I posted this chapter two days earlier because I'll be traveling to Chicago tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to with all the moving around. There's going to be snow there! BRRR!
Anyway, merry christmas and happy new year, everyone!
Lost
Chapter 14- Cold Water
The next day there was still some… tension between the group. Ilk and Red hadn't yet gotten a chance to have their 'talk', and their interactions were curt and didn't last more than a few seconds, mostly on Ilk's part. Red couldn't help but feel hurt by the indifference, but he did not show it. He had to be firm.
He noticed Ilk was spending more time with the Sobrekt, particularly with Blue and his 'pet'. Most of the time they chatted and she'd pet Fury more often. He didn't like it. In more than one occasion he felt like pulling her away, but he was already threading on a thin line with Ilk; she'd want to learn why. So for now he just watched warily.
Captain had not spoken to him yet, nor had he spared a glance. Yup, he was still mad at him. Come on, it's not like he wouldn't have withheld such information had the roles been reversed, right?
The party left the campsite at dawn… At least he thought it was dawn, it wasn't too dark and there was a gentle yellow in between the thick clouds. Ilk had to ask GIR if he could lend them 'his' flashy screen to see where they were going. He didn't make a fuss out of it, thankfully, he gladly lent her the vortpad.
Okay, Masouri had said it would take him about two days, more or less, to fix the Ibris and adapt it to the Hothian metal, so they had no time to waste. The Hothian base was not very far from their current position, if everything went smoothly they should arrive by the next day.
After days of walking through sickly trees within dying forests the group was glad to emerge into a wide, extended open field a few hours later. Fury stopped in his tracks, however.
"What's up?" Ilk glanced up to him. Fury was staring intently into the ground with his spines bristled.
"He's an animal, Ilk, he can't answer. Come on, let's go." Red was about to step forward, but a large scaly hand grabbed him by the arm. His Irken pride flared up and glared daggers at Captain. "Get your filthy alien hands off me!" He snarled, tearing his arm off the Sobrekt's grip.
"You're going to step on thin ice, Irken." Captain said simply, pointing at the ground.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed. This is not a field, it's a frozen lake," Blue said. "We should go around it."
"No way, it will take too long, let's just cross it."
Captain frowned. "Are you deaf? It's a bloody lake! If you step on the wrong place you'll break the ice and turn into a popsicle! Not to mention you don't know what's lurking under the ice."
"Do you have any idea of how long it will take us to go around the whole lake?! In case you forgot we only have two days. Besides, whatever used to live here has probably died of starvation or something else."
"You can't know that. We don't know how these creatures have evolved."
"Of course you would worry about that."
"The thing you should worry about, Irken, is to actually make it to the ship in one piece!"
Red hissed and flattened his antenna at Captain. "I've had enough with you-!"
"DAD!" Ilk stepped in between the two before another argument could break out. "Now's now the time for that!"
To her shock her merely pushed her aside. "Let me handle this, Ilk!"
"What?! But-!"
"Quiet."
He had never spoken to her like this. Ilk just stared up at her father in utter disbelief, but the stern look he was giving her sent a shiver down her spine. Reluctantly she stepped aside, glaring at her father with contempt.
Captain crossed his arms. "What were you going to say, Irken?"
"I don't have to listen to you when this whole situation is your fault! We wouldn't be here if you hadn't taken my daughter to begin with!"
Again with that. "I'd respond, but frankly it's like talking to a wall."
Red clenched his fists. "Do not provoke me, snake."
Captain's pupils turned into slits. "What did you just call me?"
He had struck a nerve. Good. "Snake." He relished in the look on Captain's face, ignoring Lena and Zim's gestures to stop. "A filthy, scaly, slimy-little snake."
It happened so fast nobody saw it coming. Captain's fist came into contact with Red's face, sending him straight to the ground. Blue cried out in shock, but made no move to touch Captain. Lena, Ilk and Zim panicked, immediately going to Red's side to make sure he was still in once piece. Red felt the metallic taste of his own blood in his mouth and a terrible soreness on the right side of his face.
Captain glared down at the Irken, his teeth bared, his spines bristled and his fists clenched, particularly the one he had just punched him with. The word snake was the worst insult one could say to a Sobrekt or a kryvtor, and usually was only reserved to the traitors, the weak or the cowards. Those who weren't either of those didn't take it kindly if they were called as such, especially if it came from a non-sobrekt.
He had enough.
"Fine," Captain said after taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "You want to cross? Be my guest, I will not stop you." With that he turned around and started walking away.
"Where are you going, sobrekt-beast?" Zim inquired.
"Forgive me, Hitorken Zim, but I cannot keep working with… him. From this point on, you're on your own."
Blue looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Captain?!"
"Who's the one who walks away like a whipped dog now, Captain?" Red spat his name tauntingly.
"Red!" Lena chided him, glancing at Captain nervously. The last thing they needed was to separate, especially after what happened with the Hothians, "I thought you were supposed to make sure Ilk was taken to Sobr in one piece!" She cried in desperation. Captain stopped in his tracks, and for one moment Lena hoped he would stay.
Captain merely snorted. "Blue, you and Fury stay with the Irkens."
"What?! Captain, I-!"
"That's an order, Blue. I'll be fine. Make sure Hitorken Zim and the smeet will make it in one piece." Those were the last words Captain said before leaving the group behind as he walked along the edge of the lake.
Good! Who needs him, anyway? He just couldn't wait to see his face when they arrived to the other side way sooner! The satisfaction only lasted for a few seconds when he realized there were four pairs of eyes glaring at him. "What?"
"Seriously?" Blue bristled his crest. His pupils had turned into two thin slits. "Did you really have to pull that stupid stunt now? Couldn't you have waited till we got off this fucking planet?!"
"He started it!"
Lena simply could not believe it. "Red, are you serious?"
"Cease this at once!" All eyes turned to GIR. His duty mode had activated again. "With all due respect, My Tallest, the kryvtor and doctor Lena are right. The priority right now should be to regroup with our captive allies instead of bickering amongst each other for petty things."
"Now even you are on their side?!" Red scoffed.
However, GIR had already gone back to his regular mode and looked up in confusion. "Me what now?" GIR said, scratching his head.
"Well, if we're going to cross through here do you at least know how to move on top of the ice without breaking it?"
"Who do you take me for, kryvtor? I was a member of the Irken Elite! I would if someone hadn't put a virus on my PAK!"
Blue saw through the sugarcoating. He smacked his own forehead, muttering under his breath. How smart of Red, really, chasing away the one person who had the most experience in walking over ice. Oh, well, they'd have to find a way; Captain would not return until Red admitted he was wrong, which Blue was certain would never happen. "Fine, then. Let's do this: I'll go up ahead and point the places where it's safe to step on. Then you follow exactly the same path I mark."
Red shrugged. "Finally an actually good idea."
Ilk guessed he liked the idea of Blue being the one who raked over the coals… or rather, stepped on a thin sheet of ice, literally in this case. Blue gave a few more instructions: move very slowly and distribute their body weight as much as possible, keep at least 30 feet of distance between each other to avoid dragging others down should the ice break, and overall avoid stepping on a crack no matter what.
Blue was the first to go. He'd take a tentative step forward, tap the ice around him with his claw to check how thick it was, and go forward where the ice was safe to step on. He was followed in order by Zim, GIR(who by some miracle was acting serious for once), Red, Ilk, Lena and Fury. The latter was crawling with his body close to the ground.
Blue stopped when they were about halfway through the lake. He ignored Red's protests and looked around. He took another tentative step, but stopped again.
"Get moving up ahead!"
"Is something wrong, Blue?"
"Why did we stop, Blue-beast?"
"Ohh, snowflakes!"
Was it his imagination or something was moving underneath the frozen surface? Despite the mild layer of snow he thought he saw a darker shape silently slithering below. Blue felt a shiver down his spine, evident by how his crest unconsciously bristled. That was all Ilk needed to see to realize something was wrong.
And she wasn't the only one. Behind Lena, Fury lifted his head and looked around with a cautious expression. Much like Blue he was tapping his talon claw on the ice. "Blue?"
"Be quiet, all of you."
Red was going to protest when Ilk tugged on his armor and pointed down just as the black shape came to a halt right under him. It was very long and thick. Whatever it was it was big. It continued to swim underneath the group for a few minutes. Red was pretty certain that any sound, no matter how small, would give away their location.
"MASTER, I GOT YOU A SNOWFLAKE!"
All heads turned abruptly to the SIR unit holding a bunch of snow in his hands up to Zim. The dismayed Invader did not yell or scream his annoyance, instead he mouthed GIR's name and clamped his hands over his mouth, looking at the long blurry shape.
It was gone. "Where did it go?" Lena whispered.
Blue lifted his hand, signaling her to be quiet, and listened. At first there was nothing, until he heard something moving through water at top speed. "We have to move, NOW!"
At that moment a long tentacle-like limb pierced through the eyes on the spot where Fury had been standing on moments ago. Wariness be damned, they had to get to shore! Red grabbed Ilk by the arm and dragged her behind him before a tentacle broke through the ice, barely missing her leg. "Stay behind me, Ilk!"
It's not like I have a choice since you're dragging me. That's what Ilk would have said if they were not being hunted by a mutant fish of some sorts. She glanced back to make sure Lena and Fury were still behind them. The former was having trouble to keep up without slipping. Ilk thought she saw Fury pushing Lena back into balance once. Because of this one of the tentacles managed to latch unto his tail, but a slice from his claws was enough to get rid of it.
They heard a sort of shriek coming from the creature, courtesy of one of its tentacles having been sliced off by Fury. It went completely nuts, either from the pain, the anger or both combined. It repeatedly banged against the ice, creating large blue cracks running through the area and in turn causing the party to lose their footing completely. The lake, which looked like a treeless plain a mere minutes ago, became overrun with crevices as the frozen sheet above the water fractured and the ice 'platforms' resulting from this began to separate and drift apart, further exposing the dark waters below.
Blue barely managed to pull Zim and GIR into safety just as the ice broke beneath them, creating a large gap of ice-cold water between them the other pieces. Fury pulled Lena into the center of their own before she could fall in. She was so terrified she clung to the indokuro's neck. Red had instinctively pulled Ilk into his arms as he slipped; his side stung again at the sudden abrupt motion plus the landing on the hard ground.
"Dad, are you okay?!"
Red nodded. The grit teeth and the way he was clutching his wound said otherwise, however. "It will pass…!"
"What is going on?!" Lena cried. She was still holding for dear balance unto Fury's neck.
GIR pointed at the creature. "SHARKTOPUS*!" He yelled(it was hard to tell if in fright or excitement) when a sharp dorsal fin cut through the surface.
"What?!"
"Its a dumb creature from a stupid earthen movie, Blue-beast!" Zim growled. "GIR, this isn't Earth! You can't possibly think there's a fictional earth-beast in a planet that is light years away-!" Zim's annoyance turned to horror when the creature, who looked like a mixture between a shark with octopus tentacles instead of a tail, leapt right above them and disappear into the water. He screamed 'sharktopus' and clung to Blue's waist.
It was then that they noticed the sharktopus wasn't randomly swimming around waiting to see who was the first to fall. It was circling around the platform Red and Ilk were on top of. GIR laughed. "Ohh, I think he likes your color, Ilky!"
"What?!" Was the nervous reply as she watched the fin move around them slowly. If it weren't for the climate she'd compare it to the movie about the man-eating fish set loose in a vacationing location.
"Sharks like red! Every time they see it they get excited and try to eat it! It's like a eating-red party for sharks!" GIR explained happily.
Blue thought he must be talking about a feeding frenzy. Predators always went into one when there was too much food to spare, back in the day Sobrekt themselves sometimes went into those if they hunted a particularly large prey that could last for weeks.
The fish rammed against the platform in an attempt to throw his prey into the water. Red barely managed to get a good hold on the edge with one hand while holding Ilk by the arm on the other.
"My Tallest, whatever happens do not fall into the water!" Zim cried in dismay. "Your wounded and the blood will probably send the sharktopus into a frenzy!"
"Oh, don't tell me!" Red shouted. He already knew that, Zim had sent a shark(a normal one) alongside other aquatic earth-creatures to the Massive once*. It took them two hours to throw them out of the airlock, especially the aggressive fish called 'shark'. One of the soldiers got a cut and the beast ripped him apart.
It was easier said than done considering the sharktopus continued to bang against the platform. Once it realized that tactic wouldn't work it sent its tentacles out of the water and tried to directly flip the platform.
"Fury, get them!"
Before Red, Ilk or even Lena knew what was going on Blue shouted the indokuro's name. In response Fury quickly pulled Lena into his back, leapt unto the shifting ice and quickly did the same with Ilk and Red. Then he jumped towards Blue just as the platform was overturned by the tentacles.
The Irks had different reactions to riding an indokuro for the first time in their lives: Lena swore she was going to have a heart stroke, Red imagined lots of Irken soldiers wiping out their enemies faster if they could create similar creatures, and Ilk enjoyed it despite the dangerous circumstances.
Zim made it look easy, but then again Fury had only been walking the times he rode.
GIR clapped his hands happily. "Rodeo! I want to go too!"
"Talk, later, here it comes!" Zim pointed to the water. The sharktopus had noticed the escape and sped up towards them like a torpedo.
Blue glanced at the shore. It wasn't very far, only a few more meters. "Hurry up!" With no time to lose he flung Zim and GIR unto his back and flew as fast as he could towards the shore without slipping.
Fury, however, had a hard time to keep up with three Irkens on his back, especially since the sharktopus's dorsal fin cut through the icy surface like a bar of soap, allowing it to soon catch up. Eventually one of its tentacles was fast enough to grab unto his leg, causing him to trip and drop his passengers unceremoniously.
That was the last of his concerns at that moment, though. The rest of the tentacles emerged and grabbed various parts of his body as the sharktopus tried to drag him into the water. Fury shrieked and dug his claws unto the ice desperately.
"FURY!" Blue abruptly turned around and rushed back to his Indokuro to start cutting the limb around Fury's neck. Zim and GIR joined in, though the latter was actually biting unto the tentacles as if they were made of sushi.
Red grabbed unto Ilk's arm firmly when she tried to go help them. "Ilk, what do you think you're doing?!"
"I have to help! Fury is in trouble!"
"It's too dangerous, that thing could grab you instead of him! Didnt you hear about the red color?!"
"He just saved us, dad!" Ilk freed herself from his grip and ran towards the trapped Indokuro.
"ILK!" Red grit his teeth when his wound started to hurt again. Adding insult to injury Lena had also rushed to the indokuro's aid, leaving him alone. Was he the only sensate Irken around or what?!
Then suddenly the few tentacles that remained, and the dorsal fin, disappeared underwater as quickly as they had arrived. Fury stepped away from the edge and shook the slimy water off his scales while the rest checked up on him. Blue and Zim even hugged him once they saw he was not hurt.
Red merely grunted, crossing his arms. Just wonderful, now even his own daughter and Lena were more worried about a stupid hybrekt than him. A part of him, however, chastised him for thinking like this. Fury had saved his life and that of Ilk's.
Something was off, though. Why did the sharktopus just release Fury when he was inches away from pulling him down? Did it want to keep whatever limbs hadn't been cut off? Did it lose interest? It made no sense. The animal was probably starving, it wouldn't give up such a meal out of nowhere…Unless…
A shiver ran down his spine as he realized he was meters away from the others, exposed and with an injury that hindered his combat skills. He looked down in time to see the creature appear from the darkness and swim upwards.
Red barely had time to jump out of the way just as the sharktopus's head burst through the ice, baring its teeth in an angry snarl. One of the tentacles wrapped around his left leg and pulled him into the water as the sharktopus retreated. The last thing Red saw before being completely submerged was Ilk screaming and running towards him.
The cold water was not a good sensation. His whole body felt numb and at the same time it was like a hundred tiny knives had stabbed it. As the light of the surface started to diminish, Red realized what had happened: the sharktopus had never intended to drag Fury down, it was a trick to get one of them completely alone.
And since he hadn't gone to help Fury, but stayed in his spot instead…
Red would have chastised himself for falling for such an old trick, but first he'd have to get out of this alive. He was running out of air, and try as he might he couldn't have his PAK activate his air bubble helmet. Stupid sobrekt virus!
For the first time he could look at the creature face to face. Just like GIR had said, this animal looked like a large version of a shark-thing with flowing tentacles instead of a tail. It's dark eyes were staring at him hungrily. That's when he noticed a strange green substance floating upwards. His injury was bleeding again.
Red tried to grab the sword tied to his waist, but the sharktopus got ahead of him and wrapped the rest of his tentacles around his body, rendering him completely immobile. Red struggled to stay conscious and fight to get free, but he only had a little bit if air.
Just as he started to see black holes into his vision, he thought he saw a large, dark green shape ram into the screaming sharktopus and lots of blood coming out of the animal's side. What was going on…? Who was that? When his mysterious savior started to tear the tentacles holding him apart, Red managed to take a clear glimpse of it.
..Captain?
Captain was aware of his limited patience, but for the sake of both the mission and convivence he did his best to put up with Red's 'I'm superior' nonsense for as long as he could. But this was the last drop. The irken could drown in the fucking lake for all he cared.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to allow that to happen when, indeed, it happened.
Despite the distance he heard Fury's cry for help, which drew him to the shore where he spotted him bound in tentacles while everybody, minus the red irken, was trying to cut him free. When the tentacles left Fury and targeted Red instead Captain was momentarily torn between saving him and self-preservation.
In the end the former won.
So when Red disappeared under the icy waters Captain dove in after him. It was as cold as he imagined, even more than that. He had to hurry. The freezing temperature of the water could send him into aestivation mode automatically, leaving him vulnerable.
Crocodilian Sobrekt had two advantages over their kryvtor subspecies: the first was that they were swift and deadly in the water. Despite being more land bound than their ancestors they still practice the art of aquatic-combat. Those who were intelligent enough to study the Sobrekt beforehand knew they should never face them in the water. The second was their bite force; Sobrekt warriors were known to tear limbs with their bare jaws, some could even chew their way through certain metals.
These two factors helped Captain dive down and ram against the creature-later he'd learn it was called sharktopus-, closing its jaws on its gills. The sharktopus gave a silent scream of pain. The water turned an even blacker hue as the blood poured out. If there was something Captain had learned in the Aquatic Combat classes in the Academy was that all water-dwellers shared the same weakness: their gills.
With the sharktopus agonizing Captain swam over to the tentacles holding Red and tore them off to free him. The Irken seemed to be running very low on oxygen without his PAK to aid him. Captain was pretty sure he would hate himself in the morning for what he was going to do, but it wouldn't look nice if he allowed one of the Irken leaders to die.
He closed his jaws on Red's head in a non-fatal way.
Despite the lack of oxygen affecting him, Red was conscious enough to panic when he found his head inside Captain's mouth. Before he could try to get free, he noticed the water was descending quickly. Red took a big mouthful of precious air. It took him a few seconds to realize what was going on.
Captain had created an air pocket of some sorts within his mandibles.
He would have marveled at his head still attached to his body being inside a Sobrekt's mouth, but the sensation of the cold water on the rest of his body reminded him now was not the time. He took a deep breath and announced Captain he could open his jaws with a pat on the snout.
Damn it, the Irken took too long! Captain opened his mouth and released Red's head. His cheeks were slightly swollen, meaning he had taken quite a lot of air. Captain motioned Red to hold unto him and swam towards the surface as quickly as possible when he felt his thin arms around his necks.
Despite Captain pushing himself to the limit he get his body entering the amok state as his movements became stiff and the numbness intensified. The surface was a few more meters away, but he had no time to look for an opening.
Red realized what Captain was going to do. Oh, Irk, this was going to hurt.
The cold he felt underwater couldn't hold a candle to the cold he felt when Captain burst through the ice, exposing them both to the freezing wind and hypothermic atmosphere.
Thanks to the inertia caused by the speed, the Sobrekt reached a considerable height as they technically flew out of the water and landed on blessed hard ground. Captain growled in pain and snorted. "Damn it…" he whispered.
Red didn't mind him for now: he started coughing whatever water got into his lungs and taking deep breaths in between to replenish the lost air. Oh, precious oxygen! He looked back at his PAK. It was still in one piece, thank Irk.
Okay, now that he was sure he was in one piece. "So you didn't really mean to leave, did you?"
There was no reply.
"Captain?" Red turned towards him. He had not moved, and his breathing was very slow. Not only that, his expression was groggy and his eyes vacant. "Captain?!" He started shaking him to make him react, but it was to no avail. "Don't you dare die on me, overgrown lizard!" Not even the insult got through him. Damn it…!
"DAD!" Soon after he felt a pair of arms wrap around him tightly and a face burying into his chest.
"Red, are you okay?!"
"My Tallest, you're alive! I told you he'd make it!"
"No, you didn't."
"Silence!"
He would have returned the hug and assured Ilk he was okay, he would have told Lena he was fine and tell Zim to shut up, but all his concerns were on the unconscious-NOT moribund-Sobrekt.
Blue seemed to have similar thoughts. He kneeled down to check on Captain's temperature. His face said it all. "What happened?!" He asked sharply.
"He dove into the water and saved my life, isn't that obvious?!" Red snapped unintentionally. It wasn't that he cared about Captain, he simply had a life debt to repay, that was all. "What's wrong with him?!"
"He's gone into amok!"
"Into what?"
Blue groaned. "He's too cold, his body went into hibernation! At this state he'll die of hypothermia if we don't warm him up quickly!"
He should have thought of it. Sobrekt were cold-blooded after all, they couldn't regulate their body temperature if not by external means. That would explain why they ate too much and tried to conserve energy: the climate probably made their bodies consume whatever calories they had on a faster rate.
"We have to take him to a cave or somewhere with no wind!"
"Leave it to me," Red got on his feet and looked down at Zim. "Which way do you suggest, Zim?"
The invader's eyes lit up and he pointed to a random direction. "I believe that's the best way to go, My Tallest!"
"Okay." Red pointed to the opposite direction. "We'll go that way then." Don't question it, he knew what he was doing. Zim's decisions always led to disaster, so the smart course of action is to do the opposite of what he thinks.
To everyone's surprise Red turned out to be right. Twenty minutes after walking in the direction he had said (despite being against Zim's suggestion) they arrived to a unoccupied cave. Of course, Zim then pointed out it was thanks to his suggestion they found it. Nobody argued it.
The Irkens left to look for wood while Blue and Fury stayed behind to look after Captain. The latter was exhausted from the ordeal with the sharktopus, plus now having had to carry Captain's hibernating form here. Red stayed behind too, in his case because he was pretty hypothermic already and Lena had him sit against the wall wrapped in whatever furry blankets they had except the largest. That one was reserved for Captain.
Blue removed Captain's armor, exposing his bare, barely scarred torso and covered him with the homemade duvet.
"Won't he mind being naked when he wakes up?" Red asked. There was no sarcasm or mocking in his voice.
"We don't have any 'parts' to hide, so usually we don't mind it." Blue said matter-of-factly. Their reproductive organs were internal in both genders, so they lacked the taboo mentality regarding having your body exposed.
Soon after Lena, Ilk, Zim and GIR returned, the three former carrying lots of whatever dry wood they could find while GIR brought a tiny ferret-like animal. They worked together to start about five small bonfires around Captain. Close enough so he'd receive the heat, but not enough to risk the covertor catching fire.
"What now?" Zim asked. Blue could tell he was somewhat concerned. Captain had saved his Tallest, after all.
"We wait."
"For how long?" Red perked up his antenna.
"If all goes well he should wake up tonight."
"And if it doesn't go well?" Lena inquired.
He didn't want to think of that possibility. Instead he suggested they take a break meanwhile; he correctly guessed they were all exhausted after what happened at the lake.
Blue offered to go hunt something, seeing as Fury didn't have the energy to do so. Ilk offered to accompany him just in case he needed a hand, much to his delight. They finally get to spend some time alone.
Red didn't get to witness this. He was so tired himself he had fallen asleep a few minutes ago.
After a few hours out in the forest they couldn't find anything big enough to feed the whole group, particularly Captain when he awoke. He'd need even more energy. In the end Blue suggested going to the lake and see if the sharktopus's carcass had floated to the surface. With no other option they returned to the lake, and five minutes later they were carrying about five pounds of sharktopus meat.
"What do you think it tastes like?" Ilk asked when they were a few meters away from the entrance cave. She needed a short break, this thing was heavy.
Blue placed his bag down for the time being. "I'd be lying if I told you. I've never eaten fish of any kind."
"No way."
"What can I say? Kryvtors are not fond of it, we'd rather have red meats. True Sobrekt are more likely to pick fish meat."
"True Sobrekt? Kryvtor? What's with your people and the different names? Wouldn't it be simpler if both were called 'sobrekt'?"
Blue chuckled. "If I received a crood for every time I've heard people bringing that up I swear be rich." What was a crood? Ilk figured it's some sort of Sobrekt currency. "As for your question, it's a long story. In short, True Sobrekt, like Captain, and Kryvtors, like me, were not equals. Kryvtors were more like slaves until the Great War; afterwards our peoples joined up, but since the image of the True Sobrekt was more… recognized across the galaxy we decided to keep using that name to refer to our people as a whole."
It kinda reminded Ilk of the different hyooman races on Earth Zim had talked about. "Hey, Blue, have you ever been forced into a position you didn't want in the first place?"
"You mean the whole invader thing?"
"I don't want to be an Invader, but even if for some twist of fate I don't become one I'm afraid dad will never see me the same way. We might have our... differences, but I love him very much and I don't want him to be disappointed in me."
"Why would he be disappointed of you? You're a great Irken with lots of potential. You brought me down even though I was bigger than you," Blue's crest bristled. "Not to mention you're lovely."
Ilk blushed. She cursed herself for it when Blue's eyes lit up. "Blue, I was serious when I told you… Before the Hothians interrupted us. I cannot correspond you right now," She sighed and rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. Is this how it felt to talk about… it? No idea, she had never been given the so-called 'Talk'. Few Irkens got it, in reality. "Besides, I'm daughter of one of the Tallest, it wouldn't look good on me to be with another species, especially a Sobrekt.
"You're really a good person, Blue, and I'm sure someday another lady who is more deserving of you will… beat you in combat. Hopefully one of your same kind, but I cannot return your feelings. I'm sorry." She gathered the courage to lift her gaze to meet Blue's eyes, expecting to see any sign of broken-heartedness, anguish or anything related to them.
Instead, what she found in his golden-orange eyes was something she could only identify as a mixture between understanding and hurt. Was it even possible to show both? "It was never my intention to make you feel like that, Ilk. True, my people choose their mates through combat and you did beat me. I am interested in you, but I was aware you'd probably not return my affections," Blue's crest bristled, but this time it seemed to have been a conscious thing. "But it doesn't mean I will give up.
"This might sound cheesy, but in the little time I got to know you I can tell you're not hatched in the same clutch as the rest of the Irkens. You're compassionate and kind, you are strong and smart. I… understand that you don't see me that way, especially after… Well, we kidnapped you," Blue seemed to hesitate. "But would you give me a chance to win your love?"
Ilk blinked. Was he that serious about it? "Blue, I'm not…"
"You don't need to give me an answer now, I know you need time precisely because you are a smeet and it's not an easy matter for Irkens." If Ilk didn't know him she would have swore Blue had gulped. "But just in case you send me down the tube again… May I at least hug you once?"
Hug? As in… the kind of hugs she'd share with dad and uncle pur? Well, at least he hadn't asked for a kiss. It wouldn't hurt, right? Besides, he had been so nice and he was being so respectful it wouldn't be nice of her to grant him this request. She offered him a smile. "Okay." The way Blue's eyes lit up made her squeedly-spooch flutter ever so slightly.
Blue knelt down so he could be at her level. Ilk felt a shiver down her spine when she felt his long, scaly arms wrapping around her frame. She had expected his skin to be icy cold, but to her surprise it was actually warm. Ilk found herself returning the embrace, longing for the warmth. Her left antenna twitched and grazed Blue's head.
"GET YOUR FILTHY CLAWS OFF MY DAUGHTER!"
*Reference to the movie Sharktopus, in which a similar creture of the same name appears as the main antagonist.
*The Smeet, chapter 9.
Next Chapter: Ilk reaches her limit after a monstrous argument. Meanwhile, Purple witnesses an unique (and unexpected) event. In other words, the breaking point.