Lights flickered after years.
The cryostatis chamber was a tomb of shiny metal at the center of which Lady Savi Baranta’s pod was a sarcophagus. The ship’s computer monitored the blue capsule, and maintained the physical link with its occupant. Eight and a half foot tall, Savi looked like an alien pharaoh with her long-fingered hands overlaid upon her slim and thin chest, awaiting resurrection.
According to the screens, the delicate procedures required to wake her up from her dreamless sleep engaged after orders dispatched by Central Command. She discovered them twenty-four hours later—standing naked, but plated by memory implants, she explored the dossier by interacting with the computer panel.
She was pleased going to the robotic wardrobe, which opened and pulled out her robe. She brought its velvety fabric over her slimy skin and slick implants, tying the waist strap with a simple knot before heading away from the bowels of her flying fortress.
On her anti-gravity throne, she checked outside the great wall windows and to the channeling of space-time—she was on her way to the bridge from where to make further investigations.
Reading the dossier, she learned how the Pranksters contacted the high Zig government before the events at Site Three, pleading it not to make use of extra-galactic prisoners in any show. She was totally unaware how such pleas were disregarded after their source was deemed unreliable.
After their attack, the Pranksters insisted that the Zigs stopped tracking them, cede the prisoners, and comply with their policies if they didn’t wish to be defeated at their first and only intergalactic war. The Zigs obviously replied they were looking forward to it, and no other communication took place. Only then—at the final stage of the military operation involving the recovery of the precious stolen cargo—Savi would be actively taking action. She had yet to wait a while to play her part, but she did have lots of ways to entertain herself in the meantime.
* * * *
When the limo finally stopped, sunlight came from a beautiful dawn—it reflected on the black metallic paint as Marco, the first one out, walked over a neat gravel parking lot. Around him was a park with majestic pine trees—those spared when logging a section of the pristine forest that grew on all sides of the sloping property, with the park reaching the whole mile down to the cobbled shore of a round volcanic lake. The air was cool, being enclosed by mountains as they were. Gianluca’s millionaire mansion was the only one around, with terraced balconies and an inner orchard, fashioned in stone and on two stories like ancient Roman villas.
Once Gianluca was out of the limo they both watched it going back up the driveway. It distanced itself on the lone stretch of tarmac that went out and to other valleys, there where the early morning fog was starting to dissipate.
Marco followed Gianluca up to the front doors under the columns of the porch.
“Nice place you got.”
“Since recently. The martial arts masters also have their private apartments in it,” replied Gianluca, opening the residence. Inside the air was wetter than outside and colder because of the stone walling.
“When am I going to meet them?” asked Marco, and his voice resonated in the hallway with windows giving on to the outer garden. The floor was wood and the plastered walls had abstract paintings brightened by electric lamps.
“Later on. Oh, talk of the devil!”
Gianluca was about to reach a door down the hallway when from the near corner came a really odd looking alien. It stood on four flimsy legs and, like a centaur, had arms coming down from shoulders on top of a more or less humanoid torso—but he was an insect! He—because somehow Marco got that impression—was nothing like the ant-like Kronians, but more of a praying mantis with bulging mandibles, antennae, and the whole nine yards! Unlike with Kalexis, it would take Marco a while to get used to his foreign look.
Since Gianluca was everything but scared of encountering that insectoid, Marco discretely observed it while it scampered up to him. Standing a little taller, he appeared sorry about having made such a sudden appearance.
“Apologies, Marco, but I had to meet you before we all got together,” he said. “I wanted to say thank you.”
“Apologies accepted, but you shouldn’t thank me,” replied Marco. “I had no idea I did you a favor.”
“But you did,” insisted the alien, standing real close to him. “Without the attention you and Kalexis generated, my people would have never been abducted by the Zigs.”
“Thank the Zigs and their stupid shows, then,” said Marco, shrugging.
Gianluca intervened and saved the situation from becoming embarrassing. “Marco, this is R’kek,” he said.
“It is an honor for me to acquaint myself with you,” said the brownish praying mantis. “Will you be training with us, then?”
Marco was too honest. “If I have to.”
“You can’t wish away your past, nor hope not to face its consequences.”
“Ah, you sound a lot like someone I know,” said Marco, “That’s why I am going to.”
R’kek was impressed. “I’ll leave you two,” he said, louder this time. “Rest, take your time, Marco—you will meet the other masters tonight.”
Gianluca opened the door to his apartment and Marco said goodbye to R’kek, entering a lounge with couches and a wide carpet. An archway led to a dining room with a view on the blossomed bushes and fruit trees of the inner garden. Both the inner and the outer side of the apartment were shaded, and electric lights were switched on so Marco could examine the place.
Gianluca invited him to sit on the couch and warm up beside a modern pellet stove. He was about to take out some heavy drink from a cabinet when Marco asked him not to, and if he could have a cup of coffee instead. After he showed him the toilet, Gianluca went to the kitchen to prepare some breakfast.
Marco got back in the lounge to sit on the couch again, only reopening his eyes when he heard footsteps. In turning around he saw a woman wearing a floppy pajama that still showed her curves. Her hair was red, long, and curly.
“Alors c’est toi,” said the woman.
After understanding perfectly, Marco got up and around it to introduce himself, stating she was both pretty and strong. He extended his hand to shake hers, and for a moment he was afraid she would take advantage of that grip to execute a martial art’s throw on him, considering her form.
“You must be Letice.”
“Yes,” said she, “and this my home. You will be living nearby, in a detached residence.”
“For as long as I have to,” replied Marco, moving back to sit on the couch as she took place on the two seater next to his.
“So, will you take part in the training?”
“Yes, and I’ve already told R’kek,” said Marco, lowering his eyes—it seemed everybody there was out to put pressure on him.
“Good,” she replied, “and for how long do you intend to stay?”
Marco wasn’t too sure about going ahead and replying—from how she sounded, he would be disappointing her by saying he only intended to train for a month.
“So?”
“It depends—I want a real life with Kalexis, but I see the importance of training.”
Gianluca came back with coffee and seeing how his loved one was awake he went back to the kitchen to get some for her—right after he gave Marco a plate with a couple of toasted butter and jam sandwiches.
“You should shower and take the rest of the day off,” said Letice. “You will find life here to be authentic—except for the monsters.”
Marco sipped the black coffee that Gianluca remembered to sugar, leaving the toast for later—he didn’t want to risk putting sticky crumbs down the sides of the leather cushions. “I hope I don’t sound rude if I ask you how you got involved with Gianluca.”
Gianluca came back with coffee for himself and Letice. “Not at all. Everyone knows how Gianluca helped with our rescue, and I wanted to know him. I decided to stay with him in this virtual reality, to live in peace for some time in case the Zigs get to us.”
“So you’ve been just... living here for the past three years?”
“Basically,” replied Gianluca. “We used to be with the human community before you came around—everything was spotless since the incident.”
“Let me ask you, Marco,” Letice then said, “how can you refuse this?”
Marco finished his coffee before bluntly replying, “It’s not real.”
“It’s not inferior to reality,” retorted her.
“This place is the creation of an alien—an artificial world that a computer writes in our memory,” affirmed Marco. “It may be lifelike, but it is just an imitation.”
“So it’s only by knowing its basis that makes it less real to you, when you know nothing about who created the universe you call real, outside,” she said.
Marco paused for a moment, surprised by the philosophical statement of the young woman before him. After what she must have been through on Earth it didn’t surprise him she thought positively of the Prankster’s virtual reality.
“As a child, I’ve seen men hunted like animals. I starved, lived in hiding. When I asked my mother what happens to us when we die, she told me that life was a curse and that God took pleasure in seeing us suffer. That there was no paradise or hell, and either an empty void or the eternal repetition of our existence awaited us—” she made a pause in which she took a breath, and with it she sighed— “there is so much struggle in life that you can only hang on to faith, Marco. I had faith in my mother when I went on to prove to God that I could survive, slip away from the dangers he threw at me. If my mother is still alive, I owe it to you and the Zigs.”
Marco couldn’t really speak after hearing that, so he let her continue. It seemed even Gianluca never heard Letice tell her story that way.
“I’ve studied them and what they want to do to us,” she said. “They are still looking for us. What I don’t understand is how you can’t give this existence another chance, how you can’t see that your life will be very short once outside—while it can be everlasting in here.”
“We sure have a long time to wait before the Pranksters get us to safety,” stated Marco, remembering what Sathkela said.
“Another galaxy,” replied Letice, nodding.
Marco noticed her small nose and cherry lips, other than how her eyes were light green. He didn’t reply, giving a careful bite to the butter and jam toast instead. He took his time to chew and swallow it. “What if more serious, irreversible problems happen next time? We are no safer from death here than we are in the real universe.”
“Come on Marco, at least here we get a break,” argued Gianluca.
Marco wasn’t too happy about them trying to convince him that leaving was a mistake—it just reminded him of how much he missed Kalexis, and even if he tried to hide it he still became sad about it. Looking at the carpet, in the corner of his eye Marco saw Letice whisper into Gianluca’s ear. In effect, Marco lifted his head up and gave his friend a questioning look.
“Marco, you should really go and shower—I might as well take you to your crib, so you can make yourself at home and all.”
“I guess,” said Marco, getting up together with Gianluca. He said goodbye to Letice and she winked at him, only increasing that strange feeling. A hunch he didn’t investigate while following Gianluca through the hallway and around the first floor of the building. They got to a back door, then on the path through the park and up tendered woods. After a short trek they arrived at a stone cottage, hidden from view down below and set in thicker, younger trees.
Nearing the house, Marco was puzzled by finding a detail was out of place—the front door was exceptionally wide, especially considering how the wall, rinsing up to a second floor, was rather narrow.
Gianluca stopped near the closed doors of the entrance, by the picnicking table with the wooden benches. “You will find everything you need inside.”
He started to walk back, to pass beside him so he could return to the villa but Marco stopped him on his tracks. The view on the lake was even better from up there. “You think it’s harmless to play along, but I’m starting to think it’s very dangerous.”
“The only dangers you will find here are confined to the trial ground,” said Gianluca. “Take it easy, see you tonight, pal.”
Marco watched Gianluca disappear behind the line of gray pine trees growing beside the grassy slope. The small wild flowers were starting to fill the field with bright yellow and purple, the sun rising from beneath the eastern rock face. When he turned back to the odd looking front of his house he found the doors were open, and right on the threshold stood no other than Kalexis.
She was smiling happily.
Marco bounced in surprise. Gianluca lied to him, and he didn’t doubt Kalexis played a part in pulling that horrible stunt!
“It’s all in the name of good old fun, isn’t it? It’s not funny how I went into a coma—if that’s even true!”
“I’m afraid it is,” she said, her smile fading, “but I wanted to return as soon as the Pranksters solved your neural decay problem. I did go into deep sleep, but I asked to be returned once they fixed you, so to begin your training.”
Marco was very happy to see her after all—but quite a bit mad at Gianluca and the Pranksters. “Do you still want to train with me for two years?” he asked.
“If we can, certainly. Come on in, Marco, our house is quite nice.”
Simply going through the open doors made him horny. The bottom floor was a single room designed for Kalexis—it was dominated by a concave nest shaped to accommodate her, large enough for Marco to join in on it to cuddle or rest. To a side was a semi-circular fireplace, with logs of woods surmounted by a flat TV screen.
The place was lit softly by LEDs, and Marco could almost say it was dark. All four windows were veiled by undecorated drapes, and in the half-light at the far end—opposite to a black table with animal residues on it—Marco could see the stairs up. Standing by the entrance, turning left was a rack holding up a brand-new leather armor designed for Kalexis. He stepped in to take a better look around.
“Nice, isn’t it?” she asked, closing the double doors.
Marco went upstairs, finding his own bedroom filled with assorted medieval weaponry. Everything was really basic and effective. There was also a bathroom and kitchen—with electric appliances, hot water, and a very good sound system provided with his favorite discs.
The house was actually warmed and kept free of humidity thanks to the fire burning downstairs, with hot air channeled upstairs through pipes. In exploring his private apartment, Marco couldn’t but agree with Letice about the timeless qualities of a virtual reality where the rough contact of his fingers against the mortar between the individual rocks that made up the wall was exactly how he remembered it to be.
Finding everything he needed to, he put a coffee on the gas cooker and went to take off his wet clothes in the bedroom where—along with weapons and armor—he had a chest with a selection of clothes he used to own at one time. Undressed, he gulped thinking she was waiting for him downstairs. It was a long time since they had seen each other, and Marco knew that it would inevitably happen again. His heart already pounded at the thought. When he started to shower he could smell the coffee and rushed to the kitchen, dripping wet. Soaped and watery, he poured the coffee into a tiny porcelain cup, blew on it, and drank it very hot and with no sugar before rinsing himself. He considered having sex with her, but only after he spoke to her.
Wearing a pair of shorts and a light sweater, he walked downstairs without slippers, putting the naked soles of his feet over the fur of the skins that carpeted the stone slab flooring.
She was brightened by the flickering light from the chimney. He almost lost balance on the springy nest in front of it, letting himself fall onto her before resting his back between her limbs. She positioned her arm over his chest, and they just sat there watching the flame, joined in contact for a while before she spoke.
“To love you is the strangest thing.”
Marco gently lifted her arm away to get up and grab a log to throw in the fire. “The same is true for me,” he said, turning to her once happy with how the log sat atop the burning stack. It struck Marco how exceptionally beautiful she was, in a way he felt a little undeserving of love from such a magnificent creature. He wasn’t concerned by the whole oddness of being with her, and the various instances in which that relationship was the pivoting element of a very popular show.
“What do you want to do when we’re free?” she asked him with uncertainty.
Marco sucked in his lip. “You want to train me to fight on the experimental planet, and you ask me what if we don’t have to?”
She invited him to rest against her once more.
“I’d like to stay with you, no matter what.”
“What about humans—aren’t you going to stay with them, have a female and, well...” she was lost for words but Marco understood perfectly well.
“Gianluca told me—I won’t stop you from repopulating your race,” he stated, taking his place next to her.
She raised her brow in surprise and seemed relieved.
Marco took in all of the implications that came with that—he wondered what he could be doing with himself while she was looking after her dragonlings! He didn’t rule out how that would make him acquainted with other Araks, and certainly Kalexis’s future mate.
“I will be yours,” she claimed. “But I’m glad you understand how I owe my race help.”
“Does that mean you will be seeing other Araks around here?”
“From time to time—and you should do the same with humans.”
“And find myself an adequate mate?” He then started to stroke the soft skin of her underbelly.
“If I find you desirable, I’m sure you are among your people as well.”
“I was never very sought after.”
“Time changes everything!”
“Honestly, I prefer to be with you.”
“And why is that?” asked Kalexis, touched.
“Because you are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me,” he said, before he hugged and caressed her for the most part of the morning.
When Marco woke up, he was hungry and felt like he had to go to the bathroom again—that really was the beginning of his permanence in the Prankster’s virtual reality. Kalexis hunted game in the near woods and that was how she kept herself alive, while he had to rely on the food supplies that every now and then came to Gianluca’s villa on a lorry.
After his afternoon siesta, with a stomach full Marco went for a walk around the property with Kalexis. Together they climbed further up the side of the mountain to where she showed him the stretch of forest that would be his trial ground—where he would have to fight against monsters as part of the training.
He wasn’t too scared about the idea of fighting with sword and bow after having gone through life-threatening combat situations when involved with the Eilon Control Agency. The situation was finally clear to him—once he was ready to stop dreaming, he could either expect a free life or one of torture and slavery for which he would prepare. Acknowledging that, he just loved to be with Kalexis in a place of relative tranquility, fascinated by her and every little thing she said.
Coming down the mountainside, Kalexis told Marco how they would join Gianluca for dinner, so to meet the team of trainers. Marco mentioned how he already met R’kek, and couldn’t wait to see what other kinds of aliens would join them around the table.
There was a feast for twelve ready in the living room on the second floor. Gianluca showed Marco and Kalexis the way upstairs, then opened the wide inner door. Glass walls and an access to a terrace, but no one was out there, as it was both dark and cold.
The meals were already on the table but not everyone was seated. Even if dazzled by the array of faces staring at him, Marco immediately noticed the special recliner Kalexis would be using to join them. Everyone’s attention turned to him as he walked in beside the golden and sandy space dragoness.
No one was dressed for the occasion, and races whose practice was not to wear any clothes at all, didn’t. R’kek, the four-legged human-sized praying mantis, felt no need to cover his slick brown exoskeleton. A six-foot tall, evidently female, humanoid stood behind and held to the recliner of her transparent plastic chair. She had big blue eyes, her face covered in white fur just like her beautifully shaped body, with fox ears, round breasts, and digitigrade legs.
Marco thought her black canine nose to be very cute. Her thick coat of fur was her garment that evening, the color of cream actually, and he couldn’t refrain glimpsing at her nipples and genitals—she had a fluffy tail, though it only concealed her behind.
Sitting next to foxy was a rough looking alien guy—from how he looked at foxy before looking at him, Marco gathered they were involved. This alien clearly didn’t belong to foxy’s race and was wearing clothes—a tight-fitting t-shirt with military badges, camouflage pants, and army boots. He was dark skinned, had coal red eyes, and a black lumberjack beard. His muscular arms and hands were covered in very short fur, his nose was flat and wide, his forehead sloped and the top of his head shaved, with braided black hair behind his pointy ears. Sitting by his furry girlfriend, such an easily intimidating alien looked surprisingly friendly.
On the other side of the table, getting up from their chairs and turning around to check on Marco coming in, was another odd couple. The larger one was a reptilian similar to the Eneheans but with much broader shoulders—a grunt in his leather armor. The scales and skin of his hands and face were a light tone of green, his head raptor-like but with a more pronounced cranium. He was holding a pint of beer, and close beside him was a shorter, flimsier but graceful looking creature—its body was entirely covered in red and yellow feathers, it was roughly humanoid but with the head of a crow, and Marco couldn’t say if it was either male or female.
Initially he was embarrassed by bringing Kalexis over to a party where everyone could establish how they were involved. But even if he had to thank the Zigs for it, seeing all those mismatched alien couples put him at ease. There were three people other than R’kek standing away from the table, two of them talking together and one being alone facing the glass wall.
Redhead Letice was there as well, getting up to show them to their places.
Marco was acquainting himself with the furry female—Yvala of the Ervetii—when the two aliens at the far end of the room came up to him. He was introducing himself to Yvala when he deciphered a rapid though complicated series of facial expressions coming from her boyfriend—silently conveying admiration for how he managed to get Kalexis to be enamored of him!
The alien with the burning red eyes, dark skin, and coal black hair was Gon of the Kunatash, Yvala his loving wife. Marco was cut short by the incoming aliens before he could say hello to the big reptilian guy and the colorful feathered creature with him.
One was humanoid with blue eyes and blond hair, looking almost like a man if not for his oddly elongated face. Almost seven feet tall, he wore an army coat and greeted Marco with a smile. The alien beside him was considerably shorter, with a disproportionately large and bald head with human-like eyes, small ears and light gray skin—he was wearing a black sport’s kimono with red and gold embroideries, a longsword in its decorative sheath hanging from his back almost grazed the ground.
Kalexis shared a few words with Gon and Yvala while Marco got to know the gray alien with the longsword and the big blond guy with him. With Gianluca standing by, Marco introduced himself to Vashim the Fourth—celebrated swords-master of the Sinyr—and to his chatty colleague Iugid.
In just a minute Iugid made it clear he never thought much of being a martial arts world champion until the Zigs selected him to be the hero of his people on the experimental planet.
Next, it struck Marco to discover how the small, feathered creature with the big reptilian dressed in leather was in fact a male. His name was Quin, and he also fought the Kronians after taking refuge on the planet of his companion Dodlomedin. Quin and Dod were more than friends to each other and, just like Yvala and Gon, or Marco and Kalexis for that sake, were picked together as an interracial couple to endure on Zig shows. Marco learned how Vashim, R’kek, and Iugid were chosen by the Zigs to fight individually, many hundreds of years after his show was planned to end. Getting to know those gladiators made him fully understand how others such as Letice and Gianluca, part of the largest majority of abductees either living in that virtual reality or already in deep sleep, really were considered by the Zigs to be nothing more than sacrificial victims to feed their craving for violence. More than ever was he convinced that training was the right thing to do.
Gianluca and Letice invited everyone to take their respective places at the table—Kalexis sitting on the transparent recliner to one side of it—and that mysterious alien looking out of the wall decided to join them as well. The tone of his skin was olive and his features gentle. When Marco saw him walk he did it with incredible lightness, which suggested he was extremely agile. When he finally lowered his hood and began to eat, Marco noticed his oblique shaped eyes. His nose was fine just like his chin, with hair the color of wood in a ponytail. He sat at the other end of the table.
Gianluca revealed to Marco his name was Tael, a very skilled archer and sniper. Tael’s mate was still in deep sleep in order to mend brain damage caused by the VR.
With everyone seated, there was much more eating and drinking taking place than talking. New courses and rounds of drinks were brought in the room by a shiny and very convenient android butler. Marco didn’t ask what the kitchens were like as he filled himself up choosing from a selection of known and unknown foods. There was a bit of everything for everybody, but no one did quite as much chowing as Kalexis. She went through three liters of lager served in one liter mugs, having half a raw deer with it.
He especially liked some of the spiced meat, preferring red wine instead. After all that alcohol and feeding, it seemed to Dod that it was the right time to speak his mind about the occasion—just after Kalexis returned from the bathroom.
“So, Marco, I assume you understand the importance of your training.”
“I do now.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, and everybody went quiet. “Have you seen or met your own people, those you will have to defend if we are recaptured?”
“I have yet to, but I know they are at stake. That’s why I am going to give a hundred percent during my training. I can’t believe you are here to teach me, it honors me immensely, and I hope you will forgive my lack of skill.”
R’kek, sitting on the side of the table opposite to Kalexis where he, too, had his own special chair, had a different opinion. “We all know what you’ve gone through. I can tell you have talent.”
“Luck, luck is the word,” replied Marco, finishing his wine glass. “I will ready myself, but where are the others?”
“Do you mean other Zig heroes?” asked Iugid, sitting on the same side of Marco on the long table.
“Yes.”
The short gray swords-master in the black kimono, sitting opposite to Iugid, wasn’t too happy when he replied. “Some are asleep, but others are attending more advanced training programs.”
“How despicable,” said Tael, out of the blue. “How could they not train in the face of evidence? Resting and relying entirely on the Pranksters is foolish.”
Marco gulped in hearing him say this, as he had considered it himself.
“At least that proves we had a choice,” argued Gon, both his hairy hands holding the edge of the table firmly. He was right opposite to Marco, and his red eyes gleamed. “What matters is to always have more than one.”
“Freedom!” exclaimed Quin, the small colorful feathered and crow-headed humanoid. “If we must fight to save our people, there will be no other choice.”
Quin closed his beak and Dod, sitting beside him, took the chance to speak to Marco. “Not all the heroes the Zigs have chosen are prepared to put their life before that of their people—” he drank some more of his beer— “the Zigs have chosen them because they wished to see their races succumb, and you can see it for yourself. We tried to convince them to train, but they refused to do so... because they are cowards.”
It was Yvala to continue. “All of us here are very competent fighters,” she said, sitting next to her boyfriend and opposite to Gianluca. “In your case, the Zigs were more interested in your relationship, letting it be Kalexis to provide most of the fighting power on the experimental planet. We are planning to change that.”
Marco raised his eyebrows but allowed her to continue.
“I’m glad that you realize you’re unprepared, Marco, and that you wish to give this a try. I’m afraid to admit that most heroes who refused to train were chosen for reasons beyond their competence as fighters.”
“I see,” said Marco, stroking his chin as that also pertained to him. “I just hope you are patient enough. I thank you for being here and helping me out rather than, you know, attending some more advanced training program.”
Some of the fighters around the table laughed, and some smiled at Marco’s remark, even Tael.
“There’s nothing wrong with a lack of training,” said Letice, “what matters is your desire to make up for it.”
There was cake and, to Marco’s amazement, everyone had coffee after it, and even the dragoness asked for it in a larger cup. Kalexis had time to get to know Yvala, and Marco listened to the story of how she escaped from three planets before ending up alongside Gon.
Everyone there had once been involved with the Kronians in one way or the other. If R’kek knew of his actions on Earth, then everybody there had to know how he was implicated with the Eilons before being transferred to the Andromeda galaxy—he was glad nobody brought it up.
Kalexis had herself another liter she couldn’t finish, while Marco simply enjoyed his digestion. It was then that Vashim—the gray skinned, kimono-wearing alien—got up to say something in Gianluca’s ear before they both came over to him. He asked Marco to join them on the terrace where they smoked, something he didn’t expect from that tiny alien sword master. Marco was happy to come along, and the three went out on the terrace, where they reached the railing to look down the park, at the lake and mountains on its other side, the light from fake stars paling up the night.
Vashim rested his back against the railing, faced the villa and looked through the glass walls and into the spacious dining hall. As he did, he took out a shiny tin container from the one and only inner pocket of his kimono, and opened it to offer Gianluca a machine rolled cigarette. “You may get the impression that by training you, we are giving the Zigs a better show,” he said to Marco. He then lit his cigarette and passed his snake-shaped lighter to Gianluca. “It’s true, but everyone here wants to give humans a better chance by improving your odds.”
Vashim exhaled smoke that rose to the clear sky. “I’m glad you decided to train with us,” he said, then took a slow drag.
After they got back inside, a tired Marco relaxed, enjoying what turned into a private party. After making himself comfortable on one of the couches, he spoke with Dod, Quin, Gon, and Yvala. He overheard part of a conversation on fighting techniques Kalexis was holding with Vashim and Iugid. Tael returned to his solitary self by the window and R’kek kept him company. Letice and Gianluca were still sitting at the dining table and talking, but too far for him to tell what about.
Gon and Dod were leaving followed by their mates, so Marco approached a drunken Kalexis. He just couldn’t stop her from discussing the Eilon-Kronian war with Iugid and Vashim, so they could get back to their house and sleep before they started the following morning.
“... ancient Zig law had a dramatic effect on how and when the Eilons reacted,” stated Vashim.
“By enforcing tight interracial laws and segregating reserve planets, they weakened the Milky Way,” said Kalexis. “I hate how they only did it to keep... harvesting.”
“Horrible thing,” said Marco, inserting himself.
Iugid replied to him. “The Zigs really didn’t care about warning the Eilons of the dangers of Kronian expansion. Differently from all other Zigs, Xono did give the Milky Way a chance by telling you what he did.”
“I was told he is still alive,” said Marco, facing the alien with the squared, long face. “But I’ve seen the documentaries about the fall of the Eilon Empire—his hopes didn’t come true.”
“They were still bringing their ships back when the Kronians unleashed their star destroyer,” commented Vashim.
Marco was too tired to take on such a sensible subject. Being very near to Kalexis, he literally grabbed the opportunity of leaving by attaching himself to her foreleg. He got her attention that way and—although a little displeased—she understood he wished to go.
“If you guys plan to start with me in the morning, we better be leaving—I’m up since dawn,” he added.
Kalexis approved, and then Marco shook hands with Iugid and Vashim. “We all wished we could have saved our homes,” said the latter, “some live in denial, some have decided to stay in this fantasy... but I’m proud that you’re willing to train, and am looking forward to teaching you.”
It was really nice for Marco to be complimented like that, especially coming from someone like Vashim the Fourth, famed sword master of the Sinyr. Gianluca got up from the couch to accompany Marco and Kalexis out and down the hallway and through the inner garden. Kalexis offered herself to carry Marco on her back all the way to their house, which was quite a way up the park rising with the mountainside. She was drunk but wasn’t falling all over the place because of it, so he gladly accepted. He took place ahead of her wings, with his arms holding her neck and his legs her chest. When she took off like a galloping horse he struggled to stay on. She slipped and skipped in places where the path was muddy, tearing up chunks of loosened grass.
Marco thought she should have been hose-bathed before being allowed into the clean house. The fire was out and the lights off, so it was even darker than outside. There was still some residual heat, but they would have both slept in the cold if he didn’t do anything about it.
While Marco found everything to restart the fire, she sat down in her nest breathing heavily after her mad dash. Before he knew it she closed her eyes, falling prey to a sudden and very deep sleep.
Making sure the fire would burn for at least three hours, Marco just stared at sleeping Kalexis. He decided he wanted to get the quilt that was over his bed and bring it downstairs, so to sleep next to her. Wearing just his underpants he stepped in her nest—he wasn’t sure she was conscious when she shifted to better accommodate him against her belly. Covering himself with the quilt, Marco smiled happily when his toes warmed by her nether regions.