Chapter 5
We stopped in front of a wall and Corran fastened my handcuffs again. I winced as the metal dug into my skin. I was scared to even walk for fear that it would trigger the spikes that Corran had mentioned. Hopefully they weren’t that sensitive.
"Remember what we said," Thane said softly, a hint of trepidation in his voice for the first time. I looked up at him worried. He always seemed so confident. It didn’t seem like a good sign that he was beginning to freak out now.
The wall dissolved in front of us, and I felt a cool breeze across my face for the first time in a month. Corran had explained earlier that scientists had been able to manipulate the environment to keep the temperature ideal for Veon’s citizens year-round. In places that they needed crops to grow the atoms in the atmosphere had been altered to produce wetter conditions, similar to the tropics. For the Vepar who worked in those types of climates, a sort of force field had been created that allowed personal ozones to be created keeping them cool and comfortable while they worked. I was amazed at how advanced the Vepar were compared to humans. The ability to manipulate nature had seemed impossible to me before Corran had explained it.
Despite their admonition that I needed to keep my head down, I couldn’t help but try to get a look at the new world I found myself in before I was locked away, perhaps permanently.
It was so colorful, and not what I expected.
A simple observation, but I had never seen such a lush looking place before, especially considering the air felt perfectly cool, somewhere in the upper 60s or lower 70s.
We were in a large grassy clearing that looked like it could fit a few dozen spacecrafts. Large mountains surrounded the clearing. There was a variety of tree species spanning the mountains in all different colors. I had never seen a purple tree before but here I was seeing hundreds of them. Flowers bloomed all over the clearing in every color imaginable. I felt like I had walked onto the set of Wizard of Oz. Everything was so bright and beautiful that it hurt my eyes. I couldn’t imagine the guys wanting to stay on Earth over this.
Overhead, two suns hung in the sky, and Corran leaned close, whispering, “We have a binary star system. The suns revolve around each other as our planet circles them.”
I’d never heard of a solar system having two suns before.
As soon as I had that thought I spotted two lines of Vepar standing in front of a brown structure that had a roof that curled into the sky. My mouth dropped. I had never seen so many beautiful creatures in one place. I said creatures because they were human-like with legs and arms, but at the same time...they were distinctly alien.
Once I got past their first flash of beauty, I noticed what set them apart. Some of them had horns... horns of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some were short and pointy reminding me of ears, while others were curled like those mountain goats, the colors varying from creams to blues and blacks. Others had thin tails coming out of their rear ends that seemed to have pincers at the very end. I watched in amazement as a particularly attractive male picked something up on the ground that he had dropped with his tail. Others looked normal with the exception of their eye colors. I had never seen orange eyes before, let alone some of the other colors that caught my attention. All I could do was gape at them, the very opposite thing that Corran and Thane had told me to do.
“What are you doing?” Thane growled.
“It’s all so amazing,” I exclaimed, finally averting my eyes to the ground where they were supposed to be.
Suddenly something struck me. If the Vepar here had all of these different characteristics, why didn’t my Vepar?
Everyone on Earth said they used disguises to cover their real appearances…. And they were right.
“Do you have horns or a tail?” I asked. I’d never imagined that such features and strange eyes were something that I’d be attracted to. But seeing them on all of these beautiful Vepar had me thinking differently. It was so exotic...so exciting.
Thane stared at me for a moment, seeming to be thinking over his answer before he spoke. “We’ll talk about it later,” he finally said gruffly. “Now keep your head down before we look even more suspicious.”
Well that wasn’t a no, I thought somewhat excitedly. Then I finally remembered that I was supposed to be hating them, and I was about to walk through a line of Vepar that thought I was lower than the dirt at their feet.
Fear started to stamp its way up my spine as we began to walk, tramping the wildflowers under our feet. I watched as they sprung up as we moved, none the worse for wear. Even their flowers were superior to the ones on Earth…
The air thickened with hostility as we got closer and I shivered. The line consisted of all men, their glares skating all over my body, and I felt wrong and uncomfortable. I had never encountered such hatred before. Thane and Corran must have felt it too because they both inched imperceptibly closer. Thane gave a small nod to Corran, who took over holding my arm tightly. Thane fidgeted with his belt where he was keeping the silver stun gun that I had seen him use before. Did they think we were going to be attacked?
I made the mistake of lifting my head when a large neon purple bug landed on my face. I put my head down again quickly, and blew a breath up my face to get it off my nose. A quick shake of my head and it flew away. But the damage had been done. I’d looked them in the face and seen them up close. The Vepar no longer looked beautiful. Their faces were scrinched in hatred and twisted with disgust. I couldn’t help but wonder what they had heard about humans to give them so many strong emotions.
From what I understood, I was one of the first humans to ever be brought to Veon. At least on Earth we had reason to hate the Vepar. After all they had come over and taken control of everything. As far as I knew, the humans hadn’t done anything to Veon. In fact, the Vepar needed humans to keep their population going. It seemed a little ungrateful to me.
“Vadiah,” one of the Vepar hissed at me. I didn’t need my language translator to understand that whatever he had said was not a good thing.
Corran and Thane both stiffened next to me and I heard Thane give a growl that made the Vepar step back. I had been under the impression that all three of my Vepar were higher ups in the Veon society.
My Vepar...why did I say that.
More angry voices spat out hatred and curses as we walked through the line. Thane stiffened, his hands curled into fists, like he itched to shoot them all. I expected Thane and Corran to stand up for me, but I guess that would go against the impression they were trying to present me as their prisoner. I wondered what the Vepar would think if they knew that I had slept and made blood bonds with all three of them.
The thought made me absurdly want to laugh. And then I wanted to cry again.
Maybe I was going crazy.
We finally made it through the line and were about to enter the building when I was hit in the back of my head with something sticky and horrible smelling. It slid through my hair, down my neck, and into the back of my pretty dress.