Tiger, Tiger

Min stood up slowly, knuckle still in her mouth, her face a mask of fear until she could see for herself the room was empty except for the Riddick. Riddick, she reminded herself. Then her persona fell off her like water.

"Not worried about the eyes and ears anymore?" Riddick cocked his head at her and his sarcasm was very sharp.

"It's not in the 'now'." She replied simply but it was still odd to hear her own voice. "Either there's cameras or there aren't. Either someone can access them or they cant. I'll deal with it when it becomes 'now'."

Riddick nodded. "I can respect that." He smiled; a different one than he used on the Witch. Genuine. Min found herself smiling back a little, a real one she hadn't used in awhile. It felt good.

Min moved to the wheeled silver cart by the door. "Where do you want to eat?" She flicked her head towards an elaborate dining room further in the suite. Riddick gave her a dubious look so she moved the cart to the sitting area and began off-loading covered dishes to the low table there. Riddick uncovered them.

"You couldn't order steak?"

"Min would never order steak, I'm afraid. Ferrin always ordered the fancy stuff for us. Since I ordered on my code..." She shrugged. "But you'll like this stuff."

"More surprises from Fury?" He looked around at the walls. The scene was quite different with the blue lenses up she knew, a little more intense from the digital enhancement, play of the light gave it more depth. A normal hologram would seem shadowy and flat looking at it with dark light lenses.

"If you were there, this is how it would really look." Min told him as she served herself and sat down. "But the food isn't from Furia. It's just appetizers I happen to like enough to eat for a meal."

Riddick was still staring at the walls and ceiling, caught midway putting the last of the covers on the tray. Min twitched her lenses up and shared the beauty with him for a moment, then took the covers from his hands put them on the floor beside her. "Sit down and eat, it's on a loop." She said quietly.

He did but his eyes kept wandering back to the walls and ceiling. She followed his looks though she knew the scene by heart. The big armored cats made another appearance and insects buzzed by. He ate absently and she knew he was trying to drop his blue lenses to compare the view. Min stayed silent and just enjoyed showing off something no one else could appreciate as she did. Even her Ferrin had tired of it, or it had become too painful to revisit. She wasn't sure which; they had talked less and less the last few years.

"It's beautiful." He finally said in a flat, distant tone she couldn't interpret. But it wasn't sarcasm and it wasn't anger so she didn't comment. He turned his head to look at her and she saw he'd managed to get his lenses down on his own. She dropped hers and looked back at him in the dim light.

"You've been there?" He asked in the same flat tone.

"I don't remember it." She told him. "And it's gone now." She didn't think she needed to tell him the obvious. The 'Mongers had destroyed it like so many others. And her Ferrin had been a part of it. An old familiar knot tied in her stomach when she thought of it. So she pushed the thoughts away, blanked her mind and her face and started clearing the table of empty dishes. She thought of her cats instead; luminous eyes and stealthy bodies, armored and hard except in the few places they loved to get scratched. She pocketed a few tidbits in anticipation of sneaking up to their barred lair for a visit and a good cry.

Riddick was staring at her again. "Plan on being hungry later?" He sounded amused and it grated on her. She was starting to feel a need to be alone. She'd gotten used to being invisible, even to her Ferrin. The constant scrutiny was becoming unbearable after an evening of stress. She didn't know what to say to this strange man who had killed... She had to stop this train of thinking. Min put her hands down to her sides and closed her eyes. She recited an old poem about the armored cats in her native tongue in her mind. Riddick said something but she ignored him.

"Tiger, tiger burning bright..." she started once more but this time in the common tongue. Had Ferrin said once that the poem wasn't a Furyan creation but seemed too right for their largest native predator not to christen it with it? She couldn't remember now, and maybe that was a good thing. She leveled her breathing and relaxed her muscles. Better Min, better, she thought.

When she opened her eyes Riddick was standing, looking intently into her face with his dark light lenses up.

"You cracking up on me?" His voice was part menace, part challenge.

Min blinked. "Not today." She looked down at her hands and the two halves of the dish she'd broken. "Ask me tomorrow."

"Good." He turned away, "because I want to see Kyra before they take her down to the planet. I want to see her buried."