Author's Note: CH. 2 is up! Thank you for all the views and reviews and favorites and follows! tell me what you think about the chapter!
Enjoy!
Chapter 2
The plate was as big as my torso.
It was heavy and made out of a cheap metal, the shine on the surface long gone. It was a plate that meant everything to me though.
I was only allowed one plate of food, and I only got that plate if I agreed to fight.
I was allowed to fill it up with as much as I could fit on it after every fight, given I won of course. I held the plate to my chest as I walked into the dining hall, the eyes of many following my every movement. I stopped at a table and started to pile on everything I got my hands on, mostly fruits and a small potato like food that filled me up after only a few bites.
Moving then to another table, I started to pile on other foods that the first table had not provided. I kept my eyes on the food before me as a trio of yautja males marched into the dining hall, their shoulders back and eyes forward. They passed by me without as much as a glance, an air of seriousness biting at their heels. Sighing in relief, I turned with my plate nice and heavy in my arms but instantly knocked into someone. Fruits and bread loafs and potato lookalikes tumbled to the ground, my teeth gritting in annoyance as they rolled about on the floor. I set the plate down gingerly on the table before turning to glare up at the male.
"Watch where you're going next time, huh?" I warned in a low voice, eyes flickering in irritation.
"You just watch that tongue of yours ooman. Or, I might just be tempted to cut it out." He replied back, looking down his nose at me as he kicked a bright green fruit across the floor.
I scoffed and squared my shoulders, a smirk crawling across my face.
"With what? That sharp wit of yours?" I replied in kind, raising a challenging brow.
The male pulled a knife and roared out his challenge, shoving me hard in the shoulder. I regained my balance and put my hand on the leather bound handle of my sword but hesitated when a foretelling shadow fell over me.
"Not starting another fight now are you, my little desert flower?" Came a low unnerving voice.
I took my hand off my weapon and nodded my chin over at the offending male, "He started it."
"Well I'm ending it. Follow me, I have someone I want you to meet." He said, his footsteps fading as he walked away.
I grabbed my full plate, sparing a quick but sad glance down on the filthy ground where the others had fallen, before slowly following as the male had ordered.
The same male from the balcony. He was called Sokar by those who knew of him.
He looked the same from the back as he did all those years ago, muscles broad and iron strong with long arms and legs to match. I balanced the full plate on my head after a while, my piled up dreadlocks creating a nice little spot for the plate to balance out on. When we stopped, I brought the plate down and put it on a nearby table. Sokar gave a small pouch to the trio I spotted earlier, their eyes covering the small pouch greedily. They nodded their agreement and pushed a medium sized box toward him. I frowned, eyeing the box then glancing up at the trio.
'I never noticed the box before.' I thought curiously.
Sokar pried off the old lock, whatever was inside shuffled slightly as he slowly opened the lid. His head turned to the side before his mandibles came together in utter delight.
"You did good boys. Very good." Sokar grinned, slamming the lid back down.
The trio nodded and one by one they marched out, already wrist deep in the small pouch Sokar had given them.
"I'm tired and hungry Sokar, who is it that you want me to meet?" I asked with a long sigh, hand on hip.
Sokar straightened up and smiled down at me, his red eyes searing me through and through.
"Remember when I found you?" He asked suddenly.
"You mean stole me? Yeah, I remember." I scoffed.
Leaning back to sit on a large chair that acted more like a throne and using the box as a foot rest, Sokar looked very pleased with himself. He crossed his arms over his barrel chest and considered the box under his feet.
"You were unlike the other oomans around. A rare thing. Come here." He ordered, his hand out stretched before him.
Knowing what was coming, I shut my eyes in exhaustion and took a few steps closer to him.
"Such eyes, blue like the cornflower on that backwater planet of yours. And skin so dark and so heavily adored by the sun; such a beautiful contrast." Sokar sighed, his clawed hand coming up to stroke across my face.
"Sokar, stop it." I said in a low even voice.
"Nahzirah, my little desert flower." He chuckled to himself, his eyes glazed over in memory.
I rolled my closed eyes as my own faded memories started to vainly attempt an appearance. I didn't remember too much about my home, about earth, or about Nubia. I remembered some things though. I remembered the sun, hot and bright against my face. I remembered the feeling of sand under my feet and small clusters of palm trees as far as the eye could see, the soft brown fur of the camels my family owned, and the smell of the salt in the air from the distant ocean.
I remembered my mother singing as she sewed and how my father would hum the same tune as he worked.
Swallowing that past agony, I opened my eyes and took a large step away from Sokar's adoring hands. A hurt expression covered his familiar features before the look vanished. It was true that Sokar raised me and let me live for as long as he has, but that would never be enough to forgive him for what he did.
"That's enough." I uttered through gritted teeth.
Sokar merely looked up at me as he withdrew his hand, settling it at his side.
Standing up, I watched in mild curiosity as he turned from me to the box and opened the lid once more. I tried to peer around him but he dumped whatever was inside out onto the soiled floor.
It was a small Yautja female, very small.
I blinked in confusion, watching as the little yautja attempted to stand but was too weak to hold her own wait. Sokar scoffed and reached down to lift the yautja female up under her thin arms. He then held her out to me.
"I need you to take care of her. Watch her." Is all he said.
I looked from the shivering yautja in his arms to Sokar and then back to the female.
"I'm not a babysitter." I scoffed, crossing my arms.
"You are what I say you are, Nahzirah!" Sokar roared, causing the female to shiver more and start making small whimpering sounds while a few patrons cast us curious looks.
Sokar sighed harshly and gave me a piercing stare. "She is important to me, to us. I need her looked after, and I trust you to care for her, Nahzirah. " He restated, thrusting her toward me.
"If she's so important, you look after her." I glared back.
He looked as if he wanted to cast the female aside and strangle me, but a look crossed his face that stayed his inner desires. He withdrew the female from me, deciding instead to drop her back inside the box.
"Fine." Sokar sighed, closing the lid and lifting the box up until it was sitting on his shoulder.
He started to head toward the servants' quarters and I cast a worried look at my unattended plate of food before following after him with a pensive frown on my face.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm going to have a chat with Lorelai. Hurry back little flower, this has nothing to do with you anymore. After all, you don't babysit remember?" He chuckled, his steps even and sure as he passed by the kitchen.
I felt my heart drop as I thought of the last time he had decided to have a 'chat' with someone because I had refused to do his bidding. Lorelai's face came to mind then, her soft green eyes and long dreadlock looking hair and her unique coloring that made her a favorite on stage when Sokar had some of the females dancing as that night's entertainment. Her height was common for a yautja female, as was her slightly heated temper. But unless she was challenged or threatened, she'd never hurt anyone.
"Stop! I'll do it! I-I'll do it, okay?" I shouted as I ran past him and stopped in front of him, blocking his walk.
A sly grin spread across his face as he nodded and moved the box down from his shoulder. Opening the lid and taking out the female, I grimaced as I reached for her.
"It won't be for long, only until I get what I'm owed." He said before turning from us to walk back out to the dining hall.
I watched him leave, wishing my glare would strike him dead. The female squirmed in my arms, whimpering and making other pained sounds. I frowned as I realized she wasn't anything but a pup, too weak to even hold onto me. My frown deepened, my arms holding her just a bit closer. I started to walk back to the dining hall as well, my abandoned plate of food calling out to me. I found it on the same table I had placed it on and thankfully not even a crumb missing. I took a small yellow berry off the plate and held it up to the female's mouth, she simply stared down at it.
"Come on, you need to eat something." I said softly, moving her to a more comfortable position on my hip.
She opened her mouth and her little sharp teeth slowly torn apart the berry, eating pieces at a time.
I smiled faintly before looking around for a cloth strip to make into a sling. I faintly remembered seeing woman around the market we lived near in Nubia always carrying their young in these as they shopped and walked around. Finding one that would do nicely in the form of a forgotten cloak, I ripped off some and tied it around myself. The female leaned her head against my back as I adjusted the sling, her small body safely cradled inside. I patted my sword as I glanced around us before reaching for the food.
Bending down, I lifted the plate of food up and balanced it on top of my head with my hands clutching each side securely. The pup wiggled and started whimpering again, her little mandibles pinching the skin on my back.
"I know, you're hungry. I'll feed you but we need to stop somewhere first." I sighed, walking back into the hall that lead into the servants' quarters.
"You aren't the only hungry pup here."