CHAPTER 1

I groaned slightly at the aching bones of my false body as I leaned back and stretched. Even after all these years I was still not used to this fragile, mortal body that was called human. I hated it. The weakness, the vulnerability to cold and pain, and the emotional fragility that these humans showed. They were either going insane with rage, or grief, or glee at the drop of a hat it seemed. I had studied them and learned to fake all of the necessary emotions so that I would fit in and be one of them, but deep within my real self I pitied them and I was disgusted by them.

But that was the job. It was my duty to offer protection for these people, well namely one special person. The beautiful Princess Reah. She had been my charge for six years now and during those years I had grown quite fond of the girl. She was loyal, caring, and sweet. She cared genuinely for the people within the Kingdom and for humans in general. I had witnessed her kindness as she offered food and coin to vagrants as she traveled near and far to spread the words of her father, King Joseph to the people of his kingdom. The war will soon be over.

But I knew that those were empty words. The Kingdom has been at war with the Other World for centuries, long before I was even created hundreds of years ago. The Other World viewed humanity as a plague that had to be stamped out. The people were vermin and they were destroying what was one of the most densely resource rich planets in the galaxy.

The humans were weak. That was what The Other World believed. But I quickly figured out that if the humans were in fact so weak then they should have been easy to destroy, but they had fought the Other World tooth and nail for centuries, winning some battles and losing others, but the humans still controlled the majority of the planet.

The morning sunrise was just beginning to take shape. It was beautiful. I did not see beauty quite the way the humans did, but I could still appreciate interesting sights and the light show that this planet put on, utilizing its one small simple sun, was pretty spectacular if I had to say so himself.

I knew I had just a few more minutes and then I would be taking over for Lyle, the other night guard to stand guard while the Princess got ready for the day. We both took turns alternating sleeping in three-hour shifts. I usually did not wake Lyle up for his full shift. I did not need that much sleep. My alien body got by on very little rest and very little food, but I did love to eat. That was one of the sweet pleasures of this world, all the wonderful foods that were available. I needed very little nutrition, but I enjoyed eating as a hobby if you will. It was one of the few indulgent pleasures that I actually had.

The other guards had warned me to be wary of falling in love with Princess Reah. I just smiled and told them I would be careful, but truthfully the idea of my falling in love with a human woman was just not going to happen. The art of falling in love, the romance, the passion, the lust—all of these things were human experiences that I knew only in vague terms. My race did not possess such abilities. I looked like a human, I spoke like one, dressed like one, ate like one, but it was all a show. I was not human.

As I lay there watching the sun rising slowly over the mountain in the distance, I tried to remember what I was. I had been taken from my family at a young age and placed among the humans. I was not sure why exactly, but I was here. I was on Earth and I had to continue to fit in. What other choice did I have? I remembered my family. I remembered my brothers and my pack, but I had not seen them or spoken to them in so long.

I used to be able to do it telepathically, but in the past few years they had stopped replying back. I thought that they might be dead. I might be the only one left of his race. I rarely dreamed but when I did I dreamed of my home world being destroyed somehow. My family—father, mother, brothers--all being destroyed.

I knew my brothers had escaped and had arrived on Earth as well, but the last time I spoke to them they warned me to stay the course I was on and that they would contact me when the time was right. There was something they had to do, but I did not know what. I couldn’t remember. It had been a long time and I found that the longer I stayed human the less I remembered about who I used to be.

I finally moved my groggy bones up off the animal hides I was sleeping on and stretched myself to my full height. I’m taller than the average human, about six feet four inches in height, and I have a muscular, strong build. I’ve always been proud of this fact, but with my alien strength these puny human muscles really mean nothing. I’m three times stronger than any human alive, but I can never show anyone this of course.

I took a few deep breaths, enjoying the crisp fall air invading my lungs sending a slight chill through my body. I needed a cup of coffee to warm me up and get my human body going in the morning, but there was none to be found this morning it looked like.

I slapped Lyle on the back as I arrived in front of the coach that Princess Reah was in. He was already starting to drift off to sleep and he startled awake as was his usual routine. He was a character.

I knocked on the coach and a moment later I heard the stirrings of the Princess. I often tried to imagine what she was doing to get ready every morning and how she did it so quickly. It usually took her no more than three minutes after I knocked to come out from the coach looking fantastic and beautiful as always. Her charms were lost on me, but I could still tell that she was much more beautiful and radiant than most of the women on this planet. I imagined she was expected to be so, being Princess and all.

She nodded to me as she came out of the coach. “Good morning, Cahn,” she said to me.

“Good morning, Princess,” I grunted. My human voice did not often work well first thing in the morning.

As she stepped out into the early morning light the rays of the bright, yellow sun lit up her auburn hair giving it a peaceful glow that engulfed her entire face. She truly looked a vision right then.

I wondered what it was like to really love a human. I had seen people in love, the way they looked at one another, the way they acted with each other, the way they genuinely seemed to need each other and it was fascinating to observe. The most interesting thing was the physical expressions of these emotions they shared with each other. The kissing, the caressing, the holding of one another—it was all so bizarre to me. As far as I could remember no one on my planet had ever done those things and I wasn’t sure if I would ever really be able to feel like that, especially with a human. Or maybe I would feel that way and I would only be able to feel that way with a human. I just wasn’t sure. It was another mystery to me in the world I didn’t really belong in.

I watched as the Princess was served breakfast on a table that was set up for her as it was every morning. The rest of us would wait until she was done and we might each get a few servings of oatmeal. There would be more food later on for lunch or dinner after the hunter’s in the group (myself included) secured a deer or a pig that we might stumble onto. Perhaps in the next town there might be some fresh fruit that would be given to the Princess. It had been a while since we had some good fruit.

After her breakfast, the princess got back in her coach and the group loaded up everything as we made our trek to the next town of Nordstern, on the Eastern Province of the Kingdom. After that, we would begin the journey back to the castle. It was tough to believe it had been so many years since the Princess had been back to see her family, but it was mostly at her father's behest. With the war waging on against the Other World it was really not safe for Princess Reah to be there. She was a target. If they ever overpowered the Kingdom’s soldiers and stormed the castle then they would kill everyone there. That was the plan.

The King had wondered about sending his youngest daughter Princess Tannin, but she was too young when they'd left. She was barely thirteen. She was too young to spend years traveling the country. She would have been a young woman of nineteen now, though.

We arrived at Nordstern and were immediately greeted by a crowd of hungry, tired people. They looked dirty and impoverished. They were lacking in resources even more than I thought they would be. The Other World had cut off the trade routes to supply most of the major cities and even a lot of the small villages like Nordstern so they were left with almost no food. The Other World sent soldiers in periodically to raid whatever these poor people were able to scrape together. It was disgusting.

But it was the way of the Universe. I wanted to look at these people with disdain, as was the nature of my race but somewhere inside it just did not feel right that the Other World was doing this. They were wrong. But somehow I found myself siding with The Other World at times. It was almost as if my first thought was to be with them and to plunder these towns and to make sure the humans had nothing. The people in these villages were not a direct threat and they would be useful slaves when the war was finally won by the Other World, otherwise they would have just been slaughtered. That was business as far as I was concerned. That was the way it was all over the galaxy. Some were strong and some were not.

But lately I had been having a change of heart and I felt guilty about feeling this way. I was starting to feel really sorry for these poor, innocent people.

“The end is in sight,” Princess Reah said as the people gathered around. Lyle, Charles, and I did our best to keep the people at bay so they did not harm the Princess in their zeal. “I know the war has been long and the Other World continues their onslaught of pain and hate, but we are about to make major breakthroughs. We have secret weapons that will ensure our survival as a nation and as a species!”

The people erupted in cheers as I had seen the others do in the other towns we visited where the Princess told the same type of speech day after day. It was very monotonous and it was also a total lie. The war was in no way close to being over any more than it had been a thousand years ago. But the people wanted hope and she was determined to give them that hope over and over again. That was her job and that was what she had done for the past six years making the rounds from town to town.

We had finally received word last week that the King wanted Reah to return home at once. No one knew why. Maybe he really did have something new up his sleeve. I could only speculate.

As Reah was leaving the stage I saw him out of the corner of my eye. It happened so fast I barely had time to react but I caught a glimpse of the weapon as a person from the crowd suddenly jumped out at her. He had somehow gotten beyond the gates that had been put up and even Lyle who was supposed to be watching for this unlikely event.

My alien reflexes kicked in and I was suddenly in front of the man. He had a dagger in his hand and the look of a maniac in his eyes. I knew his intentions. I could hear his heart elevated and the madness in his voice. He had lost all control.

“Liar! It’s all lies!” The man screamed as he lunged forward with the knife.

I swiftly grabbed his wrist snapping it harder than I meant to under the guidance of my adrenaline and the man’s scream turned into a plea for help at the pain he was suddenly in. The knife dropped from his hand and he quickly fell to the ground.

Princess Rhea leaped behind me out of danger. I could smell the poor girl's fear. Human fear used to smell delicious to me and now it turned my stomach. What was happening to me? I was becoming one of them. Was that even possible? Perhaps spending too much time in one form was becoming irreversible.

The man was squirming and trying to get up and lunge for his knife with the other hand. I stepped on his hand and delivered a hard punch to his face. His eyes rolled up in his head as he passed out.

Lyle picked him up and carried him to the side setting him on the ground to sleep it off.

“Are you alright?” I asked the Princess. Her face was in shock, but suddenly she looked up at me and I saw something different in her eyes. She smiled at me slyly. I had never seen that look on her face before. It was… hungry.

“I’m just fine, Cahn,” she said.

I nodded and pretended that I did not see this look of… what I can only describe as desire. Why was she looking at me that way? Was it just an after effect of her life being in danger and me saving it? I wasn’t sure. I decided to ignore it.

But the others would not let me. They had seen it perfectly clear, and they were all too quick to point out the human emotions I did not understand but pretended to.

“Wow, she wants you buddy boy!” Lyle said after we were on our way. The Princess’ coach was out in front and we were on our horses trotting slowly behind. It would be another day’s trip to the castle and we were planning to ride about another two hours before setting up camp for the night.

“What are you talking about? Your big imagination running out of control again?” I joked back.

"No, but I saw the way she was looking at you like you were a piece of fine steak."

“I think she was just in shock over almost being stabbed to death by some crazy,” I replied.

“Wow, you are so clueless. She would have to bite you to get your attention.”

I looked at him confused, but with a smile on my face. Why would anyone bite someone else? I just laughed it off as was my way when I encountered something I did not understand about human behavior.

That night going to sleep I did begin to wonder if Lyle was right in his assessment. Was I just too blind to see that Reah’s feelings for me might have changed? Perhaps they were right, and I had to admit I had felt it and seen it but I was determined to let it drop. It was not to be. it would have been unprofessional and I did not believe in cluttering my life with things that were cumbersome. She would have to understand that nothing was going to happen with us. It would not be the first time. I have rejected women countless times in my life. It always left them and other’s dumbfounded, but I have chosen to ignore that aspect of human life. I was born alone and I’ll die alone.

I drifted off to sleep believing that she would understand. She had to.