This couldn’t be real. It had to be a dream.

But of course, it wasn’t. The pain in my chest and throat. The weight of Shivaya’s body on top of me. The sticky sensation of her blood dripping on my cheek. And the warm drool of the alien monster on my forehead. All of it was far too tangible to be a figment of my imagination.

Also, I didn’t believe I had that much imagination to begin with.

I blinked slowly. Once. Twice. But no. The unicorn was still there. Although, upon second glance, this equine failed to match the ethereal depiction of that mythical beast. Fairy tales spoke of an animal white and fair, pure of heart, and with a propensity for virgins.

The creature who had just trampled the Vraex’ein into a gory paste was a hellish orange-red. Reptilian scales coated its body instead of fur. A beak tipped its snout. Its maw cut far deeper into its cheeks than it should, and short but sharp fangs lined the inside—more crocodile than horse. Finally, it had a dragon’s tail covered in wicked bone spikes.

I could only see this beast associated with anything virginal if the virgin was used as a ritual sacrifice to Belzebuth.

The demon (dragon?) unicorn stood heaving over its victim. The wreckage of the Vraex’ein’s saucer was still burning in the distance, casting the scene in a dim fiery glow.

I hugged Shivaya closer and eyed the dark woods for an escape route. I needed to get away—but I couldn’t leave Onyx and Hunter behind. …Could I? Were they even alive? Could I afford to worry about other people? In the first place, was I even strong enough to carry Shivaya alone to safety? I probably should run and call for help. There was no phone reception this deep into the forest, but Hunter had a satphone in his truck– Hunter.

I suddenly realized something.

The patch where my friend had fallen was empty.

How? I’d clearly seen him get eviscerated and–

“Neigh?”

Slowly, mechanically, my head pivoted, and I came face-to-beak with the gargantuan draconic horned horse. I swallowed. It looked really big from up close, and its teeth really sharp.

Grandmother dear, what big teeth you have. As I shivered, my gaze trailed up the unicorn’s nose, up to a pair of icy blue eyes, staring back with… concern? Err… Grandmother. What big and familiarly-colored eyes you have.

Now that it crossed my mind, the bright fiery orange-red shade of the beast was also familiar.

“Hu… Hunter?”

The scaled equine whined softly and lowered his head. Amazed, I reached out and pressed my palm against his warm nose, right above his beak. Incredulous laughter escaped me. “Woah. Hunter, you’re a… a…” I paused. “What are you? You’re–” Movement behind him caught my eyes. “Holy–! Watch out!”

A churning mass of black goo, torn muscles, and broken bones lurched at the unicorn. As if in slow motion, I saw as much as heard the bones popping back together and flesh mending. Black blood flew in reverse, back into closing wounds. The bottom half of a face grew back, fangs already parting in a hungry snarl.

WHOOOOM!!

A beam of blinding red light shot across the fire-lit darkness, and the monster was headless once more. The gross mass slumped on the ground. A perfect round hole was also seared through the tree behind it—and a few more beyond that.

Incredibly, the mutilated Vraex’ein wasn’t done yet. Her broken body continued to convulse. Already, a new spine was emerging out of her stump of a neck—slowly but noticeably.

“It won’t keep it down for long. We must hurry.”

My head jerked around. “Onyx!” Relief flooded me as I spotted my friend limping towards us.

She looked in a bad state. Her right leg was stiff, and two fist-shaped dents bent her abdomen and torso unnaturally inwards. In addition, her neck was crooked, and sparks periodically burst out of what should have been her jugular.

Her left arm was missing past the elbow, but it didn’t look broken or shattered. The cut was clean, and the inside of her arm was a hollow tube, glowing with a fading heat.

Blank eyes found mine. “Your Highness, are you unharmed?” Onyx droned tonelessly—even more so than usual.

“I’ll live… Shaya’s the one I’m worried about.” I frowned. “What about you?” I asked warily.

Her neck sparked. “I am within operational parameters, Your Highness. We need to evacuate the premises.” She turned to Hunter. “Iskorn, you will provide transportation or be terminated.”

Hunter neighed angrily, kicking the ground.

“He’s right, Onyx. No need to be rude. He just saved our lives!”

Even then, she had a point. We needed to get away before that undying monster got up. So I stood, carrying Shivaya. My sister felt disturbingly light in my arms.

Oh, and I could move again…

Also, my chest didn’t hurt anymore.

Add it to the list of “things to freak out about later.”

“Apologies, Your Highness.” Onyx snapped to attention at my retort—insofar as her broken body could move. “The self-defense blaster drained most of Unit 0NY-X’s battery. Unit ONY-X is functioning on a minimum power supply. Social protocols are not engaged.”

“Right…”

What else could I say? One of my friends was a were-dragon-unicorn, and the other was a battle bot with a low battery.

But questions would have to wait.

Hunter walked up to me, shaking his head and huffing. He nodded to Shivaya then to his back. I stared blankly for a second before getting it. “Oh! O-Of course. Err… This won’t... violate some sacred law of your people or anything to have someone riding your back, will it?”

Seeing a huge draconic horse roll his eyes derisively was weird.

“O-Okay, alright.” I nodded. “Onyx? Give me a hand, please? …no pun intended, I swear.” She opened her mouth, but I cut her off. “And none of that nonsense about leaving anyone behind!”

“Acknowledged, Your Highness. But your safety will still be prioritized. That directive cannot be overridden.”

Ugh. I really didn’t like this low-battery Onyx.

With Onyx’s jerky, one-handed and stumpy help, we managed to shift Shivaya’s unconscious body onto Hunter’s tall and broad back without dropping her. Even then, this was probably too much movement already. I could only hope either of my friends had some miracle alien tech to patch my sister up.

Focusing on getting away from the alien zombie cannibal rapist was all I could do to keep myself from freaking out.

All the while we were maneuvering Shivaya’s wounded body, I remained very aware of the faint squelching noises accompanying the monster’s regeneration.

Onyx gave me a leg up onto Hunter’s back, behind my sister, then she pulled herself between us to keep Shivaya secure. I couldn’t help but worry. I had never ridden a horse, and unfortunately, Hunter’s were-unicorn powers did not manifest with a built-in saddle.

“Hold onto me, Your Highness,” Onyx interjected as if reading my thoughts.

“O-Okay.” Despite the situation, my cheeks flushed as I wrapped my arms around her stomach. I hesitated to hold her too close, but she overruled my shyness by grabbing my arms and pulling our bodies together.

“Like this, Your Highness.”

“Th-Thanks…”

This was very different from the times she hugged me while I cried. For one, I was the one hugging her. And I had never realized quite how hard her body was. She really is a robot. I was definitely going to freak about that later. Get in line.

And because my love for the universe was apparently unrequited, I received yet another shock to the system when two vast bat wings unfurled out of Hunter’s sides. Yeah, that might as well happen... I tried to roll with it—but rolling with stuff simply wasn’t me.

Also, it suddenly dawned on me what wings implied.

Oh, God. My eyes widened. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God! Nonononono!

Was it weird that flying scared me more than staying on the ground with an immortal, murderous carnivore?

Yes. Yes, it was.

But if phobias were rational, they wouldn’t be phobias, now would they?

And being sat atop an overloaded dragon alicorn instead of inside a giant metal deathtrap surprisingly did nothing to alleviate my fear of flying! Yeah~ Sarcasm.

Hunter’s wings flapped open with the noise of a windswept flag.

“Eeep!!” I squeaked and buried my face into Onyx’s stiff back, shutting my eyes tight. I blocked out the world around me, practicing the meditative breathing technique I’d picked up on YouTube. One… Two… One… Two…. It’s fine. Nothing can hurt you.

Except that was a blatant untruth.

I could very well fall to my death. Then, if I survived the drop, I’d get either eaten or kidnapped—possibly kidnapped then eaten, unless the Vraex’ein kidnaped my corpse. Would that work? And if I avoided all of that, I would still end up in a government facility somewhere, being dissected by masked scientists. Because, apparently, I was some sort of alien royalty! That, or my robot best friend was delusional. And thoughts of robots being susceptible to mental illnesses weren’t helping me keep my cool!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

So yes, I had plenty of reasons to panic! Thank you very much!

And why was it that in fiction, scientists are always called “scientists”—not botanists or cosmologists. Now, I wonder what a mad sclerochronologist would be like. They’d probably try to take over the world with an army of resurrected prehistoric mollusks. As if I didn’t have enough problems already! I didn’t want to be eaten by a swarm of zombie clams!

Why did I get out of bed this morning?!

“Neeeeigh!” A happy neigh brought me out of my downwards mental spiral. I risked opening an eye—and then opened both wide.

We were flying.

Hunter glided through the air.

Around us, nothing but the clear night sky. The moon, looking so big tonight. The ground, so far beneath us.

I should have been terrified. But instead, I felt a sudden urge to laugh. Something deep inside me sang, relishing the sensation—a longing not unlike my ache to get closer to the stars. I blinked away tears. Probably the wind in my eyes.

I looked back to see how far we’d flown and noticed tiny lights moving through the woods. My mood abruptly plummeted. Headlights. Cars were traveling uphill, possibly to investigate the crash site. “Shouldn’t we warn them?” I thought out loud.

I wasn’t prepared for Onyx’s head to spin an owlish one-eighty to glare at me.

“GAH! Jeesh!”

“No.” Her tone was flat and uncompromising. “We have no means at our disposal to put down or securely restrain a Vraex’ein. Going back would expose you to unacceptable danger.”

“But–”

“We hurt her. Vraex’eins are vindictive and vengeful by nature. Also, you are her target. The probability is very high that she will not bother with random civilians and focus on hunting us down instead. By turning around, we would only increase the probability of it encountering others.”

“I guess…” How much of her words were true, I wondered. How far was she willing to go to guarantee my safety? But then again, if she could get rid of the murderous alien, she probably would have.

Onyx must have taken my lukewarm reply for an agreement because she turned back around. It took a couple of tries. Her neck seemed stuck. I winced at the sounds of grinding metal and overtaxed servos, until her head finally snapped forwards in a burst of sparks.

She addressed Hunter flatly. “Iskorn, would Her Highness be welcome onto your herd’s holdings? Answer.”

Hunter seemed to hesitate briefly before neighing affirmatively. I wasn’t sure how I knew it was affirmative, but it was. Then, with a flap of his wings, we picked up speed, heading East.

“Shouldn’t we bring Shivaya to a hospital?” I asked. Away from immediate danger, my brain was rapidly refocusing on worrying for my sister.

“The demesne of an Iskorn herd will undoubtedly have medical facilities, likely more advanced than any native hospital could provide,” Onyx monotoned.

Hunter neighed his agreement again, along with a comforting snort, as if to say, “Don’t worry, ma dude. I got your back.”

And wasn’t that just great? A couple of people call me a princess, and I start thinking I can talk to animals. If I wasn’t careful, I’d start singing about wanting more out of this life and end up locked in a tower guarded by a bored dragon.

Except I was the one who’d been breathing fire.

I was confused.

. . . . .