King Karik Korinth
“We lost a good soldier two days ago. His loss will be remembered forever. But we have come to Earth with a mission. We have to carry on that mission and honor the death of Moxor. He would want it that way,” I said as I sat around the table with Azlo, Jex, and General Razook. They were my trusted counsel and second-in-command.
“Continue with the plan that we had previously set in motion. First, we debilitate the local Clenok cyborg army. We have done that with the raid on the facility. Now, we find the nearest human habitation. Our scouts are searching. As soon as we have coordinates, the two of you will accompany me to the village. General Razook will stay behind and look after the army until I call upon them,” I said.
“Just the three of us? That sounds dangerous. What if the humans are hostile to our arrival?” Azlo asked.
“That may be their first reaction. But it would be even more so if we show up with an army. No, it is better to show up just us so that I may speak with them and tell them why we are here,” I said.
“Sounds good to me. If the humans can help us with this new plague burdening the Veruka here and on Tivoso, then I am all for it,” Jex said.
“Yes, we must help the humans fight the Clenok. They could have answers for us. Their medical expertise is far more advanced than ours. They might be able to figure out why we are suffering from this plague all of a sudden. But we will not have those answers unless we protect them from the Clenok cyborgs. I think it is a good trade. We help the humans to protect themselves, and in return, they help us with their medical advancements. I only hope they're open to it,” I said as I stood up and began to walk back-and-forth in the room of the grand ship. We had come to Earth from Tivoso with an entire fleet ready for battle. My ship was very fast and grand, and now that it was parked, it served as my home in the forest.
“They will accept our help once they see our army. I am sure that the Earth humans have nothing like it. Plus, they cannot shift the way that we can. We are fierce dragons. The humans are fragile,” General Razook said.
“Yes, I agree, and…” But I could not finish my sentence. I suddenly felt like I was in a fog. I felt weak. I stumbled and put my hand down on the table to hold myself up.
“My king!” Azlo shouted as he stood up and grabbed me. The other man stood up and came to my side.
“I am fine. I am all right. It was just a moment of… confusion,” I said trying to bring myself out of the fog. They were quiet as they all looked at each other.
“No, not him. He is our king. We need him. The Veruka cannot survive without him,” Jex said.
“I said I am fine,” I said getting frustrated. But I knew that he was right. It was the plague. It was the first symptoms that every weredragon said they felt. Once they started the first symptoms, they had a month to live.
“I will go find out where the scouts are. I will have a location of a human habitat before the end of the day,” General Razook said. Then he ran out of the room to get to work.
“I guess we will not need to take a sick weredragon with us on the journey. I am the one that could be tested,” I said.
“I am the one that gives orders here. Now go, both of you, and prepare for our departure. We will need a small speeder ship and supplies. We will leave as soon as we have coordinates of a human village. Now go,” I said.
I went to my room and laid down. I needed to conserve energy. I knew that I would be leaving within the hour or by the end of the day on the journey. I wanted to be alert and rested. The plague did not scare me. I risked my life every day fighting in battles. When you were a soldier, you had to come to terms with death. I lived on the edge of life and death daily. I fought hard, and I was arrogant in battle. So the plague did not scare me. What scared me was abandoning the Veruka to uncertain futures.
The next morning we had coordinates to a human village one hundred miles away. Our fast ship could get us there in twenty minutes or less. Jex, Azlo, and I set out on the journey. I left General Razook behind in charge of the army.
I looked out the windshield in front of us. There was a massive wall, almost a hundred feet or more high. It went around the entire human habitation.
“It looks like they have a good defense set up against the Clenok cyborgs. Look at the coils on the ground in front of the wall,” I said.
“Set the ship down over there, far from the village. We will shift into dragon form and fly over the wall. Then we will dive low among the trees. Let us see if we can find one human alone. If we make a surprise visit to a group, they could grow hostile before we are allowed to speak our terms. With our flying speed, it will be easier for us to go undetected in weredragon form.”
A few minutes later, we were out of the ship that we had set underneath a crowded area of trees. We shifted into dragon form and flew fast. We were over the wall and diving low among the trees inside the human habitation, looking for a human to speak to. Then we finally found one. It was a lone human female walking along the woods alone. I landed directly in front of her. She let out a soft scream as she jumped back.
“Do not be alarmed. I will not hurt you, human. My name is King Karik Korinth.”
Her mouth fell the wide open. She said nothing, and she looked at me in shock. Her long black hair was down around her shoulders. Her brown eyes were full of fear. She was trembling. Her pink lips were shivering, and her body was petite and shapely. She had a figure that was unlike the female Veruka on Tivoso. I was enticed by it. She was beautiful. I was not expecting the human females to be so beautiful.
Jex and Azlo landed on either side of me. The ground was shaking underneath me as they landed. It must've been a fright to her. She let out another scream, turned, and ran. I looked at Jex and Azlo in disapproval.
“Perhaps you should've waited to make yourself known,” I said. Then I went after her.