Harry

“Strange. It seems that Quentin and Scarlett are too far for my SAD to find them,” I said as we walked through some fields. Gruma, Mr. Black, and Dr. Octavia were with me as we passed by several small green creatures. The beautiful woman told me they were all Low Taraxian, some sort of subspecies of Taraxians that were short and frail. There had to be a reason that there could exist two subspecies so drastically different on the same planet.

We stopped by a nearby village, only to be approached by two guards. They were Low Taraxians armed with only spears. They wore loincloths and no armor. One of them, the male one, looked at Gruma and immediately braced his spear. “It seems that Lady Gruma decided to make herself known after disappearing a year ago. Unfortunately, we’ve been given orders to kill you on sight. We’ll do the same with the freaks you surrounded yourself with,” he explained before lunging at her with his spear.

She grabbed his spear by the haft and swung it. The male guard was picked up and flung into the female guard. Both tumbled to the ground. Gruma snapped the neck of the male guard before grabbing the female one by the neck. She slammed her against a nearby wall and asked, “Who gave you the orders?”

“It was Queen Zherga! Your father died and she seized the throne in your absence! Now will you let me live?” the female guard quickly said as she hyperventilated and froze still.

“You will suffer the price for treason,” Gruma growled before crushing the head of the guard. Blood stained her hand as she dropped the guard. She kept growling as she looked at me with fury in her eyes. Blood dripped from her fists as her words were laced with venom. “It seems that my sister stole my birthright. I expected as much from a snake like her. Unlike me, who is a runt, she’s a giant. She stands at eight feet tall while as muscular as I am. There’s only one course of action. We must kill my sister.”

Mr. Black backed up and fearfully said, “Gruma, watch that anger. Nothing good comes from hatred.”

“I’m not taking this lying down! One of us is going to die, and I’m making sure it’s her!” she shouted before grabbing one of the spears. She looked at Dr. Octavia and asked, “Would you like a weapon? I’d rather not have you die while I’m on my quest.”

The doctor shook her head and replied, “No thank you. I’d rather save lives than take them.”

Gruma frowned before snapping the spear. “It’s no use having more weapons than fighters. It only gives an assassin more opportunities to kill us,” she said with a shocking amount of wisdom. She took the silence and walked into a nearby inn. I followed afterwards to see that she had grabbed the innkeeper by his shoulders and lifted him up. He was a Low Taraxian who only wore a loincloth. In fact, everyone in the inn was a Low Taraxian. All of them barely wore enough to cover their groins. Low Taraxian women didn’t wear any bras, but they also didn’t have breasts as visible as Gruma’s, Scarlett’s, or most human women. Perhaps the Low Taraxians were closer to their bestial ancestors than the High Taraxians.

“Send a message to Queen Zherga! Tell her that Gruma has returned and wants her head! We’ll meet her by Rurit Falls!” she growled before letting the man go. He nodded quickly before running out back. As he did so, she faced me and explained, “Rurit Falls is close to friend of mine. I’m intending to meet him to get some advantages. Quentin told me to never enter a fight on even terms. I intend to take that advice.”

We walked outside and explained the plan. Dr. Octavia looked horrified while Mr. Black grimly nodded. “While I have no interest in revenge or grudge dealing, we may as well end the bloodshed as quickly as possible,” he said as he started walking in the direction we pointed at. “I wanted to be there with Scarlett, but I fear that this planet will need my help.”

“We definitely could use all the help we can get,” Gruma said as she jogged ahead of us. I picked up the two older members and jogged after her so they didn’t get left behind. She looked at us and said, “My planet is filled with several tribes fighting each other. I told Quentin about this as well, and he explained that Earth was similar until agriculture began. Settled societies had the ability to conquer and control more territory than a mere tribe. We have agriculture and settlements, but they only consist of one tribe each. Rurit Falls is only eight hours away and is the limit of the Igrett Tribe, my tribe.”

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“I see,” Mr. Black replied before adding, “I’m a master of the shadows. So if you need someone to do your less-than-honorable dealings, I’m there for you.”

“We’ll need that. Since Low Taraxians are forbidden from working in the courts of monarchs, we need someone whose footfalls are silent. High Taraxian assassins are as stealthy as a rampaging Vargon swarm,” she replied before leading the way.

We jogged for eight hours; the journey was mostly silent as she tried to make sure she didn’t tire. She explained that it’d take the queen a whole day to reach the falls with her army, so she wanted as much time as possible to prepare. We knew we were close when we heard the waterfall. We popped out of the brush to see what looked like a castle at the top of the falls. Walls faced the cliffside, giving any defenders a massive advantage.

There was one question I had left. “How are we going to get up there from here?”

She giggled and said, “You have your flying machine, so I expect for you to use it to take us to the top.” I sighed as I knew she was right. It was something I underutilized. Here, it would provide an insane advantage. With a suit of armor, I could be like an assault helicopter. I could unload a barrage of bullets while being able to block any incoming damage.

I flew everyone to the front of the castle before dropping them. At this point, they could walk to the entrance without taking too much time. I stood back as Gruma knocked on the castle gates. In response, a bat-like creature flew in front of her and looked her over. Once it was done, it flew back into the castle. As if controlled by remote, the gates opened and let us enter.

We stood in front of the doors when they opened to reveal something that chilled me to the bone. I kept my arms ready to turn into guns if the situation needed it. In front of us was a Qarri with dragon wings on his back. He looked at me and laughed. “You can calm down now. While I was sent to infiltrate this world, I decided it would be more fun to use my science to create an amazing fantasy world.”

“Are you the one that has kept this place in this state?” I growled as I prepared to punch him instead of shooting him. He wasn’t aggressive, but he was probably a jerk for keeping this people from unifying.

He shook his head and said, “No. In fact, I’ve tried to help their rulers, but only one person has ever taken me up on that offer. She’s right next to you.”

I looked at Gruma and asked, “Is it true that you made a deal with him? If so, why?”

“It is true,” she solemnly answered as we walked in. She closed the doors behind us before explaining, “He promised to make me stronger in exchange for uniting the tribes.”

“Deals with the devil, I see,” I growled as I glared at him. He smirked before chuckling. “What’s so funny? You were going to make my girlfriend a freak!” I shouted as I shook my fist. If he made her into a furry like Scarlett, I would kill him before finding a way to turn her back.

The Qarri scientist raised his hands and explained, “I was just going to give her some combat adjustments to be a better fighter. She’s not going to look like that friend of yours. The little vixen.” I growled at him, making him chuckle. He continued, “I know of little Scarlett. One of my colleagues designed her before being executed by the Empire. She wanted the girl to still retain her humanity, but it contradicted the orders to make a creature of war. They wanted a beast, not a soldier. Of course, my buddy, Hrethus, wanted to make the untampered human into a wolfman so he could have the prodigy unable to return home. The scientist who made Scarlett’s foxlike form was doing it so they had a template for Quentin, but also so they could give him a wife.”

My eyes widened as I gasped. “By whatever psionic entities pretend to be deities, they succeeded! The arrogant weirdo fell for the vixen without needing to be changed,” I shouted as I realized that the Qarri did succeed in something. It meant I needed to break them apart for the good of this world.

The Qarri scientist smiled, but not with a smirk this time. He calmly said, “Good for her. When we had to start hiding our activities in the USA, I was worried she would end up alone for her entire life. The two falling in love on their own terms was unexpected, but I shouldn’t judge them.”

Gruma walked up and said, “We don’t have the time to waste. We need to get something to win against my sister. She’s going to lead an army here to kill me. I need some of your magical beasts to fight them.”

He looked at her and flicked his tongue. It was forked like that of a snake. “I can do that. To be honest, I was looking for the perfect opportunity to turn the tide. You look like the opportunity I always wanted. This battle should allow us to kill your sister and you to take your rightful throne. I have some of those creatures ready for you to use.”

“We should be ready. These wars are somewhat unassailable. It’ll take a while for them to break them,” Gruma said before hugging me. “Harry, we are so close. Very soon, we’ll have what we need to take back my throne!”

“There’s no time to waste! Get some rest because we’ll need to guard the walls!” the Qarri scientist shouted, calling us all to attention.