The Archaeological Chronicles - The New World

Happy new year! Here is a new chapter. Hope you like it!

I’ve been left out alone like a damn criminal

I’ve been praying for help cause I can’t take it all

I’m not done,

It’s not over.

--

Kai'ine

‘’Should I wake her?’’ I ask Zuuri.

I don’t know the human body as well as he does, but I’m pretty sure humans aren’t supposed to sleep for 24 hours. At least not when they’re as healthy as they can be – thanks to Zuuri and me.

My right-hand fingers twitch slightly, wanting to touch my hair or something to shake the slight worry out of me.

Whoah there.

Worry? That’s not the right word for it. Stressed? No, not that either.

‘’No, her body is healing itself,’’ he answers as he looks down on her sleeping form.

We’ve probably been standing here at least for the last thirty minutes or so.

And that does not include the approximately twenty-four times I’ve checked in on her.

I frown. ‘’Heal itself? We just did that for her,’’.

He snaps his gaze to mine, and a small chuckle leaves his mouth.

‘’You really are stupid,’’ he laughs.

My left eye twitches.

‘’I am not stupid,’’ I hiss through clenched teeth.

His chuckle intensifies.

‘’Her mind, you stupid Smurf,’’.

‘’What the hell is a Smurf?’’ I bite back.

He has to lean against the headboard by now. Giggling himself to death.

I hope he does. Insolent being!

‘’I’ll explain it sometime later. Jokes aside, the way she encountered you must have also left some trauma. Humans act on their basic animalistic behavior when put in extreme situations. This is what a human might call an extreme situation. Since I’ve already covered the fact that she has other trauma as well, it is only natural for her body to go into some kind of hibernation to save itself and most importantly – the mind,’’. He explains whilst pointing at her head, as if I could see her brain through the skull.

‘’It’s been twenty-four hours Zuuri. How weak is the human mind? Nobody needs to sleep away trauma for that long,’’ I mutter.

My right-hands fingers are twitching again.

Why do they keep doing that?

‘’Dramatic as always…’’ he sighs and pushes himself to a standing position. ‘’How about we check in on that pandemic in the meantime? We need to figure out the next moves. They’re working on a vaccine,’’ he says, and even before I can even answer the question, he’s out the door.

He’s probably the most disrespectful, insolent being I know of. As a big brother, there is nothing more to do than give him a really, really hard time about it.

I take one last glance at the sleeping human. Her long dark blonde hair is everywhere, and my fingers starts twitching again.

I take a deep breath, inhaling her intoxicating scent. Just to make sure that I don’t forget it. Or something.

I cannot wait to get that hair braided.

I shake my head as quick as that thought came into my mind. I don’t even know what’s going on with me.

Human emotions are one thing, but emotions like this as a Daque is unheard of.

Unheard.

I shake my head again. My gaze leaves the sleeping human and I, too, walk out the door.

***

‘’The trials and testing for the new vaccines are forming rapidly, and I need to know what you want to do about it. Do we put another wave of it, or just wait and see how America manages to do that just by themselves? Their resistance is ridiculous,’’ Zuki explains as she points at a map of the planet Earth.

‘’I suggest we wait it out in the countries that manages to kill themselves just fine, and those countries that are managing just proves that their political system and companionship to each other is optimal,’’ Zuuri answers.

Seen as Zuuri is my younger brother, he looks like me but has yellow eyes instead of multicolored like mine. Strikingly yellow. Almost like a cat, I would assume.

As high born we all have stark white hair. His skin tone is even fairer than mine, so the blue tinge isn’t showing as much on him, as it is on me.

Zuki, on the other hand is my youngest sibling. She is a few centimeters taller than Zuuri – never tell him that I admitted what everyone else already know – and probably the fiercest one. She does not like humans.

Or any other species for that matter.

She has yellow eyes as well, but a lighter and warmer tone than Zuuri’s. They are supposed to be identical twins, which is a very rare thing on our planet, but I can easily tell them apart.

The male and female gender, as it is on Earth, is not quite the same to us.

We are two biological genders, but we are more genderfluid than most species I know of. This often makes it quite hard to tell those two apart for strangers and people that don’t know them as well as I do.

I stare at the map. Looking at all the red zones and those who are turning yellow. Placing a virus like COVID-19 – as the humans call it – is probably one of the smartest things us three has come up with for a couple of thousand years.

The virus is not supposed to wipe out the entire population of the world, but it shows us how humans work during a crisis like this in their ‘modern’ time. it also helps to reduce overpopulation which again may lead to environmental prosperity.

As this year has proven, not many of them are handling it well. The pandemic has taken almost two million lives, as we speak, and then we have all of the other things going on, on the planet this year.

The great fire in Australia was a massive loss to the wildlife. The almost-war between America and Iraq was fun watching unfold.

The virus was planted last year in Russia, not China, as every human believes. This spread like wildfire, as suspected. On top of that, the Black Lives Matter movement started in America.

It’s been a great show.

Personally, I’m rooting for them and not the state. I know Zuki wants them all dead, so there is no point of betting against her about it.

Zuuri, on the other hand, he was more than willing to bet against who would win.

The idea behind the placement of the virus on Earth is to see how useful or useless they truly are. The planet is overpopulated and is running in a gear too high for it to handle. Basic human greediness is ruining the only home they have, just to satisfy their needs.

This also affects the poorest countries, and western greediness and corrupt political systems are watching people – children – die of hunger.

We have always agreed on saving the planet, because of the huge resources it produces when it’s working as it normally should.

Humans have ruined that.

The plan, therefore, is to start with systematically wipe out some of the population to see if it helps, and if it doesn’t, well, then we have to have another meeting about it.

I will not let this planet die at the hands of human greediness.

It is also noticeable on the map, that the western world is – for the time being – the place that suffers the most.

Good. they need to face the consequences of greediness.

‘’I think America can wipe itself out just fine,’’ I finally answer. ‘’But I want to see more cases of the virus in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. I need to see how they solve it,’’.

They both nod in union. A twin-thing they have.

‘’I also want half of the vaccines on the way, destroyed. Wipe the data, wipe everything. We need to slow that process down,’’ I say as I point to the areas where the experimental vaccines are being produced and tested rapidly.

As I’m about to sit down in one of the ships comfortable chairs and enjoy the view on our way back to our planet, I hear a loud bang.

And again. And again.

My lightning reflexes kick in and I’m sprinting towards the sound.

When I’m almost out of the control room of the ship, I whip my head towards the twins and hiss ‘’don’t show your faces!’’ and slam the door behind me.

Finally, she woke up.

I almost break the door down, with the force I use as I rip it open.

The insolent human is trying to break the glass window with a chair.

She’s still in the deep red nightgown I dressed her in. Panting heavily, and her hair is all over the place.

She’s so tiny. Cute.

‘’What are you doing?’’ I ask calmly. Leaning my weight against the doorframe.

She snaps her head in my direction as she throws the chair against the window again.

‘’If I break this window, I’ll be sucked out and die, but so will you,’’ she sneers.

I see. She really is feisty.

‘’Your non-existent strength will not be able to break it,’’ I answer. My face is emotionless, as it usually is.

I do not feel or express feelings the same way as humans does.

Her only response is a growl and another hard throw towards the window. The chair bounces back. Almost in pieces.

‘’How are you feeling?’’.

She narrows her eyes at my question as she stands back, making a fighting stance. Looking like a wild animal.

Well, humans tend to look like wild animals. Because they are.

‘’I’m not going to repeat myself,’’ I say in a low voice.

I remember Zuuri’s words about doing this her way. I’m having an inner battle about that. I don’t know the first thing how I do this some other way other than mine.

I give her a few more seconds to come up with an answer, as I see her brain working on high gear.

My weight leaves the doorframe as I grab her jaw within a second. She lets out a strangled cry as she tries to break free from my hold.

Useless.

I drag her face close to mine, as I bend down to her height. Our noses almost touching.

‘’I feel fine!’’ she manages to yelp out, and I let go of her the second she answers.

‘’See? That wasn’t so hard,’’ I say mockingly.

She rubs her jaw in slight pain and glares at me. I ignore her glare and rise to my original height.

‘’You were asleep for twenty-four hours,’’.

Her eyes widens a fraction.

‘’Take me back,’’ she hisses.

I shake my head no.

That only angers her more, or is it despair? I’m not sure.

‘’I need to go back!’’

’’If it’s this so-called thesis you’re talking about, Zuuri forced me to bring your laptop and books. Said something about how ‘important’ education was for some humans. You can work on it whilst staying on Te’rais,’’ I say as I nudge my head towards the wooden black desk situated in the left corner of the room.

Her head snaps towards it and sees all of her research material. Too caught up in escaping that she didn’t even see her personal things lying there.

‘’I have a life back home, not just my degree, you stupid alien!’’ she shouts back at me.

I realize in that exact moment that I have no patience when it comes to the ‘modern’ human. I liked them better five thousand years ago.

This little Viking needs to be put in her place.

I reach out for her again, but she was surprisingly attentive and flinched back just before I could grab her.

She tries to sprint past me, but I’m not having it.

‘’We’re going to practice some exposure therapy today, little Viking,’’ I hiss as I grab her by the back of her neck.

A weak spot for humans. You can basically do anything to them as long as you grip the back of their neck hard enough.

She screams out loudly and her arms reach back and grab mine, trying to pry them off.

Of course they do.

I drag her towards the bathroom, as I hear Zuuri’s warning in my head once again. I brush it off, she just has to get used to the fact that I am the one in charge.

I always am.

I throw her inside the spacious sterile bathroom. She stumbles on her feet but gains her balance quickly. She whips around to face me, as I close the door behind us. Her eyes widen.

She’s back to the animalistic fighting stance. Her breathing heavy once again.

‘’Take off your clothes,’’ I demand as I remove my coat and place it on the lounge chair.

She quickly crosses her arms over her chest and grips the fabric of the nightgown tightly in her hold.

She doesn’t answer.

I can see her brain working on high gear again. It seems as if she get lost in thought when put in an uncomfortable situation.

My eyes never leave hers.

‘’I’m not going to repeat myself, Mai’yri,’’.

I unbutton my shirt, never losing eye contact with her. As I remove it and place it on the lounge chair, I take a step towards her.

Last chance, human.

I remove the band that holds my Ter’aisan braid together and let my hair untangle by itself.

Her crossed arms tighten around herself as she covers away from me. Tears streaming down her face, as she shakes.

I grab both of her hands in mine, she screams, and yanks her towards me. I stare into her fear stricken eyes and gives the nightgown a hard tug. It falls to the floor instantly, leaving her in just her panties.

She is desperately trying to cover herself up, with no prevail. Her eyes have long left mine, as she hides her face as she cries.

I’m still holding on to her wrists, as I remove the remaining clothing I had on.

She tenses as I tug her panties off, in one swift movement.

I push her into the spacious shower and quickly turn the tap on. I know that humans like to shower in hot water, I just don’t know how hot.

As her beautiful hair becomes wet and takes on a darker shade, I suddenly notice all of the markings on her body.

Why have I not noticed them before?

Tattoos are common in almost every culture, planet and galaxy. It’s not foreign to me.

However, I am still surprised to see it on her.

Her body is stoic and frozen in its place. Her shaking has yet to subside, and her tears is washed away by the water constantly raining down on us. The redness in her eyes is the only evidence of her crying.

I already knew our reproductive organs were pretty much the same as humans.

Our bodies are not as different as one might think. Females on Ter’ais has the same body structure as the human female. The only difference is the organs inside of the body. The same goes for the Daque male and human male.

I turn her body around, so that her back is facing me. She makes no sound.

What a beautiful body.

Strong thighs, wide hips, a narrow waist and strong shoulders. I start massaging shampoo into her hair slowly, but her body is still frozen on the spot.

I can practically smell her fear.

Good.

I rinse her hair thoroughly and put in conditioner. I leave it in for a few minutes as I grab a cloth and starts washing the rest of her body.

I got a few protests when I started – but my gaze shut her up pretty quickly.

Her whole demeanor looks mortified.

After I was done with her body, I rinsed out the conditioner in her hair. A slight shiver runs through her body and I turn up the heat of the water.

As I started cleaning my own body, I see her slide down the marbled wall of the shower and pull her knees to her chest and hide her face in it. My eyes never leave her frame as I rinse myself off.

I turn off the water and wry my hair to get rid of all the water. Her whole body tenses as the shower is turned off.

I pick her up swiftly and wrap her in a big towel. I sit her down on the counter. Her eyes refusing to look up.

Mortified. Scared.

I secure a towel around my hips and starts working on her hair. Tangled mess. I wry it up, and combs through it carefully.

She’s still not uttering a single word.

When I’m satisfied with the result, I work my way through it quickly. Just like my mother taught me. I fasten the band at the tip of her hair and look proudly at my creation.

As I expected, the braid would suit her well.

I head out of the bathroom and fetch the clothes lying on the bed. Crisp and clean. I stride back in and see her sitting in the same spot.

Good.

I walk over to her and motion for her to get down from the counter clothes and that is the first time she looks up at me in a while.

The look in her eyes is what captures my attention first.

Oh holiness. I took it too far.

Her usual white is now reddened, and the tears never stop rolling from her eyes. Her icy blue eyes. She looks up at me in confusion and sadness. I hand her some underwear and she drop the towel and slips it on as quick as she can. I don’t understand why she even bother I’ve already seen her body. It doesn’t matter.

I hold out the cream white pants – traditional high born Ter’iasan clothing – and waits for her to step into them.

‘’I can do it myself,’’ she whispers in a shaky breath.

I shake my head no.

She hesitantly steps into them, as I work the bands quickly and fasten them in a traditional knot at the left side of her hip. I slip on the thin pastel green – almost white – short sleeved shirt on her. I tuck the loose ends into the pants, creating a flattering waist.

I proceed to tie the strings of a shorter cream white robe – call it a jacket if you like – just beneath her collarbones. The shirt end right underneath them as well, creating a flattering neckline where you can see the delicate collarbones and neck.

She looks uncomfortable.

‘’All done,’’ I murmur as I stare right into the depths of her saddened icy blue eyes.

The tears have finally stopped. Dried tears mark her face. I take a gentle hold of her face and wipes them off with both of my thumbs on either side of her face.

I hold her face a few moments longer, just enjoying the feel of it.

She holds my gaze. Fury. I can see it clearly. She’s angry now.

That’s a good sign.

Maybe I didn’t take it too far after all.

I let go of her face and return to my original height.

‘’This will be a daily routine,’’ I say. She is about to protest, before I interrupt her; ‘’exposure therapy,’’ I say in a mocking voice.

I see the fire back in her eyes. Good.

‘’Now, it’s time to feed you. Come on, little Viking,’’ I encourage as I walk towards the door.

She’s still sitting on the bed, glaring daggers at me. I turn to look at her adorable angry face.

‘’Not going to repeat myself,’’ I warn.

She hesitantly moves towards me. Good. I hold the door open for her and guide her from the bedroom. I don’t touch her as I lead her towards the dining area.

It’s been enough exposure therapy for one day, I muse to myself.