His Beautiful Nightmare 》Voltron [Voltron WA 2017]

Chapter 1

"That's the last one right?", Shiro called out to Lance.

They had come to the planet Kalpin, because a Galra battleship was on its way. The paladins were helping the locals round up their cows into the cave. Well, at least to Shiro they looked like cows.
Lance was riding one into the caves now.

"Yeah, this is the last one", Lance called, grinning. "Hi-ho Butter!!"

The cow shook its grassy mane, knocking Lance off, then ran right past Keith.
Kieth watched the small creature run into the caves, then looked at Lance, who was brushing dirt off of his suit.
"Poor cow", Keith muttered.
"Poor cow?!", Lance snapped, "Poor me! I'm the one who fell off!"
"You were also the only one stupid enough to ride it!"

"Cut it out you two!", Shiro ordered, "Today is not the day for your fighting!"
He ran a hand through the tuft of white hair on his head before putting his helmet back on.
"Hey Allura, any news on the ship?", he asked into the microphone.

"It's about an hour away now. But Shiro, there's a prisoner on board. Only one. Please exercise caution.", the princess said, concerned, "One prisoner is very strange, and very rare. It might be a bit more dangerous than usual."

"We'll be careful, Princess", Shiro assured. He hailed the other four paladins over.

"Any news on the ship?", Pidge asked, his hazelnut eyes watching the sky as if the ship would appear any moment.

Shiro explained what Allura told him.

"One prisoner?", Lance echoed, "Are they special or something?"

"This be no mere Galra battleship , lads!", a raspy voice warned.

The paladins turned around and saw an old Kalpanian hobbling over on a tree branch cane. His red eyes were furiously trained on Shiro, and his dark green skin was wrinkled with age.

This must be the village chief, Shiro thought, and stuck out a hand. "Hello sir".

The chief smacked Shiro's hand away with his cane. "Nevermind your 'hello sirs', just shut your trap and listen!", the chief barked.
Shiro quickly retracted his hand and just gave a curt nod of respect instead. Lance snickered.

The chief ferociously waved his cane at the sky, "Listen here you fools! If there is a prisoner on that there ship, just ignore it! I know exactly what ship is coming, and there is no life worth saving having to face what's on that ship!"

Keith raised an eyebrow, "What's on that ship that could possibly be that bad?"
The chief jabbed his cane into Keith's chest, causing the red paladin to stagger.

"The Nightmare...", he hissed.

"What's it going to do? Make us wet our pants?", Lance smirked.
The chief spun around and swung at Lance, but missed entirely and hit Hunk with the cane instead.

"Owww", Hunk whined, rubbing his head.

"This is no laughing matter!!", the chief raged, "I've seen it myself! An abomination bred by the Galra Empire! It moves faster than the speed of light, and can tear apart metal with its bare hands! No known force in the universe can stop it! No one has been able to survive it's silent attacks! You'll never make it out alive!"

Shiro's eyebrows furrowed, "It doesn't matter if this 'nightmare' is on that ship, so is a prisoner. We can't just leave them in there. Right men?"

Everyone gave the chief a stiff nod.

The chief grumbled.
"Don't expect me to give you fools a funeral", he scrawled, and hobbled off.

"Someone forgot their meds", Lance muttered.

Shiro tried scrambling his brain for information. If there really was a "Nightmare", wouldn't he have heard about it?

Is something like that even possible?, he thought.

But it didn't matter. A good leader doesn't back down just because of some alien superstition.

"Okay guys", he said, facing the others. His black eyes met each of theirs. "We get in, get the prisoner, then get out. Then we take down the ship."

"What about the Nightmare? ", Hunk asked fearfully, " I mean, I'm not afraid, okay maybe I am, but we just can't go against some huge monster like this."

"We avoid it at all costs", Shiro told him, "We only face it if it attacks."

If it exists.
The black paladin was seriously doubting the chief's lore about it.

Hunk got his answer, but fear was still in his dark eyes.

"Get to your lions"