Lindsay
Schopfer

By Lindsay Schopfer

Jeanine’s stomach churned as the ship listed and rolled. The caged Yar Yar beast that she shared the dark hold with was chattering fitfully as it clung to the bars of its cage. Jeanine was sorry to see the small, fury creature confined to the woefully small wire box. She knew how it felt. The chill hardness of the manacles around her ankles and wrists gnawed at her flesh. Jeanine wondered if she would ever be truly warm again.

At least in the darkness of the hold she was safe from the lecherous looks of the sailors. Once a day, if the weather was good, Alkarri would bring her topside for fresh air and the chance to stretch her aching legs. It was a welcome change of surroundings and she would have looked forward to it, but as the only woman on a ship of some fifty men, she could never be at ease in the sunshine. She felt dirty up on the deck, as if she could feel each scurrilous man in the rigging undressing her with his eyes. She was convinced that the only thing that kept the crew from falling upon her in barbaric abandon was the broad shoulders and alien blades of Alkarri. She had hated the massive Jarloran as the man responsible for her capture and enslavement, but as the voyage had dragged on, she had strangely come to appreciate him as her single protector on a ship full of depraved men. The rough seas for the last two days had prevented her the welcome light of the sun, but it also denied the sailors their gawking at her elegant figure. She could stand the darkness of the hold another day in exchange for that.

The ship lurched and drove Jeanine’s shoulder painfully into the bulkhead. The ropes securing the crates of furs surrounding her squeaked in protest as the boxes rocked upon their pallets. The Yar Yar beast babbled to itself as it clung to its cage. But there was another noise. A sound that froze Jeanine’s blood. A scuffling, skittering sound mingling with the shifting of the lashed down cargo. Jeanine rose to her feet, her weak legs shaking. She stood shivering, trying to focus her eyes on the shadows between the crates of fur.

Suddenly the ship listed sharply, throwing Jeanine back to the deck as a dirty bundle of mangy fur rolled out into the open. The filthy lump hissed angrily and rolled itself upright. Jeanine felt a scream rising up in her throat even as the caged Yar Yar beast screeched in alarm.

It was larger than any rat she had ever before seen. Its mottled grey fur was streaked with the pink and white scars of a dozen vicious fights. The great sea rat turned on the caged Yar Yar beast, revealing one of its eyes to be milky white and blind. In a flash, the enormous rodent lunged for the cage. Jeanine’s scream mixed with the terrified cries of the Yar Yar beast as the rat viciously attacked the cage. Jeanine searched desperately for a weapon, but every loose article in the hold had been placed out of her reach. The screeching of the Yar Yar beast became an ear-piercing howl as Jeanine screamed again, covering her eyes to shut out the nightmarish image of the terrified creature and its attacker.