Chapter 19 - Zyntarr
I do not know what I am looking at.
But I know it is not something good.
I am cursing all my feathers that I did not just pick up my female and the youngling and take to the skies as soon as I caught the scent of the strange creature.
It speaks, and something tells me its words are its own, not like the mimyckah.
They are not of these lands, for I have never heard tale of anything that resembles such a thing.
And they have stoneless weapons. I see no blades, only the things they hold in their strange, bone-like hands - the things that they now point at me, my female, and the youngling.
“I am bleeding,” Zuul says as if the sight of his own blood has offended him. He lifts his spear again, pointing it at the creatures with their strange, big eyes and twitching branches on their heads. “You will pay-”
One of the creatures unleashes its weapon aimed at the ground at Zuul’s feet. The thing had shot out a piece of lightning like they wield the powers of the Goddesses themselves. The forest debris where the strange lightning hit is blackened and smoking.
“We are here for the human females. You have one. Where are the others?”
“You will not have any females,” I growl, itching to pounce on these things and see how strongly their bone-like arms are attached to their strange bodies. “Especially not mine.”
“The female is not yours,” one of the creatures says, producing a flat, strangely shaped rock from within the drape of his coverings with yet another arm.
He taps the rock and turns it around, showing a side that glows with markings.
“As you can see here, we have the purchase receipt, and all the human females that landed here with our brother, Z’irri are the rightful property of Mama Z’rykby.
We have been sent to collect her stock.”
I can feel my little Bea grip my feathers tightly at my back. I can smell her fear. A quick glance down and I see Tyll’s tiny, blunt spear poking out from beneath my left wing. It is shaking.
“Hand the female over,” the largest, talking insect commands, raising his weapon. “Or we kill you, and take her anyway.”
I open my mouth to refuse him once again, but another one of the creatures hisses to his brother instead, “remember we are to keep casualties to a minimum, Yat. This is a conservation planet, and if the Xavianns find out we have interfered with the native species-”
“Hush!” the larger creature spits. Is he possibly their Second Spear? And this ‘Ma-ma-zur-ick-bee’ they speak of may be their High Spear. “I am concerned only with retrieving the stock that Z’irri lost.”
“What do you need them for?” Zuul asks, wiping the blood from his cheek onto his chest. “We cannot spare the female. She and her kind were given to us by the Goddesses as our mates. But, if your tribe is in need of Protectors-” he slowly reaches behind me, making the creatures track his movements with their lightning weapons.
I keep my spear up, pointing at the large one, but my heart drops when I see Zuul pull Tyll out from behind me by his little arm.
“Perhaps you will take my son in the female’s place? ”
“No!” my Bea screeches. I have never heard such a sound come from her mouth.
She pushes past the protection of my wings to try and get to Tyll, but the creatures then point their lightning weapons directly at my mate, and I cannot have that.
Dropping my daggers with a clatter, both my arms brace her body to my chest as I try to angle her away from those things. “No!” she sobs.
“Zuul!” I snarl.
He looks at me sharply and simply says. “We need to keep the female. We can have more sons.”
Little Tyll looks from his father, and then to Bea and I, his eyes wide and filled with fear. His tiny, blunt spear is still trembling in his unsteady hand.
Zuul cannot do this. I will not let him do this.
“He is small now,” Zuul continues, talking to the creatures as he grips his son’s small arm tightly. “But he will grow to be strong and capable. I know this because he is of my seed.”
The creatures take a moment to look little Tyll over. At least, that is what I think they are doing - it is hard to tell with their insect eyes. The largest starts murmuring to the other two without turning to face them;
“Mama may be impressed with new, exotic stock…”
“The Xaviaans will-”
“The Xaviaans never purchase slaves. How will they find out?”
“This is not true! Why, Mama sold three to Xaviann royalty four seasons ago-”
“Quiet, Yix!” the large one barks before turning back to Zuul, waving his lightning weapon as he talks. “We will take your son, and we will have the female. You will take us to the other females, and we will be taking them, too. You do not have a choice in this. Simply comply and we will not harm-”
His words are cut short by a small gasp and it takes me only a moment to see that where there used to be two big, bug-like eyes, there is only one now. Instead of an eye, there is a scorched mess. One of his brothers had unleashed lightning upon him from the back of his head.
I waste no time and throw a blade from the ground.
I would have liked to aim at either of the other two creatures, but it lodges into the chest of their leader.
He falls, leaving the other two completely exposed.
I do not know which of them had turned on their Second Spear or why, and I do not have time to figure it out.
One of them unleashes their lightning at Zuul just as he launches his spear.
The spear hits the creature’s shoulder, making it split the jungle air with an unnatural yowl.
It unleashes even more lightning - four blasts one after the other, all hitting Zuul square in the chest. He falls to the ground where Tyll still stands, frozen and afraid.
Shoving Bea back behind me, I reach for Tyll to do the same.
I throw another blade.
It does not find its target.
These things wear such coverings that it is hard to tell what is flesh, and what is hide. I reach for my spare spear strapped to my back and aim at the middle of the creature, just as it turns its lightning upon me.
There is a flash like a falling star.
My whole body jerks backward.
Pain ignites like a fire.
And then comes the blackness.