His eyes were gone.
They’d melted into his head. And the longer I stared at him, the more I realized that the rest of his face was melting, too, sliding down his skin until there was nothing left but blood that seemed to run blue and the remnants of his skull and brain.
“Holy shit! What the fuck!” I was crying as I watched the bastard melt right in front of me, tears streaming down my face that I could barely understand. “I’m sorry! I never meant to—What the fuck? Why the fuck is this happening to me?”
As I wept for the life that I’d accidentally took, I felt someone’s arms wrapping around my waist, pulling me away from the dead alien, pulling me across the sand, my feet easily sliding across its green hue.
“Please help me wake up. All I want is to wake up…” I murmured, half-dazed, as another sob caught in my chest. “Please. Fuck. This can’t be real. I can’t be here.”
“But you are here.” A voice I recognized as male replied to my plea, his arms still firmly wrapped around my waist. “Tell me. What kind of warrior wins a battle and then cries?”
“…Battle?” I shook my head in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about? That wasn’t a battle. I was just—”
“You slayed Radpor.” The stranger scoffed. “One of our greatest warriors. And now, you pretend as if it was a mistake?”
“I didn’t even know who Radpor was—”
“He was my next challenge for the arena,” the stranger interrupted my response. “I’d been stalking him for some time, and I was going to challenge him to an official battle for glory. But it appears you beat me to it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I started weeping even harder, my head aching with an utter inability to understand. “I wasn’t trying to battle anyone. I was just…all I want is to go home. Please. Just let me go home.”
“Of course you’ll be allowed to go home. That is, after all, the Xelxar code of combat. We’re not barbarians. We don’t keep slaves,” the stranger explained. “If you happen to win against me in the arena, you’ll be free to bring your glory back home with you.”
“…Win against you in the arena?”
“Must I remind you again that you’ve slayed Radpor?” the stranger replied. “You’ve killed my opponent for the arena tomorrow, thereby earning the right to take his place. Is that not what you wanted, brave warrior? To fight against me? To fight against the best?”
“No!” I yelled my response as more tears streamed down my face, as I sank my feet into the sand below, stopping the stranger in his tracks. “No, I don’t want to fight you! I don’t want to fight anyone! I just want to go home—”
I felt the stranger let me go, my body falling toward the sand, crashing against its surface. And then I brought myself up on my elbows, turning around so that I could face the stranger, expecting just as much horror as when I got a glimpse at his dead alien friend.
But this time, there was no horror involved. He looked a lot like Radpor, sure, but there was something so different about him. For one, he was a lot bigger, his chest and arms composed of nothing but muscles and scarred skin. There was something a lot softer about his gaze, too, something that made me wonder if he’d be less likely to try and stab me to death without a proper explanation.
I couldn’t pinpoint why, exactly, but this specific alien didn’t make me feel like running for my life. And as far as things were going today, not having the immediate impulse to flee to save my ass felt like a huge win in my book.
The alien seemed to be carefully observing me, too, like he was sizing me up in his head. And then, a noise that sounded a lot like a laugh moved past his lips.
“You are so incredibly small for a warrior,” he said, laughter catching onto his every word. “For Radpor to be vanquished by someone as small as you? History will mark it down for future generations to read. His name will be synonymous with great shame.”
“…Wasn’t Radpor like one of your friends?” I guessed, confused by his reaction to the alien’s death. “I mean, you two knew each other, right?”
“Radpor was yet another warrior that I trained with and nothing more,” the stranger answered before he tilted his head to the side. “What is your name, little warrior?”
“Rachel Waters,” I quietly murmured as I looked up at him. “What’s yours?”
“Wexxon the Great,” he said, confidence lining his tone. “A name I have earned through every battle and scar. I have never been defeated at the arena.”
“That’s…good? I guess?” I didn’t know how to respond to his casual brag. “Well, look, Wexxon—”
“Wexxon the Great,” he corrected.
“Wexxon the Great,” I corrected myself now, too. “All I want is to get back home, okay? I don’t want to fight you. I don’t want to fight anyone.”
“I’m sorry, Rachel Waters,” he replied. “That is not allowed in our code of combat. In fact, if your interest is to be excused from our fight in the arena tomorrow, I am now supposed to end your life on this sand. That is the only valid response to such cowardice.”
“It’s not cowardice! It’s just—” I felt my eyes welling up with tears for the millionth time. “Please. Look at me, Wexxon the Great. I’m not a fighter. I’m not like you. If you go up against me tomorrow, you’ll kill me.”
“Not if you have more of your secret weapon.” He grinned. “I don’t think my face would be able to withstand whatever chemical you’ll be sneaking into the arena from your far-off land.”
“Please. Please. There has to be another way,” I begged. “Please. If you could just let me go—”
I stopped myself short, my words suddenly falling away from the conversation. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, not while my body seemed like it was now on fire, a burn that felt like it was reaching all over me, wherever my clothes were wet with water from the purple river.
“Fuck! Fuck!” I yelped in pain as I started pulling off every inch of my clothes, not caring about being fully naked in front of an alien on an alien planet. I just wanted the burning to stop. I needed the burning to stop before it made its way right through my skin and into my bones.
And when all of my clothes were finally resting in a pile by my feet, I let out a sigh of relief, thankful for the freedom from the burning water. There was still a sense of a slight burn on my skin, but it didn’t feel as heavy or awful, something I was convinced would go away with a little time.
“Sorry. I just—” I turned to look back at Wexxon. I brought my hands over my chest, trying my best to cover what I could with my palms. “The water. I think it was having a reaction with my skin—”
“You’re a female,” Wexxon remarked, his eyes going wide as he spoke.
“…You didn’t know that?” I quietly pressed.
And Wexxon shook his head. “How would I have known such a thing? You don’t resemble the females on Xelxar.”
“Oh. Right.” I nodded in understanding, my hands still covering my frame. “Wait. Does that change the rules, then? Is this the part where you tell me that males and females can’t battle in the arena?”