Zein: The Prophecy Read online

  ‘No,’ Kabel firmly told the Changeling and for effect he grabbed the fur around the shoulder blades of the animal to enforce the command. He knew that humans needed more reassurance on matters they couldn’t see.

  ‘You will not see anything. We have two protections covering the four quadrants. The key one is the Ozone Shield. This barrier refracts the sun, presenting a false image to your vision. You see clouds, blue sky in the day and stars at night. The second barrier is the Outer Perimeter, which protects each individual quadrant and further inhibits you seeing our homes whether from the ground or the air,’ said Kabel patiently.

  ‘What about our planes, satellites and spaceships?’ Tyson asked intrigued. Kabel chuckled.

  ‘Thought you may ask that! Well, our main villages are above the usual range of your commercial flights. We can distort the force-fields and bend time at no inconvenience to our villages to accommodate your spaceships. They simply pass through. Your satellites are easy to control. We allow you to see what we want you to see.’

  ‘He’s lying, Tyson. Let him prove it. That’s a wolf and nothing more and I don’t believe his cock and bull story of villages in skies blah blah.’ Bailey looked stubbornly at Kabel. Tyson listened to his friend and raised a questioning eye to Kabel.

  ‘I understand. You need a sign of proof,’ said Kabel. He turned and spoke openly to the Changeling. ‘Can you please change shape to show the humans that you are what we say you are?’ The Changeling glared at him. ‘Please. Do I need to remind you of one keeper and two rather nasty manacles?’

  ‘Don’t think you can pull that one on me every time,’ the Changeling grunted back. The beast sighed and in an instant the wolf shimmered and a peacock was in its place.

  ‘Wow!’ Bailey expressed astonishment but couldn’t resist a jibe. ‘Can he change into a chicken? Fancy a bit of chicken tonight with a good curry.’ The peacock shimmered and the Changeling was back to his wolf shape and pounced, knocking Bailey to the floor.

  ‘Leave him,’ Kabel ordered. The Changeling stepped back. Bailey, slightly shaken, brushed the grass off his body and stood up.

  ‘A little touchy aren’t we,’ he taunted.

  ‘Bailey, leave it,’ said Tyson catching his friend’s eye. Bailey nodded his reluctant agreement. Tyson had heard the animal speak as well as transform – that was enough proof.

  ‘What is your name?’ Tyson enquired.

  ‘Kabel Blackstone.’ The name resonated through Kabel’s body. He realised it was the first time he had used his proper name. ‘This is Zebulon,’ pointing to the Changeling. Tyson noticed the slight shudder when the man had said his name. He is excited by his own name. Strange.

  ‘Well, my name is Tyson Mountford and this oaf,’ aiming a friendly kick at his friend ‘is Bailey Carpenter. Are you hungry? We are going for some chips.’

  ‘Yes, I am hungry,’ Kabel answered and then followed up with, ‘What are chips?’

  ‘Well, mate, if you haven’t tried chips, mushy peas and battered fish you haven’t lived,’ said Bailey, brushing soil off his shorts whilst not taking his eyes off the Changeling. Kabel smiled back, liking the spirit he recognised within Bailey.

  As they started to move off, Tyson stopped and pointed to the Changeling.

  ‘He can’t stay as a wolf.’ He saw the hackles of the Changeling rise. He hastily added. ‘He needs to be less threatening, like a cat or mouse?’ Tyson suggested. The Changeling snarled. ‘I rest my case.’ Tyson smiled. Kabel got the point.

  ‘Can you change to a cat?’ Kabel asked his companion. The Changeling was thoughtful and then the wolf shimmered and a lion appeared shaking its great mane. Tyson laughed. ‘Eh, not that type of cat. A pussy cat, you know a domestic animal?’ Tyson explained.

  The lion shimmered and a black cat appeared.

  ‘I think I will call him my Precious,’ said Bailey.

  The Changeling’s hackles again went up and he hissed.

  ‘There, there my Precious,’ Bailey cooed.

  Both Kabel and Tyson laughed as they made their way to the local chip shop, which was just up the road away from the cricket ground. The Changeling followed moodily.

  After eating the food, which Kabel found strange, but delicious and filling, they agreed that he needed to stay somewhere and since Bailey’s parents were away on their twenty-fifth Silver Wedding Anniversary in New York, going to Bailey’s house was the best solution.

  They walked up the road and turned into a tree lined road which had a number of large detached properties at the ends of their long drives. Then they turned into an impressive drive which led to an imposing detached property. Kabel had never seen houses of this size, unless you counted the Village Council and Transportation buildings, and was amazed at the ivy growing up the side and the rooms on the top floor.

  ‘Come in,’ Bailey invited as he slipped the key into the white PVC front door.

  ‘What time do you call this?’ an angry female voice spat out as Bailey stepped into the house.

  ‘Hi, Sis,’ Bailey greeted his sister, ignoring the raised voice.

  ‘Everyone is coming in less than one hour and you said you will help me prepare the house.’ His sister’s anger was fed by the relative calmness of her brother.

  ‘Well, I brought some help, Sis. Kabel, meet my well-tempered sister, Gemma.’ With that his sister turned her attention to the two new arrivals following Bailey into the house.

  Kabel found himself looking at a young woman, a little older than Delilah, wrapped in a bathrobe and with a towel wrapped around her head. He was not sure whether it was the captivating amber eyes, full lips or the red blush suffusing her cheeks that made his heart rate increase. One thing he did know – he had never met anyone like her in Livescale. He noticed the curvaceous contours of her body pushing against the fabric of the bathrobe, the fall and rise of her breasts highlighting the outline of the youthful body. Tyson was similarly dumbstruck; this was nothing new to him as he had had a crush on Gemma since he was at primary school.

  Bailey cleared his throat. ‘Looks like you got their attention, Sis. The tall one is called Kabel and he is an alien who has a talking dog who sometimes likes to be a cat and you know Tyson.’ Bailey swaggered past a surprised Gemma and into the kitchen.

  Tyson sighed. ‘Ignore him Gemma, he is a prat. Come in, Kabel.’ With a quick nod in her direction he went to look for Bailey.

  ‘Hi!’ Was all Kabel could muster. Hurriedly he followed the disappearing back of Tyson.

  Gemma answered the welcome from Kabel as he pushed past her. Her cheeks were burning. The stranger had surprised her. The sheer size of him, the chiselled face, clear blue eyes and muscular body had all her female antennae on alert. Gemma suddenly remembered her attire and blushed even more deeply and fled upstairs to change.

  The Changeling settled just outside the door and curled up in the sun and went to sleep.

  An hour later, furniture and expensive items moved or put away to safety, the party guests began to arrive. Gemma, dressed in grunge style loose fitting clothes that hid her curves, kept busy taking coats and directing the guests to the kitchen to deposit their drinks. Kabel had changed into his Underworld clothes, jeans, converse trainers, t-shirt and hoodie, his Zein clothes safely tucked away in his rucksack and his seckles in his cloak. He found that he couldn’t stop looking at Gemma as she greeted and laughed with the guests arriving. Her closely cropped dark hair intrigued him, especially as her fringe was dyed red. She had two earrings in each ear and her make-up was very strange. Tyson saw the confusion on his face.

  ‘Gemma is our resident Goth. She dresses to cause a reaction and nothing we can say or do will change that,’ said Tyson, with a hint of admiration. The more unusual the better for Gemma, he thought.

  Gemma was on the outside all efficiency as people arrived but on the inside her emotions were playing havoc. She had never met anyone like Kabel and the immediate connection as they looked at each other had startled her. He was not like
other boys she knew. There was a weariness and burden he carried and a strength to him that she felt which was different and untamed. The untamed element was the key…she kept glancing up and looking him over.

  Gemma frowned as she noticed Tyson and Bailey ignoring all the male guests and focusing on the female guests: taking coats, getting drinks, asking for phone numbers. Typical, she thought, only one thing on their minds. She found herself studying Tyson, who she was fond of, and comparing him with Kabel. She knew Tyson liked her but she had no similar feelings for him. He was the all clean sports star, clever…too perfect. It was very much a case of retaining their friendship but not providing any mixed messages. It was lately becomingly increasingly difficult to ignore his more bold attempts to impress her.

  Gemma sighed and walked across to her friend Amelia.

  ‘Hi, Amelia, are you OK?’ Gemma enquired. Amelia was a similar height to Gemma but that’s where the similarities ended. Her perfectly styled brown hair replaced her friend’s dyed spiky hair and her eyes were a soulful dark brown. She was attractive in an understated way. They had both been friends since they joined the local grammar school for girls.

  ‘Now, where are all the fit men you promised?’ Amelia pleaded. Amelia looked across the room and saw Kabel talking with Tyson. ‘Who is that beefcake?’ Amelia asked. Gemma didn’t hear the question at first as she herself was fixated on Kabel.

  ‘Hello, Earth calling Gemma?’ Amelia said pushing Gemma’s arm for attention. Gemma turned to face her, ‘Sorry, Amelia, that’s Kabel, someone Tyson and Bailey met at the cricket club,’ said Gemma.

  ‘Hmmm, I may go down to that cricket club if it is hiding men like that,’ said Amelia, running her finger suggestfully around her glass.

  ‘Behave. What about Mike?’ Gemma retorted a little too sharply. Gemma loved her friend dearly but she changed boyfriends on a monthly basis and sometimes had multiple boyfriends who knew nothing about the others. Gemma kept pointing out she would get a reputation, to which Amelia would retort that was the idea. Amelia had a plan to become rich and famous by hunting down a local footballer, plying him with drinks and emptying his bank balance in pleasing her. Amelia was really uncomplicated. Something which Gemma knew was a direct result of her uncaring parents who always were out of the country working in their high powered executive jobs. Amelia was a constant at their house rather than stay in the empty plush town house that represented the non-existent family home. On the boys front it was Mike who was her latest conquest: a member of the local Timperley lacrosse team. All brawn and very few brains was Gemma’s assessment. Amelia was intelligent and Gemma thought she could do much better. They were due to both go to University in autumn so it was unlikely to last.

  Amelia looked at her more carefully, caught by her usually relaxed friend’s strange tone. She saw the look her friend gave Kabel across the room. He was oblivious of the look.

  ‘Ahhh, I get it; you like him, go girl,’ said Amelia, making Gemma blush.

  ‘He is not too bad,’ said Gemma feigning a lack of interest. It was too late - Amelia knew her friend well and the blush confirmed everything. She took hold of Gemma’s elbow and despite her protests guided her through the packed room until they were in front of Tyson and Kabel.

  ‘Hi, boys,’ said Amelia playfully, ‘thought you could do with some tender loving female attention. Tyson, you’re looking good. University has done you well,’ Amelia said flashing her brown eyes. Tyson ignored her. Some two years older than both girls he had little time for Amelia’s games. Amelia’s jovial expression wavered and then vanished.

  ‘Don’t say hello then,’ she pouted.

  ‘Greetings,’ Kabel said, bowing.

  ‘Well, hark at him. Are you from a different planet or something?’ said Amelia sharply, still angry at Tyson’s lack of reaction.

  ‘Well…’ Kabel began to reply.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Amelia. Why don’t you go and find Mike or Fred or whoever is the light of your life this week,’ said Tyson, flashing a warning to Kabel. It didn’t pay to be too open.

  ‘Well, it’s not you that’s for sure,’ Amelia retorted and then with disapproving look she walked away, her shapely body winding its way through the lounge.

  ‘Tyson, there was no need for that,’ Gemma admonished. She knew they didn’t like each other and there was rarely a civil word between them.

  Tyson shrugged. Gemma ignored him and turned to Kabel, who was listening with interest. Boy, those eyes…

  ‘So what do you think, Kabel?’ Gemma asked, turning and gesturing to the lively atmosphere with the half empty beer bottle she held in her hand.

  ‘I think you are very beautiful,’ said Kabel staring directly at her. Gemma raised her eyebrows in surprise and Tyson choked on his beer.

  ‘I was not meaning that, but thanks,’ said Gemma taken back. She looked into his eyes and found the room noise disappear to the background. There was something about him that attracted her to him, but what? Kabel stared back, bewitched by this strange looking girl. After the isolation he experienced from the young Livescale crowd he felt his mind pulled to this one girl.

  ‘This is all very nice but Kabel needs to have a drink,’ said a disapproving Tyson, pushing Kabel ahead of him towards the kitchen, leaving Gemma fumbling for words.

  Gemma stared after them. She turned to see what was happening with other guests and saw Bailey. Bailey was in his customary position surrounded by girls from her old school year, all looking at him with adoring eyes. Bailey was in his element and was recounting the last University party he had held earlier in the year. They had been invaded by gate-crashes who had been told of the party on Facebook and Bailey apparently single-handedly fought them off and threw them out…..it of course was nothing to do with the arrival of the police. She was close to Bailey, even though he was older than her; he really was the male equivalent of Amelia. She went to look for her best friend.

  In the kitchen Tyson was pouring out some tequila into a shot glass for Kabel. He filled it to the brim and handed it to his newly acquired friend.

  ‘What is this?’ Kabel asked, looking at the liquid in the glass.

  ‘Tequila, it’s a very strong drink.’ Kabel looked at it and drank it down in one.

  ‘Very tasty, yet it is not as strong as Mee wine.’ With that he poured more tequila into a half pint glass and then drank it down in one.

  ‘Tasty though,’ said Kabel, without any signs that the strong liquor had any impact on him at all. Tyson and those watching in the kitchen couldn’t believe it.

  ‘Try this.’ He handed Kabel a Big Tree bitter beer from a local micro-brewery. Kabel tried it and expressed his satisfaction by a contented sigh.

  ‘A weak hola beer but passable,’ he said.

  ‘Is there any girl in your life where you come from?’ said Tyson, keen to understand whether Kabel was a threat to his intentions for Gemma. Kabel shook his head.

  ‘Zeinonians, especially males, once they have selected their mate remain with them until they ascend to the Exalted Heights,’ he said, gazing down into his beer, ‘I have never met anyone who has interested me in that way.’ Tyson rubbed his head in disbelief.

  ‘You mean you only ever have one girlfriend?’

  ‘Yes, normally, sometimes you can change mates because there is a stronger connection but this has to be done before the Joining.’ Kabel saw the questioning look. ‘The Joining is the equivalent of what you call marriage,’ he explained. ‘Why do you ask? Don’t you just have one partner?’

  ‘Well, if we did both Bailey and Amelia would be sorely tested,’ Tyson laughed.

  Bailey joined them, looking back and forward from one laughing human to one equally laughing alien. Bailey shook his head at the sight, not knowing the joke was about him. He poured himself a beer. Enough of the laughter he had questions he wanted answers to.

  ‘Tell me about where you live.’

  Kabel gave them both a brief history of how the Expeditionary Force cam
e to Earth and then described their way of life and about his adopted family. He talked about the Falls and the Ring of Respect. He told him about the Federation Fair and how he met the Changeling. When he told them about the battle for the Village and the death of his brother, both Tyson and Bailey expressed concern at what had happened. Kabel found it difficult to talk about it but wanted them to know more about Livescale and the Zeinonians. He did not tell them about his father or Zylar; they were being careful to keep their voices down but there was still too much risk that they may be overheard.

  As Kabel was finishing his story, Gemma came up to them and linked her arm through Kabel’s. Tyson felt a little anger rising within him.

  ‘Hey, guys, stop keeping Kabel from joining in the party,’ she said. With that Gemma confidently steered Kabel away from them and began introducing him to her friends.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Bailey asked his friend. Tyson shrugged his shoulders and decided the rest of the tequila needed to be drunk.

  The evening turned into early morning and people began to leave until there was a hard core of eight or nine people left. Gemma had monopolised Kabel all evening. He enjoyed meeting her friends. Caution made him keep details of who he really was to himself. Bailey had disappeared to his room with one of the girls who had shown a keen interest in him earlier in the evening. Tyson had curled up with his empty tequila bottle on the settee and was quietly snoring. Amelia was busy with one of Bailey’s University friends, Harry, in the cinema room.

  Gemma looked at the untidy lounge with beer bottles and empty cups littering the floor as she clutched Kabel’s arm, a little drunk but feeling good.

  ‘Come with me,’ said Gemma, guiding Kabel to the stairs. Kabel initially pulled back, uncertain of what was happening.

  ‘Do you trust me?’ She was amused at Kabel’s reluctance. Kabel looked at her and knew the answer immediately.

  ‘Yes.

  ‘Good.’ They went upstairs to her room, which was at the top of the stairs.

  Gemma’s room was a large one with a high ceiling and modern sliding door wardrobes fitted onto a metal framework. Her double bed dominated the room and the multi-coloured duvet brought life to the darkly decorated room. A poster of a band with leather jackets and nose piercings hung on the wall.