Flashbacks

The explosions were starting again.  Every year, the same thing.  The lights in the sky, the flashes of color, the clouds of smoke, the distant pounding as of cyclopean feet.

“Gompers is such a scaredy-cat.  You’re a sixty-pound dog, Gompers!  Get out from underneath the chair.  Honestly.  They never hurt you, do they?”

“Does he get like this during thunderstorms?”

“No.  Only fireworks.”

Under the chaise-lounge, Vvvrikx Ararar, general and final survivor of the proud Gargibar battle fleet, currently in deep cover as a companion animal on an alien planet, closed his eyes and whimpered as the memories overcame him.