by Emma Hamm
The Doctor didn’t want anyone to know that they were testing on animals. They weren’t supposed to be testing at all. The people of the City had so much faith in him that they thought he pulled miracle cures out of his ass every month or so.
But these creatures were beautiful things. Powerful snakes longer than she was tall would be diminished to pools of scales on the ground. Birds with plumage of every color would slowly molt and die before her eyes. Not to mention the myriad of lizards, snakes, and bright beetles that would drop multi-colored shells onto her floor.
Catherine had tried to convince him once that bringing in anything other than a mammal was not useful to her. Human treatments could not be found in the likes of cold blooded creatures.
The Doctor had been very explicit that he wasn’t interested in her opinions. Her job was to become a yes woman. She did what he told her, when he told her, and then wonderful things would happen.
Somehow he was right. They had managed to discover many new treatments out of the skin of the lizards. The crushed beetles could cure many stomach ailments. There were plenty of good things that were out there in the sands just waiting for someone to find them.
That didn’t mean that Catherine wanted to be that person.
“I’ve got a surprise for ya, little lady.” The man said in front of her. He was rubbing his hands as he danced down the stairwell.
“I don’t pay you for surprises.” She replied. “We ask you to bring the same creatures every single time because those are the ones we need for our experiments. Anything else will be terminated and you will not be paid for it.”
“I think you’ll like this one.” He said with confidence.
The tone made her nervous. The last time he had done that, she had walked into a room full of wolves. They had been terrified and snapped at anything that came close to them.
Though Catherine thought they would be useful, the Doctor had disagreed. They had all been put down immediately and the man had been sent away. She had thought they were going to have to find a new smuggler. He had been so upset that such magnificent creatures hadn’t been paid for.
Catherine had also been upset that such beautiful creatures had been wasted. They had the soulful eyes of a creature that had emotions. She had met the gaze of one before it had been terminated and had felt it reach into her soul. The slaughter was still the worst memory she had of this place.
Finally they reached the end of the landing and the man paused for effect in front of the hatch before them.
“Now I want to warn you, this is likely a creature no one on this side of the sands has captured the likes of.”
“If I have to call the Doctor, I will.” She snapped.
“No no. Ye won’t have to at all. It’s a new creature, certainly. But I think with the sway ye have over the old man… Well ye might be able to pull a few strings, eh?”
“I have no hold over the Doctor. Open the hatch, smuggler.”
Catherine had never given the man a name other than that. She didn’t want to think of him as anything other than the letch that he was. If he had a family or even friends, that meant that he was something more than what she saw. Catherine didn’t want him to be.
He spun the heavy wheel on the hatch and swung it open with a flamboyant gesture.
She had expected more cages. She had expected the loud symphony of sound that would blast her ears as it always did whenever he brought in a new shipment. She had expected the creatures to be screaming at her to let them go. To ease their pain. To end their suffering.
Instead, what she saw before her nearly sent her to her knees.
A great beast stood in the center of the hollowed out tunnel. It was not a new species by far, she had seen it’s ilk before. Smooth fur the color of sand rose in a line upon its back as the great cat growled at the men around it. Abnormally large paws made it silent as it paced what little distance it was capable of.
Catherine had to admit, it was larger than the others she had seen. The beast had to weigh at least seven hundred pounds. Scars decorated its sides as though someone had taken a razor and shaved harsh lines into the fur for style.
The tusks were unfamiliar to her, however. Large ivory tusks extended from the top of its mouth and curved downwards in sharp lines. This was not the same species of Sandcat she had seen before.
“What is that?” She whispered.
The man beside her shrugged. “Not rightly sure. Found the thing wandering in the sands. Took a lot to bring it in, but managed to.”
Catherine didn’t know what to say. She had never seen this species so large in her life.
The man nudged her with his shoulder. “So what do ye say, lass? Ye gonna talk to the Doctor for me?”
“No.” She said quietly, though she did side step so that he wouldn’t be able to touch her again. “I’ll take it.”
“Ye?” He asked in surprise.
One of her delicate eyebrows arched, and in that moment she was the terrifying rich woman that she wanted to appear. “Yes. But the Doctor cannot know, so please come back tomorrow night so that I can pay you.”
“Nah.” He said quietly. “I don’t do that sort of business. Paid upon delivery.”
“The Doctor will kill this on sight. The creature is far too dangerous to keep here.” She replied. “You will come back tomorrow to be paid, or not at all.”
That had the man pausing. He knew how close Catherine was to the Doctor. Though he was nothing better than a peddler of illegal goods, the man wasn’t a fool. Eventually the gears turned enough in his head and he slowly nodded.
“Aye. Alright. Tomorrow night then.”
“I would leave quickly.” She said. “We don’t want the Doctor to know that you were here or he’ll be taking this lovely beast for his own.”
He nodded and whistled for his men to leave. A few of them started pulling out the posts that tied the creature to the ground.
“Leave those!” Her voice snapped loudly in the tunnel.
They looked immediately towards the man who led them.
“That’ll be extra, lass.”
“I’m good for it.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust ya, lass…”
Catherine sighed. “They’ll be here in the evening and I will return them to you. With interest.”
That seemed to be enough to convince the man and he turned to leave with his band of ragged men.
She walked closer to the creature. Catherine knew how terrified it likely was. Even more so, she knew that a creature who was bound and unable to move was much more likely to do something foolish. The last thing she needed was to be wounded by a wild animal.
“What are you?” She whispered quietly.
The tan fur of the creature rippled with every breath. Growls rumbled through the chest in a slow drum beat that made her heart pound. Light reflected off of the tusks as if it only wanted to warn her how dangerous a position she was in.
“You are a very impressive sight.” She said with a laugh. “And judging by the scars, I would guess you are very old. Either that, or very good at fighting.”
Catherine placed her hands firmly on her hips. “I don’t know what got into me. I’m wasting a lot of money buying you, and I have no idea what to do with you now.”
Of course, she was also talking to herself at this point.
“You are a pretty thing. But I can’t very well bring you back to stay with me in my apartment now can I? There’s a difference between you and a lap cat.”
The creature shifted its weight from one leg to the other. Still, it didn’t lunge at her. She could tell it wanted to be pacing. The other sandcats had done that in the cages. They never seemed to stop moving for a second.
“I think it came here to find the others.”
The voice from behind her made her cry out. Catherine turned on her heel and tripped. Lunging forward to catch herself, she landed hard on her hands and knees. Pain bloomed in her palms as her heart attempted to pound i
ts way out of her chest.
When she finally managed to muster the courage to look up, it was a little girl she saw staring down at her with a stern expression.
The little one had a mop of curly blonde hair that tangled around her shoulders. It fell down her back in a heavy mass that Catherine couldn’t help but compare to tangles of rope. There was dirt smudged across her cheek and darkening her fingertips. Her clothing was streaked with more of the same. She was the most wild little human that Catherine had ever seen.
She belonged in this room where the animals were dragged in. Much the same as a wild cat that had captured Catherine’s heart early on, the little girl had a hint of the desert to her. That spark endeared her almost immediately to the scientist who wanted to know what it felt like to be free.
“You shouldn’t wear heels like that. They always make people fall, and then you’ll hurt yourself. Falling in front of something that dangerous is a sure fire way to get yourself killed.” The stern tone snapped Catherine out of her thoughts.
“What?” Catherine whispered.
The little girl shrugged. “I’m young and all, but even I know that.”
“Who are you? And how did you get down here?”
She watched as the little girl’s eyes widened for a moment, and then she shrugged once more. “Let’s just say I ain’t got a name. Not to you anyways. And I came in through the vents. Been following ya.”
“Why?”
“Dunno.” Again that blasted shrug. “You just seem to be a little lost.”
“I have worked here for many years, I am not lost.” She said as she pushed herself back onto her heels. Her hands left dirt streaks on her perfectly started white lab coat.
“Not that kind of lost.” Willow said quietly. “The same kind of lost I am. You don’t belong here any more than the rest of us with a little wild in our blood.”
A coughing fit caught Catherine unawares, and she pulled out her inhaler to breathe deeply from the plastic tube.
“I don’t think I have much wild in me at all.” She said quietly. It was a fantastical thing to think. She had always wanted that bit of edge to her. The way that other women always seemed to have a primal quality to them that called to others. Catherine was more of a wallflower than that.
“Doesn’t really matter does it?” Willow’s face contorted into a snarl. “We’re all stuck here anyways. Trapped like those animals you keep in cages.”
She meandered around the stunned scientist, making her way towards the giant creature in the center of the room.
The slitted yellow eyes followed every step that Willow took. Its head barely moved, yet the creature was obviously aware of the tiny sprite that slowly made her way towards it.
“There’s a good beastie.” She said quietly. She kept her hands in front of her as she slowly made her way towards it. Catherine was shocked to see how the creature did not appear to be intimidated by Willow. In fact, it allowed her to walk nearly all the way up to it.
It lay dormant in her hands, even as she stroked the long ivory length of the tusks. Willow had always been foolishly unafraid of anything that was in her path. One day, it might be that quality that got her killed. But today, she had chosen correctly again.
“What did you say when you startled me?” Catherine asked behind her. She was wringing her hands.
“That it came here to find the others.”
The haunted words seemed twisted coming out of a bow tie mouth that was red as an apple. Premonition dripped from her tongue as though she could see the very future. Catherine had to still her hands from crossing her chest. It was just a child standing before her. This little girl was no oracle. No magic woman. She was just a child.
And yet those eyes seemed older than a child. Or at least any of the children she had seen in the City.
“Why do you say that?”
The girl was moving now. Twisting herself until she had ducked underneath the large head of the creature and could touch its legs.
“Because, the ones you’ve got are females. This here is a very handsome male.”
“It’s a male? How in the world do you know that?”
There was a flash from the shadows underneath the creature. A smile that blinked so brightly it seemed to scare the shadows away entirely. “I know.”
“Shouldn’t you be in school?” Catherine’s confidence was returning as the child talked more to her. She noticed now the uniform that was almost entirely ruined. It hung around the child’s frame limply. Someone hadn’t even attempted to fit that large garment to the little girl.
The creature lifted a leg. Catherine could see now that the girl had placed a gentle hand underneath its paws that were tipped with sharp claws. The girl nodded firmly and continued her survey of the animal.
“Everyone always says that when they see me. Don’t you all know that before I came here, no one ever mentioned school to me?”
“You aren’t from the City?”
The girl snorted loudly. “Nah. I grew up in the sands. The storms blew loud at my birth and the sandcats raised me as their own!” She jumped out, her hands raised in claws as she let out a mock snarl.
The creature growled behind her and hunkered closer to the ground. If sandcats were the ones to raise her, then the beast behind her hadn’t been in that group. Her movements had startled it.
Willow backed away from it with a few shuffling steps, then put her hands back down at her sides. “Sorry there old fellow. I forgot you were standing there.”
Catherine arched an eyebrow. “You forgot he was standing there?”
“He’s easy to forget.” Another shrug from the child.
Willow leaned back towards it then, and sunk both of her hands into the fur at its chin. The beast tilted its head back and let out a rumbling sound that remarkably was close to a purr.
Finally, Catherine remembered that she was the adult in the situation. She shouldn’t be standing around arguing with a child when she should be doing her job. There was too much to do now that she had taken another creature under her wing.
“Alright then. It’s time for you to go back to school.” Her stern tone was ruined when there was a long pause as the two stared at each other. Finally, Catherine flapped her hands at the child. “Shoo.”
“No.”
That easily, they were at another impasse.
“No?”
“No.” Willow repeated. Her arms crossed over her chest and her hip cocked to the side. “I don’t want to leave. Besides, you need help with the mountain of fur.”
Catherine followed the hooked line of the girl’s thumb and she realized it was entirely true. She did need help with the creature. But she certainly didn’t need it from a little girl.
“How in the world do you think you’re going to help me? And with something that large?”
“It’s been trained.”
Catherine’s hands flapped in the air. “You can’t know that.”
“Can too.”
“Can not.”
“Can too!” Willow stomped her foot hard against the ground. “It lifts its feet when asked. It didn’t even attempt to attack me when I walked up to it. This has been around humans. Which means it’s trained.”
The girl had a point. Catherine paused for a moment to think about it and then firmly shook her head once more. “It’s too dangerous. You have no idea how to even control it.”
The expression on the girl’s face was clearly unimpressed. She reached out and tugged lightly on the rope that was wrapped around the creature’s neck. “I’m guessing this is how they got it in here in the first place. Poor beastie, was probably raised by one of the desert tribes. Or a miner that didn’t know any better, and now it’s been led astray.”
“It’s too dangerous.” Catherine couldn’t even believe she was considering it. This wasn’t some man she had asked to bring dangerous creatures to her. This was a little girl. A brave little girl certainly, but not someone she should be trusting with someth
ing this large.
But she didn’t really have much choice.
“If you tell anyone…”
“I won’t tell anyone.” Willow rolled her eyes. “I didn’t tell anyone about your other secret, did I?”
“What secret?” The panic that burst through her chest was enough to send her into another coughing fit. There were too many secrets here for her to count. The child could know about any number of them if she had managed to sneak this far into the building.
She couldn’t know about the other strange and wondrous creature that Catherine had chained to a table in a lab only she and the Doctor were allowed into. There simply wasn’t a chance.
“About the green man of course.” Willow had waited to answer until she had completed untying the large tusked sandcat. It immediately shook its fur off and started down the tunnel towards freedom.
“What?” Catherine’s calm tone had shifted into a shout of shock and anger. She couldn’t run after the two, not without spooking the beast into harming the little girl. Indecision lost her chance as the two turned around a corner and disappeared from sight.
However, she very clearly heard the delighted laughter that echoed in the cavern around her.
10
“Hush.” Jane whispered as she leaned to secure the blanket across Illyrin’s broad chest one more time. The coarse material kept slipping down and revealing the yellowed skin beneath it. There were only so much she could talk away.
They were all too warm. The rickety train had more people on it than it could hold and the heat from all the bodies was stifling. It was only made worse that all of them were covered from head to toe in cloth that was meant to hide them. Unfortunately, this also meant that they were all overheated and grumpy.
Shusar refused to stop complaining. His grumbling was making her uneasy. They had a small sidecar entirely to themselves for a grand total of four minutes before more people started to file in. The goblins were pushed into a far corner where they refused to move from.
Jane had managed to convince others to give them space.