Chapter 134
Dron was in absolute shock.
He looked around the bustling town, trying to find a place where they would be lacking. Where he could justify his belief that Thraqe was somehow in better shape than they were here in Skoq.
He hadn’t found anything that would prove that idea.
In fact, Skoq didn’t look like it was hurting at all.
"How is this possible? Who are you people?" Dron asked the woman who was still gently ushering him down the path.
"We are the people you believe were less than. We are the ones who want peace. We are who the Thraqen should strive to be."
Dron felt more and more like he was in the middle of a bad dream. He didn’t know how he was going to explain this or if he would even have the chance to do so.
"So tell me what you’ve come here for." The woman asked him as she continued to direct him.
Dron took a second to shake his head and pulled the both of them to a stop. Things were going too fast. He needed to take a breath and figure out exactly what was going on here.
"Stop." Dron barked and yanked his arm away from the woman harder than he should’ve. She looked up at him as if he’d lost his mind.
"Who are you? You show up in the middle of what should have been a desolate area with all this knowledge and have refused to be forthcoming about anything. Who are you? Where have all these people come from? How come you haven’t succumbed to the elements? What is truly going on here?"
The woman simply smirked up at him and offered her hand again. There was nothing more that he could do, so he simply grabbed hold of her and continued walking.
As if the shock of having new people in their area had worn off, everyone went back to their normal life. Dron stopped with the older woman in front of a plain looking door. Something that most Thraqen would never choose for their decor, but among the various shades of brown around the Skoq settlement, it melded perfectly.
She opened the door, and the both of them walked in together.
Before they got all the way in, the woman put her hand up to stop the rest of Dron’s crew from coming in. He was hesitant at first but finally gave the order for them to stand down.
After a second, Dron and the woman were alone.
"Now, I understand you have more than a few questions." The woman walked further into the medium sized room. There were shelves among shelves of books and other parchment paper.
Some interesting pieces of art and even some scientific equipment in the corner. There was no real purpose to the room that Dron could see. It was as if this was a catch all room of some sort.
"Yes, I have some questions. I’ve had questions since I stepped foot on this island."
"How about we start with the most obvious of the questions?" The woman pulled up a chair and sat. "I am Tine."
"Tine." Dron repeated.
"Yes, that is my given name. Is it any stranger than the name Dron?" She tilted her head to the side, and Dron simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Now that you’ve gotten that out of the way, what else are you wanting to know?" Tine asked Dron.
Dron had a million and one questions, it made sense that he would start at the beginning. "Who were those children? Where did they come from?"
"The children that you saw belong to the community. They were born just as any other children were born. The community has been here for generations. True there are children that have been misplaced from other lands and planets but they are ours none the less." Tine blinked once and waited for Dron to continue.
"How have you all survived here?"
"We’ve adapted. The same as people have adapted to their surrounding in the years past."
Dron crossed his arms over his chest. "But how have you all survived with all the wars and battles that have been taking place? You would have surely been affected by it."
Tine scoffed and shifted in her chair. "That is a silly statement to make. What war torn country isn’t affected by war. Yes, we are affected, but as I stated, we’ve managed to persevere."
It was time for Dron to just come to grips with the fact that there were people on this island and they were thriving. It was also time for him to get to the crux of the matter. The real reason why he was here in the first place.
"I’m sure you are not aware, but I’m here doing some recon on an event that took place on my homeland."
Tine raised an eyebrow, and Dron had the strange inclination that she already knew more than he was giving her credit for.
"Oh? And what exactly was this event that you are talking about?"
"There was an attack on our most impoverished class. We have no leads back on Thraqe and we’ve been led to believe that there may be someone here who knows more about what happened there."
She smirked at Dron, "I do know what happened there, but I can assure you it wasn’t any of my fellow Skoq people that had a hand in it. From what I’ve been told, it was a bit of retribution against the uprising you and your mate have caused in that area."
It was now Dron’s turn to look at her as if she were talking nonsense.
"That isn’t the truth. Me and my mate had nothing to do with what happened. It’s all just a bunch of horrible rumors."
"Rumors that have traveled far, cursed one."
Dron gruffed and looked away from the woman, "Don’t call me that." He snapped at her.
"What? Cursed one? Is that not what you believe you are?"
"I’m not cursed?"
"I know you’re not, but I have a hard time believing you do." She crossed her legs. Dron didn’t want to go down this line of questioning. He’d done that his whole life. He wasn’t about to prove himself to a woman he wasn’t sure was anything more than a heat crazed menace.
"If you and your people had nothing to do with what happened at the poor class, how do you know about it? You have spies? People who come from Thraqe to tell you what is going on there."
"Spies? No. Not spies. Refugees."
Dron shook his head.
"What are you talking about, refugees?" Tine sighed and slowly pushed herself up and walked to the back exit.
"I guess it would be better to show you than to tell you." She gestured for Dron to follow her. It wasn’t lost on him that he was getting further and further away from his men.
She could be leading him deeper into her world and do some damage to the group of them but for right now he was just going to trust that she wasn’t so much of a danger.
"You have to realize," Tine continued to talk as she lead Dron out of the room down a long candle lit corridor, "most of the people who come here are in search of peace, of acceptance. Somewhere to hide from the oppression that comes with being a Thraqen. The rules and hierarchy. Here we don’t designate classes. If you work you succeed. And if you fail there is help. We are thriving because we work together. I will not let anything change that dynamic."
"I’m not here to change anything. Only to get answers." Dron quickly responded. "Oh, sweet child, tell me you don’t truly think that? You’ve already begun changing things in your own land."
"How?" Dron questioned.
Tine turned to look at him, "You pulled off the impossible. You showed them all that it didn’t matter what class or upbringing you had. With the right support. With the right love. Anyone can achieve anything. Tell me the truth Dron, if someone were to tell you ten double moon cycles ago that you would be going against the high royals to help people in the poor class would you have believed them? If they told you that you would find your fated mate in a woman who came from the stars would you think it was a lie? If they told you that you would be the resounding voice in a massive group of your community would you think it was a farce?" She continued walking, "You’ve already changed so much. You need to open your eyes and see what you’ve done."
When put into that perspective, Dron could understand what Tine was talking about. He could see how in such a short period of time he had changed. He’d become a better man.
It all stemmed from his mate. From Tempest.
Finally after they made it to the main square through the tunnel Tine took Dron to another building.
At first Dron thought it was another catch all room, until he saw there were a long line of cots and beds in the space.
Toys he had never seen before and colorful drawings littered the floors.
In the corner was a group of children, ranging from very small to nearly adult. They all stared at Dron with clear hatred.
"I’d like you to meet some of these children."
Dron couldn’t understand why, but he went along with it. He move closer to the group of children and one of the older ones came to stand in the front. The child sneered at Dron.
Instantly, Dron’s alpha instincts started to kick in but he stifled them as best he could.
"You know me?" Dron asked.
"Yes, I know you. I’m Sotkin, and you killed my father and little sister."