GALAN
He gathered every gun from the temple he could find and piled them into a corner well away from the humans. Some of them he kept for himself, strapping them into agun belthe was given by one of the males. He didn’t like the feel of them on his body but since his bow had vanished, and with it, his arrows, he had little choice. His aim was perfected by countless dawns and shooting a gun gave him no issue now.
A shriek rose up in the distance, followed by several others. He stepped toward the entrance and took inventory of the temple’s broken pieces on the outside.
After he had subdued and wrangled what humans he could, he made preparations, dragging his female along with him wherever he went to explain all the temple’s strange... and captivating contraptions. He’d learned more in one day about the race than he had ever in all his existence about any of the other valos on Sonhadra.
Attached to another belt, one that ran across his chest and barely fit his frame, were things called power sources, bullets, rechargers,aid-crap,some things that ran off of wireless, a wristlet that powered up with blue electricity, and several other gadgets he had collected throughout the day while he healed.
Each species of valos had their own creations... trophies. The light valos had their traveling cities, the stone valos had their gigantic stone labyrinthine structures, and the Northern ice valos had their jewelry—the human valos had something entirely different: machines and electricity. He was only beginning to understand it, but as he looked at the humans he and the female had trapped in the back of the temple, he didn’t want to learn the wonders from them. Galan wanted to learn them from Yahiro.
Even now, as the thought of her—a female he felt like he had known forever yet had never met—made his body shudder with pleasure and his blood flow. The connection he had to her, the one he and Sundamar felt, had built the entire painstaking day, and being away from her made him breathless and on edge. He felt harder than he used to be, more impulsive, and his swollen member had remained engorged. It made every movement uncomfortable.
The humans had noticed and commented on it but he made it clear that it wasn’t for them. It was for his raven-haired female.
“Can I please have a gun back, alien?”
“No.”
The female named Annie sighed. “You can’t keep us weaponless. We have no idea what’s at stake for us here.” She waved her hand around angrily.
“You can get them back if you can get them back. I don’t trust you.”
“That makes two of us,” she hissed, throwing something against the wall and making the interior vibrate and hum. “I should’ve killed you! I should’ve fucking killed you. Should’ve let you bleed out your fucking alien blood next to that piece-of-shit Brailen. I fucking hate men—aliens!” Annie continued to rage like she had a dozen other times that day, and he tuned her out. Her voice grated on his nerves. The only thing that stopped him from killing her was that she let him live... and unwillingly gave him knowledge of Yahiro’s world.
The sounds of the night-predators rose. His ears twitched and he knew the humans couldn’t hear the danger approaching them.The danger they summoned.Galan rippled his wings, knowing it was almost time to leave and looked down at the tablet that glowed blue and white light in his hand. The pictures on it were unbelievable.
“Tell me more about your Creator.”
“Godzilla lives in the ocean,” she said with a huff, her anger leaving her.
Galan narrowed his eyes and glanced around. Nothing about the humans nor temple screamed ocean. The ocean valos would know there was a contender.
“He once fought the Avengers.”
Avenger. Vindicator. Retaliator.Revenge. That impressed him, to fight against an ideal.
“He breathes fire.”
“And he created you? You haven’t breathed fire yet. Prove yourself to me for once.” He looked away from the screen and back at the female. An ocean and fire Creator didn’t make sense to him. Her strange way of saying things, as if she were mocking him, hadn’t gone unnoticed and he knew not to take anything she said as fact. But he was learning, regardless, and he was still healing from his wounds.
Playing the part wasn’t hard.
Annie snickered, “Sure thing, alien.” She left his side and went back into the ship, returning a minute later with a small white stick between her fingers. He watched as she approached a cable that continued to spark and placed the tip of it under until the end glowed. She brought it to her mouth.
Her next breath was smoke. The smell of it turned his stomach. Galan grunted in approval but jerked, returning his attention to the outside and purple dusk. The ak’rena were closer.
The piercing howls rose up, nearby, and with it, the stench of fear from the humans.
He turned back and looked at Annie, who, since this morning, hadn’t shown fear until now. “This won’t be a good night for you.”
“Why?”
Some of the other humans joined the conversation from far back but he paid them no mind. “My blood will attract them.” And he had bled, a lot, but his wounds weren’t deep and the bullets in his frame hadn’t stayed there long. His ear twitched as he stepped out of the ruined sky-wreck, the sun lowering further behind him. “They’ll be here soon. Several packs. Too many to take down in a single night.”
“Give us back our guns then!” one of the trapped humans yelled from further in the broken tunnel system.
Annie peered around his arm to look at the forest. “They didn’t come last night when you bled. You bled a lot last night. Why now and not then?” her voice shook.
