Page 50 of Bred By Sor'en

That is not how I feel now.

I eye the dome overhead.

My heart pounds in my chest as I slip off the side of the house, landing roughly on my feet, making my ankles let out twin pangs of displeasure. This time, I don’t curl my toes into the tall, soft grass. I don’t look at the pretty colors swirling in the sky above me. My hand slips to my stomach, itching the skin there, slathered in the new tincture. Jin has been great, and although neither of us would admit it to one another, I’m pretty sure we’re friends. As gruff and reserved as the older male is, sometimes, if you’re quiet, Jin will talk.

He told me about a time he went off planet many, many zentics ago. Apparently, males would on occasion. Just for meetings to try to work out deals with other large governing races. He went with the Balla’mar, their leader, whose name is actually just his title and not a name at all. Each dome has a Balla’mar, and he essentially just acts as, in Jin’s words, an over-important mascot, as Xyrelith communities are largely self-governed. I didn’t know what a mascot was; apparently, it's a human thing. We used to dress up in large creature costumes and dance for… some reason. We also used to be very obsessed with something calledhome runs, where the most elite humans would throw a ball very far and make the mascot dance. Again, I avoid Old Earth media, but I did find it pretty funny that it was apparently something of a guilty pleasure for an ancient death-touch male. He’d managed to trade for some while on port.

I laughed so hard he’d ordered me out of his tent.

I did not go.

Then he started talking again as he passed off a bowl of petals for me to grind into mush. My laughter died quickly after that. He’d told me about how he’d never stepped foot outside the dome before that. Admitted, a little sheepishly, he’d been too scared to. That was, until the Balla’mar had taken him to a ship, and a world beyond the dome opened before him.

The Xyreliths had a ship.

My eyes track across the field, outside the dome.

I’d tried to buy one at first, many orbits ago. Thought maybe if I could get my hands on my own ship, learn to navigate it well enough, I could bypass being at the whim of many species that didn’t give a piss about me or my journey across the stars.

The dockmaster had laughed in my face.

Sure, I’d offered to become his indentured slave in return for a ship to use. Sure, I’d never planned to actually make good on my end of the deal and come back, but he had no way of knowing that for sure.

He’d decided totakeme instead, to sell me off to an actual slaver for a high price. Slavers love humans; we’re tiny enough to be decent workers in most fields. Biologically compatible enough to be fun to fuck should they require it. Tasty enough to be food for the right species. I’d wiggled through the walls of his ship and out the first chance I got. Haven’t visited Balpemo Station since.

I’d learned to fly and navigate, though, before I realized the idea was a bust.

I still remember most of it, memorized the most critical buttons and what they mean.

Mostly.

If I have a ship, as a Xyrelith citizen, I can come back. No greater alliance can dispute my claim to the airspace.

I can comehome. Regardless of the greeting that awaits me. I can put Mom to rest and come back to him, to all of them. Emotion clogs my throat as I take an unsteady step forward, the bag slung over my shoulder small and light. Most ships are well-stocked, but the Xyreliths aren’t necessarily a space-faring species. Who knows how well they’ve kept up the reportedly small vessel? I have enough credits to buy passage. I can return the rest to Sor’en as anI’m sorry,I’m a horrible matetoken when I get back.

I eye a group of females down the way, picking flowers, entirely lost within themselves. Good, don’t pay attention to the little human. It's rare they come out this far, but not so rare that it should stop me.

A glint of shiny, white speckled black jerks my attention to the side, my heart slamming into my throat. I stumble, losing my footing and crashing to my knees. It’s a…tail.

A familiar long one I spent the better half of my childhood running my small fingers through.

Mom?

I stand there, staring at the slinking tail only for it to appear further back, farther away from where I am and where I needed to go. “Wait!” I call out, dropping my bag and rushing into the field. My heart pounding as I’m driven by pure desperation and not much else. Tears bud in my eyes because each time I get close, it gets further away.

“Mom!” I call out, my voice hoarse with emotion.

I’d know that fur anywhere.

Isawher, saw her shoot from the airlock, watched her body—

It’s not her, but I follow the trail anyway.

I’m led away, deeper into the field moments before a deafening boom shakes the ground, sending me careening toward it faster than I can react. Pain explodes on my chin, myears ringing as I struggle to lift myself. I barely get to my knees when the smell of smoke interrupts the smell of flowers.

A siren sounds overhead as I lift my gaze toward the sky.

The dome that covers the city is fractured, buzzing, and wavering as the nose of a ship jams through the opening. The illusion tech holding, making it look like the needle nose of the vessel is hovering mid-air, perfect, unmarred sky surrounding it.