Creations: The Calling Series (Book 3)

By Deana Zhollis

To Aleisis and her sisters, the Pedagogue is their God, their father, their tormentor, and their lover. But who is their mother? Well, let’s just say she is the feces, the excrement, of the Renavid district.

Pieced together from DNA woven from several dozen species, Vegan, Metz, Phoye and Aleisis are the end products of the Pedagogue’s experiments. Hidden from society, their entire world is the sewers’ maze. "You are safe here," the Pedagogue tells them, warning them of the dangers Above. Yet in his hands, they suffer as they are injected with substances while the Pedagogue impassively watches them react to the agents.

Until they can take it no more.

Lying in a pool of blood, the Pedagogue needs help and the four sisters will only find it by going to the place they have only read about. Above.

Is the world really dangerous for them, or are they dangerous to the world?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deana Zhollis
• Release date: Aug 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9780983549901

Deana Zhollis

Since the day she set her eyes on the movie Gargoyles, made in 1972 (the year her birth), Deana Zhollis's (Dee-Anna Zol-liss) mind has been drifting with romance, power, love and/with unearthly Beings. Mixing up her favorite things: Magic, Spirituality, the future mind, Aliens, Technology, Fairy Tales, Kisses and Fangs, she followed her path of story telling from childhood and on to her rite of passage to Science Fiction & Fantasy (even before she knew what it stood for!). Engulfed in the genre, she dreamed over and over the sizzling stories from forbidden darkness to "Happily Ever Afer". Living in Houston, Texas, with her husband, daughter and cat Garfield, she continues her journey to imagine and write her fanciful tales.

Book preview

CREATIONS

The Calling Series (Book 3)

By Deana Zhollis

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

ISBN 13: 978-0-9835499-0-1

Creations - The Calling Series - Book 3

Copyright 2012 by Deana Zhollis

All rights reserved.

Published by Night Before Day

http://www.zhollis com

Cover Design by Kelly Carter

http://www.madspiderstudio.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

To my family and friends who have supported me. And especially, in loving memory, to my father--my number one fan.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - Pedagogue

Chapter 2 - Caught

Chapter 3 - Uncontrolled Enforcers

Chapter 4 -Tokan

Chapter 5 - Aide

Chapter 6 - Cures

Chapter 7 - Passions

Chapter 8 - Order

Chapter 9 - Escape

Chapter 10 - Clouds

Chapter 11 -Sisters

Chapter 12 - The Search

Chapter 13 - History

Chapter 14 - Renavid

Chapter 15 - Persuasion Cover

Chapter 16 - Mates

Chapter 17 - Something Bad

Chapter 18 -Tokie's Cate

Chapter 19 - Departures

Epilogue

Map

The Four Quadrants (Star Map)

Chapter 1 - Pedagogue

This way, Vegan ordered, studying the blinking lights on the flexible map. The lit pointers were quite distinguishable in the dark tunnels.

Aleisis waved her light stick in the air and saw that the metal passageways branched into three different directions. How many more turns? she asked her sister.

Two more, Vegan responded promptly, as she took the lead. We’re almost there.

Aleisis glanced at her other two sisters, who followed close behind. The youngest, Phoye, turned off her light stick and Metz did the same. The four sisters could naturally see better in the darkness, but it was a small convenience when traveling in unknown parts of the sewer tunnels. They followed the twists and turns, barely noticing the current of fetid water that ran along them. When the walkway ended, they descended into the knee-high water to continue.

Here they are, Vegan folded the map. Aleisis, get the stool, she said, handing her the scanner the Pedagogue had programmed to sound when waved over specific DNA. Phoye, find this, she said, handing her sister a techchart that displayed the hologram image of a device that the Pedagogue insisted had been thrown away just the other day. Metz, come with me to find the other stools. We'll meet back at the fork.

Vegan always led the sisters in whatever they did, and they always contentedly followed. As the eldest, she was the wisest and the most assertive of the four. She had led them in their studies, brainstormed their final decisions, and guided them through most things that affected their uncomplicated lives.

Vegan was the Pedagogue’s favorite, as she was the first-born and, as the Pedagogue always said, the most beautiful. Aleisis thought Vegan's beauty lay in the soft crystals that formed and glittered on her head like a jeweled crown, but the Pedagogue marveled at the substance that formed on the spikes that grew from her forearms. He would return from Above after nights of being away and then delicately milk the white substance, admiring its preciousness. He would place the poison into special containers that he would then take with him when he left, but not before attending to their desirous needs. He would harvest Vegan first, ravenously grabbing her and throwing her on the table where the four sisters had been created. He would rip at her clothes as she gleefully giggled, hungry as well for his hardened flesh. She always enjoyed him. Next he would take Metz, and then he would take Aleisis. Aleisis only tolerated the Pedagogue’s endless pounding. Her needs were not as strong as her sisters’, and she always mentally prepared herself for the table. Phoye was never taken.

Aleisis watched her sisters go their separate ways, venturing further into the sump to undergo the tedious and careful work in the stench-filled, toxic air, to which they were all immune. She could tolerate the fumes from most tunnels, and others she barely noticed at all, but in this passageway, she began to detect the stench. It was prevalent in this area, and she wished she had been assigned to work with Phoye. With Phoye along, the air would be purified, and she wouldn't have to biologically change herself, which took a lot of concentration. She sighed. There was no use complaining now. She just tried to adjust to the air more quickly as she went about her chores.

These were almost weekly excursions for the sisters. There were miles and miles of tunnels to rummage through, filled with rubbish and other things that were discarded or no longer needed by the Beings Above, but which the Pedagogue found invaluable. In turn, the sisters also found interesting things like small trinkets, which they hid away in a crack on the floor in their large room to entertain them while the Pedagogue was away. Phoye hoped she would find something new on this venture.

Aleisis waved the scanner around as she sloshed through the foul water. The scanner blinked quickly when she came close to stool that fit its programmed information, but when she took samples and analyzed it, it was not the correct amount of what was needed. She continued on and decided that she was thankful that this might take longer than she had expected, for the Pedagogue would surely have her on the table promptly when they returned. Vegan and Metz had already been taken yesterday, and the Pedagogue always savored Aleisis for last. Unfortunately, Aleisis found what was needed within the next two hours, and Vegan, followed by Metz, came looking for her when she didn’t return at the appointed time.

Aleisis, aren’t you finished yet? Vegan said, spurting up waste, not caring that it flew into Metz’s feathered head. Metz slowed her pace behind Vegan.

I just found it, Aleisis lied, holding up the container. She was just far enough away so that Vegan couldn’t detect her falsehood.

Well, come along then. Metz is hungry.

Hungry for sex, or hungry for food? Aleisis asked seriously. They had played with her sensitive spots for hours the previous night after the Pedagogue had tired of her. Aleisis didn’t want to have to attend to her sister again after spending so much time in the sewers.

Food, Metz said, tilting her head as she always did whenever she was emphatic about something.

Aleisis sensed she was lying. Though Aleisis was too far from her sisters for them to detect her untruths, she could always sense their feelings, no matter the distance. She could tell that Metz was still hungry for the Pedagogue’s flesh. Her hunger was rarely satisfied, and Aleisis pitied her. Metz was never at ease.

Aleisis carefully sloshed her way over to Metz and placed her hand on her shoulder. Looking into her eyes, she said sincerely, After we eat, okay?

Metz sighed in relief, sensing that her sister knew her truth. Okay.

* * *

The Pedagogue was anxious when they finally returned. He had already turned on the multiple computers in the lab, and translucent tubes pushed dark liquids from one machine to the next. To the side were the four, upright cylinders with transparent doors that curved when slid open. The cylindrical containers had been their incubation chambers, but now they used them for sleeping and resting. In another corner was where Aleisis and her sisters convened in plush seating as they studied, ate and watched the univice and holoscreen of the lives of those who lived Above.

Grabbing the items they had retrieved, the Pedagogue went immediately to work, mumbling to himself while they all went to the sonic cleaner and stood in line behind Vegan, who was the first in and always took the longest. Second-created Aleisis went next. As she was cleaned, she watched the Pedagogue busily mixing and frantically making mistakes. Cursing, he kept having to begin again. There was something wrong with him.

He caught Aleisis staring at him and immediately waved her over to the table. Aleisis cringed when his back was turned and then climbed out of the cleaner.

Metz looked at her sister enviously, and their eyes met.

I’ll make it quick and you can have him next, Aleisis thought to her. Though Metz and her other sisters couldn’t hear actual words, somehow they always knew what the other was thinking.

Metz smiled at her, and Aleisis climbed onto the table and watched the Pedagogue climb on top of her.

Aleisis, Aleisis, Aleisis, he said her name over and over as his hand ran over her soft bluish-green skin and traced the scales that encircled her head, holding back her thick, teal hair. Touching her scales gave Aleisis gentle chills, something she never admitted to the Pedagogue or her sisters. It was soothing. But the Pedagogue never lingered on them for long. With every push, he moaned out her name.

Her precious Aleisis, ahh, ohh. Precious, precious, Aleisis, Aleisis, Aleisis.

Aleisis was never quite sure if the Pedagogue's reference to her meant herself or someone else. She tolerated the hour of pounding as her sisters finished their sonic cleaning and attended to their studies. She didn’t know why the Pedagogue insisted on joining with her. She had so little of the Wendh DNA, she didn’t need it. All full- or part-Wendhs’ DNA made intercourse a need like food and water.

Fortunately for Phoye, she had no Wendh genetics, and he never touched her. Phoye was his special masterpiece, he would say, and he treated her more like a daughter than a possession. Aleisis always thought that because Phoye couldn’t speak, this made the Pedagogue more attentive to her in a fatherly way. When he touched her, he stroked her long, green hair, smiled into her large feline eyes, and encouraged her with her lessons, basically comforting her like an infant. Though all four sisters called him Creator as well as Pedagogue, Phoye received his parental feelings.

The Pedagogue soon finished with Aleisis and returned to his work. Because the Pedagogue was Lingar, he had a remaining six to eight spurts of sexual arousal still left in him, but that could never completely satisfy Metz, leaving it up to the other sisters to attend to her sensitive spots until she fell asleep.

Metz eyed the Pedagogue anxiously, waiting for his appetite to rise once more. The Pedagogue’s third creation, Metz would eagerly hop right up onto the table, her white, feathered head never dangling off the edge. Her tiny frame fit perfectly on the small table, as she was so short, even shorter than the Pedagogue. Aleisis and her other two sisters towered over him.

The sisters liked identifying their Maker with the word Pedagogue rather than Creator. After all, he had taught them everything they knew, and he always answered their many questions regarding what they viewed on the holoscreens and univice. He had short, stocky legs, rolls of black hair, and small, gray stumps protruded like round scales all over his body. The larger mounds were mostly on his head and outlined his slit mouth. He walked as if he were wearing weighted boots, stomping with each step, and bouncing sharply back up. Today, he was stomping more than usual.

Without warning, the Pedagogue grabbed a needle and injected Aleisis with something he had created Above. Injection of foreign substances was a common way of life for the four sisters, but he experimented less with Aleisis and Phoye because of their limited amount of Wendh DNA. Pedagogue mostly injected Vegan and Metz, but only with substances he had mixed with the stool samples they had acquired from the sewers--never with something from Above.

The Pedagogue vacuously watched Aleisis’s reaction to the agent. The experiments were always painful. The injections always chilled, burned or blistered the four sisters' bodies, and sometimes they broke out in rashes. Most of the time they could expel the substance or reject it, leaving the Pedagogue in a fit of rage. He would then quiet himself, saying that he made them too perfect, and try days later with something else.

The moment the substance entered Aleisis’s bloodstream, she immediately felt chilled and went into a seizure, which sometimes happened, but this one lasted too long. She fell into unconsciousness and when she awoke, expecting that the Pedagogue had injected her with an anti-agent, which he always had ready just in case, the chills were still there. This lasted for hours, much longer than expected, and the Creator was too busy doing something else to notice.

Pedagogue, Metz pleaded, please inject Aleisis with the antidote.

Be gone, the Pedagogue swatted her away. I know what I’m doing.

Metz gave Phoye a look, and Phoye went over to him to appeal to his sympathy. Her large, round, feline eyes usually worked, but something distracted him that even she couldn’t penetrate.

Pedagogue, Vegan demanded, she’s dying!

She isn’t dying, he spat. Leave me alone. I have to think.

Aleisis's sisters nervously stood aside, but couldn’t wait much longer. Vegan, who always spoke up for them, tried again. Pedagogue--

Shut-up! Pedagogue whirled around. Don’t you understand that I’m trying to think, you ungrateful brats! I have a wife now. How am I supposed to explain this to her? She would never understand what I’m trying to accomplish here! What else am I supposed to do with you!

Pedagogue sometimes spoke in tangents, metaphors and riddles, often not making sense, but they clearly understood this. He had begun a new life Above, and they were now his little dirty secrets that he had to get rid of. But were they not precious to him? He had told them time and again how magnificent they were--his life’s work.

Vegan, Metz, Phoye and Aleisis, Aleisis, Aleisis, he would intone, always repeating Aleisis’s name more than once. My greatest achievements! My fantastic achievements! The Above would never understand, he would always warn them. They would destroy my life’s work. They would destroy you.

Pedagogue had always shielded them from those Above, keeping them safe in the tunneled rooms and the maze of combined sewers that comprised their entire world. Yet now he was considering destroying them?

Pedagogue? Metz fearfully questioned. What are you saying?

He did not need to answer as all four looked into his eyes. Was this new female more important to him now?

Pedagogue? Vegan’s voice cracked.

Before any one of them could think of a way to bring him out of this dangerous mood, Phoye broke a large glass container over his head, sending the Pedagogue crashing to the floor. Blood soon poured out like molten lava as they all stared in shock at his body.

Vegan’s movement broke their frozen mood, grabbing the antidote where the Pedagogue had stood and injecting it into Aleisis. Her recovery was immediate, and she sat up from the table.

We need to find help, Vegan quickly said, as Aleisis continued to stare down at the Pedagogue, unable to think. We need to find help, she repeated, grabbing Aleisis’s forearm and forcing her to look at her. His skull has shattered, and we do not have the appliances here to fix him. They never needed any operating supplies, and the equipment the Pedagogue had used when he first created them, he said, had long been destroyed.

Aleisis nodded slowly, knowing what this would mean. They had a choice: either he would die, or they would die. The Pedagogue was valuable to them. He was their Pedagogue, their Lover and their Creator. How could they allow him to die this way? Looking into each other’s eyes, they made their decision. Let the Above world destroy his creations, but they would help him heal!

Vegan led the way through the sewers, with Aleisis following close behind and Phoye and Metz taking up the end. Vegan knew what to do; she always did, and that’s why they followed her and listened to her orders. She led them now, heading for first exit they found. They hesitated a little; this was the one place where they had never been allowed entrance—-they would sometimes sit across it and wonder if they should climb up to the door and open it to just take a peek." This time, however, there would be no daring games—-they had to go through.

They took the shafts and ladders, going higher and higher until they came to the tunnel that led to their destination. Vegan placed her hand on the door, yanking it open. The rush of air escaped into the tunnel, chilling their bodies. Their first taste of wind. The air seemed to purify the stench of the sewer, and breathing it in was surprisingly easy on their lungs. They stood there, adjusting to breathing light air.

As they overcame the experience, Vegan took the first step out. She vanished from her sisters’ sight, and Aleisis looked back at the other two. Metz’s white-feathered hair had turned red, expressing her fear and excitement, while Phoye’s large eyes simply stared ahead quietly. Aleisis nodded to Metz, who took Phoye by the hand, and they stepped through.

Vegan was waiting on the other side, her head turned towards the end of the alley, where bright lights flashed just ahead. A two-seat galer zipped by above them, making them gape at the small floater. Aleisis grabbed Phoye’s other hand, and Vegan grabbed hers.

They had learned through holoscreens and other vids what the world was like Above. The Pedagogue taught them history, biology, languages, science and sociology every day when he was with them, and he left studies for them when he was away. He said he wanted educated Creations, not dumb animals. So, they knew the items of the world that they saw; they had just never experienced them.

Bravely, Vegan continued to lead, heading them out of the alley and running into the first sentient Being that they had ever physically seen. She was female like them, with breasts, hips, full lips, and beautiful curls of hair.

I don’t do females, the female spoke in a common galactic tongue and walked away from them.

Vegan gave them a look, and they all realized this Being was one of those who sold their bodies, performing sexual acts for profit. These Beings were everywhere on the streets, and suddenly the sisters were frightened--there were so many of them, and floaters, and lights. The sounds were loud, and there was much cacophony; they couldn’t distinguish one thing from another.

They all ran back into the alley. Catching their breath, they grasped each other’s hands and collected themselves.

It’s okay, Vegan assured them. They don’t know what we are. We only need to find help for the Pedagogue.

Vegan helped them ease their primary fear that the Above Beings would find out their secret, and replaced it with determination.

Let us try again, she encouraged, giving Aleisis’s hand a squeeze, which Aleisis repeated to Phoye, who repeated it to Metz.

They made their way back to the edge of the street. Beings brushed by them, ships