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Time passed and I counted, ticking off days on my imaginary calender. I wondered sometimes if I shouldn’t pretend I was on Earth and just pick a day as January 1. For some reason that just didn’t seem right. I just numbered the days and watched time pass.
The nausea started thirty one day cycles into my counting. I woke up, vomited, and my fake owners were upset. They fed me the root and made me stay in the apartment all day. Afraid of my illness, they called Keepers to stay with me.
I wasn’t sick again all day. Once the initial nausea and vomiting passed I was even hungry. To tell the truth, I felt guilty they had paid money for Keepers. If I had been left alone it would have been a better day.
Once the men returned that night they asked the Keepers how I had been. The Keepers told the truth, I had been fine. My fake Masters watched me carefully all night, but I had no more problems until the next morning.
Again, I woke up and threw up. My head spun as I leaned over the lacquered pot in the bathing room. I hated to feel nauseated. Luckily for me, the sensations mostly subsided several minutes later. Still I didn’t want to eat and my stomach felt queasy.Content © NôvelDrama.Org 2024.
“Do we send for Healers?” one of my owners asked. “They are very expensive.”
“It didn’t even need the Keepers yesterday,” another of them groused. “We paid them to sit and stare at our experiments all day.”
I hated to be seen as a burden. My cost should always be nominal so they would continue to keep me, so I risked irritating them and spoke up.
“When I was sick on Earth, I always stayed home alone. No one ever watched me, Sirs,” I told them honestly.
My fake Masters hated to hear me speak, but that is what they wanted to do already. They left me in their rooms and told me to heal myself. Much like my period I was on my own for the day.
I felt fine now. My stomach was settled. Long ago, I had found where they kept food in the kitchen, so I ate a little about mid morning. Everything stayed where it was supposed to.
Bustling around I cleaned the apartment and straightened everything up. I hummed to myself as I worked and thought of Master Damien and his Brothers. It was morning, so they would be training.
Suddenly, I felt vicious. I wanted to tear the head off of my opponent. A good fight was really what I needed. Being made to sit and watch a fight was boring, even if I was supposed to be learning new techniques. My Brothers all agreed with me.
The feelings faded and I stood in the living area confused. I didn’t have Brothers and I wasn’t watching a fight. Perhaps I was losing my mind, I thought. Shaking myself free of the strange feelings I got back to work.
I was sent to the Keepers the next day. The morning nausea happened so I wasn’t given a morning meal, but otherwise I was well. Keeping me at home too long might alert the other men something was wrong with me. My owners were tired of hearing about what a sickly slave I had become. They wanted everything to look normal, so they wouldn’t have to hear about it.
“Your cycle will come soon, anyway,” one of my owners told me on the transport, “and then we will be forced to keep you in our home.”
“I would love to study the organs that make it bleed,” one of them said bluntly, “but a human would die if we opened it that way.”
My skin crawled and I felt overwhelming fear for a moment. They wanted to dissect me. I saw myself spread out in the living area with my guts hanging out.
A strange comfort came over me a moment later and I spoke with confidence. “Master Damien and his Brothers would find a way to repay you if you injured me like that. You know it is so, I have nothing to fear from you. You are intelligent, but you are not as strong.”
The transport stopped abruptly and the Warriors around me stared at me. The looks on their faces should have had me cowering on the floor, but they didn’t. I knew that what I had said was the truth.
Master Damien and his Brothers had chosen these strange men to care for me for three reasons. Firstly, they were curious to learn about Earth, but had no desire to use a slave. Secondly, they were distant from the other Warriors, so I wouldn’t be noticed. The last reason was they were not powerful Warriors. They knew, as well as Master Damien knew, they would not survive a fight with my real owners.
I should not have known any of that. Before a moment ago, I didn’t know any of that. It was all comforting, but hardly normal I should be aware of it.
“Watch your errant tongue, slave,” one of them said as they restarted the transport, “you will sleep in the box tonight.”
I went quietly the rest of the way to the Keepers. Once I got there I made friendly conversation with Rose and Fuji. In the back of my mind I wondered at where these strange thoughts were coming from.
Later in the morning the girls were all gathered and talking on the far side of the room. I sat staring out the window and Rose touched my arm. Fuji had wandered off some time before, so I sat alone for the most part.
“You’ve been distant all morning,” Rose whispered, “and you’ve been gone for two days. What happened?”
“I keep waking up sick to my stomach,” I told her. “At first they thought I was ill, but I get better as the day wears on.”
“What did the Healers do?” she asked.
“They didn’t call the Healers,” I said and she gasped. “The Healers are expensive,” I continued to explain.
Rose looked around making sure we were truly not being watched. The Keepers were all busy on the other side of the room. The other girls were all busy learning a new dance.
“Ciara, my owners are correct, these new men should not have you. If you are ill, the men will find out. Your fake Masters are not doing an honorable job,” she said.
“You sound like one of the Warriors,” I said trying to distract her. “Are you planning to grow up to be one?”
“Not funny, Ciara, I’m just telling you what everyone already thinks. They may be right. Humans need special care, the men you were left with aren’t doing the things they should. I’m afraid you’ll get sick,” she urgently whispered.
“I promise, I’m fine,” I assured her. “It’s not unusual for people to get a little ill from time to time. I know my… current Masters are not the best, but I won’t get sick. I love Master Damien and his Brothers. It would have destroyed me to lose them. This is acceptable to me.”
The men picked me up at night and I cleaned the apartment as was normal. When I was done and they were ready for bed, the men opened the bed in the wall. They had told me I would sleep there for my morning infraction, I had forgotten.
I hated the box. The close confines made me feel anxious, but I knew I could survive it. The last thing I wanted was for these men to find a different way to punish me. My fake owners were smart. They couldn’t be allowed to invent a new way to torture me. I was sure they could be devious if they put their minds to it.
With that thought in mind, I quietly lay in the box and allowed myself to be slid into the wall. I heard the click as the box was latched and then there was silence. Nothing to do now but wait for morning.
I was standing along a trail surrounded by jeering men with swords. They were laughing because I was so outnumbered. The thieves dared to tell me how they would torture my Brothers before they killed us. Their taunts didn’t bother me, I knew how hard my family trained. We were not in any danger. The jeering men just needed to be a little closer before we struck.
The battle was swift. My favored sword arm was ready and the men fell before it. Thieves that threatened our lives had no right to live, that was the law. Dealing out this justice was my right.