Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“That’s not fair.”
“Maybe not.” I stand up. “I will be back with food. Do as I say, or there will be much suffering in this encampment.”
Allie
Wrath gathers some of the recovered weaponry and such, and heads into the forest to try and find food for us all. It is the act of a provider, and I cannot fault him for it, but I could have done without the threat.
“Is he serious?” Cadence asks me the question once we’re certain he is gone.
“I’ve literally never known him to tell a joke,” I say. “I think he really wants us to stay here.”
“And he assumes we will care if you get beaten?” Casey smirks. “That’s a big assumption, and I’m sorry, Allie, but I can’t let him start to think he controls all of us by merit of controlling you.”
My stomach gets that very uncomfortable feeling of being stuck between two powerful forces yet again. I don’t know why this keeps happening to me. Everybody seems to view me as useful, but they never ask me if I want to be used.
“Please just stay here. There’s no point in leaving.”
“We could hunt too. We could see if there are any resources nearby. We could scout the area. We could leave a trail for rescuers…” Cadence trails off.
“We could discover new plants. We could synthesize medicines. We could make friends with a small but cute wild animal. We could explore,” Casey picks up the list.
“We’re in a very dangerous situation, and splitting up is stupid,” I say.
“Probably. Yes. So we should all go together. The three of us.”
“Why would I defy him?”
“Why wouldn’t you defy him?” Casey points out. “Are you going to let him boss you around forever? Is he your new captain? He just gave us fucking orders, and we didn’t agree to that. So I’m leaving, because he gave me absolutely no choice. You cannot submit to tyranny.”
As they talk, they are strapping small weapons on their bodies, clearly making plans to do precisely what they’re saying. Wrath has set me up so I’m going to get punished one way or another.
“You’re going to get yourselves killed just to defy him?”
“We’re going to get ourselves killed to prove that we get to get ourselves killed if we want to. We’re fucking pirates, Allie. What are you? A cleaner? A walking-war crime? What are you going to be when this is over?”
Cadence and Casey have an uncanny ability to be absolutely stupid and incredibly insightful at exactly the same time.
They leave me speechless as they depart the camp.
There’s silence.
The baby starts crying.
“Me too, baby,” I mutter. “Me too.”
It is almost dark when Wrath returns. I have spent the day hoping that Cadence and Casey will get back before he does so there’s actually some chance of avoiding whatever consequence he decides should be enacted upon me.
He is holding the carcass of an animal that looks large enough to feed all of us for days, if not weeks. It is a furry thing, which is surprising as I thought pretty much all the animals on this planet were scaled.
“Shan! Come help break down this meat!” Wrath calls out as he lumbers into the clearing. He is breathing heavily, having had to climb quite an incline to make it to camp.
Shan emerges from the tent with what looks to me like relief.
“Incredible kill!” he congratulates Wrath.
“Thank you,” Wrath says, looking around. I hope he notices that I have been busy making myself useful. I have prepared part of the fuselage as a sort of prep area, and made sure it is scrubbed clean. I’ve also assembled some large leaves which we can wrap meat in, both to cook and store.
“Where are the other two?”
“They left about five minutes after you told them they weren’t supposed to leave. They didn’t care what was going to happen to me as a result.”
Wrath grunts. “Strange.”
“It’s really not. We’re pirates. Telling us what not to do is a pretty surefire way of ensuring that we do that thing as fast as possible.”
“Humans can’t be controlled,” Shan says.
“Thorn and Avel don’t seem to have any problem controlling their mates, and they have the two captains,” Wrath says, lowering his kill to the ground.
Shan shrugs his armored shoulders. “Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. Maybe they just make it look like they have them under control. Maybe those two have plans to get free on their own accord and are just playing along.”
“If they did, your mate put paid to all of that.”
Lettie appears at the tent curtain, the baby on her hip. “Are you talking about me? Complaining again because of one little crash that we all survived?”
“So far,” Wrath growls.
He and Shan are now taking the beast apart. It looks as though he gutted it out in the wilds, so now it is just a matter of skinning the creature and cutting it up. They are working together even though I know they’re furious with one another, each of them blaming the other for recent events. I wish we humans could be a bit more like the saurians, but we’re not. The second Lettie opens her mouth, I want to slap her so hard she never speaks again.