Chapter 7:
Gandadirth
A military base, expansive and to the south. It was one of the biggest military space posts we could find in our research, and the newest target to take over. No more living amongst the trees.
I looked over the building and marveled at the infrastructure: the architecture that covered the cities and towns on the Earth. I’d spent so much time living in a hole underground, and then on the run, it was hard to think of what it might be like to feel grounded.
“Come on,” Jadirel said, flicking his yellow tail behind him stiffly like he was about to toss something heavy with it.
The group of us kept low to the ground as we approached the base. Jadirel had his sights set on this location since day one. It was easily defensible with its tall stone walls that moated around the building.
Plus, it would give us immediate access to the humans’ strange laser weapons.
It would be the perfect spot to operate out of.
Tesyduss ushered me forward. We’d all been buzzing with the excitement of our mission for cycles now.
The Earth had supplied my wildest dreams and then some. My belly had never felt so filled; my muscles felt tight and taut with energy, and my mind had cleared of the fog that the endless dark of Dobromia swept over it. And then, of course, there was Fiona.
Damn. There she was again.
Thoughts of her lingered in my mind all morning: the flavor of her tongue still fresh in my mouth. The thought of it made my body rush with ecstasy for her.
Just like that, the memory of her had me distracted. I looked up and saw the other shifters had already taken to the air. I could hear the alarm of the military sirens sounding off like loud vibrations through the air. They made my wings feel weak as I took to the sky behind my friends, the only family I had ever known.
“This should be easy,” Jadirel winked to me.
With that, a sparkle of electricity wound up in Jadirel’s throat, sparking with such intensity I could see the outline of their cracks through his thickly scaled skin.
A blaze of white shot forth from his mouth, jolting against the humans and their war machines. The buzz of the shot hummed through the base, and we could already hear the human’s cries as they looked up and began firing their laser weapons off at us.
We flew up high above the walled gates and Jadirel and I perched there, looking down at the humans and trying to eye their snipers.
We’d spent all this time researching the humans: how they fight, what they value. To finally be going through with our mission felt invigorating somehow.
“Impressive,” I said to Jadirel, gesturing with my eyes to his throat.
“I try, I try,” he laughed with mock humility. “Where to now, kid? Where do you think they’re hiding?”
I looked at Jadirel and then scanned the ground below. There were heavy tanks and various buildings, but we didn’t want to destroy them. We wanted to take them.
“Buildings,” I shrugged. “There and there,” I pointed. “Looks like they have the most weaponry. The most protection.”
We stared down to where I was pointing and could see turrets set up, waiting for us. So much for a happy union; it looked like they had been waiting for a war with the Weredragons this whole time.
Still, my thoughts wrenched over to Fiona. Her mouth; her taste. Whatever she had planned. I liked her attitude. I felt as though we were fighting to destroy: to wreak havoc and take revenge. She was fighting to rebuild.
There was something to that thought that kept irking at me; piling in my mind until there was no room left for other thoughts other than her.
“What’s that?” Jadirel said, crouching lower now and pulling his small wings in tightly to his back.
I looked to where he was pointing and saw the metal ground begin to open up mechanically. The ground shifted until a ramp grew visible and a massive robot began its slow march up to the top. I blinked in surprise and took a step back.
“The girl,” I said quickly. “She said the humans had something ready for the shifters. Some backup plan: a weapon.” I struggled to think and then blurted out, “DET.”
I flapped my wings back so that I hovered over the beacon we were on, and Jadirel followed behind.
Our warriors had already descended down below, spreading fire along the human soldiers and working their way into the buildings in a rampage.
“That little bitch,” Jadirel swore, setting his jaw in fury.
My ears flinched back instinctively as I watched the massive robot tower over their command center; a mechanical laser rifle about seven times the size of my body cocked up and began firing at will into the sky.
We watched, narrowly dodging its heat-packed white fire before swooping to the ground to get away from the aerial attacks.
“Never thought I’d be safer on the ground,” I laughed and watched Jadirel.
He didn’t laugh, not even a smile. Jadirel hated being confined to the land.
I wanted to suggest we abandon the mission, forget about taking the base, but I knew he was determined.
We rushed deeper into the headquarters, following behind the rest of the ground warriors we’d sent in. Most of the base had been cleared out by now; charred corpses were scattered about. We ducked behind their tanks and vehicles to narrowly avoid them.
I peered into the largest building and could hear the hum of the fluorescent lights.
“Everything good?” I yelled into the halls and waited in deafening silence: my heavy calm leaving me at the lack of response.
Then, just as I was about to panic, Tesyduss’ fiery mane appeared in the hall, a wide grin taking over his jaw as he gave me a salute.
“All clear in here,” he said jovially. “There were a lot.”
I looked down at one of the men, dead on the ground against a corner wall, and my lip curled up in disgust.
I cocked a brow. “I can see that.”
“We’ve got a bit of a problem,” he said.
“You think?” I mocked and looked back out the door at the massive robot that was slowly stomping through the base, searching us out.
“We’re working on a way to shut that thing down,” Tesyduss said, motioning me further into the room. I followed and saw a cascade of buttons and screens: their control center.
I wondered if Fiona might be able to navigate through the human confusion.
There she was again, I cursed.
I sucked my cheek into my teeth and bit down hard just to stop from thinking about her.
With a breath, I looked at the screens before us that showed the robot before us and I squinted to get a better look.
“It won’t shut down here,” I said, tapping at the screen. “There’s a pilot in there.”
“Ah,” Tesyduss nodded. “Center of the unit. I see it.”
“Kill him, stop the beast,” I said wryly. “Watch my back.”
I left the base then, watching carefully as the remaining soldiers rushed me forward, shooting me with their laser pistols and streaking burns across my wings as their shots skimmed my skin.
I flew up to one, kicking him down and grabbing the immense rifle from his hands, bashing it against the back of his head as he fell.
Throwing the rifle down, I flew up to the next one, drawing my claws into him and twisting his neck until he fell limply at my feet. I looked down at my fingers and nearly wretched. I would never say it to my fellow warriors, and certainly not to Jadirel due to the immense mocking and endless jokes that would come at my expense. But, I hated blood. Hated the stuff. It made me want to wretch.
My face contorted into a tortured, sullen frown as I watched their bodies go ragged and limp with blood still spewing out on the ground below them.
I felt a sudden guilt as I looked over as Tesyduss, ripping the limbs off the soldiers violently and in a massive overkill.
I wanted to approach and politely ask if they could just piss off for a cycle or two while we raided their base, but something told me human soldiers didn’t respond well to ‘please.’
Instead, I took to the sky, and Tesyduss followed, creating a distraction for the robot as I belted it with the flamethrower that burst forth from my throat, creating a hot pit of lava in my throat.
I knew the fire wouldn’t take the pilot out, not through the metal, but it would heat it up enough to make him sweat.
“Come on, come on, burn!” Tesyduss yelled in a frantic battle cry.
The plan worked, and soon the pilot’s cockpit door opened, trying to save himself from a scalding death; his face was red and the inside of the pit looked red hot.
The soldier pulled his parachute and jumped from the robot.
Tesyduss raced to him, wings splayed in a show of dominance. He grabbed the human and bit into him savagely.
That was when I turned away.
I made my way back to the ground, and we spent the next while cleaning up the carcasses and exploring our new home, raiding their food and supplies and trying to figure out how to use their weaponry.
By the time the sun had set, several of us had found our way back to the forested camp. Ready to pack up and leave. Ready to take over our newly acquired base.
Walking back to camp was truly, truly like walking back to your home after war. Somehow, it just didn’t feel like home anymore. The comfort I had felt there now felt dirty; I’d betrayed it somehow.
That’s when I realized I was growing close to this Earth.
The other shifters, my team, my family—they were set out to destroy it. To take what we needed and then destroy it. A strange revenge.
But I knew I wouldn’t mind staying. Might be good for my skin, I thought with a laugh.
In reality, it would be good for my everything. My stomach being the most important of the long list.
I walked back into the camp and cleaned the swamp off my hands in a river nearby. I turned briefly to the cage; our prisoners, who wouldn’t say a thing, were staring back at the pack of us who had returned. The sight of Fiona made me breath heavily. The air kept escaping my lungs as though I’d been punched in the gut. A panic was overwhelming me for no good reason.
Maybe it was her I felt I’d betrayed, not Earth.
I busied myself with camp life for the rest of the day, hunting animals and stoking the fire before everyone else went to sleep. I waited for a long while and then let Fiona out, locking her friends in quickly behind her.
Fiona.
My strange little prisoner.
“Where have you been?” she said, almost demanded as she walked out from behind the darkness of the cage.
I felt the annoyance rise in me already and snapped, “I answer to you now?”
Either not sensing my frustration, or not caring, Fiona flipped her thick curls behind her shoulder and gave me a flirtatious smile. “I am your wife, last I heard.”
I grunted as we sat. That arrogance was everything I hated about humans: about their women. That self-righteous, ‘tell me everything’ attitude. Like they deserved everything and more.
But then, I looked at her feral little face and couldn’t help but smirk.
“Right,” I full on smiled then. “So... you being treated okay here?”
“Not really,” she laughed in a small voice. “But I've had worse.”
“Is that right?”
Fiona stood then and circled around the fire, poking it with a large stick that I decided to keep my eye on. Embers soared to the tip of it, and she had a nervous energy about her then that made me feel like she might whip it at me. The balls of my feet tensed, like I was ready to pounce at any movement she might make.
“We had this mission on L-3 a couple years ago,” she began without prompting. “There were these lifeforms we wanted to make contact with, real flat creatures. I don't know how else to describe it. They are flat, like maps. Low to the ground. They respond to vibrations, stuff like that. Needless to say, it didn't go very well.”
“Any casualties?” I asked.
She shrugged. It was a shrug that was read clear: ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
It occurred to me then that Fiona, beautifully tanned Fiona, must do this a lot: visit planets, risk herself with other life forms. I wondered why she seemed so different, so much nobler than the rest of the humans.
“You do this a lot, huh?” I chirped, still watching her poke the fire.
“Get taken captive?” she laughed. “Yeah, can’t you tell? Obviously, I’m a pro at it. Thus, my calm demeanor.”
I smirked, though unamused. “Right.”
“Hey, it’s my job,” she explained. “I create diplomatic relations. Sometimes it doesn’t go well.”
I frowned and crossed my arms, leaning back. “Why’d they pick you for that?”
“Um…” She stared at me, looking offended, and then she began to laugh into her hands. “Because I am very charming?”
“Well, you've certainly talked yourself out of grim death. So, maybe a little talented.”
“Right,” she said slowly. “Why is that, again?”
I shrugged, staring back into the fire and watching the orange and red sheen it left on both our skin.
Why was I keeping her alive? Everyone else certainly saw fit to get rid of these humans. The blonde one and her constant crying, the furtive girl with the black hair who always looked like she was planning her next move, and Fiona. Sweet Fiona with her ideals and her kind words. It was her calm demeanor that worried me most of all.
But then, I guessed there was something insatiable about her: her breasts and her long, animalistic nose. Her thick hair and thicker lips, calming eyes. I…
Liked her.
There it was.
I liked being around her. There was this intense pull, a sexual energy that made me want to have her near me. A self-deprecation she had that made me smile.
“I guess I just like you,” I said quickly and looked up at her to gauge her reaction.
To my surprise, Fiona smiled bashfully and tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Is that right?” she asked and then seemed to look deeper into me. “I thought I was just a stupid human.”
“Could be,” I teased. “Or maybe you’re different.”
“Or maybe we’re all the same,” she offered coyly.
I shook my head. “Impossible.” I leaned towards her face, taking in her now familiar scent and kissed her, deep and desperately. My tongue flicked into her mouth, and I cupped her face in my hands, pulling her closer as though she were a need that couldn’t possibly be filled.
She pulled away and looked at me, lusty and curious, and I wasn’t sure what to say or how to explain myself. Instead, I grabbed her hand and led her to my tent.
The kiss resumed then, in the privacy of my makeshift room. I grabbed her legs and pulled her until she was laying lengthwise and she reached up for me, wanting my lips once more.
I began teasing her body, feeling myself harden against her as my fingertips slowly undressed her. She reached up and scraped her nails down my arm, brushing against my wet scales.
Once she was completely undressed I took in the sight of her beautiful body; creamy skin went on forever in peaks and valleys. Breasts that were wide but small with firm nipples that I tasted with my tongue.
I couldn’t stop looking at her legs: human, impossibly long and sexy. I explored her body with my mouth, licking every inch of her, between her legs, up to her breasts, and then back to her mouth, tickling her skin with my fingertips as my hand trailed up and down her body. It was as though she might disappear if I stopped.
“What are we doing?” she asked in a hushed whisper: a throaty lust.
She moaned as I pulled her on top of me and I set a finger against her lips before pulling her down to bury her kiss with mine. She ground against my hard dick several times before lowering herself on top of it. She felt impossibly warm and tight; her body gripped and pulsed against mine instinctively.
I watched in wonder as she ground on top of me, moving her hips along my body sensually. Her slow movements had the tingle in my body boiling up; a constant tease that was too good to stop and too slow to finish me off.
A loud exhale left my body: a groan of pleasure as I watched her firm breasts bounce on top of me. I reached up to steady them, squeezing and massaging them under my palms.
“I’ve wanted you since I first saw you,” I breathed out, husky and low.
“Liar,” she said, and I splayed my fingers out on her back and rolled our bodies so that she was now underneath me, laying halfway between the soft blankets and the wet grass below us. I leaned down and kissed her once; one last moment of sweetness before I began thrusting into her, pounding our skin against one another.
“You are like some… creature,” I whispered. “I had to have you.”
She looked focused then, panting and moaning in her low tone as she held the base of my wings, sliding her hands along the bone and moaning even louder as she did so.
“Shhh,” I laughed and closed my eyes, feeling a throb of climax building and booming throughout my body as I slid in and out of her.
Her face lit up red suddenly, and she covered her own mouth to stifle the long moan that sounded out as I released into her: a rush of blood to the head signaling the ultimate pleasure.
Fiona’s breathing slowed then to a low pant; it was a tired and satisfied noise sounding out of her that made me hard again.
I pushed off of her so that we were laying side by side, naked and panting.
I traced my middle finger along my bottom lip, staring up at the fabric of the strange tent absent-mindedly. I could feel her warm, wide breasts beating up against my chest as she found her way into the crook of my neck, her breath ghosting against my skin.
Knowing that she could say something to the girls or one of my crew sent a warm shot of terror through me. Knowing that I had to take her back to the cages also made me feel sick, though I wasn’t sure if what we did was out of genuine affection or if I simply felt guilty for what I had done to her people.
Maybe it was both.