Chapter 59
"Please, God! You must be kidding me..." I start to speak, but in the middle of my sentence, Gen places her hand against my mouth and presses it, muffling my words and giving me another shock.
"I heard a noise," she whispers, turning her head toward the window.
"A noise?" I respond softly.
"A noise from the 'faleu,' the little things they use to fly," she explains. But before we can investigate, the glass window in the room is shattered by something coming from outside.
Gen grabs me in her arms and throws our bodies to the floor, reacting to the danger much faster than I do. But just a second after that, green smoke starts filling the room, and before I can say anything, I feel my body weaken, and everything around me goes dark.
***
I slowly begin to open my eyes, feeling my entire face burn and ache intensely due to the cold wind hitting me at a tremendous speed, and I’m also suffering from strong nausea and dizziness now.
“The human is waking up, sir!” a male voice says, and what terrifies me is that this voice is completely unknown to me and is coming from beneath my body.
“Don’t worry, the gas I chose was weak enough not to damage her fragile body, but it’s still effective and should immobilize her until we get to the ship. She won’t be any trouble,” a second unknown voice responds, sending chills through my entire body.
But when I try to look around to better understand what’s happening, I feel incredibly slow. My eyes are taking time to respond to my commands, as if I’m drugged, so it takes me too long to realize I’m flying—literally flying—at least thirty meters off the ground. I can even see the trees and the village far below, and everything seems much smaller than it really is.
My whole body trembles with horror as I understand what’s happening, and I would scream if I could, but I can’t even open my mouth right now, and I feel my saliva dripping down my chin because I’m also struggling to swallow, positioned awkwardly, almost upside down.
This gas has taken away all control of my body, and since I’m being held in some way—probably thrown over the shoulders of my kidnappers—I can barely feel my limbs. It seems like most of my body is numb.
“Do you think they’ll try to recover her?” the first voice I heard asks, and he’s very close to me, so he must be the one holding me. “I don’t like these savages, they seem like rabid animals, they give me the creeps.”
I really want to curse this bastard out, but right now I’m struggling just to keep breathing and stay awake, so I can’t even try to do something crazy like shaking myself until he drops me.
“The most they can do is shoot arrows at us,” the second voice responds, obviously making a very bad joke, and my stomach churns.
If no one puts me down soon, I’m going to throw up in midair and could even inhale my own vomit.
“Captain Markis speaking, have you found the human female that was reported?” I hear faintly, and I think the sound must be coming from some kind of communication device between them, because the voice is a bit static.
What does “the human female that was reported” mean?
Did someone report that I was in Selvaria?
“Yes, Captain! The report was correct!” the person holding me responds, and I start to try and think about who could have done this, and only one name comes to my mind: Salton!
Even though Gen hates me, I don’t think she or any other azuri would speak to the faleus about me, because they despise the four arms. But Cirion, the faleu with sad eyes, seemed very trustworthy all this time and did everything to help me stay, even though I don’t quite understand why. But Salton left shortly after the argument I had with him, the faleu hated Selvaria and asked to be removed from the mission and returned to Faleia, his home planet.
So maybe this bastard took the opportunity to rat out Kaleo!
“Is the human in good condition? Any injuries? And have you found the male who obtained the human?” the static voice asks.
“Yes, Captain, we have the rescue, and she seems to be in good condition, but we haven’t located the male who obtained the human illegally.”
“We’ll go after him later, then I want that azuri behind bars! Now bring her to the ship and let’s get out of this madhouse before the savages revolt too much.”
***
POV Kaleo
Since I woke up, I’ve been feeling uneasy, but I don’t understand why. There was cold sweat sliding down my neck as soon as I opened my eyes, and I haven’t been able to eat anything yet.
Today is the day of my wedding to Melissa, and I’ve waited so long for this moment that I thought I would feel fulfilled when it arrived. But nothing is calming me down, especially since we were separated to get ready for the party. Maybe if Melissa were here, I would feel much better, but she insisted that it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, so I agreed.
Now, I can barely wait to see my human again, who is finally becoming my “little wife” for real. For days, I doubted she would accept being with me, but not only did she accept, she seems radiant because of it.
“Are you ready, Kaleo?” a male voice suddenly interrupts my thoughts, and when I look to the side, I see Priest Tagar, who came from far away to perform my wedding.
“I think so,” I murmur.
“You think so?” he asks, with the crooked smile I’ve known since I was younger, then gives me two firm pats on my back.
“You know how it is...” I shrug, already wearing the wedding attire.
The outfits I saw online didn’t resemble anything we have here in Selvaria, so according to Melissa, if I got married in dark boots, black pants, a white shirt, and the belt that belonged to my father, I would look very handsome, especially with my hair loose. So that’s exactly what I did.
“I know, it’s so hard to get females these days that the grooms are getting more nervous every day!” he says, still smiling, showing some wrinkles at the corners of his rare blue eyes that weren’t there the last time I saw him.
Tagar is still huge, as always. He has the build of one of the greatest azuri warriors to ever exist, but now he has cut his black hair and no longer looks like the fierce warrior from before.
“But relax, boy, everything will be fine, and your father will definitely be watching you with great pride.”
“Yeah...” I murmur, unable to say more because my voice catches, and an odd crying sensation tries to take over me.
Tagar fought alongside my father in his last battle, and they were good friends, so seeing him always causes me a certain strangeness, a deep sadness. This man beside me saw my father die, and it was he who fought to bring my father’s body back home.
During my childhood, Tagar and his wife were always at my house, and I used to see him as a supreme authority. When my father was alive, he was younger than Tagar, but nowadays, he must be around 40 or 45 human years old. By calling me “boy,” I guess he still sees me as I once was.
This male literally saw me being born!
But after my father died and his female added two more males to the marriage and discarded him, Tagar never came to visit me again. He did the only thing that could break a marriage: he converted to the priesthood, taking a vow of celibacy, then left the army and distanced himself from everyone.
“You’ve always been a good male, Kaleo, you deserve good things.” He squeezes my shoulder affectionately. “And I’m sure your brood will be greatly blessed by Novai.”
It’s strange to see how Tagar has become “softer.” The memories I have of him are of an energetic and playful male, but also very rough. I remember that he and my father used to fight over small things, both of them extremely proud. But I think Tagar really took on the role of priest after the huge disappointment he had, and I don’t know if I can judge him.
If Melissa added males to our marriage and completely ignored me, I would go crazy.
“I hope you’re here to baptize the children I’ll have.”
“I will be,” he promises, and hearing that brings me some relief, but it lasts only briefly because suddenly I hear a sound I hate.
Faleus use a kind of metal board to move around here in Selvaria. It’s a round silver thing that makes them fly in the sky and protects them from walking on Earth, where they would be hostilely received. But as this board cuts through the air, it makes a high-pitched sound that every azuri has learned to detect from a distance, and that’s the sound I hear now, which can only mean that those damned ones are here.
“What are they doing here?” Tagar asks, walking toward the window, and I follow him just to see an image that makes my heart feel like it’s being ripped out of my chest.
There are two faleus dressed in black, flying on the gliding boards, but in the arms of one of them is my Melissa, thrown carelessly over the soldier’s shoulder and looking unconscious.
“Those bastards are stealing your human?!” Tagar points to the faleus as they pass too quickly, and my knees buckle from the sheer horror the image causes me.