Dr. Vanessa Lopez
I was taking my daily walk. It was my alone time. I did it every day before going into the lab or the clinic. It was a way to wake myself up. It had replaced coffee. As I walked, I heard a strange noise, like a giant bird flapping its wings overhead. I couldn't see anything. But then suddenly, boom! The ground trembled as a tall figure landed in front of me. I felt like I was hallucinating because there was no way that I could possibly see what I was seeing. It was a very tall man with skin that looked like he was spray-painted in silver sparkly dust. He was almost nine feet tall with emerald green wings that spread out from his back. The wingspan was at least five feet. He did not wear a shirt, only tight gray trousers that were fitted against his legs and tucked into very high boots that had straps on them. Inside were the straps for various gadgets. There was a belt around his waist and a clunking gray metal with lots of compartments.
I looked into the eyes of this monster. They were light brown eyes accentuated by his long black hair. He was looking at me as though he was just as shocked to see me as I was to see him.
I was shaking. What the hell was I looking at? I had never seen anything like it. What was he? His wings reminded me of a mythical dragon. But that could not be. There were no dragon men on Earth. I waited for him to say something even though I knew it wasn't possible that he would speak my language. As I look at him up and down, I found myself feeling to emotions clashing together. On the one hand, I felt aroused. I have never seen such a perfect male form before. On the other hand, I was scared out of my mind. He was so large, intrusive, and dominating.
“Do not be alarmed. I will not hurt you, human. My name is King Karik Korinth.”
Holy shit. It was speaking. It was speaking English. I took a step backward, ready to get out of there. Then suddenly, in a blur, two more dragon men landed on either side of him. They looked frightening. I screamed and turned around and ran away. I knew that at any second they were going to pick me up off of my feet and carry me away. They were going to eat me.
Then the first dragon that called himself a king was standing in front of me once more, blocking my path.
“Human, I am not going to hurt you. Please allow me to speak,” he said as he got down on one knee. I did not know why he was doing it. Was he simply trying to show me that he was not going to be aggressive? Even kneeling down he was still taller and bigger than I was. It didn't make him any less frightening.
“What are you? Where did you come from?” I trembled the words out of my mouth.
“My name is King Karik Korinth. I am from a planet called Tivoso. We have come to Earth to plead with the humans,” he said.
“I am a weredragon. I am king of a race known as the Veruka. I am alien to you. But I do not consider myself an alien,” he said. There was some sarcasm in his tone. It caught me off guard. Was he making a joke? A weredragon? Was he serious?
“We are shifters. We can shift into this half-dragon form that you see before you. We do not want to hurt you. We only want to help the humans, if you will help us,” he said.
“It is a long story. But we have traveled across the galaxies for your medical expertise and…” He did not finish his sentence. Suddenly, he toppled over onto his side into the grass.
"My king!” The two other weredragons were at his side in a flash. I didn't even see the move. I realized that they moved so fast that you couldn't see anything but a haze. What were these things?
“What is wrong with him?” I asked, taking a step forward but still cautious.
“It is a sickness making him weak. We don't know what it is. It has spread among us. Our king started showing symptoms yesterday. That is why we have come. We seek the medical expertise of the humans. The knowledge of humans is known to be advanced, and we hope that medical experts can help him,” he said.
“I am a medical expert. I am a doctor,” I said as I walked over to them. I was still scared of them, but my need to take care of others was kicking in. I was a doctor, after all, and this alien shifter needed my help. I got on my knees beside him and began to do some basic checks. I was checking his heart rate, pulse, and temperature.
“We are dragons. We are always hot. It is the normal state of us,” one of the weredragons said.
“Well, that makes things difficult, doesn't it? I treat humans. I know what is normal for a human, not an alien. I can't help him out here. We need to get him to my lab,” I said.
“I am fine,” the king said as he sat up. He suddenly had more energy. I was confused by this.
“This is what the sickness looks like. It only comes in waves,” the weredragon with the silver hair said.
“Thank you, Azlo,” the king said looking at him. I guessed that was the name of this alien shifter with the silver hair and stark blue eyes that looked like ice.
The king got to his feet quickly. I was still on my knees as he rose to his tall height. He was even more impressive from down on the ground. He towered over me. Then he extended a hand out to me. I placed my hand in his. It was very hot. He helped me up to my feet. I was only inches away from his strong chest. I was in awe of him.
“Okay. I need a minute to gather my thoughts. This is all very strange to me. I don't know what to think of this. I would think that I was dreaming. This can't be real,” I said, pacing back and forth in the forested area of the Haven Brook Village.
“King Karik Korinth, but you can call me Karik,” he said with a bright white smile.
“Well, I definitely wasn't going to call you king,” I said with a sassy tone that left me shocked that I had said it in the first place. These dragons could snap me in two in a second, and I was being sassy?
“We chose you as we moved over the wall into the village and saw you alone. We did not want to cause alarm by appearing to a large group of humans. We wanted to explain that we come in peace and seek your help before a group of humans found us to be intimidating and violent without giving us a chance. That is what we mean by we chose you, human, alone. We would like the chance to explain to you and then perhaps you can explain to the other humans for us,” he said.
“Yes, of course, it would be. It makes sense. But it seems that we have found some luck. You said that you are medical. You are a doctor?” he asked.
“Yes, I am. But I don't know how much help I can be. I am a doctor for humans. I know nothing of your race. How do I know if something is wrong with you if I don't know what normal looks like for you? You kind of need that base in order to figure out an illness,” I said.
I looked into his light brown eyes, and for a second I thought I saw a moment of vulnerability. There was sadness there. I had just told him that his situation was hopeless. I regretted it.
“But, I can get you into my lab and run some tests. Then I can go from there. Who knows? I might see something that could be the key to all of it,” I said.
“We would be very grateful to you, human. We cannot live without our king. If he were to succumb to this illness, our entire race would perish,” the dragon with the platinum blond hair and green eyes said.
“Jex!” the king snapped at him. I guess he had told me more information than the king wanted me to know.
“I don't know how to get you into the lab without the entire village seeing you. They will go into a panic. They do not like the unknown. We are a group of untrusting humans. There is too much at stake for us. How do we know that you are not in alliance with our enemy? This could be a trick,” I said suddenly feeling suspicious. I was letting the attractive and vulnerable nature of these dragon men put me off my guard. I was not thinking clearly. I was not thinking defensively.
“We know about your enemy the Clenok Clenok cyborgs. That is what we offer in exchange for your help and for acceptance of the humans in your village,” Karik said.
“We will help you fight the Clenok Clenok cyborgs in exchange for your medical help. We want and need your medical knowledge, and that knowledge can't be ours if you are dead. If the Clenok cyborgs kill the humans, then we are also out of luck,” he said.
“Loyalty and honor!” the other two weredragons said in unison as though they were saluting an army officer.
“We took out a cyborg repair facility one hundred and fifty miles away from here. That should take some of the pressure off of this village for a while,” he said.
“You did what?” I said in shock. Humans have never had success in going after a repair facility of the Clenok cyborgs. Any attempt at doing so was left in defeat. The human army never returned. It was something that we never tried again even though we knew it was exactly what was needed if we were to ever defeat the cyborg armies.
“Just the three of you? You want to defeat all of the Clenok Clenok cyborgs out there on Earth?” I said raising an eyebrow.
“army? You have an army?” I said looking around in the sky and in the trees.
“Where is this fabulous army?” I said crossing my arms over my chest.
“Vanessa…” he said in a deep husky whisper, repeating my name. I don't know why, but as soon as his voice hit my ears, I felt fire in my loins. Shit.