The beer barn, as its name would indicate, was a former two story barn that housed fruits in the first floor and condensed them down to liquids on the second floor. It had become a regular hot spot for farmers who wanted to drink liquids from fermented fruit. Eventually Mrs. Du Bois changed the upper floor that was already full of hand made juicers into a place to serve thirsty customers. It was a popular place for town meetings and parties, including the one held on the very day. Though the tension was thick over the changes within the spirit woods, the juices and merriment lifted the villager's spirits. Only Jeeg and Aya remained wary of the future. Jeeg elected not to tell the villagers the full extent of the forest's problems until things settled down and the culprit couldn't do any more harm. He hoped this night would be the night the wrong doer was exposed.

Jeeg and Aya were perched on a small raised area in back of the beer barn as they entertained the villagers at the night party. Jeeg strummed a large wooden triple necked zitar with sixteen strings. The instrument covered every octave in the Tarabosian key, a key previously unknown to humans. The key was normally un-hearable to humans who didn't sport the long, pointed ears of Tarabos natives; and until it could be tuned down on their instruments, humans never heard it. Many first-time listeners were captivated by the unusual but spirit lifting tones. Jeeg's long fingers picked at his instrument with spindle like precision. They moved slowly but never missed a single note.

Aya, in contrast, hastily panted into a wooden flute with three different ends. It was trident shaped and each end was separated by an adjustable gate. When all gates were open, they could reach the Tarabosian octave. Aya had to keep a frantic pace to make sure she hit all the notes perfectly, but she knew she wasn't cut out for the job. Aya wasn't a natural born musician, she was simply a person tasked with keeping every facet of her culture alive. Even the ones she had no talent in.

The music Jeeg and Aya played together didn't have a name, but the townsfolk called it folk-blues-mysticism; and true to the blues, the lyrics Jeeg sung in his scratchy, aged voice betrayed his experiences:

I hold your hand, strolling through silver sands that shine on this island

We sail through shining seas, catching sparkling shells and each other's glance

The hazy air as you laugh seems so unreal

I reach for your hand again, but your touch I can no longer feel

I awake, turning inside and out, it was just a dream

A dream and nothing more, my mind's hollow scheme

When I finally walk beside your smiling face

I'll realize, I've died and gone to a celestial place

Only Flora Du Bois sat by them. She sat on a stool with her legs crossed and her long flowing white dress draped over it. When the song came to an end, she clapped excitedly. "Oh yay, please do another one Mr. Jeeg. I do love tales of unrequited love."

Jeeg pretended to survey his audience. Everyone else was drinking and standing around Du Bois who was touting the feats of Taylor. "Does the audience have any other requests?" he asked, as he winked to Aya who had tired from blowing into her flute.

Jeeg gave a bitter laugh. "To think in the first year we came to this planet and I played my music, they said it was otherworldly, heartrending and mystical. Now it's the background din at a party."

"Hey it takes the heat off my performance," said Aya with a mischievous grin.

"Back to work, lackey," Jeeg responded while wagging his finger, "We have another tale of unrequited love coming right up."

Aya gave another reluctant puff into her Luta-flute when familiar boots of leather stood in front of her. "This music is such a downer. We're supposed to be having a party."

She looked up to see Taylor's self satisfied face, now sporting a trademark uniform worn by male members of the Du Bois family. He was clad in a light dress shirt with dark suspenders that contrasted with his tanned skin and hair. It made him look dashing even if they were clothes that belong to Du Bois. He lightly ran his hand through the hair covering his ear, and slid up his white cuff-link.

Aya glared at him for his disrespectful comment. "And what kind of music are we supposed to play at a party?"

"That is the question, Aya, and I have the answer for you." Taylor slid out a small device.

It was flat and dark with a screen that illuminated when he touched it. Aya was bewildered by the bright lights and colors that flashed on a device as flat as a flapjack.

"Ah, here it is," Taylor smiled as loud flashy sounds blared from the device.

The device blared colorful noise with rhythmic yet mechanical sounding drums and vocals that sounded encoded and robotic. It echoed around the beer barn. Aya crossed her arms in disproval and grimaced. "Would you really trust a machine to make music that should come from the heart?"

Taylor looked Aya over as he typically did before grinning. "If you don't like it, why are you shaking that booty?"

Aya looked down at her body. It was rhythmically shaking and her foot was tapping. She felt like dancing even if her mind felt scorn. "It's nothing, just a butt spasm. The creator would never accept this kind of music."

"I dunno," Taylor said with a raise of his voice, "Everyone loves to get funky. Even Aquans who play music fit for a funeral."

Jeeg frowned at the young man as his hands rested on his zitar. "This is music of my long lamentable past."

"Why moan about the past, old man?" Taylor said. "All we have is right now. Enjoy it before we fade away."

Jeeg looked at the floor, eyeing Taylor up from his leather boots to the top of his conditioned hair. He rose from his chair, placing his zitar on it and extended a hand forward. "You're right. Care to dance?"

Taylor begrudgingly looked at the old man who was heading towards him, before letting out a sigh. "I may as well humor you because you're not going to be around much longer."

Jeeg grasped Taylor's hands, taking him by surprise. "We're going to do this my way," Jeeg responded before hollering. "Aya, the Aquatic Waltz."

Aya began to play a swaying but bubbly tune on her Luta-flute, as Jeeg and Taylor slid back and forth on the dance floor. Flora watched with her head resting on her hands as she grinned observing them. Bubbles began to rise from the alcoholic drinks of the villagers as they all turned to watch the very first showing of the Aquatic Waltz.

"Your grip is tenacious old man," Taylor sneered.

"The last one I gripped like that, loved me until the very end," the old man responded.

Aya glanced and smiled at Taylor and Jeeg as she played her Luta-flute. They moved as one, and it was surprising to see a rakish man like Taylor devoting time to entertaining the elderly Jeeg. She was even more surprised that he knew exactly how to move to this otherwise forgotten tune of the Aquan race. Her interest in his worldliness grew as her eyes watched them swaying back and forth. The crowd of villagers gathered around the two and watched mesmerized. When the music finally stopped, there was an applause from everyone, even Du Bois. Jeeg walked back to where Aya was, his face was beaming. "How was it?" Aya asked Jeeg as he lifted his robe onto the small stage.

"I'm pleasantly surprised by that spaceman's dancing abilities," Jeeg said, his eyes losing their forlorn sheen. "It transported me back to our own planet...just for a few minutes."

Aya looked to Taylor who was receiving accolades for his abilities with a bow. Had he danced with Aquans before? Her curiosity thickened, when suddenly he approached her. "May I have this dance?" He asked in a voice that was oh-so-suave.

Aya, for the first time ever in front of a man, felt flustered. She looked from side to side, before pointing to herself wordlessly.

Taylor smiled. "Yes, you."

Jeeg patted Aya on the back. "Go, he has already proved his worth as a dancer."

Aya slowly reached out her hand as if about to dip her hand in ice cold water. Taylor, seeing her momentarily inching forward, capitalized on the moment and led her to the center of the dance floor.

"W-w-what kind of dance do you want to do?" Aya stuttered.

"The kind of dance you do with a beautiful young woman. One that's nice and slow," and he took one of Aya's hands in his and placed his other softly on her hip.

Jeeg began to strum an old Tarabosian melody, an ode to the elven lovers of legend who formed the land and sea on Tarabos. The the two began to move slowly together. Aya's heart thumped like she had undergone a vigorous dash across the plains of the planetoid. She had never danced with a young man before. None of the male villagers ever caught her fancy, but as she looked into Taylor's eyes, which were dreamier and fuller than his words, she felt overcome by a fluttery sensation. Suddenly, she felt bashful. Her prideful feelings became quite the opposite and it led her to avert her face.

"Why'd you look away?" Taylor asked, dropping his smooth visage for a second.

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"I don't know," Aya muttered quietly, "I've looked a Noctursa dead in the eye before. I don't know what's the problem."

"Are you saying I look like a bear?"

Aya shook her head. "No no not at all."

She began to nervously laugh, but Taylor looked into her eyes again and she looked up again. "You look beautiful. The flora and fauna of this world can't compare," he said. "Let's just enjoy this moment together."

Taylor moved his hands to Aya's sides, gripping slightly around her rear and Aya attempted to follow suit on Taylor's sides. "No these go on my shoulders," he smiled gallantly.

Aya quickly moved them to his shoulders, and she finally felt comfortable in this position. The two swayed together back and forth as Jeeg picked the strings in a way that imitated the hearts of lovers. For a moment, Aya quickly forgot every suspicion Eterna had instilled in her. She forgot everyone else was there too. Her tough demeanor gave way to her childhood dreams of living as royalty in the sea castle of the king of the Aquans, engaged to a noble prince. It was a childlike whim, but she occasionally indulged it while she lay asleep in her bed.

"Hey, Miss Aquan," Taylor said snapping his fingers. "The dance is over."

Jeeg had picked his final cadences and everyone stood around applauding. Du Bois, the victim of more than a few beverages of fermented fruit caused Aya to snap back into reality. He stood up with his good arm raised. "The gentleman will even dance with earians. Is there nothing he can't do?"

"It's nothing," Taylor flicked his hair as the villagers clamored for more. "Just living up to my title."

Du Bois raised his arm again. His face bright red and stance wobbly. "Say it with him folks."

With Taylor's assistance the crowd began to chant, "Taylor Lunsford, The Strapping Space Traveling Aristocrat."

Mr. Du Bois tried to follow along but instead said "The Traveling Space Strapping Aristostrap" and wobbled into Taylor.

"Whoa there," Taylor responded putting his arm around the drunken man. "You might want to take it easy, Mr. Du Bois."

Another farmer pulled up a seat and allowed Du Bois to sit. "I'll take it easy," he guffawed, "when you tell everyone how you saved me and my son with a UFO and a bright flash. You're a hero."

"Well, well...if you insist," Taylor said, trying to calm the terribly plastered man. "I happened to be in your area when I was seeking refuge from deep space interstellar travel. Scouring the spirit forest in search of any sign of intelligent life to help refresh me, I stumbled across a strange happening."

Eterna called to Aya, "Listen carefully child. I want you to pick out holes in this man's tale so we can confront him."

Aya smiled with a light whisper, "I will."

"I was flying by a mountain and this boy landed right on my windshield"—Taylor held his hands out in front of his face—" A true space pilot is used to all kinds of debris breezing by your window, but nothing alive. It was truly outstanding. I quickly landed, and found that he was unconscious with a minor head trauma."

"Buck..." Aya murmured. "He was unconscious."

"I guess that human child's account is no good," Eterna replied.

Not hearing Aya, Taylor continued on, "I heard cries in the forest rain and I hovered slowly surveying the land, until I saw bold Mr. Du Bois battling for his life against a ravenous Noctursa. As the beast slashed his arm and he fell backwards, I stood on my spaceship and leapt down, that's when I..."—Taylor bent down, and drew something from his pocket: a bright red dagger made out of metal intertwined with red electricity--"I scared that beast off with a flash of my dagger and my ship's bright lights."

Everyone cheered and housewives much older than him swooned. Du Bois exclaimed, "That sounds so exciting. I wish I was there!"

"You were there," Mrs. Du Bois said frowning.

"That beast had knocked my lights out faster than a couple shots did," Du Bois responded pointing into open space.

Eterna called loudly to Aya. "I didn't tell you this but the last things I saw before I was attacked and was blinded was a blinding flash of white and red."

Aya quickly pulled her inked companion up to her face. Her eyes were wide with concern, "Do you think he used a similar attack on you?"

Eterna gave an affirmative nod. "This is certainly not a coincidence. Let's find a manner to confront him about his behavior."

Aya stood up from her chair after a moment's thought. "I'm going to confront him alone outside."

Eterna's looked at Aya with shock. "Why are you going to do that? He's potentially very dangerous and..."

"Eterna, I'm just going to ask him a few question," Aya said. "Perhaps this was a misunderstanding but if not, I can take him. I've subdued much bigger beasts than a lying man with a dull dagger."

"It's not his size that's dangerous," Eterna responded. "It's his mind. Child, I hope you know what you're doing."

Aya bobbed her head forward. "I do."

As Aya approached Taylor, he was shrugging off marriage proposals. Du Bois had slumped to his knees from where he sat and was looking up at Taylor. "Please lord, please take my eldest daughter Flora's hand in marriage. Please, so she doesn't have to wed my brother's son."

Flora held her hands to her face. "Oh father, don't ask him that. It's so embarrassing."

"I promise eleven toes are her only physical defect," Du Bois cried out, as his wife tried to drag him away and soothe him.

Flora ran off too, her face as bright red as her fathers but for emotional reasons.

"Taylor," Aya said with a gruff voice, trying to call to him amidst the circus.

The man, in response, narrowed his eyes in a look of defensive skepticism. "What's up? You look like you want to fight me, Aya."

Aya quickly realized she was making Taylor think something was up. Instead, she tried her hardest to sound like Flora. She raised her voice to a sweet, lilting pitch and tilted her head. She put her hand on her hip; and even though it was awkward with such a tall body, she hoped she still possessed some feminine wiles. "I want to talk to you outside...er about mystical things and nature," she said brushing her hand through her short fluffy bob and rolling her head along with it.

Taylor raised his eyebrows and released a small puff of air. In his naturally deep voice he spoke. "I'd love to learn about your nature, Miss Aquan."

He avoided the sharp glares of the housewives and their spotty daughters and followed Aya out of the beer barn into the night. They exited down the creaky wooden staircase that lead to the bar portion of the beer barn, and strolled through the village. Taylor was unusually silent, and it made Aya a bit more wary. She had never confronted a man who made her as nervous as Taylor before, and felt she'd rather face a Noctursa, whose instinctual patterns were more predictable. They strolled past the village, past Jeeg and Aya's house and off to the sea swept coast where sea birds whistled in the night. The sky was open like a grand theater. It was alight with many stars and far out planetoids, and it made Aya think of her home before anything else.

"So why have you brought me here, mystery girl?" Taylor asked in a deep voice.

"Well, first," Aya said, her normally abrasive tone altering itself to a friendlier one, "I wanted to say thanks."

Taylor looked confused for his first time in front of her. "Thanks...? For?"

"For dancing with Jeeg." Aya said with her hands behind her back. "He may not look like it, but he's been depressed for a very long time."

"I can tell. Good musicians don't have to lie about their feelings." Taylor said. "They're like dogs who howl in the night with pure unadulterated emotion."

"Oh. I never thought of it like that before," Aya said, before a pause and she spoke in a candid voice. " Taylor, I wanted to ask you something,"

"Oh really? About what? I am quite an opinionated man so I'll most likely have an answer for you."

Aya looked at her tattoo. She observed Eterna urging her to ask about any harm he brought to the planetoid. Aya she put her aside and looked up at Taylor's dark eyes. Her mind grew flustered, and she started to wonder who this man was. Was he malevolent like Eterna felt or was he a good man like the villagers believed? "So...uh how was life for you on Tarabos?" Aya blurted out.

"Child, what on this holy planetoid are you doing?" Eterna snapped at Aya. Aya ignored her and stuffed her hand into her pant's pocket.

"What did you say?" Taylor asked, his eyes widened in confusion.

"Tarabos?" Aya choked out. "How was life on Tarabos?

"Like I said, I just visited for a short time," Taylor said, nonchalantly. "Saw some sights and I left. My father and I were nothing more than tourists."

Aya couldn't believe what she was hearing. She could tell he was playing it off now, but why and what for? She continued to press him even while Eterna continued to yap at her. "But what about it being desolate and full of misery like you said ?"

"Isn't that true of most planets?" Taylor responded with a lift of his hands and a shrug of his shoulders.

Aya bared her fangs. She finally had Taylor alone and could ask him about her world, but he was starting to play coy with her. Taylor through gazing at the angry Aquan could sense that her friendliness and patience were starting to unravel. "Look, Missy, you can drop the girlish demeanor," Taylor replied. "We both know that's not true to who you are. But I don't know what you want from me."

Aya thrusted a finger into Taylor's face. "I want you to stop toying with me"—Aya turned away and her voice began to quiver—"You don't know how it feels to lose your whole world and live in a place where only one other soul knows it existed."

"I'm sorry. I just happen to have a very selective memory and I don't remember anything specific about your world," Taylor responded with another shoulder shrug.

He began to walk away, but Aya turned to him and yelled, "You are nothing but a snake. Someone who lies and deceives people just for your own amusement. A lying, no-good serpent."

Aya had called upon imagery of the townspeople who believed that the root of all evil was a mythical snake. Taylor turned around and his demeanor visibly changed. For the first time, he looked hurt and angered. Aya wasn't sure what words set him off, but he began to stomp towards Aya. Aya continued, "You may have deceived this village, but I know you were the one who destroyed the Matriarch tree."

"You don't know anything about me"—Taylor drew his electrified red dagger and swung it into Aya's spirit wood staff—"I destroyed that tree by accident. I hit it when I aimed to shoot the bear that attacked Du Bois. But now that I've seen what it's done to your planetoid, I don't want you telling anyone."

Aya panted as she held her staff tightly. She felt her chest thump from the adrenaline as she sensed Taylor's bloodlust loom near. "You could have come clean, but instead you used your mistake to be worshipped as a hero. You disgust me."

Taylor swung again, and Aya pirouetted quickly whacking him on the back of his thigh. He bent over in agony. "You think its easy to do the right thing in a tricky situation," he growled, "You clearly haven't been in a lot of tricky situations yourself."

"My whole planet was destroyed. Is that not enough for you?" Aya screamed as she avoided a crouched attempt at stabbing her.

She furiously whacked Taylor on the back of the head, causing his head to jerk forward. He leaned forward spitting blood. "Ok," he gasped, his voice raspy from sudden blood in his throat. "I'll come clean."

Aya put her staff to her side. "Good..." she said, before Taylor leaped up and stabbed her in the stomach with his knife.

She let out a choke as she felt both electricity and metal course through her body. "Aya," Eterna cried out as she fell to the ground and her staff fell aside. Her thoughts began to flash in her head. She expected her life to roll past her eyes, but instead she saw a white wolfhound born among other pups. She saw the wolfhound bitten by a much larger greying wolfhound and felt the power transform the wolfhound into something greater.

Aya's head began to feel more animalistic and she crawled to her feet. She began to feel her fingernails sharpen, her ears retreated to the top of her head and her face extend into a snout. Her body hunched over and grew into a different form- the form of a canine. She let out a howl as wings expanded from her back. She had transformed into a silver wolfhound. She was the spitting image of Eterna and the only thing that marked Aya's identity was her long brown earrings still hanging from her wolf incarnation's ears. She wobbled a little, unused moving to four feet. Seeing Taylor had fallen back in shock, she sprang onto him. Snarling and growling, she poised herself to tear his throat out. Aya's maw dripped as it thirsted for his demise.

Taylor's knife had fallen from his hands, flying across the sand to where he couldn't reach it and Aya could tell he was ready to submit to death.

The cry of townsfolk shook both the wild Aquan and the terrified human and Aya could see that a large group of humans were coming through her vision. Since she couldn't see if Jeeg or Flora was with them, she decided to avoid bloodshed of any innocents and ran off. She turned around to growl loudly at Taylor as he reached onto his shirt and realized she had torn the front leaving his chest exposed. Aya shuffled off into the forest as fast as she could. She had no idea what had caused these circumstances behind her transformation, but there were two things she knew at the moment: she had to find a way to become an Aquan again and warn everyone about the despicable fraud, Taylor Lunsford.