Chapter 1—Indiku
(Sena)
Three years later
Bright—so bright my eyes stung as I looked up at the sky. My skin warmed under the double suns’ rays, sweat rolling down into my clothes, making them stick to my hot flesh. Of the two rotating stars, Oliris was by far the biggest, attempting to burn my body for a majority of sixteen hours. Indiku wasn’t like Earth. Its sun, Oliris, rises first from the west, then Bizi—a younger star that was far from the size and power of its brother—joins it in the sky. They then heat the planet together for a five-hour period, the combined efforts of the two stars keeping the massive planet warm.
In the three years I had been here, I’d come to enjoy this planet. Its extremes were a lot like my personality, which was comforting—in a strange way. It didn’t matter that my hands had been bloodied countless times while working in the flower fields. I had found a little peace on this planet; with the same routine every day, I lost myself in the mundane lifestyle. I harvested the healing flowers with the other inmates and kept my head down.
I ran my sweat-drenched hand over the white petals of the nearest flower, the strange petal absorbing the liquid. The leeri flowers towered three and four feet high, with thick green stalks that were at least comparable to a soda can in girth. The petals of each flower matched the size of my head and at times had been larger. They were the most precious item on this planet and the sole reason every prisoner was here. I swiped my hand over my forehead and into my black hair, pushing the sweat back into my hairline. There was too much damn sun on this planet.
“Rays!” The deep, inhuman rumble of the Indiku native made me look up. His face was gray, covered in skin similar to what Earth’s elephants looked like. A toothy grin was plastered on his rough visage, his bald head and large pointed ears all adding to a monstrous effect. He pointed to the northern mountains. Following his direction, I looked into the distance. Above the large, snow-peaked mountains, a massive beast circled. Its wings were splayed wide, and it arched and twirled in powerful swoops. Flames burst from its maw, and it danced in the sky, flying through its rain of fire.
I watched, entranced by the amazing display. The natives called them zanzi. To a human, it was like seeing a dragon emerge from old Earth myths. They didn’t come out often—keeping to the far side of the planet, away from civilization—but every so often, they would play above the mountains like they were doing in that moment, arcing over the mountain tops to swirl in the sky while breathing fire. Every time I saw them, my heart would race, and my eyes would track the amazing sight across the sky until I couldn’t see them anymore.
Edik, the Indiku native who supervised our sector, knew the joy the simple sight brought me. Whenever he saw them, he would go off of his path to point them out. The Indiku natives were quiet by nature; they seldom talked, only grunting responses as they worked with the harvest. For him to point it out for me was odd. My bicep tensed, and I remembered a time when I had seen a native become vicious. They may be quiet, but they were deadly when they were angry.
Just as suddenly as the zanzi had appeared, it swirled in the sky one more time, before disappearing into the mountain line again. Chills ran down my arms and back as I absorbed the rush of emotions that washed over me. It ended abruptly, my hands tightening on the shovel’s handle. It would be months before I’d catch another glimpse. My gaze swept over the empty skyline for a long moment, hoping I would catch another second of the beast. Edik’s snort broke me away. I looked at the native, smiling lightly.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You seem at peace when you watch them,” the large native grumbled in his deep baritone.
“You don’t owe me peace, Edik.”
“Everything should know peace,” the native said, gazing out toward the mountains, a wistful expression settling over his rough features. “It’s whether it’s accepted or fought that decides the outcome.” He turned back to the fields, raising the hoe in a large arc to reap the soil. I sighed roughly and returned to the flowers, planting the seeds into the tilled Earth. In the remaining hours of work, I only looked at the mountain range every so often, hoping for one more slice of peace.
My hands were buried in the soil when Bizi finally went down for the day. Standing, I wiped my hands on the rough jeans I wore and watched as the other three hundred or so men started to move from the distant fields back toward the tree line. The thirty natives that watched over us also followed, everyone keeping to the small paths between the flowers, not wanting to test the wrath of Edik if caught stepping on a precious flora.
Exhausted, I moved toward the massive trees that towered hundreds of stories above us. When I had first seen the massive things, I’d been struck with amazement by their sheer size, astounded something natural could be so huge. Then I had seen the natives and realized that everything on Indiku was bigger than on Earth. Standing in the fading light, the group began to gather, putting our tools away in the designated sheds. Edik stood up toward the front and gave out a large bellow, the final call for the night.
Once everyone was assembled, Edik turned into the forest, leading the way back to our settlement. In the last three years, I had become accustomed to the two-mile walk and all the bitching and moaning the men would make during it.
“Hey, Rays,” Seth called out as he jogged up beside me.
“Hey,” I replied. Seth was an older man that I’d become friends with six months into my sentence. He was funny and always able to make everyone around him laugh. He was the only person I’d befriended in the three years I’d been here, but even our friendship was minimal. With a bunch of criminals for company, I wasn’t quick to trust any of them, even a kind-faced one.
“You got to see the zanzi. That must have made your day,” Seth prattled.
I shrugged. “It definitely set today apart from a normal day.”
“Don’t play it off. I know you like seeing the big lizards,” he said, chuckling.
“They are amazing—”
“Did you see that fucking thing today?” a man shouted from in front of me.
“Holy shit, yeah, man. It was huge even in the distance. What do you think a skin like that would go for?” Tiem, a human that had been here a few months longer than me, replied with an amused chuckle.
“At least eighty thousand vec,” another man laughed.
Another man chimed in, “Bet you’d be rich in a month selling those beasts.”
“The trick would be shooting it out of the sky without damaging its worth,” Tiem added with another amused grin. He mimed holding a gun and shooting something out of the air as the other men chuckled.
“You’d piss yourself before you even got a shot off,” Seth shouted above the laughter.
Tiem stopped and looked at Seth over his shoulder, his ugly face pulling into a sneer. “What did you say, old man?” he said while approaching.
“I said you’d piss your damn pants, you ugly pot-faced bastard.”
“Say that to my face, old fuck,” Tiem growled, rushing toward Seth.
I stepped in front of Seth, blocking Tiem’s path to the older man. “Turn around and fuck off,” I advised, staring the smaller man down.
“Move fucker.” Tiem narrowed his eyes.
“I’m not moving. Either you turn around or I put you on your ass.”
He took a swing, his fist coming toward my face. I put my hand up and caught his fist in a hard grip, crushing his thumb under his other fingers. He shouted in pain.
I pulled my other fist back to land a blow, curling my fingers tight, my knuckles cracking with the force. My arm was wrenched back, a beefy grasp caging my wrist before I could land the blow. Sharp pain in my wrist as the native held my arm back. I looked at Edik as he held me back, his rough face holding a passive expression.
“Let him go, Rays,” Edik rumbled.
I released Tiem, and he fell clutching his broken hand, his face red and puffy as he breathed through the pain. I would have been lying if I’d said I didn’t enjoy watching the shit suffer. Tiem got off the ground, his eyes narrowed and mouth drawn into a thin pale line of rage. “You better watch your back.”
“Keep moving,” Edik shouted. He dropped my wrist stepping around me. “If I need to intervene again, I will remove the one that I deem responsible. Now walk,” Edik rumbled, walking ahead toward the lodges. Everyone began to walk again, keeping their eyes straight forward as we plodded along.
“Thanks, man,” Seth said. “Sorry I started shit, but that asshole was running his mouth.”
“Don’t worry about it. I wanted an excuse to punch the asshole.”
“Still, I don’t want anyone to fuck with you because of me,” Seth said regretfully.
“Don’t worry about it. I can take care of myself.”
We made it back to the cottages twenty minutes later. Everyone began bathing in the nearby river, stripping off their clothes and washing skin and material at the same time. This was the normal evening ritual, and it was crucial to get it done before it got too cold out. With very little light remaining, our time was limited to get clean and dry without freezing.
“Fuck it’s cold,” Seth cursed, already stripped and in waist deep. I removed my shirt and shoes before I walked to the water’s edge, submerging my body in the cool stream, and then my clothes. It was cold, but it felt good against my hot skin after a long day’s work. As I took off the remainder of my garments, Edik walked up to the brook, looking down at me with a pensive stare. I ignored the male, continuing my task.
“Hey, man, you want to—” Seth stopped when he saw Edik. “I’ll talk to you later,” he said, getting out of the water and following the others to the cottages.
I continued to wash my body as the natives stood and watched me with a calculating gaze. “You will not fight again. I do not want to make an example of you,” he said sternly, as if he was scolding a child.
“Why do you care?” I was genuinely curious. It wasn’t that we had a particularly close relationship; besides pointing out the zanzi, we rarely spoke.
“You are different than the others.”
“That’s not always a good thing,” I said with a smirk.
The native grunted, but didn’t argue. “The zanzi are closer than I have ever seen them,” Edik rumbled out of the blue. I looked up at him in the dying light curiously. What had brought this up?
“So?” I turned back to the water, rubbing some over my chest and face.
“They don’t come this far out without a reason,” he commented with an absent nod.
“They don’t seem any closer than the other times I’ve seen them,” I said without looking up, cleaning the last of the dirt from my pants. Why was he talking to me about this?
Edik shrugged, the motion pulling at the brown shirt he wore. “They are closer. Something has them restless.”
Pushing my naked frame out of the stream, I wrung the last of the water from my garments. Why would Edik care if the zanzi were getting closer? Sneaking a glance at the large alien, I was surprised to see how tense his massive form seemed. His usually relaxed pointed ears pressed flat to the sides of his bare skull. Standing fully, I put my clothes over my shoulder and crossed my arms while facing him, unconcerned with my nudity. “Do you fear them?” I asked curiously. The natives had never seemed fearful of the zanzi, but right now, Edik had a fear about him.
“No,” he paused, as if thinking of the best human word to describe it. “I respect them.” I waited for him to explain but he didn’t. The large native turned his back to me, walking off to his cottage two hundred feet away, completely abandoning the conversation. I was confused by the whole exchange. We barely even saw the zanzi, but now he was agitated by them coming to close? Grabbing my shoes and clothes, I walked toward my assigned cottage. It was getting cold out. I was setting my hopes on seeing one of the zanzis again. The thing would eat me before I even got a glimpse of its scales.
Walking into the cottage, I was relieved to feel the warm air when I opened the door. The other men I shared the space with didn’t look at me as I entered. Inside, there were bunks for each man stacked around the large rooms, able to hold fifty men in each house. It was a simple structure, no kitchen or laundry room. A fireplace in each room was the only amenity we received. Not that I minded; during the Indiku nights, that fireplace was the only reason we didn’t freeze.
At my bunk, I sank down into the rough mattress and slipped on a pair of boxers before lying back and covering up with the thick blanket on my bed. The other men groaned, bitching about the cold already seeping into the large structure. I didn’t complain. I didn’t mind the Indiku nights. They were better than some of the situations I’d lived through.
The first time I’d lain in my bunk, it had reminded me of being back in juvie, the same hard lumps of a useless pallet making sleep impossible. Rhyan had been the only reason I’d been able to get any decent sleep back then. We would lie against each other as much as physically possible to avoid the worst of our mattress. It gave me a great excuse to press as close as I could to him.
“Hey, Rays. What was with Edik?” Seth asked from the top bunk.
“Not sure.” I thought about the conversation again. “He was talking about the zanzi.”
“What about them?”
“They are getting closer. He was probably just thinking out loud.”
“Still strange.”
It was strange. It was so rare for the natives to talk to us and for Edik to bring up the zanzi was even more abnormal. My eyes caught on the fireplace across the room roaring with healthy light. The flames moved back and forth, popping every so often. The bright orange reminded me of the zanzi earlier today playing in the flames created in the sky. Like always, the thought of the vivid creatures brought a smile to my lips and an inner peace. Rhyan would enjoy watching them as much as I did. My eyes slid closed as the thoughts of flying came to mind and before long, I was asleep.
The sound of loud pounding woke me. I knew—it was too early to be awake, if the groans of protest from the other men weren’t enough to tell me. The cottage door burst open as one of the large natives stood there, face pulled up into irritated lines, blunt teeth bared. I leaned up, resting my arms on my drawn-up knees, already despising the tense atmosphere building in the small space.
“Noises. Might be pitki,” the guard rumbled, leaving us to follow him out. A rough sigh escaped me as I rubbed an irritated hand through my short black hair. I hated those little fucking creatures so much, and in the last three years, I’d had to deal with them so many times I’d lost count.
“Fuck my life,” Seth groaned from the top bunk. “I hate those fucking rat monkeys.”
Pitki were a rough bunch of critters that enjoyed nothing more than eating the leeri flowers, and while I didn’t mind that they ate the shit out of those stupid flowers, it was our job to keep vermin from destroying the crops. To make shit worse, they always came in the middle of the fucking night. I growled as I threw my blanket off and pulled on some clothes, as well as a jacket to protect me from the cold.
The men and I shuffled out of the cottage. The cold hit me with a sharp blast to the face, stinging my skin. It was hard to understand that it could get so cold and yet never snow. All the men gathered in the center of the camp, most shivering like pitiful children while the natives acted as if they weren’t bothered by the climate in the least. Edik stood up in the front of the group, getting our attention with his usual loud bark. “The pitki are on the move. If you are new, follow what everyone else does and protect the leeri flowers. Kill as many as you can.”
We all moved toward the leeri fields. Seth walked beside me, shivering pitifully in his sweater. “I fucking hate it when this happens,” he chattered out.
“I figured you’d enjoy killing small animals,” I joked, watching the older man rub his hands together.
“Oh that’s fine; it’s the cold that sucks balls,” he retorted.
“You’re fucked up,” I said with a chuckle.
The leeri fields came into view, the bright shine of the iridescent white flowers lighting up the area for miles. The first time I’d realized the flowers glowed at night, I had been momentarily captivated by the sight. I was still captivated by the beauty of the glowing blooms. Once all the men had gathered at the edge of the towering trees, the natives silenced us with growls and barks. Edik stood at the edge of the flowers, ears alert and out to the sides of his skull, trying to capture any sounds.
I could hear the deep breathing of all the men and the clatter of teeth from those suffering the cold. Through it all, I couldn’t hear a single sound in the night. I couldn’t hear the commotion that had stirred the natives, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. The natives were never wrong about the small beasts. The men and the few natives stood among the glowing leeri flowers, time passing by in slow seconds with nothing but the dead silence of night.
A thunderous crack sliced through the air, making us all jump. “What the fuck was that!” Seth shouted. Others shouted, everyone looking up into the trees for the source. The sound of branches snapping and loud screeching split the air, defiling the silence that we had been standing in. The pitki cries were something between a monkey’s screech and a cat’s yowl but more disturbing. With the wailing coming toward us through the trees, the number of vermin had to be in the thousands—more than every time before.
Edik barked over the growing sound, telling us to spread out and take a position in front of the leeri fields. Everyone grabbed tools from the sheds and we spread out in a line facing the woods, waiting for the swarm to emerge from the forest. The natives growled as the wailing increased into an ear-splitting crescendo. This was louder than anytime before, since the vermin didn’t usually make so much noise before they emerged. My gut cramped with a feeling of foreboding. Something wasn’t right.
“Seth, there’s something—!” My voice was drowned out as the first pitki appeared in the trees. I didn’t have time to warn him before they were on us, jumping from the trees and rushing from the woods like a tidal wave of fur.
I didn’t hesitate and grabbed the first one I could, breaking its neck and moved to the next. The men around me shouted and killed in a similar fashion, some batting at the creatures with their hoes. The natives were ripping the small creatures apart with their teeth. Blood was spilling all over the blue flowers, turning the iridescent field almost black under the blue moonlight. I barked out painfully as claws dug into my skin and scratched across my face, each little vermin jumping on me and off me faster than I could catch them.
I continued to grab, kill, bat, and throw them while their teeth and claws dug into my flesh. Minutes in, and we were surrounded by little dead carcasses, far higher than the normal amount of kills, and yet the hoard had moved on in an uncommon rush. I turned, watching as the last of them scattered past the bloodstained leeri flowers and into the woods at the far side of the south field. I stood frozen ‘til every last tail was out of sight and just the men and natives were all that remained. Why hadn’t they tried to eat the flowers? I looked around, the earlier concern rising in my chest with a vengeance. Could they have been…?
Edik was staring after the creatures with similar confusion etched on his face, his ears plastered to the sides of his skull with agitation. I stepped forward to confront him.
A roar split the valley, more booming than all of the pitki cries doubled. The men screamed in panic, the natives barked in fear. I stopped breathing while my heart galloped against breastbone. There was no fucking way!
The air rushed around me, a gust so strong it threw me to the ground, my head smacking the soft soil with a brutal thud. I palmed the dirt as my eyes cracked open. My head throbbed painfully as I looked up into the sky. My heart stopped and I choked on a raw wheeze.
A zanzi hovered above us, descending to the ground, its wings thrashing wildly as it got closer to the leeri field. The beast let out another cry that split my eardrums, making me groan. My heart had started back up, echoing a painful staccato in my skull. We were so fucked.
“Seth!” I called out, pulling my body up to a sitting position. The zanzi’s large wings stretched out through its descent—the wings’ expanse wide enough to amount to a small air shuttle—foraging larger and larger gusts of wind down on the field, forcing me to the stay close to the ground or be thrown back.
“Stay where you are,” Edik barked out to us all. I took his advice and stilled my attempts to stand, my palms digging into the soft soil for purchase.
After another burst from the large creature, it landed at the edge of the field with an audible thud. The ground shook beneath me, a quake that resonated to my core. Breathing erratically, I watched the creature in the blue light of Niptik—Indiku’s moon. It was blue—not because of the moon’s light—but because its scales were a shade of cerulean that was only ever seen in precious gemstones. Soft hair ran from the top of its angular head and down its neck to the base of its wings in light waves, like an equine’s would. There were no spikes or sharp edges on the creature, only a set of ivory horns on the top of its head identifying it as a dragon. The creature’s appearance was much softer than I had expected and it looked approachable if not for its size. It was beautiful.
Why was it here? As far as I knew, they never came this far south. Edik had told me earlier that they were coming closer, but this, this was right on us. I broke my gaze on the creature to look for Edik and the other natives. They had all gained their footing only to drop to one knee, heads bowed as low as their massive bodies would allow. It was the most submissive position I had ever seen any native take. It bothered me. I saw Seth about a hundred feet from me, laying low to the ground, his eyes wide as he looked up at the zanzi. The other men were scattered across the field, some thrown as far as the tree line sixty yards away; others were belly down in the grass, not brave enough to move. They adhered to Edik’s warning and stayed as still as possible, probably afraid that the large creature would begin a massacre in the open area. It wasn’t like anyone wanted to be eaten by a giant-flying-alien-lizard.
“Se gra du’sua etpeka zanzi,” Edik barked out in his native tongue to the beast, never lifting his head as he spoke.
Was Edik as confused as the rest of us? I peeked up, glimpsing again at the creature in the low blue light of night. It had shimmering scales that looked almost feather-like in some places. A long sculpted face formed into a graceful muzzle, large expressive eyes with a tight brow, making for an all-around appealing look. It was as if so many creatures from Earth mixed together to make the one that towered before us.
Its blue eyes shifted, catching mine before I could lower them. Unwilling to move from my half-crouched position, our gazes locked. Those cerulean irises swirled with light, never blinking during our exchange. My belly started to get warm and my heart beat even faster in my chest. I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to look away…or get away. I wanted nothing but to get closer and closer. Dazed, I couldn’t remember what was going on. Why was I there? Why was I so far away? I wanted to get closer. I needed to get closer. It was so beautiful. I needed to touch its shimmering scales. I rose to my full height, the flowers being crushed beneath my boots.
“Rays, get down!” Seth’s voice was drowned out as I took a steady step toward the creature. I didn’t react to the loud shouts of protest—although I could hear them—or the hand that gripped my wrist when I passed. I snarled at the man who had grabbed me, his grip releasing me as I pulled my hand back. I continued toward the zanzi, who still watched me with unblinking eyes. Everything fell away as I stopped, only a few feet remaining between us. It ignored everyone, looking down at me from a good ten feet above, blue eyes peering down at me inquisitively. We just stayed like that for a few moments, staring at each other in the blue hue of Indiku’s moons.
“Tao Oliris.” Its deep rumble was lyrical. A shiver passed down my spine as I continued to gape at the creature. Its mouth never moved. I didn’t understand, but I was more surprised than anything. It hadn’t spoken; the words had been a mute suggestion that passed deeper than my physical hearing. Somehow, it was speaking telepathically.
“Senana, move back!” Seth’s warned.
“You can speak,” I said surprised, ignoring everyone else.
“Nopsa otika noepu su petku no eske…” It began the slew of native words, all of them completely lost on me. I enjoyed the caress of the creature’s voice through my mind, its deep baritone soothing. Shaking my head, I stared back blankly.
“I don’t understand.”
Its head cocked as if it didn’t understand me, either.
Without warning, the beast leaned forward, bringing its head down. I huffed but otherwise stood my ground. Light blue eyes stared into mine from only inches away, the pupil a vertical slit that expanded and narrowed with my reflection mirroring back at me. I clenched my hands at my sides, trying to temper the urge to skim my fingertips over its shimmering scales. I wanted to touch the creature. I needed to touch it. I lifted my hand toward its muzzle but stopped short, the heat of its breath tickling my extended palm. Looking into its large luminescent orbs, I tried to find permission to continue. The zanzi chuffed, a large gust of breath escaping its nostrils, before it pushed its nose into my palm.
A jolt seared through my arm all the way to my heart. Gasping, my body seized as electric shocks attacked all of my senses: blood filled my cock, sharp needles pricked down my back and legs, a combination of intense pain and pleasure flooding me in an unbelievable tug of war. My heart raced as the electric sizzle of emotions tore through my body and mind, fear, sorrow, anger, guilt, happiness, jealousy, depression, every spectrum battled for my attention. A groan came from me, and my legs became unsteady as I grasped onto the zanzi’s head for balance. I wanted it to stop, and I wanted it to continue. I couldn’t decide if it was good or bad, but regardless, my hand dug into its scales, refusing to let go.
“What are you doing to him? Rays!” The barks of distress didn’t register through the full body spasm. Only the zanzi’s blue eyes broke through the seizure. They were so bright that my eyes watered as I looked into them. I didn’t want to look away, but I couldn’t find the energy to stay up any longer. Sighing, I fell to the ground in a boneless heap.