Chapter Six: Aden - Lotor and Allura: Learning Curve
Allura and Lotor had been in his mother's old palace for a couple of weeks. In that time, they learned many new things about each other. Instead of seeing each other as enemies, they were beginning to see each other as people with different sides of their personalities.
Lotor discovered that when he was considerate of Allura, she was nicer and more receptive of him in return.
Allura discovered that Lotor could actually be nice and considerate-not just to her, but to the servants in this palace, who were his mother's old servants. She thought everyone to him had been a slave.
Lotor explained that although his father had married his mother to acquire Aden, it was not really his but Lotor's, since he was the only living child of Shahiyra, the princess.
When his mother died, his father left Aden for good, leaving the palace and the servants behind - and the government intact to run itself. The planet was too far out for Zarkon to bother with-he had bigger fish to fry.
The servants, out of loyalty to the Princess and her children, took care of the palace, for Shahiyra had a fund set aside for this purpose in the event of her death.
His little sister, Zimmie grew up here with their nursemaid, B'iana until Zarkon sold her in marriage to a Drule lord. Until the time of Zimmie's marriage at fifteen, Lotor had visited- (sneaked off, actually) to visit Zimmie and his mother's world. It was here he was a different man-not always having to prove himself to anyone. He was relaxed and opened up more, telling her of his life here before the Academy. He never wanted to talk much of the Academy, she noticed.
He told her of his family, of his great-grandmother, K'ttryn Ale'der,or Kathryn Alexander, a Terran who had been abducted by his great-grandfather, Z'aale D'zon Lessat around a hundred years ago from this very area. Allura was fascinated to know that there had been Drule raids here then after the A'rreiut'e- or Plague decimated the Drule female population. Lotor had explained that Terran chemical technology had done this-the Terrans were being slaughted by the Drules who didn't like them infringing on their territories, so in retailation the Terrans released a chemical agent which was supposed to kill or disable the Drule warriors. Due to their body chemistry, only the females were affected-killing them or rendering them infertile. The A'rreiut'e also spread airborne to other planets as well. In order to save their race and revenge themselves on the Terrans at the same time, the Drules started raiding the Terran colonies for their women-hence the origin of The Claiming or M'aarisyuat. The more brave and beautiful the woman- the more desired as a mate she would be.
At first, many Terran women would fight with their abductors, but this gave them the attention they didn't want, so they began to hide, Eventually the Drules found them. Many of the women who hid were humilated by being claimed out in the open and then tied by the marriage rope to the ves'yaat (horse-like creature) or slung over it like a side of beef and taken back to Drule cities in shame. The brave ones fared better. They usually rode with their captor, covered decently.
The brave ones usually went to the leader of the raid. Lotor proudly said K'ttryn had been one of the brave ones. This, Lotor explained, was why there seemed to be two different races of Drules-there were Drules like himself-the product of the mating between Terran and Drule-and the throwbacks like his father or Yurak who more resembled the original Drule race.
Lotor also explained that within the hybrid Drules there were some unusual variations. His mother, for example, had the facial features, silver-white hair and pointed ears of a Drule, but the coloring and the eyes of a Terran which was highly prized. His cousin, K'ttryn(daughter of his Aunt A'man'daa-his father's half-sister) and his sister, Zimmie had both took after his great-grandmother in looks. He was told by the servants he resembled his mother, but his eyes-his eyes were like his fathers. Allura could tell he wasn't too crazy about that!
In return, she told him of her life on Arus, her family history-how her great-grandfather on her father's side rescued a woman from a crashed ship, fell in love and later married her. She talked about having to study books and discs indoors when all she wanted to do was go outside and play! Lotor had chuckled at that, saying he was the same way himself as a child-in fact he snuck out a lot, which his mother always seemed to know and he always seemed to get in trouble for it. Allura nodded and said that sort of thing always happened to her too. They both shared a good laugh at that.
The only problem that Allura could see with Lotor was that he always-always had to make a play for her. That was putting it mildly! She knew when he got a certain look in his eyes, he was going to try to kiss her or hold her or all of the above-and he would usually succeed at it! He would be gentle about it, but it would always happen when they were together (which was just about all the time), as if he couldn't help himself. She knew he could very well do more to her-after all, it was his palace, his planet, and they were alone together-except for the servants. Allura was suprised by his self-restraint with her. She had heard from Rommelle that he had none with her.
She felt guilty about being here with Lotor, but he was protecting her. Allura knew that he couldn't make up for all the things he did, but she could see the man he could have been and could be again if he could get away from the shadow of his father. She knew she had been wrong to judge on what his father had done.
His father-her husband...Allura looked down at the hated choker. She prayed that Hagar did get rid of him somehow, if not, she had the feeling he would look for her, and not stop until he found her. Allura remembered the look in Z'aale's eyes that night..they were like Lotor's after all...they were filled with posessive love and desire for her. The worst part was that somehow that wine-that wine did something to her, affected her somehow. She just had the feeling if Z'aale touched her again, she would let him...and she would desire it.....and she would enjoy it. This thought sickened her the most of all.