Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 55551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“She’s just a baby,” Fang murmurs.
“She’s a sweet little baby,” Karn agrees.
Fang and Karn are of a similar type to me, great predatory hunters with a dominant and disciplinary streak. The two of them function as bounty hunters from time to time, and occasionally work as jailers if they consider the prisoner important enough. I note the way their gazes settle on her with much more interest than I expected.
“Do we need to continue this conversation in which you all fear this creature terribly? Or are we of an understanding that yes, she made an initial impression of chaos and damage, but there’s nothing to fear here now she is under control, deprived of her technology. Humans are dependent on tools, and she has absolutely nothing left.”
I feel her move against me, squirming in some kind of discomfort.
“I am dangerous,” she insists softly, so quietly I do not think any of the others hear her at first.
“What was that, Suli?”
“I am dangerous,” she says, pulling her head away from me. “I am Captain Sullivan. I have hauls and hoards you would not believe. I have engaged in pitched battle with the forces of Interstellar Justice more times than I can count. I am not weak. I’m not a little baby. I am an enemy you would do well to reckon with.”
“Awww!” A small sound ripples around the room. She has no idea how cute she is when she’s trying to sound scary and impressive.
“Just because I feel fear now sometimes doesn’t change who I am,” she says, looking around.
Sullivan
There’s another round of laughter. I hate being laughed at.
They’re mocking me. They think I’m nothing. They think I’m a chubby, harmless little human. Some of them even seem to think I’m a baby, though I don’t think they’re confusing me for an actual infant. They are considering me diminutive and small, and I know I should let them think those things and take advantage of them. But I’ve been through a lot lately. I’ve been paralyzed with fear. I’ve been shamed. I’ve been punished. Now I’m being displayed.
“You’re going to regret this,” I mutter.
“Behave yourself,” Thorn rumbles down at me. “I don’t need to remind you of your place, do I?”
“No,” I grumble, turning my face toward his chest to avoid looking at any of the others.
I feel his arms wrapping around me, snugging me close, giving me unexpected comfort.
“Good girl,” he murmurs.
I am not a good girl. I am a captured pirate, and I don’t care how cute and helpless I seem to all of these massive carnivorous predators, I am going to be free. I owe that to myself.
The fact that I am in the city is a good thing. Once I get the lay of the land here, I will find a ship. I know this planet is involved in interplanetary trade. I know they have ships capable of leaving the atmosphere and traveling to others. And I know that I am absolutely not going to remain a captive.
I need to get my suit and stuff back, and then I need to get the hell out of here before I get too used to being snuggled close to a powerful beast who thinks of me as a cute little creature to be trained and tamed. He carries me away from the group of saurian officials, over toward a window. He’s trying to distract me, and it works.
“Can I ask you a question?” I form the words in order to change the subject and hopefully change the feeling I have stuck in my body.
“Of course.”
“What is this city called?”
“We call it Grave City,” he says. “As you can see, this was once a primal boneyard. This is where the ancient ones came to take their eternal rest.”
“Oh, and you built a city over it?”
“It was a settlement that offered some protection to our ancestors, because many of the more dangerous creatures of the world avoided this place unless they were coming to pass away. Over time, the small settlement became a township, and then a city, and now we have this great metropolis.”
“Do primals still come here to pass away?”
“It has been a great many years since a primal approached the gates of the city.”
I nod. I don’t really care about the history, or at least, I don’t really want to care. Though I have to admit, there is something compelling, awe-inspiring, and even melancholy about the origins of this city. This is a place where early saurians, finding themselves sentient prey to beasts who were so much larger and more powerful than themselves, took refuge in moldering corpses.
What I really want to know is where the space ports are and how to get there. Usually, such structures are relatively easy to see if you have a bird’s eye view of a place, but I don’t see any obvious large swathes of flat land used for takeoff and landing. I can’t very well ask Thorn outright where my best point of escape is, so I am going to have to keep investigating. I also need to know what he did with my things and my suit. I know they will likely be locked away from me as securely as they can be, but I am a thief by nature and I’ll take what’s mine.