Chapter Two
Zawala
Kilari slobber. It was one of my least favorite things. Still, Axen and I watched from the brush as an adorable pink baby blob bounced and bounded away from a blackberry bush into the opening of a cave.
The thing was cute, but it still had to die…
See, Axen and I had been on a mission to rid the planet of the Kilari, a pink, gelatinous creature bent on destroying the Vithohn. They'd followed us from our planet, Udrenahine, and had been seeking our people ever since.
As a Vithohn, I could feel a gnawing pull, or push, toward the Kilari. Axen could feel it too.
I looked up at him, a mane of black hair and muscles. He was my senior in every way: more ferocious, more in-tuned, calmer. Much, much calmer. Vithohn had an insatiable anger—an aggression—around the Kilari, but Axen didn’t have that. He was cool and collected.
“You ready?” I asked, and he gave me a look as if to say, ‘Do you have to ask?’
“Let’s go,” he said with a breath, and we both made after the Kilari offspring.
Killing Kilari had been a strange pastime for us. But Axen was sure there were only two hives left. Both in this region. If we could destroy these two, we could get rid of the Kilari for good.
The cave was dark and mostly full of pods, eggs ready to burst with new Kilari life. Hatching season only happened twice a year, which explained the blob we'd seen outside. The adult Kilari weren't so cute.
We'd brought electric weapons with us, ones specially designed by a Yaclion alien to defeat the pink creatures.
We slashed through the egg pods with our claws, ripping them apart and watching the thick sludge explode onto the walls and into our mouths. It tasted smoky and hot, and burned my tongue. I grabbed one of the eggs, stretching my arms wide around it before pulling it up with all my might.
As soon as we were done with the pods, I knew the hive mother wouldn't be far behind.
"These poor things," Axen said, looking around at the mess we'd made. He always had trouble with this part.
"They wouldn’t hesitate to rip us apart," I reminded him, and he gave a slow nod.
"They wouldn’t be so grotesque about it," he offered.
"Hey, no one's manically laughing. I'd say we're making out pretty good."
Suddenly, we heard a crack of thunder from above us, could hear the rain billowing against the cave walls outside. It had started raining. It was one of my least favorite things about the Earth. The unstable weather.
"Just say it," Axen said, rolling his fingers at me with baited breath.
"What?" I laughed.
"Just say it so I don't have to hear it when we leave," he rushed me.
"What? The rain?" I said, feeling like a scolded child. "I hate the rain!"
"There it is!" He exclaimed, a slight smile coming to his lips again. "Always with this rain."
"It's wet and disgusting! If I wanted to be wet, I would jump in the water. Why? Why this need for watering all the time?"
Axen rolled his eyes and rushed in front of me. He went to speak but then thought better of it, stretching his arm out in front of me, preventing me from going forward. There was a sudden hum to the cave, an eerie feeling coursing through the walls. The hive mother was close.
With a loud smash, her head popped out of the walls like a worm, her pink skin and black teeth raging. She bellowed a terrifying cry at us and dug her fangs into Axen's shoulder before quickly releasing him. I raised the electric laser at her and shot it off twice, causing her to hiss violently. She was furious with me, but her many eyes stared down at Axen, confused as she watched giant green globs spilling down his arm from where she'd bit down.
Her eight tails smacked against the wall behind her. We waited for more to arrive, wondered how packed the hive was or if it was just a spawning pool, and when none emerged to help her, I continued to fire at her. I knew she would be weak since she'd been expending her energy to care for the hive, but I wasn't expecting her to fall down dead the way she did.
The ground hummed and cracked beneath us, and we knew it was almost over. This fight against the Kilari.