51. Beach Vacation
1728 Words
We make love in the morning and then snuggle.
"I want to check the kings ship plans today. Don't let me forget."
"I won't. I added a vault last night. It's hard to remember everything."
"Yes it is. You did so good. I don't want to drive them all over hell constantly either. They'll end up with their own advisors though."
"Yea, that's why I put 6 advisor apartments and offices in them. Most kings do end up with advisors."
Something flies by our window. We jump.
"What the hell was that?"
"Warship. I'm going to kick all their asses."
"As long as they're not shooting at each other and have someone in here, it should be fine."
We get dressed quickly and go to the command area. Elroy is sitting there with a headset on.
"I take it you're the lookout?"
He chuckles. "I wanted to get to know more about the controls here. And honestly, I do not want to go out in that little thing."
"I don't blame you. Maybe if they were slower I would go. But they're fast and have rockets on them." I put a headset on so I can hear.
Then Alden puts 1 on. "Good morning, assholes."
They start laughing.
"How long have they been out there?"
"20 minutes."
Alden brings up different menus for the little ships.
"Alert: Incoming transmission."
"Connect it."
Nadine shows up in the captain's chair of their ship. She seems like she's trying not to cry.
"What can I do for you?"
"Is Elek there? Can I talk to him?"
"Sure. AI take over Elek's ship and bring him back. Put him through airlock and rush him up here."
"If he's busy, I can wait."
"Don't worry about it. He's not busy. They're being boys and messing around. I'm sure he'd much rather talk to you. He's on a 30-second countdown, then he'll be coming."
"Thank you."
"Elek, come up to the command area when you get out of airlock. Nadine wants to talk to you."
12 seconds later, he falls in the door. I hand him a tablet. "You can connect her to a tablet and talk privately. I can't leave them out there. They'll shoot my ship if we're not watching."
He takes the tablet. She disappears from my view as he walks out.
I watch them fly around for an hour. Then I get bored and eat lunch. I hear Alden say, "We have a shuttle coming up, do not hit it."
Tobias yells, "TARGET PRACTICE."
I spit out some water and laugh.
"Fomek is coming up to check your parents' baby. He'll come up here when he's done."
"Ok."
Elek sits the tablet down. He's been crying. "Have some lunch Elek."
He sits by me. I think he's in shock.
"You ok?"
He puts his head in my lap and starts bawling. I rub his head.
"What did she say?" Elroy asks.
"She doesn't know."
"That's not new."
"It's ok." I rub his hair some more. "She's speaking to you. She's communicating. It's something. At least she's trying to talk through it with you."
He sits up. Then he wipes his eyes off and eats. I can tell he's trying so hard not to cry.
I rub his back. "Someday she'll know. Keep communication open for now."
"How long though?" He chokes on his words.
"They said you were gone for years, she might need that much time too. I have no idea."
He lays his head on the table, "I killed her mate. I didn't think he was good enough. Now he's a God and I don't have my mate."
Elroy gives a sad smile. "Didn't you have to forgive yourself to come back?"
"Yes, but then I saw the tears in her eyes. It's horrible. I did that."
"You were messed up brother. You had some mental issues going on and were trying to protect her. You didn't see the bigger picture. And you know the mental issues I have. They happen to people. We have no say in whether we want them or not. Give her the space she wants, but let her yell when she needs to, she'll eventually understand and get through it."
I keep rubbing his back. "I would have to agree. As long as there is some form of communication happening, healing is happening."
He nods and eats.
Fomek comes in. "They're still fine. 5 and 6 days. They seem to have sped up. Boy, do you need a doctor?"
Elek shakes his head. "I'm good."
"Ok. I'm going back to the planet, Alden. Tell those assholes to stay away from the shuttle, I nearly s**t myself on the way up here." We burst out laughing.
"Ship, bring the warships in. They need to have lunch anyway. They've been out there for a couple of hours now. Sorry about that."
"At least my trip down will be safe. See you after lunch."
"Thank you doctor."
5 minutes later, everyone is eating.
They talk about how fun it was for a while. Elek doesn't say anything. He sits and listens. That's a start. He is so broken. At least he has people that talk around him. I need to keep him busier though.
A couple of days later, we're all sitting around the conference table staring at each other. Elroy looks around. "Can we leave again? This is boring."
I lay my head down.
"I see that you are all going crazy being cooped up in the castle, but we still need to get a few things done."
Victor bounces his head off the table.
"1 more day, we can do something tomorrow. Clark, I need the paperwork for the shops wing redo."
Clark hands him some papers.
"Does anyone know..."
Tobias's chair falls over backwards and he jumps up. "Sorry."
Alden rubs his eyes.
Alkawn jumps up. "Fane is in another werewolf village. Time to go."
They jump up and run through a door.
Me, Starlet, and Tara are left sitting there staring at each other. "Were we supposed to go?"
"I don't think so."
"I'm surprised Elroy went."
"I think he is that bored too. We're dying here, and my mate is holding us hostage."
"Elroy has been doing amazing here. I haven't seen him have 1 panic attack. He got a little nervous about the warships, but you had him help you. That relaxed him. You didn't make a big deal out of it or anything. Then Alden letting him stay on the floating shuttle on that planet. He was still included but didn't have to get out. That was nice."
"Yea, I'm not going to push anyone for anything. Everyone has comfort limits, he can stay inside his. Not hurting anybody that way."
"Collin loves this too. He tries to blame it on me wanting to see another planet. But you saw how fast he ran out the door. And he gets along with the boys so well."
I nod. "They really do get along. Kind of surprising with so many kings."
The boys and Jenny come back in and sit down. "He wasn't there. He had a bunch of followers there. We got some of those."
Alden rubs his eyes. "A lot of them got away too."
"We are ready to take supplies to your mining planet now, ma'am."
I jump up. "Oh, thank you so much."
"Woman."
"MY MINING PLANET NEEDS THINGS ALDEN."
"Fine. There and back. No messing around."
We run to the shuttle.
2 hours later, we're on a planet that's too small for human life. We can't put it on that list. But it's got a beach and we have picnic food. We sit on blankets and watch the water while we eat.
Tera stretches her toes. "This is so nice."
I smile and lay down. "It's nice to be out."
"What is that?"
There is something very odd walking down the beach towards us. I would guess reptile.
"It's a crocodile, I'll kill it." Elek stands up and about 30 more come out of the water beside it. "GET TO THE SHUTTLE NOW."
We jump up and run for it.
"GET YOUR ASSES IN THE AIR. DRAGONS AND GRAB SOMEONE AND GO. PUT YOUR HAND IN THE AIR IF YOU DON'T HAVE A DRAGON." Elek turns to a dragon and grabs Victor by the wrist.
All of us that have dragons turn. I don't have to grab anyone. Which is good. I'm shaking even as a dragon. Everyone else is in the air.
Victor starts yelling at the shuttle while he's being help up by his arm. The flies out of the crocodiles reach, and turns sideways. The door opens, and the dragon drops him on the side of it. Then Tim gets dropped on it. They get in and help the other people in.
There are probably 600 of those crocodile things on the beach below us. Some of them are starting to fight, and their teeth are snapping. I get pushed towards the shuttle by someone. I don't even know who. I can't look away from the teeth. I climb in the door of the sideways shuttle. Elek and Tim grab onto me. They get me in.
"Work your way back slowly, Kehlani. We have a few more to get in here before we go the right direction."
After a few minutes, the ship goes in the right direction, and we situate ourselves.
Alden smiles at us from the front of the shuttle. "You are the people who wanted to go out today. We could have stayed in and had a nice boring day."
We crack up laughing.
Jenny rubs her eyes. "I thought we were fine. Elek stood up all confident, I'll go kill it. Then he turned around and ran like hell."
"Those fuckers came out of nowhere." Elek lays his head back and laughs. "I can kill 1 or 2, but damn, they covered the beach so quickly.
Alden smiles. "Yea they did. Look out the windows, they're still there. Probably a thousand of them now. We won't be returning here."
"Sorry love, I'll plan the beach vacations somewhere else."
"Thank you, baby. Return us to the ship."
"Yes sir."
"Alden, you're no longer allowed to plan the team building exercises."
We look at Alkawn and crack up laughing again.
- Writer
