Elderakin

Walking through the desolate landscape of Ruitina, Kurt Westin glanced over to his partner on this mission. His name was Alex, and he was a young cadet, freshly out of school. Kurt felt terrible for him for being sent on this mission, knowing that the kid did not know what was happening. The two arrived on this planet a few hours ago to investigate a report of strange sightings on and around Ruitina. Officially, this planet inhabited no form of life, but Kurt knew that was far from the truth. 

This planet used to be a lush paradise, filled with wildlife everywhere. It wasn’t discovered until three hundred and fifty years ago, because it was on the far outer reaches of the multiverse. The Order decided it would be a perfect planet to perform some experiments on. Now, the public had been getting increasingly upset with what The Order had been doing on the core worlds. So, when they found this untouched planet full of bountiful nature, they took it as a sign to expand. The Order scraped all their other operations and moved to Ruitina.

In the years to come, they worked tirelessly to clean up their image. The public slowly forgot about their horrendous past by getting into charities and fundraisers. Kurt, however, didn’t forget about it. Frankly, he didn’t care about what they did either way. While the Order had been operating on the core planets, Kurt hadn’t been in his current form. The body he had right now was a fraction of who he used to be. 

“I just checked the map, and it says we’re close to where the door should be.”

The words coming from Alex snapped him out of his thoughts. Shaking his head, he forced himself to stop lamenting the past. That form is gone, taken by those weak, cowardly….. He stopped himself again before his thoughts took him to a dark place. Kurt sighed and turned toward Alex.

“Kid, what did they tell you when they sent you on this mission?”

Alex didn’t seem to understand what Kurt had said at first, but then he responded.

“We are here to look into reports of the unusual sightings in the area. However, before I left, my captain told me this mission was mostly redundant, as there had been no life in this part of the multiverse. I am, though, looking forward to learning from a senior officer like yourself.” 

After Alex finished talking, Kurt almost laughed at the naivety of what he said. Instead, he just shook his head, pulled out a small container he kept in his pocket, and took out a cigarette. Taking a deep breath of the nicotine-infused smoke, he relaxed and took a few moments to finish his smoke. For all Kurt knew, it might be the last one he ever got to have. He had never smoked before but took to the habit when he became trapped in this human body. 

Once he finished smoking, he took the butt of the cigarette and tossed it to the ground. His partner had waited patiently for Kurt to finish his smoke. He appreciated that and would try his best to keep him alive in the events to come. Then, at that moment, they heard a blood-curdling groan from beneath them. Alex turned toward Kurt in a panic, his face letting his emotions through. He knew the boy could feel the shift in the air; perhaps the human wasn’t entirely stupid. Kurt was told that Alex had finished top of his class and was supposed to be a natural talent. Kurt hoped all his skill and wits would be enough to save him. 

As the sound got louder, Kurt knew there wouldn’t be much time until the beasts were upon them. Kurt took in a deep breath, then exhaled heavily. His body then began to transform. Bone could be heard breaking and moving around inside his body. The sound of tendons snapping and skins stretching could be heard throughout the desolate planet. Kurt’s former skin seemed to fall away as the new form took shape. He was now towering over Alex, who seemed like he was about to cry. The form Kurt currently inhabited was a lesser version of what his actual body should be. It was, however, far better than being trapped in that human form. 

He leaped up into the air, flapping his dark purple wings. Those in The Order would often talk about him when they thought he couldn’t hear them. They would describe him as an eldritch monster or say he looked like something out of a horror film. If he had to say which imaginary beast that the humans invented, he looked the most like it would have to be the dragon. However, the dragon from books and stories looked a lot friendlier than Kurt did in his proper form. He thought he looked beautiful in this form and was always annoyed when he had to go back to acting like a human. Being around humans for so long started to grow inside Kurt a deep disdain for them. They were, after all, the ones who took his true form away from him. Saying he was a danger to all of humanity when that simply wasn’t true. All Kurt had ever wanted was to be free, and now he served a group of humans.

As he flew over the top of the man known as Alex, he wondered why he ever felt sorry for him. He was part of the species that had taken so much away from Kurt. Even the name Kurt wasn’t his actual name. They had taken that away from him, and when he tried to remember his actual name, he felt a sudden pain in his brain that threatened to render him unconscious. He could worry about that later. For now, he had a swarm of monsters to deal with. 

After a few moments, the ground beneath Kurt burst open. Swarms of monsters and unimaginable horrors spewing out of it. Kurt sighed because he was frustrated at the fact that he was always the one that The Order sent to clean up after their mistakes. He made a reminder to talk with his handler when he got back to headquarters. 

Kurt’s enormous form swooped down with his powerful jaws, and he bit a monster straight in half. It tasted sour, and Kurt spit the remains of the beast out of his mouth. After all, all these beasts were experiments gone wrong. For the rest of the fight, Kurt decided he would try and use his razor-sharp claws. After fighting for a few minutes, he began having thoughts about that pesky human who accompanied him on this mission. Kurt wondered if he was still alive and wanted to look for him. While he was chipping away at the monster swarm, he began to lazily search for the human. He didn’t really care if he died but was more curious to see if he could survive this many monsters. Once the swarm began to get thinned out a bit, he thought he saw a glint of light within the multitude and went to investigate. To Kurt’s surprise, it was the human after all, and so he left him to fate. It wasn’t Kurt’s fault they had sent someone with him. He had told them many times he preferred to work alone. 

Hours of mindlessly killing monsters went by. Kurt wondered why they had sent him on this mission. A squad of well-trained soldiers could have quickly done this. 

That was when Kurt felt that something had changed. The monsters began acting differently. It looked like they were retreating to the hole they came out of beneath the ground. Kurt didn’t know how he knew it, but he felt like something powerful was about to emerge from the hole. A few tense moments later, a monster the likes of which Kurt had never seen before erupted from the spot. When he first looked at the gargantuan creature, he thought he recognized it, but he shook his massive head and focused.

When the creature was above ground, it flew in the air for a bit and took in its surroundings. It then landed on the ground and sat facing Kurt and appeared to not want to fight. He had to admit that the creature’s actions perplexed him. Kurt had never met a monster that didn’t just charge straight at him. What surprised Kurt more was when he heard the monster’s voice.

“I’m surprised to see you here.”

Kurt froze at the creature’s words. The first reason was that this creature was intelligent. On top of that, he seemed to know Kurt.

“My name is Kurt. How do you know me?”

The creature paused for a second, then burst into a fit of laughter. He rolled over onto his back and continued to laugh. The creature was so giant that his laughter caused the very earth to shake. Kurt simply waited while the creature composed himself. While he waited, he observed its form. It was a dark red color and had wings similar to his own. Kurt had to admit that the creature looked similar to himself in a lot of ways. The rough-looking skin, the spikes running along its back, and even the head looked like his own. Now, the creature seemed to compose himself and was sitting upright. When the creature spoke again, it was in a slow and calculated tone.

“You are not Kurt. Your captors may have given you that name, but it is not your TRUE name.” 

Kurt had been so involved in what the creature said that he didn’t even see the human sneaking up behind it. He wanted to warn the creature, but it was too late. The human jumped up onto the enormous creature and struck at it with his sword. The blade left a deep wound in the creature’s neck, and he erupted into life. He flew into the air and shook the human off of him. Kurt could see that the creature was losing a lot of blood, and, for some reason, it pained him to see the creature bleeding. 

Kurt watched as they fought. It surprised him to see that they were an even match. As the fighting continued, the human was getting the upper hand. His sword was contacting the creature’s tough hide and made some deep cuts. The creature was dripping blood, and Kurt knew it wouldn’t last much longer. So, he intervened, flying in between them. With a swing of his massive wings, he pushed them apart and turned to the creature.

“WHAT IS MY TRUE NAME?”

The creature, who was obviously suffering from blood loss, took a moment to answer.

“Elderakin…”

Before he could say anything else, the human jumped up and stabbed the creature in his throat. He made a gurgling sound before his eyes glossed over, and he was dead. The human was breathing heavily and had a look of accomplishment on his face. 

Is this human incompetent, ignorant, or just plain stupid… Could he not see that I WAS TALKING TO THAT CREATURE?

His thoughts blurred and became a jumble in his head. His vision began to dance as he felt his head start to fill with pressure. Whatever had kept him trapped for so long fought desperately to stop him from saying his actual name. The more he tried to think about it, the more it fought back until he felt like it was reaching a breaking point. He was sure that he was going to pass out if he didn’t stop his thoughts. Then, he said it.

“My name is Elderakin.”

A power surged out from his body as the human and the body of the creature were thrown back. His body began to morph again, growing in size. He retained the same look, but he grew to an unimaginable scale. Soon, the planet became too small to hold him, so he pushed off of it and into space. He looked back at the desolate world and thought of the human who had killed one of his kind. He opened his mouth, and a plume of violet energy came billowing out. It turned the planet into nothing more than dust. Elderakin was content that he could get revenge for his fallen brother, but it wasn’t enough.

With all of his memories restored to him, he remembered what had happened to him. He grimaced, as the memories were not pleasant. He had been a prisoner for far too long. Never again would he meet the same fate. Things would be different now. Elderakin would not be so trusting this time. As he made his way through the cosmos, he had one goal on his mind—the termination of humanity.