Post 8 : Arinth

Adrian

It was the biggest shock that she’d had since being kidnapped. They’d escorted her down the stairs promising her food and cookies and she could just feel the excitement coursing through the men. It was like they’d turned from grown men to little boys. They kept mentioning a Cook but she wasn’t sure if they meant a literal cook or just the fact that someone had cooked. It didn’t hit her until they’d heard the soft male laughter from just outside the kitchen double doors. She’d felt the electricity between the men charge just as Tristan’s voice sounded through the opening. She was briefly blinded by the sun gleaming in through the large windows lining the walls. A short brown skinned woman walked in circles ranting but Adrian could barely hear what she was saying. Hunter sat just behind the woman with his eyes squinted closed. She stared at him for a moment, soft rays of sun touched his face giving him a glow on one side and casting the other into shadow.


Just as she stepped forward she heard the woman speak but she couldn’t hear her. She turned her head towards the woman but was distracted by his blue eyes opening and then looking at her. They glinted silver, just for a second, before settling back to the ocean blue they usually were. It seemed like everything had been in slow motion but now it sped up as she heard Tristan’s deep baritone behind her. They were talking but she only heard the grumble of their voices. They seemed muffled against her ears as if their mouths were covered. She saw the woman still motioning towards her and walked forward.


“You must be in shock! My, what a long journey I hear you had. A guest of the warriors, eh?” The woman hustled her into a chair before untwisting her hair. “Did you hear me? You can call me Arinth. I’m the cook here. Don’t worry about those boys, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. Come...Come!” Her voice wavered a bit on the last sentence, making it only slightly believable.


“I saw them kill someone last night.” Adrian’s voice came out soft, trying not to sound accusatory even though it was the truth. She followed the rounded woman’s motions to sit in the chair just at the kitchen table that could serve as a full dining table in a normal house hold.


“Yes, well…He probably was an evil man.” The woman teetered a little just before she straightened again, pulling her hands up to finger comb Adrian’s hair. Maybe she hadn’t known. Maybe the men had never told her what they really did when they left the house and Adrian had just confirmed her fears. She felt kind of bad, ruining the woman’s’ innocence but she needed to know and maybe it was good that Adrian was the one to tell her. She’d keep the kidnapping secret, though. Looking up, she finally got a good look at the woman and smiled genuinely. Her soft honey colored eyes and brown hair were comforting. Her skin was brown and devoid of wrinkles, aside the laugh lines at her eyes, for a woman of her age. She had to be around forty-five years old and filled with happiness.
Despite the ranting Adrian had heard when she’d entered the kitchen, the woman seemed to genuinely be happy with her position with the warriors. Adrian glanced behind her and saw that the rest of the men had slinked out of the room and Hunter was the last to leave. Stopping at the door, he glanced back at her and his eyes widened; surprised to be caught staring. So beautiful, his voice sounded gruffly in her head. Jerking back, Adrian breathed out quickly and averted her eyes. Had she just read his mind?


Shaking her head, she accidently dislodged the braid from Arinth’s fingers. She apologized softly and disappeared into her own world once again. Reaching out, Adrian tried to see if she could read Arinth’s mind. Arinth’s voice, soft and sweet, rang through her mind in warning.


That, my dear, is a dangerous place.


Adrian shivered, she would stay in her own mind for the time being, especially now that Arinth knew her secret but chose not to address it aloud. She had dealt with a lot in her life. She’d been through a lot. Her mother, her weird abilities that she know knew came from an entirely different world, her hard work through college that will most likely mean absolutely nothing; a lot. She knew that she should be happy there’s more to life, more to Earth or better yet more to the universe but she couldn’t really say. She didn’t understand much of anything that was going on. She liked Arinth but knew that she held a deep secret that none of the men knew about. She’d tried to bring up what’d happened but didn’t know how. She felt awkward about being caught trying to read her mind but she also wanted to know about her history.

Why was she named Arinth? She’d heard the leader, Tristan, say that was their home planet and honestly still felt it awkward that she’d been in the presence of aliens but now she felt fine with it. Was it because of all the movies she’d seen as a child or the paranormal romance novels she’d read that she wasn’t too freaked out about that part? Maybe Mendax and Julius had been right. Maybe she wasn’t upset about it because she knew deep down inside that it was true and that she was different. She’d always known. Now it’s time to confirm.


“Arinth, can you tell me about the guys, their planet, where they come from?” She smiled shyly when Arinth looked towards her and raised an eyebrow.


“Do you have one in particular that you want to know about?” Arinth smiled at her and wiggled her eye brows. “I might be old but I know that voice. You like one of them and I think I know who.” They giggled like school girls for a moment before Adrian shook her head to clear it and straightened in her chair. She was silent for a moment while she watched Arinth stir a dark liquid in a pot on the stove. It hadn’t been but ten minutes since the men had left and after braiding her hair, Arinth had returned to cooking. She’d offered to help and Arinth had told her but for a moment. She wasn’t entirely sure what that meant but took it as a yes when Arinth had laid a small apron on her lap.


“Hunter.” She finally spoke quitely into the silence. She kept her eyes averted as she swallowed deeply.


“Ahhh…Chase Hunter. He’s a gorgeous one.” Arinth stopped stirring and lowered her hand, turning the eye down to simmer.


“They’re all gorgeous! Why is that? How is that possible?” Adrian looked up at Arinth, her eyes wide.


“It’s just their genetic makeup. The Dark Warriors from Arinth are all gorgeous in their own way. I remember the first day I shared with the guys. They were dirty, bloody from the most recent battle. They actually came here together in transport but hadn’t met each other from before, I don’t believe. Julius took it the hardest. He was in the middle of the field healing a warrior on Senatus when they transported him down here. To this day he’s not sure if the healing was completed. He’d been covered with blood and reading the rites when he appeared in the middle of the men in the main hall. He’d opened his eyes, silver lacing his iris, and stared out at us. War does something to a man, Adrian. Even a medic is affected.”


“Why all the wars? Why all the fighting? Who are they fighting…where?” Adrian stood as Arinth held out a hand to her. She pulled her towards the window and they stared out at the sky. The sun had just set and the sky was a pale salmon, pale orange color. It looked beautiful and just beyond the sky she could just barely see a star.


“Humans that live on Earth think they are alone. They like to nurse the idea that they aren’t but they don’t really believe in aliens. That’s why they fashion movies with aliens that look like horrible monsters or creatures from nightmares. It’s because they want to show that they are the superior being even despite their weak level of technology. They haven’t really grasped the idea that aliens, in the real sense of the word, look just like them. Despite small feature changes brought on by the survival and adaption habits of their planet or atmosphere, most creatures across the galaxy look a lot alike. Rarely do you see an ‘alien’ that has more than two sets of eyes, legs and arms.” She patted Adrian’s arm and smiled to her. “Most of those stars are just as you see and predict them to be, but some of them are planets. You aren’t alone in this galaxy. I’m not sure why the humans that crashed here ever thought they were alone!” She laughed incredulously and tilted her head when she saw the confusion on Adrian’s face.


“What do you mean crashed here?”


“The boys didn’t tell you anything?” Arinth had stopped laughing and placed her fist on her plump hips. She was everything a happy, strong grandmother of a large brood would be. Adrian liked her almost instantly but knew that she had many secrets to hide.


“Not really, I’m a prisoner here, remember?” At those words Adrian laughed. “Well, I’m supposed to be a prisoner but I guess they sort of forgot to lock me up.”


“I’m sure it’s something besides that, dear. Prisoner my foot! If I have anything to say about it you will be running this household just like me. Granted, I do think it will benefit you to stay here, they will protect you. At least until they figure out what you are or where you come from. But we will cross that trench when we get there. Here, sit; let me tell you what happened. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do.” Arinth turned the pot of gumbo off, moved it to a cool area on the stove and removed the lid. Sweet smells filled the kitchen tickling Adrian’s nose. She didn’t really remember the last time she ate. It seemed so long ago. Arinth replaced the lid, after stirring the spoon for the last time, and walked over to the table.


“Ok, so…about two thousand years ago, a band of Humans lead an uprising on Arinth. At the time the war seemed to be slowing, there was a lull in the fight. It was sort of like the war they had here in American, the civil war. Except, this war was between the rich and the poor. It seems kind of like a human cliché but it’s true. The better technology became, the easier life became, the easier it became for the rich and powerful to push out the poor population, push them out to the street and eventually out of the cities. Pretty soon even schools charged for pens and pencils, everything was a dollar sign, Ariation is the currency on Arinth and it was dying. Unless you already had money, you were more than likely not going to make any more. You would think that in a way this would be a good thing. Everyone would just relax back and enjoy what they had and in a way they did. Most of the smaller, poorer communities lived off the land in their own right. They were often paid for their provisions by the rich but it was less likely the further from the main city you’d go. The miners, the Gold Diggers as they were ironically called, couldn’t settle in this way. They held an uprising that led to war, death and sadness.” Arinth’s eyes closed as if she remembered the war, as if she’d been there when it happened but that was impossible. Wasn’t it? “So many people died, so many lives lost just because they couldn’t start over. They didn’t want to do the work to put the economy back together and no other planet was willing to get in the middle of the dispute.”


“What happened in the end?” Adrian’s voice was soft as she saw the tears glistening at the corners of Arinth’s eyes.


“They failed their mission. They led the last uprising and were captured, many died on either side. They, along with their colonies, were piled on what Earth would call a rocket; we call them capsules and sent to Senatus for sentencing. Senatus is a planet all of it’s own. It is a planet comprised the galaxies most important ones. The Council, political figures, their families and those needed to take care of them reside there alone. They were to sentence the group fairly. Unfortunately, the sentence was death. The criminal Arinthians were supposed to be sent back to Arinth but never made it. The capsule went off course, due to a hijacking by the famous Devlirus Malus. He had planned to take them to Malvroy to use as slaves but instead lost control of the capsule. They crash landed on Earth and have been here ever since. The Dark Warriors, along with a few other groups, police the galaxies in hope to keep them here and keep the rest of the universe away from Earth. It becomes harder and harder as the centuries go on. Earth humans seem to have a death wish of their own!” She huffed and shook her head at the retelling.


“Who is Devlirus Malus? Why did the Council let them stay here?” Adrian was confused. If the group were so evil then why were they still alive? Arinth was correct in one thing though, Humans weren’t very good to each other or the planet, as a species.


“Devlirus Malus is a war leader on Malvroy. He’d been passing the capsule on his way to Malvroy from Senatus when he came up on the aircraft. The Council let the humans stay on Earth when they noticed that memory of what they’d done was almost completely gone. It would be genocide to kill entire colonies of people some that weren’t aware of what happened and others that couldn’t even remember the pain and destruction they’d caused. The Light Warriors won’t let it happen anyway. Why now, should an entire planet full of people have to suffer the pain of few?”


Adrian wasn’t sure what to think. It all seemed surreal and too impossible to be true. Glancing out of the window, again, at a now dark sky Adrian sighed and tightened her lips. She had so many questions but it seemed like the topic mentally exhausted Arinth. She’d found an ally and didn’t want to ruin her welcome so early. If she was going to find out what was wrong, or right, with her and then escape she would need someone in her corner.


“Do you mind if I call you Cook?” Adrian spoke softly not wanting to overstep her bounds. “Just…the guys seemed a little apprehensive when you told them you’re name.”


“Not at all, little one. That’s what they guys call me, well they did. I wonder what they were thinking when they left. I know they never looked too far into my background but even if they did they would find nothing.” A worried look covered her features, she wasn’t sure if the men would come a-hunting when they returned from their meeting. She loved them all, she wasn’t a danger to them but she must admit. She’d lied.


“What are you hiding, Arinth?” Adrian’s voice was soft again; did she have a right to ask?


“I’m sorry, Adrian. I can’t answer that. Just know I would never hurt any of them. I am here to protect them just as they are here to protect the humans that inhabit this world. I just hope they are able to see that.” She stood and wiped her hands on the apron around her waist. “Dinner is ready, we can talk about the men later. We seemed to have gone far off topic. You will hear about your Hunter later.” She smiled down at Adrian, her gaze weary. Adrian nodded in agreement and unfolded her legs from the chair. She was glad for the change in topic but would still love to hear about the man who seemed to set fire to her blood.


"The only way to be a writer is to write, write and write. The only way...is to write." -Irma Jemison