It has been seven days since the Melonians put us on lockdown. I’m worried sick that Vodkis might visit me tonight. The guards are forcing us to keep our doors cracked open so they can hear any “suspicious” conversations we might have. They stalk us in our sleep, when we work, as we eat, and even when we have to relieve ourselves. I’m at the point where I can’t look at them and not growl or snarl.
Today in the early evening, I eat dinner with construction men who work on Melon’s statue. We’re lightly watched by guards. We aren’t allowed to talk, but that doesn’t stop some from conversing in a subtle tone Melonians can’t hear. A man to my left talks to someone to his left about his grievances with one of the guards. He wants to punch the guard that keeps waking him up at night. Another man in front of me jumps into the conversation, talking about his aching body from the surge of work his group had to do for today. I understand his pain and wish his ailments could get treated before they break him.
“Pist, Zazarel,” Arlic whispers. My right ear twitches before I look over at him. “I’ve heard some gossip going around by the guards when I was getting treated.”
“Like what?” I say, putting a piece of beef in my mouth.
“The workers around our sector are starting to get rowdy.” Arlic pauses to act like he’s drinking tea when a guard walks in front of us.
“Are they revolting?” He takes a big gulp of his drink, leaving his upper lip wet.
“Not on the level we’re thinking.”
“Not enough to bring us peace, hmm?” I sigh, slapping my forehead. “I’m tired, Arlic. I want it to stop.”
“Me too.” We stop talking for a moment to enjoy food and listen to the other men complain. “Hey, what is the first thing you would do if we somehow got out of this mess?”
“Oh, you know,” I answer, giving him a wink.
“Vodkis?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn, I wish I had a girlfriend.”
“Maybe you can find one if we get out of here.” The idea makes him smile as he gazes at the sky, nodding his head and humming like he’s thinking. “What kind of women do you like?”
“I really don’t know, Zazarel. The women that come to our building in secret all look so beautiful. I could take any.” It brings a smile to my face to hear him say that.
“Two weeks ago, Vodkis told me there are some desperate women yearning for a relationship. I think you could find ten you might like.”
“Don’t get my hopes up,” Arlic says, tapping my back.
“Quiet!” A guard yells at us from across the table.
“Sorry, sir.” Arlic ducks his head down as he eats. Seeing him cower under the command of the guard pisses me off. I stare at the guard as he circles our table. He notices me watching him and then stomps over to me.
“Can I help you, dog?” I don’t say a word and keep looking at him. He backhands my right cheek, but my head barely turns from the weak hit.
“That tickled,” I say.
“Excuse me?” He slaps me again in the same spot. It’s a harder hit, but it doesn’t hurt.
“Zaz, what are you doing?” Arlic pleas to me in a yelling whisper.
“Hit me again and see what happens,” I say. The guard goes for a quick punch and misses. He tries again. I evade his swing, but he hits Arlic in the face.
“Uhh!” Arlic yells, falling to the ground. I sit out of my seat to face the guard. “Zazarel, no!”
“Stand down, dog, or I’ll shoot you!” The guard says, cocking his gun. I punch him square in his nose, shattering his face mask in pieces. He skids across the ground before backflipping to a complete stop.
“Zazarel... What did you do?” I turn around to look at Arlic, but the guards catch my attention. They’re slowly walking to me with their guns pointed. Every one of them commands me to get on my knees or raise my hands. I put myself in a defensive stance with my fist diagonal from my chest. “Stop it, Zazarel! They’ll kill you!” The guards surround me.
“Sorry, Arlic,” I say. I take a deep breath and prepare myself for the worst to come. “I’m so sorry, Vodkis. But, I can’t take it anymore.”
As I’m about to strike the closest guard, the men on the table attack them. Arlic jumps off the ground to assist. I charge my verve enough to fire an energy blast at three guards. A guard tries shooting me but can’t lock on as I fly out of the shots. Once his blaster runs out of ammo, I strike him in the stomach with my foot. Spit mixed in with green blood flies out his mouth. He drops to his knees and then flops on his face. All the men, including Arlic, pacify the guards.
“Take their weapons and try to free as many people as you can,” I say. Every man takes one, except Arlic. “Pick up a weapon.”
“You can’t be serious,” Arlic says.
“I’m very serious. I am sick and tired of living this crappy, unforgiving life. We’re vastly stronger than them, yet our fear has kept us docile for who knows how long.” He remains quiet but looks at the ground as if thinking something. “Do you want to be free? Do you want the pain to stop?”
“I do.”
“Let’s help the others, then take over this sector.”
“Okay,” he says, cracking his neck, then floats off the ground.
“Ready, my friend?” His latent power surges, and the muscles in his arms bulge.
“Lead the way, and I’ll follow.”
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Arlic, the men of our sector, and I free a massive portion of our plantation. We take the Melonians’ communications, weaponry, and hundreds of prisoners in four days. On the fifth day, I take twenty former, strong men to free the women’s compounds. We arrive under the cover of thick clouds at dawn. The guards have women at gunpoint, including Vodkis, as they walk outside their homes.
“Take out the ones who are aiming guns at the women first, then secure the grounds with any means necessary,” I say. I rush down, aiming for Vodkis while my people start firing at the guards. I swoop her into my arms and into her room to avoid her getting shot.
“Zazarel?” Vodkis shrieks.
“Hello, my beautiful, radiant moonlight.” I go for a hug, but she moves out of my grasp.
“What are you doing here? What’s going on? Why are men here?”
“Settle down,” I whisper, giving her a long kiss. She puts her hands around my jaw as she continually kisses me. I pull her close to captivate this long-overdue moment. We stop kissing at the same time but stay close with our lips a hair away. “I missed you.”
“I thought I’d never see you again. The guards suddenly started watching our every move.”
“Our people are revolting.” Her eyelids pop open. “The nightmare I had was a vision, Vodkis.”
“What?”
“An oracle revealed it to me like I was there again. He also told me he had the same dreams for years.”
“So, what are you doing here?” A stray bullet enters the room, going over our heads. I duck her down and face my back to the opening to protect her. More shots fly in. She reacts to every impact with a sudden jerk or a quiet scream.
“Hold on to me. I’m gonna take you out of here.” Once she wraps herself on me, I fly us out of her room and take her to a backroom far from the action. “Stay here until I come back.” When I turn to face the door, she grabs my arm.
“Wait.” She pulls me down my arm to kiss me on the forehead. “Be careful, Zazy.”
I fly out the window the moment her hands let go of my arm, then head over to the commotion in the courtyard. Two Melonian watchers immediately fire along the wall of the compound. A shot comes dangerously close to hitting my feet. I circle back, evading their fire by zig-zagging.
“Come here!” I yell, slamming both of them through the compound and out the other side. I lose my footing through debris on the exit. Guards close by start attacking me with their batons, hitting me everywhere. I protect my face with my arms, but some strikes hit me. “Get off of me!”
The verve inside my body releases in a sudden shockwave like an explosion. In the cover of a sudden burst in power, I take down all the ones who attacked with my hands and everyone throughout the whole compound. I return to the spot I was unforgivingly assaulted on, wanting to unleash more rage on the unconscious watchers. My arms are starting to show signs of bruising from their batons. They don’t hurt, but I notice the veins in my arms are bulging. Plus, the muscles are more prominent than usual.
“Zazarel,” Arlic says. I look to my right to see him. He eases over to me, taking baby steps with his palms facing me. “You need to calm down. Your verve is through the roof.”
“Zazy?” Vodkis whispers, stepping out of the women’s compound. “What’s happen to you?”
“What do you mean?” I say.
“Many things,” Arlic says, lifting my muscular right arm. “You’re big, your verve is beyond what I’ve felt, and you’re eyes...”
“What about them?”
“There’re...”
“Red,” Vodkis answers, standing in front of me. “Hold on. It looks more like a burgundy red. And, what’s this..?” She pushes her thumbs into the upper corner of my mouth to show my teeth. “Your fangs are larger. Zazy, what’s going on with you?” I suddenly become aware of what my body is doing the moment I take my eyes off her. My heart rate is high, and all my senses are heightened. I can smell her as if she’s pressing her body inside my nose. Her calm breathing sounds like it’s heavy.
“I don’t know,” I say, sitting on the ground. My swollen arms and my whole body start shriveling down back to their standard shape. “This is so strange.”
“Let me see your teeth.” I pull my lips open as wide as they can. “They’re back to normal. How do you feel?”
“I feel fine. All of my senses are heightened, but they’re slowly going away.” The freedmen surround me, with one of them kneeling to me.
“Zazarel, the plantation is ours,” he says.
A woman to my right breaks out crying amid everyone cheering. Alric rushes to comfort her with a hug. He whispers into her ear, saying, “Everything will be alright. You’re free now.” She stops crying and then suddenly gives him a long kiss. I’m startled yet amused by it. When she backs away from his lips, he catches himself from following her lips.
“Aww,” Vodkis says, crawling into my lap by backing up. “Your boy might’ve found his girl.” I watch Arlic and the woman stay close as they talk about something I can’t hear because the people around me are drowning out their voices. They look happy, judging by their big grins.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yeah, I think he has,” I say, snuggling my arms around Vodkis to bring her closer to me.
“Zazarel, what should we do now?” A man next to me asks.
“We need to create a stronghold against the Melonians’ attacks. I’m sure they’ll be sending forces to pacify us.”
“Do you want to make a defense here?”
“No,” I say, looking at the openness of the compound. “We take all the women to the men’s quarters. It’s already heavily fortified.” I stand to my feet with Vodkis. “We just have to maintain it.”
“Then what?”
“One thing at a time. You’re gonna give my boyfriend too much stress,” Vodkis says, rubbing my chest with her short nails. “Are you trying to make his hair go white at thirty?”
“I’m sorry,” he says, laughing, as he floats up into the air. “Guys, gather all the women. We’re heading to the men’s quarters!” Some of the men that can fly take the women. The others take the rest on foot. I don’t have to tell Vodkis to hold me to get ready for the flight. She automatically locks her arms and legs around me before I look up to the sky.
“White hair before I’m thirty? I doubt I’ll be ordering people that much for that to happen,” I say, taking to the skies, going behind a low hovering cloud.
“Why do you say that?” Vodkis asks in a worrying tone.
“I don’t want to lead them.”
“Oh,” she sighs in a chuckle. “What made you do all this then?”
“I was pissed. You could have guessed.”
“You, big dummy,” she says, moving to my back and sitting on it. “You could’ve gotten killed.” I remain silent about the possible reality. “I don’t want to be a widow.”
“A widow?” I laugh in a scoffing manner.
“Yes, Zaz! You mean so much to me. If you died, I would never be with another man.”
“You wouldn’t move on?”
“It would be stupid to believe in the idea that another man can replace you. You’re perfect for everything I want in life.”
“Wow... I didn’t know how special I am to you.”
“Oh, Zazy.” Her arms wrap around my stomach when she lays down on my back. “Such a big dummy.”
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For days my people and I keep the Melonians away from our fortified haven. Each day they come with gung-ho forces. Some men have died, but our united power is keeping them at bay. Today we force the Melonians to retreat after some men become enraged by the same symptoms I had when I cleared the women’s quarters. Our oracle is keeping an eye on us, randomly checking in at different times of the day. Today, I hide from his repetitive pursuits by spending quiet time with Vodkis in my room. We’re eating homemade pie from one of her elder chefs.
“This is so good,” I say, reaching for the last piece.
“Nope,” Vodkis says, flicking my hand. “You had enough.”
“But...”
“You had three. I only had two. You need to be fair.”
“Fine,” I say, looking up out my window at the sunset. Vodkis hops on my bed with the last slice of pie, splits it in two, and then hands me the biggest piece. I take the smallest part instead.
“You’re adorable,” she says, stuffing the bigger piece in her mouth. A twig snapping from outside causes her ear to twitch. Her eyes rapidly scan the cornfield to find what made that noise. “Who’s there?”
“Just the local oracle,” the oracle says from a distance. Vodkis waves her hand under my bed. I hide under it, facing up at the frame. “Is Zazarel with you?”
“He left about five minutes ago.”
“Oh, where?”
“Uh, north. Near the forest. He wanted to scout for any lurking Melonians.”
“Well, shoot. When he comes back, tell him I came by.”
“Sure thing.” I listen to him walk away until I can’t. Vodkis jumps off the bed after banging on the wall twice to cover the window with the curtain. The room gets dark, but my eyes quickly adjust to the darkness. She squats low enough that I can see her face. “Coast is clear.”
“Ugh, he’s so annoying,” I say, crawling out from under the bed.
“He’s just making sure you guys are okay. We’ve never seen anything like that. I think you should—” The ground suddenly starts vibrating at an increasing rate, rattling my bed to the center of the room. Something buzzing in a low volume appears over our heads. “What the heck is that?” I rip the cover off the window and bolt up to the roof. Floating in the sky are three gigantic Melonian ships in a triangle formation. “Zazy, what do you see?!”
“Oh, no...” The ship at the point of the triangle descends closer to the ground. A drop ramp opens with one person floating out of it. My heart stops when I recognize who he is.
“Who’s that?” She leaps up to the roof with me. I place her behind me for her safety. “Is that a man?”
“I’ve only seen him once in person. Most of my week was sculpting his image.”
“Is that really him?”
“Yeah. It’s King Melon.” A bulky muscular woman in exposing impractical armor floats next to him. Her upper chest, arms, and legs are exposed. The only areas protected are her torso. Her violet hair splits down her shoulder to flow behind her back and down her chest. The smug grin she’s making worries me. Just her body size alone, she looks like she can rip a man in two. “I don’t like this,” I say.
“Dogs, hear me well!” King Melon shouts. He has a low vibrato voice for a petite guy. “I have come off my thrown from your city called, Garavis, to cease all your rebellious activities.”
“Vodkis, you need to get out of here,” I say, pushing her near the edge of the roof.
“Hold on. What are you going to do?” Vodkis says. She shoves my hands down, then pushes me two steps back. “No..! No..!”
“You need to leave this place. Run to the north into the forest.”
“Zazarel,” she says, momentarily weeping. “Don’t do this to me.” Her eyes snap to something behind me in the sky. “Oh no!” I look back to find armored Melonians flying with blasters in their hands. They aim down at my people, including Vodkis and I.
“Surrender now or face massive deaths by the hand of my soldiers or my right hand, Shivera,” Melon says. He points at the muscular woman to reveal her identity to us. She slams her fist into her hands, creating a minor shockwave. Vodkis and I jump, but I don’t flinch as hard. “What will it be?”
Among the crowd of Spargarians gathering in the courtyard, I hear Arlic scream, “We will never surrender!” Everyone cheers in a roar then take to the skies while firing at the Melonians. A shootout breakouts between them. I take Vodkis back into my room to take cover.
“Use the building as cover to escape to the forest,” I say.
“Zazarel!” Vodkis snaps. I freeze and put my full attention on her. “I forbid you to go out there.”
“Vodkis, I must.” Massive explosions rattle the building. A crack ripples through the ceiling, dropping dust particles on my arm. I grab a blaster hidden behind my drawer to arm myself. “Go, now!” Instead of running, she cries.
“I can’t leave you!”
“You must. I don’t want you to get hurt or killed.”
“I feel the same way, dammit!” She latches herself on me as she continues to cry. “Come with me!” More explosions shake the building. I can sense several Spargarians’ verve surges.
“They’re changing,” I whisper, looking out my window. Vodkis’s crying takes my mind off what’s happening outside. “Please, get off me.”
“No!” I try to free myself from her tight hold by gradually pushing her off me. She tries her hardest to not let me go. Straining all of her strength to keep me here, but I’m too powerful. I force her off of me, making her slam into the wall behind her. She stares back at me with the whites of her eyes, bloodshot and full of tears.
“I’m sorry. I’m the one who started this incursion. They need my help, Vodkis. Our people need my help.” I offer my hand to help pick her up, but she ends up crying more.
“Why are you doing this to me?!”
“I love you,” I say before kissing her. She still doesn’t want me to leave, going off by the hold around my cheeks. The moment I stop, she suddenly slaps me so hard across the face, that I plant my hands on the ground to catch myself. Once again, she cries, and now, so do I.
“Zazarel... Please...”
“Please, for my sake. Flee into the forest.”
I bolt out the window, firing my weapon at every Melonian I can. The screaming and shouting flood Vodkis’s begging for me to come back. When my gun runs out of ammo, I use my fist and fiery energy blast to take out my enemies. Many of the Spargarians decide on the same tactic I’m doing. We take out enough Melonians to create a window to King Melon. Two of my people charge him without any weapons. He points two of his fingers at them then a blip of flashing white lights sparks from them. A powerful invisible lethal energetic blast plows a giant hole through their stomachs.
“Hmm,” King Melon says, smiling and muffling with laughter. The Spargarians’ lifeless bodies fall to the ground. I charge him pulling my left fist back to ensure a powerful punch will knock his head off.
“Damn you,” I say, getting ready to punch King Melon. Shivera punches me in my face before I can lay a hair on him. I spiral out of control, yet I can momentarily see her flying after me. She tackles me to the ground when I stop spinning. The impact feels like a giant boulder falling on me.
“What makes you think you can lay a finger on your ruler, huh?” Shivera says, choking the life out of me. Out of desperation, I headbutt her hard enough to make her shout in pain. Her hand slightly lets go of my neck, sufficient for me to pull myself out. I squat low to lodge my fist into her gut, past her rib cage. She staggers one step back, then she quickly raises her right knee. I block my face and chest to catch her knee if it comes. “Gotcha,” she says.
“Hmm?” Her knee goes down, then the other comes up fast, then extends to a full kick to the side of my head. I blindly fly back towards the plantation, slamming through several buildings before they stop me. “Damnit!” Some of the pieces of the wall drop on my face, so I sit up to avoid them. Out in the distance, I see her approaching fast, knocking the men out of her way like their small sticks. “Oh crap!” I tense up my body and put my arms up to prepare for another painful hit, but someone blasts her with an energy blast through the window. I use the moment to walk out of the building. “Arlic?” There’s no weapon in his hands. His palms face the building. The radiant green energy glow in his hand reseeds away. “Arlic, I didn’t know you could do that too!”
“Me neither! Zazarel! Are you okay?” Arlic yells.
“I’m good! You saved me! Thanks!” I run over to him to see if she’s dead or down. Inside the dimly lit window, I can see her colorful hair in the back of a room across the hallway. Her body is slumped over, lodged inside the wall.
“Is she dead, Zaz?” She kicks her foot off the wall to bring herself out of the crater.
“Ugh!” She growls. “I can’t believe I’m getting tossed around by the likes of you two!”
“Believe it, you sack of dog meat!” I say. She growls in frustration as she walks through the wall.
“Um, why’d you piss her off even more?” Arlic says. We charge at her but stop when King Melon shouts at her to return to his side. She flies up instantly without any hesitation.
“Coward!” I blurt out, lunging after her.
“Zaz,” Alric loudly whispers, grabbing my ankle. “Let’s not enrage the beast. You barely made it out alive if it wasn’t for me.”
“We need to go on the offensive.” A moment after saying that, I sense a massive surge of verve emitting from King Melon.
“Enough!” King Melon screams, stretching out the first letter of the word. He puts his hands to the sky, and a sphere of powerful white lethal energy grows in size. “I’ll wipe all you disrespectful bunch from the face of this planet!” His ball continues to grow, as well as its power. It’s almost as bright as the sun.
“Oh, no,” I say under my breath.
“Zaz,” Arlic says, putting his shoulder on me. “We need to leave now!” I look at him. Something catches his attention from behind, so I turn around to find Vodkis standing outside my room.
“Damnit, Vodkis! I told you to run! Why are you here?!”
“Die rebels,” King Melon screams. He fires the ball down at us, but it moves slowly. It starts hurting me like an electrical burning shock.
“Arlic, the forest Now!”
“I need to find her, Zaz! I need to get Olve out of here!” Arlic says. He takes off towards the inner plantation, telling everyone to flee.
“You idiot! You’ll die!” The pain from the hurling ball makes me retreat in a hurry. I fly to Vodkis at a high rate of speed. When I grab her into my arms, she grunts from the force of me snatching her. “Why the hell are you still here, Vodkis?!” Before she can answer me, the ball explodes. I can feel its painful electricity crawling up my feet. “Ugh!” I scream in pain while pushing myself beyond my top flying speed to the forest.
“Zazarel! The pain hurts!” Vodkis cries in extreme pain.
“We’re not going out like this!” My speed suddenly increases tenfold. I fly into the forest, slowly moving out of the radius of the explosion. The tree splitters slam all over my arms and legs as I navigate past the trees. King Meon’s destructive power is out of reach, but I continue flying into the night until it becomes exhausting. I set us near the top of a thick tree with big branches to catch my breath.
“Gosh, are you alright?” Vodkis asks, touching my chest. “Your heart is racing.” She blows cold air into my face and chest to help me cool down.
“Just need some rest.” I open my mouth to take in more air. “I can’t believe this is happening!” My head starts spinning from shouting. I lose my balance on the branch, but she catches me from falling over. She holds me up by the side of my arms to keep me steady.
“Don’t move. I can’t catch you if you fall.” I cover my eyes as I cry for the souls that might’ve perished.
“All this work wasted by one man! I’ve failed us.”
“What? No, you didn’t.”
“Vodkis, what are you talking about? I was the one who set in motion to ignite a rebellion. I gave people hope of freedom, and now it’s gone.”
“It’s not,” she whispers, coming close to my face. “The hope you gave us is not gone.” She moves in closer, with her nose resting under my right ear. “Zazy, you and the men gave us peace. That’s something I’ve never felt since the day I was born.” Her lips gently press into my neck for a kiss. “But I must admit, the things you did to achieve that peace scared me.”
“I’m sorry you felt that way.”
“No, I’m sorry I acted like that. That was weak of me.”
“But you feared I’d die. I don’t see that as a weakness, Vodkis.” She scoffs in a quiet grunt, then holds me tight around my back. “I’d do the same thing if it was reversed.”
“Really? You’d cry like that?”
“Of course, I would. I don’t want to see my girl get hurt or die. We still got a long life to experience together.”
“I desperately want that.” We cuddle in silence in the quiet night as I continue to mourn. A ship flies low over the trees above my head, with searchlights beaming down through the brushes. “Search party?”
“I hope not. I’m too tired to fly.”
“We should be okay, right? We’re covered, yeah?” I look down at the ground, checking if anyone is walking below. “Are they under us? I don’t see anyone.”
“They might be far behind. If you’re able to, be the lookout for a few hours. I need some rest.”
“Sure.”
“Thanks,” I say, closing my eyes. “Wake me up if anything happens.”
“Sleep well. I’ll be close by.” She kisses me on the cheek before leaving me.
I listen to her jump tree to tree, finding a spot to watch in. Once she stops moving, I open my eyes to where she is. She’s in a perfect location where I can see her. I keep an eye fixated on her until I can’t keep myself awake.
“Zazy... Zazy,” Vodkis says in the minute volume our race can hear. “Can you hear me from here?”
“Yes?”
“Okay, just making sure. I’ll be quiet now.”
“Okay.”
“I love you.” For some strange reason, that makes me chuckle. “Say it back.”
“I love you.”
“You’re supposed to say, too, big dummy.”
“Ugh. I love you too. Happy?”
“No, but go to sleep. We’ll talk later.” I lay still to start sleeping but ended up quietly laughing at the random conversation. Maybe she’s trying to make me happy, so I won’t feel bad about myself. “Zazy... I love you.”
“I love you too. Now let me sleep.” Her silence makes me peek one eye at her to see why she’s complying without any backtalk. I find her smiling with a cute grin. I once again chuckle, but this feeling is backed with pleasant tingles in my stomach. The moment doesn’t last long when realizing that we might be the only survivors from our plantation. Now I’m stricken with enough sadness that I cry in silence before passing out from the grief.