Desert Lily

Chapter 3

Chapter 3
Kai

I stood on my Sran as it sniffed around at the sand. Its large beige horns dipped down into the sand, uprooting some bones from the earlier dump. Those humans have been dumping their people and other creatures on our planet for a long time. They'd always be flying in their weird spaceship before releasing the bottom of it and leaving. But, once they're on the planet, they never leave. Apparently, the beasts in the mountains have been taking down their ships or crashing them.

"Come." I called while pulling on the reins as my Sran whimpered before moving around more slowly. Gently adjusting the hood over my horns, I scanned the area again as I noticed something in the distance. Four different beings were watching me as my Sran stopped to play around in the sand. Hmm, they must be the only survivors left of the attack by the Cliaggoron. I thought to myself as they disappeared again. Too bad that I was sent here to finish them off. Maybe, they'll just disappear so I won't have to deal with them. But, if I don't deal with them, somebody else will and it'll be worse than me.

Sighing, I rubbed the mask over my face before my Sran was abruptly pulled down. Quickly looking down, I was surprised to see the roots entangled around its entire body. What did that? I questioned while hopping off of my Sran as some noises caught my attention. I turned back towards the direction of the beings that were previously occupying the gathering caves. Out of the entrance came four beings, all ranging in size, shape, and color. The one that piqued my interest the most was the tallest one with dark brown skin. Short dark brown curls fell down her back as she quickly turned to look at me with her dark brown eyes. She looked frightened but it was understandable. We've never seen each other before and I was supposed to be hunting them down.

"Neau, that's enough playing around." I firmly commanded while turning back to the small sand dragon who had freed herself from the roots earlier and was currently rolling around in the hot sand. She kept burying her horns into the sand before tossing it over herself. Just like my species, the Srans were also cold blooded and loved the feel of the heat from the sand on their scales. Sighing, I turned back in the direction of the weird looking beings. They can't be going too far, I'll just trail behind them. I thought to myself before Neau pushed the side of her face against my clothed arm. She was always in a playful mood. I thought to myself while patting her head before hopping back on her back as she awaited my move. Pulling her reins in the direction of the humans, she happily sunk down into the sand, swimming through it as we rode on.

Lilium

It had been a few days since we landed here and we were getting more adapted to this planet. We quickly learned that more creatures came out at night when the fog rose up over the sand. The temperature would drop pretty quickly when the suns would disappear. Apparently, this planet had two suns. One was the huge one hanging out during the day and the second one was a little smaller that oddly only seemed to appear when the first sun was setting. That'd explain why this planet was so hot. We'd hunt during the evening while the suns were setting and have our meal cooked and finished before the temperature dropped. Whatever was left of the creatures we had eaten, we buried its remains in the sand further from the cave we were staying in. At night, we would all quietly huddle together to keep warm as the beasts outside would scream and fight over the entrance above us.

"How long are we going to stay here?" Yareli questioned as the sun began to peek in through the entrance of the cave. The headache that suddenly appeared a few days ago started throbbing and aching as I leaned my head back. Noise from my right let me know that Nuri was finally up as she groaned while stretching.

"I'm not sure. We could always find another place to stay but it'll always end up like this. We'll be stuck in a cavern, trying to find a way to survive." Nuri shrugged while fanning herself as she quickly pulled off her orange shirt, revealing a white cami underneath. "It's hot and I'm tired of these clothes sticking to me." She complained while Wren nodded in agreement before taking off her shirt. As Yareli began to take off hers, Wren slowly unfastened the muzzle on her face causing us all to stop what we were doing.

"That thing is fucking hot." Wren grunted as we all stared at her. You could see where the muzzle was as it slowly began to turn red. All up and down both of Wren’s arms were tattoos, mostly one big dragon starting on one arm and ending on the other. Wren’s voice was slightly deeper than mine. "What?" She asked once she realized that we were still watching her.

"Damn, Wren. You look jacked and you look like you can beat somebody's butt. But, your voice is so soft and deep!" Nuri exclaimed as I agreed with her. Whenever we would eat, Wren would take off her muzzle a little but not fully.

"I'm used to working out a lot and having to use my strength." She explained with a shrug as Yareli looked at her in surprise.

"Did you work at a restaurant with your family or something?" Yareli inquired as Wren softly shook her head before looking up at the hole.

"No, I never knew my mother or my father. I pretty much went from one foster family to another before I ran away and joined some shitty humans in their organization." Wren explained as we all nodded in understanding. That made sense for her tattoos. "If I'm going to be honest, you three feel more like a family to me than those damn humans I ran with." She smiled as I couldn't help but smile back at her. Over these past few days, it really did feel like we were a family. "What about you three?" She asked as Nuri leaned back on the wall.

"Only child to a loveless marriage between my mother and father. It wasn't a secret that my father wanted a son so I was married off before I could even comprehend what was going on." Nuri shrugged before turning to me.

"Ahh, I umm was the oldest of three kids with only my mother taking care of us." I mumbled, not really wanting to talk about my family as Yareli leaned forward and touched my ankle.

"I had a mother and father who were both very loving and sweet. I had a younger sister who was shy of everything but she was smart. This ribbon belonged to her." Yareli smiled while raising her arm to show the silver ribbon tied around her wrist that none of us had noticed. "I guess we all have a little in common." She added as I just closed my eyes. I was growing more tired by the minute. It felt like my energy was starting to drain from me.

"Guys! Something is coming and it's coming quickly!" Nuri loudly proclaimed as I slowly opened my eyes. "How are we going to get out of here?" She asked, panic settling on her features as I slowly raised my left hand before roots pierced through the rock wall near Wren. It quickly became a bigger hole as Wren looked over at me with worry on her face.

"The roots seem to lead a little further away from here back to the surface. If you three follow them, you'll be able to get out of here in time." I softly panted as sweat began to quilt my orange shirt. Wren quickly rushed over to me as I gently swatted her away. "There's no time to worry about me. I'll close up this hole once you three pass through it." I instructed as my breathing slowly grew haggard.

"Please be safe, Lily. One day, we'll all meet again. We've made it this far." Yareli smiled sadly as Wren held me in her arms, which surprised me.

"You better come meet up with us again!" Wren proclaimed as Nuri nodded before they disappeared into the hole. Struggling to raise my hand, I used up what little strength I had to close up the hole before dragging my body over in front of it. Whatever was coming for us would have to go through me. I thought to myself while putting more of my powers into sealing the hole completely before I collapsed onto the ground, covered in sweat. The throbbing headache had come back but at full force almost pounding against my skull. Panting, I kept fighting against the exhaustion that kept pulling at my eyelids. In the midst of my fight, I hadn't noticed the tall dark silhouette drop down into the small cavern, walking towards me until my eyes could no longer stay open.