Unearthly World Christmas

  Cover Artist: Rogue Reyer

  Editor: Melanie Billings

  Copyright 2017 C. L. Scholey

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from C. L. Scholey.

  Printed in Canada

  The Zargonnii and Castian warriors have settled into a routine on their planets with humans from a destroyed Earth. Long forgotten traditions of Earth are rekindled when a young half-Zargonnii, half-human boy comes into the full extent of his powers—his enemy’s powers. Powers due to his mother’s encounter with the creature’s blood before his birth.

  A passing thought from an Earth female sets the boy, other hybrid children and two Zargonnii couples on a wild ride. They are in search of the magic of Christmas and become entangled in the dangers involved finding it.

  Dedication: This story is for those who love holidays and can find the magic and miracles of the season through not only the best of times, but the worst. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my family to yours! Connie

  Unearthly World Christmas

  By: C. L. Scholey

  Chapter One

  Titus watched his son Zell and the other children make snowmen, snow ponies, and snow warriors from inside his dwelling. A gentle white dusting was falling from the sky, the beautiful flakes added to the two feet of trampled snowfall. Winter was Titus’s favorite time of year; at least it had been since finding and rescuing his mate Zabbie. Everything outside seemed covered in a security blanket of peace and serenity. That was until the children were set loose to invade the sheer perfection. Titus chuckled as a snowball exploded onto Zell’s back, and the teen howled in laughter. He was mistaken. The children only added to the perfection. The snow made him smile, but it was the children’s happiness that moved his heart. It had been that way now for years since humans came to live with the Zargonnii warriors. Titus was still amazed at his overwhelming joy.

  Sticks from live animated trees had the snow creations waving their hands, or moving hooves and feet to gather more sticks, using them like hands and fingers. This enabled the snow creatures to move around the backyard and chase the laughing children. The trees weren’t angry. Titus’s mate informed him the trees were feeling adored by the attention. They loved a good laugh and much like humans shed skin cells, the trees dropped older branches, still capable of movement but aged and tiring.

  Taking over the snowmen and other imaginative creations gave the branches a new lease on a dropped lonely life and inspired the tree branches growing older. Their fate wasn’t one of a sorry state. Languishing on the jungle-like ground of the planet before decaying into mulch wasn’t appealing. Though the branches would continue to whisper into the winds, an essence left behind, before that happened they played once more. When introduced to a holiday called Halloween, the trees reveled in making humans scream as Zargonnii children placed odd costumes on the trees. Titus loved the white bed sheets covering the trees best. Glowing eyes were settled onto the trees giving strange eerie light wherever human or warrior traveled. Painted white and a show of rattling bones was heard from above an unsuspecting head.

  Ryker, a half-Castian, half-human teen, laughed as Braylon, also a young human teen with a Tonan shield, finished his snowman. It exploded into his face sending snow flying in all directions. The tree branch beneath raised a long taloned finger as though to complain before falling to the ground. Braylon’s entire Tonan shield came up immediately to protect him. The young howling human raced for Ryker who disappeared at his approach, only to reappear behind him. Braylon launched another assault but each was thwarted making Titus and the others chuckle. As fast as lightning, Braylon’s swift reflexes pelted snowballs while Ryker vanished and appeared launching another snow attack.

  Arms reached around Titus’s waist and a warm body snuggled next to him. The beauty of the human was reflected in the glass before him, and she never ceased to make his heart flutter. Titus turned as he welcomed his mate into his embrace. Zabbie smiled up at him. Her head reached his white furred chest as she placed her chin onto him. He could see the red of his eyes in her liquid pools of love.

  He lifted his hand to run his fingers through her silky thick hair. Zabbie’s smile deepened. She turned at a squeal of laughter and he could feel her body quiver against him as she laughed.

  “The boys look happy,” she said. “The trees do too if the heightened whispering is an indication. I’ll never get over the amount of snow here and the way it stops, as though it can’t cross a line into the southern Zargonnii territory. One second it’s endless white, then green and brilliant colors. You’re not sorry I make it snow here are you, to match our neighbor’s yard?”

  “I’ve gotten used to it over the years.” Titus could see from where he stood the line Zabbie spoke of. The vivid greenery was only feet away.

  Each year around this time his mate craved snow. On the first day Titus woke to snow those many years ago, he was beyond surprised. Zabbie was as mystified, but then she gave him a small sad smile and explained she must have made the snow unconsciously while sleeping. When he asked her why the melancholy look, she shrugged him off with a passing mumble of a holiday long ago on her planet. That was the only explanation and he never pushed, some of her memories were painful. Life on her Earth planet was something he wished she could forget. If his mate wanted snow in their backyard for a month, he wouldn’t argue, nor would he question. Sometimes one of the kindest gestures a mate can offer is respecting silence.

  Zabbie smiled and cocked her head, Titus wondered what she heard. The mystery of the trees belonged to females, not males. All were chasing each other around the backyard again: children, branches, snowmen and other creations. The snow warriors were a little disturbing. Zabbie called them snow zombies. The warriors were zapped only to be remade as the flurries twisted and swirled from the ground up. Titus had a deep urge to join them, but the feel of his mate pressed so snuggly against him made him want to savor the moment a little longer. He swore ever since having Zell it felt like time was moving faster.

  Zell stopped suddenly, and a spray of snow flew up to cover all of the children, coating them in a white fluffiness. The boys, each thirteen, turned as one in surprise while they shook the wetness off. Titus, ready to spring into action, tensed, then heard childish laughter and relaxed. He knew who had graced them with his presence. He should have known wherever Braylon was a specific other soon followed.

  “You can’t hide from me,” a small voice with the hint of a baby lisp on the verge of disappearing shouted.

  Cy’s young son, Dranos, floated into the backyard, only to squeal, pinwheel his arms and plop onto his behind in a snow bank. Titus laughed at the child’s disgruntled look as he brushed himself off. The little male was learning his powers, and he still had a ways to go. Some were still to be determined. Braylon groaned so loud and with so much animated exasperation Zabbie chuckled. Titus wondered why the teen was so surprised to see his brother. It seemed Braylon made it his mission to hide from Dranos who was equally determined to find him.

  “Aren
’t you supposed to be having a nap?” Braylon yelled.

  “I’m five. I’m not a baby,” Dranos said with a snarl. His little fists clenched and a sudden snowball smacked Braylon in the chest as the child struggled to his feet.

  Zabbie chuckled and in a voice barely above a whisper said, “He’s no baby all right. He is spectacular.”

  Dranos gazed into the window and waved at the couple. Thank you. Titus heard in his thoughts. From Zabbie’s exasperated expression he knew she heard too.

  “Dranos, what have you been taught about mind reading?” Titus chastened knowing the boy couldn’t have possibly heard Zabbie.

  Sorry.

  “And stay out of my mind too,” Braylon said on a growl.

  “I can’t read your mind with your shield up,” Dranos yelled.

  Titus also knew Zell and Ryker had the ability to stop the boy from invading their thoughts. Dranos was a mystery. He was human and Zargonnii but also something else. His mother had somehow been altered by an Angano but not in the way other humans were altered by another species related to the Angano, the Gorgano. The Gorgano were extinct. The Angano were hiding on their own planet far away and had been for the last five years. Life on the Zargonnii and Castian planets was quiet.

  The human race was welcome on not only the Zargonnii planet but Castian planets. By the time Dranos was two it was determined the little male could speak any language, all Earth languages as well as other alien life forms. He was a joy and a wonder to most. But Titus could see Braylon scowl and sighed. The teen wasn’t always nice to his younger sibling.

  Braylon allowed his shield to drop from around his face, he narrowed his gaze, a decided evil snarl on his lips and Dranos began to cry. Zabbie was quick to slip into knee-high boots and stepped through the glass-like material that allowed only a select few to pass. She was shoving her arms into a coat. Nothing else could penetrate the material protecting their home, including weather. Everything going into or out of the dwelling was programmed into a device by the window. Titus followed her.

  She scooped Dranos up into her arms. The boy was big even though he was half-human. His long white thick hair fluttered to past his shoulders. Dranos was just learning to change into battle mode. The single eyebrow most Zargonniis sported down the sides of their faces was in two separate lines across his high forehead and smaller, much the same as a human. He wore no shirt even in the snow, neither did Zell. Both boys were clothed in only flexible indestructible black hip-hugging pants and thick black boots a size too big to accommodate their ability to grow before a battle.

  Neither Titus nor Cy’s biological son had need of winter clothing. Zell and Dranos weren’t covered in a fine fur on their chests like their father, but both had the three parallel strips of white across their arms and were immune to weather. Before long, Dranos’s hair would grow longer to cover his bare back entirely. Drano’s eyes were red as were almost all Zargonnii children with the exception of Zell, whose eyes glowed green. The shade of green suited Titus’s dark-haired son.

  “What’s wrong, Dranos?” Titus heard Zabbie ask as he stepped outside.

  “Braylon wishes I was never born.”

  Zabbie looked ready to dispute the statement, but from the red hue that was creeping up Braylon’s throat both knew Dranos had read his brother’s mind. Braylon kicked at a pile of snow.

  “You’re always following me,” Braylon complained. “I can’t go anywhere without you trailing me. Or mother making me take you with me. I’m tired of the endless babysitting.”

  “I’m not a baby.” Dranos sniffed.

  “Then stop blubbering like one,” Braylon ordered. “You’re embarrassing the both of us. You ain’t three anymore.”

  Normally Zargonniis couldn’t cry, the heat from their eyes dried any moisture, but Dranos could. From large red eyes huge crocodile tears slipped. The boy wrapped his arms tight around Zabbie who Titus knew he loved almost as much as his mother, Tempest. The feeling was reciprocated. Zabbie couldn’t have loved the boy more if he were her own son.

  “Why can’t my own brother love me?” Dranos whimpered, his bottom lip trembled. Titus hid a small smile. Dranos had what Zabbie would call ‘drama llama’ qualities.

  “I do love you, you idiot. You just always make me pissed,” Braylon yelled.

  “Mommy doesn’t like you saying that word.”

  “Uuugghhh,” Braylon bellowed and stormed off, shield up and covering his face to mask his fury, though his body language spoke volumes. Every creature on the planet would be wise to give the emotional teen a wide berth. The teen was allowed anywhere he wanted because Braylon could fight like a warrior and had the protection of a two-thousand-year-old Tonan shield. A very demanding and controlling shield which had them both at odds many times.

  “I chased him away—again,” Dranos said on a soft sigh with a frown watching his brother race to high the fence with ease.

  Titus took Dranos into his arms. He was the child of his best friend and he loved the boy like his own. “Does your mother know where you are?”

  Drano sniffed and swiped at his eyes. “Yes. She said I could come over, as long as Zabbie doesn’t mind.”

  Zabbie never minded. She often helped Tempest with him. Dranos was capable of some strange powers. Small easy powers to date, nothing the southern Zargonnii leader couldn’t handle. In fact they all wondered if Dranos was tapped out or would come into more abilities as time went by.

  The girl child of the northern Zargonnii leader Citun, wandered into the backyard. For one so young she was in possession of composure, deep understanding of emotions and a loving caring quality. She could make a room stand still with a single smile. The trees were known to reach to caress her hair as she walked by. She was a stunning child with long flowing locks, and softer human facial features.

  Having and keeping their female offspring had been an interesting concept for Zargonnii males. Brave was welcomed as were all females into the females’ area unlike males. The girl adored visiting her aunt. Brave sported thick black boots, hip-hugging black pants, but also a tanned long sleeve shirt. As a female without fur she could only generate so much heat into her tiny body. Brave watched as Braylon stalked past her to leap over the fence. She stood silently for a moment then balled her fists, shook her head and continued on.

  “Boys.” Titus heard her grumble.

  Titus’s gaze went to his son. Zell’s green eyes flashed for a moment as they always did when seeing Brave. He had mate-claimed her the day she was born. Brave was three years younger than Zell and though she loved Zell she was only a child and by Zargonnii standards would be for quite some time.

  Brave was half-human and half Zargonnii. She favored her mother Storm, in looks. Her long hair reached her behind, but unlike Zargonnii females she was hairless. Though built larger than human females, she was by Zargonnii standards petite. Titus adored her, as did Zabbie.

  Dranos struggled down and raced to Brave. He was laughing now as he took her hand. “You don’t need to kick anyone’s butt for me,” the boy declared and Brave let out an exasperated sigh.

  “Stay out of my head. It’s not polite to look into someone’s mind. It’s like staring at me while I’m naked.”

  “Ewww,” Dranos said in little boy disgust that made Titus chuckle. “Is it really like that?”

  “Yes,” Zabbie said, her look thoughtful.

  “I suppose she has a point,” Titus agreed. “You wouldn’t want to be a peeping Dranos.”

  “Stay out of my mate’s head,” Zell thundered.

  Titus was shocked at Zell’s thundering tone. Dranos drew back. Zell was an imposing figure for a boy. He stood a head taller than most Zargonnii boys. He had grown taller than his mother by his tenth year. Soon he would match Titus in height. Titus knew his son would never harm Dranos, but Zell was touchy when it came to Brave.

  “Well, you didn’t need to do that,” Dranos said and began to cry again. He lifted his hands to cover his face.

&nb
sp; “What did you do?” Brave demanded to Zell, her arms crossed over her chest.

  “He made me read his thoughts,” Dranos sobbed dramatically.

  Titus went to pick the boy up again and gave a hard glance to Zell. “He’s five. Dranos, it’s okay to cry, no one thinks you’re a baby and you aren’t embarrassing yourself. Brave is only ten, Zell. You cannot claim her until she is of age, and agrees. Which won’t be for a number of years if not a few decades.”

  “I have agreed to be Zell’s mate, but I might change my mind if you pick on children,” Brave said. She oozed attitude and Titus wanted to chuckle as Zell went red. He never knew a female who had her fingers wrapped so tightly around a male without even trying.

  “I’m sorry, Dranos,” Zell said. “Please stop hiding behind your hands. I don’t mind that you’re here or when you hang with us. I think having a little brother would be cool. Someone just like you.” Dranos took his hands down and smiled adoringly at the teen, then looked over at Brave who was also smiling.

  “I think it’s time for hot chocolate.” Zabbie took Dranos from Titus and tucked Brave’s hand into hers. The three went inside, sliding through the glass material.

  Titus placed a hand on Zell’s shoulder. “Son you have many years before you can mate. You might want to Holiday with a female Zargonnii before you have a mate. Many Zargonnii females are hoping you will Holiday with their daughters. You have within you the power to give our females power. I know Brave is Zargonnii but she is half-human. Humans think differently than Zargonnii females. They mate differently. If you mate Brave it will be for life and she will expect you to remain faithful forever.”

  “I won’t cheat on my mate. Not after we’re mated or before.”

  Titus sighed, and he heard Ryker chuckle.

  “Uncle, you must know there is no one but Brave for Zell. Castians mate for life too. The concept isn’t too different.”