Chapter 9
SILVER BROOKS
When I awoke and saw Korin’s bruised and bloody face hovering over me, I thought it was definitely a dream. There was no way that my heart would allow me to hope that it was real and he had really come for me. But it was real, and he had come to find me, and he was going to run away with me. That thought made me happy until I remembered about the rank of general and I had to know the truth, but Korin would not answer me because we needed to move. I would have to wait. We moved slowly toward the structure and I was glad to have him at my side as I could not do this alone. It was darker now as night came, and I was very glad that I had fallen asleep in the fields.
“This is it. Now remain quiet and let me do the talking. Just agree with what I say. Let us say that we are betrothed to each other and that we wish to be together. This will keep you from being taken from me if it is clear that you are mine. Do you understand?” he asked me.
I shook my head yes and we walked to a massive door on the side of the white structure. Korin knocked on it in a rhythmic way. A small opening slid open and he said, “We wish to join the cause.”
The door opened and we were welcomed inside. A Kalazaron that was dressed differently than any of the Kalazaron that I had seen so far led us. His hair was shaved into a sort of Mohawk hair style and it was painted with a bright-green paint. He had tattoos on his body and he led us into a chamber.
“This Kalazaron and his human female have come to join the cause,” he said to another, larger male Kalazaron that was sitting in a grand chair.
“Come forth,” he said. Korin held my hand in a sign of ownership as he stepped forward and stood proud.
“You are Sergeant Korin Hafah,” the male in the chair said. Suddenly there were weapons pointed at us as everyone suddenly became on edge.
“Have you come to raid us? You and your female human will not live long enough to contact your brigade if there is one outside waiting to raid,” he said.
“No. I have not come to raid. I am Sergeant Korin Hafah, as you said. This is my betrothed, Silver Brooks. We wish to live and serve at the Blue Mountain base.”
“Why?” the male asked.
Korin was silent for a long time and said, “I could lie to you and tell you how passionate I am about your cause, but that is not why. This human female, I love her. I cannot be with her here in Konthos. If I do, we both face death. Therefore, I offer an exchange. If you take us both to the Blue Mountain base and let us live together as one, then I will serve as a sergeant in the rebel army. I have much information and I know everything there is to know about Tyla Wen and the training grounds. I offer my assistance and knowledge in exchange for your protection by simply letting us live on the Blue Mountain base. Simply for getting us out of the city undetected.
“I am the only one, plus one other guard, that knows about this structure and that you arrange transport to the Blue Mountains from here. I will give you that guard’s name and perhaps you can pay him off, but it won’t be long before that report I read makes it to the proper channels. So although I am not here to raid you, eventually there will be a raid, so I advise that you move this operation soon.”
Everyone was silent, and I was very nervous that the weapons were still pointed at us. What if they said no and killed us? I was terrified as the male Kalazaron in the chair thought this over.
“Very well; you have provided us with good information. We will grant you transportation, but only if you beat this challenge that all male Kalazarons must go through before they are transferred to the Blue Mountains.”
“Anything. I will do it,” Korin said.
“Aftra!” the male shouted.
Just then a very large, eight-foot Kalazaron entered the room. He was terrifying and he growled as he looked at Korin.
“That is the challenge. A fight. It is the Kalazaron way. Prove to us that you are a useful warrior that does not just hide behind your title of sergeant on the far off moon base. We need real warriors,” he said.
Korin grabbed my hand and kissed it and led me off to the side of the room. I wanted to plead with him not to do it, but I remembered that he told me to say nothing. So I remained silent. Then he moved back toward the middle of the room.
“Fight!”
The giant Kalazaron warrior charged at Korin and he dashed out of the way. Then the giant charged him again and Korin moved out of the way again. He was using his smaller size to move around the giant. He made the giant look clumsy and uncoordinated, and I suddenly felt better that Korin was a great warrior that knew how to handle himself.
He moved around the giant and then ran and jumped in the air with both feet impacting the giant’s side. It knocked the air out of him and as he was doubled over, Korin took the opportunity to punch his head repeatedly. Cheers rang out as suddenly everyone was cheering for Korin and his warrior fighting skills.
Then Korin ran around the back of the large Kalazaron and ran up his back like he was running up a hill and wrapped his arms around the giant’s neck. The giant gagged and choked as he fought for air until he landed on his face, passed out cold. The crowd cheered as Korin lifted his arms in a V victory. Others ran to the giant’s side and threw cold water on him. He awoke and they helped him into another room.
“Very good, Sergeant; you have proven yourself. We will take you and your betrothed to the Blue Mountain base, but it will be under severe watch, as I do not trust you yet. How do we know that you are not a spy?”
“You do not, but if we return here to the city, we will be killed, so why would we ever return to give anyone information? That is all I can offer you, but in time you will see that I can be trusted; we both can,” Korin said.
The male Kalazaron in the chair was silent for a long time and then said, “I am called Aran Fyn. You will be on the next transportation to the Blue Mountains, leaving in an hour under the cover of night, Sergeant Korin Hafah.”
“Thank you,” Korin said. We were shown to another room where there were other refugees waiting to be taken to the rebel base, mostly other warriors, but a few female Kalazaron as well.
As we sat down next to each other and waited, I had to take my mind off the thought that the master’s guards were going to burst in at any second and take us and asked him the question I needed to know the answer to.
“Now will you tell me? Why did you trade me for a general rank?”
He looked at me and said, “I had too. At the time I thought it was the only way. I have been working toward the general rank for five years and everything I have ever done was to achieve that rank. Lukah, I did not love her. But she is the master’s daughter and I knew being betrothed to her would get me the rank. I had no second thoughts about being with her even though I did not love her, as I never thought of love. I only thought of achieving that rank.
“When you came into my life, I was so close to getting what I wanted. It was all in the process, but then you changed me. So when the master summoned me and told me that Lukah was angry and demanding that you be sold to the commander, I agreed in exchange for the general rank. But I knew all along when I agreed to it that I was going to help you run away before the commander was scheduled to have you. I had a week at least, but Lukah sped that up to today.
“That is why I agreed to the rank, because I had wanted it for so long, and I could not see straight. But I thought I could get it and help you not be in the hands of the commander. But when it came down to it, all I wanted was you. I don’t want that general post anymore. I gave it up when I confessed to Lukah that I love you.”
“You did?” I asked in shock.
“I did, and I do,” he said as he leaned in and kissed me. I kissed him back, feeling like I had finally had some answers to the chaos and feeling good that we were one more step toward freedom and being together.
An hour later, we were in what Korin called a speeder. I had heard the sound before. It was the sound that I heard when we were in the wild and he pinned me to the ground. It was funny to think about how he had strived so hard to keep me from letting the rebels know where we were at that time, only to end up here, begging for them to take us.
Once we arrived on the base at the Blue Mountains, Aran Fyn had kept his word. We were allowed to live together and be as one, and no one ever challenged Korin to take me from him. We settled in, and within a week I felt happy.
“I really do like it here. I like it better than the city,” I said to him as we sat outside up high, watching the silver sun set.
“Yes I can see that. You are out in the wild elements out here. It suits you better than the city,” he said as he kissed me on the cheek.
“And you? Do you like it?” I asked him.
“Yes, strangely more than I thought. Suddenly what they say makes sense to me after experiencing the corruption of the city myself. I understand what the rebels are fighting for. I will fight for anyone that does not keep me from you,” he kissed me.
Months went by and we grew more and more intertwined with the rebel community. I even met a few other human females, which was such a surprise and it was more than I could have asked for, as I did not feel so alone. The human females were treated better than in the city, and I was glad for it.
Even Korin had found his mark here at the Blue Mountain rebel base. He rose through the ranks very fast. He had become a general within months. I knew this made him happy, not because it was a prestigious title, but because he was able to use his knowledge and talents to train the warriors, and that made him feel useful. They listened to and respected him, and he liked working with them. I knew that it gave him a sense of fulfillment. It made me happy that he had not given up his warrior career just for me after all. It had simply come to him in a different way. The cold warrior that I had met on the moon base was a thing of the past.
Now, that we had gained the trust of the rebels, Korin had more freedom. He used that freedom to romance me.
"Come with me. I have a surprise for you," he said to me one evening.
"You do? What is it?" I asked him.
"If I told you, then it would not be a surprise," he said to me. I laughed at him and went along. We climbed into a speeder, and he drove it away from the Blue Mountains. I became nervous as we had not ventured away from the Blue Mountains since we had left the capital city. After we had left the city, we knew that Master Bresh and Lukah had put out a bounty on our heads. It was very trusting that the rebels did not turn us over for the reward. I think they saw that Korin was much more valuable than any reward with his knowledge of the warrior ways of the moon base and training grounds. However, it still made me scared. There were many other Kalazaron out there that roamed the lands looking for rebels to turn in for rewards.
Soon the speeder stopped, and Korin helped me out of it. I looked at the surroundings that were very familiar.
"Are we really here?" I said as I looked at him with a smile.
"Yes, I have wanted to bring you back here ever since we left," he said to me.
I looked around to see that we were in the same ravine where it had all begun. It was still beautiful and lush, and as night began to fall, Korin had more of a surprise for me.
"Come with me,” he said after he camouflaged the speeder.
I followed him along the ravine and soon we came to the same rocks with flowing water. I immediately jumped into a depression and frolicked in the icy cold water. Korin laughed at me.
"I knew you would do that. I love watching you do that," he said as he jumped in next to me and splashed cold water on me. We played like this for a long time until he said, "This is only part of the surprise. Come with me," he said as he led me out of the water.
Soon I found myself walking into the same cave that we had stayed that night so long ago. I watched as he lit a fire in the middle of the cave. As the cave lit up, I saw that it was already stocked with fruits and food. He had come here before this in order to set this up.
I ran into his arms and hugged him.
"I thought maybe we could stay the night here. We can finish what we started that night," he said to me.
I gasped as I suddenly remembered about the dream that I had that night. I pulled away from him and gave him a playful pat on the chest.
"Korin! The dream I had that night. You did that?"
He laughed at me and said, "It was my first time doing that. But yes, it was a projection."
"I wish I would have known that then, because I thought I was losing my mind with the very real dreams I was having with you in them. Either that or I thought it was the Icannet juice."
"Well, now you know, but it does not have to be a dream any longer."
I kissed him on the mouth and then I slowly slide my hands down his body. I dropped down to my knees and I proceeded to do what I had done in that projection so long ago. We made this night in the cave what we wanted it to be when we first slept in it. It was good. It was as though we were washing away any bad memories and replacing them with good ones as we made love, or coupled, as he called it.
We came to that cave often and made many new memories. I was happier than I had ever been. I was happier than I had been on Merton Loy. As the days wore on, I knew that if I had made it to Earth as I had planned, I would not be as happy as I was now, because Korin did not live on Earth: he lived on the cold, blue planet Kaethon, my new home.
THE END (Flip next page to read Kalazaron Jaylin)