Dorian
I laid with many women in my youth, but this human, this Harley, she was different. She was beautiful, captivating, and full of life. There was a part of me that was drawn to her, as if my journey through the stars was always meant to end here. I felt the guiding hand of fate upon me as I looked down at her sleeping form.
I had almost fallen asleep beside her. I couldn’t allow that to happen, though. She had saved me. I believed her when she said we were being hunted. I had to keep watch, but it was hard to protect her when I did know what threat we faced. As I turned to face the window, the door to our room exploded open. Shards of wood sailed through the air as four heavily armored humans rushed inside.
I charged toward them, but their weapons were faster than me. A ball of blue light shot out from one of their contraptions. The impact made me lose control of my limbs and I fell to the ground in a heap. I felt control coming back, but the armored humans surrounded me before I could resist. They picked me up by my arms and held me on my shaking legs.
A woman walked inside as Harley hurriedly put her clothes back on. The woman had pale skin and hair black as night. Her eyes were a cold gray as she looked at me with contempt.
“It seems we’re just in time,” she said, “give him the clothes.”
One of the humans dropped a clear bag with some sort of clothing inside.
“Put those on, we don’t have much time,” the woman said.
“Who are you and what do you want?” I asked.
“Dorian, what’s happening to me?” Harley screamed.
I turned away from the humans and saw Harley standing in the corner. Tiny specks of color were breaking off of her like grains of sand. They floated upward like a reserve rain. She seemed to be crumbling like an ancient statue.
“What have you done to her?” I asked the woman.
“I didn’t do anything, it’s what you haven’t done yet that’s causing the problem.”
“Dorian!”
I had enough feeling in my legs and arms to move. I pushed through the humans and ran to Harley’s side. I reached out to her, but my hands passed right through her body. She broke apart, and disintegrated into dust before me until nothing remained but her voice that still echoed in the air like a memory.
I turned back around and saw the woman staring back at me with a stoic expression on her face.
“Start talking or I’ll kill you where you stand!” I shouted.
“Look Dorian, this little alien abduction romance of yours is over. If you come with us, I’ll explain everything,” she said.
“No, you tell me now!”
“We don’t have time, Dorian! You want to save her? You have to come with us now!”
I begrudgingly walked over and took the clothing out of the bag they provided. They were strange garments, similar to the ones that Harley had been wearing. When I was dressed we walked outside into a pitch black night. Only the strange lights built by humans illuminated the area around us. The night sky was blank, devoid of a moon or stars.
“Is there not a moon in the sky of this world? I saw it when we first arrived,” I said.
The woman nodded. “Yes, there was one.”
“What happened to it?” I asked.
“They devoured it.”
My entire body froze.
“They’re here?”
“Yes, and we don’t have much time, so you need to come with us now.”
The woman led me to another machine like the one Harley had put me in when I first arrived on Earth.
“I can fly much faster than your machine that travels along the ground,” I said.
The woman opened her mouth to say something when one of the armored humans appeared. He lifted the visor of his black helmet and I saw his face for a brief moment.
“Ma’am, I’m reading movement all around us. We may need his help,” he said.
The woman sighed.
“Well, maybe you’re alpha male attitude will come in handy, Dorian. You’re familiar with the Old Ones, yes?”
I nodded.
“Good, well the ones you’ve seen are just a fraction of the monstrosities they have at their disposal. Good news is that your dragon’s fireworks on all of them. We’re going to drive, and you’re going to follow us. Keep us safe until we arrive and I promise you’ll see your Harley again.”
“Why are you helping me?” I asked.
Because Dorian, if you don’t do this, we all die. I’ve seen it more times than I care to count. Just make sure we make it there alive. Oh, and give me those clothes before you shift. No sense in ruining perfectly good designer clothing.”
I undressed and they climbed into their machine .As I transformed into my dragon form, I heard the Old Ones coming from all sides. I heard their hushed whispers floating through the air like oil in water.
My vision as a dragon was impeccable. My eyes cut through the darkness and I saw their shadowy forms closing in on us. The human’s machine of travel moved off and I flew into the air. As I soared above it, I saw the Old Ones climbing onto the road ahead of them. With a single push from my wings, I shot forward past them. I opened my mouth and sprayed liquid fire through the air. The burning light cut through the ones in the road just as the human vehicle passed through them.
I flew up higher to scout ahead. That was when I saw flying Old Ones for the first time. They were twisted dragons with tattered wings and a long neck that ended in a massive circular mouth filled with hundreds of teeth. They ignored my presence and flew down toward the moving vehicle.
I gave chase. One of them landed on the roof and dug its claws into the metal with a loud screech. I flew over it and bit down hard on its neck as I passed. It lost its grip and struggled to break free as I flew upward into the sky. I released it from my jaws just as I painted it with fire. The crumbling creature fell through the air like burning paper and dissipated into nothing.
Two more came from either side and ambushed me. They latched their claws into my sides and dug their teeth into my flesh. Down below I saw the vehicle approaching its destination.
I closed my eyes and focused all of my energy inward. I felt pure light building inside of me. When it reached a breaking point, I saw Harley’s face as I unleashed the full extent of my power. The fire came out through the cracks in my skin and blasted outward in all directions at once.
The creatures were burned into dust and I was free to land as the humans climbed out of their machine. I landed and shifted back into my human form. The woman threw the clothes back to me and I dressed myself.
“Not bad, but we’re not out of the woods yet,” she said.
The very air surrounding us started to pull upward. I turned my head to the sky and saw the mouth of a World Eater breaking descending toward us. The light that show upward into the sky from the human’s lamps curved as it was devoured by the black hole above.
“Follow me!” the woman shouted.
One of the humans pulled out what looked like a metal staff. The top of it opened and we were suddenly enveloped in blue light. A dome above us seemed to protect from the World Eater’s pull.
The vehicle that had taken the humans here shot up into the air beside us. The ground beneath started to crumbled. We moved beneath the blue dome and into a massive building. It was breaking apart around us. The roof tore off and ascended into the sky as we entered. We sprinted across the open area and into another contraption. The room we stood in started moving down, no doubt protected by the blue dome’s influence.
“Dorian, listen to me, you have to save her!” the woman shouted.
“How?”
“They went back and killed her. Without her, the World Eaters succeed. If you save her, you’ll change everything. You’ll save us all.”
The moving room stopped and we moved out into a room with a massive metal circle. Colored wires ran into it, wrapping around the structure like snakes. The woman broke free of the blue dome and pressed several buttons on a metal box beside it.
“This is how it always happens Dorian, now it’s up to you!”
The metal circle filled with darkness.
“Go through Dorian, save her!”
Even underground, the space above us tore open. The blue dome faltered and I watched the humans and the woman ripped upward into the World Eater’s gaping maw. I ran forward as I felt its influence bearing down on me. I dove through the darkness.
I came out on the other side and found myself standing in a dark room. My entire body was glowing with a strange light. I looked to my right and saw a young girl in her bed. She had the sheets pulled up over her face, but I recognized her.
It was Harley, but she was just a child. I looked over and saw an Old One looming over her bed. I didn’t hesitate, I charged forward and took whatever hold I could on its shifting form. We stumbled backward through another portal. A terrible force all around me pulled in every direction. My body was being ripped apart. The pain was so great that I lost control. The light built up within me again until it was at a breaking point.
I exploded with the force of a dying star and pushed back the darkness around me. When I opened my eyes again, I was in my dragon from, floating in the ocean of stars. Around me, the body of a World Eater was crumbling. Had I destroyed it from the inside?
Around me I saw other World Eaters crumbling apart. Their infinite bodies stretched into the distance but even they were slowly dissipating. I was barely conscious, but I had enough energy to smile as I fell into a deep slumber. I don’t know how long I drifted through the stars, but I felt my strength coming back.
More importantly, I knew I had saved her. With her past-self safe and the World Eaters destroyed for now, Earth would be safe. I crashed after an endless amount of time. I slowly opened my eyes and found myself lying in the sand of a vast desert. The light from the star above was channeling energy into me.
A woman stood over me with a concerned expression on her face.
“Harley?” I asked.
Her eyes went wide.
“You know who I am?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Okay, wait right there, let me get you something to cover yourself with!”
She ran off to get the same blankets she had used last time I awoke on this planet. I did not know if the events would repeat as they had before, or if my influence changed the course of time.
Whatever happened, one thing was certain: we would be together.