“Ey, Retvik! Welcome home!”
It had been weird, having three strangers in his home, but Retvik had very quickly gotten used to the presence of Kayel, the Skyan he had essentially adopted. He still wasn’t so sure about Nyssi and Tenuk, but that was mostly because they were very different beings. Nyssi was erratic and hard to control, and was probably a bit too loud in her preachings towards the Allbirther, her race’s beloved deity. Tenuk on the other hand had mostly been fine, very agreeable, but he WAS a Spast, a shapeshifting trickster, and that had naturally set Retvik on edge. Weirdly for a Spast though, he didn’t seem to have a religious bone in his body and that seemed to be in spite of his heritage.
“Hello, Tenuk. How have you been?” Retvik asked as he closed the door behind him, double-checking that it was locked, as always.
“We’ve been alright!” Tenuk replied in an overly friendly tone. “Been helping Kayel with job-hunting.”
“Not been having a good time with that…” Kayel cursed. “There is pretty much nothing in Palestra for a 31 year old defecter with a… limited skill set. It’s a damn good thing I already have rent covered.”
“You do realize everything apart from the Arena is closed today, yes?” Retvik shrugged. “You are better off waiting until at least the 2nd…”
Something beeped on Retvik’s person. The beeping quickly got louder and was followed by some vibrations. Retvik put down his work bag, spilling armour and weapons on the floor, and started rummaging through it, looking for his communicator. He did eventually find it, and it was still ringing.
“Good afternoon, Kyr Raptor…” Retvik answered the device. “Is there… something I can help you with? I have just arrived home, I am no longer working today.”
“What were you doing on the 22nd of Dekem?”
“I was off work that day, it is not of your business…” Retvik replied, sitting down on the nearest sofa. Kayel picked up on the communication and sat next to Retvik, listening in.
“You were in the Skyan districts.”
“One of my… friends lives there.”
“What were you doing?” There was something off about the Raptor’s voice. The normally calm Ksithan sounded winded and slightly scared.
“Why do you need to know?”
The Raptor sighed. “I had a Temthan come in just now, demanding that I give her your address, claiming you were somewhere you shouldn’t have been. She attacked me, chained me up and stole your information, and I think she wants to kill you. I’ve already called the cops and the Rethan authorities and told them to go to your house, but that’s gonna take time because that Temthan left a bloody trail from my office to the car parks.”
Retvik wasn’t sure how to respond. “Uh, why?”
“No idea. But you had better bunker down and get ready because I have no fucking clue what I just dealt with. And I guarantee she’s coming for you.”
“Alright. Thank you, Raptor. I shall… lock the place up.”
“Good luck.”
The line went dead before Retvik could say goodbye. Kayel and Tenuk stared at Retvik, just as confused and concerned as he was.
“Where is Nyssi?” Retvik asked.
“Upstairs. Doing her little daily tribute to the Allbirther.”
The Lightbearer frowned, then went back to his bag and rummaged through it. He pulled out a couple of swords, a shield and a couple of collapsed gunstaffs.
“Can either of you fight?”
“Uh… yeah…”
“Uh… no…”
Retvik handed a gunstaff and a sword to Kayel, then shoved a shield and the second gunstaff into Tenuk’s hands. “You might want to shift into something better suited for fighting then. Kayel, can you lock all the windows and close all the curtains please? Tenuk and I will go and fetch Nyssi.”
“Want me to move the furniture around as well, build a barricade?” Kayel asked.
“… Sure. Perhaps block the door as well…” Retvik grunted as he climbed the stairs. He immediately banged on Nyssi’s bedroom door, which prompted a small scream. After some thrashing around, Nyssi opened the door, holding a blanket over her chest.
“I was busy praying!” Nyssi growled.
“Why are you naked?” Tenuk asked.
“That’s how you pray to the Allbirther!”
“Put some clothes and something protective on, Nyssi. The Ksithan authorities are on their way here. There was an attack at the Arena and the perpetrator is heading our way!” Retvik demanded. “Can you use weapons?”
Nyssi tutted. “Of course I can. I hunt monsters for a living.”
“Good.” Retvik handed a sword to Nyssi. “I have a gunstaff too, if you can use that.”
Before Nyssi could reply though, something creaked behind her. She twisted around, eyeing the creature that had just climbed through her bedroom window. Retvik immediately snatched the gunstaff from Tenuk’s hands, pushed Nyssi to one side and emptied the entire clip into the creature.
“Oh, I like you already!” the creature smiled. As it stepped out of the shadows, the three mortals could clearly see what it was. A Temthan-like creature, standing at the same height as Retvik, completely naked and covered in slime. “My name is Sini, and, today, I shall be claiming you all, in the name of me.”
“I will not let you harm us…” Retvik growled as he reloaded his gunstaff and fired again. Every hot collided with the Allbirther but seemingly did no damage, the bullets being absorbed by her slimy coat.
Sini smiled some more, then raised her hand slightly. She clicked her fingers and Retvik found himself dropping his weapon and falling backwards, down to the bottom floor.
“You’re feisty. I can see why my brother likes you!”
Tenuk and Nyssi both began to panic. Nyssi threw her blanket in the Allbirther’s direction then leaped out of the bedroom, heading back downstairs, dragging Tenuk with her.
The Allbirther removed the blanket, almost giggling at the fight and flight responses of her targets. She stomped through the bedroom, pausing only to glance at a small emblem on the bed, depicting her own holy symbol.
“Little Nyssi, why do you run from your Goddess?” Sini taunted as she headed downstairs. To her annoyance though, Retvik was back on his feet and already firing more shots at her. A fourth creature, a yellow-plated Skyavok who did look a tiny bit like her brother, was also firing at her, somehow more accurately than the golden gladiator. Sini decided to take their guns away, and the bullets they were firing turned into harmless flower petals.
Something else hit Sini. A burst of flames. Sini realized she had lost track of the Spast, and the Spast had turned itself into a fire-breathing Banikan. The Allbirther snapped her fingers again, and the Banikan turned back into a Spast. The Spast tried to get up, but found that they couldn’t move.
“This will be a lot quicker and easier if you all stop fighting back!” Sini was slightly frustrated. “I just want to experiment on you all a little bit. You HAVE to be special if my little brother was so defensive of you.”
“Guess Arkay was right…” Kayel muttered to Retvik as the pair of them searched for more weapons. Retvik attempted to throw a spear in Sini’s direction, but she effortlessly deflected it. In a complete panic, Nyssi had fled and was now hiding behind Kayel, utterly terrified of the idea that the Goddess she worshipped wanted to harm her.
“Just keep on fighting!” Retvik hissed as he ran to the wall by the front door, removing his collection of daggers from the wall and lobbing them at the Life Goddess. “I do not want to be experimented on!”
“You’ll enjoy it after a while!” Sini giggled, before abruptly changing her tone. She had picked up a scent, and knew she had to speed things up. “Alright, no more messing around, my dear children. You’re all coming with me.”
Again, Sini snapped her fingers. The house filled with a pink gas that swiftly knocked Tenuk, Nyssi and Retvik unconscious. Kayel instinctively held his breath, only for Sini to walk over to him, pick him up and open his jaws, forcing him to breathe in the gas. It took a moment too long for Kayel to pass out, but his eyes did eventually close.
Satisfied, Sini summoned some pink bubbles, which sucked up the four mortals, lifting them into the air. With a final snap, the Allbirther and her new subjects disappeared, teleporting away to her favourite lab, far, far away from this backwards planet.