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The Chosen Ones - Chapter 2
by Neopuc
Writer of sort of big things.
a year ago
We see things from the perspective of the macros now. But that does not clear things up much for us either, as the macros are not even sure what sort of people they are and why they have found themselves among this sort of crowd.
If you do want to read ahead two chapters, you can subscribe at either Subscribestar ( https://subscribestar.adult/neopuc-s-fables ) or Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/Neopuc )
Thumbnail artwork by
OddEyresProductions
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Chapter 2
“Why do I feel like I got drunk last night without the fun of getting drunk,” Elilline said, rubbing her furry head with a hand.
“Probably for the same reason I do,” an unfamiliar voice said. Eli looked over to see a large black wolf in a red suit looking her over. She did not have the headache she should have if she were hung over, but her head was still fuzzy as if she were. Eli had no idea who that wolf was and wondered what had happened the previous night.
“And what reason would that be?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“So this isn’t your place?”
The wolf motioned around him, “I don’t go around collecting humans and then seal myself in a room with them. And I hope you don’t either.”
Eli looked around and saw they were not in someone’s home. They appeared to be in a cell, and Eli assumed they were prisoners because she wore a uniform that matched the wolf’s. Strangely, they were sharing the space with a bunch of humans. All three walls of her cell were lined with three levels of human cells, just below waist level to her and the wolf. Being the smallest race in the galaxy, there was plenty of room for the human cells. Each of those cells was smaller than her hand, and the occupants were smaller still.
Looking around at the cells, she noticed many humans staring at her and the wolf. Eli muttered, “We’ve got quite the audience.”
The wolf smirked, “Humans like canids, and I’m a handsome example of one if I do say so myself. You’re not a bad-looking wolverine either.”
“I think you’re a little old for me, Mr. Wolf,” Eli said.
“My name is Tytrius Ironcrest. You can call me Ty. And I’m probably not as much older than you as you think,” the wolf said, sounding partially amused but oddly serious at the same time.
Eli was about to ask him about it when one human caught her eye. She thought she did not know him, but something seemed very familiar about him at the same time. It was such an odd feeling that she could not help but lean in for a closer look. That probably was not the most polite thing to do. Large humans were not even the size of her eyes. It was very easy to intimidate them. But the dark-skinned human stood his ground. So did quite a few other humans, even if many flinched. This was obviously not a squeamish group of humans.
As Eli looked at the person, she felt confident that she had never seen him before. Yet, another part of her felt like she was intimately familiar with him. It was a frustrating feeling. She frowned at the little human and asked, “Who are you?”
The man only cocked his head at her. She frowned more, wondering why he would not answer her. He did not look or smell like he was scared stiff. If Ty had not placed a hand on her shoulder, she might have stood there staring at him for a while longer. He said, “They’re putting on a brave face, but give them a little space. You’re a strange Goliath to them, and you’re dressed like a prisoner. Let’s try not to worry them too much. We can’t all be a species known for its fearlessness.”
Eli let the wolf pull her back from the human’s cell, and she turned to look at him in confusion. Then she asked, “That’s so weird. I don’t think I know that guy, but I also feel like I know a lot about him all at the same time.”
TY sighed, “What’s your name?”
“Oh, sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Elilline. I guess you can call me Eli,” she said.
“Well, Eli, let’s get a good look at you in the mirror,” Ty said.
She wondered what the wolf was up to until she saw herself in the mirror. She would have roared if she had not ed she was in the cell with all those humans. As it stood, it took all her effort to control her voice as she said, “I was a teenager when I went to sleep. How the hell do I look like I’m in my twenties now?”
Ty chuckled, “You think it’s bad for you. The last I , I was also an adolescent and babysitting my younger siblings before I woke up here. I nearly panicked looking around for them before I saw myself in the mirror and saw I was in my late 30s or early 40s.”
“Seriously,” Eli looked at Ty incredulously. “I hope they’re okay, especially knowing how social you wolves are.”
“Thank you for your concern.”
“So, why wouldn’t the human answer me? Have even more memories been taken from him? Can he even how to talk,” Eli asked in rapid succession.
“Nothing like that,” Ty said, “As far as I can tell, we can talk with other Goliaths, but something is interfering with the translations between us and the humans.”
“Why would they do that?”
Ty shrugged, “No clue. It’s got to be stressful for the humans, though, not knowing what we’re saying or our intentions.”
“I’ve seen investigators try to drive a wedge between people with tactics like this,” Eli said.
“You’ve seen them do that,” Ty said with a raised brow.
Eli grinned, “I’ve been in my fair share of scrapes. Won more than I lost. And I never lost to anyone that deserved it.”
Ty’s eyes narrowed, and his muscles tensed up visibly, even beneath his thick fur coat. Then he asked, “Have any humans deserved it?”
Eli snorted, “Only one that I . And you can calm down about that. He was in a combat mech, and I only tossed him around until he puked all over himself in the cockpit. It ended there. I’m not about to fight a human hand to hand…or rather tip of a finger to entire body.”
“What did they do?”
“It was some officer, one of those real arrogant types from a core world,” Eli said. “He was being transferred to my world, and some friends of mine were working to unload his cargo. One of them jostled something more than he liked, and he lost his temper. It wasn’t so bad when he pushed around the Goliaths, but it was harder on a friend in a cargo loader mech. The officer was in a combat mech nearly twice its size. When the officer pushed it around, he did it hard enough to knock over my friend’s mech, and when I heard him scream, I lost it.”
“How old were you,” Ty interrupted.
“14. I hadn’t even hit my growth spurt yet,” Eli said with a smile, seeing where that question was going.
“A combat mech would have been around twice your size.”
Eli waved that off, “I always was a big girl. It was a little over half its size. And I still tossed that mech around like a ragdoll. Well, it did help that its weapons were disabled since the officer didn’t have permission to use them, but I think it was still impressive. I think the officer was also a crap fighter. Probably some sort of high and mighty istrative type.”
“Wasn’t there any other personnel around to intervene or stop you from assaulting an officer,” Ty asked.
“Yeah, but they were all too busy laughing after I started knocking the officer around. I guess he wasn’t too popular among his comrades. Once I finished with him, I thought I would have to fight the others,” Eli said.
“Did you?”
“Nah, even though they told the officer they had ruffed me up a bit,” Eli chuckled. “He was probably too dazed to tell they were lying. I thought I was in trouble when some shark approached me. She was probably as large as I am now and looked like a fighter. But she just got down on one knee in front of me, smiled, and said she would do me a favor and smooth things over.”
Ty asked, “What did she want in return.”
“For me to consider enlisting when I was old enough.”
“Did you?”
Eli shrugged, “I don’t . But I planned to. Seemed like fun.”
Then Eli looked Ty up and down, asking, “How about you? Those muscles don’t look like they are just for fun.”
“I come from a military family, and I planned on keeping up the tradition. Can’t what I really did either,” Ty said, also shrugging his shoulders.
Then Ty’s ears twitched, and he looked over at the human cells, saying, “Hey, it looks like something is going on in that cell with the human you were curious about.”
Eli looked at the cell and saw the dark-skinned human sitting with his back to the light-skinned humans. The light-skinned human had a cable coming out of his arm and was about to plug it into the other one. As she and Ty leaned in closer to get a better look, she asked, “What do you think they’re doing?”
“Hopefully, something like out of a spy movie so we can figure out what’s happening here.”
“That would be nice,” Eli said as she quieted down so as not to disturb whatever the humans were doing. Whatever it was, it only lasted a few seconds. The human she did not know but felt like she did know looked like he was in a bit of pain. Ty looked like he tensed up a little for some reason. It was barely perceptible, but it was there. Maybe he thought the humans were going to fight over that. But the human gave Ty a thumbs up, and the wolf relaxed, returning the thumbs up.
“What was that about,” Eli asked.
“What?”
“You looked like you were about ready to fight there.”
Ty chuckled, “It comes from being the eldest sibling, I suppose. I had to be the peacemaker among three sisters and a younger brother. When a fight looks like it’s about to break out, I’m ready to step in.”
“That’s a bit different from my big brother,” Eli smiled.
“Oh?”
“We wrestled all the time. He took it easy on me, but not that easy. There’s a reason why I was ready to take on a combat mech twice my size,” Eli said with a big grin.
After that, there was not much activity worth talking about. They were stuck in a prison cell with no idea why they were there or how long they would be there. There was not even any sign of guards patrolling the hallways yet. Just sitting around and waiting would have been hard to do. Eli felt full of energy, and it was easy to tell why upon inspecting her body. Her muscles were considerably firmer than she ed. Whatever her future self had been up to, she was staying in excellent fighting shape.
Eli knew that meant she had to be working out on a daily basis, probably multiple times a day, based on what she could tell. Even if she could not working out that much, her body certainly could. It was practically screaming at her to do something. She saw quite a few of the humans were the same way in their cells. Not having anything better to do, Eli ed them when they started exercising in their cells. Ty chose to do the same.
Some time into their workout, Eli and Ty heard someone cry out from further down the hall with the Goliath cells. She heard another voice say, “What the hell are you doing?”
“Just watching you workout is making me hungry, so I wanted to see if I could get a snack,” the one that had yelled said, sounding annoyed.
“But those are humans.”
“So? They’re made of meat. Why even put them here with these flimsy-looking shields if they weren’t for snacking on?”
“That’s murder,” the other voice said, trying to put some menace into it.
“That’s easy for a grass eater like you to say. But it’s like I’m surrounded by candy right now.”
Both Eli and Ty were snarling and at the shield of their cell. Ty was quick to yell, “You touch those humans, and it will be that last mistake you ever make.”
“And what are you going to do about it from way down there,” the mystery voice yelled back. Eli could hear the sneer of contempt in that voice.
“If you’re so hungry, I’ll rip your intestines out and feed them to you when I see you, and I will see you,” Eli said. What followed was a series of threats or words of from the other Goliaths. She did not like what she was hearing. The ones threatening the would-be murderer were outnumbered by his ers by around two to one. It made her wonder what she was doing mixed in with such a group. Had she really done something to deserve being in here?
Eli was a predator, and the thought of eating meat, even raw meat, did not bother her all that much. However, eating a person was much more of a taboo. It was something only the worst of criminals did. Unfortunately, due to the incredible difference in size between Goliaths and humans, they were easy targets for criminal activity. Being easy targets also made them preferred targets. All the genetic and technological enhancements in the galaxy could not change that for humans. If a Goliath wanted an unarmed human dead, they were dead. Considering that the humans here had no mechs or tanks, their only protection was Goliaths willing to help.
She glanced back in her cell and carefully evaluated the shields for the human cells. Their ability to keep her out was questionable. It all depended on how things were set up in the walls. She did not like the fact. In the best-case scenario, those shields were all linked up behind the wall and using a generator or two as strong as what was being used to power the shield for the Goliath cell. She thought she could break into them if they were just using individual generators scaled to keep a human contained. It might hurt her hand a little, but it was possible. Ty could definitely do that, too. The only way to find out was to try, and the ones willing to try were not those who should.
Eli could see into the cell across from her. Both of its occupants ed the Goliath who wanted to make a snack of the humans. Fortunately, their cell was missing any human cells. It was good that not all of the Goliath cells also held human captives. Not with the crowd she was hearing. She could only hope that any of the cells with humans also contained a Goliath who was on their side.
Eli could not see who all the murderers were, not even the one who had tried to break into the cells. But, of the murderers she could see, they were nothing special by Goliath standards. She spotted one who was in decent shape, but she thought she could take him without much effort. The others she could fold in half in her sleep. If she had Ty backing her up, she felt she could take on a decent-sized group of the murderers. Hopefully, the other Goliaths on her side of this argument were also good enough fighters.
While the argument went on, Eli noticed Ty’s ears twitch. He had picked up on something else that got his attention. And it was not the murderers. It was something in their cell, or rather the human cells in their cell. She turned to look at where he was, and it was the cell with the curious human. Now that she was paying attention, she could hear a conversation coming from the cell. She could hear a new voice, one that she could understand.
Eli and Ty went to look at what was happening and were both surprised by what they saw. There was a human-sized creature that did not look like a human, trying to get Eli’s human to go with it and a couple of escorts. That should not have been possible. There were no sapient human-sized aliens, but she was looking right at one. She almost whispered, “I think we might have missed a lot.”
“Yeah, first with the only other race as small as humans should have been newsworthy. I hope we did not forget about a war,” Ty said.
The humans looked just as stunned as Eli was with all this. To Eli, it looked like her human was trying to ask some questions, but the unknown aliens did not take kindly to that. One of the escorts stepped forward and rammed its weapon into the human’s stomach. When he doubled over, that blow was quickly followed up with another to the head.
Even Eli was surprised by how angry that made her. She was snarling at the cell and had to restrain herself from breaking into it. If the other human had not been there, she would have tried. There was too much of a risk of injuring him if she tried. Eli could not even fit her hand into it. Forcing her way in could very easily result in a crushed human.
The human that had taken the hits looked dazed as the escorts dragged him out of the cell and out of view. Before leaving, the alien that looked in charge took a moment to glare at Eli and Ty. She did not know what to make of that look, but Eli thought she felt a sense of smug superiority radiating from it. Then it walked away, the shield to the human cell turning back on as he left.
“Okay, I wasn’t expecting the guards to look like that,” Ty said.
Eli was still angry about the treatment of her human as she said, “I think they were a little quick to resort to force. That doesn’t seem like a good sign.”
“Considering the behavior of some of the other prisoners, maybe they think it’s justified,” Ty said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than Eli.
Before they could say anything else, they heard someone walking down the hallway of the Goliath cells. It looked like they were going to be visited by guards their own size. They walked over to the cell to see who was coming. When the guards came into view, she was not as surprised as what she saw with the other aliens, even though the guards were of a species she had never seen before. That was not as strange among Goliaths. There were millions of Goliath species. Eli had encountered a handful of them before. She had heard of a lot more, but there were way more she did not know about than she did.
The guards looked like an avian species, a hawk of some sort. But there were some key differences from any hawk she had ever seen. Instead of regular tail feathers, these guards had more feline-like tails. At first, she thought the tail was covered in fur, but she could tell they were actually very fine feathers when they walked closer. The exception being the ends of the tails, which occasionally flared out to reveal more traditional tail feathers. While the hawk creature did have scaley paws like a bird, they were definitely paws and not talons. Once again, they had more feline-like paws.
“There’s no way,” Ty said. “That can’t be a griffon.”
“You recognize the species? I sure don’t,” Eli said.
Ty snorted, “I do, but they’re a species out of human mythology. They shouldn’t exist.”
“They don’t look so mythological to me,” Eli said. She gave them a closer look. There were four in total, all armored up. None of them were quite as large as Eli, but they were not small either. Trying to fight them while they were armored up like that would have been difficult. Or it might not, based on something that seemed odd about them. Hawks typically had sharp-looking eyes. But all of those griffons, as Ty called them, had a glossy look to their eyes. It was like they were out of it, unfocussed, for some reason.
The guard’s armor looked pretty decent. But Eli’s eyes caught something else that was out of place. It was mostly blocked from view by the armor’s neck guard. Still, Eli could catch glimpses of what appeared to be collars. It was not just the collar of a shirt either. They were genuine collars like one would put on a pet. She might not have thought much about it under normal circumstances. Some people were into that kind of stuff. But it aroused suspicions when collars looked like they were part of a uniform.
Eli was so busy evaluating the guards that she nearly missed something else. One of the guards had a enger. Riding on the shoulder harness of a griffon was one of the little grey aliens. It was not wearing any armor. Like one of the guards that had taken her human away, it was in an officer’s uniform. Eli assumed that one was in charge.
The little alien was probably secured to the much larger griffon’s armor with magnetic boots along with the harness that appeared to be built into the armor. It did not look like it was having trouble staying on the shoulder. That was a somewhat promising sign. At least these Goliaths showed some concern for those smaller than themselves. Hopefully, that concern extended to the human prisoners.
When the guards stopped in front of Eli’s cell, she tensed up. After seeing what happened to the human, she readied herself for what might come next. The little grey alien pointed at her and said, “Bring the female.”
Eli thought the guards had perfect poker faces as they moved to follow orders. They showed not a single hint of emotion. When opening a cell with two Goliaths as large as Ty and herself, it felt like they should have shown something. Caution, fear, a smug sense that they could take them down with their weapons and training, anything at all. But they were completely blank. It was a little disconcerting.
“Who, or what are you,” Eli persisted in asking as the guards came for her. She had directed the question at the officer. Knowing how they had reacted to questions before, Eli was not expecting the alien to answer. She thought the creature would be annoyed, but how angry it looked surprised her. From how it looked, it was almost like Eli had eaten its mother.
The alien officer gestured wildly in Eli’s direction, “Discipline that beast. How dare it address me in such a manner.”
At least these aliens were consistent in their behavior. When the closest guard lashed out with his weapon, Eli was ready for it. She dodged out of the way with far more grace than the guard was probably expecting. Eli grabbed his wrist on the way and twisted his arm around until she had him in a good hold. Once more, it was a little disconcerting how little reaction the guard had to this. There was no fear or surprise at the turn in his fortune. If Eli had wanted to, she could have snapped his arm like a twig, and he showed no emotion at all about that.
While Eli was tempted to do just that, she had no idea why she was imprisoned. For all she knew, she could have done something to warrant being in there. Breaking a guard’s arm would only make things worse. So, while she had the guard in a hold, she maneuvered him around to use him as a shield. Using him as cover, Eli asked, “Let’s all try to stay calm. I seem to be having memory issues. Could someone explain to me what we are doing here?”
“Impertenant creature. Deal with her already,” the officer shouted.
The guards complied without a moment’s hesitation. Eli had little time to react as the guard she held snapped his arm to get out of her grip. He then rounded on her and struck her in the head with a baton. From the shock she felt, she assumed it was also a stun baton. She felt herself going down as Ty moved in silently to assist.
Ty struck a guard hard enough on her armored head that the helmet probably only saved her from getting knocked out. She was still knocked to her knees, and the wolf followed that up with a vicious knee to the griffon’s forehead in the uncovered part of her face. The blow drew blood, and the griffon was going down, but one of the other guards had already moved in and was striking Ty with a stun baton. The guard with the broken arm was holding his baton to Eli. She clenched her fangs in pain as she felt her body twitching uncontrollably. There was nothing else she could do besides close her eyes and slide into unconsciousness.
If you do want to read ahead two chapters, you can subscribe at either Subscribestar ( https://subscribestar.adult/neopuc-s-fables ) or Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/Neopuc )
Thumbnail artwork by
OddEyresProductions<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>
Chapter 2
“Why do I feel like I got drunk last night without the fun of getting drunk,” Elilline said, rubbing her furry head with a hand.
“Probably for the same reason I do,” an unfamiliar voice said. Eli looked over to see a large black wolf in a red suit looking her over. She did not have the headache she should have if she were hung over, but her head was still fuzzy as if she were. Eli had no idea who that wolf was and wondered what had happened the previous night.
“And what reason would that be?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“So this isn’t your place?”
The wolf motioned around him, “I don’t go around collecting humans and then seal myself in a room with them. And I hope you don’t either.”
Eli looked around and saw they were not in someone’s home. They appeared to be in a cell, and Eli assumed they were prisoners because she wore a uniform that matched the wolf’s. Strangely, they were sharing the space with a bunch of humans. All three walls of her cell were lined with three levels of human cells, just below waist level to her and the wolf. Being the smallest race in the galaxy, there was plenty of room for the human cells. Each of those cells was smaller than her hand, and the occupants were smaller still.
Looking around at the cells, she noticed many humans staring at her and the wolf. Eli muttered, “We’ve got quite the audience.”
The wolf smirked, “Humans like canids, and I’m a handsome example of one if I do say so myself. You’re not a bad-looking wolverine either.”
“I think you’re a little old for me, Mr. Wolf,” Eli said.
“My name is Tytrius Ironcrest. You can call me Ty. And I’m probably not as much older than you as you think,” the wolf said, sounding partially amused but oddly serious at the same time.
Eli was about to ask him about it when one human caught her eye. She thought she did not know him, but something seemed very familiar about him at the same time. It was such an odd feeling that she could not help but lean in for a closer look. That probably was not the most polite thing to do. Large humans were not even the size of her eyes. It was very easy to intimidate them. But the dark-skinned human stood his ground. So did quite a few other humans, even if many flinched. This was obviously not a squeamish group of humans.
As Eli looked at the person, she felt confident that she had never seen him before. Yet, another part of her felt like she was intimately familiar with him. It was a frustrating feeling. She frowned at the little human and asked, “Who are you?”
The man only cocked his head at her. She frowned more, wondering why he would not answer her. He did not look or smell like he was scared stiff. If Ty had not placed a hand on her shoulder, she might have stood there staring at him for a while longer. He said, “They’re putting on a brave face, but give them a little space. You’re a strange Goliath to them, and you’re dressed like a prisoner. Let’s try not to worry them too much. We can’t all be a species known for its fearlessness.”
Eli let the wolf pull her back from the human’s cell, and she turned to look at him in confusion. Then she asked, “That’s so weird. I don’t think I know that guy, but I also feel like I know a lot about him all at the same time.”
TY sighed, “What’s your name?”
“Oh, sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Elilline. I guess you can call me Eli,” she said.
“Well, Eli, let’s get a good look at you in the mirror,” Ty said.
She wondered what the wolf was up to until she saw herself in the mirror. She would have roared if she had not ed she was in the cell with all those humans. As it stood, it took all her effort to control her voice as she said, “I was a teenager when I went to sleep. How the hell do I look like I’m in my twenties now?”
Ty chuckled, “You think it’s bad for you. The last I , I was also an adolescent and babysitting my younger siblings before I woke up here. I nearly panicked looking around for them before I saw myself in the mirror and saw I was in my late 30s or early 40s.”
“Seriously,” Eli looked at Ty incredulously. “I hope they’re okay, especially knowing how social you wolves are.”
“Thank you for your concern.”
“So, why wouldn’t the human answer me? Have even more memories been taken from him? Can he even how to talk,” Eli asked in rapid succession.
“Nothing like that,” Ty said, “As far as I can tell, we can talk with other Goliaths, but something is interfering with the translations between us and the humans.”
“Why would they do that?”
Ty shrugged, “No clue. It’s got to be stressful for the humans, though, not knowing what we’re saying or our intentions.”
“I’ve seen investigators try to drive a wedge between people with tactics like this,” Eli said.
“You’ve seen them do that,” Ty said with a raised brow.
Eli grinned, “I’ve been in my fair share of scrapes. Won more than I lost. And I never lost to anyone that deserved it.”
Ty’s eyes narrowed, and his muscles tensed up visibly, even beneath his thick fur coat. Then he asked, “Have any humans deserved it?”
Eli snorted, “Only one that I . And you can calm down about that. He was in a combat mech, and I only tossed him around until he puked all over himself in the cockpit. It ended there. I’m not about to fight a human hand to hand…or rather tip of a finger to entire body.”
“What did they do?”
“It was some officer, one of those real arrogant types from a core world,” Eli said. “He was being transferred to my world, and some friends of mine were working to unload his cargo. One of them jostled something more than he liked, and he lost his temper. It wasn’t so bad when he pushed around the Goliaths, but it was harder on a friend in a cargo loader mech. The officer was in a combat mech nearly twice its size. When the officer pushed it around, he did it hard enough to knock over my friend’s mech, and when I heard him scream, I lost it.”
“How old were you,” Ty interrupted.
“14. I hadn’t even hit my growth spurt yet,” Eli said with a smile, seeing where that question was going.
“A combat mech would have been around twice your size.”
Eli waved that off, “I always was a big girl. It was a little over half its size. And I still tossed that mech around like a ragdoll. Well, it did help that its weapons were disabled since the officer didn’t have permission to use them, but I think it was still impressive. I think the officer was also a crap fighter. Probably some sort of high and mighty istrative type.”
“Wasn’t there any other personnel around to intervene or stop you from assaulting an officer,” Ty asked.
“Yeah, but they were all too busy laughing after I started knocking the officer around. I guess he wasn’t too popular among his comrades. Once I finished with him, I thought I would have to fight the others,” Eli said.
“Did you?”
“Nah, even though they told the officer they had ruffed me up a bit,” Eli chuckled. “He was probably too dazed to tell they were lying. I thought I was in trouble when some shark approached me. She was probably as large as I am now and looked like a fighter. But she just got down on one knee in front of me, smiled, and said she would do me a favor and smooth things over.”
Ty asked, “What did she want in return.”
“For me to consider enlisting when I was old enough.”
“Did you?”
Eli shrugged, “I don’t . But I planned to. Seemed like fun.”
Then Eli looked Ty up and down, asking, “How about you? Those muscles don’t look like they are just for fun.”
“I come from a military family, and I planned on keeping up the tradition. Can’t what I really did either,” Ty said, also shrugging his shoulders.
Then Ty’s ears twitched, and he looked over at the human cells, saying, “Hey, it looks like something is going on in that cell with the human you were curious about.”
Eli looked at the cell and saw the dark-skinned human sitting with his back to the light-skinned humans. The light-skinned human had a cable coming out of his arm and was about to plug it into the other one. As she and Ty leaned in closer to get a better look, she asked, “What do you think they’re doing?”
“Hopefully, something like out of a spy movie so we can figure out what’s happening here.”
“That would be nice,” Eli said as she quieted down so as not to disturb whatever the humans were doing. Whatever it was, it only lasted a few seconds. The human she did not know but felt like she did know looked like he was in a bit of pain. Ty looked like he tensed up a little for some reason. It was barely perceptible, but it was there. Maybe he thought the humans were going to fight over that. But the human gave Ty a thumbs up, and the wolf relaxed, returning the thumbs up.
“What was that about,” Eli asked.
“What?”
“You looked like you were about ready to fight there.”
Ty chuckled, “It comes from being the eldest sibling, I suppose. I had to be the peacemaker among three sisters and a younger brother. When a fight looks like it’s about to break out, I’m ready to step in.”
“That’s a bit different from my big brother,” Eli smiled.
“Oh?”
“We wrestled all the time. He took it easy on me, but not that easy. There’s a reason why I was ready to take on a combat mech twice my size,” Eli said with a big grin.
After that, there was not much activity worth talking about. They were stuck in a prison cell with no idea why they were there or how long they would be there. There was not even any sign of guards patrolling the hallways yet. Just sitting around and waiting would have been hard to do. Eli felt full of energy, and it was easy to tell why upon inspecting her body. Her muscles were considerably firmer than she ed. Whatever her future self had been up to, she was staying in excellent fighting shape.
Eli knew that meant she had to be working out on a daily basis, probably multiple times a day, based on what she could tell. Even if she could not working out that much, her body certainly could. It was practically screaming at her to do something. She saw quite a few of the humans were the same way in their cells. Not having anything better to do, Eli ed them when they started exercising in their cells. Ty chose to do the same.
Some time into their workout, Eli and Ty heard someone cry out from further down the hall with the Goliath cells. She heard another voice say, “What the hell are you doing?”
“Just watching you workout is making me hungry, so I wanted to see if I could get a snack,” the one that had yelled said, sounding annoyed.
“But those are humans.”
“So? They’re made of meat. Why even put them here with these flimsy-looking shields if they weren’t for snacking on?”
“That’s murder,” the other voice said, trying to put some menace into it.
“That’s easy for a grass eater like you to say. But it’s like I’m surrounded by candy right now.”
Both Eli and Ty were snarling and at the shield of their cell. Ty was quick to yell, “You touch those humans, and it will be that last mistake you ever make.”
“And what are you going to do about it from way down there,” the mystery voice yelled back. Eli could hear the sneer of contempt in that voice.
“If you’re so hungry, I’ll rip your intestines out and feed them to you when I see you, and I will see you,” Eli said. What followed was a series of threats or words of from the other Goliaths. She did not like what she was hearing. The ones threatening the would-be murderer were outnumbered by his ers by around two to one. It made her wonder what she was doing mixed in with such a group. Had she really done something to deserve being in here?
Eli was a predator, and the thought of eating meat, even raw meat, did not bother her all that much. However, eating a person was much more of a taboo. It was something only the worst of criminals did. Unfortunately, due to the incredible difference in size between Goliaths and humans, they were easy targets for criminal activity. Being easy targets also made them preferred targets. All the genetic and technological enhancements in the galaxy could not change that for humans. If a Goliath wanted an unarmed human dead, they were dead. Considering that the humans here had no mechs or tanks, their only protection was Goliaths willing to help.
She glanced back in her cell and carefully evaluated the shields for the human cells. Their ability to keep her out was questionable. It all depended on how things were set up in the walls. She did not like the fact. In the best-case scenario, those shields were all linked up behind the wall and using a generator or two as strong as what was being used to power the shield for the Goliath cell. She thought she could break into them if they were just using individual generators scaled to keep a human contained. It might hurt her hand a little, but it was possible. Ty could definitely do that, too. The only way to find out was to try, and the ones willing to try were not those who should.
Eli could see into the cell across from her. Both of its occupants ed the Goliath who wanted to make a snack of the humans. Fortunately, their cell was missing any human cells. It was good that not all of the Goliath cells also held human captives. Not with the crowd she was hearing. She could only hope that any of the cells with humans also contained a Goliath who was on their side.
Eli could not see who all the murderers were, not even the one who had tried to break into the cells. But, of the murderers she could see, they were nothing special by Goliath standards. She spotted one who was in decent shape, but she thought she could take him without much effort. The others she could fold in half in her sleep. If she had Ty backing her up, she felt she could take on a decent-sized group of the murderers. Hopefully, the other Goliaths on her side of this argument were also good enough fighters.
While the argument went on, Eli noticed Ty’s ears twitch. He had picked up on something else that got his attention. And it was not the murderers. It was something in their cell, or rather the human cells in their cell. She turned to look at where he was, and it was the cell with the curious human. Now that she was paying attention, she could hear a conversation coming from the cell. She could hear a new voice, one that she could understand.
Eli and Ty went to look at what was happening and were both surprised by what they saw. There was a human-sized creature that did not look like a human, trying to get Eli’s human to go with it and a couple of escorts. That should not have been possible. There were no sapient human-sized aliens, but she was looking right at one. She almost whispered, “I think we might have missed a lot.”
“Yeah, first with the only other race as small as humans should have been newsworthy. I hope we did not forget about a war,” Ty said.
The humans looked just as stunned as Eli was with all this. To Eli, it looked like her human was trying to ask some questions, but the unknown aliens did not take kindly to that. One of the escorts stepped forward and rammed its weapon into the human’s stomach. When he doubled over, that blow was quickly followed up with another to the head.
Even Eli was surprised by how angry that made her. She was snarling at the cell and had to restrain herself from breaking into it. If the other human had not been there, she would have tried. There was too much of a risk of injuring him if she tried. Eli could not even fit her hand into it. Forcing her way in could very easily result in a crushed human.
The human that had taken the hits looked dazed as the escorts dragged him out of the cell and out of view. Before leaving, the alien that looked in charge took a moment to glare at Eli and Ty. She did not know what to make of that look, but Eli thought she felt a sense of smug superiority radiating from it. Then it walked away, the shield to the human cell turning back on as he left.
“Okay, I wasn’t expecting the guards to look like that,” Ty said.
Eli was still angry about the treatment of her human as she said, “I think they were a little quick to resort to force. That doesn’t seem like a good sign.”
“Considering the behavior of some of the other prisoners, maybe they think it’s justified,” Ty said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than Eli.
Before they could say anything else, they heard someone walking down the hallway of the Goliath cells. It looked like they were going to be visited by guards their own size. They walked over to the cell to see who was coming. When the guards came into view, she was not as surprised as what she saw with the other aliens, even though the guards were of a species she had never seen before. That was not as strange among Goliaths. There were millions of Goliath species. Eli had encountered a handful of them before. She had heard of a lot more, but there were way more she did not know about than she did.
The guards looked like an avian species, a hawk of some sort. But there were some key differences from any hawk she had ever seen. Instead of regular tail feathers, these guards had more feline-like tails. At first, she thought the tail was covered in fur, but she could tell they were actually very fine feathers when they walked closer. The exception being the ends of the tails, which occasionally flared out to reveal more traditional tail feathers. While the hawk creature did have scaley paws like a bird, they were definitely paws and not talons. Once again, they had more feline-like paws.
“There’s no way,” Ty said. “That can’t be a griffon.”
“You recognize the species? I sure don’t,” Eli said.
Ty snorted, “I do, but they’re a species out of human mythology. They shouldn’t exist.”
“They don’t look so mythological to me,” Eli said. She gave them a closer look. There were four in total, all armored up. None of them were quite as large as Eli, but they were not small either. Trying to fight them while they were armored up like that would have been difficult. Or it might not, based on something that seemed odd about them. Hawks typically had sharp-looking eyes. But all of those griffons, as Ty called them, had a glossy look to their eyes. It was like they were out of it, unfocussed, for some reason.
The guard’s armor looked pretty decent. But Eli’s eyes caught something else that was out of place. It was mostly blocked from view by the armor’s neck guard. Still, Eli could catch glimpses of what appeared to be collars. It was not just the collar of a shirt either. They were genuine collars like one would put on a pet. She might not have thought much about it under normal circumstances. Some people were into that kind of stuff. But it aroused suspicions when collars looked like they were part of a uniform.
Eli was so busy evaluating the guards that she nearly missed something else. One of the guards had a enger. Riding on the shoulder harness of a griffon was one of the little grey aliens. It was not wearing any armor. Like one of the guards that had taken her human away, it was in an officer’s uniform. Eli assumed that one was in charge.
The little alien was probably secured to the much larger griffon’s armor with magnetic boots along with the harness that appeared to be built into the armor. It did not look like it was having trouble staying on the shoulder. That was a somewhat promising sign. At least these Goliaths showed some concern for those smaller than themselves. Hopefully, that concern extended to the human prisoners.
When the guards stopped in front of Eli’s cell, she tensed up. After seeing what happened to the human, she readied herself for what might come next. The little grey alien pointed at her and said, “Bring the female.”
Eli thought the guards had perfect poker faces as they moved to follow orders. They showed not a single hint of emotion. When opening a cell with two Goliaths as large as Ty and herself, it felt like they should have shown something. Caution, fear, a smug sense that they could take them down with their weapons and training, anything at all. But they were completely blank. It was a little disconcerting.
“Who, or what are you,” Eli persisted in asking as the guards came for her. She had directed the question at the officer. Knowing how they had reacted to questions before, Eli was not expecting the alien to answer. She thought the creature would be annoyed, but how angry it looked surprised her. From how it looked, it was almost like Eli had eaten its mother.
The alien officer gestured wildly in Eli’s direction, “Discipline that beast. How dare it address me in such a manner.”
At least these aliens were consistent in their behavior. When the closest guard lashed out with his weapon, Eli was ready for it. She dodged out of the way with far more grace than the guard was probably expecting. Eli grabbed his wrist on the way and twisted his arm around until she had him in a good hold. Once more, it was a little disconcerting how little reaction the guard had to this. There was no fear or surprise at the turn in his fortune. If Eli had wanted to, she could have snapped his arm like a twig, and he showed no emotion at all about that.
While Eli was tempted to do just that, she had no idea why she was imprisoned. For all she knew, she could have done something to warrant being in there. Breaking a guard’s arm would only make things worse. So, while she had the guard in a hold, she maneuvered him around to use him as a shield. Using him as cover, Eli asked, “Let’s all try to stay calm. I seem to be having memory issues. Could someone explain to me what we are doing here?”
“Impertenant creature. Deal with her already,” the officer shouted.
The guards complied without a moment’s hesitation. Eli had little time to react as the guard she held snapped his arm to get out of her grip. He then rounded on her and struck her in the head with a baton. From the shock she felt, she assumed it was also a stun baton. She felt herself going down as Ty moved in silently to assist.
Ty struck a guard hard enough on her armored head that the helmet probably only saved her from getting knocked out. She was still knocked to her knees, and the wolf followed that up with a vicious knee to the griffon’s forehead in the uncovered part of her face. The blow drew blood, and the griffon was going down, but one of the other guards had already moved in and was striking Ty with a stun baton. The guard with the broken arm was holding his baton to Eli. She clenched her fangs in pain as she felt her body twitching uncontrollably. There was nothing else she could do besides close her eyes and slide into unconsciousness.
Glad you are enjoying the story so far.