AN: Hey guys to start off this chapter I gotta give some thanks first.
Thank you to
* William Tex
* andiy
* Hollis Copp
* niznet
All four of these awesome people are now supporting me through patreon and I couldn't be more appreciative like thank you, truly you have no idea the smile on my face when I saw your patronage. I promise I am working on some more patreon exclusive stuff just taking me a minute to get things going so look forward to that and if you want to see that stuff well yall know what to do.
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Titania
A planet that could only be described as paradise There was pure air, clean waters, and wonderful forests, and there were no signs of any advanced civilizations, so there was no pollution, making for an extremely clean planet.
As soon as the ship landed, Ren and Lucilia were the first two aliens to smell the clean air as they walked out of the ship, hand in hand.
After the two left the ship, the guards and crew all left the ship to set up the camp they would be living in.
They had large tents made for containing the groups that they had brought with them: one for the dozen knight pilots, one for the seven house servants Lucilia brought with her, one for the mechanics and pilots to share, one for Mae alone, one for Ivy alone, and one for Lucilia and Ren to share. Being royalty and friends with royalty has its perks.
As they setup camp, they knew they needed to get a better idea of their surroundings, so Ren and two other knight pilots, Ceti and Aleyda, decided to go look around and see what they could find.
Ceti was a dark-skinned girl with long, dark reddish brown hair and bright yellow eyes, and Aleyda was a girl with long green hair and matching eyes, both beautiful in their own right. Lucilia tried to go with them, but Ren convinced her that her leadership was needed at the camp in order to direct everything, and she reluctantly agreed with him...after he promised to let her do what she wanted with him for one night.
Ren, Ceti, and Aleyda walked through the woods and found a waterfall nearby with a long water stream.
"Test if it's drinkable, Aleyda." Ceti said, looking around for any sign of hostiles.
Aleyda stuck a device into the stream, and it proved that it was safe for them to drink.
"Well, we have a source of fresh water nearby; that should help us if we ever run low on supplies." Ren said.
"Right, now we just need to worry about food." Ceti said.
"Are there any signs of vegetables or fruits growing?" Aleyda asked.
"Maybe...we are near a stream after all; there should be something growing around here." Ren said.
The trio walked further up the stream, trying to find any sign of food.
Luckily, about a mile from where they were, they found what looked to be fruits growing on a small tree.
"These look like...Oranges?" Ren said, looking at the fruit.
"You know what these are?" Aleyda asked Ren.
"Well, at least by appearance, these are oranges; it's a fruit that grows on Earth." Ren explained.
"Let's open one up and see what the insides look like; that way, you can know if it's identical to these oranges on your planet." Ceti said as she took out her knife and cut the orange down the middle.
However, unlike the oranges on Earth, inside these oranges was a light blue fruit.
"Well, these aren't oranges, that's for sure..." Ren said, looking at them.
"Okay, Aleyda, you know what to do." Ceti said, looking at it.
Ceti put another device with a needle into the fruit.
"It says there's nothing in this fruit that shouldn't harm us." Aleyda said.
The three looked at each other nervously, as if they were seeing who would step up and try it first.
"Well, someone's got to do it." Ren said before he was stopped by Aleyda.
"Are you sure about this? If something goes wrong, the princess will-" Aleyda tried to warn Ren.
"It should be fine, right? So we won't know until we try." Ren said as he ate the fruit.
It didn't taste like an orange at all; in fact, it was very sweet, which made it delicious to Ren.
"It's really good; grab some more and try some!" Ren said.
The two grabbed their own fruits and tried it themselves, both liking it.
"We should take these back to camp." Aleyda said.
"Alright, let's put them in my pack, and we can head back to camp." Ceti said.
The three put as many of these fruits into Ceti's backpack and started to head back to camp.
"Is this the first planet exploration you two have been on?" Ren asked the two girls.
"This is Aleyda's first and my second." Ceti responded.
"Really? How many planets does your empire even know about?" Ren asked.
Ceti sighed before saying "It should be fine now that you and Princess Lucilia are together, so the empire knows the existence of about 50 planets; not all of them have intelligent species on them, but we do know of a good amount of foreign species."
"50?" Ren reacted.
"Yes, how many do you know of?" Ceti asked.
"Outside of our home system, there are not many, and we surveyed a lot less." Ren explained.
"Hm, your people are a lot less advanced than ours; it makes me wonder why our war has been going on for so long." Ceti said to Ren.
"Honestly, weapons and technology don't give you the win in war; they give you an advantage, sure, but they don't guarantee anything, and if we do have one thing going for us, we're too stubborn to just lie down and surrender." Ren said.
"Hm, you talk so casually with us, but you do know we have killed your people, right?" Aleyna asked.
Ren, instead of being angry, just smiled "I can say the same about you; you talk to me despite knowing I am your enemy."
Ceti noticed what Ren said "You said "was" our enemy; does that mean you are not now?"
"No, you haven't done anything to harm me, so why would you be my enemy? I don't care if we were born on different planets; since I met Lucilia, I learned that not all of your people are what we were told, and I hope you hold the same opinion as me." Ren said with a smile.
"I'm still unsure about you, but the princess trusts you, so I trust you." Ceti said; however, she added a warning "Don't make me regret it."
"I don't plan too." Ren said.
*ROAR*
"What the hell was that?" Ren asked after being shaken by the roaring noise.
"I don't know, wildlife?" Aleyda asked.
"Possibly, we need to get back to the camp now!"
The three started to sprint away, but as they were running, a tree was knocked over in front of them, cutting them off.
"What the hell?" Ceti said worried about what was pursuing them, then they heard the most terrifying sound.
*Snarl*
Ren and the girls turned around, seeing the horrifying creature before them.
A creature's body was as long as three normal-sized cars; it's the height of two people; it's running on four legs with three tails waving behind it; it's got six green eyes just staring at it; its body is as black as the night.
"....we need to get the fuck out of here!" Ren yelled, and the other two agreed. They ran as fast as they could, firing the weapons they had brought, but it barely slowed the creature down.
"Turn into the woods!" Ceti yelled as everyone listened.
They ran as fast as they could, jumping over fallen trees and praying they were outrunning the creature; however, they weren't fast enough.
The beast swung its clawed paw at Aleyda, hitting her from the side, causing her body to be sent flying.
"ALEYDA!" Ceti yelled, seeing her friend being hurt.
"Ceti distract it as best as you can. I'll go get Aleyda!" Ren said as he started to run towards where Aleyda landed.
Ren could hear the gunfire from the firefight but didn't turn back; he knew that as long as he heard the gunfire, Ceti was alright.
Ren arrived at where Aleyda landed, and so she lay on the ground, her side bleeding from the claw marks and her head also bleeding.
"Please be alive...please be alive." Ren said, panicking.
Ren turned Aleyda over and put his head sideways to her chest, listening for a heartbeat.
"Faint, but that means you're alive for now." Ren said as he hoisted Aleyda up on his shoulder and attempted to take her back to camp so she could get treated; however, he heard the worst sound possible at this time...silence.
"Fuck Ceti...dammit please be alive." Ren said still carrying Aleyda; he didn't know if Ceti was still alive but knew Aleyda was still alive.
He ran as fast as he could with Aleyda, but then he felt something tie his feet together, and he fell face first into the dirt.
"What the hell..." Ren said, trying to untie whatever was holding his feet together.
Then he heard a voice.
"Carry them back to the village!"
"What the hell?" Ren said, trying to turn around before he was in his head. Before his eyes closed by themselves, he could barely see what was in front of him.
"A woman?" He thought before falling unconscious.
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