What Side Didn’t Know – A3,C6. Familial Ties

“… Mom?”  Mika squinted a bit, trying to place the woman in front of her.  As she got closer, I noticed why her stomach was bulging. I could hear a second heartbeat.  I held Tristian’s arm a bit tighter. Something about this situation worried me. Humes were particularly attached to their clothes.  They held their personal space in high regard.

This woman did not embody those values.  It appeared more that she had thrown them away, brazenly walking around naked.  I felt for the underwear I was wearing, and thought about giving them to her, but they probably wouldn’t fit.  I had another concern, the only other woman around, aside from Angry Food, also had no clothes. This was probably intentional.

“Yes, my daughter, it’s me.  I’m so glad you came, I have been keeping a spot next to our wonderful leader for you.  You can live in comfort and not have any worries!” She spoke excitedly and hugged her daughter as best she could with her unborn child in the way.  Looking, she did seem delicious, but it caused me some odd disgust to think of her as food with that child inside. I wonder why. She continued her invitation, “And now you have the chance to meet your new brother soon!”  She rubbed her belly. Knowing the gender of her child was impressive. How did she know?

“Mom?  Wait, huh?”  Food tried to process everything that was just thrown at her.  The men that came with Food’s mother stood with their arms folded and smiled smugly at the scene.  Something about how they were looking at Food still made me uncomfortable. We had been together only a short while, but I appreciated her presence, and her delicious smell was nice to be around.

“Wait, I have a brother?”  Food asked of her mother.

Her mother’s face grew dark and troubled.  “Ah, yeah, he is still to be born, in my belly.  I… You had anoth-”

Before she could finish, the flower man took one of the long sticks from one of the other men and smacked Food’s mother on the neck, knocking her down painfully.  “I told you not to speak of that worthless trash. We don’t have any place for those who don’t obey here. You have yet to provide me with a son of worth. That was the deal for your daughter’s place.”

Food knelt down to help her mother up, and check the wound.  “Mom…”

“Although, looking at her, if she’s a void as you say, she has her own uses as a woman.  Be it boy or girl, her children could be quite useful.” The man rubbed his chin, on which grew short stubble in patches.  He smelled disgusting. I definitely would not eat him. Well, maybe if I was starving. But I wouldn’t enjoy it.

“That’s…”  Tristain started to speak, but was interrupted.

“Yes, I’ll take her, regardless of our agreement, but that doesn’t excuse you from your duty.  You owe me a son. Both previous ones were unsuitable rebels. Be sure this one is not.” He looked next to Tristain and me.

I cannot express how much I dislike this man.  He smells of putrid food, and… and… and… the way he looks at Mika feels like leaf eating bugs.  I continued to hide behind Tristain.

“You, and that… thing behind you… What purpose do you have here?  Would you like to stay in my town? I can provide you shelter and food in exchange, you will fight any of the beasts that come here, and help expand the town.  A pretty good deal, if I say so myself. If you prove useful, I’ll even let you breed one of our women. We can’t let any sap spread their seed, after all. Only the useful are rewarded.”

I could feel Tristain’s pulse quickening, and his body temperature rising.  I shrunk back behind him more.

“That said, we can’t have a dangerous creature like her in our town.  She will have to stay outside. Anyways, we can’t let you just mate with any random creature anyways.  That would be disgusting and only produce further failures.” The man snorted, and shook his head. “Shoo, you green thing­.”

“Mika, let’s go find another town to visit.  I don’t think you will enjoy it here. Being used as someone else’s toy doesn’t particularly suit you.”  Tristain spoke through gritted teeth.

Food sat quietly, looking down at the ground, still holding her mother.

“They use women as baby machines, killed your brothers for not ‘being useful,’ it’s clear how you’ll be treated.”  The disgusting man across from us frowned at his words. “Surely we can do better than this. You’ll just be used and thrown away.”

Mika responded quietly.  “Isn’t that already the case?”

I looked at her.  Everyone did.

“Huh?”  Tristain voiced his confusion.

“You mock me, you touch my body.  You use me to fight the bears with you.  You have me build things. And when we found a town with a girl you could be with, you were going to abandon me.  How is what we’ve been doing any different?” She spoke quietly, but everyone could hear. “I told you what I wanted, but you were looking for some other form of companionship.  Here we are, at a town, you can abandon me. But now you won’t because you don’t have what you want? So shallow.”

“That’s… unfair…”  replied Tristain weakly.

“No, if I must be caged, at least here I have my mother.  Leave me here. I’ll make due.” She didn’t look up.

“Mika…”  I didn’t like this.  My favorite, happy Food was going away.  It didn’t seem right. These people tasted bad.  I could tell. Tristain definitely wasn’t the right person for her, but neither were these people.  So I spoke up. “You’re being ungrateful to me. I saved you from being bear food. These people don’t taste good, they won’t be good for you.”

“Hah?”  She looked at me with an odd smile.  “You forget that we watched over you and protected you for many cycles.  Ungrateful? That would be you. You’re just a pet anyways. Don’t worry, Tristain will drop you off somewhere too, once he finds some girl to be friendly with.”

I jumped a bit at her tone, and looked back to Tristain.

“Tristain?  Are you going to leave me?”

Author’s Note:

Thanks for the support!  I am in your care!  Ulg.  Been in a bit of a sour mood lately.  Work hasn’t been helping when I get called in on a Sunday and I’m not even the on-call person (it was even a 4 day holiday weekend!).  Anyways, just venting.

Editor: DungeonPalmz