His fingers wrapped around the grip of his bow. The small female valos’s gaze found his eyes again and she made sounds that could only be taken as garbled pleas. The scene playing out sickened him. The man pressed her into the moss. The fight within her waned.
Galan lifted his bow and notched his arrow. The male released his erect member and thrust open her legs.Are they mating?His confusion and unease strengthened. His own member surged forth at the prospect and his eyes narrowed.
She has tears streaming down her cheeks...
Galan placed the shaft on his arrow rest and aimed. The female who still stared at him with wide-eyed horror, eyed his weapon with sad confusion and dug her fingers into the dirt. She jerked into herself when he released.
The man dropped on top of her without a sound louder than awhoosh. The female wailed and dragged herself out from underneath the male and crawled to Galan’s side. He held his bow out and helped her to stand up, his eyes never leaving the male valos. He twitched and convulsed on the ground, shuddering as if lightning had struck him from above.
Galan, still uncertain about what he’d done, stepped forward for a closer look. The female stood sniffling behind him. When he turned the male over, glassy eyes met his.
“Don’t—don’t kill me,” the male sputtered, saliva spraying Galan’s face.
“What did the female do to you?” he asked in his own language.
The male shook his head.
“What did she do to warrant such a disrespectful punishment?” Galan asked again, knowing the male should know the language of light. All valos did. In all his research, in everything he had seen, never had he heard of a punishment offorcedmating. The thought of such an intimate act brought low by law and pain churned his stomach. He would do anything to find relief, anything, but not force someone into it for his own selfish reasons.
“Please...”
The female at his side picked up the downed male’s rod and lifted it, pointing it point blank at the male’s face. An ear-splitting blast erupted in his ears, sending him back in shock. Then another one followed, this one accompanied by a burst of excruciating pain. The woman was now pointing the rod athim.
Galan blacked out, knowing he should’ve never gotten himself involved.
***
HE WOKE UP TIED TOthe burned-out metal temple with his wings bound painfully at his back. A chain of linked metal secured his wrists and ankles and rivets of the electric lightning he had seen the strange valos use before. But this time the lightning wasn’t made of flashing pictures but was red and hot, and when he tested out his chains, it seared his skin.
The light it gave off, subtle at most, was barely enough to feed on but it was enough to replenish the barest minimum of his strength. It was the beginning of dawn.
Galan released a shaky breath and tried to relax.Wait. Wait a little longer.His shoulder hurt and he looked down to see what had gotten him—what the female had done—but it was bandaged up. When he flexed his muscle, dull pain coursed from the hidden area. His bow and quiver were no longer strapped to his body and with a quick glance around the space he was in, they were also nowhere to be seen.
He closed his eyes and knocked his head back but the vibration that sounded through had him opening them again. He was near the strange temple.Not inside it though... I can still see the sky.Strange forms, corroded and bent and damaged by fire lay about him. Sparks flew from cords off to one side, sizzling the air until they vanished into the ground. Small booted footprints were everywhere, especially around his body.
They took me.And to some small amusement, he knew they had studied him as he had them. Which meant one thing: he knew as much about them as they did about him. He had an advantage when day broke.
I’ll have to avoid the rods they carry.All he had to do was wait. The smell of soot and char filled his nose, making him cough, making his feathers shake and molt beyond its banding, making his shoulder ring out in pain.
“You’re awake.”
His eyes flicked up to see a female, the same one as before, stepping out from the gloom. He peered at her through the darkness but couldn’t see her features clearly. His gaze fell on the rod she carried.
“So you see my gun.” She lifted it off her belt and pressed several triggers. It was enough for him to replicate later if he needed too. “Good, that makes things easier.”
She took a step closer to him, swapping the weapon from hand to hand until she pulled a smaller, square device from her shirt.
“Are there others like you?”
He didn’t understand; he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t look at the first glint of the sun rising through the thick trees.
“Are you here to hurt us?”
Galan ignored her and waited.
“Will more of you come?”
Shivers of stray light coursed through him. His wings stiffened almost to the point of breaking his chains.Not yet.The female clicked the new device in her hand and something stung his head behind his right ear.
