The race of nations. A short story of sci-fi.

Neon lights can blind you if you look at them for too long. They eat at you, they are brighter than anything natural. They keep you numb from the grey on the streets and they peel your attention to distractions. And that is how you lose.

''Don't look at the lights, look at the road in front of you!'' I hear my coaches voice echo in my mind. I look away from the neon brights and watch how my competitors grab the first animal in their way. They jump on the racehorses, the durable long-distance champions, the horned beasts, and ride into the sunset. But have you ever heard of the saying: like a delight caught in the headlights? Yeah, you might have not. You live on an ignorant, obscure planet on the other side of the universe. But I will not hold that against you.

I run. I ignore the delights sprinting away and the zebroids nervously shaking their dual colored legs. My eyes are on the bigger picture. I need to race now to have a chance later. I need to find an animal that will not slow down before the finish line. That will not give out in exhaustion. My eyes are focused in front of me. Always in front, never back. I feel somebody pass me. A girl on an emu. The bird runs but it won't for long. The street is wide here. One after another, mounted animals pass me. I catch a glance in a cats eye, fear and confusion, disoriented empty gaze affected by the lights.

I look for intelligence. Those that are used to being in the limelight on a daily basis. Pets in the city or its bounds. Beasts with memory, those that know the streets. I already know who my goal is, I feel my teammate follow closely, letting me take my lead. I feel naked, there are eyes on me. But I switch them out. Let the observers choose their champions now, the picture will change completely when we are out of sight. That is where the mistakes of bets get made. That is where the money flows in.

I feel that there is someone else on my heels, the distance between us is increasing but I sense that they might have a similar goal. The biggest catch of them all. The one animal that can choose to throw you down. I had seen it happen already, in front of me. Everyone who had ridden to the majestic beasts on another animal had been disposed of. Commitment and honor was the only thing these creatures cared for. They would carry the one who was ready to make the sacrifice. My coach thought me mad. The elephants were the creatures of pride. They always stayed at the starting stretch and never ran for anyone. The only time their speed was seen was in the wild, these guys here were meant to be decorations.

There was someone on my heels still, next to my teammate. A pleasant enough girl, she had been tasked with assisting me today. I was the faster runner. Most had left the field already, disappeared into the barricaded city streets. Many people, were scattered on the ground, lost in a fight or thrown down. Sabotaged even. I was sure I had also seen a stick being placed between my partner's legs but she was still there. She was indeed a powerful normal.

The last delights passed to my eyes, their horns were more majestic at the end here. I ran, the final hundred meters, and scared one of these animals. It did not attack me, it could have, there was a flock here, it could have been brave. But it was not. It ran forward, right where the four elephants were peacefully standing. Colored in the same neon lights, their long legs drenched in reflective sooth. I squirmed my eyes and started running faster. I heard my teammate give everything she had, and she came into my view. Just in the corner of my eye. The delight was still in front of us but I was running almost at its speed. The spectators had gone silent. There were less on this side. We would soon be swallowed by the emptied buildings.

I ran and then I jumped, I gave it my all and I sprung against the delight, where its strongest bones were, where I could not hurt it. It gave me just enough kick and there I was, on top of the most royal animal on our planet. Not yours. You have no respect, for you, they are just toys. The elephant stood frozen and I sat the same. My lips ushered a tone that these creatures understood. It cocked its head and then turned. The person who had been behind me and was now on another elephant had a smile on their face, just for a second. Next thing I knew he was flying backward as the elephant got on his hind legs. I heard a crackle. A competitor lay lifeless on the ground now, his neck broken. The first casualty today. And there would be more, in the city. I took a breath of relief as I was still on my animal.

My elephant stood there just for a moment more, until his partner had my teammate on its back. Then the movement started and I heard behind me the ovations of the couple that had seen me. Those who had purchased the more expensive tickets with a hope to glance between the restricted city streets. The word would not get out today. No one would know that the elephants had been won. Too much money was at stake here.

I rode first and my teammate behind. She kept a short distance and as we ran faster and faster, the streets got narrow. There were more fallen ones here than at the start line. There were no neon lights at this point, only darkness, and dampness. I heard the water splash around me. I heard the hoofs and feet in front of us. We were catching up to people and the next corner could end in disaster. For others, not us. The animals I rode, their skin was thicker than diamonds, they were invincible, the symbol of the race. But that was usually it. That was why nobody had reached the goal before. You had to have help from the elephants to ever get to the end but no one had the skill. Or the bond.

I felt the elephant under me think. Its brain was pulsating, looking for exits. It did not want to kill. I felt the animal pick up more speed even though we were approaching that treacherous corner, I had to hold on to its ears now, not to fly off. We took the turn and I felt how my ride left the ground. A first it was subtle, then the elephant run for the building, there was nothing wrong with it. I sensed no fear or madness. I trusted it and he rewarded me. The building was made of red brick and one would never believe that you could walk on its walls. But this amazing breathing thing had taken a speed that let it almost fly. I saw the other contestants now, many heard me, too. The brick building crumbled behind us as the feet of the animal stomped it. Ignore the lights. I switched out the people and looked forward. This was where the trouble started. The street was getting thin, almost a pedastrian width. But the elephant did not slow down. We ran, higher and higher on the building, and then down. Now, most of the competitors looked over their heads. There were none that had reached far into the narrow passage. It was completely open and vulnerable. I saw now what my animal was aiming for. No one to be injured. Not by its destructive feet.

I closed my eyes for a second and felt a new breeze. A ship had entered our atmosphere. I warned the elephant. He already knew. This needed to be finished soon, otherwise, there would once more be no winners. I lost my grip on the animal as its feet landed in the dark street. A backflip later I was back on the back of it and turned my head, to look behind. The participants were behind me now. The realization dawned on some and suddenly they started moving. The same moment, my teammate landed behind me, with her beast, and stopped in her tracks, blocking the rest of those involved. I heard the screams of anger, then fear. Death as the front row was squished by the back. But my teammate did not move, she looked at me as I was racing away. I thought I saw tears in her eyes as she had provoked death.

''Go, get those pills. We need them!'' I watched her disappearing, further and further behind me. My elephant knew exactly where to go, even when we landed in the labyrinth. The echoes of voices still sounded in my head. The screams. The pleas. The anguish. The elephant tried to calm me. We both knew that no one else had a chance anyway. They would have died if they came into the maze. But we could not, there was no chance. My secret and my diamond creature kept us safe.

The light of the beacon shone bright but I did not go for it. It was the end goal, not the beginning. I had to get the antidote before taking the poison. The radio tower, the abandoned palace. Three pills later, I felt another ship enter the atmosphere. This time a darker aura. I stood next to the animal and thanked it. Green, yellow, and red in my hand. I knew they would come for them, so I did the only thing that made sense to me. I swallowed them all at the same time. My eyes watered, my breath caught into my throat. In a second, I was not me anymore.

A woman stood in my body. She looked around her and patted the elephant. Her bond was much stronger than mine, she could actually communicate full words with the animal. She looked at me, hanging in the air, suspended, without a body. A Cheshire smile.

''Your secret saved you. But I am sorry to say, you did not get what you came for.'' those were her only words directed at me. Ever. Those were the last words I ever had addressed to me.

She walked like me, she talked like me, but she was not me. She moved up the street and the elephant walked the opposite direction. She sneaked and leaped, she walked on walls. She had my knowledge. I had no idea where she was going at first but after minutes that seemed like hours, I realized she was heading home. My home. She knew where the spare keys were, she knew the code. She knew my parents that were sitting on the sofa when she came in. She was not surprised even though she acted so. The first ship that had entered atmosphere had belonged to them.

''Daughter, you made it! We need to go now. The dark ones will surely be coming for you, to claim you as the new leader. We have to make sure you are safe. The humans can not find out either whose blood the winner belongs to. They would sacrifice you even if it meant no leader would ever come to be.'' that was my secret. You see, I was an intruder amongst them. The locals that had gone for the pills over and over, that had failed a million times. I had been raised here all my life, to finally make it happen. Somebody had to claim them but it was impossible with human intellect and skills, DNA. Now I guessed that that had been the point. My whole life I had been working for this, just to be thrown out of my body by another. I was supposed to become the next great leader of this Solar system. This highly inhabited planetary constellation.

I had become just that. My body had, but not my mind. That is why you do not trust a thousand-year-old prophecy scroll''.

As I stood reflecting on myself and basking in my self-pity, I had missed what the new owner of my body had said. But I did not miss the loud bump of the door and it falling out of its frame. A dark one entered. All dressed in black. Wearing a face of an alien, a predator that could devour you whole. He gave my silver-skinned parents, with spikes in place of their hair, but a single glance before looking at my body. His eyes were shielded behind a veil in that face cover. I had no idea if he would kill my shell. I only feared it to take the lives of my parents.

''Do you have the pills?'' it was the first time I heard his gruesome kind of an alien speak. His voice was surprisingly normal.

''I took them. So you can not kill me and give them to someone you deem worthy!'' my voice sounded so alien to me even though the words were true. I had hoped to stay on the light side and rule as a leader of it. Now I knew better but now was too late. The being in the pills just needed a shell. My body stood its ground. She, in my skin, looked defiant, she played the role. She knew my parents in and out. She knew she could not break character if they were to be sold a story.

The predatory alien looked her from the head to toe, you could tell by the movements of his head. He then turned sharply to where I was standing and I felt him. Smirking. You could not see it on that ugly maul but I sensed it.

''Get ready then. You know your duty, you have to join me on the ruler's planet. I give you a minute to say your goodbyes.'' he left the room and my body turned to parents. She told them a million ''sories'' and they scolded her with tears in their eyes. That she should have been faster. We should have escaped. So no other planetary species could catch her and bring her to the dark planet. Turn her into one of them. She was so brilliant.. She told them she would change it from the inside. She told them that she was me and that would not change. It was too late now, they bought it, like drugs, they soaked up her words. She cut it as short as she could, told them to remember her fondly and raise her brothers and sisters fairly. Then, she shed some tears and turned to leave.

I followed her out of the room, into the hallway and to the secret room in my apartment. She opened a door and came out in another hallway, running straight into the chest of the monster. There was a moment of silence, they looked at each other. It seemed almost like they knew one another. It seemed impossible as she had not lived for a thousand years. But, finally, he moved. I thought he would strangle her but his hands just rested on her shoulders. Then they moved on to his neck and a hissing sound startled me. In the silent corridor, a man now stood, with a hideous mask in his hands. Quite handsome he was. But I was too shocked to notice anything else. All of the universe, all of the system thought the dark ones to be a separate species on their own. Predators that killed for sport and ruled through misery.

''Shall I kill you for winning the race?'' his voice was even silkier now, without the cover over his mouth.

''No, you shall love me because I love you.'' there was a tenderness in her voice.

He smiled as if it was a line they had repeated a million times. Then he kissed her and they both evaporated into a thick dark fog.

I felt a ship leave the atmosphere.

I was left there, alone forever. Without a body, without my parents. They mourned, they left, and I was forever invisible on a planet that was not even mine. The elephants saw me, I found comfort in them but I can tell you this, never follow a legend without knowing the facts. Never join a race just because it promises glory, never think you are better than everyone else, never think you deserve the pill to rule as you won't be ruling. You meekly human, on the other side of the universe, feel thankful for living without magic, for magic will kill you and tear your fragile soul apart.

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Have the best day! Today, tomorrow, and forever!
Linda