Page 4 of Orange Lake
My answer does not convince them. Even me.
“I tried to concentrate on moving my limbs like what most survivors tell us. Since I can feel my tail moving, I felt positive I can move the rest of my body. I was able to wrap my tail around Brin’s arm and urged him to move under the table and made him stay there. I knew the raiders were coming.”
“You were the only one who can move? No others?” Jigen had that researcher glint in his eye. Maybe he can help on how we can defeat the Shura.
I looked briefly at Roqs who shrugged. He was not able to move at all.
“I felt small nits crawling up first on the soles of my feet until it reached my legs all the way to my head. It was a slow process but not excruciating. It might have been less than 10 minutes when the raiders arrived. It was Kilo, Nialla, Nax, Roan,” my voice trailed off.
“You got the top males to grace your presence,” Crix teased to break some tension. Roan comes from the same tribe as Volks. Volks remained silent and stoic. At one time, they were very close, almost like mates. Like me and Roqs.
“I killed Nax.”
“Good riddance to him then,” Jigen said.
“The others were wounded. I am not sure if I killed Nialla though. Kilo took him away when I shot him twice.”
“Yeah,” Roqs snorted. “They were having sex beside you. Nialla’s got the hots for you Zirc. If you are not careful, he will make you his slave.” His voice got deeper towards the end. He was a possessive lover. He will not show he is jealous but he finds creative ways to discourage other males who are interested in me.
And we all know about slaves kept by the gangs is a hard life for a manasty. Still, from the stories they heard, you would not wish for your enemy to be Nialla’s slave.
I shudder internally. “I do not want anything of him to touch me. It was a good thing because I can already move by then. So I took my chance and fired at Nialla twice. Of course, that is when alltalphallbreaks loose. Kilo took away Nialla but I cannot follow him because more raiders came in. Plus there was Roan and Nax. Nax I managed to kill but it was difficult to fight Roan when more raiders came in.”
I saw the disappointment in Volks’ eyes knowing that Roan was not honorable enough to let them fight one on one instead of one against many. It is dishonorable and frowned upon. I will tell Volks later that in the end, Roan killed some of the raiders because he wanted to fight me one on one. Though he did not ask of Volks, I felt as a warrior that he finds it hard to kill me. He knew of my association with Volks. So I left him with an ax on his shoulder.
“When it looked like other raiders were in chaos outside seeing Nialla hurt, I used that to grab Roqs and Brin and we left the area.”
“You used your special sals,” Jigen queried though he said it as if it was a given.
I nodded. “It was a horde led by Kilo. Very few lived to tell what happens when their horde attacks.”
“Yet he is only number 3 in the horde ranking,” Crix said.
“Who’s keeping count?” Jigen asked, irritated. “Why does the council insist on putting them in a ranking order? If it was me, I would rank them all the same as they are all monsters of our race. Why would we want to enslave others when we fought hard before to drive away the alien forces who invaded us?”
“True,” I concurred. “We had to use our special sals otherwise they would have caught up to us.”
“They have a winox,” Roqs offered. Volks raised an eye to that.
“Yes, my tribe can be corrupted,” Crix said sourly. The whole planet knows, the only one who can manufacture winox are the Purple tribe. They are situated in an area with lots of natural minerals. As if the gods handed it to them on a golden platter.
“But I want to know how you were able to unfreeze yourself from the Shura,” Jigen said and Roqs nodded his head. They are two of the most inquisitive and scientific minds I’ve met. More than Crix, Volks and the scientists the Council of Tribes has under their payroll. Unfortunately, I am not gifted much with their talents.
“Would you agree to some body scans?” Jigen asked delicately.
I stiffened. Though in my mind, my first thought was that of Brin. Can I subject her to that kind of treatment? The facilities here can be non-invasive. It should not harm her in any way. To us, doing body scans is a blow to our pride. It means something is wrong with us. The gravity of the situation does not escape me.
I nodded to Jigen. He was only mildly surprised unlike Crix who has his mouth open.
“I know what you will ask,” I said to Jigen. “You can also scan Brin. And also Roqs.”
Roqs grumbled a little. But he too knew that it needed to be done.
“I was thinking of putting you and Brin together for a body scan,” Jigen said. He, most likely the rest of them, knew that something was wrong with me when I was with Brin. I do not act too attached to someone I barely knew for less than a year. Even with Roqs. My actions do not even match those of a mated Manasty. It was probably worse.
I nodded again. This time, they all seemed to relax a bit.Including Roqs. I can sense the concern pouring out of him.
“We need to inform the Council of the incident,” Crix said.
