spear that I had and looked down. The purple flesh of the Neboran shone in the blue waters, his octopus like body was flowing beautifully as he wrapped a single tentacle around my neck and squeezed.

  I can't die! Not like this!

  I looked back at my spear and frowned, I was holding out hope that perhaps Yagrax might arrive and save me but that hope was quickly fading. What use was I if I couldn't even kill? What would I do if he wasn't here? Why was I so scared?

  "To protect that old side of yourself you must...you must lose yourself to the darkness." his voice rang through my head and I nodded to myself.

  I would not be a wallflower.

  I gripped the spear and drove it into the Neboran's head, slicing him across the eyes as he turned away and twitched in the water. He floated upwards and I cocked the spear back again, I was running out of air but I didn't care. I grit my teeth and whipped the spear in a wide arc and managed to give him a wide gash across his face before the blood spilled all over my line of sight and I floated back up to the top. I gasped and felt him tugging again and this time I shoot the spear back down to strike him in one of his limbs. I don't hesitate and push the spear all the way through and impale him on the rocks. I hold him in place with the spear and grabbed one of the loose rocks on the coral and slammed it into his head underwater. There is a mass of blood that consumes the area and once I finished I float back to the surface. I pant as I crawled onto the beach and my hand is gripped by a familiar warmth.