“I’ve never seen this type of flower here before!” Iyanna exclaimed, stepping off the path to examine the archway, which was a few feet into the forest. “It just goes to prove that there’s always something new on the Dark Side of the ship! Oh, and look—there’s another new species here as well! Like hanging clusters of little bells,” she murmured, more to herself than to Terra.
“Um, I thought you said we shouldn’t leave the path?” Terra hovered indecisively, uncertain if she should follow her friend or not.
“Oh, it should be okay,” Iyanna said vaguely. It was clear she was completely enthralled with the new species of plants she’d discovered and was going into scientist mode. “Come look at these—they’re fascinating,” she added.
“Well…okay.”
Cautiously, Terra stepped off the path and walked over to where her friend was standing. Iyanna was directly under the arch, which seemed to be some kind of wire structure that the flowers and vines were growing on.
Terra could see the hanging clusters of tiny silver bells—they looked a little like bunches of grapes. But to her, the dark red glowing flowers—which looked a little like roses—were the most beautiful. They reminded her of the banked embers of a fire with their deep, crimson glow. She almost wondered if they would be hot to touch.
“They’re really just amazing! I’m going to have to ask Dra’vik if he knows what species these are,” Iyanna was muttering to herself. “I don’t know how I’ve never noticed them before! Here—come look at this.” She stepped out from under the archway and reached for Terra’s arm to pull her through. “Come look at the way—”
But her words were interrupted as Terra stepped under the arch and a wild ringing broke out.
“What…where…?” Terra looked around her in surprise. To her amazement, she saw that the many hanging clusters of silver bell-like flowers were shaking wildly, making a high, piercing chiming sound almost like some kind of alarm.
At the same time the deep red rose-like flowers blazed to life, getting much brighter than they had been before—so bright, in fact, that Terra could barely stand to look at them.
“What in the world?” she gasped. “Did I set off some kind of alarm?”
“I don’t know!” Iyanna was looking around too. “This is crazy—I’ve never seen plants react like this to outside stimulus before!”
“Well, they’re reacting now—let’s get out of here before we make someone mad.”
Or wake something up, Terra thought, but didn’t say. Suddenly the Dark Side of the Monstrum Mother Ship had lost its charm and she felt like a child lost in the spooky woods at night.
But before she could step out from under the arc, something huge came rushing at her. Something that glowed red in the darkness.
“An intruder!” a deep, gruff voice shouted. “Get out here, you two—I think Tem’blx’s little trap finally fuckin’ caught something!”
FOUR
At the deep shout of the first thing, two more huge somethings came rushing out of the darkness—one glowing green and the other glowing a soft blue.
They were men, Terra saw at last. Or rather, Monstrum warriors. But they were most definitely male. All three of them towered over her and each was heavily muscled. They glowed in the darkness like the flowers did, though not as intensely. Still, it was enough for her to see the outlines of their muscular bodies as they loomed up in front of her, surrounding her in a semicircle.
“It’s our Queen—I knew she would come!” the blue one exclaimed.
“We should be certain before you claim her as our Queen,” the green one cautioned.
“She set off the Heart-finder arch—what other proof do you need?” the blue one asked.
“It’s easy enough—do a fuckin’ Touch-test. And then if we’re still not sure, a Taste-test,” the red one said.
“Agreed—that would be the best way to proceed,” the green one said.
And then all three of them reached for her at once.
“Hey! Hey, who are you and what do you think you’re doing?” Terra exclaimed, trying to evade the big, masculine hands that were reaching for her.
“Yeah—what the hell do you think you’re doing with my friend?” Iyanna demanded, trying to elbow her way between the huge warriors and Terra.
“She may be your friend but she’s our Queen,” the red warrior growled. “Now, I can tell by your scent that you’re taken by another male, so why don’t you just move out of the way and let us have her?”
“Let you have me?” Terra gasped. “What are you talking about? I don’t even know the three of you!”
“Oh, but you will, my Queen,” the blue warrior said earnestly. “When the three of us are bonded, we will serve you faithfully and pleasure you attentively all our days.”
“What?” Terra shook her head. This was getting weirder and weirder! And the closer she got to the three warriors, the stranger she felt. Was it odd that she had the urge to touch them? No, don’t be crazy—you need to stay as far away as you can, Terra, she warned herself. Aloud, she said, “I think you must have mistaken me for someone else.”