It’s a full moon out tonight, and the weather is giving off a gentle breeze to cool this warm air. The Meloian guards patrol the area while I casually lean on the chimney in the dark on the Strong Men’s Quarter’s roof. Some of the men in my building are sound asleep, while a few of the lucky ones have their girlfriends in their rooms. I watch the cornfield waiting for my lady, Vodkis, the love of my life. She’s running late, which is not normal for her. I sit crisscrossed and stare at the fields for any signs of movement for a few minutes.
“Where are you?” I whisper.
After more minutes of waiting, I call it a night. Right as I reach the edge of the roof to jump off it, I see someone’s leg enter my room window. I hover over the top frame of the window, peeking my head in.
“Zazy, are you here?” Vodkis whispers. My worrying soul can now relax and cheer for joy. “Zazarel, where are you?” She backs near me, so I fly in to surprise her with a hug. I quickly cover her mouth, knowing she’ll yell.
“Right here,” I say in a volume I can barely hear. Vodkis lets out a muffled shriek.
“You big dummy,” she yells in a whisper, giving me a somewhat hard shove. “I could’ve woken the whole damn building up.”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve called for you from the window, but I wanted to hold you first.” She frowns at me then shifts her mouth to the left to reduce her upcoming smile. “I got a bit worried when you didn’t come through the fields. Is everything okay?”
“I had to find a different way which was hug the walls of the compounds. Luckily there were no guards.” She unravels her headscarf, revealing her pure white short hair. “This super moon is really making my hair shine tonight.” The moon highlights her hair, a bright glowing white with a blue tint, and reflects her vibrant purple-colored eyes. I come up to kiss her, but she stops me with her hand over my mouth. “Whoa there.” She walks up to the door, then places a stick with a red tip under it to notify the lookouts there’s a woman in the room.
“Oh, I forgot.” I quietly laugh at myself with my eyes closed. Suddenly, she tackles me onto my bed and pins my hands back. “Whoa.” We kiss a few times, but I must push her away to point at the open window. “We need to cover it.”
“Wow, we are forgetting to do the most important things tonight.”
She stands over my face, with her feet next to my pointy ears, pinning a tapestry against the window. I glance between her face and up her skirt. My heart rate spikes from the sudden lust I feel toward her, so I turn my head to the right and shut my eyes.
“There we go,” she says. I look back up at her. She looks down at me with a grin on her face. “Enjoying the view down there?”
“Uhh,” I say, looking away, trying my best not to smile.
While I’m looking away, her skirt falls on my face. My nose gets a strong whiff of the pleasant perfume she wears sometimes. I pull it off my face to see her. She has her index finger on her lips as she comes down on me, putting her knees near my hips. Her hands go under my shirt, slowly crawling up my stomach. With her thumbs, she presses them into my abs as she continues upwards. When her fingertips reach my chest, I mildly jerk from the tickle. She quietly laughs against the back of her hand, then opens her arms out for a hug.
“I missed you so badly,” she says, holding me tight.
“Badly? It’s only been seven days.”
“They had me working hard all week. I was yearning to be with you again.” I pull her close against my body as I press my face on her breasts. “My hands were cramping hard a few days ago.”
“How are they now?” I say in a muffled voice. She combs my long hair with her fingers starting from my scalp, and then to the ends of my hair.
“They’re good, but I’m worried they’ll get worse. How bad was your week?”
“Same old song and dance. Yesterday, they flogged me for giving one of the guards a nasty look.” She stops combing my hair and reaches behind me. I try to push her away, so she won’t see the bruises. “Don’t look at it.”
“Let me see it, Zazarel.” I give up my resisting block, letting her view my back. “Why didn’t you put medicine on it?”
“Calm down, Vodkis. It really isn’t that bad. You know I hate the ointment we use. The numbing feels so weird.”
“But does it hurt, Zazarel?” She says a bit loud, breaking our quiet dialogue. I nod my head, yes.
She reaches under my bed and grabs a bottle of medication. Her fingers carefully rub the pink powder into my wounds. For a quick moment, it burns, then the numbing sensation kicks in.
“Stop acting like a fool, Zazy. You have enough scars on your back from other punishments,” she says, leaning over the bed to put the bottle away.
“It can’t be helped.” I hear her let out a long-winded quiet sigh. She kisses me around my neck and shoulders, then wraps her arms around my lower abdomen. “Hey, Vodkis.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s have some great fun tonight. I have a sudden urge to let loose.”
“You wanna have some fun?”
“Mhmm.” She breaks away and rolls around in my blanket. “What are you doing?”
“Come unravel me, but do it slowly and gently.”
I roll her on her back. She giggles with the most delicate smile. I get deeply mesmerized by it while taking the blanket off. Once I unravel enough to notice she isn’t wearing her shirt, she lunges at me with a barrage of kisses, pulling me down on her body.
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Consecutive three knocks on my door wake me up. I immediately shield Vodkis with my body, but I’m outside in the courtyard near the water well. It’s in the middle of the day.
“Why is my bed out here?” I say.
I look around to find a door, but there’s nothing around me that could make that knocking sound. Vodkis is sleeping, so I try to wake her up. She’s not waking up to any of my calls or shakes. In the distance, up a hill, I hear loud stomps get closer. Meloian troops appear over the hill shooting at us wildly. I quickly take to the skies with Vodkis in my arms. My blanket gets stuck between us, so I wrap her in it. The soldiers follow me, continually shooting at us with their rifles. I fly as fast as I can, dodging everything.
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“Vodkis, wake up!” I say. No response comes from her. Not even the slightest flinch. A shot flies over my right shoulder, making me duck, and somewhat lose my stability. “Leave us alone!” I point my hand at them, releasing a volley of lethal energetic mana. Some hit, taking them out of the sky. One of them drops their weapon and charges at me. I try to increase my speed as best I can, but he manages to grab my feet. “Get off me,” I say, trying to shake him off.
He pulls me towards him and clotheslines me in the face. For a short moment, I lose my sense of awareness as I spin in the air. I land a massive left-handed hook to his face when I get it back. His visor helmet shatters as he falls back. As I look down at my hands, my heart pauses, making my stomach turn.
Vodkis is falling, spinning with her legs and arms pointing up. I rush after her, screaming her name, hoping she’ll wake up. I’m moving so fast that my hair violently swings behind me. The ground gets closer, but I’m nowhere near her.
“No!” I say, stretching out my hands to her.
Out of nowhere, I get a burst of speed, reaching her before she hits the ground. Speeding through the atmosphere creates crackling thunder and lightning that zigzags before me. I land feet first, making a giant crater that sends dirt flying away from us. Above the crater, the guards point their guns down on us.
“Zazarel,” Vodkis whispers. Her eyes slowly open to me, then to the soldiers.
“Don’t look at them,” I say.
“Zazarel,” she says in a shaky voice. I turn her face to look at me. Tears stream out of her eyes, which makes me cry too.
“Vodkis, I love—” A Loud metallic crash cuts me off from finishing my sentence. I protect her body, fearing the soldiers are shooting at us, but they’re not. All I hear is gunfire and screaming coming from different directions above us.
Suddenly, my mind gets bombarded with flashes of images. I see my people running, dying, fighting against the Melonians, and then at the end of it, I see two tall blurred figures with two different glowing hairs. One is facing me, leaning a charge of faceless armored men and women behind them. I look at the blurry one on the right. It stands a foot taller than the thing to the left. Its hair glows a blinding white while the other is a highlighted turquoise color.
My vision goes black, then I feel a sharp pain inside the right side of my chest. All of the air leaves my body like it’s being sucked out. Before I blackout, air comes back in from within rather than breathing it in. I hear someone knocking on the door, and I jump out of bed, shielding Vodkis.
“What? I’m back?” I say.
“Zazy,” Vodkis mumbles. I’m sweltering and out of breath. I hear the same three knocks spaced out in three intervals. “It’s just the watchmen. Come back to sleep.” She touches my back and grunts. “Zazarel, why are you wet?”
“I just had,” I say, moving away from her, “a terrible nightmare.” I get on my knees and hands to catch my breath but end up crying.
“What happened? What did you see?” She comes down to the ground with my blanket to comfort me.
“We were being attacked by guards. You were in a dead-like state and wouldn’t wake up. I had to fly away with you in my arms while they shot at us. One of them caused me to drop you, but I caught you before you hit the ground.” I have to pause because my emotions are making it hard for me to speak clearly.
“Take your time.” Her slightly shaky voice and sniffing make me turn to look at her.
“Then they had us surrounded, ready to kill us in the crater I made when I landed. All of a sudden, I heard screaming, which made them shoot at whoever was doing it. I shielded you with my body thinking the soldiers would shoot, then I saw these visions.”
“Visions?”
“I saw our people fighting, death, and these...things at the end of it. They seem to lead a charge of faceless people behind them.” I wipe my eyes with my hands and forearm to try and slowly calm my breathing.
“What did the... things look like?”
“They were a blur, but I saw their hair. One was white like yours but was shining bright. The other, turquoise.” She offers me my blanket to thoroughly clean the tears off my face, then gently strokes my left cheek. “It was horrible.”
“It’s over now, my love. Focus on me. You’re okay.” She kisses me on my right cheek. I take her into my arms, pressing her warm body on my stomach. The tears in my eyes come out again. “Come back to bed.”
I begin to gather my sanity by lying with Vodkis naked together in bed for nearly an hour. Everything in the nightmare is still fresh in my mind, which makes me keep a gentle yet firm spoon hold on Vodkis to lessen its horror. She has her fingers interlaced with my right hand, rubbing the back of it with her thumb.
“I wish I could stay with you after hearing all of that,” she says, kissing my knuckles. I look past the crack of the window, seeing the sun begin to illuminate the sky. “I’ve never felt you shake before.”
“The sun is beginning to rise. Best get ready to leave now.”
“Damnit,” she shouts, banging her other hand on the bed. “I hate leaving you!” I hold her tighter to show my support for her frustration and sadness.
“Get dressed. It’s time to take you back.” As I pick her clothes up, she quietly begins crying. I restrain myself from shedding one tear as I hold her clothing.
“I’ll try to come back tonight.” She sniffs a couple of times to keep the mucus in her nose. “Check up on you to see if you’re doing okay.”
“I would love that, but please don’t.”
“But Zazarel—”
“No. I’ll be fine. Stay within the schedule the community has.” I twirl with her hair and brush it with my fingers. “Okay?”
“Okay.”
I uncover the window and step halfway out to see if there are any guards around. The coast is clear, so I signal Vodkis to jump on my back. She puts on her head wrap and then anchors herself on my back. At first, I carry her through the cornfield then rapidly rise into the air. I cruise through the cover of the clouds at our usual speed, so we can take in the peacefulness of our world without seeing my people in servitude to the Melonians. My nightmare comes into remembrance, but I take more notice of the latter end of it, where the guards flee.
“So odd,” I whisper to myself. “So real.”
“What’s real?”
“My nightmare. It felt like it was showing me something.”
“Maybe it was saying you should not act like a fool,” she snickers.
“That was too surreal for something so small.” I go on to suggest there might be a different meaning to it. We think that it might be a vision of something important. She highlights the fighting and fleeing parts. It matches my antics against Melonions pissing me off. I note that some of the men I work around have the same issue of acting repulsive towards them.
“Are there fights?” She says.
“Some.”
“And your nightmare saw all of that?” I hum to confirm the question and remind her of the crazy images of my nightmare.
“Who would be fighting? Us? Against the Melonians?” She pulls herself higher up my upper back when I reach the two-mile mark from the women’s quarters. “Could it be one of their enemies from space?” There’s minor excitement in her voice.
“They have enemies?”
“I don’t know. But I’m sure there are tons,” she says playfully. When she says that they are tons, her voice goes up.
“I wonder if they’re friendly.”
“If they are, please get us out of their hands, but I don’t think they’ll ever let us go. They rule the planet. We’re too valuable it seems.” I’m lost for words on what to say. I don’t think we’ll ever get out of this hardship. “Zazy, how long have our people been like this?”
“That’s a mystery that alludes us all. I really wish I knew, Vodkis. I want to know how we got here and the history of our people.”
“I would like to know too. And, I wanna see what the rest of the world looks like.”
“Ah,” I chuckle. “Me too!”
The women’s housing building comes into view through the thin clouds. I fly down into her room and gently hover down on the ground.
“Stay safe,” I say.
“You big dummy, you need more safety than me. I work on clothing all damn day. You work on trying not to instigate guards.” She giggles only for a short moment. “You stay safe. I love you and don’t scare me when I come back next week, you hear?” I give her a few kisses and a hug that ends up wrapping her legs around my back.
“I love you so much,” I whisper.
“Say it again,” she gently says in my ear.
“I love you.” We stay holding one another for a few more seconds, then I bolt back into the sky.
“Zazarel!”
“Yes?” She raises one finger at me as she squats her feet on the ground. With one giant leap, she flies past me. I catch her in my arms as she falls back down. “What are you doing?” I ask, laughing while hovering back to her room.
“I wanted to show you how far I’ve gotten before I see you again next week.”
“Wow! I’m surprised you’ve jumped that high. Soon you’ll be able to fly and won’t have to walk miles to see me.”
“I can’t wait! Now, go. I’ll see you next weekend.”
I finally leave Vodkis’s lovable, energetic presence and jet back to the men’s quarters before I get punished by the guards for leaving. In the middle of my flight, I see faint images of the nightmare appear in the shadows of the clouds.
“What is happening to me?” I say. I rub my eyes and stop seeing them, but a dark figure emerges. It opens its arms to me and bursts into a white flash. The black afterimage I see is of a woman’s figure. I blink a few times, and it goes away out of my eyesight. “A vision? I need to seek an oracle before the day starts.”