Chapter 14

The sun was glaring from directly above when Mia returned to the dormitory. It had to be very close to the lunch hour. After speaking with Kenahi, her drive to explore had fizzled out and, instead, she had spent some much needed time running laps around the garden that they had been led through the night before. It didn't pass her notice that she had been stealthily followed by at least one of the alien guards the entire time, though no one tried to stop her actions.

Sweaty and dehydrated, she intended to grab a fresh set of clothing and beg one of the guards to allow her to use her three minutes of precious shower time.

Her progress was halted, however, by the presence of four women, sitting on the dormitory steps, simply basking and doing little else except muttering to each other. They looked up as Mia approached but did not stand or move out of the way.

“Hey,” one of the younger woman called. She was lithe and blond, with tendrils of silken gold that hung around her heart-shaped face. Clean and immaculately groomed, she looked like a movie star compared to Mia's disheveled, semi-homeless look. If the slight sneer on the perfect pink lips were any indication, she thought so, too. “Mia, right?”

Mia offered a polite smile. “Yes, I'm Mia.”

“Leanne,” the blond rose, but didn't offer a hand in greeting. “If you don't mind, maybe we could talk for a moment?” She gestured to some benches that sat along the building's walls, well within the shade, and, Mia noticed, a fair distance from the few guards that stood on the opposite side of the street keeping an eye on the gathering.

The offer took Mia by surprise. A desire to speak was not the expression she had thought she read on the woman's face. Curious, if a little impatient, she nodded.

Leanne smiled congenially and stepped down from her position, tilting her head and leading the way toward the benches. Mia fell into step beside her.

“A lot has been said about you,” Leanne began, “but I'm not one to take gossip at face value, especially here, where we all need to rely on one another.”

Gossip? She had been at the compound for less than twenty-four hours. What gossip could there possibly be?

Leanne paused, waiting for a response. What was she expecting? Thanks?

“Listen, Mia,” she frowned, sitting on the cool stone. Mia debated her options before settling down on the far end of the bench. She didn't want to be outwardly rude without cause, but something about this woman was putting her on edge. “This whole thing has been hell for all of us: that forest, this compound, them. I totally understand that it is difficult to process. We were all a little lost the first few days here, and to top that off, we heard that your journey was even more terrible than our own.”

Leanne offered a small smile. “It's so easy to want to forget, to pretend that things are ok, even just for a little while. I get it.”

Mia frowned. She didn't get it. She wasn't pretending anything was ok. Things were not ok. None of this was ok. She looked around the visible compound from where they sat. studied the trail that curved in front of them, leading between the horseshoe of buildings that formed the front of the compound before the park. Across from that, trees that were just the wrong shades of green and pink wavered in the slight breeze that was blowing across the opening. Even looking upward gave her an odd feeling, with the flickers of the energy field dancing across the blue sky. No, she still couldn't figure out what Leanne was talking about. She returned her regard to the woman, a look of confusion on her face. Leanne offered another fake smile.

“Like I said, we need to look out for each other: the women, humans. Those things, they might act like they have similar thoughts and feelings, but they aren't going to keep us penned up here like cattle much longer without exacting their demands.” She shuddered dramatically. A few of the other women wandered toward them, casually, as if they didn't care.

Why did this suddenly feel like a schoolyard shakedown?

Mia frowned at them all. She must be reading things wrong. These women had been kidnapped and drug through the forest, too. Trauma probably made them seem more abrasive than they intended.

Leanne's voice dropped to a whisper. “You've separated from the group twice already and people are starting to take notice. The women have to stick together. There's no way to tell what might happen if go off alone around them.”

Mia furrowed her brows, thinking about all the interactions she had witnessed between the alien men and women so far. There hadn't been a single instance where she had witnessed an inclination to violence, or anything really. The Livarians seemed respectful of the women, if one were to dis-include the actual kidnapping. Even that they had only done because they felt that they had no choice. “I'm pretty certain nothing will happen. They seem to be pretty big on self-control.”

Leanne grunted in frustration and cast a furtive glance to the guards across the path. The men definitely seemed to be too far away to have heard her declarations, but both sets of pointed ears were swiveled in their direction.

“Just because nothing has happened yet is no reason to forget how dangerous they are. God, just look at them, they're more animal than man. It's only a matter of time before their base instincts lead them to rape...or worse.”

Mia flinched internally at Leanne's words. “That's a pretty big supposition based on nothing but outward appearance. Let's not forget that they seem to have technology that outstrips ours and we are standing in the middle of a city. It's safe to guess they might have developed a civilization and culture that didn't include allowing such things.”

Leanne gave her a pitying look. “They kidnapped us, Mia, or did you already forget that? They keep us prisoners here for breeding. I'm not sure what you think I'm jumping to conclusions about. It's pretty much all fact based on their actions.”

The lunch chime rang, a clear, cheerful tone. Mia took the excuse to rise. She wasn't about to defend the Livarians to the women they had kidnapped, but that didn't mean she liked Leanne's approach.

The woman frowned at her before standing, as well. “We're just trying to look out for you,” she insisted.

“Your concern is...noted,” Mia forced a smile. “Excuse me.”

She rushed toward the dorm steps, determined to at least get a change of clothing if she couldn't achieve a shower. Frustration hummed through her like an electric current. She felt chastised, little hints of self-doubt picking at her psyche. It wasn't like she asked for this, and it wasn't as if she had given up and jumped on board with the Livarian's plans. So why did she suddenly feel as though she had been labeled as weak and mindless?

Women emerged from the dormitory doors, guided by two men, as she made it to the base of the stairs. She spared a glance at the guards across the street before she slipped through the doors. Neither had moved, but the taller man's jaw was clenched tight, his gaze focused on the street before him. Mia had no doubt that they had heard everything.

Mia was late, and, given the last remaining guard's look of exasperation and hurried footsteps, it was apparently a taboo. He motioned her, clean in her new set of clothes and freshly tied back hair, toward the dining hall. Sadly, there had been no time after her unfortunate encounter with Leanne to take a shower.

The guard, one of the two men who had been standing across the street, was a shorter, stockier man, though still fit. He had short cropped black hair and a barely discernible spotted pattern on his pale skin. Mia eyed him as he walked briskly beside her.

“What's your name?” she asked him.

The guard blinked, stumbling slightly at the question. He gave her a surprised look.

“...Lim,” he answered at last.

Mia nodded. “Lim, tell me something about yourself. When you are not doing this,” she waved her hands to indicate their trip, “what do you like to do...you know, for leisure?”

The question threw the poor man off, and he stopped his rushed march and looked at her warily. Mia gave him an encouraging smile; it was suddenly vastly and immensely important that he answer.

A slight flush worked its way from beneath the fluid armor and up his neck.

“I work with wood most evenings.”

“Like furniture or building structures for the compound?”

The flush deepened and Lim put a spotted hand into one of the vest pockets, pulling out a small wooden figure. A small, intricately detailed creature sat in his palm. Mia studied it with wonder.

“May I?” she asked.

Almost reluctantly, he handed the piece over. A four-legged beast with claws at the end of its appendages, covered with feathers so lovingly created that they seemed to float from the creature. The head was similar to a deer, with regal horns curling up and around long pointed ears.

“It's a toy,” Lim said shyly. “I remember my baby sister loved to collect animal figures. One day, I thought the children here might enjoy them, too.”

A toy for future children, based on the desires of a sister he must have lost.

It confirmed something in her heart. No, the Livarians were not animals at all.

“Thank you for showing me,” she smiled, handing the figure back. “Someone is going to cherish this greatly,” she told him. He took it back, returning it to its pocket.

“What creature is that anyway?”

“The throuk, they live on the northern tip of the continent. Legend says that, once, our people tamed them for riding. Akri, my sister, was obsessed with them.” His voice grew wistful and sad. “Come, Mia, they are waiting for you.”

The words tugged a frown from her lips and slipped her mind from their discussion. A twinge of anxiety fluttered through her. Waiting for her? Why?

Her questions were answered when she entered the dining hall. It was not the gathering of women around tables with the Livarians ranging around the rooms edges like the previous meals. No, for this meal, the men were spread out, taking every second seat. The women had been seated between and the entire room seemed to be awkwardly attempting to ignore the discomfort. Faces turned to her as she was ushered through the main door and she blushed at finding herself the center of attention. Dammit, she should have just come in the sweaty clothes she had run in. She would have frozen at the entrance, perhaps tried to slip back to the dorm and skip the meal despite being famished, except Lim pressed forward. She drew a deep breath and followed him dutifully, distracting herself by searching the room for Becky.

There, over at one of the side tables, the woman sat frozen with her hands twisted together in front of her. Gorth sat on one side of her and the younger man that had shown her the showers the night before was on the other. Pheobe was on the other side of the younger man and she offered Mia a small smile.

Well, they might not feel comfortable, but they were safe.

Another woman caught her attention. Leanne was closer to the front of the room, flanked by two aliens that she didn't recognize. If smug anger had a face, it would have been Leanne's. She gave Mia a knowing look that clearly said she had been right.

Huh. Maybe the new eating arrangement wasn't something that had happened before.

Unlike breakfast, every seat had been filled with precision. She began to cast her gaze around the room, wondering where she had been placed.

They worked their way forward, toward the table at the front of the room and had almost reached it before she recognized the last remaining empty seat, and the men who sat beside it. To the seat's right, sat Kenahi, watching her keenly, and to the left, looking more than imposing in his black armor, sat Draven.