Olivia lifts her chin and looks up and back at me, tears running down her cheeks. “Krellix.”
“Give us the girl.” One of the soldiers takes a step towards her. “Back off now or I’ll shoot and make you!”
I force my hands to my sides. “I am not here to fight,” I growl, tense from my jawline down, ready to attack at the smallest movement. “You can have her. The young female is gravely hurt. Sssshe will die without immediate treatment. I cannot help her anymore than I have. She needs human assistance, and she needs it as soon as she can get it.”
“Back off!” the one slowly approaching yells at me again.
I snarl at him and he freezes. “I will assure that she is ssssafe first, soldier,” I hiss in contempt. “You and your weapons do not frighten me.”
But they do make me extra alert. Their weapons will hurt me if I get shot by one. I have felt the graze of bullets in the past and even the toughness of my scales cannot shield me from that. And if one of the soldiers shoots at my head and hits it, I might very well die.
The male inches forward, a small gun in one hand while the other remains empty and out at his side. “Back off and we’ll do what we can for her.” On either side of him are two flying robots following closely. Barrels stick out from them, also aimed at me. “We have faced your kind before. One of you is no match against all of us. Back! Off!”
I stare down at the puny male, taking in his aged, wrinkle-lined features and the gun gripped in his right hand.
“Please do what he says.”
My eyes drop to Olivia, who is still looking up at me. Pain and stress contort her eyes and mouth, exaggerating her small stature and pallid skin. My teeth grit and my nostrils flare in reaction. Worry clouds her expression. I do not want her to be worried about this, not when she has so much already to contend with.
“Don’t die on my account,” she whispers up at me. “The others still need you.”
“Back off—” the soldier shouts “—now!”
Glaring back up at him, I slowly retreat. When I get more than a tail’s distance away, several of the soldiers run forward. Two males pick Olivia up and take her away. I watch them go until she is out of sight behind the barricade, only returning my attention to the older soldier still in front of me when she is gone.
“What are your intentions, naga?” he asks, checking me up and down, evaluating me sharply. He is older than the other soldiers, and dirtier too. His hair is unwashed and dusted in white. But I know keen eyes when I see them. “What happened to the girl? How did she get hurt?”
My eyes narrow as anger, and the abrupt urge to avenge my kin, takes over my thoughts. The need to wipe each and every one soldier here out until what remains of my clan’s old territory is back to being unoccupied. The least I could do for them is to make these humanspay, even if they are different than the original humans that came here.
Silence fills my ears as he waits for my answer. An answer I hesitate to give.
These are Julia’s people.
My lips part and my hands slowly unclench. “She and two others were the only survivorssss of a ship they were on,” I decide to answer him, choosing a less violent course of action. “The injuries she sustained have made it hard and painful for her to breathe. Can you save her?”
The old soldier is silent for a moment. “Our field medics will try. Where are the other survivors?”
“I left them in the forest when the young female worsened.”
“Are the others hurt as well?”
“No.”
Coiling my tail under me, I prepare to race back to them—to Julia. Now that Olivia is with those who can care for her, it is they who need me. I move to turn away when the soldier lowers his weapon slightly.
“If you shoot me,” I stop and warn him, “I will claim your life before the bullet hits me.”
The male stiffens. “Of course you will, naga,” he snaps but does not re-aim his weapon. “That’s why I don’t plan on shootingyou. Yet. As you are clearly well aware of us and our presence here, I have to ask, do you intend to be our enemy?”
I shake my head, still half-turned away. “I am not your enemy, human. You are mine.”
The old male narrows his eyes and considers me once again. “An enemy all the same. Except that does not answer my question. Do you intend to harm us or return for the girl? Or return with these others that are still out there? What is your intention here? It is not like your kind to just… save a human.”
I scowl at him then bite back the reply I want to say. I did not expect this amount of anger to fill me upon treating with him. “I have saved many humanssss,” I hiss, glancing briefly at the ships behind me.
But his question is the same as Zaku’s. Are we enemies? Still?
Can I make that decision?
