Page 51 of My Big Scaly Alien Naga
She walked along the jungle floor with her elegant gait, tails erect and moving in hypnotising patterns.Her three eyes blinked slowly in welcome.
You are safe.Her voice was as warm as always.
“We are,” I said aloud in the dream.“We made it off the planet.”
Venom nodded.“We’re aboard a ship.The Bloodstar.The Intergalactic Authority is here.They’re preparing to strike against the game makers.”
Her feathers rippled with interest.They have not come here yet.
“No,” I said, stepping forward.“And we will try and make sure they don’t.”
I didn’t know why I suddenly felt the urge to protect the chii from the IA, but I’d learned to trust my instincts.
Venom nodded in agreement.“We will not reveal your existence to the IA.We promise.Kalumbu should belong to its own people.Not become another outpost or colony.”
She chirped softly.Thank you.
“Are the others okay?Ba’quoo?”I asked.“Tyvaron didn’t hurt anyone?”
The trees behind her shimmered with new colours – hundreds of golden, bronze and silver chii, their outlines somewhat fuzzy, but the message was clear.They were safe.
They left.The sky-beasts were summoned, but their hearts were not aligned with the hunters.Part of the forest is burned, but none of us were harmed.
Relief poured through me.
Venom tightened his fingers around mine.“Then I hope that soon, you will be able to live freely again.Out in the open.No more need to hide.”
Sa’quii padded forward.Her feathered tails brushed against my hand.
You both carry light now.Stronger together.You have bonded.
I blushed.“We have.”
You will change this world.Maybe more.
I felt it then – a faint ripple of energy as the dream began to pull apart at the edges.The way it always did when dawn approached.
“We’ll come back one day,” I promised.“Not to interfere.Just to see you again.”
We will be here.
Her voice lingered even as the dream melted into mist.
23
Venom
Two cycles later
The station smelled sterile.Not clean, not new.Sterile.Scrubbed of identity.Every surface was white, metallic, neutral.No sign of the cruelty it had once harboured.No blood.No bodies.Just silence.
A false kind of peace.
I stood at Clare’s side, our fingers lightly touching.She hadn’t let go of me since we’d stepped off the Bloodstar’s shuttle.Her heart beat steadily through our bond – a soft thrum of nerves, grief, and something stronger.
Resolve.
She didn’t flinch at the sight of the cryopods.She didn’t falter when the first woman was woken.She just spoke to her in the gentlest voice I’d ever heard, told her where she was, what had happened, and that she was safe now.
