Page 10 of Bred By Sor'en

“I’m not going to let you down,” I whisper, finally opening my eyes as I release the door lock, revealing a thankfully very empty room. Another door, another held breath, and another empty, much larger room greet me. This one is obviously a communal space. The seating is all too tall for me to enjoy easily, not that I have any plans to hang around. The sight of a kitchen is tempting, though.

The Breeding Agency housing had spoiled me a bit over the limtic I was there. My stomach was getting used to the sensation of fullness.Over-fullness really.The other girls, what few required agency housing at least, said nothing as I took more than my share. The cleaning bots left the food I hid in my pod alone after the first day. Not much makes me embarrassed, but the looks on their faces while I ate to the point of feeling sick did.

I stayed in my room to eat after that.

If they wanted to go hungry the next time food dried up, that was on them. Everyone was entitled to learn their own lessons the hard way. Mom taught me that, although life had already heavily introduced the concept.

I stumble a bit as I head deeper into the room, but it's fine. I usually come out of these things quickly. It wasn’t uncommon to wake up having been put to sleep with night gas in the education pods, only to wake up woozy, washed and changed, or in the process of such things. It wasn’t a matter of violation but simply easier for the staff to handle the upkeep of so many of us whilewe were sleeping. Nearly all of us had a unique set of grooming requirements. Some that could take hours with a squirming, irritable cub.

My nudity has long had the rush drained from it. My body is simply that: a

vessel to do shit with.

Unfun shit. Mostly.

Like sneaking and hiding or trimming my nails.

Once I get off this ship, all that will—

My entire body, entire mind, entire everything shuts off at the sight of the back wall of the room. The vast, rolling, vibrant…plantspast the weird, shimmering windows.

Windows.

And plants.

Because this isn’t a ship.

This isn’t… this isn’t a fucking ship.

My legs give out from underneath me as I stare at the bright fields of glowing flowers, the breeze making them dance in rolling waves. The grass is far from the green on Lunareth, where I’m supposed to be, but an odd, vibrant teal. The sheet poofs out as if it’s been inflated around me. My left knee, sore from falling from the bed, lets out a brief pang that goes almost entirely unnoticed. I’m not ready for the sudden, ripe onslaught of emotion that greets me.

I’m planetside.

On the wrong planet.

I’m… planetside.

I’ve never seen a planet before, not in real life.

Who knows how long I sit in the strange white space watching the strange flowers, torn between wanting to close my eyes and go back to the windowless room or run full tilt into them. Desperate to touch something… natural, something real for thefirst time in my life. Desperate to hide from it too. The betrayal this represents.

The press of mom’s fang on my chest sets my tears loose. Fat, heavy, stupid tears that run down my face in ugly cascades. When the sound of footsteps finds me, I don’t turn around to face them. I just stare at the flowers. At the breeze I can’t feel.

My voice is a mere whisper, choked out between gasping breaths. “Where am I?”

“Silloria, my home planet,” Sor’en’s velvet voice answers as he comes to a stop, the sweet masculine flora of him choking my nose. Tricking me into inhaling just a bit deeper.

“What quadrant?”

He hesitates as my shoulders shake. “The first.”

My breath whooshes out of me. First quadrant is deep, deep, deep space. The deeper the quadrant, the more compact they are, closer to each other, ports… the greater galaxies. Easier and cheaper to traverse.

First is as far, as desolate as one can get. In our solar system, at least.

I’msevenquadrants from where I need to be. Traveling just one was over two thousand credits. I spentyearsof my life making it to quadrantfive.

I rip my eyes from the flowers, my legs wobblier than before as I try to stand. Sor’en reaches out his hand, steadying me before I rip myself from him so aggressively it sets me off balance, making me fall back to the floor with a muffledhumph.