A blood-curdling howl tore Liyzo out of his nap. As he shot up in his seat, he could hear the dull sound of something heavy falling over. Looking around in his sleep-drunken confusion, he spotted a huge splat of blood on the left-side window of the cockpit. For First-Ones-know-how-long he was just sitting there, blankly staring at the bright orange stain. He didn't understand what was going on. Was someone injured? But that was so much blood! Was this an attack? But by whom? Should he fly off?

It was only after he saw movement outside that he managed to pull himself together. Crouching down and pressing himself against the casing, he made sure that someone looking in wouldn't see him. Then, he confirmed that the cockpit was locked and couldn't be opened from outside. After a few moments, voices became audible. They didn't sound rushed or in any form stressed, on the contrary. He waited a bit longer, but still, nothing seemed to happen, so he slowly raised his head.

Through a still clean spot in the window, he could see Lady Nadine next to the shuttle's passenger door. The alien noblewoman seemingly just stood there looking at the ground. Her mouth was pressed tightly shut and her hands were visibly shaking. Shortly after she balled her fists and hit them together before letting her arms fall down again. What was she doing? Finally, she took a deep breath, squatted down, and disappeared from his field of vision.

Confused, Liyzo opened the cockpit. He was immediately hit by an awful smell that definitely couldn't be explained by just the blood on the window.

"Okay, let's do this! Please tell me I didn't rupture any digestive organs!"

Following Nadine's voice, he found her hunched over what looked like the carcass of some large animal. Judging by the gigantic wound in its side, the blood probably came from it, and the stench's origin then was the creature's organs spilling out from it. Taking another deep breath, the alien noblewoman pushed her fingers into the wound, and with seemingly no effort, tore the entire side of the beast open.

Liyzo fell back into his seat and closed the cockpit. He did not need to see whatever this was.

"Okay, come on, you can do this!"

Though apparently, he had to hear it.

"Nothing with feces in it has burst, so far so good. Let's see..."

Some shuffling noises, followed by what sounded like a lot of wet things hitting the ground.

"Huh, that actually somewhat worked. Ah, shoot. That's not a stomach, is it?"

"Do you... need help, Milady?" One of the guards asked with a suppressed gagging noise.

"Actually yes, can you shoot this part? Maybe that'll cauterize it."

Gunshot.

"Haaah, well good enough. Wait, does this even fit in the freezer?"

"I'm afraid not, Milady."

"Shit. Erm, okay, maybe without the legs."

Six times the sound of something snapping, followed by a tearing noise.

"Are you done yet? Can I look again?" He heard the prince ask.

"One sec! Argh, damn it! Okay, Rhinkus, hold the lid open, I'll try and squash the middle."

A loud Crunch!, followed by the sound of someone vomiting.

"Maybe- ugh... without the head, Milady?"

"I don't know. That thing's brain seems to be in the head, so the throat should contain an artery with a lot of blood in it. We don't have the time to bleed it out, Kiyrtin needs to see the doctor. Okay, different plan, I'll just take out some pieces that look good, and the rest we'll leave here. You go and get Kiyrtin. Okay, where is the knife..."

Why didn't she use the knife from the start? Well, at least this time he didn't have to listen to ripping sounds. What he instead heard shortly after was a knock on the window.

"Morning, sleeping beauty!" Nadine said when he opened, whatever that was supposed to mean. "Can you make everything ready? We need to get back."

Stolen story; please report.

"Um... as you wish Milady," Liyzo answered, deciding the best course of action was to simply not comment on what was happening around him. He was simply glad that the passenger space was separated from him so he at least wouldn't need to smell blood the entire fight. He fired up the engine, checked the instruments, and...

"Uh-oh."

Nadine's head once again appeared next to him.

"Err, that's not something you want to hear your pilot say. What's wrong?"

"Um, give me a moment Milady."

Liyzo exited the cockpit - to the right - walked to the back of the shuttle and crouched down. Only to realize that by now, the entire ground was covered in animal blood. Screw it, this was more important. Ignoring the gross wetness he felt on his back, Liyzo slid under the shuttle and opened the casing. Everything looked fine, nothing to even indicate a leak. But how else... Hertin.

Blood dripped from his back as he stood up again and faced Nadine.

"Milady, I'm afraid we have a problem."

"I noticed, what's wrong? We need to get back quickly."

"Yeah, well, that will be difficult, Milady. You see, it seems like... someone... borrowed this shuttle without authorization. And without recording it. In other words, this shuttle was marked as having a full tank. Even though it didn't have one."

"What?!" one of the guards shouted. "Are you serious?! You took two of the most high-priority people on the planet on a flight without checking the fuel?!"

"As I said it was marked as fueled. Though that is not an excuse, I agree that I should have checked myself. I am deeply sorry, Milady."

Nadine sighed.

"We can talk about blame later, for now, it is what it is. What's the fastest way to get back now?"

"Well, we can call the palace, but the new shuttle will take about as much time as it took us. The same goes for calling a tanker."

"How much do we have left? Is there a fueling station in reach?"

"I doubt it, we're too far away from any city. Maybe there is a noble residence somewhere if we're lucky. One moment."

He went back to the cockpit and checked the navigation system.

"North of here is a small village. It's unlikely that we'll find fuel there, but we should have enough to reach it."

She nodded.

"Better than nothing. Then let's get going. While we do, call a new shuttle, and tell them to bring Doc with them. Err, I mean, doctor Githaiy."

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

"It stinks," Kiyrtin noted. He had tried his best to keep quiet, but the blood covering Nadine, the Guards, and a good portion of the passenger space really started to reek like a dead animal. He was glad he didn't get any of the stuff on him. The smell reminded him of the last solar cycle when he had found one of the onrics in their stable dead. He once again wondered how Nadine planned to eat something that smelled so gross.

"Yes, this day certainly didn't go as planned," Nadine answered sounding tired.

"How is that village called again?" He asked, mainly to distract himself from the stench. Looking out of the window, he could already see it. It was really small, maybe a hundred houses or so.

"I think Liyzo called it Voriyg or something like that. Let's hope they have some sort of express shuttle in the palace so we don't have to wait too long."

"Can't we just borrow a shuttle? Why are you even so sure that they don't have fuel? They also need to get around somehow."

"Somehow, yes," one of the guards explained, "but not with shuttles. Commoners can't afford that, Your Highness. And the few who can wouldn't live here."

They landed in a free area next to the village's entrance. Kiyrtin had never seen houses like this. They looked completely different than the ones in the cities - even those which were owned by commoners. They were tiny, and he saw multiple oddities on most of the houses that he was pretty sure were damages rather than style choices.

"Looks pretty run-down," Nadine murmured, having noticed it as well.

"Why don't they repair it?" Kiyrtin wondered. Who would want to live in something so shabby?

"Because repairs cost money, Your Highness. Not everybody has that," the guard said again. What had Nadine called him? Rhinkus? Or was that the other one? "From the looks of it, this is probably a double-taxed village."

Nadine abruptly halted.

"Double-taxed? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well," the guard clarified, "as the name implies, they pay double the taxes. You see, during and after the unification war, there was a lot of land that needed to be distributed among the new lords. Back then, King Kiyron was pressed for time as he had to organize the new kingdom. Because of that, the distribution ended up being a bit sloppy. To this day, it sometimes happens that a noble re-evaluates his fiefdom and notices some errors, causing the borders to move a bit. In some cases, that means the border now runs right through a town. And since the town now belongs to two fiefdoms, both lords have a right to tax the inhabitants."

"How the hell does THAT make sense?!"

"Why would anyone want to live somewhere like that?" Kiyrtin added to Nadine's outcry.

"They don't, which is why they move away. At least those who can afford it. But not everybody can. Due to that, the town bleeds its middle-class citizens, leaving the poorer ones behind who then have it even harder."

"Why do you know all of that? Aren't you a guard? Why are you educated in politics?"

"I am not, Your Highness. I happen to know this because my hometown was the same. Though we were somewhat lucky. Most of the richer people lived in the same area. Once everyone from there was gone, we demolished their old houses, so the town no longer crossed the border."

"That's still bullshit!" Nadine pointed out. "Why are there no safety nets for that?!"

She took a deep breath.

"Well, it'll still take a few hours - sorry, invas - till our new shuttle arrives, so let's hope they still have their doctor. After that, we should look for somewhere to clean ourselves and grab something to eat."

Right, after everything, Kiyrtin had almost forgotten his hunger. Although, the slight stinging in his abdomen didn't really feel like hunger. As he rubbed his hand over his belly, he could feel something wet and sticky.

"Oh, he, look! My first melt-molting!" he proudly proclaimed as he raised his hand. Then he realized that the stuff sticking to his hand wasn't his melted shell. It was blood.