Heavy brown boots made out of tough beast's skin slid along the forest floor, leaving a terrifying trace of a warrior behind. Those who came across his tracks stayed away, recognizing the territory of a powerful individual.
Zylar stalked the prey with accuracy and patience. The white big beast, ten times bigger than him, could crush him in a minute if he made even a small mistake. Gripping his battle axe, he took a long leap, landing on his prey's back.
"Ahh!" Raising his weapon, he brought it down on the beast, tearing its skin and reaching its muscle. White blood, just like its fur color, sprouted out of the wound he had given. The creature shrieked in pain and started to thrash around. It tried to make him fall to the ground to no avail. Zylar used the grip of his axe to hold on before slightly shifting up. When he was near the back of its neck, his claws protruded, which he used to strike at the creature's weak point and draw blood.
Zylar dug his claws deeper into the beast, causing it to collapse to the ground. This was his chance, as a final blow, he once again brought down his axe, ending the creature's life. His rough breathing and adrenaline cooled down as he got down from his hunt.
'Boom.' As soon as he stepped down, Zylar heard a loud explosion not very far from the place he stood. The ground shook from the impact, and when he looked up, he could see smoke rising above the trees.
Zylar shook off the dripping blood on his axe before stepping towards the sound. Something inside him urged him to seek the mystery behind that smoke. And for the first time, he took his attention away from his hunt before starting to walk in that direction.
When he reached the source, he found a large dome-shaped object burning in flames. The thing looked bizarre and seemed to be made of a material he had never seen before.
Zylar grew curious and stepped forward, which made him stumble on something hard.
He glanced down and saw the same shiny material, but this was oval-shaped. It was barely away from the burning object.
A frown marred his face, and he kicked the object with his boot. And as soon as he did that, the thing made a sound and started to unfurl. Zylar moved back and raised his weapon; it seemed like the thing was alive. But just as quickly, the sound faded and the thing stopped moving.
Zylar didn't know what to make of this situation. He again went toward the object, but was taken aback by what he saw inside it. The creature lying in it was tiny and looked otherworldly. It looked nothing like the beasts he had seen till now. In his clan, he had been the one to venture far and beyond; he had seen many things, but nothing like this.
He crouched down to observe more. With his axe, he nudged the creature, which seemed to wake it up. Zylar held his breath as he saw the creature open its eyes.
Ver blinked her groggy eyes a few times to clear her vision. Her entire body ached, and she felt lethargic.
"Ugh," A groan left her throat as she propped herself up and took a deep breath. The memory of her getting taken away in a spaceship and that holy leader turning into an insect alien hit her like a truck. She looked around in urgency and froze when she saw someone.
Maybe saying 'something' was the more appropriate thing. In front of her sat a huge man who looked like a boulder. He was pure muscle and strength with an equally intimidating face. But what left her taken aback was his eyes....…his eyes glowed and were blue in color. Now that she looked closely, some lines on his chest glowed. It was subtle and dim compared to his eyes, but bizarre nonetheless.
Not even a scream left her shocked self when his hand touched her face. She held her breath as he probed and poked her. The thought of somehow startling him and then making him attack her stopped Ver from moving.
Zylar tilted his head as he continued to touch the strange creature. When he poked, it made a sound but otherwise remained still. Soon, he opened his palm and caressed the creature's face. It was so soft. Not even the lake creatures were this soft. He wanted to touch it more!
Ver yelped in surprise when she felt him picking her out of the cryo pod. She started to struggle which made the man hold her tighter. To avoid getting her bones snapped, Ver sat silently as he continued his exploration. He touched her head, almost poked her eyes, and rubbed her lips. It was clear that he found her strange.
That was mutual between them. She, too, thought of him as strange. She had been thinking of him as a man up to now, but even that wasn't confirmed. He looked like a man with his body structure, so that was what she would refer to him as. But one thing was clear, this man is an Alien.
Ver looked past him to the burning spaceship. No one would survive that, the insect alien that had wanted to make her his Emperor' breeder was dead. The holy leader who had terrorized her entire life was gone. And instead of him, she was here with another kind of alien.
The console on the ship kept saying emergency landing. Did that mean she crash-landed on the insect's planet? Or was this place something else altogether? Ver wished for the latter.
Then she turned her attention back to the glowing eyes alien and softly said, "Let me go"
That seemed to surprise him. He parted his lips and said something, but Ver didn't recognise his language. "I don't understand you," he looked similar to humans and seemed intelligent enough to want to communicate, but that was where the similarity ended. Nothing he said made sense.
Zylar watched its lips move, but the sounds they made were incomprehensible. The creature could be making sounds that meant nothing, but something told him that wasn't the case. The gaze in its round, calm eyes seemed intelligent. But how could that be when it didn't run or hide from him? It was known for others to stay away from a warrior like him.
Just as he stopped analyzing it, the creature once again surprised him by touching him back. It used its tiny fingers to tap at his forehead, his chin, and slowly travelled down to his chest.
The creature took its hands away and pressed them against its swollen chest. That was weird too. Why did the creature have those lumps on its chest? And why did he feel weird looking at them?
"I'm Veronica," the creature made a sound. It pointed at itself before repeating, "Veronica." Was it saying its name?
That was confirmed when it pressed its palm once again on his chest and said, "You?"
"Zylar," he said, waiting for it to say it back.
Ver nodded seriously, "Xylar?"
"Zylar" the man repeated. The name had a heavy emphasis on Z.
So she tried again, "Zylar"
The man seemed to like that. He covered her hand on his chest and said, "Ne, Zylar" Then he shifted their hand to press against her chest, "Ni?"
"Veronica"
The man frowned, "Bero...?"
That seemed too complicated to him so Veronica tried again but this time she made her name shorter, "Vero"
"Bero" the man repeated. After trying for a long time, Ver gave up and let him be. Bero, it is then. That problem was solved, but another soon arose.
"Excuse me, can you take your hand off of my boobs, please?" The alien refused to remove his hands from her chest after their introduction. At one point, he cupped one of her boobs and started pressing on it. He seemed too fascinated by them to let go.
She wasn't sure before, but now it was one hundred percent clear, this Alien is a man.
"Mr Alien, could you please?" She used her hand to pull his hand away, but that only irritated him. He glared at her before continuing to play with her boobs. Ver was speechless. And then angry.
"Hey, stop doing that!" She pushed his hand away, "How would you feel if I did the same to you?"
He didn't seem to understand her seriousness and was about to reach for her chest but Ver decided to put her foot down, "Zylar, No"
Calling his name seemed to do the trick as he stopped pawing at her.
Zylar felt like he was hit. The creature looked small and fragile, its voice soft and soothing but the way it said his name was so firm. It had so much authority in it.
The creature didn't seem to like him touching its chest lumps. Why was that? Was that something sacred that others couldn't touch? Then it was a damn shame. Those lumps were made to be touched. Soft and supple, he wondered what they looked like under their outer coverings.