The Gods Flew Spaceships
By
DragonLady of Avalon

Our ancestors would have called them gods. They would have looked upon their strange, otherworldly garb and unthought of vessels and immediately shouted "god!". Rarely did these supposed gods show their faces, and when they did they were fair and beautiful, pleasing to the eyes of the primitive peoples they had come to study.

They were not gods. They did not even want the primitive peoples to think they were gods! They were just as mortal as the monkeys and apes they had come to study. They were scientists and philosophers.

They came to study our ancestors. After all, how could a species of apes rise to become the dominant species? Once the Almighty breathed life into a planet was it not the feline who was destined to rule?

They found it puzzling. Oh yes, puzzling to them who could not remember a time without space flight, genetic manipulation, holograms, force fields, and the list goes on. Yes, at a time when Humans were scant heathen tribes, the Egyptians, and the Nazcas, (who were only budding empires then) they were by far more advanced than we are now.

They were amazing creatures. As I said, rarely did they show their faces, and when they did, they were beautiful. I suppose that this is where humans developed a fascination for Elvenkind.

The young girl shifted nervously, adjusting the dark, coarse material around her even darker, rough, sand- and sun-burned shoulders. She whimpered softly, brushing her stiff, dark, sand-encrusted hair over her baked shoulders. She was scared.

She and her older brother had been out collecting water with their two tawny-colored Humpbacks when she had seen a flash of light that had blacked out the sun. She had cried out to her older, stronger brother but he hadn't seen anything...at first. He called out to her as well, telling her to get her Humpback and run, that the Lion People were using some sort of flame weapon to attack

She hadn't been certain. The Lion People, the Rookhuohru in their heathenish tongue, were violent savages. She doubted that they could even harness the magnificent, marvelous, magical miracle that was fire. The Lion People were dangerous, not so much man as animal.

Once in awhile, a male Rookhuohru was caught and brought back to her "village", wherever it happened to be at the time, and was publicly sacrificed to Bast, the cat-goddess. This had not happened in a long time, not in her lifetime, not Ankh's (Life's).

Ankh had once suspected that Bast favored the less-than-half-human mongrels for their feline appearance and so hated her nomadic tribe for sacrificing them. The Elders thought that they were favored, and this trait would make them good sacrifices.

Ankh's ancestors had been wrong, and Bast had sent her minions to protect her kittens.

Surely, it was the Lion People that had lead her into the white chamber. The light came from all around, not from directly up, nor from any torches. It was magic. The light hurt Ankh's eyes. It was too bright and coming from all around.

WE WISH TO KNOW: ARE YOU SCARED, LITTLE ONE?

Ankh jumped and squeaked.

ANSWER, LITTLE ONE, IF YOU PLEASE. WE DO NOT WISH TO HARM YOU.

"Yes," Ankh answered to the big voice that, like the white light, seemed to be coming from everywhere.

WHY?

"I..." she paused, still so much nervousness in her! "I thought you were the Rookhuoru. You're not...are you?"

The voice did not answer for a very long time.

...WHY ARE YOU SCARED OF ROOKHUORU?

Ankh wrung her hands and looked at her feet, shifting from side-to- side. The Humback-hair wig itched on her freshly-shaven scalp.

Human hair is unclean.

Ankh shifted again. So much fear...they could veritably smell it!

PEACE, CHILD. WE ARE NOT HERE TO HARM YOU.

"The Lion People are...bad."

The voice paused.

THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW, LITTLE ONE. WE WILL SEE YOU BACK TO YOUR FAMILY.

A hole opened up in the light. It didn't really look like a hole, just an absence of the light. Therefore, it must have been a hole...right?

YES, LITTLE ONE, THOUGH THERE.

Ankh nodded, wrung her hands one more time, and then slowly stumbled her way to the door.

THEY ARE A PRIMITIVE SPECIES, CAPTIAN.

YES. MENTALLY, NO MORE THAN A YOUNG CHILD, BUT THE PRIME SAYS THEY HAVE MUCH POTENTIAL.

HOW DOES A RACE OF APES SHOW POTENTIAL?

I DO NOT KNOW. DO EITHER OF YOU KNOW WHAT A "LION" IS?

NO.

NO.

IT IS AN EARTH ANIMAL OF A FELINE KIND. IF THEY FEAR THESE ANIMALS AND ONES WHO WEAR THEIR GUISE, THEY MAY FEAR US.

WHY ARE THE ROOKHUORU "BAD"?

I AM NOT SURE. WE WILL NEED FURTHER STUDY TO FIND THAT INFORMATION. SHE WAS JUST A CHILD, ANY MORE TIME HERE WOULD HAVE DAMAGED HER PERMANENTLY.

YES, PERHAPS.

YOU ARE INDEED CORRECT.

THE STARQUEEN WILL WANT TO KNOW OF THE "LION PEOPLE" AND HOW THEY ARE FEARED.

ONLY ONE HAS CLAIMED FEAR. THE LION PEOPLE HAVE NOT BEEN MENTIONED ELSEWHERE.

PERHAPS THEY ARE SHY. PERHAPS THEY SKULK IN SHADOWS. PERHAPS THAT IS WHY THEY ARE SO FEARED BY THIS LITTLE ONE'S FAMILY.

WE WILL NEED FURTHER STUDY.

YES, FUTHER STUDY. DO WE NEED A LION PERSON?

PERHAPS. WE WILL REPORT TO THE PRIME AND ASK HIS OPINION, AS WELL AS THE STARQUEEN'S...

The girl was pale and ice-cold as she stumbled into the light of the campfire. The village leader jumped off the rock he was sitting on and ran to the girl, telling his oldest son to fetch a blanket and Ankh's father.

She was sweating and trembling in his arms, nestles against him. Dark pouches were forming beneath her eyes. She looked very sick. The leader was unsure of what to do.

When Ankh's family came, her father seized her and held her close while her mother showered her with kisses and various signs of affection.

A ferocious howl pierced the air. Ankh's mother froze, grabbing her bone-thin daughter, who suddenly seemed as wasted and worn as a newborn.

"Come, loves, they hunt!"

Later the next morning, Ankh was seated on a rock, cuddling a rope doll her mother had made.

"Who did this to you?" Ankh's father demanded, stamping his foot.

"The...Rookhuoru. The Lion People," she muttered, staring at her doll.

Ankh hadn't been very responsive. It was as if she was sick in the mind after what happened. Her mother didn't doubt it. The Rookhuoru were vicious and terrible. They were dangerous mongrels, detested by Bast for stealing the forms of her beloveds.

The Elder put a dark brown hand to his chin.

"Perhaps," he said, "Bast does favor the beasts and the girl was just a warning."

"But Father!", Ankh's mother, Anarya, protested, "It has been many years since we last saw a Lion Person!"

"Yes!" continued Nayan, Ankh's father. "I had hoped they would have been gone! Not since I was small have I seen a Lion Person, and then it was a dead child they left to putrefy in the desert heat!"

"Then how do you know it was Lion?" some onlooker shouted.

"She was dressed in lion skin and was left without anything to guide her to the afterlife! The heathens!"

"They are not heathens!" hissed the Elder. "They leave their dead to feed the animals they hunt for skins and meat, to continue the circle of life and death!"

"The body needs to be preserved so that the family can mourn!"

"They believe the body no longer serves a purpose once the spirit is gone, so they use it to sustain the village by feeding it to the animals that need it. You should not fault them for that!"

The Elder ran his worn hand over his shining, bald skull. Long years had made his hands, though gentle, rough and calloused with lines of flesh that stood out and moved beneath his skin. His right hand moved again to his chin and the scant, gray beard and rubbed the coarse stubble.

"Still...what happened to Ankh is unusual. I have never seen something quite like this," he continued, staring intently at his granddaughter, who was petting her doll like a cat.

"What is the matter with her, Father?" continued Anarya.

"I do not know, but we should not wait for those animals to steal more of our women, daughters, and sisters!" shouted Ankh's older brother, the one who was with her when she was taken.

Our ancestors called them "The Lion People", the Rookhuoru. They were less than man and more than beast. They hunted with tooth and claw like the great felines they resembled.

They were a nomadic tribe, like Ankh's, following herds of wild cattle and prides of lions. All civilized people feared them, the ones who modeled themselves after the golden-furred lions.

The Rookhuoru called themselves the Lion People. They were a tribe that modeled themselves after the lion, and as individuals modeled themselves after the great cats. Their strange rituals and ceremonies were heard late into the night, though few new much about them.

This is the story of Rook, the Lion, the Rookhuoru. This is the story of Oryncyaal Rhonraal, the StarQueen of the planet Hylranojyyva. This is the story of the planet Hylranojyyva and how she influenced the development of human civilization at the sacrifice of her own.