Chapter 145
Dron’s body was starting to give out on him.
Not because he was getting tired but simply because he missed Tempest.
As much as he wanted to deny what was going on he couldn’t. Being away from Tempest was truly going to kill him. He needed to finish up with this mission as soon as possible. He needed to get home and figure out why his wife wasn’t answering him.
He prayed to the moon goddess that he wasn’t too late.
Prayed that leaving her with Rynax wouldn’t prove to be the biggest mistake of his life.
"What are you doing out here? I thought you’d be in bed...recovering." Krazek leaned up against a wooden pole and glared at Dron.
Dron stopped and looked up at the man, the last time he’d seen him Krazek was being taken someplace to be healed of his wounds. Dron didn’t even know how many days had passed since he’d seen the clearly perturbed man.
"I can say the same of you. Have you been fully healed?"
"I’m fine. A little confused as to what our purpose here is." Kraznek looks around, the same tense gaze he leveled on Dron he placed on the people around them.
"It’s not ideal but we need to figure out what’s going on in this community before we move on."
"I see, so we’re just going to stay here and kick up our feet?"
Dron pressed his lips together tightly. It wasn’t normal for a soldier to question his leader the way Kraznek was questioning Dron but then again nothing about this mission was normal.
"No, we’re not going to stay here and kick our feet up. This isn’t a vacation. I’ve got things to do. If you’ll excuse me I think it’s time I finish this conversation and get my work done."
Dron stepped around Kraznek and tried to walk further into the town. All eyes were on him and it took him a second to realize that the man he’d just been arguing with hadn’t stayed back to continue his glaring section but was walking behind him.
Kraznek was watching his back.
Dron looked over his shoulder once just to make sure that the man wasn’t trying to attack him or anything like that. To be truthful, he could use someone else who was in the right state of mind. Right now, everything looked like a threat to Dron.
Dron stayed quiet as he walked through the surprisingly advanced settlement. There were shops and people hammering away on strange looking gems.
Children played and ran in the side alleys.
There was even a man playing an instrument accepting donations in the center. Something that would never happen on Thraqe. Beggers were not allowed to be in the towns there.
A loud bang caused Dron to jump. He turned toward the sound only to see what looked like a blacksmith throwing something against an anvil. He was on edge. He’d been on edge since he came in the town. Dron didn’t know if something bad were about to happen but he couldn’t stop feeling as if he were just one misstep away from everything exploding to dust around him.
He’d never been this paranoid in his life.
He knew it wasn’t his true feelings, it was more of the fated mates sickness. If he wasn’t careful, Dron knew the paranoia would take over his mind and he would go crazy.
He’d seen it happen before.
With his mother.
There had always been rumors that his mother had left her fated mate but no one could prove it. Now that Dron was going through the same things his mother had gone through all those years ago he knew the truth. He wasn’t the first in generations to find his fated mate. His mother had found hers.
She’d found hers and left him.
Dron couldn’t understand why she would do something like that. The pain must have been intense and down right unbearable.
If she were alive he would be desperate to ask her about what happened. Unfortunately, they were questions that he’d never get the answers to.
"Maybe we should start there?" Kraznek spoke from behind Dron. Dron took a deep breath in and focused on what the man was pointing at.
A large building, only one story but the windows were all shuttered and there was a guard standing by the front door.
Whatever was in that building was important.
"Yes, let’s start there." Dron agreed and the both of them walked in that direction.
"You are not allowed in here, cursed one." The guard said as Dron made his way to the front.
"My name is Dron, not cursed one. I am in Skoq on a mission from the high royals. You may not answer to them but I do. If you stop me from completing my mission in anyway it may be looked on as a sign of war. Who shall I say brought this upon the people of Skoq?" Dron tilted his head and waited for the guard to decide if whatever was in the building was important enough to start a war over.
Apparently it wasn’t as he moved to the side and let Dron and Kraznek enter without so much as another word.
Dron was surprised at what he saw when he walked in. Not because it was so different than what he’d seen back home but because it was so similar.
A bunch of Skoq scientist were moving around reading books and making notes. Completing experiments. Completely unaware that there was someone new in their midst. Seeing them all in there caused Dron to think of Clik. He hoped the preculiar man wasn’t getting himself into any trouble. It’d been a while since Dron checked in on him.
What made it so strange to Dron was the fact that everyone in Thraqe assumed that the people of Skoq were all savages. People with no intelligence but that clearly wasn’t the case.
"What are they doing?"
"Perfecting space travel." A scientist who was sitting by the door behind a tower of books and papers spoke without looking up at either Dron or Kraznek.
"Why would you need to do that?"
"To get back to where we were." The man answered.
Dron turned to face him but found trying to talk to him with the books in the way troublesome.
The scientist groaned and looked up at Dron as Dron simply pushed some of the books to the side. "I’ve given you the answer you require, why do you persist with the bothersome nature of your presence?"
Dron blinked a few times. No this man wasn’t like Clik, he was more like Gerax.
The traitor.
The man who was supposed to be keeping Tempest safe. Now they were all walking around in the unknown on an island that would definetely be the death of her.
Dron could feel his alpha instincts start to rise. His body was getting hot.
Find her.
You have to find her.
The words screamed in his mind.
"Mark Chief?" Kraznek called to to Dron, his hand on his weapon.
Dron shook his head a few times before looking back up at Kraznek. "I’m fine. It’s fine."
"You don’t look fine. In fact, you look absolutely homicidal."
"I said it’s fine." Dron shouted at the man. He had to keep his wildly swinging emotions in line. There was no telling what he would do if he allowed his alpha instincts to take control. He didn’t want to be kept here in Skoq longer than he needed to be and he knew if he caused a scene there was no way that Tine would let him leave. At least not without a fight.
"What do you mean, get back to where you were? Wouldn’t space travel be a new advancement?" Dron looked down at the scientist who was still sitting in the space.
The man scoffed and leaned back against the wall, "No, not in the least. It’s hidden knowledge. An advancement deemed unfit for us to have by the royals of the past."
"That can’t be true. I mean, my mate is here thanks to space travel."
"That’s true but can you imagine how much we could have if we opened up the space travel to everyone and not just those with the gilded markings? What could we accomplish? The trade. The education. It would be a perfect solution for those on this planet who aren’t free to live their best lives. Think of Thraqe’s poor class. They could find refuge on a different planet and maybe have a better life."
It all sounded a bit too much like a dream instead of something that could really happen.
"So you’re saying this was the norm in the past. We just let people go from place to place in space?" Dron narrowed his eyes at the man.
"Not only was it allowed, it was encouraged. It’s how the first settlers of Skoq came to be. If I’m not mistaken that lineage is why they call you the cursed one."
Dron processed the words. He heard them but still he was confused.
"What are you talking about. I’m from Thraqe. That is my lineage."
The scientist delivered a smug look.
"It’s true, you are from Thraqe, and your mother before you...but I’m not entirely convinced that her parents were. Have you never thought about why you were so different? Why you of all the people are the only one to have the dark colored markings? Tell me you didn’t truly think it was something as ridiculous as a curse."
Dron gulped down hard. He’d always known logically it couldn’t be a curse. But emotionally it had always felt like one.
"Are you saying...I’m an alien?"
The scientist tilted his head for a second as if he were contemplating what Dron had said before he shrugged his shoulders twice.
"Yes, I strongly believe that you have alien blood coursing through your veins."
Dron opened his mouth to argue, but what could he say.
He stood there shocked for a few moments. Wondering if what the man was saying could hold any truth. There was a point where it seemed laughable, but in the next moment it seemed more and more likely.
His mouth opened and closed again.
Finally when he was able to speak, Dron heard himself say two simple words, "Prove it."
⌨
⏸ PAUSE■ STOP