Runner's Moon: Yarrolam (20 page)

            “What if the Arra take him away for good? What if they give up on trying to capture me, and decide half is better than nothing?”

            There. She’d finally voiced her true fears—that the Arra would take Liam away permanently, leaving her here alone.

            Hannah glanced at Jebaral before looking back at her. “It won’t happen,
felisi.
They won’t abandon you and take just him.”

            “How can you be so sure?”

            “Because, if we’re kept apart from our blood mates for too long, we die,” Jebaral announced.

            Hannah continued as the car left the shell-packed road and pulled onto the blacktop. “The weariness you’re feeling? The lack of appetite? That’s because you’re needing him.”

            “So I’m going to die if we remain apart for too long?”

            “No,” Hannah answered. “We humans won’t. At least, I don’t think we will. Since we’re not Ruinos, we may be spared that, but we’re not sure. You and Yarrolam are only the fifth human-Ruinos couple that we know of.”

            “So there could be other bi-species couples out there?”

            “Maybe. But we think that if that’s happened, we would have found out about it by now.”

            The car slowed, and Jebaral pulled onto an asphalt lot, parking the vehicle near a one-story brick building. Compton and Challa were waiting for them near the front door. As the couple preceded them into the hall, Cherron noticed the young man’s noticeable limp.

            Sarah and Simon had saved them seats near the front. As she followed Hannah and Jebaral into the building, she was aware of the stares they drew. How the voices hushed considerably. The attention they were attracting. There was an air of tension and expectation filling the large room, giving her an uncomfortable feeling.

            Seven people sat behind a long, wooden table at the front of the room, Cherron took the seat next to Hannah as the man in the center picked up a gavel and banged it twice.

            “Awright. This meeting will come to order. We’ll begin with the pledge, followed by a benediction from Father Rorst.”

            Cherron took a quick glance around, finally spotting Tiron and Thom two rows back, to her right. Thom sat on the aisle seat, his arm resting on the back of Tiron’s chair. As they stood, that arm went around her waist in an unmistakable gesture that was both protective and possessive. On the other side of Tiron was an older woman and a man dressed in a khaki uniform. She guessed he must be the sheriff.

            After the preliminaries were over, and everyone resumed their seats, the man at the head table rapped the gavel twice more.

            “Cecil will read the minutes of the last meeting—”

            “Milton, let’s dispense with all that nonsense and get down to the reason why we’re here!” a man called from the room. Others made it vocal they agreed with him.

            “Yeah! Let’s get the meat of the matter!”

            Milton banged his gavel. “Emil, you’ll get your fifteen minutes of fame soon enough. But first, we gotta follow Robert’s Rules of Order. And that means Cecil gets to read the minutes of the last meeting so we can approve them. After that, we’ll look into old business. And when that’s done,
then
we can tackle the new business. If you can’t abide by those rules, then I suggest you take your complaints outside.”

            “I’m just saying,” the man continued to protest.

            “Or Sheriff Klotsky will happily escort you to the door,” Milton added with undisguised irritation.

            The man relented, taking his seat, and the meeting continued. Cherron tried to get a look at the protester, without luck. The crowd continued to grow as more people arrived, until some were forced to stand and lean against the walls.

            The minutes were read and approved. The old business was quickly taken care of. Finally, Milton asked, “Is there any new business?”

            A single hand went up.

            “Council recognizes Emil Timmons. Mr. Timmons, what is it you wish to bring to the council’s attention?”

            The man stood, finally revealing himself. “You and everyone else knows damn well what I want to bring up. It’s those aliens! They’re nothing but trouble! They brought their war to us, and now they expect us to help them fight some more aliens! Look where it got Lukas Dodson. It got him killed! For what? For no reason! I was talking to Rick Sondergast. He was one of those who fought those white blobby creatures last month. He says Jeb Morr told them those things would be back. That those Arian aliens would keep coming back to try and take them away. That’s why I say, Morr and all those like him need to pack up and leave town. So that no more of us have to die!”

            Several voices gave their approval. Milton waited for the noise to die down before addressing the crowd. But this time, the man looked in Jebaral’s direction.

            “Mr. Morr, do you wish counter Mr. Timmons’ proposition?”

            Jebaral rose to his feet. “Yes, sir. I do. If I may.”

            Milton pointed the gavel to a spot in front of the table. “Have at it. You have the floor.”

            Cherron felt a twinge of pain as Jebaral passed by her and approached the front. She rubbed her temple to try and alleviate the persistent throbbing that developed afterwards.

            A warm hand clasped her arm. “Is it Yarrolam?” Hannah whispered.

            “I don’t know. I think so.”

            “Is he in pain?”

            “I don’t know. God, why doesn’t being a blood mate come with a user’s manual?”

            Hannah patted her arm as the crowd quieted, waiting for the man they knew wasn’t human to plead his case. Jebaral placed his hands inside his jeans pockets, hooking his thumbs in the belt loops like men were known to do, and faced the audience, turning his back to the council members.

            “Hello. My name is Jebaral Gitall Morr. I am Ruinos. I’m from the planet Barandat Vor. When I was a child, I, my parents, and approximately twelve-thousand of my kind were taken prisoner by the Arra. The Arra are slave traders. They deal in taking peoples from their worlds and selling them to other worlds as laborers…and food.”

            The last word caught many in the audience off guard. The buzzing grew louder, but quickly lowered when they heard the sound of the gavel.

            Jebaral continued. “In the years my people were held captive, our numbers were decimated because the Arra didn’t understand Ruinos biology. You see, we take only one mate in our lifetime. Only then can we reproduce. Once the Arra realized that, they forced every male and female who’d reached puberty to have sex. But again, the Arra did not understand our physiology. They didn’t understand that sex cannot be initiated between Ruinos who are not destined to be blood mates.” He pulled out a hand and held it up. “What I mean is, unless we are destined as a couple, we cannot orgasm. And if we cannot orgasm, we cannot fertilize and procreate.”

            “And you’re saying you and a human female accomplished what you couldn’t with one of your own kind?” a voice sarcastically shot from the crowd. Several people turned around, but it was difficult for Cherron to see who had spoken. Fortunately, Milton knew.

            “Just hold your questions, Cody, until the man is finished.”

            Seeing he had everyone’s attention again, Jebaral sighed. “Yes, some of us found our blood mates on the slave ship. Those who were lucky were kept in cages and forced to bear children. Children who were immediately taken away to be sold, or kept in isolation and raised away from their parents, who never saw them again.” He motioned toward their small group. “Challa was one of those taken from her family.”

            “Where is this fairy tale leading us?” another sarcastic voice called from the assembly.

            Jebaral met the accuser eye-to-eye before Milton had the chance to chastise him. “We couldn’t procreate fast enough,” he told the crowd. “Too many had died from their torture. Too many of us had been sold off. Our numbers were depleted to the point where the Arra accepted the fact that their greatest commodity would soon be gone. So they stopped the forced copulations, and were prepared to dispense with the rest of us, when my brother Simolif and I came up with a plan. A plan to escape. After years of captivity, we knew the Arra’s weaknesses. We knew their routines, and we knew that if we didn’t take our only chance and fight for our freedom, then we as a species would soon cease to exist. So when we felt the time was right, we rebelled. We fought our way off the slave ship and escaped in their one life pod.”

            “All of you?” a woman asked softly.

            He nodded. “All we could find that were left of us. All thirty-one.”

            Cherron heard more gasps. There was a sob behind her, but she didn’t turn around to see who it was.

            “We were on that life pod for two years. The Arra searched for us. They tracked us, hunted us. We ran out of food, then we ran out of fuel. We barely made it to this world. When we landed, there was only one thought going through our minds. We had reached freedom. All we wanted at that point was to blend in and live out the rest of our lives in peace. Without the threat of death and pain that we’d faced every day since the Arra took us.”

            The room was so quiet, Cherron could hear the wind blowing outside. It was difficult to tell what the townspeople were thinking, but by the expressions on some of the faces of the people sitting around her, she could tell they had been affected by Jebaral’s story. Apparently they didn’t know the details regarding how the Ruinos came to be on Earth.

            A solitary figure stood and began to clap. Slowly. And with undisguised sarcasm.

            “Very nice fairy tale, ET. It sounds quite convincing, considering you’ve had a long time to come up with it. But it doesn’t excuse the fact that your kind brought those glowing pus balls down on us, and now we’re forced to fight your battles for you!”

            The dissenters raised their voices in protest, amid the heavy hammering of the gavel. Seeing the crowd was backing him, the man upped his challenge.

            “Go away, space man! Get back in that space ship and leave us alone! We have enough problems as it is without you bringing yours to our world!”

            “Yeah! Get out of here!”

            “Leave our earth women alone!”

            “You’re space freaks! Maybe you deserved what you got!”

            The hateful words and accusations grew louder, forcing Cherron to cover her ears against the shouting. At the front of the room, Jebaral surveyed the restless crowd. Then, unexpectedly, he straightened up and began to unbutton his shirt.

            The noise began to abate as the onlookers watched him with curiosity. Pulling his shirt from his waistband, he shrugged out of the garment and dropped it on the floor, gave Hannah a sad smile…

            …and began to morph.

Chapter 29

Warning

            Like the rest of the spectators, Cherron watched in fascination as Jebaral’s features reverted. Changed. Morphed into a tall, green mottled-skinned alien like Liam. Gone were the boyish, all-American looking features. Instead, she stared at the flattened nose, the overly large-mouth he was keeping closed, and the hard ridge cresting his bald head. Although he’d only divested himself of his shirt, they could see the thick padding over his shoulders and at his elbows. Just as they could see his thick, four-fingered hands and talons.

            A couple of people shrieked softly in fear, but no one panicked or tried to run for the door. When Jebaral felt they were ready for the next step, he opened his mouth, revealing his spiked teeth.

            “I know my appearance may frighten you. I know your culture is filled with stories about man-eating monsters with teeth and claws like mine. But let me tell you why I look this way. Ruinos are farmers. We don’t eat meat. We never have. Our world that was is covered with vegetation. We till the soil with our claws, and the plants and trees we grow is what we feed on. But the plants are tough to eat. That’s why my teeth are as they are.”

            A sudden movement next to her turned Cherron’s attention to the audience. She watched as Simolif, Tiron, and Challa slowly strode to the front of the room to join him. All three of them pulled their T-shirts over their heads, leaving the two females in their strapless bras. Standing on either side of Jebaral, they also changed their appearances to let the townspeople see them in their true form. When they were done, Tiron lifted her arms, revealing a set of bat-like wings. So thin and delicate-looking, the veins were easily discernable through the skin.

            “Ruinos males till the ground, but we females harvest the food. Since much of our diet comes from the trees, we’re able to fly up into the branches to gather what we need,” Tiron informed them.

            A man rose from the audience. “And what, pray tell, is all this Halloween mumbo jumbo supposed to mean? All right! We know you’re aliens. Thanks for the show. But it doesn’t erase the fact that there are alien bounty hunters out there, looking for you people!” He raised a hand and pointed at the ceiling. “You’re bringing those creatures down on us, and threatening
our
lives!”

            “Which is why we’re willing to leave Tumbril Harbor if you vote it so,” Jebaral announced.

           
Cherron.

           
She glanced around to see who had called to her, but everyone’s attention was focused on Jebaral. The crowd’s whispering grew in intensity, until Thom DeGrassi stood and walked up to the front to join his wife. Drawing an arm about her shoulders, he pulled her tightly against him, making it clear how he felt about his mate.

            “All of you know me. I’m a native Tumbrilite. I was born here and grew up here, until I left to study at the academy in Crescent City, where I joined the police force. Do you honest to God believe I never questioned myself when I discovered that the woman I was falling in love with was an alien from outer space? Do you think I never questioned my feelings for her? Or my sanity, for that matter? Because I did. Many, many times. But one thing is certain. Where she goes, I go. I brought her here because I thought I could better protect her from those things. That, and I wanted her to enjoy the life we could share in this community. But if you decide she has to leave, there’s no question I’ll go with her.”