C9 Khol - Chained

Kohl swung low, spreading his wings wide as he sailed through the air over his homeland. Darkness covered the lands in her blanket and the thousands of stars flickered above him. He squeezed the crystal, ensuring that he still had it. Once his father saw the rock, he'd organize an expedition immediately. With their weapons and comms working again, they'd turn the tide of this war and overthrow the invaders. The Tryn would leave and hopefully never return.

Eagerness and joy swept through him. Kohl would finally get the recognition for his actions and not merely because he was the king’s half-blood son.

Wind flowed over him and brought the scent of over ripened crapples filling the air. His home lay beyond the valley into the mountains. Kohl's gaze swept the ground to ensure that no Tryn scurried over the area after him. Last thing he wanted was to lead one of those monsters to his family.

He would rip out his own heart rather than endanger his people. Something him and his father shared.

The image of Isabelle sleeping punched him in the gut and he gasped from the intensity of the remorse that hit him. It was too dangerous to continue seeing her. She was too tempting and what if he slipped and she discovered he was a dragon?

He shook his head. No, it was better this way. One night of passion for them both to remember.

The coldness of the crystal itched across his palm. Once his dad realized Earth had a few of these quasicrystals, he'd send Kohl and some of his brothers to scour for more. Their weapons could be reanimated and they could win this war.

Kohl folded his wings and landed outside the cave entrance. Nothing around him stirred and he scooted through the opening, twisting slightly at the end to wedge his way deeper into the labyrinth. At the opening, a body collided into his.

“Kohlxchijr!” his sister squeaked. “Where have you been? Father, Taurian and Symon have been out looking for you.”

“Call me Kohl, like Taurian does. I went to Earth.” He showed her his side with the nearly healed wound. The scales were discolored there, but in a month they would darken to the forest green like the rest of his scales.

She thumped her tail and her dragon eyes narrowed. “Why do you smell...different?”

“I was injured by a Tryn spear. Of course, I'm gonna have a different scent on me.” He couldn't let her, or anyone know that he had sex with a human. Even though his father had done so once, he refused to talk about it. Maybe this would change his mind on that as well too. His father would share what he knew about Earth and perhaps open up about Kohl's mother. Hope filled his chest.

“Kohl?” Taurian rounded the corner, his left wing trailing along the wall causing rubble to rain down. “We thought the bastards got ahold of you.”

“Sorry, I was wounded and took a bolt to Earth instead of letting them take me or lead them back here.” He kept the quasicrystal in his grip. His dad, as king, should be the first to see it and know about it.

His brother hugged him. “Good to have you back, runt.”

“Yeah,” Linhyenr, his other brother added coming down the hallway, his shadow darkening the cave floor and the lights overhead flickered. “Dad has been searching for you for hours. We had to force him to let us take shifts.”

“There wasn't time to leave a note. Sorry I worried you all, but I was ambushed and there were too many for me to lose them without passing out.” He bowed his head in toward his eldest brother. “And I'd rather die than have led them here to my family. My blood alone would’ve left a trail for them to follow.”

“I understand.” Linhyenr placed a claw on Kohl's bead signaling him the approval to rise. “But it isn't me you have to gain approval on your outing with. You know Father forbade any of us from traveling to Earth.”

“Since when do you obey everything Father orders?” Kohl wouldn't let his eldest brother intimidate him. “You who've gone from the Andromeda to the Zurikh galaxies over a dozen times.”

His brother laughed smacked his shoulder. “Triple that number.”

So, Kohl wasn't the only one who snuck out. Did their father know and ignore it or was he wrapped up in his own life that he failed to realize his family was disobeying him?

“Come. Father and Kilian just returned from hunting for you an hour ago,” Linhyenr said.

If it wasn't for the crystal pressed into Kohl's palm, his brother’s words would've worried him about what his father would do when he discovered Kohl had snuck to Earth again...much less mated with a human. Did Isabelle wonder where he was? Did she care or was it merely the night and indulgence of alcohol in her veins? Would she even remember his name?

Kohl crawled through the small opening, his wings scraping the sides of the cave walls into his father's chamber.

His dad slumbered on the floor with a half boulder as his pillow. Snores echoed around them.

“Look who I found, Father,” Linhyenr said pushing Kohl closer.

“You didn't find me.” Kohl snorted. “I came home once it was safe to do so.”

“Kohlxchijr?” His dad's eyes opened, their slanted pupils staring at him. “My son, you're alive!”

He nodded and opened his talons. “And I brought a gift from Earth. A quasicrystal.”

“Earth?” his father spat. “Traveling outside of Renjer is forbidden since the Tryn.”

“But they have the crystals we need for our weapons. We can fight our enemy and not cower in caves. Be free and fly—”

His father knocked the crystal out of his hand and it clattered against a rock, breaking off a piece. “No! It is too dangerous to leave our land for a handful of crystals.”

“Father,” his eldest brother inclined his head. “What would it hurt to try? Send some of us to Earth for more of these. A few weapons might swing battles. Then we can hunt for more crystals on Earth and other planets. Finally win this war.”

“No! I am king, and I have forbidden it.” His father stomped forward. “Time you remember your place as my youngest, half-human son!” He snatched up Kohl by the throat and shoved him out of the cave.

“Father, my king, listen—” Kohl scrambled to his feet, his tail thrashing.

“Silence,” his father roared and the ceiling above them shook, raining debris down on their heads. Grabbing Kohl by his arm, he dragged him to Kohl’s cave.

Kohl fought, scraping along the walls with his talons for purchase. “Don’t make me fight you, but I will to save our people, our planet.”

When his father didn’t stop dragging him, Kohl bit and kicked. His teeth sinking into the dragon scale to the flesh beneath.

His father howled and Linhyenr punched Kohl in the muzzle, rattling his teeth. Dizzy, Kohl was thrown against the wall. Pain radiated through his entire body.

“Chain him,’ his father said.

“No,” Kohl mumbled through his sore jaw and the blood filling his mouth. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He should have been hailed a hero not an unwanted interloper. The betrayal of his father stabbed him deeper than any claw or tooth.

Both Taurian and Symon looked at each other. “Maybe he has a point,” Taurian said.

“Do as I command, or I’ll lock you both up beside him,” his father snarled.

At his father's words, his brothers fell silent. They knew better to question the king when he was like this. When no amount of arguing or pleading would soften his judgment, but only make it worse.

“Why are you doing this when we can beat them?” Kohl strained against them as the metal shackle clanked shut on his forearms. The spikes pressing through his scales, piercing them and preventing him from shifting into his human form.

“Until you promise never to leave Renjer again, you will remain here,” his father spat. “Forever if necessary.”

Kohl cursed as his family left him chained to the wall inside his cave. Why was his father being so stubborn about this? Didn't he want to save his family and people? Kohl yelled, but no one came or answered him. It was like his father had given up already and was just buying time down here before they were discovered and wiped out. Kohl refused to become extinct. He just had to figure out how to escape.