The little creature who had been making the high-pitched cry was small and delicate looking, with snow white fur, big pointed ears, and the roundest eyes Alwen had ever seen. In short, every nurturing instinct within her went into overdrive once she saw the distressed child.
Alwen made a high-pitched sound that matched the little creatures in ear piercing intensity. She made a move forward, but Gato’s arm held her back.
“Your scaring her.” He said softly.
“Bu, but, I’m not scawy” She whined.
He blinked “Scawy?” he asked.
Alwen blushed “Scary, in meant scary.”
“Right,” he said unconvinced while giving her a sideways glance. “Well look at it from her perspective, we’re two big scary predators who have her cornered. She was obviously crying for her mom, and now she’s alone and surrounded by some of the deadliest strangers in the galaxy.”
“What should we do then?” Alwen asked, convinced by his logic but incapable of ignoring the little creature.
He looked but to the white furred child and sniffed the air. Immediately his body language changed from relax and curious into taut and on guard. Something he had sniffed off the creature had prickled his danger sense. “Can’t leave her, something dangerous is after her.”
“Dangerous how?”
“Not sure, hard to identify.” He turned back to the child and made his voice even softer and more comforting. “Hola Niña, where’s your mama?” he asked.
Alwen mentally wondered if using Spanish on an alien who had likely never even heard of the language was a smart idea. But she also knew that it had a softer and more soothing tone than when compared to the harsh barks of English or the bland simplicity of Galactic Common. The girl didn’t understand the words, but she understood the intent. “G, gone.” She squeaked.
“Gone where?”
“Don’t know. We were walking, and then something grabbed me, and then I was up in the trees.”
“In the trees huh, did you see who grabbed you?”
“No,” the little girl said while staring down.
Alwen saw that she was closing herself off, probably in response to the fear. So she sank down to her knees and made herself level with the girl. “Its alright, we wont hurt you.”
The girl gave Alwen a distrustful gaze, then glanced up to Gato. “He has big teeth.” She said accusingly. The girl was too young to know what Gato or Alwen were, but her natural instincts told her that they were both dangerous. It was smart on her part, but also made their jobs harder.
“Yes he does” Alwen agreed. “They match his appetite.”
The girl shrank back, and Gato gave Alwen a confused look. His thoughts were obvious “We’re trying to calm her, not scare her more.”
But Alwen knew what she was doing. “In fact I’ve seen him crush an entire melon in his jaws. A fruit as big as my head.” Alwen said using her hands for emphasis. The girl looked at Alwen’s head with wide eyes.
“That’s big.” She muttered.
Alwen nodded “Yup. I once saw him bite a log in half because he was hungry.” That one was half true. During one of the hikes through the upper Acheron valley he had showed her just how strong his jaw was by biting a log in half, and was spitting out splinters for hours after.
The girl looked up at Gato, and despite the terror Alwen’s statement should have produced the girl looked more curious. “Why would he eat a tree, trees aren’t tasty?”
“I told you; because he was hungry. Why a little thing like you wouldn’t even be a morsel to him. Not when there are so many big trees around.” Alwen lied.
Gato gave her an incredulous look at how bizarre her statement was. But the little girl simply looked at all the trees around and decided that so long as there were trees around she would be safe. Little kids, no matter what species, were hard coded to believe what adults said. So long as they could see a sort of logic to it and an adult said confidently enough they would believe. Reality was a subjective, and Alwen’s words only seemed ridiculous to other adults.
One of the ‘punishments’ at her old job had been to assist pediatrics when they were overwhelmed. Toray was not fond of kids at all, and assumed only failed doctors went into pediatrics. Alwen on the other hand had enjoyed the chance to work with kids, and had long since learned the secrets towards earning their trust in a matter of minutes.
A minuscule hand reached towards Alwen, and Alwen took the hand and without a second thought lifted the girl up and sat her on her hip. She was surprisingly light for her size, weighing half as much as a Torweni her size would have. The girl made a strange sound that was a cross between a giggle and a birds tweet.
“Woah, your so strong.” The girl enthused.
“Of course, your much lighter than I thought you’d be. You wouldn’t even be a snack or a crumb to us. Not worth the effort of chewing” Alwen stated. To which the girl made her giggling sound again.
“How the hell does telling her I wouldn’t bother eating her translate to trust?” Gato asked.
“It’s the truth isn’t it.”
“Yeah, but for other reasons besides that.” He grumped.
“Reasons like what?” the girl asked.
“Reason like how eating people is wrong.” Gato growled grumpily.
“Oh,” the girl said, seeming chastised and a little less afraid in Alwen’s arms. “But the short men said they couldn’t wait to taste me.”
“Short men?” Alwen asked.
The girl nodded. “Short hairy men. They grabbed me then jumped into the trees. They were also strong.”
Gato stiffened.
“What?” Alwen asked.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“I just recognized the scent on her. Her description helped me remember. It’s a good thing she got away.” Gato mumbled, clearly unwilling to say it front of the child.
Alwen glanced at him a little longer before turning back the girl in her arms. “What’s your name?”
“Nila.”
“Well Nila you were very brave. We’re going to try and find your mother, do you remember where you were before the men came?”
“We were near a fountain. It had a lot of squares on it, and a big Zxx’thi.” she said.
They glanced to each other; they hadn’t seen anything like that. Which meant they were going to have to wander around until they found one, or thought of something better. Alwen nodded her head “Alright, lets see if we can find a square fountain with a big Zxx’thi on it.”
“Nooo,” Nila complained. “The fountain was round, it had squares on it.” she moaned in the way of all children who were upset when adults didn’t understand their perfectly clear descriptions. Alwen marveled at how certain simple things seemed to be a universal concept.
“I see. And what does your mother look like?” she asked. Partially to get a description, but mostly to keep the child distracted. When Nila had finished describing her mother, her six brothers, and her eight sister, (that poor mother) Alwen asked about her house. And then about her school, her teachers, what she was learning. Basically anything to keep the girl talking so that she wouldn’t be afraid.
As they walked Alwen became distracted with Nila, and was totally absorbed with taking care of the child. But Gato had kept his guard up, his eyes always darting up. So when several dark figures began to leap through the canopy of the mushroom tree he was ready. Five heavily muscled waist height primate landed in front of Alwen and Gato, they barred their teeth at them, and Nila tensed within Alwen’s arms.
“Drop our prey.” The lead one ordered. He was scared, missing a bit of an ear, and had several silvery metal teeth next to its pearly white ones.
Gato glared at the creature before him. “Fuck off Chimp.” He growled as all his muscles began to tense up.
Alwen knew Earth life well enough to recognize the evolutionary paradigms life evolved around, so she could tell with a glance that theses creatures were Uplifted Mammaloids. They were the infamous Chimps Aster had warned Alwen about on their visit to New Mombasa. One of the few uplifted species universally hated even by other uplifted Terrans. Because while the other Uplifted had most of their ancestral social behavior changed into something more human-like, Chimps had retained their original social instincts. And their original social instincts were brutally violent.
Already prone to gang-like behavior and vicious mulling, the intelligence granted by the uplifting process had only accentuated all of those barbaric qualities. Creating a whole race of Terran Primates primed for violent outbursts, aggressive territorialism,check this word it either is not a word or really badly spelled and the most depraved acts Alwen had ever heard of.
She had heard some rumors about how raising a Chimp in isolation from the original group resulted in a more balanced and well rounded person. Still prone to aggression and displays of dominance, but better equipped to interact with other people.
These Chimps: however, were the classic terrifyingly brutal thugs Alwen had been told horror stories about.
Even standing there Alwen could see violence in their every body movement. Some walked in small but tight circles, never taking their eyes off her and Gato but also incapable of standing still. Others fidgeted in place, making abrupt jolting movements. The lead one who had snarled at Gato had deep red blood shot eyes, was lathered in a frothy sweat, and was shivering in place.
As Alwen observed the first one it noticed her gaze and snarled. “Don’t look at me!” It pulled back its lips and exposed yellow rotting teeth towards Alwen, and for the first time in her life she understood why most Union species hated it when Humans or Torweni smiled.
Despite the shiver that crawled up Alwen’s spine she kept her face clinically cool. “You’re not well. I’m a doctor, I can help.”
This agitated the gang. Some pounded on the ground with their long arms while others barred their teeth, all sporting similar yellowed teeth.
The lead one just made a low hooting sort of laugh. “I’m fine, better than fine.” It held up its arm and made a fist that caused all its veins to bulge. “I’ve never felt so strong.” In chortled again before snacking its fists into the pavement, cracking the stone beneath him. “I AM KING!” he roared.
Gato sparred a moment to glance towards Alwen “These Chimps are tweaking hard, you can’t reason with them.”
“I DON’T NEED DRUGS” the leader roared, his hearing keen enough to hear Gato’s snide remark. He stepped forward, leaning dangerously forward on his feet. “Now, drop our prey and we’ll let you keep your purple girl.” He said with a sneer.
The others saw their leader advance and also started to creep forward.
The moment the leader threatened Alwen something in Gato changed. He was already tense and on edge, but the lead Chimp had pushed him over that edge. Gato dropped to all four of his appendages and gave the approaching Chimps a low beastly snarl. Nila buried her fuzzy head into Alwen’s shoulder and began to keen again.
The Chimps stopped, and fell back a step as Gato slowly crept forward on all fours, the muscles along his back bunching up for a pounce. No longer a man but a wild beast who had found its prey.
Alwen didn’t want to let Gato go into this alone, but to draw her sword she would have to put Nila down. And while it wouldn’t be hard to break the grip of a non-deathworlder, it would be hard to do it without breaking the girls wrist. And besides, putting Nila down would put her in danger.
So Alwen had to stand there and watch as a fight broke out.
Gato made the first move, just as it seemed like the Chimps were going to take another step back he launched towards the leader. The poor fool didn’t even stand a chance. In seconds Gato had his teeth around the Chimps arm, and with a violent jerk he launched it twenty feet down the side walk. Without a second to think he leapt forward once again to swipe at the nearest Chimp. It raised up its arms to protect its face, successfully saving its face from a brutal mauling but also earning it several gruesome gashes along the arm.
The remaining Chimps fell back, and Gato turned to roar at them. The drug fueled bravery broke in the face of such brutally efficient violence, and the remaining Chimps turned and fled as fast as their arms and legs could carry them. The one Gato had cut up scrambled after its fellows, it tried to use its arms to move faster, but the pain was to much for it to put any weight on those limbs. Alwen cringed a little when she saw one of the arms twist in a way she doubted was natural. Implying that Gato had either broken the bone, or had cut it so cleanly that there was now a horizontal cut in the bone.
The leader that had been thrown by Gato got up and watched as its gang of juiced up thugs fled in terror of the black furred Felinoid. Alwen saw a hint of clarity enter its eyes as he realized how dumb it had been to pick a fight with the massive Jaguar man. It gave them one last open fanged hiss before it also shuffled off.
Alwen watched as their attackers fled and sighed. “When will they ever learn not to fuck with us” she muttered to the Universe in general. Literally everyone who ever picked a fight with her crew wound up dead or injured. At some point the Universe was bound to run out of fools to send their way.
Actually scratch that, the Universe would never run out of fools.
She pulled a package of alcohol wipes out of the medical kit she always kept with her. “Hey”
Gato turned on her, slitted pupils pulled tight as he searched for a new threat. She stopped short as she realized that she couldn’t see her Gato in that gaze, all she saw was a beast in attack mode. His gaze focused on her for a second longer before a hint of clarity showed through the haze of adrenalin and his pupils relaxed into a rounder shape. He blinked and all traces of the beast were gone. “What?” he asked, his voice back into something she could recognize.
“Stand up so a can clean the blood off.” She said with an exasperated sigh.
He looked down at his paws and noticed the red blood soaking into his fur. “Oh.” He said dumbly before arching his back and pushing off the ground to stand upright.
“Honestly, you didn’t need to got that far.” Alwen muttered as she reached up and began to clean up his face where some blood had splattered before handing him the rest of the package to deal with his hands.
He turned away from and averted his gaze, “Sorry, got lost in the moment.”
Alwen reached a hand to his cheek and turned his head back to her. “Its fine, I know why you got mad. But it’s over now, and we still need to find Nila’s mother.”
His ears dropped and he smiled at her, his teeth looking a little red.
She passed him her water bottle “Swish and spit.” She ordered. Not wanting to mention the blood around Nila.
He took the bottle and did as she commanded. Then they turned away from the remaining blood splatter and walked in the opposite direction of where the Chimps had fled. The three of them were silent for a bit, Nila still scared by their near miss and Gato’s savagery, and Alwen still contemplating the encounter.
“Did something about that feel off?” She asked out loud.
“Weird how?”
“I don’t know, it felt like they… like they weren’t really there.”
“Seemed pretty real to me.” He grumbled.
Alwen looked towards Gato. Mammaloids weren’t animals, not in the typical sense of the word. They may have been forcefully changed as animals, but they were as sapient as Alwen or any other human. She had seen what it looked like when they had their minds affected by narcotics. When she had to use morphine or other such pain killers on them their eyes went bleary, unfocused, but still had a glimmer of sentience. Like they knew that they were people who just couldn’t think right. That’s not what the Chimps looked like.
Their eyes were focused, constantly darting around searching for threats. Their speech, while guttural and aggressive was still cognizant. The way they moved their bodies didn’t seem like they were uncoordinated, but more like they had too much energy to work off.
Alwen thought back to those brief moments after the skirmish, when Gato had looked at her like a beast sizing up its prey. The looks were almost identical. Like the Chimps had all their intelligence blotted over and were little more than angry beasts.
Alwen had been lost in her thoughts when a high, warbling sound caused Nila to squirm in her arms
“Mama!” the little girl said, her head darting around.
Alwen smiled “Which way, it’ll be safer if I walk you there? Maybe I can even reassure your mothers.”
The girl pointed in one direction and Alwen and Gato began to stride there, bouncing with every step in the lower gravity.
They turned a corner on the path they were walking and saw a distressed alien with brown and white fur. She was dashing forward, using her hind legs to propel her into small leaps that covered at least a meter with each jump. Alwen had no doubt in her mind that this was the girls mother, so she squatted down and set Nila down.
The girl didn’t even look back as she rushed towards her mother, and a little tear came to Alwen’s eye as they nuzzled up to each other.
They let the two have a moment together before they stepped forward to speak with the mother. But at that moment ten Carkic males dressed in the uniform of the SS charged around the corner and brandished their stun guns at Alwen and Gato.
“Get down on the ground!” the biggest one roared with barred fangs.
Compared to the aggressive Chimps Alwen had met only a half hour before the Carkic’s aggressive display seemed comical. Like a child playing at being scary. “Look we aren’t the ones who took the-” she didn’t get another word out.
The Carkic all pulled their triggers and several sets of tazer prongs buried themselves in Alwen’s and Gato’s flesh. A second later she was on the ground as her legs gave out on her. The pain didn’t stop as the current continued to course through her body. Sound became a very distant and foreign concept. But she could have sworn she heard Gato roar her name.
The pain then stopped and she lifted her head off the pavement. Through the black spots dancing in her vision she saw Nila trying to run towards her, but an officer scooped her up and another grabbed the mother and dragged both of them away. she turned her head and saw two more officers rush up to shoot Gato with their own stun guns.
The additional guns seemed to do the job as Gato’s knees went limp and he fell next.
She turned her head and looked up at the Carkic officer in front of her “Fuckin asholl” she slured as a booted foot came down on her face.