CHAPTER 4

The sound of the horns woke me from a dead sleep. I had been having the most wonderful dream, but upon waking I realized I could only remember bits and pieces of it. This was the first night in several nights that I had not dreamt about my home world or my own race, but this time I dreamt of the future that I wanted.

In the dream I was watching Tarin being led down the aisle by her father, King Joseph at our wedding. She looked more radiant than any woman I have ever laid eyes on. The music was enchanting, the decoration was wonderful, and the way I felt was indescribable.

I could not remember much else though. Everything I was able to recall was like a series of weird snapshots and I was standing off to the side just observing it all. I vaguely remembered that I had finally convinced her father to allow this wedding to happen and give us the blessing.

That was the most important thing; if the King did not approve of the wedding of his daughter then it would not happen. It was as simple as that. I knew that I was going to have to beg and plead for him to let this happen. I was not of noble birth. I was not a general, but I might be one day, though unlikely since I was not born of a family of generals. Everything was based on family. I was an orphan who had been taken in by a peasant family and then sent off to become an expendable soldier. But I had made peace with that. I would never have been able to make peace with being denied marriage to the woman I loved.

The horns were blaring louder now, cutting through the early morning sky. What was going on? My mind struggled to get awake and shake off the fog of sleep that surrounded me. This was not something that I usually experienced. I was typically a very light sleeper, but since the other night when Tarin and I were together and expressed our love in intimate physical detail I had noticed  myself acting and feeling more human.

But right now that would be a huge handicap.

I forced myself through the fuzzy haze and leaped out of the bed to my feet. I was dressed within a minute and headed out of my chambers down to the bottom level of the castle where I found everyone scurrying and panic stricken.

Lyle came bursting out of the kitchen. I had never seen him look so anxious.

“What is going on?” I shouted.

“It’s happening. The Other World is storming the castle.”

“What? Why attack the castle now?”

The Other World had attacked the castle before and been defeated by the king’s army, but not since I had been in service. Why would they all of a sudden stage an attack now? Their strategy had always been to take over as much of the country as they could and then slowly move on to the other weaker countries. Were they changing tactics?

“They came to us this morning and said they have demands,” the King said.

I had not heard him come in, but he was bouncing out of his office with his top intelligence officers.

“What demands?” I asked.

“They want us to give up or they will come in and kill everyone. Their numbers are larger than I ever remember reading about. I don’t know if we can win this battle,” the King said. He was very worried. I don’t believe I have ever seen the King look scared before, but he was scared right then.

“Daddy! What is going on?”

I looked up to see Tarin coming down the stairs. Reah was not far behind her.

“We have to go into hiding,” the King said. “We have to resort to the contingency plan and just hope that the Royal Army can defeat this group.”

I looked at Tarin and my heart broke in my chest. I could see the fear and the panic in her eyes. She had been told about this possibility her whole life, but she never really believed it could happen. I wanted to comfort her, hold her, and tell her how much I loved her and that I would not let a strand of her beautiful hair be harmed, but I couldn’t say it out loud. It was not the time.

I locked eyes with her and tried to communicate as telepathically I was able to. I knew that she could not read thoughts as a human, and I had lost the ability to really do this while I remained in human form, but I knew that I was getting through to her.

“We will be victorious!” I bellowed.

Lyle and I rushed out the door without a moment’s delay. The second the door closed behind me I was running hard. My feet were pounding the ground harder and swifter than I had allowed them to in quite some time. I lost Lyle almost immediately and after passing the inner gates and leaping over the moat and the open field beyond that I surpassed the troops that were already lining up to engage in battle.

I could see the Other World’s troops gathered at the end of the outer gate, ready, and hungry for battle. I was not sure what they were waiting for. They were just standing there. They caught the Kingdom off guard and could have been already causing some serious damage in our defense but still they waited.

I was out of sight of the King's Army now and I finally let my human-self slip away so that the real Cahn was now running towards the danger that I saw in front of me. I didn’t know what was going on, but I was not going to let them harm Tannin. She was off limits and I would do anything to protect her. I did not really care about the Kingdom itself. I was expendable to them and they were expendable to me.

“Brother!”

I stopped in my tracks as their leader spoke. What had he just said?

“That’s right,” he spoke again. He was speaking our old language that I had almost forgotten, but now that I was out of my human form it all came right back to me.

“Brother?” I asked in disbelief. Then I remembered. “Brax.”

“That’s right,” Brax said. “Wow, it’s been so long. You look great. Well, better since you shed your skin.”

“What is going on?” I asked.

"Well, we have been planning this for a while. We have infantry in place all over this ugly mudball planet. They are all ready to strike and take over at our signal. Once we destroy this kingdom the rest will fall easily enough. To resist at that point would be futile for them."

“I meant what is going on with us? Why was I sent here? Why were we split up? I thought you were all dead. Mom, dad—“

Brax laughed. “Yea, I know little brother. We had to do that for your own benefit so that everything would fall into place. But now all of that is over. We can reunite with our family, and with our kind. Our planet can be the driving force in the galaxy without any opposition. That was the plan all along.”

"So, you used me? Was I like bait? Why did you even need me?" I asked.

“Well, we needed the intel. We needed you to infiltrate these people and send the information back to us so that we could find out everything we could about the humans, their way of life, and especially the Kingdom. Every infrastructure has a weak link somewhere.”

“How did you get that information from me? I haven’t seen any of you since I left The Other World.”

“Your dreams my dear brother. It’s all in your dreams,” Brax laughed.

I stood there for several seconds looking at them. I had been used like a pawn. It was all so clear now. I was set up. I felt the anger rising up inside of me. They wanted me to help them now defeat the Kingdom. They expected me to rejoin them and betray the people of my new home.

I couldn’t do that to Tarin. I could not do that to her family or to her people. And now that I thought about it I wasn’t able to quiet my conscience enough to do it either. I had to make a stand and do the right thing. These people were innocents. They were just protecting their home. The Other World wanted to control the galaxy. They were the predators. And I would no longer ever associate with them. This had to end now.

I could hear the roar of the King’s army behind me as they ran across the drawbridge and began across the open field towards the outer gates.

I shook my head. “No,” I said to Brax. The look on his face I’ll never forget. The surprise, shock, and the anger all at once. “I won’t do this. It isn’t right.”

“Don’t forget who you really are, brother,” Brax growled.

“I know exactly who I am,” I replied as I shifted back to my human form. “I am Cahn.”