Children of a Lesser God

Laz was taken back. He knew something was there, but he didn't expect to see someone watching him.

Or something to be exact.

He didn't know of any animals whose eyes would reflect this color of green. Yellow or red sure, but not this. He was shocked. For it to be watching him and waiting, it had to be intelligent. But he couldn't tell what it was in the low light.

Laz had a rather strange feeling at this point. It crawled up his spine and was nagging at his brain. It wanted him to greet it. But why would he greet an animal? It couldn't possibly understand him. He also couldn't understand it. Forget about a response back. Although Laz didn't really care about how others saw him, he didn't want to make a fool out of himself either. Fortunately, there was no one else around.

After pondering his own feelings for a moment, Laz decided to be irrational.

"Greetings traveler, what brought you out on this chilly night?" he asked, somewhat amused at his own wording. He felt rather sarcastic, but at the same time, somewhat intrigued. He liked to live in his own head most of the time, thinking up scenarios that would never happen and then figuring out what he would do in that situation. It kept his mind off things he didn't want to think about, which was almost everything.

Not expecting a word back from this strange animal, Laz just squatted there around 30 feet away from the bush with a friendly smile on his face. Might as well play out this delusion to the end, right?

"Ohh, so this monkey can speak, you even know that I am here, hmm? Interesting.." came the amazingly melodious reply back. The voice was like a gentle caress mixed with a seductive purr. It would enter your soul and restrict your spirit, causing you you fall into an almost mindless trance. That was probably the only reason Laz didn't fall on his butt or run away as fast as his legs would take him. He was quite literally frozen in place.

The eyes that had just been hovering there started to rise up, tripling in height and holding steady. The owner of the voice moved forward and started taking gentle steps towards Laz as he remained in position with the stupid smile still stuck on his face. He could have been a stone for all that it mattered.

"You seem to be somewhat more interesting than any of the others I have seen so far, I wonder why?" The voice asked no one in particular, as the owner stepped into the dim light away from the tree.

She had sparkling light blue hair and incredible pale white skin. The form-fitted dress almost seemed to be made of a flexible dark red wood that seemed to have the elasticity of leather. Her chest was amazingly bountiful yet the tight dress kept it from swaying. If they were to be set free, they could possible obtain a status of holy relics. As she took a step closer, Laz was able to make out more of her features including fairly pointed ears, high-cheek bones and tender, plump, blood red lips. Her eyes were reminiscent of a cats, with somewhat larger irises that shown a deep green. Her face was perfection that was unseen in this world. It was exotically beautiful and instinctively dangerous. Laz could hardly move, barely breathe and yet couldn't help but say, "Goddess."

Nothing else would come to his lips. He could barely think and although the thought beautiful came to his mind, to say it would be to compare her to others of this planet. How could that be possible?

"Goddess? Hmm... you see me as something beautiful? I'm surprised little monkey. You should be caught up in an illusion that you are in front of the thing that scares you most, yet you seem to see my true form. How very interesting." Taking another step closer, she was standing in front of Laz. He was once again dumb-founded. How? How is that possible? She took only three steps and yet still moved over 30 feet. That was impossible.

Reaching her hand down, she placed it under Laz's chin and slowly raised up his entire body until he was once again in a standing position.

"Hmm, I wonder, what is it?" She thought to herself and she looked Laz over from top to bottom. She was stumped. Should could not figure out how he was able to feel her presence and not see the image she was projection. Humans, like all creatures, have a natural fear they feel towards dangerous predators and she was the most dangerous thing on the planet. He should have been unable to see her and be sent running from whatever nightmare he perceived her to be, but that didn't happen.

Lifting his chin once again with her soft and dainty hand, she made his face rise up until she saw his eyes. The clear, deep blue of his eyes was reflected right back at her without a hint of fear in them.

"OH, how pretty. I want them. I want to take them home with me. But, DAMN IT." She said while stomping her shoe less foot. The rumbling from the force of the hit was enough to make the ground cave in by almost half a meter.

"Grr, oh well. It's probably better this way. No matter how we preserve them, they will eventually fade. Maybe I can get that crazy guy to come up with something more permanent?" She said out loud, trying to convince herself.

At this point, Laz was beyond scared. He had no idea what she was talking about, but he got the feeling she wanted to take his eyes with her? How would that be possible? He still needed them.

"Well my little monkey, this ends our fate for today, but since you have brought some interest to this princess, allow me to grant you a bit of something. It should also help me to find you later when I have a chance to dig out those beautiful gems of eyes," the princess said to him as she set her left hand gently on the the right side of his chest. Her eyes blazed as the green light became piercingly bright.

Laz was suddenly gripped with an excruciating pain on his chest where her hand was. He was drowning in this wave of fiery hot torment as an ear piercing scream rose to his lips..

Sensing what was going to happen, the princess lifted up her other gentle and flawless hand. Like a streak of lightning, it quickly clamped around Laz's neck, lifting him off the ground and choking him at the same time.

Bringing him closer to her, the princess whispered into his ear "Shh, shh ,shh. No yelling. That might kill the mood. Remember something, little monkey, we are the Aruna and you have been claimed by me. Don't let me down."

Being unable to breathe caused Laz to be unable to shout. As the pain intensified, He felt his vision going black before passing out altogether. The last image to pass his clouded eyes was of the celestial beauty choking him with one hand while burning him with the other, smiling the whole time.