Enticed by the Satyr (Kindred Tales)

Due to these traits, Baird’s wife, Olivia, always said he reminded her of a cross between a basketball player and a professional wrestler. Of course, his glowing golden eyes—one of the traits exclusive to a Beast Kindred—weren’t human-looking at all, but Olivia professed to love them even more, despite or maybe because of that.

The com-link in Baird’s shuttle crackled to life.

“Commander, are you seeing this?” It was Talon, the Blood Kindred pilot who had come on the solar system sweep with him. His shuttle was hovering just beside Baird’s own and he was clearly focused on the strange golden ship that had come through the vertical green gash.

“I’m seeing it, all right,” Baird growled. “Looks Kindred but not Kindred at the same time.”

“Wait—it’s sending out a hailing frequency!” Talon exclaimed.

“I’ve got it,” Baird told his subordinate. “You hang back and don’t fire unless I tell you to. It might be a threat or it might not—let me evaluate before we make a move.”

“Yes, Commander. Talon out.”

The Blood Kindred pilot didn’t sound very happy about hanging back, but Baird knew he would follow orders. Taking a deep breath and sending a prayer to the Goddess, (whom all Kindred worshiped,) for wisdom, he clicked the com-link and opened a channel of communication to the golden ship.

The image that popped onto his viewscreen was even more startling than the vertical green slit in space. The warrior on his viewscreen was like his ship. He looked Kindred…but also somehow not Kindred at the same time.

“Good day to you and may the Goddess bless you,” the warrior said, nodding his head respectfully at Baird. He was wearing a uniform not unlike Baird’s own. On top, he had on a long-sleeved button-down shirt that was a muted bronze color. Tight black flight leathers encased his lower half, also very like the ones Baird was wearing.

But it wasn’t the male’s uniform that caught Baird’s eyes—it was his horns.

Two curling horns that looked very much like the ones on the Earth animal called a ram adorned the sides of the warrior’s head. And when he took a step back from the viewscreen, Baird saw that his black leather trousers showed thighs heavy with muscle and they ended, not in tall black boots like his own, but in shiny black hooves.

“What the fuck?” he growled, frowning at this strange amalgamation on the viewscreen before him. Once again, he was tempted to think he was seeing things. “What the fuck are you?” he demanded of the strange alien warrior.

The ram-man frowned—he had humanoid features at least, with a shock of thick, black hair and large, dark brown eyes.

“I am a Satyr Kindred,” he said politely, nodding to Baird. “Tell me, Brother, what kind of Kindred are you? For I can tell we bear some ancestry in common, though you have no fur or feathers or other defining features so I cannot place your phylum.”

“My phylum?” Baird raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

“Your eyes are golden, like a Leonis or a Tigris Kindred,” the Satyr Kindred remarked. “But you lack any fur or markings of their kind that I can see. You have no mane like a Leonis and no stripes like a Tigris. So please tell me, what is your phylum? Is it possibly Ursus?”

“I’m a Beast Kindred,” Baird said, glaring at the other male. “And you’re trespassing on our territory—the territory of the Kindred of the Mother Ship.”

“I know that, but it can’t be helped,” the Satyr Kindred said, frowning. “I mean you no harm but I have come with a warning for you and all who live in this ‘verse.”

“This ‘verse’?” Baird demanded. “Are you saying you’re from a whole other universe?”

Such things were not unheard of. The Kindred had faced threats from other universes in the Multiverse before. But it wasn’t so common as to be an everyday occurrence.

The Satyr Kindred made an impatient gesture with one hand.

“Of course I am from another universe. I know I must look very different from your own people.”

“That’s a fucking understatement,” Baird growled, eyeing the other male’s thick, curling horns.

The Satyr Kindred frowned.

“As I said, I have a warning for you. Will you take me to your ship and allow me to deliver it to your leader?”

Baird frowned.

“What assurance do I have that you’re here in peace?”

The other male put a hand to his heart and looked at Baird directly.

“I swear by the Goddess, the Mother of All Life, whom we Monstrum Kindred worship, that I do not wish you or your people any harm. In fact, I would keep you from the harm that has befallen my own ‘verse, if I could. Will you hear what I have to say?”

The invocation of the Goddess’s formal title gave Baird pause. The Mother of All Life was sacred to his people, no matter what branch of the Kindred family tree they came from. No one would dare to take her name in vain.