Chapter 8
GENERAL KORIN HAFAH
I fought the commander long and hard. We were of equal match, and with no one around to break us up, we hit each other blow after blow. He hit me on the chin and I fell onto my back. He jumped on top of me and landed hard on my body, knocking the wind out of me. He had me pinned against the ground as he punched me with his right and then his left across the head over and over. Suddenly, he was winning.
I felt myself go into a hazy existence as he pummeled me. I thought this was it. He had won. He would take Silver from me and do unspeakable things to her. I had failed her. I only hoped that she could make it to the rebel base before he could get her. Then a flash of Silver’s face came into my mind. Her skin was delicate and her green eyes were stunning.
Then her smiling face change to horror as the commander grew near her. I saw her the way I saw her on the moon base of Tyla Wen when he was attacking her. Her eyes were full of fear. The way she cowered in the corner of the bed after he had left. I was suddenly filled with an enormous amount of rage and pushed the commander off of me by pushing him off to the side as I rolled over.
Now, I was on top of him giving him blow after blow to the head just as he had done to me. I pictured him hurting my sweet Silver, and it gave me the energy to want to destroy him. He kicked me and pushed me off of him and I stumbled backwards onto my feet. He stood up and let out a growl as he charged toward me. I dashed out of the way and he hit the wall like a clumsy fool. This only made him angrier, but not as angry as I was picturing him doing awful things to my human female. I would not allow that to happen; I would die trying if I had to.
"Stop running from me! Stand up and fight me like a true Kalazaron warrior would!" he sneered at me. I stood tall in front of him and he swung at me and I dodged out of the way and punched him back in his ribs. He punched me again and I’d had enough. I needed to go after Silver, and there was no time to lose.
I punched the commander hard one last time and it knocked him out cold as he fell against the wall. He was bloody and so was I. Cuts and welts on my body were covered in my blood and his.
“What the hell are you doing, Korin?!” Lukah shouted at me as she ran up to me.
“He attacked me,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes at me in hate and said, “Where is the human female slave?”
“I do not know; I have not seen her today. I assume that she is inside with my servant doing house slave work. The commander here came to fetch her and I was ready to hand her over, but he has a mouth on him and I have a heated temper.”
“I do not believe you. I had my father sell the human female slave to the commander today. Hand her over to him now. It is done. And you are now general. Get rid of her and we can continue to be together,” Lukah said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Yes, as soon as he wakes up, but if he continues with his insults, I will continue with my punches,” I said. I was trying to give Silver as much time as I could to hide in the fields and get away from the city toward the rebel base. I walked with Lukah as she began to search my home.
“Where is the human female?!” she shouted.
“I do not know. Perhaps she went to the market. I was not expecting her to be purchased today so I did not demand that she stay here. I will go and bring her back here to the commander,” I said as I began to walk out the door.
“Stop, Korin!” she shouted. “You are going to help her escape. I can tell when you are lying. How dare you! How dare you do this to me. You know the embarrassment you will cause me if everyone finds out that my betrothed ran off with a human female slave instead of being with me. It will ruin me! If you go to her, I will have my father order for both of your captures and your extermination. Is that clear?” she shouted.
Her words were clear and I moved over to her and got in her face. “Do it, Lukah. I have never loved you. You are a dark-hearted, spoiled bitch. You care only about yourself. I will be glad to know that you have become one that Kalazaron laugh at after knowing that I picked a human female slave over you. You do not compare at all to her. She is everything, and you are nothing. Is that clear?” I said to her, but I did not wait for her to answer.
I walked away from her and out of her life. I walked away knowing that I could never go back. I had done it. I had given up everything that I had worked so hard for my entire life, and now that I was granted general, I gave it all up for the human female slave known as Silver Brooks. I could not believe it, yet here I was.
Minutes later, I was in the fields making my way toward the structure. As I grew closer to the structure, I saw an indentation in the tall plants. This is how I found her the first time when she was hiding in the tall grass when we were in the wilds. I knew it was her, but why was she waiting.
I found her asleep as the night began to fall. “Wake up, Silver,” I said as I nudged her.
She awoke and said, “Korin? Is it really you? Or is one of the projections you told me of?” she asked.
“This is real. I am really here. I left it all behind. I am on the run now with you. Together we will figure this out,” I said to her.
“What happened? Are you all right?”
“Yes, I am fine; just a fight with the commander. I won.”
She threw her arms around me and hugged me. I held her against me strongly and then said, “We should go. Lukah said she was going to order a capture on us and if we are caught, we will be killed. We need to leave as soon as possible.”
“I wish we could go back to the wilds,” she said.
“I do as well, but we cannot get there from here. We must go with the rebels; it is the only way. Come, I will take care of you.”
“Wait, I have to know. Is it true? What Commander Yun said about you becoming general and how that came about? You gave me to him?”
I did not want to answer her. But I had too. “Yes, it is, but you don’t know the whole story. I want to tell you but we must get out of here first. I promise I will tell you all of it after we are in the Blue Mountains.”
She was satisfied with this for now. I led her low and slow along the fields toward the structure. I only hoped that this plan would work.
I had heard about the transportation to the rebel base. Different stories reached us now and then, and I knew that there would be a challenge of some sort as there always was with anything concerning the Kalazaron. It was the warrior way. It was a way for the rebels to weed out the weak, and I knew that it was a big challenge, but I did not know how big.
I also knew that they were very cautious and suspicious of anyone that came in asking to join. There were many spies, and if I were not in the circumstances that I was in at the moment, I would have been a spy.
When we had first received the report about this structure, it was on my list to get a spy in there and to find out what was going on before we did a raid. It was interesting that now I was going there in order to beg for exile for Silver and I. Planting a spy was going to be part of my new responsibilities as a general. It would be the first mission on my list and would make me look like the great Kalazaron warrior that I was.
I was glad that I was not made general before this moment, because now I needed this structure. Now we needed the rebels. Now I needed the service of transportation that they provided. I didn't know if I would enjoy being a rebel, but it did not matter. I owed it to Silver. I owed her some sort of freedom with me at her side protecting her, and this was the closest that I could think of to give that to her.
I did not want to tell her what was up ahead, and that we would probably be held with laser blasters aimed at our heads within minutes of arriving. I did not want to make her fearful and more panicked than she already was. I kept it to myself. I would handle this for the both of us.
As we moved toward the structure, I made sure to look around. I noticed that there was a presence on the roof, but because we were in the capital city, they wouldn't exactly shoot us. But they were aware that we were coming from the fields. I held onto Silver's hand tightly and led her toward the structure and toward the large door.