Yitale lead her spawn through the crowded staging area with a cautioned grace as her scaled cloak billowed after her. It was the first meeting of the new cycle, and the best goods in the sector were on display around them. Be that for purchase or barter, activity was everywhere the eye or synthetic implant could see. In some ways, it reminded her of an open market, like the stories her people kept of times before they sailed the stars. What, with the multitude of ships docking and taking off, and the sprawl of temporary buildings, showing off their wares to any and all comers.

Breathing in the air without need for her suit's intervention, Yitale let the humming drone of automated guidance systems lull her into a calm as she continued past the booths and shops. Behind her, the two trailed, attention drifting as they oogled the oddities those shops no doubt contained.

This was a Trader's Guild event, after all. That meant that there could be anything one might want waiting around each corner. Be that legally, or otherwise. Union banned substances, stolen tech, simulation sets, rare ancient artifacts and data crystals from the Union's formation days...

It was hard to believe that the Trader's Guild gathering was a newer tradition, and had only been for at least 40,000 cycles. Held in neutral space between two sections of militarized border zones, it had become the mecca of unsavory types and entrepreneurs alike. Hundreds of species partook in the event, and hundreds more supplied it. Between the weapons, assets, business partners, food: the list stretched on as far as the imagination. If you wanted something, this was the correct place and time to find it. This was especially true if what you were looking for wasn't "Union friendly."

Ducking low, Yitale hummed discomfort as, above the crowd, winged species buzzed and glided low. Watching, she saw several arc up at the last sedon, to land at small levitating platforms with booths set up to mimic the lower levels. There, displays droned and screens floated along. Holographic images portrayed action, places, and flashes of text. Product advertisement, sales pitches, and travelling opportunities were abundant.

If she let it overwhelm her, it felt almost like a flood. There were shouts and screams, sellers and hagglers, thieves and enforcers. An entire mix of these hustled and bustled in the gathering. Above all though, there were the Traders of the Guild. Yet, she pressed on. Leading her small group, weaving through the masses. They passed through like ghosts, with streamlined ease as they they half walked, half sidestepped their way towards their destination, tails flicking to keep balance.

Of all the offers and potential that surrounded them now, only one sale truly mattered. Yitale had come with a single purchase in mind, after all, and there was only one place within the Union's vast reach that they would be able to find it.

Tightening her scaled cloak as she headed for the main avenue, Yitale's uniform beneath it caught the light. Not a full set of armor, but enough to catch the attention of several individuals ahead of her, who quickly stepped aside: their attention shifting along her cloak with nodds of deference. Pure blue eyes glared at any of those who didn't give her space, forcing her to manuver around them by either intentional disrespect, or ignorance.

It was a shame fellow Sirens were so uncommon at these events. By her own kind's standards, Yitale knew she was quite stunning, and she prided her appearance as one more tool she could use.

Truthfully, it was one of the few things she had left.

Finally free of the croud, she swept her gaze back, confirming her two stragglers were still in tow. Then. with a casual gesture she reached to her side and felt the weight that hung there.

It was safe, still buckled to her uniform and untouched.

The two behind her nodded, and she couldn't help but hum in amusement at their panicked looks. She remembered her first trip to the Trader's gathering all too well, and was proud the two were at least keeping the posture of someone calm. She had almost run screaming back onto the ship when she had been in their position. Surrounded by unfamiliar sights, smells, and dangers...

As she lead them closer to their destination, the crowd thinned even further, until they were completely alone. Heading down the street towards where the rows of booths and shops cut off and revealed the open floor of the giant structure, which was pure and slick metal.

She hummed again. They had made good time wading through the masses, and had been right to leave the crew to mind the ship at port. Too many more would have slowed them down. They were late as it was already, and it was likely the auction would already have started.

Approaching the doors with confidence, she nodded an acknowledgment at the two armed guards which held post on both sides. Slightly taller, and covered in overlapping sections of hard chitin and spikes, Yitale knew immediately that they were carnivorous. Their four pieced serrated jaws confirmed any doubt she had at first glace, and at their sides were shock rifles branded with the trader's union seals. The guild had spared no expense this cycle on hired muscle... or chitin for that matter.

Loud slurping and clicking emanated from the strange jaws as they choppily acknowledged her, and she stopped to meet their gaze before giving a single nod.

Slowly, one of the guards hit a holopad on the wall, opening the gates to the private showing.

An auction of this level... well, it was no surprise that the Trader's Guild took this extremely seriously. Without her scaled cloak marking her as a shipmaster, she knew wouldn't have gotten much farther. She knew from experience that the guards for these events were generally more thant happy to incapacitate troublemakers at the slightest provocation, as she had seem similar circumstances on previous trips cycles ago with her lifemate.

Behind the cloak, her spawn murmured uncomfortable songs of mild panic, which she hushed with a single not of confidence. It was a gamble, certainly, but there was no going back now.

For their sake and hers, the risks could be damned. Everything that mattered was riding on it.

----------------------------------------

When he woke again he was bound hand and foot, but much to his surprise, he wasn't in agony. For that he was thankful, even if his limbs were restricted by some strange type of... metal cuffs?

They looked almost like polished steel, but felt similar to plastic as he attempted to stretch beneath them.

Getting a better look at his surroundings, hands held in front and feet sealed together, the man found he was propped up at a slight angle in yet another case. Glass, or glass-like, just as the previous had been. This time, his containment was spherical, and large enough that it gave him room to stand.

Taking in a deep breath of air, he sighed as he relished in the feeling of being alive. Alive and not in pain... it was a wonderful, distracting, thing.

It took him a full minute for him to realize that he was on display.

Noises began to rise, on either side. Looking about, he could see that there were dozens of other creatures held in captivity, ranging in shape and size, texture and composition. As they began to wake, some of the larger creatures quickly panicked. Many seemed to throw themselves against the cages in rage, while many of those others simply screamed in primal anger. None of them seemed interested in anything but the glass which contained them.

It was much like a disturbed version of a zoo.

Quietly he sat in his strange glass bubble. It wasn't as though he had much of a choice in the matter, being bound and mute, but he did it on his own terms. Peacefully, he observed as the chaos that surrounded the sphere which contained him rose like the crescendo of an orchestra. He couldn't remember what an orchestra was, but it seemed a fitting description. Even through the strange glass, the noise was enormous, and his ears rang with the volume of it.

Light filled the space in which the prisons sat with a sudden burst, and the overwhelming noise cut off and found itself replace a deep calm. Though the creatures imprisoned around him still appeared to be screaming, not a single sound escaped their pods. Even as some of their violent lashings ricocheted off the translucent barriers that held them, no sign of it emerged on the outside. Slowly the human stood, carefully as to maintain balance, staring outwards to face what seemed to go in every direction for as far as he could see. There was a crowd, and it was massive.

All different sizes and shapes were present. Strange faces and eyes stared at him, at the others: at all of those on display. He and his fellow captives were the center of attention in what resembled a giant arena of some kind. From variety stood in the crowd, he realized there were only few that seemed even remotely human. Some were bipedal, but not all. Some seemed to have faces that he could feel a kinship to, but not many. As the light seemed to rotate around the stage, he caught a better view.

They were beautiful creatures. Even the ugliest seemed to be dressed in finery. Cloaks with reflective scales of black and silver seemed ever-present, providing an almost regal air about the many watching figures. Unlike his fellow captives on stage, these seemed graceful and intelligent.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Squinting as he tried to see in greater detail, the man pressed his nose to the glass, but light directed into his face before anything more could be made out. It almost blinded him, vision blurred with the after image of the powerful display.

Resisting the light, he turned at an angle and tried to see through it, squinting. There wasn't anything more than faint outlines of the beings off of the elevated stage. A rare few almost seemed to remind him of things he couldn't quite remember. As if they shared traits with animals, or creatures of fiction...

Fiction...

The throbbing echoed in the back of his skull, a constant reminder of his predicament.

Strange melodies seemed to hum over the light, and glass prisons moved forward without any obvious mechanisms to come to a halt abruptly once again. One at a time, the cases on the farthest level began to move to the edge of the stage, bringing their frenzied inhabitants with them.

After his fellow captives moved forward, one by one they seemed to levitate and float away. Each was sent in a different direction, their glass spheres like giant bubbles gliding off over the crowd with ease. As this continued the man observed one pod land near the stage. It opened and unceremoniously dumped it's captive onto the ground below. The crowd had parted immediately, and two figures bearing long rods of metal stood next to the hairy creature that lay on the ground. The crowd continued to back away, and formed an empty pocket in the seemingly endless crowd. The two figures and the creature were alone now.

The creature had several appendages unfamiliar to the man, but many of them resembled trunks or thick tails. These lashed out like heavy clubs as it tried to fight it's captors, darting side to side in sluggish leaps. It seemed unsteady as it flailed and stumbled about. The armed figures moved with tactical skill in sharp contrast to the beast, and it failed to land a single blow on them as they danced around it. Out of it's pod, the beast screams were audible of the murmur of the crowd as it seemed to squeal and grunt in random choppy outbursts. It tired quickly as it flailed, and finally came to a stop, heaving in ragged breathes. It slowly turned trying to keep the two assailants in sight.

Apparently those two with weapons had simply been trying to get in range, because the strange engagement ended abruptly.

An extremely loud crack ripped out as the beast was promptly zapped with a ball of light from the end of one of the metal rods. It seems to be dramatic overkill, as the creature fell to the floor in an instant and was quickly dragged away without further resistance towards a group of figures waiting near the edge of the crowd. They tossed the animal into a hovering cage, and the crowd quickly refilled around them as the cage slowly pushed away from the stage and towards what he could only guess were exits.

As a second creature down the line from him repeated the first's fate, it dawned on the man in sudden clarity what was happening.

They were being bought.

No- auctioned, to the highest bidders. Like a commodity, he and these other creatures were being purchased, and for what purpose he did not know. Looking at many among the crowd, he could see some looked to have wicked teeth, or tusks, or manidbles...

For food?

Was this some sort of exotic meat auction, perhaps? Did they think he was livestock?

The man tried to shout then, but again no sound came from his scarred throat; whatever damage had been done was likely permanent and he realized grimly that he would have to face this in silence. It was decided then that he would listen, there was nothing else one could do but observe and learn when all other means of interaction were stolen. He felt as though his survival would depend on this, and used this new purpose to squash down the fear that was beginning to rush upon him in waves.

Those waves crashed harder as the spotlights began to dim out, one after another. The stage darkened as other creatures were sold and transported away. None outmatched the figures that waited for them upon their release from the spheres.

Soon it was his turn, and the pod seemed to accelerate forward to the edge of the stage in a strange sensation, like walking forward on an escalator. He heard with clarity the melody of a deep voice which seemed to hum forth quick notes of language unfamiliar. He was going to be sold, and for what purpose he could only imagine. Thoughts of fleeing came to him, but the bonds on his legs kept him from seriously considering it an option. Besides, he still didn't know where he was, or even who he was?

If he escaped, what then?

No, he needed to find another human. Someone who could explain this situation. Someone else like him-

But everywhere he looked, he only found alien features. Expressions he couldn't read, voices he couldn't understand.

Desperately, he turned about, as the pod began to lower.

There had to be someone.

Somewhere.

There.

As another hush fell, he heard them. Almost songlike, several quieter voices caught his attention, and he tried to squint towards their direction. The melodies seemed to fight from other sides of the crowd with occasional dissonance, and more often then not they interrupted one another. They were almost certainly bidding on him. As he tried to peer through the light he could make out more details. Now, on the very edge of the platform he found that he could see the first few individuals in the crowd with reliable detail.

Again, they reminded him something. Humanoid in shape, but with long tails. For the two who lacked the scaled cloaks many seemed to wear, he could make out what might have been a thin layer of fur. Staring back at him, their eyes were one solid hue, as if they possessed nothing but an iris.

He found it strangely intimidating.

The dissonant melodies died suddenly, and his pod lifted off the ground in a sudden leap of speed that had him struggling to remain standing; his legs and arms were still bound by the alien cuffs and made it all but impossible to ready himself. This was especially apparent when the prison touched down in a deceivingly rough fashion. He fell forward, and suddenly wisped through the glass as though it had been made of air. The support it provided, ceasing to exist.

Instinctively he curled in a ball to protect his head, but then found that his fall was much slower than expected. Almost as if he were only half his normal weight.

With graceful ease he landed on his feet, despite his cuffs. The creatures around him murmured. Rought and harsh tones, evening out as those quiet melodies spoke again.

He'd made a good impression, it seemed. As others spoke, he assumed they were expressing astonishment. He too stared at the ground in awe, and realized that he felt as though he weighed barely anything. His body was light as a feather here, and every ripple of motion seemed to be magnified because of it.

If he tried... how high could he jump?

Almost six feet tall, the man was not a light individual. It was obvious that he had spent many years in physical activity. Fit and large, the human felt used to being heavy, and had grown strength to accommodate for it. Now suddenly it was as if the weight of his very existence had been lifted from him. He didn't know for certain, but he was confident that he had never felt so weightless in his life. That body of dense muscle and weight might as well have been made out of air.

The man looked up to see two guards with the shock staffs approaching cautiously. Their bodies were tense, and he could see an extra set of both arms and tails raised behind them, twitching similar to that of a predator stalking it's prey.

Those weapons in their hands seemed to be rising, slowly. As if aiming down sights.

Coming to his wits, the man came to his wits, he tried to walk, but fell forgetting for an instant that his feet were bound. His grace was lost as quickly as it had been gained and he fell forward to land on his face- which was quite unfortunate, as the sudden motion caused the guards to fire.

A shock hit his back with searing pain and his damaged throat tried to scream. It seemed his action had been interpreted as resistance, and another shock hit him in the side when the first failed to have the desired effect.

It hurt.

It hurt a lot, but it wasn't nearly as terrible as he'd thought it would be, having watched it from afar.

That agony immediately turned to rage. With seething anger and frustration, the man flexed his muscles to the bursting point and felt something crack. Legs broke their cuffs and sent pieces of the strange material scattering in different directions. Hammering his cuffs down onto his knees the arm cuffs followed shortly after.

Noise erupted around him.

The guards had leapt back in shock, and their tense barks quickened to sharp tones as they began to circle and more of their fellows arrived. This was obviously not something that happened often to them, and the crowd that surrounded the three was turning into a milling struggle. Some tried to leave, while others came to watch the show.

The human stared at the crowd, and then down the break past them where his assumed purchasers stood. The ones who spoke in song. There were three of them that he could see, and they all seemed uneasy. It appeared they had gotten more than they bargained for.

He huffed at that.

The crowd had parted even further now, as more guards had come rushing to the scene. More of those strange staff-like weapons angled to fire. At this point and there wasn't else within twenty feet in any direction besides the three uneasy purchasers and the guards.

He turned towards the ones not pointed weapons at his person. If they had purchased him, it stood to reason that they likely didn't want him injured before he served his purpose, whatever that purpose was. Slowly the man walked forward, and the guards seemed to relax. Under their direction he allowed himself to be lead towards the three unarmed beings. Perhaps they could work out some type of understanding. Two were smaller, children perhaps? But one was large enough to stand up to the man's shoulder and wore one of the strange scaled cloaks he had seen scattered about the crowd.

It was only slightly smaller than the guards who held their staffs in an uneasy manner as they moved along behind him, but looked more humanoid. With only one set of arms and legs, though it also had a tail...

He found he couldn't stop staring at that. Watching as it whipped in tense flicks, like a cat's tail, right before a pounce.

He frowned.

What the hell was a cat?

A staff prodded him, sparking pain in his back, forcing him forward with a start, and the two smaller of his presumed purchasers jumped back to hide behind their elder, shying away from his presence.

The man met it's solid blue eyes, and studied it. It's dark blue eyes peered back, and they did not leave. The strange cloak which wrapped around it's shoulders, seemed to hide a mane of longer hair which traveled down from its head to the length of it's tail, shortening as it went until it blended with the rest of the pale blue hair on it's body before it's end. Though it was nothing like a human, and the man found himself begin to relax with the familiarity of it's features. This was far safer looking than the previous alien races he had witnessed.

Maybe it could be reasoned with.

A rustle from beneath the scaled cape brought out a silver collar, which the creature slowly reached out with. The man started to raise his hands in front of him to attempt to stop the motion, whatever that was, it wasn't going on him until he had some answers.

And he got them.

Quickly.

Immediately, two more shocks hit his ribs from either side and the collar cracked onto his neck as he fell to his knees. A tingle began to surge from it immediately. In his neck, it seemed spread like stabbing needles deep into his skin as it fused with his body.

The man tried to rise, trying desperately to slip his fingers underneath the device and pry it off, but the creature quickly stepped back and raised her one of her six fingered hands to her opposing wrist. Pain flooded through his entire body. Such unbelievable pain, as if fire was surging through every nerve, every fiber of his being. He fell forward to his knees again, wobbled slowly, and then hit the floor. Darkness took him, and he was thankful that he felt nothing after that.