Monster King (Royal Aliens 5)

I might be freaking out right now. I’m trained not to freak out, but there's a lot of freaky stuff going on in front of me, and even more freaky stuff going on inside me as I react to him. My heart is racing. My palms are sweating.

“You may call me your monster king,” he says kindly, as if that might help.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“That is because the time has come for you to listen, Ariel. You are aboard my capital ship…”

“You took me from my planet?” I don’t know why I am framing that as a question. Obviously, he took me from my planet. Everything about our current surroundings is alien. We are standing in a hall of some kind, though it might count as an intimate space for a species like his. Nobody else is here. It is just me and the monster king.

“I was led to believe that leaving you there would cause your death, and I was not overly eager to do that. You seemed like someone worth saving.”

“I did?”

“You tried to save me, though you thought you might die. In my world, we call that a hero.”

“Low bar,” I murmur to myself, looking around. Not because I care what is around, but because I am deeply, pathologically uncomfortable with compliments. They make me feel all hot and itchy, almost like my skin is a suit I can’t take off.

“So this is outer space, huh? Kinda nice.” I try to change the subject, even though I don’t know what the subject is. King Brawn saved me from the human consequences of my choices, but I’m not stupid enough to think that I’m going to get away with anything. The universe has a way of evening things out. The longer you think you’re getting away with something, the worse it is when all that karma catches up.

“I’m sure outer space is thrilled you approve of it,” he replies.

I feel immensely shy around this regal being. He is still just as monstrous in appearance as ever, but it is all different now that he is also in context.

“So this is like, your ship. Are we going somewhere?”

“This is more than one of my ships. This is my capital ship.” He repeats himself because apparently I am slow. “It has done me the honor of rescuing me. We are returning to my homeworld.”

“Cool. Cool. So… what’s, uh… What are you going to do with me?”

That’s a question which makes me very nervous. He could do absolutely anything to me. He could have me flayed and served for dinner. He could have me put into jelly and served for dessert. I think it’s his fangs that are making me strongly consider all the very many ways he could consume me. But I suppose there are other things he could do too. He could imprison me forever. Or he could let me go and just let me flail and eventually die on an alien world. Jesus. I am terrified. More terrified than I was when there were missiles pointed at us. At least that was a fate I understood.

“You have earned high honors in your attempts to rescue me. You will be given land and riches and goats.”

Well, that’s an unexpected surprise. I don’t know why I’m feeling so guilty. I honestly thought he was going to punish me somehow.

“I don’t need to be given anything. It’s my job to help people.”

“It is not your job to stand between an alien and your own species and attempt to hold back the tide of their cruelty.”

“I did what I thought was right,” I shrug. “I don’t need rewards. Goats sound kind of cool though. I’m surprised you have goats too. I thought they were an Earth thing.”

“Every planet in the universe has goats.”

“Really?”

“No,” he admits, his tone indicating that he considers that to be almost a personal failing on his behalf. “But they should.”

“I agree. Goats are super cool. I can’t wait to meet one.”

“You have never met a goat, but you like them?”

I have amused him again.

“Uh, if you have to meet a goat to like a goat, do you even understand goats?”

I’m babbling, but it’s filling the space between us and it’s making me less nervous. Plus, I have seen internet videos of goats, so my research indicates that they are pretty cool.

“Probably not,” he says. He smiles, and that bares more of his teeth and they are very sharp. Being in his presence is like being next to a very large, very scary animal which has decided you’re okay for the moment. You’re not really actually safe, you’re just sort of more or less safe-ish.

He says I’m going to have land and money and goats. But there’s something in his gaze and in my entire experience of life which tells me it is not going to be that easy.