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#1
Old 11-12-2007, 03:46 AM

A Taelan and a Wolf Cub
By Silvain Star

Raevin wandered through the forest, frustrated and lost. She had crash-landed on the planet nearly a week ago, but she still had no clue where she was. There were some very strange creatures here, all of whom seemed afraid of her. The only thing that didn’t was a small, furry animal with small pointed ears and four legs. It had followed her ever since she had found it the day of the crash, caught in a tangled mess of vines. Its white fur still had leaves and thorns caught in it, but the creature didn’t seem to mind.

The small animal could easily sit in her lap, and it had, when she'd stopped for the night. It would cuddle with her, pressing its small black nose against her hand to get her attention. The nose was always wet, so she couldn’t help but notice.

Raevin sat on the ground against a tree, exhausted. The creature climbed into her lap, as usual. She scratched the back of its head behind its semi-triangular ears, and it yipped playfully, wagging its tail. It lifted up onto its hind feet, which had short black claws extending from four small toes.

“Hey, little one,” Raevin whispered in the language of her planet, gently stroking the creature’s thick fur near its neck. “Why do you trust me? Why are you the only one here who trusts me?” The young animal put its front paws on her right shoulder and licked her face. It seemed like that was a sign of affection for it, but Raevin wasn’t sure.

“Hey!” a voice shouted from behind her. "What're you doing with that wolf?"

Raevin stood, scooping the adorable creature into her arms. She turned to the source of the sound. Standing beside the tree was what seemed to be a male, if his kind was anything like the Taelans. He had long, wild black hair, and silver-gray eyes. His hair fell about to his shoulders, and was held back out of his eyes by a strip of black cloth. He wore a loose black cloth shirt that stopped at his shoulders and looked incredibly soft. His pants were black, and looked rough. They had pockets on the hips and a flap near the crotch with a button that held it at the waist. His boots were black and thick, and his pants were tucked into them at the top. He wore a thin strip of black cloth wrapped around each wrist, stopping halfway to his elbows.

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#2
Old 11-12-2007, 03:49 AM

Raevin noticed that his ears were rounded at the top, and much smaller than the pointed, swept-back ears of the Taelans. His teeth were smaller and his canines weren’t as sharp, but in most respects, he could easily pass for one of her kind- except for the simple fact that he didn’t have a tail. Raevin glanced at hers, lifting it so the moonlight caught the two scythe-like blades that curved outwards from the last few inches of the black-scaled tail. It was, at its widest point, where it connected to her lower back, no thicker than her wrist, and it was maybe two feet long. The blades were seven inches and five inches long, the shorter being the one closer to the base of the tail.

“Who are you?” the male said. Raevin’s translator processed the phrase, and a beep at her left ear let her know it was done. She pressed the button on the small device behind her ear, and it spoke quietly in her language.

“My name is Raevin, and I come from Terassen, home of the Taelan race,” Raevin spoke slowly as the translator told her how to say the best response. “I am a Taelan. Where am I?”

“Small town, Virginia, USA, Earth. Now go back to the loony bin you crawled out of,” he muttered, turning away. She realized he was probably in his late teens, a fairly young age for Earthlings.

“I apologize if I seem strange, but my spaceship crashed in this forest. And…. I cannot get home. I cannot fix my ship, my technician died in a battle not far outside your solar system, and I have no way home. I simply need someone who can fix my ship. I will gladly leave once it is fixed,” Raevin said.

The teen turned to look at her, and his eyes widened. He stared at her ears and her tail for a few moments each, and then nodded. “Alright, Raevin,” he said. ”You need help, I’ll see what I can do… but Earth isn’t too friendly to aliens. I think I know someone that’ll help, but he’ll have to meet you, or he’ll just chalk it up to more of my dad’s crap getting to me.” He extended his right hand and grinned. “By the way, the name’s Derek. Nice ta meet ya.”

They reached the edge of the forest at about midnight. Derek told her to wait by a small stream, and then dashed into the small town. When he returned a few minutes later, he was carrying a shirt like his except in red and black pants that were almost covered in pockets.

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#3
Old 11-12-2007, 03:52 AM

"Put these on. And keep your tail in the pants," Derek said quietly, handing them to her. "Just pull them over that armor or whatever it is." He gestured to the short sleeveless top and knee-length skintight shorts, both made of a hard material that came from scales. Raevin did as he said, sitting the wolf on a nearby rock first. "So this little one's been following you all week?" he asked, sitting beside the rock.

"Yes, it has. I found it caught in some vines with sharp thorns all over them, and I cut it free with my tail," Raevin replied, wrapping her tail carefully around her leg so she wouldn't shred the pants with it. Derek picked the wolf up.

"Her mother won't take her back now. She smells like people, probably," he said. "We'll have to take care of her. I could keep her when you leave, or you could take her."

"I do not know...I may take it-" Raevin began.

"Her," Derek interrupted. "This is a female."

"Her with me is she is of any use in a fight," Raevin finished.

"Well, we'll figure it out later," Derek said. "But she'll need a name."

"Taira. After my sister," Raevin said suddenly. "A name of power, by Taelan custom. We name our children after great warriors, in hopes that they, too, will be strong. My sister-" Raevin faltered, remembering what had happened, and the promise she'd made. A promise she had to keep- which meant she had to get off this planet, and soon. She closed her golden eyes and sighed quietly. "My sister was a brave warrior, unbeatable, even- until a traitorous fool tricked her, and dipped his tail blades in poison before they sparred. She had trusted him, and he killed her... I have to leave soon. I promised Taira something, as she was dying- it is a promise I cannot break." She looked Derek in the eyes. "We must go. Now."

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#4
Old 11-12-2007, 03:57 AM

They started to leave. Derek suddenly stopped, grabbing her upper arm. In less than a second, she had grabbed his wrists, twisted his arms behind his back, pulled his head back by his hair, and forced him against a tree, taking the wolf from him before she could be hurt. Derek coughed; his eyes squeezed shut in pain. Taira ran to sit behind a nearby log.

"Your- ears-" he explained weakly. "Not- normal here-" He coughed again. "Can't- breathe-"

Raevin let go of his head and stepped back a little, pulling him by his wrists off the tree. "What do you mean?" she snarled.

"Your ears aren't normal here," he explained. "You've gotta cover them up, or find a way to explain them."

Raevin glared at him and released his wrists, then took her hair out of its braid, letting it fall over her ears so that only the tip was visible, and could only be seen close up. Her black hair stopped just above her shoulders. She stepped closer to Derek, who had backed away as soon as she took her hair down.

"What you just did," she growled, grabbing his shirt and pulling him until their noses were almost touching, "would be reason enough for a fight to the death on Terassen." She let go of him and walked toward the log. "Remember that." She picked Taira up and walked away, toward the edge of the forest.

Derek stood there, staring after her for a few moments, then ran to catch up. "Sorry. I just didn’t wanna draw too much attention to us. Like I said, Earth isn't too friendly to aliens. People don't like what they're not used to, and they can be pretty panicky about anything out of the ordinary. It's not safe for them to find out about you." Raevin nodded, not looking at him. After a few minutes, she slowed to a stop.

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#5
Old 11-12-2007, 04:02 AM

"Hey, Derek," she said quietly. "I should be the one apologizing. I knew you know nothing of Taelan customs, and I should not have reacted the way I did. I was lost in thought, and acted on instinct. I apologize. Are you alright?"

Derek stared at her, looking slightly shocked. "Uh... yeah, I'm fine. I've gotten worse in fights at school," he said. "Black eye, busted lip, broken nose, two broken fingers, and bruises everywhere from one fight, in fact-- but you should've seen the other guy. Twice my size, and twice as bruised an' bloody." He grinned and punched the air in front of him. "I'm a demon when I get into a fight. 'm wild. Major adrenaline rush. I love it, the way you gotta always keep movin' or somethin' gets broken or bruised, so you move like lightnin' to stay safe, and punch back ev'ry openin' you get."

Raevin raised one eyebrow and grinned. "I've seen Taelans that don't get this enthusiastic about fighting," she said, chuckling.

"Hey, you stopped talking so formal. Cool. So," Derek said with a grin, "tell me about some of the fights you've been in..."

The pair started walking again, talking about fighting, and past fights they had won, both grinning as they went into town. The sun was up by the time they stopped in front of a small house.

"This is Damian's place. C'mon," Derek said, walking up to the door. He raised his hand to knock, but before he could, the door swung open.

"Derek! Where were you?! Your mom called three times last night, asking if I'd seen you!" a teenage boy with short blond hair and greenish gray eyes behind simple glasses shouted. He was thinner than Derek, and paler, and he wore loose gray cloth pants and no shirt. His feet were also bare, and his pants ended just above his ankles.

"Forest," Derek said. He glanced at Raevin. "She needs your help, Damian. Tech stuff- you know what kind I mean." Derek seemed tense, as if he was afraid to explain too much. He gave Damian an odd look, the kind of look that someone could only interpret if they knew the two well. Damian nodded, and motioned them inside, leading the pair to a bedroom. He closed the door carefully behind them.

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#6
Old 11-12-2007, 04:05 AM

"Alright, Derek, what have you come up with now? Does she have some supposed proof of alien contact? What?" Damian said, sounding annoyed. "If this turns out to be another one of your dad's conspiracy theories, I'm sending you right back out that door, you know."

Raevin pulled her hair back into its braid, revealing her ears.

"Fake. Plastic surgery," Damian countered. Raevin took off the pair of pants Derek had lent her and moved her tail from around her leg, swishing it back and forth idly. "Lemme guess, it attaches to the pants, doesn't it?" Damian snorted, rolling his eyes. He reached to pull on the tail. "Not gonna-" Just as he was about to grab it, Raevin swung it up reflexively, cutting him across the cheek.

"Don't ever touch a Taelan's tail," Raevin snapped, pressing the side of the blade against his uncut cheek. "Got it?" Damian nodded slowly, pulling away from the blade. "Now... you will listen, and you will listen good. My ship crashed in the forest. My technician is dead. And I need to get off of this worthless bit of rock as soon as possible. If you can fix my ship, you'd better do it, and fast. Understood?" Damian nodded. "I seriously doubt anyone here can fix it-," Raevin muttered.

"If anyone can, it'd be me," Damian interrupted.

"Then do it," she said, putting the pants back on and taking her hair down again. "I'll lead you to the crash."

"I've gotta get dressed. I'll meet you at the edge of the forest," Damian said, shooing both Raevin and Derek out of the room.

"We'll come pick you up. We can take my bike, at least as close as the main paths go," Derek replied as Damian closed the door. He led Raevin back outside and to a house down the street. Some sort of vehicle was parked outside. "This..." Derek said, gesturing to it fondly, "is my motorcycle. You can ride with me on here," he patted the seat, "since Damian always takes the sidecar. He thinks it's safer... coward..."

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#7
Old 11-12-2007, 04:06 AM

"It's... interesting," Raevin said, staring at it with mild apprehension. It didn't look even close to balanced, but it must be safe if Damian rode in the sidecar. Even a few moments with him were enough to tell he was an absolute coward. Raevin considered the vehicle for a few more moments, before smirking and taking the helmet Derek had offered her. "Alright, let's ride!" She jumped on behind Derek, and they sped off to pick up the blond boy and head back to the forest.

---------------------------
They arrived at the spaceship about an hour later, having found that the clearing made by the ship could be reached from a main path. Taira jumped off Damian's lap and ran toward the open door of the two-person ship, with the others not far behind.

The ship was small, built for use in a two-person rescue mission. Its engines sparked weakly at its back, nearly igniting a small pile of leaves behind the ship. The ‘horns’, two thin swept back wings on each side of the ship, were all broken in some way. Two had snapped off completely in the treetops, a third had burns almost the entire way through it, exposing the wiring under the metal, and the last one was broken in half, with the back hanging down , attached only by a small bundle of wires. The door to the small craft was open, since Raevin couldn’t get the controls to close it working before she’d left to find help. The clear scale-glass window at the front was cracked in a few places and the control station behind it was almost entirely destroyed, having exploded during the battle.

“Ah- heh…” Damian laughed weakly. “Um… If I can fix this, it may take… weeks. Months, even.”

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#8
Old 11-12-2007, 04:08 AM

“Is there someone who can fix it faster?” Raevin asked irritably.

“P-probably not…” Damian squeaked.

“Work fast, then,” Raevin snapped. She walked toward the ship, hoping she’d be able to relax inside. As if, a voice said in the back of her mind. Not gonna happen, not after these past few months…

She paused at the controls, staring at the damage as Taira sniffed at the remains of the metal panels. Nothing had been disturbed since Raevin had left, probably because all the animals were afraid to go near the ship. The Taelan closed her eyes, trying to clear her thoughts. She sighed, walking back to the sealed training room, where she’d placed her partner’s body before turning down the temperature to keep him as he’d been when she left. She ignored the intact living quarters as she passed them, continuing to the very back of the ship where the room was. She turned the two handles almost mechanically, opening the door. She walked to the body and knelt beside him, simply staring. He seemed like he was simply asleep, and his face was peaceful, despite the blood covering his pale skin and black armor. Raevin reached out a trembling hand and pushed back his short brown hair, silently wishing his blood-red eyes would open. She sighed sadly and pulled her hand back, resting it on her knees. His black-scaled tail lay limp on the cold metal floor, and his armor top, which ended just above his waist and had sleeves to just above his elbows, was charred and had bits of metal lodged in small cracks on the chest and shoulders of it from when he’d been caught in the explosion that destroyed the controls. Several scales on his tail had melted together from the heat, as well.

A whimper behind her shook Raevin out of her mournful thoughts. She stood quickly, turning to the door with her tail raised and ready for a fight before she realized the two teens had followed her in. Damian stood a foot or so away, covering his eyes. Derek, who was slightly closer, was staring at the body sadly.

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#9
Old 11-12-2007, 04:10 AM

“He wasn’t supposed to die…” Raevin said quietly, her voice breaking. “Not now…” She closed her eyes, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. “…not before me…” she murmured.

“You loved him,” Derek stated.

“I won’t deny it,” she replied, the strength coming back to her voice despite her pain. “But I wasn’t supposed to… Koumeth was of the lower class. I’m the daughter of an army elite. On Terassen, it’s… not considered right to marry outside your class, despite the fact that it was made legal years ago…” She stood slowly, turning to the pair. “If it’s going to be a few months, he’ll have to be given a funeral. If you have some way to start a fire…?”

“Wait… I was wrong- this isn’t as bad as it looks from the outside… Gimme about three days… I’ll have you flying again by then,” Damian said suddenly. He grabbed Derek and ran off, back toward the motorcycle. “I gotta grab some stuff, but I’ll be right back!”

Raevin nodded numbly, not sure she’d heard him right. She glanced at her partner again, then left the room, sealing it back behind her. She walked to her quarters and sat down on the bed, staring at the place she’d called home since she’d left to find her sister Taira less than a year ago. The room was practically bare, with just the bed and a small computer for composing her log on for report, though she’d also used it to create a personal log for her own sake, so she could have an unedited account of the time she’d spent with her teammate Koumeth. She stood back up and walked to the computer, hoping its circuits hadn’t been damaged along with the rest of the ship. She turned it on, smiling slightly when she saw that it was still working. She accessed the log, playing it back.

“We found Taira today. She was dying- killed by one of her own team so he could take the leadership for himself. She asked me to find him… take him back to Terassen and bring him to justice. I promised I would. I won’t go home, won’t rest until I find him. But, anyway, I do have something good to say here. Kou said he loves me today. But… I’m scared- for the two of us, our relationship. We shouldn’t be doing this. But… I love him, and I can’t make myself stop, not now, not ever…”

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#10
Old 11-12-2007, 04:17 AM

Raevin stopped the log, sighing sadly. She’d hoped it would make her feel a bit better, but it had only made her feel worse. She stood, leaving the room and going back to the controls. Damian and Derek were back, and the blond boy was kneeling at the control station, his head halfway in a hole made by the explosion. Derek, on the other hand, was sitting against the wall, looking bored.

“Apparently,” he said, not really sounding interested. “The wiring was barely damaged at all in there- but he has to completely re-wire a whole section because one wire was destroyed. It’s supposedly the one that caused the explosion… which, quite frankly, is more than I’d needed to know about this… tech stuff.” He gestured to the controls vaguely.

“I know what you mean… Kou always talked about that stuff… I had to tell him I’d heard enough at least twice a day…” Raevin said, sitting down beside him. Taira jumped into her lap, licking at her hand. Raevin scratched the wolf cub behind the ears, smiling sadly.

“She seems like she really likes you,” Derek said. “I think you should take her when you go. There’d be too many questions around here, and she might end up in a zoo someplace if people look into it too much. With you, she’ll be safer.”

Raevin nodded slowly, halfway lost in thought. “Yeah… I’ll take her… I’d probably be too lonely without her… I’d never get where I have to go…”

“Guys,” Damian said from halfway inside the control station, “I think I’ve fixed it!”

Raevin looked up suddenly. “Get out of there. Close it up. I can check if you have that station closed. It should restore full power to the rest of the ship if it’s working right!” She jumped up, sitting Taira on the floor carefully before rushing to the controls to help seal the metal back up. Within moments, it was sealed, and Raevin pressed a few buttons, hoping silently to hear the hum of the engines. The light sound came almost immediately, and Raevin glanced around the different panels quickly. They were all fixed.

“Nothing was wrong with any of them except the holes in them,” Damian explained. Raevin powered down the ship, then put her hands on the teen’s shoulders, grinning.

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#11
Old 11-12-2007, 04:20 AM

“You…” she said, laughing, “…are an absolute genius!” She pulled the pair outside, checking over the ‘horns’ before laughing triumphantly. She could keep her promise, and then she could go home. She wasn’t stuck on this planet anymore! She thanked the two teens several times before going back inside the ship and closing the door. The door! she thought cheerfully. It hadn’t been working before, and she’d had to come up with a quick wiring fix, one that would get it open but hadn’t been able to get it to close. Damian had even managed to fix the door in that short bit of time! She pressed a few buttons, letting the ship power up before signaling for them to back up and clear the leaves from behind the engines. She briefly wondered if the window would hold, but she was sure she could get it fixed at the next planet she stopped on. She powered up the engines once she saw the two teens back far enough away from the ship, and, with Taira at her feet, set in her next course and left the planet behind.


The end.

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#12
Old 11-14-2007, 09:10 AM

Alright, whoever reads this- thank you for reading. Comments are greatly appreciated, and constructive criticism is welcomed and encouraged. After all, I'm sure there's *something* in here I can improve on.

 


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