Chapter 7
I fell on top of something warm and lightly muscled in a creepy back alley. My cushion let out a strangled sound as I plopped on top of it. "Wynie, lay off the sweets; will ya?" I frowned as two large hands slid under my arms and pulled me off Drix. As Tam supported my weight so I could stand, I stuck my tongue out at him in response. "Very mature."
"You were insinuating that I was fat! I have every right to be immature. That comment was what you guys call hitting below the belt." I kicked him in the shin as he climbed to his feet, giving him a legitimate reason to groan. "Never tell a girl she's fat."
"Are you sure you're a girl?" Drix asked, dodging my punch. "You don't act like it."
Tam scowled at both of us. "Stop it, you two." He picked me up gently and sat me on a dumpster that smelled like three-day-old fish and began to bandage my wounds. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Where are we anyway? And why does this place reek of fish?"
"What?" Drix asked, seeming to snap out of a trance. He inhaled experimentally and gagged. "She's right!" Can't we go somewhere that doesn't stink?"
Tam finished wrapping my arms and started on my legs, ignoring Drix. "We're at Cresentia Spaceport. It's a major inter-galactic fishing city, explaining the aroma of seafood."
"You can't catch fish in space, imbecile!" I exclaimed incredulously. "Everyone knows that!"
"You can here," Drix replied, matching my tone. "Everyone knows that." He paused, finishing my legs. "Lift your shirt."
"My upper body is fine," I snapped, trying to slide off the dumpster and flinching at the pain my movement caused.
Both Drix and Tam shook their heads at me. "You're being ridiculous," Drix stated, rolling his eyes at me.
"Fine, be a bunch of perverts, but I'm leaving!" I stormed toward the alley's mouth, only to be stopped by an iron grasp around my wrist. I whirled around to face Tam, his face a mask of seriousness.
"You need to change your clothes."
"Excuse me?"
"Even if you pretended to be a boy," he explained, eyeing my jeans, "your clothes would stand out. Here, put these on." He reached into a wooden box I hadn't noticed before and pulled out a pile of drab colored clothes.
"Not going to happen. Changing in front of you is out of the question."
"Just me?"
"I trust Drix," I hinted, my way of not so subtly saying that he was still too unfamiliar and was being entirely too forward.
"Change in the dumpster then," Drix proposed seriously, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't care either way."
"Fine." I pulled off my jeans and thrust the loose pants on behind the dumpster before Tam could see my underwear. I eyed my chest doubtfully and looked up at them. "Umm...if I'm supposed to be a boy and all, wouldn't that mean these would be non-existent? Unless you're not telling me something?" Tam held up the bandages as if they solved everything. "Can I be a girl, please?"
"It's safer for you to be a boy for obvious reasons," Tam explained, offering them to me insistently.
"I'm going to murder you in your sleep," I muttered as I plucked the roll from his hand. "Face the wall, both of you."
Ten minutes later, I was no longer a girl appearance wise. Drix got a real kick out of the fact and brought up his earlier joke until I pushed him into a pile of fish. That shut him up. We journeyed through the crowded streets, pushing toward the major docks. Tam's magic was exhausted from our impromptu trip; and he suggested that we get work for a few days until he could transport us back to a place he considered to be civilization. I glanced around, fascinated by the diversity I had thought only existed in Traverse Town. Tam would stop every once in a while and speak to with individuals about work, and Drix had wandered off to do the same. Plenty of people wanted one or two men like Drix and Tam to lift things and such, but one look at me and they shook their heads. No one needed a scrawny boy.
Finally, Drix reappeared, surging through the crowd. "I found all of us jobs on a ship that's leaving soon! Come on!"
Tam grabbed my hand and fought through the crowd toward him. Bodies pushed on us from all directions and numerous times I was almost separated from Tam. Each time, he managed to yank me past the crushing forms of the various creatures, resulting in quite a bit of soreness on my part. At one point, I was forced to yell at him. "By the time we get there, my arm will be so mangled; I won't be able to do anything."
As we rushed toward the row of large ships, Tam's grip slipped from my hand. I was alone. I glanced around frantically, but caught no sight of my two companions. I was hopelessly lost in an enormous unfamiliar spaceport and our ship was leaving soon. In short, I'd probably never find them in time, and terror began to settle in. Who wouldn't be scared with a homicidal Nobody and the queen of the heartless bitches after them? I had a gut feeling that it was about to get a whole lot worse, but I shoved the panic away with one fell swoop. A clear mind would help considerably more than one clouded by hysteria. If I could push through the crowd to the row of ships, I could ask the dock workers and hopefully find Tam and Drix. The worst scenario would be that I didn't find them and I would wait around for a few hours, in case they were looking for me. If we weren't reunited by then, I'd find a job in a tavern. So with that plan set in mind, I set my sights on the ships and plowed forward.
