Shards of Moonlight || A Short-story Collection

The Shark's Tail - SciFi

The glass bead game jingled as a soft, fulminating wind started to whirl up the humid desert air. As a nearly imperceptible hum merged with the lone calls of coyotes in the distance, ocean blue-forest green lights flickered over the sapphire-colored sky and dust-coated native huts; they all knew they would turn up at some point. Only they could not have been more wrong. Coarse thumbs hooked in the loops of their jeans, ornated shot-guns haltered and eyes hidden underneath the shade of crooked cowboy hats - standing in front of the seemingly deserted salon. Already there.

The second One-Eye crossed the threshold, whispers filled the stifling air, heavy with the aroma of alcohols overlapping one another, dirty money and dirtier gambling.

"It's them."

"How does someone blind even manage to lead them if he cannot even see where he is going?"

"Have you heard the latest'? They robbed Kansa's Baroni famous 'Hotel Teneriffa', their ship must be full of gold by this point!"

The swing doors trembled again. "You bet it is," Snake's-tooth traced his lips provocatively slow with the tip of his cuttlefish-blue tongue, "I could take you." The youngster no older than twenty with a bandana nonchalantly bound around his throat grinned viciously at two potbellied elder men like a lion eying his prey, whose already gray hair seemed to whiten at the following implication. "And whoever says Big One cannot see right, I would be glad to prove wrong. Whoever said that do you dare to show your snout?", he dropped into a fighting stance, before striking his palms down on one table nearly making it double-over. "Snakie, will you fetch me a drink?", a what used to be higher-pitched, now rough-edged voice clattered through the air as a woman in a night-sky black tank top, military pants, and boots with eyes darker than any black that ever existed, casually leaned against the shopworn counter.

"Katrina," a sensual timbre wound around the poor ladies' souls in his way, making half-emptied shot glasses, reeking of Tequila, chirr. A figure in a loose, chestnut-brown hood with rattling cowboy boots had made his way towards the bar, staring at the bartender without ever blinking - eyes a mirror of thousands of shades of green and gray, before he pulled his hood back to reveal tapering ears. The bartender seemed to have been caught in a spell, juding from the way he stumbled away head over heels rushing out to grab ingredients and nearly tripped over his own two feet. "I don't like it when you manipulate people like that, Jason," Katrina pouted at tapering ears, "who can tell what you would do to someone in bed?" Snake's tooth's head flicked to the side while he raised an eyebrow: "So, you're sure he would be a good hook-up? What about that time, we-"

"Children, behave," a tender voice called out, contradicting the form of a giant that big his one eye filled the only dirty window looking inside, "we're not here for fun." Snake's - tooth pulled back his teeth to snarl in annoyance. "We never are."

Meanwhile, their dead-silent leader had made his way limping in confident strides across the room sizing him and his colorful bunch of companions up sauced-eyed towards a table set at the far end of the room.

"Kate," One-Eye courtly bowed his head towards a veiled being whose eyes shimmered in chocolate brown from the only slit in her burka. Kate gracefully reciprocated the greeting, as her eyes attentively followed her counterpart's every move. "Finally," the man sitting across from Kate with military short, wood-brown hair muttered impatience. In one quick, fluid move the silent leader dropped a leather bag as big as a balled fist on the empty table making coins clink. Greedy hands took hold of the bag in a split second. The same second it took One-Eye to take the woman by the hand and decidedly pull her along with him. The very same second the whole bar was on its feet and rounded the intruders. Katrina rolled her eyes, while Snake's tooth smacked his lips, hissing. An ambush.

As shots filled the air with different types of whizzes and fizzles, chaos erupted. The locals had thought cornering the enemy would be the best plan of action. Only to be proven wrong as swaths of destruction made smoking bodies crash to the floor, against the wall, and onto the bar. Fireworks, lasers, and time interrupters lit up the dim salon to blow its roof quite literally off, in flying colors at that. Five minutes later there were only three men standing, two women holding their heads high and a giant crouching.

"This isn't over, Collin," a cough came from below a balk broken in two as eyes filled with pure hatred locked onto One-Eye's. "Goodbye, let's never meet again, Henry," One-Eye stated coldly, his voice carrying far across the deserted landscape.

Leaving a whispered "you wish" and their past behind, the group mounted its spaceship. At the last step, One-Eye turned around, looking over the dead desert. "It's good to have you back," he sighed. Seconds before the ramp closed behind him, he turned towards his life-time companion only to be met with the ice-cold notch of a shotgun. A cool breathing-out made his blood freeze. After conquering the whole universe, the time of change had finally come - in the form One-Eye least expected it to be. It struck from the shark's tail.

"Let's see who will be famous now, dear."

*****
This book will be🤣 Jk. This story won the BeyondSol Contest "Heat of Danger" in August 2020