Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
I head out into the stairwell, feeling vaguely violated, and follow after Meev. Nice fur indeed. No one would dare say such things to Heir Zhurrrvas, but here, no one knows who I am. This is going to be more of a trial than I realized. I climb the stairs two at a time, catching up with the human and her short legs quickly. We make it out to the back entrance of the building, and then a wave of wind and a blast of something that smells like manure hits me in the face.
I cough, appalled. "What is that smell?"
She sniffs. "Fresh air?"
Horrid.
Back home, the cities are covered in protective domes to keep them safe from the harsh environments of Praxii Minor, which is prone to violent storms. The air there is cleanly recycled and doesn't smell anything like this. My sensitive nose twitches with disgust, but I suppose it is just another thing I must get used to. Zebah did say this one was a farm planet when suggesting places I could hide out. I imagined flowers and greenery and fields when she told me that.
Instead, I'm getting the smell of manure and dockworkers who think I'm for sale. I'm already regretting all of this.
But at my side, Meev is cheered. She beams at the bright sunlight overhead and then looks around. "The coast is clear. You can probably take that off once we leave town."
The neck of the thing is bothering me, pulled too tight. Szzt are nowhere near as strongly built as praxiians. "Just lead me to your vehicle, servant. I grow weary of this."
"Vehicle? Oh, I walked here." She gestures into the distance. "It's not more than a mile or two."
I have no idea what a “mile” is but I'm appalled that she has no vehicle. "You did not bring transportation?"
She holds her satchel up. "I brought a bag. Because you're supposed to be a house cat."
And she's supposed to be my servant. So far she's doing a keffing terrible job at it, too. Perhaps I can find a new one once I've gotten settled and everything has been cleared up by Zebah. "Just lead the way."
We head out of the small settlement—I try not to feel despair at just how small it is, because I'm supposed to be in hiding, and theoretically there's no better place to hide than a near-empty planet. However, I'm the one that has to live here. I doubt they've got a single claw specialist on this planet, never mind someplace I can go to keep my fur treated and luxurious. I'm going to look an absolute mess by the time I come out of exile.
No one's going to believe I'm the heir to Praxii Minor's largest noble house.
We walk on one of the dirt roads—by all the fur-covered gods in the universe, the road is keffing dirt—that wind between several farms. There are rows of crops growing, and another field has meat-stock wandering about, their smell drifting on the breeze and adding to the stench of this planet. I grow worried as we continue to walk, the heat beating down upon my rain slicker with the too-tight hood, and the settlement recedes behind us. Nowhere do I see a home suitable for habitation. We pass two farms—at least I think they're farms, but the homes seem to be far too tiny. Perhaps we simply need to get past the smaller farms before we arrive at the larger ones.
But when the human female turns down the path and approaches a plot of land with a tiny building that looks as if it's nothing more than a shed of some kind, I worry. "Did we make a wrong turn?" I ask hopefully. Because I doubt that building will hold three of my trunks, much less thirty of them.
"No. That's my home." And Meev gives me a defiant look, as if daring me to say more.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
MAEVE
I'm pretty calm, all things considered, as we leave the outskirts of town. The calm sours and turns to resentment the longer I walk, though, and by the time we get to my house, I'm simmering with repressed anger.
He was supposed to be a pet. Company.
Now I'm out my credits and I've got someone trying to blackmail me, and I still don't have the pet I dearly wanted. Instead, I'm stuck with an alien who's putting his nose in the air at the sight of my farm. And while I know it's not a great farm, it's mine. It's all I've got left in the damn universe. So for him to pooh-pooh it makes me want to slap him across his smug whiskered mouth.
"You know, if you don't like it, you're free to go elsewhere."
He brightens, glancing over at me. "You have another place?"
This fucking guy. "No. I mean you and I can split ways and you can go wherever you like and I will go home and contemplate the bullet I dodged."