Chronicles of Kin Roland 1: Enemy of Man by Scott E Moon Read Free Book Online Page A

Orlan, attempting to access the armor’s control panel.
    He c ould see Orlan lived, but couldn’t power down the suit or determine whether the trooper would regain consciousness without medical attention. With seconds left before the suit broadcast a “trooper down” alert to the Command and Control center, Kin walked quickly away.
    Just act natural. What’s the worst that can happen?

CHAPTER FOUR
    DROON ate the body of the pilot man, though it was dead and tasted foul. No flowing blood. No screaming. No satisfaction.
    This wasn’t the first planet Droon had come to and survived. He sucked out the eyes and the soft parts. Then he bit into the flesh, removing it in strips, un til there was nothing but bone.
    His metabolism accelerated to accommodate the influx of nutrients and slowed when he carefully cleaned every piece of meat from the skeleton. The cartilage between the joints took a long time and was the portion of the meal when his kind typically became distracted by mating. Young females were sometimes excited when blood spurted across their faces. Droon never complained. Sometimes he ate and mated at the same time.
    The thought of a screaming victim and a moaning mate caused his heart to ache. He understood his quest was important, but he was far from the others. He couldn’t go to them on the other side of the planet. As one of the last seekers , he couldn’t turn from the Long Hunt.
    Squatting over the bones, he wailed his loneliness at the strange sky. The pilot man had feared Droon, but hadn’t enjoyed the sensation as much as Droon had. He studied the cleaned skull, remembering how angry the pilot man was when Droon ate his three dogs and his monkey. And the girl. Droon nearly had to kill the pilot man after the girl. The pilot man called him a demon and cursed him, but Droon couldn’t eat the man because Droon couldn’t pilot the ship.
    “Not a good pilot,” Droon said to the bones, because the pilot man had crashed and died.
    Droon crushed the skull between his palms and played with the pieces, bouncing them into his mouth. He sucked on the shards before crunching them. He started on the vertebrae. By the t ime he reached the feet, he was bored. Humans died too quickly. Creatures on his home world twitched until the last bite.
    The ship wobbled on its perch atop the tangle of trees, roots, and rocks that fell away from the mountain each ti me he shifted his weight. Humans with weapons were at the faraway water—more water than he had ever seen.
    They called it an ocean and it was different from rivers and streams, though just as wet. Thinking in human language was difficult. There were so many words.
    He forced the memory of the human who destroyed his home world into his vision. He whined and didn’t like the sound, but the face of the hard eyed man frightened Droon.
    Not good to be afraid. Not good to let the man steal blood knowledge and escape.
    Droon had been wrong. He had thought releasing Kin-rol-an-da would end the explosions from the sky, but Kin-rol-an-da had caused explosions from the ground.
    At the end of the Long Hunt, he would again be most honored amongst his kind. At the end of the Long Hunt, Droon would make sure Kin-rol-an-da caused no more explosions. Droon’s kindred would remember who was strongest.
    The water below the cliff looked deep, but not deep enough to kill him. He thought he could touch the bottom. He extended several vertebrae of his neck, looked around, then settled his head back on his shoulders.
    Strange sounds caught his attention, nothing dangerous, but exotic.
    New planet, new prey.
    He turned his proud spotted face right and left, flashing his strong mandibles and clicking his throat to be certain he could swallow live prey. He thrashed his tail, though there wasn’t a mate to impress.
    Droon struggled to reach the minds of his kindred. Silence answered the call. He wrestled with the human concept of time. Their confusing language contained many words for