Page 5 of Rock Hard Alien

No. That wasn't going to happen.

So I did the only thing I could do. I wrapped my arms around her, spread my wings, and launched us into the air.

For a moment, my wings held our weight. We hovered over the courtyard. Then a cramp hit my right shoulder. My muscles froze. I lost control. We swerved to the right, tumbling through the air.

She screamed.

I almost did the same.

Many rotations of training kicked in. I pushed away the pain, beat my wings as hard as I could, shifted my body weight for balance until I found an air current to carry us.

Her screams stopped, but her breathing was fast, too fast. Her heartbeat drummed against my arm. She was frightened, no, terrified. And I was the cause of it. Cloch. I was doing it all wrong. But there was no turning back now.

“Where are you taking me?!” she shouted against the wind. She sounded more angry than scared.

“Somewhere safe,” I replied. But I didn't know where that was. All I'd seen of this world had been a chaotic mess of blue and green as our ship had hurtled towards the surface. Then, fields and hills where I'd crashed. Then, a dirt road, a primitive town, a stone building on top of a hill, before I'd been lifted onto the wall I'd stood on ever since. I'd watched the land around me evolve. Battles, wars, burning pyres. Slowly, the natives had evolved. Their buildings had become sturdier, taller, more populated. Their roads had turned from mud to stone. Their wagons had become motorised. And then, one day, they'd taken flight.

But my view had been limited. I'd never been able to turn my head in all those years. What had been behind me had been a mystery that I'd been desperate to solve at first, and grown bored of soon after. I had slept for many of the rotations that I'd been forced to perch on that blasted wall, hoping that one day the forever sleep would overtake me. It never did, not like in the stories where petrified gharrgoils forgot that they'd once been able to move and think and talk, and became stone inside and out.

A gust of wind pushed us upwards. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to fly. The air stroking my wings. The views, vast and endless. The freedom. I beat my wings, propelling us higher. The castle that had been my home for so long was far below us, a strange arrangement of buildings and walls and gardens, set on a hill above the sprawling town. What had once been a muddy village had grown into a bustling city.

I still didn't know where I was headed. In the distance, a tower rose from a low hill, a dark spire that called to me. I'd seen it from my wall, watched the humans as they'd built it, and wondered about its purpose. Gharrgoils loved living close to the sky - our cities were made up of roost towers reaching to the very edge of the atmosphere - but this tower didn't look occupied. It would do for now.

My muscles ached from too many rotations of disuse. I'd have to land soon.

The female hadn't said anything for a while. I squeezed her gently to get a reaction.

“Where the fuck are you taking me? Let me go!”

I got my reaction. She hadn't passed out from fear or altitude. That was a good sign. I would take her on many more flights once my body recovered.

“To the tower,” I called into the wind.

“The Wallace Monument? But why?”

“It looks like a good vantage point!”

“You're crazy!”

Her voice was a sharp mix of anger and fear. I'd have a lot of explaining to do once we landed. But first, I had to make it to the tower. I was getting tired fast. I'd misjudged the distance. Carrying us this high had been a mistake. I'd been reckless and I had no excuse for getting us into danger.

Cloch. I beat my wings hard, drawing on every bit of strength that I still possessed. We were slowing down too much. This was going to be close, too close.

The tower sat on a wooded hill rising up from the houses around it, with steep stone cliffs on one side. I couldn't see any natives from this high up, but it would be a miracle if we went unseen. I wasn't sure what they'd do if they spotted us. I'd learned much about them by listening to the conversations drifting up on the wind, but not enough. I knew everything about the castle there was to know, thanks to the tour guides who used to stop right beneath me, but not about their world. Did they know that they weren't alone in the universe yet? And did they still believe in the strange creatures they had carved?

Another cramp tore through my left wing. I tightened my grip on the female. Whatever happened, I wouldn't let her fall. And if we fell from the sky, I would buffer her fall with my body. Anything to keep her safe.

The opposite of what I'd done. I'd endangered her through my reckless behaviour. Just like I'd killed my crew all those rotations ago. It was unlikely they'd survived the crash.

I was bad news. Bad luck. Bad gharrgoil.

Pain shot through my wings and down my back. My arms went numb. All strength left me.

The landscape beneath us, tiny buildings forming a strangely mesmerising pattern, was out of focus.

And then we were falling.

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