Deus
I pull at the collar around my neck. It is tight against my scales. Too nevving tight. The thing buzzes at me, a precursor to one of a variety of different punishments.
Most of which I found out within the first five nova-minutes of waking. Given it was sudden and brutal, making me want to shift, to roar, to render things to ash with flame and to find my mate.
It would appear none of those things are what is allowed with the collar.
“Nev you!” I snarl, to yet another warning buzz. “What do you want?”
“Your fellow warlord might have pushed our plans back a little by sending most of us through a wormhole and into oblivion, but he failed to check if we were still operational.”
Next to where I’m slumped on the floor of the large metal room which has long glowing cracks covering the entire surface in a grid pattern, a door slides open, a bright light illuminating a creature which, for a moment, seems reluctant to step through.
“The thing is, if you cut off an Ulep’s head, one will regrow,” it says. “Because we are all one.”
What moves out of the light into my vision is something entirely unnatural.
It looks like it has been pulled together without any regard to how it would actually exist. Limbs are in odd places, and it has three legs and something which it is using as a leg but is not a leg.
The head is set inside the body, fins sprout from multiple areas, and all of it is that green-grey color I saw briefly in my vision.
The smell reaches me and I turn my head away.
“You are something,” I respond. “Nothing pretty.”
“Aesthetics never beats purity,” the Ulep responds. “Or the Sarkarnii would rule the universe and still breed with anything they can put their mating parts into.”
Unbelievably, it seems to shudder, as if the act of mating disgusts it.
I always knew I hated the Ulep, and now I hate them even more. Mating is clearly, far and away the best part of being alive.
“What did you do to our females?” I snarl, ignoring the buzzing on the collar.
“We attempted to improve their fertility, so we could get more of you bred. It did not work,” the Ulep says, as if discussing creating a new pulsar weapon. “Although the female you are currently breeding with seems compatible and robust.”
Rage rises inside me. It is hot, filthy, desperate, and while I should not give in to it, I cannot stop it.
“She is mine,” I roar. “If you have touched any part of her, I will ensure you are rendered to your component parts and burn them to atoms.”
Accelerant fills my fire sacs. I want nothing more than to flame, regardless of what the collar will do to me. I want this Ulep dead.
I want them all dead.
“Good. Good,” the Ulep says, rubbing one appendage against another. “I want you angry. I want all your fire, all your rage. The more you can give me, the better. The more I can use it.”
The collar stops buzzing and clicks. I feel a searing pain in my neck which puts me on my knees.
“What…what are you doing?”
“I want your…what do you call it? Mating mix?” the Ulep says. “It is as potent as your females’ venom. And it is as useful to us as any synthetic drug. The more we can milk from you, the better.”
“Milk?”
“Yes, Deus. You are here to provide us with all we need. Your mix is the best we have ever extracted. Get used to your new quarters. You’ll be here a while.”
I reach out a clawed hand, attempting to get to the Ulep as he steps back through the doorway, but the collar seems to go deeper within me and, as I clutch at it instead, it sends a shockwave through my entire body.
The Ulep is gone, the door no longer there, and I am panting on all fours on the metal floor.
“Of course.” The Ulep is back in my ear again. “We have no wish for you to be uncomfortable. After all, we need you to produce for us.”
From out of the wall next to me, a flat surface evolves. The walls change color, becoming similar to the inside of my quarters in the woods and then slowly extending out to show the view over the valley.
How long have the Ulep been watching the Sarkarnii? It seems like they know too much.
“This is good for you, isn’t it?” the voice says in my ear. “Now all you need is your mate and something to eat. That’s all Sarkarnii require for a comfortable life.”
A slot opens in the wall, meat dropping onto the floor. I stare at it for a while, my entire body throbbing as the collar continues to spear me.
“Hello, Deus.” A voice I’d long forgotten has me lifting my eyes from the food on the floor.
“Lydia?” I blink.
“Oh, it is the human you want,” the Ulep says. “Then you shall have her.”
Lydia stands in front of me.
“No,” I growl. “You do not get to have her.”
“You will produce the mix or she will die,” the Ulep says. “If that’s what you want.”
I stand, fall back against the platform, and then try again, wanting to take Lydia into my arms. Only she is not there. There is nothing there. Nothing but emptiness.
Without Lydia, I am nothing. A bag of flesh and bone.
And mating mix.
I close my eyes. If the Ulep have her, then I have no option.
Get to her or die trying.
Dying doesn’t look too bad today.