Page 13 of Beast Unburdened

“What about the disease Tori has that’s harmful to the Krektar?” I asked and gestured at the girl in question and then flapped my hand at the door behind which Thonklad stood. Luka raised his creepy eyes to my face and gave me a cheeky grin, “I made it up. I figured they’d find that believable for a few days and that would buy her some time.”

Tori looked up and stared at Luka for a moment in stunned surprise. “You lied to them to keep me safe?” And Luka beamed back at her his widest smile and nodded, “Of course. I don’t want to hurt any of you. I convinced them putting translators in without anesthetic would be harmful to the baby and they don’t want to lose it so...”

Huh, lucky for her. I still remembered what a bitch that had been and from Luka’s guilty look at me I knew he remembered that too. I shrugged, “Alright, how long can you keep us here where it’s warm? Is it possible to take a shower?”

Chapter 7

Ziame

“We cannot risk the new woman, she’s pregnant,” Sunder told me under his breath while the two of us sparred on the mats furthest from our Krektar guard. I knew that, that’s exactly what I’d told Abigail that morning but unease ate at me, we needed to move fast. The closer we get to Xio, the smaller our window of opportunity became.

“Tonight, I’ll get my collar off,” I said to Sunder as softly as I could so not even any of our fellow gladiators would hear. Out of everyone here I knew I could trust him the most. “Tomorrow during our work out I’ll take out our guards. Then we move.”

His slate-gray eyes appraised me for a moment as we circled each other but then he gave me a curt nod. “I’ll wait for your signal brother,” he said. After that neither of us spoke, focusing on the mock fight instead.

A while later I was settling on a bench to lift weights when the Sune male, Kitan came over to spot. I figured this was to talk because the male had on this journey so far generally paired up with the extremely morose Xurtal Pu’il. Pu’il was sparring with one of the others though so it could also be chance.

Especially when Kitan just silently helped me adjust weights and carefully watched my form as I did my reps. For the longest time, he said nothing at all though it wasn’t uncommon for the males to joke and talk about previous fights when they had breath to spare. Of course, I’d never been part of these conversations because I’d carefully kept up the appearance I couldn’t talk in anything but grunts and had no translator.

The truth was of course that no translator in the galaxy had the Lacerten tongue uploaded to their database. If I wanted to make myself understood out here I spoke one of the known languages, typically the most commonly spoken universal.

Eventually, Kitan said what he came here to say, his growly voice pitched low so only I would hear. “You are the sneakiest male I have had the good fortune to meet. Whatever you have planned, you can count on both Pu’il and me to back you up. Give us a sign and we’ll fight.” Ah, so he and his friend had spoken about this.

“You know Pu’il well enough to be sure? I didn’t realize you two knew each other,” I asked. Only Sunder, Kitan, and Geramor had previously been housed in cells near enough for me to know them. Pu’il, like the rest, had only come aboard for this particular flight to Xio. They had been picked up at another location.

“Yes, he and I were in the same stable for a year, we’ve trained together often,” the Sune male simply said, not in the least offended that I’d asked. That was good enough for me, I couldn’t be picky after all and the goal was to free everyone by the end of this revolt.

I needed to know where I stood with these two a little more though. Sunder I knew had a death sentence hanging over his head; he had nothing to lose fighting this fight. But Kitan and Pu’il were both strong fighters, it was likely they’d come out victorious in their upcoming matches on Xio.

“This could end in death for any one of us, you understand that right?” I asked the male, eyeing the Krektar at the door to make sure they weren’t paying attention to us. Kitan shrugged, rippling his fur-covered shoulders in a fluid move while he kept one hand out beneath the bar as I lifted. “At least we’d die free.” I couldn’t argue with that.

“Thank you then, I’ll be counting on you,” I offered, happy to know that these males were backing me up in my crazy plan to break free. “What we need,” I added, deciding to unburden just a little now that I had the chance, “Is someone who can fly this damn ship once we’ve killed the Krektar.”

Kitan chuckled and sent me a wicked grin, “I’m your male then brother. Aren’t you in luck?” “You’re a pilot?” I asked, a little incredulous because I hadn’t pegged the always restless and active Sune male to be able to sit in a pilot’s chair long enough to fly a ship with any skill. “It’s soothing,” he said, then with a glint in his eyes added, “And fun!”

The Krektar were looking at us now, probably because Kitan had spoken just a tad too loud, and I wasn’t supposed to be a conversationalist. “Oops,” the male said with a gleeful chuckle and then he abandoned me to join up with Pu’il and start a practice fight on the mats. I was left to angrily glare at the weights and snort tendrils of fire in the Krektar’s direction, which served to make them back away.

The rest of the day I spent carefully going around each of the other males, making it a point to work out with them or next to them so I could check that each was on board with this rebellion. I even spoke with Geramor who’d given my Abigail the creeps when he’d started eating the Krektar guard he’d killed.

All-day I was anxious to return to my cell and see Abigail again. Every hour I was away from her I worried she was being harmed while I wasn’t there. The Doc wouldn’t conclude she was pregnant obviously, but maybe that Krektar Frek would get impatient. He was a sniveling bully after all and with Farn dead he was in charge of this ship.

*

Abigail

I was actually sort of happy after Thonklad returned Tori and me to our cells. It was still cold but the Doc had scrounged up some old jumpsuits from somewhere to wear over our clothing. It was big on me but Tori was positively drowning in the thing, which meant her pregnant belly actually fit. It helped immensely to stay warm.

On top of that, the Doc had delivered, both Tori and I had gotten to shower and wash our hair. I felt like a new person almost, rebellion bring it on! And cuddles with Ziame too of course, now I didn’t need to feel self-conscious about my scent; even though he’d assured me I smelled good to him.

I was pacing in my cell, heels clicking along when the doors finally opened and the men were escorted back inside. This time there weren’t four guards but eight, they clearly weren’t taking any chances this time around.

Ziame in the light in the hallway looked magnificent to me, huge even compared to most of the other males. His green-scaled skin wasn’t just latticed with emerald on his ears, I could see that the same pattern also curved over his flanks and on the outsides of his arms. His wide horns made the hallway seem small and as he had lightly flared out the row of knife-like spikes along his head and spine; he looked super intimidating.

He looked nothing like a human man, that was for sure but I couldn’t help but feel this primeval tingle of appreciation. That creature could protect me, provide for me, it ticked all the right boxes and on top of that, he was kind and sweet. What more could a girl want? Really?

The glowing green of his eyes seemed even brighter when he caught my look and I just knew he was happy to see me. Even though he didn’t change his expression all that much he seemed brighter at that moment.

Nobody made a fuss that evening when getting into their cells, Ziame behaved and so nobody got hurt this time around. I knew Ziame wanted to whittle down the number of guards though, so I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.